#current jobs in lagos 2018

[xtruss]

Striking Photos of Human Scars on Earth

Edward Burtynsky’s images show ‘the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet’. They are surreal and glorious at first sight, writes Cameron Laux.

— Image Credit: Edward Burtynsky, Courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto

— By Cameron Laux | Published 17th October 2018

Saw Mills #1, Lagos, Nigeria, 2016 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

The Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is a master of the post-industrial sublime. His sweeping point of view is, at the very least, ambivalent. His shots, most recently taken from the coolest possible standpoint of a helicopter and sometimes a satellite, are at first sight surreal and glorious, but they have an ominous documentary undertow.

His large-format photos aestheticise mining, deforestation, industrial waste and decay, monumental piles of garbage, plastic, rubber; expanses of new and decommissioned equipment so vast that they look like crystalline formations; dense human settlements which from an Olympian standpoint look like creeping mould or infestations.

Dandora Landfill #3, Plastics Recycling, Nairobi, Kenya, 2016: among the world's largest (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

“Most people would walk by a dump pile and assume that there’s no picture there,” Burtynsky has said. “But there’s always a picture, you just have to go in there and find it.” One of his famous sequences depicts mountains of discarded tires in California. Another shows mountains of poached ivory being burnt. Waves of rock curve into an unsettling symmetry in his photo of Chuquicamata, one of the world’s largest open-pit mines. There is dark irony in his radically anti-idyllic view of the world.

Chuquicamata Copper Mine Overburden #2, Calama, Chile, 2017 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen has popularised the idea of the Anthropocene, a geological age dominated by human activity. For a New Multimedia Anthropocene Project, Burtynsky visited 20 countries over five years. He argues that “we are on the cusp of becoming (if we are not already) the perpetrator of a… major extinction event”. This is made stark in the unnatural colour of a phosphor tailings pond in Florida: regions where phosphate – essential to industrial agriculture – is mined are typically unable to revert back to their natural state because of pollution. “Let me ask you a question,” asked Burtynsky in a 2016 Facebook Post: “when was the last time you talked or heard or even thought about phosphorus?”

Phosphor Tailings Pond #4, near Lakeland, Florida, USA, 2012 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

“Scientists do a pretty terrible job of telling stories, whereas artists have the ability to take the world and make it accessible for everyone,” argues Burtynsky. According to his new book Anthropocene, it is estimated that it currently takes 60 billion tonnes of material annually (biomass, fossil energy carriers, metal ores, industrial and construction minerals) to feed humanity’s global metabolism. Burtynsky’s images offer a disturbing insight into how we’re consuming the Earth at an alarming rate – as well as giving a sense of the scale at which we’re dumping it back out, in giant heaps, streams, and lagoons.

Morenci Mine #1, Clifton, Arizona, USA, 2012: primary copper producing region in the US (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

In images like that of the Morenci Mine – showing copper smelting in Arizona, with ponds holding liquid reserves of the effluents left by the extraction process – Burtynsky can tell stories that largely remain out of the mainstream, with an immediacy missing from lengthy articles. His aerial shots are graphic reminders of something that many choose to ignore. In Nigeria, poor communities have begun pirating crude oil from the pipelines through a process known as ‘bunkering’. Makeshift micro-refineries are set up to convert the crude into fuel. These systems leak volumes of crude and toxic by-products into the surrounding forests and waterways.

Oil Bunkering #1, Niger Delta, Nigeria, 2016 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

Burtynsky categorises himself as an environmentalist, and has dedicated his life to bearing witness to “the indelible marks left by humankind on the geological face of our planet”. In other words, the increasingly ambitious scars and blemishes created by industry and large-scale human habitation, such as the vividly coloured layers from an ancient sea floor exposed by tunnelling machines 350m beneath Berezniki in Russia.

Uralkali Potash Mine #4, Berezniki, Russia, 2017 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

Burtynsky explores how this is not just a recent development, either. The marble quarries in Carrara have been mined since the time of ancient Rome. This stone was famously used by Michelangelo, who would stay for three months at a time to supervise its removal. The ‘negative architecture’ formed on the land by the quarries is large enough to be seen from space.

Carrara Marble Quarries, Cava di Canalgrande #2, Carrara, Italy, 2016 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

Burtynsky’s photos of sprawling wind farms and solar installations, on the other hand, document a shift towards sustainability. Equally, the enormous lithium mining and purification operation he captures in the Atacama desert in Chile, however virulent and lurid it appears, looks to a future in which cars powered by lithium batteries enable us to phase out fossil fuels.

PS10 Solar Power Plant Seville, Spain, 2013 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

Burtynsky also evidently cherishes the bits of Eden that survive. He has recently photographed tracts of virgin rainforest in British Columbia, Canada, and the pristine coral reefs in Indonesia. The coral wall in Pengah is a rare remnant of our globally diminishing coral reefs. Coral bleaching might be more likely to occur there (as elsewhere, such as on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016) should sea water temperatures begin to rise.

Pengah Wall #1, Komodo National Park, Indonesia, 2017 (Credit: Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London/Metivier Gallery, Toronto)

Looking at those pictures makes the soul soar. But they are also a reminder that there is currently no ecology on Earth that isn’t in some way threatened.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Conservatives on the SCOTUS leak 3 months ago...

"We must protect our Judges from violent threats against them and their family!!!"

Conservatives after the Mar-a-lago Raid...

"Find out where this Judge's kids live!! Make an example of them!!!"

Far-right extremists on pro-Donald Trump message boards and social networks are making violent, antisemitic threats against the judge who reportedly signed the warrant that allowed the FBI to search the former President's Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

Multiple members of these toxic online communities are even posting what appears to be Judge Bruce Reinhart’s home address, phone numbers, and names of his family members alongside threats of extreme violence.

“This is the piece of shit judge who approved FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago,” a user wrote on the pro-Trump message board formerly known as TheDonald. “I see a rope around his neck.”

Responding, another user wrote: “Idgaf [I don’t give a fuck] anymore. Name? Address? Put that shit all up on here.” Moments later, a different member replied with what appears to be Reinhart’s current address, phone numbers, previous addresses, and names of possible relatives.

In another post on the same message board, one user commented, “Let's find out if he has children....where they go to school, where they live...EVERYTHING.”

These threats of violence and antisemitic slurs on a range of platforms, including 4chan, Telegram, Gettr, Gab, and Trump’s own platforms called Truth Social, were first uncovered by Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that conducts public-interest investigations.

“The threats against Judge Reinhart in the wake of the Mar-a-Lago raid are significant,” Daniel J. Jones, founder of Advance Democracy, told VICE News. “In addition to the antisemitic and violent slurs, we’re seeing his address and other personal information being shared online—with the implied or explicit purpose of ‘real-life’ action.”

A message board where a number of these threats were posted also happens to be the same one where many of those involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot posted threats of violence in the lead-up to Jan. 6.

These threats against the Judge, Jones told VICE News, are “all the more alerting given the events of January 6.”

These threats made against Reinhart and his family didn’t occur in a vacuum: Within hours of the FBI searching Trump’s Palm Beach home, the former President’s supporters reacted furiously, calling for civil war and the dismantling of the FBI. As Trump has scrambled to explain why his home was searched, he has also pushed conspiracy theories about the FBI supposedly planting evidence there.

Right-wing news outlets have also tried to connect the judge to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Reinhart worked as a federal prosecutor until 2008, and a day after he quit, he became the defense attorney for a number of Epstein’s employees, including his pilots and a scheduler, according to his 2018 Miami Herald report. The link between Reinhart and Epstein has been weaponized by Trump supporters to incorrectly imply Reinhart was Epstein’s own lawyer, and, by extension, was corrupt and possibly a pedophile. (A small note in light of these accusations: Trump had a long personal relationship with Epstein, and once famously told New York Magazine that he was a “terrific guy.”)

On fringe message board 4chan, one user posted an image of Reinhart with the caption: “About that Judge that signed the search Warrant…Bruce Reinhart once quit his job as a U.S. Attorney to work for Jeffrey Epstein." Another 4chan user wrote in response: “That is a kike. And a pedophile … He should be tried for treason and executed.”

“The U.S. Marshals are responsible for the protection of the federal judicial process, and we take that responsibility very seriously,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals told VICE News when asked for comment about the threats. “While we do not discuss our specific security measures, we continuously review the measures in place and take appropriate steps to ensure the integrity of the federal judicial process.”

