John McCain, Arizona Republican, Two-Time Presidential Candidate and Decorated Navy Vet, Dies at 81

Source: PBS NewsHour

Statement from Governor Andrew Cuomo 

"America lost one of her greatest warriors today. "At a time of political division and hostility, Senator McCain was a maverick who was willing to put principles above party. While I did not always agree with his positions, he was a public servant who indisputably aimed to put country over party. 

"When he spoke to the Naval Academy in October 2017, Senator McCain offered lessons 'about sacrificing for something more important than yourself,' and about 'the meaning and responsibilities of honor.' Few people knew more about that word than he did. 

"John McCain championed bipartisan efforts to implement campaign finance reform and build a fairer immigration system. And his historic vote to save the Affordable Care Act - with a memorable thumbs down - protected health care for millions of Americans. 

"It was not just his well-known heroism in the Vietnam War, and the extraordinary ordeal he endured as a prisoner of war. John McCain gave his life in service to this nation, exemplifying all that we admire in a hero. He was a warrior and a statesman, in the old-fashioned sense. In his own way, he spoke truth to power. He criticized Republicans and Democrats alike. John McCain criticized all of us. Because in his mind, those of us who are privileged to hold public office can never work hard enough for the people of this country. He was right. 

"He was born before the Second World War, and in many ways he seemed like a hero from the greatest generation, if not from a much older time. We know how much he sacrificed for his country; though he was never one to complain. We know it all the more powerfully because of his reticence to talk about it. He never boasted in any way. Yet he was the embodiment of courage and sacrifice. 

"Near the end of his commencement address in Annapolis, he urged his young audience to avoid a 'polarized politics, which exaggerates our differences' and 'looks for scapegoats instead of answers.' He knew war, and he knew politics, and he knew that they did not have to resemble each other as much as they do. 

"Let all Americans unite, as he wanted us to, in honoring one of the finest public servants in our history. He was a Republican who loved this Republic. He was a democrat - small d - who stood for the best of democracy. Godspeed, Senator McCain." 

Source: The Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

The Unexplained: Strange Imprints Found Miles Down on Ocean Floor

YouTube's "Secure Team 10" channel does an exceptional job of investigating extraterrestrial and paranormal cases. This recent report is extremely intriguing. 

Source: secureteam10

No, a Teen Did Not Hack a State Election

 

Hacking conference organizers said kids had hacked “exact clones” of state election reporting websites, but that didn’t happen. 

by Lilia Chang

Headlines from Def Con, a hacking conference held this month in Las Vegas, might have left some thinking that infiltrating state election websites and affecting the 2018 midterm results would be child’s play.

Articles reported that teenage hackers at the event were able to “crash the upcoming midterm elections” and that it had taken “an 11-year-old hacker just 10 minutes to change election results.” A first-person account by a 17-year-old in Politico Magazine described how he shut down a website that would tally votes in November, “bringing the election to a screeching halt.”

But now, elections experts are raising concerns that misunderstandings about the event — many of them stoked by its organizers — have left people with a distorted sense of its implications.

In a website published before r00tz Asylum, the youth section of Def Con, organizers indicated that students would attempt to hack exact duplicates of state election websites, referring to them as “replicas” or “exact clones.” (The language was scaled back after the conference to simply say “clones.”)

Click here for the full article. 

Source: ProPublica

The Government’s Argument That Reality Winner Harmed National Security Doesn’t Hold Up. Here’s Why.

By Trevor Timm

Whistleblower Reality Winner was officially sentenced to 63 months in prison on Thursday, after a federal judge rubber-stamped a plea deal already agreed to by the prosecution and Winner’s lawyers. As the prosecution acknowledged, it is the longest sentence for a journalist’s source in federal court history.

The defense agreed to the plea deal in part to bring closure to Winner and her family. Her mother, Billie Winner-Davis, said when the plea was first announced that it was in her daughter’s “best interest” since the Espionage Act does not afford her any public interest defense.

But it should not bring closure to the crucial issues raised by this case, namely, the Justice Department’s contention that “national security” claims by the executive branch can never be challenged; that the executive branch has the sole authority to decide when information should be secret; and that the DOJ can prosecute journalists’ sources for “harming” national security with no public evidence whatsoever.

