More than a game: ND Ethics Week examines sports and the common good – ND Newswire

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The 2017 edition of Notre Dame Ethics Week will put a new spin on a popular topic sports.

The annual conference, held Feb. 14-17 at the University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business, will explore Sports and the Common Good through a series of panel discussions, speakers and even the showing of a classic baseball movie.

Sports is big business, said Brian Levey, Mendoza teaching professor and one of the Ethics Week organizers. Estimates peg the global sports market at $1.5 trillion. And by examining sports from a deeper perspective, we can explore business ethics issues in a relatable manner. Winning, losing, fair play, cheating, equality, discrimination, altruism, egoism -- sports has it all.

Ethics Week events, which are free and open to the public, take place in the Giovanini Commons located in the lower level of Mendoza College of Business unless otherwise noted in the following schedule:

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 4:30-5:30 p.m.: Panel discussion: Life Lessons from Sports: Performance & Purpose, featuring Christopher Adkins, executive director of the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership; and Amber Lattner, founder, Lattner Performance Group

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 12:20-1:30 p.m.: Panel discussion: Building Global Bridges through Sports, featuring Guiorgie Gia Kvaratskhelia, head fencing coach, University of Notre Dame; Notre Dame student-athletes Jonah Shainberg (fencing) and Sandra Yu (soccer); and Mario Berkeley, Mendoza teaching assistant (moderator)

Thursday, Feb. 16, 5:30-7:45 p.m.: Movie night: The Natural, showing in Mendozas Jordan Auditorium, immediately followed by Panel & Pizza

Thursday, Feb. 16, 7:45-8:30 p.m.: Panel & Pizza: Discussion of the novel, The Natural: Messiah in Uniform, by Bernard Malamud, featuring Michael Cozzillio, Widener University Commonwealth Law School; and Ed Edmonds, Notre Dame Law School. Note: Free pizza will be provided to the first 75 movie attendees who also attend the panel discussion

Friday, Feb. 17, 12-1 p.m.: "Prolanthrophy: The Business of Helping Athletes Give Back, featuring J. Jonathan Hayes, principal director, Pro Sports, Pegasus Partners Ltd.

Notre Dame Ethics Week takes place annually in February, and brings in experts from a diverse array of industries to explore current ethics issues. The event is sponsored by the Mendoza College of Business and the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership.

Now in its 20th year, Notre Dame Ethics Week was established to encourage the discussion of ethical matters in undergraduate and graduate business classes atNotreDame and to secure a foundation for future discussions inside and outside the classroom. The event continues the legacy of JohnHouck, aNotreDame management professor who authored numerous works on business ethics, including Is the Good Corporation Dead?Houckdied in 1996.

For more information aboutNotreDame Ethics Week, contact Brian Levey at(574) 631-3560orblevey@nd.edu.

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More than a game: ND Ethics Week examines sports and the common good - ND Newswire

THE BACKSTORY: How Trump got to yes on Gorusch — PLAYBOOK EXCLUSIVE: PETRAEUS warns US … – Politico

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Driving the Day

Listen to Playbook in 90 Seconds http://bit.ly/2kQMYba Subscribe on iTunes http://apple.co/2eX6Eay Visit the online home of Playbook http://politi.co/2f51Jnf

JUST A THOUGHT: Earlier this week, President Donald Trump mocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for crying about the plight of immigrants, saying he was faking, and wondering aloud from the White House who his acting coach was. Yesterday, he followed that up by calling him Fake Tears Chuck Schumer to his 23 million Twitter followers. Now hes asking Schumer to expedite the consideration and support Neil Gorsuch, his nominee for the Supreme Court. Do you think thats how this works, Mr. President?

Story Continued Below

Good Wednesday morning and welcome to February. Yes, we expect Gorsuch to get confirmed. But Democrats are saying they want him to get 60 votes, daring Republicans to push him through on a majority vote. Gorsuch passed the Senate unanimously 2006 when President George W. Bush nominated him, but that matters little when talking about todays political dynamics. Eight Democrats would need to join with Republicans to break the expected Democratic filibuster.

AT LEAST SEVEN Democratic senators have signaled an openness to having a committee vote on Trump's Supreme Court nominee. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Chris Coons (Del.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Jon Tester (Mont.).

**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbX

THE REVIEWS TRUMP CARES ABOUT -- NYT -- 5 of 6 stories about Trump and ANOTHER six-column banner headline -- TRUMPS COURT PICK SETS UP POLITICAL CLASH. He probably likes this one, referring to Gorsuch, A Nominee Who Echoes Scalias Style, but probably doesnt care for this one, referring to Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge-fund manager turned adviser, A Trump Aide, a Chinese Firm And A Fear of Tangled Interests. http://nyti.ms/2jVIVII WaPo -- the entire front page is about Trump, and another banner headline -- Supreme Court nominee is Gorsuch Its still Justice Kennedys court Originalist pick seen as willing to compromise http://bit.ly/2kpN1tU N.Y. Post: BURN IT DOWN!: Dems go full blast to undermine Trump http://nyp.st/2jusKUo

THE BACKSTORY -- GREAT DETAILS -- How Trump got to yes on Gorsuch, by Shane Goldmacher, Eliana Johnson and Josh Gerstein: Behind the scenes, [Donald] Trump settled on [Neil] Gorsuch after only a single in-person interview in Trump Tower. Gorsuch was ushered into the building through a back door on Jan. 14 so he wouldnt be seen by the press gathered in the lobby. Trump personally interviewed four Supreme Court finalists, three at his home in New York before he moved to the White House, according to two people involved in the search. ... Only one other person was in the room during Trumps full interviews with the finalists: White House Counsel Don McGahn, the two officials said. And Trump only met with each of the finalists once before deciding, although he did later speak with some by phone. Trumps top lieutenants -- Vice President Mike Pence, McGahn, chief of staff Reince Priebus, and chief strategist Stephen Bannon -- also had their own interviews with the four finalists, along with several other candidates in New York. http://politi.co/2jul6t1 Video of Trump announcing Gorsuch http://bit.ly/2kqcgfx

THE ANALYSIS -- NYTs ADAM LIPTAK: In Judge Neil Gorsuch, an Echo of Scalia in Philosophy and Style: Judge Gorsuch ... is an originalist, meaning he tries to interpret the Constitution consistently with the understanding of those who drafted and adopted it. This approach leads him to generally but not uniformly conservative results. While he has not written extensively on several issues of importance to many conservatives, including gun control and gay rights, Judge Gorsuch has taken strong stands in favor of religious freedom, earning him admiration from the right. Judge Gorsuch has not hesitated to take stands that critics say have a partisan edge. He has criticized liberals for turning to the courts rather than legislatures to achieve their policy goals, and has called for limiting the power of federal regulators. http://nyti.ms/2kfP9lg

-- WAPOS ROBERT BARNES: Trump makes his pick, but its still Anthony Kennedys Supreme Court: Kennedy, 80 and celebrating his 29th year on the court this month, will remain the pivotal member of the court no matter how the warfare between Republicans and Democrats plays out. On almost every big social issue, neither the courts liberal, Democratic-appointed justices nor Kennedys fellow Republican-appointed conservative colleagues can prevail without him. That is why an undercurrent of Trumps first choice for the court was whether it would soothe Kennedy, making him feel secure enough to retire and let this president choose the person who would succeed him.

Who better, then, to put Kennedy at ease than one of his former clerks? Kennedy trekked to Denver to swear in his protege Neil Gorsuch on the appeals court 10 years ago. If Gorsuch is confirmed to the Supreme Court, it would be the first time that a justice has served with a former clerk. http://wapo.st/2jC6nYb

-- NEAL K. KATYAL in the NYT, Why Liberals Should Back Neil Gorsuch: I was an acting solicitor general for President Barack Obama; Judge Gorsuch has strong conservative bona fides and was appointed to the 10th Circuit by President George W. Bush. But I have seen him up close and in action, both in court and on the Federal Appellate Rules Committee (where both of us serve); he brings a sense of fairness and decency to the job, and a temperament that suits the nations highest court. http://nyti.ms/2jTXieo

-- A 2002 op-ed in UPI by Gorsuch excoriated the Senate for delaying hearings to appoint John Roberts and Merrick Garland to the U.S. Court of Appeals http://bit.ly/2kqVRXO

-- @ShaneGoldmacher: Gorsuchs classmate at Harvard Law: A certain gentleman named Barack Obama

WHO WILL HELP GORSUCH -- Ayotte to lead White House team shepherding Supreme Court nominee, by WaPos Phil Rucker and Ashley Parker: [Kelly] Ayotte will serve as the nominees so-called sherpa, personally introducing the pick to senators and escorting him or her to meetings and the confirmation hearing. The lead staffer on the nominees team will be Makan Delrahim, currently the director of nominations for the White House legislative affairs office. Delrahim will serve as the quarterback, in the words of the White House official, overseeing strategy and outreach with the Senate.

Delrahim will work closely with Mary Elizabeth Taylor, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), where she ran the Senate cloakroom and developed personal relationships with Republican senators. Also involved will be Rick Dearborn, a deputy White House chief of staff and a former chief of staff to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), and Marc Short, the White Houses director of legislative affairs. The communications strategy will be overseen by Ron Bonjean, a longtime Republican strategist who has served as chief of staff to the Senate Republican Conference and as the chief spokesman for former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.). http://wapo.st/2jUiEbb

-- BUZZ: The White House considered several other potential sherpas before settling on Ayotte. Kyle Simmons, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was among those who had been discussed. Typically, SCOTUS sherpas are veteran staffers like former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein, who managed multiple Supreme Court and cabinet nominee picks.

** A message from the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs: Federal programs, state governments, employers, unions and others partner with PBMs to address rising prescription drug costs, keep patients healthy, and deliver value for the health system. Visit http://www.affordableprescriptiondrugs.org for more. **

TEAM OF RIVALS -- White House tries to course correct after messy travel restriction rollout, by CNNs Dana Bash: According to sources familiar with internal White House conversations, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus will now take more control of the systems dealing with basic functions, like executive orders. The way one source described it: Priebus already technically had the authority, but clearly the staff needed a reminder not to color outside their lines. Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, two other senior advisers, still have considerable power and influence with Trump. Administration officials say no role has been diminished or expanded but rather existing roles clarified. It is unclear how that will fit in with Priebus exerting more control over White House operations. Additionally, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway is expected to take more control of the communications strategy. http://cnn.it/2kQb6XX

SCARAMUCCI UNDER FIRE -- NYT A1, Trump Aides Deal With Chinese Firm Raises Fear of Tangled Interests, by Sharon LaFraniere, Michael Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson: A secretive Chinese company with deep ties to the countrys Communist Party has become one of the biggest foreign investors in the United States over the past year, snapping up American firms in a string of multibillion-dollar deals. But it is one of its smaller deals that is apparently stalling the White House career of a top adviser to President Trump. Anthony Scaramucci, a flamboyant former campaign fund-raiser for Mr. Trump whom the president has appointed as the White House liaison to the business community, has been in limbo for more than a week since he agreed to sell his investment firm to a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate, HNA Group.

Mr. Scaramucci is on the job but has yet to be sworn in, partly because of concerns about the Jan. 17 deal, according to two administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters. It is the second known transaction between a politically connected Chinese company and an incoming White House official. And it is evidence of the unusual confluence of interests between superrich members of the new Trump administration who need to unwind complex financial portfolios to comply with government rules and international firms eager to buy American assets. http://nyti.ms/2kfNfBd

-- Scaramucci fights to stay in the White House, by Tara Palmeri: Reince Priebus and Anthony Scaramucci were sucked into a bizarre episode of infighting Tuesday as the White House chief of staff tried to push Scaramucci out of a promised role as an adviser to President Donald Trump, only to later backtrack. http://politi.co/2kpXm93

PETRAEUS WARNING -- ONLY IN PLAYBOOK -- Former CIA Director, retired Gen. David Petraeus plans to warn the House Armed Services Committee this morning that U.S. global alliances are at risk, according to an advance copy of his testimony from someone close to Petraeus. In assessing the threats, Petraeus plans to tell the committee: Americans should not take the current international order for granted. It did not will itself into existence. We created it. Likewise, it is not naturally self-sustaining. We have sustained it. If we stop doing so, it will fray and, eventually, collapse. This is precisely what some of our adversaries seek to encourage. President Putin, for instance, understands that, while conventional aggression may occasionally enable Russia to grab a bit of land on its periphery, the real center of gravity is the political will of major democratic powers to defend Euro-Atlantic institutions like NATO and the EU.

NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL -- Poll: 1-in-4 voters believe Trump's vote-fraud claims, by Jake Sherman: One in four voters believe President Donald Trump's unsupported claim that millions of votes were illegally cast in the 2016 election, but more people believe that Trump benefited from any electoral malfeasance instead of Hillary Clinton. A new POLITICO/Morning Consult survey showed that 25 percent of registered voters say they agree with Trump that millions of people improperly cast ballots last November. But if the election was subject to voter fraud, 35 percent say its more likely any improper votes benefited Trump, and 30 percent say they benefited Clinton.

