July 4th, 2019 • 3h 5m

1152: Veergayin

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Kaepernick And Betsy Ross

From Moe

Goes back to berkeley harry edwards

photo of kapernick on bench as a malcontent

before he wasn't even seen as a black quarterback

he is clueless

never spoke out about trevon or others

He has never spoken in public really

Technology outgrew Sharpton and jesse jackson

This is Sharpton 2.0

Colin Kaepernick did not stand during the National Anthem [picture] - Niners Nation

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 21:26

Fooch's note: Mike Garafolo tweeted that Kaepernick has been doing this all preseason.

Colin Kaepernick has not just been completely focused on the competition for a starting role with the San Francisco 49ers. He recently has been very vocal on social media about the social injustices that have been sweeping the headlines all over the country. Possibly as a statement in conjunction with what he has been expressing, the QB did not stand during the National Anthem preceding the third preseason game. Instead, he quietly sat in front of the Gatorade coolers by himself, seemingly without anyone noticing.

I was in the press box during the game and tweeted out a picture of the sidelines during the game in comedic reference to the show Hard Knocks. Little did I know that the same photo provided proof that the Kaepernick was indeed seated during the the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Jennifer Lee Chan The 49ers released this statement to ProFootballTalk, who broke the story, following the game:

The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose to participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.

Until Kaepernick or his representation makes a statement, we cannot be sure of the true reason for him not standing for the National Anthem. What we do know is that the NFL is a conservative organization down to its patriotic logo and it's an organization that is heavily intertwined with the military. In a league where image is very important, it is doubtful that this will go away anytime soon.

Colin Kaepernick Sits During National Anthem Before Packers vs. 49ers | Bleacher Report | Latest News, Videos and Highlights

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 20:43

Michael B. Thomas/Getty ImagesSan Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made his preseason debut on Aug. 26 against the Green Bay Packers, but that turned out to be the second-biggest story for the 28-year-old.

NFLFemale.com's Jennifer Lee Chan captured a photo of Kaepernick sitting during the national anthem before the game kicked off, and Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee provided a zoomed-in image from Chan's picture:

Matt Barrows @mattbarrowsZoom-in of @jenniferleechan photo during national anthem that shows Colin Kaepernick sitting on the bench. #49ers https://t.co/c6F10yIIRE

Chargers fans loudly booed Kaepernick on Thursday when he entered Qualcomm Stadium for the 49ers' final preseason game, which also happened to be Military Appreciation Night, per Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group.

Kaepernick sat during the anthem prior to Thursday's game as well, and was joined by 49ers safety Eric Reid who took a knee beside him, per Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area. Reid said after the game that it was Kaepernick's idea to take a knee to be more respectful, per Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News.

Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News noted Kaepernick later applauded a tribute to the military on the stadium videoboard. Matt Maiocco of CSN added Kaepernick also stood for "God Bless America" and applauded the singing of Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Powell.

Kaepernick commented on Thursday night's decision and his plans for charity, per Inman:

Cam Inman @CamInmanColin Kaepernick, on plans to donate $1 million to communities & how today's kneel-protest emerged https://t.co/NMsp2gqZM7

On Aug. 27, NFL Media's Steve Wyche relayed Kaepernick's explanation for not standing:

I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. ...

This is not something that I am going to run by anybody. I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. ... If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.

On Aug. 28, Kaepernick said he is not taking this stand for himself, per Maiocco. Inman provided a series of videos capturing Kaepernick's interview in the locker room:

Cam Inman @CamInman#49ers Colin Kaepernick video Part 1 https://t.co/WEPwqBucsh

Cam Inman @CamInman#49ers Colin Kaepernick video Part 2 https://t.co/zQxexPLKba

Cam Inman @CamInman#49ers Colin Kaepernick video Part 3 https://t.co/HG22md3oDW

Cam Inman @CamInman#49ers Colin Kaepernick video Part 4 https://t.co/jCoAQzl38N

Cam Inman @CamInmanColin Kaepernick video Part 5 https://t.co/N7FAf0Fsj2

Mike Rosenberg of the Seattle Times provided more from Kaepernick:

Mike Rosenberg @ByRosenbergKaepernick had guns drawn on him by cops for being one of the only black guys in his town https://t.co/6OvUspKsui https://t.co/RTARYdYBum

The 49ers issued a statement about Kaepernick's choice not to partake in the pregame ceremony, via Wyche:

The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose [to] participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.

On Aug. 30, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report reported the 49ers are worried about Kaepernick potentially being a distraction and divisive force in the locker room:

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Right Arrow IconThe NFL released a statement in response to the controversy on Aug. 27, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network: "Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem."

On Aug. 29, the San Francisco Police Officers Association wrote a letter to the NFL asking for an apology, per Marianne Favro and Brendan Weber of NBC Bay Area:

"Not only does he show an incredible lack of knowledge regarding our profession and 'officer involved' shootings, but also shows a naivety and total lack of sensitivity toward police officers," SFPOA President Martin Halloran wrote in the letter. "Ironically it is those officers who on numerous occasions have protected Mr. Kaepernick."

"It takes a strong individual to stand up like that," 49ers receiver Torrey Smith said, per Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. "That's a right that we have."

Kaepernick has been using social media'--notably retweets'--to express anger and frustration with racial injustices.

Per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Kaepernick on Aug. 25 retweeted an image of the American and Confederate flags with this caption: "The fact that you really believe that there is difference in these flags means that your [sic] ignoring history."

The post has since been deleted.

Kaepernick was 2-of-6 passing for 14 yards and added 18 yards on four carries in a 21-10 loss to the Packers. Niners head coach Chip Kelly has not said whether Kaepernick or Blaine Gabbert will be the team's starting quarterback for its regular-season opener against the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 12.

Harry Edwards, a giant of sports activism, still has people shook

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 16:29

A t the first full practice of the San Francisco 49ers' training camp in Santa Clara, California, this summer, Harry Edwards stood alone, surveying the football field from behind dark sunglasses. For more than three decades, he's helped evaluate team players and culture. But over the past half-century in American sports, he has starred in a great many other roles as well.

Even among professional big men, he catches the eye. He is 6 feet, 8 inches tall, bearded, bald and historically black. That's not merely about the curated head-to-toe midnight of his T-shirt, slacks and skullcap, the deep, dark brownness of his skin, or the ever-present shades that keep you guessing at all the trouble he's seen. It's about his obsidian intellect. It's about the way he gestures and riffs when he speaks, like a jazz virtuoso, but not the smooth kind. More like that brother on sax who is about to chop you in the throat with his solo.

A player walks over to greet him. ''Hey, man, you over here in the VIP section. I thought it was too, you know, exclusive,'' jokes All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman, a man with his own reputation for bringing the boom.

Fifty years ago, Edwards was the lead organizer behind the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), which led American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos to raise black-gloved Black Power salutes atop the Olympic medal stand in Mexico City '-- the most widely recognized protest in sports history.

Now, athlete activism is having another extended moment in the American conversation. NFL players are kneeling, basketball players wear ''I Can't Breathe'' shirts and championship teams reject visits to the White House. It's a moment of new cultural and economic influence, and Edwards helped usher all of that into existence. And he's still here, counseling Colin Kaepernick and consulting for the 49ers and the Golden State Warriors.

He has lived long enough for some of his most radical positions '-- stances that put him in the crosshairs of the FBI, that got many of his contemporaries killed or silenced '-- are taken now as articles of faith. But the clock is ticking, and he still needs to teach, to criticize, to cement the history of a movement and his legacy in it. At 75, the lion in winter knows what time it is.

Former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice, left, and former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, center, talk with Dr. Harry Edwards at Candlestick Park before an NFL football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons in San Francisco, Dec. 23, 2013.

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Edwards recalls meeting Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil rights leader supported the Olympic Project for Human Rights. ''I stood up to shake his hand, and he said, 'Wow, no wonder these white folks are afraid of you. Man, you're huge!' ''

He is viscerally imposing physically. But Edwards also has had an outsize influence over the history, culture and understanding of the role of sports in society. And those two things are not unrelated. If you draw a line between the Smith and Carlos protest in 1968 and former 49er Kaepernick taking a knee in 2016 to protest police brutality and racial injustice, Edwards looms large, in dark glasses, at nearly every point along the way.

As a visiting professor at San Jose State University, where he had been a student track star and captain of the basketball team, he helped spearhead a protest against black athlete discrimination that led to the cancellation of the school's opening football game in 1967. That activism evolved into the Olympic Project for Human Rights, with Edwards as its chief organizer and public face, urging blacks to boycott the 1968 Summer Olympics. That led to that iconic image of Smith and Carlos, who were part of the famed ''Speed City'' at San Jose State.Edwards invented a field of study, the sociology of sports, and provided the foundation for all its assertions, chief among them: that sports is a recapitulation of the power relationships in society and you can't have a non-racist sports-industrial complex within the context of a racist society, ''any more than you can have a chicken lay a duck egg,'' he says.Beginning in the mid-1980s, he began consulting on issues of diversity for the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball. He arranged seminars on finances and social interactions and essentially invented the modern system of player counseling and support. He and former 49ers coach Bill Walsh began the NFL's Minority Coaches Internship and Outreach Program that produced head coaches Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals and Hue Jackson of the Cleveland Browns.In the wake of Al Campanis' assertions that blacks lacked ''some of the necessities'' to be baseball managers in 1987, Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth hired Edwards to develop training and development opportunities for women and minorities.And he consulted with the Golden State Warriors and the NBA, specializing in personnel issues and counseling.''He was like the dominant figure in the room,'' says Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who invited Edwards to talk to the team last year, ''and it's not easy to stand out in a room full of world-class athletes.''

If you're going to spend decades fighting, ''no way could you survive without that kind of confidence and presence,'' Kerr says. ''He's got opinions and he is sharp, sharp, and he's gonna let you know it.''

Anybody who studies the student movement of the 1960s has ''got to come through Harry Edwards in two ways: as a student, who revolutionized the university, and as a teacher, who went back,'' says Eugene Redmond, emeritus professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Redmond knew Edwards growing up in East St. Louis, Illinois, and calls him ''a major factor, a major element in driving black power, black art, black studies and the sociology of sports, which everyone knows means black people.''

The Mexico City Olympics protest and the media Read now Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, calls Edwards' 1969 book, The Revolt of the Black Athlete ''a clarion call.'' Edwards ''helped me believe what was possible.''

Bunch had been a high school and college athlete and admired sports stars. Edwards ''basically reminded us that in essence they were cattle'... that they didn't have the control over their own destinies. And so he felt that, like so many people, that in order to change a country, let's change the area I know best first. And for him, it was athletics.

''I think that in some ways, he is the best of what came out of the 1960s,'' Bunch says. ''A sense of clear notions about what is wrong, in this case, in terms of athletics. But he then used that sort of clarity and candidly passion to help stimulate protests but also to then evolve that passion and work in the system to change the NFL, for example.''

Harry Edwards, lecturer at San Jose State University who called for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Mexico City by African-American athletes, talks with two athletes at the university.

Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS/Getty Images

Edwards' father, also named Harry Edwards, was a tall man and powerfully built, and he always wanted his son to play professional football. Now the son has four Super Bowl rings from the 49ers, Edwards likes to point out. ''I just had to get a Ph.D. in sociology from Cornell to get them,'' he says.

The elder Edwards, an ex-con and a laborer, was smart but unschooled. He worked two jobs to support a wife and eight kids in the Southend neighborhood of East St. Louis aptly named The Bottoms. For a time, they were a lower working-class family with higher aspirations. Then his mother left, and his father left the kids mostly alone in a house without indoor plumbing that they called ''The Fort'' because their backs were always against the wall. He and his siblings slipped into what he called ''the underfooting,'' children who went hungry and had to assume responsibility for their own survival.

When Edwards was 12, his mother returned for her children. Edwards was the only one who opted to stay with his father, because ''I didn't know where she was going and I was playing football so I could take a shower every day at the school,'' he later wrote of the decision. He only saw her once more, years later.

In 1960, after Edwards graduated from high school, a family friend bought him a train ticket west, where he enrolled in Fresno City College and started studying until the library closed '-- it was the beginning of an obsessive library habit that made his eyes sensitive to light. He transferred on a track and field scholarship to San Jose State University, where he set a school record in discus and qualified for the Olympic trials. He was also captain of the basketball team. But the discriminatory treatment of black athletes left him alienated and angry. He quit the track team before the Olympic trials.

He was on draft boards for the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings, and the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers expressed interest too. Instead, he decided to go to Cornell to get a master's degree and, eventually, a doctorate. His father thought he was throwing away a black man's best chance, the chance he never got, and three years passed before he spoke to his son again.

While he was at Cornell, Edwards attended weekend meetings organized by Malcolm X in New York City and devoured works by black writers. One night he heard loud cheering from the lobby of his dorm, and when he went to investigate he found his white schoolmates celebrating Malcolm X's murder.

He returned to San Jose State to teach after finishing his master's degree. He and some friends began protesting the financial and housing discrimination faced by black athletes. Edwards was coming to understand the ways sports could be leveraged for political gain. He was surveilled by the FBI. He began getting death threats.

