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Two International Gothic Altarpieces Acquired by the Museu Nacional d'Art in Catalonia
Jaume Cirera (First Half of the 15th Century) and
Bernat Despuig (Known from 1383-1451)
Altarpiece of Saint Michael Archangel and Saint Peter,
Tempera on Wood, Gilts - 287.5 x 336 x 37 cm
Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Photo : MNAC
29/11/11 - Acquisitions - Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya - Lest we might have forgotten, International Gothic was also a Catalonian style, explaining perhaps the reason for the recent acquisitions by the Museu Nacional d'Art in Catalonia. This establishment has succeeded in reuniting the altarpiece of Saint Michael Archangel and Saint Peter, scattered in the 20th century, though some of the panels were already held by the museum. The Spanish Ministry of Culture paid 600,000 € in April 2011 for the other elements, nine in all, which were in a private Belgian collection. This imposing ensemble was painted in the first half of the 15th century by Jaume Cirera and Bernat Despuig for the church of Saint Michael, located in the town of Seu de Urgell in Catalonia, and originally dedicated to Saint Peter until 1364. The two main figures are surrounded on each side by scenes from the life of Saint Peter and episodes illustrating Saint Michael's deeds ; in the upper section, four of the seven Joys of the Virgin encompass the Crucifixion and the Defeat of the Fallen Angels.
The predella is missing here but in fact resides at the Museo Nacional de San Carlos in Mexico City. Its style stands out from the rest of the ensemble and leads us to think that it was executed by another artist, as suggested also by the undated contract, with Jaume Cirera and Bernat Despuig, which indicates that the altarpiece had already been started when they received the commission. The predella would then have been painted by Ramón Gonçalbo or his father, Jaume Gonçalbo, active in Alt Urgell between 1403 and 1428. In any case, the altarpiece was finished around 1433 by Jaume Cirera in collaboration with Bernat Despuig with whom he worked between 1425 and 1442. The two painters seem to have first collaborated for the Saint Martin altarpiece meant for one of the chapels of the church of Santa Maria de Solsona in 1425. They also produced the altarpiece of Saint Peter of Ferrerons of which three elements reside at the Episcopal Museum in Vic (Spain).
Joan Mates (Known from 1391-1431)
Altarpiece of Saint Michael,
First Quarter of the 15th Century
Tempera on wood - 173 x 143 cm
Another work which joined the museum in 2011, the altarpiece of Saint Michael is smaller in size but by a major artist, Joan Mates, a master of International Gothic, and a contemporary of Lluís Borrassà, Guerau Gener and Rafael Destorrents. This ensemble was purchased from a Catalonian collector for 650,000 €.
In the central panel, Saint Michael, a preeminently eschatological figure, thrusts his spear with an elegant nonchalance into one of the dragon's many heads. The other panels represent the same episodes as those in the altarpiece of Saint Michael and Saint Paul : the defeat of the fallen angels on the left, and on the right, the mass for the souls in purgatory as well as the miracle of Mount Gargano. This last episode takes place in 492 in the kingdom of Naples recounting how a bull was found at the top of the mountain, at the entrance to a cave, his horns tangled in the bushes. He fought so hard that no one could approach him and it was decided to send an arrow which mysteriously returned to the archer. Later, the archangel appeared to the bishop and told him that the cave was intended as a place of worship for God and his archangels. Finally, the upper part of the altarpiece illustrates the Annunciation and the Crucifixion. The center of the predella represents the Man of Sorrows surrounded by the saints.
The artist amused himself in executing the figures of the fallen angels and the dragon with minute and humorous details. He is easily recognized by his way of drawing the curls in the hair and by the black circle with white dots which surrounds the halos.
This altarpiece as well as that of Saint Lucy (private collection), both by the same artist, resided at the beginning of the 20th century at the hermitage of Santa Maria Penafel, in the city of Santa Margarida i els Monjos near Barcelona. As the painter was still unknown, he was named the "Master of Penafel". He was identified thanks to the altarpiece of Saints Martin and Ambrose, documented and stylistically comparable, painted between 1411 and 1415 for the cathedral of Barcelona. Joan Martes was the son of Vilafranca del Penedes, whose activity in the Catalonian capital can be followed between 1391 and 1431, the year he died. The Museum in Castres (France) holds a panel by him representing Saint John in Patmos which was part of an ensemble dedicated to both Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist.
The Catalonian museum already owned two works by the painter : the panel of Saint Sebastian before Calvary and also a fragment of a panel from the Deploration of Christ, Dead. The acquisition of a complete altarpiece by the artist is of course fundamental in helping to reconstitute his oeuvre.
Bénédicte Bonnet Saint-Georges, mardi 29 novembre 2011
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


1) Think your project through from start to finish. Careful planning of your home improvement projects will enable you to update your home, increase the value of your investment and customize your living space—all for a lot less than the cost of a new home.
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It's actually very smart to begin planning now for your next remodel. Upgrading a kitchen or building an addition is easily manageable but takes advanced planning and preparation. The sooner you begin the process, the more options you'll have when it comes to scheduling your start date.
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My name is Sarah Bordo. I am a graduate of Centre for Distance Education. I was on the President's List with an Average of 97%. I am hard working, honest, reliable, and willing to please. My small business is Quirky Fox Designs. I have not had a lot of jobs but the ones I have had my customers have been very happy. My skills range from logo design, picture enhancing and restoring, book/magazine layout and cover design, posters, brochures, business cards, invitations, and so on. I am bilingual in French and English. I have taken a course in basic Japanese and I am currently attempting to learn Italian. I worked in Customer Service for 5 years before taking up Graphic Design so I know how to relate to and treat people with dignity and respect while answering their concerns. Thank you for your consideration!


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Are More Seasons of 'Are You the One?' Coming to Netflix? Here's What We Know
Dec 11, 2020 3:51 pm·
By Melissa Copelton
MTV/Netflix
On December 1, 2020, Netflix subscribers were blessed with seasons 1 and 2 of MTV's reality dating series Are You the One? Of course, it didn't take long for viewers to get hooked … again! Whether you were watching the episodes for the first time or reliving all the glory from 2014, it's safe to say Are You the One? is taking over the streaming platform. Question is, will Netflix be picking up the other six seasons? To learn more about that, as well as spoilers, the plot and how to watch, keep reading!
See What the 'Are You the One?' Season 1 Alums Are Up to Now
Will other seasons of Are You the One? be on Netflix?
Unfortunately, Netflix has yet to reveal whether or not the remaining seasons of AYTO? will be available to stream on their platform. However, given the resurgence of interest in the series, it seems likely!
How to watch every season of Are You the One?
If you simply can't wait for Netflix, no fear! There are plenty of other places to stream episodes. For starters, you can head over to MTV.com. Granted, there will be commercials, but you can always just scroll through Instagram while they play! Additionally, ATYO? is available on CBS All Access with a subscription, and for purchase on YouTube, Google Play and Vudu.
Booked and Busy! See the 'Are You the One?' Season 2 Cast Today
What is Are You the One? about?
If you're still on the fence about giving the series a try, we get it! With so many dating shows out there nowadays, what makes AYTO? special? Basically, 10 individuals who are "bad at love" are sent to a beautiful, remote location to find their predetermined Perfect Match through a series of challenges.
Each week, everyone couples up to compete. More often than not, three or four couples will be deemed the winners of said challenge and are rewarded with a special date. Out of those couples, one will be voted into the Truth Booth to see if they're actually a perfect match. If they are, they spend the duration of their time in the Honeymoon Suite. If they're not, it's back into the dating pool! The ultimate goal is to reach 10 perfect matches in order to receive the grand prize of one million dollars.
See Where All the 'Are You the One?' Couples Are Now
Although the Truth Booth is the only guaranteed way to determine a perfect match, the Matchup Ceremony does help track the team's progress. During that time, contestants choose a partner, "lock in" to the system and take a seat. After everyone is done selecting, they wait for 10 beams of light to go off. Anything less than 10 means they still have some work to do!
*Warning: spoilers ahead.* In theory, all of that seems pretty straight-forward. In execution, well … not so much. Take Chris Tolleson and Shanley McIntee from season 1, for example.
They found out they weren't a perfect match during the first Truth Booth. Instead of giving other people in the house a chance, they continued to build their romantic relationship. Then, there was a major plot twist in season 2, involving an 11th girl! That's right, one of the men had two perfect matches. Naturally, that created all sorts of drama.
Overall, you'll never get bored binge-watching Are You the One?
How big are reality star salaries? Jason Tartick breaks it down with Us Weekly editors.
Are You The One