Trumps approval rating is ticking upward toward 50 percent: 49 percent of voters approve of how Trump is handling his job, and 41 percent disapprove. That is more positive than other polls; a 51-percent majority disapproves of Trump in the latest Gallup tracking poll. Even Trump's favorable rating -- 49 percent favorable to 44 percent unfavorable is a significant departure from other polls, which show Trump viewed more unfavorably. http://politi.co/2juUSGA

OTHER POLL HIGHLIGHTS

-- SEAN SPICER IS WELL KNOWN. 60% say they have seen, read or heard a lot or some of Spicer. He has a 24% favorable rating, 32% unfavorable, 16% have no opinion and 28% dont know him.

-- AS NETANYAHU READIES FOR TRIP TO THE U.S., AMERICANS SAY DONT MOVE THE EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM. Across the board, our new poll shows that Americans dont want the U.S. to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. When told of the history of the issue, 41% say to leave the embassy in Tel Aviv and 33% say move the embassy to Jerusalem.

THE JUICE --

-- EU ANXIETY -- POSTCARD FROM BRUSSELS: From our POLITICO Europe Playbook colleague Ryan Heath in Brussels: "European Commission Vice President Maro efovi just stood up in the EU press room and said that the College of European Commissioners discussed at their weekly Cabinet meeting that it and the EU have to choose between the 'inequality, national egoism' displayed by the Trump administration or 'openness, social equality and solidarity' that the defines the EU. Sefcovic said there was 'growing anxiety' about the transatlantic relationship and urged the Trump team to cool it because: 'The U.S. never had a better ally than Europe.'"

-- BIDEN LAUNCHES FOUNDATION: The Biden Foundation is launching to build on Vice President and Dr. Bidens lifelong commitment to protecting and advancing rights and opportunities of all people, according to a release off embargo at 5 a.m. The board of the foundation: Former Sen. Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden adviser; Valerie Biden Owens, the VPs sister; Mark Gitenstein, a former Biden aide who later was ambassador to Romania; Mark Angelson, a long time Biden adviser; and Jeff Peck of Peck Madigan and Jones. Peck also worked for Biden on the Hill. Louisa Terrell, Sen. Cory Bookers former chief of staff, a former Facebook lobbyist and FCC aide, will be executive director of the foundation.

-- KEY MCCARTHY AIDE TO THE WHITE HOUSE: Ben Howard, who ran the House floor for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has gone to work for President Donald Trumps legislative affairs office. This is not only big for Howard, but also for McCarthy, whose stature continues to grow in Trump World. I cant begin to express my gratitude for all Ben has done not only for me and my team, but the entire Republican Conference, McCarthy emails. Over the years Ive relied on Ben for both his wisdom and his wit. Hes been an integral part of my senior staff, but President Trump and his team will be well served by Ben as we work to enact the American peoples legislative priorities.

-- SPOTTED: Eric Trump in first class and Don Trump Jr. in coach flying from DCA to LaGuardia on the 10 p.m. American shuttle after the Supreme Court announcement House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who is under heat for several of his aides agreeing to sign non-disclosures with the Trump team, chatting with Steve Bannon at the White House Supreme Court announcement Tuesday night NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan at the White House for the SCOTUS announcement.

HAPPENING TODAY -- PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff will interview Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday morning in his first sitdown since inauguration. It will air Wednesday night. Trump is attending an African American History Month listening session. In the afternoon, he is participating in a legislative affairs strategy session.

PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump walks through the Cross Hall to the East Room of the White House to nominate Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Jan. 31. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

THE RESISTANCE -- GET WITH THE PROGRAM, OR NOT -- State Dept. Dissent Cable on Trumps Ban Draws 1,000 Signatures, by NYTs Jeffrey Gettleman on A1: It started out in Washington. Then it went to Jakarta. Then across Africa. One version even showed up on Facebook. Within hours, a State Department dissent cable, asserting that President Trumps executive order to temporarily bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries would not make the nation safer, traveled like a chain letter -- or a viral video. The cable wended its way through dozens of American embassies around the world, quickly emerging as one of the broadest protests by American officials against their presidents policies. And it is not over yet. By 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the letter had attracted around 1,000 signatures, State Department officials said, far more than any dissent cable in recent years. It was being delivered to management, and department officials said more diplomats wanted to add their names to it. The State Department has 7,600 Foreign Service officers and 11,000 civil servants. http://nyti.ms/2jutOr1

-- Resistance from within: Federal workers push back against Trump, by WaPos Juliet Eilperin, Lisa Rein, and Marc Fisher: Less than two weeks into Trumps administration, federal workers are in regular consultation with recently departed Obama-era political appointees about what they can do to push back against the new presidents initiatives. Some federal employees have set up social media accounts to anonymously leak word of changes that Trump appointees are trying to make. ... At a church in Columbia Heights last weekend, dozens of federal workers attended a support group for civil servants seeking a forum to discuss their opposition to the Trump administration. And 180 federal employees have signed up for a workshop next weekend, where experts will offer advice on workers rights and how they can express civil disobedience. http://wapo.st/2jVGN3H

COMING ATTRACTIONS -- Trump administration circulates more draft immigration restrictions, focusing on protecting U.S. jobs, by WaPos Abigail Hauslohner and Janell Ross: The Trump administration is considering a plan to weed out would-be immigrants who are likely to require public assistance, as well as to deport --- when possible -- immigrants already living in the United States who depend on taxpayer help, according to a draft executive order obtained by The Washington Post. A second draft order under consideration calls for a substantial shake-up in the system through which the United States administers immigrant and nonimmigrant visas, with the aim of tightly controlling who enters the country and who can enter the workforce, and reducing the social services burden on U.S. taxpayers. http://wapo.st/2jup5FU

BRIAN FALLON in POLITICO, Why Trumps Firing of Sally Yates Should Worry You: [F]or Yates, if this weeks events did mark the conclusion of her career at Justice, she can at least depart knowing she was true to herself and to the finest traditions of the institution until the very end. But theres always the chance her leave from Justice is only temporary. It seems quite likely she will be at the top of any list for attorney general in a future administrationonly next time, on a full-time basis. http://politi.co/2kqJOK5

WHAT THE HILL IS READING -- Staffers secret work on immigration order rattles the Capitol, by Rachael Bade: News that House Judiciary Committee staffers secretly collaborated on Donald Trumps controversial immigration order reverberated through the Capitol on Tuesday: Democrats denounced the arrangement, the GOP panel stonewalled, and an outside ethics group requested an investigation. And the man most on the hot seat over the unusual arrangement, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, was in full-on cleanup mode. At a private GOP conference meeting, Goodlatte (R-Va.) tried to calm fellow Republicans who were incensed to learn that some of his aides helped craft Trump's immigration directive without telling him or GOP leaders or about it. Democrats, meanwhile, almost immediately began raising ethical concerns about nondisclosure agreements signed by the Judiciary aides and questioned whether such work infringes on separation of powers. http://politi.co/2jUjRiQ

-- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Several government employees signed a non-disclosure agreement to secretly work on an executive order on immigration for the Trump team. And Goodlattes staff -- whose salaries are funded by taxpayer money -- refuses to answer if the chairman approved of this, and why it was allowed.

SHOW ME THE MONEY -- Trump raised $15 million in December, by Ken Vogel: President Donald Trumps reelection efforts are off to a strong start financially, according to Tuesday evening campaign finance reports showing that Trumps three committees brought in a combined $15 million last month and finished the year with $16 million in the bank. The committees Trumps campaign and two joint fundraising vehicles created by the campaign and various Republican Party committees - disbursed nearly $32 million from Nov. 29 through Dec. 31. http://politi.co/2kPZTH2

--TEXT FROM TRUMP President Trump took office only 10 days ago and the media has waged a nasty fight every day. Fight back. Donate by the 11:59p deadline: http://www.bit.ly/2jSqMsN

** A message from the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs: Federal programs, state governments, employers, unions and others partner with PBMs to address rising prescription drug costs, keep patients healthy, and deliver value for the health system. Visit http://www.affordableprescriptiondrugs.org for more. **

THE CABINET -- Treasury secretary nominees foreign money links bring new scrutiny, by CNNs Phil Mattingly: In a private interview with committee staff, aides said, Mnuchin acknowledged that his responses to the committee had not, as he had stated, been true, accurate and complete. He twice was forced to revise his initial disclosure questionnaire. He stated his role in the entities was inadvertently missed during the disclosure process. http://cnn.it/2kQrcEh

WHAT PELOSI TOLD TAPPER -- CNNs town hall with the House minority leader -- TAPPER: You still think you can work with [Trump]? PELOSI: Well, I certainly hope so. Hes the president of the United States. And by the way, I told him at the meeting, so Ill tell you, I said, Mr. President, we have -- I worked, when I had the majority, I was the speaker, I had the gavel, and President George W. Bush was president, we worked with him even though we disagreed on the war in Iraq. What could be worse than that? And privatizing Social Security, we disagreed on those. But we passed some of the most progressive legislation to help poor children, the biggest energy bill in the history of our country. He wanted nuclear; we wanted renewables. We had a big bill. The list goes on. Drugs for HIV-AIDS, all of those kinds of things. So we disagree on certain issues. We respect that hes the president of the United States. We want to work together. But where we will draw the line is if he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

-- FOR YOUR RADAR: Pelosi and Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst will speak at the 132nd Gridiron Club and Foundation dinner on March 4.

MOVING ON -- Strobe Talbott stepping down from Brookings, by Michael Crowley: Talbott, a former TIME magazine journalist who became deputy secretary of state under Bill Clinton, has led Brookings for 15 years. He will resign in October. ... He served at the State Department from 1993 to 2001, including seven years as Deputy Secretary of State. http://politi.co/2kfHLGD Release http://politi.co/2kUx0IN

SCHOCK UPDATE -- @kenvogel: Ex-Rep. @AaronSchocks campaign cmte paid a $10k compliance penalty to the @USTreasury, & $16k+ in legal fees. http://bit.ly/2kQ9c9X

VALLEY TALK -- Googles Eric Schmidt: Trump Administration Will Do Evil Things, by BuzzFeeds William Alden and Nitasha Tiku: Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Googles parent company, told an audience of Google employees on Thursday that the Trump administration is going to do these evil things as theyve done in the immigration area and perhaps some others. Schmidts remarks were made during the companys weekly meeting at its headquarters in Mountain View, California, on January 26. http://bzfd.it/2kfQLeU

MEMO FROM CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN AND JOHN HARRIS -- Please join me in offering thanks and congratulations to our colleague, Roger Simon, who is retiring from the business after 42 years of writing columns 10 of which were for POLITICO. Roger was the first person in this newsroom hired after John Harris joined Matt Wuerker and Ken Vogel from the Capitol Leader gang in late 2006. In this peevish age, in which combatants seem never to relinquish the self-righteous pose, and the language of politics often is infused with contempt, Roger uses his gift for language for a different cause. He respects politics and its practitioners, even when he is being searingly critical. He is shrewd in assessing character and motive and views politics and the work of government less through an ideological prism than human one. These are real people, often quite powerful, making decisions that affect other real people, often quite powerless.

-- ROGERS LAST COLUMN: A majority of one walks away from his keyboard: This is the end, my friends. It is time to say goodbye. I realize this is the worst possible time for a political columnist to retire, but what I didnt realize is that any of you cared. Robert Feder, a famous media writer from Chicago, found out about my retirement a few days ago and I have been flooded with farewells ever since. I have also been flooded -- really, you can read them -- with messages on Facebook and Twitter asking me not to retire. Not now. Not, Im told, when America needs you. I know, I know: It is preposterous. It is laughable. But not to some.

