This news outlet gave up on the GOP years ago. The so-called party of less government and more individual/ economic freedom has made it abundantly clear to us through the actions of leaders at the local, state and federal level that it stands for more government and less freedom.

Even U.S. president Donald Trump whose 2016 bid we endorsed as a rebuke of the Republican establishment has become a backer of obscenely big government.

While there are obviously exceptions to the rule and nuances to the theory, the simplistic version of our evolved political calculus as we head into 2020 goes something like this: Republicans have become Democrats, and Democrats have become socialists.

And Trump? Fiscally speaking, he has sadly become a Republican one of the many GOP politicians whose fiscal profligacy caused us to abandon party in the first place.

Depressing? Indeed

For those of us who believe in freedom and free markets (and there are more of us than you might think), there is absolutely nowhere for us to turn in todays electoral environment. At a time when our leaders in Washington, D.C. desperately need to be coming together in the name of common sense solutions there is no common sense to be found. Instead, we are subjected to a dumbed-down, hyper-partisan charade in which nothing is accomplished but the escalation of divisiveness and the further erosion of whatever is left of the truth.

And that was before the latest impeachment drama

Typically, this news outlet tends to focus its ire on Republicans who pretend to be what they are not (i.e. swamp drainers, budget balancers, middle class tax cutters, Obamacare repealers, etc.). We assail the GOP thusly because we believe Democrats while clearly dishonest in their tactics (and hypocritical in the underlying justifications for their increasingly left-leaning policy positions) are at least honest about what it is they are trying to accomplish in seeking control of government.

From time-to-time, though, it is important for us to take a break from bashing the hypocritical fiscal liberalism of the GOP and focus on just how far Democrats have strayed from the stated ideals of their party particularly the equality, opportunity and justice they claim to support.

Last week marked the 56th anniversary of the assassination of U.S president John F. Kennedy a.k.a. the day the deep state cemented its grip on this nation by savagely murdering its own leader in broad daylight on the streets of Dallas, Texas. This is not a conspiracy theory post, though. We are not trying to shoot down black helicopters, identify secret assassins or track the trajectories of magic bullets.

That is not the focus of todays lesson

(Click to view)

(Via: Library of Congress)

For decades, Kennedy has been the gold standard for aspiring Democratic politicians (and for a few aspiring Republican politicians, too). But while one or two Democratic presidents in the intervening years have managed to capture some of Kennedys eloquence and charisma they have charted courses for America that have veered it further and further away from the common sense fiscal markers Kennedy laid down during his brief time in the White House.

And the current 2020 Democratic field? It seeks to take these failed approaches and triple down on them creating a party Kennedy would find unrecognizable.

This news outlet has covered Kennedys fiscal conservatism in the past, noting how he aggressively championed tax relief forallincome earners. Kennedys tax cuts enacted after his death were effective, too, creating 13 million new jobs and achieving economic growth of 48 percent over eight years, according to economist Brian Domitrovic.

They were also rooted in sound economic theory

The most direct and significant kind of federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demandto cut the fetters which hold back private spending, Kennedy said in a December 1962 speech to the Economic Club of New York. The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system; and this administration pledged itself last summer to an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes to be enacted and become effective in 1963.

In fact, in the same speech Kennedy expressly rebuked the notion that government growth was the key to expanding prosperity.

To increase demand and lift the economy, the federal governments most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities for private expenditures, he said.

In another speech to the U.S. Congress eleven months before he died, Kennedy explicitly referred to the punitively high tax rates subsidizing unruly government growth as an unrealistically heavy drag on private purchasing power, initiative, and incentive.

In other words, not only did Kennedy successfully advance pro-growth economic policies, but he advanced them for the right reasons intuitively understanding the underlying economic forces and how government could act in such a way as to either spark or snuff out the flame of American industry and ingenuity.

Needless to say, such awareness is totally lost on todays Democratic party which seems hellbent on destroying the forces that create prosperity and opportunity.

But even that is not the focus of todays lesson

(Click to view)

(Via: Library of Congress)

On the day he was killed, Kennedy was traveling to the Dallas Trade Mart to deliver the first of two big speeches scheduled for that afternoon and evening. The first speech is well-known made famous by its hauntingly undelivered closing line about Americas place in the world and the moral authority underpinning it.

We in this country, in this generation, are by destiny rather than choice the watchmen on the walls of world freedom, Kennedy was to have told his audience, according to his prepared remarks. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, good will toward men. That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'

Does the Lord still keep our city?

Hell, are Democrats even allowed to invoke his name?

Again, such talk is anathema to the party of Kennedy and the party of Trump.

In his other undelivered speech on that fateful fall day, Kennedy was scheduled to address the Texas Democratic State Committee a partisan audience if ever there one was. Though less celebrated than his undelivered Trade Mart remarks, that speech was to have closed with some language that we believe Americans of all political persuasions desperately need to hear right now.

From Kennedys prepared remarks

For this country is moving and it must not stop. It cannot stop. For this is a time for courage and a time for challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a party is not to our party alone, but to the Nation, and, indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of political power but the preservation of peace and freedom.

So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nations future is at stake. Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.

Once again can you imagine a Democratic (or for that matter a Republican) leader saying anything resembling something like that in todays political climate?

Especially in remarks made before a partisan audience?

Of course not

People in politics simply do not think that way today.

(Click to view)

(Via: Library of Congress)

Parties now exist exclusively for the preservation of political power, which is why we have two ideologically bankrupt factions screaming at each other over manufactured arguments taking place at the margins (and at the expense) of the real debate which is not happening and never will happen so long as there is no one in our nations capital arguing on behalf of the best interests of its increasingly divided people.

There is no representation, only exploitation of resources and allegiances.

All while our divided citizenry becomes increasingly conditioned toward contempt of those with different beliefs.

Washington, D.C. has devolved into nothing but partisan grappling over control of the spigot a one-way ratchet which spews out ever-larger gobs of red ink as our nation plunges deeper in debt, dysfunction and decay. Indeed, if control of that spigot is the only objective of (which it is) then it doesnt matter which party is in control. Because neither party will ever use its power in pursuit of Kennedys ideals instead its leaders will seek only the continued accumulation of more power for all the wrong reasons.

Our nation has fulfilled the prophecy of absolute power corrupting absolutely, all while embarking upon an unsustainable and seemingly irreversible trajectory based upon repeatedly rebuked and definitively debunked ideologies and economic theories.

How do we reverse this trajectory?

It may not be possible but a good start might be to remember the words of leaders of both parties who offered another approach, a nonpartisan, forward-thinking, authentically inclusive and genuinely altruistic approach rooted in common sense and moored to an unassailable, unchanging morality.

Kennedy offered just such an approach even if Democratic partisans (and their rivals) have become blind as to its benefits.

Got something youd like to say in response to one of our stories? Please feel free to submit your own letter to the editor (or guest column) via-email HERE. Got a tip for us? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE. Want to support what were doing? SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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Democrats Must Heed The Wisdom Of JFK - FITSNews

Mountain View Nov 26, 2019 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Pure Storage Inc earnings conference call or presentation Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 10:00:00pm GMT

* Charles H. Giancarlo

Pure Storage, Inc. - Chairman & CEO

* David M. Hatfield

Pure Storage, Inc. - Vice Chair & President Emeritus

Pure Storage, Inc. - VP of Strategy

Pure Storage, Inc. - Head of IR

Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst

* Alvin J. Park

Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD

William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division - Partner & Co-Group Head of Technology, Media and Communications

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Pure Storage Third Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Head of Investor Relations, Matt Danziger. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Matthew Daniel Danziger, Pure Storage, Inc. - Head of IR [2]

Thank you, and good afternoon. Welcome to the Pure Storage Third Quarter Fiscal 2020 Earnings Conference Call.

Joining me today are our CEO, Charlie Giancarlo; our COO, Paul Mountford; our Vice Chair, David Hatfield; and our VP of Strategy, Matt Kixmoeller.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during this call, management will make forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These include statements regarding competitive, industry and technology trends; our strategy, positioning and opportunity; our current and future products; business and operations, including our operating model; growth prospects; and revenue and margin guidance for future periods.

Any forward-looking statements that we make are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Our actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. A discussion of various risks and uncertainties relating to our business is contained in our filings with the SEC, and we refer you to these public filings.

During this call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures in talking about the company's performance. And reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are provided in our earnings press release and slides. This call is being broadcast live on the Pure Storage Investor Relations website and is being recorded for playback purposes. An archive of the webcast will be available on the IR website for at least 45 days and is the property of Pure Storage.

With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Charlie Giancarlo.

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Charles H. Giancarlo, Pure Storage, Inc. - Chairman & CEO [3]

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Thank you, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's earnings call. I will begin by sharing our high-level results and highlights from the quarter, Hat will provide a go-to-market update and I will close with our guidance for the remainder of FY '20.

Revenue for Q3 was $428 million, up 15% year-over-year, significantly faster than our major competitors and the market as a whole. Continued pricing declines, which were higher than we expected, accounted for the gap to our revenue expectations at the beginning of the quarter, although we are also seeing signs of a more challenging global business environment, as commented on by other large infrastructure suppliers.

Despite these in-quarter headwinds, Pure achieved all-time high gross margins this quarter of 71.7%, well above our guided range of 66% to 69%. Operating margin for the quarter was 6.8%, at the high end of our guided range. These results speak to the resiliency of our model in the current environment.

Turning to executive leadership. We recently announced important changes to our leadership team at Pure. After almost 7 years, David Hatfield is starting a new chapter at Pure, transitioning to Vice Chair and serving as a strategic adviser to Pure reporting to me. Hat is moving into a role where he can leverage his passion, focusing on delivering Pure's value and vision to new customers and partners globally.

I'm very excited that Paul Mountford has joined Pure as Chief Operating Officer on November 4. Paul was most recently CEO at Riverbed technology and earlier held the role of Chief Sales Officer. His deep knowledge and experience makes him the right person to drive Pure's next stage of growth and extend our market leadership. Paul assumes responsibility for all go-to-market activities, including sales; channels; alliances; and marketing; as well as customer experience, including support and professional services.

Third, we announced today that Kevan Krysler will be joining Pure as our new CFO in early December. Most recently, Kevin was Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at VMware. He will bring a wealth of experience, both in finance and in building scale, and has highly relevant industry experience. Prior to VMware, Kevin was a partner with KPMG, where he served both multinational and emerging software and technology companies. He will participate in our next earnings call.

These changes and additions to our team will set us up for an incredibly successful second decade.

Turning to highlights from the quarter. We hosted our largest-ever Accelerate user conference in Austin this past quarter. We introduced almost a dozen new products and services, which were all immediately available. We also shared our vision, which will power the next decade of Pure's innovation and growth. We call this vision the Modern Data Experience. In Pure's first decade, we redefined what a modern data storage array looked like, fundamentally resetting the bar for the competitive landscape.

Despite these advances, data storage still remains the least cloud-like layer of technology in the data center. Delivering data storage in an enterprise is still an extraordinarily manual process, with storage arrays highly customized and dedicated to particular workloads. It is data that powers digital transformation, but data storage remains one of its biggest obstacles because of the limitations of today's 30-year-old storage architecture. Pure is transforming storage to a modern, more cloud-like model, helping our customers to run their operations as a true automated storage-as-a-service cloud, delivering consistent data services seamlessly across on-prem and public cloud infrastructure.

Pure delivers this modern data experience through our products, solutions and services built around 4 key tenets. First, we believe fast matters. Whether we're helping customers launch rockets, detect real-time threats or compile code and push releases, fast matters. When looking to deliver data for high-performance applications or enabling multiple applications to access data on one consistent platform, fast matters. We deliver solutions that push the boundaries on low latency with our new FlashArray with DirectMemory, high bandwidth for big data with our new twice-as-large FlashBlade and greater efficiency with our end-to-end QLC-optimized FlashArray//C.

Second, we believe in cloud everywhere. Organizations want to both transform their on-prem operations to the cloud model and seamlessly link to the public cloud for IT agility. Customers also want a single, consistent data storage architecture for all clouds, public and private. Cloud Block Store provides multi-cloud consistent operations, including migration, test/dev, disaster recovery and protection for all applications. Our offering on AWS was made generally available this past quarter, and we recently previewed Pure Cloud Block Store on Microsoft Azure at the Microsoft Ignite Conference.

Third is a core belief that simple is smart. As we all know, making things ridiculously complex is standard practice in IT. Making things simple is hard work. Pure has built a reputation for delivering products that manage themselves. And for those elements that don't, we leverage increasing intelligence from our Pure1 Meta AI Engine to deliver a self-driving, self-managing storage experience, preventing problems and enabling as-a-service automation. We are leveraging these capabilities to simplify the entire enterprise storage experience.

And finally, a subscription to innovation. Unlike other products on the market, Pure products look and act like a SaaS service in terms of continual upgrades and new functionality. With Pure's Evergreen Storage, every product a customer has bought in the past and every product they buy today will always be new and will constantly evolve towards an ever more Modern Data Experience, all without service downtime or paying for the same storage twice.

Pure is leading the industry in both delivering the Modern Data Experience, as well as allowing customers to consume as a true 100% OpEx service. We have seen strong traction and adoption for Pure as-a-Service, formerly ES2, signaling a trend from customers for this type of consumption model.

Unlike other offerings in the market, Pure makes its entire portfolio available as-a-Service.

We have reimagined the box-based enterprise storage environment as an integrated enterprise-wide storage experience. We're delivering storage-as-a-service to fuel our customers' digital transformation. Pure's Modern Data Experience sets us up well to continue to grow our share of the large data storage market.

With that, I'll turn it over to Hat.

