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<p><a href="" type="internal">The Faith Angle Forum</a>&#160;is a semi-annual conference which brings together a select group of 20 nationally respected journalists with 3-5 distinguished scholars on areas of religion, politics &amp; public life.</p>
<p>“Religion &amp; the Shaping of American Culture”</p>
<p>South Beach, Florida</p>
<p>Speakers:</p>
<p>Dr. Grant Wacker, Professor of Christian History, Duke Divinity School</p>
<p>Ross Douthat, Columnist, The New York Times</p>
<p>Moderator:</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics &amp; Public Policy Center</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie</p>
<p>MICHAEL CROMARTIE: We’re delighted to have our two speakers with us today and Professor Grant Wacker is an old friend. In fact, Dr. Wacker was one of our speakers at the very first Faith Angle conference that we held in Maine and so he comes with some history.</p>
<p>But not only is he a historian but he is writing a new book to be published by Harvard University Press, Billy Graham and the Shaping of Modern America. I thought the book was finished when I called Dr. Wacker and said, “Grant, I want to help promote your book because all your historian friends, Nathan Hatch, Mark Noll, have all told me how wonderful it is.” And he says, “Well, I haven’t written it yet.” And I said, “Well, then I can’t have you at the conference.” He said, “Oh, no, I’ll come anyway and talk about it.” And apparently what they had read, Grant, were some chapters. I thought the book was out this spring and we were just going to launch it like we’re launching all of these books. But Grant agreed anyway to say that he knows the topic well enough to share with you all.</p>
<p>Dr. Wacker has been a professor of American Church History for many years at Duke University, Divinity School. Before that he taught at University of North Carolina, Department of Religion. His Ph.D. in American Religious History is from Harvard University.</p>
<p>I often told people that if Sarah Palin was not a disaster, that if she had done better we were going to do a session on American Pentecostalism and the best book on American Pentecostalism has been written by Grant Wacker called Heaven Below also published by Harvard.</p>
<p>So Governor Palin failed us, but we came up with another reason to get Grant up here and that is his forthcoming book Billy Graham and the Shaping of Modern America. Thank you, Dr. Wacker, for joining us.</p>
<p>Dr. Grant Wacker</p>
<p>DR. GRANT WACKER: Okay. Well, thank you, Michael. It is a great honor to be here. As Mike said, I was at the first meeting and when was it, 1989 or —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: No, 1999.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: I mean, ‘99, yeah. And it was a long time ago and yet it seems like yesterday because there are numbers of people here who were there. Michelle and David. And I remember sending a note to Mike after that meeting that it stood out in my mind because it involved people talking publicly about things that mattered from a variety of perspectives. And we don’t get that in a lot of settings. In one—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: In the academy?</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Sometimes there’s actually some posturing that goes on in academic meetings. But I thought that in that first Faith Angle Forum we found this very nice combination of public discussion about things that mattered and from various perspectives in a context of mutual respect. So I thanked you then and I thank you now.</p>
<p>I’m just amazed, though, about something. Like anyone that teaches American religion I get invited places to talk about what’s going on, but I never get invited back. And Michael invited me back for a second try and so that’s a miracle.</p>
<p>Lots of friends here and journalists that I read most avidly. I have to tell you all, I hope I don’t embarrass David that I tell my students, both my divinity students and my doctoral students that David is the best non-Christian Christian theologian in America and—</p>
<p>DAVID BROOKS, The New York Times: Thanks.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: And so they routinely send me the links to his columns. I read the links and then they’ll say, “Yeah, but we want to make sure that you saw and read this one. You know, this one is especially good.” Okay.</p>
<p>But when I look around this room and I’m thinking, well, I’m going to talk about Billy Graham and modern America and see Ross here, it is intimidating. And it does remind me of an event that took place about 20 years ago and that I’ve never forgotten. I was headed off to Pepperdine College in southern California and I had two daughters and the younger daughter was about ten years old at that time. And she didn’t know I was leaving and she saw me going out with a satchel and said “Where are you going?” “Well, I’m going to a meeting in California.” “What are you going to do?” “Well, I’m going to talk at a college.” “How long will you talk?” and I said, “Well, I suppose maybe 40 minutes.” There was a long pause and she said, “Papa, do you know that much?”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>So we’re going to give it a try here and if I run out, Ross can take over.</p>
<p>Talk about Billy Graham and the shaping of modern America. Michael said the book is about Billy Graham and the shaping of modern religion and actually my sights are broader: modern America. And that’s one qualification. I tell graduate students, don’t ever start a talk with “qualifications,” but none of my graduate students is here so I’m going to do it anyway.</p>
<p>You have to know that I’m trying to think not about Graham himself. We have some wonderful biographies of Graham already out there and I’m not trying to replay those, but I would like to stand back and ask about why he matters and what his career tells us about American life.</p>
<p>The second thing, quick qualification, is that I’ll speak about him in the past tense just for convenience. He’s nearly 94 and in comparatively good health but his public career clearly is finished and so I’ll just speak about him in the past tense.</p>
<p>And then the final qualification is that this will be about Graham in America. There’s a whole other story about Graham internationally and I’d love to see some younger scholar come along and write that story which is a terribly important one, but I won’t even touch it except incidentally today.</p>
<p>To this group I probably don’t need to say a lot about Graham’s status, about why he is important, but I can just offer a few statistics and sort of lay it out and give us some sense of his magnitude both on the religious landscape and on the cultural landscape. He has talked face to face to more than 200 million people and that probably is more than anyone in history with the possible exception of John Paul II. It’s hard to know with John Paul II, but certainly Graham has talked to more than anyone except him face to face. In 84 countries, on six continents, and electronically he has spoken to hundreds of millions more, some observers say even to billions more. These things are very hard to document but clearly one of the most visible faces of the last sixty years.</p>
<p>He’s established numerous attendance records and I’ll offer only one example. In 1972 he spoke to an outdoor meeting in Seoul, Korea, and we have pretty clear accounts of how many were there because of photographs taken from helicopters and they can count the individuals. And it was something like 1,240,000. So 1.2 million people at one time and at that time, again, probably ranked as the largest gathering of humans at one time in one place in history. Again, it’s possible that John Paul II spoke to more later on, but at that time likely a world record.</p>
<p>If you’ve seen photographs—they’re easy to see—photographs that were taken from behind Graham as he spoke to his crowd in Seoul, they’re simply astonishing to see this one man standing behind his podium and human beings spread out literally as far as the eye could see into the horizon.</p>
<p>Twenty-eight books translated into 50 languages. On the Gallup poll most admired man 55 times. Far more than any other person, the next closest to it is Ronald Reagan and I believe it was 32 times and John Paul II 27 times. He even ranked on a best-dressed list in 1970, which actually may say more about people’s aspirations and imagination than reality since he bought his clothes off the rack at Penney’s often, but it gives you some sense of public image.</p>
<p>I could go on with numerous awards, but one of the ways I like to think about Graham is in terms of, what I may call, cultural snapshots. I think that gives us a better sense of his importance.</p>
<p>Harold Bloom, by no means a fellow evangelical, yet wrote about Graham in an article in Time about the 100 most prominent Americans and the article said, “In America you do not run for public office by deprecating Billy Graham.” That seemed wise enough. Or Woody Allen in the movie Sleeper has a scene in here in which he’s describing Graham to someone else and he said, “he knew God personally…they used to go out on double dates together.” Now, that particular quip if you want to call it a quip is significant because Woody Allen, once again, clearly not in the evangelical camp with Graham yet knew his audience. He knew that the people seeing that movie would understand who he was talking about.</p>
<p>I love the children’s letters and I read hundreds of the children’s letters that came in and they tell us a lot. Two I think are symptomatic. One—usually by children’s letters we’re talking about first, second-graders and, you know, they’re hand scrawled, of course. And one signs off—well, they usually start by saying, “Dear Billy.” They call him Billy and then signs off by saying, “Tell Jesus hi for me.” And it gives you, again, a sense of popular perception.</p>
<p>But what I like even more than children’s letters are the letters that were mailed and you can see a lot of them in the Graham archives or in the Graham Museum in Charlotte. Many of them are illegible except that you can just make out “Billy Graham” and they get there. They were sent mostly to the Minneapolis office and somehow they got there even when there was no other address except “Billy Graham.”</p>
<p>But the two that I especially liked is one that says, “Billy Graham, Somewhere in the World.” Okay. But my all-time favorite is the one that had a complete address, Billy Graham, 145 Harmon Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota complete with a ZIP Code. And then down in the left it said, “In case of rapture, never mind.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>We could do this for a long time but you get the idea. He received voluminous criticism. Some of it was merited, some of it was vitriolic, unmerited, and we can talk about that later. But I think the criticism is important, too, simply as a mark of status. People don’t criticize someone publicly or take the time unless they think the person really is important and really needs the criticism.</p>
<p>Christopher Hitchens, after the very unfortunate event which we’ll discuss later of Graham’s odious remarks about Jews that were made in private—or he thought in private—in 1972 with Richard Nixon and after that became revealed in 2002—Christopher Hitchens described him as a “cheap liar” and an “avid bigot.”</p>
<p>George Will, who I would regard as in general conservative, was appalled when Graham attended a peace conference in the Soviet Union in 1982. He suggested that Graham’s unwarrantedly conciliatory comments in Moscow made him “America’s most embarrassing export.”</p>
<p>When Graham held his crusade in New York in 1957, landmark crusade, Reinhold Niebuhr did have some complimentary things to say, but he also said, “a miracle of regeneration is promised at a painless price by an obviously sincere evangelist. It is a bargain.”</p>
<p>Graham received even more criticism from the far right. Bob Jones of Bob Jones University said that Billy Graham was doing more damage to the cause of Jesus Christ than any human being alive. And, indeed, if you go on to just Google Graham today, the oceans of vitriol will just astound you. And the greater part of it comes from the right.</p>
<p>So two questions. How did Graham achieve and retain that Olympian status? His rise is improbable. He was a farm kid from North Carolina. Went to fundamentalist schools. He had no social connections to speak of. There were missteps, such as I mentioned his comments about Jews in 1972. Yet, as one historian has put it, he became America’s least colorful but most powerful preacher. So how did that happen? That’s the question. The rise was improbable. How did it happen that he achieved and retained that Olympian status?</p>
<p>And then the second question which falls from the first one is: what does his career tell us about America’s career? What does Billy Graham tell us about America? The argument that I would pursue, try out with you and am working on in the book goes like this, is that Graham followed the same approach that all evangelicals or most evangelicals followed and that is, he discerned aspirations in the wider culture and then he drew on trends in the wider culture to meet those aspirations.</p>
<p>The difference between Graham and most evangelicals is that he did it with dramatically greater skill for six decades and with remarkably few missteps. There were missteps but comparatively very few.</p>
<p>So let me put the argument in slightly different terms. He did not create those trends but he discerned trends that were already there and then he appropriated them and shaped them and he applied them for his own purposes.</p>
<p>The results were numerous initiated projects, sometimes he legitimated broad outlooks. Sometimes he shaped public discourse. The key point is that in a lot of ways he was both the product and the producer of the times, both a product of the culture and a shaper of the culture. He registered the times and he molded the times and that’s why I think he’s important.</p>
<p>I am working on a series of case studies that I hope will make this point and I’ll try to do this very briefly. We can outline and we can talk about them in far greater detail. But one case study will involve Graham as heartlander. And herein he appropriated and shaped and applied or deployed the values that we associate with heartland America.</p>
<p>His parents. He wrote autobiographic­­­­ally a lot and he wrote about his parents who were southern Presbyterians, conservative, mainstream and here the important point is they were not snake handlers. They were not dispensationalists, fundamentalists, at least initially, and they present this image of stable, solid southern evangelical mainliners.</p>
<p>When Graham wrote about himself in his autobiography and in countless interviews—I mean, just a vast number of interviews—he wrote about his youth in terms of being a red-blooded American adolescent male, fast cars, sports, baseball, pretty girls. Presented himself as such a down-home guy, and appealed to those kinds of values. Unbuttoned, neighborly style comes through. Traditional ideas about gender, about manliness. And by “traditional” I mean not extreme to the left, not extreme to the right but just that: traditional views of gender and what it means to be a man. And he also maintained impeccable personal integrity throughout his life in terms of his marital fidelity, in terms of his financial affairs, in terms of truthfulness. And all of this played to Americans’ assumptions of their own heartland values. Bill Martin is the best biographer of Billy Graham and he said that what Americans saw in Billy Graham was their “best selves.” Whether or not they maintained marital fidelity and financial integrity and public truthfulness in their own lives, they yet esteemed someone who did—who did it for them. Billy Graham’s America was Mayberry and in a lot of ways he was Andy Griffith and millions of Americans loved him for it. So that’s the first point: the heartlander.</p>
<p>Second, he was a southerner. He always was proud of his southern roots and he capitalized upon the political cache of those southern roots. This was the age of southern expansionism and there’s a great deal we could say about this, but I’ll throw out just one factoid and numerous ones of you in this room know more about this than I, and I’d love to hear you talk. Except for the senior Bush, every elected president from Lyndon Johnson to Bush II—whether Democrat or Republican—was a southerner. This is an age of southern cultural expansionism if you think about who they were: southern or sun belter, which for these purposes were the same: Nixon, Reagan, Carter, Clinton, Bush.</p>
<p>And think about who lost those elections: Humphrey, McGovern, Ford, Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry. Think about where they came from.</p>
<p>This was also an era in which the south had to some extent lived down its Jim Crow legacy but not yet come to be identified with the Christian right. There was a kind of window in which Graham arose. Well, how was he a southerner? He often talked about his love for the south, his love for southern food, his diction. He spoke very rapidly always, 270 words a minute was common, but it somehow still contained this kind of southern diction.</p>
<p>A New Yorker journalist named Peter Boyer—I’m sure some of you know him;I’d love to meet him someday—called it “Carolina stage English.” Well, I’m not sure what Carolina stage English is, but that must be what Graham was and you can certainly hear the difference between that and, say, most evangelical preachers.</p>
<p>But more important than that is how he presented himself as neither a southern rural hick nor a southern aristocrat, but rather as a middle class genteel southerner whose origins or provenance we might associate with a booster south, the rise of Atlanta and Charlotte, his identification with a rising middle class. All right, so second, southerner.</p>
<p>Third, entrepreneur. Graham appropriated the climate of entrepreneurial agency following the Second World War: the entrepreneurial agency of the media age. And here I’ll speak very briefly of only two features but we can talk about more of his career. One, he was an orchestrator of the evangelical parallel culture. He didn’t start it. It had started long before he came along but he significantly amplified that parallel culture. Some people call it a subculture. I think it’s better called a parallel culture that was driven by parachurch agencies. Just a quick listing: Youth for Christ, Fuller Theological Seminary he didn’t found but he was instrumental, Gordon Conwell Seminary, Young Life, his own Billy Graham Evangelistic Association which in those days was a powerhouse organization; magazines: Decision Magazine was next to the Jehovah’s Witness magazine Awake! as the most widely circulated religious magazine in the world; feature-length movies. And most important of all, I’d argue, was his founding of Christianity Today. He was very clear. Crusades come and go, but the printed word remains.</p>
<p>Architect of evangelical cooperation. He talked about harmony with Roman Catholics long before it was fashionable. He pioneered relationships with evangelicals and Christians on one side and with Jews on the other despite his serious mistake. The mistake was totally out of character and we can discuss the response to it, but on the whole his relationship with the Jewish community was a powerful one. He was friends with Jewish leaders, with rabbis, Golda Meier, Menachem Begin. He was not a Zionist, but he was always pro-Israel.</p>
<p>And I would also say he was a pioneer of religious pluralism. The BGEA, his organization, probably does not agree with me about this, but I don’t think there was any question that he pioneered notions of religious pluralism. He adopted what I would call a principled agnosticism about the fate of the nonbeliever. Recurrently he would effectively say there is a wideness in God’s mercy and it’s simply not my call. And when journalists would ask him, as opposed to what actually got printed—you know what goes on in the printing process—but when journalists would ask him what he would think about, for example, the child in China who never heard, okay, his recurrent response effectively was “I leave that to God. I simply leave that to God. My job solely is to present the gospel.” So he was an entrepreneur pioneering the parallel culture and cooperative relations.</p>
<p>Fourth, he was a pilgrim who advanced the cause of a growing social consciousness about human suffering and discrimination and other forms of injustice.</p>
<p>The story of Graham and race is complicated. Ross has written about it and we can discuss it. Entire books have been written about this and they take different points of view and I could hardly even begin to unpack it in the time available. Suffice it to say, it seems to me that what we see between 1950—actually 1952—when his eyes just begin to open to the problem of racial injustice in America until 1982—in that 30-year span we see a continual process of expansion of his vision. It was zigzag. There were two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back, but on the whole we have to say it was a progressive move and compared to other southern white evangelicals it was really a very handsome moment.</p>
<p>I’ll offer one historical incident to make the point and then we can talk about it later. In 1953 he preached a crusade in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Until then all of his crusades had been segregated. There were ropes down the middle—well, not down the middle—but there were ropes that separated African-Americans from white Americans when he was in the south and here he was following the pattern of Billy Sunday before him. In 1953 he pulled down the ropes at the Chattanooga crusade. He did it himself over the protests of the local organizers. Now, that’s a story we get all the time. That’s a common story in virtually every Graham biography that before he went to Chattanooga in ‘53 he told those organizers that “I will not come unless those ropes come down” and they were up and so he pulled them down. I’ve looked into this and that’s not quite the way it happened. And the way it happened I think is more interesting and more telling both about Graham and human nature and about America.</p>
<p>The crusade began on March 15th and four days later Cliff Barrows announced that there would be no reserved seats “except for colored persons.” Now, what does that tell you? That almost one week into the meeting blacks and whites are segregated, the ropes are up. The meeting goes on for a total of four weeks. I do not know when the ropes came down. I cannot determine it, but Graham is very clear that this is where he tore the ropes down and so are his associates. In the memories of his associates, he did that at Chattanooga.</p>
<p>Now, my own construction of this is that he went to that meeting in Chattanooga and in the course of those four weeks it started eating on him. He did not go with a plan. He did not go with a theological principle in mind. He wasn’t thinking, oh, Galatians 3:28, we’ve got to put it in practice. Rather, he went and it ate on him and it ate on him and at some point he took it down. I think it probably happened right at the end because if you read the Chattanooga papers there is no mention of it.</p>
<p>The next crusade was in Dallas. The ropes went back up. The next crusade was in Asheville. Apparently the ropes back up. We can’t tell for sure, but we know they went back up in Dallas. After Asheville they came down and they never went up again. For the rest of his life the crusades were integrated.</p>
<p>By 1982 he spoke at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Moscow and he said he had gone through three conversions in my life: conversion to Christ, conversion to a racially just society, and a conversion to the necessity of disarmament and world peace. What I think is significant here is how he articulated these three conversions. It was really very unlike most evangelicals. He placed them in order, in pattern, and where he did it, in Moscow.</p>
<p>In the latter years of his life in the ‘80s and the ‘90s he took a strong stand on nuclear disarmament. Mutual disarmament. He was never a pacifist. And we often think of Billy Graham as a strident, spread-eagle patriot of the 1950s. You know, most public figures were. He certainly was. But over the years he came gradually to distance himself from that spread-eagle patriotism and by 1982 he had made a determination to visit the Soviet Union and over a great deal of opposition including opposition from members of his own organization, he went to the Soviet Union as part of an effort to bring about an association of the Christian message with disarmament and the threat of nuclear annihilation. So I would say that on the whole I see Graham as opening to the increasing awareness of the threat of injustice and pain and suffering in this world.</p>
<p>My last example is Graham as counselor. I’ll say this very briefly. To me, in some ways the most important part of Graham’s whole story, what tells us the most about his relation to America, are the letters. The vast majority have been destroyed, but we know that millions came in to the office in Minneapolis. Only a few thousand have remained and it’s not exactly clear why these few thousand were not destroyed. They came in by the thousands during his crusades. Sometimes they came in at the rate of 10,000 per day.</p>
<p>I have read a lot and I have no idea exactly how many, but all I can do is summarize it. What these letters are about is a litany of brokenness and addiction and despair. They are virtually never about politics. They are almost never about theology. They are almost always about broken lives. And if you’ll forgive an anecdote, a personal autobiographical piece, my wife went with me a few years ago and I asked her if she would read some of these letters and take notes. And she was sitting down at the end of the table and after a while tears were coming down. She said, “I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t do this.” And so I started reading the sample of the cache, the folders that she had. It’s heartbreaking to see how much pain there was out there. And the way I would phrase this is, is that Graham became a public vehicle for private pain. People saw him, in some way by expressing their pain they found some relief.</p>
<p>There are analogs. Bob Orsi has written about the letters to St. Jude. Kathryn Lofton has written about the letters to Oprah. It’s not exclusively Graham, but certain figures serve as analogues.</p>
<p>I will close by saying that I have some negative comments about his legacy. It wasn’t all positive. Clearly, I think it was on the whole positive, but there are certainly things that I would criticize about Graham. He talked too much. He made careless comments. He made offhand comments about things he knew little about. There were grievous mistakes, such as his comments that he made to Richard Nixon about the way that liberal Jews controlled the American media. He was unself-critical about his legitimating power.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: David had a comment on it.</p>
<p>MR. BROOKS: Seems fair to me.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: We just had a meeting on this.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: I’m going to leave that actually at the moment.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>He was unself-critical about his legitimating power. He never caught on that simply showing up at some events legitimated it. And most seriously he was always in the declarative mode—excuse me—he was often in the declarative mode until late in his life. I was struck this morning by I think it was Rich saying that too often evangelicals have told others what they believe rather than asking, “what do you believe?”</p>
<p>I could elaborate on my criticisms but my positive thoughts about his legacy go quickly like this as a bio. One, I’ve already intimated that he represented America’s best selves. Image of marital fidelity, financial accountability, quickness to forgive, humility, his humor.</p>
<p>The second is his handling of mistakes and we go to the episode about Jews as symptomatic. What I find in the career was a willingness to apologize, to face the mistakes and apologize for them straight out. So in this instance, as soon as they ascertained that these were his words he issued a written apology. It was published in many newspapers. And then he got on an airplane and he flew to Cincinnati and he spoke to the rabbis and he faced them and he said, “The things I said that day were unforgivable. I ask you to forgive me.” And as I read the journalist response it seems to me that the great majority of Americans including Jews did. They accepted a straightforward apology.</p>
<p>His remorse about his partisanship after Nixon repeatedly he apologized, repented for what he had done, how he had gotten tangled in power and his personal regrets. So I think his handling of mistakes have been symptomatic of what Americans are looking for.</p>
<p>Third, on the whole with some qualifications but on the whole I see a record of increasing progressiveness in his views of social suffering. Doesn’t mean that in all cases he aligned his views with the Democratic party but it means that on the whole he sought to bring about alleviation.</p>
<p>Fourth, he represented the evangelical movement at its best: expansive, entrepreneurial. Ironically in many ways he created the public space that made possible the rise of the Christian right, but he himself was very careful to distance himself from the Christian right, but nonetheless evangelical at its best.</p>
<p>And lastly, I would say that what took place after 9/11—actually, it was on 9/14—was in many ways Billy Graham’s national moment when he spoke at the National Cathedral with a rabbi, with a priest, and with an imam. And what is significant for me is that of all the scores of millions of Protestants who could have been chosen, of course, they chose Graham. But more than that, he stood shoulder to shoulder with people of multiple faiths in that moment of national suffering and I think it says something about both him and Americans since, in times of extraordinary suffering, they were shoulder to shoulder.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you. Thank you, Grant.</p>
<p>Well, our next speaker as many of you know is the youngest regular op-ed writer in the history of The New York Times. You’ve heard this a few times. Ross has been on a book tour you all may know and his new book is Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. He was even on Bill Maher two weeks ago and comported himself well. And anyway, you all know Ross and we’re delighted that in the midst of a busy, busy book tour that we somehow got him to commit to be here with us. I think Ross considers this part of his book tour and so, again, the book is called Bad Religion. Ross, we’re looking forward to hearing your comments on the same subject.</p>
<p>Ross Douthat</p>
<p>MR. ROSS DOUTHAT: Thank you, Mike. I’ve been telling Mike that actually the reason I’m here is that he is personally responsible for at least 40 percent of my book sales around the country—particularly, I’d say, in the evangelical community—so I owe him a debt of gratitude that no author can possibly repay.</p>
<p>I’m delighted to be here and to have this chance to respond to Professor Wacker because I think in many ways some of the themes that I elaborate on in the book fit quite well with the portrait that he’s just painted with far more scholarly rigor obviously than I can hope to muster. But I thought I’d begin by talking (hopefully relatively briefly) about why there are no Billy Grahams today, because I think that that’s a question that’s raised at least implicitly by the portrait that’s just been sketched.</p>
<p>I tell people that any book has multiple points when the author starts thinking about it for the first time. But one of the moments when I started thinking about some of the ideas in my own book was at some point in the midpoint of the Bush presidency, when there was a succession of pieces—the most prominent I remember was by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.—basically saying, “Where is Reinhold Niebuhr? What happened to the Reinhold Niebuhrs of yesteryear? Why is American religion so polarized and populist and anti-intellectual and so on?” And part of the argument I make in the book is about exactly this question, why there aren’t as many Reinhold Niebuhr type figures today. But I think that argument applies to Billy Graham-type figure as well, even though of course Niebuhr was famously critical of Graham and they obviously had very different theological and intellectual approaches to American Christianity. They were both figures who emerged in a period that was a period in between culture wars in American life, you might say. It was a period after the culture wars of the 1920s and ‘30s, which on the one hand could pit Protestants against Catholics (you saw expressions of nativism and you had a brief return of the Ku Klux Klan to prominence) and on the other hand pitted Protestants against Protestants, in the famous modernist fundamentalist wars that everybody who’s had to read Inherit the Wind in high school remembers all too well.</p>
<p>So it was this period in between those wars on the one hand, and then obviously the culture wars that started in the 1960s that we’re all still living with today. Obviously religious and cultural conflict didn’t disappear in the 1940s and 1950s by any stretch, but a couple of things did happen I think in that era that made it distinctive.</p>
<p>One thing that happened was that the experience of the great depression and the Second World War and the lived reality of totalitarianism both on the right and the left, both fascist and communist, created a kind of moment of almost intellectual reassessment, you might say, that made people and intellectuals especially—but I think westerners in general—more interested in traditional religious faith and particularly traditional Christian faith than they had been 20 or 30 years earlier. I think that there had been a sense, particularly in the early 1930s, that secular ideologies were the coming thing and that more traditional forms of communal life, religious belief and so on, would be less relevant in the brave new world that was being built in Moscow or in 1930s Berlin, depending on your ideological perspective.</p>
<p>But the experience of what then happened in the late ‘30s and 1940s and the level of worldwide horror that those secular ideologies created a moment that, when we think about it in the case of Niebuhr, we think about it in terms of a new highbrow interest in Christian realism. A return to older intellectual ideas about human sinfulness and so on.</p>
<p>But it also created I think a space for a kind of popular expression of that same impulse as well, one that had both Protestant and Catholic forms but found a very powerful expression in the ministry of a figure like Graham.</p>
<p>At the same time, I think you had this moment of Christian convergence in the United States. And, again, I want to be at pains to emphasize that I don’t think this Christian convergence meant that all Protestant and Catholic differences disappeared. Obviously in the 1950s there were still famous anti-Catholic polemics being written by Protestants, there was still incredible tension between evangelical and mainline Protestants and so on. All the tensions of the 1920s and ‘30s were still there in some form.</p>
<p>But at the same time—and, again, you can see this I think most clearly in Graham’s own career—you had this convergence where it was possible for Graham, the leading evangelical sort of popular figure at that point to go to a Catholic city like Boston and organize a crusade and have the Catholic cardinal of Boston write an op-ed basically saying, “Bully for you, Billy Graham.” This is not something you would have expected to happen in 1927 or so.</p>
<p>I could go on with examples like that but I think if you look in the book I take four figures—I take Graham, I take Niebuhr, I take Fulton Sheen, the famous Catholic bishop and broadcaster at that point, and I take Martin Luther King. And I argue that in spite of all their obviously enormous differences there was a greater sort of theological and then to some extent as well political commonality than you’ve seen from any group of prominent figures in that vein in the decades since.</p>
<p>I think in Graham in particular you have a figure who is on the one hand confidently and unabashedly Christian and Christian in a very traditional Protestant evangelical sense. For all the development that Professor Wacker talks about in his views, Graham does not emerge on the American scene as someone making obvious compromises with liberal modernity. He’s someone who’s preaching a very stark Christian message. He’s making an altar call. He’s boiling down religious questions to a yes-or-no for Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>Yet unlike so many Christian figures today, he is not a focus for intense polarization. The idea that “no politician got elected by criticizing Billy Graham,” – well, it’s hard to imagine anyone saying that about a similar sort of preacher-like figure today. Maybe a figure like Rick Warren sort of has some Graham-like qualities, but I don’t think he has anything like the kind of bipartisan credibility that Graham enjoyed really throughout his career—and that he enjoyed in spite of moments like his too close identification with the Nixon White House, and in spite of moments like his more left-wing, you could say, interventions in the disarmament debates of the 1980s.</p>
<p>So he’s a resolutely Christian figure who doesn’t become a focus for polarization. Then he’s also a figure who is identified, again, in spite of his real theological conservatism with personal conversion rather than with culture war. He’s more identified with people sending him letters and having life-changing experiences that are personal experiences of Jesus Christ than he is with the kind of battles that subsequent figures on the Christian right are associated with.</p>
<p>When Jerry Falwell died, for instance, a number of pieces were written by his friends and associates and others about all the kind of work that Falwell did as a pastor and his charitable works, his works in personal conversion and so on. All of that was real, but I think it’s completely fair to say that Billy Graham’s public ministry was just completely different from Jerry Falwell’s public ministry and that difference tells us something about the shift in American society from the mid-century era to our own. And so very quickly I just want to run through what has changed that has made it harder for figures, whether they’re an evangelical preacher or a Catholic bishop who wanted to do a nightly broadcast or a Protestant theologian, to be identified, I suppose you could say, as a Christian first and as a combatant in our political and cultural dispute second—which I think is what was distinctive about Graham and what’s rarer today.</p>
<p>I think four big things changed starting in the 1960s. The first was just a phenomenon that all political journalists write about all the time and so it’s well known to everyone in this room: The influence of political polarization and the ideological sorting of the two major parties that really gets underway after Goldwater’s race in 1964 and has continued pretty steadily down to the present day.</p>
<p>What I think that polarization has done – I think it happened first on the religious left in the 1960s and ‘70s and then happened on the religious right in the 1990s and especially in the Bush presidency – is create an intense identification of Christian faith with one or the other partisan cause. This in turn creates a sense that happened first I think for liberal mainline Protestants in the late 1960s and 1970s—that they were just the Democratic party at prayer. Then I think something similar happened with Christian conservatives over the last 20 years or so. You actually see Americans who had previously identified as Methodists or Presbyterians or Catholics or something distancing themselves from organized Christianity as a kind of political statement against the religious right, which is a phenomenon that we’ve seen over the last 15 years that we hadn’t seen before.</p>
<p>To understand the impact of that polarization, the example I like to use is to contrast the public ministries of Graham and Martin Luther King with two figures who were in a sense plausible successor figures in the 1980s: Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson. Both Graham and King – and at various moments especially King later in his career – were clearly political figures. No one would hesitate to describe Martin Luther King but a political figure. But imagine how the history of mid-century America would have been different if Billy Graham had decided that the best way to witness to Christian faith in American life was to run for the Republican nomination for president. (I believe that there were people who at one point urged him to do so in the ‘50s.) But imagine the difference. Imagine the difference if Martin Luther King had been a Jesse Jackson figure who ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the Democratic nomination in the 1960s. I think in that shift in how both the religious left and the religious right related to political coalitions, you can see a shift that had momentous consequences for American Christianity as a whole and made it, again, for subsequent figures harder and harder to have an identity where you weren’t defining yourself as a conservative Christian first and then a Christian second—or a liberal Christian first and then a Christian second.</p>
<p>So you have polarization. You have the sexual revolution which is obviously I think the shift that everybody is aware of, everybody talks about, and again, is working itself out down to the present day in our debates over gay marriage. But it obviously really starts with issues having to do with heterosexuality and straight life and the divorce revolution of the 1960s and ‘70s and everything that followed from the development of the birth control pill in the early ‘60s.</p>
<p>I think, again, it’s telling Graham comes of age before those debates are front and center., Graham has traditional Christian positions on sex before marriage. You know, I believe he just came out and endorsed a ballot marriage in North Carolina, I believe, on—</p>
<p>But let’s say that it’s safe to assume that in general Billy Graham has held fairly traditional Christian views on issues related to sex, abortion and so forth.</p>
<p>But because he came of age before those issues were such huge flashpoints in American life, his public persona was not, I think, defined by them the way, again, the public persona of figures involved in religious and political debates since the ‘60s and ‘70s have been. Overall, the sexual revolution created a challenge for Christian sexual ethics that no church, Protestant or Catholic, has found a completely successful way to address. There have been both liberal and conservative responses to all of these issue, but none of them have at least to this date come to a kind of resolution that has made those issues be anything less than a sort of persistent flashpoint, a persistent reason for people to leave Christian churches, a persistent source of cultural polarization and so on.</p>
<p>And as with sex, I think you also have to look at the influence of wealth and money on the United States over the last 40 or 50 years. If you look at the original New Testament message there is a fairly strong emphasis on personal chastity that obviously becomes somewhat difficult to make in the post-sexual revolution era. But there’s also obviously a very strong emphasis on a suspicion of great wealth, a suspicion of money and its corrupting influence that resonates less, I would argue, among Americans who came of age in what was by historical standards the kind of cornucopian abundance of the post-World War II landscape, as opposed to Americans who had come of age in the great depression and who had a very different experience of their material circumstances, their relationship to money and so forth. I think this has had a general impact and we can talk about it more. I think it explains sort of the shift from Billy Graham as a central figure in religious life in the United States to someone like Joel Osteen as a sort of Graham-esque figure whose message is very clearly accommodated to a landscape of greater wealth than the more hard-scrabble landscape in which Graham came of age.</p>
<p>The other narrower in some sense but I think very important example I like to cite is just the impact of America’s wealth on the ministry, on the kind of people and the number of people who choose to become ministers, pastors, Catholic priests and so on. You don’t have to ascribe bad faith or bad motives to my parents’ generation and my own to see that the kind of money available to people from professions like the law and medicine and investment banking and so on made the ministry less appealing. The difference between the money available in non-clerical professions and clerical professions was always large. But the gap—you know, you can compare a minister’s salary to a lawyer’s salary in 1950 and a minister’s salary to a lawyer’s salary today and it explains a lot about why, for instance, fewer people who made Phi Beta Kappa would even consider going to divinity school in 2005 than considered going to divinity school in 1945. And this, I think, in turn has a huge impact on personnel, human capital, the manpower available to America’s churches and their ability to sort of make the Christian message seem appealing and relevant in the contemporary landscape.</p>
<p>Then the final trend that I talk about in the book that I think changed things is the impact of globalization and de-colonization and the extent to which those forces were suddenly beamed into Americans’ living rooms by the television revolution in the ‘60s and ‘70s and obviously by cable TV and the internet and everything since. I’m thinking, in particular, of the extent to which they made the idea that one religious tradition had an exclusive truth claim seem much less credible than it had seemed before. This was already happening in the ‘50s and you can see it in Graham’s career and his own adaptations that Professor Wacker was discussing—where he speaks differently about the possibility of salvation than an earlier generation of evangelical preachers had often done. He says he has a different answer, let’s say, to the question about the baby in China perhaps than a Graham figure in 1922 would have had.</p>
<p>But even those adaptations I think were insufficient to the magnitude of globalization, and the fact that it overlapped with de-colonization, which meant that because Christianity is a western religion, it was perceived as tainted by the sins of European empires and so on. And I think that combination of factors goes a long way to explaining why theological relativism seems more plausible in 1985 than it did in 1955.</p>
<p>Now, what’s fascinating is that over the same period in the areas that were experiencing de-colonization themselves, Christianity becomes more appealing because it’s no longer associated with imperial administration and it’s no longer perceived as just a white man’s religion. And this is why I think the other book about Billy Graham’s influence that you mentioned would be fascinating because in a way, you could argue that Graham has his biggest influence on America in this period of mid-century convergence and then has his biggest influence on the world over the following 30 years as Christianity goes into crisis in the U.S. but suddenly seems fresher and newer and more relevant in Africa or Korea, and then eventually behind the Berlin wall.</p>
<p>So that’s sort of the sketch that I offer in the book of the trends that have just made it harder and harder (1) for institutional Christian churches to thrive in the current landscape; (2) for a traditional Christian message more broadly defined to reach a wide audience; and (3) for figures like Graham to play a role in our society that transcends political divisions. And, again, the closest I think we’ve come to a Graham-style figure of the temporary emergence of Rick Warren in the last election cycle as, someone who President Obama kind of paid court to and invited to give the blessing at his inauguration and so on. But I think even Warren is seen frequently through a sort of culture war lens as a spokesman for you know, the nice conservative evangelical, as opposed to the obnoxious conservative evangelicals. I don’t think he has the kind of credibility of Graham had and I don’t think he will have the kind of non-partisan staying power that Graham enjoyed over so many decades.</p>
<p>So I know we should get into the Q and A. I’ll just say in closing that it’s very telling that you mentioned letters to Oprah and so on, because I think the second half of this story is not a story of the collapse of religion in America and it’s not even a story of the disappearance of some kind of Christianity in America. It’s just the story of the weakening of the kind of Christian center that Graham represented, and that the world we’re living in now, the nation we’re living in now is not becoming a more secular country except in the loosest possible definition of the term “secular.” It’s a nation where people are still deeply influenced by Christianity, still deeply religious, but are more likely to express their Christianity through the kind of authors who appear on the Oprah Winfrey show, the Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle and so on—or through a figure like a Joel Osteen who has in some ways a Christian message but it’s clearly directed towards a more affluent, more relativistic society—or through explicitly political figures. This is the phenomenon that political journalists are used to writing about: The influence of partisanship, the fact that we are still this deeply religious nation, we have all this religious energy, but because we’re more partisan than ever before and our religious institutions are weaker than ever before, it’s easier than ever before to pour those religious energies into Sarah Palin’s “Fundamental Restoration of America” or Barack Obama’s “Hope and change; yes, we can,” celebrities keening on YouTube videos campaign of 2008. And obviously I think that this has had some negative consequences for our national life but we can just get into that in the Q and A.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Absolutely.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Thank you, guys, very much.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: We’ve already got hands going up and Kirsten Powers raised her hand five minutes into Professor Wacker’s talk and people who have been here before know how to get in the queue. Sally is after Kirsten and Paul and, yes, everyone else.</p>
<p>KIRSTEN POWERS, Fox News: I have a question for each of you. For the professor, when you were talking about how Bob Jones had said that Billy Graham would cause more damage to Jesus than anybody else. I don’t know that much about Billy Graham so I was interested to know why he would say that and why the right was so critical of him.</p>
<p>And for Ross I guess, is the bottom line that there’s just sort of no hope? Is that what your book is saying? I mean, how will anyone ever rise above this? Will there ever be another Niebuhr?</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Grant, help me out.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Okay.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Give me a minute.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: The immediate context for Bob Jones’s comment was Graham’s crusade in New York in 1957 in which he made a point to cooperate with everyone who would cooperate with him. I mean, there were some that didn’t—I think he said something about Unitarians. He drew some lines but within very broad limits he would cooperate with anyone who would cooperate with him as long as they did not ask him to change his message.</p>
<p>And then as the inquirers came forward he never called them “converts” but as inquirers came forward and then they were counseled, they were counseled to go back to the churches they had come from or if they didn’t have a church they were counseled to churches, but they honored whatever tradition they came from. And it’s hard to document. I’m working on this but there are indications that when people who self-identified as Jewish they were counseled to go back to their synagogues, and certainly Roman Catholics. And so this is what inspired Bob Jones. I mean, he would have said this is bad religion. This is really bad religion because we’ve let down our standards.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: So no, there’s no hope.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>No. I mean, this is a book about American Christianity, but obviously the trends that I’m—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Your last chapter—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Is my last chapter hopeful? Well, the trends that I’m talking about are bigger than religion, too. The 1950s, ‘40s were a period of American confidence and stronger institutions more generally and a period of political consensus of a sort more generally and it was a period of consensus and cohesion and so on. So in certain ways it’s unfair to compare our era to that one, because some aspects of what’s changed is a return to American norm and the mid-century period is the sort of slightly unusual period. I don’t know if that’s hopeful but it’s something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>But look, no, I mean, the trends that I’m describing are trends that continue to unfold and that are manifest not only in our religious life but in the Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone phenomenon that everyone is familiar with. They’re obvious in sort of general attitudes of disillusionment towards institutions of all kinds. So that’s the case for pessimism, in a sense that we do seem to be becoming a more atomized society more generally, a more polarized society more generally and so it’s not obvious that it will be easier to be a Billy Graham in 2020 than it was in 2005.</p>
<p>That being said, the reason that I begin the book in the mid-century era is also because the world of Graham and Niebuhr and so on was not an inherited world; it was a world that was built. And I do think that people have agency, agency that is affected by deep tectonic forces but is real nonetheless and I do think it should be possible for religious people in American life to sort of self-present in ways that do more honor to Christianity than Republican or Democratic partisanship or to gospels of self-help and self-love and all the rest.</p>
<p>I don’t have a five-point plan, but I do cite examples like Timothy Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian who many of you are familiar with, as examples of people who are making the case for Christianity in ways that are not just sort of easily slotted into the, “Oh, here’s another Republican preacher” kind of mode. I think it is possible, too, that the experience of the great recession and an age potentially of diminishing expectations and so on, while it may increase polarization and may accelerate some of the trends I’m writing about, there are, I think, just as there were after the depression and world wars, opportunities for broader cultural reassessment that I think would be good for, again, American culture as a whole and not just American religious culture. But I can’t say that there are five obvious examples of how this is happening and we should all be excited.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Sally, you’re next and then David and Paul.</p>
<p>Sally Quinn</p>
<p>SALLY QUINN, The Washington Post: I have a question for each of you.</p>
<p>Grant, I wanted to know what you thought about Franklin Graham who is actively a bigot and clearly is not following in his father’s footsteps. And I don’t know whether you know how his father feels about him. I know his daughter has problems with her brother and with his message and his evangelicalism, if you want to call it that. So I’m curious to know what you think of Franklin.</p>
<p>And, Ross, I want to know what you think actually is bad religion and why. I mean, we talked earlier about Joel Osteen. You mentioned Elizabeth Gilbert and Deepak Chopra and Oprah and Eckhart Tolle, but it seems to me that, you know, the institutions are, as you say, failing people and that people are going off to find what everybody is looking for in life which is meaning and that people are finding meaning from these people.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Absolutely.</p>
<p>MS. QUINN: I mean, we talked about how I interviewed Joel Osteen last week. It was 42,000 people, two weeks booked in advance, standing room only. The guy has a message that’s giving people hope. Is that bad religion? Is it religion? And if it is, why?</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Who wants to go first?</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Ross does.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Okay. I’ll make two arguments. One is theological and the other is practical. The theological argument I make in the book—and this actually dovetails I think very well with some of the discussions in the first session today—is that one of the strengths of traditional Christian doctrine—and I’m using “traditional” in a very broad way to encompass both Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox as well—has been its comfort with paradox. I won’t use the word “mystery” maybe because that was getting a bad rap earlier, but the idea that it’s important for religious tradition to be able to say “both/and” rather than “either/or.” I think you can see this most clearly obviously in what Christians have traditionally tried to do with the doctrine of the Trinity, with the question of Jesus—you know, who is Jesus Christ, is He God, is He man, how does that fit together?—but I think it also shows up in Christian attitudes towards the moral life, towards our common life together and these endless debates about is it divine grace versus is it works, how are people saved and how do we fit those two things together. I think the willingness to not just be a logic chopper, you might say, and not say—well, take the question of salvation. You can say, “Well, it has to be grace and because it has to be grace we don’t need to worry about works,” and so on. Well, if you say that where does it get you? Well, maybe it gets you where the Oneida community ended up or something where it doesn’t matter who sleeps with who because God forgives all and we won’t have bodies in the next life anyway.</p>
<p>But take something like Alcoholics Anonymous, right? And this is where I guess I’ll try to make a bridge from the theological to the practical. Alcoholics Anonymous is, in a sense, a Christian ministry that’s all about letting go and letting God and recognizing the necessity of grace, the necessity of recognizing a higher power, a higher authority and so on in order to deal with your addiction. Which I think is a sort of useful stand-in for the broader Christian attitude towards sin, something that is inside you that you cannot escape from and need to recognize a higher authority in order to confront.</p>
<p>At the same time, Alcoholics Anonymous is an institution that succeeds by asking real effort of people. It’s not something that says, well, you let go, you let God, and then we don’t care if you come to meetings. No, they care if you come to meetings. And you have a sponsor and you are morally accountable. So I think in that microcosm you can see how that both/and can fit together and also how it can fit together in ways that can have very positive practical moral consequences for people’s lives. I don’t think Alcoholics Anonymous would be as successful as it had been if it did not combine both of those elements in a way, a strong emphasis on grace and a strong emphasis on works. I don’t think you have to believe in the Christian God in order to see the efficacy of that combination.</p>
<p>So what I define as bad religion in a sense is approaches to religion that want to pursue one idea to its logical conclusion to the exclusion of others. In the case of Joel Osteen, for instance , Joel Osteen has a very powerful, very appealing message and that message is God loves you and wants you to be happy. That’s part of the Christian message. It’s a big part of the Christian message, but there’s also another part of the Christian message and it’s related to the cross, right. God loves you and wants you to be happy but, oh, by the way, sometimes you have to take up your cross and follow me and sometimes God’s love expresses itself through what seems like terribly unjust forms of suffering. Sometimes you’re Mother Teresa and you experience a “dark night of the soul” where you don’t feel God’s presence for decades and decades on end.</p>
<p>You don’t get that from Osteen. And what I think is bad about that is—and we’ll get very practical now – you read Osteen’s books and he’s not like an over-the-top prosperity preacher, he’s not like, “God wants you to have five million dollars and drive around in a Rolls Royce.” But I don’t think it’s hard at all to make the leap from what Joel Osteen says about your finances to the decisions that millions of Americans made about their homes and their loans and everything else over the past ten years. Obviously there were a lot of factors at work in our financial bubble and nobody was reading Joel Osteen in the corner office of Lehman Brothers, I imagine. Hanna Rosen wrote a very good piece in The Atlantic about four or five years ago and it had a sort of over-the-top title, “Did Christianity Cause the Crash?” Well, no, Christianity didn’t cause the crash. But what she did was go, not to Joel Osteen, but to a sort of semi-Pentecostal church that caters to recent Hispanic immigrants in a sort of—I forget exactly. It might have been Virginia but it was a suburb—it was Charlottesville, Virginia, and listen to the preaching and listen to how the preacher there talks about wealth and talks about real estate and talks about what God wants for your life. And, again, the message, it’s not wrong. Right? It’s not wrong to say God loves you and wants you to be happy. But when that is so easily translated into “just think in the supernatural and put one percent down on the house and God will bless you,” I think, yeah, I think that’s bad religion, so—and here endeth the sermon.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: And I’m sure it will come up again. Franklin Graham.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: So we go from bad religion to Franklin Graham. Okay.</p>
<p>Let me put this briefly. I think that Franklin Graham is a culture warrior and Billy is not and that’s the shorthand version of it. I’ll try to be concise about this. There’s no question that Graham identified with political figures and with presidents increasingly explicitly from ‘52 till ‘74. It was a slow evolution and it wasn’t exactly partisan because he was very close to Lyndon Johnson. I think I can make a case that his closest friend ever was Lyndon Johnson, but he became increasingly identified with presidents and publicly with their agendas, although in some cases he resisted that identification with particular agendas but on the whole this is what happened.</p>
<p>Then he got burned very badly with Nixon and, as one of his associates said, Billy never had any idea how badly Nixon snookered him. And he was bitterly disillusioned and it was I think primarily because—well, what happened was Nixon showed Graham the fallibility of his own judgment. He trusted people, he was very good at hiring associates many of whom stayed with him for more than 50 years, and then Nixon disappointed him so deeply.</p>
<p>So from ‘74 on we see him strenuously moving away from partisan politics. And I can hardly count the number of times that he said in print that he regretted his identification with Nixon, with partisanship and he urged younger Christians, especially evangelists, not to follow his path.</p>
<p>So that was part of it. Now, he did fall off the wagon a couple of times in a couple of ways and that’s part of the naivety that I’d talked about earlier. He showed up at breakfast with George W. Bush on the morning of the election in 2000 and reporters were there snapping pictures and someone said, “Well, you said you’re not partisan.” He said, “Well, I was just having breakfast with him.” And he didn’t really have a sense of the power of his own presence as a legitimating force, but I mean that’s a matter of falling off the wagon. This was not the usual pattern.</p>
<p>He explicitly distanced himself from Falwell and from Pat Robertson. He said, “I admire many of the things they stand for but,” he said, “I don’t like the way they get involved in partisanship” and he also told Laurie Goodstein, he said, “You don’t hear much from them about poverty and hunger in the rest of the world.”</p>
<p>But there’s more to it, Sally, in that his whole style which really came to the fore after the ‘70s was a deep conviction that the way you get things done is by talking with people than coercing them. So he was often criticized for what seemed to be his reluctance to endorse legislation. It depends on what the particular issue was. It changed from one issue to another. But the more fundamental issue is that he was fundamentally convinced that you get things accomplished by persuading people with a word in the ear.</p>
<p>And finally, I would say when he was criticized as he often was even in the latter part of his life for not challenging presidents publicly his response was, “If you do that, you don’t get invited back to the White House.” Now, you can be cynical about it and say, well, he was looking for a free bed in the White House, but his point was, you don’t have any audience at all if you alienate and if you publicly disparage people then you’ll have no way to make any changes. So that was his style.</p>
<p>Franklin. He’s a culture warrior and his words after 9/11 and Billy’s words are highly symptomatic. After 9/11 we all know what Franklin said about Islam, it’s a terrible religion. And then again Laurie Goodstein interviewed the senior Graham and said, “What do you think of your son’s words?” and Billy said, “Well, on some issues Franklin and I disagree.” Well, actually the way he put it, he said, “Franklin has his opinion and I have my opinion. On some issues we disagree.” And I think he disagrees substantively but it was also a question of a style of working with people rather than bludgeoning them.</p>
<p>Now, having said that, I will also have to give Franklin credit on his work with Samaritan’s Purse which seems to me to be one of the major, major philanthropic endeavors around the world and that’s a whole another story and this is part of the complexity of Franklin Graham is the work that Samaritan’s Purse does without regard to whether they’re a Muslim country or Christian country.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Right. Okay. David Brooks.</p>
<p>David Brooks</p>
<p>MR. BROOKS: It’s a little off point now. Well, it goes back to what other people were saying. You mentioned, Grant, that Graham was a public vehicle for private pain and I wanted to ask you what his message was, what the sort of the moral tenor of his message was in response to those cries of pain. I was hoping you could frame it along the continuum of moral realists over here, the Niebuhrs and such, and then maybe the positive thinking people over here, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller, maybe Joel Osteen. Where was Graham on this continuum and do you think there’s been a shift in American Christianity along this continuum over the last 30 years.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Yeah.</p>
<p>MR. BROOKS: And that’s for both of you.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Yeah, that’s a great one.</p>
<p>MR. BROOKS: Professor Douthat as well as Grant.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: The letters that came in, every letter that came in received a response and obviously not a personal response. People had to know that if letters were coming in at the rate of 10,000 a day he’s not going to be able to read and respond to them and yet you get these personal comments like “Please do not show this letter to Cliff Barrows.” What’s wrong with Cliff Barrows? He’s a song leader. So many of them have a sense that he is personally reading it but I think probably the majority know better. But the responses that went out were often just evangelical boilerplate, that the Bible teaches this and here’s what you need to do. But I would say and I haven’t yet tabulated this, David, but it’s something I am going to do very carefully. A remarkable number of the responses—and my sense is that probably a majority of them were just strikingly common sense. And one of the phrases that often appears in the responses was “You cannot unscramble eggs” and this would come when people who talked about marriages that had gotten messed up and what do we do. I see this as so American, I mean, it’s just so practical, so American to take the reality where it is and now we’re going to deal with it. And dealing with it involved conversion, faith, affiliation with a congregation, devotion, prayer and so forth. But, again, just take the reality as it is. And then there are just a lot of practical solutions: talk to your children; talk to your teenagers; straighten out your own life.</p>
<p>So I haven’t seen the Oprah responses so I don’t know, but I have read Bob Orsi on the letters that were written to Saint Jude. And not as great a number but still a tremendous number and it does strike me that there is more of a traditionalist theological component along with that common sense component and does not get into the kind of therapeutic culture that we see so much later on.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Yes. Just briefly, Professor Brooks.</p>
<p>MR. BROOKS: That’s Herr Professor Brooks to you.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Our office dynamics are fascinating. My sense of what has changed over the last 50 years is less that—I think this is an important distinction that maybe I don’t emphasize adequately—but it is less that we have more therapeutic voices and more that we have fewer nontherapeutic voices. So you mentioned Norman Vincent Peale. I think if you go back to mid-century religion, you have plenty of people making the kind of arguments in different forms that an Osteen might make today, that a Deepak Chopra might make today and so on. The current in American religion Sydney Alstrom, the historian of American religion calls it the “harmonial element in American faith”—where the idea is that the most important thing is to just sort of harmonize yourself with the universe and then issues of whether it’s theological detail on the one hand or sort of specific moral guidelines on the other are less important than your orientation towards God and the universe—that has always been a huge part of American religion.</p>
<p>What I think is striking over the last few decades is the extent to which counterweights to that have weakened as institutions that help provide those counterweights have declined. And this goes back in a way to Sally’s question, too, because when I talk about Christian orthodoxy and so on, I don’t want to make the case that it would be a great thing to live in a world where there were only institutional expressions of religion, only sort of, very rigorous and traditionalist Christian orthodoxy of a Protestant or Catholic stripe. I think the genius of American religion has always been this sort of creative tension between these different forces: institutional faith on the one hand, religious freelancers on the other hand; the kingdom of the cults versus the Protestant mainline, you might say, and so on. When I’m talking critically about our current religious moment the argument isn’t that all we need is religious orthodoxy. It’s that just that just as orthodoxy without room for heresy is dangerous, so too heresy that doesn’t have orthodoxy to push off against and be tested by and so on is dangerous as well.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Okay. Paul Edwards and then Bill Galston and then Claire. But, Paul, you’re up.</p>
<p>Paul Edwards</p>
<p>PAUL EDWARDS, Deseret News: Grant, I was interested in your description of Graham as an orchestrator of this parallel evangelical culture. And you mentioned a number of the different cultural organs that he puts together so there is campus ministries, and there’s filmmaking, and there’s journalism. And I’m just wondering are there any strategic lessons to be learned from that? I mean, my guess is much of this was somewhat intuitive the way he put it together but is there any sort of optimal mix or some way in which they are mutually reinforcing as a way of helping to develop this kind of culture. And I’m going to toss this over to Ross as well. I mean, in thinking a bit about what you say about the disintegration of the Christian consensus. But, you know, were there certain things that needed to be in place first before you move to another step and any strategic lessons to be learned from what Graham did?</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: That’s a great question. Well, as I intimated, he was clear that he thought that his founding of Christianity Today was very important. And he talked about his crusades and also “Millions come to the crusades and hear me,” but he said, “Words are evanescent. Words are forgotten unless they are printed,” and so they put a lot of money into both Decision Magazine, which he saw as a devotional version of Christianity Today and to other publications. But that one publication which flourishes now and once had a circulation of close to 200,000. It’s one of the major voices of modern American Christianity. Okay. That’s one point.</p>
<p>The second is that he was attentive and listened to businesspeople. His board was stocked with people who were successful, had been extremely successful in the business world and he took them seriously. That’s part of the untold story of the Billy Graham ministry is the role of businessmen including Mormons. Marriott. J. Willard Marriott. We’re talking about Graham’s ecumenism. He reached out to and incorporated Mormons along with Catholics and to a lesser extent with Jews, but he took very seriously the wisdom that came from the businesspeople and he listened to his board with the businessmen there and their savvy.</p>
<p>So I would say those are the two main things. And then he was just on the cutting edge., with satellite technology, land relays, everything that came along in the realm of electronic communications, they were on the cutting edge.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Okay. Ross?</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: I actually weirdly have very strong views on that question, because I think one of the interesting things about the current moment is that American evangelicalism learned the lessons of Billy Graham’s career a little bit too well. Everything that Graham did, the emphasis on para-church ministries rather than specific denominations, the quest to found institutions like Christianity Today, like Fuller Theological Seminary and so on helped to provide a kind of a new beginning for American evangelicals after this endless sectarian feuding of the fundamentalist wilderness years. All of that was hugely important to the success of evangelicalism mid- century and afterward – and to the extent to which the evangelical churches were the only part of American Christianity that didn’t experience this huge crisis in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.</p>
<p>The problem is that I think on all of those fronts, what was necessary in 1950 might be problematic in 2000 or 2010. And when I look around the evangelical landscape today I see a community that is in need of churches more than para-churches, and of stronger confessional groups that are clearer on what they believe. I think you can see this in the mega church phenomenon, which for a long time has been a sign of the robust health of American evangelicalism. But it’s also problematic because it makes your religion dependent on super-star pastors, on particular charisms and ministries and so on that can burn out very quickly once the pastor himself burns out.</p>
<p>So what Graham supplied to evangelicals was what evangelicals desperately needed in 1947 and 1957. But today in terms of figuring out, well, okay, how do we take American evangelicalism and equip it for more enduring survival? I have a line in the book that’s sort of silly but I say, Campus Crusade for Christ is incredibly successful. It’s an evangelical group that’s been ministering on campuses that I believe started in the same period as these other groups. But you can’t raise a family as members of Campus Crusade for Christ. (Or I mean, you can … but it would be a little weird.) Or similarly a group like Promise Keepers that was big ten years ago and Promise Keepers was hugely successful … but you can’t raise your daughter as a Promise Keeper. (Again, you can but it’s a little weird.)</p>
<p>So I think this is the big challenge faced by evangelicalism today is it’s had 40 years of nondenominational success but maybe what it needs now is a little more denominationalism and a little more confessionalism than what Graham supplied to it.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Before we go to Bill Galston, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary has a short intervention.</p>
<p>Richard Mouw</p>
<p>RICHARD MOUW, Fuller Theological Semiary: Just an observation.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: This is like that Woody Allen moment where Marshall McLuhan is literally in the movie line.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>DR. MOUW: I think one thing that gets lost in that, Ross, is the whole business of how people get credentialed for the magisterium and evangelicalism as opposed to other—I mean, you get Chuck Colson. You get Phil Yancey. You get the editors of Christianity Today. No one knows what churches they belong to. In fact, a lot of people don’t know what church Billy Graham—a lot of people don’t know that Pat Robertson was Southern Baptist. And, you know, we think of them as Pentecostal but his ordination was in the Southern Baptist Church. You know, we’re seeing a little shift in that with Rick Warren and with Willow Creek but even those don’t have denominations. And I’m just wondering if you look at what’s happened to denominational leadership why would you wish that on us, you know?</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: This may be my Catholic biases showing through, which is always possible, but when I look at the landscape, two things show up. One is that I think a lot of conservative evangelicals have reason and good reason to be skeptical of the theological directions that some of the younger, again, sort of self-credentialed evangelical mega-church pastors are taking. And here I’m thinking of, say, a figure like Rob Bell, the author of the best-selling book Love Wins, which was a critique of the traditional Christian doctrine of hell. I think there is a danger that if you don’t have some sort of confessional grounding – and with the Graham generation, yes, people didn’t know necessarily what denomination they belonged to and that was very helpful to their ministry, but they did come of age in a more denominational context so you had more of a confessional grounding than the generation that comes of age after them and the generation after that. And the further you get from a confessional grounding the easier it becomes to just recreate in the evangelical world what I think already—I mean, I think one of the reasons that mainline denominational Christianity collapsed was not because it was too denominational and confessional; quite the reverse. It was because in the ‘60s and ‘70s those churches decided that denominational identity was a barrier to Christian unity and, what was the line, creeds divide, deeds unite or something like that and—</p>
<p>DR. MOUW: Doctrine divides and—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right. But that ended up being disastrous for the mainline. And I think you can imagine something similar happening in the evangelical world absent at least some purchase in something other than sort of purely personality-based form of ministry.</p>
<p>The other thing is just it’s exhausting as a Christian body to have to recreate yourself completely in every generation. And as many disadvantages and corruptions as are associated with sort of confessions and institutions and all the rest there is also an advantage in, over generations, over decades and centuries and so on. I think the story of the last 2,000 years suggest that institutional churches play a very important role is making Christianity something other than just a temporary enthusiasm.</p>
<p>The Methodist church, for instance, begins in enthusiasm but it endures—and maybe it won’t endure forever, but it endures as an institution and I think that there are lessons in that story for evangelicals today.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: I imagine the historian of American evangelicalism might have a comment or two on this. Grant?</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Well, my colleague Stanley Hauerwas likes to say that long after Christianity is dead and gone, the United Methodist Church will still be going.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: A fair point.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Bill Galston, give us your comments on this theological complexity.</p>
<p>William Galston</p>
<p>DR. WILLIAM GALSTON, The Brookings Institution: I can’t help you there. I have versions of the same question for Grant, for Ross. I can state my question to Grant very simply. You know, Ross has offered a narrative. I won’t go so far as to say that it’s a classic decline and fall narrative, but it certainly is a narrative of decline and he’s given his particular story as to why that happened.</p>
<p>And so my question to you would be to what extent you agree with that narrative and where you might disagree. To help you out, I’ll now turn to Ross and say that as I heard you, religion was in one condition at maybe 1940s, 1950s. Take it as a point of departure. Then four big things happened. You listed them. And as a result of that, there’s now a lot more bad religion than there used to be and it’s having pernicious consequences. That’s the narrative that I heard. You can correct me if I’m wrong.</p>
<p>And the four things that you listed were polarization and the sexual revolution and the growth of wealth and therefore temptation, you know, not to adopt a religious vocation and finally globalization, de-colonization, white man’s guilt, and all of that.</p>
<p>Now, if I’d been telling the story I certainly would have included those items but if what is to be explained is bad religion as you defined it in your book at length, I’m sure, and then more briefly in your response to Sally, I would have put some other things on the table, too, so just let me do it.</p>
<p>First of all, I think you’ve underplayed the growth of the therapeutic mentality. In my judgment, the single most prophetic book of the past 60 years was Phillip Reiff’s book The Triumph of the Therapeutic.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: It’s in the book.</p>
<p>DR. GALSTON: Yeah. Well, I’m sorry. Since I haven’t yet read the book but I really think it’s not that the therapeutic has remained stable but the bad stuff has—I think there’s a lot more therapeutically-infused religion than there was 50 years ago and that cannot be good for religion.</p>
<p>Secondly, I think there’s a broad cultural phenomenon that you underplay and that is the fracturing of culture into high and low, the disappearance of the middle ground of culture. And if you want to conduct a very interesting experiment pick an issue of Time magazine at random from 1955 and compare it to the Time magazine of today and see what you see. In other words, there’s been a real collapse of middle and high cult has immigrated into the academy and low cult has taken over the popular organs and the middle is conspicuous by its absence and that middle is where a lot of not-so-bad religion dwelled.</p>
<p>Third point, the growth of individualism necessarily comes at the expense of institutions and the hyper-individualization of American society all by itself could have done a lot to undermine these institutions.</p>
<p>And then finally, four and five, there has been a huge growth of the spirit of non-judgmentalism in American society. About the worst thing you can say about anybody or any institution is that it’s judgmental.</p>
<p>Well, religion that doesn’t make judgments is not much of a religion. And I’ve seen this up close in my own synagogue when the rabbi even very delicately tries to apply some classic Jewish principles to the conduct of the community, he’s basically told to get lost and if he persists in his error perhaps to get lost for good. And there is no appetite or tolerance left for moral leadership in religion defined as criticism of the religious community.</p>
<p>And finally I think I’ve been around long enough to say this. I have never seen on all points of the political spectrum such hostility to elites and anyone who claims a position of any kind of authority including intellectual or moral authority. Well, how the hell can you have a viable religious institution if it is dominated by contempt for anything that could be represented as elitism? So it seems to me that in addition to these four tectonic changes that you listed that there are all those huge changes in American culture that have contributed at least as much to the growth of bad religion—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: You were too optimistic, Ross.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Once again, I’m guilty. Let me just say something—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Look, everything—a lot of what Bill just said is in here.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Yes. No, I was going to say that.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: I wanted to say it for you.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Okay. I appreciate it. This is why 41 percent of my sales—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: We have a copy of the book for you.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT:—are now attributed to Mike.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: It’s in there.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: It is in there and I agree with probably 97 percent of what you just said and I guess I didn’t want to be—I mean, you can only be so pessimistic in one book and I’ll have to write another book in order to add on the layers of pessimism to your account.</p>
<p>I will say one thing I tried to do in the book to avoid what I think is a temptation for people of my general religio-political orientation is to avoid blaming—and I’m sure I did some of this, but to avoid blaming the trends that I’m decrying on specific noxious individuals who were the snakes in the garden of mid-century religion. So for instance, I don’t spend a lot of time talking about how Kinsey and Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong came along and seduced America away from good middle-class values or something.</p>
<p>So on the question of something like therapeutic religion—I have an entire chapter on therapeutic religion, but it is in the second half of the book, because that is a case where I’m talking about the particular people more than tectonic trends. What I try and do in the book is use those four factors—and I agree with you that there are many more—to explain why therapeutic religion became more powerful, more influential, why did what Rieff saw coming turn out to be exactly right. It’s really amazing to go back and read the Triumph of the Therapeutic, because he’s basically predicting the rise of reality television at one point, where he’s talking about how modern civilization will mount psycho dramas the way we used to mount miracle plays and so on.</p>
<p>So I completely agree with you but I think that I tried—maybe not always successfully—to sort of separate really structural forces from the theological trends that arose from the forces. So similarly something like nonjudgementalism—when I talk about globalization, de-colonization, the sense of theological relativism that comes out of those experiences I’m trying to explain where today’s spirit of nonjudgmentalism comes from in a way. And I think that that experience of the loss of Western credibility, the way Christianity was deservedly associated with those experiences does go some distance towards explaining why people are so nervous about being too judgmental today. But anyway, obviously it’s all a much bigger story even than the probably too-big-for-one-book story that I try to tell.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: All right. And then the question for Grant. Do you remember it?</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Yes. Why am I wrong? What did you—what do you think I get wrong? Wasn’t that the question or what—or why am I right about everything?</p>
<p>DR. GALSTON: What’s your view of what Ross said?</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Well, let me go that circuitously. I’m puzzled about a lot of things about the grand phenomenon and what it says about America and begin by acknowledging that Graham was not a theologian. He was the first to say so and if you listen to his sermons you’ll find that ratified.</p>
<p>And yet the word that keeps coming back to me or words, the kind of words that keep coming back to me were savvy, canny. One of my students wrote in a paper “he knew where the bodies lay.” I think the heart of Bill’s question is he had a sense for how to combine—and I’ll mix metaphors here—both exclusion and inclusion. Sermons always included the judgmental part. There always is God’s judgment and either explicitly stated or between the lines God is not a God to be toyed with and sin is sin. All right.</p>
<p>But then as soon as he had said that, then he moved to this inclusive call. God’s love and the new life in Christ, the transformation of life and everlasting hope. All right. And what I think is just remarkable as I listen to these sermons, either the old tape-recordings or just read them, but especially in the tape-recording because the tonality of the language it comes through is this combination. And it was never always one or the other. It was never all hell fire. It was never all inclusion, but keeping it together.</p>
<p>Now, as the years went on the balance shifted and it became increasingly an emphasis upon the inclusive character, but the judgmental never evaporates. I didn’t think he put it together this way but as I see it as an analyst of what was going on in his American life I think that was the genius of it. The combination of judgment with the inclusion. And what we see in Osteen is there’s no longer a combination. It’s entirely inclusion and uplift.</p>
<p>And I’d like to comment on a couple of other aspects of Bill’s question and then I want to ask Ross a question myself in that you spoke of middle cult and you referred to Time magazine. And, again, what’s important in my story is the role of the press. And if you had to isolate any one person who is responsible for Graham’s rise it’d be Henry Luce. And they weren’t close friends but he met Luce. Luce liked him. He liked Luce and Time boosted him. And it was the message of Graham as mediated in Time magazine and other magazines of that what you’re calling middle-cult character. That was the key. And I could replicate this with a lot of other examples.</p>
<p>But my question on to Ross is this. It maybe goes back—I can’t remember if it was Sally or Bill had asked this, where is Ross wrong. As I look at the whole story of religion in the last half of the 20th Century it strikes me that three of the most influential figures are Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, and John Paul II and they’re the ones that endure generation after generation. In all sorts of discussions. And what has puzzled me is how it happens that in this—what do we call it—both secular age and therapeutic age that we still keep going back to these three people as pole stars in many ways. And you write about Fulton Sheen but he doesn’t have quite the luster I think of those other three which, that luster is not dimmed. Even up to today.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Yes. And that may go to Kirsten’s question in a sense. For people who are interested in the future of a more theologically serious or at least just morally serious approach to religious faith in general and Christianity in particular, that may be reason for hope, right—that even in an era of institutional weakness and sort of therapeutic religious culture and so on, the examples of something different, something at least somewhat better still have the power to command attention and respect.</p>
<p>The only thing I’d say that probably roots my pessimism a little is the particular experience of my own Catholic Church. I became a Catholic when I was 17 so I’m in the unusual position of being neither a cradle Catholic nor a true adult convert, but I came into the Catholic church at sort of the high point of John Paul II’s luster. It was the period after the fall of Communism but a period when there was I think increasing attention being played to the role that he had played in that story. It was sort of a period when at least for conservative Catholics—and I was in obviously a circle of pretty conservative Catholics—there was a sense that the pope’s talk about sort of a new springtime for Catholicism and for Christianity and so on in the 21st Century was really going to bear real fruit.</p>
<p>And then came the sex abuse crisis. And I do think the sex abuse crisis dimmed John Paul’s luster and in fact, I think it may not have dimmed it as much as it should have. This is a place where I and George Weigel, who’s been at these events before, somewhat differ. But I think that that experience and some of the underlying weaknesses—I side with John Paul II broadly in the big sort of intra-Catholic debates of the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, but I think it’s also clear that whatever Roman Catholicism in the United States needs over the next 100 years, what John Paul II accomplished was insufficient to achieve that future. And I’m not sure what will achieve that future but that is—I agree with you, in the case of the last pope in particular I think the experience of the last ten years, sex abuse and the broader sense of institutional disillusion in the post-John Paul American church has made me a little more pessimistic than I would have been as a college-age conservative Catholic.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Tom, you’re up and then Dan.</p>
<p>Tom Krattenmaker</p>
<p>TOM KRATTENMAKER, USA Today: I want to ask about the Q conference. If I’m correct, you shared the stage there just a couple of weeks ago.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Indeed, we did.</p>
<p>MR. KRATTENMAKER: I would like to hear your impressions of Q but then more important maybe a comment on the larger movement that it represents. Would you term it something meaningful or maybe temporary enthusiasm?</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: So the Q conference for those of you who don’t know, I don’t know if it explicitly bills itself as the evangelical answer to the TED conference, but it is the evangelical answer to the TED conference, right. Is that fair? It is sort of a—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Yeah.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Why don’t you—can you just give it a better description?</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: No, no. That’s a good one. It’s called Q Ideas.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right. But it’s people, mostly evangelicals, presenting sort of their particular ideas. It’s a lot of short talks. People talking about different ministries and so on and I’m by no means an expert on [that]. I had never heard of the Q conference, I should say, before I was kindly invited to talk there, but it does seem like one of the fullest expressions that I’ve seen of a sort of post-Robertson, Falwell, younger generation evangelical approach to Christianity that someone like Mike Gerson has spent a lot of time writing about over the last decade or so, but very focused on issues related to the third world, to poverty, to sustainability, the environment and so on.</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Ross, isn’t it experiencing an affluent, upscale W hotel—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Yes. It is not a Franciscan Mendicant poverty. I said it was the evangelical answer to the TED—</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: A lot of good food and—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: I mean, would say it’s a mix of—yeah. I mean, it is obviously mostly affluent people but it’s often—</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Tickets to TED cost $6,000.</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Yeah, it’s not like that.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: It’s not like $6,000 to—</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: It’s not that far over.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right.</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: You have a lot of people speaking there who are in ministry.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right. It seemed like a lot of people that probably come from upper middle-class background. They’re hip, right. It’s not an evangelical answer to Davos. Let me put it that way.</p>
<p>So this is an evangelicalism that is sort of clearly theologically conservative in some ways and socially conservative in some ways but is much more apolitical than the previous generation, undoubtedly if you polled people there on gay marriage, for instance, you would undoubtedly find a more moderate to left wing [composition]. At least part of the attendees would have those views, right?</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: 60/40. He had a poll in the beginning.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Oh, he did? What was the breakdown?</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: It was like 60 Republican, 40 Democratic. It was pretty—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right. So it’s a—yes. And so that’s sort of one of the areas of excitement and interest in American young evangelicalism today.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: There were about 800 people there in this big auditorium in D.C. and this is the fifth time they’ve done it.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: I think the question for that approach is that the story of liberal Christianity, liberal, especially Protestant but also Catholic Christianity in the ‘60s and ‘70s is in part a story of high hopes for a Christianity focused on transforming the world that could move beyond faded institutions and have a lot of house churches and sort of reconnect with the original enthusiasm of the gospels. Liberal Christianity starts with those hopes and it ends up with a lot of disappointment, and I think it ended up with a lot of disappointment because in the process of trying to adapt itself to this new landscape it sort of adapted itself too far away from core Christian claims And I think the trends that you see at work among younger evangelicals at a place like Q are in a way tremendously hopeful for the future of an evangelical witness that can do I think what Grant was describing and marry an inclusive and nonpartisan vision to an authentically religious message.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Dr. Mouw would be impressed that at every table there was a book of readings by Abraham Kuyper and that the favorite pastor of Q people is really Tim Keller.</p>
<p>DR. MOUW: Yeah.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: So that may well give the hedges to it not being theologically loose.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right. But the danger is just that in adaptation, any tradition has to adapt. But the question is, when does adaptation shade into adapting yourself out of existence. So when I look at that movement that’s what I wonder about and I wonder [similarly whether] it overlaps probably to some extent with the emergent church or maybe it—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: No, it doesn’t.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: It doesn’t. Okay. Well, when I look at the emergent church movement in evangelicalism which has at least a somewhat similar approach in certain ways that’s what I wonder about. Are you creating a successful new approach or are you just going to end up where the Episcopal Church ended up by 1985 when its membership collapsed and—</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: When we meet here again in 30 years we’re going to bring up the question of what happened to Q and all of you will be invited.&#160;Dan Harris is up next.</p>
<p>Dan Harris</p>
<p>DAN HARRIS, ABC News: Actually, Sally asked my question but I was interested in hearing you guys riff on Joel Osteen. If you have further thoughts on that—actually, you didn’t weigh in on it but I’m particularly interested in him and if there’s anything new you had to say. I’d be interested to hear it. If not, I defer to others.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Not on Joel Osteen, per se, but here I’ll rely on the work of a former doctoral student and now my new colleague, a woman named Catherine Bowler who has written a wonderful dissertation, a book coming out that is very helpful to me. And she studied Osteen and the Osteen community as well as Kenneth Hagin and many of the other prosperity evangelists.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: When does the book come out?</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: In the fall. It’s being published by Oxford and it has just a one-word title and it is Blessed. And her argument is that the prosperity gospel is on the whole not about financial prosperity; what it’s on the whole about is spiritual prosperity and even more healing, families, the formation of communities of support, and resources for one another. And it’s a very compelling story particularly as she looks at prosperity preachers on the ground. And even with the ones who I would have a lot of difficulty with, such as Benny Hinn and the men and women who affiliate with him, again, with her interviews—it’s a deeply ethnographic book—with her interviews what keeps coming through is that money is more or less incidental to the family, to the healing. I don’t mean family in the sense that the LDS might think of it, but to the kind of creation of a family feeling of mutual support for one another.</p>
<p>So that’s my only comment about Osteen and my feeling is that probably both evangelical and mainline theologians are too quick to dismiss the entire prosperity gospel because we get sidetracked on the explicit message without gaining a sense of the tensile strength of what happens within the constituency.</p>
<p>MR. HARRIS: And she’s talking more about the message as it’s received as—</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Exactly, exactly. The message as it is received and lived and internalized and—</p>
<p>MR. HARRIS: Well, if you listen to Creflo Dollar—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Well, Creflo—</p>
<p>MR. HARRIS: He’s really explicit, especially in the early days. I mean—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: But this is why Osteen is such an interesting figure because he’s doing multiple different things and he isn’t just standing up and saying, you know, God wants you to be rich and here’s my Rolls Royce that proves it. Sally, you probably have more to say about this because you’ve interviewed him but I would say that in the book I’ve written I’m obviously very critical of figures like Osteen. But I completely agree. Actually it is a much more I think theologically subtle and theologically appealing message than both secular liberals and more traditional Christians give it credit for and it wouldn’t have the appeal it does if it didn’t contain real subtleties as well.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Well, Dan used the word “received” and I would use a similar word, as it’s experienced—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Right.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER:—at the grass roots levels. I mean, that’s the story that needs to be told that Kate has—she goes by Kate—and Kate is beginning to tell that and I think that’s the step that historians and sociologists and anthropologists of religions now need to take.</p>
<p>MS. QUINN: Can I just respond to the Osteen?</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Quickly, quickly, Sally.</p>
<p>MS. QUINN: Yes. I specifically asked him last week about the prosperity gospel and it was the one time I’ve ever seen him get upset. And he said, “I’m not out there saying if you believe in Jesus Christ you’re going to get rich. That is so not what we’re talking about here.” He’s talking about what you say that Bowler is saying about which is that you’ll be spiritually rich. There are others out there who preach what they call prosperity gospel, which is if you believe in Jesus Christ, you’ll get rich. I mean, that is an actual thing that is going on, but I don’t think that Osteen is—it’s not part of his message.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: But I would just say that I was more sympathetic towards him when I only had read the books that he wrote in the mid-2000s and then when I read his book that came out as a direct response to the recession I felt that this sort of prosperity side of the message was much balder and to me more offensive and that made me less favorably disposed than I had been five or seven years ago.</p>
<p>UNKNOWN SPEAKER: If you look at it he’s becoming more of a prosperity—</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: I mean, he’s—</p>
<p>MS. QUINN: No, he backed off that.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: He’s backed off. But at least in his initial reaction to the setbacks he was—and again, it’s why the message has appeal, right? It’s like at the moment when people are most worried about their finances it makes sense that you would want to say something that directly addresses their finances. But the way that he addressed it in that, I think it was the book that came out in ‘09 or something that kicked off his last tour was I think much balder in saying, “You’re down now but you just need to think in the supernatural and God will give you increase,” and so on.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Okay. We’ve got Cullen Murphy and Reihan and then Rich Mouw and we’re done.</p>
<p>Cullen Murphy</p>
<p>CULLEN MURPHY, Vanity Fair: I thought somebody by now was going to ask you for all the off-the-record bits, but I’m not going to. But there was something else you said, Grant, that I wanted to ask about. When you were talking about the responses from Billy Graham to all the letters that he gets and I think what you said was, I see this as so American when you were describing the kind of advice that was given.</p>
<p>And, you know, there’s a tendency of all religions to become imbedded, I mean, because they are imbedded, in the cultures that they inhabit and to take on some of those characteristics. And I think it was Alan Wolfe who talked about the tendency of all American denominations to become over time kind of congregational. And so when I look at American religion today and also at the country that it’s imbedded in, it doesn’t surprise me, for instance, that my own religion, Catholicism, and many evangelical denominations don’t seem all that humble because the country that they’re in has a tendency towards a kind of can-do optimistic, not very humble attitude.</p>
<p>And someone like me kind of counts on religion for humility as one of the great things it brings to the table. And I wonder if there’s a way out of this box in a sense or perhaps it’s not a problem but I’d be interested in knowing what you think.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Oh, send you a check, a thank you. I’m not going to, but I ought to do because it’s an incredibly important point in trying to understand the phenomenon of Graham in American life. I could still figure out a way to get into this title but this is a religion of a second chance and I mean, so deeply imbedded in all these letters is a kind of desperate cry for a second chance. And this is what comes back in the responses is that there’s another chance. And I said it’s so American because, I mean, this is what William Jennings Bryan was about. There’s a second chance in the political realm. And following up on the two most prominent evangelists at least within a Protestant sphere before Graham were Aimee Simple McPherson and Billy Sunday. And, again, these are religious messages of a second chance but far more so with Graham. And so there’s a possibility of rebuilding one’s life. And so in one sense we get this entrepreneurial thrust as you’re suggesting, Cullen, which is expansive and it’s broad-shouldered and muscular and all this gender language we could use but at the same time there is a humility that has to be built in or that is built in that we’ve run amok. Our lives have run against the shoals. They’re on the rocks and things have to be rebuilt and part of that rebuilding is the humility of asking and acknowledging who we are and what’s happened in our lives in order to rebuild.</p>
<p>Now, that’s all one cluster of issues, but at a more personal level with Graham I think it’s just overwhelming when you look at his personal comments and reports of journalists that go to visit him is they come back with reports of a humility.</p>
<p>Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, who I’ve never met and I’m sure some of you have from Time, introduced their book by saying, “When you go to visit Graham the sincerity is like paint stripper,” and said, “you just come away just with this sense of this person of this extraordinary humility,” which they inter-use humility and sincerity interchangeably.</p>
<p>Now, why I think that’s important in a broader sense is the press reports on it then whatever the personal characteristic is, it’s amplified and so it seems to me that that’s a feeling that the broader population also understands and esteems as important.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Reihan, you’re up.</p>
<p>REIHAN SALAM, The Daily: Rod Dreher a few years ago contrasted Alistair McIntyre’s Benedict option against what he called the Benedict temptation, you know, the Benedict option being the idea that one should retreat from a kind of debased culture to form more robust Christian communities on the fringe of that debased culture. And the idea of the Benedict temptation is that, no, in fact, that idea is very dangerous. We should be in dialogue with a broader culture, et cetera. And I get the impression that your book, your work is much more in that latter vein, the idea that actually there’s some slender reed of hope for some kind of revival of a robust Christian culture and that’s what we should look towards and that’s what we should hope for, et cetera.</p>
<p>But I wonder given a lot of the pessimism that you’ve encountered today and some that actually kind of lives inside your own brain, I wonder if you’ve thought about some institutions that have actually been living the Benedict option, some projects that you feel have really been kind of successful in your view or rather been more successful than others? Have you seen manifestations of a kind of Christian culture that really does reject the mainstream and is trying to build some kind of alternative that you find promising that makes you doubt the idea that actually it’s more temptation than real option?</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: Well, we did spend our morning talking about the Mormons, as I recall, and one of the fascinating things about the Mormon Church is that for all of certainly my own vast theological differences with LDS doctrine and practice, the Mormons have been the only major religious body in the United States to maintain a robust influential, successful sort of parallel culture that has seemed to resist some of the trends that I’ve described. For instance, we have these endless debates in my line of work where if you’re writing about sex and the culture wars and abortion and so on, liberals will say, “Well, look, blue states have lower rates of out-of-wedlock births,” and conservatives will say, “Oh, but they have higher abortion rates, too, right?” And you have these kinds of debates. You’re like, “Well, is there anywhere in the United States that has low abortion rates and low out-of-wedlock birth rates?” Well, there is one state and it’s the state of Utah.</p>
<p>But the downside of that is the one that my colleague Professor Brooks brought up this morning which is the extent to which to many outsiders to Mormon culture, it does seem like Mormons are stuck in the ‘50s. That the reason they’ve been so resilient is that they’ve just sort of walled themselves off from these trends and they still seem like the Cleavers or Donny and Marie and that Mormonism’s resilience is only resilient because it’s still a relatively small body, and so it hasn’t been large enough to go through the kind of convulsions that Catholicism went through in the ‘70s and ‘80s. That’s why I’m interested in some of the issues I raised about archeology and history and Mormonism’s ability to sort of confront the secular academy over the next 100 years because I think those will actually be crucial to its future.</p>
<p>But my broader sense is I don’t know if there is a more Catholic or Protestant version of the Mormon approach that is completely possible. Mormons obviously have a very distinctive history and a very distinctive geographical position and so on. I don’t believe in sort of a model of withdrawal and I think my fundamental reason for that is suggested by the subtitle of the book which in a way is obviously very critical. I’m calling people heretics and so on. But when you call people heretics you’re basically saying, “You’re Christians, too,” in some sense. Even if you don’t acknowledge how Christian you are you’re still Christian too and we’re all as American still somehow operating under—we can call it a Judeo-Christian paradigm if you want—but I don’t think of America as a sort of genuinely post-Christian culture. I certainly don’t think it is a secular or a pagan culture. And as long as that’s the case I think, with people who have my own beliefs, you can’t withdraw from a culture with which you still have so much in common. And so that is I think the case for whether you’re a conservative Christian or a liberal Christian. For all the trends that Bill was talking about towards atomization, we have a lot in common as Americans and we can still have these arguments and they’re worth having. And that’s a reason for saying let’s have them and let’s not just move to North Dakota, home school our kids, and grow organic vegetables. But in 20 years I’ll be on a farm and I’ll see you there.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Hold it, hold it, hold it. Grant Wacker gets to have the final words here.</p>
<p>DR. WACKER: Well, there’s no way I could top that.</p>
<p>This is not elegant by any means, but it’s a very quick comment. Half of my life is teaching in a divinity school and so I stay in touch a lot with my divinity students who have come back after five years, ten years. And I am recurrently impressed by the strength of the rural church and the stories that they come back with about the rural church. And I think that part of our focus and certainly mine is, stuff I’m working on has mostly been about, urban situations, the cosmopolitan situation, the kinds of stories that big city dailies would write about. And the life of the rural church or the parish and, there’ll be far fewer rural synagogues, but still, I mean, often flies under the radar screen of those of us who are professionally involved looking at it.</p>
<p>So I don’t know what the larger implications are but there certainly is great resilience in certain segments of the population. And if we could isolate, where that resilience—the components of that resilience—and how to extend it into the rest of the population, we’d be better off.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Ladies and gentlemen, join me in thanking our speakers.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>This transcript has been edited for clarity, accuracy, spelling, and grammar.</p> | false | 1 | faith angle forum160is semiannual conference brings together select group 20 nationally respected journalists 35 distinguished scholars areas religion politics amp public life religion amp shaping american culture south beach florida speakers dr grant wacker professor christian history duke divinity school ross douthat columnist new york times moderator michael cromartie vice president ethics amp public policy center 160 michael cromartie michael cromartie delighted two speakers us today professor grant wacker old friend fact dr wacker one speakers first faith angle conference held maine comes history historian writing new book published harvard university press billy graham shaping modern america thought book finished called dr wacker said grant want help promote book historian friends nathan hatch mark noll told wonderful says well havent written yet said well cant conference said oh ill come anyway talk apparently read grant chapters thought book spring going launch like launching books grant agreed anyway say knows topic well enough share dr wacker professor american church history many years duke university divinity school taught university north carolina department religion phd american religious history harvard university often told people sarah palin disaster done better going session american pentecostalism best book american pentecostalism written grant wacker called heaven also published harvard governor palin failed us came another reason get grant forthcoming book billy graham shaping modern america thank dr wacker joining us dr grant wacker dr grant wacker okay well thank michael great honor mike said first meeting 1989 mr cromartie 1999 dr wacker mean 99 yeah long time ago yet seems like yesterday numbers people michelle david remember sending note mike meeting stood mind involved people talking publicly things mattered variety perspectives dont get lot settings one mr cromartie academy dr wacker sometimes theres actually posturing goes academic meetings thought first faith angle forum found nice combination public discussion things mattered various perspectives context mutual respect thanked thank im amazed though something like anyone teaches american religion get invited places talk whats going never get invited back michael invited back second try thats miracle lots friends journalists read avidly tell hope dont embarrass david tell students divinity students doctoral students david best nonchristian christian theologian america david brooks new york times thanks dr wacker routinely send links columns read links theyll say yeah want make sure saw read one know one especially good okay look around room im thinking well im going talk billy graham modern america see ross intimidating remind event took place 20 years ago ive never forgotten headed pepperdine college southern california two daughters younger daughter ten years old time didnt know leaving saw going satchel said going well im going meeting california going well im going talk college long talk said well suppose maybe 40 minutes long pause said papa know much laughter going give try run ross take talk billy graham shaping modern america michael said book billy graham shaping modern religion actually sights broader modern america thats one qualification tell graduate students dont ever start talk qualifications none graduate students im going anyway know im trying think graham wonderful biographies graham already im trying replay would like stand back ask matters career tells us american life second thing quick qualification ill speak past tense convenience hes nearly 94 comparatively good health public career clearly finished ill speak past tense final qualification graham america theres whole story graham internationally id love see younger scholar come along write story terribly important one wont even touch except incidentally today group probably dont need say lot grahams status important offer statistics sort lay give us sense magnitude religious landscape cultural landscape talked face face 200 million people probably anyone history possible exception john paul ii hard know john paul ii certainly graham talked anyone except face face 84 countries six continents electronically spoken hundreds millions observers say even billions things hard document clearly one visible faces last sixty years hes established numerous attendance records ill offer one example 1972 spoke outdoor meeting seoul korea pretty clear accounts many photographs taken helicopters count individuals something like 1240000 12 million people one time time probably ranked largest gathering humans one time one place history possible john paul ii spoke later time likely world record youve seen photographstheyre easy seephotographs taken behind graham spoke crowd seoul theyre simply astonishing see one man standing behind podium human beings spread literally far eye could see horizon twentyeight books translated 50 languages gallup poll admired man 55 times far person next closest ronald reagan believe 32 times john paul ii 27 times even ranked bestdressed list 1970 actually may say peoples aspirations imagination reality since bought clothes rack penneys often gives sense public image could go numerous awards one ways like think graham terms may call cultural snapshots think gives us better sense importance harold bloom means fellow evangelical yet wrote graham article time 100 prominent americans article said america run public office deprecating billy graham seemed wise enough woody allen movie sleeper scene hes describing graham someone else said knew god personallythey used go double dates together particular quip want call quip significant woody allen clearly evangelical camp graham yet knew audience knew people seeing movie would understand talking love childrens letters read hundreds childrens letters came tell us lot two think symptomatic oneusually childrens letters talking first secondgraders know theyre hand scrawled course one signs offwell usually start saying dear billy call billy signs saying tell jesus hi gives sense popular perception like even childrens letters letters mailed see lot graham archives graham museum charlotte many illegible except make billy graham get sent mostly minneapolis office somehow got even address except billy graham two especially liked one says billy graham somewhere world okay alltime favorite one complete address billy graham 145 harmon street minneapolis minnesota complete zip code left said case rapture never mind laughter could long time get idea received voluminous criticism merited vitriolic unmerited talk later think criticism important simply mark status people dont criticize someone publicly take time unless think person really important really needs criticism christopher hitchens unfortunate event well discuss later grahams odious remarks jews made privateor thought privatein 1972 richard nixon became revealed 2002christopher hitchens described cheap liar avid bigot george would regard general conservative appalled graham attended peace conference soviet union 1982 suggested grahams unwarrantedly conciliatory comments moscow made americas embarrassing export graham held crusade new york 1957 landmark crusade reinhold niebuhr complimentary things say also said miracle regeneration promised painless price obviously sincere evangelist bargain graham received even criticism far right bob jones bob jones university said billy graham damage cause jesus christ human alive indeed go google graham today oceans vitriol astound greater part comes right two questions graham achieve retain olympian status rise improbable farm kid north carolina went fundamentalist schools social connections speak missteps mentioned comments jews 1972 yet one historian put became americas least colorful powerful preacher happen thats question rise improbable happen achieved retained olympian status second question falls first one career tell us americas career billy graham tell us america argument would pursue try working book goes like graham followed approach evangelicals evangelicals followed discerned aspirations wider culture drew trends wider culture meet aspirations difference graham evangelicals dramatically greater skill six decades remarkably missteps missteps comparatively let put argument slightly different terms create trends discerned trends already appropriated shaped applied purposes results numerous initiated projects sometimes legitimated broad outlooks sometimes shaped public discourse key point lot ways product producer times product culture shaper culture registered times molded times thats think hes important working series case studies hope make point ill try briefly outline talk far greater detail one case study involve graham heartlander herein appropriated shaped applied deployed values associate heartland america parents wrote autobiographically lot wrote parents southern presbyterians conservative mainstream important point snake handlers dispensationalists fundamentalists least initially present image stable solid southern evangelical mainliners graham wrote autobiography countless interviewsi mean vast number interviewshe wrote youth terms redblooded american adolescent male fast cars sports baseball pretty girls presented downhome guy appealed kinds values unbuttoned neighborly style comes traditional ideas gender manliness traditional mean extreme left extreme right traditional views gender means man also maintained impeccable personal integrity throughout life terms marital fidelity terms financial affairs terms truthfulness played americans assumptions heartland values bill martin best biographer billy graham said americans saw billy graham best selves whether maintained marital fidelity financial integrity public truthfulness lives yet esteemed someone didwho billy grahams america mayberry lot ways andy griffith millions americans loved thats first point heartlander second southerner always proud southern roots capitalized upon political cache southern roots age southern expansionism theres great deal could say ill throw one factoid numerous ones room know id love hear talk except senior bush every elected president lyndon johnson bush iiwhether democrat republicanwas southerner age southern cultural expansionism think southern sun belter purposes nixon reagan carter clinton bush think lost elections humphrey mcgovern ford mondale dukakis kerry think came also era south extent lived jim crow legacy yet come identified christian right kind window graham arose well southerner often talked love south love southern food diction spoke rapidly always 270 words minute common somehow still contained kind southern diction new yorker journalist named peter boyerim sure know himid love meet somedaycalled carolina stage english well im sure carolina stage english must graham certainly hear difference say evangelical preachers important presented neither southern rural hick southern aristocrat rather middle class genteel southerner whose origins provenance might associate booster south rise atlanta charlotte identification rising middle class right second southerner third entrepreneur graham appropriated climate entrepreneurial agency following second world war entrepreneurial agency media age ill speak briefly two features talk career one orchestrator evangelical parallel culture didnt start started long came along significantly amplified parallel culture people call subculture think better called parallel culture driven parachurch agencies quick listing youth christ fuller theological seminary didnt found instrumental gordon conwell seminary young life billy graham evangelistic association days powerhouse organization magazines decision magazine next jehovahs witness magazine awake widely circulated religious magazine world featurelength movies important id argue founding christianity today clear crusades come go printed word remains architect evangelical cooperation talked harmony roman catholics long fashionable pioneered relationships evangelicals christians one side jews despite serious mistake mistake totally character discuss response whole relationship jewish community powerful one friends jewish leaders rabbis golda meier menachem begin zionist always proisrael would also say pioneer religious pluralism bgea organization probably agree dont think question pioneered notions religious pluralism adopted would call principled agnosticism fate nonbeliever recurrently would effectively say wideness gods mercy simply call journalists would ask opposed actually got printedyou know goes printing processbut journalists would ask would think example child china never heard okay recurrent response effectively leave god simply leave god job solely present gospel entrepreneur pioneering parallel culture cooperative relations fourth pilgrim advanced cause growing social consciousness human suffering discrimination forms injustice story graham race complicated ross written discuss entire books written take different points view could hardly even begin unpack time available suffice say seems see 1950actually 1952when eyes begin open problem racial injustice america 1982in 30year span see continual process expansion vision zigzag two steps forward one step back two steps forward one step back whole say progressive move compared southern white evangelicals really handsome moment ill offer one historical incident make point talk later 1953 preached crusade chattanooga tennessee crusades segregated ropes middlewell middlebut ropes separated africanamericans white americans south following pattern billy sunday 1953 pulled ropes chattanooga crusade protests local organizers thats story get time thats common story virtually every graham biography went chattanooga 53 told organizers come unless ropes come pulled ive looked thats quite way happened way happened think interesting telling graham human nature america crusade began march 15th four days later cliff barrows announced would reserved seats except colored persons tell almost one week meeting blacks whites segregated ropes meeting goes total four weeks know ropes came determine graham clear tore ropes associates memories associates chattanooga construction went meeting chattanooga course four weeks started eating go plan go theological principle mind wasnt thinking oh galatians 328 weve got put practice rather went ate ate point took think probably happened right end read chattanooga papers mention next crusade dallas ropes went back next crusade asheville apparently ropes back cant tell sure know went back dallas asheville came never went rest life crusades integrated 1982 spoke patriarchal cathedral moscow said gone three conversions life conversion christ conversion racially society conversion necessity disarmament world peace think significant articulated three conversions really unlike evangelicals placed order pattern moscow latter years life 80s 90s took strong stand nuclear disarmament mutual disarmament never pacifist often think billy graham strident spreadeagle patriot 1950s know public figures certainly years came gradually distance spreadeagle patriotism 1982 made determination visit soviet union great deal opposition including opposition members organization went soviet union part effort bring association christian message disarmament threat nuclear annihilation would say whole see graham opening increasing awareness threat injustice pain suffering world last example graham counselor ill say briefly ways important part grahams whole story tells us relation america letters vast majority destroyed know millions came office minneapolis thousand remained exactly clear thousand destroyed came thousands crusades sometimes came rate 10000 per day read lot idea exactly many summarize letters litany brokenness addiction despair virtually never politics almost never theology almost always broken lives youll forgive anecdote personal autobiographical piece wife went years ago asked would read letters take notes sitting end table tears coming said cant anymore cant started reading sample cache folders heartbreaking see much pain way would phrase graham became public vehicle private pain people saw way expressing pain found relief analogs bob orsi written letters st jude kathryn lofton written letters oprah exclusively graham certain figures serve analogues close saying negative comments legacy wasnt positive clearly think whole positive certainly things would criticize graham talked much made careless comments made offhand comments things knew little grievous mistakes comments made richard nixon way liberal jews controlled american media unselfcritical legitimating power mr cromartie david comment mr brooks seems fair laughter unknown speaker meeting dr wacker im going leave actually moment laughter unselfcritical legitimating power never caught simply showing events legitimated seriously always declarative modeexcuse mehe often declarative mode late life struck morning think rich saying often evangelicals told others believe rather asking believe could elaborate criticisms positive thoughts legacy go quickly like bio one ive already intimated represented americas best selves image marital fidelity financial accountability quickness forgive humility humor second handling mistakes go episode jews symptomatic find career willingness apologize face mistakes apologize straight instance soon ascertained words issued written apology published many newspapers got airplane flew cincinnati spoke rabbis faced said things said day unforgivable ask forgive read journalist response seems great majority americans including jews accepted straightforward apology remorse partisanship nixon repeatedly apologized repented done gotten tangled power personal regrets think handling mistakes symptomatic americans looking third whole qualifications whole see record increasing progressiveness views social suffering doesnt mean cases aligned views democratic party means whole sought bring alleviation fourth represented evangelical movement best expansive entrepreneurial ironically many ways created public space made possible rise christian right careful distance christian right nonetheless evangelical best lastly would say took place 911actually 914was many ways billy grahams national moment spoke national cathedral rabbi priest imam significant scores millions protestants could chosen course chose graham stood shoulder shoulder people multiple faiths moment national suffering think says something americans since times extraordinary suffering shoulder shoulder mr cromartie thank thank grant well next speaker many know youngest regular oped writer history new york times youve heard times ross book tour may know new book bad religion became nation heretics even bill maher two weeks ago comported well anyway know ross delighted midst busy busy book tour somehow got commit us think ross considers part book tour book called bad religion ross looking forward hearing comments subject ross douthat mr ross douthat thank mike ive telling mike actually reason im personally responsible least 40 percent book sales around countryparticularly id say evangelical communityso owe debt gratitude author possibly repay im delighted chance respond professor wacker think many ways themes elaborate book fit quite well portrait hes painted far scholarly rigor obviously hope muster thought id begin talking hopefully relatively briefly billy grahams today think thats question thats raised least implicitly portrait thats sketched tell people book multiple points author starts thinking first time one moments started thinking ideas book point midpoint bush presidency succession piecesthe prominent remember arthur schlesinger jrbasically saying reinhold niebuhr happened reinhold niebuhrs yesteryear american religion polarized populist antiintellectual part argument make book exactly question arent many reinhold niebuhr type figures today think argument applies billy grahamtype figure well even though course niebuhr famously critical graham obviously different theological intellectual approaches american christianity figures emerged period period culture wars american life might say period culture wars 1920s 30s one hand could pit protestants catholics saw expressions nativism brief return ku klux klan prominence hand pitted protestants protestants famous modernist fundamentalist wars everybody whos read inherit wind high school remembers well period wars one hand obviously culture wars started 1960s still living today obviously religious cultural conflict didnt disappear 1940s 1950s stretch couple things happen think era made distinctive one thing happened experience great depression second world war lived reality totalitarianism right left fascist communist created kind moment almost intellectual reassessment might say made people intellectuals especiallybut think westerners generalmore interested traditional religious faith particularly traditional christian faith 20 30 years earlier think sense particularly early 1930s secular ideologies coming thing traditional forms communal life religious belief would less relevant brave new world built moscow 1930s berlin depending ideological perspective experience happened late 30s 1940s level worldwide horror secular ideologies created moment think case niebuhr think terms new highbrow interest christian realism return older intellectual ideas human sinfulness also created think space kind popular expression impulse well one protestant catholic forms found powerful expression ministry figure like graham time think moment christian convergence united states want pains emphasize dont think christian convergence meant protestant catholic differences disappeared obviously 1950s still famous anticatholic polemics written protestants still incredible tension evangelical mainline protestants tensions 1920s 30s still form timeand see think clearly grahams careeryou convergence possible graham leading evangelical sort popular figure point go catholic city like boston organize crusade catholic cardinal boston write oped basically saying bully billy graham something would expected happen 1927 could go examples like think look book take four figuresi take graham take niebuhr take fulton sheen famous catholic bishop broadcaster point take martin luther king argue spite obviously enormous differences greater sort theological extent well political commonality youve seen group prominent figures vein decades since think graham particular figure one hand confidently unabashedly christian christian traditional protestant evangelical sense development professor wacker talks views graham emerge american scene someone making obvious compromises liberal modernity hes someone whos preaching stark christian message hes making altar call hes boiling religious questions yesorno jesus christ yet unlike many christian figures today focus intense polarization idea politician got elected criticizing billy graham well hard imagine anyone saying similar sort preacherlike figure today maybe figure like rick warren sort grahamlike qualities dont think anything like kind bipartisan credibility graham enjoyed really throughout careerand enjoyed spite moments like close identification nixon white house spite moments like leftwing could say interventions disarmament debates 1980s hes resolutely christian figure doesnt become focus polarization hes also figure identified spite real theological conservatism personal conversion rather culture war hes identified people sending letters lifechanging experiences personal experiences jesus christ kind battles subsequent figures christian right associated jerry falwell died instance number pieces written friends associates others kind work falwell pastor charitable works works personal conversion real think completely fair say billy grahams public ministry completely different jerry falwells public ministry difference tells us something shift american society midcentury era quickly want run changed made harder figures whether theyre evangelical preacher catholic bishop wanted nightly broadcast protestant theologian identified suppose could say christian first combatant political cultural dispute secondwhich think distinctive graham whats rarer today think four big things changed starting 1960s first phenomenon political journalists write time well known everyone room influence political polarization ideological sorting two major parties really gets underway goldwaters race 1964 continued pretty steadily present day think polarization done think happened first religious left 1960s 70s happened religious right 1990s especially bush presidency create intense identification christian faith one partisan cause turn creates sense happened first think liberal mainline protestants late 1960s 1970sthat democratic party prayer think something similar happened christian conservatives last 20 years actually see americans previously identified methodists presbyterians catholics something distancing organized christianity kind political statement religious right phenomenon weve seen last 15 years hadnt seen understand impact polarization example like use contrast public ministries graham martin luther king two figures sense plausible successor figures 1980s jesse jackson pat robertson graham king various moments especially king later career clearly political figures one would hesitate describe martin luther king political figure imagine history midcentury america would different billy graham decided best way witness christian faith american life run republican nomination president believe people one point urged 50s imagine difference imagine difference martin luther king jesse jackson figure ran two unsuccessful campaigns democratic nomination 1960s think shift religious left religious right related political coalitions see shift momentous consequences american christianity whole made subsequent figures harder harder identity werent defining conservative christian first christian secondor liberal christian first christian second polarization sexual revolution obviously think shift everybody aware everybody talks working present day debates gay marriage obviously really starts issues heterosexuality straight life divorce revolution 1960s 70s everything followed development birth control pill early 60s think telling graham comes age debates front center graham traditional christian positions sex marriage know believe came endorsed ballot marriage north carolina believe lets say safe assume general billy graham held fairly traditional christian views issues related sex abortion forth came age issues huge flashpoints american life public persona think defined way public persona figures involved religious political debates since 60s 70s overall sexual revolution created challenge christian sexual ethics church protestant catholic found completely successful way address liberal conservative responses issue none least date come kind resolution made issues anything less sort persistent flashpoint persistent reason people leave christian churches persistent source cultural polarization sex think also look influence wealth money united states last 40 50 years look original new testament message fairly strong emphasis personal chastity obviously becomes somewhat difficult make postsexual revolution era theres also obviously strong emphasis suspicion great wealth suspicion money corrupting influence resonates less would argue among americans came age historical standards kind cornucopian abundance postworld war ii landscape opposed americans come age great depression different experience material circumstances relationship money forth think general impact talk think explains sort shift billy graham central figure religious life united states someone like joel osteen sort grahamesque figure whose message clearly accommodated landscape greater wealth hardscrabble landscape graham came age narrower sense think important example like cite impact americas wealth ministry kind people number people choose become ministers pastors catholic priests dont ascribe bad faith bad motives parents generation see kind money available people professions like law medicine investment banking made ministry less appealing difference money available nonclerical professions clerical professions always large gapyou know compare ministers salary lawyers salary 1950 ministers salary lawyers salary today explains lot instance fewer people made phi beta kappa would even consider going divinity school 2005 considered going divinity school 1945 think turn huge impact personnel human capital manpower available americas churches ability sort make christian message seem appealing relevant contemporary landscape final trend talk book think changed things impact globalization decolonization extent forces suddenly beamed americans living rooms television revolution 60s 70s obviously cable tv internet everything since im thinking particular extent made idea one religious tradition exclusive truth claim seem much less credible seemed already happening 50s see grahams career adaptations professor wacker discussingwhere speaks differently possibility salvation earlier generation evangelical preachers often done says different answer lets say question baby china perhaps graham figure 1922 would even adaptations think insufficient magnitude globalization fact overlapped decolonization meant christianity western religion perceived tainted sins european empires think combination factors goes long way explaining theological relativism seems plausible 1985 1955 whats fascinating period areas experiencing decolonization christianity becomes appealing longer associated imperial administration longer perceived white mans religion think book billy grahams influence mentioned would fascinating way could argue graham biggest influence america period midcentury convergence biggest influence world following 30 years christianity goes crisis us suddenly seems fresher newer relevant africa korea eventually behind berlin wall thats sort sketch offer book trends made harder harder 1 institutional christian churches thrive current landscape 2 traditional christian message broadly defined reach wide audience 3 figures like graham play role society transcends political divisions closest think weve come grahamstyle figure temporary emergence rick warren last election cycle someone president obama kind paid court invited give blessing inauguration think even warren seen frequently sort culture war lens spokesman know nice conservative evangelical opposed obnoxious conservative evangelicals dont think kind credibility graham dont think kind nonpartisan staying power graham enjoyed many decades know get q ill say closing telling mentioned letters oprah think second half story story collapse religion america even story disappearance kind christianity america story weakening kind christian center graham represented world living nation living becoming secular country except loosest possible definition term secular nation people still deeply influenced christianity still deeply religious likely express christianity kind authors appear oprah winfrey show elizabeth gilberts eat pray love deepak chopra eckhart tolle onor figure like joel osteen ways christian message clearly directed towards affluent relativistic societyor explicitly political figures phenomenon political journalists used writing influence partisanship fact still deeply religious nation religious energy partisan ever religious institutions weaker ever easier ever pour religious energies sarah palins fundamental restoration america barack obamas hope change yes celebrities keening youtube videos campaign 2008 obviously think negative consequences national life get q mr cromartie absolutely mr douthat thank guys much mr cromartie weve already got hands going kirsten powers raised hand five minutes professor wackers talk people know get queue sally kirsten paul yes everyone else kirsten powers fox news question professor talking bob jones said billy graham would cause damage jesus anybody else dont know much billy graham interested know would say right critical ross guess bottom line theres sort hope book saying mean anyone ever rise ever another niebuhr mr douthat grant help dr wacker okay mr douthat give minute dr wacker immediate context bob joness comment grahams crusade new york 1957 made point cooperate everyone would cooperate mean didnti think said something unitarians drew lines within broad limits would cooperate anyone would cooperate long ask change message inquirers came forward never called converts inquirers came forward counseled counseled go back churches come didnt church counseled churches honored whatever tradition came hard document im working indications people selfidentified jewish counseled go back synagogues certainly roman catholics inspired bob jones mean would said bad religion really bad religion weve let standards mr douthat theres hope laughter mean book american christianity obviously trends im mr cromartie last chapter mr douthat last chapter hopeful well trends im talking bigger religion 1950s 40s period american confidence stronger institutions generally period political consensus sort generally period consensus cohesion certain ways unfair compare era one aspects whats changed return american norm midcentury period sort slightly unusual period dont know thats hopeful something keep mind look mean trends im describing trends continue unfold manifest religious life robert putnams bowling alone phenomenon everyone familiar theyre obvious sort general attitudes disillusionment towards institutions kinds thats case pessimism sense seem becoming atomized society generally polarized society generally obvious easier billy graham 2020 2005 said reason begin book midcentury era also world graham niebuhr inherited world world built think people agency agency affected deep tectonic forces real nonetheless think possible religious people american life sort selfpresent ways honor christianity republican democratic partisanship gospels selfhelp selflove rest dont fivepoint plan cite examples like timothy keller pastor redeemer presbyterian many familiar examples people making case christianity ways sort easily slotted oh heres another republican preacher kind mode think possible experience great recession age potentially diminishing expectations may increase polarization may accelerate trends im writing think depression world wars opportunities broader cultural reassessment think would good american culture whole american religious culture cant say five obvious examples happening excited mr cromartie sally youre next david paul sally quinn sally quinn washington post question grant wanted know thought franklin graham actively bigot clearly following fathers footsteps dont know whether know father feels know daughter problems brother message evangelicalism want call im curious know think franklin ross want know think actually bad religion mean talked earlier joel osteen mentioned elizabeth gilbert deepak chopra oprah eckhart tolle seems know institutions say failing people people going find everybody looking life meaning people finding meaning people mr douthat absolutely ms quinn mean talked interviewed joel osteen last week 42000 people two weeks booked advance standing room guy message thats giving people hope bad religion religion mr cromartie wants go first dr wacker ross mr douthat okay ill make two arguments one theological practical theological argument make bookand actually dovetails think well discussions first session todayis one strengths traditional christian doctrineand im using traditional broad way encompass catholic protestant eastern orthodox wellhas comfort paradox wont use word mystery maybe getting bad rap earlier idea important religious tradition able say bothand rather eitheror think see clearly obviously christians traditionally tried doctrine trinity question jesusyou know jesus christ god man fit togetherbut think also shows christian attitudes towards moral life towards common life together endless debates divine grace versus works people saved fit two things together think willingness logic chopper might say saywell take question salvation say well grace grace dont need worry works well say get well maybe gets oneida community ended something doesnt matter sleeps god forgives wont bodies next life anyway take something like alcoholics anonymous right guess ill try make bridge theological practical alcoholics anonymous sense christian ministry thats letting go letting god recognizing necessity grace necessity recognizing higher power higher authority order deal addiction think sort useful standin broader christian attitude towards sin something inside escape need recognize higher authority order confront time alcoholics anonymous institution succeeds asking real effort people something says well let go let god dont care come meetings care come meetings sponsor morally accountable think microcosm see bothand fit together also fit together ways positive practical moral consequences peoples lives dont think alcoholics anonymous would successful combine elements way strong emphasis grace strong emphasis works dont think believe christian god order see efficacy combination define bad religion sense approaches religion want pursue one idea logical conclusion exclusion others case joel osteen instance joel osteen powerful appealing message message god loves wants happy thats part christian message big part christian message theres also another part christian message related cross right god loves wants happy oh way sometimes take cross follow sometimes gods love expresses seems like terribly unjust forms suffering sometimes youre mother teresa experience dark night soul dont feel gods presence decades decades end dont get osteen think bad isand well get practical read osteens books hes like overthetop prosperity preacher hes like god wants five million dollars drive around rolls royce dont think hard make leap joel osteen says finances decisions millions americans made homes loans everything else past ten years obviously lot factors work financial bubble nobody reading joel osteen corner office lehman brothers imagine hanna rosen wrote good piece atlantic four five years ago sort overthetop title christianity cause crash well christianity didnt cause crash go joel osteen sort semipentecostal church caters recent hispanic immigrants sort ofi forget exactly might virginia suburbit charlottesville virginia listen preaching listen preacher talks wealth talks real estate talks god wants life message wrong right wrong say god loves wants happy easily translated think supernatural put one percent house god bless think yeah think thats bad religion soand endeth sermon mr cromartie im sure come franklin graham dr wacker go bad religion franklin graham okay let put briefly think franklin graham culture warrior billy thats shorthand version ill try concise theres question graham identified political figures presidents increasingly explicitly 52 till 74 slow evolution wasnt exactly partisan close lyndon johnson think make case closest friend ever lyndon johnson became increasingly identified presidents publicly agendas although cases resisted identification particular agendas whole happened got burned badly nixon one associates said billy never idea badly nixon snookered bitterly disillusioned think primarily becausewell happened nixon showed graham fallibility judgment trusted people good hiring associates many stayed 50 years nixon disappointed deeply 74 see strenuously moving away partisan politics hardly count number times said print regretted identification nixon partisanship urged younger christians especially evangelists follow path part fall wagon couple times couple ways thats part naivety id talked earlier showed breakfast george w bush morning election 2000 reporters snapping pictures someone said well said youre partisan said well breakfast didnt really sense power presence legitimating force mean thats matter falling wagon usual pattern explicitly distanced falwell pat robertson said admire many things stand said dont like way get involved partisanship also told laurie goodstein said dont hear much poverty hunger rest world theres sally whole style really came fore 70s deep conviction way get things done talking people coercing often criticized seemed reluctance endorse legislation depends particular issue changed one issue another fundamental issue fundamentally convinced get things accomplished persuading people word ear finally would say criticized often even latter part life challenging presidents publicly response dont get invited back white house cynical say well looking free bed white house point dont audience alienate publicly disparage people youll way make changes style franklin hes culture warrior words 911 billys words highly symptomatic 911 know franklin said islam terrible religion laurie goodstein interviewed senior graham said think sons words billy said well issues franklin disagree well actually way put said franklin opinion opinion issues disagree think disagrees substantively also question style working people rather bludgeoning said also give franklin credit work samaritans purse seems one major major philanthropic endeavors around world thats whole another story part complexity franklin graham work samaritans purse without regard whether theyre muslim country christian country mr cromartie right okay david brooks david brooks mr brooks little point well goes back people saying mentioned grant graham public vehicle private pain wanted ask message sort moral tenor message response cries pain hoping could frame along continuum moral realists niebuhrs maybe positive thinking people norman vincent peale robert schuller maybe joel osteen graham continuum think theres shift american christianity along continuum last 30 years dr wacker yeah mr brooks thats dr wacker yeah thats great one mr brooks professor douthat well grant dr wacker letters came every letter came received response obviously personal response people know letters coming rate 10000 day hes going able read respond yet get personal comments like please show letter cliff barrows whats wrong cliff barrows hes song leader many sense personally reading think probably majority know better responses went often evangelical boilerplate bible teaches heres need would say havent yet tabulated david something going carefully remarkable number responsesand sense probably majority strikingly common sense one phrases often appears responses unscramble eggs would come people talked marriages gotten messed see american mean practical american take reality going deal dealing involved conversion faith affiliation congregation devotion prayer forth take reality lot practical solutions talk children talk teenagers straighten life havent seen oprah responses dont know read bob orsi letters written saint jude great number still tremendous number strike traditionalist theological component along common sense component get kind therapeutic culture see much later mr douthat yes briefly professor brooks mr brooks thats herr professor brooks mr douthat office dynamics fascinating sense changed last 50 years less thati think important distinction maybe dont emphasize adequatelybut less therapeutic voices fewer nontherapeutic voices mentioned norman vincent peale think go back midcentury religion plenty people making kind arguments different forms osteen might make today deepak chopra might make today current american religion sydney alstrom historian american religion calls harmonial element american faithwhere idea important thing sort harmonize universe issues whether theological detail one hand sort specific moral guidelines less important orientation towards god universethat always huge part american religion think striking last decades extent counterweights weakened institutions help provide counterweights declined goes back way sallys question talk christian orthodoxy dont want make case would great thing live world institutional expressions religion sort rigorous traditionalist christian orthodoxy protestant catholic stripe think genius american religion always sort creative tension different forces institutional faith one hand religious freelancers hand kingdom cults versus protestant mainline might say im talking critically current religious moment argument isnt need religious orthodoxy orthodoxy without room heresy dangerous heresy doesnt orthodoxy push tested dangerous well mr cromartie okay paul edwards bill galston claire paul youre paul edwards paul edwards deseret news grant interested description graham orchestrator parallel evangelical culture mentioned number different cultural organs puts together campus ministries theres filmmaking theres journalism im wondering strategic lessons learned mean guess much somewhat intuitive way put together sort optimal mix way mutually reinforcing way helping develop kind culture im going toss ross well mean thinking bit say disintegration christian consensus know certain things needed place first move another step strategic lessons learned graham dr wacker thats great question well intimated clear thought founding christianity today important talked crusades also millions come crusades hear said words evanescent words forgotten unless printed put lot money decision magazine saw devotional version christianity today publications one publication flourishes circulation close 200000 one major voices modern american christianity okay thats one point second attentive listened businesspeople board stocked people successful extremely successful business world took seriously thats part untold story billy graham ministry role businessmen including mormons marriott j willard marriott talking grahams ecumenism reached incorporated mormons along catholics lesser extent jews took seriously wisdom came businesspeople listened board businessmen savvy would say two main things cutting edge satellite technology land relays everything came along realm electronic communications cutting edge mr cromartie okay ross mr douthat actually weirdly strong views question think one interesting things current moment american evangelicalism learned lessons billy grahams career little bit well everything graham emphasis parachurch ministries rather specific denominations quest found institutions like christianity today like fuller theological seminary helped provide kind new beginning american evangelicals endless sectarian feuding fundamentalist wilderness years hugely important success evangelicalism mid century afterward extent evangelical churches part american christianity didnt experience huge crisis 60s 70s 80s problem think fronts necessary 1950 might problematic 2000 2010 look around evangelical landscape today see community need churches parachurches stronger confessional groups clearer believe think see mega church phenomenon long time sign robust health american evangelicalism also problematic makes religion dependent superstar pastors particular charisms ministries burn quickly pastor burns graham supplied evangelicals evangelicals desperately needed 1947 1957 today terms figuring well okay take american evangelicalism equip enduring survival line book thats sort silly say campus crusade christ incredibly successful evangelical group thats ministering campuses believe started period groups cant raise family members campus crusade christ mean would little weird similarly group like promise keepers big ten years ago promise keepers hugely successful cant raise daughter promise keeper little weird think big challenge faced evangelicalism today 40 years nondenominational success maybe needs little denominationalism little confessionalism graham supplied mr cromartie go bill galston president fuller theological seminary short intervention richard mouw richard mouw fuller theological semiary observation mr douthat like woody allen moment marshall mcluhan literally movie line laughter dr mouw think one thing gets lost ross whole business people get credentialed magisterium evangelicalism opposed otheri mean get chuck colson get phil yancey get editors christianity today one knows churches belong fact lot people dont know church billy grahama lot people dont know pat robertson southern baptist know think pentecostal ordination southern baptist church know seeing little shift rick warren willow creek even dont denominations im wondering look whats happened denominational leadership would wish us know mr douthat may catholic biases showing always possible look landscape two things show one think lot conservative evangelicals reason good reason skeptical theological directions younger sort selfcredentialed evangelical megachurch pastors taking im thinking say figure like rob bell author bestselling book love wins critique traditional christian doctrine hell think danger dont sort confessional grounding graham generation yes people didnt know necessarily denomination belonged helpful ministry come age denominational context confessional grounding generation comes age generation get confessional grounding easier becomes recreate evangelical world think alreadyi mean think one reasons mainline denominational christianity collapsed denominational confessional quite reverse 60s 70s churches decided denominational identity barrier christian unity line creeds divide deeds unite something like dr mouw doctrine divides mr douthat right ended disastrous mainline think imagine something similar happening evangelical world absent least purchase something sort purely personalitybased form ministry thing exhausting christian body recreate completely every generation many disadvantages corruptions associated sort confessions institutions rest also advantage generations decades centuries think story last 2000 years suggest institutional churches play important role making christianity something temporary enthusiasm methodist church instance begins enthusiasm enduresand maybe wont endure forever endures institution think lessons story evangelicals today mr cromartie imagine historian american evangelicalism might comment two grant dr wacker well colleague stanley hauerwas likes say long christianity dead gone united methodist church still going laughter mr douthat fair point mr cromartie bill galston give us comments theological complexity william galston dr william galston brookings institution cant help versions question grant ross state question grant simply know ross offered narrative wont go far say classic decline fall narrative certainly narrative decline hes given particular story happened question would extent agree narrative might disagree help ill turn ross say heard religion one condition maybe 1940s 1950s take point departure four big things happened listed result theres lot bad religion used pernicious consequences thats narrative heard correct im wrong four things listed polarization sexual revolution growth wealth therefore temptation know adopt religious vocation finally globalization decolonization white mans guilt id telling story certainly would included items explained bad religion defined book length im sure briefly response sally would put things table let first think youve underplayed growth therapeutic mentality judgment single prophetic book past 60 years phillip reiffs book triumph therapeutic mr cromartie book dr galston yeah well im sorry since havent yet read book really think therapeutic remained stable bad stuff hasi think theres lot therapeuticallyinfused religion 50 years ago good religion secondly think theres broad cultural phenomenon underplay fracturing culture high low disappearance middle ground culture want conduct interesting experiment pick issue time magazine random 1955 compare time magazine today see see words theres real collapse middle high cult immigrated academy low cult taken popular organs middle conspicuous absence middle lot notsobad religion dwelled third point growth individualism necessarily comes expense institutions hyperindividualization american society could done lot undermine institutions finally four five huge growth spirit nonjudgmentalism american society worst thing say anybody institution judgmental well religion doesnt make judgments much religion ive seen close synagogue rabbi even delicately tries apply classic jewish principles conduct community hes basically told get lost persists error perhaps get lost good appetite tolerance left moral leadership religion defined criticism religious community finally think ive around long enough say never seen points political spectrum hostility elites anyone claims position kind authority including intellectual moral authority well hell viable religious institution dominated contempt anything could represented elitism seems addition four tectonic changes listed huge changes american culture contributed least much growth bad religion mr cromartie optimistic ross mr douthat im guilty let say something mr cromartie look everythinga lot bill said mr douthat yes going say mr cromartie wanted say mr douthat okay appreciate 41 percent sales mr cromartie copy book mr douthatare attributed mike mr cromartie mr douthat agree probably 97 percent said guess didnt want bei mean pessimistic one book ill write another book order add layers pessimism account say one thing tried book avoid think temptation people general religiopolitical orientation avoid blamingand im sure avoid blaming trends im decrying specific noxious individuals snakes garden midcentury religion instance dont spend lot time talking kinsey gloria steinem erica jong came along seduced america away good middleclass values something question something like therapeutic religioni entire chapter therapeutic religion second half book case im talking particular people tectonic trends try book use four factorsand agree many moreto explain therapeutic religion became powerful influential rieff saw coming turn exactly right really amazing go back read triumph therapeutic hes basically predicting rise reality television one point hes talking modern civilization mount psycho dramas way used mount miracle plays completely agree think triedmaybe always successfullyto sort separate really structural forces theological trends arose forces similarly something like nonjudgementalismwhen talk globalization decolonization sense theological relativism comes experiences im trying explain todays spirit nonjudgmentalism comes way think experience loss western credibility way christianity deservedly associated experiences go distance towards explaining people nervous judgmental today anyway obviously much bigger story even probably toobigforonebook story try tell mr cromartie right question grant remember mr douthat yes wrong youwhat think get wrong wasnt question whator right everything dr galston whats view ross said dr wacker well let go circuitously im puzzled lot things grand phenomenon says america begin acknowledging graham theologian first say listen sermons youll find ratified yet word keeps coming back words kind words keep coming back savvy canny one students wrote paper knew bodies lay think heart bills question sense combineand ill mix metaphors hereboth exclusion inclusion sermons always included judgmental part always gods judgment either explicitly stated lines god god toyed sin sin right soon said moved inclusive call gods love new life christ transformation life everlasting hope right think remarkable listen sermons either old taperecordings read especially taperecording tonality language comes combination never always one never hell fire never inclusion keeping together years went balance shifted became increasingly emphasis upon inclusive character judgmental never evaporates didnt think put together way see analyst going american life think genius combination judgment inclusion see osteen theres longer combination entirely inclusion uplift id like comment couple aspects bills question want ask ross question spoke middle cult referred time magazine whats important story role press isolate one person responsible grahams rise itd henry luce werent close friends met luce luce liked liked luce time boosted message graham mediated time magazine magazines youre calling middlecult character key could replicate lot examples question ross maybe goes backi cant remember sally bill asked ross wrong look whole story religion last half 20th century strikes three influential figures billy graham martin luther king john paul ii theyre ones endure generation generation sorts discussions puzzled happens thiswhat call itboth secular age therapeutic age still keep going back three people pole stars many ways write fulton sheen doesnt quite luster think three luster dimmed even today mr douthat yes may go kirstens question sense people interested future theologically serious least morally serious approach religious faith general christianity particular may reason hope rightthat even era institutional weakness sort therapeutic religious culture examples something different something least somewhat better still power command attention respect thing id say probably roots pessimism little particular experience catholic church became catholic 17 im unusual position neither cradle catholic true adult convert came catholic church sort high point john paul iis luster period fall communism period think increasing attention played role played story sort period least conservative catholicsand obviously circle pretty conservative catholicsthere sense popes talk sort new springtime catholicism christianity 21st century really going bear real fruit came sex abuse crisis think sex abuse crisis dimmed john pauls luster fact think may dimmed much place george weigel whos events somewhat differ think experience underlying weaknessesi side john paul ii broadly big sort intracatholic debates 70s 80s 90s think also clear whatever roman catholicism united states needs next 100 years john paul ii accomplished insufficient achieve future im sure achieve future isi agree case last pope particular think experience last ten years sex abuse broader sense institutional disillusion postjohn paul american church made little pessimistic would collegeage conservative catholic mr cromartie tom youre dan tom krattenmaker tom krattenmaker usa today want ask q conference im correct shared stage couple weeks ago mr cromartie indeed mr krattenmaker would like hear impressions q important maybe comment larger movement represents would term something meaningful maybe temporary enthusiasm mr douthat q conference dont know dont know explicitly bills evangelical answer ted conference evangelical answer ted conference right fair sort mr cromartie yeah mr douthat dont youcan give better description mr cromartie thats good one called q ideas mr douthat right people mostly evangelicals presenting sort particular ideas lot short talks people talking different ministries im means expert never heard q conference say kindly invited talk seem like one fullest expressions ive seen sort postrobertson falwell younger generation evangelical approach christianity someone like mike gerson spent lot time writing last decade focused issues related third world poverty sustainability environment unknown speaker ross isnt experiencing affluent upscale w hotel mr douthat yes franciscan mendicant poverty said evangelical answer ted unknown speaker lot good food mr douthat mean would say mix ofyeah mean obviously mostly affluent people often unknown speaker tickets ted cost 6000 unknown speaker yeah like mr douthat like 6000 unknown speaker far mr douthat right unknown speaker lot people speaking ministry mr douthat right seemed like lot people probably come upper middleclass background theyre hip right evangelical answer davos let put way evangelicalism sort clearly theologically conservative ways socially conservative ways much apolitical previous generation undoubtedly polled people gay marriage instance would undoubtedly find moderate left wing composition least part attendees would views right unknown speaker 6040 poll beginning mr douthat oh breakdown unknown speaker like 60 republican 40 democratic pretty mr douthat right ayes thats sort one areas excitement interest american young evangelicalism today mr cromartie 800 people big auditorium dc fifth time theyve done mr douthat think question approach story liberal christianity liberal especially protestant also catholic christianity 60s 70s part story high hopes christianity focused transforming world could move beyond faded institutions lot house churches sort reconnect original enthusiasm gospels liberal christianity starts hopes ends lot disappointment think ended lot disappointment process trying adapt new landscape sort adapted far away core christian claims think trends see work among younger evangelicals place like q way tremendously hopeful future evangelical witness think grant describing marry inclusive nonpartisan vision authentically religious message mr cromartie dr mouw would impressed every table book readings abraham kuyper favorite pastor q people really tim keller dr mouw yeah mr cromartie may well give hedges theologically loose mr douthat right danger adaptation tradition adapt question adaptation shade adapting existence look movement thats wonder wonder similarly whether overlaps probably extent emergent church maybe mr cromartie doesnt mr douthat doesnt okay well look emergent church movement evangelicalism least somewhat similar approach certain ways thats wonder creating successful new approach going end episcopal church ended 1985 membership collapsed mr cromartie meet 30 years going bring question happened q invited160dan harris next dan harris dan harris abc news actually sally asked question interested hearing guys riff joel osteen thoughts thatactually didnt weigh im particularly interested theres anything new say id interested hear defer others dr wacker joel osteen per se ill rely work former doctoral student new colleague woman named catherine bowler written wonderful dissertation book coming helpful studied osteen osteen community well kenneth hagin many prosperity evangelists mr cromartie book come dr wacker fall published oxford oneword title blessed argument prosperity gospel whole financial prosperity whole spiritual prosperity even healing families formation communities support resources one another compelling story particularly looks prosperity preachers ground even ones would lot difficulty benny hinn men women affiliate interviewsits deeply ethnographic bookwith interviews keeps coming money less incidental family healing dont mean family sense lds might think kind creation family feeling mutual support one another thats comment osteen feeling probably evangelical mainline theologians quick dismiss entire prosperity gospel get sidetracked explicit message without gaining sense tensile strength happens within constituency mr harris shes talking message received dr wacker exactly exactly message received lived internalized mr harris well listen creflo dollar mr douthat well creflo mr harris hes really explicit especially early days mean mr douthat osteen interesting figure hes multiple different things isnt standing saying know god wants rich heres rolls royce proves sally probably say youve interviewed would say book ive written im obviously critical figures like osteen completely agree actually much think theologically subtle theologically appealing message secular liberals traditional christians give credit wouldnt appeal didnt contain real subtleties well dr wacker well dan used word received would use similar word experienced mr douthat right dr wackerat grass roots levels mean thats story needs told kate hasshe goes kateand kate beginning tell think thats step historians sociologists anthropologists religions need take ms quinn respond osteen mr cromartie quickly quickly sally ms quinn yes specifically asked last week prosperity gospel one time ive ever seen get upset said im saying believe jesus christ youre going get rich talking hes talking say bowler saying youll spiritually rich others preach call prosperity gospel believe jesus christ youll get rich mean actual thing going dont think osteen isits part message mr douthat would say sympathetic towards read books wrote mid2000s read book came direct response recession felt sort prosperity side message much balder offensive made less favorably disposed five seven years ago unknown speaker look hes becoming prosperity mr douthat mean hes ms quinn backed mr douthat hes backed least initial reaction setbacks wasand message appeal right like moment people worried finances makes sense would want say something directly addresses finances way addressed think book came 09 something kicked last tour think much balder saying youre need think supernatural god give increase mr cromartie okay weve got cullen murphy reihan rich mouw done cullen murphy cullen murphy vanity fair thought somebody going ask offtherecord bits im going something else said grant wanted ask talking responses billy graham letters gets think said see american describing kind advice given know theres tendency religions become imbedded mean imbedded cultures inhabit take characteristics think alan wolfe talked tendency american denominations become time kind congregational look american religion today also country imbedded doesnt surprise instance religion catholicism many evangelical denominations dont seem humble country theyre tendency towards kind cando optimistic humble attitude someone like kind counts religion humility one great things brings table wonder theres way box sense perhaps problem id interested knowing think dr wacker oh send check thank im going ought incredibly important point trying understand phenomenon graham american life could still figure way get title religion second chance mean deeply imbedded letters kind desperate cry second chance comes back responses theres another chance said american mean william jennings bryan theres second chance political realm following two prominent evangelists least within protestant sphere graham aimee simple mcpherson billy sunday religious messages second chance far graham theres possibility rebuilding ones life one sense get entrepreneurial thrust youre suggesting cullen expansive broadshouldered muscular gender language could use time humility built built weve run amok lives run shoals theyre rocks things rebuilt part rebuilding humility asking acknowledging whats happened lives order rebuild thats one cluster issues personal level graham think overwhelming look personal comments reports journalists go visit come back reports humility nancy gibbs michael duffy ive never met im sure time introduced book saying go visit graham sincerity like paint stripper said come away sense person extraordinary humility interuse humility sincerity interchangeably think thats important broader sense press reports whatever personal characteristic amplified seems thats feeling broader population also understands esteems important mr cromartie reihan youre reihan salam daily rod dreher years ago contrasted alistair mcintyres benedict option called benedict temptation know benedict option idea one retreat kind debased culture form robust christian communities fringe debased culture idea benedict temptation fact idea dangerous dialogue broader culture et cetera get impression book work much latter vein idea actually theres slender reed hope kind revival robust christian culture thats look towards thats hope et cetera wonder given lot pessimism youve encountered today actually kind lives inside brain wonder youve thought institutions actually living benedict option projects feel really kind successful view rather successful others seen manifestations kind christian culture really reject mainstream trying build kind alternative find promising makes doubt idea actually temptation real option mr douthat well spend morning talking mormons recall one fascinating things mormon church certainly vast theological differences lds doctrine practice mormons major religious body united states maintain robust influential successful sort parallel culture seemed resist trends ive described instance endless debates line work youre writing sex culture wars abortion liberals say well look blue states lower rates outofwedlock births conservatives say oh higher abortion rates right kinds debates youre like well anywhere united states low abortion rates low outofwedlock birth rates well one state state utah downside one colleague professor brooks brought morning extent many outsiders mormon culture seem like mormons stuck 50s reason theyve resilient theyve sort walled trends still seem like cleavers donny marie mormonisms resilience resilient still relatively small body hasnt large enough go kind convulsions catholicism went 70s 80s thats im interested issues raised archeology history mormonisms ability sort confront secular academy next 100 years think actually crucial future broader sense dont know catholic protestant version mormon approach completely possible mormons obviously distinctive history distinctive geographical position dont believe sort model withdrawal think fundamental reason suggested subtitle book way obviously critical im calling people heretics call people heretics youre basically saying youre christians sense even dont acknowledge christian youre still christian american still somehow operating underwe call judeochristian paradigm wantbut dont think america sort genuinely postchristian culture certainly dont think secular pagan culture long thats case think people beliefs cant withdraw culture still much common think case whether youre conservative christian liberal christian trends bill talking towards atomization lot common americans still arguments theyre worth thats reason saying lets lets move north dakota home school kids grow organic vegetables 20 years ill farm ill see mr cromartie hold hold hold grant wacker gets final words dr wacker well theres way could top elegant means quick comment half life teaching divinity school stay touch lot divinity students come back five years ten years recurrently impressed strength rural church stories come back rural church think part focus certainly mine stuff im working mostly urban situations cosmopolitan situation kinds stories big city dailies would write life rural church parish therell far fewer rural synagogues still mean often flies radar screen us professionally involved looking dont know larger implications certainly great resilience certain segments population could isolate resiliencethe components resilienceand extend rest population wed better mr cromartie ladies gentlemen join thanking speakers applause transcript edited clarity accuracy spelling grammar | 9,753 |
<p>Last year, the two best opportunities to stop Obamacare before it got implemented were missed. First, Chief Justice John Roberts bent over backwards to find the law’s individual mandate to be a constitutional tax on the uninsured. Then, the voters decided they preferred another term for President Obama over a Romney administration.</p>
<p>As a consequence, Obamacare isn’t going to be wiped off the federal books in the next few years.</p>
<p>This reality has important implications for congressional tactics. In the previous two years, everything that was done in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives was aimed at building momentum for full repeal in the event Romney won the White House. Since that didn’t happen, other tactics are necessary.</p>
<p>Congressional opponents of Obamacare need to do two things in the months ahead. First, they need to pursue legislation that can contain and minimize Obamacare so that a future president and Congress can still change direction if they choose to do so. Second, Congress needs to continue to cultivate public opposition to Obamacare by highlighting strong bipartisan opposition to its worst features. Bipartisan bills to repeal or substantially amend the law are especially important because they will sow disunity among Democrats and create openings for future revision.</p>
<p>The following is a top-ten list of health-care bills that could help Congress pursue these goals (although there are, of course, many other good ideas that would also help the cause). Each of these items could be pursued as stand-alone bills on the House floor.</p>
<p>1. DELAY</p>
<p>The Obama administration chose to delay many of the most controversial implementing rules of Obamacare during 2012 to avoid stirring up opposition to the president during the election year. That decision has now put everything behind schedule. Moreover, a majority of states have decided (as was their right) not to build the state exchanges envisioned in the law, leaving the task to the federal government. And there’s no direct appropriation available to the federal government for this task. So it’s quite clear that implementing the law by January 2014 will create significant and unnecessary chaos in the insurance marketplace. Republicans should seize the opportunity this state of affairs provides and push for a delay of the law’s implementation. The administration will of course vigorously oppose any suggestion of delay, but many employers, states, and health-sector participants would welcome it.</p>
<p>2. IPAB REPEAL</p>
<p>The Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is the poster child of the Obama vision for cost control. The new agency, composed of 15 unelected “experts,” is supposed to enforce a new cap on Medicare spending growth, without any political accountability to the program’s beneficiaries. Moreover, the only tools IPAB can use are further reductions in what Medicare pays for the provision of services to patients. But these kinds of price controls drive suppliers out of the program and leave beneficiaries on waiting lists for services. A clean IPAB-repeal bill–with no other poison pills attached to it–is sure to draw significant Democratic support. The GOP should ensure such a vote occurs soon.</p>
<p>3. SCALE BACK PREMIUM-CREDIT SUBSIDIES</p>
<p>Obamacare has set in motion the largest entitlement expansion in a generation. In theory, the new law entitles all Americans with incomes between 133 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line to new subsidies for health insurance. According to the Census Bureau, there are 110 million Americans under age 65 in that income range. Once the subsidies are in place, the pressure in Congress will be to expand benefits for this large new cohort of entitled voters. President Obama has often said that Massachusetts was the model for the national law. Well, Massachusetts cut off its new entitlement at 300 percent of the poverty line. The House should advance a bill to do the same with Obamacare before the entitlement goes into effect.</p>
<p>4. REPEAL THE UNINSURED TAX (THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE)</p>
<p>The chief justice ruled that the individual mandate could survive as a constitutional tax on those who fail to buy government-approved insurance. But that didn’t make it any more popular. Indeed, now that it is clearly just a tax on the uninsured, it will be more unpopular than ever. Ironically, <a href="http://eppc.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=be333e74ea841be93db60da61&amp;id=b85939ad8e&amp;e=4de8d3b2b6" type="external">according to the Congressional Budget Office</a>, a repeal of this tax would reduce the deficit by nearly $300 billion over a decade as it would lead to fewer participants in the Obamacare entitlement expansion.</p>
<p>5. DEFUND THE CMS INNOVATION CENTER</p>
<p>Among many other things, Obamacare created a permanent recurring “mandatory appropriation” of $10 billion annually for what is called the Innovation Center in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This funding pays for the agency’s federal staff as well as the costs of running tests of new ideas in the Medicare and Medicaid program. The agency’s mandate is so broad and ill-defined that just about anything could be justified. Moreover, giving the agency permanent funding like this runs against experience of what constitutes good budgeting practices. The House should terminate the funding and save what’s left of the original $10 billion appropriation.</p>
<p>6. BREAK THE EXCHANGE MONOPOLY</p>
<p>Obamacare shifts immense power to the federal government by moving millions of Americans into a federally sponsored system of insurance–the exchanges. Once citizens purchase insurance through the exchanges, the government can steadily exert more and more control over the plans and options available to them. The law’s power stems from the requirement that the new entitlement to subsidies for health insurance–called “premium credits”–can be used only in the Obamacare exchanges. The House GOP should challenge this requirement and propose giving Americans the right to use the premium credits outside the confines of Obamacare. For instance, citizens should be allowed to deposit the credits in existing health savings accounts without any requirements for changes.</p>
<p>7. SUSPEND INSURANCE RULES WHEN PREMIUM INCREASES EXCEED X PERCENT</p>
<p>Obamacare’s new insurance rules are expected to force large premium spikes on many millions of existing insurance enrollees. This will be especially true for younger consumers who could see premium increases of 30, 40, or 50 percent in some cases. The prospect of some groups paying such high premiums will create an opportunity for the House GOP to highlight the unfairness and irrationality of Obamacare. One way to bring attention to the matter would be to suspend the Obamacare insurance rules in circumstances in which they cause such a premium spike. Consumers would be allowed to stay with their current insurance under the old rules until the premium increase is no more than an acceptable percentage (such as 8 percent).</p>
<p>8. STATUTORY OPTION FOR STATE MEDICAID FLEXIBILITY</p>
<p>The Obama administration is desperate to get states to agree to expand their Medicaid programs as envisioned in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (The Supreme Court struck down the law’s requirement that states implement the expansion or face penalties; the expansion is now a state option.) Without state cooperation in this regard, the law will never come close to its coverage goals. But many governors are rightly reluctant to expand a program badly in need of fundamental reform. Republican governors should use their leverage and work with the House GOP to pass a statutory reform of Medicaid. In short, states should be given sweeping flexibility to manage Medicaid within a fixed and predictable budget.</p>
<p>9. ACO/MEDICARE SUPPLEMENTARY INSURANCE REFORM</p>
<p>Obamacare seeks to herd seniors into government-sanctioned HMOs–called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Amazingly, the administration wants to do this without even advising most seniors that they have been placed into a managed-care plan, or without allowing them to share in the cost-savings that is supposedly the point of the effort. The House GOP should highlight the hypocrisy of such paternalism and give seniors genuine choices. They could choose to enroll in an ACO if they wish, and if they do enroll, they would get to share in any savings. This change could be coupled with a change to the secondary insurance rules allowing full coverage of all Medicare cost-sharing only for beneficiaries enrolled in cost-reducing ACOs.</p>
<p>10. REPEAL THE MEDICAL-DEVICE TAX</p>
<p>Obamacare is full of taxes–$1 trillion of them over a decade–and it’s important for the House to continue to highlight the damaging effects they will have on middle-class families. A very good example is the new tax on the medical-device industry that is already slowing research and innovation and forcing companies to cut back the size of their workforces. This is truly a “job killing” tax–and a straight repeal vote is sure to draw many Democrats who agree.</p>
<p>Full repeal of Obamacare is not going to happen in the near term, but that does not mean that the struggle over the future of American health care is over. It is not. This issue is far too important to the nation’s health and future prosperity to walk away from. There are still many things the House GOP can do to push health-care policy in a new direction short of full repeal. A good place to start would be to put the ten ideas described here into bill form, and then pass them.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | last year two best opportunities stop obamacare got implemented missed first chief justice john roberts bent backwards find laws individual mandate constitutional tax uninsured voters decided preferred another term president obama romney administration consequence obamacare isnt going wiped federal books next years reality important implications congressional tactics previous two years everything done republicancontrolled house representatives aimed building momentum full repeal event romney white house since didnt happen tactics necessary congressional opponents obamacare need two things months ahead first need pursue legislation contain minimize obamacare future president congress still change direction choose second congress needs continue cultivate public opposition obamacare highlighting strong bipartisan opposition worst features bipartisan bills repeal substantially amend law especially important sow disunity among democrats create openings future revision following topten list healthcare bills could help congress pursue goals although course many good ideas would also help cause items could pursued standalone bills house floor 1 delay obama administration chose delay many controversial implementing rules obamacare 2012 avoid stirring opposition president election year decision put everything behind schedule moreover majority states decided right build state exchanges envisioned law leaving task federal government theres direct appropriation available federal government task quite clear implementing law january 2014 create significant unnecessary chaos insurance marketplace republicans seize opportunity state affairs provides push delay laws implementation administration course vigorously oppose suggestion delay many employers states healthsector participants would welcome 2 ipab repeal independent payment advisory board ipab poster child obama vision cost control new agency composed 15 unelected experts supposed enforce new cap medicare spending growth without political accountability programs beneficiaries moreover tools ipab use reductions medicare pays provision services patients kinds price controls drive suppliers program leave beneficiaries waiting lists services clean ipabrepeal billwith poison pills attached itis sure draw significant democratic support gop ensure vote occurs soon 3 scale back premiumcredit subsidies obamacare set motion largest entitlement expansion generation theory new law entitles americans incomes 133 percent 400 percent poverty line new subsidies health insurance according census bureau 110 million americans age 65 income range subsidies place pressure congress expand benefits large new cohort entitled voters president obama often said massachusetts model national law well massachusetts cut new entitlement 300 percent poverty line house advance bill obamacare entitlement goes effect 4 repeal uninsured tax individual mandate chief justice ruled individual mandate could survive constitutional tax fail buy governmentapproved insurance didnt make popular indeed clearly tax uninsured unpopular ever ironically according congressional budget office repeal tax would reduce deficit nearly 300 billion decade would lead fewer participants obamacare entitlement expansion 5 defund cms innovation center among many things obamacare created permanent recurring mandatory appropriation 10 billion annually called innovation center centers medicare medicaid services cms funding pays agencys federal staff well costs running tests new ideas medicare medicaid program agencys mandate broad illdefined anything could justified moreover giving agency permanent funding like runs experience constitutes good budgeting practices house terminate funding save whats left original 10 billion appropriation 6 break exchange monopoly obamacare shifts immense power federal government moving millions americans federally sponsored system insurancethe exchanges citizens purchase insurance exchanges government steadily exert control plans options available laws power stems requirement new entitlement subsidies health insurancecalled premium creditscan used obamacare exchanges house gop challenge requirement propose giving americans right use premium credits outside confines obamacare instance citizens allowed deposit credits existing health savings accounts without requirements changes 7 suspend insurance rules premium increases exceed x percent obamacares new insurance rules expected force large premium spikes many millions existing insurance enrollees especially true younger consumers could see premium increases 30 40 50 percent cases prospect groups paying high premiums create opportunity house gop highlight unfairness irrationality obamacare one way bring attention matter would suspend obamacare insurance rules circumstances cause premium spike consumers would allowed stay current insurance old rules premium increase acceptable percentage 8 percent 8 statutory option state medicaid flexibility obama administration desperate get states agree expand medicaid programs envisioned patient protection affordable care act supreme court struck laws requirement states implement expansion face penalties expansion state option without state cooperation regard law never come close coverage goals many governors rightly reluctant expand program badly need fundamental reform republican governors use leverage work house gop pass statutory reform medicaid short states given sweeping flexibility manage medicaid within fixed predictable budget 9 acomedicare supplementary insurance reform obamacare seeks herd seniors governmentsanctioned hmoscalled accountable care organizations acos amazingly administration wants without even advising seniors placed managedcare plan without allowing share costsavings supposedly point effort house gop highlight hypocrisy paternalism give seniors genuine choices could choose enroll aco wish enroll would get share savings change could coupled change secondary insurance rules allowing full coverage medicare costsharing beneficiaries enrolled costreducing acos 10 repeal medicaldevice tax obamacare full taxes1 trillion decadeand important house continue highlight damaging effects middleclass families good example new tax medicaldevice industry already slowing research innovation forcing companies cut back size workforces truly job killing taxand straight repeal vote sure draw many democrats agree full repeal obamacare going happen near term mean struggle future american health care issue far important nations health future prosperity walk away still many things house gop push healthcare policy new direction short full repeal good place start would put ten ideas described bill form pass james c capretta visiting fellow american enterprise institute senior fellow ethics public policy center | 880 |
<p>Does it serve the interests of the United States to unilaterally set the rules of the game in international relations?</p>
<p>When the Clinton campaign started bitching about Russia interfering in US elections by hacking into the DNC, I was struck by their excesses of outrage and the virtual absence of any acknowledgement that the United States has been interfering in dozens of foreign elections for decades with no apparent second thoughts. CNN and other media bring one national security expert after another to mount various cases against Putin and the Kremlin and to insist that Russia is up to similar mischief in relation to the upcoming French elections. And never do they dare discuss whether such interference is a rule of the game, similar to espionage, or whether what was alleged to have been done by the Russians might lead the US political leaders and its intelligence agencies to reconsider its own reliance on such tactics to help sway foreign elections.</p>
<p>Is this selective perception merely one more instance of American exceptionalism? We can hack away, but our elections and sovereign space are hallowed ground, which, if encroached upon, should be resisted by all possible means. It is one thing to argue that democracy and political freedom are jeopardized by such interference as is being attributed to Moscow, and if their behavior influenced the outcome, it makes Russia responsible for a disaster not only in the United States but in the world. The disaster is named Trump. Assuming this Russian engagement by way of what they evidently call ‘active measures’ occurred is, first of all, an empirical matter of gathering evidence and reaching persuasive conclusions. Assuming the allegations are to some extent validated, it hardly matters whether by what means the interference was accomplished, whether done by cyber technology, electronic eavesdropping, dirty tricks, secret financial contributions, or otherwise.</p>
<p>What is diversionary and misleading is to foster the impression that the Russians breached solemn rules of international law by disrupting American democracy and doing their best to get Trump elected or weaken the Clinton presidency should she have been elected. The integrity of American democratic procedures may have been seriously compromised, and this is deeply regrettable and should be remedied to the extent possible, but whatever happened should not be greeted with shock and consternation as if some inviolate international red line had been provocatively crossed.</p>
<p>There are three appropriate questions to pose: (1) What can we do to increase cyber defenses to prevent future intrusions, and restore domestic confidence that elections in the United States reflect the unimpeded will of the citizenry and are not the result of machinations by outsiders? (2) Do we possess the means to ascertain the impact of such intrusions on the outcome of the 2016 national elections, and if such investigation points beyond a reasonable doubt to the conclusion that without the intrusion Clinton would have won, should that void the result, and impose on Congress the duty to arrange for a new emergency electoral procedure for selecting a president free from taint (especially if the Trump campaign aided and abetted the Russian intrusion)? (3) Are there ways to bolster norms against interventions in the internal affairs of sovereign states that offer protection against such interference? Note that giving convincing answers to these questions is not a simple matter, and requires serious reflection and debate.</p>
<p>To illustrate the moral and political complexity we can consider the core dilemma that is present for a government with a dog in the fight. Suppose the Kremlin had reason to believe that a Clinton presidency would lead to a new cold war, would it not have been reasonable, and even responsible, for Russians leaders to support Trump, and if the situation were reversed, shouldn’t the US do all it can do to avoid the election of a belligerent Russian leader? Wouldn’t millions of people have been thankful if Western interference in the German elections of 1933 were of sufficient magnitude to avoid the triumph of the National Socialist Party?</p>
<p>There are good and bad precedents arising from past international behavior, especially if established by important states by repeated action, that then empower others to act in a similar manner. Without governmental institutions to oversee political behavior, the development of international law proceeds by way of international practice. Thus when the United States claims the right to interfere and even engage in regime-changing interventions, we greatly weaken any objections when others do the same sort of thing. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The logic of reciprocity contributes to a normative process that reflects international practice as much as it does international lawmaking treaties.</p>
<p>Some equally serious and worrisome parallel issues are raised by recent disclosures of serious cyber attacks by the US Government on the North Korean nuclear program. The American media and government officialdom treat the conduct of cyber warfare against North Korea’s nuclear program as something to be judged exclusively by its success or failure, not whether it’s right or wrong, prudent or reckless. We interfered with the North Korean nuclear program without seeking authorization from the UN, and certainly without any willingness to tolerate reciprocal behavior by others that disrupted any of our nuclear activities.</p>
<p>It can be plausibly argued that North Korea and its wily leader, Kim Jong-un, are dangerous, reprehensible, and irresponsible, and that it is intolerable for such a government to possess nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. That such a circumstance creates a ‘right of exception,’ suspending international law and considerations of reciprocity, would seem a far more responsible way to proceed, preserving a sense that the US is normally respectful of and accountable to international law, but North Korea poses such a dire threat to humanity as to make all means of interference acceptable. But apparently so intoxicated by geopolitical hubris the thought never occurs to either our leaders or the compliant mainstream media that puts out its own version of ‘fake news’ night after night. It is instructive to realize how bipartisan is this disregard of the relevance of international law to a sustainable world order. These new disclosures relating to North Korea assert that Trump ‘inherited’ an ongoing cyber war program from Obama, who had in earlier years been unabashedly complicit with Israel’s cyber efforts to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.</p>
<p>Does it serve the interests of the United States to set the rules of the game in international relations with respect to nuclear policy, making little pretense of being bound by the standards imposed on other sovereign states, especially those non-nuclear states accused of taking steps to acquire the weaponry? The tigers control the mice, and the idea of a rule of law that treats equals equally is completely foreign to the American mindset in the 21st century when it comes to the role of hard power, security policy, and grand strategy in international life, but interestingly, but much less so in the context of trade and investment. This distinction is worth pondering.</p>
<p>In other words when it comes to security policy and grand strategy, there are two basic rules of contemporary geopolitics that contravene the golden rule of ethical behavior:</p>
<p>Rule #1: Do not allow others to do unto you what you frequently do to others (the Russian hacking discourse);</p>
<p>Rule #2: Do unto others what you would never accept others doing unto you (cyber attacks on Iran and North Korea).</p>
<p>It is arguable that this normative asymmetry is the only way that world order can be sustained given the absence of world government, or even a strong enough UN to enact and implement common behavioral standards in these domains traditionally reserved for sovereign discretion. A golden rule governing the way states are expected to act toward one another with respect to war/peace issues is certainly currently situated in global dream space. If this is so or so believed, let us at least lift the fog of self-righteous rhetoric, plan to defend our political space as well as we can, and rethink the unintended consequences of interfering in foreign elections and engaging in regime-changing interventions.</p>
<p>At least, let us not deceive ourselves into believing that we are responsible custodians of peace and decency in the world. Do we really have grounds for believing that Donald Trump is less dangerous to the world than Kim Jong-un or the Supreme Guide of Iran? Even if their outlook on political engagement overlaps and their swagger is similar, the US is far more powerful, has alone used nuclear weapons against civilian targets and overthrown numerous foreign governments, including those elected in fair and free elections, and has its own house in a condition of disorder, although despite all this admittedly humanly far more desirable than the order experienced within totalitarian North Korea.</p>
<p>Is it not time for the peoples of the world to rise up and put some restraints on the strong as well as the weak? The UN veto power confers on the most powerful states a constitutional free ride when it comes to compliance with international law and the UN Charter. In effect, the UN back in 1945 institutionalized a topsy-turvy structure that curbs the weak while granting impunity to the predatory behavior of the strong.</p>
<p>If we grant that this is the way things are and are likely to remain, can’t we at least look in the mirror, and no longer pretend to be that innocent damsel that can only be protected by slaying the dragons roaming the jungles of the world. Trump had his singular moment of truth when he responded on February 4th to Bill O’Reilly’s assertion that Putin was “a killer”: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country is so innocent.” And unlike Trump’s frequent journeys into dark thickets of falsehood that are dismissed by the injunction “let Trump be Trump,” when the man speaks truly for once, his words were scorched, and erased even from the influential media blackboards of the alt right.­</p>
<p>This article was originally published at&#160; <a href="https://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/asking-foolish-questions-about-serious-issues/" type="external">the author’s blog</a>.</p> | false | 1 | serve interests united states unilaterally set rules game international relations clinton campaign started bitching russia interfering us elections hacking dnc struck excesses outrage virtual absence acknowledgement united states interfering dozens foreign elections decades apparent second thoughts cnn media bring one national security expert another mount various cases putin kremlin insist russia similar mischief relation upcoming french elections never dare discuss whether interference rule game similar espionage whether alleged done russians might lead us political leaders intelligence agencies reconsider reliance tactics help sway foreign elections selective perception merely one instance american exceptionalism hack away elections sovereign space hallowed ground encroached upon resisted possible means one thing argue democracy political freedom jeopardized interference attributed moscow behavior influenced outcome makes russia responsible disaster united states world disaster named trump assuming russian engagement way evidently call active measures occurred first empirical matter gathering evidence reaching persuasive conclusions assuming allegations extent validated hardly matters whether means interference accomplished whether done cyber technology electronic eavesdropping dirty tricks secret financial contributions otherwise diversionary misleading foster impression russians breached solemn rules international law disrupting american democracy best get trump elected weaken clinton presidency elected integrity american democratic procedures may seriously compromised deeply regrettable remedied extent possible whatever happened greeted shock consternation inviolate international red line provocatively crossed three appropriate questions pose 1 increase cyber defenses prevent future intrusions restore domestic confidence elections united states reflect unimpeded citizenry result machinations outsiders 2 possess means ascertain impact intrusions outcome 2016 national elections investigation points beyond reasonable doubt conclusion without intrusion clinton would void result impose congress duty arrange new emergency electoral procedure selecting president free taint especially trump campaign aided abetted russian intrusion 3 ways bolster norms interventions internal affairs sovereign states offer protection interference note giving convincing answers questions simple matter requires serious reflection debate illustrate moral political complexity consider core dilemma present government dog fight suppose kremlin reason believe clinton presidency would lead new cold war would reasonable even responsible russians leaders support trump situation reversed shouldnt us avoid election belligerent russian leader wouldnt millions people thankful western interference german elections 1933 sufficient magnitude avoid triumph national socialist party good bad precedents arising past international behavior especially established important states repeated action empower others act similar manner without governmental institutions oversee political behavior development international law proceeds way international practice thus united states claims right interfere even engage regimechanging interventions greatly weaken objections others sort thing sauce goose sauce gander logic reciprocity contributes normative process reflects international practice much international lawmaking treaties equally serious worrisome parallel issues raised recent disclosures serious cyber attacks us government north korean nuclear program american media government officialdom treat conduct cyber warfare north koreas nuclear program something judged exclusively success failure whether right wrong prudent reckless interfered north korean nuclear program without seeking authorization un certainly without willingness tolerate reciprocal behavior others disrupted nuclear activities plausibly argued north korea wily leader kim jongun dangerous reprehensible irresponsible intolerable government possess nuclear weapons longrange missiles circumstance creates right exception suspending international law considerations reciprocity would seem far responsible way proceed preserving sense us normally respectful accountable international law north korea poses dire threat humanity make means interference acceptable apparently intoxicated geopolitical hubris thought never occurs either leaders compliant mainstream media puts version fake news night night instructive realize bipartisan disregard relevance international law sustainable world order new disclosures relating north korea assert trump inherited ongoing cyber war program obama earlier years unabashedly complicit israels cyber efforts disrupt irans nuclear program serve interests united states set rules game international relations respect nuclear policy making little pretense bound standards imposed sovereign states especially nonnuclear states accused taking steps acquire weaponry tigers control mice idea rule law treats equals equally completely foreign american mindset 21st century comes role hard power security policy grand strategy international life interestingly much less context trade investment distinction worth pondering words comes security policy grand strategy two basic rules contemporary geopolitics contravene golden rule ethical behavior rule 1 allow others unto frequently others russian hacking discourse rule 2 unto others would never accept others unto cyber attacks iran north korea arguable normative asymmetry way world order sustained given absence world government even strong enough un enact implement common behavioral standards domains traditionally reserved sovereign discretion golden rule governing way states expected act toward one another respect warpeace issues certainly currently situated global dream space believed let us least lift fog selfrighteous rhetoric plan defend political space well rethink unintended consequences interfering foreign elections engaging regimechanging interventions least let us deceive believing responsible custodians peace decency world really grounds believing donald trump less dangerous world kim jongun supreme guide iran even outlook political engagement overlaps swagger similar us far powerful alone used nuclear weapons civilian targets overthrown numerous foreign governments including elected fair free elections house condition disorder although despite admittedly humanly far desirable order experienced within totalitarian north korea time peoples world rise put restraints strong well weak un veto power confers powerful states constitutional free ride comes compliance international law un charter effect un back 1945 institutionalized topsyturvy structure curbs weak granting impunity predatory behavior strong grant way things likely remain cant least look mirror longer pretend innocent damsel protected slaying dragons roaming jungles world trump singular moment truth responded february 4th bill oreillys assertion putin killer lot killers weve got lot killers think country innocent unlike trumps frequent journeys dark thickets falsehood dismissed injunction let trump trump man speaks truly words scorched erased even influential media blackboards alt right article originally published at160 authors blog | 914 |
<p>In today’s film news roundup, “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/bohemian-rhapsody/" type="external">Bohemian Rhapsody</a>” rounds out its cast with “Downtown Abbey” actor <a href="http://variety.com/t/allen-leech/" type="external">Allen Leech</a>, Kenny Leu and Ciara Renee will star in a police drama, and the <a href="http://variety.com/t/afi-latin-american-film-festival/" type="external">AFI Latin American Film Festival</a> rolls out its lineup.</p>
<p>CASTINGS</p>
<p>Fox has rounded out the cast of the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Allen Leech cast as Freddie Mercury’s personal manager, Paul Prenter.</p>
<p>Rami Malek is starring as the frontman, with <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/queen-movie-bohemian-rhapsody-bryan-singer-band-members-1202534391/" type="external">Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, and Joe Mazzello as members of Queen</a>. Production on the film will begin this fall, with Bryan Singer directing from Justin Haythe’s script. New Regency and Graham King’s GK Films are the production companies.</p>
<p>Prenter was fired by Mercury for disclosing inside information about the singer after working with him for&#160;nine years, from 1977 to 1986.</p>
<p>Leech’s credits include “Bellevue” opposite Anna Paquin, “Downton Abbey,” and “The Imitation Game” opposite Benedict Cumberbatch. He’s repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment, and Troika. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Kenny Leu and Ciara Renee are starring in an untitled New York-set police drama, directed by Aimee Long from her own script, Variety has learned exclusively.</p>
<p>The movie, which marks Long’s&#160;feature film debut, has launched production in New York City. The film co-stars Fiona Fu, Tzi Ma, Lynn Chen, Clifton Davis, Derek Goh, Dan Lauria, Kelly AuCoin (“Billions”), and Kathryn Erbe (“Law &amp; Order: Criminal Intent”). The project is being produced by Long and Daniel Langa for Kings Road Pictures.</p>
<p>Leu portrays a Chinese-American police officer who has accidentally killed a young African-American while in the line of duty. The very public impact and outcry over the death cannot be ignored or overcome, requiring him to confront his actions as he navigates between his loving but worried family, his fiancée (Renée), his concerned therapist (Erbe), and the increasingly distant police forces. Lauria will portray the union representative and AuCoin will play his lawyer.</p>
<p>Leu has credits include “The Long Road Home” and “Independence Day: Resurgence.” Renee starred as Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl in “Legends of Tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Leu is represented by BRS/Gage Talent Agency and Echelon Talent Management. Renée is represented by Stone Manners Salners Agency and Authentic Talent and Literary Management.</p>
<p>FILM FESTIVALS</p>
<p>The American Film Institute has unveiled the lineup for the 2017 AFI Latin American Film Festival, which will take place Sept. 14 through Oct. 4 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md.</p>
<p>The opening night film is Ecuador’s Oscar selection, the thriller “Such a Life in the Tropics.” Sebastián Cordero directed the movie about a land dispute that pits vastly disparate Guayaquil communities against one another. The screening will be followed by a Q&amp;A with lead actor Daniel Adum Gilbert.</p>
<p>The closing night film is crime thriller “Woodpeckers,” the Dominican Republic’s 2018 Academy Awards foreign-language film entry. José María Cabral directed the prison-set romance. The screening will be followed by a Q&amp;A with Dominican-Haitian actor and filmmaker Jean Jean.</p>
<p>The festival will include the U.S. premieres of two films set in colonial-era Brazil: Marcelo Gomes’ “Joaquim,” an unconventional ode to Brazilian national hero Joaquim José da Silva Xavier; and Daniela Thomas’ “Vazante.”</p>
<p>RELEASE DATES</p>
<p>BBC Earth Films has set an Oct. 6 release date for its documentary “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/earth-one-amazing-day/" type="external">Earth: One Amazing Day</a>,” narrated by Robert Redford.</p>
<p>The movie is a sequel to BBC’s 2007 documentary “Earth” and features a baby zebra desperate to cross a swollen river, a penguin who undertakes a death-defying daily commute to feed his family, a family of sperm whales who like to snooze vertically, and a sloth on the hunt for love.</p>
<p>“As a storyteller and filmmaker. I often look to nature for sources of inspiration,” Redford said. “In ‘Earth: One Amazing Day,’ BBC Earth Films captured the natural world and its inhabitants using the perfect combination of storytelling and cutting-edge technology.&#160;The scenes and images are as inspirational as they are beautiful, and I was honored to be a part of the film.”</p>
<p>“Earth: One Amazing Day” is directed by Richard Dale (“The Human Body”) and Peter Webber (“Girl With a Pearl Earring”). The film is produced by Stephen McDonogh (“Walking With Dinosaurs 3D”) and executive produced by Neil Nightingale. Atlas Distribution Company is handling the release.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>First Look Media is teaming with BuzzFeed News to bring the documentary “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/death-in-the-terminal/" type="external">Death in the Terminal</a>” to a wide consumer audience.</p>
<p>The film, which recaps a 2015 terrorist attack in Israel, will be released on Topic.com and BuzzFeed.com on Sept. 6, when the doc will be streamed for free on both platforms.</p>
<p>The movie won prizes at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Israel’s Academy Awards. It’s executive produced by Megan Ellison (“Detroit”) and Mark Boal through his Page 1 film and television production company.</p>
<p>“Death in the Terminal” recaps the events of Oct. 18, 2015, when a terrorist armed with a gun and a knife entered a bus terminal in the Southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Using surveillance footage and cellphone cameras, the film presents a minute-by-minute Rashomon-style account of the series of tragic events that unfolded over the ensuing 18 minutes. Three people were killed — the perpetrator, a soldier, and a bystander mistaken for a terrorist.</p>
<p>“We are proud to partner with BuzzFeed News to premiere an important film like ‘Death in the Terminal’ to a highly-engaged audience for free,” said Adam Pincus, exec VP of programming and content for First Look Media. “This unique collaboration allows Topic.com and Buzzfeed News audiences special access to watch a film that really challenges viewers to re-think how we look at the world, especially during times of crisis.”</p> | false | 1 | todays film news roundup bohemian rhapsody rounds cast downtown abbey actor allen leech kenny leu ciara renee star police drama afi latin american film festival rolls lineup castings fox rounded cast queen biopic bohemian rhapsody allen leech cast freddie mercurys personal manager paul prenter rami malek starring frontman ben hardy gwilym lee joe mazzello members queen production film begin fall bryan singer directing justin haythes script new regency graham kings gk films production companies prenter fired mercury disclosing inside information singer working for160nine years 1977 1986 leechs credits include bellevue opposite anna paquin downton abbey imitation game opposite benedict cumberbatch hes repped uta untitled entertainment troika news first reported deadline hollywood kenny leu ciara renee starring untitled new yorkset police drama directed aimee long script variety learned exclusively movie marks longs160feature film debut launched production new york city film costars fiona fu tzi lynn chen clifton davis derek goh dan lauria kelly aucoin billions kathryn erbe law amp order criminal intent project produced long daniel langa kings road pictures leu portrays chineseamerican police officer accidentally killed young africanamerican line duty public impact outcry death ignored overcome requiring confront actions navigates loving worried family fiancée renée concerned therapist erbe increasingly distant police forces lauria portray union representative aucoin play lawyer leu credits include long road home independence day resurgence renee starred kendra saundershawkgirl legends tomorrow leu represented brsgage talent agency echelon talent management renée represented stone manners salners agency authentic talent literary management film festivals american film institute unveiled lineup 2017 afi latin american film festival take place sept 14 oct 4 afi silver theatre cultural center silver spring md opening night film ecuadors oscar selection thriller life tropics sebastián cordero directed movie land dispute pits vastly disparate guayaquil communities one another screening followed qampa lead actor daniel adum gilbert closing night film crime thriller woodpeckers dominican republics 2018 academy awards foreignlanguage film entry josé maría cabral directed prisonset romance screening followed qampa dominicanhaitian actor filmmaker jean jean festival include us premieres two films set colonialera brazil marcelo gomes joaquim unconventional ode brazilian national hero joaquim josé da silva xavier daniela thomas vazante release dates bbc earth films set oct 6 release date documentary earth one amazing day narrated robert redford movie sequel bbcs 2007 documentary earth features baby zebra desperate cross swollen river penguin undertakes deathdefying daily commute feed family family sperm whales like snooze vertically sloth hunt love storyteller filmmaker often look nature sources inspiration redford said earth one amazing day bbc earth films captured natural world inhabitants using perfect combination storytelling cuttingedge technology160the scenes images inspirational beautiful honored part film earth one amazing day directed richard dale human body peter webber girl pearl earring film produced stephen mcdonogh walking dinosaurs 3d executive produced neil nightingale atlas distribution company handling release first look media teaming buzzfeed news bring documentary death terminal wide consumer audience film recaps 2015 terrorist attack israel released topiccom buzzfeedcom sept 6 doc streamed free platforms movie prizes international documentary film festival amsterdam israels academy awards executive produced megan ellison detroit mark boal page 1 film television production company death terminal recaps events oct 18 2015 terrorist armed gun knife entered bus terminal southern israeli city beersheba using surveillance footage cellphone cameras film presents minutebyminute rashomonstyle account series tragic events unfolded ensuing 18 minutes three people killed perpetrator soldier bystander mistaken terrorist proud partner buzzfeed news premiere important film like death terminal highlyengaged audience free said adam pincus exec vp programming content first look media unique collaboration allows topiccom buzzfeed news audiences special access watch film really challenges viewers rethink look world especially times crisis | 599 |
<p>Last Friday, the White House announced that it would revise the controversial ObamaCare birth-control mandate to address religious-liberty concerns. Its proposed modifications are a farce.</p>
<p>The Department of Health and Human Services would still require employers with religious objections to select an insurance company to provide contraceptives and drugs that induce abortions to its employees. The employers would pay for the drugs through higher premiums. For those employers that self-insure, like the Archdiocese of Washington, the farce is even more blatant.</p>
<p>The birth-control coverage mandate violates the First Amendment’s bar against the “free exercise” of religion. But it also violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That statute, passed unanimously by the House of Representatives and by a 97-3 vote in the Senate, was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993. It was enacted in response to a 1990 Supreme Court opinion, Employment Division v. Smith.</p>
<p>That case limited the protections available under the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion to those government actions that explicitly targeted religious practices, by subjecting them to difficult-to-satisfy strict judicial scrutiny. Other governmental actions, even if burdening religious activities, were held subject to a more deferential test.</p>
<p>The 1993 law restored the same protections of religious freedom that had been understood to exist pre-Smith. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act states that the federal government may “substantially burden” a person’s “exercise of religion” only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person “is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest” and “is the least restrictive means of furthering” that interest.</p>
<p>The law also provides that any later statutory override of its protections must be explicit. But there is nothing in the ObamaCare legislation that explicitly or even implicitly overrides the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The birth-control mandate proposed by Health and Human Services is thus illegal.</p>
<p>The refusal, for religious reasons, to provide birth-control coverage is clearly an exercise of religious freedom under the Constitution. The “exercise of religion” extends to performing, or refusing to perform, actions on religious grounds—and it is definitely not confined to religious institutions or acts of worship. Leading Supreme Court cases in this area, for example, involve a worker who refused to work on the Sabbath (Sherbert v. Verner, 1963) and parents who refused to send their teenage children to a public high school (Wisconsin v. Yoder, 1972).</p>
<p>In the high-school case, the Supreme Court found that even a $5 fine on the parents substantially burdened the free exercise of their religion. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, employers who fail to comply with the birth-control mandate will incur an annual penalty of roughly $2,000 per employee. So it is clearly a substantial burden.</p>
<p>Objecting employers could, of course, avoid the fine by choosing to go out of business. But as the Supreme Court noted in Sherbert v. Verner, “governmental imposition of such a choice puts the same kind of burden upon the free exercise of religion as would a fine imposed against” noncompliant parties.</p>
<p>The birth-control mandate also fails the Religious Freedom Restoration Act’s “compelling governmental interest” and “least restrictive means” tests.</p>
<p>Does the mandate further the governmental interest in increasing cost-free access to contraceptives by means that are least restrictive of the employer’s religious freedom? Plainly, the answer is no. There are plenty of other ways to increase access to contraceptives that intrude far less on the free exercise of religion.</p>
<p>Health and Human Services itself touts community health centers, public clinics and hospitals as some of the available alternatives; doctors and pharmacies are others. Many of the entities, with Planned Parenthood being the most prominent, already furnish free contraceptives. The government could have the rest of these providers make contraceptive services available free and then compensate them directly. A mandate on employers who object for religious reasons is among the most restrictive means the government could have chosen to increase access.</p>
<p>The mandate also fails the “compelling government interest” test. Given the widespread availability of contraceptive services, and the far less restrictive other ways to increase their availability, the government can hardly claim it has a “compelling” interest in marginally increasing access to birth control by requiring objecting employers to join in this effort.</p>
<p>The “compelling interest” claim is further undercut by the mandate’s exclusion, for purely secular reasons, of employers who offer “grandfathered” plans. These are employer-provided plans that existed at the time ObamaCare was enacted and can continue to operate so long as they do not make major changes. They cover tens of millions of enrollees, according to a recent estimate by Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>In an effort to rally its base in the upcoming November election, the Obama administration seems more interested in punishing religiously based opposition to contraception and abortion than in marginally increasing access to contraception services. It is the combination of the political motive, together with the exclusion of so many employers from the mandate, that has profound constitutional implications. It transforms the mandate into a non-neutral and not generally applicable law that violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.</p>
<p>In short, the birth-control mandate violates both statutory law and the Constitution. The fact that the administration promulgated it so flippantly, without seriously engaging on these issues, underscores how little it cares about either.</p>
<p>Edward Whelan, who served in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush, is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is a regular contributor to NRO’s <a href="http://bench.nationalreview.com/" type="external">Bench Memos blog</a>. David Rivkin, who served in the Justice Department under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, represented the 26 states in their challenge to ObamaCare before the trial and appellate courts.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | false | 1 | last friday white house announced would revise controversial obamacare birthcontrol mandate address religiousliberty concerns proposed modifications farce department health human services would still require employers religious objections select insurance company provide contraceptives drugs induce abortions employees employers would pay drugs higher premiums employers selfinsure like archdiocese washington farce even blatant birthcontrol coverage mandate violates first amendments bar free exercise religion also violates religious freedom restoration act statute passed unanimously house representatives 973 vote senate signed law president bill clinton 1993 enacted response 1990 supreme court opinion employment division v smith case limited protections available first amendments guarantee free exercise religion government actions explicitly targeted religious practices subjecting difficulttosatisfy strict judicial scrutiny governmental actions even burdening religious activities held subject deferential test 1993 law restored protections religious freedom understood exist presmith religious freedom restoration act states federal government may substantially burden persons exercise religion demonstrates application burden person furtherance compelling governmental interest least restrictive means furthering interest law also provides later statutory override protections must explicit nothing obamacare legislation explicitly even implicitly overrides religious freedom restoration act birthcontrol mandate proposed health human services thus illegal refusal religious reasons provide birthcontrol coverage clearly exercise religious freedom constitution exercise religion extends performing refusing perform actions religious groundsand definitely confined religious institutions acts worship leading supreme court cases area example involve worker refused work sabbath sherbert v verner 1963 parents refused send teenage children public high school wisconsin v yoder 1972 highschool case supreme court found even 5 fine parents substantially burdened free exercise religion patient protection affordable care act employers fail comply birthcontrol mandate incur annual penalty roughly 2000 per employee clearly substantial burden objecting employers could course avoid fine choosing go business supreme court noted sherbert v verner governmental imposition choice puts kind burden upon free exercise religion would fine imposed noncompliant parties birthcontrol mandate also fails religious freedom restoration acts compelling governmental interest least restrictive means tests mandate governmental interest increasing costfree access contraceptives means least restrictive employers religious freedom plainly answer plenty ways increase access contraceptives intrude far less free exercise religion health human services touts community health centers public clinics hospitals available alternatives doctors pharmacies others many entities planned parenthood prominent already furnish free contraceptives government could rest providers make contraceptive services available free compensate directly mandate employers object religious reasons among restrictive means government could chosen increase access mandate also fails compelling government interest test given widespread availability contraceptive services far less restrictive ways increase availability government hardly claim compelling interest marginally increasing access birth control requiring objecting employers join effort compelling interest claim undercut mandates exclusion purely secular reasons employers offer grandfathered plans employerprovided plans existed time obamacare enacted continue operate long make major changes cover tens millions enrollees according recent estimate health human services effort rally base upcoming november election obama administration seems interested punishing religiously based opposition contraception abortion marginally increasing access contraception services combination political motive together exclusion many employers mandate profound constitutional implications transforms mandate nonneutral generally applicable law violates first amendments free exercise clause short birthcontrol mandate violates statutory law constitution fact administration promulgated flippantly without seriously engaging issues underscores little cares either edward whelan served justice department president george w bush president ethics public policy center regular contributor nros bench memos blog david rivkin served justice department presidents reagan george hw bush represented 26 states challenge obamacare trial appellate courts 160 | 560 |
<p>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Break up the New York Jets?</p>
<p>Well, no, if anything, they were extremely lucky to survive Sunday’s game.</p>
<p>Thought to be one of the worst teams in the league only two weeks ago, New York has made a stark turnaround the last two games at home. On Sunday, the Jets defeated an up-and-coming Jacksonville Jaguars team, 23-20, in overtime at MetLife Stadium.</p>
<p>Chandler Catanzaro made a 41-yard field goal with 28 seconds left in the extra period to win it. But for a few moments, it looked like the NFL’s first tie of the season was inevitable.</p>
<p>“If it wasn’t for (punter) Lachlan Edwards, I don’t know what would’ve happened,” Catanzaro said. “When it’s overtime, a lot of times it’s about the kickers.”</p>
<p>Each team had three overtime possessions, which will be rare now that OT periods are only 10 minutes long.</p>
<p>The Jets (2-2) were forced to punt from their own 25-yard line with 2:20 left in the extra session, and Edwards, who also completed a pass earlier in the game on a fake punt, kicked the ball 70 yards to the Jacksonville 5. A penalty pushed the Jaguars (2-2) to their own 3 and they went three-and-out, losing a yard in the process.</p>
<p>Jeremy Kerley returned the punt nine yards, and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Paul Posluszny gave the Jets the ball on the Jaguars’ 25. Two 1-yard runs and a spike to stop the clock and there was Catanzaro, looking to atone for a missed field goal just before halftime.</p>
<p>“That’s the last thing you want to have happen, for that kick to haunt you,” Catanzaro said. “It was killing me sitting on the sideline. I hated it because these guys were working their tails off, and they deserved for that one to go through the post. I was just thankful for another opportunity.”</p>
<p>So were the Jets after Jacksonville made a stunning fourth-quarter comeback — mostly due to Jets mistakes.</p>
<p>With the Jets inside the red zone trying to ice the game, Jacksonville’s Myles Jack scooped up a backward pass and returned the ball 81 yards to make it 20-17 with 10:20 to play. Then, cornerback A.J. Bouye intercepted a Josh McCown pass with 3:19 to play, and Jason Myers hit a 22-yard field goal with 46 seconds left to tie the game at 20.</p>
<p>“It was just a bad break,” McCown said of the backwards pass, which went down as a fumble. “I thought we had (the play) squared away in practice, but obviously we didn’t.”</p>
<p>Defensively, the Jets had another strong effort after they nearly shut out Miami last week. Their big play on Sunday was defensive lineman Kony Ealy’s interception, when he tipped a Blake Bortles pass in the air on a pass rush and came down with it himself. That led to a Catanzaro 26-yard field goal that gave New York a 20-10 lead with 34 seconds left in the third quarter.</p>
<p>“I’ve done it before,” Ealy said. “We needed a turnover, period. We always want to play up, that’s our mentality on defense.”</p>
<p>The Jets also held heralded Jaguars rookie Leonard Fournette to 53 yards on 13 carries and three catches for 42 yards.</p>
<p>Early in the game, it was the Jets’ run game that stood out. Despite Matt Forte being sidelined with turf toe, Bilal Powell had a must-see 75-yard touchdown run and rookie Elijah McGuire had a 69-yarder — the first of his career — for a ground attack that amassed a season-high 256 yards. Powell had 163 yards on 21 carries, and McGuire 93 on 10 carries, as they combined for 8.0 yards per rush.</p>
<p>But it was the Jaguars who got on the board first, as Bortles rolled out and found Fournette in the flat for a 10-yard touchdown with 8:02 left in the first quarter. It was Fournette’s first career receiving touchdown, and Bortles’ seventh scoring pass of the season.</p>
<p>The Jets tied the game on the very next play from scrimmage, as Powell hurdled a defender, fell down without being touched and then got up and ran an additional 67 yards for a 75-yard touchdown. It was the longest play of the season for the Jets.</p>
<p>“I just saw the guy going for my legs and I just jumped and I didn’t feel anyone touch me and I didn’t hear a whistle,” Powell said. “That’s something that we practice throughout training camp — effort, finishing — and that was showed today.”</p>