At issue in Winner’s case is a document she leaked to a news outlet. The Intercept published an article on June 5, 2017 about a five-page National Security Agency report that detailed how alleged Russian hackers targeted election vendors with phishing attacks in an attempt to access voters rolls in several states. The Intercept was not aware of the identity of the source who provided the document, though other news organizations connected it to Winner.

Click here for the full article.

Source: The Intercept_

Mother of NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner: My Daughter Was 'Nailed to the Door' by the Trump Administration

Source: Democracy Now!

Hurricane Lane Churns Closer to Hawaii, Dumping Heavy Rain

Source: CBS News

Sen. John McCain 'Sorely Missed on Capitol Hill' as Cancer Takes Toll

Source: CBS News

U.S.-Turkey Tensions Impact Economies Around the World

Source: CBS News

З днем незалежності! (Celebrating Ukraine's Renewed Independence)

The following statement was submitted by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA). 

Української Конґресовий Комітет Америки (УККА) щиро вітає Українсько-Американську громаду і українців у всьому світі з 27-річчям відновлення незалежности України.

Святкуючи чергову річницю, не забуваймо також вшанувати пам'ять тих, які віддали своє життя, щоб Україна була вільною і віддаймо данину тим, хто сьогодні продовжує захищати цю свободу.

УККА залишається об'єднаний в рішучому намірі надалі підтримувати боротьбу України і наше переконання є, що Боже Провидіння дасть їм силу і мудрість в цей важкий час, щоби мир скоріше повернувся в Україну.

Слава Україні!

On this 27th Anniversary of Ukraine’s renewed Independence, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), sends its warmest greetings and salutations to Ukrainians throughout the world.

May the Lord bless the Ukrainian people and grant them the wisdom and fortitude to secure their sovereignty and restore their territorial integrity during this difficult time for our homeland.    

Slava Ukraiini!

 

2018 also marks 100 years since the declaration of modern Ukrainian statehood with the formation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1918, an event that was observed for decades in throughout the Ukrainian Diaspora and recognized throughout the United States.
 

This September, several of the world's most knowledgeable scholars of Ukrainian history, hailing from the United States, Canada and Ukraine, will gather in New York City to present at a special conference entitled: “Commemorating the Ukrainian National Republic and Its Legacy”. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Center for US-Ukrainian Relations, the co-sponsoring organizations, invite the Ukrainian American community to attend this landmark conference, examining the scope and ultimate meaning of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) – the predecessor of the modern Ukrainian state – and the legacy it engendered.

This special Ukrainian Historical Encounters Series gathering will take place in New York City at the Princeton Club of New York on Saturday, September 22, 2018. 

Following the forum, the day will conclude with an Evening Banquet attended by high-level government officials from the United States and Ukraine, who will reflect upon current affairs in Ukraine.

For more information, or to register for this conference and/or the evening banquet, please contact the UCCA National Office either by phone at (212) 228-6840 or email to tolexy@ucca.org. 

What's Behind the Recent Political Unrest in Uganda?

Ebola in the DRC: Death Toll Rises in Second Outbreak

Yemen: Air Raids Kill Dozens of Children

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Ousted, Scott Morrison Sworn In

Source: FRANCE 24 English

Airline Companies Leave Iran: 'More Bad News for Tehran and the Iranian Economy'

Source: FRANCE 24 English

From 'Fiddler on the Roof' to Netanyahu's Israel. How Did We Get from A to B?

By  Steven Jonas 

Two days ago I saw the Yiddish-language version of the classic Broadway musical, "Fiddler on the Roof." I had been fortunate enough to have seen the original production, with the great Zero Mostel playing the lead character, Tevye, on Broadway in the 1960s. I had also seen the movie that was made of it in 1971 as well as the recent revival on Broadway. The Yiddish version was first created in Israel, back in the 1960s. It has been performed infrequently since then, never in the United States. In the various English-language productions that I have seen, "Fiddler" has always been a mixture of musical comedy, dance (particularly in the recent Broadway revival) with some drama. In Yiddish, the show becomes quite something else again.