The FBI deferred comment to the U.S. Marshals, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida told VICE News “the Court has no comment.”

[justinukaegbu]

Coffee talk with Nigerian visual artist Anthonia Chinasa Nneji

“The complexity of Nature inspires my art. The beauty of the ‘African being’ inspires my art.” That’s how Anthonia Nneji describes her practice. “I pay attention to the trauma of the female body with which I struggle with and which I embrace in my paintings. I speak of struggles with menstrual cycles, weight, insomnia, depression and the agony of discovering meaningful diagnosis in the collapsed healthcare system in Nigeria.” 

This piqued my interest, so I proceeded to contact the University of Lagos graduate, who styles herself as Wallace Ejoh's protégé. She happened to be in London at the time, so we met for a cup of coffee and I asked her the topics I'd been thinking about. 

1. How do you make sure you have time to create? Do you have a set time or build it into your calendar? Well...its a full time job and I work according to mood.

2. What's your tip or best way you maintain a live/work balance? Do you struggle with it? When do you know you're lacking balance? I Currently struggle with my live/work balance. And I know I'm lacking balance when I stay indoor to paint for more than 2 days, without being out for my daily walks.

3. Has there been a specific time that you recall not having your voice heard? Yes. During one of my visits to the doctor. My body was feeling some type of way. But he kept insisting my body wasn't feeling some type of way.

4. Do you have a network of other artists you rely on - and what do you do to support each other?  I'm a less sociable person, I really don't have artists I rely on.

5. Do you have long-term goals? Are they written down or how do you revisit them and make sure you are moving along that path? i have long term goals, written down as well. I always work towards achieving them. When accomplished, I tick them on my list and give myself a treat for a job well done.

6. What's your biggest barrier to being an artist? How do you address it? Being told that art is not a real job and access to art supplies are my biggest barriers. There is little or nothing to be done because of the type of society I live and work in. For the art materials, I order from the US or UK sometimes and it still comes with the report of being delayed or some items stolen.

7. Who do you partner with to achieve your goals? Is it a formal network/agreement or fluid/organic? I have a gallery representation and it is a form agreement.

8. Have you ever said 'no' to an opportunity? How did you decide to say no? Yes I have. I did because it didn't serve my interest or humanity's.

9. What's your relationship with money? Have you made long-term financial plans? Yes, i have made long term financial plans.

10. How do you determine what to charge for your art or services? The demand, often gives us an idea of what to charge.

11. Do you advocate for a living wage and fair pay for your art/services? Not really.

12. How did you set your current rates? The demand gives us an idea. Then, the gallery management and I hold a meeting to discuss it. 

13. How do you cultivate your audience? I really have to rule for this, I guess it just happens. 

14. When do you talk about your art? Everytime. My art is a reflection of my life.

15. Do you feel that your art community challenges existing barriers and assumptions? Yes.

16. Is there something you do today that you wished you had known to do years ago? Maybe, started painting earlier. 

17. Are your goals driving you towards money and fame? Yes.

18. What does generosity mean to you as an artist? How do you emulate this? It means guiding younger artists and my fellow Contemporaries.

It was really nice discussing with you Anthonia. Good luck in all your future endeavours. I’m rooting for you and look forward to seeing you on the big stage.

References

Writer, F. (2018). Anthonia Nneji: Painting Her Way To History. [online] Tush Magazine. Available at: https://tushmagazine.com.ng/anthonia-nneji-painting-way-history/.

Spark, T. (2018). Painting by Anthonia. [online] The Spark. Available at: https://www.thesparkng.com/hub/painting-by-anthonia/ 

Vanguard News. (2017). ALERT! Female Visual Artists on the rise. [online] Available at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/12/alert-female-visual-artists-rise/

[phroyd]

Trump’s Promises in 2016!

While Trump is laying it on good and thick at the RNC Trump Fest 2020, I'd like to remind you of some of his great accomplishments.* *beside all the environmental protections he has diminished, dismantled and done away with outright - that is a whole list by itself.(copied from another post, I didn't write this list)1. He told you he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more. You bought it. But his 2017 tax law has done the opposite. By 2027, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the richest 1 percent will have received 83 percent of the tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — will pay more in taxes. As Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago just days after the tax bill became law, “You all just got a lot richer.” 2. He promised that the average family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of the tax law. You bought it. But real wages for most Americans are lower today than they were before the tax law went into effect.   3. He promised to close special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers, especially the notorious “carried interest” loophole for private-equity, hedge fund, and real estate partners. You bought it. But the new tax law kept the “carried interest” loophole.4. He promised to bring an end to Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear program. You bought it. Kim Jong-Un hasn’t denuclearized. 5. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful,” including “insurance for everybody.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 24 million Americans off health insurance, including many of you.) Instead, he’s doing what he can to cut it back and replace it with nothing. According to the Commonwealth Fund, about 4 million Americans have lost health insurance in the last two years.6. He told you he wouldn’t “cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” You bought it. But now he’s planning such cuts in order to deal with the ballooning deficit created, in part, by the new tax law for corporations and the rich. 7. He promised to protect anyone with pre-existing conditions. You bought it. But in June, his Justice Department told a federal court it would no longer defend provisions of Obamacare that protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the decision was made with Trump’s approval.8. He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border. You believed him. But there’s no wall.9. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure. 10. He said he’d drain the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for.11. He promised to re-institute a five-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government for five years after they leave government.” You bought it. But the five-year ban he signed applies only to lobbying one’s former agency, not the government as a whole, and it doesn’t stop former officials from becoming lobbyists.12. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. But he has created the most dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, and has already fired and replaced so many assistants that people there barely know who’s in charge of what. 13. He told you he’d “bring down drug prices” by negotiating “like crazy” with drug companies. You bought it. But he hasn’t.14. He told you he’d “stop foreign lobbyists from raising money for American elections.” You bought it. But foreign lobbyists are still raising money for American elections. 15. He promised “six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.” You bought it. But the giant tax cut for corporations and the rich doesn’t leave any money for this. 16. He said he’d create tax-free dependent care savings accounts for younger and elderly dependents, and have the government match contributions low-income families put into their savings accounts. You bought it. He’s done neither.17. He said that on Day One he’d label China a “currency manipulator.” You bought it. But then he declared China is not a currency manipulator.18. He said he “won’t bomb Syria.” You bought it. Then he bombed Syria.19. After pulling out of the Paris accord, he said he’d negotiate a better deal on the environment. You bought it. There have been no negotiations.20. He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct “will be sued after the election is over.” You bought it. He hasn’t sued them, presumably because he doesn’t want the truth to come out.21. He said he would not be a president who took vacations, and criticized Barack Obama for taking too many vacations. You bought it. But since becoming President, he has spent a quarter of his days at one of his golf properties.22. He vowed to “push colleges to cut the skyrocketing cost of tuition.” You believed him. But he hasn’t. Instead, he’s made it easier for for-profit college to defraud students. 23. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be consequences for companies that shipped jobs abroad, especially government contractors. You believed him. Never before in U.S. history have federal contractors sent so many jobs overseas. There have been no consequences. 24. He promised to end DACA. Then in January 2018 promised that “DACA recipients should not to be concerned… We’re going to solve the problem,” then he reversed himself again and vowed to end the program by March, 2018. Currently, the federal courts have stayed any action on it. 25. He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and bring back lost coal mining jobs. You bought it. But coal is still losing customers as utilities turn to natural gas and renewable power. 26. He promised to protect American steel jobs. You bought it. His tariffs on steel have protected some steel jobs. But industries that use steel – like automakers and construction – now have to pay more for the steel they use, with the result that their jobs are threatened. The Trade Partnership projects that 400,000 jobs will be lost among steel and aluminum users.27. He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But mass shootings keep rising, and Trump has failed to pass effective gun control legislation. After 17 died in Parkland, Florida, Trump promised “immediate action” on gun safety in schools, but has done nothing.28. He promised to make two- and four-year colleges more affordable. You bought it. But Trump’s most recent budget contains deep cuts in aid for low-income and first-generation college students, reduces Federal Work Study, and eliminates the 50-year-old Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which goes to more than a million poor college kids each year.29. He promised to eliminate the federal deficit and bring down the debt. You bought it. Yet due to his massive tax cut mostly for corporations and the rich, and his military spending, the deficit is set to rise to $1 trillion, and the debt has ballooned to more than $21 trillion.30. He said he’d release his taxes. “I’m under a routine audit and it’ll be released, and as soon as the audit is finished it will be released,” he promised during the campaign. You bought it. He still hasn’t released his taxes.

