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August 8, 2018 By Tochukwu Leave a Comment
Diamond Bank Plc grew its top-line to N98.5 billion in the first half of this year through its focus on retail digital banking which hit three million customers.
Key extracts of the interim report and accounts of Diamond Bank Plc for the six-month period ended June 30, 2018 released yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that gross earnings rose to N98.5 billion in first half 2018 as against N97.9 billion recorded in comparable period of 2017. Non-interest income rose by 6.4 per cent to N18.8 billion on higher fees from retail transactions on mobile platform while customers' loan volume decreased by 3.6 per cent to N728.7 billion as maturities exceeded new loans during the period. Investments in fixed income securities increased by 8.0 per cent to N241.7 billion over the same period.
Although the bank's net interest income reduced by 14.4 per cent to N46.2 billion due to lower interest income from loans and investments, and higher interest expense on deposits; impairment charges declined by 2.9 per cent to N18.39 billion. Pre and post tax profits stood at N2.92 billion and N1.8 billion respectively in first half 2018 as against N9.52 billion and N8.02 billion recorded in corresponding period of 2017.
Chief Executive Officer, Diamond Bank Plc, Mr. Uzoma Dozie said the first half report underscored the bank's strong focus on the Nigerian market, especially the retail business segment through its digital penetration strategy.
He pointed out that the first half results showed that the bank's digital strategy is paying off as the institution recorded a milestone figure of three million digital customers as well as a significant increase in its mobile platform transaction fees.
He noted that the economy has continued to record improvements because of stable, higher than anticipated oil prices adding that the economy has witnessed 15 months of expansion, although investor sentiment has remained mixed caused in part by the election season factor.
"We have capitalised on the positive macro environment to sustain interest income in the short run with positive prospects for growth and have made progress in growing non-interest income. Importantly, we have continued to build awareness of Diamond Bank in the wider financial ecosystem to develop new frontiers in retail banking," Dozie said.
He pointed out that in addition to retail banking, the bank is investing more resources in its mid-market business banking services to seize the opportunities emerging in that segment.
"In the second half of 2018, these investments will lead to improved profitability overall. Despite a tough six months being reported, the outlook for 2018 remains bright for the bank as we continue to focus on a return to strong profitability and improvement in other key performance indices," Dozie said.
Stock Exchange approves Fidson Healthcare's N4.5b rights issue
Authorities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have approved the plan by Fidson Healthcare Plc to raise N4.5 billion new equity capital through rights issue to existing shareholders of the healthcare company.
A regulatory filing at the Exchange at the weekend indicated that the Quotation Committee of the NSE approved the issuance of 900 million ordinary shares of 50 kobo each to existing shareholders of Fidson Healthcare at N5 per share.
The rights issue will be pre-allotted on the basis of three new ordinary shares for every five ordinary shares held as at the close of business on July 5, 2018.
Shareholders of Fidson Healthcare had in 2017 approved a plan by the company to raise N6 billion in new capital to boost its working capital and support its expansion plan. At the annual general meeting in 2017, shareholders had authorised the board of directors of Fidson Healthcare to "raise further capital of up to N6 billion through an offer whether by way of public offering, rights issue, private and special placement of shares".
The meeting also authorised the directors to absorb oversubscription and to convert existing loans due to any person from the company towards payment for any rights or shares subscribed for. Shareholders also increased the authorised share capital of the company from N1.2 billion to N1.5 billion by the creation of additional 600 million shares of 50 kobo each.
Chairman, Fidson Healthcare Plc, Mr. Felix Ohiwerei, said the new capital would be used to boost working capital that had been negatively impacted by the depreciation of Naira.
He noted that the company's new factory had come on stream at the tail end of 2016 and the company needs additional capital to realise the full potential and utilise the new factory to full capacity.
Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of Fidson Healthcare for the year ended December 31, 2017 showed that turnover grew by 84 per cent N7.6 billion in 2016 to N14 billion in 2017. Cost of sales increased by 91 per cent from N3.6 billion in 2016 to N6.9 billion in 2017. Pfelix-chairmanbefore tax rose from N443 million in 2016 to N1.57 billion in 2017. With this, earnings per share increased from 21 kobo in 2016 to 71 kobo in 2017.
The financial reports showed a 53 per cent increase in total overhead including administrative and selling and distribution expenses, from N3.1 billion in 2016 to N4.7 billion in 2017, which was due to an increase in the marketing and distribution expenses. Finance cost also increased by 45 per cent from N690 million in 2016 to N1 billion in 2017. The increase in finance cost was mainly due to increased working capital to drive growth and a hike in interest rates from financial institutions. Despite the increase in total cost, the company recorded a 127 per cent increase in operating profit which grew from N1.1 billion in 2016 to N2.5 billion in 2017.
The board of directors of Fidson Healthcare however approved a 300 per cent increase in dividend payout for the 2017 business year. Shareholders will receive a dividend per share of 20 kobo for the 2017 business year, representing an increase of 300 per cent on 5.0 kobo dividend per share paid for the 2016 business year. The company had distributed N75 million as cash dividends to shareholders for the 2016 business year.
NSE: All share index depreciates by 1.09%
The All Share Index in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 1.09 percent on Wednesday.
It depreciated off the 37 thousand basis points which it attained on Tuesday to close today at 36,612.83 basis points which is 1.09 percent or 404.95 basis points lower than yesterday's closing of 37,017.78 basis points.
The Market Capitalisation on the other side fell by 147 billion Naira or 1.09 per cent as it stood 13,263 trillion Naira at the close of Wednesday's transaction, compared to previous closing of 13,410 trillion Naira.
Wednesday's activities marks the first trading day for the month of August, 2018 even as the market traded 2.40 million shares, worth 4.98 billion Naira in 3,494.00 deals, leading to 21 stocks gaining, 24 declining with the prices on the other stocks remained the same.
This is in comparism to previous trading where Investors exchanged the sum of 2.45 million shared at the value of 4.5 billion Naira in 5,943.00 deals as only 17 stocks appreciated, while 24 stocks declined, living all others unchanged.
NEIMETH INTERNATIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS PLC opened for transaction on Wednesday at the price of 0.50 kobo per share and closed at 0.55 kobo per share, gaining 0.05 kobo or 10.00 per cent.
JAIZ BANK PLZ opened at 0.58 kobo per share and closed at 0.63 kobo, gaining 0.05 kobo or 8.62 per cent.
OKOMU OIL PALM PLC opened at N74.70 kobo per share and closed at N81.00 per share, gaining N6.30 kobo or 8.43per cent.
CAP PLC leads the losers' table by N3.50 kobo or 10.00 per cent to close at N31.50 per share after opening at N35.00 per share.
ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC followed with an opening price of 0.30 kobo per share to close at 0.27 kobo per share, falling by 0.03 kobo or 10.00 per cent.
Then INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLCfell after opening at N37.00 per share and closing at N33.40 kobo per share, losing N3.60 kobo or 9.73per cent.
Stock market capitalisation gains 0.84%
The All Share Index and the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange gained 0.84 per cent on Monday, starting the week on a positive note.
The All Share Index and the market capitalisation stood at 36,946.05 basis points and N13,384 trillion, gaining 309.08 basis points and N112 billion respectively.
At the end of the day, 31 registered stocks gained, 22 declined while all others remained the same as investors traded 3.19 million shares worth 3.05 billion Naira in 4,091.00 deals.
The top three gainers were Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, which led the gainers chart with 0.03 kobo or 10.00 per cent ,when it opened for transactions at 0.30 kobo per share and closed at 0.33 kobo per share.
Following right after was Seplat Petroleum Development Company Ltd with an opening price of N625.00 per share and a closing price of N687.50 kobo per share, gaining N62.50 kobo or 10.00 per cent.
Then Northern Nigerian Flour Mills Plc trailed with an opening price of N6.55 kobo per share and a closing price of N7.20 kobo per share, gaining 0.65 kobo or 9.92 per cent.
Conoil Plc, which opened at N27.00 per share and closed at N24.30 kobo per share , declined by N2.70 or 10.00 per cent.
It was followed by Pharma-Deko Plc with an opening price of N2.20 kobo per share and a closing price of N1.98, falling by 0.22 kobo or 10.00 per cent.
Medview Airline Plc fell by 0.21 kobo or 9.81per cent to close at N1.93 kobo per share, after opening at N2.14 kobo per share.
Equities Market Rebounds as Corporate Earnings Trickle In
The stock market recorded a marginal growth of 0.09 per cent last week after three weeks of bearish trading. The rebound followed investors' reaction to the release of corporate results by some companies for the half year ended June 30, 2018.
Specifically, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 0.09 per cent to close at 36,636.97, while market capitalisation closed higher at N13.272 trillion.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of the NSE Premium, NSE Consumer Goods, NSE Oil/Gas, NSE Industrial Goods, NSE Pension Indices that depreciated by 0.16 per cent, 0.19 per cent, 3.74 per cent, 4.4 per cent and 0.56 per cent respectively.
Analysts at Cordros Capital Limited said their outlook for equities in the near-to-medium term remained conservative, "in the absence of a near term one-off positive catalyst (save for potential better-than-expected Q2 corporate earnings), more so, amidst brewing political concerns.
"However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals – in addition to the likelihood of external jitters settling – remain supportive of market recovery in the long term."
Daily Performance
The market opened last week on a positive note last Monday, with the NSE ASI rising by 0.30 per cent to 36,711.96 as bargain hunting that started the preceding Friday continued.
The appreciation recorded in the share prices of some highly capitalised companies such as UBA, Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries, FBN Holdings, and Zenith Bank Plc bolster the performance.
However, Cutix Plc led the price gainers for the day, with 10 per cent, trailed by Continental Reinsurance Plc with 6.0 per cent. Wema Bank Plc chalked up 5.8 per cent, just as Transcorp Plc and Japaul Oil & Gas Plc went up by 4.2 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively.