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David M. Hatfield, Pure Storage, Inc. - Vice Chair & President Emeritus [4]

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Thanks, Charlie. We believe that our Modern Data Experience is the way forward, enabling digital businesses to extract more value from their data, while improving performance and reducing complexity and expense of managing infrastructure. Pure's modern approach helps companies deliver on their most strategic initiatives, empowering them to achieve outcomes that were not previously possible. Because of this, Pure is taking market share. And at our Investor Day, we shared that Pure was growing 10x faster than our closest competitor.

Customers are being done a disservice by others in the industry who still require forklift upgrades and who are not innovating, while Pure's customers benefit from our expanding technology portfolio, industry-leading customer satisfaction and differentiated Evergreen ownership model. Pure is being chosen because we enable customers to modernize their existing applications and accelerate their adoption of multi-cloud containers and real-time analytics. Our focus on the cloud, enterprise, commercial and government segments continues to progress nicely.

We finished the quarter with more than 7,000 total customers, adding approximately 6 net new customers per day, equating to nearly 400 new customers in Q3. The Government segment in particular continued to be a bright spot in Q3, with business doubling on a year-to-date basis.

Turning to momentum in our portfolio. Our ability to make the Modern Data Experience a reality for customers today and into the future has never been more evident. Our industry-leading Pure1 SaaS platform makes it extremely easy for customers to manage their hybrid cloud environments across our portfolio, including FlashArray//X, FlashArray//C, FlashBlade and Cloud Data Services. Pure's simple and automated platform allows customers to consolidate their primary and secondary workloads, delivering faster access to more of their data at a much lower total cost of ownership and is an ideal fit for next-generation data analytics and rapid restore use cases.

Following our announcement at Accelerate, we have seen the fastest growth of any product we have ever launched with the introduction of our FlashArray//C targeted for Tier 2. In the quarter, ServiceNow, a leading SaaS company and existing customer of FlashArray//X and FlashBlade has now added the all-NVMe FlashArray//C to their environment, with the goal of eliminating spinning disk for Tier 2 workloads. We share their vision of creating an all-flash data center for better reliability, cost and performance so they can continue to deliver world-class service levels for their customers.

Pure's Cloud Data Services, including Cloud Block Store on AWS, enables data mobility and empowers customers to achieve on-prem economics in the public cloud. And as part of our multi-cloud strategy, we recently launched our technical preview of Cloud Block Store on Microsoft Azure at the recent Microsoft Ignite conference. With a growing set of products and unique Pure-as-a-Service subscription model, customers can take advantage of our innovation on-prem or in their preferred public cloud whenever and however they want, today or in the future. We've always been the most innovative, and now we are also the safest choice for customers.

Lastly, on a personal note, I want to take a moment to thank our customers, partners and the Pure team for the past 7 years. They've been the most fulfilling and rewarding of my career. Together, we changed the industry with Evergreen Storage, built an incredible company culture and grew the business from 0 to more than $1.5 billion as fast as any enterprise IT company in history.

I'll be staying on in my new role to help with transition, planning and strategy. I'm excited that Paul has joined the team as COO, and I look forward to partnering closely with him to help set up 2020 and beyond for incredible success.

While my role is changing, what will never waver is my excitement and enthusiasm in our ability to make an impact on our customers every day. We are as optimistic as ever to execute on our long-term vision to deliver the modern data experience and provide freedom for organizations to build for today and tomorrow. We truly are just getting started.

And with that, I will now turn it back over to Charlie. Charlie?

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Charles H. Giancarlo, Pure Storage, Inc. - Chairman & CEO [5]

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Thank you, Hat. Moving to key financial highlights. We finished the quarter with cash and investments of $1.2 billion, an increase of $59 million from the previous quarter. Free cash flow in Q3 was strong at positive $43 million.

We delivered strong deferred revenue again in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, deferred revenue was $643 million, an increase of 39% over the same period a year ago and included a record amount of Pure-as-a-Service deals, again, formerly ES2.

Now I will turn to guidance. In setting our guidance for the remainder of the year, we've taken into account the pricing declines we've seen in the past 2 quarters, as well as a more challenging global environment. We are highly differentiated, as evidenced by our industry-leading growth and gross margins. And accordingly, we remain focused on continuing to invest in a fiscally prudent manner, as evidenced by our operating profit guide, which is within the range that we offered last quarter.

For Q4 of fiscal 2020, we expect revenues in the range of $484 million to $496 million, $490 million at the midpoint; gross margin in the range of between 67.5% and 70.5%; and operating margin in the range between 10% and 14%, or 12% at the midpoint.

For the full year of fiscal 2020, we now expect revenues in the range of between $1.635 billion and $1.647 billion, or $1.641 billion at the midpoint; gross margin in the range of between 69.2% and 70.1%; and operating margin in the range of between 2.6% and 3.9%, or 3.2% at the midpoint.

With that, we'll open it up for questions. Operator?

================================================================================

Questions and Answers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Operator [1]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Alex Kurtz from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

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Alexander Kurtz, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst [2]

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Can you hear me okay?

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Charles H. Giancarlo, Pure Storage, Inc. - Chairman & CEO [3]

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Yes.

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Alexander Kurtz, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst [4]

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Hat, been great working with you. Hopefully, we'll hear you on future calls. But thanks for working with the investment community, as always. A near-term to long-term question here. So real quick on the quarter, Charlie, when you look at units or deals or however you want to look at it, like excluding the ASP dynamic, did you hit that number? I guess, trying to account for -- was there deal slippage that was part of this? Or is it really on the pricing and you actually got to the number of arrays shipped. Then longer-term -- go ahead.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles H. Giancarlo, Pure Storage, Inc. - Chairman & CEO [5]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go ahead -- sorry. Well, let me answer that, and then you can -- I'll let you ask -- go on. So yes, we shipped all the units we expected to ship. So it really was a overall pricing issue, and that made up for all of the mess. So it was entirely on target.

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Alexander Kurtz, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst [6]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay. And then I think longer term, the question is going to become -- customers get used to the lower pricing in the broader all-flash market, right? And I think there's a fair skepticism among investors that, even with the NAND environment being more favorable for you and your competitors over the next couple of years, perhaps, customers aren't going to respond and allow the market to see a pricing increase. So what gives you the confidence that, that's not going to happen? That the customers aren't going to just acclimate to the new pricing levels that we're seeing right now?

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Charles H. Giancarlo, Pure Storage, Inc. - Chairman & CEO [7]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, interestingly, Alex -- it's good when customers get acclimated to the new pricing, because it allows elasticity to take place and to penetrate -- remember, less than 20 -- flash is less than 20% of the overall storage market by bits, right? It's 30% by dollars, but less than 20% by bits. So as pricing goes down, we get to take up more of the magnetic market. The issue is that when pricing drops so quickly in an individual quarter, the market doesn't catch up on elasticity. We saw a double-digit drop in pricing each of the last 2 quarters. That's just very unusual. Obviously, difficult to predict that sort of thing, because it's not normal. But now that pricing is where it is, that bodes well for volumes as we go forward, and it can't continue to drop at that rate. FlashArray//C takes advantage of this, right? FlashArray//C is going to now start to penetrate what are typically magnetic workloads in the so-called second-tier market. That's a very good thing for us. And pricing will eventually moderate, will reduce its rate of decline, will continue to decline, but reduce its rate. And that's very good for the flash business, very good for us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Operator [8]

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Your next question comes from the line of Ittai Kidron from Oppenheimer.

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Ittai Kidron, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD [9]

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Edited Transcript of PSTG earnings conference call or presentation 21-Nov-19 10:00pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

The Trump Administration has published an interim final rule that will dramatically reduce the number of aliens who can apply for asylum in the United States.

The rule authorizes asylum officers in expedited removal proceedings and immigration judges in regular removal proceedings to conduct a threshold screening to determine whether an alien is barred by a Safe Third Country agreement from applying for asylum. Aliens who are barred will have to choose between applying for asylum in a Safe Third Country and going home (unless they have some other basis for lawful status in the United States).

Those would be the only choices: apply elsewhere or go home.

The United States currently has Safe Third Country agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Canada; the agreement with Canada, however, is subject to different rules.

The new rule applies prospectively to aliens who arrive at a United States port of entry or who enter or attempt to enter the United States between ports of entry on or after Nov. 19, 2019.

Immigration advocates may be successful in challenging this rule in the lower federal courts, but I expect the Supreme Court to find that it is a lawful exercise of statutory authority.

Safe Third Country agreements are not new

Safe Third Country agreements were created to make it possible for countries to share the responsibility of aiding asylum seekers. In 1991, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesinvited such agreementsto foster international cooperation.

The United States desperately needs international assistance with asylum seekers. Its immigration courts have so many cases now that the American Bar Association says they are on the brink of collapse.

The immigration court backlog was542,411 casesin January 2017, when PresidentDonald TrumpDonald John TrumpGiuliani associate prepared to testify Nunes aides scrapped Ukraine trip to avoid alerting Schiff Democrats pledge sharp turn in US ties with Saudi Arabia Schumer praises former Navy chief after ouster MOREtook office, and it had increased to1,023,767 casesby the end of September 2019, with an average wait for a hearing of696 days.

The immigration courts only completed297,109 casesthrough September of fiscal 2019. At that rate, even if there were to be a freeze on immigration enforcement to prevent new cases from being added, it would take three-and-a-half years to clear the backlog.

El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are not safe

Immigration advocates are certain to argue that the safe third countries are not safe. They are plagued by the crime and violence that caused people to seek asylum in the United States in the first place. El Salvadorhas the worlds highest intentional homicide rate. Honduras is fifth, and Guatemala is 16th.

But asylum law doesn't provide refuge from violent, crime-ridden countries. When asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras fail to establish eligibility for asylum, they are returned to their countries, regardless of the danger that awaits them there.

The asylum provision, section 208(b)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, only authorizes asylum for an alien who has established that he is a "refugee" as that term is defined bysection 1101(a)(42)(A), which reads as follows:

(42) The term "refugee" means (A) any person who is outside any country of such person's nationality .... and who is unable or unwilling to return to ... that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, ...

And the Safe Third Country provision, section 208(a)(2), just requires participating countries to be able to provide safety from persecution:

Paragraph (1) [the one that gives aliens the right to apply for asylum] shall not apply to an alien if the Attorney General determines that the alien may be removed, pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement, to a country .... in which the alien's life or freedom would not be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and where the alien would have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum .... (Emphasis supplied.)

No court has jurisdiction to review the validity of Safe Third Country agreements

Congress prohibited court review of determinations made under the Safe Third Country provision and the other two exceptions. Section 208(a)(3) states that:

No court shall have jurisdiction to review any determination of the Attorney General under paragraph (2)

I expect the Supreme Court to respect this limitation.

In the Travel Ban case, the immigration advocates argued that Trump had exceeded the authority Congress delegated to the President in section 212(f) of the INA. The Supreme Court rejected their arguments on the basis of the "plain language" of the section, finding that, "attempts to identify a conflict with other provisions in the INA, and their appeal to the statute's purposes and legislative history, fail to overcome the clear statutory language."

The same surely is true of the language in the judicial review limitation. Congressional intent could not be any clearer.

The only way immigration advocates will succeed with a challenge to the Safe Third Country rule is to persuade the Supreme Court that Congress violated the Constitution by authorizing the Executive Branch to determine when discretionary humanitarian relief from persecution should be granted, and that is extremely unlikely.

Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an Executive Branch Immigration Law Expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years. Follow him on Twitter @NolanR1 or at https://nolanrappaport.blogspot.com

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Trump's latest gambit: Send asylum seekers to 'Safe Third Countries' that are less than safe | TheHill - The Hill

District 20 State Sen. Victoria Spartz (R-Noblesville) announced Nov. 12 she will seek a second term. District 20 covers much of Hamilton County.

Spartz was elected by a caucus in 2017 to complete the term of former Sen. Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville), who retired.

Spartz

Spartz grew up in Ukraine. She is a businesswoman, farmer, CPA, finance executive, university educator and former Big 4 and Fortune 500 auditor. She serves on several Senate committees, including Education and Career Development, Environmental Affairs and Pension and Labor. She serves as the chair of the Audit Subcommittee of the Legislative Council.

We can never forget that the solution to most problems we have in our society is less government and more freedom and competition, whether its education or healthcare, Spartz stated. We must concentrate on core government functions to maintain law and order and an effective criminal justice system, protect private property rights, empower individuals to pursue happiness, and maintain a vibrant business environment.

During her term, Spartz has advanced bills to advance fiscal oversight and accountability, improve education, implement election audits and expand prevention in the juvenile justice system. She recently launched working groups on improving government accountability and transparency, health care cost and value and more.

If re-elected, Spartz plans to enhance fiscal responsibility and accountability to taxpayers, improve the health care system, align education with modern demands, improve regulatory environment for small businesses and entrepreneuers, protect private property rights and individual freedoms, reform the welfare system and streamline the criminal justice system.

Spartz lives in Noblesville with her husband and two daughters.

Go here to see the original:

Spartz to seek second term - Current in Carmel

Angelica Ross. Shoot produced by EJ Jamele, fashion by Brandon M Garr, hair by Gracie Cartier, makeup by Yolonda Frederick, Nails by Gracie J, photo by Josh S Rose.

Angelica Ross says people often ask her why she doesnt seem more ecstatic about her current success. Theyre like, Arent you so excited?! she says. Because sometimes I look like Im not. Its more that Im kind of just pinching myself all the time, knowing that this is going to change. I cant be attached to the euphoria of one situation, nor can I be beaten down by whatever may be perceived as a failure or a misstep. I always focus on whats next, and being grateful for the steps Ive taken to get here.