<p>The play was reviewed, but Powell joked that he was getting oxygen on the sideline when it was replayed in the stadium, so he didn’t see it at the time. The seven-year veteran, whose previous long rush was 39 yards in 2013, scored for the second straight week.</p>
<p>But his rookie backfield mate McGuire scored in the NFL for the first time. After the teams traded field goals to make it 10-10, McGuire busted through the heart of the Jaguars’ defense and raced 69 yards to give the Jets a 17-10 lead with 10:13 left in the third quarter.</p>
<p>“I’ve scored a lot of college touchdowns,” the sixth-round pick out of Louisiana-Lafayette said, “but when you get an NFL touchdown, it’s different.”</p>
<p>The Jets visit the winless Browns next week before welcoming the Patriots to town.</p>
<p>“If you really think about it, two weeks ago we had a team that just got put together, so we’re kinda learning on the go,” said wide receiver Jermaine Kearse, who was traded to the Jets exactly one month ago. “How surprising is it (that the Jets) are 2-2 to ya’ll? That’s the real question.”</p>
<p>To be honest, Jermaine, it’s quite surprising.</p>
<p>NOTES: Jaguars RG A.J. Cann injured his thumb in the first quarter, but returned to the game. … Jaguars SS Barry Church, in his first season with Jacksonville after seven with the Cowboys, recorded his first career sack. … With two receptions, Jaguars FB Tommy Bohanon, a former Jet, had two or more catches in a game for the first time since Oct. 25, 2015. … Jets OLB David Bass, starting in place of the injured Josh Martin, had a sack in his second straight game after he was acquired off waivers two weeks ago following his release from the Seahawks. … Jets DE Leonard Williams limped off in the first quarter but returned later in the drive. … Jets RG Brian Winters, who missed last week’s game with an abdominal injury, had two penalties, a hold and a false start, both in the first half. … Jets rookie WR ArDarius Stewart had his first career kick return, a 32-yarder in the second quarter. … Jets CB Darryl Roberts injured his hamstring and did not return. … Jets LB Dylan Donahue was injured in overtime, and the extent of his elbow injury was unknown after the game.</p> | false | 1 | east rutherford nj break new york jets well anything extremely lucky survive sundays game thought one worst teams league two weeks ago new york made stark turnaround last two games home sunday jets defeated upandcoming jacksonville jaguars team 2320 overtime metlife stadium chandler catanzaro made 41yard field goal 28 seconds left extra period win moments looked like nfls first tie season inevitable wasnt punter lachlan edwards dont know wouldve happened catanzaro said overtime lot times kickers team three overtime possessions rare ot periods 10 minutes long jets 22 forced punt 25yard line 220 left extra session edwards also completed pass earlier game fake punt kicked ball 70 yards jacksonville 5 penalty pushed jaguars 22 3 went threeandout losing yard process jeremy kerley returned punt nine yards unsportsmanlike conduct penalty paul posluszny gave jets ball jaguars 25 two 1yard runs spike stop clock catanzaro looking atone missed field goal halftime thats last thing want happen kick haunt catanzaro said killing sitting sideline hated guys working tails deserved one go post thankful another opportunity jets jacksonville made stunning fourthquarter comeback mostly due jets mistakes jets inside red zone trying ice game jacksonvilles myles jack scooped backward pass returned ball 81 yards make 2017 1020 play cornerback aj bouye intercepted josh mccown pass 319 play jason myers hit 22yard field goal 46 seconds left tie game 20 bad break mccown said backwards pass went fumble thought play squared away practice obviously didnt defensively jets another strong effort nearly shut miami last week big play sunday defensive lineman kony ealys interception tipped blake bortles pass air pass rush came led catanzaro 26yard field goal gave new york 2010 lead 34 seconds left third quarter ive done ealy said needed turnover period always want play thats mentality defense jets also held heralded jaguars rookie leonard fournette 53 yards 13 carries three catches 42 yards early game jets run game stood despite matt forte sidelined turf toe bilal powell mustsee 75yard touchdown run rookie elijah mcguire 69yarder first career ground attack amassed seasonhigh 256 yards powell 163 yards 21 carries mcguire 93 10 carries combined 80 yards per rush jaguars got board first bortles rolled found fournette flat 10yard touchdown 802 left first quarter fournettes first career receiving touchdown bortles seventh scoring pass season jets tied game next play scrimmage powell hurdled defender fell without touched got ran additional 67 yards 75yard touchdown longest play season jets saw guy going legs jumped didnt feel anyone touch didnt hear whistle powell said thats something practice throughout training camp effort finishing showed today play reviewed powell joked getting oxygen sideline replayed stadium didnt see time sevenyear veteran whose previous long rush 39 yards 2013 scored second straight week rookie backfield mate mcguire scored nfl first time teams traded field goals make 1010 mcguire busted heart jaguars defense raced 69 yards give jets 1710 lead 1013 left third quarter ive scored lot college touchdowns sixthround pick louisianalafayette said get nfl touchdown different jets visit winless browns next week welcoming patriots town really think two weeks ago team got put together kinda learning go said wide receiver jermaine kearse traded jets exactly one month ago surprising jets 22 yall thats real question honest jermaine quite surprising notes jaguars rg aj cann injured thumb first quarter returned game jaguars ss barry church first season jacksonville seven cowboys recorded first career sack two receptions jaguars fb tommy bohanon former jet two catches game first time since oct 25 2015 jets olb david bass starting place injured josh martin sack second straight game acquired waivers two weeks ago following release seahawks jets de leonard williams limped first quarter returned later drive jets rg brian winters missed last weeks game abdominal injury two penalties hold false start first half jets rookie wr ardarius stewart first career kick return 32yarder second quarter jets cb darryl roberts injured hamstring return jets lb dylan donahue injured overtime extent elbow injury unknown game | 655 |
<p>The Reflections treatment center looked like just the place for Michelle Holley’s youngest daughter to kick heroin. Instead, as with dozens of other addiction treatment centers in Florida, the owner was more interested in defrauding insurance companies by keeping his patients hooked, her family says.</p>
<p>“It looked fine. They were saying all the right things to me. I could not help my child so I trusted them to help my child,” Holley said.</p>
<p>Instead, the center refused to give 19-year-old Jaime Holley her prescription medicine when she left, forcing her to use illegal drugs to avoid acute withdrawal symptoms, her mother said. She died of a heroin overdose last November. “Right to my face they lied to me, and I believed them.”</p>
<p>Rather than working to get people well, a growing number of unscrupulous industry players are focusing on getting patients to relapse so that insurance dollars keep rolling in, according to law enforcement officials, treatment experts and people trying to beat their addictions.</p>
<p>“It’s terrible right now. I don’t know of any business that wants to kill its customers, but this one does,” said Timothy Schnellenberger, who has worked for years in running addiction recovery centers in Florida. “It really breaks my heart. Kids are dying left and right.”</p>
<p>Reflections and Journey – both centers owned by Kenneth Chatman – are shuttered now, and Chatman is serving a 27-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to health care fraud and money laundering, but that’s little comfort to Holley, who described her daughter’s ordeal in an interview.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t fix it. And as a parent, I wanted to fix it,” she said, trying to contain her tears as she looked through her daughter’s pictures and Mother’s Day cards.</p>
<p>As drug addiction destroys families across America, “there’s a need for a positive, vibrant recovery network to help people get off of opioids,” said State Attorney Dave Aronberg, chief prosecutor in Palm Beach County. “You can’t just arrest your way out of this problem.”</p>
<p>But lately, sunny South Florida has become the focal point of rampant insurance fraud that relies on a lethal cycle of intentional failure, authorities say.</p>
<p>“The incentive is to keep them in this relapse system, this gravy train that doesn’t end until the person leaves in a body bag or an ambulance,” said Aronberg, whose opioid task force has made more than 30 fraud arrests. “There’s no money in sobriety.”</p>
<p>Overcoming substance abuse generally involves a treatment center, where urine tests are done, prescriptions dispensed and recovery group meetings held, and a “sober home,” where people recovering from addictions live together to get group support.</p>
<p>It’s a $1 billion business in Palm Beach County alone, federal officials say.</p>
<p>Florida has the most sober homes per capita of any state, said David Sheridan, President of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences. Opioid treatment fraud has surfaced in California and Arizona, but Florida stands out, in part because so many people come for treatment.</p>
<p>Two people overdose on opioids every day in Palm Beach County, mainly from heroin laced with the synthetic drug fentanyl, investigators say. Statewide, deaths from this combination rose 75 percent in 2015 as more than 2,500 people died in Florida from opioid-related overdoses, according to the state medical examiner.</p>
<p>One operation alone – the Real Life Recovery Delray treatment center and the Halfway There Florida home – collected almost $19 million by fraudulently billing insurance companies for $58 million over four years, according to the FBI. That case has not yet gone to trial.</p>
<p>The FBI affidavit said the fraud included unnecessary or faked urinalysis samples, double-billing, and paying kickbacks to patients in the form of gift cards, trips to casinos and strip clubs, and free airline tickets. Other tactics included paying “patient brokers” to illegally direct addicts to particular facilities.</p>
<p>Chatman’s patients were given drugs to trigger a positive drug test so they could be considered in “relapse” when their insurance coverage was about to expire. Court documents say he induced some female patients into prostitution for free rent at his sober home, and confiscated car keys, cellphones and prescription medications.</p>
<p>“They don’t care if you die. They just want to keep swiping that insurance card so they can keep getting money out of you,” said Blake Oppenheimer of Louisville, Kentucky, who was ordered into treatment, and landed in a center that was shut down for fraud. “I felt like I was something in a store that was just trying to be sold over and over again.”</p>
<p>Fraudulent operators are exploiting a web of state and federal laws that make oversight difficult. People being treated for addictions are protected by the Americans With Disabilities Act and health privacy laws. With children up to age 26 now covered under their parents’ insurance, there’s more money to be made.</p>
<p>The Florida Legislature has imposed tougher penalties for patient brokering and new limits on deceptive marketing techniques. Delray Beach and Boynton Beach approved new rules for group homes, requiring them to be accredited by a regulatory organization such as the Florida Association of Recovery Residences.</p>
<p>Oppenheimer, 23, is now at Schnellenberger’s Recovery Boot Camp, and hopes someday to return to college to study neuroscience.</p>
<p>“This is like the last house on the block for me,” he said. “This is my last opportunity, and I’ve got to use it.”</p> | false | 1 | reflections treatment center looked like place michelle holleys youngest daughter kick heroin instead dozens addiction treatment centers florida owner interested defrauding insurance companies keeping patients hooked family says looked fine saying right things could help child trusted help child holley said instead center refused give 19yearold jaime holley prescription medicine left forcing use illegal drugs avoid acute withdrawal symptoms mother said died heroin overdose last november right face lied believed rather working get people well growing number unscrupulous industry players focusing getting patients relapse insurance dollars keep rolling according law enforcement officials treatment experts people trying beat addictions terrible right dont know business wants kill customers one said timothy schnellenberger worked years running addiction recovery centers florida really breaks heart kids dying left right reflections journey centers owned kenneth chatman shuttered chatman serving 27year federal prison sentence pleading guilty health care fraud money laundering thats little comfort holley described daughters ordeal interview couldnt fix parent wanted fix said trying contain tears looked daughters pictures mothers day cards drug addiction destroys families across america theres need positive vibrant recovery network help people get opioids said state attorney dave aronberg chief prosecutor palm beach county cant arrest way problem lately sunny south florida become focal point rampant insurance fraud relies lethal cycle intentional failure authorities say incentive keep relapse system gravy train doesnt end person leaves body bag ambulance said aronberg whose opioid task force made 30 fraud arrests theres money sobriety overcoming substance abuse generally involves treatment center urine tests done prescriptions dispensed recovery group meetings held sober home people recovering addictions live together get group support 1 billion business palm beach county alone federal officials say florida sober homes per capita state said david sheridan president national alliance recovery residences opioid treatment fraud surfaced california arizona florida stands part many people come treatment two people overdose opioids every day palm beach county mainly heroin laced synthetic drug fentanyl investigators say statewide deaths combination rose 75 percent 2015 2500 people died florida opioidrelated overdoses according state medical examiner one operation alone real life recovery delray treatment center halfway florida home collected almost 19 million fraudulently billing insurance companies 58 million four years according fbi case yet gone trial fbi affidavit said fraud included unnecessary faked urinalysis samples doublebilling paying kickbacks patients form gift cards trips casinos strip clubs free airline tickets tactics included paying patient brokers illegally direct addicts particular facilities chatmans patients given drugs trigger positive drug test could considered relapse insurance coverage expire court documents say induced female patients prostitution free rent sober home confiscated car keys cellphones prescription medications dont care die want keep swiping insurance card keep getting money said blake oppenheimer louisville kentucky ordered treatment landed center shut fraud felt like something store trying sold fraudulent operators exploiting web state federal laws make oversight difficult people treated addictions protected americans disabilities act health privacy laws children age 26 covered parents insurance theres money made florida legislature imposed tougher penalties patient brokering new limits deceptive marketing techniques delray beach boynton beach approved new rules group homes requiring accredited regulatory organization florida association recovery residences oppenheimer 23 schnellenbergers recovery boot camp hopes someday return college study neuroscience like last house block said last opportunity ive got use | 539 |
<p>NEW YORK — As Donald Trump approaches his inauguration, young Americans have a deeply pessimistic view about his incoming administration, with young blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans particularly concerned about what’s to come in the next four years.</p>
<p>That’s according to a new GenForward poll of Americans aged 18 to 30, which found that the country’s young adults are more likely to expect they’ll be worse off at the end of Trump’s first term than better off. Such young Americans are also far more likely to think Trump will divide the country than unite it, by a 60 percent to 19 percent margin.</p>
<p>Fifty-two percent of young whites, 72 percent of Latinos, 66 percent of Asian-Americans and 70 percent of blacks think Trump’s presidency will lead to a more divided nation.</p>
<p>“Minority people are very afraid of all the rhetoric that he ran upon (in) his campaign,” said Jada Selma, a 28-year-old African-American graduate school student living in Atlanta. “Anytime he mentioned black people, he would talk about poor people or inner city. He would think that all of us live in the inner city and that we’re all poor.”</p>
<p>“If you’re not a straight white male, than I don’t think he’s looking out for you as an American,” she said.</p>
<p>GenForward is a survey of adults age 18 to 30 by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The first-of-its-kind poll pays special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of a new generation.</p>
<p>The poll found that 54 percent of young people overall say life for people of color will be worse with Trump as president. About two-thirds of young blacks, Asian-Americans and Latinos think things will get worse for people of color, and whites are also more likely to expect things to get worse than better for minorities, 46 percent to 21 percent.</p>
<p>Overall, 40 percent of young adults think they personally will be worse off four years from now, while just 23 percent expect to be better off. Young people of color are significantly more likely to think they will be worse off than better off, while young whites are more split in their personal expectations.</p>
<p>Kuinta Hayle, a 21-year-old African-American from Charlotte, said she is worried that Trump’s selection for attorney general, <a href="" type="internal">Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions,</a> could roll back civil rights. She said Trump’s foray into “birtherism,” during which he propagated the lie that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, still bothered her.</p>
<p>“That was very meaningful. It still hurts,” Hayle said. “He doesn’t know anything about my life or the lives of people who aren’t like him. I feel Donald Trump is only for rich people. Obama was for people who didn’t have much.”</p>
<p>Although he had <a href="" type="internal">a decisive win in the Electoral College</a>, Trump lost the overall popular vote to opponent Hillary Clinton and has done little to reach out to those who didn’t support him in November’s election. He focused his post-election “Thank You” tour on states he won, settling scores on stage as he boasted about his surprising electoral victory.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, Trump tore into Georgia Rep. John Lewis, among the most revered leaders of the civil rights movement, for questioning the legitimacy of his victory and saying he would not attend Friday’s inauguration.</p>
<p>As for Obama’s presidency, young Americans are split on whether he has done more to unite or divide Americans, 38 percent to 35 percent, with 26 percent saying it did neither.</p>
<p>Young blacks (57 percent to 16 percent), Latinos (57 percent to 19 percent) and Asian Americans (46 percent to 27 percent) are far more likely to say Obama united than divided Americans. But young whites are more likely to say, by a 46 percent to 26 percent margin, that Obama’s presidency was a dividing force.</p>
<p>Indeed, not all young Americans are pessimistic about the incoming president.</p>
<p>“He’ll be good for the economy. He’s a businessman and he’ll bring more jobs back,” said Francisco Barrera, 26, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who voted for Trump. “I think he’s going to do good and he’s going to end this political correctness. You can’t even say ‘God’ in the schools no more. Trump will put him back.”</p>
<p>A majority of young adults think Trump will go down in history as not a very good president or a poor one. Young people of color are particularly likely to think Trump’s presidency will be not good or poor, but even young whites are more likely to expect that than to think it will be good or great, 48 percent to 27 percent.</p>
<p>Young Americans are divided as to whether Trump will accomplish his campaign promises. While most think he’ll probably cut taxes for the rich and more than half of young people (59 percent) think Trump will deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, just 39 percent expect that he will be successful in building a wall along the Mexican border.</p>
<p>However, about half of young Hispanics think that Trump is likely to build a border wall. And more than 7 in 10 young people believe he will definitely or probably succeed at repealing the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>“He’s not even been inaugurated yet and he’s already alienating people,” said Greg Davis, a white 28-year-old graduate student living in Columbus, Ohio. “He’s still parroting the alt-right’s messages. His policy ideas I think would be awful. His nominees for Cabinet positions are disastrous. He’s nominating people who have the exactly the wrong ideas.”</p>
<p>“I think it’s going to be a disaster,” Davis said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>The poll of 1,823 adults age 18-30 was conducted Dec. 9-12, 2016 using a sample drawn from the probability-based GenForward panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. young adult population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.</p>
<p>The survey was paid for by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago, using grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation.</p>
<p>Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.</p> | false | 1 | new york donald trump approaches inauguration young americans deeply pessimistic view incoming administration young blacks latinos asian americans particularly concerned whats come next four years thats according new genforward poll americans aged 18 30 found countrys young adults likely expect theyll worse end trumps first term better young americans also far likely think trump divide country unite 60 percent 19 percent margin fiftytwo percent young whites 72 percent latinos 66 percent asianamericans 70 percent blacks think trumps presidency lead divided nation minority people afraid rhetoric ran upon campaign said jada selma 28yearold africanamerican graduate school student living atlanta anytime mentioned black people would talk poor people inner city would think us live inner city poor youre straight white male dont think hes looking american said genforward survey adults age 18 30 black youth project university chicago associated pressnorc center public affairs research firstofitskind poll pays special attention voices young adults color highlighting race ethnicity shape opinions new generation poll found 54 percent young people overall say life people color worse trump president twothirds young blacks asianamericans latinos think things get worse people color whites also likely expect things get worse better minorities 46 percent 21 percent overall 40 percent young adults think personally worse four years 23 percent expect better young people color significantly likely think worse better young whites split personal expectations kuinta hayle 21yearold africanamerican charlotte said worried trumps selection attorney general alabama sen jeff sessions could roll back civil rights said trumps foray birtherism propagated lie president barack obama born united states still bothered meaningful still hurts hayle said doesnt know anything life lives people arent like feel donald trump rich people obama people didnt much although decisive win electoral college trump lost overall popular vote opponent hillary clinton done little reach didnt support novembers election focused postelection thank tour states settling scores stage boasted surprising electoral victory weekend trump tore georgia rep john lewis among revered leaders civil rights movement questioning legitimacy victory saying would attend fridays inauguration obamas presidency young americans split whether done unite divide americans 38 percent 35 percent 26 percent saying neither young blacks 57 percent 16 percent latinos 57 percent 19 percent asian americans 46 percent 27 percent far likely say obama united divided americans young whites likely say 46 percent 26 percent margin obamas presidency dividing force indeed young americans pessimistic incoming president hell good economy hes businessman hell bring jobs back said francisco barrera 26 ft wayne indiana voted trump think hes going good hes going end political correctness cant even say god schools trump put back majority young adults think trump go history good president poor one young people color particularly likely think trumps presidency good poor even young whites likely expect think good great 48 percent 27 percent young americans divided whether trump accomplish campaign promises think hell probably cut taxes rich half young people 59 percent think trump deport millions immigrants living country illegally 39 percent expect successful building wall along mexican border however half young hispanics think trump likely build border wall 7 10 young people believe definitely probably succeed repealing affordable care act hes even inaugurated yet hes already alienating people said greg davis white 28yearold graduate student living columbus ohio hes still parroting altrights messages policy ideas think would awful nominees cabinet positions disastrous hes nominating people exactly wrong ideas think going disaster davis said ___ poll 1823 adults age 1830 conducted dec 912 2016 using sample drawn probabilitybased genforward panel designed representative us young adult population margin sampling error respondents plus minus 4 percentage points survey paid black youth project university chicago using grants john catherine macarthur foundation ford foundation respondents first selected randomly using addressbased sampling methods later interviewed online phone | 620 |
<p>By Balazs Koranyi</p>
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) – As financial markets come to terms with the end of cheap money being pumped into the system, central bankers must learn again how to use a more subtle but effective policy weapon: words.</p>
<p>Massive asset buying programs and drastic interest rate cuts have stabilized the world’s economies following the global financial crisis but central bankers are starting to put their big policy guns away.</p>
<p>As they shepherd economies back to full health central bankers will instead need to choose their words carefully to manage expectations about future policy and avoid any damaging overreaction or misinterpretation by markets.</p>
<p>Communication is becoming such a policy focus that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney are meeting in Frankfurt on Tuesday to discuss how central banks should speak.</p>
<p>“Once the asset purchase program is tapered the ECB will have to use its guidance on rates as the main policy instrument,” an ECB Governing Council member, who asked not to be named, said.</p>
<p>Part of the problem now is that central bankers just keep talking. Fed governors talk on an almost daily basis, Kuroda speaks frequently and some of the ECB’s 25 rate-setters appear to live a life of their own, sometimes giving speeches at odds with the European central bank’s main policy lines.</p>
<p>Last Thursday, eight European Central Bank policymakers, including five board members, spoke publicly but there was no major policy glitch that needed addressing specifically and few of the speeches carried any significant policy message.</p>
<p>In the United States, a survey by the Brookings Institute think-tank found that two-thirds of Fed watchers wanted governors to speak less frequently and over half wanted Yellen to speak more instead to streamline and focus the message.</p>
<p>‘UNRELIABLE BOYFRIEND’</p>
<p>Interest rates are expected to stay below historic averages for years, if not a decade, so the scope for actual rate changes has diminished and promises about future policy will play a bigger role in guiding markets, central bankers say.</p>
<p>The Fed estimates that neutral interest rates are 2.75 percent, down from 4.25 percent before the crisis, but current rates are still less then half this despite four rate rises by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) since the end of 2015.</p>
<p>“With a low neutral federal funds rate, there will typically be less scope for the FOMC to reduce short-term interest rates in response to an economic downturn, raising the possibility that we may need to resort again to enhanced forward rate guidance and asset purchases to provide needed accommodation,” Yellen said last month.</p>
<p>The ECB is in an even more precarious position. It may end its 2.55 trillion euro ($3 trillion) asset purchases next year but will still be far from raising interest rates.</p>
<p>That too will leave its “forward guidance” – a pledge to keep rates low until well after the bond buying ends – as the chief tool to guide long-term interest rates.</p>
<p>While central banks have often relied on guidance as a policy tool, communication flops during the post-crisis normalization process have been aplenty.</p>
<p>In 2013, the Fed’s suggestion that asset purchases might be coming to a close caused market mayhem. Analysts say the so-called taper tantrum probably ended up prolonging the U.S. bond buying program.</p>
<p>Draghi’s speech in Sintra this year, which suggested that tighter monetary policy might be on the cards, resulted in such a big market sell-off that the eventual policy change was considered relatively mild.</p>
<p>Carney has also had his run-ins with words as his guidance on the path for interest rates was repeatedly knocked off course by surprises in the economy, prompting one lawmaker to call him an “unreliable boyfriend”.</p>
<p>CREDIBILITY ISSUE</p>
<p>The challenge for central bankers now is to nuance their communication to chart a path for long-term rates in a very low interest rate environment – and also start to explain what a new policy framework would look like if another crisis emerges.</p>
<p>“That comes with a number of challenges that have not been fully addressed,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Pictet Wealth Management said. “Forward guidance to me is too short an answer.”</p>
<p>“What’s the new monetary style? Will there be a regime shift to some sort to some sort of nominal GDP (gross domestic product) targeting? Do they want to use the balance sheet as a normal tool?” Ducrozet said.</p>
<p>For now, the Bank of Japan is coming under pressure to start discussing how it will eventually end its prolonged period of ultra-easy monetary policy.</p>
<p>Kuroda has so far rejected that demand, even though he has recently suggested that the Bank of Japan could tweak monetary policy before achieving its inflation target.</p>
<p>The day of reckoning is also coming for the ECB. It has learned from the mistakes of others and kept markets calm by promising low rates until “well past” the end of its asset buying program.</p>
<p>But some investors say this time frame is too vague and needs to be refined.</p>
<p>Indeed, some argue that the ECB’s decision to extend it’s bond buying program by nine months to September 2018 was really designed to push back expectations of a rate rise, given the stimulus won’t be that significant.</p>
<p>“Doesn’t the bank have a credibility issue when a its pledge is not enough?” another ECB Governing Council said.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8569 euros)</p> | false | 1 | balazs koranyi frankfurt reuters financial markets come terms end cheap money pumped system central bankers must learn use subtle effective policy weapon words massive asset buying programs drastic interest rate cuts stabilized worlds economies following global financial crisis central bankers starting put big policy guns away shepherd economies back full health central bankers instead need choose words carefully manage expectations future policy avoid damaging overreaction misinterpretation markets communication becoming policy focus us federal reserve chair janet yellen european central bank ecb president mario draghi bank japan governor haruhiko kuroda bank england governor mark carney meeting frankfurt tuesday discuss central banks speak asset purchase program tapered ecb use guidance rates main policy instrument ecb governing council member asked named said part problem central bankers keep talking fed governors talk almost daily basis kuroda speaks frequently ecbs 25 ratesetters appear live life sometimes giving speeches odds european central banks main policy lines last thursday eight european central bank policymakers including five board members spoke publicly major policy glitch needed addressing specifically speeches carried significant policy message united states survey brookings institute thinktank found twothirds fed watchers wanted governors speak less frequently half wanted yellen speak instead streamline focus message unreliable boyfriend interest rates expected stay historic averages years decade scope actual rate changes diminished promises future policy play bigger role guiding markets central bankers say fed estimates neutral interest rates 275 percent 425 percent crisis current rates still less half despite four rate rises federal open market committee fomc since end 2015 low neutral federal funds rate typically less scope fomc reduce shortterm interest rates response economic downturn raising possibility may need resort enhanced forward rate guidance asset purchases provide needed accommodation yellen said last month ecb even precarious position may end 255 trillion euro 3 trillion asset purchases next year still far raising interest rates leave forward guidance pledge keep rates low well bond buying ends chief tool guide longterm interest rates central banks often relied guidance policy tool communication flops postcrisis normalization process aplenty 2013 feds suggestion asset purchases might coming close caused market mayhem analysts say socalled taper tantrum probably ended prolonging us bond buying program draghis speech sintra year suggested tighter monetary policy might cards resulted big market selloff eventual policy change considered relatively mild carney also runins words guidance path interest rates repeatedly knocked course surprises economy prompting one lawmaker call unreliable boyfriend credibility issue challenge central bankers nuance communication chart path longterm rates low interest rate environment also start explain new policy framework would look like another crisis emerges comes number challenges fully addressed said frederik ducrozet economist pictet wealth management said forward guidance short answer whats new monetary style regime shift sort sort nominal gdp gross domestic product targeting want use balance sheet normal tool ducrozet said bank japan coming pressure start discussing eventually end prolonged period ultraeasy monetary policy kuroda far rejected demand even though recently suggested bank japan could tweak monetary policy achieving inflation target day reckoning also coming ecb learned mistakes others kept markets calm promising low rates well past end asset buying program investors say time frame vague needs refined indeed argue ecbs decision extend bond buying program nine months september 2018 really designed push back expectations rate rise given stimulus wont significant doesnt bank credibility issue pledge enough another ecb governing council said 1 08569 euros | 556 |
<p>SAN SEBASTIAN — The strength of the Basque industry as a potential co-production partner for <a href="http://variety.com/t/basque-country/" type="external">Basque Country</a> shoots will be seen, when push comes to shove, in its movies. Here, profiles of upcoming Basque movies whether playing this year’s San Sebastián Festival, in production or projects.</p>
<p>ADVANTAGES OF TRAVELING BY TRAIN</p>
<p>Pre-acquired by Entertainment One’s Seville International and co-produced by San Sebastian-based Señor y Señora and Madrid’s Morena Films “Advantages” marks the much-awaited feature debut of Aritz Moreno. Film –in pre-production– is penned by Javier Gullón (Denis Villeneuve’s “Enemy”) adapting Spain’s Antonio Orejudo novel.</p>
<p>ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE</p>
<p>One of Europe’s most awaited animation films, the Indie Sales-sold “Day” revolves around the truth of war through the near-suicidal journey across Angola of Polish famed war reporter Ryszard Kapuściński. Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow direct a hybrid animation-live action inspired by but not adapting the journalist’s first novel. Produced by Basque company Kanaki Films and Poland’s Platige Image and co-produced with Belgium’s Umedia and Walking the Dog, and Germany’s Animationsfabrik and Wüste Film.</p>
<p>BLACK IS BELTZA</p>
<p>Produced by Basque Country’s Talka Records &amp; Films and Catalonia’s Setmagic, “ <a href="http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/fermin-muguruza-black-is-beltza-san-sebastian-1201867976/" type="external">Beltza</a>” is another instance of the vibrant Basque animation sector. Vicente Canales’ Film Factory handles sales of this musical portrait of the ‘60s counter-culture era, directed by multi-hyphenate artist Fermin Muguruza and based on a graphic novel illustrated by Argentine Jorge Alderete.</p>
<p>THE BLACKSMITH AND THE DEVIL</p>
<p>Mentored by black comedy master Álex de la Iglesia, fantasy horror “Blacksmith” marks the debut of Paul Urkijo Alijo. Kinoskopik, Pokeepsie Film, Nadie es Perfecto PC, Gariza Films, Euskaltel and The Project Film Clu produce a story based on a Basque folk tale of fantastic imagery and mythological creatures. Filmax International manages sales.</p>
<p>BI TXIRULA</p>
<p>Feature debut of architect-director Iñigo García Agirrezabalaga, whose credits include shorts “Berde,” –co-directed with Jose Luis Barredo, and “Errusia.” Produced by Berde Produkzioak, this story about two men in the search of a better, warmer land world premieres at the San Sebastian Festival Basque Zinemira section.</p>
<p>DANTZA</p>
<p>From one of most prominent Basque directors Telmo Esnal (“Go!”), “ <a href="http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/san-sebastian-txintxua-telmo-esnals-dantza-1201862333/" type="external">Dantza</a>” will be sneakk-peeked at San Sebastián’s Glocal in Progress, the new showcase devoted to works in non-hegemonic European languages. A take on symbol and metaphors in traditional Basque dances, the polished upscale musical is produced by Txintxua Films, a company co-founded by director Asier Altuna “Amama.”</p>
<p>DESTERRADOS&#160;</p>
<p>Feature debut of short-maker and scriptwriter José Luis Egea who, incredibly, co-directed “The Challenges,” with Víctor Erice way back in 1969. It follows Spanish poet Luis Cernuda working with Basque children evacuated after the Condor Legion’s bombing of Durango, Gernika, Elorrio and Etxandio in 1937. Newest project of seasoned Basque producer Ángel Amigo, a driving force behind Imanol Uribe’s “Escape from Segovia,” set up at Basque shingle Biliben 2014.</p>
<p>DOUBLE PLUS FIFTEEN</p>
<p>Presented at the San Sebastián Co-production Forum, the new project from Mikel Rueda (“Hidden Away,” “Fifth Floor”) is an intimate drama about growing-up, both for a teenager and a 45-year-old woman. Cast includes Maribel Verdú (Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth”); the Basque Country’s Baleuko and Sonora co-produce.</p>
<p>DYING</p>
<p>World premiering as a special screening in the San Sebastian Festival’s Official Selection “Dying” is the much-anticipated second feature of editor-director Fernando Franco, whose debut “Wounded” won a Special Jury Prize and a Golden Seashell for best actress Marian Alvarez –co-star of “Dying”–&#160; at San Sebastian. Koldo Zuazua at Kowalski Films and Andalusia’s Ferdydurke Films</p>
<p>produce this character-driven romantic drama; Film Factory handles sales.</p>
<p>ELCANO AND MAGELLAN, THE FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD</p>
<p>Second animation feature of Ángel Alonso (“The Thief of Dreams”) following the adventures of Portuguese Fernando de Magallanes and Basque Juan Sebastián de Elcano, the first seamen to sail around the world in a voyage ending in 1522. Produced by Dibulitoon (“Yoko”), one of leading animation production houses in the Basque Country.</p>
<p>ELKARREKIN-TOGETHER</p>
<p>Pablo Iraburu, Migeltxo Molina and Igor Otxoa co-direct this docu feature world premiering at the San Sebastian Festival as its Basque Film and ETB Gala. The docu-feature plumbs the possible co-operation centuries back between Basque whalers and America’s indigenous population on a remote U.S. island. Navarre’s Arena Comunicación Audiovisual and Guipuzcoa’s Txalapart co-produce.</p>
<p>THE GLASS COFFIN</p>
<p>Sold by France’s Burdigala Production, horror movie “Coffin” marks the feature debut of acclaimed shortmaker Haritz Zubillaga (“Dead Hours”), one more talent coming from the Basque Country’s prestigious shorts program Kimuak. It’s produced by Basque Films and&#160; Morituri. Sold to 14 countries, Synergetic distributes it in U.S. and Canada.</p>
<p>HANDIA</p>
<p>The biggest Basque film at this year’s San Sebastián Festival, where it plays in competition, the biopic of a 19th century Basque giant, but far more the tale of his relationship with his brother, which survives the pressures of poverty, rivalry, war and fame, produced by two of Basque Country’s most active producers, Irusoin and Moriarti Produkzoiak, “ <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/flowers-garano-arregi-prep-aundiya-exclusive-1201310954/" type="external">Handia</a>” is directed by Jon Garaño, the co-director of Spain’s 2015 Oscar entry “Flowers,” the first submission ever of a Basque-language film. Film Factory handles sales.</p>
<p>JORDI’S LETTERS</p>
<p>First solo feature of Maider Fernández Iriarte, who teamed with María Elorza for “Our Walls,” exploring “love of God and the speech of a free man” through the life of a 51 year-old man born with cerebral paralisis. “Jordi” is produced by Señor y Señora. World premieres at San Sebastián’s Zinemira showcase.</p>
<p>NON</p>
<p>Eñaut Castagnet, director of “When I Was a Child,” and playwright and actor Ximun Fuchs offer in their feature debut a story about workers struggling to preserve their dignity. Produced by Irusoin, and sparking some pre-festival buzz, ”Non” world premieres in San Sebastian’s 6th Basque Zinemira section.</p>
<p>OPERATION GOLDEN SHELL</p>
<p>“A scam caper set at the very San Sebastian Festival in the line of “Nine Queens” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” as producer Joxe Portela at Abra Producciones defines it. Antonio Cuadri (“The Heart of the Earth”) directs this comedic tale of fraud and fools, whose sales are handled by Filmax International. World premiere at the San Sebastian’s big screen Velodrome.</p>
<p>RED FJORDS</p>
<p>“2 Guns” and “Everest” director Baltasar Kormákur –via his outfit RVK Studios– has inked with Bilbao-based Eduardo Carneros, producer of Nacho Vigalondo’s “Timecrimes,” at Euskadi Movie AIE, to co-produce this historical crime thriller set in 1616 Iceland, which is also produced by Tornosal Films, the company behnd Academy Award winner “The Secret in Their Eyes.” Koldo Serra (“The Backwoods”) to direct.</p>
<p>WITCHES’ SABBATH</p>
<p>Argentine director Pablo Agüero – a Jury Prize winner at 2008 Cannes festival with “Salamandra” and Silver Condor best director winner with “Eva Doesn’t Sleep”—directs this witchcraft thriller set in the Basque country in 1609 to be presented at the 2017 San Sebastián Co-production Forum. Basque Sorgin Films, AIE produces alongside French Tita Production and La Fidele.</p> | false | 1 | san sebastian strength basque industry potential coproduction partner basque country shoots seen push comes shove movies profiles upcoming basque movies whether playing years san sebastián festival production projects advantages traveling train preacquired entertainment ones seville international coproduced san sebastianbased señor señora madrids morena films advantages marks muchawaited feature debut aritz moreno film preproduction penned javier gullón denis villeneuves enemy adapting spains antonio orejudo novel another day life one europes awaited animation films indie salessold day revolves around truth war nearsuicidal journey across angola polish famed war reporter ryszard kapuściński raúl de la fuente damian nenow direct hybrid animationlive action inspired adapting journalists first novel produced basque company kanaki films polands platige image coproduced belgiums umedia walking dog germanys animationsfabrik wüste film black beltza produced basque countrys talka records amp films catalonias setmagic beltza another instance vibrant basque animation sector vicente canales film factory handles sales musical portrait 60s counterculture era directed multihyphenate artist fermin muguruza based graphic novel illustrated argentine jorge alderete blacksmith devil mentored black comedy master Álex de la iglesia fantasy horror blacksmith marks debut paul urkijo alijo kinoskopik pokeepsie film nadie es perfecto pc gariza films euskaltel project film clu produce story based basque folk tale fantastic imagery mythological creatures filmax international manages sales bi txirula feature debut architectdirector iñigo garcía agirrezabalaga whose credits include shorts berde codirected jose luis barredo errusia produced berde produkzioak story two men search better warmer land world premieres san sebastian festival basque zinemira section dantza one prominent basque directors telmo esnal go dantza sneakkpeeked san sebastiáns glocal progress new showcase devoted works nonhegemonic european languages take symbol metaphors traditional basque dances polished upscale musical produced txintxua films company cofounded director asier altuna amama desterrados160 feature debut shortmaker scriptwriter josé luis egea incredibly codirected challenges víctor erice way back 1969 follows spanish poet luis cernuda working basque children evacuated condor legions bombing durango gernika elorrio etxandio 1937 newest project seasoned basque producer Ángel amigo driving force behind imanol uribes escape segovia set basque shingle biliben 2014 double plus fifteen presented san sebastián coproduction forum new project mikel rueda hidden away fifth floor intimate drama growingup teenager 45yearold woman cast includes maribel verdú guillermo del toros pans labyrinth basque countrys baleuko sonora coproduce dying world premiering special screening san sebastian festivals official selection dying muchanticipated second feature editordirector fernando franco whose debut wounded special jury prize golden seashell best actress marian alvarez costar dying160 san sebastian koldo zuazua kowalski films andalusias ferdydurke films produce characterdriven romantic drama film factory handles sales elcano magellan first voyage around world second animation feature Ángel alonso thief dreams following adventures portuguese fernando de magallanes basque juan sebastián de elcano first seamen sail around world voyage ending 1522 produced dibulitoon yoko one leading animation production houses basque country elkarrekintogether pablo iraburu migeltxo molina igor otxoa codirect docu feature world premiering san sebastian festival basque film etb gala docufeature plumbs possible cooperation centuries back basque whalers americas indigenous population remote us island navarres arena comunicación audiovisual guipuzcoas txalapart coproduce glass coffin sold frances burdigala production horror movie coffin marks feature debut acclaimed shortmaker haritz zubillaga dead hours one talent coming basque countrys prestigious shorts program kimuak produced basque films and160 morituri sold 14 countries synergetic distributes us canada handia biggest basque film years san sebastián festival plays competition biopic 19th century basque giant far tale relationship brother survives pressures poverty rivalry war fame produced two basque countrys active producers irusoin moriarti produkzoiak handia directed jon garaño codirector spains 2015 oscar entry flowers first submission ever basquelanguage film film factory handles sales jordis letters first solo feature maider fernández iriarte teamed maría elorza walls exploring love god speech free man life 51 yearold man born cerebral paralisis jordi produced señor señora world premieres san sebastiáns zinemira showcase non eñaut castagnet director child playwright actor ximun fuchs offer feature debut story workers struggling preserve dignity produced irusoin sparking prefestival buzz non world premieres san sebastians 6th basque zinemira section operation golden shell scam caper set san sebastian festival line nine queens oceans eleven producer joxe portela abra producciones defines antonio cuadri heart earth directs comedic tale fraud fools whose sales handled filmax international world premiere san sebastians big screen velodrome red fjords 2 guns everest director baltasar kormákur via outfit rvk studios inked bilbaobased eduardo carneros producer nacho vigalondos timecrimes euskadi movie aie coproduce historical crime thriller set 1616 iceland also produced tornosal films company behnd academy award winner secret eyes koldo serra backwoods direct witches sabbath argentine director pablo agüero jury prize winner 2008 cannes festival salamandra silver condor best director winner eva doesnt sleepdirects witchcraft thriller set basque country 1609 presented 2017 san sebastián coproduction forum basque sorgin films aie produces alongside french tita production la fidele | 788 |
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<p>THURSDAY, Aug. 24, 2017 — An inexpensive over-the-counter antioxidant/zinc supplement that may help preserve vision in older people is also cost effective, a new study suggests.</p>
<p>The combo pill has been dubbed the “Age-Related Eye Disease Study,” or AREDS, supplement, based on trial in which it was studied previously.</p>
<p>Dr. Aaron Lee, a researcher on the new trial, said his team found AREDS was “greatly cost-effective for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, specifically in people who have active wet, age-related macular degeneration in one eye and dry in the other.” Lee is assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington in Seattle.</p>
<p>Macular degeneration is a progressive disease that’s a major cause of vision loss in older Americans.</p>
<p>The new study suggests the AREDS supplement may delay the need for more expensive treatment of the “wet” form of the illness, especially, Lee said.</p>
<p>Exactly how the supplements work to slow progression of the eye malady isn’t known, he added, but “the current formulation of the supplements contain antioxidants that are thought to be protective of the retina from damage that results in wet age-related macular degeneration.”</p>
<p>Still, at least one U.S. eye expert challenged the idea that the AREDS supplement definitively showed a benefit in preventing the disease or its progression.</p>
<p>“Despite this being routine practice among many retinal specialists in the U.S., the benefits remain uncertain,” said Dr. Alfred Sommer, professor of ophthalmology at <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Johns_Hopkins/" type="external">Johns Hopkins</a> University School of Medicine in Baltimore.</p>
<p>According to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, or AMDF, age-related macular degeneration causes damage to the macula, a small spot near the center of the retina. It’s the part of the eye needed for sharp, central vision. Over time, vision can become blurry, and eventually patients can lose their eyesight.</p>
<p>The two basic types of macular degeneration are called wet and dry. About 10 percent to 15 percent of the cases of macular degeneration are the wet type.</p>
<p>In wet macular degeneration, blood vessels grow under the retina and macula. These new vessels may bleed and leak fluid, causing the macula to bulge or lift up from its normally flat position, thus distorting or destroying central vision. Vision loss may be rapid and severe.</p>
<p>Approximately 85 percent to 90 percent of the cases of macular degeneration are the dry type. Dry age-related macular degeneration does not involve any leakage of blood. Instead, the macula may deteriorate and waste products from cells in the eye can build up. Loss of vision can occur, according to the AMDF.</p>
<p>The prior AREDS trial showed that the supplements, which combine antioxidant vitamins with zinc and copper, are inexpensive and effective in slowing the progression of age-related macular degeneration.</p>
<p>AREDS supplements are sold under brand names such as PreserVision and Pro-Optic. Costs range from about $25 to $40 for 120 pills — a two-month supply.</p>
<p>That’s a much lower price tag than expensive prescription drugs called anti-VEGF therapies, which are currently used to treat wet macular degeneration. Plus, anti-VEGF drug therapy involves getting a needle in the eye, and the drugs can also have side effects. One possible side effect is an increased risk of inflammation of the inside of the eye, and another possibility is stroke, Lee noted.</p>
<p>So, to calculate the cost-effectiveness of AREDS supplements, Lee and colleagues looked at the use of the supplements in people over 55 years of age.</p>
<p>The AREDS trial had concluded that a daily supplement combining high-dose antioxidants and zinc lowered the risk of developing wet age-related macular degeneration and slowed its progression.</p>
<p>Lee’s team looked at two formulas of available supplements.</p>
<p>Formula 1 has high doses of vitamins C and E, beta carotene, zinc and copper. Formula 2 has lutein and zeaxanthin instead of beta carotene.</p>
<p>The researchers used a statistical model with information from the AREDS trial, along with data from more than 90,000 people with macular degeneration in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>The investigators found that both formulations were cost effective for treating patients with early stage disease, but they were even more cost effective for those with the condition in only one eye.</p>
<p>Over the course of a lifetime, the researchers found that these patients would need nearly eight fewer injections of anti-VEGF therapies into their eye, Lee said.</p>
<p>That could lead to thousands of dollars in savings per patient over time, the British team concluded.</p>
<p>But Sommer, who reviewed the new findings, did have some caveats.</p>
<p>Sommer noted that “it is now, in fact, common practice for ophthalmologists in the U.S. to recommend that their patients who fit this profile take this supplement.”</p>
<p>He added, “If one believes the supplement does work in the group in which it appeared to, then the whole issue is cost, since no evidence has ever been reported that shows harm.”</p>
<p>But does ARDS actually work?</p>
<p>According to Sommer, no large-scale study has been done to test that out. And the AREDS trial researchers used to tout these supplements was small, so that any positive results might still be a chance occurrence, he noted.</p>
<p>Sommer’s conclusion: “Despite this being routine practice among many retinal specialists in the U.S., the benefits remain uncertain.”</p>
<p>Therefore, “any analysis of the cost for the benefits are somewhat meaningless when viewed from this perspective,” he said.</p>
<p>The study was published Aug. 23 in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.</p>
<p>More information For more on age-related macular degeneration, visit the <a href="https://nei.nih.gov/health/maculardegen/armd_facts" type="external">U.S. National Eye Institute</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.</p> | false | 1 | thursday aug 24 2017 inexpensive overthecounter antioxidantzinc supplement may help preserve vision older people also cost effective new study suggests combo pill dubbed agerelated eye disease study areds supplement based trial studied previously dr aaron lee researcher new trial said team found areds greatly costeffective treatment agerelated macular degeneration specifically people active wet agerelated macular degeneration one eye dry lee assistant professor ophthalmology university washington seattle macular degeneration progressive disease thats major cause vision loss older americans new study suggests areds supplement may delay need expensive treatment wet form illness especially lee said exactly supplements work slow progression eye malady isnt known added current formulation supplements contain antioxidants thought protective retina damage results wet agerelated macular degeneration still least one us eye expert challenged idea areds supplement definitively showed benefit preventing disease progression despite routine practice among many retinal specialists us benefits remain uncertain said dr alfred sommer professor ophthalmology johns hopkins university school medicine baltimore according american macular degeneration foundation amdf agerelated macular degeneration causes damage macula small spot near center retina part eye needed sharp central vision time vision become blurry eventually patients lose eyesight two basic types macular degeneration called wet dry 10 percent 15 percent cases macular degeneration wet type wet macular degeneration blood vessels grow retina macula new vessels may bleed leak fluid causing macula bulge lift normally flat position thus distorting destroying central vision vision loss may rapid severe approximately 85 percent 90 percent cases macular degeneration dry type dry agerelated macular degeneration involve leakage blood instead macula may deteriorate waste products cells eye build loss vision occur according amdf prior areds trial showed supplements combine antioxidant vitamins zinc copper inexpensive effective slowing progression agerelated macular degeneration areds supplements sold brand names preservision prooptic costs range 25 40 120 pills twomonth supply thats much lower price tag expensive prescription drugs called antivegf therapies currently used treat wet macular degeneration plus antivegf drug therapy involves getting needle eye drugs also side effects one possible side effect increased risk inflammation inside eye another possibility stroke lee noted calculate costeffectiveness areds supplements lee colleagues looked use supplements people 55 years age areds trial concluded daily supplement combining highdose antioxidants zinc lowered risk developing wet agerelated macular degeneration slowed progression lees team looked two formulas available supplements formula 1 high doses vitamins c e beta carotene zinc copper formula 2 lutein zeaxanthin instead beta carotene researchers used statistical model information areds trial along data 90000 people macular degeneration united kingdom investigators found formulations cost effective treating patients early stage disease even cost effective condition one eye course lifetime researchers found patients would need nearly eight fewer injections antivegf therapies eye lee said could lead thousands dollars savings per patient time british team concluded sommer reviewed new findings caveats sommer noted fact common practice ophthalmologists us recommend patients fit profile take supplement added one believes supplement work group appeared whole issue cost since evidence ever reported shows harm ards actually work according sommer largescale study done test areds trial researchers used tout supplements small positive results might still chance occurrence noted sommers conclusion despite routine practice among many retinal specialists us benefits remain uncertain therefore analysis cost benefits somewhat meaningless viewed perspective said study published aug 23 british journal ophthalmology information agerelated macular degeneration visit us national eye institute copyright 2017 healthday rights reserved | 555 |
<p>If you haven’t already, you really ought to read Rich and Ramesh’s <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444635/nationalism-conservatism-are-compatible-trump-imperfect-vessel" type="external">superb cover piece</a> in the latest issue of NR. They take up the question of nationalism, and its relation to conservatism.</p>
<p>There’s a lot to think about and learn from in the piece, but two points struck me above all as worth digging into a bit. One has to do with the relationship between American nationalism and American exceptionalism; the other is about the links and tensions between nationalism and localism.</p>
<p>First, when they take up Trump’s approach to American nationalism, Rich and Ramesh write:</p>
<p>If Trump has pointed the GOP back to a more secure and realistic grounding in nationalism, his version is lacking in important respects. The country’s founding ideals, history, and institutions barely enter into his worldview. Too often he seems to want to make America great without appreciating what makes it exceptional.</p>
<p>They don’t linger on that point too much, but maybe it’s worth a further word. I think it gets at something vitally important about the (usually) fairly moderate character of American nationalism. It has always seemed to me that liberal critics of American exceptionalism (as President Obama sometimes was) fail to see that what goes by the name of American exceptionalism is actually a moderating influence on American nationalism, because it holds our nationalism up to a standard rather than using nationalism itself as a standard. In other words, our idealistic sense of what America stands for gives us high expectations of ourselves that we sometimes actually take seriously.</p>
<p>Trump’s appeals to nationalism, which certainly seem genuine and which are also in some important respects constructive and valuable, do not benefit from this moderating tendency. Trump champions American nationalism but not American exceptionalism.</p>
<p>As Stephen Wertheim recently <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2017-01-03/trump-and-american-exceptionalism" type="external">noted</a> in Foreign Affairs, Trump has been pretty clear about this. He has said he is uncomfortable asserting that America&#160;is exceptional, perhaps especially because others wouldn’t like to hear it. In April of 2015, for example, Trump was interviewed by a Tea Party group in Texas, and was asked whether American exceptionalism still existed. You can see his answer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72wM6cqPS-c" type="external">here</a>. He began by putting himself in the shoes of a Russian or German and said, in part:</p>
<p>Ok well I don’t like the term, I’ll be honest with you. Look, if I’m a Russian, or I’m a German, or if I’m a person you do business with, why? I don’t think it’s a very nice term, you know, ‘we’re exceptional, you’re not.’</p>
<p>First of all Germany’s eating our lunch. So they’d say ‘why are you exceptional, we’re doing a lot better than you.’ I never liked the term…</p>
<p>I want to take everything back from the world that we’ve given. We’ve given them so much. On top of taking it back, I don’t want to say we’re exceptional.</p>
<p>But there is more to the view Trump lays out on this point, and his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/inaugural-address" type="external">inaugural address</a> illustrates it with particular force. His core complaint in the speech is that America’s leaders have not even lived up to the minimal standard of putting their own nation first in their own thought and action, as the leaders of other nations do:</p>
<p>For many decades we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.</p>
<p>We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own. And we’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.</p>
<p>We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.</p>
<p>This requires a change of priorities that would have us put our nation first:</p>
<p>From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs.</p>
<p>And this simple change will help turn our fortunes around. This doesn’t mean that we aggressively undermine other nations, only that we put ourselves first, just as they do. Indeed, precisely that is articulated in the speech as the core principle of Trump’s foreign policy thinking:</p>
<p>We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.</p>
<p>We will finally behave as all nations are entitled to behave. And once we do that, we will be better able to address the shortage of unity that undermines our own society:</p>
<p>At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.</p>
<p>When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.</p>
<p>The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable</p>
<p>This is certainly a case for unity, and as I <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/444083/unprecedented-president-yuval-levin" type="external">suggested</a>&#160;on the day of Trump’s inauguration I think it’s more coherent (if not more practical) than it’s generally given credit for. But it is a case for unity rooted in a case for America’s normality—or its potential for normality—not its distinctness. We ought to love our country because it is our country, as the people of every nation ought to love their nation for being theirs.</p>
<p>In this sense, Trump’s case is not unlike the point President Obama made when asked whether he believed in American exceptionalism in 2009. Obama said:</p>
<p>I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.</p>
<p>Conservatives have (rightly) harped on this response for eight years, and may never let him live it down. But Trump’s logic is very similar in principle to Obama’s. And the critique of America implicit in this way of thinking about the question came out in the now infamous exchange Trump had with Bill O’Reilly just this past weekend, which began when Trump said he respected Russian president Vladimir Putin:</p>
<p>O’REILLY: But he’s a killer though. Putin’s a killer.</p>
<p>TRUMP: There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent? You think our country’s so innocent?</p>
<p>O’REILLY: I don’t know of any government leaders that are killers.</p>
<p>TRUMP: Well — take a look at what we’ve done, too. We made a lot of mistakes. I’ve been against the war in Iraq from the beginning.</p>
<p>O’REILLY: Yes, mistakes are different than –</p>
<p>TRUMP: We made a lot of mistakes, OK, but a lot of people were killed. So, a lot of killers around, believe me.</p>
<p>Trump here advances an equivalence that amounts to a disgusting slander against our country, unlike anything that any sitting president has ever said of us before. And he means it, at least if you take seriously the dark portrait he paints of America on almost any occasion that calls for some reflection or a display of rhetoric. I don’t think he means it as an insult, but he does seem to mean it. And it is, in a sense, a natural extension of the equivalence at the core of his brand of American nationalism.</p>
<p>But American nationalism doesn’t have to be this dark and harsh, and it usually isn’t. One of the means by which American nationalism can&#160;be&#160;enlightened and moderated—and one of the reasons that our nationalism has never quite gotten away from us in the way some European forms sometimes have—is the simultaneous concreteness and abstraction of our nationalism: It is a devotion to a people devoted to a set of ideas.</p>
<p>The ideas aren’t what matters most. The people are. And forgetting that, as we on the Right sometimes do, is a very great failing. An overly abstract idealistic Americanism has contributed a lot to the failure of our politics in recent years. You can see it in particular in the immigration debates, and more generally in the unrequited desire for solidarity that drives a lot of the populism we now see. I’ve taken up that point around here before in recent years, <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437241/brexit-and-nationalism-yuval-levin" type="external">most recently after the Brexit vote</a>.</p>
<p>But the ideas and ideals are nonetheless also crucial to what makes American nationalism a force for good. And they are also what unites American nationalism with American exceptionalism. We cannot truly respect ourselves as a people without a story rooted in what has made us distinct. Ross Douthat <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/opinion/who-are-we.html?_r=0" type="external">wrote insightfully</a> about this challenge this past weekend.</p>
<p>The ideas that have always driven our national life are aspirational, not simply descriptive. They form, as Abraham Lincoln put it,</p>
<p>a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.</p>
<p>Finding a balance between this rather abstract and conceptual nationalism and the concrete and experiential nationalism essential to a healthy politics is no easy matter. To achieve it, we have to see that over-abstraction is actually a danger that threatens both a nationalism of ideas and a nationalism of home and hearth. A nationalism that is purely a love of one’s own because it is one’s own comes after all to be shorn of content. Because everyone has something that is his own, the pure love of one’s own renders everything equal and denies all claims to preeminence. It is ultimately not about what we love but about its being ours. But we love America because it is lovely, not only because it is ours. And when we deny this, or simply do not see it, we make America less lovely and we lose the restraint upon nationalism that the limits of loveliness make possible.</p>
<p>This is why abstraction away from our interpersonal reality poses a grave danger to any constructive nationalism. A balanced nationalism needs to be balanced on all sides by the concrete. And to see how that balance might be possible requires recourse to the other point that Rich and Ramesh nicely highlight in their essay.</p>
<p>Simply put, nationalism can be understood as opposed to localism or as opposed to globalism. It can be a way to broaden the scope of community or to constrain it. And the two are not the same. Hamiltonian nationalism (and the progressive nationalism that arose in no small measure in response to a progressive federalism a century ago) opposed itself to localism and pointed toward an unlimited cosmopolitanism, or at least an instinct for centralization. In laying out his “ <a href="http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/new-nationalism-speech/" type="external">new nationalism</a>”&#160;in 1910, Teddy Roosevelt put it this way:</p>
<p>The New Nationalism puts the national need before sectional or personal advantage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results from local legislatures attempting to treat national issues as local issues. It is still more impatient of the impotence which springs from over division of governmental powers, the impotence which makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring national activities to a deadlock. This New Nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of the public welfare.</p>
<p>President Obama warmly celebrated this speech on its hundredth anniversary. President Trump often embodies its spirit.</p>
<p>It offers one (rather obvious) sense in which nationalism can be a unifying force, a force for solidarity as Trump suggested in his inaugural. But contemporary nationalism is actually at least as frequently understood as a counterforce not to localism but to globalism. And indeed, this form of nationalism can be an extension of localism and a protector of it, in a way that again would tend to moderate nationalism itself. As Rich and Ramesh put it:</p>
<p>The elements of American nationalism that Trump scants are moderating influences on it. They push in the direction of decentralization and localism rather than an all-powerful central government. They appropriately situate loyalty to the nation within a set of concentric circles of concern starting with the family and ending with the globe.</p>
<p>My friend Dimitrios Halikias recently laid out these two concepts of nationalism in a way that can further help clarify the distinctions between them. He <a href="http://dhalikias.blogspot.com/2016/10/two-concepts-of-nationalism.html" type="external">wrote</a>:</p>
<p>The first concept is the nationalism of national greatness. It is a nationalism of building high and traveling far, of lasting glory and heroic accomplishment, of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. This is the sort of nationalism underlying that common lament: “We just don’t do big things anymore.”</p>
<p>The second concept is the nationalism of cultural particularism. It is a nationalism that builds out from tangible life and which identifies the nation as an embodiment of a distinctive culture and set of mores. This is the sort of nationalism that can be described as properly traditionalist.</p>
<p>There are conservative and progressive forms of the nationalism of national greatness—and we are witness now also to a third form in Trump’s rhetoric that is neither quite conservative nor exactly progressive. But the nationalism of cultural particularism really only has a conservative form. Whatever name it might go by, it is crucial to American conservatism. It is also, it seems to me, the only kind of nationalism that can effectively and enduringly serve the cause of national unity. And it is ultimately inseparable from American exceptionalism.</p>
<p>This, I take it, is the kind of nationalism that Rich and Ramesh seek to hold up. And I’m hopeful that it might be the kind of constructive direction that the recovery of nationalism in our time could ultimately take. But it isn’t where it’s starting, and that’s worth taking seriously.</p>
<p>Yuval Levin is the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | havent already really ought read rich rameshs superb cover piece latest issue nr take question nationalism relation conservatism theres lot think learn piece two points struck worth digging bit one relationship american nationalism american exceptionalism links tensions nationalism localism first take trumps approach american nationalism rich ramesh write trump pointed gop back secure realistic grounding nationalism version lacking important respects countrys founding ideals history institutions barely enter worldview often seems want make america great without appreciating makes exceptional dont linger point much maybe worth word think gets something vitally important usually fairly moderate character american nationalism always seemed liberal critics american exceptionalism president obama sometimes fail see goes name american exceptionalism actually moderating influence american nationalism holds nationalism standard rather using nationalism standard words idealistic sense america stands gives us high expectations sometimes actually take seriously trumps appeals nationalism certainly seem genuine also important respects constructive valuable benefit moderating tendency trump champions american nationalism american exceptionalism stephen wertheim recently noted foreign affairs trump pretty clear said uncomfortable asserting america160is exceptional perhaps especially others wouldnt like hear april 2015 example trump interviewed tea party group texas asked whether american exceptionalism still existed see answer began putting shoes russian german said part ok well dont like term ill honest look im russian im german im person business dont think nice term know exceptional youre first germanys eating lunch theyd say exceptional lot better never liked term want take everything back world weve given weve given much top taking back dont want say exceptional view trump lays point inaugural address illustrates particular force core complaint speech americas leaders even lived minimal standard putting nation first thought action leaders nations many decades weve enriched foreign industry expense american industry subsidized armies countries allowing sad depletion military weve defended nations borders refusing defend weve spent trillions trillions dollars overseas americas infrastructure fallen disrepair decay weve made countries rich wealth strength confidence country dissipated horizon requires change priorities would us put nation first day forward going america first america first every decision trade taxes immigration foreign affairs made benefit american workers american families must protect borders ravages countries making products stealing companies destroying jobs simple change help turn fortunes around doesnt mean aggressively undermine nations put first indeed precisely articulated speech core principle trumps foreign policy thinking seek friendship goodwill nations world understanding right nations put interests first finally behave nations entitled behave better able address shortage unity undermines society bedrock politics total allegiance united states america loyalty country rediscover loyalty open heart patriotism room prejudice bible tells us good pleasant gods people live together unity must speak minds openly debate disagreements honestly always pursue solidarity america united america totally unstoppable certainly case unity suggested160on day trumps inauguration think coherent practical generally given credit case unity rooted case americas normalityor potential normalitynot distinctness ought love country country people every nation ought love nation sense trumps case unlike point president obama made asked whether believed american exceptionalism 2009 obama said believe american exceptionalism suspect brits believe british exceptionalism greeks believe greek exceptionalism conservatives rightly harped response eight years may never let live trumps logic similar principle obamas critique america implicit way thinking question came infamous exchange trump bill oreilly past weekend began trump said respected russian president vladimir putin oreilly hes killer though putins killer trump lot killers weve got lot killers think countrys innocent think countrys innocent oreilly dont know government leaders killers trump well take look weve done made lot mistakes ive war iraq beginning oreilly yes mistakes different trump made lot mistakes ok lot people killed lot killers around believe trump advances equivalence amounts disgusting slander country unlike anything sitting president ever said us means least take seriously dark portrait paints america almost occasion calls reflection display rhetoric dont think means insult seem mean sense natural extension equivalence core brand american nationalism american nationalism doesnt dark harsh usually isnt one means american nationalism can160be160enlightened moderatedand one reasons nationalism never quite gotten away us way european forms sometimes haveis simultaneous concreteness abstraction nationalism devotion people devoted set ideas ideas arent matters people forgetting right sometimes great failing overly abstract idealistic americanism contributed lot failure politics recent years see particular immigration debates generally unrequited desire solidarity drives lot populism see ive taken point around recent years recently brexit vote ideas ideals nonetheless also crucial makes american nationalism force good also unites american nationalism american exceptionalism truly respect people without story rooted made us distinct ross douthat wrote insightfully challenge past weekend ideas always driven national life aspirational simply descriptive form abraham lincoln put standard maxim free society familiar revered constantly looked constantly labored even though never perfectly attained constantly approximated thereby constantly spreading deepening influence augmenting happiness value life people colors everywhere finding balance rather abstract conceptual nationalism concrete experiential nationalism essential healthy politics easy matter achieve see overabstraction actually danger threatens nationalism ideas nationalism home hearth nationalism purely love ones ones comes shorn content everyone something pure love ones renders everything equal denies claims preeminence ultimately love love america lovely deny simply see make america less lovely lose restraint upon nationalism limits loveliness make possible abstraction away interpersonal reality poses grave danger constructive nationalism balanced nationalism needs balanced sides concrete see balance might possible requires recourse point rich ramesh nicely highlight essay simply put nationalism understood opposed localism opposed globalism way broaden scope community constrain two hamiltonian nationalism progressive nationalism arose small measure response progressive federalism century ago opposed localism pointed toward unlimited cosmopolitanism least instinct centralization laying new nationalism160in 1910 teddy roosevelt put way new nationalism puts national need sectional personal advantage impatient utter confusion results local legislatures attempting treat national issues local issues still impatient impotence springs division governmental powers impotence makes possible local selfishness legal cunning hired wealthy special interests bring national activities deadlock new nationalism regards executive power steward public welfare president obama warmly celebrated speech hundredth anniversary president trump often embodies spirit offers one rather obvious sense nationalism unifying force force solidarity trump suggested inaugural contemporary nationalism actually least frequently understood counterforce localism globalism indeed form nationalism extension localism protector way would tend moderate nationalism rich ramesh put elements american nationalism trump scants moderating influences push direction decentralization localism rather allpowerful central government appropriately situate loyalty nation within set concentric circles concern starting family ending globe friend dimitrios halikias recently laid two concepts nationalism way help clarify distinctions wrote first concept nationalism national greatness nationalism building high traveling far lasting glory heroic accomplishment emancipating slaves enslaving freemen sort nationalism underlying common lament dont big things anymore second concept nationalism cultural particularism nationalism builds tangible life identifies nation embodiment distinctive culture set mores sort nationalism described properly traditionalist conservative progressive forms nationalism national greatnessand witness also third form trumps rhetoric neither quite conservative exactly progressive nationalism cultural particularism really conservative form whatever name might go crucial american conservatism also seems kind nationalism effectively enduringly serve cause national unity ultimately inseparable american exceptionalism take kind nationalism rich ramesh seek hold im hopeful might kind constructive direction recovery nationalism time could ultimately take isnt starting thats worth taking seriously yuval levin hertog fellow ethics public policy center | 1,184 |
<p>The biggest story of the 2008 campaign so far may not be the fall or rise of any candidate, but the quick and quiet decline of the war on terror as a bone of political contention. Supposedly, the terror war is yesterday's news, and in any case a losing issue for the Republicans in 2008. Yet this newly congealing conventional wisdom is mistaken. Republicans can win this election on national security. In fact, with its <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10608425" type="external">cover story</a> this week, The Economist has dropped the winning argument into Republican laps, if only we have the guts and smarts to use it.</p>
<p>The success of the surge and the media's aversion to that success have driven Iraq from the front pages. Putting aside the question of media bias, the fact is, Americans are weary of Iraq, and tired as well of our internal battles over the war. The public may be relieved at Iraq's comparative turnaround, yet there's still a feeling that the war was a mistake — or at least enough of a problem to cast doubt on hawkish solutions.</p>
<p>Still, the public worries about the perilous state of the world. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the vision of a chaotic, nuclear-armed Pakistan falling into Islamist hands electrified Americans and reminded them of the stakes in the overall war against terror. The public understands that Islamist extremism in a world of nuclear proliferation is still the greatest threat to our safety. Even so, Americans remain weary of what seem like ill-chosen battles, and eager for a break from having to think about war at all. That is the reality of our current mood — which doesn't mean the war can't return as an issue, only that there has to be a good reason.</p>
<p>Well, there is a good reason, and it's called Iran. Of course, last December's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), by claiming that Iran has long-since abandoned its nuclear weapons program, effectively took the Bush administration's military option in Iran off the table, thereby letting the air out of national security as a campaign issue. Rudy Giuliani's ill-fated release of a campaign ad on the Iranian threat, just as the NIE report broke, marked the moment of political transition. Since then, Iran has been AWOL from our public debates, and with it the most fateful and pressing decision in the broader war against terror.</p>
<p>There's just one problem. The NIE report is misleading and mendacious nonsense. What's more, our very hardly-neocon European allies are just now waking up to that fact. The Economist's “Has Iran Won?” cover story (consisting of both an opinion piece and an extended issue briefing) makes it clear that the clean bill of health so misleadingly granted Iran by the NIE has effectively unraveled five years of painstaking European diplomacy. According to The Economist, the NIE report was a huge mistake — an intellectually distorted product that has not only left Europe's diplomats angry and despondent but has killed the once genuine prospect of cooperation from Russia and China, and left Iran in position for a nuclear breakout during the next presidential term. The title of The Economist's extended analysis gives a feel for this remarkable <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10601584" type="external">cover story</a>: “As the enrichment machines spin on: How America's own intelligence services have brought international policy on Iran to the edge of collapse.”</p>
<p>The emerging diplomatic disaster spawned by the NIE report, which is increasingly recognized as misleading, raises the prospect of flipping the current political dynamic. The NIE had seemed to confirm the dovish Democratic line: Fears of Iran are greatly exaggerated. So let's drop our guns, hand the problem back to the diplomats (especially those helpful Europeans), and concentrate on domestic issues instead.</p>
<p>Yet, as the truth about the NIE report emerges from decidedly non-neocon sources like The Economist, it's increasingly clear that the real NIE story is actually a Republican warning come true. Dovish intelligence analysts eager to discredit the administration and tie its hands have not only distorted and betrayed the truth about Iran, they have undercut and infuriated the very European diplomats America's doves look to for approval and assistance. The NIE lied. Europe's peacemakers cried. Seizing on this story could bring national security back into the heart of this election campaign — and for all the right reasons.</p>
<p>No one's saying the NIE's author's intended to harm America or to help Iran get the bomb. This is more a “shoot-yourself-in-the-foot” narrative than a “stab-in-the-back” one, where ham-handed attempts by dovish bureaucrats to influence policy ended up distorting intelligence and inadvertently harming the West's diplomatic efforts. The Economist calls the NIE an “own goal,” as when a soccer player accidentally scores against his own team. The upshot is that it's not the hawks, but bureaucratic doves, who can justly be accused of distorting intelligence for political reasons. Nor is The Economist shy about pointing up how Democrats have foolishly allowed their opposition to the president to play into Iranian hands: “Presuming Mr. Bush's guns to be now truly spiked, his critics at home are cheering along with the Iranians.” Up to now, the NIE report has killed Iran as a campaign issue. Yet The Economist's cover story shows that the NIE report itself is the issue — and a winning one for Republicans.</p>
<p />
<p>Calling for a preemptive strike on Iran may be a losing political play right now — but the Republican nominee need not do that. Yes, we've got to put at least the possibility of a strike against Iran back on the table. Keeping the military option alive is actually the best way to stop Iran's bomb, short of war. This ought to have been obvious before, but it's now been proven in practice. The collapse of our military option in Iran — thanks to the NIE's distortions — has destroyed our diplomatic option, as well. That fact creates a genuinely teachable foreign-policy moment.</p>
<p>We've heard it claimed that Europe's vaunted soft power actually depends upon the hard fact of American military protection. Europe's emerging diplomatic disaster on Iran proves it. Take America's military option in Iran off the table, and the Iranians will have their bomb — quite possibly before the end of the next presidential term. The best way to “give peace a chance” in Iran is to keep a realistic threat of war in reserve. A Republican nominee ought to be able to say this, without claiming that war is inevitable. On the contrary, the point is that only a tough stand on force has any hope of solving the crisis by purely diplomatic means.</p>
<p>When I hear Democrats enthusing privately about this election, one of their thrills is imagining how impressed our European allies will be to see a bunch of supposed American troglodytes electing a woman or an African-American as president. That'll show those Europeans how sophisticated we are! The problem is that the West doesn't need another Europe. What the West really needs is an American tough cop who can place an iron fist inside Europe's velvet glove. That, of course, is precisely what Republicans supply.</p>
<p>Not that The Economist is calling for a tougher Iran policy. On the contrary, exasperated as The Economist may be by the NIE fiasco, the magazine is now seemingly prepared to give away the store. The Economist wants the administration to drop its dema nd that Iran stop enriching uranium before talks get under way, then quickly offer the mullahs a “grand bargain” for an overall peace. They remain skeptical of a deal, however, since they grant that Iran is in no mood to negotiate, and is in any case likely to use drawn-out talks as a cover to finish its bomb.</p>
<p>Yet it's certainly impressive that so relatively dovish a magazine now confirms conservative complaints about the NIE in every other respect. In contrast to the NIE, The Economist is clear that the real threat from Iran is not the supposedly suspended weaponization program, which can quickly be restarted and completed, but the uranium-enrichment program that Iran is carrying out in open defiance of the world. “Whether by accident or design,” says The Economist, “the [NIE] report was written in such a way that allowed the finding about weaponisation to suck attention away from the uranium work….” The Economist even takes International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed El Baradei to task for undercutting U.N. diplomacy, and for perhaps even hiding the truth about Iran's nuclear plans — all for the sake of frustrating America's hawks. And the magazine's reporting is clearly based on extensive discussions with European diplomats deeply angered by what they view as a seriously distorted and damaging intelligence report.</p>
<p>Given this, an aggressive attack on the NIE by the Republican nominee can successfully bring national security back into the center of campaign 2008. Whether the Republican standard-bearer is John McCain or not, the nominee will not have President Bush's credibility problem on intelligence issues. What's more, the demonstrably misleading and diplomatically disastrous NIE will not survive sustained scrutiny. Not only will an aggressive Republican attack on the NIE effectively revive the Iran issue, it will teach a powerful lesson about the dangers of overenthusiastic dovishness.</p>
<p>If the Republican nominee does go after the NIE, what will the Democrats say in response? If the Dems defend the report, they'll look bad, because the NIE is in truth deeply misleading and has severely damaged international diplomacy on Iran. Even The Economist says so. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell <a href="http://www.nysun.com/article/70818" type="external">distanced himself</a> from his own agency's findings just this Tuesday. If, on the other hand, the Democrats should agree that the NIE has some serious problems, Republicans still come out on top.</p>
<p>If either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama agreed with the Republican nominee that the Iranian threat is far more real and proximate than the NIE report implies, that would be major news, and would surely return the Iran issue to the heart of the campaign. The Republican nominee would then have the advantage. Better still, general agreement from both nominees that the NIE report is flawed would simultaneously put the military option back on the table and kick-start our failing efforts to solve the Iran problem without force. That would be very good indeed, and not just for the Republicans, but for the country as a whole.</p>
<p>So in effect, the willingness of the Republican nominee to openly and aggressively challenge the NIE report would give a real-time demonstration of how toughness in the war on terror brings results. Whether the Democrats run a “grand bargain” strategy or an “I'm tough, too” gambit in reply, this is a game they can't win.</p>
<p>Ultimately, however, the real reason that the NIE report is a winning issue is that the threat of a nuclear Iran is all-too-real. The Economist reports that the Iranians could have enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb by 2009, the very first year of the new president's term, and by 2010–2015 at the latest. The Iran bomb issue is therefore likely to dominate the next administration. Given that, our presidential nominees have both a right and an obligation to explain how they intend to handle this issue.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>— Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the <a href="" type="internal">Ethics and Public Policy Center</a> and an NRO contributing editor.</p> | false | 1 | biggest story 2008 campaign far may fall rise candidate quick quiet decline war terror bone political contention supposedly terror war yesterdays news case losing issue republicans 2008 yet newly congealing conventional wisdom mistaken republicans win election national security fact cover story week economist dropped winning argument republican laps guts smarts use success surge medias aversion success driven iraq front pages putting aside question media bias fact americans weary iraq tired well internal battles war public may relieved iraqs comparative turnaround yet theres still feeling war mistake least enough problem cast doubt hawkish solutions still public worries perilous state world assassination benazir bhutto vision chaotic nucleararmed pakistan falling islamist hands electrified americans reminded stakes overall war terror public understands islamist extremism world nuclear proliferation still greatest threat safety even americans remain weary seem like illchosen battles eager break think war reality current mood doesnt mean war cant return issue good reason well good reason called iran course last decembers national intelligence estimate nie claiming iran longsince abandoned nuclear weapons program effectively took bush administrations military option iran table thereby letting air national security campaign issue rudy giulianis illfated release campaign ad iranian threat nie report broke marked moment political transition since iran awol public debates fateful pressing decision broader war terror theres one problem nie report misleading mendacious nonsense whats hardlyneocon european allies waking fact economists iran cover story consisting opinion piece extended issue briefing makes clear clean bill health misleadingly granted iran nie effectively unraveled five years painstaking european diplomacy according economist nie report huge mistake intellectually distorted product left europes diplomats angry despondent killed genuine prospect cooperation russia china left iran position nuclear breakout next presidential term title economists extended analysis gives feel remarkable cover story enrichment machines spin americas intelligence services brought international policy iran edge collapse emerging diplomatic disaster spawned nie report increasingly recognized misleading raises prospect flipping current political dynamic nie seemed confirm dovish democratic line fears iran greatly exaggerated lets drop guns hand problem back diplomats especially helpful europeans concentrate domestic issues instead yet truth nie report emerges decidedly nonneocon sources like economist increasingly clear real nie story actually republican warning come true dovish intelligence analysts eager discredit administration tie hands distorted betrayed truth iran undercut infuriated european diplomats americas doves look approval assistance nie lied europes peacemakers cried seizing story could bring national security back heart election campaign right reasons ones saying nies authors intended harm america help iran get bomb shootyourselfinthefoot narrative stabintheback one hamhanded attempts dovish bureaucrats influence policy ended distorting intelligence inadvertently harming wests diplomatic efforts economist calls nie goal soccer player accidentally scores team upshot hawks bureaucratic doves justly accused distorting intelligence political reasons economist shy pointing democrats foolishly allowed opposition president play iranian hands presuming mr bushs guns truly spiked critics home cheering along iranians nie report killed iran campaign issue yet economists cover story shows nie report issue winning one republicans calling preemptive strike iran may losing political play right republican nominee need yes weve got put least possibility strike iran back table keeping military option alive actually best way stop irans bomb short war ought obvious proven practice collapse military option iran thanks nies distortions destroyed diplomatic option well fact creates genuinely teachable foreignpolicy moment weve heard claimed europes vaunted soft power actually depends upon hard fact american military protection europes emerging diplomatic disaster iran proves take americas military option iran table iranians bomb quite possibly end next presidential term best way give peace chance iran keep realistic threat war reserve republican nominee ought able say without claiming war inevitable contrary point tough stand force hope solving crisis purely diplomatic means hear democrats enthusing privately election one thrills imagining impressed european allies see bunch supposed american troglodytes electing woman africanamerican president thatll show europeans sophisticated problem west doesnt need another europe west really needs american tough cop place iron fist inside europes velvet glove course precisely republicans supply economist calling tougher iran policy contrary exasperated economist may nie fiasco magazine seemingly prepared give away store economist wants administration drop dema nd iran stop enriching uranium talks get way quickly offer mullahs grand bargain overall peace remain skeptical deal however since grant iran mood negotiate case likely use drawnout talks cover finish bomb yet certainly impressive relatively dovish magazine confirms conservative complaints nie every respect contrast nie economist clear real threat iran supposedly suspended weaponization program quickly restarted completed uraniumenrichment program iran carrying open defiance world whether accident design says economist nie report written way allowed finding weaponisation suck attention away uranium work economist even takes international atomic energy agency head mohamed el baradei task undercutting un diplomacy perhaps even hiding truth irans nuclear plans sake frustrating americas hawks magazines reporting clearly based extensive discussions european diplomats deeply angered view seriously distorted damaging intelligence report given aggressive attack nie republican nominee successfully bring national security back center campaign 2008 whether republican standardbearer john mccain nominee president bushs credibility problem intelligence issues whats demonstrably misleading diplomatically disastrous nie survive sustained scrutiny aggressive republican attack nie effectively revive iran issue teach powerful lesson dangers overenthusiastic dovishness republican nominee go nie democrats say response dems defend report theyll look bad nie truth deeply misleading severely damaged international diplomacy iran even economist says national intelligence director mike mcconnell distanced agencys findings tuesday hand democrats agree nie serious problems republicans still come top either hillary clinton barack obama agreed republican nominee iranian threat far real proximate nie report implies would major news would surely return iran issue heart campaign republican nominee would advantage better still general agreement nominees nie report flawed would simultaneously put military option back table kickstart failing efforts solve iran problem without force would good indeed republicans country whole effect willingness republican nominee openly aggressively challenge nie report would give realtime demonstration toughness war terror brings results whether democrats run grand bargain strategy im tough gambit reply game cant win ultimately however real reason nie report winning issue threat nuclear iran alltooreal economist reports iranians could enough highly enriched uranium bomb 2009 first year new presidents term 20102015 latest iran bomb issue therefore likely dominate next administration given presidential nominees right obligation explain intend handle issue 160 stanley kurtz senior fellow ethics public policy center nro contributing editor | 1,038 |
<p>For connoisseurs of stem-cell spin, recent weeks have offered a feast. In its April 2006 issue, the journal Nature Biotechnology published a short paper entitled “An international gap in human ES [embryonic-stem] cell research.” (It’s <a href="http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v24/n4/full/nbt0406-391.html" type="external">online here</a>, but a subscription is required.) The authors, Jason Owen-Smith of the University of Michigan and Jennifer McCormick of Stanford, carefully reviewed all scientific publications involving the use or derivation of human embryonic-stem-cells, starting with the very first paper in 1998 and ending just over a year ago.</p>
<p>Their aim, very clear in the tone and tenor of the text, was to show that American stem-cell scientists were falling behind their counterparts abroad, and that the Bush administration’s funding policy was to blame. “Expanding the purview of federal [human embryonic-stem] cell funding can still prevent the United States from slipping off the leading edge of developments in this vital field,” the authors write. A <a href="http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2006/Apr06/r040606b" type="external">press release accompanying the article</a> breathlessly proclaims that “the fear that United States researchers might lose ground to their international counterparts in human embryonic stem cell research now appears to have become a fact.”</p>
<p>What Fall?</p>
<p>Coverage of the study took much the same tone. “The United States is falling behind other countries in human embryonic-stem-cell research,” <a href="http://www.upi.com/HealthBusiness/view.php?StoryID=20060407-023128-6458r" type="external">reported UPI</a>. The Washington Post began <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040601763.html" type="external">its brief report</a> on the study by telling its readers “American scientists are falling behind researchers elsewhere in stem cell discoveries because of U.S. limits on the use of federal funding, a study has found.”</p>
<p>The study itself, however, tells a very different story. Owen-Smith and McCormick reviewed the 132 human embryonic-stem-cell articles published in 55 scientific journals since 1998. Far from showing the United States lagging behind in the field, they found that American scientists had by far the most publications — 46 percent of the total, while the other 54 percent were divided among scientists from 17 other countries. They also found that the number of papers in the field published by Americans has increased each year, with a particularly notable growth spurt beginning in 2002.</p>
<p>How, then, to support the image of Americans “falling behind”? The best the authors could do was to note that, as their accompanying press release claims, “human embryonic stem cell research has been accelerating at a faster pace internationally.” They point out that while in 2002 a third of the papers published in the world came from the U.S., in 2004 only a quarter did. Their data also show, however, that in 2002 there were only 10 papers published on human embryonic stem cells (of which 3 were American), while in 2004 there were 77 papers, of which 20 were American. So the number of American publications in the field was nearly seven times greater in 2004 than it was in 2002—a trend that hardly supports the image of research stifled or held back by government policy.</p>
<p>To advance the perception of American science in crisis, Owen-Smith and McCormick compare the output of American scientists to that of their counterparts in the rest of the world combined, hoping to obscure the inconvenient fact that no single country comes close to challenging America’s dominance of embryonic stem-cell research.</p>
<p>Another recent study, <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23240/" type="external">highlighted by The Scientist magazine</a> in March 2006, found the same to be the case in the larger field of stem-cell research. Between 2000 and 2004, 42 percent of all scientific publications in stem-cell research were by Americans. Our nearest competitor was Germany, far behind with only 10 percent of the total.</p>
<p>But the most extraordinary aspect of the Owen-Smith and McCormick study — which the authors conveniently and deliberately fail to highlight — was what it said about the use of those embryonic-stem-cell lines approved for federal funding under President Bush’s 2001 policy. Besides claiming that America is falling behind, critics of the Bush policy have argued relentlessly that the presidentially approved lines are inadequate or even useless. But this claim is also severely undermined by the study.</p>
<p>Grudgingly, and almost in passing, Owen-Smith and McCormick note that “Only 14.4% (19) of publications described the use or derivation of lines not approved by the NIH.” In other words, more than 85 percent of all the published embryonic-stem-cell research in the world has used the lines approved for funding under the Bush policy. Since this is almost twice the number of papers published by Americans, it is clear that a great deal of the work done abroad has also involved these lines, even though most of it could not have been funded by the NIH. The lines are used, in other words, because they are useful, not only because they are eligible for federal support.</p>
<p>Many critics of the Bush policy claim that the Bush lines are useless because they are contaminated with mouse-feeder cells. This claim also seems largely specious. Two recent studies have shown methods of culturing the NIH-funded lines that leave them free of all trace of animal materials. Discussing his company’s use of the Bush-approved lines, Geron CEO Tom Okarma <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,70521-0.html" type="external">recently told Wired News</a>, “the stuff you hear published that all of those lines are irrevocably contaminated with mouse materials and could never be used in people — hogwash. If you know how to grow them, they’re fine.”</p>
<p>Last month, the Wall Street Journal (online <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114408338880315415-search.html" type="external">here</a>; subscription required) reported similar sentiments from other researchers in the field. While scientists would always welcome more funding for their work (who wouldn’t?), those reached by the Journal seem not to see Bush’s policy as the intolerable impediment his political opponents suggest it is. “There is a lot going on in the U.S.,” said Renee Reijo-Pera, co-director of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Center at the University of California, San Francisco. “The official story [of stem-cell advocates] is how we are falling behind in tragedy and dismay. And I don’t think that is the case.”</p>
<p>More the Numbers</p>
<p>Of course, the argument for the Bush administration’s funding policy does not finally rest on scientific utility but on moral and democratic principle. As the president <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050524-12.html" type="external">has put it</a>: “We should not use public money to support the further destruction of human life.” This means that some types of research, even if beneficial, should never be conducted with federal dollars. The current limit would not move — and the moral principle it upholds would not change — even if it were true that it “crippled” American stem-cell science. And supporters of the Bush policy should be up-front about the fact that some useful research may not advance as quickly or at all, at least in America, because of such limits. Surely more could be done, and more quickly, if more public dollars were spent on more lines — that is, if the profound ethical dilemmas involved were simply ignored.</p>
<p>That said, it is dishonest to obscure the useful research that the Bush policy has indeed facilitated, and disingenuous to claim that America is “falling behind” when it remains, by far, the world’s leader in stem-cell science. Rather than make the narrow case for funding embryo-destructive research, many opponents of the Bush policy zealously claim that the Bush policy “stops” all useful research. In doing so, they wrongly suggest that scientific advance and ethical boundaries are fundamentally opposed to one another, or they ignore the moral issue entirely, treating stem-cell policy as if it were entirely a scientific question to be settled by scientific data.</p>
<p>The point of the Bush policy, for all its many limitations and drawbacks, is to show that science can proceed without violating human dignity or destroying nascent human life, even if it cannot proceed as quickly and by as many simultaneous routes. The choice it offers is not between science and ethics, but between a devotion to science and health so total that it abandons all ethical limits, and a devotion to science and health balanced and constrained by a respect for human equality and dignity, and committed to a culture of life largely understood.</p>
<p>Opponents of the policy usually avoid taking on that basic ethical principle, and so they have offered up various practical arguments against the scientific utility of the policy: the lines are contaminated, there are not enough to support research, they are causing American researchers to fall behind their foreign counterparts. Being practical arguments, these assertions must stand up to factual scrutiny. And so far, the evidence suggests they mostly do not.</p>
<p>One can make reasonable arguments for a more permissive funding policy; one cannot reasonably claim that the policy is wreaking havoc on American science, or that America is becoming backward because only private dollars or state funds are available for the derivation of stem cells from destroyed human embryos. To make such a claim is not science or even the rational defense of science; it is fundamentalism in the name of science, employing the most unscientific means imaginable: playing with the data to advance one’s cause.</p>
<p>All things considered, the Bush policy still looks reasonable as it approaches its five-year anniversary. It is helping useful science advance without making embryo destruction a national project and without trampling on the deepest values of those citizens who believe (with good rational arguments) that embryo destruction is a grave wrong. The fight over the policy has also shown, sadly, that the self-proclaimed defenders of reason cannot always be counted on to be reasonable themselves.</p>
<p>—Eric Cohen is editor of <a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/" type="external">The New Atlantis</a> and director of the program on Bioethics and American Democracy at the <a href="" type="internal">Ethics and Public Policy Center</a>.</p> | false | 1 | connoisseurs stemcell spin recent weeks offered feast april 2006 issue journal nature biotechnology published short paper entitled international gap human es embryonicstem cell research online subscription required authors jason owensmith university michigan jennifer mccormick stanford carefully reviewed scientific publications involving use derivation human embryonicstemcells starting first paper 1998 ending year ago aim clear tone tenor text show american stemcell scientists falling behind counterparts abroad bush administrations funding policy blame expanding purview federal human embryonicstem cell funding still prevent united states slipping leading edge developments vital field authors write press release accompanying article breathlessly proclaims fear united states researchers might lose ground international counterparts human embryonic stem cell research appears become fact fall coverage study took much tone united states falling behind countries human embryonicstemcell research reported upi washington post began brief report study telling readers american scientists falling behind researchers elsewhere stem cell discoveries us limits use federal funding study found study however tells different story owensmith mccormick reviewed 132 human embryonicstemcell articles published 55 scientific journals since 1998 far showing united states lagging behind field found american scientists far publications 46 percent total 54 percent divided among scientists 17 countries also found number papers field published americans increased year particularly notable growth spurt beginning 2002 support image americans falling behind best authors could note accompanying press release claims human embryonic stem cell research accelerating faster pace internationally point 2002 third papers published world came us 2004 quarter data also show however 2002 10 papers published human embryonic stem cells 3 american 2004 77 papers 20 american number american publications field nearly seven times greater 2004 2002a trend hardly supports image research stifled held back government policy advance perception american science crisis owensmith mccormick compare output american scientists counterparts rest world combined hoping obscure inconvenient fact single country comes close challenging americas dominance embryonic stemcell research another recent study highlighted scientist magazine march 2006 found case larger field stemcell research 2000 2004 42 percent scientific publications stemcell research americans nearest competitor germany far behind 10 percent total extraordinary aspect owensmith mccormick study authors conveniently deliberately fail highlight said use embryonicstemcell lines approved federal funding president bushs 2001 policy besides claiming america falling behind critics bush policy argued relentlessly presidentially approved lines inadequate even useless claim also severely undermined study grudgingly almost passing owensmith mccormick note 144 19 publications described use derivation lines approved nih words 85 percent published embryonicstemcell research world used lines approved funding bush policy since almost twice number papers published americans clear great deal work done abroad also involved lines even though could funded nih lines used words useful eligible federal support many critics bush policy claim bush lines useless contaminated mousefeeder cells claim also seems largely specious two recent studies shown methods culturing nihfunded lines leave free trace animal materials discussing companys use bushapproved lines geron ceo tom okarma recently told wired news stuff hear published lines irrevocably contaminated mouse materials could never used people hogwash know grow theyre fine last month wall street journal online subscription required reported similar sentiments researchers field scientists would always welcome funding work wouldnt reached journal seem see bushs policy intolerable impediment political opponents suggest lot going us said renee reijopera codirector human embryonic stem cell center university california san francisco official story stemcell advocates falling behind tragedy dismay dont think case numbers course argument bush administrations funding policy finally rest scientific utility moral democratic principle president put use public money support destruction human life means types research even beneficial never conducted federal dollars current limit would move moral principle upholds would change even true crippled american stemcell science supporters bush policy upfront fact useful research may advance quickly least america limits surely could done quickly public dollars spent lines profound ethical dilemmas involved simply ignored said dishonest obscure useful research bush policy indeed facilitated disingenuous claim america falling behind remains far worlds leader stemcell science rather make narrow case funding embryodestructive research many opponents bush policy zealously claim bush policy stops useful research wrongly suggest scientific advance ethical boundaries fundamentally opposed one another ignore moral issue entirely treating stemcell policy entirely scientific question settled scientific data point bush policy many limitations drawbacks show science proceed without violating human dignity destroying nascent human life even proceed quickly many simultaneous routes choice offers science ethics devotion science health total abandons ethical limits devotion science health balanced constrained respect human equality dignity committed culture life largely understood opponents policy usually avoid taking basic ethical principle offered various practical arguments scientific utility policy lines contaminated enough support research causing american researchers fall behind foreign counterparts practical arguments assertions must stand factual scrutiny far evidence suggests mostly one make reasonable arguments permissive funding policy one reasonably claim policy wreaking havoc american science america becoming backward private dollars state funds available derivation stem cells destroyed human embryos make claim science even rational defense science fundamentalism name science employing unscientific means imaginable playing data advance ones cause things considered bush policy still looks reasonable approaches fiveyear anniversary helping useful science advance without making embryo destruction national project without trampling deepest values citizens believe good rational arguments embryo destruction grave wrong fight policy also shown sadly selfproclaimed defenders reason always counted reasonable eric cohen editor new atlantis director program bioethics american democracy ethics public policy center | 879 |
<p>The only important question is whether there is sufficient good left in the world to resist and overcome Washington’s evil.</p>
<p>“The problem is that the world has listened to Americans for far too bloody long.” — Dr. Julian Osborne, from the 2000 film version of Nevil Shute’s 1957 book, On the Beach</p>
<p>A reader asked why neoconservatives push toward nuclear war when there can be no winners. If all die, what is the point?</p>
<p>The answer is that the neoconservatives believe that the US can win at minimum and perhaps zero damage.</p>
<p>Their insane plan is as follows: Washington will ring Russia and China with anti-ballistic missile bases in order to provide a shield against a retaliatory strike from Russia and China. Moreover, these US anti-ABM bases also can deploy nuclear attack missiles unknown to Russia and China, thus reducing the warning time to five minutes, leaving Washington’s victims little or no time in which to make a decision.</p>
<p>The neoconservatives think that Washington’s first strike will so badly damage the Russian and Chinese retaliatory capabilities that both governments will surrender rather than launch a response. The Russian and Chinese leaderships would conclude that their diminished forces leave little chance that many of their ICBMs will be able to get past Washington’s ABM shield, leaving the US largely intact. A feeble retaliation by Russia and China would simply invite a second wave US nuclear attack that would obliterate Russian and Chinese cities, killing millions and leaving both countries in ruins.</p>
<p>In short, the American warmongers are betting that the Russian and Chinese leaderships would submit rather than risk total destruction.</p>
<p>There is no question that neoconservatives are sufficiently evil to launch a preemptive nuclear attack, but possibly the plan aims to put Russia and China into a situation in which their leaders conclude that the deck is stacked against them and, therefore, they must accept Washington’s hegemony.</p>
<p>To feel secure in its hegemony, Washington would have to order Russia and China to disarm.</p>
<p>This plan is full of risks. Miscalculations are a feature of war. It is reckless and irresponsible to risk the life of the planet for nothing more than Washington’s hegemony.</p>
<p>The neoconservative plan puts Europe, the UK, Japan, S. Korea, and Australia at high risk were Russia and China to retaliate. Washington’s ABM shield cannot protect Europe from Russia’s nuclear cruise missiles or from the Russian Air Force, so Europe would cease to exist. China’s response would hit Japan, S. Korea, and Australia.</p>
<p>The Russian hope and that of all sane people is that Washington’s vassals will understand that it is they that are at risk, a risk from which they have nothing to gain and everything to lose, repudiate their vassalage to Washington and remove the US bases. It must be clear to European politicians that they are being dragged into conflict with Russia. This week the NATO commander <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/387063-nato-counter-resurgent-russia/" type="external">told the US Congress</a> that he needed funding for a larger military presence in Europe in order to counter “a resurgent Russia.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Russia is “resurgent” because Russia is able to block US unilateral actions against some other countries.</p>
<p>This capability flies in the face of the neoconservative Wolfowitz doctrine, which says that the principal goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any country that can serve as a check on Washington’s unilateral action.</p>
<p>While the neocons were absorbed in their “cakewalk” wars that have now lasted 16 years, Russia and China emerged as checks on the unilateralism that Washington had enjoyed since the collapse of the Soviet Union. What Washington is trying to do is to recapture its ability to act worldwide without any constraint from any other country. This requires Russia and China to stand down.</p>
<p>Are Russia and China going to stand down? It is possible, but I would not bet the life of the planet on it. Both governments have a moral conscience that is totally missing in Washington. Neither government is intimidated by the Western propaganda. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov <a href="https://sputniknews.com/politics/201705041053274379-lavrov-russia-us-relations/" type="external">said yesterday</a> that we hear endless hysterical charges against Russia, but the charges are always vacant of any evidence.</p>
<p>Conceivably, Russia and China could sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake of life on earth. But this same moral conscience will propel them to oppose the evil that is Washington in order not to succumb to evil themselves. Therefore, I think that the evil that rules in Washington is leading the United States and its vassal states to total destruction.</p>
<p>Having convinced the Russian and Chinese leaderships that Washington intends to nuke their countries in a surprise attack ( <a href="http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/04/us-forces-preparing-sudden-nuclear.html" type="external">see here</a>, for example), the question is how do Russia and China respond? Do they sit there and await an attack, or do they preempt Washington’s attack with an attack of their own?</p>
<p>What would you do? Would you preserve your life by submitting to evil, or would you destroy the evil?</p>
<p>Writing truthfully results in my name being put on lists (financed by whom?) as a “Russian dupe/agent.” Actually, I am an agent of all people who disapprove of Washington’s willingness to use nuclear war in order to establish Washington’s hegemony over the world, but let us understand what it means to be a “Russian agent.”</p>
<p>It means to respect international law, which Washington does not. It means to respect life, which Washington does not. It means to respect the national interests of other countries, which Washington does not. It means to respond to provocations with diplomacy and requests for cooperation, which Washington does not. But Russia does. Clearly, a “Russian agent” is a moral person who wants to preserve life and the national identity and dignity of other peoples.</p>
<p>It is Washington that wants to snuff out human morality and become the master of the planet. As I have previously written, Washington without any question is Sauron. The only important question is whether there is sufficient good left in the world to resist and overcome Washington’s evil.</p> | false | 1 | important question whether sufficient good left world resist overcome washingtons evil problem world listened americans far bloody long dr julian osborne 2000 film version nevil shutes 1957 book beach reader asked neoconservatives push toward nuclear war winners die point answer neoconservatives believe us win minimum perhaps zero damage insane plan follows washington ring russia china antiballistic missile bases order provide shield retaliatory strike russia china moreover us antiabm bases also deploy nuclear attack missiles unknown russia china thus reducing warning time five minutes leaving washingtons victims little time make decision neoconservatives think washingtons first strike badly damage russian chinese retaliatory capabilities governments surrender rather launch response russian chinese leaderships would conclude diminished forces leave little chance many icbms able get past washingtons abm shield leaving us largely intact feeble retaliation russia china would simply invite second wave us nuclear attack would obliterate russian chinese cities killing millions leaving countries ruins short american warmongers betting russian chinese leaderships would submit rather risk total destruction question neoconservatives sufficiently evil launch preemptive nuclear attack possibly plan aims put russia china situation leaders conclude deck stacked therefore must accept washingtons hegemony feel secure hegemony washington would order russia china disarm plan full risks miscalculations feature war reckless irresponsible risk life planet nothing washingtons hegemony neoconservative plan puts europe uk japan korea australia high risk russia china retaliate washingtons abm shield protect europe russias nuclear cruise missiles russian air force europe would cease exist chinas response would hit japan korea australia russian hope sane people washingtons vassals understand risk risk nothing gain everything lose repudiate vassalage washington remove us bases must clear european politicians dragged conflict russia week nato commander told us congress needed funding larger military presence europe order counter resurgent russia russia resurgent russia able block us unilateral actions countries capability flies face neoconservative wolfowitz doctrine says principal goal us foreign policy prevent rise country serve check washingtons unilateral action neocons absorbed cakewalk wars lasted 16 years russia china emerged checks unilateralism washington enjoyed since collapse soviet union washington trying recapture ability act worldwide without constraint country requires russia china stand russia china going stand possible would bet life planet governments moral conscience totally missing washington neither government intimidated western propaganda russian foreign minister lavrov said yesterday hear endless hysterical charges russia charges always vacant evidence conceivably russia china could sacrifice sovereignty sake life earth moral conscience propel oppose evil washington order succumb evil therefore think evil rules washington leading united states vassal states total destruction convinced russian chinese leaderships washington intends nuke countries surprise attack see example question russia china respond sit await attack preempt washingtons attack attack would would preserve life submitting evil would destroy evil writing truthfully results name put lists financed russian dupeagent actually agent people disapprove washingtons willingness use nuclear war order establish washingtons hegemony world let us understand means russian agent means respect international law washington means respect life washington means respect national interests countries washington means respond provocations diplomacy requests cooperation washington russia clearly russian agent moral person wants preserve life national identity dignity peoples washington wants snuff human morality become master planet previously written washington without question sauron important question whether sufficient good left world resist overcome washingtons evil | 534 |
<p>Anders Lee scored twice and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Tavares/" type="external">John Tavares</a> picked up two assists and added an empty-net goal as the New York Islanders knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 5-3 victory on Saturday night at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Josh_Bailey/" type="external">Josh Bailey</a> had three assists, Brock Nelson and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Andrew_Ladd/" type="external">Andrew Ladd</a> also scored, and Josh Bailey had two assists for New York. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Thomas-Greiss/" type="external">Thomas Greiss</a> stopped 36 shots in the win.</p>
<p>The Islanders have won three consecutive games for the second time this season.</p>
<p>Yanni Gourde scored twice and Ondrej Palat added one goal for Tampa Bay, which suffered its first regulation loss since Oct. 28. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots to suffer his first loss in regulation since Oct. 7 at Florida.</p>
<p>Blackhawks 2, Penguins 1</p>
<p>PITTSBURGH — Artem Anisimov scored the go-ahead goal as Chicago continued its dominating run against Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>Gustav Forsling also scored for Chicago, which has won eight in a row against Pittsburgh, including a 10-1 pasting in the teams’ first meeting this season on Oct. 5.</p>
<p>Anisimov’s goal in the second period came 21 seconds after Matt Hunwick scored short-handed to tie it for the Penguins.</p>
<p>It was the first home regulation loss for Pittsburgh, which is 6-1-1 at PPG Paints Arena.</p>
<p>Capitals 3, Wild 1</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — T.J. Oshie had a goal and an assist, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Braden-Holtby/" type="external">Braden Holtby</a> stopped 30 shots and Washington defeated Minnesota.</p>
<p>Dmitry Orlov and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Evgeny-Kuznetsov/" type="external">Evgeny Kuznetsov</a> also had goals for Washington.</p>
<p>Nino Niederreiter scored for the Wild, who had a four-game winning streak stopped.</p>
<p>Alex Stalock, making his first start since Halloween, had 40 saves. Stalock stopped Chandler Stephensen’s penalty shot with 4:49 left to keep the Wild within 2-1. But a four-minute high sticking penalty on Minnesota’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ryan_Suter/" type="external">Ryan Suter</a> with 3:13 left led to Kuznetsov’s clincher with 2:37 remaining.</p>
<p>Washington’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alex_Ovechkin/" type="external">Alex Ovechkin</a> left the game with 11:00 left in the second period after taking a puck to the face.</p>
<p>Hurricanes 3, Sabres 1</p>
<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. — Sebastian Aho scored the go-ahead goal with 4:45 remaining to lead Carolina over Buffalo.</p>
<p>After a mistake by Justin Falk, who mishandled a bouncing puck, Aho grabbed the puck and raced toward the Buffalo net. He beat <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Robin-Lehner/" type="external">Robin Lehner</a> with a wrist shot.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Justin_Williams/" type="external">Justin Williams</a> and Joakim Nordstrom (empty-netter) also scored for the Hurricane. Scott Darling made 24 saves.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Evander_Kane/" type="external">Evander Kane</a> scored for Buffalo and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chad_Johnson/" type="external">Chad Johnson</a> stopped 30 shots.</p>
<p>Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 0</p>
<p>MONTREAL — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Frederik-Andersen/" type="external">Frederik Andersen</a> made 33 saves for his second straight shutout and Toronto beat Montreal for its sixth win in a row.</p>
<p>Andersen made 16 saves during a scoreless first period on his way to his 13th career shutout for Toronto, whose streak is their longest since December 2014.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Auston-Matthews/" type="external">Auston Matthews</a> scored twice in his return to the lineup after missing four games because of an upper-body injury.</p>
<p>Montreal has lost three straight (0-2-1) and is 1-3-1 in its past five games.</p>
<p>Flames 5, Flyers 4 (OT)</p>
<p>PHILADELPHIA — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sean-Monahan/" type="external">Sean Monahan</a> had his first career hat trick and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Frolik/" type="external">Michael Frolik</a> netted the game-winner 1:18 into overtime to lift Calgary past Philadelphia at the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wells_Fargo/" type="external">Wells Fargo</a> Center.</p>
<p>Johnny Gaudreau added a goal and two assists to extend his points streak to a career-high nine games for the Flames.</p>
<p>Goaltender <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mike_Smith/" type="external">Mike Smith</a>, who returned from an upper body injury, made 35 saves to earn his 10th win for the Flames, who have six wins in their last eight games.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Brandon_Manning/" type="external">Brandon Manning</a> and Ivan Provorov and Sean Couturier and Nolan Patrick scored for the Flyers, who lost for the fourth straight time.</p>
<p>Stars 6, Oilers 3</p>
<p>DALLAS — Antoine Roussel had a goal and two assists and Ben Bishop stopped all 18 shots he faced in relief of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kari_Lehtonen/" type="external">Kari Lehtonen</a> in Dallas’ win over Edmonton at American Airlines Center.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alexander_Radulov/" type="external">Alexander Radulov</a>, who also added an assist, Devin Shore, Radek Faksa, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jamie_Benn/" type="external">Jamie Benn</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jason_Spezza/" type="external">Jason Spezza</a> scored for Dallas, which is 7-2-0 at home.</p>
<p>Drake Caggiula had two goals and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Connor-McDavid/" type="external">Connor McDavid</a> had a goal and two assists for Edmonton.</p>
<p>Coyotes 3, Senators 2 (OT)</p>
<p>OTTAWA — Anthony Duclair scored his third goal of the game 1:22 into overtime to lift Arizona past Ottawa at Canadian Tire Centre.</p>
<p>Duclair’s shot from the right wing faceoff circle slipped past goalie Mike Condon and trickled over the goal line as the Coyotes won their second game in a row. His second goal at 11:32 of the third period had tied the score 2-2.</p>
<p>Mark Stone and Mark Borowiecki scored for the Senators, who lost their second straight.</p>
<p>Antti Raanta turned aside 30 shots for Arizona and Condon made 25 saves.</p>
<p>Kings 4, Panthers 0</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES — Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves for his eighth career shutout and Los Angeles ended a five-game losing streak at Staples Center with a win over Florida.</p>
<p>Kuemper improved 3-0-1 while making his fourth start of the season in place of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jonathan_Quick/" type="external">Jonathan Quick</a>, who had gotten the nod in each of the past five games. Kuemper posted his first shutout since a 3-0 victory against the Kings at Staples Center on Jan. 21, 2016.</p>
<p>Jonny Brodzinski scored his first NHL goal to give the Kings a 2-0 cushion at 2:23 of the third period. Tyler Toffoli scored during a delayed penalty at 8:14 of the first period, Andy Andreoff netted his first of the season and Trevor Lewis scored into an empty net with 2:53 remaining.</p>
<p>Jets 5, Devils 2</p>
<p>WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Winnipeg used a 95-second surge to score three second-period goals to blow open a tight game against New Jersey at Bell MTS Place.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Patrik-Laine/" type="external">Patrik Laine</a>, Jacob Trouba and Matt Hendricks scored in rapid succession and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 34 shots for his 11th win of the season. The Jets (12-4-3) also received goals from Mathieu Perreault and Kyle Connor.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cory-Schneider/" type="external">Cory Schneider</a> stopped 17 of 22 shots for the Devils before being pulled after the second period. Keith Kinkaid stopped 12 shots in relief.</p>
<p>Will Butcher and Brian Gibbons each scored a goal for New Jersey.</p> | false | 1 | anders lee scored twice john tavares picked two assists added emptynet goal new york islanders knocked tampa bay lightning 53 victory saturday night amalie arena tampa fla josh bailey three assists brock nelson andrew ladd also scored josh bailey two assists new york thomas greiss stopped 36 shots win islanders three consecutive games second time season yanni gourde scored twice ondrej palat added one goal tampa bay suffered first regulation loss since oct 28 andrei vasilevskiy stopped 27 shots suffer first loss regulation since oct 7 florida blackhawks 2 penguins 1 pittsburgh artem anisimov scored goahead goal chicago continued dominating run pittsburgh gustav forsling also scored chicago eight row pittsburgh including 101 pasting teams first meeting season oct 5 anisimovs goal second period came 21 seconds matt hunwick scored shorthanded tie penguins first home regulation loss pittsburgh 611 ppg paints arena capitals 3 wild 1 washington tj oshie goal assist braden holtby stopped 30 shots washington defeated minnesota dmitry orlov evgeny kuznetsov also goals washington nino niederreiter scored wild fourgame winning streak stopped alex stalock making first start since halloween 40 saves stalock stopped chandler stephensens penalty shot 449 left keep wild within 21 fourminute high sticking penalty minnesotas ryan suter 313 left led kuznetsovs clincher 237 remaining washingtons alex ovechkin left game 1100 left second period taking puck face hurricanes 3 sabres 1 buffalo ny sebastian aho scored goahead goal 445 remaining lead carolina buffalo mistake justin falk mishandled bouncing puck aho grabbed puck raced toward buffalo net beat robin lehner wrist shot justin williams joakim nordstrom emptynetter also scored hurricane scott darling made 24 saves evander kane scored buffalo chad johnson stopped 30 shots maple leafs 6 canadiens 0 montreal frederik andersen made 33 saves second straight shutout toronto beat montreal sixth win row andersen made 16 saves scoreless first period way 13th career shutout toronto whose streak longest since december 2014 auston matthews scored twice return lineup missing four games upperbody injury montreal lost three straight 021 131 past five games flames 5 flyers 4 ot philadelphia sean monahan first career hat trick michael frolik netted gamewinner 118 overtime lift calgary past philadelphia wells fargo center johnny gaudreau added goal two assists extend points streak careerhigh nine games flames goaltender mike smith returned upper body injury made 35 saves earn 10th win flames six wins last eight games brandon manning ivan provorov sean couturier nolan patrick scored flyers lost fourth straight time stars 6 oilers 3 dallas antoine roussel goal two assists ben bishop stopped 18 shots faced relief kari lehtonen dallas win edmonton american airlines center alexander radulov also added assist devin shore radek faksa jamie benn jason spezza scored dallas 720 home drake caggiula two goals connor mcdavid goal two assists edmonton coyotes 3 senators 2 ot ottawa anthony duclair scored third goal game 122 overtime lift arizona past ottawa canadian tire centre duclairs shot right wing faceoff circle slipped past goalie mike condon trickled goal line coyotes second game row second goal 1132 third period tied score 22 mark stone mark borowiecki scored senators lost second straight antti raanta turned aside 30 shots arizona condon made 25 saves kings 4 panthers 0 los angeles darcy kuemper made 24 saves eighth career shutout los angeles ended fivegame losing streak staples center win florida kuemper improved 301 making fourth start season place jonathan quick gotten nod past five games kuemper posted first shutout since 30 victory kings staples center jan 21 2016 jonny brodzinski scored first nhl goal give kings 20 cushion 223 third period tyler toffoli scored delayed penalty 814 first period andy andreoff netted first season trevor lewis scored empty net 253 remaining jets 5 devils 2 winnipeg manitoba winnipeg used 95second surge score three secondperiod goals blow open tight game new jersey bell mts place patrik laine jacob trouba matt hendricks scored rapid succession connor hellebuyck stopped 34 shots 11th win season jets 1243 also received goals mathieu perreault kyle connor cory schneider stopped 17 22 shots devils pulled second period keith kinkaid stopped 12 shots relief butcher brian gibbons scored goal new jersey | 681 |
<p />
<p>Nearly six months have passed since the Israeli army ceased pounding the tiny stretch of land that is the Gaza Strip. Since then, Gaza continues to appear on the news once in a while, as a recurring subject of human misery.</p>
<p>The tireless efforts of British MP George Galloway, and the courageous endeavors of the Free Gaza movement have managed to push Gaza back into the spotlight, even if momentarily and with political context which is lacking at best.</p>
<p>Aside from that, the three-week Israeli onslaught in Gaza starting on December 27, and the catastrophic conditions endured there, have served as a mere footnote in many news reports. The event is generally cited as such: "Israel moved against Hamas in Gaza to quell the firing of militants' rockets, resulting in the death of such and such number." Hamas, according to media conventional wisdom, is the "militant group that ousted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces in a bloody coup in mid 2007."</p>
<p>Sadly, one's worst fears have been realized, where the world of the post-Gaza massacre and that which existed before are exactly the same. Israel is trying to prove that political and military might overpower all human rights reports combined, and that public opinion, which turned against Israel as it wantonly killed and wounded thousands, will eventually turn back in Israel's favor.</p>
<p>One does not need to be an expert in the art of propaganda to predict that the public relations model would allow Israel to deceive millions into believing that the belligerent state is in fact a victim in a sea of hostile Arabs hell-bent on subjugating the Jewish State.</p>
<p>Thus it was hardly a deviation from the script when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a most shrewd term to depict his government's refusal to respect international law regarding the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, all considered illegal under international law; specifically, the Fourth Geneva Convention. He said during his recent trip to Germany that the West Bank will never be "Judenrein" a Nazi term meaning "cleansed of Jews".</p>
<p>And once again, Israel is resorting to its traditional propaganda (such as equating Palestinians with Nazis), drawing on people's historical sympathies, guilt and ignorance of false analogies.</p>
<p>Moreover, Israel's National Security Advisor Uzi Arad is in fact reviving the discredited Israeli rhetoric that Israel has no partner in peace, in comments made to Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Friday, July 10.</p>
<p>He questioned whether there is in fact a Palestinian leadership that is capable of delivering peace with Israel. If such a Palestinian state were to exist, say by 2015, according to Arad it would be a "fragile structure. A house of cards."</p>
<p>But he chose to omit that Israel purposely besieged and weakened the democratically elected Palestinian leadership in Gaza, while painstakingly propping and legitimizing Abbas.</p>
<p>Only Israel can cleverly spawn a dependent, weak leadership, and accuse the Palestinians of not being a worthy peace partner; only Israel can murder thousands of Palestinians and demand security from its victims; only Israel can caution of a Nazi past, yet cage Palestinians in concentration camps, punish them for recklessly subscribing to the wrong God, or foolishly falling into the wrong race.</p>
<p>It has been six months since the unprecedented and savage war against Palestinians in Gaza, and here we are making the same argument, referencing the same deceit and quoting the same outrageous claims.</p>
<p>During those same months, unsubstantiated Israeli accounts were countered with carefully composed reports by highly regarded organizations, such as the Red Cross, among others. Bombarded Gaza neighborhoods "look like the epicenter of a massive earthquake," said a recent Red Cross report, entitled: "Gaza: 1.5 million trapped in despair."</p>
<p>UN human rights envoy, Richard Falk summed up Israeli behavior in more direct terms, on Thursday, July 9. "There will be no peace between these two peoples, until Israel shows respect for Palestinian rights under international law," Professor Falk said.</p>
<p>Israeli leaders, however, pay no heed to international law. In fact there is little evidence that Israel's history was shaped, in any respect, by international standards, neither those pertaining to war nor peace. Israel only understands the language of politics and power. It is a state that has been constructed, and sustained upon Machiavellian wisdom.</p>
<p>Advisor Arad is perhaps the most visible manifestation of the logic that propels the Israeli state. In his recent interview, he demanded that once a state deal is reached with the Palestinians, Israel should be granted a NATO membership as a "quid pro quo". To counter nuclear threats by others, he said, Israel must have "tremendously powerful weapons".</p>
<p>Considering that Israel already has nuclear arms, one has to wonder to what other "tremendously powerful weapons" Arad is referring. &#160;Arad must've been encouraged by US Vice President Joe Biden who said in a recent interview with ABC's "This Week" that "If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursed now (by the US and its allies), that is their sovereign right to do that."</p>
<p>Once again, it is the brute logic that "might makes right" pursued by those with the bigger guns that continues to menace the Middle East, with Gaza being the most devastating example.</p>
<p>One must remember that Israel never heeds to statements, and is hardly moved by reports and random condemnations. Only pressure, constant and focused, will grab the attention of Israeli policymakers. Only the language of an international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions will translate in Tel Aviv to a legible political language.</p>
<p>As for Gaza, civil society must not wait for President Obama or any other to save the slowly starving population, but must take every possible and urgent effort to help an oppressed yet proud community to redeem its basic rights and freedom.</p> | false | 1 | nearly six months passed since israeli army ceased pounding tiny stretch land gaza strip since gaza continues appear news recurring subject human misery tireless efforts british mp george galloway courageous endeavors free gaza movement managed push gaza back spotlight even momentarily political context lacking best aside threeweek israeli onslaught gaza starting december 27 catastrophic conditions endured served mere footnote many news reports event generally cited israel moved hamas gaza quell firing militants rockets resulting death number hamas according media conventional wisdom militant group ousted palestinian president mahmoud abbas forces bloody coup mid 2007 sadly ones worst fears realized world postgaza massacre existed exactly israel trying prove political military might overpower human rights reports combined public opinion turned israel wantonly killed wounded thousands eventually turn back israels favor one need expert art propaganda predict public relations model would allow israel deceive millions believing belligerent state fact victim sea hostile arabs hellbent subjugating jewish state thus hardly deviation script israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu used shrewd term depict governments refusal respect international law regarding dismantling jewish settlements west bank considered illegal international law specifically fourth geneva convention said recent trip germany west bank never judenrein nazi term meaning cleansed jews israel resorting traditional propaganda equating palestinians nazis drawing peoples historical sympathies guilt ignorance false analogies moreover israels national security advisor uzi arad fact reviving discredited israeli rhetoric israel partner peace comments made israeli newspaper haaretz friday july 10 questioned whether fact palestinian leadership capable delivering peace israel palestinian state exist say 2015 according arad would fragile structure house cards chose omit israel purposely besieged weakened democratically elected palestinian leadership gaza painstakingly propping legitimizing abbas israel cleverly spawn dependent weak leadership accuse palestinians worthy peace partner israel murder thousands palestinians demand security victims israel caution nazi past yet cage palestinians concentration camps punish recklessly subscribing wrong god foolishly falling wrong race six months since unprecedented savage war palestinians gaza making argument referencing deceit quoting outrageous claims months unsubstantiated israeli accounts countered carefully composed reports highly regarded organizations red cross among others bombarded gaza neighborhoods look like epicenter massive earthquake said recent red cross report entitled gaza 15 million trapped despair un human rights envoy richard falk summed israeli behavior direct terms thursday july 9 peace two peoples israel shows respect palestinian rights international law professor falk said israeli leaders however pay heed international law fact little evidence israels history shaped respect international standards neither pertaining war peace israel understands language politics power state constructed sustained upon machiavellian wisdom advisor arad perhaps visible manifestation logic propels israeli state recent interview demanded state deal reached palestinians israel granted nato membership quid pro quo counter nuclear threats others said israel must tremendously powerful weapons considering israel already nuclear arms one wonder tremendously powerful weapons arad referring 160arad mustve encouraged us vice president joe biden said recent interview abcs week netanyahu government decides take course action different one pursed us allies sovereign right brute logic might makes right pursued bigger guns continues menace middle east gaza devastating example one must remember israel never heeds statements hardly moved reports random condemnations pressure constant focused grab attention israeli policymakers language international campaign boycott divestment sanctions translate tel aviv legible political language gaza civil society must wait president obama save slowly starving population must take every possible urgent effort help oppressed yet proud community redeem basic rights freedom | 558 |
<p>By Elizabeth Culliford</p>
<p>LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (Reuters) – Just outside the operating theater, the organizers of a medical conference wore Minnie Mouse ears.</p>
<p>Inside, as doctors practiced on three cadavers, blood from one of the human specimens seeped through a layer of wrapping.</p>
<p>“They leak,” a lab technician said of the bodies.</p>
<p>The sessions, held last month and attended by a Reuters reporter, weren’t at a hospital or medical school. They were part of a so-called cadaver lab – and the setting was a Florida resort. It was one of scores of such events over the past six years that have been held at a hotel or its convention center.</p>
<p>In this case, doctors practiced nerve root blocks and other procedures on cadavers in one of the Grand Harbor ballroom’s salons at Disney’s Yacht &amp; Beach Club Resorts convention center. Online, Disney refers to its ballrooms as “regal and resplendent.” They’re often used for wedding receptions.</p>
<p>Disney did not respond to requests for comment for this article.</p>
<p>Medical training in the United States is usually done in secure lab facilities equipped specifically for such seminars. But not always. Reuters identified at least 90 cadaver labs that have taken place since 2012 at hotels or their convention centers in dozens of cities, from New York to San Diego. Some of the biggest names in the industry, from Hilton and Hyatt to Sheraton and Radisson, have hosted the events.</p>
<p>The cadavers used in these seminars are often procured through body brokers, organizations that acquire bodies donated to science and then sell or rent the parts for use in medical research and training.</p>
<p>Body brokers generally refer to themselves as “non-transplant tissue banks.” They are distinct, however, from the organ-and-tissue transplant industry, which the U.S. government closely regulates. No federal law covers the sale or lease of cadavers or body parts used in research or education, such as those operated on at the Disney center. That industry is virtually unregulated.</p>
<p>Similarly, there is little, if any, regulation governing where seminars featuring cadavers and body parts can be held, although the federal government does have rules on how labs handle medical waste and bloodborne pathogens.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization says that, “in general, dead bodies pose no greater risk of infection than the person did while they were alive.”</p>
<p>To ensure safety, event organizers say they screen the cadavers for infectious diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis.</p>
<p>Diseases such as tuberculosis, however, cannot always be identified through screenings. And some medical professionals worry that some cadavers could spread antibiotic-resistant staph infections or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare degenerative brain condition.</p>
<p>When the deceased are cut open, there’s an increased risk of a disease being transmitted to others, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.</p>
<p>“I will be the first to acknowledge there have been no big outbreaks or situations that have occurred yet from a dead body,” Osterholm said. “But I am absolutely convinced it’s just a matter of time.”</p>
<p>There has been at least one instance of a body broker who allegedly failed to report positive results for hepatitis B in a cadaver sent to a medical conference. In 2011, broker Arthur Rathburn provided the head and neck of a diseased cadaver to a conference held at a Hyatt hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, authorities say. Although no one who attended the conference reported getting sick, Rathburn faces trial in January on charges of defrauding health care workers and lying to federal agents. He has pleaded not guilty.</p>
<p>The Hyatt chain has hosted at least 10 seminars that included cadavers since the 2011 incident, Reuters determined.</p>
<p>After Reuters asked about the cadaver labs, Hyatt spokeswoman Stephanie Lerdall said the hotel chain is now reviewing the guidance it provides hotels around “medical trainings of this kind.” She said Hyatt expects anyone using hotel facilities to “operate in a manner keeping with applicable health and safety protocols.”</p>
<p>FEW REGULATIONS</p>
<p>Cadaver labs are often part of medical association meetings for practitioners in fields ranging from spinal surgery to rhinoplasty. Or they are hosted by medical device companies who want doctors to try new products. The seminars are usually staffed by companies that run mobile labs. These companies often provide the donated bodies or body parts used by the doctors – such as torsos, hands, and legs – either from the company’s own donor program or from other non-transplant tissue banks.</p>
<p>Surgeons say no manikin or computer simulation can replicate the experience of practicing on a human specimen. And mobile lab providers say seminars at hotels and convention centers fill a gap. They allow many more practitioners access to training than could be accommodated at permanent lab facilities such as hospitals.</p>
<p>But regulations are few. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has no guidelines for seminars involving human body parts, a spokesman said. The Occupational Safety and Health Agency didn’t respond to questions about whether or how OSHA regulates such seminars.</p>
<p>The New York State Health Department said it does not issue permits for hotel cadaver labs. Its rules require rooms where cadavers and body parts are used for education or research to have biosafety features, such as a working sink. Even so, the department has never inspected any hotels that have held cadaver labs, spokesman Ben Rosen said.</p>
<p>That means safety precautions are largely up to hotels and lab providers.</p>
<p>The Hilton hotel chain has held at least 11 cadaver labs since 2012 in cities including New York, Chicago and San Diego. A Hilton policy posted online requires a seminar organizer to show it has the approval of OSHA and the local health department before holding an event involving cadavers.</p>
<p>A Hilton spokesman said the hotel chain requires those who rent its facilities for such seminars to prove they have insurance and to “follow all protocols recommended by federal, state or local health authorities. These requirements are uniquely tailored to the location and type of event,” the spokesman said, “and wherever possible, we specify required documentation.”</p>
<p>But few authorities grant permits for such events. Reuters surveyed six states where cadaver seminars have been regularly held. New York was the only one in which a state or local health department said it had any regulations covering such labs. Some were oblivious to the seminars.</p>
<p>“We have never heard of this,” said Rachael Kagan, a spokeswoman with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “Are you sure it is true?”</p>
<p>It is. Reuters found at least four conferences held in San Francisco hotels since 2012 that advertised the use of cadavers.</p>
<p>“BONE PIECES FLYING”</p>
<p>Anatomy laboratories at universities have sanitation features, such as floors that can easily be cleaned. That helps to minimize the spread of bodily fluids and tissues while researchers work on a specimen. Most hotel ballrooms or conference centers are carpeted and lack sinks and other washing facilities, however.</p>
<p>That means the biosafety protocols at hotels sometimes fall well short of what university researchers require in their labs.</p>
<p>In October, doctors practiced on human torsos in a ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson in New Jersey. A Reuters reporter witnessed one participant holding out his arm and asking event attendants whether there was soap or a sanitary wipe in the room so he could clean himself. Told there weren’t, he left the ballroom, arm still outstretched.</p>
<p>And at the Disney lab last month, coffee and tea were available near one cadaver station. After a Reuters reporter asked if this were allowed, the refreshments were removed from the room.</p>
<p>Andrew Payer, a professor of anatomy at the University of Central Florida, said sinks are required in the school’s anatomy labs. Such labs also typically prohibit food and drink. The rationale: to reduce the risk of pathogens being transmitted through hand-to-mouth contact.</p>
<p>To guard against fluid or flesh falling on hotel carpets, seminar organizers typically lay plastic on the floors. Depending upon the procedures the doctors are practicing, other steps might be taken, hotel seminar organizers say. “When they cut away the knee, there are bone pieces flying. So you cover up the walls,” said James McElroy, president of Bioskills Solutions, which provides equipment and support for training on cadavers.</p>
<p>At the conference at the Hyatt in Jersey City, plastic and other floor covering lay only in the areas just beneath the gurneys that held body parts. Elsewhere in the room, carpet was exposed.</p>
<p>New Jersey health officials don’t regulate these workshops. In neighboring New York, a health department spokesman said putting down plastic would not be acceptable because the material could puncture.</p>
<p>“Do shoes become contaminated on a carpet where a day later there’s going to be a wedding dance and you’ve got one-year-olds crawling on the floor?” asked Osterholm, the infectious diseases specialist. “All you need is one situation to go badly.”</p>
<p>Ronn Wade, director of the Maryland State Anatomy Board, said plastic floor coverings wouldn’t protect against airborne pathogens either.</p>
<p>Hotels and seminar providers said only lab technicians handle cleanup, and medical waste is disposed of through a biohazard company. But mistakes can be made.</p>
<p>“We had a situation where there was a bin left that had blood-stained linens and plastic that was left in a meeting room and was not picked up” after a rhinoplasty lab, said Vince Fattore, director of events management at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. Another Sheraton employee cordoned off the area around the bin, which also contained syringes, Fattore recalled. He said the hotel called the conference organizer to have the sealed bin collected.</p>
<p>Despite that episode, Fattore said the hotel has two more cadaver conferences on the schedule – one in January and another in March. “We’re here to serve the customer, first and foremost,” he said.</p>
<p>“I’m not trying to sugarcoat it by any means. I know that there’s definitely danger there and there could be cross-contamination in some cases,” Fattore said. “That’s why we take it very seriously.”</p>
<p>A Sheraton Hotels &amp; Resorts vice president, Indy Adenaw, said the chain allows each hotel “to accept or decline business on a case-by-case basis as they see fit.”</p>
<p>“OPERATE WITH THE STARS!”</p>
<p>Holding cadaver labs in hotels and their convention centers also raises concerns about protecting the dignity of the dead.</p>
<p>“I find it altogether unacceptable that these courses could be held in a hotel setting,” said Sabine Hildebrandt, an anatomist with a research interest in ethics at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She said she fears that the experience might desensitize even veteran doctors to the need to treat bodies, living or dead, with dignity.</p>
<p>A 2016 gynecology symposium in the hotel convention center at Orlando’s Rosen Shingle Creek, for example, advertised “Operate with the Stars!” There, “three lucky attendees” were selected to go on stage to be mentored through a procedure on a cadaver.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for the group that held the conference said that “thousands of surgeons can watch and learn from this demonstration.”</p>
<p>A media representative for the Rosen Shingle Creek said she could not comment.</p>
<p>The location of the seminars poses another challenge: the possibility that hotel patrons – adults and children – could unexpectedly be exposed to disturbing scenes.</p>
<p>Hotels surveyed by Reuters say they have not fielded complaints from guests, and seminar organizers say that access to the rooms where cadavers are used is restricted.</p>
<p>The levels of security vary.</p>
<p>At the Disney resort in November, a reporter covering the conference was able to watch two seminar sessions before being told she was not allowed in the room.</p>
<p>And in June, the ballroom doors of the 5-star Wynn Las Vegas Hotel in Nevada were left open after the start of an orthopedic-surgery lab at a medical convention. A reporter saw uncovered human torsos from the hall.</p>
<p>Wynn Resorts said the organizers had rented the entire convention space for the lab. “There was no expectation that anyone other than convention attendees would be in the convention area,” Michael Weaver, chief marketing officer, said in a statement. He said Wynn policies “prohibit the general public from entering any meeting room being used for medical training events.”</p>
<p>Lab providers and hotel staff have different ways of protecting guests from accidental encounters with gruesome spectacles. Most said they used the hotel’s loading dock and freight elevators to avoid transporting specimens through areas frequented by the public. But not all are so careful.</p>
<p>Paul Kraetsch said he was working at the front desk of the Radisson Hotel Fresno Conference Center in California when it hosted a cadaver lab in 2015. The seminar organizers who carried in the cadavers “just brought them up through the main elevator, which I found pretty shocking,” Kraetsch said.</p>
<p>The Radisson chain said it has no specific policy on medical events. But the safety of guests and employees is the “highest priority,” said Ben Gardeen, a spokesman for the company.</p>
<p>“We would also expect our hotels to take the proper preventive measures to ensure these events don’t create uncomfortable situations for other guests in the hotel,” he said.</p>
<p>(Elizabeth Culliford reported from Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and Jersey City, New Jersey. Additional reporting by Brian Grow in Las Vegas and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs in New York. Edited by Blake Morrison.)</p> | false | 1 | elizabeth culliford lake buena vista florida reuters outside operating theater organizers medical conference wore minnie mouse ears inside doctors practiced three cadavers blood one human specimens seeped layer wrapping leak lab technician said bodies sessions held last month attended reuters reporter werent hospital medical school part socalled cadaver lab setting florida resort one scores events past six years held hotel convention center case doctors practiced nerve root blocks procedures cadavers one grand harbor ballrooms salons disneys yacht amp beach club resorts convention center online disney refers ballrooms regal resplendent theyre often used wedding receptions disney respond requests comment article medical training united states usually done secure lab facilities equipped specifically seminars always reuters identified least 90 cadaver labs taken place since 2012 hotels convention centers dozens cities new york san diego biggest names industry hilton hyatt sheraton radisson hosted events cadavers used seminars often procured body brokers organizations acquire bodies donated science sell rent parts use medical research training body brokers generally refer nontransplant tissue banks distinct however organandtissue transplant industry us government closely regulates federal law covers sale lease cadavers body parts used research education operated disney center industry virtually unregulated similarly little regulation governing seminars featuring cadavers body parts held although federal government rules labs handle medical waste bloodborne pathogens world health organization says general dead bodies pose greater risk infection person alive ensure safety event organizers say screen cadavers infectious diseases hiv hepatitis diseases tuberculosis however always identified screenings medical professionals worry cadavers could spread antibioticresistant staph infections creutzfeldtjakob disease rare degenerative brain condition deceased cut open theres increased risk disease transmitted others said michael osterholm director center infectious disease research policy university minnesota first acknowledge big outbreaks situations occurred yet dead body osterholm said absolutely convinced matter time least one instance body broker allegedly failed report positive results hepatitis b cadaver sent medical conference 2011 broker arthur rathburn provided head neck diseased cadaver conference held hyatt hotel cambridge massachusetts authorities say although one attended conference reported getting sick rathburn faces trial january charges defrauding health care workers lying federal agents pleaded guilty hyatt chain hosted least 10 seminars included cadavers since 2011 incident reuters determined reuters asked cadaver labs hyatt spokeswoman stephanie lerdall said hotel chain reviewing guidance provides hotels around medical trainings kind said hyatt expects anyone using hotel facilities operate manner keeping applicable health safety protocols regulations cadaver labs often part medical association meetings practitioners fields ranging spinal surgery rhinoplasty hosted medical device companies want doctors try new products seminars usually staffed companies run mobile labs companies often provide donated bodies body parts used doctors torsos hands legs either companys donor program nontransplant tissue banks surgeons say manikin computer simulation replicate experience practicing human specimen mobile lab providers say seminars hotels convention centers fill gap allow many practitioners access training could accommodated permanent lab facilities hospitals regulations federal centers disease control prevention guidelines seminars involving human body parts spokesman said occupational safety health agency didnt respond questions whether osha regulates seminars new york state health department said issue permits hotel cadaver labs rules require rooms cadavers body parts used education research biosafety features working sink even department never inspected hotels held cadaver labs spokesman ben rosen said means safety precautions largely hotels lab providers hilton hotel chain held least 11 cadaver labs since 2012 cities including new york chicago san diego hilton policy posted online requires seminar organizer show approval osha local health department holding event involving cadavers hilton spokesman said hotel chain requires rent facilities seminars prove insurance follow protocols recommended federal state local health authorities requirements uniquely tailored location type event spokesman said wherever possible specify required documentation authorities grant permits events reuters surveyed six states cadaver seminars regularly held new york one state local health department said regulations covering labs oblivious seminars never heard said rachael kagan spokeswoman san francisco department public health sure true reuters found least four conferences held san francisco hotels since 2012 advertised use cadavers bone pieces flying anatomy laboratories universities sanitation features floors easily cleaned helps minimize spread bodily fluids tissues researchers work specimen hotel ballrooms conference centers carpeted lack sinks washing facilities however means biosafety protocols hotels sometimes fall well short university researchers require labs october doctors practiced human torsos ballroom hyatt regency jersey city hudson new jersey reuters reporter witnessed one participant holding arm asking event attendants whether soap sanitary wipe room could clean told werent left ballroom arm still outstretched disney lab last month coffee tea available near one cadaver station reuters reporter asked allowed refreshments removed room andrew payer professor anatomy university central florida said sinks required schools anatomy labs labs also typically prohibit food drink rationale reduce risk pathogens transmitted handtomouth contact guard fluid flesh falling hotel carpets seminar organizers typically lay plastic floors depending upon procedures doctors practicing steps might taken hotel seminar organizers say cut away knee bone pieces flying cover walls said james mcelroy president bioskills solutions provides equipment support training cadavers conference hyatt jersey city plastic floor covering lay areas beneath gurneys held body parts elsewhere room carpet exposed new jersey health officials dont regulate workshops neighboring new york health department spokesman said putting plastic would acceptable material could puncture shoes become contaminated carpet day later theres going wedding dance youve got oneyearolds crawling floor asked osterholm infectious diseases specialist need one situation go badly ronn wade director maryland state anatomy board said plastic floor coverings wouldnt protect airborne pathogens either hotels seminar providers said lab technicians handle cleanup medical waste disposed biohazard company mistakes made situation bin left bloodstained linens plastic left meeting room picked rhinoplasty lab said vince fattore director events management sheraton grand chicago another sheraton employee cordoned area around bin also contained syringes fattore recalled said hotel called conference organizer sealed bin collected despite episode fattore said hotel two cadaver conferences schedule one january another march serve customer first foremost said im trying sugarcoat means know theres definitely danger could crosscontamination cases fattore said thats take seriously sheraton hotels amp resorts vice president indy adenaw said chain allows hotel accept decline business casebycase basis see fit operate stars holding cadaver labs hotels convention centers also raises concerns protecting dignity dead find altogether unacceptable courses could held hotel setting said sabine hildebrandt anatomist research interest ethics boston childrens hospitalharvard medical school said fears experience might desensitize even veteran doctors need treat bodies living dead dignity 2016 gynecology symposium hotel convention center orlandos rosen shingle creek example advertised operate stars three lucky attendees selected go stage mentored procedure cadaver spokeswoman group held conference said thousands surgeons watch learn demonstration media representative rosen shingle creek said could comment location seminars poses another challenge possibility hotel patrons adults children could unexpectedly exposed disturbing scenes hotels surveyed reuters say fielded complaints guests seminar organizers say access rooms cadavers used restricted levels security vary disney resort november reporter covering conference able watch two seminar sessions told allowed room june ballroom doors 5star wynn las vegas hotel nevada left open start orthopedicsurgery lab medical convention reporter saw uncovered human torsos hall wynn resorts said organizers rented entire convention space lab expectation anyone convention attendees would convention area michael weaver chief marketing officer said statement said wynn policies prohibit general public entering meeting room used medical training events lab providers hotel staff different ways protecting guests accidental encounters gruesome spectacles said used hotels loading dock freight elevators avoid transporting specimens areas frequented public careful paul kraetsch said working front desk radisson hotel fresno conference center california hosted cadaver lab 2015 seminar organizers carried cadavers brought main elevator found pretty shocking kraetsch said radisson chain said specific policy medical events safety guests employees highest priority said ben gardeen spokesman company would also expect hotels take proper preventive measures ensure events dont create uncomfortable situations guests hotel said elizabeth culliford reported lake buena vista florida jersey city new jersey additional reporting brian grow las vegas nicholas bogelburroughs new york edited blake morrison | 1,319 |
<p>Editor’s Note:&#160;Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is writing a series of columns on uncomfortable truths about health care in America. Some will make conservatives more uncomfortable, others will make progressives more uncomfortable, but most should make everyone uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Health care in the United States represents about $3.2 trillion spent every year, or close to a fifth of the national GDP. As an industry, it employs twelve and a half million Americans, or slightly less than 10 percent of all of employed Americans. In 2015, 83.6 percent of Americans had contact with a health-care professional, and Americans went on 884.7 million doctor visits.</p>
<p>Health care is not just these statistics; it is also an extremely emotional affair, as anyone who has struggled with a serious health issue or even just a health scare knows — anyone who has rushed a feverish child to the ER, cared for an elderly family member, worried about the impact of health care on their finances, or known someone who has a chronic disease. Health care can impact our finances, our quality of life, our dignity, and of course our very life itself. It has almost monopolized political debate at the federal level in the United States.</p>
<p>And health care doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>I am not, of course, saying that there is no such thing as doctors and nurses, hospitals and insurers, pills and scalpels and stethoscopes and acts of Congress. I am saying that there is no such thing as health care in the same sense that&#160; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426668/errors-militant-atheist-pascal-emmanuel-gobry" type="external">there is no such thing as religion</a>: Precisely because there is so much of the thing, the word we use to describe it in general terms is meaningless for anything but that very general role.</p>
<p>This is anything but a semantic point. This is important not simply because it’s important to conceptualize things properly if one wants to think about them properly. It’s particularly important because “health care” covers so many different realities that trying to embrace them all at once — whether through acts of Congress or just discussion — is doomed at the start.</p>
<p>We rely on health-care experts, but it’s impossible for such a thing to exist, for the same reason that there is no “physics expert” — the body of knowledge is so vast and broad.&#160;Those who study physics must specialize in a particular branch, and however knowledgeable a physicist is in his particular branch, he may have little more than a high-school-level expertise on any other branch. There’s nothing wrong with that;&#160;we just have to be aware of it.</p>
<p>We talk about “the health-care system” as if there were such a thing, but there is not, except in the very broadest of strokes.</p>
<p>Again, this matters in the most concrete ways. For example, the debate around Obamacare and the various attempts to repeal and replace it have focused on health-care financing — already an incredibly complex subfield of health care — almost universally, as if “health care” were a monolithic thing that must be paid for. But consider that this covers preventative health care, routine health care, specialized care (gynecology, pediatrics, dentistry, optometry&#160;.&#160;.&#160;.&#160;), psychiatric care, acute care, care for chronic and debilitating diseases, catastrophic care, and end-of-life care, to name just a few.</p>
<p>Now consider that, for each of these subsets of “health care,” the services provided differ, the goods involved (drugs, medical devices, for example) differ, and the costs differ, both in relative amounts and in how they must be spent, which means the options for financing differ, and the moral intuitions we have or share differ. For each of those things, there are lots of bad ideas for how to improve them or pay for them, and lots of good ideas. But it’s virtually impossible to discuss them, since they must be wrapped up under the heading “health care” and passing laws to improve them must only happen under the heading “health care reform.”</p>
<p>“Health care” covers the most low-tech things, such as basic in-person interactions, and also some of the most high-tech products and services that human minds have ever produced. Activities such as medical practice, hospitals, medical technology, drugs, and scientific research have completely different economic and physical constraints.</p>
<p>Perhaps, you might think, I am making too much of a semantic point. After all, all these specific subfields have their relevant experts, lobbying groups, and interests. Just because they happen to be put under the same convenient label doesn’t mean we just put everything under the same box. Hospital companies aren’t regulated just like drug companies.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that no one is aware of this. I’m saying that this common label causes us to miss things, to skip important debates, to shove too many things at the limited national attention span. Imagine that we as a society decided that agriculture, manufacturing, and retailing were all the “stuff industry.” There would be stuff-policy experts and schools of stuff policy, with people holding degrees and doctorates in it. Congress would have a Stuff Policy Committee, and we would have a Department of Stuff and we would be endlessly discussing stuff reform. (“Repeal and replace Obamastuff!”) In that world, we would still have plenty of people who understood that there are differences between agriculture and making cars. But that world would still be dumber in lots of ways.</p>
<p>Another way to understand this is to ask about any general statement about “health care.” How is “health-care quality” in the U.S.? Well, it depends. Even putting financing aside, it’s probably true that the best hospitals in the world are in the U.S. It’s also probably true that hospital visits in the U.S. are more dangerous than those in any other advanced countries, because of the overprescription of medical procedures and tests, all of which carries risks. So some American “health care quality” is excellent and some is less so.</p>
<p>Anybody who tries to talk to you about “health care” is using terminology that is too general to be of much help. That’s why I thought that this idea would be the best place to start a series of pieces about “health care.”</p>
<p>— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | editors note160pascalemmanuel gobry writing series columns uncomfortable truths health care america make conservatives uncomfortable others make progressives uncomfortable make everyone uncomfortable health care united states represents 32 trillion spent every year close fifth national gdp industry employs twelve half million americans slightly less 10 percent employed americans 2015 836 percent americans contact healthcare professional americans went 8847 million doctor visits health care statistics also extremely emotional affair anyone struggled serious health issue even health scare knows anyone rushed feverish child er cared elderly family member worried impact health care finances known someone chronic disease health care impact finances quality life dignity course life almost monopolized political debate federal level united states health care doesnt exist course saying thing doctors nurses hospitals insurers pills scalpels stethoscopes acts congress saying thing health care sense that160 thing religion precisely much thing word use describe general terms meaningless anything general role anything semantic point important simply important conceptualize things properly one wants think properly particularly important health care covers many different realities trying embrace whether acts congress discussion doomed start rely healthcare experts impossible thing exist reason physics expert body knowledge vast broad160those study physics must specialize particular branch however knowledgeable physicist particular branch may little highschoollevel expertise branch theres nothing wrong that160we aware talk healthcare system thing except broadest strokes matters concrete ways example debate around obamacare various attempts repeal replace focused healthcare financing already incredibly complex subfield health care almost universally health care monolithic thing must paid consider covers preventative health care routine health care specialized care gynecology pediatrics dentistry optometry160160160160 psychiatric care acute care care chronic debilitating diseases catastrophic care endoflife care name consider subsets health care services provided differ goods involved drugs medical devices example differ costs differ relative amounts must spent means options financing differ moral intuitions share differ things lots bad ideas improve pay lots good ideas virtually impossible discuss since must wrapped heading health care passing laws improve must happen heading health care reform health care covers lowtech things basic inperson interactions also hightech products services human minds ever produced activities medical practice hospitals medical technology drugs scientific research completely different economic physical constraints perhaps might think making much semantic point specific subfields relevant experts lobbying groups interests happen put convenient label doesnt mean put everything box hospital companies arent regulated like drug companies im saying one aware im saying common label causes us miss things skip important debates shove many things limited national attention span imagine society decided agriculture manufacturing retailing stuff industry would stuffpolicy experts schools stuff policy people holding degrees doctorates congress would stuff policy committee would department stuff would endlessly discussing stuff reform repeal replace obamastuff world would still plenty people understood differences agriculture making cars world would still dumber lots ways another way understand ask general statement health care healthcare quality us well depends even putting financing aside probably true best hospitals world us also probably true hospital visits us dangerous advanced countries overprescription medical procedures tests carries risks american health care quality excellent less anybody tries talk health care using terminology general much help thats thought idea would best place start series pieces health care pascalemmanuel gobry fellow ethics public policy center | 531 |
<p>America’s oldest millennials — nearing 20 when airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center — can remember the economic prosperity of the 1990s, and when a different Clinton ran for president. The younger end of the generation — now nearing 20 — can’t recall a time without terrorism or economic worry.</p>
<p>Now millennials have edged out baby boomers as the largest living generation in U.S. history, and more than 75 million have come of age. With less than three months to Election Day, the values of young Americans are an unpredictable grab bag. What they share is a palpable sense of disillusionment.</p>
<p>As part of its Divided America series, The Associated Press interviewed seven millennial voters in five states where the generation could have an outsized influence this fall. They are a mosaic, from a black Nevada teen voting for the first time to a Florida-born son of Latino immigrants to a white Christian couple in Ohio.</p>
<p>CHALLENGING POLLSTERS’ EXPECTATIONS</p>
<p>These voters illustrate how millennials are challenging pollsters’ expectations.</p>
<p>“Millennials have been described as apathetic, but they’re absolutely not,” said Diana Downard, a 26-year-old voting for Hillary Clinton. “Millennials have a very nuanced understanding of the political world.”</p>
<p>Just 5 percent of young adults say that America is “greater than it has ever been,” according to a recent GenForward poll. The first-of-its kind survey of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 was conducted by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.</p>
<p>Brianna Lawrence, a 21-year-old videographer and eyelash artist from the South, wants America to return to what it was. A recent North Carolina Central University graduate, she’s voting for Clinton. She was just 7 on Sept. 11 and the aftermath of the attacks is the only time she remembers the nation feeling united.</p>
<p>COME TOGETHER</p>
<p>“My biggest hope for this country is for us to come back together as a community,” she said.</p>
<p>That’s hard when people like her begin adulthood thousands of dollars in debt. Economic issues are huge with this group, since many are saddled with student loans and struggle to find jobs.</p>
<p>Only 8 percent of millennials feel their household’s financial situation is “very good,” according to GenForward’s poll.</p>
<p>Brien Tillett, who recently graduated from a Las Vegas high school, is 18. He was only 10 when the recession hit. His single mother was hospitalized for months after a car accident and, with no safety net, the family struggled.</p>
<p>National debt is his top concern. As a black man, he’s turned off by some of Donald Trump’s remarks, but likes the Republican’s aggressive economic stance. He also considered voting for Clinton, but is angry about her use of a private email server while secretary of state. Unsure at first, he recently decided on Clinton.</p>
<p>Anibal David Cabrera wouldn’t think of voting outside his party.</p>
<p>The son of a Honduran mother and Dominican father, he graduated from college in 2008. He was a finance major, but the economic collapse dried up jobs. Now 31 and living in Tampa, Florida, he finally found an accounting position at a small firm. He feels he’s entering the prime of his life a few steps behind, through no fault of his own.</p>
<p>He’s backing Trump and prays the candidate keeps promises and boosts the economy. “That is something my generation has kind of never seen,” he said.</p>
<p>Shared pain doesn’t lead to shared views.</p>
<p>DISDAIN FOR TRADITIONAL PARTIES</p>
<p>Millennials’ disdain for traditional party affiliation means that half describe themselves as independents, according to a 2014 Pew Research report — a near-record level of political disaffiliation. They tend to be liberal on social questions such as gay marriage, abortion and marijuana legalization. Yet they skew slightly conservative on fiscal policy and are more in line with other generations on gun control and foreign affairs.</p>
<p>Trip Nistico, a recent Colorado law school graduate, is a gun rights advocate who visits shooting ranges — but also supports same-sex marriage. He backed President Barack Obama in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. The 26-year-old is voting for Trump this year.</p>
<p>Still, Trump remains unpopular among millennials and nearly two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 believe the Republican nominee is racist, according to GenForward’s poll. Views of Hillary Clinton also were unfavorable, though not to the same extent.</p>
<p>Bill and Kristi Clay, parents of two young boys and devout Christians from rural Ohio, have struggled to pick a candidate who matches their values.</p>
<p>Kristi Clay opposes same-sex marriage and abortion and names those as her top issues. Yet the 32-year-old school librarian reluctantly leans toward Clinton, because she feels Trump is materialistic and prefers the Democratic views on immigration and poverty.</p>
<p>Though she and her 33-year-old husband are feeling “pessimistic” about this election, both say they will vote anyway.</p>
<p>Whether their millennial brethren do the same is unknown. Some are disenchanted that progressive Bernie Sanders, who ran against Clinton in the Democratic primary, is out of the race.</p>
<p>The millennial vote rose steadily beginning in 2002 and peaked in 2008. In 2012, however, just 45 percent of millennials cast ballots and participation has leveled off or dropped since, said John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.</p>
<p>“They have a somewhat different perspective in terms of politics,” he said. “It hasn’t really worked. They haven’t been part of a movement that’s been effective.”</p> | false | 1 | americas oldest millennials nearing 20 airplanes slammed world trade center remember economic prosperity 1990s different clinton ran president younger end generation nearing 20 cant recall time without terrorism economic worry millennials edged baby boomers largest living generation us history 75 million come age less three months election day values young americans unpredictable grab bag share palpable sense disillusionment part divided america series associated press interviewed seven millennial voters five states generation could outsized influence fall mosaic black nevada teen voting first time floridaborn son latino immigrants white christian couple ohio challenging pollsters expectations voters illustrate millennials challenging pollsters expectations millennials described apathetic theyre absolutely said diana downard 26yearold voting hillary clinton millennials nuanced understanding political world 5 percent young adults say america greater ever according recent genforward poll firstofits kind survey young people ages 18 30 conducted black youth project university chicago associated pressnorc center public affairs research brianna lawrence 21yearold videographer eyelash artist south wants america return recent north carolina central university graduate shes voting clinton 7 sept 11 aftermath attacks time remembers nation feeling united come together biggest hope country us come back together community said thats hard people like begin adulthood thousands dollars debt economic issues huge group since many saddled student loans struggle find jobs 8 percent millennials feel households financial situation good according genforwards poll brien tillett recently graduated las vegas high school 18 10 recession hit single mother hospitalized months car accident safety net family struggled national debt top concern black man hes turned donald trumps remarks likes republicans aggressive economic stance also considered voting clinton angry use private email server secretary state unsure first recently decided clinton anibal david cabrera wouldnt think voting outside party son honduran mother dominican father graduated college 2008 finance major economic collapse dried jobs 31 living tampa florida finally found accounting position small firm feels hes entering prime life steps behind fault hes backing trump prays candidate keeps promises boosts economy something generation kind never seen said shared pain doesnt lead shared views disdain traditional parties millennials disdain traditional party affiliation means half describe independents according 2014 pew research report nearrecord level political disaffiliation tend liberal social questions gay marriage abortion marijuana legalization yet skew slightly conservative fiscal policy line generations gun control foreign affairs trip nistico recent colorado law school graduate gun rights advocate visits shooting ranges also supports samesex marriage backed president barack obama 2008 mitt romney 2012 26yearold voting trump year still trump remains unpopular among millennials nearly twothirds americans ages 18 30 believe republican nominee racist according genforwards poll views hillary clinton also unfavorable though extent bill kristi clay parents two young boys devout christians rural ohio struggled pick candidate matches values kristi clay opposes samesex marriage abortion names top issues yet 32yearold school librarian reluctantly leans toward clinton feels trump materialistic prefers democratic views immigration poverty though 33yearold husband feeling pessimistic election say vote anyway whether millennial brethren unknown disenchanted progressive bernie sanders ran clinton democratic primary race millennial vote rose steadily beginning 2002 peaked 2008 2012 however 45 percent millennials cast ballots participation leveled dropped since said john della volpe director polling harvard universitys institute politics somewhat different perspective terms politics said hasnt really worked havent part movement thats effective | 538 |
<p>BUFFALO BILLS (9-7) AT JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (10-6)</p>
<p>GAME SNAPSHOT</p>
<p>KICKOFF: Sunday, 1:05 p.m. ET, EverBank Field. TV: CBS, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jim-Nantz/" type="external">Jim Nantz</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tony_Romo/" type="external">Tony Romo</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tracy-Wolfson/" type="external">Tracy Wolfson</a> (field reporter), <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jay_Feely/" type="external">Jay Feely</a> (field reporter).</p>
<p>SERIES HISTORY: 16th all-time meeting. Bills lead series, 8-7. Last year, the Bills defeated the Jaguars 28-21; the year before, Buffalo lost 34-31 at Wembley Stadium in London. In the only playoff game, the Jaguars won 30-27 in 1996. That game happened to be the first meeting in Jacksonville’s second season in the NFL. It also happened to be the Bills’ only postseason game loss at Rich Stadium, now named New Era Field.</p>
<p>KEYS TO THE GAME: The Buffalo offense is in a very tough predicament. There’s a good chance that star RB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/LeSean_McCoy/" type="external">LeSean McCoy</a> (sprained ankle) will not be able to play, so the Bills will have to rely on aging veteran Mike Tolbert and young newcomer Marcus Murphy to carry the load against a Jacksonville defense that is stout up front.</p>
<p>The Jaguars’ defense ranked only 26th in yards per rush, and perhaps McCoy could have exploited that, but it’s asking a lot for Tolbert and Murphy to take advantage. If the Bills are stymied in the running game, their chances of throwing against the No. 1 pass defense in the NFL will be slim. QB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tyrod_Taylor/" type="external">Tyrod Taylor</a> could be a key with his ability to run.</p>
<p>The Jaguars would love to take the onus off QB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Blake-Bortles/" type="external">Blake Bortles</a> and feed RB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Leonard-Fournette/" type="external">Leonard Fournette</a>. Given that Buffalo ranks 29th against the run, that’s not a bad plan. The Jaguars continue to rank atop the NFL’s rushing statistics, averaging 141.4 yards per game. But they have been over 140 yards only once since Week 9.</p>
<p>The Bills must stop Fournette and make Bortles try to make plays. If that happens, the Bills’ secondary can match up well with the Jaguars’ receivers. The Bills have been a good turnover team all season, and 17 of their 18 interceptions have been made by defensive backs.</p>
<p>MATCHUPS TO WATCH:</p>
<p>–Bills WR Kelvin Benjamin vs. Jaguars CBs <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jalen-Ramsey/" type="external">Jalen Ramsey</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/AJ-Bouye/" type="external">A.J. Bouye</a>. If LeSean McCoy can’t play, the Bills are going to have to throw the ball to succeed, and that won’t be easy against Pro Bowl corners Ramsey and Bouye. Benjamin is the Bills’ most talented receiver and the one most capable of making big plays, but he has been hampered by a knee injury ever since he arrived in a trade from Carolina, and he hasn’t produced much. This is a game where he will have to have an impact if the Bills’ offense stands a chance.</p>
<p>–Jaguars RB Leonard Fournette vs. Bills MLB Preston Brown. The Bills ranked 29th in the NFL in stopping the run and have struggled terribly with big, physical backs, and Fournette certainly fits that category. Brown led the NFL with 144 tackles, and one of the keys for him will be to get off blocks quickly and plug the holes.</p>
<p>–Bills TE Charles Clay vs. Jaguars FS Tashaun Gipson. If McCoy doesn’t play, this matchup will take on even more importance as the Bills will have to go to more of a passing attack. That will involve Clay as much as anyone. He’s second on the team in receptions (59) and first with 558 yards. Gipson has had a good year and has excelled in covering some of the top tight ends in the league this year. Gipson likes to play close to the line of scrimmage and has been instrumental in the Jaguars improving their defense against running plays. He’s also been a standout in defending the pass, with four interceptions.</p>
<p>FRIDAY INJURY REPORT</p>
<p>BUFFALO BILLS</p>
<p>–Out: CB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Shareece-Wright/" type="external">Shareece Wright</a> (concussion)</p>
<p>–Questionable: RB LeSean McCoy (ankle), LB Matt Milano (hamstring), T Jordan Mills (ankle), WR Deonte Thompson (shoulder), QB Joe Webb (ankle)</p>
<p>JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS</p>
<p>–Questionable: WR Marqise Lee (ankle), RB <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/TJ-Yeldon/" type="external">T.J. Yeldon</a> (illness)</p>
<p>PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Jaguars NT <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marcell-Dareus/" type="external">Marcell Dareus</a>. No player is likely more excited about this playoff game than Dareus, who was with Buffalo to start the season. He was traded to Jacksonville on Oct. 28 and appeared in nine games with the Jaguars. He started the season finale against Tennessee and recorded a season-high eight tackles and registered his only sack with the Jaguars. Dareus was a starter with the Bills in 2013-14 when current Jaguars coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Doug-Marrone/" type="external">Doug Marrone</a> was coach of the Bills. Dareus has been instrumental in helping the Jaguars improve a unit that was last in the league against the run — it finished 21st.</p>
<p>FAST FACTS: The Bills are in the playoffs for the first time since 1999. … <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sean-McDermott/" type="external">Sean McDermott</a> is the second coach in franchise history to take the team to the postseason in his first full season ( <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Wade_Phillips/" type="external">Wade Phillips</a> in 1998). … QB Tyrod Taylor led the NFL with 0.95 interception percentage. His 1.4 career INT percentage is the lowest in NFL history (minimum 1,000 attempts). … CB Tre’Davious White tied for the NFL rookie lead with 18 passes defensed and tied for second with four interceptions. … The Jaguars won the AFC South, their first division title since 1999, when it was the AFC Central. … Jacksonville led the NFL with seven defensive TDs and ranked second in the league with 55 sacks and 21 interceptions. … QB Blake Bortles threw for 3,687 yards and has at least 3,500 in each of the past three seasons. … RB Leonard Fournette led all rookies with nine rushing TDs and ranked second with 1,040 rushing yards.</p>
<p>PREDICTION: The Jaguars should be able to use a balanced offensive attack to keep the Bills on their heels and force Tyrod Taylor to play from behind.</p>
<p>OUR PICK: Jaguars, 31-13.</p>
<p>— <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chris-Cluff/" type="external">Chris Cluff</a></p> | false | 1 | buffalo bills 97 jacksonville jaguars 106 game snapshot kickoff sunday 105 pm et everbank field tv cbs jim nantz tony romo tracy wolfson field reporter jay feely field reporter series history 16th alltime meeting bills lead series 87 last year bills defeated jaguars 2821 year buffalo lost 3431 wembley stadium london playoff game jaguars 3027 1996 game happened first meeting jacksonvilles second season nfl also happened bills postseason game loss rich stadium named new era field keys game buffalo offense tough predicament theres good chance star rb lesean mccoy sprained ankle able play bills rely aging veteran mike tolbert young newcomer marcus murphy carry load jacksonville defense stout front jaguars defense ranked 26th yards per rush perhaps mccoy could exploited asking lot tolbert murphy take advantage bills stymied running game chances throwing 1 pass defense nfl slim qb tyrod taylor could key ability run jaguars would love take onus qb blake bortles feed rb leonard fournette given buffalo ranks 29th run thats bad plan jaguars continue rank atop nfls rushing statistics averaging 1414 yards per game 140 yards since week 9 bills must stop fournette make bortles try make plays happens bills secondary match well jaguars receivers bills good turnover team season 17 18 interceptions made defensive backs matchups watch bills wr kelvin benjamin vs jaguars cbs jalen ramsey aj bouye lesean mccoy cant play bills going throw ball succeed wont easy pro bowl corners ramsey bouye benjamin bills talented receiver one capable making big plays hampered knee injury ever since arrived trade carolina hasnt produced much game impact bills offense stands chance jaguars rb leonard fournette vs bills mlb preston brown bills ranked 29th nfl stopping run struggled terribly big physical backs fournette certainly fits category brown led nfl 144 tackles one keys get blocks quickly plug holes bills te charles clay vs jaguars fs tashaun gipson mccoy doesnt play matchup take even importance bills go passing attack involve clay much anyone hes second team receptions 59 first 558 yards gipson good year excelled covering top tight ends league year gipson likes play close line scrimmage instrumental jaguars improving defense running plays hes also standout defending pass four interceptions friday injury report buffalo bills cb shareece wright concussion questionable rb lesean mccoy ankle lb matt milano hamstring jordan mills ankle wr deonte thompson shoulder qb joe webb ankle jacksonville jaguars questionable wr marqise lee ankle rb tj yeldon illness player spotlight jaguars nt marcell dareus player likely excited playoff game dareus buffalo start season traded jacksonville oct 28 appeared nine games jaguars started season finale tennessee recorded seasonhigh eight tackles registered sack jaguars dareus starter bills 201314 current jaguars coach doug marrone coach bills dareus instrumental helping jaguars improve unit last league run finished 21st fast facts bills playoffs first time since 1999 sean mcdermott second coach franchise history take team postseason first full season wade phillips 1998 qb tyrod taylor led nfl 095 interception percentage 14 career int percentage lowest nfl history minimum 1000 attempts cb tredavious white tied nfl rookie lead 18 passes defensed tied second four interceptions jaguars afc south first division title since 1999 afc central jacksonville led nfl seven defensive tds ranked second league 55 sacks 21 interceptions qb blake bortles threw 3687 yards least 3500 past three seasons rb leonard fournette led rookies nine rushing tds ranked second 1040 rushing yards prediction jaguars able use balanced offensive attack keep bills heels force tyrod taylor play behind pick jaguars 3113 chris cluff | 578 |
<p />
<p>Very few images are more disturbing than the wide-eyed child, covered with flies and belly swollen from malnutrition. This is as it should be. The United Nations estimates that a child dies every three seconds from hunger and related diseases.[1] Reducing hunger, along with poverty, is first on the list of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals.[2] How effective are we in reaching that goal?&#160; In their 2010 report the United Nations acknowledged that we are falling further behind.[3] Some would argue this is not due to the world’s inability to produce enough food, but rather the systems and policies related to food aid.[4] In particular, monetization, which is the selling of donated food to generate revenue, is highly criticized.&#160; Monetization is an inefficient and expensive aid delivery system which, often, negatively impacts the intended beneficiaries.</p>
<p>In 1954 Public Law 480(PL480) became U.S. policy.[5] One goal of the multifaceted legislation known as PL480 or the Food For Peace Act [6] is to provide humanitarian assistance in the form of food aid to developing countries.[7] While the majority of Americans may be familiar with why food aid is provided, it is unlikely that many understand how we go about it. Food aid delivery is a complex process and, though relevant to the topic of this discussion, it will not be examined in any detail.&#160; Rather, it is one aspect of this process, monetization, that will be the focus of this paper.</p>
<p>Monetization is, simply stated, selling donated food for cash.&#160; Although monetization may be used by governments or other entities,[8] it is primarily utilized by private voluntary organizations (PVOs). The practice of monetization was introduced in 1985 as a means to help PVOs bear operating costs related to distribution of food aid. Since that time, however, acceptable uses have broadened in scope to include other forms of developmental assistance.[9]</p>
<p>To better understand the role of monetization it is helpful to make a distinction between two methods by which this process takes place.&#160; As the name suggests, open market monetization is the indiscriminate sale of large quantities of food on a recipient country’s open market. Conversely, targeted monetization limits the number of purchasers and designates a specific use for the funds.[10] While both forms are practiced, the majority of sales by PVOs are conducted as open market monetization.[11] For the remainder of this discussion, all references to monetization will be understood to mean open market monetization. It should also be understood that only non-emergency food aid is being considered.</p>
<p>As noted, when first introduced, the use of monetized funds was restricted to certain administrative and logistical expenses connected to food aid distribution. Today, however, revenue generated from monetization may be used to address a number of food security and development objectives. According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), uses may range from providing food in exchange for labor to development of agricultural infrastructure. Other uses noted include educating a populace regarding nutrition or providing basic health services.[12] This greater flexibility, along with decreased funding for other forms of development, has resulted in increased use of monetization by PVOs.[13]</p>
<p>While there has been a general increase in the number of PVOs which practice monetization, others have revised their policy to prohibit open-market monetization.[14] &#160;A 2006 White Paper issued by CARE called monetization, “economically inefficient.”[15] In other words, monetization is expensive.&#160; It seems intuitively obvious that, mainly due to transport costs, food purchased from a distant country is typically going to cost more than it would to buy it locally or regionally. This is especially true of food donated by the U.S. &#160;To begin with, the “donated” food is actually purchased by the U.S. taxpayers.&#160; Due to various policies and contracts, by some estimates we are spending” more than two dollars to generate one dollar of …food aid.”[16]</p>
<p>The expense of monetization can be largely attributed to the numerous steps involved. Procurement, processing, transport, storage, marketing, sales — each add to overall cost. Transportation adds probably the greatest individual expense. A report by the GAO cites that, “approximately 65 percent of expenditures are for transportation.”[17] To translate the impact of cost in human terms; they add that, “every $10 per metric ton reduction in freight rates could feed almost 850,000 more people.”[18]</p>
<p>In addition to financial outlay related to monetization, there is often financial loss involved as well. The USAID Monetization Field Manual acknowledges that open market food sales in recipient countries are often done so at a loss.[19] &#160;Authors Chris Barrett and Erin Lentz also point out that there are significant losses associated with monetized food aid.&#160; They assert that monetized funds have “typical returns of 50 to 70 cents on the dollar.”[20] Part of the reason for this may be that PVOs often engage in large, non-competitive sales.&#160; This allows them to eliminate many of the steps associated with&#160; more numerous, small sales.[21] &#160;However, in the absence of competition the buyer will likely offer a much lower purchase price for the commodities than would have otherwise been possible.</p>
<p>While PVOs are affected by loss of revenue these types of sales have consequences for the consumer as well.&#160; Non-competitive sales typically favor large operators over small. To maintain profitability, larger business with higher operating costs pass these on to the purchaser in the form of pricing.[22] In essence, this means that the PVOs are inadvertently hurting those they are there to help.</p>
<p>In addition to being an expensive means of delivering aid, monetization is an inefficient mechanism as well.&#160; The process begins with transporting the food to be monetized from the donor country to the recipient country. This may take, on average, four to six months, often arriving after it is most needed.[23] Once the food is in-country the PVOs take on the role of&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;“ food brokers”,[24] one with which they typically have little expertise.[25] &#160;The additional expense in time and money related to marketing and sales also detracts from their core missions. As a consequence, they become less effective overall. This additional burden was a major factor contributing to CARE’s decision to discontinue the practice of monetization.[26]</p>
<p>Another aspect which demonstrates the inefficiency of monetized food aid is that the donated food, which is eventually sold, is first purchased in the donor country and then re-sold. Additionally, in the case of U.S. commodities, much of this food is purchased at “above-market price.”[27] U.S. farmers continue to produce more than we need because it is lucrative. An example of this is featured in a Wall Street Journal article by journalists Roger Thurow and Scot Kilman. A farmer is quoted as saying, “we need food aid to get rid of our excess &#160;&#160;commodities”.[28] These “excess” commodities while providing tremendous benefit to farmers in the donor country frequently have the opposite effect for those in the recipient country.</p>
<p>USAID mandates that before food aid is monetized by PVOs or other entities it must meet “Bellmon Determination” criteria. This analysis is meant to safeguard against disruption to local markets. By their own admission, this goal is frequently not met.[29] Barrett and Lentz identify several ways monetization negatively impacts recipient countries — among them “discouraging food production by local farmers, thus undermining agricultural development and food security goals.”[30] &#160;Thurow and Kilman’s article provides an excellent illustration of this point.&#160; They relate the story of an Ethiopian farmer who is struck by the sight of a convoy bringing a shipment of U.S. grain to his warehouse that is already filled with surplus Ethiopian grain.&#160; He comments that the Ethiopian farmers were “sad and discouraged” to think that the U.S. was buying and shipping American surplus grain without first buying Ethiopian grain.[31]</p>
<p>Farmers, alone, are not the only ones affected by monetized food aid.&#160; Already mentioned was the fact that consumers often pay higher prices as a result of monetization. However, it is the poor, with no ability to purchase food, that suffer most directly.&#160; Concerning monetization, Barrett and Lentz write that it “diverts food away from the poor because of open market sales that do not reach food insecure populations.”[32] One way to prevent this from happening is to “target” [33] the monetized aid.&#160; This was done in Zimbabwe by designating the aid for those living in particular neighborhoods.[34]</p>
<p>Targeted monetization is one recommendation for policy improvement offered by Barrett and Lentz.[35]&#160; Murphy and McAfee suggest others which includes ending the practice of monetization altogether.[36]&#160; Although, Barrett and Lentz agree that monetization has little if any value they do not see its elimination as “an immediately practical solution.”[37]</p>
<p>If or when we choose to discontinue monetization, are there other policies and mechanisms in place to ensure that we are not abandoning the hungry along with the practice?&#160; The fact is there are existing food aid delivery systems that are more cost-effective and efficient.&#160; One of the most logical is utilized by many other donor countries [38] — providing cash directly to the PVOs for a significant portion of the food aid. In fact, the EU has proposed that all food aid contributions to the World Trade Organization be made in the form of cash.[39] Another possible change would be to increase direct distribution of food to affected populations and individuals. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget made this recommendation in 2002 according to Barrett and Lentz.[40] Either or both of these changes would be a vast improvement to current U.S. food aid policy.</p>
<p>The reality is, in the time it has taken to read this essay hundreds will have died from malnutrition and associated illnesses.&#160; In our efforts to address this human tragedy we are guilty of working harder, not smarter. Current U.S. food aid policies, especially that of monetization, need to be revisited.&#160; Research has shown monetization of food aid to be logistically and practically inefficient as well as more expensive than other alternatives.&#160; Paradoxically, this policy can also undermine developmental goals and, in some cases, cause actual harm to those already threatened by food insecurity.&#160; In recent years, many donor countries and some private voluntary organizations have limited the use or discontinued the practice of monetization altogether. This should cause us to at least question our current approach.&#160;&#160; If we are disturbed by the image of a starving child, we should be more troubled still to think that ineffective policies are in some way contributing to this horror.</p> | false | 1 | images disturbing wideeyed child covered flies belly swollen malnutrition united nations estimates child dies every three seconds hunger related diseases1 reducing hunger along poverty first list united nations millennium development goals2 effective reaching goal160 2010 report united nations acknowledged falling behind3 would argue due worlds inability produce enough food rather systems policies related food aid4 particular monetization selling donated food generate revenue highly criticized160 monetization inefficient expensive aid delivery system often negatively impacts intended beneficiaries 1954 public law 480pl480 became us policy5 one goal multifaceted legislation known pl480 food peace act 6 provide humanitarian assistance form food aid developing countries7 majority americans may familiar food aid provided unlikely many understand go food aid delivery complex process though relevant topic discussion examined detail160 rather one aspect process monetization focus paper monetization simply stated selling donated food cash160 although monetization may used governments entities8 primarily utilized private voluntary organizations pvos practice monetization introduced 1985 means help pvos bear operating costs related distribution food aid since time however acceptable uses broadened scope include forms developmental assistance9 better understand role monetization helpful make distinction two methods process takes place160 name suggests open market monetization indiscriminate sale large quantities food recipient countrys open market conversely targeted monetization limits number purchasers designates specific use funds10 forms practiced majority sales pvos conducted open market monetization11 remainder discussion references monetization understood mean open market monetization also understood nonemergency food aid considered noted first introduced use monetized funds restricted certain administrative logistical expenses connected food aid distribution today however revenue generated monetization may used address number food security development objectives according report government accountability office gao uses may range providing food exchange labor development agricultural infrastructure uses noted include educating populace regarding nutrition providing basic health services12 greater flexibility along decreased funding forms development resulted increased use monetization pvos13 general increase number pvos practice monetization others revised policy prohibit openmarket monetization14 160a 2006 white paper issued care called monetization economically inefficient15 words monetization expensive160 seems intuitively obvious mainly due transport costs food purchased distant country typically going cost would buy locally regionally especially true food donated us 160to begin donated food actually purchased us taxpayers160 due various policies contracts estimates spending two dollars generate one dollar food aid16 expense monetization largely attributed numerous steps involved procurement processing transport storage marketing sales add overall cost transportation adds probably greatest individual expense report gao cites approximately 65 percent expenditures transportation17 translate impact cost human terms add every 10 per metric ton reduction freight rates could feed almost 850000 people18 addition financial outlay related monetization often financial loss involved well usaid monetization field manual acknowledges open market food sales recipient countries often done loss19 160authors chris barrett erin lentz also point significant losses associated monetized food aid160 assert monetized funds typical returns 50 70 cents dollar20 part reason may pvos often engage large noncompetitive sales160 allows eliminate many steps associated with160 numerous small sales21 160however absence competition buyer likely offer much lower purchase price commodities would otherwise possible pvos affected loss revenue types sales consequences consumer well160 noncompetitive sales typically favor large operators small maintain profitability larger business higher operating costs pass purchaser form pricing22 essence means pvos inadvertently hurting help addition expensive means delivering aid monetization inefficient mechanism well160 process begins transporting food monetized donor country recipient country may take average four six months often arriving needed23 food incountry pvos take role of160160160160160160 160160 food brokers24 one typically little expertise25 160the additional expense time money related marketing sales also detracts core missions consequence become less effective overall additional burden major factor contributing cares decision discontinue practice monetization26 another aspect demonstrates inefficiency monetized food aid donated food eventually sold first purchased donor country resold additionally case us commodities much food purchased abovemarket price27 us farmers continue produce need lucrative example featured wall street journal article journalists roger thurow scot kilman farmer quoted saying need food aid get rid excess 160160commodities28 excess commodities providing tremendous benefit farmers donor country frequently opposite effect recipient country usaid mandates food aid monetized pvos entities must meet bellmon determination criteria analysis meant safeguard disruption local markets admission goal frequently met29 barrett lentz identify several ways monetization negatively impacts recipient countries among discouraging food production local farmers thus undermining agricultural development food security goals30 160thurow kilmans article provides excellent illustration point160 relate story ethiopian farmer struck sight convoy bringing shipment us grain warehouse already filled surplus ethiopian grain160 comments ethiopian farmers sad discouraged think us buying shipping american surplus grain without first buying ethiopian grain31 farmers alone ones affected monetized food aid160 already mentioned fact consumers often pay higher prices result monetization however poor ability purchase food suffer directly160 concerning monetization barrett lentz write diverts food away poor open market sales reach food insecure populations32 one way prevent happening target 33 monetized aid160 done zimbabwe designating aid living particular neighborhoods34 targeted monetization one recommendation policy improvement offered barrett lentz35160 murphy mcafee suggest others includes ending practice monetization altogether36160 although barrett lentz agree monetization little value see elimination immediately practical solution37 choose discontinue monetization policies mechanisms place ensure abandoning hungry along practice160 fact existing food aid delivery systems costeffective efficient160 one logical utilized many donor countries 38 providing cash directly pvos significant portion food aid fact eu proposed food aid contributions world trade organization made form cash39 another possible change would increase direct distribution food affected populations individuals us office management budget made recommendation 2002 according barrett lentz40 either changes would vast improvement current us food aid policy reality time taken read essay hundreds died malnutrition associated illnesses160 efforts address human tragedy guilty working harder smarter current us food aid policies especially monetization need revisited160 research shown monetization food aid logistically practically inefficient well expensive alternatives160 paradoxically policy also undermine developmental goals cases cause actual harm already threatened food insecurity160 recent years many donor countries private voluntary organizations limited use discontinued practice monetization altogether cause us least question current approach160160 disturbed image starving child troubled still think ineffective policies way contributing horror | 993 |
<p>Presidential budgets can be modestly useful documents even when they are dead-on-arrival in Congress, as President Obama’s <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2016/assets/budget.pdf" type="external">2016 budget plan</a> is this year. That’s because every budget includes <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/tables.pdf" type="external">many tables</a>, and the numbers within those tables generally tell a story that is closer to the truth than the sales pitch and political spin that are standard fare in the explanatory materials. This is not to suggest that the budget’s numbers can’t also be manipulated — they can be, sometimes. It’s just harder to conceal the whole truth in tables that purport to show the entirety of the government’s tax-and-spending plans.</p>
<p>And what’s revealed in the tables accompanying this year’s budget is that the Obama administration’s fiscal policy is deeply flawed and risky. The president would like to expand entitlement commitments again — free community-college attendance, federal financing of universal pre-school education, etc. — even as he claims some modest amount of budget-deficit reduction. To make the numbers add up, he has to find some new money somewhere. And where does he go? The same place he has gone since taking office in 2009: large tax increases focused on capital income and higher-income households; deep cuts in the defense budget; and more cuts in what Medicare pays providers of medical services.</p>
<p>But it’s the height of fiscal folly to build a budget on the assumption that tax increases for high-income earners, defense cuts, and health-care price controls are reliable ways to make room for large new spending commitments.</p>
<p>In the 2016 budget, the president is seeking a $1.8 trillion tax increase over the period 2015 to 2024, with at least one-third of this total coming from imposing higher taxes on upper-income taxpayers. This tax increase would go on top of the large tax increases already secured by the president during his time in office, including a <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/43471-hr6079.pdf" type="external">$1.0 trillion, ten-year tax increase as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)</a> and <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/communications/misc/cboscore_hr8_20130101.pdf" type="external">another $0.6 trillion tax increase over a decade</a> in the tax agreement that extended on a permanent basis most of the Bush-era tax policies. If the president is successful in securing another tax hike (highly unlikely with the most Republican Congress in decades), federal tax receipts would reach 19.9 percent of GDP ten years from now. That’s 2.5 percentage points of GDP above the average federal-tax receipts over the past 50 years, and most of that additional revenue would come from the higher-income taxpayers.</p>
<p>There’s a reason federal revenue has generally been in the range of 17 to 18 percent of GDP. It’s because that’s the level that has been politically and economically sustainable in the past. Whatever one thinks of upper-income Americans, is it realistic to expect that the federal government can count on an additional 2 percent of GDP or so — or $370 billion — in revenue every year by focusing tax hikes exclusively on the so-called top 1 percent? For reasons both economic and political, that is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>The president’s other favorite target is the defense budget. President Obama says he wants to abandon the spending limits for the defense budget that were agreed upon in 2011, but his plan is still entirely unrealistic. In 2024 — nine years from now — the president calls for a defense budget of just $630 billion, essentially the same amount in nominal terms as defense spending in 2015. Relative to the size of the national economy, the Obama budget would push defense spending down to 2.3 percent of GDP — the lowest level since 1940. In inflation-adjusted dollars, this is a massive cut in the resources devoted to national security. Over the past 50 years, the federal government has spent on average 5 percent of GDP on defense requirements. Given the world situation today, with the Middle East in turmoil, Russia becoming ever more aggressive toward countries formerly within the Soviet orbit, and China seeking to become a formidable world power, is it realistic to believe the U.S. can get by in the coming decade with a defense budget that is less than half of the historical average?</p>
<p>The president’s other favorite target is Medicare’s byzantine payment rules for the providers of medical services. Proponents of the ACA — Obamacare — like to claim that the law is bringing down health-care cost inflation with “delivery-system reforms.” These are the changes in Medicare, such as Accountable Care Organizations, that are supposedly ushering in a new era of more-cost-effective medicine. But the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that these changes will produce, at best, very modest savings. The big cuts in the ACA were of the old-fashioned variety: blunt, across-the-board payment-rate reductions that apply to all providers of services, regardless of how well or poorly they treat their patients. In total, these cuts add up to at least $740 billion over a decade. The largest cut in the ACA is a permanent reduction of about 1 percentage point in the inflation adjustment for payments to hospitals and other facilities. The cumulative effect of this cut is so large that the <a href="http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/ReportsTrustFunds/Downloads/2014TRAlternativeScenario.pdf" type="external">actuaries who examine Medicare’s finances believe it cannot be sustained</a>.</p>
<p>The president doubles down on this approach by advancing another $400 billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending reductions in the 2016 budget, with most of the savings coming from new payment-rate reductions. For instance, there is another cut in inflation adjustment for facilities taking care of patients after they leave hospitals, totaling nearly $100 billion over a decade.</p>
<p>The budget says that the new cuts in provider payments will reach $71 billion in 2024 alone. Those cuts are on top of the $150 billion or so in cuts enacted in the ACA. Together, these cuts will total about 0.8 percent of GDP in 2024.</p>
<p>In summary, then, the president’s budget is built on the assumption that it will be possible to sustain a tax increase on upper-income households of about 2.5 percentage points of GDP, cut defense spending 2.5 percentage points of GDP below the historical average, and impose Medicare payment-rate reductions of 0.8 percentage points of GDP. If any one of these assumptions is wrong, the Obama budget plan would become a major fiscal risk. If all three are wrong, as seems most likely, annual deficits could easily be 6.0 percentage points of GDP — or $1.1 trillion — above the Obama budget projections.</p>
<p>Of course, none of this seems to matter to the Obama administration. The budget proposal is clearly aimed at influencing the political debate heading into 2016, not at solving the country’s fiscal problems. Indeed, the president seems indifferent to his fiscal record, perhaps because there’s no redeeming it at this point anyway. From 2009 to 2016, the eight years spanning his two terms, the federal government will have run a <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/45249" type="external">cumulative budget deficit of $7.4 trillion</a> . When he took office, the national debt was $5.8 trillion. If the budget plan he submitted this week were followed, the debt would reach $14.8 trillion at the end of 2016. And that’s before the full pressures associated with Baby Boomers’ retirement are visible in the spending estimates.</p>
<p>The story of fiscal policy over the past 40 years has been a relentless movement toward expanded entitlement commitments. Two-thirds of the federal budget is now devoted to benefit programs and transfer payments. Budget experts have been urging national leaders for years to reform these programs to free up resources for other investments and to limit the burdens on current and future taxpayers. Instead of following this advice, the president expanded entitlement commitments and tried to cover the costs with tax hikes and spending adjustments that will inevitably erode over time due to political pressures.</p>
<p>The good news is that the GOP Congress won’t go along with the president’s plans to dramatically expand the government’s entitlement commitments. The bad news is that not much progress can be made to implement serious reforms during the president’s final two years in office. Instead, it will fall to the next president to face up to the major fiscal challenges never addressed during the Obama years.</p>
<p>— James C. Capretta is a <a href="" type="internal">senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center</a> and a <a href="http://www.aei.org/author/james-c-capretta/" type="external">visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute</a>.</p> | false | 1 | presidential budgets modestly useful documents even deadonarrival congress president obamas 2016 budget plan year thats every budget includes many tables numbers within tables generally tell story closer truth sales pitch political spin standard fare explanatory materials suggest budgets numbers cant also manipulated sometimes harder conceal whole truth tables purport show entirety governments taxandspending plans whats revealed tables accompanying years budget obama administrations fiscal policy deeply flawed risky president would like expand entitlement commitments free communitycollege attendance federal financing universal preschool education etc even claims modest amount budgetdeficit reduction make numbers add find new money somewhere go place gone since taking office 2009 large tax increases focused capital income higherincome households deep cuts defense budget cuts medicare pays providers medical services height fiscal folly build budget assumption tax increases highincome earners defense cuts healthcare price controls reliable ways make room large new spending commitments 2016 budget president seeking 18 trillion tax increase period 2015 2024 least onethird total coming imposing higher taxes upperincome taxpayers tax increase would go top large tax increases already secured president time office including 10 trillion tenyear tax increase part affordable care act aca another 06 trillion tax increase decade tax agreement extended permanent basis bushera tax policies president successful securing another tax hike highly unlikely republican congress decades federal tax receipts would reach 199 percent gdp ten years thats 25 percentage points gdp average federaltax receipts past 50 years additional revenue would come higherincome taxpayers theres reason federal revenue generally range 17 18 percent gdp thats level politically economically sustainable past whatever one thinks upperincome americans realistic expect federal government count additional 2 percent gdp 370 billion revenue every year focusing tax hikes exclusively socalled top 1 percent reasons economic political highly unlikely presidents favorite target defense budget president obama says wants abandon spending limits defense budget agreed upon 2011 plan still entirely unrealistic 2024 nine years president calls defense budget 630 billion essentially amount nominal terms defense spending 2015 relative size national economy obama budget would push defense spending 23 percent gdp lowest level since 1940 inflationadjusted dollars massive cut resources devoted national security past 50 years federal government spent average 5 percent gdp defense requirements given world situation today middle east turmoil russia becoming ever aggressive toward countries formerly within soviet orbit china seeking become formidable world power realistic believe us get coming decade defense budget less half historical average presidents favorite target medicares byzantine payment rules providers medical services proponents aca obamacare like claim law bringing healthcare cost inflation deliverysystem reforms changes medicare accountable care organizations supposedly ushering new era morecosteffective medicine congressional budget office cbo estimated changes produce best modest savings big cuts aca oldfashioned variety blunt acrosstheboard paymentrate reductions apply providers services regardless well poorly treat patients total cuts add least 740 billion decade largest cut aca permanent reduction 1 percentage point inflation adjustment payments hospitals facilities cumulative effect cut large actuaries examine medicares finances believe sustained president doubles approach advancing another 400 billion medicare medicaid spending reductions 2016 budget savings coming new paymentrate reductions instance another cut inflation adjustment facilities taking care patients leave hospitals totaling nearly 100 billion decade budget says new cuts provider payments reach 71 billion 2024 alone cuts top 150 billion cuts enacted aca together cuts total 08 percent gdp 2024 summary presidents budget built assumption possible sustain tax increase upperincome households 25 percentage points gdp cut defense spending 25 percentage points gdp historical average impose medicare paymentrate reductions 08 percentage points gdp one assumptions wrong obama budget plan would become major fiscal risk three wrong seems likely annual deficits could easily 60 percentage points gdp 11 trillion obama budget projections course none seems matter obama administration budget proposal clearly aimed influencing political debate heading 2016 solving countrys fiscal problems indeed president seems indifferent fiscal record perhaps theres redeeming point anyway 2009 2016 eight years spanning two terms federal government run cumulative budget deficit 74 trillion took office national debt 58 trillion budget plan submitted week followed debt would reach 148 trillion end 2016 thats full pressures associated baby boomers retirement visible spending estimates story fiscal policy past 40 years relentless movement toward expanded entitlement commitments twothirds federal budget devoted benefit programs transfer payments budget experts urging national leaders years reform programs free resources investments limit burdens current future taxpayers instead following advice president expanded entitlement commitments tried cover costs tax hikes spending adjustments inevitably erode time due political pressures good news gop congress wont go along presidents plans dramatically expand governments entitlement commitments bad news much progress made implement serious reforms presidents final two years office instead fall next president face major fiscal challenges never addressed obama years james c capretta senior fellow ethics public policy center visiting fellow american enterprise institute | 787 |
<p>The German Chancellor Angela Merkel once again defended her open-door policy by denying she made any mistakes over the course of the refugee crisis, even though her decision to let in hundreds of thousands of refugees split the German society.</p>
<p>”I’d make all the important decisions of 2015 the same way again,” the chancellor told the German Die Welt daily’s weekend edition, adding that she has no regrets about her refugee policy.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/401014-merkel-election-rally-protest/" type="external" /></p>
<p>“I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint,” she said and described the 2015 refugee crisis as one of “extraordinary situations” that just “happen every once in a while in a country’s history.”</p>
<p>At the same time, she also said that the 2015 refugee crisis was an “emergency” that “we all, including the people seeking asylum, should never face once again.” The chancellor then criticized the EU Dublin regulation that stipulates that the asylum seekers should be accepted by the EU member state through which they first entered the territory of the union.</p>
<p>Merkel denounced the Dublin system by saying that it is “no more reliable,” adding that it leaves “countries such as Greece and Italy unable to cope with the burden placed on them” by this regulation.</p>
<p>Greece and Italy “should not bear this entire burden just because of their geographic location,” she said as she once again expressed her support for the idea of distribution of refugees between all the EU member states.</p>
<p>Merkel called refusal of “some countries” to accept “any refugees” unacceptable. “That contradicts the spirit of Europe. We’ll overcome that. It will take time and patience but we will succeed,” she said, adding that she would not stop pushing for relocation of refugees across the EU.</p>
<p>Since 2015, when Merkel introduced her open-door policy, around 1 million asylum-seekers have arrived in Germany, putting a strain on its social welfare system and sparking a rise in anti-migrant sentiment as well as opening deep rifts within German society.</p>
<p>Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor in the September 24 election, was confronted by angry protesters during a campaign speech for the second time in a little more than a week.</p>
<p>On Saturday, a crowd of protesters were yelling and whistling at her during the 30-minute speech in Quedlinburg, a town in Saxony-Anhalt. The demonstrators chanted, “Liar, liar,” and “Merkel must go.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/400091-merkel-protest-traitor-refugees/" type="external" /></p>
<p>A similar incident took place at her previous rally in the town of Annaberg-Buchholz, where protesters held banners calling her “Traitor” and “Not my chancellor.” In both cases, the demonstrators expressed their discontent with Merkel’s refugee policy, which they said had failed.</p>
<p>In her Sunday interview with Die Welt, Merkel said she would not be deterred from campaigning by some angry “hecklers.” “We’re a democracy and everyone can freely express themselves in public the way they want,” she said. “It’s important that we don’t go out of our way to avoid certain areas only because there are a bunch of people screaming.”</p>
<p>She also ruled out any form of cooperation with the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose supporters often appear her staunchest opponents. It is “absolutely clear that the AfD is not a partner for us,” she said, adding that her party would not engage in any form of cooperation with it.</p>
<p>In the meantime, public support for AfD is once again on the rise amid the growing anti-refugee sentiments that followed Merkel’s open-door policy. According to the latest polls conducted by the German public broadcasters <a href="https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/deutschlandtrend-873.html" type="external">ARD</a> and <a href="https://www.zdf.de/politik/politbarometer/stabiler-vorsprung-von-union-und-merkel-luftverschmutzung-in-staedten-mehrheit-gegen-fahrverbote-fuer-diesel-pkw-100.html" type="external">ZDF</a>, AfD has once again emerged as the third most popular political force in Germany as it now enjoys the support of 10 percent of the German population.</p>
<p>Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union still leads the polls by a wide margin as it has support of some 38 percent of Germans. However, its popularity also dramatically <a href="https://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/merkel-wahlumfragen/" type="external">fell</a> during the refugee crisis by almost 10 percent and is now lower than before the previous parliamentary elections in 2013.</p>
<p>The mass influx of refugees has also affected the security situation in Germany. According to a <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/385719-germany-refugees-afghanistan-taliban/" type="external">report</a> in April by Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly, thousands of Afghan refugees who came to Germany admitted during interviews with representatives of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) that they either had contacts with some radical Islamist groups in Afghanistan or had directly fought for the extremists.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/395316-germany-extremism-radicalization-report/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The weekly also said at that time that the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office had already opened criminal cases against 70 Afghan refugees after verifying their statements, and that six asylum seekers had been arrested.</p>