In 1970, after protests demanding more minority faculty and students, the University of California, Berkeley hired him. But despite the school's reputation as a cradle of the counterculture, Edwards' first years there were contentious.

Although he published widely and taught oversubscribed classes for years, Edwards was denied tenure in 1977. Media coverage and campus protests over the decision drew national and even international attention. ''I am going to turn the lights out at the University of California at Berkeley. I am going to be the last to leave,'' he told The New York Times. The decision was reversed that summer, and Edwards remained at Berkeley for nearly another 25 years.

And he remained battle ready. Before Kaepernick decided to take a knee to protest racial injustice and police brutality in 2016, he and Edwards had ongoing conversations. Edwards says he didn't advise him about what to do, ''which would be inappropriate and ill-advised.''

''These athletes are quite capable of thinking on their own and coming to their own conclusions,'' he said. Instead, he detailed ''the spectrum of options as well as the spectrum of outcomes.''

''I told him the death threats are going to come in,'' says Edwards. That people would say it's affecting his game, his career, their enjoyment of the sport. And that there was only so much he could respond to. ''Because they're not going to understand that there are some things that are more precious than money. They're not going to understand that there are some things that are more precious than your career. They're not going to understand that there are some things that are more precious than life itself.''

Harry Edwards, lecturer at San Jose State University who called for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Mexico City by African-American athletes, talking on the telephone in his office.

Ted Streshinsky/CORBIS/Getty Images

Years ago, Edwards and his friend Arthur Ashe, the activist and tennis champion, would appear on panels together '-- maybe about NCAA eligibility requirements, or hiring black coaches. Ashe would volunteer to take the more militant position. And people would applaud him.

Edwards would give a more moderate analysis, peppered with a joke. But, he says, ''If you're 6-8 and 275, 280 pounds with an Ivy League Ph.D., angry, articulate, committed and so forth, a lot of folks get scared, and not all of them are white.

''I've always had that advantage when I'm dealing with people,'' Edwards says. ''They assume that this is just another big, dumb, black jock who can't think, and there's nothing I came to enjoy more than dueling with intellectually unprepared, unarmed and unaware people because eventually they wind up crafting the very arguments that I use to strangle them with.''

At 75, he can still play Harry Scary. In late June, he was at the College Sports Information Directors of America conference outside Washington, D.C., where he was inducted in the organization's Hall of Fame.

On the first day, he hijacked his panel on unconscious bias, thundering, ''Don't tell me about it being unconscious. '... There is a total structure of social, physiological and cultural scaffolding that allows individual bias and prejudice to find affirmation in discriminatory actions. That's not unconscious. It's deliberate. It's by design. It's exactly and precisely what it was drawn up to be!''

At the awards ceremony, he took the stage in his signature all black, including the sunglasses and a Nehru jacket. He predicted that the NFL would soon be all black and that white athletes were going to have to find their voices and take a stand against racism.

''Every time he's been speaking since he's been here, he's shaken everything up,'' said Kenisha Rhone, chairwoman of the Black College Sports Information Directors of America. She studied sociology as an undergrad and called meeting him a ''total fan moment.''

When one young man ventured that perhaps Edwards should, perhaps, soften his position and tone to better reach people he'd made uncomfortable, Edwards cut him off.

''They are never going to be comfortable'' with change, with addressing racism or women's equality, he said. ''But I found out early on it's not necessary for them to be comfortable. It's necessary for them to deal with the issues. And if they're not going to deal with the issues, whether you ease it up on them or whether they have to face it, their response is going to be the same: 'That's too harsh.' 'I don't want to go that far.' 'What do you mean?' So let's get that out of the way,'' he said. ''My thing is to get them out of their comfort zone because their comfort zone is with their foot on my neck. Their comfort zone is with women chained to the damn stove and the bed.

''So don't tell me nothing about being upset and uncomfortable, brother.''

That bent to call it all out, to see and say the truth, has roots in Edwards' childhood, where he recalls how his father changed the way he talked whenever he was around white people. ''He would diminish himself, and one day I even asked him, 'Why do you talk to them people like that?' He said, 'Because I've got kids to feed.' '' Edwards understood the situation, he says, ''but that was the beginning of me making up my mind, I don't care what the price is, there are some things I'm simply not going to do. There are some things I'm simply not going to put up with, and when I find them I'm going to challenge them in every arena I'm in. I don't care whether it's the streets, the school, sports, wherever. I'm going to challenge this madness because otherwise, why am I here?''

Harry Edwards, faculty member of San Jose State College in California, demanded at a Washington news conference, Oct. 24, 1968 an investigation of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Also present from left are: H. Rap Brown, John Carloa, Harry Edwards, Stokely Carmichael.

AP Photo

Sandra Boze Edwards says when her father, a musician and teacher, first met Edwards in the summer of 1969, he had a single request: '' 'Harry,' he said, 'I understand what you're trying to do. I respect it. I ask you one thing: Do not get my daughter killed.' ''

After they got married in August 1970, Boze was also clear with Edwards '-- with all his high-profile lectures, protests and activism '-- that he had to protect the family and keep them out of the headlines.

Edwards kept his promises to them both. He had seen how racism had ground out his parents' dignity and hopes for the future. That early hardship made him fierce about family. It was one more piece of his activism: In a racist society, raising sane, righteous black children is a revolutionary act. The two have been married for 48 years and have three adult children: a psychiatrist, a lawyer and a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teacher.

Boze Edwards, 70, a former teacher, assistant principal, assistant superintendent and adjunct professor who became a court-appointed advocate for children in foster care, was one of three children raised in a politically aware middle-class family in Los Angeles. She arrived at San Jose State in 1967, and a friend introduced her to ''Big Harry,'' who'd just come back from Cornell and was teaching classes. That fall, when word spread that football players were being housed in a highway motel because they couldn't stay on campus, Edwards began organizing, ''and I was just ready,'' Boze Edwards says.

''One of the things that will always stand out till the day I die was watching TV in that little studio apartment in San Jose with Harry '-- and Tommie and John raising their firsts,'' Boze Edwards says. Edwards had been warned he'd be in danger if he attended the Mexico City Games. He and Boze Edwards didn't know if or how the protest was going to come together. ''And then to see that was just so beautiful.''

In this Oct. 16, 1968 photo, extending gloved hands skyward in a Black power salute as a form of racial protest, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos stare downward during the playing of national anthem after Smith received the gold and Carlos the bronze for the 200 meter run at the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City.

AP Photo

Edwards had seen violence and death in The Bottoms of East St. Louis and spent the '60s watching people he knew and believed in slain: King, Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy. He was a Black Panther. He was followed by the FBI, which listed him on its Agitator Index used to track people considered to be a national security threat. (He obtained his 3,000-sheet file through the Freedom of Information Act.) He thought it likely his number would come up.

Then he had a family and thought, ''You know, I've actually got to survive because it's not just me. I've got all these people depending on me.''

Boze Edwards, a two-time cancer survivor, says she and Edwards align politically and are temperamental opposites in a way that makes them sync. Sitting in a restaurant in Fremont, California, where the Edwardses have lived in the same house for five decades, she is, like her husband, looking back and looking forward. ''Maybe because I had my career and he had his career and we were able to maintain our separate identities without getting hung up,'' Boze Edwards says. ''I'm sure I'm his softer side.'' But she had a distinguished career, which included doing human resources in a large school district, so ''I'm known to hold my ground.'' And Edwards, she says, has the ability to come back around after he's thought about things and admit if he's wrong.

There's no special key, Boze Edwards says. ''The difference is those who stay together, stay together, and those who don't, don't. Everyone has the same issues,'' says Boze Edwards.

Edwards recalls that after Boze Edwards had breast cancer and a mastectomy, she told him, ''I guess I'm not the girl that you married. And I said, 'Well, lady, first of all, I'm a leg and a'' man myself.' '' The nurse put him out because they were laughing so hard she was afraid Boze Edwards would damage her stitches.

Edwards, too, feels the ravages of time. He's unsentimental about it. It's part of the deal on this planet, Edwards says, so you'd better get over it and get on with it.

''Everybody that we know in our age group is battling something, and if they tell you they're not, they're lying,'' he says. He knows people younger than him with walkers or battling dementia.

''Every hit that I ever took in sports done come back and hit me again. It's to the point that if something falls on the floor, if I go down to pick it up, I've gotta stay down there and say is there anything else I want to pick up while I'm down here, because I'm not gonna get down here again today.''

The lion in winter understands the season he's in.

Dr. Harry Edwards on the campus of his alma mater, San Jose State University. The controversial raised fist medal stand protest by SJSU alumni Tommie Smith and John Carlos was designed to bring worldwide attention to racism and inequity in the U.S. Three decades later, San Jose State recognized this important moment with a 24-foot sculpture on campus.

Brian L Frank for The Undefeated

It's a breezy day at San Jose State University, and Edwards and a university official are scouting the site for an elaborate commemorative bench to honor the work of the women involved in the Olympic Project for Human Rights. It's next to the 23-foot statue of Smith and Carlos rising up in the center of campus, big like the moment it memorialized. It was erected in 2005, after the times had come around and the sprinters' nonviolent protest had been recontextualized (same as with Muhammad Ali) as righteous.

The bench will sit south of the statue, next to the lecture hall where Edwards taught and organized 50 years ago. The Smith/Carlos statue features the sprinters wearing their OPHR pins as they raise their fists. The bench will also feature an inscription from Edwards.

The lead-up to the 50th anniversary of Mexico City has been full of awards, honors and commemorations. The campus is hosting a 130-item exhibition of memorabilia, including books autographed to Edwards, like the one signed to his wife by James Baldwin or ''For Harry, Marty,'' from Martin Luther King Jr. And the photo of him standing next to Malcolm X. They appear the same size, but only, Edwards points out, because Malcolm X, who was nearly 6 feet, 4 inches tall, stood on a step above Edwards. There's the newspaper article about a photo of Smith and Carlos smuggled onto Robben Island, heartening Nelson Mandela. Edwards added a paragraph of text in beautiful handwriting with his own thoughts about Mandela's reaction.

The San Jose State Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change launched last year and will house the FBI files, books, posters, jackets, buttons, letters and primary documents of Edwards' decades of activism. It will feature research and programming on the significance of the movement and, Edwards hopes, be an incubator for the kind of change that he has always worked for.

''In another 10 years I will likely be on the other side of the lawn, and we have to push the struggle,'' Edwards says. If you put a face to it, at some point that face is gone, but the need for struggle endures. ''There are no final victories,'' says Edwards.

''Walking with him, you have to slow him down,'' says Earl A. Smith Sr., team pastor for the 49ers and the Golden State Warriors, who has known Edwards for decades. ''He can no longer keep the pace of what he used to do, but he wants to keep the pace. He thinks that's his relevance, but his relevance has already been established. '... He transcended a whole lot, but sometimes when you move so fast, you don't take time to really grasp what you're driven by.''

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There comes a point in the conversation at San Jose State when the location of the bench is decided, the inscription is finalized and there is no more thought work to be done about how the memorial will be interpreted. ''I guess you'll be needing a check from me,'' Edwards says. He is funding the $25,000 project himself because that way he doesn't have to wait on anybody to give him anything. A lesson he learned in East St. Louis, where they say only the strong survive.

He is already planning lectures on the coming battles, perhaps on female athletes and threats to reproductive rights, perhaps more about football players and President Donald Trump. But they will look forward, even as he's commemorating the past.

The lion in winter still has reasons to fight.

Lonnae O'Neal is a senior writer at The Undefeated. She's an author, a former columnist, has a rack of kids and she writes bird by bird.

Harry Edwards: Kaepernick ''a man suddenly becoming aware his house is on fire'' '' ProFootballTalk

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 21:36

Getty Images

One of the people Colin Kaepernick talked to before (and after) his decision to sit through the national anthem was noted sociologist and activist Dr. Harry Edwards.

Edwards, who has served as a consultant to the 49ers for more than 30 years, said in the San Francisco Chronicle that he wholeheartedly supported Kaepernick's decision to become a national lightning rod.

''Colin Kaepernick absolutely has a constitutional right to express his opinion on the politics of diversity in America,'' Edwards wrote. ''He is courageous, well-informed and steadfast in his position. He is evolving through an awakening and (perhaps) really understanding for the first time (given his background) the true depth and scope of the history of anti-black racial hatred and injustice in America.

''And because it appears to have come to him through self-education as a jarring awareness and stark reality, his response seems more akin to that of a man suddenly becoming aware his house is on fire than the result of a deliberately crafted articulation of a considered political position.''

Edwards has served as a mentor to Kaepernick for some time, and Kaepernick said Sunday that he had discussed issues of race with Edwards many times over the years.

But the professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley saved his harshest criticisms for players such as Victor Cruz and Alex Boone, who have taken Kaepernick to task for his method. He specifically asked where they stood on the deaths of Eric Gardner and Philando Castile, black men who were killed by police in areas that just happen to be close to where the Giants and Vikings practice and play, along with a laundry list of other concerns.

''I would be very interested in their records of protest about these circumstances, because they are so dedicated to ''honoring our soldiers'' that they would heap caustic criticism upon Kaepernick for sitting during the national anthem,'' Edwards wrote. ''If they have no such record of vehement protest no less critical than what they have waged against Kaep '-- well, perhaps then it's time for them to sit down.