In case you hadnt noticed, while Mj Rodriguez, Indya Moore and Dominique Jackson were positioned as the female leads on FXs game-changing series Pose, Ross stealthily emerged as an indelible scene-stealer in her role as Candy, an unstoppable, unpredictable, and antic-prone figure in the ballroom drama. In this years second season of the show, the episode that featured Candys death and funeral became one of the series most lauded and talked about, as it was emblematic of the murders of so many trans women of color. And by the time that episode aired in July, Ross had already been announced as a cast member of another Ryan Murphy project, American Horror Story: 1984, making her the first trans actor in history to land two series-regular roles.

SEE ALSO: The Darker, Angrier Tone of Pose Season 2 Is Necessary Because of Real Events

I always see these things not as coincidences, Ross says, but as little nods from the universe, and sometimes it all depends on how aware I amhow quickly I pick up little signs and symbols that can put me at ease after a long-term commitment for an unknown and uncertain time. You never know when things are going to happen, or when opportunities are going to open up.

Ross comes across as someone firmly grounded in reality and constantly hoisted by spirituality (she practices Buddhism), and shes combined those attributes to forge her awareness of transiencethat whats next? mentality. For Ross, opportunities opened up this year to unleash a torrent of nexts. There were the back-to-back TV series that unveiled an indisputably gifted actress. There was her appearance on Oprahs OWN special, Black Women OWN the Conversation, where Ross sat beside folks like model Winnie Harlow and shared her coming-out story with her mother in the audience. There was her hosting of the September 20 LGBTQ Presidential Forum in Iowa, for which she partnered with GLAAD and became the first trans person to emcee such an event. And now theres her growing presence on lists that count her among 2019s most notable figures, including Vanity Fairs Future Innovators, Essences Woke 100, The Roots Root 100 and Outs Out100.

Angelica Ross delivering the keynote speech at the Lesbians Who Tech & Allies Summit 2019. Lesbians Who Tech

Some of this newfound prolific presencewhich crisscrosses art, performance, activism and politicscan be linked to spirituality in an actionable form, as Ross describes it. I understand that you dont just pray and wait, but you pray and take action, she says. And her acute awareness of the intersectional limitations of being a dark-skinned, black, trans woman has empowered her, in both life and work, to be that much more action-oriented in claiming space for herself. She speaks of how dark-skinned girls like her need only exchange a glance, be it at a party or on a film set, to share an understanding of their mutual marginalization. And she says shes steamrolled that marginalization by using opportunities to command attention.

Ive had to learn how to make the spotlight come to me, instead of just chasing the spotlight, Ross says. Case in point: being on a show like Pose. On that show, I was in an ensemble cast, and the way that the stories were written, I wasnt really a main character[Candys] storyline was not one of the main storylines. But with every single scene they gave to me, I took it politely and made it bigger. Ryan Murphy then started saying, Oh, weve got to give her more, and write more for her. The action I took there was to show up on time for work every day, have a good attitude, and deliver the most when they said action, instead of being a bratty actress saying, Why arent you writing more for me? In that state, youre just complaining at the universe, and in Buddhism we say that complaining releases no good fortune.

Angelica Ross as Candy and Hailie Sahar as Lulu in Pose. Macall Polay/FX

Ross determination and specific approach to success is also bolstered by a business acumen that she can trace back to her youth. She grew up in a Christian household in Racine, Wis., and while she was discovering her identity (I knew I was not straight, she says of herself in adolescence), she was also being dissuaded by her father from chasing her dream of studying music and theater. I graduated high school a year early at 17, and the deal was that if I graduated early, I had to go to college right away, Ross says. My dad made me go to Wisconsin Parkside, a college one town over, and study business. He always told me that, as a black person, I would get nowhere if I didnt, because I would not be in situations where I could call my own shots. Im very grateful that my father gave me that sort of advice so I didnt end up a starving artist. Im still nervous, but Im definitely not starving.

And shes definitely a bona fide businesswoman. When it comes to knowing and demanding her value, that began, as it has for countless trans women of color, with the oldest profession in the book. Ive gone through a very in-depth assessment of my value, and it started with me doing sex work on the street, Ross says. I set my price on the street, and Ive grown, increasing that value to where I am today. And what many people dont know is that, in between, Ross became the founder and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprises, a program that, as described on Ross website, helps people lift themselves out of poverty through technical training, digital work, creating a social impact, and bringing economic empowerment to marginalized communities. Particularly designed to boost the welfare of trans folks, the company has been in operation since 2014, with Ross at the helm.

Angelica Ross as Nurse Rita in American Horror Story. Kurt Iswarienko FX

The savvy entrepreneur goes in deep when describing the challenges she faced when starting her business, which she says came out of a true necessity for the community, because programs were popping up to serve trans folks [via] federal funding, but no [trans people were] actually involved in the programs or being hired to work the programs and serve the communities. The community felt their real objectives and needs werent being met. I launched TransTech in an effort to go right to the source. She talks about how she didnt spend time building a board; how she secured a fiscal sponsor, Allied Media Projects out of Detroit; how it took time to get out of the red, especially as a black trans woman with no resources; and how, despite applying for multiple grants with first-rate proposals, TransTech has only been approved for a few. Moreover, while TransTech gets more attention now that Ross is a breakout celebrity, she wants to see that attention translate into measurable support. I get a lot of applause, she says, but I dont get a lot of donations.

Still, Ross can quickly point out the triumphs of her community-focused enterprise. We have helped people with freelance jobs build their own personal businesses, she says. In our first year, we gave away 13 iMac computers, which changed 13 peoples lives. There was a black trans woman we helped who was chronically homeless and dealing with sex work and is now making six figures. A girl who volunteered with us from day one is now working in Washington, D.C., with a national trans organization. And the list goes on.

Angelica Ross as Candy in Pose. Michael Parmelee/FX

All of this experience has instilled in Ross a business-minded approach to many things in her life, even to acting. Its a trait that not all artists have, and the lack of it can lead to a rude awakening. You have to sort of go into this knowing that when you want to be famous, or you want to be a star on a certain leveleven if youre a solo actthat its a collaboration. And thats not just with the studio heads, networks, and producers who help make things possible, but with your audiencethe folks who are going to buy and consume your art. When I perform live or speak in a room, I give thanks to the people who show up and for the energy they bring to the space. Because Im aware and it has an effect on what I say. Youve got to walk in with a mindset that youre going to give and take.

Ross advocacy for her own community is the glue that binds together the pieces of her journey thus far. While on Pose, she was notably vocalboth to her peers on the show and to its fanbasethat the hundreds of trans actors who were employed by series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals would all rack up valuable SAG credits to amplify their careers, without, she says, having to play dead prostitute number two on CSI or some legal procedural. Its the kind of insider fact that most viewers would likely overlook until its gravity is spelled out. And in regard to showing up for her community in an even more literal sense, Rosss most noteworthy and affecting appearance this year was arguably at September 28s National Transgender Visibility March in Washington, D.C., where she spoke to a crowd of thousands alongside fellow firebrands and activists like Ashlee Marie Preston.

It was really important for me to be there so my community could see me up close, Ross says. I know that all these filters, and the lenses of being on TV, can sometimes create a distance or a certain perception. Im still a person, and not only that, I am what weve been talking about wanting to see: a dark-skinned black trans woman on TV. And I want to let people know that Im not only in this for myself. Every step of the way, Ive always been trying to carry someone on my backpulling, giving a hand up, to someone if not a few people, through my work and my organization. And Im still here, willing to continue to create more opportunities that open doors. What shes hoping for, as she said in her speech at the march, Is a time when we can finally drop our armor and focus on our dreamsthe things we wanted to do before we had to battle for our dignity and freedom. I want to see a future where trans people are thriving, not fighting.

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Angelica Ross Has Had a Phenomenal YearAnd Shes Using It to Open Doors to Others - Observer

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Iraq is one of the top recipients of American assistance, and the U.S. foreign aid agency manages more than $1 billion in projects there, including funding for Iraqi religious minorities pushed by Vice President Mike Pence. But increasingly, the agency doesnt have people on the ground to make sure the money is being well-spent.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has been forced to cut nearly 80% of its non-Iraqi staff in Iraq in the last year, even as the agency funds large, ambitious and complex aid projects there. A critical government watchdog report released this week said USAID officials reported the cuts have had significant adverse effects on the oversight and management of grants.

As ProPublica detailed this month, Pences office has pressured USAID to support local groups representing Iraqi minorities, particularly Christians. The watchdog report released this week said, in the context of the staff reductions and uncertainty, overseeing local groups is particularly challenging given that awards to local organizations require increased involvement.

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One small charity that recently received a USAID grant and primarily serves Christian Iraqis has no full-time paid staff and no experience with government grants.

Overall, the report notes that USAID now has no staff based permanently in Iraq to oversee $430 million in basic humanitarian aid, such as food, safe drinking water and medical services. USAID officials manage the funding remotely via phone calls, reports from implementers and temporary visits, the report said.

As a result, staff are only able to engage in the bare minimum coordination with the rest of the U.S. government, the Iraqi government and the international community, USAID staff told the inspector general.

In May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ordered a partial evacuation of U.S. personnel in Iraq in response to concerns over threats from Iran. The ordered departure has been controversial, and diplomats have criticized what they view as a gutting of core diplomatic functions in Iraq.

That decision, combined with an earlier State Department move to shrink the USAID mission, reduced the agencys non-Iraqi staff from 26 at the start of the 2019 fiscal year to six by this fall, the report said. Some of those officials relocated to Washington, while others transferred to Germany.

USAID, the State Department and Pences office did not respond to questions. In response to the prior ProPublica story, a USAID spokeswoman said local grants in Iraq follow all federal regulations and have empowered those groups to respond to grassroots needs.

The report, which covers the period between July 1 and Oct. 25, was jointly prepared by the inspectors general of USAID, the State Department and the Pentagon.

The watchdog report said the Pompeo-ordered departure had been extended through Nov. 9, citing reports of violence and threats to diplomatic personnel. In July, Foreign Policy reported that the lower staffing levels are being treated as permanent.

USAID manages $1.16 billion in assistance in Iraq, spanning development, humanitarian aid and stabilization efforts, according to the report.

That large portfolio, coupled with the staff reductions, create uncertainty as to how programs will be overseen remotely, the report said. Uncertainty around staffing levels also raises questions about USAIDs continuing ability to effectively oversee its high-priority, high-risk portfolio.

U.S. assistance in Iraq includes over $400 million for religious and ethnic minorities targeted by the militant group Islamic State. That has been a major priority for Pence, as well as for conservative Christian groups and vocal communities of Iraqi Christians.

A new component of that effort was announced by USAID last month: $4.1 million to six local Iraqi organizations. ProPublica previously found that political appointees played a significant role in the latest awards.

The awardees included two groups that had been rejected by career officials for separate grants in Iraq in 2018. One of the groups, the Shlama Foundation, is a small charity that primarily serves Christian Iraqis; it will receive $1 million over two years. It has no full-time paid staff and no experience with government grants, a Shlama board member, Ranna Abro, previously told ProPublica.

Shlama did not respond to a request for comment this week, but Abro said previously that it is capable of handling the work, and that USAID had fully and completely reviewed our capacity and is releasing the funds in small, manageable amounts based on deliverable outcomes.

USAID has exacting requirements for its funding, requiring groups to provide extensive background and financial information. Small organizations often are less equipped to fulfill those requirements and need particularly close oversight from agency officials, experts on foreign aid said.

The watchdog report addressed the latest awards to local Iraqi groups, and it said their structure relies on in-country expertise from USAID personnel to train local organizations on the requirements of receiving U.S. funding. It added: According to USAID, this is particularly challenging given that awards to local organizations require increased involvement.

The report also raised questions about the effectiveness of some of USAIDs efforts toward Christians and other minority groups in Iraq.

For instance, one major USAID goal in Iraq has been to encourage the return of Christians, Yazidis and other groups to their homes in northern Iraq, which they fled after Islamic State took over swaths of the country. Last year, USAID administrator Mark Green said the agency was committed to creating the conditions so that these communities can return safely to their ancestral lands.

But officials have acknowledged relatively modest returns on the effort thus far. In September, senior USAID official Hallam Ferguson said the returns of persecuted religious minority groups to their homes still lag far behind other displaced groups in Iraq.

We are struggling against tectonic forces in Iraq, including decades of government neglect and discriminatory policy, more than 15 years of sectarian strife and unchecked local armed groups, Ferguson said in testimony to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

According to the watchdog report, USAID officials have said that obstacles in Iraq cannot be resolved without more diplomatic engagement, made far more difficult by Pompeos drawdown. The report cited disputes between local Iraqi political leaders that had allowed a vacuum of governance to develop in Sinjar, an area of Iraq that includes many religious minorities.

The longer these barriers remain in place, the more significant the questions grow about the potential effectiveness of these assistance efforts, the report said.

See more here:

The Trump Administration Gutted the Staff Overseeing $1 Billion in Aid to Iraq. A Watchdog Is Raising Red Flags. - ProPublica

ALL but one of Scotlands 15 universities fail to keep a record of student suicides, prompting criticism and calls for change. An investigation by The Ferret has revealed that Stirling is the only Scottish university which knows how many of its students took their own lives. Other universities record student deaths, but do not distinguish suicides.

Mental health campaigners urged universities to review their policies to help end the stigma of suicide. Researchers say it would be sensible to keep an official record of suicides in order to improve mental health services, though they accept that there can be difficulties verifying causes of death.

Some universities said no records were kept out of sympathy and sensitivity for the students families and loved ones. Others pointed out that they were not always told about causes of death.