Other top price gainers included: LASACO Assurance Plc (3.0 per cent); NASCON Allied Industries Plc (2.7 per cent); GTBank Plc (2.1 per cent); FCMB Group Plc (2.0 per cent) and United Capital Plc (1.6 per cent).
Conversely, Abbey Building Society Plc led the price losers with 10.0 per cent. University Press Plc trailed with a decline of 9.8 per cent. Forte Oil Plc and UACN Property Development Company Plc shed 9.6 per cent and 9.4 per cent in that order. AIICO Insurance Plc, Champion Breweries Plc, Oando Plc and Jaiz Bank Plc went down by 8.9 per cent, 7.3 per cent, 7.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively.
However, activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined 66.8 per cent and 43.4 per cent to 225.9 million shares and N2.2 billion respectively. Top traded stocks by volume were Medview Airline Plc (100.0 million shares), Transcorp Plc (16.1 million shares) and Zenith Bank Plc (11.3 million shares) while the top traded by value were Dangote Cement Plc (N564.1 billion), GTBank (N315.5 billion) and Zenith Bank (N260.3 billion).
Meanwhile, performance across sectors on that day was largely bullish as four of five indices tracked closed higher. The NSE Banking Index gained the most with 0.6 per cent.
It was followed by the NSE Industrial Goods Index followed with 0.4 per cent, while the NSE Insurance Index and NSE Consumer Goods Index went up by 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively. On the flipside, the NSE Oil & Gas Index shed 1.7 per cent.
Profit taking in bellwether stocks attracted the bears, making the market to close 0.70 per cent lower. Specifically, profit taking in stocks such as International Breweries Plc, Lafarge Africa Plc and Dangote Cement Plc caused the bearish run.
Consequently, the market shed N93 billion, pulling the capitalisation to N13.2 trillion.
But activity level strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 67.6 per cent and 100.1 per cent to 378.7 million shares and N4.4 billion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were Medview Air Plc (100.0 million shares), Transcorp (45.5 million shares) and Zenith Bank Plc (42.7 million shares ) while the top traded stocks by value were Zenith Bank (N988.5 million), GTBank (N545.5 million) and Dangote Cement (N499.5 million).
The sell pressure persisted on Wednesday dragging the index lower by 0.30 per cent to close at 36,346.80. Major drags to performance were – Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc; Lafarge Africa Plc; Nigerian Breweries Plc and GTBank Plc. In the same manner, activity level fell as volume and value traded fell 12.9 per cent and 17.5 per cent to 329.8 million shares and N3.6 billion respectively.
The performance across sectors was bearish as four of the five indices tracked. The NSE Industrial Goods Index led decliners, falling 1.5 per cent while the NSE Oil & Gas Index shed 0.8 per cent. In the same vein, the NSE Consumer Goods Index 0.8 per cent just as the NSE Insurance Index depreciated 0.5 per cent.
But the market rebounded on Thursday, bolstered by gains recorded by Nestle Nigeria Plc, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings Plc and GTBank Plc to close 0.22 per cent higher at 36,427.22. But volume and value fell by 48.2 per cent and 18.3 per cent to 171 million shares and N3.0 billion respectively.
The positive performance was sustained last Friday as the NSE ASI appreciating by 0.58 per cent to close at 36,636.97. The appreciation recorded in the share prices of some highly capitalised companies such as International Breweries, FBN Holdings , GT Bank, UBA, and Transcorp were mainly responsible for the gain recorded.
Meanwhile, investors traded 1.417 billion shares worth N16.739 billion in 19,832 deals last week, compared with 1.665 billion shares valued at N14.834 billion that exchanged hands in 18,795 deals the preceding week. However, the Financial Services Industry remained the most active, leading the activity chart with 832.842 million shares valued at N8.823 billion traded in 10,851 deals. The sector thus contributed 58.7 per cent and 52.7 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Services Industry followed with 320.350 million shares worth N679.981 million in 584 deals, while the third place was occupied by Conglomerates Industry with a turnover of 99.403 million shares worth N147.372 million in 1,000 deals.
Trading in the top three equities – Medview Airline Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and Zenith Bank Plc – accounted for 578.789 million shares worth N5.153 billion in 2,874 deals,
Price Gainers and Losers
The price movement chart displayed 31 equities that appreciated in price during the week, higher than 16 in the previous week, just as 48 equities depreciated in price, lower than 59 equities of the previous week.
Cutix Plc led the price gainers with 46 per cent, trailed by Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc with 25.9 per cent. Continental Reinsurance Plc and FBN Holdings Plc chalked up 12.6 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
Other top price advancers for the week included: Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc (10.0 per cent); Vitafoam Nigeria Plc (9.8 per cent); Capital Oil Plc (8.7 per cent); and Diamond Bank Plc (7.6 per cent); Skye Bank Plc (7.6 per cent); Sterling Bank Plc (6.6 per cent).
Conversely, Rak Unity Petroleum Company Plc led the price losers with 20 per cent, trailed by UACN Property Development Company Plc that shed 18.8 per cent. Secure Electronic Technology Plc and Royal Exchange Plc dipped by 16.6 per cent apiece.
Other top price gainers were: Lafarge Africa Plc (15.3 per cent); Forte Oil Plc (13.9 per cent); NPF Microfinance Bank Plc (12.7 per cent); Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc (10 per cent); Presco Plc (9.9 per cent) and PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc (9.8 per cent).
FCMB Group Records 86% Increase in Half-year Profit
The FCMB Group Plc recorded a profit before tax (PBT) of N7.1 billion for the six-months ended 30 June 2018.
This represented an increase of 86 per cent from the N3.8billion it achieved for the same period in 2017.
The bank explained that the positive development reflected the improving performance of the financial institution, as well as the effects of diversification through its investments in asset and wealth management.
From the details of its unaudited results announced on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the Group's gross revenue rose to N83.9 billion as at the end of June 2018, compared to N77.5billion in the corresponding period of 2017.
Similarly, net interest income rose by nine per cent year-on-year (YoY) from N32.5billion to N35.3billion, while non-interest income grew to N16.5billion, an increase of 29 per cent, from N12.8billion for the same period of last year.
The Commercial & Retail Banking group (which comprises First City Monument Bank Limited, Credit Direct Limited, FCMB (UK) Limited and FCMB Microfinance Bank Limited) generated a 32.2 per cent increase in PBT to N2.9 billion for half year 2018, from the N2.2 billion recorded at the end of first quarter 2018.
Its revenue increased 3.7 per cent year-on-year, driven by an 8.1 per cent year-on-year increase in non-interest income and an 8.7 per cent year-on-year increase in net-interest income.


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As a special service for Hispanic Heritage Month we are offering this free article entitled, "How to Read a Pity Piece." Highlighted in red is the running commentary of an article that appeared in USA Today and The San Diego Union Tribune. Maybe it was in your paper as well. It's a loooong article, but progressive editors can always find space for such fine work.
First U.S.-Mex fence: fewer migrants, more violence
By Traci Carl
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Here's your first danger sign, the AP.)
September 13, 2008 San Diego Union Tribune (Warning #2. The Union Trib thinks Ruben Navarrette is conservative.)
TIJUANA, Mexico – There is a moment each evening, as the sun melts into the Pacific, when Colonia Libertad is at peace.
The dimming light blurs the hilltop slum's rough edges, camouflaging piles of trash in long shadows and making it difficult to tell that some of the tightly packed homes clinging to vertical canyonsides are made of old packing crates and cast-off plastic tarps. (Aah, the tone of poverty.)
The stadium lighting that towers over the corrugated metal wall marking the U.S.-Mexico border is dark, permitting residents a bird's eye view of Tijuana, where lights are blinking on, blanketing hills that lead toward the ocean. Farther inland, the dark shadows of mountains are sketched across the sky.
There are no helicopters reverberating overhead, no drone of all-terrain vehicles. Even the bony guard dogs chained outside their homes respect the silence. Fathers stroll lazily behind children who steer beat-up tricycles along the rutted dirt paths that serve as streets.
For a moment, residents are reminded of what it was like before the wall, when children ducked under a barbed wire fence to play soccer in U.S. territory and returned home for dinner. When smuggling meant giving directions to migrants who simply outran border agents and melted into the crowds of tourists. ("Migrants" they call them. It would ruin the piece to call them trespassers or illegal aliens. Too harsh.)
But it is only a moment.
The floodlights click on, bathing the neighborhood in a blinding light. The helicopters return, clattering past. And the smugglers arrive with their ladders and blow torches and groups of people desperate to escape a fate similar to the one residents of Colonia Libertad long ago accepted. (The MAN…big, bad government…picking on the innocent.)
As the U.S. government battles environmentalists and residents to build hundreds more miles of fencing along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, both sides would be well served to take a long look at Colonia Libertad – Freedom Neighborhood. (Play the green card wherever you can.)
In the early 1990s, Colonia Libertad became one of the first places to coexist with the recycled, corrugated-iron barrier that has become a symbol of the conflicted relationship between a first-world superpower and the developing nation that lives in its shadow. (Note the imagery. "Superpower" and "shadow.")
The fence didn't stop the migrants. It didn't stop the drugs. It merely pared down the hopeful crowds that used to flood San Diego hillsides, diverted the drugs underground and into the mountains, and helped create a ruthless smuggling industry dedicated to beating the U.S. Border Patrol at its own game. (Once again, Uncle Sam failed. The "hopeful crowds" were kept out but the drugs kept coming.)
But that's not to say the sections of fence that have been built haven't been successful. The barriers, combined with high-tech security measures such as surveillance cameras and ground sensors, have made getting into the U.S. extremely difficult. And as security has increased in recent years, the number of people trying to cross has fallen dramatically. (I'd like to see the data on that one.)
The downside, residents on both sides say, is that the border has become a violent battleground, shattering a shared American and Mexican history that is blind to things such as fences and borders. (Those Border Patrol home wreckers!)
Once, the only barrier between Colonia Libertad and San Diego was a barbed-wire fence.