''Talk is cheap, especially when it is expediently wrapped in patriotism and the flag.''

Edwards has long been a proponent for the rights and responsibilities of black athletes, going back to his days at San Jose State, when he worked with Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos before their famous protest at the 1968 Olympics. And while the 49ers football operation might be wavering on Kaepernick as a quarterback, he clearly has the full backing of Edwards as an activist.

Nike Nixes 'Betsy Ross Flag' Sneaker After Colin Kaepernick Intervenes - WSJ

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 03:41

Nike Inc. is yanking a U.S.A.-themed sneaker featuring an early American flag after NFL star-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick told the company it shouldn't sell a shoe with a symbol that he and others consider offensive, according to people familiar with the matter.

The sneaker giant created the Air Max 1 USA in celebration of the July Fourth holiday, and it was slated to go on sale this week. The heel of the shoe featured a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle, a design created during the American Revolution and commonly referred to as the Betsy Ross flag.

After shipping the shoes to retailers, Nike asked for them to be returned without explaining why, the people said. The shoes aren't available on Nike's own apps and websites.

''Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured the old version of the American flag,'' a Nike spokeswoman said.

After images of the shoe were posted online, Mr. Kaepernick, a Nike endorser, reached out to company officials saying that he and others felt the Betsy Ross flag is an offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery, the people said. Some users on social media responded to posts about the shoe with similar concerns. Mr. Kaepernick declined to comment.

The design was created in the 1770s to represent the 13 original colonies, though there were many early versions of the America flag, according to the Smithsonian. In the 1790s, stars and bars were added to reflect the addition of Vermont and Kentucky as states. U.S. flag designs continued to change as states were admitted to the union until the 50th star, for Hawaii, was added in 1960.

In 2016, the superintendent of a Michigan school district apologized after students waved the Betsy Ross flag at a high-school football game, saying that for some it is a symbol of white supremacy and nationalism, according to Mlive.com, a local news outlet. While the flag's use isn't widespread, the local chapter of the NAACP said at the time that it has been appropriated by some extremist groups opposed to America's increasing diversity.

Mr. Kaepernick, 31 years old, last played in the National Football League in 2016, the season he began kneeling on the field during the national anthem to call attention to social injustices and racial inequality. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has gone unsigned since and, along with former teammate Eric Reid, in February settled collusion grievances that alleged the league and its teams conspired to keep them unsigned because of their outspoken political views. The settlement was for less than $10 million, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Last year, Nike made Mr. Kaepernick the face of an advertising campaign while he was still engaged in that dispute with the league'--a risky move given Nike's role as one of the NFL's biggest partners. The campaign generated a backlash among some consumers, who began torching Nike shoes and cutting its swoosh logo out of gear. The protests were countered by expressions of support for Nike.

Since the ad was released, Nike has posted higher sales, boosted by strong demand in both the U.S. and China. In the fourth quarter, sales rose 4% to $10.18 billion. Its share price has climbed more than 15% so far this year.

At least some of the USA-themed shoes have already made their way to sneaker enthusiasts. Versions of the Air Max 1 USA were changing hands on sneaker-reselling site StockX for as much as $500 on Monday, according to the site. After this Journal article was published, the price fluctuated, with one pair fetching as much $2,000 and another as little as $140.

Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com and Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com

WSJ: Kaepernick's Lawyer Involved In Avenatti/Nike Extortion Case - InsideHook

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 16:59

Mark Geragos attempted to set up a meeting between the company and Avenatti. Attorney Mark Geragos in 2014. (Photo byKevork DjansezianGetty Images)

Though he hasn't been charged in Michael Avenatti's alleged plot to extort Nike for more than $20 million, Colin Kaepernick's lawyer Mark Geragos has emerged as a key figure in the case, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to The WSJ, Geragos tried to set up a meeting between the company and Avenatti, best known as the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels.

Prosecutors allege Avenatti and Geragos, who helped broker a very successful deal between Kaepernick and Nike last year, attempted to arrange a deal where they would be paid at least $15 million to $25 million to conduct an ''internal investigation.''

In the absence of such a deal, Avenatti threatened to reveal evidence Nike had authorized secret payments to high-school basketball players prior to this year's NCAA tournament.

''Mr. Avenatti and Mr. Geragos wanted an answer immediately, according to the complaint,'' The WSJ reports. ''After a lawyer for Nike left a voice message for Mr. Geragos later in the day asking for more time, Mr. Geragos agreed to give them two more days. What they didn't know was that Nike representatives contacted the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan regarding the demands.''

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Avenatti said he was ''anxious for people to see what really happened'' and for the public to ''learn the truth about Nike's crime & coverup.''

Avenatti has been charged with extortion and conspiracy.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

Lawyer who has represented Jussie Smollett, Colin Kaepernick named co-conspirator in Avenatti charges - TheBlaze

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 16:57

A high-profile criminal defense lawyer who has represented celebrities like Jussie Smollett and Colin Kaepernick was named as a co-conspirator in the extortion charges against Michael Avenatti, according to The Wall Street Journal.

What charges? Avenatti was charged with attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike. In a separate case, Avenatti was also charged with wire fraud and bank fraud for allegedly embezzling money from a client to cover his own debts.

Avenatti is accused of telling Nike that he and an unnamed co-conspirator (reportedly Mark Geragos) would release damaging information about Nike if the company didn't pay them millions.

From WSJ:

Mr. Avenatti said that if his demands weren't met, "I'll go take ten billion dollars off your client's market cap. '... I'm not f'--ing around."How did this happen? Avenatti and Geragos allegedly met with Nike lawyers on March 19, and made the extortion threat during that meeting. The criminal complaint says Avenatti and Geragos asked for millions of dollars for themselves and $1.5 million to an alleged client of Avenatti's.

More about Geragos: Geragos represented "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett, who was charged with 16 felony counts for allegedly inventing a hoax hate crime by people he claimed were Trump supporters and lying to police about it.

In another of Geragos' high-profile recent cases, the attorney represented former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in his grievance against the NFL. Kaepernick, who recently settled with the league, had claimed the NFL owners and commissioner colluded to blackball him in retaliation for Kaepernick's protests during the national anthem.

Geragos was briefly Michael Jackson's attorney in the late pop singer's 2003 molestation case, which has resurfaced into public discussion due to the release of the "Leaving Neverland" documentary.

Geragos served as a legal analyst for CNN, although the network said Monday that he is no longer a contributor.

How Colin Kaepernick's Lawyer Dealt With Nike and Became Entangled in Extortion Charges - WSJ

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 22:13

A year ago, celebrity attorney Mark Geragos was involved in quiet negotiations with Nike Inc. to create a blockbuster ad campaign for his client Colin Kaepernick, the controversial football star and political activist.

But on March 15, federal prosecutors allege, Mr. Geragos tried to arrange a discreet meeting of a different kind between Nike and another controversial client. Speaking on the phone with an outside attorney for Nike, prosecutors say, he sought to arrange a meeting between the company and Michael Avenatti, best known as an attorney for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Geragos emerged Monday as a key figure in extortion charges federal prosecutors brought against Mr. Avenatti. Although Mr. Geragos'--identified only as an anonymous co-conspirator'--was not charged in the complaint unsealed Monday, prosecutors have detailed an alleged scheme in which he worked with Mr. Avenatti in an attempt to extort more than $20 million from Nike.

In the plot alleged by prosecutors, Mr. Avenatti threatened to publicly reveal evidence that Nike had authorized secret payments to high-school basketball players unless he and Mr. Geragos were paid at least $15 million to $25 million to conduct an ''internal investigation.'' Mr. Avenatti was charged with extortion and conspiracy.

A lawyer for Mr. Geragos didn't have an immediate comment. In a series of tweets Tuesday, Mr. Avenatti outlined his allegations against Nike. ''A lot of people at Nike will have to account for their criminal conduct,'' he wrote.

Mr. Geragos's alleged involvement with Mr. Avenatti in the scheme to extort Nike is most surprising because of the successful partnership he helped broker between Mr. Kaepernick and the footwear giant'--and his effusive praise of the company over the past year.

Mr. Kaepernick was already a Nike client when his career was engulfed in controversy in 2016 over his leadership of social-justice protests by NFL players during the national anthem. Unable to find work for two seasons, he also disappeared from Nike's advertisements.

But Mr. Geragos helped arrange a new deal between the company and Mr. Kaepernick, and Nike featured him in a controversial and high-profile campaign that rolled out last September. The ''Dream Crazy'' campaign was built around the line: ''Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.''

''Kudos to @Nike who realized @Kaepernick7 is an All American icon,'' Mr. Geragos tweeted at the time.

As recently as February, Mr. Geragos praised Nike on CNN for understanding that Mr. Kaepernick ''speaks to what's best of America.'' He added: ''Nike understood this and should be commended for it.''

A CNN spokeswoman said Monday that Mr. Geragos, who appeared on the network as a legal analyst, is no longer a contributor to the network.

Described in the federal complaint as being ''known for representation of celebrity and public figure clients,'' Mr. Geragos has for years been one of the most-high profile lawyers in Hollywood.

His clients have included the late pop star Michael Jackson, who was charged with molestation. More recently, he has represented Jussie Smollett, the actor who Chicago police said faked a hate crime. When Mr. Avenatti was arrested last November on suspicion of domestic violence, he hired Mr. Geragos. Prosecutors did not charge Mr. Avenatti in the matter.

Mr. Geragos has been especially busy lately. In February, he settled Mr. Kaepernick's grievance against the National Football League, which alleged the league and its teams colluded to keep him unsigned because of his outspoken political views. The grievances of Mr. Kaepernick and Eric Reid, Mr. Kaepernick's former teammate who was also represented by Mr. Geragos and his firm, were settled for less than $10 million, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

And through his work for Mr. Kaepernick, Mr. Geragos already had close interactions with Nike.

Mr. Kaepernick emerged in 2012 as one of the game's biggest stars when he led the 49ers to the Super Bowl and had long been represented by Nike. But by last fall he had been effectively shelved. Mr. Kaepernick had become a free agent after the 2016 season, and Nike hadn't been featuring him in its advertising or making gear with his name on it.

Around the beginning of 2018, Mr. Kaepernick and his team, including Mr. Geragos, began discussions with Nike executives about changing that, a person familiar with the deal said. Mr. Geragos and Mr. Kaepernick's representatives told Nike executives in New York they wanted Nike to feature him again'--a risky proposition for the apparel giant. Nike is an NFL partner, and the league was still engaged in its high-profile grievance with Mr. Kaepernick.

As the discussions between Mr. Geragos and the rest of Mr. Kaepernick's team with Nike continued, other apparel companies such as Puma SE and Adidas AG expressed interest in using Mr. Kaepernick, the person said; Mr. Kaepernick's Nike deal was set to expire in 2019. The negotiations between the two sides led to a rich new deal for Mr. Kaepernick and the high-profile campaign that made its debut in September.

In the wake of the deal, Mr. Geragos boasted about the success of the company's viral advertisement featuring Mr. Kaepernick and how much it was helping Nike. ''For those who judge success by the stock market going up, apparently Nike is on fire,'' he tweeted in September.

But six months later, Mr. Geragos allegedly entered a very different type of negotiation with Nike. After that initial phone call with the lawyers for Nike, prosecutors allege that the parties met on March 19 at Mr. Geragos's office in New York, where Mr. Avenatti said he would hold a news conference to reveal payments from Nike employees to the families of top high-school basketball players'--unless Nike paid Mr. Avenatti's client, a high-school basketball coach, and hired him and Mr. Geragos to conduct an internal investigation.

Mr. Avenatti and Mr. Geragos wanted an answer immediately, according to the complaint. After a lawyer for Nike left a voice message for Mr. Geragos later in the day asking for more time, Mr. Geragos agreed to give them two more days. What they didn't know was that Nike representatives contacted the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan regarding the demands.

'--Khadeeja Safdar contributed to this article.

Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com

Mark Geragos, reportedly Michael Avenatti's unindicted coconspirator, built a long career on celebrity clients - The Washington Post

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 22:10

CNN cut ties with Mark Geragos just hours after the celebrity attorney was named as a co-conspirator in a case accusing lawyer Michael Avenatti of trying to extort Nike. (Richard Vogel/AP)It was November 2003. Mark Geragos was earning a worldwide rep for defending the most reviled man in America inside a courtroom in Modesto, Calif., when his beeper started screaming.

The business at hand was serious enough without digital distractions.

That April, the murdered remains of a missing 27-year-old pregnant woman named Laci Peterson splashed ashore on San Francisco Bay. Police charged the victim's husband, Scott Peterson, a philandering fertilizer salesman who authorities said killed his wife and unborn son. Most legal experts and TV pundits said the evidence stacked against Peterson made an acquittal a long shot '-- an opinion echoed by Geragos on cable TV, until the mustachioed and media-savvy Los Angeles attorney decided to represent him.

But as he was in court with Peterson, his pager kept going off. The calls were to alert the attorney that another client, pop star Michael Jackson, had just been served search warrants at his Neverland Ranch. Two days later, Geragos walked Jackson into a police station in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he was charged with child molestation.

