875: No Brexit For You

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 13:16

Actress Susan Sarandon on Thursday tore into the Democratic National Committee (DNC), calling it "completely corrupt."

''After my experience in the primary, it's very clear to me the DNC is gone,'' she told CNN's Carol Costello.

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''Every superdelegate is a lobbyist. The way that the system is set up in terms of trying of having superdelegates '-- you could win a state and not get the delegates. It's crazy.''Sarandon backed Sen. Bernie SandersBernie Sanders4 days to go: What to watch forSanders: 'We are not going back to a bigoted society'Pharrell: I want Clinton to break the glass ceilingMORE (I-Vt.) for the Democratic nomination. She said she still respects Sanders even though he endorsed Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonClinton aide in leaked email: Time to 'get Huma the hell out of there'Tracking poll: Clinton increases lead to 3 pointsPoll: Trump gains ground on ClintonMORE for president.

"Look, Bernie has said 'don't ever listen to me if I tell you how to vote,' " she said.

''What [Sanders] did is show people that they counted. He brought them hope. He's supporting a lot of candidates. It's very important to go and vote down the ticket.''

Sarandon predicted a surge in third-party support on Election Day, calling Clinton and Republican nominee Donald TrumpDonald TrumpTracking poll: Clinton increases lead to 3 pointsPoll: Trump gains ground on ClintonEconomy adds 161K jobs in final report before electionMORE "untrustable."

"I think we've been voting the lesser of two evils for too long. The good news is everybody's so frustrated that at least we're awake.''

Sarandon on Monday endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

''It's clear a third-party is necessary and viable at this time,'' she said in a letter posted on Stein's campaign website. "And this is the first step in accomplishing that end.''

Stein has about 2 percent support nationally, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:00

This tip came through the back channels; its implications are astounding.

If there is any truth to it, the 2016 election could be a kick-off for total tyranny.

According to an unnamed source '' who has provided accurate intel in the past '' an unannounced military drill is scheduled to take place during a period leading up to the election and throughout the month after.

It appears that the system is gearing up to handle outbreaks of violence, chaotic rallies and poll stations, and the possibility that the people of the United States may become very dissatisfied with the outcome by using military force and martial law.

The drill could, of course, go live at any time; Homeland Security and the military are prepared to contend with a period of unrest, and restore order to a divided and broken country '' regardless of whether people like their new leader or not.

As you know, DHS is already monitoring this election and prepared to take over its 'critical infrastructure'. The scope of this drill would, of course, take things much further:

Hi Guys,

I got some gouge from a former military colleague who is in contact with active duty personnel and he received an email about an upcoming drill. We need confirmation on this, but if we put it out there we might get a leaker to come forward and confirm:

Date: October 30th '' 30 days after the electionSuspected Region: Northeast, specifically New York

1st Phase: NROL (No Rule of Law) '' drill involving combat arms in metro areas (active and reserve). Source says active duty and reserve service members are being vaccinated as if they are being deployed in theatre.

2nd Phase: LROL (Limited Rule of Law) '' Military/FEMA consolidating resources, controlling water supply, handing out to public as needed.

3rd Phase: AROL (Authoritarian Rule of Law) '' Possible new acronym or term for ''Martial Law''. Curfew, restricted movements, basically martial law scenario.

Source said exercise involves FEMA/DHS/Military

At this time, information concerning a drill has not been confirmed, nor has it been announced publicly.

However, there is reason to believe that the federal government is preparing for all contingencies '' including those that might lead to violence or civil unrest after the election.

With Donald Trump openly calling out the ''rigged'' electoral system, there is reason to think that the public may not accept a Hillary win '' particularly if there is any clear evidence that the vote was rigged, manipulated or poorly counted.

Just imagine for a moment thousands or even millions of people rising up in protest.

But is the system really expecting this could happen?

All bets are off in 2016, and quite frankly, it seems like something very creepy is rising to the surface.

The email also noted that this same source provided information which was covered by Shephard Ambellas and Infowars exposing that a mock American town had been constructed for urban warfare training under SPECWAR and DHS:

FORT CHAFFEE, ARKANSAS '-- Carnis Village is what the Army National Guard calls it. A mock American town which even contains dummy citizens for domestic training purposes. Located on the grounds of the Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center, the massive training compound is likely a dead-ringer clue foreshadowing the grim path we are now traversing as a nation.

['...]

The center at Ft. Chaffee seems eerily similar to any given US downtown location. There is a church, not a mosque. There is a bank that has a drive in ATM and even has the triangle of the local Arvest Bank. There are townhouses, a city hall, a two story high school with boys and girls restrooms and more.

The fine details of the facility make it quite obvious to myself that this site was set up for domestic warfare training proposes or for a westernized nation that shares a similar culture of architecture to that of America.

They are training to take on Americans after an economic collapse, an election upset, or an attack by an enemy'... and the photos (via Intellihub.com) are chilling.

Photo: Intellihub.com

Image: Intellihub.com

Image: Intellihub.com

While nothing in particular may occur after election results are announced, there is every sense that America is at its last crossroads.

World War is on the horizon, the economy is breaking down and the reign of the dollar on the global stage is rapidly fading.

Is the contest between Trump vs. Hillary enough to be a real trigger point?

Hillary could bring very dark days to this country just by being declared the next president; Obama might, in turn, declare martial law.

At that point, the situation will be very clear.

It could happen; there are numerous pretenses that could be used to break down civilian order and take back the streets by force. Let's hope none of them happen.

Be vigilant. Find out what you can. And be prepared for anything.

Read more:

Desperate to Cling to Power: If Trump Upsets Election, ''Martial Law Could Follow''

If Trump Wins, Will Obama Declare Martial Law To Remain In Office? ''These Are Not Normal Times''

If Martial Law Comes to America ''Dissidents and Subversives Would Be Rounded Up''

''The Fraud Is Rampant'': Registering the Dead And Illegal Immigrants to Steal the Election

Trump Resists Pledge To ''Absolutely Accept'' Election Results'... But Why Should Anyone Accept Fraud?

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 04:06

From a technical and thematic perspective it's a well made ad. It's also packed with anti-Semitic dog whistles, anti-Semitic tropes and anti-Semitic vocabulary. I'm not even sure whether it makes sense to call them dog whistles. The four readily identifiable American bad guys in the ad are Hillary Clinton, George Soros (Jewish financier), Janet Yellen (Jewish Fed Chair) and Lloyd Blankfein (Jewish Goldman Sachs CEO).

The Trump narration immediately preceding Soros and Yellin proceeds as follows: "The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election. For those who control the levers of power in Washington [start Soros] and for the global [start Yellen] special interests [stop Yellen]. They partner with these people [start Clinton] who don't have your good in mind."

For Blankfein: "It's a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the [start Blankein] pockets of a handful of large corporations [stop Blankfein] and political entities."

These are standard anti-Semitic themes and storylines, using established anti-Semitic vocabulary lined up with high profile Jews as the only Americans other than Clinton who are apparently relevant to the story. As you can see by my transcription, the Jews come up to punctuate specific key phrases. Soros: "those who control the levers of power in Washington"; Yellen "global special interests"; Blankfein "put money into the pockets of handful of large corporations."

This is an anti-Semitic ad every bit as much as the infamous Jesse Helms 'white hands' ad or the Willie Horton ad were anti-African-American racist ads. Which is to say, really anti-Semitic. You could even argue that it's more so, given certain linguistic similarities with anti-Semitic propaganda from the 1930s. But it's not a contest. This is an ad intended to appeal to anti-Semites and spread anti-Semitic ideas. That's the only standard that really matters.

This is intentional and by design. It is no accident.

Trump has electrified anti-Semites and racist groups across the country. His own campaign has repeatedly found itself speaking to anti-Semites, tweeting their anti-Semitic memes, retweeting anti-Semites. His campaign manager, Steven Bannon, is an anti-Semite. The Breitbart News site he ran and will continue running after the campaign has become increasingly open in the last year with anti-Semitic attacks and politics.

Beyond that, this shouldn't surprise us for a broader reason. Authoritarian, xenophobic political movements, which the Trump campaign unquestionably is, are driven by tribalism and 'us vs them' exclusion of outsiders. This may begin with other groups - Mexican immigrants, African-Americans, Muslims. It almost always comes around to Jews.

It's true there is son-in-law Jared Kushner, a Jew and Ivanka, who converted to Judaism. But this isn't terribly surprising. Kushner appears to be conscienceless. And as I noted here, there is a storied history of anti-Semites being happy to distinguish between good Jews and bad Jews.

There's been a lot of discussion of anti-Semitism and the Trump campaign but a fierce resistance to coming to grips with the fact that anti-Semitism is a key driving force of the Trump campaign, that the campaign itself is an anti-Semitic one even though the great majority of Trump's supporters are not anti-Semites. When he closes out his campaign with a blatantly anti-Semitic ad, it's time to rethink that resistance.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 03:48

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 15:38

Click to expandNYPD officer killed in shootout

A New York City police sergeant was killed and another officer was wounded in a shootout with a Bronx home invasion suspect, Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.

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What Hillary Clinton Aide, Huma Abedin, Said After Seclusion

Hillary Clinton's closest aide Huma Abedin has come out of seclusion for the first time since the email uproar involving estranged husband Anthony Weiner broke last week. Photographers found her at Union Station in Washington, D.C., and asked how she was feeling. "Sad," she replied. FBI agents are still investigating how Clinton emails ended up on Weiner's private computer. Abedin was still supporting Clinton at a glitzy private fundraiser in the nation's capital.

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The Clinton Foundation has confirmed it accepted a $1 million gift from Qatar while Hillary Clinton was U.S. secretary of state without informing the State Department, even though she had promised to let the agency review new or significantly increased support from foreign governments.Qatari officials pledged the money in 2011 to mark the 65th birthday of Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband, and sought to meet the former U.S. president in person the following year to present him the check, according to an email from a foundation official to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta. The email, among thousands hacked from Podesta's account, was published last month by WikiLeaks.

Clinton signed an ethics agreement governing her family's globe-straddling foundation in order to become secretary of state in 2009. The agreement was designed to increase transparency to avoid appearances that U.S. foreign policy could be swayed by wealthy donors.

If a new foreign government wished to donate or if an existing foreign-government donor, such as Qatar, wanted to "increase materially" its support of ongoing programs, Clinton promised that the State Department's ethics official would be notified and given a chance to raise any concerns.

Clinton Foundation officials last month declined to confirm the Qatar donation. In response to additional questions, a foundation spokesman, Brian Cookstra, this week said that it accepted the $1 million gift from Qatar, but this did not amount to a "material increase" in the Gulf country's support for the charity. Cookstra declined to say whether Qatari officials received their requested meeting with Bill Clinton.

Officials at Qatar's embassy in Washington and in its Council of Ministers in the capital, Doha, declined to discuss the donation.

The State Department has said it has no record of the foundation submitting the Qatar gift for review, and that it was incumbent on the foundation to notify the department about donations that needed attention. A department spokeswoman did not respond to additional questions about the donation.

According to the foundation's website, which lists donors in broad categories by cumulative amounts donated, Qatar's government has directly given a total of between $1 million and $5 million over the years.

The Clinton Foundation has said it would no longer accept money from foreign governments if Clinton is elected president and would spin off those programs that are dependent on foreign governments.

(C) REUTERS/Brian Snyder U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh"MATERIAL" INCREASE

Foundation officials told Reuters last year that they did not always comply with central provisions of the agreement with President Barack Obama's administration, blaming oversights in some cases.

At least eight other countries besides Qatar gave new or increased funding to the foundation, in most cases to fund its health project, without the State Department being informed, according to foundation and agency records. They include Algeria, which gave for the first time in 2010, and the United Kingdom, which nearly tripled its support for the foundation's health project to $11.2 million between 2009 and 2012.

Foundation officials have said some of those donations, including Algeria, were oversights and should have been flagged, while others, such as the UK increase, did not qualify as material increases.

The foundation has declined to describe what sort of increase in funding by a foreign government would have triggered notification of the State Department for review. Cookstra said the agreement was designed to "allow foreign funding for critical Clinton Foundation programs" to continue without disruption.

The State Department said it has no record of being asked by the foundation to review any increases in support by a foreign government.

Asked whether Qatar was funding a specific program at the foundation, Cookstra said the country supported the organization's "overall humanitarian work."

"Qatar continued supporting Clinton Foundation at equal or lower levels" compared with the country's pre-2009 support, he said. He declined to say if Qatar gave any money during the first three years of Clinton's four-year term at the State Department, or what its support before 2009 amounted to.

In another email released by WikiLeaks, a former Clinton Foundation fundraiser said he raised more than $21 million in connection with Bill Clinton's 65th birthday in 2011.

Spokesmen for Hillary Clinton's campaign and Bill Clinton did not respond to emailed questions about the donation.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that major donors to the Clinton Foundation may have obtained favoured access to Clinton's State Department, but has provided little evidence to that effect. Clinton and her staff have dismissed this accusation as a political smear.

Last month, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman ordered the Donald J. Trump Foundation to stop fundraising in the state, saying it had not registered to solicit donations.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Additional reporting by Tom Finn in Doha; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Andrew Hay)

Join the conversationMore From ReutersReuters

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 14:20

Donald Trump at the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Pageants Press Conference in 1999.Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage/Getty ImagesEven before the release of the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, Donald Trump's candidacy was giving women anxiety. But after it came out '-- and after at least ten women came forward to accuse the Republican nominee of sexual assault '-- therapists across the country say the election began dredging up memories of sexual assault and harassment for their female clients.

''More than one client of mine has talked of physical nausea that they relate directly to current political happenings,'' Melissa Lester Olson, a psychotherapist based in Atlanta, Georgia, toldTime. She went on:

Women whom I have seen for years are only now bringing up physical and sexual trauma from their past. I think this election is re-traumatizing them. Verbal and emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, rape, discrimination at home or at work '-- women experience these things often. There have been many reminders of experiences that so many of us have had.

Joanna Ford, a counselor in Denver, Colorado, said the election comes up in sessions with clients ''every single day.'' ''Once the videotape of Donald Trump and Billy Bush '... came out, it had great impact,'' she told the magazine. ''For women who are not feeling safe to begin with, this can trigger serious feelings of insecurity and fear.''

In addition to being traumatized by his comments, women are also worried about what a Trump victory would mean for them from a policy standpoint, said Tanya Bannister, the director of Cognitive Therapy for Women in New York City. Bannister estimated that about a quarter of her female clients have brought up the election in sessions. ''The focus tends to be their anxiety about a possible Donald Trump win, and the sense that that would be catastrophic for them [and] for their children,'' she said.

In response, some therapists have recommended their clients stay off social media: ''Turn off the news feed. Stop reading everything if it just gets you more stressed,'' one toldReuters. Also: vote!

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 14:02

A lawyer for the Trump Organization told the Guardian the claims were 'a complete fabrication'. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

A woman who had accused Donald Trump of raping her when she was a 13-year-old dropped her lawsuit against the Republican nominee on Friday.

One of the accuser's attorneys, Thomas Meagher, filed a one-page voluntary dismissal in district court in New York late Friday. Neither he nor a second attorney listed immediately responded to questions about the document.

The woman, who had filed suit earlier this year under the pseudonym Jane Doe, had alleged that Trump and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein had raped her in 1994, when she was a 13-year-old aspiring model.

This week she abruptly canceled a plan to speak publicly about the allegations, and another attorney, Lisa Bloom, cited ''numerous threats'' against her client.

''She has been here all day, ready to do it, but unfortunately she is in terrible fear,'' Bloom said on Wednesday. Bloom's mother, Gloria Allred, is an attorney representing several women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.

Trump had been given a tentative court date for the civil lawsuit of 16 December and has denied all the accusations made against him.

After Doe's suit was filed in June, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the Guardian the claims were ''a complete fabrication''.

''This is basically a sham lawsuit brought by someone who desires to impact the presidential election,'' he said.

A virtually identical lawsuit was filed in April in California and dismissed for technical errors. An investigation linked the lawsuits to Norm Lubow, a former television producer with a history of disputed allegations against celebrities. Both suits named Epstein, a financier who was convicted of soliciting sex from an underage girl in 2008.

The court order to Trump and Epstein's attorneys gave no details of Doe's complaint, but the original suit alleged that Trump assaulted her at Epstein's home in Manhattan and at parties hosted by the financier.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 21:41

Jay Z and Beyonce: getting out the vote. Photograph: Evan Agostini/AP

With the candidates almost neck and neck in the most alarming presidential election in living memory, musicians are making a final push to get out the vote. On Friday night, Jay Z will join Hillary Clinton for a free concert at the Wolstein Center, in Cleveland, Ohio '' an event that's rumored to also include Beyonc(C), his wife. With Donald Trump leading polls in Ohio, the Clinton campaign aims to use this superstar power to get millennials to vote. As if in preparation, Jay Z tweeted a quote by Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel earlier this week about the necessity of speaking out at times of emergency, adding: ''Let's make history (again).''

Then there's the final stages of 30 Days, 30 Songs, an independent project in support of defeating Trump, which is on its final strait. Created by writer Dave Eggers, the daily, evolving playlist steadily releases new and previously unreleased music from independent musical voices all in favor of a Trump-free America, with proceeds going to the Center for Popular Democracy and its efforts to achieve universal voter registration.

The playlist launched with several big-name releases, including a never-before-released live version of World Leader Pretend by REM; a new Death Cab For Cutie effort called Million Dollar Loan; two Moby collaborations, one with the Homeland Choir (Trump Is on Your Side) and the other with the Void Pacific Choir (Little Failure); plus, most strikingly, a Franz Ferdinand number, Demagogue, that very bluntly takes jabs at Trump's narcissism, hollow promises and ego.

Recently there's been a Bob Mould jam, a live version of his old band H¼sker D¼'s In Free Land. Released in 1982, its sardonic lyrics '' ''Why bother spending time/ Reading up on things/ Everybody's an authority/ In a free land'' '' resonate even more loudly in the current era of noisy, post-truth politics. Guster singer and guitarist Ryan Miller takes a different tack with a whimsical, circus-themed track titled The Clown. Its lyrics, by Eggers, take in Trump's ''orange face'' and ''cotton candy hair'', concluding that the Republican nominee is a ''wounded little boy, a boy dressed as a man''.

The playlist will also include a live rendition of Local Natives track Fountain of Youth, a youth empowerment song that according to the band's vocalist and guitarist Taylor Rice ''couldn't feel more apt for this moment. On one side of this debate, there is a deep distrust and cynicism, a disregard for the humanity of many. The younger generations know that this is not the world they see.''

''If music can play even a small role in reminding people to get out there and vote, then we have to do everything we can,'' says Superchunk singer-guitarist Mac McCaughan, who contributed to a cover of Woody Guthrie's Old Man Trump. The godfather of the American protest song wrote the number excoriating Trump's father Fred for his reluctance to rent houses to African Americans. Ryan Harvey, Ani DiFranco and Tom Morello also recently covered the song.

''This election matters a great deal,'' says Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney, who contributed the song Despierta with Peter Buck of REM. ''Every single vote will matter to the future of this country. We can't let the presidency go to Donald Trump, someone so racist, sexist and incredibly unqualified to be commander-in-chief.''

The 30 Days, 30 Songs project is only one outlet for today's politically driven music. Common's new album, Black America Again, released onFriday, is a powerful and furious look at racial tension and institutional racism. ''Institution ain't just a building,'' Common spits in Letter to the Free. ''We staring in the face of hate again/ The same hate they say will make America great again.''

The video for the album's title track opens with a clip from the shooting death of Alton Sterling, when Baton Rouge police shot the 37-year-old at close range while held down. (In Beyonc(C)'s visual album Lemonade, meanwhile, she takes a bat to a New Orleans police department camera. The state of Louisiana has long exhibited unjust police brutality towards civilians, including the beating of a shackled, bipolar 16-year-old girl caught on camera.)

Considering Trump's degrading and predatory mannerism towards females, and his recents comments that have surfaced, this election is a frightening one for many women. Pussy Riot, some of whose members spent two years in prison for speaking out against Russian president Vladimir Putin, have turned their attentions to the US election: Nadya Tolokonnikova has released a new song called Make America Great Again. The music video portrays a hypothetical take on what would happen to America if Trump were to win, with no Muslims, no Mexicans, no gays and all women forced to look a certain way '' plastic. The band also released a song Straight Outta Vagina, which was recorded in February but still considered to be an ''answer to Trump'', and a celebration of female empowerment and sexuality.

Californian Rapper YG has also taken aim at Trump with two songs: FDT (Fuck Donald Trump) with Nipsey Hussle and FDT (Fuck Donald Trump) Part 2 with G-Eazy and Macklemore. ''He can't make decisions for his country, he gon' crash us,'' YG raps. In part two meanwhile, G-Eazy raps: ''How'd he make it this far? How the fuck did it begin?/ A Trump rally sounds like Hitler in Berlin'' and goes on to take aim at Trump's response to the massacre in Orlando: ''The fuck is goin' on? People just passed/ A mass murder happened, you said thanks for the congrats.''

Even Eminem is anti-Trump: the seven-minute, near acapella Campaign Speech including the lyrics: ''That's what you wanted, a fucking loose cannon who's blunt with his hand on the button who doesn't have to answer to no one? Great idea.''

Meanwhile, jazz singer-songwriter Norah Jones has peppered her new album, Day Breaks, with political and social references. On the single Flipside, she sings: ''You saw your reflection all over the news/ Your temperature's well past 102/ Put the guns away, or we're all gonna lose,'' asking the ever unanswerable question: ''If we're all free, then why does it seem we can't just be?''

''Being aware of everything that's going on in the world and watching the news a lot '... it really keeps you up at night,'' Jones told the Guardian. ''There's no shortage of issues: that's the problem.''

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:05

Election Day is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Click the links below for answers to these frequently asked questions or e-mail the Office of the Federal Register a question.

Still have questions?E-mail the Office of the Federal Register a Question

How did we get the Electoral College?

The founding fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. However, the term ''electoral college'' does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to ''electors,'' but not to the ''electoral college.''

Since the Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution it would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system.

Note that the 12th Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and the use of the popular vote in the States as the vehicle for selecting electors has substantially changed the process.

Many different proposals to alter the Presidential election process have been offered over the years, such as direct nation-wide election by the People, but none have been passed by Congress and sent to the States for ratification as a Constitutional amendment. Under the most common method for amending the Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States.

What proposals have been made to change the Electoral College system?

Reference sources indicate that over the past 200 years, over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. There have been more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject. The American Bar Association has criticized the Electoral College as ''archaic'' and ''ambiguous'' and its polling showed 69 percent of lawyers favored abolishing it in 1987. But surveys of political scientists have supported continuation of the Electoral College. Public opinion polls have shown Americans favored abolishing it by majorities of 58 percent in 1967; 81 percent in 1968; and 75 percent in 1981.

Opinions on the viability of the Electoral College system may be affected by attitudes toward third parties. Third parties have not fared well in the Electoral College system. Candidates with regional appeal such as Governor Thurmond in 1948 and Governor Wallace in 1968, won blocs of electoral votes in the South. Neither come close to seriously challenging the major party winner, but they may have affected the overall outcome of the election.

The last third party, or splinter party, candidate to make a strong showing was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 (Progressive, also known as the Bull Moose Party). He finished a distant second in Electoral and popular votes (taking 88 of the 266 electoral votes needed to win at the time). Although Ross Perot won 19 percent of the popular vote nationwide in 1992, he did not win any Electoral votes since he was not particularly strong in any one state. Any candidate who wins a majority or plurality of the popular vote nationwide has a good chance of winning in the Electoral College, but there are no guarantees (see the results of 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000 elections).

How does the Electoral College process work in my State?

For information on the Electoral College process in your State, contact the Secretary of State of your state. To find your Secretary of State, go to the web site for the National Association of Secretaries of State: http://www.nass.org.

May I attend the meeting of my State's Electors to watch them vote?

Generally, each state's Electors vote at their respective state capitols. Each state determines whether or not the voting is open to the public. To find out if your state's meeting of Electors is open to the public and if so, what the process is to view the vote, contact your Governor's Office or your Secretary of State.

Is there an online source listing the names and voting records of presidential electors for all previous presidential elections back to 1789?

We are not aware of a centralized, comprehensive source. This web site has the information for several recent past elections:

This web site lists links to state web sites relating to the presidential election. Maryland has posted the names and voting records of its electors on the web.

Who verifies if a candidate is qualified to run for President?

The Office of the Federal Register at the National Archives and Records Administration administers the Electoral College process, which takes place after the November general election. The Office of the Federal Register does not have the authority to handle issues related to the general election, such as candidate qualifications. People interested in this issue may wish to contact their state election officials or their Congressional Representatives.

Because the process of qualifying for the election and having a candidate's name put on the ballot varies from state to state, you should contact your state's top election officer for more information. In most states, the Secretary of State is the official responsible for oversight of state elections, including the presidential election. Visit the National Secretaries of State web site to locate contact information and web addresses for the Secretary of State from each state and the District of Columbia.

What happens if the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration?

If the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President-elect will act as President until such a time as a President has qualified.

The Constitution also directs Congress to determine by law a successive line of service to be called upon in the unlikely occurrence that both the President-elect and Vice President-elect fail to qualify by the beginning of the presidential term. Accordingly, federal law (3 U.S.C. Sec. 19) states that, in order, the following would be required, if qualified and, for Cabinet secretaries, if having been confirmed by advice and consent of the Senate, to act as President until such a time as a President has qualified:

the Speaker of the House of Representativesthe President pro tempore of the Senatethe Secretary of Statethe Secretary of the Treasurythe Secretary of Defensethe Attorney Generalthe Secretary of the Interiorthe Secretary of Agriculturethe Secretary of Commercethe Secretary of Laborthe Secretary of Health and Human Servicesthe Secretary of Housing and Urban Developmentthe Secretary of Transportationthe Secretary of Energythe Secretary of Education, andthe Secretary of Veterans AffairsWhat happens if a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated?

If a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the general election and the meeting of electors, under federal law, the electors pledged to the deceased candidate may vote for the candidate of their choice at the meeting of electors. Individual states may pass laws on the subject, but no federal law proscribes how electors must vote when a candidate dies or becomes incapacitated. In 1872, when Horace Greeley passed away between election day and the meeting of electors, the electors who were slated to vote for Greeley voted for various candidates, including Greeley. The votes cast for Greeley were not counted due to a House resolution passed regarding the matter. See the full Electoral College vote counts for President and Vice President in the 1872 election.

As to a candidate who dies or becomes incapacitated between the meeting of electors and the counting of electoral votes in Congress, the Constitution is silent on whether this candidate meets the definition of ''President elect'' or ''Vice President elect.'' If the candidate with a majority of the electoral votes is considered ''President elect,'' even before the counting of electoral votes in Congress, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment applies. Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President elect will become President if the President elect dies or becomes incapacitated.

If a winning Presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the counting of electoral votes in Congress and the inauguration, the Vice President elect will become President, according to Section 3 of the 20th Amendment.

How is it possible for the electoral vote to produce a different result than the nation-wide popular vote?

It is important to remember that the President is not chosen by a nation-wide popular vote. The Electoral College vote totals determine the winner, not the statistical plurality or majority a candidate may have in the nation-wide popular vote totals. Electoral votes are awarded on the basis of the popular vote in each state.

Note that 48 out of the 50 States award Electoral votes on a winner-takes-all basis (as does the District of Columbia). For example, all 55 of California's Electoral votes go to the winner of the state election, even if the margin of victory is only 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent.

In a multi-candidate race where candidates have strong regional appeal, as in 1824, it is quite possible that a candidate who collects the most votes on a nation-wide basis will not win the electoral vote. In a two-candidate race, that is less likely to occur. But, it did occur in the Hayes/Tilden election of 1876 and the Harrison/Cleveland election of 1888 due to the statistical disparity between vote totals in individual state elections and the national vote totals. This also occurred in the 2000 presidential election, where George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr., but received a majority of electoral votes.

What is the difference between the winner-takes-all rule and proportional voting, and which states follow which rule?

The District of Columbia and 48 states have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these States, whichever candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate), takes all of the state's Electoral votes.

Only two states, Nebraska and Maine, do not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In those states, there could be a split of Electoral votes among candidates through the state's system for proportional allocation of votes. For example, Maine has four Electoral votes and two Congressional districts. It awards one Electoral vote per Congressional district and two by the state-wide, ''at-large'' vote. It is possible for Candidate A to win the first district and receive one Electoral vote, Candidate B to win the second district and receive one Electoral vote, and Candidate C, who finished a close second in both the first and second districts, to win the two at-large Electoral votes. Although this is a possible scenario, it has not actually happened.

What happens if no presidential candidate gets 270 Electoral votes?

If no candidate receives a majority of Electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most Electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. The Senate would elect the Vice President from the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most Electoral votes. Each Senator would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.

What would happen if two candidates tied in a state's popular vote, or if there was a dispute as to the winner?

A tie is a statistically remote possibility even in smaller states. But if a state's popular vote were to come out as a tie between candidates, state law would govern as to what procedure would be followed in breaking the tie. A tie would not be known of until late November or early December, after a recount and after the Secretary of State had certified the election results. Federal law would allow a state to hold a run-off election.

A very close finish could also result in a run-off election or legal action to decide the winner. Under Federal law (3 U.S.C. section 5), state law governs on this issue, and would be conclusive in determining the selection of Electors. The law provides that if states have laws to determine controversies or contests as to the selection of Electors, those determinations must be completed six days prior to the day the Electors meet.

What impact does a candidate's concession speech have on the Electoral College process?

None. A candidate's concession speech does not impact the states' duties and responsibilities related to the Electoral College system.

How many times has the Vice President been chosen by the U.S. Senate?

Once. In the Presidential election of 1836, the election for Vice President was decided in the Senate. Martin Van Buren's running mate, Richard M. Johnson, fell one vote short of a majority in the Electoral College. Vice Presidential candidates Francis Granger and Johnson had a ''run-off'' in the Senate under the 12th Amendment, where Johnson was elected 33 votes to 17.

Can electoral votes be contested when Congress counts the votes in January?

Under federal law an objection to a state's Electoral votes may be made to the President of the Senate during Congress's counting of Electoral votes in January. The objection must be made in writing and signed by at least one Senator and one member of the House of Representatives. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives debate the objection separately. Debate is limited to two hours. After the debate, both the Senate and the House of Representatives rejoin and both must agree to reject the votes.

In January 2005, Ohio's 20 Electoral votes were challenged. After debate, the Senate and the House failed to agree to reject the votes. Ohio's 20 Electoral votes for President Bush and Vice President Cheney were counted.

I am serving overseas in the U.S. military. How do I cast my vote in this year's Presidential election?

U.S. citizens who are members of the Uniformed Services and their family members may cast their vote through the Department of Defense Federal Voting Assistance Program.

Uniformed Services include the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, and the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

For more information, visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program web site.

Can citizens of U.S. Territories vote for President?

No, the Electoral College system does not provide for residents of U.S. Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands) to vote for President. Unless citizens in U.S. Territories have official residency (domicile) in a U.S. State or the District of Columbia (and vote by absentee ballot or travel to their State to vote), they cannot vote in the presidential election. Note that prior to the adoption of the 23rd Amendment, DC residents could not vote in the Presidential election.

The political parties may authorize voters in primary elections in Territories to select delegates to represent them at the political party conventions. But that process does not affect the Electoral College system.

I believe there might be voter registration fraud happening in my area. Where should I report my concerns?

The Office of the Federal Register at the National Archives and Records Administration administers the Electoral College process, which takes place after the November general election. The Office of the Federal Register does not have the authority to handle issues related to the general election, such as voter fraud.

Under certain circumstances, the FBI investigates election fraud that stems from campaign finance crimes, voter/ballot fraud, or civil rights violations. Concerns regarding voter fraud should be directed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Voter fraud complaints may be directed to any of the local U.S. Attorneys' Offices, the local FBI offices or the Public Integrity Section (202-514-1412).

Still have questions?E-mail the Office of the Federal Register a Question

References

Read the Federalist Papers at: https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers for the founders' views on the Electoral College:

Alexander Hamilton's design for the Electoral College in Federalist No. 68James Madison's views on the republican form of government in Federalist No. 10Search the writings of Thomas Jefferson for his views on the Presidency (especially, Letter to George Hay, August 17, 1823) at: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/

Visit our Election and Voting Resources

Often cited reference sources:

Walter Berns (ed.), ''After the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President,'' American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (1983)Michael J. Glennon, ''When No Majority Rules: The Electoral College and Presidential Succession,'' Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1992Pierce and Longley, ''The People's President'' (1981)William Peters, ''A More Perfect Union'' (1937)Max Ferrand, ''The Framing of the Constitution'' (1913, reprinted 1987)Still have questions?E-mail the Office of the Federal Register a Question

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Archived Version

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:05

Election Day is scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2016

THE CONSTITUTIONArticle II

Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as followsEach State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

Twelfth Amendment

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.... The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President to the United States.

Fourteenth Amendment

Section 3. No person shall be... elector of President and Vice President ... who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Fifteenth Amendment

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Nineteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Twentieth Amendment

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Twenty-Second Amendment

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Twenty-Third Amendment

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Twenty-Fifth Amendment

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. There upon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

UNITED STATES CODE

The following provisions of law governing Presidential Elections are contained in Chapter 1 of Title 3, United States Code (62 Stat. 672, as amended):

TITLE 3 THE PRESIDENT

Chapter 1. Presidential Elections and Vacancies

Skip to First Half of Provisions | Skip to Second Half of Provisions

Section

Time of appointing electors.Failure to make choice on prescribed day.Number of electors.Vacancies in electoral college.Determination of controversy as to appointment of electors.Credentials of electors; transmission to Archivist of the United States and to Congress; public inspection.Meeting and vote of electors.Manner of voting.Certificates of votes for President and Vice President.Sealing and endorsing certificates.Disposition of certificates.Failure of certificates of electors to reach President of the Senate or Archivist of the United States; demand on State for certificate.Same; demand on district judge for certificate.Forfeiture for messenger's neglect of duty.Counting electoral votes in Congress.Same; seats for officers and Members of two Houses in joint meeting.Same; limit of debate in each House.Same; parliamentary procedure at joint meeting.Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act.Resignation or refusal of office.Definitions.Chapter 1. Presidential Elections and Vacancies

Return to 3 USC Ch. 1, Table of Contents

Time of appointing electors

§ 1. The electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed, in each State, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year succeeding every election of a President and Vice President.

Failure to make choice on prescribed day

§ 2. Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose of choosing electors, and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law, the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct.

Number of electors

§ 3. The number of electors shall be equal to the number of Senators and Representatives to which the several States are by law entitled at the time when the President and Vice President to be chosen come into office; except, that where no apportionment of Representatives has been made after any enumeration, at the time of choosing electors, the number of electors shall be according to the then existing apportionment of Senators and Representatives.

Vacancies in electoral college

§ 4. Each State may, by law, provide for the filling of any vacancies which may occur in its college of electors when such college meets to give its electoral vote.

Determination of controversy as to appointment of electors

§ 5. If any State shall have provided, by laws enacted prior to the day fixed for the appointment of the electors, for its final determination of any controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, by judicial or other methods or procedures, and such determination shall have been made at least six days before the time fixed for the meeting of the electors, such determination made pursuant to such law so existing on said day, and made at least six days prior to said time of meeting of the electors, shall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in the Constitution, and as hereinafter regulated, so far as the ascertainment of the electors appointed by such State is concerned.

Credentials of electors; transmission to archivist of the united states and to congress; public inspection

§ 6. It shall be the duty of the executive of each State, as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the appointment of the electors in such State by the final ascertainment, under and in pursuance of the laws of such State providing for such ascertainment, to communicate by registered mail under the seal of the State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such ascertainment of the electors appointed, setting forth the names of such electors and the canvass or other ascertainment under the laws of such State of the number of votes given or cast for each person for whose appointment any and all votes have been given or cast; and it shall also thereupon be the duty of the executive of each State to deliver to the electors of such State, on or before the day on which they are required by section 7 of this title to meet, six duplicate-originals of the same certificate under the seal of the State; and if there shall have been any final determination in a State in the manner provided for by law of a controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State, it shall be the duty of the executive of such State, as soon as practicable after such determination, to communicate under the seal of the State to the Archivist of the United States a certificate of such determination in form and manner as the same shall have been made; and the certificate or certificates so received by the Archivist of the United States shall be preserved by him for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection; and the Archivist of the United States at the first meeting of Congress thereafter shall transmit to the two Houses of Congress copies in full of each and every such certificate so received at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Meeting and vote of electors

§ 7. The electors of President and Vice President of each State shall meet and give their votes on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December next following their appointment at such place in each State as the legislature of such State shall direct.

Manner of voting

§ 8. The electors shall vote for President and Vice President, respectively, in the manner directed by the Constitution.

Certificates of votes for president and vice president

§ 9. The electors shall make and sign six certificates of all the votes given by them, each of which certificates shall contain two distinct lists, one of the votes for President and the other of the votes for Vice President, and shall annex to each of the certificates one of the lists of the electors which shall have been furnished to them by direction of the executive of the State.

Sealing and endorsing certificates

§ 10. The electors shall seal up the certificates so made by them, and certify upon each that the lists of all the votes of such State given for President, and of all the votes given for Vice President, are contained therein.

Return to 3 USC Ch. 1, Table of Contents

Disposition of certificates

§ 11. The electors shall dispose of the certificates so made by them and the lists attached thereto in the following manner:First. They shall forthwith forward by registered mail one of the same to the President of the Senate at the seat of government.Second. Two of the same shall be delivered to the secretary of state of the State, one of which shall be held subject to the order of the President of the Senate, the other to be preserved by him for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection.Third. On the day thereafter they shall forward by registered mail two of such certificates and lists to the Archivist of the United States at the seat of government, one of which shall be held subject to the order of the President of the Senate. The other shall be preserved by the Archivist of the United States for one year and shall be a part of the public records of his office and shall be open to public inspection.Fourth. They shall forthwith cause the other of the certificates and lists to be delivered to the judge of the district in which the electors shall have assembled.

Failure of certificates of electors to reach president of the senate or archivist of the United States; demand on state for certificate

§ 12. When no certificate of vote and list mentioned in sections 9 and 11 and of this title from any State shall have been received by the President of the Senate or by the Archivist of the United States by the fourth Wednesday in December, after the meeting of the electors shall have been held, the President of the Senate or, if he be absent from the seat of government, the Archivist of the United States shall request, by the most expeditious method available, the secretary of state of the State to send up the certificate and list lodged with him by the electors of such State; and it shall be his duty upon receipt of such request immediately to transmit same by registered mail to the President of the Senate at the seat of government.

Same; demand on district judge for certificate

§ 13. When no certificates of votes from any State shall have been received at the seat of government on the fourth Wednesday in December, after the meeting of the electors shall have been held, the President of the Senate or, if he be absent from the seat of government, the Archivist of the United States shall send a special messenger to the district judge in whose custody one certificate of votes from that State has been lodged, and such judge shall forthwith transmit that list by the hand of such messenger to the seat of government.

Forfeiture for messenger's neglect of duty

§ 14. Every person who, having been appointed, pursuant to section 13 of this title, to deliver the certificates of the votes of the electors to the President of the Senate, and having accepted such appointment, shall neglect to perform the services required from him, shall forfeit the sum of $1,000.

Counting electoral votes in congress

§ 15. Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o'clock in the afternoon on that day, and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter A; and said tellers, having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the said certificates; and the votes having been ascertained and counted according to the rules in this subchapter provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote, which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice President of the United States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the two Houses. Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State shall have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives for its decision; and no electoral vote or votes from any State which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment has been lawfully certified to according to section 6 of this title from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by electors whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have been received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and those only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given by the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in section 5 of this title to have been appointed, if the determination in said section provided for shall have been made, or by such successors or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the board of electors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in case there shall arise the question which of two or more of such State authorities determining what electors have been appointed, as mentioned in section 5 of this title, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the votes regularly given of those electors, and those only, of such State shall be counted whose title as electors the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its law; and in such case of more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State, if there shall have been no such determination of the question in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and those only, shall be counted which the two Houses shall concurrently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in accordance with the laws of the State, unless the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such State. But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted. When the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the questions submitted. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally disposed of.

Same; seats for officers and members of two houses in joint meeting

§ 16. At such joint meeting of the two Houses seats shall be provided as follows: For the President of the Senate, the Speaker's chair; for the Speaker, immediately upon his left; the Senators, in the body of the Hall upon the right of the presiding officer; for the Representatives, in the body of the Hall not provided for the Senators; for the tellers, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives, at the Clerk's desk; for the other officers of the two Houses, in front of the Clerk's desk and upon each side of the Speaker's platform. Such joint meeting shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared; and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this subchapter, in which case it shall be competent for either House, acting separately, in the manner herein before provided, to direct a recess of such House not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday excepted, at the hour of 10 o'clock in the forenoon. But if the counting of the electoral votes and the declaration of the result shall not have been completed before the fifth calendar day next after such first meeting of the two Houses, no further or other recess shall be taken by either House.

Same; limit of debate in each house

§ 17. When the two Houses separate to decide upon an objection that may have been made to the counting of any electoral vote or votes from any State, or other question arising in the matter, each Senator and Representative may speak to such objection or question five minutes, and not more than once; but after such debate shall have lasted two hours it shall be the duty of the presiding officer of each House to put the main question without further debate.

Same; parliamentary procedure at joint meeting

§ 18. While the two Houses shall be in meeting as provided in this chapter, the President of the Senate shall have power to preserve order; and no debate shall be allowed and no question shall be put by the presiding officer except to either House on a motion to withdraw.

Vacancy in offices of both president and vice president; officers eligible to act

§ 19. (a) (1) If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President.(2) The same rule shall apply in the case of the death, resignation, removal from office, or inability of an individual acting as President under this subsection.(b) If, at the time when under subsection (a) of this section a Speaker is to begin the discharge of the powers and duties of the office of President, there is no Speaker, or the Speaker fails to qualify as Acting President, then the President pro tempore of the Senate shall, upon his resignation as President pro tempore and as Senator, act as President.(c) An individual acting as President under subsection (a) or subsection (b) of this section shall continue to act until the expiration of the then current Presidential term, except that(1) if his discharge of the powers and duties of the office is founded in whole or in part on the failure of both the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect to qualify, then he shall act only until a President or Vice President qualifies; and(2) if his discharge of the powers and duties of the office is founded in whole or in part on the inability of the President or Vice President, then he shall act only until the removal of the disability of one of such individuals.(d) (1) If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is no President pro tempore to act as President under subsection (b) of this section, then the officer of the United States who is highest on the following list, and who is not under disability to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President shall act as President: Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.(2) An individual acting as President under this subsection shall continue so to do until the expiration of the then current Presidential term, but not after a qualified and prior-entitled individual is able to act, except that the removal of the disability of an individual higher on the list contained in paragraph (1) of this subsection or the ability to qualify on the part of an individual higher on such list shall not terminate his service.(3) The taking of the oath of office by an individual specified in the list in paragraph (1) of this subsection shall be held to constitute his resignation from the office by virtue of the holding of which he qualifies to act as President.(e) Subsections (a), (b), and (d) of this section shall apply only to such officers as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution. Subsection (d) of this section shall apply only to officers appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, prior to the time of the death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, of the President pro tempore, and only to officers not under impeachment by the House of Representatives at the time the powers and duties of the office of President devolve upon them.(f) During the period that any individual acts as President under this section, his compensation shall be at the rate then provided by law in the case of the President.