Trump Lied!

Phroyd

[quatorz]

Here’s something I wrote just prior to the election...

I’m sharing it here in case anyone thinks its useful.  I think-especially with the events of today-its going to become so apparent that we need to ‘demystify’ the Trumpster fire and expose him for the lying sack of shit that he was.

I said to a friend of mine MANY years ago that the most dangerous thing that was happening was that the truth was becoming partisan.  Man is that true now. 

But I wrote this, sent it to a few relatives (including my own Dad who is a supporter of the Orange One), and posted it to Facebook. 

The goal of the piece was always: ‘hey, you don’t have to listen to me.  Here are other sources (most of them Republican) who point out this mans complete inability to fill the Oval Office.  (And I live in Pennsylvania, and I wrote this just before our former Governor-former Republican Governor-Tom Ridge endorsed Biden.  Else I definitely would have included this). 

And some of it may seem slightly personal or familiar?  I was writing this primarily to speak to members of my family and friends. 

If any of this is useful, feel free to use it. 

Why I’m Not Voting for Trump

A few weeks ago a bomb dropped.  Not a literal bomb-as in ordinance, but a news bomb.  Although in our endlessly insane (or maybe insanely endless?) news cycle that’s been the last four years, it was easy to get overshadowed because another bomb probably dropped the next day or ever a few hours after that one.

But this one was different.  This was the revelation that Trump had 400 million dollars in outstanding loans.  On one of those loans-for 100 million dollars-they’d paid only the interest-none of the principal-and the loan is due in 2022.  The obvious question was asked: who does he owe that money too?

It’s a good question.  There was a great quote making the rounds from Eric Trump in 2014: ‘Who needs American banks?  Russia has plenty of money!’  During his town hall Savannah Guthrie asked Trump directly if that 400 million dollars was owed to foreign banks.  “Probably,” he said.

So: what makes that revelation a ‘bomb’? 

When I heard this, I immediately thought back to an instance that’s always stuck with me: last October when we inexplicably pulled our troops out of Syria.  Do you remember that?  Trump got off the phone with President Erdogan and announced that we were pulling out of Syria.  The backlash was immediate and bi-partisan.  Resident sycophant Lindsay Graham was especially critical, tweeting out:

“The most probable outcome of this impulsive decision is to ensure Iran’s domination of Syria...The U.S. now has no leverage and Syria will eventually become a nightmare for Israel.

“I feel very bad for the Americans and allies who have sacrificed to destroy the ISIS Caliphate because this decision virtually reassures the reemergence of ISIS.  So sad.  So dangerous.  President Trump may be tired of fighting radical Islam.  They are NOT tired of fighting us.”

This incident always stuck with me.  Especially the timing: getting off the phone with Erdogan and then hours later pulling out of Syria.  Astute researchers quickly found an audio clip of Trump on Steve Bannon’s radio show from back in 2011 saying ‘well, I have a conflict of interest when it comes to Turkey.  I have two buildings in Istanbul’...

So at first I thought this was simply another example of something I’d long thought Trump guilty of: being the president of Trump Enterprises first, and America second.  We’d seen that before with one of the first acts of his administration: the Travel Ban*, and then with his handling of the FBI building**. 

But when news of the outstanding loans came to light, I thought again about Syria, and the odd, out-of-the-blue nature of the President’s decision. 

The day the news of the loans broke, they had a former security official on MSNBC, and he brought up an interesting point: if you had large outstanding financial obligations like that to a foreign bank, you might be denied a security clearance based on that fact because you could be threatened or cajoled into acting against our country’s interests. 

Is that what happened here?  Did Erdogan ask Trump to pull his forces out of Syria (or did he demand it)?  Or was it Putin, indirectly through Erdogan who maybe told Trump “a mutual friend would be very appreciative if you would do this for him”. 

Who gave the order to pull out of Syria…?  An order that-according to Lindsey Graham-went against America’s interest and all but assured the resurrection of ISIS?

You’re probably thinking: whoa, Dave!   Easy there!  I mean, that sounds pretty crazy, right?  The idea that the President could be financially compromised to the extent that he does the bidding of our adversaries? 

Actually, I’m not the first to submit this crazy theory.  After the 2018 meeting in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin, a Republican state Congressman from Texas (yes, you read that right: a Republican from Texas) posted an op-ed with the title: Trump Is Being Manipulated by Putin. What Should We Do?

This Texas Republican’s background?  He’s former CIA.  In the op-ed he writes: “over the course of my career as an undercover officer in the C.I.A., I saw Russian intelligence manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them.”

He goes on to say: “The president’s failure to defend the United States intelligence community’s unanimous conclusions of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and condemn Russian covert counterinfluence campaigns and his standing idle on the world stage while a Russian dictator spouted lies confused many but should concern all Americans. 

“By playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.”

Wow.

I strongly believe that this President is dangerous.  He’s dangerous in the way he coddles up to autocrats.  He’s dangerous because he has financial entanglements that make him put his own interests before the nation’s.  And he’s dangerous because he politicized a virus that killed 200,000+ people when we now know he’s on record in February telling Bob Woodward (on tape no less) that this was WAY worse the flu, and was deadly. 

But you don’t take my word for it.  Listen to some fellow Republicans.  Here’s a statement by 70 Republicans who served as national security officials and say that this President is dangerously unfit to serve another term.  https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/

There’s more.  In an open letter to America, 780 retired Generals, Admirals, Senior Noncommissioned Officers, Ambassadors and Senior Civilian National Security Officials announced their support of Joe Biden for President for similar reasons: https://www.nationalsecurityleaders4biden.com/

Let me say, also, that I don’t think there’s anything ideologically wrong with being a Republican.  But I would submit to you that this current Republican administration and Republican Congress does not serve you, or anyone you know.

Basically, if you’re not going to watch Penn State play Ohio State tonight from Mar-A-Lago, their interests are not your interests. 

Trump isn’t for the ‘little guy’.  He’s accomplished one thing legislatively in his four years in office, and that was a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires.  Now, those billionaires are using their considerable resources (like Rupert Murdoch and Fox News) to try and get you to vote for him again so that they can keep the gravy train rolling.  It’s as simple as that.  It’s all about money.

Oh, and I forgot one other thing this President has done for the wealthy and corporations: he’s been hell bent on deregulating industry.  Which is great for big business, but not so great for us-the consumers.  In 2019 regulations on the pork industry were rolled back (read more about that here: https://qz.com/1716113/trump-gives-pork-industry-a-path-to-regulate-itself/).

What could go wrong there?  There were two health inspectors who came forward (if I remember right, they may have been the ones to bring the issue to light) and they basically said that they wouldn’t be eating the food from the companies where they had worked. 

Right now there are massive efforts to have legitimate votes cast be discounted.  In Minnesota, Republicans there are fighting a ruling that ballots can be received up to seven days after the election-as long as they are postmarked by election day.

This deadline was put into place months ago because of the pandemic, and was accepted on a bi-partisan basis.  Now Republicans are challenging that.  So you could have voters that put their vote in the mail last Tuesday-while the deadline was valid-only to have their vote challenged if the post office delivers it on Wednesday. 

Surely it can’t be partisan to feel that everyone’s vote should count?  But this is the new extreme right Republican party that will do anything to win-even disenfranchise legal votes.  Discounting valid votes is how we go from being America to being a Banana Republic.  At some point these Republicans need to understand that they are Americans first and Republicans second, or we are screwed as a nation. 

Trump is a man who shows no respect for the office of the President, caters to autocrats while his lawyers argue in court that he shouldn’t be able to be investigated while he’s in office.  If you’re an American, that should ALARM THE CRAP out of you.  Democracies can fall.  It’s happening everywhere around the globe.  If you think it ‘couldn’t happen here’ simply because it never has, that’s some dangerous thinking.  Remember, technically Putin is ‘elected’ into office.  And this Congress has failed epically in its duty to be a check on the executive branch.  That’s their job, by the way-regardless of who is in office.  

Don’t get me started on Attorney General William Barr.  I wonder if-during his confirmation hearings-when he listed ‘Banana Republics’ on his resume they thought he’d worked for the now defunct clothing chain, not that he was adept at creating them. 

