As a human stampede tore its way through a terminal at Kennedy International Airport, a Transportation Security Administration agent running along was heard screaming, "There's a bomb!" Another agent yelled, "Someone's been shot!"Some passengers found their way to the tarmac, scurrying underneath a parked jet toward a different, safe terminal -- only to be refused entry by a police officer. As other officers in the New York airport's police command center tried to determine what was going on, they were unable to gain immediate access to most of the video feeds from the terminal's security cameras, which are operated by American Airlines.The chaos on Sunday night followed what appeared to be two false alarms of a gunman in the airport's terminals.And yet, with no loss of life or serious injuries, the bizarre episode is being seen as something of a gift, giving officials a case study in airport security and the gaps within. The events of that night also offer a clinic in the human capacity for panic -- the stunning effect, on a population that has more information than ever at its fingertips, of essentially shouting "fire" in a crowded theater.
During the Vietnam War, when most of his classmates were avoiding the draft, he volunteered for the Marine Corps and earned numerous decorations leading a rifle platoon in fierce combat. Returning home, he became a prosecutor and eventually ran the Justice Department's criminal division. In the 1990s Mueller went into private practice. It was lucrative, but he hated it. Watching the spike of drug-driven murders in the District of Columbia, he volunteered to become a line prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office. It was as if a retired general had volunteered to serve as a private in wartime.Later, as FBI director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Mueller became the embodiment of the old-school G-man who only wore a white shirt with a red or blue tie -- never a blue shirt, because that would signal dangerous frivolity. He "avoided the limelight" and "frustrated his speechwriters by crossing out every 'I' in speeches they wrote for him. It wasn't about him, he told them: 'It's about the organization.' "Mueller embodies the ideals of probity, service and self-sacrifice that trace back to the Pilgrims who came to America in search of a "city upon a hill." The Puritans preached devotion to the Almighty and had nothing but contempt for vanity and luxury -- no blue shirts for them. Over the centuries, their religious fanaticism leached away, leaving behind in American culture a residue of obligation to serve not just God but also mankind [...]Trump combines the hedonism of the 1970s with the bigotry and sexism of the 1950s: the worst of both worlds. His consciousness was not raised in the 1960s, but his libido was. He did not take part in the civil rights or antiwar movements and won five draft deferments -- including one for "bone spurs" -- so that he could devote his life to the pursuit of women and wealth. He later said that fear of catching a sexually transmitted disease was "my personal Vietnam."Trump is the embodiment of what Christopher Lasch in 1979 called the "new narcissist" who "praises respect for rules and regulations in the secret belief that they do not apply to himself"; whose "emancipation from ancient taboos brings him no sexual peace"; and whose "cravings have no limits," because he "demands immediate gratification and lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire." A product of the "me decade," Trump is a "me first"-- not "America first" -- president whose speeches are full of exaggerated or falsified self-praise.Mueller is the best of America; Trump the worst.
He's scared of stairs https://t.co/26x3xRoIOF
— David Frum (@davidfrum) February 26, 2018
I am a full-time law enforcement instructor teaching basic students as well as experienced officers in advanced training programs. Before this position, I was a sworn law enforcement officer. I have been in the law enforcement field for 10 years. In my career, I have responded to shots-fired calls and have been involved in shots-fired incidents. I have walked alone at night in pursuit of drug smugglers. I have responded and assisted county and state police officers on emergency calls ranging from high-speed pursuits with violent felons, to burglaries and assaults in progress, to violent domestic assaults. On some of these calls, I was by myself and the first on scene. I have attended multiple active shooter training programs. Luckily, I have never needed to fire my pistol or long arm at another human being. There is my career disclaimer. [...]For all of the commentators and politicians to so easily refer to this man as a coward is sickening and should be condemned in the strongest terms. Maybe we should change the famous verse to, "Let him who has never been shot at criticize those making $40,000 a year who also choose not to be shot at."I ask all of these "courageous" commentators and politicians to place themselves in this officer's shoes. Do you know how you would react when the rounds start flying near you? Have all of you been in a building while real shots are being fired at you? I have not, so please fill me in. Do you know how that incredible sound affects your brain and your body? Have you been trained in any way to understand the physiological effects on the human body during and after a shooting incident? Have you felt your heart pound out of your chest while someone is killing people around you, with a weapon that you can't possibly match in fire power?Of course, the answer to all of these questions is no. And to all of those officers who speak as if they wouldn't hesitate in a similar situation, and so flippantly dismiss this man's actions, you better have the applicable warrior credentials.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dealt a setback to President Donald Trump, requiring his administration to maintain protections he has sought to end for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally into the United States as children.