The Scottish Association for Mental Health called on universities to review their policies on recording student suicides. Many public authorities are doing good work in suicide prevention, including in reviewing how they respond to deaths by suicide, said the associations head of public affairs, Carolyn Lochhead.

READ MORE:Stirling University finds global anti-suicide work omits children

While we understand that this can be challenging, we would encourage all public bodies, including universities, to think about how they record these deaths, to make sure they can offer appropriate support to the staff and others who are affected, and to help all of us break down the stigma associated with suicide.

Karen Wetherall, a researcher with the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, also thought there would be benefits to universities recording student suicides. Primarily it would help institutions keep track of trends over time and identify if there are increases in suicide deaths, and hopefully use this information to improve student mental health services, she said.

She understood that universities would want to be sensitive to the need for privacy. Although this should not preclude the retrospective recording of this information, she argued.

Student deaths by suicide are likely to be very small, and therefore looking at individual risk factors could be quite challenging in retrospect, and possibly not particularly useful as they may be variable from person to person.

Every university in Scotland was asked under the freedom of information act whether they recorded the number of students who took their own lives. Fourteen out of 15 responded by saying they do not.

READ MORE:Edinburgh University recalls students from Hong Kong amid violence

The University of Glasgow stressed that it deliberately chose not to document student suicides. Its focus was on offering and delivering pastoral support to the bereaved family, it said.

Not speculating on the cause of death avoids causing additional distress to a family and the student community, the university argued.

Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh stated: On occasion we have been informed of student suicide. This has been on a strictly confidential basis and not expected to be released to third parties.

Other universities highlighted practicalities preventing them from knowing if student suicides have occurred.

In cases where there is a sudden or unexpected death, the police and procurator fiscal will be involved and they do not report the outcome of their investigations to the university, said the University of Edinburgh.

Although in some cases the university may be told the cause of death might have been suicide, we are not able to verify the information and we do not retain records of this.

The University of Edinburgh previously kept a record of student deaths believed to be the result of suicide. It stopped in December 2017 as the data was considered unreliable, incomplete and unable to support valid analysis. Other universities that said that they were not informed of suicides and hence didnt keep records included Strathclyde, West of Scotland, St Andrews, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Abertay.

READ MORE:Charity Action Against Stalking receives Scottish Government funding

Glasgow Caledonian University stated: At a particularly sensitive time for all concerned, the university is not in position to enquire into the reason for death.

A document provided by the university, however, suggested that staff might be made aware of some student suicides so that they could reflect upon them. After funeral services staff may ask all involved members to gather for a debriefing session, according to the universitys procedure on the death of a student.

Where the death has been by suicide, this meeting might serve as an opportunity to consider any lessons emerging from tragic circumstances.

The University of Stirling revealed that it had recorded four student suicides in the last three years. The university has been recording student death by suicide since 2017, it said.

A university spokesperson added: Every student death is a tragedy and our students wellbeing is our top priority. We, along with many other UK universities, record the number of student deaths reported to us and causes if known and verified - in line with good practice.

This assists with the development of support, in partnership with community mental health services, which are key elements of our evolving mental health and wellbeing strategy.

Professor David Gunnell, an epidemiologist and suicide expert at the University of Bristol, said: Keeping a record of suicide deaths, and possibly serious non-fatal suicide attempts, is sensible.

He accepted, though, that there were problems. Universities may not always be notified of the outcome of the inquest, he observed.

Some deaths that clinicians or researchers would judge to be likely suicides are not recorded as such at the inquest. Sometimes suicidal intent is impossible to determine.

If students end their lives outwith university terms, it may be more difficult for universities to find out, Gunnell said. The numbers were low so monitoring trends might not be the best approach, he argued.

He also suggested that universities might be concerned that keeping records could damage their reputations if the data was misconstrued. Maintaining records would enable people to make possibly simplistic and alarmist comparisons across institutes, he cautioned.

The only other publicly available data on student suicides in Scotland is from the National Records of Scotland. It said that there were 34 probable student suicides in 2018, though it does not distinguish between university students and those attending other higher education institutions.

POLICE Scotland and the procurator fiscals office declined to provide information on student suicides, saying that to do so would exceed the 600 cost limit on freedom of information requests.

According to the National Union of Students in Scotland, there has been a steep rise in students trying to access mental health counselling services, with only 60 per cent receiving support in 2016-17. The Scottish Government has provided 20 million to fund 80 counsellors.

But the unions president in Scotland, Liam McCabe, warned that there was still a postcode lottery of treatment services.

We will continue to push the Scottish Government and the wider sector to provide for students, ensuring the protection and improvement of their mental health is a central priority for all education institutions across Scotland, he said.

South of the border, the University of Bristol is one of the few universities to have had its student suicide record disclosed. It has been reported that up to 13 students may have taken their own lives since 2016.

That statistic prompted considerable media attention, including a BBC documentary, Dying for a Degree. It showed that one student, Natasha Abrahart, had asked for help from the student services but didnt receive adequate support before she killed herself. As a result the University of Bristol restructured its mental health counselling system. In October 2018 the university published a suicide prevention and response plan.

READ MORE:Dundee University chief suspended over 300k rent claims

The plan offers students the chance to opt into a scheme which gives the university permission to notify their parents if they are clearly experiencing and struggling with mental health problems.

An estimated 94 per cent of Bristol students consented to the new scheme when registering for the 2018-19 academic year.

The issue of student suicide records has also been raised in the United States. The Associated Press asked the hundred largest US universities for their annual suicide data. It found that 46 universities recorded suicides, while 43 did not. Nine provided limited or inconsistent data and two didnt provide statistics.

Dr Agustina Marconi, an epidemiologist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is aiming to establish a new data base that will accurately record the cause of student deaths.

We will create a formal model to accurately document all student deaths at UW-Madison, she was quoted as saying. Our findings and the standards we create will benefit other universities.

One vocal advocate of suicides being recorded at US universities is the former senator for Oregon, Gordon Smith, whose son took his own life in 2003. If you dont collect the data, youre doing half the job, he said.

We need information in mental health if were actually going to be able to better tailor health and well-being.

You can contact the Samaritans by calling them for free from any phone on 116 123, emailing jo@samaritans.org or visiting http://www.samaritans.org to find details of your nearest branch.

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All but one Scottish university fails to record suicide rates, The Ferret reveals - The National

Honourable Minister and my Dear Senior Brother,

I salute you on the occasion of another budget season at our National Assembly chambers. Indeed I should congratulate you for having been able to finalise the proposed budget and tabling the draft estimates before our lawmakers. Truly it is a most enormous task to come up with a budget with all numbers adding up sensibly given the harsh macroeconomic realities on the ground.

Those expecting you and your team to work miracles in the budget are speaking from the position of lack of understanding of this complex matter. There is not much that can be done given the realities. I still remember a Finance Minister I worked with when I was head of budget. Upon his appointment, he dazzled President Jammeh and his Cabinet with flowery budgetary terms and promised the sky and the moon regarding the National budget. But when it came to the brass tacks, it was a different ball game; we presented him with the real budget constraints and he just leaned back in his chaired and sighed this is tough!

Coming to the substantive matter at hand, I must say that despite the realities of the constraints you are faced with, given the macro-fiscal antecedents, your budget could have been better and no one should be blamed but you. Since your disingenuous decision to increase salaries by 50 percent (against my advice) and the counterintuitive borrowing spree your government has been indulging in, our budget situation has become worse and therefore you should be cautioned by the National Assembly if they were to take my advice.

My initial reaction to the budget estimates for 2020 is as follows, as shared on my public figure page on Facebook. Quoting from your statement on the estimates I stated:

Finance Minister Mambury Njie has stated that the total revenue and grants in 2020 is projected at D24.47 billion, representing a reduction of 3% over 2019 figure of D25.2 billion

He said project grants are estimated to decrease from D9.9 billion in 2019 to D8.1 billion in 2020

Mr. Njie explained that total expenditure and net-lending is projected to increase from D28.825 billion in 2019 to D30.048 billion in 2020

A government that told her citizens that they should expect pledged donor funds of more than 1.4 billion Euro, is now admitting that donor support is actually falling

Total revenue and grants is falling but expenditure is rising

This is a classic case of mbojo mbojo economics!

#Gambia #Budget2020

As I stated earlier, I am well acquainted with the constraints you are dealing with; but the problem is that you are not helping yourself and the nation. How can you decide to increase your expenditure when you know that your income is dwindling?

The increase in the budget of the office of the President by D34 million is wrong. We all know the problem of dealing with that budget head knowing the difficulty of satisfying the political animal in that office. But the wisdom has always been to constrain the presidencyab initio, and then manage the situation as the budget implementation cycle unfolds.

By expanding expenditure for the presidency, you are simply pampering your boss for political patronage at the expense of the tax payer. The increase in salaries at the office of the President is also waste of resources. We know that the problem at that office is being compounded by further expanding the bureaucracy of an already dysfunctional office instead of taking the tough decision of redeploying or firingall the squares pages in round wholes.

I would surely recommend that the deputies at the Assembly cancel the proposed increase of expenditure under the office of the President to set a perfect example and send a message to the executive that the meagre resources of our tax payers cannot be used for mbumbai in these trying times. This is not a partisan matter and I believe our representatives at the Assembly should set an example on this one if they would expect us to take them seriously.

Let me hasten to add that my call for deputies to vote down the proposed increase in the budget for the Presidency is not based on any political motive. This is motivated by the fact that the executive has for long trodden on the poor tax payers for too long. Now that the tax payers have voted to have something better than what used to obtain in the past, we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of yesteryears. If the Mandinka saying that sila kotor kataa satay kotor leh to is anything g to go by, then you are leading this country back into the doldrums of fiscal obstinacy. We can do better than this so let us strive to make the future better, cleaner and brighter. This is our collective responsibility regardless of our political leanings.

Honourable Minister, do you remember the parable of the firewood seeker I told you in my letter to youOn the Audacity of Fiscal Profligacy? How can you be complaining that the load you are to carry is too heavy and yet you go ahead and increase the load? So you have the audacity to admit that Debt interest payment is projected to consume around 40 percent of governments tax revenues in 2020 compared to 26 percent in 2019, moving from D2.702 billion in 2019 to D4.648 billion in 2020 as a result of mounting debt stock but you are still borrowing? Certainly I did not need to hear you admit that salary payments are also rising because you decided to worsen an already bad situation.

It is worrisome that the lions share of our domestic revenue is being consumed by debt service and salaries (more than 70 percent from figures I am privy to). The rest is left for recurrent expenditure whiledevelopment expenditure is left as a residual standing at D2.7 billion, which will not be fully disbursed during the relevant fiscal year as usual. We already had a structural deficit but you have decided to worsen that and who are you going to blame for this?

Truly the budget you have presented has so many issues that do not align with good fiscal policy thinking but the damage was done before this particular budget season. I only hope that you and your team would work harder to make sure our public corporations bring in more money into the budget as dividend payment to help ameliorate our current debacle. With domestic borrowing rising in the coming fiscal year, surely interest rates will pick up and the crowding out of the private sector I wrote to you about in my previous missives is going to get worse.

And speaking about public corporations, honourable Minister, is it true that The Gambia National Petroleum Company, GNPC actually bought a plot of land in Banjul worth D17 million during your tenure as Managing Director?

Honourable Minister, while looking forward to your response on the above matters, I wish you good luck in your deliberation at a National Assembly that is clearly divided and ready for battle for myriad reasons. May the interest of the country reign supreme during the debate on the budget and may Allah continue to guide, bless and protect our dear nation, The Gambia.

Momodou Sabally

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On the Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2020: Letter to the Finance Minister - Freedom Newspaper

No one seems to know precisely how many business enterprises the Government owns. Official Government figures suggest 55 businesses, but these are only those which are considered to be strategic.

The Mid-Year Fiscal Position Report 2019 issued by the Minister of Finance suggests that there are 422 State-owned enterprises (SOEs), whilst research based on data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act undertaken by a think tank found that there could be as many 527.

What is already published and known is that in 2018 the top 55 SOEs made a staggering loss of Rs. 27,405,000,000 (Rs.27.40 billion) and nobody knows how much the remaining SOEs cost the state and the people. Because most SOEs do not publish their annual accounts as per the statutory requirements.

A research by Advocata has revealed that only 10.4% of SOEs provide financial information on their operations. While there is no substantial financial contribution to the state, many, if not all SOEs are overstaffed, poorly managed and underperforming. In the final analysis they have become a severe burden on the people of Sri Lanka.

Mismanagement, fraud, corruption, misappropriation of funds and negligence in SOEs have been highlighted in the recent reports of the Auditor General and COPE. During the first four months of the year 2019, losses incurred by a few key SOEs are as follows:

n Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) operating losses Rs. 23,114,000,000

n Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) operational losses Rs. 4,294,000,000

n SriLankan Airlines (SLA) lost Rs. 12,961,000,000 in the first quarter of 2019

nSri Lanka Ports Auth-ority (SLPA) made profits of Rs. 10,505,000,000 during the first four months of 2019 but had debts amounting to Rs. 11,957,000,000 for the same period.

There are, of course, many more SOEs that have been registered under the Companies Act avoiding scrutiny by the General Treasury and therefore do not fall within the restrictions imposed by the budget. It is a well-known fact that such enterprises are great recruiting grounds for the families and friends of politicians and cronies.

Against this backdrop the Pathfinder Foundation recommends that the new Government should:

1. Instruct the General Treasury to identify each and every entity within government that falls under the category of SOEs, including those registered under the Companies Act.

2. Ensure that SOEs are independent of the governments budgetary support including bank guarantees. The appointment of the Board of Directors should also be independent of the individual ministers.

3. Make it mandatory that each and every one of these businesses produces audited accounts for 2018 within six months and that these accounts are published in full for Sri Lankan public for their scrutiny.