You may be asking yourself: why is he putting all this out there now?  Because I love all of you-and certainly respect all of you.  And I see you blindly following a leader who doesn’t represent you or your values.  And I see you acting in a way and saying things and posting things that are inconsistent with the people I know you to be.

I’m working on the assumption that you are being fed false information.  That deep down you are indeed the people that I think you are, but you are being misled.

And remember: there are two ways to lie.  You can outright tell someone something that is false.  But you can also lie by omission.  Fox News is certainly guilty of the former, but maybe even more so of the latter.  (Fox News probably won’t tell you that 780 former Generals and National Security officials say that the President shouldn’t serve another term.   They didn’t lie…they just didn’t mention it.  And I think that’s something worth mentioning.)

Think of the dynamic at work here: Trump does or says something.  The dozens of news organizations that you’ve followed and respected your entire lives tells you it’s false.  One-ONE-news organization backs up his claim (the organization that is owned by a man who has benefited financially from President’s policies).  Meanwhile Trump calls the others ‘fake news’.  Do you see anything wrong there?

There is a great quote from Orwell’s 1984 that has become hauntingly prescient over the last four years: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” 

This Tuesday will be a deciding moment in this nation.  If you want a vote that actually means something in 2024, don’t vote for Trump on Tuesday.

 ****************

*What about the Travel Ban?  Glad you asked.  If you remember, the travel ban was assigned to keep us safe by preventing people from certain countries from coming to America (it is worth noting that the travel ban was first struck down by a federal judge appointed by George Bush).  One of the oddities about the travel ban was that there were three countries that were exempt.  These three countries were the only countries that had produced terrorists that had killed Americans.  None of the countries actually on the travel ban had.   Weird, huh?  Do you know what else these countries had in common?  They all had Trump branded properties. 

 **  The F.B.I. building.  So the F.B.I. building is in not great shape.  It’s old and falling apart.  In fact they had sections of the outside cordoned off so that a piece of the outer façade doesn’t fall off and kill someone.  The U.S. government had worked out a deal with a contractor that the contractor would build the F.B.I. a brand new facility-for free-and then in exchange the contractor would be given the old F.B.I. location to do whatever they want with it.  Presumably, knock down and make it into a new building/hotel/shops (whatever).  Pretty good deal, right?

Except…a year or so ago a lady had a meeting at the White House and then went before Congress and said that the F.B.I. did not, in fact, want a free brand new facility anymore, but instead wanted the renovate and repair the old one instead.  Huh…

Do you know what building is just a couple blocks down from the F.B.I. building’s location?  Trump’s D.C. hotel. 

Now I know what you’re thinking.  You’re saying: ‘but Dave, look at all the NFL owners: they didn’t want new stadiums.  They decided to pour money into their old dilapidated stadiums that were steeped in tradition and history!’  Except you’re not saying that because that never happened.  Everyone wants a new facility over a crumbling money pit, and I’m sure the F.B.I was no exception.

(It’s also interesting to note that-for some reason-there was two billion dollars in one of the recent versions of a Coronavirus relief bill-that wasn’t passed-allocated for the repair of the F.B.I. building.  Why?  Who put that in there? It wasn’t Senate Republicans.  It was funny watching Mitch McConnell answering questions about that and having to admit that he had no idea that it was even in there).

[shanneleighmacasukit]

Amazing Architectural Projects of the World

There are some pretty amazing buildings being constructed around the world; some of them absolutely defy conventional human civil engineering wisdom and others challenge the laws of gravity. Every year seems to take the bar higher; pioneers of material sciences, civil engineering, landscaping, interior designing are taking design and architecture to a whole new level with unbelievably futuristic spaces for work, living and play.

Here’s your introduction to some of them.

Jeddah Tower (Kingdom tower), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

To be built to 1007 metres, the Jeddah Tower is set to be the first building on the plant to breach the kilometre mark! It will have more than 200 floors with the world’s highest observation deck on the 157 th floor (26 floors have already been built up). It will house office space, luxury condos, a Four Seasons hotel and an observatory and is slated for completion in 2019. It has 12 escalators and 59 elevators with 5 of the elevators being double-decker. The architectural style being used for the building is extremely unique featuring an aerodynamic 3-sided design to tackle wind-speeds and gravity. The tapering shape of the building also helps to maximize rentable and usable area. The core of the building is narrow at the top and large at the bottom of the building. The exterior walls are made of low-conductivity glass to reduce cooling loads. When complete, this project would be all set to take over from the Burj Khalifa as the defining tower in the Gulf.

Dubai Pearl, Dubai

Make no mistake about it; the Dubai Pearl is not your average high-rise. With 73 stories in 4 towers rising to 300 m, it’s a unique, mixed-use development with premium offices, residences, dining, retail, leisure and entertainment. Overlooking the Palm Jumeirah Island in the Dubai Technology and Media Zone, the Dubai Pearl is designed to provide residences for 29,000 people. There is a sky-bridge at the top connecting the 4 towers. The Dubai pearl sets new benchmarks in the Gulf for LEED-certified skyscrapers with 56% green space. It has features perfectly proportioned spaces with 51% space for branded residences, 12% for commercial space, 19% for retail and leisure and 18% for hospitality. This is one skyscraper with a difference for sure!

Agora Garden Tower, Taipei

The Agora Garden Tower is a 20-story luxury building that is eco-friendly in every sense imaginable with gardens on each floor. But wait, we haven’t even got to the piece de resistance – the brilliant design by Vincente Callebaut Architecte. Inspired by the double-helix shape of DNA, we are sure you would have seen nothing like it anywhere else. A shape that is twisting from bottom to top, the awe-inspiring design of this building makes jaws regularly drop in amazement, the building seemingly appearing to rotate 90 degrees along its profile as you move from bottom to top. The building is designed to be fully self-sufficient for energy with a couple of giant photovoltaic shades fitted at the top of the building. All the construction will be out of recycled and recyclable materials. The Agora Garden is setting new standards for brilliant design.

Dawang Mountain Resort, Changsha, China

Want never before seen design? How about resort built above an old rock quarry with a 200 feet waterfall rushing down? This project built to span two cliffs, combines an indoor ski slope, a water park and an ice world with a hotel, restaurants and shopping.

Istanbul New Airport

Istanbul is one of the biggest aviation hubs in a geographic region spreading across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The new Istanbul airport is projected to handle 150 million passengers every year and is set have a number of firsts. Located 22 miles from Istanbul on the Black sea coast, the airport will have 6 runways and is expected to serve 90 million passengers in a year when completed in 2028. Its duty-free area is set to be the biggest in the world at 53,000 square metres and more than 400 luxury brands under one roof; When the Phase1a of construction ends in 2018, the airport will have the largest terminal in the world (under one roof) with a floor area of almost 11 million square feet; It will also have Europe’s largest car park with 24,000 spaces along with a unique, tulip-shaped ATC tower. Terminal 1 is currently under construction and the use of a slatted, blue-reflecting roof and a vaulted ceiling combine to create a very exciting space inside Terminal 1. When complete, there is no doubt whatsoever it will be the number one airport in the world in every sense of the word.

Dubai One Tower

Next in the line of super-tall buildings being built in the Gulf, the Dubai One Tower will be the tallest residential tower in the world at 711 metres, when completed. To house 78000 residents, the tower will have 885 apartments, an indoor ski slope (you saw that right) and a marina. It will also have a hotel and a shopping centre inside. The indoor ski resort will be largest in the world with an unbelievable 1.2 km slope, believe it or not. The other funky part of the design is that the roof over the restaurants and cafes will be retractable for the cooler winter months. Dubai One will be the next trendsetter for residential high-rise buildings in the Gulf.

Forest City, Johor, Malaysia

Forest City is one of the biggest land reclamation projects in the world, seeking to build 4 new islands from 1400 hectares of reclaimed land in a bay between Malaysia and Singapore. The project is being executed by Country Garden Pacific View and is projected to house up to 700,000 residents after about 20 years of construction. Forest City is a work-live-play integrated zone designed to support about 220,000 jobs in finance, technology and bio-technology. The architectural plan for Forest City calls for the building of a green city with rainwater and storm-water harvesting, solar power, vertical growth and dense foliage. In additional to large park areas, mangrove swamps and a green corridor, an innovative design for a rooftop network of parks and gardens is also planned for (all of which would be interconnected). The Forest City is one development which exemplifies the advancement of sustainable building tech like no other.

Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, Nigeria

Eko Atlantic City is a pioneering development with the use of reclaimed land following in the steps of the likes of the Jumeirah. It seeks to build a new city off the coast of Lagos on 10 million square metres of reclamation. It will be a high-end live-work-play space with marinas and 250,000 units of prime housing when complete. The business district will be a landmark in itself and aspired to be the financial headquarters for Nigeria. The Eko Atlantic City is pioneering in the area of development in flood-prone regions in a time of global warming and rising sea levels. Believe it or now, there is an 8.5 km long wall being built around the development specifically to protect it from erosion and flooding. It is designed green in terms of water treatment and for low carbon footprints by the use of locally sourced material and environment friendly design. The Eko Atlantic city shows the way to the future in terms of the kind of development and design that would need to happen in coastal areas facing the threat of rising sea-levels.

Millennium Village, Tangerang, Indonesia

Millenium Village is a global smart city being promoted in Tangerang off the Jakarta-Merak Toll road. The singular selling point of this development is that office space is located across not one but three high-rises – the 75-story Gateway Tower, the 75-story Super Tower and the 100-story Iconic tower. The Iconic tower is truly an iconic building which will be the tallest building in Indonesia when complete. With colleges, hotels, an art district, a convention center, fine dining, a club, an art museum, a 470,000 square metre mall and a health city, the Millenium Village is truly a Millenium city, not just in name. With 125 hectares of green space set apart within 600 hectares of floor area, green living aspects are well taken care of. Not just that, the Millenium Sky Park sprawls across hold your breath, 25 hectares (yes, you read that right!) of gardens right in the middle of the city. The blend of high-rise living with green development is the hallmark of this project.

Khazar Islands project, Azerbaijan

The Khazar Islands project is a mega venture being developed on 41 artificial islands 25 kms from Baku, Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea (the furthest island is located 7 kms from shore). Development is planned to occur over 2000 hectares with high-rises in several islands and a truly audacious plan to have bridges to connect built-up areas. Once complete, the Khazar Islands are set to be the emblem of Azerbaijan’s development with the centrepiece of the project being the world’s tallest tower (at that time) – The Azerbaijan Tower. When completed, the islands are expected to feature eight hotels, a yacht club and amazing enough, even a Formula 1 racetrack and an airport! This development will be a trendsetter in the area of development on reclaimed land.

Photo & Description Credits: https://www.beautifullife.info

(For educational purposes only.)

[klbmsw]

“Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have long worried aides, leaving some ‘genuinely horrified’

By Carol D. Leonnig, Shane Harris and Josh Dawsey October 4, 2019 at 7:19 PM EDT nytimes.com

“In one of his first calls with a head of state, President Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner.”

He pledged to Saudi officials in another call that he would help the monarchy enter the elite Group of Seven, an alliance of the world’s leading democratic economies.”

“He promised the president of Peru that he would deliver to his country a C-130 military cargo plane overnight, a logistical nightmare that set off a herculean scramble in the West Wing and Pentagon.”

“And in a later call with Putin, Trump asked the former KGB officer for his guidance in forging a friendship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — a fellow authoritarian hostile to the United States.”

“Starting long before revelations about Trump’s interactions with Ukraine’s president rocked Washington, Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders were an anxiety-ridden set of events for his aides and members of the administration, according to former and current officials. They worried that Trump would make promises he shouldn’t keep, endorse policies the United States long opposed, commit a diplomatic blunder that jeopardized a critical alliance or simply pressure a counterpart for a personal favor.”

“There was a constant undercurrent in the Trump administration of [senior staff] who were genuinely horrified by the things they saw that were happening on these calls,” said one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations. “Phone calls that were embarrassing, huge mistakes he made, months and months of work that were upended by one impulsive tweet.”

“But Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went beyond whether the leader of the free world had committed a faux pas, and into grave concerns, he had engaged in a possible crime or impeachable offense. The release last week of a whistleblower complaint alleging Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals as well as the release of a rough transcript of the July call led to House Democrats launching an impeachment inquiry against Trump.”

“The Ukraine controversy has put a renewed focus on Trump’s un­or­tho­dox way of interacting with fellow world leaders in diplomatic calls. Critics, including some former administration officials, contend that Trump’s behavior on calls with foreign leaders has at times created unneeded tensions with allies and sent troubling signals to adversaries or authoritarians that the United States supports or at least does not care about human rights or their aggressive behavior elsewhere in the world.”

“Joel Willett, a former intelligence officer who worked at the National Security Council from 2014 to 2015, said he was concerned both by the descriptions of a president winging it, and the realization that the president’s behavior disturbs and frightens career civil servants.”

“What a burden it must be to be stuck between your position of trust in the White House and another obligation you may feel to the American people to say something,” he said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment Thursday or Friday.”

“Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally, said the president speaks his mind and diverges from other presidents who follow protocol. Graham said he saw nothing distressing in the president’s July 25 call with Zelensky and said he expected it to be worse, partially given his own experience with Trump on the phone.”

“If you take half of my phone calls with him, it wouldn’t read as cleanly and nicely,” he said, adding that the president sounded like a “normal person.”

“This story is based on interviews with 12 former or current officials with knowledge of the president’s foreign calls. These officials had direct involvement in the calls, were briefed on them or read the transcripts afterward. All spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s private conversations with world leaders.”

“The first call Trump made that set off alarm bells came less than two weeks after his inauguration. On Jan. 28, Trump called Putin for what should have been a routine formality: accepting a foreign leader’s congratulations. Former White House officials described Trump as “obsequious” and “fawning,” but said he also rambled off into different topics without any clear point, while Putin appeared to stick to formal talking points for a first official exchange.”

“He was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my people didn’t tell me you wanted to talk to me,’ ” said one person with direct knowledge of the call.”

“Trump has been consistently cozy with authoritarian leaders, sparking anxiety among aides about the solicitous tones he struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Putin.”

“We couldn’t figure out early on why he was being so nice to Russia,” one former senior administration official said. H.R. McMaster, the president’s then-national security adviser, launched an internal campaign to get Trump to be more skeptical of the Russians. Officials expressed surprise in both of his early Putin calls at why he was so friendly.”

  “In another call, in April 2017, Trump told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had overseen a brutal campaign that has resulted in the extrajudicial killings of thousands of suspected drug dealers, that he was doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

“Trump’s personal goals seeped into calls. He pestered Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for help in recommending him for a Nobel Prize, according to an official familiar with the call. “People who could do things for him — he was nice too,” said one former security official. “Leaders with trade deficits, strong female leaders, members of NATO — those tended to go badly.”

“Aides bristled at the dismissive way he sometimes addressed longtime U.S. allies, especially women. In a summer 2018 call with Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump harangued the British leader about her country’s contribution to NATO. He then disputed her intelligence community’s conclusion that Putin’s government had orchestrated the attempted murder and poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil.”

“Trump was totally bought into the idea there was credible doubt about the poisoning,” said one person briefed on the call. “A solid 10 minutes of the conversation is spent with May saying it’s highly likely and him saying he’s not sure.”

“Trump would sometimes make commitments to foreign leaders that flew in the face of U.S. policy and international agreements, as when he told a Saudi royal that he would support their country’s entry into the G-7.”

“The G-7 is supposed to be the allies with whom we share the most common values and the deepest commitment to upholding the rules-based order,” the former official said.”

“Russia was kicked out of the group in 2014 for violating international law when it invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Trump has publicly advocated for Russia to be allowed back in. Saudi Arabia, which oppresses women and has a record of human rights abuses, wasn’t a fit candidate for membership, the former official said.”

“Saudi Arabia was not admitted to the group. Calls with foreign leaders have often been highly orchestrated events in past administrations.”

“When I was at the White House, there was a very deliberative process of the president absorbing information from people who had deep substantive knowledge of the countries and relationships with these leaders. Preparation for these calls was taken very seriously,” Willett said. “It appears to be freestyle and ad-libbed now.”

“Trump has rejected much of the protocol and preparation associated with foreign calls, even as his national security team tried to establish goals for each conversation.”

“Instead, Trump often sought to use calls as a way to befriend whoever he was talking to, one current senior administration official said, defending the president. “So he might say something that sounds terrible to the outside, but in his mind, he’s trying to build a relationship with that person and sees flattery as the way to do it.”

“The president resisted long briefings before calls or reading in preparation, several former officials said. McMaster, who preferred providing the president with the information he could use to make decisions, resigned himself to giving Trump small notecards with bulleted highlights and talking points.”