Residents would squeeze between its rusty spikes, escaping the crowded barrio for the open hillsides of U.S. territory. Adults roasted meat in barbecue pits while children ran free.
"It used to be fun, because we'd cross and play soccer or baseball or volleyball," says Jaime Boites, 35, whose home is steps from the border. (A "man-on-the-street" expert on the subject. Much easier to get juicy quotes from him than an economist or someone who runs a drug rehab program or a street cop in San Diego. Choose your interviews carefully.) "Nobody cared. When we were done, we'd just go back to our houses in Mexico." (OK, hold it right there. They came here because we had soccer fields and barbeque pits? How hard can it be for the Mexican Government (or the people themselves) to supply such basic amenities? Besides, Mexican citizens LEGALLY cross in droves every day to shop and picnic. They make it sound like the Berlin wall.)
U.S. Border Patrol agents left the picnickers alone. Sometimes they even strolled over and shared a taco.
They were more concerned with the other side of Colonia Libertad, the smugglers who used the neighborhood as a staging ground for vanloads of people or drugs or some other kind of contraband that the gringos legally didn't want but were always willing to pay for. (It's our fault, not theirs. They are just the suppliers.)
It wasn't hard to get to the United States, which had few agents and little security. Sometimes migrants gathered at the border in large groups to rush past outnumbered guards, like a crude game of sharks and minnows. Others packed into vans that raced drugs or people across the hills.
"Back then, there used to be vans going through U.S. territory, just like nothing," Boites says. "Vans full of people, any time of day." (OK, we've gone from day trips to have a barbecue in the USA to hordes of people wanting to sneak in. Which is it?)
Boites was 8 when one van struck and killed a 5-year-old girl.
That was the main reason the wall went up: to stop the vehicles.
When the first stretch of wall went up, made of material recycled from landing strips left over from Vietnam, Boites was a teenager living in San Diego. Back at his family home, the fence cut off the view of the United States.
Little changed in Colonia Libertad. Smugglers cut holes in the fence and drove their vans through. Migrants scrambled over the wall, using the corrugated ridges like the steps of a ladder.
But to people in Colonia Libertad, it was still a slap in the face, proof the gringos weren't willing to acknowledge that they needed Mexicans to cut their lawns and take care of their kids. (Jobs Americans won't do. Totally false, but if Bush can say it, so can the Mexicans.)
"Sometimes we get the feeling that we aren't wanted over there," Boites says, gazing at the graffiti-covered wall. (D'ya think?)
Americans saw the fence as a necessity because millions of undocumented workers and tons of illegal drugs were streaming into their cities.
But it had consequences they never intended: Seasonal workers unable to easily go back and forth built permanent lives north of the border. (People with papers never have trouble crossing.) Migrants were pushed into the searing desert of Arizona, and more than 1,600 have died, often of thirst and exposure. (Now we are blamed for their poor choices and illegal activity.)
In Tijuana, the United States kept increasing security, using the area to test new anti-smuggling methods and expanding the ones that worked. It added a second layer of fencing at some points, redesigning each barrier to make it more difficult to overcome.
Smugglers responded by charging migrants more money and becoming more violent. They used slingshots to launch rocks, bottles, nail-studded planks, Molotov cocktails. Sometimes they wanted to hurt border agents, but mostly they were trying to create diversions while they moved people or drugs across at another point. (Defending attacks on U S agent. Have they no shame at all?)
Since last October, there have been 340 assaults on Border Patrol agents patrolling the California border. The Border Patrol says it doesn't know whether any agents were injured in those attacks.
The response, however, has taken a toll. In 2005, an 18-year-old Mexican boy was fatally shot by the Border Patrol. In August, a Mexican man was shot and wounded by an agent trying to disperse a group of rock throwers at a dry, concrete-lined gulley near Colonia Libertad. (Let's see. In three years time they come up with two cases. I've seen some of those "18-year-old Mexican" boys and I wouldn't feel comfortable around them. Please tell us the circumstances surrounding those events.)
During one assault, agents fired pepper and tear gas across the border into Colonia Libertad. (Oh no! Not non-lethal force! How about the Mexican military firing at BP agents INSIDE the US?)
In a ramshackle house that uses the border fence as its back wall, Esther Arias' eyes began to water, her throat burned and she couldn't catch her breath. Her 3-week-old grandson screamed in pain, confused by the air that singed his tiny lungs.
A tear gas canister punched a hole in her father's house across the street and landed on the floor.
"Soccer field" is written on the U.S. side of the fence facing Colonia Libertad.
That's the only reminder that Mexican children once played here. Now it's a marker for the Border Patrol.
High-powered cameras look in every direction from atop towering poles. (That's because "low-powered" cameras wouldn't be able to see anything.) Ground sensors let agents know when someone is moving through the fields.
"We've got bodies," a voice crackles over James Jacques' walkie-talkie. (Oops! How disrespectful to refer to them as "bodies"! No one is a "body". They are human beings. In the future BP spotters must refer to them as "children" because every one of them is a child of their mother. OK?)
In the distance, a few people dressed in black jump from lightweight handmade ladders they used to scale the second layer of fencing. They run into a ditch, but agents catch them within seconds. A van pulls up, and they are loaded inside to be driven back to Mexico.
Those are the easy ones. Jacques says many smugglers have become violent, once stringing a nearly invisible wire across a path to knock agents off all-terrain vehicles. One took out a camera tower with a shotgun.
"Before, they wouldn't fight back if caught," Jacques says. "Now it's military-style tactics."
He defends the use of tear gas and pepper balls, saying the alternative is worse.
Studying Colonia Libertad through binoculars, Jacques sees not a neighborhood of families, but a smugglers' den.
"That's a lookout tower," he says, pointing to a small room built on top of a house. "You'll see them all along the border."
Drug smugglers have gotten more sophisticated as well. They have built more than two dozen tunnels under the border since 1994. One opened into a warehouse steps from the border, and drug dealers posing as businessmen quietly shipped their wares across the U.S. until agents shut them down.
Other drug runners have taken to the mountains, using blowtorches to cut large doors in the fence and then taking four-wheel-drive vehicles across the rugged terrain.
In one of the new subdivisions carpeting the hills north of the border, Alma Beltran, 42, (Another "expert" witness. Quotes from such sources really add punch to your stories.) turns her sport utility Volvo into her two-car garage and carries groceries into the kitchen for dinner.
She and her husband, both Mexicans, own a factory that makes packaging labels in the beach resort of Ensenada, but they moved to the U.S. a few years ago so that their daughter could go to American schools and speak fluent English.
But they didn't go far: Their home is two miles from the border.
"If we go on a walk – and we like to go on walks – every time we try to do that, we are stopped by border patrollers," Beltran says. "They are always pleasant and say, 'Ma'am, you shouldn't be walking here. It is dangerous.'"
Beltran says she is polite, but rarely turns back. Having grown up in both Mexico City and the U.S., she's not frightened by the increased security in the U.S. or the violence in Mexico. (But watch for the lawsuit if a little tear gas gets in her eyes!)
"It's the same problem: People trying to cross. Agents chasing people home," she says. "There's nothing new."
Her neighborhood is a sprawling collection of cavernous terra-cotta homes that sell for double what most Mexicans will make in a lifetime. Spanish is the predominant language, and most of her neighbors are upper-class Mexicans driven north by a wave of kidnappings and drug violence south of the border.
But even in the carefully groomed suburbs of San Diego, it is impossible to escape Mexico. Beltran has only to look out her kitchen window to be reminded that she is caught between two worlds.
As she makes dinner, she can see the hillsides worn bald by the Border Patrol, the fences dividing the San Diego suburbs' neat grid from the jumbled streets of Tijuana. In the distance, the stadium lights flooding Colonia Libertad flicker on. (Of course, she chose to live here. She was escaping Mexico and now she complains about the view. Typical. How about returning to Mexico and running for office? Maybe she can fix a few things in her own country to make it more like San Diego. Nah. Complaining is much easier. And in the US people have pity on you.)
See, it really isn't hard when you have this handy chart used by most journalists:
Bad things:
White people
Large corporations
The rule of law
Good things:
Non-Americans
The underprivileged
"My rights"
More acronyms
It quacks me up!
Proud product of...
Business is too good
Bailout Blues
No Entiendo
Watch your words
The Palin bounce...
The Rolodex Test
Palin v. Gibson
Are Obama and McCain the same?
Mopping Up
Issues please
Citizenship on sale
Mitt's grateful
A Mexican Standoff at the courthouse
The bad...the worse...and the ugly
The smoke is killing me!
Palin Screen Test
Sarah's good...
We've insulted them again
Whatchamacallem

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I am pleased to announce the publication of our first newsletter: "INSPIRED".
In this issue members of the DCTS team write on current topics in the international corporate industry and comment on the relevant issues and how our services can be of assistance.
AIM - The Lightbulb Goes Off!


The Kubota L39 utility tractor is much more powerful than the likes of the Kubota B26 tractor. It gets it's power from a 3 cylinder diesel engine. This diesel engine has a rated speed of 2700 rpm. The size of the engine comes in at 1.826 liters. This engine gets it's fuel from a tank that can hold a maximum of 40 liters (10.6 US gallons) of diesel. While the engine in the L 39 has a maximum power output of 39 hp, the PTO has a maximum power of 30.5 hp. Many different implements can be powered by this PTO from rotary tillers to two stage snow blowers.
The engine on the Kubota L39 also powers the hydraulics system, giving it a total pumping capacity of 88.7 liters/min (23.4 US gallons per minute). This enables the 3 point (category 1) rear hitch on the L39 to have a maximum lifting capacity of 1270 kg (2800 lbs). The engine also obviously powers the wheels on the tractor. It does this through a GST gear shift gearbox. This gearbox has 12 speeds going forwards, while when it's reversing it has 8 different speeds. This gearbox set up gives the tractor a top speed of 23.6 kph (14.7 mph) going forwards.