4. Also, it is necessary that annual publication of economic and financial performance data.

5. In the case of natural monopolies, adopt appropriate international benchmarks by relevant independent regulators as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

6. Call in auditors to identify the quality of governance, management, the degree of internal controls, any structural deficiencies and then publish the reports for scrutiny by Sri Lankan public.

7. Non-strategic SOEs should be privatize or formed into public-private partnerships to ensure eliminate waste of scarce public resources and/or enhance contribution to the economy.

8. Remove all board members from those companies that have consistently failed to generate reasonable return on investment or reach international standards of good business.

(This is one of the Pathfinder Economic Disruptors and hope that policymakers will seriously take these into consideration in their policy formulation process. It can be viewed at http://www.pathfinderfoundation.org, comments are welcome at: pm@pathfinderfoundation.org)

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Removing the burden of SOEs on our people - ft.lk

VANCOUVERNot long after Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer was dogged by the abortion issue during the 2019 federal election, questions are being raised about the support many of his partys members have received from ardent anti-abortion groups.

In October, Scheer finally told reporters that despite his own personal anti-abortion beliefs, his party was not going to try to reopen the abortion debate.

Two Canadian anti-abortion organizations, both of which aim to influence legislation on abortion, collectively supported more than 60 candidates from parties on the political right, with one group alleging many of these individuals would vote to restrict access to abortion, and for the promotion of conscience rights for doctors.

Now 45 of those candidates all members of the Conservative Party are MPs.

And while these groups say the candidates they supported are anti-abortion, several of the now-elected MPs have not explicitly discussed their position, or commented to media on why they received support from anti-abortion groups.

One of these groups is Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), a national organization working at all levels of government to secure full legal protection for all human beings, from the time of conception to natural death.

A website run by CLC called voteprolife.ca, has a list of all candidates they determined to be pro-life in the 2019 election. There were more than 60, all belonging to right-leaning parties, such as the Conservatives or the PPC, or who ran as Independent.

Of the candidates on the list, 45 all Conservatives won their seat.

Candidates were given the green light endorsement based on their alleged answers to a questionnaire distributed by CLC, or by a having a pro-life voting record.

Seventeen now-elected Conservative MPs are alleged to have said yes to the question: If elected, would you vote in favour of a law to protect all unborn children from the time of conception (fertilization) onward? or a similarly phrased version of that question.

A smaller number of 11 now-elected Conservative MPs allegedly answered yes to the question: Do you support the conscience rights of health care professionals to refuse to do or refer for medical procedures which they oppose?

CLC has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Star Vancouver.

Another anti-abortion group, Right Now, which describes itself as a political pro-life organization (that) is focused on nominating and electing pro-life politicians, federally and provincially, also lent its support to federal candidates during the election.

Right Now has kept a list of the candidates it supports under wraps. But it recently published a blog post on the results of the federal election, and mentioned supporting B.C. Conservative candidates Nelly Shin and Tamara Jansen, who are both on the CLC list.

Scott Hayward, co-founder of Right Now, would not say exactly how his organization determined who they would support, only that it was predicated on whether or not a candidate will vote for pro-life legislation, should they be elected.

Hayward went on to say that while Scheer established that the Conservatives would not introduce anti-abortion legislation, individual members could still introduce private members bills.

No leader of a political party recognized in the House of Commons can unilaterally disqualify any private members legislation; we live in a Westminster parliamentary democracy, not a presidential republic, said Hayward in an email statement. Our goal has always been, and remains, to elect a pro-life majority in our federal and provincial legislatures so that pro-life legislation can be passed, regardless of political party affiliation.

A Conservative Party of Canada spokesperson did not answer repeated questions about the partys possible links to CLC and Right Now, but instead doubled down on Scheers comments.

Millions of Canadians hold personal beliefs and different positions on this issue. The Conservative Party is no different, said Cory Hann, director of communications for the Conservative Party of Canada. The Conservative Party will not reopen this divisive social debate.

Hann then pointed to several Liberal candidates he said had expressed anti-abortion views, including Filomena Tassi, John McKay and Lawrence MacAulay.

None of these Liberal MPs have been endorsed by the CLC or Right Now.

Additionally, other MPs on the CLCs list include those who have not been open about their anti-abortion views or answered any of the questions.

One such MP is Nelly Shin, a Conservative newcomer in the riding of Port MoodyCoquitlam, who was also supported by Right Now. Shin did respond to the questionnaire posed by CLC, and it is not clear why the organizations supported her.

In a statement emailed to Star Vancouver after the election, Shin said, Personally, I am pro-life, but Andrew Scheer has been very clear we are not reopening this debate.

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Shin went on to say that groups, individuals, associations, and special interests in Canada have the freedom to organize and support those whom they choose. ... To your question on why some organizations have chosen to include me on their support lists, is a question best for those organizations to answer.

Right Nows Hayward would not explain why his organization endorsed Shin.

Like a political party that does not reveal their list of target seats, we do the same, he said.

The Star Vancouver reached out to several other candidates on CLCs endorsement list, but did not receive responses.

Under Elections Canada rules, a person, corporation or group must register as a third party if they spend more than $500 during the election or pre-election period, on regulated activities, which include activities that promote or oppose a political actor.

Right Now appears on the list as registered third party for the 2019 federal election; CLC does not appear on the list.

Pro-choice advocates have expressed concern over these groups and their possible impacts on the ability for Canadians to access abortion.

Joyce Arthur, executive director of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said the Conservative partys claim that they will not reopen the abortion debate is disingenuous.

Its a political play because they know its a divisive topic, and it can hurt election campaigns, so thats why they take that stance to not reopen the debate, she said. But there are a lot of members of the caucus itching to make that stand.

Arthur said that refusing to reopen the abortion debate does not mean access cant be eroded in other ways, both at the federal and provincial levels. She said one way this is already happening is through the push for medical professionals to be able to exercise their right to practice their conscience at work including the ability to refuse to perform abortions or give abortion referrals.

An Ontario court ruled in 2019 that doctors in the province must give patients referrals for medical services that clash with their religious beliefs, but another battle is now underway in Alberta in the form of Bill 207. The private members bill dealt with conscience rights protections for health-care workers and was introduced by United Conservative Party MLA Dan Williams of Peace River, Alta. This Thursday, a committee of MLAs tasked with reviewing the bill recommended that it not be moved forward to a vote in Albertas legislature.

Michelle Fortin, director of Options for Sexual Health in Vancouver, said that access to abortion, especially in rural areas where medical services are already limited, is already being threatened and conscience rights could further limit access.

We currently have areas of this province and across the country where access to abortion, especially medical abortion, is challenging, she said, noting there are still physicians unwilling to prescribe the abortion pill and pharmacies not willing to carry it.

Fortin added that it was important for Conservative MPs to be up front about their views so voters can understand who they are supporting.

There are folks who voted in the election who arent social conservatives, they are fiscal conservatives, she said. I dont think they understand the depth of concern here.

With files from Nadine Yousif and the Canadian Press

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Anti-abortion group says 45 now-elected Conservative MPs would vote to restrict abortion access heres why pro-choice experts are concerned - Toronto...

One week from today a group of Hamilton County Schools teachers will hold a town hall gathering on teacher pay and public education funding.

We have frequently raised our voice for better teacher pay and certainly support their freedom in making their concerns known. But we wonder what they believe can or will happen before fiscal 2021 budget discussions begin next spring.

Earlier this year, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger presented a budget for fiscal 2020 that would have given district teachers a 5% raise and used whatever clout he had to persuade Hamilton County commissioners to approve it. But commissioners, objecting not so much to the teacher pay as to the large tax increase that would be required to fund those raises if passed, voted it down.

The Hamilton County Board of Education, in negotiations with teachers' representatives, then sent Coppinger a budget that included no raises for teachers and certified staff (including the money allocated by the state for a 2 1/2% raise). Instead, a onetime bonus that would come from its rainy day fund was included.

Commissioners, believing this is what school board members and teachers decided they wanted, passed the budget.

So we wonder why teachers planning the town hall haven't taken board members and their negotiators to the woodshed and thrashed them a bit in telling them, no, this is not what we wanted. And maybe they have, but it seems like taking their concerns public is akin to shutting the barn door after the horses have left.

Members of the public, after all, have spoken through their county commissioners. In fact, we believe they think as we do that teachers do deserve higher pay but that a 34-cent property tax hike to pay for the salary increases and a myriad of needs the district put in its budget request was too much to ask at one time.

The county commissioners who voted against the tax rise said as much.

The town hall is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 17, at 3 p.m., at the Brainerd Youth & Family Development Center, 1010 N. Moore Road.

And members of the public, of course, weren't consulted when school board members and teacher negotiators agreed on their substitute budget and the onetime bonus. They might have hoped, as we did, that salaries might be the center of negotiations this year and then the other district needs would be dealt with as part of budget talks in fiscal 2021.

But those teachers, apparently unhappy with what their own negotiators, did later prevailed upon County Commissioner David Sharpe to raise the possibility of a wheel tax to, in essence, pay for teacher salary increases. In the relative blink of an eye, a resolution was drawn up and submitted.

A vote would be taken to put a wheel tax question on the presidential primary ballot next spring. If the resolution was approved, Hamilton County voters would decide whether they wanted an annual $60 tax on vehicles, with the money going to public schools.

Although we believed there wasn't enough discussion on the ramifications of such a tax, we believed that a public vote on adding such a tax was a proper approach. We don't believe such a tax would have passed, but it would have solidified voters' immediate thoughts on issues involving their wallets.

Nevertheless, commissioners did not approve the resolution, so no referendum will appear on next year's ballot. In this case as in the proposed 34-cent tax rise, we believe commissioners heard from their constituents. We figure they probably heard something like: "We're never going to vote for a wheel tax, so why put it on the ballot?"

But back to the teachers and their dissatisfaction over salaries. Perhaps this is just their first salvo for the 2021 budget. If that is the case, we hope instead of rehashing all that has happened this year, they'll concentrate on what they'd like to see happen next year.

Banging the drum for a huge property tax increase will be a waste of their breath. The public has said twice through its commissioners this year that it doesn't support one. So it might be instructive to ask members of the public who are not teachers who turn out for the town hall what if anything they believe they could support in terms of a property tax increase, or how important they believe teacher salaries are as compared to other district needs or whether consolidation or closure of some schools should be sped up to save the district money.

A town hall can be helpful and may solidify what the public might support, but a rally to call out commissioners who voted against the tax increase or the wheel tax resolution, or to rehash any funding for fiscal 2020 a fiscal year already underway is a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Cooper: Teacher town hall should talk future, not rehash the past - Chattanooga Times Free Press

MADRID Spain's Socialist acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the leader of far-left Unidas Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, signed a preliminary agreement on Tuesday aiming to form what they called a "progressive" coalition government.

They will need more parties to join them to have a majority in parliament.

Following are the key points of the deal:

* Make Spain a point of reference in social rights in Europe; defend freedom, tolerance and respect democratic values

* Consolidate economic growth and job creation, combat precarious labour conditions

* Fiscal justice and budget balance. Spending controls are essential for solid and lasting wellbeing of the state

* Guarantee coexistence in Catalonia and normalise political life there after a secession crisis by promoting dialogue and seeking understanding, always based on the Spanish Constitution

* Strengthen autonomy of the regions, guaranteeing equality for all Spaniards

* Fight corruption

* Protect public services, especially in education and healthcare

* Ensure the sustainability of the pension system and pension adjustments to the cost of living

* Housing as a right and not a commodity

* Fight climate change

* Strengthen small and medium-sized companies, make a push for reindustrialisation

* Ensure the right to dignified death, euthanasia

* Safeguard diversity, fight male chauvinist violence, promote gender equality.

(Reporting by Belen Carreno and Andrei Khalip)

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Factbox: Key Points of Spanish Pact for Leftist Government - The New York Times

Gas is flared as waste from a shale formation where gas and oil extraction using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, takes place in California. Deep well and horizontal drilling is used extensively in fracking, which was used to extract natural gas from 98 per cent of wells brought into production in 2017, according to the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.David McNew / Getty Images files

Credits issued by the provincial government to natural gas companies could cost taxpayers more than $2 billion in foregone revenue, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Between 2016 and 2018, about $1.2 billion in credits for deep-well and horizontal drilling were issued to gas producers, who can use them to reduce future natural gas royalty payments to the government when wells go into production.

B.C. collected $145 million in natural gas royalties in the 2017-18 fiscal year and $164 million in 2018-19, according to the budget and fiscal plan.

The deep well credit program has been in place for 17 years to compensate companies for the higher costs associated with so-called unconventional gas production, which is now so common that the credits are an embedded subsidy to the industry, said CCPA policy analyst Ben Parfitt.

Is the government lowering royalty fees and effectively propping up fossil fuel extraction that would otherwise be unprofitable? wonders a report by the CCPA, a progressive think tank.

The top three credit earners in the gas field in 2017-18 accrued $344 million in credits: Cutbank Encana Partnership, Painted Petroleum and Tourmaline Oil Corp. In all, 26 companies earned $703 million in deep well credits last year, the documents show.

Gas producers have $2.6 billion in credits already on the books, according to B.C.s most recent public accounts report.

These are revenues that are being foregone, said Parfitt, who obtained credit figures with a Freedom of Information request. Down the line, those credits are reimbursed in the form of lower royalty payments.

The program was initiated as an incentive to take on more expensive extraction projects, which Parfitt argues have now become mainstream.

Deep well and horizontal drilling is used extensively in hydraulic fracturing, which was used to extract natural gas from 98 per cent of wells brought into production in 2017, according to the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

Virtually all the new wells being drilled in B.C. are deep wells and horizontal wells for to extract natural gas and valuable liquids such as condensate, which is used to dilute bitumen, said Parfitt. But when it comes time to pay the province the taxpayers for those extracting those products, the royalties are reduced.