So, I'm finally moved in, after what's seemed like an eternity of living a half-life: scrounging for my own possessions among shambles of disorganized boxes (no one to blame but myself). Of course, now I'm just rummaging for my clothes in somewhat more orderly boxes, but I've cooked in my new apartment a few times now, and that's when a place feels like home to me. My new home has lots of potential for gardening (er, of the front porch variety, that is) and is just a few blocks down the street from the weekly community market, all of which means lots of fresh produce in my recipe experimenting future!
Of course, now that I'm semi-settled, the first thing I really want to make is some fatty, un-fresh, un-healthy comforting, chocolately summer goodness S'mores bars. I've had a huge craving for S'mores lately, most likely due to the unbridled placements of S'mores fixins in the most in-the-way places in the grocery store. I'm talking about chocolate bars, graham crackers, and the angelic fluffiness of pure corn syrup marshmallows. Every time I go to the Ray's or Safeway with a mind set to a healthy dinner for Caleb and I, I am bombarded by S'mores fixins, so of course I'm craving them! Sheesh. It is summer, after all.
Now, here's the thing, when I think of making S'mores, I always harken back to my childhood and recall the careful advice and instruction of Hamilton "Ham" Porter. If you've never seen The Sandlot, then, oh goodness, please make this S'mores Mess then, as it cools, hunt down a copy and watch this movie pronto. It's the epitome of summer kid movie, with an elegant smash of timelessness and characters who are champions of youthfulness and innocence. It's sooooo good (just like these bars). No summer, or childhood for that matter, is complete without a couple of "You're killing me, Smalls" or Wendy Peffercorn references (oiling and lotioning).
Ok, now that we have that out of the way, I'd like you to read this recipe in your head with the immortally condescending voice of Ham Porter, as I always do.
Also, I should mention, this recipe is different from other S'mores bars recipes in its gratuitous chocolate to cereal/mallows ratio, and the fact it's not really a bar. I call it a S'mores Mess rather than S'mores bars because I am unable to make these kinds of marshmallow things without making a gigantic sticky mess, with little resemblance to bars in shape or form.
First, in a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Toss in the 'mallows and stir them constantly so they don't burn to the pot. Keep stirring until they're fluff-ily smooth.
Then you toss in the chocolate. Now, this is where I diverge from a lot of other recipes. Most say to preserve these to the very end, so they don't melt into the mallows. But then it's not crazy chocolately, which is what I'm really after. However, if you are persuaded by the visually attractive and wish your bars to be so, by all means, withold the chocolates until the very very end (follow the * to the end of the recipe). I throw them in with the warm mallow, though, with the full intention of getting a huge chocolately mess. Keep stirring, too, until you have the mallow/chocolate mixture rate you desire.
Next, lower the heat to low and fold in the cereal about a cup at a time, but do it quickly. When the cereal is all combined, pour your mess into a baking sheet lined with wax paper (*here is where other recipes will suggest you sprinkle your chocolate chips over the warm mallow-cereal).
Spread it out thin and allow it to cool completely. You might actually want to stick it in the freezer or the fridge for a bit if you're impatient (like me). Then use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut the mess into bar-like shapes, maybe.


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Nothing as the Ideal is the sixth studio album by American psychedelic rock band All Them Witches. It was released on September 4, 2020, through New West Records.

Background and production
After the release of 2018's ATW, All Them Witches drummer Robby Staebler converted his Nashville home into a studio, which proved creatively uneventful for the band, who recorded only one track there. The band decided to hire Mikey Allred, who had previously produced 2015's Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, to help record their sixth studio album. After two months of writing, All Them Witches recorded Nothing as the Ideal in March 2020 at Abbey Road Studios.

Composition and themes
Nothing as the Ideal has been classified as a stoner rock and neo-psychedelia album.

Reception

Nothing as the Ideal was met with mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Nothing as the Ideal has an average score of 85 based on five reviews.

Tyler Damara Kelly of The Line of Best Fit compared Nothing as the Ideal to the works of Kyuss and Tool, and praised how All Them Witches were able to retool as a trio, with "each musician being undoubtedly proficient in their craft and able to create with a dynamism that is truly unparalleled". James Christopher Monger of AllMusic, similarly, praised how the remaining band members "have crystallized their signature amalgam of improvisation and songcraft into an exclamation point where every soaring lead, snare crack, and mechanical whirr feels essential". Nicolas Perez of Paste said that the absence of keyboard was "barely noticeable since the songs have no uncomfortable gaps".

Certain critics highlighted the epic nature of the album, and individual tracks within. Polly Glass of Classic Rock said that, particularly with the addition of "See You Next Fall" and "Rats in Ruin", Nothing as the Ideal "feels as much like a film soundtrack as it does a hooky rock'n'roll album". Graeme Marsh of musicOMH added that the two longest tracks on the album "top nine minutes yet leave you dissatisfied that they didn't last twice as long". John Moore of New Noise Magazine said that the album, "though it might take a few cycles to catch, is a wildly satisfying experience".

Some reviewers criticized a perceived lack of experimentation and originality on Nothing as the Ideal. Shawn Donohue of Glide said that Nothing as the Ideal was "an excellent sounding but slightly flat affair as the band settles into life as a trio", and that the "sound experiments and tape collages" in the album "feel tacked on to spruce up a standard number more laboriously". Tom Morgan of Dead Press! compared certain tracks to Mastodon, Royal Blood, and Led Zeppelin, before asking, "Why bother to even emulate these artists and sounds from so long ago?"

Track listing

Personnel

All Them Witches
 Michael Parks, Jr. – vocals, bass, guitar, loops, piano
 Ben McLeod – guitar, resonator, loops, piano
 Robby Staebler – drums, synthesizer, loops, tapes

Technical
 Mikey Allred – producer, mixing, mastering
 Neil Dawes – assistant engineer

Information taken from the Nothing as the Ideal liner notes.

Charts

Formats
The album is widely available on most streaming services, but was also sold as a Digital Download from the band's website, as well as offered on Compact Disc, Vinyl, and Cassette Tape.

References

2020 albums
New West Records albums

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


As I think I've mentioned before, I recently joined the Bristol Astronomical Society. The Society is lucky enough to have a small observatory just outside Bristol and John, who manages the observatory, was kind enough to show me how everything works. This means that I'm now allowed to help out at the observing sessions that the Society runs on Saturday nights.
The observatory consists of a 12″ telescope in a small dome and an 18″ telescope mounted on a concrete plinth outside. In addition to these fixed scopes, members of the club generally take along their own equipment. Some of the more experienced among them have some pretty serious pieces of kit, including computerised mounts (where you just type in what you want to look at and the scope orients itself automatically) and telescope-mounted cameras.
Now, on this occasion, I'd remember to take my own camera along. So I seized the opportunity to snap some photos of my fellow astronomers doing their thing. Here we are setting things up. You will perhaps note that we are somewhat early in getting ready, given that it's not at all dark. But it's a lot easier to get telescopes, cameras, laptops etc. connected in the daylight.
As the sun disappeared over the horizon, a certain air of expectancy descended upon us. We began to squint towards the southern sky, where the first stars would soon make their appearance.
As darkness fell upon us, things got serious. And as you can see, I wasn't joking about the serious amount of kit that some members bring along. Bob here uses his telescopes and cameras to take some seriously fantastic images of deep sky objects.
And I can personally vouch for the fact that it is a lot easier to put a webcam on your telescope's eyepiece and look at the stars on your laptop, than to spend the entire night hunched over the telescope itself. This chap's got it sussed.
Unfortunately, before it had even got properly dark, the clouds came in and obscured the heavens above. But not before we'd seen the planets Mercury, Venus and Saturn, several satellites and the International Space Station. So even though it was cut somewhat short, we had a fairly decent night at the observatory.
This entry was posted in Astronomy, Photography and tagged Astronomy, Bristol, Observatory, Photography by Simon Perks. Bookmark the permalink.


JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Investigating Trump. A new report says the FBI investigated the president fearing he could be working for Russia, as we also learn President Trump reportedly concealed details of his meetings with Vladimir Putin. The White House calls the reports absurd.
We will ask the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, next.
Plus: historic shutdown, day 23 of the longest government shutdown in American history. And neither side is budging on the wall. The president says, if Democrats don't act, he will.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will declare a national emergency.
TAPPER: The chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Republican Senator Ron Johnson, responds in moments.
And step right up. More Democrats throwing their hats into the presidential ring.
JULIAN CASTRO, FORMER HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: I am a candidate.
REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII: I have decided to run.
TAPPER: Who can win the progressive wing of the party? New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will be here.
TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in New York, where the state of our union is alarmed.
Two major breaking stories about the Russia investigation are consuming all the oxygen in the political world, even amidst the longest government shutdown in American history.
Overnight, "The Washington Post" reporting that President Trump has gone to -- quote -- "extraordinary lengths" to keep specifics about his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin secret, even keeping them from top members of his own administration.
According to "The Post," the president's efforts included, at least on one occasion, confiscating the notes from his interpreter.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders called the report -- quote -- "outrageously inaccurate," though she did not offer one specific as to what she was claiming was not accurate.
This major reporting comes on top of another shocking headline first reported by "The New York Times," that the FBI was so concerned about President Trump's actions around the time of FBI Director James Comey's firing, it opened an investigation into whether President Trump was working for Russia, against U.S. interests.
Take a listen to how President Trump responded Saturday night when asked directly if he has ever worked for Russia.
TRUMP: I think it's the most insulting thing I have ever been asked. I think it's the most insulting article I have ever had written.
TAPPER: The president did not directly answer the question.
Joining me now, Democratic Senator Mark Warner. He's the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
And, Senator, I know you're very eager to talk about the government shutdown. You have tens of thousands of constituents directly affected.
But I do want to start on this FBI counterintelligence investigation into the president to see whether or not he'd been working on behalf of the Russians. President Trump slammed the idea last night as the most insulting thing he's ever been asked, adding -- quote -- "They found absolutely nothing."
On its face, it's a stunning turn of events. Do you think the president of the United States ever worked on behalf of the Russians, against American interests?
SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Well, Jake, that's the defining question of our investigation and the Mueller investigation. Was there collusion?
I'm not going to talk about what we may have been briefed in the Gang of Eight when these investigations opened. But I do think it's curious that, throughout that whole summer, when these investigations started, you had Vladimir Putin policies almost being parroted by Donald Trump.
You had Trump say only nice things about Putin. He never spoke ill about Russia. The Republican campaign doctrines softened on Russia and decreased their willingness to defend Ukraine. There was a series of outside actions.
TAPPER: OK, go ahead. Finish.
WARNER: Well, I just think we need to put this -- all three pieces of what happened in context of last week.
We have the story of the level of concern that the FBI had, again, if the story is correct, to, in a sense, open their own investigation whether Donald Trump was compromised. We have on top of that the fact of the most recent story that Trump had a series of meetings with Putin in which he broke all protocol, where, normally, these meetings, you bring in top aides, so that there is some record, so you can have the appropriate follow-up.
In these meetings, he brought in Tillerson once, but the other meetings were simply with the interpreter. And the interpreter was then restricted on, in a sense, sharing that information, to the point that we still don't know, the American government does not know what was discussed between Trump and Vladimir Putin in that, frankly, pathetic, embarrassing encounter where Trump was kowtowing on the world stage to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
It was one of the worst days, post-World War II, in terms of America's lack of leadership against a dictator like Putin.
WARNER: And then, finally, I know this -- people -- people have to stretch their memory, but we have to remember all the way back at the beginning of the week, when the stories came out that Trump's campaign chairman was sharing proprietary campaign data with a known Russian agent, Mr. Kilimnik, Kilimnik, who has ties both to Putin, and Kilimnik, who has ties to the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, the very same oligarch that the Trump administration now wants to try to remove -- remove the sanctions on.
I think, this week -- I have been waiting for a long time for Mueller to kind of move forward. TAPPER: Right.
WARNER: I think we're seeing these independent actions, even independent of Mueller, which is the lead-up and some of the rationale about why this investigation started and why so many Americans, like myself, have been concerned for so long.
TAPPER: So, Senator, just -- just very briefly, you just said a lot.
You seemed to confirm that -- as a member of the Gang of Eight, which is congressional leadership and the member -- and the leadership of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, you just seemed to confirm that you had been briefed when this counterintelligence investigation was launched by the FBI.
WARNER: Jake, I'm not -- I'm not -- I'm not going to comment on any of the contents of the briefings that we receive.
TAPPER: I'm not asking for the content, but you -- but you seemed to confirm that it -- you seemed to confirm that it happened, though, that there was -- you were advised, as a member of the Gang of Eight?
Our investigation is almost -- it's not quite two years in, but we have literally spoken to hundreds of witnesses. We may have spoken to even more witnesses than Mueller. And we have a very important story to tell to the American public.
TAPPER: So, you just laid out a whole list of ways that President Trump, in your view, was parroting what Putin would want him to do.
But the president added that he has taken rough actions against Russia -- and this is accurate -- sweeping sanctions on dozens of Russian officials and oligarchs, selling defensive weapons to the Ukrainians. He is accurate when he says that. He did do that.
How do you square it? If you think that he's working on behalf of Russia, or throwing out the possibility, why would he send defensive weapons to the Ukrainians? Why would he sign sanctions against Russians?
WARNER: Remember, Jake, that the generation of almost all of these sanctions did not arise from the White House. They arose because of huge concern, bipartisan concern, from Congress.
I believe the Russia sanctions bill passed, I think, 98-2. So the sanctions that were passed by Congress, they passed at such an overwhelming amount that Putin didn't even have -- Trump did not even have the power to veto them.
I think we would -- many of us would argue that, while those sanctions have been put in place, the Trump administration has been very slow at implementing those sanctions. And then, when the sanctions really start to bite, as in the condition of this Russian aluminum company, Rusal, what we see, instead of, let's keep the pressure on -- and I know there's concerns from our European allies about these sanctions.
Instead, the Treasury Department dreams up this series of actions where you take a company that was completely founded by Oleg Deripaska, where he placed all the management team in place, and they have a scheme to try to take his ownership level down from 70 percent to roughly 40, 45.
WARNER: ... I'm going to still control that company.
That is why I, and I know a number of members, I think Democrats and Republicans, will vote to override this week the removal of these sanctions.
This is the worst time -- as more and more of this information comes out about ties between Trump and Trump officials and the Russians, it is the worst time to signal that we're going to take the pressure off of oligarchs like Deripaska.
TAPPER: I know you really want to talk about the government shutdown, so this is just a very yes-or -- this is a very quick yes-or-no question.
TAPPER: Do you think President Trump is, wittingly or unwittingly, an agent of the Russians?
WARNER: Jake, I think the earlier evidence this week, where the president's campaign manager -- and we're unaware of whether the president knew -- where the president's campaign manager, at whose direction, turned over confidential polling data to a known Russian agent, a known Russian agent who has ties to Putin and Deripaska.
WARNER: Why would you turn over that information?
And what's curious, Jake, is that it would be that kind of information that would inform the Russians later in the campaign when they launched their social media efforts or they created these fake identities.
WARNER: And, as we have seen with clear-cut proof, a lot of those efforts were aimed at suppressing African-American vote.
Did they use that polling data to guide the Russian social media efforts to suppress African-American vote? We don't know the answer to that yet.
WARNER: I would hope that Mueller has got more indication. But it's a very real question.
TAPPER: All right, so, the answer is, you don't know yet.
Let's turn to the shutdown.
You represent roughly 34,000 federal workers in Virginia who are currently going without pay, not to mention thousands more contractors who may never get back pay.
Let's just ask where you are on this debate about the border wall. Is it your position that there's not one part of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico that could stand to have any new barrier or wall?
WARNER: No, there is already 700 miles-plus of wall that's been built, some for more than a decade.
That was decided by border security experts. I'm for additional border security. But that border security ought to be driven by the experts, not by the political whims of a campaign promise, where Trump said the wall was going to be built and it was going to be paid for by Mexico.
This guy doesn't tell the truth. So, more border security, let's have at it. But, while we're having that debate, let's reopen the government.
Tim Kaine, my fellow senator and I, met with a set of federal workers the other day very, very briefly. Here were the things we heard. Do you want an air traffic controller who is working overtime without pay? You want that person focused on air safety. You don't want 30 percent of his mind focused on whether he's going to be able to pay his mortgage or pay his kids' tuition.
TAPPER: Right. No, I hear you.
WARNER: We heard from another federal worker.
We had another federal worker who had to draw out -- she had had savings. She had to draw down from her IRA, where, even if she gets reimbursed, she is going to still have paid the tax penalty.
increase from their credit card. Those credit card fees, they will never be reimbursed.
WARNER: And, Jake, the worst story we heard, the worst -- just one is -- this one is one where, again, I think this Trump crowd does not think through anything.
They basically -- there was someone there with a 7-week-old baby. When they tried to get their baby on the insurance, their government- owned insurance, the person that was supposed to fill in the form was furloughed. The doctor gave a very expensive medicine for the baby.
WARNER: Thank goodness the guy was able to convince the insurance company. But countless others are going out without that kind of benefit.
I think history will show that Donald Trump, the supposed great dealmaker -- and I'm working on a piece on this -- that business schools and management consultants will look back for years and say, this was the most inept negotiation.
He boxed himself in a corner. He didn't empower his negotiators, like the vice president or Lindsey Graham or Mitch McConnell. He's not allowed any win -- win-win circumstance.
And the disregard he has paid to the federal workers, where he has been cavalier, never sat down and visited with them, and then, to add insult to injury -- this doesn't get a lot of news -- we had -- we, bipartisan, had promised the federal work force a very meager 1.9 percent pay increase.
WARNER: He wiped that pay increase out, as well as this treatment of the work force that's been just awful.
TAPPER: Senator Mark Warner from the great Commonwealth of Virginia, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
TAPPER: Why would the president hide all the notes from his meeting with Vladimir Putin? I will ask the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee next.
Plus, as more Democrats announce their presidential campaigns, are new Democratic ideas redefining what it means to be a progressive?
President Trump facing more questions this morning, after a series of revelations about his dealings with Russia.
That is as the president is, at least temporarily, backing down from this threat to declare a national emergency over his border wall, saying Congress should come together to figure out wall funding and reopen the government.
Joining me now, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. He's the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
"The Washington Post" is reporting that President Trump has tried to keep secret what was said in private meetings he had with Vladimir Putin, going so far as, in one instance, to take away his interpreter's notes.
The story says -- quote -- "As a result, U.S. officials said there's no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump's face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years."
This comes as we learn that the FBI investigated whether the president was working on behalf of Russia, against American interests.
Does any of this concern you? Let's start with the idea that there are no detailed records of those conversations with an adversary like Russia.
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R), WISCONSIN: Well, good morning, Jake.
I have no firsthand knowledge of what the facts are here. I do know that President Trump was burned earlier by leaks of other private conversations, so I can certainly understand his frustration from that standpoint.
But you said earlier this is not a traditional president. He has unorthodox means. But he is president of the United States. It's pretty much up to him in terms of who he wants to read into his conversations with world leaders. That's just the basic fact.
TAPPER: Do you think -- well, why do you think President Trump is trying to keep these meetings off the books?
"The Washington Post" story made it clear it that even the national security adviser at the time couldn't find out what was said at one of these meetings.
[09:20:05] JOHNSON: Well, again, I don't want to go speculate, beyond the fact that I know he was burned by leaks in other areas.
And he was pretty frustrated by it. So, that might be -- that might be one explanation.
But, otherwise I can't really comment further.
TAPPER: Are you OK with the fact that the Kremlin knows more about these meetings than U.S. intelligence and the National Security Committee?
JOHNSON: In the end, I'm going to judge this president based on his actions.
As you said earlier, we have increased sanctions. We did -- we have begun providing lethal defensive weaponry, as well as training, to Ukrainians, so they can defend their territorial integrity.
The jury will be out on other actions this president will or will not take.
JOHNSON: So, in the end, you just have to basically judge him on his actions. We defeated, basically ISIS. We have taken away that caliphate.
We were all concerned about a precipitous pullout. Now that's going to be conditions-based. We can certainly attack ISIS and continue to attack them from positions in Iraq.
So, again, we will -- I will wait to see. But I have seen pretty strong actions on the part of this administration against Russia. They realize Russia's a threat. And I think we have been, by and large, responding to that threat strength and resolve, which is what we need to do.
TAPPER: But you also mentioned the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, which is something that I think that Russia applauded. They don't want the U.S. in Syria.
But let's move on to the other big story. You just heard your colleague Senator Mark Warner talking about the FBI counterintelligence investigation into whether President Trump worked on behalf of Russia, against the interests of the United States.
Warner said the president at one point was almost parroting Putin's policy priorities.
Do you have any concerns President Trump may have unwittingly been doing things that would help Russia and hurt the United States?
issue his report. I, quite honestly, wish the Senate Intelligence Committee would -- would move more expeditiously and provide us information in terms of what they've found.
This -- this is -- we're almost two years into this investigation. I have not seen any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. I have seen evidence of collusion between Democrats and Russia with the Steele dossier. We still don't have the information on that.
So there are a host of questions outstanding of this on all sides of the issue.
JOHNSON: What we need, the American people need -- need -- we need the information on this, so we can get past the innuendo, we can actually deal with facts, because we have serious issues facing this nation.
And it's not good that we have this cloud hanging over any administration, whether it's this one or previous -- previous administrations or next administrations. We need the information. And it's been too long being developed. We need the reports. We need these things concluded.
TAPPER: Well, we know for a fact there was an offer by the Russians to provide dirt on Hillary Clinton, and Trump campaign officials met with that lawyer.
And we know for a fact that Paul Manafort provided campaign data to Konstantin Kilimnik, who has ties to Russian military intelligence. So there's that.
JOHNSON: Well, we also know for a fact that -- we also know Democrats paid for the Steele dossier.
understand exactly what happened, so we can move on and start addressing the serious nations facing this -- or serious issues facing this nation.
JOHNSON: In other words, Jake, I don't want -- I don't want to deal in speculation. I want to deal in facts.
JOHNSON: And we don't have them yet.
JOHNSON: He lied -- he lied to the FBI.
JOHNSON: The acting director of the FBI lied to the FBI. That's pretty serious.
Other people are going to jail for lying to the FBI.
JOHNSON: ... lying to the FBI.
That's some real corruption in the FBI. I have serious questions about that.
TAPPER: I don't disagree. But my only point with inserting the fact there was that it was a lie about a leak that was damaging to Hillary Clinton. It was not pro-Hillary Clinton.
But let's turn to the government shutdown I know you're eager to talk about.
TAPPER: It's now the longest shutdown in American history.
The Senate has gone home. You're home. Warner is home. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are not getting their paycheck.
putting the blame for the shutdown on President Trump.
If this is so important and so needed, why didn't Republicans in the House and Senate pass wall funding at any point in the last two years?
JOHNSON: Because we have a majority in the Senate, but we don't control it. We need Democrats to work with us.
And there's a real easy solution. Have Democrats stop being hypocritical and put their money where their mouth is and fund better barriers. They work.
They were -- they supported and vote for about $8 billion of better barrier funding in the 2013 immigration reform, $40 billion in total in terms of border security.
This is a growing problem. In 2012, a little over 11,000 people came into this country as family units. Last year, it was 107,000 people coming in as a family unit. In the first three months of this fiscal year, it's been 75,000 people.
This was all sparked by DACA. Even the Obama administration realized that we had to deter this. It's a growing problem. It's not going away. It's getting bigger and bigger. And Democrats continue to minimize this. We need barriers as just the first step, but we also have to fix all kinds of bad law and loopholes and legal precedent that's incentivizing and rewarding people who come to this country either as unaccompanied children from Central America or as members of family units.
And, again, that is a growing problem. That is the problem at the border, and it's a crisis at the border.
JOHNSON: It was viewed as a crisis in 2014, when a total of 120,000 people came in as family units and unaccompanied children.
Last year, 145,000 people came in under that same category. It's a growing problem. It needs to be addressed. And the easiest solution to the shutdown, just give President Trump the money for his -- the mandate he received from the American public.
Let's face it. As a candidate, this is what he talked about. If there was a mandate he can claim from his election, it is better border security, keeping this nation safe. Democrats have voted for this in the past. They're being total hypocrites. It's easy. This could be solved in 15 minutes, as the president has said. Just fund the barriers, which we need.
TAPPER: We're out of time, but I just want to get you on the record.
If no compromise is able to be reached, would you support President Trump declaring a national emergency to be able to fund his border wall?
JOHNSON: A better solution would be to pass our Shutdown Fairness Act, which is going to pay those individuals that are being forced to work because they are essential.
So I have got a piece of legislation. I have got about five co- sponsors already. We will introduce it tomorrow. But it will actually pay those workers that Senator Warner is concerned about. So, hopefully, Mitch McConnell will bring that up.
Hopefully, Democrats will support it. Hopefully, President Trump can sign it, so at least those individuals get paid.
But, beyond that, assuming that the shutdown still continues, would you support President Trump, yes or no, declaring a national emergency?
JOHNSON: I would hate to see it.
Using that act, it would be -- in this instance would be a far larger act than has ever occurred in the past. So, I would prefer not, primarily because, if we do that, it's going to go to court, and the wall won't get built.
So, I actually want to see this wall get built. And so I want to keep pressure on Democrats to actually come to the negotiating table in good faith and fund what they have supported in the past.
TAPPER: All right, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, thanks so much for joining us this snowy morning.
As potential 2020 candidates start to debate health care policy, are cities and states leading the way?
The mayor of New York City says he can guarantee health care to everyone. He will tell us how next.
As Democrats begin announcing their 2020 presidential bids, the mayor of New York City says they should look to his policies as a model.
Joining me now to explain why is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Mr. Mayor, thanks so much for joining us.
You unveiled a health care plan guaranteeing health care coverage, you say, to the 600,000 New Yorkers without insurance coverage, which includes 300,000 undocumented immigrants.
I want you to take a listen to something that your fellow Mayor Andrew Gillum, formerly mayor of Tallahassee, said about his universal health care proposal during his campaign for Florida governor. Take a listen.
ANDREW GILLUM (D), FORMER FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We could not do it by ourselves solely here in the state of Florida because it would collapse the system. We would only attract the sickest of patients, and it wouldn't work.
TAPPER: So, he was saying that, in Florida, they could do it only if other states joined him, because, otherwise, all sick people would just come to Florida.
What's to stop sick people from coming, flocking to New York and overburdening the system?
BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: I don't see that happening, Jake.
Look, we should have single-payer in this country. We should have Medicare for all. There's no question.
But the bottom line is, right now, we have 600,000 people in my city who have no coverage at all. And that's unacceptable. That's making us a city that is less healthy, less secure than we need to be.
Our plan is guaranteed health care for all. And it basically says, this should be a priority to ensure that we have a decent kind of society. If you don't do that, what happens? People are sick at work. Their families get sick. They go to the emergency room, which is the single most costly way to provide health care.
We know that, by guaranteeing health care, we're going to create the kind of society that actually works. And, by the way, all over America -- we're here obviously to talk about what's happening in this national debate.
DE BLASIO: This is the kind of thing Democrats should stand for.
If we say to the American, people our job is to get you health care, no matter what, no matter how much money you make, no matter what your situation, that's the kind of thing that actually is going to resonate with the American people, because so many Americans, tens of millions, are struggling right now to make ends meet.
to ask you about. You said -- quote -- "There's plenty of money in the world. There's plenty of money in the city. It's just in the wrong hands."
DE BLASIO: That is a quote.
TAPPER: Who decides whose hands are the right hands and whose hands are the wrong hands?
DE BLASIO: Look at what's happening in my city. Look what's happening all over the country, millions upon millions of people who literally can barely make ends meet, working people who are working one job, two jobs, working harder than ever, longer hours than ever.
The pace of our lives gets tougher and tougher, and people get less and less back. Why? Because the 1 percent really has rigged the system, including the recent tax law that gave a huge windfall to the corporations and the wealthy.
This is systematic. I said in the speech this has been an agenda, from Reagan's administration right on through to Trump's, to take money from working people and give it to the 1 percent.
DE BLASIO: ... it means to say we need policies that give back to working people, like guaranteeing health care for all.
TAPPER: So -- but what's interesting about the argument, which I think struck a lot of people, is, you are not talking about fairness. You are saying these people have money, and it's wrong that they have money, not they have money, they live exorbitant or wealthy, comfortable lifestyles and, therefore, they could give a little bit more to help these people.
You're saying it's wrong that they have money. And who decides whether it's wrong? That's my question.
DE BLASIO: It's clear to me why it's wrong, because government policies gave the 1 percent every conceivable leg up.
This was not by accident. As I say, this was an agenda. It was systematic. You go back decades. You go back even to the time of Dwight Eisenhower. We had some of the highest tax rates on the wealthy that this country ever saw. We had a very prosperous country. We had that prosperity pretty well shared among different people, including working people in this country.
We had investments in infrastructure, the kinds of things that grew the economy for everyone. Over the years, since Ronald Reagan, that was a -- there was a systematic agenda to take that money and get it more and more in the hands of the few. That was through tax policy, but a lot of other policies as well.
This was not an accident. Democrats and progressives need to be blunt about this. And people will appreciate that bluntness. When we say, for example, guarantee health care for everyone, that's a doable thing. The money is there.
When we say, which I announced this week as well, we're going to guarantee that everyone has a right to two weeks of paid time off, paid personal days, so they can live their lives better, the money is there, but it's not going to the right people.
TAPPER: I guess the point is, you're not -- but what struck me and a lot of people is that you weren't talking about the tax system being wrong. You are talking about the hands being wrong.
But I want to move on, because you announced that you're about to embark on a tour of the country to spread this kind of message, spread progressive ideals.
TAPPER: Several of your fellow Democratic mayors, Landrieu, Garcetti, others are considering 2020 bids. Are you considering running for president?
DE BLASIO: Jake, I'm focused on the job I have.
DE BLASIO: But I have also been really clear. I'm going to spread this message, because this should be the idea of the Democratic Party at this point.
TAPPER: But are you considering running for president?
DE BLASIO: I'm focused on my job.
But, listen, right now, our party is going through a serious debate. And there are still a lot of moderate voices in the party that did not learn the lessons of 2016 and are not listening to what people need in this country.
So, I want to push this whole party, and I want to inform this debate in this country about the fact that we could go a lot farther. We could be a lot bolder than what we're doing now.
TAPPER: So, you ruling it out?
TAPPER: Never rule it out.
DE BLASIO: ... because you never know what life brings. But I'm focused on the work I'm doing now and getting this message out.
TAPPER: Your home state Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, it looks like she is probably going to throw her hat into the ring. She's pretty progressive. Could you back her?
DE BLASIO: Again, I don't talk about hypothetical situations. There's a lot of good candidates.
My point is the message and the idea that we should be talking about. There's not a consensus yet in our party. There is still, I think, a lack of recognition that, if you have tens of millions of people hurting, we're not speaking to them.
Donald Trump spoke to them. I have got to be blunt about this. Donald Trump -- I remember those two-minute ads at the very last day of the campaign in 2016. Trump's ad seemed like a populist message in the good sense of the word populist, that it was speaking to people's pain and challenges.
Unfortunately, we could hear in that ad a lot of the negativity we later saw in Donald Trump, a lot of the divisiveness, too.
But, on the economic issues, he understood people were hurting, their lives were getting harder, not easier, the next generation's prospects were looking worse than the one before.
And we need this party to be the party of working people again. We can't do that if we're afraid to say the wealthy have taken advantage of the system, the system is rigged, and then tell people specific things we will do for them.
Look, if I say to the average American, we're actually going to fix the health care problem, one of the biggest expenses of your life, we're going to find a way to get you guaranteed health care, we're going to get you a way to actually have some time off with your family, because I will tell you, my constituents talk to me about all the changes in their lives that take them away from their own family.
There's no time for themselves. There's no time for their loved ones. There's no time for a mental health day. That should be a guarantee. Every other industrialized country in this world provides people at least two weeks of paid vacation, not the United States of America.
If the Democrats stood up for something like that, it would change the entire discussion.
TAPPER: All right, Mayor de Blasio not ruling out a 2020 bid.
DE BLASIO: Thank you, Jake.
TAPPER: We really appreciate it. DE BLASIO: Appreciate it.
TAPPER: We've seen some Republican lawmakers breaking with the president on the border wall. Now are we starting to see some cracks in Democrats' opposition to any sort of barrier? That's next. Stay with us.
TAPPER: We're back with breaking news.
President Trump said that he would willingly take the blame for the government shutdown. He later took that back. But it does look like that's happening.
A brand-new CNN poll out this hour shows that 55 percent of the American people think the president is more to blame for the shutdown that's compared to 32 percent who blame Democrats and Congress. Let's discuss.
S.E. Cupp, the president said he'd take the blame for it. He tried to take that back but it does look like the American people are holding him to it.
S.E. CUPP. CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I think that's for now. We have to see.
The pain point will come where I think the American people knowing what they know, knowing how we got here will say, it doesn't matter. You all are in charge. We're blaming the lot of you.
And we're not there yet. Right now, I think the American people clearly put the onus on the president. But I think we'll get sick of this game of chicken. And it will determine when and if Democrats decide, OK, we're going to come to the table or if they decide we don't have any incentive to.
KAREN FINNEY, FORMER CLINTON CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: But, hold on. Democrats have come to the table. And even last week we had a reporting that showed that Republicans before the shutdown happened, they passed the spending bill thinking, OK, we've got a deal.
FINNEY: -- and it turned out that wasn't happening.
I mean, part of the problem here is that Trump has a record of being so indecisive, such a bad negotiator, kind of all over the map, that his own people are saying they're not quite sure what he really wants to do. So McConnell is kind of sitting back saying, I'm not doing anything until I know what the president is going to actually sign.
TAPPER: It is true that McConnell won't bring up a bill until he knows the president will sign it because he got burned once before.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, the president is the head of the Republican Party.
He is calling the plays here. McConnell will run whatever play he wants to call. I think the White House is stunned by how intractable the Democrats are.
Pelosi says she won't negotiate over a wall now or if they open up the government. So they're basically saying, we used to be for border security but now because it's your idea we're not for it anymore. It's completely hypocritical.
The White House doesn't -- by the way they don't care about polling. They care about securing the border for the American people. They think it's a huge problem -- and a lot of the polling and a minimum of -- a vast majority of people think it's a problem and some think it's a crisis.
So I do think aside from this polling, there's something that the American people understand is going on and must be dealt with.
JENNINGS: But they know there's a border crisis. They know there's a problem.
GUTIERREZ: The vast majority of the American people don't. Let's just go back 11 months. February 2018, Democrats. I mean, I'm talking Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, voting to give this president $25 billion, including money -- now it was open ended. You could build a wall, use high technology, $25 billion.
If there was a national emergency, did it occur now, and let me say the same situation at the border exists today that existed in February 2018.
CUPP: But this is what I mean.
GUTIERREZ: No, no. But this isn't what you mean. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
CUPP: But you don't know what I'm going to say.
TAPPER: Let me finish and then you can make your point. GUTIERREZ: Don't interpret what I'm going to say.
CUPP: I just heard what you said.
GUTIERREZ: No. Don't interpret what I'm going to say. Let me be very, very clear. $25 billion, this president worked so that we could only get 54 votes, including very progressive.
And secondly, the crisis at the border is more humanitarian. I was in Congress in 1993. It was 1.6 million people getting detained at the border.
GUTIERREZ: -- fueled by consumption of wealth.
CUPP: Response to what you said.
This is exactly what I mean. Going back 11 months, all of what you said is true. That's the history of how we got here.
My point is, eventually the American people get sick of talking about how we got pregnant.
CUPP: We're having a baby. Let's figure it out. We're not there yet.
The polling shows we're not. The polling shows the American people have decided Donald Trump is responsible. They might get sick of all of this going back in history and how we got here.
TAPPER: Yes. I want to just show you some polling. I know you say the president doesn't care about polling. I don't know that I believe that, but even so I know you care about polling and look at this.
Because there's erosion in President Trump's base with white voters, without a college education, the president's approval rating has dropped nine points just since December. And just in terms of his job approval rating, and one has to think that this shutdown has to have figured in that at least to a degree.
JENNINGS: It's plus or minus 6.8 percent. I'm moderately proficient in math so I can count. But the reality is you don't want to see it going the wrong way.
And what I think the president has come to the conclusion of, if I bend on my motivating item. This is what motivated me into the race, this is what got me the nomination and it's what won me the presidency. If I bend on border security, then this is going to get even worse.
TAPPER: -- but here's Congresswoman Katie Hill talking about what she might vote for on the border.
REP. KATIE HILL (D), CALIFORNIA: I will vote for some money for physical barriers. It's not going to be -- it's not going to be across the entire 2,000-mile stretch and it's certainly not going to be a concrete wall, but it will be part of a package, I can almost bet on it.
TAPPER: She's a new -- she's a freshman member from California.
FINNEY: Right. So this minutia of -- this is where I agree with S.E. This minutia of, OK, we're going to do some border in this section but not that section and we're going to rebuild here, and we're going to strengthen it there. That's the part where the American people are -- they are sick of that.
But I think they're very clear as the poll shows, and -- and by the way, yes, Democrats are for border security but they're not going to give him this money for the wall. They've been very firm about that. But I think there's something else going on here in these polling numbers.
What people understand, you're right, Scott. This is how he won, race baiting. That's what this wall represents.
And that was what the speech this week represented. This represented -- that is how Donald Trump won. The highest indicator people who voted for Trump was fear of other. Fear of racial (INAUDIBLE) and sexism.
So, yes, he's gone back to -- he is in trouble on the Russia investigation so he's gone back to that hitting over and over again the one thing that he knows will keep his base fired up and ready.
FINNEY: I mean, look at what happened just in this recent election. He lost women, white women, college-educated women. So all -- he has -- his base is shrinking. He is not expanding.
GUTIERREZ: I think, look, the president began his campaign for presidency of the United States saying Mexicans are murderers, rapists, drug dealers, let's get rid of them.
TAPPER: And some I'm sure are fine people he said.
GUTIERREZ: Jake, thank you for the clarification.
TAPPER: I'm just saying, that's the full quote.
TAPPER: I'm not excusing it, but that's the full quote.
GUTIERREZ: That was the focus of his campaign. And then he had his political -- how would you say it -- organizers in his campaign say, mention the wall, and say Mexico is going to pay for it. Look, he might as well have taken his middle finger and just constructed it and pointed it at Mexico because that's -- that is really what this is all about.
GUTIERREZ: -- Mexican, racist kind of border wall.
FINNEY: But it's a winning trope for him. That's what I'm saying.
GUTIERREZ: That's what worked for him.
TAPPER: So, S.E., what we're hearing here at the table is this is just about racism.
CUPP: Well, there's certainly some of that underpinning this, but the president, let's be real clear, the president lost. He lost this issue. He lost it last year politically because he wanted to tweet and rally more than he wanted to govern, he lost his opportunity when he had Republicans who would help him get this on to his desk and he's losing now.
And you know he's losing because they're doing the spaghetti on the wall trick, let's see what sticks. Well, maybe we will declare a national emergency, well, let's float the idea of using hurricane relief money to fund this. Let's see what will work.
And nothing has worked. The Democrats are not coming to the table, they're not seeing religion, well, we have to give them a wall. They don't have to.
JENNINGS: Well, I don't think the president is there yet but I wish he would get there and that is let's put -- let's take these bills, the House passed last week, the funding bills, amend them in the Senate, put the fix for dreamers, put DACA, put the fix with money for a wall and put it on the floor. Now they can't do that in the Senate until the president publicly signals that he would sign it, but my presumption is the minute he said, yes, that's a deal I would do, put that on the floor and force Democrats to either vote for the dreamers or to show how craven they really are on this debate.
CUPP: They did that already though.
FINNEY: Here is what you started with, the president is not there yet.
TAPPER: But the president didn't say he would sign it.
JENNINGS: He hasn't said it.
FINNEY: The one problem in all of this is will the president sign it? And nobody knows whether he will or won't sign. But what I do think the American people know and again I think this is part of what's showing in the polling, you don't have to have this fight and keep the government shut down. You don't have to punish.
It's really over a million people because it's not just the 800,000 it's the tens of thousands of other small businesses that rely on government workers. People are now going into debt and you've talked about the pain. There's no reason to continue this.
GUTIERREZ: Scott says let's do it this way. Here is the problem, Scott, the glue that keeps this coalition together is being anti- immigrant. So he wants the wall if all of the sudden he frees 2 million dreamers there will be an uprising. They cannot move decisively with a humanitarian spirit on anything.
TAPPER: But would you vote for that?
TAPPER: If he does the dreamers?
GUTIERREZ: Yes, because what is so important are the lives of these young men and women and I'd rather put their lives -- and I was eviscerated by my party for saying that.
GUTIERREZ: But you know what? Sometimes you've just got to put the people first.
JENNINGS: Fifteen minutes, 15 minutes.
TAPPER: We just solved the problem, there it is.
We may call it the dark ages but did medieval civilization actually have a few things figured out? President Trump says yes. That's the subject of this week's "State of the Cartoonion," next.
TAPPER: When it comes to President Trump's most prominent policy position he insists the old way is the best. And that's the subject of this week's "State of the Cartoonion."
TAPPER (voice-over): President Trump agrees a wall is not a new idea.
TRUMP: They say it's a medieval solution, a wall. That's true, it's medieval because it worked then and it works even better now.
TAPPER: There are other medieval ideas, perhaps the president might want to try out. Leeches for those sniffles we heard the other night. Maybe a border moat.
TAPPER: Maybe the government shutdown could be resolved by a sword fight between Lord McConnell and Lady Pelosi. The president has long embraced medieval themes. Just the other day he used a meme from the ultimate medieval fantasy TV show "Game of Thrones" tweeting this image, the wall is coming, as references go for public policy we should probably note that "Game of Thrones" is a show that also features ice zombies and dragons.
Also, spoiler alert, the show's famous great wall protecting Westeros from the hoards of ice zombies fell at the end of last season.
TAPPER: We should note that the president's embrace of medieval times, whether real or fantasy fiction, does capture a certain spirit of this era.
RAMSAY BOLTON, GAME OF THRONES CHARACTER: If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
TRUMP: They say a wall is medieval.
Well, so is a wheel. A wheel is older than a wall. A wheel works and a wall works.
TAPPER: "FAREED ZAKARIA" starts now.