Geragos was suddenly thrust front and center in the country's two most high-profile criminal cases. And his beeper did not shut up. Over a 24-hour period that week, his pager buzzed 700 times, Geragos told the New York Times.

''At one point, I thought of throwing it in the ocean,'' the attorney explained to the Times. ''To some degree it is embarrassing. I suppose because I don't think any of this is about me. It is about the client. Hopefully it passes and passes quickly.''

Geragos, however, never slipped back below the radar.

Over the past two decades, he's become the go-to attorney for the rich and famous. His client list evokes a tabloid rundown of celebrity mug shots: actor Robert Downey Jr.; actress Winona Ryder; rapper Nate Dogg; presidential sibling Roger Clinton; pop star Chris Brown. Just in the last year, Geragos secured a settlement for Colin Kaepernick in his lawsuit against the NFL and also stepped in to defend ''Empire'' actor Jussie Smollett against charges he faked a hate crime. The Rolodex of big-name clients, combined with regular cable news appearances, have made Geragos one of the most recognized figures in American law.

''If I'm going to represent somebody, I think at the very least they deserve someone who can find the good in them,'' Geragos told the Los Angeles Times in 2003. ''I don't think most people are evil. I think sometimes people are demonized unfairly.''

But Geragos is now in his own surprising legal jam.

On Monday, federal authorities arrested attorney Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. As The Washington Post reported, one indictment against the attorney accuses Avenatti of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike. Citing sources close to the investigation, The Post reported Geragos is the unnamed ''co-conspirator'' alleged to have worked the scheme with Avenatti. Following the news, CNN announced it was dropping Geragos as an on-air contributor.

Avenatti has denied the charges. Geragos, who has not been charged, did not respond to an email for comment.

But the link between Avenatti and Geragos goes beyond Monday's allegations. Both are on-camera naturals fueled by an underdog ethos. And Geragos first landed in the national spotlight in the 1990s by walking into a political firestorm that led right to the White House '-- circumstances not unlike those that catapulted Avenatti into national recognition over the last year.

Law was in Geragos's blood. His family were members of Los Angeles's close Armenian American community. His father worked as a district attorney before entering private practice.

''My father was sworn in as a D.A. in January 1957, the same month I was conceived,'' Geragos told Super Lawyers in 2009. As a kid, Geragos would sit in courtrooms and watch as his father's cases unfold, an experience that fixed his own trajectory toward the courthouse.

''You could get paid for shooting your mouth off and not much else,'' he told Super Lawyers.

Geragos studied anthropology and sociology at Haverford College, then after graduation entered Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. While studying law, he worked up a side business as a rock concert promoter in Pasadena, booking shows for acts such as the Ramones, the Pretenders, and the Go-Go's, according to Super Lawyers. In 1983, he began working at his father's firm.

''He was always a very public kind of person,'' Stanley A. Goldman, a friend and former law professor, told the New York Times in 2003. ''[H]e claims he rarely showed up for class because he was organizing rock concerts. I like Mark Geragos. A lot of people don't. He can be extremely pushy.''

Geragos's first splash into mainstream news came more than a decade later, when he began representing a woman at the center of a presidential scandal then dominating national headlines.

Susan McDougal was a former business partner of President Bill Clinton on the failed Whitewater real estate deal. When McDougal refused to testify before a grand jury called by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison for civil contempt beginning in 1996.

Upon release, McDougal was charged again for criminal contempt and obstruction of justice. At the suggestion of his father, Geragos stepped in to her defense. As he explained to the New York Times, Geragos took the case pro bono, explaining to McDougal that because of his Armenian background, he ''had a special appreciation for victims of government oppression.''

When McDougal went to trial in Little Rock in 1999, the cornerstone of Geragos's case was that his client had been railroaded in retaliation for not cooperating in Starr's ''vendetta'' against the Clintons. The proceedings started less than a month after Clinton was acquitted at his impeachment trial in the Senate.

''I fully intend to put Kenneth W. Starr on trial,'' Geragos told reporters at the start of the case, The Post reported at the time.

The attorney made more headlines by grilling Starr deputy W. Hickman Ewing Jr. on the witness stand. Under Geragos's questioning, Ewing admitted he had drafted an indictment against Hillary Clinton during the Starr investigation.

''I didn't like that she was evasive,'' Ewing testified, according to Super Lawyers.

''Sort of like you right now?,'' Geragos snapped back.

The jury acquitted McDougal on the obstruction of justice charge and deadlocked on the criminal contempt charge. Geragos was defiant on the steps of the courthouse. ''They don't have the guts to retry it,'' he said, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2003. He eventually worked to get McDougal a full pardon in the last hours of Clinton's presidency.

As Avenatti's representation of Daniels in her lawsuit against President Trump over an alleged affair punched the attorney's ticket into cable news green rooms, Geragos's work for McDougal elevated his career to a new level.

''I always tease him about my case launching him into the limelight,'' McDougal told the New York Times in 2003. ''He was just absolutely perfect.''

Unlike Avenatti, Geragos spun the attention into a busy practice '-- too busy, some critics said. In 2003, when he was shuttling up and down California defending both Jackson and Peterson, the pop star eventually replaced him. He continued leading Peterson's defense, but lost the case; the husband was sentenced to death row.

But those setbacks have not kept his phone from buzzing whenever a high-profile personality is in trouble '-- including Avenatti. According to the Hollywood Reporter, when Avenatti was arrested over an alleged domestic violence situation last November, he consulted with Geragos about the charges. (Prosecutors declined to file any charges related to the incident.)

But if the recent indictment is correct, the two attorneys' relationship continued last week, when Avenatti and Geragos allegedly approached Nike, threatening to expose employees for funneling payments to top high school basketball players and their families.

The indictment alleges the attorneys demanded the company to hire them both to conduct an internal investigation into the issue for $15 million to $25 million. Should the case move forward, both attorneys will likely seek representation cut from the same mold '-- a vociferous, TV-ready advocate.

''I do take seriously the idea that you're not supposed to turn down a case just because of its notoriety,''Geragos once told the Los Angeles Times.

More from Morning Mix

What Is Nike's Mission? | Nike Help

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Opinion | Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby - The New York Times

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 16:18

Opinion | Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby Being a mother and a champion was a crazy dream. It didn't have to be.

By Alysia Monta±o

Video by Max Cantor and Taige Jensen

Written and Produced by Lindsay Crouse

Alysia Monta±o is an Olympic runner and three-time U.S. national champion.

May 12, 2019 Video Olympic runner Alysia Monta±o had accomplished all her dreams but one: being a mom. When she finally went for it, she faced her biggest challenge yet '-- her sponsors. Credit Credit Ezra Shaw/Getty Images In the above video, the United States national champion Alysia Monta±o turns Nike's ad rhetoric against her former sponsor: If companies want to stand by the inspirational slogans they tout, they must ensure sponsored female athletes receive maternity leave.

Update: Following this report, the outdoor company Burton announced that it changed all female athletic contracts to include language that protects women during and after pregnancy.

Many athletic apparel companies, including Nike, claim to elevate female athletes. A commercial released in February received widespread acclaim for spotlighting women at all stages of their careers, from childhood to motherhood. On Mother's Day this year, Nike released a video promoting gender equality.

But that's just advertising.

The economics of sports like track and field are different than those of professional sports like basketball or soccer. In track, athletes aren't paid a salary by a league. Instead, their income comes almost exclusively from sponsorship deals inked with apparel companies like Nike and Asics.

The best of the best can supplement that income with prize money from winning races outright. But the majority of athletes '-- who are often the breadwinners for their families '-- sign exclusive five- or six-figure deals that keep them bound to a single company.

For the vast majority of athletes, their sport is a way to earn a decent living by doing what they love and excel at. They don't get rich.

Sports take a heavy toll on the human body, and sponsors accommodate this with time off for injuries. But rarely do they offer enough time off to have a child.

The four Nike executives who negotiate contracts for track and field athletes are all men.

''Getting pregnant is the kiss of death for a female athlete,'' said Phoebe Wright, who was a runner sponsored by Nike from 2010 through 2016. ''There's no way I'd tell Nike if I were pregnant.''

More than a dozen track athletes, agents and others familiar with the business describe a multi-billion-dollar industry that praises women for having families in public '-- but doesn't guarantee them a salary during pregnancy and early maternity.

For the Olympian Kara Goucher, the most difficult part of motherhood wasn't resuming training just a week after childbirth in 2010. It wasn't even when her doctor told her she must choose: run 120 miles each week or breast-feed her son. Her body couldn't do both.

The toughest moment was when Ms. Goucher learned that Nike would stop paying her until she started racing again. But she was already pregnant. So, she scheduled a half-marathon three months after she had her son, Colt. Then her son got dangerously ill. Ms. Goucher had to choose again: be with her son or prepare for the race that she hoped would restart her pay.

She kept training. ''I felt like I had to leave him in the hospital, just to get out there and run, instead of being with him like a normal mom would,'' Ms. Goucher said, crying at the memory. ''I'll never forgive myself for that.''

Nike acknowledged in a statement that some of its sponsored athletes have had their sponsorship payments reduced because of pregnancies. But the company says it changed its approach in 2018 so that athletes are no longer penalized. Nike declined to say if it wrote those changes into its contracts.

According to a 2019 Nike track and field contract shared with The Times, Nike can still reduce an athlete's pay ''for any reason'' if the athlete doesn't meet a specific performance threshold, for example a top five world ranking. There are no exceptions for childbirth, pregnancy or maternity.

Most people who spoke to The Times requested anonymity because they feared retribution, or had signed nondisclosure agreements, which may help explain why these arrangements have persisted.

[The topics new parents are talking about. Evidence-based guidance. Personal stories that matter. Visit NYT Parenting for everything you need to raise thriving babies and kids.]

Many American laws protect the rights of pregnant employees '-- they can't be fired, for instance. But, since professional athletes are more like independent contractors, those protections don't apply.

When Alysia Monta±o ran in the 2014 United States Championships while eight months pregnant, she was celebrated as ''the pregnant runner.'' Privately, she had to fight with her sponsor to keep her paycheck.

Sponsors do sometimes pay new mothers '-- Serena Williams is branded as a famous example. But those who do get paid often have to beg for the money.

Ms. Goucher made more than a dozen unpaid appearances on behalf of Nike during her high-risk pregnancy. She had to wait more than four months to disclose that she was pregnant, so that Nike could announce it in The Times for Mother's Day.

These kinds of pressures can lead to health complications. Ms. Goucher, for instance, has suffered from chronic hip injuries ever since she raced the Boston Marathon seven months after childbirth.

''It took such a toll on me mentally and physically, for myself and for my child,'' said Ms. Goucher. ''Returning to competition so quickly was a bad choice for me. And looking back and knowing that I wasn't the kind of mother that I want to be '-- it's gut wrenching.''

New mothers don't just deal with their sponsors. Top athletes receive health insurance from The United States Olympic Committee and U.S.A. Track & Field. But that insurance can vanish if women don't place in the top tier of the nation's most competitive races. Ms. Goucher and Ms. Monta±o both lost their health insurance because they were unable to compete at that level while having their children.

''Some people think women are racing pregnant for themselves,'' said Ms. Wright. ''It sometimes is, but it's also because there's a baby to feed.''

2020

Did the Fed Already Decide the 2020 US Election?

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Source: New Eastern Outlook » F. William Engdahl

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 03:53

As of beginning July 2019 prospects look positive for a re-election of Donald Trump as President in November 2020. Headline stock market and GDP figures all look positive'...at the present. The huge unanswered question is whether that can be sustained until the fateful elections. We see signs already that spell potential trouble for the Republicans.

A major problem for the Trump prospects to win a second term in November 2020 is the fact that since 1913 no American President, nor the Congress, control the decisions of the central bank, the legendary Federal Reserve or Fed. What few are aware of is the fact that the Fed is not a government agency. This is despite the fact the President nominates persons to serve as directors. The reality is that the Fed is privately owned largely by the international banks and financial groups that control global money flows. They determine in complex ways the control of US money creation, the heart of the economy.

In December 1913 a cabal of Wall Street Republican international bankers led by J.P. Morgan, John D Rockefeller, Paul Warburg and cronies pulled off the fateful coup d'etat that saw ''Democrat'' Woodrow Wilson sign away the money power of the government to the bankers. Since then, the Fed has determined the course of the nation's economy independent of the interests of the national economy or the citizens.

The President of the New York Fed, Benjamin Strong, as head of the most powerful of the 12 reserve banks, literally determined the fate of the US and Europe until his death in 1928. His interest rate policies were directly responsible for creating the 1920s stock market bubble and the October 1929 Wall Street Great Crash. That in turn led to the 1931 global banking crisis and the Great Depression. It was the Fed under Allan Greenspan that was responsible for the creation of the securitization USA housing bubble and also for its deliberate destruction into the ''Great Recession'' of 2007-2008, a key factor in the 2008 Obama win. This Fed is the real power over economic good times or bad.

It can be demonstrated that every recession or boom, every so-called business cycle since 1914 has been determined by the Fed. When Donald Trump became President he selected several directors of the Fed Board of Governors, including Chairman Jerome Powell beginning February 2018, apparently believing Powell would continue an easy money regimen.