The governments three-year fiscal plan notes that the royalty rate is expected to decline in the next two years due to increased utilization of royalty programs and infrastructure credits.

What we would like to know is how much those (gas) companies are actually paying in royalties for a publicly owned resource, and its been like pulling teeth with this government, said Parfitt.

What forest companies pay for cutting trees on public lands is freely available to the public online, he noted.

Energy Minister Michelle Mungall defended the program earlier this year, noting that companies can only use credits to reduce their royalty rate, not to avoid royalties altogether. She added, many of the credits that (Green party Leader Andrew Weaver) speaks of will actually likely never be used as the wells are closed.

With a file from Vaughn Palmer

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Natural gas drilling credits eat up royalty revenue from extraction industry: report - Vancouver Sun

In response to Federico Sturzeneggers Oct. 31 article for AQ, a reader writes:

While the Oct. 27 election results in Argentina werent surprising Alberto Fernndez defeated incumbent Mauricio Macri, whose four years in office left a veritable economic and social scorched earth former Central Bank president Federico Sturzeneggers analysis of Macris tenure was rather surprising. For starters, his statements on freedom of the press and the independence of the justice system are not supported by actual events. Opposition media owners were persecuted and imprisoned under false pretenses, as recent reports have shown, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers requested information regarding serious allegations about the executives meddling in the justice system.

Sturzenegger does get it partially right on two counts. First, Macris presidency is a failure in economic terms. Second, that failure cannot be blamed on the previous government or on bad luck, but entirely due to policies implemented by his government. However, the rest of Sturzeneggers statements on the economythe focus of my letterare troubling.

The writer takes for granted that the mainstream economics view is the only point of view, and that inflation is a result of the fiscal deficit. But with Argentinas economy functioning well below full capacity (currently below 60%), there is clearly room for more demand without it being inflationary. Why, then, did yearly inflation more than double?

We can start by looking at the floating exchange rate championed by Sturzenegger, a highly problematic policy in a country like Argentina where foreign exchange shortages are a recurring problem. Price formation in Argentina is closely linked to fluctuations in the exchange rate and when it increases, so do prices. Furthermore, the government linked key prices to the dollar, including electricity, gas, fuel and transport. The elimination of export taxes on primary products, a mechanism used to decouple domestic prices from world prices, also meant basic foodstuffs (wheat, maize, beef, dairy products) were now linked directly to world prices, leading to increases in lockstep with the exchange rate.

Add to that a broad deregulation of capital flows resulting in a lot more foreign exchange flowing out of the country than into it. Regulations were also changed to allow exporters to keep their revenue in foreign currency abroad instead of changing to pesos locally, further aggravating the dollar shortage and pressuring the exchange rate upward, with the expected impact on the price level.

Therefore, the Macri administrations inability to control inflation was due to the combination of floating exchange rate policy, deregulation and the dollarization of key prices, not the fiscal deficit. This, of course, means that the policies implemented by the central bank to try to control inflation were not only not attacking the root problem but making it worse.

The second major problem, alluded-to only in passing by Sturzenegger, is the massive debt accumulation by the Macri administration. Sturzenegger states that the government had financed itself with short-term dollar debt, which was easily available until early 2018. That statement contains a substantial conceptual confusion: Government spending is in pesos and the government has no need to borrow in foreign currency for expenditures in the national currency.

This confusion led the Macri administration to double Argentinas public debt, in fact financing record levels of capital flight, debt service and the trade deficit (that turned to a surplus in 2018 thanks to a substantial economic recession). The current debt levels and service schedule are a veritable financial time bomb for the next government that will be difficult to deactivate.

The conceptual and theoretical confusions of the Macri administrations neoliberal economists highlight the importance of real-world economics as opposed to mainstream academic textbook models. Sturzeneggers fascination with general equilibrium models and self-adjusting external balances through floating exchange rates may work in the mainstream textbooks, but not in a periphery country like Argentina.

-Alan B. Cibils,Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, November 12.

Continued here:

Letter to the Editor: An Appraisal of Macri - Americas Quarterly

Government data reveals that in 2019, the U.S. held a record 69,550 migrant children in government custody, according to reporting from the Associated Press.

That number is up 42 percent from 2018's fiscal year. United Nations researchers say this means the U.S. has the largest number of children separated from their parents, the AP says. Of the 69,550 children, 4,000 still remain in government custody, where more detained children and teens arrive weekly. Others have already been deported, while some have since reunited with family members in the U.S.

According to the AP, the stringent immigration policies employed by the Trump administration have increased the amount of time children spend in detention centers. These centers sometimes have squalid and overcrowded living conditions.

"Its happening even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can be traumatic for children, putting them at risk of long-term physical and emotional damage," the AP explains.

A teen from Honduras who was detained for four months in a detention center away from his mother spoke to the AP about his experience.

"There was something there that made us feel desperate. It was freedom. We wanted to be free," he said. There was despair everywhere."

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The U.S. held over 69,000 migrant children in government custody in 2019 - Mashable

In this era of Make America Great Again baseball caps and undeserved nostalgia for an unjust past, it is a welcome tonic to read a well written, engaging historical overview of the settler colonialism that drove this countrys creation. The historian Greg Grandins new book The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America fits that bill perfectly.

The End of the Myth shows how the Founding Fathers of the United States held up westward expansion as a crucial part of the prosperous future they saw for white men in North America. Benjamin Franklins version of political economy described the vast lands of the continent as a safety valve that ensured families would grow, wages would stay high, and demand would keep up with supply. For Thomas Jefferson, Grandin writes, The ability to migrate wasnt just an exercise of natural rights but the source of rights, or at least their historically necessary condition. Liberty was made possible by the right to colonize, letting freemen, when their freedom was threatened, move on to find free land and carry the torch from one place to another. And in James Madisons Federalist Paper No. 10, Madison argues that citizens spread over a large space are less likely to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other. Madison wrote that by extending the size of the country, you take in a greater variety of parties and interests, thus avoiding mob rule or consolidation of power in the hands of a few.

Grandin shows how wars against Native Americans led to wars of conquest outside the U.S., including in Latin America. By the Trump Era, Grandin argues, these wars had largely run their course, resulting in a retreat to increasingly brutal U.S.-Mexico border repression as a symptom of the U.S. empires inward turn.

The fixation with expansionism did not diminish with time. In 1824, President James Monroe wrote, There is no object which as a people we can desire which we do not possess or which is not within our reach. And, as the white men at the helm of the new nations government all agreed, what was within their reach was theirs to take.

Disagreements emerged among the governing classes about how to deal with the Indigenous populations living on land that white elites and their settler underlings felt entitled to. Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder who saw himself as a man of the Enlightenment, argued that Native Americans should be compelled to assimilate into white society and give up their hunting and fishing grounds to settlers. This assimilation was to be accomplished through predatory debt: Jefferson explained that when debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands. Of course, if they resisted, Jefferson wrote, Native Americans must see we have only to shut our hands to crush them. Ultimately, Jefferson was willing to accept extermination if forceful persuasion failed.

On the more completely bloodthirsty end of the spectrum, Andrew Jackson dispensed with any pretenses to kinder, gentler conquest. As a lawyer, Jackson profited significantly from theft of Native lands by processing white settler claims. By the time he was elected president in 1828, Jacksons approach to westward expansion relied on three core policies: Indian removal, war with Mexico, and the defense and extension of slavery. Rabidly racist, Jackson threw supremacist raw meat to his low-income, sparsely educated white base. As Grandin writes, Jacksonian settlers moved across the frontier, continuing to win a greater liberty by putting down people of color, and then continuing to define their liberty in opposition to the people of color they put down.

In Jacksons first term, the Indian Removal Act pushed tens of thousands of Native Americans off their lands, opening it up to poor whites who otherwise would have been increasingly malcontent in overcrowded cities. Those lands also became part of the slave economy.

War as Empire Building

The U.S. war on Mexico, declared by President James Polk in 1846, deepened cycles of racist hatred in the service of empire building. At the end of his life, Ulysses S. Grant looked back on his role in helping to win that war and called it one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. Rape and slaughter of civilians and war refugees was common. A U.S. officer described the atrocities: The smiling villages which welcomed our troops on their upward march are now black and smoldering ruins, the gardens and orange groves destroyed, and the inhabitants have sought refuge in the mountains. He concluded, The march of Attila was not more withering and destructive. All-Mexico Jacksonians pushed for the annexation of the entire country. The eastern U.S. press fed war fever by picturing Mexicans as barely human, with the New York Herald describing Spanish, African, and Native American mixing in Mexico as leading to the imbecility and degradation of the Mexican people. The Heralds editor pronounced, Amalgamation has always been abhorrent to the Anglo-Saxon race on this continent.

Grandin does an effective job of putting mid-19thcentury U.S. politics into a global context. He points out that in 1848, European countries saw worker revolts which were ultimately defeated but led to radical reforms, including pensions, welfare, education, and health care. As to workers in the United States in the same period, Grandin explains, instead of waging class war upward on aristocrats and ownersthey waged race war outward, on the frontier. During the 1848 presidential election, Zachary Taylor, who won the presidency, was pictured in a popular political cartoon sitting atop a pyramid of skulls holding a bloody sword.

After the civil war ended, westward movement of whites went into overdrive. Under the Homestead Act, the federal government gave almost three hundred million acres of public land to around four hundred thousand families. As Native Americans continued to be pushed off their ancestral lands, the largest chunks of territory seized went to the most powerful corporations and conglomerates. These giveaways were tied to massive corruption and fraud in the U.S. government of the 1870s and 1880s. This period also saw the opening of new overseas markets for U.S. agricultural and manufacturing exports.

By the 1890s, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner would write that the frontier was a magic fountain of youth in which American continually bathed and was rejuvenated. Turner, a professor at the University of Wisconsin who presented his Frontier Thesis at the Worlds Congress of Historians and Historical Studies in 1893, also wrote, The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development. Grandin stresses how influential Turner was on other historians, and shows how much Turner played down the less flattering history of American development. Dismissing the importance of enslaved Africans in building US wealth, Turner wrote, When American history comes to be rightly viewed, it will be seen that the slavery question is an incident.

Grandin contrasts Turners airy generalizations with brutal realities on the ground. Those realities are accurately depicted via the pronouncements of Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote, The settler and pioneer have at bottom had justice on their side: this great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages, and Andrew Jackson, who encouraged soldiers under his command to pant with vengeance and turn themselves into engines of destruction while butchering Creeks.

In 1890, the U.S. census office stopped using frontier to describe any western territory, noting that given the large white population in the west, there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. But overseas expansion soon gobbled up new lands beyond the continental United States. Washingtons 1898 annexation of Hawaii and declaration of war on Spain started the process, soon to be followed by the seizure of Puerto Rico, Guam, and Manila, and the establishment of a protectorate over Cuba. In 1902, Woodrow Wilson, a firm believer in U.S. wars of conquest in the Pacific and the Caribbean, praised these developments, saying, We made new frontiers for ourselves beyond the seas.

These new wars served to unite confederates with their former enemies in the north. In Grandins words, In each military occupation and prolonged counterinsurgency they fought, southerners could replay the dissonance of the confederacy again and again. They could fight in the name of the loftiest idealsliberty, valor, self-sacrifice, camaraderiewhile putting down people of color.

The Border and the Frontier

Throughout the 20th century, U.S. presidents used the word frontier to build support for wars on foreign soil. John F. Kennedy used it to describe the Vietnam War and various Third World counterinsurgency campaigns. Ronald Regan argued that his own counterinsurgency wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Angola were on the Freedom Frontier. Then, in 1989, George H.W. Bush said, We saw the frontier beyond the stars, the frontier within ourselves. In the frontiers ahead, there are no boundaries.

Grandin argues that limits to seemingly interminable U.S. wars began to appear after George W. Bushs invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004, W. told the world, We will extend the frontiers of freedom. But, Bushs declaration of mission accomplished notwithstanding, the outward push turned into an endless slog. Grandin writes: Had the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq not gone so wrong, perhaps Bush might have been able to contain the growing racism within his partys rank and file by channeling it into his Middle East crusade, the way Ronald Reagan broke up the most militant nativist vigilantes in the 1980s by focusing their attention on Central America. Instead, thousands of broken young men and women were cycled out of Bushs wars back home to a nation hollowed out by stratospheric military spending, fiscal austerity, and massive job loss due in part to trade agreements like NAFTA, which a Clinton cabinet member had referred to as the moral equivalent of the frontier in the nineteenth century.

Grandins take on Barack Obama is a welcome contrast to mainstream punditry that offers rosy, misty-eyed assessments of Obamas tenure in the White House. Grandin convincingly lays out how Obamas election was red meat to homegrown racists, their ranks swelled by returning vets. Obamas commitment to Clinton-style trade deals did nothing to improve conditions for the millions of Americans living in poverty. Although he managed to serve two terms, the economic impact of trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea, along with his tepid approach to regulating the banking sector that had almost tanked the economy in 2008, gave plentiful ammunition to right wing faux-populists. As Grandin notes, [Obama] kept reaching for a center that no longer existed, that he seemed to think he could reconstitute by the power of his rhetoric and infiniteness of his patience.

The End of the Myth argues that by the time of the Obama administration, the safety valve of externally directed aggression via warfare on the periphery was no longer working. In Grandins view, The country lost its ability to channel extremism outward, and the kind of chaos that the United States had released in the Persian Gulf was increasingly mirrored at home, in an escalating spiral of jihadist massacres, mass school shootings, and white-supremacist and masculinist rampages [] the violence that had been associated with moving outward in the world, which gave the illusion of leaving problems behind, now just accumulates.

