Violent Video Was Product of Right-Wing Provocateurs and Trump Allies – The New York Times

Posted on by

But in July 2018, the doctored film clip was further altered to include new targets. Other news organizations, like PBS, NPR, Politico and The Washington Post, were added to the mix.

Mr. Trump was also depicted killing and maiming political enemies like Representative Maxine Waters of California, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton and others.

The video, which had fewer than 1,000 views on YouTube as of Sunday night, had clocked nearly 200,000 views by midday Monday. On Sunday, TheGeekzTeam appeared to celebrate the videos success, posting a new video on Twitter that showed CNNs logo exploding after coming into contact with the phrase Trump memes.

An email to an address listed on the creators YouTube channel was not immediately returned. American Priority denounced the video shown at its event as not approved, seen or sanctioned by the organizers and denounced violence of any kind. But the groups founder, Alex Phillips, has his own longstanding relationship with Mr. Cook, and in the past has supported his work online.

In a video posted to Facebook in June, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Cook played down the idea that such content can foment hate and violence. As far as Im concerned, hate speech is a made-up word, Mr. Cook says in the video. You cant cause violence with words.

Mr. Phillips said he agreed. The truth hurts sometimes, he responds. Deal with it.

Annie Karni and Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Kevin Roose from New York. Jeremy Peters and Kitty Bennett contributed reporting from Washington.

View original post here:

Violent Video Was Product of Right-Wing Provocateurs and Trump Allies - The New York Times

Americans want an end to forever wars. But that’s not what Trump offers – The Guardian

Posted on by

The American people are tired of war. After 18 years of continuous conflict so long that fathers and sons have fought in the same war fatigue and frustration with the exercise of US military force abroad pervade our political culture. This is not new. Nominally anti-war candidates have won the past three presidential elections. Indeed, one of the many perverse features of the 2016 campaign was that the strongest denunciation of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq came not from the Democrat on the debate stage but from Donald Trump. So seemingly indifferent to the painful toll of endless war was Hillary Clintons campaign that it could very well have cost her the election.

Trump, of course, did not campaign as a principled anti-interventionist or anti-imperialist but as an amoral dealmaker, willing to pull the US out of entanglements deemed too costly or arrangements with allies deemed ungrateful. Yet he has governed, at least for the bulk of his term, much more like a conventional Republican than the flouter of the bipartisan foreign policy consensus he sometimes postured to be. Hawkish generals, neocons and hardcore Islamophobes have largely occupied the key policy-making positions in his administration. Instead of ending endless wars, as he has periodically pledged to do, Trump has mostly done the opposite: vetoing in April a resolution that would have ended US military involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen; expanding US military presence in Saudi Arabia; and repeatedly risking armed conflict with Iran.

It is a sad irony that Trumps recent catastrophic decision to withdraw US troops from north-eastern Syria and approve Turkeys invasion may be the closest his administration has come to substantially contravening the foreign policy establishments dictates and actually reducing US military presence abroad. The withdrawal from Syria is the exact opposite of principled anti-interventionism: incoherent, inconsistent and likely to imperil already vulnerable progressive and democratic forces. As Meredith Tax writes, it is a colossal betrayal of the Kurds, many of whom have fought and died alongside US troops trying to expel the Islamic State from their territory, and a terrible blow to the revolutionary experiment in Rojava, which has offered the international left a glimpse of a new political paradigm in practice.

An unstrategic, chaotic move that has already taken innocent peoples lives, Trumps Syria withdrawal should be a warning to those too easily seduced by the presidents erratic opposition to US foreign involvement an orientation grounded in the mercenary logic of the protection racket, not respect for international law or a commitment to human rights. It is crucial not to confuse the presidents cruel calculus with a genuine commitment to ending protracted wars, regardless of what he might tweet.

It is crucial not to confuse the presidents cruel calculus with a genuine commitment to ending protracted wars, regardless of what he might tweet

Trumps Syria withdrawal should also serve as a reminder to liberals and leftists of the urgent need to articulate a strong alternative to the policies of imperial maintenance a swollen defense budget, drone strikes and targeted assassinations advocated by Democrats and Republicans alike as well as to the cruel, cynical foreign policy of Trump.

This is a moral imperative: not only in light of US imperial maintenances direct human cost, felt most acutely by those whose countries and societies have been torn apart by US invasion or intervention, but also in light of what could be accomplished domestically by taking the substantial resources currently used to end lives abroad and reallocating them to improve and save lives at home through reinvestments in the countrys fraying social safety net.

And, in the midst of a presidential election campaign, it is a political imperative. Trumps re-election campaign may be mired in scandal and seemingly disorganized, but there is no doubt that Trump and his operatives understand the electoral benefits of an anti-interventionist posture; it worked for them before, and it could work for them again. The Syrian withdrawal should be understood with this in mind, as should Trumps proposed drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan. After all, the places where it matters that loved ones have returned from active duty are places where the Democratic nominee will need to win if Trump is to be defeated.

They will fail to do so if the Democratic foreign policy position is characterized by kneejerk defensiveness about the Obama administrations foreign policy legacy (eg Joe Biden) or the pabulum of American leadership (eg Pete Buttigieg) that, in practice, means sending more US soldiers, and civilians, in countries around the world, to their deaths.

Instead, the Democrats must put forward a vision of US foreign policy that pairs a principled opposition to endless wars with a commitment to begin a responsible, comprehensive pullback of US military presence abroad. Fears of a possible backlash to this are probably overstated. In ways not always intelligible as such, a war-weary people demands a respite.

Read this article:

Americans want an end to forever wars. But that's not what Trump offers - The Guardian

Architect of bin Laden raid says Trump is working to ‘destroy’ the country – CNN

Posted on by

"If you want to destroy an organization, any organization, you destroy it from within, you destroy it from without and then what you do is you convince everybody that you're doing the right thing," McRaven told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."

"So when you take a look at what the President has done, he's undermined the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, the Department of Justice, the State Department. He has called the press the enemy of the American people and I will tell you, I've fought a lot of America's enemies. The press is not the enemy of the American people."

McRaven, who oversaw the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, added that Trump is also "undermining us from without."

McRaven's comments to CNN expand on his New York Times op-ed published earlier Thursday under the headline "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President."

"...if this president doesn't demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office -- Republican, Democrat or independent -- the sooner, the better," he wrote. "The fate of our Republic depends upon it."

Trump has previously dismissed criticism from McRaven, labeling him a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2018.

CLARIFICATION: The headline and story have been updated to properly reflect McRaven's statements on CNN.

Go here to read the rest:

Architect of bin Laden raid says Trump is working to 'destroy' the country - CNN

Trump is on his way to an easy win in 2020, according to Moody’s accurate election model – CNBC

Posted on by

President Donald Trump pumps his fists as he arrives for a "Make America Great Again" rally at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, North Carolina, on July 17, 2019.

Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump looks likely to cruise to reelection next year under three different economic models Moody's Analytics employed to gauge the 2020 race.

Barring anything unusual happening, the president's Electoral College victory could easily surpass his 2016 win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, which came by a 304-227 count.

Moody's based its projections on how consumers feel about their own financial situation, the gains the stock market has achieved during Trump's tenure and the prospects for unemployment, which has fallen to a 50-year low. Should those variables hold up, the president looks set to get another four-year term.

The modeling has been highly accurate going back to the 1980 election, missing only once.