When Powell and the Fed continued the Janet Yellen interest rate increases and withdrawal from Quantitative Easing by selling off the assets it bought after the 2008 financial crisis, the effects were initially overshadowed by the Trump tax law and other factors that spurred both the stock market, the dollar and the economy. By late 2018, however, it began to become clear that the Fed was on course to create a collapse of the post-2008 asset bubble in stocks and real estate, prompting unprecedented criticism from Donald Trump of Jerome Powell, his choice for Fed chairman.

By December 2018, almost a year into Powell's term, financial markets appeared in freefall, the stock markets down by 30% in six weeks, junk bond markets freezing and oil prices down by 40%. At that point on the urging of a group of influential business people, Trump began to attack Powell for trying to create a new recession.

By March 2019 Powell announced the Fed would likely not raise Fed Funds rates as had been planned further in 2019, holding it at 2.375%, suspending plans to do three or four added rate hikes in 2019. Markets were euphoric.

But by then Fed prior actions had set into motion deep shifts in the economy which are now becoming undeniable. Monetary actions tend to have a lag effect of six to nine months in the real economy. The aggressive Fed tightening through the end of 2018 is just beginning to show damage in the real economy. This is beginning to concern the White House. Here are some preliminary indicators that all is not peachy.

Trucking and Agriculture

According to the Bank of America's Trucking Diffusion Index for the week of June 21, the national truck freight outlook hit the lowest level since October, 2016, just before the US elections. More alarming, the indicator is down 29% year-on-year, the largest decline since the index started. The current US outlook for freight demand is at a five-year low. Reports are that the construction sector is struggling due to weather issues in key markets.

What this suggests is that the volume of goods being shipped by truck through the US economy is showing a not healthy trend. How long this goes on is at this point not clear. It is an indicator of real problems.

If we add to this the developing crisis in US agriculture, the picture becomes darker not only for trucking but for the overall economy. Record rainfall across the Midwest farmbelt has so far had a devastating impact on crop prospects well into the key summer growing season.

The US Department of Agriculture cut its estimate of the corn harvest, a rare event, in June. Farmers say the government is downplaying the crisis. In addition lack of Congressional action on the Mexico and Canada trade agreements and the Chinese restrictions on US soybean exports are combining to create one of the worst US farm crises in recent years. The US Farm Bureau Federation, a major lobby, has stated that a third emergency farmer bailout would be necessary if export markets for US farm products are not soon reopened. The Farm Bureau states that the combination of disruption of key export markets together with low spot prices, high inventory levels, a slowing economic outlook, and damaging weather across the Midwest, ''could culminate into a full-blown farm crisis on par to the 1980s.''

These are not the only signs of storm clouds in the US economy. Sales of existing homes have declined on a Year-on-Year basis for 15 straight months. Rising interest rates are a major deterrent for home buying. Further, the monthly Philadelphia fed survey of Business Outlook expectations, which monitors expected company new orders, sales, employment and other indicators of business activity, registered a sharp drop from 16.6 in May to only 0.3 in June.

This all does not yet indicate a full recession in the overall economy. However it shows how vulnerable the fragile recovery from the 2008 debacle still is. In this situation the Powell Fed is not at all playing a constructive role.

Powell proclaims Fed Independence

On June 25, Fed Chairman Powell gave a speech to the New York Council on Foreign Relations, the original think-tank of the Wall Street bankers created in the wake of World War I parallel to the British Chatham House. In his remarks Powell stressed the Fed's independence from political pressures: ''The Fed is insulated from short-term political pressures '-- what is often referred to as our 'independence,'' Powell said. ''Congress chose to insulate the Fed this way because it had seen the damage that often arises when policy bends to short-term political interests. Central banks in major democracies around the world have similar independence.'' It was a declaration of independence from Trump.

The reality, as Donald Trump noted repeatedly in public speeches in March and April, despite the Fed statement about interest rate pause in March, the Fed has not stopped tightening. It is via the little-noticed policy called Quantitative Tightening, the moves by the Fed to tighten money liquidity in the banking system and economy by forcing major banks to buy back some of the almost $4 trillion in corporate bonds and other assets the Fed bought to bail out the major banks and financial giants after the September 2008 Lehman Bros. crisis.

In early 2018 as it was simultaneously raising Fed Funds interest rates, the Fed delivered a double-whammy effect on market interest rates by ''selling'' some $50 billion a month of its assets from the unprecedented Quantitative Easing (QE) experiment of 2008. QE was a de facto policy of Fed money printing by buying select bonds and other securities, including mortgages, from primary security dealer banks, giving them huge liquidity in return. QT is the attempt to put the QE liquidity Genie back in the bottle by reversing the process, a highly dangerous experiment, one by no means urgent.

As the impact of Fed QT actions began to cause alarm, in February 2019 the Fed agreed to reduce the tightening, but only from $50 to $40 billion a month until now. That comes to almost half-a-trillion dollars less liquidity in the economy annually, not small. If a recession now unfolds over the next 16 months until the November, 2020 elections, it will once again by the ''gods of money'' at the Fed and their banker backers who caused it. If Trump then loses the 2020 re-election it will owe more to the Fed than to his bizarre Democrat opponents.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine ''New Eastern Outlook.''

EuroLand

European Parliament opens amid protest and discord - BBC News

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 11:17

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Media caption Brexit Party MEPs turned their backs as Ode to Joy was performedThe European Parliament has re-opened in Strasbourg with an anti-EU protest by the UK's Brexit Party and a demonstration by Catalan nationalists whose MEPs are barred.

The first session after Europe-wide elections in May began as EU leaders went into a third day of talks on who should fill the bloc's top jobs.

Several leaders said they were optimistic of a breakthrough.

Italy and eastern states rejected an earlier compromise deal.

What happened at the Parliament?Outside parliament, hundreds of Catalan protesters protested that three separatist figures were unable to take their seats, as inside the chamber fellow MEPs placed three photos of the missing members on their desks.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters waved pictures of ex-Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, now in exile in Brussels Ex-Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and colleague Toni Comin were barred from taking their seats because they fled to Brussels after a banned referendum on independence went ahead and did not attend a swearing-in ceremony in Madrid as required. Another separatist leader, Oriol Junqueras is on trial in Spain and in detention.

Irish Sinn F(C)in MEP Matt Carthy warned that the parliament's credibility would be undermined if it did not stand up for the voters of Catalonia.

As outgoing speaker Antonio Tajani convened the new session, MEPs rose for the EU's anthem, Beethoven's Ode to Joy. But not everyone stood, and anti-EU MEPs from the UK's Brexit Party turned their backs on the rendition accompanied by a saxophone quartet.

"Rising to your feet is a matter of respect," said Mr Tajani. "It does not mean that you necessarily share the views of the European Union. Even when you listen to the anthem of another country you rise to your feet."

Their action came after party leader Nigel Farage promised a spirit of "cheerful defiance".

Pro-EU Liberal Democrats staged their own stunt, wearing "Stop Brexit" T-shirts.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Among the new intake was Italy's former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, 82 Will there be a summit deal?EU leaders reconvened in Brussels for their third consecutive day after a reported compromise deal that would have seen Dutch Labour leader Frans Timmermans head the Commission with centre-right Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva taking the other key job of European Council president.

That deal fell apart when the four Visegrad states of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia blocked the plan, with the backing of Italy. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said Mr Timmermans was "unacceptable" and a "total catastrophe".

The initiative had been proposed by outgoing Council President Donald Tusk, who was seen heading for the talks with his mobile phone to his ear. It soon emerged that the talks had been delayed by two hours until 13:00 (11:00 GMT) as individual talks continued.

As Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte entered the Commission building, he said there had been lots of phone calls and text messages overnight and on Tuesday morning.

"I hope a majority will eventually be found for someone, in combination with how the other jobs will be filled," he told reporters.

While Italy's Giuseppe Conte said he would be very happy with a woman as Commission president, German's Angela Merkel said everyone would "have to shift a little".

EU-Swiss share trading row: What does it mean? - BBC News

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 11:57

Image copyright Getty Images The European Union and Switzerland have imposed new restrictions that affect each other's financial firms.

It is a striking deterioration in what has long been a close economic relationship.

What are the new restrictions?

Investment firms in the EU are no longer allowed to trade on the Swiss stock exchange. The arrangement, known as "equivalence", which previously allowed them to do that lapsed at the end of June and the European Commission has decided not to renew it, for now at least.

In response to the EU's move, Switzerland has banned the trading of Swiss shares on EU markets.

Why did the EU take this action?

This is part of a wider issue between the two sides.

Switzerland's economic relations with the EU are governed by about 120 separate bilateral agreements. These give Swiss businesses access to most of the EU's single market.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The EU is frustrated by Switzerland's slow progress on a new framework agreement But the EU wants to update and simplify the arrangement with a new framework agreement. The European Parliament has described the current situation as "complex, sometimes incoherent and not easy to sustain".

They have a draft of a new agreement, but the Swiss side first went for public consultation and have more recently asked for clarification.

The EU has become frustrated by the delay and has allowed the equivalence arrangement for Swiss stock markets to expire.

What are Switzerland's reservations?

The Swiss government has concerns that the agreement might lead to EU citizens receiving more welfare benefits.

They also fear that it might limit government subsidies to businesses and make it harder to protect Swiss wages - which are high - from low wage competition.

Image copyright swissmem Image caption Swiss wages are typically high compared to many EU countries But there is also a wider political context.

The right wing Swiss People's Party - which received the most votes in the last four elections - is hostile to the European Union and to the free movement of workers that goes with Switzerland's relationship with its much larger neighbour. And there is an election later this year.

What exactly is equivalence?

In some areas of financial regulation the European Commission can decide that other countries have equivalent standards to the EU.

In relation to stock markets, the requirements include a high level of investor protection and preventing insider trading.

The significance of an equivalence decision is that the EU investment firms can then trade on the exchanges of the country concerned.

Similar decisions were made at the end of 2017 for the United States, Australia and Hong Kong, along with Switzerland. The Switzerland decision had a time limit of a year. It was then extended for six months but has now expired.

Does this have any implications for Brexit?

It might do.

Finance is a very important sector of the British economy and access to customers in the EU is valuable. It is also useful for EU investment firms to be able to trade on the London Stock Exchange.

Many firms hope that equivalence will enable them to continue to deal with the EU after the UK is no longer a member.

This is much wider than the specific issue about stock markets that the EU and Switzerland have acted on.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Commission is clearly prepared to use equivalence in a negotiation The European Commission has made equivalence decisions on insurance, credit rating and auditing among other areas.

What the Switzerland row shows is that the EU, and the Commission in particular, are prepared to use equivalence in a negotiation. If they feel it can be useful in applying pressure to the negotiating partner, they are apparently willing to use it.

And of course Britain is likely to be on the other side of the table at some stage in the not too distant future, with some important businesses that could be hurt by an adverse decision on equivalence.

Build The Wall

AOC screamed at Border Patrol agents in 'threatening manner' during tour: Witnesses

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Tue, 02 Jul 2019 11:45

| July 01, 2019 04:04 PM

| Updated Jul 01, 2019, 05:58 PM

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., screamed at federal law enforcement agents ''in a threatening manner'' during a visit to a Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas, and refused to tour the facility, according to two people who witnessed the incident.

A group of 14 House Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, and their aides kicked off their visit to the region at about 11 a.m. MST Monday at the El Paso Station on Hondo Pass Drive.

The group was standing inside the station near an area where migrants are held when Ocasio-Cortez left them to sit inside a nearby holding area with a family as the other lawmakers and aides were briefed on station operations.

''She comes out screaming at our agents, right at the beginning [of the tour] '... Crying and screaming and yelling,'' said one witness who said he was stunned by the outburst in front of approximately 40 people.

''The agents, they wanted to respond, but they held back because she's a congressional delegate. But when you have someone yelling at you in a threatening manner '... '' the same person said. ''They were like, 'Hey, you need to kinda step back.'''

A second official said she went in and out of the cell during the group's briefing nearby and returned to the group several times to share information she had learned from detainees, including that one person had drunk from a toilet.

The congresswoman told the group she would not go with the 13 other House Democrats on the tour of the facility and stayed with the family.

A second official said that while she was around agents, Ocasio-Cortez commented at another point about an unofficial Border Patrol Facebook page that was exposed earlier Monday for offensive content about those in custody and lawmakers, including the congresswoman.

''Something under her breath, 'Oh, all these guys in here are gonna f--k me.' The agents are standing there behind the computers. One of the agents laughed at something he was saying to another agent, and she got irate and flipped out,'' the second Border Patrol official said. ''Now they're under investigation for it. She took it as they were laughing at her and screams at them and says, 'What's so funny?'''

CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the internal affairs matter. The Border Patrol official said managers were in the process of taking statements from agents.

The Washington Examiner submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to CBP for video of the events.

The congresswoman, who led a charge in 2018 to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recounted the scene differently in a social media post afterward and did not mention yelling at agents.

''After I forced myself into a cell w/ women&began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as ''psychological warfare'' - waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a 'lack of funding?''' she wrote on Twitter.

Now I'm on my way to Clint, where the Trump admin was denying children toothpaste and soap.This has been horrifying so far. It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We're talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.