Despite the major infrastructural challenges that Africa faces – such as low connectivity and the high cost of data, the number of video streaming platforms active in Africa has exploded over the past few years as the continent responded to the global shift from linear TV to on-demand viewing.
Online streaming is cheaper and more convenient than traditional cable TV because it gives you an option to watch the programs of your choice at a time convenient to you. Due to flexibility, low cost and convenience many Africans would rather subscribe to a streaming platform.
The hype surrounding the Video-on-Demand (VOD) sector is gradually growing in Africa as local and international platforms obtain actual subscribers. Here are some of the leading streaming platforms in Africa. Some are established international companies while others are startups.
Showmax was launched in August 2015 with the backing of South African media giant Naspers. Showmax carries a number of HBO titles including Game of Thrones, True Blood and a variety of local Afrikaans movies and series. The service has both movies and TV series and allows you to stream and/or download content. This means you can still watch your favourite shows when you don't have an internet connection.
Launched in October 2016 in Africa, Netflix's standard subscription rate is $11.99 per month. Netflix is estimated to have more than 500,000 subscribers in Africa alone and witnessed a 25% increase in its subscriber base during the last year. It is available on a wide range of devices from set-top boxes to smart TVs, tablets, laptops and smartphones. You can also download shows to watch when not connected to the internet.
iROKOtv is the first major streaming service to offer Nollywood content. Dubbed the 'Netflix of Africa', iROKOtv launched in December 2011. It has also had success translating its long-term Nollywood relationship into international broadcasting channels on South Africa's DStv, UK's Sky and investment from France's Canal Plus. iROKOtv started out on YouTube and later moved to become a VOD platform.
The service has both movies and TV series and allows you to stream and/or download content. This means you can still watch your favourite shows when you don't have an internet connection. This is definitely handy on planes or areas with limited internet access. Unlike other popular streaming sites, Google Play Movies doesn't have a per-month subscription fee.
Startup, StarNews Mobile, launched in July 2017 and has been steadily growing in numbers. StarNews Mobile has a network of over 50 mobile channels offering celebrity-based content at daily subscription rates. Subscribers to StarNews Mobile receive short exclusive videos from their favourite celebrities, which, in many cases, they can watch data free. After 9 months of pilot deployment in Ivory Coast in partnership with operators MTN and Moov, StarNews Mobile broke the one million subscriber mark in April 2018. The startup confirmed the strength of its model with subsequent launches in Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville and is now set to expand to an additional 20 markets, including South Africa and Nigeria, thanks to a group deal with MTN.
Amazon rolled out its Amazon Prime Video SVOD service in 240 countries and territories around the world, including South Africa in 2016. 'Prime Video' service offers shows such as the "Grand Tour from Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, and award-winning Amazon Original Series including Golden Globe-winner Mozart in the Jungle". Subscribers can watch anytime through the Amazon Prime Video app on Android and iOS phones and tablets, smart TVs or online at PrimeVideo.com.
Although Hulu hasn't officially launched in Africa yet, you can watch content by making it seem as though you are accessing the site from within the United States. See details HERE.
Acorn TV offers African users British and international television series. The platform launched in South Africa in December 2018. It is run by RLJ Entertainment, owned by AMC Networks. Acorn TV's international offering will add new programs each week and currently features a wide assortment of first-rate British and international television. Besides the website, Acorn TV is available as an Acorn TV app on Apple TV, Android, iOS phone and tablets as well as Roku streaming players.


