Monday, October 14, 2019
THE FAILURE OF PRIVATE SCHOOLING
Ivanka Trump spells 'Nobel Peace Prize' wrong in Insta Story and that's not even the worst bit
Sirena Bergman
Ivanka Trump's Instagram stories is having quite a moment.
After the announcement that Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia, had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Ivanka (or her presumably now-former social media manager) posted a story congratulating him.
It wasn't even your basic caption in standard Instagram font - they went all out to put together a cute little collage featuring string lights, a picture of the two of them together and a nice note aimed at Ahmed.
So far, so fresh and fun, right?
As cringey as the spelling mistake is, it's not even the worst bit.
In a painfully relatable twist, it turns out Ivanka's shout-out was irrelevant anyway as Ahmed doesn't even follow her. Bit awks.
HT Sputnik News
Ivanka Trump spells 'Nobel Peace Prize' wrong in Insta Story and that's not even the worst bit
Sirena Bergman
Ivanka Trump's Instagram stories is having quite a moment.
After the announcement that Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia, had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Ivanka (or her presumably now-former social media manager) posted a story congratulating him.
It wasn't even your basic caption in standard Instagram font - they went all out to put together a cute little collage featuring string lights, a picture of the two of them together and a nice note aimed at Ahmed.
So far, so fresh and fun, right?
(Instagram/Ivanka Trump)
Until you actually read the words, and realise that what she's congratulating him on is some sort of "noble" peace prize.
Yep, that's noble as in "a person of high moral principles", as opposed to "Nobel" as in Alfred Nobel - founder of the prize and Swedish 19th century icon who we're going to crown a proto-millennial by virtue of his wildly diverse career and constant reinvention of his personal brand, from chemist, to inventor, engineer, self-taught polyglot and writer.
Granted, in the grand scheme of typos it's not *the worst* ("Noble Piece Prize" would have added an extra level), and perhaps we can be generous and call it a Freudian slip - winning a Nobel Prize could indeed be seen as a measure of nobility, we assume.
Until you actually read the words, and realise that what she's congratulating him on is some sort of "noble" peace prize.
Yep, that's noble as in "a person of high moral principles", as opposed to "Nobel" as in Alfred Nobel - founder of the prize and Swedish 19th century icon who we're going to crown a proto-millennial by virtue of his wildly diverse career and constant reinvention of his personal brand, from chemist, to inventor, engineer, self-taught polyglot and writer.
Granted, in the grand scheme of typos it's not *the worst* ("Noble Piece Prize" would have added an extra level), and perhaps we can be generous and call it a Freudian slip - winning a Nobel Prize could indeed be seen as a measure of nobility, we assume.
As cringey as the spelling mistake is, it's not even the worst bit.
In a painfully relatable twist, it turns out Ivanka's shout-out was irrelevant anyway as Ahmed doesn't even follow her. Bit awks.
HT Sputnik News
Do Octopuses Dream? Scientists Debate the 8-Legged Creatures’ Sleeping Habits After Intriguing Video
The video, from the PBS docu-series Nature, shows an octopus named Heidi dramatically changing color while she sleeps
By Ashley Boucher October 09, 2019
A stunning video of a scientist’s pet octopus has the scientific community asking the question: do octopuses dream?
The video features an octopus named Heidi, who was caught on camera in her tank in Alaska Pacific University octopus researcher David Scheel’s living room for the PBS docu-series Nature.
In the clip, Heidi is stuck to the glass side of the tank, asleep. But what happens during her nap is extraordinary. Heidi begins to change colors and texture, just as she would if she were reacting to stimuli while she was awake.
Scheel said he had never seen such a response recorded before.
“If she is dreaming, this is a dramatic moment,” Scheel said as Heidi changed color from yellowish to white.
Scheel said that watching Heidi’s body changes can help come up with a narrative of her dream, if she is, in fact, dreaming.
He narrates: “So here, she’s asleep. She sees a crab and her color starts to change a little bit. Then she turns all dark” — at this point in the video, Heidi turns a dramatic shade of dark purple, and then suddenly back to white — “octopuses will do that when they leave the bottom.”
Shortly after, Heidi begins to display “camouflage,” which Scheel said looks as if “she just subdued a crab and now she’s going to sit there and eat it, and she doesn’t want anyone to notice her.”
“It’s a very unusual behavior, to see the color come and go on her mantle like that,” Scheel said. “I mean just to be able to see all the different color patterns, just flashing one after another. You don’t usually see that when an animal is sleeping, which really is fascinating.”
Octopuses are some of the smartest animals on the planet, but some researchers are hesitant to confirm that they dream while asleep, saying that more data needs to be collected.
“You’ve got some evidence in front of you, but you’d need to know so much more to understand better what’s causing the behavior,” University of Cambridge psychologist Nicola Clayton told the New York Times, likening studying Heidi’s sleep behavior to studying a “crime scene.”
If Heidi is sleeping, though, her pal Scheel likes to think of her catching and snacking on that crab.
“If she’s dreaming, that’s the dream,” he said in the video with a laugh.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=octopus
The video, from the PBS docu-series Nature, shows an octopus named Heidi dramatically changing color while she sleeps
By Ashley Boucher October 09, 2019
A stunning video of a scientist’s pet octopus has the scientific community asking the question: do octopuses dream?
The video features an octopus named Heidi, who was caught on camera in her tank in Alaska Pacific University octopus researcher David Scheel’s living room for the PBS docu-series Nature.
In the clip, Heidi is stuck to the glass side of the tank, asleep. But what happens during her nap is extraordinary. Heidi begins to change colors and texture, just as she would if she were reacting to stimuli while she was awake.
Scheel said he had never seen such a response recorded before.
“If she is dreaming, this is a dramatic moment,” Scheel said as Heidi changed color from yellowish to white.
Scheel said that watching Heidi’s body changes can help come up with a narrative of her dream, if she is, in fact, dreaming.