For some, I have been the friend they have never met for more than 40 years. For all those years, my job took me all over the world. My wife and I had precious little time for extended vacations. She stayed behind working at newspapers for 35 years and then running her own editing business. Now she wants to see the world. And Id like to go with her while I still can. http://politi.co/2jCde3I

MEDIAWATCH -- White House ices out CNN, by Hadas Gold: The White House has refused to send its spokespeople or surrogates onto CNN shows, effectively icing out the network from on-air administration voices. Were sending surrogates to places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda, said a White House official, acknowledging that CNN is not such a place, but adding that the ban is not permanent. A CNN reporter, speaking on background, was more blunt: The White House is trying to punish the network and force down its ratings. Theyre trying cull CNN from the herd, the reporter said. Administration officials are still answering questions from CNN reporters. But administration officials including White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and senior counselor Kellyanne Conway haven't appeared on the network's programming in recent weeks. http://politi.co/2jVAPje

--Upset in WSJ newsroom over editors directive to avoid majority Muslim in immigration ban coverage, by Joe Pompeo: [Gerry] Baker conveyed the message in an internal email Monday night, responding to a breaking news story about Trumps firing of Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates for refusing to defend the executive order temporarily barring citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia from entering the country. Can we stop saying seven majority Muslim countries? Its very loaded, Baker wrote in an email to editors obtained by POLITICO. ... Would be less loaded to say seven countries the US has designated as being states that pose significant or elevated risks of terrorism. http://politi.co/2jC3gzg

--Fox News Tops Cable News Ratings for 15 Straight Years With January Win, by The Wraps Brian Flood: http://bit.ly/2jC70kA

KATY TUR PROFILE -- Taunted by Trump, Little Katy stood her ground. And became a star because of it, by WaPos Paul Farhi: Trumps attacks on [Megyn] Kelly may have had a higher profile, but few reporters took as much flak from the future president as Tur. Turs reaction to the tumult was like that during her first confrontations in New Hampshire and in Trump Tower. She stood her ground. She didnt fire back. She continued reporting. Now she smiles at the memory, as composed as a sonnet. Generally, I find the hotter the temperature, the cooler I am, she says. Its times of relative calm and ease that I start to wind myself up. http://wapo.st/2kOGlWA

SPOTTED -- Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump eating at RPM Italian Monday night. They also took a jog Saturday with their security detail on the trails on Rock Creek Parkway.

OUT AND ABOUT -- Democratic campaign hands gathered last night to celebrate former Howard Dean campaign manager and longtime political strategist, Rick Ridder, and his new book at the Hawk n Dove. Ridders book Looking for Votes in All the Wrong Places: Tales and Rules from the Campaign Trail draws from his decades leading campaigns and the party featured friends old and new. $16.99 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2jCacg1 SPOTTED mingling in the crowd: Stephanie Schriock and Jess OConnell from EMILYs List, Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter, Mark Putnam, the DSCCs Lauren Passalacqua, Andrew Piatt, Danny Kazin, Jay Marlin, Rich Pelletier, Mark Blumenthal, Glen Totten, and Amy Pritchard. Also spotted: Ricks proud daughter and DCCC alum Jenn Ridder.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Doug Calidas, legislative counsel for Sen. Joe Manchin III and Wharton and Duke Law alum, and Katie Calidas, a designer for an advertising agency and Parsons alum, on Sunday at 12:05 a.m. welcomed William Kristopher Calidas, 7 pounds, 11 ounces, 21 inches. Mother and baby are doing great and came home from the hospital Monday. Pic http://bit.ly/2jBYYYW

TRANSITIONS -- Victoria Glynn, former deputy press secretary at the Veterans Affairs Department, has joined Rep. Henry Cuellars (D-Texas) office as communications director. My Brothers Keeper Alliance (MBK Alliance) has elected former Obama administration official Broderick D. Johnson as chairman of the board of directors effective yesterday. http://politi.co/2jUDozP

NSC DEPARTURE LOUNGE -- Adam Strickler departs the NSC today after nine years of service to four National Security Advisers, most recently Ambassador Susan Rice. He plans to take some time off with Lauren and Toby. (h/t Suitestaff44)

BIRTHDAYS OF THE DAY: Jake Siewert, head of corporate comms at Goldman Sachs, father of four, and Bill Clinton alumnus, celebrating with a pancake breakfast at my kids school, a full days work, and dinner with my wife near our apartment -- read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2kQnzuV ABC News Ali Dukakis, celebrating with friends and co-workers likely at Edgar -- Q&A: http://politi.co/2kUk1qP ... BuzzFeed White House correspondent Adrian Carrasquillo, celebrating with operatives, reporters, BuzzFeed colleagues and friends on Friday at Hawthorne -- Q&A: http://politi.co/2kpVEoi

BIRTHDAYS: CAAs Michael Kives ... Liz Breckenridge of Sen. Caseys office and is the pride of Chesterfield, Mo. Hudson Lee (Carol Lees son) is 4 ... Fred Barnes is 74 ... Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) is 73 ... Jamie Radice, head of comms and public policy at Shift Technologies, and a McAuliffe and HRC 2008 campaign alum ... Christine Halloran ... Marc Elias of Perkins Coie (h/ts Jon Haber) Mara Sloan Mat Lapinski, Jeff Kimbell protg and EVP of Crossroads Strategies (h/t Krueger) ... Matt Moon, EVP at Delve DC and a Rick Scott and RNC alum ... Politicos Andrew Friedman (h/t wife Taylor) ... Ashley Hicks, manager of corporate alliances at USO and a Politico alum ... Joseph Jones, pride of Des Moines and beloved friend of ACYPL ... Miguel Ayala, SBA and Hillary campaign alum, is 38 ... L.A. Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten, the pride of Lakewood, N.J., is 65 ... David Thomas of Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Alexa Kissinger, Obama White House and 12 alum, now 2L at Harvard Law School (h/t Gareth Rhodes) ... Dan Arbell, 25-year veteran of the Israeli foreign service, now a scholar-in-residence at AU ... Tara Brown, Mid-Atlantic regional director for AIPAC (h/ts Jewish Insider) ... Jordyn Phelps, ABC News superstar White House producer (h/ts Jonathan Karl and Arlette Saenz) ... ABC News Erin Dooley (h/t Arlette) ...

... Tara McGowan, digital director at Priorities USA Willa Prescott, the pride of Omaha and Rep. Tom OHallerans scheduler and director of operations (h/t Zac Andrews) ... Bloomberg News U.S. economy reporter Michelle Jamrisko -- her Twitter bio: I like to tell my stories with pictures and numbers (h/t Ben Chang) ... Meet the Press producer Natalie Cucchiara, celebrating half of the day at 30 Rock and half of the day in D.C. (h/t Olivia Petersen) ... Locust Street Group founding partner David Barnhart (h/t Ben Jenkins) ... Andrew Oberlander ... Emmett McGroarty, education director at American Principles Project ... CBS News Alana Anyse ... Ubers Alex Luzi ... David Redl, counsel for the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee ... Susan Coll, director of events and programs at Politics & Prose ... Catherine Kim, executive editor at NBC News digital ... Maria Reppas ... Dan Chmielewski ... Josh Nelson, deputy political director of CREDO Mobile ... Alex Otwell of Cvent ... Karl Bach ... Bill Sweeney, former deputy DNC chair and now president and CEO at International Foundation for Electoral Systems ... Carrie Goux Luke Peterson ... Kelly Collins ... Zachary Tumin, deputy commissioner of strategic initiatives at NYPD ... Emily Laird ... Jordan Lillie Michael Frias Karl Bach, Human Rights Campaign alum Princess Stephanie of Monaco is 52 ... Lisa Marie Presley is 49 ... Pauly Shore is 49 ... Harry Styles (One Direction) is 23 (h/ts AP)

** A message from the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs: PBMs use their purchasing power, sophisticated analytics and clinical expertise to help government programs, employers and unions get the most effective drug at the lowest cost possible. In fact, a 2016 study found that for every $100 in prescription drug expenditures, costs would be $45 higher without PBMs negotiating directly with drug manufacturers. With drug costs on the rise, it's good to know there are private-market solutions to lower them. Check out http://www.affordableprescriptiondrugs.org for more. **

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/1M75UbX ... New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 ... New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF ... Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb ... California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl ... Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw ... All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX

CLARIFICATION: This version of Playbook has been updated to better clarify the stance of seven Democratic senators toward Neil Gorsuch.

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THE BACKSTORY: How Trump got to yes on Gorusch -- PLAYBOOK EXCLUSIVE: PETRAEUS warns US ... - Politico

The Week in Art: Sarah Crowner at the Guggenheim’s Wright Restaurant and Jake and Dinos Chapman in LA – artnet News

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Though it may seem that Armory Week and Frieze Week get all the action, the reality is that there is never a dull moment in the New York art world. From the East Side to the West Side, theres always something happening at the citys museums, galleries, and various event spaces. That was the case this week, with the Jake and Dinos Chapmanshow at UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles,timed to the opening of theArt Los Angeles Contemporary fair; the wider Americanart scene also provides plenty of action. Heres a rundown of this weeks highlights.

Celebration for Sarah Crowners NewSite-Specific Installation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museums Wright Restaurant The Guggenheim celebrated the unveiling of new work by Sarah Crowner in its Wright Restaurant with a reception on February 2. Its the first change in decor since the upscale eatery, which previously featured site-specific work by Liam Gillick, opened in 2009.

Crowners design marries her hard-edge geometric painting, on a canvas that hugs the curve of the restaurants back wall, with large, hand-glazed terra-cotta tiles in a chevron mosaic pattern, which cover the floor (off-white), the entry wall (bright yellow), and the wall behind the bar (vibrant sea green). The painting is inspired by a tapestrydesigned by Swedish painter Lennart Reodhe for a Stockholm restaurant in 1961 and made by a Swedish womens weaving collective, and the tiles are the handiwork of her friend and regular collaboratorJos No Suro at hisCermica Suroworkshop in Guadalajara, Mexico.

We brought a little bit of Mexico to the Upper East Side, and thats a beautiful thing! Crowner told guests.

Sarah is very rare in that shes a painter that works with space in a very thoughtful and direct way, Guggenheim curator of contemporary art Katherine Brinson told artnet News. The museum acquired a piece, titled Totem, by Crowner for its permanent collection in 2015, so when it came to redesigning the Wright, I just thought she was a natural choice.

Brinson praised Crowners work on the project, saying she thought in so much depth about how the space would function on a very practical level, but also about this unique building that is, as we say, the greatest artifact in our collection.

Jos No Suro, Sarah Crowner, Guggenheim curator of contemporary art Katherine Brinson, and Guggenheim deputy director Ari Wiseman in front of Crowners Backdrop (after Rodhe, 1961) at the Wright Restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.

Sarah Crowners site-specific installation at the Wright Restaurant at the Guggenheim Museum. Courtesy of David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Screening of Jean Nouvel: Reflections at Hearst Tower On February 1, guests gathered to watch Matt Tyrnauers documentary shortJean Nouvel: Reflections, about the Pritzker Prize-winning architect and his ongoing project, at Hearst Towers Joseph Urban Theatre. The evening was hosted by 53W53, the Jean Nouvel-designed condominium that will host the Museum of Modern Arts planned expansion, and the New York Landmarks Preservation. Following a cocktail reception and the screening,Tyrnauer spoke withPaul Goldberger about the making of the film and the career of its subject.

Brandon Haw, Paul Goldberger, Matt Tyrnauer, and Corey Reeser at a screening of Jean Nouvel: Reflections. Courtesy of Star Black.

Caitlin Douglas, George Lancaster, Ken Hsu, and Donna Puzio at a screening of Jean Nouvel: Reflections. Courtesy of Star Black.

Michael Chait, Bertram Beissel Von Gymnich, Jerry Karr, Jasmine Mir, Amanda Ortland, Christina Davis, and Richard Davis at a screening of Jean Nouvel: Reflections. Courtesy of Star Black.

Opening reception for Jake and Dinos Chapmans To Live and Think Like Pigs at UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles January 28 marked the opening reception for UK favorites Jake and Dinos Chapmans new show, titled To Live and Think Like Pigs, at the UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles. In their usual anti-aesthetic manner, the brothers aim to startle viewers with compositions that raise questions about religious beliefs, moral standards and political tradition, a topic that feels extremely timely. The show explores darker themes including human decay, Nazi war crimes, Satanism, and conflict. Yet the crowd that turned out for the opening was decidedly not somber, despite the material on view. Spotted in the mix were UTAs Joshua Roth; musician and former husband of Kate Moss, rocker Jamie Hince; musician Courtney Love; and comedians Whitney Cummings and Sebastian Maniscalco.

Lana Gomez, Sebastian Maniscalco, Joshua Roth and Sonya Roth at UTA Artist Space. Photo Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for United Talent Agency.

Courtney Love and Jamie Hince attend UTA Artist Space. Photo Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for United Talent Agency.

Dino Chapman and Jake Chapman. Photo Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for United Talent Agency.

Installation view of To Live and Think Like Pigs, Jake and Dinos Chapmans new show at UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles. Photo Jeff McLane, courtesy the artists.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary Opening at the Barker Hangar The international art world was out in full force in on January 26 for the opening of the Art Contemporary Los Angeles art fair, withPerforma founder RoseLee Goldberg; Ali Subotnick of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Elsa Longhauer of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; curator Douglas Fogle; Sonya Roth of Christies; gallerists Sean Regen,Timothy Blum,and Jeffrey Poe; collectors Anita Zabludowicz and Michael and Susan Hort;Kenny Goss of the Goss Michael Foundation, Dallas; and actresses Eliza Dushkuand Rhea Perlman all in attendance.