<p>Germany also witnessed a series of terrorist attacks carried out by refugees and claimed by Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) in 2016. The most notorious attack happened in December 2016, when a Tunisian asylum seeker, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, plowed a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people.</p>
<p>In July, the German domestic intelligence, the BfV, <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/395316-germany-extremism-radicalization-report/" type="external">warned</a> that new potential terrorists could be “possibly entering Europe under cover as part of the migration movement” as well as those returning from war zones in Syria and Iraq.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the refugee inflow also led to a surge of right-wing extremism. A total of 208 anti-Muslim incidents were <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/390672-200-anti-muslim-attacks-germany/" type="external">reported</a> across Germany in the first three months of 2017, the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) newspaper reported in June, citing security officials. Right-wing extremists were blamed for most of these incidents, including threatening letters, property damage, attacks on women wearing headscarves and online and verbal abuse.</p>
<p>There were also 900 assaults on refugee centers recorded across Germany in 2016, over 850 of which may have been committed by far-right extremists, according to police. The statistics marked a fivefold increase from 2014 figures.</p> | false | 1 | german chancellor angela merkel defended opendoor policy denying made mistakes course refugee crisis even though decision let hundreds thousands refugees split german society id make important decisions 2015 way chancellor told german die welt dailys weekend edition adding regrets refugee policy read made decision based thought right political humanitarian standpoint said described 2015 refugee crisis one extraordinary situations happen every countrys history time also said 2015 refugee crisis emergency including people seeking asylum never face chancellor criticized eu dublin regulation stipulates asylum seekers accepted eu member state first entered territory union merkel denounced dublin system saying reliable adding leaves countries greece italy unable cope burden placed regulation greece italy bear entire burden geographic location said expressed support idea distribution refugees eu member states merkel called refusal countries accept refugees unacceptable contradicts spirit europe well overcome take time patience succeed said adding would stop pushing relocation refugees across eu since 2015 merkel introduced opendoor policy around 1 million asylumseekers arrived germany putting strain social welfare system sparking rise antimigrant sentiment well opening deep rifts within german society merkel seeking fourth term germanys chancellor september 24 election confronted angry protesters campaign speech second time little week saturday crowd protesters yelling whistling 30minute speech quedlinburg town saxonyanhalt demonstrators chanted liar liar merkel must go read similar incident took place previous rally town annabergbuchholz protesters held banners calling traitor chancellor cases demonstrators expressed discontent merkels refugee policy said failed sunday interview die welt merkel said would deterred campaigning angry hecklers democracy everyone freely express public way want said important dont go way avoid certain areas bunch people screaming also ruled form cooperation rightwing party alternative germany afd whose supporters often appear staunchest opponents absolutely clear afd partner us said adding party would engage form cooperation meantime public support afd rise amid growing antirefugee sentiments followed merkels opendoor policy according latest polls conducted german public broadcasters ard zdf afd emerged third popular political force germany enjoys support 10 percent german population angela merkels christian democratic union still leads polls wide margin support 38 percent germans however popularity also dramatically fell refugee crisis almost 10 percent lower previous parliamentary elections 2013 mass influx refugees also affected security situation germany according report april germanys der spiegel weekly thousands afghan refugees came germany admitted interviews representatives german federal office migration refugees bamf either contacts radical islamist groups afghanistan directly fought extremists read weekly also said time german federal prosecutors office already opened criminal cases 70 afghan refugees verifying statements six asylum seekers arrested germany also witnessed series terrorist attacks carried refugees claimed islamic state former isisisil 2016 notorious attack happened december 2016 tunisian asylum seeker pledged allegiance islamic state plowed truck berlin christmas market killing 12 people july german domestic intelligence bfv warned new potential terrorists could possibly entering europe cover part migration movement well returning war zones syria iraq meantime refugee inflow also led surge rightwing extremism total 208 antimuslim incidents reported across germany first three months 2017 neue osnabrücker zeitung noz newspaper reported june citing security officials rightwing extremists blamed incidents including threatening letters property damage attacks women wearing headscarves online verbal abuse also 900 assaults refugee centers recorded across germany 2016 850 may committed farright extremists according police statistics marked fivefold increase 2014 figures | 539 |
<p>President Donald Trump’s plan to end the stalemate in America’s longest war and eliminate Afghanistan’s rising extremist threat involves sending up to 3,900 additional U.S. forces, senior officials said Tuesday. The first deployments could take place within days.</p>
<p>In a national address Monday night, Trump reversed his past calls for a speedy exit and recommitted the United States to the 16-year conflict, saying U.S. troops must “fight to win.” He warned against the mistakes made in Iraq, where an American military withdrawal led to a vacuum that the Islamic State group quickly filled.</p>
<p>Trump would not confirm how many more service members he plans to send to Afghanistan, which may be the public’s most pressing question about his strategy. In interviews with television networks Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence similarly wouldn’t give any clear answer. Instead, he cited Pentagon plans from June calling for 3,900 more troops.</p>
<p>“The troop levels are significant, and we’ll listen to our military commanders about that,” Pence said. “And the president will make that decision in the days ahead.”</p>
<p>U.S. officials said there was no fixed number. But they said the Pentagon has told Trump it needs that many fresh forces in addition to the roughly 8,400 Americans in the country to accomplish Trump’s objectives of “obliterating ISIS, crushing al-Qaida, preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan and stopping mass terror attacks against America before they emerge.”</p>
<p>The 3,900 figure includes a combination of trainers, security forces and other support troops, according to the officials, who weren’t authorized to publicly discuss details about the the military planning and spoke on condition of anonymity. The exact number of arriving forces can vary as conditions change.</p>
<p>Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also declined to confirm an exact number Tuesday, saying he was waiting for more input from Gen. Joseph Dunford, America’s top military official. Mattis said he will “reorganize” some U.S. troops in Afghanistan to reflect the new strategy.</p>
<p>The top U.S. commander for the Middle East said he expects the first reinforcements to arrive “pretty quickly,” within days or weeks.</p>
<p>“What’s most important for us now is to get some capabilities in to have an impact on the current fighting season,” Gen. Joseph Votel, who spent last weekend in Afghanistan, told reporters traveling with him to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Before he was a presidential candidate, Trump ardently argued for a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan and called the war a massive waste of U.S. “blood and treasure.” On Monday, he suggested an open-ended commitment rather than a “time-based” approach.</p>
<p>“Conditions on the ground — not arbitrary timetables — will guide our strategy from now on,” Trump said.</p>
<p>At its peak involvement in 2010-2011, the U.S. had roughly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama then started bringing them home, drawing criticism for the advance timetables he provided for his planned drawdown and ultimate withdrawal of forces.</p>
<p>Trump was among those who argued that Obama was aiding the enemy by telegraphing U.S. intentions. On Monday, Trump said he wouldn’t discuss troop numbers, military tactics or timetables. “America’s enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out,” he said.</p>
<p>While such reticence may have a military rationale, the American public may insist that it has a right to know how many of its citizens are waging a war overseas in its name.</p>
<p>The administration invariably will have to provide updates to Congress, which pays the military’s bills, and to key U.S. allies, whose troop contributions it seeks, on the changing level of American manpower in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Obama reversed himself on withdrawing from Afghanistan as security worsened. Taliban militants have made gains across the country, and the fractious Afghan government currently controls about half the country.</p>
<p>Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government welcomed Trump’s strategy, with President Ashraf Ghani saying it will help stabilize the region.</p>
<p>Allies responded positively, too.</p>
<p>Germany, which contributes 950 troops in northern Afghanistan, approved the U.S. readiness for a “long-term commitment” and agreed the military’s continued deployment should be “linked to the conditions on the ground.”</p>
<p>Trump offered few specifics of how his strategy would be implemented. He didn’t say how the U.S. would get Pakistan to crack down on militant sanctuaries on its soil — long a point of contention that has led Washington to restrict aid to the country.</p>
<p>Insisting that the U.S. was intent on “killing terrorists” rather than “nation building,” Trump gave little indication of how the U.S. would use other instruments of American power to end the conflict.</p>
<p>Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that after an effective military effort, a political settlement including some Taliban might be possible, echoing language of the Obama years. He said the U.S. would support peace talks with the Taliban “without preconditions.”</p>
<p>U.S. lawmakers reflected the division among Americans about whether to press on with the conflict or pull back.</p>
<p>Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman who’d criticized Trump for delays in presenting a plan, said Trump was “now moving us well beyond the prior administration’s failed strategy of merely postponing defeat.”</p>
<p>Maryland’s Ben Cardin, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, said he failed to see how another “surge” of forces in Afghanistan would turn the tide on the insurgency. He expressed concern that Trump was ceding significant responsibility to his defense secretary.</p> | false | 1 | president donald trumps plan end stalemate americas longest war eliminate afghanistans rising extremist threat involves sending 3900 additional us forces senior officials said tuesday first deployments could take place within days national address monday night trump reversed past calls speedy exit recommitted united states 16year conflict saying us troops must fight win warned mistakes made iraq american military withdrawal led vacuum islamic state group quickly filled trump would confirm many service members plans send afghanistan may publics pressing question strategy interviews television networks tuesday vice president mike pence similarly wouldnt give clear answer instead cited pentagon plans june calling 3900 troops troop levels significant well listen military commanders pence said president make decision days ahead us officials said fixed number said pentagon told trump needs many fresh forces addition roughly 8400 americans country accomplish trumps objectives obliterating isis crushing alqaida preventing taliban taking afghanistan stopping mass terror attacks america emerge 3900 figure includes combination trainers security forces support troops according officials werent authorized publicly discuss details military planning spoke condition anonymity exact number arriving forces vary conditions change defense secretary jim mattis also declined confirm exact number tuesday saying waiting input gen joseph dunford americas top military official mattis said reorganize us troops afghanistan reflect new strategy top us commander middle east said expects first reinforcements arrive pretty quickly within days weeks whats important us get capabilities impact current fighting season gen joseph votel spent last weekend afghanistan told reporters traveling saudi arabia tuesday presidential candidate trump ardently argued quick withdrawal afghanistan called war massive waste us blood treasure monday suggested openended commitment rather timebased approach conditions ground arbitrary timetables guide strategy trump said peak involvement 20102011 us roughly 100000 troops afghanistan president barack obama started bringing home drawing criticism advance timetables provided planned drawdown ultimate withdrawal forces trump among argued obama aiding enemy telegraphing us intentions monday trump said wouldnt discuss troop numbers military tactics timetables americas enemies must never know plans believe wait us said reticence may military rationale american public may insist right know many citizens waging war overseas name administration invariably provide updates congress pays militarys bills key us allies whose troop contributions seeks changing level american manpower afghanistan obama reversed withdrawing afghanistan security worsened taliban militants made gains across country fractious afghan government currently controls half country afghanistans usbacked government welcomed trumps strategy president ashraf ghani saying help stabilize region allies responded positively germany contributes 950 troops northern afghanistan approved us readiness longterm commitment agreed militarys continued deployment linked conditions ground trump offered specifics strategy would implemented didnt say us would get pakistan crack militant sanctuaries soil long point contention led washington restrict aid country insisting us intent killing terrorists rather nation building trump gave little indication us would use instruments american power end conflict secretary state rex tillerson said effective military effort political settlement including taliban might possible echoing language obama years said us would support peace talks taliban without preconditions us lawmakers reflected division among americans whether press conflict pull back republican sen john mccain arizona senate armed services committee chairman whod criticized trump delays presenting plan said trump moving us well beyond prior administrations failed strategy merely postponing defeat marylands ben cardin senate foreign relations committees top democrat said failed see another surge forces afghanistan would turn tide insurgency expressed concern trump ceding significant responsibility defense secretary | 555 |
<p>George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center and a frequent National Review Online contributor, brings his monumental biography of Pope John Paul II to completion with a new volume, published earlier this week: <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=038552479X" type="external">The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II — The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy</a>. He spoke with NRO editor-at-large Kathryn Jean Lopez about the book, the pope, and the late pontiff’s significance for the Church and the world.</p>
<p>KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: If you had to describe John Paul II’s significance in a sentence or two, for an ecumenical audience, how might you approach it?</p>
<p>GEORGE WEIGEL: John Paul II was the pivotal figure in the collapse of European Communism, and he was the great Christian witness of the last half of the twentieth century. The latter explains the former, which is itself something deeply significant for understanding the cultural dynamics of history.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Would that answer be any different for a Catholic audience?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: Not really, although I would add for a Catholic audience that he brought the Second Vatican Council to a fine point of development by providing an authoritative interpretation of the Council’s key texts. Other councils had provided “keys” to their proper interpretation through creeds, canons, anathemas, and so forth. Vatican II did none of this, and so there was a 15-year free-for-all about what Vatican II really intended and meant. John Paul II essentially ended the free-for-all with his teachings over 26 and a half years, which gave the Church authoritative “keys” to understanding the most important Catholic event since the Counter-Reformation in the 16th century.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Why do you call John Paul II “a pope of many surprises”?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: The first surprise, of course, was that he was a “pope from a far country,” the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and the first Slavic pope ever. The next surprise was that this man who had lived most of his adult life under totalitarian systems had a deeply thought-through understanding of the moral dynamics of freedom rightly understood, as applied to everything from the ethics of interpersonal relationships to the construction and flourishing of free polities and economies. The third surprise was his remarkable capacity to embody paternity in an astonishing variety of cultural circumstances, and in a world seemingly bereft of fatherhood and its distinctive combination of strength and mercy. The fourth surprise, for those who imagine that politics, economics, or some combination of politics and economics drives history, was his demonstration that culture — in the form of aroused consciences — can bend history in a more humane direction. The fifth surprise was that he held the world’s attention for decades, in a media age when even the most compelling public figures burn out their welcome after five or ten years. And I suppose the last surprise was the way in which his living his illness and suffering publicly became a kind of icon of the central mystery of Christian faith for people around the world.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: A good portion of the book comes from new information you had access to from the Polish secret police, the German Stasi, and the KGB, and other previously classified Communist-era documents. What was most revealing there?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: The sheer magnitude of the Communist effort to suborn, blackmail, and ultimately destroy the Catholic Church in central and eastern Europe, and to penetrate the Vatican, was very striking. Millions of man-hours and billions of dollars were spent on this effort to impede the work and foul the reputation of what the Soviets and their satellites clearly perceived as the main ideological enemy. I thought it also striking that the Vatican had virtually no counterintelligence capability, that John Paul II was evidently aware of this, and that he changed the papal routine so that his work on Poland and related issues was on close-hold in the papal apartment.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Did it come as a surprise to you that you would come to write so much about those years?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: When Polish colleagues shared with me the documents they had mined from the secret-police and foreign-ministry files of the Polish and East German Communist regimes, and when I began to look closely at KGB materials that only became available after I had published <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=0060732032" type="external">Witness to Hope</a>, it became obvious that there was a great story to be told here, and that the second volume of what I had always intended to be a multi-volume biography of John Paul II was the place to tell it.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: You spent time with John Paul II and have written comprehensively about him — was there anything during the course of writing The End and the Beginning that surprised you to learn about John Paul II’s papacy?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: I certainly didn’t know that the SB, the Polish secret police, had tried to blackmail the pope prior to his second visit to Poland in 1983 (which took place under martial law) by means of a bizarre strategem I describe in The End and the Beginning. And, in retrospect, I began to see that the last half of 2003 was a kind of “dark night” for John Paul II, who had of course been formed in the spirituality of St. John of the Cross, author of The Dark Night of the Soul.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: If your publisher’s desires and other practical considerations were not concerns, would there be another book on John Paul II from you? What would it be on? Is there some tangent you’d love to go on with him? Any specialization or devotion or habit you’d like to explore?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: As far as biography strictly speaking is concerned, I have now finished what I set out to do in 1995, and what I promised the pope I would finish when we had our last meal together just before Christmas 2004. As for future books, I may write a personal memoir of our encounters some day. But that would be a different, more informal kind of book.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: In meeting with John Paul II as you did, did you ever argue? Are there any insights you can share about how he approached differences?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: We obviously had different views of the prudence of American and British military action in Iraq when that was being debated in 2002 and 2003. Then as always, John Paul II approached differences in a thoroughly adult way: principles and prudential possibilities were explored and discussed, and, when necessary, we agreed to disagree and to continue the conversation.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: How important was “Be not afraid!” on October 22, 1978, to Church history? To world history?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: I believe Yale’s John Lewis Gaddis, perhaps our premier historian of the Cold War, is right when he argues that the beginning of the end of European Communism came when John Paul II stepped onto the tarmac at the Warsaw Airport on June 2, 1979; that was the beginning of nine days that changed the course of history by setting in motion the human dynamics that led, ultimately, to the Revolution of 1989. And if Gaddis is right, then that clarion call to courage October 22, 1978, was the beginning of the beginning of the end for Lenin and Stalin’s empire.</p>
<p>As for the Church, October 2, 1978, marked the end of a period of drift and created the possibility of a truly evangelical Catholicism, confidently taking the Christian proposal to the world.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: What was the most significant confrontation with evil in John Paul II’s life (that we know of)?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: He once described his experience of the Second World War as “humiliation at the hands of evil,” and I have long believed that that was the experience that forged the unique personality of Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II. That was the experience in which his decision to accept God’s offer of the priesthood was clarified; that was the experience that led him to devote his priesthood to an intellectual and pastoral defense of the dignity of the human person. So in biographical terms, that was a significant confrontation with evil.</p>
<p>But that the Evil One confronted John Paul II on many occasions, no one should doubt — and I offer several different kinds of examples of those confrontations in The End and the Beginning.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: There was recently a “Theology of the Body Congress,” largely based on the pontificate of John Paul II. How important are his writings on the human person and sexuality? Do they have wider transformational possibilities?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: They have changed the discussion of sexual morality in the Catholic Church, and they’re beginning to do so in the world. Believe it or not, a group of Columbia students self-organized an outdoor discussion of John Paul’s books on sexual ethics at Rockefeller Center recently. No one could have imagined any such thing happening in, say, 1978, when he was elected.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Why was the 2000 Jubilee year so important? Did it go beyond the Catholic Church?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: John Paul was determined, in the Great Jubilee of 2000, to make the world and the Church confront the fact that Christianity is based on the witness of transformed lives, real lives, lived at a certain moment in history and at defined places — places we can still touch. Jesus of Nazareth transformed lives in ways that led those lives to transform the world: That’s not a pious myth; that’s not a happy bedtime story; that’s a matter of fact. How else would the bones of an obscure and probably illiterate fisherman from the far edges of the Roman Empire end up buried on Vatican Hill? Bringing the world and the Church to grips with the historicity of the Christian claim was the primary purpose of the Great Jubilee of 2000.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Why was evangelization so important to him?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: Because he believed — really believed — that the Christian Gospel reveals the truth about the human person, and he was a man passionate about the human person.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: What did you find most striking about John Paull II’s “last encyclical,” his very public death? Did he do it consciously? Because we needed to see it? Because he felt called to do it?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: He lived out the last years and months of his life the way he did because he was a Catholic priest who believed that the entire purpose of the priesthood is to invite others into a profound experience of the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: What is the “new humanism” you write of, and how is John Paul II its prophet?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: Unlike the “atheistic humanism” of Comte, Feuerbach, Marx, and Nietzsche, the new humanism of John Paul II takes full account of the human capacity for transcendence, morally and intellectually. Moreover, John Paul’s new humanism understands that the God of the Bible came into human history as a liberator. To take man seriously is to take the question of God seriously; and to take the question of God seriously is to enter into the depths of the mystery of human freedom.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: During these final years, what was his dark night? And what is a dark night — we tend to misunderstand that, I think?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: A “dark night” is a period of spiritual dryness, a “desert experience,” and many great saints (as well as many ordinary saints, whose lives are all around us) experience such periods of struggle. I think John Paul II went through one such experience in the summer and fall of 2003, and came through it with an even greater determination to turn his suffering into a window into the mysteries of God’s redemptive purposes, made plain in the death and resurrection of the Son of God.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Do you have any idea what he might have been happiest about in his years as pope and what he might have regretted? Any insights into how he might have approached the questions?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: He was always looking forward, so I don’t know that he spent a lot of time weighing this or that. He was certainly wounded, deeply, by the revelations that priests had betrayed their vocations by abusing the young, and that bishops had betrayed their vocations by failing to get to grips with clerical sexual abuse. He truly hoped that the world had turned a corner into a better way of solving its problems in the Revolution of 1989, and he was disappointed in that hope, obviously. But he remained to the end a man of good spirits and hope; our last meal together in December 2004 was full of good humor, with John Paul, on several occasions, laughing as much as he could given his Parkinson’s disease. He truly believed that God’s purposes would be vindicated, and he could be a man of hope and good cheer because of that.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Any idea how he would have wanted to be remembered?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: As someone who had spent his life inviting others into the profound relationship with God that he had experienced, I think.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: What was the relationship between the current pope and his predecessor truly like?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: Great mutual respect, and a recognition, I think, of how their different intellectual gifts complemented each other in their collaboration over 20 years.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: A sympathetic column in the New York Times in recent months cast Benedict as the good reformer pope and John Paul as the bad pope, essentially, vis-à-vis priest scandals. Is that fair? If not, what would be a fair, honest assessment?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: No, it’s not fair, and if I may say so, it’s based on ignorance of the record, at least with respect to John Paul II. John Paul II was a great reformer of the priesthood for 26 and a half years. He drew into the priesthood, by his own example, tens of thousands of young men who will never abuse their priestly vocation by abusing others. His apostolic exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, led to a significant reform of seminaries and of the way the Catholic Church trains its priests. I explore John Paul’s role in the scandals of the recent past at length in The End and the Beginning — including the issue of whether he was slow to grasp the meaning of the Long Lent of 2002, and the issue of his being misled by Father Marcial Maciel — and I invite those who want to get at the truth of all this to read those parts of the book carefully.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: What is the consistency between JPII and B16?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: Both are men of Vatican II, rightly understood. Both are men who believe that the Catholic Church and its social doctrine have important things to offer to the building of free and virtuous societies. Both are men of dynamic orthodoxy, rooted in the great tradition of Christian faith but eager to put that tradition into active conversation with contemporary thought.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: Do you expect John Paul II will one day be canonized?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: I think the people of the Church have already recognized that John Paul’s was a life of heroic virtue, and I expect that the Church will formally acknowledge that the people got it right, in due course.</p>
<p>LOPEZ: What is the most pressing issue for the Catholic Church today?</p>
<p>WEIGEL: As always, the question is whether the Son of Man will find faith on earth, when he returns. Immediately, the most pressing question for the Church is identifying and ordaining the kind of bishops who embody the dynamic orthodoxy and evangelical Catholicism of John Paul II and Benedict XVI; a corollary issue is dealing with those bishops who can’t do the job, or haven’t in the past. The Church deserves leaders who are as on fire with the Gospel as many of the people of the Church are today, thanks to two great popes.</p>
<p>George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.</p> | false | 1 | george weigel distinguished senior fellow washingtons ethics public policy center frequent national review online contributor brings monumental biography pope john paul ii completion new volume published earlier week end beginning pope john paul ii victory freedom last years legacy spoke nro editoratlarge kathryn jean lopez book pope late pontiffs significance church world kathryn jean lopez describe john paul iis significance sentence two ecumenical audience might approach george weigel john paul ii pivotal figure collapse european communism great christian witness last half twentieth century latter explains former something deeply significant understanding cultural dynamics history lopez would answer different catholic audience weigel really although would add catholic audience brought second vatican council fine point development providing authoritative interpretation councils key texts councils provided keys proper interpretation creeds canons anathemas forth vatican ii none 15year freeforall vatican ii really intended meant john paul ii essentially ended freeforall teachings 26 half years gave church authoritative keys understanding important catholic event since counterreformation 16th century lopez call john paul ii pope many surprises weigel first surprise course pope far country first nonitalian pope 455 years first slavic pope ever next surprise man lived adult life totalitarian systems deeply thoughtthrough understanding moral dynamics freedom rightly understood applied everything ethics interpersonal relationships construction flourishing free polities economies third surprise remarkable capacity embody paternity astonishing variety cultural circumstances world seemingly bereft fatherhood distinctive combination strength mercy fourth surprise imagine politics economics combination politics economics drives history demonstration culture form aroused consciences bend history humane direction fifth surprise held worlds attention decades media age even compelling public figures burn welcome five ten years suppose last surprise way living illness suffering publicly became kind icon central mystery christian faith people around world lopez good portion book comes new information access polish secret police german stasi kgb previously classified communistera documents revealing weigel sheer magnitude communist effort suborn blackmail ultimately destroy catholic church central eastern europe penetrate vatican striking millions manhours billions dollars spent effort impede work foul reputation soviets satellites clearly perceived main ideological enemy thought also striking vatican virtually counterintelligence capability john paul ii evidently aware changed papal routine work poland related issues closehold papal apartment lopez come surprise would come write much years weigel polish colleagues shared documents mined secretpolice foreignministry files polish east german communist regimes began look closely kgb materials became available published witness hope became obvious great story told second volume always intended multivolume biography john paul ii place tell lopez spent time john paul ii written comprehensively anything course writing end beginning surprised learn john paul iis papacy weigel certainly didnt know sb polish secret police tried blackmail pope prior second visit poland 1983 took place martial law means bizarre strategem describe end beginning retrospect began see last half 2003 kind dark night john paul ii course formed spirituality st john cross author dark night soul lopez publishers desires practical considerations concerns would another book john paul ii would tangent youd love go specialization devotion habit youd like explore weigel far biography strictly speaking concerned finished set 1995 promised pope would finish last meal together christmas 2004 future books may write personal memoir encounters day would different informal kind book lopez meeting john paul ii ever argue insights share approached differences weigel obviously different views prudence american british military action iraq debated 2002 2003 always john paul ii approached differences thoroughly adult way principles prudential possibilities explored discussed necessary agreed disagree continue conversation lopez important afraid october 22 1978 church history world history weigel believe yales john lewis gaddis perhaps premier historian cold war right argues beginning end european communism came john paul ii stepped onto tarmac warsaw airport june 2 1979 beginning nine days changed course history setting motion human dynamics led ultimately revolution 1989 gaddis right clarion call courage october 22 1978 beginning beginning end lenin stalins empire church october 2 1978 marked end period drift created possibility truly evangelical catholicism confidently taking christian proposal world lopez significant confrontation evil john paul iis life know weigel described experience second world war humiliation hands evil long believed experience forged unique personality karol wojtyla pope john paul ii experience decision accept gods offer priesthood clarified experience led devote priesthood intellectual pastoral defense dignity human person biographical terms significant confrontation evil evil one confronted john paul ii many occasions one doubt offer several different kinds examples confrontations end beginning lopez recently theology body congress largely based pontificate john paul ii important writings human person sexuality wider transformational possibilities weigel changed discussion sexual morality catholic church theyre beginning world believe group columbia students selforganized outdoor discussion john pauls books sexual ethics rockefeller center recently one could imagined thing happening say 1978 elected lopez 2000 jubilee year important go beyond catholic church weigel john paul determined great jubilee 2000 make world church confront fact christianity based witness transformed lives real lives lived certain moment history defined places places still touch jesus nazareth transformed lives ways led lives transform world thats pious myth thats happy bedtime story thats matter fact else would bones obscure probably illiterate fisherman far edges roman empire end buried vatican hill bringing world church grips historicity christian claim primary purpose great jubilee 2000 lopez evangelization important weigel believed really believed christian gospel reveals truth human person man passionate human person lopez find striking john paull iis last encyclical public death consciously needed see felt called weigel lived last years months life way catholic priest believed entire purpose priesthood invite others profound experience mystery death resurrection christ lopez new humanism write john paul ii prophet weigel unlike atheistic humanism comte feuerbach marx nietzsche new humanism john paul ii takes full account human capacity transcendence morally intellectually moreover john pauls new humanism understands god bible came human history liberator take man seriously take question god seriously take question god seriously enter depths mystery human freedom lopez final years dark night dark night tend misunderstand think weigel dark night period spiritual dryness desert experience many great saints well many ordinary saints whose lives around us experience periods struggle think john paul ii went one experience summer fall 2003 came even greater determination turn suffering window mysteries gods redemptive purposes made plain death resurrection son god lopez idea might happiest years pope might regretted insights might approached questions weigel always looking forward dont know spent lot time weighing certainly wounded deeply revelations priests betrayed vocations abusing young bishops betrayed vocations failing get grips clerical sexual abuse truly hoped world turned corner better way solving problems revolution 1989 disappointed hope obviously remained end man good spirits hope last meal together december 2004 full good humor john paul several occasions laughing much could given parkinsons disease truly believed gods purposes would vindicated could man hope good cheer lopez idea would wanted remembered weigel someone spent life inviting others profound relationship god experienced think lopez relationship current pope predecessor truly like weigel great mutual respect recognition think different intellectual gifts complemented collaboration 20 years lopez sympathetic column new york times recent months cast benedict good reformer pope john paul bad pope essentially visàvis priest scandals fair would fair honest assessment weigel fair may say based ignorance record least respect john paul ii john paul ii great reformer priesthood 26 half years drew priesthood example tens thousands young men never abuse priestly vocation abusing others apostolic exhortation pastores dabo vobis led significant reform seminaries way catholic church trains priests explore john pauls role scandals recent past length end beginning including issue whether slow grasp meaning long lent 2002 issue misled father marcial maciel invite want get truth read parts book carefully lopez consistency jpii b16 weigel men vatican ii rightly understood men believe catholic church social doctrine important things offer building free virtuous societies men dynamic orthodoxy rooted great tradition christian faith eager put tradition active conversation contemporary thought lopez expect john paul ii one day canonized weigel think people church already recognized john pauls life heroic virtue expect church formally acknowledge people got right due course lopez pressing issue catholic church today weigel always question whether son man find faith earth returns immediately pressing question church identifying ordaining kind bishops embody dynamic orthodoxy evangelical catholicism john paul ii benedict xvi corollary issue dealing bishops cant job havent past church deserves leaders fire gospel many people church today thanks two great popes george weigel distinguished senior fellow washingtons ethics public policy center holds william e simon chair catholic studies | 1,397 |
<p>Richard Anderson, who simultaneously played Oscar Goldman, leader of secret government agent the OSI, on both “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman” after a long career as a supporting actor in film and TV, died on Thursday in his Beverly Hills home. He was 91.</p>
<p>Anderson famously intoned the words heard in voiceover in the opening credits of “The Six Million Dollar Man”: “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better… stronger… faster.”</p>
<p>Anderson was one of a handful of actors who’ve played the same character simultaneously on more than one series on an ongoing basis; some actors in the “Law &amp; Order” franchise made occasional or special appearances on another “Law &amp; Order” series, but were not seen regularly on more than one series.</p>
<p>In the case of “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman,” Martin E. Brooks also appeared concurrently on both, as bionics expert Dr. Rudy Wells.</p>
<p>Anderson first portrayed Oscar Goldman, who would ultimately be the boss of both Lee Majors’ Steve Austin and Lindsay Wagner’s Jaime Sommers, in the 1973 TV movies “The Six Million Dollar Man: Wine, Women and War” and “The Six Million Dollar Man: Solid Gold Kidnapping” before the series began in 1974. “The Bionic Woman” premiered two years later, and the two shows ran concurrently for two years, with Anderson appearing on both. Later he appeared in the reunion movies “The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman” (1987), “Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman” (1989) and “Bionic Ever After?” (1994).</p>
<p>The hard-working Anderson racked up 186 credits in the IMDb.</p>
<p>He had a key role in the 1956 sci-fi classic “Forbidden Planet,” in which he played chief engineer Quinn.</p>
<p>“That was the last of two dozen movies I did for MGM,” Anderson told Gannett’s the Spectrum in 2015. “Sci-fi feature films were rather new in 1956, and it changed the genre forever. The whole movie was shot on one stage and, as filming progressed, the studio gave us more money and the best production staff. We turned out a first-class movie that’s still impressive today.”</p>
<p>The actor also had substantial supporting roles in Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 antiwar masterpiece “Paths of Glory,” in which he played Maj. Saint-Auban, a member of the military court that convicts the hopelessly innocent men; and 1958’s “The Long Hot Summer,” starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, in which he played Alan Stewart, whom Woodward’s character has her eyes on. (Also in 1958, Anderson was first billed in B horror film “Curse of the Faceless Man,” playing an archaeologist who disentombs the title monster; the actor told the Spectrum, ” The only movie poster I have hanging in my home is from that film”). He also played the older brother of Dean Stockwell’s child-murdering Judd Steiner in Richard Fleischer’s “Compulsion” (1959), but Anderson was increasingly moving away from movie roles and toward the opportunities afforded by television, although he nevertheless appeared in features “A Gathering of Eagles” (1963); John Frankenheimer’s “Seven Days in May” (1964), in which he played a colonel whose suspicions lead to the uncovering of the conspiracy; Frankenheimer’s “Seconds” (1966), in which he played the doctor who transforms an old man into Rock Hudson’s character; 1970’s Pearl Harbor epic “Tora! Tora! Tora”; and 1972’s Joan Didion-penned “Play It as It Lays”</p>
<p>Anderson had the recurring role of Ricardo del Amo in the ABC series “Zorro” in 1958-59; after guesting on shows including “The Untouchables” and “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” he was a series regular, as D.A. Glenn Wagner, on ABC’s single-season drama “Bus Stop” in 1961-62. He recurred on “Perry Mason” from 1964-66 as police Lt. Steve Drumm (replacing Lt. Tragg, played by Ray Collins, who had died) and on the series “12 O’Clock High” as Brig. Gen. Phil Doud in 1966. On “The Fugitive” he played the brother-in-law to protagonist Dr. Richard Kemble (David Janssen); he was a series regular on Burt Reynolds police series “Dan August,” in which he played Chief George Untermeyer in 1970-71 — and returned in 1980 for three “Dan August” TV movies for which Reynolds also returned.</p>
<p>In 1978 Anderson appeared in the ABC miniseries “Pearl” as Cmdr. Michael North, and he later guested on series including “Charlie’s Angels,” “Knight Rider” and ” Fantasy Island.” In a 1983 episode of the brief CBS series “Bring ‘Em Back Alive,” the actor portrayed Gen. Douglas MacArthur.</p>
<p>In 1986-87 he recurred as the powerful Buck Fallmont on “Dynasty.”</p>
<p>Late in his career Anderson appeared in two features: “Gettysburg,” as Gen. George Meade, and Charles Burnett’s racism in the sheriffs department drama “The Glass Shield,” in which he played Watch Commander Clarence Massey.</p>
<p>Richard Norman Anderson was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and raised in New York. He loved Westerns as a child.</p>
<p>“The stories had heroes and happy endings – I really wanted to live in that world,” Anderson recalled to the Spectrum. “I was especially drawn to one actor who never said much, but used his body language to tell the story. That was Gary Cooper, who inspired me to get into the business.”</p>
<p>He first got involved in drama in high school. After serving in the U.S. Army, he scrambled for acting work, but once he got started in the movies, he never looked back.</p>
<p>During the 1950s he was a supporting player in a wide range of films, playing the sincere son-in-law, the deputy sheriff, sailor, a detective. He got things started in 1950 with roles in “The Vanishing Westerner” and Oliver Wendell Holmes biopic “The Magnificent Yankee.” Early in his career, to name a few films, Anderson appeared in Spencer Tracy crime drama “The People Against O’Hara”; William Wellman’s Western “Across the Wide Missouri,” starring Clark Gable; “Scaramouche,” starring Stewart Granger, in which Anderson’s Phillipe, the best friend of Granger’s character, is killed in a duel in a key plot point; Stanley Donen’s “Fearless Fagan”; and Sidney Sheldon’s “Dream Wife,” starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.</p>
<p>By the mid-’50s he had graduated to bigger supporting roles in at least some higher-profile features, but the actor threw in his lot with the small screen by the end of the decade.</p>
<p>Anderson’s memoir, co-written with Alan Doshna, “Richard Anderson: At Last … A Memoir, From the Golden Years of M-G-M to The Six Million Dollar Man to Now,” was published in 2015.</p>
<p>Anderson was married twice, the first time to Carol Lee Ladd, the daughter of actor Alan Ladd, from 1955-56, the second time to Katharine Thalberg, the daughter of Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, from 1961-73. Both marriages ended in divorce.</p>
<p>“Norma Shearer was very nice to me; she liked and respected me,” Anderson told the Spectrum, recalling his former mother-in-law, a legendary actress. “She gave us a party when we were married — Judy Garland was one of the guests. Norma had a house on the beach, and when we visited her, she would talk about her career and how she ‘had it all’ at one time. She won a best actress Oscar (‘The Divorcee’ in 1930), and we still have it.”</p>
<p>He is survived by three daughters from Thalberg: Ashley, Brooke and Deva.</p> | false | 1 | richard anderson simultaneously played oscar goldman leader secret government agent osi six million dollar man bionic woman long career supporting actor film tv died thursday beverly hills home 91 anderson famously intoned words heard voiceover opening credits six million dollar man gentlemen rebuild technology capability make worlds first bionic man steve austin man better better stronger faster anderson one handful actors whove played character simultaneously one series ongoing basis actors law amp order franchise made occasional special appearances another law amp order series seen regularly one series case six million dollar man bionic woman martin e brooks also appeared concurrently bionics expert dr rudy wells anderson first portrayed oscar goldman would ultimately boss lee majors steve austin lindsay wagners jaime sommers 1973 tv movies six million dollar man wine women war six million dollar man solid gold kidnapping series began 1974 bionic woman premiered two years later two shows ran concurrently two years anderson appearing later appeared reunion movies return sixmilliondollar man bionic woman 1987 bionic showdown six million dollar man bionic woman 1989 bionic ever 1994 hardworking anderson racked 186 credits imdb key role 1956 scifi classic forbidden planet played chief engineer quinn last two dozen movies mgm anderson told gannetts spectrum 2015 scifi feature films rather new 1956 changed genre forever whole movie shot one stage filming progressed studio gave us money best production staff turned firstclass movie thats still impressive today actor also substantial supporting roles stanley kubricks 1957 antiwar masterpiece paths glory played maj saintauban member military court convicts hopelessly innocent men 1958s long hot summer starring paul newman joanne woodward played alan stewart woodwards character eyes also 1958 anderson first billed b horror film curse faceless man playing archaeologist disentombs title monster actor told spectrum movie poster hanging home film also played older brother dean stockwells childmurdering judd steiner richard fleischers compulsion 1959 anderson increasingly moving away movie roles toward opportunities afforded television although nevertheless appeared features gathering eagles 1963 john frankenheimers seven days may 1964 played colonel whose suspicions lead uncovering conspiracy frankenheimers seconds 1966 played doctor transforms old man rock hudsons character 1970s pearl harbor epic tora tora tora 1972s joan didionpenned play lays anderson recurring role ricardo del amo abc series zorro 195859 guesting shows including untouchables wanted dead alive series regular da glenn wagner abcs singleseason drama bus stop 196162 recurred perry mason 196466 police lt steve drumm replacing lt tragg played ray collins died series 12 oclock high brig gen phil doud 1966 fugitive played brotherinlaw protagonist dr richard kemble david janssen series regular burt reynolds police series dan august played chief george untermeyer 197071 returned 1980 three dan august tv movies reynolds also returned 1978 anderson appeared abc miniseries pearl cmdr michael north later guested series including charlies angels knight rider fantasy island 1983 episode brief cbs series bring em back alive actor portrayed gen douglas macarthur 198687 recurred powerful buck fallmont dynasty late career anderson appeared two features gettysburg gen george meade charles burnetts racism sheriffs department drama glass shield played watch commander clarence massey richard norman anderson born long branch new jersey raised new york loved westerns child stories heroes happy endings really wanted live world anderson recalled spectrum especially drawn one actor never said much used body language tell story gary cooper inspired get business first got involved drama high school serving us army scrambled acting work got started movies never looked back 1950s supporting player wide range films playing sincere soninlaw deputy sheriff sailor detective got things started 1950 roles vanishing westerner oliver wendell holmes biopic magnificent yankee early career name films anderson appeared spencer tracy crime drama people ohara william wellmans western across wide missouri starring clark gable scaramouche starring stewart granger andersons phillipe best friend grangers character killed duel key plot point stanley donens fearless fagan sidney sheldons dream wife starring cary grant deborah kerr mid50s graduated bigger supporting roles least higherprofile features actor threw lot small screen end decade andersons memoir cowritten alan doshna richard anderson last memoir golden years mgm six million dollar man published 2015 anderson married twice first time carol lee ladd daughter actor alan ladd 195556 second time katharine thalberg daughter norma shearer irving thalberg 196173 marriages ended divorce norma shearer nice liked respected anderson told spectrum recalling former motherinlaw legendary actress gave us party married judy garland one guests norma house beach visited would talk career one time best actress oscar divorcee 1930 still survived three daughters thalberg ashley brooke deva | 744 |
<p />
<p>In the guest section of my website, there is a <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/10/19/obamneycare-another-win-win-oligarchs/" type="external">new contribution</a> by Dr. Robert S. Dotson. He points out that Obamneycare is two versions of the same thing. A person has to be gullible and uninformed to believe the claims of Obama and Romney that their replacements for Medicare will save money and improve care.&#160; What the schemes do is convert public monies into private profits.</p>
<p>The exploding costs described by Dr. Dotson and the rising profits for private corporations are paid for by reducing health care. For example, Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York, writing in Investors Business Daily, <a href="http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/101212-629190-obamacare-medicare-cuts-danger-to-senior-citizens.htm?p=full" type="external">reports</a> that "On Oct. 1, the Obama administration started awarding bonus points to hospitals that spend the least on elderly patients."&#160; The result will be fewer knee and hip replacements, angioplasty, bypass surgery, and cataract operations. These procedures transformed aging by allowing the elderly, who formerly languished in wheelchairs and nursing homes, to lead active lives.</p>
<p>Obamacare rolls back the clock. "By cutting $716 billion from future Medicare funding over the next decade and rewarding the hospitals that spend the least on seniors, the Obama health law will make these procedures hard to get and less safe."</p>
<p>Doctors will be paid less to treat a senior on Medicare than to treat someone on Medicaid, a poverty program that is not financed by the payroll tax. McCaughry reports that doctors will be paid only one-third as much for treating Medicare patients as for treating a patient with subsidized private insurance and that Obamacare means that hospitals will have $247 billion less over the next decade to care for the same number of seniors.</p>
<p>According to McCaughey, prior to Obama raiding Medicare in order to subsidize the price of health policies sold by private insurance companies, Medicare was already paying hospitals only 91 cents for every dollar of care provide.&#160; The way Obamacare saves money is by cutting back care for the elderly and shortening their lives.</p>
<p>As I pointed out in my <a href="" type="internal">last article</a>, Obamacare is a death panel.</p>
<p>This doesn't mean that Romneycare is any better.&#160; Conservatives like to pretend that the private sector is always more efficient and less corrupt than the public sector, and that replacing Medicare with vouchers toward the purchase price of a private insurance company will lower costs and improve care.</p>
<p>As Romney's scheme has not appeared in federal legislation, we don't know all the ways the interest groups would game the voucher system.&#160; However, the voucher system would add to costs by adding another level of profits.&#160; Unless the private insurance companies are to become administrators for the government and be protected from Wall Street organized takeovers for not earning high enough profits, the policies sold by the insurance companies will have profit in them.</p>
<p>Also, conservatives make a great deal to do about Medicare being unfunded, but what is there to fund Obamneycare except the payroll tax that funds Medicare?&#160; Obamneycare depends on the government handing out subsidies or vouchers for the purchase of private insurance policies. Neither scheme is any more funded than Medicare.</p>
<p>Some conservatives seem to think that because private policies are involved that health care becomes funded. What Obamneycare does is to steal from Medicare in order to finance Medicaid and private insurance policies. Both plans raise costs, reduce care for the elderly, and divert tax dollars away from health care to private profits.</p>
<p>Let's examine the erroneous conservative belief that if health care is provided privately, without any government subsidies, it is funded, whereas Medicare is not funded.&#160; To pay the premium on a private policy, a person has to have an income. The premiums are thus funded by the earned income stream. If the person loses his or her job, or becomes incapacitated and cannot work, the person cannot pay the premium and the policy can no longer be funded.&#160; If the person is elderly and lacks sufficient retirement income to pay the high cost of private health insurance for the elderly, the person's health care is no longer funded.</p>
<p>Medicare is funded by the same earned income stream that funds private insurance policies. Instead of paying a premium to a private company, the worker pays a payroll tax that funds his health care regardless of his employment or level of retirement income.</p>
<p>Conservatives claim that under Medicare, the young have to pay for the elderly. However, the young become old in turn, so the intergenerational aspect is simply a part of the human life cycle.&#160; It is the same with private medical coverage. The healthy (usually the young) pay for the sick (usually the elderly). Private insurance has an actuarial basis. Actuaries calculate premiums and risk so that the total premiums can accommodate the claims of the percentage of policyholders who become ill. The notion is false that a person with a private policy is paying for his own health care unlike a person on Medicare.</p>
<p>A favorite "cost-saving" scheme is to raise the retirement age for Medicare.&#160; As Dave Lindorff points out in CounterPunch (print edition, Oct. 1-15, 2012), 90% of the cost of the Medicare program each year goes to pay for the care of the oldest 10 percent of Medicare patients. Those aged 65-70 are the most fit and cost the least.&#160; Moving the retirement age up doesn't save any real money.&#160; It just violates the contract and takes away the coverage for which people paid during their working life.</p>
<p>Obamneycare takes decisions out of the hands of patients and health care providers. It reduces care for the elderly. It imposes intrusive controls and data collecting and reporting. As care providers witness care withheld and the elderly confined to wheelchairs and nursing homes and early graves, health care providers will have to become as hardened as workers in slaughter houses, or the system will implode.&#160; Already 59% of US doctors say that they prefer a single-payer national health care system to the corporate form of medicine that has turned them into wage slaves who have to ration the time they spend with patients and the amount of care that they prescribe.</p>
<p>If Obama's subsidies and Romney's vouchers are not indexed to medical inflation, Obamneycare will provide diminishing care as the years go by. As jobs offshoring has stripped the country of middle class job growth, the incomes earned by waitresses, bartenders, hospital orderlies, and Walmart's part-time workers will not cover shelter, food, transportation, and health care.</p>
<p>When Obama sold out his supporters to the insurance companies, Obama supporters lined up with the pretense that diverting Medicare money to private profits was an improvement over the current system. Obama supporters have now invested so much emotional capital in Obama's assault on Medicare that they pretend there is some meaningful difference between Obamacare's&#160; government subsidized private insurance policies and Romneycare's government subsidized private medical insurance vouchers.</p>
<p>While the two sides yell and scream at one another, the concrete hardens around the new common policy of shorter lives for the elderly and more profits for private corporations.</p>
<p>Although no one in either party can define the US mission in the seven countries in which the US is conducting military aggression, wars of choice that according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes have already cost US taxpayers $6 trillion in out of pocket and already incurred future costs, there is no discussion of halting the wars and diverting armaments industry profits to the health care of the US population.</p>
<p>Thus, we are left with Dr. Dotson's conclusion that Americans are governed for the benefit of corporate profits.&#160; Americans' lives, health, incomes, careers, prospects, none of this matters.&#160; Only corporate profits.</p>
<p>This article was originally published at <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/" type="external">PaulCraigRoberts.org</a> and has been used here with permission.</p> | false | 1 | guest section website new contribution dr robert dotson points obamneycare two versions thing person gullible uninformed believe claims obama romney replacements medicare save money improve care160 schemes convert public monies private profits exploding costs described dr dotson rising profits private corporations paid reducing health care example betsy mccaughey former lieutenant governor new york writing investors business daily reports oct 1 obama administration started awarding bonus points hospitals spend least elderly patients160 result fewer knee hip replacements angioplasty bypass surgery cataract operations procedures transformed aging allowing elderly formerly languished wheelchairs nursing homes lead active lives obamacare rolls back clock cutting 716 billion future medicare funding next decade rewarding hospitals spend least seniors obama health law make procedures hard get less safe doctors paid less treat senior medicare treat someone medicaid poverty program financed payroll tax mccaughry reports doctors paid onethird much treating medicare patients treating patient subsidized private insurance obamacare means hospitals 247 billion less next decade care number seniors according mccaughey prior obama raiding medicare order subsidize price health policies sold private insurance companies medicare already paying hospitals 91 cents every dollar care provide160 way obamacare saves money cutting back care elderly shortening lives pointed last article obamacare death panel doesnt mean romneycare better160 conservatives like pretend private sector always efficient less corrupt public sector replacing medicare vouchers toward purchase price private insurance company lower costs improve care romneys scheme appeared federal legislation dont know ways interest groups would game voucher system160 however voucher system would add costs adding another level profits160 unless private insurance companies become administrators government protected wall street organized takeovers earning high enough profits policies sold insurance companies profit also conservatives make great deal medicare unfunded fund obamneycare except payroll tax funds medicare160 obamneycare depends government handing subsidies vouchers purchase private insurance policies neither scheme funded medicare conservatives seem think private policies involved health care becomes funded obamneycare steal medicare order finance medicaid private insurance policies plans raise costs reduce care elderly divert tax dollars away health care private profits lets examine erroneous conservative belief health care provided privately without government subsidies funded whereas medicare funded160 pay premium private policy person income premiums thus funded earned income stream person loses job becomes incapacitated work person pay premium policy longer funded160 person elderly lacks sufficient retirement income pay high cost private health insurance elderly persons health care longer funded medicare funded earned income stream funds private insurance policies instead paying premium private company worker pays payroll tax funds health care regardless employment level retirement income conservatives claim medicare young pay elderly however young become old turn intergenerational aspect simply part human life cycle160 private medical coverage healthy usually young pay sick usually elderly private insurance actuarial basis actuaries calculate premiums risk total premiums accommodate claims percentage policyholders become ill notion false person private policy paying health care unlike person medicare favorite costsaving scheme raise retirement age medicare160 dave lindorff points counterpunch print edition oct 115 2012 90 cost medicare program year goes pay care oldest 10 percent medicare patients aged 6570 fit cost least160 moving retirement age doesnt save real money160 violates contract takes away coverage people paid working life obamneycare takes decisions hands patients health care providers reduces care elderly imposes intrusive controls data collecting reporting care providers witness care withheld elderly confined wheelchairs nursing homes early graves health care providers become hardened workers slaughter houses system implode160 already 59 us doctors say prefer singlepayer national health care system corporate form medicine turned wage slaves ration time spend patients amount care prescribe obamas subsidies romneys vouchers indexed medical inflation obamneycare provide diminishing care years go jobs offshoring stripped country middle class job growth incomes earned waitresses bartenders hospital orderlies walmarts parttime workers cover shelter food transportation health care obama sold supporters insurance companies obama supporters lined pretense diverting medicare money private profits improvement current system obama supporters invested much emotional capital obamas assault medicare pretend meaningful difference obamacares160 government subsidized private insurance policies romneycares government subsidized private medical insurance vouchers two sides yell scream one another concrete hardens around new common policy shorter lives elderly profits private corporations although one either party define us mission seven countries us conducting military aggression wars choice according joseph stiglitz linda bilmes already cost us taxpayers 6 trillion pocket already incurred future costs discussion halting wars diverting armaments industry profits health care us population thus left dr dotsons conclusion americans governed benefit corporate profits160 americans lives health incomes careers prospects none matters160 corporate profits article originally published paulcraigrobertsorg used permission | 750 |
<p>After more than two years of anti-terrorist operations in Syria, Russia is withdrawing its troops. RT looks at the milestones and achievements of the campaign, which played a key role in the defeat of Islamic State and helped Syrian reconciliation efforts.</p>
<p>Russia’s military operation in Syria was launched on September 30, 2015, following an official request from the Syrian government for help in fighting jihadists trying to overrun the country. Now, more than two years on, President Vladimir Putin has <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412690-putin-syria-comes-khmeimim/" type="external">ordered</a> the withdrawal of a “significant part” of the Russian military contingent. Putin made the announcement during a surprise visit to Syria’s Khmeimim Airbase, after the defeat of “battle-hardened” Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) forces in the country. Russian special forces, military police, sapper teams and 25 aircraft will leave Syria, although the Reconciliation Center for Syria, as well as the Khmeimim base and Tartus navy supply point, will continue their work.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/412866-russian-forces-jets-leave-syria/" type="external">READ MORE: Russian warplanes &amp; troops arrive home after Syrian mission accomplished (VIDEO)</a></p>
<p>Following the landmark announcement, RT revisits the major points of the Syria campaign.</p>
<p>Once Syria’s largest city, Aleppo had been the scene of an intense struggle between the Syrian Army and numerous militant groups since 2012. At the time the Russian operation began, the city was divided into two roughly equal parts, with the Syrian Army defending the western half and militants occupying the eastern one. While media in the West presented the rebel-occupied part of the city as a stronghold of the “moderate” opposition, the area actually hosted forces from Al-Nusra Front – an affiliate of Al-Qaeda – as well as other radical jihadist groups.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Russian air campaign helped lift an IS blockade of the Kuweires military airbase east of Aleppo, but it was only in the autumn of 2016 that Syrian troops achieved a breakthrough in bloody street battles in the city, which saw militant shelling, bombing and civilian deaths on a daily basis. The offensive caused militants to flee Aleppo, while hardline jihadists prevented civilians from escaping through Russian-backed humanitarian corridors. Damascus agreed to an organized evacuation of the remaining encircled militants and their family members, which proved to be a success despite attempted <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/370364-anissa-aleppo-twitter-shelling/" type="external">disruptions</a>.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>The Aleppo campaign, initially backed by Russian airstrikes, received mostly one-sided, negative coverage in the Western media, with reporters and politicians <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/362979-kerry-johnson-russia-aleppo" type="external">accusing</a> Moscow of “war crimes” and causing a “humanitarian disaster.” The liberation of the city in December 2016 was presented as its “fall” and “destruction,” as media outlets chose footage of shelled-out buildings rather than scenes of Aleppo civilians <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/370084-aleppo-liberation-reports-celebrations/" type="external">celebrating</a> in the streets. Eventually, that narrative fell apart as tens of thousands of refugees started <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/399414-syria-refugees-return-home/" type="external">returning</a>&#160;to the city and the rebuilding of ruined areas began.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>The World Heritage Site of Palmyra was captured by IS in May 2015, as Syrian troops suffered a chain of bitter setbacks across the country. Jihadists destroyed several ancient monuments, and used Palmyra as a stage for mass executions, featured in their propaganda videos.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Russian-backed Syrian troops first retook Palmyra in March 2016, with Russian sappers painstakingly demining the heavily booby-trapped city and saving it from further destruction. Palmyra was overrun for a second time in a major terrorist offensive in December 2016, although fierce Syrian Army resistance stopped further advances tens of kilometers away from the Tiyas military airbase. IS rule ultimately only lasted a few months, with government troops restoring control in March 2017.</p>
<p>During the Syrian conflict, the iconic ancient city bore witness not only to jihadist brutality, but also moving scenes such as a Russian symphony orchestra, led by world-renowned conductor Valery Gergiev, <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/341983-russia-gergiev-orchestra-palmyra/" type="external">performing</a>&#160;at its amphitheater.&#160; Palmyra also became the site of heroic deeds, with the touching story of a hero Russian <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/341930-russian-palmyra-hero-funeral/" type="external">officer</a> who called in artillery fire on himself after being surrounded.&#160;</p>
<p>The city of Deir ez-Zor became a true symbol of Syrian resistance, enduring nearly three years of an IS siege. Syrian government troops held the central parts of the city, an adjacent military base and the airport, with the population receiving vital supplies through Russian airlifts.</p>
<p>The siege was finally broken in early September 2017, following a rapid Syrian Army advance. Russia, which considered Deir ez-Zor’s recapture a turning point in the fight against IS in Syria, also suffered losses in the battle, including of high-ranking figures. Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, a senior adviser assisting the Syrian Army, was <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404510-syria-russia-general-usa/" type="external">killed</a>&#160;alongside two of his aides in terrorist shelling of a command point.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>The successful campaign opened the routes for long-needed humanitarian aid, allowing the Syrian Army to restore control over large chunks of territory. Despite terrorist attempts to launch a counter-offensive to reverse the gains of the Syrian Army and its allies, all the major settlements alongside the Euphrates River had been liberated by the end of November 2017. The advance of government troops, as well as Kurdish-led militias, received significant support from Russia, with long-range aviation hitting terrorist targets on an almost daily basis.</p>
<p>The Syrian anti-terrorist operation was the first major foreign engagement of Russian military hardware in the post-Soviet era. The campaign became the testing ground for modern Russian weaponry, while some Soviet-era equipment also saw action for the first time.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Advanced munitions such as Kalibr surface-to-surface cruise missiles and long-range strategic Kh-101 air-to-surface cruise missiles were used on multiple occasions against high-priority terrorist targets, including underground bases and munition stockpiles, and showed high-precision and destructive capabilities. The cutting-edge <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/403335-modernized-russian-mig29-syria/" type="external">modifications</a> of iconic&#160;fighter jets, as well as new Russian UAVs and Mi-28N ‘Night Hunter’ attack <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/338749-russian-helicopters-syria-isis/" type="external">helicopters</a>, all saw action in the campaign.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>The veteran Tu-95MS long-range strategic <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404651-russian-bombers-isis-syria/" type="external">bomber</a>, Tu-160 <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/326532-russia-strategic-bombers-syria-isis/" type="external">warplanes</a> and the ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’ aircraft <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/366995-anti-terrorist-operation-carrier/" type="external">carrier</a> also took part in real military operations for the first time.</p>
<p>Apart from providing military support, Russia has actively engaged in humanitarian activities in Syria, providing much-needed aid to the war-torn country. Russian service personnel have defused thousands of explosive devices left by terrorists, and Moscow is committed to achieving a lasting ceasefire between forces of the Syrian government and moderate rebels.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/politics/406465-most-russians-support-aiding-syria/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria was set up in February 2016, distributing humanitarian aid and facilitating ceasefire agreements between the warring sides. As of September 2017, over 2,000 rebel-controlled Syrian villages and towns had entered the truce agreement with the Syrian government.</p>
<p>Moscow has also spearheaded international diplomatic efforts to bring peace to Syria, and alongside Iran and Turkey has sponsored the Astana peace talks. The format brought together representatives of the Syrian government and armed opposition groups at the negotiating table – something previous efforts by the international community had failed to do.</p>
<p>The trio of nations appear adamant about their intention to broker a lasting peace in Syria, with President Putin hosting a <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/410582-putin-erdogan-rouhani-syria-talks/" type="external">meeting</a> in Sochi with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Hassan Rouhani of Iran to share their views on reconciliation back in November.</p>
<p>“The militants in Syria have sustained a decisive blow, and now there is a realistic chance to end the multi-year civil war,” Putin said at the meeting.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/410645-putin-turkey-iran-syria-talks/" type="external">READ MORE: Putin, Erdogan &amp; Rouhani agree on holding Syrian national dialogue congress in Sochi</a></p>
<p>The leaders agreed that a National Congress, representing all sections of Syrian society, should be held in Sochi, where the future of the country should be decided – although prior to that, all fighting in Syria must cease. Before the trilateral talks, Putin met Syrian President Bashar Assad, who paid an unexpected <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/410467-putin-assad-meet-syria/" type="external">visit</a> to Russia. Assad stressed that it was due to Russian anti-terrorist support that Syria still existed as a state.</p> | false | 1 | two years antiterrorist operations syria russia withdrawing troops rt looks milestones achievements campaign played key role defeat islamic state helped syrian reconciliation efforts russias military operation syria launched september 30 2015 following official request syrian government help fighting jihadists trying overrun country two years president vladimir putin ordered withdrawal significant part russian military contingent putin made announcement surprise visit syrias khmeimim airbase defeat battlehardened islamic state formerly isis forces country russian special forces military police sapper teams 25 aircraft leave syria although reconciliation center syria well khmeimim base tartus navy supply point continue work read russian warplanes amp troops arrive home syrian mission accomplished video following landmark announcement rt revisits major points syria campaign syrias largest city aleppo scene intense struggle syrian army numerous militant groups since 2012 time russian operation began city divided two roughly equal parts syrian army defending western half militants occupying eastern one media west presented rebeloccupied part city stronghold moderate opposition area actually hosted forces alnusra front affiliate alqaeda well radical jihadist groups 2015 russian air campaign helped lift blockade kuweires military airbase east aleppo autumn 2016 syrian troops achieved breakthrough bloody street battles city saw militant shelling bombing civilian deaths daily basis offensive caused militants flee aleppo hardline jihadists prevented civilians escaping russianbacked humanitarian corridors damascus agreed organized evacuation remaining encircled militants family members proved success despite attempted disruptions embedded content aleppo campaign initially backed russian airstrikes received mostly onesided negative coverage western media reporters politicians accusing moscow war crimes causing humanitarian disaster liberation city december 2016 presented fall destruction media outlets chose footage shelledout buildings rather scenes aleppo civilians celebrating streets eventually narrative fell apart tens thousands refugees started returning160to city rebuilding ruined areas began embedded content world heritage site palmyra captured may 2015 syrian troops suffered chain bitter setbacks across country jihadists destroyed several ancient monuments used palmyra stage mass executions featured propaganda videos embedded content russianbacked syrian troops first retook palmyra march 2016 russian sappers painstakingly demining heavily boobytrapped city saving destruction palmyra overrun second time major terrorist offensive december 2016 although fierce syrian army resistance stopped advances tens kilometers away tiyas military airbase rule ultimately lasted months government troops restoring control march 2017 syrian conflict iconic ancient city bore witness jihadist brutality also moving scenes russian symphony orchestra led worldrenowned conductor valery gergiev performing160at amphitheater160 palmyra also became site heroic deeds touching story hero russian officer called artillery fire surrounded160 city deir ezzor became true symbol syrian resistance enduring nearly three years siege syrian government troops held central parts city adjacent military base airport population receiving vital supplies russian airlifts siege finally broken early september 2017 following rapid syrian army advance russia considered deir ezzors recapture turning point fight syria also suffered losses battle including highranking figures lieutenantgeneral valery asapov senior adviser assisting syrian army killed160alongside two aides terrorist shelling command point embedded content successful campaign opened routes longneeded humanitarian aid allowing syrian army restore control large chunks territory despite terrorist attempts launch counteroffensive reverse gains syrian army allies major settlements alongside euphrates river liberated end november 2017 advance government troops well kurdishled militias received significant support russia longrange aviation hitting terrorist targets almost daily basis syrian antiterrorist operation first major foreign engagement russian military hardware postsoviet era campaign became testing ground modern russian weaponry sovietera equipment also saw action first time embedded content advanced munitions kalibr surfacetosurface cruise missiles longrange strategic kh101 airtosurface cruise missiles used multiple occasions highpriority terrorist targets including underground bases munition stockpiles showed highprecision destructive capabilities cuttingedge modifications iconic160fighter jets well new russian uavs mi28n night hunter attack helicopters saw action campaign embedded content veteran tu95ms longrange strategic bomber tu160 warplanes admiral kuznetsov aircraft carrier also took part real military operations first time apart providing military support russia actively engaged humanitarian activities syria providing muchneeded aid wartorn country russian service personnel defused thousands explosive devices left terrorists moscow committed achieving lasting ceasefire forces syrian government moderate rebels read russian reconciliation center syria set february 2016 distributing humanitarian aid facilitating ceasefire agreements warring sides september 2017 2000 rebelcontrolled syrian villages towns entered truce agreement syrian government moscow also spearheaded international diplomatic efforts bring peace syria alongside iran turkey sponsored astana peace talks format brought together representatives syrian government armed opposition groups negotiating table something previous efforts international community failed trio nations appear adamant intention broker lasting peace syria president putin hosting meeting sochi turkish counterpart recep tayyip erdogan hassan rouhani iran share views reconciliation back november militants syria sustained decisive blow realistic chance end multiyear civil war putin said meeting read putin erdogan amp rouhani agree holding syrian national dialogue congress sochi leaders agreed national congress representing sections syrian society held sochi future country decided although prior fighting syria must cease trilateral talks putin met syrian president bashar assad paid unexpected visit russia assad stressed due russian antiterrorist support syria still existed state | 807 |
<p>Review: The New Class Conflict, by Joel Kotkin (Telos, 230 pp., $29.95)</p>
<p>Conservatives thinking about class and economic inequality will be attracted to Joel Kotkin’s latest book. There’s much to like in it, especially its description of how the leading elements of the upper-class Left inherently favor economic policies that enrich themselves at the expense of the average American. Ultimately, though, Kotkin’s work falls short precisely because he focuses his talents almost exclusively on the Left. The truth is that elites on both the right and the left have more in common with each other than with their nominal political allies, and it is their tacit alliance that is creating an economic system that threatens to unmoor America from its heritage.</p>
<p>Kotkin starts by drawing attention to the most important, yet overlooked, political problem facing America: the dimming economic future for non-college-educated, native-born Americans. This group, which he labels the Yeomanry, was not benefiting from recent economic gains even prior to the Great Recession. Kotkin chronicles their stagnant incomes and their declining economic opportunities, to great effect.</p>
<p>Kotkin lays the blame for this at the feet of two groups, the Oligarchs and the Clerisy. The Oligarchs are the leaders of the emerging big firms in information and high technology: Google, Oracle, Facebook, Apple, and the like. This group is acquisitive, green, and convinced that they know what’s best for average people. They believe that their model of social liberalism and global capitalism is what America needs, and Kotkin argues that they are eager to create a nation in their image. In this, he argues, they are no different from the turn-of-the-century Robber Barons often excoriated by their progressive friends.</p>
<p>For all their wealth, the Oligarchs need allies to remake America. They find these in the Clerisy. The Clerisy are the lawyers, teachers, professors, journalists, and foundation officials who work in the information and ideas industries. Michael Barone calls them “gentry liberals,” and both Kotkin and Barone hit on an essential element of their character when they draw on medieval connotations for their name. The Clerisy share the Oligarchs’ smug self-satisfaction, the sense that their lives are morally superior to those of the rabble about them. They share the Oligarchs’ social liberalism, their soft-green politics, and often their disdain for religion. They are natural allies of the Oligarchs not only because of the values they share with them, but also because of the power they wield: If the Oligarchs own the emerging information economy, the Clerisy control access to the institutions that train the workers needed in that economy and the institutions that establish the norms that govern daily personal life.</p>
<p>Together, Kotkin writes, these groups work tirelessly to reform America in their image. Their green politics prevent the development of natural resources, thereby preventing semi-skilled Americans from having access to the sort of trained, well-paying jobs that provide decent middle-class lifestyles. They try to restrict, in the name of “smart growth,” the suburban developments that the average American craves. They increasingly use their private and public power to create “no fly” zones around moral issues they find of crucial import, such as gender and race. From the ideas in our heads to the homes where we live to the toys that we use, this alliance is set upon transforming average America — us — in their image.</p>
<p>The conservative who takes Kotkin at face value will likely come away with an “I told you so” attitude: “I knew it was all the liberals’ fault.” Unfortunately, though, Kotkin’s work is too often sloppy and rushed. He makes key factual errors that quick Internet searches could have fixed, always in favor of claims that attack the Oligarch/Clerisy alliance. For example, he states that “San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, achingly political in theory, are actually becoming whiter and less ethnically diverse as the rest of the country diversifies.” No, they’re not. Census data show that in fact all three cities have become less white in each census over the past 20 years.</p>
<p>This sloppiness matters. Kotkin’s rush to convict the educated Left leads him to overlook the important complicity among certain elites on the Right in the Yeomanry’s plight.</p>
<p>Kotkin does notice this Left–Right convergence. He remarks early on that middle Americans feel, “for good reason,” abandoned by both parties. Later on, he notes that an alliance against home ownership seems to exist between the Clerisy and Wall Street. Kotkin considers this alliance to be “odd,” but it is anything but. In fact, the rise of what Kotkin could have called the Financiers and their growing influence on the right is essential to an understanding of what is really happening to the American middle class.</p>
<p>The Financiers argue that returns to capital should be greater than returns to labor and that therefore both tax rates on, and barriers to the free movement of, capital should be reduced. In practical terms, this means free trade in goods, ideas, and people (think of immigration as the free-trade principle applied to labor). It has also meant reducing the tax rates on people who accumulate large amounts of capital (e.g., low top income-tax rates and low tax rates on capital gains).</p>
<p>The economic policies of the Financiers have changed the world. Free to send capital to wherever it can be most efficiently deployed, the Financiers have pulled hundreds of millions of people in the developing world out of miserable poverty. Moreover, they have created a virtuous cycle within countries hospitable to direct foreign investment, creating new middle classes and upper middle classes — based on enterprise, opportunity, and work — that are the envy of the world. Free trade and capitalism have also enriched and improved the lives of tens of millions of Americans who work in jobs in these industries, or in businesses that funnel intellectual services (such as law and finance) that they need.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, though, this has created unprecedented pressure on a large segment of native-born Americans who face economic competition of an intensity unknown since the early 20th century. If you think I exaggerate, consider this: Between 1989 and 1994, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the signing of NAFTA, and the decisions of China and India to open their economies to the West added countries with a total population of 2.2 billion to the world economy. The entire developed world at that time contained about 800 million people; with the Asian Tigers and some other free-market countries such as Chile added to the mix, it’s another 100 million people. There is no way that more than doubling the size of the potential labor force available for Western investment was not going to affect the living standards — for better and for worse — of American citizens.</p>
<p>Kotkin notes, almost as an aside, how much the Oligarchs depend on this economic system to generate their massive wealth. Most tech companies make extensive use of Asian production facilities and immigrant engineers to fuel their operations. This spreads untold wealth to the developing world — and helps companies such as Apple make staggering profit margins on the goods they import back to the U.S. The new iPhone 6, for example, is estimated to have a 69 percent profit margin. By comparison, the companies on the S&amp;P 500 hit a record-high average profit margin last year: 9.5 percent.</p>
<p>The Financiers and their allies in the conservative Clerisy (think economists, libertarian think-tankers, the Wall Street Journal editorial board) have no intrinsic reason to shake up this regime, regardless of the consequences to low- and medium-skilled Americans. They tend not to care about the downside of these changes, an aloofness they share with the Oligarchs. Moreover, they often share the cultural prejudices of their leftist counterparts: social liberalism, disdain for popular culture, and a sense of superiority that makes them feel entitled to political primacy. They may fight on the margins with the Oligarchs and the Clerisy where their interests are threatened — in particular, when it comes to limits on energy exploration and policies on climate change. But on the whole, they have more in common with their nominal political adversaries than they do with their nominal political allies.</p>
<p>The political effect is to encourage bipartisanship that keeps the gravy train rolling. The proposed Simpson-Bowles budget reforms are an excellent example of this, as they attempted to cure the nation’s fiscal problems by raising revenue while cutting the tax benefits and government programs whose largesse flows mainly to people in the bottom 90 percent of the income distribution. Bipartisan immigration reform, if it happens, would be another example of the Oligarch–Clerisy–Financier alliance. These are simply American examples of the sort of “grand coalitions” increasingly in vogue in Europe.</p>
<p>Kotkin rightly notes that elements in both parties want to end this non-aggression pact. The Tea Party wants to ally with the Financiers and kick out the Clerisy, but is divided over whether the Oligarchs can be won over (the Rand Paul wing says yes, the Ted Cruz wing says no). Meanwhile, Kossack progressives simply want to kick out the Financiers and the Oligarchs and give all power to the Clerisy. Neither side, however, has yet been able to consistently mobilize the Yeomanry on behalf of its agenda, leaving the Democratic/Republican duopoly intact and American politics in stalemate.</p>
<p>The path forward for conservatives will be difficult. Addressing the Yeomanry’s legitimate concerns without becoming stale, “me too” liberals will require lots of innovative policy and rhetorical entrepreneurship. Kotkin’s book does not help much in that cause. It is, however, a must-read for conservatives who want to understand the problem so they can help craft the solution.</p>
<p>– Mr. Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | review new class conflict joel kotkin telos 230 pp 2995 conservatives thinking class economic inequality attracted joel kotkins latest book theres much like especially description leading elements upperclass left inherently favor economic policies enrich expense average american ultimately though kotkins work falls short precisely focuses talents almost exclusively left truth elites right left common nominal political allies tacit alliance creating economic system threatens unmoor america heritage kotkin starts drawing attention important yet overlooked political problem facing america dimming economic future noncollegeeducated nativeborn americans group labels yeomanry benefiting recent economic gains even prior great recession kotkin chronicles stagnant incomes declining economic opportunities great effect kotkin lays blame feet two groups oligarchs clerisy oligarchs leaders emerging big firms information high technology google oracle facebook apple like group acquisitive green convinced know whats best average people believe model social liberalism global capitalism america needs kotkin argues eager create nation image argues different turnofthecentury robber barons often excoriated progressive friends wealth oligarchs need allies remake america find clerisy clerisy lawyers teachers professors journalists foundation officials work information ideas industries michael barone calls gentry liberals kotkin barone hit essential element character draw medieval connotations name clerisy share oligarchs smug selfsatisfaction sense lives morally superior rabble share oligarchs social liberalism softgreen politics often disdain religion natural allies oligarchs values share also power wield oligarchs emerging information economy clerisy control access institutions train workers needed economy institutions establish norms govern daily personal life together kotkin writes groups work tirelessly reform america image green politics prevent development natural resources thereby preventing semiskilled americans access sort trained wellpaying jobs provide decent middleclass lifestyles try restrict name smart growth suburban developments average american craves increasingly use private public power create fly zones around moral issues find crucial import gender race ideas heads homes live toys use alliance set upon transforming average america us image conservative takes kotkin face value likely come away told attitude knew liberals fault unfortunately though kotkins work often sloppy rushed makes key factual errors quick internet searches could fixed always favor claims attack oligarchclerisy alliance example states san francisco portland seattle achingly political theory actually becoming whiter less ethnically diverse rest country diversifies theyre census data show fact three cities become less white census past 20 years sloppiness matters kotkins rush convict educated left leads overlook important complicity among certain elites right yeomanrys plight kotkin notice leftright convergence remarks early middle americans feel good reason abandoned parties later notes alliance home ownership seems exist clerisy wall street kotkin considers alliance odd anything fact rise kotkin could called financiers growing influence right essential understanding really happening american middle class financiers argue returns capital greater returns labor therefore tax rates barriers free movement capital reduced practical terms means free trade goods ideas people think immigration freetrade principle applied labor also meant reducing tax rates people accumulate large amounts capital eg low top incometax rates low tax rates capital gains economic policies financiers changed world free send capital wherever efficiently deployed financiers pulled hundreds millions people developing world miserable poverty moreover created virtuous cycle within countries hospitable direct foreign investment creating new middle classes upper middle classes based enterprise opportunity work envy world free trade capitalism also enriched improved lives tens millions americans work jobs industries businesses funnel intellectual services law finance need surprisingly though created unprecedented pressure large segment nativeborn americans face economic competition intensity unknown since early 20th century think exaggerate consider 1989 1994 fall berlin wall signing nafta decisions china india open economies west added countries total population 22 billion world economy entire developed world time contained 800 million people asian tigers freemarket countries chile added mix another 100 million people way doubling size potential labor force available western investment going affect living standards better worse american citizens kotkin notes almost aside much oligarchs depend economic system generate massive wealth tech companies make extensive use asian production facilities immigrant engineers fuel operations spreads untold wealth developing world helps companies apple make staggering profit margins goods import back us new iphone 6 example estimated 69 percent profit margin comparison companies sampp 500 hit recordhigh average profit margin last year 95 percent financiers allies conservative clerisy think economists libertarian thinktankers wall street journal editorial board intrinsic reason shake regime regardless consequences low mediumskilled americans tend care downside changes aloofness share oligarchs moreover often share cultural prejudices leftist counterparts social liberalism disdain popular culture sense superiority makes feel entitled political primacy may fight margins oligarchs clerisy interests threatened particular comes limits energy exploration policies climate change whole common nominal political adversaries nominal political allies political effect encourage bipartisanship keeps gravy train rolling proposed simpsonbowles budget reforms excellent example attempted cure nations fiscal problems raising revenue cutting tax benefits government programs whose largesse flows mainly people bottom 90 percent income distribution bipartisan immigration reform happens would another example oligarchclerisyfinancier alliance simply american examples sort grand coalitions increasingly vogue europe kotkin rightly notes elements parties want end nonaggression pact tea party wants ally financiers kick clerisy divided whether oligarchs rand paul wing says yes ted cruz wing says meanwhile kossack progressives simply want kick financiers oligarchs give power clerisy neither side however yet able consistently mobilize yeomanry behalf agenda leaving democraticrepublican duopoly intact american politics stalemate path forward conservatives difficult addressing yeomanrys legitimate concerns without becoming stale liberals require lots innovative policy rhetorical entrepreneurship kotkins book help much cause however mustread conservatives want understand problem help craft solution mr olsen senior fellow ethics public policy center | 905 |
<p>By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin</p>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – Low on cash but high on hope, Iran’s technology entrepreneurs are learning to live with revived hostility in the United States and growing suspicion – or worse – from hardliners at home.</p>
<p>Their startups and e-commerce apps are flourishing, driven by government infrastructure support and young Iranians educated both in the country and abroad. Some are even drawing foreign investment in a way that Iran’s dominant oil industry has yet to achieve since most international sanctions were lifted early last year under a nuclear deal with world powers.</p>
<p>Life remains tough despite the easing of Iran’s international isolation. The atmosphere in Washington has soured again, with President Donald Trump signing legislation tightening domestic U.S. sanctions on Iran and threatening to pull out of the nuclear accord.</p>
<p>On top of this, Google (NASDAQ:) and Apple (NASDAQ:) have withdrawn some services temporarily or indefinitely for Iranian users in recent months for reasons including the U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>Still, the absence of U.S. giants such as Amazon (NASDAQ:) and Uber has allowed their Iranian equivalents Digikala and Snapp to grow rapidly. Many other local internet firms are following suit.</p>
<p>Ramin Rabii, chief executive of Turquoise Partners, which facilitates foreign investment in Iran, said Trump’s rhetoric could paradoxically help the tech sector.</p>
<p>“If he keeps talking about sanctions, that would increase the risk of investment in Iran, but at the same time it will keep a lot of competition out,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview from Tehran. “Major global players are not here.”</p>
<p>No figures are available on foreign investment in Iranian tech firms. Rabii, however, estimated it at hundreds of millions of dollars since the nuclear deal came into force.</p>
<p>By contrast, an expected rush into Iran’s huge energy reserves has yet to materialize. French group Total is investing in a gas project but Tehran has yet to seal any major oil deals with international partners.</p>
<p>Foreign investment in Iranian tech remains modest compared with regional mega-deals such as Amazon’s purchase in March of Dubai-based retailer souq.com. Amazon did not reveal the price but beat off a rival offer worth $800 million.</p>
<p>Still, Rabii sees a bright future. “Many foreign investors ask me what is the best performing sector in Iran for the next decade. I always name e-commerce and the tech sector,” he said.</p>
<p>LOCAL INCARNATIONS</p>
<p>After the relative isolation of the international sanctions era, the tech sector has attracted many young Iranians back from the United States, Canada and Europe. They hope to marry their experience of the startup scene with locally-educated talent.</p>
<p>Reza Arbabian left Canada, where he went as a teenager, to join his family textile business in Iran. But in 2012 he launched Sheypoor, the Iranian answer to Craigslist, a U.S. classified advertisements website.</p>
<p>Sheypoor now employs 200 and recently marked its fifth anniversary. Cash, however, remains tight.</p>
<p>“Many foreign companies are still hesitant and Iranian investors don’t understand the value in e-commerce. They cannot accept that they need to wait for five years for a startup to make profits,” said Arbabian.</p>
<p>Some outside Iran, especially in Europe where the sanctions net is not quite so tight, are nevertheless willing to take the plunge. Swedish-based Pomegranate Investment, for instance, has taken a 43 percent stake in Sheypoor.</p>
<p>On a larger scale, Sarava, Digikala’s main shareholder, is 45 percent-owned by foreign investors. These include Pomegranate, which raised its stake to 15 percent with a 41 million euro ($48 million) investment in 2016.</p>
<p>Following the Amazon model, Digikala has grown into Iran’s biggest internet company with a market share of 85-90 percent, according to Pomegranate. Staff numbers have leapt in the past two years from 800 to more than 2,000.</p>
<p>INFRASTRUCTURE</p>
<p>Iran came late to mass internet access but has invested heavily under President Hassan Rouhani, hoping to attract foreign cash and create more jobs.</p>
<p>According to the Measuring Information Society of Iran, a government-linked portal, more than 62 percent of households were connected to the internet by March 2017. This was up from only 21 percent in 2013, the year Rouhani took office.</p>
<p>Smartphone ownership has also rocketed. Iran, a country of 80 million people, had only two million smartphone users three years ago but the number hit 40 million in 2016.</p>
<p>Such developments encouraged Kamran Adle, an Iranian born and raised in London, to move to Tehran last year.</p>
<p>“Iranian infrastructure has dramatically improved in recent of years. 3G and 4G is much more commonplace than it was a couple of years ago,” said Adle, whose firm Ctrl+Tech invests in early stage startups and helps them to develop apps.</p>
<p>Some Iranian apps are copies of foreign equivalents, made out of the reach of international lawyers. But the years of isolation also forced domestic talent to be more innovative, and Adle says there is no shortage of app developers.</p>
<p>One such is Farshad Khodamoradi, who has designed the app for a job-hunting startup being launched this month. Unlike traditional sites, “3sootjobs” will use an algorithm-driven matching system to connect candidates with the right employers.</p>
<p>Khodamoradi complains about difficulties in accessing foreign tech services, many of which are U.S.-based. “The main problem is that the global services Iranian startups are using can be cut off overnight,” he told Reuters from Tehran.</p>
<p>He cited Google’s Firebase, a platform used to generate push notifications – such as messages to passengers that a taxi has arrived to pick them up – without their having to open the app.</p>
<p>This was unavailable in Iran on a number of occasions in June and July, disrupting startups including taxi hailing apps, he said. Google did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.</p>
<p>Although technology firms can gain exemptions from the sanctions, U.S. corporations appear unwilling to risk involvement in Iran. In August, Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi threatened to take legal action over Apple’s removal of Iranian apps from its app stores. Apple did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.</p>
<p>MESSAGE FROM OBAMA</p>
<p>All this seems in contrast to U.S. promises after the nuclear deal. In March 2016, in a message to the Iranian people, then President Barack Obama said ending international sanctions “would mean more access to cutting-edge technologies, including information technologies that can help Iranian startups”.</p>
<p>Since that message, anti-U.S. Iranian hardliners have followed the growth of startups suspiciously, branding them as vehicles of enemy infiltration. Two foreign-based tech investors have also ended up in prison.</p>
<p>Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese information technology expert with permanent U.S. residency, was jailed in 2016 for 10 years for collaborating against the state. He had attended a conference in Tehran the previous year at the invitation of one of Iran’s vice presidents, only to be arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as he was going to the airport to leave the country.</p>
<p>Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi also got 10 years in 2016 on charges of cooperating with the United States. While under arrest, Namazi appeared in an Iranian documentary seen by Reuters in which he said his mistake had been to accept money for his startup from an organization linked to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.</p>
<p>The Revolutionary Guards, a military force that runs an industrial empire, largely control telecommunications in Iran.</p>
<p>However, tech entrepreneurs say the environment is generally supportive. “We haven’t come across any of those governmental push-backs,” Adle said.</p>
<p>In the longer term, the sanctions would make using the souq.com model to cash in on Iranian investments much harder.</p>
<p>But Eddie Kerman, of London-based Indigo Holdings which links retail investors to Iranian tech firms, is optimistic.</p>
<p>“American companies like Amazon might not be able to enter the Iranian market, but there is a significant possibility that European or Asian companies buy the larger Iranian players,” he said.</p> | false | 1 | bozorgmehr sharafedin london reuters low cash high hope irans technology entrepreneurs learning live revived hostility united states growing suspicion worse hardliners home startups ecommerce apps flourishing driven government infrastructure support young iranians educated country abroad even drawing foreign investment way irans dominant oil industry yet achieve since international sanctions lifted early last year nuclear deal world powers life remains tough despite easing irans international isolation atmosphere washington soured president donald trump signing legislation tightening domestic us sanctions iran threatening pull nuclear accord top google nasdaq apple nasdaq withdrawn services temporarily indefinitely iranian users recent months reasons including us sanctions still absence us giants amazon nasdaq uber allowed iranian equivalents digikala snapp grow rapidly many local internet firms following suit ramin rabii chief executive turquoise partners facilitates foreign investment iran said trumps rhetoric could paradoxically help tech sector keeps talking sanctions would increase risk investment iran time keep lot competition told reuters telephone interview tehran major global players figures available foreign investment iranian tech firms rabii however estimated hundreds millions dollars since nuclear deal came force contrast expected rush irans huge energy reserves yet materialize french group total investing gas project tehran yet seal major oil deals international partners foreign investment iranian tech remains modest compared regional megadeals amazons purchase march dubaibased retailer souqcom amazon reveal price beat rival offer worth 800 million still rabii sees bright future many foreign investors ask best performing sector iran next decade always name ecommerce tech sector said local incarnations relative isolation international sanctions era tech sector attracted many young iranians back united states canada europe hope marry experience startup scene locallyeducated talent reza arbabian left canada went teenager join family textile business iran 2012 launched sheypoor iranian answer craigslist us classified advertisements website sheypoor employs 200 recently marked fifth anniversary cash however remains tight many foreign companies still hesitant iranian investors dont understand value ecommerce accept need wait five years startup make profits said arbabian outside iran especially europe sanctions net quite tight nevertheless willing take plunge swedishbased pomegranate investment instance taken 43 percent stake sheypoor larger scale sarava digikalas main shareholder 45 percentowned foreign investors include pomegranate raised stake 15 percent 41 million euro 48 million investment 2016 following amazon model digikala grown irans biggest internet company market share 8590 percent according pomegranate staff numbers leapt past two years 800 2000 infrastructure iran came late mass internet access invested heavily president hassan rouhani hoping attract foreign cash create jobs according measuring information society iran governmentlinked portal 62 percent households connected internet march 2017 21 percent 2013 year rouhani took office smartphone ownership also rocketed iran country 80 million people two million smartphone users three years ago number hit 40 million 2016 developments encouraged kamran adle iranian born raised london move tehran last year iranian infrastructure dramatically improved recent years 3g 4g much commonplace couple years ago said adle whose firm ctrltech invests early stage startups helps develop apps iranian apps copies foreign equivalents made reach international lawyers years isolation also forced domestic talent innovative adle says shortage app developers one farshad khodamoradi designed app jobhunting startup launched month unlike traditional sites 3sootjobs use algorithmdriven matching system connect candidates right employers khodamoradi complains difficulties accessing foreign tech services many usbased main problem global services iranian startups using cut overnight told reuters tehran cited googles firebase platform used generate push notifications messages passengers taxi arrived pick without open app unavailable iran number occasions june july disrupting startups including taxi hailing apps said google respond reuters requests comment although technology firms gain exemptions sanctions us corporations appear unwilling risk involvement iran august telecommunications minister mohammad javad azari jahromi threatened take legal action apples removal iranian apps app stores apple respond reuters requests comment message obama seems contrast us promises nuclear deal march 2016 message iranian people president barack obama said ending international sanctions would mean access cuttingedge technologies including information technologies help iranian startups since message antius iranian hardliners followed growth startups suspiciously branding vehicles enemy infiltration two foreignbased tech investors also ended prison nizar zakka lebanese information technology expert permanent us residency jailed 2016 10 years collaborating state attended conference tehran previous year invitation one irans vice presidents arrested islamic revolutionary guards corps going airport leave country iranianamerican businessman siamak namazi also got 10 years 2016 charges cooperating united states arrest namazi appeared iranian documentary seen reuters said mistake accept money startup organization linked us chamber commerce revolutionary guards military force runs industrial empire largely control telecommunications iran however tech entrepreneurs say environment generally supportive havent come across governmental pushbacks adle said longer term sanctions would make using souqcom model cash iranian investments much harder eddie kerman londonbased indigo holdings links retail investors iranian tech firms optimistic american companies like amazon might able enter iranian market significant possibility european asian companies buy larger iranian players said | 801 |
<p>1. Hideki Matsuyama, Japan</p>
<p>Even though Matsuyama did not become the first Japanese player to capture a major title after tying for fifth in the PGA Championship in his last start, he is playing as well as anyone in the world. He has finished no worse than a tie for 14th in the Open Championship in his last four starts, also tying for second in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills and winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational by four strokes when he closed with a 61. Matsuyama leads the FedExCup point standings heading into the playoffs, thanks to three victories this season — the other two in the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Those are among his seven finishes in the top 10, including three runner-up results, and he has won seven times around the world in the last year. Matsuyama, ranked No. 2 in the world, is making his fourth start in the playoff opener, with his best result a tie for 13th in the 2015 Barclays. He is seeking his first playoff victory.</p>
<p>2. Jordan Spieth, United States</p>
<p>There was talk earlier in the year that the 2015 FedExCup champion was having a down season, but he has won three times, finished second once and third twice among eight finishes in the top 10 to sit third in the FedExCup standings. He tied for 13th in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and then tied for 28th in the PGA Championship while trying to complete the Career Grand Slam, but those results came after he won the Travelers Championship and the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in consecutive starts. Spieth, ranked third in the world, is making his fifth start in the playoff opener and recorded his best finish when he tied for 10th last year in the Barclays at Bethpage Black. His only victory in the playoffs came when he won the Tour Championship two years ago by four strokes over Danny Lee of New Zealand, Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Justin Rose of England to claim the FedExCup.</p>
<p>3. Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland</p>
<p>After he tied for 22nd in the PGA Championship two weeks ago at Quail Hollow, McIlroy said he was considering taking the rest of the year off because of injuries that have made it difficult to practice on a regular basis since early this season. However, he committed to the Northern Trust late last week and will try to defend his FedExCup title even though he is only 44th in the point standings. Of course, one week can change that with the wild point swings that can take place during the playoffs, and he won the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Tour Championship last year en route to the title, giving him four PGA Tour playoff victories in his career. McIlroy hasn’t won since he prevailed at East Lake last year to wrap up the FedExCup, as his best finished this season on the U.S. tour are ties for fourth in the WGC-HSBC Champions, the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Open Championship, among his six top-10 finishes and eight in the top 25.</p>
<p>4. Dustin Johnson, United States</p>
<p>Although he hasn’t been the same since he sustained a back injury on the eve of the Masters that knocked him out of the first major of the year, Johnson has been able to hold on to his No. 1 world ranking, but he has slipped from the top spot to No. 4 in the FedExCup point standings. He was unquestionably the best player in the world when he captured the Genesis Open, the WGC-Mexico Championship and the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in his last three events before being injured, and he seems to be getting back on track. Johnson tied for eighth in the RBC Canadian Open, tied for 17th in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and tied for 13th in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in his last three starts. He is making his ninth start in the playoff opener and captured the 2011 Barclays by two strokes over Matt Kuchar at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J., when the final round was postponed by the threat of Hurricane Irene.</p>
<p>5. Justin Thomas, United States</p>
<p>Following 10 days to celebrate his first major victory in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, Thomas should be ready to cap what already has been a career year by making a strong run in the PGA Tour playoffs. He has won four times this season after claiming only one victory in his first three seasons on the PGA Tour, and has risen to No. 2 in the FedExCup point standings and No. 7 in the world rankings. The PGA was Thomas’ first win since he captured the SBS Tournament of Champions and the Sony Open in Hawaii on consecutive weeks in January, but he has played well all season, with six other finishes in the top 10. He is making his third start in the playoff opener and has performed well in the other two, tying for 16th in the Barclays two years ago and tying for 10th in the tournament last year. Thomas’ best finish in the playoffs was a tie for sixth in the Tour Championship last year.</p>
<p>6. Henrik Stenson, Sweden</p>
<p>By ending a winless drought of more than a year when he captured the Wyndham Championship last week, Stenson climbed to 23rd in the FedExCup standings and to within striking distance at the start of the playoffs. The Big Swede claimed the Cup in 2013, when he won the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Tour Championship during the playoffs, and he has a chance to make another run at the title given the volatility of the point swings during the postseason. If anyone was paying attention, Stenson gave indications that was heating up after what had been a mediocre season for him, as he tied for 11th in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, tied for 17th in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and tied for 13th in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in his previous three starts before claiming his 20th pro victory. He is No. 6 in the world and is making his seventh start in the opener, with his best result solo second two years ago at Plainfield in New Jersey.</p>
<p>7. Rickie Fowler, United States</p>
<p>Playing some of the best golf of his career, Fowler comes in the FedExCup playoff on a roll, with his worst result in his last five starts a tie for 22nd in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. His other four finishes were a tie for fifth in the U.S. Open at Erin Hills, a tie for third in the Quicken Loans National, solo ninth in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and a tie for fifth in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. With nine results in the top 10 on the PGA Tour this season, he is fifth in the point standings heading into the playoffs and is ranked No. 10 in the world. Fowler is making his eighth start in the playoff opener, formerly known as the Barclays, and finished in the top 10 in three of the last four years, with ties for ninth in 2013 and 2014, and a tie for seventh last year. He won the Deutsche Bank Championship during the 2015 playoffs, beating Henrik Stenson by one shot.</p>
<p>8. Jason Day, Australia</p>
<p>Having fallen to No. 9 in the world in what to this point has been a forgettable season because of injuries and family issues, Day can salvage things with a strong run in the FedExCup playoffs. He was No. 1 in the world rankings at the start of the year, but has slipped to No. 9, although he finished second in the AT&amp;T Byron Nelson, tied for fifth in the AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and tied for ninth in his last start in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Day, who is 49th in the FedExCup standings, will make his 10th in the playoff opener and has finished in the top 10 on four occasions, including each of the last three years. Included was a six-stroke victory over Henrik Stenson two years ago, when he closed with 63-62 at Plainfield, and a tie for second in 2014, one stroke behind Hunter Mahan. Day also won the BMW Championship by six shots over Daniel Berger during the 2015 playoffs.</p>
<p>9. Brooks Koepka, United States</p>
<p>The U.S. Open champion has continued to play well since winning at Erin Hills, tying for sixth in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, tying for 17th in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and tying for 13th in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. His six top-10 results this season on the PGA Tour, including runner-up finishes in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and the Valero Texas Open, put him seventh in the FedExCup point standings and 12th in the world rankings entering the playoffs this week. Koepka is playing in the postseason opener for only the third time, having shot 72-73 — 145 to miss the cut by three strokes in 2015, before finishing in a tie for 70th last year, but he is a different player at this point. His best result in the playoffs was a tie for 18th in the 2015 Tour Championship and he figures to make it back to the finale at East Lake in Atlanta again, with a chance to win the FedExCup this time.</p>
<p>10. Patrick Reed, United States</p>
<p>When he tied for second in the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow two weeks ago, Reed finally played again like the guy who won five times on the PGA Tour in recent years. His most recent victory came in the playoff opener last year, then the Barclays, when he held off Sean O’Hair and Emiliano Grillo by one stroke at Bethpage Black. Reed tied for fifth the next week in the Deutsche Bank Championship on his way to finishing seventh in the FedExCup race after a tie for 24th in the Tour Championship. He has some work to do in order to get back to the finale at East Lake in Atlanta because he is 38th in the point standings and only 30 qualify for the last event. Reed hasn’t been all that far off this season with 12 finishes in the top 25, but he will have to bring his “A” game to the playoffs if he wants to get back into the conversation during the postseason.</p> | false | 1 | 1 hideki matsuyama japan even though matsuyama become first japanese player capture major title tying fifth pga championship last start playing well anyone world finished worse tie 14th open championship last four starts also tying second us open erin hills winning wgcbridgestone invitational four strokes closed 61 matsuyama leads fedexcup point standings heading playoffs thanks three victories season two wgchsbc champions china waste management phoenix open among seven finishes top 10 including three runnerup results seven times around world last year matsuyama ranked 2 world making fourth start playoff opener best result tie 13th 2015 barclays seeking first playoff victory 2 jordan spieth united states talk earlier year 2015 fedexcup champion season three times finished second third twice among eight finishes top 10 sit third fedexcup standings tied 13th wgcbridgestone invitational tied 28th pga championship trying complete career grand slam results came travelers championship open championship royal birkdale consecutive starts spieth ranked third world making fifth start playoff opener recorded best finish tied 10th last year barclays bethpage black victory playoffs came tour championship two years ago four strokes danny lee new zealand henrik stenson sweden justin rose england claim fedexcup 3 rory mcilroy northern ireland tied 22nd pga championship two weeks ago quail hollow mcilroy said considering taking rest year injuries made difficult practice regular basis since early season however committed northern trust late last week try defend fedexcup title even though 44th point standings course one week change wild point swings take place playoffs deutsche bank championship tour championship last year en route title giving four pga tour playoff victories career mcilroy hasnt since prevailed east lake last year wrap fedexcup best finished season us tour ties fourth wgchsbc champions arnold palmer invitational open championship among six top10 finishes eight top 25 4 dustin johnson united states although hasnt since sustained back injury eve masters knocked first major year johnson able hold 1 world ranking slipped top spot 4 fedexcup point standings unquestionably best player world captured genesis open wgcmexico championship wgcdell technologies match play last three events injured seems getting back track johnson tied eighth rbc canadian open tied 17th wgcbridgestone invitational tied 13th pga championship quail hollow last three starts making ninth start playoff opener captured 2011 barclays two strokes matt kuchar plainfield country club edison nj final round postponed threat hurricane irene 5 justin thomas united states following 10 days celebrate first major victory pga championship quail hollow thomas ready cap already career year making strong run pga tour playoffs four times season claiming one victory first three seasons pga tour risen 2 fedexcup point standings 7 world rankings pga thomas first win since captured sbs tournament champions sony open hawaii consecutive weeks january played well season six finishes top 10 making third start playoff opener performed well two tying 16th barclays two years ago tying 10th tournament last year thomas best finish playoffs tie sixth tour championship last year 6 henrik stenson sweden ending winless drought year captured wyndham championship last week stenson climbed 23rd fedexcup standings within striking distance start playoffs big swede claimed cup 2013 deutsche bank championship tour championship playoffs chance make another run title given volatility point swings postseason anyone paying attention stenson gave indications heating mediocre season tied 11th open championship royal birkdale tied 17th wgcbridgestone invitational tied 13th pga championship quail hollow previous three starts claiming 20th pro victory 6 world making seventh start opener best result solo second two years ago plainfield new jersey 7 rickie fowler united states playing best golf career fowler comes fedexcup playoff roll worst result last five starts tie 22nd open championship royal birkdale four finishes tie fifth us open erin hills tie third quicken loans national solo ninth wgcbridgestone invitational tie fifth pga championship quail hollow nine results top 10 pga tour season fifth point standings heading playoffs ranked 10 world fowler making eighth start playoff opener formerly known barclays finished top 10 three last four years ties ninth 2013 2014 tie seventh last year deutsche bank championship 2015 playoffs beating henrik stenson one shot 8 jason day australia fallen 9 world point forgettable season injuries family issues day salvage things strong run fedexcup playoffs 1 world rankings start year slipped 9 although finished second atampt byron nelson tied fifth atampt pebble beach proam tied ninth last start pga championship quail hollow day 49th fedexcup standings make 10th playoff opener finished top 10 four occasions including last three years included sixstroke victory henrik stenson two years ago closed 6362 plainfield tie second 2014 one stroke behind hunter mahan day also bmw championship six shots daniel berger 2015 playoffs 9 brooks koepka united states us open champion continued play well since winning erin hills tying sixth open championship royal birkdale tying 17th wgcbridgestone invitational tying 13th pga championship quail hollow six top10 results season pga tour including runnerup finishes shriners hospitals children open valero texas open put seventh fedexcup point standings 12th world rankings entering playoffs week koepka playing postseason opener third time shot 7273 145 miss cut three strokes 2015 finishing tie 70th last year different player point best result playoffs tie 18th 2015 tour championship figures make back finale east lake atlanta chance win fedexcup time 10 patrick reed united states tied second pga championship quail hollow two weeks ago reed finally played like guy five times pga tour recent years recent victory came playoff opener last year barclays held sean ohair emiliano grillo one stroke bethpage black reed tied fifth next week deutsche bank championship way finishing seventh fedexcup race tie 24th tour championship work order get back finale east lake atlanta 38th point standings 30 qualify last event reed hasnt far season 12 finishes top 25 bring game playoffs wants get back conversation postseason | 956 |
<p>In 1915 a couple of minor diplomats, the Englishman Sir Mark Sykes and the Frenchman François George-Picot, began negotiating to divide the Ottoman Empire, which had entered the Great War on the side of Germany. In 1916 the&#160; <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577523/Sykes-Picot-Agreement" type="external">Sykes-Picot agreement</a>&#160;was signed by France, Britain and Russia. By the end of the war, Russia was out of the game, following the Bolshevik Revolution, and&#160; <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/40411/Kemal-Ataturk" type="external">Atatürk</a>&#160;was busy saving the Turkish speaking remnant of the Ottoman Empire. Britain and France had a free hand to divide the Arab lands between them. They drew weird boundary lines supposedly corresponding to the ‘nations’ of the region. They even appointed sovereigns to some of them, drawing on a bank of Arab pretenders among whom the Hashemite tribe were prominent. And they administered these territories under a ‘mandate’ granted by the League of Nations.</p>
<p>Of the new nation states only Lebanon and Egypt had any real claims to national identity. Both had large Christian populations – in Lebanon possibly a majority. And both had a long history of defiance towards the Sultan in Istanbul.</p>
<p>It should have been obvious that the other territories in the region – which we now know as Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Palestine – were neither nations nor viable states, but simply places on the map. Iraq was put together from a population divided between a Shi’ite majority and Sunnite minority, with a sizeable scattering of Christians, and a large population of Kurdish speaking Sunnites. Its boundaries, like those of Syria, had little historical foundation, and – with the exception of the Kurds, who are fiercely nationalistic – the Iraqi people defined themselves in terms of their faith, not in terms of their national identity.</p>
<p>We, in the West, have inherited a form of identity that is largely unknown in the Arab world. We identify ourselves in terms of our country and its law. This law is secular, man-made, and changeable. We owe allegiance to the nation, and we include within the nation people of different faiths, and different family ties.</p>
<p>In the Arab world people have not, on the whole, identified themselves in that way. Sunni Muslims have only a weak attachment to territory and a marked reluctance to view themselves as tied to their neighbours of differing faith by binding obligations. The secular law of the nation state has only a vacillating authority for them, since they regard themselves as governed by another and eternal law, laid down by God through the mouth of the Prophet. Their language is a universal language, attached to no specific territory, and their faith is a universal faith, which tells them that they belong to no particular place or time, but to the universal&#160;ummah&#160;of the faithful. In other words their faith confers upon them an identity which is not a national identity and which is indeed incompatible with secular law and national boundaries.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, therefore, places like Iraq and Syria have been places of constant conflict, stable only when some usurping army officer or ruthless dynasty has been able to seize control, as happened with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Hafiz al-Assad in Syria. Both of those unsavoury characters retained control by means of the Ba’ath (‘resurrection’) party, which had shaped itself on Leninist principles, and exerted a terroristic control over the people through the operations of the secret police. Both countries were without legal opposition or a true rule of law. It was only natural that they should enter into conflict with their neighbours and with the wider world.</p>
<p>But this is where everything went wrong. President George W. Bush imagined that, by deposing Saddam, he would open the way to a new and democratic Iraq. This was to make two incredibly naïve assumptions: first, that democracy is the default position in politics, and secondly that you can achieve democracy even where there is no genuine nation state.</p>
<p>History tells us that the default position in politics is priest-haunted tyranny, and that democracy is achieved only by enormous efforts and usually not without extended periods of civil war, such as marked the English 17th&#160;century or the American 19thcentury. Democracy comes about when people&#160;lay down their arms, and agree to live with each other on terms, negotiating with those they dislike for a share of the action. A democrat is a person who agrees to be governed by someone from a different faith, a different tribe, a different family or interest group, a different worldview. What makes a democrat possible? The answer is: the nation. When you and I define our loyalty in national terms, we can put aside all differences of religion, tribe and ethnicity, and submit to a shared system of law. We participate in the making of that law, and agree to be bound by it, because it is&#160;our&#160;law, which operates over the territory that is&#160;ours.&#160;We have made a home together, and set aside our divisions in order to settle side by side.</p>
<p>That process never occurred in the Arab world, or if it did, only in fragile and unstable instances, such as Lebanon. The assumption that, because Iraq exists on the map, it exists as a nation state, with a true national identity, and that Iraqis will stand up for their nation and fight for its existence – that assumption was and is patently ridiculous. No sooner did ISIS appear over the horizon than the Iraqi troops abandoned their arms and their uniforms and fled back to their native villages. They behaved like a mercenary army conscripted by a foreign power. Which is essentially what they were. Of course they will fight for their religion – but their religion precisely&#160;divides&#160;them from other Iraqis, and cannot serve as a unifying force.</p>
<p>Only one community in Iraq has responded as we might to the invasion by ISIS, and that is the Kurdish community, which has been able to carve out a semi-autonomous region. Why is this? Surely the answer is clear. Being a Kurd is a matter of language, history and an ancestral claim to territory. It is a proto-national, rather than a religious identity. Hence when Kurds fight they fight for their country rather than their faith. And an emerging Kurdistan is likely to be the only peaceful fragment of the Iraq made in Britain and America. Let us hope that it becomes an ally of the West in the region. For it will probably be the only ally we have.</p>
<p>– Roger Scruton is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center</p> | false | 1 | 1915 couple minor diplomats englishman sir mark sykes frenchman françois georgepicot began negotiating divide ottoman empire entered great war side germany 1916 the160 sykespicot agreement160was signed france britain russia end war russia game following bolshevik revolution and160 atatürk160was busy saving turkish speaking remnant ottoman empire britain france free hand divide arab lands drew weird boundary lines supposedly corresponding nations region even appointed sovereigns drawing bank arab pretenders among hashemite tribe prominent administered territories mandate granted league nations new nation states lebanon egypt real claims national identity large christian populations lebanon possibly majority long history defiance towards sultan istanbul obvious territories region know iraq syria jordan palestine neither nations viable states simply places map iraq put together population divided shiite majority sunnite minority sizeable scattering christians large population kurdish speaking sunnites boundaries like syria little historical foundation exception kurds fiercely nationalistic iraqi people defined terms faith terms national identity west inherited form identity largely unknown arab world identify terms country law law secular manmade changeable owe allegiance nation include within nation people different faiths different family ties arab world people whole identified way sunni muslims weak attachment territory marked reluctance view tied neighbours differing faith binding obligations secular law nation state vacillating authority since regard governed another eternal law laid god mouth prophet language universal language attached specific territory faith universal faith tells belong particular place time universal160ummah160of faithful words faith confers upon identity national identity indeed incompatible secular law national boundaries surprisingly therefore places like iraq syria places constant conflict stable usurping army officer ruthless dynasty able seize control happened saddam hussein iraq hafiz alassad syria unsavoury characters retained control means baath resurrection party shaped leninist principles exerted terroristic control people operations secret police countries without legal opposition true rule law natural enter conflict neighbours wider world everything went wrong president george w bush imagined deposing saddam would open way new democratic iraq make two incredibly naïve assumptions first democracy default position politics secondly achieve democracy even genuine nation state history tells us default position politics priesthaunted tyranny democracy achieved enormous efforts usually without extended periods civil war marked english 17th160century american 19thcentury democracy comes people160lay arms agree live terms negotiating dislike share action democrat person agrees governed someone different faith different tribe different family interest group different worldview makes democrat possible answer nation define loyalty national terms put aside differences religion tribe ethnicity submit shared system law participate making law agree bound is160our160law operates territory is160ours160we made home together set aside divisions order settle side side process never occurred arab world fragile unstable instances lebanon assumption iraq exists map exists nation state true national identity iraqis stand nation fight existence assumption patently ridiculous sooner isis appear horizon iraqi troops abandoned arms uniforms fled back native villages behaved like mercenary army conscripted foreign power essentially course fight religion religion precisely160divides160them iraqis serve unifying force one community iraq responded might invasion isis kurdish community able carve semiautonomous region surely answer clear kurd matter language history ancestral claim territory protonational rather religious identity hence kurds fight fight country rather faith emerging kurdistan likely peaceful fragment iraq made britain america let us hope becomes ally west region probably ally roger scruton senior fellow ethics public policy center | 534 |
<p>WASHINGTON — It’ll be one of the most watched mid-life career changes in recent memory. What does Michelle Obama do next?</p>
<p>After eight years as a high-profile advocate against childhood obesity, a sought-after talk show guest, a Democratic power player and a style maven, the first lady will have her pick of options when she leaves the White House next month.</p>
<p>Just as the first lady’s role is undefined, with each woman molding it to her personality, interests and comfort level, there is no script for what comes after the first lady finishes the job.</p>
<p>The widowed Jacqueline Kennedy remarried and became a New York book editor. Laura Bush continues her advocacy for literacy, women in Afghanistan and preservation issues. Hillary Clinton launched her own political career with her bid for the U.S. Senate, even before her family left the White House.</p>
<p>Here’s a look at what Mrs. Obama is likely to do, or not do, when at 53 years old she becomes a private citizen again on Jan. 20.</p>
<p>LIKELY TO DO:</p>
<p>R&amp;R</p>
<p>President Barack Obama says he’s taking her on a “really nice vacation, because she deserves it. She’s been putting up with me for quite some time.” (Twenty-four years of marriage, to be exact.)</p>
<p>WRITE A MEMOIR</p>
<p>Practically all first ladies do. As the first black woman in the role and as someone who has said little publicly about her private life in the White House, book publishers would offer to pay millions for the rights to Mrs. Obama’s insider account. Clinton got an $8 million advance for her 2003 memoir, “Living History.”</p>
<p>SET UP HER FAMILY’S NEW HOME</p>
<p>Breaking from post-presidential tradition, the Obamas plan to stay in Washington so their 15-year-old daughter, Sasha, can finish high school. Presidents usually leave Washington when they leave office, but the Obamas are renting a home in the wealthy Kalorama neighborhood, near what will be the official residence of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. The home is large enough to be a hub of social activity, but it’s far from clear whether Michelle Obama will become Washington’s new power hostess. Ex-presidents tend to keep a low profile in the first year or so after they leave office.</p>
<p>The Obamas also still own a home in Chicago.</p>
<p>STICK WITH HER INITIATIVES</p>
<p>Michelle Obama has said she’ll stay engaged in public service and will keep working on the issues she focused on during her tenure. They included childhood obesity and education for girls around the world.</p>
<p>“I’ve always felt very alive using my gifts and talents to help other people. I sleep better at night. I’m happier,” she told Vogue for an interview in the fashion magazine’s December issue. “So we’ll look back at the issues that I’ve been working on. The question is: How do I engage in those issues from a new platform? I can’t say right now, because we can’t spend that much time really doing the hard work of vetting offers or ideas or options because we’re still closing things out here.”</p>
<p>COULD DO:</p>
<p>JOIN SPEAKER’S CIRCUIT</p>
<p>Obama put her oratory on display with a well-received speech on opening night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She followed up with a series of campaign speeches criticizing Republican Donald Trump, now the president-elect, as unsuitable for the nation’s highest office. Her friend, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, said the first lady will be “one of the most in-demand speakers” as a result of her convention performance. “That speaking fee just quadrupled,” Winfrey joked during an interview with The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Clinton earned millions of dollars giving paid speeches after she stepped down as secretary of state. Laura Bush also keeps a robust public speaking schedule.</p>
<p>HOST A TELEVISION TALK SHOW</p>
<p>Obama has demonstrated a knack for talk-show banter, and an ease in front of the TV cameras. She co-hosted “The View” before the 2008 election and recently co-hosted Ellen DeGeneres’ hourlong gabfest. Roy Ashton, head of television at the Gersh Agency in Los Angeles, says she would be a “no-brainer” to have a show of her own.</p>
<p>“She could pick up where Oprah left off, or something else,” Ashton said. “I think Michelle Obama has a ton to say.”</p>
<p>SERVE ON CORPORATE BOARDS</p>
<p>She has some experience with corporate America, but she’ll want to choose carefully. Mrs. Obama resigned from the board of a food supplier for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 2007, shortly after her husband announced his presidential bid. He had been a critic of the retail giant. Mrs. Obama had cited the increased demands of the campaign for leaving the board of Illinois-based TreeHouse Foods Inc.</p>
<p>“It will be fun to see what she actually does,” said Kimberly Archer, head of the Washington office of Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive search and assessment firm. “Wherever she does decide to focus, I would say, ‘Lucky them.’”</p>
<p>LIKELY WON’T DO:</p>
<p>RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE</p>
<p>Both the president and first lady repeatedly have said she will not run for president — despite pressure from Democrats wowed by her campaign speeches challenging Trump.</p>
<p>Obama has said she doesn’t have “the patience or the inclination” to be a candidate and is “too sensible to want to be in politics.” Mrs. Obama said “No, no. Not going to do it,” when asked earlier this year about following in her husband’s footsteps.</p>
<p>RESUME PRACTICING LAW</p>
<p>Obama, a Harvard law school graduate, practiced at a Chicago firm but abandoned a legal career after the deaths of her father and a close friend. She entered public service, working for the city of Chicago and running an AmeriCorps service program before she joined the University of Chicago Medical Center as a vice president for community and external affairs. It was the last paid position she held before become first lady.</p> | false | 1 | washington itll one watched midlife career changes recent memory michelle obama next eight years highprofile advocate childhood obesity soughtafter talk show guest democratic power player style maven first lady pick options leaves white house next month first ladys role undefined woman molding personality interests comfort level script comes first lady finishes job widowed jacqueline kennedy remarried became new york book editor laura bush continues advocacy literacy women afghanistan preservation issues hillary clinton launched political career bid us senate even family left white house heres look mrs obama likely 53 years old becomes private citizen jan 20 likely rampr president barack obama says hes taking really nice vacation deserves shes putting quite time twentyfour years marriage exact write memoir practically first ladies first black woman role someone said little publicly private life white house book publishers would offer pay millions rights mrs obamas insider account clinton got 8 million advance 2003 memoir living history set familys new home breaking postpresidential tradition obamas plan stay washington 15yearold daughter sasha finish high school presidents usually leave washington leave office obamas renting home wealthy kalorama neighborhood near official residence vice presidentelect mike pence home large enough hub social activity far clear whether michelle obama become washingtons new power hostess expresidents tend keep low profile first year leave office obamas also still home chicago stick initiatives michelle obama said shell stay engaged public service keep working issues focused tenure included childhood obesity education girls around world ive always felt alive using gifts talents help people sleep better night im happier told vogue interview fashion magazines december issue well look back issues ive working question engage issues new platform cant say right cant spend much time really hard work vetting offers ideas options still closing things could join speakers circuit obama put oratory display wellreceived speech opening night 2016 democratic national convention followed series campaign speeches criticizing republican donald trump presidentelect unsuitable nations highest office friend media mogul oprah winfrey said first lady one indemand speakers result convention performance speaking fee quadrupled winfrey joked interview associated press clinton earned millions dollars giving paid speeches stepped secretary state laura bush also keeps robust public speaking schedule host television talk show obama demonstrated knack talkshow banter ease front tv cameras cohosted view 2008 election recently cohosted ellen degeneres hourlong gabfest roy ashton head television gersh agency los angeles says would nobrainer show could pick oprah left something else ashton said think michelle obama ton say serve corporate boards experience corporate america shell want choose carefully mrs obama resigned board food supplier walmart stores inc 2007 shortly husband announced presidential bid critic retail giant mrs obama cited increased demands campaign leaving board illinoisbased treehouse foods inc fun see actually said kimberly archer head washington office russell reynolds associates executive search assessment firm wherever decide focus would say lucky likely wont run public office president first lady repeatedly said run president despite pressure democrats wowed campaign speeches challenging trump obama said doesnt patience inclination candidate sensible want politics mrs obama said going asked earlier year following husbands footsteps resume practicing law obama harvard law school graduate practiced chicago firm abandoned legal career deaths father close friend entered public service working city chicago running americorps service program joined university chicago medical center vice president community external affairs last paid position held become first lady | 553 |
<p>ALLEN PARK, Mich. — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jim_Caldwell/" type="external">Jim Caldwell</a> was one of the most successful <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Detroit-Lions/" type="external">Detroit Lions</a> coaches in the Super Bowl era, but general manager Bob Quinn said he made the difficult decision to fire him early Monday morning because he did not believe Caldwell could take the organization to a Super Bowl.</p>
<p>“We didn’t get there,” Quinn said. “We worked at it for two years and we didn’t get there. So that’s the decision that I came to.”</p>
<p>The Lions went 36-28 in Caldwell’s four seasons as head coach, but failed to win a playoff game.</p>
<p>Quinn said he was swayed to try to find new leadership in part because of the Lions’ struggles against good teams. Under Caldwell, they went just 5-23 against teams that finished with winning records, and had bouts of major sloppiness in this season’s final month.</p>
<p>Quinn inherited Caldwell when he took over for Martin Mayhew as Texans general manager in January of 2016, and was never part of a coaching search in his previous stint with the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_England_Patriots/" type="external">New England Patriots</a>.</p>
<p>Now, the third-year general manager will make the first coaching hire of his career, and he said he has several traits in mind for Caldwell’s successor.</p>
<p>“Leadership. Situational <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Walker/" type="external">football</a>. Willingness to adjust and adapt scheme to players. Really just someone that can lead this team with the players we have and the players that we will acquire and put them in the best position to win,” Quinn said. “Being a head coach in the National Football League is not an easy job, so they come in all shapes and sizes. Offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, special teams coaches, so it’ll be something that’s going to spend a lot of time researching, that I’ve started to do this morning, and we’ll continue down that road.”</p>
<p>The Lions’ search so far has focused on mostly defensive-minded assistants.</p>
<p>Teryl Austin, who was kept on staff as defensive coordinator, will interview Tuesday, according to ESPN, and the Patriots’ <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matt-Patricia/" type="external">Matt Patricia</a>, the Panthers’ Steve Wilks, the Texans’ Mike Vrabel and the Packers’ Winston Moss also are expected to interview for the job.</p>
<p>The Lions also have requested permission to speak with <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Minnesota-Vikings/" type="external">Minnesota Vikings</a> offensive coordinator <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Pat-Shurmur/" type="external">Pat Shurmur</a>.</p>
<p>As for Caldwell, Lions players said they were sad to see him go, but understand the nature of the business.</p>
<p>“Obviously we didn’t do what we needed to do and obviously we wish something would have happened differently to create a different outcome,” wide receiver <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marvin-Jones/" type="external">Marvin Jones</a> Jr. said. “But the fact of the matter is we didn’t, so it’s always tough.”</p>
<p>–Despite Monday’s coaching dismissal, Lions quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Matthew_Stafford/" type="external">Matthew Stafford</a> said he hopes the Lions maintain some continuity on their staff and keep Jim Bob Cooter as offensive coordinator.</p>
<p>“Jim Bob and I have a great relationship and ever since he’s had the opportunity to take the reins, this offense has moved in the right direction in my opinion,” Stafford said. “I feel like I’m playing some of the best football of my career, so I would love to have the opportunity to keep working with him. He’s been good for us and good for me.”</p>
<p>Since Cooter replaced Joe Lombardi as offensive coordinator midway through the 2015 season, Stafford has completed 66.3 percent of his passes and cut down dramatically on his turnovers.</p>
<p>He completed just 60.1 percent of his passes before Cooter took over as play-caller, and this year the Lions finished seventh in the NFL in points scored.</p>
<p>“I think continuity is important in this league to a certain extent and I voiced my opinions earlier just a second ago on our guys on the offensive staff,” Stafford said. “I think they do a good job, I think our offense is going in the right direction, I think our team is close so we’ll see what happens.”</p>
<p>–Defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ziggy-Ansah/" type="external">Ziggy Ansah</a> made quite the contract push to close the season.</p>
<p>Ansah, who struggled through knee and back injuries much of the year, had six sacks in the Lions’ last two games. He finished with 12 on the season, tied for eighth most in the league.</p>
<p>Ansah is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in March, though the Lions can use the franchise tag on him at a cost of around $18 million.</p>
<p>Quinn called the decision on Ansah one of the most “critical decisions” facing the team this offseason.</p>
<p>“But that’s something that once the new staff is in place, the new head coach, the scheme, all that’s figured out, that’s going to be factored in to what we do with Ziggy,” he said.</p>
<p>NOTES: DE Kerry Hyder, who missed the season with a torn Achilles tendon, said Monday that he is not yet back to running but that his rehab is going well and he’s “extremely confident” he will return to 2016 form. Hyder had a breakout season with eight sacks last year. … TE <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Eric-Ebron/" type="external">Eric Ebron</a> will be back in 2018, general manager Bob Quinn said Monday. Ebron is under contract on the fifth-year rookie contract tender of $8.25 million. Ebron had a disappointing first half of the season, but he closed the season on a strong note with four or more catches in six of the last seven games. His contract becomes fully guaranteed in March. … TE <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Roberts/" type="external">Michael Roberts</a> was suspended for Sunday’s season finale for what then-head coach Jim Caldwell called “conduct detrimental” to the team. According to the Detroit Free Press, Roberts went AWOL after checking into the hotel, missed meetings and was sent home and fined when he was finally located.</p> | false | 1 | allen park mich jim caldwell one successful detroit lions coaches super bowl era general manager bob quinn said made difficult decision fire early monday morning believe caldwell could take organization super bowl didnt get quinn said worked two years didnt get thats decision came lions went 3628 caldwells four seasons head coach failed win playoff game quinn said swayed try find new leadership part lions struggles good teams caldwell went 523 teams finished winning records bouts major sloppiness seasons final month quinn inherited caldwell took martin mayhew texans general manager january 2016 never part coaching search previous stint new england patriots thirdyear general manager make first coaching hire career said several traits mind caldwells successor leadership situational football willingness adjust adapt scheme players really someone lead team players players acquire put best position win quinn said head coach national football league easy job come shapes sizes offensive coordinators defensive coordinators special teams coaches itll something thats going spend lot time researching ive started morning well continue road lions search far focused mostly defensiveminded assistants teryl austin kept staff defensive coordinator interview tuesday according espn patriots matt patricia panthers steve wilks texans mike vrabel packers winston moss also expected interview job lions also requested permission speak minnesota vikings offensive coordinator pat shurmur caldwell lions players said sad see go understand nature business obviously didnt needed obviously wish something would happened differently create different outcome wide receiver marvin jones jr said fact matter didnt always tough despite mondays coaching dismissal lions quarterback matthew stafford said hopes lions maintain continuity staff keep jim bob cooter offensive coordinator jim bob great relationship ever since hes opportunity take reins offense moved right direction opinion stafford said feel like im playing best football career would love opportunity keep working hes good us good since cooter replaced joe lombardi offensive coordinator midway 2015 season stafford completed 663 percent passes cut dramatically turnovers completed 601 percent passes cooter took playcaller year lions finished seventh nfl points scored think continuity important league certain extent voiced opinions earlier second ago guys offensive staff stafford said think good job think offense going right direction think team close well see happens defensive end ziggy ansah made quite contract push close season ansah struggled knee back injuries much year six sacks lions last two games finished 12 season tied eighth league ansah scheduled unrestricted free agent march though lions use franchise tag cost around 18 million quinn called decision ansah one critical decisions facing team offseason thats something new staff place new head coach scheme thats figured thats going factored ziggy said notes de kerry hyder missed season torn achilles tendon said monday yet back running rehab going well hes extremely confident return 2016 form hyder breakout season eight sacks last year te eric ebron back 2018 general manager bob quinn said monday ebron contract fifthyear rookie contract tender 825 million ebron disappointing first half season closed season strong note four catches six last seven games contract becomes fully guaranteed march te michael roberts suspended sundays season finale thenhead coach jim caldwell called conduct detrimental team according detroit free press roberts went awol checking hotel missed meetings sent home fined finally located | 529 |
<p>For months, former senator Rick Santorum has been talking about working-class woes and promoting a working-class-friendly economic agenda, and in late January President Obama’s State of the Union speech placed working-class concerns at the center of the election debate. Nevertheless, Santorum remains in third place in the GOP race. Does this suggest that Republican efforts to address working-class angst are politically ineffective?</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t. The problem is twofold: Santorum has not emphasized this aspect of his campaign enough, and the agenda he has presented seems designed to resurrect an idealized past rather than to lead worried workers into a new future.</p>
<p>Santorum is trying to resurrect the Reagan general-election strategy of 1980 — first and foremost, to win over the conservative base on fiscal and social issues by portraying himself as a man of principle, the only candidate who will not waver. This means that for most Republican-primary voters, Santorum is a strong conservative first and an advocate of the working class a distant second, if at all.</p>
<p>But Santorum’s greater problem is that he is out of touch with today’s blue-collar reality. His message presumes that white-working-class voters are essentially the same as they were in 1980. Reagan Democrats in the Midwest — the Santorum target — were characterized in 1980 by their religion and their occupations. They were disproportionally Catholic, serious about their faith, and likely to work in manufacturing or live in manufacturing-dependent neighborhoods and towns.</p>
<p>Santorum’s Iowa victory speech made it clear that he believes these characteristics are still true of the working class. He noted that he grew up in a steel town, that his first congressional wins were in districts with abandoned steel mills, and that he won because he “shared the values of the working people” in his districts. Those values center on “faith and family”; working people “understand that when the family breaks down, the economy struggles.” Santorum’s proposals follow from these premises: support the family by tripling the child tax deduction, encourage manufacturing by giving corporations engaged in it a corporate-income-tax rate of zero, and promote religion by making public professions of faith a central part of presidential rhetoric.</p>
<p>But it is no longer the early 1990s, when Santorum won those congressional districts. An entire generation of working-class voters has grown up with no experience working in manufacturing, or even any expectation of doing so. Today’s white-working-class voter — whose vote is much more likely to be up for grabs than those of his black or Hispanic peers — increasingly works in industries that have mushroomed in size since the Reagan years, such as retail. Over 1 million people work for Walmart, for example, a company that few had heard of in 1980. But we can see the Santorum dilemma more acutely if we look at a classic blue-collar industry: trucking.</p>
<p>Trucking was deregulated by the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, leading to an explosion in the number of trucking firms and trucks on the road. Today, there are over 3 million truckers; they constitute 2 percent of American workers. Major companies, such as Federal Express, have come into existence because of the growth in trucking.</p>
<p>About 1.8 million Americans are long-haul truckers, the people you see driving the big rigs on the Interstates. The overwhelming majority of these drivers are male. They spend countless hours away from home, leaving their wives and children alone. It should be no surprise, then, that divorce rates among long-haul truckers are much higher than the national average.</p>
<p>That is where the Santorum rhetorical rubber meets the road. Santorum’s worldview is centered on bringing back the classic factory dad, who works a shift and comes home every night. But if his policies succeed in luring truckers into manufacturing jobs, they will also drive up wages in the trucking industry, which would imperil the very transportation network that enables modern manufacturing. Santorum’s policies are simplistic answers to complex problems.</p>
<p>Santorum’s approach also ignores the changes in family and religious life among the white working class that have happened since 1980. My colleague Charles Murray’s new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960–2010, documents in detail how the social and religious culture of the white working class has declined in the last few decades. The illegitimacy rate for white women with no more than a high-school education in 2008 was 44 percent, up from a mere 6 percent in 1970. Those who marry don’t always stay married: Murray finds that 33 percent of white-working-class adults between the ages of 30 and 49 who have been married have gotten a divorce, more than double the proportion in 1980. Perhaps this is to be expected, given that the white working class no longer goes to church. According to Murray, in surveys between 2006 and 2010, 59 percent of whites with no more than a high-school education and who work in low-skilled jobs claimed not to attend a religious service more than once a year. The norms of faith and family that animated the white-working-class towns of Santorum’s youth simply no longer exist.</p>
<p>A political strategy for today’s working class would address its current mindset. To begin with, it would recognize that Reagan Democrats are no longer Democrats. Those who are not already Republicans are likely to be independents convinced that big government is not the answer to their problems. But they do not support Republican economic policy, because they think that an unfettered market is not the answer, either.</p>
<p>They are buffeted by competition at home and abroad. They compete much more directly than college-educated workers with people in Mexico and Asia. When factories move overseas, the prices of consumer goods fall, but for low-skilled workers this gain is tempered by lower hourly wages in new jobs. More women have to work to make ends meet, but they can’t afford to hire immigrants to take care of their children, clean their homes, or mow their lawns. Blue-collar voters have to work harder and borrow more just to stay in place, and they do so looking over their shoulders fearful that it could all fall apart in a moment. It’s no wonder, then, that polls show a white working class increasingly distrustful of free trade and angry about illegal immigration. Both issues relate to economic competition: Free trade means you compete with foreigners living abroad, and illegal immigration means you compete with foreigners living in the United States.</p>
<p>These concerns are on display in the trucking industry. The North American Free Trade Agreement contains a provision permitting Mexican truckers to enter the United States and freely operate throughout the country. But this provision has never taken effect, owing to opposition from the domestic trucking industry. The industry’s leaders often cast their opposition in terms of safety concerns, but they know that Mexican truckers will accept lower wages, giving them a competitive advantage for contracts. Free trade in trucking would mean lower transportation costs, but likely at the expense of wages or jobs for American truckers.</p>
<p>American truckers also face competition from Hispanics already in this country (both legally and illegally). According to the General Services Administration, about 15 percent of truckers were Hispanic males in 2004. That number was projected to rise to nearly 19 percent by 2014; the white-male share of truckers was projected to drop from nearly 66 percent to about 60 percent over the same period.</p>
<p>The result of such competition is that, according to a May 2011 Heartland Monitor poll, white-working-class adults are the demographic most pessimistic about their future. A May 2011 Pew poll showed a similar result. It divided the American population into nine groups based on their political philosophies. In the group dominated by white-working-class independents, who constitute about 11 percent of the electorate, only 50 percent thought that hard work would guarantee success — lower than every other group but one.</p>
<p>President Obama mimics Senator Santorum when he proposes to bring back manufacturing jobs by changing the tax code to discourage American companies from operating plants overseas. But he’s also proposing to increase public-private job-training partnerships through community colleges “that teach people skills that businesses are looking for right now.” One can ask what government’s role in this sort of endeavor ought to be, but at least the president talks about building a future and not just bringing back the past.</p>
<p>Where President Obama really steals a march on Republicans, however, is with his rhetoric about free trade. He taps into the pervasive belief that unfair competition is at the heart of economic decline. Hence his new Trade Enforcement Unit, which will investigate putatively unfair trading practices, and his call for more inspections to “prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders.” These measures may be modest in their scope and largely symbolic, but they send the message that Obama understands the concerns of the working class.</p>
<p>To be successful with working-class voters, conservatives will need to show that they too understand. These voters increasingly feel that they are — to borrow Barack Obama’s recycling of a Bill Clinton formulation — working hard and playing by the rules but not getting ahead. Mitt Romney’s pledge to bring an action against China through the World Trade Organization over alleged currency manipulation responds to this feeling. Conservatives should also spend more time and effort detailing how government officials helped private firms such as Fannie Mae take extreme risks on the taxpayers’ dime, pushing working-class families into loans they didn’t understand and could not afford to repay.</p>
<p>Conservative failure to demonstrate concern for the working class, and to adopt policies that will alleviate its burden, would be a modern-day analogue to liberals’ tone-deafness on crime and patriotism in the 1970s and ’80s — a tone-deafness that helped create the Reagan Democrats in the first place.</p>
<p>Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | months former senator rick santorum talking workingclass woes promoting workingclassfriendly economic agenda late january president obamas state union speech placed workingclass concerns center election debate nevertheless santorum remains third place gop race suggest republican efforts address workingclass angst politically ineffective doesnt problem twofold santorum emphasized aspect campaign enough agenda presented seems designed resurrect idealized past rather lead worried workers new future santorum trying resurrect reagan generalelection strategy 1980 first foremost win conservative base fiscal social issues portraying man principle candidate waver means republicanprimary voters santorum strong conservative first advocate working class distant second santorums greater problem touch todays bluecollar reality message presumes whiteworkingclass voters essentially 1980 reagan democrats midwest santorum target characterized 1980 religion occupations disproportionally catholic serious faith likely work manufacturing live manufacturingdependent neighborhoods towns santorums iowa victory speech made clear believes characteristics still true working class noted grew steel town first congressional wins districts abandoned steel mills shared values working people districts values center faith family working people understand family breaks economy struggles santorums proposals follow premises support family tripling child tax deduction encourage manufacturing giving corporations engaged corporateincometax rate zero promote religion making public professions faith central part presidential rhetoric longer early 1990s santorum congressional districts entire generation workingclass voters grown experience working manufacturing even expectation todays whiteworkingclass voter whose vote much likely grabs black hispanic peers increasingly works industries mushroomed size since reagan years retail 1 million people work walmart example company heard 1980 see santorum dilemma acutely look classic bluecollar industry trucking trucking deregulated motor carrier act 1980 leading explosion number trucking firms trucks road today 3 million truckers constitute 2 percent american workers major companies federal express come existence growth trucking 18 million americans longhaul truckers people see driving big rigs interstates overwhelming majority drivers male spend countless hours away home leaving wives children alone surprise divorce rates among longhaul truckers much higher national average santorum rhetorical rubber meets road santorums worldview centered bringing back classic factory dad works shift comes home every night policies succeed luring truckers manufacturing jobs also drive wages trucking industry would imperil transportation network enables modern manufacturing santorums policies simplistic answers complex problems santorums approach also ignores changes family religious life among white working class happened since 1980 colleague charles murrays new book coming apart state white america 19602010 documents detail social religious culture white working class declined last decades illegitimacy rate white women highschool education 2008 44 percent mere 6 percent 1970 marry dont always stay married murray finds 33 percent whiteworkingclass adults ages 30 49 married gotten divorce double proportion 1980 perhaps expected given white working class longer goes church according murray surveys 2006 2010 59 percent whites highschool education work lowskilled jobs claimed attend religious service year norms faith family animated whiteworkingclass towns santorums youth simply longer exist political strategy todays working class would address current mindset begin would recognize reagan democrats longer democrats already republicans likely independents convinced big government answer problems support republican economic policy think unfettered market answer either buffeted competition home abroad compete much directly collegeeducated workers people mexico asia factories move overseas prices consumer goods fall lowskilled workers gain tempered lower hourly wages new jobs women work make ends meet cant afford hire immigrants take care children clean homes mow lawns bluecollar voters work harder borrow stay place looking shoulders fearful could fall apart moment wonder polls show white working class increasingly distrustful free trade angry illegal immigration issues relate economic competition free trade means compete foreigners living abroad illegal immigration means compete foreigners living united states concerns display trucking industry north american free trade agreement contains provision permitting mexican truckers enter united states freely operate throughout country provision never taken effect owing opposition domestic trucking industry industrys leaders often cast opposition terms safety concerns know mexican truckers accept lower wages giving competitive advantage contracts free trade trucking would mean lower transportation costs likely expense wages jobs american truckers american truckers also face competition hispanics already country legally illegally according general services administration 15 percent truckers hispanic males 2004 number projected rise nearly 19 percent 2014 whitemale share truckers projected drop nearly 66 percent 60 percent period result competition according may 2011 heartland monitor poll whiteworkingclass adults demographic pessimistic future may 2011 pew poll showed similar result divided american population nine groups based political philosophies group dominated whiteworkingclass independents constitute 11 percent electorate 50 percent thought hard work would guarantee success lower every group one president obama mimics senator santorum proposes bring back manufacturing jobs changing tax code discourage american companies operating plants overseas hes also proposing increase publicprivate jobtraining partnerships community colleges teach people skills businesses looking right one ask governments role sort endeavor ought least president talks building future bringing back past president obama really steals march republicans however rhetoric free trade taps pervasive belief unfair competition heart economic decline hence new trade enforcement unit investigate putatively unfair trading practices call inspections prevent counterfeit unsafe goods crossing borders measures may modest scope largely symbolic send message obama understands concerns working class successful workingclass voters conservatives need show understand voters increasingly feel borrow barack obamas recycling bill clinton formulation working hard playing rules getting ahead mitt romneys pledge bring action china world trade organization alleged currency manipulation responds feeling conservatives also spend time effort detailing government officials helped private firms fannie mae take extreme risks taxpayers dime pushing workingclass families loans didnt understand could afford repay conservative failure demonstrate concern working class adopt policies alleviate burden would modernday analogue liberals tonedeafness crime patriotism 1970s 80s tonedeafness helped create reagan democrats first place henry olsen senior fellow ethics public policy center | 930 |
<p>Most of the conversation that followed Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature missed perhaps the most important window into the work of the great poet (since, yes, he is a poet, and thus eligible for a prize in literature). And that is that Bob Dylan’s poetry is deeply, profoundly shaped by the Bible.</p>
<p>Ours is a secular age, and spirituality, which is often the most important influence on so many artistic geniuses, is oddly forgotten or overlooked. Many observers have noted Dylan’s Jewish heritage, but not the Christian faith of a man who wrote several overtly Christian albums and who, even before his conversion to Christianity, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling-stone-hall-of-fame-bob-dylans-john-wesley-harding-20000330" type="external">called</a>his pathbreaking album “John Wesley Harding” “the first Biblical rock album”.</p>
<p>Dylan’s relationship with religion is complex. As Robert Zimmerman, he had a Bar Mitzvah. And though Dylan has since accepted Jesus as his savior, and has made clearly Christian music, he has also at times rejected the label of Christian. He has expressed consistent disdain for organized religion and dogma. And precisely because Dylan is such a poet, his lyrics are multi-faceted, allusive, mysterious, and work on several layers. They aren’t “about religion” in any sort of simplistic way.</p>
<p>However, this is still certain: Dylan is a profoundly spiritual poet, and his spirituality is profoundly shaped by the Christian Bible.</p>
<p>He once <a href="http://hollowverse.com/bob-dylan/" type="external">said</a>, “I don’t think I’ve been an agnostic. I’ve always thought there’s a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there’s a world to come.” This is not just an expression of being “spiritual” in the bland sense. The phrase “world to come” is itself a Biblical phrase, and moreover the idea that “this is not the real world” shows a man who sees things spiritually first and materially second. Which is extremely fitting for an artist.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/sep/11/bob-dylan-classic-article" type="external">In another interview</a>, Dylan said, “I can see God in a daisy. I can see God at night in the wind and rain. I see Creation just about everywhere. The highest form of song is prayer. King David’s, Solomon’s, the wailing of a coyote, the rumble of the Earth.” This shows how Dylan views things through a spiritual lens, and that this spiritual lens is shaped by the Bible.</p>
<p>Take a song like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which has been widely and correctly hailed as a ’60s protest song and an existential song. The mysterious answer to the song’s questions — “The answer my friend / Is blowin’ in the wind” — brings to mind nothing if not the ruach, the Bible’s Hebrew name for the Spirit of God, which means wind, breath, and spirit. Genesis describes how “the Earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the ruach of God was hovering over the waters.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches Nicodemus that the Spirit of God is like the wind, which “blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes.”</p>
<p>How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned? How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? The only answer to both our political and existential problems is a radical openness to the Spirit of God, which blows where it wills, which can be glimpsed in a daisy as well as in the Bible. The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind… The answer is mysteriously allusive just like the promptings of God in the human heart, which must be experienced rather than taught. This is a classically “Dylanesque” picture of spirituality and of man’s relationship to existential questions and the Spirit, which is also profoundly Biblical.</p>
<p>Dylan’s most explicitly Biblical hit is undoubtedly “All Along the Watchtower,” which is a riff on the prophecy from Chapter 21 of the Book of Isaiah, where two watchmen on a watchtower see two riders approaching. “‘There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief / ‘There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.'” The first stanza is all about existential angst, about the futility and violence of the modern world. “Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth / None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.” In this consumerist world, we drink, we steal, we work, but nothing seems of real value.</p>
<p>“‘No reason to get excited,’ the thief he kindly spoke.” Who is the thief, but Jesus Christ, who describes himself as returning to Earth “like a thief in the night”? Indeed, “the hour is getting late,” the thief informs us, another Biblical catchphrase about the return of Christ. “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke / But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate.” The seeming futility of life is something that we need to rise above, and the reason we can trust Jesus is that he’s “been through that.” He is not a distant God but has become incarnate as a man and lived through what we’ve lived through.</p>
<p>Which takes us to the third and fourth stanzas: “All along the watchtower, princes kept the view” and “Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.” This is the reference to the prophecy from Isaiah 21. The two riders, messengers, are announcing the fall of Babylon. In the Bible, Babylon represents sin and wickedness. Just like the Jews were trapped in Babylon due to their own sin but later rescued by God, so we can escape our own personal Babylons if we just trust in God, instead of seeing the futility of Babylon and concluding that “life is but a joke.” The fall of Babylon is also a theme in the Book of Revelation, referring to Christ’s Second Coming, which the “thief” verse already refers to. The approach of the two riders both refers to God’s action in our life here and now, and God’s ultimate return to fix everything, both bound up in those verses, the way they often are in the Bible.</p>
<p>I could go on and on. Dylan’s work is immense, and his lyrics are deeply dense, packed with references, allusions, and multiple layers of meaning. Books can and have been written about them.</p>
<p>What is clear is that Dylan’s work is deeply shaped by the Bible, and by the Biblical worldview. Not just in the superficial sense that it keeps referring to it and echoing its themes, but also in the more profound sense that Dylan’s own worldview is deeply Biblical. It is spiritual, first and foremost, viewing the spiritual world “first” as the bridge through which we live in the material world, which itself only sends us back to the spiritual world. And it is deeply Biblical in its longing for God, whether it is encountered as art or as the Spirit or as Jesus Christ himself, as the answer to our existential quandaries, as our companion — and as our Savior. If you’re going to be faithful to Bob Dylan as an artist, you can’t miss that dimension of his work which — for those who have ears to ear — is everywhere.</p>
<p>Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | conversation followed bob dylan winning nobel prize literature missed perhaps important window work great poet since yes poet thus eligible prize literature bob dylans poetry deeply profoundly shaped bible secular age spirituality often important influence many artistic geniuses oddly forgotten overlooked many observers noted dylans jewish heritage christian faith man wrote several overtly christian albums even conversion christianity calledhis pathbreaking album john wesley harding first biblical rock album dylans relationship religion complex robert zimmerman bar mitzvah though dylan since accepted jesus savior made clearly christian music also times rejected label christian expressed consistent disdain organized religion dogma precisely dylan poet lyrics multifaceted allusive mysterious work several layers arent religion sort simplistic way however still certain dylan profoundly spiritual poet spirituality profoundly shaped christian bible said dont think ive agnostic ive always thought theres superior power real world theres world come expression spiritual bland sense phrase world come biblical phrase moreover idea real world shows man sees things spiritually first materially second extremely fitting artist another interview dylan said see god daisy see god night wind rain see creation everywhere highest form song prayer king davids solomons wailing coyote rumble earth shows dylan views things spiritual lens spiritual lens shaped bible take song like blowin wind widely correctly hailed 60s protest song existential song mysterious answer songs questions answer friend blowin wind brings mind nothing ruach bibles hebrew name spirit god means wind breath spirit genesis describes earth formless empty darkness surface deep ruach god hovering waters gospel john jesus teaches nicodemus spirit god like wind blows wills hear sound know whence comes whither goes many times must cannon balls fly theyre forever banned many roads must man walk call man answer political existential problems radical openness spirit god blows wills glimpsed daisy well bible answer friend blowin wind answer mysteriously allusive like promptings god human heart must experienced rather taught classically dylanesque picture spirituality mans relationship existential questions spirit also profoundly biblical dylans explicitly biblical hit undoubtedly along watchtower riff prophecy chapter 21 book isaiah two watchmen watchtower see two riders approaching must way said joker thief theres much confusion cant get relief first stanza existential angst futility violence modern world businessmen drink wine plowmen dig earth none along line know worth consumerist world drink steal work nothing seems real value reason get excited thief kindly spoke thief jesus christ describes returning earth like thief night indeed hour getting late thief informs us another biblical catchphrase return christ many among us feel life joke weve fate seeming futility life something need rise reason trust jesus hes distant god become incarnate man lived weve lived takes us third fourth stanzas along watchtower princes kept view two riders approaching wind began howl reference prophecy isaiah 21 two riders messengers announcing fall babylon bible babylon represents sin wickedness like jews trapped babylon due sin later rescued god escape personal babylons trust god instead seeing futility babylon concluding life joke fall babylon also theme book revelation referring christs second coming thief verse already refers approach two riders refers gods action life gods ultimate return fix everything bound verses way often bible could go dylans work immense lyrics deeply dense packed references allusions multiple layers meaning books written clear dylans work deeply shaped bible biblical worldview superficial sense keeps referring echoing themes also profound sense dylans worldview deeply biblical spiritual first foremost viewing spiritual world first bridge live material world sends us back spiritual world deeply biblical longing god whether encountered art spirit jesus christ answer existential quandaries companion savior youre going faithful bob dylan artist cant miss dimension work ears ear everywhere pascalemmanuel gobry fellow ethics public policy center | 605 |
<p>The Anti-Empire Report</p>
<p>The words they find it very difficult to say — “civil war”.</p>
<p>Libya is engaged in a civil war. The United States and the European Union and NATO — The Holy Triumvirate — are intervening, bloodily, in a civil war. To overthrow Moammar Gaddafi. First The Holy Triumvirate spoke only of imposing a no-fly zone. After getting support from international bodies on that understanding they immediately began to wage war against Libyan military forces, and whoever was nearby, on a daily basis. In the world of commerce this is called “bait and switch”.</p>
<p>Gaddafi’s crime? He was never respectful enough of The Holy Triumvirate, which recognizes no higher power, and maneuvers the United Nations for its own purposes, depending on China and Russia to be as spineless and hypocritical as Barack Obama. The man the Triumvirate allows to replace Gaddafi will be more respectful.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">&lt;img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-11622" style="margin: 5px;" title="libya-afp" src="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/libya-afp-300x202.jpg" alt="Airstrikes on Libya" width="300" height="202" /&gt;</a>So who are the good guys? The Libyan rebels, we’re told. The ones who go around murdering and raping African blacks on the supposition that they’re all mercenaries for Gaddafi. One or more of the victims may indeed have been members of a Libyan government military battalion; or may not have been. During the 1990s, in the name of pan-African unity, Gaddafi opened the borders to tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans to live and work in Libya. That, along with his earlier pan-Arab vision, did not win him points with The Holy Triumvirate. Corporate bosses have the same problem about their employees forming unions. Oh, and did I mention that Gaddafi is strongly anti-Zionist?</p>
<p>Does anyone know what kind of government the rebels would create? The Triumvirate has no idea. To what extent will the new government embody an Islamic influence as opposed to the present secular government? What jihadi forces might they unleash? (And these forces do indeed exist in eastern Libya, where the rebels are concentrated.) Will they do away with much of the welfare state that Gaddafi used his oil money to create? Will the state-dominated economy be privatized? Who will wind up owning Libya’s oil? Will the new regime continue to invest Libyan oil revenues in sub-Saharan African development projects? Will they allow a US military base and NATO exercises? Will we find out before long that the “rebels” were instigated and armed by Holy Triumvirate intelligence services?</p>
<p>In the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia was guilty of “crimes” similar to Gaddafi’s. His country was commonly referred to as “the last communists of Europe”. The Holy Triumvirate bombed him, arrested him, and let him die in prison. The Libyan government, it should be noted, refers to itself as the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. American foreign policy is never far removed from the Cold War.</p>
<p>We must look closely at the no-fly zone set up for Iraq by the US and the UK (falsely claimed by them as being authorized by the United Nations) beginning in the early 1990s and lasting more than a decade. It was in actuality a license for very frequent bombing and killing of Iraqi citizens; softening up the country for the coming invasion. The no-fly zone-cum invasion force in Libya is killing people every day with no end in sight, softening up the country for regime change. Who in the universe can stand up to The Holy Triumvirate? Has the entire history of the world ever seen such power and such arrogance?</p>
<p>And by the way, for the 10th time, Gaddafi did not carry out the bombing of PanAm Flight 103 in 1988.[1] <a href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer92.html#note-1" type="external" /> Please enlighten your favorite progressive writers on this.</p>
<p>Barack “I’d kill for a peace prize” Obama</p>
<p>Is anyone keeping count?</p>
<p>I am. Libya makes six.</p>
<p>Six countries that Barack H. Obama has waged war against in his 26 months in office. (To anyone who disputes that dropping bombs on a populated land is an act of war, I would ask what they think of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.)</p>
<p>America’s first black president now invades Africa.</p>
<p>Is there anyone left who still thinks that Barack Obama is some kind of improvement over George W. Bush?</p>
<p>Probably two types still think so. 1) Those to whom color matters a lot; 2) Those who are very impressed by the ability to put together grammatically correct sentences.</p>
<p>It certainly can’t have much otherwise to do with intellect or intelligence. Obama has said numerous things, which if uttered by Bush would have inspired lots of rolled eyeballs, snickers, and chuckling reports in the columns and broadcasts of mainstream media. Like the one the president has repeated on a number of occasions when pressed to investigate Bush and Cheney for war crimes, along the lines of “I prefer to look forward rather than backwards”. Picture a defendant before a judge asking to be found innocent on such grounds. It simply makes laws, law enforcement, crime, justice, and facts irrelevant.</p>
<p>There’s also the excuse given by Obama to not prosecute those engaged in torture: because they were following orders. Has this “educated” man never heard of the Nuremberg Trials, where this defense was summarily rejected? Forever, it was assumed.</p>
<p>Just 18 days before the Gulf oil spill Obama said: “It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced.” (Washington Post, May 27, 2010) Picture George W. having said this, and the later reaction.</p>
<p>“All the forces that we’re seeing at work in Egypt are forces that naturally should be aligned with us, should be aligned with Israel,” Obama said in early March.[2] Imagine if Bush had implied this — that the Arab protesters in Egypt against a man receiving billions in US aid including the means to repress and torture them, should “naturally” be aligned with the United States and — God help us — Israel.</p>
<p>A week later, on March 10, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told a forum in Cambridge, Mass. that Wikileaks hero Bradley Manning’s treatment by the Defense Department in a Marine prison was “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” The next day our “brainy” president was asked about Crowley’s comment. Replied the Great Black Hope: “I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are.”</p>
<p>Right, George. I mean Barack. Bush should have asked Donald Rumsfeld whether anyone in US custody was being tortured anywhere in the world. He could then have held a news conference like Obama did to announce the happy news — “No torture by America!” We would still be chortling at that one.</p>
<p>Obama closed his remark with: “I can’t go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Pvt. Manning’s safety as well.”[3] <a href="http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer92.html#note-3" type="external" /></p>
<p>Ah yes, of course, Manning is being tortured for his own good. Someone please remind me — Did Georgieboy ever stoop to using that particular absurdity to excuse prisoner hell at Guantanamo?</p>
<p>Is it that Barack Obama is not bothered by the insult to Bradley Manning’s human rights, the daily wearing away of this brave young man’s mental stability?</p>
<p>The answer to the question is No. The president is not bothered by these things.</p>
<p>How do I know? Because Barack Obama is not bothered by anything as long as he can exult in being the president of the United States, eat his hamburgers, and play his basketball. Let me repeat once again what I first wrote in May 2009:</p>
<p>The problem, I’m increasingly afraid, is that the man doesn’t really believe strongly in anything, certainly not in controversial areas. He learned a long time ago how to take positions that avoid controversy, how to express opinions without clearly taking sides, how to talk eloquently without actually saying anything, how to leave his listeners’ heads filled with stirring clichés, platitudes, and slogans. And it worked. Oh how it worked! What could happen now, having reached the presidency of the United States, to induce him to change his style?</p>
<p>Remember that in his own book, “The Audacity of Hope”, Obama wrote: “I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”</p>
<p>Obama is a product of marketing. He is the prime example of the product “As seen on TV”.</p>
<p />
<p /> | false | 1 | antiempire report words find difficult say civil war libya engaged civil war united states european union nato holy triumvirate intervening bloodily civil war overthrow moammar gaddafi first holy triumvirate spoke imposing nofly zone getting support international bodies understanding immediately began wage war libyan military forces whoever nearby daily basis world commerce called bait switch gaddafis crime never respectful enough holy triumvirate recognizes higher power maneuvers united nations purposes depending china russia spineless hypocritical barack obama man triumvirate allows replace gaddafi respectful ltimg classalignleft sizemedium wpimage11622 stylemargin 5px titlelibyaafp srchttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201103libyaafp300x202jpg altairstrikes libya width300 height202 gtso good guys libyan rebels told ones go around murdering raping african blacks supposition theyre mercenaries gaddafi one victims may indeed members libyan government military battalion may 1990s name panafrican unity gaddafi opened borders tens thousands subsaharan africans live work libya along earlier panarab vision win points holy triumvirate corporate bosses problem employees forming unions oh mention gaddafi strongly antizionist anyone know kind government rebels would create triumvirate idea extent new government embody islamic influence opposed present secular government jihadi forces might unleash forces indeed exist eastern libya rebels concentrated away much welfare state gaddafi used oil money create statedominated economy privatized wind owning libyas oil new regime continue invest libyan oil revenues subsaharan african development projects allow us military base nato exercises find long rebels instigated armed holy triumvirate intelligence services 1990s slobodan milosevic yugoslavia guilty crimes similar gaddafis country commonly referred last communists europe holy triumvirate bombed arrested let die prison libyan government noted refers great socialist peoples libyan arab jamahiriya american foreign policy never far removed cold war must look closely nofly zone set iraq us uk falsely claimed authorized united nations beginning early 1990s lasting decade actuality license frequent bombing killing iraqi citizens softening country coming invasion nofly zonecum invasion force libya killing people every day end sight softening country regime change universe stand holy triumvirate entire history world ever seen power arrogance way 10th time gaddafi carry bombing panam flight 103 19881 please enlighten favorite progressive writers barack id kill peace prize obama anyone keeping count libya makes six six countries barack h obama waged war 26 months office anyone disputes dropping bombs populated land act war would ask think japanese bombing pearl harbor americas first black president invades africa anyone left still thinks barack obama kind improvement george w bush probably two types still think 1 color matters lot 2 impressed ability put together grammatically correct sentences certainly cant much otherwise intellect intelligence obama said numerous things uttered bush would inspired lots rolled eyeballs snickers chuckling reports columns broadcasts mainstream media like one president repeated number occasions pressed investigate bush cheney war crimes along lines prefer look forward rather backwards picture defendant judge asking found innocent grounds simply makes laws law enforcement crime justice facts irrelevant theres also excuse given obama prosecute engaged torture following orders educated man never heard nuremberg trials defense summarily rejected forever assumed 18 days gulf oil spill obama said turns way oil rigs today generally dont cause spills technologically advanced washington post may 27 2010 picture george w said later reaction forces seeing work egypt forces naturally aligned us aligned israel obama said early march2 imagine bush implied arab protesters egypt man receiving billions us aid including means repress torture naturally aligned united states god help us israel week later march 10 state department spokesman pj crowley told forum cambridge mass wikileaks hero bradley mannings treatment defense department marine prison ridiculous counterproductive stupid next day brainy president asked crowleys comment replied great black hope actually asked pentagon whether procedures taken terms confinement appropriate meeting basic standards assure right george mean barack bush asked donald rumsfeld whether anyone us custody tortured anywhere world could held news conference like obama announce happy news torture america would still chortling one obama closed remark cant go details concerns pvt mannings safety well3 ah yes course manning tortured good someone please remind georgieboy ever stoop using particular absurdity excuse prisoner hell guantanamo barack obama bothered insult bradley mannings human rights daily wearing away brave young mans mental stability answer question president bothered things know barack obama bothered anything long exult president united states eat hamburgers play basketball let repeat first wrote may 2009 problem im increasingly afraid man doesnt really believe strongly anything certainly controversial areas learned long time ago take positions avoid controversy express opinions without clearly taking sides talk eloquently without actually saying anything leave listeners heads filled stirring clichés platitudes slogans worked oh worked could happen reached presidency united states induce change style remember book audacity hope obama wrote serve blank screen people vastly different political stripes project views obama product marketing prime example product seen tv | 779 |
<p>Kenneth Branagh’s new film of Love’s Labour’s Lost has very little to do with the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. Branagh’s marketability (such as it is) has always been pretty closely tied to that of the 16th century playwright, but here he is shamelessly using the Shakespeare brand name simply in order to sell a typically Branaghian bit of self-indulgence. This involves him and a gang of new best friends singing and dancing to popular songs of the pre-war era and enjoying themselves hugely. Unfortunately, Ken and friends are not quite up to the old performance standards that they are attempting to ape. It’s not that they are hopelessly bad, it’s just that, in order to come off, such singing and dancing has to crackle with a sort of energy and electricity that the best of the old musicals supplied in abundance but that is painfully absent here. Only Adrian Lester, who plays Dumaine, might have passed an audition before one of the great Hollywood choreographers of old.</p>
<p>This is not quite Peter Bogdanovich’s memorable turkey, At Long Last Love (1975), in which the singing and dancing were led by Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd, nor yet Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You (1996), featuring the golden voices of Edward Norton and Drew Barrymore. But at times the amateurism of it is uncomfortably close.</p>
<p>Given this failure, it seems hardly worth mentioning that an all-singing, all-dancing Love’s Labour’s Lost is hardly in keeping with the (very Shakespearean) undercurrent of melancholy in the play. Perhaps recognizing this, Branagh attempts to drag in some melancholy from outside by setting the film in an imaginary British public school in an imaginary Navarre (why would they have a British public school in Navarre anyway?) in 1939 and making constant references to the looming prospect of War in Europe. Though I think this a very bad idea, it provides the occasion for what is the only really good bit of comic invention in the film, namely the pastiche of pre-war newsreels commenting on the action. These are done to the life, complete with the lame puns and corny jokes and those amazing old-style, upper-class BBC accents that you never hear anymore, even from the royal family.</p>
<p>Thus the news of the vow of the king (Alessandro Nivola) and his three lords, Dumaine, Longueville (Matthew Lillard) and Biron (Mr. Branagh) to study for three years while forswearing the company of women is greeted by the artificially jovial announcer’s saying that it will be “a real feast for bookworms. Sorry, ladies, but he is the king.” When the princess (Alicia Silverstone) and her women, Katherine (Emily Mortimer), Maria (Carmen Ejogo) and Rosaline (Natascha McElhone) are forced by the king’s vow to set up their pavilion outside the public school gates, the newsreel heading is “Royals Camping: a night under canvas for the ladies.” The pageant of the Nine Worthies is advertised by the same cornball announcer’s saying: “Who better to arrange an exotic night than an exotic knight” and we see a grainy black-and-white shot of Don Armado (Timothy Spall).</p>
<p>But even in this, Branagh is typically inclined to go overboard, and the concluding newsreel, which attempts to cram the entire history of the Second World War into five minutes, without narration but against a poignant rendering of “They Can’t Take that Away from Me” and some schmaltzy, Henry V-type music by Patrick Doyle, is an absurd straining after effect. In the same way, a lot of the spectacle—a synchronized swimming demonstration, a fragmentary vaudeville act by Costard (Nathan Lane), a duet between Nathaniel (Richard Briers) and a feminized version of Holofernes, Geraldine McEwan’s “Holofernia” to “The Way You Look Tonight”—all these things seem to be dragged in by the ears for the sake of the film’s tribute to and gentle mockery of the light entertainment of the 1930s. Shakespeare by this time is long-forgotten.</p>
<p>This is a pity because, almost more than any other of his plays, this one presents a real challenge for the contemporary interpreter-adapter. Its learned and often proto- “metaphysical” wit is less accessible, less comprehensible to us than anything in any of the other comedies, and yet its interest in the recalcitrance of male sexual desire and the feebleness of moral, intellectual, rational and especially all self-imposed restraint upon it offers us much matter for profitable study. Branagh’s only idea about this problem is to cut out virtually all the wit-play and substitute in its stead the 1930s schmaltz. It is easy to suppose that the only bit of what remains which is meant to be taken seriously is Mr. Lane’s rousing version of “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” which here replaces the pageant of the Nine Worthies—now of course long forgotten and so Worthy no more. One wonders if Shakespeare would have agreed about Show Business.</p>
<p>There are other problems. Timothy Spall is embarrassingly miscast as Don Armado and Moth almost fades from view. The talented Mr Briers and and Miss McEwan are wasted, since almost the whole of their dialogue as written by Shakespeare is cut. Nathan Lane as Costard is a good idea, but his comedy also mostly falls flat. As already observed, neither the boys nor the girls among the main characters are quite up to the demands of the singing and dancing, and Alicia Silverstone shows signs of being the new Andie McDowell: a poor actress who nevertheless has the taste to keep turning up in good, even great parts. She seems unable to speak without curling her lip in a most distracting way. Is she trying to suppress a sneer? If so, her taste is even better than we might have supposed.</p> | false | 1 | kenneth branaghs new film loves labours lost little play name william shakespeare branaghs marketability always pretty closely tied 16th century playwright shamelessly using shakespeare brand name simply order sell typically branaghian bit selfindulgence involves gang new best friends singing dancing popular songs prewar era enjoying hugely unfortunately ken friends quite old performance standards attempting ape hopelessly bad order come singing dancing crackle sort energy electricity best old musicals supplied abundance painfully absent adrian lester plays dumaine might passed audition one great hollywood choreographers old quite peter bogdanovichs memorable turkey long last love 1975 singing dancing led burt reynolds cybill shepherd yet woody allens everyone says love 1996 featuring golden voices edward norton drew barrymore times amateurism uncomfortably close given failure seems hardly worth mentioning allsinging alldancing loves labours lost hardly keeping shakespearean undercurrent melancholy play perhaps recognizing branagh attempts drag melancholy outside setting film imaginary british public school imaginary navarre would british public school navarre anyway 1939 making constant references looming prospect war europe though think bad idea provides occasion really good bit comic invention film namely pastiche prewar newsreels commenting action done life complete lame puns corny jokes amazing oldstyle upperclass bbc accents never hear anymore even royal family thus news vow king alessandro nivola three lords dumaine longueville matthew lillard biron mr branagh study three years forswearing company women greeted artificially jovial announcers saying real feast bookworms sorry ladies king princess alicia silverstone women katherine emily mortimer maria carmen ejogo rosaline natascha mcelhone forced kings vow set pavilion outside public school gates newsreel heading royals camping night canvas ladies pageant nine worthies advertised cornball announcers saying better arrange exotic night exotic knight see grainy blackandwhite shot armado timothy spall even branagh typically inclined go overboard concluding newsreel attempts cram entire history second world war five minutes without narration poignant rendering cant take away schmaltzy henry vtype music patrick doyle absurd straining effect way lot spectaclea synchronized swimming demonstration fragmentary vaudeville act costard nathan lane duet nathaniel richard briers feminized version holofernes geraldine mcewans holofernia way look tonightall things seem dragged ears sake films tribute gentle mockery light entertainment 1930s shakespeare time longforgotten pity almost plays one presents real challenge contemporary interpreteradapter learned often proto metaphysical wit less accessible less comprehensible us anything comedies yet interest recalcitrance male sexual desire feebleness moral intellectual rational especially selfimposed restraint upon offers us much matter profitable study branaghs idea problem cut virtually witplay substitute stead 1930s schmaltz easy suppose bit remains meant taken seriously mr lanes rousing version theres business like show business replaces pageant nine worthiesnow course long forgotten worthy one wonders shakespeare would agreed show business problems timothy spall embarrassingly miscast armado moth almost fades view talented mr briers miss mcewan wasted since almost whole dialogue written shakespeare cut nathan lane costard good idea comedy also mostly falls flat already observed neither boys girls among main characters quite demands singing dancing alicia silverstone shows signs new andie mcdowell poor actress nevertheless taste keep turning good even great parts seems unable speak without curling lip distracting way trying suppress sneer taste even better might supposed | 514 |
<p>A high-ranking navy official said Thursday there is no missing child at a collapsed Mexico City school that had become a focus of rescue efforts following this week’s deadly magnitude 7.1 earthquake, though an adult still may be alive in the rubble.</p>
<p>Navy Assistant Secretary Angel Enrique Sarmiento said that while there are blood traces and other signs suggesting that someone is alive, all the school’s children have been accounted for.</p>
<p>“We have done an accounting with school officials and we are certain that all the children either died, unfortunately, are in hospitals or are safe at their homes,” Sarmiento said.</p>
<p>The attention of many in Mexico and abroad had been drawn to the plight of a girl identified only as Frida Sofia, who was said to have been located alive under the pancaked school building and became a symbol for the hopes of thousands of rescuers working around the clock in search of quake survivors.</p>
<p>Multiple rescuers at the school site spoke of the girl, with some saying she had reported five more children alive in the same space. Yet no family members had emerged while rescue efforts continued, and some officials had begun to say her identity was not clear.</p>
<p>Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 quake killed at least 245 people in central Mexico and injured over 2,000. That included at least 21 children and five adults at the Enrique Rebsamen school in southern Mexico City.</p>
<p>Earlier Thursday, the navy announced it had recovered the body of a school worker from the school.</p>
<p>Rescuers removed dirt and debris bucketful by bucketful and passed a scanner over the rubble of the school every hour or so to search for heat signatures that could indicate trapped survivors. Shortly before dawn the pile of debris shuddered ominously, prompting those working atop it to evacuate.</p>
<p>“With the shaking there has been, it is very unstable and taking any decision is dangerous,” said Vladimir Navarro, a university employee who was exhausted after working all night.”</p>
<p>Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the number of confirmed dead in the capital had risen from 100 to 115, bringing the overall toll from the quake to 245. He also said two women and a man had been pulled alive from a collapsed office building in the city’s center Wednesday night, almost 36 hours after the quake.</p>
<p>Still, frustration was growing as the rescue effort stretched into Day 3.</p>
<p>Outside a collapsed seven-story office building in the trendy Roma Norte district, a list of those rescued was strung between two trees. Relatives of the missing compared it against their own list of those who were in the building when the quake struck — more than two dozen names — kept in a spiral notebook.</p>
<p>Patricia Fernandez’s 27-year-old nephew, Ivan Colin Fernandez, worked as an accountant in the seven-story building, which pancaked to the ground, taking part of the building next door with it.</p>
<p>She said the last time the family got an update was late yesterday: That about 14 people were believed to be alive inside, and only three had gotten out.</p>
<p>“They should keep us informed,” Fernandez said as her sister, the man’s mother, wept into Fernandez’s black fleece sweater. “Because I think what kills us most is the desperation of not knowing anything.”</p>
<p>Referring to rumors that authorities intend to bring in heavy machinery that could risk bringing buildings down on anyone still alive inside, Fernandez said: “That seems unjust to us because there are still people alive inside and that’s not OK.”</p>
<p>“I think they should wait until they take the last one out,” she said.</p>
<p>Seeking to dispel the rumors, National Civil Protection chief Luis Felipe Puente tweeted Thursday that heavy machinery “is NOT being used” in search-and-rescue efforts.</p>
<p>President Enrique Pena Nieto declared three days of mourning as soldiers, police, firefighters and everyday citizens dug through the rubble, at times with their hands, gaining an inch at a time.</p>
<p>“There are still people groaning. There are three more floors to remove rubble from. And you still hear people in there,” said Evodio Dario Marcelino, a volunteer who was working with dozens of others at a collapsed apartment building.</p>
<p>A man was pulled alive from a partly collapsed apartment building in northern Mexico City more than 24 hours after the Tuesday quake and taken away in a stretcher, apparently conscious</p>
<p>In all, 52 people had been rescued alive since the quake, the city’s Social Development Department said, adding in a tweet: “We won’t stop.” It was a race against time, Pena Nieto warned in a tweet of his own saying that “every minute counts to save lives.”</p>
<p>People have rallied to help their neighbors in a huge volunteer effort that includes people from all walks of life in Mexico City, where social classes seldom mix. Doctors, dentists and lawyers stood alongside construction workers and street sweepers, handing buckets of debris or chunks of concrete hand-to-hand down the line.</p>
<p>At a collapsed factory building closer to the city’s center, giant cranes lifted huge slabs of concrete from the towering pile of rubble, like peeling layers from an onion. Workers with hand tools would quickly move in to look for signs of survivors and begin attacking the next layer.</p>
<p>In addition to those killed in Mexico City, the federal civil defense agency said 69 died in Morelos state just south of the capital and 43 in Puebla state to the southeast, where the quake was centered. The rest of the deaths were in Mexico State, which borders Mexico City on three sides, Guerrero and Oaxaca states.</p> | false | 1 | highranking navy official said thursday missing child collapsed mexico city school become focus rescue efforts following weeks deadly magnitude 71 earthquake though adult still may alive rubble navy assistant secretary angel enrique sarmiento said blood traces signs suggesting someone alive schools children accounted done accounting school officials certain children either died unfortunately hospitals safe homes sarmiento said attention many mexico abroad drawn plight girl identified frida sofia said located alive pancaked school building became symbol hopes thousands rescuers working around clock search quake survivors multiple rescuers school site spoke girl saying reported five children alive space yet family members emerged rescue efforts continued officials begun say identity clear tuesdays magnitude 71 quake killed least 245 people central mexico injured 2000 included least 21 children five adults enrique rebsamen school southern mexico city earlier thursday navy announced recovered body school worker school rescuers removed dirt debris bucketful bucketful passed scanner rubble school every hour search heat signatures could indicate trapped survivors shortly dawn pile debris shuddered ominously prompting working atop evacuate shaking unstable taking decision dangerous said vladimir navarro university employee exhausted working night mexico city mayor miguel angel mancera said number confirmed dead capital risen 100 115 bringing overall toll quake 245 also said two women man pulled alive collapsed office building citys center wednesday night almost 36 hours quake still frustration growing rescue effort stretched day 3 outside collapsed sevenstory office building trendy roma norte district list rescued strung two trees relatives missing compared list building quake struck two dozen names kept spiral notebook patricia fernandezs 27yearold nephew ivan colin fernandez worked accountant sevenstory building pancaked ground taking part building next door said last time family got update late yesterday 14 people believed alive inside three gotten keep us informed fernandez said sister mans mother wept fernandezs black fleece sweater think kills us desperation knowing anything referring rumors authorities intend bring heavy machinery could risk bringing buildings anyone still alive inside fernandez said seems unjust us still people alive inside thats ok think wait take last one said seeking dispel rumors national civil protection chief luis felipe puente tweeted thursday heavy machinery used searchandrescue efforts president enrique pena nieto declared three days mourning soldiers police firefighters everyday citizens dug rubble times hands gaining inch time still people groaning three floors remove rubble still hear people said evodio dario marcelino volunteer working dozens others collapsed apartment building man pulled alive partly collapsed apartment building northern mexico city 24 hours tuesday quake taken away stretcher apparently conscious 52 people rescued alive since quake citys social development department said adding tweet wont stop race time pena nieto warned tweet saying every minute counts save lives people rallied help neighbors huge volunteer effort includes people walks life mexico city social classes seldom mix doctors dentists lawyers stood alongside construction workers street sweepers handing buckets debris chunks concrete handtohand line collapsed factory building closer citys center giant cranes lifted huge slabs concrete towering pile rubble like peeling layers onion workers hand tools would quickly move look signs survivors begin attacking next layer addition killed mexico city federal civil defense agency said 69 died morelos state south capital 43 puebla state southeast quake centered rest deaths mexico state borders mexico city three sides guerrero oaxaca states | 541 |
<p />
<p>Over the past several weeks, Iran’s nuclear program has occupied a central place in the reports of mainstream Western media and demonization of Iran has reached new levels. Suspicions and speculations about Iran’s nuclear program are presented as undisputable facts and the military threats of a hypothetically nuclear-armed Iran are magnified out of proportion. Constant reports of imminent Israeli military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities are working to remove the stigma around that possibility and to gradually habituate world public opinion to such an illegal and adventurous military action by Israel or the U.S.</p>
<p>These developments are indeed reminiscent of the propaganda strategies of mainstream American media in the prelude to the U.S. war on Iraq in 2003, psychologically preparing domestic and international public opinions for the catastrophes that were soon going to be unleashed under the leadership of the former president of the only superpower of the world, George W. Bush. While excelling in the arts of distortion, the dominant discourse of the mainstream Western media on Iran has also worked effectively to push out of public sight some of the basic facts about Iran and Israel.</p>
<p>At the risk of stating the obvious for many, reminding a few facts are in order in the midst of the ongoing media attention to Iran’s nuclear program. Many tend to forget the blatant fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reiterated many times, including in its latest periodic report, that there is no evidence that Iran’s nuclear program has been diverted to military purposes and that it has continued to verify the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities. It also tends to be forgotten that all Iran’s nuclear facilities are under constant surveillance and monitoring by the IAEA and that there is no possibility of military diversion of Iran’s nuclear activities without it being discovered by the IAEA enough in advance to prevent such a hypothetical scenario. Another fact which tends to be ignored is that possessing nuclear fuel cycle technology is not equal to having the capacity to build nuclear bombs and that producing nuclear weapons requires many components and technologies other &#160;than just being able to enrich uranium.</p>
<p>What also tends to remain out of sight is the fact that many other countries in the world also possess far more advanced and extensive nuclear enrichment facilities than Iran, without raising any hysteria for Western governments. It also tends to be forgotten that, as a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is entitled to peaceful nuclear technology, including full nuclear fuel cycle. The current Western double standards towards Iran, a country which has been in no material breach of its obligations under the NPT despite being subject to a series of disproportionate illegal punitive sanctions by the UN Security Council, and a country which has never launched any military attacks against any country in its modern history and has actually been a forgotten victim of weapons of mass-destruction by Saddam’s regime, cannot be justified on any legal or moral grounds.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the current mainstream Western media campaigns, including their reports of imminent Israeli military attacks on Iran, apart from their habituating and naturalizing effects, also have the effect of exonerating the Israeli regime itself and ignoring the genuine threat that it poses to regional peace and stability. Thanks to mainstream Western media campaigns and the political maneuvering of Israeli and Western political leaders, world attention has effectively been diverted from the more fundamental issues of the continued Israeli occupation of Palestine and its monopoly of nuclear weapons in the region.</p>
<p>It is indeed one of the greatest ironies of today’s world politics that a large arsenal of nuclear weapons in the hands of Israel, a country with an obvious record of military aggression against several of its neighbors and its refusal to subject its nuclear facilities to international monitoring and to join the NPT, has fallen into total oblivion while the threat of a non-existent nuclear weapons program by Iran has been blown out of proportions. Iran has been characterized as too unreliable and irresponsible to be allowed to possess peaceful civilian nuclear technology while Israel, a regime which has proven to be willing to unleash its entire military force to pound the whole civilian infrastructure of a neighboring country and murdering thousands of its people only for the capture of one or two of its border guards, a regime that has driven millions of Palestinians out of their homes, occupying their lands for more than half a century and virtually incarcerating in open-air prisons those who have dared to stay, has been permitted to build and maintain a large arsenal of nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Presenting the threat of Israeli military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities as real and genuine, in the event Western powers fail to apply effective pressure on Iran, has also helped Western politicians justify and gain political support for imposing further crippling economic sanctions on Iran. Crippling economic sanctions are publicly advertised by Western political leaders as an alternative to a military confrontation with Iran. But these representations fail to hide the fact that crippling economic sanctions are themselves a declaration of war on Iran. There should be no question that imposing crippling economic sanctions on Iran and threatening to cut off its economic lifeline is the gateway to and a recipe for an ultimate military confrontation in the strategic region of the Persian Gulf and the greater Middle East and beyond.</p>
<p>The logic of crippling economic sanctions is also as morally bankrupt as the logic of al-Qaeda and its likes. According to U.N. agencies, the crippling economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iraq in the 1990s sent an estimated half a million Iraqi children to their graves. Imposing expanded crippling economic sanctions on Iran is expected to claim far more civilian tolls, if sustained over a long period. Inflicting economic hardships on civilians, including women and children, with the aim of changing the behavior of the Iranian government will have adverse effects by feeding into the official anti-imperialist discourse in Iran. It will also feed into more extremist ideologies in the region, legitimize terrorism against Western countries and fuel further anti-American sentiments in the Muslim world, thus creating more security challenges for the U.S. and other Western powers in the longer run.</p>
<p>Whatever the costs for U.S. national interests, American political leaders seem determined to outbid each other in projecting themselves as more loyal protectors of Israeli vested interests. It was in line with this fact that President Obama, in his recent State of the Union address, reiterated his ‘iron-clad commitment’ to the security of Israel, without even bothering to remember the natural rights of Palestinians to dignity and free life. Obama’s current strategy towards Iran contradicts his calls for change and his cautions against exaggerating the military threat of Iran in 2008 presidential campaigns as well as in the first year of his presidency, but it shows his capacity to quickly internalize one of the key laws of survival in the American political system by presenting himself as the most steadfast champion of Israeli interests.</p> | false | 1 | past several weeks irans nuclear program occupied central place reports mainstream western media demonization iran reached new levels suspicions speculations irans nuclear program presented undisputable facts military threats hypothetically nucleararmed iran magnified proportion constant reports imminent israeli military strikes irans nuclear facilities working remove stigma around possibility gradually habituate world public opinion illegal adventurous military action israel us developments indeed reminiscent propaganda strategies mainstream american media prelude us war iraq 2003 psychologically preparing domestic international public opinions catastrophes soon going unleashed leadership former president superpower world george w bush excelling arts distortion dominant discourse mainstream western media iran also worked effectively push public sight basic facts iran israel risk stating obvious many reminding facts order midst ongoing media attention irans nuclear program many tend forget blatant fact international atomic energy agency iaea reiterated many times including latest periodic report evidence irans nuclear program diverted military purposes continued verify peaceful nature irans nuclear activities also tends forgotten irans nuclear facilities constant surveillance monitoring iaea possibility military diversion irans nuclear activities without discovered iaea enough advance prevent hypothetical scenario another fact tends ignored possessing nuclear fuel cycle technology equal capacity build nuclear bombs producing nuclear weapons requires many components technologies 160than able enrich uranium also tends remain sight fact many countries world also possess far advanced extensive nuclear enrichment facilities iran without raising hysteria western governments also tends forgotten member nuclear nonproliferation treaty npt iran entitled peaceful nuclear technology including full nuclear fuel cycle current western double standards towards iran country material breach obligations npt despite subject series disproportionate illegal punitive sanctions un security council country never launched military attacks country modern history actually forgotten victim weapons massdestruction saddams regime justified legal moral grounds hand current mainstream western media campaigns including reports imminent israeli military attacks iran apart habituating naturalizing effects also effect exonerating israeli regime ignoring genuine threat poses regional peace stability thanks mainstream western media campaigns political maneuvering israeli western political leaders world attention effectively diverted fundamental issues continued israeli occupation palestine monopoly nuclear weapons region indeed one greatest ironies todays world politics large arsenal nuclear weapons hands israel country obvious record military aggression several neighbors refusal subject nuclear facilities international monitoring join npt fallen total oblivion threat nonexistent nuclear weapons program iran blown proportions iran characterized unreliable irresponsible allowed possess peaceful civilian nuclear technology israel regime proven willing unleash entire military force pound whole civilian infrastructure neighboring country murdering thousands people capture one two border guards regime driven millions palestinians homes occupying lands half century virtually incarcerating openair prisons dared stay permitted build maintain large arsenal nuclear weapons presenting threat israeli military strikes irans nuclear facilities real genuine event western powers fail apply effective pressure iran also helped western politicians justify gain political support imposing crippling economic sanctions iran crippling economic sanctions publicly advertised western political leaders alternative military confrontation iran representations fail hide fact crippling economic sanctions declaration war iran question imposing crippling economic sanctions iran threatening cut economic lifeline gateway recipe ultimate military confrontation strategic region persian gulf greater middle east beyond logic crippling economic sanctions also morally bankrupt logic alqaeda likes according un agencies crippling economic sanctions imposed us iraq 1990s sent estimated half million iraqi children graves imposing expanded crippling economic sanctions iran expected claim far civilian tolls sustained long period inflicting economic hardships civilians including women children aim changing behavior iranian government adverse effects feeding official antiimperialist discourse iran also feed extremist ideologies region legitimize terrorism western countries fuel antiamerican sentiments muslim world thus creating security challenges us western powers longer run whatever costs us national interests american political leaders seem determined outbid projecting loyal protectors israeli vested interests line fact president obama recent state union address reiterated ironclad commitment security israel without even bothering remember natural rights palestinians dignity free life obamas current strategy towards iran contradicts calls change cautions exaggerating military threat iran 2008 presidential campaigns well first year presidency shows capacity quickly internalize one key laws survival american political system presenting steadfast champion israeli interests | 664 |
<p>“Screw Nevada Two.”</p>
<p>That’s how Nevada’s chief critic of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project views legislation that will be discussed next week in a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee titled the “Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017.”</p>
<p>The measure, which will be the subject of an environment subcommittee hearing Wednesday chaired by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., surfaces 30 years after the original notorious <a href="" type="internal">1987 “Screw Nevada” bill</a>. That bill was so-nicknamed by Nevada’s congressional delegation because it designated Yucca Mountain as the only place scientists would study as a burial site for the nation’s deadliest nuclear waste.</p>
<p>At least part of the new bill “is intended big time to be Screw Nevada Two,” said Bob Halstead, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.</p>
<p>Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., objected to next week’s hearing in a letter Thursday to Shimkus, saying it is outrageous not to have input from Nevada.</p>
<p>“Given the extremely negative impact that such a project would have on Nevada, and the fact that no one from our state is even serving on the committee, I request that I be allowed to testify on this harmful legislation,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Shimkus’ spokesman Jordan Haverly confirmed that the committee received Kihuen’s letter “and is reviewing (it). Congressman Shimkus appreciates Rep. Kihuen’s interest in the issue and looks forward to a continued dialogue with Nevada leaders,” he said.</p>
<p>Haverly also noted in an email that the subcommittee held a hearing last July “specifically to hear from Nevada stakeholders.” At that time, however, there was no bill.</p>
<p>The legislation would reverse the defunding of the Yucca Mountain project in 2012 under former President Barack Obama’s administration, at which time the Department of Energy declared it “unworkable.”</p>
<p>After reviewing the bill’s language regarding the planned repository site, roughly 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Halstead said it also does “a pretty good job screwing us on land withdrawals” and is “a general assault on state water rights.”</p>
<p>Nevada and the federal government are at odds on the water rights issue in ongoing litigation because the state engineer has declared that tapping Nevada’s water resources for construction and operation of a nuclear waste repository isn’t a “beneficial use” in the public’s interest.</p>
<p>Feds vs. states rights</p>
<p>As written, the bill says that use of the state’s water “is beneficial to interstate commerce and … does not threaten to prove detrimental to public interest. A state shall not enact or apply a law that discriminates against this use.”</p>
<p>Provisions in the draft bill’s “permanent repository” section retain Yucca Mountain as the only site for burying 77,000 tons of used nuclear fuel, regardless of objections by Nevada’s governor and members of Congress. That contrasts with “consent-based siting” of the repository’s host state as called for in unsuccessful legislation Nevada’s delegation pushed last year.</p>
<p>But the bill requires approval by all other state governments for temporary storage of nuclear waste at private “monitored, retrievable storage” sites. Interim storage sites have been proposed by firms in Texas and New Mexico for licensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.</p>
<p>Halstead said it’s unclear if the bill would allow private interim storage companies to tap into the nuclear waste fund that nuclear power ratepayers are paying into. “It’s not clear. Further analysis is required,” he said.</p>
<p>Halstead said the bill would limit Nevada’s ability to protect public health, safety and the environment by usurping land and water rights needed for the repository. It also would damage the state’s ability to challenge changes that the DOE might make to the repository’s license application, he said.</p>
<p>He also contended the legislation makes “false promises even though they are well-intended because they are either impractical, unworkable or unenforceable.”</p>
<p>He cited the example of transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain by trucks and trains.</p>
<p>“The provision to make transportation routes avoid Las Vegas ‘to the extent practicable’ is in practice very difficult, and legally unenforceable,” he said.</p>
<p>The bill basically “fails to fix major problems with the currently broken nuclear waste program,” Halstead said, adding that it “continues forced siting” of the repository in Nevada, which “undercuts any trust and confidence in consent-based siting elsewhere.”</p>
<p>“The bill completely ignores nationwide concerns about safety and security of thousands of nuclear waste shipments to Yucca Mountain,” he said.</p>
<p>Contrary Nevada voices</p>
<p>Steven Curtis, past president of the American Nuclear Society’s Nevada Section, says his group “sees no reason for Nevada to object to Yucca Mountain” and is prepared to provide informational briefings “to any group for education on ‘things nuclear.’”</p>
<p>In a nutshell, he said in an email, the bill “clears the way for the (Yucca Mountain) project to proceed, at least through design.”</p>
<p>“We also believe that reprocessing (recycling) should be part of the solution” to the nation’s nuclear waste disposal dilemma, said Curtis, who has a master’s degree in health physics.</p>
<p>He noted that the bill authorizes the DOE to proceed with the repository’s design only after the NRC approves the site and grants public land withdrawal.</p>
<p>“It allows Nevada to accept benefits without giving up its right to object to the site,” Curtis said.</p>
<p>He said benefits could range from cash for citizens, similar to the Alaska Pipeline Fund payments to state residents, or money for colleges. “Whatever we could negotiate,” he said.</p>
<p>Nye County Commission Chairman Dan Schinhofen also expressed support for the bill, calling it “a great development toward having the science heard” and the Yucca Mountain repository moving forward.</p>
<p>He noted that the bill, unlike the current law, would allow Nevada to be the site of an interim storage facility.</p>
<p>“The Yucca Mountain nuclear repository would bring federal dollars to Nevada, create well-paying science and construction jobs and improve the state’s infrastructure,” Schinhofen said in a statement. “The project would also strengthen national security.”</p>
<p>Review-Journal staff writer Gary Martin contributed to this story. Contact Keith Rogers at [email protected] or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/@KeithRogers2" type="external">@KeithRogers2</a></p>
<p>Reid weighs in</p>
<p>Former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., was asked about the new Yucca Mountain legislation Thursday at an event at the UNLV Law School.</p>
<p>The ex-Democratic majority leader, who declared the project dead last year, hasn’t changed his mind:</p>
<p>“He (Trump) ought to be worried about building his fence rather than Yucca mountain.”</p>
<p>“They can spend all of the time they want, there’s not a chance it will ever happen. They don’t have the money.”</p>