He narrates: “So here, she’s asleep. She sees a crab and her color starts to change a little bit. Then she turns all dark” — at this point in the video, Heidi turns a dramatic shade of dark purple, and then suddenly back to white — “octopuses will do that when they leave the bottom.”
Shortly after, Heidi begins to display “camouflage,” which Scheel said looks as if “she just subdued a crab and now she’s going to sit there and eat it, and she doesn’t want anyone to notice her.”
“It’s a very unusual behavior, to see the color come and go on her mantle like that,” Scheel said. “I mean just to be able to see all the different color patterns, just flashing one after another. You don’t usually see that when an animal is sleeping, which really is fascinating.”
Octopuses are some of the smartest animals on the planet, but some researchers are hesitant to confirm that they dream while asleep, saying that more data needs to be collected.
“You’ve got some evidence in front of you, but you’d need to know so much more to understand better what’s causing the behavior,” University of Cambridge psychologist Nicola Clayton told the New York Times, likening studying Heidi’s sleep behavior to studying a “crime scene.”
If Heidi is sleeping, though, her pal Scheel likes to think of her catching and snacking on that crab.
“If she’s dreaming, that’s the dream,” he said in the video with a laugh.
Heidi the octopus PBS
WHERE IN WE MEET OUR OLD FRIEND (SIC) CARL SCHMITT
The Political Personality As An Aim Of Education
Dr. Eduard Spranger
The historical development of civilised humanity may be compared to a river which but seldom fills the entire breadth of its bed. According to the fall of the ground it drives the bulk of its energy now to this side, now to that; sometimes whole stretches of land between the two banks remain unwashed by the waters; then again it presses forward with might and main, making use of all its possibilities towards expansion.
This change of energy in the stream of life may be traced in particular in the change which takes place with regard to educational aims insomuch as we become conscious of them. Later on, educational aims of a chiefly economic or political, or learned or aesthetic nature, branch off from the religious source which still comprises existence in its entirety. Their intrinsic value, too, changes, of course, with the general situation of the times and with the specific will to life of the generations. Yet there is something typical in them, or they could not be given such general names. In Germany today people expressly profess the aim of education to be political.
If we would understand the main issue of this idea, we should have to comprehend the essence of what is political. Carl Schmitt, the leading expert in political law, has termed the contrast friend-enemy to be the original phenomenon on which are based all political groupings. Doubtless this contrast pervades all forms of culture which stand out in the life of the Nations as a whole as being definitely political. But the problem must be pressed further: why are people each other's friends or enemies? Frequently they are so from incentives and in a manner which has little to do with what is political, even if the meaning of the word is traced back to an original sense which existed before the outer and inner organisation of public life, a method which I take to be the right one. What is political has, it is true, only become quite manifest within the compass and in the life of the polis. The friend-enemy relation of men may mean a mere horizontal relation between groups and individuals. What is originally political, however, comprises vertical relations, the tendency to be at the top and not at the bottom. In other words: the will to power as a fundamental fact of men living together, indeed even as a vital root of individual life, is the main issue of what is political. The State is only a complicated form of balancing the different powers, and, finally, the highest collective power emanating from, or, vice versa, forging a national unit.
At all times the education of man to become a political personality -- an ideal which appears very frequently and most emphatically in the history of the human mind -- has meant a development of the will to power in one sense or another. It is subject to all the laws of structure and happening which pervade the sphere of power. It presupposes in the individual as the centre of his life, so to speak, a disciplined will which is ennobled in the school of obedience towards the ethical art of commanding. This discipline of the will, however, that is, self command as a preliminary condition of commanding others, sends forth its ray in various directions as soon as it is practised in the sphere of political life as such. For in that case a State-supporting personality is to be formed, who, in the highest stage of perfection, may some day rise to a personality commanding the State.
There is sufficient evidence in the history of education that a State-supporting personality may appear in many varieties. In his original form he is the able bodied man ready to defend the State, his Country, and his Folk, thus contributing his share towards the physical power of the State. However, the State is never an expression of power alone, but, at the same time, a structure regulated by law. It is power partly through law and in the shape of law. On the other hand, law itself is a particular manifestation of power and a system of the distribution of power, of a collective guarantee of duties and rights (spheres of liberty). So there is another variety of the political personality, namely, the legal personality, a fact which becomes most evident in the ancient Roman conception of the personality. Finally, history teaches us that, apart from the display of military power, the art of rhetoric has always been an essential political expedient, particularly in the domestic fight for power between rival groups. In spite of Plato, philosophy has not managed to become the organising power in political life. Rhetoric, which in ancient times struggled against it for centuries to win the first place in education, has certainly taken precedence in political matters, The third variety, therefore, of the political personality is the rhetorical personality, if we mean by this that type of human being who develops and uses the power of speech expressly as a political expedient. Thus the educational ideal of the political personality is split up into the three primary types of the military personality, the legal personality, and the rhetorical personality.
All three have their peculiar history. The soldier, the jurist, the orator of today are different from what they were in the Attic democracy of the fourth century, in the Rome of the Emperors, or in the so called Renaissance period. Naturally they all absorbed an ever increasing portion of the scientific and technical tradition of their time. They all formed themselves and changed according to the structure of the political organism in whose service they stood, and which they supported. In their primary type, however, as special original phenomena of what is political, they remain what they were throughout the ages.