In a statement, art advisor Veronica Fernandez called the fair a linchpin to our now exploding contemporary art-scenewhere global gallerists, collectors, artists, curators, critics and art advisors crowd each January to engage, build and buy.

Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal of the Los Angeles Reader with Puppies Puppies, Red Carpet. Courtesy the artist and Queer Thoughts, New York. Photo Gina Clyne Photography.

Tim Fleming and guest at Art Los Angeles Contemporary. Courtesy of Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Gina Clyne Photography.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary. Courtesy of Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Gina Clyne Photography.

Huang Rui, Ping Pong 2017. Courtesy of Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Gina Clyne Photography.

Collective Design Studio Tour With Ceramic Artist Peter Lane In advance ofCollective Design, which returns May 37, 2017, the fair hosted a studio visit withPeter Lane in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on January 31. The ceramic artist, who will show his large-scale wall installations in an immersive environment at the upcoming fair, offered a behind-the-scenes tour of the cavernous space, showcasing his artistic process.

Guests included design world influencers such as Yolande Milan Batteau of Callidus Guild,David Mann of MR Architecture + Decor,Francine Monaco and Carl DAquino of DAquino Monaco, andBrook Klausing of Brook Landscape.

In addition to cocktails and conversation, highlights ofthe evening includeda peek at themassive industrialkilns in which Lane fires his work.

Peter Lane shows guests his Bushwick studio. Courtesy of Collective Design.

Peter Lanes Bushwick studio. Courtesy of Collective Design.

Peter Lanes Bushwick studio. Courtesy of Collective Design.

Additional reporting by Eileen Kinsella.

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The Week in Art: Sarah Crowner at the Guggenheim's Wright Restaurant and Jake and Dinos Chapman in LA - artnet News

Unhinged ‘Professor’ Whose Hissy Fit at NYU Went Viral Turns Out to Be Lobster Porn Artist – PJ Media

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Thereare more lifestyles than you can shake a stick at in modern America. Whether you want to live as an animal, or a six-year-old, or a lizard, there's just no end to the choices one can make regarding how you live your life these days in the free world. (This may be our penance for the invention of robot vacuum cleaners. With no physical laborleft to do, human beings turn insane, apparently.) How exactly do you tell your parents you've decided to go into "lobster porn" like social media sensation Rebecca Goyette, whose expletive-filled hissy fit outside NYU went viral(NSFW). I imagine the conversation went something like this via email.

I know you had high hopes that I would take my art degree and perhaps teach children to paint or createbeautiful landscapes to sell to tourists in some tropical location, but none of that is going to happen. I wanted you to know your money was well spent because I have found a niche in the performance art community:Lobster porn.

What is lobster porn? I sew massive lobster claws onto my hands and flop around on the floor pretending to have sex with men wearing giant cloth penises I made with that sewing machine you bought me for Christmas. It's groundbreaking stuff. The Huffington Post even reported on it (seriously) in its art section. I'm a success! Please tell Grandma!

When I'm not doing crustacean kink, I'm writing and starring in satanic porn films about the Salem witch trials (since great great great great great Grandma Rebecca Nurse was horribly murdered by Puritans and generations later I'm still haunted by it because everyone in art school is really impressed by my trauma). The fact that I've turned to satanism and witchcraft should in no way cause anyone concern that our great relative might have actually been a witch. It's just a coincidence.

Anyway, love you to pieces. Sending photos from my last art show where I displayed a painting of a bound Donald Trump getting his penis cut off with shears.Please send money...this penis fabric is really expensive!

Toodles!

Rebecca

In the viral video she can be heard shoutingat the police that they should be beating up "neo-Nazis" (instead of protecting Gavin McInnes [who was speaking at an event] from the fascists in the crowd who pepper-sprayed him in the face).

Repeatedly during the video, Goyette claimed to be a professor. What's funny about that is the minute she said it, the entire Twitterverse collectively nodded and thought, "Of course she is." So imagine our surprise when aninvestigation discovered she was not a professor but is, in fact, a "lobster porn" performance "artist." If you've never heard of lobster porn, I beg you not to Google it like I did. I saw things that can't be unseen and believe me, I wish I hadn't.

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Unhinged 'Professor' Whose Hissy Fit at NYU Went Viral Turns Out to Be Lobster Porn Artist - PJ Media

Christians think ‘the Rapture’ is coming and the signs are already here – Metro

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This is what it will look like (Picture Getty)

A website which monitors signs of the Rapture when Jesus comes back and dead people come out of the ground has an alarming message in the age of Trump: Fasten your seatbelts.

The Rapture Index monitors world news for signs that the end times are coming and in October, it hit its highest point since it launched in 1987. It hasnt dropped much since.

Todd Strandberg monitors events such as Satanism, bizarre weather and plagues to work out the Rapture Index.

Strandberg told Mail Online, It seems like we are heading into the eye of a hurricane and I am fascinated with whats going on with Donald Trump both sides are whirling faster and faster.

You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer.

The higher the number, the faster were moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.

We dont know if its Donald Trump, or the various alarming things Russians have said about nuclear war but a lot of people are convinced doomsday is around the corner

Biblical fundamentalists believe that the world was created only a few thousand years ago and that means that our time is nearly up.

The Reverend Donna Larson claims that the number 6,000 is bad news as the Bible predicts that man will rule the Earth for 6,000 years.

She also claims that 2017 marks 70 years since the UN established Israel and 50 years since the unification of Jerusalem.

Larson says, All these numbers have Biblical significance 50 is the number of unification between Passover and Pentecost and 70 is the number of fulfilment according to the book of Daniel, Chapter 9.

Michael Parker, who runs the blog End of Time Prophecies says, 2017 will be a year of great awakening and of great shaking.

The time is soon coming and appears to have already started when the earth will start its belching forth of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, extreme weather conditions the like of which modern mankind has never seen before.

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Christians think 'the Rapture' is coming and the signs are already here - Metro

The boredom of nihilism – The Tablet

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02 February 2017 | by Patrick West | Comments: 0

The Evenings GERARD REVE, translated by Sam Garrett

Gerard Reve, who died in 2006, is considered one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors and his debut novel, The Evenings, published in 1947, is regarded as a masterpiece in his native land and continues to be taught in schools. The existential tale has been called his countrys equivalent to Nausea or The Outsider, yet it is only now that it has it been translated into English.

Its protagonist, Frits, is an aimless and neurotic 23-year-old nihilist with an unhealthy taste for black humour. He lives with his parents, whom he resents: Im only waiting for them to hang themselves or beat each other to death. Or set the house on fire.

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The boredom of nihilism - The Tablet

Dark side of hedonism: a rock journalist’s battle with drug addiction – The Guardian

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For an addict, things only become properly scary with the first futile attempts to stop: Barney Hoskyns. Photograph: Leszek Czerwonka/Getty Images

To this day I dont know why I said yes why I rolled up my sleeve and told my old friend: Do it. I cant say it was peer pressure. I harboured no secret longing to be a junkie. Youd think that, having just graduated with a first from Oxford, I might not have stuck my hand in this particular fire. In a moment of existential recklessness, I did it anyway.

The notion that I deserved to be happy simply because I was alive never occurred to me

Perhaps I had some sixth sense of what heroin would do for me: of how, temporarily, it would fill me and complete me and make nothing else matter very much. I did know, instantly, that Id always wanted to feel like this, as if suddenly there was an invisible forcefield around me. Id wanted to feel like this since I was a kid a skinny, shame-plagued schoolboy who could never tell you what he was feeling, because he didnt know.

I wasnt a wild child, madly acting out internal distress. Id tried to be good. But at my core I was loveless, ugly in my heart and soul. From the outside, it all looked respectable: the middle-class family, the businessman dad, the prep and public schools. Inside it was so different: without being able to name those things, I was bewildered and alone, and crippled by self-consciousness.

Within days of arriving at Westminster school in 1973 I fell in with the pot-heads, the bad boys. The first time I got drunk I vomited copiously in a pals plush home in Marylebone. But the thought that at the end of this lay heroin never crossed my mind. That wasnt the game plan.

At Oxford, in 1977, I became more acutely aware of how anxious and awkward I felt around my peers. I never spoke of it, and neither did anyone else. I drank alcohol and dropped acid. I hoovered up speed as a tool for cramming in information ahead of finals. But none of these chemicals did what I needed them to, which was to strip away self-doubt and nullify self-loathing. Only with opiates did my deep unease what Proust described as an agitation which at any cost, even that of their life, [addicts] must end begin to melt away.

Fate steered me into music journalism, a way of not really growing up while earning a modest crust supplemented by selling review copies of albums. Though I didnt believe all fucked-up rock stars were inherently cool, inevitably I glommed on to bands that dabbled in drugs. As if validating my own unhappiness romanticising my self-hatred I specialised in stars whod succumbed to the dark side of hedonism.

Depending on how you viewed it, the high or low point of this journalistic niche was the day Johnny Thunders dropped by the Paddington crash-pad I shared with, among others, Birthday Party singer Nick Cave. Thunders made us look like amateurs: Nick nearly overdosed on the cotton bud Johnny had used to strain his hit. Nor was my editor at the NME amused when I invoiced him for the quarter-gram of heroin Id scored to secure an interview with the former Heartbreaker.

My own heart was broken at this time, though I rarely talked to Nick about it. He and I didnt talk about much besides heroin: who had it, where to get it, how strong it was. In November 1981, we were busted together in Earls Court and spent a night in the local police cells.

Id fallen for a girl who broke hearts like the Comanche took scalps. Heroin was the only thing that salved the agony of her infidelities, but it also fooled me into believing I could win her back. As addicted to her as I was to drugs, in the end I was forced to move to California in the faint hope that putting her out of sight would put her out of mind.

The drastic strategy almost worked, but I was still left with me: the one thing I couldnt escape, however far I fled. In San Francisco I added intravenous cocaine abuse a horror-show of palpitating omnipotence to the chemical repertoire. Unwittingly, the NME paired me with a photographer who confessed a taste for Class A chemicals. One night we fixed coke till dawn on Polk Street and only just made a flight to Minneapolis to interview Survivor, then perched atop the US charts with the Rocky theme song Eye of the Tiger. Somehow I managed to bang out enough NME articles to keep cash rolling in, even after Nick Kent the papers most infamous dope fiend rightly lambasted my half-baked eulogies to self-destruction.

For an addict in the grip of a chemical obsession, things only become properly scary with the first futile attempts to stop. Friends took the same existential risk Id taken but were somehow able to pick heroin up and put it down. That alarmed me and made me wonder why I needed it more than they did. Was it less intense or less analgesic for them? The answer is clear to me now: without heroin in their bloodstreams, the world was nonetheless bearable to them.

I needed to change the way I looked at the world, but the motivation to do so came only in the depths of hopelessness: a dawning awareness that I could live neither with nor without drugs. At that grim point, marooned in Los Angeles in the summer of 1983, I was desperate enough to accept the offer of help to plug into something bigger than me. At the tender age of 24 I was ready.

It wasnt an overnight job; it rarely is. Returning to London, I reconnected with the old friend whod introduced me to heroin and found myself unexpectedly opiated again. Midway through my interviewing Alan Vega, on assignment in New York, the former Suicide singer produced a bag of cocaine from a drawer and I accepted the offer of a generous line. The experience was repeated a few days later in Detroit with P-Funk chieftain George Clinton. I simply hadnt learned that No thanks was the most important phrase in my lexicon.

Addiction, I found, wasnt a by-product of drug abuse. It was a false filling-up of spiritual emptiness

In late August, the penny dropped. I got a day clean, and then another. I kept plugging in. I started to share my life with others. In November, by an odd coincidence, I flew to Madrid to be a guest on a TV show featuring Alan Vega. When later he phoned my hotel room to say he had some really good stuff, I managed to reply that I was tired and needed sleep. It was as difficult and as simple as that. The next morning, I was able to amble about the Prado without feeling freaked out.

Its more than three decades since I put drugs in my body, so why write about them now? Hasnt the world had enough My Drug Hell stories? But it turns out its not really about drugs at all. As a wise fellow once said: If you think drugs are the problem, stop using drugs. I did stop, time and again. Then one day, in a perfect paradox, I surrendered to my addiction and never had to use again. Addiction, I discovered, wasnt a by-product of drug abuse. It was a false filling-up of spiritual emptiness, a set of protective repetitions designed to eliminate difficult feelings and choices.

For some years, unconscious of what I was doing, I continued the vain effort to fill the void within. I was petrified of rejection by women, by the world. Lacking much self-knowledge or any genuine self-worth, I chased acclaim and sought frantically to prove I mattered. Without drugs, there was still never enough love or money. There wasnt enough because I wasnt enough. Even after marrying and starting a family in 1990, the notion that I deserved to be happy simply because I was alive never occurred to me.