"If the economy a year from now is the same as it is today, or roughly so, then the power of incumbency is strong and Trump's election odds are very good, particularly if Democrats aren't enthusiastic and don't get out to vote," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics and co-author of the paper along with Dan White, the firm's director of government counsulting and fiscal policy research, and Bernard Yaros, an assistant director and economist. "It's about turnout."

Three models show Trump getting at least 289 electoral votes, assuming average turnout. His chances decrease with maximum turnout on the Democratic side and increase with minimum turnout expected.

Of the three models, he does best under the "pocketbook" measure of how people feel about their finances. In that scenario, assuming average nonincumbent turnout, he gets 351 electoral votes to the generic Democrat's 187. "Record turnout is vital to a Democratic victory," the report said.

In the stock market model, Trump gets a 289-249 edge, while the unemployment model shows a 332-206 advantage. Across all three models, Trump wins 324-214.

"Our 'pocketbook' model is the most economically driven of the three. If voters were to vote primarily on the basis of their pocketbooks, the president would steamroll the competition," the report said. "This shows the importance that prevailing economic sentiment at the household level could hold in the next election."

Stock market levels also are key, and the two are intertwined. Zandi said that even a garden-variety 12% market correction around election time could sway the race, as could an unexpected downturn in the economy.

The results might come as a surprise given Trump's consistently low favorability ratings 40% in the latest Gallup poll and as most head-to-head matchups against Democrats show the president losing.

However, the report said that Trump's relatively stable ratings help provide a good benchmark for how he will do once election time comes.

Zandi said the race could come down a few key counties in Pennsylvania, which Trump flipped in 2016 after the state had voted Democrat in the previous five presidential elections.

Specifically, he said Luzerne County, in the northeast part of the state, "is the single-most important county, no kidding, in the entire election." The longtime Democratic stronghold favored Trump, 51.8% to 46.8% in the election.

Trump doesn't even have to win the county, but merely needs a strong turnout, Zandi said.

The Moody's models have been backtested to 1980 and were correct each time except in 2016, when they ndicated Clinton would get a narrow victory. The authors attributed "unexpected turnout patterns" in Trump's favor caused the error and they adjusted for that in the latest projections. They also said the will be updating the projections as conditions develop and change.

WATCH: Josh Brown on what Trump's tax bill means for your money

The rest is here:

Trump is on his way to an easy win in 2020, according to Moody's accurate election model - CNBC

Trump Stuns Grieving Britons: Meet the Suspect in Your Sons Death – The New York Times

Posted on by

WASHINGTON President Trump said on Wednesday that he had tried unsuccessfully to arrange a White House meeting between the parents of a teenager killed in an August crash in Britain and the American driver involved in the crash.

The parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday evening but balked when he said that Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American diplomat whom British police are seeking for her involvement in the crash, was in a nearby room and wanted to meet with them.

I offered to bring the person in question in, the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. They werent ready for it. But I did offer.

The attempted intervention added another painful twist to a case that has enraged Britons in the weeks since Ms. Sacoolas, 42, claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country in the days after the crash that killed Harry Dunn, 19. Since then, British and American officials have said that Ms. Sacoolas's claim to immunity is no longer relevant since she has returned home.

Shortly after her 15-minute meeting with the president, Ms. Charles said Mr. Trump proposed that she and her husband meet with Ms. Sacoolas, but Mr. Dunn said that the meeting felt rushed and that it would not have gone well.

The bombshell was dropped not soon after we walked in the room, Ms. Charles told reporters. We would still love to meet with her, but it has to be on our terms and on U.K. soil.

Ms. Charles added that Ms. Sacoolas needs to come back and face the justice system.

In talking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he had arranged the meeting at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain.

He asked me if Id do that, and I did it, Mr. Trump said.

But an official in Mr. Johnsons office, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation, denied that the prime minister had suggested that Mr. Trump arrange the meeting in the way it was eventually formatted. The president brought up Ms. Sacoolas when the two leaders spoke last week, but no plans were completed.

The prime minister asked the president to do all he could to help resolve this tragic issue, a spokeswoman for Mr. Johnson said in a statement The president agreed to work on trying to find a way forward.

The end result was not what either side had envisioned.

Ms. Sacoolas was said to be devastated by this tragic incident, according to a statement made on her behalf by her lawyer, Amy Jeffress. No loss compares to the death of a child and Anne extends her deepest sympathy to Harry Dunns family, the statement said.

A person familiar with what transpired said Ms. Sacoolas had wanted to meet privately with the family, but was directed to come to the White House to participate in Mr. Trumps plan.

Mark Stephens, a lawyer for the Dunn family, called the presidents surprise offer of a meeting a gargantuan miscalculation, and suggested that the meeting had been orchestrated for the benefit of the news media.

Mr. Stephens told reporters that the meeting was attended by the head of U.S. spying, and later clarified in a phone interview on Wednesday that he was referring to Robert C. OBrien, the presidents national security adviser.

This OBrien had effectively curated the idea that there would be a confrontation between the Dunns and Mrs. Sacoolas and that the press would film it, Mr. Stephens said.

White House officials denied the claim that the meeting had been arranged with the idea that the news media would capture it, and reiterated that the British prime minister had helped hatch the plan.

The president met with members of the Dunn family to personally offer his condolences for the loss of their son, Mr. Trumps press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement. His intent was to do all he could to comfort the victims of a tragic accident. This was at the request of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Apart from expressing anguish at the familys loss through her lawyer, Ms. Sacoolas has not spoken out publicly about the crash, which occurred on Aug. 27 in Brackley, a town in Northamptonshire about 60 miles northwest of London near a Royal Air Force base that hosts a United States Air Force communication station.

The Northamptonshire police said it believed that Ms. Sacoolas had been driving on the wrong side of the road when her vehicle collided with a motorcycle ridden by Harry Dunn.

After the accident, the authorities said, Ms. Sacoolas told officers that she had no plans to travel abroad. But she abruptly left Britain, claiming diplomatic immunity and setting off an international uproar. On Sept. 5, Britain made a formal request for a waiver of diplomatic immunity to the United States Embassy in London. It was declined eight days later.

Despite being caught off guard by the presidents suggestion for an unplanned meeting with Ms. Sacoolas, Harry Dunns parents appeared grateful for Mr. Trumps interest in the case.

Ms. Charles said that the president was very gracious and very welcoming, and that though he did not suggest that Ms. Sacoolas would return to Britain, he said he would now push to look at this from a different angle.

I think he generally will look to try and resolve this in a way to help us, Mr. Dunn told reporters.

Last week, Mr. Trump described the death as a terrible accident, adding that it was a very, very complex issue because were talking about diplomatic immunity.

He also expressed understanding for Ms. Sacoolas, suggesting that he himself had driven on the wrong side of the road in Britain. On Wednesday, the president again expressed his sympathy for Ms. Sacoolas, whom he said had been confused by British driving laws.

I believe it was going down the wrong way because that happens in Europe, Mr. Trump told reporters. The roads are opposite. And she said thats what happened. That happens to a lot of people, by the way.

The president said that he had a beautiful meeting with the desperately sad parents, but that his involvement in the matter was through.

Now they say they only want to meet if theyre in the U.K., he said. And thatll be up to them.

Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Iliana Magra from London. Adam Goldman contributed reporting.