“You had two to three minutes max,” said one former senior administration official. “And then he was still usually going to say whatever he wanted to say.”

“As a result, staff fretted that Trump came across ill-informed in some calls, and even oafish. In a conversation with China’s Xi, Trump repeated numerous times how much he liked a kind of chocolate cake, one former official said. The president publicly described the dessert the two had in April 2017 when Trump and Xi met at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort as “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you have ever seen.”

“Trump preferred to make calls from the residence, which frustrated some NSC staff and West Wing aides who wanted to be on hand to give the president real-time advice. If he held the call in the Oval Office, aides would gather around the desk and pass him notes to try to keep the calls on point. On a few occasions, then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly muted the call to try to get the president back on track, two officials said.”

“Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, and critic, said the calls fit Trump’s style as a business leader. “When he had to get on calls with investors on a publicly-traded company, they had to worry that he would break securities laws and lie about the company’s profits,” O’Brien said. “When he would go and meet with regulators with the casino control commission, his lawyers were always worried under oath, in a public setting, that he would say something that would be legally damaging.”

“Though calls with foreign leaders are routinely planned in advance, Trump a few times called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron unannounced as if they were friends, a former administration official said.”

“After some early summaries of Trump calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia leaked to the press in 2017, the White House tightened restrictions on who could access the transcripts and kept better track of who had custody of copies. For example, Vice President Pence still received a courtesy copy of any foreign-leader call, but his staff now had to sign off when they transported it to his office and also sign off when they returned or destroyed the document.”

“Some former officials said that over time staff became used to the oddity of some calls even if they still found them troubling.”

“People had gotten really numb to him blurting out something he shouldn’t have,” one former national security staffer remarked.”

“But officials who had served in the White House through the end of 2018 were still shocked by the whistleblower complaint about the effort to “lockdown” records of Trump’s July 25 call. The complaint said White House officials ordered the transcript moved into a highly secure computer system, known as NICE, which is normally reserved only for information about the most sensitive code-word-level intelligence programs.”

“Unheard of,” said one former official who handled foreign calls. “That just blew me away.”

nytimes.com

Breaking News, World News & Multimedia

The New York Times: Find breaking news, multimedia, reviews & opinion…

[robertreich]

TRUMP’S 30 BROKEN PROMISES

Trump voters: Two years in, here’s an updated list of Trump’s 30 biggest broken promises.

1. He told you he’d cut your taxes, and that the super-rich like him would pay more. You bought it. But his 2017 tax law has done the opposite. By 2027, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the richest 1 percent will have received 83 percent of the tax cut and the richest 0.1 percent, 60 percent of it. But more than half of all Americans — 53 percent — will pay more in taxes. As Trump told his wealthy friends at Mar-a-Lago just days after the tax bill became law, “You all just got a lot richer.” 

2. He promised that the average family would see a $4,000 pay raise because of the tax law. You bought it. But real wages for most Americans are lower today than they were before the tax law went into effect.   

3. He promised to close special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors but unfair to American workers, especially the notorious “carried interest” loophole for private-equity, hedge fund, and real estate partners. You bought it. But the new tax law kept the “carried interest” loophole.

4. He promised to bring an end to Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear program. You bought it. Kim Jong-Un hasn’t denuclearized. 

5. He told you he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “beautiful,” including “insurance for everybody.” You bought it. But he didn’t repeal and he didn’t replace. (Just as well: His plan would have knocked at least 24 million Americans off health insurance, including many of you.) Instead, he’s doing what he can to cut it back and replace it with nothing. According to the Commonwealth Fund, about 4 million Americans have lost health insurance in the last two years.

6. He told you he wouldn’t “cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” You bought it. But now he’s planning such cuts in order to deal with the ballooning deficit created, in part, by the new tax law for corporations and the rich. 

7. He promised to protect anyone with pre-existing conditions. You bought it. But in June, his Justice Department told a federal court it would no longer defend provisions of Obamacare that protect patients with pre-existing conditions. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the decision was made with Trump’s approval.

8. He said he’d build a “wall” across the southern border.You believed him. But there’s no wall.

9. He told you he’d invest $1 trillion in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. You bought it. But after his giant tax cut for corporations and millionaires, there’s no money left for infrastructure. 

10. He said he’d drain the Washington swamp. You bought it. But he’s brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses, and he’s filled departments and agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who are crafting new policies for the same industries they recently worked for.

11. He promised to re-institute a five-year ban on all executive branch officials lobbying the government for five years after they leave government.” You bought it. But the five-year ban he signed applies only to lobbying one’s former agency, not the government as a whole, and it doesn’t stop former officials from becoming lobbyists.

12. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. But he has created the most dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, and has already fired and replaced so many assistants that people there barely know who’s in charge of what. 

13. He told you he’d “bring down drug prices” by negotiating “like crazy” with drug companies. You bought it. But he hasn’t.

14. He told you he’d “stop foreign lobbyists from raising money for American elections.” You bought it. But foreign lobbyists are still raising money for American elections. 

15. He promised “six weeks of paid maternity leave to any mother with a newborn child whose employer does not provide the benefit.” You bought it. But the giant tax cut for corporations and the rich doesn’t leave any money for this. 

16. He said he’d create tax-free dependent care savings accounts for younger and elderly dependents, and have the government match contributions low-income families put into their savings accounts. You bought it. He’s done neither.

17. He said that on Day One he’d label China a “currency manipulator.” You bought it. But then he declared China is not a currency manipulator.

18. He said he “won’t bomb Syria.” You bought it. Then he bombed Syria.

19. After pulling out of the Paris accord, he said he’d negotiate a better deal on the environment. You bought it. There have been no negotiations.

20. He promised that the many women who accused him of sexual misconduct “will be sued after the election is over.” You bought it. He hasn’t sued them, presumably because he doesn’t want the truth to come out.

21. He said he would not be a president who took vacations, and criticized Barack Obama for taking too many vacations. You bought it. But since becoming President, he has spent a quarter of his days at one of his golf properties.

22. He vowed to “push colleges to cut the skyrocketing cost of tuition.” You believed him. But he hasn't. Instead, he's made it easier for for-profit college to defraud students. 

23. He said he’d force companies to keep jobs in America, and that there would be consequences for companies that shipped jobs abroad, especially government contractors. You believed him. Never before in U.S. history have federal contractors sent so many jobs overseas. There have been no consequences. 

24. He promised to end DACA. Then in January 2018 promised that "DACA recipients should not to be concerned... We're going to solve the problem,” then he reversed himself again and vowed to end the program by March, 2018. Currently, the federal courts have stayed any action on it. 

25. He promised to revive the struggling coal industry and bring back lost coal mining jobs. You bought it. But coal is still losing customers as utilities turn to natural gas and renewable power. 

26. He promised to protect American steel jobs. You bought it. His tariffs on steel have protected some steel jobs. But industries that use steel -- like automakers and construction -- now have to pay more for the steel they use, with the result that their jobs are threatened. The Trade Partnership projects that 400,000 jobs will be lost among steel and aluminum users.

27. He said he’d make America safer. You believed him. But mass shootings keep rising, and Trump has failed to pass effective gun control legislation. After 17 died in Parkland, Florida, Trump promised “immediate action” on gun safety in schools, but has done nothing.

28. He promised to make two- and four-year colleges more affordable. You bought it. But Trump's most recent budget contains deep cuts in aid for low-income and first-generation college students, reduces Federal Work Study, and eliminates the 50-year-old Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which goes to more than a million poor college kids each year.

29. He promised to eliminate the federal deficit and bring down the debt. You bought it. Yet due to his massive tax cut mostly for corporations and the rich, and his military spending, the deficit is set to rise to $1 trillion, and the debt has ballooned to more than $21 trillion.

30. He said he’d release his taxes. “I’m under a routine audit and it’ll be released, and as soon as the audit is finished it will be released,” he promised during the campaign. You bought it. He still hasn’t released his taxes.

[extrafemi]

What happens when a founder leaves his company and gets hired elsewhere?

The year was 2018. 

I decided to step out of my role as the CEO/chief strategist at Extrafemi and do something different...get hired elsewhere i.e get a job. Why did I do this? There are a lot of reasons, some of which cannot be disclosed for now. However, it is safe to say I wanted access.