The political personality, as he is meant to be the ideal of education in Germany today, bears a peculiar mark of his own. We are experiencing a renewal of our Folk which goes back to the vital biological roots of the successive generations and of the individual. We are, further, passing through a process which is going to recast and reverse our national strata, at the same time bringing about a fundamental change in our social structure. The new form demands a decisive discipline of the will for its basis, which we have found to be the general foundation of what is political. This discipline begins with the health of the body and the instincts, rising to a defensive capacity, to a type of man which should never be termed warlike or menacing, because its intention is to realise the eternal form of soldierly attitude in the entire sphere of life, not in a professional military sense. The spirit of self sacrifice, a readiness to serve and a consciousness of being deeply connected with the Nation as a whole -- these are the fundamental virtues which are to support the State. So there is a superpersonal ideal background to the entire system of education: a feeling of responsibility towards the Nation and the State, manifesting itself in deeds and not only in words. Everything depends on clearly distinguishing this ideal from a collectivism which we find in Russia, and which is definitely rejected by the German mind.
Turning away from individualism does not mean a depreciation of the individual. After the Napoleonic period, Pestalozzi, one of those who discovered that each Folk has its national individuality, most emphatically stressed the fact that education is not based on the collective existence of the human race, nor that this can be its aim. (See his book: An die Unschuld, den Ernst und den Edelmut meines Zeitalters -- To The Innocence, Seriousness, And Magnanimity Of My Age, 1815.) All true education is applied to the individual, but today this is the case in a very special sense. Education does not take the individual as an isolated being whose vocation is mere self preservation, not even as a being whose chief aim would be mere self realisation, but it means the individual as a future responsible representative of superindividual values and their moral consequences. The individual as such is indispensable, it is true; he is indeed the only representative that we know of which is superindividual. For a generation, a Nation, even a State, only live as long as they make the whole of their individuals now living the vessel of their values and representatives of their spirit. National education, also national education with a political aim, never penetrates to the masses unless it has reached the individual first. Mass education is a term which gives rise to misunderstandings; the moral focus of the will, of decision, of even discipline, always rests with living souls in whom the divine spark must first flare up, if it is intended to kindle the great fire of the common spirit. Collective responsibility consists of many small responsibilities. The national language, for instance, does not exist by itself, it only exists through the medium of those who take part in the community of language and who are, in their small part, responsible for the purity, spirit, and growth of the language. The entire culture of a Folk, which it has acquired in the course of history, is only alive if it lives through individual souls who are conscious of their responsibility in the successive generations. The same is the case with the State.
The catchword education of the political personality means neither the mass being nor the individual without a soul. In its last interpretation, it rather implies that we are beginning to mean by soul something more than what is in the body, and by personality something more than self-sufficiency and self-seclusion. The soul itself is the point of intersection of the spiritual stream; it widens with the duties it fulfils, conscious of its own responsibility. The political personality is one which takes part in the spiritual connections. Apart from all this, the soul is ever and alone that point in life where there is a connection with God. For to whom should we feel thus responsible, if not to God? The personality is the individuality chosen by the spirit to be its representative, thus ceasing to cultivate, in its narrow sphere, a misunderstood autonomy. It is the name of a person conscious of moral ties and obligations. The term political personality must therefore be based on an ethical ideal, which the best representatives of the Nation have anticipated in former times. Today it is perceptibly and effectively being appropriated by a youth that is ready and eager to accept real responsibility.
Forschungen und Fortschritte Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1935).
ALSO SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=carl+schmitt
ALSO SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=carl+schmitt
Syria’s Kurds strike deal with Assad after being abandoned by US
Kurdish fighters agree to hand over border towns to Damascus in deal brokered by Russia
Richard Hall Middle East Correspondent @_richardhall
Kurdish-led forces in Syria have struck a deal with Bashar al-Assad’s government to hand over areas along the border to the Syrian army in a last ditch effort to halt a Turkish attack.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, one of the west’s key allies in the fight against Isis, said the army would deploy along the border with Turkey “to repel this aggression and liberate the areas entered by the Turkish army and its hired mercenaries”.
The deal was struck in response to a wide-scale military operation launched by Turkey against the SDF last week, which has killed more than 60 civilians and sparked fears of ethnic cleansing.
Turkey’s armed forces and allied Syrian rebels have made rapid gains in the past week, taking control of two cities along the border and threatening to advance further. General Mazloum Kobani Abdi, commander of the SDF, described the operation as an “existential threat” to Syria’s Kurds.
The agreement could spell the end of a years-long experiment in autonomy led by Syria’s Kurds, and marks a major shift in alliances for the embattled community.
Turkey launches offensive into Syria 1/25 PHOTOS
Turkey has long threatened to attack the SDF, which it considers a terror organisation for its links to a Kurdish separatist group that has fought the Turkish state for decades. Ankara said its military operation was launched to implement a “safe zone” along its border with Syria, free of SDF fighters.
Innocent Syrian civilians being ‘turned into the fuel of war’
But the SDF – a mostly Kurdish militia with a smaller Arab contingent – has been a key ally of the US in the fight against Isis. The presence of US troops in Syria alongside the group had acted as a deterrence for a Turkish assault. That changed quickly last week when Donald Trump made a shock announcement that the US would not stand in the way of Turkey’s plans to enter Syria. The SDF described the abrupt shift as a “stab in the back”.
The deal will see the Syrian army deployed along a large stretch of the Turkey-Syria border, the SDF said, in an effort to deter any further Turkish incursion.
The agreement brings its own dangers, however. For decades, Kurds in Syria have faced repression and discrimination at the hands of the government. Although the civil war had caused great upheaval for the community, it has also allowed them to win new freedoms, which may now be lost again.
Female Kurdish politician ‘executed’ by pro-Turkish militants in Syria
Trump says US will not stand in way of Turkish operation against Kurds
How Erdogan became ‘the most practised populist in the world’
The SDF currently controls around a third of Syrian territory in the north and east of the country.
Syria’s Kurds took over control of majority Kurdish areas from the government shortly after the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, but largely refrained from directly fighting it.
In the time since, it extended that area of control beyond Kurdish areas as it recaptured territory held by Isis.
Over the past few years it has built an alternative form of governance in the areas under its control, with the eventual aim of creating an autonomous administration that would outlast the war.