Most abstinent addicts will tell you they replace drugs with surrogate compulsions: sex, food, wealth, power, gambling whatever floats the boat. For me, the most insidious has been work itself, for what could possibly be wrong with working too hard? Workaholism may not have had the hazardous consequences that sex or gambling addictions have, but its removed me from life in the broadest sense of that word: kept me from intimacy with others, unwilling to plunge into the spontaneous experience of the everyday.

Addiction seems more ubiquitous than ever in our society. Pushed by new technologies to chase a fulfilment thats out of reach, Im tricked into believing happiness is perpetually just over the horizon. You might be a rock n roll addict prancing on the stage, Bob Dylan sang in 1979; money and drugs at your command, women in a cage but youre gonna have to serve somebody.

Today I take this to mean that I need to be involved in other peoples lives and need them to be involved in mine. I need to work through the pain of my past to arrive at a place where being me is not a source of relentless discomfort. And then I need to let go of as much of me as I can afford to live without: to right-size the distended ego and reach out to my fellow human beings.

Not using drugs is still the key precondition of my daily life: everything flows from it, all the incidental joy and necessary pain. (I still cant do it on my own.) Many view addiction as a curse, but I see it as the gateway to the greatest life I could have imagined. If it is a disease of More, then at last I am Enough. Ive stopped taking life so personally. Im not so plagued by shame and self-hate. When I finally grasp that nothing matters except evanescent moments of connection and love, everything becomes blissful and shimmeringly alive.

Barney Hoskynss Never Enough: A Way Through Addiction is published by Constable (16.99). To order a copy for 14.44, go to bookshop.theguardian.com

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Dark side of hedonism: a rock journalist's battle with drug addiction - The Guardian

Hedonism and healing – Independent Online

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By Beatric Larco

Here's a unique setting for an alternative holiday at the seaside - no diving or energy-consuming water sports, but a week of massages, yoga, and ayurvedic treatments combined with an all-vegetarian menu where alcohol consumption is frowned upon.

It may sound like torture if your idea of a vacation is to party all the time or experience thrilling adventures. But if you are looking for something more serene, a spot along the south coast of Kenya offers respite in the warmth of the Indian Ocean.

In one of my daily walks along the beach in Diani, Kenya, an 8km stretch of white sand about 520km from Nairobi, where I've vacationed in the past, I found myself ignoring a Private Property sign, walking right past a tree house and stepping into a deserted but carefully maintained garden with a wooden platform to one side and earth-coloured, low-roofed buildings.

Shaanti Holistic Health Retreat read an orange sign on a large stone next to the secluded beachfront. I wasn't sure whether holistic retreat meant I would come across a group of singing monks or a religious sect performing rituals, but I wanted to find out.

Orange and red cushions and mattresses covered a cement structure, which was later described to me as the chill-out room, as I reached what seemed to be a reception area.

Tasreen Keshavjee, the managing director of Shaanti, approached me and with enthusiasm explained exactly what the retreat was about.

Shaanti represents a holistic approach to healing. Since almost all ailments and diseases originate from stress and anxiety, the best way to cure them is to attack the root cause.

Take away the stress, take away the anxiety and work on the mind and body so that the process is sustainable, Keshavjee said.

The retreat, which opened in November 2004, is the first of its kind in the area.

Most of the numerous hotels that line this tropical resort provide massages and other health and beauty treatments, but Shaanti offers a specific healing method aimed at improving both the physical and mental state.

The wooden platform on the beachfront is for daily yoga lessons and the tree house is the vegetarian restaurant. The buildings are rooms for overnight accommodation.

Signs are written in English with a Hindi-styled font. Furniture is covered by orange and red cushions, which are made from the local East African kikoi material, a colourful cloth originally worn by men but recently very fashionable among young local designers.

Most of the floors are made from local galana stone, and fishing canoes are used as shelves in the restaurant and in the reception areas.

Meeting Tasreen and seeing the beautiful setting were all it took for me to book a massage - an abhyanga - where warm medicated oils are applied to the body to improve circulation and promote relaxation.

Moments before the massage, the resident ayurvedic doctor from Kerala, in southern India, met me to see what type of herbal oils were best for me.

Ayurveda is a 3 000-year-old system of healing, taught by rishis, or Hindu sages. It is designed to create balance and tranquillity in body, mind and spirit through massage, diet and meditation.

As I lay on the massage bed, the oils were heated and poured in a small bowl. Then I was told to sit up, and the masseuse began pouring the warm oil on my shoulders.

This massage consists Beatric Larco savours the serenity offered by an ayurvedic spa on the African coastof rubbing the oil up and down the arms and legs by going over the back and stomach; it lasts an hour. Unlike other types of massage, you don't relax during the treatment, but the effects are intended to last.

I was given a robe made of kikoi to wear for the next hour while the oil soaked into my skin. I headed for the open-air chill-out room, which looks out on the Indian Ocean, and ordered a freshly squeezed watermelon and mango drink.

After that, I returned for more - an hour-long facial massage, and a taste of the vegetarian menu. My meal started with a green salad, followed by assorted tropical fruits.

The main course was a light curry served with cumin rice, lentils and chapati, a puffy bread.

Kenya's coasts are becoming known for diving and for opportunities to see whale sharks, but Shaanti is yet another reason for travellers - especially Western workaholics - to go to Diani.

If You Go:

To reach Diani, fly to Nairobi and then on to Mombasa. Call ahead to the spa and arrangements will be made to pick you up in Mombasa for the two-hour drive to Diani, which includes a ferry crossing.

Rates: A $50 (R325) day package covers brunch and dinner, two yoga sessions, and various ayurvedic treatments, including steam bath aromatherapy. Two to 14-day packages are also available, including a two-week weight-control package offered at certain times of the year.

Accommodation rates vary from $105 (R680) for a deluxe double in the low season to $185 (R1 200) for the same room in high season, which includes Christmas, Easter and January-March. Low season is April-July.

http://www.shaantihhr.com.

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Hedonism and healing - Independent Online

Look back in anger, unplugged | Asia Times – Asia Times

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Every once in a (long) while a book comes out that rips the zeitgeist, shining on like a crazy diamond.Age of Anger, by Pankaj Mishra, author of the also-seminal From the Ruins of Empire, might as well be the latest avatar.

Think of this book as the ultimate (conceptual) lethal weapon in the hearts and minds of a rootless cosmopolitan Teenage Wasteland striving to find its true call as we slouch through the longest the Pentagon would say infinite of world wars; a global civil war (which in my 2007 book Globalistan I called Liquid War).

Mishra, a sterling product of East-meets-West, essentially argues its impossible to understand the present if we dont acknowledge the subterranean homesick blues contradicting the ideal of cosmopolitan liberalism the universal commercial society of self-interested rational individuals first conceptualized by the Enlightenment via Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Voltaire and Kant.

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Historys winner ended up being a sanitized narrative of benevolent Enlightenment. The tradition of rationalism, humanism, universalism and liberal democracy was supposed to have always been the norm. It was clearly too disconcerting, Mishra writes, to acknowledge that totalitarian politics crystallized the ideological currents (scientific racism, jingoistic rationalism, imperalism, technicism, aestheticized politics, utopianism, social engineering) already convulsing Europe in the late 19th century.

So, evoking T.S. Eliot, to frame the backward half-look, over the shoulder, towards the primitive terror that eventually led to The West versus The Rest, weve got to look at the precursors.

Enter Pushkins Eugene Onegin the first of many superflous man in Russian fiction, with his Bolivar hat, clutching a statue of Napoleon and a portrait of Byron, as Russia, trying to catch up with the West, mass-produced spiritually unmoored youth with a quasi-Byronic conception of freedom, further inflated by German Romanticism. The best Enlightenment critics had to be Germans and Russians, latecomers to politico-economic modernity.

Dostoevsky: Society dominated by the war of all against all in which most were condemned to be losers.

Two years before publishing the astonishing Notes from the Underground, Dostoyevsky, in his tour of Western Europe, was already seeing a society dominated by the war of all against all in which most were condemned to be losers.

In London, in 1862, at the International Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, Dostoyevsky had an illumination (You become aware of a colossal idea that here there is victory and triumph. You even begin vaguely to fear something.) Amid the stupor, Dostoyevsky was also cunning enough to observe how materialist civilization was enhanced as much by its glamor as by military and maritime domination.

Russian literature eventually crystalized crime at random as the paradigm of individuality savoring identity and asserting ones will (later mirrored in the mid-20th century by beat icon William Burroughs claiming shooting at random as his ultimate thrill).

The path had been carved for the swelling beggars banquet to start bombing the Crystal Palace even as, Mishra reminds us, intellectuals in Cairo, Calcutta, Tokyo and Shanghai were reading Jeremy Bentham, Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill to understand the secret of the perpetually expanding capitalist bourgeoisie.

And this after Rousseau, in 1749, had set the foundation stone of the modern revolt against modernity, now splintered in a wilderness of mirrored echoes as the Crystal Palace is de facto implanted in gleamy ghettos all around the world.

Mishra credits the idea of his book to Nietzsche commenting the epic querelle between the envious plebeian Rousseau and the serenely elitist Voltaire who duly hailed the London Stock Exchange, when it became fully operational, as a secular embodiment of social harmony.

Nietzsche: Ultimate cartographer of Resentment. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

But it was Nietzsche who eventually came from central casting, as a fierce detractor of both liberal capitalism and socialism, to make Zarathustras enticing promise a magnetic Holy Grail to Bolsheviks (Lenin, though, hated it), the left-wing Lu Xun in China, fascists, anarchists, feminists and hordes of disgruntled aesthetes.

Mishra also reminds us how Asian anti-imperialists and American robber barrons borrowed eagerly from Herbert Spencer, the first truly global thinker who coined the survival of the fittest mantra after reading Darwin.

Nietzsche was the ultimate cartographer of Resentment. Max Weber prophetically framed the modern world as an iron cage from which only a charismatic leader may offer escape. And anarchist icon Mikhail Bakunin, for his part, had already in 1869 conceptualized the revolutionist as severing every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world He is its merciless enemy and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose to destroy it.

Bakunin: the revolutionary as merciless enemy of the civilized world. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Escaping the Supreme Modernist James Joyces nightmare of history in fact the iron cage of modernity a viscerally militant secession from a civilization premised on gradual progress under liberal-democratic trustees is now raging, out of control, far beyond Europe.

Ideologies that may be radically opposed nonetheless grew symbiotically out of the cultural maelstrom of the late 19th century, from Islamic fundamentalism, Zionism and Hindu nationalism to Bolshevism, Nazism, Fascism and revamped Imperialism.

Not only WWII but the current endgame was also visualized by the brilliant, tragic Walter Benjamin in the 1930s, when he was already warning about the self-alienation of mankind, finally able to experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. Todays live-streaming DIY jihadis are its pop version, as ISIStries to configure itself as the ultimate negation of the pieties of neoliberal modernity.

Weaving savory streams of politics and literature cross-pollination, Mishra takes his time to set the scene for The Big Debate between those developing world masses whose lives are stamped by the Atlanticist Wests still largely acknowledged history of violence and the liquid modernity (Bauman) elites yielding from the (selected) part of the world that made the crucial breakthroughs since the Enlightenment in science, philosophy, art and literature.

This goes way beyond a mere debate between East and West. We cannot understand the current global civil war, this post-modernist, post-truth intense mix of envy and sense of humiliation and powerlessness, if we dont attempt to dismantle the conceptual and intellectual architecture of historys winners in the West, drawn from the triumphalist history of Anglo-American over-achievements.

Even at the height of the Cold War, US theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was mocking the bland fanatics of Western civilization in their blind faith that every society is destined to evolve just as a handful of nations in the West sometimes did.

And this the irony! while the liberal internationalist cult of progress glaringly mimicked the Marxist dream of internationalist revolution.

Arendt: Homelessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In her 1950 preface to The Origins of Totalitarianism now a resurgent mega-best seller on Amazon Hannah Arendt essentially told us to forget about the eventual restoration of the old world order; we were condemned to watch history repeat itself, homelessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth.

Meanwhile, as Carl Schorske noted in his spectacular Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture, American scholarship cut the cord of consciousness linking the past to the present; bluntly sanitized history; and then centuries of civil war, imperial ravage, genocide and slavery in Europe and America simply disappeared. Only one TINA (there is no alternative) narrative was allowed; how Atlanticists privileged with reason and individual autonomy made the modern world.

Enter master spoiler Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, born in 1928 in poor south Tehran, and the author of Westoxification (1962), a key reference text of Islamist ideology, where he writes about how Sartres Erostratus fires a revolver at the people in the street blindfolded; Nabokovs protagonist drives his car into the crowd; and the stranger, Mersault, kills someone in reaction to a bad case of sunburn. Talk about a lethal crossover existentialism meets Tehran slums to stress what Hanna Arendt called negative solidarity.