'-- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019 ''Now I've seen the inside of these facilities. It's not just the kids. It's everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress. I brought it up to their superiors. They said 'officers are under stress & act out sometimes.' No accountability,'' she tweeted. ''Just left the 1st CBP facility. I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.''

The agent on scene said the congresswoman misrepresented why a person in custody had drunk from a toilet.

''So this is what happened with the migrant and drinking water from toilet: she wanted water, didn't know how to use the faucet in the cell, and drank from the toilet. She never told AOC that we made her drink from the toilet. AOC, of course, changed it '... This was when she [the migrant] was apprehended and brought into the facility,'' according to the agent. A Border Patrol official familiar with the sector's media and congressional visits said the city's congresswoman, Veronica Escobar, has been through stations ''15 times'' but did not respond in the same way as her colleague on Monday. Later in the visit, the first official said Escobar "yelled" at El Paso Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull about its care of detainees.

''We've never hidden anything from her,'' the official said.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Claims Border Migrants Forced to Drink From Toilets'... | The Last Refuge

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 11:42

It would appear that congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a thirst for media exposure, has officially decided to remove any remaining semblance of credibility.

After a series of political stunts intended to generate a far-left narrative for open borders, the loon from New York has officially gone bananas:

In addition to migrants having to drink from toilets, Ms. Cortez claims she was threatened to be raped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials conducting a tour for a congressional delegation. However, according to Homeland Security journalist Anna Giaritelli none of this happened.

Factually, as reported, AOC began screaming during a U.S. Customs and Border Protection briefing and refused to tour the facilities. Even AOC's most staunch supporters are having a difficult time defending their moonbat lightbringer on this one.

(WASHINGTON) New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez screamed at federal law enforcement agents ''in a threatening manner'' during a visit to a U.S. Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas, and refused to tour the facility, according to two people who witnessed the incident.

A group of 14 House Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, and their aides kicked off their visit to the region around 11 a.m. MT Monday at the El Paso Station on Hondo Pass Drive. The group was standing inside the station near an area where migrants are held when Ocasio-Cortez left them to sit inside a nearby holding area with a family as the other lawmakers and aides were briefed on station operations.

13 other House Democrats as well as their aides were in the room. I'm told only Rep. Ocasio-Cortez reacted in this manner. https://t.co/XdH5Fpru0z

'-- Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) July 1, 2019

ADA

Domino's seeks Supreme Court review of web accessibility ruling | Overlawyered

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 12:36

For years now regulated parties (which means much of the country) have been waiting urgently for an answer to the question of whether and to what extent the Americans with Disabilities Act requires websites to be made accessible to blind, deaf, and other disabled users. (Coverage of this issue here dates back two decades.) Now the Supreme Court will be asked to review a much-watched case against Domino's Pizza (earlier) which resulted in a plaintiff's win before the Ninth Circuit. Four other appeals court rulings have addressed the issue. Will this be the case that finally reaches the high court?

[Frank Cruz-Alvarez and Talia Zucker, Washington Legal Foundation Kristina Launey and Minh Vu/Seyfarth Shaw, January and March posts; J. Gregory Grisham, Federalist Society; Nicole Porter where SCOTUS may be headed on disability issues]

Filed under: Supreme Court, web accessibility

Google Health Care

UChicago data sharing

Background in this:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-google-university-chicago-partnership-0518-biz-20170517-story.html

Adam-

Under HIPAA a clinic/clinician is allowed only certain

instances where they can share Private Health Information (PHI) or Identifiable

information (PII). Research specifically to disease and treatments (not novel

IT solutions) has an exemption, but also a very rigorous permission process

stemming back to laws on Human Research.

We in the health information sharing side have lived and

died on the treatment portion of HIPAA. Information shared has been for the

purposes of exchanging the specific patient health information

for that patient,either around a scheduled event (appointment) or in an

emergency. Where Dr Red and I have worked, we have the added protections of

these being Federal institutions covered under insurance, employment, and

disability laws, and other exemptions that come from Federal bureaucracies.

The conundrum here is that the "using patient record to

identify patterns in preventive health", the model which ACA or Obamacare

was sold upon, does not fit the privacy laws we have on the books. Google

and UChicago could have done the massive amount of work to exempt in electronic

medical records for entire patient categories to do this research, but it

appears they didn't. Also, in the patient research I have been exposed

to, research data collection and sharing is typically extremely specific at

qualifying patient data sets, meaning a request for pseudo-scientific holistic

predictive medicine benefits gleamed from data analysis of health records

probably would not pass the scrutiny of human research oversight panels. Not

saying it wouldn't, but you have to show evidence that your theory has merit

before your get permissions to stand up such a study. Belief is not merit

enough.

Not need for credit, but if you do, please use pseudonyms

(CrashEMT).

Shut Up Slave!

TSA PreCheck sign-up: Coming to a festival or Red Sox game near you

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 20:38

Renewing your licenses or getting a new "Real ID" can be confusing. A breakdown of a few of the things you'll need to know. USA TODAY

CHICAGO '' The neon green fanny pack strapped around Annabel Hess' skinny jeans carried all the essentials for a music festival: credit card, driver's license, phone, Chapstick.

And her passport.

The 25-year-old concert-goer wasn't headed out of the country after Miranda Lambert closed the first night of the annual Country LakeShake festival. She brought it to sign up for TSA PreCheck, the government's expedited airport security program.

Hess, a regular traveler, had been meaning to sign up so she no longer has to beg other passengers to cut the security line when she's running late for her flight. Her roommate has had PreCheck since college and saw the festival's pitch about enrolling on-site and getting a fast pass through festival security as a bonus.

"This was an easy opportunity,'' Hess said. "So here I am.''

She signed up inside the green and purple Identogo RV outside the festival gates in about 10 minutes and headed for the fast-pass line to get into the festival.

Annabel Hess got to go through the TSA PreCheck line line at Country LakeShake in Chicago because she signed up on the spot for TSA PreCheck. (Photo: Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY)

Identogo by Idemia, which handles TSA PreCheck enrollment under a government contract, has been trying to boost PreCheck enrollment by offering sign-ups at nontraditional locations. Most people sign up at an airport or a universal enrollment center run by Idemia. In addition to music festivals, Identogo has expanded enrollment to office supply retailer Staples and sporting events including, beginning this year, Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park.

"What we're trying to do is make it more convenient for people to enroll,'' said Charles Carroll, senior vice president at Idemia. "Take away all the friction points.''

PreCheck sign-ups began at festivals a few years ago in a partnership with concert promoter LiveNation and have been ramped up this year, with LiveNation and at other events, he said. The RV was parked at the BottleRock Napa Valley musical festival in northern California in late May and spent the first weekend in June at CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee.

Angie Hamblen, senior manager of marketing and event promotions for Idemia, oversees the PreCheck RV at events around the country. She said the mobile enrollment centers fielded a lot of questions about what PreCheck is in the first few years, but now people are familiar with it.

"Now it's, 'How do I do this? How do I sign up?'''

Annabel Hess, right, signed up for PreCheck at an RV outside the gates of the Country LakeShake music festival in Chicago in late June at the urging of her roommate Catie Hjerpe, left. (Photo: Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY)

In a one-hour span at the LakeShake festival, 10 concert-goers filed into the RV to sign up, including a mother and her two daughters and the wife of a frequent flyer who already had PreCheck.

The festival sign-up lineup continues in mid-July with the Forecastle music festival in Louisville, Kentucky. This fall, concert-goers will be able to sign up for PreCheck at Moon River Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Music Midtown in Atlanta and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience in New Orleans.

Carroll said the nontraditional venues tend to draw more vacation travelers to PreCheck, compared with frequent business travelers at airport locations. Festivals also help to draw in millennials, such as Hess and Kate Hansell, a 28-year-old Chicago resident who also enrolled at LakeShake.

Rising country star Maren Morris performed on the first night of Country LakeShake in Chicago on June 21. (Photo: Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY)

Hansell, who has attended the three-day festival ever since it debuted five years ago, travels a few times a year and was tired of being stuck in the standard TSA line at the airport.

"People I travel with all seem to have it, and they seem to get through faster than me,'' she said.

Hansell completed the online application for PreCheck earlier this year, but the closest enrollment center to her office had closed. Members have to visit a center for a background check and fingerprinting.

When she heard about sign-ups at LakeShake ' '' the festival promotes the program heavily as part of Identogo's sponsorship ' '' she decided to bring her passport and sign up.

She was approved a week later and used the PreCheck lane at O'Hare International Airport on Friday.

Where can I find a mobile enrollment center for TSA PreCheck?Identogo has a schedule of the mobile enrollment RV stops on its website. Information about enrolling at Red Sox games is also online. Rather visit a Staples? Identogo has a list of stores currently offering the service.

The TSA PreCheck mobile enrollment RV, operated by IdentoGo, stopped at Country LakeShake, a country music festival in Chicago in late June. (Photo: Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY)

Do I need to do anything beforehand?You can make an appointment and fill out the PreCheck application online, but neither is required.

What do I need to bring to the enrollment center?Proof of citizenship, such as a U.S. passport or a birth certificate, a driver's license and a credit card to pay the $85 enrollment fee. The PreCheck membership is for five years.

Love TSA PreCheck and Global Entry? Don't let your membership expire

The TSA PreCheck mobile enrollment RV, operated by IdentoGo, stopped at Country LakeShake, a country music festival in Chicago in late June. (Photo: Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY)

Is it more expensive to sign up at a festival or sporting event?No.

Interested in TSA PreCheck? It might soon be cheaper and easier to sign up

I already have TSA PreCheck, can I use the fast pass lane at participating music festivals, Red Sox games and other events?Yes, but you'll need to bring your known traveler number (KTN) with you to receive a bracelet.

Grab your change! TSA travelers left nearly $1 million behind at checkpoints

TSA PreCheck members and those who signed up on site got a wristband to use the TSA fast pass line at Country LakeShake, an annual music festival in Chicago. (Photo: Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY)

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2019/06/27/tsa-precheck-sign-up-music-festivals-red-boston-red-sox/1550027001/

Christchurch mosque shootings: Boy, 16, admits possessing footage - NZ Herald

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 03:35

By RNZ

The youngest person to be charged with distributing video of the Christchurch mosque shootings has admitted to a lesser charge of possessing the film.

The 16-year-old, who was arrested in March, cannot be named due to his age.

He denied a charge of distributing objectionable material and was held in custody for two months.

He was released on bail a month ago under strict conditions, including not accessing the internet and not going within 500 metres of the Al Noor or Linwood Ave mosques.

The substantive hearing was set down for today at the Christchurch Youth Court.

But just before it started, the 16-year-old's lawyer, Anselm Williams, told the judge he was pleading guilty, with the agreement of the police, to a lesser charge of possessing the video.

He was remanded on continued bail to appear on 30 July for a Family Group Conference.

Ottomania

A Wounded Erdogan Could Be Even More Dangerous - Antiwar.com Original

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 11:22

For the second time in a row, Turkish voters have rebuked President Recep Tayyir Erdogan's handpicked candidate for the mayoralty of Istanbul, Turkey's largest and wealthiest city. The secular Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, swamped Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Binali Yildirim in an election that many see as a report card on the president's over 16 years in power.

So what does the outcome of the election mean for the future of Turkey, and in particular, its powerful president? For starters, an internal political realignment '' but also maybe a dangerous foreign policy misadventure.

The AKP Stumbles

Erdogan and his party have been weakened politically and financially by the loss of Istanbul, even though the president did his best to steer clear of the campaign over the past several weeks. Since it was Erdogan that pressured the Supreme Election Council into annulling the results of the original March 31 vote, which the CHP also won, he owns the outcome whether he likes it or not.

His opponents in the AKP are already smelling blood. Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whom Erdogan sidelined in 2016, has begun criticizing the president's inner circle, including Berat Albayrak, his son-in-law and current finance minister. There are rumors that Davutoglu and former deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan are considering forming a new party on the right.

Up until the March election that saw the AKP and its extreme nationalist alliance partner, the National Movement Party (MHP), lose control of most the major cities in the country, Erdogan had shown an almost instinctive grasp of what the majority of Turks wanted. But this time out the AKP seemed tone deaf. While Erdogan campaigned on the issue of terrorism, polls showed most Turks were more concerned with the disastrous state of the economy, rising inflation, and growing joblessness.

The ''terrorist threat'' strategy '' shorthand for demonizing Turkey's Kurdish minority '' not only alienated conservative Kurds who once reliably voted for the AKP, but forced the opposition into a united front. Parties ranging from the leftist Kurdish People's Democratic Party and the Communist Party, to more conservative parties like the Good Party, withdrew their candidates from the Istanbul's mayor's race and lined up behind the CHP's Imamoglu.

The AKP '' long an electoral steamroller '' ran a clumsy and ill-coordinated campaign. While Yildirim tried to move to the center, Erdogan's inner circle opted for a hard right program, even accusing Imamoglu of being a Greek (and closet Christian) because he hails from the Black Sea area of Trabzon that was a Greek center centuries ago. The charge backfired badly, and an area that in the past was overwhelmingly supportive of the AKP shifted to backing a native son. Some 2.5 million former residents of the Black Sea region live in Istanbul, and it was clear which way they voted.