<p>— Jenny Wilson, Las Vegas Review-Journal</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | screw nevada two thats nevadas chief critic yucca mountain nuclear waste project views legislation discussed next week house energy commerce subcommittee titled nuclear waste policy amendments act 2017 measure subject environment subcommittee hearing wednesday chaired rep john shimkus rill surfaces 30 years original notorious 1987 screw nevada bill bill sonicknamed nevadas congressional delegation designated yucca mountain place scientists would study burial site nations deadliest nuclear waste least part new bill intended big time screw nevada two said bob halstead executive director nevada agency nuclear projects rep ruben kihuen dnev objected next weeks hearing letter thursday shimkus saying outrageous input nevada given extremely negative impact project would nevada fact one state even serving committee request allowed testify harmful legislation wrote shimkus spokesman jordan haverly confirmed committee received kihuens letter reviewing congressman shimkus appreciates rep kihuens interest issue looks forward continued dialogue nevada leaders said haverly also noted email subcommittee held hearing last july specifically hear nevada stakeholders time however bill legislation would reverse defunding yucca mountain project 2012 former president barack obamas administration time department energy declared unworkable reviewing bills language regarding planned repository site roughly 100 miles northwest las vegas halstead said also pretty good job screwing us land withdrawals general assault state water rights nevada federal government odds water rights issue ongoing litigation state engineer declared tapping nevadas water resources construction operation nuclear waste repository isnt beneficial use publics interest feds vs states rights written bill says use states water beneficial interstate commerce threaten prove detrimental public interest state shall enact apply law discriminates use provisions draft bills permanent repository section retain yucca mountain site burying 77000 tons used nuclear fuel regardless objections nevadas governor members congress contrasts consentbased siting repositorys host state called unsuccessful legislation nevadas delegation pushed last year bill requires approval state governments temporary storage nuclear waste private monitored retrievable storage sites interim storage sites proposed firms texas new mexico licensing nuclear regulatory commission halstead said unclear bill would allow private interim storage companies tap nuclear waste fund nuclear power ratepayers paying clear analysis required said halstead said bill would limit nevadas ability protect public health safety environment usurping land water rights needed repository also would damage states ability challenge changes doe might make repositorys license application said also contended legislation makes false promises even though wellintended either impractical unworkable unenforceable cited example transporting nuclear waste yucca mountain trucks trains provision make transportation routes avoid las vegas extent practicable practice difficult legally unenforceable said bill basically fails fix major problems currently broken nuclear waste program halstead said adding continues forced siting repository nevada undercuts trust confidence consentbased siting elsewhere bill completely ignores nationwide concerns safety security thousands nuclear waste shipments yucca mountain said contrary nevada voices steven curtis past president american nuclear societys nevada section says group sees reason nevada object yucca mountain prepared provide informational briefings group education things nuclear nutshell said email bill clears way yucca mountain project proceed least design also believe reprocessing recycling part solution nations nuclear waste disposal dilemma said curtis masters degree health physics noted bill authorizes doe proceed repositorys design nrc approves site grants public land withdrawal allows nevada accept benefits without giving right object site curtis said said benefits could range cash citizens similar alaska pipeline fund payments state residents money colleges whatever could negotiate said nye county commission chairman dan schinhofen also expressed support bill calling great development toward science heard yucca mountain repository moving forward noted bill unlike current law would allow nevada site interim storage facility yucca mountain nuclear repository would bring federal dollars nevada create wellpaying science construction jobs improve states infrastructure schinhofen said statement project would also strengthen national security reviewjournal staff writer gary martin contributed story contact keith rogers krogersreviewjournalcom 7023830308 find twitter keithrogers2 reid weighs former us sen harry reid dnev asked new yucca mountain legislation thursday event unlv law school exdemocratic majority leader declared project dead last year hasnt changed mind trump ought worried building fence rather yucca mountain spend time want theres chance ever happen dont money jenny wilson las vegas reviewjournal | 673 |
<p>From Paul Thomas Anderson to Guillermo del Toro to Patty Jenkins, a wide variety of directors across genres are vying for attention this awards season.</p>
<p>Paul Thomas Anderson“The Phantom Thread”Not a frame of Anderson’s latest has yet been seen by the public, nor is much known about it, but he’s the rare filmmaker whose name alone can stoke anticipation. The fact that this 1950s-set film about the fashion world also stars Daniel Day-Lewis, who plans to retire from acting, only piques interest further.</p>
<p>Darren Aronofsky“Mother!”Easily the most divisive studio film of 2017, and presumably intentionally so, Aronofsky’s “Mother!” could curry favor among his fellow directors for the sheer boldness of his vision, as he and star Jennifer Lawrence ascend ever-escalating levels of madness.</p>
<p>Sean Baker“The Florida Project”An indie darling du jour thanks to his sleeper “Tangerine,” Baker returned with yet another warm, sly-humored study of fully fleshed characters on the margins of American life.</p>
<p>Noah Baumbach“The Meyerowitz Stories”A fixture of high-level indie filmmaking and one-time Oscar nominee, Baumbach drew praise for this Netflix acquisition starring Dustin Hoffman and Adam Sandler.</p>
<p>Kathryn Bigelow“Detroit”Box office for “Detroit” was a bit disappointing, but as the first (and to date, only) female Oscar director winner, Bigelow brought her trademark intensity and cut-glass craft to this re-creation of a volatile moment of 1960s racial animosity.</p>
<p>Bong Joon-ho“Okja”Bong has been a darling of international cinema ever since his unexpected triumph with “The Host,” and the South Korean auteur made an effortless transition to English-language filmmaking with “Snowpiercer.” With “Okja,” the director revealed the sensitive side that he’s long held just under the surface.</p>
<p>Stephen Chbosky“Wonder”Chbosky was mostly known as a writer until 2012, when he directed his own young adult novel, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” to considerable success. His latest, based on R.J. Palacio’s novel, stars Jacob Tremblay as a boy with a rare facial deformity.</p>
<p>Scott Cooper“Hostiles”Cooper’s period Western — starring Christian Bale as a soldier who escorts a dying Cheyenne chief back to his homelands — premiered to strong reactions at Telluride, and was acquired by Entertainment Studios.</p>
<p>Sofia Coppola“The Beguiled”Coppola, already an Oscar screenplay winner for “Lost in Translation,” became only the second woman in history to win a director prize at Cannes for her remake of the 1971 Don Siegel slow-burner, which saw her translate her sensibility into a Southern Gothic setting with ease.</p>
<p>Simon Curtis“Goodbye Christopher Robin”Longtime theater figure and “My Week With Marilyn” helmer Curtis directed this affecting biopic of “Winnie the Pooh” creator A.A. Milne. In both its tone and setting, the film has shades of Marc Forster’s J.M. Barrie tearjerker “Finding Neverland,” which picked up several Oscar noms in 2004.</p>
<p>Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris“Battle of the Sexes”Directors of smart romantic comedies “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Ruby Sparks,” Dayton and Faris managed to retain those films’ offbeat charm for this real-life story of Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs’ famous tennis match, a flashpoint in ’70s gender relations that remains relevant today.</p>
<p>Guillermo Del Toro“The Shape of Water”Unrecognized by the Oscars since his pair of nominations for “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Del Toro has offered a similarly meaty, imaginative piece of idiosyncratic filmmaking here, which comes with the additional heft of the writer-director’s Golden Lion award from Venice.</p>
<p>Clint Eastwood“The 15:17 to Paris”Eastwood’s latest has yet to be screened, but it’s hard to count out the prolific perennial Academy favorite. On the heels of “American Sniper,” his latest is about the three Americans, two of them servicemen, who subdued a gunman on a French train in 2015.</p>
<p>James Franco“The Disaster Artist”One-time Oscar host and acting nominee Franco dove headfirst into directing as soon as he got the chance, helming no fewer than 10 generally low-budget features since 2010. With this portrait of cult director Tommy Wiseau, however, Franco appears to have taken his time, turning out a hysterical and often touching tale of one of alt-Hollywood’s most colorful characters.</p>
<p>Stephen Frears“Victoria &amp; Abdul”Frears has a decent track record when it comes to working with female British monarchs and ennobled British actresses: He was previously nominated for directing Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II in “The Queen,” here he directs Judi Dench as Victoria.</p>
<p>Greta Gerwig“Lady Bird”“Lady Bird” is not technically indie darling Gerwig’s directorial debut — she co-directed 2008’s microbudget “Nights and Weekends” with Joe Swanberg — but it may as well have been, announcing an exciting new filmmaking talent coming into her own. Among the best-reviewed films of the year, Gerwig helms this quasi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale with equal amounts of micro-specific details and universally relatable emotions.</p>
<p>Craig Gillespie“I, Tonya”Aussie director Gillespie has had an unusual career, moving from straight comedy to heartstrings-tuggers like “Lars and the Real Girl.” With the Tonya Harding biopic, “I, Tonya,” he brings his trademark empathy to a real-life tabloid sensation.</p>
<p>David Gordon Green“Stronger”Green managed to synthesize both his indie roots and his mainstream filmmaking experience with this portrait of Boston Marathon bombing victim Jeff Bauman, always ready with unexpected humor and thought-provoking framing to shake up the boilerplate.</p>
<p>Luca Guadagnino“Call Me by Your Name”The Italian director first turned Stateside heads with his swooning “I am Love,” and he’s already made an even bigger splash among critics with this sensual love story between an American grad student (Armie Hammer) and his professor’s 17-year-old son (Timothee Chalamet).</p>
<p>Todd Haynes“Wonderstruck”Haynes was controversially denied a director nomination for his critical 2015 hit “Carol,” and here he offers yet another side of his sensibility, crafting a warm, family-friendly tale of two children who set out in search of parental figures.</p>
<p>Patty Jenkins“Wonder Woman”Never before has the world of Marvel or DC comic-book adaptations generated a director nomination, but Jenkins’ efforts to bring Wonder Woman to the screen may merit extra attention. Not only was the film an important corrective to the overwhelming maleness of the comic sphere, it’s currently the highest-grossing film ever from a female director, it was also simply an expertly made highlight of the genre.</p>
<p>Angelina Jolie“First They Killed My Father”Adapting Luong Ung’s memoir of atrocities and being forced to become a child soldier during the Khmer Rouge’s reign in Cambodia, Jolie’s fourth directorial effort is strong stuff, but it’s also arguably the most cohesive and affecting film she’s yet made.</p>
<p>Yorgos Lanthimos“The Killing of a Sacred Deer”Writer-director Lanthimos has been on the rise ever since his Greek-language breakout “Dogtooth,” moving into English-language cinema while leaving his surreal pessimism intact. Here he directs Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in a dark, hospital-set thriller.</p>
<p>Richard Linklater“Last Flag Flying”Tackling a sort of spiritual sequel to Hal Ashby’s “The Last Detail,” Linklater explores patriotism and military sacrifice in his own low-key fashion, and allows his leads Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell to shine.</p>
<p>James Mangold“Logan”Much was made of the R-rating that Mangold embraced in this unusually bleak take on the X-Men’s Wolverine, but it was more than the rating that made his treatment adult, and voters may respond to his measured, probing work in an ostensible franchise entry.</p>
<p>Martin McDonagh“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”The Irish-British theatrical wunderkind first arrived in the Academy’s sights with his 2008 film, “In Bruges,” for which he received a screenplay nomination. This searing, Frances McDormand-starring dark comedy has the potential to give his name even more renown in film circles.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/christopher-nolan/" type="external">Christopher Nolan</a>“Dunkirk”Among the most acclaimed and old-school maximalist filmmakers never to be nominated for a best director Oscar, Nolan stated a strong case for himself with this summer’s historical epic, “Dunkirk,” which was both a critical and commercial juggernaut.</p>
<p>Alexander Payne“Downsizing”Two-time screenplay winner Payne’s foray into a speculative fiction divided early festival audiences, but the director has a sizable fanbase for his half-sympathetic, half-lampooning portraits of American dreamers and schemers.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/jordan-peele/" type="external">Jordan Peele</a>“Get Out”One of the biggest filmmaker success stories of the year, Peele expanded from his sketch comedy roots with this wildly successful debut, which tackled sticky questions about contemporary race relations through the prism of classic Hollywood horror filmmaking, inspiring just as many shivers as laughs and uneasy nods of recognition.</p>
<p>Dee Rees“Mudbound”Rees’ Sundance entry represented a remarkable step-up for the ascendant director, from the LGBT indie “Pariah” to HBO’s “Bessie” to this searing, sadly contemporarily relevant adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s tale of racism and trauma in 1940s Mississippi.</p>
<p>Matt Reeves“War for the Planet of the Apes”For his final chapter in this intelligent blockbuster franchise, Reeves embraced digital technology while adhering to the classical principles of David Lean and Sergio Leone.</p>
<p>Andy Serkis“Breathe”Actor and motion-capture wizard Serkis made a strong first impression behind the camera with this Andrew Garfield-starrer about a polio-stricken activist for the disabled.</p>
<p>Taylor Sheridan“Wind River”A year after nabbing an Oscar screenplay nomination for “Hell or High Water,” Sheridan’s directorial breakthrough, about a crime investigation on a Wyoming Shoshone reservation did excellent specialty business in late summer.</p>
<p>Michael Showalter“The Big Sick”Most of the press around runaway sleeper hit “The Big Sick” concerned co-writer and star Kumail Nanjiani, but Showalter deserves plaudits as well, having made a name for himself as a sensitive director of heartfelt comedy after “Hello, My Name Is Doris.”</p>
<p>Aaron Sorkin“Molly’s Game”Already an Oscar-winning writer, the inimitable Sorkin tried his hand at directing for the first time with this year’s Toronto entry, bringing his own script to life with the help of lead Jessica Chastain.</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/steven-spielberg/" type="external">Steven Spielberg</a>“The Post”From battles over the freedom of the press, government leaks and military transparency, “The Post,” about the debates over publication of the Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers, already seems to have plenty of ammo to make an award season impact.</p>
<p>Denis Villeneuve“Blade Runner 2049”Certainly one of 2017’s foremost visual spectacles, Villeneuve’s sequel to the iconic Ridley Scott film was a smash hit with critics, and its level of detail and imagination could help compensate for its disappointing box office.</p>
<p>Edgar Wright“Baby Driver”Commanding a sizable cult fan base, the Puckish Wright made perhaps his most accessible and most formally bold film at the same time: a car-chase jukebox musical that debuted to the biggest box office of the director’s career.</p>
<p>Joe Wright“Darkest Hour”Wright has long been a filmmaker of immaculate if sometimes baroque taste, and a preternatural ability to direct actors, and he found a perfect vessel for both skillsets with this re-creation of wartime London, anchored by a marvelous performance by Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill.</p> | false | 1 | paul thomas anderson guillermo del toro patty jenkins wide variety directors across genres vying attention awards season paul thomas andersonthe phantom threadnot frame andersons latest yet seen public much known hes rare filmmaker whose name alone stoke anticipation fact 1950sset film fashion world also stars daniel daylewis plans retire acting piques interest darren aronofskymothereasily divisive studio film 2017 presumably intentionally aronofskys mother could curry favor among fellow directors sheer boldness vision star jennifer lawrence ascend everescalating levels madness sean bakerthe florida projectan indie darling du jour thanks sleeper tangerine baker returned yet another warm slyhumored study fully fleshed characters margins american life noah baumbachthe meyerowitz storiesa fixture highlevel indie filmmaking onetime oscar nominee baumbach drew praise netflix acquisition starring dustin hoffman adam sandler kathryn bigelowdetroitbox office detroit bit disappointing first date female oscar director winner bigelow brought trademark intensity cutglass craft recreation volatile moment 1960s racial animosity bong joonhookjabong darling international cinema ever since unexpected triumph host south korean auteur made effortless transition englishlanguage filmmaking snowpiercer okja director revealed sensitive side hes long held surface stephen chboskywonderchbosky mostly known writer 2012 directed young adult novel perks wallflower considerable success latest based rj palacios novel stars jacob tremblay boy rare facial deformity scott cooperhostilescoopers period western starring christian bale soldier escorts dying cheyenne chief back homelands premiered strong reactions telluride acquired entertainment studios sofia coppolathe beguiledcoppola already oscar screenplay winner lost translation became second woman history win director prize cannes remake 1971 siegel slowburner saw translate sensibility southern gothic setting ease simon curtisgoodbye christopher robinlongtime theater figure week marilyn helmer curtis directed affecting biopic winnie pooh creator aa milne tone setting film shades marc forsters jm barrie tearjerker finding neverland picked several oscar noms 2004 jonathan dayton valerie farisbattle sexesdirectors smart romantic comedies little miss sunshine ruby sparks dayton faris managed retain films offbeat charm reallife story billie jean king bobby riggs famous tennis match flashpoint 70s gender relations remains relevant today guillermo del torothe shape waterunrecognized oscars since pair nominations pans labyrinth del toro offered similarly meaty imaginative piece idiosyncratic filmmaking comes additional heft writerdirectors golden lion award venice clint eastwoodthe 1517 pariseastwoods latest yet screened hard count prolific perennial academy favorite heels american sniper latest three americans two servicemen subdued gunman french train 2015 james francothe disaster artistonetime oscar host acting nominee franco dove headfirst directing soon got chance helming fewer 10 generally lowbudget features since 2010 portrait cult director tommy wiseau however franco appears taken time turning hysterical often touching tale one althollywoods colorful characters stephen frearsvictoria amp abdulfrears decent track record comes working female british monarchs ennobled british actresses previously nominated directing helen mirren elizabeth ii queen directs judi dench victoria greta gerwiglady birdlady bird technically indie darling gerwigs directorial debut codirected 2008s microbudget nights weekends joe swanberg may well announcing exciting new filmmaking talent coming among bestreviewed films year gerwig helms quasiautobiographical comingofage tale equal amounts microspecific details universally relatable emotions craig gillespiei tonyaaussie director gillespie unusual career moving straight comedy heartstringstuggers like lars real girl tonya harding biopic tonya brings trademark empathy reallife tabloid sensation david gordon greenstrongergreen managed synthesize indie roots mainstream filmmaking experience portrait boston marathon bombing victim jeff bauman always ready unexpected humor thoughtprovoking framing shake boilerplate luca guadagninocall namethe italian director first turned stateside heads swooning love hes already made even bigger splash among critics sensual love story american grad student armie hammer professors 17yearold son timothee chalamet todd hayneswonderstruckhaynes controversially denied director nomination critical 2015 hit carol offers yet another side sensibility crafting warm familyfriendly tale two children set search parental figures patty jenkinswonder womannever world marvel dc comicbook adaptations generated director nomination jenkins efforts bring wonder woman screen may merit extra attention film important corrective overwhelming maleness comic sphere currently highestgrossing film ever female director also simply expertly made highlight genre angelina joliefirst killed fatheradapting luong ungs memoir atrocities forced become child soldier khmer rouges reign cambodia jolies fourth directorial effort strong stuff also arguably cohesive affecting film shes yet made yorgos lanthimosthe killing sacred deerwriterdirector lanthimos rise ever since greeklanguage breakout dogtooth moving englishlanguage cinema leaving surreal pessimism intact directs nicole kidman colin farrell dark hospitalset thriller richard linklaterlast flag flyingtackling sort spiritual sequel hal ashbys last detail linklater explores patriotism military sacrifice lowkey fashion allows leads bryan cranston laurence fishburne steve carell shine james mangoldloganmuch made rrating mangold embraced unusually bleak take xmens wolverine rating made treatment adult voters may respond measured probing work ostensible franchise entry martin mcdonaghthree billboards outside ebbing missourithe irishbritish theatrical wunderkind first arrived academys sights 2008 film bruges received screenplay nomination searing frances mcdormandstarring dark comedy potential give name even renown film circles christopher nolandunkirkamong acclaimed oldschool maximalist filmmakers never nominated best director oscar nolan stated strong case summers historical epic dunkirk critical commercial juggernaut alexander paynedownsizingtwotime screenplay winner paynes foray speculative fiction divided early festival audiences director sizable fanbase halfsympathetic halflampooning portraits american dreamers schemers jordan peeleget outone biggest filmmaker success stories year peele expanded sketch comedy roots wildly successful debut tackled sticky questions contemporary race relations prism classic hollywood horror filmmaking inspiring many shivers laughs uneasy nods recognition dee reesmudboundrees sundance entry represented remarkable stepup ascendant director lgbt indie pariah hbos bessie searing sadly contemporarily relevant adaptation hillary jordans tale racism trauma 1940s mississippi matt reeveswar planet apesfor final chapter intelligent blockbuster franchise reeves embraced digital technology adhering classical principles david lean sergio leone andy serkisbreatheactor motioncapture wizard serkis made strong first impression behind camera andrew garfieldstarrer poliostricken activist disabled taylor sheridanwind rivera year nabbing oscar screenplay nomination hell high water sheridans directorial breakthrough crime investigation wyoming shoshone reservation excellent specialty business late summer michael showalterthe big sickmost press around runaway sleeper hit big sick concerned cowriter star kumail nanjiani showalter deserves plaudits well made name sensitive director heartfelt comedy hello name doris aaron sorkinmollys gamealready oscarwinning writer inimitable sorkin tried hand directing first time years toronto entry bringing script life help lead jessica chastain steven spielbergthe postfrom battles freedom press government leaks military transparency post debates publication vietnamera pentagon papers already seems plenty ammo make award season impact denis villeneuveblade runner 2049certainly one 2017s foremost visual spectacles villeneuves sequel iconic ridley scott film smash hit critics level detail imagination could help compensate disappointing box office edgar wrightbaby drivercommanding sizable cult fan base puckish wright made perhaps accessible formally bold film time carchase jukebox musical debuted biggest box office directors career joe wrightdarkest hourwright long filmmaker immaculate sometimes baroque taste preternatural ability direct actors found perfect vessel skillsets recreation wartime london anchored marvelous performance gary oldman winston churchill | 1,088 |
<p>The “Russiagate” story is not about Russia; the real news is the Obama regime’s abuse of the government’s surveillance powers.</p>
<p>Mike Whitney has written an excellent exposé of <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46775.htm" type="external">the “Russiagate” cover story</a> for Obama’s political use of national security to help his party oppose Republicans.</p>
<p>Covert surveillance of politicians on Obama’s Nixon-like “Enemies List” has been going on for many years, but is only now being unmasked as a result of the failure of Obama’s cover story–“We weren’t spying on political opponents; only on Russians to protect America.”</p>
<p>The presstitute media has passed on the cover story authored by former Obama-administration officials led by CIA director John Brennan, FBI director James Comey, the DNC, and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. The loose ends in this cover-up have now been so widely exposed as hearsay and political that only 13% of Republicans believe the fact-free story – but 67% of Democrats cling to it.</p>
<p>Whitney reports that Comey began the investigation in July 2016. As of last Friday (March 31, 2017) not a scrap of evidence has turned up. This did not deter Comey from telling Congress that Putin “hated Secretary Clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was that he had a clear preference for the person running against the person he hated so much.” So the Russians allegedly “engaged in a multifaceted campaign to undermine our democracy.”</p>
<p>Comey based this conclusion on what has become a hilarious bit of gullibililty. The Russians, he said “were unusually loud in their intervention. It’s almost as if they didn’t care that we knew, that they wanted us to see what they were doing.”</p>
<p>Alternatively, someone wanted investigators to infer that the Russians were doing the hacking. As Wikeleaks Vault 7 releases prove, the CIA can hack computers and leave anyone else’s signature. Due to poor security, the CIA’s cybertechnology ended up in the Internet domain.</p>
<p>“They’ll be back. They’ll be back, in 2020. They may be back in 2018,” warned Mr. Comey. But who is the “they”? “They” seem to be “us,” or at least what numerous former national security officials have suggested: either the NSC, CIA or its “Five Eyes” partner, British MI6.</p>
<p>Wall Street Journal editorialist Kimberley A. Strassel <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-devin-nunes-knows-1490914396" type="external">poses the real question</a>: Why hasn’t the Trump administration had the Secret Service arrest Comey, Brennan, Schiff, the DNC and Hillary for trying to overthrow the President of the United States? “Mr. Nunes has said he has seen proof that the Obama White House surveilled the incoming administration—on subjects that had nothing to do with Russia—and that it further unmasked (identified by name) transition officials. This goes far beyond a mere scandal. It’s a potential crime.”</p>
<p>What we are watching is turning out to be traces of a plot against a government elected by the American people. Attempts to get at the truth by House national security committee Chairman Devin Nunes have been countered with demands by Democrats to recuse himself so as to stop his exposé of how “Team Obama was spying broadly on the incoming administration.”</p>
<p>It seems that this has been going on for many years now. Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich has dropped a bombshell about what appears to be his own illegal surveillance under Obama’s NSC. “When the president raised the question of wiretapping on his phones in Trump Tower, he was challenged to prove that such a thing could happen. It happened to me.”</p>
<p>Here’s what happened, which was revealed two years after he left office in 2013 when the Democrats were overjoyed to see Ohio Republicans redraw the election district lines to get rid of his candidacy. The Washington Times asked him to authenticate a secret recording of a cell phone call “from Saif el-Islam Qaddafi, a high-ranking official in Libya’s government and a son of the country’s ruler, Moammar Qaddafi.”</p>
<p>Before taking the call, Rep. Kucinich “checked with the House’s general counsel to ensure that such a discussion by a member of Congress with a foreign power was permitted by law.”</p>
<p>“I was assured that under the Constitution a lawmaker had a fundamental duty to ask questions and gather information—activity expressly protected by the Article I clauses covering separation of powers and congressional speech and debate.”</p>
<p>Given the quality of the recordings was excellent on both ends of the call, Kucinich concluded that “the tape was made by an American intelligence agency and then leaked to the Times for political reasons. If so, this episode represented a gross violation of the separation of powers.”</p>
<p>His repeated Freedom of Information Act requests made in 2012 before leaving office have been stonewalled by the intelligence agencies for five years.</p>
<p>We are now in a position to see the real story behind “Russiagate.” It’s not about Russia. The real news is the Obama regime’s abuse of the government’s surveillance powers to spy on Donald Trump and other Republicans in order to build a dossier for the DNC to leak to the press in an attempt to slander or compromise Trump and throw the election to Hillary.</p>
<p>They’ve been caught, but we can now see that they took steps to protect themselves against this. They prepared a cover story. They pretend they were not spying on Trump, but on Russians – which only by fortuitous happenchance turned up alleged incriminating smoke against Trump.</p>
<p>This cover story was buttressed by the fake news story prepared by former MI6 freelancer Christopher Steele. As Whitney reports, Steele “was hired as an opposition researcher last June to dig up derogatory information on Donald Trump.” Unvetted and unverified information by so-called informants somehow found its way into U.S. intelligence agency reports. These reports were then leaked to Democrat-friendly media. This is where the crime lies. Obama regime and DNC were using these agencies for domestic political use, KGB style.</p>
<p>The Obama/Clinton cover story is now falling to pieces. That explains the desperation in the attack by Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to stop the exposure. Russiagate is not a Trump/Putin collusion but a domestic spy job carried out by Democrats.</p>
<p>Law requires Trump to arrest those responsible and to put them on trial for treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. If Trump fears to prosecute the Obama operatives within the Deep State, they will try all the harder to attack him to the point of forcing his removal or at least discrediting him and his fellow Republicans to pave the way for the 2018 elections.­</p> | false | 1 | russiagate story russia real news obama regimes abuse governments surveillance powers mike whitney written excellent exposé russiagate cover story obamas political use national security help party oppose republicans covert surveillance politicians obamas nixonlike enemies list going many years unmasked result failure obamas cover storywe werent spying political opponents russians protect america presstitute media passed cover story authored former obamaadministration officials led cia director john brennan fbi director james comey dnc democratic rep adam schiff loose ends coverup widely exposed hearsay political 13 republicans believe factfree story 67 democrats cling whitney reports comey began investigation july 2016 last friday march 31 2017 scrap evidence turned deter comey telling congress putin hated secretary clinton much flip side coin clear preference person running person hated much russians allegedly engaged multifaceted campaign undermine democracy comey based conclusion become hilarious bit gullibililty russians said unusually loud intervention almost didnt care knew wanted us see alternatively someone wanted investigators infer russians hacking wikeleaks vault 7 releases prove cia hack computers leave anyone elses signature due poor security cias cybertechnology ended internet domain theyll back theyll back 2020 may back 2018 warned mr comey seem us least numerous former national security officials suggested either nsc cia five eyes partner british mi6 wall street journal editorialist kimberley strassel poses real question hasnt trump administration secret service arrest comey brennan schiff dnc hillary trying overthrow president united states mr nunes said seen proof obama white house surveilled incoming administrationon subjects nothing russiaand unmasked identified name transition officials goes far beyond mere scandal potential crime watching turning traces plot government elected american people attempts get truth house national security committee chairman devin nunes countered demands democrats recuse stop exposé team obama spying broadly incoming administration seems going many years former rep dennis kucinich dropped bombshell appears illegal surveillance obamas nsc president raised question wiretapping phones trump tower challenged prove thing could happen happened heres happened revealed two years left office 2013 democrats overjoyed see ohio republicans redraw election district lines get rid candidacy washington times asked authenticate secret recording cell phone call saif elislam qaddafi highranking official libyas government son countrys ruler moammar qaddafi taking call rep kucinich checked houses general counsel ensure discussion member congress foreign power permitted law assured constitution lawmaker fundamental duty ask questions gather informationactivity expressly protected article clauses covering separation powers congressional speech debate given quality recordings excellent ends call kucinich concluded tape made american intelligence agency leaked times political reasons episode represented gross violation separation powers repeated freedom information act requests made 2012 leaving office stonewalled intelligence agencies five years position see real story behind russiagate russia real news obama regimes abuse governments surveillance powers spy donald trump republicans order build dossier dnc leak press attempt slander compromise trump throw election hillary theyve caught see took steps protect prepared cover story pretend spying trump russians fortuitous happenchance turned alleged incriminating smoke trump cover story buttressed fake news story prepared former mi6 freelancer christopher steele whitney reports steele hired opposition researcher last june dig derogatory information donald trump unvetted unverified information socalled informants somehow found way us intelligence agency reports reports leaked democratfriendly media crime lies obama regime dnc using agencies domestic political use kgb style obamaclinton cover story falling pieces explains desperation attack adam schiff ranking democrat house intelligence committee committee chairman devin nunes stop exposure russiagate trumpputin collusion domestic spy job carried democrats law requires trump arrest responsible put trial treason conspiracy overthrow government united states trump fears prosecute obama operatives within deep state try harder attack point forcing removal least discrediting fellow republicans pave way 2018 elections | 595 |
<p />
<p>The United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama recently finished his week-long visit to Africa in Tanzania, after first visiting Senegal and South Africa. During the trip, Obama announced a new model of <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/07/01/obama-tanzania/2478581/" type="external">engagement</a> between the U.S. and Africa, based less on aid and more on trade and partnership, with his country helping Africa “build Africa, for Africans.” Through several new U.S.-Africa economic initiatives launched during his visit, especially regarding trade and energy, Obama is striving to catch up with China, which has created strong partnerships on the African continent. Obama <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-promotes-new-africa-initiative-during-tanzania-visit/1692800.html" type="external">arrived</a> three months after Xi Jinping visited Tanzania on his first foreign trip as Chinese president in March 2013.</p>
<p>During his African trip, including in his speeches in Tanzania, the U.S. president indirectly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/01/us-obama-tanzania-idUSBRE9600IU20130701" type="external">juxtaposed</a> the U.S. and Chinese trade and investment proposals, by suggesting that U.S. investors would support local economic capacity, not simply consume its raw materials, which China amply strives for, given its ever-growing industrial capacity. While he is implying that African countries will have to choose between two different trade models, is he right?</p>
<p>Most likely not. The U.S. and China are both interested in ensuring employment for their countries’ citizens, gaining access to valuable resources, and securing new stable trade partners. Nevertheless, China will likely win the battle over Africa, due to its policies of non-interference in internal affairs, especially regarding human rights and democracy, which many African countries are lagging in.</p>
<p>Tanzania was a logical choice among Obama’s destinations, given that the U.S. and the African country have had long-standing economic relations. According to Obama, Tanzania has continuously <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20130701-obama-tanzania-last-leg-africa-tour" type="external">been</a> one of the U.S. best partners in Africa. The U.S. has <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2843.htm" type="external">provided</a> aid in order to promote transparency, address health and education issues and target development indicators to sustain progress. In turn, Tanzania <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2843.htm" type="external">exports</a> to the U.S. agricultural commodities, minerals, and textiles, while importing wheat, chemicals, and machinery.</p>
<p>One of the key initiatives <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/30/fact-sheet-power-africa" type="external">revealed</a> by the U.S. President during his brief stay in Tanzania was Power Africa, a $7-billion program combining public and private funds and loan guarantees, aimed at ensuring cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity. This new program will build on “Africa’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/30/fact-sheet-power-africa" type="external">enormous</a> power potential, including new discoveries of vast reserves of oil and gas, and the potential to develop clean geothermal, hydro, wind and solar energy.” This indirectly implies that the U.S. is keen on discovering new resource reserves in Africa and possibly make us of them for both Power Africa and its own national interests. Obama visited the Ubungo power plant, run by U.S.-based Symbion.</p>
<p>Another key U.S. project on Obama’s agenda was launching Trade Africa, a new partnership between the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa “that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/01/fact-sheet-trade-africa" type="external">seeks</a> to increase internal and regional trade within Africa, and expand trade and economic ties between Africa, the United States, and other global markets.” The new partnership will be initially implemented in the members of the East African Community (EAC): Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Among its original goals, Trade Africa intends to “ <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/01/fact-sheet-trade-africa" type="external">double</a> intra-regional trade in the EAC, increase EAC exports to the United States by 40%, reduce by 15% the average time needed to import or export a container from the ports of Mombasa or Dar es Salaam to land-locked Burundi and Rwanda in the EAC’s interior, and decrease by 30% the average time a truck takes to transit selected borders.” This suggests that the U.S. is not exclusively interested in benefitting itself from EAC exports, but that it also wants to assist these countries to improve their regional trade capacity.</p>
<p>Even though throughout his trip Obama indirectly tried to highlight that the U.S. will be a better economic partner that China for Africa because of its interest in support local economies, not just benefitting from them, there are clear similarities in the two global players’ goals and approaches.&#160; Ironically, China has already massively supported the local African economies, by building much needed infrastructure, consisting of roads, ports, and bridges in multiple African countries.</p>
<p>Chinese companies, either building infrastructure or involved in other businesses, have also provided important job opportunities to many African countries’ populations. While it is true that China brings most of national white collar workers to develop the infrastructure projects, while the majority of their blue collar workers are Africans. For instance, during the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/29/ozabs-congo-republic-dam-idAFJOE60S0HW20100129" type="external">construction</a> of Chinese-funded Imboulou Hydroelectric Dam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2010, more than 2,000 locals and 400 Chinese construction workers were employed.&#160; Similarly, at the China-Benin Textile Company, there are 5 Chinese <a href="http://chinahi-techkama.com/newsf3.htm" type="external">employees</a> and 1,100 local staff members.</p>
<p>This is partly because in many of the African countries, especially those afflicted by prolonged periods of war, there is an acute penury of highly-skilled workers. Given this context, the U.S. would most likely have to bring its own white collar workers to develop its energy projects, which will also secure much needed employment opportunities. Therefore, almost inevitably, the two countries would end up applying a similar employment model: while the highly skilled laborers will be their own countries’ nationals, the lower labor will comprise African locals.</p>
<p>Moreover, both the U.S. and China want to benefit from Africa’s <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2111.htmlnickel,%20uranium,%20rare%20earth%20oxides,%20peat,%20cobalt,%20copper,%20platinum,%20vanadium,%20arable%20land,%20hydropower,%20niobium,%20tantalum,%20gold,%20tin,%20tungsten,%20kaolin,%20limestone" type="external">abundant</a> natural resources. As an indication of this interest, two of the countries that the Trade Africa initiative will be implemented in have extremely valuable resources. Tanzania <a href="http://www.tanzania.go.tz/mining.html#Mineral%20Resources%20Endowments%20" type="external">possesses</a> significant quantities of gold, diamond, iron, uranium, and natural gas, while Burundi <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2111.html" type="external">has</a> nickel, uranium, kaolin, and gold. China has made significant investments in Sudan and South Sudan, well-known for their oil resources, and in Angola, which has some of the most important reserves of oil, gas, and diamonds on the African continent. Moreover, at this moment, oil already <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/20137117422885596.html" type="external">represents</a> 66 percent of China’s exports from Africa, while minerals and metals 30 percent. The US <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/07/20137117422885596.html" type="external">imports</a> from Africa consist of 89 percent oil. For the U.S., this focus on obtaining natural resources will be further facilitated by the launch of the energy partnership.</p>
<p>Finally, the African continent is an increasingly ripe market, as it currently <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-07/obama-s-opportunity-to-improve-u-s-investment-in-africa.html" type="external">has</a> six of the world’s fastest growing economies and is projected to grow by 5 percent in 2013. China surpassed the U.S. as Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009. In 2012, China invested more than $40 billion in African countries and promised $20 billion in aid during the upcoming three years.&#160; In 2012, the total trade between China and Africa was $128 billion, while Africa’s trade with the U.S. was only $100 billion. The more African countries’ economies grow, the more profitable trade relations will become and the more interest bigger exporters, such as the U.S. and China have in establishing strong relations with them.</p>
<p>Apart from their similar interests in African countries, there is a key difference that sets China and the U.S. apart and might determine who wins over Africa: their approach to countries’ respect for human rights and good governance. China has a policy of non-interference in internal affairs with its partners, whereas the U.S. advocates for democracy and human rights and often conditions aid receipt on efforts to achieve certain standards. In fact, on his recent trip, Obama <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/07/01/obama-tanzania/2478581/" type="external">encouraged</a> African countries to strengthen good governance and hold human rights abusers accountable. Many of the African countries are far from the standards that the U.S. calls for, some due to on-going conflict, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, others due to political disinterest in reform, like in Uganda. Therefore, these countries, hungry for economic partners, might be more inclined to work with China, which is almost strictly interested in economic pursuits, rather than the U.S., which wants to also have a social and political involvement in internal affairs and will scrutinize their every move. At the same time, people in other African countries, like South Africa, are disillusioned with the U.S. and are criticizing the U.S. double standards. During his visit in South Africa, people protested against Obama for the use of drones in the Middle East and failure to close Guantanamo Bay. As a result, the U.S. might lose to China the battle that it recently launched. Regardless of who wins the great power battle over Africa, the people of the African countries will most likely be the main victims, seeing as their resources will be sucked up with few considerable improvements in their lives.</p> | false | 1 | united states us president barack obama recently finished weeklong visit africa tanzania first visiting senegal south africa trip obama announced new model engagement us africa based less aid trade partnership country helping africa build africa africans several new usafrica economic initiatives launched visit especially regarding trade energy obama striving catch china created strong partnerships african continent obama arrived three months xi jinping visited tanzania first foreign trip chinese president march 2013 african trip including speeches tanzania us president indirectly juxtaposed us chinese trade investment proposals suggesting us investors would support local economic capacity simply consume raw materials china amply strives given evergrowing industrial capacity implying african countries choose two different trade models right likely us china interested ensuring employment countries citizens gaining access valuable resources securing new stable trade partners nevertheless china likely win battle africa due policies noninterference internal affairs especially regarding human rights democracy many african countries lagging tanzania logical choice among obamas destinations given us african country longstanding economic relations according obama tanzania continuously one us best partners africa us provided aid order promote transparency address health education issues target development indicators sustain progress turn tanzania exports us agricultural commodities minerals textiles importing wheat chemicals machinery one key initiatives revealed us president brief stay tanzania power africa 7billion program combining public private funds loan guarantees aimed ensuring cleaner efficient electricity generation capacity new program build africas enormous power potential including new discoveries vast reserves oil gas potential develop clean geothermal hydro wind solar energy indirectly implies us keen discovering new resource reserves africa possibly make us power africa national interests obama visited ubungo power plant run usbased symbion another key us project obamas agenda launching trade africa new partnership us subsaharan africa seeks increase internal regional trade within africa expand trade economic ties africa united states global markets new partnership initially implemented members east african community eac burundi kenya rwanda tanzania uganda among original goals trade africa intends double intraregional trade eac increase eac exports united states 40 reduce 15 average time needed import export container ports mombasa dar es salaam landlocked burundi rwanda eacs interior decrease 30 average time truck takes transit selected borders suggests us exclusively interested benefitting eac exports also wants assist countries improve regional trade capacity even though throughout trip obama indirectly tried highlight us better economic partner china africa interest support local economies benefitting clear similarities two global players goals approaches160 ironically china already massively supported local african economies building much needed infrastructure consisting roads ports bridges multiple african countries chinese companies either building infrastructure involved businesses also provided important job opportunities many african countries populations true china brings national white collar workers develop infrastructure projects majority blue collar workers africans instance construction chinesefunded imboulou hydroelectric dam democratic republic congo 2010 2000 locals 400 chinese construction workers employed160 similarly chinabenin textile company 5 chinese employees 1100 local staff members partly many african countries especially afflicted prolonged periods war acute penury highlyskilled workers given context us would likely bring white collar workers develop energy projects also secure much needed employment opportunities therefore almost inevitably two countries would end applying similar employment model highly skilled laborers countries nationals lower labor comprise african locals moreover us china want benefit africas abundant natural resources indication interest two countries trade africa initiative implemented extremely valuable resources tanzania possesses significant quantities gold diamond iron uranium natural gas burundi nickel uranium kaolin gold china made significant investments sudan south sudan wellknown oil resources angola important reserves oil gas diamonds african continent moreover moment oil already represents 66 percent chinas exports africa minerals metals 30 percent us imports africa consist 89 percent oil us focus obtaining natural resources facilitated launch energy partnership finally african continent increasingly ripe market currently six worlds fastest growing economies projected grow 5 percent 2013 china surpassed us africas largest trading partner 2009 2012 china invested 40 billion african countries promised 20 billion aid upcoming three years160 2012 total trade china africa 128 billion africas trade us 100 billion african countries economies grow profitable trade relations become interest bigger exporters us china establishing strong relations apart similar interests african countries key difference sets china us apart might determine wins africa approach countries respect human rights good governance china policy noninterference internal affairs partners whereas us advocates democracy human rights often conditions aid receipt efforts achieve certain standards fact recent trip obama encouraged african countries strengthen good governance hold human rights abusers accountable many african countries far standards us calls due ongoing conflict like democratic republic congo others due political disinterest reform like uganda therefore countries hungry economic partners might inclined work china almost strictly interested economic pursuits rather us wants also social political involvement internal affairs scrutinize every move time people african countries like south africa disillusioned us criticizing us double standards visit south africa people protested obama use drones middle east failure close guantanamo bay result us might lose china battle recently launched regardless wins great power battle africa people african countries likely main victims seeing resources sucked considerable improvements lives | 836 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Faith Angle Forum</a>&#160;is a semi-annual conference which brings together a select group of 20 nationally respected journalists with 3-5 distinguished scholars on areas of religion, politics &amp; public life.</p>
<p>“Israel &amp; the Future of Zionism”</p>
<p>Key West, Florida</p>
<p>Speakers:</p>
<p>Dr. Peter Berkowitz, Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law; the Tad &amp; Dianne Taube Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution</p>
<p>Ari Shavit, Columnist, Ha’aretz</p>
<p>Moderator:</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics &amp; Public Policy Center; Senior Advisor, Pew Forum on Religion &amp; Public Life</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie</p>
<p>MICHAEL CROMARTIE: Our topic today is “Israel and the Future of Zionism.” Jay Tolson, Jeff Goldberg and others have said this is an important subject we haven’t done before in Key West.</p>
<p>When I called our first speaker, Peter Berkowitz, and told him we had Ari Shavit coming, he said, “If you have Ari coming, you don’t need me.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>He tried to talk me out of it. I said, “But Peter, you’ve written eloquently on this recently in numerous places, and we’d love to hear from you.” It’s the first time I’ve had a speaker try to get out of it even after I’ve told him the honorarium.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>But I was able to persuade him to join us, and Peter is incredibly knowledgeable on this subject.</p>
<p>Many of you know Peter personally, but besides being a professor of law here at George Mason University, he is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written numerous books; no need for me to give you his whole bio. We are very privileged to have these two gentlemen, and I’ll introduce Ari after Peter. I give you now Peter Berkowitz.</p>
<p>Peter Berkowitz</p>
<p>DR. PETER BERKOWITZ: Thank you. While it’s true I’m not vitally needed here, it is an honor to be here with Michael and Ari. Forgive me in advance for the formality of my presentation. I’m reminded of this wonderful old apology: I wrote a long book because I didn’t have time to write a short book. So I’m giving a formal presentation because I didn’t have time to prepare an informal one.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Our assigned topic is Israel and Zionism’s future. In one respect at least, Zionism’s future does not differ from the future of any other grand social and political movement. Like other such movements, Zionism’s future can’t be discussed reliably without understanding something of its present and past. Today I’m going to bring into focus certain features of Zionism’s present and past, particularly the ideas that animated it.</p>
<p>I want to begin with three controversies in the present, or rather, three manifestations of a single protracted controversy; or better still, three appeals to a persistent, ugly prejudice about Zionism’s animating ideas.</p>
<p>On March 23, 2006, the London Review of Books published “ <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html" type="external">The Israel Lobby</a>” by University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer and Harvard University political scientist Stephen Walt. <a href="http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011" type="external">A longer, scholarly version</a> with more than 200 footnotes has been posted as a working paper on the website of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Mearsheimer and Walt’s paper immediately provoked both enthusiasm and outrage, but it did not attract attention by advancing the unexceptionable argument that the Israel lobby in America is real and powerful. Rather, Mearsheimer and Walt put forward the incendiary claim that the past 30 years or so of American foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, had been decisively determined by the Israel lobby. American foreign policy today, they argue, is no longer a function of a realistic assessment of American strategic interests&#160;— military, diplomatic, economic&#160;— because it’s been hijacked by Israel and its supporters in the U.S.</p>
<p>Moreover, argue Mearsheimer and Walt, the Israel lobby has led American foreign policy astray not innocently but under false pretenses. The Israel lobby insists Israel has a moral claim on the U.S.: that the U.S. ought to give high priority to Israel’s interest because, among other reasons, Israel is a liberal democracy in a sea of authoritarian governments. But, maintained Mearsheimer and Walt, Israel on moral grounds is undeserving of U.S. support. Israel, in their judgment, is guilty of betraying the essential principles of liberal democracy. This is the core of that part of their argument. I quote here:</p>
<p>“Some aspects of Israeli democracy are at odds with core American values. Unlike the U.S., where people are supposed to enjoy equal rights irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity, Israel was explicitly founded as a Jewish state, and citizenship is based on the principle of blood kinship. Given this, it is not surprising its 1.3 million Arabs are treated as second-class citizens or that the recent Israeli government commission found that Israel behaves in a “neglectful and discriminatory manner” towards them. Its democratic status is also undermined by its refusal to grant the Palestinians a viable state of their own or full political rights.”</p>
<p>This paragraph from Mearsheimer and Walt, whose purpose is to deny or cast into doubt Israel’s liberal and democratic credentials and call into question the vitality of Zionism, is a tissue of lies and malicious distortions.</p>
<p>First, Israel is not founded on the principle of blood kinship. To be sure, it is a Jewish state, and the law of return grants automatic citizenship to Jews, but <a href="" type="external">Israel’s declaration of independence</a> proclaims, “Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex. It will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture. It will safeguard the holy places of all religions, and it will be faithful to the principles of the charter of the United Nations.” Moreover, non-Jews can become naturalized citizens in Israel in accordance with procedures similar to those in other countries.</p>
<p>Second, as in many liberal democracies, certainly in the U.S., some minorities&#160;— in Israel’s case, its Arab citizens&#160;— lag behind the majority; in some cases far behind. The lags in income, literacy and health of its Arab majority are indeed an urgent problem in Israel, not only for Israel’s Arab citizens, but also for Israeli society as a whole. But contrary to Mearsheimer and Walt’s argument, these lags have many sources and not because Arab citizens lack equality of rights, the defining feature of a liberal democracy.</p>
<p>Third point, as Mearsheimer and Walt write, a recent Israeli government commission [released Sept. 1, 2003] found Israel behaves in a neglectful and discriminatory manner towards its minority Arab population. This should be seen as a triumph of liberal democracy in Israel, not, of course, the neglect and the discrimination, but the effort by the government to confront its own democratic inadequacies, face up to its failure, make good on the promises of its declaration of independence, and find democratic means to remedy the problem.</p>
<p>And fourth, while it’s true Israel’s democratic status is threatened by the absence of a viable Palestinian state, Israel more than any state in the world stands to benefit from the creation of one. The majority, perhaps a substantial majority, of Israelis recognize this. Today, however, contrary to Mearsheimer and Walt, the chief obstacle of the creation of a viable Palestinian state is not Israel, but the Palestinians’ refusal to renounce terror, to develop their economy, to protect individual rights and to establish democratic political institutions.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the vulgarity of their charge, Mearsheimer and Walt are not original. They add pseudo-scholarly luster to commonly held opinions about the nature of the Jewish state and the ideas that animate it. Only this season Jimmy Carter published <a href="http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&amp;pid=522298" type="external">Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid</a>.Carter’s title trumpets the charge leveled by Mearsheimer and Walt: Israel is a racist state, akin to South Africa, the foremost racist state since World War II. But contrary to Carter, in Israel, despite the genuine obstacles they confront, Arab citizens are not condemned to inferiority by law, which was the defining principle of apartheid. Along with the Jewish citizens of Israel, Arab citizens of Israel vote, attend university, practice law, form political parties, serve in the Knesset and sit on the Israeli Supreme Court.</p>
<p>While it runs contrary to the conventional wisdom, it’s no exaggeration to say the freest Arabs in the entire Middle East are Israel’s Arab citizens. Unfortunately, Mearsheimer and Walt, as well as Carter, have lent their prestige to nurse a prejudice that reverberates worldwide. In 1975, in a stirring speech at the U.N., then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan denounced <a href="http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/a06f2943c226015c85256c40005d359c/761c1063530766a7052566a2005b74d1!OpenDocument" type="external">U.N. General Assembly Resolution 3379</a>, which declared “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” The resolution was finally revoked in December, 1991, after Israel made revocation a condition of its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference.</p>
<p>But as was demonstrated at the <a href="http://www.un.org/WCAR/" type="external">U.N. conference against racism</a> in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, which the U.S. boycotted, and as this year’s Mearsheimer and Walt article and Carter book also show, the equation of Zionism with racism lives on and remains a respectable opinion in cultivated and influential circles.</p>
<p>This equation&#160;— between Zionism as embodied in the state of Israel and racism&#160;— has always been outrageous, but the outrageous equation does take advantage of genuine tensions within Zionism, particularly between the claims of Jewish nationalism and the claims of freedom and equality at the heart of liberal democracy. In facing this tension, Zionism is not distinctive, since tensions arise between all forms of nationalism&#160;— German, French, American, Japanese, Palestinian&#160;— and the claims of liberal democracy when these nationalisms seek expression in a sovereign state.</p>
<p>Zionism is distinctive in its genesis and in the manner it’s grappled with these tensions. Before the 19th century, Zionism as we now think of it barely existed. Notwithstanding a few scattered Jewish communities in what is now Israel, Jews have lived in exile or dispersion since roughly 7 BCE, when the Second Temple fell to the conquering Romans. Before the Enlightenment, before the French Revolution, before the spread of the liberal and large-sense idea that human beings are by nature free and equal, virtually all Jews regarded themselves, in the first place, as Jews. This was not peculiar. Christians before the Enlightenment regarded themselves in the first place as Christians, and Muslims in the first place thought of themselves as Muslims. It’s only with the Enlightenment that some members of these faith communities began to think of themselves as human beings first and Jews, Christians or Muslims second.</p>
<p>Before the Enlightenment, virtually all Jews recognized the authority of the Torah, or Jewish law. Orthodox Judaism as much as reformed Judaism is a product of reaction to the Enlightenment. From the point of view of traditional Jewish authorities, dispersion or Diaspora was punishment for Jewish sins. One day it would be terminated, but that day would arrive in God’s good time with the coming of the Messiah and the return by divine intervention of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland. Jews never ceased longing and praying for the return to Zion, the hill in Jerusalem on which the temple was built. But the reestablishment of Jewish life in the Land of Israel of which they, traditional Jews before the Enlightenment, fervently dreamt was primarily a religious life. Religious Zionism, patient not activist, pious not enlightened, otherworldly not this worldly, is as old as Diaspora Jewry. It’s only with the Enlightenment that Jews began to imagine a Jewish life that was not strictly religious.</p>
<p>It was only in the 19th century that some Jews began to take the matter of the return to Zion into their own hands. To be sure, the first Jewish reaction to the upheavals created by the Enlightenment and the spread of liberal principles was not Zionism. Initially, some Jews called for the reform of Jewish religion in order to harmonize Judaism with the demands of liberal modernity.</p>
<p>Other Jewish thinkers opted for assimilation: shedding religious belief altogether and merging into general culture. Both reformers and assimilators took it for granted that as the Enlightenment unfolded, Jews would increasingly enjoy the rights of full citizenship in the various nation-states of Europe where they lived.</p>
<p>Modern Zionism represents a third Jewish response to the challenges of enlightened and liberal modernity. Modern Zionism, or more accurately, political Zionism, is&#160;— I’ll quote here a formal definition&#160;— “the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.” It stems from several sources&#160;— intellectual, cultural and ideological&#160;— the most important of which was the commingling of ancient Jewish longings with Enlightenment and liberal sentiments, socialist economic ideas, and nationalist aspirations.</p>
<p>But political Zionism was jolted into existence in the 19th century in response to two shattering political events. The first, taking place in the East, was the Russian pogroms of 1881 following the assassination of Czar Alexander II [when Jews were blamed] for the czar’s murder, and anti-Jewish rioting erupted in what is now Ukraine. Thousands of Jewish homes were destroyed, and families thrown into poverty. Pogroms set a mass exodus of millions into motion. Importantly, young Jewish intellectuals, brought up in traditional Jewish homes but exposed to the socialist ideas in the air at the time, were left to search for new forms of social and political existence.</p>
<p>The second catalyzing event taking place in the West was the Dreyfus affair. A little more than a decade later, in 1894, Captain Albert Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was court-martialed on flimsy evidence and in blatant disregard for fair procedure. He was convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island. Five years later, when exonerating evidence came to light, Dreyfus was re-tried and re-convicted, and eventually pardoned by the French president. But the vicious waves of anti-Semitism generated by the Dreyfus affair shattered the confidence of many assimilated and assimilating European Jews that Europe would ever welcome them to the ranks of full citizenship.</p>
<p>The Russian pogroms of 1881 and the Dreyfus affair of the mid-1890s differed in a crucial respect. In Russia, Zionism arose in large measure in response to the failure of the Enlightenment to arrive. In contrast, Zionism arose in Western Europe in response to the Enlightenment’s failure, 100 years after it arrived, to deliver on its promise to accept Jews as men and women, full citizens equally endowed with individual rights. The most important Zionist voice coming from Russia was Leon Pinsker. Pinsker was born in 1821 and trained as a physician. He was active in Jewish affairs and hopeful the Enlightenment would one day come to Russia, enabling Jews to assimilate into Russian life and embrace Russian culture as their own.</p>
<p>The Russian pogroms of 1881 dashed his hopes. Appalled by the horrible spectacle of collaboration among common people, cultural elites and the government, and by indiscriminate violence against Jewish communities, Pinsker left Russia for Europe. In 1882 he came out with the first great work of political Zionism, called <a href="http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6640/zion/pinsker.html" type="external">Auto-Emancipation: Appeal to His People by a Russian Jew</a>.</p>
<p>Pinsker distills his argument into three simple propositions in the concluding summary of his book. First proposition: The Jews are not a living nation; they are everywhere aliens. Therefore, they are despised. Second proposition: The civil and political emancipation of the Jews is not sufficient to raise them in the estimation of the peoples [of the world]. Third proposition: The proper and only remedy would be the auto-emancipation of the Jews&#160;— their emancipation as a nation among nations by the acquisition of a home of their own.</p>
<p>In this summary Pinsker does not identify the name or location of that home. Nor does he do more than to allude to the process of organizing the Jewish people for the purpose of creating a Jewish state. These tasks fall to Theodore Herzl. Herzl is the true spiritual father of political Zionism in terms of his influence. Austrian-born and thoroughly assimilated, Herzl studied law, which he quickly gave up for journalism. His hopes were for Jewish assimilation; he was one of those whose hopes were dashed by the Dreyfus affair, which he covered as a Paris correspondent for a Vienna newspaper.</p>
<p>In 1896 he published <a href="http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6640/zion/judenstaadt.html" type="external">The Jewish State</a>&#160;which is a seminal work of political Zionism. Enlightened, liberal and nationalist sentiments pervaded. In it Herzl stressed the central question of Zionism was “neither a social nor a religious one, but a national question, and to solve it we must first of all establish it as an international political problem to be discussed and settled by the civilized nations of the world in council.”</p>
<p>The root of the Jewish problem, according to Herzl, was that despite their loyalty, sacrifice and economic and cultural contributions in all the countries in which they lived, Jews had failed to achieve assimilation. The reason for their failure was that the dominant national culture everywhere refused to accept them. Rights could make Jews equal in the eyes of the law, but it could not command equality in the hearts of their fellow citizens. The only honorable and effective response to these harsh truths about the limits of enlightenment and liberalism was for Jews to form a nation-state of their own.</p>
<p>Peter Berkowitz</p>
<p>In The Jewish State, Herzl insists Palestine is the Jews’ “unforgettable historical homeland,” even though as leader of the world’s Zionist organization, he did famously entertain a proposal by the British that a temporary Jewish state be created on land in Uganda. But it was Herzl who firmly set the course of world Zionism on the path to the creation of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. It was Herzl who created the organizational structure, and it was Herzl who recognized such a state would require Jews to cast off centuries of habits and attitudes and become artisans, manufacturers and farmers, among the many other occupations necessary to run a modern nation-state.</p>
<p>Zionism in his eyes was justified, though, not only by what it would do for the Jews. “The world will be liberated by our freedom,” Herzl proclaimed, “and enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. Whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.” But, some argue against Herzl, political Zionism could never be enough. Physical, material and political existence, in the last analysis, was inseparable from spiritual existence.</p>
<p>Foremost among the cultural Zionists was Ahad Ha’am, whose name means “one of the people.” According to the cultural Zionists, political programs and ideals must be grounded in national culture. In the Diaspora, Jews turned inward, dwelling on the spiritual life and neglecting the body in political life. Political Zionism went to the opposite extreme, concentrating on the body and political life, while giving too little thought to spiritual life. Ahad Ha’am urged cultural renewal based on a conception of Judaism “that shall have as its focal point the ideal of our nation’s unity, its renaissance, and its free development to the expression of universal human values in the terms of its own distinctive spirit.” [The Law of the Heart, 1894.] That was cultural Zionism. But, argued the religious Zionists, cultural Zionism could never be enough, for the deepest dimension of Jewish culture was the Torah. When taken seriously, the Torah demanded to be read not just as another literary creation, however profound and influential. No, it demanded to be read and taken seriously as God’s law, dictated to Moses and binding on God’s chosen people.</p>
<p>The imperatives of Jewish faith, according to religious Zionists, require national renaissance in Israel. And national renaissance in Israel in turn will bring about the renewal of Jewish faith. Persons of this doctrine, religious Zionism, were taught by figures as diverse as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, Samuel Landau and Judah Magnes&#160;— even Martin Buber articulated a version of this religious Zionism. All of these strands went into the formation of Zionism that helped create Israel.</p>
<p>Having said all this, though, it would be wrong to suggest, by means of the cunning of history, the rise of enlightenment and liberalism in Europe begat reform and assimilation; that the limitations of reform and assimilation begat political Zionism; that the limitations of political Zionism begat cultural Zionism; and that the limitations of cultural Zionism begat the return to religious Zionism, which is where the Jews were before the Enlightenment and liberalism arose.</p>
<p>Zionism and history are more complicated than that, and there are many things one could say about them. But I want to make one last point. The tensions within political Zionism give rise not only to the development of cultural Zionism and religious Zionism as a religious alternative to Zionism, but also give rise to the great secular challenge to Zionism within Israel known as post-Zionism.</p>
<p>To put post-Zionism in some perspective, and to conclude, I want to return to Israel’s <a href="" type="external">declaration of independence</a>, which was signed by David Ben-Gurion and 36 fellow members of the Provisional Council of State in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, even as five invading Arab armies were waging war on the Jewish community in Palestine. Among other things, this declaration proclaimed “the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign state.”</p>
<p>In the declaration’s appeal to the Jewish people’s “traditional and historic attachment to the land of Israel on the one hand, and to universal principles of justice and natural right on the other,” the declaration gives expression to conflicting currents of religious, nationalist, liberal and democratic [thought] running through modern Zionism. The loss of faith among some Israelis today in the ability of Israel to harmonize these conflicting elements&#160;— in other words, the loss of faith in the Zionist dream&#160;— is what goes by the name of post-Zionism. While Israeli authors and artists once sang the praises of hardy settlers, brave soldiers and wise statesmen, much post-Zionist literature routinely portrays Zionism as a repugnant ideal and a Jewish state as a miserable country. Post-Zionist scholars have sought to show Zionism is in essence an anti-democratic and even totalitarian ideology. Post-Zionism activists have sought to abolish the use of the symbols and institutions of the state to promote Jewish culture. The cultural and educational resources of the state should instead be reserved, in the post-Zionist dispensation, for advocating the universal goods of democracy and human rights.</p>
<p>No one familiar with the history of Zionism can fail to be pained and alarmed by the attacks on Zionism waged by some of Israel’s best and brightest. For whatever its limitations and errors, the Zionism of Pinsker, Herzl and Ben-Gurion did reflect a noble aspiration to provide a dispersed and embattled people the opportunity to govern itself in freedom and dignity. Zionism, despite the hardship, political blunders and tragedy, has succeeded.</p>
<p>If you step back and view it generously, post-Zionism can be seen as one of political Zionism’s successes, certainly one of its offspring. Post-Zionism is not only part of a larger culture war and political program, it also embraces a thoroughly secular conception of the good life, [visible in] the World Cup soccer obsession, the beaches crowded every Sabbath and holiday, the Tel Aviv nightclub scene. Post-Zionism places hedonism over heroism and modern consumerism over piety. It reflects a desire on the part of many Israelis to cast off the rigor and, in their eyes, rigmarole of Judaism. But in all these things, post-Zionism follows a powerful strand in Zionism, which sought to enable Jews to live like all the nations. Post-Zionism differs from Zionism not in wishing to live like all the nations, but in believing that in order to live like all the nations, Israel must slough off also, and especially, the burdensome heritage of Zionism itself.</p>
<p>Modern Zionism is, then, a dynamic but vulnerable synthesis. By giving priority to the sovereignty of the Jewish people, it set aside the sovereignty of the Torah. As I mentioned, Israel’s founding declaration promised “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” In making this big promise, it rendered suspect all forms of particularism, including Jewish particularism. Post-Zionism draws on all these themes, but it often does so recklessly and resentfully. It radicalizes Zionism’s quest for normalcy, the desire to live like all the nations, and the commitment to the natural freedom and equality of all human beings. But it has a tendency to forget what is central&#160;— the conviction that a Jewish state, with a respect for the Jewish tradition and special concern for the fate of its people, can also, because of that respect and special concern, protect freedom and equality for all.</p>
<p>The contemporary struggle between Zionism and post-Zionism is not a struggle between Zionism and its antithesis, but rather a struggle within Israel’s soul between competing principles out of which Zionism was forged.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you, Peter.</p>
<p>Not only did Peter Berkowitz have nice things to say about Ari, but our colleague Jeff Goldberg has said Ari Shavit is the best person to speak on this topic. Thank you for coming, Ari; you traveled the farthest to be here.</p>
<p>Ari Shavit</p>
<p>ARI SHAVIT: It’s a pleasure and honor to be here.</p>
<p>Let me begin with a confession. I’m a Zionist. I’m a critical Zionist. Sometimes I’m a skeptical Zionist. Much of the time I’m an anxious Zionist. Almost always I’m a tormented Zionist. I know our sins too well. I know our faults and our flaws extremely well. And yet at the end of the day I’m a Zionist.</p>
<p>Why am I a Zionist? Because I am a Jew, a secular Jew. As a secular Jew I’m committed to Jewish life. As a secular Jew I’m committed to the existence of a non-Orthodox Jewish civilization. As a secular Jew I believe there is no way to secure the future of a non-Orthodox Jewish civilization without maintaining a Jewish home. For me Zionism is just that: It’s home. It’s the attempt to build a home for a homeless people. It’s an almost desperate, last-minute attempt to save a people and their civilization by giving them a home.</p>
<p>In order to understand the deep rationale of Zionism, one has to understand Jewish exceptionalism. Jewish exceptionalism is not about exceptional genes, good or bad. Jewish exceptionalism is not about exceptional virtues, faults or looks. It’s not even about exceptional Woody Allen or Jeffrey Goldberg humor.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Jewish exceptionalism is about an exceptional challenge. How to survive as a people for a millennium and a half without a territory or kingdom. How to maintain your unloved existence among others without vanishing into thin air.</p>
<p>The exceptional answer Jews gave to the exceptional challenge they faced was composed of two G’s&#160;– God and ghetto. It was the closeness and the remoteness of the non-Jewish other that enabled the Jewish people to survive its Diaspora. An intense love affair with an Almighty, a stormy and yet intimate relationship, gave a sense of meaning, pride and even privilege to an otherwise unbearable life. The walls of the ghetto gave this life some protection, [functioned as] some sort of shield. Hence, God and ghetto became the two pillars of Jewish existence.</p>
<p>By the end of the 19th century, as the speaker described, both G’s were on the wane, and they were both diminishing fast. Jews were losing their eye contact with God, and they were watching the walls of the ghetto crumble. What was, was not to be. Jewish existence was at peril. If the Jews were to survive as a people, they had to act. In order to save themselves, they needed to transform themselves. They needed to go through the greatest and most radical revolution any people ever had to go through.</p>
<p>In this sense Zionism was a stroke of genius. Its founding fathers and mothers had a profound historic insight. Half a century before Auschwitz, they realized in a godless and ghetto-less world, Jewish physical existence is in jeopardy. They realized our beloved Mother Europe was turning into a Medea, with the spark of nationalism in her eyes, along with the bigotry, the xenophobia, anti-Semitism and the insanity of hating post-ghetto Jews even more than ghetto Jews. But the founders of Zionism had another insight equally important: That even if there were no physical threat to post-ghetto Jews from without, they would still be faced with a cultural, spiritual threat from within.</p>
<p>In the United Kingdom of 1895 and 1905, Jews were not persecuted, and they were not about to be persecuted. Disraeli was cherished; Rothschild was a financial czar. Yet when my great-grandfather looked around him over 100 years ago, he realized what many Jews in Western Europe and North America realize today&#160;— that by moving from Whitechapel to St. John’s Wood, he had made it as an individual, but he had risked it all as a Jew. He realized his Cambridge-educated sons and Virginia Woolf-type daughters would find it difficult to preserve their Jewishness in an affluent, enlightened British surrounding. The old formula was gone. If Jewish life was to continue, something had to be done. At great personal cost, and enormous collective cost, something radical had to be done.</p>
<p>Something was done. Something of enormous proportion. Because of the day-to-day trouble in the Middle East, because of the attrition caused by ongoing violence, we tend to ignore the historical significance of what was done. The 20th century turned out to be the most dramatic century in the Jews’ rather dramatic history. The first half of the 20th century was our worst ever. We saw one-third of us evaporate. One-third. And yet the second half of the 20th century was our best ever. Best for at least 2,000 years. Why is that so? Because from 1945 on, we saw two amazing Jewish success stories develop. One was the success of Zionism, the breathtaking achievement of renewing Jewish sovereignty against all odds. The other was just as astonishing: the establishment of the perfect Jewish Diaspora in this country.</p>
<p>In many ways the 20th century was the Jewish Big Bang. First, there was historical catastrophe. There was the immolation of East European Jewry, the brutal death of shtetl and ghetto. But then, out of the energy produced by the destruction, came into being two spectacles of Jewish renaissance. With all due respect to other Jewish communities throughout the world, the two pillars of contemporary Jewish existence are the free and vibrant Jewish-American community and the free and vibrant Jewish Israeli state, one a direct outcome, a brainchild of the 110-year-old Zionist idea, the other depending very much for its integrity, identity and continuity on the very same Zionist idea.</p>
<p>Hence, 110 years after my British great-grandfather made his first Zionist pilgrimage to Palestine, just ahead of the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897, I can safely conclude the idea he was carrying with him into that wild, barren land was not only benign but a triumphant idea. As a consequence of that revolutionary and daring idea, Jews are as fortunate today as they ever were. The century that began with the pogrom of Kishinev in 1903 and went on to the crematoriums of Auschwitz and Treblinka was transformed by this idea to the century of Jewish revival.</p>
<p>This revival was achieved at great cost. In order to establish the Jewish home, we Zionists have committed three major sins. First, we have sinned in abusing the land. We have taken the terraced hills of Judea and turned them into fortress-like settlements. We have taken the Plain of Sharon and the orange groves of Jaffa and turned them into an urban cement megalopolis that in many ways is faceless and banal. There is much talk of Palestinian refugee camps. Rightly so. But metaphorically speaking we have turned the Holy Land into an enormous refugee camp for the Jews, squeezing a haunted people to a very narrow strip of land that cannot sustain it.</p>
<p>Second, we have sinned in uprooting the Palestinians. Without getting into the details of the war of 1948, without drowning in the muddy debate about who is to be blamed for the Palestinian Catastrophe of that year, the bottom line is clear. We have dispossessed hundreds of thousands who have now grown to be millions. We have replaced another people in much of our shared homeland.</p>
<p>Our third Zionist sin was towards ourselves. In order to make this gigantic leap back into history, in order to turn a politically passive nation into an active player on the world stage, we had to transform ourselves. In many ways we had to betray ourselves, turning our back on Jewish tradition and Jewish sophistication, turning our back on Jewish morality and Jewish identity, losing much of the creativity Diaspora Jews have, losing much of the flair and imagination and character richness, losing some of that subversive constructive spirit of those with multiple identity, losing that Woody Allen and Jeffrey Goldberg humor.</p>
<p>For years that was the balance: three sins versus a mind-blowing historical adventure. Three sins versus a spectacular success. Three sins and a miracle, if you wish. Over the last decade, especially since the collapse of the peace process in 2000, 9/11, the Hamas victory of February 2006 and the second Lebanon war of July 2006, a notion has appeared that the Zionist entity is getting out of balance, spiraling out of control. In some ways this notion is exaggerated. The Israeli economy is booming. Israel is the greatest research and development laboratory for the high tech industry outside the United States. Israel has more companies on the NASDAQ than France, Germany and Italy put together. Israeli society is vibrant. Among other things, the birth rate of secular Jews in Israel, let alone Arabs or ultra-Orthodox, is higher than in any other OECD country, even the United States.</p>
<p>Israel is in many ways a well-established fact. Just as the anti-Zionists were wrong about the life expectancy of the Zionist endeavor in the 1900s, just as the State Department officials were wrong about the life expectancy of the Zionist enterprise in 1948, so the alarmists of today might be wrong. They all underestimate the great need for maintaining a Jewish state. They all underestimate the enormous vitality of the Jewish state, for in many ways the story of Zionism is the story of vitality against all odds.</p>
<p>Yet, there is room for concern. One can say the three sins of Zionism are now challenging the miracle. First, Israel&#160;— north of Beersheba&#160;— is already the most densely populated country in the West. In 20 years time the population explosion of both Jews and Arabs will make life in the Holy Land unbearable. Not only will the landscape be gone, but it will be very hard to maintain even any semblance of reasonable life in that tormented land.</p>
<p>Second, the Palestinian issue is not going away. The hope of solving it with an elegant peace treaty is basically gone. No realist would believe today there is any brilliant formula or shining piece of paper that will end the Palestinian-Israeli tragedy in our time. The conflict is there, and the conflict will go on. No end is in sight, definitely not a happy one.</p>
<p>Third, the difficulty Israelis have with themselves, with their identity and their Jewish past was masked for two or three generations by the powerful Zionist ethos. As that ethos has weakened in recent decades, and especially in recent years, a vacuum has revealed itself. The disintegration of the labor movement, the kibbutzim and the pioneer spirit is not arbitrary. The profound leadership crisis and the decay of the political system is not arbitrary either. They all spring from a deeper ideological and even spiritual crisis caused by the Zionist revolution, which was exposed as the revolution lost its conviction and inner might.</p>
<p>Now we are challenged. The 20th century is gone, and the 21st century is a challenging one for us as Zionists, Israelis and Jews. Roughly speaking, Israel is faced with two well-known existential threats, and one of which is more silent and profound. First, there is the nuclear issue. If Iran goes nuclear, Israel is not immediately doomed. But if Iran goes nuclear, Israel is back in a real existential fight for its survival. Even if no mushroom cloud appears in the blue skies over Tel Aviv, the notion that mushroom cloud might appear is dramatic. It would change the region, and it would change dramatically Israel’s standing in the region.</p>
<p>Then there is the occupation issue. Israel is caught in a dilemma. If it does not end occupation and retreat, it will lose both its integrity as a Jewish democratic state and its international legitimacy. But if Israel does end the occupation and withdraw without a peace accord, which is not in sight, that will be perceived by its neighbors as an act of weakness and will expose Israel to new waves of attack, terror, low-intensity warfare, and, eventually, total war.</p>
<p>The third challenge I refer to as the inner Israeli challenge. If it is to survive facing the external challenges, Israel must pull its act together. It must reform its political system, it must come up with decent government. But it must do more than that. It must create a new, relevant narrative that can keep the nation together and give meaning to the hardship it faces.</p>
<p>As I said before, Zionism was a revolutionary movement. It achieved what it achieved by cutting our traditional Jewish roots, by creating a new and somewhat superficial Israeli culture whose foundations are not deep. Israel’s Jewish complex, almost anti-Semitic at times, prevents Israelis from being relaxed about their Jewish identity. This creates an identity limbo. It creates the deep crisis of Jewish Israeli culture. Israel must deal with that. It must write the new narrative that will help us endure what is awaiting us, just as the old God-based narrative helped us endure nearly 2,000 years of Diaspora life.</p>
<p>What do these three challenges tell us? The question of Zionism is still an open one. Zionism was insightful in its critical analysis of the Jewish condition in the modern world, and it was astonishing in its ability to move from critical analysis to the creation of a new form of Jewish life, which has proven to be vibrant, energetic and exciting. But the jury is still out on whether the Zionist solution works, whether the Zionist remedy doesn’t have disastrous side effects. The drama is still unfolding. It did not end in 1948, or in 1967, or in 2000. It is up to us Israelis of this generation to decide whether the 20th century revolution of Jewish life is an astounding success or a colossal failure. Thank you.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you very much.</p>
<p>JEFFREY GOLDBERG, The New Yorker: It’s always fun to listen to someone who’s more depressed about the Middle East than I am.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Sometimes listening to Ari makes the prophet Jeremiah look like Henny Youngman.</p>
<p>Can I start with a joke? I think it sets the tone for the discussion about this existential question. A German guy runs into a bar. It’s a very hot day, and he says, “I am so hot and tired and thirsty. I must have beer.” The bartender gives him a beer. A few minutes later a French guy runs into the bar and says, “I am so tired and thirsty. I must have wine.” Gives him a bottle of wine. A few minutes later a Jewish guy runs in the bar and says, “I am so tired and thirsty. I must have diabetes.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>My question is for Ari. It’s the central question I think about every day, which is, you’re right that we have two promised lands. After 2,000 years of no promised land, suddenly we have this great blessing of a promised land in the actual physical, spiritual home of the Jews, and this sui generic Diaspora experience. But neither one is perfect. Israel is safe for Judaism; it’s a Jewish baby factory. It’s safe for Judaism but it’s not safe for Jews. And America, while safe for Jews&#160;— that’s the great miracle of this Diaspora experience&#160;— is not safe for Judaism precisely because it’s so safe for the physical Jews. As Irving Kristol famously said, it’s not that Christians in America want to kill us, it’s that they want to marry us.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Which one is better for preserving the Jewish people? I ask this in all seriousness because the most chilling thing said about the Jews since the close of World War II is something Hassan Nasrallah said a few years ago, when he said he did not mind Jewish emigration to Israel because it saved the trouble of getting the Jews everywhere. In other words, if you collect them all in one place, you can deal with them in one sweep.</p>
<p>I seriously ask myself this question all the time: If there is actually no solution to the problem of Israel’s existence, no possibility of peace in the coming generations, isn’t then the Jewish responsibility to save Jewish life? To say it’s more important to save the Jewish body and get those people out of Israel before they are annihilated rather than leave them there as this noble but ultimately doomed experiment? That’s a large question.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: And you say I’m the Jeremiah.</p>
<p>MR. GOLDBERG: Yes.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>I’m trying to be Amos.</p>
<p>Peter, I wanted you to respond to the second of Ari’s Zionist sins, the sin against the Palestinians. I’m curious to see how sinful you think that sin is.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: How sinful it is.</p>
<p>MR. GOLDBERG: I thought you’d have something interesting to say about that.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: I merely have to deal with one of three sins. Ari has to deal with the worldwide fate of the Jewish people. It’s only fair.</p>
<p>Ari’s obviously right. Sins have been committed against the Palestinians. The thing I would add is it is necessary to understand those sins in context. I could enumerate, at the risk of boring everybody, the obvious facts, well-known for the last more than 100-plus years of history, about Jewish efforts in settling Israel, to seek cooperation and live with Arabs, and repeated acceptance by first the Jewish settlement in Israel, and then [the state of] Israel, of peace plans that were blatantly rejected by Arabs, by the Palestinians.</p>
<p>One could talk about the colossal sin committed against the Palestinian people by Yasser Arafat, who over the last 10 years of his life stole $10 billion from his people, thereby depriving them of the resources they needed to build roads, hospitals, factories, schools and houses in their land, to alleviate the real misery in which they live. He understood perfectly well that to alleviate the misery in which they lived would also sap the will to fight, engage and sustain the murderous hatred of Jews.</p>
<p>I could go on longer like that, but I wouldn’t want that enumeration to cloud the assertion that the Palestinians have been sinned against by the creation of the state of Israel and by the state of Israel. I would just want to insist that the sins committed by Israel and the sins committed by the Palestinians, not only against Israel but by the Palestinian leadership against their own people, be weighed together in the balance when attempting to reach a judgment about Israel.</p>
<p>Ari Shavit</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: If you really care about maintaining the Jewish life you’ve heard about, there’s only one way to do that, and that’s to become ultra-Orthodox [in] America. If this is your concern, then that’s the solution.</p>
<p>For those of us who are not willing to do that, it’s a serious question. You’re much more pessimistic than me in your question, Jeff. Had I thought we were facing annihilation, then that would be a different sort of question.</p>
<p>Should [annihilation] be the case, it would not be a problem of the Jews or the Israelis. In this sense Israel is Czechoslovakia. If Israel goes under, the West will be in deep, deep trouble. Perhaps it might survive, but just might. It’s not 1920. Israel is part of the West, although much of the West does not want to acknowledge it, and it is definitely seen that way by the relevant radical Muslim forces.</p>
<p>The conflict is not only about the Jewish state. It’s about Israel as a free society. Suicide bombers don’t go for yeshivas, and they don’t even go for settlements. They go for nightclubs and cafes and shopping malls. Their war is more against Israel as the frontier line of the West than against the Jewish entity. It is sexy to die the symbols, the icons of the Western way of life. Therefore, if, God forbid, something happens to Israel, the implications for the West would be dramatic. I don’t know if beyond repair, but dramatic.</p>
<p>One of the things 9/11 and the events of the last decade changed is, up until 2000, many Israelis had a feeling we are stuck in this struggle, we got ourselves into a trouble spot. Now there is a strong sense of there is nowhere to go as Jews, [especially] when you look at Europe. North America is different, but Europe is deeply troubled. Beyond that there is nowhere to go. The idea of running away won’t work. You can buy time but you cannot solve the problem. Appeasement does not and will not work with these forces.</p>
<p>I’m saying harsh things. I’m saying them to Israelis and in many ways to Westerners because it’s a time to gather all we have. Definitely in Israel but really throughout the West because we are all challenged. My mood is not that of lament. It is that of seeing it’s a really critical and dramatic [situation right now]. I do believe, as I hinted, that if you have the right spirit and gather your forces, then you can win. But if you don’t&#160;— one thing that is troubling, in Israel and in the West, is this lack of willpower. If Western civilization does not prove it has willpower, then Hassan Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad will win.</p>
<p>Jay Tolson</p>
<p>JAY TOLSON, U.S. News &amp; World Report: My question is for both speakers. Do you think post-Zionism’s moment was irreparably lost back in 2000 with Arafat’s refusal of the deal? Is post-Zionism a dead doctrine? Or does its spirit continue?</p>
<p>What you’re talking now makes it seem academic in the worst sense to talk about how it might come back or help [us] out of this particularly horrible impasse we seem to be in right now. Was post-Zionism ultimately, a suicide pill for the Jewish state? I’ve read both sides of the argument but I wonder what you think. Can it be a way forward again?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: I do think it was a poisonous, suicidal pill. I agree with everything you assume in your question. Up to 2000 it was getting stronger and stronger. This is one of the many major mistakes made by the Israeli left: The moment you went into a peace process in 1993, you should have made sure, both internally and externally, there was solid recognition for the Jewish state and a willingness to take the risks involved in bringing Arafat back, giving land back and eventually moving toward this two-state solution with a major dramatic withdrawal. At the same time you should have made sure you are safe at home. Even while you are giving back what you shouldn’t have had to begin with, you should secure our core existence.</p>
<p>But the left in Israel made a mistake, and perhaps you’d see some similarities with some mistakes made by the left in this country. At that point I was still one of the crowd, and we got so excited about the idea “it’s real peace.” As I like to say, the only statesman who took Fukuyama seriously was Shimon Peres. Everywhere there was this feeling, “end of conflict, end of history, end of everything, let’s move on.” There were two manifestations of that. One was the individualistic, consumerist, “let’s just do business, nothing is important.” This is why the left lost the elections of ’96 because it basically said peace is about money. It completely missed the politics of identity Netanyahu captured and that’s why he won the election.</p>
<p>The other aspect was the more radical manifestation, the intellectual, which was post-Zionism and an attack on the core of the Jewish state. It’s not only that Arafat refused the deal. Rather than going the old Ben-Gurion way, being moderate and willing to make sacrifices and compromises and at the same time being very realistic and disciplined, we went into a frenzy, and in many ways we went berserk. It all collapsed, and this is why the roof fell in on us in 2000.</p>
<p>I’ll say this: Post-Zionism is relevant in one way. Through academic life and through some pages in my paper, it has a poisonous effect on Europe. This is the only way post-Zionism is relevant. It’s not relevant in Israel. It’s not relevant to reality in the Middle East. People who live an illusion in Israel, who are very few, feed the European illusion. That’s all there is to it.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: I’ll add one thing to that. Post-Zionism draws on intellectual currents that nourish post-modernism in Western Europe and in the United States. So it’s not likely to disappear entirely any time soon. It is sustained not just by streams coming out of modern Zionism, but by intellectual streams in the West. That little role Ari says it may continue to play is actually a significant role. It’s not nothing to be encouraging prejudices among European intellectuals about Israel and Israel’s place in the Middle East. That’s significant, even if discredited inside Israel.</p>
<p>MARK PINSKY, Orlando Sentinel: Ironically what Sheikh Nasrallah said about the in-gathering of the Jews is not that different from what some evangelicals say about the End of Days. That [in-gathering] is a pre-requisite to the second coming of Jesus, with the result being the same&#160;— either Jews converting to Christianity or Jews being annihilated. In any event, no more Jews.</p>
<p>Which raises the issue of the rise of Christian Zionism. I’ve been chronicling, in the Sun Belt at least, an interesting development. After 200 years of hostility between Protestants and the Jews in the South&#160;— based on two separations, one, that the Jews did not accept Jesus as their savior, and two, less explicit, that they didn’t share racial attitudes with their hosts&#160;— there’s been this 180-degree turnaround with the rise of Christian Zionism. If you hear <a href="http://www.jhm.org/support-israel.asp" type="external">Rev. John Hagee</a> speak, it’s like Netanyahu was speaking in terms of what Israel’s policy should be.</p>
<p>But within the Jewish community I’ve found a real separation among Jews. For some American Jews, often referred to as single-issue Jews, it’s all about support for the state of Israel, and nothing else matters. Another segment of Jews, and I don’t know where the split is, are uncomfortable with the rise of Christian Zionism. They welcome the allies, they welcome the support, but they’re troubled because of the baggage this alliance brings with it, particularly on issues where they don’t share assumptions with evangelical Christians. The role of women, fixation with homosexuality, abortion, reproductive rights, stem cell research, religion in the public square, evolution versus creationism&#160;— on all these issues, Diasporadic Jews, people who see their lives as being in America, are in fundamental disagreement with many evangelical Protestants. But they are in a tactical alliance with them on the issue of support for Israel.</p>
<p>I wanted to hear from your side of the ocean how the rise of Christian Zionism is seen.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: Most people on my side of the ocean don’t see it. You have very few right-wing Israeli politicians who are close to these Christian Zionists. I mentioned Netanyahu. There is an interesting alliance going on between the national religious, the haredim, who suddenly see this evangelical support for Israel as “I have something they can follow.” They are trying to study the patterns, how it works.</p>
<p>But these are marginal figures. Netanyahu is not a marginal figure but — Netanyahu is a secular person. I wouldn’t call him a liberal but he has no affinity to this ideology whatsoever.</p>
<p>Some of these other guys might find areas of agreement. You have a very interesting coalition now in Jerusalem, not with the Christians though they’re aware of it. When we have this <a href="http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=10867" type="external">gay parade</a>, you have the religious Muslims and the religious Jews working together against it. There were a few Christians there as well. Most Israelis would like to get any support from wherever it comes, but there is no real alliance there.</p>
<p>As I mentioned over dinner last night, Israel is a free society in a very deep way. Israel in my mind&#160;— Jeff might disagree&#160;— is very, very secular and very, very open. The issues you are dealing with in this country, about abortion and the gay rights, although we have this influential, ultra-Orthodox minority, three-quarters of Israel would find all these discussions bizarre. The spirit of the country, although it has this religious minority, is very, very open and in many ways much more open than in this country, and even than Europe.</p>
<p>Concerning Israelis&#160;— I’m not thinking about the American Jews, Peter will do that&#160;— there is no coming together ideologically of these two movements.</p>
<p>MR. PINSKY: Do they recognize the impact evangelical Christians have on White House policy in their support for Israel and how critical that may be?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: The professionals do, but the professionals are few, and this is not a topic of discussion. I was present at a gathering in Washington, like AIPAC, and I saw discomfort, but it was mainly among American Jews. The Israelis were watching it. It doesn’t really penetrate the minds and hearts of most Israelis. It might in the future, but not so far.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: My father is deeply disturbed about evangelical Christian support for Israel, and he speaks for many left, liberal, more or less assimilated Jews. Myself, I’m not so disturbed. And I still get along with my father, yes.</p>
<p>One reason I’m not disturbed is it’s a very difficult time for Israel, and one should be open-minded when it comes to friends who reach out. The second reason is&#160;—</p>
<p>MR. PINSKY: Friends or allies?</p>
<p>Peter Berkowitz</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: Allies&#160;— but allies who present themselves as friends. Second, I consider it an obligation in democratic politics to regard, at least in the first place, my fellow citizens as fellow citizens and not a menace, enemies, foreign creatures. I don’t live among many evangelical Christians. I don’t get a chance to circulate. But I did just come from a conference for federal judges, and one of the judges was there with his wife. They’re from Alabama, and they’re evangelicals. His wife was explaining to me her tremendous devotion to the Jewish people and to Israelis. There used to be an Air Force base in Alabama where Israelis would regularly come to train with helicopters, and there would always be seven or eight Israeli families. These are members of the Israeli Defense Force, pilots, and probably a high proportion of them were not observant Jews.</p>
<p>She was totally devoted to them, told me about how she welcomed them into her house. She showed off her broken Hebrew to me, in her Southern accent. My father would wag his finger and say, “Beware, she wants to convert you.” Perhaps somewhere down the line [he’s right], but I see that as way off in the future. Right now, in what is at minimum a difficult and dark time, I say, to the extent possible, consistent with principle, consistent with one’s commitment to liberal and democratic principles, far from turning away people who come as friends, do the best one can to reach out and preserve the common ground.</p>
<p>MR. PINSKY: As far as proselytizing goes, it’s not an immediate goal, but that is what defines evangelicals as evangelicals. About a year ago Abe Foxman and Eric Yoffie <a href="http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/11/29/foxman/index.html" type="external">spoke out against this alliance</a>, saying these people aren’t really our friends. Some evangelical leaders snapped back and said, essentially, you guys better watch it because we have certain expectations. Then they backed away from that. But there was a nasty undertone to the debate. Did you pick up on any of that?</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: I don’t know the details of that exchange but it goes to a fundamental challenge within the world of globalizing pluralism <a href="http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=136" type="external">about which Peter Berger spoke this morning</a>. One has to grapple with the fact that different religions make absolute claims. One can hope, at the end of days, there will be a convergence and all the conflicts will be resolved.</p>
<p>This difficulty comes up not only in the relationship between evangelicals and Jews. Catholics and Protestants also differ in some fundamental ways.</p>
<p>ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE, The Economist: The other day when I was in Guatemala City, I went into a dozen Pentecostal churches and every single one of them had the Israeli flag on the stage. You take your friends where you can get them.</p>
<p>Carl Cannon</p>
<p>CARL CANNON, National Journal: Peter, as a follow-up to what you’ve been saying, is there a backlash among American Jews? Not that it would be reasonable, but I’m asking if it exists that: “These evangelicals are for Israel, maybe I’m not.”</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: No. I don’t know anybody who’s suffered that&#160;— you mean a guilty conscience?</p>
<p>MR. CANNON: No, not at all.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: Oh, if they’re for Israel then I should be against it?</p>
<p>MR. CANNON: Not exactly. Toward Zionism. Maybe the left, maybe Jimmy Carter’s right (inaudible)&#160;— now I’m really confused. But you know what I’m saying; I mean people like your dad.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: My dad would&#160;— this only applies to my father. My father would not let his genuine discomfort with the closeness of evangelicals to Israel cause him to weaken his support for Israel. But I don’t doubt that among some groups viewing the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians from the point of view of sympathy with Palestinian claims goes along with a contempt for Christianity. If you’re asking me do I think that set of sentiments co-exists in places, in the academy, in intellectual life in America, the answer is yes. I’ve encountered that constellation.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: The issue is about the lack of empathy in the left towards Israel. I can give you a personal example. My neighborhood café in Jerusalem was exploded by a suicide bomber, and I heard it, and it’s the only time in my life I actually grabbed my notebook and ran. I was there a minute after the bomb went off. I was there with the dead young men and women on the floor, and it was a really&#160;— I’m not used to it. A shocking experience. It was horrible.</p>
<p>The next morning I was interviewed by Dutch television, and I could hear the lad on the other end of the line [being unsympathetic.] This situation was very simple. On that day, we were the victims; literally our blood was in the streets. And I could hear the coldness from Amsterdam to Jerusalem, and this lack [of empathy]. Have whatever criticism you want&#160;— Israel is apartheid, Israel is that&#160;— but in that moment, as a reporter, it’s very clear where things stand.</p>
<p>For me that moment in the morning was in a sense more terrifying than what I saw the night before. This is a very deep sentiment among Israelis and people who care. You feel not only shut out but you also feel the lack of empathy beyond the political debate.</p>
<p>This situation calls for debate about what happens in left-wing circles, but it creates a lack of sensitivity among Israelis and pro-Israelis, too. As Peter said, when others, whoever they may be, reach out and hug us in this kind of situation, it’s very difficult not to take that hug.</p>
<p>Cathy Lynn Grossman</p>
<p>CATHY LYNN GROSSMAN, USA Today: The generation of American Jews who are the unquestioning Zionists, the “my Israel right or wrong” crowd&#160;— your grandfather, my grandfather, my parents&#160;— is aging and, I think, shrinking. The young, the non-Orthodox cultural Jews, the Reform and Conservative Jews in this country&#160;— to a large extent they’re almost mystified by Israel. They don’t get it politically, and they don’t get it religiously because they don’t recognize the Judaism there. There’s this politically Zionist cultural, secular Judaism they have no way to connect to, and there’s the ultra-Orthodox. There’s no one who looks like them, who [adhere to] the ethical, moral, Jewish traditional teaching found in Conservative and Reform Judaism.</p>
<p>If Israel had allowed Conservative and Reform Jewish expression over the years, might this have been different? So I could send my 21-year-old daughter there, and she’d recognize a form of Judaism that spoke to her value system and say, “This is my people, I recognize this.”</p>
<p>In Israel you can debate all these things ferociously, but in the United States it’s very difficult to have open debate. When Jews argue about Israel in the United States, one side or the other is going to get excoriated by <a href="http://www.camera.org/" type="external">CAMERA</a> or somebody else. Why is there so little free debate in this country?</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: Let me answer quickly about the United States and then turn it to Avi about Israel. On campuses you see a dramatic change in the last 30 years in student participation at Hillel. Maybe 30 years ago the dominant group at campus Hillels would have been secular Zionist kids who wanted to go to Israel after college and live on a kibbutz; they wanted to work the land. They still had recollections of Israel of 1948. They were inspired by Leon Uris’ <a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/news/newsletters/2003/fall/19.html" type="external">Exodus</a>. Then they went to Israel and discovered the Israelis were no longer so inspired by those dreams, some of them myths.</p>
<p>Now, 30 years later, the most active students in Hillels and Jewish organizations on campus tend to be conservative&#160;— conservative in terms of Jewish denomination, education, or [adherence to] modern Orthodoxy. These students maintain an attachment to Israel and continue to travel there. It’s not that there’s no student commitment to Israel but it’s shifted. Those who have Conservative day school or Orthodox training are much more likely to spend a summer in Israel and know something about Zionism.</p>
<p>On the question of freedom of speech, I want to say excoriation is not censorship. I don’t regard the fact that CAMERA will lash out at a critic of Israel or, for that matter, that a proponent of Israel will receive sharp criticism from the academy as a lack of freedom of expression in this country. Harsh criticism is not the same as lack of freedom. When Mearsheimer and Walt complained bitterly about being censored, about the impossibility of criticizing Israel and the United States, it struck me as close to nonsense. They have their platform, lots of platforms. They talk as critics and proponents and have their [own] magazines and web sites; nobody gets thrown in jail. If you can’t take excoriation then you’re not ready for free speech. The answer is to suck it up.</p>
<p>MR. GOLDBERG: I’ve been attacked by CAMERA any number of times as a self-hating Jew. It’s a stretch, but they do it anyway. If you’re going to write about the Middle East in America, you’re going to take it in the neck. The fact that everyone knows what Walt and Mearsheimer said, that Jimmy Carter’s book is number 15 or whatever on Amazon, means there’s no suppression of debate about Israel in America. One of the great canards about Israel is the Jewish lobby is so strong no one can talk about it. It’s the taboo no one will stop talking about.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>Ari Shavit</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: I don’t want to be an advocate of Zionism here, but this is one of the advantages of having Israel&#160;— and there are many disadvantages. One of the advantages is we in Israel are much more relaxed in this sense. When you are a minority, and you have to keep your boundaries, the stress is much greater. When you feel somewhat liberated about this issue then discussion [is easier to have.] Again, what is remarkable about Israel is the freedom and vitality of discussion and thinking. I would almost say anything goes.</p>
<p>There is something of anarchism in our mentality or genes. It breaks out in Israel in a very wild way, and sometimes it’s part of the roughness and the wildness and the fact we are not that civilized. But on the other hand we are truly free in ways I don’t see in many other places.</p>
<p>Regarding your first question, I think what you describe is right. Again, one of the ironies or problems with Israel is it’s a very free and secular society in many ways, but because of the political power of the religious minority and because there is no separation of church and state, you have all these difficulties for Reform and Conservative Jews. But as well there is an element of mystique because I remember traveling in this country six months ago, visiting some Jewish organizations and lecturing to people, and they were very much concerned about these issues. On the way back I flew with a group from <a href="http://www.birthrightisrael.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=HomePage" type="external">Birthright</a>, these kids who go to Israel. It is amazing to see these kids when they come. I don’t know if you know, but these are kids get a free 10-day vacation in Israel. The idea is any Jewish youngster has a right to 10 days in Israel. This is a project started five, six years ago, funded by a few Jewish-American billionaires, but mostly by the Israeli government. It’s a spectacular success because when you take these 17-, 18-, 19-year-olds – and they are not Reform or Conservative or anything, they come from nothing – and you bring them in touch with young Israelis, it’s electric. It works.</p>
<p>A lot of what you describe is the perception you get through the media, through the talk. In this globalized world, this is something that can be overcome; it is a product of communication failure and not that substantive. As an Israeli I would of course like us to open up, to be liberal also in its establishment [of religion], not only in its spirit, and we have to deal with that on our side. But I think this issue is somewhat exaggerated.</p>
<p>MS. GROSSMAN: (Off mike)&#160;— setting aside American Jews, not to have a spectrum of Jewish expression. The choices are ultra-Orthodox or secular.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: No, that’s not true. We have a Reform movement, we have a Conservative movement. I would even say something else, though I don’t want to get into the details of it. There is a potential point of connection with the traditional approach in Israel, which is not formalized but very similar in its approach, especially by the Oriental Jews, who see themselves as traditionalists.</p>
<p>There is no recognition of conversion, but you can, if you want to, open a Conservative synagogue. I got married with a conservative rabbi in Israel.</p>
<p>Alan Cooperman</p>
<p>ALAN COOPERMAN, The Washington Post: The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of recognition.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: That’s the beginning of a change. We are not a theocracy, although sometimes it is presented that way. It doesn’t work like that. Anyone who wants to have a Conservative ceremony can have a Conservative ceremony. The problem is not that. The problem is there are these movements, and in Israel there are islands of them, but they did not become an Israeli phenomenon because Israeli ways are different. But the spirit is not that different.</p>
<p>MIKE ALLEN, Time: This is just to cross a T on your discussion about “beware and hug.” There was a reference this morning to the group <a href="http://www.jewsforjesus.org/" type="external">Jews for Jesus</a>. Do you think the concept is offensive? I wonder if you have any knowledge about whether it’s an effective organization. They get a lot of publicity, but do you know what they accomplish?</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: I’ll be the first to proclaim ignorance. I don’t know very much about Jews for Jesus, but I’m hard to offend, and I’m not particularly offended by it. I don’t know that much about them.</p>
<p>MR. PINSKY: The rabbis hate it. They’re apostates, in their view, and they go ballistic whenever they come near.</p>
<p>BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY, NPR: I don’t think the members are effective either. They’ll have these mass rallies where 2,000 people come, or they’ll invite 2,000 people, and they’ll get one person who will accept further literature and further contact, things like that. It’s not very effective.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: The problem is it’s quite bizarre for Jews to be supportive of another Jew.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Why is it evangelicals appear to be more vocal and visible about their fascination with Jewish people? What do you think was the engine for that?</p>
<p>MR. ALLEN: The evangelical obsession&#160;—</p>
<p>UNIDENTIFIED: Wasn’t that for Mark? Mark just wrote a book on that.</p>
<p>MR. PINSKY: It’s a development that’s happened in the last six to ten years. It’s been growing and gaining speed. It may peter out in the next two or three years, I don’t know. I don’t know the source of it exactly. There’s a whole debate within the evangelical community about how to relate to Jews theologically because there is the fate of the dual covenants and different routes to heaven. Part of it is the interest in eschatology, but that’s not the majority view. There’s sincere belief that Christians should recognize the Jewish theological roots of their own faith and also support the state of Israel. John Hagee quotes the Bible all the time about how the Jews should be the apple of God’s eyes and those who honor you will be honored and those who attack you will be attacked. [See <a href="http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=127" type="external">Richard Land’s discussion of the significance of this biblical quote for evangelicals</a>.]</p>
<p>But there’s something going on, that’s for sure. It’s really accelerated in the last two or three years, largely through John Hagee and now <a href="http://davidbrog.com/about.php" type="external">David Brog</a>, a Jew who’s been head of Christians United for Israel, which is their latest lobbying organization in Washington. Brog has <a href="http://www.standingwithisrael.net/" type="external">a new book</a>, explaining why this is true. I think he’s a little overly enthusiastic and uncritical, but that’s his position.</p>
<p>MR. TOLSON: It’s time for the witticism that a philo-Semite is an anti-Semite who loves Jews.</p>
<p>MR. COOPERMAN: As a point of information: The broader term is messianic Jews, of which Jews for Jesus is one particular organization. The most interesting thing I can say on the subject is, at least as of 1998, there were about 5,000 messianic Jews living in Israel, and they were serving in the army, and that was a great point of pride for them. They had some belief they might gradually become better integrated and better accepted in Israeli society through that mechanism. I’d be interested in hearing what Ari can say. It’s a small number of people, and I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, but they’re there.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: Not really. I know [them as] a few individuals but not as a group.</p>
<p>MR. PINSKY: Christian proselytizing is against the law in Israel.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: The law is irrelevant in this sense, like many other laws.</p>
<p>MR. WOODRIDGE: I saw an advertisement in, I think, The New York Times yesterday about one million Jews to march on Washington to express support for Israel. I don’t know anything about this but it was there on Sunday.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.carnegieendowment.org/about/staff/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&amp;expert_id=16&amp;prog=zgp&amp;proj=zusr" type="external">Robert Kagan</a> tells a good story about when he was giving a speech in Spain. This was before Iraq descended into what it is now, and he was ridiculing the view, or characterizing the view, that this war was planned by four Jews in Washington. After he’d given the speech, some very earnest Spanish reporter came up to him and said, “Can you give me the name of the four Jews who planned the war?”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>How bad do you think the situation is in Europe in terms of hostility to Israel? What are the implications of the rapid growth of the Muslim population for foreign policy? You see someone like Jack Straw changing foreign policy because of having a huge constituency of Islamic people who are opposed to the war in Iraq. How do you see that playing out in politics?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: Things were very bad. The lowest point was up to 2002, 2003. In France especially, 2001 and 2002 were terrible years. There was something of an improvement, but I see a relapse now. It might have to do with the disengagement from Gaza, which gave the idea “at last Israel is doing the right thing.” There was less violence and blood, which had stirred emotions before. With that combination, there was a pause. But there is a very serious problem, and it’s a combination of two or three problems.</p>
<p>One is the 50- or 60-year grace period of the Holocaust is gone, and therefore you have the return of the ugly feelings toward Jews. You have the European colonial complex, and Israel walks right into that. Then you have the anti-American complex, and Israel walks into that, too.</p>
<p>I have a wild theory there is a new version of the old Christian story [about Jews] because the religion in Europe now is the religion of human rights. Its formative moment, like the crucifixion to Christianity, was the Holocaust. Jews were the protagonists of drama; they were at the heart of it. Yet they of all people did not take the lesson and went back into this bloody history in the Middle East, which Europe is trying to escape.</p>
<p>The depth of feeling is very, very difficult to deal with. But I do see positive forces. In France there were positive phenomena, after a dark period, of the establishment realizing there was a problem and trying to fight back. There is a real struggle even before the Muslim element gets into the picture. Nothing new to say about that, but definitely the growing Muslim population creates tension.</p>
<p>This element of Jews not hearing the call, like in the past, goes into the heart of European problems, that they are not related to Jews or Israel. My interpretation of Europe is there is an unwillingness to face up to historic reality. The success of postwar Europe created a bubble in which you can live, quite shielded, and be anti-American but trust the Americans will save you.</p>
<p>MR. WOOLDRIDGE: (Off mike)&#160;— the same as the problems with America.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: Exactly. In discreet conversations of European strategists with Israelis, they say vis-à-vis Iran, “Why should we deal with this? At the end of the day, if America will not deal with this, you will deal with it.” There is this double attitude of, “We trust you will deal with it. Once you deal with it, we will kill you.” This is now the malaise of Europe, not related to Jews or Israel, but in a funny irony, we get into the European story and become relevant even when things are not directly related to us.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: European anti-Israel attitudes are connected at the hip to European anti-American attitudes, and, strangely enough, I have a story from Spain that closely parallels the Kagan story.</p>
<p>In February 2005 I was invited to attend a conference in Madrid whose purpose was to discuss what the next four years of Bush portended for American policy. My task was to discuss the Supreme Court. I argued, contrary to the fears in Europe and some parts of the United States that this meant theocracy would grab firm hold, all the trends suggested the Supreme Court on the divisive social and cultural issues was tending to the left; I was speaking about abortion, affirmative action and same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>The first question to me was posed by a very distinguished-looking Spanish diplomat from Foreign Ministry. In response to my presentation on abortion, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, he asked this question: “Wouldn’t you agree that America’s reprehensible mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has made it all but impossible for friends of America around the world to stand with her?”</p>
<p>I offered some thoughts about international law. We met again at lunch, and he said, “Thank you very much. What a thoughtful presentation on America’s domestic policy, but wouldn’t you still agree with me, America’s reprehensible mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay…” He had no interest in my topic; he had a one-track mind on this issue and could not see beyond it.</p>
<p>JANE LITTLE, BBC: You’ve talked about the anti-Israel hostility in Europe. Three years ago when anti-Semitism seemed to have reached new highs in Europe, I made a documentary in France, Germany and other places, where I found a pervasive concern and a real wariness among the so-called intelligentsia to even engage the issue. They all talked about there not being open debate in Europe because, they said, “If I criticize Israel, I’m not just an anti-Zionist but I’m [considered] an anti-Semite.”</p>
<p>Bearing in mind there is real hostility in Europe toward Israel, to what extent do you see that as a legitimate concern, when anti-Zionism is equated with anti-Semitism?</p>
<p>A related question: In that same documentary I interviewed young Arab Muslims on the streets of Paris who saw no nuances, no distinctions, between anti-Zionism, anti-Israeli-ism and anti-Semitism. “Jew,” “Israeli” and “Zionist” were used in interchangeable and very hostile ways, often followed by conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>In that context isn’t it your duty, Ari, to stand up for Zionism in a world where Ahmadinejads, and mini-Ahmadinejads, are violently attacking Zionism and Israel?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: You’re criticizing me for not being Zionist enough in my presentation?</p>
<p>MS. LITTLE: I’m just asking the question.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. GOLDBERG: (Off mike)&#160;— the first time the BBC has ever asked a question of an Israeli whether he’s not being Zionist enough.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: I cannot change myself. As I said, I’m a Zionist. I have a deep debate with anti-Zionists, but I think anti-Zionism is legitimate. Anti-Semitism is not legitimate. I make that distinction; it’s as simple as that. I will have a debate with anti-Zionists but I will respect them. I will not have a debate with anti-Semites. I don’t know if I’m sensitive enough. That’s one of the problems of Israelis: We don’t have the sensitivity. But when I do sense it suddenly changes and stops being a debate about the issues and becomes something else, I’m still interested in it but I’m not in the game any more.</p>
<p>I do feel I have to stand up for Israel and Zionism&#160;— it’s not only the journalist in me but the way I am. I don’t believe in simplistic views, in fanatic views. Anything that is not complex does not interest me. Therefore I hope, and perhaps I’m naïve, that when on the one hand you stand for your people, and on the other hand you are able to be critical and honest&#160;— My hope is that, bottom line, it works better. But perhaps I’m mistaken.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: Myself, I would deplore the disgraceful tactic of using charges of anti-Semitism or anti-Israeli-ism or whatever to silence critics of the Jews or of Israel.</p>
<p>At the same time, there are certain telltale signs when criticism goes beyond the bounds of fair and reasoned criticism. One telltale sign is this: when a single standard is applied to Israel but never applied to any other liberal democracy, to say nothing of other states in the region. If Israel is held to an abstract ideal of what a liberal democracy ought to be, and no other states are subject to criticism for their tremendous departures, then I would begin to worry about the good faith of the critic.</p>
<p>But I come back to the most important point. Such charges should not be used to stifle debate or criticism.</p>
<p>MR. TOLSON: I wonder if you’re reluctant to debate the Ahmadinejads of the world on one particular point of Zionism. Something is lost because in a region where it’s assumed you can have political Islam&#160;— it seems a challenge must be made to that kind of thinking. The idea Islam has some right or privilege to the Middle East is pervasive in Europe.</p>
<p>Paul Richter</p>
<p>PAUL RICHTER, Los Angeles Times: Ari, American planners are already thinking about what happens after Iran gets the bomb. How would that affect Israeli society?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: First of all, I’m not apocalyptic. I do not believe if Iran gets the bomb that immediately it would be used. I don’t see mushroom clouds in the Middle East in a few years’ time. But the immediate consequence of Iran getting the bomb is not only that within very short time the whole region will go nuclear. You will have a multi-polar nuclear situation in a very unstable region. Egypt will go nuclear, Saudi Arabia will go nuclear. That would be one implication.</p>
<p>But also you will have a return of conventional wars. While observing the bad news coming out of the Middle East over dozens of years, we did not realize how relatively stable it was since 1967 or 1973. One of the major reasons it was relatively stable is&#160;— what I have to say here as a good citizen of Israel&#160;— what is perceived as Israel’s nuclear hegemony in the region.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>That perception actually stabilized the region, and the result was we did not have major conventional wars except for the one foolishly launched by the Israeli government in 1982 in Lebanon.</p>
<p>My fear is the moment the hegemony is gone, then the roof is taken out, and you’ll immediately see the eruption of conventional warfare. I don’t know about total war, but I think it will happen throughout the region, not only with Israel, but definitely concerning us. The main implications of having Iran going nuclear are having other countries going nuclear and having conventional violence on a much larger scale than we’ve seen in the last 40 years. Then comes [the problem of] countries falling under the influence of Iran.</p>
<p>What will happen to Israeli society is of course the crucial question, and I do not have an answer. That depends a lot on some of the things I mentioned.</p>
<p>We have proved in the past, not only for Israel but also for Zionism, that when we see a challenge and get ourselves prepared for it, we are very good in dealing with it. We have gone through things over these 100 years of the Zionist saga that seem almost impossible to other nations. I’m a great believer in the grassroots strength of Israel society. I’m an admirer of the people, and I despise the politicians and leaders. If some of that inner strength is translated into decent leadership and a more rational way of running public affairs and state policy, then we have a good chance of dealing with that challenge. But it is a truly existential challenge, a dramatic challenge that brings us back almost to 1948, if Iran goes nuclear.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: People sometimes speak lightly, as apparently they do in Europe, about the Israeli Defense Force being able to take care, if necessary at the last moment, of the Iranian nuclear threat. But that overlooks a couple of things. There are spots in Iran more than 1,000 miles further away than the furthest point in Iraq. It’s not like 1981. The nuclear facilities are widely dispersed and built-in. Most analysts I’ve spoken to agree that to seriously set back operations would require waves and waves of sorties, days and days of attacks. It’s not conceivable the international community would allow the Israeli air force to make those days and days of attacks to accomplish a serious setback. That only heightens the seriousness of the problem. The Israeli air force’s offensive threat is not as great a deterrent as some strategists lightly chatter about.</p>
<p>E. J. Dionne</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: It would be a shame to have Ari here without hearing his overview of what’s happening in Israeli politics.</p>
<p>I want to divide my question into two parts: before this summer’s war and after. It seems before this summer’s war you had an ideological crisis and a crisis in the party system. In particular I’d love you to talk about the left. It kind of collapsed after the failure of the Clinton-Barak initiative. What did the rise of Amir Peretz [Labour Party leader and Defense Minister] mean? On the right you had the creation of <a href="http://kadimasharon.co.il/11-en/index.aspx" type="external">Kadima</a>. Could you just take us through that story?</p>
<p>After the war started, you wrote a very prophetic column about two days into it, saying we should stop this thing now and think about how to do this if we’re actually going to do it. I <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071701155.html" type="external">quoted that column</a>, so I was prophetic and brilliant in an entirely derivative way. But I would be curious why you wrote that column. Now this war has created not only a total mess in Lebanese politics but a mess in Israeli politics.</p>
<p>Could you take us through a Mort Sahl routine, the five-minute university?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: I think most things are known, but I’ll go through. Make it clear when I bore you.</p>
<p>What happened last year was&#160;— and I used the term before in a different context — the Big Bang of Israeli politics. I thought it was a very promising development. For years <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=631764&amp;contrassID=2&amp;subContrassID=20&amp;sbSubContrassID=0&amp;listSrc=Y" type="external">I have been talking about the new Israeli majority</a>, which I believe exists and which I believe is the most constructive force in Israel and possibly the region. The new Israeli majority is made up of what I call “rough doves,” people who understand occupation is futile, not because of moral reasons, or because they are benign or idealistic, but because they understand it doesn’t work; it’s messy; and they want to get out. At the same time they realize this will not lead to peace.</p>
<p>Therefore, they want to do it cautiously, possibly gradually&#160;— to move in the right direction but not in a naïve, messianic way like the old peace school tried to do. This new Israeli majority came out of the collapse of Camp David and the years of war. This tells us something very positive about the Israeli public, that in a time of war they were not drawn or tempted to extremism or defeatism. What came out of this very difficult decade was a sober and potentially constructive political force, which was not represented in the old political system. This Israeli majority each [election] has been held hostage by either the right or the left, with each side playing its centrist [card] before elections, but immediately after moving to its own messianic agenda, either the greater Israel or the greater peace, which both don’t work.</p>
<p>When Kadima was formed, I was proud to write an article [about it] and know it had some impact. There was (inaudible word) enough with the Likud, and it was part of the sentiment that other forces pushed Sharon to take the step. That was a very promising moment in Israeli politics. But from that moment on everything went wrong; I was the greatest supporter of Kadima until it was formed.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>After it was formed, Sharon’s petty side came out. He did not try to create a real party with real democratic institutions, he just took some friends and people who were subordinates.</p>
<p>He had the potential of creating a real party of quality. He had amazing support. He could have brought the best and brightest into the Knesset, which would have revolutionized our system. He did not even try to do that. He brought one or two what he thought were virtuous people, and all the others were not worthy. It became much worse when he was replaced by Olmert, who doesn’t have the gravitas, the personality or the authority. It became a phenomenon I find disturbing from a democratic point of view because the corporate part is almost burlesquonian. There is something quite frightening about it: Just PR people, some slogans, a picture of a person, and that’s it.</p>
<p>It was so promising, but it was abused, and it deteriorated into an unworthy political phenomenon. It was a great disappointment. This is before I say what I think of the prime minister personally.</p>
<p>In the elections we had the scandalous behavior of the media, serving Kadima in a [brazen] way, killing the debate, and killing both Netanyahu and Peretz, who both had interesting things to say and were not heard. They were silenced. The media’s behavior in the election of 2006 was shameful and, in my mind, frightening. But the people smelled the rat, and at the last moment Kadima lost a lot of their support and came into power weak rather than strong.</p>
<p>This created the background for the war. To add to it is the amazing way in which Olmert came out with his great <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=724788&amp;contrassID=1&amp;subContrassID=0&amp;sbSubContrassID=0" type="external">convergence plan</a> and renamed realignment plan. He had a profound way of coming up with radical, historic ideas, which was to consult several PR people and himself and come up with the headlines without any process of thinking through it with his party. The moment he did that, I realized we are in trouble.</p>
<p>I don’t want to talk about war, but the political consequences are disturbing in that there is a complete loss of confidence. The majority in Israel has as much confidence in the prime minister as I do, and this is a very, very disturbing situation in the context of political stability. In the Knesset, the government has a huge majority, and the club does not want to dissolve itself. So you have a fake political stability. Olmert would love to have George Bush’s approval ratings.</p>
<p>MR. GOLDBERG: What is his number?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: It ranges between 10 and 20 [percent approval rating]. Now, let’s say the IDF assumes there is going to be a war next summer, and there is the Iran challenge to deal with. To have in power a defense minister who is a great, great unionist and a prime minister who is a mediocre lawyer, and to have the people with no confidence in either of them is a troubling situation.</p>
<p>John Dickerson</p>
<p>JOHN DICKERSON, Slate: You talked about the failure of willpower in the West. Give us some tests of where the West needs to show willpower. Is it just with Iran, and if it is with Iran, where does it come? What moments should we look for?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: Let’s stick to Iran for now. It’s the most important and so obvious. Look at the options. You’re either going to have Iran go nuclear, of which I explained the consequences, or what is thought of as an American or Israeli act [against Iran’s nuclear capabilities]. But they are going to create a horrible storm in the Middle East with horrible consequences. Iran is going nuclear, it’s clear. The only reasonable route was to have a very, very effective, aggressive political campaign. It doesn’t take much to understand that.</p>
<p>The leaders of the West were aware, in a serious way, of the challenge since the summer of 2003. As far as I know, there isn’t much difference on that among Washington, London, Berlin and Paris. But because the climate in all these countries is such that the leaders did not feel they could act, they did not act. The one sensible option that could have evaded catastrophe was not taken. Because it’s probably too late, if something on that route can still be done, [it should] definitely [be done] today.</p>
<p>That proves the point. It’s really not Israel. The West is challenged, and the West does not react in a rational way: That’s the most alarming proof to that lack of willpower that I can imagine.</p>
<p>MR. DICKERSON: The test has happened, and the West has failed?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: It’s a bizarre situation where we know it and yet we don’t; it’s relevant to all of us in our profession. We know but we are not aware. When people will look back at this period of time, they will not believe what state of mind we were in. The disconnect between what we know and the fact we do nothing about it&#160;— the incompetence, the impotence. That’s the Western malaise of our time.</p>
<p>MR. COOPERMAN: Peter, what would it take for Israel to regain the sympathy of the liberal intelligentsia in the United States?</p>
<p>Ari, what is the single most important divide within Israeli society today? I suspect, and you may disagree, the Sephardic-Ashkenazic divide is no longer the most important division in the country.</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: There are a lot of things. One springs to mind. Israel has not had an effective, eloquent spokesman representing her in the United States since before Bibi Netanyahu was Bibi Netanyahu, when he was young and not thought of by American audiences in the mid-1980s as particularly conservative. He was smart, he was sharp, he was eloquent, he made Israel’s case, and that was a good thing. Maybe, too, <a href="http://www.cfr.org/bios/4919/zalman_shoval.html" type="external">Zalman Shoval</a> during the first Persian Gulf war. But it’s hard to remember Israeli spokesmen who have made Israel’s case well in the United States.</p>
<p>To my mind this is a striking failure because Ari Shavit, as wonderful as he is, is not the only Israeli who can make Israel’s case intelligently and eloquently. Israel has many people who could perform that job. Maybe Ari can explain the politics that have led to what I regard as a serious failure. Israel has a case to be made. I can’t explain why Israel is not making the case better.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: There is a problem within Israel. First of all, I agree: Netanyahu is interesting in that he really succeeded. He filled the vacuum at that time. What was and is the vacuum? This goes to the deeper problem of Israel I mentioned, the identity problem, the spiritual problem. The people who passionately care about Israel and are willing to actively fight for it do not speak the internationally acceptable language. The people who speak the internationally acceptable language do not care enough about Israel. They care in a passive way, but they are not there to fight for it. The result is&#160;— and I’m afraid here I do not totally agree with you&#160;— there is actually a left, not only technically&#160;—</p>
<p>(audio break, tape change)</p>
<p>— we don’t have diplomats. But we have now <a href="http://www.israel-un.org/mission/perm/default.htm" type="external">a successful ambassador in the U.N.</a>, which surprised us all. But by and large you don’t have the cadre of people who should be there. I agree, potentially, they are there, but again, it’s not a technical or political problem. It exposes a deeper problem in Israel.</p>
<p>Concerning my question, the divide, by and large Israel is not that divided any more. While there are debates about Ehud Barak in Israel, and I’m not sure I want him as prime minister again, I want to give him what is called the Israel Prize for his life’s work because he brought us back from the great divide. Up to 2000, and it went on a bit afterward, we were speaking different languages within the country. The perception of reality was totally different, and in many ways that’s history. What’s striking is, apart from tiny minorities here and there, there is an enormous Israeli consensus about the world we live in. The gaps or the differences are either political or&#160;—</p>
<p>If you force me, I would say the divide is between the center and the periphery. The crisis of Israel is the crisis of the Israeli elites. I am very critical of the Israeli elites, almost all of them: business, media, academia, even judiciary. As I’ve indicated before, you have a very healthy, even sophisticated people. When you talk to the guy in the street, he’s quite impressive in his rough way. For years now, for a generation, we have a deterioration of the elites’ contribution to public life.</p>
<p>MR. WOOLDRIDGE: Sounds like America.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: The energy and the resilience you see out in the country, you don’t see, so to speak, within the beltway. The beltway being in this case not Jerusalem, not the multi-political capital, but probably from <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378399051&amp;pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull" type="external">Shenkin Street</a> north to <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_35/c3644162.htm" type="external">Herzliya Pitauch</a>. Israel’s rich and powerful are not giving back in the way they should be. I don’t want to say they are betraying but they are failing the people.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Let’s get the last two questions out, and then our speakers can give wrap-up answers.</p>
<p>Kathy Slobogin</p>
<p>KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN: In <a href="http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=136" type="external">this morning’s session</a> we talked about how the development of modernity, to a lot of people’s surprise, came along with an explosion of religiosity. It seems from what you’re saying that’s not true in Israel. Could you talk about why Israel seems to be immune from that, except for a religious fringe or the settler movement? And where is the settler movement right now in the psyche of Israelis?</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: Which movement?</p>
<p>MS. SLOBOGIN: The settler movement, the religious settlers.</p>
<p>Byron York</p>
<p>BYRON YORK, National Review: Could either of you to discuss the consequences for Israel of the possible outcomes of the Iraq war, all of which look pretty terrible at the moment?</p>
<p>DR. BERKOWITZ: There’s a simple explanation why you don’t see this explosion of religiosity, as opposed to other countries. The principal founders were overwhelmed with the religion [of European Jewry]. Political Zionism was meant to throw that off, leave it all behind. Then what do you know, within 20 or 30 years, religious Jews were a force in Israeli politics. Their parents meant to escape it, but it was powerfully present.</p>
<p>The explosion in religiosity that modernity can unleash is partly related to life in an atomized society. But atomization, at least among the first couple of generations, was not the problem in Israel. Elites coming from the kibbutz yearned for atomization, not for a return to an inclusive, tight-knit religious community.</p>
<p>I’ll make one comment about the Iraq war and its implications for Israel. I run a program in Israel, and we bring American scholars and journalists to Israel to speak about constitutional democracy in the United States. Two years ago we brought over a number of people&#160;— two on the right, two on the left&#160;— to talk about the democratization agenda of the Bush administration. The reaction of the Israelis in the crowd was interesting. Left, center, right, they all despised the democracy promotion agenda.</p>
<p>You have to understand this reaction in context. It should not be understood as simple Bush-bashing. When the Israelis look to the east, they see Jordan and ask themselves, “Are we better off with a Western-leaning, relatively friendly king, or would we prefer to see the people emancipated?” They know where they stand. They have similar thoughts about Egypt, 70 million people, atop of which sits Hosni Mubarak. Do they contemplate the possibility of releasing the democratic energies of civil society in Egypt? Or do they think of, to borrow language from President Bush, continuing to coddle dictators in the Middle East? Their vote is for coddling dictators in the Middle East.</p>
<p>This mentality is not a result of the Iraq war, but certainly the Iraq war and its aftermath has consolidated this opinion.</p>
<p>MR. SHAVIT: First a word of caution. I’ve been stressing the secular elements of Israeli society in this conversation. You do have a very powerful and important religious minority, so there is a kind of religious explosion ongoing in Israel. But my point, and I stick to it, is it’s not exactly the fringes, but it’s not the dominant force in Israeli political life. Israelis are junkies of modernity, sometimes in a dangerous way. There isn’t a conservative bone in our spiritual structure. We are for change. We want tomorrow.</p>
<p>When you talk to Shimon Peres, for instance, you cannot talk to him [about the past]. I interviewed him many times; he lived through everything and has had such a fascinating life. But you cannot get him to talk about anything he went through. He’s obsessed with the future, with nanotechnology and with what’s next. My cheap psychoanalytic explanation is there’s so much agony and pain in the past you build a future-oriented, almost obsessive persona, which is true for him personally and in a sense generally true for the country. We are so bad in conserving anything. We always look for the next thing. We are hyperactive; we are crazed with tomorrow.</p>
<p>Even within the religious and ultra-Orthodox world, modernity has a very, very strong pull. I’m expecting an ultra-Orthodox perestroika because the rabbis are not controlling their crowd any more. The young people and women are liberated, not religiously, but they are so much part of the globalized world and part of Israel that they are, in the way they live, rebelling against the old version of religion.</p>
<p>The settlers, in a sentence, are completely forgotten. They’ve lost the battle and they are completely isolated for the moment. They frightened me before. Now I almost pity them because there is no sympathy for them, no understanding. They’ve been totally marginalized. In this sense Sharon destroyed the Likud, and he destroyed the settler movement. He created it, and then he broke its back.</p>
<p>A sentence about Iraq. I agree with what was said, but I’ll bring a different tone that will probably make me unpopular in the room, more than I was to this moment. I was worried about the war in Iraq, to put it mildly. I was in Washington when the war started, and I wrote some pieces of concern. I had great respect for the neocons for seeing the problem and having the courage to try to do something about it. But I thought the ideas, to begin with, were simplistic and dangerous. The headline of <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtWar.jhtml?itemNo=279985&amp;contrassID=33&amp;subContrassID=3&amp;sbSubContrassID=0" type="external">my article</a> [published April 3, 2003], when I came back from Washington, was “Winston-Light (sic)” I thought they all had Winston on their minds but were very amateurish in their attitude.</p>
<p>But I don’t forget the other aspect, which is that all the others would not see the problem and definitely did not have the courage to do anything about it. Now, when they [neocons] are such a haunted minority, I must say something for the record. The tragedy is something dramatic was not tried in Palestine, because the place where you should have started to test this theory was Palestine, not Iraq. There is no dictator there providing stability who, once he’s removed, you unleash all sorts of forces. You have a society that is more open and potentially ready for democratic thinking than any other Arabic society. You have a mess, so you are not losing anything in its destruction. And it’s small; it’s manageable.</p>
<p>Had the project been a democratic Palestine&#160;— you could have called it that but you should not be naïve about it. But a constructive Palestine, what I call a life-loving Palestine, that would have been the right project. Because if there is no conversion of political life in Palestine, Israel is in trouble, the Middle East is in trouble, the world is in trouble, and it takes enormous resources and insight and wisdom to transform this destructive society into a constructive one.</p>
<p>I’m only deeply sorry that the Bush vision, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020624-3.html" type="external">the Bush speech of 2002</a>, which was the most remarkably realistic statement about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I’ve heard from anyone, was not translated into effective, ambitious policy, which would have given a chance to the region much more than a failed attempt in Iraq.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Join me in thanking both of these gentlemen.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>Speakers at Pew Forum events are given an opportunity to review and approve their remarks. This transcript also has been edited for clarity, spelling and grammar.</p> | false | 1 | faith angle forum160is semiannual conference brings together select group 20 nationally respected journalists 35 distinguished scholars areas religion politics amp public life israel amp future zionism key west florida speakers dr peter berkowitz associate professor law george mason university school law tad amp dianne taube senior fellow hoover institution ari shavit columnist haaretz moderator michael cromartie vice president ethics amp public policy center senior advisor pew forum religion amp public life michael cromartie michael cromartie topic today israel future zionism jay tolson jeff goldberg others said important subject havent done key west called first speaker peter berkowitz told ari shavit coming said ari coming dont need laughter tried talk said peter youve written eloquently recently numerous places wed love hear first time ive speaker try get even ive told honorarium laughter able persuade join us peter incredibly knowledgeable subject many know peter personally besides professor law george mason university also senior fellow hoover institution written numerous books need give whole bio privileged two gentlemen ill introduce ari peter give peter berkowitz peter berkowitz dr peter berkowitz thank true im vitally needed honor michael ari forgive advance formality presentation im reminded wonderful old apology wrote long book didnt time write short book im giving formal presentation didnt time prepare informal one laughter assigned topic israel zionisms future one respect least zionisms future differ future grand social political movement like movements zionisms future cant discussed reliably without understanding something present past today im going bring focus certain features zionisms present past particularly ideas animated want begin three controversies present rather three manifestations single protracted controversy better still three appeals persistent ugly prejudice zionisms animating ideas march 23 2006 london review books published israel lobby university chicago political scientist john mearsheimer harvard university political scientist stephen walt longer scholarly version 200 footnotes posted working paper website harvards kennedy school government mearsheimer walts paper immediately provoked enthusiasm outrage attract attention advancing unexceptionable argument israel lobby america real powerful rather mearsheimer walt put forward incendiary claim past 30 years american foreign policy middle east particularly decision invade iraq 2003 decisively determined israel lobby american foreign policy today argue longer function realistic assessment american strategic interests160 military diplomatic economic160 hijacked israel supporters us moreover argue mearsheimer walt israel lobby led american foreign policy astray innocently false pretenses israel lobby insists israel moral claim us us ought give high priority israels interest among reasons israel liberal democracy sea authoritarian governments maintained mearsheimer walt israel moral grounds undeserving us support israel judgment guilty betraying essential principles liberal democracy core part argument quote aspects israeli democracy odds core american values unlike us people supposed enjoy equal rights irrespective race religion ethnicity israel explicitly founded jewish state citizenship based principle blood kinship given surprising 13 million arabs treated secondclass citizens recent israeli government commission found israel behaves neglectful discriminatory manner towards democratic status also undermined refusal grant palestinians viable state full political rights paragraph mearsheimer walt whose purpose deny cast doubt israels liberal democratic credentials call question vitality zionism tissue lies malicious distortions first israel founded principle blood kinship sure jewish state law return grants automatic citizenship jews israels declaration independence proclaims israel ensure complete equality social political rights inhabitants irrespective religion race sex guarantee freedom religion conscience language education culture safeguard holy places religions faithful principles charter united nations moreover nonjews become naturalized citizens israel accordance procedures similar countries second many liberal democracies certainly us minorities160 israels case arab citizens160 lag behind majority cases far behind lags income literacy health arab majority indeed urgent problem israel israels arab citizens also israeli society whole contrary mearsheimer walts argument lags many sources arab citizens lack equality rights defining feature liberal democracy third point mearsheimer walt write recent israeli government commission released sept 1 2003 found israel behaves neglectful discriminatory manner towards minority arab population seen triumph liberal democracy israel course neglect discrimination effort government confront democratic inadequacies face failure make good promises declaration independence find democratic means remedy problem fourth true israels democratic status threatened absence viable palestinian state israel state world stands benefit creation one majority perhaps substantial majority israelis recognize today however contrary mearsheimer walt chief obstacle creation viable palestinian state israel palestinians refusal renounce terror develop economy protect individual rights establish democratic political institutions notwithstanding vulgarity charge mearsheimer walt original add pseudoscholarly luster commonly held opinions nature jewish state ideas animate season jimmy carter published palestine peace apartheidcarters title trumpets charge leveled mearsheimer walt israel racist state akin south africa foremost racist state since world war ii contrary carter israel despite genuine obstacles confront arab citizens condemned inferiority law defining principle apartheid along jewish citizens israel arab citizens israel vote attend university practice law form political parties serve knesset sit israeli supreme court runs contrary conventional wisdom exaggeration say freest arabs entire middle east israels arab citizens unfortunately mearsheimer walt well carter lent prestige nurse prejudice reverberates worldwide 1975 stirring speech un us ambassador united nations daniel patrick moynihan denounced un general assembly resolution 3379 declared zionism form racism racial discrimination resolution finally revoked december 1991 israel made revocation condition participation madrid peace conference demonstrated un conference racism durban south africa 2001 us boycotted years mearsheimer walt article carter book also show equation zionism racism lives remains respectable opinion cultivated influential circles equation160 zionism embodied state israel racism160 always outrageous outrageous equation take advantage genuine tensions within zionism particularly claims jewish nationalism claims freedom equality heart liberal democracy facing tension zionism distinctive since tensions arise forms nationalism160 german french american japanese palestinian160 claims liberal democracy nationalisms seek expression sovereign state zionism distinctive genesis manner grappled tensions 19th century zionism think barely existed notwithstanding scattered jewish communities israel jews lived exile dispersion since roughly 7 bce second temple fell conquering romans enlightenment french revolution spread liberal largesense idea human beings nature free equal virtually jews regarded first place jews peculiar christians enlightenment regarded first place christians muslims first place thought muslims enlightenment members faith communities began think human beings first jews christians muslims second enlightenment virtually jews recognized authority torah jewish law orthodox judaism much reformed judaism product reaction enlightenment point view traditional jewish authorities dispersion diaspora punishment jewish sins one day would terminated day would arrive gods good time coming messiah return divine intervention jewish people ancient homeland jews never ceased longing praying return zion hill jerusalem temple built reestablishment jewish life land israel traditional jews enlightenment fervently dreamt primarily religious life religious zionism patient activist pious enlightened otherworldly worldly old diaspora jewry enlightenment jews began imagine jewish life strictly religious 19th century jews began take matter return zion hands sure first jewish reaction upheavals created enlightenment spread liberal principles zionism initially jews called reform jewish religion order harmonize judaism demands liberal modernity jewish thinkers opted assimilation shedding religious belief altogether merging general culture reformers assimilators took granted enlightenment unfolded jews would increasingly enjoy rights full citizenship various nationstates europe lived modern zionism represents third jewish response challenges enlightened liberal modernity modern zionism accurately political zionism is160 ill quote formal definition160 national movement return jewish people homeland resumption jewish sovereignty land israel stems several sources160 intellectual cultural ideological160 important commingling ancient jewish longings enlightenment liberal sentiments socialist economic ideas nationalist aspirations political zionism jolted existence 19th century response two shattering political events first taking place east russian pogroms 1881 following assassination czar alexander ii jews blamed czars murder antijewish rioting erupted ukraine thousands jewish homes destroyed families thrown poverty pogroms set mass exodus millions motion importantly young jewish intellectuals brought traditional jewish homes exposed socialist ideas air time left search new forms social political existence second catalyzing event taking place west dreyfus affair little decade later 1894 captain albert dreyfus jewish officer french army courtmartialed flimsy evidence blatant disregard fair procedure convicted treason sent devils island five years later exonerating evidence came light dreyfus retried reconvicted eventually pardoned french president vicious waves antisemitism generated dreyfus affair shattered confidence many assimilated assimilating european jews europe would ever welcome ranks full citizenship russian pogroms 1881 dreyfus affair mid1890s differed crucial respect russia zionism arose large measure response failure enlightenment arrive contrast zionism arose western europe response enlightenments failure 100 years arrived deliver promise accept jews men women full citizens equally endowed individual rights important zionist voice coming russia leon pinsker pinsker born 1821 trained physician active jewish affairs hopeful enlightenment would one day come russia enabling jews assimilate russian life embrace russian culture russian pogroms 1881 dashed hopes appalled horrible spectacle collaboration among common people cultural elites government indiscriminate violence jewish communities pinsker left russia europe 1882 came first great work political zionism called autoemancipation appeal people russian jew pinsker distills argument three simple propositions concluding summary book first proposition jews living nation everywhere aliens therefore despised second proposition civil political emancipation jews sufficient raise estimation peoples world third proposition proper remedy would autoemancipation jews160 emancipation nation among nations acquisition home summary pinsker identify name location home allude process organizing jewish people purpose creating jewish state tasks fall theodore herzl herzl true spiritual father political zionism terms influence austrianborn thoroughly assimilated herzl studied law quickly gave journalism hopes jewish assimilation one whose hopes dashed dreyfus affair covered paris correspondent vienna newspaper 1896 published jewish state160which seminal work political zionism enlightened liberal nationalist sentiments pervaded herzl stressed central question zionism neither social religious one national question solve must first establish international political problem discussed settled civilized nations world council root jewish problem according herzl despite loyalty sacrifice economic cultural contributions countries lived jews failed achieve assimilation reason failure dominant national culture everywhere refused accept rights could make jews equal eyes law could command equality hearts fellow citizens honorable effective response harsh truths limits enlightenment liberalism jews form nationstate peter berkowitz jewish state herzl insists palestine jews unforgettable historical homeland even though leader worlds zionist organization famously entertain proposal british temporary jewish state created land uganda herzl firmly set course world zionism path creation jewish state land israel herzl created organizational structure herzl recognized state would require jews cast centuries habits attitudes become artisans manufacturers farmers among many occupations necessary run modern nationstate zionism eyes justified though would jews world liberated freedom herzl proclaimed enriched wealth magnified greatness whatever attempt benefit redound mightily beneficially good mankind argue herzl political zionism could never enough physical material political existence last analysis inseparable spiritual existence foremost among cultural zionists ahad haam whose name means one people according cultural zionists political programs ideals must grounded national culture diaspora jews turned inward dwelling spiritual life neglecting body political life political zionism went opposite extreme concentrating body political life giving little thought spiritual life ahad haam urged cultural renewal based conception judaism shall focal point ideal nations unity renaissance free development expression universal human values terms distinctive spirit law heart 1894 cultural zionism argued religious zionists cultural zionism could never enough deepest dimension jewish culture torah taken seriously torah demanded read another literary creation however profound influential demanded read taken seriously gods law dictated moses binding gods chosen people imperatives jewish faith according religious zionists require national renaissance israel national renaissance israel turn bring renewal jewish faith persons doctrine religious zionism taught figures diverse rabbi abraham isaac kook samuel landau judah magnes160 even martin buber articulated version religious zionism strands went formation zionism helped create israel said though would wrong suggest means cunning history rise enlightenment liberalism europe begat reform assimilation limitations reform assimilation begat political zionism limitations political zionism begat cultural zionism limitations cultural zionism begat return religious zionism jews enlightenment liberalism arose zionism history complicated many things one could say want make one last point tensions within political zionism give rise development cultural zionism religious zionism religious alternative zionism also give rise great secular challenge zionism within israel known postzionism put postzionism perspective conclude want return israels declaration independence signed david bengurion 36 fellow members provisional council state tel aviv may 14 1948 even five invading arab armies waging war jewish community palestine among things declaration proclaimed natural right jewish people masters fate like nations sovereign state declarations appeal jewish peoples traditional historic attachment land israel one hand universal principles justice natural right declaration gives expression conflicting currents religious nationalist liberal democratic thought running modern zionism loss faith among israelis today ability israel harmonize conflicting elements160 words loss faith zionist dream160 goes name postzionism israeli authors artists sang praises hardy settlers brave soldiers wise statesmen much postzionist literature routinely portrays zionism repugnant ideal jewish state miserable country postzionist scholars sought show zionism essence antidemocratic even totalitarian ideology postzionism activists sought abolish use symbols institutions state promote jewish culture cultural educational resources state instead reserved postzionist dispensation advocating universal goods democracy human rights one familiar history zionism fail pained alarmed attacks zionism waged israels best brightest whatever limitations errors zionism pinsker herzl bengurion reflect noble aspiration provide dispersed embattled people opportunity govern freedom dignity zionism despite hardship political blunders tragedy succeeded step back view generously postzionism seen one political zionisms successes certainly one offspring postzionism part larger culture war political program also embraces thoroughly secular conception good life visible world cup soccer obsession beaches crowded every sabbath holiday tel aviv nightclub scene postzionism places hedonism heroism modern consumerism piety reflects desire part many israelis cast rigor eyes rigmarole judaism things postzionism follows powerful strand zionism sought enable jews live like nations postzionism differs zionism wishing live like nations believing order live like nations israel must slough also especially burdensome heritage zionism modern zionism dynamic vulnerable synthesis giving priority sovereignty jewish people set aside sovereignty torah mentioned israels founding declaration promised complete equality social political rights inhabitants irrespective religion race sex making big promise rendered suspect forms particularism including jewish particularism postzionism draws themes often recklessly resentfully radicalizes zionisms quest normalcy desire live like nations commitment natural freedom equality human beings tendency forget central160 conviction jewish state respect jewish tradition special concern fate people also respect special concern protect freedom equality contemporary struggle zionism postzionism struggle zionism antithesis rather struggle within israels soul competing principles zionism forged mr cromartie thank peter peter berkowitz nice things say ari colleague jeff goldberg said ari shavit best person speak topic thank coming ari traveled farthest ari shavit ari shavit pleasure honor let begin confession im zionist im critical zionist sometimes im skeptical zionist much time im anxious zionist almost always im tormented zionist know sins well know faults flaws extremely well yet end day im zionist zionist jew secular jew secular jew im committed jewish life secular jew im committed existence nonorthodox jewish civilization secular jew believe way secure future nonorthodox jewish civilization without maintaining jewish home zionism home attempt build home homeless people almost desperate lastminute attempt save people civilization giving home order understand deep rationale zionism one understand jewish exceptionalism jewish exceptionalism exceptional genes good bad jewish exceptionalism exceptional virtues faults looks even exceptional woody allen jeffrey goldberg humor laughter jewish exceptionalism exceptional challenge survive people millennium half without territory kingdom maintain unloved existence among others without vanishing thin air exceptional answer jews gave exceptional challenge faced composed two gs160 god ghetto closeness remoteness nonjewish enabled jewish people survive diaspora intense love affair almighty stormy yet intimate relationship gave sense meaning pride even privilege otherwise unbearable life walls ghetto gave life protection functioned sort shield hence god ghetto became two pillars jewish existence end 19th century speaker described gs wane diminishing fast jews losing eye contact god watching walls ghetto crumble jewish existence peril jews survive people act order save needed transform needed go greatest radical revolution people ever go sense zionism stroke genius founding fathers mothers profound historic insight half century auschwitz realized godless ghettoless world jewish physical existence jeopardy realized beloved mother europe turning medea spark nationalism eyes along bigotry xenophobia antisemitism insanity hating postghetto jews even ghetto jews founders zionism another insight equally important even physical threat postghetto jews without would still faced cultural spiritual threat within united kingdom 1895 1905 jews persecuted persecuted disraeli cherished rothschild financial czar yet greatgrandfather looked around 100 years ago realized many jews western europe north america realize today160 moving whitechapel st johns wood made individual risked jew realized cambridgeeducated sons virginia woolftype daughters would find difficult preserve jewishness affluent enlightened british surrounding old formula gone jewish life continue something done great personal cost enormous collective cost something radical done something done something enormous proportion daytoday trouble middle east attrition caused ongoing violence tend ignore historical significance done 20th century turned dramatic century jews rather dramatic history first half 20th century worst ever saw onethird us evaporate onethird yet second half 20th century best ever best least 2000 years 1945 saw two amazing jewish success stories develop one success zionism breathtaking achievement renewing jewish sovereignty odds astonishing establishment perfect jewish diaspora country many ways 20th century jewish big bang first historical catastrophe immolation east european jewry brutal death shtetl ghetto energy produced destruction came two spectacles jewish renaissance due respect jewish communities throughout world two pillars contemporary jewish existence free vibrant jewishamerican community free vibrant jewish israeli state one direct outcome brainchild 110yearold zionist idea depending much integrity identity continuity zionist idea hence 110 years british greatgrandfather made first zionist pilgrimage palestine ahead first zionist congress basel 1897 safely conclude idea carrying wild barren land benign triumphant idea consequence revolutionary daring idea jews fortunate today ever century began pogrom kishinev 1903 went crematoriums auschwitz treblinka transformed idea century jewish revival revival achieved great cost order establish jewish home zionists committed three major sins first sinned abusing land taken terraced hills judea turned fortresslike settlements taken plain sharon orange groves jaffa turned urban cement megalopolis many ways faceless banal much talk palestinian refugee camps rightly metaphorically speaking turned holy land enormous refugee camp jews squeezing haunted people narrow strip land sustain second sinned uprooting palestinians without getting details war 1948 without drowning muddy debate blamed palestinian catastrophe year bottom line clear dispossessed hundreds thousands grown millions replaced another people much shared homeland third zionist sin towards order make gigantic leap back history order turn politically passive nation active player world stage transform many ways betray turning back jewish tradition jewish sophistication turning back jewish morality jewish identity losing much creativity diaspora jews losing much flair imagination character richness losing subversive constructive spirit multiple identity losing woody allen jeffrey goldberg humor years balance three sins versus mindblowing historical adventure three sins versus spectacular success three sins miracle wish last decade especially since collapse peace process 2000 911 hamas victory february 2006 second lebanon war july 2006 notion appeared zionist entity getting balance spiraling control ways notion exaggerated israeli economy booming israel greatest research development laboratory high tech industry outside united states israel companies nasdaq france germany italy put together israeli society vibrant among things birth rate secular jews israel let alone arabs ultraorthodox higher oecd country even united states israel many ways wellestablished fact antizionists wrong life expectancy zionist endeavor 1900s state department officials wrong life expectancy zionist enterprise 1948 alarmists today might wrong underestimate great need maintaining jewish state underestimate enormous vitality jewish state many ways story zionism story vitality odds yet room concern one say three sins zionism challenging miracle first israel160 north beersheba160 already densely populated country west 20 years time population explosion jews arabs make life holy land unbearable landscape gone hard maintain even semblance reasonable life tormented land second palestinian issue going away hope solving elegant peace treaty basically gone realist would believe today brilliant formula shining piece paper end palestinianisraeli tragedy time conflict conflict go end sight definitely happy one third difficulty israelis identity jewish past masked two three generations powerful zionist ethos ethos weakened recent decades especially recent years vacuum revealed disintegration labor movement kibbutzim pioneer spirit arbitrary profound leadership crisis decay political system arbitrary either spring deeper ideological even spiritual crisis caused zionist revolution exposed revolution lost conviction inner might challenged 20th century gone 21st century challenging one us zionists israelis jews roughly speaking israel faced two wellknown existential threats one silent profound first nuclear issue iran goes nuclear israel immediately doomed iran goes nuclear israel back real existential fight survival even mushroom cloud appears blue skies tel aviv notion mushroom cloud might appear dramatic would change region would change dramatically israels standing region occupation issue israel caught dilemma end occupation retreat lose integrity jewish democratic state international legitimacy israel end occupation withdraw without peace accord sight perceived neighbors act weakness expose israel new waves attack terror lowintensity warfare eventually total war third challenge refer inner israeli challenge survive facing external challenges israel must pull act together must reform political system must come decent government must must create new relevant narrative keep nation together give meaning hardship faces said zionism revolutionary movement achieved achieved cutting traditional jewish roots creating new somewhat superficial israeli culture whose foundations deep israels jewish complex almost antisemitic times prevents israelis relaxed jewish identity creates identity limbo creates deep crisis jewish israeli culture israel must deal must write new narrative help us endure awaiting us old godbased narrative helped us endure nearly 2000 years diaspora life three challenges tell us question zionism still open one zionism insightful critical analysis jewish condition modern world astonishing ability move critical analysis creation new form jewish life proven vibrant energetic exciting jury still whether zionist solution works whether zionist remedy doesnt disastrous side effects drama still unfolding end 1948 1967 2000 us israelis generation decide whether 20th century revolution jewish life astounding success colossal failure thank mr cromartie thank much jeffrey goldberg new yorker always fun listen someone whos depressed middle east laughter sometimes listening ari makes prophet jeremiah look like henny youngman start joke think sets tone discussion existential question german guy runs bar hot day says hot tired thirsty must beer bartender gives beer minutes later french guy runs bar says tired thirsty must wine gives bottle wine minutes later jewish guy runs bar says tired thirsty must diabetes laughter question ari central question think every day youre right two promised lands 2000 years promised land suddenly great blessing promised land actual physical spiritual home jews sui generic diaspora experience neither one perfect israel safe judaism jewish baby factory safe judaism safe jews america safe jews160 thats great miracle diaspora experience160 safe judaism precisely safe physical jews irving kristol famously said christians america want kill us want marry us laughter one better preserving jewish people ask seriousness chilling thing said jews since close world war ii something hassan nasrallah said years ago said mind jewish emigration israel saved trouble getting jews everywhere words collect one place deal one sweep seriously ask question time actually solution problem israels existence possibility peace coming generations isnt jewish responsibility save jewish life say important save jewish body get people israel annihilated rather leave noble ultimately doomed experiment thats large question mr shavit say im jeremiah mr goldberg yes laughter im trying amos peter wanted respond second aris zionist sins sin palestinians im curious see sinful think sin dr berkowitz sinful mr goldberg thought youd something interesting say dr berkowitz merely deal one three sins ari deal worldwide fate jewish people fair aris obviously right sins committed palestinians thing would add necessary understand sins context could enumerate risk boring everybody obvious facts wellknown last 100plus years history jewish efforts settling israel seek cooperation live arabs repeated acceptance first jewish settlement israel state israel peace plans blatantly rejected arabs palestinians one could talk colossal sin committed palestinian people yasser arafat last 10 years life stole 10 billion people thereby depriving resources needed build roads hospitals factories schools houses land alleviate real misery live understood perfectly well alleviate misery lived would also sap fight engage sustain murderous hatred jews could go longer like wouldnt want enumeration cloud assertion palestinians sinned creation state israel state israel would want insist sins committed israel sins committed palestinians israel palestinian leadership people weighed together balance attempting reach judgment israel ari shavit mr shavit really care maintaining jewish life youve heard theres one way thats become ultraorthodox america concern thats solution us willing serious question youre much pessimistic question jeff thought facing annihilation would different sort question annihilation case would problem jews israelis sense israel czechoslovakia israel goes west deep deep trouble perhaps might survive might 1920 israel part west although much west want acknowledge definitely seen way relevant radical muslim forces conflict jewish state israel free society suicide bombers dont go yeshivas dont even go settlements go nightclubs cafes shopping malls war israel frontier line west jewish entity sexy die symbols icons western way life therefore god forbid something happens israel implications west would dramatic dont know beyond repair dramatic one things 911 events last decade changed 2000 many israelis feeling stuck struggle got trouble spot strong sense nowhere go jews especially look europe north america different europe deeply troubled beyond nowhere go idea running away wont work buy time solve problem appeasement work forces im saying harsh things im saying israelis many ways westerners time gather definitely israel really throughout west challenged mood lament seeing really critical dramatic situation right believe hinted right spirit gather forces win dont160 one thing troubling israel west lack willpower western civilization prove willpower hassan nasrallah ahmadinejad win jay tolson jay tolson us news amp world report question speakers think postzionisms moment irreparably lost back 2000 arafats refusal deal postzionism dead doctrine spirit continue youre talking makes seem academic worst sense talk might come back help us particularly horrible impasse seem right postzionism ultimately suicide pill jewish state ive read sides argument wonder think way forward mr shavit think poisonous suicidal pill agree everything assume question 2000 getting stronger stronger one many major mistakes made israeli left moment went peace process 1993 made sure internally externally solid recognition jewish state willingness take risks involved bringing arafat back giving land back eventually moving toward twostate solution major dramatic withdrawal time made sure safe home even giving back shouldnt begin secure core existence left israel made mistake perhaps youd see similarities mistakes made left country point still one crowd got excited idea real peace like say statesman took fukuyama seriously shimon peres everywhere feeling end conflict end history end everything lets move two manifestations one individualistic consumerist lets business nothing important left lost elections 96 basically said peace money completely missed politics identity netanyahu captured thats election aspect radical manifestation intellectual postzionism attack core jewish state arafat refused deal rather going old bengurion way moderate willing make sacrifices compromises time realistic disciplined went frenzy many ways went berserk collapsed roof fell us 2000 ill say postzionism relevant one way academic life pages paper poisonous effect europe way postzionism relevant relevant israel relevant reality middle east people live illusion israel feed european illusion thats dr berkowitz ill add one thing postzionism draws intellectual currents nourish postmodernism western europe united states likely disappear entirely time soon sustained streams coming modern zionism intellectual streams west little role ari says may continue play actually significant role nothing encouraging prejudices among european intellectuals israel israels place middle east thats significant even discredited inside israel mark pinsky orlando sentinel ironically sheikh nasrallah said ingathering jews different evangelicals say end days ingathering prerequisite second coming jesus result same160 either jews converting christianity jews annihilated event jews raises issue rise christian zionism ive chronicling sun belt least interesting development 200 years hostility protestants jews south160 based two separations one jews accept jesus savior two less explicit didnt share racial attitudes hosts160 theres 180degree turnaround rise christian zionism hear rev john hagee speak like netanyahu speaking terms israels policy within jewish community ive found real separation among jews american jews often referred singleissue jews support state israel nothing else matters another segment jews dont know split uncomfortable rise christian zionism welcome allies welcome support theyre troubled baggage alliance brings particularly issues dont share assumptions evangelical christians role women fixation homosexuality abortion reproductive rights stem cell research religion public square evolution versus creationism160 issues diasporadic jews people see lives america fundamental disagreement many evangelical protestants tactical alliance issue support israel wanted hear side ocean rise christian zionism seen mr shavit people side ocean dont see rightwing israeli politicians close christian zionists mentioned netanyahu interesting alliance going national religious haredim suddenly see evangelical support israel something follow trying study patterns works marginal figures netanyahu marginal figure netanyahu secular person wouldnt call liberal affinity ideology whatsoever guys might find areas agreement interesting coalition jerusalem christians though theyre aware gay parade religious muslims religious jews working together christians well israelis would like get support wherever comes real alliance mentioned dinner last night israel free society deep way israel mind160 jeff might disagree160 secular open issues dealing country abortion gay rights although influential ultraorthodox minority threequarters israel would find discussions bizarre spirit country although religious minority open many ways much open country even europe concerning israelis160 im thinking american jews peter that160 coming together ideologically two movements mr pinsky recognize impact evangelical christians white house policy support israel critical may mr shavit professionals professionals topic discussion present gathering washington like aipac saw discomfort mainly among american jews israelis watching doesnt really penetrate minds hearts israelis might future far dr berkowitz father deeply disturbed evangelical christian support israel speaks many left liberal less assimilated jews im disturbed still get along father yes one reason im disturbed difficult time israel one openminded comes friends reach second reason is160 mr pinsky friends allies peter berkowitz dr berkowitz allies160 allies present friends second consider obligation democratic politics regard least first place fellow citizens fellow citizens menace enemies foreign creatures dont live among many evangelical christians dont get chance circulate come conference federal judges one judges wife theyre alabama theyre evangelicals wife explaining tremendous devotion jewish people israelis used air force base alabama israelis would regularly come train helicopters would always seven eight israeli families members israeli defense force pilots probably high proportion observant jews totally devoted told welcomed house showed broken hebrew southern accent father would wag finger say beware wants convert perhaps somewhere line hes right see way future right minimum difficult dark time say extent possible consistent principle consistent ones commitment liberal democratic principles far turning away people come friends best one reach preserve common ground mr pinsky far proselytizing goes immediate goal defines evangelicals evangelicals year ago abe foxman eric yoffie spoke alliance saying people arent really friends evangelical leaders snapped back said essentially guys better watch certain expectations backed away nasty undertone debate pick dr berkowitz dont know details exchange goes fundamental challenge within world globalizing pluralism peter berger spoke morning one grapple fact different religions make absolute claims one hope end days convergence conflicts resolved difficulty comes relationship evangelicals jews catholics protestants also differ fundamental ways adrian wooldridge economist day guatemala city went dozen pentecostal churches every single one israeli flag stage take friends get carl cannon carl cannon national journal peter followup youve saying backlash among american jews would reasonable im asking exists evangelicals israel maybe im dr berkowitz dont know anybody whos suffered that160 mean guilty conscience mr cannon dr berkowitz oh theyre israel mr cannon exactly toward zionism maybe left maybe jimmy carters right inaudible160 im really confused know im saying mean people like dad dr berkowitz dad would160 applies father father would let genuine discomfort closeness evangelicals israel cause weaken support israel dont doubt among groups viewing conflict israel palestinians point view sympathy palestinian claims goes along contempt christianity youre asking think set sentiments coexists places academy intellectual life america answer yes ive encountered constellation mr shavit issue lack empathy left towards israel give personal example neighborhood café jerusalem exploded suicide bomber heard time life actually grabbed notebook ran minute bomb went dead young men women floor really160 im used shocking experience horrible next morning interviewed dutch television could hear lad end line unsympathetic situation simple day victims literally blood streets could hear coldness amsterdam jerusalem lack empathy whatever criticism want160 israel apartheid israel that160 moment reporter clear things stand moment morning sense terrifying saw night deep sentiment among israelis people care feel shut also feel lack empathy beyond political debate situation calls debate happens leftwing circles creates lack sensitivity among israelis proisraelis peter said others whoever may reach hug us kind situation difficult take hug cathy lynn grossman cathy lynn grossman usa today generation american jews unquestioning zionists israel right wrong crowd160 grandfather grandfather parents160 aging think shrinking young nonorthodox cultural jews reform conservative jews country160 large extent theyre almost mystified israel dont get politically dont get religiously dont recognize judaism theres politically zionist cultural secular judaism way connect theres ultraorthodox theres one looks like adhere ethical moral jewish traditional teaching found conservative reform judaism israel allowed conservative reform jewish expression years might different could send 21yearold daughter shed recognize form judaism spoke value system say people recognize israel debate things ferociously united states difficult open debate jews argue israel united states one side going get excoriated camera somebody else little free debate country dr berkowitz let answer quickly united states turn avi israel campuses see dramatic change last 30 years student participation hillel maybe 30 years ago dominant group campus hillels would secular zionist kids wanted go israel college live kibbutz wanted work land still recollections israel 1948 inspired leon uris exodus went israel discovered israelis longer inspired dreams myths 30 years later active students hillels jewish organizations campus tend conservative160 conservative terms jewish denomination education adherence modern orthodoxy students maintain attachment israel continue travel theres student commitment israel shifted conservative day school orthodox training much likely spend summer israel know something zionism question freedom speech want say excoriation censorship dont regard fact camera lash critic israel matter proponent israel receive sharp criticism academy lack freedom expression country harsh criticism lack freedom mearsheimer walt complained bitterly censored impossibility criticizing israel united states struck close nonsense platform lots platforms talk critics proponents magazines web sites nobody gets thrown jail cant take excoriation youre ready free speech answer suck mr goldberg ive attacked camera number times selfhating jew stretch anyway youre going write middle east america youre going take neck fact everyone knows walt mearsheimer said jimmy carters book number 15 whatever amazon means theres suppression debate israel america one great canards israel jewish lobby strong one talk taboo one stop talking laughter ari shavit mr shavit dont want advocate zionism one advantages israel160 many disadvantages one advantages israel much relaxed sense minority keep boundaries stress much greater feel somewhat liberated issue discussion easier remarkable israel freedom vitality discussion thinking would almost say anything goes something anarchism mentality genes breaks israel wild way sometimes part roughness wildness fact civilized hand truly free ways dont see many places regarding first question think describe right one ironies problems israel free secular society many ways political power religious minority separation church state difficulties reform conservative jews well element mystique remember traveling country six months ago visiting jewish organizations lecturing people much concerned issues way back flew group birthright kids go israel amazing see kids come dont know know kids get free 10day vacation israel idea jewish youngster right 10 days israel project started five six years ago funded jewishamerican billionaires mostly israeli government spectacular success take 17 18 19yearolds reform conservative anything come nothing bring touch young israelis electric works lot describe perception get media talk globalized world something overcome product communication failure substantive israeli would course like us open liberal also establishment religion spirit deal side think issue somewhat exaggerated ms grossman mike160 setting aside american jews spectrum jewish expression choices ultraorthodox secular mr shavit thats true reform movement conservative movement would even say something else though dont want get details potential point connection traditional approach israel formalized similar approach especially oriental jews see traditionalists recognition conversion want open conservative synagogue got married conservative rabbi israel alan cooperman alan cooperman washington post israeli supreme court ruled favor recognition mr shavit thats beginning change theocracy although sometimes presented way doesnt work like anyone wants conservative ceremony conservative ceremony problem problem movements israel islands become israeli phenomenon israeli ways different spirit different mike allen time cross discussion beware hug reference morning group jews jesus think concept offensive wonder knowledge whether effective organization get lot publicity know accomplish dr berkowitz ill first proclaim ignorance dont know much jews jesus im hard offend im particularly offended dont know much mr pinsky rabbis hate theyre apostates view go ballistic whenever come near barbara bradley hagerty npr dont think members effective either theyll mass rallies 2000 people come theyll invite 2000 people theyll get one person accept literature contact things like effective mr shavit problem quite bizarre jews supportive another jew laughter mr cromartie evangelicals appear vocal visible fascination jewish people think engine mr allen evangelical obsession160 unidentified wasnt mark mark wrote book mr pinsky development thats happened last six ten years growing gaining speed may peter next two three years dont know dont know source exactly theres whole debate within evangelical community relate jews theologically fate dual covenants different routes heaven part interest eschatology thats majority view theres sincere belief christians recognize jewish theological roots faith also support state israel john hagee quotes bible time jews apple gods eyes honor honored attack attacked see richard lands discussion significance biblical quote evangelicals theres something going thats sure really accelerated last two three years largely john hagee david brog jew whos head christians united israel latest lobbying organization washington brog new book explaining true think hes little overly enthusiastic uncritical thats position mr tolson time witticism philosemite antisemite loves jews mr cooperman point information broader term messianic jews jews jesus one particular organization interesting thing say subject least 1998 5000 messianic jews living israel serving army great point pride belief might gradually become better integrated better accepted israeli society mechanism id interested hearing ari say small number people dont know youre familiar theyre mr shavit really know individuals group mr pinsky christian proselytizing law israel mr shavit law irrelevant sense like many laws mr woodridge saw advertisement think new york times yesterday one million jews march washington express support israel dont know anything sunday robert kagan tells good story giving speech spain iraq descended ridiculing view characterizing view war planned four jews washington hed given speech earnest spanish reporter came said give name four jews planned war laughter bad think situation europe terms hostility israel implications rapid growth muslim population foreign policy see someone like jack straw changing foreign policy huge constituency islamic people opposed war iraq see playing politics mr shavit things bad lowest point 2002 2003 france especially 2001 2002 terrible years something improvement see relapse might disengagement gaza gave idea last israel right thing less violence blood stirred emotions combination pause serious problem combination two three problems one 50 60year grace period holocaust gone therefore return ugly feelings toward jews european colonial complex israel walks right antiamerican complex israel walks wild theory new version old christian story jews religion europe religion human rights formative moment like crucifixion christianity holocaust jews protagonists drama heart yet people take lesson went back bloody history middle east europe trying escape depth feeling difficult deal see positive forces france positive phenomena dark period establishment realizing problem trying fight back real struggle even muslim element gets picture nothing new say definitely growing muslim population creates tension element jews hearing call like past goes heart european problems related jews israel interpretation europe unwillingness face historic reality success postwar europe created bubble live quite shielded antiamerican trust americans save mr wooldridge mike160 problems america mr shavit exactly discreet conversations european strategists israelis say visàvis iran deal end day america deal deal double attitude trust deal deal kill malaise europe related jews israel funny irony get european story become relevant even things directly related us dr berkowitz european antiisrael attitudes connected hip european antiamerican attitudes strangely enough story spain closely parallels kagan story february 2005 invited attend conference madrid whose purpose discuss next four years bush portended american policy task discuss supreme court argued contrary fears europe parts united states meant theocracy would grab firm hold trends suggested supreme court divisive social cultural issues tending left speaking abortion affirmative action samesex marriage first question posed distinguishedlooking spanish diplomat foreign ministry response presentation abortion affirmative action samesex marriage asked question wouldnt agree americas reprehensible mistreatment prisoners guantanamo bay made impossible friends america around world stand offered thoughts international law met lunch said thank much thoughtful presentation americas domestic policy wouldnt still agree americas reprehensible mistreatment prisoners guantanamo bay interest topic onetrack mind issue could see beyond jane little bbc youve talked antiisrael hostility europe three years ago antisemitism seemed reached new highs europe made documentary france germany places found pervasive concern real wariness among socalled intelligentsia even engage issue talked open debate europe said criticize israel im antizionist im considered antisemite bearing mind real hostility europe toward israel extent see legitimate concern antizionism equated antisemitism related question documentary interviewed young arab muslims streets paris saw nuances distinctions antizionism antiisraeliism antisemitism jew israeli zionist used interchangeable hostile ways often followed conspiracy theories context isnt duty ari stand zionism world ahmadinejads miniahmadinejads violently attacking zionism israel mr shavit youre criticizing zionist enough presentation ms little im asking question laughter mr goldberg mike160 first time bbc ever asked question israeli whether hes zionist enough laughter mr shavit change said im zionist deep debate antizionists think antizionism legitimate antisemitism legitimate make distinction simple debate antizionists respect debate antisemites dont know im sensitive enough thats one problems israelis dont sensitivity sense suddenly changes stops debate issues becomes something else im still interested im game feel stand israel zionism160 journalist way dont believe simplistic views fanatic views anything complex interest therefore hope perhaps im naïve one hand stand people hand able critical honest160 hope bottom line works better perhaps im mistaken dr berkowitz would deplore disgraceful tactic using charges antisemitism antiisraeliism whatever silence critics jews israel time certain telltale signs criticism goes beyond bounds fair reasoned criticism one telltale sign single standard applied israel never applied liberal democracy say nothing states region israel held abstract ideal liberal democracy ought states subject criticism tremendous departures would begin worry good faith critic come back important point charges used stifle debate criticism mr tolson wonder youre reluctant debate ahmadinejads world one particular point zionism something lost region assumed political islam160 seems challenge must made kind thinking idea islam right privilege middle east pervasive europe paul richter paul richter los angeles times ari american planners already thinking happens iran gets bomb would affect israeli society mr shavit first im apocalyptic believe iran gets bomb immediately would used dont see mushroom clouds middle east years time immediate consequence iran getting bomb within short time whole region go nuclear multipolar nuclear situation unstable region egypt go nuclear saudi arabia go nuclear would one implication also return conventional wars observing bad news coming middle east dozens years realize relatively stable since 1967 1973 one major reasons relatively stable is160 say good citizen israel160 perceived israels nuclear hegemony region laughter perception actually stabilized region result major conventional wars except one foolishly launched israeli government 1982 lebanon fear moment hegemony gone roof taken youll immediately see eruption conventional warfare dont know total war think happen throughout region israel definitely concerning us main implications iran going nuclear countries going nuclear conventional violence much larger scale weve seen last 40 years comes problem countries falling influence iran happen israeli society course crucial question answer depends lot things mentioned proved past israel also zionism see challenge get prepared good dealing gone things 100 years zionist saga seem almost impossible nations im great believer grassroots strength israel society im admirer people despise politicians leaders inner strength translated decent leadership rational way running public affairs state policy good chance dealing challenge truly existential challenge dramatic challenge brings us back almost 1948 iran goes nuclear dr berkowitz people sometimes speak lightly apparently europe israeli defense force able take care necessary last moment iranian nuclear threat overlooks couple things spots iran 1000 miles away furthest point iraq like 1981 nuclear facilities widely dispersed builtin analysts ive spoken agree seriously set back operations would require waves waves sorties days days attacks conceivable international community would allow israeli air force make days days attacks accomplish serious setback heightens seriousness problem israeli air forces offensive threat great deterrent strategists lightly chatter e j dionne mr dionne would shame ari without hearing overview whats happening israeli politics want divide question two parts summers war seems summers war ideological crisis crisis party system particular id love talk left kind collapsed failure clintonbarak initiative rise amir peretz labour party leader defense minister mean right creation kadima could take us story war started wrote prophetic column two days saying stop thing think actually going quoted column prophetic brilliant entirely derivative way would curious wrote column war created total mess lebanese politics mess israeli politics could take us mort sahl routine fiveminute university mr shavit think things known ill go make clear bore happened last year was160 used term different context big bang israeli politics thought promising development years talking new israeli majority believe exists believe constructive force israel possibly region new israeli majority made call rough doves people understand occupation futile moral reasons benign idealistic understand doesnt work messy want get time realize lead peace therefore want cautiously possibly gradually160 move right direction naïve messianic way like old peace school tried new israeli majority came collapse camp david years war tells us something positive israeli public time war drawn tempted extremism defeatism came difficult decade sober potentially constructive political force represented old political system israeli majority election held hostage either right left side playing centrist card elections immediately moving messianic agenda either greater israel greater peace dont work kadima formed proud write article know impact inaudible word enough likud part sentiment forces pushed sharon take step promising moment israeli politics moment everything went wrong greatest supporter kadima formed laughter formed sharons petty side came try create real party real democratic institutions took friends people subordinates potential creating real party quality amazing support could brought best brightest knesset would revolutionized system even try brought one two thought virtuous people others worthy became much worse replaced olmert doesnt gravitas personality authority became phenomenon find disturbing democratic point view corporate part almost burlesquonian something quite frightening pr people slogans picture person thats promising abused deteriorated unworthy political phenomenon great disappointment say think prime minister personally elections scandalous behavior media serving kadima brazen way killing debate killing netanyahu peretz interesting things say heard silenced medias behavior election 2006 shameful mind frightening people smelled rat last moment kadima lost lot support came power weak rather strong created background war add amazing way olmert came great convergence plan renamed realignment plan profound way coming radical historic ideas consult several pr people come headlines without process thinking party moment realized trouble dont want talk war political consequences disturbing complete loss confidence majority israel much confidence prime minister disturbing situation context political stability knesset government huge majority club want dissolve fake political stability olmert would love george bushs approval ratings mr goldberg number mr shavit ranges 10 20 percent approval rating lets say idf assumes going war next summer iran challenge deal power defense minister great great unionist prime minister mediocre lawyer people confidence either troubling situation john dickerson john dickerson slate talked failure willpower west give us tests west needs show willpower iran iran come moments look mr shavit lets stick iran important obvious look options youre either going iran go nuclear explained consequences thought american israeli act irans nuclear capabilities going create horrible storm middle east horrible consequences iran going nuclear clear reasonable route effective aggressive political campaign doesnt take much understand leaders west aware serious way challenge since summer 2003 far know isnt much difference among washington london berlin paris climate countries leaders feel could act act one sensible option could evaded catastrophe taken probably late something route still done definitely done today proves point really israel west challenged west react rational way thats alarming proof lack willpower imagine mr dickerson test happened west failed mr shavit bizarre situation know yet dont relevant us profession know aware people look back period time believe state mind disconnect know fact nothing it160 incompetence impotence thats western malaise time mr cooperman peter would take israel regain sympathy liberal intelligentsia united states ari single important divide within israeli society today suspect may disagree sephardicashkenazic divide longer important division country dr berkowitz lot things one springs mind israel effective eloquent spokesman representing united states since bibi netanyahu bibi netanyahu young thought american audiences mid1980s particularly conservative smart sharp eloquent made israels case good thing maybe zalman shoval first persian gulf war hard remember israeli spokesmen made israels case well united states mind striking failure ari shavit wonderful israeli make israels case intelligently eloquently israel many people could perform job maybe ari explain politics led regard serious failure israel case made cant explain israel making case better mr shavit problem within israel first agree netanyahu interesting really succeeded filled vacuum time vacuum goes deeper problem israel mentioned identity problem spiritual problem people passionately care israel willing actively fight speak internationally acceptable language people speak internationally acceptable language care enough israel care passive way fight result is160 im afraid totally agree you160 actually left technically160 audio break tape change dont diplomats successful ambassador un surprised us large dont cadre people agree potentially technical political problem exposes deeper problem israel concerning question divide large israel divided debates ehud barak israel im sure want prime minister want give called israel prize lifes work brought us back great divide 2000 went bit afterward speaking different languages within country perception reality totally different many ways thats history whats striking apart tiny minorities enormous israeli consensus world live gaps differences either political or160 force would say divide center periphery crisis israel crisis israeli elites critical israeli elites almost business media academia even judiciary ive indicated healthy even sophisticated people talk guy street hes quite impressive rough way years generation deterioration elites contribution public life mr wooldridge sounds like america mr shavit energy resilience see country dont see speak within beltway beltway case jerusalem multipolitical capital probably shenkin street north herzliya pitauch israels rich powerful giving back way dont want say betraying failing people mr cromartie lets get last two questions speakers give wrapup answers kathy slobogin kathy slobogin cnn mornings session talked development modernity lot peoples surprise came along explosion religiosity seems youre saying thats true israel could talk israel seems immune except religious fringe settler movement settler movement right psyche israelis mr shavit movement ms slobogin settler movement religious settlers byron york byron york national review could either discuss consequences israel possible outcomes iraq war look pretty terrible moment dr berkowitz theres simple explanation dont see explosion religiosity opposed countries principal founders overwhelmed religion european jewry political zionism meant throw leave behind know within 20 30 years religious jews force israeli politics parents meant escape powerfully present explosion religiosity modernity unleash partly related life atomized society atomization least among first couple generations problem israel elites coming kibbutz yearned atomization return inclusive tightknit religious community ill make one comment iraq war implications israel run program israel bring american scholars journalists israel speak constitutional democracy united states two years ago brought number people160 two right two left160 talk democratization agenda bush administration reaction israelis crowd interesting left center right despised democracy promotion agenda understand reaction context understood simple bushbashing israelis look east see jordan ask better westernleaning relatively friendly king would prefer see people emancipated know stand similar thoughts egypt 70 million people atop sits hosni mubarak contemplate possibility releasing democratic energies civil society egypt think borrow language president bush continuing coddle dictators middle east vote coddling dictators middle east mentality result iraq war certainly iraq war aftermath consolidated opinion mr shavit first word caution ive stressing secular elements israeli society conversation powerful important religious minority kind religious explosion ongoing israel point stick exactly fringes dominant force israeli political life israelis junkies modernity sometimes dangerous way isnt conservative bone spiritual structure change want tomorrow talk shimon peres instance talk past interviewed many times lived everything fascinating life get talk anything went hes obsessed future nanotechnology whats next cheap psychoanalytic explanation theres much agony pain past build futureoriented almost obsessive persona true personally sense generally true country bad conserving anything always look next thing hyperactive crazed tomorrow even within religious ultraorthodox world modernity strong pull im expecting ultraorthodox perestroika rabbis controlling crowd young people women liberated religiously much part globalized world part israel way live rebelling old version religion settlers sentence completely forgotten theyve lost battle completely isolated moment frightened almost pity sympathy understanding theyve totally marginalized sense sharon destroyed likud destroyed settler movement created broke back sentence iraq agree said ill bring different tone probably make unpopular room moment worried war iraq put mildly washington war started wrote pieces concern great respect neocons seeing problem courage try something thought ideas begin simplistic dangerous headline article published april 3 2003 came back washington winstonlight sic thought winston minds amateurish attitude dont forget aspect others would see problem definitely courage anything neocons haunted minority must say something record tragedy something dramatic tried palestine place started test theory palestine iraq dictator providing stability hes removed unleash sorts forces society open potentially ready democratic thinking arabic society mess losing anything destruction small manageable project democratic palestine160 could called naïve constructive palestine call lifeloving palestine would right project conversion political life palestine israel trouble middle east trouble world trouble takes enormous resources insight wisdom transform destructive society constructive one im deeply sorry bush vision bush speech 2002 remarkably realistic statement israelipalestinian conflict ive heard anyone translated effective ambitious policy would given chance region much failed attempt iraq mr cromartie join thanking gentlemen applause speakers pew forum events given opportunity review approve remarks transcript also edited clarity spelling grammar | 8,932 |
<p>Severe overcrowding, squalid conditions and lax security in England’s jails constitute a “national crisis,” a prison whistleblower has told RT, as photographs released from inside reveal vermin-infested cells, blood-stained walls and toilets being used as dining chairs.</p>
<p>Faith Spear was sacked from her role as chairman of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at Hollesley Bay prison in Suffolk last year, after voicing her concerns about the state of Britain’s jails.</p>
<p>Despite “dirty tactics” allegedly employed by the Ministry of Justice to stop her from speaking out, the criminologist told RT she will continue to do so until changes are made.</p>
<p>Spear warned that the number of people dying in prisons, as well as incidents of self-harm, violence and drug use have risen to record highs. Overcrowding and critical understaffing have exacerbated the problem, she said.</p>
<p>“Our prisons are in crisis. Sentencing guidelines have placed more people in prisons for longer periods of time and have inflated the prison population to record numbers,” explained Spear.</p>
<p>“This has given rise to overcrowding and – together with understaffing and the emergence of psychoactive substances – prisons have become places of deprivation on a record scale.</p>
<p>“It’s a toxic combination,” she added.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/10/Findings-paper-Living-conditions-FINAL-.pdf" type="external">A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons</a> released this week reveals that almost 21,000 of the total 85,000 prison population are held in overcrowded conditions.&#160;</p>
<p>Some 31 percent of prisoners in local jails report being locked up for more than 22 hours a day, with some not being let out for 27 hours at a time. Most multi-occupancy cells did not meet the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) standard of four-square meters per person.</p>
<p>The report reveals that conditions are so cramped and ventilation so bad that inmates are having their human rights breached. Many prisoners have to defecate in lidless toilets just feet away from their cellmates, separated by nothing but a curtain.</p>
<p>The report contains a series of disturbing images, including electric cables dangling from the roof of shower cubicles, windows broken for ventilation, toilets used as dining chairs, and bloodied handprints on the walls.</p>
<p>“No wonder why people come out of prison worse than when they went in,” Spear told RT.</p>
<p>“Punishment, according to the government, is taking away your liberty. But once you are in prison you are punished continually by the regime. When you are released you are still punished because you’ve got a criminal record, who wants to employ you, you have probably lost your home as well as contact with friends and family.</p>
<p>“Once you get into the system, that’s basically it for life,” she said.</p>
<p>Over the past 25 years, Britain’s prison population has almost doubled to 85,375 – making it the largest in Western Europe. Its incarceration rate, at 148.3 prisoners per 100,000 population, remains higher than that of Spain (137.9), France (98.3), Italy (86.4) and Germany (77.4), according to the Council of Europe’s annual penal statistics.</p>
<p>Between May and August, the prison population jumped by 1,200. It is now about 1,124 below the “useable operational capacity.”</p>
<p>Head of the Prison and Probation Service Michael Spurr announced this week that government plans to close old and “dilapidated” prisons have been suspended as prison numbers continue to soar.</p>
<p>Speaking at the Prison Governors’ Association Conference on Wednesday, he said no closures were planned for the next five years but plans to provide 10,000 new prison places were still on track.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/405343-ipp-prisoners-sentence-limbo/" type="external" /></p>
<p>He said that officials were “still trying to understand” the reasons for the unanticipated rise but thought it might have been due to a number of major court cases finishing and changes to police bail arrangements.</p>
<p>“It’s crazy to think building more prisons is the answer,” Spear said.</p>
<p>“You only have to look at the state of the prisons now – they’re overcrowded, filthy, lack of staff, lack of purposeful activity and for those inside, lack of hope. If the Ministry of Justice hasn’t got it right with the prisons they’ve got now, why build more? There must be a better solution.”</p>
<p>Spear has also raised concerns over security standards at major prisons. She believes mobile phones and drugs are getting into jails through “staff corruption, officers turning a blind eye, and staff and visitors not being searched.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/402918-prison-smart-phone-drugs/" type="external">An RT investigation last month</a> found inmates at Wandsworth prison were smoking drugs, making hundreds of pounds a day in jail, and filming themselves on smartphones from their cells to brag about how easy it is to hide contraband from those in charge of the prison.</p>
<p>“Wandsworth is one of the most dangerous and overcrowded prisons in the country, and yet I went last summer and was not searched at all,” Spear said.</p>
<p>“In fact, I was working in one prison for four years and I wasn’t searched once. When I went to Oakwood Prison a few weeks ago, I wasn’t searched at all.”</p>
<p>Spear was sacked from her voluntary IMB chair role last year after she wrote an article in the <a href="http://prisons.org.uk/" type="external">Prisons Handbook</a> titled “Whistleblower without a whistle,” using the pseudonym Daisy Mallet.</p>
<p>She challenged whether IMBs, which are under the remit of the Ministry of Justice, adequately monitor the treatment of those in custody to ensure it is fair and humane, and whether the boards are truly independent.&#160;</p>
<p>She wrote that prisons are starved of resources, inmates are frustrated with the lack of communication with officers, and that IMBs have been conditioned not to speak out about what they see.</p>
<p>Spear was ultimately unmasked, suspended and sacked by what she believes is a system more interested in its reputation than fixing problems.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/406452-prison-riot-security-attack/" type="external" /></p>
<p>“The local IMB board, IMB Secretariat, President of the National Council and National Council itself all decided that I needed to be shut up and shut up quickly. The bullying started, then the intimidation, then the lies, and then the prejudicial character assassination.”</p>
<p>The criminologist “never expected the venom, backlash and dirty tactics” of the IMB and the Ministry of Justice “in trying to destroy me and my reputation and my working life,” she said.</p>
<p>Spear recalled that one Hollesley Bay IMB member had the audacity to tell her it would have helped if she had cried in front of the board while apologising for writing the article.</p>
<p>“I did apologize for any offence caused, as that was not my intention,” she said.</p>
<p>“The issues I raised are as important now as they were a year ago. I haven’t seen enough progress in any of the points I carefully considered and wrote about.</p>
<p>“It’s not right that I was silenced. I went through a lot of pain, a lot of stress how I was treated by the IMB and by the Ministry of Justice, but if I can see as a result of that it brings a change, then it was worth it.”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/mbaines3" type="external">By Mary Baines, RT&#160;</a></p> | false | 1 | severe overcrowding squalid conditions lax security englands jails constitute national crisis prison whistleblower told rt photographs released inside reveal vermininfested cells bloodstained walls toilets used dining chairs faith spear sacked role chairman independent monitoring board imb hollesley bay prison suffolk last year voicing concerns state britains jails despite dirty tactics allegedly employed ministry justice stop speaking criminologist told rt continue changes made spear warned number people dying prisons well incidents selfharm violence drug use risen record highs overcrowding critical understaffing exacerbated problem said prisons crisis sentencing guidelines placed people prisons longer periods time inflated prison population record numbers explained spear given rise overcrowding together understaffing emergence psychoactive substances prisons become places deprivation record scale toxic combination added report majestys inspectorate prisons released week reveals almost 21000 total 85000 prison population held overcrowded conditions160 31 percent prisoners local jails report locked 22 hours day let 27 hours time multioccupancy cells meet european committee prevention torture inhumane degrading treatment punishment cpt standard foursquare meters per person report reveals conditions cramped ventilation bad inmates human rights breached many prisoners defecate lidless toilets feet away cellmates separated nothing curtain report contains series disturbing images including electric cables dangling roof shower cubicles windows broken ventilation toilets used dining chairs bloodied handprints walls wonder people come prison worse went spear told rt punishment according government taking away liberty prison punished continually regime released still punished youve got criminal record wants employ probably lost home well contact friends family get system thats basically life said past 25 years britains prison population almost doubled 85375 making largest western europe incarceration rate 1483 prisoners per 100000 population remains higher spain 1379 france 983 italy 864 germany 774 according council europes annual penal statistics may august prison population jumped 1200 1124 useable operational capacity head prison probation service michael spurr announced week government plans close old dilapidated prisons suspended prison numbers continue soar speaking prison governors association conference wednesday said closures planned next five years plans provide 10000 new prison places still track read said officials still trying understand reasons unanticipated rise thought might due number major court cases finishing changes police bail arrangements crazy think building prisons answer spear said look state prisons theyre overcrowded filthy lack staff lack purposeful activity inside lack hope ministry justice hasnt got right prisons theyve got build must better solution spear also raised concerns security standards major prisons believes mobile phones drugs getting jails staff corruption officers turning blind eye staff visitors searched rt investigation last month found inmates wandsworth prison smoking drugs making hundreds pounds day jail filming smartphones cells brag easy hide contraband charge prison wandsworth one dangerous overcrowded prisons country yet went last summer searched spear said fact working one prison four years wasnt searched went oakwood prison weeks ago wasnt searched spear sacked voluntary imb chair role last year wrote article prisons handbook titled whistleblower without whistle using pseudonym daisy mallet challenged whether imbs remit ministry justice adequately monitor treatment custody ensure fair humane whether boards truly independent160 wrote prisons starved resources inmates frustrated lack communication officers imbs conditioned speak see spear ultimately unmasked suspended sacked believes system interested reputation fixing problems read local imb board imb secretariat president national council national council decided needed shut shut quickly bullying started intimidation lies prejudicial character assassination criminologist never expected venom backlash dirty tactics imb ministry justice trying destroy reputation working life said spear recalled one hollesley bay imb member audacity tell would helped cried front board apologising writing article apologize offence caused intention said issues raised important year ago havent seen enough progress points carefully considered wrote right silenced went lot pain lot stress treated imb ministry justice see result brings change worth mary baines rt160 | 616 |
<p>It’s a moment we’ve witnessed in the movies a thousand times. Two people are fighting, one of them holding a gun, and when the other one tries to wrest it from him, they tussle a bit and the gun just…goes off. Boom!&#160;Like that. It’s an “accident” that has the cosmic convenience of killing somebody who deserved to die. (It’s homicide committed by happenstance.) “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/the-private-life-of-a-modern-woman/" type="external">The Private Life of a Modern Woman</a>,” <a href="http://variety.com/t/james-toback/" type="external">James Toback</a>’s loose-limbed existential meta-thriller, is built around just such an incident. Vera, a famous New York actress played with tremulous distraught layers by <a href="http://variety.com/t/sienna-miller/" type="external">Sienna Miller</a>, has let a reckless-punk petty-criminal ex-boyfriend (Nick Matthews) into her apartment. He attacks her, and the two draw close, his gun right there in between them. And then —&#160;boom! — he’s dead.</p>
<p>According to the logic of movies (or even life), Vera has nothing to feel guilty about; she was acting in pure, urgent self-defense. Nevertheless, she calls the emergency line and hangs up, then stuffs the body into her sky-blue travel trunk. The killing, you see, is a disturbing catharsis for her. It allows her, for the first time, to see the truth of her splintered identity — to realize that her ability to act and lie and compartmentalize, to show different faces to the world, calls her very being into question. She spends the rest of the movie asking, “Who am I?”</p>
<p>It’s a question the film often seems to be asking about itself. “The Private Life of a Modern Woman” is a cinematic crazy-quilt: part thriller, part confessional, part wacked family exposé. It’s another of Toback’s antic meditations on our hidden aggression and madness, and in Sienna Miller he has found a quicksilver, exposure-without-makeup actress who is more than game to chart the wayward interior of a fractured femme fatale. As long as the movie sticks to its central incident, it exerts a sticky pull.</p>
<p>Vera, in her tan coat, red pashmina, and sunglasses, drags the tell-tale trunk down a SoHo sidewalk and then drives it upstate in her Mercedes hatchback, arriving at a rusty dock, where she dumps it into a bay. This may be the closest Toback has come to a vintage suspense trope (lurid flashbacks to the killing; the trunk leaving a pool of bubbles), all of it elevated by the dissonant romantic anxiety of Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony, which plays on the soundtrack so insistently that it becomes as much of an added character as Bernard Herrmann’s score for “Psycho.” Vera is someone who expects to feel remorse, and is surprised when she doesn’t.</p>
<p>For a while, “The Private Life of a Modern Woman” suggests Toback’s skewed version of a “Law &amp; Order: SVU” episode. Alec Baldwin shows up as an all-seeing, all-grinning Columbo/Javert detective who stares at our heroine and knows — because, you know, he just knows — that there’s got to be more to the mysterious disappearance he’s investigating than she’s letting on. You may wish that Toback had stuck with this stuff, because he’s good at it; he knows how to spin policier convention into something witty and barbed. Yet the movie turns out to be a collage, a let’s-try-it-on ramble that explores Vera’s identity through a series of semi-improvised dramatic movements. And that’s where it’s both more than a thriller and less.</p>
<p>Toback himself pops into Vera’s apartment and interviews her (“What are you writing?” “Do you feel rage at the core of your being?”). I phrase it that way because the filmmaker, in a fedora and wire rims, with his courtly insinuating badass-psychiatrist manner, is supposed to be playing someone close to Vera, but we learn absolutely nothing about how they know each other. Their “friendship” is just an abstract device, and their conversation feels less like a nugget of drama than like one of the simulated vérité scenes from Godard’s “Masculin Feminin.” It’s the director dropping in on his mentally jangled heroine to interrogate her soul for us.</p>
<p>There are other scenes that have a theoretical place in the film’s prismatic structure yet still play as digressions, like a potent episode that features Charles Grodin, blistering as Vera’s grandfather, who’s in the cruel grip of Alzheimer’s and is in a talky but impotent rage about it. (Toback should really get out of his ’70s-dread comfort zone and make an entire film about something like this. That would be existential.) Or a bizarre vignette in which Vera has a drink in her living room with Carl Icahn — yes, the actual Carl Icahn, playing himself. (He’s a friend of the grandfather’s, you see.) It’s hard to get past thinking: What’s he doing here?</p>
<p>“The Private Life of a Modern Woman” is a thrift-shop psychological X-ray that demands to be taken on its own Tobackian terms. But even on those terms, it spends too much time telling us things that it should be showing us.&#160;For a movie that’s out to explore the consciousness of a “modern woman,” it contains more mansplaining than an hour of “Fox &amp; Friends.” For Toback, there appears to be major drama in the perception that a woman is capable of the same threatening vortex of aggression and duplicity that a man is. The film opens with flowing split-screen images of Hieronymous Bosch’s 15th-century triptych of transgression, “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” which adorns the main wall of Vera’s living room. It features all the teeming potential for human dastardliness that, by implication, lives inside her. That’s what makes her a modern woman. But it also makes her a projection of someone else’s fantasies.</p>
<p>Reviewed on-line (Venice Film Festival), August 31, 2017. Running time: 71 MIN.</p>
<p>A Michael Mailer Films, in association with Funding Group of Kingston, AMPM Enterprises, Haymarket Annex II, Infrastructure Capital Management, Washington Square Films production. Producers: Michael Mailer, Jennifer Gelfer, Martin Tuchman, Alan Helene, Valda Witt. Executive producers: Joshua Blum, Angela Ceccio, Alessandro Penazzi.</p>
<p>Director, screenplay: James Toback. Camera (color, widescreen): Larry McConkey. Editor: Aaron Yanes.</p>