As you read the title to this article, what are the first thoughts that come to your mind? What exactly is "tableside manner" supposed to mean? You may correctly surmise that tableside manner is a close cousin to bedside manner, which is often used to describe the interactions patients have with healthcare providers.
Is this something you should care about? Absolutely! Don't ever forget that a whole head full of knowledge and chiropractic skills are nothing without an ability to positively conduct yourself around patients. In order to deliver the quality of healthcare our patients deserve, good tableside manner is quintessential.
Tableside manner is a term describing how a healthcare professional handles a patient. A good tableside manner is typically one that reassures and comforts the patient. Vocal tones, body language, openness, presence, and concealment of attitude may all affect tableside manner.
A lot of tableside manner is a reflection of our own personalities. The key is to understand that each patient we interact with has his or her own set of needs and wants. Part of delivering good healthcare is to understand what patients need and how you are going to give it to them.
1. Listen to your patients like they are the only ones in the world who matter.
Everyone likes to be heard when they speak. We have all tried to have a conversation with someone who seemed to look past you or not really care what you had to say. Look your patients in the eyes when they speak to you. Nod your head or give them some appropriate facial expressions to let them know you are listening. Try not to look down at your chart notes or write when you talk to them.
2. Treat people like they are part of your own family.
Patients are intelligent people. They can understand when you are being genuine and speaking from the heart. They can also tell when you are just trying to sell them something. If you operate on the premise that the treatment plan or the suggestions you are making to the patient are the same ones you would make for one of your own family members, your credibility will be strengthened. They will also understand that you are genuinely concerned for their welfare, and that goes a long way.
3. Feel empathy and sympathy for what your patients are experiencing.
When patients come into our offices in pain, they are looking for acknowledgement and understanding. They want to know there is a reason they are experiencing discomfort and they are not just crazy. You may want to tell a patient, "What you are complaining about is not so bad." However, try and show that you understand the pain they are going through and you will do your best to get them feeling better as fast as you can.
You show people you respect their time by being "on time" with your scheduled appointments. One of the biggest complaints of patients about their doctors is they make them wait. I have heard patient stories of having to wait one and a half hours in doctors' offices for appointments. That is just plain rude. The patients' time is just as valuable as yours.
If your patient makes an appointment with you for a certain time, do your best to see them at that time. Being late is understood in certain situations but if it is consistent; the patients will just go elsewhere.
5. Empower the patient with knowledge.
When patients come to us looking for help, there is a time when holding their hand and leading them through the phases of healing is appropriate. But even on the first day you work with your patients, you can teach them a multitude of information that they can use to help themselves feel better.
You can teach your patients about their particular ailment, teach them how you are going to help them and then teach them about what they can do at home to keep themselves feeling better. People appreciate learning all they can so that they feel less like a victim and more like they are in control.
When all is said and done, the way you act towards patients shows how much you care about them. Having a wonderful tableside manner is one of the best methods of effective patient retention.