The National Rifle Association, equipped with a vaunted political email list and support from passionate single-issue voters, is gearing up to take on Florida Gov. Rick Scott and GOP leaders as they tee up a rarity in Florida lawmaking: gun control legislation.The central question for Republicans as the state's legislative session enters its final weeks is whether the NRA, which opposes the GOP-written measures, will get rolled by a collection of lawmakers it helped get elected. [...]Among other things, the separate plans put forward by GOP leaders and Scott would increase the age to buy all guns to 21. The Legislature's plan includes a three-day waiting period for military-style semi-automatic weapons like AR-15s. Scott opposes plans to arm trained school staff, which the NRA supports. Both proposals ban "bump stocks," which allow semi-automatic weapons to mimic the firing speed of fully automatic weapons.The NRA opposes each proposal, but it's unclear if the organization has the juice needed to torpedo the leadership-driven bills.
CEO Bob van Dijk talked to ET's Biswarup Gooptu, Madhav Chanchani & Arijit Barman about the company's next big bets. Excerpts: [...]ET : Any emerging tech you are interested in?BvD: We are extremely excited about the potential of blockchain to change how the Internet is governed. We are excited about the technology, excited about the governance models. We are very interested just because of the disruptive nature of It. I think it can really transform the way people interact with Internet. There are questions about scalability. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done.ET: There is an ongoing debate about having a level-playing field, capital dumping by global majors. Your thoughts?BvD: India needs to make sure that it builds an ecosystem for the success of local businesses. If I am blunt about it, I think Europe is a digital colony of the US. Europe has nothing. There's no decision-making in search, content, social or video, which basically means there is no ecosystem of capable Internet entrepreneurs or professionals. It's a disaster. To me, this means that in the next 10 years nothing else will happen either, because you need to have that core ecosystem. I think, If I were your Prime Minister, I would have that bent of mind. I don't think it means throwing out foreign capital. You want capital and you want skill. That's smart. But in the process, you should try to avoid becoming the Europe of the Internet, where the decisions are made, and all the key talent is elsewhere, and all you have are the sales and the execution here. I think that would be a very dangerous outcome. Europe doesn't have a big tax base. Who pays taxes there? None of the tech giants does, and there is no ecosystem of entrepreneurs. So, it will be a decade of nothing.
Reuters has found new information about Manafort's handling of the loan and its potential link to the bankruptcies as Special Counsel Robert Mueller seeks to pressure Manafort to cooperate with his investigation into Trump's campaign team and possible collusion with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.At issue is whether the failure to disclose a loan from a lender that was also the main creditor in the California bankruptcy cases represented an illegal concealment of material information.Reuters has also learned that over the past several months Mueller has begun focusing on Jeffrey Yohai, Manafort's former son-in-law and his partner in four California property deals that failed and were placed in bankruptcy, as a potentially valuable witness in his probe.Last week Mueller filed new criminal charges against Manafort and Rick Gates, a former business partner who served as Trump's deputy campaign manager. The California bankruptcies might be yet another avenue of inquiry for Mueller's team, said Frank Figliuzzi, who was assistant director of counterintelligence for the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Mueller until 2012."It's all about increasing pressure on Manafort to cooperate," he said
Here's a list of political stances that cluster together in several populist European parties. Tell me whether you think they count as far-left, far-right, or neither.admiration for Vladimir Putin;higher taxes for the rich;hostility toward immigration;assertion of national sovereignty;protectionism;more welfare spending;anti-Americanism;suspicion of financiers;obsessive hatred of George Soros;mild dislike of Jews;pronounced dislike of Muslims;family values.