<p>Sienna Miller, Alec Baldwin, Charles Grodin, Colleen Camp, John Buffalo Mailer, James Toback, Nick Matthews, Oliver “Power” Grant, Steven Prescod.</p> | false | 1 | moment weve witnessed movies thousand times two people fighting one holding gun one tries wrest tussle bit gun justgoes boom160like accident cosmic convenience killing somebody deserved die homicide committed happenstance private life modern woman james tobacks looselimbed existential metathriller built around incident vera famous new york actress played tremulous distraught layers sienna miller let recklesspunk pettycriminal exboyfriend nick matthews apartment attacks two draw close gun right 160boom hes dead according logic movies even life vera nothing feel guilty acting pure urgent selfdefense nevertheless calls emergency line hangs stuffs body skyblue travel trunk killing see disturbing catharsis allows first time see truth splintered identity realize ability act lie compartmentalize show different faces world calls question spends rest movie asking question film often seems asking private life modern woman cinematic crazyquilt part thriller part confessional part wacked family exposé another tobacks antic meditations hidden aggression madness sienna miller found quicksilver exposurewithoutmakeup actress game chart wayward interior fractured femme fatale long movie sticks central incident exerts sticky pull vera tan coat red pashmina sunglasses drags telltale trunk soho sidewalk drives upstate mercedes hatchback arriving rusty dock dumps bay may closest toback come vintage suspense trope lurid flashbacks killing trunk leaving pool bubbles elevated dissonant romantic anxiety shostakovichs 7th symphony plays soundtrack insistently becomes much added character bernard herrmanns score psycho vera someone expects feel remorse surprised doesnt private life modern woman suggests tobacks skewed version law amp order svu episode alec baldwin shows allseeing allgrinning columbojavert detective stares heroine knows know knows theres got mysterious disappearance hes investigating shes letting may wish toback stuck stuff hes good knows spin policier convention something witty barbed yet movie turns collage letstryiton ramble explores veras identity series semiimprovised dramatic movements thats thriller less toback pops veras apartment interviews writing feel rage core phrase way filmmaker fedora wire rims courtly insinuating badasspsychiatrist manner supposed playing someone close vera learn absolutely nothing know friendship abstract device conversation feels less like nugget drama like one simulated vérité scenes godards masculin feminin director dropping mentally jangled heroine interrogate soul us scenes theoretical place films prismatic structure yet still play digressions like potent episode features charles grodin blistering veras grandfather whos cruel grip alzheimers talky impotent rage toback really get 70sdread comfort zone make entire film something like would existential bizarre vignette vera drink living room carl icahn yes actual carl icahn playing hes friend grandfathers see hard get past thinking whats private life modern woman thriftshop psychological xray demands taken tobackian terms even terms spends much time telling us things showing us160for movie thats explore consciousness modern woman contains mansplaining hour fox amp friends toback appears major drama perception woman capable threatening vortex aggression duplicity man film opens flowing splitscreen images hieronymous boschs 15thcentury triptych transgression garden earthly delights adorns main wall veras living room features teeming potential human dastardliness implication lives inside thats makes modern woman also makes projection someone elses fantasies reviewed online venice film festival august 31 2017 running time 71 min michael mailer films association funding group kingston ampm enterprises haymarket annex ii infrastructure capital management washington square films production producers michael mailer jennifer gelfer martin tuchman alan helene valda witt executive producers joshua blum angela ceccio alessandro penazzi director screenplay james toback camera color widescreen larry mcconkey editor aaron yanes sienna miller alec baldwin charles grodin colleen camp john buffalo mailer james toback nick matthews oliver power grant steven prescod | 565 |
<p />
<p>China’s mediation in the Kachin-Myanmar conflict is harvesting results, as the parties reached a tentative truce on 31 May. Although no ceasefire has been declared, a breakthrough is evident in deciding Myitkyina as the venue of peace talks. A seven-point agreement on de-escalating fighting and holding political dialogue has been signed.</p>
<p>How is China balancing its objectives in Kachin state with local dynamics? What has been China’s strategy to achieve its interests?</p>
<p>Chinese Interests in the Kachin State</p>
<p>On the economic and investments front, the Kachin state is important for China. The China Power Investment Corporation’s Myitsone Dam project provoked Kachin protests against Yangon in September 2011 for permitting a threat to local socio-environmental harmony. With a ceasefire imminent, China hopes the shelved hydropower scheme will reopen in 2016. Slated as the first of seven more Irrawaddy proposals, it will generate 90 percent of its electricity to feed Yunnan in exchange for $17 billion over 50 years. The general population resents intrusions, but the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) invited China for hydropower projects. KIO’s stake in China’s Datang Corporation project on Tarpein River was sidelined by the regime, leading to obstruction efforts.</p>
<p>The nearby Shwe oil and gas pipelines due to operationalize this month are vulnerable to crossfire. The oil-pipeline with an annual capacity of 12 million tonnes reduces transport costs. The ceasefire would ensure no more stray shells landing inside Chinese borders.</p>
<p>Economically, China also needs the Kachin to sustain an informal economic boom. The entire state being cut off from Naypyidaw depends on Yunnan for its entire subsistence: from rice to cars, from cell phones to university education. Chinese currency is used in standard bank transfer procedures. Jade smuggling has taken a new avatar since the days when a Chinese party could buy a Kachin mountain for mining. Hpakant now teems with Chinese businessmen armed with bulldozers displacing locals. They work as contract laborers for the million-dollar jade industry.&#160; The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) allegedly sells unused channels to businessmen who in turn supply the KIO with satellite communication. The gain is mutual as seen in Kachins’ entrepreneurship. Casinos here offering international entertainment draw crowds from Yunnan directly or by videophone. Gamblers and traders pay Kachin Independence Army (KIA) immigration officials for daily visas. Opium farming in Kachin supplying cross-border clientele is a burgeoning crop-substitution industry.</p>
<p>Internally, the Kachin conflict threatens to spill into China’s domestic social fabric—Jingpos, as Kachins in Yunnan are known, form a network of 100,000 Chinese citizens. The desire for peace does not imply Chinese interest for complete settlement in Kachin. A disbanded KIA may redirect anarchy; an integrated Kachin will mean collapse of unofficial albeit significant links.</p>
<p>The Kachin Peace Roadmap</p>
<p>21st-century China projects an image as an international conflict intermediary. Diplomatic pressure was apparent in oil-rich Darfur. Similarly, a significant role was played by hosting earlier Kachin peace talks at Ruili,- a Yunnan border town. Security guarantees were assured for both warring factions’ officials. Chinese influence conceived the May discourse.</p>
<p>The Communist Party of China’s apprehension on&#160;the US and UK attending talks scheduled for April forced delays until their attendance was shunned. The UN and the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) were allowed as witnesses. Appeasing the UNFC—the union of Myanmar’s ethnic organizations—is vital for dealings with Kachin- surrounding provinces.</p>
<p>Yunnan forced most Kachin refugees to leave camps in August 2012. China is sure to have swayed the homecoming provision for displaced Kachins in May’s agreement. Jingpo demonstrations approaching the border were returned to avert an overarching cultural connection.</p>
<p>The PLA denies armed support to the armed wing of the KIO—the only separatist organization without a ceasefire agreement with Myanmar.</p>
<p>Beijing-Laiza Axis Slows the US-Naypidaw Loop?&#160;</p>
<p>China will use the conflict as a card in bilateral relations with Myanmar vis-à-vis the U.S.A. The neighbors will continue as strong allies. Yet Myanmar’s liberalization is not looked upon kindly. A firm Kachin policy guards against future American involvement. The U.S.A’s December 2012 visit to the warzone may have stirred China to step up intervention.&#160;Increasing the Chinese grip on Laiza,- the de facto Kachin capital, is easier than improving ties with American supported National League for Democracy. Beijing implicitly supports Thein Sein’s disapproval of the U.S.A’s criticism.</p>
<p>The PLA actively trains for mountain warfare near the Kachin border. This signals to the KIA to avoid intrusions and adopt armistice. It may also warn all sides that China can launch operations in its southern backyard if necessary. Xi Jinping’s administration will continue applying leverage as mediator and using a soft approach unless forced otherwise.</p>
<p>China’s partial non-interference policy in Myanmar tactically blends with national interest. Kachin is never claimed as sovereign territory despite linkages since the fifteenth century. A two-pronged strategy is employed to preserve Laiza’s alliance without provoking the parent state. If the numerous development plans in the war-torn area take off, Yunnan can count Kachin as a sixth finger for Beijing’s foreign policy glove.</p>
<p>A version of this article was originally published at the <a href="http://www.ipcs.org" type="external">Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies</a> on June 10, 2013.</p> | false | 1 | chinas mediation kachinmyanmar conflict harvesting results parties reached tentative truce 31 may although ceasefire declared breakthrough evident deciding myitkyina venue peace talks sevenpoint agreement deescalating fighting holding political dialogue signed china balancing objectives kachin state local dynamics chinas strategy achieve interests chinese interests kachin state economic investments front kachin state important china china power investment corporations myitsone dam project provoked kachin protests yangon september 2011 permitting threat local socioenvironmental harmony ceasefire imminent china hopes shelved hydropower scheme reopen 2016 slated first seven irrawaddy proposals generate 90 percent electricity feed yunnan exchange 17 billion 50 years general population resents intrusions kachin independence organization kio invited china hydropower projects kios stake chinas datang corporation project tarpein river sidelined regime leading obstruction efforts nearby shwe oil gas pipelines due operationalize month vulnerable crossfire oilpipeline annual capacity 12 million tonnes reduces transport costs ceasefire would ensure stray shells landing inside chinese borders economically china also needs kachin sustain informal economic boom entire state cut naypyidaw depends yunnan entire subsistence rice cars cell phones university education chinese currency used standard bank transfer procedures jade smuggling taken new avatar since days chinese party could buy kachin mountain mining hpakant teems chinese businessmen armed bulldozers displacing locals work contract laborers milliondollar jade industry160 peoples liberation army pla allegedly sells unused channels businessmen turn supply kio satellite communication gain mutual seen kachins entrepreneurship casinos offering international entertainment draw crowds yunnan directly videophone gamblers traders pay kachin independence army kia immigration officials daily visas opium farming kachin supplying crossborder clientele burgeoning cropsubstitution industry internally kachin conflict threatens spill chinas domestic social fabricjingpos kachins yunnan known form network 100000 chinese citizens desire peace imply chinese interest complete settlement kachin disbanded kia may redirect anarchy integrated kachin mean collapse unofficial albeit significant links kachin peace roadmap 21stcentury china projects image international conflict intermediary diplomatic pressure apparent oilrich darfur similarly significant role played hosting earlier kachin peace talks ruili yunnan border town security guarantees assured warring factions officials chinese influence conceived may discourse communist party chinas apprehension on160the us uk attending talks scheduled april forced delays attendance shunned un united nationalities federal council unfc allowed witnesses appeasing unfcthe union myanmars ethnic organizationsis vital dealings kachin surrounding provinces yunnan forced kachin refugees leave camps august 2012 china sure swayed homecoming provision displaced kachins mays agreement jingpo demonstrations approaching border returned avert overarching cultural connection pla denies armed support armed wing kiothe separatist organization without ceasefire agreement myanmar beijinglaiza axis slows usnaypidaw loop160 china use conflict card bilateral relations myanmar visàvis usa neighbors continue strong allies yet myanmars liberalization looked upon kindly firm kachin policy guards future american involvement usas december 2012 visit warzone may stirred china step intervention160increasing chinese grip laiza de facto kachin capital easier improving ties american supported national league democracy beijing implicitly supports thein seins disapproval usas criticism pla actively trains mountain warfare near kachin border signals kia avoid intrusions adopt armistice may also warn sides china launch operations southern backyard necessary xi jinpings administration continue applying leverage mediator using soft approach unless forced otherwise chinas partial noninterference policy myanmar tactically blends national interest kachin never claimed sovereign territory despite linkages since fifteenth century twopronged strategy employed preserve laizas alliance without provoking parent state numerous development plans wartorn area take yunnan count kachin sixth finger beijings foreign policy glove version article originally published institute peace conflict studies june 10 2013 | 560 |
<p>Last Orders, adapted from Graham Swift’s novel by Fred Schepisi, is an actor’s movie but one which also manages to give us a lovely, deeply affecting portrait of ordinary people in the vanishing cockney subculture of East London. I sometimes wished that Schepisi had given just a little more attention to the theme of the ending of a way of life. The historical context is already there, with flashbacks to the war years and even the pre- war years, with the emigration of one character’s daughter and the refusal of another’s son to go into the family business — which is failing in any case. More could have been done to fill in the details. The fact that you see only one or two black faces in the background here and there suggests that maybe Schepisi was being careful lest he be accused of attributing the decline of the white cockney culture to the immigration which had made the East End of London, even at the time the film is set, in 1989, predominantly West Indian and East Asian.</p>
<p>But, as I have often had occasion to say before, the first rule of criticism is never to criticize anything for what it isn’t, only for what it is. And what Last Orders is is a series of interlocking character studies, nearly all of which are successful, and a plot that only emerges as deep background from their youth to the portraits of the main characters in age. The story in the present is almost negligible. Four men drive from London to Margate, in Kent, one day to throw the ashes of a fifth in the sea, in accordance with his dying wishes. On the way they stop for lunch, then at a hop-field, at the Chatham war memorial and at Canterbury cathedral. Finally, they throw the ashes into the sea according to plan.</p>
<p>But their desultory conversation during the drive sets off a series of flashbacks which tells in disjointed but comprehensible fashion the story of the long friendship of the four older men — Jack (Michael Caine), Vic (Tom Courtenay), Ray (Bob Hoskins) and Lenny (David Hemmings) — and their often difficult relations with wives and children, including Vince (Ray Winstone), adopted son of the deceased, Jack, who drives the three older men to Kent in a shiny new Mercedes from his successful car dealership. Vince’s relative good fortune is a bit of a sore spot with the other three, as indeed it had been with Jack, whom Vince had refused to join in the butcher-shop — Dodds and Son — that he had inherited from his father. In addition, a failed romance between Vince and Lenny’s daughter, Sally, and an illegitimate child makes Lenny more or less overtly hostile to Vince all through the journey.</p>
<p>Along the way we also learn from the flashbacks of the courtship of young Jack (J.J. Feild) and his wife, Amy (Kelly Reilly) when both spent pre-war summers hop-picking in Kent and going to Margate pier for recreation, about Jack’s army service in the desert and Egypt during the war, where he met young Ray (Anatol Yusef), about Vic’s service in the Navy, Ray’s marriage which broke up after his daughter emigrated to Australia and the romance between Vince and Sally when the latter had been taken with Jack and Amy on family holidays to the beach. Through all these other stories runs the thread of connection represented by the unhealed wound in the marriage of Jack and Amy: a severely retarded daughter called June (Laura Morelli), whom Jack would never speak of but whom Amy, played in her later years by Helen Mirren, visited in the institution where she had been warehoused every Thursday for fifty years — even though June never gave a sign of even knowing who she was.</p>
<p>Or rather, every Thursday save six one summer in the late 1960s when Amy had been driven by Ray in his camper, instead of going by bus as usual, and had had a brief affair with him instead of visiting June. Jack never found out, and Amy always insisted that he really did love her, even though he didn’t love June. Finally, while on his deathbed, Jack had confided in Ray, an inveterate player of the horses, that he had only managed to save his butcher-shop by taking out a loan from some loan shark, on which he now owed £20,000. He had borrowed £1000 from Vince and asked Ray to put it on a long-shot, so that he could win enough to “see Amy right” after he is dead. Ray reluctantly agrees and is himself surprised when Fancy Free comes home at 33-1 to make sure that Amy is, indeed, seen right. The film ends with the suggestion that the now well-provided-for widow and Ray may together travel to Australia to find his daughter, with whom he has lost touch, and possibly some grandchildren.</p>
<p>It all sounds rather soap-operaish, I know, but it is saved from banality by the fine performances of the principal actors and by the well-judged elegiac tone. I have often before had occasion to point to the way in which the movies are a sort of national photo album, since one thing they do superbly well is recreate the sights and sounds and textures of life in former times and so prod our memories. At worst this becomes a mere wallow in nostalgia, but at best, as in Last Orders, it offers a true account of time’s passing, and of the stages of life, in a way that no other art form can do. The happiness and the disappointment of life in both youth and age are depicted with loving care, and we are left with a sense of lives lived with greater or lesser skill and luck and wisdom but well and truly lived nonetheless. By the time that his son and his three best friends (but not his wife or daughter) say good-bye to Jack in a driving English rainstorm at Margate, we know him too, and feel the pain of the farewell.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly part of the emotion which the film generates is owing to the presence of the past in the Chatham war memorial and Canterbury Cathedral and even the hop-field and the cheap amusements of the Margate pier. The sense of the long and storied history of Britain constantly in the background (“That’s where Becket got done, up there on them steps”) suggests some sense in which this, too, is coming to an end with the lives of the four old friends. Perhaps, on reflection, I am just as glad that Schepisi did not insist on this idea or emphasize it unduly but let it remain only a sort of echo of the long goodbye to Jack. If the parallel had been spelled out, it would not have been true. As it is, it is just enough to intensify our feeling of loss and regret but not enough to imply any unfortunate demographic or social animadversions.</p>
<p>Working class culture like that of Jack and Ray and Lenny and Vic is coming to an end all over the Western world — as, of course, is upper-class culture. The vast vulgar middle that survives and thrives is scarcely deserving of the name of culture at all. Its culture is in how a particular society copes with its limitations — including the ultimate limitation of death. But we live in a society which insists that limitations are only there to be overcome. Even death will be overcome, it is vaguely supposed, when we have learned how to grow our own spare parts with the black arts of cloning and genetic engineering. It is the nostalgia for a time when people understood and accepted and coped, however badly, with their common limitations that Last Orders is particularly good at evoking.</p> | false | 1 | last orders adapted graham swifts novel fred schepisi actors movie one also manages give us lovely deeply affecting portrait ordinary people vanishing cockney subculture east london sometimes wished schepisi given little attention theme ending way life historical context already flashbacks war years even pre war years emigration one characters daughter refusal anothers son go family business failing case could done fill details fact see one two black faces background suggests maybe schepisi careful lest accused attributing decline white cockney culture immigration made east end london even time film set 1989 predominantly west indian east asian often occasion say first rule criticism never criticize anything isnt last orders series interlocking character studies nearly successful plot emerges deep background youth portraits main characters age story present almost negligible four men drive london margate kent one day throw ashes fifth sea accordance dying wishes way stop lunch hopfield chatham war memorial canterbury cathedral finally throw ashes sea according plan desultory conversation drive sets series flashbacks tells disjointed comprehensible fashion story long friendship four older men jack michael caine vic tom courtenay ray bob hoskins lenny david hemmings often difficult relations wives children including vince ray winstone adopted son deceased jack drives three older men kent shiny new mercedes successful car dealership vinces relative good fortune bit sore spot three indeed jack vince refused join butchershop dodds son inherited father addition failed romance vince lennys daughter sally illegitimate child makes lenny less overtly hostile vince journey along way also learn flashbacks courtship young jack jj feild wife amy kelly reilly spent prewar summers hoppicking kent going margate pier recreation jacks army service desert egypt war met young ray anatol yusef vics service navy rays marriage broke daughter emigrated australia romance vince sally latter taken jack amy family holidays beach stories runs thread connection represented unhealed wound marriage jack amy severely retarded daughter called june laura morelli jack would never speak amy played later years helen mirren visited institution warehoused every thursday fifty years even though june never gave sign even knowing rather every thursday save six one summer late 1960s amy driven ray camper instead going bus usual brief affair instead visiting june jack never found amy always insisted really love even though didnt love june finally deathbed jack confided ray inveterate player horses managed save butchershop taking loan loan shark owed 20000 borrowed 1000 vince asked ray put longshot could win enough see amy right dead ray reluctantly agrees surprised fancy free comes home 331 make sure amy indeed seen right film ends suggestion wellprovidedfor widow ray may together travel australia find daughter lost touch possibly grandchildren sounds rather soapoperaish know saved banality fine performances principal actors welljudged elegiac tone often occasion point way movies sort national photo album since one thing superbly well recreate sights sounds textures life former times prod memories worst becomes mere wallow nostalgia best last orders offers true account times passing stages life way art form happiness disappointment life youth age depicted loving care left sense lives lived greater lesser skill luck wisdom well truly lived nonetheless time son three best friends wife daughter say goodbye jack driving english rainstorm margate know feel pain farewell undoubtedly part emotion film generates owing presence past chatham war memorial canterbury cathedral even hopfield cheap amusements margate pier sense long storied history britain constantly background thats becket got done steps suggests sense coming end lives four old friends perhaps reflection glad schepisi insist idea emphasize unduly let remain sort echo long goodbye jack parallel spelled would true enough intensify feeling loss regret enough imply unfortunate demographic social animadversions working class culture like jack ray lenny vic coming end western world course upperclass culture vast vulgar middle survives thrives scarcely deserving name culture culture particular society copes limitations including ultimate limitation death live society insists limitations overcome even death overcome vaguely supposed learned grow spare parts black arts cloning genetic engineering nostalgia time people understood accepted coped however badly common limitations last orders particularly good evoking | 663 |
<p>Entertainment industry giants have made a notable commitment to help America’s armed forces transition to civilian life, and in particular to welcome them to Hollywood.</p>
<p>It’s a complex, difficult transition. Those who’ve put their lives on the line, often in positions of responsibility and leadership far beyond their years, may lack the savoir-faire to move smoothly into the job market. Having never interviewed, many struggle to express themselves in non-military terms. Hiring managers, meanwhile, can fall prey to stereotypes, and can’t always read a military resume’s nuances to match them to civilian work.</p>
<p>“When I see these brave, talented men and women transitioning, and their identities and their networks are taken away … it’s hard,” says Richard M. Jones, CBS’ chief veteran officer as well as executive VP and general tax counsel.</p>
<p>Though returnees don’t want or expect special treatment, they welcome a helping hand. Retired Army Col. Kevin Preston, now manager of <a href="http://variety.com/t/disney/" type="external">Disney</a> <a href="http://variety.com/t/veterans/" type="external">Veterans</a> Initiatives, says: “We’re not looking to say, ‘you owe me something.’ We just want an opportunity to show what we can do.”</p>
<p><a href="http://variety.com/2017/scene/vpage/coco-gael-garcia-bernal-premiere-1202610780/" type="external">Disney</a> chairman and CEO <a href="http://variety.com/t/bob-iger/" type="external">Bob Iger</a> announced such an opportunity to stockholders in 2012, vis a vis a company-wide commitment to 1,000 veteran hires by 2015. More than 2,500 managers have gone through a military education curriculum, and five years later the Heroes Work Here initiative boasts 8,000 vets snapped up by Disney’s various entertainment, media and resort divisions.</p>
<p>“Hiring <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/spotlight/entertainment-biz-takes-mighty-big-step-for-veterans-1202609627/" type="external">veterans</a> has become part of the fabric of the Disney Company,” Preston says. “It’s been internalized.”</p>
<p>Not to be outdone, Comcast NBCUniversal announced in 2015 an initiative to recruit 10,000 veterans, Guard and Reserve members and spouses/partners across its divisions within two years.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t a mathematical calculation,” says retired Brig. Gen. Carol Eggert, now senior VP, military and veterans affairs, but “a North Star” that their people could rally around. “Military-friendly is ‘thanks for your service.’ Military-ready is, ‘we have programs in place to hire you … we understand you.’”</p>
<p>To bring about a state of military readiness, Eggert and team created the Comcast Military Community Roadmap to take its civilians through unfamiliar concerns: “Why are military spouses important? What are the military ranks? You wouldn’t offer the same job to an E4 or specialist as you would to, let’s say, a colonel.” The roadmap “has made a big difference in increasing understanding, and increasing interviews.”</p>
<p>“We can’t commit to 10,000 jobs, like Disney, with its theme parks, or like the banks do,” Jones says. “But what we can do is make sure we’re influencing senior leadership when there are hiring opportunities.”</p>
<p>He cites “our very robust internship program” and the CBS Veteran Network, “an internal affinity group to provide community for the 400 veterans and family members who have this commonality. We also use it to align our efforts to do our outreach, to find ways that we can marshal the good that CBS can do.”</p>
<p>He rejects any idea that media giants are simply checking off a give-back box. “Through our advocacy, people see it and go, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize that. I’m going to make sure I’m doing something impactful.’”</p>
<p>Speaking of impact, no fewer than 43,000 nonprofit organizations tell the IRS their raison d’etre is helping veterans. This poses a quandary for the Call of Duty Endowment, created in 2009 by Bobby Kotick, CEO of <a href="http://variety.com/t/activision-blizzard/" type="external">Activision Blizzard</a>, and named for the company’s phenomenally successful video game. Where, among those 43,000 501(c)3’s, should grants go?</p>
<p>“It’s a needle in a haystack problem,” says endowment executive director Dan Goldenberg, a Navy flight officer and captain in the Navy Reserve. Working with pro bono donator Deloitte since 2013, Call of Duty employs a lauded screening methodology to identify and monitor high-performing nonprofits, bestowing Seal of Distinction awards and grants and matchmaking between partners and applicants. Hire Heroes USA, for example, originally got $50,000, and “now we do about $1.4 million with them annually. … The whole point of it is to pick winners.”</p>
<p>Goldenberg notes the endowment’s average cost-per-placement is $553, almost one-sixth the federal government’s cost to install a veteran hire. “We’ve put $25 million against this since 2009 and the result is 37,000 veterans in high-quality jobs,” he says, at an average starting salary 88% higher than the national median.</p>
<p>Small- and mid-size companies hire 80% of America’s veterans, and they, too, benefit from media support. Eggert says the Comcast Employers School provides online content free of charge “to help employers set up a hiring program: how to interview military candidates, how to set up an employee research group.”</p>
<p>Preston estimates the Disney Veterans Institute, a no-cost seminar laying out the Magic Kingdom’s playbook, has led to “just shy of 20,000” new hires at non-Disney concerns.Training is crucial because the divide between returnees and civilians seems beyond dispute. The same sobering data points keep coming up: Only 6%-7% of the population has been in the armed forces. The 67% of 1970s Americans who knew someone who served has shrunk to around 30%.</p>
<p>“Less than 1% serve at any one point,” Eggert says, lending credence to Jones’ contention that “America needs to be reintroduced to itself, by being reintroduced to the brave men and women who serve in our military.”</p>
<p>Veterans with Hollywood aspirations have two weighty obstacles to face. For one, civilians often can’t see them as anything but security guards or technical consultants, in what Goldenberg calls “the false stereotype” that “they don’t have a creative bone in their body.”</p>
<p>Yet Preston says “the military trains directly transferable skills. … Don’t put us in a box, that we can only do X, we can only do combat arms.”</p>
<p>Eggert lists “being part of a team, the ability to problem-solve … situational analysis,” and gets specific: Specialists in combat documentation produce video content in the field, while public affairs officers do likewise in media relations. Youngsters with school theater experience, actively recruited by the services, “have exactly the kind of base entry skills that the entertainment industry is looking for.”</p>
<p>The situation should improve as awareness grows; already, visitors to Heroes Work Here’s website can click on their military specialty and view jobs with which their skills might dovetail. Another hurdle is ironically fostered by Hollywood itself. “They shape people’s understanding of who veterans are,” says Goldenberg. “There’s a perception out there that A, you must have been in combat; B, you must have been traumatized; or C, it’s somehow not going to make you a normal person.”</p>
<p>“Without the proper context,” Jones says, hiring managers will “say thank you for your service, but no thank you. It’ll reinforce a narrative that veterans are broken and dysfunctional.”</p>
<p>Eggert acknowledges “a population that’s in need,” and “nobody does it better than the military” in preventing suicide and fighting PTSD. But military service “often creates resilience, not fragility. They don’t come back broken.”</p>
<p>In or out of combat, “there’s so much of a challenge in any position they’re in: working with teams, having to solve problems, having to deal with budgets….I think that military service can make individuals much stronger in character, as well as skills.”</p>
<p>She cites a Rand finding that veterans give back to their communities at a greater rate than non-military, while Goldenberg notes a Corporate Executive Board study showing 4% higher productivity and 3% lower turnover among veterans.</p>
<p>With the understatement typical of all his fellow veterans advocates, Preston urges those in a position to hire.</p>
<p>“Give them a platform to stand on,” he says,”and they will generally do very well, and please and amaze the people they work with.”</p> | false | 1 | entertainment industry giants made notable commitment help americas armed forces transition civilian life particular welcome hollywood complex difficult transition whove put lives line often positions responsibility leadership far beyond years may lack savoirfaire move smoothly job market never interviewed many struggle express nonmilitary terms hiring managers meanwhile fall prey stereotypes cant always read military resumes nuances match civilian work see brave talented men women transitioning identities networks taken away hard says richard jones cbs chief veteran officer well executive vp general tax counsel though returnees dont want expect special treatment welcome helping hand retired army col kevin preston manager disney veterans initiatives says looking say owe something want opportunity show disney chairman ceo bob iger announced opportunity stockholders 2012 vis vis companywide commitment 1000 veteran hires 2015 2500 managers gone military education curriculum five years later heroes work initiative boasts 8000 vets snapped disneys various entertainment media resort divisions hiring veterans become part fabric disney company preston says internalized outdone comcast nbcuniversal announced 2015 initiative recruit 10000 veterans guard reserve members spousespartners across divisions within two years wasnt mathematical calculation says retired brig gen carol eggert senior vp military veterans affairs north star people could rally around militaryfriendly thanks service militaryready programs place hire understand bring state military readiness eggert team created comcast military community roadmap take civilians unfamiliar concerns military spouses important military ranks wouldnt offer job e4 specialist would lets say colonel roadmap made big difference increasing understanding increasing interviews cant commit 10000 jobs like disney theme parks like banks jones says make sure influencing senior leadership hiring opportunities cites robust internship program cbs veteran network internal affinity group provide community 400 veterans family members commonality also use align efforts outreach find ways marshal good cbs rejects idea media giants simply checking giveback box advocacy people see go wow didnt realize im going make sure im something impactful speaking impact fewer 43000 nonprofit organizations tell irs raison detre helping veterans poses quandary call duty endowment created 2009 bobby kotick ceo activision blizzard named companys phenomenally successful video game among 43000 501c3s grants go needle haystack problem says endowment executive director dan goldenberg navy flight officer captain navy reserve working pro bono donator deloitte since 2013 call duty employs lauded screening methodology identify monitor highperforming nonprofits bestowing seal distinction awards grants matchmaking partners applicants hire heroes usa example originally got 50000 14 million annually whole point pick winners goldenberg notes endowments average costperplacement 553 almost onesixth federal governments cost install veteran hire weve put 25 million since 2009 result 37000 veterans highquality jobs says average starting salary 88 higher national median small midsize companies hire 80 americas veterans benefit media support eggert says comcast employers school provides online content free charge help employers set hiring program interview military candidates set employee research group preston estimates disney veterans institute nocost seminar laying magic kingdoms playbook led shy 20000 new hires nondisney concernstraining crucial divide returnees civilians seems beyond dispute sobering data points keep coming 67 population armed forces 67 1970s americans knew someone served shrunk around 30 less 1 serve one point eggert says lending credence jones contention america needs reintroduced reintroduced brave men women serve military veterans hollywood aspirations two weighty obstacles face one civilians often cant see anything security guards technical consultants goldenberg calls false stereotype dont creative bone body yet preston says military trains directly transferable skills dont put us box x combat arms eggert lists part team ability problemsolve situational analysis gets specific specialists combat documentation produce video content field public affairs officers likewise media relations youngsters school theater experience actively recruited services exactly kind base entry skills entertainment industry looking situation improve awareness grows already visitors heroes work heres website click military specialty view jobs skills might dovetail another hurdle ironically fostered hollywood shape peoples understanding veterans says goldenberg theres perception must combat b must traumatized c somehow going make normal person without proper context jones says hiring managers say thank service thank itll reinforce narrative veterans broken dysfunctional eggert acknowledges population thats need nobody better military preventing suicide fighting ptsd military service often creates resilience fragility dont come back broken combat theres much challenge position theyre working teams solve problems deal budgetsi think military service make individuals much stronger character well skills cites rand finding veterans give back communities greater rate nonmilitary goldenberg notes corporate executive board study showing 4 higher productivity 3 lower turnover among veterans understatement typical fellow veterans advocates preston urges position hire give platform stand saysand generally well please amaze people work | 752 |
<p>The phrase “Bear Raid” had become synonymous with Cal <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Walker/" type="external">football</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>Sonny Dykes, the Golden Bears’ head coach for the past four seasons, brought an offensive mindset and his Air Raid offense to Berkeley. It paid off in year three, when quarterback and eventual No. 1 NFL draft pick <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jared-Goff/" type="external">Jared Goff</a> powered Cal to a winning record and a victory over Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl.</p>
<p>But along the way, the Cal defense was serviceable at best, and for the most part, completely incapable of stopping the run. That’s where Justin Wilcox comes in.</p>
<p>Wilcox, Cal’s first-year head coach, is the former defensive coordinator at Wisconsin, USC, Washington, Tennessee and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Boise_State/" type="external">Boise State</a>.</p>
<p>“It’s going to look a lot different,” senior linebacker Raymond Davison said. “A lot of people are going to be pleasantly surprised. … My expectations are high. If I’m a Cal fan, I’d look forward to watching this defense this year.”</p>
<p>Cal certainly has a long way to go. Throughout last season, the Golden Bears remained in the bottom three in the nation in run defense, allowing 6 yards per carry to opponents who happily ran all over them. Cal ranked 125th in total defense, 127th in scoring defense and 122nd in yards allowed per play, out of 128 FBS teams.</p>
<p>That led to a 5-7 record, and Dykes’ third losing season in four campaigns. Wilcox, meanwhile, oversaw a Badgers defense that was seventh in total defense and fourth in scoring.</p>
<p>Give me a…C!</p>
<p>Welcome Class of 2021. <a href="https://t.co/OMexjeWTTA" type="external">pic.twitter.com/OMexjeWTTA</a></p>
<p>— Cal Football (@CalFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/CalFootball/status/897678845360328704" type="external">August 16, 2017</a></p>
<p>“Sometimes change is the best thing,” senior cornerback Darius Allensworth said.</p>
<p>“When there’s change you can’t do anything about the change other than embrace it. So we embraced the change and we’re ready to get behind Coach Wilcox and have him lead us to the promised land.”</p>
<p>While Cal’s players might not miss the approach of seasons past, they’ll certainly miss last year’s quarterback, Davis Webb. Webb, a third-round pick of the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New_York_Giants/" type="external">New York Giants</a>, threw for 4,295 yards, with 37 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His top receiver, Chad Hansen, is also gone after amassing 92 catches for 1,249 yards and 11 touchdowns.</p>
<p>A quarterback battle has ensued between Chase Forest and Ross Bowers, but neither threw a pass last season. Freshman Chase Garbers might also factor into the discussion, and Wilcox has not said when he’ll name a starter.</p>
<p>Whoever takes the reins will have to stay vigilant in the pocket, as Cal returns just one starter to the offensive line. Skill-position weapons are there, in receiver Demetris Robertson and tailbacks Tre <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Watson/" type="external">Watson</a> and Vic Enwere, but Cal’s offense needs time to grow.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Cal doesn’t have cupcake games early on to allow them to have growing pains and still win. The Golden Bears open on the road against North Carolina, a team that played in a bowl game last year, on Sept. 2. Two weeks later (Sept. 16), Cal hosts SEC’s Mississippi, and the week after that, the Golden Bears entertain one of the top teams in the nation in USC (Sept. 23).</p>
<p>“We’ve made significant strides but we have to continue to do that,” said Wilcox, who spent the last 11 seasons as a defensive coordinator. “We’re not where we need to be.”</p>
<p>MOST IMPORTANT PLAYER:</p>
<p>LB Devante Downs — As Cal transitions to becoming a defense-first team, senior leaders like Downs will have to shepherd the younger players through and be a sounding board for Wilcox. Downs is especially vital as an inside linebacker, and he has to help stop the bleeding in the run defense. Downs posted a team-high 83 tackles last season, with 3.5 tackles for a loss, two sacks, one interception and two pass deflections. Downs and Davison have to be the faces of the Cal defense, if it wants to see tangible progress under coach Justin Wilcox in 2017.</p>
<p>BREAKOUT STAR:</p>
<p>WR Demetris Robertson — Robertson was a relatively late signing by then-coach Sonny Dykes in spring 2016, but getting this five-star prospect was a huge get for the program. The speedy, versatile wide receiver put up 50 catches for 767 yards and seven touchdowns last season, as the second-most productive receiver behind Chad Hansen. Now, Hansen is gone, and Robertson is going to be a beloved target of whomever becomes Cal’s starting quarterback.</p>
<p>NEWCOMER TO WATCH:</p>
<p>CB Elijah Hicks — While quarterback Chase Garbers is Cal’s top-ranked recruit for 2017, Hicks is at a vital position and has the best chance to make an immediate impact. Hicks, who’s from La Mirada in Southern California, is a former <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Notre_Dame/" type="external">Notre Dame</a> commit who also drew offers from Michigan, USC, UCLA and many more. He delivered in the spring game, with three pass break-ups and one interception, and is listed as one of three players sharing the starting spot at one cornerback position on the preseason depth chart. “He is a versatile athlete and we expect him to be a key member of this recruiting class,” coach Justin Wilcox said.</p> | false | 1 | phrase bear raid become synonymous cal football recent years sonny dykes golden bears head coach past four seasons brought offensive mindset air raid offense berkeley paid year three quarterback eventual 1 nfl draft pick jared goff powered cal winning record victory air force armed forces bowl along way cal defense serviceable best part completely incapable stopping run thats justin wilcox comes wilcox cals firstyear head coach former defensive coordinator wisconsin usc washington tennessee boise state going look lot different senior linebacker raymond davison said lot people going pleasantly surprised expectations high im cal fan id look forward watching defense year cal certainly long way go throughout last season golden bears remained bottom three nation run defense allowing 6 yards per carry opponents happily ran cal ranked 125th total defense 127th scoring defense 122nd yards allowed per play 128 fbs teams led 57 record dykes third losing season four campaigns wilcox meanwhile oversaw badgers defense seventh total defense fourth scoring give ac welcome class 2021 pictwittercomomexjewtta cal football calfootball august 16 2017 sometimes change best thing senior cornerback darius allensworth said theres change cant anything change embrace embraced change ready get behind coach wilcox lead us promised land cals players might miss approach seasons past theyll certainly miss last years quarterback davis webb webb thirdround pick new york giants threw 4295 yards 37 touchdowns 12 interceptions top receiver chad hansen also gone amassing 92 catches 1249 yards 11 touchdowns quarterback battle ensued chase forest ross bowers neither threw pass last season freshman chase garbers might also factor discussion wilcox said hell name starter whoever takes reins stay vigilant pocket cal returns one starter offensive line skillposition weapons receiver demetris robertson tailbacks tre watson vic enwere cals offense needs time grow unfortunately cal doesnt cupcake games early allow growing pains still win golden bears open road north carolina team played bowl game last year sept 2 two weeks later sept 16 cal hosts secs mississippi week golden bears entertain one top teams nation usc sept 23 weve made significant strides continue said wilcox spent last 11 seasons defensive coordinator need important player lb devante downs cal transitions becoming defensefirst team senior leaders like downs shepherd younger players sounding board wilcox downs especially vital inside linebacker help stop bleeding run defense downs posted teamhigh 83 tackles last season 35 tackles loss two sacks one interception two pass deflections downs davison faces cal defense wants see tangible progress coach justin wilcox 2017 breakout star wr demetris robertson robertson relatively late signing thencoach sonny dykes spring 2016 getting fivestar prospect huge get program speedy versatile wide receiver put 50 catches 767 yards seven touchdowns last season secondmost productive receiver behind chad hansen hansen gone robertson going beloved target whomever becomes cals starting quarterback newcomer watch cb elijah hicks quarterback chase garbers cals topranked recruit 2017 hicks vital position best chance make immediate impact hicks whos la mirada southern california former notre dame commit also drew offers michigan usc ucla many delivered spring game three pass breakups one interception listed one three players sharing starting spot one cornerback position preseason depth chart versatile athlete expect key member recruiting class coach justin wilcox said | 527 |
<p>Rome&#160;– Twenty-first-century ecclesiastical heraldry may strike some as an arcane hangover from a long-gone past, when bishops were lords temporal as well as lords spiritual. Still, the rich vocabulary of heraldic symbolism adds a little class to a world of Twitter hashtags, and the mottoes that Catholic bishops — and popes — choose for their coats of arms can provide important clues about their character and formation. John Paul II’s “Totus tuus” (Entirely yours), as well as the composition of his&#160;stemma papale&#160;(a large “M” beneath a gold cross on a blue field), spoke volumes about his Marian piety and his conviction that his life was guided and protected by the Mother of the Church. Benedict XVI’s rather complex coat of arms was a nightmare for the Vatican gardeners who maintain a floral representation of the reigning pontiff’s&#160;stemma&#160;just behind St. Peter’s Basilica; but his motto, “Cooperatores veritatis” (Coworkers of the truth), signaled that his would be a pontificate of clear teaching rooted in deep and broad scholarship.</p>
<p>What, then, shall we make of the episcopal motto that Pope Francis, the former Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, S.J., took during his service as archbishop of Buenos Aires –&#160; “Miserando atque eligendo” (Lowly and also chosen) — and will retain as pope?</p>
<p>Foremost, expect an evangelical humility. In the first days of his pontificate, “humble” was the adjective most frequently applied to the new bishop of Rome, and rightly so. It’s important to recognize, however, that Pope Francis’s humility has a distinctive character. It is&#160;evangelical&#160;humility, a Gospel-centered and Christ-centered humility. And it has been shaped over the course of his life by classic Jesuit (or Ignatian) spirituality: the rigorously disciplined commitment to selflessness-in-Christian-mission that was inculcated in members of the Society of Jesus before Jesuit formation became one of the victims of the Catholic Revolution That Never Was. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., became a sign of contradiction — a persecuted sign of contradiction — within his own religious order, as too many of his Jesuit brethren were seduced by the solipsistic zeitgeist of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Pope Francis’s approach to the spiritual life and his understanding of Christian discipleship is, by contrast, the polar opposite of this faux spirituality of self-absorption, in which self-esteem displaces selflessness, and commitments to both ecclesial obedience and mission crumble as a result.</p>
<p>The new pope’s more authentically Ignatian approach to the interior life is nicely captured in a famous prayer, the Suscipe, of Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus — a prayer that also offers an interpretive key to Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s self-abasing episcopal motto:</p>
<p>Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,</p>
<p>my memory, my understanding,</p>
<p>and my entire will,</p>
<p>all I have and call my own.</p>
<p>You have given all to me.</p>
<p>To you, Lord, I return it.</p>
<p>Everything is yours; do with it what you will.</p>
<p>Give me only your love and your grace.</p>
<p>That is enough for me.</p>
<p>At the very center of this prayer is the sacrifice of one’s “entire will.” Submission of one’s will, to the divine will and to the will of one’s superiors, was crucial to the original Jesuit charism, or genius. The Catholic Church took an enormous gamble in accepting Ignatius Loyola’s offer to build a self-consciously elite corps of intellectual shock troops to meet the challenge of the Reformation and to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth: to “set all ablaze,” as the inscription beneath the statue of Ignatius at Jesuit GHQ near the Vatican sums up the Basque saint’s intention. Self-consciously elite bodies can revivify flaccid institutions; they can also corrupt them. It all depends on the will, and on the direction in which it is bent.</p>
<p>The Catholic gamble on the Society of Jesus was that the distinctive fourth Jesuit vow — radical obedience to the pope and complete availability for whatever mission he gave the Society or individual Jesuits — would bind this elite to the body of the Church so that it could be a true intellectual and evangelical leaven. And that is precisely what the Society was for centuries. But when the confusions of the post–Vatican II Church met the turbulence summed up in that epigrammatic year, 1968, things quickly unraveled. And a community of vowed religious that had long prided itself on its defense of orthodoxy now took the lead in challenging Catholic orthodoxy and orthopraxis at every conceivable turn, in an embrace of fashionable enthusiasms that ran from Marxism to environmentalism to radical feminism and gay liberation.</p>
<p>In his days as Jesuit provincial in Argentina, Father Bergoglio resisted the deconstruction of Catholic doctrine and the corruption of religious life that beset too much of the Society of Jesus after Vatican II. One imagines that Bergoglio was grateful for Pope John Paul II’s early, if failed, attempt to reform the Society by putting it into a kind of papal receivership. And one can readily imagine the new pope’s being appalled by the notorious remark of an Irish Jesuit, Cyril Barrett, who was heard to bellow in a London restaurant, in respect of Mehmet Ali Agca (John Paul’s wannabe assassin), “The only thing wrong with that bloody Turk was that he couldn’t shoot straight!”</p>
<p>But why, finally, was Bergoglio such a sign of contradiction within his own religious community? Why did a world-renowned Jesuit say after the 2005 conclave that, while he was no fan of Joseph Ratzinger, he nonetheless ended up supporting him because anyone was better than Bergoglio? To be sure, Bergoglio drew this kind of animosity because he is a man who accepts the symphony of Catholic truth in full, and that brought down on him the&#160;odium theologicum&#160;of the more deconstructively inclined. Perhaps more to the point for the future (and for the rest of the Church), Bergoglio was a living challenge to his Jesuit brethren because he understands that the life of discipleship, mirrored in Saint Ignatius’s Suscipe, is the antithesis of late-modern and postmodern willfulness: “Take, Lord, and receive . . . my&#160;entire&#160;will.” The whole nine yards. All of it.</p>
<p>That classic Jesuit commitment, embodied in the humility of Pope Francis, will be an important instrument in the new pope’s program of reform within Catholicism, for the entire Church (as has happened before in history) has been weakened by willfulness, self-absorption, and careerism. It is also of prime importance for the world. As the moral culture of the West continues to crumble under the assault of willfulness apotheosized (and legally enforced) as the end-all and be-all of life, the new pope will offer, in his person as well as his teaching, an alternative. Nietzsche versus Ignatius Loyola: all will, all the time, versus all self-gift, all the way — not a bad summary of the options; not a bad guess at the kind of Church the new pope will want to offer the world as a nobler expression of human aspiration.</p>
<p>Francis was chosen for reform. If the conclave of 2005 was about continuity, the cardinal electors trying to “stretch” the pontificate of John Paul II into the future by choosing the Polish pope’s closest theological collaborator as his successor, the conclave of 2013 was primarily about governance. The cardinals came to Rome this time concerned about the incompetence and corruption (financial and otherwise) that had seriously distorted the work of the Roman Curia, the Church’s central bureaucratic machinery. And what many cardinals experienced and learned during the papal interregnum confirmed their sense that the machinery was indeed badly broken and that a man with a capacity for what Italians call “governo” — decisive governing — was needed. Then, after a number of&#160;papabili, potential popes, had been measured against that requirement, a consensus began to form: The work of reform should be entrusted to an older man with a proven track record of dealing with corruptions of various sorts; a man free to do what needed to be done because he was not bound by associational or organizational or national-ethnic ties that could impede his fixing what clearly had to be fixed; a radical Christian disciple who lived evangelical freedom fearlessly.</p>
<p>And thus the choice fell on Jorge Mario Bergoglio.</p>
<p>Some were surprised, as some always are, that the Catholic Church has once again chosen as pope a man who believes what the Catholic Church teaches; but that’s because dreams of the Catholic Revolution That Never Was die hard, even among people of a secular cast of mind. Others were surprised that a pope who, citing his age, had renounced the Chair of Peter a few weeks shy of his 86th birthday should be succeeded by a man who was 76 at his election, and others imagined that only a local, an Italian, could straighten out the mess that the re-Italianization of the Curia had caused; but who better to clean house than a knowledgeable outsider who is free to do what needs to be done, quickly, because he knows that he will not have a long pontificate? Still others imagined that the new pope should be someone who would replace the obvious incompetents in high curial office before settling down to business as usual, but that prescription failed to reckon with the sea change of Catholic self-understanding that has come to its first maturity in a man like Bergoglio — the change from institutional-maintenance Catholicism to robustly evangelical and missionary Catholicism.</p>
<p>From his experience in Latin America, Pope Francis knows that a kept Church has no future, whether Catholicism is “kept” in terms of legal establishment, historic cultural habit, or both. In 2007, Cardinal Bergoglio helped lead the Catholic bishops of Latin America toward a new vision of evangelical possibility in the most densely Catholic part of the world. That revolutionary vision was embodied in what is known as the Aparecida Document, named for the Brazilian city in which the bishops hammered out a 21st-century challenge to all Catholics to rediscover the missionary vocation into which they have been baptized. At Aparecida, the bishops of Latin America agreed that “a Catholic faith reduced to mere baggage, to a collection of rules and prohibitions, to fragmented devotional practices, to selective and partial adherence to the truths of faith . . . [or] to bland or nervous moralizing” cannot respond to the spiritual hungers of the postmodern 21st century, much less to aggressive secularism and fervent Pentecostalism. Rather, everyone in the Church “must . . . start again with Christ.” Friendship with the Lord Jesus and submission to his transforming power must be relocated at the center of the life of faith; in working toward that end, Catholics in Latin America would rediscover the “revitalizing . . . newness of the Gospel,” and a culturally “kept” Church would become once more a powerful engine of evangelism. All Christ, all Gospel, all mission, all the time: That is why, and by whom, and for what the lowly sinners of Bergoglio’s episcopal motto have been chosen.</p>
<p>And that is the kind of reform Pope Francis seems likely to lead: an evangelical purification of the Church’s structure (including its senior leadership as well as its central bureaucracy), precisely for the sake of mission. Whatever obscures or falsifies the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel and its offer of friendship with Jesus Christ must go; whatever is contributing to the mission poorly must be purified so that it can contribute as it should. Churchmen whose failure to embody the Gospel they proclaim impedes the Gospel’s reception must be replaced by those who live what they preach, for the sake of the effectiveness of the mission to postmoderns, whose natural spiritual instincts have been corroded by cynicism and irony. A capacity to explain, with compassion and empathy, the “Yes” to something true, good, or beautiful in the human condition that lies behind every “No” the Church says must become a primary qualifier for high ecclesial office.</p>
<p>That evangelical reform must also take its orientation from the truth that Easter comes only after Good Friday. As Pope Francis put it in a spontaneous homily to the cardinal electors in the Sistine Chapel the day after the burden of the papacy had fallen on him: “When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross, and when we confess Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: We are worldly, we are bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but not disciples of the Lord.”</p>
<p>Finding savvy and competent collaborators to lead the purification and restructuring of the personnel and the machinery at the Church’s Roman headquarters is an important early task for the new pope. But the cardinals of Conclave 2013 took the essential first step toward deepening Catholic reform by choosing as bishop of Rome a free man: a disciple who is free with the evangelical freedom that comes from a lifetime of accepting the cross and submitting his will to the divine will; a leader who has shown that he can do what needs doing without counting the cost.</p>
<p>George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is the author of the recently published&#160;Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church.</p> | false | 1 | rome160 twentyfirstcentury ecclesiastical heraldry may strike arcane hangover longgone past bishops lords temporal well lords spiritual still rich vocabulary heraldic symbolism adds little class world twitter hashtags mottoes catholic bishops popes choose coats arms provide important clues character formation john paul iis totus tuus entirely well composition his160stemma papale160a large beneath gold cross blue field spoke volumes marian piety conviction life guided protected mother church benedict xvis rather complex coat arms nightmare vatican gardeners maintain floral representation reigning pontiffs160stemma160just behind st peters basilica motto cooperatores veritatis coworkers truth signaled would pontificate clear teaching rooted deep broad scholarship shall make episcopal motto pope francis former jorge mario cardinal bergoglio sj took service archbishop buenos aires 160 miserando atque eligendo lowly also chosen retain pope foremost expect evangelical humility first days pontificate humble adjective frequently applied new bishop rome rightly important recognize however pope franciss humility distinctive character is160evangelical160humility gospelcentered christcentered humility shaped course life classic jesuit ignatian spirituality rigorously disciplined commitment selflessnessinchristianmission inculcated members society jesus jesuit formation became one victims catholic revolution never jorge mario bergoglio sj became sign contradiction persecuted sign contradiction within religious order many jesuit brethren seduced solipsistic zeitgeist late 20th early 21st centuries pope franciss approach spiritual life understanding christian discipleship contrast polar opposite faux spirituality selfabsorption selfesteem displaces selflessness commitments ecclesial obedience mission crumble result new popes authentically ignatian approach interior life nicely captured famous prayer suscipe saint ignatius loyola founder society jesus prayer also offers interpretive key jorge mario bergoglios selfabasing episcopal motto take lord receive liberty memory understanding entire call given lord return everything give love grace enough center prayer sacrifice ones entire submission ones divine ones superiors crucial original jesuit charism genius catholic church took enormous gamble accepting ignatius loyolas offer build selfconsciously elite corps intellectual shock troops meet challenge reformation bring gospel ends earth set ablaze inscription beneath statue ignatius jesuit ghq near vatican sums basque saints intention selfconsciously elite bodies revivify flaccid institutions also corrupt depends direction bent catholic gamble society jesus distinctive fourth jesuit vow radical obedience pope complete availability whatever mission gave society individual jesuits would bind elite body church could true intellectual evangelical leaven precisely society centuries confusions postvatican ii church met turbulence summed epigrammatic year 1968 things quickly unraveled community vowed religious long prided defense orthodoxy took lead challenging catholic orthodoxy orthopraxis every conceivable turn embrace fashionable enthusiasms ran marxism environmentalism radical feminism gay liberation days jesuit provincial argentina father bergoglio resisted deconstruction catholic doctrine corruption religious life beset much society jesus vatican ii one imagines bergoglio grateful pope john paul iis early failed attempt reform society putting kind papal receivership one readily imagine new popes appalled notorious remark irish jesuit cyril barrett heard bellow london restaurant respect mehmet ali agca john pauls wannabe assassin thing wrong bloody turk couldnt shoot straight finally bergoglio sign contradiction within religious community worldrenowned jesuit say 2005 conclave fan joseph ratzinger nonetheless ended supporting anyone better bergoglio sure bergoglio drew kind animosity man accepts symphony catholic truth full brought the160odium theologicum160of deconstructively inclined perhaps point future rest church bergoglio living challenge jesuit brethren understands life discipleship mirrored saint ignatiuss suscipe antithesis latemodern postmodern willfulness take lord receive my160entire160will whole nine yards classic jesuit commitment embodied humility pope francis important instrument new popes program reform within catholicism entire church happened history weakened willfulness selfabsorption careerism also prime importance world moral culture west continues crumble assault willfulness apotheosized legally enforced endall beall life new pope offer person well teaching alternative nietzsche versus ignatius loyola time versus selfgift way bad summary options bad guess kind church new pope want offer world nobler expression human aspiration francis chosen reform conclave 2005 continuity cardinal electors trying stretch pontificate john paul ii future choosing polish popes closest theological collaborator successor conclave 2013 primarily governance cardinals came rome time concerned incompetence corruption financial otherwise seriously distorted work roman curia churchs central bureaucratic machinery many cardinals experienced learned papal interregnum confirmed sense machinery indeed badly broken man capacity italians call governo decisive governing needed number of160papabili potential popes measured requirement consensus began form work reform entrusted older man proven track record dealing corruptions various sorts man free needed done bound associational organizational nationalethnic ties could impede fixing clearly fixed radical christian disciple lived evangelical freedom fearlessly thus choice fell jorge mario bergoglio surprised always catholic church chosen pope man believes catholic church teaches thats dreams catholic revolution never die hard even among people secular cast mind others surprised pope citing age renounced chair peter weeks shy 86th birthday succeeded man 76 election others imagined local italian could straighten mess reitalianization curia caused better clean house knowledgeable outsider free needs done quickly knows long pontificate still others imagined new pope someone would replace obvious incompetents high curial office settling business usual prescription failed reckon sea change catholic selfunderstanding come first maturity man like bergoglio change institutionalmaintenance catholicism robustly evangelical missionary catholicism experience latin america pope francis knows kept church future whether catholicism kept terms legal establishment historic cultural habit 2007 cardinal bergoglio helped lead catholic bishops latin america toward new vision evangelical possibility densely catholic part world revolutionary vision embodied known aparecida document named brazilian city bishops hammered 21stcentury challenge catholics rediscover missionary vocation baptized aparecida bishops latin america agreed catholic faith reduced mere baggage collection rules prohibitions fragmented devotional practices selective partial adherence truths faith bland nervous moralizing respond spiritual hungers postmodern 21st century much less aggressive secularism fervent pentecostalism rather everyone church must start christ friendship lord jesus submission transforming power must relocated center life faith working toward end catholics latin america would rediscover revitalizing newness gospel culturally kept church would become powerful engine evangelism christ gospel mission time lowly sinners bergoglios episcopal motto chosen kind reform pope francis seems likely lead evangelical purification churchs structure including senior leadership well central bureaucracy precisely sake mission whatever obscures falsifies churchs proclamation gospel offer friendship jesus christ must go whatever contributing mission poorly must purified contribute churchmen whose failure embody gospel proclaim impedes gospels reception must replaced live preach sake effectiveness mission postmoderns whose natural spiritual instincts corroded cynicism irony capacity explain compassion empathy yes something true good beautiful human condition lies behind every church says must become primary qualifier high ecclesial office evangelical reform must also take orientation truth easter comes good friday pope francis put spontaneous homily cardinal electors sistine chapel day burden papacy fallen walk without cross build without cross confess christ without cross disciples lord worldly bishops priests cardinals popes disciples lord finding savvy competent collaborators lead purification restructuring personnel machinery churchs roman headquarters important early task new pope cardinals conclave 2013 took essential first step toward deepening catholic reform choosing bishop rome free man disciple free evangelical freedom comes lifetime accepting cross submitting divine leader shown needs without counting cost george weigel distinguished senior fellow ethics public policy center author recently published160evangelical catholicism deep reform 21stcentury church | 1,143 |
<p>Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have made clear that overturning President Bush’s embryonic-stem-cell-research-funding policy will be high on their agenda when they take the reins of the Congress. So come January, it seems we are in for yet another performance of the great stem-cell drama on Capitol Hill.&#160;</p>
<p>Opponents of the president’s funding policy have by now repeated their lines in this drama so often that every observer has come to know them by heart: It seems 100 million people are sick (every third American?), only embryonic stem cells can help them (based on what proof?), and by insisting on withholding taxpayer dollars from newly derived lines of cells, President Bush is preventing progress and cures, and causing American scientists to fall behind their counterparts abroad.</p>
<p>This bizarre morality tale is told and retold ad nauseam, and has surely sunk in. But now and then, some fragment of fact breaks through the din and threatens the narrative, and for just a brief moment&#160;— before that fact, too, is pushed to the side&#160;— it seems like the story might fall apart.</p>
<p>The latest such troublesome truth has to do with what is usually the final piece of the great stem-cell narrative: that American scientists are falling behind foreigners because of the Bush-administration’s funding policy. That policy, let us recall, does provide (and for the first time) funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, but only for lines of cells that existed before the policy came into effect, not for those created after. That way, taxpayer dollars (more than $100 million so far) can advance the research, but without encouraging the ongoing destruction of human embryos.</p>
<p>This one ethical limit, say opponents of the policy, sets American scientists behind their foreign counterparts in the embryonic-stem-cell race. “The administration’s policies have left our researchers far behind the rest of the world,” California Senator Dianne Feinstein <a href="http://feinstein.senate.gov/06speeches/cr-dem-women-stemcell.htm" type="external">claimed</a> on the Senate floor in June. Another Democrat, Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, traveled all the way to Britain that same month to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/print?id=2028057" type="external">assert</a> that “leadership in this area of research has shifted to the United Kingdom.”</p>
<p>There is, of course, a simple way to test these claims. Just count the number of stem-cell publications produced by scientists in different countries. In the October issue of the scientific journal Stem Cells, a group of German scientists did just that. Their <a href="http://stemcells.alphamedpress.org/cgi/reprint/24/10/2187.pdf" type="external">paper</a>, in plain terms and lucid tones, utterly demolishes the notion that American scientists are the slow runners in the global embryonic-stem-cell race.</p>
<p>The team reviewed all original human-embryonic-stem-cell-research publications from 1998 (when such cells were first derived in humans) to the end of 2005. Fully 40 percent (125) of these publications came from one country: the United States. The rest were divided among 20 other nations, with the next nearest competitor (Israel) claiming only 13 percent (42) of the papers. The British, Congresswoman DeGette notwithstanding, came in third with just 9 percent, or 30 publications. A very lopsided lead for America.</p>
<p>And the lead seems to be holding, despite prior reports to the contrary. The last major review of embryonic-stem-cell publications, which covered the period from 1998 to 2004, was undertaken earlier this year by two American researchers, Jason Owen-Smith of the University of Michigan, and Jennifer McCormick of Stanford, and <a href="http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v24/n4/full/nbt0406-391.html" type="external">published</a> in the April 2006 issue of Nature Biotechnology. The two clearly set out to prove the claim that Americans were falling behind, and when their data showed otherwise (like this latest study, they found a sizeable American lead) they sought frantically to spin it. Through a series of comical contortions (including comparing American scientists alone to those of the entire rest of the world combined, rather than those in individual countries) they managed to crunch their numbers to show that America’s lead is declining. If you squint just right and look sideways at the numbers, such twisted analysis just might let you hold on to the “falling behind” narrative. And indeed, after showing a sizeable American lead, Owen-Smith and McCormick, without a hint of irony, wrote: “The United States is falling behind in the international race to make fundamental discoveries in hES cell–related fields.”</p>
<p>Unlike the more recent German study, Owen-Smith and McCormick declined to make their full data public (perhaps fearing it would be used as ammunition by supporters of the Bush policy), so it was hard to tell exactly what contortions they engaged in. But the authors of this latest study figured it out. They note that their data does not agree with the previous study’s claim that America’s lead is declining, pointing out that even if you just count papers published in 2004 or 2005 alone, Americans still published roughly 40% of all embryonic-stem-cell studies. “These divergent findings,” the German group writes, “are probably due to the fact that international collaborations of U.S. groups have been marked as ‘collaborative research’ by Owen-Smith and McCormick.” In other words, the previous study excluded from the American count publications on which even one researcher was from a foreign lab, and so arrived at an artificially low number.</p>
<p>This latest paper&#160;— which, not surprisingly, has received essentially no press coverage&#160;— simply and decisively disproves a critical contention of opponents of the Bush policy. But it is important to be clear about exactly what that means.</p>
<p>The limits on federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research exist for ethical reasons, not scientific ones. They exist to make sure the government does not endorse the destruction of human life for research, and thus undermine the American ideal of basic human equality. If upholding that principle meant that no stem-cell research at all could proceed, doing so would be no less (or more) justified than it is now. The fact that the principle can be upheld while still enabling so much research to go forward is not the reason the policy is justified. But it is a reason to hope that science and ethics need not stand in opposition to each other. With the right kinds of careful policies, and the right kinds of innovative scientific techniques, science and ethics can go hand-in-hand.</p>
<p>Opponents of the Bush policy, in insisting it sets American scientists behind their foreign counterparts, implicitly argue that science and ethics cannot go hand-in-hand, and that we are forced to choose between them. We now see they are wrong not only in principle, but also in fact.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;— Yuval Levin is a fellow at the <a href="" type="internal">Ethics and Public Policy Center</a> and senior editor of the <a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/" type="external">The New Atlantis</a> magazine.</p> | false | 1 | democratic leaders nancy pelosi harry reid made clear overturning president bushs embryonicstemcellresearchfunding policy high agenda take reins congress come january seems yet another performance great stemcell drama capitol hill160 opponents presidents funding policy repeated lines drama often every observer come know heart seems 100 million people sick every third american embryonic stem cells help based proof insisting withholding taxpayer dollars newly derived lines cells president bush preventing progress cures causing american scientists fall behind counterparts abroad bizarre morality tale told retold ad nauseam surely sunk fragment fact breaks din threatens narrative brief moment160 fact pushed side160 seems like story might fall apart latest troublesome truth usually final piece great stemcell narrative american scientists falling behind foreigners bushadministrations funding policy policy let us recall provide first time funding embryonicstemcell research lines cells existed policy came effect created way taxpayer dollars 100 million far advance research without encouraging ongoing destruction human embryos one ethical limit say opponents policy sets american scientists behind foreign counterparts embryonicstemcell race administrations policies left researchers far behind rest world california senator dianne feinstein claimed senate floor june another democrat rep diana degette colorado traveled way britain month assert leadership area research shifted united kingdom course simple way test claims count number stemcell publications produced scientists different countries october issue scientific journal stem cells group german scientists paper plain terms lucid tones utterly demolishes notion american scientists slow runners global embryonicstemcell race team reviewed original humanembryonicstemcellresearch publications 1998 cells first derived humans end 2005 fully 40 percent 125 publications came one country united states rest divided among 20 nations next nearest competitor israel claiming 13 percent 42 papers british congresswoman degette notwithstanding came third 9 percent 30 publications lopsided lead america lead seems holding despite prior reports contrary last major review embryonicstemcell publications covered period 1998 2004 undertaken earlier year two american researchers jason owensmith university michigan jennifer mccormick stanford published april 2006 issue nature biotechnology two clearly set prove claim americans falling behind data showed otherwise like latest study found sizeable american lead sought frantically spin series comical contortions including comparing american scientists alone entire rest world combined rather individual countries managed crunch numbers show americas lead declining squint right look sideways numbers twisted analysis might let hold falling behind narrative indeed showing sizeable american lead owensmith mccormick without hint irony wrote united states falling behind international race make fundamental discoveries hes cellrelated fields unlike recent german study owensmith mccormick declined make full data public perhaps fearing would used ammunition supporters bush policy hard tell exactly contortions engaged authors latest study figured note data agree previous studys claim americas lead declining pointing even count papers published 2004 2005 alone americans still published roughly 40 embryonicstemcell studies divergent findings german group writes probably due fact international collaborations us groups marked collaborative research owensmith mccormick words previous study excluded american count publications even one researcher foreign lab arrived artificially low number latest paper160 surprisingly received essentially press coverage160 simply decisively disproves critical contention opponents bush policy important clear exactly means limits federal funding embryonicstemcell research exist ethical reasons scientific ones exist make sure government endorse destruction human life research thus undermine american ideal basic human equality upholding principle meant stemcell research could proceed would less justified fact principle upheld still enabling much research go forward reason policy justified reason hope science ethics need stand opposition right kinds careful policies right kinds innovative scientific techniques science ethics go handinhand opponents bush policy insisting sets american scientists behind foreign counterparts implicitly argue science ethics go handinhand forced choose see wrong principle also fact160 160 yuval levin fellow ethics public policy center senior editor new atlantis magazine | 605 |
<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump jumped on Twitter Friday morning to taunt former FBI Director James Comey and the press, but the early morning broadsides mainly managed to stir ghosts of Watergate.</p>
<p>“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Trump tweeted in a post that reminded many of former President Richard Nixon’s White House taping that emerged during Watergate.</p>
<p>Critics were all too happy to make the connection.</p>
<p>“Oh my god. He has ‘tapes’.” Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., tweeted. Other posters made #Watergate a frequent hashtag.</p>
<p>At Friday’s press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer would not answer repeated questions as to whether the president is or has recorded conversations held inside the White House.</p>
<p>‘The tweet speaks for itself’</p>
<p>“I’ve talked to the president,” Spicer replied. “The president has nothing further to add on that,” To another question about the “tapes” tweet, Spicer responded. “The tweet speaks for itself.”</p>
<p />
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<p>The Friday furor marked the third full day that the nation’s capital was consumed with Trump’s Tuesday night firing of Comey amid the FBI’s continuing investigation into possible collusion between the Russian officials and the Trump campaign.</p>
<p>Trump’s Twitter storm erupted as political observers were parsing an <a href="" type="internal">interview that he gave Thursday to NBC News</a> that upended White House accounts of what led to Trump’s abrupt dismissal of the FBI chief.</p>
<p>On Tuesday night, Spicer issued a statement that said, “President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”</p>
<p>That was a reference to a sharply worded memorandum in which Rosenstein criticized Comey’s public statements on July 5, 2016, about the decision not to file charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server to view classified information. Rosenstein’s memo did not mention the FBI investigation into Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.</p>
<p>But Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt that he had decided to sack Comey before reading the Rosenstein memo, because he was angry about “this Russia thing,” which he referred to as “fake news.” The president also called Comey a “showboat” and a “grandstander.”</p>
<p>Trump also described a Jan. 27 dinner with Comey as something the FBI chief had sought. “And he wanted to stay on as the FBI head. And I said, I’ll, you know, consider. We’ll see what happens.”</p>
<p />
<p>Unnamed associates of Comey told The New York Times that Trump asked Comey to pledge his loyalty to the president. Comey demurred, although he did promise to be honest with Trump, the associates were quoted as saying.</p>
<p>Spicer denied that Friday, saying, “The president wants loyalty to this country and to the rule of law.”</p>
<p>Trump also repeated his claim that he asked Comey three times if he was under investigation and each time Comey told him he was not.</p>
<p>‘Alarming’ … ‘unnerving’</p>
<p>The evolving story of Comey’s firing has Democrats fired up and demanding an independent investigation of Russian influence.</p>
<p>“The president’s comments and tweets are unprecedented, alarming, and unacceptable,” Nevada’s Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement. “They reiterate the urgent need for an independent prosecutor and counsel to continue the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. It is crystal clear that the president and his administration cannot be trusted to act in our country’s best interest on this investigation.”</p>
<p>It also has unsettled members of his own party.</p>
<p>The state’s Republican Sen. Dean Heller said during an appearance at a Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce luncheon that “everything concerns me at this point. I’m uncomfortable with the timing of all this, and that’s why I think an independent prosecutor should be on the team if, in fact, the Select Committee and the House cannot get their answers.”</p>
<p>As for the administration’s shifting explanations for Comey’s firing, Heller said, “It’s unnerving to think that this particular story changes on a 24-hour basis. He has the right to get rid of the FBI director, if that’s what he chooses to do. … I just hate that during the middle of this particular investigation that we lost Comey. By the way, I don’t have a negative vision of Comey. I think he’s a Boy Scout.”</p>
<p>Week began quietly</p>
<p>The ongoing drama completed a week that began with a light schedule – so light that a reporter asked at Tuesday’s briefing, “Can you just give us a better sense of what the president has been doing with his time the last few days? We haven’t had very detailed schedules, we haven’t seen him publicly. He’s only had one or two meetings.”</p>
<p>Spicer responded that staff were briefing the president on a planned eight-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy and Belgium.</p>
<p>That evening Trump fired Comey – and everything changed. The next day Spicer went on Naval Reserve duty and Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took over the briefings.</p>
<p>Adding to the clamor was Trump’s White House meeting on Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, whose communication with Trump’s national security adviser Mike Flynn led to Flynn’s resignation. While no U.S. media were allowed in the room, a photographer from Russia’s news agency TASS shot photos of Trump and Lavrov shaking hands.</p>
<p>Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State to President Richard Nixon, the first president to fire a man charged with investigating him, dropped by for a chat with Trump as well. This also sparked Watergate comparisons.</p>
<p>By week’s end, the Comey controversy had grown so intense that the president appeared to be rethinking the White House communications operation.</p>
<p>In one Friday morning tweet, Trump typed, “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy?”</p>
<p>Friday afternoon Fox News released a clip of yet another Trump interview – this time with Judge Jeanine Pirro. Again Trump entertained the idea of getting rid of the press briefings. Maybe “I have one every two weeks and I do it myself,” he said.</p>
<p>Review-Journal staff writer Art Marroquin contributed to this story. Contact Debra J. Saunders at [email protected] or at 202-662-7391. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/debrajsaunders" type="external">@DebraJSaunders</a> on Twitter.</p> | false | 1 | washington president donald trump jumped twitter friday morning taunt former fbi director james comey press early morning broadsides mainly managed stir ghosts watergate james comey better hope tapes conversations starts leaking press trump tweeted post reminded many former president richard nixons white house taping emerged watergate critics happy make connection oh god tapes rep eric swalwell dcalif tweeted posters made watergate frequent hashtag fridays press briefing press secretary sean spicer would answer repeated questions whether president recorded conversations held inside white house tweet speaks ive talked president spicer replied president nothing add another question tapes tweet spicer responded tweet speaks friday furor marked third full day nations capital consumed trumps tuesday night firing comey amid fbis continuing investigation possible collusion russian officials trump campaign trumps twitter storm erupted political observers parsing interview gave thursday nbc news upended white house accounts led trumps abrupt dismissal fbi chief tuesday night spicer issued statement said president trump acted based clear recommendations deputy attorney general rod rosenstein attorney general jeff sessions reference sharply worded memorandum rosenstein criticized comeys public statements july 5 2016 decision file charges hillary clinton use private email server view classified information rosensteins memo mention fbi investigation russian attempts interfere 2016 election trump told nbcs lester holt decided sack comey reading rosenstein memo angry russia thing referred fake news president also called comey showboat grandstander trump also described jan 27 dinner comey something fbi chief sought wanted stay fbi head said ill know consider well see happens unnamed associates comey told new york times trump asked comey pledge loyalty president comey demurred although promise honest trump associates quoted saying spicer denied friday saying president wants loyalty country rule law trump also repeated claim asked comey three times investigation time comey told alarming unnerving evolving story comeys firing democrats fired demanding independent investigation russian influence presidents comments tweets unprecedented alarming unacceptable nevadas democratic sen catherine cortez masto said statement reiterate urgent need independent prosecutor counsel continue investigation russian interference 2016 elections crystal clear president administration trusted act countrys best interest investigation also unsettled members party states republican sen dean heller said appearance las vegas latin chamber commerce luncheon everything concerns point im uncomfortable timing thats think independent prosecutor team fact select committee house get answers administrations shifting explanations comeys firing heller said unnerving think particular story changes 24hour basis right get rid fbi director thats chooses hate middle particular investigation lost comey way dont negative vision comey think hes boy scout week began quietly ongoing drama completed week began light schedule light reporter asked tuesdays briefing give us better sense president time last days havent detailed schedules havent seen publicly hes one two meetings spicer responded staff briefing president planned eightday trip saudi arabia israel italy belgium evening trump fired comey everything changed next day spicer went naval reserve duty deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders took briefings adding clamor trumps white house meeting wednesday russian foreign minister sergey lavrov ambassador sergey kislyak whose communication trumps national security adviser mike flynn led flynns resignation us media allowed room photographer russias news agency tass shot photos trump lavrov shaking hands henry kissinger secretary state president richard nixon first president fire man charged investigating dropped chat trump well also sparked watergate comparisons weeks end comey controversy grown intense president appeared rethinking white house communications operation one friday morning tweet trump typed maybe best thing would cancel future press briefings hand written responses sake accuracy friday afternoon fox news released clip yet another trump interview time judge jeanine pirro trump entertained idea getting rid press briefings maybe one every two weeks said reviewjournal staff writer art marroquin contributed story contact debra j saunders dsaundersreviewjournalcom 2026627391 follow debrajsaunders twitter | 613 |
<p>Riyadh’s attempt to assert control in Lebanon and open up a new front against Hezbollah and Iran has brought little return, but substantial reputational damage. But does Saudi Arabia even care about playing geopolitical chess, or does it just want to fling pieces at its adversaries?</p>
<p>The road trip-slash-conspiracy thriller that began with Saad Hariri’s surprise resignation as Lebanese Prime Minister from Saudi Arabia on November 4 is by no means over: Perhaps Emmanuel Macron will help Hariri hold on to his position by mediating the crisis in Paris this weekend, or maybe the trip to France is merely the beginning of his exile. And even if Hariri does return to Beirut to the embrace of sympathetic locals, victimhood is not always the easiest route to retaining power.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Yet, it is already obvious that whatever Saudi Arabia had in mind when it reportedly took away Hariri’s phone, put him under house arrest, and gave him a speech to read, has not turned out as planned.</p>
<p>“Riyadh wanted to make Hariri resign, and make it look like the work of Hezbollah, while he would appear as the Sunni martyr of Shia machinations, prompting an outpouring of pity for him, and anger against Hezbollah, which would then be subject to international sanctions,” says Marianna Belenkaya, a Moscow-based Middle East analyst.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/newsline/410295-macron-hariri-resignation-lebanon/" type="external" /></p>
<p>“The Saudis likely wanted to replace Hariri with his younger brother, Bahaa, who is more easily controlled,” says Ali Al-Ahmed Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington DC. “But they did it in a macho and arrogant way, and it backfired.”</p>
<p>In the longer term, although he was largely seen as their protege, “the Saudis were displeased with Hariri’s weakness in the domestic arena,” says Alexei Sarabyev, from Moscow’s RAS Oriental Studies Institute. While the prime minister was credited for brokering a solution last year to the 29-month long “presidential vacuum” that paralyzed the country’s institutions, the compromise came at the cost of weakening the Sunni faction, and the appointment of Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, to the presidency. A particular irritant to the House of Saud is the continued cooperation between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah’s militias, which has seen Riyadh’s and Washington’s aid and weapons being funnelled to prop up Bashar Assad in the Syrian conflict.</p>
<p>Hariri’s status was further undermined after the canceled parliamentary election this June following months of wrangling, with the key vote – the first since 2009 – now being moved to May 2018. Sarabyev believes that the final straw for Saudi Arabia may have come in display of acquiescence shown by Hariri during talks with an Iranian emissary in Beirut on November 2.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Riyadh’s whole scheme was so ham-fisted it seems barely credible that anyone thought that it could work smoothly in the television age, never mind in an era of dozens of competing Arab-language news networks, and millions of tweets (Hariri himself has dismissed the speculation as “lies”).</p>
<p>Kidnapping Hariri, possibly blackmailing him over his family or Saudi-based business, forcing him to humiliatingly read strident anti-Iran rhetoric that sounded like it came directly from the mouth of a Saudi royal, and then wheeling him out again for a disjointed and stiff interview days later were not obvious diplomatic masterstrokes.</p>
<p>Donald Trump’s White House is the most anti-Tehran administration in decades, and considers Hezbollah terrorists, but even they could not go with the power play, while most Arab allies decided to sit out the affair.</p>
<p>The early days of the crisis also produced speculation of an uneasy but motivated alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia, with observers suggesting that the Israeli Defence Forces could even invade Lebanon, doing Riyadh’s dirty work for it and weakening Israel’s sworn enemy Hezbollah in one fell swoop. However, events have shown that Israel does currently not want a repeat of the traumatic 2006 war, or the dismantling of the UN-backed peace deal that has kept hostilities between adversaries at bay, even if it still regards Hezbollah an extension of Iran’s existential threat.</p>
<p>The worst of the impact of the ploy was counter-productively on Lebanon. What better way to turn a divided multi-religious country against you than to show that its leader is a puppet that can literally be made to say anything? Hariri’s resignation has not been accepted by the president, while the foreign minister made a pointed reference that Lebanese politics was “not like trading sheep.” Notably, both the Saudi-aligned politicians and Iranian-backed ones demanded that Hariri returned, and none even humored Riyadh’s assertion that he voluntarily decided to stay away from his own country in the midst of a major political crisis. While before Hariri’s political coalition was falling apart, in the last weeks there have been mass demonstrations in his support.</p>
<p>The Saudis and their close allies – Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain – have doubled down, telling citizens to leave Lebanon, potentially impacting its tourist industry. Lebanese officials have also implied that it is putting behind-the-scenes economic pressure on the country, including preventing a potential joint gas project with Russia.</p>
<p>Its next moves would risk escalating the crisis by a magnitude – calling for Lebanon’s Arab League membership to be withdrawn, or a blockade scenario along the Qatari lines. Another potential measure would be to ban the Lebanese from working in Saudi Arabia, which could deprive the struggling Mediterranean state of up to $8 billion a year in remittances.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>On the other hand, if, as Hariri recited in both his recent public appearances, if Hezbollah gives up its weapons, and agrees not to participate in any affairs outside Lebanon’s borders, the conflict will be finished. Arab officials say Hariri himself could be allowed to stay on.</p>
<p>But is the stick or the carrot likely to work?</p>
<p>In all likelihood, no, and this is something Hariri, despite holding Saudi citizenship, and considering the Saudi King to be “like a father,” understands well. Hezbollah is deeply entrenched in all aspects of the country’s society. It has a civilian party, and a militia that matches the national army for capacity, and outstrips it for experience, with recent involvement in the Syrian conflict, as well as its constant battle-readiness for a war with Israel. It is both a part of the state where over a quarter of the population are Shia, and a state-within-a-state that takes over the government’s role in provision of key services in areas that it controls.</p>
<p>“Hezbollah hasn’t been in open conflict with anyone in domestic politics for an extended time,” says Sarabyev. “Their internal policies are nuanced and balanced, and they present themselves as a guarantor of the country’s national security, and the indirect threat from Riyadh is playing into that image, giving them another trump card.”</p>
<p>With its gambit going nowhere, and the passage of time turning the affair into a dangerous charade for no ostensible gain, no wonder that Riyadh is now spitting fury, claiming that “enough is enough.”</p>
<p>But to interpret the entire Hariri affair as a failure for Saudi Arabia would be to misread the motivations and behavior of the country that regards itself as the rightful and blue-blooded ruler of the region, unbothered with the opinion of its minions.</p>
<p>After all, did Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old who has ruled the country in all but name in the last few years, and could become king even before his 81-year-old father, King Salman, dies, ever care about nuance? When the country started the blockade of Yemen that could turn into the greatest humanitarian catastrophe since the turn of the millennium? When insisting Doha close its TV channels? Or even internally, when he jailed members of his own family, or allegedly offered them to go free if they gave up the majority of their wealth?</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia is trying to assert its power in the region by whatever means possible, whether using hard power, or soft power that threatens to turn into economic or real warfare. In the recent key major conflicts in Iraq and Syria, it is the Shia factions that have come on top, and the Sunni ones that have been defeated, even if not all were officially endorsed by Riyadh. The oil-rich country, albeit straitened by the recent low hydrocarbon prices, is playing catch-up.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>In fact the biggest concern is not the current ineffectual meddling, but the thought that one day Saudi foreign policy may grow less inept and more strategic. When Riyadh creates its own proxy Hezbollah-style movements with grassroots support, and begins to effectively challenge Iran in an ever-growing number of states, then the circus with of the Hariri resignation could come to seem like a fond memory.</p> | false | 1 | riyadhs attempt assert control lebanon open new front hezbollah iran brought little return substantial reputational damage saudi arabia even care playing geopolitical chess want fling pieces adversaries road tripslashconspiracy thriller began saad hariris surprise resignation lebanese prime minister saudi arabia november 4 means perhaps emmanuel macron help hariri hold position mediating crisis paris weekend maybe trip france merely beginning exile even hariri return beirut embrace sympathetic locals victimhood always easiest route retaining power embedded content yet already obvious whatever saudi arabia mind reportedly took away hariris phone put house arrest gave speech read turned planned riyadh wanted make hariri resign make look like work hezbollah would appear sunni martyr shia machinations prompting outpouring pity anger hezbollah would subject international sanctions says marianna belenkaya moscowbased middle east analyst read saudis likely wanted replace hariri younger brother bahaa easily controlled says ali alahmed director institute gulf affairs washington dc macho arrogant way backfired longer term although largely seen protege saudis displeased hariris weakness domestic arena says alexei sarabyev moscows ras oriental studies institute prime minister credited brokering solution last year 29month long presidential vacuum paralyzed countrys institutions compromise came cost weakening sunni faction appointment michel aoun hezbollah ally presidency particular irritant house saud continued cooperation lebanese army hezbollahs militias seen riyadhs washingtons aid weapons funnelled prop bashar assad syrian conflict hariris status undermined canceled parliamentary election june following months wrangling key vote first since 2009 moved may 2018 sarabyev believes final straw saudi arabia may come display acquiescence shown hariri talks iranian emissary beirut november 2 nonetheless riyadhs whole scheme hamfisted seems barely credible anyone thought could work smoothly television age never mind era dozens competing arablanguage news networks millions tweets hariri dismissed speculation lies kidnapping hariri possibly blackmailing family saudibased business forcing humiliatingly read strident antiiran rhetoric sounded like came directly mouth saudi royal wheeling disjointed stiff interview days later obvious diplomatic masterstrokes donald trumps white house antitehran administration decades considers hezbollah terrorists even could go power play arab allies decided sit affair early days crisis also produced speculation uneasy motivated alliance israel saudi arabia observers suggesting israeli defence forces could even invade lebanon riyadhs dirty work weakening israels sworn enemy hezbollah one fell swoop however events shown israel currently want repeat traumatic 2006 war dismantling unbacked peace deal kept hostilities adversaries bay even still regards hezbollah extension irans existential threat worst impact ploy counterproductively lebanon better way turn divided multireligious country show leader puppet literally made say anything hariris resignation accepted president foreign minister made pointed reference lebanese politics like trading sheep notably saudialigned politicians iranianbacked ones demanded hariri returned none even humored riyadhs assertion voluntarily decided stay away country midst major political crisis hariris political coalition falling apart last weeks mass demonstrations support saudis close allies kuwait uae bahrain doubled telling citizens leave lebanon potentially impacting tourist industry lebanese officials also implied putting behindthescenes economic pressure country including preventing potential joint gas project russia next moves would risk escalating crisis magnitude calling lebanons arab league membership withdrawn blockade scenario along qatari lines another potential measure would ban lebanese working saudi arabia could deprive struggling mediterranean state 8 billion year remittances embedded content hand hariri recited recent public appearances hezbollah gives weapons agrees participate affairs outside lebanons borders conflict finished arab officials say hariri could allowed stay stick carrot likely work likelihood something hariri despite holding saudi citizenship considering saudi king like father understands well hezbollah deeply entrenched aspects countrys society civilian party militia matches national army capacity outstrips experience recent involvement syrian conflict well constant battlereadiness war israel part state quarter population shia statewithinastate takes governments role provision key services areas controls hezbollah hasnt open conflict anyone domestic politics extended time says sarabyev internal policies nuanced balanced present guarantor countrys national security indirect threat riyadh playing image giving another trump card gambit going nowhere passage time turning affair dangerous charade ostensible gain wonder riyadh spitting fury claiming enough enough interpret entire hariri affair failure saudi arabia would misread motivations behavior country regards rightful blueblooded ruler region unbothered opinion minions crown prince mohammed bin salman 32yearold ruled country name last years could become king even 81yearold father king salman dies ever care nuance country started blockade yemen could turn greatest humanitarian catastrophe since turn millennium insisting doha close tv channels even internally jailed members family allegedly offered go free gave majority wealth saudi arabia trying assert power region whatever means possible whether using hard power soft power threatens turn economic real warfare recent key major conflicts iraq syria shia factions come top sunni ones defeated even officially endorsed riyadh oilrich country albeit straitened recent low hydrocarbon prices playing catchup embedded content fact biggest concern current ineffectual meddling thought one day saudi foreign policy may grow less inept strategic riyadh creates proxy hezbollahstyle movements grassroots support begins effectively challenge iran evergrowing number states circus hariri resignation could come seem like fond memory | 811 |
<p>The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the nominations for the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards. There were some surprises, of course. This is the Globes, remember. The recognition the HFPA gave to "All the Money in the World," the film which fired Kevin Spacey and replaced him with Christopher Plummer, was the biggest surprise of all. Plummer, along with Michelle Williams and director Ridley Scott, all scored nods.</p>
<p>And, everyone loves to talk about the snubs the most, right? The Best Director category is snub central this year. There's no Jordan Peele for "Get Out," his first film. There's no Greta Gerwig for "Lady Bird," the best reviewed film of the year so far. And, there's no Luca Guadignino for "Call Me By Your Name," though the film and its two lead actors were nominated. Check out all the nominees below.</p>
<p>Best motion picture, drama“Dunkirk”“Call Me By Your Name”“The Post”“The Shape of Water”“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”</p>
<p>Best motion picture, comedy or musical“Lady Bird”“Get Out”“I, Tonya”“The Disaster Artist”“The Greatest Showman”</p>
<p>Best actress in a motion picture, dramaMeryl Streep, “The Post”Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”Jessica Chastain, “Molly’s Game”Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”Michelle Williams, “All the Money in the World”</p>
<p>Best actress in a motion picture, comedy or musicalSaoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”Judi Dench, “Victoria and Abdul”Emma Stone, “Battle of the Sexes”Helen Mirren, “The Leisure Seeker”</p>
<p>Best actor in a motion picture, dramaGary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name”Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”Tom Hanks, “The Post”Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”</p>
<p>Best actor in a motion picture, comedy or musicalJames Franco, “The Disaster Artist”Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”Hugh Jackman, “The Greatest Showman”Steve Carell, “Battle of the Sexes”Ansel Elgort, “Baby Driver”</p>
<p>Best supporting actress in a motion pictureLaurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”Hong Chau, “Downsizing”</p>
<p>Best supporting actor in a motion pictureArmie Hammer, “Call Me By Your Name”Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”</p>
<p>Best director, motion pictureChristopher Nolan, “Dunkirk”Steven Spielberg, “The Post”Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water”Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”Ridley Scott, “All the Money in the World”</p>
<p>Best TV series, drama“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)“Stranger Things” (Netflix)“This Is Us” (NBC)“Game of Thrones” (HBO)“The Crown” (Netflix)</p>
<p>Best actress in a TV series, dramaElisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)Caitriona Balfe, “Outlander” (Starz)Claire Foy, “The Crown” (Netflix)Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Deuce” (HBO)Katherine Langford, “13 Reasons Why” (Netflix)</p>
<p>Best actor in a TV series, dramaSterling K. Brown, “This Is Us” (NBC)Freddie Highmore, “The Good Doctor” (ABC)Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul” (AMC)Jason Bateman, “Ozark” (Netflix)Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan” (Showtime)</p>
<p>Best TV series, musical or comedy“Will &amp; Grace” (NBC)“Master of None” (Netflix)“Blackish” (ABC)“SMILF” (Showtime)“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)</p>
<p>Best actress in a TV series, musical or comedyIssa Rae, “Insecure” (HBO)Alison Brie, “GLOW” (Netflix)Pamela Adlon, “Better Things” (FX)Frankie Shaw, “SMILF” (Showtime)Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)</p>
<p>Best actor in a TV series, comedyAziz Ansari, “Master of None” (Netflix)Anthony Anderson, “Blackish” (ABC)Eric McCormack, “Will &amp; Grace” (NBC)Kevin Bacon, “I Love Dick” (Amazon)William H. Macy, “Shameless” (Showtime)</p>
<p>Best TV movie or limited series“Big Little Lies” (HBO)“Feud: Bette and Joan” (FX)“Fargo” (FX)“The Sinner” (USA)“Top of the Lake: China Girl” (Sundance)</p>
<p>Best actress in a TV movie or limited seriesNicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)Reese Witherspoon, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)Jessica Lange, “Feud: Bette and Joan” (FX)Susan Sarandon, “Feud: Bette and Joan” (FX)Jessica Biel, “The Sinner” (USA)</p>
<p>Best actor in a TV movie or limited seriesRobert De Niro, “The Wizard of Lies” (HBO)Ewan McGregor, “Fargo” (FX)Kyle MacLachlan, “Twin Peaks” (Showtime)Geoffrey Rush, “Genius” (National Geographic)Jude Law, “The Young Pope” (HBO)</p>
<p>Best supporting actress in a series, limited series or TV movieLaura Dern, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)Chrissy Metz, “This Is Us” (NBC)Ann Dowd, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu)Shailene Woodley, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)Michelle Pfeiffer, “Wizard of Lies” (HBO)</p>
<p>Best supporting actor in a series, limited series or TV movieAlexander Skarsgard, “Big Little Lies” (HBO)David Thewlis, “Fargo” (FX)Alfred Molina, “Feud: Bette and Joan” (FX)David Harbour, “Stranger Things” (Netflix)Christian Slater, “Mr. Robot (USA)</p>
<p>Best animated feature film“Coco”“Loving Vincent”“The Breadwinner”“Ferdinand”“The Boss Baby”</p>
<p>Best screenplay, motion picture“Lady Bird” (Greta Gerwig)“The Shape of Water” (Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor)“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Martin McDonagh)“The Post” (Liz Hannah and Josh Singer)“Molly’s Game” (Aaron Sorkin)</p>
<p>Best original song“Remember Me,” “Coco”“This Is Me,” “The Greatest Showman”“Mighty River,” “Mudbound”“Home,” “Ferdinand”“The Star,” “The Star”</p>
<p>Best original score, motion picture“The Shape of Water”“Dunkirk”“The Post"“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”“Phantom Thread”</p>
<p>Best foreign language film“The Square”“First They Killed My Father”“In the Fade”“A Fantastic Woman”“Loveless”</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | hollywood foreign press association announced nominations 75th annual golden globe awards surprises course globes remember recognition hfpa gave money world film fired kevin spacey replaced christopher plummer biggest surprise plummer along michelle williams director ridley scott scored nods everyone loves talk snubs right best director category snub central year theres jordan peele get first film theres greta gerwig lady bird best reviewed film year far theres luca guadignino call name though film two lead actors nominated check nominees best motion picture dramadunkirkcall namethe postthe shape waterthree billboards outside ebbing missouri best motion picture comedy musicallady birdget outi tonyathe disaster artistthe greatest showman best actress motion picture dramameryl streep postsally hawkins shape waterjessica chastain mollys gamefrances mcdormand three billboards outside ebbing missourimichelle williams money world best actress motion picture comedy musicalsaoirse ronan lady birdmargot robbie tonyajudi dench victoria abdulemma stone battle sexeshelen mirren leisure seeker best actor motion picture dramagary oldman darkest hourtimothée chalamet call namedaniel daylewis phantom threadtom hanks postdenzel washington roman j israel esq best actor motion picture comedy musicaljames franco disaster artistdaniel kaluuya get outhugh jackman greatest showmansteve carell battle sexesansel elgort baby driver best supporting actress motion picturelaurie metcalf lady birdallison janney tonyamary j blige mudboundoctavia spencer shape waterhong chau downsizing best supporting actor motion picturearmie hammer call namerichard jenkins shape watersam rockwell three billboards outside ebbing missouriwillem dafoe florida projectchristopher plummer money world best director motion picturechristopher nolan dunkirksteven spielberg postguillermo del toro shape watermartin mcdonagh three billboards outside ebbing missouriridley scott money world best tv series dramathe handmaids tale hulustranger things netflixthis us nbcgame thrones hbothe crown netflix best actress tv series dramaelisabeth moss handmaids tale hulucaitriona balfe outlander starzclaire foy crown netflixmaggie gyllenhaal deuce hbokatherine langford 13 reasons netflix best actor tv series dramasterling k brown us nbcfreddie highmore good doctor abcbob odenkirk better call saul amcjason bateman ozark netflixliev schreiber ray donovan showtime best tv series musical comedywill amp grace nbcmaster none netflixblackish abcsmilf showtimethe marvelous mrs maisel amazon best actress tv series musical comedyissa rae insecure hboalison brie glow netflixpamela adlon better things fxfrankie shaw smilf showtimerachel brosnahan marvelous mrs maisel amazon best actor tv series comedyaziz ansari master none netflixanthony anderson blackish abceric mccormack amp grace nbckevin bacon love dick amazonwilliam h macy shameless showtime best tv movie limited seriesbig little lies hbofeud bette joan fxfargo fxthe sinner usatop lake china girl sundance best actress tv movie limited seriesnicole kidman big little lies hboreese witherspoon big little lies hbojessica lange feud bette joan fxsusan sarandon feud bette joan fxjessica biel sinner usa best actor tv movie limited seriesrobert de niro wizard lies hboewan mcgregor fargo fxkyle maclachlan twin peaks showtimegeoffrey rush genius national geographicjude law young pope hbo best supporting actress series limited series tv movielaura dern big little lies hbochrissy metz us nbcann dowd handmaids tale hulushailene woodley big little lies hbomichelle pfeiffer wizard lies hbo best supporting actor series limited series tv moviealexander skarsgard big little lies hbodavid thewlis fargo fxalfred molina feud bette joan fxdavid harbour stranger things netflixchristian slater mr robot usa best animated feature filmcocoloving vincentthe breadwinnerferdinandthe boss baby best screenplay motion picturelady bird greta gerwigthe shape water guillermo del toro vanessa taylorthree billboards outside ebbing missouri martin mcdonaghthe post liz hannah josh singermollys game aaron sorkin best original songremember cocothis greatest showmanmighty river mudboundhome ferdinandthe star star best original score motion picturethe shape waterdunkirkthe postthree billboards outside ebbing missouriphantom thread best foreign language filmthe squarefirst killed fatherin fadea fantastic womanloveless | 575 |
<p>As companies from Apple to Tesla race to develop autonomous cars, auto industry titans like Ford are ramping up production.</p>
<p>The iconic car brand is slated to unveil its autonomous vehicle (AV) line in 2021. But Ford isn't the only legacy automaker gunning to put driverless cars on the road. The U.S. Transportation Department this summer gave <a href="" type="internal">self-driving vehicles a green light,</a>and brands like General Motors, Toyota, Audi and Volvo, to name a few, are already building out their own lines.</p>
<p>In fact, shortly after the announcement, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/11/gm-and-cruise-announce-first-mass-production-self-driving-car/" type="external">GM and Cruise</a> (the startup GM scooped up last year) revealed they are ready to make their first big push into mass producing self-driving cars. As <a href="" type="internal">Circa reported</a> when Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao introduced the new guidelines, titled "A Vision For Safety 2.0," these guidelines cut down the original regulations and set "leaner regulations on the industry in an effort to encourage innovation."</p>
<p>At Ford, research engineers like Helen Kourous are busy coding, building and testing out the latest AV models.</p>
<p>"The inspiration for innovation for me is kind of trying to mimic how good the human brain is, how good our eyes and our brain and our reflexes are at driving," Kourous, who works in Ford's Autonomous Vehicles Research Group, told Circa. "I think we sort of take for granted how good we are at that and how hard it is to program a computer to do the tasks we're doing while we're driving."</p>
<p>When you walk into Ford's AV factory you immediately think, "This is far from a traditional auto plant." The driverless car unit is more of a tech lab, and it's easy to geek out there.</p>
<p>"The sensors are what you see first," Kourous said, explaining that "these are invisible laser beams that are sweeping the surrounding area, painting a very dense 3D map of our surroundings."</p>
<p>Driverless car advocates say beyond being able to gain back time lost commuting, one major benefit of these vehicles hitting the road is the possibility of reducing car accident injuries and fatalities. This was a point the Transportation Department was keen to emphasize, saying that currently 94 percent of car accidents are caused by human error.</p>
<p>Consumer Technology Association (CTA) research says self-driving technology has the ability to reduce accidents caused by aggressive driving or driving under the influence by 82 percent, and prevent up to 90 percent of driving-related crashes. Driverless cars, therefore, could in theory reduce deaths by eliminating the primary cause of crashes.</p>
<p>Kourous echoes that belief and says reducing distracted driving is "really where the safety impact is going to occur" with driverless cars.</p>
<p>"The car is capable of being taught or being programmed to have any behavior we desire," Kourous explained. "It's up to us as a society and as engineers to optimize all those trade-offs that are always happening when you make decisions out in the real world."</p>
<p>Ford's AV's have sensors that can see in 360 degrees and see through rain up to 200 meters away. By 2021, the capability these cars will have to increase safety could be exponentially greater.</p>
<p>"All those sensors help us to do what we do as humans sort of without really thinking about it too much. Just understanding the environment around the vehicle," she said.</p>
<p>When AV's hit the road, however, to test them out, riders will have to hail them because the first fleet will be limited to taxi and ride-sharing services. But that won't stop consumers who are already revved up for AV's. Almost two-thirds are ready to swap their current cars for self-driving models, according to the CTA.</p>
<p>"We think there’s readiness. In fact, I think insurance rates will be lower, car accidents will be greatly reduced. In a few years, it won’t make sense to not be interested in a self-driving car," Brian Markwalter, SVP of research and standards at CTA, told Circa.</p>
<p>Not to be left in the dust, tech giants like Google and Uber have also joined the race, fueling competition, but also sparking cooperation.</p>
<p>"Car companies now for the most part have some sort of office or R&amp;D or something in Silicon Valley because they got to be part of that culture. You see acquisitions, and lots and lots of partnerships," Markwalter said.</p>
<p>But it might be a while before AV's replace our existing car stock – especially when you talk about affordability. Just as the cost of owning an iPhone and an electric vehicle has sharply declined in the past couple years, when driverless cars become available to the public for purchase, they'll likely come at a steep price. But as technology improves and acceptance expands, that will drive down costs.</p>
<p>"When the first radars came out for automobiles, they were as big as a microwave oven and they cost $10,000. Now they're as small as a deck of cards and they cost $50 at volume," Kourous explained. As she sees it, "There's this thing called Moore's Law where computers keep getting more powerful, cheaper and smaller. We're going to leverage that with autonomous vehicles as well."</p>
<p>Companies are already experimenting with ways to democratize these vehicles. Ford, taking a ~different~ approach, even <a href="https://thehustle.co/ford-driverless-car-man-in-carseat" type="external">partnered with Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute</a> to see how people would react to seeing a car on the road without a driver.</p>
<p>Science and data and tech aside, as a human, what does it feel like to know you're riding in a robot-driven car?</p>
<p>"There's a little bit of awe and amazement at first and uncertainty... It just feels like the car is exerting its muscles. I don't know, I think it's a build up of trust," Kourous said.</p>
<p>See more related Circa articles: <a href="" type="internal">This 23-year-old Ford engineer already has nine patents. Did we mention she doesn't drive?</a> <a href="" type="internal">Here's how Detroit Bikes is transforming America’s car capital into a bike town</a> <a href="" type="internal">Driverless cars got a green light from the Department of Transportation</a></p> | false | 1 | companies apple tesla race develop autonomous cars auto industry titans like ford ramping production iconic car brand slated unveil autonomous vehicle av line 2021 ford isnt legacy automaker gunning put driverless cars road us transportation department summer gave selfdriving vehicles green lightand brands like general motors toyota audi volvo name already building lines fact shortly announcement gm cruise startup gm scooped last year revealed ready make first big push mass producing selfdriving cars circa reported transportation secretary elaine chao introduced new guidelines titled vision safety 20 guidelines cut original regulations set leaner regulations industry effort encourage innovation ford research engineers like helen kourous busy coding building testing latest av models inspiration innovation kind trying mimic good human brain good eyes brain reflexes driving kourous works fords autonomous vehicles research group told circa think sort take granted good hard program computer tasks driving walk fords av factory immediately think far traditional auto plant driverless car unit tech lab easy geek sensors see first kourous said explaining invisible laser beams sweeping surrounding area painting dense 3d map surroundings driverless car advocates say beyond able gain back time lost commuting one major benefit vehicles hitting road possibility reducing car accident injuries fatalities point transportation department keen emphasize saying currently 94 percent car accidents caused human error consumer technology association cta research says selfdriving technology ability reduce accidents caused aggressive driving driving influence 82 percent prevent 90 percent drivingrelated crashes driverless cars therefore could theory reduce deaths eliminating primary cause crashes kourous echoes belief says reducing distracted driving really safety impact going occur driverless cars car capable taught programmed behavior desire kourous explained us society engineers optimize tradeoffs always happening make decisions real world fords avs sensors see 360 degrees see rain 200 meters away 2021 capability cars increase safety could exponentially greater sensors help us humans sort without really thinking much understanding environment around vehicle said avs hit road however test riders hail first fleet limited taxi ridesharing services wont stop consumers already revved avs almost twothirds ready swap current cars selfdriving models according cta think theres readiness fact think insurance rates lower car accidents greatly reduced years wont make sense interested selfdriving car brian markwalter svp research standards cta told circa left dust tech giants like google uber also joined race fueling competition also sparking cooperation car companies part sort office rampd something silicon valley got part culture see acquisitions lots lots partnerships markwalter said might avs replace existing car stock especially talk affordability cost owning iphone electric vehicle sharply declined past couple years driverless cars become available public purchase theyll likely come steep price technology improves acceptance expands drive costs first radars came automobiles big microwave oven cost 10000 theyre small deck cards cost 50 volume kourous explained sees theres thing called moores law computers keep getting powerful cheaper smaller going leverage autonomous vehicles well companies already experimenting ways democratize vehicles ford taking different approach even partnered virginia techs transportation institute see people would react seeing car road without driver science data tech aside human feel like know youre riding robotdriven car theres little bit awe amazement first uncertainty feels like car exerting muscles dont know think build trust kourous said see related circa articles 23yearold ford engineer already nine patents mention doesnt drive heres detroit bikes transforming americas car capital bike town driverless cars got green light department transportation | 559 |
<p>Almost every candidate for president in 2016 has made the case, none more intensely than <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/T/Donald-Trump/159" type="external">Donald Trump</a>, that Americans have lost jobs and industry because of predatory currency depreciation. This neo-mercantilism is practiced by almost every nation that competes with the U.S. What is the solution to this grave problem?</p>
<p>Mr. Trump’s proposed solution is protectionism by raising tariffs as much as 45%. This recalls the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which triggered a vicious trade war while Congress debated the legislation in 1929 and after President Hoover signed it in June 1930, just as the chaotic interwar monetary system was collapsing.</p>
<p><a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/C/Ted-Cruz/7753" type="external">Ted Cruz</a> seems to agree that currency wars, and currency depreciation by other nations, have had a destructive effect on U.S. industries, but he opposes Mr. Trump’s tariffs. Mr. Cruz has said that the best way to level the playing field of international trade is with his tax plan, which would tax imports but not exports. (He has also advocated “sound money and monetary stability, ideally tied to gold,” but has not explained the relation between the monetary and trade issues.)</p>
<p>Despite the Texas senator’s economic sophistication, it is logically and economically implausible to solve a monetary problem, created by predatory currency depreciation, with a tax plan. A tax problem must be resolved by a tax solution. But a tax reform is neither necessary nor sufficient to rule out currency wars. Floating currencies can be depreciated faster and further than import taxes can be adjusted. Rising import taxes (i.e., tariffs) intensify the very problem of protectionism they pretend to solve.</p>
<p>A currency issue, or a monetary problem, must be resolved by a currency and monetary solution. Today’s monetary problem is the floating exchange-rate system, combined with the dollar’s peculiar global role as the world’s chief official reserve currency.</p>
<p>Foreign countries use expansive monetary policy to depreciate their currencies relative to the U.S. dollar, hoping to gain a trade advantage by exporting unemployment. Thus the true solution can only be a currency or monetary arrangement that does not encourage predatory currency depreciation. The necessary solution must exclude floating exchange rates, and substitute a system of stable exchange rates without official reserve currencies.</p>
<p>But how? Pursuant to the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Sections 8 and 10), the dollar was defined by Congress in law as a weight of precious metals (gold and silver) for most of American history, from the Coinage Act of 1792 until 1971. Dollar-denominated securities have been used as official reserves by many countries at least since the Genoa Agreement of 1922, and by most countries since the Bretton Woods monetary agreement of 1944. Under both agreements, dollar securities were redeemable in gold.</p>
<p>But the experience of both the failed interwar and Bretton Woods systems showed that competitive devaluations are only part of the problem. By “duplicating” credit, as the French economist and central banker Jacques Rueff (1896-1978) described it, the official reserve-currency system causes the domestic price level to rise in the reserve-currency country, relative to other countries, even while exchange rates remain (temporarily) fixed. For example, since 1955, producer prices for manufactured goods have roughly tripled in Germany, but more than sextupled in the U.S.—creating never-ending pressure from American industry to devalue the dollar, while causing unpredictable swings in the prices of both countries’ goods expressed in the same currency.</p>
<p>As the nearby chart shows, U.S. net official reserves were already substantially negative by the 1970s. Moreover, the increase in foreign official dollar reserves is matched by an equal deficit in the U.S. private trade and capital accounts combined—even when private U.S. residents’ books remain near balance with the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Since President Nixon ended dollar convertibility to gold in August 1971, the international monetary system has been based on the world paper-dollar standard. The international monetary system has become, as in the depressed 1930s, a disordered arrangement of floating currencies, whereby any country can depreciate its currency against the dollar. Some countries even fix their exchange rates to the dollar at an undervalued level for long periods, as China did in the early 1990s. This is when China’s industrialization gained momentum as it became the workshop of the world.</p>
<p>The pattern today is for countries, even the European Union, simply to lower the effective real level of wages by depreciating their currencies against the dollar to gain comparative advantages in international trade and by import substitution. In these countries (such as Brazil), local wages are paid in depreciating local currencies, thereby lowering the relative cost of labor. Labor compensation today accounts for one-half to two-thirds of the total cost of production in every economy. Thus American workers have been put at a competitive disadvantage with countries that are depreciating their currencies.</p>
<p>This floating exchange-rate system, combined with the official reserve-currency role of the world dollar standard, explains why free trade has been getting a bad name among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Under the floating exchange-rate reserve-currency system, free trade has become no more than a romantic fantasy.</p>
<p>The solution is to establish a level trade playing field with a system of stable exchange rates among the nations of the G-20, or at least the G-7, to which emerging countries will conform. Such a solution would require the next president to bring together the major world leaders to establish stable exchange rates to avoid trade and currency wars that inevitably lead to protectionism and sometimes to real wars. This international monetary solution of stable exchange rates would eliminate the burden and privilege of the dollar’s reserve-currency role.</p>
<p>Neither tax, nor regulatory, nor budget reforms, however desirable, will eliminate currency wars. To restore America’s competitive position in production, manufacturing and world trade, stable exchange rates are the only solution tested in the laboratory of U.S. history—from President Washington in 1789 until 1971. Stable exchange rates have proven throughout history to establish the most reliable level playing field for free and fair world trade.</p>
<p>There are no perfect solutions in human affairs. But the history of the past three centuries suggests that stable exchange rates, resulting from adoption of currencies mutually convertible to gold at statutory fixed parities, are the least imperfect solution to avoid currency and trade wars.</p>
<p>Mr. Lehrman is the author of “Money, Gold &amp; History” (TLI Books, 2013) and Mr. Mueller is the author of “Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element” (ISI Books, 2014).</p> | false | 1 | almost every candidate president 2016 made case none intensely donald trump americans lost jobs industry predatory currency depreciation neomercantilism practiced almost every nation competes us solution grave problem mr trumps proposed solution protectionism raising tariffs much 45 recalls smoothawley tariff triggered vicious trade war congress debated legislation 1929 president hoover signed june 1930 chaotic interwar monetary system collapsing ted cruz seems agree currency wars currency depreciation nations destructive effect us industries opposes mr trumps tariffs mr cruz said best way level playing field international trade tax plan would tax imports exports also advocated sound money monetary stability ideally tied gold explained relation monetary trade issues despite texas senators economic sophistication logically economically implausible solve monetary problem created predatory currency depreciation tax plan tax problem must resolved tax solution tax reform neither necessary sufficient rule currency wars floating currencies depreciated faster import taxes adjusted rising import taxes ie tariffs intensify problem protectionism pretend solve currency issue monetary problem must resolved currency monetary solution todays monetary problem floating exchangerate system combined dollars peculiar global role worlds chief official reserve currency foreign countries use expansive monetary policy depreciate currencies relative us dollar hoping gain trade advantage exporting unemployment thus true solution currency monetary arrangement encourage predatory currency depreciation necessary solution must exclude floating exchange rates substitute system stable exchange rates without official reserve currencies pursuant us constitution article sections 8 10 dollar defined congress law weight precious metals gold silver american history coinage act 1792 1971 dollardenominated securities used official reserves many countries least since genoa agreement 1922 countries since bretton woods monetary agreement 1944 agreements dollar securities redeemable gold experience failed interwar bretton woods systems showed competitive devaluations part problem duplicating credit french economist central banker jacques rueff 18961978 described official reservecurrency system causes domestic price level rise reservecurrency country relative countries even exchange rates remain temporarily fixed example since 1955 producer prices manufactured goods roughly tripled germany sextupled uscreating neverending pressure american industry devalue dollar causing unpredictable swings prices countries goods expressed currency nearby chart shows us net official reserves already substantially negative 1970s moreover increase foreign official dollar reserves matched equal deficit us private trade capital accounts combinedeven private us residents books remain near balance rest world since president nixon ended dollar convertibility gold august 1971 international monetary system based world paperdollar standard international monetary system become depressed 1930s disordered arrangement floating currencies whereby country depreciate currency dollar countries even fix exchange rates dollar undervalued level long periods china early 1990s chinas industrialization gained momentum became workshop world pattern today countries even european union simply lower effective real level wages depreciating currencies dollar gain comparative advantages international trade import substitution countries brazil local wages paid depreciating local currencies thereby lowering relative cost labor labor compensation today accounts onehalf twothirds total cost production every economy thus american workers put competitive disadvantage countries depreciating currencies floating exchangerate system combined official reservecurrency role world dollar standard explains free trade getting bad name among democrats republicans independents floating exchangerate reservecurrency system free trade become romantic fantasy solution establish level trade playing field system stable exchange rates among nations g20 least g7 emerging countries conform solution would require next president bring together major world leaders establish stable exchange rates avoid trade currency wars inevitably lead protectionism sometimes real wars international monetary solution stable exchange rates would eliminate burden privilege dollars reservecurrency role neither tax regulatory budget reforms however desirable eliminate currency wars restore americas competitive position production manufacturing world trade stable exchange rates solution tested laboratory us historyfrom president washington 1789 1971 stable exchange rates proven throughout history establish reliable level playing field free fair world trade perfect solutions human affairs history past three centuries suggests stable exchange rates resulting adoption currencies mutually convertible gold statutory fixed parities least imperfect solution avoid currency trade wars mr lehrman author money gold amp history tli books 2013 mr mueller author redeeming economics rediscovering missing element isi books 2014 | 651 |
<p>Saturday night Academy Award-winning filmmaker <a href="http://variety.com/t/alejandro-g-inarritu/" type="external">Alejandro G. Inarritu</a> (“Birdman,” “The Revenant”) picked up yet another Oscar at the Academy’s <a href="http://variety.com/t/governors-awards/" type="external">Governors Awards</a>. The recognition came for his virtual reality installation “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/carne-y-arena/" type="external">Carne y Arena</a>,” currently on exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.</p>
<p>The six-and-a-half-minute experience — a first-hand immersion into a Mexico-U.S. border crossing sequence — proves that VR “has the potential, like movies, to mutate into a major entertainment and popular art form,” Variety critic Owen Gleiberman <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/carne-y-arena-review-alejandro-g-inarritu-1202438293/" type="external">wrote</a> from the Cannes Film Festival in May. “It’s a trick, a ride, an adventure, a story, a nightmare, a lived-in diversion, a sensory experience touched with the compassion of art.”</p>
<p>For Inarritu, it was an opportunity to take a trip — quite literally — into the heart of a story. The director spoke to Variety ahead of receiving his special honor.</p>
<p>Congratulations on this special Oscar accolade. They don’t give those out too often.</p>
<p>Yeah, I feel very honored. It’s great that you don’t have to compete!</p>
<p>So how did “ <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/spotlight/carne-y-arena-venice-virtual-reality-cannes-1202524881/" type="external">Carne y Arena</a>” materialize? Did you want to work in virtual reality and that led you to exploring a migrant crossing narrative, or was it vice versa?</p>
<p>I think both. Form and substance were completely together. I would not have done it another way, and I would not have used VR for other reasons.</p>
<p>When I did it, I found I had an odd instinct. I didn’t react physically to the images as much, and I didn’t “participate” in the scene. I also missed the beating hearts digitally placed inside your characters. I found myself drifting back to sort of take it all in, and then mingling among the elements to observe fleeting things. I imagine everyone experiences it in their own way?</p>
<p>It’s very interesting. In the beginning, when I was choreographing the whole thing, I was trying to learn how people would react to certain things. Even when you have complete freedom to go wherever you want, in a way I have tools to have people go this way or that, depending on the lighting or the blocking of the scene. I can manipulate — a little bit; not too much — ways to get people to go where I would like them to go. But I realized it was much more complex than that. One reason is the identity, who you are as a person. What are your interests? What is your emotional stake or perspective in life? There are people who stay behind the policemen the whole time. There are people who go down into the sand and shout and try to hold the kids. Or there are people like you who are trying to get everything from a more objective perspective. I probably would have done the same. And some people sometimes shift their identity. It’s also dependent on the emotional state you went into it with that day. That’s very interesting. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.</p>
<p>In Milan there was an art critic who saw it two times. He told me something I truly believe. He said the second viewing is essential. There are so many things going on, and then your feet are touching the sand and the breeze — all of that combined with the illusion in your brain, you back up a little bit. The second time it’s not as overwhelming. It’s a very different experience. And you’ll discover a lot of detail. There are a lot of secrets that I hide there, that nobody has seen. But I think in time people will discover a lot of things that are there.</p>
<p>Virtual reality feels like a total magic trick to me. I can’t wrap my head around it from a production standpoint. What was that discovery process like for you and cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki?</p>
<p>I conceived this four years ago and there was one year of literally learning. We didn’t know how to do it and we had to go through different processes. It was a multimedia thing that I learned through trial and error and trying to figure out the incredible limitations that still exist in VR, and obviously the challenges of the visual language of it, which is not cinema. For me that was fascinating, and the decision to work with real immigrants, to take from them their true experience that they share. I also always knew that having it set at night, it would help me enormously to compensate for the very limited quality of human skin and human figures. The “uncanny valley” still is huge. But I knew at night, the lights from the cars and the particles of dust and the clothes and the shadow and light ultimately would help me to hide that and be beyond that and have a more emotional experience. We did it with [Industrial Light and Magic], which did an amazing job, but there were still intense limitations. If I wanted 10 things, only four could be done. So to deal with the other six technical impossibilities we’d have to discover and use tricks or illusions so people won’t be distracted, and to keep that quality that we’re in a mural. But what I’m saying is it’s part theater, part documentary, and it’s part-physical installation, it’s a virtual installation — it’s many different arts combined. And the photography, it took us many, many months correcting every single shadow and every single detail. Chivo is a master. In the desert, when we shot with real film cameras, we learned how the textures and colors and light behave, and that was very useful for us. But it took a long time to get us there.</p>
<p>Do you think there is long-form storytelling potential in VR or do you think it will thrive more via installations like this?</p>
<p>I would say both. VR has the potential to change the landscape of museums and galleries, because you can go into the mind of an artist. Imagine if a sculptor like [James] Turrell did VR. I think great artists will be able to create amazing pieces where you will really walk into their brain, and that will be life-changing. The experience is huge. Narratively, I think it will require the new generation to bring a new way to approach it. We should not be contaminating this with old narrative arts of theater or cinema. I think this is its own beast. This requires a new way, and I don’t know if it’s anti-narrative, but it should be much more unexpected — a new way with a new language. That’s what I think is exciting about it. What I call it is a “narrative space.” There’s a narrative but it’s more of a spacial, atmospheric narrative than a traditional narrative. But honestly, this is like a little scratch, a little baby, a little DNA, a little sperm of what really will become a big monster, I think.</p>
<p>Do you have other VR ideas?</p>
<p>Yes, I have a couple of them, but it takes a lot of time. I would love to explore that. It’s really amazing. It challenges your conception of time and space in a way that nothing does. Suddenly the cinema screen is reduced, in a way, and I think the new generation will be challenged by that, because once they get into this and it’s really well-developed and we understand, I think it’s going to be hard to go back.</p>
<p>What’s the next hurdle for the technology?</p>
<p>The quality still has a ways to go, which I think is being developed. I think the lightness of the headsets, the fact that it should be maybe more collective, that you can join with more people — that is another advance that is coming, but it has a lot to stretch there. And then honestly great ideas. The only thing that will really be sad about it is when this VR tool is reduced to promotional things for cinema or when it feels like video gaming or gadget kind of things. To reduce this incredibly powerful medium to that, it will happen. I think the ability to explore the human condition through this, it’s incredible. Hopefully it will be used for that. But more than anything, I think “Carne y Arena” has got people’s attention and has touched people because the subject matter is so truthful to an invisible society that has been here for years and has been depleted of dignity. Now we have access to a slice of their life and believing their truth. It’s the truth and the access to that truth that makes the piece very strong. So how many other things can be explored?</p>
<p>The installation is right next door to the <a href="http://variety.com/t/academy-museum/" type="external">Academy museum</a>. What do you think of that ongoing project?</p>
<p>I think it’s beautiful. I always thought LA should have a cinema museum, but unfortunately there is no tradition of maintaining anything here! [Laughs.] Can you imagine if all the houses and all the sites where great films have shot here were still here? The city would be amazing! But there’s no tradition. So I think a space that will try to keep that is great, but it’s hard. Have you been to the museum of cinema in Turin?</p>
<p>Never.</p>
<p>It’s amazing. Cinema is very challenging for a museum. What is behind the cinema is very impermanent. It’s a lie, the tricks of an illusion. When you see it, it’s much more disappointing than exciting. But I think what they did in Turin, it’s very inspiring. I’m sure they will get that spirit here, to bring people into the conscience of what it takes to make a film and make people dream. It’s a very challenging project. I’m glad they’re doing it.</p> | false | 1 | saturday night academy awardwinning filmmaker alejandro g inarritu birdman revenant picked yet another oscar academys governors awards recognition came virtual reality installation carne arena currently exhibit los angeles county museum art sixandahalfminute experience firsthand immersion mexicous border crossing sequence proves vr potential like movies mutate major entertainment popular art form variety critic owen gleiberman wrote cannes film festival may trick ride adventure story nightmare livedin diversion sensory experience touched compassion art inarritu opportunity take trip quite literally heart story director spoke variety ahead receiving special honor congratulations special oscar accolade dont give often yeah feel honored great dont compete carne arena materialize want work virtual reality led exploring migrant crossing narrative vice versa think form substance completely together would done another way would used vr reasons found odd instinct didnt react physically images much didnt participate scene also missed beating hearts digitally placed inside characters found drifting back sort take mingling among elements observe fleeting things imagine everyone experiences way interesting beginning choreographing whole thing trying learn people would react certain things even complete freedom go wherever want way tools people go way depending lighting blocking scene manipulate little bit much ways get people go would like go realized much complex one reason identity person interests emotional stake perspective life people stay behind policemen whole time people go sand shout try hold kids people like trying get everything objective perspective probably would done people sometimes shift identity also dependent emotional state went day thats interesting theres right wrong way milan art critic saw two times told something truly believe said second viewing essential many things going feet touching sand breeze combined illusion brain back little bit second time overwhelming different experience youll discover lot detail lot secrets hide nobody seen think time people discover lot things virtual reality feels like total magic trick cant wrap head around production standpoint discovery process like cinematographer emmanuel chivo lubezki conceived four years ago one year literally learning didnt know go different processes multimedia thing learned trial error trying figure incredible limitations still exist vr obviously challenges visual language cinema fascinating decision work real immigrants take true experience share also always knew set night would help enormously compensate limited quality human skin human figures uncanny valley still huge knew night lights cars particles dust clothes shadow light ultimately would help hide beyond emotional experience industrial light magic amazing job still intense limitations wanted 10 things four could done deal six technical impossibilities wed discover use tricks illusions people wont distracted keep quality mural im saying part theater part documentary partphysical installation virtual installation many different arts combined photography took us many many months correcting every single shadow every single detail chivo master desert shot real film cameras learned textures colors light behave useful us took long time get us think longform storytelling potential vr think thrive via installations like would say vr potential change landscape museums galleries go mind artist imagine sculptor like james turrell vr think great artists able create amazing pieces really walk brain lifechanging experience huge narratively think require new generation bring new way approach contaminating old narrative arts theater cinema think beast requires new way dont know antinarrative much unexpected new way new language thats think exciting call narrative space theres narrative spacial atmospheric narrative traditional narrative honestly like little scratch little baby little dna little sperm really become big monster think vr ideas yes couple takes lot time would love explore really amazing challenges conception time space way nothing suddenly cinema screen reduced way think new generation challenged get really welldeveloped understand think going hard go back whats next hurdle technology quality still ways go think developed think lightness headsets fact maybe collective join people another advance coming lot stretch honestly great ideas thing really sad vr tool reduced promotional things cinema feels like video gaming gadget kind things reduce incredibly powerful medium happen think ability explore human condition incredible hopefully used anything think carne arena got peoples attention touched people subject matter truthful invisible society years depleted dignity access slice life believing truth truth access truth makes piece strong many things explored installation right next door academy museum think ongoing project think beautiful always thought la cinema museum unfortunately tradition maintaining anything laughs imagine houses sites great films shot still city would amazing theres tradition think space try keep great hard museum cinema turin never amazing cinema challenging museum behind cinema impermanent lie tricks illusion see much disappointing exciting think turin inspiring im sure get spirit bring people conscience takes make film make people dream challenging project im glad theyre | 762 |
<p>The most important thing about the policy move announced by President Obama on Thursday is not its practical significance—which is frankly very hard to predict—but rather what it tells us about the mindset of the president and his top lieutenants. In that respect, I think the past few days have marked a significant change, and signaled a new and unprecedented level of panic and chaos.</p>
<p>The immediate purpose of the step the administration announced was, ironically, pretty much the same one that moved the president to falsely claim for three years that anyone who liked his insurance plan would be able to keep it: to calm down congressional Democrats and keep them unified. The president moved to permit insurers to renew plans that do not comply with Obamacare’s requirements because it looked like legislative proposals to do that were going to win the votes of large numbers of Democrats in both houses, and so effectively fracture the gritted-teeth Democratic unity that has been the only thing sustaining the cause of Obamacare in our politics since before the law was enacted.</p>
<p>If many dozens of House Democrats broke with the leadership and the president to vote for the Upton bill (which would allow insurers to keep selling any 2013 plans they wanted to all comers next year), they might well never come back to the Obamacare fold, and the inevitable fights to come would be all the more painful for the president. If the Senate Democrats championing the Landrieu bill (which would impose a guaranteed-renewability requirement on all 2013 plans, overriding Obamacare’s qualified-coverage mandates) got their way, they would expose deep divisions in the Democratic caucus that Harry Reid has worked for years to hide (mostly by avoiding difficult votes) and put the president in the position of seeming to be reprimanded by his own party. If both bills passed, the result of a conference committee between them could well be unbearable for the president in both political and policy terms. Obama evidently decided he should do whatever it took to avoid those immediate undesirable consequences, regardless of the longer-term cost. This was the same sort of thinking that led him to repeatedly promise people they could keep any plan they liked in order to keep the extremely precarious Obamacare coalition of Democrats together in 2010 and after. The idea is to get past the immediate political problem and worry about the bigger problems you create later.</p>
<p>The move also shared some means in common with previous instances of such expediency—like the delay of the employer mandate in July,&#160;for instance, which was&#160; <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/352657/delaying-obamacare-yuval-levin" type="external">a huge and early sign</a>&#160;of implementation problems. The administration yesterday basically said that, although all the rules that have required the cancellations of millions of insurance policies technically remain in effect, the government will refrain from enforcing them against insurers who allow current customers to keep their existing plans for another year. Presumably (although I don’t think they have made this clear), they will also not enforce the individual-mandate penalty against people who stay in such plans. They aren’t working with Congress to change the law—in fact the whole point is to avoid that. And they aren’t changing the regulations they themselves have promulgated to enforce it. They’re just telling insurers and consumers that it’s ok to violate the law next year. And they’re asking state insurance commissioners to do the same.</p>
<p>The callous disregard for the very idea of law inherent in this manner of governing is matched by the overt cynicism of the move itself: After having created the circumstances in which millions of people lose their health coverage, the administration imagines this latest move can allow Democrats to say that the president and his health reform are not at fault but insurers and state insurance commissioners are because, after all, although they have had to prepare to follow the law for three years they now have thirty days to prepare to ignore it. The president was incredibly explicit about this in his press conference on Thursday, saying “the key point is, is that it allows us to be able to say to the folks who’ve received these notices, look, you know, I, the president of the United States, and the insurance model of the Affordable Care Act is not going to be getting in the way of you shopping in the individual market that you used to have.” I guess they’ve got reason to think people will believe anything they say, but it’s still hard to imagine that argument working.</p>
<p>Even though the White House has done this sort of thing before, however, I think this particular exercise in imprudent expedience will carry particularly high costs, and those costs will not be all that far in the future. To address his very near-term political problem, the president has thrown the nation’s health insurers under the bus, even though he desperately needs their cooperation and support to mitigate the immense problems that the implementation of Obamacare now confronts. The response of the insurers, in the form of a statement put out by their industry group Thursday afternoon, was harsher than anything they have had to say about Obamacare since its inception, and it seems pretty clear that their basic disposition toward the administration and the law will now be changing for the worse. The insurers have no one to blame but themselves—they made a deal with Obamacare’s champions early on, knowing it was a gamble. But of course, they won’t be blaming themselves, and by turning them into scapegoats at this point the White House puts its effort to salvage something of Obamacare’s launch in even greater peril.</p>
<p>Perhaps even more importantly, today’s move could put the exchange system itself in significantly greater peril too. It is very hard to know how many people will actually be keeping their 2013 plans as a result of this new policy, and of course it is also still possible that Congress will pass legislation. But by allowing insurers to keep current customers in pre-Obamacare plans outside the exchanges, and by letting the insurers choose which plans to keep, the administration makes it more likely that the exchanges will not be able to achieve the volume and the risk-balance necessary for them to function. The White House understands that, of course, and the decision to take this step suggests that they think the risk is worth it not just because the immediate political danger is so great but also because the chances of the exchanges actually functioning anyway seem lower and lower all the time.</p>
<p>That, to my mind, is what Thursday’s announcement really signals, and why I think it’s so significant. Prior instances of reckless presidential expediency in the debate over Obamacare have involved efforts to get past some immediate obstacle and just get the system into place, in the hope that once it was working the criticisms would fade away. This latest instance, however, involves roughly the opposite impulse: to sacrifice the prospects of the new system itself in the service of avoiding immediate political pain and embarrassment and without some larger goal in view.</p>
<p>It suggests that the administration is giving up on the long game of doing what it takes to get the system into place and then trusting that the public will come around and is adopting instead the mentality of a political war of attrition, fought news cycle by news cycle, in which the goal is to survive and gain some momentary advantage rather than to achieve a large and well-defined objective. It suggests, in other words, that the administration is coming to the view that Obamacare as they have envisioned it is not really going to happen, that they don’t know quite what&#160;isgoing to happen (and no one else does either), and that they need above all to keep their coalition together and keep the public from abandoning them so they can regroup when the dust clears.</p>
<p>The president, in his Thursday press conference, did not treat November 30 as a key date. He did not suggest that there was just one large obstacle to overcome and then things would be fine. He did not say the product was good but the website is bad. He said things like this:</p>
<p>But even if we get the hardware and software working exactly the way it’s supposed to with relatively minor glitches, what we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy. And another mistake that we made, I think, was underestimating the difficulties of people purchasing insurance online and shopping for a lot of options with a lot of costs and lot of different benefits and plans and somehow expecting that that would be very smooth, and then they’ve also got to try to apply for tax credits on the website.</p>
<p>These are the words of a man who has had to internalize a lot of grim briefings lately, and to come to terms with some painful realities. And the decision the president announced is the decision of a man who has to just think about politics day by day now, rather than in terms of large goals and visions.</p>
<p>It may turn out, of course, that the situation of Obamacare and its champions is not in fact this dire, that the exchange system will find some balance relatively soon and function in a way that bears some resemblance to how it was designed to work, and that the politics of health care in 2014 will be more mixed and complicated than the fiasco the Democrats now face. But the last few days have suggested that Democrats, including the president, are beginning to lose faith in that possibility.</p> | false | 1 | important thing policy move announced president obama thursday practical significancewhich frankly hard predictbut rather tells us mindset president top lieutenants respect think past days marked significant change signaled new unprecedented level panic chaos immediate purpose step administration announced ironically pretty much one moved president falsely claim three years anyone liked insurance plan would able keep calm congressional democrats keep unified president moved permit insurers renew plans comply obamacares requirements looked like legislative proposals going win votes large numbers democrats houses effectively fracture grittedteeth democratic unity thing sustaining cause obamacare politics since law enacted many dozens house democrats broke leadership president vote upton bill would allow insurers keep selling 2013 plans wanted comers next year might well never come back obamacare fold inevitable fights come would painful president senate democrats championing landrieu bill would impose guaranteedrenewability requirement 2013 plans overriding obamacares qualifiedcoverage mandates got way would expose deep divisions democratic caucus harry reid worked years hide mostly avoiding difficult votes put president position seeming reprimanded party bills passed result conference committee could well unbearable president political policy terms obama evidently decided whatever took avoid immediate undesirable consequences regardless longerterm cost sort thinking led repeatedly promise people could keep plan liked order keep extremely precarious obamacare coalition democrats together 2010 idea get past immediate political problem worry bigger problems create later move also shared means common previous instances expediencylike delay employer mandate july160for instance was160 huge early sign160of implementation problems administration yesterday basically said although rules required cancellations millions insurance policies technically remain effect government refrain enforcing insurers allow current customers keep existing plans another year presumably although dont think made clear also enforce individualmandate penalty people stay plans arent working congress change lawin fact whole point avoid arent changing regulations promulgated enforce theyre telling insurers consumers ok violate law next year theyre asking state insurance commissioners callous disregard idea law inherent manner governing matched overt cynicism move created circumstances millions people lose health coverage administration imagines latest move allow democrats say president health reform fault insurers state insurance commissioners although prepare follow law three years thirty days prepare ignore president incredibly explicit press conference thursday saying key point allows us able say folks whove received notices look know president united states insurance model affordable care act going getting way shopping individual market used guess theyve got reason think people believe anything say still hard imagine argument working even though white house done sort thing however think particular exercise imprudent expedience carry particularly high costs costs far future address nearterm political problem president thrown nations health insurers bus even though desperately needs cooperation support mitigate immense problems implementation obamacare confronts response insurers form statement put industry group thursday afternoon harsher anything say obamacare since inception seems pretty clear basic disposition toward administration law changing worse insurers one blame themselvesthey made deal obamacares champions early knowing gamble course wont blaming turning scapegoats point white house puts effort salvage something obamacares launch even greater peril perhaps even importantly todays move could put exchange system significantly greater peril hard know many people actually keeping 2013 plans result new policy course also still possible congress pass legislation allowing insurers keep current customers preobamacare plans outside exchanges letting insurers choose plans keep administration makes likely exchanges able achieve volume riskbalance necessary function white house understands course decision take step suggests think risk worth immediate political danger great also chances exchanges actually functioning anyway seem lower lower time mind thursdays announcement really signals think significant prior instances reckless presidential expediency debate obamacare involved efforts get past immediate obstacle get system place hope working criticisms would fade away latest instance however involves roughly opposite impulse sacrifice prospects new system service avoiding immediate political pain embarrassment without larger goal view suggests administration giving long game takes get system place trusting public come around adopting instead mentality political war attrition fought news cycle news cycle goal survive gain momentary advantage rather achieve large welldefined objective suggests words administration coming view obamacare envisioned really going happen dont know quite what160isgoing happen one else either need keep coalition together keep public abandoning regroup dust clears president thursday press conference treat november 30 key date suggest one large obstacle overcome things would fine say product good website bad said things like even get hardware software working exactly way supposed relatively minor glitches also discovering insurance complicated buy another mistake made think underestimating difficulties people purchasing insurance online shopping lot options lot costs lot different benefits plans somehow expecting would smooth theyve also got try apply tax credits website words man internalize lot grim briefings lately come terms painful realities decision president announced decision man think politics day day rather terms large goals visions may turn course situation obamacare champions fact dire exchange system find balance relatively soon function way bears resemblance designed work politics health care 2014 mixed complicated fiasco democrats face last days suggested democrats including president beginning lose faith possibility | 818 |
<p>President Barack Obama had a “pen and phone” strategy. President Donald Trump has an eraser.</p>
<p>Since his first days in office, Trump has set out on a wholesale reversal of a long list of accomplishments that Obama achieved through executive action — a less enduring means than the hard-and-fast language of legislation.</p>
<p>The latest Obama-era policy to fall is the program shielding from deportation hundreds of thousands of young people brought into the country illegally as children. The Trump administration on Tuesday said the government would stop issuing new work permits while lawmakers debate whether to pass another solution.</p>
<p>In explaining his decision, Trump accused Obama of making “an end-run around Congress” to protect the so-called “dreamers.” In effect, this time it’s Trump making an end-run around Obama.</p>
<p>Obama, coming out of semi-retirement, retorted that Trump’s action was a “cruel” and “self-defeating” decision tinged with politics.</p>
<p>It was yet another demonstration of the easy-come, easy-go nature of presidential achievements attained through unilateral action: What one president does by executive fiat, the next can just as quickly overturn.</p>
<p>And it’s not just a Trump-Obama dynamic. Trump’s executive orders will be subject to revision by his successor. And Obama didn’t hesitate to reverse the actions of his predecessor, George W. Bush.</p>
<p>For all of that, though, Trump has been “unusually aggressive in his use of unilateral powers,” says Kenneth Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist and expert on presidential powers and executive orders.</p>
<p>While it’s hard to systematically rank presidents on their use of executive actions, Mayer says “there are examples of Trump going beyond what other presidents have done in terms of the frequency and nature of unilateral action.”</p>
<p>Trump, lacking any major legislative accomplishments despite the advantage of a Republican-controlled Congress, has issued dozens of executive orders and actions during the past seven months that have had a sweeping effect across the scope of government. They range from huge shifts in international policy to minor tinkering with obscure federal regulations.</p>
<p>He’s pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement through which nearly 200 countries had committed to combat global warming by reducing polluting emissions. He’s scrapped an Obama administration policy that let national parks ban the sale of bottled water to fight littering. His Education Department has lifted Obama-era guidance to schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. He’s ordered up two deregulatory actions for every new regulation issued. He tweeted out word that transgender individuals would no longer be allowed to serve openly in the military, as provided by the Obama administration, forcing the Pentagon to scramble to draft new rules to that effect.</p>
<p>Trump’s actions on environmental matters extend well beyond climate change: He’s moved to rip up Obama’s Clean Power Plan, regulations that sought to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants. His executive order on regulatory reform has been cited by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt as a reason to delay or roll back a raft of Obama-era environmental regulations, from cleaning up water pollution from coal mines to blunting limits on emissions of toxic mercury from power plant smokestacks.</p>
<p>There’s likely plenty more to come: Trump’s Labor Department wants to undo an Obama administration rule extending mandatory overtime pay to 4.2 million more workers. And the administration is reviewing a potential rule that would let employers opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women for religious and moral reasons.</p>
<p>Some changes have been harder to impose than Trump expected: His initial attempt at an executive order temporarily banning travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries and suspending the U.S. refugee program hit roadblocks in the courts. On his second attempt, the Supreme Court allowed only a sharply scaled back version of the order to go forward pending arguments scheduled for October. Despite his Jan. 25 executive order to jumpstart construction on a U.S.-Mexico border wall, the structure is still far from reality.</p>
<p>Obama has largely bitten his tongue as Trump rolled back policy after policy from his presidency. But the former president spoke out clearly Tuesday about the “dreamers” program, saying in a statement that his order had been based on “the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike.” He said he acted unilaterally only after Congress failed to send him legislation to protect the “dreamers.”</p>
<p>Obama stepped up his use of executive actions in 2014 as he became frustrated with how difficult it was to push legislation through Congress.</p>
<p>He famously declared: “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.”</p>
<p>But the more enduring nature of legislation vs. flimsier executive actions is clear in the difficulty that Republicans have had in repealing Obama’s health care plan: It barely squeaked into law in 2010 but Republicans have been unable to vote it out after pledging for years to repeal it.</p>
<p>Presidents know their executive orders can be revoked with the stroke of a pen by their successors. They also know they can put the next president in a bind by creating a program that will be politically difficult to rescind. Trump agonized over his “dreamers” decision and caught criticism for trying to navigate a middle ground by proposing to gradually phase out the program while inviting Congress to come up with a permanent fix.</p>
<p>White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was left to insist: “It’s not cold-hearted for the president to uphold the law.”</p> | false | 1 | president barack obama pen phone strategy president donald trump eraser since first days office trump set wholesale reversal long list accomplishments obama achieved executive action less enduring means hardandfast language legislation latest obamaera policy fall program shielding deportation hundreds thousands young people brought country illegally children trump administration tuesday said government would stop issuing new work permits lawmakers debate whether pass another solution explaining decision trump accused obama making endrun around congress protect socalled dreamers effect time trump making endrun around obama obama coming semiretirement retorted trumps action cruel selfdefeating decision tinged politics yet another demonstration easycome easygo nature presidential achievements attained unilateral action one president executive fiat next quickly overturn trumpobama dynamic trumps executive orders subject revision successor obama didnt hesitate reverse actions predecessor george w bush though trump unusually aggressive use unilateral powers says kenneth mayer university wisconsinmadison political scientist expert presidential powers executive orders hard systematically rank presidents use executive actions mayer says examples trump going beyond presidents done terms frequency nature unilateral action trump lacking major legislative accomplishments despite advantage republicancontrolled congress issued dozens executive orders actions past seven months sweeping effect across scope government range huge shifts international policy minor tinkering obscure federal regulations hes pulling united states landmark paris climate agreement nearly 200 countries committed combat global warming reducing polluting emissions hes scrapped obama administration policy let national parks ban sale bottled water fight littering education department lifted obamaera guidance schools allow transgender students use bathroom choice hes ordered two deregulatory actions every new regulation issued tweeted word transgender individuals would longer allowed serve openly military provided obama administration forcing pentagon scramble draft new rules effect trumps actions environmental matters extend well beyond climate change hes moved rip obamas clean power plan regulations sought reduce emissions coalfired power plants executive order regulatory reform cited epa administrator scott pruitt reason delay roll back raft obamaera environmental regulations cleaning water pollution coal mines blunting limits emissions toxic mercury power plant smokestacks theres likely plenty come trumps labor department wants undo obama administration rule extending mandatory overtime pay 42 million workers administration reviewing potential rule would let employers opt providing nocost birth control women religious moral reasons changes harder impose trump expected initial attempt executive order temporarily banning travel us several muslimmajority countries suspending us refugee program hit roadblocks courts second attempt supreme court allowed sharply scaled back version order go forward pending arguments scheduled october despite jan 25 executive order jumpstart construction usmexico border wall structure still far reality obama largely bitten tongue trump rolled back policy policy presidency former president spoke clearly tuesday dreamers program saying statement order based wellestablished legal principle prosecutorial discretion deployed democratic republican presidents alike said acted unilaterally congress failed send legislation protect dreamers obama stepped use executive actions 2014 became frustrated difficult push legislation congress famously declared going waiting legislation order make sure providing americans kind help need ive got pen ive got phone enduring nature legislation vs flimsier executive actions clear difficulty republicans repealing obamas health care plan barely squeaked law 2010 republicans unable vote pledging years repeal presidents know executive orders revoked stroke pen successors also know put next president bind creating program politically difficult rescind trump agonized dreamers decision caught criticism trying navigate middle ground proposing gradually phase program inviting congress come permanent fix white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders left insist coldhearted president uphold law | 560 |
<p />
<p>The horrific slaughter of 85 people by the Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik has surely closed the door on Europe’s multiculturalism experiment. &#160;Media reports indicated that Breivik was opposed to multiculturalism and Islam. However, in the immediate aftermath of killings, it was difficult to distinguish between the Western media’s rant against Islam and Muslims and Breivik’s abhorrent views. Europe’s tirade against multiculturalism and its failure to accommodate Muslims is not new.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, David Cameron launched a devastating tirade against 30 years of multiculturalism in Britain. He warned that multiculturalism was incubating extremist ideology and directly contributing to home-grown Islamic terrorism. He said, “We have failed to provide a vision of society [to young Muslims] to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. All this leaves some young Muslims feeling rootless. And the search for something to belong to and believe in can lead them to extremist ideology.”</p>
<p>Cameron is not the only European leader critical of multiculturalism. In October 2010, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, unequivocally declared: “The approach of saying, ‘Well, let’s just go for a multicultural society, let’s coexist and enjoy each other,’ this very approach has failed, absolutely failed.” Merkel’s remarks came soon after Thilo Sarrazin’s diatribe against multiculturalism. In August 2010, then a board member of Germany’s central bank, Thilo condemned multiculturalism and claimed Germany’s intelligence was in decline because of Muslim immigrants. Elsewhere in Europe, boisterous voices are reverberating in the corridors of power warning about dangers of multiculturalism. And all too often, Muslim adherences to Islamic values in Western societies are cited as demonstrative examples of the failure of multiculturalism.</p>
<p>The rallying cry against the concept of multicultural societies extends beyond European shores. On September 28th, 2010, Australia’s former Prime Minister John Howard said, “This is a time not to apologize for our particular identity but rather to firmly and respectfully and robustly reassert it. I think one of the errors that some sections of the English-speaking world have made in the last few decades has been to confuse multiracialism and multiculturalism.” He further added that some sections of society have gone too far in accommodating Muslim minorities.</p>
<p>In America, the daily assault on multiculturalism by conservatives and other right wing politicians is polarizing American communities and is accentuating tensions between Americans and Muslims. The plan to build a mosque close to ground-zero is just the latest manifestation of this struggle. Clearly then, multiculturalism as envisaged by its proponents has failed to deliver what it was supposed to do, i.e., protect groups or communities against intolerance and discrimination perpetrated by society or dominant groups.</p>
<p>Concepts like multiculturalism and diversity signify that in liberal democracies coexistence can be fostered between different groups without the erosion of their respective identities or cultural norms. However, these concepts although widely employed in the lexicon of modern political philosophy are not new. Rather they are derived from one of the main pillars of Western liberal political thought called pluralism. Like other Western concepts, the origin of pluralism is firmly rooted in birth of secularism. Back then, some philosophers were incensed at the manner by which various Christian denominations were forced to assimilate and conform to the standards and virtues mandated by the papacy. They endeavored to safeguard the religious practices of such groups by campaigning for greater tolerance and leniency to be shown to them by the rest of society and other dominant groups. Initially, this meant that such groups were spared physical punishment and financial penalties. However, they were barely tolerated, and were subject to torrents of racial abuse, extreme discrimination, and forced exclusion from different facets of society. For instance, they were denied employment, precluded from educational institutions, suffered from restrictions on travel movements, etc.</p>
<p>But as time passed, other thinkers sought to extend the boundaries of pluralism and pressed for weaker groups to be granted greater opportunities to express their religious and cultural identity in all aspects of societal life, besides the designated areas of worship. In some cases, the thinkers managed to convince the state to extend protection against persecution of a group’s cultural identity and race, and remove impediments to employment previously barred. Hence over the centuries, the concept of pluralism underwent progressive elaboration by Western philosophers and thinkers, as well as selective application by Western States. Despite numerous revisions and reviews, divergent views over pluralisms meaning, its applicability and value to society still persist. Some advocate that pluralism should be limited to a mere tolerance of a group’s cultural identity and nothing more. Others equate pluralism with the right for diverse groups to freely express and celebrate their cultural identity without fear and restrictions imposed by society or dominant groups.</p>
<p>Towards the middle of the last century, the labor crisis in Europe spurred an influx of immigrants to European shores. Attempts by Europe to absorb people from numerous diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds posed a number of challenges to the cohesiveness of their respective societies—chief amongst them were housing, marriage, education, health care, welfare benefits and employment. Tensions frequently surfaced between the indigenous populations and the immigrants, as both competed for limited resources. During this period, several thinkers and a handful of politicians criticized the inability of Western governments to assimilate immigrants. They suggested alternative solutions to preserve social cohesion based on pluralism, and advocated cultural diversity under the guise of integration.</p>
<p>In 1966, Roy Jenkins, a British politician, presented a new pluralistic vision for Britain. He said, “ I do not think we need in this country a ‘melting pot’ which will turn everybody out in a common mould, as one of a series of carbon copies of someone’s misplaced vision of the stereotyped Englishman… I define integration therefore, not as a flattening process of assimilation but as equal opportunity, coupled with cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance.” This became known as Jenkins formula and was widely employed by policy makers to establish guidelines and laws for multiculturalism.</p>
<p>In the next 40 years, pluralism or multiculturalism—as it came to be widely known—was introduced in almost every aspect of life; so much so that indigenous populations perceived immigrants and other minority groups to enjoy greater benefits than themselves. Subsequently, relations between the host and immigrant communities rapidly deteriorated, many questioned the wisdom behind multiculturalism, and some even went as far as calling for its abolition. Therefore, even before the events of September 11, 2001, multiculturalism which was coveted as a panacea for social cohesion was an abject failure.</p>
<p>Multiculturalism or pluralism is whimsical idea that is conceptually flawed and unworkable in practice. This is because pluralism encourages groups to promote their cultural identity irrespective of their political influence or financial strength. Naturally, the strongest group uses its political prowess and financial muscle to persuade politicians to define legislation, which vigorously defends and endorses their culture and values at the expense of other groups. Additionally, the most powerful group manipulates the media and the educational establishments to actively promote its culture, which leads to widespread acceptance amongst the indigenous population. In this way, the strongest group’s culture becomes indistinguishable from the state’s culture. Weaker groups find themselves culturally squeezed, discriminated against, and in conflict with the state. Such groups are coerced by both the state and society to dilute their cultural identity to fit in. Those groups that refuse to temper with their cultural identity are ostracized and consigned to live in ghettos. In extreme cases, they are expelled from the host nation, like what happened to the Roma gypsies in France.</p>
<p>What the Norwegian incident illustrates is that the preoccupation of mainstream society to stigmatize Muslims has provided ample opportunity for other marginalized groups to implant their ideas and attract new recruits to their detestable ideologies. One must wonder, how many other homegrown right-wing extremists lurk in European cities waiting to pounce against their governments and fellow citizens, whilst politicians struggle to replace multiculturalism with other &#160;fad ideas like assimilation, and integrations&#160; that will no doubt lead to the same result.</p> | false | 1 | horrific slaughter 85 people norwegian anders behring breivik surely closed door europes multiculturalism experiment 160media reports indicated breivik opposed multiculturalism islam however immediate aftermath killings difficult distinguish western medias rant islam muslims breiviks abhorrent views europes tirade multiculturalism failure accommodate muslims new earlier year david cameron launched devastating tirade 30 years multiculturalism britain warned multiculturalism incubating extremist ideology directly contributing homegrown islamic terrorism said failed provide vision society young muslims feel want belong even tolerated segregated communities behaving ways run counter values leaves young muslims feeling rootless search something belong believe lead extremist ideology cameron european leader critical multiculturalism october 2010 angela merkel german chancellor unequivocally declared approach saying well lets go multicultural society lets coexist enjoy approach failed absolutely failed merkels remarks came soon thilo sarrazins diatribe multiculturalism august 2010 board member germanys central bank thilo condemned multiculturalism claimed germanys intelligence decline muslim immigrants elsewhere europe boisterous voices reverberating corridors power warning dangers multiculturalism often muslim adherences islamic values western societies cited demonstrative examples failure multiculturalism rallying cry concept multicultural societies extends beyond european shores september 28th 2010 australias former prime minister john howard said time apologize particular identity rather firmly respectfully robustly reassert think one errors sections englishspeaking world made last decades confuse multiracialism multiculturalism added sections society gone far accommodating muslim minorities america daily assault multiculturalism conservatives right wing politicians polarizing american communities accentuating tensions americans muslims plan build mosque close groundzero latest manifestation struggle clearly multiculturalism envisaged proponents failed deliver supposed ie protect groups communities intolerance discrimination perpetrated society dominant groups concepts like multiculturalism diversity signify liberal democracies coexistence fostered different groups without erosion respective identities cultural norms however concepts although widely employed lexicon modern political philosophy new rather derived one main pillars western liberal political thought called pluralism like western concepts origin pluralism firmly rooted birth secularism back philosophers incensed manner various christian denominations forced assimilate conform standards virtues mandated papacy endeavored safeguard religious practices groups campaigning greater tolerance leniency shown rest society dominant groups initially meant groups spared physical punishment financial penalties however barely tolerated subject torrents racial abuse extreme discrimination forced exclusion different facets society instance denied employment precluded educational institutions suffered restrictions travel movements etc time passed thinkers sought extend boundaries pluralism pressed weaker groups granted greater opportunities express religious cultural identity aspects societal life besides designated areas worship cases thinkers managed convince state extend protection persecution groups cultural identity race remove impediments employment previously barred hence centuries concept pluralism underwent progressive elaboration western philosophers thinkers well selective application western states despite numerous revisions reviews divergent views pluralisms meaning applicability value society still persist advocate pluralism limited mere tolerance groups cultural identity nothing others equate pluralism right diverse groups freely express celebrate cultural identity without fear restrictions imposed society dominant groups towards middle last century labor crisis europe spurred influx immigrants european shores attempts europe absorb people numerous diverse cultural ethnic backgrounds posed number challenges cohesiveness respective societieschief amongst housing marriage education health care welfare benefits employment tensions frequently surfaced indigenous populations immigrants competed limited resources period several thinkers handful politicians criticized inability western governments assimilate immigrants suggested alternative solutions preserve social cohesion based pluralism advocated cultural diversity guise integration 1966 roy jenkins british politician presented new pluralistic vision britain said think need country melting pot turn everybody common mould one series carbon copies someones misplaced vision stereotyped englishman define integration therefore flattening process assimilation equal opportunity coupled cultural diversity atmosphere mutual tolerance became known jenkins formula widely employed policy makers establish guidelines laws multiculturalism next 40 years pluralism multiculturalismas came widely knownwas introduced almost every aspect life much indigenous populations perceived immigrants minority groups enjoy greater benefits subsequently relations host immigrant communities rapidly deteriorated many questioned wisdom behind multiculturalism even went far calling abolition therefore even events september 11 2001 multiculturalism coveted panacea social cohesion abject failure multiculturalism pluralism whimsical idea conceptually flawed unworkable practice pluralism encourages groups promote cultural identity irrespective political influence financial strength naturally strongest group uses political prowess financial muscle persuade politicians define legislation vigorously defends endorses culture values expense groups additionally powerful group manipulates media educational establishments actively promote culture leads widespread acceptance amongst indigenous population way strongest groups culture becomes indistinguishable states culture weaker groups find culturally squeezed discriminated conflict state groups coerced state society dilute cultural identity fit groups refuse temper cultural identity ostracized consigned live ghettos extreme cases expelled host nation like happened roma gypsies france norwegian incident illustrates preoccupation mainstream society stigmatize muslims provided ample opportunity marginalized groups implant ideas attract new recruits detestable ideologies one must wonder many homegrown rightwing extremists lurk european cities waiting pounce governments fellow citizens whilst politicians struggle replace multiculturalism 160fad ideas like assimilation integrations160 doubt lead result | 781 |
<p>Whether you followed the 1990s case of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez who killed their parents or simply read about it online, you know how the story ends. The boys, who were defended by Leslie Abramson, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1996. Now “Law &amp; Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” the first ripped from the headlines version of NBC’s true crime franchise, sets out to humanize them.</p>
<p>“It’s not the ‘who’,” said executive producer Dick Wolf at the Paley Center for Media’s Fall TV Preview for his new series. “At the end of the eight hours, you’re going to really understand the ‘why’.”</p>
<p>The show recounts Lyle and Erik’s side of the story (played by <a href="http://variety.com/t/miles-gaston-villanueva/" type="external">Miles Gaston Villanueva</a> and <a href="http://variety.com/t/gus-halper/" type="external">Gus Halper</a>, respectively), but it does not do so linearly. The premiere episode opens with the murders, and then shows what came after the infamous 911 call where they pretended to stumble upon their dead parents and flashes back to life under father Jose’s ( <a href="http://variety.com/t/carlos-gomez/" type="external">Carlos Gomez</a>) roof.</p>
<p>“The idea was to get to know the kids but also to steer into what everybody knew and basically throw up all the negatives that people knew about them, and then in the second and third and fourth episode, you start peeling back,” executive producer Rene Balcer tells&#160;Variety. “Yeah, they spent money, but they didn’t spend any more money after the killings than they did before. All of the assumptions we made sort of get turned inside out.”</p>
<p>In peeling back the layers of the brothers over time, the show eases the audience into the allegations of abuse that eventually became Lyle and Erik’s motive. The show starts with some of the emotional and verbal abuse, such as showing Jose quizzing his sons at a family dinner and then berating his youngest for the way he eats, but will eventually move into the controversial physical and sexual abuse allegations as well.</p>
<p>“You get the ‘why’ a little bit on every page of every script,” Villanueva says. “You get to understand the trauma they experienced and the abuse of young kids all the way through, for Erik, a few weeks before the murders. There’s a lot we’re going to show the audience that propelled them.”</p>
<p>In showing the brothers’ side to the story, the producers and cast all feel the show will give the audience a new ability to find empathy in the characters.&#160;“Regardless of what they’re accused of, they’re human,” says <a href="http://variety.com/t/edie-falco/" type="external">Edie Falco</a>, who plays Abramson.</p>
<p>For both Villanueva and Halper, they had to find that empathy in order to be able to take on the roles. “No one does things without a reason,” says Halper. “You can agree with it or not, but there’s always a reason, and at the end of the day, what your job is as an actor is to figure out that reason and internalize it.”</p>
<p>As Falco says, “The whole thing is tragic…I have no idea where people will land in regards to this. I think some might be uncomfortable because they don’t like to live in the gray area, and this show is being somewhat bipartisan. But when being presented with all of this new stuff, there’s no way you can’t say, ‘What the hell happened here?’”</p>
<p>The show introduces her at home and through another case, to showcase her passion and lack of concern for what people thought of her&#160;– the very traits that drove her to take on the case to begin with.</p>
<p>“We wanted to make her available to the audience, make her alive, set up certain things that are going on in her life,” Balcer says, explaining that when you have an actress like Falco, you don’t wait to put her on-screen. “You have this very dysfunctional family in the Menendez family, and then you have her trying to rectify and deal with issues in her own family as she’s trying to adopt a kid. She thinks those boys did it, but she thinks there’s probably a big tragedy behind it&#160;– a family secret that needs to be uncovered. Because that’s been her experience.”</p>
<p>The show also explores the family dynamic of Dr. Jerome Oziel (Josh Charles) and his mistress Judalon Smith ( <a href="http://variety.com/t/heather-graham/" type="external">Heather Graham</a>), who exposed the brothers’ taped confession. “It’s a super interesting side plot that is very interesting,” Graham says. “She was very scared because Jerome told her that they would kill her, and she believed him, but she thought she’d be safer if she told the police. So she knew these people killed their parents, and she went and told the police, as I think anyone would.”</p>
<p>From the start, Jose is painted as a narcissist philanderer who drove his wife (Lolita Davidovich) into a depression. But just like Villanueva and Halper wanted to understand their characters, so too did Gomez have to find the man behind the monster. “He was an immigrant who rose to esteem and became a very big businessman. He was a tough guy&#160;– a tough businessman and tough on his kids,” Gomez says. “He did love his kids — everyone who saw the family said he loved his kids — but they were out of control. Even before they murdered, they were robbing houses and doing other bad things.”</p>
<p>Even though the show uses flashbacks from different characters’ points of views to give glimpses into the family’s home life, the research used all came from court documents, police reports and newspaper articles from the investigation. Cast members were not encouraged to talk to the real-life people they were portraying.</p>
<p>“I didn’t want to talk to Erik or Lyle because they’re no longer the same young men that they were back then,” Balcer admits. “I wanted to keep that voice unencumbered by my impressions of them now after having been institutionalized for 25 years. But the research is pretty extensive, and I have to say ‘spoiler alert’ for the last episode, because there are two things that you find out that are kind of shocking. When you think about it, they’ll make sense, but they were not known at the time.”</p>
<p>“Law &amp; Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders”&#160;premieres on NBC Sept. 26 at 10 p.m.</p> | false | 1 | whether followed 1990s case brothers lyle erik menendez killed parents simply read online know story ends boys defended leslie abramson sentenced life prison without possibility parole 1996 law amp order true crime menendez murders first ripped headlines version nbcs true crime franchise sets humanize said executive producer dick wolf paley center medias fall tv preview new series end eight hours youre going really understand show recounts lyle eriks side story played miles gaston villanueva gus halper respectively linearly premiere episode opens murders shows came infamous 911 call pretended stumble upon dead parents flashes back life father joses carlos gomez roof idea get know kids also steer everybody knew basically throw negatives people knew second third fourth episode start peeling back executive producer rene balcer tells160variety yeah spent money didnt spend money killings assumptions made sort get turned inside peeling back layers brothers time show eases audience allegations abuse eventually became lyle eriks motive show starts emotional verbal abuse showing jose quizzing sons family dinner berating youngest way eats eventually move controversial physical sexual abuse allegations well get little bit every page every script villanueva says get understand trauma experienced abuse young kids way erik weeks murders theres lot going show audience propelled showing brothers side story producers cast feel show give audience new ability find empathy characters160regardless theyre accused theyre human says edie falco plays abramson villanueva halper find empathy order able take roles one things without reason says halper agree theres always reason end day job actor figure reason internalize falco says whole thing tragici idea people land regards think might uncomfortable dont like live gray area show somewhat bipartisan presented new stuff theres way cant say hell happened show introduces home another case showcase passion lack concern people thought her160 traits drove take case begin wanted make available audience make alive set certain things going life balcer says explaining actress like falco dont wait put onscreen dysfunctional family menendez family trying rectify deal issues family shes trying adopt kid thinks boys thinks theres probably big tragedy behind it160 family secret needs uncovered thats experience show also explores family dynamic dr jerome oziel josh charles mistress judalon smith heather graham exposed brothers taped confession super interesting side plot interesting graham says scared jerome told would kill believed thought shed safer told police knew people killed parents went told police think anyone would start jose painted narcissist philanderer drove wife lolita davidovich depression like villanueva halper wanted understand characters gomez find man behind monster immigrant rose esteem became big businessman tough guy160 tough businessman tough kids gomez says love kids everyone saw family said loved kids control even murdered robbing houses bad things even though show uses flashbacks different characters points views give glimpses familys home life research used came court documents police reports newspaper articles investigation cast members encouraged talk reallife people portraying didnt want talk erik lyle theyre longer young men back balcer admits wanted keep voice unencumbered impressions institutionalized 25 years research pretty extensive say spoiler alert last episode two things find kind shocking think theyll make sense known time law amp order true crime menendez murders160premieres nbc sept 26 10 pm | 525 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Faith Angle Forum</a> is a semi-annual conference which brings together a select group of 20 nationally respected journalists with 3-5 distinguished scholars on areas of religion, politics &amp; public life.</p>
<p>“Francis: Reformer, Restorer, or Revolutionary? His Leadership on the Global Stage”</p>
<p>South Beach, Florida</p>
<p>Speaker:&#160;Sergio Rubin, Journalist&#160;and Co-author with Francesca Ambrogetti,&#160;Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio: His Life in His Own Words&#160;</p>
<p>A video of Mr. Rubin’s presentation is available <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>Sergio Rubin</p>
<p>SERGIO RUBIN:&#160;It is an enormous honor for me to participate in this important seminar in which such notable religious personages and distinguished scholars have provided an illuminating analysis of Pope Francis’ papacy. As a journalist reporting on religion in secular media in Argentina for more than 30 years—and it is in this capacity that I am speaking here—I would first like to confess that unlike the 2005 conclave, when I thought that Jorge Bergoglio was likely to be elected Pope, last year I did not believe he would be, despite the fact that a few days before his election I reported in the newspaper and on television that, according to Vatican sources, he was once again in the running. I thought his time had passed. However, I believed that the Church—beset as it was by a multitude of problems—should act boldly and choose an unlikely candidate who could pluck it out of the eye of the storm and revitalize its religious action. That is why my first reaction to the news that he had been chosen as Saint Peter’s successor was profound surprise. This was followed by a feeling of intense joy, and ultimately, great fear, due to the tremendous challenges that awaited him.</p>
<p>It is not the purpose of this speech to delve into an analysis of how Jorge Bergoglio came to be Pope Francis. I would merely like to draw attention to the Cardinals’ audacity in embracing something new: the first Pope from the New World, the first Pope from the periphery—from the “ends of the earth,” he would call it—the first Jesuit pope. And the fact that this meant a shift in vision—more pastoral—and in approach—more open—along with the marked social focus of the occupant of the throne of Saint Peter. In this sense, this succession has certain points in common with the succession of Pius XII and the auspicious arrival of John XXIII. This confirms my belief in the Church’s capacity to “reinvent” itself, beyond the action of the Holy Spirit on the eyes of faith. Those of us who have followed Jorge Bergoglio’s activities and ways of thinking were familiar with these characteristics on the part of the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires. In my case, and that of my dear colleague and friend Francesca Ambrogetti, we have followed him particularly closely because of our book, The Jesuit, which we wrote based on two years of conversation with Cardinal Bergoglio, and published in 2010.</p>
<p>Based on the career of Father and Bishop Bergoglio, and an analysis of the first nearly full year of his tenure as pope, in which his gestures and words have been greeted by so much enthusiasm, it is worthwhile to consider the question of whether he is a revitalizing, reformist, or revolutionary pope. Again, my approach to these questions is that of a journalist covering religious issues who must act as a bridge between the news and a diverse audience. Someone who must have the proper training, but must communicate as clearly and directly as possible. Communicating about religion is especially challenging, because religions invoke a transcendent dimension. This necessarily renders us susceptible to accusations of “reductionism” or to interpretations in a purely political key. Moreover, from a media perspective, it is not just about whatever a representative of the Church or institution wishes to communicate via actions and ideas, but also what the audience processes and decodes. Therefore, it is not just important to understand who Francis really is, but also how we present him and what the public perception of him is.</p>
<p>Is he a renewer? If what we mean by renewal is having renewed the enthusiasm of the faithful, there can be no doubt. All over the world people are talking about a significant number of Catholics coming back to the faith, even going to mass. Here in the United States I have heard the thrilling stories of people formerly disenchanted with the Church, not to mention what is happening in Italy, or my country, Argentina. His bearing witness to austerity, to closeness to all, especially the poorest, his understanding words—some of his most noteworthy being the question he asked journalists on the return flight to Rome following his tour of Brazil: who am I to judge a gay person…?—which had such a profound impact that they require no further comment. And their effect may have been more pedagogical than encyclical. His desire for greater transparency in the Church and greater humility on the part of the clergy was also warmly welcomed. In a world chock-full of words and a Church prolifically producing documents that few actually read, his witnessing to a media-influenced society has made him a great communicator. Even his magnificent smile has a unique power to communicate the joy of the Gospel. As Time Magazine put it, “He has not changed the words—in that he has not changed any rules—but he’s changed the music.” And people liked that. So, there can be little doubt that he is a renewer.</p>
<p>Is he a reformist? Thus far, as we have said, no rules have been changed. But we feel there are signs that some changes will be made during his papacy. Or at least, a debate will be started. The example that is closest at hand is the matter of denying communion to the faithful who are divorced and remarried. It is true that Benedict XVI never closed the door on revisiting this very controversial issue. But Francis seems ready to address it. The upcoming synod on the family will be a big test. Moreover, the extensive questionnaire on family life that he sent to bishops’ conferences around the world would seem to indicate that we are on the verge of a broader, more realistic debate within the Church on these questions. The changes planned in the Roman Curia, the end of “careerism” in the clergy and the curtailment of honorific titles, the push toward greater collegiality, the new administrative structures that are being considered, the future role of women in the leadership of the institution, etc. are all evidence that a series of changes are in progress. How far Francis will go, or rather, how far he will be able to go, only time will tell. But I have no doubt that he has the desire to make change, but with caution and without acting in haste. His priority is to renew the proclamation of the Gospel. Unquestionably, he is also a reformist.</p>
<p>Is he a revolutionary? I must acknowledge that the question almost seems out of line. However, I believe he is in the sense that he is driving a sort of cultural revolution within the Church. Because, in my opinion, after centuries in which the institution appeared to focus on sin and damnation, or at least that was how it appeared to much of society, Francis is once again placing love at the center and prioritizing it above all. It is not that, as has mistakenly been reported, he wishes to abolish the concept of sin, but rather remind us that the redemptive power of love is stronger than all human frailties. And placing love above all does not just mean being understanding and forgiving, but demonstrating that to our neighbor. It means not obsessing over matters of sexuality, not focusing solely on protecting human life at its inception, but throughout the entire process until natural death. It means making a serious commitment to social justice and peace. It means engaging in dialogue and putting ourselves in another’s shoes. It means respecting everyone’s freedom, without ceasing to proclaim the Christian message. It means proclaiming the Gospel with joy, living a happy life here in the knowledge that eternal life also awaits. After all, the Christian message—when taken seriously—is lovingly and peacefully revolutionary.</p>
<p>Having reached this point, it is now time to ask ourselves whether Catholics, the clergy and the faithful, will also be renewers, reformers, and revolutionaries, like Francis. Will they merely cheer him on, or will they actually follow him? The new Pope’s first inspiration was to take the name of the great saint of the poor. All part of the plan. Let us not forget that Saint Francis of Assisi was himself a revitalizer, a reformist, and a revolutionary.</p>
<p>Francis’ World Leadership</p>
<p>Pope Francis decided to reclaim lost ground on the world stage as a builder of world peace and the fight against injustice previously conquered by John Paul II and abandoned, to a certain extent, by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who was more concerned with religious questions.</p>
<p>Jorge Bergoglio not only placed more emphasis on the fight against poverty, the call for capitalism with a human face, and problems such as immigration, he also backed up his words with actions such as his trip to Lampedusa to meet with African immigrants.</p>
<p>With regard to peace, his intervention in the Syrian civil war with the letter he sent to Russian president Vladimir Putin just before the G-8 summit, and leading the world day of prayer for peace in the Middle East, both sent a strong message.</p>
<p>In the eyes of many observers, those two gestures were key to preventing a potential attack on Syria from the outside—in an attempt to corner the dictator, Al Assad—and gain leverage for negotiations. And they caused him to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.</p>
<p>U.S. President Barack Obama’s imminent visit to the Vatican is an acknowledgment of Francis’ role as a world leader. My hypothesis is that Obama wishes to build an alliance with the Pope in the war on poverty.</p>
<p>The U.S. President, conscious of Francis’ good relationships with the Jewish and Islamic communities and their leadership, also seeks to build an alliance for peace in the Middle East.</p>
<p>I believe that just as Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan joined forces—each from his own standpoint—to bring an end to communism in Eastern Europe, the new Washington-Vatican alliance will be to bring peace to the Middle East.</p>
<p>But Obama will have to make some concessions to the pope, especially with regard to his health plan that imposes requirements on hospitals that conflict with Christian bioethical principles.</p> | false | 1 | faith angle forum semiannual conference brings together select group 20 nationally respected journalists 35 distinguished scholars areas religion politics amp public life francis reformer restorer revolutionary leadership global stage south beach florida speaker160sergio rubin journalist160and coauthor francesca ambrogetti160pope francis conversations jorge bergoglio life words160 video mr rubins presentation available sergio rubin sergio rubin160it enormous honor participate important seminar notable religious personages distinguished scholars provided illuminating analysis pope francis papacy journalist reporting religion secular media argentina 30 yearsand capacity speaking herei would first like confess unlike 2005 conclave thought jorge bergoglio likely elected pope last year believe would despite fact days election reported newspaper television according vatican sources running thought time passed however believed churchbeset multitude problemsshould act boldly choose unlikely candidate could pluck eye storm revitalize religious action first reaction news chosen saint peters successor profound surprise followed feeling intense joy ultimately great fear due tremendous challenges awaited purpose speech delve analysis jorge bergoglio came pope francis would merely like draw attention cardinals audacity embracing something new first pope new world first pope peripheryfrom ends earth would call itthe first jesuit pope fact meant shift visionmore pastoraland approachmore openalong marked social focus occupant throne saint peter sense succession certain points common succession pius xii auspicious arrival john xxiii confirms belief churchs capacity reinvent beyond action holy spirit eyes faith us followed jorge bergoglios activities ways thinking familiar characteristics part former archbishop buenos aires case dear colleague friend francesca ambrogetti followed particularly closely book jesuit wrote based two years conversation cardinal bergoglio published 2010 based career father bishop bergoglio analysis first nearly full year tenure pope gestures words greeted much enthusiasm worthwhile consider question whether revitalizing reformist revolutionary pope approach questions journalist covering religious issues must act bridge news diverse audience someone must proper training must communicate clearly directly possible communicating religion especially challenging religions invoke transcendent dimension necessarily renders us susceptible accusations reductionism interpretations purely political key moreover media perspective whatever representative church institution wishes communicate via actions ideas also audience processes decodes therefore important understand francis really also present public perception renewer mean renewal renewed enthusiasm faithful doubt world people talking significant number catholics coming back faith even going mass united states heard thrilling stories people formerly disenchanted church mention happening italy country argentina bearing witness austerity closeness especially poorest understanding wordssome noteworthy question asked journalists return flight rome following tour brazil judge gay personwhich profound impact require comment effect may pedagogical encyclical desire greater transparency church greater humility part clergy also warmly welcomed world chockfull words church prolifically producing documents actually read witnessing mediainfluenced society made great communicator even magnificent smile unique power communicate joy gospel time magazine put changed wordsin changed rulesbut hes changed music people liked little doubt renewer reformist thus far said rules changed feel signs changes made papacy least debate started example closest hand matter denying communion faithful divorced remarried true benedict xvi never closed door revisiting controversial issue francis seems ready address upcoming synod family big test moreover extensive questionnaire family life sent bishops conferences around world would seem indicate verge broader realistic debate within church questions changes planned roman curia end careerism clergy curtailment honorific titles push toward greater collegiality new administrative structures considered future role women leadership institution etc evidence series changes progress far francis go rather far able go time tell doubt desire make change caution without acting haste priority renew proclamation gospel unquestionably also reformist revolutionary must acknowledge question almost seems line however believe sense driving sort cultural revolution within church opinion centuries institution appeared focus sin damnation least appeared much society francis placing love center prioritizing mistakenly reported wishes abolish concept sin rather remind us redemptive power love stronger human frailties placing love mean understanding forgiving demonstrating neighbor means obsessing matters sexuality focusing solely protecting human life inception throughout entire process natural death means making serious commitment social justice peace means engaging dialogue putting anothers shoes means respecting everyones freedom without ceasing proclaim christian message means proclaiming gospel joy living happy life knowledge eternal life also awaits christian messagewhen taken seriouslyis lovingly peacefully revolutionary reached point time ask whether catholics clergy faithful also renewers reformers revolutionaries like francis merely cheer actually follow new popes first inspiration take name great saint poor part plan let us forget saint francis assisi revitalizer reformist revolutionary francis world leadership pope francis decided reclaim lost ground world stage builder world peace fight injustice previously conquered john paul ii abandoned certain extent predecessor benedict xvi concerned religious questions jorge bergoglio placed emphasis fight poverty call capitalism human face problems immigration also backed words actions trip lampedusa meet african immigrants regard peace intervention syrian civil war letter sent russian president vladimir putin g8 summit leading world day prayer peace middle east sent strong message eyes many observers two gestures key preventing potential attack syria outsidein attempt corner dictator al assadand gain leverage negotiations caused nominated nobel peace prize us president barack obamas imminent visit vatican acknowledgment francis role world leader hypothesis obama wishes build alliance pope war poverty us president conscious francis good relationships jewish islamic communities leadership also seeks build alliance peace middle east believe pope john paul ii ronald reagan joined forceseach standpointto bring end communism eastern europe new washingtonvatican alliance bring peace middle east obama make concessions pope especially regard health plan imposes requirements hospitals conflict christian bioethical principles | 887 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/alfonso-gomez-rejon/" type="external">Alfonso Gomez-Rejon</a>’s “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/the-current-war/" type="external">The Current War</a>” tackles a fascinating pivot point in technological and commercial history: the late 19th century battle between Thomas Alva Edison and George Westinghouse to fully electrify the United States. It benefits from a smart, snappy script and a well-rounded cast, and gives its director the chance to employ virtually every camera trick known to man. What it can’t do, however, is generate even the slightest bit of interest in what happens to any of its characters.</p>
<p>Directing his first feature after breaking through with “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” Gomez-Rejon seems wary of turning this period drama into a science lecture or a stuffy prestige project, and thus errs on the side of flashy modern technique. Ironically, this flattens the film into a much duller creature than it might have been had he embraced technical geekery and 19th century rhythms, its style calling attention only to itself. At one point very early on, Edison, his wife and children load into a carriage after a meeting with J.P. Morgan in the White House, and they’re shot facing each other with a wide fisheye lens. Is this supposed to indicate a distance between the inventor and his family? The disorientation of a meeting with such powerful men? An active mind on the brink of euphoric discovery? Not really – it seems to signify nothing other than the fact that fish-eye lenses look cool. And looking cool appears to be “The Current War’s” primary aesthetic directive.</p>
<p>The film alternates between Edison, who has already invented the light bulb and the phonograph, in Menlo Park, and Westinghouse, inventor of the locomotive air brake, in Pittsburgh. Played by <a href="http://variety.com/t/benedict-cumberbatch/" type="external">Benedict Cumberbatch</a> with a suave bearing and an American accent that both seem modeled on Indiana Jones, Edison is brash, arrogant, and self-regarding, though not without reason. <a href="http://variety.com/t/michael-shannon/" type="external">Michael Shannon</a> is heavily mutton-chopped and mustachioed as Westinghouse, dialing down his intrinsic weirdness to play a man who was every bit as practical, respectful and team-oriented as Edison was a lone-wolf visionary. More important than their divergent personalities, however, is the fact that Edison favors the direct current, and lights up a square mile of Manhattan to prove his system’s potential. Westinghouse prefers the alternating current, and demonstrates his method’s versatility by providing light to Great Barrington, Mass., from a mile away.</p>
<p>There’s an interesting Real America v. Coastal Elites metaphor in here somewhere, with the retiring Westinghouse providing cheaper power to a small town, and the mediagenic Edison’s prestige system making a splash in New York. But the film doesn’t really have time to dig into deeper themes or nudge us to appreciate the difficulty of implementing a utility we largely take for granted – for these men, power is simply power, and they each race to gobble up exclusive contracts with one city after another.</p>
<p>Michael Mitnick’s script contains a number of clever ideas, and it starts to get into a groove when it details the escalating PR battles between the two entrepreneurs. Edison, shown to be quite loving to his children and wife (Tuppence Middleton), nonetheless has no compunctions about slinging mud on Westinghouse in the press, issuing concern-troll soundbites about the danger of his system and suggesting that his competitor’s surname should supply the verb for electrocution – which, we’re reminded, was a word that had yet to be coined. Westinghouse has a more aggressively supportive spouse in Marguerite (Katherine Waterson), and he strives to avoid character assassination or dirty tricks. But when Edison contrives to have Westinghouse’s name attached to an invention that neither man supports, the electric chair, Westinghouse shows his underhand.</p>
<p>Theoretically, the film should have a can’t-miss x-factor in every hipster’s favorite electrical engineer, Nikola Tesla. Played by Nicholas Hoult, the flamboyant Serbian genius first arrives in the U.S. to work for Edison, who underestimates his ideas, then makes a consequential defection to Westinghouse. Telsa’s story might actually have been more appropriate for Gomez-Rejon’s impressionistic style, but his abstract personality is an awkward fit here.</p>
<p>Shot from every conceivable vantage point, Jan Roelfs’ production design is extensively detailed, and cinematographer Chung-Hoon Chung skillfully pulls off every Dutch angle, dolly shot and lens flare he’s asked to provide. But unlike the technologies the film details, so little of “The Current War’s” hustle and bustle serves much of a concrete purpose. Late in the film, Edison recalls the moment when, after untold months of failure, he finally perfected the 13-hour light bulb. His previous attempts had sometimes worked for a few minutes, but he had to stand back in awe as this bulb kept shining for hour after hour, realizing he had finally cracked it. “The Current War” feels like one of those earlier experiments – temporary flash providing too little illumination.</p>
<p>Reviewed at Tornoto International Film Festival (Special Presentations), September 10, 2017. Running time: 107 MINS.</p>
<p>A Weinstein company presentation. Produced by Harvey Weinstein, Basil Iwaynk, Timur Bekmambetov. Executive producers, Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Ackland, David Glasser, Bob Weinstein, Garrett Basch, Steve Zallian, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mitnick, Ann Ruark.</p>
<p>Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Screenplay: Michael Mitnick. Camera: Chung-Hoon Chung. Editor: David Trachtenberg. Music: Dustin O’Halloran, Volker Bertelman.</p>
<p>Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Katherine Waterson, Tuppence Middleton, Tom Holland, Matthew Macfayden</p> | false | 1 | alfonso gomezrejons current war tackles fascinating pivot point technological commercial history late 19th century battle thomas alva edison george westinghouse fully electrify united states benefits smart snappy script wellrounded cast gives director chance employ virtually every camera trick known man cant however generate even slightest bit interest happens characters directing first feature breaking earl dying girl gomezrejon seems wary turning period drama science lecture stuffy prestige project thus errs side flashy modern technique ironically flattens film much duller creature might embraced technical geekery 19th century rhythms style calling attention one point early edison wife children load carriage meeting jp morgan white house theyre shot facing wide fisheye lens supposed indicate distance inventor family disorientation meeting powerful men active mind brink euphoric discovery really seems signify nothing fact fisheye lenses look cool looking cool appears current wars primary aesthetic directive film alternates edison already invented light bulb phonograph menlo park westinghouse inventor locomotive air brake pittsburgh played benedict cumberbatch suave bearing american accent seem modeled indiana jones edison brash arrogant selfregarding though without reason michael shannon heavily muttonchopped mustachioed westinghouse dialing intrinsic weirdness play man every bit practical respectful teamoriented edison lonewolf visionary important divergent personalities however fact edison favors direct current lights square mile manhattan prove systems potential westinghouse prefers alternating current demonstrates methods versatility providing light great barrington mass mile away theres interesting real america v coastal elites metaphor somewhere retiring westinghouse providing cheaper power small town mediagenic edisons prestige system making splash new york film doesnt really time dig deeper themes nudge us appreciate difficulty implementing utility largely take granted men power simply power race gobble exclusive contracts one city another michael mitnicks script contains number clever ideas starts get groove details escalating pr battles two entrepreneurs edison shown quite loving children wife tuppence middleton nonetheless compunctions slinging mud westinghouse press issuing concerntroll soundbites danger system suggesting competitors surname supply verb electrocution reminded word yet coined westinghouse aggressively supportive spouse marguerite katherine waterson strives avoid character assassination dirty tricks edison contrives westinghouses name attached invention neither man supports electric chair westinghouse shows underhand theoretically film cantmiss xfactor every hipsters favorite electrical engineer nikola tesla played nicholas hoult flamboyant serbian genius first arrives us work edison underestimates ideas makes consequential defection westinghouse telsas story might actually appropriate gomezrejons impressionistic style abstract personality awkward fit shot every conceivable vantage point jan roelfs production design extensively detailed cinematographer chunghoon chung skillfully pulls every dutch angle dolly shot lens flare hes asked provide unlike technologies film details little current wars hustle bustle serves much concrete purpose late film edison recalls moment untold months failure finally perfected 13hour light bulb previous attempts sometimes worked minutes stand back awe bulb kept shining hour hour realizing finally cracked current war feels like one earlier experiments temporary flash providing little illumination reviewed tornoto international film festival special presentations september 10 2017 running time 107 mins weinstein company presentation produced harvey weinstein basil iwaynk timur bekmambetov executive producers benedict cumberbatch adam ackland david glasser bob weinstein garrett basch steve zallian martin scorsese michael mitnick ann ruark directed alfonso gomezrejon screenplay michael mitnick camera chunghoon chung editor david trachtenberg music dustin ohalloran volker bertelman benedict cumberbatch michael shannon nicholas hoult katherine waterson tuppence middleton tom holland matthew macfayden | 540 |
<p>Fearsome Hurricane Irma cut a path of devastation across the northern Caribbean, leaving at least 10 dead and thousands homeless after destroying buildings and uprooting trees on a track Thursday that could lead to a catastrophic strike on Florida.</p>
<p>The most potent Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever, Irma weakened only slightly Thursday morning and remained a powerful Category 5 storm with winds of 180 mph (285 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.</p>
<p>The storm was increasingly likely to rip into heavily populated South Florida early Sunday, prompting the governor to declare an emergency and officials to impose mandatory evacuation orders for parts of the Miami metro area and the Florida Keys. Forecasters said it could punish the entire Atlantic coast of Florida and rage on into Georgia and South Carolina.</p>
<p>“This could easily be the most costly storm in U.S. history, which is saying a lot considering what just happened two weeks ago,” said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, alluding to the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.</p>
<p>French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told France Info radio that eight had died and 23 injured in the country’s Caribbean island territories, and he said the toll on Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy could be higher because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands.</p>
<p>“The reconnaissance will really start at daybreak,” Collomb said.</p>
<p>At a news conference, Collomb also said 100,000 food rations have been sent to the islands, the equivalent of four days of supplies.</p>
<p>“It’s a tragedy, we’ll need to rebuild both islands,” he said. “Most of the schools have been destroyed.”</p>
<p>French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he will go to the islands has soon as weather conditions permit. Macron said France is “grief-stricken” by the devastation caused by Irma and called for concerted efforts to tackle global warming and climate change to prevent similar future natural disasters.</p>
<p>In the United Kingdom, the government said Irma inflicted “severe and in places critical” damage to the British overseas territory of Anguilla. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan said the Caribbean island took the full force of the hurricane. He told lawmakers on Thursday that the British Virgin islands have also suffered “severe damage.”</p>
<p>Irma blacked out much of Puerto Rico, raking the U.S. territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea, and it headed early Thursday toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti.</p>
<p>To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm’s record 185 mph (298 kph) winds. Communications were difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.</p>
<p>Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island early Wednesday and about 60 percent of its roughly 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>“It is just really a horrendous situation,” Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane trip to the neighboring island.</p>
<p>He said roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years. A 2-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, Browne told the AP.</p>
<p>One death also was reported in the nearby island of Anguilla, where officials reported extensive damage to the airport, hospitals, shelters and school and said 90 percent of roads are impassible, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.</p>
<p>The agency also reported “major damage” to houses and commercial buildings in the British Virgin Islands.</p>
<p>On St. Thomas in the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a boarded-up basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside. They emerged to find the lush island in tatters. Many of their neighbors’ homes were damaged and once-dense vegetation was largely gone.</p>
<p>“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St. Thomas is that it was so green. And it’s gone,” Strickling said. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.”</p>
<p>Significant damage was also reported on St. Martin, an island split between French and Dutch control. Photos and video circulating on social media showed major damage to the airport in Philipsburg and the coastal village of Marigot heavily flooded. France sent emergency food and water there and to the French island of St. Bart’s, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out electricity.</p>
<p>Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday the storm “caused widescale destruction of infrastructure, houses and businesses.”</p>
<p>“There is no power, no gasoline, no running water. Houses are under water, cars are floating through the streets, inhabitants are sitting in the dark, in ruined houses and are cut off from the outside world,” he said.</p>
<p>By Thursday morning, the center of the storm was about 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and was moving west-northwest near 17 mph (28 kph).</p>
<p>More than half the island of Puerto Rico was without power, leaving 900,000 in the dark and nearly 50,000 without water, the U.S. territory’s emergency management agency said in the midst of the storm. Fourteen hospitals were using generators after losing power, and trees and light poles were strewn across roads.</p>
<p>Puerto Rico’s public power company warned before the storm hit that some areas could be left without power from four to six months because its staff has been reduced and its infrastructure weakened by the island’s decade-long economic slump.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to remove debris and give other services that will largely be paid for by the U.S. government.</p>
<p>The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Irma would remain at Category 4 or 5 for the next day or two as passes just to the north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, nears the Turks &amp; Caicos and parts of the Bahamas by Thursday night and skirts Cuba on Friday night into Saturday.</p>
<p>It will then likely head north toward Florida, where people were rushing to board up homes, fill cars with gasoline and find a route to safety.</p>
<p>Gov. Rick Scott, who has mobilized parts of the state’s National Guard, declared a state of emergency and asked the governors of Alabama and Georgia to waive trucking regulations so gasoline tankers can get fuel into Florida quickly to ease shortages.</p>
<p>An estimated 25,000 people or more left the Florida Keys after all visitors were ordered to clear out, causing bumper-to-bumper traffic on the single highway that links the chain of low-lying islands to the mainland.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hurricane Katia hovered in the southern Gulf of Mexico, threatening to hit the vulnerable Mexican coast as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane, possibly late Friday or early Saturday. It had winds of 80 mph (130 kph) and was located about 210 miles (335 kilometers) east of Tampico, Mexico.</p>
<p>And a third hurricane, Jose, was growing far out in the Atlantic. It was no immediate threat to land, though the forecast track showed it could affect the Irma-blasted Leeward Islands over the weekend. Hurricane Jose had winds of about 90 mph (150 kph). It was centered about 815 miles (1,310 kilometers) east of the Lesser Antilles and moving west-northwest at 18 mph (30 kph).</p>
<p>Anika Kentish reported from St. John’s, Antigua. Associated Press writers Seth Borenstein in Washington, Michael Weissenstein in Havana, Samuel Petrequin in Paris and Ben Fox in Miami contributed to this report.</p>
<p>HURRICANE NEWSLETTER – Get the best of the AP’s all-formats reporting on Irma and Harvey in your inbox: http://apne.ws/ahYQGtb</p> | false | 1 | fearsome hurricane irma cut path devastation across northern caribbean leaving least 10 dead thousands homeless destroying buildings uprooting trees track thursday could lead catastrophic strike florida potent atlantic ocean hurricane ever irma weakened slightly thursday morning remained powerful category 5 storm winds 180 mph 285 kph according us national hurricane center storm increasingly likely rip heavily populated south florida early sunday prompting governor declare emergency officials impose mandatory evacuation orders parts miami metro area florida keys forecasters said could punish entire atlantic coast florida rage georgia south carolina could easily costly storm us history saying lot considering happened two weeks ago said brian mcnoldy hurricane researcher university miami alluding damage caused hurricane harvey french interior minister gerard collomb told france info radio eight died 23 injured countrys caribbean island territories said toll saintmartin saintbarthelemy could higher rescue teams yet finish inspection islands reconnaissance really start daybreak collomb said news conference collomb also said 100000 food rations sent islands equivalent four days supplies tragedy well need rebuild islands said schools destroyed french president emmanuel macrons office said go islands soon weather conditions permit macron said france griefstricken devastation caused irma called concerted efforts tackle global warming climate change prevent similar future natural disasters united kingdom government said irma inflicted severe places critical damage british overseas territory anguilla foreign office minister alan duncan said caribbean island took full force hurricane told lawmakers thursday british virgin islands also suffered severe damage irma blacked much puerto rico raking us territory heavy wind rain staying sea headed early thursday toward dominican republic haiti east authorities struggled get aid small caribbean islands devastated storms record 185 mph 298 kph winds communications difficult areas hit irma information damage trickled nearly every building barbuda damaged hurricanes core crossed almost directly island early wednesday 60 percent roughly 1400 residents left homeless antigua barbuda prime minister gaston browne told associated press really horrendous situation browne said returning antigua plane trip neighboring island said roads telecommunications systems wrecked recovery would take months years 2yearold child killed family tried escape damaged home storm browne told ap one death also reported nearby island anguilla officials reported extensive damage airport hospitals shelters school said 90 percent roads impassible according caribbean disaster emergency management agency agency also reported major damage houses commercial buildings british virgin islands st thomas nearby us virgin islands laura strickling spent 12 hours hunkered husband 1yearold daughter boardedup basement apartment power storm raged outside emerged find lush island tatters many neighbors homes damaged oncedense vegetation largely gone leaves crazy one things loved st thomas green gone strickling said take years community get back feet significant damage also reported st martin island split french dutch control photos video circulating social media showed major damage airport philipsburg coastal village marigot heavily flooded france sent emergency food water french island st barts irma ripped roofs knocked electricity dutch prime minister mark rutte said thursday storm caused widescale destruction infrastructure houses businesses power gasoline running water houses water cars floating streets inhabitants sitting dark ruined houses cut outside world said thursday morning center storm 110 miles 180 kilometers north punta cana dominican republic moving westnorthwest near 17 mph 28 kph half island puerto rico without power leaving 900000 dark nearly 50000 without water us territorys emergency management agency said midst storm fourteen hospitals using generators losing power trees light poles strewn across roads puerto ricos public power company warned storm hit areas could left without power four six months staff reduced infrastructure weakened islands decadelong economic slump president donald trump approved emergency declaration us virgin islands puerto rico allowing federal emergency management agency agencies remove debris give services largely paid us government us national hurricane center predicted irma would remain category 4 5 next day two passes north dominican republic haiti thursday nears turks amp caicos parts bahamas thursday night skirts cuba friday night saturday likely head north toward florida people rushing board homes fill cars gasoline find route safety gov rick scott mobilized parts states national guard declared state emergency asked governors alabama georgia waive trucking regulations gasoline tankers get fuel florida quickly ease shortages estimated 25000 people left florida keys visitors ordered clear causing bumpertobumper traffic single highway links chain lowlying islands mainland meanwhile hurricane katia hovered southern gulf mexico threatening hit vulnerable mexican coast category 2 3 hurricane possibly late friday early saturday winds 80 mph 130 kph located 210 miles 335 kilometers east tampico mexico third hurricane jose growing far atlantic immediate threat land though forecast track showed could affect irmablasted leeward islands weekend hurricane jose winds 90 mph 150 kph centered 815 miles 1310 kilometers east lesser antilles moving westnorthwest 18 mph 30 kph anika kentish reported st johns antigua associated press writers seth borenstein washington michael weissenstein havana samuel petrequin paris ben fox miami contributed report hurricane newsletter get best aps allformats reporting irma harvey inbox 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<p>A Basic Human Needs and Structural-Cultural-Direct Violence Analysis</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Download this essay (PDF)</a></p>