ALSO SEE: https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=kurds
Kurdish fighters agree to hand over border towns to Damascus in deal brokered by Russia
Richard Hall Middle East Correspondent @_richardhall
Kurdish-led forces in Syria have struck a deal with Bashar al-Assad’s government to hand over areas along the border to the Syrian army in a last ditch effort to halt a Turkish attack.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, one of the west’s key allies in the fight against Isis, said the army would deploy along the border with Turkey “to repel this aggression and liberate the areas entered by the Turkish army and its hired mercenaries”.
The deal was struck in response to a wide-scale military operation launched by Turkey against the SDF last week, which has killed more than 60 civilians and sparked fears of ethnic cleansing.
Turkey’s armed forces and allied Syrian rebels have made rapid gains in the past week, taking control of two cities along the border and threatening to advance further. General Mazloum Kobani Abdi, commander of the SDF, described the operation as an “existential threat” to Syria’s Kurds.
The agreement could spell the end of a years-long experiment in autonomy led by Syria’s Kurds, and marks a major shift in alliances for the embattled community.
Turkey launches offensive into Syria 1/25 PHOTOS
Turkey has long threatened to attack the SDF, which it considers a terror organisation for its links to a Kurdish separatist group that has fought the Turkish state for decades. Ankara said its military operation was launched to implement a “safe zone” along its border with Syria, free of SDF fighters.
Innocent Syrian civilians being ‘turned into the fuel of war’
But the SDF – a mostly Kurdish militia with a smaller Arab contingent – has been a key ally of the US in the fight against Isis. The presence of US troops in Syria alongside the group had acted as a deterrence for a Turkish assault. That changed quickly last week when Donald Trump made a shock announcement that the US would not stand in the way of Turkey’s plans to enter Syria. The SDF described the abrupt shift as a “stab in the back”.
The deal will see the Syrian army deployed along a large stretch of the Turkey-Syria border, the SDF said, in an effort to deter any further Turkish incursion.
The agreement brings its own dangers, however. For decades, Kurds in Syria have faced repression and discrimination at the hands of the government. Although the civil war had caused great upheaval for the community, it has also allowed them to win new freedoms, which may now be lost again.
Female Kurdish politician ‘executed’ by pro-Turkish militants in Syria
Trump says US will not stand in way of Turkish operation against Kurds
How Erdogan became ‘the most practised populist in the world’
The SDF currently controls around a third of Syrian territory in the north and east of the country.
Syria’s Kurds took over control of majority Kurdish areas from the government shortly after the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, but largely refrained from directly fighting it.
In the time since, it extended that area of control beyond Kurdish areas as it recaptured territory held by Isis.
Over the past few years it has built an alternative form of governance in the areas under its control, with the eventual aim of creating an autonomous administration that would outlast the war.
ALSO SEE: https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=kurds
Trump shoots journalists and rival politicians in fake church video ‘shown to supporters at his Florida resort’
‘Vile and horrific’ clip based on movie massacre scene
Jon Sharman
A parody video shows Donald Trump massacring media companies ( TheGeekzTeam )
A mocked-up video showing Donald Trump slaughtering media companies and left-wing campaign groups was shown at the president’s Doral golf resort, reports have claimed.
The clip, in which Mr Trump’s face is superimposed on Colin Firth’s character from the Kingsman: The Secret Service film, shows the president killing people with the logos of news organisations like CNN, the BBC and Politico on their heads.
Logos for Buzzfeed, the Washington Post, Black Lives Matter and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign were also pasted onto victims of Firth’s character in the film’s church massacre scene – rebranded the “church of fake news”.
The faces of some individual people with whom Mr Trump has feuded, including Mr Obama, Mitt Romney, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, also appear.
According to the New York Times, the four-minute clip was shown during a conference held at Mr Trump’s Doral resort in Miami, Florida, by the American Priority campaign group. Organisers said the incident was not sanctioned by them.
Donald Trump Jr and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former White House press secretary, reportedly attended the conference but told the newspaper they did not see the video.
In a separate report, CNN also said it had confirmed the clip had been shown at the conference. The broadcaster condemned the video as “vile and horrific”, adding: “Sadly, this is not the first time that supporters of the president have promoted violence against the media.”
Mr Trump has frequently complained of “fake news” when reports are published which he dislikes, and has labelled journalists “the enemy of the people”.
The altered Kingsman clip is similar in style to – though much more violent than – a video the president tweeted in 2017 of him attacking Vince McMahon with a CNN logo superimposed on the WWE mogul’s face.
In a statement posted to Twitter, American Priority said: “This video was not approved, seen or sanctions by the #AMPFest19 organisers.
“We find it shocking that the New York Times would not report on any of the sanctioned events ... including our panel conversation literally condemning political violence, while claiming to be upset over a meme that was not sanctioned, shown on stage or approved.”
NEWS
Fake President Shoots Media Members In Graphic
Video Shown At Pro-Trump Event: Report
The New York Times reports the video shows a fake Trump
attacking versions of PBS and HuffPost, as well as a fake
Sen. Bernie Sanders.
A graphic video featuring a fake President Donald Trump stabbing members of the news media and lighting the head of a political rival on fire was played at a conference for his supporters this weekend, according to a report Sunday by The New York Times.
The event, hosted by the group American Priority, took place at Trump’s resort in Miami, the Trump National Doral, and featured a litany of pro-Trump headliners, including former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
American Priority confirmed to the Times that the video was shown as part of a meme exhibit at the event, but organizers said they did not support the video and that third-parties were able to submit their own content.
In the video “Mr. Trump stops in the middle of the church, pulls a gun out of his suit jacket pocket and begins a graphic rampage. As the parishioners try to flee, the president fires at them. He shoots Black Lives Matter in the head...” @nytmike https://t.co/r6g789xkuR— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 14, 2019
American Priority did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. HuffPost has independently reviewed the footage, which circulated on Twitter Sunday evening, but has chosen not to link to it.