And enter Abu Musab al-Suri, born in 1958 one year after Osama bin Laden in a devout middle class family in Aleppo. It was al-Suri not the Egyptian Al-Zawahiri who designed a leaderless global jihad strategy in The Global Islamic Resistance Call, based on unconnected cells and individual operations. Al-Suri was the Samuel clash of civilizations Huntington of al-Qaeda. Mishra defines him as the Mikhail Bakunin of the Muslim world.

Responding to that silly neo-Hegelian end of history meme at the end of the Cold War, Allan Bloom warned that fascism might be the future; and John Gray telegraphed the return of primordial forces, nationalist and religious, fundamentalist and soon, perhaps, Malthusian.

And that leads us to why the exceptional bearers of Enlightenment humanism and rationalism cannot explain the current geopolitical turmoil from ISIS to Brexit to Trump. They could never come up with anything more sophisticated than binary opposition of free and unfree; the same 19th century Western clichs about the non-West; and the relentless demonization of that perennially backward Other: Islam. Hence the new long war (Pentagon terminology) against Islamofascism.

Islamofascist? Photo: AFP

They could never understand, as Mishra stresses, the implications of that meeting of minds in a Supermax prison in Colorado between Oklahoma City bomber, all-American Timothy McVeigh, and the mastermind of the first attack on the World Trade Center, Ramzi Yousef (non-devout Muslim, Pakistani father, Palestinian mother).

And they cannot understand how ISIS conceptualizers can regiment, online, an insulted, injured teenager from a Parisian suburb or an African shantytown and convert him into a narcissist Baudelairean? dandy loyal to a rousing cause worth fighting for. The parallel between the DIY jihadi and the 19th century Russian terrorist incarnating the syphilis of the revolutionary passions, as Alexander Herzen described it is uncanny.

Bombing Barcelona in 1893

or executions in the 21st century. Photo: Reuters

And the DIY jihadis top enemy is not even Christian; its the apostate Shiite. Mass rapes, choreographed murders, the destruction of Palmyra, Dostoyevsky had already identified it all; as Mishra puts it, its impossible for modern-day Raskolnikovs to deny themselves anything, and possible to justify anything.

Its impossible to summarize all the rhizomatic (hat tip to Deleuze-Guattari) intellectual crossfire deployed by Age of Anger. Whats clear is that to understand the current global civil war, archeological reinterpretation of the Wests hegemonic narrative of the past 250 years is essential. Otherwise we will be condemned, like puny Sisyphean specks, to endure not only the recurrent nightmare of history but also its recurrent blowback.

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Look back in anger, unplugged | Asia Times - Asia Times

Taking Liberties With Workable Liberty – Big Think

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1. Our way of life takes liberties with human nature. It uses Enlightenment ideas about reason which Samuel Hammond says psychologists know are very unrealistic (if not laughable).

2. Hammonds essay on liberalism (=workable liberties sought by lefties and conservatives) makes many crucial points, but isnt entirely realistic about reasons role.

3. Key principles of workable liberty are discovered, not invented. For instance, Hammond says, church/state separation and multicultural religious toleration were discovered in 1590s India under Islamic rule. And in 1640s Europe after many wars. (Aside, the supposed failure of multiculturalismisnt universal).

4. Certain behavioral rule patterns (like the Golden Rule, or property rights) are discoverable by any perspective-taking game-theoretic thinking.

5. Game theory enables mathematicalethics" with patterns as provable as geometry. And like geometry, game theory takes teaching (try rediscovering Euclid). But cooperation-preserving game theory matters far more than geometry.

6. Hammond mentions the badly taught Prisoners Dilemma game. If the strategy labeled rational produces bad results, is it rightly called rational? That the Golden Ruled or god-fearing beat rationalists suggests we need to rescue rationality.

7. Experts play a vital role says Hammond. Yes, but only if theyre properly motivated. If experts (or leaders) arent loyal to something above self-gain, like the public good, theyre buyable and unreliable (see Plato on greed-driven politics, + original idiocy).

8. Hammond feels that reason can help establish cooperative norms. But theyre also established, transmitted and internalized emotionally (see paleo-economics). Social emotions evolved partly for cooperation, as did language (weve got evolved social cooperation rule processors, akin to our tacit grammar rule processors).

9. Darwin saw that in humans workable cooperative norms work like natural-moral selection. Your way of life discovers them, or it dies out (see needism, + negative telos).

10. Hammond advises reason and persuasion, not fear-mongering or other emotive strategies. But persuasion often requires emotion (see Aristotles rhetoric). The trick is to recruit emotions for good, not to ignore them (see Platos emotive Chariot, + facts versus fears).

11. Many besides psychologists know that the Enlightenments reason-reliance is laughably unrealistic. Only the unobservant or experts educated into rationalist delusions or theory induced blindness (like model-mesmerized economists) could believe otherwise.

12. Some Enlightenment thinkers understood; Hobbes>Reason is not...born with usbut attained by industry, Hume>Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions:

13. But less realistic ideas won, and Enlightenment errors, though unempirical, still underpin democracy and economics.

14. Three unempirical Enlightenment errors, rationalism, individualism, and hedonism, are particularly seductive because theyre partly truth. However their elegant oversimplifications exclude much that matters. Theyre typically empirically complex compositions hybridized with their opposites (emotional and relational rationality, self-deficient individualism, painstaking mattering and meaning-seeking).

15. No workable liberty can permit freedom to harm what your community depends on. Yet logic that pits self-interest against collective self-preservation lurks among the market-mesmerized.

16. Ways of life built on unempirical views of emotions or reason arent sustainable. Hammond makes progress by using empirically sounder psychology (e.g., mentioning System 1 + System 2). But long-lived liberty requires behavioral politics and better behaved behavioural models.

--

IllustrationbyJulia Suits,The New Yorkercartoonist & author ofThe Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions

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Go for introspection, Left parties told – The Hindu

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Its time the Left parties introspect where they had floundered, and developed a lingo to address the aspirations of the new middle class, Hamid Dhabolkar, son of the slain anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dhabolkar and a leader of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti that works towards eradicating superstitions, has said.

They must ask themselves and find out where they went wrong. As to whether they were not adequately appreciative of the new role of the middle class that emerged in the 1990s, he said in an interaction with The Hindu on the sidelines of the DYFI national meeting which he addressed on Thursday.

Dr. Dhabolkar, a psychiatrist by profession, feels that Left politics for some reason had taken the back seat in national polity in the 1990s and the vacuum thus created was soon captured and filled by the far Right communal forces with a flourish. It is therefore important that the Left in India remain sensitive to issues of culture, which are political as well, and address them as part of their pro-poor agenda, he says.

To cite an instance, sorcery and black magic have been used time and again by opportunistic, self-proclaimed godmen to exploit the poor, he says. While his father had led the struggle for legislation against black magic, Maharashtra promulgated an Act after his father fell to the guns of bigots in 2013.

Dr. Dhabolkar is happy that the Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad has taken up the cause for such an act with the Kerala government.

Sabarimala temple

If the anti-superstition body that he is part of had successfully led a struggle for entry of women into the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra, he now would want the same to be allowed at Sabarimala temple.

The case is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court on February 20, on the second anniversary of communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansares murder by anti-nationalists, he says.

It pains Dr. Dhabolkar to think that justice has not been delivered yet in the murders of Narendra Dhabolkar, Govind Pansare and M.M. Kalburgi; trial has been rather slow and the actual shooters are absconding. But it is important that the message left by them go far and wide.

Megha Pansare

Govind Pansares daughter-in-law Megha Pansare thinks combating superstition is as important as the fight against globalisation. By opposing superstition, you are promoting rationalism, scientific temper, and freedom of thought, says Dr. Megha, an activist with the National Federation of Indian Women and a lecturer in Russian at the Shivaji University in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.

Govinda Pansare was a cultural activist and a politician and deemed cultural activity as part of his political commitment. He was gunned down when he was on the morning walk with his spouse. Now, as an act of resistance, Dr. Megha is organising morning walks by people on the 20th of each month.

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Go for introspection, Left parties told - The Hindu

Trump’s Wall Will Fail in the Era of Post-Humanism – Inverse

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In June 2015, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President with a wild promise: that hed halt illegal immigration and crime which he traced to Mexican immigrants by building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

I will build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively, he said. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.

Trump is intent on delivering on that campaign process as president. He kickstarted the process with an executive order last week, ordering the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border that would serve as an impassable physical barrier between the United States and illegal aliens. Trumps intended wall would be 1,000 miles natural barriers would take care of the rest and claims it will cost between $10 to $12 billion (estimates from the Government Accountability Office have the number closer to $14 billion).

A nation without borders is not a nation, Trump said when he announced the wall executive order. Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders gets back its borders.

But walls dont fit into our increasingly post-humanist society, argues Juanita Sundberg, an ethnographer who specializes in border security and geopolitics at the University of British Columbia. Inverse spoke to her about the role of walls in defining national borders.

You say walls dont fit into a definition of post-humanism, which has many definitions of post-humanism. How would you define that concept?

There are different ways of thinking about it. One of them is considering in which ways humans will become beyond human through technological changes. Another approach to what post-humanism is more the focus of my research is more focused on the de-centering of the social world and the reaction of humans to that, what will happen when technological influences change how traditional networks are composed.

There are psychological studies that show that walls can have the intended effects of the people who want to construct them such as influencing people to accept the status quo. Do you think that will change as we become more influenced by technology?

I feel like the wall [that Trump is discussing] is already influenced by technology because it operates symbolically online so few people seem to realize that there is already a wall. There is so much conversation and hype about it all, but the number of people who will actually have to experience and live with the wall is a minority.

I find it hard to believe that, for most people, they are considering it an actual material thing. When you speak to people who are actually living by the border, they are saying things like: We know the wall doesnt work, why are the rest of you so excited about it? The symbolic power of the wall remains as powerful as ever.

As an ethnographer who studies and researchers political ecology, what is your reaction to hearing that people intend to build this physical wall?

To me, it is completely outdated as a technological thing. Its not a technology that works unless you have someone posted every three feet.

There has been so much effort by the U.S. government to create a virtual wall, and there are places along the border where these virtual walls are. Essentially, these virtual walls have technological features that allow border control to survey the area and create a wall in the sense that they can sense movement, and they can see whether the movement is people or animals. The purpose of these walls is to calculate where undocumented people are coming out of the landscape, and channel them into very specific geographies that then make it easier to apprehend them.

The research that Im conducting is looking at the ways in which the physical landscape creates all kinds of obstacles for this technological wall; it also makes it difficult for construction and maintaining of a physical wall. Even though were so sophisticated technologically, the physical landscape continuously thwarts human plans to build barriers.

Do you think that virtual walls have a different symbolic effect on people than physical walls?

Ive sat in on community meetings with the border control in souther Arizona where theres discussion about the construction of virtual walls, and people were very upset because the virtual wall cameras and such were actually surveilling them. And people were really disturbed by this notion that they are now going to be the object of this technological surveillance. That factor really changed things for them. I was in a small town that is closer to the border, and people do a lot of outdoor activities there and were concerned about being exhibited in the border control stations while they did that.

Interestingly, you never really hear about the virtual wall in the news. You dont see advertising for it, the same conversation that the physical wall gets. It doesnt have literal weight you dont see anything, it looks like a cell tower.

Turning to the future, if walls dont work, what is the right way to approach borders? Do you think a post-humanist society will pivot away from this type of border security?

Yes, I think that pivot will happen. How exactly is obviously uncertain perhaps our passports will be embedded in our bodies, and so surveillance becomes biometric. But again, if our bodies became our passport, we move towards a totally authoritarian society.

Or the opposite may happen, and we go back to the entire span of human history where borders really werent significant. Physical, political boundaries are such a recent phenomena. What is interesting is that we think were moving into the future, but something as regressive as a wall is the recent past the nothing that its going to protect the nation-state. Border security on the U.S.-Mexico border is recent; on the U.S.-Canada is recent. We assume that the future is more progressive, or that we will progress beyond what seems like archaic technology, yet that appears to be one of the ways that we might be going now. This wall certainly isnt indicative of any technological progress.

And do you think a potential future where surveillance acts as border security will create a different effect than a wall?

It creates obstacles yes, but theyre [migrants] going to get around it. It just has so little weight for them which is not to diminish the violence they face. They are very much aware of that of being caught, of getting lost out there; there are a variety of ways in which the border is materially violent. But Im talking about its political weight, which seems to be just meaningless.

I think the migrants of today exemplify what has always been true, and I think will always be true, which is that humans constantly move through the landscape. Thats a normal part of human history people will move. The idea that we should be static and closed in is a recent one.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons (1, 2), Getty Images / Justin Sullivan

Sarah is a writer based in Brooklyn. She has previously written for The New Republic, Pacific Standard, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. She likes cheese especially when paired with a full-bodied joke.