<p>The article analyses the recent attack conducted by al Shabaab in Garissa, Kenya, by tying the current conflict back to the emergence of violence in Kenya’s Northern Province under colonial rule. The author argues that the long-standing violation of the Somali community’s basic needs has developed into a cycle of violence eventually leading to the current situation.</p>
<p>The present essay focuses on the repetition and evolution of the cycle of violence in Kenya’s Northern Frontier District. I argue that the repetition of human needs and rights’ violations led to the development of violence within the very structure and culture of the different communities at stake—be they Kenyans, Somalis, Somali refugees or Kenyan Somalis. <a href="#_edn1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>Firstly, I will focus on the history of the relationships between Kenya and Somalia, and the conflict over the Northern province. Secondly I will study the feelings of victimization, which may have developed amongst the Somali community, as a result of the long-standing violence. In my analysis, I will use the Basic Human Needs and Structural and Cultural Violence theories. I will lastly explain how such feelings translated into direct violence on the part of al Shabaab.</p>
<p>While the Northern Frontier District was part of Italian Somaliland, Britain extended its control over the region at the turn of the century. According to Ogenga Otunnu, Professor at DePaul University College of LAS, it did so in order to “provide a buffer between Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia on the one side, and the East African railway and the white settlers in the highlands on the other”. <a href="#_edn2" type="external">[2]</a> Britain was also motivated by a desire to stop the Southward Somali expansion. Since the territory was constituted as a buffer zone, no serious attempt was made to foster political, social, and economic development. When Kenya gained its independence in 1963, Britain granted the administration of the Northern Frontier District to Kenyan nationalists, despite the fact that it was an almost all-Somali area. Several opposition parties emerged, and armed struggle progressively intensified. The Kenyan government declared a state of emergency. No efforts were made to integrate the Northern Frontier District’s inhabitants, and in the 1970s, Kenya started to expel dissidents back to Somalia. Otunnu writes that “anyone partaking in any form of dissent in the region would be seen as an ‘enemy’ of the state. This reinforced the image of the inhabitants of the area as ‘aliens’, whose loyalty to Kenya was always questionable”. <a href="#_edn3" type="external">[3]</a></p>
<p>Since then, there has been a repetition of violent events at the border. Such incidents provoked severe military retribution on the part of Kenya. Otunnu stresses the fact that, to incidents carried out by Somalis nationalists, “Kenya’s security forces reacted … by using force totally out of proportion”. <a href="#_edn4" type="external">[4]</a> Attacks in the North Eastern Province were carried out on a regular basis, starting with the Garissa massacre perpetrated by Kenyan military against local hoodlums, which resulted in the death of approximately 3,000 ethnic Somali residents of Kenya. <a href="#_edn5" type="external">[5]</a></p>
<p>Violence in Kenya’s Northern province happens while the situation in Somalia remains very unstable. According to Otunnu, “by 1989 the political situation in Somalia was leading to civil war, social disintegration and the collapse of the state”, as most Somalis were very unhappy at the highly corrupted government in the 1980s. <a href="#_edn6" type="external">[6]</a> The government collapsed in 1992, leading to a process of decentralization where power was assumed by local authorities. Although there have been transitional governments, the country has not recovered its stability nor unity until now.</p>
<p>In such a context, Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen emerged as a hard line faction of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that took power over large parts of Somalia in 2006. When the ICU collapsed, al Shabaab remained and fought against the Ethiopian army at war in Somalia from 2006 to 2009. Valter Vilkko, from Uppsala University, writes that the group “was widely seen as a defender of Somali interests against the Ethiopian invaders. The ICU had been able to bring order and security, which led many to hope that al Shabaab, regardless of means and ideology, could do the same”. <a href="#_edn7" type="external">[7]</a> At this time, most Somalis considered members of al Shabaab as freedom fighters rather than terrorists. The group however lost most of its support when it decided to continue fighting once the war was over. Since then, many moderate supporters have been scared by the group’s methods of fighting and its affiliation with al-Qaeda. Currently, al Shabaab justifies its fighting by the war declared on Somalia by the Kenyan government in 2011, since, as explained by Daniel Branch from the University of Warwick, “Nairobi invaded its neighbor to secure its eastern border and to create a buffer zone inside Somalia”. <a href="#_edn8" type="external">[8]</a> This echoed the reasoning Britain provided a century earlier to justify its invasion of the Northern Province. By extension, it brought back to life the trauma of colonial rule—and oppression—over Somali territory and unity.</p>
<p>As stated by Idil Lambo in his work for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “there were approximately 520,000 Somali refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya by the end of November 2011” as a result of the civil war. <a href="#_edn9" type="external">[9]</a> However, the Somali community has been very present in Kenya for a long time, with Nairobi becoming the hub of Somali economic activity. Such economic activity is mainly in the hands of Kenyan Somalis whose families have been living in Kenya for generations. Yet, and this has been the case already for several decades according to Otunnu, “the authorities have increased security sweeps and identity checks of Kenyans of Somali origin and Somalis living in Kenya. The arrival of the refugees is being used as an opportunity to impose compulsory screening on all Kenyan-Somalis, in order to identify ‘illegal aliens’”. <a href="#_edn10" type="external">[10]</a></p>
<p>Cultural and structural violence tie back to colonization, when Somalis did not have a voice in the decision-making process affecting their territory, communities and clans. Structural violence refers to the social structure and institutions that prevent people from fulfilling their basic human needs. Since it affects people differently depending on their social group, it is very closely connected to social injustice. <a href="#_edn11" type="external">[11]</a>&#160; Cultural violence refers to the aspects of a culture used to justify discrimination and structural violence. It makes the two other forms of violence, namely direct and structural violence, look “right”.</p>
<p>By handing the Northern province to Kenyan nationalists, colonial powers handed the role of the oppressor to Kenya, who then clearly reinforced this oppressive role by using a level of violence that was not proportional, in an attempt to control the threat. The fight for self-determination became the fight against the Kenyan government. The constant opposition between the Somali community living at the border and the Kenyan government established a clear distinction between Kenyans and Kenyan Somalis, <a href="#_edn12" type="external">[12]</a> leading to the establishment of cultural violence.</p>
<p>This last one was translated into structural violence, whereby the institutions in place discriminated against the Somali community by treating them with suspicion and violence, therefore drawing a clear line between the respect of Somalis’ and Kenyans’ human rights. As structural and cultural violence developed in the very core of society, direct violence emerged on a repetitive basis, raising suspicion and prejudices between the two communities. Johan Galtung, president of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice, writes that “generally, a causal flow from cultural via structural to direct violence can be identified. The culture preaches, teaches, admonishes, eggs on, and dulls us into seeing exploitation and/or repression as normal and natural, or into not seeing them … at all. Then come the eruptions, the efforts to use direct violence to get out of the structural iron cage, and counter-violence to keep the cage intact”. <a href="#_edn13" type="external">[13]</a> The three types of violence mutually reinforce each other.</p>
<p>In this long history of grievances, Garissa stands as a symbol because of its geographic location and history. While it was part of the territory that belonged to Italian Somaliland and handed to Kenya when this last one became independent, it more recently was the place where the massacre of about 3,000 Kenyans of Somali origin happened. It symbolizes the violence of colonial powers, and then of the Kenyan government, over an idealized Somali unity. This made it easier for al Shabaab to spread its ideology, and Garissa county became a strategic base for the group’s recruitment and military operation. As stated by Paul Hidalgo, analyst of politics in the Horn of Africa, “al Shabaab…controls two thirds of Garissa Country, which the group’s top operatives have declared as their preferred base of operations. This has proved to be a strategic location; it has allowed al Shabaab to target the half million Somali refugees sandwiched between Garissa and the Somalia border as potential recruits”. <a href="#_edn14" type="external">[14]</a></p>
<p>The violation of Basic Human Needs (BHN) is a constant in the relationship between the Kenyan and Somali communities. Galtung defines BHN as “irreducible and nonnegotiable essentials in human life”. <a href="#_edn15" type="external">[15]</a> Abraham H. Maslow, from Columbia University, draws a hierarchy amongst the different types of BHN. Physiological needs, such as access to food and water, come first. The war and the situations in overcrowded refugee camps have prevented many Somali from access to such basic goods, depriving them from what they need to survive as human beings.</p>
<p>The need for safety comes second. The war in Somalia as well as the repeated attacks on the Somali community have clearly violated those needs. In Somalia, the Kenyan military appears as a constant threat since, according to Human Rights Watch, “foreign forces have committed grave abuses in South-central Somalia, including indiscriminately bombed and shelled populated areas”. <a href="#_edn16" type="external">[16]</a></p>
<p>The third category consists in the need for respect. As stated by Abraham H. Maslow, “all people in our society … have a need or desire for a stable and firmly based, usually high evaluation of themselves, … and for the esteem of others”. <a href="#_edn17" type="external">[17]</a> There is however a strong belief among the Somali community that the local population perceives them as ‘the other’, ‘the Somali’. According to Idil Lambo, “this perception has aided in the construction of a socially distinct and separate group or community”. <a href="#_edn18" type="external">[18]</a> Hence Somali refugees in Kenya will seek support within their own community, perceived as the only one able to bring them the respect and means to self-esteem needed.</p>
<p>Self-actualization needs come last. Their non-respect develops into feelings of frustration. Abraham H. Maslow defines them as “the tendency for [a person] to become actualized in what he is potentially”. <a href="#_edn19" type="external">[19]</a> Many refugees talked of a “life in limbo”. And indeed, to Idil Lambo, “as a result of the lack of education and employment opportunities for Somali refugees in Eastleigh and Kenya in general, many lives have … been put on hold since arriving in the country”. <a href="#_edn20" type="external">[20]</a></p>
<p>Such violation in turn entails an emergency response on the part of the community whose needs are violated. As pointed out by Daniel Branch, “since independence, a lack of public investment in health and education and inequalities in access to land have left many Muslims along the coast feeling alienated”. <a href="#_edn21" type="external">[21]</a> The Kenyan government’s discrimination against Kenya’s Muslim population, which makes up around 10 percent of Kenya’s population, has clearly supported al Shabaab recruitment efforts. Dehumanization of the other has therefore taken place on both sides of the line, helping al Shabaab in its attempts to appear as a unifying group for the Muslim community, over tribal rivalries.</p>
<p>With their basic human needs unmet, many Somali and Kenyan Muslims have been forced into their position as underdogs, developing feelings of helplessness as to moving up in the interaction system, defined by Galtung as “a multidimensional system of stratification, where those who have and those who have not, those who have more and those who have less, find, are given, or are forced into their positions”. <a href="#_edn22" type="external">[22]</a> The lack of opportunities and respect leads to the frustration directed at the topdogs or power players, perceived to be Kenyans, and especially Christian Kenyans.</p>
<p>During the war with Ethiopia in the 2000s, al Shabaab emerged as a leader for many members of the Somali community. By discriminating against its Somali and by extension Muslim population, the Kenyan government put many Muslim Somalis in the underdog position on several fronts (economically, socially, culturally). This created an opportunity for al Shabaab to build itself as a leader figure for many Somali refugees, Somalis, Kenyan Somalis and more generally Muslims who felt trapped in the underdog positions. Indeed, Paul Hidalgo writes that al Shabaab “has been able to depict the government as eager to inflict more suffering on the already disadvantaged”. <a href="#_edn23" type="external">[23]</a></p>
<p>Al Shabaab has therefore developed an ideology gravitating around the trauma and discrimination inflicted by the Kenyan government on its Somali population. The April attack in Garissa could therefore appear as a way for the group to call for indiscriminate retaliation from the Kenyan government and military against Somali community, leading to the violence of more basic human needs and rights. This in turn could reactivate many members of the Somali community’s memories, and rally some of them to al Shabaab’s ideology. Conducting the attack in the symbolical place of Garissa makes the link to the traumatic memory of the 1980s even more obvious.</p>
<p>As Galtung explains, aggression happens when the underdog (U) access a topdog (T) position. Indeed, “an element in a TU position will be constantly reminded of his objective state of disequilibrium by the differential treatment he is exposed to”. The gap between the underdog and the topdog positions lead to the development of an “unstable self-image”, <a href="#_edn24" type="external">[24]</a> which then transforms into a desire to acquire a stable self-image by acquiring topdog positions on the other levels. To Galtung, “a complete underdog, UU, may not even dare to think in terms of TT as a reference group; the complete topdog will be beyond his imagination. The absolute deprivation of the UU may be higher, but the TU has relative deprivation built into his position. The destabilizing effect of this discrepancy will provide a mobility pressure, and the thesis is then that if there are no open channels of mobility, rectification of the disequilibrium will be carried out by other means”. <a href="#_edn25" type="external">[25]</a></p>
<p>In Nairobi’s Eastleigh area, many Somali Kenyans have become very successful businessmen. Yet, while these members of the Somali community acquired a topdog position regarding wealth, discrimination maintains them in underdog positions in other domains such as political and cultural power. Many of them have fueled al Shabaab with their wealth during the war against Ethiopia, in a desire to help the group fight for Somalis’ interests and re-equilibrate their underdog positions towards topdog ones. And indeed, according to Mitchell Sipus, specialist in conflict and postwar reconstruction, “it is well known throughout Eastleigh that al Shabaab utilize[d] incoming remittance flows to fund its operations in Somalia and has direct involvement with many of the businesses in Eastleigh”. <a href="#_edn26" type="external">[26]</a> In recent years, the support for the group from the diaspora has decreased dramatically due mainly to the group affiliation with al-Qaeda. Nevertheless, this happens at the time when the group is already financially autonomous.</p>
<p>Disequilibrium then easily spreads from a few individuals or a group into a wider population. Following Galtung: “disequilibrium at one level can lead to disequilibrium at another level: a highly disequilibrated individual may become the leader of a completely underdog group and led into disequilibrium by giving it power, property or education”. <a href="#_edn27" type="external">[27]</a> Due to its wealth, al Shabaab is able to provide opportunities to young members of the Somali community who are unemployed and don’t see any pacific way of ending oppression by the ones they perceive as the topdogs. As stated by Mitchell Sipus, “the success of al Shabaab has become understood as the opportunity for any man to rise above the traditional restraints of tribalism and a means to take up new opportunities for a population tired of the violence of war and the frustrations of displacement”. <a href="#_edn28" type="external">[28]</a></p>
<p>With an ideology and a leader capable of disseminating the ideology into the wider population, the power of the group is able to increase, providing it with the means to carry out attacks like the one in Garissa on April 2, 2015. The cycle of violence is now escalating. Retaliatory violence in turns lead to more violence by the opposing side, while both feel victimized by the other one.</p>
<p>The situation stresses the necessity for change at a multidimensional level: more economic, political, social, and cultural inclusion is necessary for the conflict to be progressively defused. However, because of the trauma and prejudices both parties have against the other, retaliatory violence is almost always implemented as an answer to any attack. This, in turn, reinforces the conflict, adding to the long list of grievances felt by the communities involved.</p>
<p>[Editor’s note: As originally published, this article stated that&#160;Johan Galtung was “from John Perkins University”. Galtung is distinguished visiting professor at the university. The text&#160;has been edited&#160;to note that Mr. Galtung is “president of the Galtung-Institut for Peace Theory and Peace Practice”. His writings can be found at <a href="http://www.johangaltung.de" type="external">www.johangaltung.de</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" type="external">[1]</a> There is a distinction to be made between recent Somali refugees and Kenyan Somalis, holds the Kenyan nationality and were born and raised in Kenya.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" type="external">[2]</a> Ogenga Otunnu, “Factors Affecting the Treatment of Kenyan-Somalis and Somali Refugees in Kenya: A Historical Overview,” Refuge, Vol. 12, No. 5 (November – December 1992), p. 21. Retrieved from: <a href="http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/refuge/article/viewFile/21678/20351" type="external">http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/refuge/article/viewFile/21678/20351</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" type="external">[3]</a> Ibid., p. 22.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" type="external">[4]</a> Ibid., p. 24.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" type="external">[5]</a> Issack, “Legal impediments to development in Northern Kenya,” Pambazuka News, No. 403, 2008, 10 – 22. Retrieved from: <a href="http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/comment/51377/print" type="external">http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/comment/51377/print</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" type="external">[6]</a> Otunnu, p. 24.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref7" type="external">[7]</a> Valter Vilkko, “Al Shabaab: From External Support to Internal Extraction,” Uppsala Universitet, The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), 2011, p. 8. Retrieved from: http://www.uu.se /digitalAssets/57/57537_MFS_paper_Vilkko.pdf.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref8" type="external">[8]</a> Daniel Branch, “Why Kenya Invaded Somalia: The Opening of an Aggressive New Chapter,” Foreign Affairs, 2011, Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/artic%20les/africa/2011-11-15/why-kenya-invaded-somalia" type="external">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/artic les/africa/2011-11-15/why-kenya-invaded-somalia</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ednref9" type="external">[9]</a> Idil Lambo, “In the shelter of each other: notions of home and belonging amongst Somali refugees in Nairobi,” New Issues in Refugee Research, 2012, Policy Development and Evaluation Service, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva, p. 1. Retrieved from: http://www.unhcr.org /4face3d09.pdf.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref10" type="external">[10]</a> Otunnu, p. 25.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref11" type="external">[11]</a> Johan Galtung, “Violence, Peace and Peace Research”, Journal of Peace Research. Vol. 6, No. 3 1969. 167 – 191.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref12" type="external">[12]</a> Lambo.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref13" type="external">[13]</a> Johan Galtung, “International Development in Human Perspective. Conflict: Human Needs Theory,” (New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press 1990), 301– 335, p. 294.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref14" type="external">[14]</a> Paul Hidalgo, “Kenya’s Worst Enemy: Nairobi’s Losing Battle Against Militant Islam,” Foreign Affairs, 2014, Council on Foreign Relations, p. 2. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/%20articles/africa/2014-04-23/kenyas-worst-enemy" type="external">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ articles/africa/2014-04-23/kenyas-worst-enemy</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref15" type="external">[15]</a> Galtung, ”International Development,” p. 303.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref16" type="external">[16]</a> Human Rights Watch. “World Report 2013: Somalia,” p. 2. Retrieved from: http://www.hrw.org /world-report/2013/country-chapters/Somalia.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref17" type="external">[17]</a> Abraham H. Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper and Row, 1987), p. 90.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref18" type="external">[18]</a> Lambo, p. 11.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref19" type="external">[19]</a> Abraham H. Maslow, p. 89–90.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref20" type="external">[20]</a> Lambo, p. 14.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref21" type="external">[21]</a> Branch, p. 2.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref22" type="external">[22]</a> Johan Galtung, “A Structural Theory of Aggression”, Journal of Peace Research. Vol. 1, No. 2, 1964. 95 – 119, p. 96.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref23" type="external">[23]</a> Paul Hidalgo, “Kenya’s Worst Enemy: Nairobi’s Losing Battle Against Militant Islam,” Foreign Affairs, 2014, Council on Foreign Relations, p. 2. Retrieved from: <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/%20articles/africa/2014-04-23/kenyas-worst-enemy" type="external">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ articles/africa/2014-04-23/kenyas-worst-enemy</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref24" type="external">[24]</a> Galtung, ”A Structural Theory of Aggression,” p. 99.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref25" type="external">[25]</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref26" type="external">[26]</a> Mitchell Sipus, “Support for al-Shabaab through the Diaspora,” Forced Migration Review, No. 37. 29, 2010, p. 29. Retrieved from: <a href="http://www.fmreview.org/en/non-state/29.pdf" type="external">http://www.fmreview.org/en/non-state/29.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref27" type="external">[27]</a> Galtung, “A Structural Theory of Aggression,” p. 106.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref28" type="external">[28]</a> Sipus, p. 29.</p> | false | 1 | basic human needs structuralculturaldirect violence analysis download essay pdf article analyses recent attack conducted al shabaab garissa kenya tying current conflict back emergence violence kenyas northern province colonial rule author argues longstanding violation somali communitys basic needs developed cycle violence eventually leading current situation present essay focuses repetition evolution cycle violence kenyas northern frontier district argue repetition human needs rights violations led development violence within structure culture different communities stakebe kenyans somalis somali refugees kenyan somalis 1 firstly focus history relationships kenya somalia conflict northern province secondly study feelings victimization may developed amongst somali community result longstanding violence analysis use basic human needs structural cultural violence theories lastly explain feelings translated direct violence part al shabaab northern frontier district part italian somaliland britain extended control region turn century according ogenga otunnu professor depaul university college las order provide buffer italian somaliland ethiopia one side east african railway white settlers highlands 2 britain also motivated desire stop southward somali expansion since territory constituted buffer zone serious attempt made foster political social economic development kenya gained independence 1963 britain granted administration northern frontier district kenyan nationalists despite fact almost allsomali area several opposition parties emerged armed struggle progressively intensified kenyan government declared state emergency efforts made integrate northern frontier districts inhabitants 1970s kenya started expel dissidents back somalia otunnu writes anyone partaking form dissent region would seen enemy state reinforced image inhabitants area aliens whose loyalty kenya always questionable 3 since repetition violent events border incidents provoked severe military retribution part kenya otunnu stresses fact incidents carried somalis nationalists kenyas security forces reacted using force totally proportion 4 attacks north eastern province carried regular basis starting garissa massacre perpetrated kenyan military local hoodlums resulted death approximately 3000 ethnic somali residents kenya 5 violence kenyas northern province happens situation somalia remains unstable according otunnu 1989 political situation somalia leading civil war social disintegration collapse state somalis unhappy highly corrupted government 1980s 6 government collapsed 1992 leading process decentralization power assumed local authorities although transitional governments country recovered stability unity context harakat alshabaab almujahideen emerged hard line faction islamic courts union icu took power large parts somalia 2006 icu collapsed al shabaab remained fought ethiopian army war somalia 2006 2009 valter vilkko uppsala university writes group widely seen defender somali interests ethiopian invaders icu able bring order security led many hope al shabaab regardless means ideology could 7 time somalis considered members al shabaab freedom fighters rather terrorists group however lost support decided continue fighting war since many moderate supporters scared groups methods fighting affiliation alqaeda currently al shabaab justifies fighting war declared somalia kenyan government 2011 since explained daniel branch university warwick nairobi invaded neighbor secure eastern border create buffer zone inside somalia 8 echoed reasoning britain provided century earlier justify invasion northern province extension brought back life trauma colonial ruleand oppressionover somali territory unity stated idil lambo work un high commissioner refugees unhcr approximately 520000 somali refugees asylum seekers kenya end november 2011 result civil war 9 however somali community present kenya long time nairobi becoming hub somali economic activity economic activity mainly hands kenyan somalis whose families living kenya generations yet case already several decades according otunnu authorities increased security sweeps identity checks kenyans somali origin somalis living kenya arrival refugees used opportunity impose compulsory screening kenyansomalis order identify illegal aliens 10 cultural structural violence tie back colonization somalis voice decisionmaking process affecting territory communities clans structural violence refers social structure institutions prevent people fulfilling basic human needs since affects people differently depending social group closely connected social injustice 11160 cultural violence refers aspects culture used justify discrimination structural violence makes two forms violence namely direct structural violence look right handing northern province kenyan nationalists colonial powers handed role oppressor kenya clearly reinforced oppressive role using level violence proportional attempt control threat fight selfdetermination became fight kenyan government constant opposition somali community living border kenyan government established clear distinction kenyans kenyan somalis 12 leading establishment cultural violence last one translated structural violence whereby institutions place discriminated somali community treating suspicion violence therefore drawing clear line respect somalis kenyans human rights structural cultural violence developed core society direct violence emerged repetitive basis raising suspicion prejudices two communities johan galtung president galtunginstitut peace theory peace practice writes generally causal flow cultural via structural direct violence identified culture preaches teaches admonishes eggs dulls us seeing exploitation andor repression normal natural seeing come eruptions efforts use direct violence get structural iron cage counterviolence keep cage intact 13 three types violence mutually reinforce long history grievances garissa stands symbol geographic location history part territory belonged italian somaliland handed kenya last one became independent recently place massacre 3000 kenyans somali origin happened symbolizes violence colonial powers kenyan government idealized somali unity made easier al shabaab spread ideology garissa county became strategic base groups recruitment military operation stated paul hidalgo analyst politics horn africa al shabaabcontrols two thirds garissa country groups top operatives declared preferred base operations proved strategic location allowed al shabaab target half million somali refugees sandwiched garissa somalia border potential recruits 14 violation basic human needs bhn constant relationship kenyan somali communities galtung defines bhn irreducible nonnegotiable essentials human life 15 abraham h maslow columbia university draws hierarchy amongst different types bhn physiological needs access food water come first war situations overcrowded refugee camps prevented many somali access basic goods depriving need survive human beings need safety comes second war somalia well repeated attacks somali community clearly violated needs somalia kenyan military appears constant threat since according human rights watch foreign forces committed grave abuses southcentral somalia including indiscriminately bombed shelled populated areas 16 third category consists need respect stated abraham h maslow people society need desire stable firmly based usually high evaluation esteem others 17 however strong belief among somali community local population perceives somali according idil lambo perception aided construction socially distinct separate group community 18 hence somali refugees kenya seek support within community perceived one able bring respect means selfesteem needed selfactualization needs come last nonrespect develops feelings frustration abraham h maslow defines tendency person become actualized potentially 19 many refugees talked life limbo indeed idil lambo result lack education employment opportunities somali refugees eastleigh kenya general many lives put hold since arriving country 20 violation turn entails emergency response part community whose needs violated pointed daniel branch since independence lack public investment health education inequalities access land left many muslims along coast feeling alienated 21 kenyan governments discrimination kenyas muslim population makes around 10 percent kenyas population clearly supported al shabaab recruitment efforts dehumanization therefore taken place sides line helping al shabaab attempts appear unifying group muslim community tribal rivalries basic human needs unmet many somali kenyan muslims forced position underdogs developing feelings helplessness moving interaction system defined galtung multidimensional system stratification less find given forced positions 22 lack opportunities respect leads frustration directed topdogs power players perceived kenyans especially christian kenyans war ethiopia 2000s al shabaab emerged leader many members somali community discriminating somali extension muslim population kenyan government put many muslim somalis underdog position several fronts economically socially culturally created opportunity al shabaab build leader figure many somali refugees somalis kenyan somalis generally muslims felt trapped underdog positions indeed paul hidalgo writes al shabaab able depict government eager inflict suffering already disadvantaged 23 al shabaab therefore developed ideology gravitating around trauma discrimination inflicted kenyan government somali population april attack garissa could therefore appear way group call indiscriminate retaliation kenyan government military somali community leading violence basic human needs rights turn could reactivate many members somali communitys memories rally al shabaabs ideology conducting attack symbolical place garissa makes link traumatic memory 1980s even obvious galtung explains aggression happens underdog u access topdog position indeed element tu position constantly reminded objective state disequilibrium differential treatment exposed gap underdog topdog positions lead development unstable selfimage 24 transforms desire acquire stable selfimage acquiring topdog positions levels galtung complete underdog uu may even dare think terms tt reference group complete topdog beyond imagination absolute deprivation uu may higher tu relative deprivation built position destabilizing effect discrepancy provide mobility pressure thesis open channels mobility rectification disequilibrium carried means 25 nairobis eastleigh area many somali kenyans become successful businessmen yet members somali community acquired topdog position regarding wealth discrimination maintains underdog positions domains political cultural power many fueled al shabaab wealth war ethiopia desire help group fight somalis interests reequilibrate underdog positions towards topdog ones indeed according mitchell sipus specialist conflict postwar reconstruction well known throughout eastleigh al shabaab utilized incoming remittance flows fund operations somalia direct involvement many businesses eastleigh 26 recent years support group diaspora decreased dramatically due mainly group affiliation alqaeda nevertheless happens time group already financially autonomous disequilibrium easily spreads individuals group wider population following galtung disequilibrium one level lead disequilibrium another level highly disequilibrated individual may become leader completely underdog group led disequilibrium giving power property education 27 due wealth al shabaab able provide opportunities young members somali community unemployed dont see pacific way ending oppression ones perceive topdogs stated mitchell sipus success al shabaab become understood opportunity man rise traditional restraints tribalism means take new opportunities population tired violence war frustrations displacement 28 ideology leader capable disseminating ideology wider population power group able increase providing means carry attacks like one garissa april 2 2015 cycle violence escalating retaliatory violence turns lead violence opposing side feel victimized one situation stresses necessity change multidimensional level economic political social cultural inclusion necessary conflict progressively defused however trauma prejudices parties retaliatory violence almost always implemented answer attack turn reinforces conflict adding long list grievances felt communities involved editors note originally published article stated that160johan galtung john perkins university galtung distinguished visiting professor university text160has edited160to note mr galtung president galtunginstitut peace theory peace practice writings found wwwjohangaltungde 1 distinction made recent somali refugees kenyan somalis holds kenyan nationality born raised kenya 2 ogenga otunnu factors affecting treatment kenyansomalis somali refugees kenya historical overview refuge vol 12 5 november december 1992 p 21 retrieved httppilibraryyorkucaojsindexphprefugearticleviewfile2167820351 3 ibid p 22 4 ibid p 24 5 issack legal impediments development northern kenya pambazuka news 403 2008 10 22 retrieved httpwwwpambazukanetencategoryphpcomment51377print 6 otunnu p 24 7 valter vilkko al shabaab external support internal extraction uppsala universitet swedish international development cooperation agency sida 2011 p 8 retrieved httpwwwuuse digitalassets5757537_mfs_paper_vilkkopdf 8 daniel branch kenya invaded somalia opening aggressive new chapter foreign affairs 2011 council foreign relations retrieved httpswwwforeignaffairscomartic lesafrica20111115whykenyainvadedsomalia 9 idil lambo shelter notions home belonging amongst somali refugees nairobi new issues refugee research 2012 policy development evaluation service united nations high commissioner refugees geneva p 1 retrieved httpwwwunhcrorg 4face3d09pdf 10 otunnu p 25 11 johan galtung violence peace peace research journal peace research vol 6 3 1969 167 191 12 lambo 13 johan galtung international development human perspective conflict human needs theory new york ny st martins press 1990 301 335 p 294 14 paul hidalgo kenyas worst enemy nairobis losing battle militant islam foreign affairs 2014 council foreign relations p 2 retrieved httpswwwforeignaffairscom articlesafrica20140423kenyasworstenemy 15 galtung international development p 303 16 human rights watch world report 2013 somalia p 2 retrieved httpwwwhrworg worldreport2013countrychapterssomalia 17 abraham h maslow theory human motivation motivation personality new york harper row 1987 p 90 18 lambo p 11 19 abraham h maslow p 8990 20 lambo p 14 21 branch p 2 22 johan galtung structural theory aggression journal peace research vol 1 2 1964 95 119 p 96 23 paul hidalgo kenyas worst enemy nairobis losing battle militant islam foreign affairs 2014 council foreign relations p 2 retrieved httpswwwforeignaffairscom articlesafrica20140423kenyasworstenemy 24 galtung structural theory aggression p 99 25 ibid 26 mitchell sipus support alshabaab diaspora forced migration review 37 29 2010 p 29 retrieved httpwwwfmrevieworgennonstate29pdf 27 galtung structural theory aggression p 106 28 sipus p 29 | 1,944 |
<p>When Senate dean Robert Byrd died this summer, almost all political observers placed the vacant seat squarely in the Democratic column. Even though West Virginia has trended Republican at the national level since 2000, it was thought the popularity of Gov. Joe Manchin would keep the seat from flipping.</p>
<p>Recent polls, though, suggest the race between Governor Manchin and businessman John Raese is dead even. Both parties are up with ads, and with Raese’s residual name ID (he’s run three losing statewide campaigns) observers now rate the race too close to call. Since there’s been no personal revelation or strong issue position that has swung the race (indeed, Manchin has earned the NRA endorsement and says he’ll vote to repeal Obamacare), one must ask what the political elites were missing.</p>
<p>What they were missing is what all but a few political observers have been missing all year long: For all the talk about independents and tea parties, the defining characteristic of this election is the revolt of the white working class. This group, known in the past as the Silent Majority, Reagan Democrats, NASCAR Dads, or Clinton Democrats, is upset at national Democrats and the Obama administration. Their fury provides the oxygen that turns the Tea Party’s spark into a raging fire. And West Virginia is the white working class’s capital.</p>
<p>Consider this. According to the 2009 American Community Survey, over 94 percent of West Virginians are white. Only 17 percent have a bachelor’s degree or more, and fully 60 percent have never even attended a two- or four-year college or university. While the white working class constitutes between 40 and 50 percent of the national electorate according to various exit polls, it approaches 70 percent of the Mountaineer State’s voters.</p>
<p>There are few surveys that separate out the white working class, so we don’t have much direct data documenting their opinions. But both anecdotal observations and Gallup poll data support the idea that they are trending GOP.</p>
<p>Were you surprised when Bart Stupak and David Obey stepped down? You wouldn’t have been if you knew that Stupak’s seat is 93 percent white with only 18 percent holding a B.A. or more, or that Obey’s seat is 94 percent white and 19 percent college grads. Clearly these incumbents felt the flames beneath their feet and fled. Surprised that Phil Hare and Baron Hill are on GOP target lists? Hare’s seat is 85 percent white, 17.5 percent college grads; Hill’s is 93 percent white, 19 percent college grads. When the fire’s raging, even strong buildings get burned.</p>
<p>Look at any list of House targets and you see that white-working-class-dominated districts appear far in excess of their proportion of House seats nationwide. This is true in the South (Chet Edwards, the open seats in Arkansas and Tennessee), the Northeast (Kathy Dahlkemper, Chris Carney, Michael Arcuri) and the Midwest (John Boccieri, Ike Skelton, Steve Kagen). It is less true in the West, but even there target seats like Washington 3 and Colorado 3 are whiter and less educated than the national average.</p>
<p>The limited poll data available support these conclusions. As I posted on the Corner recently, “President Obama is least popular among people without college degrees (42 percent) and whites (37 percent). Since he remains highly popular among African Americans (88 percent), who are likelier to be without a college degree, and among post-graduates (54 percent), who are likelier to be white, we can infer that the president’s standing among whites without a college degree is stunningly low.” My best guess, without more data, is that only about one-third of these voters support the president.</p>
<p>Ron Brownstein is the only major political journalist who has consistently noticed this. In column after column, he has documented the collapse in support for the administration among white working-class voters. He reports that a recent survey shows that this group distrusts government, opposes Obamacare, and believes the country is “‘significantly worse off’ because of Obama’s policies.” It’s hard to imagine why voters who hold these opinions, and who are also the among the hardest hit by the Great Recession, will pull the Democratic lever in November.</p>
<p>Democrats will point to the special election earlier this year in John Murtha’s old seat, Pennsylvania 12, as evidence that they can win back the white working class. This seat is 94 percent white and 17 percent college graduates, yet Democrat Mark Critz beat Republican Tim Burns by a solid margin. But while this race shows that local campaigns matter, one cannot read too much into it. It was held concurrently with a primary in a state that does not permit registered independents to vote in party primaries. Not surprisingly, turnout among independents was very low, something that won’t be true in the fall. Furthermore, this district is normally solidly Democratic, giving Al Gore and John Kerry solid wins. Most of the House seats on the target lists are much more favorable to the GOP, and West Virginia is now overwhelmingly Republican at the national level.</p>
<p>Given these trends, what’s shocking is that West Virginia is so close. If anyone other than Governor Manchin were running, this seat would be considered as safe a gain for Republicans as is North Dakota. As it is, it will be a horse race that either side can win. But we should not be surprised if on Election Day, the victory that puts the GOP in control of the Senate comes at the hands of coal miner’s daughters from the hollers of West Virginia.</p>
<p>Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | senate dean robert byrd died summer almost political observers placed vacant seat squarely democratic column even though west virginia trended republican national level since 2000 thought popularity gov joe manchin would keep seat flipping recent polls though suggest race governor manchin businessman john raese dead even parties ads raeses residual name id hes run three losing statewide campaigns observers rate race close call since theres personal revelation strong issue position swung race indeed manchin earned nra endorsement says hell vote repeal obamacare one must ask political elites missing missing political observers missing year long talk independents tea parties defining characteristic election revolt white working class group known past silent majority reagan democrats nascar dads clinton democrats upset national democrats obama administration fury provides oxygen turns tea partys spark raging fire west virginia white working classs capital consider according 2009 american community survey 94 percent west virginians white 17 percent bachelors degree fully 60 percent never even attended two fouryear college university white working class constitutes 40 50 percent national electorate according various exit polls approaches 70 percent mountaineer states voters surveys separate white working class dont much direct data documenting opinions anecdotal observations gallup poll data support idea trending gop surprised bart stupak david obey stepped wouldnt knew stupaks seat 93 percent white 18 percent holding ba obeys seat 94 percent white 19 percent college grads clearly incumbents felt flames beneath feet fled surprised phil hare baron hill gop target lists hares seat 85 percent white 175 percent college grads hills 93 percent white 19 percent college grads fires raging even strong buildings get burned look list house targets see whiteworkingclassdominated districts appear far excess proportion house seats nationwide true south chet edwards open seats arkansas tennessee northeast kathy dahlkemper chris carney michael arcuri midwest john boccieri ike skelton steve kagen less true west even target seats like washington 3 colorado 3 whiter less educated national average limited poll data available support conclusions posted corner recently president obama least popular among people without college degrees 42 percent whites 37 percent since remains highly popular among african americans 88 percent likelier without college degree among postgraduates 54 percent likelier white infer presidents standing among whites without college degree stunningly low best guess without data onethird voters support president ron brownstein major political journalist consistently noticed column column documented collapse support administration among white workingclass voters reports recent survey shows group distrusts government opposes obamacare believes country significantly worse obamas policies hard imagine voters hold opinions also among hardest hit great recession pull democratic lever november democrats point special election earlier year john murthas old seat pennsylvania 12 evidence win back white working class seat 94 percent white 17 percent college graduates yet democrat mark critz beat republican tim burns solid margin race shows local campaigns matter one read much held concurrently primary state permit registered independents vote party primaries surprisingly turnout among independents low something wont true fall furthermore district normally solidly democratic giving al gore john kerry solid wins house seats target lists much favorable gop west virginia overwhelmingly republican national level given trends whats shocking west virginia close anyone governor manchin running seat would considered safe gain republicans north dakota horse race either side win surprised election day victory puts gop control senate comes hands coal miners daughters hollers west virginia henry olsen senior fellow ethics public policy center | 560 |
<p>A former ally to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who was the mastermind of the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closing scheme will not go to prison after pleading guilty and giving testimony that helped convict two former aides to the Republican governor.</p>
<p>Federal Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark sentenced David Wildstein to three years’ probation Wednesday along with 500 hours of community service and a ban on working in government.</p>
<p>He faced 21 to 27 months in prison under a plea agreement, but federal prosecutors had asked for him to only get probation after his testimony helped convict former Christie staffer Bridget Kelly and Wildstein’s former supervisor, former Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive Bill Baroni.</p>
<p>“All three of us put our faith in a man who neither earned it nor deserved it,” Wildstein said in court Wednesday of the three charged and Christie. “I willingly drank the Kool-Aid of a man I’d known since I was 15 years old.”</p>
<p>Wildstein’s sentencing brings to an end to a sordid saga that has left a cloud over Christie’s administration. The scandal contributed to his approval rating falling from around 70 percent to 15 percent.</p>
<p>Christie, who is nearing the end of his two-term stay in the Statehouse, wasn’t charged but saw his presidential aspirations run aground by a scandal that dragged on for more than three years because of the scheme Wildstein launched to punish a Democratic mayor who wouldn’t endorse Christie’s 2013 re-election.</p>
<p>Wildstein apologized to Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich and told the judge he regrets what he described as “a callous decision that served no purpose than to punish one mayor. It was stupid, it was wrong.”</p>
<p>Kelly and Baroni were sentenced to 18 and 24 months in prison, respectively, in March. Both have appealed their convictions.</p>
<p>Prosecutors told the judge there likely would have been no prosecutions in the case if Wildstein didn’t cooperate. Both assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes and Wildstein’s attorney, Alan Zegas, asked the judge not to send him to prison.</p>
<p>“He walked into the U.S. attorney’s office and said, ‘I did this, this is why and this is who I did it with,'” Cortes told Wigenton.</p>
<p>Cortes said “there’s no excusing the conduct of David Wildstein. His efforts propelled it forward, he came up with the cover story” and his actions were a “gross abuse.” But he noted Wildstein did not delete emails like Kelly and turned over “smoking gun emails and text messages.”</p>
<p>He said Wildstein then told the truth during eight days of testimony and spoke with “remarkable candor” about incidents that were personally embarrassing to him.</p>
<p>Zegas said Wildstein provided more information than any other client he’s had in 30 years of practicing law and that he was “vilified in the press, vilified in this very courthouse almost daily,” partly because of information he provided.</p>
<p>Wigenton told Wildstein he was entitled to a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines because he provided truthful information, including context to the emails that Kelly had deleted and cooperation that led to a separate bribery charge against another Christie ally, former Port Authority Chairman David Samson.</p>
<p>Samson was sentenced to probation and home confinement earlier this year after admitting he used his position to pressure United Airlines to revive a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to South Carolina, near his weekend home.</p>
<p>Samson is a former New Jersey attorney general and longtime mentor to Christie, who appointed him to head the powerful Port Authority in 2011.</p>
<p>Wildstein and Christie went to Livingston High School together in suburban Newark. Christie played catcher and dreamed of playing for the New York Mets but went on to become a federal prosecutor and governor. Less athletically inclined, Wildstein was the baseball team’s statistician who became a behind-the-scenes political player with a bagful of dirty tricks he was unafraid to use.</p>
<p>Years later their paths came full circle in the saga known as “Bridgegate,” the bizarre tale of traffic-jams-as-political-payback that took aback even hardened observers of New Jersey’s bare-knuckle political arena.</p>
<p>Wildstein was a political blogger and operative who admitted engaging in chicanery that included stealing the suit jacket of an opposition candidate right before a U.S. Senate campaign debate. Christie, who claimed the two weren’t friends in high school, approved hiring him to a position at the Port Authority ostensibly overseeing billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in the New York area.</p>
<p>While defense attorneys and some Port Authority officials characterized Wildstein as lacking in relevant experience for the job — and being universally disliked for his abrasive style — a court filing by Wildstein’s attorney described him as having business savvy that helped him in “peeling back red tape” so that major agency infrastructure projects could be realized.</p>
<p>Wildstein and both defendants contradicted Christie’s account that he didn’t know about the traffic jams or their purpose until months afterward. Wildstein testified he and Baroni joked with Christie about traffic problems in Fort Lee while the lane closures were underway, and Kelly testified she told the governor about the plans to close lanes before they occurred.</p>
<p>Former Major League Baseball player Charlie Hayes wrote in a letter to the judge that Wildstein can perform the community service for a nonprofit foundation Hayes has asked him to run. Wildstein also is collaborating on a book with former Yankee pitcher Fritz Peterson.</p> | false | 1 | former ally new jersey gov chris christie mastermind 2013 george washington bridge laneclosing scheme go prison pleading guilty giving testimony helped convict two former aides republican governor federal judge susan wigenton newark sentenced david wildstein three years probation wednesday along 500 hours community service ban working government faced 21 27 months prison plea agreement federal prosecutors asked get probation testimony helped convict former christie staffer bridget kelly wildsteins former supervisor former port authority new york new jersey executive bill baroni three us put faith man neither earned deserved wildstein said court wednesday three charged christie willingly drank koolaid man id known since 15 years old wildsteins sentencing brings end sordid saga left cloud christies administration scandal contributed approval rating falling around 70 percent 15 percent christie nearing end twoterm stay statehouse wasnt charged saw presidential aspirations run aground scandal dragged three years scheme wildstein launched punish democratic mayor wouldnt endorse christies 2013 reelection wildstein apologized fort lee mayor mark sokolich told judge regrets described callous decision served purpose punish one mayor stupid wrong kelly baroni sentenced 18 24 months prison respectively march appealed convictions prosecutors told judge likely would prosecutions case wildstein didnt cooperate assistant us attorney lee cortes wildsteins attorney alan zegas asked judge send prison walked us attorneys office said cortes told wigenton cortes said theres excusing conduct david wildstein efforts propelled forward came cover story actions gross abuse noted wildstein delete emails like kelly turned smoking gun emails text messages said wildstein told truth eight days testimony spoke remarkable candor incidents personally embarrassing zegas said wildstein provided information client hes 30 years practicing law vilified press vilified courthouse almost daily partly information provided wigenton told wildstein entitled downward departure sentencing guidelines provided truthful information including context emails kelly deleted cooperation led separate bribery charge another christie ally former port authority chairman david samson samson sentenced probation home confinement earlier year admitting used position pressure united airlines revive flight newark liberty international airport south carolina near weekend home samson former new jersey attorney general longtime mentor christie appointed head powerful port authority 2011 wildstein christie went livingston high school together suburban newark christie played catcher dreamed playing new york mets went become federal prosecutor governor less athletically inclined wildstein baseball teams statistician became behindthescenes political player bagful dirty tricks unafraid use years later paths came full circle saga known bridgegate bizarre tale trafficjamsaspoliticalpayback took aback even hardened observers new jerseys bareknuckle political arena wildstein political blogger operative admitted engaging chicanery included stealing suit jacket opposition candidate right us senate campaign debate christie claimed two werent friends high school approved hiring position port authority ostensibly overseeing billions dollars infrastructure projects new york area defense attorneys port authority officials characterized wildstein lacking relevant experience job universally disliked abrasive style court filing wildsteins attorney described business savvy helped peeling back red tape major agency infrastructure projects could realized wildstein defendants contradicted christies account didnt know traffic jams purpose months afterward wildstein testified baroni joked christie traffic problems fort lee lane closures underway kelly testified told governor plans close lanes occurred former major league baseball player charlie hayes wrote letter judge wildstein perform community service nonprofit foundation hayes asked run wildstein also collaborating book former yankee pitcher fritz peterson | 537 |
<p />
<p>TRIPOLI - On July 30, the day before this 97.5 percent &#160;Muslim country began the holy month of Ramadan, NATO spokesperson Roland Lavoie lamely attempted to explain to the press at the Rixos Hotel and internationally why NATO was forced to bomb three Tripoli TV towers at the Libyan Broadcasting Authority, killing three journalists/technicians and wounding 15 others. &#160;Like most people currently in central Tripoli, this observer was awakened at 1:50 a.m. by the first of a series of nine blasts, three of which I watched from my balcony as they happened,&#160;and which seemed to be about 800 yards away as I saw one TV tower being blown apart. On the four-lane divided highway adjacent to my hotel and below my balcony, which runs along the sea front, I could see two cars frantically swerving left and right as they sped along, presumably trying to avoid a NATO rocket, fearing they themselves might be targeted.</p>
<p>According to NATO spokesperson Lavoie, allowing Libya's population to watch government TV, and by implication, to hear terrorist public service announcements concerning subjects such as gasoline availability, food distribution for Ramadan, updates on areas to be avoided due to recent NATO bombing, prayers and lectures by Sheiks on moral and religious subjects during Ramadan, or to see the Prayer Times chart posted on government TV, during this month of fasting, plus children's programs and normal programming, had to stop immediately.</p>
<p>The reason to bomb Libyan government TV, according to NATO, is that Libyan leader Gaddafi has been giving interviews and speeches following repeated NATO bombings that recently have included hospitals, Ramadan food storage warehouses, the nation's main water distribution infrastructure, private homes, and more than 1,600 other civilian sites. &#160;NATO believes that preventing Gaddafi's use of Libya's public airwaves by bombing transmission towers is within UN resolutions 1970 and 1973, the scope of which are being expanded beyond all recognition from their original intent. NATO spokesperson Lavoie claims that Libya's leadership is using TV broadcast facilities to thwart NATO's "humanitarian mission" and, yet again are, "putting civilian lives at risk."</p>
<p>Government officials admit using the media for communication with the population, including to urge tribal unity, to dialogue with those based in Benghazi referred to here as "NATO rebels", to&#160; argue for an immediate ceasefire and, yes, even to call for all Libyans to resist what many here, including Colonel Gaddafi, call "the NATO crusader aggressors."</p>
<p>In western Libya, and even among many in the east, according to recent rebel defectors who daily arrive on the western side, NATO has lost the respect of this country, Africa, the Middle East, and increasingly the international community. The reasons are well known here and include the serial false premises and descriptions of what happened in February in Benghazi and Misrata areas.</p>
<p>In addition, NATO daily bombing strikes have increased approximately 20 percent since July 25, and will continue to increase according to French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet, who, along with UK Defense Minister Liam Fox, while publicly saying NATO must continue the bombing, is privately expressing his frustration with the killing of rebel military commander Abdul Fatah Younnis. This assassination, according to Libyan officials, was very likely carried out by Younnis' rebel leaders or Al Qaeda. Both are said to feel that the rebel leadership in Benghazi is collapsing. So do many NATO leaders and the Obama Administration.</p>
<p>A former senior member of Britain's Liberal Democratic Party, Sir Menzies Campbell, has just urged the UK government to rethink its involvement in the war on Libya. Campbell said Britain must undertake a "wholesale re-examination and review" of its involvement in the NATO conflict in Libya after the murder of the opposition figure and Britain "must think about the end-game of the conflict in Libya."</p>
<p>One Libyan government supporter, who just arrived here in Tripoli, claims he spent the past two months on the ground in Benghazi "undercover" as a liaison&#160;between the rebels and NATO. He told his rapt audience at a Tripoli hotel this week many details of what he claims is NATO's frustration with the deterioration, corruption, and incompetence of their "team" in the east and the CIA view that "Al Qaeda will eat Mahmoud Jibril and the entire rebel leadership for Iftar during one of the Ramadan feasts during August. They are just waiting for the right opportunity to make a dramatic move and take control."</p>
<p>Only the zealots of "humanitarian intervention" could seriously have contemplated the kind of protracted, bloody land war in Libya that would have been necessary to win. So, the bet on an alliance with NATO now appears to have been doomed from the start, even on its own terms.</p>
<p>The force that is rapidly entering into this conflict is the leadership of Libya's more than 2000 tribes.&#160; In a series of meetings in Libya, Tunisia and elsewhere, the Tribal Council is speaking out forcefully and forging a political block that is demanding an end to Libyans killing Libyans.</p>
<p>Generally considered Libya's largest tribe are the Obeidis, to which the Younnis family belongs. Some of the tribal leaders and members have vowed revenge against rebel leaders, and as they carried the coffins of Abdul Fatah and his two companions, they chanted, under the gaze of security forces, "the blood of martyrs will not go in vain."</p>
<p>Libya's Tribal Council has issued a manifesto which makes clear that it intends to end this conflict, help expel "the NATO crusaders", and achieve reforms while supporting the Gaddafi, Tripoli based government. Before Ramadan is over, it intends to end Libya's crisis even if it needs to rally its hundreds of thousands of active members to march on Benghazi.</p>
<p>NATO, according to various academics at Al Nasser and Al Fatah University, and Libya's Tribal leadership, appear surprisingly ignorant and even contemptuous of this country's tribes and their historic roles during times of crises and foreign aggression and occupation.&#160; One tribal leader well known to Italy was Omar Muktar.</p>
<p>As NATO and its backers contemplate their endgame, they may want to consider some&#160;excerpts from the Libyan Tribal Council's manifesto issued on July 26. Speaking for Libya's 2000 tribes, the Council issued a Proclamation signed by scores of tribal leaders from eastern Libya:</p>
<p>By this letter to the extraordinary African Summit, &#160;convening in Addis Ababa, the notables of the Eastern tribes of the Great Jamahiriya confirm their complete rejection of what is &#160;called the Transitional Council in Benghazi which hasn't been nominated nor elected by Tribal representatives but rather imposed by NATO.</p>
<p>What is called the Transitional Council in Benghazi was imposed by NATO on us and we completely reject it. Is it democracy to impose people with armed power on the people of Benghazi, many of whose leaders are not even Libyan or from Libyan tribes but come from Tunisia and other countries?</p>
<p>" The Trial Council assures its continuing cooperation with the African Union in its suggestions aimed at helping to prevent the aggression on the Libyan people."</p>
<p>The Tribal Council condemns the crusader aggression on the Great Jamahiriya executed by the NATO and the Arabic regressive forces which is a grave threat to Libyan civilians as it continues to kill them as NATO bombs civilian targets.?</p>
<p>We do not and will not accept any authority other than the authority that we chose with our free will which is the People's Congress and Peoples Committees, and the popular social leadership, and will oppose with all available means, the&#160;NATO rebels and their slaughter, violence and maiming of cadavers. We intend to oppose with all the means available to us the NATO crusader aggressors and their appointed lackeys.</p>
<p>According to one representative of the Libyan Supreme Tribal Council, "The tribes of Libya have until today not fully joined in repelling the NATO aggressors. As we do, we serve notice to NATO that we shall not desist until they have left our country and we will ensure that they never return."</p> | false | 1 | tripoli july 30 day 975 percent 160muslim country began holy month ramadan nato spokesperson roland lavoie lamely attempted explain press rixos hotel internationally nato forced bomb three tripoli tv towers libyan broadcasting authority killing three journaliststechnicians wounding 15 others 160like people currently central tripoli observer awakened 150 first series nine blasts three watched balcony happened160and seemed 800 yards away saw one tv tower blown apart fourlane divided highway adjacent hotel balcony runs along sea front could see two cars frantically swerving left right sped along presumably trying avoid nato rocket fearing might targeted according nato spokesperson lavoie allowing libyas population watch government tv implication hear terrorist public service announcements concerning subjects gasoline availability food distribution ramadan updates areas avoided due recent nato bombing prayers lectures sheiks moral religious subjects ramadan see prayer times chart posted government tv month fasting plus childrens programs normal programming stop immediately reason bomb libyan government tv according nato libyan leader gaddafi giving interviews speeches following repeated nato bombings recently included hospitals ramadan food storage warehouses nations main water distribution infrastructure private homes 1600 civilian sites 160nato believes preventing gaddafis use libyas public airwaves bombing transmission towers within un resolutions 1970 1973 scope expanded beyond recognition original intent nato spokesperson lavoie claims libyas leadership using tv broadcast facilities thwart natos humanitarian mission yet putting civilian lives risk government officials admit using media communication population including urge tribal unity dialogue based benghazi referred nato rebels to160 argue immediate ceasefire yes even call libyans resist many including colonel gaddafi call nato crusader aggressors western libya even among many east according recent rebel defectors daily arrive western side nato lost respect country africa middle east increasingly international community reasons well known include serial false premises descriptions happened february benghazi misrata areas addition nato daily bombing strikes increased approximately 20 percent since july 25 continue increase according french defense minister gerard longuet along uk defense minister liam fox publicly saying nato must continue bombing privately expressing frustration killing rebel military commander abdul fatah younnis assassination according libyan officials likely carried younnis rebel leaders al qaeda said feel rebel leadership benghazi collapsing many nato leaders obama administration former senior member britains liberal democratic party sir menzies campbell urged uk government rethink involvement war libya campbell said britain must undertake wholesale reexamination review involvement nato conflict libya murder opposition figure britain must think endgame conflict libya one libyan government supporter arrived tripoli claims spent past two months ground benghazi undercover liaison160between rebels nato told rapt audience tripoli hotel week many details claims natos frustration deterioration corruption incompetence team east cia view al qaeda eat mahmoud jibril entire rebel leadership iftar one ramadan feasts august waiting right opportunity make dramatic move take control zealots humanitarian intervention could seriously contemplated kind protracted bloody land war libya would necessary win bet alliance nato appears doomed start even terms force rapidly entering conflict leadership libyas 2000 tribes160 series meetings libya tunisia elsewhere tribal council speaking forcefully forging political block demanding end libyans killing libyans generally considered libyas largest tribe obeidis younnis family belongs tribal leaders members vowed revenge rebel leaders carried coffins abdul fatah two companions chanted gaze security forces blood martyrs go vain libyas tribal council issued manifesto makes clear intends end conflict help expel nato crusaders achieve reforms supporting gaddafi tripoli based government ramadan intends end libyas crisis even needs rally hundreds thousands active members march benghazi nato according various academics al nasser al fatah university libyas tribal leadership appear surprisingly ignorant even contemptuous countrys tribes historic roles times crises foreign aggression occupation160 one tribal leader well known italy omar muktar nato backers contemplate endgame may want consider some160excerpts libyan tribal councils manifesto issued july 26 speaking libyas 2000 tribes council issued proclamation signed scores tribal leaders eastern libya letter extraordinary african summit 160convening addis ababa notables eastern tribes great jamahiriya confirm complete rejection 160called transitional council benghazi hasnt nominated elected tribal representatives rather imposed nato called transitional council benghazi imposed nato us completely reject democracy impose people armed power people benghazi many whose leaders even libyan libyan tribes come tunisia countries trial council assures continuing cooperation african union suggestions aimed helping prevent aggression libyan people tribal council condemns crusader aggression great jamahiriya executed nato arabic regressive forces grave threat libyan civilians continues kill nato bombs civilian targets accept authority authority chose free peoples congress peoples committees popular social leadership oppose available means the160nato rebels slaughter violence maiming cadavers intend oppose means available us nato crusader aggressors appointed lackeys according one representative libyan supreme tribal council tribes libya today fully joined repelling nato aggressors serve notice nato shall desist left country ensure never return | 770 |
<p>Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a door open for dialogue with North Korea on Monday, saying Washington was willing to talk to Pyongyang if it halted a series of recent missile test launches.</p>
<p>Tillerson’s comments at a regional security forum in Manila were the latest U.S. attempt to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs after months of tough talk from U.S. President Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The U.N. Security Council on Saturday imposed its toughest round of sanctions yet against Pyongyang over its two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.</p>
<p>But Tillerson appeared more conciliatory on Monday.</p>
<p>“When the conditions are right, then we can sit and have a dialogue around the future of North Korea so they feel secure and prosper economically,” Tillerson told reporters.</p>
<p>“The best signal that North Korea can give us that they are prepared to talk would be to stop these missile launches,” said Tillerson, adding that “other means of communications” were open to Pyongyang.</p>
<p>There was no direct reaction from North Korea to Tillerson’s remarks but in a statement after the U.S. secretary of state made his comments, Pyongyang responded robustly to the new sanctions by saying it was ready to teach the United States a “severe lesson” if it attacked.</p>
<p>The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed sanctions on North Korea aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to end its nuclear program. The sanctions could further choke North Korea’s struggling economy by slashing its $3 billion annual export revenue by a third.</p>
<p>The United States has remained technically at war with North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. The past six decades have been punctuated by periodic rises in antagonism and rhetoric that have always stopped short of a resumption of active hostilities.</p>
<p>The Trump administration’s attempts to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and missile ambitions have so far gained little traction, and Pyongyang has only stepped up its tests, launching two ICBM tests last month.</p>
<p>FIRST STEP?</p>
<p>Tillerson’s remarks might be an attempt to try another tack by the United States, which also has tried to get Pyongyang’s ally China to use its influence to prevent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from building a nuclear arsenal.</p>
<p>Tillerson said halting missile test launches, which have worried neighbors South Korea and Japan, was a first step toward dialogue.</p>
<p>He said Washington would not “specify a specific number of days or weeks” before deciding that North Korea had indeed halted its tests.</p>
<p>Joel Wit, director of 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, said he did not think North Korea would agree to a suspension of missile tests unilaterally as a precondition to talks without, for example a suspension of large-scale military exercises held regularly by the United States and South Korea, which it has denounced as a prelude for invasion.</p>
<p>The latest U.N. resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It also prohibits countries from increasing the numbers of North Korean labourers currently working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.</p>
<p>Tillerson said the support of China and Russia for the sanctions sent a strong message to North Korea about what was expected of it.</p>
<p>Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged “the North Korean side to calmly handle the resolutions”. He said in Manila on Sunday that Pyongyang should “not do anything unbeneficial towards the international community such as a nuclear test.”</p>
<p>In a statement to the Manila forum on Monday, Pyongyang said it would never place its nuclear program on the negotiating table as long as the United States maintained a hostile policy against the North.</p>
<p>It noted its intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month proved the entire United States was in its firing range.</p>
<p>North Korea says its ICBMs are a legitimate means of defense. It has long accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions by conducting military drills.</p>
<p>The Pentagon said on Monday it was reviewing bilateral ballistic missile guidelines with South Korea that could allow Seoul to have more powerful missiles.</p>
<p>Under the current guidelines, last changed in 2012, South Korea can develop missiles up to a range of 800 km (497 miles) with a maximum payload of 500 kg (1,102 pounds).</p>
<p>China’s Wang said the core of the Korean Peninsula issue is a security issue, not an economic one, as North Korea believes it faces an external security threat, while other parties believe Pyongyang’s nuclear and missiles programs are a threat.</p>
<p>In a phone call, South Korea’s Moon and Trump said they would continue cooperating to rein in North Korea, particularly ahead of a regular joint military drill set for late August, South Korean presidential office spokesman Park Su-hyun said.</p>
<p>The White House said the two leaders “affirmed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat” to most countries around the world.</p> | false | 1 | secretary state rex tillerson held door open dialogue north korea monday saying washington willing talk pyongyang halted series recent missile test launches tillersons comments regional security forum manila latest us attempt rein pyongyangs nuclear missile programs months tough talk us president donald trump un security council saturday imposed toughest round sanctions yet pyongyang two intercontinental ballistic missile icbm tests july tillerson appeared conciliatory monday conditions right sit dialogue around future north korea feel secure prosper economically tillerson told reporters best signal north korea give us prepared talk would stop missile launches said tillerson adding means communications open pyongyang direct reaction north korea tillersons remarks statement us secretary state made comments pyongyang responded robustly new sanctions saying ready teach united states severe lesson attacked un security council unanimously imposed sanctions north korea aimed pressuring pyongyang end nuclear program sanctions could choke north koreas struggling economy slashing 3 billion annual export revenue third united states remained technically war north korea since 195053 korean conflict ended armistice rather peace treaty past six decades punctuated periodic rises antagonism rhetoric always stopped short resumption active hostilities trump administrations attempts pressure north korea abandoning nuclear missile ambitions far gained little traction pyongyang stepped tests launching two icbm tests last month first step tillersons remarks might attempt try another tack united states also tried get pyongyangs ally china use influence prevent north korean leader kim jong un building nuclear arsenal tillerson said halting missile test launches worried neighbors south korea japan first step toward dialogue said washington would specify specific number days weeks deciding north korea indeed halted tests joel wit director 38 north washingtonbased north korea monitoring project said think north korea would agree suspension missile tests unilaterally precondition talks without example suspension largescale military exercises held regularly united states south korea denounced prelude invasion latest un resolution bans north korean exports coal iron iron ore lead lead ore seafood also prohibits countries increasing numbers north korean labourers currently working abroad bans new joint ventures north korea new investment current joint ventures tillerson said support china russia sanctions sent strong message north korea expected chinese foreign minister wang yi urged north korean side calmly handle resolutions said manila sunday pyongyang anything unbeneficial towards international community nuclear test statement manila forum monday pyongyang said would never place nuclear program negotiating table long united states maintained hostile policy north noted intercontinental ballistic missile tests last month proved entire united states firing range north korea says icbms legitimate means defense long accused united states south korea escalating tensions conducting military drills pentagon said monday reviewing bilateral ballistic missile guidelines south korea could allow seoul powerful missiles current guidelines last changed 2012 south korea develop missiles range 800 km 497 miles maximum payload 500 kg 1102 pounds chinas wang said core korean peninsula issue security issue economic one north korea believes faces external security threat parties believe pyongyangs nuclear missiles programs threat phone call south koreas moon trump said would continue cooperating rein north korea particularly ahead regular joint military drill set late august south korean presidential office spokesman park suhyun said white house said two leaders affirmed north korea poses grave growing direct threat countries around world | 528 |
<p>LOS ANGELES RAMS (2-1) AT DALLAS COWBOYS (2-1)</p>
<p>GAME SNAPSHOT</p>
<p>KICKOFF: Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET, AT&amp;T Stadium, TV: FOX, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Chris-Myers/" type="external">Chris Myers</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Daryl-Johnston/" type="external">Daryl Johnston</a>, <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Laura-Okmin/" type="external">Laura Okmin</a> (Field reporter).</p>
<p>SERIES HISTORY: This is the 25th regular-season meeting between the teams with the Cowboys holding a 13-11 edge. Dallas has won the past three meetings, including a 34-31 victory in the most recent meeting in 2014. The teams have split eight postseason meeting, all during a 13-season span from 1973-85 during the Rams’ first tenure in Los Angeles. There were seven meetings during the Rams’ stay in St. Louis with Dallas prevailing five times.</p>
<p>KEYS TO THE GAME: Dallas running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ezekiel-Elliott/" type="external">Ezekiel Elliott</a> is averaging just 3.5 yards per carry while dealing with the distraction of his future status due to the court case involving his six-game suspension for a domestic violence incident. Going up against the Rams could be the tonic he needs with Los Angeles ranked 29th in rushing defense (139.0 yards per game) despite the presence of standout defensive tackle <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Aaron-Donald/" type="external">Aaron Donald</a>. While Elliott searches for his 2016 form, second-year quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dak-Prescott/" type="external">Dak Prescott</a> accounted for three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) in Monday’s win over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Arizona-Cardinals/" type="external">Arizona Cardinals</a> and has thrown just two interceptions in 107 attempts. The Rams have notched 10 sacks in three games but also sprung a few leaks while giving up 19 fourth-quarter points in a 41-39 victory over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/San-Francisco-49ers/" type="external">San Francisco 49ers</a> on Sept. 21.</p>
<p>The Rams have their own standout running back in <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Todd-Gurley/" type="external">Todd Gurley</a> and he is off to a better start with 241 rushing yards and six total touchdowns (four rushing, two passing). But the main reason why Los Angeles is averaging a league-best 35.7 points and ranks seventh in total offense (374.7) is the improvement displayed by second-year quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jared-Goff/" type="external">Jared Goff</a>. The first overall pick in 2016 is thriving under the progressive system overseen by coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sean-McVay/" type="external">Sean McVay</a> and is completing 70.4 percent of his passes for 817 yards and five touchdowns against just one interception. The Cowboys are 18th in defending the pass (227.7 yards per game) and defensive end <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/DeMarcus-Lawrence/" type="external">DeMarcus Lawrence</a> is running rampant with a league-best 6.5 sacks.</p>
<p>MATCHUPS TO WATCH:</p>
<p>Rams DT Aaron Donald vs. Cowboys G Zach Martin</p>
<p>Donald is an elite lineman still working into football shape after his training camp holdout and a breakout game looms on the horizon. He has five tackles and one sack in two games and the two-time Pro Bowler will certainly have the attention of the Cowboys. Martin is a top-notch guard who is considered one of the top run-blocking linemen in the NFL. Martin is one of the few guards in the NFL who can legitimately match up one-on-one with Donald.</p>
<p>Rams WRs <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Sammy-Watkins/" type="external">Sammy Watkins</a> and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Robert-Woods/" type="external">Robert Woods</a> vs. Cowboys CBs Orlando Scandrick and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jourdan-Lewis/" type="external">Jourdan Lewis</a></p>
<p>Watkins is looking to be a good fit with 13 receptions for 194 yards and two touchdowns after being acquired from the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Buffalo-Bills/" type="external">Buffalo Bills</a> and he and Woods (10 for 169) have combined for nine receptions of 20 or more yards. Woods, who has five such catches, good be the main target against the Cowboys depending on how well Watkins bounces back from a concussion suffered against the 49ers. Scandrick is playing with a broken left hand and provides the Dallas secondary with a veteran awareness of how a young quarterback like Jared Goff might attack. Lewis is a rookie from Michigan that is in line for increased playing time, particularly if starter <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nolan-Carroll/" type="external">Nolan Carroll</a> (concussion) misses the game.</p>
<p>FRIDAY INJURY REPORT</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES RAMS</p>
<p>–Out: S Lamarcus Joyner (hamstring)</p>
<p>–Questionable: S Cody Davis (quadricep), C <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/John_Sullivan/" type="external">John Sullivan</a> (hip)</p>
<p>DALLAS COWBOYS</p>
<p>–Questionable: CB Chidobe Awuzie (hamstring), CB Nolan Carroll (concussion), S Kavon Frazier (knee), G Chaz Green (hip), LB Anthony Hitchens (knee), LB Sean Lee (hamstring), DT Stephen Paea (knee)</p>
<p>PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Cowboys DE DeMarcus Lawrence. The fourth-year-pro is off to a superb start with an NFL-best 6.5 sacks. He posted a career-high three sacks in Monday’s victory over Arizona to become the first Dallas player to notch three in a game since <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/DeMarcus_Ware/" type="external">DeMarcus Ware</a> in 2011. Lawrence was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance and wasn’t the least bit impressed. “It don’t mean nothing,” Lawrence said. “We’re on to the next week already, you know what I’m saying.” Lawrence’s play is speaking loudly as he is on pace to shatter his career-best eight-sack campaign of 2015. He struggled with back pain that sabotaged his performance last season but the former <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Boise_State/" type="external">Boise State</a> standout has raised his level of play at a superb time because he is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after the season. “I mean, it’s a contract year, so what?” Lawrence said. “I want to be here forever. This year don’t define me as a player.”</p>
<p>FAST FACTS: Rams QB Jared Goff ranks third in the NFL with a 118.2 rating, behind only Kansas City’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Alex_Smith/" type="external">Alex Smith</a> (132.7) and New England’s <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Tom_Brady/" type="external">Tom Brady</a> (121.5). WR Robert Woods had 108 yards versus the 49ers for his fourth career 100-yard receiving game — the fifth-year pro has never had more than one in a season. DE <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Robert-Quinn/" type="external">Robert Quinn</a>‘s 17 forced fumbles are the most in the NFL since start of 2013 campaign. LB Alec Ogletree has 17 tackles and two forced fumbles in two career games against Dallas. … Cowboys WR <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Dez_Bryant/" type="external">Dez Bryant</a> leads NFL in 63 touchdown receptions since start of 2011 season. TE <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jason_Witten/" type="external">Jason Witten</a> has a scoring reception in three of his past four home games. MLB Sean Lee ranks second in NFL with 298 tackles since start of 2015 season. CB Orlando Scandrick has three sacks and three forced fumbles in past eight home games.</p>
<p>PREDICTION: The Rams are an improved team but their wins are against the Colts and 49ers and they are stepping up in class with the visit to the Cowboys. It’s about time for Ezekiel Elliott to look more like last season’s version and prove to be more than Los Angeles can handle.</p>
<p>OUR PICK: Cowboys, 34-27.</p>
<p>— <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mike-Sullivan/" type="external">Mike Sullivan</a></p> | false | 1 | los angeles rams 21 dallas cowboys 21 game snapshot kickoff sunday 100 pm et atampt stadium tv fox chris myers daryl johnston laura okmin field reporter series history 25th regularseason meeting teams cowboys holding 1311 edge dallas past three meetings including 3431 victory recent meeting 2014 teams split eight postseason meeting 13season span 197385 rams first tenure los angeles seven meetings rams stay st louis dallas prevailing five times keys game dallas running back ezekiel elliott averaging 35 yards per carry dealing distraction future status due court case involving sixgame suspension domestic violence incident going rams could tonic needs los angeles ranked 29th rushing defense 1390 yards per game despite presence standout defensive tackle aaron donald elliott searches 2016 form secondyear quarterback dak prescott accounted three touchdowns two passing one rushing mondays win arizona cardinals thrown two interceptions 107 attempts rams notched 10 sacks three games also sprung leaks giving 19 fourthquarter points 4139 victory san francisco 49ers sept 21 rams standout running back todd gurley better start 241 rushing yards six total touchdowns four rushing two passing main reason los angeles averaging leaguebest 357 points ranks seventh total offense 3747 improvement displayed secondyear quarterback jared goff first overall pick 2016 thriving progressive system overseen coach sean mcvay completing 704 percent passes 817 yards five touchdowns one interception cowboys 18th defending pass 2277 yards per game defensive end demarcus lawrence running rampant leaguebest 65 sacks matchups watch rams dt aaron donald vs cowboys g zach martin donald elite lineman still working football shape training camp holdout breakout game looms horizon five tackles one sack two games twotime pro bowler certainly attention cowboys martin topnotch guard considered one top runblocking linemen nfl martin one guards nfl legitimately match oneonone donald rams wrs sammy watkins robert woods vs cowboys cbs orlando scandrick jourdan lewis watkins looking good fit 13 receptions 194 yards two touchdowns acquired buffalo bills woods 10 169 combined nine receptions 20 yards woods five catches good main target cowboys depending well watkins bounces back concussion suffered 49ers scandrick playing broken left hand provides dallas secondary veteran awareness young quarterback like jared goff might attack lewis rookie michigan line increased playing time particularly starter nolan carroll concussion misses game friday injury report los angeles rams lamarcus joyner hamstring questionable cody davis quadricep c john sullivan hip dallas cowboys questionable cb chidobe awuzie hamstring cb nolan carroll concussion kavon frazier knee g chaz green hip lb anthony hitchens knee lb sean lee hamstring dt stephen paea knee player spotlight cowboys de demarcus lawrence fourthyearpro superb start nflbest 65 sacks posted careerhigh three sacks mondays victory arizona become first dallas player notch three game since demarcus ware 2011 lawrence named nfc defensive player week performance wasnt least bit impressed dont mean nothing lawrence said next week already know im saying lawrences play speaking loudly pace shatter careerbest eightsack campaign 2015 struggled back pain sabotaged performance last season former boise state standout raised level play superb time scheduled unrestricted free agent season mean contract year lawrence said want forever year dont define player fast facts rams qb jared goff ranks third nfl 1182 rating behind kansas citys alex smith 1327 new englands tom brady 1215 wr robert woods 108 yards versus 49ers fourth career 100yard receiving game fifthyear pro never one season de robert quinns 17 forced fumbles nfl since start 2013 campaign lb alec ogletree 17 tackles two forced fumbles two career games dallas cowboys wr dez bryant leads nfl 63 touchdown receptions since start 2011 season te jason witten scoring reception three past four home games mlb sean lee ranks second nfl 298 tackles since start 2015 season cb orlando scandrick three sacks three forced fumbles past eight home games prediction rams improved team wins colts 49ers stepping class visit cowboys time ezekiel elliott look like last seasons version prove los angeles handle pick cowboys 3427 mike sullivan | 647 |
<p>GRAND FORKS, N.D. (UND Athletics) -- With the move to an early signing period for the first time, football coaches across the country were not sure what their numbers would look like on the first day prospective student-athletes could sign National Letters of Intent. North Dakota head coach Bubba Schweigert was one of those not quite sure how many signees this initial period would produce, but as the process went along he saw the potential number keep growing and growing. And, after the first wave of commitments came through on Wednesday morning, Schweigert and his staff had added 19 new Fighting Hawks to the program.</p>
<p>Three of the 19 new additions will enroll at UND in January and participate in spring practices that begin March 2 at the HPC. The trio of January enrollees consists of all Junior College transfers that will be play defensive back for the Fighting Hawks: Hayden Galvin (S; Moorpark College), Lenny Nelson (CB; American River College) and Zach Zimmerman (S; Laney College).</p>
<p>2018 University of North Dakota Football Recruiting ClassNational Letters of Intent (17) Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (Previous School)Mike Bruner OLB 6-3 215 Mequon, Wis. (Homestead HS)Hayden Galvin S 6-2 190 Westlake Village, Calif. (Moorpark College)Ross Hinders LS 5-11 200 Johnston, Iowa (Johnston HS)Kadon Kauppinen S 6-3 185 Sun Prairie, Wis. (Sun Prairie HS)Griffin Lickfeldt DL 6-1 245 Westfield, Ind. (Westfield HS)Garett Maag WR 6-5 205 West St. Paul, Minn. (St. Croix Lutheran HS)Ted Mullin OLB 6-0 190 Littleton, Colo. (Columbine HS)Lenny Nelson CB 5-11 195 Roseville, Calif. (American River College) Jacob Odom CB 6-1 180 Wheaton, Ill. (Wheaton-Warrenville South HS)Cade Peterson P 6-1 180 Kewaskum, Wis. (Kewaskum HS)Ryan Schoenfelder DL 6-5 215 Goodhue, Minn. (Goodhue HS)Noah Sickler WR 6-2 180 Dickinson, N.D. (Dickinson Trinity HS)C.J. Siegel CB 6-0 165 La Crosse, Wis. (Logan HS)Rain Slater OL 6-4 315 Winnipeg, Manitoba (St. John’s HS)Donny Ventrelli OL 6-4 250 St. Paul, Minn. (Como Park HS)Matt Waletzko OL 6-7 315 Cold Spring, Minn. (Rocori HS)Caden White OLB 6-3 190 Sun Prairie, Wis. (Sun Prairie HS)Preferred Walk-Ons (2)Tyler Burian WR 6-4 205 Grand Forks, N.D. (Red River HS)Zach Zimmerman S 6-2 205 Monroe, Wash. (Laney College)</p>
<p>CLASS BREAKDOWN By Position: Wide Receivers (3), Offensive Linemen (3), Outside Linebackers (3), Defensive Backs (6), Defensive Linemen (2), Punter (1), Long Snapper (1)</p>
<p>By State: California (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Iowa (1), Minnesota (4), North Dakota (2), Washington (1), Wisconsin (5)</p>
<p>By Province: Manitoba (1)</p>
<p>RECRUIT BIOSMIKE BRUNEROLB | 6-3 | 215Mequon, Wis. (Homestead HS)High School Coach: Dave KeelNamed to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association South Central Area All-Region Team as a junior and senior ... Two-time All-North Shore Conference first-team honoree, who was named the NSC Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 ... Helped lead team to a share of the North Shore title for the 17th-consecutive season during final prep season ... Earned WCFA All-State honorable mention honors following junior season ... Part of the Wisconsin Division 2 state championship team as a sophomore.</p>
<p>TYLER BURIANWR | 6-4 | 205 Grand Forks, N.D. (Red River HS)High School Coach: Vyrn Muir Earned honorable mention All-East Dakota Conference honors as a two-way player following senior season ... Racked up 34 total tackles and a forced fumble on defense and added 10 receptions for 122 yards and four touchdowns as a wide receiver ... Three-sport athlete also earned four varsity letters in track and field and played two seasons of junior varsity hockey ... Both of his parents participated in track and field at UND and father, Steve, was inducted into the UND Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.</p>
<p>*HAYDEN GALVINS | 6-2 | 190Westlake Village, Calif. (Moorpark College)Junior College Coach: Mike StuartNamed to the Southern California Football Association All-Conference First Team Northern League National Division ... Ranked second on the Raiders with 64 total tackles, including 39 solo stops ... Added two interceptions and six pass break-ups in 2017 ... Prepped at Oaks Christian in California.</p>
<p>ROSS HINDERSLS | 5-11 | 200Johnston, Iowa (Johnston HS)High School Coach: Brian WoodleyFour-year varsity starter at long snapper ... Named to the All-District Second Team as a linebacker after recording 35 tackles as a senior ... Named Team's Special Teams MVP ... Recorded 21 tackles at linebacker as a junior and earned honorable mention all-district honors ... Invited to the 2016 Army National Combine in San Antonio ... Rated the No. 1 long snapper in the state of Iowa and was invited to Top 12 Camp by Rubio Long Snapping.</p>
<p>KADON KAUPPINENS | 6-3 | 185Sun Prairie, Wis. (Sun Prairie HS)High School Coach: Brian KaminskiNamed to the Associated Press All-Wisconsin Football Second Team and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Southwest Region Team as a senior ... Named a finalist for the Jim Leonhard Award, which is given annually to the state's top defensive back ... Also earned Wisconsin State Journal All-Area accolades and was an All-Big Eight Conference First Team selection ... Helped lead Sun Prairie to a Division I state runner-up finish as a senior and back-to-back Big Eight Conference Championships ... Finished senior season with 47 total tackles, including 27 solo and six interceptions ... Also added 16 receptions for 318 yards and five touchdowns as a wide receiver ... Two-year starter and team captain ... Three-year letterwinner in track and field.</p>
<p>GRIFFIN LICKFELDTDL | 6-1 | 245Westfield, Ind. (Westfield HS)High School Coach: Jake GilbertNamed to the Hoosier Crossroads All-Conference Team as a senior after leading team with 11.0 tackles for loss and adding two sacks ... Contributed 34 solo tackles en route to earning Associated Press honorable mention all-state honors for the second-consecutive season ... Also named honorable mention on the Central Indiana "Super Team" ... Defensive starter for the Class 5A State Championship team during his junior ... Three-year starter in football and two-year starter in lacrosse ... Named to the Indiana Academic All-State Team in lacrosse as a senior ... Served as the President of Westfield's Fellowship of Christian Athlete's Club.</p>
<p>GARETT MAAGWR | 6-5 | 205West St. Paul, Minn. (St. Croix Lutheran HS)High School Coach: Carl LemkeFinished senior season with 25 receptions for 771 yards and 12 touchdowns, helping lead St. Croix Lutheran to second-consecutive runner-up finish in Minnesota Class 3A Football ... Averaged 30.8 yards per reception and finished the playoffs with a pair of 100-yard receiving games ... Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune All-Metro Second Team and was named to the Twin Cities All-District Team for the second-consecutive season ... As a junior, hauled in 34 receptions for 673 yards and 12 touchdowns ... Earned two varsity letters in football and four each in basketball and track and field ... Named to the Tri-Metro All-Conference Team in basketball following junior season ... Named to the Academic All-State Team for track and field as a sophomore and junior ... Team captain for basketball and track and field teams.</p>
<p>TED MULLINLB | 6-0 | 190Littleton, Colo. (Columbine HS)High School Coach: Andy LowryEarned honorable mention Class 5A All-State Team honors as a senior … Totaled 14 touchdowns and 933 all-purpose yards as a senior running back and team captain, helping lead Columbine to a Mt. Cameron league title and Class 5A semifinal berth ... Named to the Six Zero Strength All-Colorado Blue Team as a defensive back after registering 29 tackles and a forced fumble ... Was an All-Mt. Cameron League first team performer as a junior and senior and was a three-year letterwinner… Rushed for 357 yards and eight touchdowns, while adding 305 receiving yards and six more touchdowns as a junior ... Qualified for the Class 5A State Wrestling Tournament as a junior and earned honorable mention all-conference honors … Also qualified for state track and field meet as a junior and was a second-team all-conference performer in that sport … Four-year letterwinner in wrestling and track field.</p>
<p>*LENNY NELSONCB | 5-11 | 195Roseville, Calif. (American River College)Junior College Coach: Jon OsterhoutNamed to the Northern California Football All-Conference Team ... Logged 39 tackles and tied for second in the NorCal Conference with six interceptions ... Posted a three-interception game in a win over Sacramento City (Oct. 21) ... Registered a career-high 13 tackles in win over Siskiyous (Oct. 14) ... As a freshman, started all 10 games and racked up 42 tackles and two interception ... Also competed in track and field as a freshman at American River College and was an all-state long jumper ... Attended Woodcreek High School in Roseville, Calif., where he was named to the All-Sierra Foothill League first team as a junior and senior ... Earned Sacramento Region All-Metro honors as well and was selected to play in the Sac-Joaquin Optimist All-Star Game ... Named Woodcreek's Male Athlete of the Year as a senior and earned eight total varsity letters in three sports: football (2), basketball (2) and track and field (4) ... Was the Sierra Foothill League triple jump champion in three of four prep seasons and was a state qualifier as a senior ... Holds school records in both long jump and triple jump.</p>
<p>JACOB ODOMCB | 6-1 | 180Wheaton, Ill. (Wheaton-Warrenville South HS)High School Coach: Ron MuhitchNamed to the All-DuPage Valley Conference first team as an all-purpose player ... Led team with eight touchdowns and a 15.7 yards per catch average as a senior ... Averaged 25.4 yards per kickoff return ... Played in three games as a junior before missing remainder of season with an ankle injury ... Also lettered in track and field and was the team captain as a junior ... Earned All-DuPage Valley Conference honors as a long jumper ... Father, John Odom, played defensive back at Oklahoma State (1977-81).</p>
<p>CADE PETERSONP | 6-1 | 180Kewaskum, Wis. (Kewaskum HS)High School Coach: Jason PiittmannFinished prep career going 11-for-13 on field goals and averaging 34.5 yards per punt on 71 attempts ... Netted a career-long and school-record punt of 75 yards on the first attempt of his senior season ... Earned first team All-East Central Conference honors as a kicker and second team honors as a punter following senior season ... Named a semifinalist for the Kevin Stemke Award, which is given annually to the state of Wisconsin's top senior kicker/punter ... Named to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Academic All-State Football Team ... Earned second team honors as a kicker as a junior and was an honorable mention honoree for punting ... Was an All-ECC honorable mention honoree as a sophomore for kicking ... Lettered three years in football and track and field ... Sectional, regional and conference champion in the 200-meter dash as a junior and placed seventh at the state track meet in the event.</p>
<p>RYAN SCHOENFELDERDL | 6-5 | 215Goodhue, Minn. (Goodhue HS)High School Coach: Tony PonceletNamed the Mid-Southeast East District Defensive Player of the Year and was a two-time all-district performer ... Also named to the Post Bulletin All-Area Team as a senior and finished season with 36 receptions for 828 yards and seven touchdowns, while adding 80 tackles, 11.0 tackles for loss and 9.0 sacks from defensive end position ... Had five catches for 115 yards and three touchdowns in the Class A Quarterfinals vs. Mayer Lutheran ... Selected by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association to play for the South Team in the Minnesota Football Showcase at U.S. Bank Stadium ... Was also an All-State Academic selection ... Earned three varsity letters in football.</p>
<p>NOAH SICKLERWR | 6-2 | 180Dickinson, N.D. (Dickinson Trinity HS)High School Coach: John OdermannNamed to the NDHSCA Class 2A All-State Football as a wide receiver after catching 30 passes for 664 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior ... Also earned Class AA All-State honors as a wide receiver following junior season ... Named to Class AA All-West Region Football Team three-consecutive years as a wide receiver and defensive back ... Named to the All-Region 4 Team as a wide receiver after leading team to semifinals of Class 2A playoffs as a senior ... Led region in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns ... Finished career with 87 receptions for 1,900 yards receiving ... Also added 23 interceptions and scored 28 total touchdowns ... Three-sport athlete that also competed in basketball and track and field ... Holds school record for 400-meter dash.</p>
<p>C.J. SIEGELCB | 6-0 | 165La Crosse, Wis. (Logan HS)High School Coach: Casey KnobleEarned WFCA All-State honorable mention honors and was an All-Region and All-Mississippi Valley Conference selection as an all-purpose player following junior and senior seasons ... As a senior, rushed for 391 yards and a touchdown, while adding 34 receptions for 521 yards and seven touchdowns ... Defensively, totaled 47 tackles with a forced fumble and interception ... As a junior, finished with 39 receptions for 743 yards and 12 touchdowns, while adding 34 tackles and three interceptions ... Also rushed for 217 yards and three scores ... Earned WFCA All-State honorable mention honors and was a first team All-Mississippi Valley Conference honoree on the hardwood after averaging 17.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg and 2.5 apg as a junior ... Collected first team all-conference honors as a sophomore after averaging 17.2 ppg ... Finished second in the long jump and triple at MVC meet as a freshman and won those two events as a sophomore and junior.</p>
<p>RAIN SLATEROL | 6-4 | 315Winnipeg, Manitoba (St. John’s HS)High School Coach: Grant McMillanNamed to the Canada Football Chat All-Canadian First Team as an offensive lineman following senior season ... Named his team's Lineman of the Year after the 2017 season ... Slated to play for Team Canada in the International Bowl IX in Dallas in January ... Three-time CFC Provincial All-Star and three-time Winnipeg High School Football League Currie Division All-Star ... Named St. John's Tigers Rookie of the Year in 2015 ... Earned the WHSFL Kas Vidruk Lineman Award for the Currie Division in 2015.</p>
<p>DONNY VENTRELLIOL | 6-4 | 250St. Paul, Minn. (Como Park HS)High School Coach: Kirby ScullEarned Minneapolis Star Tribune All-Metro Second Team honors as a defensive lineman and was East Metro Player of the Year finalist ... Also named to the Twin Cities All-District Football Team and was named to the Red Division's Co-Defensive MVP ... One of 32 players Named to the Minnesota Vikings All-State Team ... Team captain finished senior season with a Minnesota-state leading 13.0 sacks, including a four-sack game against Minneapolis North that he backed up with a 3.5 sack game against Brooklyn Center ... Finished career with 22.0 sacks ... Also had five rushing and four receiving scores from fullback/tight end position ... Rushed for 340 yards and three touchdowns and added 284 receiving yards and two scores during junior season ... Had 24 receptions for 286 yards and three touchdowns as a fullback/tight end during his sophomore season ... Earned three varsity letters for Como Park High School ... Three-sport athlete also lettered as a sophomore and junior in baseball and basketball.</p>
<p>MATT WALETZKOOL | 6-7 | 315Cold Spring, Minn. (Rocori HS)High School Coach: Mike RoweSelected by the Minnesota Football Coaches Association to play for the North Team in the Minnesota Football Showcase at U.S. Bank Stadium ... A nominee for the 2017 Minnesota Mr. Football Award and one of 32 players Named to the Minnesota Vikings All-State Team ... Named to St. Cloud The Times all-area team after helping Rocori to a fourth-straight section title and is one of three finalists for the The Times All-Area Player of the Year Award ... An all-section player that was named to the North Central District All-Academic Team ... Named the Most Valuable Lineman in the North Central District White Division as a senior ... Three-year starter on the offensive line and also played defensive tackle as a senior ... Team captain as a senior on the football and basketball team ... A three-sport letterwinner, who also competed in baseball and basketball.</p>
<p>CADEN WHITEOLB | 6-3 | 190Sun Prairie, Wis. (Sun Prairie HS)High School Coach: Brian Kaminski Named to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Academic All-State Team ... Helped lead Sun Prairie to a Division I state runner-up finish as a senior and back-to-back Big Eight Conference Championships ... Finished senior season with 71 tackles, including 40 solo stops and five interceptions en route to earning second team All-Big Eight Conference accolades ... Also added 15 receptions for 272 yards and five touchdowns as a wide receiver ... Part of Big Eight Conference Championship team on the hardwood as a junior, averaging 7.0 ppg and the two-year starter is a team captain as a senior.</p>
<p>*ZACH ZIMMERMANS | 6-2 | 205Monroe, Wash. (Laney College)Junior College Coach: John BeamAppeared in 10 games during one season at Laney College, helping lead the Eagles to a National Valley Conference title ... Played safety and finished with 17 tackles and a team-high four interceptions ... Returned one 85 yards for a touchdown and added two pass break-ups in win over Contra Costa ... Named Laney’s Defensive Back of the Year in 2017 … Prepped at Monroe (Wash.) High School and is the younger brother of UND junior quarterback Andrew Zimmerman ... Hauled in a 45-yard touchdown pass during sophomore season on what turned out to be his brother's final prep pass ... Took over for his brother as the program's starting quarterback four games into that campaign following Andrew's season-ending injury and started the rest of his career ... Holds the school records for touchdown passes in a game (5), in a season (21), and in a career (47) and also holds the school record for career passing yards (4,529) ... Earned second team All-Wesco honors as a junior and senior.</p>
<p>* Enrolling in January and will participate in spring practices that begin March 2.</p> | false | 1 | grand forks nd und athletics move early signing period first time football coaches across country sure numbers would look like first day prospective studentathletes could sign national letters intent north dakota head coach bubba schweigert one quite sure many signees initial period would produce process went along saw potential number keep growing growing first wave commitments came wednesday morning schweigert staff added 19 new fighting hawks program three 19 new additions enroll und january participate spring practices begin march 2 hpc trio january enrollees consists junior college transfers play defensive back fighting hawks hayden galvin moorpark college lenny nelson cb american river college zach zimmerman laney college 2018 university north dakota football recruiting classnational letters intent 17 pos ht wt hometown previous schoolmike bruner olb 63 215 mequon wis homestead hshayden galvin 62 190 westlake village calif moorpark collegeross hinders ls 511 200 johnston iowa johnston hskadon kauppinen 63 185 sun prairie wis sun prairie hsgriffin lickfeldt dl 61 245 westfield ind westfield hsgarett maag wr 65 205 west st paul minn st croix lutheran hsted mullin olb 60 190 littleton colo columbine hslenny nelson cb 511 195 roseville calif american river college jacob odom cb 61 180 wheaton ill wheatonwarrenville south hscade peterson p 61 180 kewaskum wis kewaskum hsryan schoenfelder dl 65 215 goodhue minn goodhue hsnoah sickler wr 62 180 dickinson nd dickinson trinity hscj siegel cb 60 165 la crosse wis logan hsrain slater ol 64 315 winnipeg manitoba st johns hsdonny ventrelli ol 64 250 st paul minn como park hsmatt waletzko ol 67 315 cold spring minn rocori hscaden white olb 63 190 sun prairie wis sun prairie hspreferred walkons 2tyler burian wr 64 205 grand forks nd red river hszach zimmerman 62 205 monroe wash laney college class breakdown position wide receivers 3 offensive linemen 3 outside linebackers 3 defensive backs 6 defensive linemen 2 punter 1 long snapper 1 state california 2 colorado 1 illinois 1 indiana 1 iowa 1 minnesota 4 north dakota 2 washington 1 wisconsin 5 province manitoba 1 recruit biosmike brunerolb 63 215mequon wis homestead hshigh school coach dave keelnamed wisconsin football coaches association south central area allregion team junior senior twotime allnorth shore conference firstteam honoree named nsc defensive player year 2017 helped lead team share north shore title 17thconsecutive season final prep season earned wcfa allstate honorable mention honors following junior season part wisconsin division 2 state championship team sophomore tyler burianwr 64 205 grand forks nd red river hshigh school coach vyrn muir earned honorable mention alleast dakota conference honors twoway player following senior season racked 34 total tackles forced fumble defense added 10 receptions 122 yards four touchdowns wide receiver threesport athlete also earned four varsity letters track field played two seasons junior varsity hockey parents participated track field und father steve inducted und athletics hall fame 2006 hayden galvins 62 190westlake village calif moorpark collegejunior college coach mike stuartnamed southern california football association allconference first team northern league national division ranked second raiders 64 total tackles including 39 solo stops added two interceptions six pass breakups 2017 prepped oaks christian california ross hindersls 511 200johnston iowa johnston hshigh school coach brian woodleyfouryear varsity starter long snapper named alldistrict second team linebacker recording 35 tackles senior named teams special teams mvp recorded 21 tackles linebacker junior earned honorable mention alldistrict honors invited 2016 army national combine san antonio rated 1 long snapper state iowa invited top 12 camp rubio long snapping kadon kauppinens 63 185sun prairie wis sun prairie hshigh school coach brian kaminskinamed associated press allwisconsin football second team wisconsin football coaches association allsouthwest region team senior named finalist jim leonhard award given annually states top defensive back also earned wisconsin state journal allarea accolades allbig eight conference first team selection helped lead sun prairie division state runnerup finish senior backtoback big eight conference championships finished senior season 47 total tackles including 27 solo six interceptions also added 16 receptions 318 yards five touchdowns wide receiver twoyear starter team captain threeyear letterwinner track field griffin lickfeldtdl 61 245westfield ind westfield hshigh school coach jake gilbertnamed hoosier crossroads allconference team senior leading team 110 tackles loss adding two sacks contributed 34 solo tackles en route earning associated press honorable mention allstate honors secondconsecutive season also named honorable mention central indiana super team defensive starter class 5a state championship team junior threeyear starter football twoyear starter lacrosse named indiana academic allstate team lacrosse senior served president westfields fellowship christian athletes club garett maagwr 65 205west st paul minn st croix lutheran hshigh school coach carl lemkefinished senior season 25 receptions 771 yards 12 touchdowns helping lead st croix lutheran secondconsecutive runnerup finish minnesota class 3a football averaged 308 yards per reception finished playoffs pair 100yard receiving games minneapolisst paul star tribune allmetro second team named twin cities alldistrict team secondconsecutive season junior hauled 34 receptions 673 yards 12 touchdowns earned two varsity letters football four basketball track field named trimetro allconference team basketball following junior season named academic allstate team track field sophomore junior team captain basketball track field teams ted mullinlb 60 190littleton colo columbine hshigh school coach andy lowryearned honorable mention class 5a allstate team honors senior totaled 14 touchdowns 933 allpurpose yards senior running back team captain helping lead columbine mt cameron league title class 5a semifinal berth named six zero strength allcolorado blue team defensive back registering 29 tackles forced fumble allmt cameron league first team performer junior senior threeyear letterwinner rushed 357 yards eight touchdowns adding 305 receiving yards six touchdowns junior qualified class 5a state wrestling tournament junior earned honorable mention allconference honors also qualified state track field meet junior secondteam allconference performer sport fouryear letterwinner wrestling track field lenny nelsoncb 511 195roseville calif american river collegejunior college coach jon osterhoutnamed northern california football allconference team logged 39 tackles tied second norcal conference six interceptions posted threeinterception game win sacramento city oct 21 registered careerhigh 13 tackles win siskiyous oct 14 freshman started 10 games racked 42 tackles two interception also competed track field freshman american river college allstate long jumper attended woodcreek high school roseville calif named allsierra foothill league first team junior senior earned sacramento region allmetro honors well selected play sacjoaquin optimist allstar game named woodcreeks male athlete year senior earned eight total varsity letters three sports football 2 basketball 2 track field 4 sierra foothill league triple jump champion three four prep seasons state qualifier senior holds school records long jump triple jump jacob odomcb 61 180wheaton ill wheatonwarrenville south hshigh school coach ron muhitchnamed alldupage valley conference first team allpurpose player led team eight touchdowns 157 yards per catch average senior averaged 254 yards per kickoff return played three games junior missing remainder season ankle injury also lettered track field team captain junior earned alldupage valley conference honors long jumper father john odom played defensive back oklahoma state 197781 cade petersonp 61 180kewaskum wis kewaskum hshigh school coach jason piittmannfinished prep career going 11for13 field goals averaging 345 yards per punt 71 attempts netted careerlong schoolrecord punt 75 yards first attempt senior season earned first team alleast central conference honors kicker second team honors punter following senior season named semifinalist kevin stemke award given annually state wisconsins top senior kickerpunter named wisconsin football coaches association academic allstate football team earned second team honors kicker junior honorable mention honoree punting allecc honorable mention honoree sophomore kicking lettered three years football track field sectional regional conference champion 200meter dash junior placed seventh state track meet event ryan schoenfelderdl 65 215goodhue minn goodhue hshigh school coach tony ponceletnamed midsoutheast east district defensive player year twotime alldistrict performer also named post bulletin allarea team senior finished season 36 receptions 828 yards seven touchdowns adding 80 tackles 110 tackles loss 90 sacks defensive end position five catches 115 yards three touchdowns class quarterfinals vs mayer lutheran selected minnesota football coaches association play south team minnesota football showcase us bank stadium also allstate academic selection earned three varsity letters football noah sicklerwr 62 180dickinson nd dickinson trinity hshigh school coach john odermannnamed ndhsca class 2a allstate football wide receiver catching 30 passes 664 yards nine touchdowns senior also earned class aa allstate honors wide receiver following junior season named class aa allwest region football team threeconsecutive years wide receiver defensive back named allregion 4 team wide receiver leading team semifinals class 2a playoffs senior led region receptions receiving yards touchdowns finished career 87 receptions 1900 yards receiving also added 23 interceptions scored 28 total touchdowns threesport athlete also competed basketball track field holds school record 400meter dash cj siegelcb 60 165la crosse wis logan hshigh school coach casey knobleearned wfca allstate honorable mention honors allregion allmississippi valley conference selection allpurpose player following junior senior seasons senior rushed 391 yards touchdown adding 34 receptions 521 yards seven touchdowns defensively totaled 47 tackles forced fumble interception junior finished 39 receptions 743 yards 12 touchdowns adding 34 tackles three interceptions also rushed 217 yards three scores earned wfca allstate honorable mention honors first team allmississippi valley conference honoree hardwood averaging 173 ppg 52 rpg 25 apg junior collected first team allconference honors sophomore averaging 172 ppg finished second long jump triple mvc meet freshman two events sophomore junior rain slaterol 64 315winnipeg manitoba st johns hshigh school coach grant mcmillannamed canada football chat allcanadian first team offensive lineman following senior season named teams lineman year 2017 season slated play team canada international bowl ix dallas january threetime cfc provincial allstar threetime winnipeg high school football league currie division allstar named st johns tigers rookie year 2015 earned whsfl kas vidruk lineman award currie division 2015 donny ventrelliol 64 250st paul minn como park hshigh school coach kirby scullearned minneapolis star tribune allmetro second team honors defensive lineman east metro player year finalist also named twin cities alldistrict football team named red divisions codefensive mvp one 32 players named minnesota vikings allstate team team captain finished senior season minnesotastate leading 130 sacks including foursack game minneapolis north backed 35 sack game brooklyn center finished career 220 sacks also five rushing four receiving scores fullbacktight end position rushed 340 yards three touchdowns added 284 receiving yards two scores junior season 24 receptions 286 yards three touchdowns fullbacktight end sophomore season earned three varsity letters como park high school threesport athlete also lettered sophomore junior baseball basketball matt waletzkool 67 315cold spring minn rocori hshigh school coach mike roweselected minnesota football coaches association play north team minnesota football showcase us bank stadium nominee 2017 minnesota mr football award one 32 players named minnesota vikings allstate team named st cloud times allarea team helping rocori fourthstraight section title one three finalists times allarea player year award allsection player named north central district allacademic team named valuable lineman north central district white division senior threeyear starter offensive line also played defensive tackle senior team captain senior football basketball team threesport letterwinner also competed baseball basketball caden whiteolb 63 190sun prairie wis sun prairie hshigh school coach brian kaminski named wisconsin football coaches association academic allstate team helped lead sun prairie division state runnerup finish senior backtoback big eight conference championships finished senior season 71 tackles including 40 solo stops five interceptions en route earning second team allbig eight conference accolades also added 15 receptions 272 yards five touchdowns wide receiver part big eight conference championship team hardwood junior averaging 70 ppg twoyear starter team captain senior zach zimmermans 62 205monroe wash laney collegejunior college coach john beamappeared 10 games one season laney college helping lead eagles national valley conference title played safety finished 17 tackles teamhigh four interceptions returned one 85 yards touchdown added two pass breakups win contra costa named laneys defensive back year 2017 prepped monroe wash high school younger brother und junior quarterback andrew zimmerman hauled 45yard touchdown pass sophomore season turned brothers final prep pass took brother programs starting quarterback four games campaign following andrews seasonending injury started rest career holds school records touchdown passes game 5 season 21 career 47 also holds school record career passing yards 4529 earned second team allwesco honors junior senior enrolling january participate spring practices begin march 2 | 2,020 |
<p>Israel has desperately sought to be legitimized by the UN, while it has done its utmost to delegitimize the UN.</p>
<p>There is a great irony in the fact that Israel is seeking a seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).</p>
<p>Since its establishment atop the ruins of Palestinian cities and villages in 1948, Israel has had the most precarious relationship with the world’s largest international body.</p>
<p>It has desperately sought to be legitimized by the UN, while it has done its utmost to delegitimize the UN.</p>
<p>Following a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) condemning Israel’s human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in March 2014, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, then <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/netanyahu-lashes-out-following-united-nations-rebuke" type="external">accused the UN</a> of being “absurd”. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10732788/Benjamin-Netanyahu-accuses-UN-of-hypocrisy-over-human-rights-votes.html" type="external">He vowed</a> to “continue to denounce and expose” the UN “procession of hypocrisy.”</p>
<p>For many years, Israeli leaders and government officials have made it a habit of undermining the UN and its various bodies and, with unconditional support from Washington, habitually ignored numerous UN resolutions regarding the illegal occupation of Palestine.</p>
<p>To a certain extent, the Israeli strategy of using and abusing the UN has worked. With <a href="https://www.washingtonreport.me/2005-may-june/an-updated-list-of-vetoes-cast-by-the-united-states-to-shield-israel-from-criticism-by-the-u.n.-security-council.html" type="external">US vetoes</a> blocking UN attempts to pressure Israel to end its military occupation and human rights violations, Israel was in no rush to comply with international law.</p>
<p>But two major events have forced an Israeli rethink.</p>
<p>First, in December 2016, the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/23/politics/israel-official-rips-obama-un-settlements/index.html" type="external">US abstained</a> from a UN resolution that condemned Israel’s illegal settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.</p>
<p>By breaking with a decades-long tradition of shielding Israel from any international censure, it appeared that even Washington’s seemingly undying allegiance to Tel Aviv was uncertain.</p>
<p>Second, the Palestinian-led <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/" type="external">Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions</a> (BDS) movement began changing the dynamics of international politics regarding the Israeli occupation.</p>
<p>The movement, which began as a call by Palestinian civil society to hold Israel accountable for its violations of Palestinian human rights, grew rapidly to become a <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/9/14/pink_floyd_founder_roger_waters_bds" type="external">global movement</a>. Hundreds of local BDS groups multiplied around the world, joined by artists, academicians, union members and elected politicians.</p>
<p>Within a few years, BDS has registered as a serious tool of pressure used to denounce the Israeli occupation and demand justice for the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>UNHRC quickly joined in, declaring its intention to release a list, thus exposing the names of <a href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779087" type="external">companies that must be boycotted</a> for operating in illegal Israeli settlements.</p>
<p>The human rights group’s efforts were coupled by repeated condemnations of Israel’s human rights violations as recorded by the UN cultural agency, UNESCO.</p>
<p>This meant that UN bodies that do not allow for veto-wielding members grew in their ability to challenge the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>The actions of UNHRC and UNESCO spurred a determined Israeli-American campaign to delegitimize them.</p>
<p>Since the Donald Trump Administration’s advent to power, and with the help of his ambassador to the UN, <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/nikki-haley-personable-serious-and-the-undisputed-star-of-aipacs-conference/" type="external">Nikki Haley</a>, Washington has waged a war against the UN, using intimidation and the threats of withholding funds.</p>
<p>UNESCO insisted on its position, despite the cutting off of funds. Meanwhile, UNHRC decided to go along with publishing the list of companies, despite US threats to pull out of the human rights body altogether.</p>
<p>According to Israel’s Channel 2, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/coca-cola-teva-on-un-blacklist-of-settlement-friendly-firms-report/" type="external">the list includes</a> Coca-Cola, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Priceline and Caterpillar. It also includes national Israeli companies and two large banks.</p>
<p>Israeli officials fumed. Deputy Foreign Minister <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/coca-cola-teva-on-un-blacklist-of-settlement-friendly-firms-report/" type="external">Tzipi Hotovely charged</a> that “The UN is playing with fire”, threatening that such initiative will cause further loss of UN budget.</p>
<p>She even declared that the US and Israel are working together to start a ‘revolution’ at the Human Rights Council through a joint ‘action plan.’</p>
<p>Signs of this oddly termed ‘revolution’ are already apparent. Aside from choking off UN bodies financially, Israel is lobbying countries in the South that have traditionally exhibited solidarity with Palestinians due to the common historical bonds of foreign oppression and anti-colonial struggles.</p>
<p>Netanyahu had just concluded a trip to Latin America, considered the <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Protests-and-Pledges-as-Israeli-PM-Ends-Mexico-Visit-with-Offer-to-Develop-Central-America-20170914-0027.html" type="external">first by a sitting Israeli Prime Minister</a>. In the last leg of his trip in Mexico, he offered to ‘develop Central America.’</p>
<p>The price is, of course, for Latin American countries to support Israel’s occupation of Palestine and turn a blind eye to its human rights violations in Palestine.</p>
<p>The irony that, fortunately, did not escape everyone is that last January, Netanyahu declared his support of Trump’s promise to wall off the US-Mexico border and force Mexico to pay for it.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen how Israel’s efforts will win Latin America to Israel’s side, considering the latter’s terrible record of supporting fascist regimes and subverting democracy.</p>
<p>The Israeli Prime Minister’s charm offensive was planned to include <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/09/israel-africa-summit-cancelled-togo-unrest-continues-170912060426962.html" type="external">Togo</a> in October to attend the Israel-Africa Summit. Thanks to the efforts of <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/news-africa/1612940/sa-to-boycott-upcoming-african-israeli-summit-in-togo/" type="external">South Africa</a>, Morocco, among other countries, the <a href="http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/post/israel-africa-summit-called-off-following-boycott-threats/" type="external">summit was cancelled</a> due to the fact that over half of African countries were planning to boycott it.</p>
<p>The setback must have been a major diplomatic embarrassment for Tel Aviv as Netanyahu has made African diplomacy a pillar in his foreign policy. Last June, he visited Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda. He was accompanied by a large delegation of business executives. Earlier in June, he promised African leaders at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit in Liberia to supply them with agricultural technology that would stave off droughts and food scarcity.</p>
<p>The price? <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/news-africa/1612940/sa-to-boycott-upcoming-african-israeli-summit-in-togo/" type="external">According to African News Agency</a> (ANA), “Israeli technology would solve Africa’s most urgent issues—as long as African nations opposed UN resolutions critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”</p>
<p>Not all African leaders allowed themselves to be manipulated by Tel Aviv.</p>
<p>But the Israeli tactic is certainly becoming more defined and emboldened. Tel Aviv’s aim is to undercut the support of Palestinians at the UN General Assembly, and sabotage the work of UN bodies that exist outside the realm of US power.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, it also wants to secure a seat for itself at the UN Security Council. The assumption is that, with the support of Haley at the UN, such a possibility is not far-fetched.</p>
<p>In addition to the five-permeant veto-wielding UN Security Council members, ten-member countries are elected on a two-year term basis. Israel’s charm offensive in Latin America, Africa and Asia is meant to ensure the needed vote to grant it a seat in the 2019-2020 term.</p>
<p>The vote will take place next year, and Israel will stand against Germany and Belgium.</p>
<p>Israel’s strategy of elevating its status at the UN can also been seen as an admission of failure of Tel Aviv’s antagonistic behavior. &#160;However, if Israel wins that seat, it is likely to use the new position to strengthen its occupation of Palestine, as opposed to adhering to international law.</p>
<p>It is unfortunate that the Arabs and the Palestinian Authority are <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2017/09/palestinian-authority-security/" type="external">waking up</a> to this reality quite late. Israel has been plotting for this moment for years—since 2005 under the premiership of Ariel Sharon—yet the PA is only now requesting an Arab League strategy to prevent Israel from reaching that influential position.</p>
<p>What Palestinians are counting on, at the moment, is the existing historical support that the Palestinian people have among many countries around the world, especially in the global South.</p>
<p>Most of these nations have experienced colonization, military occupation and had their own costly and painful liberation struggles. They <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170913-israel-should-back-off-africa-does-not-need-a-modern-colonial-master/" type="external">should not allow</a> a colonialist regime to sit atop of the UN, obstructing international law while preaching to world about democracy and human rights.</p> | false | 1 | israel desperately sought legitimized un done utmost delegitimize un great irony fact israel seeking seat united nations security council unsc since establishment atop ruins palestinian cities villages 1948 israel precarious relationship worlds largest international body desperately sought legitimized un done utmost delegitimize un following resolution un human rights council unhrc condemning israels human rights abuses occupied palestinian territory march 2014 israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu accused un absurd vowed continue denounce expose un procession hypocrisy many years israeli leaders government officials made habit undermining un various bodies unconditional support washington habitually ignored numerous un resolutions regarding illegal occupation palestine certain extent israeli strategy using abusing un worked us vetoes blocking un attempts pressure israel end military occupation human rights violations israel rush comply international law two major events forced israeli rethink first december 2016 us abstained un resolution condemned israels illegal settlement activities occupied palestinian territories breaking decadeslong tradition shielding israel international censure appeared even washingtons seemingly undying allegiance tel aviv uncertain second palestinianled boycott divestment sanctions bds movement began changing dynamics international politics regarding israeli occupation movement began call palestinian civil society hold israel accountable violations palestinian human rights grew rapidly become global movement hundreds local bds groups multiplied around world joined artists academicians union members elected politicians within years bds registered serious tool pressure used denounce israeli occupation demand justice palestinian people unhrc quickly joined declaring intention release list thus exposing names companies must boycotted operating illegal israeli settlements human rights groups efforts coupled repeated condemnations israels human rights violations recorded un cultural agency unesco meant un bodies allow vetowielding members grew ability challenge un security council actions unhrc unesco spurred determined israeliamerican campaign delegitimize since donald trump administrations advent power help ambassador un nikki haley washington waged war un using intimidation threats withholding funds unesco insisted position despite cutting funds meanwhile unhrc decided go along publishing list companies despite us threats pull human rights body altogether according israels channel 2 list includes cocacola tripadvisor airbnb priceline caterpillar also includes national israeli companies two large banks israeli officials fumed deputy foreign minister tzipi hotovely charged un playing fire threatening initiative cause loss un budget even declared us israel working together start revolution human rights council joint action plan signs oddly termed revolution already apparent aside choking un bodies financially israel lobbying countries south traditionally exhibited solidarity palestinians due common historical bonds foreign oppression anticolonial struggles netanyahu concluded trip latin america considered first sitting israeli prime minister last leg trip mexico offered develop central america price course latin american countries support israels occupation palestine turn blind eye human rights violations palestine irony fortunately escape everyone last january netanyahu declared support trumps promise wall usmexico border force mexico pay remains seen israels efforts win latin america israels side considering latters terrible record supporting fascist regimes subverting democracy israeli prime ministers charm offensive planned include togo october attend israelafrica summit thanks efforts south africa morocco among countries summit cancelled due fact half african countries planning boycott setback must major diplomatic embarrassment tel aviv netanyahu made african diplomacy pillar foreign policy last june visited uganda kenya ethiopia tanzania rwanda accompanied large delegation business executives earlier june promised african leaders economic community west african states ecowas summit liberia supply agricultural technology would stave droughts food scarcity price according african news agency ana israeli technology would solve africas urgent issuesas long african nations opposed un resolutions critical israels occupation palestine african leaders allowed manipulated tel aviv israeli tactic certainly becoming defined emboldened tel avivs aim undercut support palestinians un general assembly sabotage work un bodies exist outside realm us power meanwhile also wants secure seat un security council assumption support haley un possibility farfetched addition fivepermeant vetowielding un security council members tenmember countries elected twoyear term basis israels charm offensive latin america africa asia meant ensure needed vote grant seat 20192020 term vote take place next year israel stand germany belgium israels strategy elevating status un also seen admission failure tel avivs antagonistic behavior 160however israel wins seat likely use new position strengthen occupation palestine opposed adhering international law unfortunate arabs palestinian authority waking reality quite late israel plotting moment yearssince 2005 premiership ariel sharonyet pa requesting arab league strategy prevent israel reaching influential position palestinians counting moment existing historical support palestinian people among many countries around world especially global south nations experienced colonization military occupation costly painful liberation struggles allow colonialist regime sit atop un obstructing international law preaching world democracy human rights | 740 |
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) – Czech Petra Kvitova added another chapter to her comeback story by stunning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza in straight sets to reach the U.S. Open quarter-finals, while Maria Sharapova’s return to the big stage ended in defeat to Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.</p>
<p>Kvitova, whose progress has been slow but steady since a horrifying knife attack on her left hand in December, showed similar fighting spirit that won her the Birmingham title this year as she dismissed the third seed 7-6(3) 6-3 in one hour and 45 minutes.</p>
<p>The twice Wimbledon champion, playing in only her eighth tournament since her career-threatening injury, set up a last eight clash with Venus Williams after the American dumped out Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 3-6 6-1.</p>
<p>Venus has reached grand slam finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year and Kvitova said she would have a tough task ahead.</p>
<p>“It will be a great match for me to step on Ashe again probably and play there. I mean, we always had tough battles. I will try my best. I mean, she has a big serve, big server of course,” she said.</p>
<p>Wildcard Sharapova, who played in her first major since a 15-month doping ban, said there were a lot of positives in her defeat by Sevastova. “Just competing, you know, being in that competitive environment. That’s what I missed,” she said.</p>
<p>Sharapova’s power play was nullified by the 16th seed’s control and delicate touch, and she eventually ground out a 5-7 6-4 6-2 win in two hours and 16 minutes.</p>
<p>Sevastova meets the unseeded Sloane Stephens after the American reached the quarter-finals for the first time in her career with a 6-3 3-6 6-1 win over Julia Goerges of Germany.</p>
<p>Sam Querrey, the last American standing in the men’s singles, powered past Germany’s Mischa Zverev 6-2 6-2 6-1 in one hour and 15 minutes, the shortest completed men’s singles match of the tournament so far.</p>
<p>Next up for Querrey, the first American man to reach the U.S. Open quarter-finals since 2011, is South Africa’s 28th seed Kevin Anderson, who outlasted Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-4 6-4 6-7(4) 6-4.</p>
<p>Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov was knocked out by Pablo Carreno Busta 7-6(2) 7-6(4) 7-6(3) and the Spaniard was joined in the last eight by Argentine Diego Schwartzman who downed 16th seed Lucas Pouille of France 7-6(3) 7-5 2-6 6-2.</p>
<p>Highlights from day seven of the U.S. Open tennis championships on Sunday (times GMT):</p>
<p>0356 QUERREY KNOCKS OUT ZVEREV</p>
<p>– Sam Querrey, the last American standing in the men’s singles, blasted 55 winners and 18 aces in his routine 6-2 6-2 6-1 win over Germany’s Mischa Zverev in one hour and 15 minutes.</p>
<p>– Querrey, seeded 17th, meets South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in the quarter-finals.</p>
<p>0215 KVITOVA STUNS MUGURUZA, ENTERS LAST EIGHT</p>
<p>– A resurgent Petra Kvitova stunned Spain’s Wimbledon champion and third seed Garbine Muguruza 7-6(3) 6-3 to enter the quarter-finals in one hour and 45 minutes.</p>
<p>– The 13th seeded Czech, a two-time grand slam champion, faces American Venus Williams next.</p>
<p>0015 ANDERSON MARCHES INTO QUARTER-FINALS</p>
<p>– South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, the men’s 28th seed, beat Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-4 6-4 6-7(4) 6-4.</p>
<p>– Anderson faces either Germany’s Mischa Zverev or American Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals.</p>
<p>2320 VENUS KEEPS HOME SLAM HOPES ALIVE</p>
<p>– Venus Williams advances to the quarter-finals with a 6-3 3-6 6-1 win over Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro.</p>
<p>– The ninth seed will play either Czech Petra Kvitova or reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza next.</p>
<p>2245 SCHWARTZMAN ENDS POUILLE’S RUN AT U.S. OPEN</p>
<p>– Argentine Diego Schwartzman knocked out men’s 16th seed Lucas Pouille of France 7-6(3) 7-5 2-6 6-2 to reach the last eight.</p>
<p>– The unseeded Schwartzman, who beat fifth seed Marin Cilic in the third round, meets 12th seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta for a place in the semi-finals.</p>
<p>2105 SHARAPOVA KNOCKED OUT BY SEVASTOVA</p>
<p>– Russian wild card Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the U.S. Open in the fourth round after losing 5-7 6-4 6-2 to Latvian 16th seed Anastasija Sevastova.</p>
<p>– Former world number one Sharapova made a total of 51 unforced errors as she crashed out.</p>
<p>– Sevastova faces American Sloane Stephens in the quarter-finals.</p>
<p>2055 STEPHENS THROUGH AFTER DOWNING GOERGES</p>
<p>– Unseeded American Sloane Stephens reached the quarter-finals for the first time after beating women’s 30th seed Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3 3-6 6-1.</p>
<p>READ MORE:</p>
<p>Stephens simply happy to be running around courts again</p>
<p>Power battle as Del Potro faces Thiem at U.S. Open</p>
<p>Sharapova knocked out of U.S. Open fourth round</p>
<p>Shapovalov hopes to give Canadian tennis a boost</p>
<p>Carreno Busta dispatches newcomer Shapovalov</p>
<p>U.S. Open order of play on Sunday</p>
<p>Five things to watch out for on Day 7 of the U.S. Open</p>
<p>Women main focus on Arthur Ashe on Sunday</p>
<p>SHOWCASE-Tennis-Resurgent Kvitova faces trickiest challenge nL4N1LK004]</p>
<p>Sharapova, Venus in action on soggy Sunday at U.S. Open</p>
<p>1745 CARRENO BUSTA BEATS SHAPOVALOV</p>
<p>– Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta won a hard-fought match against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, beating the 18-year-old 7-6(2) 7-6(4) 7-6(3) to reach the quarter-finals.</p>
<p>– The 12th seed has reached the last eight of the U.S. Open for the first time and will face either Argentine Diego Schwartzman or Frenchman Lucas Pouille.</p>
<p>– Carreno Busta also reached the quarter-finals of the French Open this year.</p>
<p>1525 PLAY BEGINS AT FLUSHING MEADOWS</p>
<p>– Spain’s 12th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta kicks off the action against 18-year-old Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the fourth round at the Arthur Ashe stadium, followed by Russian Maria Sharapova’s match against Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.</p>
<p>– Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain takes on two-time grand-slam winner Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic on the main showcourt later on Sunday.</p>
<p>– American Sloane Stephens will play 30th-seed Julia Goerges of Germany at the Louis Armstrong stadium.</p>
<p>– Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman, who knocked out fifth seed Marin Cilic in the third round, faces 16th-seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille.</p> | false | 1 | new york reuters czech petra kvitova added another chapter comeback story stunning wimbledon champion garbine muguruza straight sets reach us open quarterfinals maria sharapovas return big stage ended defeat latvian anastasija sevastova kvitova whose progress slow steady since horrifying knife attack left hand december showed similar fighting spirit birmingham title year dismissed third seed 763 63 one hour 45 minutes twice wimbledon champion playing eighth tournament since careerthreatening injury set last eight clash venus williams american dumped spaniard carla suarez navarro 63 36 61 venus reached grand slam finals australian open wimbledon year kvitova said would tough task ahead great match step ashe probably play mean always tough battles try best mean big serve big server course said wildcard sharapova played first major since 15month doping ban said lot positives defeat sevastova competing know competitive environment thats missed said sharapovas power play nullified 16th seeds control delicate touch eventually ground 57 64 62 win two hours 16 minutes sevastova meets unseeded sloane stephens american reached quarterfinals first time career 63 36 61 win julia goerges germany sam querrey last american standing mens singles powered past germanys mischa zverev 62 62 61 one hour 15 minutes shortest completed mens singles match tournament far next querrey first american man reach us open quarterfinals since 2011 south africas 28th seed kevin anderson outlasted italian paolo lorenzi 64 64 674 64 canadian teenager denis shapovalov knocked pablo carreno busta 762 764 763 spaniard joined last eight argentine diego schwartzman downed 16th seed lucas pouille france 763 75 26 62 highlights day seven us open tennis championships sunday times gmt 0356 querrey knocks zverev sam querrey last american standing mens singles blasted 55 winners 18 aces routine 62 62 61 win germanys mischa zverev one hour 15 minutes querrey seeded 17th meets south africas kevin anderson quarterfinals 0215 kvitova stuns muguruza enters last eight resurgent petra kvitova stunned spains wimbledon champion third seed garbine muguruza 763 63 enter quarterfinals one hour 45 minutes 13th seeded czech twotime grand slam champion faces american venus williams next 0015 anderson marches quarterfinals south africas kevin anderson mens 28th seed beat italian paolo lorenzi 64 64 674 64 anderson faces either germanys mischa zverev american sam querrey quarterfinals 2320 venus keeps home slam hopes alive venus williams advances quarterfinals 63 36 61 win spaniard carla suarez navarro ninth seed play either czech petra kvitova reigning wimbledon champion garbine muguruza next 2245 schwartzman ends pouilles run us open argentine diego schwartzman knocked mens 16th seed lucas pouille france 763 75 26 62 reach last eight unseeded schwartzman beat fifth seed marin cilic third round meets 12th seeded spaniard pablo carreno busta place semifinals 2105 sharapova knocked sevastova russian wild card maria sharapova knocked us open fourth round losing 57 64 62 latvian 16th seed anastasija sevastova former world number one sharapova made total 51 unforced errors crashed sevastova faces american sloane stephens quarterfinals 2055 stephens downing goerges unseeded american sloane stephens reached quarterfinals first time beating womens 30th seed julia goerges germany 63 36 61 read stephens simply happy running around courts power battle del potro faces thiem us open sharapova knocked us open fourth round shapovalov hopes give canadian tennis boost carreno busta dispatches newcomer shapovalov us open order play sunday five things watch day 7 us open women main focus arthur ashe sunday showcasetennisresurgent kvitova faces trickiest challenge nl4n1lk004 sharapova venus action soggy sunday us open 1745 carreno busta beats shapovalov spains pablo carreno busta hardfought match canadas denis shapovalov beating 18yearold 762 764 763 reach quarterfinals 12th seed reached last eight us open first time face either argentine diego schwartzman frenchman lucas pouille carreno busta also reached quarterfinals french open year 1525 play begins flushing meadows spains 12thseeded pablo carreno busta kicks action 18yearold canadian denis shapovalov fourth round arthur ashe stadium followed russian maria sharapovas match latvian anastasija sevastova wimbledon champion garbine muguruza spain takes twotime grandslam winner petra kvitova czech republic main showcourt later sunday american sloane stephens play 30thseed julia goerges germany louis armstrong stadium argentinas diego schwartzman knocked fifth seed marin cilic third round faces 16thseeded frenchman lucas pouille | 686 |
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<p>Currently the ongoing situation in Mali is gaining traction in the media, with the reporting of Al Qaeda members within the ranks of the Tuareg rebels. The situation is quite complicated and involves not only France, but also the US and partially Canada, and links to the interests of these Western powers with not just Mali, but with the African continent as a whole. However, in order to get a better handle on the situation, there must first be an understanding of the domestic actors, namely the Tuareg people.</p>
<p>The Tuareg People</p>
<p>The Tuareg are a people that have lived in northern Mali “as early as the fifth century BCE”[1] according to Herodotus. After establishing the city of Timbuktu in the 11th century, the Tuareg “traded, traveled, and conquered throughout Saharan” over the next four centuries, eventually converting to Islam in the 14th century, which allowed them to “gained great wealth trading salt, gold, and black slaves.”[2]</p>
<p>This independence was swept away when the French colonized Mali when they “defeated the Tuareg at Timbuktu and established borders and administrative districts to rule the area until Mali declared independence in 1960.”[3]</p>
<p>The Tuareg people have consistently wanted self-independence and in pursuit of such goals have engaged in a number of rebellions. The first was in 1916 when, in response to the French not giving the Tuareg their own autonomous zone (called Azawad) as was promised, they revolted. The French violently quelled the revolt and “subsequently confiscated important grazing lands while using Tuaregs as forced conscripts and labor—and fragmented Tuareg societies through the drawing of arbitrary boundaries between Soudan (Mali) and its neighbors.”[4]</p>
<p>Yet, this did not end the Tuareg goal of an independent, sovereign state. Once the French had ceded Mali independence, the Tuareg began to push toward their dream of establishing Azawad once again with “several prominent Tuareg leaders [lobbying] for a separate Tuareg homeland consisting of northern Mali and parts of modern day Algeria, Niger, Mauritania. […] [However,] black politicians like Modibo Keita, Mali’s first President, made it clear that independent Mali would not cede its northern territories.[5]”</p>
<p>The First Tuareg Rebellion</p>
<p>In the 1960s, while the independence movements in Africa were beginning, the Tuareg once again vied for their own autonomy, known as the Afellaga rebellion. The Tuareg were greatly oppressed by the government of Modibo Keita, which came into power after the French had left, as they “were singled out for particular discrimination, and were more neglected than others in the distribution of state benefits,” which may have been due to the fact that “most of the senior leadership of post-colonial Mali were drawn from the southern ethnic groups who were not sympathetic to the pastoral culture of the northern desert nomads.”[6]</p>
<p>In addition to this, the Tuareg felt that the government’s policy of ‘modernization’ was in reality an attack on the Tuareg themselves as the Keita government enacted policies such as “land reform that threatened [the Tuareg’s] privileged access to agricultural products.”[7] Specifically, Keita “had moved increasingly in the direction of [establishing a version of] the Soviet collective farm and had created state corporations to monopolize the purchase of basic crops.”[8] In addition to this, Keita left customary land rights unchanged “except when the state needed land for industry or transport. Then the Minister of Rural Economy issued a decree of acquisition and registration in the name of the state, but only after publication of notice and a hearing to determine customary claims.”[9] Unfortunately for the Tuareg, this unchanging of customary land rights did not apply to the subsoil that was on their land. Instead, this subsoil was turned into a state monopoly due to Keita’s desire to ensure that no one became a capitalist based on the discovery of subsoil resources.</p>
<p>This had a major negative impact on the Tuareg as they had a pastoral culture and the subsoil helps to “determine what kind of crops can be grown in any area and, therefore, what livestock can be raised.”[10] Thus, by creating a state monopoly on subsoil, the Keita government was effectively in control of what the Tuareg would be able to grow and therefore in control of their very lives.</p>
<p>This oppression eventually boiled over and became the first Tuareg rebellion, which began with small hit-and-run attacks on government forces. However, it was quickly crushed due to the Tuareg lacking “a unified leadership, a well-coordinated strategy or clear evidence of a coherent strategic vision.”[11] In addition to this, the rebels were unable to mobilize the entire Tuareg community.</p>
<p>The Malian military, well-motivated and [well-equipped] with new Soviet weapons, conducted vigorous counterinsurgency operations. By the end of 1964, the government’s strong arm methods had crushed the rebellion. It then placed the Tuareg-populated northern regions under a repressive military administration.[12]</p>
<p>Yet while the Malian military may have won the battle, they failed to win the war as their heavy-handed tactics not only alienated Tuareg who didn’t support the insurgency, but in addition to this the government failed to follow through on promises to improve the local infrastructure and increase economic opportunity. To avoid the military occupation of their communities, as well as due to massive drought in the 1980s, many Tuareg fled to nearby countries such as Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya. Thus, the grievances of the Tuareg went unaddressed, only creating a situation in which a rebellion would once again occur.</p>
<p>The Second Tuareg Rebellion</p>
<p>The raging inferno that was the spirit of independence of the Tuareg people once again came back to life in 1990. It must be noted that Tuareg had greatly changed since the 1960s and moved from a socialist government to a military dictatorship that (due to massive pressure from the people) quickly changed to a transitional government with military and civilian leaders, finally fully becoming democratic in 1992.[13]</p>
<p>While Mali was transitioning to a democracy, the Tuareg people were still suffering under the boot of oppression. Three decades after the first rebellion, the occupation of Tuareg communities still had not ended and “resentment fueled by the harsh repression, continued dissatisfaction with government policies, and perceived exclusion from political power led various Tuareg and Arab groups to begin a second rebellion against the Malian government.”[14]</p>
<p>The second rebellion was sparked due to “attacks on non-Tuareg Malians [at] the southernmost edge of the Tuareg regions [which led to] skirmishes between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels.”[15] Yet it did not last long as the first major step to peace was made in 1991 by the transitional government and resulted in the Tamanrasset Accords, which was negotiated in Algeria between the military government of Lt. Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré (who had taken power in a coup on March 26, 1991) and the two major Tuareg factions, The Azaouad Popular Movement and the Arabic Islamic Front of Azawad, on January 6, 1991. In the Accords, the Malian military agreed to “disengage from the running of the civil administration and will proceed to the suppression of certain military posts,” “avoid zones of pasture land and densely populated zones,” to be “confined to their role of defense of the integrity of the territory at the frontiers,”[16] and created a ceasefire between the two main Tuareg factions and the government.</p>
<p>However, not all of the Tuareg factions signed onto the Accords, as many rebel groups demanded “among other concessions, the removal of current administrators in the north and their replacement with local representatives.”[17] The Accords represented a political compromise in which more autonomy was granted to Tuareg communities and local and regional councils made up of local representatives were established, yet the Tuareg still remained a part of Mali. Thus, the Accords were not the end-all-be-all of the situation, as tensions remained between the Tuareg and the Malian government.</p>
<p>The transitionary government of Mali attempted to negotiate with the Tuareg. This culminated in the April 1992 National Pact between the Malian government and several Tuareg factions. The National Pact allowed for “integration of Tuareg combatants into the Malian armed forces, demilitarization of the north, economic integration of northern populations, and a more detailed special administrative structure for the three northern regions.”[18]</p>
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<p /> | false | 1 | download article pdf currently ongoing situation mali gaining traction media reporting al qaeda members within ranks tuareg rebels situation quite complicated involves france also us partially canada links interests western powers mali african continent whole however order get better handle situation must first understanding domestic actors namely tuareg people tuareg people tuareg people lived northern mali early fifth century bce1 according herodotus establishing city timbuktu 11th century tuareg traded traveled conquered throughout saharan next four centuries eventually converting islam 14th century allowed gained great wealth trading salt gold black slaves2 independence swept away french colonized mali defeated tuareg timbuktu established borders administrative districts rule area mali declared independence 19603 tuareg people consistently wanted selfindependence pursuit goals engaged number rebellions first 1916 response french giving tuareg autonomous zone called azawad promised revolted french violently quelled revolt subsequently confiscated important grazing lands using tuaregs forced conscripts laborand fragmented tuareg societies drawing arbitrary boundaries soudan mali neighbors4 yet end tuareg goal independent sovereign state french ceded mali independence tuareg began push toward dream establishing azawad several prominent tuareg leaders lobbying separate tuareg homeland consisting northern mali parts modern day algeria niger mauritania however black politicians like modibo keita malis first president made clear independent mali would cede northern territories5 first tuareg rebellion 1960s independence movements africa beginning tuareg vied autonomy known afellaga rebellion tuareg greatly oppressed government modibo keita came power french left singled particular discrimination neglected others distribution state benefits may due fact senior leadership postcolonial mali drawn southern ethnic groups sympathetic pastoral culture northern desert nomads6 addition tuareg felt governments policy modernization reality attack tuareg keita government enacted policies land reform threatened tuaregs privileged access agricultural products7 specifically keita moved increasingly direction establishing version soviet collective farm created state corporations monopolize purchase basic crops8 addition keita left customary land rights unchanged except state needed land industry transport minister rural economy issued decree acquisition registration name state publication notice hearing determine customary claims9 unfortunately tuareg unchanging customary land rights apply subsoil land instead subsoil turned state monopoly due keitas desire ensure one became capitalist based discovery subsoil resources major negative impact tuareg pastoral culture subsoil helps determine kind crops grown area therefore livestock raised10 thus creating state monopoly subsoil keita government effectively control tuareg would able grow therefore control lives oppression eventually boiled became first tuareg rebellion began small hitandrun attacks government forces however quickly crushed due tuareg lacking unified leadership wellcoordinated strategy clear evidence coherent strategic vision11 addition rebels unable mobilize entire tuareg community malian military wellmotivated wellequipped new soviet weapons conducted vigorous counterinsurgency operations end 1964 governments strong arm methods crushed rebellion placed tuaregpopulated northern regions repressive military administration12 yet malian military may battle failed win war heavyhanded tactics alienated tuareg didnt support insurgency addition government failed follow promises improve local infrastructure increase economic opportunity avoid military occupation communities well due massive drought 1980s many tuareg fled nearby countries algeria mauritania libya thus grievances tuareg went unaddressed creating situation rebellion would occur second tuareg rebellion raging inferno spirit independence tuareg people came back life 1990 must noted tuareg greatly changed since 1960s moved socialist government military dictatorship due massive pressure people quickly changed transitional government military civilian leaders finally fully becoming democratic 199213 mali transitioning democracy tuareg people still suffering boot oppression three decades first rebellion occupation tuareg communities still ended resentment fueled harsh repression continued dissatisfaction government policies perceived exclusion political power led various tuareg arab groups begin second rebellion malian government14 second rebellion sparked due attacks nontuareg malians southernmost edge tuareg regions led skirmishes malian army tuareg rebels15 yet last long first major step peace made 1991 transitional government resulted tamanrasset accords negotiated algeria military government lt colonel amadou toumani touré taken power coup march 26 1991 two major tuareg factions azaouad popular movement arabic islamic front azawad january 6 1991 accords malian military agreed disengage running civil administration proceed suppression certain military posts avoid zones pasture land densely populated zones confined role defense integrity territory frontiers16 created ceasefire two main tuareg factions government however tuareg factions signed onto accords many rebel groups demanded among concessions removal current administrators north replacement local representatives17 accords represented political compromise autonomy granted tuareg communities local regional councils made local representatives established yet tuareg still remained part mali thus accords endallbeall situation tensions remained tuareg malian government transitionary government mali attempted negotiate tuareg culminated april 1992 national pact malian government several tuareg factions national pact allowed integration tuareg combatants malian armed forces demilitarization north economic integration northern populations detailed special administrative structure three northern regions18 | 753 |
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<p>I doubt that the Ukraine crisis precipitated by Washington’s overthrow of the democratic government is over.&#160; Washington has won the propaganda war everywhere outside of Russia and Ukraine itself. Within Ukraine people are aware that the coup has made them worse off.&#160; The Crimea has already separated from the US puppet government in Kiev and rejoined Russia. Other parts of Russian Ukraine could follow.</p>
<p>In Kiev itself where the unelected, imposed-by-Washington dictatorial government resides, extreme right-wing Ukrainian nationalists, whose roots go back to fighting for National Socialist Germany, are at work intimidating public prosecutors, media editors, and the US imposed “government” itself.&#160; There is an abundance of videos available on the Internet, some made by the extreme nationalists themselves, that clearly reveal the intimidation of the imposed and unelected government installed by Washington.</p>
<p>In Kiev US bribes contend with naked neo-nazi force. Which will prevail?</p>
<p>The murder of ultra-nationalist Right Sector militant leader Myzychko by police of the acting Interior Minister of the American stooge government in Ukraine on March 25 has resulted in another Right Sector leader, Dmitry Yarosh, demanding the resignation of Arsen Avakov, the acting Interior Minister and the arrest of the police who killed Muzychko. Yarosh declared: “We cannot watch silently as the Interior Ministry works to undermine the revolution.” Right Sector organizer Roman Koval in Rovno, Ukraine, warned: “We will take revenge on Avakov for the death of our brother.”</p>
<p>How this will play out is uncertain at this time. The violence provided by the Right Sector and other ultra-nationalist groups was essential to the success of the Washington-backed coup in overthrowing the elected democratic government. But the Right Sector has emerged as both an embarrassment and a threat to the unelected coup government and to its Washington sponsors who are selling the Washington-installed puppet government as a progressive exercise in democracy. This sell is difficult when ultra-nationalist thugs are beating up the imposed government.</p>
<p>Could civil war break out in Kiev between the Right Sector and the government installed by Washington?&#160; We know that the Right Sector was sufficiently organized and disciplined to take over the protests.&#160; We don’t know how well organized is the Washington puppet government or what force this group has at its disposal. We don’t know whether Washington has provided mercenaries to protect the government Washington has installed. It is not clear at this time where the power balance lies between the Right Sector and the US stooge government.</p>
<p>The American, UK, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, EU propaganda machine has blamed Putin for all the trouble.&#160; But so far the Russian government has not had to do anything except comply with the self-determination of the people in the Russian areas of Ukraine.&#160; Much of Ukraine, as it exists or existed today, consists of Russian territories added to Ukraine by Soviet rulers.</p>
<p>When Ukraine became independent with Russia’s agreement when the Soviet Union collapsed, had the Russian territories first been put back into Russia from whence they came, Washington’s coup would not have resulted in the same level of crisis.</p>
<p>Instead, under Washington’s pressure, the Russian territory was retained by Ukraine, and in compensation Russia was given a 50-year lease on Sevastopol, Russia’s Black Sea naval base.</p>
<p>The purpose of the Washington financed and orchestrated coup in Kiev was to put Ukraine, with its artificial boundaries, into the EU and NATO and to evict Russia from its warm water port and ring Russia with US missile bases.&#160; Washington and its European puppets described this as “bringing democracy to Ukraine.”</p>
<p>Ukraine already had democracy, a young one trying to put down roots, and Washington&#160;destroyed it.&#160; As Russian President Putin observed, overthrowing a brand new democracy destroys democracy. Washington’s coup established for Ukraine the precedent&#160;that force and propaganda rule, not democracy.</p>
<p>But Washington cares not for democracy, only for its agenda.&#160; And Russia, China, and Iran are in the way.</p>
<p>The neoconservatives, who have controlled US foreign policy since the Clinton regime,&#160; concluded that the Soviet collapse meant that History has chosen America as the socio-economic system for the world. They declared the US to be “exceptional” and “indispensable” and above international law.&#160; Washington had a free pass to invade, murder, destroy, and dominate.&#160; The neoconservative claims of “American exceptionalism” sound like Hitler’s claims for the German nation. When the White House sock puppet expressed in a speech the claim of American exceptionalism, Putin replied: “God made us all equal.”</p>
<p>Washington’s opinion is that the exceptional and indispensable nation—the US—is above not only all other nations but also above law. What Washington does is legal.&#160; What anyone else does in opposition is illegal.</p>
<p>Washington’s intervention in Ukraine has unleashed dark forces. Yulia Tymoshenko, the criminal Ukrainian oligarch, who braids her hair or hair piece&#160;over her head like a crown, was released from prison by Washington’s stooges and has not stopped putting her foot, or both feet, in her mouth.&#160; Her latest in her intercepted and <a href="http://rt.com/news/tymoshenko-calls-destroy-russia-917/" type="external">leaked telephone conversation</a> is her declaration that “it’s about time we grab our guns and go kill those damn Russians together with their leader.” She declared that not even scorched earth should be left where Russia stands.</p>
<p>Tymoshenko was sentenced to prison by Ukrainians, not by Russians. Contrast her extreme language and Russophobia with the calm measured tones of Putin, who reaffirms Russia’s interest to continue good relations with Ukraine.</p>
<p>On March 23, Tymoshenko was interviewed by the German newspaper, Bild, a mouthpiece for Washington. The crazed Tymoshenko <a href="http://rt.com/news/tymoshenko-calls-destroy-russia-917/" type="external">declared</a> that Putin was even more dangerous than Hitler.</p>
<p>This year 2014 is the 100th anniversary of World War I. As my Oxford professor, Michael Polanyi, said, this was the war that destroyed Europe.&#160; He meant culturally and morally as well as physically.&#160; As John Maynard Keynes made clear in his prediction, the propagandistic way in which World War I was blamed on Germany and the “peace” that was imposed on Germany set up World War II.</p>
<p>We are witnesses today to the same kind of propagandistic lies with regard to Russia that caused World War I. In The Genesis Of The World War, Harry Elmer Barnes quotes the French chief editor of a French account of the organization of propaganda in France during World War I. The French built a massive building called La Maison de la Presse. In this building images of people were created with hands cut off, tongues torn out, eyes gouged out, and skulls crushed with brains laid bare. These images were then photographed and “sent as unassailable evidence of German atrocities to all parts of the globe, where they did not fail to produce the desired effect.”&#160; Also provided were “fictitious photographs of bombarded French and Belgian churches, violated graves and monuments and scenes of ruins and desolation. The staging and painting of these scenes were done by the best scene-painters of the Paris Grand Opera.”</p>
<p>This vicious propaganda against Germany meant that Germany could be blamed for the war and that all of President Woodrow Wilson’s guarantees to Germany of no reparations and no territorial loss if Germany agreed to an armistice could be violated.</p>
<p>The propaganda success guaranteed that the peace settlement would be so one-sided as to set up the Second World War.</p>
<p>Russia has observed Washington’s strategic moves against Russian national interests and Russian sovereignty for two decades.&#160; What does Putin think when he hears the vicious anti-Russian propaganda based 100% in lies?</p>
<p>This is what Putin thinks:&#160; The Americans promised Gorbachev that they would not take NATO into Eastern Europe, but the Americans did. The Americans withdrew from the ABM Treaty, which prohibited escalating the arms race with anti-ballistic missile systems.&#160; The Americans arranged with Poland to deploy anti-ballistic missile bases on Poland’s border with Russia.&#160; The Americans tell us the fantastic lie that the purpose of American missile bases in Poland is to protect Europe from non-existent Iranian ICBMs.&#160; The Americans change their war doctrine to elevate nuclear weapons from a retaliatory deterrent to a pre-emptive first strike force.&#160; The Americans pretend that this change in war doctrine is directed at terrorists, but we know it is directed at Russia. The Americans have financed “color revolutions” in Georgia and Ukraine and hope to do so in the Russian Federation itself. The Americans support the terrorists in Chechnya. The Americans trained and equipped the Georgian military and gave it the green light to attack our peacekeepers in South Ossetia. The Americans have financed the overthrow of the elected government in Ukraine and blame me for the anxiety this caused among Crimeans who on their own volition fled Ukraine and returned to Russia from whence they came.&#160; Even Gorbachev said that Khrushchev should never have put Crimea into Ukraine. Solzhenitsyn said that Lenin should not have put Russian provinces into eastern and southern Ukraine.&#160; Now I have these Russian provinces agitating to return to Russia, and the Americans are blaming me for the consequences of their own reckless and irresponsible actions.</p>
<p>The Americans say I want to rebuild the Soviet Empire. Yet, the Americans witnessed me depart from Georgia when I had this former Russian province in my hands, thanks to the short-lived war instigated by the Americans.</p>
<p>There is no end to the American lies.&#160; I have done everything possible to respond to provocations in a low-key reasonable manner, offering to work things out diplomatically, as has my Foreign Minister Lavrov. But the Americans continue to provoke and to hide their provocations behind lies.&#160; The Americans brazenly bring to me a strategic threat in Ukraine. They intend to put Ukraine in NATO, the purpose of which expired with the Soviet collapse. They intend to put more missile bases on Russia’s borders, and they intended to evict Russia from its Black Sea naval base, its warm water port</p>
<p>Americans have no intention of working anything out. They intend to subjugate Russia. Washington wants Russia powerless, surrounded with ABM bases that degrade our strategic deterrent to uselessness.&#160; These Americans will not work with me.&#160; They will not listen to me or to Russia’s Foreign Minister.&#160; They only hear their own call for American hegemony over the world.&#160; My only alternative is to prepare for war.</p>
<p>The government of China, having read Washington’s war plans for war against China and being fully away of Washington’s “pivot to Asia,” in which the “indispensable nation” announced its “safe-guarding of peace” by surrounding China with naval and air bases, understands that it has the same Washington enemy as does Russia.</p>
<p>What the entire world faces, every country, every individual regardless of their political orientation, is a Washington-engineered confrontation with Russia and China. This confrontation is enabled by Washington’s bought-and-paid-for European and UK puppet states. Without the cover provided by Europe, Washington’s acts of aggression would result in war crimes charges against the government in Washington.&#160; The world would not be able to enforce these charges without war, but Washington would be isolated.</p>
<p>The European, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and UK governments have betrayed&#160; not only their own peoples but also the peoples of the entire world by lending the support of Western Civilization to Washington’s lawlessness.</p>
<p>The propaganda that the West represents the hope of the world is a great lie.</p>
<p>This article was originally published at <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org" type="external">PaulCraigRoberts.org</a> and has been used here with permission.</p> | false | 1 | doubt ukraine crisis precipitated washingtons overthrow democratic government over160 washington propaganda war everywhere outside russia ukraine within ukraine people aware coup made worse off160 crimea already separated us puppet government kiev rejoined russia parts russian ukraine could follow kiev unelected imposedbywashington dictatorial government resides extreme rightwing ukrainian nationalists whose roots go back fighting national socialist germany work intimidating public prosecutors media editors us imposed government itself160 abundance videos available internet made extreme nationalists clearly reveal intimidation imposed unelected government installed washington kiev us bribes contend naked neonazi force prevail murder ultranationalist right sector militant leader myzychko police acting interior minister american stooge government ukraine march 25 resulted another right sector leader dmitry yarosh demanding resignation arsen avakov acting interior minister arrest police killed muzychko yarosh declared watch silently interior ministry works undermine revolution right sector organizer roman koval rovno ukraine warned take revenge avakov death brother play uncertain time violence provided right sector ultranationalist groups essential success washingtonbacked coup overthrowing elected democratic government right sector emerged embarrassment threat unelected coup government washington sponsors selling washingtoninstalled puppet government progressive exercise democracy sell difficult ultranationalist thugs beating imposed government could civil war break kiev right sector government installed washington160 know right sector sufficiently organized disciplined take protests160 dont know well organized washington puppet government force group disposal dont know whether washington provided mercenaries protect government washington installed clear time power balance lies right sector us stooge government american uk canadian australian new zealand eu propaganda machine blamed putin trouble160 far russian government anything except comply selfdetermination people russian areas ukraine160 much ukraine exists existed today consists russian territories added ukraine soviet rulers ukraine became independent russias agreement soviet union collapsed russian territories first put back russia whence came washingtons coup would resulted level crisis instead washingtons pressure russian territory retained ukraine compensation russia given 50year lease sevastopol russias black sea naval base purpose washington financed orchestrated coup kiev put ukraine artificial boundaries eu nato evict russia warm water port ring russia us missile bases160 washington european puppets described bringing democracy ukraine ukraine already democracy young one trying put roots washington160destroyed it160 russian president putin observed overthrowing brand new democracy destroys democracy washingtons coup established ukraine precedent160that force propaganda rule democracy washington cares democracy agenda160 russia china iran way neoconservatives controlled us foreign policy since clinton regime160 concluded soviet collapse meant history chosen america socioeconomic system world declared us exceptional indispensable international law160 washington free pass invade murder destroy dominate160 neoconservative claims american exceptionalism sound like hitlers claims german nation white house sock puppet expressed speech claim american exceptionalism putin replied god made us equal washingtons opinion exceptional indispensable nationthe usis nations also law washington legal160 anyone else opposition illegal washingtons intervention ukraine unleashed dark forces yulia tymoshenko criminal ukrainian oligarch braids hair hair piece160over head like crown released prison washingtons stooges stopped putting foot feet mouth160 latest intercepted leaked telephone conversation declaration time grab guns go kill damn russians together leader declared even scorched earth left russia stands tymoshenko sentenced prison ukrainians russians contrast extreme language russophobia calm measured tones putin reaffirms russias interest continue good relations ukraine march 23 tymoshenko interviewed german newspaper bild mouthpiece washington crazed tymoshenko declared putin even dangerous hitler year 2014 100th anniversary world war oxford professor michael polanyi said war destroyed europe160 meant culturally morally well physically160 john maynard keynes made clear prediction propagandistic way world war blamed germany peace imposed germany set world war ii witnesses today kind propagandistic lies regard russia caused world war genesis world war harry elmer barnes quotes french chief editor french account organization propaganda france world war french built massive building called la maison de la presse building images people created hands cut tongues torn eyes gouged skulls crushed brains laid bare images photographed sent unassailable evidence german atrocities parts globe fail produce desired effect160 also provided fictitious photographs bombarded french belgian churches violated graves monuments scenes ruins desolation staging painting scenes done best scenepainters paris grand opera vicious propaganda germany meant germany could blamed war president woodrow wilsons guarantees germany reparations territorial loss germany agreed armistice could violated propaganda success guaranteed peace settlement would onesided set second world war russia observed washingtons strategic moves russian national interests russian sovereignty two decades160 putin think hears vicious antirussian propaganda based 100 lies putin thinks160 americans promised gorbachev would take nato eastern europe americans americans withdrew abm treaty prohibited escalating arms race antiballistic missile systems160 americans arranged poland deploy antiballistic missile bases polands border russia160 americans tell us fantastic lie purpose american missile bases poland protect europe nonexistent iranian icbms160 americans change war doctrine elevate nuclear weapons retaliatory deterrent preemptive first strike force160 americans pretend change war doctrine directed terrorists know directed russia americans financed color revolutions georgia ukraine hope russian federation americans support terrorists chechnya americans trained equipped georgian military gave green light attack peacekeepers south ossetia americans financed overthrow elected government ukraine blame anxiety caused among crimeans volition fled ukraine returned russia whence came160 even gorbachev said khrushchev never put crimea ukraine solzhenitsyn said lenin put russian provinces eastern southern ukraine160 russian provinces agitating return russia americans blaming consequences reckless irresponsible actions americans say want rebuild soviet empire yet americans witnessed depart georgia former russian province hands thanks shortlived war instigated americans end american lies160 done everything possible respond provocations lowkey reasonable manner offering work things diplomatically foreign minister lavrov americans continue provoke hide provocations behind lies160 americans brazenly bring strategic threat ukraine intend put ukraine nato purpose expired soviet collapse intend put missile bases russias borders intended evict russia black sea naval base warm water port americans intention working anything intend subjugate russia washington wants russia powerless surrounded abm bases degrade strategic deterrent uselessness160 americans work me160 listen russias foreign minister160 hear call american hegemony world160 alternative prepare war government china read washingtons war plans war china fully away washingtons pivot asia indispensable nation announced safeguarding peace surrounding china naval air bases understands washington enemy russia entire world faces every country every individual regardless political orientation washingtonengineered confrontation russia china confrontation enabled washingtons boughtandpaidfor european uk puppet states without cover provided europe washingtons acts aggression would result war crimes charges government washington160 world would able enforce charges without war washington would isolated european canadian australian new zealand uk governments betrayed160 peoples also peoples entire world lending support western civilization washingtons lawlessness propaganda west represents hope world great lie article originally published paulcraigrobertsorg used permission | 1,065 |
<p>“Orphan” is one of those words that seems old-fashioned to modern ears — a word that evokes abject poverty in a Dickens novel. But in the years ahead, our reproductive technologies may lead us down a new, terrible path of creating orphans by design. In this case, the problem is not the tragic death of parents but the deliberate creation of children without living biological mothers or fathers — as if such bodily origins do not much matter, as if nurturing were the only dimension of parenthood that still has any meaning.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, a cadre of leading scientists has been working on “gamete harvesting” and “gamete engineering,” techniques that may be moving soon from the laboratory to the clinic. The first technique involves harvesting eggs from aborted fetuses and fertilizing them with sperm in the laboratory. The dead fetus, in other words, is the child’s biological mother. The second technique involves destroying human embryos, deriving embryonic stem cells, and turning those stem cells into sperm or eggs. The dead embryo, in other words, is the child’s biological mother or father. By these methods, we would produce children sprung from the dead, or children whose genetic parents were never allowed to be born, or children who resemble those who never had human faces.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Remarkably, it seems that even stem cells derived from male embryos can produce eggs, and in time stem cells from female embryos may be coaxed to produce sperm. In the age of embryo cloning, there is no reason the embryonic clone of a man cannot be used to provide eggs with a male genome or the embryonic clone of a woman used to produce sperm with a female genome. By this route, men and women are rapidly becoming interchangeable even when it comes to making babies. Armed with a growing mastery over modern biology, we make ourselves, in a sense, post-biological beings. We move beyond male and female.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Dr. Tal Biron-Shental, the lead researcher involved in harvesting eggs from aborted fetuses, offered this all-too-characteristic ethical reflection on her work: “I’m fully aware of the controversy about this — but probably, in some place, it will be ethically acceptable.” Apparently, this is all the justification she needs. And to read the technical descriptions of this research — so cold, so clinical, so inhuman — is to understand how the scientist’s conscience atrophies. Take this abstract, from the June 2005 meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology: “Because embryoid bodies sustain blood development, we reasoned that they might also support primordial germ cell formation. Although there is a lack of markers that can suitably distinguish between ES cells and PGCs, retinoic acid acts to rapidly differentiate ES cells while stimulating proliferation of PGCs.” In other words, it may be possible to destroy embryos and harvest usable eggs and sperm from their tiny cellular cadavers.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>As with any technique of assisted reproduction, the public demand for this research is driven primarily by the terrible pain of infertility and the powerful desire to have a child of one’s own. Lineage is the motive, even if it is lineage that is ultimately betrayed. But why, we must ask, would anyone use these novel techniques in particular? And how are gamete harvesting and gamete engineering different from the modern-day sperm bank or egg market? From artificial insemination or&#160;in-vitro&#160;fertilization (IVF)?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Consider the technique of gamete harvesting. One reason to take eggs from aborted fetuses is that they are easier to get. The dead fetus can no longer be inconvenienced, and the egg-seekers need not trouble to request consent from the fetal “donor.” At present, individuals or couples who cannot produce eggs of their own need to find women who are willing to donate their extra eggs after undergoing fertility treatment or women who are willing to undergo super-ovulation and extraction simply to be egg-donors or egg-sellers.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Finding such women is not easy, since even those women undergoing IVF for themselves have powerful reasons not to donate their extra eggs: If having one’s own biologically related child is so important that women will undergo the ordeal of IVF, then giving away one’s eggs is an affront to the longing that led one to the fertility clinic in the first place. It means leaving one’s progeny in the hands of another. And while the procedure to harvest eggs is not high-risk, the intervention is also not trivial. As a result, the demand for donor eggs outstrips the supply. Using fetal eggs offers a way to bring supply and demand into balance.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>For those infertile couples who are interested in keeping reproduction “within the marriage,” so to speak, using eggs from aborted fetuses might have an additional appeal, for there is no living female rival with a claim to motherhood. The resulting child is the progeny of the husband plus “X”: the husband plus the unknowable, the husband and the slain. It produces a child who is biologically motherless—a partial orphan—from the moment of conception.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>One need not downplay the great humanity of adoption to wonder about the wisdom of creating children who need to be adopted by the very mothers who carry them to term. This is what artificial conception with donor gametes has always required. And now, carried to gamete harvesting, the dilemma grows even starker.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Even for the child conceived, say, in an anonymous romance, it is still possible to hunt backward to one’s origins, to seek one’s human beginning in time, to search for some link to those who came before. This is also true for the child of an anonymous sperm or egg donor: One’s origins — biologically and genetically — are still the seed of a living or once-living person, with a face we might look upon in real life or in pictures, with a lineage and history of his or her own. The child can still seek out the person he resembles in the flesh, even if the search comes up empty or is stymied. But with the eggs of an aborted fetus, the hunt for one’s origins leads the child back to a void — indeed, to a slain organism never allowed to flourish, never known in person, never mourned in death. It leads back to the machinations of the scientist, making life from scratch.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>What about the technique of gamete engineering — the production of sperm or eggs using stem cells from dead embryos, including cloned embryos whose genomes we control? The only compelling reason to use this technology — rather than donor sperm or donor eggs taken from consenting adults — is to create sperm or eggs with the genes of a particular person who could not produce sperm or eggs otherwise: that is, sperm from an infertile man; eggs from an infertile women; eggs from a fertile man; sperm from a fertile woman.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Driven by the desire to have a child of their own, yet faced with the husband’s inability to produce sperm, a married couple might embrace this novel method: clone the husband, destroy the embryo that possesses his genome, harvest embryonic stem cells from that embryo, and turn the stem cells into sperm that bear the genetic imprint of the husband himself. Yet while the sperm carries his genetic information, it is not&#160;his&#160;sperm. And while such an act is driven by the parental longing for a biologically related child, it requires an act of destruction — taking the life of one’s clone in order to create a child of one’s own. Paternal passion leads to paternal betrayal. The hunger for life leads to an act that denies life, treating embryos simply as objects of manufacture and the young clone simply as a reproductive tool.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Even more radically, this technique might appeal to gay couples seeking children who are, in a sense, the fruit of their union. A gay female couple, for example, could one day clone one partner, destroy the cloned embryo, harvest its stem cells, turn those stem cells into sperm, and use the sperm to fertilize the other female partner. The movement for gay marriage finds an ally in emerging reproductive technologies that might make a novel form of homosexual parenthood possible. The limitations imposed by our maleness or femaleness are transcended by this act of biotechnological liberation. The unity-in-distinctness of fatherhood and motherhood will be further lost in a culture that thinks more about fulfilling desires and getting results than about the deep human meaning of our desires and our actions.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Of course, gamete harvesting and gamete engineering will not only be used by those seeking children. These techniques will also open up new avenues of embryo research and destruction on a mass scale. At present, the greatest practical barrier to creating embryos solely for research purposes — whether by cloning or IVF — is the difficulty of procuring eggs. But if scientists can manufacture an inexhaustible source of human eggs, then the embryo-research industry will advance in leaps and bounds. And as the last remaining connection with a living human progenitor — a consenting egg donor — is lost, whatever moral gravity, restraint, or conscience that still exists among researchers will likely erode. We will produce embryos industrially, and in doing so we will further obscure the human character of what we do (and destroy) in the name of progress.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>While the moral hazards of gamete engineering and embryo research are distinct—the first violates the dignity of human procreation itself, the second violates the dignity of nascent human life — these practices are bound together in the instrumental view of human origins that makes them both possible. Like many tragic tales, the choices and actions that decide our fate are understandable, compelling, almost irresistible. Because the desire for a child of one’s own — flesh of one’s flesh — is so fundamental to being human, the infertile rightly seek some remedy. And when God does not answer their cries, the infertile understandably look to technique instead.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>But because human procreation — the springing forth of new life from the union of mother and father — rightly commands our reverence and respect, we ought to resist these novel efforts to transcend this defining part of our nature. We ought to, but apparently we cannot. And so we are only a few steps away — gamete engineering today, artificial wombs tomorrow — from manufacturing children without parents from conception to birth.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In its 2004 report&#160; <a href="http://www.bioethics.gov/reports/reproductionandresponsibility/" type="external">Reproduction and Responsibility</a>, the President’s Council on Bioethics called for legislation banning the use of eggs or sperm harvested from aborted fetuses or destroyed embryos. So far, Congress has done nothing, even as the research proceeds rapidly ahead. But more deeply, the council sought to recover our understanding of what human procreation really is and really means. As the report put it:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>At the very center of the picture of human procreation is the newborn child emerging from his or her mother’s womb. Even as the child arrives, it is a still-developing new life, derived from the union of “seeds” contributed by the two adults who were and are the child’s mother and (biological) father and whose child the newborn baby now becomes. Newly visible to the world after nine months of hidden growth, the child arrives not as “anyone” but as a “someone,” with a defined and distinctive (beginning) identity — human, familial, individual, male or female. Part of any child’s identity as this child lies in its special relationship to two particular human “someones” from whom the child descends. All of the child’s being and identity it owes to a continuous developmental process that began with union of egg and sperm and that continued through an unbroken sequence of embryonic and fetal stages enacted within the womb of the mother. Though father and mother are equal contributors of seed, the mother alone brings the child to birth: its developing life absolutely depends on the protection and silent nurturing of her body, its emerging life depends absolutely on her labor.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Only by recovering this understanding of the body, of motherhood and fatherhood — of children as gifts welcomed into the world rather than made by human hands — will we set the limits we now desperately need. And only by recognizing the central place of bodily origins in shaping human identity can we prevent yet another step toward dehumanization in the name of serving genuine human desires. The existence of orphans is a tragedy that adoptive parents can often redeem. The mass production of orphans is an abomination that would further corrupt our understanding of human dignity.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>[Based on “Orphans by Design,”&#160;First Things, 158 (December 2005): 13-15.]</p> | false | 1 | orphan one words seems oldfashioned modern ears word evokes abject poverty dickens novel years ahead reproductive technologies may lead us new terrible path creating orphans design case problem tragic death parents deliberate creation children without living biological mothers fathers bodily origins much matter nurturing dimension parenthood still meaning past years cadre leading scientists working gamete harvesting gamete engineering techniques may moving soon laboratory clinic first technique involves harvesting eggs aborted fetuses fertilizing sperm laboratory dead fetus words childs biological mother second technique involves destroying human embryos deriving embryonic stem cells turning stem cells sperm eggs dead embryo words childs biological mother father methods would produce children sprung dead children whose genetic parents never allowed born children resemble never human faces 160 remarkably seems even stem cells derived male embryos produce eggs time stem cells female embryos may coaxed produce sperm age embryo cloning reason embryonic clone man used provide eggs male genome embryonic clone woman used produce sperm female genome route men women rapidly becoming interchangeable even comes making babies armed growing mastery modern biology make sense postbiological beings move beyond male female 160 dr tal bironshental lead researcher involved harvesting eggs aborted fetuses offered alltoocharacteristic ethical reflection work im fully aware controversy probably place ethically acceptable apparently justification needs read technical descriptions research cold clinical inhuman understand scientists conscience atrophies take abstract june 2005 meeting european society human reproduction embryology embryoid bodies sustain blood development reasoned might also support primordial germ cell formation although lack markers suitably distinguish es cells pgcs retinoic acid acts rapidly differentiate es cells stimulating proliferation pgcs words may possible destroy embryos harvest usable eggs sperm tiny cellular cadavers 160 technique assisted reproduction public demand research driven primarily terrible pain infertility powerful desire child ones lineage motive even lineage ultimately betrayed must ask would anyone use novel techniques particular gamete harvesting gamete engineering different modernday sperm bank egg market artificial insemination or160invitro160fertilization ivf 160 consider technique gamete harvesting one reason take eggs aborted fetuses easier get dead fetus longer inconvenienced eggseekers need trouble request consent fetal donor present individuals couples produce eggs need find women willing donate extra eggs undergoing fertility treatment women willing undergo superovulation extraction simply eggdonors eggsellers 160 finding women easy since even women undergoing ivf powerful reasons donate extra eggs ones biologically related child important women undergo ordeal ivf giving away ones eggs affront longing led one fertility clinic first place means leaving ones progeny hands another procedure harvest eggs highrisk intervention also trivial result demand donor eggs outstrips supply using fetal eggs offers way bring supply demand balance 160 infertile couples interested keeping reproduction within marriage speak using eggs aborted fetuses might additional appeal living female rival claim motherhood resulting child progeny husband plus x husband plus unknowable husband slain produces child biologically motherlessa partial orphanfrom moment conception 160 one need downplay great humanity adoption wonder wisdom creating children need adopted mothers carry term artificial conception donor gametes always required carried gamete harvesting dilemma grows even starker 160 even child conceived say anonymous romance still possible hunt backward ones origins seek ones human beginning time search link came also true child anonymous sperm egg donor ones origins biologically genetically still seed living onceliving person face might look upon real life pictures lineage history child still seek person resembles flesh even search comes empty stymied eggs aborted fetus hunt ones origins leads child back void indeed slain organism never allowed flourish never known person never mourned death leads back machinations scientist making life scratch 160 technique gamete engineering production sperm eggs using stem cells dead embryos including cloned embryos whose genomes control compelling reason use technology rather donor sperm donor eggs taken consenting adults create sperm eggs genes particular person could produce sperm eggs otherwise sperm infertile man eggs infertile women eggs fertile man sperm fertile woman 160 driven desire child yet faced husbands inability produce sperm married couple might embrace novel method clone husband destroy embryo possesses genome harvest embryonic stem cells embryo turn stem cells sperm bear genetic imprint husband yet sperm carries genetic information not160his160sperm act driven parental longing biologically related child requires act destruction taking life ones clone order create child ones paternal passion leads paternal betrayal hunger life leads act denies life treating embryos simply objects manufacture young clone simply reproductive tool 160 even radically technique might appeal gay couples seeking children sense fruit union gay female couple example could one day clone one partner destroy cloned embryo harvest stem cells turn stem cells sperm use sperm fertilize female partner movement gay marriage finds ally emerging reproductive technologies might make novel form homosexual parenthood possible limitations imposed maleness femaleness transcended act biotechnological liberation unityindistinctness fatherhood motherhood lost culture thinks fulfilling desires getting results deep human meaning desires actions 160 course gamete harvesting gamete engineering used seeking children techniques also open new avenues embryo research destruction mass scale present greatest practical barrier creating embryos solely research purposes whether cloning ivf difficulty procuring eggs scientists manufacture inexhaustible source human eggs embryoresearch industry advance leaps bounds last remaining connection living human progenitor consenting egg donor lost whatever moral gravity restraint conscience still exists among researchers likely erode produce embryos industrially obscure human character destroy name progress 160 moral hazards gamete engineering embryo research distinctthe first violates dignity human procreation second violates dignity nascent human life practices bound together instrumental view human origins makes possible like many tragic tales choices actions decide fate understandable compelling almost irresistible desire child ones flesh ones flesh fundamental human infertile rightly seek remedy god answer cries infertile understandably look technique instead 160 human procreation springing forth new life union mother father rightly commands reverence respect ought resist novel efforts transcend defining part nature ought apparently steps away gamete engineering today artificial wombs tomorrow manufacturing children without parents conception birth 160 2004 report160 reproduction responsibility presidents council bioethics called legislation banning use eggs sperm harvested aborted fetuses destroyed embryos far congress done nothing even research proceeds rapidly ahead deeply council sought recover understanding human procreation really really means report put 160 center picture human procreation newborn child emerging mothers womb even child arrives stilldeveloping new life derived union seeds contributed two adults childs mother biological father whose child newborn baby becomes newly visible world nine months hidden growth child arrives anyone someone defined distinctive beginning identity human familial individual male female part childs identity child lies special relationship two particular human someones child descends childs identity owes continuous developmental process began union egg sperm continued unbroken sequence embryonic fetal stages enacted within womb mother though father mother equal contributors seed mother alone brings child birth developing life absolutely depends protection silent nurturing body emerging life depends absolutely labor 160 recovering understanding body motherhood fatherhood children gifts welcomed world rather made human hands set limits desperately need recognizing central place bodily origins shaping human identity prevent yet another step toward dehumanization name serving genuine human desires existence orphans tragedy adoptive parents often redeem mass production orphans abomination would corrupt understanding human dignity 160 based orphans design160first things 158 december 2005 1315 | 1,175 |
<p>Edgardo&#160;Osorio’s&#160;prized sandals sit on a glass shelf inside his Madison Avenue boutique&#160;under zebra-striped arches and golden chandeliers. The shoes&#160;have skinny heels, frills, and a tassel dangling from a&#160;dainty ankle strap that weaves&#160;up the leg. These days, they’re available in all kinds of colors and materials, but their signature suede style comes in a bold lipstick red.</p>
<p>Osorio, the co-founder and creative director of fashion label&#160;Aquazzura, calls the sandal&#160;one of his most iconic creations. Coveted by celebrities and fashion bloggers alike, these $785 suede numbers became a true “It” shoe&#160;since gaining traction in 2015. They helped catapult the designer and his label to international prominence. So when he discovered that the clothing brand&#160;run by the daughter of now-President Donald Trump was making a similar item for only $65, he called in the lawyers.</p>
<p>Fed up with alleged duplicate shoe designs, Aquazzura&#160;fired off&#160;multiple lawsuits over his Wild Thing sandal. Arguably similar styles hit store shelves under labels including&#160;Mollini, Missguided, and Jessica Buurman. Aquazzura didn’t challenge the smaller brands, but instead went after what he claimed to be the larger copycats: Steve Madden, Marc Fisher, and&#160;Ivanka&#160;Trump.</p>
<p>“One of the most disturbing things in the fashion industry is when someone blatantly steals your copyright designs and doesn’t care,” his&#160;label posted on its Instagram account in March 2016. “You should know better. Shame on you&#160;@ivankatrump! Imitation is NOT the most sincere form of flattery.”&#160;Aquazzura sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump about the shoe, asking her company to stop selling its sandal.&#160;</p>
<p>“Based on Aquazzura’s prior dealings with your client’s company, and on the obvious and purposeful copying of our client’s shoe, we anticipate that you will challenge Aquazzura’s rights in its design, maintaining&#160;that the designs lack secondary meaning, and that your client is therefore free to knock them off with impunity,” the letter said, citing some of the elements of infringement. To avoid a court battle, Aquazzura demanded Trump’s company remove all pictures of the sandal in question from its website and social media, stop advertising the shoe, destroy&#160;all existing pairs, disclose its manufacturer, hand over profits from sales of the offending shoe, and “agree in writing under oath not to offer for sale any knock-off” again.&#160;Aquazzura gave Trump a week to comply,&#160;or else face legal action.&#160;</p>
<p>Trump did not comply, so two months later, Aquazzura sued her along with Marc Fisher.&#160;In a complaint filed in June 2016 in Manhattan federal court, the company&#160;accused Trump of infringement, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices. “Seeking the same success Aquazzurra experienced but without having to put in the hard creative work, defendants resorted to knocking off plaintiff’s popular designs,” the complaint stated. Trump has denied any wromngdoing. Darren Saunders, attorney for the defendants, said Wednesday that the two sides are in settlement talks. Lawyers for&#160;Aquazzura&#160;declioned to comment.</p>
<p>Intellectual property spats are common in the fashion industry, but most quarrels are resolved before parties get near a&#160;courtroom. Such lawsuits are immensely expensive,&#160;complex and can drag on&#160;for years. When a mega-company goes after a mom-and-pop, matters are often settled with a nasty letter. But when two equally matched companies with deep pockets and a history of bad blood find themselves on opposite sides, the attorneys fees can add up, and a trial just might happen.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen people go all the way when they can’t even afford it —&#160;to teach someone a lesson,” said trademark lawyer&#160;Sonia Lakhany.</p>
<p>Colombia-born Osorio&#160;and his company&#160;arrived on the Italian shoe scene in 2011 when he was just 25, after stints at storied fashion houses Roberto Cavalli and&#160;Ferragamo. Based in Florence, his brand&#160;broke out of&#160;a pack of upstart labels with a few hot styles: cutout booties, pointy lace-up flats, and those sandals. Osorio’s shoes are now sold by more than 300 retailers around the world. Aquazzura’s&#160;own flagships&#160;are in big cities, including the global fashion centers of London, Paris, and New York.</p>
<p>Five years isn’t a long time in the sexy shoe department, but star power helped Aquazzura&#160;quickly convince shoppers to don its pricey pairs. Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Watson, and Rihanna have all been spotted in Osorio’s kicks, while Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid&#160;sported&#160;Aquazzura&#160;booties. The label also&#160;partnered with model Poppy Delevingne&#160;to create a celebrity-infused capsule collection,&#160;a one-off set of designer clothing. It did the same with New York socialite Olivia Palermo.</p>
<p>Predictably, the glossies and fashion blogs fawned over the chic&#160;heels, sandals, and boots. “We’ve never met a pair of Aquazzura&#160;shoes we didn’t want to buy,” a WhoWhatWear fashion editor wrote.&#160;Harper’s Bazaar&#160;gushed over the&#160;fringe sandals, declaring them&#160;“fiercely fashion forward.” Vogue&#160;even lauded an Aquazzura&#160;wallpaper collection as “the most beautiful thing you’ll see this spring.”</p>
<p>Aquazzura’s celebrity following meshed with Osorio’s&#160;over-the-top extravagance. Last year, he decided to hold his 30th&#160;birthday party in Florence’s Palazzo Corsini, a two-day bash complete with a surrealist ball. Guests arrived in full costume to dine under towering gold candelabras. Osorio sported a massive headpiece with two curved angel wings pointed skyward, like a mythical deity turned haute couture. In the world of high fashion, he had arrived.</p>
<p>There won’t be any ritziness if Aquazzura’s&#160;fight with Trump ends up at&#160;a lower Manhattan courthouse. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest set trial for&#160;next March, triggering a production line of legal filings, evidence demands, and depositions of witnesses from both sides in preparation for their day in court. Come next spring, if a settlement hasn’t been reached,&#160;the trial may begin exactly two years after Aquazzura’s angry Instagram post.</p>
<p>Ivanka Trump wants&#160;nothing to do with the case, let alone a trial. She tried to duck a deposition by arguing she shouldn’t be forced to testify because she isn’t involved in the design or sale of her company’s&#160;allegedly offending shoe.</p>
<p>“Trump was not aware of the Aquazzura&#160;style ‘Wild Thing’ shoe at the time she signed off on the season line that contained the Ivanka&#160;Trump style ‘Hettie’ shoe,” Saunders, her lawyer, argued in a letter to the judge. “The burden of a deposition of Ms. Trump would far outweigh&#160;any likely benefit to Aquazzura.”&#160;Saunders added that her role as a “high ranking government official” should preclude her from having to submit to a deposition. (Trump was appointed to be an assistant to her father in the White House).</p>
<p>On June 23, Forrest rejected Trump’s argument. “She is alleged to have personal involvement in the events at issue in this lawsuit,” the judge ruled. “She cannot avoid a deposition in this matter.”</p>
<p>“It’s so connected to our brand, this is who we are.”</p>
<p>Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand has had a rocky history when it comes to copycat allegations. Less than a year after she&#160;began selling footwear, her company was called out by New York designer label Derek Lam for allegedly copying a sandal style. A cease-and-desist letter was sent, and while Trump’s representatives denied the allegations,&#160;her brand pulled the shoes from online shops and store shelves. Then in 2012, California clothing brand Mystique sued Trump’s trademark holding company over a different pair of sandals. She rejected the claims. Seven months later, the parties reached a settlement. In 2016, the Trump label was the target of two patent infringement lawsuits, which were both dismissed.</p>
<p>As for Aquazzura’s&#160;Wild Thing sandal, that case largely comes down to something called trade dress. Aquazzura is trying to show that its style is so distinct and well-known that consumers equate the design with the label. “Any time you have trade dress involved in fashion, you’re saying ‘We’re the Louboutin red’ or ‘We’re the Burberry flat,'” said Lakhany, the trademark attorney. “They’re saying ‘it’s so connected to our brand, this is who we are.'”</p>
<p>In this case, the key design component is the red fringe. Lakhany&#160;expressed doubt as to whether that was enough to hang a lawsuit on: “I don’t know if the red fringe design can hold up to Louboutin red and Burberry plaid.”</p>
<p>In addition to Wild Thing, the Aquazzura complaint stated that Trump’s company had copied a pointy-toed black pump, the Forever Marilyn shoe, and a strappy low-heeled sandal, the Belgravia. At the same time last year, Aquazzura&#160;sued Steve Madden for infringement on three different shoe designs. Madden disputed the allegations. That&#160;fight settled “in principle” in April according to court records, but the judge subsequently reopened the matter a month later at Aquazzura’s request. (Spokespeople for Madden and lawyers for Aquazzura declined to comment.)&#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, life goes on for Trump and Osorio as trial nears. Her&#160;sandals continue to be sold on Amazon.com and&#160;Bluefly.com, and&#160;Aquazzura&#160;is opening new stores, including a boutique in Costa Mesa, Calif. Osorio&#160;has remained quiet about his battle with the first daughter since the saga began. That is, until April when he took the stage at a conference in Muscat, Oman. Appearing&#160;at a swanky resort and spa, Osorio&#160;and the moderator chatted about his rising popularity and&#160;glitzy stores. In an aside, he addressed the Trump spat with both a sly dig and&#160;a humble brag.</p>
<p>“The funny thing is that, whether it’s her or anyone else, when it’s good, everyone wants to copy it and make money off it,” he said.</p> | false | 1 | edgardo160osorios160prized sandals sit glass shelf inside madison avenue boutique160under zebrastriped arches golden chandeliers shoes160have skinny heels frills tassel dangling a160dainty ankle strap weaves160up leg days theyre available kinds colors materials signature suede style comes bold lipstick red osorio cofounder creative director fashion label160aquazzura calls sandal160one iconic creations coveted celebrities fashion bloggers alike 785 suede numbers became true shoe160since gaining traction 2015 helped catapult designer label international prominence discovered clothing brand160run daughter nowpresident donald trump making similar item 65 called lawyers fed alleged duplicate shoe designs aquazzura160fired off160multiple lawsuits wild thing sandal arguably similar styles hit store shelves labels including160mollini missguided jessica buurman aquazzura didnt challenge smaller brands instead went claimed larger copycats steve madden marc fisher and160ivanka160trump one disturbing things fashion industry someone blatantly steals copyright designs doesnt care his160label posted instagram account march 2016 know better shame you160ivankatrump imitation sincere form flattery160aquazzura sent ceaseanddesist letter trump shoe asking company stop selling sandal160 based aquazzuras prior dealings clients company obvious purposeful copying clients shoe anticipate challenge aquazzuras rights design maintaining160that designs lack secondary meaning client therefore free knock impunity letter said citing elements infringement avoid court battle aquazzura demanded trumps company remove pictures sandal question website social media stop advertising shoe destroy160all existing pairs disclose manufacturer hand profits sales offending shoe agree writing oath offer sale knockoff again160aquazzura gave trump week comply160or else face legal action160 trump comply two months later aquazzura sued along marc fisher160in complaint filed june 2016 manhattan federal court company160accused trump infringement unfair competition deceptive trade practices seeking success aquazzurra experienced without put hard creative work defendants resorted knocking plaintiffs popular designs complaint stated trump denied wromngdoing darren saunders attorney defendants said wednesday two sides settlement talks lawyers for160aquazzura160declioned comment intellectual property spats common fashion industry quarrels resolved parties get near a160courtroom lawsuits immensely expensive160complex drag on160for years megacompany goes momandpop matters often settled nasty letter two equally matched companies deep pockets history bad blood find opposite sides attorneys fees add trial might happen ive seen people go way cant even afford 160to teach someone lesson said trademark lawyer160sonia lakhany colombiaborn osorio160and company160arrived italian shoe scene 2011 25 stints storied fashion houses roberto cavalli and160ferragamo based florence brand160broke of160a pack upstart labels hot styles cutout booties pointy laceup flats sandals osorios shoes sold 300 retailers around world aquazzuras160own flagships160are big cities including global fashion centers london paris new york five years isnt long time sexy shoe department star power helped aquazzura160quickly convince shoppers pricey pairs jennifer lawrence emma watson rihanna spotted osorios kicks kendall jenner gigi hadid160sported160aquazzura160booties label also160partnered model poppy delevingne160to create celebrityinfused capsule collection160a oneoff set designer clothing new york socialite olivia palermo predictably glossies fashion blogs fawned chic160heels sandals boots weve never met pair aquazzura160shoes didnt want buy whowhatwear fashion editor wrote160harpers bazaar160gushed the160fringe sandals declaring them160fiercely fashion forward vogue160even lauded aquazzura160wallpaper collection beautiful thing youll see spring aquazzuras celebrity following meshed osorios160overthetop extravagance last year decided hold 30th160birthday party florences palazzo corsini twoday bash complete surrealist ball guests arrived full costume dine towering gold candelabras osorio sported massive headpiece two curved angel wings pointed skyward like mythical deity turned haute couture world high fashion arrived wont ritziness aquazzuras160fight trump ends at160a lower manhattan courthouse us district judge katherine forrest set trial for160next march triggering production line legal filings evidence demands depositions witnesses sides preparation day court come next spring settlement hasnt reached160the trial may begin exactly two years aquazzuras angry instagram post ivanka trump wants160nothing case let alone trial tried duck deposition arguing shouldnt forced testify isnt involved design sale companys160allegedly offending shoe trump aware aquazzura160style wild thing shoe time signed season line contained ivanka160trump style hettie shoe saunders lawyer argued letter judge burden deposition ms trump would far outweigh160any likely benefit aquazzura160saunders added role high ranking government official preclude submit deposition trump appointed assistant father white house june 23 forrest rejected trumps argument alleged personal involvement events issue lawsuit judge ruled avoid deposition matter connected brand ivanka trumps fashion brand rocky history comes copycat allegations less year she160began selling footwear company called new york designer label derek lam allegedly copying sandal style ceaseanddesist letter sent trumps representatives denied allegations160her brand pulled shoes online shops store shelves 2012 california clothing brand mystique sued trumps trademark holding company different pair sandals rejected claims seven months later parties reached settlement 2016 trump label target two patent infringement lawsuits dismissed aquazzuras160wild thing sandal case largely comes something called trade dress aquazzura trying show style distinct wellknown consumers equate design label time trade dress involved fashion youre saying louboutin red burberry flat said lakhany trademark attorney theyre saying connected brand case key design component red fringe lakhany160expressed doubt whether enough hang lawsuit dont know red fringe design hold louboutin red burberry plaid addition wild thing aquazzura complaint stated trumps company copied pointytoed black pump forever marilyn shoe strappy lowheeled sandal belgravia time last year aquazzura160sued steve madden infringement three different shoe designs madden disputed allegations that160fight settled principle april according court records judge subsequently reopened matter month later aquazzuras request spokespeople madden lawyers aquazzura declined comment160 meanwhile life goes trump osorio trial nears her160sandals continue sold amazoncom and160blueflycom and160aquazzura160is opening new stores including boutique costa mesa calif osorio160has remained quiet battle first daughter since saga began april took stage conference muscat oman appearing160at swanky resort spa osorio160and moderator chatted rising popularity and160glitzy stores aside addressed trump spat sly dig and160a humble brag funny thing whether anyone else good everyone wants copy make money said | 908 |
<p>Al Gore admits he was frustrated upon hearing the news last month that President Trump was pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, but since then he’s become more optimistic.</p>
<p>Gore worried that a U.S. withdrawal from the treaty would compel other nations to opt out of the historical pact for adopting clean energy solutions. But that’s not what happened.</p>
<p>“The whole rest of the world has redoubled their commitment. And in this country, the governors and the mayors and the business leaders have all said, ‘We’re still in the agreement, and we’re gonna fill the gap. We’re gonna meet the U.S. commitment, regardless of what Donald Trump does,” Gore told the Associated Press last week at a special screening for “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.”</p>
<p>It follows the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and continues the conversation of finding solutions for the effects of climate change, including an emphasis on renewable energy. Much like the first film, Gore is front and center in leading the discussion.</p>
<p>It’s been a remarkable second act for Gore since winning the popular vote, but losing the Electoral College in the 2000 presidential election. There’s no question that Gore was devastated from the loss, but his stature as an important voice for environmental issues has proven equally successful, as he amassed a Nobel Prize, Academy Award, an Emmy, and a Grammy for his relentless dedication to climate change activism.</p>
<p>“I’m under no illusion that there’s any position with as much chance to do good as president of the United States, but I’m very grateful to have found another way to serve the public interests. I’m devoting my life to this and hoping to make a big difference,” Gore said.</p>
<p>CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who also attended the premiere, agrees that Gore “had done pretty well for himself” after the disputed 2000 presidential election.</p>
<p>“Al Gore could have done many things after he was not inaugurated in 2001, but what he did was become the leading global spokesman for perhaps the most important scientific and environmental cause of our lifetime, and he won a Nobel Prize in the bargain. So I don’t think anyone could quarrel with how Al Gore has decided to live his life,” he said.</p>
<p>A big part of Gore’s mission depends on convincing people that climate change is not a hoax. Instead, it’s based on science that shows the global mean surface temperature continues to rise, due in part to an increase in greenhouse gasses. So while global warming is immune to politics, the topic remains a partisan issue in the United States. That’s something the former vice president blames on corporate funding for political campaigns.</p>
<p>“The truth about the climate crisis is still inconvenient for the big carbon polluters, and the politicians that they support with their big campaign contributions and lobbying activities are scared to cross them. That’s the main reason. They’ve spent a lot of money trying to put out false information about it,” Gore said.</p>
<p>Still, he remains confident that the problem can be fixed.</p>
<p>“People are seeing through this now. Two-thirds of the American people want to solve this big time. We are gonna solve it. We just need to move faster on it,” Gore said.</p>
<p>Gore feels that change will come from the “grass roots up.” That’s why he spends a great deal of time training climate activists around the globe.</p>
<p>“We need to get more people involved. That’s one of the real purposes of this movie. To tell people what they need to know, to show them that there is hope and there are solutions now, and inspire them to get involved,” Gore said.</p>
<p>Davis Guggenheim directed the first film to box office and Oscar glory, bringing climate change into the mainstream. The sequel, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk picks up the conversation with more of a battle cry for saving the planet.</p>
<p>Knowing he was stepping into big shoes for this film, Shenk noted the importance of his predecessor’s film.</p>
<p>“An Inconvenient Truth” was one of the most successful documentaries in history. Not only did it do fabulously well at the box office, but by almost any measure it put the words global warming and climate crisis on the map for the entire world,” Shenk said.</p>
<p>In order to keep the information timely, producers changed the ending from what audiences saw at the Sundance Film Festival to reflect Trump’s announcement about withdrawing the United States from the global climate agreement in time for the film’s limited release on July 28 and its wide release on Aug. 4.</p>
<p>Gore also said he’s recently spoken to Hillary Clinton, and that’s “She’s gonna be fine.”</p>
<p>Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College to Trump, just as Gore lost to George W. Bush in 2000.</p>
<p>As for Trump’s continued attacks on the news media, Gore feels disheartened by them.</p>
<p>“Well, I think that’s really unfortunate. We need someone who will unite us and not divide us. The press obviously plays an absolutely crucial role in making our democracy work. If the press isn’t free to get out there and tell people what’s going on, then we can’t make the changes we need to know about and then change,” Gore said.</p>
<p>Part of the news coverage called into question surrounds the constant flurry of revelations in the ongoing investigation of possible collusion with the Russian government by the Trump administration.</p>
<p>“Every day there seems like there’s something different and they’re not getting anything good done. That’s a problem,” Gore said.</p> | false | 1 | al gore admits frustrated upon hearing news last month president trump pulling paris climate accord since hes become optimistic gore worried us withdrawal treaty would compel nations opt historical pact adopting clean energy solutions thats happened whole rest world redoubled commitment country governors mayors business leaders said still agreement gon na fill gap gon na meet us commitment regardless donald trump gore told associated press last week special screening inconvenient sequel truth power follows 2006 oscarwinning documentary inconvenient truth continues conversation finding solutions effects climate change including emphasis renewable energy much like first film gore front center leading discussion remarkable second act gore since winning popular vote losing electoral college 2000 presidential election theres question gore devastated loss stature important voice environmental issues proven equally successful amassed nobel prize academy award emmy grammy relentless dedication climate change activism im illusion theres position much chance good president united states im grateful found another way serve public interests im devoting life hoping make big difference gore said cnn legal analyst jeffrey toobin also attended premiere agrees gore done pretty well disputed 2000 presidential election al gore could done many things inaugurated 2001 become leading global spokesman perhaps important scientific environmental cause lifetime nobel prize bargain dont think anyone could quarrel al gore decided live life said big part gores mission depends convincing people climate change hoax instead based science shows global mean surface temperature continues rise due part increase greenhouse gasses global warming immune politics topic remains partisan issue united states thats something former vice president blames corporate funding political campaigns truth climate crisis still inconvenient big carbon polluters politicians support big campaign contributions lobbying activities scared cross thats main reason theyve spent lot money trying put false information gore said still remains confident problem fixed people seeing twothirds american people want solve big time gon na solve need move faster gore said gore feels change come grass roots thats spends great deal time training climate activists around globe need get people involved thats one real purposes movie tell people need know show hope solutions inspire get involved gore said davis guggenheim directed first film box office oscar glory bringing climate change mainstream sequel directed bonni cohen jon shenk picks conversation battle cry saving planet knowing stepping big shoes film shenk noted importance predecessors film inconvenient truth one successful documentaries history fabulously well box office almost measure put words global warming climate crisis map entire world shenk said order keep information timely producers changed ending audiences saw sundance film festival reflect trumps announcement withdrawing united states global climate agreement time films limited release july 28 wide release aug 4 gore also said hes recently spoken hillary clinton thats shes gon na fine clinton popular vote lost electoral college trump gore lost george w bush 2000 trumps continued attacks news media gore feels disheartened well think thats really unfortunate need someone unite us divide us press obviously plays absolutely crucial role making democracy work press isnt free get tell people whats going cant make changes need know change gore said part news coverage called question surrounds constant flurry revelations ongoing investigation possible collusion russian government trump administration every day seems like theres something different theyre getting anything good done thats problem gore said | 540 |
<p />
<p>Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a protege of Treasury Secretaries Rubin and Summers, has received his reward for continuing the Rubin-Summers-Paulson policy of supporting the "banks too big to fail" at the expense of the economy and American people. For his service to the handful of gigantic banks, whose existence attests to the fact that the Anti-Trust Act is a dead-letter law, Geithner has been appointed president and managing director of the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus and is on his way to his fortune.</p>
<p>A Warburg in-law financed Woodrow Wilson's presidential campaign. Part of the reward was Wilson's appointment of Paul Warburg to the first Federal Reserve Board. The symbiotic relationship between presidents and bankers has continued ever since. The same small clique continues to wield financial power.</p>
<p>Geithner's career is illustrative. In the 1980s, Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates. In the mid to late 1990s, Geithner served as a deputy assistant Treasury secretary. Under Rubin and Summers he moved up to undersecretary of the Treasury.</p>
<p>From the Treasury he went to the Council on Foreign Relations and from there to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). From there he was appointed president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked to make banks more profitable by allowing higher ratios of debt to capital, thus contributing to the financial crisis.</p>
<p>Geithner arranged the sale of the failed Wall Street firm of Bear Stearns, helped with the taxpayer bailout of AIG, and rejected saving Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy in order to create the crisis atmosphere needed to more fully subordinate US economic policy to the needs of the few large banks.</p>
<p>Rubin, a 26-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, was rewarded by Citibank for his service to the banks while Treasury Secretary with a $50 million compensation package in 2008 and $126,000,000 between 1999 and 2009.</p>
<p>When a person becomes a Treasury official it is made clear that the choice is between serving the banks and becoming rich or trying to serve the public and becoming poor. Few make the latter choice.</p>
<p>As MIchael Hudson has informed us, the goal of the financial sector has always been to convert all income, from corporate profits to government tax revenues, to the service of debt. From the bankers standpoint, the more debt the richer the bankers. Rubin, Summers, Paulson, Geithner, and now banker Treasury Secretary Jack Lew faithfully serve this goal.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve describes its policy of Quantitative Easing - the creation of new money with which the Fed purchases Treasury debt and mortgage backed securities - as a low interest rate policy in order to stimulate employment and economic growth. Economists and the financial media have parroted this cover story.</p>
<p>In contrast, I have exposed QE as a scheme for pumping profits into the banks and boosting their balance sheets. The real purpose of QE is to drive up the prices of the debt-related derivatives on the banks' books, thus keeping the banks with solvent balance sheets.</p>
<p>Writing in the Wall Street Journal (?Confessions of a Quantitative Easer,? November 11, 2013), Andrew Huszar confirms my explanation to be the correct one. Huszar is the Federal Reserve official who implemented the policy of QE. He resigned when he realized that the real purposes of QE was to drive up the prices of the banks' holdings of debt instruments, to provide the banks with trillions of dollars at zero cost with which to lend and speculate, and to provide the banks with "fat commissions from brokering most of the Fed's QE transactions." (See: www.paulcraigroberts.org )</p>
<p>This vast con game remains unrecognized by Congress and the public. At the IMF Research Conference on November 8, 2013, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers presented a plan to expand the con game.</p>
<p>Summers says that it is not enough merely to give the banks interest free money. More should be done for the banks. Instead of being paid interest on their bank deposits, people should be penalized for keeping their money in banks instead of spending it.</p>
<p>To sell this new rip-off scheme, Summers has conjured up an explanation based on the crude and discredited Keynesianism of the 1940s that explained the Great Depression as a problem caused by too much savings. Instead of spending their money, people hoarded it, thus causing aggregate demand and employment to fall.</p>
<p>Summers says that today the problem of too much saving has reappeared. The centerpiece of his argument is "the natural interest rate," defined as the interest rate at which full employment is established by the equality of saving with investment. If people save more than investors invest, the saved money will not find its way back into the economy, and output and employment will fall.</p>
<p>Summers notes that despite a zero real rate of interest, there is still substantial unemployment. In other words, not even a zero rate of interest can reduce saving to the level of investment, thus frustrating a full employment recovery. Summers concludes that the natural rate of interest has become negative and is stuck below zero.</p>
<p>How to fix this? The way to fix it, Summers says, is to charge people for saving money. To avoid the charges, people would spend the money, thus reducing savings to the level of investment and restoring full employment.</p>
<p>Summers acknowledges that the problem with his solution is that people would take their money out of banks and hoard it in cash holdings. In other words, the cash form of money provides consumers with a freedom to save that holds down consumption and prevents full employment.</p>
<p>Summers has a fix for this: eliminate the freedom by imposing a cashless society where the only money is electronic. As electronic money cannot be hoarded except in bank deposits, penalties can be imposed that force unproductive savings into consumption.</p>
<p>Summers' scheme, of course, is a harebrained one. With governments running huge deficits, who would purchase bonds at negative interest rates? How would pension and retirement funds operate? Would they also be subject to an annual percentage confiscation?</p>