As a creative digital agency, sometimes size plays a role. There are certain projects you do not have access to not because you dont qualify and/or have the required skills to deliver on them but you dont have access either because you are not known within certain networks or your current resource capacity cannot suffice for excellent execution. You need funds from the project to expand your team but you cannot expand your team without funds from more projects- A classic chicken and egg situation. Asides this, I wanted a different experience outside my own company and learn new team cultures. So I downplayed my history, my role, experience et al, pretended to be a newbie and some months, emails and phone calls later in September 2018, I was appointed a senior digital strategist at a creative agency in Lagos. 

“Stay hungry, stay foolish” is a quote by Steve Jobs to highlight how founders need to stay hungry in order to stay in business. I wasn't just hungry, I was starving. This was initially a 90-day “experiment” but then “I blinked” and it turned out to be a 10-month ride. Time flies when you are driven, enjoy your role and hungry. This article is a summary of some of the problems I was able to solve alongside some takeaways:

1. My role came with its own challenges: one of which was drafting, designing and submitting reports every week. What started out as a no-report role moved to a one-four-page-report per month and eventually spiraled into a sometimes 200-pages and total of 13-reports per month. This number spiked to 15 or 20 reports per month sometimes depending on events/ circumstances. All that data helped our clients make better informed decisions across social and digital as a result. 

2. One of my favorite things to do is to draft a social media strategy. My role allowed me to do this across more industries and sectors and for projects quite larger in scale, budgets and size beyond what I had already done at Extrafemi. This was also in line with one of my objectives for the role in the first place. Two major projects I was a part of out of the several we delivered while on this role were the 2019 reports and strategy for our biggest client and one that allowed a client to acquire a million customers in a few months.

3. What is a role without learnings? Because my role was senior, it allowed me to interface with a lot of other roles from copy-writing, design, emailers and so on. Not that I didnt know how to create these things already but there is always something new to learn. Creating newsletters using dream weaver was something I had seen done during my days at a student on scholarship at NIIT but hadn't really learned how it worked until this role. I was also able to polish my design skills even further. Add a truckload of curiosity to my role and you have a situation where I was nearly always busy. Learning/adjusting/volunteering for something/ some project every now and then while improving on existing process.

4. You never really know how you stack up in a different team especially when you are coming in with a lot of drive et al until you are actually in that position. Acquiring a new team culture was also part of my objectives to be fulfilled when taking on the role and I didnt skimp on that as well. 

5. Then I took over the company social media pages, not only scheduling posts for our clients but cranking out content for the agency’s pages everyday. This pushed my copy and content skills to another level. I must admit that this was initially tough but I powered through. 

6. Events.....the sometimes fun part but mostly embarrassing aspect of my role. Embarrassing because sometimes the client team well sometimes weren't always nice. Notwithstanding, it was a great experience at all the events I moderated and covered.

All in all, this was initially a 90-day “experiment” but then “I blinked” and it turned out to be a 10-month ride. By the 10th month, I packed up and said my goodbyes to the team. 

It was time to move on.

[alexsmitposts]

COVID 19, Exposing the Very Worst of America On the evening of March 10, 2020, US President Donald Trump made a speech few would forget. His demeanor was bizarre, his speech halting, confused and his words often hesitant and contradictory. Few knew that many that Trump and his daughter Ivanka had met with at their Mar-a-Lago retreat, including the president of Brazil, would come down with COVID 19. From the UK Independent: “Mr. Trump announced he was shutting down “all travel from Europe’, except the UK, in a speech as notable for the underlying tones of nationalism in the president’s reference to a ‘foreign virus’ as it was for his apparent unease. The 73-year-old sniffed heavily, suppressed several coughs and appeared to be struggling with the teleprompter throughout his short but laboured speech, which immediately saw members of his administration scramble to correct his errors. First, the president risked sending markets tumbling even further when he announced, seemingly by accident, that ‘these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval’.” When the stock markets crashed the next morning, it wasn’t over economic issues but rather a total lack of trust and confidence in Donald Trump the person. You see, two of the nations, Ireland and Great Britain, that were left off the travel ban have very high rates of infection and everyone knows it. They also have Trump owned golf courses. This story spread like wildfire, one of dozens of such stories, more each day, a total lack of confidence by not only America’s financial sector but the American people as well, in Trump and his family cabal that has been sorely tested and has failed so miserably. His callous remarks, poor spelling, lack of knowledge and endless stream of childish lies, making him the hero of both barroom and bowling alley, has, predictably, done more damage to the US than over 200 years of wars. The real “killer” was Trump’s closure of the Office of Global Health Security and Biodefense, part of the National Security Council. Trump has lied about this fact over and over. From Beth Cameron, former Senior Director of that now defunct agency, published in the Washington Post, March 13, 2020: “When President Trump took office in 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition intact. Its mission was the same as when I was asked to lead the office, established after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. One year later, I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19. The U.S. government’s slow and inadequate response to the new coronavirus underscores the need for organized, accountable leadership to prepare for and respond to pandemic threats. It’s impossible to assess the full impact of the 2018 decision to disband the White House office responsible for this work. Biological experts do remain in the White House and in our government. But it is clear that eliminating the office has contributed to the federal government’s sluggish domestic response. What’s especially concerning about the absence of this office today is that it was originally set up because a previous epidemic made the need for it quite clear. In 2016, after the formidable U.S.-led Ebola response, the Obama White House established the global health security office at the National Security Council and asked me to lead the team. We were to prepare for and, if possible, prevent the next outbreak from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. Our team reported to a senior-level response coordinator on the National Security staff who could rally the government at the highest levels, as well as to the national security adviser and the homeland security adviser. This high-level domestic and global reporting structure wasn’t an accident. It was a recognition that epidemics know no borders and that a serious, fast response is crucial. Our job was to be the smoke alarm — keeping watch to get ahead of emergencies, sounding a warning at the earliest sign of fire — all with the goal of avoiding a six-alarm blaze.” Trump closed the pandemic response capability for one reason, it was set up by President Obama. Trump claimed, however, that he saved $150,000,000 in doing so. Thus far, the cost of Trump’s blunder has been $35,000,000,000,000. The ratio expressing negative ROI (return on investment) can only be expressed in scientific notation, to the sixth power. This is a guy who went bankrupt six times, who has now lost more money than, corrected to today’s currency, it would cost to fight World War II eight times. When we heard that Donald Trump, who refuses to be tested after serial exposure to COVID 19, has asked his son in law to take over the effort against the current pandemic, we were flabbergasted. Jared Kushner, a New Jersey slumlord and embarrassment, barely got into college, requiring a massive bribe from his family’s mob backed enterprises. Now he is responsible for America, and to an extent, the world’s survival. Kushner immediately called a doctor he knows who works in an emergency room, someone with no experience in epidemiology but at least a medical license of some kind. That doctor turned to Facebook and posted: “The person who is advising the president asked me to come up with ideas, can anyone tell me what to do?” The last time Trump turned to Facebook, he launched missiles at Syria over a fake gas attack. China, it seems, has beat the disease and is now aiding Italy in its efforts. They did so with leadership and will. In the US, the head of the CDC (Center for Disease Control), Dr. Robert Redfield, who has a heavily edited Wikipedia page hiding his history of religion based treatment for AIDS which may have led to the deaths of many thousands, is partially responsible for the total failure to address the current threat. He replaced Brenda Fitzgerald, another Trump appointee, who resigned in 2018 when her ties to drug and tobacco companies were exposed. Then it gets worse, with the initial appointment by Trump of Vice President Mike Pence to head the US initiative in response to COVID 19. Pence, who as governor of Indiana, advocated prayer to cure “gayness,” also, as governor advocated the same as a cure for HIV, opposing all programs, enacted at the advice of medical professionals, that other states implemented. Thus, Indiana ended up a “hot zone” of HIV under his leadership. But then we haven’t heard anything from Pence though 28-year-old Katie Waldman, now married to Trump’s advisor and primary contact to neo-Nazi political groups, Stephen Miller, has made a few nasty comments to reporters who mistakenly have asked pointed questions that Pence is unable to answer. Pence, in fact, hasn’t been seen since a Sunday, March 8, 2020 television interview during which he was unable to answer rudimentary questions on COVID 19 testing. Now we have something much more insidious than simply an incompetent government. China now accuses the US of bringing the virus to China. As reported in Veterans Today by this author: “In October 2019, the US brought 172 (really 369) military athletes to Wuhan for the World Military Games. Despite having the largest military in the world, tenfold, the US came in 35th behind nations like Iran, Finland and Slovenia. No video or photos exist of the US team, no records were kept, a huge team but a pitiful performance for the best military in the world. The US team did so badly that they were called “Soy Sauce Soldiers” by the Chinese. In fact, many never participated in any event and were housed near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the disease is said to have originated only days after the US left the area. The US team went home on October 28, 2019 and within 2 weeks, the first human contact cases of COVID 19 were seen in Wuhan. The Chinese have not been able to find “patient zero” and believe he or she was a member of the US team. They also have sources that say the US had misrepresented influenza that Trump claims has killed thousands, an influenza carried to China by the US team, an influenza that was really COVID 19, a disease developed in a military bio-warfare facility in the state of Washington, now “ground zero” in the US for COVID 19. Evidence of this aspect of China’s claim is scant. The Chinese claim, something censored in the US, that the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below average results of American athletes in the game indicate they might have been in for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives, and that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.” Past this is another observation, also potentially coincidental, that the major outbreaks in China, Iran and Italy, the primary hubs in the Silk Road that threatens traditional Western controlled world trade, are proof of COVID 19 as a bio-warfare agent. Under other circumstances and in other times, such conspiratorial claims could be easily denied, but no longer. From New Eastern Outlook: “We can make some blanket statements about COVID 19 and will do so now: The capability to create COVID 19 exists The will to create COVID 19 exists The intelligence and humanity required to not create COVID 19 does not exist The will to experiment through infecting the general public with a pathogen such as COVID 19 exists and has extensive historical precedent “Black funded” laboratories operating under cover of animal diseases research or biological warfare defense facilities, run by the US, British, Israeli and other governments, are not only capable of creating COVID 19 but are evidenced as being funded for exactly this type of program Simply put, there are actors out there that can and would unleash a global pandemic as a component in a long term “chaos theory” operation.” Conclusion It is clear that Donald Trump in the US and Boris Johnson in the UK represent a “perfect storm” of bumbling incompetence and paralytic policymaking in the face of the current global pandemic threat. It is also clear that both Trump and Johnson are Deep State puppets, an assertion supportable through examination of their personal history, their paths to power and their unique attributes for theatricality and prevarication. The questions that remain relate to solutions. Can there be solutions in the US, Britain as well, when government incompetence and inaction arrives served as a toxic soup of leadership malaise and conspiratorial complicity?