In the video — which features a modified clip from the 2014 film “Kingsman: The Secret Service” — a man with Trump’s superimposed face goes on a violent and bloody rampage inside what’s called the “Church of Fake News.”
The figure can be seen walking in the church as other people with logos over their heads from a bevy of news outlets — including PBS, NPR, HuffPost and The Washington Post — sit in the pews. The Trump-like figure then pulls out a gun and opens fire on the media outlets. Other fake versions of political and media figures are then attacked in the clip, including former FBI Director James Comey, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and the late Arizona Sen. John McCain.
A likeness of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 presidential candidate, later has his head lit on fire with a blow torch.
Alex Phillips, the organiser of the event, told The New York Times that the video was “not associated with or endorsed by the conference in any official capacity.”
“American Priority rejects all political violence and aims to promote a healthy dialogue about the preservation of free speech,” he said. “This matter is under review.”
TWITTER
An image from the video that played as part of a "meme exhibit" at the event in Florida.
Both Sarah Huckabee Sanders and a representative for Donald Trump Jr. told the Times they were not aware of the video and had not seen it at the event.
The video prompted immediate condemnation from many in the media on Sunday night. Jonathan Karl, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said the group was “horrified” by its contents and called on Trump to denounce the footage.
“All Americans should condemn this depiction of violence directed toward journalists and the President’s political opponents,” Karl said in a statement. “We have previously told the President his rhetoric could incite violence.”
CNN, which appeared in the video, said despite other anti-media memes that circulate on the internet, the clip shown at the conference was “far and away the worst.”
CNN statement on video shown at @realDonaldTrump supporter conference at Trump's Miami resort last week: pic.twitter.com/BVKI5N5a17— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) October 14, 2019
“The President and his family, the White House, and the Trump campaign need to denounce it immediately in the strongest possible terms,” CNN said Sunday. “Anything less equates to a tacit endorsement of violence and should not be tolerated by anyone.”
Trump has launched his own attacks on the media for years, using his political events and campaign rallies to fire up his supporters and blast what he’s dubbed the “fake news” for its critical coverage of his administration. During a rally in Minnesota last week, the president went on a rampage, blasting what he called an “unholy alliance of corrupt Democrat politicians, deep-state bureaucrats and the fake news media.”
“They are so dishonest. And frankly, they are so bad for our country,” Trump told a crowd in Minneapolis. “They are so bad. And they could be so good for our country. They could be so good. And maybe they’ll change, and maybe they won’t.”
Trump also shared a video in 2017 that showed him body slamming a person superimposed with CNN’s logo on his Twitter account, causing the clip to go viral.
Such messaging has reverberated around the world, and The New York Times’ publisher noted in September that Trump had used the phrase “fake news” more than 600 times on Twitter since his election. The terminology, the outlet found, has also been used by “more than 50 prime ministers, presidents and other government leaders across five continents … to justify varying levels of anti-press activity,” the publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, wrote at the time.
The Committee to Protect Journalists found 252 reporters were imprisoned last year for doing their work, and at least 16 have already been killed so far in 2019.
Sunday, October 13, 2019
LONG LIVE THE UNFINISHED BOURGEOIS REVOLUTION
Do You Hear the Hong Kong People Sing? 問誰未發聲Published on Jun 26, 2019
我們只是一群熱愛音樂，熱愛影像創作，熱愛香港的年輕人。
香港人，辛苦了。路還很長，讓我們為你打打氣。永遠不會忘記那為我們從高牆墮下的他。
Hong Kong protesters placed a Lady Liberty statue on the city’s Lion’s Peak overlooking Hong Kong on Sunday, as clashes with riot police caused chaos.
'Lady Liberty' erected above Hong Kong
Reuters Videos Reuters Videos•October 13, 2019
In the dead of night, several dozen Hong Kong protesters scaled the city's Lion Peak early on Sunday (October 13), carrying with them their version of Lady Liberty.
The three-meter statue represents an injured protester, believed by activists to have been shot in the eye by a police projectile, and holds a banner saying 'revolution of our time, liberate Hong Kong'.
Alex, one of the protesters, says he hopes it will inspire people to keep fighting.
Hong Kong's Lady Liberty can be seen from the city below where, on Sunday, she watched over protesters and riot police clashing in chaotic scenes.
Several rallies were held in shopping centers against what is seen as Beijing's tightening grip on the city.
Police made numerous arrests and deployed tear gas after hardcore activists trashed shops and metro stations and erected road blocks.
More than 2,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations started in June.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says 40% of those detained since September were under the age of 18 and 10% under the age of 15.
香港民主女神像製作過程｜
Making of Lady Liberty Hong Kong
Who is Lady Liberty of the Hong Kong protests? What’s the back story?
The hope is that it can motivate people in Hong Kong’s democratic movement, says Hong Kong protest coordinator Lomy.
“We hope that different voices in the society can come into consensus to create a better future for Hong Kong,” he says. “The statue reminds people of the Tiananmen democratic movement in China.”
In 1989, more than a million Chinese civilians, many of them students, staged the biggest challenge to the Communist Party’s legitimacy since it came to power in 1949. The pro-democracy demonstrations were sparked by the April 15 death of a former party chief, Hu Yaobang, who had a reputation as a liberalizer.
Hong Kong is now facing a similar situation, says Lomy. A controversial extradition bill was originally proposed by Hong Kong’s government in February and covered mainland China and other jurisdictions that don’t have an extradition agreement with Hong Kong. Lam and the law’s backers originally defended it as necessary to ensure the city wouldn’t become a refuge for suspected fugitives.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she would formally withdraw the bill allowing extraditions to the mainland, which triggered the unrest in early June. But demonstrators now have a host of other demands, and Beijing has ruled out the biggest one: the right to elect a leader of their choosing.