I do not, unfortunately, speak Yiddish. The last of my ancestors to arrive in the U.S., my maternal grandfather Jacob Kyzor, came here from England in 1895. His parents were Russian Jews how somehow got to the East End of London in the 1860s, but Grandpa Jacob did not talk about them. They presumably spoke Yiddish and Grandpa presumably did too. But by the time I knew him, in the 1940s, he spoke only (unaccented) English. His wife, Grandma Lil, was the descendant of Sephardim who arrived on these shores in 1849 from Holland, so there was no Yiddish there either.

As for my father's side, his grandfather and grandmother arrived from Poland (the city of Wroclaw, in those days Breslau in the Prussian Empire) in 1867. They presumably spoke Yiddish, but the language did not make its way down neither through my paternal grandfather Henry nor his wife, Rena, a German Jew (and they certainly did not speak Yiddish). Why do I go through all of this family history? Because while I do not speak Yiddish and am an atheist and a member of the City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in New York City, I have a very strong Jewish identity inherited from my father Prof. Harold J. Jonas. Regular readers of mine will perhaps remember a recent column which consisted primarily of a republication of a paper of his on the problem of the Jewish refugees from the Nazis in Europe in 1939, with no place to go.

For the "Fiddler"-in-Yiddish audience, which consisted almost entirely of Russian and English speakers, there were very well-done Russian and English super-titles. It happens that I speak some German so I did understand a word of the Yiddish here and there. As to the nature of the show, as I said above, in English it is "a mixture of musical comedy, dance (particularly in the recent Broadway revival) with some drama." In Yiddish, for me at least it is quite something else again. It becomes a tragedy with some humorous highlights. Why? Because in Yiddish, for many of us, even non-Yiddish speakers, a language of impend doom, the story is driven towards its tragic ending. That is, on three days' notice all of the Jewish families have lived in the fictional village of Anetevka in Ukraine for several centuries, are given notice to leave, on the order of the Czar. It was to be forcibly implemented by groups of Ukrainians (presumably ancestors of the Nazis who fought alongside the Wehrmacht in World War II and currently form part of the U.S.-supported Ukrainian government.)

Click here for the full article. 

Source: OpEdNews

New York’s Yeshiva Students Deserve Better

By The New York Times Editorial Board

In 2015, concerned parents, teachers and former students filed a complaint to New York City’s Department of Education charging that 39 ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in the city failed to give children a basic education, violating state law that requires instruction to be “substantially equivalent” to that in public schools.

Three years later, virtually nothing has been done to hold the schools to legal standards, as politicians have ducked their responsibility rather than challenge leaders of one of the city’s most powerful voting blocs. In a city with low turnout, candidates often covet the support of these communities, which reliably tend to vote based on the guidance of religious leaders.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration says it has visited only 15 of those schools, called yeshivas, and been denied access to 15 others. It said nine others that were subjects of the complaint were either closed or didn’t offer K-12 education. A lawyer for a group representing the schools denies that investigators were barred and said the accusations were unfounded in the first place.

Click here for the full article.

Trump Organization Could Face Criminal Charges from Manhattan D.A.

By William K. Rashbaum

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is considering pursuing criminal charges against the Trump Organization and two senior company officials in connection with Michael D. Cohen’s hush money payment to an adult film actress, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter.

A state investigation would center on how the company accounted for its reimbursement to Mr. Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who has said she had an affair with President Trump, the officials said.

Both officials stressed that the office’s review of the matter is in its earliest stages and prosecutors have not yet made a decision on whether to proceed.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: The New York Times (via Empire Report New York) 

New York Health Officials Investigating McDonald's Breakfast Sandwiches After Ilnesses

By Lauren Hirsch

The New York State Department of Health and the Chautauqua County Health Department are investigating whether breakfast sandwiches sold at a McDonald's in Jamestown made people sick.

Twenty-two McDonald's diners reported nausea, vomiting or diarrhea from Aug. 4 to Aug. 21, the agencies said in a press release Thursday. In interviews with 15 of those individuals, the agencies discerned that all 15 had eaten breakfast sandwiches at the fast food chain.

Click here for summary. 

Source: CNBC (via Empire Report New York) 

Catholic Charities Ending Foster Care, Adoption Services

Source: News10 WHEC

IRS Stops States’ Attempts To Save SALT Deduction

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center: Tracking Hurricane Lane

 

Click here to obtain the latest information.