Follow this link:

Trump Stuns Grieving Britons: Meet the Suspect in Your Sons Death - The New York Times

Staring Down Donald Trump, the Same Elephant in Every Room – The New York Times

Posted on by

Every now and then, the internet coughs up a viral video that has the quality of found art. It may be jittery amateur iPhone footage; it may be a spontaneous moment captured by a pool photographer covering a news event. But it has the elegance and integrity and uncanny formal symmetry of something scripted.

One remarkable example is a recent video of the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, shot at the United Nations in New York on the morning of Sept. 23. The clip begins with Thunberg standing at the edge of a lobby crowded with onlookers and reporters. The camera is tightly focused on her face, and we watch that face transform. Thunbergs eyes narrow and harden; her mouth twists into a skeptical scowl. Suddenly, the camera whizzes back to reveal the object of her glare.

President Trump has entered the room. He is flanked by aides and dignitaries, and his mouth is moving rapidly, as it often does. But what seizes our attention is Trumps imposing physical presence in the foreground of the shot. We watch him move, with an imperious rhinocerine trudge, into the center of the frame, until he obscures our view of Thunberg almost altogether.

This sequence lasts only a few seconds, but it is a complete narrative, a story told so deftly with such faithfulness to Aristotelian dramatic principles and so sure a command of cinematic clichs that its hard to believe that it wasnt cooked up in Hollywood. The blocking, the beats, the zipping camera movement and, especially, the exaggerated actions and reactions of the protagonists all seem designed to heighten the drama and to underscore, for anyone who may have missed the point, that we are witnessing a stark morality play. The episode even had a foreshadowing prologue. That morning, in a speech to the world leaders gathered at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg delivered a warning. My message is that well be watching you, she said. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And there she was, not long afterward, fixing the planets most notorious climate-change denier with what the internet quickly deemed a death stare.

The video rocketed around the internet, generating memes and quips, none of them especially clever: Make America Greta Again; This Greta Thunberg stare-down is life goals; Find yourself someone who looks upon your worst enemy the way Greta Thunberg looks at Trump. Julin Castro, the Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted out the GIF under the caption I think a lot of us can relate.

The eagerness of so many to claim Thunberg as their glowering proxy was curious. That withering death stare was directed at Trump but was it directed only at Trump? Thunbergs message, reiterated that day in her speech at the United Nations, is a broad generational indictment that spares no one, at least no one over 18, for their empty words and inaction on the climate crisis. The countless thousands who have crammed social media feeds with variations on the theme We are all Greta Thunberg are seeking an absolution that Thunberg is not offering.

In fact, the viral popularity of this video may have little to do with climate change, or with the scouring power of Thunbergs gaze. The clip concisely encapsulates an experience to which, as Castro suggests, millions of us can relate. The key moment comes with that abrupt shift in focal point, when the camera seems to jump up and flee, zooming away from Thunberg to document the arrival of the president. It is a jarring bait and switch, a visual joke with a grim punch line. Thunberg is a small person but a mighty moral force; Trump, it seems fair to assert, is in both respects Thunbergs antithesis. Yet the camera is drawn away, and Thunberg recedes from view, her sharp features and bright magenta blouse reduced to indistinct splotches. She is eclipsed by the person of Trump, who heaves into the center of the frame like one of those giant cruise ships that arrive in the harbor to blot out the sun.

Famous, powerful people are known to make grand entrances. It is part of the gig. But Trumps way of lurching into a room is inseparable from his propensity for creating chaos and obliterating meaning. Thank you very much, thank you very much, he booms as he steps into the United Nations lobby. He seems to be addressing this thanks to everyone in the room, as if all those present have just burst into applause. (They havent.) He is merely Being Trump, doing what he does when he shows up anyplace, whether its a meeting of the Group of 7 or a wreath-laying commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery or a Super Bowl party at Mar-a-Lago: subjugating the entire purpose of the event to his own ego and id. It is a demeanor that announces that if anything is going to get done today, it will happen in spite, probably in defiance, of the president of the United States.

Trump wound up attending the climate meeting for about 15 minutes. There were more pressing matters to attend to. He posted on Twitter a dozen times that day, including tweets mocking Mitt Romney, Joe Biden and Adam Schiff. He also directed a trolling tweet at Thunberg: She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!

We are not all Greta Thunberg, but all of us know what its like to be ambushed by Donald Trump. He pops up on your social media feed with hateful words and impulsive policy announcements. He flickers on TV screens in bus terminals and airport departure lounges, forever looming over your shoulder. He barges unbidden into your dreams. It is a condition of being alive in America in 2019. No matter who you are or what youre trying to accomplish, whether youre a 16-year-old working to save the planet or an ordinary citizen trying to make it through the day with some peace of mind intact, you will inevitably confront the specter of Trump, drifting into the frame in a cloud of disorder and bad vibes. Even the presidents most dedicated enablers scan the sky warily, awaiting todays cyclone, the next reckless, capricious twist of the plot. The door swings open, the president enters, all heads turn. The camera whips around, and suddenly, everything else better angels, higher ideals, common decency, common sense, beauty, truth blurs into the background.

Continued here:

Staring Down Donald Trump, the Same Elephant in Every Room - The New York Times

There Is Definite Hanky-Panky Going On: The Fantastically Profitable Mystery of the Trump Chaos Trades – Vanity Fair

Posted on by

Traders in the Chicago pits have been watching these kinds of wagers with an increasing mixture of shock and awe since the start of the Trump presidency. They are used to rapid fluctuations in the S&P 500 index; volatility is common, of course. But the precision and timing of these trades, and the vast amount of money being made as a result of them, make the traders wonder if all this is on the level. Are the people behind these trades incredibly lucky, or do they have access to information that other people dont have about, say, Trumps or Beijings latest thinking on the trade war or any other of a number of ways that Trump is able to move the markets through his tweeting or slips of the tongue? Essentially, do they have inside information?

Theoretically, market regulators are supposed to be keeping an eye on big trades such as these, to try to figure out whether they are just happy coincidences or whether there is something more nefarious afoot. And they say they do. But calls to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the trades takes place, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the equity markets, and to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates futures contracts, such as e-minis, were answered in different ways. Christopher Carofine, at the SEC, declined to comment. The CFTC did not respond to my inquiries, while a spokeswoman for the CME says the trades in question did not originate from a single source and they were of no concern.

There is no way for another trader, let alone an outsider such as me, to know who is making these trades. But regulators know or can find out. One longtime CME trader who has been watching with disgust says hes never seen anything quite like these trades, not at least since al-Qaida cashed in before initiating the September 11 attacks. There is definite hanky-panky going on, to the worlds financial markets detriment, he says. This is abysmal.

In the case of Trump, market manipulation also yields political dividends. Perhaps the most obvious example dates to late August, when Trump, desperate to reignite trade talks with China, boasted during the G7 summit that his counterparts in Beijing had come back to the table. Weve gotten two callsvery, very good calls, he told reporters. They mean business. The market rose more than 900 points over the next few days. But a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said he was not aware of any such calls. An editor at the Global Times, the state-controlled newspaper, tweeted that he knew of no calls made in the days leading up to the G7 meeting and that China wont cave to US pressure. Two U.S government officials later told CNN that Trump misspoke and conflated comments from Chinas Vice Premier Liu He with direct communication from the Chinese. According to CNN, the officials said Trump was eager to project optimism that might boost markets.

Indeed, this single Trump lie briefly inflated domestic markets by hundreds of billions of dollars. What this describes is, quite literally, market manipulation that constitutes criminal violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, commented George Conway, the conservative attorney and Trump critic.