Erdogan at Bay

So what does the election outcome mean for Turkish politics? Well, for one, when the center and left unite they can beat Erdogan. But it also looks like there is going to be realignment on the right.

In the March election, the extreme right MHP picked up some disgruntled AKP voters, and many AKP voters apparently stayed home, upset at the corruption and the anti-terrorist strategy of their party. It feels a lot like 2002, when the AKP came out of the political margins and vaulted over the right-wing Motherland and True Path parties to begin its 17 years of domination. How far all this goes and what the final outcome will be is not clear, but Erdogan has been weakened, and his opponents in the AKP are already sharpening their knives.

An Erdogan at bay, however, can be dangerous. When the AKP lost its majority in the 2015 general election, Erdogan reversed his attempt to peacefully resolve tensions with the Kurds and, instead, launched a war on Kurdish cities in the country's southeast. While the war helped him to win back his majority in an election six months later, it alienated the Kurds and laid the groundwork for the AKP's losses in the March 2019 election and the Istanbul's mayor's race.

The fear is that Erdogan will look for a crisis that will resonate with Turkish nationalism, a strategy he has used in the past.

He tried to rally Turks behind overthrowing the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, but the war was never popular. Most Turks are not happy with the 3.7 million Syrian refugees currently camped in their country, nor with what increasingly appears to be a quagmire for the Turkish Army in Northern and Eastern Syria.

In general, Turkey's foreign policy is in shambles.

Erdogan is trying to repair fences with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, because he desperately needs the investment that Gulf monarchs can bring to Turkey. But the price for that is a break with Iran and ending his support for the Muslim Brotherhood. While the Turkish president might be willing to dump the Brotherhood, Erdogan feels he needs Iran in his ongoing confrontation with the Kurds in Syria, and, at least at this point, he is unwilling to join Saudi Arabia's jihad against Tehran.

In spite of the Turkish president's efforts to normalize ties with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia recently issued a formal warning to Saudi real estate investors and tourists that Turkey is'' inhospitable.'' Saudi tourism is down 30 percent, and Turkish exports to Saudi Arabia are also down.

Erdogan is also wrangling with the U.S. and NATO over Ankara's purchase of the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft system, a disagreement that threatens further damage to the Turkish economy through U.S.-imposed sanctions. There is even a demand by some Americans to expel Turkey from NATO, echoed by similar calls from the Turkish extreme right.

Talk of leaving NATO, however, is mostly Sturm und Drang. There is no Alliance procedure to expel a member, and current tensions with Moscow means NATO needs Turkey's southern border with Russia, especially its control of the Black Sea's outlet to the Mediterranean.

Crisis in Cyprus '' And Greece

But a confrontation over Cyprus '' and therefore with NATO member Greece '' is by no means out of the question. This past May, Turkey announced that it was sending a ship to explore for natural gas in the sea off Cyprus, waters that are clearly within the island's economic exploitation zone.

''History suggests that leaders who are losing their grip on power have incentives to organize a show of strength and unite their base behind an imminent foreign threat,'' writes Greek investigative reporter Yiannis Baboulias in Foreign Policy. ''Erdogan has every reason to create hostilities with Greece '' Turkey's traditional adversary and Cyprus's ally '' to distract from his problems at home.''

Turkey has just finished large-scale naval exercises '' codename ''Sea Wolf'' '' in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and, according to Baboulias, Turkish warplanes have been violating Greek airspace.

Cyprus, along with Israel and Egypt, has been trying to develop Cypriot offshore gas resources for almost a decade, but Turkey has routinely stymied their efforts. The European Union (EU) supports the right of Cyprus to develop the fields, and the EU's foreign policy head, Federica Mogherini, called on Turkey to ''respect the sovereign rights of Cyprus to its exclusive economic zone and refrain from such illegal actions.'' While Mogherini pledged ''full solidarity'' with Cyprus, it is hard to see what the big trade organization could do in the event of a crisis.

Any friction with Cyprus is friction with Greece, and there is a distinct possibility that two NATO members could find themselves in a face off. Erdogan likes to create tensions and then negotiate from strength, a penchant he shares with US President Donald Trump. While it seems unlikely that it will come to that, in this case Turkish domestic considerations could play a role.

A dustup with Ankara's traditional enemy, Greece, would put Erdogan's opponents in the AKP on the defensive and divert Turks' attention from the deepening economic crisis at home. It might also allow Erdogan to use the excuse of a foreign policy crisis to strengthen his already considerable executive powers and to divert to funds from cities the AKP no longer controls to the military.

Budget cuts could stymie efforts by the CHP and left parties to improve conditions in the cities and to pump badly needed funds into education. The AKP used Istanbul's budget as a piggy bank for programs that benefited members of Erdogan's family or generated kickbacks for the party from construction firms and private contractors.

Erdogan has already warned his opponents that they ''won't even be able to pay the salaries of their employees.'' The man may be down, but he is hardly beaten. There are turbulent times ahead for Turkey.

Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Conn Hallinan can be read at www.dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com and www.middleempireseries.wordpress.com.

War on Cash

Wat heeft het kabinet tegen cash geld? | De Volkskrant

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 12:27

1)Waarom verbiedt het kabinet grote cash betalingen?Wie een mooi bankstel of sieraad wil kopen, moet bij bedragen vanaf 3.000 euro voortaan pinnen. Vanaf 2021 wil het kabinet zulke grote contante betalingen verbieden. Die maatregel komt in plaats van de huidige meldplicht voor aankopen vanaf 10 duizend euro. 'Doordat de regels voor contante betalingen in Nederland soepeler zijn dan in een aantal omringende landen, is het voor criminelen nu makkelijker om in Nederland via contant geld wit te wassen', schrijft het kabinet in zijn nieuwe 'Plan van aanpak witwassen'. Het blijkt in de praktijk vooral om Belgi te gaan. Dat kent al een cashverbod voor aankopen vanaf drie mille. Duitsland, Groot-Brittanni, Denemarken en Luxemburg hebben daarentegen geen plafond.

2)Wie gaan de nadelen ondervinden van dit verbod?Maandagochtend nog deed de fiscale opsporingsdienst Fiod invallen bij vier autohandelaren. Zij zouden tweedehands leasewagens hebben verkocht aan buitenlandse partijen voor grote sommen contant geld. Vermoed wordt dat daarbij sprake is geweest van fraude en witwassen. Behalve autodealers hebben bijvoorbeeld ook juweliers, bouwmarkten, onderhoudsbedrijven, kunsthandelaren en chiquere kledingwinkels regelmatig te maken met klanten die grote aankopen contant afrekenen. Dat hoeven zeker niet altijd criminelen te zijn. Detailhandel Nederland, dat de belangen van winkeliers behartigt, noemt het verbod dan ook 'een stap te ver'. 'Dit gebeurt zonder dat goed is onderzocht of hiermee de problematiek van witwassen echt effectief wordt tegengegaan', laat de brancheorganisatie weten in een reactie. Zij vreest voor inkomstenderving. Zo betalen juist toeristen vaak cash. 'Grote kans dat zij de aankoop dan achterwege laten.'

De Bovag is iets positiever. 'Wij zijn niet tegen het ontmoedigen van cash', zegt woordvoerder Paul de Waal van de organisatie die onder meer autohandelaren vertegenwoordigt. Al moet het volgens hem wel werkbaar blijven. 'Veel mensen verkopen bijvoorbeeld hun oude caravan via Marktplaats. Met de contante opbrengst gaan ze dan naar de caravandealer om een nieuwe te kopen. Daar moet je niet tussen gaan zitten.'

3)Gaat deze maatregel echt helpen in de strijd tegen witwassen?Het cashplafond maakt deel uit van een lange lijst oudere en nieuwe maatregelen die het kabinet nu presenteert. Zo mogen banken samen zwarte lijsten opstellen met verdachte klanten. Nu kan het nog voorkomen dat een drugshandelaar die bij de Rabobank geweigerd wordt, bij ING of ABN Amro gewoon opnieuw een rekening aanvraagt. Ook komt er meer toezicht op bedrijfjes die zich bezighouden met cryptomunten, zoals Bitcoin.

Om korte metten te maken met het zwarte geld is desondanks meer nodig. Nederland doorvoerland beperkt zich niet tot de Rotterdamse haven of Schiphol. Onderzoekers schatten dat hier jaarlijks zo'n 16 miljard euro wordt witgewassen, vooral drugs- en fraudegeld. Daarmee staat Nederland in de mondiale top 10 van aantrekkelijkste witwaslanden. Aan de ambities van het kabinet zal het in elk geval niet liggen. 'Wij willen internationaal tot de koplopers op de aanpak van witwassen behoren', schrijven de ministers Wopke Hoekstra en Ferdinand Grapperhaus in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer.

4)Wat heeft het kabinet tegen cash geld?'Criminaliteit vormt een schaduweconomie die nog steeds grotendeels op contant geld is gebaseerd', heet het in het kabinetsplan. Of het nou om witwassen, belastingontduiking of roofovervallen gaat: zonder cash krijgen criminelen het een stuk moeilijker. Kenneth Rogoff, econoom en auteur The Curse of Cash, spreekt van een 'smerig geheim'. Het overgrote deel van ons contante geld is foetsie. Overheden en centrale banken hebben geen idee waar het is. Tel daarbij op dat het vooral om grote biljetten gaat, en je kunt wel raden wat hiermee gebeurt. Vandaar dat minister Hoekstra eerder dit jaar in Washington zelfs zinspeelde op een cashverbod vanaf 1.000 euro. Vandaar ook dat het kabinet ook een nieuwe aanval inzet op het paarse briefje van 500 euro. Als het aan Rutte III ligt, verdwijnt dit 'criminelenbiljet' helemaal.

5)Maken we ons niet te afhankelijk van digitaal geld? Ja, vinden de critici die spreken van een 'war on cash'. Minder dan vier op de tien transacties wordt nog contant voldaan, blijkt uit cijfers van de Betaalvereniging. Tegelijkertijd prijzen mensen met een krappe beurs het overzicht dat contant geld biedt. Wie 30 euro op zak heeft voor de boodschappen, kan eenmaal in de supermarkt nooit zijn budget overschrijden. Nog een voordeel: contant geld is minder gevoelig voor storingen. Het belang daarvan bleek afgelopen maand nog eens toen Nederland kampte met een grote pinstoring. Het meer principile argument is dat een verbod op contant, anoniem geld ons n"g afhankelijker maakt van banken of overheden met minder goede bedoelingen. Niet voor niets noemde een Britse financieel activist de cashloze samenleving 'een eufemisme voor een 'vraag-je-bank-toestemming-om-te-betalen' samenleving'.

Lees meer over de strijd tegen witwassenHet geduld is op met banken die hun witwastoezicht verwaarlozen, zoals ING deed. Bij Rabobank speuren inmiddels duizend gespecialiseerde medewerkers naar crimineel geld '' en nog blijkt het extreem lastig. 'Wij zoeken continu naar die speld in de hooiberg.'

Criminelen zijn dol op contant geld. Maar veel gewone Nederlanders ook. De cashloze wereld: veiliger, gemakkelijker, beter? Of is contant zo gek nog niet? De voor- en nadelen op een rij.

Dominican Republic Hoax

Dominican Republic tourism deaths might be lower than average.

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 10:34

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VIDEO - U2: Joshua Tree 30th Anniversary [FULL INTERVIEW] | Beats 1 | Apple Music - YouTube

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 Jul 2019 14:08

VIDEO - Hispanic pastors tour border facility lambasted by AOC and say they are 'shocked by misinformation' | Fox News

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 Jul 2019 12:24

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez was "full of indignation" when he saw the reports and heard from politicians about the deplorable and inhumane conditions for illegal immigrants at an El Paso County, Texas migrant detention center. But what he saw at the same facility toured by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. with a group of pastors was "drastically different."

The president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the world's largest Hispanic Christian organization, and senior pastor of New Seasons Christian Worship Center in Sacramento shared his firsthand experience touring a migrant detention center during a press briefing Monday.

AOC ALLEGEDLY SCREAMS AT FEDS DURING TEXAS VISIT, CLAIMS DETAINEES FORCED TO DRINK OUT OF TOILETS

''I read the reports, saw the news clips. I just wanted to see what was actually happening in order to better enable our efforts to find a fair and a just solution to our broken immigration system," Rodriguez, who has advised President Trump and both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush on immigration reform, noted. ''To my surprise, I saw something drastically different from the stories I've been hearing in our national discourse. Even as a veteran of immigration advocacy in the U.S., I was shocked at the misinformation of the crisis at the border."

The group of pastors saw a very different picture described by Ocasio-Cortez and other politicians and media outlets.

TEXAS CITY TAKES DOWN CHURCH'S 'JESUS WELCOMES YOU TO HAWKINS' SIGN OVERNIGHT

''We found no soiled diapers, no deplorable conditions and no lack of basic necessities,'' Rodriguez remarked, adding he specifically asked border agents if they staged the facility in response to the negative press. ''They unequivocally denied it '-- we were witnessing the identical conditions the attorneys saw when they toured the facility days earlier."

In fact, some told him the sources from whom the negative coverage originated ''never toured the areas of the facility that we toured'' and speculated they might have had political motivations.