<p>We know that the response of consumers to the long term decline in real median family income, to the loss of jobs from labor arbitrage across national borders (jobs offshoring), to rising homelessness, to cuts in the social safety net, to the transformation of their full time jobs to part time jobs (employers' response to Obamacare), has been to reduce their savings rate. Indeed, few have any savings at all. The US personal saving rate is currently 2 percentage points, about 30%, below the long term average. Retired people, unable to earn any interest on their savings from the Fed's zero interest rate policy, are being forced to draw down their savings in order to pay their bills.</p>
<p>Moreover, it is unclear whether the savings rate is an accurate measure or merely a residual of other calculations. With so many people having to draw down their savings, I wouldn't be surprised if an accurate measure showed the personal savings rate to be negative.</p>
<p>But for Summers the plight of the consumer is not the problem. The problem is the profits of the banks. Summers has the solution, and the establishment, including Paul Krugman, is applauding it. Once the economy officially turns down again, watch out.</p>
<p>This column first appeared as a Trend Alert, Trends Research Institute. It has been republished here with permission from the author.</p> | false | 1 | former treasury secretary timothy geithner protege treasury secretaries rubin summers received reward continuing rubinsummerspaulson policy supporting banks big fail expense economy american people service handful gigantic banks whose existence attests fact antitrust act deadletter law geithner appointed president managing director private equity firm warburg pincus way fortune warburg inlaw financed woodrow wilsons presidential campaign part reward wilsons appointment paul warburg first federal reserve board symbiotic relationship presidents bankers continued ever since small clique continues wield financial power geithners career illustrative 1980s geithner worked kissinger associates mid late 1990s geithner served deputy assistant treasury secretary rubin summers moved undersecretary treasury treasury went council foreign relations international monetary fund imf appointed president federal reserve bank new york worked make banks profitable allowing higher ratios debt capital thus contributing financial crisis geithner arranged sale failed wall street firm bear stearns helped taxpayer bailout aig rejected saving lehman brothers bankruptcy order create crisis atmosphere needed fully subordinate us economic policy needs large banks rubin 26year veteran goldman sachs rewarded citibank service banks treasury secretary 50 million compensation package 2008 126000000 1999 2009 person becomes treasury official made clear choice serving banks becoming rich trying serve public becoming poor make latter choice michael hudson informed us goal financial sector always convert income corporate profits government tax revenues service debt bankers standpoint debt richer bankers rubin summers paulson geithner banker treasury secretary jack lew faithfully serve goal federal reserve describes policy quantitative easing creation new money fed purchases treasury debt mortgage backed securities low interest rate policy order stimulate employment economic growth economists financial media parroted cover story contrast exposed qe scheme pumping profits banks boosting balance sheets real purpose qe drive prices debtrelated derivatives banks books thus keeping banks solvent balance sheets writing wall street journal confessions quantitative easer november 11 2013 andrew huszar confirms explanation correct one huszar federal reserve official implemented policy qe resigned realized real purposes qe drive prices banks holdings debt instruments provide banks trillions dollars zero cost lend speculate provide banks fat commissions brokering feds qe transactions see wwwpaulcraigrobertsorg vast con game remains unrecognized congress public imf research conference november 8 2013 former treasury secretary larry summers presented plan expand con game summers says enough merely give banks interest free money done banks instead paid interest bank deposits people penalized keeping money banks instead spending sell new ripoff scheme summers conjured explanation based crude discredited keynesianism 1940s explained great depression problem caused much savings instead spending money people hoarded thus causing aggregate demand employment fall summers says today problem much saving reappeared centerpiece argument natural interest rate defined interest rate full employment established equality saving investment people save investors invest saved money find way back economy output employment fall summers notes despite zero real rate interest still substantial unemployment words even zero rate interest reduce saving level investment thus frustrating full employment recovery summers concludes natural rate interest become negative stuck zero fix way fix summers says charge people saving money avoid charges people would spend money thus reducing savings level investment restoring full employment summers acknowledges problem solution people would take money banks hoard cash holdings words cash form money provides consumers freedom save holds consumption prevents full employment summers fix eliminate freedom imposing cashless society money electronic electronic money hoarded except bank deposits penalties imposed force unproductive savings consumption summers scheme course harebrained one governments running huge deficits would purchase bonds negative interest rates would pension retirement funds operate would also subject annual percentage confiscation know response consumers long term decline real median family income loss jobs labor arbitrage across national borders jobs offshoring rising homelessness cuts social safety net transformation full time jobs part time jobs employers response obamacare reduce savings rate indeed savings us personal saving rate currently 2 percentage points 30 long term average retired people unable earn interest savings feds zero interest rate policy forced draw savings order pay bills moreover unclear whether savings rate accurate measure merely residual calculations many people draw savings wouldnt surprised accurate measure showed personal savings rate negative summers plight consumer problem problem profits banks summers solution establishment including paul krugman applauding economy officially turns watch column first appeared trend alert trends research institute republished permission author | 698 |
<p>CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With flag-waving optimism, President Donald Trump answered Harvey’s wrath Tuesday by offering in-person assurances to those in the storm zone that his administration will work tirelessly to help the region recover from the massive flooding and storm-inflicted destruction.</p>
<p>“We are going to get you back and operating immediately,” Trump told an impromptu crowd that gathered outside a Corpus Christi fire station about 30 miles from where the storm made landfall Friday.</p>
<p>For all of his eagerness to get the federal disaster response right, though, Trump missed clear opportunities to strike a sympathetic note for multitudes who are suffering. The president did not mention those who died in the storm or those forced from their homes by its floodwaters. And he basked in the attention of cheering supporters outside the fire station where officials briefed him on the recovery.</p>
<p>“What a crowd, what a turnout,” Trump declared before waving a Texas flag from atop a step ladder positioned between two fire trucks. “This is historic. It’s epic what happened, but you know what, it happened in Texas, and Texas can handle anything.”</p>
<p />
<p>Trump is clearly determined to seize the moment and show a forceful response to Harvey, mindful of the political opportunities and risks that natural disasters pose for any president. Trump has been suffering from low approval ratings and self-created crises, and the White House is eager to show him as a forceful leader in a time of trouble.</p>
<p>The president kept his distance from the epicenter of the damage in Houston to avoid disrupting recovery operations. But he plans to return to the region Saturday to survey the damage and meet with some of the storm’s victims, said Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.</p>
<p>“This is all about people and making sure that we’re taking care of the people of Texas,” she said. “That’s his number one priority.”</p>
<p>What little damage Trump saw — boarded-up windows, downed tree limbs and fences askew — was through the tinted windows of his SUV as his motorcade ferried him from the Corpus Christi airport to the firehouse in a city that’s already nearly back to normal.</p>
<p>Trump spoke optimistically about the pace of the recovery, and predicted his response would be a textbook case for future presidents.</p>
<p>“We want to do it better than ever before,” he said. “We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, ‘This is the way to do it.’”</p>
<p>Then it was on to his next stop, Austin, to meet with officials at the state emergency operations center.</p>
<p>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Trump showed “genuine compassion” on the short flight to Austin as they watched video footage of the flooding in Houston. “The president was heartbroken by what he saw,” the governor said.</p>
<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told reporters on the way back to Washington that the president’s “love for the American people and concern about their welfare is unending.”</p>
<p>“His heart goes out to them, as does everybody’s heart,” he said.</p>
<p>But Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary to former President George W. Bush, said there was something missing from Trump’s remarks in Corpus Christi: “empathy for the people who suffer.”</p>
<p>“The first thing he should have said was that his heart goes out to those people in Houston who are going through this, and that the government is here to help them recover,” Fleischer told Fox News Channel.</p>
<p>It’s long been presidential practice to avoid visiting the most devastated areas of a natural disaster while recovery is still in the early stages, to avoid getting in the way or diverting critical resources. In Texas, residents seemed to understand.</p>
<p>Before Trump landed in Texas, Louis Sirianni arrived at his beach house in Rockport, about 20 miles outside Corpus Christi, to assess damage. Sirianni said he appreciated Trump’s gesture and understood why there were no plans to take him into the hardest-hit area.</p>
<p>“He’d see enough if he came along here in a helicopter,” Sirianni said on a balcony accessible only by a 12-foot aluminum extension ladder.</p>
<p>In downtown Rockport, John Murray had a pair of boards in front of his hair salon spray-painted with “Bet They Blame Trump.”</p>
<p>“He could go for a walk and they’d find something to complain about,” like jaywalking, Murray said.</p>
<p>Trump, wearing a black rain slicker emblazoned with a presidential seal, traveled with first lady Melania Trump and Cabinet secretaries who will play key roles in the recovery. Mrs. Trump traded in her usual stiletto heels for a pair of white sneakers and wore a black cap that read “FLOTUS,” an acronym for “first lady of the United States.”</p>
<p>In a statement, the first lady said that “what I found to be the most profound during the visit was not only the strength and resilience of the people of Texas, but the compassion and sense of community that has taken over the state.”</p>
<p>The president, during his stop in Austin, said it was a “sad thing” that the recovery would be a “long-term” operation.</p>
<p>His largely upbeat reassurances about a speedy recovery, though, stood in contrast to the more measured assessments coming from emergency management officials. There’s a long, difficult road ahead in recovering from a storm whose flooding has displaced tens of thousands, those officials have cautioned.</p>
<p>And the president’s vow of swift action on billions of dollars in disaster aid is at odds with his proposed budget, which would eliminate the program that helps Americans without flood insurance rebuild their homes and cuts grants to help states reduce the risk of flooding before disaster strikes.</p>
<p>Trump’s budget proposal for 2018 zeroes out Community Development Block Grants, a key program that helped the Gulf Coast rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The same program helped New York and New Jersey come back from Superstorm Sandy. Among other things, the grants help people without flood insurance coverage rebuild their homes. In the 2017 budget, the Republican-led Congress restored some of the funds.</p>
<p>While Trump’s pending budget request didn’t touch the core disaster aid account, it proposed cutting several grant programs that help states reduce flood risks before a disaster strikes and improve outdated flood maps.</p>
<p>All told, Trump proposed cutting such grant programs by about $900 million. Former Democratic President Barack Obama also cast a skeptical eye, proposing cuts roughly two-thirds as large as Trump in his final FEMA budget.</p> | false | 1 | corpus christi texas flagwaving optimism president donald trump answered harveys wrath tuesday offering inperson assurances storm zone administration work tirelessly help region recover massive flooding storminflicted destruction going get back operating immediately trump told impromptu crowd gathered outside corpus christi fire station 30 miles storm made landfall friday eagerness get federal disaster response right though trump missed clear opportunities strike sympathetic note multitudes suffering president mention died storm forced homes floodwaters basked attention cheering supporters outside fire station officials briefed recovery crowd turnout trump declared waving texas flag atop step ladder positioned two fire trucks historic epic happened know happened texas texas handle anything trump clearly determined seize moment show forceful response harvey mindful political opportunities risks natural disasters pose president trump suffering low approval ratings selfcreated crises white house eager show forceful leader time trouble president kept distance epicenter damage houston avoid disrupting recovery operations plans return region saturday survey damage meet storms victims said press secretary sarah huckabee sanders people making sure taking care people texas said thats number one priority little damage trump saw boardedup windows downed tree limbs fences askew tinted windows suv motorcade ferried corpus christi airport firehouse city thats already nearly back normal trump spoke optimistically pace recovery predicted response would textbook case future presidents want better ever said want looked five years 10 years way next stop austin meet officials state emergency operations center texas gov greg abbott said trump showed genuine compassion short flight austin watched video footage flooding houston president heartbroken saw governor said health human services secretary tom price told reporters way back washington presidents love american people concern welfare unending heart goes everybodys heart said ari fleischer served press secretary former president george w bush said something missing trumps remarks corpus christi empathy people suffer first thing said heart goes people houston going government help recover fleischer told fox news channel long presidential practice avoid visiting devastated areas natural disaster recovery still early stages avoid getting way diverting critical resources texas residents seemed understand trump landed texas louis sirianni arrived beach house rockport 20 miles outside corpus christi assess damage sirianni said appreciated trumps gesture understood plans take hardesthit area hed see enough came along helicopter sirianni said balcony accessible 12foot aluminum extension ladder downtown rockport john murray pair boards front hair salon spraypainted bet blame trump could go walk theyd find something complain like jaywalking murray said trump wearing black rain slicker emblazoned presidential seal traveled first lady melania trump cabinet secretaries play key roles recovery mrs trump traded usual stiletto heels pair white sneakers wore black cap read flotus acronym first lady united states statement first lady said found profound visit strength resilience people texas compassion sense community taken state president stop austin said sad thing recovery would longterm operation largely upbeat reassurances speedy recovery though stood contrast measured assessments coming emergency management officials theres long difficult road ahead recovering storm whose flooding displaced tens thousands officials cautioned presidents vow swift action billions dollars disaster aid odds proposed budget would eliminate program helps americans without flood insurance rebuild homes cuts grants help states reduce risk flooding disaster strikes trumps budget proposal 2018 zeroes community development block grants key program helped gulf coast rebuild hurricane katrina program helped new york new jersey come back superstorm sandy among things grants help people without flood insurance coverage rebuild homes 2017 budget republicanled congress restored funds trumps pending budget request didnt touch core disaster aid account proposed cutting several grant programs help states reduce flood risks disaster strikes improve outdated flood maps told trump proposed cutting grant programs 900 million former democratic president barack obama also cast skeptical eye proposing cuts roughly twothirds large trump final fema budget | 617 |
<p />
<p>“Lord! You know well that my keen desire is to carry out Your commandments and to serve Thee with all my heart, O light of my eyes. If I were free I would pass the whole day and night in prayers. But what should I do when you have made me a slave of a human being?”</p>
<p>These were the words of the female Muslim mystic and poet, Rabia Al-Adawiya. Her journey from slavery to freedom served as a generational testament of the resolve of the individual who was armed with faith and nothing else.</p>
<p>Rabia’s story is multifarious, and despite the fact that the Muslim saint died over 12 centuries ago, few Egyptians are failing to see the centrality of her narrative to their own. In the north of the Nasr City district, tens of thousands of Egyptians chose the iconic mosque named after her to stage their sit-in and demanded the return to shar’iya (legitimacy) after it was seized in a brazen military coup which ousted elected President Mohammed Morsi on July 03.</p>
<p>Rabia’s narrative is essential because it was about freedom. She was born into a very poor family in Basra, Iraq. According to Farid ud-Din Attar who related her story, she was so poor that when she was born the family had nothing to wrap around her, not even oil to light their only lamp. Years later when Rabia was a grownup, she was kidnapped and sold into Egyptian slavery as she tried to escape a deadly famine in Iraq.</p>
<p>Rabia didn’t exactly challenge her master through organizing strikes and defiant sit-ins. She was alone and dominated by too many powerful forces that made her life of slavery and degradation absolute. So she spent most of the day as a slave, but late at night she would stay up and pray. It was more than praying, but an attempt at reclaiming her humanity, at comprehending the multitude of forces that chained her to earthly relations of slave and master, and in a sense, she tried to discover a level of freedom that could not be granted by a master’s wish.</p>
<p>In fact, her true ‘miracle’ was that of her faith under the harshest possible conditions, and her ability to strive for freedom while practically speaking, she remained a slave. It is as if this female poet, a heroin and a saint by the standards of many poor, downtrodden people, managed to redefine the relationship of the ongoing class struggle, and found freedom within herself. It is believed that her inconceivable faith was so strong that her master could not deal with the guilt of holding a saint a slave. So, she was freed.</p>
<p>Regardless of the precision of the details, Rabia Al-Adawiya’s legacy has passed on from one generation of Egyptians to the next. Like her, many of these Egyptians are mostly poor, immensely patient, and are hostage to the same century-old class struggle by which Rabia was defined.</p>
<p>In some way, the January 25 revolution included millions of Rabias fed up with oppression and servitude. But the class division that was highlighted after millions of Egyptians rose against the military coup became clearer than ever. These were the poorest of the poor, long alienated and dehumanized by both the ruling class and the conceited, intellectual groupings of self-described liberals and socialists. The unprecedented union between Egypt’s ruling class and anti-Muslim intellectual elite succeeded, to an extent, in blocking our view from the substantial class struggle underway in Egypt, where the poorest communities – yes, workers and peasants – were leading a historic struggle to reclaim democracy from the upper and middle class intellectuals. The former committed hideous murders against peaceful protesters, while the latter group found a way to explain why it was completely fine to mow down thousands of people staging massive sit-ins in Nahda Square, and yes, Rabia Al-Adawiya Square, named after Rabia.</p>
<p>The Rabias of Egypt are not hated, they are loathed. They have always been treated as sub-humans that live in their own dirty quarters which are unbelievably neglected shantytowns made up of haggard buildings stacked atop one another.&#160; The Rabias of Egypt struggle to merely survive on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Faith serves the poor more than it serves the rich, so they have their mosques. It is a last escape against the harsh grinds of life. When the January 25 revolution erupted, a temporary union existed between the poor and the disenchanted middle class, as they had access to local and international media forums, and were disproportionately represented in their access to social media.</p>
<p>But when the first vote following the removal of Hosni Mubarak was held on March 19, 2011, all the way until the presidential runoff elections on June 16, 2012, the discrepancies began showing: Egypt’s poor seemed to have a whole different world of political preferences, favoring religious parties that spoke their language, over the liberals, socialists, and all the rest. The loudest liberals and socialists seemed to appear on television, but as several rounds of voting had shown, they were the less relevant among Egyptians. The trend was unmistakable: Egypt sought a political program that was democratic and positioned with a religious discourse.</p>
<p>Liberals and socialists were once more alienated, this time democratically. Their own interpretation of a western-like democracy was in reality neither western-like nor democratic, and their combined numbers placed them at the bottom of the ladder of political relevance. They blamed everyone for their failings, initially the military, the remnants of the regime, and eventually the Muslim Brotherhood.</p>
<p>Previous Egyptian regimes had invested precocious resources to demonize any Egyptian Muslim with a political preference that didn’t venerate the regime. They demonized the Islamists in ways that reduced them to the level of sub-humans in the eyes of the ruling class. Many of the liberal and socialist forces that took part in the Jan. 25 revolution grew up knowing no other discourse except seeing political Islam as evil that must be defeated. That discourse was strengthened after the signing of the Camp David Accords in the late 1970’s, for Israel was no longer the enemy, and the enemy were those who dared protest Egypt’s pro-US and pro-Israel policies.</p>
<p>Culture doesn’t change overnight. Collective thinking is not switched off and on with the press of a button. The fact is that the dominance of the Islamic narrative in post-revolution Egypt terrified those who became accustomed to the marginalization of political Islam. It was to the extent that the temporary alliance between the poor and the middle class was done with, in favor of a sinister alliance with the forces allied with the last regime, including the military. The combination was deadlier than any other time in Egypt’s modern history. Thousands of people fell dead and wounded in a few hours on August 14 starting with a crackdown on Rabia Al-Adawiya’s Square. The mosque was set ablaze. The depravity of the violence that followed, hailed by liberals and socialists, as well as regime supporters as a victory for democracy, is indescribable.</p>
<p>But as bloody and heart-wrenching as the last few days in Egypt have been, a sense of clarity finally prevailed. The Jan 25 revolution, inspiring as it was, left numerous questions unanswered, and presented the military with the opportunity to break away from the Mubaraks and re-brand itself as the protector of the nation. But real democracy proved too much for the military and the layers of corrupt political and economic elites it represents. Now, the rosy image of a peaceful revolution guided by its military to achieve a better tomorrow is over: the masks have all been lifted and the reality is much uglier than previously thought. Egypt’s real struggle for freedom and political definition is just starting.</p>
<p>Rabia’s 12-centuries-old legacy will not vanish even after the mosque was burnt. Many of the dead were witnessed and filmed raising their forefingers to heaven in one last prayer as they let go of their last breath. The images from Egypt were gory to say the least, but the faith of Egyptians remains strong.</p> | false | 1 | lord know well keen desire carry commandments serve thee heart light eyes free would pass whole day night prayers made slave human words female muslim mystic poet rabia aladawiya journey slavery freedom served generational testament resolve individual armed faith nothing else rabias story multifarious despite fact muslim saint died 12 centuries ago egyptians failing see centrality narrative north nasr city district tens thousands egyptians chose iconic mosque named stage sitin demanded return shariya legitimacy seized brazen military coup ousted elected president mohammed morsi july 03 rabias narrative essential freedom born poor family basra iraq according farid uddin attar related story poor born family nothing wrap around even oil light lamp years later rabia grownup kidnapped sold egyptian slavery tried escape deadly famine iraq rabia didnt exactly challenge master organizing strikes defiant sitins alone dominated many powerful forces made life slavery degradation absolute spent day slave late night would stay pray praying attempt reclaiming humanity comprehending multitude forces chained earthly relations slave master sense tried discover level freedom could granted masters wish fact true miracle faith harshest possible conditions ability strive freedom practically speaking remained slave female poet heroin saint standards many poor downtrodden people managed redefine relationship ongoing class struggle found freedom within believed inconceivable faith strong master could deal guilt holding saint slave freed regardless precision details rabia aladawiyas legacy passed one generation egyptians next like many egyptians mostly poor immensely patient hostage centuryold class struggle rabia defined way january 25 revolution included millions rabias fed oppression servitude class division highlighted millions egyptians rose military coup became clearer ever poorest poor long alienated dehumanized ruling class conceited intellectual groupings selfdescribed liberals socialists unprecedented union egypts ruling class antimuslim intellectual elite succeeded extent blocking view substantial class struggle underway egypt poorest communities yes workers peasants leading historic struggle reclaim democracy upper middle class intellectuals former committed hideous murders peaceful protesters latter group found way explain completely fine mow thousands people staging massive sitins nahda square yes rabia aladawiya square named rabia rabias egypt hated loathed always treated subhumans live dirty quarters unbelievably neglected shantytowns made haggard buildings stacked atop one another160 rabias egypt struggle merely survive daily basis faith serves poor serves rich mosques last escape harsh grinds life january 25 revolution erupted temporary union existed poor disenchanted middle class access local international media forums disproportionately represented access social media first vote following removal hosni mubarak held march 19 2011 way presidential runoff elections june 16 2012 discrepancies began showing egypts poor seemed whole different world political preferences favoring religious parties spoke language liberals socialists rest loudest liberals socialists seemed appear television several rounds voting shown less relevant among egyptians trend unmistakable egypt sought political program democratic positioned religious discourse liberals socialists alienated time democratically interpretation westernlike democracy reality neither westernlike democratic combined numbers placed bottom ladder political relevance blamed everyone failings initially military remnants regime eventually muslim brotherhood previous egyptian regimes invested precocious resources demonize egyptian muslim political preference didnt venerate regime demonized islamists ways reduced level subhumans eyes ruling class many liberal socialist forces took part jan 25 revolution grew knowing discourse except seeing political islam evil must defeated discourse strengthened signing camp david accords late 1970s israel longer enemy enemy dared protest egypts prous proisrael policies culture doesnt change overnight collective thinking switched press button fact dominance islamic narrative postrevolution egypt terrified became accustomed marginalization political islam extent temporary alliance poor middle class done favor sinister alliance forces allied last regime including military combination deadlier time egypts modern history thousands people fell dead wounded hours august 14 starting crackdown rabia aladawiyas square mosque set ablaze depravity violence followed hailed liberals socialists well regime supporters victory democracy indescribable bloody heartwrenching last days egypt sense clarity finally prevailed jan 25 revolution inspiring left numerous questions unanswered presented military opportunity break away mubaraks rebrand protector nation real democracy proved much military layers corrupt political economic elites represents rosy image peaceful revolution guided military achieve better tomorrow masks lifted reality much uglier previously thought egypts real struggle freedom political definition starting rabias 12centuriesold legacy vanish even mosque burnt many dead witnessed filmed raising forefingers heaven one last prayer let go last breath images egypt gory say least faith egyptians remains strong | 700 |
<p>President Donald Trump has spoken with advisers about firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as he continues to rage against Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from all matters related to the Russia investigation.</p>
<p>The president’s anger again bubbled into public view Monday as he referred to Sessions in a tweet as “beleaguered,” and continued Tuesday by describing the attorney general as “weak” on “Hillary Clinton crimes.”</p>
<p>So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes &amp; Russia relations?</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889467610332528641" type="external">July 24, 2017</a></p>
<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails &amp; DNC server) &amp; Intel leakers!</p>
<p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889790429398528000" type="external">July 25, 2017</a></p>
<p>Privately, Trump has speculated aloud to allies in recent days about the potential consequences of firing Sessions, according to three people who have recently spoken to the president. They demanded anonymity to discuss private conversations.</p>
<p>News website <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-in-phone-call-what-would-happen-if-i-fired-sessions-2465113665.html" type="external">Axios.com reported</a> similar information Tuesday, saying the president called a longtime political associate and asked, “What would happen if I fired Sessions?”</p>
<p>Trump often talks about making staff changes without following through, so those who have spoken with the president cautioned that a change may not be imminent or happen at all. What is clear is that Trump remains furious that the attorney general recused himself from the investigations.</p>
<p>“So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes &amp; Russia relations?” Trump tweeted Monday. His tweet came just hours before his son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, traveled to Capitol Hill to be interviewed about his meetings with Russians.</p>
<p>Trump’s intensifying criticism has fueled speculation that Sessions may resign even if Trump opts not to fire him. During an event at the White House, Trump ignored a shouted question about whether Sessions should step down. The attorney general said last week he intended to stay in his post.</p>
<p>If Trump were to fire Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be elevated to the top post on an acting basis. That would leave the president with another attorney general of whom he has been sharply critical in both public and private for his handling of the Russia probe, according to four White House and outside advisers who, like others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.</p>
<p>It could also raise the specter of Trump asking Rosenstein — or whomever he appoints to fill the position — to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion with Trump’s campaign.</p>
<p>The name of one longtime Trump ally, Rudy Giuliani, was floated Monday as a possible replacement for Sessions, but a person who recently spoke to the former New York City mayor said that Giuliani had not been approached about the position. Giuliani told CNN on Monday that he did not want the post and would have recused himself had he been in Sessions’ position.</p>
<p>The president’s tweets about the former Alabama senator comes less than a week after Trump, in a New York Times interview, said that Sessions should never have taken the job as attorney general if he was going to recuse himself. Sessions made that decision after it was revealed that he had met with a top Russian diplomat last year.</p>
<p>Trump has seethed about Sessions’ decision for months, viewing it as disloyal — arguably the most grievous offense in the president’s mind — and resenting that the attorney general did not give the White House a proper heads-up before making the announcement that he would recuse himself. His fury has been fanned by several close confidants — including his son Donald Trump Jr, who is also ensnared in the Russia probe — who are angry that Sessions made his decision.</p>
<p>Trump and Sessions’ conversations in recent weeks have been infrequent. Sessions had recently asked senior White House staff how he might patch up relations with the president but that effort did not go anywhere, according to a person briefed on the conversations. Sessions was in the West Wing on Monday but did not meet with the president, according to deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.</p>
<p>Newt Gingrich, a frequent Trump adviser, said that the president, with his criticisms of Sessions, was simply venting and being “honest about his feelings. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to do anything,” Gingrich said. Still, he said the president’s comments would have repercussions when it comes to staff morale.</p>
<p>“Anybody who is good at team building would suggest to the president that attacking members of your team rattles the whole team,” Gingrich said.</p>
<p>Sessions and Trump used to be close, sharing both a friendship and an ideology. Sessions risked his reputation when he became the first U.S. senator to endorse the celebrity businessman and his early backing gave Trump legitimacy, especially among the hard-line anti-immigration forces that bolstered his candidacy. Several of Sessions’ top aides now serve in top administration posts, including Stephen Miller, the architect of several of Trump’s signature proposals, including the travel ban and tough immigration policy.</p>
<p>After Trump’s public rebuke last week, Sessions seemed determined to keep doing the job he said “goes beyond anything that I would have ever imagined for myself.”</p>
<p>“I’m totally confident that we can continue to run this office in an effective way,” Sessions said last week.</p>
<p>Armand DeKeyser, who worked closely with Sessions and became his chief of staff in the Senate, said he did not see the attorney general as someone who would easily cave to criticism, even from the president.</p>
<p>“If Jeff thinks he is in an untenable position and cannot be an effective leader, I believe he would leave,” DeKeyser said. “But I don’t think he’s reached that point.”</p>
<p>But Anthony Scaramucci, the president’s new communications director, said that it’s time for Trump and Sessions to hash out a resolution, regardless of what they decide.</p>
<p>“My own personal opinion, I think they’ve got to have a meeting and have a reconciliation one way or another. You know what I mean? Either stay or go, one way or another,” he said.</p>
<p>The Justice Department declined to comment.</p> | false | 1 | president donald trump spoken advisers firing attorney general jeff sessions continues rage sessions decision recuse matters related russia investigation presidents anger bubbled public view monday referred sessions tweet beleaguered continued tuesday describing attorney general weak hillary clinton crimes arent committees investigators course beleaguered ag looking crooked hillarys crimes amp russia relations donald j trump realdonaldtrump july 24 2017 attorney general jeff sessions taken weak position hillary clinton crimes emails amp dnc server amp intel leakers donald j trump realdonaldtrump july 25 2017 privately trump speculated aloud allies recent days potential consequences firing sessions according three people recently spoken president demanded anonymity discuss private conversations news website axioscom reported similar information tuesday saying president called longtime political associate asked would happen fired sessions trump often talks making staff changes without following spoken president cautioned change may imminent happen clear trump remains furious attorney general recused investigations arent committees investigators course beleaguered ag looking crooked hillarys crimes amp russia relations trump tweeted monday tweet came hours soninlaw white house senior adviser jared kushner traveled capitol hill interviewed meetings russians trumps intensifying criticism fueled speculation sessions may resign even trump opts fire event white house trump ignored shouted question whether sessions step attorney general said last week intended stay post trump fire sessions deputy attorney general rod rosenstein would elevated top post acting basis would leave president another attorney general sharply critical public private handling russia probe according four white house outside advisers like others interviewed spoke condition anonymity discuss private conversations could also raise specter trump asking rosenstein whomever appoints fill position fire robert mueller special counsel leading investigation russias meddling 2016 election potential collusion trumps campaign name one longtime trump ally rudy giuliani floated monday possible replacement sessions person recently spoke former new york city mayor said giuliani approached position giuliani told cnn monday want post would recused sessions position presidents tweets former alabama senator comes less week trump new york times interview said sessions never taken job attorney general going recuse sessions made decision revealed met top russian diplomat last year trump seethed sessions decision months viewing disloyal arguably grievous offense presidents mind resenting attorney general give white house proper headsup making announcement would recuse fury fanned several close confidants including son donald trump jr also ensnared russia probe angry sessions made decision trump sessions conversations recent weeks infrequent sessions recently asked senior white house staff might patch relations president effort go anywhere according person briefed conversations sessions west wing monday meet president according deputy press secretary sarah huckabee sanders newt gingrich frequent trump adviser said president criticisms sessions simply venting honest feelings doesnt mean hes going anything gingrich said still said presidents comments would repercussions comes staff morale anybody good team building would suggest president attacking members team rattles whole team gingrich said sessions trump used close sharing friendship ideology sessions risked reputation became first us senator endorse celebrity businessman early backing gave trump legitimacy especially among hardline antiimmigration forces bolstered candidacy several sessions top aides serve top administration posts including stephen miller architect several trumps signature proposals including travel ban tough immigration policy trumps public rebuke last week sessions seemed determined keep job said goes beyond anything would ever imagined im totally confident continue run office effective way sessions said last week armand dekeyser worked closely sessions became chief staff senate said see attorney general someone would easily cave criticism even president jeff thinks untenable position effective leader believe would leave dekeyser said dont think hes reached point anthony scaramucci presidents new communications director said time trump sessions hash resolution regardless decide personal opinion think theyve got meeting reconciliation one way another know mean either stay go one way another said justice department declined comment | 617 |
<p><a href="http://variety.com/t/disney/" type="external">Disney</a> and <a href="http://variety.com/t/fox/" type="external">Fox</a> are racing towards the finish line.</p>
<p>The two media companies are expected to announce a $60 billion-plus pact this week that will see <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/jon-heely-disney-music-group-child-sex-abuse-1202634502/" type="external">Disney</a> snap up much of <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/robot-chicken-fox-film-deal-1202633041/" type="external">Fox</a>’s television and film holdings. If completed, the deal will dramatically reshape the entertainment landscape, bringing together for the first time two of Hollywood’s “Big Six” studios under common ownership, all to give Disney the bigger arsenal of programming it needs to do battle with Netflix and other new entrants in the content business.</p>
<p>Details of the plan and deal points are being closely guarded. There are also many uncertainties about who will run the combined companies, how the government will react to the prospect of consolidation among Hollywood studios, and what it all means for the creative community. Here’s a look at key questions that need to be addressed.</p>
<p>1) Will the Murdochs be involved in Disney?</p>
<p>Yes, they’ll have their own company to run, but will Rupert, Lachlan, and James be satisfied overseeing Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, and Fox Sports in such a pared-down form? They’ll also, as part of the deal, receive a small stake in Disney. But could they somehow leverage the merger into a seat at the table for father or sons? Disney chief Bob Iger is expected to extend his contract as CEO beyond its current mid-2019 expiration point to preside over the integration of the Fox assets. But he’ll eventually need to find a successor. As the Disney board has had no traction with internal candidates, they might be inclined to look at Fox’s formidable team. James Murdoch’s name has been mentioned as making the transition to Disney, spurring succession talk, but sources on both sides of the talks caution that there is no such stipulation in the deal.</p>
<p>2) Will Fox continue to make movies?</p>
<p>On Monday, Fox grabbed a leading 27 Golden Globe nominations, double the number racked up by any other major media company, for fielding the likes of “The Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri,” and “The Post.” These are gutsy, auteur-driven movies that are geared at adults. They’re also exactly the kind of movies that Disney no longer makes. The studio instead focuses on animated fantasies, Star Wars sequels, and Avengers spin-offs; big-budget offerings that appeal to all ages. Moreover, Disney got out of the indie movie game when it sold Miramax in 2010. Does it have any interest in Fox’s art house label Searchlight?</p>
<p>With Disney looking to launch a streaming service, there’s an argument to be made that it needs as much content as possible to attract customers. If Disney wants to create a Netflix killer, that won’t just require having access to Captain America and Luke Skywalker. It may mean offering up a few R-rated movies. Fox knows how to do that.</p>
<p>3) Will the Justice Department OK the deal?</p>
<p>Rupert Murdoch has friends in high places (namely a certain Oval Office occupant), but it’s tough out there for media mergers. Just ask the folks at AT&amp;T and Time Warner. That pact is currently being held up by the Justice Department over anti-trust concerns. That deal is a vertical one, meaning that the two companies operate at different stages of a product’s supply chain and have very few overlapping operations. The Disney and Fox deal is a horizontal merger, in other words that they are in the same business. Historically, horizontal mergers have faced more hurdles in getting government approval because they have a greater chance of creating monopolies. It remains to be seen how this corporate marriage will be greeted in Washington and if Disney and Fox will have to jettison any television or film holdings in order to appease the government.</p>
<p>4) Will Iger stay longer?</p>
<p>Iger’s tenure at Disney has been a dramatic one. He’s shown a willingness to make bold bets, snapping up Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm, and, now, Fox. Managing all these fiefdoms takes talent. Iger is currently slated to step down in 2019 when his contract expires. But there’s no successor in place, and the pressure will be on him to sign up for another tour of duty. That may mean putting his (not so secret) presidential ambitions on the back burner.</p>
<p>5) Will the X-Men team With the Avengers?</p>
<p>Fanboys and fangirls don’t seem to care about monopolistic niceties or the end of the era for the Murdoch gang. They’re more interested in seeing Wolverine hanging out at Avengers HQ. Those dreams could soon come true. After all, the Fox purchase does give Disney, and in particular Marvel, its comic book division, rights to several superheroes that it had licensed to Fox. Not only does the company now have the ability to make X-Men movies, but it can also reboot the Fantastic Four. There’s a whole new world of mutants and costumed heroes just waiting to join the MCU. That leaves only Sony’s Spider-Man films existing outside of Disney and Marvel’s direct control.</p>
<p>6) What does this mean for Netflix?</p>
<p>Buckle up. Netflix has fashioned itself into the de facto subscription streaming service, luring tens of millions of customers to its platform. But Disney wants in on the business. The company has already announced plans to build a standalone streaming service by 2019, and with the Fox deal, it will not only be able to offer films and shows from Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm. It can add programming from the likes of FX and National Geographic, along with movies such as “Alien” and “Avatar” from the Fox studio catalogue. Plus, by purchasing Fox’s assets, Disney will have majority control of Hulu, giving them even more access to those digital dollars.</p>
<p>7) What happens to the Fox lot?</p>
<p>Fox’s Century City sound stages are the stuff of Hollywood history. Will Disney get the 50-plus acres of production and post-production facilities that sit on incredibly valuable Westside real estate? It may not want them. Given that the company already has its own substantial studio lot in Burbank, does it want to maintain offices on both sides of the 134 freeway?</p>
<p>8) What becomes of the Fox Broadcast network?</p>
<p>The upstart network that broke up the hegemony of the Big Three networks in the late 1980s may be in for a dramatic makeover. The word is the Murdochs intend to refocus Fox Broadcasting around news and sports. Fox has been struggling to gain traction with scripted programming in recent years. With the network’s sibling studio on its way to Disney, it’s hard to see how Fox can invest big bucks on high-end dramas and comedies. It would be just like the Murdochs to zig while the rest of the industry is zagging in the Peak TV era.</p>
<p>9) How will producers and creative talent under contract at Fox react to the Disney takeover?</p>
<p>Ryan Murphy could soon be working for Disney. Fox’s TV and film divisions have a long list of production pacts with top filmmakers, writers, producers, and directors. Disney has a approach to content, which may not be a fit for everyone. In the short-term, however, 20th Century Fox and its units will operate autonomously, at least until the deal is completed.</p>
<p>10) How much synergy savings will Disney promise Wall Street?</p>
<p>&#160;Analysts have zeroed in on about $2.5 billion in potential streamlining and elimination of redundancies within a few years after the deal is completed. That sounds like a big human toll, but for an operation the size of Disney, particularly after it has swallowed up the Fox assets, there may be less painful ways to squeeze out economies of scale.</p> | false | 1 | disney fox racing towards finish line two media companies expected announce 60 billionplus pact week see disney snap much foxs television film holdings completed deal dramatically reshape entertainment landscape bringing together first time two hollywoods big six studios common ownership give disney bigger arsenal programming needs battle netflix new entrants content business details plan deal points closely guarded also many uncertainties run combined companies government react prospect consolidation among hollywood studios means creative community heres look key questions need addressed 1 murdochs involved disney yes theyll company run rupert lachlan james satisfied overseeing fox news fox broadcast network fox sports pareddown form theyll also part deal receive small stake disney could somehow leverage merger seat table father sons disney chief bob iger expected extend contract ceo beyond current mid2019 expiration point preside integration fox assets hell eventually need find successor disney board traction internal candidates might inclined look foxs formidable team james murdochs name mentioned making transition disney spurring succession talk sources sides talks caution stipulation deal 2 fox continue make movies monday fox grabbed leading 27 golden globe nominations double number racked major media company fielding likes shape water three billboards outside ebbing missouri post gutsy auteurdriven movies geared adults theyre also exactly kind movies disney longer makes studio instead focuses animated fantasies star wars sequels avengers spinoffs bigbudget offerings appeal ages moreover disney got indie movie game sold miramax 2010 interest foxs art house label searchlight disney looking launch streaming service theres argument made needs much content possible attract customers disney wants create netflix killer wont require access captain america luke skywalker may mean offering rrated movies fox knows 3 justice department ok deal rupert murdoch friends high places namely certain oval office occupant tough media mergers ask folks atampt time warner pact currently held justice department antitrust concerns deal vertical one meaning two companies operate different stages products supply chain overlapping operations disney fox deal horizontal merger words business historically horizontal mergers faced hurdles getting government approval greater chance creating monopolies remains seen corporate marriage greeted washington disney fox jettison television film holdings order appease government 4 iger stay longer igers tenure disney dramatic one hes shown willingness make bold bets snapping pixar marvel lucasfilm fox managing fiefdoms takes talent iger currently slated step 2019 contract expires theres successor place pressure sign another tour duty may mean putting secret presidential ambitions back burner 5 xmen team avengers fanboys fangirls dont seem care monopolistic niceties end era murdoch gang theyre interested seeing wolverine hanging avengers hq dreams could soon come true fox purchase give disney particular marvel comic book division rights several superheroes licensed fox company ability make xmen movies also reboot fantastic four theres whole new world mutants costumed heroes waiting join mcu leaves sonys spiderman films existing outside disney marvels direct control 6 mean netflix buckle netflix fashioned de facto subscription streaming service luring tens millions customers platform disney wants business company already announced plans build standalone streaming service 2019 fox deal able offer films shows pixar marvel lucasfilm add programming likes fx national geographic along movies alien avatar fox studio catalogue plus purchasing foxs assets disney majority control hulu giving even access digital dollars 7 happens fox lot foxs century city sound stages stuff hollywood history disney get 50plus acres production postproduction facilities sit incredibly valuable westside real estate may want given company already substantial studio lot burbank want maintain offices sides 134 freeway 8 becomes fox broadcast network upstart network broke hegemony big three networks late 1980s may dramatic makeover word murdochs intend refocus fox broadcasting around news sports fox struggling gain traction scripted programming recent years networks sibling studio way disney hard see fox invest big bucks highend dramas comedies would like murdochs zig rest industry zagging peak tv era 9 producers creative talent contract fox react disney takeover ryan murphy could soon working disney foxs tv film divisions long list production pacts top filmmakers writers producers directors disney approach content may fit everyone shortterm however 20th century fox units operate autonomously least deal completed 10 much synergy savings disney promise wall street 160analysts zeroed 25 billion potential streamlining elimination redundancies within years deal completed sounds like big human toll operation size disney particularly swallowed fox assets may less painful ways squeeze economies scale | 711 |
<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704082104575515851336184716.html" type="external">taken exception</a> to a Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703597204575483900330728436.html" type="external">editorial</a> that attacked her recent actions as secretary. According to Secretary Sebelius, the Journal's criticism of her was really just one move in a larger effort orchestrated by the insurance industry to slow down her efforts to implement the new health care law. In her rebuttal, the secretary made it clear that she will not change course because, in her view, all she has been doing is providing long overdue oversight to a renegade industry that regularly runs roughshod over consumers.</p>
<p>It's clear the secretary believes the best defense is a good offense, and the insurance industry makes for a good target. But her rebuttal doesn't actually address the substance of the recent criticism. The Wall Street Journal editorial to which she was notionally responding did not fault her for faithfully executing what is required by statute — though it's certainly the case that the Journal's editorialists are among the new law's staunchest critics. No, the Journal took her to task for abusing the power of her office for political purposes. And they were absolutely right to do so.</p>
<p>On Sept. 9, the secretary sent a <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/09/20100909a.html" type="external">letter</a> to the trade group representing the nation's health insurers expressing her displeasure with stories in the press that quoted insurers that blame a portion of their looming premium increases on the mandates in the new health law. Of course, it's hardly breaking news that new insurance coverage requirements raise premiums, and sometimes substantially depending on the circumstances and market. Nonetheless, this kind of truth-telling in public was too much for the administration, which has been asserting, without any supporting evidence, that the new law would actually lower premiums for those with existing coverage.</p>
<p>And so, to apparently show how serious she is about getting the industry to toe the line, the secretary's letter issued a plainly stated threat: Any insurer that dared to utter the truth about why premiums are rising might be banned from the government-managed “exchanges” through which the administration hopes most individual and small-group purchasers of insurance will eventually get their coverage. For many insurers, if the law gets implemented as planned, banishment from these exchanges could very well mean going out of business.</p>
<p>Washington sees more than its share of power plays, and there were many on display during the year-long health care debate. But even by Washington standards, the secretary's letter is highly unusual, and startling. It is not every day that a cabinet secretary issues a threat aimed at controlling the speech of an entire industry for plainly political reasons.</p>
<p>But it does fit a pattern. For more than a year, the administration has sought to frame the health care debate as primarily a fight between advocates for consumers and the private health insurance industry, and Secretary Sebelius has been leading the way in this regard. Last summer, the president started calling the legislative effort “health insurance reform” and downplayed the arguments he had previously been using to sell his reform vision, such as “bending the cost curve” and universal coverage. In the weeks before final passage, Secretary Sebelius pounded Wellpoint for requesting a large premium increase for a segment of its market in California, arguing that the increase was unjustified and could be addressed with the new oversight provided in the law.</p>
<p>In recent weeks, both the president and the secretary have focused their public remarks almost exclusively on what the new law will supposedly do to help people with pre-existing conditions get and keep coverage as well as other mandated coverage requirements. Indeed, both have dared opponents of the new law to try and roll back the insurance requirements that have gone into effect this year.</p>
<p>It is no doubt useful politically for the administration to set up the private health insurance industry as its foil in this struggle. Many Americans have low regard for insurance companies. But this is largely a diversionary tactic on the part of the secretary. She wants to leave the misimpression that what the health care bill is really about is the relatively minor coverage requirements being imposed this year, not the much less popular provisions of the new law, such as the nearly $700 billion tax increase it imposes over the next 10 years. Or the long-term budgetary costs associated with adding 30 to 40 million people to federal health entitlement programs. Or the 7.4 million seniors who will lose access to the Medicare Advantage plan they would have preferred. Or the large numbers of employers who are likely to drop their existing coverage arrangements in favor of putting their workers into the exchanges. These are the major provisions of the new law, changes that will impose new costs on tens of millions of Americans — and they are the main reasons why the law remains highly unpopular with a very large segment of the electorate.</p>
<p>Of course, the insurance issue that most animates public concern is pre-existing conditions. In 1996, <a href="http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/how-to-cover-pre-existing-conditions" type="external">Congress banned preexisting condition exclusions</a> for those who stay in continuous coverage, but the rules, while far-reaching, have left a few holes. Consequently, a not-insignificant number of Americans with existing and expensive health conditions still have great difficulty securing affordable and stable coverage. The public rightly wants this fixed.</p>
<p>Ironically, the president and the secretary have now embraced a remedy for this problem — high-risk pools — that has strong bipartisan support. In 2008, then-presidential candidate John McCain proposed robust high-risk pool funding as a way to cover all of the uninsured with expensive pre-existing conditions. At that time, the Obama campaign attacked the concept as an inadequate half-measure. Now, however, the president is touting the coverage being provided through the modest high-risk pool funding as a primary argument against repeal.</p>
<p>In their recently issued <a href="http://pledge.gop.gov/" type="external">campaign program</a>, House Republicans also endorsed high-risk pool funding as a way to cover preexisting conditions. This should make it abundantly clear to the electorate that it is entirely possible to fix problems in private health insurance without embracing the rest of the president's sweeping and government-centric health agenda.</p>
<p>James C. Capretta is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | health human services secretary kathleen sebelius taken exception wall street journal editorial attacked recent actions secretary according secretary sebelius journals criticism really one move larger effort orchestrated insurance industry slow efforts implement new health care law rebuttal secretary made clear change course view providing long overdue oversight renegade industry regularly runs roughshod consumers clear secretary believes best defense good offense insurance industry makes good target rebuttal doesnt actually address substance recent criticism wall street journal editorial notionally responding fault faithfully executing required statute though certainly case journals editorialists among new laws staunchest critics journal took task abusing power office political purposes absolutely right sept 9 secretary sent letter trade group representing nations health insurers expressing displeasure stories press quoted insurers blame portion looming premium increases mandates new health law course hardly breaking news new insurance coverage requirements raise premiums sometimes substantially depending circumstances market nonetheless kind truthtelling public much administration asserting without supporting evidence new law would actually lower premiums existing coverage apparently show serious getting industry toe line secretarys letter issued plainly stated threat insurer dared utter truth premiums rising might banned governmentmanaged exchanges administration hopes individual smallgroup purchasers insurance eventually get coverage many insurers law gets implemented planned banishment exchanges could well mean going business washington sees share power plays many display yearlong health care debate even washington standards secretarys letter highly unusual startling every day cabinet secretary issues threat aimed controlling speech entire industry plainly political reasons fit pattern year administration sought frame health care debate primarily fight advocates consumers private health insurance industry secretary sebelius leading way regard last summer president started calling legislative effort health insurance reform downplayed arguments previously using sell reform vision bending cost curve universal coverage weeks final passage secretary sebelius pounded wellpoint requesting large premium increase segment market california arguing increase unjustified could addressed new oversight provided law recent weeks president secretary focused public remarks almost exclusively new law supposedly help people preexisting conditions get keep coverage well mandated coverage requirements indeed dared opponents new law try roll back insurance requirements gone effect year doubt useful politically administration set private health insurance industry foil struggle many americans low regard insurance companies largely diversionary tactic part secretary wants leave misimpression health care bill really relatively minor coverage requirements imposed year much less popular provisions new law nearly 700 billion tax increase imposes next 10 years longterm budgetary costs associated adding 30 40 million people federal health entitlement programs 74 million seniors lose access medicare advantage plan would preferred large numbers employers likely drop existing coverage arrangements favor putting workers exchanges major provisions new law changes impose new costs tens millions americans main reasons law remains highly unpopular large segment electorate course insurance issue animates public concern preexisting conditions 1996 congress banned preexisting condition exclusions stay continuous coverage rules farreaching left holes consequently notinsignificant number americans existing expensive health conditions still great difficulty securing affordable stable coverage public rightly wants fixed ironically president secretary embraced remedy problem highrisk pools strong bipartisan support 2008 thenpresidential candidate john mccain proposed robust highrisk pool funding way cover uninsured expensive preexisting conditions time obama campaign attacked concept inadequate halfmeasure however president touting coverage provided modest highrisk pool funding primary argument repeal recently issued campaign program house republicans also endorsed highrisk pool funding way cover preexisting conditions make abundantly clear electorate entirely possible fix problems private health insurance without embracing rest presidents sweeping governmentcentric health agenda james c capretta fellow ethics public policy center | 576 |
<p>Nevada is prepared to continue its all-out war against the Yucca Mountain Project, while the county that would host the proposed nuclear waste repository plans to keep pushing for the licensing process to resume.</p>
<p>The two key players in the decades-old fight over the project staked out familiar positions Wednesday at a <a href="" type="internal">radioactive waste conference in Las</a> <a href="" type="internal">Vegas</a>.</p>
<p>“We’re letting politics rule the day,” said Nye County Commission Chairman Dan Schinhofen, a proponent of the plan to bury high-level waste inside the mountain. “Let’s hear the science.”</p>
<p>But Robert Halstead, head of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the state intends to challenge the repository at every stage — before, during and, if necessary, after any licensing review.</p>
<p>“It’s not just people ripping each other to pieces for the purpose of ripping each other to pieces. There are real scientific and engineering issues involved,” Halstead said.</p>
<p>Wednesday’s panel discussion, Yucca Mountain Restart, came as the Trump administration is pushing Congress to <a href="" type="internal">fund again the repository licensing process</a>, which began in 2008 but stalled during the Obama administration.</p>
<p>House Republicans are moving forward with a bill authorizing $120 million for the Department of Energy and $30 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start the process. The Senate did not include repository funding in its appropriations bill, setting up a confrontation in conference.</p>
<p>‘Matter of national security’</p>
<p>If licensing resumes, Halstead said the state plans to “fully adjudicate” about 250 separate challenges to the Energy Department’s license application for Yucca Mountain and the data underpinning it. Despite decades of research costing billions of dollars, DOE has not sufficiently demonstrated that it can safely transport and contain as much as 110,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste without contaminating groundwater and endangering residents in the region, he said.</p>
<p>But Schinhofen said the federal government has a “moral and legal obligation” to dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive waste, which is being stored at nuclear power plants and other reactor sites across the country. Developing a repository inside Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is “a matter of national security,” he said.</p>
<p>“If it’s not proven safe, we’ll join them (the state) in saying no,” Schinhofen said.</p>
<p>But he made it clear that he doesn’t expect that outcome.</p>
<p>“All of the evidence vetted to date shows Yucca Mountain can be done safely,” Schinhofen said, and Nye County wants the highly skilled jobs, infrastructure improvements and other economic benefits that will come with it.</p>
<p>“It’s a multigenerational, multibillion-dollar project,” he said.</p>
<p>Politics over science</p>
<p>Schinhofen and Halstead also sparred over how Yucca Mountain is viewed by the public in Nevada.</p>
<p>Halstead said political opposition to the project is stronger than ever while public opinion is largely unchanged, with around 75 percent of Nevadans opposed to plans to transport and store the nation’s high-level waste in the state.</p>
<p>But Schinhofen said that while the media liks to paint him as the lone voice in favor of Yucca Mountain, Nye is actually one of nine rural counties that have passed resolutions calling for the licensing to resume and the science to be heard.</p>
<p>The two men did agree on one point: Both said politics have trumped science in the debate over nuclear waste disposal, albeit at different times and in different ways.</p>
<p>Schinhofen said that by blocking the NRC’s license review, the state is “relying on political science over nuclear science.”</p>
<p>But Halstead responded that it was “political science not <a href="" type="internal">earth</a> <a href="" type="internal">science</a>” that prompted Congress to designate Yucca Mountain as the sole repository site in 1987, a decision that left a deep mistrust that still lingers in Nevada.</p>
<p>“Why do we want to participate in something we believe is unfair?” Halstead said.</p>
<p>Wednesday’s debate at the annual RadWaste Summit, a conference of government and industry experts, was one that many of the people in the room had heard before.</p>
<p>As one convention-goer grumbled after leaving the banquet hall: “They’ve been having this discussion for 35 years.”</p>
<p>Contact Henry Brean at [email protected] or 702-383-0350. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/RefriedBrean" type="external">@RefriedBrean</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Pending bills would require consent</p>
<p>When Congress named Yucca Mountain as the nation’s sole site for a planned nuclear waste repository in 1987, it left a wound in the state that still hasn’t healed, said Robert Halstead, head of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects.</p>
<p>A bill now before Congress could help “change the tone” and restore some trust to the repository conversation, Halstead said Wednesday during a radioactive waste conference in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>Before President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, U.S. Sens. Dean Heller, a Republican, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, introduced the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act in the Senate.</p>
<p>Companion legislation was filed in the House by U.S. Reps. Dina Titus, Ruben Kihuen and Jacky Rosen, all Nevada Democrats.</p>
<p>The identical bills would require the Energy Department to secure consent from the governor, local governments and Native American tribal leaders before construction of a nuclear waste repository in any state.</p>
<p>Halstead the informed consent act would give Nye County and the rural counties surrounding it equal footing with the state and allow them to negotiate agreements with federal government over the repository.</p>
<p>So far, the two bills have been referred to committees in the House and Senate, but no further action has occurred.</p>
<p>— Henry Brean</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | nevada prepared continue allout war yucca mountain project county would host proposed nuclear waste repository plans keep pushing licensing process resume two key players decadesold fight project staked familiar positions wednesday radioactive waste conference las vegas letting politics rule day said nye county commission chairman dan schinhofen proponent plan bury highlevel waste inside mountain lets hear science robert halstead head nevadas agency nuclear projects said state intends challenge repository every stage necessary licensing review people ripping pieces purpose ripping pieces real scientific engineering issues involved halstead said wednesdays panel discussion yucca mountain restart came trump administration pushing congress fund repository licensing process began 2008 stalled obama administration house republicans moving forward bill authorizing 120 million department energy 30 million nuclear regulatory commission start process senate include repository funding appropriations bill setting confrontation conference matter national security licensing resumes halstead said state plans fully adjudicate 250 separate challenges energy departments license application yucca mountain data underpinning despite decades research costing billions dollars doe sufficiently demonstrated safely transport contain much 110000 metric tons highly radioactive waste without contaminating groundwater endangering residents region said schinhofen said federal government moral legal obligation dispose nations spent nuclear fuel highly radioactive waste stored nuclear power plants reactor sites across country developing repository inside yucca mountain 100 miles northwest las vegas matter national security said proven safe well join state saying schinhofen said made clear doesnt expect outcome evidence vetted date shows yucca mountain done safely schinhofen said nye county wants highly skilled jobs infrastructure improvements economic benefits come multigenerational multibilliondollar project said politics science schinhofen halstead also sparred yucca mountain viewed public nevada halstead said political opposition project stronger ever public opinion largely unchanged around 75 percent nevadans opposed plans transport store nations highlevel waste state schinhofen said media liks paint lone voice favor yucca mountain nye actually one nine rural counties passed resolutions calling licensing resume science heard two men agree one point said politics trumped science debate nuclear waste disposal albeit different times different ways schinhofen said blocking nrcs license review state relying political science nuclear science halstead responded political science earth science prompted congress designate yucca mountain sole repository site 1987 decision left deep mistrust still lingers nevada want participate something believe unfair halstead said wednesdays debate annual radwaste summit conference government industry experts one many people room heard one conventiongoer grumbled leaving banquet hall theyve discussion 35 years contact henry brean hbreanreviewjournalcom 7023830350 follow refriedbrean twitter pending bills would require consent congress named yucca mountain nations sole site planned nuclear waste repository 1987 left wound state still hasnt healed said robert halstead head nevadas agency nuclear projects bill congress could help change tone restore trust repository conversation halstead said wednesday radioactive waste conference las vegas president donald trumps inauguration january us sens dean heller republican catherine cortez masto democrat introduced nuclear waste informed consent act senate companion legislation filed house us reps dina titus ruben kihuen jacky rosen nevada democrats identical bills would require energy department secure consent governor local governments native american tribal leaders construction nuclear waste repository state halstead informed consent act would give nye county rural counties surrounding equal footing state allow negotiate agreements federal government repository far two bills referred committees house senate action occurred henry brean | 539 |
<p>WASHINGTON — He misses driving, feels as if he is in a cocoon, and is surprised how hard his new job is.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump on Thursday reflected on his first 100 days in office with a wistful look at his life before the White House.</p>
<p>“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump told Reuters in an interview. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”</p>
<p>A wealthy businessman from New York, Trump assumed public office for the first time when he entered the White House on Jan. 20 after he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an upset.</p>
<p>More than five months after his victory and two days shy of the 100-day mark of his presidency, the election is still on Trump’s mind. Midway through a discussion about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the president paused to hand out copies of what he said were the latest figures from the 2016 electoral map.</p>
<p>“Here, you can take that, that’s the final map of the numbers,” the Republican president said from his desk in the Oval Office, handing out maps of the United States with areas he won marked in red. “It’s pretty good, right? The red is obviously us.”</p>
<p>He had copies for each of the three Reuters reporters in the room.</p>
<p>Trump, who said he was accustomed to not having privacy in his “old life,” expressed surprise at how little he had now. And he made clear he was still getting used to having 24-hour Secret Service protection and its accompanying constraints.</p>
<p>“You’re really into your own little cocoon, because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere,” he said.</p>
<p>When the president leaves the White House, it is usually in a limousine or an SUV.</p>
<p>He said he missed being behind the wheel himself.</p>
<p>“I like to drive,” he said. “I can’t drive any more.”</p>
<p>Many things about Trump have not changed from the wheeler-dealer executive and former celebrity reality show host who ran his empire from the 26th floor of Trump Tower in New York and worked the phones incessantly.</p>
<p>He frequently turns to outside friends and former business colleagues for advice and positive reinforcement. Senior aides say they are resigned to it.</p>
<p>The president has been at loggerheads with many news organizations since his election campaign and decided not to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday because he felt he had been treated unfairly by the media.</p>
<p>“I would come next year, absolutely,” Trump said when asked whether he would attend in the future.</p>
<p>The dinner is organized by the White House Correspondents’ Association. Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason is its president.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Trump says ‘major, major’ conflict with North Korea is possible</p>
<p>Also on Thursday, Trump said a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute.</p>
<p>“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple U.S. presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.</p>
<p>“We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said.</p>
<p>Trump lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese assistance in trying to rein in North Korea. The two leaders met in Florida earlier this month.</p>
<p>“I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well.</p>
<p>“With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t,” Trump said.</p>
<p>Trump spoke just a day after he and his top national security advisers briefed U.S. lawmakers on the North Korean threat and one day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.</p>
<p>The Trump administration on Wednesday declared North Korea “an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority.” It said it was focusing on economic and diplomatic pressure, including Chinese cooperation in containing its defiant neighbor and ally, and remained open to negotiations.</p>
<p>U.S. officials said military strikes remained an option but played down the prospect, though the administration has sent an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a show of force.</p>
<p>Any direct U.S. military action would run the risk of massive North Korean retaliation and huge casualties in Japan and South Korea and among U.S. forces in both countries.</p>
<p>Trump, asked if he considered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be rational, said he was operating from the assumption that he is rational. He noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age.</p>
<p>“He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age.</p>
<p>“I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said.</p>
<p>Trump, sipping a Coke delivered by an aide after the president ordered it by pressing a button on his desk, appeared to rebuff an overture from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who told Reuters a direct phone call with Trump could take place again after their first conversation in early December angered Beijing.</p>
<p>China considers neighboring Taiwan to be a renegade province.</p>
<p>“My problem is that I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi,” said Trump. “I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation. So I wouldn’t want to be causing difficulty right now for him.”</p>
<p>“So I would certainly want to speak to him first.”</p> | false | 1 | washington misses driving feels cocoon surprised hard new job president donald trump thursday reflected first 100 days office wistful look life white house loved previous life many things going trump told reuters interview work previous life thought would easier wealthy businessman new york trump assumed public office first time entered white house jan 20 defeated former secretary state hillary clinton upset five months victory two days shy 100day mark presidency election still trumps mind midway discussion chinese president xi jinping president paused hand copies said latest figures 2016 electoral map take thats final map numbers republican president said desk oval office handing maps united states areas marked red pretty good right red obviously us copies three reuters reporters room trump said accustomed privacy old life expressed surprise little made clear still getting used 24hour secret service protection accompanying constraints youre really little cocoon massive protection really cant go anywhere said president leaves white house usually limousine suv said missed behind wheel like drive said cant drive many things trump changed wheelerdealer executive former celebrity reality show host ran empire 26th floor trump tower new york worked phones incessantly frequently turns outside friends former business colleagues advice positive reinforcement senior aides say resigned president loggerheads many news organizations since election campaign decided attend white house correspondents dinner washington saturday felt treated unfairly media would come next year absolutely trump said asked whether would attend future dinner organized white house correspondents association reuters correspondent jeff mason president trump says major major conflict north korea possible also thursday trump said major conflict north korea possible standoff nuclear missile programs would prefer diplomatic outcome dispute chance could end major major conflict north korea absolutely trump told reuters oval office interview ahead 100th day office saturday nonetheless trump said wanted peacefully resolve crisis bedeviled multiple us presidents path administration emphasizing preparing variety new economic sanctions taking military option table wed love solve things diplomatically difficult said trump lavished praise chinese president xi jinping chinese assistance trying rein north korea two leaders met florida earlier month believe trying hard certainly doesnt want see turmoil death doesnt want see good man good man got know well said loves china loves people china know would like able something perhaps possible cant trump said trump spoke day top national security advisers briefed us lawmakers north korean threat one day secretary state rex tillerson press united nations security council sanctions isolate pyongyang nuclear missile programs trump administration wednesday declared north korea urgent national security threat top foreign policy priority said focusing economic diplomatic pressure including chinese cooperation containing defiant neighbor ally remained open negotiations us officials said military strikes remained option played prospect though administration sent aircraft carrier nuclearpowered submarine region show force direct us military action would run risk massive north korean retaliation huge casualties japan south korea among us forces countries trump asked considered north korean leader kim jong un rational said operating assumption rational noted kim taken country early age hes 27 years old father dies took regime say want easy especially age im giving credit giving credit im saying thats hard thing whether hes rational opinion hope hes rational said trump sipping coke delivered aide president ordered pressing button desk appeared rebuff overture taiwan president tsai ingwen told reuters direct phone call trump could take place first conversation early december angered beijing china considers neighboring taiwan renegade province problem established good personal relationship president xi said trump really feel everything power help us big situation wouldnt want causing difficulty right would certainly want speak first | 589 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">&lt;img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-16346" title="abu-zubaydah" src="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/abu-zubaydah.jpg" alt="Abu Zubaydah" width="450" height="335" srcset="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/abu-zubaydah.jpg 450w, https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/abu-zubaydah-150x112.jpg 150w, https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/abu-zubaydah-300x223.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /&gt;</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Download this Article (PDF)</a></p>
<p>Abu Zubaydah, a man once called al-Qaeda’s “chief of operations” appears to be at the center of an unraveling of the official myth behind al Qaeda. &#160;After his capture in early 2002, Zubaydah was the first “detainee” known to be tortured.&#160; The information allegedly obtained from his torture played a large part in the creation of the official account of 9/11 and in the justification for the continued use of such torture techniques.&#160; Yet in September, 2009, the U.S. government admitted that Zubaydah was never a member or associate of al Qaeda at all.&#160; These facts raise an alarming number of questions about the veracity of our knowledge about al Qaeda, and the true identity of the people who are said to be behind the 9/11 attacks.</p>
<p>Unlike other alleged al Qaeda leaders, including Khlaid Sheik Mohammed and Ramzi bin Alshibh, Zubaydah has never been charged with a crime.&#160; As these other leading suspects await their continually-postponed military trial, Zubaydah is instead being airbrushed out of history.&#160; Why would the U.S. government want us to forget Zubaydah, the first and most important al Qaeda operative captured after 9/11?</p>
<p>The 9/11 Commission called Zubaydah an “Al Qaeda associate,” a “long-time ally of Bin Ladin,” a “Bin Ladin lieutenant,” and an “al Qaeda lieutenant.”[1]&#160;The Commission’s claims were somewhat contradictory in that Zubaydah was, in the Commission’s report, represented as both an al Qaeda leader and simply a terrorist colleague who collaborated in the training and recruiting of operatives.&#160; For example, the Commission reported that Zubaydah “helped operate a popular terrorist training camp near the border with Pakistan” [Khalden Camp], and that Bin Laden had an agreement with Zubaydah to “conduct reciprocal recruiting efforts whereby promising trainees at the camps would be invited to join al Qaeda.”&#160; It was unclear why a “Bin Laden lieutenant” would need such a reciprocal agreement with Bin Laden.</p>
<p>Other claims made by the 9/11 Commission were that “KSM and Zubaydah each played key roles in facilitating travel for al Qaeda operatives,” and that “Zubaydah had been a major figure in the millenium plots.” These claims are supported primarily by the torture testimony of Zubaydah and others, and by Zubaydah’s “diary.”</p>
<p>In an amazing turnabout in 2009, an attorney for Zubaydah wrote in&#160;The Guardian&#160;that the majority of the accusations against Zubaydah were understood by all parties to be false. &#160;In fact, he wrote, they “were known to be false when uttered.”[2]&#160; Attorney Brent Mickum said that his client, said to be the “number three man in al Qaeda,” was never a member or associate of al Qaeda and that “These facts really are no longer contested: [Zubaydah] was not, and never had been, a member of either the Taliban or al-Qaida. The CIA determined this after torturing him extensively.”&#160; In fact, he “was never a member or a supporter of any armed forces that were allied against the United States,” and he was never the “head of a military camp that trained terrorists. That allegation is false at all levels.”</p>
<p>It turns out that Mickum’s report was correct and that “Abu Zubaydah’s supposed relationship with al-Qaida is a complete myth.”[3]</p>
<p>We know this because, as of September 2009, the U.S. government agreed that Zubaydah was never an al Qaeda operative.&#160; During Zubaydah’s habeas corpus petition, the government admitted that Abu Zubaydah had never been a member of al-Qaeda, nor involved in the attacks on the African embassies in 1998, or the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.[4]&#160; The motion, filed by the U.S. government, states:</p>
<p>…the Government has not contended in this proceeding that Petitioner [Zubaydah] was a member of al-Qaida or otherwise formally identified with al-Qaida.</p>
<p>Respondent [The United States Government] does not contend that Petitioner was a “member” of al-Qaida in the sense of having sworn a bayat (allegiance) or having otherwise satisfied any formal criteria that either Petitioner or al-Qaida may have considered necessary for inclusion in al-Qaida. Nor is the Government detaining Petitioner based on any allegation that Petitioner views himself as part of al-Qaida as a matter of subjective personal conscience, ideology, or worldview.</p>
<p>The Government has not contended in this proceeding that Petitioner had any direct role in or advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.</p>
<p>…the Government has not contended that Petitioner had any personal involvement in planning or executing either the 1998 embassy bombings… or the attacks on September 11, 2001.</p>
<p>In his article that same year, attorney Mickum went on to point out that the torture tapes, which the CIA had first lied to the 9/11 Commission about and then destroyed, had a lot to do with Zubaydah.&#160; Mickum wrote:&#160; “the videotapes of his torture were destroyed. Just recently, the government revealed that 90 of the 92 videotapes that the CIA destroyed related to our client.”&#160; Not only that, Mickum went on to say that the U.S. government has removed all “reference to my client from the charge sheets and factual returns of other prisoners whose cases were being prosecuted. Abu Zubaydah has been linked to nearly 50 prisoners and former prisoners through media accounts and official Guantanamo Bay documents. Of these, approximately two dozen have either had their charges dropped or have been released from custody.”&#160; They have, essentially, “airbrushed Abu Zubaydah out of history.”</p>
<p>Obviously this attempt to remove a key 9/11 accomplice from history must make a significant difference to the official account of 9/11.&#160; We would expect that major revisions to the&#160;9/11 Commission Report&#160;would be necessary given the knowledge that the man never had a connection to al Qaeda.</p>
<p>In order to better understand just how much Zubaydah meant as a primary source for the official account of 9/11, we must review the extensive claims made about Zubaydah by the U.S. government and mainstream media over the years.&#160; We’ve seen that the 9/11 Commission (falsely) called Zubaydah an “al Qaeda lieutenant.”&#160; The Joint Congressional inquiry did the same, calling him “al-Qa’ida leader Abu Zubaydah,” and the “Bin Ladin lieutenant captured in March 2002.”&#160; As late as 2006, the Justice Department’s Inspector General report on the 9/11 attacks called Zubaydah a “Bin Laden lieutenant.”</p>
<p>When Zubaydah was captured, in March 2002, U.S. government officials touted him as the biggest catch of the War on Terror, at least until the capture of Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM).&#160; FBI Director Robert Mueller stated that Zubaydah’s capture would help deter future attacks.[5]&#160; White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that Zubaydah could provide a treasure-trove of information about al-Qaeda.[6]&#160; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed that Zubaydah was “a man who knows of additional attacks”, who has “trained people to do this”, and was a big fish who had a fountain of knowledge.[7]</p>
<p>The extensive allegations against Zubaydah went on and on, and included that he was:</p>
<p />
<p /> | false | 1 | ltimg classaligncenter sizefull wpimage16346 titleabuzubaydah srchttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201210abuzubaydahjpg altabu zubaydah width450 height335 srcsethttpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201210abuzubaydahjpg 450w httpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201210abuzubaydah150x112jpg 150w httpswwwforeignpolicyjournalcomwpcontentuploads201210abuzubaydah300x223jpg 300w sizesmaxwidth 450px 100vw 450px gt download article pdf abu zubaydah man called alqaedas chief operations appears center unraveling official myth behind al qaeda 160after capture early 2002 zubaydah first detainee known tortured160 information allegedly obtained torture played large part creation official account 911 justification continued use torture techniques160 yet september 2009 us government admitted zubaydah never member associate al qaeda all160 facts raise alarming number questions veracity knowledge al qaeda true identity people said behind 911 attacks unlike alleged al qaeda leaders including khlaid sheik mohammed ramzi bin alshibh zubaydah never charged crime160 leading suspects await continuallypostponed military trial zubaydah instead airbrushed history160 would us government want us forget zubaydah first important al qaeda operative captured 911 911 commission called zubaydah al qaeda associate longtime ally bin ladin bin ladin lieutenant al qaeda lieutenant1160the commissions claims somewhat contradictory zubaydah commissions report represented al qaeda leader simply terrorist colleague collaborated training recruiting operatives160 example commission reported zubaydah helped operate popular terrorist training camp near border pakistan khalden camp bin laden agreement zubaydah conduct reciprocal recruiting efforts whereby promising trainees camps would invited join al qaeda160 unclear bin laden lieutenant would need reciprocal agreement bin laden claims made 911 commission ksm zubaydah played key roles facilitating travel al qaeda operatives zubaydah major figure millenium plots claims supported primarily torture testimony zubaydah others zubaydahs diary amazing turnabout 2009 attorney zubaydah wrote in160the guardian160that majority accusations zubaydah understood parties false 160in fact wrote known false uttered2160 attorney brent mickum said client said number three man al qaeda never member associate al qaeda facts really longer contested zubaydah never member either taliban alqaida cia determined torturing extensively160 fact never member supporter armed forces allied united states never head military camp trained terrorists allegation false levels turns mickums report correct abu zubaydahs supposed relationship alqaida complete myth3 know september 2009 us government agreed zubaydah never al qaeda operative160 zubaydahs habeas corpus petition government admitted abu zubaydah never member alqaeda involved attacks african embassies 1998 attacks united states september 11 20014160 motion filed us government states government contended proceeding petitioner zubaydah member alqaida otherwise formally identified alqaida respondent united states government contend petitioner member alqaida sense sworn bayat allegiance otherwise satisfied formal criteria either petitioner alqaida may considered necessary inclusion alqaida government detaining petitioner based allegation petitioner views part alqaida matter subjective personal conscience ideology worldview government contended proceeding petitioner direct role advance knowledge terrorist attacks september 11 2001 government contended petitioner personal involvement planning executing either 1998 embassy bombings attacks september 11 2001 article year attorney mickum went point torture tapes cia first lied 911 commission destroyed lot zubaydah160 mickum wrote160 videotapes torture destroyed recently government revealed 90 92 videotapes cia destroyed related client160 mickum went say us government removed reference client charge sheets factual returns prisoners whose cases prosecuted abu zubaydah linked nearly 50 prisoners former prisoners media accounts official guantanamo bay documents approximately two dozen either charges dropped released custody160 essentially airbrushed abu zubaydah history obviously attempt remove key 911 accomplice history must make significant difference official account 911160 would expect major revisions the160911 commission report160would necessary given knowledge man never connection al qaeda order better understand much zubaydah meant primary source official account 911 must review extensive claims made zubaydah us government mainstream media years160 weve seen 911 commission falsely called zubaydah al qaeda lieutenant160 joint congressional inquiry calling alqaida leader abu zubaydah bin ladin lieutenant captured march 2002160 late 2006 justice departments inspector general report 911 attacks called zubaydah bin laden lieutenant zubaydah captured march 2002 us government officials touted biggest catch war terror least capture khalid sheik mohammed ksm160 fbi director robert mueller stated zubaydahs capture would help deter future attacks5160 white house spokesman ari fleischer said zubaydah could provide treasuretrove information alqaeda6160 secretary defense donald rumsfeld claimed zubaydah man knows additional attacks trained people big fish fountain knowledge7 extensive allegations zubaydah went included | 659 |
<p>For the past few years, the United States has engaged in an ethically weighty, politically charged, scientifically complex debate about stem cells and cloning. One side touts the medical promise of stem cells produced by destroying living human embryos, and blames the Bush administration for stalling the advance of science by restricting federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research. The other side defends the moral worth of nascent human life, and promotes novel methods of deriving embryonic-type stem cells without destroying human embryos.</p>
<p>At the center of this fight is the cloned human embryo. When Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, a veterinary scientist from South Korea, announced in 2004 that he had created the first embryonic human clones, and then in 2005 that he could routinely produce stem cells from them, the reaction in the American scientific community combined elation and frustration. The elation came from the science itself&#160;— the holy grail of stem-cell research seemed one giant step closer. With cloned embryos, we could produce genetically controlled stem-cell models of disease, and perhaps one day produce rejection-proof cell therapies. The frustration came from the fact that South Korea, not America, seemed to be leading the way.</p>
<p>Then the world found out that the research was a fraud. Moreover, the methods used to attempt it&#160;— including the exploitation of young female researchers as sources of the eggs needed for cloning&#160;— were morally dubious, to say the least. Research advocates felt the blow, but also tried to spin the scandal to their advantage: If only the U.S. would fund this research, they said, it would proceed under stricter ethical supervision. And besides, why let a few bad scientific apples spoil the fruits of medical progress for everyone?</p>
<p>But these arguments do not stand up under scrutiny, and the episode in South Korea was a clarifying moment, both scientifically and ethically.</p>
<p>First, the egg problem is now visible for all to see. To even attempt so-called “therapeutic cloning,” the South Koreans needed to harvest hundreds of human eggs. To obtain the eggs, they pressured young women in their own laboratory or paid “suppliers” and then forced them to lie about it. The women underwent ovarian hyper-stimulation, then the insertion of a needle into their ovaries&#160;— a risky and unpleasant procedure. For this research to proceed beyond South Korea’s failed attempts, whether in Seoul or at Stanford, many thousands and perhaps millions of women would need to become egg donors&#160;— or (as some say) egg mercenaries. No responsible doctor would allow his patient to undergo such risks and burdens simply to aid a speculative project of research, no matter how altruistic the aims. And no decent society would countenance the buying and selling of human eggs on the open market.</p>
<p>Second, the political agenda of some in the scientific community is now clear. The future of stem-cell research is rightly a political issue&#160;— an issue for deliberation and resolution in the forums of democracy&#160;— involving a debate about the ethics of embryo-destructive research, the values of society, and the priorities of the nation. But some scientists, pretending that they are free of political conviction, purport to speak only in the name of science when they demand the public right to use of human embryos as raw materials for research and public funding to pay for their experiments. Embryo research may prove to be scientifically useful, but science alone cannot tell us whether such research is morally good. To promote the embryo research agenda, elite journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine have stated publicly that they will give special attention to research involving embryonic stem cells, not simply because of its scientific merit but because of its political value. To these scientists, embryo research has become a litmus test for being “pro-science,” and the central front in the alleged war of scientific reason against religious barbarians.</p>
<p>Of course, the scientists seeking to sell embryonic stem cell research hardly rely on reason alone to make their public appeal. They rely instead on a potent combination of celebrity and pathos, with 30-second television commercial spots promising to make the lame walk again and testimony from actors like the late Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox. To advance their cause, they have set aside the rigorous skepticism and high empirical standards that are the bedrock of responsible science. Political utility is now among the criteria for publication.</p>
<p>To this end, Science magazine “fast-tracked” the Huang cloning papers in order to send a message to American policymakers: South Korea is advancing, America is falling behind, all because of the Bush policy on embryonic stem cell funding. (Forget the fact that no one has yet proposed a bill to actually use federal dollars to fund cloned embryo research, only to permit funding for research on embryos left over in fertility clinics. And forget the fact that California has allocated $3 billion for just such research cloning, so that money is not the real problem.) The willingness of scientific journals to publish scientific papers according to non-scientific criteria is remarkable. The following mea culpa, from Scientific American, is remarkable for both its honesty and remorse: “Hwang is guilty of raising false expectations, but too many of us held the ladder for him.”</p>
<p>Third, the South Korea scandal has revealed, yet again, the weak ethical arguments marshaled in defense of “therapeutic cloning,” the latest example coming from Dr. Michael Gazzaniga in the New York Times. Gazzaniga calls the early cloned embryo just a “hunk of cells,” and says that human dignity resides in a “lifetime of experiences and discovery.” Of course, infants do not have “a lifetime of experiences and discovery” under their belt. Surely Dr. Gazzaniga does not want to harvest their organs. And stem cell scientists and their advocates may tell us that the embryo is just a “hunk of cells,” but they seem to want that hunk of cells quite desperately. It is dishonest to separate the special biological powers that an embryo possesses from the special organism that an embryo is. To the untutored human eye, embryos may seem like mere clumps of cells with no special value. But we also know that a human embryo is an individual human life in its earliest stage, and many of us believe that human life at all stages and in all conditions deserves basic respect.</p>
<p>Finally, the South Korea scandal only strengthens the case for developing scientific alternatives to research cloning&#160;— and more specifically, methods of obtaining the genetically tailored, pluripotent, rejection-proof stem cells scientists want without producing or destroying human embryos. In just the past year, both Science and Nature have published papers demonstrating that such techniques&#160;— such as fusing donor cells with an existing embryonic stem cell line to create a new, genetically identical one&#160;— may be possible. Such research, using the stem-cell lines approved by President Bush, would be eligible now for federal funding. And with the revelations of fraud in South Korea, such alternative methods are probably further along scientifically than “therapeutic cloning.”</p>
<p>If partisanship can be put aside, it may be possible to advance research in a way that all citizens can embrace, and to replace the corruption of cloning with responsible science. That is an outcome that should appeal to everybody. And it would be a silver lining in a scandal that has tainted a broad swath of science&#160;— and not only in Korea.</p>
<p>—&#160;Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the <a href="http://web.princeton.edu/sites/jmadison/" type="external">James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions</a> at Princeton University. Eric Cohen is a fellow of the <a href="" type="internal">Ethics and Public Policy Center</a> and editor of the ethics and technology journal <a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/" type="external">The New Atlantis</a>.</p>
<p /> | false | 1 | past years united states engaged ethically weighty politically charged scientifically complex debate stem cells cloning one side touts medical promise stem cells produced destroying living human embryos blames bush administration stalling advance science restricting federal funding embryonicstemcell research side defends moral worth nascent human life promotes novel methods deriving embryonictype stem cells without destroying human embryos center fight cloned human embryo dr hwang woo suk veterinary scientist south korea announced 2004 created first embryonic human clones 2005 could routinely produce stem cells reaction american scientific community combined elation frustration elation came science itself160 holy grail stemcell research seemed one giant step closer cloned embryos could produce genetically controlled stemcell models disease perhaps one day produce rejectionproof cell therapies frustration came fact south korea america seemed leading way world found research fraud moreover methods used attempt it160 including exploitation young female researchers sources eggs needed cloning160 morally dubious say least research advocates felt blow also tried spin scandal advantage us would fund research said would proceed stricter ethical supervision besides let bad scientific apples spoil fruits medical progress everyone arguments stand scrutiny episode south korea clarifying moment scientifically ethically first egg problem visible see even attempt socalled therapeutic cloning south koreans needed harvest hundreds human eggs obtain eggs pressured young women laboratory paid suppliers forced lie women underwent ovarian hyperstimulation insertion needle ovaries160 risky unpleasant procedure research proceed beyond south koreas failed attempts whether seoul stanford many thousands perhaps millions women would need become egg donors160 say egg mercenaries responsible doctor would allow patient undergo risks burdens simply aid speculative project research matter altruistic aims decent society would countenance buying selling human eggs open market second political agenda scientific community clear future stemcell research rightly political issue160 issue deliberation resolution forums democracy160 involving debate ethics embryodestructive research values society priorities nation scientists pretending free political conviction purport speak name science demand public right use human embryos raw materials research public funding pay experiments embryo research may prove scientifically useful science alone tell us whether research morally good promote embryo research agenda elite journals new england journal medicine stated publicly give special attention research involving embryonic stem cells simply scientific merit political value scientists embryo research become litmus test proscience central front alleged war scientific reason religious barbarians course scientists seeking sell embryonic stem cell research hardly rely reason alone make public appeal rely instead potent combination celebrity pathos 30second television commercial spots promising make lame walk testimony actors like late christopher reeve michael j fox advance cause set aside rigorous skepticism high empirical standards bedrock responsible science political utility among criteria publication end science magazine fasttracked huang cloning papers order send message american policymakers south korea advancing america falling behind bush policy embryonic stem cell funding forget fact one yet proposed bill actually use federal dollars fund cloned embryo research permit funding research embryos left fertility clinics forget fact california allocated 3 billion research cloning money real problem willingness scientific journals publish scientific papers according nonscientific criteria remarkable following mea culpa scientific american remarkable honesty remorse hwang guilty raising false expectations many us held ladder third south korea scandal revealed yet weak ethical arguments marshaled defense therapeutic cloning latest example coming dr michael gazzaniga new york times gazzaniga calls early cloned embryo hunk cells says human dignity resides lifetime experiences discovery course infants lifetime experiences discovery belt surely dr gazzaniga want harvest organs stem cell scientists advocates may tell us embryo hunk cells seem want hunk cells quite desperately dishonest separate special biological powers embryo possesses special organism embryo untutored human eye embryos may seem like mere clumps cells special value also know human embryo individual human life earliest stage many us believe human life stages conditions deserves basic respect finally south korea scandal strengthens case developing scientific alternatives research cloning160 specifically methods obtaining genetically tailored pluripotent rejectionproof stem cells scientists want without producing destroying human embryos past year science nature published papers demonstrating techniques160 fusing donor cells existing embryonic stem cell line create new genetically identical one160 may possible research using stemcell lines approved president bush would eligible federal funding revelations fraud south korea alternative methods probably along scientifically therapeutic cloning partisanship put aside may possible advance research way citizens embrace replace corruption cloning responsible science outcome appeal everybody would silver lining scandal tainted broad swath science160 korea 160robert p george mccormick professor jurisprudence director james madison program american ideals institutions princeton university eric cohen fellow ethics public policy center editor ethics technology journal new atlantis | 746 |
<p>This piece is a response to EPPC Adjunct Fellow Eric Cohen’s&#160;Mosaic essay “ <a href="" type="internal">The Spirit of Jewish Conservatism</a>.”</p>
<p>In his bold and challenging essay in Mosaic, Eric Cohen sets out an exceptionally ambitious project: the articulation of a coherent Jewish conservatism for America and Israel. He makes no claim to achieve that goal, only to offer an outline of what such an achievement would entail. His outline helps to highlight both why many Jews should find such a goal appealing and why they will not find it easy to realize.</p>
<p>Cohen implicitly models his Jewish conservatism on the “fusionist” project that an earlier generation of American conservatives (led by William F. Buckley, Jr., Frank Meyer, and others) set for themselves in the middle of the last century and largely achieved over the subsequent decades. Their fusionism aimed to combine three elements that, although making for an uneasy fit, seemed to embody the key constituent parts of the modern American right: social traditionalism, a hawkish defense posture, and market economics. Ronald Reagan liked to call this the “three-legged stool” of American conservatism.</p>
<p>Cohen wants a Jewish version of this stool, and his choice of the same three elements is both natural and sensible for much the same reason. Traditionalists, defense hawks, and capitalists are not merely allies of convenience, nor are they united only by some common adversaries. They are deeply linked by a common anthropology: an understanding of human nature that qualifies as profoundly contrarian in our liberal age.</p>
<p>What unifies the three strands of modern American conservatism is a qualified pessimism about human perfectibility. Conservatives see the human person as a fallen and imperfect being, given to excess and prone to iniquity yet possessed of fundamental dignity and of inalienable rights that demand to be respected. Given their high standards but low expectations in human affairs, conservatives tend to be deeply skeptical of all utopian ambitions—be those ambitions aimed at socializing the sinfulness out of man, at achieving perpetual peace through sweet reason, or at equalizing wealth without extinguishing its sources. Instead, conservatives’ hopes lie in the potential of the long-evolved institutions of society—traditional families and moral communities, liberal education, free markets, carefully limited government, and more—to counteract our worst excesses, habituate us to the virtuous life, point us toward the deepest truths, and make us worthy of freedom and capable of exercising and defending it.</p>
<p>A fusionist conservatism is therefore coherent and reasonable—it makes sense of those elements of modern liberal societies that are skeptical rather than confident about reason, social rather than technical in their means, and generational rather than messianic in their ends. But the fusionism of the earlier American right also came equipped with some pre-existent raw materials from within the American polity itself: a widespread moralistic Christianity, an aristocratic (and especially Southern) civic republicanism, and a particularly sober (often Yankee) brand of business-minded classical liberalism. These three groups, each rooted in America’s history, shared some views and hopes but were not, and are not, identical. Decades of conservative fusionism have brought them nearer to each other, and have helped them learn from one another, but have not erased the distinctions among them.</p>
<p>In his vision of a Jewish conservatism, Cohen seems to want Judaism to play all three roles. This will not be easy. Judaism is naturally best suited to discharge the function assumed in the American conservative project by Christian moralism. As he eloquently shows, Judaism brings to the table a rich and profound model of flourishing family life and millennia of experience in making that ideal very real under challenging circumstances. Jews have a great deal to be proud of on this front, a great deal to defend, and a great deal to teach their neighbors and fellow citizens. Some Jews have of course rejected this inheritance and called their fathers fools, but most Jews who might have an interest in a project of Jewish preservation with anything like a conservative tinge will be well positioned to serve the role that Cohen sets out for them in this respect.</p>
<p>Can Judaism also be a force for moral realism when it comes to the second leg of the stool: namely, issues of nationalism and defense? Yes, if less obviously. It is certainly better positioned to do so than is American Christianity, in no small measure because of the history of the Jews (and of Israel) and because of the sorts of teachings that Cohen points to in the biblical book of Joshua—though, as he notes, these are also teachings that many of today’s Jews are understandably quite uneasy about.</p>
<p>Such a role will surely be easier in Israel, where nationalism and Judaism are deeply tied together in Zionism and are also essentially inseparable in practical terms. It is more difficult in America, where Jews are a small subculture and one not deeply connected to the nation’s martial traditions or its brand of civic republicanism. But if, as Cohen suggests, the primary duty of American Jews on this front is to articulate for Americans the reasons why America should stand with Israel, then the prospects are better—not so much because many American Jews are up to the task as because relatively few non-Jewish Americans really require the lesson. Or at least not right now: although American public support for Israel is on the whole firm and deep, Cohen is right to prioritize Jewish efforts to reinforce it.</p>
<p>What then of the economic leg? Here things look quite different. In the evolution of a Jewish conservatism, it is reasonable to imagine Judaism playing the part of Christian moralism, and it is even imaginable that it could articulate the case for nationalism and an assertive self-defense. But can Judaism stand in for the Yankee trader, his sobriety formed by the best of the Scottish Enlightenment and counterbalanced by a modern faith in progress? Cohen’s own argument on this front suggests he has doubts. True, he cites traditional teachings and sources intimating that democratic capitalism is not inherently incompatible with Judaism (while socialism in many respects is). But they hardly show that Judaism can itself offer much reinforcement to capitalism in the way that it plainly can, for instance, to the traditional family.</p>
<p>“The great challenge, both intellectual and political,” Cohen writes in concluding his section on the meaning of Jewish economics, “is to marry the Zionist ethos of national commitment with the capitalist ethos of free enterprise, and hold together reverence for Judaism’s own ancient traditions with the dynamism necessary in the modern technological age.” This suggests a need for balancing excesses. And it implies, too, that the three constituent elements of a Jewish conservatism are far from equal in character and significance.</p>
<p>In fact, Cohen subtly changes tack as he moves from the family to the nation to the economy. He implicitly treats the three elements as existing on a continuum that stretches from what Jews have to teach to what Jews have to learn. The case for the family is something Jews can teach the modern world; the case for capitalism is something Jews must learn from the modern world; the case for nationalism and moral realism in international affairs falls somewhere in between. There’s nothing necessarily problematic in that: if at first glance it might seem to make Cohen’s project less coherent, ultimately it points to how, as a mix of teaching and learning, the project might be advanced in practice.</p>
<p>But the question is what can hold the three elements together. For American conservatism, the answer has been the underlying anthropology that unites the branches of the right. That underlying unity is conservatism. Can Judaism itself play the same role in unifying the project that Cohen envisions? The way he has chosen to structure his case suggests that he thinks so, but if Judaism is to be both student and teacher, the necessary underlying glue still seems to be missing.</p>
<p>Perhaps what is needed is a Jewish case for the conservative disposition itself—the Jewish case for anti-utopianism and high-minded skepticism of worldly perfection. Such a case would reinforce the argument for the family by highlighting the practical impossibility of all alternatives; it would strengthen the case for moral realism in world affairs by emphasizing the permanence of evil in the human experience; and it would diminish the lure of radical egalitarianism by showing that no technocratic fantasy could do more for the poor than a market economy. But it would not ultimately be a case about the family, world affairs, or the economy. It would be an anthropological argument—a case about the human person.</p>
<p>The want of such a Jewish case for conservatism is perhaps especially apparent in Israel, where in some elite circles Zionism threatens to become undone by the very idealism that brought it into being. Having realized its messianic vision, and having never quite figured out how to treat its creation as an accomplishment to be preserved and treasured, Israel’s secular liberal Zionism too often seems prey to fantasies of a post-Zionist utopia beyond itself.</p>
<p>A Jewish case for the modern conservative disposition—a fourth element in Eric Cohen’s project—is both easy to imagine and difficult to articulate. Bringing it into being among American and Israeli Jews would require deep resources of mind and spirit and years of determined, patient work. I think I know just the man for the job.</p>
<p>— Yuval Levin is the founding editor of National Affairs&#160;and Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. He has been awarded a 2013 Bradley Prize for distinguished contributions in the fields of scholarship, journalism, and public service.</p> | false | 1 | piece response eppc adjunct fellow eric cohens160mosaic essay spirit jewish conservatism bold challenging essay mosaic eric cohen sets exceptionally ambitious project articulation coherent jewish conservatism america israel makes claim achieve goal offer outline achievement would entail outline helps highlight many jews find goal appealing find easy realize cohen implicitly models jewish conservatism fusionist project earlier generation american conservatives led william f buckley jr frank meyer others set middle last century largely achieved subsequent decades fusionism aimed combine three elements although making uneasy fit seemed embody key constituent parts modern american right social traditionalism hawkish defense posture market economics ronald reagan liked call threelegged stool american conservatism cohen wants jewish version stool choice three elements natural sensible much reason traditionalists defense hawks capitalists merely allies convenience united common adversaries deeply linked common anthropology understanding human nature qualifies profoundly contrarian liberal age unifies three strands modern american conservatism qualified pessimism human perfectibility conservatives see human person fallen imperfect given excess prone iniquity yet possessed fundamental dignity inalienable rights demand respected given high standards low expectations human affairs conservatives tend deeply skeptical utopian ambitionsbe ambitions aimed socializing sinfulness man achieving perpetual peace sweet reason equalizing wealth without extinguishing sources instead conservatives hopes lie potential longevolved institutions societytraditional families moral communities liberal education free markets carefully limited government moreto counteract worst excesses habituate us virtuous life point us toward deepest truths make us worthy freedom capable exercising defending fusionist conservatism therefore coherent reasonableit makes sense elements modern liberal societies skeptical rather confident reason social rather technical means generational rather messianic ends fusionism earlier american right also came equipped preexistent raw materials within american polity widespread moralistic christianity aristocratic especially southern civic republicanism particularly sober often yankee brand businessminded classical liberalism three groups rooted americas history shared views hopes identical decades conservative fusionism brought nearer helped learn one another erased distinctions among vision jewish conservatism cohen seems want judaism play three roles easy judaism naturally best suited discharge function assumed american conservative project christian moralism eloquently shows judaism brings table rich profound model flourishing family life millennia experience making ideal real challenging circumstances jews great deal proud front great deal defend great deal teach neighbors fellow citizens jews course rejected inheritance called fathers fools jews might interest project jewish preservation anything like conservative tinge well positioned serve role cohen sets respect judaism also force moral realism comes second leg stool namely issues nationalism defense yes less obviously certainly better positioned american christianity small measure history jews israel sorts teachings cohen points biblical book joshuathough notes also teachings many todays jews understandably quite uneasy role surely easier israel nationalism judaism deeply tied together zionism also essentially inseparable practical terms difficult america jews small subculture one deeply connected nations martial traditions brand civic republicanism cohen suggests primary duty american jews front articulate americans reasons america stand israel prospects betternot much many american jews task relatively nonjewish americans really require lesson least right although american public support israel whole firm deep cohen right prioritize jewish efforts reinforce economic leg things look quite different evolution jewish conservatism reasonable imagine judaism playing part christian moralism even imaginable could articulate case nationalism assertive selfdefense judaism stand yankee trader sobriety formed best scottish enlightenment counterbalanced modern faith progress cohens argument front suggests doubts true cites traditional teachings sources intimating democratic capitalism inherently incompatible judaism socialism many respects hardly show judaism offer much reinforcement capitalism way plainly instance traditional family great challenge intellectual political cohen writes concluding section meaning jewish economics marry zionist ethos national commitment capitalist ethos free enterprise hold together reverence judaisms ancient traditions dynamism necessary modern technological age suggests need balancing excesses implies three constituent elements jewish conservatism far equal character significance fact cohen subtly changes tack moves family nation economy implicitly treats three elements existing continuum stretches jews teach jews learn case family something jews teach modern world case capitalism something jews must learn modern world case nationalism moral realism international affairs falls somewhere theres nothing necessarily problematic first glance might seem make cohens project less coherent ultimately points mix teaching learning project might advanced practice question hold three elements together american conservatism answer underlying anthropology unites branches right underlying unity conservatism judaism play role unifying project cohen envisions way chosen structure case suggests thinks judaism student teacher necessary underlying glue still seems missing perhaps needed jewish case conservative disposition itselfthe jewish case antiutopianism highminded skepticism worldly perfection case would reinforce argument family highlighting practical impossibility alternatives would strengthen case moral realism world affairs emphasizing permanence evil human experience would diminish lure radical egalitarianism showing technocratic fantasy could poor market economy would ultimately case family world affairs economy would anthropological argumenta case human person want jewish case conservatism perhaps especially apparent israel elite circles zionism threatens become undone idealism brought realized messianic vision never quite figured treat creation accomplishment preserved treasured israels secular liberal zionism often seems prey fantasies postzionist utopia beyond jewish case modern conservative dispositiona fourth element eric cohens projectis easy imagine difficult articulate bringing among american israeli jews would require deep resources mind spirit years determined patient work think know man job yuval levin founding editor national affairs160and hertog fellow ethics public policy center washington dc awarded 2013 bradley prize distinguished contributions fields scholarship journalism public service | 871 |
<p>Prospects are good for a public shaming in the Equifax data breach, but it’s unlikely Congress will institute sweeping new regulations after hackers accessed the personal information of an estimated 143 million Americans.</p>
<p>Since early this year, President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress have strived to curb government’s influence on businesses, arguing that regulations stifle economic growth. Lawmakers have repealed more than a dozen Obama-era rules and the House voted in June to roll back much of Dodd-Frank, the landmark banking law created after the 2008 economic crisis that was designed to prevent future meltdowns.</p>
<p>Several bills unveiled after Equifax are so far missing a key ingredient for success: Republican co-sponsors.</p>
<p>And most important, there is history. Despite numerous high-profile security breaches over the past decade at companies such as Target, Yahoo, Neiman Marcus and Home Depot, legislation that would toughen standards for storing customer data has failed to gain the necessary traction.</p>
<p>Jessica Rich, a vice president at Consumers Union, said she has questioned over the years what event it would take for lawmakers to impose tougher data security regulations.</p>
<p>“I’m hoping this is the final wake-up call for Congress,” Rich said.</p>
<p>Advocacy groups seek legislation that would enhance the standards for companies that store consumer data and require prompt notification to affected Americans when breaches do occur. But, so far, Congress has opted to let states handle the issue.</p>
<p>“Lawmakers have got to plug the loopholes in current law, and we need tough civil penalties for those who break the law,” Rich said.</p>
<p>Senate and House Republicans say they are in fact-gathering mode before moving on any legislation. Separate hearings are scheduled the first week in October, with Equifax Chairman and CEO Richard Smith slated to testify — and likely to get a public thrashing from lawmakers.</p>
<p>Rep. Greg Walden, the Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he’s not ruling out new regulations as a result of the data breach at the credit agency, “but first we’ve got to get the facts.”</p>
<p>Democrats will be watching closely.</p>
<p>Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., described the Equifax breach as a test, asking on the Senate floor will “we act quickly to protect American consumers, or are we going to cave in to firms like Equifax who have spent millions of dollars lobbying to Congress for weaker rules?”</p>
<p>Democrats have introduced several bills. One would require credit reporting companies to place a freeze on a consumer’s credit report without charge if that company is hacked. Currently, all 50 states have laws allowing consumers to place a security freeze on their credit report, but the freeze often comes with a fee.</p>
<p>Chi Chi Wu, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said such freezes are the single most important step consumers can take to prevent new accounts from being opened in their name.</p>
<p>Democrats are also using the Equifax breach to reprise more longstanding concerns about the work of credit reporting companies like Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.</p>
<p>Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and 30 Democratic co-sponsors are backing legislation that would protect prospective employees from being forced to disclose their credit history as part of a job application process.</p>
<p>Wu said credit checks are used as warning flags about potential employees.</p>
<p>“A lot of people have impaired credit, black marks on their credit report because something bad happened to them,” Wu said. “It was not because they were bad or irresponsible people. They were unlucky.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is taking another crack at legislation designed to help consumers correct entries in their credit report.</p>
<p>Under her bill, creditors who send negative information to a reporting agency must also give a heads-up to the consumer. Credit reporting companies would also have to dedicate sufficient resources to handling consumers’ appeals. The appeals staff would have to meet minimum training and certification requirements.</p>
<p>Waters’ bill would also reduce the time that most adverse credit information may remain on reports. The time period would drop from seven to four years.</p>
<p>The bill reflects consumer angst about the information on their credit report. Last year, Americans submitted about 54,000 complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about credit reporting issues. Three-quarters of those complaints alleged incorrect information in credit reports.</p>
<p>Even if the Equifax breach fails to bring about the passage of new legislation, it has scuttled one bill in the works. On the day of Equifax’s announcement, a House subcommittee examined legislation that would have decreased the potential consequences when consumer reporting agencies falsely malign someone. Such mistakes can haunt consumers for years.</p>
<p>The bill would have eliminated punitive damages for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The bill’s sponsor, Rep Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said the legislation was aimed at curbing frivolous lawsuits and would not have granted any immunity to Equifax for the data breach. “Nevertheless, given the unfounded attacks on me and the rampant misinformation circulating about this legislation, the Financial Services Committee has not scheduled further action on any bill at this time.”</p>
<p>Wu, who testified against Loudermilk’s bill, said she believes that legislation providing for the free credit freeze probably has the best chance of passage.</p>
<p>“I’m skeptical this particular Congress will be up for wholesale reform,” Wu said.</p> | false | 1 | prospects good public shaming equifax data breach unlikely congress institute sweeping new regulations hackers accessed personal information estimated 143 million americans since early year president donald trump republicanled congress strived curb governments influence businesses arguing regulations stifle economic growth lawmakers repealed dozen obamaera rules house voted june roll back much doddfrank landmark banking law created 2008 economic crisis designed prevent future meltdowns several bills unveiled equifax far missing key ingredient success republican cosponsors important history despite numerous highprofile security breaches past decade companies target yahoo neiman marcus home depot legislation would toughen standards storing customer data failed gain necessary traction jessica rich vice president consumers union said questioned years event would take lawmakers impose tougher data security regulations im hoping final wakeup call congress rich said advocacy groups seek legislation would enhance standards companies store consumer data require prompt notification affected americans breaches occur far congress opted let states handle issue lawmakers got plug loopholes current law need tough civil penalties break law rich said senate house republicans say factgathering mode moving legislation separate hearings scheduled first week october equifax chairman ceo richard smith slated testify likely get public thrashing lawmakers rep greg walden republican chairman house energy commerce committee said hes ruling new regulations result data breach credit agency first weve got get facts democrats watching closely sen elizabeth warren dmass described equifax breach test asking senate floor act quickly protect american consumers going cave firms like equifax spent millions dollars lobbying congress weaker rules democrats introduced several bills one would require credit reporting companies place freeze consumers credit report without charge company hacked currently 50 states laws allowing consumers place security freeze credit report freeze often comes fee chi chi wu attorney national consumer law center said freezes single important step consumers take prevent new accounts opened name democrats also using equifax breach reprise longstanding concerns work credit reporting companies like equifax experian transunion rep steve cohen tennessee 30 democratic cosponsors backing legislation would protect prospective employees forced disclose credit history part job application process wu said credit checks used warning flags potential employees lot people impaired credit black marks credit report something bad happened wu said bad irresponsible people unlucky meanwhile rep maxine waters dcalif taking another crack legislation designed help consumers correct entries credit report bill creditors send negative information reporting agency must also give headsup consumer credit reporting companies would also dedicate sufficient resources handling consumers appeals appeals staff would meet minimum training certification requirements waters bill would also reduce time adverse credit information may remain reports time period would drop seven four years bill reflects consumer angst information credit report last year americans submitted 54000 complaints consumer financial protection bureau credit reporting issues threequarters complaints alleged incorrect information credit reports even equifax breach fails bring passage new legislation scuttled one bill works day equifaxs announcement house subcommittee examined legislation would decreased potential consequences consumer reporting agencies falsely malign someone mistakes haunt consumers years bill would eliminated punitive damages violations fair credit reporting act bills sponsor rep barry loudermilk rga said legislation aimed curbing frivolous lawsuits would granted immunity equifax data breach nevertheless given unfounded attacks rampant misinformation circulating legislation financial services committee scheduled action bill time wu testified loudermilks bill said believes legislation providing free credit freeze probably best chance passage im skeptical particular congress wholesale reform wu said | 555 |
<p>Senator Ted Cruz is a bright man with a bright idea: Conservatives have no power because their leaders have no principles. Rediscover the latter, he says, and we will recover the former. Would that it were so.</p>
<p>Start with Cruz’s retelling of Republican presidential history. He claims that beginning with Richard Nixon, every Republican nominee who was elected ran as a “strong conservative,” while every loser ran as a moderate. Cruz was born in December 1970 and clearly has hazy memories at best of the 1968 and 1972 races, the latter of which saw National Review endorse John Ashbrook, a conservative congressman from Ohio, in the GOP primaries rather than Nixon. Be that as it may, this is an all-too-simple formulation that overlooks the way politically successful conservatives have always tempered parts of the conservative agenda precisely to gain a principled majority.</p>
<p>Ronald Reagan, whom Cruz frequently invokes in support of his argument, happens to be the best example of this approach. In 1964, the Gipper opposed the creation of Medicare, but in 1980 he frequently said he would not try to eliminate or even reform the program. Reagan recognized that it was better to focus on the things he could change than on those he couldn’t. He understood that principle and prudence are tightly intertwined.</p>
<p>It’s possible that the country has moved to the right since Reagan’s day, making a more consistent conservatism politically possible. That indeed is the unstated assumption of Cruz’s idea: that an unwavering conservative majority already exists if only we find the courage to mobilize it. Again, would that it were so. All the available data show that this is not true.</p>
<p>The number of self-described conservatives has remained relatively constant for more than 40 years: Depending on the poll and the year, it has fluctuated between 33 and 40 percent. The number of self-described Republicans has moved more significantly, but it has never risen above 33 percent for more than a year. Unlike victory in Texas, victory nationwide requires the GOP nominee to attract significant numbers of self-described moderate independents.</p>
<p>These data do not significantly change when GOP-leaning independents are added to the mix. Republican support has never reached 50 percent in any year, and the GOP has almost always lagged behind the Democrats since well before 1980. Indeed, the best GOP showing vis-à-vis the Democrats since the halcyon days of the Gingrich Revolution came in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when the GOP ran slightly ahead of the Democrats. Democratic-party preference including leaners exceeded Republican preference even in the GOP-wave year of 2010.</p>
<p>Poll data also refute the notion that there are large groups of moderates who really are consistent conservatives. A recent Pew Research poll found that a plurality of people who held mostly liberal views called themselves moderates, and nearly a third of those who held consistently liberal views thought they were moderate. By comparison, only 13 percent of people with consistently conservative views called themselves moderates. Indeed, exit polls show that a majority of moderates have not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984, and that moderates have been more Democratic than the country as a whole since 1980.</p>
<p>Cruz never confronts such numbers directly. He did, though, tell the Claremont Institute earlier this year that “over 2 million voters who traditionally vote Republican stayed home” in 2012. He then lists Obama’s victory margins in the seven closest states, noting that they total 727,000 votes and that “less than a million votes would have produced 84 electoral votes, more than enough to win.” Cruz’s implication is clear: These voters stayed home because Romney wasn’t conservative enough, and if they do vote, a real conservative will win.</p>
<p>This is, at best, a distortion of the facts. Turnout was down in 2012, but not in six of the seven swing states Cruz cites. Of those seven, only Ohio cast fewer votes in 2012, and the difference (128,000) was smaller than Obama’s margin in the state. Moreover, in three of the swing states Cruz cites, voters actually cast more ballots in 2012 than in 2008, and there is no evidence that, in these states, there was a GOP-specific fall in turnout that was counterbalanced by a rise in turnout among Democratic voters. If we instead measure the decline in the percentage of all eligible voters who turned out, we find that in two other swing states, the difference was too small to account for Obama’s victory. Only in Ohio and Florida was turnout, measured as a percentage of all eligible voters, down by enough that, theoretically, the drop accounted for Obama’s win there; and these two states would not have provided enough Electoral College votes to defeat Obama had they supported Romney instead. Even that is a stretch: Eighty percent of Ohio’s missing vote would have had to go to Romney for him to win there.</p>
<p>And of the conservatives and Republicans who did vote, the vast majority did not abandon Romney. In fact, Romney carried 93 percent of Republicans, which tied for the all-time high since exit polling began in 1972. His 82 percent among conservatives sounds low until you compare it with the percentages other GOP nominees won. Only George W. Bush in 2004 bested that share, with 84 percent, and the only other candidate who even equaled it was Ronald Reagan in his 1984 landslide.</p>
<p>Cruz is fond of contrasting his stance with those of “Washington consultants” who allegedly say that “standing for principle is inconsistent with winning elections.” He says that there are only two approaches available to conservatives, theirs or his. But this is a false dichotomy.</p>
<p>Reagan knew that brazenly drawing a line in the sand for the American people was the worst way to combat the liberal establishment. He explained to the readers of National Review that Goldwater lost in 1964 because Democrats had portrayed conservatives as advocating “a radical departure from the status quo.” “Time now for the soft sell,” he said, “to prove our radicalism was an optical illusion.”</p>
<p>Reagan also knew that ideological purity is the enemy of principled victory. In 1967, speaking to a conservative grassroots group, then-governor Reagan set out his vision for the GOP:</p>
<p>We cannot offer [to individualists] a narrow sectarian party in which all must swear allegiance to prescribed commandments. Such a party can be highly disciplined, but it does not win elections. This kind of party soon disappears in a blaze of glorious defeat, and it never puts into practice its basic tenets, no matter how noble they may be.</p>
<p>Reagan knew that victory can come only by assembling a coalition of people, not all of whom will agree on every topic.</p>
<p>The Texas senator is fond of quoting William Barrett Travis’s famous letter from the Alamo. It ends with the stirring words “Victory or death!” The Alamo defenders did die, and needlessly, as their position was neither strategic nor defensible.</p>
<p>Fortunately for Texas, there was another, more sagacious leader, Sam Houston. Houston knew that victory was better than death. He gathered troops to his banner and kept them from seeking immediate revenge for the massacre at the Alamo. Patiently, he waited for the right moment to strike. Six weeks after the Alamo fell, he found that moment, surprising the Mexican army at San Jacinto so completely that the battle was over in 18 minutes. The inscription on the San Jacinto monument describes both the battle and its consequence elegantly: “The slaughter was appalling, victory complete, and Texas free!”</p>
<p>Conservatives who love liberty more than political death ought to forget the Alamo. Far better to follow the words and deeds of prudent men of principle like Reagan and Houston, who knew what it took to win.</p>
<p>– Mr. Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. This article originally appeared in the October 20, 2014 issue of National Review.</p> | false | 1 | senator ted cruz bright man bright idea conservatives power leaders principles rediscover latter says recover former would start cruzs retelling republican presidential history claims beginning richard nixon every republican nominee elected ran strong conservative every loser ran moderate cruz born december 1970 clearly hazy memories best 1968 1972 races latter saw national review endorse john ashbrook conservative congressman ohio gop primaries rather nixon may alltoosimple formulation overlooks way politically successful conservatives always tempered parts conservative agenda precisely gain principled majority ronald reagan cruz frequently invokes support argument happens best example approach 1964 gipper opposed creation medicare 1980 frequently said would try eliminate even reform program reagan recognized better focus things could change couldnt understood principle prudence tightly intertwined possible country moved right since reagans day making consistent conservatism politically possible indeed unstated assumption cruzs idea unwavering conservative majority already exists find courage mobilize would available data show true number selfdescribed conservatives remained relatively constant 40 years depending poll year fluctuated 33 40 percent number selfdescribed republicans moved significantly never risen 33 percent year unlike victory texas victory nationwide requires gop nominee attract significant numbers selfdescribed moderate independents data significantly change gopleaning independents added mix republican support never reached 50 percent year gop almost always lagged behind democrats since well 1980 indeed best gop showing visàvis democrats since halcyon days gingrich revolution came immediate aftermath 911 gop ran slightly ahead democrats democraticparty preference including leaners exceeded republican preference even gopwave year 2010 poll data also refute notion large groups moderates really consistent conservatives recent pew research poll found plurality people held mostly liberal views called moderates nearly third held consistently liberal views thought moderate comparison 13 percent people consistently conservative views called moderates indeed exit polls show majority moderates voted republican presidential candidate since 1984 moderates democratic country whole since 1980 cruz never confronts numbers directly though tell claremont institute earlier year 2 million voters traditionally vote republican stayed home 2012 lists obamas victory margins seven closest states noting total 727000 votes less million votes would produced 84 electoral votes enough win cruzs implication clear voters stayed home romney wasnt conservative enough vote real conservative win best distortion facts turnout 2012 six seven swing states cruz cites seven ohio cast fewer votes 2012 difference 128000 smaller obamas margin state moreover three swing states cruz cites voters actually cast ballots 2012 2008 evidence states gopspecific fall turnout counterbalanced rise turnout among democratic voters instead measure decline percentage eligible voters turned find two swing states difference small account obamas victory ohio florida turnout measured percentage eligible voters enough theoretically drop accounted obamas win two states would provided enough electoral college votes defeat obama supported romney instead even stretch eighty percent ohios missing vote would go romney win conservatives republicans vote vast majority abandon romney fact romney carried 93 percent republicans tied alltime high since exit polling began 1972 82 percent among conservatives sounds low compare percentages gop nominees george w bush 2004 bested share 84 percent candidate even equaled ronald reagan 1984 landslide cruz fond contrasting stance washington consultants allegedly say standing principle inconsistent winning elections says two approaches available conservatives false dichotomy reagan knew brazenly drawing line sand american people worst way combat liberal establishment explained readers national review goldwater lost 1964 democrats portrayed conservatives advocating radical departure status quo time soft sell said prove radicalism optical illusion reagan also knew ideological purity enemy principled victory 1967 speaking conservative grassroots group thengovernor reagan set vision gop offer individualists narrow sectarian party must swear allegiance prescribed commandments party highly disciplined win elections kind party soon disappears blaze glorious defeat never puts practice basic tenets matter noble may reagan knew victory come assembling coalition people agree every topic texas senator fond quoting william barrett traviss famous letter alamo ends stirring words victory death alamo defenders die needlessly position neither strategic defensible fortunately texas another sagacious leader sam houston houston knew victory better death gathered troops banner kept seeking immediate revenge massacre alamo patiently waited right moment strike six weeks alamo fell found moment surprising mexican army san jacinto completely battle 18 minutes inscription san jacinto monument describes battle consequence elegantly slaughter appalling victory complete texas free conservatives love liberty political death ought forget alamo far better follow words deeds prudent men principle like reagan houston knew took win mr olsen senior fellow ethics public policy center article originally appeared october 20 2014 issue national review | 731 |
<p>Enter the world of Sammus, real name Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo. The Ithaca, New York, rapper, producer and Ph.D. student at Cornell University has been at the forefront of the underground hip-hop “nerdcore” scene for several years. But that's just one layer of this exquisite young talent.</p>
<p>When covered by media publications (like <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/20/sammus-nerdcore-feminism-black-lives-matter-rap/" type="external">this one</a>), each outlet has the daunting task of trying to either A) psychoanalyze Sammus through each and every one of her interests, or B) fall down the rabbit hole in the pursuit of labeling her. I'm charting somewhere into territory C) in failing miserably at attempting both A and B while deliberating how much I spend writing about her "Metroid" angle.</p>
<p>It's what intrigued me first when I discovered Sammus -- probably because the "Metroid" series is legendary and I'm a self-described video game nerd. But what I found after that initial "geekery" was something more fascinating –– an energetic rapper that can seamlessly oscillate between interests and topics, from the lowbrow to the emotional verisimilitude to the intellectual-niche, and dropping those bars like confetti from an exploded pinata.</p>
<p />
<p>I should come clean now and state that Sammus probably doesn't cosign any of the aforementioned lofty labels.</p>
<p>"I'm not defined by any one of my interests," she told me during our interview. She's just trying to be herself: a modern, 21st century female who does X, Y and Z. "My whole life I always felt like I was explaining things, constantly explaining. From my name, which is Enongo, to my interests."</p>
<p>In person, Sammus is super down-to-earth and humble. She pokes fun at her attempt to juggle an artist's life while pursuing her Ph.D., which is an "interdisciplinary field in which the study of sound is used as a means to understand social, technological, and cultural developments as well as to access particular aspects of human experience," according to her <a href="http://gradschool.cornell.edu/spotlight/student-spotlight-enongo-lumumba-kasongo" type="external">student spotlight page</a>.</p>
<p>Her secret in maintaining this life-work balance? Naps. "I take naps when and wherever I can," she laughs. "That's how I get it done 'cause they both are pretty demanding things."</p>
<p>You're wasting your time if you try to label the multidimensional artist by using just a few elements. It's disingenuous. Sammus, in hindsight, has rapped about everything from her own depression to social inequality, to creating songs with the braggadocious self-decree commonly found in other hip-hop anthems.</p>
<p>Oh, and she's referenced the "Metroid" game into a seven-track EP called "Another M." It's a retelling of the space bounty hunter from the perspective of a little black girl who dreamed when looking up to strong female characters like Samus or Mae Jemison, the first black female astronaut in outer space. “Yes, my music draws on video games and cartoons but there's so much there, and it frustrates me when my music is distilled to being 'cool hip-hop' that talks about geek stuff," Sammus says.</p>
<p>So, when choosing a rap moniker, she sought inspiration from one of the first strong female characters she encountered. One that broke archetypal gender tropes and just did her thing in a male dominated space –– Samus Aran, the space bounty hunter protagonist in the popular Nintendo video game franchise "Metroid."</p>
<p />
<p>Video games are, in a way, the foundation of Sammus' musical roots. "I first got into music because I love video games," she says.</p>
<p>She recounts the memories of her video-game past, with her brother leading the way by introducing her to the 8-bit and 16-bit game universes. "I wanted to be his little protégé. I followed him around everywhere and I started playing video games, too. I fell in love with the music of video games. 'Sonic the Hedgehog 2' I think has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time and no one can tell me differently," she laughs. "I just love those tracks, and I just really loved instrumental music.</p>
<p>So it's no surprise that Sammus' musical influences are diverse and pull from several genres and mediums. There's no discrimination in her artistic palette. In her pantheon of musical heroes, there's an equal admiration attributed to video game composers like Masato Nakamura ("Sonic the Hedgehog 1," 2) and hip-hop icons like Kanye West.</p>
<p>Sonic the Hedgehog slippers proudly on display in Sammus' "Games &amp; Cartoons" music video.</p>
<p>"When I got a little bit older, I started wanting to make music that had elements of video games in them." She credits her brother, Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo, the guitarist in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMdeD3gafrk" type="external">popular rock band Gym Class Heroes</a>, for teaching her the music program Reason. It's where she first cut her teeth in sampling beats.</p>
<p>But when she started to showcase those produced beats to her friends, the response was a bit lukewarm. "This is weird. Why are you making this video game-kind of-ish music?" she says, reverberating her friend's confusion. "It was around that time that I first heard Kanye West, and when I heard Kanye West that was when I was like, 'Oh, I wanna make hip-hop beats. Junk this other stuff I've been working on. Hip-hop is where it's at. Sample base, weird chops. That's what I'm into.'"</p>
<p>From there she moved onto Garage Band, a Mac-based program that she felt was an "easier" solution to the sampling and chopping of beats into tracks. "I would just drag in things that I wanted to chop up and one of the first beats I chopped up was a 'Final Fantasy VII' track when Cloud was on the motorcycle. That was kinda how I got my foray into making music."</p>
<p />
<p>But the video game references -- its imagery, music samplings and lyrical allusions -- can be a double-edged sword.</p>
<p>Video games are not the be-all and end-all to Sammus' musical identity, although it would have been fun to quiz her during our interview to see if she could recite <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konami_Code" type="external">the Konami code</a> --or if she ever put the code into a rap lyric. "On the one hand, it's really awesome and liberating and allows me entry into these interesting nerd and geek spaces. On the other hand, it puts me in a box in a way that I get frustrated by often."</p>
<p>The entire Samus character angle wasn't fully explored until her 2010 "Another M" EP release. She felt compelled to create the project after being asked repeatedly to perform at nerd and geek conventions. "Okay. Well, I'm taking my name from this character that's very important. I'm being invited into these spaces. I think it's time for me to set aside (time)... to make a project that's 100 percent devoted to telling the story from the perspective of the protagonist."</p>
<p />
<p>With songs like "Time Crisis," which reflects on both Sammus' own admission of reaching the "dirty 30" years old and German philosopher Martin Heidegger's " <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Time" type="external">Being and Time</a>," it's safe to assume Sammus is firmly at the intersection of music and education.</p>
<p>Both of her parents are university professors, and she graduated with a bachelors from Cornell before moving to Houston to serve as a full-time teacher in a Teach for America program. Her students' interest in hip-hop got her thinking: why not fuse raps with education to get them inspired about learning? So she did just that. Rocking the classroom as an enshrined auditorium, all the while celebrating hip-hop and learning.</p>
<p>After completing the program, she moved back to Ithaca in the fall of 2011 to pursue her Ph.D. at Cornell. But returning to school with a full-fledged music career got her a little anxious, and she was apprehensive in announcing her musical identity to her peers.</p>
<p>"For a long time I tried to keep my Ph.D. and my music stuff pretty separate," she says. "I never talked about it in my department." But there was no escaping the inevitable. One of her administrators came across an article about her adventures as Sammus, and with good intentions and genuine admiration, displayed the article to her department.</p>
<p>"I was like, 'No! I don't want anyone to...,'" she says, describing the "mortifying" moment. "I was just walking around the hallway with my head down. Eventually it got out and folks in my department have been really supportive. I do think that there's been an interesting crossover, sometimes even just lyrically speaking," she adds.</p>
<p>Watch Enongo give a lecture about tears at XOXO festival</p>
<p>There's a lot more to the doctorate angle than just name-dropping an obscure scholar to capture the attention of intellectual nerds. Academia has allowed Sammus to dive deeper into her themes and translate her thoughts and emotions through her lyrics more effectively.</p>
<p>"Just in terms of thinking critically, I can credit my Ph.D. and the work that I've done there with thinking critically on a sort of social level. So, sort of thinking about race, the construct of race, the construct of gender. Thinking about those things through a critical lens is something that I might have arrived at on my own as a musician."</p>
<p>She also values one of the tenets in successfully completing a Ph.D., which is the role of being a teacher's assistant. "It's allowed me to see what's cool with the kids, basically," she reaffirms to me after mentioning how most young music artists are surprisingly woke. "Youth are important. I want to make sure that what I'm doing resonates with them, as well. It's been a cool way to stay connected with younger listeners."</p>
<p>Her anxieties of being in the academia space were explored in the song "1080p" from her Infusion EP.</p>
<p />
<p>So what's next for the cybernatic-armored hero? Writing her thesis and righting the wrongs of misinformed strong black females. She's hitting personal achievements through her music and profession, experiencing meta-moments like the time she got to interview and perform her track, "Mae Jemison" to her personal hero: Mae Jemison, the first black female to travel to outer space.</p>
<p>"My manager was able to arrange an interview between me and her. At the end of the interview I performed the track 'Mae Jemison' for Mae Jemison. Then I just started crying 'cause I could not believe... It was super meta but it was also really beautiful to tell my hero to her face... I'm getting emotional now, but tell her how important she's been for me and for little girls who look up at the stars and think about the possibilities."</p>
<p>Sammus is <a href="https://sammusmusic.com/shows-tour-dates/" type="external">currently on tour</a> with Mega Ran and Open Mike Eagle. You can follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sammusmusic/" type="external">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sammusmusic/" type="external">Instagram</a> and check out her music on <a href="https://sammusmusic.bandcamp.com/" type="external">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>Here's one last music video to keep your ears perked.</p>
<p>“I didn't like that my brand of hip-hop was being weaponized so I made this song to speak to the fact that I like to do a lot of things and I like to listen to a lot of things. I'm not defined by any one of my interests.” Sammus explains the origins for her "Mighty Morphin'" song. The music video is an homage to Alanis Morissette's 1995 music video for "Ironic."</p> | false | 1 | enter world sammus real name enongo lumumbakasongo ithaca new york rapper producer phd student cornell university forefront underground hiphop nerdcore scene several years thats one layer exquisite young talent covered media publications like one outlet daunting task trying either psychoanalyze sammus every one interests b fall rabbit hole pursuit labeling im charting somewhere territory c failing miserably attempting b deliberating much spend writing metroid angle intrigued first discovered sammus probably metroid series legendary im selfdescribed video game nerd found initial geekery something fascinating energetic rapper seamlessly oscillate interests topics lowbrow emotional verisimilitude intellectualniche dropping bars like confetti exploded pinata come clean state sammus probably doesnt cosign aforementioned lofty labels im defined one interests told interview shes trying modern 21st century female x z whole life always felt like explaining things constantly explaining name enongo interests person sammus super downtoearth humble pokes fun attempt juggle artists life pursuing phd interdisciplinary field study sound used means understand social technological cultural developments well access particular aspects human experience according student spotlight page secret maintaining lifework balance naps take naps wherever laughs thats get done cause pretty demanding things youre wasting time try label multidimensional artist using elements disingenuous sammus hindsight rapped everything depression social inequality creating songs braggadocious selfdecree commonly found hiphop anthems oh shes referenced metroid game seventrack ep called another retelling space bounty hunter perspective little black girl dreamed looking strong female characters like samus mae jemison first black female astronaut outer space yes music draws video games cartoons theres much frustrates music distilled cool hiphop talks geek stuff sammus says choosing rap moniker sought inspiration one first strong female characters encountered one broke archetypal gender tropes thing male dominated space samus aran space bounty hunter protagonist popular nintendo video game franchise metroid video games way foundation sammus musical roots first got music love video games says recounts memories videogame past brother leading way introducing 8bit 16bit game universes wanted little protégé followed around everywhere started playing video games fell love music video games sonic hedgehog 2 think one greatest soundtracks time one tell differently laughs love tracks really loved instrumental music surprise sammus musical influences diverse pull several genres mediums theres discrimination artistic palette pantheon musical heroes theres equal admiration attributed video game composers like masato nakamura sonic hedgehog 1 2 hiphop icons like kanye west sonic hedgehog slippers proudly display sammus games amp cartoons music video got little bit older started wanting make music elements video games credits brother disashi lumumbakasongo guitarist popular rock band gym class heroes teaching music program reason first cut teeth sampling beats started showcase produced beats friends response bit lukewarm weird making video gamekind ofish music says reverberating friends confusion around time first heard kanye west heard kanye west like oh wan na make hiphop beats junk stuff ive working hiphop sample base weird chops thats im moved onto garage band macbased program felt easier solution sampling chopping beats tracks would drag things wanted chop one first beats chopped final fantasy vii track cloud motorcycle kinda got foray making music video game references imagery music samplings lyrical allusions doubleedged sword video games beall endall sammus musical identity although would fun quiz interview see could recite konami code ever put code rap lyric one hand really awesome liberating allows entry interesting nerd geek spaces hand puts box way get frustrated often entire samus character angle wasnt fully explored 2010 another ep release felt compelled create project asked repeatedly perform nerd geek conventions okay well im taking name character thats important im invited spaces think time set aside time make project thats 100 percent devoted telling story perspective protagonist songs like time crisis reflects sammus admission reaching dirty 30 years old german philosopher martin heideggers time safe assume sammus firmly intersection music education parents university professors graduated bachelors cornell moving houston serve fulltime teacher teach america program students interest hiphop got thinking fuse raps education get inspired learning rocking classroom enshrined auditorium celebrating hiphop learning completing program moved back ithaca fall 2011 pursue phd cornell returning school fullfledged music career got little anxious apprehensive announcing musical identity peers long time tried keep phd music stuff pretty separate says never talked department escaping inevitable one administrators came across article adventures sammus good intentions genuine admiration displayed article department like dont want anyone says describing mortifying moment walking around hallway head eventually got folks department really supportive think theres interesting crossover sometimes even lyrically speaking adds watch enongo give lecture tears xoxo festival theres lot doctorate angle namedropping obscure scholar capture attention intellectual nerds academia allowed sammus dive deeper themes translate thoughts emotions lyrics effectively terms thinking critically credit phd work ive done thinking critically sort social level sort thinking race construct race construct gender thinking things critical lens something might arrived musician also values one tenets successfully completing phd role teachers assistant allowed see whats cool kids basically reaffirms mentioning young music artists surprisingly woke youth important want make sure im resonates well cool way stay connected younger listeners anxieties academia space explored song 1080p infusion ep whats next cybernaticarmored hero writing thesis righting wrongs misinformed strong black females shes hitting personal achievements music profession experiencing metamoments like time got interview perform track mae jemison personal hero mae jemison first black female travel outer space manager able arrange interview end interview performed track mae jemison mae jemison started crying cause could believe super meta also really beautiful tell hero face im getting emotional tell important shes little girls look stars think possibilities sammus currently tour mega ran open mike eagle follow facebook instagram check music bandcamp heres one last music video keep ears perked didnt like brand hiphop weaponized made song speak fact like lot things like listen lot things im defined one interests sammus explains origins mighty morphin song music video homage alanis morissettes 1995 music video ironic | 972 |
<p>The phenomenon of population ageing will have profound consequences for governments and societies all over the world, and not just for pension systems.&#160; Capital flows are likely to shift dramatically, as older societies sell their assets to younger ones to finance consumption in retirement.&#160; Worldwide immigration flows may accelerate, as older, developed nations become more dependent on workers from abroad to perform jobs that cannot be filled with domestic employees alone.&#160; The balance of geopolitical power may also shift over time, as emerging and younger powers become more dominant economically, allowing them to demand a greater say in world political affairs as well.</p>
<p>But it cannot be denied that the implications of population ageing are seen first and most clearly in the long-term projections of state-based pension systems.&#160; In a sense, actuarial projections of pension systems were, and are, canaries in the coal mine, providing advance warning of the coming demographic shift that will fundamentally alter the political and economic landscape.</p>
<p>In the 1950’s and 1960’s, population ageing was not even considered a possibility.&#160; With a post-war baby boom underway, in varying degrees, in most countries, political leaders were unconcerned that the new retirement promises made by their governments were dependent upon an ever-growing population and thriving economy.&#160; The widespread optimism about the future was captured succinctly by Konrad Adenauer, the post-war German Chancellor, who, in 1957, said “people will always have children,” thus dismissing the population risks associated with a pay-as-you-go approach to pension financing.</p>
<p>But, of course, Adenauer was wrong.&#160; Birth rates fell dramatically, beginning in the mid-1960’s.&#160; Germany’s total fertility rate (TFR) — which measures the average number of births to women in a country during their lifetimes — fell from about 2.5 in the early 1960’s to about 1.4 today.&#160; And people began to live longer — much longer.&#160; In the US, the average 65-year-old man could expect to get Social Security benefits for 12 years when the program first started.&#160; Today, he can expect to get benefits for 16 years.</p>
<p>By the 1980’s, some countries began to take steps to prepare for the long-term challenges posed by an ageing population.&#160; In 1983, the US raised the Social Security normal retirement age — on a gradual basis — from 65 to 67 years old.&#160; The UK switched pension indexing from wages to prices, dramatically cutting the Government’s long-term pension commitments.&#160; And Australia began the process of building a more universal system of retirement provision on employer-based savings accounts (these accounts became mandatory in the 1990’s).</p>
<p>Continental Europe, however, largely did not act on pension reform in the 1980’s, as the constituencies in favor of large state-based systems opposed strenuously any retrenchment of their hard-earned pension rights.&#160; At the same time, Japan’s strong economic performance and overly optimistic population assumptions masked the need for prompt attention to its pension crisis.</p>
<p>By the early to mid-1990’s, however, the momentum for reform began to build, largely due to the economic pressures associated with open global trade, economic integration in Europe, and Japan’s long period of economic stagnation.&#160; Political leaders throughout the developed world began to see that state-based pension reform was an important component of economic reform in a competitive global marketplace.&#160; In particular, the crushingly high payroll tax rates for state-earned pensions – 20-30% in some countries — were seen as directly contributing to high unemployment and reduced opportunities for younger workers.</p>
<p>And so, beginning in the early 1990’s, many developed nations began to seriously pursue public pension reform.&#160; While there are notable examples of failed efforts, a surprising number of countries have successfully navigated the treacherous political terrain of pension reform and implemented significant changes in their state-based schemes.&#160; Along the way, a few innovative approaches to reform have emerged which are deserving of mention and study.</p>
<p>Notional Defined Contribution Schemes</p>
<p>In 1991, with the country in a deep recession, the Social Democratic Government in Sweden was defeated and replaced by a multi-party, centre-right minority coalition that placed pension reform high on the agenda.&#160; The coalition Government established a small working group to negotiate the pension reform framework that was headed by the minister of social policy.&#160; The group included representatives from each of the five political parties supporting the reform process, including the Social Democrats, the Moderates, the Liberal Party, the Centre Party, and the Christian Democrats, as well as a few selected experts.</p>
<p>The group’s sweeping pension reform proposal was adopted “in principle” in 1994 by the Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, shortly before elections returned the Social Democrats to power.&#160; The Parliament passed implementing legislation in June 1998, with the first benefit payments under the new rules beginning in 2001.</p>
<p>Sweden’s new pension system has several innovative features, including the conversion of the main pension entitlement from a defined benefit to a “notional defined contribution” (NDC) system.&#160; Under the NDC, workers’ payroll tax contributions are treated like contributions into an investment fund even though the actual tax payments are used to finance benefits for current retirees.&#160; The contributions are tracked separately and credited with a presumed rate of return equal to growth in average wages in the economy.&#160; Thus, Swedish workers build up a notional “fund” from which they will draw an annuity at retirement.</p>
<p>The NDC approach to pension reform may have two important advantages over a traditional, defined benefit approach.&#160; First, the NDC system promotes benefit transparency, which may improve incentives for labor supply.&#160; Many defined benefit schemes inadvertently discourage work beyond a certain age, as workers who are already entitled to benefits gain little from additional pension contributions.&#160; With an NDC system, workers can see clearly that their wages translate directly into an increase in their NDC “account,” and all wages are treated identically in the pension benefit formula.&#160; Thus, working beyond age 65 may become more attractive for workers.</p>
<p>Second, NDC systems appear to improve budgetary control.&#160; The pension entitlement is strictly tied to pension contributions; no benefit payment is made that is not financed by a worker’s payroll tax payments.&#160; In the past, many countries made the mistake of expanding defined benefit promises without a clear means of financing the benefit expansion.&#160; Under an NDC system, the only way to provide more benefits is to increase the contribution rate into the NDC accounts, which may not be popular.&#160; In Sweden’s case, the payroll tax — 16% of wages — is widely viewed as a ceiling that should not be breached.</p>
<p>Automatic Benefit Stabilisers</p>
<p>In the last decade, at least three countries — Sweden, Germany, and Japan — have adopted new, automatic adjustments in their pay-as-you-go pension schemes.&#160; These automatic adjustment mechanisms come in slightly different forms, but they generally serve the same purpose.&#160; Benefit payments to retirees are adjusted automatically — without further legislative intervention by government — to keep pension spending within available revenue.</p>
<p>In Sweden, the NDC system has two automatic stabilisers.&#160; At retirement, the NDC account balance must be converted into a monthly pension payment by way of an “annuity divisor.”&#160; The divisor is updated for each annual cohort of retirees to reflect the most current estimates of life spans and mortality.&#160; Thus, as retirees are projected to live longer, the monthly annuity paid out from a fixed notional balance will automatically decline with successive cohorts unless the pensioners choose to begin taking their monthly annuities later than those who retired before them.&#160; The system, therefore, is protected against most of the cost of projected increases in life spans.</p>
<p>The other key variable in the Swedish system is the annual rate of return that is applied to the NDC account balances.&#160; The default assumption is that the account balances should grow with average wages.&#160; But, in a pay-as-you-go system, demographic factors, particularly fertility, population growth and labor force participation patterns, also play important roles in determining an affordable rate of return.&#160; Sweden tracks these demographic factors carefully and uses them to make an annual adjustment in the rate of return calculation.&#160; If, for instance, the birth rate falls below expectations, the workforce in the future will be smaller than current projections indicate, which means pension spending will also have to be constrained.&#160; Sweden’s automatic stabiliser takes this information into account and immediately adjusts the rate of return that is applied to the NDC accounts to reflect the new demographic reality.</p>
<p>Unlike Sweden, Germany has opted to stay with a traditional defined benefit system, perhaps due to the country’s long and generally favourable history with “retirement insurance.”&#160; Over the last fifteen years, however, the German system has been in a period of retrenchment, as costs have soared with longer life spans and revenue has stagnated with low fertility rates.&#160; Before the system was reformed in 2001 and 2004, projections indicated that the payroll tax rate needed to finance German pensions would increase substantially, from today’s 19.5% to more than 28% of payroll in 2040.</p>
<p>Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder sought to stabilise the payroll contribution rate for pensions at no more than 20% before 2020 and 22% before 2030.&#160; A first effort, in 2001, made progress toward this goal but was based on overly optimistic economic and demographic assumptions.&#160; Soon after enactment, it quickly became clear that more reform was necessary.</p>
<p>In March 2004, the German Parliament adopted its own version of an automatic stabilizer.&#160; All German pensions — for new retirees and those who retired in earlier years — are tied to the same basic pension value component, which, in turn, is indexed to annual wage growth.&#160; The 2004 law amended the indexing rules to allow for an adjustment based on changes in the ratio of pensioners to workers supporting the system&#160; — the so-called “sustainability factor.”&#160; As the ratio increases, the annual increase in pension value component decreases.&#160; Projections indicate that the sustainability factor will reduce the payroll tax necessary in 2040 from 28% to 24%.&#160; Clearly, even with the sustainability factor, the German system remains expensive, and perhaps unaffordable.&#160; But the sustainability factor has unquestionably improved the outlook and may serve as the basis for further reform in coming years.</p>
<p>Japan passed two conventional pension reform measures — in 1994 and 2000 — that scaled back promises and made some progress toward sustainability.&#160; After each effort, however, new, more realistic demographic assumptions revealed a remaining financing shortfall.</p>
<p>When taking up a third reform effort in 2004, Japanese political leaders decided to take a different approach from the previous efforts.&#160; To avoid the need for additional ad hoc adjustments to benefits, the 2004 reform introduced an automatic stabiliser, or “macroeconomic slide,” that automatically adjusts benefits to compensate for changing demographics.&#160; The automatic stabiliser is modelled on the German approach.&#160; It adjusts the normal indexing formula applied to both new and current benefits by two factors — one designed to offset the decline in the number of contributing workers, the other to offset the increase in the life expectancy of beneficiaries.&#160; It is expected that the stabiliser, which is scheduled to remain in effect for twenty years, will cut annual indexation adjustments by an average of 0.9 percentage points each year between 2004 and 2023, at which point the replacement rate for an average wage earner is projected to be 50%, down from 59% today.</p>
<p>Government-Owned and Invested Pension Reserve</p>
<p>While other countries made substantial cuts in future benefits to offset the projected cost of population ageing, Canada chose to pursue a different strategy.&#160; In 1997, the government passed a large increase in the payroll tax rate.&#160; Between 1998 and 2003, the rate was raised in stages from 6.0% to 9.9%, well above the system’s current cost rate, to create a Government-owned investment fund to offset the costs of higher pension spending in the future.</p>
<p>To help ensure that the “partial advance funding” results in genuine savings, the Government created a firewall between the general budget and the pension fund.&#160; Investments are managed by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), an independent agency whose 12 members are appointed by the finance minister.&#160; The CPPIB has a legislated mandate to invest assets solely in the interest of the beneficiaries.&#160; Prior to the 1997 reform, Canada’s public pension reserves were invested primarily in low-interest loans to the provincial governments, much like US Social Security trust-fund surpluses are invested in special interest US Treasury bonds.&#160; Since the reform, pension assets have been invested primarily in marketable securities.&#160; As of 30 September 2006, the fund totalled C$103bn, nearly two thirds of which was invested in equities.</p>
<p>The Canadian pension reserve fund is projected to grow rapidly over the next few decades, accumulating assets of roughly C$600bn by 2030, or the equivalent of six years of benefits.&#160; Current contributions are expected to exceed annual benefit payments until 2022, after which investment income will be needed to finance a growing portion of costs. Over the years, many countries, including the US, have tried to put in place reforms similar to the Canadian approach.&#160; Few, if any, of these efforts have met the most basic litmus test of success — raising national savings.&#160; Typically, the pension reserves are invested poorly, and the Government increases other spending in proportion to the pension surplus.</p>
<p>Canada may well prove to be an exception.&#160; The firewall separating the operations of the Canada’s reserve funds from the general budget so far seems to be functioning effectively.&#160; Investment decisions appear to be made by the investment board with minimal if any political interference.&#160; The Federal Government, moreover, has run uninterrupted budget surpluses since the late 1990s, not counting the surpluses generated by the pension system.&#160;&#160; It also helps that Canada’s political culture is accommodating of a large government stake in the ownership of private sector companies, something which would not sit well in other countries, including the United States.&#160; Over the long run, even Canada is likely to find it difficult to sustain the discipline necessary to ensure the fund truly is “saved” for the future, particularly when an economic crisis hits.&#160; Even so, it must be admitted that the Canadian approach shows much more promise than previous efforts at government-owned pension reserves.</p>
<p>Conclusion</p>
<p>The challenge of population ageing can be overwhelming.&#160; For many developed countries, the ratio of pensioners to the working age population is set to double over the next half century.&#160; Such a dramatic shift toward an older population will not occur without difficulty.&#160; Among the many challenges will be maintaining a political and economic balance between adequate retirement provision and an affordable pension contribution rate.&#160; Two decades ago, the political prospects for addressing the pension challenge looked bleak.&#160; But in the last fifteen years, many countries have put in place reforms that have improved the long-term outlook, even if modestly.&#160; While much more reform undoubtedly lies ahead, the successful implementation of innovative approaches to state-run pensions in several countries should increase our optimism about the political prospects of addressing the remaining challenge.</p>
<p>— James C. Capretta is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and an Adjunct Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Global Aging Initiative.&#160; He is the author of “Global Aging and the Sustainability of Public Pension Systems:&#160; An Assessment of Reform Efforts in Twelve Developed Countries,” a report published by CSIS in January 2007.</p> | false | 1 | phenomenon population ageing profound consequences governments societies world pension systems160 capital flows likely shift dramatically older societies sell assets younger ones finance consumption retirement160 worldwide immigration flows may accelerate older developed nations become dependent workers abroad perform jobs filled domestic employees alone160 balance geopolitical power may also shift time emerging younger powers become dominant economically allowing demand greater say world political affairs well denied implications population ageing seen first clearly longterm projections statebased pension systems160 sense actuarial projections pension systems canaries coal mine providing advance warning coming demographic shift fundamentally alter political economic landscape 1950s 1960s population ageing even considered possibility160 postwar baby boom underway varying degrees countries political leaders unconcerned new retirement promises made governments dependent upon evergrowing population thriving economy160 widespread optimism future captured succinctly konrad adenauer postwar german chancellor 1957 said people always children thus dismissing population risks associated payasyougo approach pension financing course adenauer wrong160 birth rates fell dramatically beginning mid1960s160 germanys total fertility rate tfr measures average number births women country lifetimes fell 25 early 1960s 14 today160 people began live longer much longer160 us average 65yearold man could expect get social security benefits 12 years program first started160 today expect get benefits 16 years 1980s countries began take steps prepare longterm challenges posed ageing population160 1983 us raised social security normal retirement age gradual basis 65 67 years old160 uk switched pension indexing wages prices dramatically cutting governments longterm pension commitments160 australia began process building universal system retirement provision employerbased savings accounts accounts became mandatory 1990s continental europe however largely act pension reform 1980s constituencies favor large statebased systems opposed strenuously retrenchment hardearned pension rights160 time japans strong economic performance overly optimistic population assumptions masked need prompt attention pension crisis early mid1990s however momentum reform began build largely due economic pressures associated open global trade economic integration europe japans long period economic stagnation160 political leaders throughout developed world began see statebased pension reform important component economic reform competitive global marketplace160 particular crushingly high payroll tax rates stateearned pensions 2030 countries seen directly contributing high unemployment reduced opportunities younger workers beginning early 1990s many developed nations began seriously pursue public pension reform160 notable examples failed efforts surprising number countries successfully navigated treacherous political terrain pension reform implemented significant changes statebased schemes160 along way innovative approaches reform emerged deserving mention study notional defined contribution schemes 1991 country deep recession social democratic government sweden defeated replaced multiparty centreright minority coalition placed pension reform high agenda160 coalition government established small working group negotiate pension reform framework headed minister social policy160 group included representatives five political parties supporting reform process including social democrats moderates liberal party centre party christian democrats well selected experts groups sweeping pension reform proposal adopted principle 1994 riksdag swedish parliament shortly elections returned social democrats power160 parliament passed implementing legislation june 1998 first benefit payments new rules beginning 2001 swedens new pension system several innovative features including conversion main pension entitlement defined benefit notional defined contribution ndc system160 ndc workers payroll tax contributions treated like contributions investment fund even though actual tax payments used finance benefits current retirees160 contributions tracked separately credited presumed rate return equal growth average wages economy160 thus swedish workers build notional fund draw annuity retirement ndc approach pension reform may two important advantages traditional defined benefit approach160 first ndc system promotes benefit transparency may improve incentives labor supply160 many defined benefit schemes inadvertently discourage work beyond certain age workers already entitled benefits gain little additional pension contributions160 ndc system workers see clearly wages translate directly increase ndc account wages treated identically pension benefit formula160 thus working beyond age 65 may become attractive workers second ndc systems appear improve budgetary control160 pension entitlement strictly tied pension contributions benefit payment made financed workers payroll tax payments160 past many countries made mistake expanding defined benefit promises without clear means financing benefit expansion160 ndc system way provide benefits increase contribution rate ndc accounts may popular160 swedens case payroll tax 16 wages widely viewed ceiling breached automatic benefit stabilisers last decade least three countries sweden germany japan adopted new automatic adjustments payasyougo pension schemes160 automatic adjustment mechanisms come slightly different forms generally serve purpose160 benefit payments retirees adjusted automatically without legislative intervention government keep pension spending within available revenue sweden ndc system two automatic stabilisers160 retirement ndc account balance must converted monthly pension payment way annuity divisor160 divisor updated annual cohort retirees reflect current estimates life spans mortality160 thus retirees projected live longer monthly annuity paid fixed notional balance automatically decline successive cohorts unless pensioners choose begin taking monthly annuities later retired them160 system therefore protected cost projected increases life spans key variable swedish system annual rate return applied ndc account balances160 default assumption account balances grow average wages160 payasyougo system demographic factors particularly fertility population growth labor force participation patterns also play important roles determining affordable rate return160 sweden tracks demographic factors carefully uses make annual adjustment rate return calculation160 instance birth rate falls expectations workforce future smaller current projections indicate means pension spending also constrained160 swedens automatic stabiliser takes information account immediately adjusts rate return applied ndc accounts reflect new demographic reality unlike sweden germany opted stay traditional defined benefit system perhaps due countrys long generally favourable history retirement insurance160 last fifteen years however german system period retrenchment costs soared longer life spans revenue stagnated low fertility rates160 system reformed 2001 2004 projections indicated payroll tax rate needed finance german pensions would increase substantially todays 195 28 payroll 2040 former chancellor gerhard schröder sought stabilise payroll contribution rate pensions 20 2020 22 2030160 first effort 2001 made progress toward goal based overly optimistic economic demographic assumptions160 soon enactment quickly became clear reform necessary march 2004 german parliament adopted version automatic stabilizer160 german pensions new retirees retired earlier years tied basic pension value component turn indexed annual wage growth160 2004 law amended indexing rules allow adjustment based changes ratio pensioners workers supporting system160 socalled sustainability factor160 ratio increases annual increase pension value component decreases160 projections indicate sustainability factor reduce payroll tax necessary 2040 28 24160 clearly even sustainability factor german system remains expensive perhaps unaffordable160 sustainability factor unquestionably improved outlook may serve basis reform coming years japan passed two conventional pension reform measures 1994 2000 scaled back promises made progress toward sustainability160 effort however new realistic demographic assumptions revealed remaining financing shortfall taking third reform effort 2004 japanese political leaders decided take different approach previous efforts160 avoid need additional ad hoc adjustments benefits 2004 reform introduced automatic stabiliser macroeconomic slide automatically adjusts benefits compensate changing demographics160 automatic stabiliser modelled german approach160 adjusts normal indexing formula applied new current benefits two factors one designed offset decline number contributing workers offset increase life expectancy beneficiaries160 expected stabiliser scheduled remain effect twenty years cut annual indexation adjustments average 09 percentage points year 2004 2023 point replacement rate average wage earner projected 50 59 today governmentowned invested pension reserve countries made substantial cuts future benefits offset projected cost population ageing canada chose pursue different strategy160 1997 government passed large increase payroll tax rate160 1998 2003 rate raised stages 60 99 well systems current cost rate create governmentowned investment fund offset costs higher pension spending future help ensure partial advance funding results genuine savings government created firewall general budget pension fund160 investments managed canadian pension plan investment board cppib independent agency whose 12 members appointed finance minister160 cppib legislated mandate invest assets solely interest beneficiaries160 prior 1997 reform canadas public pension reserves invested primarily lowinterest loans provincial governments much like us social security trustfund surpluses invested special interest us treasury bonds160 since reform pension assets invested primarily marketable securities160 30 september 2006 fund totalled c103bn nearly two thirds invested equities canadian pension reserve fund projected grow rapidly next decades accumulating assets roughly c600bn 2030 equivalent six years benefits160 current contributions expected exceed annual benefit payments 2022 investment income needed finance growing portion costs years many countries including us tried put place reforms similar canadian approach160 efforts met basic litmus test success raising national savings160 typically pension reserves invested poorly government increases spending proportion pension surplus canada may well prove exception160 firewall separating operations canadas reserve funds general budget far seems functioning effectively160 investment decisions appear made investment board minimal political interference160 federal government moreover run uninterrupted budget surpluses since late 1990s counting surpluses generated pension system160160 also helps canadas political culture accommodating large government stake ownership private sector companies something would sit well countries including united states160 long run even canada likely find difficult sustain discipline necessary ensure fund truly saved future particularly economic crisis hits160 even must admitted canadian approach shows much promise previous efforts governmentowned pension reserves conclusion challenge population ageing overwhelming160 many developed countries ratio pensioners working age population set double next half century160 dramatic shift toward older population occur without difficulty160 among many challenges maintaining political economic balance adequate retirement provision affordable pension contribution rate160 two decades ago political prospects addressing pension challenge looked bleak160 last fifteen years many countries put place reforms improved longterm outlook even modestly160 much reform undoubtedly lies ahead successful implementation innovative approaches staterun pensions several countries increase optimism political prospects addressing remaining challenge james c capretta fellow ethics public policy center adjunct fellow center strategic international studies csis global aging initiative160 author global aging sustainability public pension systems160 assessment reform efforts twelve developed countries report published csis january 2007 | 1,548 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">The Faith Angle Forum</a>&#160;is a semi-annual conference which brings together a select group of 20 nationally respected journalists with 3-5 distinguished scholars on areas of religion, politics &amp; public life.</p>
<p>“The Religion Factor in the 2008 Election”</p>
<p>Key West, Florida</p>
<p>Speaker:</p>
<p>Dr.&#160;John C. Green, Senior Fellow in Religion &amp; American Politics, Pew Forum on Religion &amp; Public Life</p>
<p>Respondents:</p>
<p>Michael Barone, Senior Writer, U.S. News &amp; World Report</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne Jr., Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution; Columnist, The Washington Post; Senior Advisor, Pew Forum on Religion &amp; Public Life</p>
<p>Moderator:</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics &amp; Public Policy Center; Senior Advisor, Pew Forum on Religion &amp; Public Life</p>
<p>Michael Cromartie</p>
<p>MICHAEL CROMARTIE: Many of you know John’s work because you’ve talked to him and quoted him so many times, but John is perhaps the best political demographer of voting behavior of religious believers in America, and his surveys have been so valuable to many of us. John is also a senior fellow with the Pew Forum, and he’s also the director of the <a href="http://www.uakron.edu/bliss" type="external">Ray Bliss Institute of Applied Politics</a> and distinguished professor of political science at the University of Akron. He’s written numerous books on our topic, and our subject [today] with John Green is “The Religion Factor in the 2008 Election.”</p>
<p>John, thank you for coming.</p>
<p>DR. JOHN C. GREEN: Thank you, Michael, for having me back. It’s a great privilege to be here again, and it’s wonderful to be with all of you. I’ve known most of you in previous incarnations, but it’s great to have a chance to meet some new people, and, not only that, to put faces to the names and to the voices on the telephone. Some of you even have very characteristic e-mail styles. It is a special joy to share this panel with <a href="http://www.usnews.com/blogs/barone" type="external">Michael Barone</a> and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/d/dionnee.aspx" type="external">E.J. Dionne</a>, who, as you all know, are two of the most insightful observers of religion in American politics.</p>
<p>John Green</p>
<p>What I’d like to do today is look at some survey data because that’s what I do. What I’d like to do is work through a number of tables, which I think reveal some interesting things about the role of faith in the upcoming presidential election. We have decided to overwhelm you with paper this morning, and so you will see in front of you all kinds of reports. We’ll mention them, but what I’d like to turn your attention to is to this one right here, which is a collection of tables that are stapled together, and they begin with Table 1, “Religious Groups in the 2004 Presidential Vote.” We’ll work our way through these tables.</p>
<p>I made these tables so I take full credit for all of their mistakes. One of the mistakes I made is that I stapled them all together, so you might want to pull them apart because we’ll want to compare them. Unfortunately Table 1 and Table 2 are on the reverse sides of the same page, which is why I worry about voting behavior and not about making tables.</p>
<p>There are three things I’d like to discuss this morning. The first is how the structure of religion and politics works in American elections these days, and whether or not it may persist into the 2008 election. Secondly, I’d like to look at a couple of the influences that might have an effect on the structure of religion’s impact on the vote, particularly people’s attitudes toward religious expression in political campaigns, and, then, the issue priorities of the different religious groups. Finally I’d like to make a few general comments about religious groups in the primaries. The great bulk of my comments will be about the general election, but of course people have to get nominated before we can have a general election, and religion may play a role there as well, but a different kind of role.</p>
<p>So if I could turn your attention to Table 1, the very first table. This is a list of religious groups and how they voted in the 2004 presidential election. It reports the two-party vote, and this comes from the 2004 national exit polls. The point of this table is to set a baseline for our discussion by noting what happened in the last election. If you look in the middle of the chart — all our charts will be structured this way — there’s a column called “All,” and that reflects the numbers for the entire sample, or, in this case, the entire electorate, that is all the people who voted in 2004. As you can see, Bush won the election by a very small margin.</p>
<p>These religious groups are arrayed according to the two-party vote. Above the “All” column, toward the top of the page, we have the groups that voted more for George Bush. Then toward the bottom of the table we have groups that voted more for John Kerry. Just a very quick glance at the table will reveal three groups. The Republicans have strong religious constituencies. The Democrats have strong religious constituencies, and there are some groups in the middle. In 2004 Bush won those groups in the middle, at least the ones we’re going to look at here today.</p>
<p>But let me just spend a moment talking about these religious categories. They are a little different than the ones you sometimes see from me or the Pew Forum. It is the same data; it’s just arranged in a different way. The reason is so we can look across surveys. Not all surveys have exactly the same number of religious categories, and we quickly reach a point where certain small religious groups become statistically insignificant in one or another of the surveys. We want to work with categories that have a “minimum significance” in as many tables as possible.</p>
<p>Up at the very top of the table we have the group that everyone talks about, sometimes referred to as the “religious right.” At the core of that group are weekly attending white evangelical Protestants. In these surveys, evangelicals are defined as born-again Protestants. Here we separate out whites and people who tell us they attend worship once a week or more often.</p>
<p>One of the important elements of the faith factor these days is religious affiliation, and most of these groups are defined by affiliation. Race and ethnicity are very closely connected to religious affiliation, so they’re part of the definition for many of these groups. But there’s another element present and that is religiosity, and in these surveys we measure that with worship attendance. That’s not the only way, or maybe even the best way to measure religiosity, but it’s a very common and effective way.</p>
<p>So if you look at the very top group, weekly attending white evangelicals, notice that 82.4% of them said they voted for President Bush in 2004. But if you go down just two lines to less-observant white evangelical Protestants — these are white born-again Protestants who claim not to attend church once a week or more often — notice they also voted for Bush, but by a good bit less, in fact, about 11 percentage points less. So there you see both the effects of affiliation and religiosity: Being a white evangelical Protestant moves one in a Republican direction, but being a regular worship attender moves one further along in a Republican direction.</p>
<p>If you go a little farther down, one of the next groups is weekly attending non-Latino Catholics. These are basically white Catholics, but we did include Asians and African-Americans, who are a very small portion of that community. Notice that they voted a little more than three-fifths for Bush. But if we go down just a little bit farther we come to less-observant white Catholics, who Bush won by a small margin, just 53% of the vote. There again, you see the attendance gap.</p>
<p>Another religious group are white mainline Protestants. This group isn’t defined very well in these surveys, but they are very distinctive nonetheless. These are white non-born-again Protestants, and you can also see differences by attendance in those groups.</p>
<p>We [also] have to have a couple of composite categories. If you look way up at the top, [to] the second line on the table, you will see weekly attending other Christians. Those are Mormons, Eastern Orthodox, Unitarians, and also Latino Protestants. Normally we wouldn’t combine all those groups, but because of the size of the samples we’re going to look at, we have to. In 2004 all those groups tended to vote Republican, so putting them together is not quite as big a violation of common sense as it might seem.</p>
<p>But notice even among these “Other Christians,” there’s a big attendance effect. Those who report attending regularly were much more for Bush than those who were not. Down toward the bottom of the table there are some other groups: the unaffiliated, people who don’t have a religious affiliation; the other faiths, that’s also a combination of different groups, mostly non-Christian groups, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and other sorts of groups, which again we combined — normally we would break them out, but today for pragmatic purposes we have to put them together. Then of course we have black Protestants, that is, members of historically black Protestant churches.</p>
<p>John Green</p>
<p>As you can see, there was quite a bit of polarization in 2004, based upon these religious categories of affiliation and attendance, with Bush doing very well with some groups, Kerry doing very well with others, and some groups in the middle, including less-observant white Catholics and less-observant mainline Protestants, which were very much up for grabs all throughout the campaign, and Bush ended up winning them by a small margin. In places like Ohio that might very well have made the difference. In any event, Table 1 shows what happened in 2004, and we can see the structure of religion when it comes to the vote, with both affiliation and attendance mattering in important ways.</p>
<p>Let’s turn to Table 2. Table 2 comes from a survey that was taken in January of 2007, just about a year ago, by the Pew Research Center. The <a href="http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=302" type="external">survey</a> asked people about their generic party preferences. Would they be more likely to vote for a Republican candidate for president in 2008 or for a Democratic candidate? Now there are no candidates in this question, it is just a party preference. Two things immediately become clear. One is that the Republicans don’t do nearly as well in this survey as George Bush did in 2004, and there is a very striking diminution of support for a generic Republican candidate. Some respondents are in the “No Opinion” column because not everyone had made up their mind about the 2008 election.</p>
<p>Let me call your attention to a couple of things. First of all, look at the “All” column in the middle of Table 2. Look at the Democratic vote. In this survey 49.2% of the respondents said they wanted to vote for a Democratic candidate. Now just compare that back to the actual vote that John Kerry got, according to the exit polls in 2004. It was 48.5%. Statistically, those are the same numbers. So the Democratic vote doesn’t vary very much in aggregate between these two data points: one, the actual vote in 2004, and two, this generic party ballot in 2007.</p>
<p>The change is really on the Republican side, which is what you might expect because the Republicans, after all, won in 2004, and then they had a lot of bad luck afterwards, perhaps some of it of their own making. Of course this 2007 poll in January comes after their big defeat in the 2006 congressional elections, so maybe it’s not surprising that we would see this diminution in generic backing for the GOP.</p>
<p>The second thing to notice, though, is that by and large the structure of the religious vote is the same. The groups that tended to support Bush in 2004 still support the Republicans in general, even though their numbers are down, and we still see a difference based on attendance. Again, a good example would be to look at the weekly attending evangelical Protestants at the top of the table, still more than 60 percent for a generic Republican candidate. But notice that the less-observant evangelical Protestants are down at less than 40 percent, a 20-point gap — that’s a larger gap than we saw in the exit poll data.</p>
<p>So the basic structure of the faith factor on the vote seems to be in place, although the numbers have shifted. It’s entirely possible for a Democratic candidate to win the 2008 election, even if the structure of affiliation and attendance is still in place. Because what matters is not just the structure, but how the structure actually functions. If Democrats do better in some of these key groups, they can win the election.</p>
<p>If you look in the Democratic column, you’ll see certain numbers that are underlined, three of them toward the middle. These are groups that actually switched sides between the 2004 exit poll data and these data from January 2007. Two of these groups are less-observant Catholics and less-observant mainline Protestants, those swing voters that Bush was able to win by a small margin in 2004. But also look at weekly attending Catholics and weekly attending mainline Protestants; there is also a shift into the Democratic column as well.</p>
<p>Although Table 2 offers a generic measure of the vote without candidates and months ahead of the 2008 election, it suggests there are some religious groups in motion, and some groups that may depart from their voting behavior in 2004.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Let’s turn to Table 3, which is another snapshot of presidential preferences. It is an October 2007 trial heat in which <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=5" type="external">Rudy Giuliani</a> is pitted against <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=2" type="external">Hillary Clinton</a> from another Pew Research Center <a href="http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=356" type="external">survey</a>. I’m not, by the way, suggesting with this table that Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton will necessarily be the nominees of their parties, but they were the best-known candidates in October, and therefore the easiest to get a good read on in terms of the way these religious groups may be voting.</p>
<p>John Green</p>
<p>Again, look at the “All” category in the middle. In this survey Hillary Clinton is ahead at 50%. Not a whole lot different from the Democratic vote in the generic measure in Table 2, or in the exit poll data in Table 1. Again, most of the variation across these tables is among the Republican vote, not among the Democratic vote. There are some interesting things in this table. Some of the religious groups that were in motion in 2004 are on the move again. For instance, look at the less-observant Catholics. They voted for Bush in 2004. In the generic party measure in Table 2, they were moving away from the GOP, and now they’re back with a preference for Giuliani. What a difference candidates can make — we don’t actually vote for parties, we vote for individual candidates.</p>
<p>Now I don’t know if these numbers will hold up next year. You could find other trial heats that would show slight differences. But they do suggest less-observant Catholics are one of those groups in motion. They move around, depending on who the candidates are and presumably what the campaign is about. Another group that shows that same kind of movement back from Table 2 is less-observant mainline Protestants.</p>
<p>But also note the change among weekly attending Catholics and weekly attending mainline Protestants. In this poll, Rudy Giuliani recovers some of those votes. One of the things that’s interesting about these groups is that the attendance gap has vanished. There aren’t significant differences between regular attenders and the less observant. This suggests the structure of the faith factor and the vote can change as well. I’m sure many of you remember when worship attendance wasn’t an important factor in voting behavior. It has become a very important factor in recent times, but it’s possible that in next year’s election, or the election after, the faith factor will revert to an older structure, where worship attendance is not as important to the vote.</p>
<p>But other parts of the picture in Table 3 are very much the same as in the previous tables. The strong Democratic groups still tend to be strong Democratic groups. Weekly attending evangelical Protestants are still in the Republican corner. It’s interesting, though, if you look at the very top number for Senator Clinton: If she were to actually get 27% of the weekly attending white evangelical vote, that would be quite significant. That would be ten percentage points better than John Kerry did in 2004. But notice that, in these data, 11.4% of weekly attending evangelical Protestants haven’t made up their mind yet, and if they, of course, were to go Democratic, that could make a huge difference. Then Hillary Clinton’s numbers would be close to the kinds of numbers that Bill Clinton got among white evangelicals in 1992. So the concern that the Democratic candidates have had about appealing to evangelicals seems to have some basis in fact. But the groups that seem to be moving are mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics. That’s where the big changes seem likely to occur.</p>
<p>If some groups are in motion and could be moved from one party to another, this raises the question: What sorts of things motivate them? I’d like to focus on two of those things, if you will turn to Table 4. One possibility is the use of faith in election appeals, the discussions of religion by candidates, by parties, and by religious groups themselves. These data come from the <a href="http://pewforum.org/surveys/campaign08" type="external">annual trend survey</a> of the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center, taken this past summer. The question asked was: “Is there too much, too little, or about the right amount of religious expression in the campaign?”</p>
<p>If you look again at the “All” category in the middle, you’ll see that about a quarter of Americans say there’s too much discussion of faith. About two-fifths, though, 38.1% to be precise, say there’s too little discussion of faith in the campaign. Then another quarter say it’s about the right amount, and a few people don’t have opinions on these matters. This is interesting because I think most observers of today’s campaign would say we have an extraordinary level of religious expression in the campaign — in fact, it may set records by the time this is over next year. But a lot of Americans would like to hear even more.</p>
<p>Now is this because the public is just yearning to know about the spiritual and religious beliefs of candidates? Or is it because the candidates have been out there talking about their faith? It’s hard to tell, causality could go either way.</p>
<p>If you look at the religious groups, you can see some interesting patterns. For instance, some of those key Republican groups up at the top of the table, weekly attending evangelicals, for instance, have a majority or more that think there’s too little discussion of faith in politics and the campaign. And if you go down toward the bottom, there are some key Democratic groups, black Protestants and Latino Catholics, that have the same view. In fact, there are only a couple of groups, the other faiths, which are largely non-Christians of various kinds, and the unaffiliated who think there’s been altogether too much discussion of faith in politics. But if we look at the swing groups that we noticed were on the move in our three previous tables, notice that the most common response is that there is about the right amount of discussion of faith in the campaign.</p>
<p>If you turn to Table 5, we have another set of measures on the role of religious expression in the campaign. The first set of columns are agreement or disagreement with the statement, “It is important to me that the president have strong religious beliefs.” You can see, looking at the “All” row in the middle of the table, that a very high proportion of Americans agree with the notion the president should have strong religious beliefs. In fact, more than two-thirds think that’s a good idea. This is not a new finding. Pollsters have found this pattern for a long time, but it apparently hasn’t diminished in the face of the extensive discussion of faith and values in the campaign.</p>
<p>Notice that virtually all groups have majorities of people who think it’s a good idea for presidents to have strong religious beliefs. But not all groups: The unaffiliated are not so excited about this idea.</p>
<p>But look toward the right-hand columns, the final three on Table 5. This is a different question. It’s also agree/disagree: “I feel uncomfortable when politicians talk about how religious they are.” Again, if you look at the “All” row, you’ll see a much more evenly divided opinion. About two-fifths of Americans agree that they feel uncomfortable when politicians talk about how religious they are. Just about half disagree, which is to say apparently they feel comfortable with that kind of discussion.</p>
<p>The answers to these two questions are interesting if you put them together. On the one hand, the overwhelming majority of Americans think it’s a good idea to have a president with strong religious values, but many Americans don’t want to hear about it, at least not from the candidates themselves. There does seem to be a lot of interest in the religious beliefs of candidates, just like there’s interest in religious expression in the campaign. There is a great deal of tolerance for this kind of talk on the part of religious voters, but there are limits to that talk.</p>
<p>If we turn to the next table, Table 6, we combined those two measures, and we ended up with four different categories. I don’t know that the titles for these groups are particularly fortuitous. In the first column are what we call the “enthusiastic believers.” These are people who believed that the president should have strong religious beliefs, and they felt comfortable with the candidates telling us about that. The “reluctant believers” are people who thought the president certainly should have strong religious beliefs but felt uncomfortable in hearing candidates talk about them. The “untroubled skeptics” are people who didn’t think religious beliefs were all that important a qualification to be president, but it didn’t bother them when candidates talked about their faith. Then finally, the “troubled skeptics” are people who felt uncomfortable and didn’t think the president should necessarily have strong religious beliefs.</p>
<p>If you put those things together, you get a sense of both the acceptance of these types of ideas, but also the limits on them. If you look at the “All” row, about two-fifths of Americans are “enthusiastic believers.” But a quarter, 26%, are “reluctant believers.” The “untroubled skeptics” are about 10 percent of the public, and about one-sixth, or 15.4% of the population, are “troubled skeptics.”</p>
<p>If you look at this by the religious groups, you see some interesting patterns. Those strong Republican religious constituencies tend to be “enthusiastic believers,” but so do some of the Democratic constituencies, particularly black Protestants down toward the bottom of the table. But every single one of the Republican constituencies, and most of the Democratic constituencies, have large minorities of members who are in the “reluctant believers” category. So there’s some limit to how much candidates can talk about their faith without incurring the displeasure of the very voters they are trying to appeal to.</p>
<p>We talked a little bit about this issue yesterday when we considered <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=1" type="external">Mitt Romney</a> and his forthcoming <a href="http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14573" type="external">speech</a>. These data would suggest it would be very valuable to the Romney campaign if he could convince people he had strong religious beliefs, but there are costs as well because there are people who feel uncomfortable about having him explain this faith in detail.</p>
<p>Let’s look at one more table, and then we’ll talk about the primaries very briefly. This is a very complicated table. I apologize for its complexity, but blame the world, not me. Table 7 looks at the issue priorities of religious groups. In our annual trend survey, we ask people how important they thought different issues would be for their vote in 2008. We ask about foreign policy issues such as the war in Iraq; we ask about the economy; and we ask about social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. What this table does is take the individuals who gave a “very important” answer to any one of those issue questions and combine them.</p>
<p>So for instance, the very first left-hand column is labeled “Iraq, Economy:” Those are people who said the war in Iraq would be very important to their vote, but so would the economy. These are people who have two kinds of priorities, both foreign policy and economy priorities.</p>
<p>The next column in, where it says “All three,” has those people who think all the issues are important. If you go way over to the end of the table, we have the “No Issues.” Those are people who apparently didn’t think any of these issues were important. Now maybe that’s because we didn’t ask about their hot-button issue — we didn’t ask about the environment, or we didn’t talk about Major League Baseball, or important issues that they care about. Or it could be that these are people who are just not very attentive and not clued in to the campaign yet.</p>
<p>What’s interesting about this pattern, though, is if you look at all the different combinations, you can see how complicated the issue agenda is for Americans. A few Americans are single-issue voters. You can see examples of that. For instance, the third column in are people who said, “Only the economy is very important to my vote.” The single-issue economic voters would be in that category, and then if you go way over to the far side you can see social issues. But most voters have combinations of these issue priorities.</p>
<p>Let me talk a little bit about some of those combinations to give a sense of what is motivating these particular voters. Overall the economy and Iraq are the most important. More than a third of Americans list that combination as their top priority. But if you look at the Republican-leaning groups, particularly the weekly attending evangelical Protestants and that polyglot group of weekly attending “other Christians,” the Iraq/economy combination is much lower. What those people are interested in is all three issues, so they combine social issues with a concern for foreign policy and a concern for economic issues.</p>
<p>That helps explain, I think, some of the patterns that many people have puzzled over, including the fact that evangelicals have supported candidates such as Rudy Giuliani. If a significant number of these voters actually care about a variety of different issues and don’t give exclusive priority to social issues, it makes a certain amount of sense that they would evaluate candidates differently. When it came to Rudy Giuliani, maybe two out of three ain’t bad.</p>
<p>But if we go down to the Democratic groups, notice that the Iraq/economy group is very large. That tends to have a plurality, large pluralities, in all those groups. But there are significant minorities among black Protestants, Latino Catholics, and the unaffiliated who also think all three of those issues are important.</p>
<p>To go back to our groups in motion, less-observant Catholic and mainline Protestants, we see the dominance of the Iraq/economy combination. These groups may very well be moving on the basis of those issues. There may be a religious component to it, but maybe not. Those particular groups may, in the language of social science, be a bit over-determined, with a number of different variables moving them politically.</p>
<p>The campaigns, of course, worry a great deal about these combinations of issues. As you all know, targeting has gone beyond an art to become a science these days, both in the primaries and the general election. Candidates and parties and their interest-group allies can do very precise targeting of different combinations of voters. Gone are the days when one had to make a general appeal and hope one could collect enough votes to win the election. Now one can make a lot of very precise appeals. This is the kind of complexity that campaigns see when they try to target voters.</p>
<p>You’ve been very patient to let me work through my tables. Let me just end with a couple of comments about the primaries. We’ve been really focusing on the likely impact of the religion factor in the 2008 general election. But of course, religion can matter in the primaries. Given the fact that we have very competitive races in both parties, religious constituencies are part of the mix. We have in front of you on the table two reports from the Pew Research Center, one of them released yesterday on the <a href="http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=374" type="external">Democratic primary</a> race, which discusses religion in some detail and then one on the GOP race that will be released in 20 minutes – it’s embargoed until about the time I finish talking. But Michael’s already been blogging; so the word is already out.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of rich detail in there, and perhaps we can talk a little bit about that later, but what’s been interesting about the role of religion in the primaries thus far is how little impact it has appeared to make. On the Democratic side, of course, Senator Clinton has been ahead, and she’s been ahead in all of the religious groups in national polls up until recently and ahead in most polls even now. On the Republican side it’s been a little more interesting: white evangelicals have been a bit up for grabs; sometimes Giuliani is a little bit ahead; sometimes it’s more of a tie between Giuliani and other candidates. But if you look at white Catholics and mainline Protestants, Giuliani’s national lead was replicated among them.</p>
<p>In some sense, though, national polls about primary preferences can be misleading because we don’t have a national primary. We have a national general election, or at least we have 50 state elections that occur all in the same day, but primaries are individual events that occur in a sequence. What these reports do is show how the different religious groups may be lining up in these early caucus and primary states. There are, in fact, some divisions. For instance, the report that will be released momentarily shows that — no big surprise, but it’s nice to have strong data — that part of <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=10" type="external">Governor Huckabee</a>‘s rise in Iowa comes from the fact that he’s garnered a great deal of support from white evangelicals in that particular state.</p>
<p>We see fewer patterns, though, when we move away from Iowa for both the Democrats and the Republicans. It may very well be because the campaign hasn’t arrived in full force in New Hampshire and South Carolina yet, which raises one final point that pertains to the primaries but also to the general election: Campaigns really do matter. This year, when we have religious groups apparently moving around, campaigns are particularly important. The nature of the candidates, the issues they stress, the way they conduct their campaigns, and the vast amounts of money they will spend may make a tremendous difference in determining where these particular religious groups end up next year.</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you, John. We’re grateful that two of the best political commentators on American politics and religion are here with us to respond to John’s data, and so I’ve asked Michael Barone and E.J. to comment. Michael, thank you for being with us; you’re first.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p>Michael Barone</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />MICHAEL BARONE, U.S. News &amp; World Report: Thank you very much. It’s nice to be with you this morning to have the opportunity to break the Pew Center’s embargo by 18 minutes on this material. Of course, we’re all here with our laptops.</p>
<p>I have a few observations on this data which the Pew Research Center has provided over the years, which I think is terrifically valuable and helpful for understanding. One of the things that struck me when I was looking at John’s tables was an historical comparison that parallels some of the ones we were making yesterday between 1960, when religion played an important part in voting, and the current epoch, when it seems to be doing so as well, and how different the divisions in 1960 were from the divisions we’re living with today.</p>
<p>On John’s Table 1, I noticed that less-observant white Catholics and less-observant mainline Protestants vote almost exactly the same way; they’re the people in the middle. They’re the ones that basically produce the national average. They’re split just by a small margin for George W. Bush over John Kerry. Those were two of the groups who were the most opposite in the 1960 race, with Catholics running about 78% for Kennedy and white Protestants 63% for Nixon. They were totally divided along sectarian lines, and now they’re the vanilla of American politics. The outliers are white evangelical Protestants on one side and black Protestants on the other, which, when you reflect on it, are people whose theological views are much the same, but whose voting behavior is quite different.</p>
<p>I have said and written that between 2004 and 2006 we moved from one period in politics to another, from a period of trench-warfare politics, in which we had two armies lined up in a culture war in the trenches, nobody deserting to the other line; the only question was how many people you could muster to go over the lines and capture that very narrow margin of contested territory that meant the difference between victory and defeat. Both parties ran the ’04 campaign on that theory, spending an awful lot of time, money, and volunteer effort identifying new voters, getting out the vote, turning out their people, not trying to influence undecided voters or people who were lightly committed on either side on the theory — and correct theory, I think, in ’04 – that there weren’t very many of them, and it was much more important to turn out your people. They had huge success. John Kerry got 16% more votes than Al Gore; George W. Bush got 23% more popular votes than he got four years before. Those are both tremendous mobilizing jobs by the two political parties and their allies.</p>
<p>I think we passed, sometime between ’04 and ’06, into a period of what I call open-field politics, in which politicians are moving around and voters are moving around, and we’re seeing a lot of different possibilities, permutations and combinations. I think the data John’s presented this morning substantiates that. Less-observant white evangelical Protestants voted 72% for Bush in ’04; generically, they’re favoring the Republican by 39 to 34 now, which is a pretty lukewarm margin. It brings to mind the Teamsters Union business agent who was at the hospital and received a bouquet of flowers with a card that read, “The executive board wishes you a speedy recovery by a vote of nine to six.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>That indicates huge movement, or potential movement, among a group of people, and we see this with some other groups as well.</p>
<p>Then, when you go to <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/575/clinton-giuliani" type="external">Rudy-Hillary pair-up</a> [Table 3] — I use first names in part because Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign uses her first name often to refer to her, so I do so not in a sense of diminution or disparagement but simply adopting the form her own campaign uses — you see, again, movement. I do question one of the numbers for weekly attending other Christians — John, you might check the data on this. Their generic preference is 65% Republican but they’re 44% for Rudy.[*] There’s something going on there; has the Greek Orthodox Church placed him under a curse or something? That number looks sort of anomalous to me, but you can see once again there it’s a pretty close race.</p>
<p>The groups he does best with are less-observant Catholics and less-observant other Christians; I guess they’ve got his number.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>A Giuliani White House will not have people greeting each other, as David Frum <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781588362728&amp;view=excerpt" type="external">reported</a>, staffers greeting each other at the Bush White House by saying, “Missed you at Bible study.”</p>
<p>That’s the wonderful ambivalence that people have. They want to have candidates that are highly religious, and they want to hear about it somewhat but not too much. As you look around the field of candidates in this election, it’s fascinating: We do have some odd or interesting combinations. We’ve got a Mormon running, of course, and that seems to be vastly more important to people than it was when his father was running 40 years ago, as a number of us commented yesterday. We’ve got a glaringly non-observant Catholic. If Rudy is a cafeteria Catholic he’s coming in for a glass of water and moving to the other side, it would appear. We’ve got a <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=10" type="external">graduate</a> of <a href="http://www.obu.edu/" type="external">Ouachita Baptist College</a>, which has not as yet in the history of our republic produced a president of the United States but now has some possibility of doing so.</p>
<p>Michael Barone</p>
<p>On the Democratic side we have Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been an active Methodist since her grade school and high school days; Methodism being one of America’s great mainline denominations, the big winner in the religious competition of the middle and late 19th century. She has her roots in that but also in the feminist movement. And we’ve got <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=4" type="external">Barack Obama</a> who, somewhat embarrassingly for all concerned, attends a black-nationalist <a href="http://www.tucc.org/about.htm" type="external">church</a> of an almost separatist point of view. He won’t invite the pastor out to appear on his behalf. So the guy whose basic pitch is, “I want to get beyond polarization and talk about the things we have in common,” has chosen to join a church — it’s not his family church or anything of the kind — that seems to say the opposite. I don’t know entirely what to make of this, but I’m fascinated by it.</p>
<p>How is this going to play out? In this period from 1995 to 2005, the degree of religious observance was the demographic factor most highly correlated with voting behavior to an extent that is unusual in the history of voting in our republic. I think most people feel a little uncomfortable about that just as we feel uncomfortable probing Mitt Romney about the state of his theological beliefs. And yet, it has correlated highly with the issues that people care about. Many of the issues people care about have moral content and relate to things that are important to them and their personal lives. We can’t prohibit them from voting on that basis if they choose to do so, as evidently they do.</p>
<p>I think the polarization has been strengthened and exacerbated by the happenstance fact that our last two presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, were both born in the first year of the baby boom, 1946; both graduated from high school in 1964, the class with the peak SAT scores. Both of these men happen to have personal characteristics that people on the other side of the culture divisions just absolutely hate. Large numbers of Americans, mostly a non-overlapping group, cannot stand either man. That has increased the polarization, and it’s provided some basis for Obama, for example, to campaign as the beyond-polarization guy. I’m not a boomer. I like to say the good news is that the baby boom generation is going to die out; the bad news is that I’m going to die at about the same time.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>But I think we’re potentially moving beyond that, and John’s data suggest there are a lot of possibilities open here. I think the general election campaigns are going to go back</p>
<p>to aiming at undecided and lightly committed voters because there’s going to be a much larger potential percentage of people who are uncommitted and might be persuaded. I think we’re still going to see religion and degree of religious observance highly correlated with voting. Looking at this data, it seems to be somewhat more highly correlated than I might have guessed; this basic hierarchy of groups and degree of Republicanness or Democraticness seems to be similar. But I think we’re going to mix it up, and I think the correlation will probably decrease in this election and may do so over time, in ways that we can’t entirely predict.</p>
<p>Let me make a couple of points off this still-embargoed-for-the-next-six-minutes&#160; <a href="http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=375" type="external">Republican poll</a>&#160;here. Number one, Iowa; God bless us, every so often I go through the Constitution and look for the section that says Iowa and New Hampshire vote first. I haven’t found it yet, but I’m still looking. Nonetheless, the 200,000 or so people voting in Iowa will make a decision that will have a terrific effect on the 303 million of us other people. In Iowa, clearly, the importance of white evangelical allegiance is huge.</p>
<p>Michael Barone</p>
<p>The Pew poll here confirms the data I extrapolated from the&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_112007.html" type="external">ABC-Washington Post poll</a>&#160;of about a week ago. In that poll, about 38% of the people were white evangelicals, Protestants; among them, Huckabee was getting 44% of the vote. Among the 62% of likely caucus goers who were not white evangelical Protestants, Huckabee was getting 12% of the vote. What this data shows here is the same thing among white evangelical Protestants, who are, again, 38% of the electorate: Huckabee’s at 40%. He’s at 15% among other groups, so he’s kind of a splinter candidate among the other groups, and not quite a unanimous but an overwhelming choice. Getting nearly 50% of the vote among a large, identifiable group of voters in a five- to seven- or eight-candidate field is a real high percentage. That’s fascinating; interestingly, it hasn’t happened as much in other states. In New Hampshire, where only 18% are white evangelical Protestants, Huckabee gets 24% of their votes; New Hampshire basically has a historical heritage of smugglers and tax evaders, and they’re more interested in avoiding government impositions and less interested in strong religious belief.</p>
<p>But the data I find most amusing here — and you don’t see many poll results that are funny, but this one to me is. White evangelical Protestants are 53% of South Carolina Republicans, which will not surprise many people who’ve spent time in South Carolina. They have reached a decision; they have come to — what are their numbers? Thompson, 19%; Giuliani, 18%; Romney, 17%; McCain, 15%; Huckabee, 12%. They’re all over the place; there’s not a statistically significant difference, or not much of one, between the top candidate and the bottom candidate.</p>
<p>To me, that suggests something about ’08, which is that an awful lot of people haven’t made up their mind; are pushed one way or the other; are not entirely certain which party’s presidential candidate they’re voting for within their parties; and are quite capable of moving around a lot. We don’t know and probably can’t know what are going to be the dispositive issues that will push people over a line or from one voting decision to another. But I think it’s a year of great uncertainty. Four years ago, I would have told you with great certainty that neither party’s presidential candidate, barring an absolute collapse, was going to get more than 52% of the vote or under 48%, and I would have been right. There are many different outcomes possible now, and the data John’s presented here gives us some very interesting insights into a very uncertain year.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you, Michael.</p>
<p>Before I introduce E.J. Dionne, I should let you know that E.J. has a new book coming out with Princeton University Press called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Souled-Out-Reclaiming-Politics-Religious/dp/0691134588" type="external">Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right</a>. E.J., when will that book be out?</p>
<p>E.J. DIONNE, The Washington Post: February 1, they tell me, it’ll be in the stores. Thank you for the plug.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: I’m glad to plug.</p>
<p>Ladies and gentlemen, we’re delighted to have E.J. Dionne of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/22/LI2005042201099.html" type="external">The Washington Post</a> and the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/d/dionnee.aspx" type="external">Brookings Institution</a> and <a href="http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/ejd25/?PageTemplateID=179" type="external">Georgetown University</a> and of the Pew Forum.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: I have a lot of kids; I need to support them somehow.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: With all those affiliations, E.J., we’re glad you had time to come join us. Thank you.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p>E.J. Dionne</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />MR. DIONNE: Thank you very much.</p>
<p>Speaking after John Green on this subject is like speaking about football after John Madden, or fashion after Yves St. Laurent, or cooking after Emeril Lagasse, who some of you may know is also from my <a href="http://www.fallriverma.org/" type="external">hometown</a>. And saying anything about demographics and politics after Michael Barone is something like speaking about math after Euclid. If you name the address where you grew up, Michael can tell you how the precinct votes, and we can play that game at some point here. I’ve actually always wanted to have a fundraiser where you’d have a competition like that with Michael, <a href="http://tomdavis.house.gov/" type="external">Congressman Tom Davis</a>, and Chris Cillizza of <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix" type="external">The Fix</a>. I think the three of them could give each other a great run for their money. None of that will intimidate me from drawing sweeping conclusions, however.</p>