Whether Conway is right or wrong is a matter of legal opinion, but given how fishy and coincidental the trading in e-minis seems to be these days, the SEC or CFTC would be doing a great service (and their job) for the American people by investigating who is behind these lucrative trades, and what they knew before they placed them. At the moment, what were getting from them is an indifferent shrug.

Federal regulators might start here: In the last 10 minutes of trading on Friday, August 23, as the markets were roiling in the face of more bad trade news, someone bought 386,000 September e-minis. Three days later, Trump lied about getting a call from China to restart the trade talks, and the S&P 500 index shot up nearly 80 points. The potential profit on the trade was more than $1.5 billion.

See the original post:

There Is Definite Hanky-Panky Going On: The Fantastically Profitable Mystery of the Trump Chaos Trades - Vanity Fair

Bernard-Henri Lvy: Trump’s Syria withdrawal is ‘a nightmare and completely predictable’ – The Guardian

Posted on by

As Congress joined the widespread condemnation of Donald Trumps withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria and exposed the Kurds living there to Turkish assault, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lvy has launched a stinging attack on a fundamental betrayal of both the Kurds and American values.

It is a terrible deceit for democracy, a nightmare for the Kurdish people and, alas, completely predictable, Lvy told the Guardian in an interview.

Lvy published a book earlier this year, The Empire and the Five Kings, predicting that America would abandon its role in the region, leaving it to the ambitions of Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and Saudi-backed Sunni radical Islam.

I dont know which of Trumps justifications for the withdrawal of US troops is more stupid to say that the Kurds did not fight at Normandy, or to say, unlike Saudi Arabia, Kurds do not buy enough American goods.

I could not believe he would play his cards so openly or in such an obscene way, Lvy continued. It surpasses all my worst predictions.

On Wednesday, in a rare break with a president they are typically unwilling to criticize, two-thirds of Republicans in the House of Representatives, including all of the partys elected leaders, joined Democrats in approving a resolution opposing Trumps decision to greenlight Recep Tayyip Erdoans assault on the Kurds in semi-autonomous north-eastern Syria.

Turkeys president is fulfilling his war goals, and hes doing that with the encouragement of the United States, and to the indifference of the international community. As soon as his target is fulfilled, he will say I am a good guy and I will adhere to international pressure. And all of this will be done under the umbrella of the alleged peacemaker Vladimir Putin. It is a nightmare for the Kurdish people and, alas, predictable.

The other winner, Lvy asserts, is Iran. The practical consequence of the withdrawal of US troops is to aid its effort to establish a corridor of military control from Tehran to Beirut.

In a speech aired on Iranian television on Monday, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, boasted that Iran has now created territorial continuity by connecting Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Iran has completed it goal, Lvy says. Isis, which was on the edge of being defeated, has regained its head. That the word of America is becoming worthless is the source of great anxiety for Israel, and the US has no regional ally that can now sleep quietly.

On Thursday the US vice-president, Mike Pence, announced that Turkey had agreed to a five-day ceasefire in Syria,to allow Kurdish fighters to leave the strip of territory where they have set up their administration. Trump tweeted that it was a great day for civilization, but the deal essentially gives Turkey what it had sought to achieve with its incursion and places no obligation on Erdoan to withdraw his forces.

Lvy, no enemy to dressing simplistic ideas in shiny, philosophical costume, has made two films about the Kurdish resistance: Pershmerga and The Battle of Mosul, and he argues that when the US abandons the Kurds it abandons its own values.

This is an act of suicide for America directed by Donald Trump and we Europeans are taken in the process.

For the principles of America, for the values of America, for the creed of America, this is suicide. Whatever Trump says in the next hours, days or weeks, his words have no value, and it will take time for American words again to have value. For the moment they are worth zero.

Lvy is no stranger to controversy himself. He has written extensively about his love for America, has come under fire for his support of Frances burqa ban, his unconditonal love of Israel and claimed a role in encouraging the overthrow of Libyas Muammar Gaddafi, throwing the country into violent chaos.

Equally controversial has been his criticism of rape cases against Roman Polanski and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the IMF. Lvy claimed Strauss-Kahn, a friend, had been thrown to the dogs.

But he is deeply concerned over Americas retreat from its role on the world stage.

Lvy says his friends in America, from both sides of the political spectrum, are ashamed of what is happening.

We have seldom seen such a betrayal. Of course in all wars you have blood on your hands. Generally it is the blood of your enemies. In this case it is the blood of your friends.

Originally posted here:

Bernard-Henri Lvy: Trump's Syria withdrawal is 'a nightmare and completely predictable' - The Guardian

2014 photo shows earlier ties between Trump and indicted Giuliani associate – POLITICO

Posted on by

In between, on March 14, Jaros posted, Shout out to my ukranian boss and brother Lev Parnas thank you for eberything you and your team doing for me, i cant repay you enough!!!!!!!! and i want to meet the donald soon!!!!!!

That post suggests the meeting captured in the photo was not a chance interaction, and that Parnas had discussed his access to Trump with Jaros.

President Donald Trump alongside Lev Parnas.

Trump has sought to distance himself from Parnas, the Florida businessman at the center of a ballooning scandal over illicit foreign influence in his administration and, more broadly, the American political system. But the photograph and post provide further evidence that the two men are more closely tied than Trump has let on.

Other Facebooks posts by Jaros around that time describe Parnas as a business partner. Jaros does not reveal the nature of their work together, but on March 14, 2014, he posted, three letters llc!!!!!!!!!!!! on his Facebook page. May 28, 2014, he posted, two words foreign investments!!!!!!!!!!!! on his Facebook page. On May 22, he posted, i was told today some people i deal with have 300 mllion in dong in their posession.

A year later, on May 12, 2015, he posted a photo of Parnas sitting in the backseat of a Rolls Royce with the caption, the big homie, okk, one call and bammm!!!!!!

Jaros is an itinerant musician and music producer, who has worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Queens, New York; Atlanta and Minneapolis, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The profile also describes it as his job to "negotiate and close deals centered on gold oil, rough diamonds" for a business called Gabriel and Jaros Holdings. Jaros's work appears to be lucrative. He regularly posts photos of large piles of cash on his social media accounts.

Jaros did not immediately respond to requests for comment made over social media. A lawyer for Parnas, John Dowd, said he did not know anything about the photographed interaction and declined to answer further questions.

Following the unsealing of Parnas indictment last week for campaign finance violations over alleged schemes to buy political influence on behalf of foreigners, Trump said he did not know Parnas or his business partner and co-defendant, Igor Fruman. I dont know those gentleman, he told reporters before boarding Marine One en route to a campaign rally in Minneapolis. Maybe they were clients of Rudy. Youd have to ask Rudy.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal described Parnas attendance at a Trump campaign fundraiser attended by the candidate and Giuliani in October 2016 as his first known appearance in Mr. Trumps circle. Parnas, 47, told The Washington Post that he sold Trump Organization condos while Trumps father, Fred, was still running the business.

POLITICO reported on Friday that the French newspaper Le Figaro interviewed Parnas at the Trump campaigns invite-only election night party in 2016, and that Parnas described himself to the paper as a friend of Trumps.

Those are not Parnas only ties to the campaign. His son, Aaron, volunteered for the Trump campaign in Florida in 2016, according to a 2017 profile in The Palm Beach Post.

A man answering the phone at a number listed for Aaron Parnas hung up after hearing they had been reached by a reporter. The person did not respond to follow-up text messages.