Resignation or refusal of office

§ 20. The only evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a resignation of the office of President or Vice President, shall be an instrument in writing, declaring the same, and subscribed by the person refusing to accept or resigning, as the case may be, and delivered into the office of the Secretary of State.

Definitions

§ 21. As used in this chapter the term -(a) ''State'' includes the District of Columbia.(b) ''executives of each State'' includes the Board of Commissioners * of the District of Columbia.

* The functions of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia are now performed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia. (Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1967, Section 401, 81 Stat. 948: Pub. L. 93-198, Sections 422 and 711, 87 Stat. 790, 818.)

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Archived Version

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 20:40

The last week has been a tough one for Hillary Clinton. Last Friday's announcement by FBI Director James Comey that emails considered ''pertinent'' to the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server had been discovered accelerated a bump in Donald Trump's poll numbers that had begun before that news hit.

National polling was the first to tighten '-- the WaPo-ABC Tracking Poll showed the Democratic presidential candidate up three points on Friday '-- but swing-state polling has followed suit. CNN, as of Friday morning, even had Clinton below 270 electoral votes for the first time in a long time.

We at The Fix aren't there just yet. But we are making three changes in our electoral-map ratings '-- all of which favor Trump.

The biggest move is Ohio '-- from ''toss-up'' to ''lean Republican.'' The Buckeye State, which went for Barack Obama in each of his two races, has long been one of the friendlier swing states for Trump, thanks in large part to its older and whiter (as compared with the country as a whole) population. The last two polls in the state have shown Trump up five points, and the RealClearPolitics polling average gives the Republican nominee a 3.3-point edge. That fits more with our ''lean'' category than our ''toss-up'' one. Clinton isn't giving up on the state, however '-- she'll be in Cleveland on Sunday.

We're also moving Arizona from ''toss-up'' to ''lean Republican.'' The state appears to have reverted back to its default partisanship in the aftermath of the Comey announcement; Trump has led in the last five polls in the state, including leads of five points in the last two surveys:

Finally, we are moving New Hampshire from ''lean Democratic'' to ''toss-up.'' Like Ohio and Arizona, the Granite State has inched toward Trump over the past week and is now among the closest races in the country. Two of the three most recent polls conducted in New Hampshire have shown a dead heat.

Even with these changes, however, Clinton still has 290 electoral votes leaning toward her or solidly for her, while Trump has 209. And, even if Trump sweeps the states we currently rate as toss-ups, he is only at 248 electoral votes '-- 22 short of what he needs to be elected president.

Our full ratings of the battleground states are below. Stay tuned for one final update to our electoral ratings on Monday.

Toss-up (39 electoral votes)

Florida (29)

New Hampshire (4)*

Utah (6)

Lean Democratic (105 electoral votes)

Colorado (9)

Maine 2nd district (1)

Michigan (16)

Minnesota (10)

Nevada (6)

New Mexico (5)

North Carolina (15)

Pennsylvania (20)

Virginia (13)

Wisconsin (10)

Lean Republican (113 electoral votes)

Alaska (3)

Arizona (11)*

Georgia (16)

Indiana (11)

Iowa (6)

Ohio (18)*

Missouri (10)

Texas (38)

* Moved benefiting Trump

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 04:16

The Dallas branch of the IRS' Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division branch is housed within this building downtown.

Google Maps

The Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas is an all purpose office complex, a bastion of federal bureaucracy located at 1100 Commerce St. Most people come for a passport or to get business done in front of a federal judge. But inside, a quiet review is underway that has direct ties to the raging presidential election: The local branch of the IRS' Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division is reviewing the tax status of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

This IRS review has not generated similar waves as Department of Justice probes into the foundation, and has largely been forgotten in the campaign's melee. It's just not as sexy as private email servers, FBI infighting and charges of political pressure applied to law enforcement.

But even though this examination is less scrutinized and is harder to conceptualize, it's impact may be important. The report won't likely be done in time to influence the presidential campaign '-- even though the review started more than four months ago '-- but it could certainly influence the first term of a Hillary Clinton presidency.

As with anything tax related, the status of the foundation may be determined using rules few understand. And that makes understanding the work at 1100 Commerce St. in Dallas that much more important.

In Washington, D.C., many things start with words printed on congressional letterhead. Earlier this year, 64 GOP members of Congress asked the IRS to investigate why the foundation can keep its nonprofit status. The letter includes ''media reports'' claiming pay-to-play relationships between former President Bill Clinton, who received large speaking fees, and decisions made by Hillary Clinton to approve choices that benefited foundation donors. The sources of these reports range from The New York Times to hit-piece investigative books.

In July, the IRS sent letters back to the Congress informing members the review had begun. The letter also noted that the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division (TE/GE) office in Dallas would be conducting the review.

IRS spokespeople in Dallas and Washington won't say why the review is being conducted in Dallas. Spokespeople claim even this information would violate rules '-- Code 6103, staff make sure to cite '-- that stop them from discussing ongoing examinations. IRS officials declined to provide details about the Dallas office, including its size, or comment on the TE/GE work in general.

On its website, the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division refers the operators of nonprofits as ''customers.'' Their mission statement is: ''To provide our customers top quality service by helping them understand and comply with applicable tax laws and to protect the public interest by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.''

But the office does have a mandate to review claims of exemption, including conducting ''examinations to identify and address non-compliance'' like the one underway with the Clinton Foundation. One IRS document called the "Tax Exempt and Government Entities Fiscal Year 2017 Work Plan" gives a more complete picture. ''Filing, organizational and operational and employment tax numbered among the top issues the Exempt Organizations Examinations group uncovered in its 4,984 examinations in 2016," it says. "The filing issues primarily involved verifying exempt activities and securing delinquent returns.''

The TE/GE focuses on nonprofit groups, which is specialty work that requires experience. ''They are pretty much career people,'' says Ben Stoltz, an attorney with Perliski Law Group, a Dallas boutique firm with half of its business representing nonprofit groups. ''It's a different side of the IRS than people are used to seeing. ... They're generally very cooperative, but they're also the watchdogs."

The mix of awareness and enforcement dovetails with cases that get publicity. "They have a limited budget, which is a problem, so they have to pick their targets wisely," Stoltz says. "Because this is a high profile case, they can make an example and show that no one is above the law.''

Indeed, according to the division's 2017 Work Plan, the year "will build upon efforts to increase audit efficiency and to invest our limited resources in areas that provide the greatest impact."

The strategy is focused on big money charities: "Our examinations will cover all gross wage categories but with an emphasis on entities with gross wages of $10 million or more; approximately 75 percent of examination closures will be of these returns."

In 2014, the Clinton Foundation tallied its salaries at more than $26 million, according to IRS filings. So that puts the Clinton Fpundarion square in the middle of the Work Plan's enforcement strategy.

Stoltz says the complexity of the Clinton Foundation's work means such an examination would take months. The IRS said it began the review in July.

Staff with Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, who signed the letter, tell the Observer that they have not heard back from the IRS with any updates or an estimate of when their examination will be complete. No one expects a decision before Nov. 8.

Hillary Clinton stumping in Oak Cliff

Merritt Martin

The case against the Clinton Foundation is multifaceted. One common attack is that the foundation has overextended its original mandate. ''The Foundation's original application to the IRS in 1997 advised that it was formed to construct a library, maintain a historical site with records, and engage in study and research,'' said Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn in an email to the Observer. ''It did not indicate an intent to conduct activities outside of the United States, which was on one of the codes included in the IRS 'Application for Recognition for Exemption' in effect at the time. This would appear to prohibit much of the overseas work the Foundation has performed.''

This overseas growth is true, but maybe not as damning as it sounds. Many charities shift focus over time, although most nonprofit groups will reach out to make sure the IRS has no problem with new international work. This is smart because the TE/GE folks have a slate of specific questions for the people handing over U.S. charity money to recipients in other countries, something tax wonks call ''expenditure responsibility.'' Any charity would be wise to know the rules before diving in.

The Clinton Foundation didn't reapply for its status as a nonprofit group, but they haven't run afoul of IRS laws governing distribution of charity money. ''It's not like they filed their application and then never told the IRS anything after that,'' Stoltz says. ''The division reads the tax returns, it's sort of like filling out a new application each year.''

So the failure to update an application to include international work is not a smoking gun of nonprofit malfeasance, but there are other places the foundation is more at risk.

Most IRS reviews aim to discover if nonprofit officials and members are enriching themselves with the money raised for charity. Spending money on staff salaries and lavish events are common nonprofit pitfalls. If the board of directors knew of the abuses, they too could be violating the law.

Using a nonprofit group for personal enrichment '-- called inurement '-- is one sure-fire way to gain IRS scrutiny.

In the case of the Clinton Foundation, it's not exactly a matter of stealing from the cookie jar. The bookkeeping '-- with documents available for public as well as IRS scrutiny '-- appears sound since the IRS has not raised any red flags. The foundation spends a solid 88 percent of its money on actual programs, according to the group Charity Tracker. That's pretty good ratio of overhead to actual charity work.

But the Clinton Foundation problem is more nebulous. The central question is not exactly one the IRS can easily track: Did the founding members trade influence for donations, especially while Hillary Clinton was secretary of State?

Clinton and her staff have consistently denied any conflicts of interest or improper enrichment and cite reporting holes in the media stories and books claiming pay-to-play relationships. But since July, more information has been revealed, via hacked email correspondences of Clinton adviser John Podesta released by Wikileaks.

The emails reveal that Chelsea Clinton ordered an audit of the foundation and ''some interviewees reported conflicts of those raising funds or donors, some of whom may have an expectation of quid pro quo benefits in return for gifts.''

That's an eye-catcher for the TE/GE folks looking for specific examples of inurement. Instead of money changing hands, the IRS is looking to see if the Clintons traded money for preferential treatment. The IRS rules lay out what qualifies as inurement:

''Any transaction between an organization and a private individual in which the individual appears to receive a disproportionate share of the benefits of the exchange relative to the charity served presents an inurement issue. Such transactions may include assignments of income, compensation arrangements, sales or exchanges of property, commissions, rental arrangements, gifts with retained interests, and contracts to provide goods or services to the organization.''

Given this language, citing ''gifts'' and ''quid pro quo benefits'' in emails is a pretty bad move for anyone involved in a nonprofit group. Another bad move: When senior Clinton advisers like Doug Bland call the intersection of the foundation fundraising and the former president's personal activities ''Bill Clinton Inc.''

If there's a silver lining, Stoltz says, it's that whatever the Clinton Foundation was or was not doing to raise funds, it will be hard to prove that there was damage done to the organization. That 88 percent statistic is helpful.

This is where the conversation veers back to the letter from Congress. GOP members have been sending letters to more than just the IRS. Demands to investigate the Clinton Foundation have led to a debate within the FBI, according to a story broken by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by The Washington Post:

FBI agents argued '-- based at least in part on news accounts '-- earlier this year that the Clinton Foundation should be investigated for potentially giving donors special political access and favors. The Justice Department's public integrity unit said they did not have enough evidence to move forward.

Still, other Clinton-connected foundation board members are under investigation, including one-time director and now Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. The organization is not a target, officials say, but the inquiry definitely does include his time on the board.

This all leaves the IRS investigation in Dallas as a sideshow to the main Clinton Foundation events playing out in the offices of other federal agencies. However, if other investigations expose pay-to-play schemes, the IRS could take that into consideration, strip the foundation of its nonprofit status and seek payment of back taxes.

Looking forward, there's one last wrinkle: If the IRS gives the foundation a clean bill of health, it will likely resurrect charges that the tax exemption office operates with a political bias. In 2011 Lois Lerner, the IRS' head of TE/GE, pleaded the 5th and left her position after a scandal broke surrounding the denial of nonprofit exemptions to right-wing groups.

Lois Lerner taking the 5th and helping equate IRS nonprofit tax exemptions with political targeting.

Wikicommons

A Department of Justice probe found "substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints.'' A Government Accountability Office report in 2015 found "there are several areas where EO's controls were not well designed or implemented. The control deficiencies GAO found increase the risk that EO could select organizations for examination in an unfair manner '-- for example, based on an organization's religious, educational, political, or other views."

The GAO said the expertise of the TE/GE staff could be a problem, if there are too few "gatekeepers" to pass along referrals for closer looks:

The specialization of the classifiers allows for in-depth knowledge of complex issues and for the opportunity to apply experience; however, internal control risks accompany this approach. First, for political activity, church, and high profile referrals, the classifier appears to serve as an initial gatekeeper for determining whether a referral is reviewed by a committee. Although committee reviews are intended as a safeguard against unfairness in the examination selection process, referrals that do not make it past the classifier do not undergo committee review.

The GAO recommended a host of changes, much of it focused on better documentation, more training and an increase in staff rotations. The IRS agreed to them '-- without admitting any guilt. In a response letter by deputy commissioner John Dalrymple, he says the IRS agrees that "internal controls are necessary to ensure we are applying the tax law with integrity and fairness. Although the report says that a hypothetical risk exists that returns could be selected unfairly, the draft report did not find any evidence that this has happened. Nevertheless, Exemptions Organization is committed to further strengthen our internal controls to ensure we continue to select organizations for examination in a fair and consistent manner. "

The DOJ determined that no crimes had been committed but the damage had been done '-- for many, the TE/GE will forever be partisan. The ruling on the Clinton Foundation's status, either way, will lead some to see continued partisanship inside the IRS or overreaching in a high profile case to prove they are not partisan.

But there is actually a bigger issue at stake as politics batters the nonprofit tax world. After all, the whole point of the IRS' involvement is to ensure that donations are actually used for charitable work.

''It boils down to the public trust,'' Stoltz says. ''This division is responsible for the integrity of the system. Americans donate more money to charity than anywhere else in the world. But for the public to donate, people have to believe that it's legit.''

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Thu, 03 Nov 2016 21:25

ByMichael Holden|LONDON

LONDON A British court ruled on Thursday that the government needs parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, potentially delaying Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plans.

The government said it would appeal against the High Court ruling and Britain's Supreme Court is expected to consider the case early next month.

A spokeswoman for May said the prime minister still planned to launch talks on the terms of Brexit by the end of March and added: "We have no intention of letting this derail our timetable."

The pound, which fell sharply after Britons voted to leave the EU by 52 to 48 percent on June 23, rose after the ruling.

Many investors took the view that lawmakers would now be able to temper the government's policies, making it less likely that the government would opt for a "hard Brexit" -- a scenario in which it prioritizes tight controls on immigration over remaining in the European single market.

The High Court ruled that the government needs parliament's backing to trigger Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the formal step needed to start the process of exiting the bloc.

"The most fundamental rule of the UK's constitution is that parliament is sovereign," said Lord Chief Justice John Thomas, England's most senior judge.

Thomas and two other senior judges did not spell out in their ruling whether the government would need to pass a new law to begin the divorce proceedings, but Britain's Brexit minister David Davis said this was likely if the Supreme Court upheld the decision.

"The judges have laid out what we can't do and not exactly what we can do, but we're presuming it requires an act of parliament," Davis told BBC TV.

UNCERTAINTY

Parliament could in theory block Brexit as most lawmakers (MPs) supported staying in the EU in a referendum in June. But few observers expect that outcome, and a Reuters survey last month suggested MPs would back Brexit now.

Even so, the court ruling makes the already daunting task of taking Britain out of a political and trading club it joined 43 years ago even more complex.

"The negotiations haven't even yet begun. There will be uncertainty, there will be volatility around those negotiations as they proceed, and I would view this as one example of that uncertainty," Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said.

Economists at Deutsche Bank told clients May had been weakened by the ruling and was likely to have to call a general election next year.

But May's spokeswoman dismissed the suggestion. "Our position has been clear that there shouldn't be an election before 2020 - that remains the prime minister's view," she told reporters.

Trade minister Liam Fox told parliament the government was disappointed by the ruling but the government remained "determined to respect the result of the referendum".

May had said she did not need parliament's approval for triggering Article 50 under a historical power of "royal prerogative" where ministers act on behalf of the monarch.

The High Court rejected that argument and the judges granted the government permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, Britain's highest judicial body, which has set aside Dec. 5-8 to deal with the case.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said his party respected the outcome of the referendum but that the government's negotiating strategy needed parliamentary scrutiny.

Dominic Grieve, lawmaker from May's ruling Conservatives and a former British attorney general, said passing legislation to trigger Article 50 need not delay the process.

"It doesn't necessarily mean that it would hold it up for a very long time," he told BBC TV.

"PROCESS NOT POLITICS"

Investment manager Gina Miller, the lead claimant in the legal challenge, said the case was about "process, not politics" and rejected accusations from opponents, including May herself, that they were subverting democracy.

"One of the big arguments (in the referendum) was parliamentary sovereignty," she told reporters. "So you can't on the day you get back sovereignty decide you're going to sidestep or throw it away."

Some Brexit supporters said the ruling was "disgraceful".

"Our democracy is being damaged by an elite band of people in the legal system," Richard Tice, co-chairman of the Leave Means Leave campaign. "A vote in Parliament is wholly unnecessary, time consuming and betrays the democratic will of the people."

Nigel Farage, head of the anti-EU party UKIP, said on Twitter that he feared the ruling could turn into an attempt to scupper Brexit altogether.

"I worry that a betrayal may be near at hand," he said, warning that attempts to block or delay triggering Article 50 would anger the British public.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker declined to comment on Thursday's ruling but said he would be speaking to May by telephone on Friday.

EU leaders have been frustrated by the mixed messages they say they have received from London since the June referendum, and senior parliamentarians in Germany warned Britain against further delays in spelling out its Brexit strategy.

"What cannot happen is that the government uses this new situation as an excuse to delay Article 50 further," said Axel Schaefer, deputy parliamentary leader for the Social Democrats, who are part of Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition.

"We need clarity by the end of March. If we don't have that, the other 27 EU governments must have the courage to decide things on their own."

(Additional reporting by Andy Bruce, Kylie Maclellan, Sarah Young and Costas Pitas, writing by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Timothy Heritage, Anna Willard)

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 02:49

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Thu, 03 Nov 2016 21:12

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. (Photo: David Becker/Getty Images)

One of the most troubling revelations exposed by Wikileaks has been completely ignored by mainstream media. On August 1, Wikileaks shared an article on Twitter from a French publication which outlined the connections between LaFarge, a French company linked to funding ISIS in Syria, and Hillary Clinton.

''Apart from being a regular donor to the Clinton Foundation, Clinton herself was a director of Lafarge in the early 1990s, and did legal work for the firm in the 1980s,'' The Canary reported on July 29.

In June 2016, one of France's most well-known publications, Le Monde, released an investigative report accusing LaFarge of making payments to ISIS. The connection was first made in February 2016, when a Syrian opposition publication revealed emails and documents it obtained from LaFarge, implicating CEO Frederic Jolibois negotiated with ISIS in order for the company to continue doing business in Syria.

Between 1990 and 1992, Clinton served on Lafarge's Board of Directors. ''Shortly before Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, Lafarge was fined $1.8 million by the Environmental Protection Agency for pollution violations at its Alabama plant. A year later, the Clinton administration reduced that fine to less than $600,000,'' reported The Washington Post in 2007. While Clinton served on the board for Lafarge, the company was embroiled in controversy over its use of hazardous waste to fuel its U.S. cement plants.

Wikileaks also recently tweeted a link to an email between Clinton and her aide, Cheryl Mills, outlining a brag sheet of how deeply involved Clinton was with the regime change in Libya while she served as secretary of state. The political vacuum that intervention caused in Libya was cited by President Obama as the biggest mistake of his presidency, in which the country has become a haven for ISIS and other terrorist organizations to thrive.

Despite criticism, Hillary Clinton has attempted to distort her role in Libya into endearing foreign policy experience and has downplayed the disaster in Libya. ''You know, the United States was in Korea'--and still is'--for many years. We are still in Germany. We are still in Japan. We have a presence in a lot of places in the world that started out as a result of conflict,'' she said during a CNN presidential town hall in February 2016, dismissing the notion that Libya was an immense failure on her part.

Wikileaks' Julian Assange has been a vocal opponent of Clinton's foreign policies. ''I have had years of experience in dealing with Hillary Clinton and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgement and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism,'' he wrote in a statement posted on Wikileaks in February 2016. ''Her personality combined with her poor policy decisions have directly contributed to the rise of ISIS.''

Assange recently claimed Wikileaks will release emails implicating Clinton in arming jihadists (ISIS) to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad, before the Benghazi controversy.

Since the Democratic convention has ended, mainstream media has reverted its attention almost exclusively to Donald Trump. Three additional, prominent DNC staffers formally resigned in the wake of the DNC email scandal, yet the content of the DNC emails'--and those released by Guccifer 2.0, further corroborating the DNC's collusion with the Clinton campaign'--are receiving only a fraction of the attention warranted.

The recent DNC resignations may be in anticipation of more releases from Wikileaks, likely to incite further controversy over the DNC's role in securing the Democratic presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton. During the Democratic convention, it was reported that both the Clinton campaign and other Democratic Party organizations were hacked. The Clinton campaign and the DNC have largely blamed Russia for the hacks in an attempt to distract from the content of the leaks.

The worst is yet to come for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

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Thu, 03 Nov 2016 21:07

I want to preface this article by stating that this work has been updated 3 times in 10 hours. Information is coming out Wikileaks and other sources faster than any of us can keep up with.

Wikileaks is about to confirm the story that The Common Sense Show told 4 years ago in that Ambassador Stevens was set up to die because his stories of gun-running, child trafficking and drug-running on behalf of the CIA in order to promote regime change in Libya using terrorists funded by these illegal activities, were leaking out and it was only a few months until the election. Subsequently, Ambassador Stevens had to be silenced. And Petraeus had to be put in a place where he was not forced to testify before Congress because he could not take the 5th before Congress.

At the same time, Clinton was broadcasting Stevens whereabouts and she refused to provide the extra protection Stevens was so desperately requesting. Being that Stevens was working for the CIA, then head of the CIA, David Petraeus, would have known about Chris Stevens activities. To protect Obama's 2012 election, both Stevens and Petraeus had to be gone.

People are asking me how I knew all of this four years ago and I say, ''I had a deep cover source from inside one of the military/intelligence services who wanted the real truth to be told. Somebody who knew this nation could not afford to let Clinton ever become President''. Now, I am getting confirmation from Wikileaks and others who have reached the same conclusion I did four years ago.

Dear Mr. Hodges,

This is to inform you that Wikileaks will soon, or has released Clinton emails which will demonstrate the following:

Please note that I have covered the ISIS/Lafarge/Clinton connections very prominently in the past year. This is just more confirmation of what I have already covered.

The above is already appearing on the Internet in several places. It is clear that Putin would be a fool to allow Clinton and her gang of thugs to continue with their plan. Every time Clinton sags in the polls, she starts talking about 9/11. The evidence is beginning to line up that Clinton interests had motive to commit 9/11. No wonder Clinton tries to blame the Russians for everything, she is the main culprit on the world being brought to the precipice of World War III.

It is a gratifying feeling when the dots start to connect.

The Aaron Klein Revelations

Aaron Klein, the Breitbart Bureau Chief for Jerusalem revealed, in a Breitbart publication dated March 1, 2016, revealed that ''the email from April 10th, 2011, the State Department employee, Timmy Davis, forwarded an email to the server by Clinton's aide, Huma Abedin.'' Please note that the time of this revelation, Huma Abedin, was not yet a household name.

The series of emails will eventually have catastrophic consequences for Ambassador Stevens.

Below are some examples of the allegations posed by Klein and these are not empty charges as Klein offered as proof, the following emails.

''A March 27, 2011 email released last year was titled, ''Chris Stevens mission.'' It divulged: ''The current game plan is for Mr. Stevens to move no later than Wednesday from Malta to Benghazi. He will stage offshore initially for a one day visit during which he will have meetings with TNC interlocutors and get a sense of the situation on the ground. The goal of this one day trip is for him to lay the groundwork for a stay of up to 30 days.

An April 8, 2011 email was forwarded to Clinton revealing the ''security situation in Benghazi remains quiet. Chris Stevens & team are in the hotel, moving only for meetings as required.''

An April 22, 2011 email revealed Stevens was on the road: ''I want to let you know about a temporary rotation in Benghazi. TNC Envoy Chris Stevens has been on the road since March 13, when he began his outreach mission, and has been in Benghazi since April 5.''

An April 24, 2011 email has the exact time of a Stevens meeting: ''''Stevens will be meeting with MFA in one hour and will make a written request for better security at the hotel and for better security-related coordination. He still feels comfortable in the hotel. They are looking into the idea of moving into a villa, but that is some way off.''

If later emails are released, I have no doubt, that we will see that Clinton was transmitting Stevens location up until the time of the attack upon the Benghazi compound and this explains why some of these emails are not being released. However, at some point, they will see the light of day.

The release of travel information, in any form, is a felony! Remember, the Stevens travel plans are classified and they came from Clinton's private server. A casual Law and Order fan could make the causal connections between the release of these emails and Stevens death. This is absolute evidence that Clinton not only is guilty of multiple felonies, she is an accomplice to murder!

CONTINUE READING HERE

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 12:00

The Global Intelligence Files - RE: Additional OrderThis key's fingerprint is A04C 5E09 ED02 B328 03EB 6116 93ED 732E 9231 8DBA

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The GiFiles,

Files released: 5543061On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT

Email-ID246912Date2011-01-22 01:25:21FromToCRM2536@bn.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 06 Nov 2016 03:03

Photo by Ada Be (CC BY 4.0)

Walkerville, MD '' An FBI agent believed to be responsible for the latest email leaks ''pertinent to the investigation'' into Hillary Clinton's private email server while she was Secretary of State, was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide early Saturday morning, according to police.

Investigators believe FBI agent, Michael Brown, 45, shot and killed his 33-year-old wife, Susan Brown, late Friday night before setting the couple's home on fire and then turning the gun on himself. Brown was a 12 year veteran of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department before spending the last six years in the FBI.

Neighbors saw smoke coming from the Brown residence and called 9-1-1 at approximately 11:50 p.m. By the time fire crews arrived on scene minutes later, the entire house was engulfed in flames.

''Mrs. Brown's death was caused by a gunshot wound prior to the house fire,'' Walkerville Police Chief Pat Frederick said, ''while Mr. Brown's single-bullet head wound appears to have been self-inflicted.''

''The totality of the evidence leads us to believe this is a murder-suicide. We believe he killed her, set the house on fire and then took his own life,'' Frederick said.

The findings support conclusions by investigators Saturday that the couple perished in a murder-suicide during which the 4,000-square foot house was intentionally set on fire. Authorities outlined a likely scenario based on interviews with neighbors and comments posted on Mr. Brown's Facebook page.

Brown is believed to have started the gasoline-fueled fire but spared the life of his beloved beagle, Dixie. ''Prior to the fire, he dropped off the dog at a neighbor's house,'' Frederick said. ''He put the dog in a neighbor's backyard.''

A neighbor told WHAG that Brown appeared ''panicked'' though it is unclear whether his wife was dead before or after the dog was removed from their home.

The motive behind the killing is still being investigated, but police say Brown was a highly respected agent with the FBI and very well liked in the community. ''What leads someone to this level of anger and violence with your wife, your loved one, who knows,'' said an FBI official who knew the Brown family.

Conspiracy theories are running rampant throughout many alt. right media outlets, leading many to believe this was another ''hit job'' by the Clintons in retaliation for the FBI email leaks so close to the presidential election. Media outlets like Alex Jones' Infowars and WND are running with the theory that globalist assassins, working for the Clintons, had the Brown family murdered and their home burned to destroy any possible evidence.

FBI Director James Comey refused to comment at this time but asked for privacy and prayer as the bureau comes to terms with losing ''two very close friends.''

This is a developing story.

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Archived Version

Source:

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:08

Two days ago we wrote about a mutiny of CHAI management against the Clinton Foundation after they grew weary of donors' complaints about conflicts of interest...apparently donors weren't happy contributing money to the Clinton Foundation for their AIDS/HIV work only to find out later that the money never actually made it to the Clinton Health Initiative but instead stayed within the Clinton Foundation.

And, of course, the 2011/2012 feud between Doug Band and Chelsea Clinton is also something we've covered at great length (see here and here).

Now, today's WikiLeaks dump reveals yet another gem in the Doug/Chelsea saga which draws in one of the "Bush 43 kids."

I just received a call from a close friend of wjcs who said that cvc told one of the bush 43 kids that she is conducting an internal investigation of money within the foundation from cgi to the foundation

The bush kid then told someone else who then told an operative within the republican party

"Not smart", indeed.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 04:40

Sioux Falls, IA | During his 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton allegedly had sexual intercourse with cattle off of Tom Brady's family dairy farm.The family farm which was owned by Tom Brady's father at the time, Willow Brady Jr., was often visited by the Clinton family when they were in the area.

''My dad and Bill Clinton's step dad were like brothers. They often visited us on the holidays when I was a kid. Bill even knew the cows names by heart. That always surprised me'' recalls the 64-year-old, third-generation dairy farmer.

'' Tom Brady, dairy farmerDallas, a 2-month-old calf, is the great granddaughter of Lucy, a dairy cow that is presumed by Tom Brady to have been sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton in 1992 during a 'cocaine party'

Sex, drugs and cattleDuring the 1992 Iowa caucus, the Clinton campaign stopped by for a night of festivities at the Brady's farm, a night Tom Brady says he will never forget.

''The Clinton team came by and we drank a lot and all was merry before they started indulging in hard drugs, that's when everything went wrong'' he recalls, visibly distraught by the whole affair.

''I don't know about all those stories about him sexually assaulting women, but I sure as hell know he assaulted one of our cows because I was there and I saw him do it with my own eyes and believe me, it's not something I'd wish my worst enemy to live to see'' he told local reporters.

''I'm sorry for the Clinton family, but as a God-fearing Christian, I just had to let the truth be known'' he adds.

Bill Clinton has been personally accused publicly by seventeen women of sexual misconduct between 1972 and 1997. The former US President also admitted to having had an ''inappropriate relationship'' with Monica Lewinsky while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 05 Nov 2016 16:58

A Sept. 23 Style article incorrectly said that Tony and Heather Podesta own a home in the Lake Barcroft neighborhood of Falls Church. Lake Barcroft has a Falls Church mailing address and the couple consider their home to be in Falls Church, but the neighborhood is in Fairfax County. (Published 9/29/04)

By Jessica DawsonSeptember 23, 2004

The collection started almost by accident. It was 1980, and Tony Podesta was bidding adieu to co-workers from Sen. Ted Kennedy's just-failed bid for the presidential nomination. On their way out the door, staff members were handed whatever goodies remained -- among them a tube of limited-edition prints donated to the campaign by the likes of Warhol and Rauschenberg.

A quarter-century later, those prints are history, but Podesta is counted among the nation's most important contemporary art collectors. Inside the elite Chelsea galleries, he and his wife, Heather, are gossiped about, deferred to and ushered toward the choicest works. All the art stars know their names.

In Washington, the couple is recognized, too -- for very different reasons. Podesta, 60, has ridden a long career on Capitol Hill to his current perch as a top-tier lobbyist and co-chairman of PodestaMattoon, an outfit that took in $11 million in revenue last year from high end clients such as Altria and eBay. (It counts among its clients The Washington Post Co., which in 2003 paid the firm $60,000.)

Political candidates eagerly tap Podesta's mojo, too: He spearheaded President Clinton's successful 1996 Pennsylvania campaign, and Sen. John Kerry has hired him to work the same magic for him in the Keystone State this year. Heather, 26 years his junior and several shades greener, carved a career aiding Reps. Robert Matsui and Earl Pomeroy; she joined Blank Rome's law and government relations firm this spring.

Washington power brokers familiar with the couple's art collection -- regular rounds of parties at their two Washington area homes ensure plenty of viewing opportunities -- regard the couple's enthusiasm as something of a personal quirk.

But the Podestas' stock of artists know well the benefits of securing such politically connected patronage. Uniquely capable of advocating for their artists using the lobbying skills of their day jobs, Tony and Heather can secure access, lend advice and connect artists to curators and coveted museum shows. It's backing more valuable, at times, than dollars.

In a gray flannel city, Tony and Heather show up in technicolor. Tony arrives in red leather shoes and peacock-bright ties. Stalk-slim Heather, a white streak issuing from a shock of dark hair, favors ensembles by international boutique designers.

When they buy, Tony and Heather buy big. At a given moment, their collection hovers around 900 pieces, higher if a major art fair closed recently. The emphasis is on photo-based works, though sculpture and paintings are also featured.

With more than half their trove currently in storage, Tony and Heather, like notable collectors Eli and Edythe Broad in Los Angeles and Don and Mera Rubell in Miami, are considering buying a public space to show their works. In the meantime, the couple sends as many pieces as possible to traveling museum shows and displays the rest at home. In their Woodley Park and Falls Church residences, pictures hang salon style, floor to ceiling, like very, very expensive wallpaper. Tony started buying art at the annual auctions of Washington Project for the Arts -- a local alternative art venue that was once a very hip place but is hardly on par with today's major galleries. Today, though his habit has grown voluminously, Tony describes the evolution as more a dedicated hobby than an obsession.

"Some people spend a lot of money on golf," says Tony, who speaks in energetic spurts. "Like they play golf, I play art."

His is, in part, a gambler's collection, albeit based on safe bets. The up-and-comers Tony favors travel the international contemporary art circuit, the gold line from Chelsea to the Venice Biennale. Though the works aren't guaranteed to stand the test of time, many of his artists have logged significant hours on major museum walls. Others, including a few of Tony's more obscure choices, have given good returns over the long term.

Heather's first taste of Tony's art came on their first date, in the fall of 2001, when they stopped at his house to pick up his car before heading to the opera. Passing some of the quirkier selections, Heather recalls Tony remarking, "I don't know why it is, but I have artworks where the women have no heads." The next day, she sent him a note signed, "Woman with a head." They were married last year.

To keep themselves in pictures, Tony and Heather jet to art fairs and biennials from Sao Paolo to San Sebastian -- often just for the weekend. Theirs is a life led breathlessly, moving from airport to dinner party. The art is an extravagance that occasionally gives Heather pause.

"401(k)? Art?" she asks, as if weighing the two options. "Tony's view of investment diversification is multiple artists."

No wonder Heather worries. Though her childhood was cultured, she was hardly schooled in the high-fashion -- and big-money -- realm of contemporary art. If Tony's art infatuation developed gradually, Heather's blossomed overnight.

"Did I go from zero to 1,000?" she says, referring to her art involvement since meeting Tony. "No. I went from 5 to 1,000."

Heather now talks about conspiring with "Julie" (as in Roberts, a major painter in museum collections worldwide) on a portrait of Tony she commissioned for his birthday. She mentions seeing "Olafur" (as in Eliasson, a Danish-born photographer whom the Podestas hold in depth) at an opening.

Still, Heather recalls the day, just weeks into her relationship with Tony, when she traveled to Chelsea with him to look at art. A gallerist presented a photograph by a well-known German artist, chirping about the work's reasonable price. The piece cost $45,000.

"There are times when I'm the daughter of an academic, in sneakers," Heather says of her sticker shock. "I'm just that geek completely out of place. I felt it then."

Tony and Heather don't shy away from discomfort -- especially when they can inflict it, ever so gently, on others.

The pictures ringing Tony's ninth-floor office at PodestaMattoon deliver an unusual welcome. A suite of arresting computer-manipulated photographs by Dutch artist Margi Geerlinks serves as a cautionary tale of genetic engineering. One shows a boy seemingly born from a sewing machine. Another finds a young girl knitting her own hair. A third has a naked woman immersed in blood-red liquid.

It's not hard to imagine the jolt that executives from biotech concerns such as Genentech or Serono get when they walk into the room -- and they're clients.

"Some people think it's a little weird," Tony says of his choices. "But that's their problem."

Steeped in liberal politics, Tony favors art with in-your-face nudity and social critique.

"We're not trying to confront sexism and racism in our art collection," he insists. "Though occasionally they intersect. Some people's politics are other people's aesthetics."

And some people's aesthetics are other people's embarrassments. Tony's younger brother John (yes, that John, Bill Clinton's former chief of staff and current president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress) admires his choices in art but recognizes that not everyone gets it. Says John, "I don't think Tony focus-groups his art."

Though pictures rotate on and off the walls of the couple's homes, a piece in the Woodley Park living room stays. Called "Soliloquy VII," the nearly eight-foot-tall color photo by British artist Sam Taylor-Wood is an update of a late-15th-century painting of the dead Jesus. Taylor-Wood faithfully replicates the original's composition, here photographing, in vivid color and minute detail, a young man laid out on his back. Just one thing: Taylor-Wood omits the shroud, displaying his subject in all his nakedness.

Though often politely ignored, "Soliloquy VII" is rarely forgotten. Tony and Heather love it. They crane their necks to hear the whispers generated when the pols stop in. Tony often uses the work to launch into a story about Hillary Clinton's visit, when she ducked and tiptoed around the work lest any photo opportunity capture her alongside the naked figure.

"You've got to be pretty secure to have an eight-foot-tall naked man in your living room in Washington, D.C.," Heather says of her husband's choice.

What Heather suggests as a badge of her mate's confidence is a highly intentional statement. After all, Tony's job is to make an impression. Besides, when the piece isn't generating blushes, it's generating conversation.

"At political events, there's an inevitable awkwardness," former Clinton administration official Sally Katzen said at a Women's Campaign Fund dinner at the Podestas' home this summer. "The art is an ice-breaker. It puts people at ease."

Not always. Folks attending a house tour in the Lake Barcroft neighborhood in Falls Church earlier this year got an eyeful when they walked into a bedroom at the Podesta residence hung with multiple color pictures by Katy Grannan, a photographer known for documentary-style pictures of naked teenagers in their parents' suburban homes.

"They were horrified," Heather recalls, a grin spreading across her face.

If Tony and Heather enjoy in-your-face art, they also reward their artists. The Podestas are eager to assist those they've earmarked as promising, and donate time and resources to the cause.

During last year's Venice Biennale, they threw parties night after night, renting out their favorite restaurant and packing it with artists and a gallerist or two. Here in Washington, they've hosted art parties with Patricia Puccini, Cathy de Monchaux, Anna Gaskell, Frank Thiel, Annee Olofsson, Nikki Lee and others. Curators from the Hirshhorn Museum and Corcoran Gallery of Art, top Washington collectors and the city's best dealers regularly show up. Podesta parties are where connections are made.

"I see lobbying as getting information in the hands of people who are making decisions so they can make more informed decisions," Tony says. "We do that a lot with museums."

The couple also donates. About 300 pieces that have passed through Tony's hands are now in museum collections. Locally, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts have benefited most.

"Tony loves the artists themselves as much as the artworks," John Podesta says. Earlier this month, the couple held a party and opening at their Falls Church home in honor of 34-year-old District artist Avish Khebrehzadeh.

Tony and Heather liked her work when they saw it at last year's Venice Biennale, where the artist received one the event's prestigious awards, so her Washington dealer set up a visit. That day with Tony in the studio, Khebrehzadeh mentioned wanting to work on a large scale but not having adequate studio space. So Tony offered her the keys to his Falls Church home, with its ample basement. Last winter, Khebrehzadeh spent weekdays at the house working.

Now it's time to show those works and her dealer's walls aren't big enough, either. So Khebrehzadeh's exhibition opened earlier this month at the Podestas' house, in the very space where the art was made. Visitors may make appointments to see the show.

Other artists have similar stories. For Belgrade-based up-and-comer Vesna Pavlovic, Heather helped secure a show at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum (Heather once worked for the congressman who represents the area). For art stars Jane and Louise Wilson, the couple pulled some Washington strings to ensure the duo had access to Las Vegas casinos for a video shoot.

"It's inspiring to meet a collector so involved in his own career and, parallel to that, in the arts as well," says video artist and painter Sarah Morris, speaking from Berlin, where she opened a show last week. "He's very committed."

Morris approached Tony in 2000 with her idea for the film "Capital." The piece ended up as an 18-minute look into Washington's corridors of power, much of it thanks to strategy sessions with Tony at which Morris would identify the places she wanted to shoot and Tony would tell her how likely she'd be to get in.

"Tony speaks in percentiles," Morris explains. "I'd say 'Cabinet Room,' and he'd be, like, '30 percent.' I'd say 'Pentagon,' and he'd say '60 percent.' "

Co-conspiratorial leanings aside, Tony likes to see his artists' results and will travel to openings to support them. "Sometimes our life feels like an art travelogue," Tony says of the constant back-and-forth.

"He travels more than any artist I know. And artists travel a lot," Morris says. "Tony would show up and surprise you."

But these days, Tony's focus is the battleground state of Pennsylvania and getting his candidate elected.

South Korea's Gwangju Biennial, which opened earlier this month, is the kind of show that normally would prompt Tony to get on a plane. "If it weren't for Kerry, I'd be going," Tony says with a hint of regret. It's one of the few times that art has had to slide.

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Archived Version

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 21:34

As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

By now everyone is being diverted by this Clinton Coven and their occult rituals. I do not have a great deal of time to deal with this, but will provide a rudimentary explanation of this practice, as linked to the supporters of Hillary Clinton in this Marina Abramovic.

This is the email which started all of his, but there are four on Wikileaks from this occult practitioner who melds this into "art".

From:podesta@podesta.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-06-28 01:48 Subject: Fwd: Dinner Are you in NYC Thursday July 9 Marina wants you to come to dinner Mary?

Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: Marina Abramovic > Date: June 28, 2015 at 2:35:08 AM GMT+2 To: Tony Podesta>> Subject: Dinner Dear Tony, I am so looking forward to the Spirit Cooking dinner at my place. Do you think you will be able to let me know if your brother is joining?

All my love, Marina

-- ABRAMOVIC LLC

For the brief explanation on this, Infowars quoted Mike Cernovich.

Spirit cooking refers to ''a sacrament in the religion of Thelema which was founded by Aleister Crowley'' and involves an occult performance during which menstrual blood, breast milk, urine and sperm are used to create a ''painting''According to Marina Abramovic, if the ritual is performed in an art gallery, it is merely art, but if the ritual is performed privately, then it represents an intimate spiritual ceremony.You can just stop being creeped out and understand what this symbolism magik is, for that is what it is, no matter where it takes place and who is initiating the incantation. With all of this, all magik power is based on practitioner force, neutral force, your weakness, satanic strength, the number of people involved in the spell, and the demon machine in the modern era.