The wheelbase of the Kubota L39 utility tractor comes in at 1.75 m (69 inches). It is capable of taking a rear mounted backhoe and a front end loader which are particularly useful if you need to dig holes or transport materials around you farm or property. Many people thoroughly enjoy using the L39 tractor as you do not have to constantly change gears on it. It also is capable of performing a wide variety of jobs. However the one drawback that a lot of people find with this tractor is that it's not incredibly powerful. The solution to this is to just use a more powerful machine from Kubota.


text:
Australian wine sector still facing strong headwinds
Posted by Isobel Drake on 16th November 2009
The ongoing oversupply of grapes and a volatile Australian dollar are exacerbating the difficulties faced by many Australian wineries, according to the annual financial benchmarking survey for the Australian wine industry – Vintage 2008 report, released today by Deloitte.
In its tenth year, the Deloitte survey examines the financial performance of wineries across Australia for the 2008 financial year, and is based on the individual financial results and information provided by wineries.
"The fluctuating Australian dollar is making wine more expensive in overseas markets, where traditionally our brand image and reputation has been for good quality, inexpensive wines," Deloitte audit partner and leader of Deloitte's Wine Industry group, Stephen Harvey, advised.
Mr Harvey said that the glut of supply had not helped Australian winemakers when it came to promoting the high quality of our offerings.
"The wine industry has struggled to focus attention on the quality of our premium brands in these overseas markets," he noted. "The continued supply of large amounts of high-quality wines at lower prices has made their task more difficult. The perception that Australia is only a volume producer has almost made us a victim of our own success."
"The Australian dollar fluctuations during 2008 and 2009 and the now strong exchange rate have had a substantial impact on the price Australian wine businesses can afford in order to get their wine into overseas markets," he added.
Mr Harvey believes the industry needs to make some hard decisions, after it produced a near-record grape crush in the 2008 vintage.
"While the drought and heat waves across South Australia and Victoria during the vintage period did not appear to have a negative impact on the actual 2008 vintage yield, it can't just be about increasing our volumes every year," he said. "There are going to be thousands of hectares of vines that won't be picked this year."
"For those wineries that savour the long-term view over the rush to get ahead, the glass is still half full."
Significant findings of the Annual financial benchmarking survey – Vintage 2008 were:
$0-$1 million wineries
Wineries in this group had a lower average earning before tax (EBT) of -7.4% of revenue in 2008 compared with to an EBT of 1.9% in 2007, in part due to their gross margin decreasing by 7.8%. This category also had an interest expense of -7.7% of revenue compared with a target of 5% of revenue as recommended in the benchmarking guides.
$1 million – $5 million wineries
Reporting an average gross margin of 48.5%, the highest of all categories in the survey, wineries within this group recorded a sharp rise in EBT to 8.2% in 2008, compared with -8.7% in 2007.
$5 million – $10 million wineries
This group recorded an EBT of 0.8% of revenue, compared with 9.8% in 2007. Average gross margin for 2008 of 40.6% of revenue was less than the sustainable level of 50% suggested in the benchmarking guides. The drop can be attributed to an increase in general administration costs from 23.4% to 28.1%.
$10 million – $20 million wineries
The average EBT for the $10-20 million wineries was -7.4% of revenue compared with 7.4% in 2007. Average gross margin for 2008 of 34.7% of revenue was considerably less than the sustainable level of 50% of revenue suggested in the benchmarking guides. Within this category, 60% of the participants recorded a loss for the financial year ending in 2008.
$20 million+ wineries
Wineries with revenue over $20 million had positive EBT growth, up from 18.8% in 2007 to 22.1% in 2008. An average foreign exchange gain of 9.3% of revenue added to the strong EBT results of wineries in this category.
Best performers
Wineries termed 'Best performers' represent the top quartile of wineries for the $0-1 million, $1-5 million and $5-10 million categories based on their profitability as a proportion of sales.
Wineries in the $0-1 million and $1-5 million categories achieved an average gross margin of more than the suggested 50% of revenue in the benchmarking guides, and earnings before tax of around 20% of revenue. The $5-10 million category had an average gross margin of 45.6% and achieved earnings before tax of 12.7% of revenue.
Domestic wine sales
During 2008, the best performing wineries in both the $0-1 million and $1-5 million categories sold over 75% of their wine volume in Australia for between $15 and $50 per bottle. Best performing wineries in the $5-10 million category sold around 65% of their wine in this price range.
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Coles is testing low-sensory supermarket shopping for customers with autism.
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text:
Greg Schardein
7 games reviewed
78.3 average score
85 median score
57.1% of games recommended
Scores 1.6 higher than average
Writes for:
Digital Chumps
Are you Greg Schardein? If so, email [email protected] to claim this critic page.
Sort by: Page 1 of 1
9 / 10.0 - Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate feels right at home on the 3DS. The segmented environments are perfect for gaming on the go and the game's addictive item creation is perfect for bringing wherever your travels take you. The number of unique creatures to hunt, expansive number of items to collect and craft, and strong multiplayer experience make for a must-play experience on the 3DS.
9.8 / 10.0 - Super Smash Bros. for 3DS
Super Smash Bros. 3DS is a wonderful addition to the series featuring great cameos, a return to strong fighting mechanics, and best of all, a viable, portable Smash Bros. experience. Though the game will soon be released on the Wii U, the 3DS version is the way to go for the various single player modes and unlockable content (though the multiplayer mode is great here as well). Fans of the series should pick this game up as waiting for the Wii U version may be a difficult task.
7.4 / 10.0 - Pushmo World
Pushmo World is a nice addition to the Wii U eShop content and should be played by any puzzle fan who hasn't yet experienced Pushmo and doesn't own a 3DS. However, if you're in either of the previous two categories, you would probably be better served to pick up the original Pushmo and/or Crashmo for an equally enjoyable experience at a discounted price with the freedom of portable gaming.
8.4 / 10.0 - Kirby Triple Deluxe
Kirby: Triple Deluxe is exactly what you would expect it to be: multiple game modes, creative level design, fun lighthearted style, colorful presentation, and crisp precise platforming. Kirby continues to live as a creative series built around a simple mechanic of move stealing and move-set freedom and will always be regarded dearly in this gamer's heart. It doesn't matter how many times the formula is reiterated as long as fresh ideas are pumped into the gameplay. Recommended.
6 / 10.0 - Yoshi's New Island
Yoshi's New Island follows a similar formula as previous Nintendo remakes/reboots but ultimately falls short of recreating the magic we expect from Nintendo platformers. It is a shame that Yoshi's New Island could not provide enough new content to warrant its "new" name. Even if you enjoy the gameplay pulled directly out of the original title, it's hard to recommend playing this game over its predecessor (even if you've already played Yoshi's Island). Yoshi's Island DS has a little more variety and difficulty but ultimately, Nintendo just hasn't been able to reproduce the greatness of the original title.
8.6 / 10.0 - Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy succeeds as a wonderful finale to the Layton series and the strongest title in the prequel trilogy. If you've enjoyed any of the previous games, this will certainly satisfy your puzzle solving needs. Though it's not necessary to play the previous titles in the trilogy, it's recommended as this game pulls together events from the previous two titles. All-in-all, the Layton series has been and will always be a wonderful break from some of the more established gaming formulas. Recommended.
5.6 / 10.0 - Mario Party: Island Tour
Mario Party is continuing to see sequels and unfortunately it isn't seeing much change. In its 3rd portable experience, Island Tour, I had hoped for more enjoyable single player and internet multiplayer to keep players interested when they can't get their friends around. Unfortunately, the bread-and-butter experience of 4 players is easier to implement and more enjoyable on console experiences. Though the game can be played with only one game cartridge (and 1-4 3DSs), there isn't enough incentive to join the party on 3DS.


Here is my version of a compilation of Smiths TV Stuff.
I have used the best versions i have. Audio & Video.
Sometimes, some versions have good picture & bad sound and others have good sound & bad picture.
I have mixed the best audio with the best picture.
I also tried to improved all sound, equalizing & normalizing every tracks.
A lot of videos are a mix of 2, 3 or 4 different TV appearance.
That's why i have called this compilation : "The Real Complete Picture"
It could be a good "starting point" for the idea of Stephane.
Everyone could see if he has a better version of each TV appearance.... and upload it if it's better quality.
This DVD isn't perfect. When i have done it, i had some little "encoding" problems. So, the result could be better.
This is a PAL DVD, with menus & chapters.
I really hope you will like it.
I appreciate the time that you put into this, and I look forward to watching it, and singing along.
Is this compilation from your vhs tapes, or from dvds available here?
I really like this DVD ... its really good to watch. Like Franck says, it may not have the aboslute best versions of everything, but its really well put together. Like he says, this is the kind of thing Stephane was trying to get started ... I immediately thought of this when I saw that thread.
Its great to have different songs taken from different places, and put together to form a sort of story, rather than the same song repeated 3 or 4 times from different programs.
p.s. Hope you're not feeling too down this morning ... I told you Holland were looking good !
Some from my VHS collection, some from the DVDs available here, some from others source. I have choosen the best quality.
For example, for "There is a Light" (youtube 86 - on vol.2), i took the picture from Soundsville DVD which is great, the sound of my VHS which is better, and a short part of another DVD because Soundsville & my VHS have a little picture problem during 2 seconds at about 1'. The sound on Soundsville DVD is not good on left channel.
Very nice indeed, is there a menu or text file of where and when for the sound and video ?
Thats really great, thank you very much !!
FWD did a great job (as always) with this!!!
A quite nice collection... :-) Thank you very much.
Gracias por esta Primera parte de la Colección de The Smiths!!!!
thank you very much..I look forward to watching this one..


text:
Josh First's Blog
I so totally agree with myself
Fruit of Contemplation
Government Of the People…
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Posts Tagged → campaign
Fake News Media Fakes Out Its Own Self; NY Recount Needed
By trying to fake out the world about the American election result last week, the politically partisan, politically activist, factually fake news media faked its own self out.