In May 2018, Parnas posted a photo of himself with Trump at the White House with a caption describing an incredible dinner and even better conversation, in a screenshot captured by The Campaign Legal Center. Later that month he posted a picture of himself with Fruman and Donald Trump Jr. in Beverly Hills, with the caption Power Breakfast!!!

Spokespeople for the White House and the Trump reelection campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Susan Wiles, who co-chaired Trumps 2016 campaign in Florida, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Marc Caputo contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story cited a French newspaper report. The report appeared in Le Figaro.

More:

2014 photo shows earlier ties between Trump and indicted Giuliani associate - POLITICO

Turkey pushes Syria offensive against Kurds in spite of US President Donald Trump warning and sanctions today – CBS News

Posted on by

Last Updated Oct 15, 2019 7:51 AM EDT

Dohuk, Iraq Dismissing warnings from President Donald Trump and the imposition of economic sanctions, Turkey's leader has defended his attack on America's former Kurdish allies in northern Syria and insisted he will push on with the offensive until his government's "objectives have been achieved." Turkey considers the Kurdish militias who helped the U.S. defeat ISIS in Syria to be terrorists, and for years Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has wanted to push them back from his southern border, deeper into Syrian territory.

As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reported on Tuesday, it may be hard to hear Mr. Trump's demands for a ceasefire over the deafening explosions on the battlefields of northern Syria.

Despite growing international pressure to bring an end to the violence, Erdogan's forces have, if anything, stepped up their military campaign to grab land before advancing Syrian regime forces arrive to retake key Kurdish cities.

On Mr. Trump's orders, the roughly 1,000 American forces who had operated for years in northern Syria, effectively shielding the Kurds from a Turkish offensive, have been ordered out, leaving the U.S. military largely out of the picture.

Retreating U.S. troops have been seen on the move, fearful of being caught between the advancing Turkish army and its allies pushing south, and the forces of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad as they push north. U.S. officials have told CBS News they intend to get all the U.S. troops out of northern Syria within a month.

A journalist who works for Russia's state-run press posted video on Tuesday allegedly from inside the abandoned U.S. base in Manbij, right on the western edge of the Kurdish territory, saying: "I'm now at the American base. Let's see how they're living." The reporter also posted video of himself operating a steel barrier meant to thwart suicide truck bombs. There were no Russian troops seen at the base with him, nor any of Assad's forces who they back.

America's quick exit changed the landscape of northern Syria dramatically and immediately. D'Agata and his team not only had to avoid Syrian regime forces as they headed for the Iraqi border on Monday, but the Turkish military and its allied extremist militias, and an emerging ISIS threat, too.

Tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians have been caught up in the widening chaos in the region. Victims of indiscriminate shelling have packed into over-stretched hospitals and D'Agata saw for himself how under-resourced the facilities are.

One surgeon told CBS News they're desperate for medicine and equipment, and on the verge of collapse.

The United Nations estimates at least 160,000 people have been displaced by the fighting already, and that figure keeps climbing.

Defending the offensive in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Turkey's Erdogan said his country had "reached its limit," dealing with the 3.6 million refugees from the Syrian conflict who have sought shelter in his country.

Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters - forces who were once America's most loyal ally in the fight against ISIS - as terrorists who must be eradicated.

Kurdish commanders told CBS News on Tuesday that some American troops had actually requestedtheir help in Kobani, where the U.S. has its biggest base in the region, to keep the advancing Syrian regime forces out of the area until they're able withdraw.

2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Continued here:

Turkey pushes Syria offensive against Kurds in spite of US President Donald Trump warning and sanctions today - CBS News

Trump is anti-abortion. That alone explains why Christians favor him – Los Angeles Times

Posted on by

To the editor: Letter writers bemused by evangelical Christians support for President Trump seem to be missing the entire picture.

Not one Democratic presidential candidate is antiabortion, and President Trump is. People who are against abortion will not vote for a president who does not support defending the life of a child in the womb.

Its that simple. This is what evangelical Christians believe, that all people have the God-given right to life.

How on Earth can these letter writers substantiate that their claim that Trump is un-Christian? In fact, evangelical Christians are backing the only candidate running for president who supports life.

Karen Strickland, Palm Springs

..

To the editor: No doubt the Los Angeles Times never runs short of letters pondering how religious conservatives can so reliably side with a president whose immorality dwarfs that of most (if not all) of his predecessors.

Whats with those devout souls? Shouldnt they prefer a president who abides by the biblical mandate to do unto others as they do unto him? Trumps manifold well-documented sins suggest that he disdains the Golden Rule.

Those true believers who so blindly back Trump need divine intervention. Lets pray for their deliverance from the wilderness of willful ignorance, lest they flounder in the fog of cognitive dissonance.

Edward Alston, Santa Maria

Read more:

Trump is anti-abortion. That alone explains why Christians favor him - Los Angeles Times

Perverting the Golden Rule | Opinion | dailyitem.com – Sunbury Daily Item

Posted on by

Although there is much to unite us, there are many ways to divide us. Republicans seem generally to see themselves as tough-minded realists who like to view progressives as snowflakes living in a fantasy world. Republicans are more cynical, progressives more optimistic; Republicans see personal responsibility as doing first for themselves and their families, while progressives are concerned with doing the least harm and acting for the general good.

Our loose-lipped commander-in-chief admittedly withheld aid authorized for the Ukraine conditioning its release on fulfillment of his request for a favor, in the form of an investigation to improve his chances of re-election. Even though the former, wronged Prosecutor General in Ukraine was doing nothing about corruption, and there was general, allied consensus that he needed to be replaced, Trump now smears Biden (throw mud and some will stick!). As president, he claims, he did nothing wrong, and that his now-infamous telephone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was perfect, only about the corruption of others. However misguided, he seems to believe what he says and keeps on saying. How can that be?

Trump was born into privilege and inherited substantial wealth from his father. His father, in turn, was a landlord not immune from racial discrimination or bending the rules to maximize wealth. Against a very checkered history and multiple bankruptcies, Trump claims to be an astute business-man and deal-maker. Unfortunately, his wealth appears more to have accumulated from his being a conniving bully, not tethered to a historic sense of right and wrong, but rather to a value system based primarily on personal greed and satisfying personal desire. As a candidate, he invited the Russians to hack the Democrats, and his invitation was acted upon; as president, he thus can see no difference, and no wrong, in conditioning release of congressionally approved military aid upon performance of his personal bidding to get dirt, however removed from factual reality, on Joe Biden.

Unwanted physical contact with women? OK as long as you can get away with it; take action about gun violence in the U.S.? Give it lip service but do nothing as long as the stream of financial support from the NRA continues. Challenge the oil companies about the impending crisis of climate change and global warming? Not as long as the checks come in; while were at it, lets end the ability of formerly smoggy California to require higher fuel-efficiency standards, and open public lands to drilling. Do something about the spiraling deficit? Not if we can lower taxes for the wealthy, self included, and so on, and on, and on.

And so it goes, and Putin smiles, with Trump attacking the press, attacking adversaries, making nice with those loyal to him and those whose loyalty gives him personal advantage:A bastardized trickle down theory of that which enriches me eventually will be good for you, but if you cross me, youll have hell to pay.

A code of conduct based on what has become known as the Golden Rule is to do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Although not generally followed in the realm of politics, it has never been so perverted as it has been by our commander-in-chief. Rather, the arch-typical bully, he does unto others to get a personal leg up. Its high time that he be held to account.