[steamedtangerine]

Felt compelled to post this 12/93 blip from Mad Magazine comparing Holywood with Washington D.C.

Now, while it is easy for us now to assume this was to be prophetic of the scandal of Mark Foley (R) hitting on under-aged congressional pages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foley , but keep in mind there was this scandal in 1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_congressional_page_sex_scandal where both an Illinois Republican representative had repeat sexual encounters with an underage female page and one Democratic representative from Massachusetts had an encounter with an underage male page (who seemed to hold no grudges afterwards towards the guy, I guess).

One can selectively say, that because a Democrat was involved in the one incident-and because Gingrich was one of the men calling for the expulsion of both men-that this somehow puts Republicans in the clear of anything suspicious in the areas of pedophilia......

However, let us examine and tally up a few facts here: With prominent conservative men in the last six years getting caught as flagrant pedophiles-Trump buddy Roy Moore, Trump OK-booster Ralph Shortey, anti-Obama/immigrant GOP pusher and shitty driver Daniel Wenzek, Trump go-between George Nader, Illinois representative Dennis Hastert, and not to mention guys who openly espouse pedophilia like Trump boosters Ted Nugent and Milo Yiannopoulos-one has to wonder what is up with the Republican party.

Now, through some witnesses, it has recently been revealed that Ohio representative Jim Jordan (remember how he was during the impeachment trial?) was involved in attempting to cover-up the OSU sex abuse scandal. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brother-osu-whistle-blower-said-rep-jim-jordan-asked-support-n1135321  

-shades of former conservative Michigan Gov. John Engler acting as MSU President trying to slyly pay off victims of Larry Nassar https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2018/04/13/larry-nassar-abuse-victim-accuses-michigan-state-president-of-trying-to-secretly-pay-her-off/    -and all the immense insensitivity and antagonism he has demonstrated against victims of Larry Nassar.

On a Michigan note, consider how Betsy Devos (on Trump’s own cabinet and a member of the Council for National Policy along with Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Elsa Prince, and Mike Pence-a group once funded by famous cult leader Rev. Moon) is making an already difficult process of reporting rape and sex abuse an even harder thing on campuses.

https://www.vox.com/2019/11/27/20985353/sexual-assault-title-ix-regulations-betsy-devos

Heh-we can even say that while we can never be too sure what goes on at the very secretive and conservative Bohemian Grove, there are clearly some prominent conservative interests doing all they can to keep those matters under wraps.

-but wait a minute! What about Jeffrey Epstein and his connections to Clinton? Did an aged former President have more of the power and inclination to kill Epstein over say, the current acting one in power who has ties to powerful men who have gotten away with murder (ie. Putin, Duterte, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, etc.)?

Clinton severed ties with Epstein in 2003; whereas, Trump stayed close and partied often with “terrific guy” Epstein. Consider that from a man who barges into Miss Teen USA pageant dressing rooms or thinks his own daughter would be hot enough to fuck.

Epstein often visited Mar-a-Lago and often expressed that he could structure his modeling agency after Trump’s.

Epstein also had close ties to current acting AG William Barr (who once-like Ajit Pai-had ties to Verizon which made many attempts to buy out and cripple Tumblr over it’s effectively liberal-leanings and pro-Net Neutrality stance), whose father got Epstein a teaching job at Dalton (with no college degree) and also worked for a law firm (Kirkland & Ellis) that defended Epstein during the first allegations (those charges were plea-dealed by Alexander Acosta who would become Trump’s choice for Labor secretary). After Epstein’s suspicious death, Barr’s investigation declared the matter a “suicide”, whereas, an independent investigation by Epstein’s family proved foul play. This was all under Barr’s watch.

Meanwhile, Trump’s impeachment lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, has been repeatedly accused of having ties to Epstein (actually defending him https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dershowitz#Jeffrey_Epstein_(2008)) and involved in rape allegations himself. Dershowitz has defended the more deplorably actions of Trump as well as Brett Kavanaugh.

Wow-Barr, Acosta, Dershowitz---who else? Oh yeah, Epstein was also close with billionaire Les Wexner, who is now a current name being dropped by concerned people in Ohio who want to know Wexner’s connections to OSU and Epstein https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-ohio-state-wrestlers-call-investigation-university-s-ties-jeffrey-n1134071 thus, closing that loop. Wexner’s favorite political party to contribute?-you guessed it-the Republicans.

But hey! who follows a deluge of boring facts and observed events to read when you got ask-your-doctor-about-meds and emotionally charged reports coming from FoxNews (with it’s sex abuse issues) steering your Boomer “feelings” away in the wrong direction? Right?

Because deceivers will get worse and worse, and bullshitters are gonna bullshit heavily online, on bathroom walls, and on every site from Pinterest to Facebook to Twitter to Reddit to Tumblr trying to say Epstein had more to do with Clinton than Trump.

You got concerned agencies (conservative think tanks at home and confirmed Russians abroad) trying to push artificial conspiracies of conjecture that any celebrity who criticizes Trump is a pedophile based on scant ambiguous clues with absolutely no sources or evidence whatsoever by anonymous nobodies on a site like 4Chan that is re-known for it’s pedophile issues (among other things). It is all projection, denial-ism, redirection, and a fierce “I’m dancing as fast as I can” BS attempt to get people to not see the deluge of facts that cannot be suppressed anymore....

....and that is that the Republican party is the atrocious party of pedophiles protecting pedophiles.

There I said it!

[jobskenyaone-blog]

Jobs Vacancy Do you aspire to study Medicine overseas - Meet St George's University Delegate in Port Harcourt Nigeria 2018

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[jobskenyaone-blog]

Jobs Vacancy Gidi Mobile Limited Ongoing Recruitment [8 Positions] - Nigeria 2018

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Jobs Vacancy Royal Heritage Available Job Position – Apply Now! - Nigeria 2018

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Jobs Vacancy Juesco Nigeria Limited Current Job Vacancies [3 Positions] - Nigeria 2018

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Jobs Vacancy Federal Ministry of Health New Job Recruitment - Nigeria 2018

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