So eager and quick were the various "news" outlets to declare Biden the winner of last Tuesday's election, different channels were actually calling certain state races for him even before a single vote was reported in those states. Minnesota and Michigan come to mind. There were others.
Even as voting was still ongoing, the fake news media were declaring clearly contested states like Arizona for Biden. Even FOX did it, with their empty talking heads most seriously announcing that Biden had won the election long before all the counts were done, long before all the voting was even done. On YouTube the AP (Associated Press) is now cited on every discussion and post about the election as the putative authoritative source for Biden winning the 2020 election. As if the AP counted all the votes.
So there we have it, I guess. Right? We just have to accept what the AP says along with all the other Democrat News sources. After all, this fake news media told us the election outcome before there even was an outcome, so we have to just accept it, I suppose.
Nope, we don't have to accept it. Who the hell is the AP, and who put them in charge of the election! In fact, we need to really consider what the AP's inaccurate declaration actually meant.
It was all a bluff, if not an attempted coup d'etat, meant to create the illusion that Biden had won the election early on, when in fact all kinds of states and key localities were and still are in play, in every way, with neither candidate having enough Electoral College votes to authoritatively declare the win.
And now that the massive multi-state voter fraud is beginning to become evident, known, and analyzed, the many Trump Campaign objections, lawsuits, challenges, demands, and specific accusations of fraud are beginning to get traction. Which is now indicating that at the very very least Biden MAY have won by an extremely narrow margin, like just a few Electoral College votes, or in the alternative, Trump may have won this election with 300 Electoral College votes.
Despite the news media's ongoing attempt to keep the "Biden won" narrative alive, we will have to wait and see the actual results, won't we? At the very least, it appears that Justice Alito's order to Pennsylvania to segregate the ballots received after 8:00PM last Tuesday night away from the others received during Election Day hours is not going to be fulfilled by either Philadelphia or PA Governor Wolf. This means that those suspect late ballots will (correctly) be disqualified and will not be counted, which results in Trump winning Pennsylvania.
Who knows how the other contested states will go, now that we are all becoming familiar with the several savage ways the Democrat Party aggressively cheated in this election? We will just have to all wait and see. There is no quick and easy answer, despite the partisan media's ongoing best efforts at the ever-popular immediate gratification. And frankly, democracy is almost always messy and cluttered up with stuff, because it's the nature of its system of checks and balances. It is the tyrannies who have super smooth and so easily predictable elections. Isn't it disconcerting that America's media tried to emulate how a tyranny runs an election!
Until the final and actual legal voting (not balloting) results in Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and possibly other states, are known to us citizens, we have other things to discuss. Like how this attempted media coup d'etat raises questions about the role of the media and the supposed First Amendment protections it enjoys. An openly partisan and politically activist media is no longer a news outlet, it is a mouthpiece for certain political and economic interests, including America's arch enemy, China. That makes the people who own them and run them official traitors.
Which makes you wonder why we have to accept New York State's close election outcomes as official and accurate. New York is run by one of the most partisan and corrupt governors in America, Andrew Cuomo, beloved of the fake news media. He would do anything to prevent a Republican from winning New York.
So let the New York election result challenge and digging begin. If we dig deep enough, we might end up in China…
November 8th screenshot of WHP580's home page, a FOX News affiliate, doing its best Dewey Defeats Truman attempt.
Here is today's November 9th screen shot of WHP580's home page. Backtracking happening as the Dewey Defeats Truman effect takes hold of a corrupt and partisan media
By Josh • Posted in Government Of the People... • No Comment
Illegal billions: Big tech & national media's undeclared in-kind political donations
For twelve years at least, billions of dollars worth of undeclared in-kind political contributions to just one political party have been made by the Big Tech companies and our national media.
Owners and staff at Google, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and all of the national media (NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Patriot News and Capital Star here in Harrisburg, etc.) have gone out of their way to treat one group of people one way, and another group of people a totally different way.
Big Tech and the media go so far as to report only good things, even fake good things, and not report the negative things, about one group. Yet Big Tech and the media only report negative things, especially fake negative things, about the other group, and never report the good things. This artificial treatment of the two groups has had a hugely disproportionate effect on the flow of information to American voters, and, therefore, a hugely disproportionate effect on election outcomes.
Who are the two groups who receive such different treatment at the hands of Big Tech and the national media?
Why, they are Democrats/ liberals/ anarchists/ socialists on the one hand, the favored fair-haired child, and then Republicans/ conservatives/ patriots/ constitutionalists on the other hand, the hated red-headed stepchild. Because the treatments these groups receive are so totally over the top different from one another, you could almost swear that Big Tech and the national media are owned and run only by Democrats and liberals, to the point where they are acting like they are part-and-parcel of Democrat political campaigns.
Today, the Republican National Committee FINALLY filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission about Twitter's obviously one-sided effort to suppress damning information and news articles about the Biden Crime Family. I say finally, because this issue has been out there in the wide open for many years, and the GOPe never acted on it. It is hard to believe that it took this long for someone to file a complaint, when for years people like me, and much higher profile than I, have documented the unfair one-sided treatment conservatives and Republicans have received from Big Tech and the national media. For my own part, posts on the Josh First Facebook page were mostly shadow banned, and my paid political campaign ads had dubious reach, which appeared to be fraud by Facebook. They took my money, and then launched weak ad campaigns into which I had limited views. Facebook has been doing the same thing to the Donald Trump campaign, too, by the way. Activist Laura Loomer, now a candidate for Congress, has been completely de-platformed from all of these services, without any explanation why. But her political opponent, communista yehudia Lois Frankel, enjoys all the benefits of Facebook etc
It is just not fair. And it is not legal.
All of these one-sided activities by Big Tech and the national media amount to an enormous undeclared political campaign contribution effort that by the simple reading of the statute is blatantly illegal.
During the Obama administration, conservative political activist Dinesh D'Souza was sent to prison for a long time for giving someone money to make political contributions with. About twenty thousand bucks total, if I recall right. Here we have Big Tech and the national media donating billions of dollars worth of free political advertising and political information suppression to the Democrat Party, without ever disclosing it. If D'Souza went to jail for a couple years, then how many decades in jail do Facebook's Zuckerberg, Twitter's Dorsey, Google's Brin, and so on for the many other Big Tech owners and content managers, now face?
All of the Big Tech and national media owners and managers deserve to pay huge fines and go to jail for long times.
I have written about this before, and it is worth it to write about it again. That is because America's election rules and laws are supposed to apply to everyone equally. No one person or group in America is supposed to receive special treatment, the way Democrats and liberal socialist anarchists do when it comes to our election laws and campaign contributions. That kind of special treatment up-ends the rule of law on which America is based. One rule is supposed to apply to us all equally.
So, if Hillary Clinton is finally going to face the music for her wild crime spree, then the Big Tech and national media activists and political donors, should too.
Lock them all up. They earned it all.
Why I am voting for Paul Mango for governor, and not for Scott Wagner
When I stood out for twelve hours in the freezing weather four years ago, handing out Scott Wagner for Senate brochures at a polling place in York County, I was helping Pennsylvania elect someone to state government who promised to remain independent of political party leaders and the insider dealings that are the despicable hallmark of Pennsylvania Republican party politics.
Within a few months of Wagner's historic upset win over a creaky establishment, I began to regret his obvious character flaws. And then six months later I had the unfortunate experience of having Wagner lie through omission to my face.
"Yeah, I know John DiSanto," said Wagner.
What Wagner did not say was that he was aggressively promoting DiSanto as a would-be candidate for state senate. Fast forward another six months, and DiSanto was on track to be the state senator for the 15th district. He has been a huge improvement over the former senator, Rob Teplitz, a political radical out of place here in this region who was also dedicated to his constituents. I have no real hard feelings about DiSanto now bearing the burden of serving in state government, as it comes with big personal costs that I realize I would not want.
But I saw then that Scott Wagner was not the straight-up guy a lot of us believed he was when we worked hard to get him elected.
Wagner has this habit of ascribing to himself full responsibility for his material and political successes. As a capitalist I applaud anyone who can and does leave to their son or nephew a running business and millions of dollars. And I also applaud those people who are strong enough to take those inheritances and build on them, instead of squandering them, as so many Americans do.
But it upsets me to hear Wagner take credit for these things when he was simply the beneficiary of other people's hard work.
No, Mr. Wagner, you did not win that special election in York County all by yourself.
Rather, we, the hard working campaign volunteers won it for you, by getting fired up people out to every polling place in the district and demonstrating to the voters that we, the people, wanted you to be elected. Voters saw our passion and responded by handing the GOPe a tough and well-deserved loss.
No, you did not create that trucking business as you constantly claim, you inherited a good portion of it.
Two days ago at a dog-and-pony show press event, Scott Wagner released a phony "internal" poll result saying that he already leads in this primary race by 50.2% to Paul Mango's 20-something percent.
Flanking Wagner was the chairman and the vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, the same GOPe that Wagner once opposed but which he has now shamelessly joined. Wagner's willingness to trade his political independence for political gain with the same old political insiders is another indication that he is not a straight-up guy. Rather, Wagner is just another aggressive political opportunist willing to sell his grandma and his former supporters to get ahead.
The message of having the two GOP political bosses next to him at the event is simple: "Vote for our insider stooge here."
But if Wagner is already so far ahead in the polls, then why does he need the personal presence of political bosses at his press event? The whole thing is phony – the supposed poll (two other recent polls show a statistical dead heat between Mango and Wagner, with also-ran Laura Ellsworth in the single digits), the fake political endorsement, his supposed political independence. One thing is for sure, Scott Wagner is now yet just another political insider, trying to use every object around him to gain power and prestige. Just like he used and then discarded us campaign volunteers to get into the state senate.
Wagner's political views have spanned the full spectrum, from great to crazy left, like his transvestite bathroom bill sponsorship.
Will the real Scott Wagner please stand up? Without screaming at anyone, please.
Contrast this chaotic mess to his primary opponent Paul Mango.