All production of the body, including days you are born, die, lose your virginity etc.. are all power sources which generate a frequency. In incantations or spells, spoken or written, menstrual blood and urine are binders, or they bind the spell.Menstrual blood is the breakdown of life not created. Breast Milk is the transfer of life. Urine is the anointing transfer of power and Sperm is the ejaculation of power.

As an example, a Hoodoo Italian gambler would have his woman piss on the cards, his mojo, or his "hot hand", in order to affect the outcome of the gambling to influence, to overcome chance, to make "winning" a part of the will of the gambler.

For those who dismiss the magik, I will state this again, the reason the Bible says not to become involved in this, is not because it does not work, but because it does work, in it opens windows which possession from satan will take place, and it replaces God as your Source.

This entire association of "artists" is into magik, another example is Anish Kapoor:

The use of red wax is also part of his repertoire, evocative of flesh, blood, and transfiguration. In 2007, he showed Svayambh (which translated from Sanskrit means "self-generated"), a 1.5-metre block of red wax

Abramovic is using base offerings for her success and control, of the weak, and those inside the Clinton Coven. Normal people would be aghast at this shit, and flee, but the Podesta boys, along with Hamrod get a "charge" off of this and are attracted to it.One spell which Abramovic writes down for a dark spirit surge is ritual cutting of people, and their drinking their own blood or "eating the pain". Pain is a power enhancer, as are all the symbols, collected from others in their aura powers.

This is a covenant in all agreeing to this ritual, which enhances it, and the charge is sent into the matrix to enhance whatever is behind the will of this coven. In this case, it appears it is focused on Hillary Clinton for the White House.This all is an abomination to God as it replaces the Source of God from people and spiritual death occurs.

Can spells be broken and overcome in this. Yes, but the power can, but these people's will are wed to it.

It does not appear this practitioner has built any "end" to her incantations or spells, so they continue to generate and consume power off of those involved.

This brings us to the explanation of Voodoo and Hoodoo.

Ggbo is Hoodoo West African folk satanism combining body fluids and Biblical verses. Vodou is African satanism incorporated into French Catholicism which honors the icons or lwa.

Abramaovic was apparently sanctioned by Podesta and Hillary Clinton for her campaign beginning in the outdoor arena of Franklin Roosevelt with his four liberated powers.

Hillary for America Official Campaign Launch will take place on June 13th in Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York City

There have been rumors that Hillary Clinton is an occultist, in making trips to California. There are numbers of the elite who are involved in the occult. The Franklin marketing of young children to the Grove where they were abused and murdered is an extension of this.I have not inquired about Hamrod, as it does not interest me. Her blood infusion rituals, while based on science are a part of this. As she is involved in this, in her association, it is evident she is being sucked dry of life forces.It is the way it is with the santanic. The false illumination is a negative power source in draining power. It requires power for spells, and it accrues interest, in meaning a greater power surge is always required for payment to keep that building wave from engulfing the original "gift" that satan initiated.As a conclusion in this, I warned all of you about the false messiah magik which Birther Hussein initiated in that power surge, and how it kept being fed, until June 13, 2013 when payment was due, and now the image is there, but all of this death around this regime is interest payment, and a nation offering will be required. That tidal wave is still out there generating in the matrix, and it will come due with tribulation if Hillary Clinton steals this election.

This is all symbolic or sympathetic magik, whether Obama in it's monkey demon trinket in his pants or the potion on the walls with the Podesta boys.

As God has warned you and your nations numerous times, stay away from this false power, as it consumes you and nations, and then is eternal death.Wiki 1

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Archived Version

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 21:50

Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was dubbed a ''high priest'' and a ''goddess of the occult'' in a letter recently sent from Romanian hacker Guccifer to Fox News.

The letter is receiving renewed scrutiny following revelations Friday that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta attends bizarre occult rituals involving a mixture of breast milk, blood and semen in what is being termed the most disturbing email exposed by Wikileaks.

Back in September, Fox News posted images of the letter it received from Guccifer, whose real name is Marcel Lazăr, postmarked September 16, 2016, in which he claimed the goal of the ''Guccifer project'' failed because he was unable to ''fully expose the Illuminati / the council and their crimes.''

Here's a transcript of his letter:

''The Romenian authorities query that I have to be sent back home ''right away'', is a silly, hasty move, by the way.

I will not leave this beautiful country without saying that the ''Guccifer Project'' was a failed project. My will / intention was to fully expose the Illuminati / the Council, and their crimes, but I failed!

''Hillary Rodham Diane Clinton is one of the high priests, a goddess of this ocult, satanic, shadow group. One must see their evil and profoundly corrupt nature to understand what I am talking about.

''Though I know I invested a great deal of time & effort trying to expose the crimes of the Rockefellers, the Bush klan, the Clinton, and many others, maybe my skills (or lack of skills?) were NOT matching my faith.

''So, I apologize in front of the unknown soldiers who struggle to take this fight against these monsters to a glorious end. Many of 'em are risking their lives, while doing this behind the computer screens, from inside or outside the system.''

On Friday Wikileaks dropped a shocking email showing Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and his brother being invited to a ''spirit cooking'' dinner hosted by performance artist Marina Abramovic, where a mixture of semen, menstrual blood and breast milk are bizarrely used as mediums to create a ''painting.''

In an email dated June 28, 2015, Abramovic wrote, ''I am so looking forward to the Spirit Cooking dinner at my place. Do you think you will be able to let me know if your brother is joining? All my love, Marina.''

Lazăr was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in May after he pled guilty to hacking the computer systems of high level government operatives, including Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Lazăr also claimed it was easy to hack Hillary Clinton's private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 20:09

NUNNELLY, Tenn. '-- This horse's ass is getting touchy-feely with a new partner.

As this exclusive Post photo shows, Anthony Weiner spent Friday morning getting a dose of ''equine therapy'' for his sex addiction at The Recovery Ranch at Nunnelly, Tenn., a tony woodsy respite for deep-pocketed patrons.

The perverted former Queens pol wore a bright-blue riding helmet, green T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers as he saddled up his poor animal and hopped aboard, accompanied by a blonde.

Weiner '-- who was caught obsessively texting other women, including an underage girl, while married to top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin '-- looked pensive as he meandered through the trees at the expansive ranch.

But he turned decidedly glum when approached by The Post and asked for comment. He refused to say a word before riding slowly off.

Weiner recently got in more hot water with the Democratic Party when authorities investigating his sexting scandal discovered he had emails on his computer that could be linked to the FBI probe involving Clinton's private server.

The bombshell development couldn't have come at a worse time for Clinton, who faces Donald Trump in a presidential-race showdown Tuesday.

But Weiner, 52, is now worlds away, putting his time in at the secluded recovery ranch after Abedin jettisoned him when it surfaced that he even sexted selfies with their 4-year-old son sleeping in the background.

Weiner is bunking down at The Ranch's Swan Creek House, one of several lodgings catering to its addled well-heeled clientele about an hour west of Nashville.

''Nestled amid rolling hills dotted with mature oaks and maples, Swan Creek House is a 15,000-square-foot home that features warm and inviting living spaces and breathtaking views of the surrounding hills,'' The Ranch's website says.

''The home's sprawling outdoor spaces include a pond, natural rock landscaping and rolling hills as far as the eye can see.

''Also situated on the property is a state-of-the-art equestrian center equipped with lights, heated water and a ¾ bath, as well as 12 stalls, a wash area and a vet area for the equine partners.''

The center's equine therapy ''involves caring and interacting with horses in ways that provide valuable lessons in accountability and in how we relate to others,'' the site says.

Weiner is without his cellphone in the 15-bed facility, which is specifically for sex addicts '-- who are kept strictly separate by gender.

After plunking down a cool $25,000 for the 35-day program, according to online reviews, the disgraced dad still has to make his own meals and clean up after himself.

Participants get daily group therapy. In addition to riding a horse at least once a week, they also get plenty of other physical activity such as rope-climbing, zip-lining, hiking and canoeing, as well has having access to a gym.

Ironically, Rob Weiss, who heads the ranch's sex-recovery unit, penned an article for the Huffington Post in 2013 in which he talked about Weiner and a fellow sex-shamed ex-pol, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer '-- as well as Ariel Castro, the monster who held captive and raped three young Ohio women for more than a decade.

Another center at the 2,000-acre ranch '-- which singer Rihanna reportedly once considered to get treatment for a ''love addiction'' '-- revolves around a Native American sweat lodge.

The sweat lodge is designed to offer ''opportunities for physical detoxification, spiritual connection and emotional processing,'' the ranch's website says.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:47

The New Life Children's Refuge case was a legal case about an incident which occurred in the chaotic aftermath of the January 12th 2010 Haiti earthquake. On January 29, 2010, a group of ten American Baptistmissionaries from Idaho attempted to cross the Haiti-Dominican Republic border with 33 Haitian children. The group, known as the New Life Children's Refuge,[1] did not have proper authorization for transporting the children and were arrested on child trafficking charges.[2] The missionaries denied any wrongdoing and claimed that they were rescuing orphans and leading them to a Dominican hotel which was being transformed into an orphanage. Nine of the ten missionaries were later released but NLCR founder Laura Silsby remained incarcerated in Haiti. Her trial began on May 13 and the prosecution sought a 6-month prison term.[3] On May 17, she was found guilty and sentenced to the time served in jail prior to the trial.[4]

Contents

New Life Children's RefugeEditThe New Life Children's Refuge (NLCR) was founded in November 2009 by Laura Silsby (now Silsby-Gayler) and Charisa Coulter, who are both members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. The organization described itself as a "non'profit Christian ministry dedicated to rescuing, loving and caring for orphaned, abandoned and impoverished Haitian and Dominican children, demonstrating God's love and helping each child find healing, hope, joy and new life in Christ."[1][5] The charity claimed to be in the process of acquiring land to build an orphanage as well as a church and school in Magante on the Northern coast of the Dominican Republic.[1][5] NLCR further intended to provide adoption opportunities for American "loving Christian parents".[1] On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a major earthquake and NLCR quickly formed the "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission", a group of ten people from the Central Valley Baptist Church and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. Both churches are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The mission's plan was to go to Haiti and bring a hundred orphans to Cabarete, Dominican Republic, where NLCR had leased a hotel to serve as a temporary orphanage.

The ten missionaries, led by Silsby, flew to the Dominican Republic on January 22, chartered a bus, and arrived in Haiti on January 25.[6] American journalist Anne-Christine d'Adesky claims that she met Silsby the day before the missionaries' entry into Haiti. The NLCR's leader explained that she had a letter from Dominican officials authorizing the transfer of orphans to the hotel in Cabarete. D'Adesky warned Silsby that she also required proper paperwork from Haitian authorities.[6] On January 26, the group gathered forty children and set off for the Dominican Republic. They were stopped by a policeman, who explained that their actions were illegal. [7][8] Undeterred the group set out to collect orphans from the devastated town of Calebasse (or Callabas) and from the slum of Le Citron in Port-au-Prince. [9][10] 33 children (20 from Calebasse and 13 from Le Citron) were put under the mission's care. On the night of January 29, the missionaries were arrested while trying to cross the Dominican border without proper authorization. They denied any wrongdoing and maintained that they were doing God's will by helping orphaned victims of the quake. [11] The children were sent to the SOS Children's Village orphanage in Croix-des-Bouquets, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, and it became clear that most (if not all) of them were not orphans.[12] NLCR missionaries maintained that they were told that the children were orphaned. In turn, people in Calebasse and SOS Children's Villages accused the missionaries of lying about their intentions.[9][12] Although the children's relatives were told that they would be able to visit them and eventually take them back, the NLCR's mission statement clearly outlined plans for adoption.[1][9]

On February 4, the ten Baptists were formally charged with criminal association and kidnapping for trying to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti. [13] In an interview, the United States Ambassador to HaitiKenneth Merten, stated that the U.S. justice system would not interfere and added "the Haitian justice system will do what it has to do." [14] On February 17, eight of the ten members of the NLCR team were released by Haitian judge Bernard Saint-Vil. They were immediately flown back to Miami on a US Air Force transport plane. Laura Silsby-Gayler and Charisa Coulter, were held over for more questioning.[15] On March 8 Coulter was also released, but Silsby remained incarcerated. [16][17][18] The charges against Silsby were eventually reduced from conspiracy and child abduction to "arranging irregular travel". Her trial began on May 13, and prosecutors asked for a 6-month prison sentence, arguing that Silsby was fully aware that she did not have proper authorization to take the children out of the country.[3] On May 17, she was found guilty and sentenced to the time served in jail prior to the trial.[4]

Laura Silsby founded the New Life Children's Refuge and led the expedition in Haiti. Though she was freed after serving her sentence in Haiti, she also faced legal problems in Idaho. [19][20] In early March 2010, her attorney in these cases filed a motion to withdraw as her counsel.[21] Another lawyer who represented Silsby in a child custody case also withdrew as her attorney.[22]

Silsby faced civil lawsuits for fraud, wrongful termination and unpaid wages mostly related to Personal Shopper,[19][20][23] an Internet company that she founded in 1999 with James Hammons. Silsby and Hammons worked together at Hewlett-Packard.[24] Silsby-Gayler became associated with MyStateUSA an Idaho corporation based Meridian Idaho in 2010 [30]. MyStateUSA CEO, Claudia Bitner, founder of MySateUSA appointed Silsby-Gayler the CFO and corporate secretary in 2011(30). MyStateUSA changed its name to AlertSense [31] . Von Hansen is now the CEO and owner. Hansen announced Sislby-Gayler is, as of, October 2015 the VP of Marketing. In October or 2015 Laura Silsby (now Laura Gayler) married Norman Gayler of Nampa Idaho. [32] Von Hansen is a former HP VP whose son, Blake Hansen, of Alturas Capital in Eagle Idaho invested in MyStateUSA in 2011. [33]

In the days following the group's initial arrest, Dominican Jorge Puello took on the role of legal advisor. Puello later acknowledged that he is under investigation for sex trafficking in El Salvador and wanted in the United States for smuggling people across the Canada''US border. Puello was incarcerated for short terms in both Canada and the US. [25][26] He was arrested in the Dominican Republic on March 18.[27] On August 18, 2010, the Dominican Supreme Court authorized Puello's extradition to the United States where he was sentenced to 37 months of prison in June 2011.[28][29]

^ abcdeNew Life Children's Refuge: Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission. NLCR's mission statement.^King, Shani M. (2012). "Owning Laura Silsby's Shame: How the Haitian Child Trafficking Scheme Embodies the Western Disregard for the Integrity of Poor Families"(PDF). Harvard Human Rights Journal. Harvard Law School. 25 (1): 1''47. Retrieved 2013-11-14. ^ ab"Haiti prosecutors seek 6 months in prison for US woman who tried to remove kids after quake". Associated Press via FoxNews. 2010-05-13. Retrieved 16 May 2010. ^ ab"U.S. missionary convicted in Haiti, but free to go". Associated Press through USA Today. 2010-05-17. Retrieved 17 May 2010. ^ ab"Profile: New Life Children's Refuge". BBC News. 2010-02-05. Retrieved 12 May 2010. ^ abd'Adesky, Anne-Christine (2010-02-24). "Special Report: Puello Says Other Dominicans Helped Silsby". Haiti Vox Bulletin. Retrieved 12 May 2010. Archived link^"Dominican official: I warned U.S. church leader about Haitian kids". CNN. 2010-02-05. Retrieved 12 May 2010. ^Vu, Michelle A. (2010-02-09). "Haitian Officer: U.S. Baptist Team Made Earlier Attempt to Take Children". The Christian Post. Retrieved 12 May 2010. ^ abc"Parents: All Haitian 'orphans' had relatives". Associated Press (through MSNBC.com). 2010-02-21. Retrieved 13 May 2010. ^Basu, Moni (2010-02-03). "Haitian parent sent kids to orphanage for better life". CNN. Retrieved 12 May 2010. ^New York Times, "Case Stokes Haiti's Fear for Children, and Itself", Ginger Thompson, 1 February 2010 (accessed 11 May 2010)^ ab"Haiti Orphans: URGENT Breaking news Baby and Child Traffickers Caught". SOS Children's Villages. 2010-01-30. Retrieved 16 May 2010. ^"U.S. missionaries charged with kidnapping in Haiti". CNN. 2010-02-05. Retrieved 13 May 2010. ^"Attorney For Baptists In Haiti: Leader Is To Blame". CBS News. Retrieved 13 May 2010. ^New York Times, "Judge Releases Eight Americans Jailed in Haiti", Simon Romero, Marc Lacey, 17 February 2010 (accessed 18 February 2010)^Haiti: 10 American Missionaries Cleared of Kidnapping ChargesAssociated Press through nytimes.com. April 26, 2010^"Boisean Charisa Coulter released Monday from Haitian jail; Laura Silsby remains". The Idaho Statesman. Retrieved 16 March 2010. ^Lonzo Cook and Sara Sidner (2010-03-09). "Freed from Haiti, missionary returns 'with mixed emotions'". CNN. Retrieved 10 August 2011. ^ abMoeller, Katy (2010-04-02). "Haiti missionary leader left trail of financial woes in Idaho". Cleveland.com from The Idaho Statesman. Retrieved 13 May 2010. ^ abBone, James (2010-02-06). "Baptist Laura Silsby who set off to 'rescue' orphans left behind debts and bad wages". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 10 August 2011. ^Moeller, Katy (2010-03-03). "Attorney for Laura Silsby, Personal Shopper in civil suit files motion to withdraw as counsel". The Idaho Statesman. Retrieved 14 May 2010. ^Moeller, Katy (2010-04-24). "Another attorney quits working for Laura Silsby". The Idaho Statesman. Retrieved 16 May 2010. ^Boone, Rebecca (February 10, 2010). "Idaho woman faced financial woes before Haiti trip". U''T San Diego. Retrieved 13 December 2013. ^Moeller, Katy (2010-02-13). "Grand ambitions: Laura Silsby has tackled life with faith in God and herself". The Idaho Statesman. IdahoStatesman.com. Retrieved 21 May 2010. ^New York Times, "Trafficking Charges for Adviser to Jailed Americans in Haiti", Marc Lacey, Ian Urbina, 15 February 2010 (accessed 18 February 2010)^Penhaul, Karl (2010-02-15). "Legal adviser for Americans in Haiti facing his own charges". CNN. Retrieved 13 May 2010. ^"Adviser to missionaries in Haiti kidnap case is arrested". CNN. 2010-03-19. Retrieved 14 May 2010. ^"Dominican court allows US extradition of man who acted as lawyer for US missionaries in Haiti". Associated Press via the Waterloo Region Record. 2010-08-18. Retrieved 13 September 2010. ^"Legal Advisor to Idaho-10 Gets 3-Year Sentence". The Haitian Sentinel. June 15, 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2013. 30. State of Idaho Corporate filings; 2011; MyStateUSA

31. State of Idaho Corporate filings; 2015; AlertSense / MyStateUSA

32. Times News Marriage Licenses Report Oct 2015

33. State of Idaho Sec of State Corp filings 2011; MyStateUSA

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\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 1 8-MAY-12 13:09Owning Laura Silsby's Shame:How the Haitian Child Trafficking SchemeEmbodies the Western Disregard forthe Integrity of Poor FamiliesShani M. King*INTRODUCTIONIn January 2010, an earthquake in Haiti left hundreds of thousands ofpeople dead, injured, and displaced, and over a million homeless.1 Threeweeks after the earthquake, Haitian authorities arrested a group of Idahomissionaries for attempting to cross the border into the Dominican Repub-lic with 33 children, without papers or proper authorization.2 The mission-aries claimed they had the good intentions to set up an orphanage,3 butinvestigations showed that none of the children were orphans and that themissionaries may have been attempting to smuggle the children out of Ha-iti to be adopted internationally.4 Despite evidence of association with child* Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center on Children and Families, University ofFlorida Levin College of Law; J.D., Harvard Law School (1999); B.A., Brown University (1995); Mst.,University of Oxford (2012). I would like to thank Adriana Camarena and Laquesha Sanders for out-standing research assistance. I would also like to thank the AALS Children and the Law Section Execu-tive Committee for choosing this Article to be presented at the 2011 AALS Annual Meeting and theInternational Society of Family Law for accepting this Article for presentation. I continue to be gratefulto Martha Minow for her kindness and unwavering support and to Elizabeth Rowe, Dorothy Roberts,Barbara Woodhouse, Nancy Dowd, Claudia Fonseca and Gabriela Ruiz for their helpful comments onearlier drafts of this article. I would also like to thank Benadieu Augustin, a National Human RightsOfficer at the UN Mission in Haiti, for his valuable insights.1.R´EPUBLIQUE D'HA¨ITI, S´EISME 2010, BULLETIN D'INFORMATION DU GOUVERNEMENT HA¨ITIEN2(2010), http://haiti.org/files/BULLETIN%20du%2021%20au%2023.pdf (noting the devastating im-pact of the earthquake on the Haitian population).2. Anthony L. Hall, Missionaries Charged with Kidnapping Haitian Babies, CARIBBEAN NET NEWS,Feb. 5, 2010; Ten U.S. Missionaries Charged over Attempt to Kidnap and Smuggle Haiti 'Orphans', MAILONLINE (U.K.) (Feb. 5, 2010), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248671/Ten-U-S-missionaries-charged-attempt-kidnap-smuggle-Haiti-orphans.html [hereinafter Ten U.S. MissionariesCharged].3.NEW LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE, HAITIAN ORPHAN RESCUE MISSION, http://www.esbctwinfalls.com/clientimages/24453/pdffiles/haiti/nlcrhaitianorphanrescuemission.pdf; see also Ysabel Bilbao, Mis-sionaries' Plan for Rescued Haitian Children, IDAHO'S NEWSCHANNEL 7 (Feb. 4, 2010), http://www.ktvb.com/news/Missionaries-plan-for-orphanage-for-Haitian-children-83600197.html.4.See Bilbao, supra note 3 (stating that the children found with the missionaries were handed overRby parents who wanted them to have a better life); see also Haitian Judge Weighs New Charge for Silsby,BAPTIST PRESS (Mar. 15, 2010), http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32497 [hereinafter Judge

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 2 8-MAY-12 13:092Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25traffickers,5 the Haitian justice system'--prodded in part by President Clin-ton's diplomatic efforts on behalf of the missionaries6'--determined thatnone of the missionaries were guilty of illegal activities, except the leaderLaura Silsby, who faced a lesser charge of organizing illegal travel.7Along with the Haitian justice system, some observers excused the mis-sionaries' actions,8 even though they rose to the level of child trafficking.They did so essentially because we place such little value on the integrity ofpoor families; the idea that the missionaries were acting to ''save'' thesechildren justified the damage they would have caused to the children andtheir families.9 In this way, the Silsby case offers a window into interna-tional and domestic child placement schemes that disrupt poor families anddisregard traditional forms of child placement.10 In the international con-text, the demand for intercountry adoption (''ICA'') is driven by Westernerswho wish to have children and who desire to save poor children.11 Whilerelying on good intentions, ICA as it currently operates perpetuates a sys-tem of child placement that destroys the integrity of poor families and feedsWeighs New Charge] (explaining that missionaries were arrested for trying to take children out of Haitito a ''makeshift orphanage in the Dominican Republic'').5.Adviser to Missionaries in Haiti Kidnap Case is Arrested, CNN (Mar. 19, 2010), http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/19/haiti.baptists.adviser/index.html.6. Tony Allen-Mills, Clinton Brokers Deal over Haiti Orphan Abductions, SUNDAY TIMES (U.K.), Feb.7, 2010, available at Factiva, Doc. No. ST00000020100207e627000xx.7. Jonathan M. Katz, Laura Silsby, U.S. Missionary Leader, Convicted in Haiti, but Free to Go, HUF-FINGTON POST (May 17, 2010), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/laura-silsby-us-mis-sionar_n_579644.html; see also Evens Sanon, Haiti Frees U.S. Missionary; Group Leader Still Held, THEVIRGINIAN-PILOT, Mar. 9, 2010, at A5.8.Haiti Tosses Kidnapping Charges Against Americans, SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD (Apr. 26, 2010),http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/haiti_tosses_kidnapping_charge.html (stating thatsupporters of Silsby's group argued that the group was trying to help the Haitian children and did notunderstand Haiti's adoption laws).9. Throughout this Article I use the term ''poor families.'' When I use this term in the context ofthe United States, I refer loosely to the terminology of the 2011 U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services (HHS) Poverty Guidelines. See Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines, 76 Fed.Reg. 3637''38 (Jan. 20, 2011). When I use this term regarding families in Haiti or other countriesbesides the United States, I refer to the international poverty threshold as defined by the World Bank.See The World Bank, Data: Poverty (Nov. 11, 2011), http://data.worldbank.org/topic/poverty (providingdata on poverty indicators).10.See Jacqueline Bhabha, Moving Babies: Globalization, Markets and Transnational Adoption, 28FLETCHER F. WORLD AFF. 181, 185 (2004) (citing poverty as a leading factor for parents who give uptheir children to be adopted internationally); see also Jodi Kim, An ''Orphan'' with Two Mothers: Transna-tional and Transracial Adoption, the Cold War, and Contemporary Asian American Cultural Politics, 61 AM.Q. 855, 856''57 (2009) (describing international adoptees as ''social orphans'' who are placed for adop-tions as orphans despite having living parents).11.See Robert A. Saunders, Transnational Reproduction and its Discontents: The Politics of IntercountryAdoption in a Global Society, 1 J. GLOB. CHANGE & GOVERNANCE 1, 8 (2007) (describing both humani-tarian and self-serving motives of Westerners seeking to adopt internationally); Nicole Bartner Graff,Intercountry Adoption and the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Can the Free Market in Children BeControlled?, 27 SYRACUSE J. INT'L L. & COM. 405, 407 (2000) (describing the effect on internationaladoption by Westerners' capitalistic demand for children).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 3 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame3illicit child trafficking schemes like the one devised by Laura Silsby.12 Inthe domestic context, the American foster care system also disrupts poorfamilies.13 Children are funneled into a system that can be as harmful as thehomes from which they are removed;14 yet the system still appears to re-move the children with too little regard for the integrity of their families.The U.S. foster care system and ICA are both premised on rescuing chil-dren from unfortunate life circumstances, stemming mainly from poverty.15In both systems, instead of providing resources to enable families to takecare of their children, these resources are used to remove children from theirfamilies and communities.16 Inadequate family reunification planning andservices in the foster care system undermine parents' attempts to regaincustody of their children, and in ICA, adoptive parents pay substantial sumsto complete the ICA process, while birth families typically receive no assis-tance that would enable them to better provide for the children who will beadopted.17 Ultimately, both the domestic and international systems disruptthe lives of poor families, but not always because it is necessary for thechild's well-being.18This Article does not suggest that it is necessary to end foster care orICA. On the contrary, recognizing the need for systems that ensure childrenare raised in safe and loving homes, I seek to show that the current systemsneed to be improved so they do not continue to systemically and unnecessa-rily damage the integrity of poor families. Movement towards this type ofimprovement will not happen, however, without acknowledgment that theproblem exists.Commentators generally accept that poor families are more likely to beinvolved in, and thus disadvantaged by, both the intercountry adoption12. David M. Smolin, Child Laundering: How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incen-tivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children, 52 WAYNE L. REV. 113,117''24 (2006) (linking intercountry adoption to child trafficking).13.See Sandra Bass, Margie K. Shields, & Richard E. Behrman, Children, Families, and Foster Care:Analysis and Recommendations, 14 FUT. CHILD. 4, 6, 14 (2004) (arguing that poor children are morelikely to enter the foster care system because poverty is associated with multiple life challenges).14.See Brenda Jones Harden, Safety and Stability for Foster Children: A Developmental Perspective, 14FUT. CHILD. 30, 40 (2004) (showing that some foster children suffer maltreatment in their fosterhomes).15.See Shani King, The Family Law Canon in a (Post?) Racial Era, 72 OHIO ST. L.J. 575, 610''11 &n.171 (2011) (discussing the U.S. child welfare system's historical roots in child rescuing); see also DavidM. Smolin, Child Laundering as Exploitation: Applying Anti-Trafficking Norms to Intercountry AdoptionUnder the Coming Hague Regime, 32 VT. L. REV. 1, 36''37 (2007) (discussing the argument that adoptingchildren internationally is justified because the children end up in better material circumstances).16.See King, supra note 15, at 612''14 & nn.179 & 182 (discussing the U.S. child welfare system'sRdiversion of funds away from family reunification towards foster care); see also Smolin, supra note 12, atR127 (discussing the significant amount of money spent to arrange an intercountry adoption).17.See King, supra note 15, at 612''14 (discussing the U.S. child welfare system's failure to pro-Rmote family reunification and preservation); see also Smolin, supra note 12, at 127 (discussing the in-Rtercountry adoption system's failure to provide birth families with aid that would preserve theirfamilies).18.See King, supra note 15, at 613; see also Smolin, supra note 12, at 127.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 4 8-MAY-12 13:094Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25system and the U.S. foster care system.19 In my previous work, I have ex-plored the scholarship in both contexts.20 The current Article makes threebroad contributions. First, it focuses on a gap in the existing literature byoffering a clear theoretical conception of the genesis of this disregard forpoor families. In my previous work, I have defined this genesis in the con-text of intercountry adoption as MonoHumanism.21MonoHumanism describes a process of ''Othering'' in the context of in-tercountry adoption.22 This term is a collective notion identifying ''us'' asWesterners and everyone else as ''the other.''23 The narrative of identity Ihave previously described that accompanies MonoHumanism subscribes bothuniversality and superiority to Western knowledge and discourse, whicheffectively results in the exclusion and displacement of the knowledge anddiscourse of historically oppressed peoples.24 In the context of ICA,MonoHumanism means that children are not seen in the context of theirfamily, community and culture, but rather, narrowly as the potential chil-dren of Western adults.25 In this Article, therefore, I argue thatMonoHumanism is an unstated theoretical justification for the disrespect thatsociety shows for the integrity of poor families. In this context, it is notonly the West vs. East juxtaposition that is important, but the poor vs. richjuxtaposition as well. In other words, it is the exclusion and displacementof knowledge and discourse about poor families'--the failure to see children19.See Twila L. Perry, Transracial and International Adoption: Mothers, Hierarchy, Race, and FeministLegal Theory, 10 YALE J.L. & FEMINISM 101, 133''34 (1998) (citing poverty as a reason for intercountryadoption to the detriment of mothers who relinquish their children); see also Annette R. Appell, Protect-ing Children or Punishing Mothers: Gender, Race, and Class in the Child Protection System, An Essay, 48 S.C.L. REV. 577, 578 (1997) (discussing the disproportionate involvement of poor mothers in the U.S. childwelfare system); Susan L. Brooks & Dorothy E. Roberts, Social Justice and Family Court Reform, 40 FAM.CT. REV. 453 (2002) (noting the class disparities in the U.S. child welfare system and the system's rootsin intervening into poor families); Naomi Cahn, Race, Poverty, History, Adoption, and Child Abuse: Connec-tions, 36 LAW & SOC'Y REV. 461, 462 (2002) (stating that class is a significant factor for intervention bythe U.S. child welfare system); Andrea Charlow, Race, Poverty, and Neglect, 28 WM. MITCHELL L. REV.763, 764''65 (2002) (discussing the disproportionate removal of poor children from their homes to beplaced into foster care); Marsha Garrison, Why Terminate Parental Rights?, 35 STAN. L. REV. 423,433''38 (1983) (tracing the development of the U.S. child welfare system to colonial laws that inter-vened into poor families); Johanna Oreskovic & Trish Maskew, Red Thread or Slender Reed: DeconstructingProf. Bartholet's Mythology of International Adoption, 14 BUFF. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 71, 107 (2008) (discuss-ing how dire poverty can drive the procurement of children for the intercountry adoption system);Dorothy E. Roberts, Child Welfare and Civil Rights, 2003 U. ILL. L. REV. 171, 172 (2003) (concludingthat the U.S. child welfare system is ''an institution designed primarily to monitor, regulate, andpunish poor black families''); David M. Smolin, Intercountry Adoption and Poverty: A Human Rights Analy-sis, 36 CAP. U. L. REV. 413, 413''14 (2007) (describing extreme poverty as an impetus for intercountryadoption); Smolin, supra note 12, at 127 (discussing poverty as a grounds for families to surrender theirRchildren to be adopted internationally).20.See Shani King, Challenging MonoHumanism: An Argument for Changing the Way We Think AboutIntercountry Adoption, 30 MICH. J. INT'L L. 413 (2009) (exploring scholarship on intercountry adoption);see also King, supra note 15 (critiquing family law scholarship on issues such as foster care).R21.See generally King, supra note 20.R22.Id. at 414.23.Id.24.Id. at 414''15.25.Id. at 415.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 5 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame5in the context of their family, community and culture'--or a slightly broad-ened version of MonoHumanism, that explains our failure to respect the in-tegrity of poor families in the United States and abroad.26MonoHumanism may at first blush seem inclusive rather than ethnocentricor myopic.27 I have chosen this phrase purposefully due to the strength ofthe inversion of the inclusive ideal accompanying this language.28 Thephrase MonoHumanism was chosen because of the juxtaposition of ''Mono''with the word ''Humanism'' to underscore the ethnocentric and myopicfailure to include discourses that have their origins in the lives, cultures,and vocabulary of historically oppressed peoples, in areas that are often con-ceived of as a ''win-win'' for all parties involved and as the most humanita-rian of endeavors.29 Even more fundamentally, the term ''Mono'' seems toexclude other possibilities and is commonly used that way, for example,with the terms ''monotheistic'' and ''monolilthic.''30While there are terms from post-colonial theory such as ''ethnocentrism''and ''Self/Other'' that have informed my choice of this term,31 I offer thisnew label to specifically identify our approach towards poor children. Mysense is that having a specific target will make it much easier to hit thattarget. To use a slightly imperfect analogy, instead of dismantling discrimi-nation, we dismantle ''Jim Crow laws'' or the ''separate but equal'' doc-trine.32 Or, instead of stopping law enforcement officers fromdiscriminating against people of color, we have taken a stand against ''racialprofiling.''33 In part, because previous terms have not captured our collec-tive consciousness in a way that has resulted in the dismantling of our ap-proach to poor families, as I have argued before, I think it is time for a newand very specific term that captures that approach. The term I have chosenis MonoHumanism.34The second broad contribution is to show how this theoretical justifica-tion becomes a narrative that determines how we report on, read, think26.See id.27.Id. at 414.28.Id.29.Id.30.Id.31.See DIANA KENDALL, SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES 90 (4th ed. 2003) (defining ''ethnocentrism'' asthe practice of using one's culture as the standard by which to judge other cultures and stating that''[e]thnocentrism is based on the assumption that one's way of life is superior to all others'');SANKARAN KRISHNA, GLOBALIZATION & POSTCOLONIALISM: HEGEMONY AND RESISTANCE IN THETWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 73''74 (2009) (describing Edward Said's seminal work Orientalism whichadvanced a postcolonialism framework of understanding how the Western ''self'' developed as a binaryopposite to the Oriental ''other'').32.See Lee Epstein & C.K. Rowland, Interest Groups in the Courts: Do Groups Fare Better?, in INTER-EST GROUP POLITICS 275, 278 (Allan J. Cigler & Burdett A. Loomis eds., 2nd ed. 1986) (stating that''[w]hen the NAACP was formed, one of its major goals was to eradicate 'separate but equal' policies'').33. Samuel R. Gross & Debra Livingston, Racial Profiling Under Attack, 102 COLUM. L. REV. 1413,1413 (2002) (describing a universal opposition to ''racial profiling'' prior to 9/11, and continued oppo-sition and ambivalence about the practice afterward).34.See King, supra note 20, at 415, 470 (discussing the goal of dismantling MonoHumanism).R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 6 8-MAY-12 13:096Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25about, and interact with poor families both in the United States and abroad.I do this using the Silsby case,35 through which I explore how the ideas ofchild saving and rescuing poor Haitian children became the narrative thatultimately excused the U.S. missionaries' actions in a clear case of childtrafficking.The third broad contribution is to show how customary child placementschemes, typically used by poor families as a creative adaptation to poverty,are not only displaced by structures set in motion by MonoHumanism, butare, in certain circumstances, more protective of the integrity of poor fami-lies than systems which may reflect classism, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism,and basic fundamental unfairness that permeates both international andU.S. child care systems. I do this by exploring one customary system ofchild placement in Haiti, timoun, and analogous child placement systems bypoor families in the United States.Taking into consideration these three broad contributions, the ultimategoal of this Article is to call attention to the fact that we continue, on abasic conceptual and theoretical level, to fail to respect the integrity of poorfamilies. As such, it is currently unrealistic to expect the United States tocreate structures that protect these families. Frankly, creating structuresthat protect poor families would be fundamentally incongruous with whowe are as a society (whether we admit it to ourselves or not) as it would befundamentally at odds with the concept of MonoHumanism. It will only bewhen we turn a critical eye on U.S. society and interrogate our conceptualand theoretical understandings of the poor that we will develop the will toprotect all families' integrity. This Article hopes to be a spark that does justthat.Using the Silsby case as a window into the MonoHumanistic child place-ment schemes that affect poor families, this Article proceeds in severalparts. Part I tells the story of the Silsby case and shows how the idea ofrescuing poor Haitian children became the narrative that ultimately ex-cused the missionaries' actions. As I will explain, this is a rescue narrativethat has its genesis in MonoHumanism. Part II describes the development ofICA as a means of ''saving'' poor children and explains how the strength ofthis rescue narrative feeds illicit child trafficking schemes. Part II also ex-plores the international community's response to ICA and its focus on pro-tecting the birth family's unity. Part III describes one customary system ofchild placement in Haiti, timoun or restav`ek, and explains how this system,unlike ICA, does not permanently sever the child's relationship with his orher parents and may sometimes be preferable to ICA. This part also consid-ers the problems with timoun, including its potential for exploitation. PartIV exposes the current U.S. child welfare system as one that disrupts tradi-tional forms of child placement in the United States, much like ICA dis-35.See supra notes 2''8 and accompanying text.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 7 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame7rupts the customary systems of child placement in other countries. In PartsV and VI, the Article concludes that ICA markets and U.S. foster caresystems reflect a theoretical and conceptual approach, one I refer to asMonoHumanism, that too often disserves the interests of children who maybe better served by systems that respect their familial and cultural ties. TheArticle further concludes that the answer is not necessarily to outlaw ICA ordismantle the domestic foster care system. But by acknowledging and even-tually overcoming our failure to respect the integrity of poor families, andthe fact that both systems suffer from unfounded biases that feed illicitschemes or unnecessarily disrupt poor families, both systems can function asthey should'--by minimizing the disruption of family unity and traditionalcaregiving patterns, while fostering the well-being of every child who isimpacted by the system.I. THE SILSBY CHILD ABDUCTION SCANDALOn January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck 15 miles westof Port-au-Prince, Haiti.36 The earthquake was the strongest to hit the Car-ibbean in 200 years.37 Before the earthquake, Haiti was already consideredthe poorest country in the Western hemisphere.38 After the earthquake, theHaitian government estimated that 217,366 people died and 300,572 wereinjured.39 The earthquake damaged or destroyed 285,677 homes, leaving1,237,032 people homeless, and 511,405 displaced.40 The United Nationsestimated that about 2 million people required food aid in the aftermath ofthe earthquake.41 In response to the disaster, the U.N. issued an unprece-dented call for 1.5 billion dollars in emergency and reconstruction aid to besent to Haiti.42In the first week of February, former President Bill Clinton accepted anexpanded role as special envoy for Haiti, on behalf of the United Nations, tolead the coordination of international earthquake recovery and reconstruc-36.Magnitude 7.0 '' Haiti Region, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURV. (Jan. 12, 2010, 9:53 PM), http://earth-quake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010rja6.php.37. Ker Than, Haiti Earthquake ''Strange,'' Strongest in 200 Years, NAT'L GEOGRAPHIC, Jan. 13, 2010,available at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100113-haiti-earthquake-red-cross/.38.Haiti, Background, CIA WORLD FACTBOOK, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html (last visited Mar. 4, 2010) [hereinafter CIA FACTBOOK]. In 2007, theaverage person in Haiti had an income of less than $1.25 a day. At a Glance: Haiti - Statistics, UNICEF,http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_statistics.html (last visited Apr. 21, 2010).39.R´EPUBLIQUE D'HA¨ITI, supra note 1, at 2.R40.Id.41.Haiti: UN Launches Largest-ever Appeal for Natural Disaster, U.N. NEWS CENTRE (Feb. 18,2010), http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33815&Cr=haiti&Cr1=&Kw1=haiti&Kw2=clinton&Kw3.42.Id.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 8 8-MAY-12 13:098Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25tion efforts.43 One of Clinton's first tasks in Haiti, however, was to put outthe fire of a child abduction scandal involving American citizens.44On January 29, 2010, less than three weeks after the earthquake, Haitianauthorities arrested ten U.S. Baptist missionaries for attempting to take 33children by bus across the border into the Dominican Republic withoutproper documentation.45 A week later, the missionaries were charged withchild kidnapping and criminal association.46 While the missionariesclaimed good intentions and ignorance of Haitian laws, Haitian prosecutorsargued that there had been intentional wrongdoing.47 In the course of amonth, President Clinton brokered the release of all the missionaries, ex-cept for the group leader, Laura Silsby.48While Laura Silsby awaited trial, the press brought to light several factsthat raised serious suspicions about her intent to traffic or smuggle thechildren as part of a grey adoption scheme.49 In 2009, Silsby visited Haitiwith the stated intent to establish an orphanage.50 At the time, Silsby facednumerous court cases in the U.S. for bad debt and unpaid wages.51 In No-vember 2009, she registered her New Life Children's Refuge charity at anaddress in Boise, Idaho, and a month later the house was repossessed forlack of payment.52In the midst of her personal debt crisis, the January earthquake struckHaiti, and Silsby organized a mission to ''gather 100 orphans from the43.Former President Clinton to Lead International Haiti Coordination, U.S. FED. NEWS, Feb. 5, 2010,available at 2010 WLNR 2490284. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was the acting U.N. envoy forHaiti since May 2009. Id.44. Allen-Mills, supra note 6.R45. Hall, supra note 2; Ten U.S. Missionaries Charged, supra note 2.R46.US Missionaries Charged with Child Kidnapping in Haiti, GUARDIAN (U.K.), Feb. 4, 2010, availa-ble at Factiva, Doc. No. GRULTD0020100204e625006sh.47.US Missionaries 'Knew They Were Doing Wrong' in Haiti, BBC NEWS (Feb. 2, 2010), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8491996.stm.48.See Allen-Mills, supra note 6 (describing Clinton's expected intervention); see also Sanon, supraRnote 7 (stating that all of the missionaries except Silsby were released).R49. In the context of international adoption, the grey adoption market has been defined as ''anetwork of 'baby brokers' and orphanage practices of contested legitimacy'' that facilitates ''the legaland government-sanctioned transnational shuttling of children.'' J.M. Weimer, Media and Migration:International Adoption, Globalization, and the Internet, GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA, New School Univer-sity, http://homepage.newschool.edu/~chakravs/Media_migration.html. A journalist described onegrey adoption scheme discovered in Vietnam by the U.S. State Department as ''a network of adoptionagency representatives, village officials, orphanage directors, nurses, hospital administrators, police of-ficers, and government officials who were profiting by paying for, defrauding, coercing, or even simplystealing Vietnamese children from their families to sell them to unsuspecting Americans.'' E.J. Graff,Anatomy of an Adoption Crisis, FOREIGN POL'Y (Sept. 12, 2010), http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/09/07/anatomy_of_an_adoption_crisis?page=full.50.See James Leasure, Eight of Ten Baptist Missionaries Back from Haitian Detention, EXAMINER.COM(Feb. 18, 2010), http://www.examiner.com/evangelical-in-richmond/eight-of-ten-baptist-missionaries-back-from-haitian-detention-video.51. Guy Adams, Baptist Laura Silsby Who Set Off to 'Rescue' Orphans Left Behind Debts and Bad Wages,THE INDEPENDENT (U.K.), Feb. 6, 2010, at 28; see also Katy Moeller, Eviction Hearing Scheduled for LauraSilsby's Company, Personal Shopper Inc., IDAHO STATESMAN, Mar. 10, 2010, available at 2010 WL5015921 (discussing specific amounts owed).52. Adams, supra note 51; Moeller, supra note 51.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 9 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame9streets'' of Haiti and take them to a shelter in the Dominican Republic.53The children would be housed in a leased hotel because Silsby's purportedcharity did not yet manage an orphanage or own any property in the Do-minican Republic.54 U.S. authorities later stated that New Life Children'sRefuge was not listed as a U.S. nonprofit or as a U.S. international adoptionagency.55In March, after her arrest, evidence was introduced in Silsby's case show-ing that on January 26, 2010, she had previously attempted to take a differ-ent group of 40 children across the border.56 Haitian and Dominicanauthorities turned her away for lack of authorizing documents.57 Three dayslater she attempted to cross over with the second group'--the 33 children'--again without proper documentation.58After the earthquake, the Haitian government tried to crack down onunauthorized adoptions to avoid child trafficking.59 In addition, the Do-minican consul in Haiti had personally warned Silsby that she lacked thenecessary paperwork to take children out of the country and risked arrest.60On March 17, 2010, after careful verification of identities by the SocialWelfare Ministry of Haiti, 32 out of the 33 children were returned to theirfamilies (the last one being returned shortly thereafter),61 thus confirmingthat none of the children were orphans.Previously, Silsby had told an Associated Press reporter that the childrenwere delivered to the missionaries by ''distant relatives'' or ''orphanagesthat had collapsed in the quake,'' adding that '''[t]hey are very preciouskids that have lost their homes and families and are so deeply in need of,most of all, God's love and his compassion.'''62 But an AP reporter revealedthat Silsby had engaged an Atlanta-based Haitian minister, Reverend Jean53.HAITIAN ORPHAN RESCUE MISSION, supra note 3.R54.Id.; Bilbao, supra note 3.R55. Bilbao, supra note 3.R56.Judge Weighs New Charge, supra note 4; see also New Kidnapping Charge Added to Jailed U.S.RMissionary's Case, DESERET NEWS (Mar. 13, 2010), http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700016208/New-kidnapping-charge-added-to-jailed-US-missionarys-case.html.57. Karl Penhaul, Americans Jailed in Haiti Tried Taking Other Kids, Officer Says, CNN (Feb. 8,2010), http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-08/justice/haiti.border.arrests_1_dominican-republic-haitian-missionaries?_s=PM:CRIME.58.Judge Weighs New Charge, supra note 4; New Kidnapping Charge Added to Jailed U.S. Missionary'sRCase, supra note 56.R59.Ninth U.S. Missionary Freed in Haiti: Charisa Coulter Returns Home as Group Leader Remains inJail, N.Y. DAILY NEWS (Mar. 9, 2010), http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/03/09/2010-03-09_ninth_us_missionary_freed_in_haiti_charisa_coulter_returns_home_with_group_leade.html.60.Id.61. The identity of the last child was undergoing verification, which is why he was not released atthe time. Michelle Faul, Haiti Parents Take Back Kids Given to Missionaries, DESERET NEWS, Mar. 18,2010, at A04, available at Factiva, Doc. No. DN00000020100318e63i0001v.62.Americans Charged with Haiti Child Kidnap, CBS NEWS (Feb. 5, 2010), http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/04/world/main6174535.shtml.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 10 8-MAY-12 13:0910Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25Sainvil, and a local orphanage worker, Isaac Adrien, to find ''homeless''children for her shelter.63Parents of some of the children confirmed to the press and testified incourt that they gave up their children to the missionaries after being prom-ised by the recruiters and the group of Baptists that ''the kids would beeducated and relatives could visit them.''64 Reverend Sainvil convinced oneparent to hand over his children to the missionaries for their better care,pointing out ''that dead bodies buried under rubble in his El Citron neigh-borhood would breed disease.''65 Reverend Sainvil told reporters that:Everybody agreed that they knew where the children were going.The parents were told, and we confirmed they would be allowedto see the children and even take them back if need be.66Adrien'--the orphanage worker'--stated that parents jumped at the offer,while a mother who handed over her daughter observed that it was ''onlybecause the bus was full that more children didn't go.''67The parents gave their consent to the missionaries to take their childrenunder the impression that Silsby and her group were providing shelter andeducation; the parents' understanding was not that they were permanentlyparting with their children.68 Contrary to the parents' expectations, Silsby'sexpress intent'--according to her online action plan'--was to place the chil-dren for adoption.69Suspicions about Silsby's intent to smuggle or traffic the children to theDominican Republic further increased, when on March 19, 2010, Silsby'slegal advisor'--Jorge Torres-Puello, an American-Dominican living in theDominican Republic as a fugitive'--was arrested and accused of human traf-ficking.70 U.S. authorities revealed that Torres-Puello was ''linked to a net-work that trafficked in Haitian and Central American children and [was]wanted in the United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica.''71 His wife was63.Parents Willingly Gave Children to U.S. Baptists, Who Are Mostly from Idaho, OREGONLIVE.COM(Feb. 3, 2010), http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/parents_willingly_gave_childre.html [hereinafter Parents Willingly Gave Children]; see also Faul, supra note 61; Americans Charged withRHaiti Child Kidnap, supra note 62.R64. Kirsten Johnson, Haiti Parents Testify They Gave Kids to Americans, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Feb. 9,2010, available at Factiva, Doc. No. APRS000020100209e6290005l.65. Faul, supra note 61.R66.Americans Charged with Haiti Child Kidnap, supra note 62.R67.Parents Willingly Gave Children, supra note 63; see also Americans Charged with Haiti Child Kid-Rnap, supra note 62.R68.Parents Willingly Gave Children, supra note 63.R69.''We will strive to also equip each child with a solid education and vocational skills as well asopportunities for adoption into a loving Christian family.''HAITIAN ORPHAN RESCUE MISSION, supranote 3, at 3.R70.Adviser to Missionaries in Haiti Kidnap Case is Arrested, supra note 5.R71.Id.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 11 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame11already imprisoned in El Salvador and ''faced charges of presumed sexualexploitation of minors and women.''72Despite Silsby's stated intent to take the children over the border to anunauthorized orphanage and her connections to human traffickers such asTorres-Puello, the courts eventually dropped the kidnapping and criminalassociation charges against her.73 Silsby was instead convicted under theadditional charge of organizing illegal travel, sentenced to time served (3months and 8 days), and released on May 17, 2010.74 In the end, her sen-tence was based on the least polemic charge against her. The pressing is-sue'--whether Silsby intended to deliver the children into trafficking ringsor grey adoption markets'--was not addressed or resolved.Rather than turning on Silsby's actions, the decision in her case appearedto turn on the actions of the parents. Judge Bernard Saint-Vil explainedthat his decision was based on the Haitian parents' testimony that they had''[given] their kids away voluntarily.''75 Similarly, defense lawyer JorgePuello stated that the missionaries ''willingly accepted kids they knew werenot orphans because the parents said they would starve otherwise.''76 An-other trial attorney for the missionaries, Aviol Fleurant, argued that ''[t]heparents' testimony means no law was broken and 'we can't talk any moreabout trafficking of human beings.'''77 Essentially, the Haitian children aredescribed as victims of the incapacity and poverty of their parents and coun-try; their parents are portrayed as childlike because they are incapable oftaking care of themselves or their children. In other words, the Baptistmissionaries were justified in their actions because they were ''rescuing'' thechildren from incapacitated parents.II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ICA AS A MEANS OF''SAVING'' POOR CHILDRENA. A Brief History of ICASince the mid-20th century, adoption rates in the U.S. have increaseddramatically.78 The increase is generally attributed to ''an increased inci-dence of infertility among married couples and an absolute decrease in the72.Id.73. Katz, supra note 7. As of the date of this writing, the status of the case against Jean Sainvil, whoRfaced the same charges as Silsby, was not clear.74.Id.75. David Fischer & Frank Bajak, Missionaries Freed by Haitian Judge Land in U.S., NEWS J. (Wil-mington, D.E.), Feb. 18, 2010.76.Parents Willingly Gave Children, supra note 63.R77. Johnson, supra note 64; cf. infra note 197 (UNICEF's definition of ''trafficking''). TraffickingRimplies the movement of children across borders with the intent of labor exploitation. The fact that theparents gave their consent does not mean that Silsby did not intend to traffic the children.78. The number of adoptions has increased[. . .f]rom less than 20 per 1,000 births in the early 1950s to over 45 per 1,000 births in1968-1973. Adoption rates then declined sharply in the 1970s and possibly in the 1980s. As