The posture of Lady Liberty looks like she is leading the movement. The protesters’ five key demands are written on a black flag that she raises in her hand. She carries an umbrella to protect herself as well as a school bag, which “is a signature image of the frontline protesters.”
“What’s under her is something is something we want to see the least but we need to show tear gas,” says Lomy. “The police fired a lot of tear gas canisters and the smoke from them. “
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Multiple arrests in Hong Kong as "flashmob" protests hit pro-Bejing targets
AFP AFP•October 13, 2019
Police clear barricades left by protestors. Clashes between police and activists were less intense than at the start of October when the city was virtually shut down
Police clear barricades left by protestors. Clashes between police and activists were less intense than at the start of October when the city was virtually shut down (AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)
Riot police clashed with anti-government protesters across Hong Kong Sunday as masked activists vandalised businesses deemed sympathetic to Beijing in another weekend of chaos in the financial hub.
Rallies erupted in multiple neighbourhoods, with some protesters blocking roads, sabotaging train tracks, and trashing pro-China businesses.
Police said an officer was taken to hospital after his neck was slashed. Local television networks also broadcast footage of a man beaten bloody by protesters after they found a baton in his bag and suspected him of being an undercover officer.
Police have increasingly posed as protesters, scoring some tactical successes and sparking widespread paranoia among frontline demonstrators.
During cat-and-mouse encounters on Sunday officers made dozens of arrests, but there were fewer protesters than have taken to the streets more recently during the four-month long protest movement.
In Mongkok, a bustling shopping district on the Kowloon peninsula, officers burst from an unmarked van over a blockade of bamboo scaffolding and quickly chased down multiple protesters.
Later, an AFP reporter in the neighbourhood saw protesters beat a woman earlier accused of helping police clear barricades.
The woman was struck with fists and umbrellas, and also had her face smeared with mud.
Protesters have increasingly turned on their ideological opponents in recent weeks, while Beijing loyalists have attacked democracy activists throughout the summer.
- 'Blossom everywhere' -
Online forums used to organise the largely leaderless movement advertised Sunday as a "blossom everywhere" day, encouraging activists to gather in malls across the city.
Protests and clashes were reported in half a dozen neighbourhoods, with police saying they fired tear gas during two incidents.
While the crowds were thinner, the flashmob tactics stretched police resources and still brought chaos to parts of the city for a 19th consecutive weekend.
Throughout the day, police found themselves berated and heckled by bystanders as they made arrests, highlighting how the force has become loathed and pilloried by large parts of the population.
"I’m furious," a female protester, who gave her surname as Chan, told AFP. "I want the government to disband the entire police force."
Hong Kong has been shaken by four months of massive democracy protests which have seen increasingly violent clashes between hardcore demonstrators and police, as well as regular transport disruptions.
The protests were sparked by opposition to a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have since morphed into a larger movement for democracy and police accountability.
- Spiralling violence -
The city enjoys unique rights under the terms of its handover to China by Britain in 1997 -- including freedom of expression and an independent judiciary -- but many believe these are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.
Street battles between riot police and small groups of protesters have become a weekly occurrence, hammering the already struggling economy, spooking tourists and undermining Hong Kong's reputation for stability.
The beginning of October saw a particularly fierce period of unrest with protesters upping their violence as Communist China celebrated its 70th birthday party.
Clashes further intensified after the city's leader invoked colonial-era emergency laws to ban face masks at protests.
Over the course of a week, protesters went on a vandalism spree, much of it targeting the city's subway network and pro-China businesses.
Police also increased their response, firing tear gas and rubber bullets with renewed ferocity. Two teenagers were wounded with live rounds during clashes with police.
But the last few days have seen a comparatively calmer period.
Protesters are pushing for an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,500 people arrested and universal suffrage.
Beijing, and city leader Carrie Lam, repeatedly rejected those demands.
Petrol bombs thrown in Hong Kong metro, protesters defy face mask ban
Police officers patrol the streets following demonstration march in protest against the invocation of the emergency laws in Hong Kong
By Noah Sin
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Petrol bombs were thrown inside a Hong Kong metro station on Saturday but no one was injured, the government said, as pro-democracy protesters again took to the streets angry at what they believe is Beijing's tightening grip on the city.
The Kowloon Tong station was seriously damaged in the attack, the government said in a statement. Riot police deployed in the streets of Kowloon and inside several metro stations afterward.
Hundreds of protesters, many young and wearing face masks, were marching in Kowloon at the time and were headed to a district near the Kowloon Tong station.
"No crime to cover our faces, no reason to enact (anti-mask) law," protesters chanted. "I have the right to wear masks!"
The Hong Kong government introduced colonial-era emergency laws last week to ban the wearing of face masks at public rallies, a move that sparked some of the worst violence since the unrest started in June.
Some protesters erected road barricades using public garbage bins and water-filled plastic barriers used for traffic control and security.
Protesters elsewhere set fire to a government office in Kowloon and vandalized shops and metro stations, the government said.
There were no skirmishes between protesters and police and by nightfall protesters had dispersed into small groups scattered around Kowloon.
Hong Kong's protests started in opposition to a now-abandoned extradition bill but have mushroomed in four months into a pro-democracy movement and an outlet for anger at social inequality in the city, an Asian financial hub.
The protests have plunged the city into its worst crisis since Britain handed it back to China in 1997 and is the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.
The protests have been driven by a concern that China has been eroding Hong Kong's freedoms, guaranteed under a "one country, two systems" formula introduced with the 1997 handover.
The now-withdrawn extradition bill, under which residents would have been sent to Communist-controlled mainland courts, was seen as the latest move to tighten control.
China denies the accusation and says foreign countries, including Britain and the United States, are fomenting unrest.
Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam canceled a meeting with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the highest profile U.S. politician to visit the city since the unrest started, Cruz said on Saturday.