BMW X3 is one of the Sports Utility Vehicles in the product line up of the BMW mated to an Automatic Transmission as well as a Manual Transmission for different variants. Despite BMWs reputation as a high performance vehicle maker, this SUV offers a moderate performance relative to BMW standards.
Being a Sports Utility Vehicle, the vehicle leaves no room for improvement on its safety features. Interiors are very much capacious leaving no space constraints. Unlike other huge SUVs, this vehicle has a mere 5-seater capacity.
The 6-cylinder engine generates adequate power output providing smooth acceleration. The all-wheel drive option of the vehicle comes in handy for the off-road purposes but ends up as an average performer on-road. The X3 is a high end luxury SUV that caters to the luxury segment of SUV buyers.
BMW X3 is available in 3 variants. View below listing of variants based on their fuel type. Upcoming variants of X3 are also listed here.
* Prices of BMW X3 car indicated here are ex-showroom price not the on road price of X3. Price list is subject to change and for the latest BMW X3 India prices, submit your details at the booking form available at the top, so that our sales team will get back to you. BMW X3 mileage mentioned here is based on ARAI test drive and not from X3 review by vicky team.
"The prime specs of BMW X3 are listed here. The overall length, width of the car should give you an idea about parking space it require. The ground clearance (lowest part of the car to the ground) will give you the measure of water wading capability and confidence of X3's capability to run over potholes and speed breakers. However GC (ground clearance) won't tell everything. Other important factors like approach angle, breakover angle and departure angle is required to assess the cars' ability to run in rained indian roads and light off road tracks.Engine specs of X3 are also listed here. With the power (in bhp) and torque (Nm) figures the most important ratios - power to weight ratio of X3 and torque to weight ratio. The displacement (in cc) is the measure of cubic capacity of the engine. Earlier there was a notion, larger engines produce more power and torque however with the invention of advanced technologies this is no longer true."
Find your favourite BMW X3 car features list. While power windows, power steering and central locking are considered prime convenience features, the presence of safety features such as abs and airbags will give the necessary safety for the X3 occupants. Alloy wheels is something everyone would love to boast about.
i want BMW X1 / X3 / X5. SECOND HAND..... PLEASE SEND ME DETAIL OF CAR.........OR CALL ME ON MY CELL: 09825228655 / 098252299985.