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 12 8-MAY-12 13:0912Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25numbers of infants placed for adoption.''79 The decrease in the numbers ofinfants placed for adoption does not mean that children are not available foradoption in the United States. On the contrary, as of September 30, 2009,there were approximately 115,000 children waiting for adoption from fos-ter care.80 There has been a decrease in infants placed for adoption, in largepart, because the population of ''preferred'' adoptable infants (white andnon-special needs) has decreased since the 1950s.81 Several factors have con-tributed to the decrease in preferred adoptable infants in the U.S. since the1950s, including an increase in the use of contraception and abortion, adecrease in the rate of relinquishment of children born to unwed mothers(particularly women who have greater resources), and more women enteringthe workforce and delaying having children.82During the same period, ICA has increasingly served as a ''substitute''for domestic adoptions.83 While it represented only 1% of all adoptions inthe United States in 1965, in 2002 ICA represented 13.9% of all adop-tions.84 Scholars offer several reasons for the increase in ICA, including aperceived lack of adoptable children in the United States (manifested as apreference for healthy light skinned infants),85 the ineligibility of adoptivea result, adoption rates in 2002 (32.4 to 37.6 per 1,000 births) are still substantially lowerthan the historical peak reached in 1971 (47.5 per 1,000 births).Raquel Bernal et al., Child Adoption in the United States: Historical Trends and the Determinants ofAdoption Demand and Supply, 1951-2002, at 7 (Dec. 2007) (unpublished paper), available at http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~cmo938/adoptAEA.pdf.79. Burton Z. Sokoloff, Antecedents of American Adoption, 3 FUT. CHILD. 17, 23 (1993).80. U.S. DEP'TOF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS., ADMIN. FOR CHILD. & FAMILIES, THE AFCARSREPORT: PRELIMINARY FY 2009 ESTIMATES 5 (July 17, 2009), available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report17.pdf.81. Sokoloff, supra note 79, at 23 (describing the decrease in infants placed for adoption and theRtrends which may have contributed); see also Twila L. Perry, Transracial Adoption and Gentrification: AnEssay on Race, Power, Family and Community, 26 B.C. THIRD WORLD L.J. 25, 28''29 (2006) (citing the''shortage of adoptable white infants result[ing] from, among other factors, the increased availability ofabortion and contraception and from a growing tendency of unmarried white mothers to keep theirbabies'' beginning in the 1960s).82. Sokoloff, supra note 79, at 23; Bernal et al., supra note 78, at 9''13, 20''21; see also Richard A.RPosner, The Regulation of the Market in Adoptions, 67 B.U. L. REV. 59, 61''64 (1987) (discussing theimpact of societal trends on supply and demand in adoption markets).83. Bernal et al., supra note 78, at 15.R84.Id. at 35 tbl.1. The authors also point out that domestic private agency adoptions, foster careadoptions, and intercountry adoptions need to be better understood in terms of the very different popu-lations of adoptive and relinquishing parents that they serve.85. The complex reasons for adoption preferences around race are discussed in the section below onfoster care. Remarkably the United States was the third largest sending country of children to Canadain 2005, with the majority of such children being African American. Galit Avitan, Protecting OurChildren or Our Pride? Regulating the Intercountry Adoption of American Children, 40 CORNELL INT'L L.J.489, 499 (2007). The following authors discuss the preference for white babies: Kirsten Lovelock,Intercountry Adoption as a Migratory Practice: A Comparative Analysis of Intercountry Adoption and Immigra-tion Policy and Practice in the United States, Canada and New Zealand in the Post W.W. II Period, 34 INT'LMIGRATION REV. 907, 933 (2000); Amy Grillo Kales, The Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000: Are ItsLaudable Goals Worth Its Potential Impact on Small Adoption Agencies, Independent Intercountry Adoptions, andEthical Independent Adoption Professionals?, 36 GEO. WASH. INT'L L. REV. 477, 479''80 (2004). Forty-fourpercent of unrelated adoptions in the United States are from foster care, and most of these adoptions are

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 13 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame13parents in their own countries (age, marriage status, etc.),86 and the rise ofopen adoptions in the United States.87 Humanitarian concerns88 and lowercosts have also been cited as reasons for the rise of ICA.89Today, the United States is the country with the largest absolute numberof intercountry adoptions per year, though that number has decreased to12,753 in 2009 from an all-time high of 22,990 in 2004.90 Several Euro-pean countries surpass the U.S. demand for children from abroad withgreater per capita ICA than the United States, specifically Norway, Sweden,Denmark, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands.91 Together theseWestern nations are spending billions of dollars to form families.92 In theUnited States, domestic adoption costs range from $0 to $2,500 for fostercare adoptions and $5,000 to over $40,000 for domestic private adoptionswhile intercountry adoptions range between $7,000 and $30,000.93 Thetotal number of children that were moved through ICA to developed na-of older children, children with disabilities, a sibling group, or children of color. Bernal et al., supranote 78, at 8''9.R86. Saunders, supra note 11, at 4.R87. An ''open adoption'' is an arrangement in which birth parents select their child's adoptiveparents and ''can negotiate a mutually agreeable level of involvement in the child's life after his or herbirth, not unlike visitation arrangements of a divorce.'' Jack Darcher, Market Forces in Domestic Adoptions:Advocating a Quantitative Limit on Private Agency Adoption Fees, 8 SEATTLE J. SOC. JUST. 729, 739 (2010).There have been high-profile cases in the United States of birth parents reclaiming their children suc-cessfully in courts. Saunders, supra note 11, at 8.R88. Humanitarian concern is the historical reason given for the start of intercountry adoption in theUnited States with the first waves of children arriving to the country after World War II, followed bywar orphans from the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The problematic narrative of humanitarian concernfor the start of U.S. intercountry adoption is discussed in King, supra note 20, at 429''35.R89. For a discussion on costs (monetary and non-monetary) of adoption from foster care that act asincentives to seek a ''substitute'' (either traditional conception, private domestic or intercountry agencyadoption, foster care, etc.), see Mary Eschelbach Hansen & Bradley A. Hansen, The Economics of Adoptionof Children from Foster Care (Am. Univ., Dep't of Econ., Working Paper Series, No. 2005-10, 2005).90. In the United States, ''the number of immigrant-orphans soared from 6,000 (or 1.6 per 1,000births) in 1992 to over 20,000 (or 5.6 per 1,000 births) in 2004.'' Bernal et al., supra note 78, at 7. TheRlatest figures show that during the last years of economic recession the number of annual intercountryadoptions dropped from an all-time high of 22,991 in 2004 to 19,608 in 2007, 17,456 in 2008, and12,744 in 2009. U.S. DEP'TOF STATE, BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS, INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION:STATISTICS, http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php (click on ''Adoptions by Year'').91. Saunders notes that:Although the US is the largest receiving country in total adoptions, on average accounting forhalf of all ICA, Norway is the leader in per capita intercountry adoptions with 11.2 interna-tional adoptions for every 1,000 births. Other European countries with a higher ratio of percapita intercountry adoptions than the US include Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, France,and the Netherlands.Saunders, supra note 11, at 5.R92.See id. at 8 (stating that the United States' market alone for intercountry adoption is over onebillion dollars).93. Bernal et al., supra note 78, at 4; see also CHILD WELFARE INFO. GATEWAY, COSTS OF ADOPTINGR2 (2011), http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/s_cost/s_costs.pdf (estimating ranges for the cost of differ-ent types of adoption).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 14 8-MAY-12 13:0914Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25tions was approximately 30,000 in the late 1990s.94 And, in 2004, over45,000 children were moved through ICA worldwide.95On the opposite end of the ICA market are the sending countries. For2009, the top twenty sending countries to the U.S. (in descending order)were China, Ethiopia, Russia, South Korea, Guatemala, Ukraine, Vietnam,Haiti, India, Kazakhstan, Philippines, China-Taiwan, Colombia, Nigeria,Ghana, Mexico, Uganda, Thailand, Jamaica, and Poland.96 Countries oftenemerge as ''sending countries'' in the wake of political, economic, social,military, or natural upheaval.97 The first wave of ICA en masse to theUnited States came after World War II from countries affected by war suchas Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and con-tinued from Korea and Vietnam after the respective wars in which theUnited States participated.98 After the 1970s, in the years of economic col-lapse and political regime transformation, Latin American and Asian coun-tries became the focus of ICA.99 Successive regulatory changes at aninternational level during this period also facilitated ICA to the UnitedStates.100 A third wave of adoptions followed after the fall of the Iron Cur-tain in the 1990s, with countries such as Romania, Russia, and China be-coming major sending countries.10194.See Peter Selman, Intercountry Adoption in the New Millennium; The ''Quiet Migration'' Revisited, 21POPULATION RES. & POL'Y REV. 205, 209''10 (2002).95. Peter Selman, The Rise and Fall of Intercountry Adoption in the 21st Century, 52 INT'L SOC. WORK575, 575 (2009).96. U.S. DEP'TOF STATE, FISCAL YEAR 2009 ANNUAL REPORT ON INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTIONS(Nov. 2009), http://adoption.state.gov/content/pdf/fy2009_annual_report.pdf.97. Ethan B. Kapstein, The Baby Trade, 82 FOREIGN AFF. 115, 116 (2003). Selman mentions thatsending countries decrease the number of adoptees sent abroad as countries move away from crisis, orchange policies towards internal adoption to counter ICA, or suspend ICA in order to control traffick-ing, as has been the case in the past of Romania, Vietnam and Guatemala. Selman, supra note 94, atR216; see also Laura Briggs & Diana Marre, Defining Reproduction: Law, Strangers, Family, Kin, inINTERNA-TIONAL ADOPTION: GLOBAL INEQUALITIES AND THE CIRCULATION OF CHILDREN 29 (Diana Marre &Laura Briggs eds., 2009) (stating that the ''advent [of intercountry adoption] is intimately related toconflicts that arose from colonialism, international warfare, and civil conflicts, and its current patternsare profoundly shaped by global, racial-ethnic, and class inequalities within and between nation-states'').98. Selman, supra note 94, at 212; see also Lovelock, supra note 85, at 911''26.R99. Lovelock, supra note 85, at 927''30; Selman, supra note 94, at 212''13 (mentioning Colombia,RIndia, and Korea as major sending countries in the early 1980s).100.See Mary E. Hansen & Daniel Pollack, The Regulation of Intercountry Adoption 7''8 (BerkeleyElectronic Press, Working Paper No. 1385, 2006), available at http://law.bepress.com/cgi/viewcon-tent.cgi?article=6337&context=expresso&sei-redir=1#search=%22intercounty%20adoption%20regulations%201980s%22 (describing the genesis ofinternational regulation of intercountry adoption in the late 1980s through the adoption provisions ofthe 1989 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the work of the 1988 Hague Conference onPrivate International Law).101. Lovelock, supra note 85, at 930''37. Selman mentions that in the early 1990s, Romania be-Rcame the largest single source of ICA children, with as many as 10,000 ICA adoptees between March1990 and June 1991, after which the adoptions were halted. By 1995, China and Russia had taken overas major sending nations. Selman, supra note 94, at 213''14.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 15 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame15B. ICA's Rescue Narrative: Saving Poor ChildrenThe rescue narrative surrounding the Silsby case is consistent with thatsurrounding ICA generally.102 This narrative places the Western ''rescuers''at a moral and normative center to justify foreign intervention as goodwilland can be very dangerous in the context of ICA because it encourages andfacilitates the adoption of children who are not orphans. In fact, very fewchildren who are adopted internationally are actual orphans.103 Instead, theymay be deemed ''social orphans'' because their parents or relatives are im-poverished and disempowered individuals who live in underdeveloped na-tions that do not have the social infrastructure to support economicallydisadvantaged families.104 By conceptualizing these children as victims ofpoverty, Westerners tend to justify paternalistic interventions, includingICA.Post-colonial theorists might describe the rescue justification as a processof ''Othering,''105 in which colonizers create narratives about the moral in-feriority or helplessness of the people they subjugate (the ''Others''106). Inmy previous work, I have described Othering in the context of ICA asMonoHumanism.107 In the context of ICA, MonoHumanism means that chil-dren are not viewed in the context of their family, community and culture,but instead as the potential children of Westerners.102.See King, supra note 20, at 432.R103.See Bhabha, supra note 10, at 185 (noting that ''[t]oday . . . parental destitution and social andRpolitical pressure, rather than death or disappearance, appear to be the prime factors motivating relin-quishment [for adoption]'').104.See Kim, supra note 10, at 856''57 (describing adoptees with ''at least one living birth parent''Ras '''social orphans,' who are legally produced and made available for adoption as such'').105. Edward Said's Orientalism is generally acknowledged as the founding work of postcolonialstudies. Said developed the argument that the Occident needed to create the Orient as the Other, todefine itself at the ''center.'' By accepting the self-referential framework of the West, the post-colonial''Other'' remains subordinated to Western paradigms. The West then feels morally validated'--if notobligated'--to exercise a dominant role in guiding the lesser ''Other.''See generally EDWARD W. SAID,ORIENTALISM (1978); EDWARD W. SAID, CULTURE AND IMPERIALISM (1993). Other theorists are alsopart of the postcolonial tradition, including Frantz Fanon, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Chinua Achebe,Haunani-Kay Trask, Trinh Minh-Ha, and Albert Memmi. See generally FRANTZ FANON, A DYINGCOLONIALISM (1965); FRANTZ FANON, BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS (1967); FRANTZ FANON, THEWRETCHED OF THE EARTH (1963); FRANTZ FANON, TOWARD THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION (1967);Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Moving the Center: An Interview with Charles Cantalupo, inTHE WORLD OF NGUGIWA THIONG'O 219''20 (Charles Cantalupo ed., 1993); NGUGI WA THIONG'O, DECOLONISING THEMIND: THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN AFRICAN LITERATURE4 (1986); CHINUA ACHEBE, THINGS FALLAPART (1952); CHINUA ACHEBE, ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH (1987); HAUNANI-KAY TRASK, FROM ANATIVE DAUGHTER: COLONIALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY IN HAWAII 3, 21 (1993); TRINH T. MINH-HA,WOMAN, NATIVE, OTHER 47''76 (1989); ALBERT MEMMI, THE COLONIZER AND THE COLONIZED(1965).106. The salient features of ''Otherness'' as summarized by Kenneth B. Nunn are:(1) the other is a means of defining the self; (2) the other is an abstraction; (3) the othercannot define itself; and (4) the other is to be feared and controlled.Kenneth B. Nunn, The Child as Other: Race and Differential Treatment in the Juvenile Justice System, 51DEPAUL L. REV. 679, 698 (2002).107. King, supra note 20, at 414.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 16 8-MAY-12 13:0916Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25Ratna Kapur identified a similar process involving women; she hasshown how women in developing countries are portrayed as victims of theirculture, thereby reinforcing stereotypical representations and subordinatingthose cultures to the presumably enlightened or more civilized culture ofthe West. Kapur explains how this process not only reinforces the notionthat women in developing countries are perpetually marginalized and un-derprivileged, but encourages interventions into their lives that are ''remi-niscent of imperial interventions in the lives of the native subjects andwhich represent the 'Eastern' woman as a victim of a 'backward' and 'unciv-ilized' culture.'' Kapur's work provides a useful framework for understand-ing how conceptualizing children as victims of poverty invites paternalisticinterventions under the banner of aid, when in reality, such interventionsmay cause more harm than good by disrupting local social networks of self-aid.108Along these lines, Smolin questions the moral underpinning of child res-cue narratives, noting that the cost of one intercountry adoption could sup-port an entire family in an impoverished country, instead of separating achild from his or her family.109 Moreover, Saunders explains that while hu-108. Ratna Kapur writes:Women in the Third World are portrayed as victims of their culture, which reinforces stereo-typed and racist representations of that culture and privileges the culture of the West. In theend, the focus on the victim subject reinforces the depiction of women in the Third World asperpetually marginalized and underprivileged, and has serious implications for the strategiessubsequently adopted to remedy the harms that women experience. It encourages some femi-nists in the international arena to propose strategies which are reminiscent of imperial inter-ventions in the lives of the native subject and which represent the ''Eastern'' woman as avictim of a ''backward'' and ''uncivilized'' culture.Finally, the victim subject and the focus on violence invite remedies and responses from statesthat have little to do with promoting women's rights. Thus, a related concern is that thevictim subject position has invited protectionist, and even conservative, responses from states.The construction of women exclusively through the lens of violence has triggered a spate ofdomestic and international reforms focused on the criminal law, which are used to justifystate restrictions on women's rights '' for the protection of women. The anti-trafficking cam-paign, with its focus on violence and victimization, is but one example.Ratna Kapur, The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Resurrecting the ''Native'' Subject in International/Post-Colonial Feminist Legal Politics, 15 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 1, 6 (2002).109. Smolin notes that:Americans who are overwhelmed by the poverty and apparent degradation experienced bymasses of people in India somehow seem to feel it a noble response to spend between $10,000and $20,000 adopting an individual child, while leaving behind, in the orphanages, on thestreets, and in the villages, tens of millions of similarly situated children. The arbitrariness ofselecting an individual child for such rescue, while doing little or nothing for those leftbehind, does not seem to bother most. The odd effect might be compared to responding to amassive famine by selecting one starving individual for a donated diet of caviar and cham-pagne. Obviously, the cost-effective, rational response to a famine is to erect a feeding stationfor the masses with low-cost, basic nutrition, not helicopter a few individuals out of thecountry so they can dine in ethnic restaurants in America.David M. Smolin, The Two Faces of Intercountry Adoption: The Significance of the Indian Adoption Scandals,35 SETON HALL L. REV. 403, 484''85 (2005); see also Briggs & Marre, supra note 97, at 1 (stating thatRthe contemporary form of intercountry adoption ''has been marked by the geographies of unequalpower, as children move from poorer countries and families to wealthier ones'').

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 17 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame17manitarian narratives are often used to explain demand for ICA, self-servingand personalized motivations are driving a profitable market.110 For themost part, humanitarian or rescue narratives serve as a cover for the intensedemand for adoptable children from developing nations to counter Westerninfertility. Western parents seeking to adopt can ultimately overcome ob-stacles to acquiring a child with their wealth, and the combination of theirdemand and resources makes for an inevitable capitalist dynamic.111 As Ni-cole Bartner Graff states:Any area with such large amounts of capital flowing into it,when guided by a free market economy, such as the one in placein the U.S., will be driven by the demands and expectations ofthat market. International adoption has, in effect, become a mar-ket driven avenue to child acquisition.112These market demands, justified in part by the rescue narrative, continuenot only to drive lawful ICA but also, as in the Silsby case, to temper theresponse to potential trafficking cases.C. The Link Between ICA and Child TraffickingUNICEF defines ''child trafficking'' as ''the act of recruitment, transpor-tation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploita-tion regardless of the use of illicit means, either within or outside acountry.''113''Illicit means'' include ''coercion, abduction, fraud, deception,the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or the giving or receiv-ing of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having con-trol over another person.''114 And ''exploitation'' includes illicitadoption.115 Thus, the Silsby case, apparently involving illicit means to fa-cilitate ICA'--namely fraud, deception, and the abuse of the families' posi-tion of vulnerability after the earthquake'--would fit the definition of childtrafficking.110. Saunders, supra note 11, at 8.R111.See supra note 93 and accompanying text (referring to the costs of adoption).R112. Graff, supra note 11, at 407.R113. UNICEF, GUIDELINES ON THE PROTECTION OF CHILD VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING 9 (2006),http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/0610-Unicef_Victims_Guidelines_en.pdf (citing Protocol to Prevent,Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, art. 3., Dec. 15, 2000,T.I.A.S. No. 13127 and Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings,art. 4, Feb. 2, 2008, C.E.T.S. No. 197).114.Id. (citing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Womenand Children, supra note 113, at art. 3).R115.Id. (citing Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Womenand Children, supra note 113, at art. 3; Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 34. Nov. 20, 1989,R1577 U.N.T.S. 3.; Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Eliminationof the Worst Forms of Child Labor, art. 3, Nov. 19, 2000, 2133 U.N.T.S. 161; and Hague Conventionon Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, art. 1, May 29, 1993,32 I.L.M. 1134).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 18 8-MAY-12 13:0918Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25But is the logical conclusion that ICA is generally linked to child traf-ficking? After all, the vast majority of parents who adopt internationally donot have nefarious intentions, and the vast majority of ICA does not involveabduction, fraud, or deception. But what of the abuse of power and vulnera-bility? Even in cases where good intentions drive ICA, the transaction over-whelmingly occurs between families that are at opposite ends of the powerspectrum'--the birth families are undeniably vulnerable, and the adoptivefamilies are undeniably powerful.Because of this power imbalance, the needs of the adoptive families arepredisposed to drive ICA. And, because of a conceptual and theoretical dis-placement of the lives of poor people and concomitant failure to see chil-dren in the context of their society, family, and culture, the needs andworldview of Western families drive ICA. As early as 1978, in ''The Eco-nomics of the Baby Shortage,'' Richard Posner and Dr. Elisabeth Landes116discuss ''the pros and cons of using the market to equilibrate the demandfor and supply of babies for adoption.''117 Posner argues for partial deregula-tion of the baby market so that the supply of babies will meet demand. Healso states that, ''some unknown fraction of adoptions is of babies bought inthe black market, and the part of the demand for a good that is satisfied ina black market reflects the shortage in the lawful market.''118Although Posner was writing decades before the surge in ICA, his analy-sis can be used to show how supply and demand drive ICA today and openthe door to illicit trafficking. As the demand for children has increased,child traffickers who operate in the black or grey adoption markets haveinfiltrated some sending countries.119 In particular, child trafficking hasplagued countries that were unprepared to handle a sharp rise in the de-mand for children and unable to effectively regulate ICA.120The reality is that even countries that have handled ICA well thus far aresusceptible to child trafficking. China, for example, is known for its tightlycontrolled adoption market.121 Even so, recent accounts of child traffickingin China's adoption system suggest that high demand has led to the exhaus-tion of ''babies and toddlers who are legally available for adoption,[thereby] causing the temptation to illicitly launder and traffic children forpurposes of [ICA].''122Western demand for children may even drive the development of childtrafficking in the adoption markets of countries already plagued by child116. Elisabeth M. Landes & Richard A. Posner, The Economics of the Baby Shortage, 7 J. LEGAL STUD.323 (1978).117. Posner, supra note 82, at 59, 59''60.R118.Id. at 69.119.See Smolin, supra note 12, at 127''45.R120.See id. at 127''31, 135''45 (suggesting that poor sending countries begin to face child launder-ing issues as their intercountry adoption markets grow and citing as an example the child trafficking inCambodia's adoption market).121.Id. at 131.122.Id. at 128.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 19 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame19trafficking for other purposes.123 The prospect of Western money invitescorrupt actors who ''develop systems that can deliver'' children ''as quicklyand as young as possible'' to meet the desires of Western adoptive par-ents.124 As Smolin has found, ''[s]ocieties in which children can be boughtand sold for sex and labor for a few hundred dollars or less, with police andpublic officials bought off, easily transition into the business of supplyingpaper-adoptable 'orphans.'''125Ultimately, for child traffickers involved in ICA markets, Western de-mand means Western money. Child traffickers exploit the demand for chil-dren for financial gain. Smolin and others have highlighted the corruptinginfluence of the large amounts of wealth from Western countries pouringinto the adoption markets of sending countries.126 In short, ''[l]argeamounts of money, relative to the economy of the sending country, create atemptation to launder children.''127Thus, Smolin suggests that ICA can provide cover for illegal practicesbecause it is a mechanism for ''laundering'' (legitimizing) children who aremade available for adoption through trafficking, kidnapping, buying, andselling, but shuffled through licensed agencies for placement.128 In a case ofhistory repeating itself, solutions to these problems are mostly brought upas questions of regulatory ''design.''129 However, as Smolin points out, theproblem is money:Money is the primary motivation in most cases of child launder-ing in the intercountry adoption system. The transfer of Westernwealth into sending nations is the primary vulnerability of theintercountry adoption system. Western funds provide an incen-tive to engage in child laundering which attracts unscrupulouspersons into the system while tempting even charitable childwelfare institutions into unscrupulous conduct.130123.''Many poor nations also suffer from a high incidence of child trafficking, generally conductedfor purposes of sex or labor. Thus, the commodification of children may already be endemic in some ofthese societies, making it easier for the adoption system to be utilized for such purposes.''Id. at 130(footnote omitted).124.See id. at 134''35.125.Id. at 135.126.See id. at 175.127.Id. at 128.128. Smolin mentions several scenarios of illegality in the acquisition of children that are laterlegitimized by intercountry adoption, including (a) intermediaries buying children from poor familiesfor amounts ranging from $2,000 to $20,000, (b) citizens directly buying children in poor countries, (c)luring parents into delivering their children under false pretenses to orphanages, hostels or schools(presumptively for their shelter) and processing the children as orphans available for adoption, (d) fun-neling lost children into trafficking rings instead of reunifying them with their families, and (e) diverseforms of kidnapping where a child is forcibly taken away from their family. Id. at 117''24.129. As discussed in more detail in Part IV below, in the early 20th century, Western liberalgovernments adopted a new approach to governance, based on rationalization and research, to addresssocial problems. ''Design'' or ''purposeful social planning and management'' became the ethos of Pro-gressive and New Deal reformers and professionals.130. Smolin, supra note 12, at 175.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 20 8-MAY-12 13:0920Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25Some have suggested eliminating and diminishing money transfers in allICA transactions to reduce the profit-seeking motives of intermediaries, re-forming international and domestic legislation towards accountability andtransparency of parties involved in ICA, and criminalizing trafficking.131However, as most law and economics experts would agree, the creation ofregulatory obstacles to transactions in a profitable market simply heightensthe positive incentives for black markets.132 Furthermore, the only means tocounter black markets is to lower the profit or increase the cost of illegalitythrough enforcement, which in a world of porous borders and laws hasproven impossible with respect to nearly every illegal trade.133The instability of countries that suddenly become supply countries forICA further invites the possibility of deplorable practices involving thebuying, selling, ''baby farming,'' and abuse of children. Countries such asRomania, Cambodia, and Guatemala that were socially, politically, eco-nomically, and legally unprepared to receive the onslaught of adults seekingchildren, have had to cease ICA altogether for long periods at a time due tocorruption and the trafficking, selling, and abuse of children.134 These odi-ous practices are repeated on a global scale as a consequence of a globalmarket in children.135D. The International Community's Response to ICAThe international community has responded to ICA by seeking to pro-tect the internationally recognized human rights of children and the birthfamily's right to unity, while facilitating the adoption of children for whominternational adoption is the best solution. The international community asa whole, of course, is not tethered to the theoretical and conceptual con-struct of MonoHumanism. The first effort to address the surge in ICA andprotect children's rights was the 1989 United Nations Convention on theRights of the Child (''CRC'').136 The CRC ''establishes a set of globallydefined children's rights and provides that in all actions concerning chil-131.Id. at 174''200.132.See Margaret Jane Radin, What, If Anything, Is Wrong with Baby Selling?, 26 PAC. L.J. 135, 139(1995).133. For a general discussion of booming illegal trade and its consequence to legal trade in the lastdecades, see MOISES NAIM, ILLICIT: HOW SMUGGLERS, TRAFFICKERS AND COPYCATS ARE HIJACKINGTHE GLOBAL ECONOMY (2007).134.See Smolin, supra note 12, at 124''35.R135. Maskew comments on the rampant trafficking that has accompanied intercountry adoptionfrom Cambodia. Trafficking rings usually involved baby recruiters, baby buyers (intermediaries such asorphanages or others), and false documentation for the child. Scandal in Cambodia led to a moratoriumon adoptions from the country. Trish Maskew, Child Trafficking and Intercountry Adoption: The CambodianExperience, 35 CUMB. L. REV. 619, 633''35 (2005). Smolin comments on the Masha Allen case in whicha girl was adopted from Russia for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Smolin, supra note 15, at 18''27.RSmolin also covers trafficking scandals in Cambodia, India, and Guatemala related to the selling, buy-ing, ''baby farming,'' and kidnapping of children. Smolin, supra note 12, at 135''70.R136. Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 21(d), Nov. 20, 1989, 1577 U.N.T.S. 3 [hereinaf-ter CRC].