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Trump's Wall Will Fail in the Era of Post-Humanism - Inverse

The Fairly Traded Coffee Party – Patheos (blog)

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Over-caffeinated hysteria forms the backdrop of the Presidency of Donald Trump.

At first, the hysteriaseemed the inevitable aftermath of a particularly nasty and at times vitriolicpolitical campaign. With two such dislikable and polarizing candidates, a winter of discontent was comingno matter who became the 45th President of the United States.

But the range and intensityof the outrageseems to be growing every morning, and in a manner asymmetric with past elections.

The asymmetry invites further reflection.

It seems to me that the range is boundless because Hillary Clintons loss wasnt just a political defeat. It was a radical contradiction of the progressives worldview convictions.

The postnationalist corporations a designation which includes celebrities, the media, multinational corporations, and various international agencies are predicated upon a globalism built on technology that seeks to remove all boundaries, particularly of a moral nature; on the other hand, President Trump has clearly defined boundaries to his vision for America, and upholds the historic position that as President, his prime responsibility should be to his country: America first.

President Trumps stances are problematic for politicians and institutions around the globe that have been thinning borders of all sorts for a generation. As the lead actor on the international stage, the multinationalists recognize that the United States lead will force the political class of other countries to change. A Brexit-like effect will require them to demonstrate a similar patriotism and priority of care for their own citizens, not just the good of the wealthy multinationals that live in every country.

Trickle down multinational economics and open tap immigration policies arent working for Middle America, or the first world for that matter.

Instead of a localized earthquake that shakes American politics like the Tea Party, the reaction to Trump is a global tsunami of the expressive individualism that forms the civil religion of the global elite. And because it is an establishment rebellion, it comes not from the mouths of the ordinary people of middle America, but those of the good and the great, or in the debauched equivalents of our day, the celebrities and the CEOs of multinational corporations.

It is symbolic that Starbuckshas capitalized on the feeling to advertise its internationalist and borderless bona fides, because it is serving up the antithesis of the Tea Party movement.

We might call it a neo-Marxist Fairly Traded Coffee Party.

The defeat of the technocratic, postnationalist establishment

It seems irrelevant to them that some of President Trumps policies sound a lot like those of Bernie Sanders, whose stances were wildly popular with many in the Democrat ranks. It is irrelevant because the Fairly Traded Coffee Party is not a popular revolt, it is an organized establishment pushback manipulating the causes of the various identity groups of its anti-establishment base to foment insurrection against their common enemy.

However much she was disliked, Hillary Clinton representedcontinuitywith the consensus that existed across political party lines. That movement didnt need a leader with policies. It simply needed a likable figurehead. It had that in Barack Obama, just as it has one now in Canada in the avatarthat is Justin Trudeau.

The consensus uponwhich these figureheads govern exist on amyriad of faith commitments ofthe technocratic elites. But taken as a whole, they relate to the hopefultranshumanist and posthumanist agenda tochange humanityfundamentally.

President Obama was a perfect leader for them. His hope and change were vague slogans. While the slogans resonated withthe needs of the rust belt andAmericas heartland, the same voters that Trump has just captured, it became clear that Obamaspolicies of hope and change were transnationalist policies more in tune with the agenda of the UN, Silicon Valley, the Ivy League, and the European technocratic elite than with jobs for middle America.

The change the coastal elites had in view, which President Obamadelivered on, was an intensification of the transformations of human nature that had been taking place in evolutionary biology and research institutes at least since C.S. Lewis identified them in 1943 inThe Abolition of Man. With respect to sexuality and the family, it had atranshumanistimpulse; with respect to the environment, it wasposthumanist.

Trumps promise to restore, strengthen and defend the boundaries around these things by putting America firstis a strike at their abolition of man.

All the coffee in Starbucks wont wake his opponents from that living nightmare.

And the rage is served hot every morning, individualized to the customers antinomian taste.

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The Fairly Traded Coffee Party - Patheos (blog)

Documents About Financial Censorship Under Operation Choke Point Show Concern from Congress, Provide Few … – EFF

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EFF recently received dozens of pages of documents in response to a FOIA request we submitted about Operation Choke Point, a Department of Justice project to pressure banks and financial institutions into cutting off service to certain businesses. Unfortunately, the response from the Department of Justice leaves many questions unanswered.

EFF has been tracking instances of financial censorship for years to identify how online speech is indirectly silenced or intimidated by shuttering bank accounts, donation platforms, and other financial institutions. The Wall Street Journal wrote about the Justice Departments controversial and secretive campaign against financial institutions in 2013, and one Justice Department official quoted in the article stated:

"We are changing the structures within the financial system that allow all kinds of fraudulent merchants to operate," with the intent of "choking them off from the very air they need to survive."

While Operation Choke Point was purportedly aimed at shutting down fraudulent online payday loan companies, we became concerned that this campaign could also affect legal online businesses.

EFF filed FOIA requests with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Trade Commission. The documents EFF received from the DOJ are primarily correspondence between members of Congress and the Department of Justice. In that correspondence, Congress members raised concerns about Operation Choke Point, asked questions about how it operates, and stated that this is an issue that constituents are sending letters about.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Rep. Kenny Marchant (D-TX), for example, emailed the Department of Justice with specific questions about how the Department defines a high risk financial business.

In the correspondence we received, the DOJ overwhelmingly replied with form letters that didnt describe the criteria the Department used to decide whether a company was considered high risk, how many companies were currently labeled high risk, whether a company would ever know if it was considered high risk, or any appeal process for companies to have themselves removed from that category.

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) wrote a letter to then Attorney General Eric Holder describing how two community banks in Wisconsin were bullied by regional agents of the FDIC, who told them to stop working with prominent online lenders:

These banks were informed that if they chose to ignore the FDIC's request, they would face "the highest levels of scrutiny they could imagine," and were given no explanation, details of complaints, or any evidence as to why these demands were being made.'

Duffy called these threats "outrageous" and "intimidation tactics."

Other members of Congress wrote to the Department of Justice about how Operation Choke Point was hampering opportunities for law-abiding Native American tribes and the Hispanic community.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who cosponsored the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and advocates for additional financial regulation, expressed deep concern about the Department of Justice stepping beyond the bounds of the law with Operation Choke Point. In his letter to Holder, he stated:

As much as I would like to see stronger regulation of consumer lenders, I've sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Accordingly, I must oppose efforts to "legislate by prosecution" and legislate by "criminal investigation," even if I agree partly or completely with the ultimate substantive aim.

He also said, "[y]our department should conduct criminal investigations for the purpose of enforcing laws we havenot laws you (and I) might wish we had."

Unfortunately, the responses from the Department of Justice left more questions than answers. Vital details about Operation Choke Pointincluding what industries beyond online loans may be impacted, the exact criteria for labeling a business high risk, and the tactics used to pressure banks into participationare still unknown.

Many people believe that Americas financial institutions may need additional regulation, and some may believe that online lenders should face additional scrutiny. However, an intimidation squadron secretly pressuring banks to cut off businesses without due process is not the right way forward. As weve seen with digital booksellers, whistleblower websites, online publishers, and online personal ads, payment providers often cave to pressurewhether formal or informalto shut down or restrict accounts of those engaged in First Amendment-protected activity. In order to foster a future where digital expression can flourish, we need to ensure that necessary service providers like banks and payment processors dont turn into the weak link used to cut off unpopular speech.

But that requires transparency. We need more information about how the government is pressuring financial institutions. Unfortunately, the Department of Justices nonresponses to Congress dont get us any closer to understanding this complicated issue.

Check out the most recent documents EFF got in response to its FOIA request on Operation Choke Point. See documents EFF received earlier on this program.

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Documents About Financial Censorship Under Operation Choke Point Show Concern from Congress, Provide Few ... - EFF

Comparing Trump to Stalin, Australia’s Chief Scientist Warns Against Censorship – Common Dreams

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Comparing Trump to Stalin, Australia's Chief Scientist Warns Against Censorship
Common Dreams
American scientists are facing censorship on par with that imposed in the USSR under Josef Stalin, Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel said during a scientific roundtable in Canberra, Australia, on Monday. "Science is literally under attack ...
Australia's Top Scientist Blasts Donald Trump Over Stalin-Like CensorshipHuffington Post
Australia's chief scientist tears Trump's EPA mandate: 'It's reminiscent of the censorship exerted by political ...The Week Magazine
Australia's Top Scientist: Trump's EPA Changes Akin to Stalin's Censorship of ScienceThe Libertarian Republic
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Comparing Trump to Stalin, Australia's Chief Scientist Warns Against Censorship - Common Dreams

Pakistan’s Censorship Takes a Dangerous Turn – The Diplomat

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Renowned Pakistani poet, social activist and academic Salman Haider was abducted on January 6 from Islamabad Highway while he was on his way back home. His wife received a text from his own number, telling her to pick the car from a place few hundred meters away from their house. As the news about his abduction emerged in the mainstream media, the families of two other bloggers, Aasim Saeed and Ahmed Waqas Goraya, reportedto the police that they had been missing since January 4. Two other activists, Ahmed Raza Naseer and Samar Abbas, also went missing in the following days. All of them are well-known for holding a progressive worldview, often critical of the militarys policies.

After weeks of speculation and widespread protests across the country, fourof them returned to their families on January 28. Two of them have since left the country after an active media campaign framing them as blasphemers threatened their lives. The other two, although still in Pakistan, have relocated along with their families, uncertain about their future.

While several quarters suspect military spy agencies of being behind the abductions, the director general of the militarys Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor, in his first press conference, denied the armys involvement. Still, abold editorial appearing in Dawn newspaper on January 11 read, The sanitized language missing persons, the disappeared, etc. cannot hide an ugly truth: the state of Pakistan continues to be suspected of involvement in the disappearance and illegal detentions of a range of private citizens.

Dawns editorial predicted that a dark new chapter in the states murky, illegal war against civil society appears to have been opened.

After protests against the disappearances erupted, a popular Twitter and Facebook hashtag #WhoAreTheyDefending accused the protesters of supporting blasphemers, with many tweets calling for their deaths. TV anchor and televangelist Aamir Liaquat Hussain launched an attack against leading journalists like Owais Tohid, media outlets like Jang and Dawn group, as well as several members of the civil society, accusing them of committing treason and blasphemy. In doing so, Hussain who hosts a controversial talk show in a recently-launched TV channel repeatedlydefied a banon such accusations laid down bythe Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority(PEMRA), which called Liaquats commentshate speech.

Renowned activist and analysts Marvi Sirmed, who herself has come under personal attacks from Aamir Liaquat Hussain, believes there is no way to know if he is parroting someones line. However, looking at who else is taking the position that Aamir Liaquat is taking, it becomes clearer which unseen power wants that line to be propagated, she says.

In October last year, Dawn newspaper staffer Cyril Almeida reported the details of an off-camera meeting where the civilian leadership confronted the then-director general of Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI), Lt. General Rizwan Akhtar, about not allowing action against banned outfits in Punjab. Almeidas story drew a strong backlash from the government, andhis name was put on the Exit Control List only to be removed a few days later after a strong response from the English press and overall media platforms.

Daily The Nation, in aneditorial following the ban on Cyril Almeida, wrote, how dare the government and military top brass lecture the press on how to do their job. How dare they treat a feted reporter like a criminal. And how dare they imply that they have either the right or the ability or the monopoly to declare what Pakistans national interest is.

While the media attempt to push back, the state-sponsored censorship seems to be expanding from topics like Balochistan to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC); from mainstream to social media. Marvi Sirmed has observed the same phenomenon. I havent received any direct censorship directions from anywhere ever. Its just that they show their displeasure through hundreds of anonymous Twitter accounts, she says.

Sirmed, who writes a weekly column for Pakistan Today, recounts how her voice was censored: Recently, my regular column in The Nation has been stopped abruptly in the wake of pressure from some known unknowns.

The Nation became a target of social media abuse under the hashtag #ShameOnTheNation after publishing some op-eds criticizing the states policies. After a barrage of abuse and threats online, the publication was forced to remove some of the op-eds from its website.

After The Newsrecently broke the news that 90 acres of land had been allotted to the former chief of army staff, General Raheel Sharif, an organized campaign, both online and offline, called Jang Group treasonous and a blasphemer. Overnight, banners calling for the death of Najam Sethi a senior journalist and analyst associated with Jang Group appeared in front of the Karachi Press Club.

Shad Khan, a U.K.-based Pakistani journalist, was recently removed from the country while he was filming for a documentary on the effects of investment brought by CPEC on the people of Gwadar.

I was granted permission by the Gwadar Port Authority to shoot around the area, Khan says.

Known for The Secret Drone War, which won him an Amnesty Award, Khan was provided with a security official in Gwadar. I filmed with Pakistan Navy for a day after they verified all of the documentation provided by me, he says. However, on the fifth day of shooting, I started receiving visits from officials in civilian clothes who asked for my identity card and I was interrogated by an army major.