Paul Mango is about as exciting as watching the grass grow.
He is soft-spoken, measured, very smart and articulate on policy, and to me, mostly boring. Though he has gotten better at public presentations as time has gone on.
Is Mango the fiery revolutionary that Scott Wagner was four years ago? Nope.
Neither is Scott Wagner.
Is Mango the political trench warfare conservative that Wagner used to be, and which many of us wish for more each day? Nope.
Mango is a work horse, not a show horse.
Instead of having all of Wagner's drama and duplicity, Mango is a simple guy with true blue collar working class roots, who put himself through West Point and became a real-deal warrior in the US Army 101st Rangers, and who went on to build a career for himself that put him at the financial top of American society. Not to mention his all-American family. He is a US Army veteran who served our nation, thank you very much.
Mango is the all-American rags-to-riches story every American politician wishes to be, and which Wagner has tried to falsely claim he is.
This is why I am voting for Paul Mango and not for Scott Wagner.
You make up your own mind on this race, and you should also know I made up my mind through direct experience with both candidates. Sometimes it isn't just how great a candidate is, but also how awful the other guy is.
Mango is good enough, Wagner is awful.
Speaking of campaign contributions
Is anyone tallying the in-kind political campaign contributions donated by the US media, Google, FakeBook, Twitter, and the rest of Silicon Valley to one particular political party?
The hoopla surrounding the pairing of FakeBook user data with Cambridge Analytica sounds like someone committed a crime. But that is only because conservatives did it, and they actually paid money for it. As opposed to Google and FakeBook, which practically lived full-time at the Obama White House.
For free. As in they donated their private user data to one political party for free. Without disclosure, without attribution.
Google and FakeBook in particular have been working hand-in-glove with just one political party, and especially with the past Obama administration, giving away user data for free, and artificially suppressing users opposed to the Obama revolution.
Recall how typing into the Google search engine variations of "Hillary Clinton crime criminal" would generate ridiculous results, like "Hillary Clinton's position on crime control" complete with a smiling glamor shot of Hillary Clinton. Nowhere in Google's search results would be anything about how Hillary Clinton was an actual criminal, or a suspected criminal who had been and was being criminally investigated.
That is worth money.
And how about that September 2016 Barron's Weekly, with the grinning glamor photo of Hillary Clinton under the headline "Time for President Hillary?"
This kind of free promotional advertising is worth huge bucks.
And the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times were all proud to openly promote Clinton and attack Republicans. Not just in their editorial pages, but in their "news." Their "news" reporting became wall-to-wall political advertising and attacks.
The US media has been an obvious mouthpiece for this one political party and its candidates, cheering them on and covering up for them. Big bucks, folks, huge contributions.
What's that you say, what about Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity?
Folks, if the US media just did their jobs as reporters – facts instead of activism – there would be no demand for Limbaugh or Fox News or Breitbart. Only because the media is a wholly owned subsidiary of one political party is there a demand for other views to be aired. And that is going to happen somewhere.
God forbid there are literally a handful of news outlets not controlled by the establishment media and their political party!
So what is the value of all this collusion between Google, and FakeBook, and Twitter? All the user data they gleefully provided to the Obama White House and the 2012 Obama campaign? You know, the private user data that the Obama campaign gloated about in public.
Someone needs to get to the bottom of this. I'd just ballpark the in-kind contribution value at about a billion dollars. At least. And none of it was officially disclosed on campaign disclosure documents.
All illegal behavior and political contributions, folks. A lot of fines, and maybe jail time for people. But because the chosen side did it, it's fine, apparently. Well, not to me, it isn't, despite the mainstream media's unwillingness to report it.
Get a special investigator and prosecutor on this right away. Hold these law-breakers accountable. Because we all really care about upholding the law, right?
By Josh • Posted in Fruit of Contemplation • No Comment
Second Letter to Candidate Josh Feldman
Dear Josh,
Congratulations, you did maintain your position on the ballot after our challenge. But you have traded away your credibility and integrity in the process.
I read the courtroom transcript of your March 17, 2017 testimony, and on page five you stated under oath that you consciously falsely signed two affidavits. Even though you have only been an active attorney for a grand total of 78 days, surely you know that affidavits are the bedrock of our legal system. A falsified affidavit undermines everything our legal system stands on and stands for. The person who falsifies an affidavit is obviously unqualified to fill a judicial role. You are unqualified, Josh. Your own court testimony impeached your own credibility.
Additionally, you have run for this magisterial seat on the representation of being "the only attorney" among the candidates. But you only became an active licensed attorney on March 2, 2017, the day before you filed your first set of ballot petitions. On page three of your court testimony, you admit that you do not actually practice law and have no court room experience, having become "inactive" just one month after bar admission and having been "retired" from 2010 until this March 2nd.
Your attorney information page on the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court says "I do not maintain professional liability insurance because I do not have private clients and have no possible exposure to possible malpractice actions."
So your biggest selling point is actually flim-flam, a faint technicality. What is the point of electing an attorney who has no experience actually being an attorney, and who right out of the gate violates the most important election laws to try to get ahead?
Josh, how on earth could your lawyer have allowed you to take the stand in your own defense at the ballot petition hearing? Do you not realize the self-damning testimony you gave in court?
Perhaps no one should be surprised, as your incompetent goofball lawyer Adam Klein now has yet one more loss to his credit. You have learned an expensive but important lesson: Just because a lawyer is smug and arrogant does not mean he is seriously up to the task of effectively representing you.
Josh, I pledged $250 toward the outcome not as some sort of silly bet or wager, but as a principled statement about my belief in personal accountability. My philosophy of government requires me to do this: I had put my name out there as a plaintiff in a formal complaint about your ballot petitions, and you stayed on the ballot. In that process we learned that you have poor character, your word means nothing, and you have greatly over-represented your qualifications.
So, Josh, you do get the enclosed $250 check, but you will get no apology from me, because when you took the stand in court you admitted to filing false affidavits on your ballot petitions. You impeached your own credibility. If you cannot be trusted to file basic honest paperwork, then what do the voters expect of you if you become a magistrate and sit in judgment of us? Your petitions were flawed, Josh, and remain so, even though they technically contained enough signatures to keep you cross-filed and on the ballot.
This whole experience is sad to me. You have hurt yourself through your own over-reach, and then you were further injured by poor legal counsel. I like the fact that you are a fellow small business owner, and I wish that you had earnestly run for office on that good qualification alone. People could respect you for that.
Josh First
Harrisburg City, PA
What is in a political "party"?
The Communist Party.
The Democrat Party.
The Republican Party.
What is the difference between these three and many other active political parties?
Their party agenda is what defines them.
Their cause, their unifying principles, their policies and political platforms, these are the things that separate political parties from one another.
All political parties have their own structure, their functionaries, their own bureaucracies, lawyers, and bosses. All have become self-interested organisms, influenced by a constellation of special interest groups. At a certain point, the party exists simply for its own benefit.
But what happens when these parties begin to bleed into one another, when they begin to blend across their boundaries and blur their boundaries? When they lose their distinctive appeal?
When political parties lose their way, do they lose their reason for being?
Although my own Republican Party has pledged overall to serve the taxpayers, plenty of fellow Republicans hold personal and official positions contrary to the interests of taxpayers, voters, and citizens. Their positions are subtle, often only visible in the important background decisions they make.
Many times in recent history, the Republican Party has been used as a weapon to silence voices of political activists who sought to return the brand to its more basic principles and its more elementary purpose, which would naturally be defined as the cause of liberty.
It is my own hope and the hope of many other dedicated citizens that the Republican Party, also known as the establishment, will stay out of any upcoming elections around Central Pennsylvania.
It is one thing for a candidate to ask, say, State Rep. Ron Marsico for his individual support, or to ask individual party committee members for their support. It is entirely another thing for the Dauphin County Republican Committee to endorse a candidate so that the Pennsylvania Republican Party can spend money to challenge a Republican candidate's nomination ballots, because he (or she) is too independent-minded. Or too "conservative." Or not enough in the pocket of some party boss.
My experience tells me that this controlling, anti-freedom behavior has happened so often that many political activists are inclined to become political Independents, which means that the Republican base, the most passionate Republican voters, become driven away from the party and become less interested in its success. We saw this with the past election, where former governor Tom Corbett had little street game. The people with the most passion were not going to do door-to-door for Corbett.
Even more worrisome is if the one-time Republican becomes an Independent candidate, or mounts a write-in campaign. Sure, these efforts may hurt the Republican Party's nominee, but if the party didn't want that independent-minded candidate in the first place, what right does anyone have to expect him to stay loyal to them?
Put another way, if some political boss doesn't want a certain candidate to get elected, then what expectation does that political boss have of earning the support of the candidate he opposed?
Put another way, if you don't want John to get elected, then why would John want you or your ally to get elected?
Do the Democrats have this problem? Sure. But that political party has become overrun with foreign policy extremism and anti-capitalism. Wealth redistribution is completely contrary to American founding principles, but it is nevertheless now a core of the Democrat Party.
That is sad, because at one time, the Democrats just wanted more opportunity for everyone. Now they want to take from one person and give to another person, which is theft.
But I am not a Democrat, so this is not my political problem.
My problem is with so-called Republicans who actually share a lot in common with liberal Democrats, but who stay in the Republican Party.
There are different ways a Republican can share values with a liberal. For example, a Republican staffer who believes in the supremacy of bureaucracy….despite bureaucracy being the enemy of freedom and individual liberty. Working from within the party, these functionaries stamp their own flavor on policy and principle alike, often softening edges and blurring lines, giving the voters fewer choices, more government intervention, and ultimately less liberty.
The same could be said for certain "Republican" lobbyists, whose connections to money, political funding, cause them to promote bad policies such as Common Core, which strikes deep at the heart of liberty. They would rather ally with liberals than support a conservative Republican candidate. People like this have great influence in the Republican Party. They influence its agenda, and the kind of decisions the apparatus supports.