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 21 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame21dren, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.''137Although the CRC is one of the most widely adopted conventions, it re-sulted in controversy because its final language excluded an obligation forcountries to take ''appropriate measures to facilitate permanent adoption ofthe child.''138 The language was left out because of the idea that adoptionwas not the only way to provide children with stable homes and that itcould sometimes work in opposition to the best interests of the child.139The exclusion of this language is one of the reasons the United States hasrefused to ratify the CRC.140In partial response to conflict over the terms of the CRC, the 1993Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respectof Intercountry Adoption (''Hague Convention'') was produced by theHague Conference on Private International Law in May 1993.141 The pur-pose of the Hague Convention was to establish standards for ICA and asystem of enforcement, as well as the means to address the worst ICA prac-tices, such as corruption, kidnapping, sale of children, and falsification ofdocuments.142 The United States ratified the Hague Convention in 2000and enacted the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 (''IAA'')143 to complywith the Hague Convention's mandate to create a Central Authority tooversee the implementation of the Hague Convention, among otherobligations.UNICEF is guided by the spirit of the CRC. As such, UNICEF believes''every child has the right to know and be cared for by his or her ownparents,'' and that ''families should receive support to care for their chil-dren.''144 In this sense, UNICEF supports ICA only if it facilitates the ''bestinterests of the child,'' and thus considers the Hague Convention a positive137. Linda J. Olsen, Live or Let Die: Could Intercountry Adoption Make The Difference?, 22 PENN. ST.INT'L L. REV. 483, 507''08 (2004).138. Kate O'Keeffe, The Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000: The United States' Ratification of the HagueConvention on the Protection of Children, and its Meager Effect on International Adoption, 40 VAND. J. TRANS-NAT'L L. 1611, 1626 (2007).139.Id.140.Id.141. Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption,May 29, 1993, 32 I.L.M. 1139; see also O'Keeffe, supra note 138, at 1626.R142. O'Keeffe, supra note 138, at 1626''28.R143. Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. §§ 14901''54 (2006).144. UNICEF states:The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guides UNICEF's work, clearly states thatevery child has the right to know and be cared for by his or her own parents, wheneverpossible. Recognising this, and the value and importance of families in children's lives,UNICEF believes that families needing support to care for their children should receive it,and that alternative means of caring for a child should only be considered when, despite thisassistance, a child's family is unavailable, unable or unwilling to care for him or her.For children who cannot be raised by their own families, an appropriate alternative familyenvironment should be sought in preference to institutional care which should be used onlyas a last resort and as a temporary measure. Inter-country adoption is one of a range of careoptions which may be open to children, and for individual children who cannot be placed in apermanent family setting in their countries of origin, it may indeed be the best solution. In

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 22 8-MAY-12 13:0922Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25achievement towards improving conditions of ICA.145 UNICEF also callsfor more stringent protocols to be applied in the case of disasters and war toprotect children without parental care, who may be temporarily separatedfrom their parents or other family caregivers.146International organizations including UNICEF, UNHCR, the Interna-tional Confederation of the Red Cross, and international NGOs such as theSave the Children Alliance reject ICA in cases of disaster or war, and insteadplace priority on ''family tracing.''147 Creating a national registry of chil-dren in disasters is a critical instrument for family tracing and reunifica-tion.148 Ultimately, these efforts to regulate ICA may mitigate some of theharm that can come of ICA markets. But since ICA is tethered toMonoHumanism and driven by market forces, and because the interests ofWestern prospective adoptive parents drive the demand side of the market,ICA will continue to separate children from their birth families, communi-each case, the best interests of the individual child must be the guiding principle in making adecision regarding adoption.UNICEF, Statement: UNICEF's Position on Inter-country Adoption, http://www.unicef.org/media/me-dia_41118.html (last visited Mar. 12, 2012). Similarly, Article 7 of the CRC provides that ''[t]he childshall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right toacquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.'' CRC,supra note 136, at art. 7 (emphasis added). Article 18 provides, ''[f]or the purpose of guaranteeing andRpromoting the rights set forth in the present Convention, States Parties shall render appropriate assistanceto parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities and shall ensure thedevelopment of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children.''Id. at art. 18 (emphasisadded).145. UNICEF, supra note 144. Interestingly, UNICEF's clear recognition of the importance ofRmaintaining the connection between children and their biological family is also reflected in local Hai-tian law, which provides a legal obligation to keep all adopted children in connection with their biolog-ical family. See Patrice Brizard, Entretien avec Marlene Hofstetter [Interview with Marlene Hofstetter],UNICEF HAITI, http://www.unicef.org/haiti/french/protection_10388.htm (last visited Nov. 2, 2011)(noting that in Haiti ''simple adoption,'' in which a child's ties to her biological parents and family arepreserved, is in effect for domestic adoptions and national and international adoptions by Haitiansliving abroad).146.See UNICEF, supra note 144 (calling for a prohibition on the inter-country adoption of and forRfamily-tracing efforts for children separated from their families during times of disaster and war).147. UNICEF states:The case of children separated from their parents and communities during war or naturaldisasters merits special mention. It cannot be assumed that such children have neither livingparents nor relatives. Even if both their parents are dead, the chances of finding living rela-tives, a community and home to return to after the conflict subsides exist. Thus, such chil-dren should not be considered for inter-country adoption, and family tracing should be thepriority. This position is shared by UNICEF, UNHCR, the International Confederation ofthe Red Cross, and international NGOs such as the Save the Children Alliance.Id. Without tracing efforts, children can be permanently separated from their family.148. In the case of baby Jenny, she was found severely injured under the rubble of a house, and''assumed to be an orphan,'' even renamed by the paramedics and doctors as Patricia. She was immedi-ately taken out of country to Miami for medical attention. Her parents, Nadine Devilme and JuniorAlexis, were informed of her removal because she was placed in a registry system. Although her parentshad lost all paperwork to prove their parenthood, with the help of pro bono attorneys in the U.S., theywere able to provide DNA to show that they were her parents, and were ultimately reunited. HaitianCouple Await Baby's Return, CNN (Mar. 8, 2010), http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/03/08/haiti.baby.couple.patricia/index.html?hpt=C1 Annie Butterworth Jones, Attorneys Help Reunite 'Baby Jenny'with Her Haitian Family, FLA. BAR NEWS, May 15, 2010.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 23 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame23ties, and countries. By contrast, poor communities in places like Haiti havedeveloped their own systems of child placement, which do not sever theseties. The next section specifically focuses on the timoun or restav`ek childplacement system in Haiti.III.TIMOUN (RESTAV`EK): HAITIAN CUSTOMS OF CHILD PLACEMENTIn a country such as Haiti where 80% of the population lives below theinternational poverty line and 54% lives in abject poverty,149 periods ofconditioned monetary aid do not address the institutionalized poverty andextreme class stratification of the country. Instead, in the day-to-day, mostHaitian people manage for themselves without foreign assistance. This sec-tion discusses a long-standing custom of child care arrangement used bypoor parents in the poorest nation of the Western hemisphere'--known astimoun or restav`ek.Some Haitian parents customarily place their children into boarding ar-rangements with wealthier extended family or acquaintances in cities,where a child earns his or her keep by providing unpaid domestic work.These children are known in Haitian Creole as ''restav `eks,'' meaning chil-dren who ''stay with'' or ''reste avec'' others.150 The term ''restav `ek'' is alsoused colloquially in a pejorative way to denote servile dependence.151 Toavoid humiliating a child who provides domestic services, Haitians usemore socially acceptable terms such as ''children who live with others'' (timoun ki rete kay moun) or ''children who render services'' (timoun rann s`evis),where timoun in Creole simply means ''little one.''152Like ICA, the timoun system has also been abused, raising widespreadconcern about the exploitation of children, including forced labor. But thefact that some actors exploit this custom should not completely overshadowthe benefits it provides poor families and poor children, when it works asintended. The point of this section is to recognize that some of the benefitsof timoun'--such as maintaining family relationships'--must inform childplacement schemes.149.CIA FACTBOOK, supra note 38, at Haiti Economy section; see alsoGLENN R. SMUCKER &RGERALD F. MURRAY, USAID/HAITI MISSION, THE USES OF CHILDREN: A STUDY OF TRAFFICKING INHAITIAN CHILDREN 14 (2004), available at http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADF061.pdf.150. For a thorough analysis of restav`ek/timoun in the context of child trafficking and smuggling, seeSMUCKER & MURRAY, supra note 149.R151.Id. at 22.152.Id. Many studies about Haitian children who live with others and render domestic servicesuse the word ''restav `ek.'' George Eaton Simpson in his early sociological studies of Haiti likewise usedthe term ''Ti Moune.'' George Eaton Simpson, Haiti's Social Structure, 6 AM. SOC. REV. 640, 648 n.11(1941) (''A Ti-moune is a peasant child who goes to live with a family in the elite and who performsvarious kinds of work in return for his meals, clothing, and a place to sleep.''); Roc´Ä±o G. Sumillera,Postcolonialism and Translation, 4 NEW VOICES IN TRANSLATION STUD. 26 (2008).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 24 8-MAY-12 13:0924Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25A. Understanding TimounBecause of the informal nature of the practice, it has been difficult todetermine precisely how many children in Haiti are affected by the timounsystem. A 2010 U.S. Department of State report estimates that approxi-mately 200,000 children in Haiti work in the restav`ek system.153 However,many statistics confuse the number of children living outside the unitaryfamily model with restav`ek.154 According to anthropologists Smucker andMurray, a more reliable statistic is that one-fifth of children in Haiti areliving away from both of their biological parents (over 650,000 children).155Perhaps 60% of such children, or maybe only 4%, are restav`ek, as a recent2000 article suggests.156 Researchers know that most restav`eks are in the agerange of 5 to 14 (with a majority in the age range of 12 to 14), girls aretwice as likely to be restav`eks, and there is a higher incidence of this form ofchild placement in urban settings.157 Yet, the true overall numbers remainunknown.158Not all host household arrangements qualify as restav`ek. For example, aparent might place a child in another's house during a crisis or as a tempo-rary means to send a child to school.159 Or a child might be sent to livewith extended family, and though the child might help around the housewithout payment, the child very much remains a child of the house, not aservant.160 Orphanages in Haiti are also places were a parent might send achild for a brief time as a means to make ends meet and provide temporarychild care.161 Many orphanages are not officially licensed, and thoughtermed orphanages, function primarily as child boarding or group homes.162The institution of timoun is old. In a 1942 article, Simpson claims that''Ti-moune . . . has been followed since the founding of the Republic ofHaiti.''163 In a 1941 article, Simpson observes two primary classes in Haiti:''the members of the small privileged elite and the immense mass of barelysubsisting peasants.''164 Explaining that they were ''almost separate socie-153.BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, & LABOR, U.S. DEP'TOF STATE, 2010 HUMANRIGHTS REPORT: HAITI 22, available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/wha/154509.htm.154.SMUCKER & MURRAY, supra note 149, at 16''17.R155.Id. at 17.156.Id.157.Id. For a discussion of the more precarious condition of girl restav`eks and their higher vulnera-bility to sexual violence, see Benedetta Faedi, The Double Weakness of Girls: Discrimination and SexualViolence in Haiti, 44 STAN. J. INT'L L. 147, 169''70 (2008).158.SMUCKER & MURRAY, supra note 149, at 17''18.R159.Id. at 22.160.Id. at 23.161.Id. at 33.162.See David Gauthier-Villars et al., Earthquake Exposes Haiti's Faulty Adoption System, WALL ST.J., (Feb. 27, 2010), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704625004575089521195349384.html.163. George Eaton Simpson, Sexual and Familial Institutions in Northern Haiti, 44 AM. ANTHROPOL-OGIST 655, 666 (1942).164. Simpson, supra note 152, at 640.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 25 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame25ties,''165 Simpson points out ways in which the two classes integratedthrough ''[p]atterns of dominance and deference inherited from the colonialperiod.''166One such pattern was the institution of timoun, which supported the rela-tively infrequent vertical mobility and integration of a child from themasses into the elite class.167 In his 1942 article, Simpson explains that thecustom of sending peasant children to live several years with well-landedestates was a means for ''a peasant to have an influential [military or other-wise prominent] protector,'' or a means by which a poorer family gainedfavor and connection to a more influential family.168 A child might be sentto live in another estate as a ''token of friendship,'' and as such, timoun wasalso an established adoption practice.169In a later 1952 article on affiliations through work in a rural region ofHaiti, Metraux likewise notes that the transfer of people from poor house-holds to wealthier households was common.170 Both Simpson and Metrauxsee timoun as a form of familial and estate affiliation used to establish net-works of support among landed or military estates, within an agriculture-based economy with extreme class stratification.In a similar fashion, a 2004 article by Smucker and Murray confirms that''[r]elationships in Haiti often have a transactional character. Negotiationsover the giving and taking of children are no exception. Decision making inchild placement is based on a calculus of costs, benefits, and householdneeds.''171 The relationship between the sending and receiving family re-mains a fundamental part of the transaction:[P]lacement of a restav `ek child has a long-term connotationwhereby the receiving household assumes primary responsibilityfor 'taking care of the child' or rearing the child in return for thechild's domestic services. The traditional arrangement for suchrestav `ek children also assumes that the caretaker household will165.Id. at 645.166.Id. at 647.167.Id. at 648.168. Simpson, supra note 163, at 667; see also Chantal Collard, Triste terrain de jeu: `A propos deRl'adoption internationale [A Sad Playground: On International Adoptions], 1 GRADHIVA 209, ¶ 14 (2005),available at http://gradhiva.revues.org/367#tocto1n1 (noting that historically the relationships formedthrough timoun have been key to the survival of poor families).169.''Professor Herskovits bases his conclusion upon extensive field research in West Africa, DutchGuiana, Haiti, and the United States, and is no doubt correct in maintaining that the tradition ofadoption is an important part of the Ti-moune system.'' Simpson, supra note 163, at 666''67.R170. Rhoda Metraux, Affiliations Through Work in Marbial, Haiti, 25 PRIMITIVE MAN 1, 6 (1952).In well-to-do families [. . .] there is more work than the family, however large, can manage oris willing to undertake. In these households one finds collected younger and poorer kin,servants, assistants and hangers-on who contribute work for their keep; some work seasonally,some all year round. It is the heads of such households who are the notables of the neighbor-hood and who are the employers of larger groups of workers outside the family.Id.171.SMUCKER & MURRAY, supra note 149, at 26.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 26 8-MAY-12 13:0926Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25send restav `ek children to school and cover the costs for doingso.172Employers of restav`ek children generally wish to show sending parents that,true to the expectations, their children are being treated well and receivecare and education in exchange for their labor.173 From the point of view ofHaitian parents, sending children to live with others is a means of instillingvalues, such as responsiveness to family needs, generosity, a good workethic, and a fierce pride in schooled education.174The practice of timoun also transfers children from poor rural families topoor urban families, to assist in daily survival activities such as carryingwater to the home.175 From this point of view, the practice of timoun is ameans by which the poor support the poor in an extremely stratified soci-ety. The custom of timoun is a creative adaptation to poverty, which allowspoor parents to provide alternative care for their children, includingeducation.B. Benefits of TimounDespite its vulnerability to exploitation, the practice of timoun can bemutually beneficial to Haitian parents, children, and host families. For ex-ample, parents benefit by ''loan[ing] children to gain sociopolitical andcommercial contacts in village and urban areas and to attain educationalopportunities for their children.''176 Generally, timoun placements are a solu-tion to difficult circumstances faced by the child's family.177 It is a responseto parents' inability to support a child, whereby the host family provides172.Id. at 22.173.Id. at 26''27.174.See id. at 13 (noting the importance of these values). One of the primary reasons to sendchildren to cities is the lack of adequate schools in rural areas.Id. at 13''14, 26, 31.175. The practice is mostly rejected as outdated and inhumane by the country's elite.Id. at 29''30.The need for household labor among the poor is hardly frivolous. Less than 30 percent ofhouseholds in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area have running water. In the city's teemingslums, water is sold by the bucket, and the unit cost of water is far higher in poor neighbor-hoods than more affluent areas. Throughout Haiti the traditional carriers of water are womenand children, especially children. In Haiti's urban slums, water from public fountains orbroken pipes is supplied by a veritable army of young children, including large numbers oftimoun servant children.Id. at 29.176. Timothy T. Schwartz, Subsistence Songs: Haitian T´eat Performances, Gendered Capital, and Liveli-hood Strategies in Jean Makout, Haiti, 81 NEW W. INDIAN GUIDE 6, 25 (2007); see also Collard, supra note168, ¶ 14 (noting the formation of alliances between the wealthier families that sponsor restav`ek chil-Rdren and the poor families who provide those children).177.See TONE SOMMERFELT ET AL., FAFO INST. FOR APPLIED INT'L STUDIES, CHILD DOMESTIC LA-BOUR IN HAITI: CHARACTERISTICS, CONTEXTS AND ORGANISATION OF CHILDREN'S RESIDENCE, RELO-CATION AND WORK 64, 75, 88 (Tone Sommerfelt ed., 2002), available at http://www.fafo.no/ais/other/haiti/childlabour/EEDH_Report_draft_english.pdf.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 27 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame27care when the child's family cannot.178 Consequently, parents no longer facethe burden of providing for the expenses of that child's care.179Timoun can also benefit children by allowing them to live in a more sta-ble environment. The host family provides for the child's basic needs, andthe boarding arrangement tends to offer an improved living environmentand better material conditions.180 The child receives ''better care, betterclothes, and better schooling.''181Timoun also fosters opportunities for up-ward social mobility for the child and her parents.182 A principal advantageof the practice is that it addresses Haitian parents' strong desire for theirchildren to obtain a formal education, since there are better schools intowns and cities.183 Parents have an expectation that the child will be sentto school under the boarding arrangement.184 Because parents believe thattheir child will encounter better life opportunities in cities and towns, theexpectation is that the child's placement with the host family will allow thechild to secure some advantage for the child or her parents.185 Similarly, theexpectation is that the child's school attendance will enable her to developcontacts that will lead to a good paying job, so the child will be able toassist her parents.186On a more fundamental level, in some circumstances, timoun facilitatesHaitian children's development by equipping them with life skills and aidstheir maturation by building character. It has been found that both parentsand children find that timoun placements make children more disciplinedand give them a sense of competence.187 School attendance leads to thechild's literacy, and having responsibilities cultivates in the child ''beingwell-mannered'' and developing ''new habits.''188 Similarly, parents also ap-preciate the informal training and guidance that the child obtains fromworking in another household.189 Perhaps most importantly, the child/par-ent relationship is not severed.190Claudia Fonseca describes similar local community-based practices of''child circulation and ado ¸cao `a brasileira [adoption Brazilian-style]'' in178.See id. at 58, 65.179.See id. at 69.180.See id. at 44, 58''62.181.TIMOTHY T. SCHWARTZ, FEWER MEN, MORE BABIES: SEX, FAMILY, AND FERTILITY IN HAITI165 (2009).182.See id.; SOMMERFELT ET AL.,supra note 177, at 88.R183.See SOMMERFELT ET AL., supra note 177, at 71''72.R184.Id. at 65; SCHWARTZ, supra note 181, at 165.R185.SOMMERFELT ET AL., supra note 177, at 68, 71''73, 75''76.R186.Id. at 63, 75''76.187.See id. at 60.188.See id. at 60, 62.189.Id. at 72.190.See id. at 46''47 (providing an account of a former Haitian child domestic who has maintainedties to her mother and other relatives); id. at 70''71 (relating the personal account of a Haitian motherwho placed her daughters into a timoun arrangement and visits them occasionally taking foodprovisions).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 28 8-MAY-12 13:0928Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25poor favelas in Brazil.191 Fonseca argues that these local customs are func-tional for both temporary and permanent child placement, based on com-munity support and open relationships. But Cardarello cautions that today,these forms of child placement face pressure by legal authorities to placeBrazilian children for international adoption as a preference over local childplacement customs.192 Nevertheless, Fonseca believes that poor parentsfrom the favelas will continue to find creative ways to evade interventionistgovernment adoption policies, which increasingly reflect international andforeign standards of child rights, and which favela mothers are legally dis-empowered to contest in the grand scheme of inequalities between theSouth/Third World countries and the North/Western countries.193Like ''adoption Brazilian style,'' the practices of timoun or restav`ek do notfit the idealized model for Western child care or the idealized Western fam-ily, whereby parents raise their children in a self-sufficient nuclear family.These caregiving practices do not correspond with our unacknowledgedMonoHumanistic approach to the world. As I have said elsewhere, this West-ern definition of family ''fails to reflect the cultural diversity and realities ofmany children'' and negates other prevalent family configurations whichmake up functional families, such as single-parent households, grandparent-grandchild households, same-sex couples, and extended family arrange-ments, even within the United States.194C.Timoun's Vulnerability to ExploitationDespite the benefit and opportunity a child may derive from an arrange-ment of timoun, the practice has also long been questioned, due to abusesand denial of promised opportunities that children living in host house-holds may encounter.195 The debate has changed very little over time. Spe-cifically, timoun is highly criticized by many humanitarian aid and religiousorganizations as a form of child slavery.196191. Claudia Fonseca, Inequality Near and Far: Adoption as Seen from the Brazilian Favelas, 36 LAW &SOC'Y REV. 397, 404''12 (2002); see also Andr ´ea Cardarello, The Movement of the Mothers of the CourthouseSquare: ''Legal Child Trafficking,'' Adoption and Poverty in Brazil, 14 J. LATIN AM. & CARIBB. ANTHROP.140, 146 (2009) (describing child circulation customs among poor Brazilian communities).192. Cardarello, supra note 191, at 146''51.R193. Fonseca, supra note 191, at 423''27.R194. Shani M. King, U.S. Immigration Law and the Traditional Nuclear Conception of Family: Toward aFunctional Definition of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, 41 COLUM. HUM. RTS.L. REV. 509, 515 (2010). For a broader discussion, see id. at 515''25.195. Simpson, supra note 163, at 667. The author concludes that:RThe value or harm in the institution of the Ti-moune would seem to depend upon the charac-ter of the adopting families. Some of these persons treat the children who come to live withthem in an exemplary manner, others get the maximum profit from their Ti-mounes andhandle them as if they were beasts of burden.Id.196. References to restav`ek are merged into a general discussion of the worst forms of child labor,which also includes sex exploitation and indentured work.U.S. DEP'TOF LABOR, 2008 FINDINGS ONTHE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR'' HAITI (2009), available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 29 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame29UNICEF is concerned about situations in which timoun becomes childlabor exploitation, and the ways in which it may become child traffick-ing.197 The organization also notes that there are worse forms of labor towhich children can be trafficked, such as physically hazardous work, sexualwork, and illicit (drug courier) labor that may affect the development of achild, including her physical and mental integrity.198 The practical concernaround timoun is the lack of means to supervise whether a child's rights arebeing respected. UNICEF reports that each year approximately 2,000 chil-dren are trafficked to the Dominican Republic from Haiti, often with theapparent support of their parents.199 The Silsby case is an example of howthis can happen.4aba3edac.html. For another interpretation of restav`ek as an exploitative form of child labor, see Cam-paign Against Child Slavery in Haiti, BEYOND BORDERS, http://www.beyondborders.net/WhatWeDo/EndingChildSlavery.aspx (last visited Oct. 29, 2011); see also Marian Wright Edelman, Haiti's Restav`ekChildren: The Child Servitude Crisis, CHANGE.ORG (Mar. 29, 2011), http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/haitis_restavk_children_the_child_servitude_crisis; Carmen Russell & Dane Liu, 20/20:Restav`eks: Child Slaves of Haiti (ABC television broadcast Jan. 15, 2010), available at http://www.pu-litzercenter.org/video/restaveks-child-slaves-haiti; JEAN CADET RESTAV`EK FOUND., Mission Statement,http://www.restav `ekfreedom.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.page&id=1026 (last visited Oct. 29, 2011)(characterizing the restav`ek system as ''child slavery'' in the organization's mission statement).197. The intention of exploitation need not be of the parent, but of the smuggler or trafficker.UNICEF acknowledges that children in the developing world work at home or in family businesses, oroutside the home as apprentices, which may imply a commercial benefit or exposure to hazards. Thegreatest concern is over situations in which children lack a protective social or legal network as workersin exploitative conditions. MIKE DOTTRIDGE & LIZ STUART, UNICEF, END CHILD EXPLOITATION:CHILD LABOUR TODAY 26''27 (2005). To that effect, UNICEF defines child trafficking in the followingway:Child trafficking happens when a child is moved from one place to another'--within a coun-try or across a border'--into a situation in which they are exploited, and this exploitation cantake many different forms.The movement part of the trafficking 'event' accompanied by the action of someone whointends to exploit the child for profit is essential to the difference between child traffickingand migration into child labour. The movement away from home, local community, supportand safety mechanisms into an environment where the child is isolated and manipulated byothers greatly increases the child's vulnerability and makes child trafficking a particularlydespicable crime and a violation of their rights.Where legal migration channels are closed, difficult to take or not known to people who wantto migrate for work, then illegal migration, people smuggling and human trafficking aremore likely to happen. Keeping migration channels open and helping people to use them in aregular, safe and easy way is an important step in preventing illegal migration, smugglingand trafficking.Exploitation is the other essential part of child trafficking. Trafficking is always made up ofboth movement and (the intention of) exploitation. If there is only movement and no (intentof) exploitation, then this is not trafficking. If there is exploitation but no movement, thenthis is not trafficking either.JUNE KANE & HANS VAN DE GLIND, UNICEF, TRAINING MANUAL TO FIGHT TRAFFICKING IN CHIL-DREN FOR LABOUR, SEXUAL AND OTHER FORMS OF EXPLOITATION: UNDERSTANDING CHILD TRAFFICK-ING 16''17 (2010).198.DOTTRIDGE & STUART, supra note 197, at 26''27.R199.See UNICEF, At a Glance: Haiti - Background, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_2014.html (last visited Oct. 29, 2011).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 30 8-MAY-12 13:0930Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25In studying timoun, Smucker and Murray find no evidence of ''literal''child slaves in Haiti, but do find cases in which restav`ek children are abusedas unpaid domestic workers and other cases in which parents might bedeceived and their children diverted into trafficking circles for exploitativework or sexual purposes.200 The authors insist on the need to use operation-ally precise language to differentiate a culturally sanctioned practice of fos-ter care or even smuggling where there might not be any abuse involved,from child abuse and child trafficking.201Timoun and other forms of placement outside the home are generally in-stigated by necessity.202 However, UNICEF indicates that poverty alonedoes not often trigger the movement of a child towards a possible exploita-tive work condition. The organization identifies several additional points ofrisk and vulnerability that decrease the capacity of parents to take care oftheir children, and which result in sending children away to work or chil-dren themselves moving away from home to find work. The organizationrefers to these factors as ''poverty plus'' and notes that they may include''individual, family, community or institutional-level risk'' factors.203 Fac-tors may include domestic violence, illness of parents (e.g., AIDS), war,community violence (e.g., gangs), lack of institutional support for educa-tion or health services, unemployment, and the breakdown of systems oflivelihood due to disasters (e.g., ecological disaster that ruins fishing orfarming communities).204 Such factors aggravate the conditions of povertythat may trigger a child's movement away from home towards possibleexploitation.UNICEF's examples for why a child may become a victim of traffickingdo not apply to all timoun or other cases of placement outside the home,either because there is no work exploitation or there is no cross bordertravel. But UNICEF's analysis is very useful when contemplating whytimoun in Haiti has survived into the 21st century as an option for child200.SMUCKER & MURRAY, supra note 149, at 5, 24. Specifically, Smucker and Murray foundR[N]o literal evidence of child enslavement, defined in terms of buying and selling children asprivate property; however, there is ample evidence of systematic child abuse in the recruit-ment and use of restav `ek children as domestic servants. Some reports angrily label thesearrangements as slavery. Those who describe the restav `ek child as a slave child are doubtlessdemonstrating human concern for the welfare of the child; however, such children are notliterally slaves. The Haitian restav `ek child can legally run away or be taken back by his or herparents without payment of ransom or manumission. The term slavery is perhaps useful as aninflammatory metaphor for purposes of advocacy, but it fails to capture the Haitian meaningof the word even when used as an epithet. When Haitians say the restav `ek child is like a tiesklav, they are using the word slave in a metaphorical sense, similar to calling a demandingforeman a ''slave driver'' in English. The restav `ek child is an abused child but not a slavechild. The concept of ''unpaid domestic servant'' is less dramatic but captures the realitymuch more accurately.Id. at 24.201.Id. at 5.202.Id. at 28.203.KANE & VAN DE GLIND, supra note 197, at 23.R204.Id. at 23''25 (listing various ''poverty plus'' factors).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 31 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame31placement, when the risks of exploitation are known. Specific to Haiti, wemust ask how timoun continues to fill an indispensable social need for childplacement services in the face of cumulative histories of violent conflict,lack of institutional support for education, health and income, foreign in-tervention, and a growing youthful population in Haiti.205 Ultimately, theproblem is not the best efforts made by impoverished Haitian parents ortheir children to find work-placement arrangements, but the complex con-ditions of ''poverty plus'' that institutionalize timoun and other forms ofchild placement outside the home, as a means to secure basic housing, foodand education for children.Ultimately, timoun is a form of foster care, but never a permanent separa-tion of children from their parents. ICA, on the other hand, while alsomaking children vulnerable to exploitation, severs the relationship betweenchildren and their families and communities and disrupts the support net-works that poor families use to help themselves. Below, I tell a similar storyof disruption regarding foster care in the United States.205. A demographic article about Haiti states the following:A country earlier renowned for the beauty of its landscape, Haiti has faced fierce exploitationof natural resources by successive foreign occupations and predatory dictatorships. Ongoingpolitical instability has contributed to a sharp decline of agricultural productivity and wide-spread poverty. In addition, the impact of climate change is particularly salient in Haiti,exacerbated by deforestation and severe soil erosion throughout the country. The destructioncaused by the 2010 earthquake adds to that of major storms and hurricanes in 2004 and2008. These events had already caused huge infrastructural damages in other parts of Haitiand deeply affected the country's economy.BEATRICE DAUMERIE & KAREN HARDEE, POPULATION ACTION INT'L, THE EFFECTS OF A VERY YOUNGAGE STRUCTURE ON HAITI: COUNTRY CASE STUDY 2 (2010), available at http://www.populationaction.org/Publications/Report/The_Shape_of_Things_to_Come_Haiti/SOTC_Haiti.pdf.In 2004, youth gangs played a major role in the violent revolt that forced Jean-BertrandAristide, the first democratically elected president of Haiti since the dictatorship, into exile.After that, despite the presence of UN peacekeeping troops and an improved security situa-tion, state institutions remained fragile and armed violence was still widespread in some partsof the capital. Some have described it as a ''war'' of confrontations between rival gangs as wellas between gangs and the UN stabilization forces, with civilians as innocent targets. In Port-au-Prince, particularly in the slums, more than 30 different gangs were trying to controldifferent parts of the city, using kidnapping and drug trafficking as sources of revenue. . . .After 30 years of dictatorship, Haiti experienced three coups d' ´etat and fifteen changes ofgovernment in the eight years between 1986 and 1994. Since then, Haiti has witnessed asuccession of political crises, and as recently as spring 2008, hunger riots caused by the rise inglobal food prices led to the collapse of the government.Id. at 6''7.The median age of the population is 20 years, and almost 70 percent of Haiti's people areunder age 30. [. . .] In a 30-year historical analysis, the report found that countries with veryyoung and youthful age structures'--those in which 60 percent or more of the population isyounger than age 30'--are the most likely to face outbreaks of civil conflict and autocraticgovernance. While the relationship between age structure and instability is not one of simplecause and effect, demographics can play an important role in mitigating or exacerbating acountry's prospects for development and the well-being of its people.Id. at 2.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 32 8-MAY-12 13:0932Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25IV. FOSTER CARE AS A DISRUPTION OF TRADITIONAL FORMS OF CHILDPLACEMENT IN THE UNITED STATESThe history of foster care in the United States, like the history of ICA, isthe history of an interventionist policy that overwhelmingly affects poorfamilies. Through the foster care system, the State is placed in a position to''know best'' how poor children should be raised away from their families.Like ICA, foster care has institutionalized early child separation from par-ents and families for generations. The history of foster care is rooted in abelief that people cannot be left to their own devices to design their ownfamilies. At one point, the foster care system became the means for transfer-ring poor children to rich families, until the civil rights movement endedthe practice. But the foster care system still devalues family integrity andtoo often unnecessarily separates children from their families. As is the casewith ICA, the U.S. approach is MonoHumanistic: one that excludes and dis-places the knowledge and discourse of poor families and fails to see childrenin the context of their family, community, and culture. The critical ques-tion here is how to balance the protection of children with family integrity.Part of the solution seems to lie in acknowledging agency exercised by poorfamilies who can find alternative solutions in their extended family andwithin their own cultural domains that are healthier for child development.This would take self-reflection, introspection, and a dismantling ofMonoHumanism.A. Traditional Forms of Child Placement in the United StatesPrivate forms of child placement'--like timoun'--were pervasive in theUnited States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.206 Her-man notes that ''[a]t the dawn of the twentieth century, many methods'--formal and informal, commercial and sentimental, deliberate and impul-sive'--existed to acquire children.''207 She mentions that ''foundlings (aban-doned infants), illegitimate children (born to unmarried parents), andorphans (most of whom were 'half' orphans with one living parent ratherthan 'true' orphans with none) continued to be placed in orphanages be-cause of poverty.''208 By 1910, there were over 1,000 orphanages in the206. Sokoloff states that the institutions of placing out were brought by the Puritans to the newcontinent, introducing concepts such as the almshouse and indenture as means of raising children.''These means of caring for dependent children, however, became inadequate to meet the need by thebeginning of the nineteenth century. The industrial revolution and massive immigration producednumbers of dependent children which overwhelmed the existing system.'' Sokoloff, supra note 79, at 18.R207.ELLEN HERMAN, KINSHIP BY DESIGN: A HISTORY OF ADOPTION IN THE MODERN UNITEDSTATES2 (2008). This section relies heavily on Herman's research. However, for a briefer work cover-ing the same history of adoption, see Sokoloff, supra note 79. For a more specific discussion of adoptionRacts in the early nineteenth century, see Chris Guthrie & Joanna L. Grossman, Adoption in the ProgressiveEra: Preserving, Creating, and Re-Creating Families, 43 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 235 (1999).208.HERMAN, supra note 207, at 23.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 33 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame33United States, some of them housing over 1,000 children.209 In addition toorphanages, there were timoun-like practices of ''placing out'' children. Her-man describes these practices in the following way:''Placing out'' was the term that designated all noninstitutionalarrangements to care for dependent children. . . . Agencies paidfamilies to care for children in boarding homes, whereas in work-ing homes, children earned their keep. Traditional indentureswere still used in many states well into the twentieth century.These contracts secured children's services for a period of years inexchange for food, shelter, and basic education. . . . Althoughmany indentures amounted to apprenticeships, a study of 827indentures in Wisconsin between 1913 and 1917 suggests thatindenture was not an unusual means of securing children foradoption.210Most placing out arrangements were instigated by necessity ''to surviveeconomic hard times and family catastrophes, such as death, serious illness,or desertion, and to provide their children with practical job skills andentry into the labor market.''211 They were also meant to be temporary, butif they did lead to adoption, relationships with the biological families werenot closed. Despite the benefits of these placing out arrangements, as withtimoun, reports of child abuse and profit seeking schemes led to the condem-nation of certain practices, particularly ''baby farming'' (paid care centersfor infants primarily used by poor working mothers) and other boardingarrangements that sometimes provided unsanitary and neglectful care.212Leading up to the 1920s, Western liberal governments adopted a newapproach to governance based on rationalization and research (''a literal sci-ence of statecraft'') to address social problems.213''Design,'' or ''purposeful209.Id. at 22.210.Id. at 23. ''36 percent [of indentured children] were eventually adopted, and those childrenindentured at young ages were far more likely to become legal members of the families in which theywere placed. More than half of the adoptees had been indentured before age one.'' There were also (rare)''free homes'' which provided care without charge. Id. For further discussion of private contracts result-ing in adoption practices, see also Amanda C. Pustilnik, Private Ordering, Legal Ordering, and the Gettingof Children: A Counterhistory of Adoption Law, 20 YALE L. & POL'Y REV. 263 (2002).211.HERMAN, supra note 207, at 24. Herman reports that the ''[t]ypical reasons that mothersRoffered for needing placement included 'got to go work,' 'salary too small to keep house & care for themproperly,' and 'have no one to take care of children while I am working,'''id. at 25, or ''so to bridgeover this rough place in . . . life,''id. at 24.212.''Baby farming'' or the ''boarding of infants for money and their transfer and sale for profit''reflected ''informal child care networks of single mothers and other laboring women,'' such as ''unwedmothers, prostitutes, domestic servants, and destitute or deserted wives forced to work for wages.''''Baby farming'' was widely critiqued for being conducive to abusive conditions of child care driven byprofit. However, ''baby farming'' comprised the child care networks available to the poorest of women.Id. at 32''39.213.Id. at 9''10.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 34 8-MAY-12 13:0934Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25social planning and management'' such as ''intelligent child rearing,'' be-came the ethos of Progressive and New Deal reformers and professionals.214By the 1930s, applying psychoanalytical research, social work was rede-fined as casework, and private and public agencies became fully involved in''how Americans raised their children.''215 Caseworkers (within the govern-ment or specialized agencies) claimed to minimize differences between theadoptee and adoptive parents to create families that were as ''natural'' aspossible.216 Regulation, interpretation, standardization, and naturalizationwere the key concepts behind this design that aimed to prevent, protect,instruct, and help the population against ''risk'' in creating families.217 Inthis cultural shift, adoptive families were seen as ''different, fragile andprone to difficulty,''218 and thus professionals were sought to help citizensmake a ''normal,''''natural,'' or ''ideal'' family.219 Adults seeking to take ina child through such public or private agencies underwent a process of in-quiry and education in the stages of application, home study, placement,and supervision.220''Matching'' became the technique by which caseworkers placed childreninto homes based on physical resemblance, religious likeness, racial same-ness, and emotional and purported intellectual fitness.221 However, as pro-fessionals sought to make ''natural'' families, they implicitly (andsometimes explicitly) sent the message that adoption and foster care werenot natural, and concluded by emphasizing racist or discriminatory percep-tions of who belonged where.222 In this process, adoption also ''departedfrom earlier methods of child transfer, sharing and exchange,''223 towardslong-term permanent family arrangements that were closed adoptionsrather than open.224214.Id. at 9''11.215.Id. at 87. ''Designing American kinship was tantamount to managing American communitiesand culture because 'the child is the bridge'--biologically and socially'--to the future.'''Id.''All Amer-ican families were involved in the awesome project of social progress and reconstruction, whether theyknew it or not.''Id.216.Id. at 121. ''Kinship by design promised that a combination of expanded state power, profes-sional oversight, psychological interpretation, and empirical research would lessen the dangers of adop-tion and make it more secure and authentic.''Id.217.See id. at 10''14.218.Id. at 285.219.Id. at 15.220.Id. at 108''09.221.See id. at 121''38.222.Id. at 15, 94''95.223.Id. at 14.224.Id. The difference between open and closed adoptions has been described in the followingterms:In some jurisdictions, in what is sometimes known as an ''open'' adoption, the naturalmother may select the adoptive parents for her child. In the case of a ''closed'' adoption, therelinquishing parent surrenders his or her rights to unknown parties.''Open'' adoptions havealso been described as adoptions in which the court supplements an order of adoption with aprovision directing that the adopted child have continuing contacts and visitation with mem-

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 35 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame35Design and matching were not without opposition due to ''the investiga-tions and delays that were trademarks of kinship by design.''225 Likewise,people seeking alternative family formation through adoption were com-fortable in accepting risk and difference, claiming that nurturing ratherthan sameness was the key to a successful adoption.226 Furthermore, blackmarkets, grey markets, and other profit-driven schemes for acquiring chil-dren that circumvented the standardization process, continued to existwithout abate.227 Ironically, commercial forms of adoption fueled reports ofchild abuse and trafficking that kept standardized governance of adoptionalive.228By the late 1950s, practices that circumvented standardization and criti-ques of matching as a discriminatory practice pushed government and pri-vate agencies to establish more flexible standards for child placement,particularly with regard to age, race, and disability.229 Leading into the1970s, there was a shift in adoption that saw ''difference'' rather than''sameness'' as ''natural'' in adoption.230 Until then, minority children wererarely placed through the system, and even actively excluded as too difficultto place.231Before the 1960s, black children in need of placement were adoptedwithin their communities through means similar to those described by Fon-seca as adoption Brazilian style.232 By the 1970s, the adoption of transracial,bers of his or her biological family; such adoptions have been specifically rejected by somecourts, in the absence of legislative authority thereof.2 AM. JUR. 2d Adoption § 2 (2004); see also Naomi Cahn, Perfect Substitutes or the Real Thing, 52 DUKEL.J. 1077, 1151 (''Only recently have states begun to recognize the validity and enforceability of open-adoption agreements.''). Sokoloff mentions that the 1917 Minnesota Act began the sealing of records, atfirst to protect the adoption procedure from scrutiny, and later, at the insistence of caseworkers toprotect the identity of the parties in consideration that many children placed for adoption were illegiti-mate, which carried a high negative social stigma. Not until after 1950, with the surge of activismagainst closed records, did open adoptions reemerge. Sokoloff, supra note 79, at 21''22, 24.R225.HERMAN,supra note 207, at 139.R226. This became a debate known as ''nature or nurture.''Id.227.Id. at 139''143.228.Id. at 139 (stating that the advantages of standardization were highlighted by baby-sellingscandals).229. Standardization never succeeded fully because of (1) too few agencies, (2) regulatory loopholesthat allowed parents to shop jurisdictions, (3) alternative market-based practices abounded, based alsoon a belief in privacy, and (4) the regulating professionals themselves began to doubt the value ofstandardization. Id. at 153; see generally id. at 147''53. Commercial operations of adoption thrived in theface of standardization. Id. at 222''27. The standard of adoptability of children was expanded acrossrace, age, and disability lines. Id. at 196''201. Eligibility standards for parents changed quickly after the1950s. Id. at 202''05.230.Id. at 246''52.231.See id. at 196''204.232. For example, Herman describes a practice of de facto informal adoption whereAfrican Americans . . . routinely took in the children of friends and relatives because ofdivorce, separation, desertion, illegitimacy, death, migration, and the fact that childlesscouples lacked the social standing that came only with children. . . . At midcentury MildredArnold of the USBC wrote that ''there are many Negro families who have 'adopted' childrenfor all intents and purposes but who have not taken any legal steps to accomplish this.''