In Continental Europe, that cocktail of views defines you as "far-right." And sure enough, you hear it often from, for example, the nationalist politicians affiliated to Marine Le Pen's bloc in the European Parliament. But I'm not sure that "far-right" is an accurate way to describe them.Many of these politicians see themselves as the authentic champions of industrialized labor. They march on May Day under red flags. They dislike kings and aristocrats and businessmen, and detest the liberal capitalism of the English-speaking democracies.The reason they are called "far-right" is that "right-wing," in modern European parlance, simply means "bad guys." Since these guys are double-plus bad, the reasoning runs, they must be even further to the Right than conservatives.But there is nothing conservative about them.
Across from the home of imprisoned Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi in Nabi Saleh, the red-tiled roofs of Israel's illegal Halamish settlement dot the adjacent hilltop.Residents of Halamish, along with some 600,000 other Israelis, reside in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law. Despite living on occupied Palestinian territory, settlers are subject to Israeli civil law, while Palestinians to Israeli military law.A person's nationality and ethnicity determines which set of laws applies to who in the West Bank, rights groups have noted. [...]Under a dual legal system, Palestinians facing Israel's military courts - run by Israeli soldiers and officers - receive far harsher sentences than a settler who commits the same crime and is tried in a civil court; some are not punished at all.Palestinians are tried in military courts as adults at the age of 16, while the majority of Israelis at 18.
Buckley wrote about Trump the politician once, in an article for Cigar Aficionado, which ran in the spring of 2000 after Trump's brief pursuit of the nomination of the Reform party, Ross Perot's then-rudderless vehicle. Buckley ID'd Trump as a demagogue, narcissist division. "When he looks at a glass," Buckley wrote, "he is mesmerized by its reflection. If Donald Trump were shaped a little differently, he would compete for Miss America." This was a political as well as a personal judgment: Trump sought office not to accomplish anything, but to advance and gratify himself. Candidate Trump had issues in 2000, and more in 2016, and beyond. But Bill knew his man. They had been fellow New Yorkers for decades. Bill did not regularly read Page Six, but his wife Pat did. Bill had observed every step of Trump's public career. He knew Trump was gilt all the way down.
Trump's first-year accomplishments testify to the conservative movement's momentum. After he stopped talking about the Supreme Court's power to write bills, or appointing his sister to it, he turned judicial nominations over to conservatism's legal infrastructure and to Mitch McConnell, and produced a string of good ones. The tax bill reflected years of Paul Ryan's, and other congressmen's, thoughts and hopes. Candidate Trump's foreign policy might be summarized as, Every Yazidi for himself (a position Buckley embraced at the end of his life); President Trump, taking counsel of his generals, has been more proactive. Where conservatives had not done their homework -- as in thinking about how to replace Obamacare rather than merely attack it -- Trump came up empty-handed.That is Trump's business, and America's. But what has Trump done to conservatives?One of Trump's abilities, which he possesses at the level of genius, is finding and naming the weaknesses of enemies: Low-Energy Jeb, Little Marco, Crooked Hillary. Related is his ability to create weaknesses in his supporters. A weak man needs weak supporters; strong ones might make him feel insecure, or differ with him. And so, whether from design, or simply because it is the way things work, Trump's conservative admirers have had to abandon and contradict what they once professed to hold most dear.
The most egregious example is the religious Right. The religious Right is the latest version of an old model of American politics, variously incarnated by Puritans, abolitionists, and William Jennings Bryan. It, like its predecessors, has argued that America and individual Americans need to have a godly or at least moral character to thrive. Now the religious Right adores a thrice-married cad and casual liar. But it is not alone. Historians and psychologists of the martial virtues salute the bone-spurred draft-dodger whose Khe Sanh was not catching the clap. Cultural critics who deplored academic fads and slipshod aesthetics explicate a man who has never read a book, not even the ones he has signed. Followers of Harry Jaffa, the most important Lincoln scholar of the last 60 years, rally round a Republican who does not know why the Civil War happened. Straussians, after leaving the cave, find themselves in Mar-a-Lago. Econocons put their money on a serial bankrupt.Admiring Trump is different from voting for him, or working with him. Politics is calculation; "to live," Whittaker Chambers told Buckley, who quoted it ever after, "is to maneuver." But to admire Trump is to trade your principles for his, which are that winning -- which means Trump winning -- is all.In three years (maybe seven), Donald Trump will no longer be president. But conservatives who bent the knee will still be writing and thinking. How will it be possible to take them seriously?