Joe DeCristopher lives in Lewisburg and retired after 36 years in the Sunbury offices of Susquehanna, later, North Penn, Legal Services.

Continued here:

Perverting the Golden Rule | Opinion | dailyitem.com - Sunbury Daily Item

It took a 13-year-old to show the adults how to conduct themselves | Nancy Eshelman – PennLive

Posted on by

No one was anticipating last weekends midget football game more than Stephen Hudson Jr. and his pal Camden Ward. Both attend Swatara Middle School, but Stephen plays for the Swatara Tigers and Camden for the Seven Sorrows Eagles.

The buddies exchanged good-natured ribbing in the days leading up to the game between the two teams, and they were eager for the battle.

The game turned into a battle all right, but not in the way the boys were expecting.

If you stop by here regularly, you might remember that last weeks column focused on sportsmanship. My point was that it should extend into the stands, with parents providing positive examples. To put it simply, I equated sportsmanship with the Golden Rule.

Unfortunately, nothing golden happened in the stands when Swatara took on Seven Sorrows.

Near the end of the second quarter, with Seven Sorrows leading 21-0, two players got into an argument, a tussle, a fight, depending on who is telling the story. The ref tossed them both out of the game.

Tempers flared. Swatara parents yelled at the ref. The Swatara coach said some nasty words. The ref responded by throwing the coach out of the game. The parents protests grew louder.

Eventually, the ref, who said he feared for his safety, called the police. Then he strongly suggested the Swatara fans leave before he had them arrested.

As they exited, most of the parents took their sons with them.

Down on the field, the game was cancelled. Swatara forfeited.

Then, amid the chaos, Stephen Hudson Jr. did something that no one expected. The kid, who plays fullback and linebacker, walked across the playing field alone and shook hands with each of the Seven Sorrows players.

This 13-year-old boys demonstration of sportsmanship roused the Seven Sorrows stands, where people began clapping and cheering.

Nicole Mehalick, a Seven Sorrows fan, said Stephens actions renewed her hope in the younger generation.

This young man showed so much maturity and integrity, and his sportsmanship shined through. It shined brighter than any grown adult man on that field, she said.

Camden Wards mother, Brandi, echoed those sentiments.

I was so moved by what he did, she said. At their age, its so much easier to be a follower than a leader.

Respect also came from his own team.

Steve Hudson Jr.'s demonstration of sportsmanship roused the Seven Sorrows stands, where people began clapping and cheering.

That was great of him, said James Banks, the Swatara coach who got tossed. Hes an inspiration to me, and Im in my 50s.

Banks, who admitted he should have checked his emotions during the game, said he wasnt surprised.

Hes one of those kids. He stays real respectful, he said.

Meanwhile, Stephens mother, Brittany Moore, said she has been inundated with messages praising her son.

When so many people were touched by it, it was a shock to me, she said. I cried reading so many nice things.

The sad ending to the story is the events caused the league to end the Swatara teams season. The kids, including Stephen, wont play their final game or participate in the playoffs.

Its really a sad situation that the players are being punished for adults poor behavior, Stephens mother said, but Im proud that my son was able to show a high level of maturity through it all.

Kudos, Stephen. You deserve a sportsmanship award.

NANCY ESHELMAN: columnist1@verizon.net

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

Read more from the original source:

It took a 13-year-old to show the adults how to conduct themselves | Nancy Eshelman - PennLive

‘Reptile theory’ loses in bid to reduce $26.5M truck crash verdict – Land Line Media

Posted on by

A federal judge has upheld a $26.5 million judgment against two trucking companies after attorneys tried to use the reptile theory to lower the verdict amount.

On Oct. 11, a judge in a federal court in Oregon denied Horizon Transports motion for a new trial and a challenge to a jurys damage awards. The judge did not buy what is known as the reptile theory as justification for either motion.

In May, a jury found two companies jointly liable for a fatal crash caused by road rage. Brigham City, Utah-based Smoot Bros. Transportation was ordered to pay $1.5 million in punitive damages. Wakarusa, Ind.-based Horizon has to pay $5 million. Both are responsible for the remaining $20 million to the two plaintiffs.

Smoot had entered into an agreement with the plaintiffs before trial. As a result, it was dismissed from the lawsuit after the trial. However, Horizon challenged the damages award, asking the court for a new trial or to reduce the amount.

Explaining the need for a new trial, attorneys for Horizon employed the reptile theory. According to an American Bar Association article, reptile theory shifts the emphasis in lawsuits away from sympathy for an individual or class-action plaintiff and toward anger and punishment for a wrongdoer in order to vindicate the safety or similar interests of the community of which trial jurors are members.

In essence, reptile theory is a reference to the primitive part of the human brain that responds to fear. Also shared by reptiles, this part of the brain favors safety and survival, according to law firm Epstein Becker Green.

Applied in the court room, reptile theory is the act of scaring the jury into fearing for their lives. If done effectively, the result is a win and a large damage award.

Horizons attorneys used that same closing statement to employ the golden rule argument as well. The golden rule argument encourages the jury to put themselves in the position of a party and render a verdict that the jurors would want if they were in that partys position, according to the court opinion.

However, the court pointed out that even if the argument was valid, which it is not, Horizons attorneys made the same error. During the trial the defense counsel told the jury You have a very important job here, according to court records. Youre not only the voice of the community but the conscience of the community.

Even if the reptile theory or golden rule arguments were valid, the court said objections were untimely. Attorneys should have raised those issues immediately after, not once the verdict was made.

Also relevant to the reptile theory, the Ninth Circuit has stated before that using some degree of emotionally charged language during closing argument in a civil case is a well-accepted tactic in American courtrooms.

The court was unpersuaded by either the reptile theory or golden rule argument. Consequently, the $26.5 million verdict was upheld, keeping Horizon on the hook for punitive damages of $5 million.

Continued here:

'Reptile theory' loses in bid to reduce $26.5M truck crash verdict - Land Line Media

Guitar Center Black Friday deals 2019: how to get the best prices on guitars, drums, keyboards and more – MusicRadar

Posted on by

Black Friday 2019 is just around the corner, and that means lots of chances to save on that oh-so-necessary new music gear. As one of world's largest music gear outlets, Guitar Center is sure to have plenty of enticing offerings for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If you're in the market for a new guitar, bass, electronic drum set, MIDI keyboard or audio interface, Guitar Center are bound to have a deal worth considering, and we here at MusicRadar will ferreting out the very best savings, so bookmark this page now to ensure that you don't miss out on the biggest Guitar Center Black Friday bargains.

Bookmark the MusicRadar Black Friday music deals hub Up up to 25% off at Guitar Center Check out Guitar Center's drum deals Deals on guitars at Guitar Center

Although Black Friday isn't until 29 November, the best Guitar Center deals are likely to kick off ahead of the big day and there should be plenty of bargains to be had right through to Cyber Monday on 2 December.

Despite its name, Guitar Center actually stocks pretty much everything any musician could want, so it's a great place to go if you want to give your studio an overhaul. You might head to the website planning to buy a guitar, but the company also sells all the music making products you could ever need: MIDI keyboards, studio monitors, electronic drum kits and more.

Black Friday is also the time to stock up on those music making essentials and accessories too: guitar strings, tuners, picks and straps are just the start. If you can make music with it, it's more than likely that Guitar Center will have it.