Khan was asked to leave Gwadar without his equipment and the intelligence officials accompanying escorted him to a plane for the U.K.

Khan explains the apparent reason for his removal. I had to cover a rally of Sardar Akhtar Mengal, the head of Balochistan National Party, when they came to me and asked me to not cover the rally at all, Khan recalls. Upon my refusal to comply with their demand, they requested to cover the rally positively, which, as a journalist, is not a good practice.

Im a Pakistani citizen but not sure if I was just removed or deported. Im not sure if I still hold the Pakistani nationality or not. Pakistani High Commission in the U.K. hasnt returned my queries, he laments.

A similar incident happened with two New York City-based filmmakers, Rehana Esmail and Sina Zekavat, who have been working on a documentary called Boats Above My House for the past 18 months. The film is about a landslide in the northern areas of Pakistan and the chain of environmental, social, political, and economic events that followed. We focus on a group of people in Attabad village who are not formally recognized as citizens and are attempting to build their lives back after they lost their homes after this landslide, Zekavat says.

Their film received an on-site stop order on November 3, 2016from the Pakistani security agencies. Our line producer and DP (all locals) were forced to undergo a prolonged and unclear investigation process, Zekavat says, adding, all of our gear (including rental equipment and personal cell phones) and footage is being held for a forensic investigation and weve been informed that there are possibilities of serious charges against our fellow crew members.

One of the people they were filming with was Naz, who is the sister of the Baba Jan a left-wing activist and politician currently imprisoned for life. Naz is partially involved in her brothers release from prison as well the general human rights situation for people of Gilgit-Baltistan, Sina Zekavat says, adding, however, the footage that we got up until the stop, mainly consisted of Naz and her family cooking and eating together and doing very ordinary things.

The line of questioning by the investigators focused on filming Baba Jans house, which the co-directors insist wasnt the highlight of the documentary. Human rights activist and lawyer Asma Jahangir has decided to take up their case in the court.

In another sign of a growing crackdown, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) recently banned Khabaristan Times, a satire news website famous for taking on politicians, the military, and religious extremists.

Khabaristan Timeseditor Kunwar Khuldune Shahid considers the ban a continuation of the states crackdown on dissent in online spaces. Our content was published without any bylines, and the author only revealed their name to their audience if they chose to. Article 23 of the cybercrime law itself outlaws spoof and parody, and hence could be triggered to ban the satirical publication, he says.

Khuldune adds: Whether it was to target satire or anonymity, it is evident that secular and liberal voices are being targeted. For many jihadist groups are open to express themselves many do it anonymously as well.

Islamabad-based journalist Taha Siddiqui believes the attempts by the state to coerce journalists into toeing their narrative line are increasing. State has financially squeezed news networks if they tried to challenge the state narrative or openly report on taboo topics like Pakistani military affairs independently, since manages stories on such topics.

Siddiqui predicts tougher days for dissenting voices in Pakistan. The worst part is that journalists and activists have no idea what the red line is anymore and the state has started to react even more violently when it wants to clamp down on those who are vocal about critically evaluating sociopolitical issues in Pakistan, he asserts.

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, who is a keen observer of current affairs himself, agrees.

This targeting of secular pages and websites could be a way to appease the Islamist sections at a time when a crackdown against jihadist groups and leaders has become inevitable owing to international pressure.

Hafiz Saeed being under house arrest, and members of LeT and JuD being put under the ECL [exit control list], highlights this. Maybe the states action against liberal voices, and the fact that it preceded the crackdown, was designed to forestall the Islamist backlash, he concludes.

Umer Ali is a freelance journalist based in Pakistan. He reports on human rights issues, social problems and more. He can be reached on Twitter at @iamumer1.

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Pakistan's Censorship Takes a Dangerous Turn - The Diplomat

Arizona Bill Would Stop Censorship Of High-School Newspapers – KJZZ

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Arizona Bill Would Stop Censorship Of High-School Newspapers
KJZZ
A Supreme Court decision has ruled student newspapers don't have the same constitutional rights as other publications. But an Arizona state senator saw that as having a chilling effect and introduced a bill to stop school administrators from censoring ...

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A Pirate Podcast App Takes on Iran’s Hardline Censors – WIRED

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Slide: 1 / of 2. Caption: RadiTo

Slide: 2 / of 2. Caption: RadiTo

Reza Ghazinouri remembers the importance of pirate radio as a teenager growing up in in the city of Mashhad in northeast Iran. His father tuned in multiple times a day to the banned Farsi version of the BBC transmitted from neighboring countries, to hear the truth about Iranian political scandals like the impeachment of the countrys liberal minister of culture, and the shutdown of dozens of its newspapers. While Ghazinouri studied for his college entrance exams in 2003, hed listen to the US government-funded Radio Farda coverage of student protests against university privatization. I still remember those programs so clearly, Ghazinouri says, Every night Id imagine myself protesting like the students.

Today, Ghazinouri has found his own form of protest. Hes one of the creators of an app that aims to bring the same contraband audio to modern Iran in a revamped form: the pirate podcast. Today he and his fellow activists and coders at the Berkeley-based, Iran-focused app developer IranCubator will launch RadiTo, an audio app for Android uniquely suited to the conditions of the countrys internet. It navigates slow, expensive data connections, users who speak a variety of languages and dialects ignored by most podcast distributors, and trickiest of all, a draconian digital censorship regime. With RadiTo, the group hopes to evade that internet filtering and bring a rare stream of aural information about the outside world to the countrys burgeoning smartphone culture.

For now, the app works as a kind of digital radio tool, offering banned foreign channels like the BBC, Radio Farda, and Amsterdam-based Radio Zamaneh. But eventually RadiTo, whose name means Radio You in Farsi, plans to let anyone create their own podcast channel, serving as a kind of audio-only Iranian YouTube for illicit ideas and entertainment. This allows individuals to have a platform to broadcast whatever they want to broadcast, says Firuzeh Mahmoudi, one of IranCubators founders and the executive director of its creator United For Iran. Getting access to radio stations outside the country is imperative, and a platform where individuals can have channels to share information is critical.

Beyond mere news, RadiTo will offer audio channels devoted to other subjects forbidden in Iran. One show it plans to distribute, called Taboo, has in the last several months devoted episodes to censored topics like pre-marital sex, separatist groups, and the female orgasm. Another show will focus on Iranian mysticism, a controversial topic under Irans strict interpretation of Islam. Both shows are run by Iranians living in America; the subjects they cover, after all, are a form of thought crime in Iran. Irans digital censorship body, the Supreme Council for Cyberspace, has long blocked all internet content in the country that violates its tight restrictionseverything from political dissent against the countrys hardline regime to cultural content it considers anti-Islamic.

RadiTo has a few ideas about how to stay ahead of that filtering. It offers two ways to download RadiTo: both Google Play and trusted Telegram accounts, like the one run by pseudonymous Iranian activist and blogger Vahid Online. Iran doesnt currently block either method, Ghazinouri says, and since connections to Google Play are encrypted, the Iranian censors cant easily block downloads of RadiTo without blocking all connections to the Android app store that serves more than 70 percent of the countrys smartphone users. The server that hosts RadiTos content, Ghazinouri explains, is hosted on Amazon Web Services and encrypted, which similarly hides its data in a tough-to-block collection of other services. (The encrypted calling and texting app Signal recently used a similar tactic to circumvent blocking of the app in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.)

Ghazinouri concedes that the government might still find a way to block the apps connections by, say, identifying the exact IP range of the apps Amazon servers, or using deep packet inspection to spot its data in transit. So the group also has a workaround in mind: In the case of a block, its ready to push an update to the app via both Google Play and Telegram that would embed a proxy function, routing its data over the Psiphon network, an anti-censorship tool created by the University of Torontos Citizen Lab, which bounces users connections through the computers of volunteers outside Iran. Individual Farsi audio apps from broadcasters like Radio Zamaneh do have their own Android apps, but probably arent as well prepared to play the cat-and-mouse game of censorship evasion, argues Ghazinouri. The Iranian government comes up with new censorship techniques all the time, says Ghazinouri. You always have to have a Plan B.

Iranians can already access some of these services piecemeal, through proxies and other workarounds. But RadiTo on top of censorship circumvention, RadiTo also has features that solve uniquely Iranian problems. Its interface offers not only Farsi and English, but four other Iranian minority languages: Balouchi, Iranian-dialect Turkish, Kurdish, and Arabic. And it allows users to download content and listen offline, a crucial setting in a country where a lack of infrastructure and intentional government throttling slows internet speeds to an expensive trickle. Theres no other Iranian app that offers all this, says Fereidoon Bashar, an internet activist and developer at the Toronto-based technology lab ASL-19, which is working with IranCubator on future apps for the same market. Its accommodating not just the user experience, but also the internet ecosystem that exists in Iran, the limited access to data.

RadiTo is only the first official launch for IranCubator. In the coming months, it hopes to launch a dozen apps, all tailored for Iranian users and the challenges of Irans cloistered internet. Later in February, for instance, IranCubator plans to release a tool called Hamdam, aimed at womens health education. Hamdam will include a period tracker, information about marriage rights and divorce, and advice about dealing with domestic violence.

IranCubator founder Mahmoudi says she hopes the groups human-rights focused apps can collectively ride the growing wave of mobile device adoption in Iran, where 40 million people already own smartphones, with a million more added every month. Iranians are tech-savvy and globally minded. They want to be in a county thats more democratic and worldly, says Mahmoudi. All the indicators are there. Technology is the right tool to engage people where they want to engage.

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A Pirate Podcast App Takes on Iran's Hardline Censors - WIRED

Censorship or parental control? Va. lawmakers divided on bill – WTOP

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The bill would require schools to notify parents of any potentially sexually explicit classroom material and require that schools offer an alternative for the students of any parents who opt out. (Thinkstock)

WASHINGTON Virginias House of Delegates could take a final vote Monday on a bill that would require schools to notify parents of any potentially sexually explicit classroom material and require that schools offer an alternative for the students of any parents who opt out.

Opponents of the bill said it amounts to censorship in schools. Supporters said it is simply a requirement to keep parents informed and in control.

This does not prohibit any teacher from assigning any type of material they deem necessary or appropriate. It does not ban books. It does not ban any materials that teachers or school systems would like to have on their reading list and the like. It doesnt do that, the bills patron Del. Steve Landes, R-Augusta, said Friday.

This legitimately addresses a legitimate concern that parents raised, he said.

Del. Dave Albo, R-Springfield, described the bill as a compromise that strikes a fair balance.

I think that 99.99999 percent of the parents in Virginia would like to know if someone assigned a book that has scenes about sexual abuse of a child and infected sexual battery, Albo said.

Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, said that even though this years bill set for a final vote is narrower than the bill that was vetoed by Gov. Terry McAuliffelast year, there would still be significant unintended consequences and problems.

More than likely, a teacher will not be able to do two entire lesson plans for the same class, sometimes on a very quick turnaround, after an objection from just one parent. This makes it much less likely that theyd be willing to even attempt to use anything that might be considered objectionable in their lessons, Lopez said.

He said it would be a form of censorship that could limit all kinds of classic art and literature.

For a junior taking AP English and learning iambic pentameter, what is less objectionable literary work that is the equivalent to any of Shakespeares plays? Lopez said.

Most importantly, what is an equivalent work to Toni Morrisons Beloved, which teaches us in a very raw and unflinching manner and terms about the horrors of slavery? he added.

The bill was originally triggered by a Fairfax County mother who protested the use of Beloved in her sons class when he was a senior in high school.

Lopez and Del. Vivian Watts, D-Annandale, warned of a potential black eye for Virginias reputation if the bill passes, and it becomes widely reported or mentioned on late-night TV.

Lopez cited the widespread reaction to the recent move in Accomac, Virginia, to pull To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn following a parents complaint.

We will end up with excluding for all what might be objectionable to just a few, she added.

The bill advanced Friday on a voice vote to a final vote that is expected on Monday. The bill would then go to the state Senate.

Del. Nicholas Freitas, R-Culpeper, said this is simply a service for parents.

I dont care how many Pulitzer Prizes it has. If its sexually explicit material, that might be something as a parent that I want to be notified of, Freitas said.

Read the proposed bill on theVirginia General Assembly website.

Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.

2017 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.

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Censorship or parental control? Va. lawmakers divided on bill - WTOP

The Censorship Conspiracy Theories Have Begun, And Media … – Forbes

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The Censorship Conspiracy Theories Have Begun, And Media ...
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A technical glitch during an ABC broadcast about Trump's travel ban has led to hundreds of people claiming censorship from the White House, and this is just ...
No, Donald Trump Didn't Censor ABC News, As a Viral Reddit Post ...Observer

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The Censorship Conspiracy Theories Have Begun, And Media ... - Forbes