As the end of another year approaches, you might be thinking about ways to improve your financial portfolio. With all of the expenses associated with this time of the year, you might be seriously considering affordable cash loan options.
Depending on your credit history and FICO score, a quick and easy loan from your local bank or credit union can be hard to get. However, you have plenty of borrowing options that are available to you even if your credit score could use a boost.
If you own a vehicle with a lien-free Florida title, it is easy for you to use your equity to get a loan. At Easy Choice Lenders, our company specializes in providing our customers with title loans in Melbourne that have competitive rates and low payments.
There are plenty of reasons for you to partner with us to get inexpensive title loans in Palm Bay. Here are a few.
From the application to the final payment, we assist our customers throughout the entire loan process.
We create loan packages that can fit most budgets.
Our lending process is transparent and straightforward.
The best reason to select Easy Choice Lenders for title loans in Melbourne is we implement a 'no credit check policy' with our loans. Regardless of your credit standing, you can get approved for a loan.
To apply for a loan with us, there are a few eligibility requirements for our loans. You must be able to pay your loan installments on or before your due date. For that reason, you must have a verifiable source of consistent income.
In Florida, parties who enter into a contract for title loans in Melbourne must be at least 18 years old. If you are under age, you must wait until you are legally eligible to sign a loan contract.
All title loans are based on the equity in your vehicle. For that reason, you must possess a valid Florida title that does not have liens or loan obligations attached to it.
To finalize the application process, we will require you to provide our company with a copy of your vehicle's title, Florida identification card or driver's license, and income statements.
Automobile title loans are full of benefits. You can keep your car and get a cash loan. There are no credit checks associated with our loan process. You may be eligible to borrow up to the value of your vehicle.
Although car title loans in Melbourne offer an easy way for you to use your car's equity to pay for expenses, these short-term loans have one potential drawback.
If you are unable to repay your loan, you could lose your vehicle to repossession. The chances of repossession with our loans are small, but you should know everything about car title loans before you commit to a contract.
Getting approved for title loans in Melbourne requires you to complete and submit a short online application. After you submit the application, a representative of Easy Choice Lenders will contact you to help you get approved for a loan.
To learn more about our loan opportunities at Easy Choice Lenders, apply for a quick and easy loan today.