You should be spoilt for choice from Guitar Center's massive stock when Black Friday rolls around.

Last year saw the announcement of big price drops across Gibson's range, for instance, so we wouldn't be surprised to see more wide-range blanker discounts on other firm's offerings for Black Friday 2019.

The golden rule on when hunting for Black Friday music deals is to know what you're looking for. Whether you're a guitarist, bassist, drummer, producer or DJ, think about what you need to improve your music-making life and then start researching it. This will save you a lot of time when the Sweetwater Black Friday deals start rolling in, as you'll quickly be able to decide what's relevant to you and what isn't.

Also make sure you're aware of current prices - that way you'll know how good a deal something really is when you see it reduced on Black Friday. Some supposed 'savings' aren't everything that they seem.

The good news is that you can easily find out what the best music-making products are by checking out MusicRadar's portfolio of buying guides.

Here is the original post:

Guitar Center Black Friday deals 2019: how to get the best prices on guitars, drums, keyboards and more - MusicRadar

5 Habits of happy mothers – Aleteia EN

Posted on by

Being a mother can be a very demanding task, but with a positive attitude and some practical habits, we can learn to enjoy the daily challenges of maternity.Learn to ask for help

First of all, happy mothers arent afraid of asking for help. They understand that although they can do a lot, we all have our limitations, and its important to have people we can fall back on when we need help.

Theres no point in trying to do it all on our own and ending up in a bad mood or overwhelmed, afflicted by feelings of guilt, because were too proud to ask for the help we need.

Being a parent is a full-time job, often alongside a professional career, and we shouldnt wait for an emergency to book a babysitter or to ask a family member to help out for a while when wed ordinarily be at home with the kids. Its healthy for both mothers and for the children to have a little time apart sometimes: moms need to give themselves permission to get together with friends, take a long hot bath, or enjoy a romantic dinner or a fun movie with their husband.

Between work and raising kids, it can be hard for parents to make time for exercise, but the golden rule should be to get outdoors at least once a day. Fresh air, natural sunlight, and contact with nature are all factors that can improve our mood and recharge our energy. Mothers can enjoy these benefits while pushing a stroller, for example.

Exercising and stretching can help us keep (or get) our body into shape, as well as refreshing our mind and our mood so we can make it through the rest of the day. Its good for our children too, especially today when its easy for them to spend all their time either at school or indoors doing homework or interacting with a screen.

Children love it when we smile at them. The very act of making ourselves smile or laugh can help stimulate the production of brain chemicals that improve our mood. Wrinkles from smiles are nothing to be ashamed of; on the contrary, they reveal a happy soul.

Hugs are healthy, too! Happy mothers embrace their children every time they get the chance. This is a good idea, because as time goes on and our children grow up well have fewer and fewer opportunities to do it.

Routine can be tiring. Its important to inject a little fun into our daily tasks, which could otherwise be boring but which we cannot avoid. When we go to the supermarket, we can bring some fun toys from home to keep the kids content, and when we get home, we can invite our kids into the kitchen to share time with them while they help unload and put away the groceries.

We can also be creative, and play games with our children or involve them in some other activity related to things that are going on in the world or at home at that time, such as the Olympics, the saint of the day, or some other important event. With this perspective, we can make each day special and unique.

We all want to live up to our ideals about parenting and to do everything right all the time. Nevertheless, there are days when things get out of hand, we are too tired to do it all, we run out of patience, and we bribe our kids with candy or with an episode of their favorite TV program.

Happy mothers know that they need to accept the fact that some days are chaotic and very difficult. Accepting this fact and not letting it upset us too much, focusing on the positive instead, is essential. We need to recognize that bad situations wont last forever.

Theres no way to feel happy all the time, but these practical suggestions can help us deal with the stresses of parenting and avoid common causes of unnecessary headaches and stress.

More here:

5 Habits of happy mothers - Aleteia EN

Now Closed: The Root and Soul in North Scottsdale – Phoenix New Times

Posted on by

The Root and Soul, a 2018-established north Scottsdale restaurant that specialized in gourmet soul food, has closed. The soul food eatery at Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and 100th Street was operated byChristian Buze whose grandmother is Elizabeth White, founder of the iconic Mrs. Whites Golden Rule Cafe in downtown Phoenix.

The menu listed southern staples like fried fish, pork chops, chicken and waffles, sandwiches, soul-style sides, and grits. But it was also known for its fried chicken, recently winning a 2019 Best of Phoenix award for best fried chicken. The dish was brined for 24 hours, coated in an 11-spice blend, and cooked in cast iron.

A sign is posted at the entrance regarding the closure, but no notes have been post via social media as of now.

"We are at a crossroad. We have repairs that need to be done that are very expensive,"Buze says via email. "So Im weighing my options."

For more information, visit TheRoot and Soul website.

Editor's note: This article has been updated from its original version.

Lauren Cusimano is Phoenix New Times' food editor. She is a journalist based in Tempe with more than 10 years of experience writing and editing. She enjoys eating wings, riding bikes, going to dive bars, talking too much about The Simpsons, and falling asleep while reading.

Original post:

Now Closed: The Root and Soul in North Scottsdale - Phoenix New Times

Worthington Industries to Host Investor Day in NYC – GlobeNewswire

Posted on by

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Worthington Industries, Inc. (NYSE: WOR) today announced that it will host an Investor Day event in New York, N.Y. on Nov. 13, 2019. Presentations by the Companys executive management team will provide an overview of the Companys operations, financial performance and long-term growth strategy.

The event will begin at 9:30 a.m. ET and end at approximately 12:30 p.m. ET. A live and archived webcast of the event will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Companys website atwww.WorthingtonIndustries.com.

Due to limited capacity, in-person attendance will be by invitation only. To request an invitation, please contactAllison.Dune@WorthingtonIndustries.com.

About Worthington Industries Worthington Industries is a leading global diversified metals manufacturing company with 2019 fiscal year net sales of $3.8 billion. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Worthington is North Americas premier value-added steel processor, providing customers with wide ranging capabilities, products and services for a variety of markets including automotive, construction and agriculture; a global leader in manufacturing pressure cylinders for propane, refrigerant and industrial gasses and cryogenic applications, water well tanks for commercial and residential uses, CNG and LNG storage, transportation and alternative fuel tanks, oil & gas equipment, and consumer products for camping, grilling, hand torch solutions and helium balloon kits; and a manufacturer of operator cabs for heavy mobile industrial equipment; laser welded blanks for light weighting applications; automotive racking solutions; and through joint ventures, complete ceiling grid solutions; automotive tooling and stampings; and steel framing for commercial construction. Worthington employs approximately11,000 people and operates 71 facilities in 7 countries.

Founded in 1955, the Company operates under a long-standing corporate philosophy rooted in the golden rule. Earning money for its shareholders is the first corporate goal. This philosophy serves as the basis for an unwavering commitment to the customer, supplier, and shareholder, and as the Companys foundation for one of the strongest employee-employer partnerships in American industry.