Grandin sees the U.S.-Mexico border as a prime site of that accumulation of violence. The border has long been a source of racist terror.The KKK played a key role in the anti-Mexican terror campaigns of the early 1920s, when whites responded to an influx of cross-border refugees from the Mexican Revolution with horrific violence. The Klan had more than a million members at the start of the 1920s, with 200,000 of them in Texas. In addition to demonizing and terrorizing Jews and African Americans, Klan members targeted Mexican migrants as far north as Oregon. Along the border, the New York Times observed in 1923, The killing of Mexicans without provocation is so common as to pass almost unnoticed. The KKK, which had infiltrated both local police forces and state national guards, was often behind such murders.

White supremacists clamored for restrictions on Mexican immigrants in the early 1920s, but business interests profiting handsomely from the toil of brown bodies kept legal barriers to cross-border travel to a minimum. But, Grandin explains, Having lost the national debate when it came to restricting Mexicans, and fearing they were losing the larger struggle in defense of Anglo-Saxonism, white supremacists took control of the newly established U.S. Border Patrol and turned it into a vanguard of race vigilantism. Klan members joined the Border Patrol in large numbers, and sated their hatred of brown people by beating, shooting, and hanging migrants.

Contemporary white racism toward brown people was blatantly exploited by Donald Trump in his improbable seizure of the presidency. At the border, Grandin observes, Trump policies build on past deportation regimes and [turn] structural cruelties into spectacular cruelties.

To ask the question that has been on the lips of everyone I know since November 2016, what is to be done? Here is Grandins take, which rings true to me, in the conclusion to his books epilogue:

Maybe after Trump is gone, what is understood as the political center can be reestablished. But it seems doubtful. Politics appears to be moving in two opposite directions. One way, nativism beckons; Donald Trump, for now, is its standard-bearer. The other way, socialism calls out to younger voters who, burdened by debt and confronting a bleak labor market, are embracing social rights in numbers never before seen. Coming generations will face a stark choice a choice long deferred by the emotive power of frontier universalism but set forth in vivid relief by recent events: the choice between barbarism and socialism, or at least social democracy.

Following that summation, The End of the Myth closes with A Note on Sources and Other Matters that is packed with references to works consulted in its writing. The range of sources is an impressive testimony to Grandins meticulous attention to detail.He is certainly a left-wing dissident, but theres nothing doctrinaire or formulaic about his approach: He writes to uncover the truth and elucidate, not to preach.He challengesconventional wisdom while writing in a lively engaging voice that is both articulate and penetrating in its insights. He has packed The End of the Myth with so much fascinating history that, like me, you may feel compelled to read the book a second time. I cant recommend it highly enough.

Ben Terrall is a San Francisco-based writer whose work has appeared in CounterPunch, In These Times, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Noir City, January Magazine, and other outlets.

Disclaimer: Greg Grandin is a NACLA board member

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Greg Grandin and the End of the Myth (Review) - NACLA

With Connor OBrien

Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Defense is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Defense subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 5:30 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services at politicopro.com.

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Top House and Senate budget lawmakers plan to meet this evening to figure out the way forward for the fiscal 2020 budget.

Lawmakers say Turkeys president shouldnt meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

The Pentagon chief says an Army officer who testified in the impeachment inquiry shouldnt face retaliation.

HAPPY TUESDAY AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we're always on the lookout for tips, pitches and feedback. Email us at dbrown@politico.com, and follow on Twitter @dave_brown24, @morningdefense and @politicopro.

HAPPENING TONIGHT: The four top appropriators on Capitol Hill Sens. Richard Shelby and Patrick Leahy, and Reps. Nita Lowey and Kay Granger will meet tonight to breathe life into plans to pass a budget even as the clock ticks down to the end of the current continuing resolution, POLITICOs Caitlin Emma reported last week.

That includes figuring out how to deal with Trumps plans to divert funding for the border wall. Were going to talk about everything any way to move the process, Shelby said. We have to do the best we can as soon as we can.

And while everyone agrees that the impeachment proceedings are sucking the oxygen out of the quest to pass appropriations bills, The Associated Press writes that the hearings bring one benefit.

The odds for a spending deal could be helped by the apparent sidelining because of impeachment of acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and budget office chief Russell Vought, two hard-liners with whom [Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has clashed in the past.

AID WITH STRINGS ATTACHED: Aides to President Donald Trump are drafting plans to condition U.S. aid to other countries on how well they treat their religious minorities, two White House officials said, POLITICOs Nahal Toosi and Gabby Orr report.

The proposal is expected to cover U.S. humanitarian assistance, and could also be broadened to include American military aid to other countries. If the proposal becomes reality, it could have a major effect on U.S. assistance in a range of places, from Iraq to Vietnam.

Subject to change: Two White House officials ... stressed that the idea is in its early stages and an executive order is still being drafted, meaning questions about, say, whether military aid will be covered remain unanswered.

NSC SHRINKAGE: White House national security adviser Robert OBrien is moving quickly to shrink and reshape his staff rattling some nerves already frayed by the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Toosi reports.

The changes at the National Security Council are both sweeping and minute: several dozen policy roles will be eliminated as staffers return to their home agencies or leave government in the coming two months; at least two NSC divisions are being phased out completely; a third, meanwhile, has been handed off to a separate White House-based group.

CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF: A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging Trump to call off a Wednesday meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing the countrys cross-border incursion into Syria last month, our colleague Connor OBrien reports.

The incursion has had disastrous consequences for U.S. national security, has led to deep divisions in the NATO alliance and caused a humanitarian crisis on the ground, the 17 lawmakers write. "Given this situation, we believe that now is a particularly inappropriate time for President Erdogan to visit the United States, and we urge you to rescind this invitation.

Related: Behind Trump-Erdogan 'bromance,' a White House meeting to repair U.S.-Turkey ties, via Reuters.

ABOUT THAT OTHER FREEZE: House lawmakers are demanding to know more about the administrations freeze of aid to Lebanon, Al-Monitor reports.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., have written a letter to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to find out why the White House put a hold on $105 million in foreign military financing to Lebanon in October.

We are confounded by the decision to hold this assistance, they wrote, asking Mulvaney to fill in the blanks by Friday.

HAPPENING TODAY: Sen. Todd Young, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discusses U.S. national security and geopolitical challenges at 11:30 a.m. at the Hudson Institute. And Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch talks about China's political and economic influence in Europe at 3 p.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

NO RETALIATION: Defense Secretary Mark Esper says an Army officer who testified in the impeachment inquiry shouldnt face retaliation, Reuters writes.

He shouldnt have any fear of retaliation, Esper told reporters traveling with him to New York. Thats DoDs position.

Esper added that hes spoken to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy about the need to protect the officer, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, along with anyone else who comes forward.

Coopers take: Trumps decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine this summer sent shockwaves through the administration as different corners scrambled to figure out what was going on, according to testimony by Pentagon official Laura Cooper released Monday night, per POLITICOs Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney.

She also learned through the White House that the holdup was somehow related to concerns about corruption.

The House also released the transcript of Christopher Anderson, a top aide to Kurt Volker, the administrations point man on Ukraine negotiations.

In his testimony, Anderson recounts that Trump once called then-national security adviser John Bolton at home after seeing a CNN report that a U.S. destroyer would be conducting a freedom-of-navigation operation in the Black Sea in a message to Moscow.

The operation was canceled.

THE INVISIBLE MAN: Foreign Policy is out with a new piece on Espers growing influence in the administration and his relationship with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, drawing differences between the two West Point grads leadership style.

A senior Defense Department official notes that Esper defers to Pompeo, even though the former has a larger agency.

Ive seen this now half-a-dozen times, the official noted. Whenever Pompeo calls, Esper clears the room and closes the door. People have noticed. I dont think that Pompeo runs Esper, but its a bad look.

Another official took note of how Esper handled Trumps surprise decision to pull U.S. troops from northern Syria.

Esper was more than a good soldier on this one, the official said. He was tireless. He spent that weekend on the telephone, talking to his counterparts, worked with the [Pentagons] anti-ISIS task force until all hours and then appeared on news programs to defend the president. It was an impressive performance.

Code of silence: Recently retired senior officers are struggling over whether to speak out against Trumps policies, according to a story in The Atlantic.

Following one of Trumps most controversial defense-policy decisions yetthe announcement that he would take U.S. troops out of the way of a Turkish assault on Americas Kurdish counter-ISIS partnerswe made efforts to contact more than two dozen four-star generals and admirals who retired under Trump to see whether they believed the moment warranted breaking silence.

Only three agreed to speak on the record, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford, who spoke out in defense of Vindman.

Another was retired Army Gen. Vince Brooks, who said hes uneasy with how Trump treats the Pentagon.

I think what youre seeing is a growing concern that that military advice is not being sought, and if sought, is not being considered, he said. I share the concerns as well.

KEEP THE PACT: The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff called on South Korea to stay in a military information-sharing pact with Japan, part of a high-level U.S. push to hold together the agreement between two of its closest allies days before it is due to expire, The Wall Street Journal writes.

Gen. Mark Milley, who is visiting Japan and South Korea on his first overseas trip as chairman, told reporters on a military jet before landing in Japan on Monday that strong three-way military coordination was needed to face threats in the region.

UN reports increasing violations of Iran nuclear deal: The Associated Press

Afghanistan to swap Taliban militants for American, Australian captives: Reuters

US troops at Syria base say they'll keep pressure on IS: AP

USAF logs fewer severe aviation mishaps in fiscal 2019: Air Force Magazine

2 veterans serving in Congress want the Global War on Terrorism memorial built on the National Mall: Task & Purpose

Read more from the original source:

Lawmakers huddle to plot next steps on the budget - Politico

The University of Wisconsin is advocating for Senate Bill 446 to provide funding for research to find and identify Wisconsin soldiers who are missing.

Torrey Tiedeman, the communications and outreach coordinator of the Missing in Action Recovery and Identification project, said the purpose of the project is to advance the recovery of missing-in-action service members from overseas by using different practices and student volunteers across the UW system.

According to the projects website, it brings together four scholarly disciplines: history, archaeology, forensic anthropology and genetic analysis. These areas work together to survey sites and exhume and identify remains. These teams are composed of students, researchers, student veterans, alumni and volunteers.

The researchers specializing in archaeology and genetics have been working with the United States Department of Defense since 2013 to identify missing U.S. soldiers, according to AP News.

State lawmakers sign bill to fund UW project to find missing soldiersState lawmakers seek to fund the University of Wisconsins project to find missing soldiers, with 88 lawmakers signing a bill. Read

State Sens. Roger Roth, R-Appleton, and Dale Kooyenga, R-Brookfield, and state Reps. Ken Skowronski, R-Franklin, and Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, are the lead authors on the bill. It will provide $360,000 to the project over the next two fiscal years if passed.

Tiedeman said that since 2014, the project has found and identified three soldiers, all of whom were killed in France during World War II. These recovery missions are assigned to the UW MIA-RIP and funded by the DOD, according to AP.

Angela Roidt, communications director for Roth, wrote in an email that some projects can cost $1.5 million and take up to two years to complete, and due to the success of its past missions, the U.S. Department of Defense began partnering with similar programs throughout the country.

The DOD has not assigned the team any Wisconsin MIA cases, which is why the state is helping with this bill, Roidt wrote.

Charles Konsitzke founded the project and is the team leader. Konsitzke is also the associate director for the UW Biotechnology Center, which hosts the projects. He said he started this project because a civilian asked UWBC to help them find a missing soldier. Konsitzke said he doesnt have personal connections to any missing-in-action soldiers, but he did come from a military family. He said he felt motivated from witnessing how academics can further the search for soldiers.

Roth is a lead author on the bill and circulated it for support among his legislative colleagues in the senate and the assembly. Twenty-seven state senators and 61 representatives have signed onto SB 446 since its introduction Sept. 23.

UWPD to add officer position off campus in Langdon St. areaThe University of Wisconsin Police Department will add an officer position on Langdon St. and the surrounding downtown area to Read

Roidt wrote in an email that Wisconsin has 1,500 missing-in-action service members of the 82,000 nationwide.

Families all over the state are missing their loved ones without the closure of knowing what happened to them, Roidt wrote.

Roidt also wrote that Roth served four tours in the Middle East. He was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and three times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Roth is a military officer in the Wisconsin Air National Guard holding the rank of first lieutenant. Roths military experience allows him to understand the sacrifice of those who serve, as well as their families, made for our freedom.

It is our duty to give every effort and attempt to bring their remains back home to their families, Roidt wrote.

The bill will benefit both the Wisconsin missing-in-action soldiers and their families at a lower cost and with greater effectiveness because of the resources UW would have access to. Roidt wrote that with the increase in funding under the bill, the project could conduct recovery missions in areas of the world that are off limits to DOD missions.

Wisconsin has led the nation on missing-in-action recovery projects. With this bill, Wisconsin could become the first state in the nation to fund the projects mission, Roidt wrote.

Finance Committee rejects adding new officers to MPDMadison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and the City of Madison Finance Committee met for eight hours Monday night to discuss the Read

This project has worked closely with the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency since 2016.

[The project] is tasked with recovery missions from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Tiedeman said.

The DPAA provides the UW project available information on the case, equipment and some of their own personnel.

Tiedeman has a military background. He said the project has enabled him to continue serving without being in the military.