WSJ: National Enquirer Publisher David Pecker Granted Immunity

Washington Journal: Possible Pardons by President Trump

Wall Street Journal Congressional Reporter Byron Tau talked about possible pardons by President Trump in the Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort criminal cases.

Click here for video. 

Source: C-SPAN 

Cenk Uygur on Progressive Opposition to the Trump Presidency

Uygur spoke via video link from Los Angeles. He also reacted to two previous-day events: the guilty plea by President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen and the guilty verdict in the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. 

This report was broadcast on August 22. 

Click here for video.

Source: C-SPAN 

AG Sessions Releases Statement Defending the Justice Department

 

 

Source: C-SPAN

'Future Hope' Column: Trump on the Ropes—What About Pence?

By Ted Glick

It looks bad for Trump and good for the democratic resistance. Hallelujah!

With Michael Cohen publicly implicating Trump in criminal activity, at the same time that Paul Manafort was convicted for his sleazy criminality, an end game is coming into view.

Given the political period we are in, with Republicans in big trouble as the November 6 elections approach, it seems almost impossible that Robert Mueller will be prevented from carrying through his investigation to its end, as he defines it. And it is clear that Mueller is determined to get to the truth of the criminal activity that was going on with Trump, his family and their co-conspirators in 2015, 2016 and since.

Robert Kuttner, writing in The American Prospect, put it clearly:

“The end game could unfold in one of two ways. Democrats could take back the House, begin an impeachment, pile up overwhelming evidence of impeachable offenses, and put intolerable political pressure on Republican senators to vote to convict.

“More likely, it seems to me, is that when the next round of Mueller’s findings of collusion with the Russians, longstanding business fraud, and obstruction of justice comes out, senior Republicans will decide that enough is enough and that it’s time to cut their losses.

 

“Leaders will broker a deal in which Trump resigns in exchange for himself and members of his family being spared criminal conviction. Trump will take the deal. In the same way that the Nixon end game came abruptly when Republicans concluded that they could no longer defend him, Trump’s will come abruptly, too.”

 

Click here for the full article. 

 

Source: tedglick.com 

Oleg Sentsov's Hunger Strike: Editor of 'The Ukrainian Weekly' Provides an Analysis

By Matthew Dubas

The 42-year-old filmmaker, who has been on a hunger strike for the past 100 days, sits in a Russian jail and has been there since 2014, the year Russian military and special forces seized Crimea, Mr. Sentsov's homeland Ukraine.

The Kremlin shows no signs of caving to Western pressure to release this innocent man, who Russia claims is a terrorist, for his statement that Crimea is Ukraine and his refusal against taking forced Russian citizenship. Russia saw this as such a threat to its agenda that it sentenced him to 20 years in a Siberian prison. In Russia, a different opinion can get you thrown in jail.

Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemiliev, who is banned from entering Crimea by Russia (which occupies the peninsula and is using it for military purposes in the Black Sea and to project an image of power in the region in an attempt to destabilize the West and its allies), has urged Sentsov to quit the hunger strike and not give his tormentors the satisfaction of his death by his own hand (as his captors would say). Mr. Dzhemiliev is a Soviet-era dissident who went on a hunger strike for over 80 days to protest against the regime before being force-fed via a feeding tube.

So what can be done? We can hope to change Sentsov's mind to end the hunger strike in the interest of continuing the fight that so many Ukrainians today and before him, as well as other Soviet citizens have endured in their struggle against the totalitarian system.

The Soviet system imploded because of the incapacity of the centralized structure of the government to respond to market demands and changes, much of that system has remained unchanged under Putinism, as evidenced by the state-run oil and gas monopoly companies Rosneft and Gazprom, which Russia has weaponized as a foreign policy tool.

What the response comes down to is based on political will. Russia is doing everything it can to undermine European unity and a crippling response in the face of Russian aggression.

The U.S. has led the way on sanctions in response to Russia's chemical weapons attack in the U.K. Even the U.K. has not responded with sanctions regarding that attack on its own soil, leaving many asking why? A delayed response is better than no response at all. This vacuum of leadership in Europe is something that Putin has taken full advantage of, beginning with Georgia in 2008, Ukraine since 2014 and Syria, as it flaunts international law without consequence, thanks to its veto vote at the U.N. Security Council.