Safe Harbor StatementThe company wishes to take advantage of the Safe Harbor provisions included in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("the Act"). Statements by the company which are not historical information constitute "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the Act. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include risks described from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contacts:SONYAL.HIGGINBOTHAMVP, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AND BRAND MANAGEMENT614.438.7391|sonya.higginbotham@worthingtonindustries.com

MARCUS A. ROGIERTREASURER AND INVESTOR RELATIONS OFFICER614.840.4663 | marcus.rogier@worthingtonindustries.com

200OldWilsonBridgeRd.|Columbus,Ohio43085WorthingtonIndustries.com

Original post:

Worthington Industries to Host Investor Day in NYC - GlobeNewswire

Coach of Youth Football Team That Suffered Blowout Loss Responds to Backlash Over Possible $500 Fine for Winning Coach – NBC 10 Philadelphia

Posted on by

What to Know

A possible $500 fine for the coach of a local youth football team for a blowout win that violated league rules sparked a big backlash on social media. Now the coach of the team on the losing end is speaking out on the controversy.

Jerry "Bart" Bartholomew, the president and coach of the Roxborough Eagles, faced off against Coach Kyle Williams and his Conshohocken Golden Bears Saturday in a Keystone Sports League matchup.

The Golden Bears, made up of kids no older than 7 years of age, dominated the game from the start, going up 30 to 0 with only minutes left. Under league rules, a team cannot go up by more than 30 points.

"Less than two minutes left I called a timeout because I wanted to pull the starters off the field," Williams told NBC10 Monday. "I put kids in there who normally never played."

When one of the second stringers, a 5-year-old boy, got the ball he ran toward the end zone as Williams ran along the sideline and repeatedly yelled for him to fall down. The boy still scored however, putting the team up 36 to 0.

"All day long they called that play and it was a touchdown," Bartholomew told NBC10 Thursday. "Coach obviously knew the rule because he was running down the sideline after he called a timeout with like 30 seconds left to supposedly get a kid into the game."

Williams is now facing a possible $500 fine and a 2-game suspension.

"I have three sons," Williams said. "I'm not gonna tell my son, especially if he's running the ball, 'Don't go out there and give it your all.'"

The issue likely would have gotten little attention if not for Williams brother-in-law, former Philadelphia Eagle Torrey Smith. In a viral tweet, Smith criticized the punishment, calling it an example of building weak children.

Williams also gained overwhelming support on social media. In an NBC10 Facebook poll made up of around 8600 votes, 89% of users stated Williams should not be fined in comparison to only 11% who said he should. Some coaches and parents even offered to help Williams pay the fine.

Despite this, Bartholomew still believes Williams should be punished.

Hes going to the court of public opinion, trying to get people to support him and sympathize with him going with, Poor me. Im getting penalized because I coach a very good team. No, youre getting penalized because you went against the rules," Bartholomew said.

Bartholomew told NBC10 the mercy rule is in place to protect the young players in the league and that violating the rule could potentially make the children want to leave.

"Players don't want to come back," he said. "Parents don't want their kids to go through that."

The president of the Conshohocken Golden Bears executive board told NBC10 the board does not condone Williams' choice to run the play.

Williams is expected to appear at a league hearing in the next few weeks in which a decision could be made on whether or not he'll be fined.

Videocourtesy of Vizion Event Management

Originally posted here:

Coach of Youth Football Team That Suffered Blowout Loss Responds to Backlash Over Possible $500 Fine for Winning Coach - NBC 10 Philadelphia

Ways to get Removed at Blizzcon 2019 – KeenGamer News

Posted on by

Blizzcon rules and guidelines exist to help attendees understand how to behave while on the premises and what is and isnt allowed to get in.

Things arent looking up forBlizzard anytime soon, and it seems like the bad decisions they have are just lurking, waiting for the worst possible time to come out (Diablo Immortal, Im looking at you), and this year everything started happening on the verge of Blizzcon, their big convention in which they announce their upcoming plans in front of the fans that had probably saved up to assist.

The reason behind this particular opinion piece, is that Ive been covering the events unfolding around Blizzard since the decision to ban pro-player Blitzchung over a political statement. In fact, Ive written a comprehensive All-you-need-to-know article, in case youre still a little lost, and I wanted to get a little ahead of myself and keep an eye out for any Blizzcon/Blizzard development that might occur. In particular, although Im not anticipating this to actually happen, Im keeping an eye on the rules that govern the convention, in case there any last-minute changes, such as banning Winnie the Pooh Cosplays or bringing in signs in support of the Hong Kong protests.

Now, Im not saying I believe this isgoing to happen, but I dont believe, seeing what weve seen so far, that they wouldnt react and/or do something about any of these things that they might find in violation of their guidelines.

And thus, I bring you the Ways to get Removed from Blizzcon.

Be a child. One of the first things mentioned in their rules is that children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult to be let in. Under no circumstances will they grant entry to kids aged 5 or under. No strollers allowed, either.

Bring a big bag. If you are trying to have event security take away your bag, you must simply go over the permitted 18x12x8 inches dimensions. Also, be aware that all bags are subject to inspection at any time.

Bring pretty much any electronics besides a cellphone or simple camera:This might come as an exaggeration, but bringing any personal computer, storage device, drone, selfie sticks, tripod, GoPro or anything that doesnt resemble a cellphone is a big NO-NO. As far as cameras go, anything with a permanent lense larger than 6 inches is also prohibited. Also, Streaming anything other than esports events is also prohibited, you cant even point your phone to the screens.

Leave your common-sense at home:This is a public place, so dont bring anything that you wouldnt take to the library. No motorized vehicles, no scooters, no animals, no flammables, no confetti. Pretty much just be logical here. Exceptions are made for differently-abled people and/or licensed service animals. No emotional support animals, though.

BYOF: Any external edibles or drinkables aside from sealed water bottles are prohibited.

Show off your arsenal:Any (real) weapon is not allowed. Ranging from flammable liquids, passing through knives and firearms and landing on crossbows.

Show lack of judgement with your costume:When bringing a costume to Blizzcon, the best way to not even be let inside is to go over the permitted dimensions: no wider than 4 feet, longer than 6 feet, or taller than 8 feet. You could also get yourself removed or your weapon prop taken away if they can in any way hurt somebody. So if your prop firearm actually fires or your arrows are actually sharp or your Junkrat shell has actual metal spikes, well, its getting taken away. Again, common sense is the golden rule here.

So far weve been going through all the rules that are spelt out for us. Follow permitted dimensions when it comes to costumes and bags, dont make any dangerous weapon, dont bring any real weapons, forget getting anything other than your phone and short-snubbed camera in, and you should be good. However, there is an 8th way to get yourself removed from Blizzcon, or who knows? maybe even not be let inside.

Pull a Wildcard. Like having a Joker in your hand when playing cards, the Wildcard can be literally anything. Ill explain: Blizzard has stated in their rules that In order to ensure the event provides a safe, enjoyable, and welcoming environment for everyone, Blizzard reserves the right to remove from BlizzCon any person whose conduct is deemed to be disorderly or unbecoming

While this might sound like a legit and reasonable rule, I cant help but relate it to the Hearthstone Grandmasters Official Competition Rules v.1.4 p. 12, section 6.1 (otherwise known as the cited rule Blizzard used to disqualify and ban Blitzchung), which reads:Engaging in any act that,in Blizzards sole discretion, brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image will result in removal from Grandmasters

My concern with this vague wording of ruling is that, while I understand things can be unpredictable and you cant contemplate everything in your rules, this also gives ground to pretty much make up stuff to get you removed from Blizzcon or denied entry. If it happened at Hearthstone it can certainly happen at Blizzcon.

Well be keeping an eye for any last-minute corrections to the Blizzcon rules, in case something is deemed important to add in short notice atBlizzards sole discretion.

Read the rest here:

Ways to get Removed at Blizzcon 2019 - KeenGamer News