<p>There are three broad conclusions I want to draw, and I’ll explain how I get there. First of all, I think the ’04 white evangelical vote for George Bush will never reach that level of support for one candidate for a very, very long time, perhaps ever. I think the metaphor or the analogy may be to the Catholic vote for Kennedy in 1960; 78% as Michael mentioned. The Catholic vote has never been like that since. Even Lyndon Johnson, in his landslide, appears to have run slightly behind Kennedy’s share of the Catholic vote four years later. So while white evangelicals will remain a largely conservative and Republican group, the percentages you saw in ’04 I think will be very difficult to reach again.</p>
<p>Secondly, I believe, and this will be a controversial statement, that the era of the religious right is over. Now, as Bill Clinton would say, I suppose that depends on what the meaning of the words “religious right” is, but I believe the religious right, viewed as a conservative political movement within the Republican party that rose from 1978 or 1980, is breaking up, in significant part because the evangelical community itself is changing and also because the issues confronting the country are changing. Again, I’m not predicting that this group will suddenly shift overwhelmingly to the Democratic Party, but I think we’re going to see a very different style of politics in the coming years. Therefore, I believe the understandings of religion and politics we’ve had since 1980 are going to change. I think the past, in this case, does not predict the future, and some of what we see in the numbers John ably presented suggests that. I’m going to broaden each of those points.</p>
<p>I want to begin by going to John’s tables and calling your attention to a few numbers. First of all, I think all three of us believe that while we speak a lot about white evangelical Protestants, because they have had such a big role in our politics, the two swing groups in the religious world and American politics are Catholics in general, because Latinos swing around as well, and mainline Protestants. In some sense, and this is an over-simplification, they’re both 40-40-20 groups. You can assume each party will get somewhere around 40% from these groups, but there is a swing vote of about 20%. I think even between ’04 and ’06 you saw some swinging, in this case, in the Democratic direction. I think someday Michael will organize a session that focuses on the swing groups in politics; maybe it’ll be a good session for this spring, when we know the nominees. This becomes quite clear in John’s Tables 1 and 2.</p>
<p>Secondly — and I’m going to come back to this many times because this is a pet peeve of mine — we always speak of evangelical Protestants as being a conservative group; that happens to leave out the most religious group in America, perhaps, which is African Americans and, as I believe Michael pointed out, theologically African Americans are often quite close to white evangelical conservatives. So on Sunday, they may pray similarly but on Tuesday, they vote very differently. I think the statement, “evangelical Protestants are conservative,” is misleading. I’m on Table 4, “Religious Groups and Religious Expression in the Campaign,” where the black Protestants and weekly attending white evangelical Protestants both believe too little attention is paid to religion in the campaign. Similarly, on the question of should presidents have strong religious beliefs, note that black Protestants in the Democratic group at the bottom of that table stand out as believing presidents should have strong religious beliefs.</p>
<p>Lastly, I want to underscore on Table 6 why I think religion in politics is much trickier than we often suggest; John groups enthusiastic believers, reluctant believers and so on. If you put untroubled and troubled skeptics together, that’s 26% of the electorate. So if anyone wonders why <a href="http://www.hitchensweb.com/" type="external">Christopher Hitchens</a> and <a href="http://www.samharris.org/site/about" type="external">Sam Harris</a>, and all those folks have sold so many books, 26% is a very significant number of Americans. If you combine that 26% with the reluctant believers group, that is over a majority. It is simply not true that if you go out and say how religious you are and talk about it all the time, you are automatically appealing to a majority of the electorate. I think it’s very important to pay heed to Table 6. It’s also amusing, and I will draw no conclusions from this, that the group John chooses to call reluctant believers seems to loom especially large among weekly attending mainline Protestants and Latino Catholics.</p>
<p>Let me turn to the idea that the 2004 election will mark the high point of polarization around issues related to religion and culture. The simple reason for that is that other matters are crowding onto the agenda and pushing some of these issues into second place: economic and security, foreign policy, terrorism, health care and, of course, the Iraq War. It was already visible in the 2006 election that these issues were looming larger. As both Mike and John have referred to, the very Republican field in 2008 suggests things are very different from the past. I won’t belabor why Rudy Giuliani and <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=3" type="external">John McCain</a> and Mitt Romney and, to some degree, even <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=11" type="external">Fred Thompson</a> are not perfect candidates for the religious conservatives.</p>
<p>But also, I think Huckabee is very interesting because Huckabee, a former Baptist minister who does have strongly conservative positions on the social issues, has actually been broadening the evangelical agenda. He speaks critically of Wall Street; he has linked his Christian commitment to a concern for the poor and their access to education and health care. I think Huckabee may understand better than most politicians how much the religious conversation is changing within his own evangelical community. I think the most interesting criticism of Mike Huckabee came from Fred Thompson, who called him a pro-life liberal. There are, indeed, times when Mike Huckabee sounds a little bit like our friend <a href="http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=about_us.display_staff&amp;staff=wallis" type="external">Jim Wallis</a>. So I think you’re already seeing a lot of change within the Republican Party.</p>
<p>It’s also important to underscore that while there is no question that the new religion gap John Green has identified between those who are very observant and those who are not is an important part of our politics, we need to qualify that just a little bit. On the one hand, if you look at the two strongest groups that are most obviously split by this issue — those who attend religious services more than once a week and those who never attend — the religion gap is very clear: Those who attend more than once a week voted 64% for George Bush in ’04; those who never attend voted 62% for John Kerry.</p>
<p>But I would just point out that, taken together, these two groups account for only three voters in 10: the 16% of Americans who go to religious services more than once a week, and the 15% who never go. Again, there is a definite relationship, or there was in ’04, between Republican leanings and church attendance, but it is not as strong as one would assume, looking at the most and least religious. Weekly attenders did back Bush 58-41, a healthy majority certainly, but not as large as the even more observant. Those who attended once a month split their votes almost evenly, 50% for Bush, 49% for Kerry; those who attended religious services a few times a year backed Kerry 54 to 45%. In many ways this proves that John is right about a new religion gap, but I think we need to put it in this context.</p>
<p>I also think — I’m stating the obvious here — it’s very important to remember we’ve spent so much time paying attention to religion that we forget other demographic factors divide the electorate even more profoundly. Race, certainly, divides the electorate more profoundly: White voters for Bush, 58-41; African Americans for Kerry, 88 to 11%. Latinos, whom I’ll say more about in a moment, are a fascinating group because it’s almost impossible to talk about Latinos as a single bloc; they are different by ethnicity, they are different depending on the state they live in. But clearly, the racial and ethnic splits are important.</p>
<p>Also, I think it’s important not to stereotype white evangelical voters. I just want to share one of my favorite findings. <a href="http://www.agreeley.com/author.html" type="external">Father Andrew Greeley</a> and <a href="http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/hout" type="external">Professor Michael Hout</a> wrote an interesting book recently called, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Truth-about-Conservative-Christians-Believe/dp/0226306623" type="external">The Truth about Conservative Christians</a>. Before you stereotype white evangelical Christians, consider that Greeley and Hout found that conservative Protestants were more likely to watch PBS news programs daily than other Americans, with the exception of those who say they have no religion, who watched at about the same rate. So the religious and the irreligious seemed to be united around PBS. To quote Greeley and Hout, “If one finds the temptation irresistible to picture all Jesus people as religious fanatics, one should picture a fifth of them glued to PBS stations every evening.”</p>
<p>The Latinos: One of the most important facts about the Latino vote is the sectarian divide. Bush won between — there were a couple of polls on this — 53 and 57% of Latino Protestants in 2004. He won only 33% of Latino Catholics. If Republicans want to make expenditures on the side in their own interest, they might try to convert more Latinos to Protestantism because there is clearly this very strong correlation. I’m not suggesting that, and it would probably be illegal. I think it’s important to note that this is one group that really is on the move politically because of the immigration fight in Congress, and that the gains President Bush clearly made among Latinos are now in jeopardy, including the gains among conservative Latino Protestants.</p>
<p>One other note on white evangelicals I think is important: There is an overlap between the rise of white evangelicals in the Republican Party and the shift of the South to the Republican Party. This regional accent, if you will, is very important; a 2006 Pew Forum survey found that 52% of white evangelicals live in the South compared with just 31% of non-evangelicals. For historical purposes, I think it’s important to underscore that white Southerners began to turn to the Republican Party long before the rise of the religious right. In some ways, the rise of religious conservatism confirmed a shift that was already taking place, rather than creating the enormous shift itself. The exception, from ’64 forward, is of course Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976, and he was the first openly evangelical Protestant in a long time to run for the White House.</p>
<p>To further underscore the limits of talking only about religion, there is still a class split in American politics, an income split. Bush won 63% of the votes from those who earned over $200,000; only 36% from those who earned under $15,000. He won 57% from voters in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, but only 42% among those earning $15,000 to $30,000. Obviously, there’s some overlap in race and ethnicity in those numbers but the class split has not disappeared.</p>
<p>There are also fascinating differences by state, and I had a long list of these, and I won’t belabor you with them, but I actually once took apart the 2004 exit polls to look at how the religious question played state-by-state. You’ll find that the religion gap barely exists in Louisiana; is enormous in Minnesota and Washington State; and that California was the only state in which Bush failed to secure a majority among weekly churchgoers. Now, all these may have demographic explanations. In Louisiana, the Democratic share among regular church attenders was boosted by African Americans and, to some degree, Cajun Catholics. Minnesota and Washington have relatively small African-American populations, and in California the Democratic vote is boosted by Latino Protestants.</p>
<p>There are also great differences in religious behavior state-by-state, which helps us understand why states behave differently. Over half the voters in Georgia and Louisiana attended religious services at least weekly, and a quarter to a fifth attended more than once a week. Only 7 to 8% of those voters claimed never to attend religious services. By contrast, in California and Washington, I’m just using these as examples, over half the voters attended religious services occasionally or never, including a fifth and a quarter who never attend. The contrast between the religious patterns of the Deep South and the Pacific Coast offer some useful clues as to the differences among these regions.</p>
<p>One more point about ’04; then I want to talk about ’06, and I’ll conclude. I think it’s very important to understand — and maybe I’m making a controversial point, although I don’t believe so — that John Kerry was not defeated in 2004 by the religious right. Yes, there was enormous mobilization; it does appear that the turnout of religious conservative voters went up between 2004 and 2008. But actually, Bush won that election in the middle. Consider just a few findings from the exit polls: 38% of those who thought abortion should be legal in most cases voted for George Bush. Bush got 22% from voters who favored gay marriage; astonishingly, 52% from voters who favored civil unions. If you compare the 2000 and 2004 exit polls, Bush increased his vote by only one percentage point among voters who attend religious services once a week or more, but he gained four points among monthly attenders and three points among those who attend a few times a year; four points among those who never attended religious services. Put simply, the swing to Bush was higher among the less-religiously observant than among the religious. I think, and I won’t belabor this, that some of that shift owes to either a successful discrediting of John Kerry or a certain percentage of voters who still, in 2004, trusted George Bush more to deal with the issue of terrorism.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne</p>
<p>Now, what happened in ’06? I just want to read two accounts about ’06 that are quite different. A reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a very good front-page <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmtpi/is_200611/ai_n16974620" type="external">analysis</a>, which began with this lead: “A minor miracle occurred this month: The ‘God Gap’ in American politics narrowed.” But 10 days earlier, <a href="http://people-press.org/about" type="external">Scott Keeter</a> of the Pew Research Center was just as definitive in declaring “ <a href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=174" type="external">The God Gap widens</a>;” same election, two smart analysts, exactly opposite conclusions. Who was right? Both accounts were based on fact and not speculation. Here’s more from Fitzgerald of the Inquirer: “While the most religious voters in recent years have tended to favor Republicans, a slice of them voted Democratic in the November 7th midterm congressional elections. The shift has raised eyebrows among pollsters and strategists.” He reported that Democrats took back the Catholic vote they lost in 2004, trimmed the GOP advantage among weekly churchgoers, and even gained ground with the most loyal segment of the Republican base, white evangelicals.</p>
<p>By contrast, Scott Keeter found the Democratic gains in the election were concentrated among non-Christians and secular voters, suggesting there was a larger political divide between Christians and the rest of society. Here is some of Keeter’s data: The GOP held onto voters who attended religious services at least once a week, 55% Republican versus 58% four years ago; less frequent churchgoers were even more supportive of the Democrats than they were four years earlier. Occasional churchgoers, the same way; thus, the gap in Democratic support between the most and least religious has grown from 16 percentage points in 2002 to 24 percentage points today, and so on.</p>
<p>Who was right? I think as a technical matter, Scott Keeter was clearly right because the religion gap grew. But if you read Fitzgerald’s claims carefully, he only said that a slice of the religious vote had gone Democratic, and Democrats did indeed post gains among religious voters in ’06, including white evangelicals. In other words, every assertion Fitzgerald made was true even though, in fact, the God gap widened. I refer you, for more excellent analysis on this, to John’s book this year, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Factor-Influences-Elections-Greenberg/dp/0275987183" type="external">The Faith Factor</a>.</p>
<p>I went and looked at three key races. Just very quickly, I think these races tell us a lot about the religion gap. In Ohio, <a href="http://governor2.ohio.gov/AboutUs/AboutTedStrickland/tabid/64/Default.aspx" type="external">Ted Strickland</a> ran for governor for the Democrats against Secretary of State <a href="http://www.kenblackwell.com/" type="external">Ken Blackwell</a>. Strickland was a Methodist minister; he spoke often about his faith. Ken Blackwell was closely aligned with religious conservatives in the Senate race. <a href="http://www.sherrodbrown.com/pages/about" type="external">Sherrod Brown</a> ran against <a href="https://www.iwssecure.com/dewine/contribute" type="external">Mike DeWine</a>; Sherrod Brown a liberal, Mike DeWine moderately conservative.</p>
<p>If you look at Strickland’s numbers he swept the state, with 60% of the vote; Brown won with 56%. Much was made of Strickland’s strength among religiously active voters, and indeed he won 38% of Ohio voters who attended religious services more than once a week, a seven-point gain over Kerry, and he posted a 19-point gain among those who attended religious services weekly; he got 55%. That is a very significant shift. But Strickland gained even more among the non-religious: 81% among those who never attended religious services, an 18-point gain over Kerry, and he picked up 11 points on Kerry among occasional attenders. In other words, even though Strickland gained substantial ground among religious voters, the religion gap was actually higher in ’06 than it was in ’04 because of the profound Republican weakness among non-religious voters.</p>
<p>A very, very similar pattern, I won’t go into details, applied in Pennsylvania where <a href="http://casey.senate.gov/" type="external">Bob Casey</a> did post big gains among Catholics, and yet he, a pro-life Democrat, gained even more among the non-religious. The exception that proves the rule, a phrase I’ve never really understood, is Virginia, where <a href="http://webb.senate.gov/" type="external">Jim Webb</a> very narrowly beat <a href="http://www.georgeallen.com/?page_id=2" type="external">George Allen</a>. You cannot say that the religious right was unfaithful; there was no change between ’04 and ’06 in the religious composition of the vote measured by strength of church attendance or attendance at religious services. George Allen did at least as well, if not even better, than George Bush among highly observant voters. The big difference is that the issues changed. Iraq was a huge issue; 37% of the electorate in Virginia said they strongly disapproved of the Iraq War, and 91% of those folks voted for Jim Webb.</p>
<p>It seems to me that — I agree with Michael, and I like his notion of open-field politics — 2006 does not necessarily portend the beginning of a new Democratic era. I think the Democrats had a lot of votes on loan in that election, and they’re going to have to earn them, and we all know how dangerous loans are these days, though I do think they’re in a better position than some of those sub-prime mortgages are. But they definitely have an enormous opening, and you’re seeing very slow but steady changes in the party affiliation of the electorate. I think ’06 did close an era in American politics. Americans seemed tired of culture wars, tired of polarization around cultural issues, tired of the use of these issues as electoral cudgels. I think the culture wars and the religious wars exploit our discontents; the task of politics is to heal them. And I think right now there’s a great hunger across religious denominations and across levels of political commitment for a politics of remedy to replace a politics of polarization.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Thank you, E.J. Thank you very much.</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" /></p>
<p>Ross Douthat</p>
<p><a type="external" href="" />ROSS DOUTHAT, The Atlantic: Michael Barone spoke to this, but I was wondering if, John, you could talk a little more about this. The numbers in the <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/575/clinton-giuliani" type="external">trial heat</a> between Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton seem to confirm, at least to a certain extent, the conventional wisdom about what a Giuliani-Clinton race would mean for re-shifting the political landscape. You see Clinton having the potential to make possibly substantial gains for the Democrats among evangelicals, Catholics, mainline Protestants and so forth. The only areas where Giuliani seems to have the potential to make gains for the Republicans are among the less devout, less church-going.</p>
<p>It looks to me like — and maybe I’m getting this wrong — Giuliani is improving on Bush’s numbers among the unaffiliated and other faiths, if you compare his share to Bush in ’04. I wonder if that’s how you see things shaping up. It seems to at least possibly disprove the contention that because of Iraq or Iran or foreign policy issues more generally, Giuliani could hold on to something approaching the same share of the evangelical vote that Bush won.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: I think that’s insightful, Ross. This does tend to confirm the conventional wisdom, particularly on Giuliani as a different kind of Republican candidate than we’ve had in the past, one who could appeal to the votes in the middle that both Michael and E.J. talked about, people who are moving around, but perhaps at the cost of not getting the same level of support from some of the key religious constituencies that backed George Bush. It also confirms a bit of the conventional wisdom on Senator Clinton, who has made a big effort to appeal to religious voters. One of the reasons I am interested in these particular numbers, although they’re not definitive by any means, is that they do suggest the possibility of the structure of faith and politics changing because of unusual candidates who, in some sense, go against the grain of where their party could be.</p>
<p>The one big caveat here, though, is that the campaign hasn’t happened yet. It may very well be that Giuliani would have a very hard time in a real campaign in capturing a high percentage of these centrist groups, or groups that have been Democratic in the past. As E.J. pointed out, George Bush was able to do a good bit of that in 2004; he was able to extend his reach into groups that, on balance, voted Democratic. Whether Giuliani will be able to do that under the fierce attacks of a general election campaign remains to be seen. Likewise, it remains to be seen if Senator Clinton could really do better among highly religious voters under the same circumstances.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Comparing Giuliani’s run with Bush ’04, evangelical Protestants are his biggest decline, in addition to weekly attending Catholics and weekly attending other Christians, which is a figure I think I said was an anomaly. This is in tandem with the July ’06 50-state polling by SurveyUSA. Jay Levy of SurveyUSA matched multiple candidates, including many people who turned out not to be candidates. If you want to know how George Allen runs for president against Mark Warner, that survey can tell you.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>That survey showed Giuliani ahead of Clinton, whereas this one, in line with the October ’07 general results, shows him about five points behind.</p>
<p>But I compared the Giuliani/Clinton margins in the 50-state survey to the Bush-Kerry margins. Basically, Giuliani runs weaker than Bush in most of the South and the Great Plains states, Hillary Clinton carries Arkansas, but he runs stronger substantially in the Northeast and in particular in the states with the highest Italian American percentage: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Half of all Italian Americans live within 150 miles of New York City. On balance, in a close race, that looks like an electoral-vote plus for Giuliani because while he loses Arkansas, he’s competitive and better off than Bush was in large states in the Northeast, in particular, and the Great Lakes and Pacific Coast.</p>
<p>MR. DOUTHAT: The numbers I’ve seen suggest he does run better in a New Jersey or a Connecticut, but that the gap Republicans face in those states to begin with is so large that even if he gains — so you think Giuliani could win —</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: New Jersey was 53-46 in ’04. That doesn’t tell me it’s out of sight. Bill Clinton carried a New Hampshire that was 61% for George H.W. Bush in ’88. When you have open-field politics, a lot of big numbers can change in a particular state. So to say a 53-46 is unwinnable: I don’t think so.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Two quick things. One, there is some evidence from the polling that one of the constituencies that cares most about terrorism is white evangelical Christians, which is why Rudy Giuliani is picking up even in the primaries something like 20% from white evangelicals. There is clearly that element here. I don’t know whether that lasts through all the way to ’08, especially if, as I suspect might happen, the economy starts looming larger and larger as an issue between now and Election Day.</p>
<p>Secondly, just to call attention to John Green’s wonderful work in looking at white evangelicals: Many of you are familiar with his delineation of different religious groups; he divides them into three groups, traditionalists, centrists, and modernists. If you look at the white evangelical vote, about half are traditionalists and the other half are centrists or modernists, mostly centrists. The first half are reliably conservative Republicans. The second group is much more in play; it’s still marginally Republican. Again, most groups are not monoliths, and I think that’s especially true of white evangelicals. There will be a lot of play for the other half, the moderate or liberal half, or the liberal slice, of the evangelical vote.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: The ’04 campaigns assumed if you identified a potential new voter for Kerry or Bush in March, they’d vote that way in November. If I was running one of those ’08 campaigns, I would not so assume.</p>
<p>Kathleen Parker</p>
<p>KATHLEEN PARKER, Washington Post Writers Group: You guys talk faster than I listen, and I’ve had my complete quota of numbers for the week this morning.</p>
<p>I think I’m the only person here who actually lives among the snake-handlers of South Carolina, so I wanted to make a couple of comments. It’s helpful when you go there, as reporters, to understand what a former statesman named <a href="http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/2002/3491.html" type="external">Petigru</a> once said, which was that South Carolina’s too small to be a nation, too large to be an insane asylum.</p>
<p>Just a tip, in the spirit of hospitality: If you’re going to South Carolina, and you want to get local color, flavor, and the real story of what’s going on among voters, go to <a href="http://www.lizardsthicket.com/" type="external">Lizard’s Thicket</a>. I see John nodding his head. You may know this; it’s a hangout where everybody goes for breakfast. And I do mean everybody; <a href="http://www.scgop.com/About/Default.aspx?SectionId=423" type="external">Kate Dawson</a>, who’s the chairman of the state Republican Party, goes there every single morning to find out what people are thinking, so you don’t want to miss that.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: What town, Kathleen?</p>
<p>MS. PARKER: They’re <a href="http://www.lizardsthicket.com/Current/locations.htm" type="external">everywhere</a>; it’s a chain. You get two eggs, hash browns, bacon — that kind of breakfast — and you get people who “tawk laak this” all the time. But they’re good people, and they do go to church.</p>
<p>My question’s actually very simple, but it may involve a second question, depending on the answer. Is there a significant variation in church attendance between Democrat and Republican administrations? When people are feeling their cultural values are under attack, do they tend to go to church more? Is there a rise in attendance?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Basically, there isn’t. Church attendance is very stable. I’m sure you’re all aware, there are some debates among sociologists about how accurate church attendance measures are, but whatever it is that’s being measured, it’s very stable. Changes tend to occur over long periods of time. Even one of the strongest critics of church attendance as a valid, accurate measure of what people actually do every week, <a href="http://www.duke.edu/religion/home/chaves/chaves.html" type="external">Mark Chaves</a>, a very fine sociologist now at Duke University, argues that whatever’s being measured has been very consistent since 1990. Between 1960 and 1990, he argues, as a lot of other analysts do, there was a decline in that level of church attendance. But since then, it’s been very consistent. So worship attendance doesn’t change very much by administration.</p>
<p>There is one change, though, and it doesn’t as much have to do with administrations as it has to do with crises. In periods of crises, church attendance does increase along with other measures of religiosity such as frequency of prayer. Right after 9/11 there was this dramatic increase in reported church attendance and prayer and Bible reading and all kinds of things. But that subsides when people adjust to whatever the problem was. I suppose, Kathleen, you could tie that to an administration but I think that’s more tied to events.</p>
<p>MS. PARKER: No, I just wondered if it was more about culture than religion in some cases, whether these people go to the polls in greater numbers for a certain candidate, or that they associate with a church group more to identify with others who share their values. It sort of blows my theory, your answer does.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Sorry about that.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: <a href="http://www.pbs.org/arguing/nyintellectuals_glazer.html" type="external">Nathan Glazer</a> talked about the rise of the religious right as a defensive offensive, and I think for a lot of people that’s what it was, a sense of exclusion from the main culture and a way of fighting back. But that was a long time ago.</p>
<p>On the church attendance thing and 9/11: There was a great mystery at the time because there were some polls that showed much more church attendance, praying and all of that. At the same time, there were later polls that showed there was no net increase, and if you asked, “Did you go to church last week?” there was no change. <a href="http://people-press.org/about" type="external">Andy Kohut</a> and the Pew Forum, we sat down and wanted to solve this mystery. What we discovered is that people who already prayed quite a bit, or went to church quite a bit, went to church more after 9/11 so there was not necessarily a broad increase; it was just that those who were religiously inclined — if they wanted to pray, they wanted to pray more.</p>
<p>On this church attendance question, a French pollster and I were talking about this once, and we agreed that Americans overstate their church attendance a little bit, maybe because they feel guilty when they don’t go to church; and the French may understate it because they feel guilty when they do go to church.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MS. PARKER: I guess it corresponds to the Romney question because he’s obviously going to try to appeal to shared values rather than doctrinal differences. I thought if people identified more with their crowd as in, “We believe certain things,” which are not necessarily scripturally based, but just cultural, that he might have a better shot. Anyway, thanks.</p>
<p>Adelle Banks</p>
<p>ADELLE BANKS, Religion News Service: I had a couple of questions to clarify with John Green about his charts; I want to make sure I’m understanding them correctly. Are the categories listed above the “all” line Republican and those below it Democratic?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: That was true in 2004, so the groups that are above the “all” in Table 1 are groups that voted for George Bush on balance. In 2004, those below the “all” were groups that voted on balance for John Kerry. I kept the same organization as we moved through the other charts, just so we could quickly look back at 2004. But obviously these groups are moving around, and some of the groups that were for Bush in 2004 are not Republican anymore.</p>
<p>MS. BANKS: So only Table 1 has the Republican-Democrat divide.</p>
<p>I think you described black Protestants as those attending historically black denominations. So do black evangelicals fit in any of these categories easily, or not?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: There’s a great debate about how to measure these groups. The data here is best thought of as an estimate of the historically black Protestant churches. Probably some African Americans who attend historically white evangelical churches have gotten lumped in there, just because of the imprecision of the data.</p>
<p>But you’re absolutely right, there are African Americans who belong to the Southern Baptist Convention or who belong to the Assemblies of God. These particular data don’t allow us to sort that out with much precision.</p>
<p>We do have a survey coming up next year, which is scheduled to be released I think in February 2008, which we call the Religious Landscape Study. It will allow us to look at groups that we all know exist, but are very hard to measure in most surveys.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Based on how many interviews, John, this is —</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: A lot.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Thirty-six thousand.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: That’s a lot of “N.”</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: But your black Protestant category basically includes black evangelical Protestants, black mainline Protestants, black (inaudible) Protestants, whatever.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Yes, and —</p>
<p>MS. BANKS: So in this table, if I’m understanding it, black evangelicals are mixed in with the black Protestants sometimes, but not always because –</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: No, always. Always in these tables.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: See, the problem is that on these surveys, with the number of interviews, you cannot break out anything more than —</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: That if you got a thousand interviews you will have 100 blacks, and you don’t want to subdivide that very much because the margin of error would be so large.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Right. Ten percent of African Americans are Catholic, but it’s very hard in a survey outside the state of Louisiana to isolate a large group of African-American Catholics.</p>
<p>Wilfred McClay</p>
<p>DR. WILFRED M. McCLAY, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga:&#160;I was curious about black unaffiliated and black less-observant. There’s a presumption here that all blacks are observant, and there’s no way to break out that category either.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: No, there isn’t, and some of the unaffiliated are African Americans. Again, the samples are so small we can’t break out those groups.</p>
<p>But you’re right; there is often an assumption that all African Americans are Protestants and that they’re all highly observant, and of course not all African Americans are.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Yes, but you need to go from data to anecdote to find out about that.</p>
<p>David Van Biema</p>
<p>DAVID VAN BIEMA, Time: What’s the name of the poll that’s coming out in February, and when is it coming out?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: The name of it is the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, and it’s scheduled to be released by the Pew Forum in February. I don’t know the exact date.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: When is the interviewing being conducted?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: The interviewing has been completed; it was conducted in the spring and summer of 2007.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: This is so large I believe you’ll be able to distinguish between atheists and agnostics, no? Or, yes.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Yes.</p>
<p>Claire Brinberg</p>
<p>CLAIRE BRINBERG, CNN: I have two-and-a-half questions, which I’ll make tight. One, if you could just quickly restate when and why church attendance became a factor. Also, there has been a whole lot about the evangelical collapse, the end of the religious right, and the disempowerment of the leaders we’ve come to talk to so often. I wanted to get your sense of whether that’s overstated, whether it’s true, and what we can look forward to from the leadership going forward.</p>
<p>Two, I wanted to get your take on all the coverage of the so-called religious left and Democrats’ faith outreach and whether that really can be considered parallel to what’s going on on the Republican side.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Let me try to take them in order. Throughout most of the history of polling in the United States, church attendance, which was asked repeatedly back into the 1930s, had no statistically significant impact on the vote. It only began to have an impact in 1972. Since then, it has fluctuated a good bit but has become a staple of American voting behavior, particularly in the 1990s. It’s possible that 2004 will have been a high point; we really don’t know.</p>
<p>What caused church attendance to become relevant? It seems to me that the rise of cultural conflict, engaged regular worship attenders in most, but not all, religious communities, in a very different way than it engaged the less frequent attenders. If one looks at large surveys that have lots of religious measures, you find regular worship attendance is highly correlated with very traditional religious beliefs.</p>
<p>There also may be a social connection, in that people who are at the same place at the same time on a regular basis interact with each other. People have been attending worship services for a long time in the United States, but it became politically relevant when cultural conflict became central to national politics. By this argument, if cultural conflict declines, then we may well see the impact of church attendance on voter behavior decline as well. So this is a relatively recent phenomenon and may not be an inevitable feature of religion and politics.</p>
<p>I tend to think the obituaries being written on the “religious right” may be a bit premature. That’s because I’ve seen a lot of these obituaries written since 1979, and the religious right is still around. Certainly, the organized religious right is going through a period of tension and change, but that’s happened before.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I wrote in 1989 about how the movement was over, only for the movement to get a second wind in the 1990s. I was actually quoted in a textbook saying that some time after the 2000 election, the religious right would begin a slow, steady, fading into oblivion. But I didn’t know about same-sex marriage — it was revived by that issue.</p>
<p>Yes, these organizations and leaders we’re all familiar with are going through a period of change. The change may be more profound this time because of generational change: the aging of that generation of leaders that brought us the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/obituaries/16falwell.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">Moral Majority</a> and then the <a href="http://www.cc.org/" type="external">Christian Coalition</a> and <a href="http://www.family.org/" type="external">Focus on the Family</a>. I do think there are some big changes there. I would prefer E.J.’s formulation over the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/magazine/28Evangelicals-t.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">crackup</a> language we’ve seen in some places in the press. I don’t think this change is abrupt; I think it’s slow and steady.</p>
<p>It also may have to do with a change in the issue agenda. Politics is currently dominated by economic and foreign-policy concerns; there simply may be less for the religious-right leaders to work with in this election. E.J. quoted Nathan Glazer earlier about the evangelical movement being a “defensive offensive,” but to the extent that the movement was a reaction to cultural change, there is always the possibility that cultural change will continue to occur, and therefore, the reaction will continue, perhaps under different leadership or in a different guise.</p>
<p>Prior to 1979 or 1980, with the rise of the Moral Majority, if you were to ask most scholars about the involvement of religion in American politics, they would have told you the bias was toward the left, that the involvement of most religious people in politics was on the liberal side of the political spectrum. One of the great unanswered questions was why religious conservatives were not active in politics. There were great tomes written about why there was something inherent in conservative religiosity or traditional beliefs that precluded these groups from being active in politics.</p>
<p>That turned out to be wrong. When the issue mix was right, and conditions were appropriate, of course we got the religious right we all talk about today. So the religious left has been around in different incarnations for a long time. There has certainly been a bit of, dare I say, a revival of that point of view since the 2004 election. Most of it, however, is among elites, among leaders and activists of various kinds. Most of them are not new.</p>
<p>Jim Wallis is a good example. Jim Wallis has been around for a long time; he may be getting a little more of a hearing now than in the past, but we’re looking at a difference in degree, not a difference in kind. One of the really interesting questions about 2008 is: Will we get an effective religious left that can actually mobilize voters and have an impact at the polls in the way the organized religious right has in the past? The jury is still very much out on that question. But at the elite level, at the level of activists and leaders, there certainly is a lot of foment going on with the religious left and a return to the kind of prominence it had in previous eras.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: It seems to me that the importance of the religious left now is that it marks a change from the initial reaction to the religious right. When the religious right rose, a lot of people on the left, including religious people, reacted more against the word “religious” than the word “right.” The first-draft reaction was to say, “This is illegitimate engagement in politics. They can’t quote the Scriptures like that, et cetera, et cetera.”</p>
<p>I think the religious left in this phase is saying, “Wait a minute, there’s nothing wrong with people drawing political conclusions from their religious beliefs, but we draw different conclusions, and we’re going to contest that terrain.” I think that’s a very important, strategic move on the part of people who are religious and progressive.</p>
<p>Secondly, I think you’re seeing in this election that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama certainly, and to some degree <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=6" type="external">John Edwards</a>, seem to be more comfortable talking about religion in politics than any other Republicans except for Mike Huckabee, and we’ll see how Governor Romney does <a href="http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14572" type="external">on Thursday</a>.</p>
<p>Lastly, I think it’s complicated for the religious left or progressives or moderates, center-left, whatever you want to call them, to mobilize in the way the religious right did. What do African-American churches and white evangelical Christian churches have in common? They are relatively homogeneous and both of them — in some ways, the religious right simply copied the success of the African-American church in mobilizing people. A lot of people who might be called religious moderates or progressives belong to very politically diverse churches, so that you don’t mobilize through the church. Indeed, in a lot of these churches, people would be very uncomfortable mobilizing.</p>
<p>A friend of mine who is an Episcopalian in Dallas noted to me that when he looked at the parking lot in his Episcopal church, half the cars that had stickers had Bush stickers and the other half had Kerry stickers. So it’s more complicated, I think, for religious moderates and progressives to mobilize in the same way the Christian right did. I agree with John that the jury is still out on what the meaning of this movement is going to be on Election Day.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: On 1972 as the emergence of religious right: Part of that may have been an artifact of the fact that white Southerners were pretty much always voting Democratic before 1972. The people we supposed to be religious conservatives in the North were probably voting much more Republican, and that changed in ’72.</p>
<p>The other thing I’d note is the declining saliency of the abortion issue. Do you hear Democratic candidates talking about it at all? I don’t. Do you hear Republican candidates talking about it? Yes, when baby-boomer mainstream media reporters ask them questions about it.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Huckabee talks about it.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Huckabee talks about it, but you don’t get a lot of it. I think part of it is we have reached a kind of compromised solution on abortion. We’re not going to criminalize it; the voters of South Dakota last year repealed a criminalization law in a <a href="http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=11840" type="external">referendum</a>. At the same time it’s been stigmatized. The number of abortions is declining. Medical schools don’t teach it, and people don’t go around bragging that they’ve had abortions.</p>
<p>Adrian Wooldridge</p>
<p>ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE, The Economist: I wanted to shift the conversation onto foreign policy for a while, partly because there is some polling evidence that suggests the God gap has been replaced by the “bomb gap,” in the sense that the biggest predictor as to whether you’re a Republican or Democrat now is not how often you go to church but your attitude toward national assertiveness. These are not either/or things, and I wanted you to say a bit about why it is that different religious traditions have different attitudes to foreign policy. American exceptionalism, national assertiveness, and the rest of it: How do you map these things?</p>
<p>Secondly, you have this bizarre situation on the right where Bush has <a href="http://pewforum.org/events/?EventID=127" type="external">linked Wilsonian democratization with Jacksonian national assertiveness</a>. Do you think there’s any sense of that continuing to appeal to the so-called religious right, or are various other currents of opinion such as isolationism going to reassert themselves in the foreign policy mix?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: It is interesting because, as E.J. pointed out, one of the things that helped George Bush assemble his winning coalition in 2004 was that he had a lot of different groups, and foreign policy was something that worked pretty well for him. Since then foreign policy has become more of a liability for him and also for his party. It may very well be that a lot of the religious communities that supported Bush had very different views on these foreign policy questions, and they could all agree that they preferred Bush to Kerry, but it was an uneasy alliance. I’ll do my best to answer the question, but I hope Michael and E.J. will jump in as well since foreign policy is a little beyond my level of expertise.</p>
<p>White evangelical Protestants are still among the president’s strongest supporters even though their support has declined along with everybody else’s. They are still among the strongest supporters of the war in Iraq. In some surveys that ask questions about foreign policy attitudes, there is some evidence that white evangelicals, particularly the more observant, are the most likely to agree with that synthesis of Jacksonian assertive nationalism and Wilsonian internationalism. When you move beyond white evangelicals, however, that synthesis doesn’t seem to have very many supporters.</p>
<p>White evangelicals, though, are very internationalist, and I don’t see them returning to isolationism anytime soon. I think they’ll be engaged in arguments about what to do with internationalism, but I don’t see any retreat into isolationism whatsoever.</p>
<p>To the extent that there’s isolationism, it’s found among secular Americans, various religious minorities, and less observant Christians. I don’t think there is a full-blown isolationism, but these groups have developed a real skepticism toward the Bush style of aggressive foreign policy.</p>
<p>Of course, the Roman Catholic Church was four square against the war in Iraq. Many Roman Catholics, even in 2004, were opposed to the war in Iraq, but much more supportive, at least at that point, of the war on terrorism and some of the other things Bush was doing internationally. Mainline Protestants are very deeply divided over these questions. There’s a liberal wing of mainline Protestantism that is internationalist but I guess the term of art is they’re “cooperative internationalists:” they’re very supportive of diplomatic efforts and don’t want the use of military force unless it’s absolutely necessary and authorized by international bodies —</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: By France.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Now, now.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: When John Kerry talked about that in one of the debates in 2004, he talked about how intervention had to rise to a certain global level and that created a big flap. Many mainline Protestants agreed with him on this issue. Other mainline Protestants are more internationalist, not necessarily Wilsonian though. They think American policy ought to follow our interests; it’s maybe a little closer to what is known in international relations as a realist position rather than a Wilsonian position. So, there’s a lot of complexity out there.</p>
<p>The group that is, in my mind, the most interesting is the Jewish community, which is very strongly supportive of Israel and very strongly critical of the Iraq war. American Jews see the world beyond American borders in a much different way than many other religious groups. To the extent that these foreign policy issues — and foreign policy isn’t one issue, it’s a series of issues — come to the fore, they bring out a lot of the divisions between and among these religious groups.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: I would just make reference to <a href="http://www.cfr.org/bios/bio.html?id=3495" type="external">Walter Russell Mead</a>‘s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Special-Providence-American-Foreign-Changed/dp/0415935369" type="external">Special Providence</a> and his latest book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/God-Gold-Britain-America-Making/dp/0375414037" type="external">God and Gold</a>, in which he delineates different strains of American opinion over the years in foreign policy, including the Jacksonians, who basically take the Andrew Jackson line, “If you threaten my family, I’ll kill you,” to what I believe he calls the Jeffersonian impulse, emphasizing the role of missionaries in American foreign policy going back many years: the <a href="http://www.aub.edu.lb/about/about.html" type="external">American University in Beirut</a>, old China hands. These strains work in various ways in various political parties over the years.</p>
<p>I think John is right to stress the complexity in this, as we’re seeing it work out. In the case of the mainline Protestants, for example, on the one hand, you’re supposed to be internationalist and be aware of <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/" type="external">Le Monde</a> and so forth. At the same time, you’ve got to be very respectful of international institutions. Those tendencies have roots in the different American traditions, but I can’t work that all out here.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: I just want to point out, if you look at my name, I am a French Massachusetts liberal —</p>
<p>I want to make two quick points. One, Walter Russell Mead talked about the rise of the Jacksonians. I think what you’re seeing now is the working out of a deep contradiction in the Bush foreign policy because Jacksonians really aren’t Wilsonians; it’s a very different approach. As nicely summarized by Michael, Jacksonians will hit when they are hit, but don’t really want a lot of engagement; Wilsonians have a much more idealistic view, and there’s just a contradiction there. We can poll on this to figure it out. I suspect a lot of white evangelicals are more Jacksonian than they are traditional internationalists.</p>
<p>I think as long as Bush is in power, there will still be enough loyalty to him among a significant body of white evangelicals that they will answer polling questions in a way that’s broadly sympathetic to Bush. I think when Bush is gone, and particularly if the Republicans go out of power, you’re going to see a lot of ferment on the Republican side.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: But we’ve also seen the interesting phenomenon of <a href="http://www.rickwarren.com/" type="external">Rick Warren</a>, the <a href="http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=10624" type="external">concern about AIDS</a>, <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=7" type="external">Sam Brownback</a>, and from evangelicals with the Jeffersonian or missionary tradition; they’re following through on that, interestingly.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: By the way, the person who should answer this question is John’s 25-year-old son, a foreign policy genius and a realist, by the way.</p>
<p>The other thing is, there is — and I am very sympathetic to this — a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/magazine/30liberal.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">Niebuhr</a> revival going on, and I think that’s going to continue. It’s realism married to morality, humility about American power combined with a willingness to use it when necessary, and I suspect there’s going to be a lot said and written about, “What would Niebuhr do?” in the next five years. My book is very much part of that tradition.</p>
<p>MS. PARKER: I don’t have any stats to back this up, but anecdotally speaking, and not to contradict the Jacksonian theorists, but it seems to me if there is a white evangelical Protestant support for the Bush foreign policy agenda, it probably has something to do with the fact that their kids are over there fighting.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the numbers are, but I know the Southeast empties out when wars start, and these people are not so much loyal to his policy as they are loyal to their children and would consider it disloyal to contradict the president.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Unfortunately, military service is not shared widely enough, I think, for that to explain it all. It’s true there are a lot of Southerners in the military. There are also quite a few Catholics and a lot of African Americans. It’s not a broad enough group in terms of shared sacrifice, but it’s a diverse group of people fighting for the country.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: I believe more children of members of Congress have fought in Iraq than fought in Vietnam, even though we had a purportedly egalitarian draft in the Vietnam period, and we have a —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Is that true?</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Yes, I believe so. Both Democrats and Republicans have had kids serving. I’ve found, in my own circle of friends, people like <a href="http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.35/scholar.asp" type="external">Michael Ledeen</a>: his daughter served in civilian capacity in Iraq —</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: But he’s not a member of Congress.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: No, but I’m saying in this group of people I know — and two sons are in the Marine Corps.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: This is a data question because Mark Shields called every member of Congress and <a href="" type="external">found</a> only one member of Congress who had a person in the enlisted ranks and a couple who had somebody in the —</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: No, I think it’s about 10 that have served at one time or another over there, and that’s more than Vietnam.</p>
<p>Dan Harris</p>
<p>DAN HARRIS, ABC News: On this issue of evangelical attitudes toward Mormonism: Who was it at breakfast this morning who said they spoke to <a href="http://albertmohler.com/bio.php" type="external">Albert Mohler</a>, head of the <a href="http://www.sbts.edu/Home.aspx" type="external">Southern Baptist seminary</a>, and he is supporting Romney? But I believe the Southern Baptists still, on their <a href="http://www.4truth.net/site/c.hiKXLbPNLrF/b.786363" type="external">website</a>, have Mormonism under the “cult” category. Is this ability to do those mental gymnastics just among elites, or — why are their followers not following them on that in significant numbers?</p>
<p>The other question for you is about global warming. I know in years past, you and I have talked about <a href="http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14110" type="external">green evangelicals</a>. Is that intensifying as we get these now four, hair-on-fire alarming reports from the U.N. about how bad the situation is and could become?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Let me answer the second question first. I don’t see any evidence in surveys, as of this moment, that attitudes on global warming among evangelicals have changed very much.</p>
<p>It could be that the impact of those reports has not been felt yet because it takes time for these things to reach the public. But, as you and I discussed, if one looks at support for very broad measures on environmental protection, a majority of evangelicals agree with protecting the environment — less so than the population as a whole, but there is certainly a lot of support for that point of view. When you get into specific questions of climate change, the numbers are lower among white evangelicals than for the population as a whole, but it’s not as if evangelicals aren’t interested in that idea. But I don’t see any major statistical change yet. We may see that in the future as the polls come along.</p>
<p>The issue of evangelical attitudes towards Mormons is interesting. It certainly is the case that the elites – the clergy and the group leaders — are much more nimble when it comes to these things. A good example is Bob Jones III’s <a href="http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS01/71016060" type="external">endorsement</a> of Romney. He is not a Southern Baptist, but he’s head of the <a href="http://www.bju.edu/" type="external">Bob Jones University</a>. The endorsement was lukewarm. On the one hand he said, “Mormons are not Christians, that’s where I stand.” On the other hand, he said, “We’re not electing theologian-in-chief, we’re electing a chief executive, and I think Governor Romney has the right values.” That surprised a lot of people because if there was any element of the evangelical community that was going to stand against Mormonism, one would think it would be the card-carrying fundamentalists.</p>
<p>The problem Southern Baptist elites have with this nimbleness – and some of them do want to support Romney or might want to support Romney — is their denomination has spent a lot of time pointing out to their followers that Mormons are not Christians. As you may know, there’s rather intense competition between the Latter-day Saints and the Southern Baptists and other evangelicals over proselytizing, with their missionaries running into each other in the United States and around the world. These groups very much compete for saving souls.</p>
<p>I have heard, and you would want to run this down rather than quote me, that the leaders of the Baptist Convention are thinking about revising their view of Mormonism to no longer classify it as a cult, but to classify it as another form of Christianity, which is a view that a lot of sociologists and historians would adopt, but maybe not a view theologians would necessarily accept. In any event, if the collective leadership of the Southern Baptists all decided they wanted to back Romney, they would have the problem of translating that to their followers, having been so critical of Mormons for so many years.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: With Pat Robertson’s <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/11/robertson_to_endorse_giuliani.html" type="external">endorsement</a> of Rudy and now Al Mohler’s endorsement of Romney, the story that needs to be written here is about evangelicals as pragmatists, that people really are bracketing theological and doctrinal differences for political reasons.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Or, the story could be, if Huckabee continues to be strong, that these leaders don’t have the pull that they claim to have, or what we think they have. Just looking at page two of the now un-embargoed Pew <a href="http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=375" type="external">survey</a>, I found it fascinating. Look at the Iowa numbers. Thirty-eight percent of the Republican caucus electorate, they are projecting, is evangelical. Of that, Huckabee gets 40%; Romney 21%. In the rest of the electorate — 62% — it breaks 28-15 Romney over Huckabee. I think one of the questions we will ask is how much Mormonism has to do with that. I suspect that will be heavily polled in the coming period: How much of it is really positive for Huckabee?</p>
<p>But the other interesting thing is, for Huckabee in South Carolina, where he is much less well-known, 53%, as somebody pointed out, of that electorate is evangelical. Of that, he’s only got 12%. What’s intriguing is if Huckabee were to do well enough in Iowa to move on, does this become an issue in South Carolina, and does Huckabee come up in the polls there? In New Hampshire — it’s so striking — only 18% of that electorate is white evangelical, suggesting that is a state Rudy Giuliani is targeting for good reason.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: These numbers on Huckabee in Iowa remind me somewhat of Jesse Jackson in ’84 and ’88, and leads to the possibility that white evangelicals in this contest may end up — It’s possible they may end up not unanimously but heavily favoring a candidate who basically can’t be nominated. I think that’s one possible scenario, in which they take themselves out of the equation of determining who the real nominee is. Black voters in ’88 didn’t do anything to determine the Democratic nominee.</p>
<p>Naomi Schaefer Riley</p>
<p>NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY, The Wall Street Journal: I wanted to ask about the question of Rudy’s electability on this survey here. He just seems to dominate the electability category, and I was trying to figure out from what you were saying how pragmatic you expect religious voters to be and whether there are any historic comparisons here.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Democratic voters in ’04 were the ones concerned about electability. As <a href="http://kausfiles.com/mickeybio.html" type="external">Mickey Kaus</a>, the blogger and friend of many of us, said, the Iowa Democrats just made a stupid choice about determining who was electable. What this survey tends to confirm, I think, is that Republican voters this year are concerned about electability and with good reason. One of the arguments we’re hearing both the Democratic and Republican candidates making can be heard as electability arguments. Hillary says Obama has no foreign policy experience. Translation: He’s going to get clobbered on this in the general, so don’t vote for him. And Obama’s saying Hillary polarizes people. Translation: Fifty percent are going to vote against her no matter what. Those are electability arguments.</p>
<p>Jacqui Salmon</p>
<p>JACQUI SALMON, The Washington Post: Having talked to a lot of evangelical leaders lately about Mormonism, I can say a lot of them are really struggling with this issue of, “We can’t stand his religion but he’s so strong on social issues.” It’s clear a lot of them are going to be splitting on that.</p>
<p>A question about Latino evangelicals: Where are they when it comes to non-Catholics? The evangelical Latino leaders are energetically saying they’re going to be a real swing vote in this election because of their stand on social issues. John, tell me about where you feel they stand.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: As E.J. pointed out, Latino Protestants — the vast majority of which are evangelicals — supported Bush in 2004 with a majority. The polls differ on how big the majority was, but that’s because this is a group that’s hard to measure in surveys. It’s a small group but a rapidly growing group, and there are a number of reasons why this community has liked the Republicans. Part of it is because of social issues, which are very important to them; part of it is because Latino Protestants are more likely to be assimilated or to be on the road to assimilation into American society.</p>
<p>So there are a number of different reasons why Latino Protestants might like the Republicans, but the potential deal-breaker is immigration and immigration reform. In some of the polls we’ve looked at recently, Latino Protestants are not as enthusiastic about the Republican candidates. In that sense, George W. Bush understood something about that constituency that maybe some of his fellow Republicans didn’t understand.</p>
<p>That’s the big problem for Republicans going into 2008 with Latino Protestants and Latinos in general: How do they get over the immigration issue? If the polls I’ve seen are accurate — and it’s hard to know because, again, these groups are so small in most surveys — then Republicans are in a big bunch of trouble on that particular issue.</p>
<p>The key thing is, though, to what extent Western states are in play politically because a lot of the Latino population is located in the West. There is some evidence that the Mountain states — Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico -may be in play in 2008. If one assumes Latino Catholics will still be largely Democratic, as in 2004, then Latino Protestants could provide an opportunity for the Republicans.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: In ’06, I can’t remember if it was a swing of 11-12-13% away from the Republicans. Bush pushed the Latino vote up to something like 40% for him, and it was, as I recall, down to the low 20s in ’06 because of immigration. I think that’s only aggravated now, and some very prominent conservative evangelical Latino leaders were very upset, and are still very upset, by what happened on immigration. I think that’s a very important piece of this.</p>
<p>The other is the diversity of the Latino vote. California Latinos, mostly Mexican, are much more Democratic than Latinos elsewhere because there’s still a backlash from <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/immigrant_benefits1_3-26.html" type="external">Prop-187</a> all those years ago. Texas Latinos are Democrats, but less so than California Latinos. Here in Florida, it’s a very complicated community because of the Cuban vote, which has been historically Republican. It was drifting Democratic until Elian Gonzalez came along, and the gains that Clinton made were then pushed back among Cubans. I think on immigration there is some division but mostly just anger at the way this issue has played out. Then, there is this enormous regional, ethnic and religious diversity within the community.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: I agree with all that both John and E.J. have said. To underline the diversity of the Latino vote, go to <a href="http://www.spa.ucla.edu/favicon.ico" type="external">Pico Union</a> in Los Angeles, and it’s about 90% Democratic. If you go out to <a href="http://www.ci.santa-ana.ca.us/favicon.ico" type="external">Santa Ana</a>, which is in Orange County and is 78% Latino or something, they are voting about 55% Democratic; they are less than an hour apart on Interstate 405.</p>
<p>Mike Allen</p>
<p>MIKE ALLEN, Politico: John, I was hoping to get your view of E.J.’s observation about George Bush as an apex for the evangelical vote, and I’m wondering what the mix was of passion for Bush and the mechanical mobilization of evangelical voters by Bush-Cheney.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: I think it was both. President Bush had, and still has, a special relationship with the white evangelical community. We were just talking a moment ago about the lack of influence some leaders in the evangelical community have on their followers. A good example of this pattern was in the 2000 election, when a lot of leaders of the Christian right were supporting candidates other than George W. Bush, and he basically appealed to the rank-and-file voters over the objections of the leaders, because of the way he could talk about his faith. Once in office and after 9/11 and into 2004, that relationship was solidified. I think it would be difficult to replicate that relationship with another Republican candidate.</p>
<p>MR. ALLEN: You mentioned the way he talked about his faith. How else did that personal relationship develop?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: I mostly observed it in terms of polling numbers, so I don’t know all of the details of it. But part of it was the way he talked about his faith; that was extremely important to the evangelical community. Some observers argued that Bush used special code in some of his speeches to appeal to evangelicals. I don’t think there was anything special about it, but he used a lot of evangelical language in many of his most prominent speeches.</p>
<p>In addition, Bush made some promises, and he kept them. He promised to sign a late-term abortion measure if the Congress passed it. The Congress passed it; he signed it. He promised to appoint conservative judges, particularly to the Supreme Court; he did. Coming full circle, the Supreme Court, now with the Bush appointees on it, accepted the late-term abortion bill as being constitutional.</p>
<p>When I look at the exit polls or other survey data on 2004, I find it very difficult to disentangle the personal regard for Bush from the mobilization effort of his campaign. They’re so closely linked together.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Amen to that. It’s also worth remembering that this President Bush was the previous President Bush’s informal or maybe even formal liaison to the evangelical community in his father’s campaigns, and he learned a lot, and he created a lot of ties, and I think that all came back to help him later.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: In effect he’s a convert from mainline Protestantism to evangelical Protestantism, and everybody knows that because they know his family, and the father is such an obviously mainline type, and the mother, too. So the bio becomes very vivid for people.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY: John, I noticed we haven’t talked about gender, and you don’t have data disaggregating by gender. I wondered, given Hillary Clinton’s candidacy this particular election, whether that wouldn’t be worthwhile. I have a suspicion you do have some data that disaggregates by gender; if you do, I’d like to hear some of it. There’s this notorious <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/18/post_135.html" type="external">statement</a> of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901661.html" type="external">Mark Penn</a>‘s that 24% of Republican women will vote for Hillary Clinton, which, of course, is more than wishful thinking.</p>
<p>But it does underline an interesting question that relates to religion in general: The behavior of men and women who fall into similar categories is still going to be rather different. As one can see looking at church attendance — in certain categories, particularly mainline and African-African churches, the predominant congregant is going to be female and maybe less so in white evangelical churches, although that would depend on the kind of evangelicalism in the region. But I wonder if there’s any data that disaggregates by gender with the faith factor taken into account that you could share with us.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: There certainly is, and that’s a very insightful question. A lot of demographic factors matter at once. Religion, at least at the level we typically measure it, is best thought of as a demographic factor: the groups that people belong to and how active they are in those groups. Gender certainly has a very powerful independent effect on politics. Almost all, perhaps all, of the religious groups we have been looking at contain gender gaps, in which men tend to be more Republican, and women tend to be more Democratic. In very strongly Republican groups, like weekly attending white evangelicals, of course, everybody is, on balance, Republican, but women are less so. And when you get into even the unaffiliated community, men are more Republican than women.</p>
<p>Of course, the situation is quite complicated because it’s not just gender; it’s also family status and age. Older married women with children are still more Democratic than their male counterparts, but they are more Republican than their female counterparts who are younger and unmarried. So gender is actually quite a complex thing, and it intersects with religion in a complicated way.</p>
<p>There is a lot of polling that shows Senator Clinton does have an appeal to women across the board. She seems to have the most appeal among younger women and women who are Democrats. But it’s possible she would be able to do better than another Democratic candidate among women in some of these conservative religious communities. But for women in some of these conservative religious communities, there’s a countervailing tendency, which is they don’t agree with Senator Clinton on many issues. They may like the idea of woman president, but not necessarily this woman as president.</p>
<p>DR. McCLAY: Looking at a category like weekly attending white evangelical Protestants: It’s not untypical for the weekly attending portion of a married couple to be the wife who takes the children to Sunday school. But is the man in that dyad counted as a weekly attending white evangelical Protestant, even if he only shows up once in a while — Christmas, Easter, a few other times?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: The way we measure, no, because it’s an individual-level measure. The guys that stay home and get ready for the NFL while their wives take the kids off to church would be in the less-observant category.</p>
<p>David Shribman</p>
<p>DAVID SHRIBMAN, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: All three of you are suggesting there’s some movement among white evangelicals, and that the data isn’t broad enough, the universe isn’t big enough, to know this specifically, but how would you speculate on the breakdown? Who is in motion, and who is staying, and who is going? What is prompting them to go and stay?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Boy, that’s a really good question. It’s a large religious community, but in these types of surveys, of course, it’s very difficult to break out their various characteristics. We’re not supposed to speculate at the Pew Forum, but I will indulge you for the moment.</p>
<p>Here’s what I think the data shows. I would say a lot of it has to do with religious beliefs and religious behaviors, that the people who are least in motion are the most traditional in their beliefs and behaviors. Those that are most in motion are those who are more moderate or centrist.</p>
<p>MR. SHRIBMAN: Does that mean people who have considered themselves white evangelicals the longest, perhaps?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: It could be the longest; there are age effects as well. But I think the effect of belief and behavior is somewhat independent of age. As E.J. was pointing out, the centrist and the modernist evangelicals are probably the most likely to be moving. Generation has a tremendous effect. Young evangelicals are — as young people often are – less stable in their political alignments. In your packets, there is something you may have seen on the Pew Forum website looking at the political proclivities of <a href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=250" type="external">young evangelicals</a> in recent years. They seem to be in motion.</p>
<p>Another factor is income and class status. Lower-income evangelicals are more likely to be in motion. Evangelicals who are well-off are less likely to be in motion and more likely to stick with the Republicans because of their class status.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Amen to all of that. The young evangelicals are very much in motion. They are as pro-life or anti-abortion as their elders, but they are somewhat more liberal on issues related to gays and lesbians.</p>
<p>MR. SHRIBMAN: There’s no recollection of Reagan. Or more importantly, of Carter.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Right, and their whole generation is significantly more Democratic than everybody older than they are. So there are some signs of motion. I don’t have data on this, but I am fascinated; I hope somebody produces it. I think people in suburban <a href="http://pewforum.org/events/index.php?EventID=80" type="external">megachurches</a> outside the South are probably different from other kinds of evangelicals, that there is a kind of moderate suburban ethos. <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~csrelig/people/dir1.html" type="external">Bob Wuthnow</a> has written about this. One of my favorite Wuthnow findings is that 58% of Americans agreed that Christianity is the best way to understand God, but only 25% said it was best for everybody. Our friend <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/politics/political_wrap/bio_brooks.html" type="external">David Brooks</a> discovered from a rabbi the wonderful phrase, “ <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/jan-june00/brooks_5-9.html" type="external">flexidoxy</a>.” Many Americans, including I think a lot of folks in the megachurches, are flexidox; they yearn for orthodoxy but want it to be flexible on something they care about. I have a suspicion that — again, when we’re talking about movement, we’re not talking about a massive movement to the Democratic Party; we’re talking about a minority of this group that’s in flux – suburban churchgoers outside the South may be one of the groups that is in flux.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: My speculation would start off with young rather than the old. As you pointed out last night, David, the median-age voter in 2008 is born in 1966; they were never in a gas line in the 1970s; they were never paying weekly bills when effective tax rates were going up, and there was hyperinflation on bills in the 1970s. They never had those experiences. They only read about it in the paper, except they don’t read the papers either.</p>
<p>I think E.J.’s point about flexidoxy or Christianity may not be for everybody. I would suspect part of that is an awareness that there are Jews in this country, and that it’s a respect for the Judeo-Christian religion. It’s possible that evangelical Protestants, on some dimensions, are more pro-Israel than Reform Jews these days. I think it’s a tip to that. The attitudes on things like same-sex marriage or gay issues: That’s hugely different by age groups among all segments of the population, as I understand it. So people over 65 just have the same attitude as all of America in the 1950s — that it’s unthinkable. Whereas under 30s are about 50-50 on same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Krista Tippett</p>
<p>KRISTA TIPPETT, “Speaking of Faith”: I’m looking at Table 7. I’m especially interested in the broadened agenda of evangelicals and the younger generations. I’m wondering if you have comparable statistics, showing a breakdown of what people say they care about? I’m thinking the 2004 exit polls asked the question in a different way.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: They did.</p>
<p>MS. TIPPETT: So do you have any comparable statistics from a couple of years ago? Do you have anything that breaks it down by generations?</p>
<p>My other question is, when we talk about evangelical Protestants, are you counting evangelical Episcopalians? Are you counting evangelicals who are not in evangelical churches?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: In these measures, yes. Because in these surveys, the way the evangelical category is measured is born-again Protestants.</p>
<p>MS. TIPPETT: (Off mike)</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: That’s right. You do get a little bit different results if you can break out denominational affiliations. Episcopalians as a group are a mainline Protestant body, but some people who attend those churches consider themselves evangelicals. So you do get a difference if you could define evangelicals that way. But the differences are not huge. One of the reasons the pollsters use the born-again measure is that it’s very powerful.</p>
<p>MS. TIPPETT: I just think that many people, when they see “evangelical Protestants,” don’t think: Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, although some are included in there.</p>
<p>My second question is related to that. In terms of proportion, I’ve heard everything from 25 to 40% of the American population is evangelical. What’s the discrepancy there? I think you come out at about 25%, right?</p>
<p>But does that 40% count — are Pentecostals included in that? I know the <a href="http://www.nae.net/" type="external">National Association of Evangelicals</a> includes Pentecostals in its numbers. Do you include Pentecostals? Does that 40% number include a much broader base of evangelicals?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: The evangelical community, as you all know, is a very complicated thing. It’s complicated by its nature because of the intense religious individualism of evangelicals. Most scholars would argue the evangelical religious tradition is made up of a number of different groups. Pentecostals would be one group. The largest single group of evangelicals is the various kinds of Baptists. There are many non-denominational churches within the evangelical tradition, many associated with religious movements like fundamentalism or the neo-evangelical movement.</p>
<p>There are many denominations within the major Protestant families that are self-consciously evangelical. A good example is within the Presbyterian family: The <a href="http://www.pcanet.org/" type="external">Presbyterian Church in America</a> is a self-consciously evangelical church as opposed to the <a href="http://www.pcusa.org/" type="external">Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)</a>, which is a self-consciously mainline Protestant denomination.</p>
<p>So we have a very complicated religious community, and how do we arrive at one figure? We do it by defining what we mean by evangelicals depending on our purpose. I tend to use a religious-affiliation definition because I’m interested in politics, and the groups people belong to are important politically. The best measures of affiliation in survey after survey tend to produce this estimate of about 25% of the American population. Now, it is not everyone in that 25% is a white evangelical because, as Adelle was pointing out, there are black evangelicals, and Hispanic, and Asian evangelicals. If one were interested in theology or sociology, one might want a different definition.</p>
<p>MS. TIPPETT: Are charismatic Roman Catholics or neo-Pentecostal African Americans included? Is that where the number gets bigger than 25%?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Yes, exactly. You can arrive at a bigger number if you include the historically black Protestant churches, and if you were to reach outside of Protestantism and include charismatic Roman Catholics. Most analysts don’t do that because there are still important differences between Catholics and Protestants. But you could count these groups as evangelical if you were interested in the beliefs and practices these groups have in common. As you were pointing out, there are many people in mainline Protestant denominations that think of themselves as evangelicals.</p>
<p>The more general you make the definition, the larger the number becomes. Forty percent is not an unreasonably number if you include all these different groups that meet one or another criteria for being evangelical. But you can go the other way as well. The pollster <a href="http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=AboutGeorge" type="external">George Barna</a>, himself an evangelical, likes to define evangelicals in a very narrow, doctrinal way. He has <a href="http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&amp;TopicID=17" type="external">seven specific doctrinal statements</a> that one has to agree to to be considered an evangelical. He comes up with an estimate of about 6 or 7% of the American population being evangelicals.</p>
<p>MS. TIPPETT: Really?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: Yes, because he’s got such a strict doctrinal definition. So the simple answer to your question is, what do you mean by evangelical? Do you mean a set of religious communities? And how broadly do you define those communities? One can reasonably range from 7 to 8% to 40 to 45% depending on what pieces of the puzzle you are interested in picking up. I’m a political scientist, and the Pew Forum is interested in public affairs, so my bias is toward group membership in defining evangelicals. But certainly these other ways of defining evangelicals are valid as well.</p>
<p>Andrea Stone</p>
<p>ANDREA STONE, USA Today: Since Michael mentioned Israel and evangelicals, I just want to make a point. When you said evangelicals are more pro-Israel than many Reform Jews, what is the meaning of “pro-Israel?” It will be very interesting to see in the next year, as this <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/641/middle-east-summit-annapolis" type="external">Annapolis process</a> starts, if we will see a divergence between evangelicals and the Bush administration’s efforts – presuming the Bush administration really makes an effort – and the support that Reform Jews or all Jews really — well, not all Jews, not Orthodox Jews — will give to that process.</p>
<p>But my question has to do with gays. Even though it’s premature to write the obit on the religious right, we’re going to do that anyways. It just seems like we’re moving in that direction, and that we are hearing more from the religious left on issues like the environment, the economy, AIDS and healthcare and this and that. I’m wondering what that means for gay issues because every single Democratic candidate has said they oppose <a href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=115" type="external">don’t ask, don’t tell</a>. They don’t really want to go near gay marriage yet, but there’s more support for civil unions. I’m wondering what we’re going to see from the religious community in terms of political support for any advances on gay rights.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: You’re asking me to define pro-Israel and, as I understand it, there’s considerable disagreement on that term among people who are citizens of Israel — and I’m not sure I want to wander into that thicket. Evangelicals are probably more Likud and Reform Jews are more Labor, to put it in Israel party-politics terms, or at least in old Israel party-politics terms.</p>
<p>MS. STONE: I ran into more evangelical Christians in Gaza in August of 2005 than I did Reform Jews, so —</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: That’s interesting. I think we understand where we stand on that.</p>
<p>As far as the gay-rights issues, supporting <a href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=150" type="external">civil unions</a> is now a majority position in the United States in most polls. I’m fascinated to see the Democrats are against the exclusion of gays from the military, which of course was passed by President Clinton and a Democratic Congress. My judgment on the trend of opinions on gay-rights issues has been consistently wrong and erring in both directions, so I’ll just end right there.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Humility is a great virtue, rarely exercised, especially in settings like this.</p>
<p>I think what Michael said about civil unions is very important: Civil unions is the new middle-of-the-road position. When you think about that, it’s a huge shift in 10 years. Again, attitudes toward gays and lesbians are so age-dependent. You have two key variables to predict how somebody is going to stand on gay-rights issues: age and either having a close friend who is gay or a relative who is gay. Given that more and more people have gay friends, there is an arc that moves, I think, in general in the direction of gay rights.</p>
<p>Marriage will be one of those issues that will take a long time to resolve. As this works through the system, I think you’ll have states moving toward civil unions, and it will come up in the more “liberal” states quicker. But I think it’s a less toxic issue today than it was even a few years ago. It doesn’t mean there won’t be some resonance, but I don’t think it has anything like the resonance it had in ’04.</p>
<p>MS. STONE: Last year I <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-02-20-gay-adoption_x.htm" type="external">wrote</a> about adoption and foster families among gays. We think about the military and marriage and civil unions, but is there anything over the horizon we’re not thinking of that’s going to be the next big issue?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Immigration. I think immigration is potentially —</p>
<p>MS. STONE: Gay immigration?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: — a huge wedge issue, and you’re already seeing it play out if you watched the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/28/debate.transcript" type="external">Republican debate</a> last week. Immigration is a very volatile social issue that could create very complicated divisions. I know Democrats like <a href="http://www.house.gov/emanuel" type="external">Rahm Emanuel</a> are very worried about it in certain Congressional districts from the Democratic point of view.</p>
<p>MS. STONE: Is that a gay issue, though? That’s what I was asking.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: No, no, no. I was talking more generally of wedge issues.</p>
<p>MS. STONE: No, I was asking, is there some other issue having to do with gays that we’re not thinking of that’s going to pop up?</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: The conservative writer <a href="http://www.brucebawer.com/" type="external">Bruce Bawer</a> lives in Norway because his partner is a citizen of Norway, and he doesn’t have a basis to get a visa to live in the United States. He would like to be married and have his spouse come over on a visa available to spouses.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: I don’t know if this answers your question directly, Andrea, but I think one of the places to watch this issue evolve is within the major denominations, where there are big arguments about ordaining gay clergy and whether clergy can bless unions. A lot of the activism is within these denominations. That’s really something to watch because how that turns out will have a big effect on how these different religious communities will view this issue in the future.</p>
<p>Linda Feldmann</p>
<p>LINDA FELDMANN, The Christian Science Monitor:&#160;I was wondering if you have any polling data on voter knowledge as it relates to Rudy Giuliani. I’m interested in an explanation for the support that he does have. It goes to this pragmatism versus ignorance question; as voters become more knowledgeable about his positions, are evangelicals moving away from, or are they taking the pragmatic position and sticking with him?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: We did ask that question in some Pew Forum and Pew Research Center surveys. On the one hand, we <a href="http://pewforum.org/surveys/campaign08" type="external">found</a> a very large proportion had no idea what Rudy Giuliani’s position was on abortion. So the ignorance factor may be playing a big role here. On the other hand, among those people who could correctly identify his position, it didn’t seem to make any difference. So maybe there’s a pragmatic element there as well.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/" type="external">RealClearPolitics</a> has nice <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_giuliani_vs_clinton-227.html" type="external">charts</a> on this. There are two ways of looking at Giuliani. On the one hand, it’s striking that he has maintained his national lead all year. On the other hand, he was up in the 40s or high 30s at the beginning of the year, and there’s been a slightly downward slope, but not so downward that he’s fallen behind anybody yet. I don’t know if that reflects more knowledge of him or more knowledge of other candidates.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: I think part of what’s going on with Giuliani is the focus of voters on cultural issues has changed. The press tends to see abortion as the central issue. If you’re a 58-year-old feminist, it probably is and has been for a long time. I think for 28-year-olds, it’s not the most important issue anymore.</p>
<p>Giuliani has this unique characteristic: We have actually seen him operate in a crisis, and we know that he can stand up in a crisis. That’s a powerful thing that trumps the cultural issues for some voters. The change in standing I’ve seen on Giuliani is that he’s seen as a much more partisan figure now. He was getting 67% favorable ratings early in the cycle, and now he’s down to about 54. Basically, Democrats have identified him as an enemy more than cultural conservatives have.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: He’s also one of the best-known human beings in the United States, and that’s not to be discounted when we’re looking at polls.</p>
<p>Shelby Coffey</p>
<p>SHELBY COFFEY, The Newseum: A question partly based on E.J.’s thought that maybe we are entering into a breathing spell in some of the cultural wars. I want to put forth a counter-hypothesis: It may be a change, but arguably, we might be in for more culture wars because a number of factors amp up the national dialogue. You see more interest groups viewing with alarm each issue as the media is digitized. In order to get noticed, the louder voices, on whatever platform, get louder. Artists constantly look for the shock value. If you are shocked by this one year, you are going to be even more shocked the next year. It takes that.</p>
<p>Given that, could you speculate as to what issues might be emerging more? Michael was touching on that, about how the issue of abortion is now less prominent, but are issues used up faster now, especially in the context of the religion and values conflicts we were discussing?</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Part of my premise is so much of this polarization is related to President Bush. I think he’s a uniquely polarizing figure not only because of the hostility he has aroused on the left side of the spectrum, but also because of the loyalty he aroused on his own side; Bush is a unique figure who combines within himself the two key wings of the Republican party.</p>
<p>He’s evangelical, and he’s a big-business or, if you prefer, country-club Republican. He’s all of those things at the same time. For a long time he has inspired a lot of loyalty and a lot of dislike. One of the big unanswerable questions is: Does the polarization diminish when Bush is out of office? My hunch is it does and that something different happens afterward. If Mrs. Clinton is elected, do we reproduce a different kind of polarization? I don’t know, but maybe we do.</p>
<p>Secondly, I do think some of the social issues are being diffused, and I agree with Michael on abortion, but I’d put it slightly differently. There was a bill introduced in Congress that is currently part of the budget; it’s got a long, complicated name, but it’s basically an abortion-reduction act. A whole group of pro-life and pro-choice Democrats sponsored a bill that said, basically, “Abortion is not going to be illegal anytime soon. Many of us in this group don’t think that it should be illegal. But abortion is, at best, a moral problem. For some in the group, it’s a moral evil. So what can we do to reduce it?” There are a whole series of measures both on the contraception side and to help poor women who want to bring their kids into the world. The abortion rate is four times higher among poor women than among better-off women.</p>
<p>That’s a very interesting movement in the party. Rudy Giuliani has been bragging about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/us/politics/17giuliani.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin" type="external">reduction</a> in the abortion rate in New York City. On the cultural and religious issues, there may be depolarization, but as I said before, I do think if we’re on the lookout for polarizing cultural issues of a different sort, at the moment, immigration is the one. To me, the evidence is mounting that that’s going to be a very divisive issue.</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: One of the interesting things about the immigration issue is that many people who oppose immigration do so on cultural grounds; they see the immigrants as disruptive. There is another group of people that opposes immigration on economic grounds because it takes jobs. But the cultural argument is very prominent.</p>
<p>Let me just suggest two other areas of cultural antagonism that may emerge in the near term. One is the whole question of religious expression, such as the phrase, “ <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion-schools/pledge" type="external">One nation under God</a>” in the Pledge of Allegiance. This is an ongoing controversy about what appropriate religious expression is in public life, and it flares up from time to time. That’s an issue that might very well antagonize people.</p>
<p>The other thing to watch is <a href="http://pewforum.org/religion-schools" type="external">public education</a>, which is regular battleground. One thing to watch in that area is the push toward vouchers, which now has a certain constitutional status. There are a lot of groups — some of them religious, some of them non-religious — that would like to see us move away from public schools toward vouchers.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: The fascinating thing about vouchers is a lot of suburban parents are against vouchers because they like the public system they’re in, and they don’t want to spend any tax money —</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: And the Republican legislators that represent them are happy to take teacher-union money and avoid teacher-union-financed opposition.</p>
<p>I think the immigration issue is one. I think there is an interesting coalition from both parties that is talking about immigration and assimilation. I think, ultimately, it behooves politicians and particularly Republicans, but generally Democrats as well, to say, “We really do have to regularize this stuff and get the law working in tandem with the labor market.” I think we’re going to go to a national identification card, and we’re some distance toward that with the <a href="http://www.dhs.gov/xprevprot/laws/gc_1172767635686.shtm" type="external">Real ID</a> Act. Also, we have to help people become Americans. You’re not hurting people by helping them learn English; you’re helping them. We’re not being punitive when we do that. I think that’s very important.</p>
<p>Just one footnote on what John Green was saying about religious expression: My pet peeve this time of year is that when you go Christmas shopping, the stores only play secular songs now. I’m going to storm out if I have to hear “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” played over and over and over again at Nordstrom. I think I’m going to go to the manager and ask for “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.”</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>John Dickerson</p>
<p>JOHN DICKERSON, Slate: In the churn in the data we’re seeing and in this playing field where a lot of things are moving around, what do we know in the data or anecdotally about people dropping out altogether? There’s the great myth or truth that Karl Rove talks about in the 2000 race, the famous <a href="" type="external">four million evangelicals</a> who didn’t play. Where are they now? Some people dispute that that’s a real fact.</p>
<p>The second question is about the map. Are we going to be talking about the same 12 states in ’08 that we’ve been talking about over the years, or does this churn suggest new places are in play? If no new places are in play, are there particular states in which — obviously it depends on the candidates — in which this new landscape has particular impact?</p>
<p>DR. GREEN: I’ll defer on the religious landscape to Michael and E.J. Certainly Ohio will be on the list, but other than that, I don’t know. I think there is great capacity for demobilization in certain religious groups. When leaders of the Christian right say the Republicans should not nominate Rudy Giuliani because in a contest between Giuliani and Clinton, there will be a decline in turn-out, I think they may be on to something. The question is, just how big would the demobilization be? One can imagine it being quite large, particular where it would make a difference in key swing states. A lot depends on the effort made to get these voters to turn out.</p>
<p>I can imagine many evangelical voters I’ve interviewed over the years being very discouraged by a Giuliani-Clinton race because abortion is really important to them, and they couldn’t make a choice between those two candidates on that basis. But if they got enough direct mail and enough people knocked on their doors, they might be able to make a choice based on other matters. The choice might be based on an entirely different set of issues than their past choices. So, I think the capacity for demobilization is very real. I just don’t know how large it would be.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: The ’04 election really contributed something; it’s always been pious political conventional wisdom that if we were just nicer, more people would participate. We were real nasty in ’04 cycle and participation went way up. The Democratic vote went up from 48 to 59 million, the Republican vote from 48 million to 62 million. There’s lots of millions of people. Some of them may indeed drop out or not vote next time. Some of the people mobilized as Republicans in ’04 voted Democratic in ’06. But in general, ’06 turn-out in the states was significantly higher than ’02, which was pretty good for an off-year turn out. I think we’ve increased the size of the electorate.</p>
<p>Which states are in play? At this point, I’d say about 40.</p>
<p>(Laughter)</p>
<p>What’s unusual between ’00 and ’04 — and you can put ’96 in with it if you just look at the Democratic percentage — is how static they are. Go back in history: It’s unusual. They haven’t had something quite like that since ’52 and ’56. That’s 50 years. Compare ’88 and ’96 and tell me how many states are in play. The answer is about 35 to 40 between those two elections that were only eight years apart. If I were polling for the candidates, I might skip Rhode Island and Vermont and Alaska, but I would be doing most of the states, at least a little bit.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: I agree with John on demobilization. I think the party that’s most discouraged gets demobilized. In ’06, there was some discouragement of Republicans; we’ll see if that lasts. On the question of states, I think a bunch of new states are in play: Colorado; Nevada; New Mexico; Arizona, for sure, with the combination of Latinos and political change; maybe Montana; Arkansas; certainly Virginia; and maybe not this cycle, but someday, North Carolina. I would say potentially vulnerable Democratic states, if it gets closer, might be Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire. Iowa did go Republican the last time. The one state I think Rudy Giuliani might put in play is New Jersey. I don’t think it’s New York; I don’t think it’s Pennsylvania. New Jersey could go in.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x271.xml" type="external">Quinnipiac</a> had Giuliani even in Connecticut with Hillary last month when he was losing nationally.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Say that again, Mike?</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Quinnipiac had <a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1296.xml?ReleaseID=1018" type="external">Rudy even with Hillary</a>, one point down, I think, in Connecticut, which was a 10-point carry state, 54-44. So I’d put Connecticut in there.</p>
<p>MR. DIONNE: Italian Americans are not to be ignored as a significant voting block in some states.</p>
<p>MR. BARONE: Those three are the most Italian states, plus Rhode Island.</p>
<p>MR. CROMARTIE: Ladies and gentlemen, you can tell a good session — and all of ours have been this way — when we have to end because we have gone into overtime. Let me not forget to say this event could not happen without the help of <a href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=74" type="external">Cheryl Montgomery</a> and <a href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=252" type="external">Robbie Mills</a> and their good work in getting everybody here.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>Join me in thanking our speakers this morning.</p>
<p>(Applause)</p>
<p>Thank you for coming.</p>
<p>This written transcript has been edited for clarity, spelling, grammar and accuracy.</p>
<p>* Please note the following corrections to the written transcript:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The numbers in the tables were checked and corrected based on Michael Barone’s comment. The correct numbers are as follows. Table 2: Among the weekly attending other Christians polled, 53.3% preferred a generic Republican candidate. Table 3: Among weekly attending other Christians polled, 50.3% preferred Giuliani over Clinton. These corrections are reflected in the tables included with this transcript.</p> | false | 1 | faith angle forum160is semiannual conference brings together select group 20 nationally respected journalists 35 distinguished scholars areas religion politics amp public life religion factor 2008 election key west florida speaker dr160john c green senior fellow religion amp american politics pew forum religion amp public life respondents michael barone senior writer us news amp world report ej dionne jr senior fellow brookings institution columnist washington post senior advisor pew forum religion amp public life moderator michael cromartie vice president ethics amp public policy center senior advisor pew forum religion amp public life michael cromartie michael cromartie many know johns work youve talked quoted many times john perhaps best political demographer voting behavior religious believers america surveys valuable many us john also senior fellow pew forum hes also director ray bliss institute applied politics distinguished professor political science university akron hes written numerous books topic subject today john green religion factor 2008 election john thank coming dr john c green thank michael back great privilege wonderful ive known previous incarnations great chance meet new people put faces names voices telephone even characteristic email styles special joy share panel michael barone ej dionne know two insightful observers religion american politics john green id like today look survey data thats id like work number tables think reveal interesting things role faith upcoming presidential election decided overwhelm paper morning see front kinds reports well mention id like turn attention one right collection tables stapled together begin table 1 religious groups 2004 presidential vote well work way tables made tables take full credit mistakes one mistakes made stapled together might want pull apart well want compare unfortunately table 1 table 2 reverse sides page worry voting behavior making tables three things id like discuss morning first structure religion politics works american elections days whether may persist 2008 election secondly id like look couple influences might effect structure religions impact vote particularly peoples attitudes toward religious expression political campaigns issue priorities different religious groups finally id like make general comments religious groups primaries great bulk comments general election course people get nominated general election religion may play role well different kind role could turn attention table 1 first table list religious groups voted 2004 presidential election reports twoparty vote comes 2004 national exit polls point table set baseline discussion noting happened last election look middle chart charts structured way theres column called reflects numbers entire sample case entire electorate people voted 2004 see bush election small margin religious groups arrayed according twoparty vote column toward top page groups voted george bush toward bottom table groups voted john kerry quick glance table reveal three groups republicans strong religious constituencies democrats strong religious constituencies groups middle 2004 bush groups middle least ones going look today let spend moment talking religious categories little different ones sometimes see pew forum data arranged different way reason look across surveys surveys exactly number religious categories quickly reach point certain small religious groups become statistically insignificant one another surveys want work categories minimum significance many tables possible top table group everyone talks sometimes referred religious right core group weekly attending white evangelical protestants surveys evangelicals defined bornagain protestants separate whites people tell us attend worship week often one important elements faith factor days religious affiliation groups defined affiliation race ethnicity closely connected religious affiliation theyre part definition many groups theres another element present religiosity surveys measure worship attendance thats way maybe even best way measure religiosity common effective way look top group weekly attending white evangelicals notice 824 said voted president bush 2004 go two lines lessobservant white evangelical protestants white bornagain protestants claim attend church week often notice also voted bush good bit less fact 11 percentage points less see effects affiliation religiosity white evangelical protestant moves one republican direction regular worship attender moves one along republican direction go little farther one next groups weekly attending nonlatino catholics basically white catholics include asians africanamericans small portion community notice voted little threefifths bush go little bit farther come lessobservant white catholics bush small margin 53 vote see attendance gap another religious group white mainline protestants group isnt defined well surveys distinctive nonetheless white nonbornagain protestants also see differences attendance groups also couple composite categories look way top second line table see weekly attending christians mormons eastern orthodox unitarians also latino protestants normally wouldnt combine groups size samples going look 2004 groups tended vote republican putting together quite big violation common sense might seem notice even among christians theres big attendance effect report attending regularly much bush toward bottom table groups unaffiliated people dont religious affiliation faiths thats also combination different groups mostly nonchristian groups including jews muslims hindus buddhists wiccans sorts groups combined normally would break today pragmatic purposes put together course black protestants members historically black protestant churches john green see quite bit polarization 2004 based upon religious categories affiliation attendance bush well groups kerry well others groups middle including lessobservant white catholics lessobservant mainline protestants much grabs throughout campaign bush ended winning small margin places like ohio might well made difference event table 1 shows happened 2004 see structure religion comes vote affiliation attendance mattering important ways lets turn table 2 table 2 comes survey taken january 2007 year ago pew research center survey asked people generic party preferences would likely vote republican candidate president 2008 democratic candidate candidates question party preference two things immediately become clear one republicans dont nearly well survey george bush 2004 striking diminution support generic republican candidate respondents opinion column everyone made mind 2008 election let call attention couple things first look column middle table 2 look democratic vote survey 492 respondents said wanted vote democratic candidate compare back actual vote john kerry got according exit polls 2004 485 statistically numbers democratic vote doesnt vary much aggregate two data points one actual vote 2004 two generic party ballot 2007 change really republican side might expect republicans 2004 lot bad luck afterwards perhaps making course 2007 poll january comes big defeat 2006 congressional elections maybe surprising would see diminution generic backing gop second thing notice though large structure religious vote groups tended support bush 2004 still support republicans general even though numbers still see difference based attendance good example would look weekly attending evangelical protestants top table still 60 percent generic republican candidate notice lessobservant evangelical protestants less 40 percent 20point gap thats larger gap saw exit poll data basic structure faith factor vote seems place although numbers shifted entirely possible democratic candidate win 2008 election even structure affiliation attendance still place matters structure structure actually functions democrats better key groups win election look democratic column youll see certain numbers underlined three toward middle groups actually switched sides 2004 exit poll data data january 2007 two groups lessobservant catholics lessobservant mainline protestants swing voters bush able win small margin 2004 also look weekly attending catholics weekly attending mainline protestants also shift democratic column well although table 2 offers generic measure vote without candidates months ahead 2008 election suggests religious groups motion groups may depart voting behavior 2004 lets turn table 3 another snapshot presidential preferences october 2007 trial heat rudy giuliani pitted hillary clinton another pew research center survey im way suggesting table rudy giuliani hillary clinton necessarily nominees parties bestknown candidates october therefore easiest get good read terms way religious groups may voting john green look category middle survey hillary clinton ahead 50 whole lot different democratic vote generic measure table 2 exit poll data table 1 variation across tables among republican vote among democratic vote interesting things table religious groups motion 2004 move instance look lessobservant catholics voted bush 2004 generic party measure table 2 moving away gop theyre back preference giuliani difference candidates make dont actually vote parties vote individual candidates dont know numbers hold next year could find trial heats would show slight differences suggest lessobservant catholics one groups motion move around depending candidates presumably campaign another group shows kind movement back table 2 lessobservant mainline protestants also note change among weekly attending catholics weekly attending mainline protestants poll rudy giuliani recovers votes one things thats interesting groups attendance gap vanished arent significant differences regular attenders less observant suggests structure faith factor vote change well im sure many remember worship attendance wasnt important factor voting behavior become important factor recent times possible next years election election faith factor revert older structure worship attendance important vote parts picture table 3 much previous tables strong democratic groups still tend strong democratic groups weekly attending evangelical protestants still republican corner interesting though look top number senator clinton actually get 27 weekly attending white evangelical vote would quite significant would ten percentage points better john kerry 2004 notice data 114 weekly attending evangelical protestants havent made mind yet course go democratic could make huge difference hillary clintons numbers would close kinds numbers bill clinton got among white evangelicals 1992 concern democratic candidates appealing evangelicals seems basis fact groups seem moving mainline protestants roman catholics thats big changes seem likely occur groups motion could moved one party another raises question sorts things motivate id like focus two things turn table 4 one possibility use faith election appeals discussions religion candidates parties religious groups data come annual trend survey pew forum pew research center taken past summer question asked much little right amount religious expression campaign look category middle youll see quarter americans say theres much discussion faith twofifths though 381 precise say theres little discussion faith campaign another quarter say right amount people dont opinions matters interesting think observers todays campaign would say extraordinary level religious expression campaign fact may set records time next year lot americans would like hear even public yearning know spiritual religious beliefs candidates candidates talking faith hard tell causality could go either way look religious groups see interesting patterns instance key republican groups top table weekly attending evangelicals instance majority think theres little discussion faith politics campaign go toward bottom key democratic groups black protestants latino catholics view fact couple groups faiths largely nonchristians various kinds unaffiliated think theres altogether much discussion faith politics look swing groups noticed move three previous tables notice common response right amount discussion faith campaign turn table 5 another set measures role religious expression campaign first set columns agreement disagreement statement important president strong religious beliefs see looking row middle table high proportion americans agree notion president strong religious beliefs fact twothirds think thats good idea new finding pollsters found pattern long time apparently hasnt diminished face extensive discussion faith values campaign notice virtually groups majorities people think good idea presidents strong religious beliefs groups unaffiliated excited idea look toward righthand columns final three table 5 different question also agreedisagree feel uncomfortable politicians talk religious look row youll see much evenly divided opinion twofifths americans agree feel uncomfortable politicians talk religious half disagree say apparently feel comfortable kind discussion answers two questions interesting put together one hand overwhelming majority americans think good idea president strong religious values many americans dont want hear least candidates seem lot interest religious beliefs candidates like theres interest religious expression campaign great deal tolerance kind talk part religious voters limits talk turn next table table 6 combined two measures ended four different categories dont know titles groups particularly fortuitous first column call enthusiastic believers people believed president strong religious beliefs felt comfortable candidates telling us reluctant believers people thought president certainly strong religious beliefs felt uncomfortable hearing candidates talk untroubled skeptics people didnt think religious beliefs important qualification president didnt bother candidates talked faith finally troubled skeptics people felt uncomfortable didnt think president necessarily strong religious beliefs put things together get sense acceptance types ideas also limits look row twofifths americans enthusiastic believers quarter 26 reluctant believers untroubled skeptics 10 percent public onesixth 154 population troubled skeptics look religious groups see interesting patterns strong republican religious constituencies tend enthusiastic believers democratic constituencies particularly black protestants toward bottom table every single one republican constituencies democratic constituencies large minorities members reluctant believers category theres limit much candidates talk faith without incurring displeasure voters trying appeal talked little bit issue yesterday considered mitt romney forthcoming speech data would suggest would valuable romney campaign could convince people strong religious beliefs costs well people feel uncomfortable explain faith detail lets look one table well talk primaries briefly complicated table apologize complexity blame world table 7 looks issue priorities religious groups annual trend survey ask people important thought different issues would vote 2008 ask foreign policy issues war iraq ask economy ask social issues abortion samesex marriage table take individuals gave important answer one issue questions combine instance first lefthand column labeled iraq economy people said war iraq would important vote would economy people two kinds priorities foreign policy economy priorities next column says three people think issues important go way end table issues people apparently didnt think issues important maybe thats didnt ask hotbutton issue didnt ask environment didnt talk major league baseball important issues care could people attentive clued campaign yet whats interesting pattern though look different combinations see complicated issue agenda americans americans singleissue voters see examples instance third column people said economy important vote singleissue economic voters would category go way far side see social issues voters combinations issue priorities let talk little bit combinations give sense motivating particular voters overall economy iraq important third americans list combination top priority look republicanleaning groups particularly weekly attending evangelical protestants polyglot group weekly attending christians iraqeconomy combination much lower people interested three issues combine social issues concern foreign policy concern economic issues helps explain think patterns many people puzzled including fact evangelicals supported candidates rudy giuliani significant number voters actually care variety different issues dont give exclusive priority social issues makes certain amount sense would evaluate candidates differently came rudy giuliani maybe two three aint bad go democratic groups notice iraqeconomy group large tends plurality large pluralities groups significant minorities among black protestants latino catholics unaffiliated also think three issues important go back groups motion lessobservant catholic mainline protestants see dominance iraqeconomy combination groups may well moving basis issues may religious component maybe particular groups may language social science bit overdetermined number different variables moving politically campaigns course worry great deal combinations issues know targeting gone beyond art become science days primaries general election candidates parties interestgroup allies precise targeting different combinations voters gone days one make general appeal hope one could collect enough votes win election one make lot precise appeals kind complexity campaigns see try target voters youve patient let work tables let end couple comments primaries weve really focusing likely impact religion factor 2008 general election course religion matter primaries given fact competitive races parties religious constituencies part mix front table two reports pew research center one released yesterday democratic primary race discusses religion detail one gop race released 20 minutes embargoed time finish talking michaels already blogging word already theres lot rich detail perhaps talk little bit later whats interesting role religion primaries thus far little impact appeared make democratic side course senator clinton ahead shes ahead religious groups national polls recently ahead polls even republican side little interesting white evangelicals bit grabs sometimes giuliani little bit ahead sometimes tie giuliani candidates look white catholics mainline protestants giulianis national lead replicated among sense though national polls primary preferences misleading dont national primary national general election least 50 state elections occur day primaries individual events occur sequence reports show different religious groups may lining early caucus primary states fact divisions instance report released momentarily shows big surprise nice strong data part governor huckabees rise iowa comes fact hes garnered great deal support white evangelicals particular state see fewer patterns though move away iowa democrats republicans may well campaign hasnt arrived full force new hampshire south carolina yet raises one final point pertains primaries also general election campaigns really matter year religious groups apparently moving around campaigns particularly important nature candidates issues stress way conduct campaigns vast amounts money spend may make tremendous difference determining particular religious groups end next year thank much mr cromartie thank john grateful two best political commentators american politics religion us respond johns data ive asked michael barone ej comment michael thank us youre first michael barone michael barone us news amp world report thank much nice morning opportunity break pew centers embargo 18 minutes material course laptops observations data pew research center provided years think terrifically valuable helpful understanding one things struck looking johns tables historical comparison parallels ones making yesterday 1960 religion played important part voting current epoch seems well different divisions 1960 divisions living today johns table 1 noticed lessobservant white catholics lessobservant mainline protestants vote almost exactly way theyre people middle theyre ones basically produce national average theyre split small margin george w bush john kerry two groups opposite 1960 race catholics running 78 kennedy white protestants 63 nixon totally divided along sectarian lines theyre vanilla american politics outliers white evangelical protestants one side black protestants reflect people whose theological views much whose voting behavior quite different said written 2004 2006 moved one period politics another period trenchwarfare politics two armies lined culture war trenches nobody deserting line question many people could muster go lines capture narrow margin contested territory meant difference victory defeat parties ran 04 campaign theory spending awful lot time money volunteer effort identifying new voters getting vote turning people trying influence undecided voters people lightly committed either side theory correct theory think 04 werent many much important turn people huge success john kerry got 16 votes al gore george w bush got 23 popular votes got four years tremendous mobilizing jobs two political parties allies think passed sometime 04 06 period call openfield politics politicians moving around voters moving around seeing lot different possibilities permutations combinations think data johns presented morning substantiates lessobservant white evangelical protestants voted 72 bush 04 generically theyre favoring republican 39 34 pretty lukewarm margin brings mind teamsters union business agent hospital received bouquet flowers card read executive board wishes speedy recovery vote nine six laughter indicates huge movement potential movement among group people see groups well go rudyhillary pairup table 3 use first names part hillary rodham clintons campaign uses first name often refer sense diminution disparagement simply adopting form campaign uses see movement question one numbers weekly attending christians john might check data generic preference 65 republican theyre 44 rudy theres something going greek orthodox church placed curse something number looks sort anomalous see pretty close race groups best lessobservant catholics lessobservant christians guess theyve got number laughter giuliani white house people greeting david frum reported staffers greeting bush white house saying missed bible study thats wonderful ambivalence people want candidates highly religious want hear somewhat much look around field candidates election fascinating odd interesting combinations weve got mormon running course seems vastly important people father running 40 years ago number us commented yesterday weve got glaringly nonobservant catholic rudy cafeteria catholic hes coming glass water moving side would appear weve got graduate ouachita baptist college yet history republic produced president united states possibility michael barone democratic side hillary rodham clinton active methodist since grade school high school days methodism one americas great mainline denominations big winner religious competition middle late 19th century roots also feminist movement weve got barack obama somewhat embarrassingly concerned attends blacknationalist church almost separatist point view wont invite pastor appear behalf guy whose basic pitch want get beyond polarization talk things common chosen join church family church anything kind seems say opposite dont know entirely make im fascinated going play period 1995 2005 degree religious observance demographic factor highly correlated voting behavior extent unusual history voting republic think people feel little uncomfortable feel uncomfortable probing mitt romney state theological beliefs yet correlated highly issues people care many issues people care moral content relate things important personal lives cant prohibit voting basis choose evidently think polarization strengthened exacerbated happenstance fact last two presidents bill clinton george w bush born first year baby boom 1946 graduated high school 1964 class peak sat scores men happen personal characteristics people side culture divisions absolutely hate large numbers americans mostly nonoverlapping group stand either man increased polarization provided basis obama example campaign beyondpolarization guy im boomer like say good news baby boom generation going die bad news im going die time laughter think potentially moving beyond johns data suggest lot possibilities open think general election campaigns going go back aiming undecided lightly committed voters theres going much larger potential percentage people uncommitted might persuaded think still going see religion degree religious observance highly correlated voting looking data seems somewhat highly correlated might guessed basic hierarchy groups degree republicanness democraticness seems similar think going mix think correlation probably decrease election may time ways cant entirely predict let make couple points stillembargoedforthenextsixminutes160 republican poll160here number one iowa god bless us every often go constitution look section says iowa new hampshire vote first havent found yet im still looking nonetheless 200000 people voting iowa make decision terrific effect 303 million us people iowa clearly importance white evangelical allegiance huge michael barone pew poll confirms data extrapolated the160 abcwashington post poll160of week ago poll 38 people white evangelicals protestants among huckabee getting 44 vote among 62 likely caucus goers white evangelical protestants huckabee getting 12 vote data shows thing among white evangelical protestants 38 electorate huckabees 40 hes 15 among groups hes kind splinter candidate among groups quite unanimous overwhelming choice getting nearly 50 vote among large identifiable group voters five seven eightcandidate field real high percentage thats fascinating interestingly hasnt happened much states new hampshire 18 white evangelical protestants huckabee gets 24 votes new hampshire basically historical heritage smugglers tax evaders theyre interested avoiding government impositions less interested strong religious belief data find amusing dont see many poll results funny one white evangelical protestants 53 south carolina republicans surprise many people whove spent time south carolina reached decision come numbers thompson 19 giuliani 18 romney 17 mccain 15 huckabee 12 theyre place theres statistically significant difference much one top candidate bottom candidate suggests something 08 awful lot people havent made mind pushed one way entirely certain partys presidential candidate theyre voting within parties quite capable moving around lot dont know probably cant know going dispositive issues push people line one voting decision another think year great uncertainty four years ago would told great certainty neither partys presidential candidate barring absolute collapse going get 52 vote 48 would right many different outcomes possible data johns presented gives us interesting insights uncertain year thank mr cromartie thank michael introduce ej dionne let know ej new book coming princeton university press called souled reclaiming faith politics religious right ej book ej dionne washington post february 1 tell itll stores thank plug mr cromartie im glad plug ladies gentlemen delighted ej dionne washington post brookings institution georgetown university pew forum mr dionne lot kids need support somehow mr cromartie affiliations ej glad time come join us thank ej dionne mr dionne thank much speaking john green subject like speaking football john madden fashion yves st laurent cooking emeril lagasse may know also hometown saying anything demographics politics michael barone something like speaking math euclid name address grew michael tell precinct votes play game point ive actually always wanted fundraiser youd competition like michael congressman tom davis chris cillizza fix think three could give great run money none intimidate drawing sweeping conclusions however three broad conclusions want draw ill explain get first think 04 white evangelical vote george bush never reach level support one candidate long time perhaps ever think metaphor analogy may catholic vote kennedy 1960 78 michael mentioned catholic vote never like since even lyndon johnson landslide appears run slightly behind kennedys share catholic vote four years later white evangelicals remain largely conservative republican group percentages saw 04 think difficult reach secondly believe controversial statement era religious right bill clinton would say suppose depends meaning words religious right believe religious right viewed conservative political movement within republican party rose 1978 1980 breaking significant part evangelical community changing also issues confronting country changing im predicting group suddenly shift overwhelmingly democratic party think going see different style politics coming years therefore believe understandings religion politics weve since 1980 going change think past case predict future see numbers john ably presented suggests im going broaden points want begin going johns tables calling attention numbers first think three us believe speak lot white evangelical protestants big role politics two swing groups religious world american politics catholics general latinos swing around well mainline protestants sense oversimplification theyre 404020 groups assume party get somewhere around 40 groups swing vote 20 think even 04 06 saw swinging case democratic direction think someday michael organize session focuses swing groups politics maybe itll good session spring know nominees becomes quite clear johns tables 1 2 secondly im going come back many times pet peeve mine always speak evangelical protestants conservative group happens leave religious group america perhaps african americans believe michael pointed theologically african americans often quite close white evangelical conservatives sunday may pray similarly tuesday vote differently think statement evangelical protestants conservative misleading im table 4 religious groups religious expression campaign black protestants weekly attending white evangelical protestants believe little attention paid religion campaign similarly question presidents strong religious beliefs note black protestants democratic group bottom table stand believing presidents strong religious beliefs lastly want underscore table 6 think religion politics much trickier often suggest john groups enthusiastic believers reluctant believers put untroubled troubled skeptics together thats 26 electorate anyone wonders christopher hitchens sam harris folks sold many books 26 significant number americans combine 26 reluctant believers group majority simply true go say religious talk time automatically appealing majority electorate think important pay heed table 6 also amusing draw conclusions group john chooses call reluctant believers seems loom especially large among weekly attending mainline protestants latino catholics let turn idea 2004 election mark high point polarization around issues related religion culture simple reason matters crowding onto agenda pushing issues second place economic security foreign policy terrorism health care course iraq war already visible 2006 election issues looming larger mike john referred republican field 2008 suggests things different past wont belabor rudy giuliani john mccain mitt romney degree even fred thompson perfect candidates religious conservatives also think huckabee interesting huckabee former baptist minister strongly conservative positions social issues actually broadening evangelical agenda speaks critically wall street linked christian commitment concern poor access education health care think huckabee may understand better politicians much religious conversation changing within evangelical community think interesting criticism mike huckabee came fred thompson called prolife liberal indeed times mike huckabee sounds little bit like friend jim wallis think youre already seeing lot change within republican party also important underscore question new religion gap john green identified observant important part politics need qualify little bit one hand look two strongest groups obviously split issue attend religious services week never attend religion gap clear attend week voted 64 george bush 04 never attend voted 62 john kerry would point taken together two groups account three voters 10 16 americans go religious services week 15 never go definite relationship 04 republican leanings church attendance strong one would assume looking least religious weekly attenders back bush 5841 healthy majority certainly large even observant attended month split votes almost evenly 50 bush 49 kerry attended religious services times year backed kerry 54 45 many ways proves john right new religion gap think need put context also think im stating obvious important remember weve spent much time paying attention religion forget demographic factors divide electorate even profoundly race certainly divides electorate profoundly white voters bush 5841 african americans kerry 88 11 latinos ill say moment fascinating group almost impossible talk latinos single bloc different ethnicity different depending state live clearly racial ethnic splits important also think important stereotype white evangelical voters want share one favorite findings father andrew greeley professor michael hout wrote interesting book recently called truth conservative christians stereotype white evangelical christians consider greeley hout found conservative protestants likely watch pbs news programs daily americans exception say religion watched rate religious irreligious seemed united around pbs quote greeley hout one finds temptation irresistible picture jesus people religious fanatics one picture fifth glued pbs stations every evening latinos one important facts latino vote sectarian divide bush couple polls 53 57 latino protestants 2004 33 latino catholics republicans want make expenditures side interest might try convert latinos protestantism clearly strong correlation im suggesting would probably illegal think important note one group really move politically immigration fight congress gains president bush clearly made among latinos jeopardy including gains among conservative latino protestants one note white evangelicals think important overlap rise white evangelicals republican party shift south republican party regional accent important 2006 pew forum survey found 52 white evangelicals live south compared 31 nonevangelicals historical purposes think important underscore white southerners began turn republican party long rise religious right ways rise religious conservatism confirmed shift already taking place rather creating enormous shift exception 64 forward course jimmy carters election 1976 first openly evangelical protestant long time run white house underscore limits talking religion still class split american politics income split bush 63 votes earned 200000 36 earned 15000 57 voters 100000 200000 range 42 among earning 15000 30000 obviously theres overlap race ethnicity numbers class split disappeared also fascinating differences state long list wont belabor actually took apart 2004 exit polls look religious question played statebystate youll find religion gap barely exists louisiana enormous minnesota washington state california state bush failed secure majority among weekly churchgoers may demographic explanations louisiana democratic share among regular church attenders boosted african americans degree cajun catholics minnesota washington relatively small africanamerican populations california democratic vote boosted latino protestants also great differences religious behavior statebystate helps us understand states behave differently half voters georgia louisiana attended religious services least weekly quarter fifth attended week 7 8 voters claimed never attend religious services contrast california washington im using examples half voters attended religious services occasionally never including fifth quarter never attend contrast religious patterns deep south pacific coast offer useful clues differences among regions one point 04 want talk 06 ill conclude think important understand maybe im making controversial point although dont believe john kerry defeated 2004 religious right yes enormous mobilization appear turnout religious conservative voters went 2004 2008 actually bush election middle consider findings exit polls 38 thought abortion legal cases voted george bush bush got 22 voters favored gay marriage astonishingly 52 voters favored civil unions compare 2000 2004 exit polls bush increased vote one percentage point among voters attend religious services week gained four points among monthly attenders three points among attend times year four points among never attended religious services put simply swing bush higher among lessreligiously observant among religious think wont belabor shift owes either successful discrediting john kerry certain percentage voters still 2004 trusted george bush deal issue terrorism ej dionne happened 06 want read two accounts 06 quite different reporter philadelphia inquirer wrote good frontpage analysis began lead minor miracle occurred month god gap american politics narrowed 10 days earlier scott keeter pew research center definitive declaring god gap widens election two smart analysts exactly opposite conclusions right accounts based fact speculation heres fitzgerald inquirer religious voters recent years tended favor republicans slice voted democratic november 7th midterm congressional elections shift raised eyebrows among pollsters strategists reported democrats took back catholic vote lost 2004 trimmed gop advantage among weekly churchgoers even gained ground loyal segment republican base white evangelicals contrast scott keeter found democratic gains election concentrated among nonchristians secular voters suggesting larger political divide christians rest society keeters data gop held onto voters attended religious services least week 55 republican versus 58 four years ago less frequent churchgoers even supportive democrats four years earlier occasional churchgoers way thus gap democratic support least religious grown 16 percentage points 2002 24 percentage points today right think technical matter scott keeter clearly right religion gap grew read fitzgeralds claims carefully said slice religious vote gone democratic democrats indeed post gains among religious voters 06 including white evangelicals words every assertion fitzgerald made true even though fact god gap widened refer excellent analysis johns book year faith factor went looked three key races quickly think races tell us lot religion gap ohio ted strickland ran governor democrats secretary state ken blackwell strickland methodist minister spoke often faith ken blackwell closely aligned religious conservatives senate race sherrod brown ran mike dewine sherrod brown liberal mike dewine moderately conservative look stricklands numbers swept state 60 vote brown 56 much made stricklands strength among religiously active voters indeed 38 ohio voters attended religious services week sevenpoint gain kerry posted 19point gain among attended religious services weekly got 55 significant shift strickland gained even among nonreligious 81 among never attended religious services 18point gain kerry picked 11 points kerry among occasional attenders words even though strickland gained substantial ground among religious voters religion gap actually higher 06 04 profound republican weakness among nonreligious voters similar pattern wont go details applied pennsylvania bob casey post big gains among catholics yet prolife democrat gained even among nonreligious exception proves rule phrase ive never really understood virginia jim webb narrowly beat george allen say religious right unfaithful change 04 06 religious composition vote measured strength church attendance attendance religious services george allen least well even better george bush among highly observant voters big difference issues changed iraq huge issue 37 electorate virginia said strongly disapproved iraq war 91 folks voted jim webb seems agree michael like notion openfield politics 2006 necessarily portend beginning new democratic era think democrats lot votes loan election theyre going earn know dangerous loans days though think theyre better position subprime mortgages definitely enormous opening youre seeing slow steady changes party affiliation electorate think 06 close era american politics americans seemed tired culture wars tired polarization around cultural issues tired use issues electoral cudgels think culture wars religious wars exploit discontents task politics heal think right theres great hunger across religious denominations across levels political commitment politics remedy replace politics polarization thank mr cromartie thank ej thank much ross douthat ross douthat atlantic michael barone spoke wondering john could talk little numbers trial heat rudy giuliani hillary clinton seem confirm least certain extent conventional wisdom giulianiclinton race would mean reshifting political landscape see clinton potential make possibly substantial gains democrats among evangelicals catholics mainline protestants forth areas giuliani seems potential make gains republicans among less devout less churchgoing looks like maybe im getting wrong giuliani improving bushs numbers among unaffiliated faiths compare share bush 04 wonder thats see things shaping seems least possibly disprove contention iraq iran foreign policy issues generally giuliani could hold something approaching share evangelical vote bush dr green think thats insightful ross tend confirm conventional wisdom particularly giuliani different kind republican candidate weve past one could appeal votes middle michael ej talked people moving around perhaps cost getting level support key religious constituencies backed george bush also confirms bit conventional wisdom senator clinton made big effort appeal religious voters one reasons interested particular numbers although theyre definitive means suggest possibility structure faith politics changing unusual candidates sense go grain party could one big caveat though campaign hasnt happened yet may well giuliani would hard time real campaign capturing high percentage centrist groups groups democratic past ej pointed george bush able good bit 2004 able extend reach groups balance voted democratic whether giuliani able fierce attacks general election campaign remains seen likewise remains seen senator clinton could really better among highly religious voters circumstances mr barone comparing giulianis run bush 04 evangelical protestants biggest decline addition weekly attending catholics weekly attending christians figure think said anomaly tandem july 06 50state polling surveyusa jay levy surveyusa matched multiple candidates including many people turned candidates want know george allen runs president mark warner survey tell laughter survey showed giuliani ahead clinton whereas one line october 07 general results shows five points behind compared giulianiclinton margins 50state survey bushkerry margins basically giuliani runs weaker bush south great plains states hillary clinton carries arkansas runs stronger substantially northeast particular states highest italian american percentage massachusetts rhode island connecticut new york new jersey half italian americans live within 150 miles new york city balance close race looks like electoralvote plus giuliani loses arkansas hes competitive better bush large states northeast particular great lakes pacific coast mr douthat numbers ive seen suggest run better new jersey connecticut gap republicans face states begin large even gains think giuliani could win mr barone new jersey 5346 04 doesnt tell sight bill clinton carried new hampshire 61 george hw bush 88 openfield politics lot big numbers change particular state say 5346 unwinnable dont think mr dionne two quick things one evidence polling one constituencies cares terrorism white evangelical christians rudy giuliani picking even primaries something like 20 white evangelicals clearly element dont know whether lasts way 08 especially suspect might happen economy starts looming larger larger issue election day secondly call attention john greens wonderful work looking white evangelicals many familiar delineation different religious groups divides three groups traditionalists centrists modernists look white evangelical vote half traditionalists half centrists modernists mostly centrists first half reliably conservative republicans second group much play still marginally republican groups monoliths think thats especially true white evangelicals lot play half moderate liberal half liberal slice evangelical vote mr barone 04 campaigns assumed identified potential new voter kerry bush march theyd vote way november running one 08 campaigns would assume kathleen parker kathleen parker washington post writers group guys talk faster listen ive complete quota numbers week morning think im person actually lives among snakehandlers south carolina wanted make couple comments helpful go reporters understand former statesman named petigru said south carolinas small nation large insane asylum tip spirit hospitality youre going south carolina want get local color flavor real story whats going among voters go lizards thicket see john nodding head may know hangout everybody goes breakfast mean everybody kate dawson whos chairman state republican party goes every single morning find people thinking dont want miss mr cromartie town kathleen ms parker theyre everywhere chain get two eggs hash browns bacon kind breakfast get people tawk laak time theyre good people go church questions actually simple may involve second question depending answer significant variation church attendance democrat republican administrations people feeling cultural values attack tend go church rise attendance dr green basically isnt church attendance stable im sure youre aware debates among sociologists accurate church attendance measures whatever thats measured stable changes tend occur long periods time even one strongest critics church attendance valid accurate measure people actually every week mark chaves fine sociologist duke university argues whatevers measured consistent since 1990 1960 1990 argues lot analysts decline level church attendance since consistent worship attendance doesnt change much administration one change though doesnt much administrations crises periods crises church attendance increase along measures religiosity frequency prayer right 911 dramatic increase reported church attendance prayer bible reading kinds things subsides people adjust whatever problem suppose kathleen could tie administration think thats tied events ms parker wondered culture religion cases whether people go polls greater numbers certain candidate associate church group identify others share values sort blows theory answer dr green sorry mr dionne nathan glazer talked rise religious right defensive offensive think lot people thats sense exclusion main culture way fighting back long time ago church attendance thing 911 great mystery time polls showed much church attendance praying time later polls showed net increase asked go church last week change andy kohut pew forum sat wanted solve mystery discovered people already prayed quite bit went church quite bit went church 911 necessarily broad increase religiously inclined wanted pray wanted pray church attendance question french pollster talking agreed americans overstate church attendance little bit maybe feel guilty dont go church french may understate feel guilty go church laughter ms parker guess corresponds romney question hes obviously going try appeal shared values rather doctrinal differences thought people identified crowd believe certain things necessarily scripturally based cultural might better shot anyway thanks adelle banks adelle banks religion news service couple questions clarify john green charts want make sure im understanding correctly categories listed line republican democratic dr green true 2004 groups table 1 groups voted george bush balance 2004 groups voted balance john kerry kept organization moved charts could quickly look back 2004 obviously groups moving around groups bush 2004 republican anymore ms banks table 1 republicandemocrat divide think described black protestants attending historically black denominations black evangelicals fit categories easily dr green theres great debate measure groups data best thought estimate historically black protestant churches probably african americans attend historically white evangelical churches gotten lumped imprecision data youre absolutely right african americans belong southern baptist convention belong assemblies god particular data dont allow us sort much precision survey coming next year scheduled released think february 2008 call religious landscape study allow us look groups know exist hard measure surveys mr dionne based many interviews john mr barone lot dr green thirtysix thousand mr dionne thats lot n mr barone black protestant category basically includes black evangelical protestants black mainline protestants black inaudible protestants whatever dr green yes ms banks table im understanding black evangelicals mixed black protestants sometimes always dr green always always tables mr dionne see problem surveys number interviews break anything mr barone got thousand interviews 100 blacks dont want subdivide much margin error would large mr dionne right ten percent african americans catholic hard survey outside state louisiana isolate large group africanamerican catholics wilfred mcclay dr wilfred mcclay university tennessee chattanooga160i curious black unaffiliated black lessobservant theres presumption blacks observant theres way break category either dr green isnt unaffiliated african americans samples small cant break groups youre right often assumption african americans protestants theyre highly observant course african americans mr barone yes need go data anecdote find david van biema david van biema time whats name poll thats coming february coming dr green name us religious landscape survey scheduled released pew forum february dont know exact date mr barone interviewing conducted dr green interviewing completed conducted spring summer 2007 mr dionne large believe youll able distinguish atheists agnostics yes dr green yes claire brinberg claire brinberg cnn twoandahalf questions ill make tight one could quickly restate church attendance became factor also whole lot evangelical collapse end religious right disempowerment leaders weve come talk often wanted get sense whether thats overstated whether true look forward leadership going forward two wanted get take coverage socalled religious left democrats faith outreach whether really considered parallel whats going republican side dr green let try take order throughout history polling united states church attendance asked repeatedly back 1930s statistically significant impact vote began impact 1972 since fluctuated good bit become staple american voting behavior particularly 1990s possible 2004 high point really dont know caused church attendance become relevant seems rise cultural conflict engaged regular worship attenders religious communities different way engaged less frequent attenders one looks large surveys lots religious measures find regular worship attendance highly correlated traditional religious beliefs also may social connection people place time regular basis interact people attending worship services long time united states became politically relevant cultural conflict became central national politics argument cultural conflict declines may well see impact church attendance voter behavior decline well relatively recent phenomenon may inevitable feature religion politics tend think obituaries written religious right may bit premature thats ive seen lot obituaries written since 1979 religious right still around certainly organized religious right going period tension change thats happened colleagues wrote 1989 movement movement get second wind 1990s actually quoted textbook saying time 2000 election religious right would begin slow steady fading oblivion didnt know samesex marriage revived issue yes organizations leaders familiar going period change change may profound time generational change aging generation leaders brought us moral majority christian coalition focus family think big changes would prefer ejs formulation crackup language weve seen places press dont think change abrupt think slow steady also may change issue agenda politics currently dominated economic foreignpolicy concerns simply may less religiousright leaders work election ej quoted nathan glazer earlier evangelical movement defensive offensive extent movement reaction cultural change always possibility cultural change continue occur therefore reaction continue perhaps different leadership different guise prior 1979 1980 rise moral majority ask scholars involvement religion american politics would told bias toward left involvement religious people politics liberal side political spectrum one great unanswered questions religious conservatives active politics great tomes written something inherent conservative religiosity traditional beliefs precluded groups active politics turned wrong issue mix right conditions appropriate course got religious right talk today religious left around different incarnations long time certainly bit dare say revival point view since 2004 election however among elites among leaders activists various kinds new jim wallis good example jim wallis around long time may getting little hearing past looking difference degree difference kind one really interesting questions 2008 get effective religious left actually mobilize voters impact polls way organized religious right past jury still much question elite level level activists leaders certainly lot foment going religious left return kind prominence previous eras mr dionne seems importance religious left marks change initial reaction religious right religious right rose lot people left including religious people reacted word religious word right firstdraft reaction say illegitimate engagement politics cant quote scriptures like et cetera et cetera think religious left phase saying wait minute theres nothing wrong people drawing political conclusions religious beliefs draw different conclusions going contest terrain think thats important strategic move part people religious progressive secondly think youre seeing election hillary clinton barack obama certainly degree john edwards seem comfortable talking religion politics republicans except mike huckabee well see governor romney thursday lastly think complicated religious left progressives moderates centerleft whatever want call mobilize way religious right africanamerican churches white evangelical christian churches common relatively homogeneous ways religious right simply copied success africanamerican church mobilizing people lot people might called religious moderates progressives belong politically diverse churches dont mobilize church indeed lot churches people would uncomfortable mobilizing friend mine episcopalian dallas noted looked parking lot episcopal church half cars stickers bush stickers half kerry stickers complicated think religious moderates progressives mobilize way christian right agree john jury still meaning movement going election day mr barone 1972 emergence religious right part may artifact fact white southerners pretty much always voting democratic 1972 people supposed religious conservatives north probably voting much republican changed 72 thing id note declining saliency abortion issue hear democratic candidates talking dont hear republican candidates talking yes babyboomer mainstream media reporters ask questions mr dionne huckabee talks mr barone huckabee talks dont get lot think part reached kind compromised solution abortion going criminalize voters south dakota last year repealed criminalization law referendum time stigmatized number abortions declining medical schools dont teach people dont go around bragging theyve abortions adrian wooldridge adrian wooldridge economist wanted shift conversation onto foreign policy partly polling evidence suggests god gap replaced bomb gap sense biggest predictor whether youre republican democrat often go church attitude toward national assertiveness eitheror things wanted say bit different religious traditions different attitudes foreign policy american exceptionalism national assertiveness rest map things secondly bizarre situation right bush linked wilsonian democratization jacksonian national assertiveness think theres sense continuing appeal socalled religious right various currents opinion isolationism going reassert foreign policy mix dr green interesting ej pointed one things helped george bush assemble winning coalition 2004 lot different groups foreign policy something worked pretty well since foreign policy become liability also party may well lot religious communities supported bush different views foreign policy questions could agree preferred bush kerry uneasy alliance ill best answer question hope michael ej jump well since foreign policy little beyond level expertise white evangelical protestants still among presidents strongest supporters even though support declined along everybody elses still among strongest supporters war iraq surveys ask questions foreign policy attitudes evidence white evangelicals particularly observant likely agree synthesis jacksonian assertive nationalism wilsonian internationalism move beyond white evangelicals however synthesis doesnt seem many supporters white evangelicals though internationalist dont see returning isolationism anytime soon think theyll engaged arguments internationalism dont see retreat isolationism whatsoever extent theres isolationism found among secular americans various religious minorities less observant christians dont think fullblown isolationism groups developed real skepticism toward bush style aggressive foreign policy course roman catholic church four square war iraq many roman catholics even 2004 opposed war iraq much supportive least point war terrorism things bush internationally mainline protestants deeply divided questions theres liberal wing mainline protestantism internationalist guess term art theyre cooperative internationalists theyre supportive diplomatic efforts dont want use military force unless absolutely necessary authorized international bodies mr cromartie france mr dionne dr green john kerry talked one debates 2004 talked intervention rise certain global level created big flap many mainline protestants agreed issue mainline protestants internationalist necessarily wilsonian though think american policy ought follow interests maybe little closer known international relations realist position rather wilsonian position theres lot complexity group mind interesting jewish community strongly supportive israel strongly critical iraq war american jews see world beyond american borders much different way many religious groups extent foreign policy issues foreign policy isnt one issue series issues come fore bring lot divisions among religious groups mr barone would make reference walter russell meads special providence latest book god gold delineates different strains american opinion years foreign policy including jacksonians basically take andrew jackson line threaten family ill kill believe calls jeffersonian impulse emphasizing role missionaries american foreign policy going back many years american university beirut old china hands strains work various ways various political parties years think john right stress complexity seeing work case mainline protestants example one hand youre supposed internationalist aware le monde forth time youve got respectful international institutions tendencies roots different american traditions cant work mr dionne want point look name french massachusetts liberal want make two quick points one walter russell mead talked rise jacksonians think youre seeing working deep contradiction bush foreign policy jacksonians really arent wilsonians different approach nicely summarized michael jacksonians hit hit dont really want lot engagement wilsonians much idealistic view theres contradiction poll figure suspect lot white evangelicals jacksonian traditional internationalists think long bush power still enough loyalty among significant body white evangelicals answer polling questions way thats broadly sympathetic bush think bush gone particularly republicans go power youre going see lot ferment republican side mr barone weve also seen interesting phenomenon rick warren concern aids sam brownback evangelicals jeffersonian missionary tradition theyre following interestingly mr dionne way person answer question johns 25yearold son foreign policy genius realist way thing sympathetic niebuhr revival going think thats going continue realism married morality humility american power combined willingness use necessary suspect theres going lot said written would niebuhr next five years book much part tradition ms parker dont stats back anecdotally speaking contradict jacksonian theorists seems white evangelical protestant support bush foreign policy agenda probably something fact kids fighting dont know numbers know southeast empties wars start people much loyal policy loyal children would consider disloyal contradict president mr dionne unfortunately military service shared widely enough think explain true lot southerners military also quite catholics lot african americans broad enough group terms shared sacrifice diverse group people fighting country mr barone believe children members congress fought iraq fought vietnam even though purportedly egalitarian draft vietnam period mr dionne true mr barone yes believe democrats republicans kids serving ive found circle friends people like michael ledeen daughter served civilian capacity iraq mr dionne hes member congress mr barone im saying group people know two sons marine corps mr dionne data question mark shields called every member congress found one member congress person enlisted ranks couple somebody mr barone think 10 served one time another thats vietnam dan harris dan harris abc news issue evangelical attitudes toward mormonism breakfast morning said spoke albert mohler head southern baptist seminary supporting romney believe southern baptists still website mormonism cult category ability mental gymnastics among elites followers following significant numbers question global warming know years past talked green evangelicals intensifying get four haironfire alarming reports un bad situation could become dr green let answer second question first dont see evidence surveys moment attitudes global warming among evangelicals changed much could impact reports felt yet takes time things reach public discussed one looks support broad measures environmental protection majority evangelicals agree protecting environment less population whole certainly lot support point view get specific questions climate change numbers lower among white evangelicals population whole evangelicals arent interested idea dont see major statistical change yet may see future polls come along issue evangelical attitudes towards mormons interesting certainly case elites clergy group leaders much nimble comes things good example bob jones iiis endorsement romney southern baptist hes head bob jones university endorsement lukewarm one hand said mormons christians thats stand hand said electing theologianinchief electing chief executive think governor romney right values surprised lot people element evangelical community going stand mormonism one would think would cardcarrying fundamentalists problem southern baptist elites nimbleness want support romney might want support romney denomination spent lot time pointing followers mormons christians may know theres rather intense competition latterday saints southern baptists evangelicals proselytizing missionaries running united states around world groups much compete saving souls heard would want run rather quote leaders baptist convention thinking revising view mormonism longer classify cult classify another form christianity view lot sociologists historians would adopt maybe view theologians would necessarily accept event collective leadership southern baptists decided wanted back romney would problem translating followers critical mormons many years mr cromartie pat robertsons endorsement rudy al mohlers endorsement romney story needs written evangelicals pragmatists people really bracketing theological doctrinal differences political reasons mr dionne story could huckabee continues strong leaders dont pull claim think looking page two unembargoed pew survey found fascinating look iowa numbers thirtyeight percent republican caucus electorate projecting evangelical huckabee gets 40 romney 21 rest electorate 62 breaks 2815 romney huckabee think one questions ask much mormonism suspect heavily polled coming period much really positive huckabee interesting thing huckabee south carolina much less wellknown 53 somebody pointed electorate evangelical hes got 12 whats intriguing huckabee well enough iowa move become issue south carolina huckabee come polls new hampshire striking 18 electorate white evangelical suggesting state rudy giuliani targeting good reason mr barone numbers huckabee iowa remind somewhat jesse jackson 84 88 leads possibility white evangelicals contest may end possible may end unanimously heavily favoring candidate basically cant nominated think thats one possible scenario take equation determining real nominee black voters 88 didnt anything determine democratic nominee naomi schaefer riley naomi schaefer riley wall street journal wanted ask question rudys electability survey seems dominate electability category trying figure saying pragmatic expect religious voters whether historic comparisons mr barone democratic voters 04 ones concerned electability mickey kaus blogger friend many us said iowa democrats made stupid choice determining electable survey tends confirm think republican voters year concerned electability good reason one arguments hearing democratic republican candidates making heard electability arguments hillary says obama foreign policy experience translation hes going get clobbered general dont vote obamas saying hillary polarizes people translation fifty percent going vote matter electability arguments jacqui salmon jacqui salmon washington post talked lot evangelical leaders lately mormonism say lot really struggling issue cant stand religion hes strong social issues clear lot going splitting question latino evangelicals comes noncatholics evangelical latino leaders energetically saying theyre going real swing vote election stand social issues john tell feel stand dr green ej pointed latino protestants vast majority evangelicals supported bush 2004 majority polls differ big majority thats group thats hard measure surveys small group rapidly growing group number reasons community liked republicans part social issues important part latino protestants likely assimilated road assimilation american society number different reasons latino protestants might like republicans potential dealbreaker immigration immigration reform polls weve looked recently latino protestants enthusiastic republican candidates sense george w bush understood something constituency maybe fellow republicans didnt understand thats big problem republicans going 2008 latino protestants latinos general get immigration issue polls ive seen accurate hard know groups small surveys republicans big bunch trouble particular issue key thing though extent western states play politically lot latino population located west evidence mountain states colorado arizona new mexico may play 2008 one assumes latino catholics still largely democratic 2004 latino protestants could provide opportunity republicans mr dionne 06 cant remember swing 111213 away republicans bush pushed latino vote something like 40 recall low 20s 06 immigration think thats aggravated prominent conservative evangelical latino leaders upset still upset happened immigration think thats important piece diversity latino vote california latinos mostly mexican much democratic latinos elsewhere theres still backlash prop187 years ago texas latinos democrats less california latinos florida complicated community cuban vote historically republican drifting democratic elian gonzalez came along gains clinton made pushed back among cubans think immigration division mostly anger way issue played enormous regional ethnic religious diversity within community mr barone agree john ej said underline diversity latino vote go pico union los angeles 90 democratic go santa ana orange county 78 latino something voting 55 democratic less hour apart interstate 405 mike allen mike allen politico john hoping get view ejs observation george bush apex evangelical vote im wondering mix passion bush mechanical mobilization evangelical voters bushcheney dr green think president bush still special relationship white evangelical community talking moment ago lack influence leaders evangelical community followers good example pattern 2000 election lot leaders christian right supporting candidates george w bush basically appealed rankandfile voters objections leaders way could talk faith office 911 2004 relationship solidified think would difficult replicate relationship another republican candidate mr allen mentioned way talked faith else personal relationship develop dr green mostly observed terms polling numbers dont know details part way talked faith extremely important evangelical community observers argued bush used special code speeches appeal evangelicals dont think anything special used lot evangelical language many prominent speeches addition bush made promises kept promised sign lateterm abortion measure congress passed congress passed signed promised appoint conservative judges particularly supreme court coming full circle supreme court bush appointees accepted lateterm abortion bill constitutional look exit polls survey data 2004 find difficult disentangle personal regard bush mobilization effort campaign theyre closely linked together mr dionne amen also worth remembering president bush previous president bushs informal maybe even formal liaison evangelical community fathers campaigns learned lot created lot ties think came back help later mr barone effect hes convert mainline protestantism evangelical protestantism everybody knows know family father obviously mainline type mother bio becomes vivid people dr mcclay john noticed havent talked gender dont data disaggregating gender wondered given hillary clintons candidacy particular election whether wouldnt worthwhile suspicion data disaggregates gender id like hear theres notorious statement mark penns 24 republican women vote hillary clinton course wishful thinking underline interesting question relates religion general behavior men women fall similar categories still going rather different one see looking church attendance certain categories particularly mainline africanafrican churches predominant congregant going female maybe less white evangelical churches although would depend kind evangelicalism region wonder theres data disaggregates gender faith factor taken account could share us dr green certainly thats insightful question lot demographic factors matter religion least level typically measure best thought demographic factor groups people belong active groups gender certainly powerful independent effect politics almost perhaps religious groups looking contain gender gaps men tend republican women tend democratic strongly republican groups like weekly attending white evangelicals course everybody balance republican women less get even unaffiliated community men republican women course situation quite complicated gender also family status age older married women children still democratic male counterparts republican female counterparts younger unmarried gender actually quite complex thing intersects religion complicated way lot polling shows senator clinton appeal women across board seems appeal among younger women women democrats possible would able better another democratic candidate among women conservative religious communities women conservative religious communities theres countervailing tendency dont agree senator clinton many issues may like idea woman president necessarily woman president dr mcclay looking category like weekly attending white evangelical protestants untypical weekly attending portion married couple wife takes children sunday school man dyad counted weekly attending white evangelical protestant even shows christmas easter times dr green way measure individuallevel measure guys stay home get ready nfl wives take kids church would lessobservant category david shribman david shribman pittsburgh postgazette three suggesting theres movement among white evangelicals data isnt broad enough universe isnt big enough know specifically would speculate breakdown motion staying going prompting go stay dr green boy thats really good question large religious community types surveys course difficult break various characteristics supposed speculate pew forum indulge moment heres think data shows would say lot religious beliefs religious behaviors people least motion traditional beliefs behaviors motion moderate centrist mr shribman mean people considered white evangelicals longest perhaps dr green could longest age effects well think effect belief behavior somewhat independent age ej pointing centrist modernist evangelicals probably likely moving generation tremendous effect young evangelicals young people often less stable political alignments packets something may seen pew forum website looking political proclivities young evangelicals recent years seem motion another factor income class status lowerincome evangelicals likely motion evangelicals welloff less likely motion likely stick republicans class status mr dionne amen young evangelicals much motion prolife antiabortion elders somewhat liberal issues related gays lesbians mr shribman theres recollection reagan importantly carter mr dionne right whole generation significantly democratic everybody older signs motion dont data fascinated hope somebody produces think people suburban megachurches outside south probably different kinds evangelicals kind moderate suburban ethos bob wuthnow written one favorite wuthnow findings 58 americans agreed christianity best way understand god 25 said best everybody friend david brooks discovered rabbi wonderful phrase flexidoxy many americans including think lot folks megachurches flexidox yearn orthodoxy want flexible something care suspicion talking movement talking massive movement democratic party talking minority group thats flux suburban churchgoers outside south may one groups flux mr barone speculation would start young rather old pointed last night david medianage voter 2008 born 1966 never gas line 1970s never paying weekly bills effective tax rates going hyperinflation bills 1970s never experiences read paper except dont read papers either think ejs point flexidoxy christianity may everybody would suspect part awareness jews country respect judeochristian religion possible evangelical protestants dimensions proisrael reform jews days think tip attitudes things like samesex marriage gay issues thats hugely different age groups among segments population understand people 65 attitude america 1950s unthinkable whereas 30s 5050 samesex marriage krista tippett krista tippett speaking faith im looking table 7 im especially interested broadened agenda evangelicals younger generations im wondering comparable statistics showing breakdown people say care im thinking 2004 exit polls asked question different way dr green ms tippett comparable statistics couple years ago anything breaks generations question talk evangelical protestants counting evangelical episcopalians counting evangelicals evangelical churches dr green measures yes surveys way evangelical category measured bornagain protestants ms tippett mike dr green thats right get little bit different results break denominational affiliations episcopalians group mainline protestant body people attend churches consider evangelicals get difference could define evangelicals way differences huge one reasons pollsters use bornagain measure powerful ms tippett think many people see evangelical protestants dont think episcopalians presbyterians lutherans although included second question related terms proportion ive heard everything 25 40 american population evangelical whats discrepancy think come 25 right 40 count pentecostals included know national association evangelicals includes pentecostals numbers include pentecostals 40 number include much broader base evangelicals dr green evangelical community know complicated thing complicated nature intense religious individualism evangelicals scholars would argue evangelical religious tradition made number different groups pentecostals would one group largest single group evangelicals various kinds baptists many nondenominational churches within evangelical tradition many associated religious movements like fundamentalism neoevangelical movement many denominations within major protestant families selfconsciously evangelical good example within presbyterian family presbyterian church america selfconsciously evangelical church opposed presbyterian church usa selfconsciously mainline protestant denomination complicated religious community arrive one figure defining mean evangelicals depending purpose tend use religiousaffiliation definition im interested politics groups people belong important politically best measures affiliation survey survey tend produce estimate 25 american population everyone 25 white evangelical adelle pointing black evangelicals hispanic asian evangelicals one interested theology sociology one might want different definition ms tippett charismatic roman catholics neopentecostal african americans included number gets bigger 25 dr green yes exactly arrive bigger number include historically black protestant churches reach outside protestantism include charismatic roman catholics analysts dont still important differences catholics protestants could count groups evangelical interested beliefs practices groups common pointing many people mainline protestant denominations think evangelicals general make definition larger number becomes forty percent unreasonably number include different groups meet one another criteria evangelical go way well pollster george barna evangelical likes define evangelicals narrow doctrinal way seven specific doctrinal statements one agree considered evangelical comes estimate 6 7 american population evangelicals ms tippett really dr green yes hes got strict doctrinal definition simple answer question mean evangelical mean set religious communities broadly define communities one reasonably range 7 8 40 45 depending pieces puzzle interested picking im political scientist pew forum interested public affairs bias toward group membership defining evangelicals certainly ways defining evangelicals valid well andrea stone andrea stone usa today since michael mentioned israel evangelicals want make point said evangelicals proisrael many reform jews meaning proisrael interesting see next year annapolis process starts see divergence evangelicals bush administrations efforts presuming bush administration really makes effort support reform jews jews really well jews orthodox jews give process question gays even though premature write obit religious right going anyways seems like moving direction hearing religious left issues like environment economy aids healthcare im wondering means gay issues every single democratic candidate said oppose dont ask dont tell dont really want go near gay marriage yet theres support civil unions im wondering going see religious community terms political support advances gay rights mr barone youre asking define proisrael understand theres considerable disagreement term among people citizens israel im sure want wander thicket evangelicals probably likud reform jews labor put israel partypolitics terms least old israel partypolitics terms ms stone ran evangelical christians gaza august 2005 reform jews mr barone thats interesting think understand stand far gayrights issues supporting civil unions majority position united states polls im fascinated see democrats exclusion gays military course passed president clinton democratic congress judgment trend opinions gayrights issues consistently wrong erring directions ill end right laughter mr dionne humility great virtue rarely exercised especially settings like think michael said civil unions important civil unions new middleoftheroad position think huge shift 10 years attitudes toward gays lesbians agedependent two key variables predict somebody going stand gayrights issues age either close friend gay relative gay given people gay friends arc moves think general direction gay rights marriage one issues take long time resolve works system think youll states moving toward civil unions come liberal states quicker think less toxic issue today even years ago doesnt mean wont resonance dont think anything like resonance 04 ms stone last year wrote adoption foster families among gays think military marriage civil unions anything horizon thinking thats going next big issue mr dionne immigration think immigration potentially ms stone gay immigration mr dionne huge wedge issue youre already seeing play watched republican debate last week immigration volatile social issue could create complicated divisions know democrats like rahm emanuel worried certain congressional districts democratic point view ms stone gay issue though thats asking mr dionne talking generally wedge issues ms stone asking issue gays thinking thats going pop mr barone conservative writer bruce bawer lives norway partner citizen norway doesnt basis get visa live united states would like married spouse come visa available spouses dr green dont know answers question directly andrea think one places watch issue evolve within major denominations big arguments ordaining gay clergy whether clergy bless unions lot activism within denominations thats really something watch turns big effect different religious communities view issue future linda feldmann linda feldmann christian science monitor160i wondering polling data voter knowledge relates rudy giuliani im interested explanation support goes pragmatism versus ignorance question voters become knowledgeable positions evangelicals moving away taking pragmatic position sticking dr green ask question pew forum pew research center surveys one hand found large proportion idea rudy giulianis position abortion ignorance factor may playing big role hand among people could correctly identify position didnt seem make difference maybe theres pragmatic element well mr dionne realclearpolitics nice charts two ways looking giuliani one hand striking maintained national lead year hand 40s high 30s beginning year theres slightly downward slope downward hes fallen behind anybody yet dont know reflects knowledge knowledge candidates mr barone think part whats going giuliani focus voters cultural issues changed press tends see abortion central issue youre 58yearold feminist probably long time think 28yearolds important issue anymore giuliani unique characteristic actually seen operate crisis know stand crisis thats powerful thing trumps cultural issues voters change standing ive seen giuliani hes seen much partisan figure getting 67 favorable ratings early cycle hes 54 basically democrats identified enemy cultural conservatives mr dionne hes also one bestknown human beings united states thats discounted looking polls shelby coffey shelby coffey newseum question partly based ejs thought maybe entering breathing spell cultural wars want put forth counterhypothesis may change arguably might culture wars number factors amp national dialogue see interest groups viewing alarm issue media digitized order get noticed louder voices whatever platform get louder artists constantly look shock value shocked one year going even shocked next year takes given could speculate issues might emerging michael touching issue abortion less prominent issues used faster especially context religion values conflicts discussing mr dionne part premise much polarization related president bush think hes uniquely polarizing figure hostility aroused left side spectrum also loyalty aroused side bush unique figure combines within two key wings republican party hes evangelical hes bigbusiness prefer countryclub republican hes things time long time inspired lot loyalty lot dislike one big unanswerable questions polarization diminish bush office hunch something different happens afterward mrs clinton elected reproduce different kind polarization dont know maybe secondly think social issues diffused agree michael abortion id put slightly differently bill introduced congress currently part budget got long complicated name basically abortionreduction act whole group prolife prochoice democrats sponsored bill said basically abortion going illegal anytime soon many us group dont think illegal abortion best moral problem group moral evil reduce whole series measures contraception side help poor women want bring kids world abortion rate four times higher among poor women among betteroff women thats interesting movement party rudy giuliani bragging reduction abortion rate new york city cultural religious issues may depolarization said think lookout polarizing cultural issues different sort moment immigration one evidence mounting thats going divisive issue dr green one interesting things immigration issue many people oppose immigration cultural grounds see immigrants disruptive another group people opposes immigration economic grounds takes jobs cultural argument prominent let suggest two areas cultural antagonism may emerge near term one whole question religious expression phrase one nation god pledge allegiance ongoing controversy appropriate religious expression public life flares time time thats issue might well antagonize people thing watch public education regular battleground one thing watch area push toward vouchers certain constitutional status lot groups religious nonreligious would like see us move away public schools toward vouchers mr dionne fascinating thing vouchers lot suburban parents vouchers like public system theyre dont want spend tax money mr barone republican legislators represent happy take teacherunion money avoid teacherunionfinanced opposition think immigration issue one think interesting coalition parties talking immigration assimilation think ultimately behooves politicians particularly republicans generally democrats well say really regularize stuff get law working tandem labor market think going go national identification card distance toward real id act also help people become americans youre hurting people helping learn english youre helping punitive think thats important one footnote john green saying religious expression pet peeve time year go christmas shopping stores play secular songs im going storm hear wonderful time year played nordstrom think im going go manager ask god rest ye merry gentlemen laughter john dickerson john dickerson slate churn data seeing playing field lot things moving around know data anecdotally people dropping altogether theres great myth truth karl rove talks 2000 race famous four million evangelicals didnt play people dispute thats real fact second question map going talking 12 states 08 weve talking years churn suggest new places play new places play particular states obviously depends candidates new landscape particular impact dr green ill defer religious landscape michael ej certainly ohio list dont know think great capacity demobilization certain religious groups leaders christian right say republicans nominate rudy giuliani contest giuliani clinton decline turnout think may something question big would demobilization one imagine quite large particular would make difference key swing states lot depends effort made get voters turn imagine many evangelical voters ive interviewed years discouraged giulianiclinton race abortion really important couldnt make choice two candidates basis got enough direct mail enough people knocked doors might able make choice based matters choice might based entirely different set issues past choices think capacity demobilization real dont know large would mr barone 04 election really contributed something always pious political conventional wisdom nicer people would participate real nasty 04 cycle participation went way democratic vote went 48 59 million republican vote 48 million 62 million theres lots millions people may indeed drop vote next time people mobilized republicans 04 voted democratic 06 general 06 turnout states significantly higher 02 pretty good offyear turn think weve increased size electorate states play point id say 40 laughter whats unusual 00 04 put 96 look democratic percentage static go back history unusual havent something quite like since 52 56 thats 50 years compare 88 96 tell many states play answer 35 40 two elections eight years apart polling candidates might skip rhode island vermont alaska would states least little bit mr dionne agree john demobilization think party thats discouraged gets demobilized 06 discouragement republicans well see lasts question states think bunch new states play colorado nevada new mexico arizona sure combination latinos political change maybe montana arkansas certainly virginia maybe cycle someday north carolina would say potentially vulnerable democratic states gets closer might minnesota iowa wisconsin new hampshire iowa go republican last time one state think rudy giuliani might put play new jersey dont think new york dont think pennsylvania new jersey could go mr barone quinnipiac giuliani even connecticut hillary last month losing nationally mr cromartie say mike mr barone quinnipiac rudy even hillary one point think connecticut 10point carry state 5444 id put connecticut mr dionne italian americans ignored significant voting block states mr barone three italian states plus rhode island mr cromartie ladies gentlemen tell good session way end gone overtime let forget say event could happen without help cheryl montgomery robbie mills good work getting everybody applause join thanking speakers morning applause thank coming written transcript edited clarity spelling grammar accuracy please note following corrections written transcript 160 numbers tables checked corrected based michael barones comment correct numbers follows table 2 among weekly attending christians polled 533 preferred generic republican candidate table 3 among weekly attending christians polled 503 preferred giuliani clinton corrections reflected tables included transcript | 12,491 |
<p>The first thing Judd Apatow does in his new stand-up special is tell the crowd that he has wanted to do this kind of show since he was a kid.</p>
<p>The second thing he does is joke about how famous he is.</p>
<p>“There’s a little bit of a freak show element to me doing it,” Apatow says of his act and the need to lead it off by addressing his Judd Apatow-ness. “If I ignored that it was weird that I was up there, the audience wouldn’t [listen to my act]. They would just want to know about me and my life.”</p>
<p>Apatow, who is nearing his 50th birthday, sits in a conference room at his production company’s L.A. office. Behind him are photos of the casts of “Freaks and Geeks” and “Girls,” two of his best-loved TV shows. To his left is a whiteboard bearing story notes for season three of one of the current series he executive produces, <a href="http://variety.com/t/hbo/" type="external">HBO</a>’s “Crashing.” The giant TV at the front of the room has just been turned off after playing footage from an upcoming <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/global/hbo-europe-kit-harington-guy-fawkes-gunpowder-1202629512/" type="external">HBO</a> documentary series he directed about his mentor, Garry Shandling. For more than a decade, Apatow has been one of comedy’s most prolific writer-producer-directors — and probably its most influential. Now he has decided to be a stand-up comedian again.</p>
<p>“Judd Apatow: The Return,” which premieres Dec. 12 on Netflix, was recorded in July at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal and culminates Apatow’s unlikely reunion with the form he abandoned decades ago. Weirdly, it was quitting stand-up that put Apatow on the path to becoming one of comedy’s grandmasters — finding so much success as a creator that when he began to dabble in performing again, the gates were thrown open to him in a way that they never were when he was young. It’s a little like basketball god Michael Jordan returning to play baseball — the sport he loved as a kid — if Jordan hadn’t sucked at baseball the second time around.</p>
<p>Apatow dove into stand-up as an 18-year-old in 1985 and spent seven years trying to break through. He earned a spot on HBO’s “Young Comedians Special” but believed he would never find the kind of success as a performer that peers such as Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey were enjoying — or that he would ever be as good as his idols, Shandling and George Carlin. When Fox in 1992 picked up “The Ben Stiller Show,” which he co-created, Apatow left stand-up.</p>
<p>“It felt like the universe was telling me to be a writer and producer,” he says.</p>
<p>The universe didn’t steer him wrong. In the 22 years between quitting stand-up and picking up the mic again, Apatow wrote and directed features “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Funny People,” “This Is 40” and “Trainwreck.” He executive produced “Freaks and Geeks,” “Girls,” “Love” and “Crashing” for TV and produced “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” “Bridesmaids” and “The Big Sick” for the big screen. In the process he’s launched or bolstered the careers of James Franco, <a href="http://variety.com/t/seth-rogen/" type="external">Seth Rogen</a>, Lena Dunham, <a href="http://variety.com/t/amy-schumer/" type="external">Amy Schumer</a>, Paul Rudd, Kumail Nanjiani and his own wife, Leslie Mann. He’s also launched and bolstered two actress daughters, Maude, 19, and Iris, 15.</p>
<p>Apatow had done a few stand-up sets while writing 2009’s “Funny People” as a way to workshop jokes for Sandler and Rogen’s characters, both comedians. But it was in 2014, while working with Schumer on the screenplay for “Trainwreck,” that he began to flirt with the idea of standing up again in earnest.</p>
<p>“Amy would come back from the road to have writing sessions with me, and it just sounded like so much fun,” he says. “It reminded me that that’s all I ever wanted to do. I was seeing her get more and more successful and building this great audience for herself. And on some level I just got jealous and thought, ‘I used to do that.’”</p>
<p>“Trainwreck” shot in New York, where Apatow owns an apartment that’s walking distance from the Comedy Cellar. “One night when we were in prep for ‘Trainwreck,’ I said to Amy, ‘I’m going to go onstage at the Comedy Cellar just to make you laugh, so you can see what it was like when I did it.’”</p>
<p>Schumer and her sister Kim Caramele gave Apatow premises for stand-up jokes. “Oddly, it went well,” he says. “It annoyed Amy. She really wanted to watch me bomb and suffer.”</p>
<p>The club invited him to come back anytime. “So I took advantage of that,” he says. “They were so nice to me — and no one was nice to me when I started out.” During shooting on “Trainwreck,” Apatow would end most of his days performing at the Comedy Cellar. “It really felt like I was funnier all day with Amy as a result of doing these sets. It was just firing up a part of my brain that had been asleep.”</p>
<p>When he returned to L.A., he continued performing. He built up enough of an act to perform at Just for Laughs in 2016. The last show, which he headlined, was attended by several Netflix executives; Apatow was offered a special on the spot. He asked for a year to hone the act first.</p>
<p>In the year that followed, he worked on new seasons of “Love” and “Crashing,” on the Shandling project (“I thought if O.J. Simpson is worth seven hours, Garry’s got to be worth at least four”) and on another HBO documentary, “May It Last,” about the band the Avett Brothers. But stand-up moved from hobby to priority. He performed almost every evening, starting most nights with a spot at the Improv, then heading to The Comedy Store to do each of its three rooms. He would sometimes go back to the Improv for the late show. He also performed at the Laugh Factory and at Nanjiani and Jonah Ray’s Meltdown Comics show.</p>
<p>“I think maybe the most astounding thing about Judd is that he’s doing so many things — working on several TV shows, producing movies — and still manages to have a triumphant return to stand-up,” says “Crashing” creator and star Pete Holmes. “It’s really annoying. I can only do one thing at a time.”</p>
<p>&#160;Apatow doesn’t flatter himself when asked about the stand-up he performed in his 20s.</p>
<p>“I was terrible,” he says. “I look back, and there’s so little to be proud of. And I was getting on TV; it shows you the low standards.”</p>
<p>Having grown up on Long Island, he admired comics like Bill Maher, Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser.</p>
<p>“There were a lot of great comedians who grew up not too far from where I grew up,” he says. “But I loved it more than I was good at it.” He ascribes his failings to “insecurity and also the result of being really young, having no strong opinions and no life experience. So I was aware that I needed something to do a better act, and now that I’m about to turn 50, I have those things.”</p>
<p>He has them in spades. Apatow’s act as captured in “The Return” is highly personal. He jokes about his relationship with Mann and how much more attractive she is. He leans into over-the-top impressions of his teenage daughters. Much of what he offers is classic dad-and-husband humor.</p>
<p>But much of it also is about Apatow’s odd celebrity. He’s no Franco. But as a producer and shepherd of comedy talent, he has achieved a celebrity shared by no one else in his station save Lorne Michaels. That fame is fueled in part by how much of his personal life is in so much of his work. Mann has starred in several of his movies — as have Maude and Iris, usually playing Mann’s character’s daughters. Maude, once the subject of a New York Times profile about her status as a social-media influencer, had a recurring role on “Girls.” Iris is recurring on “Love.”</p>
<p>“What I learned quickly doing stand-up was that people seemed amused to see me,” he says. “What was happening was they felt like they knew me already from watching the movies, and that the stand-up was an extension of what they already knew about me. Once I tapped into that, it all became easier.”</p>
<p>“It really felt like I was funnier all day with Amy [Schumer] as a result of doing these sets. It was just firing up a part of my brain that had been asleep.”Judd Apatow</p>
<p>In “The Return,” Apatow merges two seemingly conflicting themes — one that he is a family man with regular problems, the other that he is a Hollywood poobah surrounded by famous women. At one point in the show, he displays a photo of himself, Mann and President Obama to set up a joke about his marriage. He closes with a story about Iris acting like a very stereotypical teenage daughter in a very rarefied setting.</p>
<p>“I feel like my life is basically the same as everybody else’s,” he says. “We all have a family that we’re trying to make function. All the issues that our kids have at each stage are the same. And the fact that ‘Knocked Up’ did well does not make anything easier when it comes to your kids and trying to make your family work.”</p>
<p>Not all the jokes are domestic. If Apatow lacked strong opinions in his 20s, he certainly has them now. He was a vocal critic of Bill Cosby at a time when many in the entertainment business were hesitant to address mounting rape allegations against the aging comic. He has been no less vocal in his criticism of President Trump, he of the “Access Hollywood” tape.</p>
<p>“I tried to be very careful to do stuff that I thought might hold up for a little while,” Apatow says. “But I also thought, ‘I’m outraged by everything Donald Trump is doing,’ so I can’t do a special and not make that statement with a few jokes. And I am outraged by Bill Cosby.”</p>
<p>In the months since the special was taped, stories of sexual assault and harassment have taken over the news cycle, spurred by the allegations against disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein. “That’s changed the core problem with this,” Apatow says. “This was always in the shadows, and it’s not in the shadows anymore, so now people have to deal with it.”</p>
<p>Apatow, meanwhile, is at an inflection point. His documentaries are wrapped, and season three of “Love” soon will be as well. Work is just beginning on the third season of “Crashing,” yet Apatow’s dance card is less full than usual. He wants to direct another feature soon. But having battled with network and studio executives in his early TV days, he sees lots of upside in that medium at this moment.</p>
<p>“The real question is how much television to pursue,” he says. “There’s so much creative freedom; it’s quite irresistible.”</p>
<p>There’s also stand-up. He still performs at clubs twice a week, keeping his foot in the door. He may step through again.</p>
<p>“I’d like to generate another act,” he says. “It just makes me really happy, with all the things that are happening in the news every night, to be able to get up and talk about it and be with people. Because that’s the best part of comedy — hearing people laugh and being part of a moment with an audience. It sounds corny, but that really was my dream. I’m so happy that people haven’t told me to stop.”</p> | false | 1 | first thing judd apatow new standup special tell crowd wanted kind show since kid second thing joke famous theres little bit freak show element apatow says act need lead addressing judd apatowness ignored weird audience wouldnt listen act would want know life apatow nearing 50th birthday sits conference room production companys la office behind photos casts freaks geeks girls two bestloved tv shows left whiteboard bearing story notes season three one current series executive produces hbos crashing giant tv front room turned playing footage upcoming hbo documentary series directed mentor garry shandling decade apatow one comedys prolific writerproducerdirectors probably influential decided standup comedian judd apatow return premieres dec 12 netflix recorded july laughs festival montreal culminates apatows unlikely reunion form abandoned decades ago weirdly quitting standup put apatow path becoming one comedys grandmasters finding much success creator began dabble performing gates thrown open way never young little like basketball god michael jordan returning play baseball sport loved kid jordan hadnt sucked baseball second time around apatow dove standup 18yearold 1985 spent seven years trying break earned spot hbos young comedians special believed would never find kind success performer peers adam sandler jim carrey enjoying would ever good idols shandling george carlin fox 1992 picked ben stiller show cocreated apatow left standup felt like universe telling writer producer says universe didnt steer wrong 22 years quitting standup picking mic apatow wrote directed features 40yearold virgin knocked funny people 40 trainwreck executive produced freaks geeks girls love crashing tv produced anchorman legend ron burgundy bridesmaids big sick big screen process hes launched bolstered careers james franco seth rogen lena dunham amy schumer paul rudd kumail nanjiani wife leslie mann hes also launched bolstered two actress daughters maude 19 iris 15 apatow done standup sets writing 2009s funny people way workshop jokes sandler rogens characters comedians 2014 working schumer screenplay trainwreck began flirt idea standing earnest amy would come back road writing sessions sounded like much fun says reminded thats ever wanted seeing get successful building great audience level got jealous thought used trainwreck shot new york apatow owns apartment thats walking distance comedy cellar one night prep trainwreck said amy im going go onstage comedy cellar make laugh see like schumer sister kim caramele gave apatow premises standup jokes oddly went well says annoyed amy really wanted watch bomb suffer club invited come back anytime took advantage says nice one nice started shooting trainwreck apatow would end days performing comedy cellar really felt like funnier day amy result sets firing part brain asleep returned la continued performing built enough act perform laughs 2016 last show headlined attended several netflix executives apatow offered special spot asked year hone act first year followed worked new seasons love crashing shandling project thought oj simpson worth seven hours garrys got worth least four another hbo documentary may last band avett brothers standup moved hobby priority performed almost every evening starting nights spot improv heading comedy store three rooms would sometimes go back improv late show also performed laugh factory nanjiani jonah rays meltdown comics show think maybe astounding thing judd hes many things working several tv shows producing movies still manages triumphant return standup says crashing creator star pete holmes really annoying one thing time 160apatow doesnt flatter asked standup performed 20s terrible says look back theres little proud getting tv shows low standards grown long island admired comics like bill maher jerry seinfeld paul reiser lot great comedians grew far grew says loved good ascribes failings insecurity also result really young strong opinions life experience aware needed something better act im turn 50 things spades apatows act captured return highly personal jokes relationship mann much attractive leans overthetop impressions teenage daughters much offers classic dadandhusband humor much also apatows odd celebrity hes franco producer shepherd comedy talent achieved celebrity shared one else station save lorne michaels fame fueled part much personal life much work mann starred several movies maude iris usually playing manns characters daughters maude subject new york times profile status socialmedia influencer recurring role girls iris recurring love learned quickly standup people seemed amused see says happening felt like knew already watching movies standup extension already knew tapped became easier really felt like funnier day amy schumer result sets firing part brain asleepjudd apatow return apatow merges two seemingly conflicting themes one family man regular problems hollywood poobah surrounded famous women one point show displays photo mann president obama set joke marriage closes story iris acting like stereotypical teenage daughter rarefied setting feel like life basically everybody elses says family trying make function issues kids stage fact knocked well make anything easier comes kids trying make family work jokes domestic apatow lacked strong opinions 20s certainly vocal critic bill cosby time many entertainment business hesitant address mounting rape allegations aging comic less vocal criticism president trump access hollywood tape tried careful stuff thought might hold little apatow says also thought im outraged everything donald trump cant special make statement jokes outraged bill cosby months since special taped stories sexual assault harassment taken news cycle spurred allegations disgraced mogul harvey weinstein thats changed core problem apatow says always shadows shadows anymore people deal apatow meanwhile inflection point documentaries wrapped season three love soon well work beginning third season crashing yet apatows dance card less full usual wants direct another feature soon battled network studio executives early tv days sees lots upside medium moment real question much television pursue says theres much creative freedom quite irresistible theres also standup still performs clubs twice week keeping foot door may step id like generate another act says makes really happy things happening news every night able get talk people thats best part comedy hearing people laugh part moment audience sounds corny really dream im happy people havent told stop | 962 |
<p>LILLE, France — The brainchild of European <a href="http://variety.com/t/animation/" type="external">animation</a> luminaries, the Emiles or, more formally, the <a href="http://variety.com/t/european-animation-awards/" type="external">European Animation Awards</a>, take place for the first time tonight in Lille, in the northernmost-part of France. 12 points about a event which bids fair to become a significant addition to an already-demanding film-TV big event calendar.</p>
<p>1.A CELEBRATION OF BELOW-THE-LINE CRAFT</p>
<p>“The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales,” “The Red Turtle” and “My Life as a Zucchini” compete for best feature <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/asia/second-and-third-godzilla-animation-movies-1202617272/" type="external">animation</a> production. Three U.K. shows – “Revolting Rhymes,” “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,”&#160;“The Amazing World of Gumball” – vie for best European TV/broadcast production. But that’s not really the Emiles’ point. Inspired by the Annie Awards, 10 of the EAA’s 16 categories highlight below-the-line craft contributions, such as background and character design, storyboard and soundtrack. The Emiles “are more to promote the excellence of European animation and give confidence and pride to all members of its industry – from producers to animators to story-boarders – about being members of the big European family,” said Emile Awards founder, producer Didier Brunner, (“Ernest and Celestine”). “The opportunity to really celebrate craftspeople and production personnel feels like a perfect justification for the awards existing,” added David Jesteadt, president of New York’s Gkids, which distributes half the nominated feature films at the Emile Awards, as indeed “Revolting Rhymes” and “The Breadwinner,” their gala feature.</p>
<p>2. THE SINGULARITY OF ANIMATION</p>
<p>The Emile Awards also recognize the particular nature and demands of animation in general. Visuals, for example, involve double labor, argued Maïlys Valatte, in consideration at he Emiles for her storyboarding on “Long Way North.” An artistic director, for instance, “must not only know and juggle a film’s moods” as in live-action pictures, but also “have the ability to reproduce them pictorially and synthetically, often like great painters,” she remarked.</p>
<p>3.CELEBRATING A GROWTH INDUSTRY</p>
<p>The Awards target a Euro growth industry. Of the eight animated movies nominated in any category, six are first features. Just 20 years ago, Europe’s feature film production hardly existed. “Beyond famous titles such as Raymond Briggs adaptations like ‘When the Wind Blows,’ it’s hard to think of that many titles made in Europe over 20 years ago,” said Peter Dodd, nominated for best character animation in a feature film for his work as animation director on “Ethel &amp; Ernest.” Bearing him out, 76 animated features were produced in Europe over 1984-1998, 361 over 1999-2013, according to a European Audiovisual Observatory study which suggested that, over 2010-14, non-European territories on animated features were responsible for 34.8% of admissions, vs. 26.3% of those for European films in general.</p>
<p>4.THE EMILES COME AT A PROPITIOUS TIME</p>
<p>Hitting $36 million after 24 days in the U.K., “Paddington 2,” produced by London-based David Hayman and financed by Studiocanal, topped new box office entries in France on Wednesday, selling a first-day 131,004 admissions, about $1 million. A movie animated in France, “Despicable Me 3,” made out of Paris-based Illumination Mac Guff, is the third-biggest movie in the world this year, grossing $1.032 billion. The Commission, the executive arm of the E.U., announced in December 2015 that it would explore alternative models of financing, production and distribution for Europe’s animation sector. At this September’s Cartoon Forum, Europe’s industry presented an E.U. Preferential Animation Support Plan that identified promotion precisely (as well as financing and retaining talent in Europe) as a priority for E.U. action. The Emile Awards are inspired by the Annies. Europe’s animation industry has to learn from the U.S. industry’s “professionalism at profiting to the maximum from all its talents,” said Brunner. The Emiles at least look like one step forward. This is no time for Europe to hide its talents under a bushel.</p>
<p>5.THE SINGULARITY OF EUROPEAN ANIMATION</p>
<p>Much talk at the Emiles, as Europe’s animation clans gather, is likely to focus on the state of Europe’s industry and its singularity, especially in comparison to the U.S. This may cut several ways. “European animation feels less trapped in childhood than that Stateside. There is more variety in terms of culture, audience demographics and in terms of the pace of storytelling and the subject matter compared to [Hollywood’s] more popular traditional sort of fantasy films aimed at children,” said Dodd, citing “The Red Turtle” and “The Breadwinner.” In industry terms, Europe’s industry is essentially an independent one, said Brunner. Style varies from country to country and studio to studio: “There is an Aardman style, a Xilam style, the same for Magic Light.” Also, big American studios control animation movies from the beginning to end. In Europe, producers have to “balance the creativity and the freedom of directors and how animation films get made.” That requires negotiation, Brunner added.</p>
<p>6.IN EUROPE, EVERY ANIMATED FILM IS ITS OWN WORLD</p>
<p>In consequence, every European animated feature seems in part to be its own world, with its own singular challenges. Dodd remembers being brought in for character design on “Ethel &amp; Ernest.” “There was a sort of a house-style already, which was Raymond Briggs’ style.” So the challenge when adapting Raymond Briggs book was to bring a consistency throughout the film to Briggs’ drawings which described a huge gamut from “caricature to sometimes very anatomical, or realistic, or expressionistic” as well as to “keep character animation graphically looking like an illustration but realistic enough so that you could identify with the characters,” Dodd said. How that was achieved lies at the heart of the movie’s art, worthy of celebration at the Emile Awards.</p>
<p>7.STIRRING BEAUTY</p>
<p>The best European animation movies can often combine spellbinding 2D beauty and quite left-of-field artistic decisions: “The Red Turtle’s” colors capture with a stunning precision the palette of nature on a tropical island, but characters noses are just a line. Animated with a painterly realism, “Long Way North” involved “a borderless, rather refined rendering and a simplicity in its curves that might seem easy but is a big challenge to get to draw and keep the volume of such characters,” said Valatte. As a result, “landscapes seem to have leapt off 1920s railway posters, while character scenes look quite unlike any other animated film in recent memory —&#160;and for a film made under such modest circumstances, that’s a feat unto itself,” said Peter Debruge, reviewing “Long Way North” for Variety.</p>
<p>8.CHILDREN OF THE MOTHER OF INVENTION</p>
<p>But, yes, Hollywood’s big toon pics are often burdened by the weight of their budgets, Europe’s by their lack. So in European animation, necessity frequently becomes the mother of invention. That can be seen perhaps most in the student and animated shorts categories at this year’s <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/global/overview-2017-european-animation-awards-1202620359/" type="external">European Animation Awards</a>. Three are made in black and white, their virtuosity in part stemming from the inventiveness brought to limited resources. One case to point: “Oh Mother,” a B &amp; W, hand-drawn piece from Poland’s Panstwowa Wyzsza School, where the characters’ expanding or contracting sizes emphasize the fluctuating relationship between a happily protective mother and her fast-grown son.</p>
<p>9.SO ARE THE EMILES AN OSCARS BELLWETHER?</p>
<p>It’s hard to say. Two of the three best picture nominations – “My Life as a Zucchini” and “The Red Turtle” – were already nominated for this year’s Academy Awards. “Revolting Rhymes,” nominated in three Emile TV categories, is shortlisted for best animated short this time round. At least four titles up for contention at the Emiles have made the 26-title best animated feature film longlist: “The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales,” “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,”&#160;“Ethel &amp; Ernest,”&#160;and&#160;“The Girl without Hands.” The Emiles gala movie, “The Breadwinner,” is even being talked up as one of the category’s frontrunners for nomination. For Jesteadt at distributor GKids, whose U.S. acquisitions have scored a remarkable eight Oscar nominations, “of the ‘surprise’ animated titles that have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations outside the Hollywood studio system, a large number have been European works. So I think the Emilies could be meaningful in determining which European animated feature is deemed superior by the artists themselves.”</p>
<p />
<p>10.EUROPE’S ANIMATION’S CHALLENGE</p>
<p>“Hollywood’s brilliant, blockbuster productions have had enormous success all over Europe, coming to represent what fir audiences make for excellent animation: CGI films with lots of VFX, dynamic, fast-paced rhythms,” said Brunner. One result: “The public now wants more and more CGI films.” Yet much of Europe’s best animation – “The Breadwinner,” “Big Bad Fox” could never have been made in CGI, Dodd argued. Brunner agreed: “Despite this audience tendency, we must defend the diversity of techniques in the art of animation (2D, stop-motion, animated paintings, and so on) and resist this domination of CGI.” How to square this circle is one of the largest conundrums facing Europe’s animation industry.</p>
<p>11.THE E.U.’S MEDIA PROGRAM TO THE RESCUE?</p>
<p>Maybe, however, the E.U.’s Media Program will come to the rescue. It will certainly channel at least some initial E.U. aid to the sector and is reacting positively to the sector’s suggestions for support. “We recognize that the animation industry has growth potential and the Animation Plan looks into what makes animation successful and what is required to take it to the next level,” Lucia Recalde, Media Unit head, told Variety just before the Emile Awards. The Plan also comes “at the right moment,” she added. “In the shorter term, we are currently looking into ways to better support the animation sector through the Media Programme in 2019,” she said. “In addition, we will be involving the animation sector in debates with members of the European Parliament and the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel. This will bring the great potential of European animation to the attention of decision-makers.”</p>
<p>12.BUT HOW ARE THE EMILE AWARDS SHAPING UP?</p>
<p>“For such a project, the most difficult challenge is the first edition, said Commin. That said, “The response and input from European professionals is more than encouraging,” he added on the near eve of the awards ceremony. The European Animation Awards received a large number of applications, close to 500 for the 16 categories.&#160; Natural and necessary allies such as Cartoon and the Annecy Festival, already honorary members of the EAA Assn., will be attending Lille, as will other festivals and France’s powerful CNC state agency. “Animation is a leading force in Europe in all aspects, production and distribution, and the goal of the Emiles is to be an active part of the ‘big picture,’” Commin added. It may have walked much of that road by the end of Friday night.</p> | false | 1 | lille france brainchild european animation luminaries emiles formally european animation awards take place first time tonight lille northernmostpart france 12 points event bids fair become significant addition alreadydemanding filmtv big event calendar 1a celebration belowtheline craft big bad fox tales red turtle life zucchini compete best feature animation production three uk shows revolting rhymes going bear hunt160the amazing world gumball vie best european tvbroadcast production thats really emiles point inspired annie awards 10 eaas 16 categories highlight belowtheline craft contributions background character design storyboard soundtrack emiles promote excellence european animation give confidence pride members industry producers animators storyboarders members big european family said emile awards founder producer didier brunner ernest celestine opportunity really celebrate craftspeople production personnel feels like perfect justification awards existing added david jesteadt president new yorks gkids distributes half nominated feature films emile awards indeed revolting rhymes breadwinner gala feature 2 singularity animation emile awards also recognize particular nature demands animation general visuals example involve double labor argued maïlys valatte consideration emiles storyboarding long way north artistic director instance must know juggle films moods liveaction pictures also ability reproduce pictorially synthetically often like great painters remarked 3celebrating growth industry awards target euro growth industry eight animated movies nominated category six first features 20 years ago europes feature film production hardly existed beyond famous titles raymond briggs adaptations like wind blows hard think many titles made europe 20 years ago said peter dodd nominated best character animation feature film work animation director ethel amp ernest bearing 76 animated features produced europe 19841998 361 19992013 according european audiovisual observatory study suggested 201014 noneuropean territories animated features responsible 348 admissions vs 263 european films general 4the emiles come propitious time hitting 36 million 24 days uk paddington 2 produced londonbased david hayman financed studiocanal topped new box office entries france wednesday selling firstday 131004 admissions 1 million movie animated france despicable 3 made parisbased illumination mac guff thirdbiggest movie world year grossing 1032 billion commission executive arm eu announced december 2015 would explore alternative models financing production distribution europes animation sector septembers cartoon forum europes industry presented eu preferential animation support plan identified promotion precisely well financing retaining talent europe priority eu action emile awards inspired annies europes animation industry learn us industrys professionalism profiting maximum talents said brunner emiles least look like one step forward time europe hide talents bushel 5the singularity european animation much talk emiles europes animation clans gather likely focus state europes industry singularity especially comparison us may cut several ways european animation feels less trapped childhood stateside variety terms culture audience demographics terms pace storytelling subject matter compared hollywoods popular traditional sort fantasy films aimed children said dodd citing red turtle breadwinner industry terms europes industry essentially independent one said brunner style varies country country studio studio aardman style xilam style magic light also big american studios control animation movies beginning end europe producers balance creativity freedom directors animation films get made requires negotiation brunner added 6in europe every animated film world consequence every european animated feature seems part world singular challenges dodd remembers brought character design ethel amp ernest sort housestyle already raymond briggs style challenge adapting raymond briggs book bring consistency throughout film briggs drawings described huge gamut caricature sometimes anatomical realistic expressionistic well keep character animation graphically looking like illustration realistic enough could identify characters dodd said achieved lies heart movies art worthy celebration emile awards 7stirring beauty best european animation movies often combine spellbinding 2d beauty quite leftoffield artistic decisions red turtles colors capture stunning precision palette nature tropical island characters noses line animated painterly realism long way north involved borderless rather refined rendering simplicity curves might seem easy big challenge get draw keep volume characters said valatte result landscapes seem leapt 1920s railway posters character scenes look quite unlike animated film recent memory 160and film made modest circumstances thats feat unto said peter debruge reviewing long way north variety 8children mother invention yes hollywoods big toon pics often burdened weight budgets europes lack european animation necessity frequently becomes mother invention seen perhaps student animated shorts categories years european animation awards three made black white virtuosity part stemming inventiveness brought limited resources one case point oh mother b amp w handdrawn piece polands panstwowa wyzsza school characters expanding contracting sizes emphasize fluctuating relationship happily protective mother fastgrown son 9so emiles oscars bellwether hard say two three best picture nominations life zucchini red turtle already nominated years academy awards revolting rhymes nominated three emile tv categories shortlisted best animated short time round least four titles contention emiles made 26title best animated feature film longlist big bad fox tales birdboy forgotten children160ethel amp ernest160and160the girl without hands emiles gala movie breadwinner even talked one categorys frontrunners nomination jesteadt distributor gkids whose us acquisitions scored remarkable eight oscar nominations surprise animated titles gone receive academy award nominations outside hollywood studio system large number european works think emilies could meaningful determining european animated feature deemed superior artists 10europes animations challenge hollywoods brilliant blockbuster productions enormous success europe coming represent fir audiences make excellent animation cgi films lots vfx dynamic fastpaced rhythms said brunner one result public wants cgi films yet much europes best animation breadwinner big bad fox could never made cgi dodd argued brunner agreed despite audience tendency must defend diversity techniques art animation 2d stopmotion animated paintings resist domination cgi square circle one largest conundrums facing europes animation industry 11the eus media program rescue maybe however eus media program come rescue certainly channel least initial eu aid sector reacting positively sectors suggestions support recognize animation industry growth potential animation plan looks makes animation successful required take next level lucia recalde media unit head told variety emile awards plan also comes right moment added shorter term currently looking ways better support animation sector media programme 2019 said addition involving animation sector debates members european parliament european commissioner digital economy society mariya gabriel bring great potential european animation attention decisionmakers 12but emile awards shaping project difficult challenge first edition said commin said response input european professionals encouraging added near eve awards ceremony european animation awards received large number applications close 500 16 categories160 natural necessary allies cartoon annecy festival already honorary members eaa assn attending lille festivals frances powerful cnc state agency animation leading force europe aspects production distribution goal emiles active part big picture commin added may walked much road end friday night | 1,059 |
<p>Taxpayers are in for sticker shock.</p>
<p>Key committees in the both the House and Senate are racing to get health care reform bills to the floors of their respective chambers over the coming weeks. According to press accounts, however, a key, unresolved issue is how to pay for the expensive insurance subsidies many in Congress want.</p>
<p>For instance, the Kennedy-Dodd legislation would provide new insurance premium discounts to households with incomes below 500 percent of the federal poverty line. These subsidies would be phased in slowly over a number of years. Total federal costs for the program are expected to be near $1 trillion over 10 years, and costs for the bill might go as high $1.5 trillion depending on certain legislative specifications.</p>
<p>Dangerous Debt</p>
<p>Even more troubling is the expectation that costs will rise rapidly every year, even beyond the 10-year budget window. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the annual cost of the insurance subsidy program in an early version of the Kennedy-Dodd bill would rise 6.7 percent per year after it is fully phased in. There is nothing in the legislation that would lead one to expect that pace to slow after the first decade.</p>
<p>Rapid cost growth for a health care entitlement is nothing new, of course. The federal government already runs two other health entitlement programs–Medicare and Medicaid–and they have been growing faster than per capita GDP growth virtually every year since their enactment in 1965. CBO has estimated that between 1975 and 2005, average per capita Medicare spending exceeded average per capita GDP growth by 2.4 percentage points, and Medicaid's “excess cost growth” rate was nearly as high (2.2 percentage points).</p>
<p>The rising costs of these entitlement programs are expected to push the federal government deep into dangerous levels of debt under current law. CBO projects that between 2010 and 2040, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone will rise from 4.4 percent of GDP to 10.2 percent. That jump in spending–5.8 percent of GDP–exceeds the size of Social Security today. As matters stand, the bills emerging in Congress would add yet a third unfinanced health entitlement on top of the two already on the books.</p>
<p>Higher Future Costs</p>
<p>President Obama and his top health care policy advisors have pledged to work on a health care bill that “bends the cost curve” throughout the health sector. But the ideas that the Administration has put forward to date would either do little to slow rising costs or shift costs from public insurance to private premium payers.</p>
<p>First, the Administration has suggested a series of reforms that might be called “efficiency through government engineering.” The idea is that the health care system can be made more productive with government-led “investments” in health information technology, comparative effectiveness research, and prevention and wellness efforts.</p>
<p>Some of these concepts may in fact be meritorious. However, as CBO has stated on numerous occasions, absent more financial incentives for consumers or suppliers of medical services, these reforms alone are highly unlikely to produce much by way of savings.</p>
<p>The Medicare Mess</p>
<p>Furthermore, the government has been running the Medicare program for nearly half a century now, and it is clear from that record that the government has little capacity to drive efficiency in health care.</p>
<p>Medicare remains largely a fee-for-service insurance arrangement, which pays any licensed provider of medical services the same rate, regardless of the quality of the services delivered to patients. Repeated efforts to steer patients and services toward a higher-quality, lower-cost network of providers have failed. For instance, a long-running effort to buy durable medical equipment (DME) services for Medicare enrollees through a competitive bidding process was blocked by Congress last year. In its place, Congress passed an across-the-board payment cut for all DME suppliers to meet a budget target.</p>
<p>Recently, in an effort to put more “scoreable” cost-cutting ideas on the table, President Obama proposed to cut Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for various health care providers by an additional $313 billion over 10 years. Those cuts come on top of the $309 billion the President proposed in his 2010 budget submission to Congress, for a total proposed reduction in Medicare and Medicaid of $622 billion over 10 years.</p>
<p>These proposed reductions in Medicare's reimbursement rates, many targeted at hospitals, are emblematic of how the government runs a health insurance plan. After much talk of trying to pay for value instead of quantity, the government is resorting to arbitrary, across-the-board fee cuts–which generally hit all providers, regardless of quality or cost–to meet budgetary goals.</p>
<p>Cost Shifting</p>
<p>Furthermore, these fee cuts are not likely to change the underlying cost structure in health care. In the past, when Medicare has cut reimbursement rates, providers of medical services have raised rates for private insurers to make up the difference. There is every reason to believe President Obama's proposed payment rate cuts would also lead to cost shifting.</p>
<p>The only reliable and lasting way to drive greater efficiency in health care is with cost-conscious consumers in a reformed marketplace. The Republicans' “Patients' Choice Act” would implement the reforms needed to build just such a marketplace. Americans would get fixed tax credits toward the purchase of insurance. If they used those credits to buy a more expensive plan, they would pay the cost difference. If, on the other hand, they enrolled in less expensive coverage, they would keep all of the savings too.</p>
<p>That is the way to provide strong financial incentives to insurers and the suppliers of medical services to reorganize themselves to be more efficient and patient-focused.</p>
<p>Bending the Cost Curve</p>
<p>The government can and should play an effective oversight role in such a marketplace, much as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have done with the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. But the government cannot bend the cost curve from Washington without resorting to arbitrary caps and price controls that always lead to a reduction in the willing suppliers of services and waiting lists.</p>
<p>— James C. Capretta served in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the Bush Administration, and is a Fellow in the Economics and Ethics Program of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p> | false | 1 | taxpayers sticker shock key committees house senate racing get health care reform bills floors respective chambers coming weeks according press accounts however key unresolved issue pay expensive insurance subsidies many congress want instance kennedydodd legislation would provide new insurance premium discounts households incomes 500 percent federal poverty line subsidies would phased slowly number years total federal costs program expected near 1 trillion 10 years costs bill might go high 15 trillion depending certain legislative specifications dangerous debt even troubling expectation costs rise rapidly every year even beyond 10year budget window congressional budget office cbo estimated annual cost insurance subsidy program early version kennedydodd bill would rise 67 percent per year fully phased nothing legislation would lead one expect pace slow first decade rapid cost growth health care entitlement nothing new course federal government already runs two health entitlement programsmedicare medicaidand growing faster per capita gdp growth virtually every year since enactment 1965 cbo estimated 1975 2005 average per capita medicare spending exceeded average per capita gdp growth 24 percentage points medicaids excess cost growth rate nearly high 22 percentage points rising costs entitlement programs expected push federal government deep dangerous levels debt current law cbo projects 2010 2040 federal spending medicare medicaid alone rise 44 percent gdp 102 percent jump spending58 percent gdpexceeds size social security today matters stand bills emerging congress would add yet third unfinanced health entitlement top two already books higher future costs president obama top health care policy advisors pledged work health care bill bends cost curve throughout health sector ideas administration put forward date would either little slow rising costs shift costs public insurance private premium payers first administration suggested series reforms might called efficiency government engineering idea health care system made productive governmentled investments health information technology comparative effectiveness research prevention wellness efforts concepts may fact meritorious however cbo stated numerous occasions absent financial incentives consumers suppliers medical services reforms alone highly unlikely produce much way savings medicare mess furthermore government running medicare program nearly half century clear record government little capacity drive efficiency health care medicare remains largely feeforservice insurance arrangement pays licensed provider medical services rate regardless quality services delivered patients repeated efforts steer patients services toward higherquality lowercost network providers failed instance longrunning effort buy durable medical equipment dme services medicare enrollees competitive bidding process blocked congress last year place congress passed acrosstheboard payment cut dme suppliers meet budget target recently effort put scoreable costcutting ideas table president obama proposed cut medicare medicaid reimbursement rates various health care providers additional 313 billion 10 years cuts come top 309 billion president proposed 2010 budget submission congress total proposed reduction medicare medicaid 622 billion 10 years proposed reductions medicares reimbursement rates many targeted hospitals emblematic government runs health insurance plan much talk trying pay value instead quantity government resorting arbitrary acrosstheboard fee cutswhich generally hit providers regardless quality costto meet budgetary goals cost shifting furthermore fee cuts likely change underlying cost structure health care past medicare cut reimbursement rates providers medical services raised rates private insurers make difference every reason believe president obamas proposed payment rate cuts would also lead cost shifting reliable lasting way drive greater efficiency health care costconscious consumers reformed marketplace republicans patients choice act would implement reforms needed build marketplace americans would get fixed tax credits toward purchase insurance used credits buy expensive plan would pay cost difference hand enrolled less expensive coverage would keep savings way provide strong financial incentives insurers suppliers medical services reorganize efficient patientfocused bending cost curve government play effective oversight role marketplace much centers medicare medicaid services done new medicare prescription drug benefit government bend cost curve washington without resorting arbitrary caps price controls always lead reduction willing suppliers services waiting lists james c capretta served office management budget omb bush administration fellow economics ethics program ethics public policy center | 636 |
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