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 36 8-MAY-12 13:0936Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25''special needs'' (children with disabilities), older children and intercountryadoptions became widely accepted. These adoptions directly challenged thedominance of the ideology behind ''matching.''233 Ironically, this periodcoincided with the rise of civil rights movements that made transracialadoption controversial, particularly those of black children into white fami-lies.234 Minority populations claimed that minority children should beplaced within their same social group to maintain their cultural heritageand integrity, including the skills to survive a racist society. In yet anotherinstance of irony, the transracial controversy within the United States,alongside adult preferences that aimed to circumvent standardization, led toa decline of adoption after 1972 across transracial lines and a spike in ICA(initially of non-black children).235 Herman concludes that by its own am-bitions of standardization ''kinship by design'' failed, but also revolution-ized the boundaries between public and private life by allowinggovernment interference into decisions ''previously considered beyond thelegitimate reach of state power.''236Bringing private behavior into the public light has increased a desire foroversight and protection against child abuse and exploitation. It has alsoreflected the imposition of a certain conception of family not nuancedenough to reflect the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of familiesboth domestically and internationally. More concretely, it has resulted inClearly, African Americans responded to children in need. In large families where member-ship was fluid, distinctions between natural and adopted kin were not accentuated.''Id. at 231.233.Id. at 204''15, 230''46.234. Herman gives the following example:In the case of race, and especially blackness, the era of openness to difference that dawned inthe adoption world of the late 1960s coincided with a powerful force moving in the oppositedirection: a turn toward nationalism in the civil rights movement and an embrace of ''roots''that reaffirmed the naturalness of sameness and continuity of identity. In 1972 the NationalAssociation of Black Social Workers (NABSW) issued a strongly worded statement that took''a vehement stand against the placements of black children in white homes for any reason,''calling transracial adoption ''unnatural,''''artificial,''''unnecessary,'' and proof that AfricanAmericans continued to be assigned to ''chattel status'' . . . . It was, according to an NABSWposition paper, ''a form of genocide'' comparable to the slave trade.Id. at 249; see also Patricia K. Jennings, The Trouble with the Multiethnic Placement Act: An Empirical Lookat Transracial Adoption, 49 SOC. PERSP. 559 (2006). Likewise, the Indian Adoption Project (1958-1967),which placed Native American children into white families, simultaneously faced outrage from whiteracists and accusations as a genocidal policy. HERMAN, supra note 207, at 239''42.R235. Herman cites studies from 1947 that reveal that the ''success'' rate in adoptions in terms ofchild adjustment remained unchanged since the 1920s despite the major systemic overhaul. HERMAN,supra note 207, at 190''91.R236.Id. at 154.Measured against historical traditions that sheltered personal decisions from public interfer-ence and elevated idiosyncratic preferences over expert evaluations, kinship by design appearsas part of a profound intellectual and cultural revolution in private life. By moving childhoodand kinship into the public sphere, prying a significant measure of power away from parents,and transferring decisions previously considered beyond the legitimate reach of state power torepresentatives of government and allied helping professionals, kinship by design altered howchildren were acquired and families made.Id.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 37 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame37the displacement of cultural traditions by new, supposedly more scientificschemes, to meet the needs of a certain narrow slice of the U.S. populace.And because this displacement is based on the rule of law, we fail to inter-rogate our assumptions while promoting a demagogy of equalitarianismand liberalism.237 We should, however, question whether children who aresubjected to this system of design are really better off. In other words, is''kinship by design'' better for children than nineteenth-century placingout, adoption Brazilian-style, timoun, or the placement practices of African-American communities in the United States prior to their incorporationinto placement by design? Are these placement systems simply culturalmanifestations, with more or less government intervention, that serve thesame purpose with no better results?238 We should also consider whetherthe Silsby case is an aberration or the inevitable consequence of our historyof displacing and ignoring forms of child rearing with what we have deter-mined to be scientific and legally sanctioned.The next section shows how international adoption is like U.S. domesticadoption in that both systems impose a unitary and plenary concept of fam-ily that fails to reflect and often disregards the cultural and socio-economicreality of families, sometimes resulting in the transfer of children frommarginalized populations to more affluent ''consumers,'' while failing torespect the cultures and traditions from which these children come. Bothsystems reflect an unstated theoretical justification for the disrespect weshow for the integrity of poor families as a society. In this context, it is notprimarily the West vs. East juxtaposition that is important, but rather, thepoor vs. rich juxtaposition. In other words, it is the exclusion and displace-ment of the knowledge and discourse of poor families and the failure to seechildren in the context of their birth family, community, and culture'--or aslightly broadened version of MonoHumanism'--that explains our failure torespect the integrity of poor families, not only abroad, but domestically inthe context of the U.S. foster care system.237.See, e.g., Elizabeth Kolsky, A Note on the Study of Indian Legal History, 23 LAW & HIST. REV.703, 704''05 (2005) (connecting the rule of law's discriminatory and exclusionary operation in colonialIndia to similar phenomena in contemporary liberal states and discussing the ''idea that different groupsof people can be legally differentiated and thereby granted greater and lesser legal privileges even by aliberal state founded on the rule of law''); Robert W. Gordon, Morton Horwitz and His Critics: A Conflictof Narratives, 37 TULSA L. REV. 915, 922 (2002) (countering the perspective that the rule of law is an''unqualified human good'' and ''a great western institution that limits the rulers as well as the ruled''with the opposing argument that ''[t]he formalist view of the rule of law . . . always conceals inequali-ties of wealth and power under a fa ¸cade of formal equality, and delegitimates attempts to remedy suchinequalities''); Cheryl I. Harris, Equal Treatment and the Reproduction of Inequality, 69 FORDHAM L. REV.1753, 1762 (2001) (stating that law in the United States ''indirectly structured racial identitiesthrough the 'rule of law' of the liberal polity where the values of neutrality and objectivity were en-shrined more broadly and racial inequality was rationalized and legitimated'').238. Herman notes that ''[t]he adoption research enterprise had been transformed since 1924. Out-comes had not.''HERMAN,supra note 207, at 189''90.R

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 38 8-MAY-12 13:0938Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25B. Disruptive Foster Care Policies in the United StatesFoster care in the United States is the system for temporary placement ofchildren. One major difference between the U.S. foster care system andtraditional forms of child placement is that foster care in the United Statesis a highly regulated, professionalized, and bureaucratized form of childplacement.239 Foster care includes ''all out-of-home placements for childrenwho,'' according to the state, ''cannot remain with their parents. Childrenmay be placed with nonrelative foster families, with relatives, in a therapeu-tic or treatment foster care home, or in some form of congregate care, suchas an institution or a group home.''240According to Jones, maltreatment is the principal reason that childrenenter U.S. foster care.241 Maltreatment is defined as a deliberate or inten-tional act by a caregiver that causes harm to a child.242 Harm may include239. The following description is helpful:When entering foster care, or the ''child welfare system,'' a child does not enter a singlesystem, but rather multiple systems that intersect and interact to create a safety net forchildren who cannot remain with their birth parents. State and local child welfare agencies,courts, private service providers, and public agencies that administer other government pro-grams (such as public assistance or welfare, mental health counseling, substance abuse treat-ment), and Medicaid all play critical roles in providing supports and services to children andfamilies involved with foster care. Indeed, families often find themselves juggling the re-quirements and paperwork of multiple systems.Child welfare agencies are central to the system, but their policies and practices vary signifi-cantly from state to state. . . . The organization of child welfare agencies also varies signifi-cantly across states. . . .In every state, the courts also play a significant role in child welfare cases, from the initialdecision to remove a child to the development of a permanency plan to the decision to returna child home or terminate parental rights and make the child available for adoption. . . . Eachparty involved in a foster care case'--the birth parents, the child, and the government'--isrepresented by a different attorney. . . . [T]he adversarial nature of legal advocacy can at timessharpen conflict between the various parties. Many jurisdictions rely on volunteer court ap-pointed special advocates (CASAs) to ensure that children in foster care have a voice in thelegal decision-making process. . . . Currently more than 900 CASA programs operate in 45states, and more than 250,000 children have been assigned CASAs.Private agencies, typically through contracts with public agencies, provide a significant pro-portion of foster care services to children and families. The use of private agencies to provideservices such as family-based foster care goes back to the very origins of child welfare in theUnited States. Some states, such as Kansas, have privatized nearly all of their foster careservices, whereas others rely on a mix of public and private service providers. . . .To assure the best outcomes for children, all of the agencies in the system must work to-gether. Each must rely on the others to provide the necessary information and resources. . . .But currently no overarching mechanism for governing the system or managing resourcesexists. Instead, most agencies have established either formal or informal cooperativeagreements.Bass et al., supra note 13, at 7''8.R240.Id. at 6. On the placement of children with kin, see Rob Geen, The Evolution of Kinship CarePolicy and Practice, 14 FUT. CHILD. 130 (2004).241. Jones provides a brief discussion of developmental problems associated with child ''maltreat-ment.'' Jones, supra note 14, at 34.R242. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (''CDC'') defines maltreatment as ''[a]ny act orseries of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 39 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame39abuse (physical, sexual or psychological) or neglect (physical, emotional,medical, or educational neglect, or inadequate supervision or exposure toviolent environments).243 In 2009, neglect (not including medical neglect)represented 78.3 percent of the child maltreatment cases across 50 states,the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.244In the United States, conditions of poverty translate into an overrepresen-tation of children from poor families in the foster care population:Although most poor families do not abuse their children, poorchildren are more likely to enter the foster care system, in partbecause poverty is associated with a number of life challenges,such as economic instability and high-stress living environments,which increase the likelihood of involvement with the child wel-fare system. Poor families are also more likely to have contactwith individuals who are mandated by law to report child mal-treatment, so questionable parenting practices are more likely tobe discovered.245harm, or threat of harm to a child.''CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION, CHILD MALTREAT-MENT SURVEILLANCE: UNIFORM DEFINITIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND RECOMMENDED DATA ELE-MENTS, VERSION 1.0, at 11 (2008) (emphasis omitted). In this definition, commission refers to deliberateor intentional words or actions that have the consequence of causing harm to a child. Id. Omissions are''[t]he failure to provide for a child's basic physical, emotional, or educational needs or to protect a childfrom harm or potential harm.''Id. Caregiver is ''a person, or people, who at the time of the maltreatmentis in a permanent (primary caregiver) or temporary (substitute caregiver) custodial role. In a custodialrole, the person is responsible for care and control of the child and for the child's overall health andwelfare.''Id. at 12 (emphasis omitted).243.Harm is defined as:[a]ny acute disruption caused by the threatened or actual acts of commission or omission to achild's physical or emotional health (ISPCAN 2003). Disruptions can affect the child's physi-cal, cognitive, or emotional development.Threat of harm occurs when a parent or caregiver expresses an intention or gives signs orwarnings through the use of words, gestures, or weapons to communicate the likelihood ofinflicting harm to the child. Threat of harm can be explicit or implicit. Explicit threatswould include such acts as pointing a gun at the child or raising a hand as if to strike thechild. Implicit threats would include such acts as kicking holes in walls or breaking downdoors.Disruption of physical health includes, but is not exclusive to, physical injuries, avoidableillnesses, and inadequate nutrition.Id. at 12.244. 17.8 percent was the median for physical abuse, 9.5 percent was the median for sexual abuse,7.6 percent was the median for psychological maltreatment, and 2.4 percent was the median for medicalneglect; these percentages add up to more than 100 percent ''because a child may have suffered morethan one type of maltreatment.''U.S. DEP'TOF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS., ADMIN. FOR CHILDREN &FAMILIES, CHILDREN'S BUREAU, CHILD MALTREATMENT2009, at 23 (2010), available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm09/cm09.pdf#page=13. Neglect can exist alongside other forms ofmaltreatment. It is the principal form of maltreatment. Recurrence of child maltreatment is also morelikely to involve neglect rather than physical or sexual abuse. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 6.R245. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 14. In a context of poverty in the United States, parents face aRheightened ''multitude of complex and interrelated life challenges such as mental illness, unemploy-ment, substance abuse, and domestic violence.''Id. at 6, 14. On this issue, see also Twila L. Perry, TheTransracial Adoption Controversy: An Analysis of Discourse and Subordination, 21 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC.CHANGE 33, 56 n.97 (1993).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 40 8-MAY-12 13:0940Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25Furthermore, poverty and poverty-related factors result in ''children ofcolor'' being overrepresented in the foster care population.246 In 2003, Afri-can-American, American-Indian/Native Alaskan, and Hispanic familiescomposed 55% of the foster care population, even though these minoritiesrepresented only 33% of the national population.247 Data from 2006 showsthat minority children continue to be overrepresented in the child welfaresystem.248 And research shows that a mother's income also has a significantimpact on the speed of reunification with her children; the greater her in-come (including welfare assistance), the greater the speed ofreunification.249Like elsewhere in the world where there is poverty, the moment when achild leaves his or her family for placement through the U.S. foster caresystem seems to be determined by ''poverty plus'' factors.250 In the mid-1980s, the foster care population in the U.S. spiked due to an aggravationin the conditions of poverty:The crack epidemic, homelessness, the rapidly growing incarcera-tion rate, and HIV/AIDS proved devastating for poor familiesand communities. In turn, families contending with multipleproblems were unable to appropriately care for their children,and the number of children entering foster care rose. In 1980246. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 14. For more on the relationship between poverty and racial over-Rrepresentation in the child welfare system, see also SUSAN CHIBNALL ET AL., CHILDREN OF COLOR INCHILD WELFARE: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHILD WELFARE COMMUNITY 19''24 (2003), available athttp://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/respon_coc/index.html.247. In 2003, African-American children were reported as being overrepresented in foster care atnearly three times their numbers in the population, with some states as high as five times the popula-tion rate. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 14. American-Indian children were represented at nearly doubleRtheir rate in the general population, and Latino children slightly underrepresented, ''but the number ofLatino children in foster care has nearly doubled over the last decade.''Id. In 2006, the disproportionaterepresentation of children from the same minorities continued.U.S. DEP'TOF HEALTH & HUMANSERVS., ADMIN. FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES, CHILDREN'S BUREAU, CHILD WELFARE OUTCOMES:2003''2006, at ii, 5''8, available at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cwo03-06.248. In 2006, overrepresentation of African-American children was one and one-half times greaterthan their numbers in the population of 31 states, with this percentage being two and one-half timesgreater in five states (Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming). U.S. DEP'TOF HEALTH &HUMAN SERVS., supra note 247, at 7''8. In seven states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, NewRHampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah), Hispanic children were overrepresented by oneand one-half times their numbers in the child population.Id.In 16 States, the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native child victims was at least oneand one-half times greater than the percentage of these children in the State's population. . . .In 6 of these 16 States, the percentage of American Indian/Alaska Native child victims wasmore than three times greater than the percentage of these children in the State's population(Idaho, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington).Id. at ii, 8. In no states were white children overrepresented.Id. at 12.249.E.g., Kathleen Wells & Shenyang Guo, Reunification of Foster Children Before and After WelfareReform, 78 SOC. SERV. REV. 74, 90''91 (2004).250.Cf. supra notes 203''204 and accompanying text (discussing how UNICEF articulates theRrelationship between ''poverty plus'' factors and child placement).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 41 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame41approximately 300,000 children were in foster care; by 1998 thatnumber had climbed to an unprecedented 568,000.251Swann and Sylvester likewise attribute the spike in the foster carecaseload from 1985 to 2000 to similar factors, emphasizing that ''increasesin female incarcerations and reductions in cash welfare benefits played dom-inant roles in explaining the growth in foster care caseloads over this pe-riod'' and ''highlight the need for child welfare policies designedspecifically for the children of incarcerated parents and parents who are fac-ing less generous welfare programs.''252 Given the strong associations be-tween foster care populations, race, poverty, and poverty-related issues,Jennings suggests that any welfare policy that aims to decrease the severingof ties between mothers and children and also increase placement options infamilies ''must be coupled with economic strategies that aim to strengthenlow-income families of all races.''253251. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 8. By 2001, 540,000 children were in foster care at any one time.RId. at 6. For a discussion of figures from 2006, see U.S. DEP'TOF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS., supra note247, at ii.R252. Christopher A. Swann & Michelle Sheran Sylvester, The Foster Care Crisis: What CausedCaseloads to Grow?, 43 DEMOGRAPHY 309, 309 (2006).[O]ur findings clearly identify a strong association between female incarcerations and fostercare caseloads. This result is important because, although child welfare administrators areaware of increases in the number of children of incarcerated parents needing out-of-homeplacement, few have specific policies for dealing with the special needs of this growing cohortof foster children. It is likely that much of the growth in incarcerations is due to the 1986Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which imposed mandatory minimum sentences and shifted sentencingpower from federal judges to prosecutors. Following this legislation, the number of womenincarcerated for drug offenses rose by 888% between 1986 and 1996, compared with a 129%increase in non-drug-related offenses during the same. Moreover, the average imposed prisonterm for those convicted of a drug-related offense increased from 62 months in 1986 to 74months in 1999, and actual time served increased from 30 months to 66 months over thesame period. . . .Turning to the role of welfare policy, consistent with previous literature, our results suggestthat AFDC/TANF benefit levels are significantly associated with foster care caseloads. Lowerwelfare benefit levels may increase foster care caseloads for three reasons. First, to the extentthat recipients are not working, lower welfare benefits decrease family income and increasethe likelihood that children are maltreated and/or reported to child welfare officials. Second,lower welfare payments may induce relative caregivers to become formally involved with thefoster care system in order to qualify for foster care maintenance payments. Finally, foster caremay be a direct substitute for welfare. There is evidence of substantial movement from theAFDC/TANF program to out-of-home care. Using data from California, Illinois, and NorthCarolina, Goerge found that the majority (60%) of entrants into foster care come from AFDC.Similarly, Bitler, Gelbach, and Hoynes found that welfare reform is associated with a largeincrease in the probability that black children live in households with neither parent present,and Johnson and Waldfogel showed that children with incarcerated mothers are more likelyto be in foster care if their mothers received public assistance prior to being incarcerated.Id. at 329 (citations omitted).253. Jennings, supra note 234, at 578. Jennings observes, ''advocates and opponents alike down-Rplayed the way that race intersects with gender and class to shape dominant adoption policies andpractices.''Id. at 563. She also suggests that where transracial adoption is the best option, adoptionpolicy must include educational strategies to overcome racial privilege. See id. at 578.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 42 8-MAY-12 13:0942Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25Unfortunately, this is not the approach the U.S. foster care system takes.On the contrary, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (''ASFA'') restrictspoor people's'--and in particular African Americans''--choices over thestructure and composition of their families.254 ASFA weakens the require-ment that child services agencies make ''reasonable efforts'' to reunify fami-lies by providing exceptions to the requirement of such efforts, speeding upthe time frame for the termination of parental rights, and providing statesfinancial incentives to terminate parental rights in the process of freeingchildren for adoption.255More specifically, states must make ''reasonable efforts'' to provide birthparents with the services and supports they need to regain custody of theirchildren.''256 But if a child is in foster care for ''15 out of the previous 22months, states are to recommend that parental rights be terminated and thechild be made available for adoption.''257 While a caseworker may waivetermination if parents are making progress towards reunification or if thereare alternative placement options in the interests of the child that do notrequire termination of parental rights,258 the typically inadequate familypreservation services provided to poor families of color make the exercise ofthis waiver not nearly frequent enough.259Moreover, as I have written elsewhere,as the norm for child welfare service agencies is to provide inade-quate family preservation and reunification services, so-calledconcurrent permanency planning, in which children are placedsimultaneously on an adoption track and a reunification trackvery early in the proceedings, is likely to serve as a fast track toadoption of black children.260In a prescient statement that was meant to apply to ASFA in the context ofdomestic adoption, but could also apply to Haiti in the context of in-tercountry adoption, two well-known family law scholars have found,''[t]here is currently too much state disruption and supervision of poor mi-nority families. Any innovations . . . should be aimed at minimizing coer-254.See Christina White, Federally Mandated Destruction of the Black Family: The Adoption and SafeFamilies Act, 1 Nw. J.L. & SOC. POL'Y 303 (2006) (arguing that ASFA oppresses and devalues theautonomy of black families).255. King, supra note 15, at 612; see alsoJUDITH S. MODELL, A SEALED AND SECRET KINSHIP: THERCULTURE OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES IN AMERICAN ADOPTION 76 (2002) (stating that ASFA ''trans-forms adoption . . . into a child-rescuing operation'').256. In the exceptional cases where reunification is not advised, the goal becomes to place the childthrough adoption or to assign a legal guardian. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 6.R257.Id. at 7.258.Id.259.See King, supra note 15, at 612''13; MODELL, supra note 255, at 79, 96 (noting the class andRracial biases implicit in ASFA and citing the financial costs of ''rehabilitating collapsing birth families''as a basis for ASFA's emphasis on adoptions).260.Id. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 43 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame43cive intervention in families and at family preservation.''261 Bass et al.conclude that while ''foster care is a necessary lifeline that undoubtedlysaves thousands of maltreated children each year,'' it is also true that ''plac-ing children into state custody is an extremely invasive governmental inter-vention into family life.''262 These authors justify government interventiononly if the behavior is guided by a policy of ''do no harm.''263The reality is, however, that children occasionally encounter maltreat-ment in foster care families.264 And many foster children are vulnerable to''poor developmental outcomes'' due to (a) genetic factors, prenatal sub-stance exposure, and other physical health issues, (b) trauma or maltreat-ment experienced prior to foster care entry, and/or (c) placement instabilityexperience in foster care.265 While the first two reasons may justify a child'sentrance into foster care in the first place, displacement and associated in-stability are problems caused by the child welfare system.Multiple displacements cause developmental problems in children, pri-marily ''disordered attachment,''266 and are also associated with ''child be-havioral and emotional problems, such as aggression, coping difficulties,poor home adjustment, and low self-concept.''267 Jones points out that mostchildren in foster care will experience only one to two placements, but one-third to two-thirds of foster care placements will be disrupted within thefirst two years.268 Also, the longer a child remains in foster care, the greater261.Id.; see also MODELL, supra note 255, at 96 (stating that ASFA ''draws the state further intoRintervention in parent-child relationships'').262. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 9.R263.Id.When the state assumes custody of a child, in effect the government is stating that it can do abetter job of protecting and providing for this child than his or her birth parents can. Whenchildren are placed in foster care only to suffer additional harm, it undermines the rationalefor government intervention and is an egregious violation of the public trust. For this reason,as Badeau writes in this journal issue, the first principle of the child welfare system should beto do no harm.Id.264. Jones notes that:[R]esearch on foster care suggests that a significant proportion of foster families have parent-ing difficulties, which may hinder their capacity to provide stable experiences for foster chil-dren. Although the experience is not commonplace, foster children are also maltreated bytheir foster parents. The association between problematic parenting behaviors and the social-emotional maladjustment of foster children has been documented in several studies.Jones, supra note 14, at 40.R265.Id. at 36''38.266.Id. at 38.Attachment disorders, which lead to the most problematic outcomes for children, includethose in which children have disrupted attachments to their caregivers, display overly vigi-lant or overly compliant behaviors, show indiscriminate connection to every adult, or do notdemonstrate attachment behaviors to any adult. Children with insecure, ''disordered'' or ''dis-organized'' attachments may also have many other adverse outcomes that persist throughoutchildhood, such as poor peer relationships, behavioral problems, or other mental healthdifficulties.Id. at 34.267.Id. at 39.268.Id. at 38.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 44 8-MAY-12 13:0944Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25the likelihood that she will experience multiple placements.269 In 2006, themajority of children (approximately 68%) who had been in foster care for atleast 24 months had experienced more than two placements.270 It is worthpausing for a moment to consider why we disrupt and then fail to supportpoor families. Why are we systematically failing to respect the care-givingpatterns of traditionally marginalized communities if we provide such apoor substitute?In essence, the U.S. foster care system intervenes in the lives of poorfamilies and families of color much the same way that ICA intervenes in thelives of families in other countries around the globe. The analogical similar-ities are undeniable. Both systems intervene in family structures in waysthat are painful, catastrophic and destabilizing for individual families andcommunities. And in both systems, children often suffer for the satisfactionof other interests.V. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONSAs discussed above, commentators generally accept that poor families,both in the context of intercountry adoption and the U.S. foster care sys-tem, are more likely to be involved in these systems, and, thus, are morelikely to be disadvantaged by them.271 My intent here is not to re-statewhat has been said before, but to offer three important contributions to theliterature. First, I seek to focus on a gap in the existing literature by offer-ing a clear theoretical conception of the genesis for this disregard of poorfamilies. This theory I have previously described as MonoHumanism.272 It isthis unstated theoretical justification for the disrespect we show for poorfamilies as a society that severely hinders the extent to which we approachpoor families on their own terms.The second broad contribution is showing how this theoretical justifica-tion has become a narrative that determines our perception of and interac-tion with poor families both domestically and abroad. To that end, theSilsby case and the discussion of the U.S. foster care system are key exam-ples highlighting the theoretical justification.273269. The average time a child stays in foster care is 33 months, with variations on both ends: 38percent of the foster care children who exited in 2001 stayed 11 months or less in the system, while 32percent had been in the system for 3 years or more. Bass et al., supra note 13, at 7. Jones also notes thatRdisplacement or disruption rates are related, besides time in foster care, to ''the age of the foster child,and the functioning of the foster child (for example, mental health).'' Jones, supra note 14, at 38.R270.U.S. DEP'TOF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS, supra note 247, at 29.R271.See Bhahba, supra note 10, at 185 (describing poverty as a principal reason that parents relin-Rquish their children for international adoption); Bass et al., supra note 13, at 5''6, 14 (citing poverty asRthe main cause of children being placed into foster care).272.See generally King, supra note 20.R273. For the discussion of the Silsby case, see supra Introduction, Part I. For the discussion of U.S.foster care, see supra Part IV.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 45 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame45The third broad contribution is to show how customary child placementschemes have not only been replaced by structures set in motion byMonoHumanism, but may actually provide a better safeguard for the integ-rity of poor families than systems which may contain inherent unfairnessand cultural biases.274 The discussion of timoun, so-called kinship by designand analogous child placement systems by poor families in the UnitedStates demonstrates the displacement.275 These three contributions convenein the ultimate goal of this Article, which is to highlight the fact that as asociety, we fail to respect the integrity of poor families to such a degree thatit is currently unrealistic to expect the United States to create structuresthat protect these families.For Westerners who have financial privilege, the fundamental question iswhether we can meet families who are not like us, on their own terms. As ageneral matter this means we should do more to prioritize community andfamily assistance abroad and at home.276 We need to approach children as ifthey are our own children and do everything we can (as we would) if some-one tried to take them away from us. We must admit that to remove chil-dren from their families is always second best if the families have the meansand the will to take care of them, and not accept that we do not have theresources to provide families with such means'--particularly when we arefunding structures to make separation of children and families possible. Tosupport the integrity of poor families, our social structures must change,and we must be honest about the classism, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism,and basic fundamental unfairness that permeates our international and do-mestic child care systems. In adopting children, we should lose the ''rescuenarratives'' that I have discussed here and elsewhere. Only when we do sowill we be able to evaluate honestly whether there are alternatives to inter-national adoption and domestic foster care that support family integrity. Indoing so, we must ask whether we need to forgo intervention and focus onbottom-up community organizing, whether there is sufficient transparencyin our international adoption processes, and whether we are truly promot-ing the best interests of poor children.277 We have a moral imperative tounderstand the theory, its manifestation, and the family formations that webreak up by our failure to turn a critical eye back towards U.S. society andpolicies.274.See Cardarello, supra note 191, at 146 (discussing child placement customs that address theRcircumstances of the Brazilian poor).275.See supra Part III (discussing timoun); supra Part IV.A (discussing kinship by design and cus-tomary child placement practices in the United States).276.See Smolin, supra note 12, at 127 (discussing the need for the intercountry adoption system toRprovide birth families with aid that can preserve their families); King, supra note 15, at 612''14 (dis-Rcussing the need for the U.S. child welfare system to promote family reunification and preservation).277.See Smolin, supra note 12, at 175 (stating that the intercountry adoption system lacks trans-Rparency and accountability); Smolin, supra note 15, at 27 (challenging the perception that internationalRadoption is ''an inherent and essential good that always saves and never harms . . . children'').

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 46 8-MAY-12 13:0946Harvard Human Rights Journal / Vol. 25VI. CONCLUSIONA collaborative report by Haitian, U.S., and international organizationsshowed that eight months after the earthquake in Haiti, 1.3 million Hai-tians continued to live in makeshift camps in living conditions defyingbasic human rights to water, food, health, physical integrity, safety, hous-ing, education, self-sufficiency, and political participation.278 In October2010, an outbreak of cholera began to claim lives in Haiti, bringing to thepublic eye once again the failure of promises to reconstruct and improve thequality of life in that country.279 Yet, the aid that is often offered is theextraction of individual Haitian children through adoption, resulting in theseverance of familial ties. In this situation, ICA disrupts traditional forms ofchild placement that would otherwise maintain familial and cultural ties.And while the answer is not necessarily to outlaw ICA, it may instead be tomanage ICA in a way that minimizes the disruption of family unity. Oneway to do this is to first consider whether it is possible to support the childin a domestic placement, preferably with her own family.The same is true for child placement in the United States. Analyzing''kinship by design'' from a post-colonial perspective, one can conclude thatthe Western standardization and regulation of foster care and adoption is aunique cultural manifestation of a U.S. regulatory stance. Compared to so-cial practices of placing out that are pervasive around the developing world,government intervention into family arrangements may even seem unnatu-ral or unwarranted. In terms of law and economics, we may also describe''kinship by design'' as ''inefficient'' compared to how people in poor coun-tries solve child placement problems by themselves (at lesser cost to them-selves and society). Nevertheless, despite its shortcomings, there is acontinued domestic and international push to design more ''efficient'' regu-latory systems to place children who need placement, satisfy adults whowant children, and regulate the undesired consequences of exploitation andabuse and Otherness in ways that reflect Western preferences.In the end, recognizing society's failure to respect the integrity of poorfamilies presents a first step in seeking a solution. With this understanding,278.THE LAMP FOR HAITI FOUND. ET AL., ''WE'VE BEEN FORGOTTEN'': CONDITIONS IN HAITI'SDISPLACEMENT CAMPS EIGHT MONTHS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE 2 (2010), http://ijdh.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/IDP-Report-09.23.10-compressed.pdf.279.Haiti Cholera Outbreak Spreads: Aid Groups Fighting to Keep Cholera from Reaching Camps of HaitiEarthquake Survivors in Port-au-Prince, GUARDIAN (U.K.) (Oct. 24, 2010), http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/haiti-cholera-outbreak-spreads. Scientists posit that the cholera outbreak has less todo with sanitation conditions post earthquake, and more to do with the rising sea temperatures, in-creased water salinity, and an algae bloom in Haiti that provides optimum conditions for cholera bacte-ria to thrive. See Richard Knox, Earthquake Not to Blame for Cholera Outbreak in Haiti, NAT'L PUB.RADIO, Oct. 26, 2010, http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/26/130832317/earthquake-had-noth-ing-to-do-with-cholera-outbreak-haiti. However, alternative explanations are also offered.See JonathanM. Katz, UN Probes Base as Source of Haiti Cholera Outbreak, SEATTLE TIMES (Oct. 27, 2010), http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2013276274_apcbhaitidiseaseoutbreak.html.

\\jciprod01\productn\H\HLH\25-1\HLH102.txt unknown Seq: 47 8-MAY-12 13:092012 / Owning Laura Silsby's Shame47the next time we see an international adoption scandal, hear about themany children in the U.S. foster care system, or otherwise learn of pieces ofa poor family puzzle that have been broken apart, the question is whetherwe will step back and ask ourselves: What would we do if these ''other''families were exactly the same as us? What if they weren't poor? Whatwould we do then?

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Link to Article

Archived Version

Sat, 05 Nov 2016 17:02

Anonymous just posted the first in a series of exposes on Hillary and Bill Clinton's involvement in a massive child trafficking and pedophile sex ring.

The Clinton investigation is now connected to a massive child trafficking and pedophile sex ring operating within Washington, D.C. Over the next few days, and this November 5th, we will be referencing evidence and exposing the Clinton foundations for multiple incidences of child trafficking and sex scandals.

Hillary Clinton is being investigated by the FBI for involvement in an elite Washington pedophile ring, according to veteran State Department official Steve Pieczenik. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zVlaZyX3Q

Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, his relationship with Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew and other famous names, and their connection to a high-level sex scandal is exposed by Conchita and Cristina Sarnoff. http://bit.ly/2eH3ELq

Anthony Weiner Talking to FBI about underage Sex Island (Lolita)The FBI wants to know everything about the Lolita Island that Jeffrey Epstein owns. Lucky for them Anthony Weiner knows a lot about the Underage sex Island that Bill Clinton would visit and Weiner is ready to Talk. http://bit.ly/2f4u9xv

Hillary has a LONG history of interest in Ms. Silsby. Wikileak emails dating back till at least 2001 have been found in her archives discussing Laura's NGO. Laura had claimed she planned to build an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, but authorities in the country said she never submitted an application for this purpose. They instead located to Haiti.

Sources:https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10BUENOSAIRES166_a.htmlhttps://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/3465https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/2772

Missionary Stumbles on Road to Haiti '' http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703357104575045794048725562

One of the first things Hillary did when she took over the scene in Haiti was to get Laura off the hook:http://harvardhrj.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/King.pdf

The attorney who represented Laura Silsby '' A man who was himself convicted as a sex trafficker:https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/32/323249_-os-haiti-us-legal-adviser-to-u-s-haiti-missionaries.html

WikiLeaks: Pricing how much it costs to transport children:https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/3741

Again, this was the same group that got busted by Haitian Authorities trying to Traffic kids.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Life_Children%27s_Refuge_case

They're in the Clinton Emails;https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/3741

Pitch for funding or some shit, super sketchy.https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/3465

This looks like Mills & co are drafting statements following extradition.https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/2772

Thread 1 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95769324Thread 2 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95782324Thread 3 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95796372Thread 4 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95808374Thread 5 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95817651/Thread 6 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95825686/Thread 7 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95833293/Thread 8 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95839861Thread 9 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95846156Thread 10 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95850357Thread 11 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95855578Thread 12 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95866378Thread 13 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95878120Thread 14 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95886661Thread 15 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95897258Thread 16 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95909631Thread 17 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95924261Thread 18 '' http://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/95943361

Binshttp://pastebin.com/raw/tBMC2U6Whttp://pastebin.com/raw/Ags0WuWhttp://pastebin.com/Jn2LfXg4http://pastebin.com/RPTLE0W8

Jorge Puello (real name '' JORGE TORRES ORELLANA) is their lawyer who also was charged in el salvador for child sex trafficking.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/world/americas/08haiti.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/americas/12haiti.html?scp=1&sq=dominican%20el%20salvador%20puello%20&st=cse

''The children were sent to the SOS Children's Village orphanage in Croix-des-Bouquets, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, and it became clear that most (if not all) of them were not orphans.[12] NLCR missionaries maintained that they were told that the children were orphaned. In turn, people in Calebasse and SOS Children's Villages accused the missionaries of lying about their intentions.[9][12] ,Although the children's relatives were told that they would be able to visit them and eventually take them back, the NLCR's mission statement clearly outlined plans for adoption.'' http://bit.ly/2eoZ57E

''So, how was Hillary Clinton part of this, and where's the child sex trafficking? Mostly in the fevered imaginations of the excitable internet detectives of r/The_Donald, who decided that since Clinton discussed the case in emails with Huma Abedin and other aides, she was going out of her way to help the child abductors escape justice. This leaves out one tiny detail: as secretary of State, Clinton's job was to help American citizens arrested in other countries. Huma emailed her articles about the case, and from there, Reddit decided that can only mean they're all child traffickers trading children all over the world for sex slaves, and probably hitching rides on Jeffrey Epstein's sex plane, too.''

Wikileaks Pretty Sure Hillary Clinton Is A Child Sex Trafficker Now, It Is Just Obvious

Wikileaks 28 'The DOJ-FBI''Huma Special' is out and the TREASON of Hillary Clinton has never been more evident or quantifiable, and now the 650,000 emails on Huma and Anthony Weiner's computer allegedly implicate Bill and Hillary in what is being described as a pedophile ring, and the CNN-CIA mockingbird media is IGNORING all of it. If Hillary Clinton is ''elected'' OR ''selected'' and placed in the White House as the felon she clearly is, we will be facing a Constitutional crisis like never before seen.

http://bit.ly/2fnXjrV

KEYWORDS '' https://twitter.com/LatestAnonNews/status/794898918660341761/photo/1

Fwd: ''HILLARY SHOULD TAKE LIE DETECTOR TEST'' SAYS ALLEGED CLINTON SEX ASSAULT VICTIM '' https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/16444

CONVICTED CHILD ABDUCTOR WAS CAUGHT STEALING CHILDREN IN HAITI WITH THE CLINTONS '' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TTOEclD5BA&feature=youtu.be

WEINERGATE: 'The Whole Thing Was A Setup'...For The Good of The Country!' '' http://bit.ly/2frW73d

FBI Insider Leaks All: Clinton Foundation Exposed! Involves Entire US Government! '' http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines-2016/fbi-insider-leaks-all-clinton-foundation-exposed-involves-entire-us-government

NYPD Has Pedophile Evidence On Clintons '' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7h4AD9cKb0&t=1s

Wikileaks BOMBSHELL '' Hillary Clinton Linked to Satanic Pedophile Cult '' http://bit.ly/2ebbD76

Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring

Oh God, This Is Pure Horror: Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring!

NYPD Source: Weiner Laptop Has Enough Evidence ''to Put Hillary '... Away for Life''http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/24549-nypd-source-weiner-laptop-has-enough-evidence-to-put-hillary-away-for-life

BREAKING: FBI Confirms Evidence Of HUGE Underground Clinton Sex Network

BREAKING: FBI Confirms Evidence Of HUGE Underground Clinton Sex Network

New Clinton emails found during Anthony Weiner sexting probehttp://nypost.com/2016/10/28/new-clinton-emails-found-during-anthony-weiner-sexting-probe/

NYPD Reveals CHILD-SEX RING in Hillary Clinton Campaign & DNC involving Members of Congress + Fed. Judges; Evidence of Bribery, Money-Laundering, Depraved-Indifference Murder

NYPD Reveals CHILD-SEX RING in Hillary Clinton Campaign & DNC involving Members of Congress + Fed. Judges; Evidence of Bribery, Money-Laundering, Depraved-Indifference Murder and more!

Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring '' FBI Insider

Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring '' FBI Insider

Hillary pedophile ring exposed on Weiner's laptop PC '' http://bit.ly/2ebcox5

WHO IS JORGE PUELLO? '' http://www.dailybastardette.com/who-is-jorge-puello-pt-2-jumping-down-the-rabbit-hole/

''It's time to start questioning everything you have been told in the past by MSM'' '' FBI NYPD INSIDERS LEAK '' http://bit.ly/2fClNxT

Wikileaks Bombshell Reveals Clinton Email ''Where They Are Literally Pricing How Much It Costs to Transport Children'' '' http://bit.ly/2esWyMK

Washington Post Hides Article About Podesta's Nude Children Photo Collection '' http://www.infowars.com/washington-post-hides-article-about-podestas-nude-children-photo-collection/

NYPD INSIDER REVEALS HILLARY'S TRIPS TO PEDO ISLAND '' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42NIVBxr_GU

''I'm dreaming about your hotdog stand in Hawaii'...'' https://t.co/BNulNKBi4u

JOHN PODESTA LAUGHS AT DEATH '' http://imgur.com/a/osSxT

HILLARY GETS CRANKY WITHOUT HER DAILY DOSE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST HER SUBORDINATES '' https://t.co/5V9lxahIxF

WIKILEAKS EXPOSES CLINTON'S SATANIC NETWORK- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1f1kmgLopg

OCCULT EXPERT BREAKS DOWN CLINTON SATANISM '' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UYYZA4DxDw

''SPIRIT COOKING'': CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN PRACTICES BIZARRE OCCULT RITUAL '' http://www.infowars.com/spirit-cooking-clinton-campaign-chairman-invited-to-bizarre-satanic-performance/

Wikileaks: First Clinton Campaign Email About Anthony Weiner Appears '' http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/30/wikileaks-first-clinton-campaign-email-anthony-weiner-appears/

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3774

FLASHBACK: OCCULTIC HILLARY SUMMONS THE DEAD, REFUSES TO SPEAK TO CHRIST '' http://www.infowars.com/flashback-occultic-hillary-summons-the-dead-refuses-to-speak-to-christ/

''SPIRIT COOKING'' '' http://imgur.com/a/tST1T , http://imgur.com/a/uQXsF

HILLARY 'REGULARLY' ATTENDED WITCH'S CHURCH, CLINTON INSIDER CLAIMS '' http://www.infowars.com/hillary-regularly-attended-witchs-church-clinton-insider-claims/

BOMBSHELL: HILLARY CLINTON'S SATANIC NETWORK EXPOSED '' http://www.infowars.com/bombshell-hillary-clintons-satanic-network-exposed/http://beforeitsnews.com/self-sufficiency/2016/11/breaking-nypd-reveals-child-sex-ring-in-hillary-clinton-campaign-dnc-involving-members-of-congress-fed-judges-evidence-of-bribery-money-laundering-depraved-indifference-murder-and-more-2511913.html

''WALNUT PASTA SAUCE'' '' https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/43113

''WALNUT PASTE SAUCE'' 2 '' https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/30145

Hubris and Humiliation: Six Most Shocking Moments from Documentary Revisiting Anthony Weiner's Sex Scandal '' https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/45024

''PIZZA PARTY'' '' http://imgur.com/a/DPQN6

Insiders Threaten To Expose ''Alleged'' Pedophile Sex Ring '' http://victuruslibertas.com/2016/10/insiders-reveal-sex-ring/

FLASHBACK: HILLARY LABELED 'HIGH PRIEST,' 'GODDESS OF OCCULT' IN GUCCIFER LETTER '' http://www.infowars.com/flashback-hillary-labeled-high-priest-goddess-of-occult-in-guccifer-letter/

HILLARY TIED TO BIZARRE OCCULT ''SPIRIT COOKING'' RITUAL '' http://www.infowars.com/hillary-tied-to-bizarre-occult-spirit-cooking-ritual/

SEX MAGIC ON THE MENU AT ''SPIRIT COOKING'' PARTY ATTENDED BY JOHN PODESTA '' http://www.infowars.com/sex-magic-on-the-menu-at-spirit-cooking-party-attended-by-john-podesta/

''HOTDOG STAND'' '' http://imgur.com/a/AM1yh

$ 40,000 IN EXCHANGE FOR ''PIZZA'' '' http://imgur.com/a/I845c

WHY HILLARY IS DISQULIFIED FOR PRESIDENT '' PEDO SCANDAL http://www.wnd.com/2016/10/why-hillary-is-disqualified-for-president/

CLINTONS INVOLVED IN SEX SLAVERY, CHILD SEX CRIMES, CHILD EXPLOITATION '' http://www.inquisitr.com/3672706/hillary-clinton-email-investigation-nypd-source-says-clintons-involved-in-sex-slavery-child-sex-crimes-child-exploitation-and-more/

''Have her beat the _____ out of a punch doll'' '' http://imgur.com/a/tKKMo

CLINTON AND ABEDIN BROKE CYBER-SECURITY PROTOCOL HABITUALLY '' http://pastebin.com/vP7s3Ryd

New revelations on the contents of that laptop, according to law enforcement sources, implicate the Democratic presidential candidate, her subordinates, and even select elected officials in far more alleged serious crimes than mishandling classified and top secret emails, sources said. NYPD sources said these new emails include evidence linking Clinton herself and associates to:

Money laundering, Child exploitation, Sex crimes with minors (children), Perjury, Pay to play through Clinton Foundation, Obstruction of justice, Other felony crimes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLAe3UeddUI&feature=youtu.be

PAST CONNECTIONS: Former 12-Year-Old Rape Victim: ''Hillary Clinton Took Me Through Hell'' http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/234515/former-12-year-old-rape-victim-hillary-clinton-daniel-greenfield

Spirit Cooking:

Podesta Spirit Cooking Emails Reveal Clinton's Inner Circle as Sex Cult with Connections to Human Trafficking

Podesta '' Spirit Cooking Dinner:https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/15893''Chairman Cash'': John Podesta Paid $7,000/Month By Foundation Run by Banker With Ties To Financial Crisishttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-01/chairman-cash-john-podesta-paid-7000month-foundation-run-banker-ties-financial-crisiCode words:

WikiLeaks: Pedophile 'Code Words' Found In Podesta Emails

Dennis Hastert:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/07/report-four-have-accused-hastert-sexual-abuse.htmlJimmy Savile:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/27/how-bbc-star-jimmy-savile-got-away-with-allegedely-abusing-500-children-and-sex-with-dead-bodies/Elijah Wood:http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/23/elijah-wood-claims-hollywood-is-in-the-grip-of-massive-pedophilia-epidemic.html

'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'---***THIS IS NOT THE ENTIRE THING***Multiple parts will be posted.

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 08:54

U.S. military hackers have penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications networks and the Kremlin's command systems, making them vulnerable to attack by secret American cyber weapons should the U.S. deem it necessary, according to a senior intelligence official and top-secret documents reviewed by NBC News.

American officials have long said publicly that Russia, China and other nations have probed and left hidden malware on parts of U.S critical infrastructure, "preparing the battlefield," in military parlance, for cyber attacks that could turn out the lights or turn off the internet across major cities.

It's been widely assumed that the U.S. has done the same thing to its adversaries. The documents reviewed by NBC News '-- along with remarks by a senior U.S. intelligence official '-- confirm that, in the case of Russia.

U.S. officials continue to express concern that Russia will use its cyber capabilities to try to disrupt next week's presidential election. U.S. intelligence officials do not expect Russia to attack critical infrastructure '-- which many believe would be an act of war '-- but they do anticipate so-called cyber mischief, including the possible release of fake documents and the proliferation of bogus social media accounts designed to spread misinformation.

On Friday the hacker known as "Guccifer 2.0" '-- which U.S. officials say is a front for Russian intelligence '-- tweeted a threat to monitor the U.S. elections "from inside the system."

Related: Exclusive: White House Readies to Fight Election Day Cyber Mayhem

As NBC News reported Thursday, the U.S. government is marshaling resources to combat the threat in a way that is without precedent for a presidential election.

The cyber weapons would only be deployed in the unlikely event the U.S. was attacked in a significant way, officials say.

U.S. military officials often say in general terms that the U.S. possesses the world's most advanced cyber capabilities, but they will not discuss details of highly classified cyber weapons.

James Lewis, a cyber expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that U.S. hacks into the computer infrastructure of adversary nations such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea '-- something he says he presumes has gone on for years '-- is akin to the kind of military scouting that is as old as human conflict.

"This is just the cyber version of that," he said.

In 2014, National Security Agency chief Adm. Mike Rogers told Congress that U.S. adversaries are performing electronic "reconnaissance" on a regular basis so that they can be in a position to disrupt the industrial control systems that run everything from chemical facilities to water treatment plants.

"All of that leads me to believe it is only a matter of when, not if, we are going to see something dramatic," he said at the time.

Rogers didn't discuss the U.S.'s own penetration of adversary networks. But the hacking undertaken by the NSA, which regularly penetrates foreign networks to gather intelligence, is very similar to the hacking needed to plant precursors for cyber weapons, said Gary Brown, a retired colonel and former legal adviser to U.S. Cyber Command, the military's digital war fighting arm.

"You'd gain access to a network, you'd establish your presence on the network and then you're poised to do what you would like to do with the network," he told NBC News. "Most of the time you might use that to collect information, but that same access could be used for more aggressive activities too."