"I stand with the people of Hong Kong calling on the government of China to honor the promises it made to the world when it promised to maintain political freedom in Hong Kong," said Cruz, a vocal critic of China, who was dressed in black in solidarity with pro-democracy activists.
'DEFEND THE FUTURE'
Hong Kong had experienced relative calm since last weekend, when a peaceful march by tens of thousands spiraled into a night of running battles between protesters and police.
Since then there had only been small nightly protests and activists had not flagged any major action this weekend.
A small group calling itself the "Silver-Haired Marchers" began a 48-hour sit-in at police headquarters on Saturday, describing themselves as "old but not obsolete".
"The young people have already sacrificed a lot, it is about time for us, the senior citizens in Hong Kong to come forward to take up part of the responsibility from the young people," 63-year-old Shiu told local media.
"I mean for us, even if we are caught by the police because of an illegal gathering, I don’t mind," said Shiu, who was identified with only one name.
Police have arrested more than 2,300 people since June. Since September nearly 40% were under the age of 18 and 10% under 15.
Some protest marchers on Saturday covered their faces with photocopies of the Chinese president's face, others with "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes masks, and a group of protesters plan a "face mask party" on Saturday night.
The face mask ban carries a maximum one-year jail term, but thousands, including school children and office workers, have defied the order.
POLICE CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
Hong Kong's police are also facing a crisis of confidence amid the worsening political tensions. Protesters accuse them of using excessive force, which police deny, and two protesters have been shot and wounded during skirmishes with police.
Hong Kong is facing its first recession in a decade due to the protests, with tourism and retail hardest hit.
Many shops have been shutting early to avoid becoming a target of protesters and due to closures of the damaged metro. Some stations on the network were closed on Saturday after being targeted.
Protesters have also targeted China banks and shops with perceived links to China, as well as U.S. coffee chain Starbucks, which had a store in Kowloon trashed on Saturday.
SEE: https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=hong+kong
'Lady Liberty' erected above Hong Kong
Reuters Videos Reuters Videos•October 13, 2019
In the dead of night, several dozen Hong Kong protesters scaled the city's Lion Peak early on Sunday (October 13), carrying with them their version of Lady Liberty.
The three-meter statue represents an injured protester, believed by activists to have been shot in the eye by a police projectile, and holds a banner saying 'revolution of our time, liberate Hong Kong'.
Alex, one of the protesters, says he hopes it will inspire people to keep fighting.
Hong Kong's Lady Liberty can be seen from the city below where, on Sunday, she watched over protesters and riot police clashing in chaotic scenes.
Several rallies were held in shopping centers against what is seen as Beijing's tightening grip on the city.
Police made numerous arrests and deployed tear gas after hardcore activists trashed shops and metro stations and erected road blocks.
More than 2,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations started in June.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says 40% of those detained since September were under the age of 18 and 10% under the age of 15.
香港民主女神像製作過程｜
Making of Lady Liberty Hong Kong
Who is Lady Liberty of the Hong Kong protests? What’s the back story?
The hope is that it can motivate people in Hong Kong’s democratic movement, says Hong Kong protest coordinator Lomy.
“We hope that different voices in the society can come into consensus to create a better future for Hong Kong,” he says. “The statue reminds people of the Tiananmen democratic movement in China.”
In 1989, more than a million Chinese civilians, many of them students, staged the biggest challenge to the Communist Party’s legitimacy since it came to power in 1949. The pro-democracy demonstrations were sparked by the April 15 death of a former party chief, Hu Yaobang, who had a reputation as a liberalizer.
Hong Kong is now facing a similar situation, says Lomy. A controversial extradition bill was originally proposed by Hong Kong’s government in February and covered mainland China and other jurisdictions that don’t have an extradition agreement with Hong Kong. Lam and the law’s backers originally defended it as necessary to ensure the city wouldn’t become a refuge for suspected fugitives.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she would formally withdraw the bill allowing extraditions to the mainland, which triggered the unrest in early June. But demonstrators now have a host of other demands, and Beijing has ruled out the biggest one: the right to elect a leader of their choosing.
The posture of Lady Liberty looks like she is leading the movement. The protesters’ five key demands are written on a black flag that she raises in her hand. She carries an umbrella to protect herself as well as a school bag, which “is a signature image of the frontline protesters.”
“What’s under her is something is something we want to see the least but we need to show tear gas,” says Lomy. “The police fired a lot of tear gas canisters and the smoke from them. “
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm
Multiple arrests in Hong Kong as "flashmob" protests hit pro-Bejing targets
AFP AFP•October 13, 2019
Police clear barricades left by protestors. Clashes between police and activists were less intense than at the start of October when the city was virtually shut down
Police clear barricades left by protestors. Clashes between police and activists were less intense than at the start of October when the city was virtually shut down (AFP Photo/Mohd RASFAN)
Riot police clashed with anti-government protesters across Hong Kong Sunday as masked activists vandalised businesses deemed sympathetic to Beijing in another weekend of chaos in the financial hub.
Rallies erupted in multiple neighbourhoods, with some protesters blocking roads, sabotaging train tracks, and trashing pro-China businesses.
Police said an officer was taken to hospital after his neck was slashed. Local television networks also broadcast footage of a man beaten bloody by protesters after they found a baton in his bag and suspected him of being an undercover officer.
Police have increasingly posed as protesters, scoring some tactical successes and sparking widespread paranoia among frontline demonstrators.
During cat-and-mouse encounters on Sunday officers made dozens of arrests, but there were fewer protesters than have taken to the streets more recently during the four-month long protest movement.
In Mongkok, a bustling shopping district on the Kowloon peninsula, officers burst from an unmarked van over a blockade of bamboo scaffolding and quickly chased down multiple protesters.
Later, an AFP reporter in the neighbourhood saw protesters beat a woman earlier accused of helping police clear barricades.
The woman was struck with fists and umbrellas, and also had her face smeared with mud.