If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing. I myself will stand for liberty, freedom, and opportunity for everyone. If that puts me and others like me at odds with some political party, then that says everything a voter needs to know about that party: It does not have your interests at heart.
I am a Republican because I hold old-fashioned, traditional American values, the kind of values that created America and kept her great for so long. I will vote for and support only those candidates who hold similar values. Regardless of what a party spokeswoman may say, a Republican Party that has no conservativism in it isn't really a Republican Party any longer, is it?
My take on tonight's Corbett – Wolf Debate, and Tom Brokaw's Plea for Control of Our Lives
Like a few thousand other attendees at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce dinner tonight, I sat in the audience and watched Governor Tom Corbett and Democrat nominee Tom Wolf debate each other, with reporter Dennis Owens moderating. Dennis was outstanding. I also stayed for the Tom Brokaw speech afterwards.
Here are the highlights as I see them:
1) Corbett beat Wolf hands-down, in substance, poise, accuracy, and humility. And damned if I am not still surprised. Given how insipid the Corbett campaign has been to date, I expected the worst performance from him tonight. That did not materialize.
2) While overall the debate was Dull vs Duller, and neither man was exciting or inspiring, the amazing fact is that Tom Corbett found his voice tonight. Tom Wolf talked in circles, kept stating that he is a businessman (six, seven times), mis-spoke ("the vast majority of married Pennsylvanians file separate tax reports"), spoke in vague generalities bordering on fluffy clouds and flying unicorns, and addressed none of the substantive issues pegged by moderator Dennis Owens or by Corbett.
3) Wolf seemed to play it safe, venturing nothing new, nothing specific. He did not even respond the to the Delaware Loophole questions posed to him. He simply ignored them. If he persists in this evasiveness, Corbett can catch up and beat him. Voters can now see it, and it ain't pretty. Corbett may be The Most Boring Man in the World, but Wolf looked completely unprepared to be governor.
4) Wolf's "I'll-know-it-when-I-see-it" response to policy and finance questions is not acceptable for a candidate to run a state government.
5) Corbett actually ate some humble pie, admitting that he is not a good communicator. Understatement, yes, but he is not a guy who likes to admit he's wrong. So that was big. Again, expectations for Corbett were super low, and he started out looking and sounding defeated. But even he recognized that he was beating Wolf, and his performance picked up as the debate went on.
Brokaw:
1) Ancient establishment reporter Tom Brokaw has a great voice, and lots of stage presence. He's good looking for a guy that old. He wrote a book about The Greatest Generation, so he must be a pretty great guy. That is the marketing, anyhow. His ideas run the gamut from standard liberal to downright contradictory and mutually-exclusive confused, to pathetic control freak.
2) Although Brokaw started talking about the Tea Party, and he complimented its members for getting involved in the political process (which he said is necessary), he never said or recognized the American Constitution as core to tea party's goals, values, principles, or guiding role. So although he talked about it, it didn't seem evident that he understands or has thought about the Tea Party much.
3) Brokaw said "I leave it to you determine if the Tea Party is good for America. I'm just a reporter, I just report the facts. You have to come to your own conclusions." As if he was not passing judgment on the Tea Party. Yet, he asked the question and obviously thinks the Tea Party is bad for America; that is his hint. Given that Brokaw is a liberal at war with America, this is a big cue to conservative activists: Keep it up, the liberal media establishment is scared of you.
4) He called for "filtration" and a "filter" of the internet, and talked about the "simple people" who manage his Montana ranch and get news from the Internet, which he disavowed and sees as unworthy. This is the kind of intellectual region where Brokaw makes no sense. On the one hand, the big establishment media is all over the Internet, so if people get their news from the Internet, and not TV chatterheads or fishwrap newspapers, then there's no real problem with the Internet as a news source. What Brokaw seemed to be challenged by is the fact that Breitbart and citizen reporters (think Watchdogwire, or my own blog) are circumventing the establishment media. He does not understand or care that the 'simple' masses are hungry for unfiltered news, for real news, for facts and not liberal agenda. How his imagined filters jibe, square, or conflict with the First Amendment was not mentioned; I am unsure it even occurred to Brokaw that purposefully filtering information is censorship. But he is a guy who believes in sixty years of past liberal censorship, so I guess he has to stay consistent today.
5) Brokaw implied that the establishment media are the source of accurate information and "big ideas," and that alternative news and opinion sources are not. He said he doesn't believe what he reads on the internet. He is clearly bothered there's now no difference between establishment media and bloggers and citizen reporters in terms of equal accessibility. He's having a tough time letting go of controlling the message Americans receive, which is really his objection: Liberal media elites are losing the propaganda war because they no longer have a choke hold on the information flow; ergo, the Internet is full of bad information.
An indication of just how undeveloped his thinking is: Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon…for Liberals, Nixon was the High Priest of Done Bad in Government. It does not seem to occur to Brokaw that Nixon's crimes pale in comparison to the lawless tyranny Obama has inflicted upon American citizens. E.g. NSA spying and IRS crushing of political dissent.
6) On the other hand, he's into high tech and the future of technology. Very impressed by Google staff and all of the "big minds" gathered at tech conventions. Brokaw doesn't reconcile his adulation with his view of information flow on the net. I am guessing here that he'd be OK if Google ran all the news on the Internet, because Google is made of liberals who share his political agenda. "Good" liberals and "bad" conservatives is what he is after.
7) Annoyingly, Brokaw dropped names all over the place, as if to impress us with how important he is: Jon Stewart, the NFL commissioner, et al. "I was emailing with ____ _____, and he says 'Tom..'." "My books." "I'm on the board of….." This seemed self-conscious and actually undermined his standing, because truly great people never look at themselves this way. They simply Are Great.
8) Finally, he called for a new form of foreign service corps, some hybrid of the Peace Corps, Americorps, and the military. It was terribly confused, but it was also the kind of Big Idea he admires others for having, so evidently he must have one, too, even of it makes no practical sense.
Cantor loss is shocking only to those who are not paying attention
Yes, yes, yes, Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) was an important man, high up, famous, powerful…blah blah blah. And he lost his five-million dollar primary campaign to a grass roots candidate who spent a couple hundred thousand dollars.
Hey, Republican establishment folks, are you now paying attention?
Do you maybe now understand what so many of your own voters have been telling you for years?
To wit: America is worth saving, and it can only be saved by breaking from the creeping Big Government identity of "moderate" Republicans. That means No on amnesty, No on gun control, No on universal background checks aka gun owners database, No on ObamaDon'tCare.
In other words, Hell Yes on freedom and liberty.
Cantor failed on these issues, and his voters punished him for it.
While the NRA lost out to Gun Owners of America in this race, probably no group was more closely identified with Cantor, and the Republican establishment around him, than the Republican Jewish Coalition, a nice group I have had some exposure to. Sadly, RJC mishandled Cantor's loss in a gargantuan way that may spell the organization's descent or even demise. In many ways, Tuesday night's RJC is emblematic of the larger Republican establishment, which also seems determined to drive itself over a cliff.
Late Tuesday night, 11:26 PM, to be exact, the RJC issued a brief lamentation about Cantor's electoral loss and how great Cantor was and blah blah blah.
Did RJC acknowledge that REPUBLICAN voters had spoken? Nope. Did RJC congratulate the winner, economics professor David Brat? Nope. Did RJC publicly stake out hopes for Brat to follow closely in Cantor's pro-Israel shoes? Nope.
Instead, RJC came across as soundly rejecting the wisdom of REPUBLICAN voters in Cantor's former district, and failing to acknowledge the Big Government issues of a) gun (citizen) control and b) illegal aliens, who are destroying American democracy, disenfranchising American voters, and robbing American taxpayers.
RJC may be a small group with great intentions, but Tuesday night, they were the lost voice for the entire Republican Establishment. And it shows just how out of touch the establishment is with the American citizen. Every conservative activist who reads the RJC statement will wonder what the hell is in the DC Beltway water, because it sure isn't anything they'd want to drink.
The folks who ran and funded Cantor's campaign, who issued public statements for him, who stood by him when he wafted in the wind on critical issues, and who bewailed his loss, are incredibly out of touch with the actual voters, taxpayers, citizens, moms, dads, students, and out-of-work-car-won't-run Americans who are slowly, surely, awakening to the crisis we are in, and who are not not shocked that Cantor lost.
But the experts…they are shocked.
What does this portend or mean to Pennsylvanians? Here is one suggestion: Political parties are supposed to represent the voters and stand for principles. Once the PA GOP returns to that model, winning elections will be easy.
By Josh • Posted in Government Of the People..., Immigration • No Comment
Tom Wolf, you confuse me
Tom Wolf is a candidate for Pennsylvania governor.
He appears to be the front-runner in his party's primary race. For a number of reasons, he has the greatest amount of voter name recognition and support.
Why candidate Katie McGinty is not taking off, I don't know. Katie is charismatic, maintains a million-dollar smile, and knows how to effectively communicate with people. She is both infuriatingly liberal and also, in my direct experience, surprisingly capable of being pragmatic and non-ideological. McGinty's A-rating from the anti-freedom group CeaseFirePA hurts her; Wolf got a C from them, which helps in freedom-friendly Pennsylvania. Why he didn't get a D, and then really strut his individual liberty credentials, is confusing.
Wolf lacks charisma, but seems to make up for it with his honest-to-goodness aw-shucks folksy way.
Here's what really confuses me about Wolf: He is a business man who advocates for policies that are bad for business, like an additional tax on over-taxed natural gas.
Tom Wolf, you will probably challenge Tom Corbett for governor. I am a small business owner and I want to see more from you that is business friendly. Otherwise, I remain confused by you.
Is it time to recall PA AG Kane?
In 2012, Pennsylvania's Attorney General Kathleen Kane campaigned on being fresh, new, unconnected to party politics. She challenged the ultimate Republican insider, and crushed him by a good 15%. Kane became Pennsylvania's first Democrat AG only because so many Republican voters defected from the GOP and voted for Kane.