18.10.2010 — The description of the course project is now online.
05.10.2010 — Added instructions by Daniel Kroeni for running Boogie on wine.
30.07.2010 — Website up and running, tentative schedule added.
Ensuring that software does the right thing takes considerable effort, both in applying systematic methods to their construction (a priori) and in assessing the result (a posteriori). Software verification is a booming area of research with considerable import for the software industry.
This course surveys the main approaches to verification with a special focus on the concept of "trusted components": reusable software elements accompanied with a guarantee of quality. Trusted components are a particularly appealing approach to the overall goal ofsoftware quality since the potential for large-scale reuse leverages the verification effort and justifies the investment. From an educational perspective, they provide a microcosm for studying all successful construction and verification techniques at a manageable level of granularity.
As software verification is a rich field with many available techniques, the exact set reviewed may vary from session to session. The present list accordingly has two parts: required topics and variable topics.
Challenges and issues of verified software.
The role of reuse in software quality; concept of Trusted Components.
Economic model for reuse-based quality.
Equipping design patterns with contracts.
Proving components: Basic Floyd-Hoare-Dikjstra semantics.
Advanced Floyd-Hoare-Dikjstra semantics: pointers, aliasing.
Testing components: state of the art in automated testing.
Static analysis techniques (other than proofs). Flow analysis, slicing.
Advanced Floyd-Hoare-Dikjstra semantics: exception handling.
Advanced Floyd-Hoare-Dikjstra semantics: agents (delegates, function objects).
The frame problem in software verification.
Verifying concurrent software (see 251-0268-00L, "Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming").
Program proving environments; case studies of one or two major systems (e.g. Isabelle, Boogie, PVS, ACL2).
Edmund M. Clarke, Orna Grumberg, and Doron A. Peled. Model Checking. MIT Press, 2000.
Mauro Pezzè, Michal Young: Software Testing and Analysis: Process, Principles and Techniques, Wiley, ISBN 0471455938.
Paul Ammann, Jeff Offutt: Introduction to Software Testing, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521880386.
Flemming Nielson, Hanne Riis Nielson, Chris Hankin: Principles of Program Analysis, Springer, ISBN 3-540-65410-0.
Edsger W. Dijkstra: A discipline of programming. Prentice Hall, Eaglewood Cliffs, 1976.
A nice and simple introductory paper is available here.
For more information, visit the Local Reasoning page of Peter O'Hearn.
Several detailed presentations of automata-theoretic model-checking are available from Moshe Vardi; see in particular the one about linear temporal logic.
A not too technical survey by Furia et al. is available here (ACM Computing Surveys, 42(2):1--59, February 2010).
The Monday morning sessions (two hours) are traditional-style lectures, ranging in the course of the semester over the main techniques of software verification.
The Wednesday afternoon session (one hour) will usually be taught by a guest lecturer. We are happy to have secured the participation of many international experts on software verification. These talks will be accessible to the public — as a public seminar series (FATS, Formal Approaches To Software) — in addition to the students of this course, and will be research-oriented, presenting new developments related to the previous Monday's lecture topic.
Attendance in both sessions is required, and the material covered will be subject to questions in the final exam.
Stephan van Staden is the organizing assistant for the course. Please contact him if you have any questions.
Mon. 18.10 E4 Assertion inference tool demonstrations and Hoare logic recap (cont'd) Exercises with solution (with G3) Tools: gin-pink; InvGen.


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text:
Q: How can I render a GSP as a String? For my email newsletter I need to render a GSP (the HTML for the newsletter) as a String, so I  can pass it to my email method. I've found many solutions here on Stack Overflow, but I don't know which one would be the best to use with Grails 2.2 (the most recent version).
So what's your opinion? How would you render a GSP as a String without rendering it to the HTTP response?
Thanks and best regards.
Patrick

A: In Grails 2.x, you can inject a groovyPageRenderer into a service. This allows you to render any view or template you want via its render() method.
For more information, check out this nice post from Mr. Haki.
Also note that if you're using the Mail plugin, you can use a view for your email body.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Are the Witness Accounts of Jesus Being Seen Alive After His Crucifixion Part of a Later Developed Myth or Legend?
Christian apologists confidently maintain belief in Jesus' supernatural resurrection is a rational belief (more>>). In support of that proposition, one of the lines of evidence Christian apologists point to is the historical documentation that after Jesus was crucified and buried, he was seen alive by multiple witnesses in a physically resurrected body.
In response, some skeptics propose the reports of multiple witnesses seeing the resurrected Jesus are simply part of a later-developed myth or legend. However, as set forth in this article, Christian apologists maintain such a proposition is wholly inadequate and by no means rationally compelling.
As set forth below, Christian apologists maintain the eyewitness accounts of people seeing the resurrected Jesus cannot be compellingly explained away as part of a later-developed myth or legend.
Many skeptics allege Jesus' resurrection is nothing but a myth or legend that developed long after the events of Jesus' life actually took place and is only believed by those who are gullible enough to believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
Since myths can be easily discredited by eyewitnesses, myths do not surface for many years after an event has occurred. A.N. Sherwin-White, an Oxford scholar and expert in Greek and Roman history, states the development of a myth or legend requires two full generations. [A.N. Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament, pgs. 186-193, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978)] For example, myths about Buddha and Mohammed did not arise until several generations after their deaths. [See, Peter Kreeft & Ronald Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, pgs. 190-191 (1994)] The remarkable thing about the historical account of Jesus' resurrection is the accounts were reported by eyewitnesses and were circulated throughout the region where the events occurred within a few years after Jesus' crucifixion.
Luke 24:38 says when Jesus appeared to the disciples, they thought they were seeing a ghost.
Thomas aka Didymus said he wouldn't believe Jesus had been raised from the dead unless he actually touched the holes in Jesus' hands and side. When he did, his response was: "My Lord and my God!" (see, John 20:24-28) and Thomas died a martyr.
The principle of Occam's razor, which states that simple explanations are preferable to more complex explanations, only states one should not multiply causes beyond necessity. Consequently, Occam's razor can only be relied on to exclude the need for a supernatural explanation if a sufficient natural explanation is offered (more>>).
In the case of Jesus' resurrection, the rebuttal points set forth above weigh decidedly against the explanation that the eyewitnesses accounts of seeing the resurrected Jesus is only part of a later-developed myth or legend. The other alternative explanations skeptics have offered to explain the eyewitness reports that Jesus was seen alive after his death are similarly inadequate (more>>). Consequently, Christian apologists maintain it is reasonable to look beyond such alternative explanations for an explanation that adequately explains all the historical evidence, including the explanation that God supernaturally raised Jesus from the dead.
Because there are good reasons to believe God exists and that he supernaturally raised Jesus from the dead, Christian apologists insist it is not only unfair for skeptics to claim Christians are intellectual simpletons for believing in Jesus' resurrection but it is intellectually dishonest to write off the resurrection as mere foolishness.
Slideshow Photo: The image used in the slideshow is a cropped image from a copy of the cover of King Kalakaua's book "The Legends and Myths of Hawaii." The image was downloaded from www.commons.wikimedia.org which stated the image was in the public domain because the copyright had expired in the U.S. and all countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.