Protesters have increasingly turned on their ideological opponents in recent weeks, while Beijing loyalists have attacked democracy activists throughout the summer.
- 'Blossom everywhere' -
Online forums used to organise the largely leaderless movement advertised Sunday as a "blossom everywhere" day, encouraging activists to gather in malls across the city.
Protests and clashes were reported in half a dozen neighbourhoods, with police saying they fired tear gas during two incidents.
While the crowds were thinner, the flashmob tactics stretched police resources and still brought chaos to parts of the city for a 19th consecutive weekend.
Throughout the day, police found themselves berated and heckled by bystanders as they made arrests, highlighting how the force has become loathed and pilloried by large parts of the population.
"I’m furious," a female protester, who gave her surname as Chan, told AFP. "I want the government to disband the entire police force."
Hong Kong has been shaken by four months of massive democracy protests which have seen increasingly violent clashes between hardcore demonstrators and police, as well as regular transport disruptions.
The protests were sparked by opposition to a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have since morphed into a larger movement for democracy and police accountability.
- Spiralling violence -
The city enjoys unique rights under the terms of its handover to China by Britain in 1997 -- including freedom of expression and an independent judiciary -- but many believe these are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.
Street battles between riot police and small groups of protesters have become a weekly occurrence, hammering the already struggling economy, spooking tourists and undermining Hong Kong's reputation for stability.
The beginning of October saw a particularly fierce period of unrest with protesters upping their violence as Communist China celebrated its 70th birthday party.
Clashes further intensified after the city's leader invoked colonial-era emergency laws to ban face masks at protests.
Over the course of a week, protesters went on a vandalism spree, much of it targeting the city's subway network and pro-China businesses.
Police also increased their response, firing tear gas and rubber bullets with renewed ferocity. Two teenagers were wounded with live rounds during clashes with police.
But the last few days have seen a comparatively calmer period.
Protesters are pushing for an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,500 people arrested and universal suffrage.
Beijing, and city leader Carrie Lam, repeatedly rejected those demands.
Petrol bombs thrown in Hong Kong metro, protesters defy face mask ban
Police officers patrol the streets following demonstration march in protest against the invocation of the emergency laws in Hong Kong
By Noah Sin
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Petrol bombs were thrown inside a Hong Kong metro station on Saturday but no one was injured, the government said, as pro-democracy protesters again took to the streets angry at what they believe is Beijing's tightening grip on the city.
The Kowloon Tong station was seriously damaged in the attack, the government said in a statement. Riot police deployed in the streets of Kowloon and inside several metro stations afterward.
Hundreds of protesters, many young and wearing face masks, were marching in Kowloon at the time and were headed to a district near the Kowloon Tong station.
"No crime to cover our faces, no reason to enact (anti-mask) law," protesters chanted. "I have the right to wear masks!"
The Hong Kong government introduced colonial-era emergency laws last week to ban the wearing of face masks at public rallies, a move that sparked some of the worst violence since the unrest started in June.
Some protesters erected road barricades using public garbage bins and water-filled plastic barriers used for traffic control and security.
Protesters elsewhere set fire to a government office in Kowloon and vandalized shops and metro stations, the government said.
There were no skirmishes between protesters and police and by nightfall protesters had dispersed into small groups scattered around Kowloon.
Hong Kong's protests started in opposition to a now-abandoned extradition bill but have mushroomed in four months into a pro-democracy movement and an outlet for anger at social inequality in the city, an Asian financial hub.
The protests have plunged the city into its worst crisis since Britain handed it back to China in 1997 and is the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.
The protests have been driven by a concern that China has been eroding Hong Kong's freedoms, guaranteed under a "one country, two systems" formula introduced with the 1997 handover.
The now-withdrawn extradition bill, under which residents would have been sent to Communist-controlled mainland courts, was seen as the latest move to tighten control.
China denies the accusation and says foreign countries, including Britain and the United States, are fomenting unrest.
Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam canceled a meeting with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the highest profile U.S. politician to visit the city since the unrest started, Cruz said on Saturday.
"I stand with the people of Hong Kong calling on the government of China to honor the promises it made to the world when it promised to maintain political freedom in Hong Kong," said Cruz, a vocal critic of China, who was dressed in black in solidarity with pro-democracy activists.
'DEFEND THE FUTURE'
Hong Kong had experienced relative calm since last weekend, when a peaceful march by tens of thousands spiraled into a night of running battles between protesters and police.
Since then there had only been small nightly protests and activists had not flagged any major action this weekend.
A small group calling itself the "Silver-Haired Marchers" began a 48-hour sit-in at police headquarters on Saturday, describing themselves as "old but not obsolete".
"The young people have already sacrificed a lot, it is about time for us, the senior citizens in Hong Kong to come forward to take up part of the responsibility from the young people," 63-year-old Shiu told local media.
"I mean for us, even if we are caught by the police because of an illegal gathering, I don’t mind," said Shiu, who was identified with only one name.
Police have arrested more than 2,300 people since June. Since September nearly 40% were under the age of 18 and 10% under 15.
Some protest marchers on Saturday covered their faces with photocopies of the Chinese president's face, others with "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes masks, and a group of protesters plan a "face mask party" on Saturday night.
The face mask ban carries a maximum one-year jail term, but thousands, including school children and office workers, have defied the order.
POLICE CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE
Hong Kong's police are also facing a crisis of confidence amid the worsening political tensions. Protesters accuse them of using excessive force, which police deny, and two protesters have been shot and wounded during skirmishes with police.
Hong Kong is facing its first recession in a decade due to the protests, with tourism and retail hardest hit.
Many shops have been shutting early to avoid becoming a target of protesters and due to closures of the damaged metro. Some stations on the network were closed on Saturday after being targeted.
Protesters have also targeted China banks and shops with perceived links to China, as well as U.S. coffee chain Starbucks
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