WORSHIP LEADER PENNED THESE LYRICS FOR NORTH KOREA IN EXACT SPOT TRUMP WALKED ON

The pastors left encouraged by the commitment and dedication of America's Border Patrol and immigration officers, ''many of which are Latinos, by the way.'' He said one emotional Border Patrol agent turned to him and said, referring to the vilification: ''Pastor Sam, what they're saying about us is completely false. We care about these kids and have a passion for our calling.''

Pastor Carlos Moran, NHCLC board member and immigrant, said, ''we, as evangelical leaders that serve in different segments, are very committed to helping children regardless of their status and we commend those officers that are trying their very best to serve and fulfill their duty at the border. However, we do call on our political leaders to set aside their personal agendas and begin focusing on resolving this immigration crisis.''

CATHOLIC BISHOPS GET BLOWBACK FOR STATEMENT ON TRUMP'S DEPORTATION THREAT

Rodriguez points blame for that broken immigration system at consecutive White House administrations and especially both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress and implored each to ''address the system they created.''

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''What's heart-wrenching is that we have both Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress, who can't come together for the purpose of doing the right thing and finding a solution to our immigration crisis,'' he said. ''Please, President Trump, please White House, work with the Republicans and the Democrats [and] please, please, please, please, Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, please come together to solve this crisis, immediately.''

VIDEO - EU top job: Von der Leyen meets with Juncker in Brussels as campaign blitz continues | Euronews

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Italian Socialist David-Maria Sassoli elected to replace Antonio Tajani as EU Parliament president

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen nominated as Commission president

Von der Leyen's nomination will go to the European Parliament for approval

Neither Spitzenkandidat, Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans nor German MEP Manfred Weber, was nominated for the top post, which may be met with resistance from parliament

Gender, east-west balance were important considerations in three-day long marathon talks

The surprise nominee picked to lead the EU's executive arm, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, has met with outgoing Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

A Commission spokesperson on Thursday said Juncker fully backs his potential successor, adding that the two met as "true Europeans who have known each other for years".

But first: EU parliament support neededVon der Leyen's visit to the EU capital comes a day after her campaign blitz began for the top job in Strasbourg, where the close Merkel ally said she hopes members of the European Parliament will approve her for the role of Commission president, adding that she feels "overwhelmed" and "very honoured" to have been nominated.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen attends a news conference in Strasbourg. - REUTERS/Vincent Kessler Donald Tusk, the outgoing chief of the EU Council consisting of the EU28 that nominated von der Leyen, joined the campaign trail in Strasbourg on Thursday, urging the Parliament to approve the German defence minister.

"For the first time, we achieved perfect gender balance in the top positions. Europe is not only talking about women, it is choosing women," Tusk told EU lawmakers.

"I hope it will inspire the European Parliament in its decisions."

The woo offensive has been met with resistance from many EU lawmakers blasting the nomination as undemocratic and serving the political needs of the heads of states who nominated von der Leyen.

The European Council, which is made up of all EU28 leaders, nominated von der Leyen on the third straight day of gruelling talks. She is set to be joined by fellow nominees Charles Michel as European Council president, Josep Borrell Fontelles as EU foreign policy chief, and Christine Lagarde to lead the European Central Bank.

Von der Leyen's appointment '-- if confirmed '-- would ensure the top post stays within the European People's Party, the centre-right political group that received the most votes in May's European elections. But it remains to be seen if the European Parliament would embrace a politician who is not a Spitzenkandidat.

Managing Director of IMF Christine Lagarde (centre) poses during a family photo of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Fukuoka, Japan June 9, 2019. - REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon What happens next?The European Parliament must approve the nomination of von der Leyen by an absolute majority, which is half of the existing MEPs plus one. The vote is slated to take place on 16 July.

If von der Leyen does not get the majority backing as needed, then it's back to the drawing board. EU28 leaders within the European Council will then need to propose another candidate within a month's time.

Spitzenkandiat process to be testedThe sense of urgency to nominate the EU's chief executive on the third day of negotiations at the Council stemmed from the new European Parliament taking their seats for the first time in Strasbourg and voting for its president. While the president is elected by incoming MEPs, the post is nonetheless part of backdoor horsetrading deals for the Commission's top jobs.

Italian David-Maria Sassoli's successful election as Parliament president oN Wednesday is seen as a win for Socialists '-- though not the victory the centre-left group sought in getting their lead candidate Frans Timmermans in the Commission presidency.

Following Sassoli's election, the MEP said in a press conference: "I want to make clear I'm not the Council's man. I'm Parliament's man."

"The European Parliament made an autonomous and independent choice."

READ MORE | How are the EU's top jobs filled and when? | Euronews explains

Von der Leyen's nomination will test parliament's will to stand by the Spitzenkandidat process, which is non-legally binding arrangement that sees the lead candidate of the largest political group with the mandate to lead the Commission presidency. The now-former European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has continually called for the Spitzenkandidat process to be respected by the EU Council ' '-- but many EU leaders, including Emmanuel Macron, have been critical of it.

The Council's previous compromise on Sunday had been to name EPP Spitzenkandidat Manfred Weber as the European Parliament president and to give the Commission job to the Socialists' lead candidate Frans Timmermans, who France and Spain strongly support.

Commission president nominee Ursula von der Leyen talks with Manfred Weber, who was Spitzenkandidat for European People's Party, in Strasbourg on July 3, 2019. - REUTERS/Vincent Kessler Timmermans, however, remained unpalatable to eastern EU states such as Hungary and Poland, due to his role in the bloc's rule of law probes against their nationalist governments.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej BabiÅ said on Tuesday in Brussels, "The [Visegrad Four], we are very simple. We want somebody on the presidency of the commission who doesn't have a negative view about our region."

"Mr. Timmermans is not acceptable for us."

READ MORE | European Parliament elections 2019: Who is Frans Timmermans? And what does he stand for?

But the idea of von der Leyen in the top job may prove too much for socialists, especially within Germany.

Merkel herself was forced to abstain in the Council vote that nominated von der Leyen due to opposition from the Social Democrats (SPD), who are part of the government coalition.

Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz, a German socialist politician, blasted the defence minister on Twitter, saying: "A victory by Orban & Co. They have prevented Timmermans, who stands for the rule of law .... the Spitzenkandidat process is dead.''

''Von der Leyen is the weakest minister here. That seems to be enough to become head of the Commission."

Who is von der Leyen?Once thought to be a potential successor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, von der Leyen became the country's first woman defence minister in December 2013 and has held the post since despite controversies in her political career.

She entered politics later in life, at the age of 43, but became familiar with the life of a diplomat at a young age. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was the minister-president of Lower Saxony and the former director-general of the European Commission, among other posts, and von der Leyen herself was born in Brussels.

The 60-year-old defence minister, a close ally of Merkel, became a member of the CDU in 1990 and held various local political positions within the Hanover region between 2001-2004. Von der Leyen, a medical doctor and researcher by training, was then elected to Lower Saxony's state parliament in 2003 and became a cabinet member as the minister for social affairs, women, family affairs and health.

Her political ambitions hastened in 2005 when Merkel appointed her federal minister of family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth. In 2009, von der Leyen was elected to the Bundestag, or German federal parliament, and was tapped as the federal minister of labor and social affairs until 2013, when she became defence minister.

Reviews have been mixed about Von der Leyen's tenure as defence minister '-- and lately it's been more critical following scandals. In December last year, German opposition parties launched a parliamentary investigation into von der Leyen's role in a spending scandal involving her ministry and the allocation of multi-million euro contracts to outside consultants.

Von der Leyen in November said of the nepotism scandal: ''There were violations of the provisions guarding the awarding of contracts.''

"The involvement of external parties did not always proceed correctly. That should not be allowed to happen," she said.

Von der Leyen was in 2015 accused '-- and later cleared'-- of cheating on her PhD thesis despite instances of plagiarism. "We're talking about mistakes, not about purposeful wrongdoing," the university president said when the investigation was concluded in 2016.

Her nomination as Commission president comes at a time when her influence in domestic politics wanes. At the end of 2018, when five deputy spots were up for grabs under the CDU party's new leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, von der Leyen received the fewest number of votes among her colleagues.

EU Parliament's new presidentEuropean lawmakers on Wednesday elected their Italian colleague MEP David-Maria Sassoli with the centre-left Socialists and Democrats group as president of the European Parliament.

Newly-elected European Parliament President David-Maria Sassoli delivers a speech after being elected in Strasbourg. - REUTERS/Vincent Kessler Sassoli, a TV journalist turned MEP, secured the absolute majority needed from lawmakers with 345 votes after the second round of ballot casting. The 63-year-old replaces fellow Italian Antonio Tajani to lead the parliament for a half term totalling 2.5 years. The subsequent 2.5 years are expected to go to an MEP within the centre-right European People's Party.

Following Sassoli's successful election, he said to Parliament: "In these months, too many people have fuelled divisions and conflicts that we thought were a sad reminder of our history. Instead, the citizens have shown that they still believe in this extraordinary path, the only one capable of providing answers to the global challenges before us."

He also touched on scepticism within the EU, saying: "We must have the strength to relaunch our integration process, changing our Union so to be able to respond more strongly to the needs of our citizens and give real answers to their concerns, to their increasingly widespread sense of loss.''

The new European Parliament president added that his priorities include youth unemployment, migration, climate change, "digital revolution", the "new world balance".

"Today is the first day of a new parliament," he said while addressing reporters. "What we've shown is that people believe in democracy, believe in the European Union."

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VIDEO - Parliament vs Council: How did the spitzenkandidat process get derailed? | Euronews

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Over the last few months, Euronews has reported on a lengthy process where the European Parliament put forward candidates for the top jobs in the EU's administration..

We brought you an explainer video on how the Spitzenkandidat process worked - but over the last 24 hours that picture has altered irrevocably, and the short answer is that the process doesn't work at all.

Euronews' political editor Darren McCaffrey sets this up as a battle for supremacy between the European Parliament and the European Council.

"The European Parliament is trying to exert its legitimacy as the only directly elected element of the EU institutions, that it should be able to put forward its candidates," McCaffrey said.

But what transpired effectively saw that none of those candidates made it to any of the 4 top jobs.

And now many feel democracy is being undermined. The hastily agreed package has created a great deal of consternation not solely due to the hijacking of the parliamentary process, but also because of the individual personalities nominated.

In Ursula von der Leyen, the nomination for the EC presidency, you have someone who has never been a national leader, moreover she has no domestic support as Chancellor Merkel's candidate is Manfred Weber.

Christine Lagarde - lined up for the European Central Bank chief - has been embroiled in scandals at home and suffered a lack of popularity due to austerity packages she implemented as head of the International Monetary Fund.

Josep Borell - nominated to replace Federica Mogherini as EU foreign affairs chief - has dropped his fair share of diplomatic clangers and is foreign minister of Spain who don't recognise Kosovo.

Moreover, the nominees all come from positions in western Europe which is hardly representative of the whole bloc.

Anna Donath, a liberal Hungarian MEP from the Renew Europe group wrote on Facebook that the European Parliament's democratic mandate is bigger than any European institution including the European Council. "But the European Council decided on the EU institutions leaders behind closed doors, instead of the European Parliament, excluding the democratically elected representative body."

She went on to say: "As a result of the bargaining of several days the European head of states nominated people that we don't know anything about their European vision or their main priorities. Today the head of states expect the European Parliament to accept this without a word."

Watch Darren's analysis in the player above

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VIDEO - Hodgetwins on Twitter: "Nike pulls 'Betsy Ross flag' sneakers after Colin Kaepernick is offended! #WalkAwayFromNike #collusion'... "

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VIDEO - Drawings by children who were held in border facilities show them in cages - CBS News

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The incoming president of the American Academy of Pediatrics toured two Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities last week and told CBS News the detention centers are no place for children. Dr. Sara Goza received pictures from a social worker that were drawn by children recently released from CBP custody, showing them in cages.

"When they opened the door, the first thing that ... hit us was a smell. It was the smell of sweat, urine and feces," Goza said. "And I heard crinkling to my left and I looked over there and it was a sea of silver '... there were young children, boys in there. Unaccompanied boys in there."

Goza described a room full of silent children "and they had no expression on their faces, there was no laughing, there was no joking, no talking." She said all she could hear was the rustle of those silver Mylar blankets.

"I describe them almost like dog cages with people in each of them," she said. "And the silence was just hard to watch, hard to see."

Democrats on Capitol Hill want to hear from top immigration officials about an explosive new report from the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, claiming conditions at Border Patrol facilities are so bad, one manager called them a "ticking time bomb." The unannounced inspections were made to five facilities.

Some children lacked access to showers, hot meals or changes of clothes. Thirty one percent of kids were held longer than the 72 hours allowed '' with some being held more than two weeks. At one facility, according to the report, some adults were held in standing room only conditions for a week.

The findings follow a recent visit where Democrats including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Julin Castro toured facilities in Texas and claimed to have seen "horrifying" conditions.

VIDEO - David Rutz on Twitter: "Michael Eric Dyson compares Betsy Ross Flag to a swastika or burning cross during MSNBC hit. https://t.co/q0RAY4dqtW'... "

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