Brown and others have noted that the Obama administration has been extremely reluctant to take action in cyberspace, even in the face of what it says is a series of Russian hacks and leaks designed to manipulate the U.S. presidential election.

Administration officials did, however, deliver a back channel warning to Russian against any attempt to influence next week's vote, officials told NBC News.

The senior U.S. intelligence official said that, if Russia initiated a significant cyber attack against critical infrastructure, the U.S. could take action to shut down some Russian systems '-- a sort of active defense.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, who served as NATO commander of Europe, told NBC News' Cynthia McFadden that the U.S. is well equipped to respond to any cyber attack.

"I think there's three things we should do if we see a significant cyber-attack," he said. "The first obviously is defending against it. The second is reveal: We should be publicizing what has happened so that any of this kind of cyber trickery can be unmasked. And thirdly, we should respond. Our response should be proportional."

The U.S. use of cyber attacks in the military context '-- or for covert action '-- is not without precedent.

During the 2003 Iraq invasion, U.S spies penetrated Iraqi networks and sent tailored messages to Iraqi generals, urging them to surrender, and temporarily cut electronic power in Baghdad.

In 2009 and 2010, the U.S., working with Israel, is believed to have helped deploy what became known as Stuxnet, a cyber weapon designed to destroy Iranian nuclear centrifuges.

Today, U.S. Cyber Command is engaged in cyber operations against the Islamic State, including using social media to expose the location of militants and sending spoof orders to sow confusion, current and former officials tell NBC News.

One problem, officials say, is that the doctrine around cyber conflict '-- what is espionage, what is theft, what is war '-- is not well developed.

"Cyber war is undefined," Brown said. "There are norms of behavior that we try to encourage, but people violate those."

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 03:24

Mr. Gordon, a New York Times military correspondent, is with Kurdish pesh merga forces on the northern approach to Mosul.

NEAR NAWARAN, Iraq '-- The sounds of battle north of Mosul on Thursday morning told the story of how Islamic State fighters had chosen to meet a new Kurdish assault: the eruptions of suicide car bombs and roadside mines.

Grim-faced, a group of Kurdish troops moved to meet the ambulances and gun-laden pickup trucks as they bore the casualties back from the fight at midday.

Blood stained the sand near their front-line aid station, and a medevac helicopter touched down on the highway back to Dohuk, ready to take the most grievously hurt to treatment there. One Kurdish fighter was so desperate to get his injured comrade through the snarl of military traffic that he began to fire shots into the air.

The third day of the campaign to drive the Islamic State out of Mosul was an expansion that included pushes on multiple fronts by American-trained Iraqi counterterrorism forces '-- which reached the town of Bartella less than 10 miles east of the city '-- and by the pesh merga. And for the first time, an American soldier numbered among the dead.

The Pentagon said that an American service member was killed in a bomb blast while supporting the Iraqi forces' advance. It was the fourth time American service members have been killed in Iraq over the past year.

North of Mosul, thousands of Kurdish fighters were opening a new front, tasked with securing 27 villages and advancing in three main groups from the villages of Bashiqa, Narawan and Tel Iskuf.

Commanders said the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, were heavily contesting the assault, driving vehicle bombs at the Kurds and fighting for each village on the way.

''Daesh is still inside the villages, and they are going to resist more,'' said one commander, Brig. Gen. Ismail Kamal. ''They don't have large numbers, but they are an ideological group and they aim to explode themselves and die. That's our problem.''

Before dawn broke, the American air support began softening up the resistance. A United States Special Operations AC-130 gunship was circling overhead, and pounding blasts could be heard in the distance.

But there were also signs that the Islamic State had expected the assault.

One young Kurdish fighter said he had been in touch with residents in his hometown, Fazeliya, one of the villages the pesh merga intended to surround and then clear. Islamic State militants, he said, had sought to frighten the villagers from aiding the Kurdish assault by taking hostage 16 men whose relatives serve in the pesh merga. The hostages would be killed, the Islamic State had warned, it the pesh merga attacked.

Interactive Feature | Maps: The Advance on Mosul

As the Kurdish forces moved on a ridge overlooking the villages early in the morning, a sudden flurry of assault rifle fire broke out and quickly built up. It was an uncommonly intense fusillade, but it was not an ambush from below: It was the Kurds swinging their rifles skyward to blast a small Islamic State surveillance drone. After a minute, the aircraft came tumbling down.

After making a cut in the sand berm that served as the Kurds' fortified border with Islamic State territory the past two years, a column of pesh merga tanks, armored vehicles and sport utility vehicles advanced. At first, the move was upbeat; several Kurdish soldiers were taking photographs of themselves on the ridge.

The Kurdish flag was raised in Nawaran, the first village, but resistance in the next town, Borima, was much stiffer. After several firefights, the Kurds called in a thunderous artillery barrage to try to ease the way.

In the distance, a bloodier drama was playing out. A couple of suicide car bombs hurtled toward the Kurdish fighters from Fazeliya. The pesh merga fired to disable them, but at least one of the trucks got close enough that its explosion wounded several pesh merga fighters, ripping the legs off one of them.

The Kurds said that they had intercepted communications in which Islamic State commanders were exhorting their fighters to resist to the death. Frequently, the militants were hiding until the pesh merga fighters entered a town to clear it, suddenly popping out of their sanctuaries to attack the Kurds with gunfire or possibly explosive belts.

Marveling at the Islamic State fighters' seeming ability to emerge out of nowhere, some pesh merga wondered if they had dug tunnels that connected the villages.

For all that, the vast majority of the Kurdish casualties were the result of improvised explosive devices '-- the Americans call them I.E.D.'s, the Kurds say T.N.T.'s '-- and car bombs, commanders said.

The pesh merga did not officially release their list of casualties. But among pesh merga commanders and soldiers, word of the toll had spread: about a dozen pesh merga had been killed and many more wounded.

As the frustration with the operation mounted, one senior Kurdish official complained that the Americans had not provided nearly as many airstrikes as the pesh merga had expected, a criticism that may have reflected the need to simultaneously provide air cover for the Iraqi counterterrorism service assault. ''We didn't get anything like what we were promised,'' said the Kurdish official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Col. John I. Dorrian, spokesman for the United States-led military coalition, insisted it would continue to cooperate with the Iraqis and the Kurds. ''Coalition air power is certainly in demand, and we try to provide fires in a timely fashion when called upon,'' he said. ''Given the size and scope of the operation to liberate Mosul, there may be times when we are unable to fully meet the demand as quickly as forces on the ground would like.''

A photographer for The New York Times, Bryan Denton, was among those wounded when a vehicle bomb exploded near a unit of the Iraqi counterterrorism force east of Mosul on Thursday. He was taken to a hospital in Iraqi Kurdistan with cuts and bruises, and was in good condition.

Earlier in the day, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, was optimistic about the offensive as he spoke by video link to a group of diplomats in Paris who were discussing the future of Mosul. He told the officials that the assault force '-- made up of Iraqi security forces, Shiite and Sunni militia fighters and Kurdish forces '-- was pushing toward Mosul ''more quickly than we thought and more quickly than we had programmed.''

But on the battlefield, the pesh merga's advance had slowed. General Kamal said that two or three more days would probably still be needed to clear the villages, but by evening, as the day's toll was becoming clear, the mood among the pesh merga seemed more grimly determined than celebratory.

Follow Michael R. Gordon on Twitter@gordonnyt.

Kamil Kakol contributed reporting.

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Source: Turkish Digest

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:05

Social media interrupted in Turkey after crackdownWhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube slowed or stopped after government arrests top Kurdish lawmakers

More:Social media interrupted in Turkey after crackdown | The Times of Israel

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:39

This articlefirst appeared on the American Enterprise Institute site.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the failed July 15 coup attempt a ''gift from God.''

The Turkish government immediately blamed Erdogan's former ally-turned-rival Fethullah G¼len for being behind the plot, the genesis of which remains unclear. But the simple fact is that none of the material Turkish officials have given to their U.S. counterparts has yet risen to the standard of proof'--let alone credible evidence'--to support Erdogan's charges.

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It is noteworthy that the Turkish press purports to describe the U.S. reaction as accepting of the Turkish material, yet no American officials have ever been quoted as saying anything near what the Turkish press describes. Indeed, alternate narratives about the July 15 coup attempt are equally compelling.

The only certainty is that the attempted coup became the excuse Erdogan needed or crafted in order to purge those opposed to or insufficiently enthusiastic about his agenda.

Much of what has been reported in the Western media has focused on the ongoing purge of teachers and university professors. Certainly, there is a newsworthy irony to a man whose university diploma appears to be forged assuming the right to appoint university presidents through a board he has staffed with his cronies.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, flanked by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, at a Republic Day ceremony at Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atat¼rk, modern Turkey's founder. The October 29 ceremony in Ankara marked the republic's anniversary. Michael Rubin writes that what Erdogan has done in recent days to the police should put chills down the spines of those who care about his intentions and Turkey's future.Umit Bektas/reuters

But it is what Erdogan has done in recent days to the police that should put chills down the spines of those who care about his intent and Turkey's future.

Last week, Erdogan appointed new police chiefs for 61 out of Turkey's 81 provinces. He also assigned 55 police chiefs to central departments that act as police professional bodies. (On page 105 of this book chapter, Turkish academic and counterterrorism specialist Ahmet Yayla explains how these positions relate to Turkish counterterrorism.)

Some of the police chiefs Erdogan fired were religious, and some even supported him. None were followers of G¼len, simply because those who were had long ago been purged. Most of the chiefs whom Erdogan has appointed are fiercely nationalist, very young and relatively inexperienced, and so are likely to more easily defer to Erdogan's orders.

The problem seems to be not that Erdogan believed all the sacked chiefs disloyal'--most were not, and he had appointed many in the first place. Rather, he considered them soft and unwilling to use the extreme violence he believes will be necessary to exert not only against Turkey's Kurds but also against many liberal or apolitical Turks as he moves to further consolidate control.

Throw into the mix that Erdogan has also just in the past few days extended the time for which Turks can be detained without access to an attorney to six months. What this sets the stage for is a significant augmentation of torture in custody in order to extract forced confessions, a practice that has become more common since July.

Erdogan's ruling party has also begun issuing weapons permits to loyalists, especially through the Ottoman Youth Authority (Osmanli Ocaklari). I have previously reported Erdogan's appointment of former general Adnan Tanriverdi, the head of SADAT (a defense consulting company), to be his military counsel. Tanriverdi had been dismissed by the Turkish General Staff during the 1997 soft coup and appears bent on revenge against the secular order.

SADAT, which has trained paramilitaries and special forces, is increasingly becoming Erdogan's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Indeed, SADAT appears to have been behind much of the killing of civilians that Erdogan's media blamed, absent any evidence beyond forced confessions, upon G¼lenist coup plotters.

All this hints at Erdogan's long game. He appears to be consolidating his own religious control through the Service for Youth and Education Foundation of Turkey (T'RGEV, a charity on whose board Erdogan's son sits) and Hayrettin Karaman, Erdogan's favorite local Islamic leader.

But, as Erdogan seeks to change the constitution, he also wants to win through the point of a gun what he cannot win popularly.

The issue at hand is not simply the Turkish public'--Erdogan believes he has them cowed'--but rather Dogu Perin§ek, a former Maoist and ultranationalist. Perin§ek has been the chief beneficiary of Erdogan's purges, as they have eliminated many of his opponents as well.

Today, Perin§ek is effectively the shadow defense minister. He has said he will not allowthe constitutional change, which means the terms of the showdown are now clear.

Whoever wins, the only certainty is that Turkey is headed for a bloodbath. The only questions are how soon it comes, and whether Erdogan is more prepared than Perin§ek.

Michael Rubinis a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a former Pentagon official whose major research areas are the Middle East, Turkey, Iran and diplomacy. Rubin instructs senior military officers deploying to the Middle East and Afghanistan on regional politics and teaches classes regarding Iran, terrorism and Arab politics on board deploying U.S. aircraft carriers. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen and prewar and postwar Iraq, and he spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. His newest book,Dancing With the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes,examines a half-century of U.S. diplomacy with rogue regimes and terrorist groups.

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Source:

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:09

As the post-coup crackdowns continue in Turkey, the lira has just crashed to a fresh record low of 3.16/$ as WaPo reports Turkish authorities arrested 12 parliamentarians belonging to a pro-Kurdish party on Friday, including its two leaders. The UN has condemned the move as "compromising parliamentary democracy" in US ally Turkey.

Capital takes flight as Erdogan's tyranny grows...

The Washington Post reports the arrests took place in a series of overnight raids that signaled a sharp escalation of President Re§ep Tayyip Erdogan's confrontation with his political opponents and the country's Kurdish minority.

The Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, holds more than 10 percent of the seats in parliament and is the chambers' third largest bloc. During an intensifying war between the government and Kurdish rebels in recent years, Turkish officials have accused the party's leaders of ties to the militants '-- charges the party has repeatedly denied.

Authorities said Friday that the lawmakers were detained after failing to answer an official summons to testify in a counterterrorism investigation. Three lawmakers, including senior HDP leader Idris Baluken, were ordered formally arrested by a Turkish court pending trial, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency.

The arrests drew condemnations from the United Nations and European Union, which said the moves "compromise parliamentary democracy in Turkey." In a statement Friday, HDP deputies called the detentions "the end of democracy in Turkey," and said it was "a dark day" for both the party and the country.

The arrests were part of broad crackdown by Erdogan's government on political opponents in the aftermath of a failed coup in July. The government has accused an exiled, U.S.-based, Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, of directing the coup attempt, through his extensive network of supporters.

But in the months since the attempt, the authorities have used a sweeping emergency law to arrest tens of thousands of people, including many with seemingly no connection to the Gulen network, including journalists, teachers, university professors and leftist activists, in what human rights advocates have described as the most far-reaching purge of opponents in Turkey's modern history.

...

Militants belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have stepped up attacks on Turkish security forces over the past year, after a peace deal fell apart in 2015 and reignited the decades-old conflict. That agreement had ended years of war between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish state, which has long clamped down on the Kurdish population. Ethnic Kurds make up nearly 20 percent of the country's 75 million people.

With the arrests, the government "has gone from talking peace with the PKK leader, and PKK commanders in the field, to going after anyone who is remotely advocating greater rights for the Kurds," said Amberin Zaman, a journalist who is currently a public policy scholar at the The Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

"It is the same old notion '-- that Kurdish national aspirations can be crushed using military force," she said.

Among those detained early Friday were Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, the co-leaders of the HDP. Demirtas, who is from Diyarbakir, sent a message through his lawyer in the early hours of the morning, assuring his supporters that he was in good health, the HDP said.

At a news conference in Istanbul Friday, HDP lawmakers were defiant, and accused Erdogan of attempting "to steer the country into a civil war."

"Maybe in a few hours, none of us will be left," HDP deputy, Mihtat Sancar, said at the news conference, in reference to the speed and scale of the arrests.

And investors are dumping Turkish stocks back to post-Coup levels...

No comments from Turkish ally and democracy-fighter USA, but Europe is already chiming in...

''We can't reach any other conclusion than that at this moment we have to suspend the negotiations'' after Turkey detained Kurdish lawmakers, Kati Piri, Turkey rapporteur for the European Parliament, says in interview on Dutch NPO radio 1 channel Friday.

''There's no use at all to continue talks in this way when we see that Turkey is further sliding down and is clearly heading towards a dictatorship instead of a democracy''

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Source:

Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:01

As another month passes, the great schism inside the American labor force get wider. We are referring to the unprecedented divergence between the total number of high-paying manufacturing jobs, and minimum-wage food service and drinking places jobs, also known as waiters and bartenders. In October, according to the BLS, while the number of people employed by "food services and drinking places" rose by another 10,000, the US workforce lost another 9,000 manufacturing workers.

The chart below puts this in context: since 2014, the US had added 547,000 waiters and bartenders, and has lost 36,000 manufacturing workers.

Yet while we would be the first to congratulate the new American waiter and bartender class, something does not smell quite right. On one hand, there has been a spike in recent restaurant bankruptcies or mass closures (Logan's, Fox and Hound, Bob Evans), which has failed to reflect in the government report.

On the other hand, as the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant performance activity index showed last month, overall industry sentiment is the worst since the financial crisis, due to declines in both same-store sales and customer traffic, suggesting that restaurant workers should now be in the line of fire for mass layoffs.

However, what we find more suspect, is that according to the BLS' seasonally adjusted "data", starting in March of 2010 and continuing through September of 2016, there has been just one month in which restaurant workers lost jobs, and alternatively, jobs for waiters and bartenders have increased in 79 out of the past 80 months, with just one month of job losses, something unprecedented in this series history.

Putting this divergence in a long context, since the official start of the last recession in December 2007, the US has gained 1.7 million waiters and bartenders, and lost 1.5 million manufacturing workers. Worse, while the latter series had been growing, if at a slower pace than historically, it has now clearly rolled over, and in 2016, some 58,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost.

Like last month, we remain curious what this "data" series will look like after it is revised by the BLS shortly after the NBER declares the official start of the next recession.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 03:20

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 08:49

Behind her, yellow police tape with the words "SHERIFF'S LINE DO NOT CROSS" flapped in the wind, indicating the scene of the crime.

In fact, the police tape was tied to ABC News' own equipment just off-camera, a photograph obtained by CNNMoney shows. Sources with knowledge of the matter say the tape was placed there by ABC News for the purpose of its inclusion in the live shot.

The photograph, sent by an anonymous source, shows the tape running no more than 30 feet and tied to camera stands at both sides. In Davis' segment, which was broadcast on ABC's "Good Morning America," it is impossible to tell where the tape ends.

"This action is completely unacceptable and fails to meet the standards of ABC News," Julie Townsend, the vice president of communications at ABC News, told CNNMoney. "As soon as it was brought to our attention, we decided to take the producer out of the field, and we're investigating further."

This is not the first time ABC News has doctored a shot.

In April, ABC News producer David Fazekas created a fake reservation list for a segment about a restaurant in upstate New York that was thought to be among the most exclusive in the world.

Fazekas later told The New Yorker that the chef "wouldn't let us see his actual list, so I wrote it myself'--like a reenactment in a documentary."

"There are services on the Internet that generate fake names," Fazekas said.

CNNMoney (Los Angeles)First published November 4, 2016: 3:07 PM ET

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 03:16

STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS

Tesla, 'World's Safest Car,' Explodes Like a Bomb

By DailyBellStaff - November 05, 2016

Fiery Tesla Crash Sends Flaming Batteries Shooting Like Projectiles, Killing Two In World's Safest Car '... When a Tesla Model S collided with a tree in downtown Indianapolis Thursday, an inferno erupted. The crash, which killed the driver and her one passenger, sent battery cells ''firing off almost like projectiles around rescuers,'' fire department officials told local NBC affiliate WTHR. ''It hit that tree and it bounced around and all of a sudden it just exploded,'' Al Finnell, an eyewitness, told the station. -IBD

The world's safest car just blew up like a bomb but that message seems to be getting lost amidst the larger coverage about Tesla.

For years and years, Tesla has never made a nickel despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars. But the company is beloved by the predictable monetary elites that seek more and more control over the rest of us.

Founder Elon Musk offers that potential control. Every day, he works as hard as he can to ensure that sooner or later government will take away your ability to drive where you want when you want.

Here at DB, we've written several articles about Tesla (here and here, most recently). We don't like the car and much more than that, we don't like the implications behind it.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is fairly clear about his goals. He wants to create an electric, self-driving car. And he has Tesla fans throughout the US and the world.

Extend the logic and you come the inevitable conclusion that larger entities will have to support Tesla's vision. These entities will surely be linked to some sort of government control.

Don't pay your ticket? Have a confrontation of some sort outside of the home? Or simply fall afoul of one of a plethora of rules and regulations that increasingly hem-in behavior '... and you will pay the consequences in terms of your driving life.

You will get up in the morning and your car won't start because someone has flagged your behavior. If you do manage to get your car started, it won't go anywhere because its driving mechanisms have been disabled.

You'll have to go to court. You'll have to pay a fine. Then you'll be able to drive again. Or maybe not. Think driving is a ''privilege''? Just wait.

We could extend this logic beyond government. It's perfectly possible that large private entities could have relationships with government that generate similar consequences.

Why Musk has managed to attract fans for his cars given the inevitable results of his technology is a mystery to us. His ability to continue to fund his endless automotive depredations are a mystery as well.

It is most probable that his access to funds has a lot to do with the maturation of his technology and the increasing governmental control it offers.

We live in a time when technology is being celebrated as an enabler of freedom but it the kinds of technology that Musk is perfecting has little to do with freedom. No doubt it could, but not in the current climate.

There are other issues as well. Musk is running a vast corporation with other people's money. But if you look elsewhere you will see other titanic entities are throwing their resources behind the development of technology, especially robots.

It would be one thing if these technological innovations were being developed by entrepreneurs. But one of the biggest developer of robot technology '' deadly technology at that '' is the Pentagon.

Since we've already seen movies about deadly robots, we're not shocked by the idea of what the Pentagon is doing. But that doesn't make it much better.

How many people wake up in the morning and decide they're going to build a robot that will kill people automatically?

But that's what is going on. This technology is being developed by huge corporations with virtually unlimited funds. These corporations wouldn't exist without monopoly central banking and a variety of rules and regulations to support them and ensure they have little or no competition.

The world today is technocratic and fascist. It is run by gigantic corporations that would not exist without laws and judicial decisions that guarantee their viability no matter how incompetently they operate.

These corporations work hand-in-glove with governments around the world. Both the corporations and governments are run secretly by the same banking cabal that runs central banking via the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland.

In other words, the technological progress that we are supposed to celebrate is actually being organized for nefarious purposes. It wouldn't exist in the form it does without vast entities that have turned their energies toward perfecting technology that is intended to create additional control, not freedom.

A normal entrepreneurial society in which individuals and groups applied technology with an eye toward marketplace acceptance might end up with completely different kinds of technology.

Many people might reject self-driving cars and killer robots '' at least without proper safeguards.

But we don't have normal societies in the world, for the most part. Instead we have people like Elon Musk who builds ''the world's safest car,'' albeit one that explodes like a bomb at high impact.

More:

The impact knocked the wheels off of the car before the batteries caught fire and exploded. Speckman died at the scene while her passenger, 44-year-old Kevin McCarthy, died at the hospital.

What else do we learn? '''Lithium-ion battery cell fires are tough to put out,' Indiana Fire Trucks Battalion Chief Kevin Jones said.''

The Tesla Model S is ''known'' for being fabulously safe. As the article informs us, it achieved the highest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rating of any car ever tested.

Conclusion: Except when it explodes.

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 23:12

MIAMI '-- The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)issued an Investigative Update of American Airlines flight AA383, which caught fire on runway 28R at Chicago O'Hare International Airport after aborting its take-off.

The report states that the right engine number 2 stage high pressure turbine (HPT) disk failed and fractured into at least four pieces. A large disk fragment landed in an UPS warehouse located about 2,920 feet (890m) from the aircraft.

Recovered stage 2 HPT disk pieces (Credits: NTSB)

According to the NTSB, the incident occurred while the Boeing 767-300 was accelerating for takeoff through 128 Knots-Indicated Air Speed (KIAS) with the engines set at takeoff power thrust setting. Two seconds after the failure, the power levers were retarded at 134 KIAS and brake pressures began to increase as autobrakes activated and speedbrakes automatically extended.

The aircraft came to a full stop about 25 seconds later 9,225 feet (2,811m) past the runway threshold, with a fire below its right wing fed by a pool of leaked fuel. 161 passengers and nine crew were evacuated, with 20 passengers and one flight attendant reporting non-critical injuries.

The NTSB also informed that the stage two HPT disk of the right engine failed and fractured into at least four pieces. The 90% of the disk was collected and sent to Washington D.C. for further examination.

Fatigue crack location on a disk fracture surface. (Credits: NTSB)

Preliminary results so far show one of the fractures showed indications of fatigue cracking initiated at an internal inclusion near the forward side of the hub's inner bore. Ongoing metallurgical examinations of the disk will focus on detailed characterization of the inclusion and the fracture surfaces, the NTSB said.

The aircraft involved in the incident (N345AN ' MSN 33084 ' LN 906) was built in 2003, and is among American's youngest 767-300s. At the moment of the incident, the aircraft had logged 8,120 cycles and 50,632 flight hours.

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 17:52

Saudi Arabia is getting ready for the twilight of the oil age by creating the world's largest sovereign wealth fund for the kingdom's most prized assets.

Over a five-hour conversation, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman laid out his vision for the Public Investment Fund, which will eventually control more than $2 trillion and help wean the kingdom off oil. As part of that strategy, the prince said Saudi will sell shares in Aramco's parent company and transform the oil giant into an industrial conglomerate. The initial public offering could happen as soon as next year, with the country currently planning to sell less than 5 percent.

Mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince, interviewed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, March 30, 2016.

Source: Saudi Arabia's Royal Court

''IPOing Aramco and transferring its shares to PIF will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil,'' the prince said in an interview at the royal compound in Riyadh that ended at 4 a.m. on Thursday. ''What is left now is to diversify investments. So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesn't depend mainly on oil.''

Almost eight decades since the first Saudi oil was discovered, King Salman's 30-year-old son is aiming to transform the world's biggest crude exporter into an economy fit for the next era. As his strategy takes shape, the speed of change may shock a conservative society accustomed to decades of government handouts.

Buying Buffett and GatesThe sale of Aramco, or Saudi Arabian Oil Co., is planned for 2018 or even a year earlier, according to the prince. The fund will then play a major role in the economy, investing at home and abroad. It would be big enough to buy Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. -- the world's four largest publicly traded companies.

PIF ultimately plans to increase the proportion of foreign investments to 50 percent of the fund by 2020 from 5 percent now, said Yasir Alrumayyan, secretary-general of the fund's board.

The blueprint for structural change follows a series of measures last year to curb spending and prevent the budget deficit from exceeding 15 percent of gross domestic product. At the end of December, authorities raised the prices of fuel and electricity and pledged to end wasteful budget spending after oil prices plunged.

More will follow those ''quick fixes'' as part of a ''National Transformation Plan'' to be announced within a month, including steps to raise non-oil revenue steadily through various measures including fees and value-added taxes.

''We are working on increasing the efficiency of spending,'' said Prince Mohammed, who is second-in-line to the throne. The government used to spend up to 40 percent more than allocated in its budget and that was whittled to 12 percent in 2015, he said. ''So I don't believe that we have a real problem when it comes to low oil prices.''

Too Late?The question is whether the reaction to the more than halving in the price of a barrel of crude has come too late, especially given the Saudi influence over the oil market. The country will only freeze output if Iran and other major producers do so, the prince said.

An International Monetary Fund study in 2014 noted there were ''many examples of failure'' by countries trying to reduce reliance on energy production and few successes. Gulf Arab monarchies may have missed their best chance when oil prices were above $100 a barrel rather than about $40 now.

''It is clear Saudi Arabia needs to reform, diversify, and re-energize its economy, but this will involve more than just increasing investments in non-oil industries,'' said Paul Sullivan, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University in Washington. ''One cannot order economic reforms like a multiple course dinner.''

Taking ControlPrince Mohammed has consolidated more power than anyone in his position since the founding of the kingdom in 1932. His attempt to shake up the economy comes against the backdrop of mounting domestic security threats and regional turmoil, with the Sunni-ruled kingdom fighting a war in Yemen against Shiite rebels it says are backed by Iran.

As Defense Minister, Prince Mohammed leads the military effort. He also oversees ministries including finance, oil and the economy through the Council for Economic and Development Affairs. The council, which was established after his father became king, also controls the Public Investment Fund.

More CasualAppearing casually in a white robe, but without the traditional Saudi headdress, the prince sat in an office adorned with posters of King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef.

He said the wealth fund already holds stakes in companies including Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the world's second-biggest chemicals manufacturer, and National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's largest lender.

The fund is looking at ''two opportunities outside Saudi Arabia'' in the financial industry, the prince said, declining to name the possible acquisition targets. ''I believe that we will conclude at least one of them.''

It has already started to become more active abroad. In July, PIF acquired a 38 percent stake in South Korea's Posco Engineering & Construction Co. for $1.1 billion and the same month agreed to a $10 billion partnership to invest in Russia with the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

'Aggressive' PlanThe fund has been hiring specialists for markets, private equity and risk management, said Alrumayyan, PIF's secretary-general and a former chief of Credit Agricole SA-backed Saudi Fransi Capital.

''We're working now on different fronts,'' he said. ''Now the government is transferring some of its assets, lands, some of the companies to us. We have different projects in tourism and in new industries that are untapped in Saudi.''

Over a multiple-course dinner with the prince and several top Saudi officials, he described the overseas investment plan as ''very aggressive,'' though said PIF would initially be skewed toward domestic assets by the addition of Aramco.

''Undoubtedly, it will be the largest fund on Earth,'' the prince said. ''This will happen as soon as Aramco goes public.''

Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Plans for the Future

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 12:55

The man whose protest saw Donald Trump rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents has said the Republican nominee's supporters turned on him when he held up a sign reading: ''Republicans against Trump''.

The man, who identified himself as Austyn Crites from Reno, told the Guardian he was holding the sign at a rally when Trump supporters wrestled him to the ground.

The 33-year-old '' who says he has been a registered Republican for about six years '' said he was kicked, punched and choked, and feared for his life when the crowd turned on him at the gathering in Reno, Nevada.

Crites cited Trump's treatment of Mexicans, Muslims and women as the reason he decided to protest again Trump, who he described as ''a textbook version of a dictator and a fascist''.

There were panicked scenes at the Trump rally, apparently prompted by shouts from at least one person in the crowd that the protester had a gun.

Hundreds of people fled to the the back of the auditorium in panic as Trump was hurriedly rushed from the stage by his security detail.

Secret Service agents shield Donald Trump after incident at rally in NevadaMoments later, Trump reappeared on stage and said: ''Nobody said it was going to be easy but we will never be stopped. We will never be stopped.''

The US Secret Service later said in a statement that no weapon was found on the subject detained at the rally, who had been released.

The Guardian found a bruised and shocked-looking Crites outside the auditorium. He said he was shaken and had pain in the back, but was otherwise uninjured.

Crites, who said he was an inventor who works with high-altitude balloons, said the incident occurred after he walked toward the front of the stage to protest silently against Trump.

He confirmed witness descriptions of him moving through the crowd toward the front. However, he said he was not barging through but saying ''Can I please come through, can I please come through''.

When he was near the front of the crowd, he said he silently held aloft his sign.

I had a sign that said 'Republicans against Trump'. It is a sign that you can just print off online

Austyn Crites, protester''I had a sign that said 'Republicans against Trump'. It is a sign that you can just print off online.''

Initially, there was the expected reaction of people around him booing, he said. ''And then all of a sudden people next to me are starting to get violent; they're grabbing at my arm, trying to rip the sign out of my hand,'' he said.

He said he could not be sure but ''it looked like'' Trump was pointing at him, and may have been ''instigating something''. Either way, the crowd piled on him, he said, kicking, punching, holding him on the ground and grabbing his testicles.

He said he was a wrestler in his youth and used his training to turn his head to the side to maintain an airway open as he was being choked by one man who had him in a headlock. ''But there were people wrenching on my neck they could have strangled me to death,'' he added.

Crites said when he was on the ground he heard someone yell ''something about a gun'' and he kept telling those on top of him that he had merely been holding a sign.

He was unaware, until the Guardian told him, that Trump had been ushered from the stage amid the mayhem.

For his part, Crites said he felt relieved when police arrived and placed him in handcuffs, but said officers had to fend off Trump supporters who continued to attack him. ''As I was taken from the room, people are just looking at me like I'm a demon,'' he said.

He said he was taken to the back of the auditorium, searched, subjected to a background check and then swiftly released.

Several Trump supporters who witnessed the incident told the Guardian they saw a man wrestled to the ground and, after he was on the ground, heard shouts that he had a weapon, prompting panic.

One of those witnesses, a Trump supporter, said he had seen the protester holding a ''Republicans against Trump'' sign, and assumed it had been misidentified as a weapon.

Although he described himself as a Republican and fiscal conservative, Crites said he had canvassed ''for a few hours'' with the Clinton campaign in Nevada because he wanted to do all he could to prevent a Trump presidency

He said he was not fully supportive of Clinton but believed she was the only candidate who could stop Trump from reaching the White House.

Crites said he had not formal connection to the Clinton campaign and decided to attend the rally on his own volition.

''Evan [Evan] McMullin is someone I also support,'' he said of the independent conservative standing for president on many states, and added that he backed Trump's Republican opponents during the primaries. ''John Kasich, for example, was a great candidate.''

Crites said he felt Trump supporters were well-meaning but simply misguided by Trump's demagoguery. ''He's fascist, he's a dictator,'' he said of the Republican nominee, saying such leaders turn normal people ''into animals''.

While he was surprised at what occurred at the rally, Crites he said he did not blame the crowd for his treatment. ''I like these people,'' he said. ''These are my fellow Americans. I love these people. I understand that they came here because they're patriotic, they want to do good for their country.''

He added: ''The people who attacked me '' I'm not blaming them. I'm blaming Donald Trump's hate rhetoric.''

''My heart still aches for what this nation could potentially do by electing him,'' he added. ''That hurts me much more than any of this violence.''

''The fact that I got beat up today, that's just showing what he's doing to his crowds. But I just want people to understand I'm going to be OK, but now what's more important is if the country going to be OK? So do your part and vote.''

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 12:33

COLUMBUS(WCMH/AP) '-- The FBI says dozens of pimps, prostitutes and associates have been arrested under international efforts to combat underage human trafficking.

The FBI says 239 child-sex traffickers and their associates were arrested and 82 children were rescued from Oct. 13 to 16 as part of Operation Cross Country X.

This is a depressing day in law enforcement,'' said FBI Director Comey, ''because this is the world we live in and the work we have to do.'' But it is also a proud day for law enforcement, he added, ''because there are people who spend every day worrying about how to rescue these children. They are true heroes.''

Among the 82 juveniles recovered during the three day operation were two sisters in Milwaukee, ages 16 and 17, who told authorities that their mother was their pimp, the FBI said in a news release. The girls said their mother also rented out their brother's room to a registered sex offender.

Operation Cross Country is part of the FBI's Innocence Lost National Initiative. Since its creation in 2003, the program has resulted in the identification and recovery of more than 6,000 children from child sex trafficking.

''Operation Cross Country aims to shine a spotlight into the darkest corners of our society that seeks to prey on the most vulnerable of our population,'' said FBI Director Comey. ''We are not only looking to root out those who engage in the trafficking of minors, but through our Office for Victim Assistance, we offer a lifeline to minors to help them escape from a virtual prison no person ever deserves.''

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 12:15

Updated: Nov 3, 2016 - 11:01 AM

OLYMPIA, Wash. - An offender is a person who commits an illegal act.

But the Washington State Department of Corrections says the word ''offender'' has a negative connotation, affecting inmates, those on supervision and their families.

So, it's out.

The word offender replaced inmate in the 2000s, and now, according to a memo, the word offender is being replaced.

Reporter Maria Guerrero met one man on DOC supervision to get his take on the change.

Jeff Clark isn't offended if you call him an offender.

''(It) doesn't bother me one bit. I've been on paper since (I was) 17 years old,'' said Clark.

In a memo sent to the Washington State Department of Corrections staff and obtained by KIRO 7, Secretary Richard Morgan tells staff the DOC is phasing out the use of the word offender, telling them to "replace it with 'individuals' or other applicable terms such as 'student' or 'patient' where/when appropriate."

In the memo, Morgan, says, "This is an opportunity to help others define themselves not for their criminal behavior, but for their future role in their communities."

Business owner Gary Hunter has hired felons and agrees.

''If we think of ourselves as offenders, we may not continue on and look forward to think of ourselves as achievers,'' said Hunter.

Clark has been out of prison for a year and is on active DOC supervision.

Clark: "They can call us whatever they want. I don't care.''

Guerrero: ''that won't make you feel better?''

''It's not going to change anything. Only way to change is yourself is changing what you want to do.''

The DOC might refer to him as a "student" for education he received while in prison.

"I went and did a program, culinary program, graduated from it, got a freakin' line cook job, I've changed my whole ways,'' said Clark.

DOC staff was told Tuesday to start dropping the word in their everyday dealings.

We asked how much dropping the word will cost.

The department's spokesman said documents will be modified as they are scheduled to be reviewed, but no signs need changing.

(C) 2016 Cox Media Group.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 12:05

PBS: In their final Friday political analysis before the election, syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss Hillary Clinton's shrinking lead, the rough language that has pervaded the campaign, the outlook for the congressional power dynamic, a year of 'irresponsibility' in government and prospects for filling the Supreme Court vacancy.

RELATED: David Brooks: Globalism, Immigration And Feminism "Good For America" But Created "Angry" White Males

Brooks said the less educated and non-college educated whites are going to vote for Donald Trump no matter what. He added, "people are just going with their gene pool."

Brooks said demographics is the reason why Clinton is making a campaign stop in the state of Michigan, normally a Democratic stronghold, because "there are a lot of white people."

"Basically, less educated or high school-educated whites are going to Trump," Brooks told host Judy Woodruff. "It doesn't matter what the guy does. And college-educated going to Clinton."

"Sometimes, you get the sense that the campaign barely matters," a dejected Brooks said. "People are just going with their gene pool and whatever it is. And that is one of the more depressing aspects of this race for me."

Brooks said Trump is running a campaign of hate and reminisced about then-Senator Obama's campaign of hope. He said Trump has no choice but to end his campaign on a negative note, however said it would be a "very questionable" way for Clinton to end her campaign on.

"It's a campaign of hate," he said of Trump. "Obama is a campaign of at least hope. At least his first campaign was. This is just a campaign of hate. And, you know, people who don't like Trump really don't like Trump. And I guess I'm among them."

Brooks criticized Clinton for not properly campaigning; he said she should have pivoted and campaigned as the candidate for change.

"I do think she should have pivoted and say, I am change, I am change, because people do want some change. And to end on this negative note, I think especially for her -- he has no choice -- that's his whole repertoire," Brooks complained.

Brooks said globalization, the influx of immigrants and feminism "has been really good" for America. "We had a lot of good things over the years that were really good for America," he said. "I think globalization has been really good for America. I think the influx of immigrants has been really good for America. Feminism has been really good for America."

Brooks said he is not sharing who is voting for, leaving it up to the viewer to surmise who he'll pull the lever for. "I can't say who I'm going to vote for, but one person is clearly disqualified for that job," Brooks said at the end of the segment. "And I can't mention his name."

Transcript, via PBS:

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I think she's the favorite.

I have a sense that it would have happened anyway and that, at the end of the day, people were going to come home to who they were. And what's depressed me, frankly, most about this race is, we went into this country a divided nation, and now the chasms are just solidified, so divided along race, divided along gender, urban/rural, college-educated/non-college-educated. We can go down the list.

And, basically, less educated or high school-educated whites are going to Trump. It doesn't matter what the guy does. And college-educated going to Clinton. Everyone is dividing based on demographic categories.

And, sometimes, you get the sense that the campaign barely matters. People are just going with their gene pool and whatever it is. And that is one of the more depressing aspects of this race for me.

###

DAVID BROOKS: And, well, it's a campaign of hate. Obama is a campaign of at least hope. At least his first campaign was. This is just a campaign of hate. And, you know, people who don't like Trump really don't like Trump. And I guess I'm among them.

And we just saw in our report about the Trump voters in Pennsylvania. Did you see '-- when they were shouting on the road, did you see anything nice about Trump? No. Send Clinton to jail.

And so it's just '-- what was it? There was a Burt Lancaster movie where he had love and hate tattooed on his hands. And there's just a '-- we're in a psychosis of what they call negative polarization, where nobody likes their side, but they really hate the other side.

And it feels like it's just building and building. And so we have got this cycle. And I don't know if it pops on Election Day. I hope so. But the idea that Clinton is finishing this campaign bringing Miss America or the Miss Universe to the rallies just seems wrong to me.

I do think she should have pivoted and say, I am change, I am change, because people do want some change. And to end on this negative note, I think especially for her '-- he has no choice '-- that's his whole repertoire.

I think, for her, I think it's a very questionable way to end the campaign.

###

DAVID BROOKS: Yes.

That sort of goes back to my point about demographics. Why is she in Michigan? Because Michigan was '-- we all thought it would be Florida, South Carolina, Nevada, all the '-- New Hampshire, the states we have been talking about. But there are a lot of white people in Wisconsin and Michigan.

And so there's another route that he has in ways we didn't expect, because of the way the demographics are just driving this election much more than ideology was in years past.

###

DAVID BROOKS: So we had a lot of good things over the years that were really good for America. I think globalization has been really good for America. I think the influx of immigrants has been really good for America. Feminism has been really good for America.

But there are a lot of people who used to be up in society, because of those three good things, are now down, a lot of high school-educated white guys. And they have been displaced.

And shame on us for not paying attention to that and helping them out. And, therefore, as a result, what happened was, they were alienated, they got super cynical, because they really were being shafted. And so they react in an angry way.

Well, that's not a shock, given the last 30 or 50 years of American history. And so, for us going forward, it's to not reverse the dynamism of American society and the diversity. It's to pay attention to the people who are being ruined by it, and so this doesn't happen again.

###

DAVID BROOKS: I think it's in the Constitution. And we not only have rules in the Constitution the way it should work. The president should be able to nominate justices. But we have an etiquette around the Constitution.

And what's happened in America is, that etiquette has been acidified away. And I hate the nuclear option of going for 50 votes in the Senate. But if they behave this way, then I think the Democrats might be justified and go to the nuclear option, because we actually have to have a government. We have to have people confirmed and put into office.

And '-- but it's the degradation of the way our government is supposed to run.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 11:38

A Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement there was a commotion in the crowd and an "unidentified individual" shouted "gun," though no weapon was found after a "thorough search."

A man, who later identified himself to reporters as Austyn Crites, was then immediately detained and led out by a throng of police officers, Secret Service agents and SWAT officers armed with assault rifles to a side room.

A law enforcement official later told CNN no charges were filed against Crites.

After he was released from custody, Crites told reporters the incident started off when he raised a "Republicans Against Trump" sign.

Crites said he was then assaulted by a group of people around him before anyone shouted anything about a gun.

"All of a sudden, because they couldn't grab the sign, or whatever happened, bam, I get tackled by all these people who were just, like, kicking me and grabbing me in the crotch and just, just beating the crap out of me," Crites said, according to KTNV. "And somebody yells something about a gun, and so that's when things really got out of hand."

The alleged assault against Crites is just the latest such incident to occur at a Trump rally, where other protesters have previously been roughed up.

Trump was unharmed and returned to the stage minutes later to finish his speech.

"Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never be stopped. We will never be stopped. I want to thank the Secret Service. These guys are fantastic," Trump said, before returning to his stump speech.