Excerpt from:

UW pushes for bill to fund project that finds and identifies missing soldiers - The Badger Herald

Betsy DeVos confirmation hearing in January 2017 made her a universal punchline. When asked about her thoughts on guns in school, she famously pointed to the need to protect students from grizzly bears. When asked about her opinions on exams that measure proficiency versus those that measure growth, she could barely stammer out an answer. In a Republican-majority Senate, the billionaire mega-donor was barely confirmed to her position, a humiliating turn that required Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Two years later, DeVos remains among the least popular Cabinet members in a historically unpopular administration. Yet, somehow, even as her peers dropped like flies former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson the education secretary has remained standing.

HuffPost spoke with over a dozen people about DeVos longevity, including former colleagues at the Department of Education, former co-workers in the advocacy space, and several political opponents who continue to root for her downfall.

For the most part, despite her wild unpopularity, they chalk up DeVos success to President Donald Trumps relative disinterest in education, her comparative lack of ethical conflicts and scandal, and her connections to the evangelical community, a group that serves as an important voting bloc for the president.

But they also point to her wholehearted belief in the righteousness of her agenda and persistence in seeing it through. Many of both her supporters and opponents say theyre not surprised shes lasted this long, describing her in similar terms determined, dedicated, resolute though vehemently disagreeing on what these traits mean for students.

Her boosters and detractors seem to agree: Whether people hate or love what shes doing, shes doing it because she truly believes in it.

Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty ImagesKate McKinnon plays Betsy DeVos on "Saturday Night Live" on March 17, 2018.

A Confirmation Hearing Disaster And Troubles In Trumpland

DeVos confirmation hearing earned her a portrayal by Kate McKinnon on Saturday Night Live and a message from the White House detailing the inadequacy of her performance, according to a former administration official.

But since then, Trump has mostly stayed out of her way, whether out of disinterest or distraction. DeVos has similarly worked to avoid conflict with Trump and the pitfalls of self-promotion, quietly pressing forward with her education agenda.

She has unsuccessfully worked to drum up interest in a federal school choice program and shes slashed guidance that promotes civil rights in schools. She has moved to give colleges especially for-profit ones with sometimes fraudulent practices more freedom from oversight, despite a litany of judicial challenges.

She keeps doing what she said she was gonna do, what shes always done and what she was hired to do, said Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform, who has crossed paths with DeVos over the years as an advocate for school choice.

Her clashes with the president have generally been infrequent and insignificant: DeVos heard from the White House early on when she issued a botched statement calling HBCUs historically black colleges and universities formed in response to systemic discrimination pioneers in school choice. When she flubbed a 60 Minutesinterview in March 2018, she also heard from her boss, said a former staffer.

DeVos has mostly navigated her way through the bumps, though even when it comes to larger issues of policy and communication publicly carrying the presidents water.

When Trump charged DeVos with running the Federal School Safety Commission after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, he made her the face of an initiative she had relatively little say over, sources told HuffPost.

To DeVos dismay, the White House used the commission to emphasize schools ability to arm personnel. DeVos didnt necessarily disagree with such proposals she is dedicated to the idea of local control and allowing districts to make such choices for themselves but she didnt see the need to highlight such an option. And then, as the president waffled on whether the commission should look at potential age restrictions on firearms, she was left to look foolish, at one point describing the commission as a group that would study school shootings but not guns.

DeVos most publicly pushed back against the president in March after he took credit for saving proposed cuts to the Special Olympics. Until that point, DeVos had toed the administrations line over the cuts, even amid widespread public outrage. The cuts had been proposed every year and were most recently pushed by Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting White House chief of staff despite DeVos opposition.

I am pleased and grateful the president and I see eye-to-eye on this issue, and that he has decided to fund our Special Olympics grant, DeVos said in a statement at the time. This is funding I have fought for behind the scenes over the last several years.

In response to this article, DeVos office emphasized her strong working relationship with President Trump.

Its evident in their collaborative efforts to protect First Amendment rights on college campuses, make American STEM education (and the future STEM workforce) the envy of the world, their work on school safety, and most of all, their partnership on the Education Freedom Scholarships Proposal, spokesperson Angela Morabito said.

The Education Department denied there had been any conflict between DeVos and the White House on the Federal School Safety Commission, emphasizing that the secretary believes every school and community has its own unique needs, one size does not fit all, and the people closest to the problem must be empowered to solve it.

DeVos Determination

Carolyn Kaster/APEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos, left, accompanied by Education Department Budget Service Director Erica Navarro, testify at a hearing on the Education Department's fiscal 2018 budget on May 24, 2017.

Eliza Byard, president of LGBTQ civil rights group GLSEN, recalls DeVos painfully pushing school choice during a meeting with advocates of transgender youth, right after the Education Department rescinded guidance designed to protect these students. Amid a discussion about safety concerns for these children, DeVos awkwardly promoted school choice, despite the fact that private schools in voucher programs are in fact legally allowed to ban LGBTQ students and many of them do.

The thing that is painful and alarming and infuriating about that is there were already things in place solving those problems and they were ripped apart, Byard said.

Indeed, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, uses harsh words to describe DeVos. But theres one word Weingarten wont use: chameleon.

She is who she is.She doesnt pretend to be pro-public education, she doesnt pretend to be pro-student. She is pro-privatization, she is pro-big business, she is pro-the student lender industry, said Weingarten, who leads a teachers union of about 1.7 million members that recently sued DeVos over alleged mismanagement of a student loan forgiveness program.

But those who have worked with DeVos both inside and outside the Education Department maintain that while she might have tunnel vision, her motives on this issue are pure. They describe her as driven by altruism rather than opportunism, a trait that may separate her from her peers in the Trump administration. Whether misguided or not, she truly sees choice as a prerequisite for meaningful educational improvement that could especially benefit low-income children of color.

I think Betsy DeVos has the best of intentions. Her desire to expand choice, especially for poor kids and kids of color, comes from a big heart and interest in seeing kids in America do better, said Michael Petrilli, president of the right-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

To the degree shes been cast as some kind of villain, thats not who she is. You might think she has bad ideas, but she doesnt have bad intentions.

Deliberate and Methodical

Former employees and associates say they understand why its easy to see DeVos as a villain. But they work to rationalize her actions, painting her motivations and personality in plain terms.

When she takes steps to protect at times predatory for-profit colleges well, she thought the Obama administration treated these institutions unduly harshly and that the free market should be left to work its magic unencumbered, regardless of the casualties. (Courts have consistently ruled against DeVos in several of her attempts to roll back protections for victims in these cases, in one instance calling her actions arbitrary and capricious.)

Shes not an outwardly warm and fuzzy type person that doesnt mean shes cold and distant but it certainly doesnt mean she approaches her job or issues that come across her desk as: How can we screw up students lives today? said one former education staffer.

And,according to a former employee, her most recent wave of scandals which resulted in her being held in contempt of court after the Department of Education continued to collect money from defrauded students despite a ban on doing so was more of an accidental snafu in a cumbersome system than any type of sinister DeVos-led plot. (The judge in that case previously said she was astounded, really, just really astounded at the departments sheer scale of violations.)

Pretty simply, it was nothing more complicated than an operational glitch, said A. Wayne Johnson, who was the Department of Educations chief strategy and transformation officer before resigning in October and endorsing a mass cancellation of student debt. Wayne described DeVos as an inspirational leader, and the best example of what a committed public servant is about.

Her decisions are characteristically deliberate and methodical. Early in the administration, when DeVos sparred with Trump and Sessions over the decision to repeal joint Department of Education and Department of Justice guidance designed to protect transgender students, it was less out of concern for those students than concern for a lack of process,sources said.

While former employees suspect that DeVos may have ultimately decided to rescind the guidance which called on schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that aligned with their gender identity she would have preferred to have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders first.

Maria Danilova/APProtesters demonstrate during a speech by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on Sept. 28, 2017. Asked about protections for transgender students, DeVos said she was committed to making sure all students are safe. But she rescinded guidance that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that matched their gender identity.

They maintain that shes not personally homophobic or racist despite slashing a number of pieces of guidance designed to protect vulnerable groups just disdainful of federal overreach. When a group of Harvard students unfurled a sign calling her a white supremacist during a September 2017 speech, she was particularly hurt, they said.(In response to a question about this incident, Education Department spokesperson Morabito said DeVos wants to focus on students, not on herself, and certainly not on personal attacks that have no basis in truth.)

But these depictions are a far cry from how her detractors describe DeVos and the impact of her actions.

She never pretended she knew anything about schools or public schools, said Weingarten. [The Department] hasnt dealt with the student loan crisis. Instead, theyve just walked away from obligations to students, or theyve made it worse.

Others wonder if, when it comes to school choice, DeVos is actively hurting the cause she most wants to promote. Theres scant expectation she will succeed in pushing any type of federal program an initiative at odds with her love of small government. Using her bully pulpit as education secretary to promote school choice seems like her greatest hope for expanding programs around the country, but DeVos is an unpopular Cabinet member in a historically unpopular administration. School choice once drummed up bipartisan support, but DeVos has helped make the issue radioactive for centrists and Democrats, Petrilli says.

After writing a letter of support to Congress upon DeVos nomination, he now wishes she would just step down.

She seems like someone who is determined to show grit and perseverance and demonstrate she was going to follow through [with the job.] I think she deserves a lot of credit for that, he said. My only argument is two years is plenty to demonstrate that. She could have stepped down after the midterm election and felt quite good.

DeVos office vehemently denies that the issue of school choice has been in any way harmed by her tenure, saying that it continues to gain popularity across states.

The only vocal national opponents of education freedom are seeking the endorsement of the teachers union, said Morabito. They are the ones who ought to be asked to explain why the issue has suddenly become divisive.

Secretary DeVos is dedicated to advancing Education Freedom, Morabito continued. She has worked tirelessly to keep the focus on the cause allowing every student in America to access a high-quality education thats right for them.

But her last day also cant come soon enough for advocates like Byard, who says DeVos has already perpetuated so much harm in the everyday lives of vulnerable students.

I wish something would get through to her, Byard said. Were parents and were people who care deeply about children. And were scared.

This article has been updated to include comments from an Education Department spokesperson.

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Betsy DeVos Might Outlast Them All - HuffPost

Washington Catholics joined an array of faith communities, human rights groups, clergy, refugees and refugee resettlement agencies gathered outside the U.S. Capitol Oct. 15 protesting deep cuts to the refugee admissions program.

Some shouted "Jesus was a refugee" toward the Capitol as others, including a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, were led from the steps of the U.S. Capitol in handcuffs in an act of civil disobedience.

Catholic groups, including the Franciscan Action Network and Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, joined other Christian organizations, along with Jewish and Muslim groups demanding that the refugee cap be set at 95,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, and not the expected 18,000 the Trump administration has asked for. They also took issue with past characterizations by the administration insinuating some refugees enter the country to do harm.

"We are loyal citizens, we love this country," said Nihad Awad, a Palestinian born in a refugee camp in Jordan, who is the co-founder and CEO of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Being allowed to live the U.S. "changed my life," he said. "It moved me from despair to hope."

He said efforts to shut the door to those like him, seeking safety, were "immoral and un-American."

Jason Miller, of the Franciscan Action Network, participated in the event and showed up to support the program, as he once worked with refugee resettlement through Catholic Charities in Nashville, Tennessee.

"Refugees are some of the most generous, hard-working, and patriotic people I have ever met," Miller said. "Despite the rhetoric, they are not terrorists. They are escaping war and persecution. We have a moral imperative as a nation of immigrants to reach historic norms of 95,000 refugees for Fiscal Year 2020 and, as Christians, we must reject any rhetoric that demonizes refugees and stokes fear and division."

Susan Gunn, director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, was one of the 18 arrested, along with Sr. Maria Orlandini, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, who is a member of the Franciscan Action Network.

Gunn said that with so many crises and emerging displacement around the world, she couldn't "stand by idly" as the United States turns its back on refugees.

"Our commitment to offer refuge to those fleeing violence and persecution, rooted in our faith and more than 100 years of Maryknoll mission, requires our government to demonstrate the moral leadership upon which our nation was founded," she said. "To arbitrarily restrict tens of thousands of people from seeking safety would be to forsake our nations values of compassion, hospitality and welcome."

Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America's Voice, which supports immigrants, also was arrested at the Capitol steps. He said he wanted to take the part in the event, even though he knew speaking out wasn't likely to change the mind of the president, but he at least wanted Congress to know others were watching their actions.

Sharry said he also wanted to "take a stand," and "say no to closed doors" for people seeking safety.

"Opening our hearts and our arms to refugees from around the world is foundational to the American experiment. Ours is a nation defined not by blood and soil but by shared ideas and ideals," he said. "I am proud to stand up for one of America's finest traditions, and I am heartbroken that this administration recklessly trashes it.

"It is actions like today that renew my faith that we the people will overcome the aberrant administration in power to restore our commitment to welcoming those who come to infuse the nations bloodstream with a profound love of freedom."

Among some of the most notable arrested was Anne Richard, who was assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration from 2012 to 2017, under the Obama administration. She pleaded with lawmakers and touted the policy benefits to the U.S. that have come about because of the resettlement program.

"The program once had strong bipartisan support, since policymakers on both sides of the aisle understood that by resettling refugees, the United States serves as a moral leader and annually renews a promise on which our country was founded," she said.

"Resettlement also supports U.S. foreign policy interests, including the fragile regional stability in the Middle East," she continued. "Supporting the countries that host refugees through investment, humanitarian aid and resettlement is essential as globally more than 70 million people are displaced, including nearly 26 million refugees."

She added: "By taking in some refugees, the U.S. can encourage other countries to keep their doors open and allow refugees to work and refugee children to attend school. That's key to mitigating conflict, restoring dignity to those whove fled and ensuring a future for millions of young people."

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Catholics arrested with other faith groups protesting low cap for refugees - National Catholic Reporter