Russia's ties with Austria (Nord Stream 2 tech and business interests) and Hungary (nuclear power plants from Russia and energy), and to a lesser extent, Germany, show a mood of getting back to business as usual as seen with the promotion of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline by certain sectors of the political and business circles. Russia's influence in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Serbia and others should be the focus of Europe's actions to strengthen solidarity, but Russia does not seem to be a threat according to these countries.

Similar lobbying efforts by Russia are underway across Europe and the U.S., but more widespread and targeted U.S. sanctions against Russia are on the way, some have already been implemented and some are set to go into effect in November. Already the ruble is sliding, the Russian economy is shrinking and Russian billionaires are being downgraded to millionaires, with pension reform leaving a bad taste in the Russian peoples' mouths, bringing them out onto the streets of major Russian cities by the tens of thousands. The Russian people, it seems, are the ones who have the power to stop Putinism, while the regime would like the people to think that they are powerless to change things (as is the case with all authoritarian systems).

 

Matthew Dubas is editor of the The Ukrainian Weekly. The newspaper is distributed throughout the United States and Canada and serves as a major source of news and information for the Ukrainian-American community. He has reported on many of the country’s political and social conflicts and worked with ambassadors, politicians, policy advisers, activists and scholars on a range of issues concerning Ukraine. The views expressed by Mr. Dubas do not necessarily reflect those of the publication's management or editorial staff. 

White Nationalism in the White House: Administration Faces New Revelations About Ties to Far Right

Source: Democracy Now!

Sen. Rounds Says Trump Supporters Still Like His Policies, If Not His Personal Behavior

This report was published on YouTube on August 22. 

Source: PBS NewsHour

Democrats to Vote on Overhauling Superdelegate System

Source: CBS News

Reality Winner Sentenced to More Than 5 Years

Source: CBS News

Trump Dives Into Controversy Over South Africa's Land Policies and Farmer Killings

Source: CBS News

Gaza Killings: Israeli Army Launches Investigation

Beleaguered Australian PM Turnbull Clings to Power

China Tariffs Damaging US Wine Industry

This report was published on YouTube on August 22.

Brazil Plans to Relocate Venezuelan Migrants After Attacks

This report was published on YouTube on August 22.

Trump Claims Markets Would Crash If He Was Impeached

Source: euronews.

British Government Publishes No-Deal Brexit Guidelines

Source: euronews.

Police Union Proposes $500 Reward For Good Samaritans Who Help Officers Arrest Suspects

This report was published on August 22.

National Action Network Issues Response to the Proposal

NEW YORK — Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights leader and President of National Action Network (NAN) released the following statement on the Sergeant Benevolent Association’s (SBA) decision to offer $500 cash award to any civilian who helps cops wrestle suspects who resist arrest, as well as New York State Senator Marty Golden’s recent legislation to shield civilians from potential civil liability incurred from interference. 

“We at National Action Network are disgusted but not at all surprised by Ed Mullins’, State Senator Marty Golden, and the entire Sergeant Benevolent Association’s most recent reminder to Black and Brown New Yorkers that not only do they not care about our lives — but they are actively seeking to take our lives. This attempt to exacerbate vigilante violence against Black and Brown people and now monetarily incentivize that violence is unconscionable.” 

“State Senator Golden’s attempt to codify this regressive legislation that resembles some of this country’s most shameful Jim Crow laws is despicable and will be fought at every measure. We are emboldened to act and resist this blatant and poorly veiled attempt to devalue the lives of Black and Brown people and put them into the hands of civilians.” 

Source: Mercury

New York City is the Capital of a Booming Artificial Intelligence Industry

By Bloomberg News

From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, there’s increasing demand for highly-skilled workers in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. But there’s a limited pool of talent, and viable candidates who smell the desperation are putting a high price on their skills.

The number of job postings featuring “artificial intelligence” or “machine learning” in their description has doubled since 2015, according to global jobs site Indeed.com. Prospective employees are increasingly seeking out those jobs, too. Search entries for AI and machine learning positions have increased by 182 percent over the last three years. But more job searches don’t mean more qualified applicants, as industries struggle to find sufficiently skilled candidates.

Click here for the full article. 

Source: CRAIN'S New York Business (via Empire Report New York)