Trump was in the middle of his stump speech when the commotion occurred. He was looking into the crowd, his hand over his eyes to block the glare from the stage lights, when Secret Service agents grabbed him and escorted him off the stage. Trump ducked his head as he left the stage.

The crowd surged backward, some supporters with frightened looks on their faces, as the Secret Service and police tactical units rushed in to detain a man.

Several attendees told CNN they initially heard a person yell there was someone with a gun.

"We were all very interested in what Mr. Trump had to say and a guy in a red shirt just rushed right next to me, screaming, 'There is a guy with a gun,'" Shimon Cohen told CNN.

But asked if he saw a gun, he said, "No, I did not."

A second person, Milton Zerman, said he "was watching Trump speak and I heard someone scream, 'This guy has a gun,' so I looked toward the guy he was talking about. It didn't look to me that he had a gun -- or at least I didn't see a gun -- but people were screaming that he did have a gun and immediately after that Trump was taken off stage.

"Everyone starts dispersing, I hear people saying, 'Let's get out of here, it's not going to be good,' but I just took that opportunity to get closer to the front because it seemed like the police officers had it under control."

Trump held a last rally Saturday night in Denver, where he did not address the incident.

Before his last rally, Trump issued a statement about the commotion in Reno.

"I would like to thank the United States Secret Service and the law enforcement resources in Reno and the state of Nevada for their fast and professional response," he said. "I also want to thank the many thousands of people present for their unwavering and unbelievable support. Nothing will stop us -- we will make America great again!"

Less than an hour after the incident -- and before it was clear what happened -- Trump's campaign sought to highlight the moment to suggest he was tougher than his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who had to cut short a Florida rally due to heavy rain.

Dan Scavino Jr., Trump's social media director, and Donald Trump Jr., the nominee's oldest son, retweeted Jack Posobiec, a supporter who wrote: "Hillary (Clinton) ran away from rain today. Trump is back on stage minutes after assassination attempt."

But the Secret Service statement made clear no weapon had been found. Neither has deleted the retweet.

Secret Service agents rushed to shield Trump onstage in March after a man tried to rush the stage during a rally in Dayton, Ohio, but the GOP nominee wasn't escorted off stage.

And a man was arrested at a rally in Las Vegas in June after he tried to grab a police officer's gun, which he said he planned to use to shoot Trump.CNN's Kevin Bohn, Ashley Killough and Noah Gray contributed to this report.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 05:24

[See NewsBusters for more.] Appearing on MSNBC, Friday, the liberal Ana Marie Cox sneered that the only reason the FBI has renewed its interest in Hillary Clinton is because the department is ''largely male and largely white.'' She also blasted Donald Trump as a "psychopathic bigot." Additionally, former Newsweek senior editor Howard Fineman dismissed James Comey's actions recently as at least partly to ''cover his rear politically.'' Cox, now the senior political correspondent for MTV News, slimed the FBI as full of bigots: ''One reason why the FBI might be so pro-Trump is that it looks like Trump. because its largely male and largely white.'' She hissed that ''those are the people that go for Trump in general.''

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 05:20

More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.

Appearing on Thursday's NBC Late Night With Seth Meyers, aired early Friday morning, ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos worried about Donald Trump making the liberal media an ''enemy'' in the presidential campaign, confessing that ''it's hard to walk down the street right now'' and warning that reporters need ''security.''

Host Seth Meyers observed: ''...tensions are very high in this election on both sides....is it safe to say that you receive criticisms from both sides in your day to day?'' Stephanopoulos complained: ''It's hard to walk down the street right now....I have this one woman in my neighborhood....Every time I walk down the street she keys in on me, walks right up to my face and whispers, 'Disgusting'....Then a few days later, does the same thing....walks right up into my face, 'Bastard.'''

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 04:16

All hell broke loose when a protestor interrupted President Barack Obama's speech Friday at a rally in support of Hillary Clinton in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

For a couple minutes, Obama attempted in vain to gain back control of the crowd as chants of "Hillary!" drowned out the protestor.

While the protester's identity and motives weren't clear, from Obama's remarks after he finally gained control of the crowd back, the protester appeared to be an older war veteran.

"This is what I mean about folks not being focused," Obama said. "Hold up. Hold up. First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech. Second of all, it looks like maybe he might have served in our military and we have to respect that. Third of all, he was elderly and we have had to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don't boo, vote!"

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 04:08

The moment lasts about 45 seconds.

But in it, so much of the cautious stagecraft that surrounds and inhibits Hillary Clinton appears to break away.

Mrs. Clinton, pelted by a driving rain and seemingly overcome by exhaustion, exhilaration and a swirling wind, lets loose with her hands and relinquishes her script.

The Run-UpThe podcast that makes sense of the most delirious stretch of the 2016 campaign.She skips past a critique of Donald J. Trump, flipping the page in her binder, and races to her closing lines.

''Here's what I want you to remember,'' she tells the crowd at a rally on Saturday in Pembroke Pines, Fla. ''I want to be the president for everybody: everybody who agrees with me, people who don't agree with me, people who will vote for me, people who don't vote for me.''

Her arms thrust skyward, one after the other, in what starts to feel like a dance.

There's an unfamiliar sense of abandon and joy.

The rain grows heavier. Her wet clothes turn a shade darker. She cracks a wide smile. She takes in the scene around her and laughs before she finishes her sentence.

She's drenched now, her voice hoarse. The storm is mussing her hair. It's time to leave the stage. But just before doing so, she turns and raises both arms, giving herself up to the storm and the moment '-- and the looming end of this adventure.

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Sun, 06 Nov 2016 03:06

Saudi Arabia raised $17.5 billion in the biggest ever bond sale from an emerging-market nation as it seeks to shore up finances battered by the slide in oil.

The government sold dollar-denominated bonds due in five years yielding 135 basis points more than similar-maturity U.S. Treasuries, 10-year notes at a spread of 165 basis points and 30-year securities at 210 basis points, according to person familiar with the matter who is not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. The kingdom raised $5.5 billion in each of the five- and 10-year bonds and $6.5 billion in 30-year debt. People with knowledge of the offering earlier said investors submitted $67 billion in bids.

The sale eclipsed Argentina's $16.5 billion offering in April as the largest from a developing nation, underlining the deepening strain on a nation that has eschewed international debt markets until now. The country registered a budget shortfall of $97 billion last year, equal to 15 percent of its gross domestic product, prompting the government this year to cut subsidies, wages and spending.

''Boom, they went full-scale,'' said Angelo Rossetto, a trader at GMSA Investments Ltd. in London who bid for the bonds. They ''probably want to take advantage of the window before elections and a possible rate increase. Print a lot now and then see what unfolds,'' he said.

RoadshowThe offering followed a week of presentations to prospective buyers, taking place in London, Los Angeles, Boston and New York, at which officials emphasized the kingdom's efforts to diversify the $650 billion economy away from oil. Attendees such as Gregory Saichin, the chief investment officer for emerging-market bonds at Allianz Global Investors in London, were concerned the Saudi delegation avoided discussing crude prices.

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih said many nations are willing to join OPEC in cutting production to secure a continued improvement in oil prices. So far, only Russia has said it's considering an output freeze or a reduction, while other non-OPEC producers that cooperated with past supply curbs, including Mexico and Norway, said they won't cut.

The bond pricing offered a premium to similar-maturity bonds from neighboring Qatar. The country's five-year bonds were trading at a spread of 98 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, 121 basis points on 10-year bonds and 164 basis points on 30-year securities as of 5:25 p.m. Wednesday in Dubai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Investment GradeSaudi Arabia is rated A1 at Moody's Investors Service, the fifth-highest investment grade and two steps below Qatar. Still, the premium wasn't high enough for some investors.

''I imagine they have enough sovereign wealth fund and cross-over investors sewn up to justify the expensive pricing,'' Edwin Gutierrez, the head of emerging-market sovereign debt at Aberdeen Asset Management in London, which oversees more than $400 billion, said before the final price guidance Wednesday. ''I can find cheaper bonds elsewhere.''

The sale marks the latest step in Saudi Arabia's efforts to open up its economy, largely driven by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Among proposals are an initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, the state-run oil giant, and further measures to make the $350 billion Tadawul Stock Exchange more accessible to foreign investors.

Sales Spree''The program which we have heard in the roadshow over the next five to 10 years is really quite dramatic,'' Richard Segal, a senior analyst at Manulife Asset Management in London, said Wednesday on Bloomberg television. ''They want to really transform the economy because they realize that given how young the population is, they would need to transform away from oil anyway. There's a lot to do and the question is how forcefully can they implement this program.''

Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were joint global coordinators for the deal. Bank of China Ltd., BNP Paribas SA, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and NCB Capital also helped manage the issue.

The sale was the latest in a series from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. Even before the Saudi offering, issuance this year rose to an unprecedented $48.3 billion. Qatar sold $9 billion in May, a Middle East record until the Saudi issue, the emirate of Abu Dhabi raised $5 billion in April, and Oman issued $4.5 billion.

Default RiskSaudi Arabia had $73 billion direct government debt as of the end of August, $63 billion of which was raised from monthly sales of local currency debt. The riyal offerings and a drop in deposits have tightened liquidity in Saudi banks, prompting lenders to raise interest rates they charge one another for loans.

The three-month Saudi Interbank Offered Rate has climbed for 15 straight months, more than trebling to 2.386 percent on Wednesday, the highest level in more than seven years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The cost to insure Saudi Arabian debt against default has fallen in October as a rebound in oil improved the country's revenue outlook. Five-year credit default swaps dropped 23 basis points to 144 basis points on Monday, the lowest level in a month, and were little changed Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 22:11

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 20:06

Donald Trump mocked Hillary Clinton on Saturday for appearing alongside Jay-Z on a Cleveland, Ohio concert stage after the music superstar dropped F-bombs and rapped with N-word after N-word.

'I actually like Jay-Z. But you know, the language last night! Ohhh! Ooooh!' Trump said in Tampa, Florida. 'Maybe I'll just try it. Should I use that language? Can you imagine if I said that?'

'So he used every word in the book,' the Republican presidential nominee fumed. 'I won't even use the initials, because I'd get in trouble. It'll get me in trouble. He used every word in the book last night.'

'I tell you what: I've never said what he said '' in my life!'

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Donald Trump has mocked Hillary Clinton for her campaign's decision to hold an event with Jay-Z and Beyonce on Friday night

Jay Z was one of the headline acts for the Democratic presidential candidate's big musical night in Ohio

Beyonce, Hillary and Jay Z stand on stage during a massive Clinton campaign rally in Cleveland on Friday night

The rapper's repertoire Friday night included his hit 'F**kWithMeYouKnowIGotIt.'

He also performed a song called 'Jigga My N***a,' including a line that declared: '[I'm] Jay-Z, motherf***er!'

As he took the stage, a PA announcer blared: 'You're tuned into the motherf**king greatest!'

One portion of his rap included the lyrics: 'If you feelin' like a pimp n***a, go and brush your shoulders off.'

'Ladies is pimps too, go and brush your shoulders off. N***a is crazy, baby, don't forget that boy told you. Get that dirt off your shoulders.'

After telling the audience that 'we're stronger together,' echoing Clinton's campaign slogan, he called her presidential bid 'historic '' this is a moment in time.

The Democratic candidate carried on her use of celebrity endorsements with just four days to go until the election

'We don't need Jay-Z to fill up arenas. We do it the old-fashioned way, folks,' Trump said to his supporters on Saturday morning

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in the Special Events Center on the Florida State Fairgrounds

Then minutes later he shifted gears and rapped, 'I don't f**k with you. You little stupid-a** b***h, I ain't f**kin' with you.'

Jay-Z said onstage after he was done performing: 'Ohio, we are on the doorstep of history. I am here tonight because respect matters. Respect matters to me.'

Trump also mocked Clinton on Saturday morning for drawing a smaller crowd than his own on Friday night, despite having both Jay-Z and his wife Beyonc(C) at her side.

The trio attracted 10,000 people '' many of whom filed out after the concert and before the Democratic nominee took the stage.

'We don't need Jay-Z to fill up arenas. We do it the old-fashioned way, folks,' Trump said. 'We fill it up because you love what we're saying and you want to make America great again.'

'Ohio we are on the doorstep of history,' said Jay Z after the show. 'I am here tonight because respect matters. Respect matters to me'

Beyonce sported an 'I'm With Her' t-shirt as the trio spoke back stage before the concert

They cracked a laugh at one of Clinton's jokes as they prepared to take the stage in the key battleground state of Ohio

As Clinton was trying to rally Ohioans with star power, Trump attracted a larger crowd on his own in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The local fire department estimated Trump's crowd at 11,500. Reports from outside describe an additional 3,000 people who arrived too late to get through Secret Service screening in time to hear the rally.

Trump, as he frequently does, inflated his crowd-count for dramatic effect.

In Hershey, Pennsylvania last night we had an arena. We had 27,000 people show up!' he said.

Whatever the real number was, Trump gloated that his audience was bigger that Clinton's

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds on Saturday

Donald Trump lifts up a baby as kisses it during a campaign stop in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday November 5

Hillary Clinton embraces Beyonce after the artist performed at a free concert in Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday night

Beyonce's backing dancers dressed up in Hillary's traditional pantsuits as she performed an array of her hits - and gave the former first lady a massive endorsement

'Jay-Z! They got free tickets '' free tickets! ... and Beyonc(C), and I like them both.'

But he had 'far more' people on his own, he said.

The Republican's Tampa stop was the first in a four-rally day that will cover four swing states and more than 4,400 miles of travel.

After southwestern Florida he goes to Wilmington, North Carolina, and then flies clear across the country for a rally in Reno, Nevada.

His plane then heads to Denver for a 9:30 p.m. rally. That's nearly midnight on the east coast.

Sunday will bring more fireworks with 11th-hour campaign events in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania '' and schedulers could still add an evening stop in Virginia.

Monday's schedule calls for Florida, North Carolina and New Hampshire before the campaign winds down and Trump wakes up to vote Tuesday morning in New York City.

Trump's warmup acts included comedian and former Saturday Night Live actor Joe Piscopo, and retired college football coach Lou Holtz. Both made surprise appearances.

'We're ready to send a message to politicians that we're ready to take our country back,' said Piscopo, 65.

Beyonce has made no support for the Democrats no secret, but she urged the crowd to get out and vote as they still have 'unfinished business'

'I am not drinking the Kool-Aid here ... It's the machine against the masses [and] the rigged against the respectful.'

Holtz said Florida's electoral votes will determine the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election.

'The future of this country rests with the people of this state,' he said.

'Donald Trump can change the direction of this country, and God knows we need it.'

Holtz, an ardent Roman Catholic who rose to fame coaching at the University of Notre Dame, blasted Clinton for her pro-abortion position, saving special scorn for her refusal to condemn late-term abortions.

'She's for late-term abortion '' the day before the baby's being born!' Holtz claimed.

'If I destroy an eagle egg, I can go to jail! Who's going to speak for an unborn child?'

In case the biggest stars in rap aren't enough to get her supporters' attention, Clinton will campaign with hoops star LeBron James in Cleveland on Sunday, her campaign announced.

'Stronger Together! We're stronger together,' Jay Z yelled into the mic during his set

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 17:48

As Saudi Arabia prepares to meet investors Wednesday with a view to selling its first international bonds, the country has disclosed little-known information about its economy. Here are four statistics that catch the eye.

1) Oil Income Plunged About 70% in 5 YearsSaudi Arabia relies on oil for three-quarters of its income. Crude revenue has slumped 68 percent since 2011 to 334 billion riyals ($89 billion) this year amid a supply glut.

The slide in prices accelerated after OPEC adopted a Saudi-led strategy in 2014 to allow members to pump as much as they wanted to protect the group's market share and drive higher-cost producers out of business. As oil swamped the market, prices fell to a 2003 low of about $28 a barrel in January.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed last month to cut output to support crude, which traded over $50 a barrel this month.

2) Spending CutsThe kingdom slashed capital expenditure by more than 70 percent this year to 75.8 billion riyals. Current spending, including salaries and government services, is forecast to decline 19 percent.

The cuts mean that investments in infrastructure projects will drop to less than a tenth of government spending, from about a third in 2011. The government has delayed payments to contractors and is weighing plans to cancel more than $20 billion of projects, people familiar with the matter said last month. It has also suspended bonuses and trimmed allowances for government employees.

3) Government Debt is Rising FastSaudi Arabia has been selling domestic bonds for over a year to fund the largest budget shortfall among the world's 20 biggest economies. Debt has ballooned more than six times since the end of 2014 to 273.8 billion riyals as of the end of August, according to the prospectus.

Most of the debt is domestic. In the first eight months of the year, the government raised 94 billion riyals from the sale of government bonds to local banks and institutions, and it raised 98 billion riyals last year, according to the prospectus. It has a $10 billion sovereign loan that was signed in May.

Public debt levels will increase to 30 percent of economic output by 2020 from 7.7 percent, according to targets set out in an economic transformation plan released in June.

4) PIF Will Cut Back on LendingSince it was created in 1971, the Public Investment Fund has focused on lending to development projects in the country. Outstanding loans by the PIF, as the fund is known, rose to 104 billion riyals at the end of 2015, from 57 billion riyals at the end of 2011, according to the prospectus. In the future, the PIF ''will not act as a source of lending to the same extent that it has historically,'' according to the document.

Transforming the PIF from a lender on domestic projects into the world's largest sovereign wealth fund is a key part of Saudi Arabia's plans to diversify the economy away from oil. The government is looking to sell less than 5 percent of national oil company Saudi Aramco in an initial public offering and transfer ownership of the rest of the company to the PIF. The shift will give PIF assets of more than $2 trillion and will technically make investments the main source of government revenue, not oil, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in March.

There is a long way to go. The fund had assets of 587 billion riyals as of June 30, and received more than 20 billion riyals in dividends, mostly from its holdings of Saudi Arabian equities, including Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and National Commercial Bank, according to the prospectus.

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Sat, 05 Nov 2016 15:25

Related CoverageSAN FRANCISCO (KRON) '-- Fake Donald Trump quarters have been spotted in several cities across the country.

What may appear to be a normal looking quarter, is in fact a fake. On the quarter you will see a side profile of Trump's head, on top you will see the slogan ''Take a Dump on Trump.''

Some of the locations where these coins have been sighted are New York City, Rhode Island, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Amarillo, Texas.

Several people have emailed KRON4 News and told us how they came across the coins.

Some of the coins have been spotted on the sidewalk, some have even been given to people as change when they were grocery shopping and one reported coming from a laundromat.

It is unclear who is responsible for making this coins, or how they are travelling.

Be sure to check the next time you are walking on a sidewalk, or given change from making a cash purchase.

If you happen to come across the Trump coins be sure to email us with your story and a photo.

(C) Copyright 2000 - 2016 Young Broadcasting of San Francisco, Inc. A Media General Company.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 21:40

"... a very loaded word ..."

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On Wednesday, Fox News anchor Bret Baier reported that, based upon his own walk through the maze of dueling viewpoints regarding the FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation, an indictment was ''likely.''

On Friday, he admitted that although the FBI is not done examining the Clinton Foundation, he had taken his information a massive step too far.

''That just wasn't inartful, it was a mistake, and for that I'm sorry. I should have said they will continue to build their case,'' Baier told host Jon Scott on Fox's Happening Now.

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'''Indictment' obviously is a very loaded word, Jon, especially in this atmosphere, and no one knows if there would or would not be an indictment no matter how strong investigators feel their evidence is,'' he said.

Baier, however, was adamant that he was solid in his report that the FBI is investigating the Clinton Foundation. He also noted that procedurally a prosecutor needs to take whatever the FBI amasses and go to a grand jury to seek an indictment.

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With Election Day only days away, the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton had attacked Baier's reporting. Other media sources, including NBC, ABC and CNN, also reported that Baier was wrong.

In discussing any FBI probe of the Clinton Foundation, NBC's Peter Williams, for example, said flatly, ''There really isn't one. '... Few want to call it an investigation.''

However, writing on Town Hall, Guy Benson said that Baier wasn't entirely wrong.

''A long-simmering grudge match within the halls of the FBI and the Justice Department is spilling into public view via a string of escalating leaks on both sides. Journalists are reporting what their well-connected sources tell them, which is why Williams and Baier can both be correct here,'' he wrote.

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He said Baier's ''phrasing'' about an indictment ''resulted in politically interested parties pretending that his entire scoop has been 'disproven.' It has not. A number of its central elements have either been left undisputed, or confirmed by rival news sources.''

Benson then tried to provide some perspective.

''Taking a step back, it appears as though the FBI's reopened email probe is turning up new and relevant evidence, that some form of FBI inquiry into the Clinton Foundation is open (to one extent or another), and that sharp disagreements exist within the federal law enforcement community about how all of this ought to be resolved,'' he wrote.

Republican nominee Donald Trump, unworried about the niceties of language, has been stating what he believes to be a fact.

'' '... the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's pay-for-play corruption during her tenure as secretary of state,'' Trump said at a Florida rally.

''In other words, the FBI is investigating how Hillary Clinton put the office of secretary of state up for sale in violation of federal law,'' he added.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 20:44

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 20:32

If Donald Trump should pull off a win on Nov. 8, President Obama will make good on his promise to provide a "peaceful transfer of power" and will personally escort him to the Capitol for his inauguration, a White House spokesman said Thursday.

"That will be some car ride," deputy press secretary Eric Schultz quickly added, noting that Obama is "diametrically opposed" to the views the Republican nominee espouses. "But that's in the best interests of our nation. And that's consistent with hundreds of years of tradition."

Schultz was responding to a reporter's question about Trump's refusal to say he would automatically accept the election's outcome, but would decide later and keep the nation in suspense until then.

He referred to Obama's remarks Tuesday when he chided Trump to "stop whining" about the possibility of a rigged election and focus on making his case to voters instead.

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The White House, Schultz said, is already in transition planning mode and has been so for months, and began the process after the nominating conventions. "Our approach has been evenhanded'... that work is gong to continue unabated," he said.

Schultz also dismissed comparisons from the Trump campaign and other Republicans of his refusal to accept the election outcome to Al Gore's contention of the Florida results in 2000.

In 2000, he said, there was an automatic recount triggered in the state of Florida based on the close margins of the result.

"After that was litigated, the vice president conceded the election gracefully and with dignity," he said. "And he did so because it was indeed in the best interest of the country. So I'm not sure this is Republicans' best argument."

Also from the Washington Examiner

Clinton campaign is optimistic because of early votes cast by Hispanics it considers low propensity voters.

'11/04/16 4:22 PM

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Some supporters said it didn't matter whether or not they were occasionally discouraged by Trump.

'11/04/16 12:51 PM

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 18:15

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:24

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Prince began by saying he had no problem believing reports that the FBI was highly confident multiple foreign agencies hacked Hillary Clinton's private email server.

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''I mean, it's not like the foreign intelligence agencies leave a thank-you note after they've hacked and stolen your data,'' Prince said to SiriusXM host Alex Marlow.

Prince claimed he had insider knowledge of the investigation that could help explain why FBI Director James Comey had to announce he was reopening the investigation into Clinton's email server last week.

''Because of Weinergate and the sexting scandal, the NYPD started investigating it. Through a subpoena, through a warrant, they searched his laptop, and sure enough, found those 650,000 emails. They found way more stuff than just more information pertaining to the inappropriate sexting the guy was doing,'' Prince claimed.

''They found State Department emails. They found a lot of other really damning criminal information, including money laundering, including the fact that Hillary went to this sex island with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Clinton went there more than 20 times. Hillary Clinton went there at least six times,'' he said.

''The amount of garbage that they found in these emails, of criminal activity by Hillary, by her immediate circle, and even by other Democratic members of Congress was so disgusting they gave it to the FBI, and they said, 'We're going to go public with this if you don't reopen the investigation and you don't do the right thing with timely indictments,''' Prince explained.

''I believe '' I know, and this is from a very well-placed source of mine at 1PP, One Police Plaza in New York '' the NYPD wanted to do a press conference announcing the warrants and the additional arrests they were making in this investigation, and they've gotten huge pushback, to the point of coercion, from the Justice Department, with the Justice Department threatening to charge someone that had been unrelated in the accidental heart attack death of Eric Garner almost two years ago. That's the level of pushback the Obama Justice Department is doing against actually seeking justice in the email and other related criminal matters,'' Prince said.

''There's five different parts of the FBI conducting investigations into these things, with constant downdrafts from the Obama Justice Department. So in the, I hope, unlikely and very unfortunate event that Hillary Clinton is elected president, we will have a constitutional crisis that we have not seen since, I believe, 1860,'' Prince declared.

Marlow asked Prince to clarify these revelations.

''NYPD was the first one to look at that laptop,'' Prince elaborated. ''Weiner and Huma Abedin, his wife '' the closest adviser of Hillary Clinton for 20 years '' have both flipped. They are cooperating with the government. They both have '' they see potential jail time of many years for their crimes, for Huma Abedin sending and receiving and even storing hundreds of thousands of messages from the State Department server and from Hillary Clinton's own homebrew server, which contained classified information. Weiner faces all kinds of exposure for the inappropriate sexting that was going on and for other information that they found.''

''So NYPD first gets that computer. They see how disgusting it is. They keep a copy of everything, and they pass a copy on to the FBI, which finally pushes the FBI off their chairs, making Comey reopen that investigation, which was indicated in the letter last week. The point being, NYPD has all the information, and they will pursue justice within their rights if the FBI doesn't,'' Prince contended.

''There is all kinds of criminal culpability through all the emails they've seen of that 650,000, including money laundering, underage sex, pay-for-play, and, of course, plenty of proof of inappropriate handling, sending/receiving of classified information, up to SAP level Special Access Programs,'' he stated.

''So the plot thickens. NYPD was pushing because, as an article quoted one of the chiefs '' that's the level just below commissioner '' he said as a parent, as a father with daughters, he could not let that level of evil continue,'' Prince said.

He noted that the FBI can investigate these matters, ''but they can't convene a grand jury. They can't file charges.''

''The prosecutors, the Justice Department has to do that,'' he explained. ''Now, as I understand it, Preet Bharara, the Manhattan prosecutor, has gotten ahold of some of this. From what I hear, he's a stand-up guy, and hopefully he does the right thing.''

Marlow agreed that Bharara's ''sterling reputation'' as a determined prosecutor was ''bad news for the Clintons.''

Prince agreed, but said, ''If people are willing to bend or break the law and don't really care about the Constitution or due process '' if you're willing to use Stalinist tactics against someone '' who knows what level of pressure'' could be brought to bear against even the most tenacious law enforcement officials?

''The point being, fortunately, it's not just the FBI; [there are] five different offices that are in the hunt for justice, but the NYPD has it as well,'' Prince said, citing the Wall Street Journalreporting that has ''exposed downdraft, back pressure from the Justice Department'' against both the FBI and NYPD, in an effort to ''keep the sunlight and the disinfecting effects of the truth and transparency from shining on this great evil that has gone on, and is slowly being exposed.''

''The Justice Department is trying to run out the clock, to elect Hillary Clinton, to prevent any real justice from being done,'' he warned.

As for the mayor of New York City, Prince said he has heard that ''de Blasio wants to stay away from this.''

''The evidence is so bad, the email content is so bad, that I think even he wants to stay away from it, which is really telling,'' he said.

Prince reported that the other legislators involved in the case ''have not been named yet,'' and urged the NYPD to hold a press conference and name them.

''I wish they'd do it today,'' he said. ''These are the unusual sliding-door moments of history, that people can stand up and be counted, and make a real difference, and to save a Republic, save a Constitution that we actually need and love, that our forefathers fought and died for. For any cop that is aware of this level of wrongdoing, and they have veterans in their family, or deceased veterans in their family, they owe it to them to stand up, to stand and be countedtoday,and shine the light of truth on this great evil.''

''From what I understand, up to the commissioner or at least the chief level in NYPD, they wanted to have a press conference, and DOJ, Washington people, political appointees have been exerting all kinds of undue pressure on them to back down,'' he added.

Marlow suggested that some of those involved in keeping the details quiet might want to avoid accusations of politicizing the case and seeking to influence the presidential election.

''Sure, that's it. That's the argument for it,'' Prince agreed. ''But the fact is, you know that if the Left had emails pointing to Donald Trump visiting, multiple times, an island with underage sex slaves basically, emails, you know they'd be talking about it. They'd be shouting it from the rooftops.''

''This kind of evil, this kind of true dirt on Hillary Clinton '' look, you don't have to make any judgments. Just release the emails,'' he urged. ''Just dump them. Let them out there. Let people see the light of truth.''

Prince dismissed the claims of people like Clinton campaign CEO John Podesta and DNC chair Donna Brazile that some of the damaging emails already released by WikiLeaks were fabricated, noting that ''forensic analysis done shows that, indeed, they are not fabricated; they are really legitimate.''

''This is stuff coming right off a hard drive that was owned by Weiner and his wife Huma Abedin, Hillary's closest adviser for the last 20 years,'' he said of the new bombshells. ''This is not from some hacker or anybody else. This is a laptop seized from a warrant in a criminal investigation.''

Prince confirmed that based on his information, Abedin is most likely looking at jail time, unless she cuts a deal with prosecutors.

''There's a minimum of obstruction of justice and all kinds of unlawful handling of classified information,'' he said. ''Because remember, this laptop was in the possession of Weiner, who did not have a security clearance. And many, many of those emails were from her Yahoo account, which had State Department emails forwarded to them, so she could easier print these messages, scan them, and send them on to Hillary. That's the carelessness that Hillary and her staff had for the classified information that the intelligence community risks life and limb to collect in challenged, opposed areas around the world.''

''That's not who you want in the White House,'' Prince declared.

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Listen to the full audio of the Erik Prince interview above.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:05

See more in the cross-post on the NewsBusters blog.

On Friday morning, the rush to gang up on Fox News and Special Report host Bret Baier over his FBI story was full speed ahead with CNN repeatedly harping on Baier's ''completely false'' bombshell being ''a prime example of the echo chamber at work'' spreading ''lies'' to hurt Hillary Clinton.

Morning CNN Newsroom host Carol Costello spent the first of two segments knocking Baier in reference to North Carolina GOP official Brad Woodhouse's Thursday appearance on MSNBC that alluded to the bombshell FBI report about the Clinton Foundation while Woodhouse predicted that Clinton could one day end up in handcuffs.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 15:35

Team CrowderFriday November 4 2016

Oh Amy Schumer. Just when I was feeling overwhelmed from the tsunami of Hillary scandals, along floats Amy. Little floaties on her ''cute'' chubby arms and all. Methinks they're speckled with penises. I'm not even going to pretend this new Episode of Amy Says Stupid Things doesn't tickle me hot pink. Because it does. I have a real love of Amy and all her preachy, unfunny ways (see Uh Oh! Bud Light Pulls Amy Schumer, Seth Rogen Ad Campaign After Sales Drop and CANNIBALISM: Leftists Turn on Darling Amy Schumer for 'Racist' Parody Video!).

What's Amykins up to now? Hillary Clinton Surrogate. Now she's internet shaming you for not voting'...

Get it? Schumer doesn't care ''who'' you vote for. But if you don't vote, you'll have your personal records exposed because Amy and her supporters are jerks like that. I mean, they're jerks who don't pay much attention in the first place. So, expecting them to show initiative to look up your personal information is a stretch. A stretch rather like calling Amy ''funny.'' Or what her pants experience daily.

Make sure you don't vote for Trump, though. Vote for Hillary! Because she's way better than the orange guy. You know, because of lying about her emails. Or like, totally having her illegal server hacked by maybe five foreign entities. No, that's not a sexual innuendo about Weiner. Don't forget, Hillary also made millions of dollars through her Clinton Foundation. Oh sure, she's being investigated by the FBI for the illegality of the Foundation, but you must vote for her! Because VAGINA. Plus Trump's a meanie!

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 15:27

Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is a trooper if nothing else, and she proved it this week by appearing on ABC's ''The View.''

Right out of the gate, co-host Whoopi Goldberg began mocking the GOP nominee for claiming the media and polls are rigged as the ladies talked opened with a discussion about Trump's surge over the past few days.

Whoopi displayed her hatred of Trump when Conway made reference to the next time he might appear on ''The View.''

''I don't care if he ever comes back on this show myself,'' a hooded Whoopi spewed. ''I've been very clear about that.''

But the real badgering was left to co-host ''Joy-less'' Behar, who called Conway ''delusional'' for refusing to believe the worst about the candidate she works for.

''Your guy, Donald Trump, he's very cavalier about using nuclear weapons,'' she said. ''Aren't you petrified? You have four children. That scares me more than any other stupid thing he has said.''

Conway did her best to humor Behar, who continued to attack Trump over what she characterized as his ''reckless'' rhetoric.

When Conway made it clear Trump never said he would use nuclear weapons, the far-left ''comedienne'' turned on her guest.

''I like you, but I think, right here, you're being delusional,'' she told Conway.

Conway's full appearance can be seen in the two videos below:

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Tom TillisonTom is a grassroots activist who distinguished himself as one of the top conservative bloggers in Florida before joining BizPac Review.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 15:03

Update 6:15pm ET:The press conference has been called off because the alleged rape victim has received threats and is afraid to show her face.

A woman who has sued Donald Trump for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 13 years old was due to speak publicly today, according to her lawyer Lisa Bloom. But Bloom canceled the press conference a few minutes after it was scheduled to begin.

Bloom, who is the daughter of prominent civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents some of the women accusing Trump of sexual misconduct, announced that ''Jane Doe'' would hold a press conference at 3PM Pacific time (6pm ET) in Los Angeles.

''More than four months ago a woman using the pseudonym 'Jane Doe' sued Donald Trump for a series of sexual assaults that she alleges occurred at parties in New York in 1994. Jane Doe was just thirteen years old at the time,'' Bloom wrote on her website. ''Jane Doe will break her silence today.''

Bloom noted that she had written a piece for the Huffington Post about the case in June of this year, but that the ''mainstream media has failed to cover the story.''

The media have, in fact, covered the story: The Guardian uncovered that lawsuits against Trump were being coordinated by a former TV producer who has been linked to other disputed claims involving celebrities; Jezebel reported that information about the alleged rape was being shopped around outlets in a somewhat shady way, and made the case that Jane Doe was the same person as Katie Johnson, who in April filed a lawsuit in California which was dismissed.

''Jane Doe's'' Wednesday appearance would have been her first time to speak about the case in public.

A federal judge in New York, has, however set a court date for Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire and convicted sex offender in whose home Trump is alleged to have raped the 13-year-old.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 14:59

Last Updated Nov 4, 2016 7:43 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- CBS News has learned about a potential terror threat for the day before the election.

Sources told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that U.S. intelligence has alerted joint terrorism task forces that al Qaeda could be planning attacks in three states for Monday.

It is believed New York, Texas and Virginia are all possible targets, though no specific locations are mentioned.

U.S. authorities are taking the threat seriously, though the sources stress the intelligence is still being assessed and its credibility hasn't been confirmed. Counterterrorism officials were alerted to the threat out of abundance of caution.

A senior FBI official told CBS News, ''The counterterrorism and homeland security communities remain vigilant and well-postured to defend against attacks here in the United States. The FBI, working with our federal, state and local counterparts, shares and assesses intelligence on a daily basis and will continue to work closely with law enforcement and intelligence community partners to identify and disrupt any potential threat to public safety.''

Intelligence about potential threats always increases during holiday seasons and when big events are approaching.

As Election Day nears, federal law enforcement is planning for several worst-case scenarios.

Earlier this week, an alert warned local police of ''polling places'' being seen as ''attractive targets'' for ''lone wolf''-type attacks by individuals motivated by violent extremist ideologies, sovereign citizen or other extremist activity.

(C) 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 14:23

Media captionBrexit challenger Gina Miller: "This result is about all our futures"Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU, the High Court has ruled.

This means the government cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - beginning formal exit negotiations with the EU - on its own.

Theresa May says the referendum - and existing ministerial powers - mean MPs do not need to vote, but campaigners called this unconstitutional.

The government is appealing, with a further hearing expected next month.

The prime minister's spokeswoman said she would be calling President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker to say she intended to stick to her March 2017 deadline for triggering Article 50.

Amid suggestions that she might try to call an early general election, she added that Mrs May believed "there shouldn't be an election until 2020 and that remains her view".

A statement is to be made to MPs on Monday but the government says it has no intention of letting the judgement "derail Article 50 or the timetable we have set out".

Brexit Secretary David Davis said he presumed the court ruling meant an act of Parliament would be required to trigger Article 50 - so would be subject to approval by both MPs and peers.

But the government was going to contest that view in an appeal, and said the referendum was held only following "a six-to-one vote in the Commons to give the decision to the British people".

"The people are the ones Parliament represents - 17.4m of them, the biggest mandate in history, voted for us to leave the European Union. We are going to deliver on that mandate in the best way possible for the British national interest," he told the BBC.

Media captionDavid Davis: The British people are sovereignLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn urged the government "to bring its negotiating terms to Parliament without delay", adding that "there must be transparency and accountability to Parliament on the terms of Brexit".

But UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he feared a "betrayal" of the 51.9% of voters who backed leaving the EU in June's referendum and voiced concern at the prospect of a "half Brexit".

BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said the court ruling could mean potentially "months and months" of parliamentary hurdles but said a majority of MPs would be likely to vote for Article 50 - despite having backed the Remain campaign - as Brexit had been supported in the referendum.

Analysis - BBC political correspondent Eleanor Garnier

It is one of the most important constitutional court cases in generations. And the result creates a nightmare scenario for the government.

Theresa May had said she wanted to start Brexit talks before the end of March next year but this ruling has thrown the prime minister's timetable up in the air.

Campaigners who brought the case insist it was about "process not politics", but behind the doors of No 10 there will now be serious head-scratching about what the government's next steps should be.

This decision has huge implications, not just on the timing of Brexit but on the terms of Brexit. That's because it's given the initiative to those on the Remain side in the House of Commons who, it's now likely, will argue Article 50 can only be triggered when Parliament is ready and that could mean when they're happy with the terms of any future deal.

Of course, it will be immensely difficult to satisfy and get agreement from all those MPs who voted to remain. Could an early general election be on the cards after all?

Investment manager Gina Miller, who brought the case, said outside the High Court that the government should make the "wise decision of not appealing".

She said: "The result today is about all of us. It's not about me or my team. It's about our United Kingdom and all our futures."

Government lawyers had argued that prerogative powers were a legitimate way to give effect "to the will of the people".

But the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, declared: "The government does not have power under the Crown's prerogative to give notice pursuant to Article 50 for the UK to withdraw from the European Union."

The three judges looking at the case found there was no constitutional convention of the royal prerogative - powers used by ministers - being used in legislation relating to the EU.

They added that triggering Article 50 would fundamentally change UK people's rights - and that the government cannot change or do away with rights under UK law unless Parliament gives it authority to do so.

Calling the case "a pure question of law", Lord Thomas said: "The court is not concerned with and does not express any view about the merits of leaving the European Union: that is a political issue."

Media captionNigel Farage says he is worried Brexit will be watered down after the High Court rulingFormer attorney general Dominic Grieve told the BBC he believed there was time for the government to get legislation through Parliament before the end of March, should they lose the appeal.

He added: "It will certainly allow the opportunity to debate the issues surrounding Brexit but it is worth bearing in mind that it's a bit difficult to fetter the government as to what it should do after Article 50 is triggered because actually, what the government can deliver ... is entirely dependent on the negotiating position of the 27 other member states... So you can't really order the government to stay in the single market because that may not be something that the government can deliver."

Reacting to the ruling, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons the government was "disappointed" but remained "determined to respect the result of the referendum".

It is a fundamental principle of the UK constitution that Kings' or Queens' powers cannot be used by the government via the Royal Prerogative to change or do away with rights under British law unless Parliament gives it authority to do so. The court looked at examples ranging from the 1600s to the 1970s Laker Airways legal battleParliament had a vote on the UK joining the European Union back in the 1970s, so there is no convention of the Royal Prerogative being used in legislation relating to the European UnionAllowing MPs a vote on the final Brexit deal at the end of the negotiations would not amount to parliamentary approval because once Article 50 is triggered there is no way that the UK will not leave the EU, and in doing so existing laws will be changedDavid Davis points out that MPs voted by six to one for the referendum to be held, but the judgement says that the referendum bill, and background briefings, made clear that the referendum was advisory rather than mandatory. So even though MPs voted for the referendum, the way it was worded did not hand over the authority to trigger Article 50, in its viewBut UKIP's Mr Farage said: "We are heading for a half Brexit."

He added: "I worry that a betrayal may be near at hand... I now fear that every attempt will be made to block or delay the triggering of Article 50. If this is so, they have no idea of the level of public anger they will provoke."

Labour leader Mr Corbyn said: "This ruling underlines the need for the government to bring its negotiating terms to Parliament without delay. Labour respects the decision of the British people to leave the European Union. But there must be transparency and accountability to Parliament on the terms of Brexit."

But Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "Ultimately, the British people voted for a departure but not for a destination, which is why what really matters is allowing them to vote again on the final deal, giving them the chance to say no to an irresponsible hard Brexit that risks our economy and our jobs."

Addressing suggestions that Mrs May could call a general election before 2020 - when the next election is scheduled to take place under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act - Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "If you're asking me do I think today's judgement makes a general election more likely than it was yesterday, I think the answer to that is probably yes."

The UK voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union in a referendum on 23 June.

The EU's other 27 member states have said negotiations about the terms of the UK's exit - due to last two years - cannot begin until Article 50 has been invoked.

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 14:07

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 04:43

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 04:01

An elementary school in New York has canceled its mock presidential election after teachers and staff raised concerns about kids repeating "negative rhetoric about minorities," according to the school's principal.

"Teachers have said they've heard some kids in the cafeteria chanting 'Trump! Trump! Trump!' or saying they don't want Muslims here," said Glen Rogers, principal of Jericho Elementary School in Centereach, New York.

"I mean, kids often repeat what they hear on the TV or the news, but it doesn't mean it's OK," Rogers told ABC News today. "We have a diverse community here. We want all our students to feel valued."

To prevent minority students "from feeling uncomfortable," Glen said he and the school's teachers decided to change the mock vote for president to a vote for students' favorite school lunch.

PHOTO:Jericho Elementary School in Centereach, New York, is replacing its mock presidential election with a vote for favorite school lunch after discussions between the students about the presidential candidates became too negative and divisive."We still thought it was important to do something with voting and showing democracy in action," Rogers said. "We still want them to get excited about Election Day."

The principal added that the presidential election was "still an important topic" but that it would be "better explored in the classroom, where teachers can lead and guide discussions, rather than in the cafeteria among students."

He continued, "One thing we're really trying to teach the students is the differences between opinions and facts. It's important for our students to be able to express their opinions, but it's also important for them to be informed about it and not just repeating what they happen to hear."

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:16

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Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:16

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Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:26

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Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:23