Within six months into her four-year tenure, signs were evident that she was not this politically dispassionate, politically disconnected professional and fair-minded arbiter she represented herself to be.
Rather, it became clear that she was politically correct (dogmatically liberal) and willing to use the AG office to score partisan political points, going so far as to choose not to enforce or defend state laws with which she personally disagrees. That right there is pretty much the end of democratic government, when elected officials stop enforcing laws they personally disagree with. Democracy only works if everyone agrees that whatever the law is, it is, and it is the law of the land until it is changed.
Kane's icing on the cake was to cold-stop an investigation of four Democrat elected officials in the Philadelphia area. Kane does not deny that the four had been caught on tape or video taking bribes. One of the officials can be heard saying "Well, happy birthday to [me]!" as he pockets a wad of illegal cash.
In what stinks of political favoritism, Kane simply made up a lame excuse and stopped the ongoing investigation of obvious official corruption.
When Kane was called out about it by the Philadelphia Inquirer, a newspaper unused to criticizing Democrats, she showed up to a meeting with the paper's board with her libel lawyer in tow. A subsequent show of legal force and more open threats of a lawsuit against her critics, by Kane, has only made things worse for her. But she is not backing down. Mind you, the Inquirer merely reported the facts; the paper did not ascribe motive or allege that Kane herself was part of the cash scandal. So it is hard to see what kind of libel suit this elected official thought she was going to actually win. Intimidation was her first and last approach, however, which tells you all you need to know about her very low quality as an elected official.
Additionally, Philadelphia City DA Seth Williams, a Democrat, has criticized Kane for ending the investigation. Seth and I were close friends while students at Penn State, and yes, he is an active Democrat, and he is also a straight shooter.
Now, Kane says she supports another newspaper's open records effort to get the documents about the terminated investigation. Well, actually, after opposing it, Kane only now supports releasing "certain" documents; you know, the documents that support her position. The investigation's documents that will cast her political activism in a bad light, well, they should remain sealed, she says.
Governor Tom Corbett may well be a one-term governor, which presently it appears is his sad destiny, if the polling data is even close to accurate. Well, folks, let's make this Kathleen Kane a half-term AG. She is incompetent, she is politicizing Pennsylvania's established laws, and she is using blunt force legal intimidation to blunt honest criticism of her official job performance. Let's start a recall of AG Kane, and get someone in that office who is a plain vanilla enforcer of The Law, as that role is supposed to be.
In an ideal world, party affiliation should not matter in the AG office. I myself am partial to the potential AG candidacy of Ed Marsico, Dauphin County's present District Attorney. Marsico is an honest guy, a hard working guy, and has shown few partisan inclinations in his day to day work of making Dauphin County a safe place to live and work. Marsico would be a big enough improvement over Kane to warrant a recall effort against her. Surely there are other professional-grade DAs out there, too, who also would qualify to fill out the remainder Kane's term.
Let's get that recall effort started and Pennsylvania's law enforcement back on track.
UPDATE: How on earth could I forget? Kane is having some difficulty investigating the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, where cash gifts and other toxic ethics violations have occurred recently. Now….why would Kane have such a tough time bringing to bear her full weight on such obviously corrupt violations of Pennsylvania laws? Why, it would not perhaps happen to be the presence of KANE TRUCKING contracts with the PLCB, right? The KANE TRUCKING contracts with the PLCB are worth millions of dollars to Kathleen Kane, personally. Got it. Fox guarding the henhouse here. Good old fashioned corruption, at least on the face of it. Time to end this sick experiment, and send Mrs. Moneybags Kane home.
Official lawlessness about to become unimaginable
My Aunt Jess
FBI now officially a Democrat Party political weapon
Democrat Party steals White House – A-OK, Americans briefly occupy their own Capitol – 'arrest everyone'
January 6th DC Protest: I was there, what really happened
Fruit of Contemplation (223)
Government Of the People… (684)
Josh First's Blog © 2021 •


text:
David Miliband On The Worldwide Refugee Crisis
Steve Bynum, Jerome McDonnell
Paula Friedrich/WBEZ
International Rescue Committee President and CEO David Miliband visits the WBEZ studios on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017.
More than 65 million people have been displaced around the world, a tragic threshold that hasn't been reached since World War II, according to the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees.
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David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee, said the international community has failed to give proper aid and protection to people who have been displaced.
"My perspective is that it's a tragedy that some of the most vulnerable and persecuted people in the world should almost be persecuted twice over," Miliband said on Worldview.
"They get expelled from their homes by civil war, and then they're told by Western countries either 'you can't come here' or 'we're going to cut the foreign aid budget so you're not going to get help where you are.'"
Miliband, who wrote a book on the refugee crisis that's out next month, also served as Britain's secretary for foreign and commonwealth affairs from 2007 to 2010. He told Worldview host Jerome McDonnell that he joined the International Rescue Committee partly for political reasons and partly for personal reasons.
"My dad was a refugee from Belgium in 1940, (and) my mom a refugee from Poland in 1946," he said.
Below are highlights from their conversation.
On what makes a refugee
David Miliband: What (the Refugee Convention of 1951) said was that if you had a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of ethnicity or politics or religion, then you had a right to safe harbor and safe haven in a neighboring or other country. And that remains the definition today: If it's not safe for you to be sent home, then you qualify as a refugee. …
Whether you land as a Syrian refugee in Jordan or a Burmese refugee in Germany or the United States, the test is: "Is it safe for you to be sent home?" And if it's not safe for you to be sent home, then the country to which you've arrived has a responsibility not to send you there.
Jerome McDonnell: Does it seem like the developing countries who host most of the refugees understand the Refugee Convention better than developed countries?
Miliband: That's a great point. I was in Uganda a few months ago. That's a country that's received a million refugees in the last year from South Sudan. And just remember, the U.S. is going to accept 45,000 refugees over the next year — that's the recent Trump administration announcement.
And in Uganda, I found there's a profound sense of duty. They're saying, "Yes, it's very difficult for us that a million refugees have arrived from South Sudan. Yes, it's true that average annual income in Uganda is only about $1,000 a year. But, these people looked after us when we were expelled under Idi Amin in the 1970s or the 1980s, and we're determined to provide safe harbor for them until they go back."
Why prolonged displacement requires an improved humanitarian aid system
Miliband: The tragedy is that today's civil wars last longer and longer. Less than 1 percent of the world's refugees went home last year. And that's why people like me argue that we have to update our humanitarian aid system, so it's not just keeping people alive, it's giving them the education and employment opportunities that allow them to make a new life.
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On overcoming old assumptions
Miliband: The second World War seemed like a long war, but it went on for six years and people went home afterwards. Now, the tragedy today is that once you've been a refugee for five years, the average duration of displacement goes up to 21 years. And that means you're in a whole new ballgame when it comes to what's the kind of provision for you.
The old assumption was you keep people in a camp, you keep bodies and souls together and then they go home. Today, 60 percent of refugees are in urban areas. They're in places like Istanbul, or the capital of Uganda, Kampala, or in the capital of Jordan, Iman, or even across Pakistan, Islamabad, or Lahore. So it's an urban phenomenon where employment, education — half of all refugees are kids, so you've got a massive educational crisis. Those sort of policy provisions are not addressed in the Refugee Convention.
How multiplying disasters make supporters feel helpless
Miliband: There is a fear on my part that when people hear about Myanmar, then they hear about Syria and Raqqah, then they hear about the Iraq situation, then Yemen as well, it's almost like they throw their hands up and say, "Oh my goodness, this is too much. I can't do anything about it."
For an organization like mine, we do face real barriers on the ground to us doing our work, but the greatest barrier is in the mind, because it's the fear among our supporters that we can't make a difference.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. Click the "play" button to listen to the entire conversation, which was adapted to the web by producer Justin Bull.
Chicago Imam Visits Burma's Rohingya Refugees
UN Failures on Rohingya Unveiled
Chicago Rohingya React To Genocide In Myanmar


VMAX Tizen SDK is designed to integrate Ads and monetize your Tizen applications. VMAX provides support for Ads in Tizen Native, Unity and Web applications.
Will this also need firmware updates for mobile to support this ad framework?
Or ads will just show up on existing Tizen versions?
VMAX AD SDK doesn't need firmware update. You can install VMAX Ad SDK for Native/Web as an extension SDK and start integrating with your application.
which is better vmax or inmobi?
you can tell me that this question is out of course.


Our needs are forever evolving. We want our digital devices to be smarter, faster, better. Let's face it: There is limited space on the dashboard. It is petite and yet functions perfectly well.
Compatible with Apple devices including the iPhone, iPod and iPad.
Compatible with all cell phones including Samsung, Apple, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia,Blackberry and many many more. Plug type: US Standard.
Dual USB Port. Compatible with Apple devices including the iPhone, iPod and iPad. New compact travel design. Designed to fit conveniently into a vehicle's power socket.
With smart technology, you can identify specific devices and ensure maximum charging efficiency. Apply to: MP4,MP3,Ipad Mini,iPhone 5/5S,Phones,Other AC and USB Appliances,iPhone 4/4s/iPod/iPad 2/The Nwe iPad,Samsung Phones,iPhone 4/4s/iPod/iPad 2/The New iPad.
HTC One 10 (Lifestyle) A9, M9 / M8, HTC Desire Eye, HTC One remix. LG G5 G4, LG G Flex2, LG V10. Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge / S6 / S6 Edge / Edge Plus, Note 5 / Note 4 / Edge. iPhone 8 /8 Plus/ 7/ 7 Plus/ 6/6S/ 6/6S Plus/ 5/5S/SE/ 5C.
Backward compatible with QC 1.0 and 2.0 Technology. LG G5 G4, LG G Flex2, LG V10. Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge / S6 / S6 Edge / Edge Plus, Note 5 / Note 4 / Edge. iPhone 8 /8 Plus/ 7/ 7 Plus/ 6/6S/ 6/6S Plus/ 5/5S/SE/ 5C.