Tag: Life

In an otherwise blameless life, Paul Manafort lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry and wangled millions in tax breaks for corporations. In an otherwise blameless life, he helped the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos bolster his image in Washington after he assassinated his primary political opponent. In an otherwise blameless life, he worked to keep arms flowing to the Angolan generalissimo Jonas Savimbi, a monstrous leader bankrolled by the apartheid government in South Africa. In an otherwise blameless life, he spent a decade as the chief political adviser to a clique of former gangsters in Ukraine. This clique hoped to capture control of the state, so that it could enrich itself with government contracts and privatization agreements. This was a group closely allied with the Kremlin, and Manafort masterminded its rise to power—thereby enabling Ukraine’s slide into Vladimir Putin’s orbit. In otherwise blameless life, Manafort came to adopt the lifestyle and corrupt practices of his Ukrainian clients as his own. In otherwise blameless life, he produced a public-relations campaign to convince Washington that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was acting within his democratic rights and duties when he imprisoned his most compelling rival for power. Rather than paying his fair share to help fund national defense and public health, he kept his cash in Cyprus and wired it home to buy over $1 million in bespoke clothing. In an otherwise blameless life, he disguised his income as loans, so that he could bamboozle banks into lending him money.

The vast majority of users surveyed (74 percent) said they were not aware that Facebook lists their interests for advertisers and that these interests can be found in the “ad preferences” page on user profiles. One in five Facebook users (21 percent) report they are listed as having “multicultural affinity,” the Pew Research survey found. Of those, 43 percent were assigned an affinity to African-American culture and 43 percent assigned Hispanic culture, and 10 percent were assigned an affinity with Asian-American culture. Facebook is under federal investigation for privacy violations resulting from the Cambridge Analytica involvement. But it apparently has not communicated these tools well enough to users, he added, if only one in four users are aware of the ad preferences page. Osborne said Facebook often receives complaints from users that ads are not relevant, so the company tries to balance making ads useful while not violating user privacy. While we and the rest of the online ad industry need to do more to educate people on how interest-based advertising works and how we protect people’s information, we welcome conversations about transparency and control.” How to change your preferences: The list of interests Facebook thinks you have can be found under Settings>Ads>Your ad preferences. “We’re aware of the statement of interest filed and will respond in court; we’ll continue working directly with HUD to address their concerns.” Facebook still has a “multicultural affinities” listing on its ad preference page — meant to designate people who likely have an interest in a racial or ethnic culture, according to Pew. While Facebook has been the target of many investigations for such practices as of late, it is far from the only company that engages in these practices, said David Ginsburg, vice president of marketing at security firm Cavirin. “It really goes beyond Facebook and privacy,” he said.

The two are merging, and as they come together, companies and states will have the power to control our perceptions. The fragmentation social media promotes has been discussed to death. If virtual monopolies are to be tamed, their algorithms cannot be treated as commercially confidential when they order how debates are conducted and information is received. Already most CVs are never seen by human eyes. Those who do the monitoring wield enormous power: a power that is increasingly hard to contest. And here lies a distinctly modern arbitrariness: no one can say why. As China is already suggesting, the new technologies are giving the state powers the dictators of the past could only dream of. As a working principle it ought to be a given that any form of artificial intelligence that can harm the public must be publicly accountable. The great debate of the 21st century will be how much should be directed and controlled by digital systems. It is a tribute to him that his work makes that future a little less likely.

John McCain chose the United States Naval Academy Cemetery as the place he will lay rest. Naval Academy. Naval Academy Cemetery. "It's not necessarily political," Amy Bleidon, a 1998 Navy Academy graduate, said of McCain's legacy. "That lifelong devotion I think is what made him so well thought of by everyone," she added. It was at the academy where McCain met who would become a lifelong friend, Charles "Chuck" Larson. McCain and Larson remained close friends over their careers and will stay close even in death. Larson died in 2014 at age 77 and was buried at the Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis. Before his death, McCain picked a burial plot right next to his, both at the edge of a hill overlooking the Severn River. Annapolis is a Navy city.

Civility matters in politics because it still matters in our day-to-day interactions with our friends, family, neighbors and co-workers, and the loss or degradation of civility in politics affects our day-to-day lives as well. The American Revolution was ultimately successful not just because our country won hard-fought victories against a numerically superior enemy on the battlefield, but also because after those victories, we were prepared for independence. Much of the Declaration of Independence is a list of grievances against King George III specifying ways in which he violated those longstanding cultural norms. Now it’s up to us to make sure we uphold the legacy of the Revolution rather than emulating the tyrant our founding fathers were rebelling against. Part of that necessitates a recommitment to civility in politics and in government. Civility should not preclude disagreement or division; we shouldn’t feel a need to suppress opinions (ours or anyone else’s) in order to remain civil to one another. It also doesn’t mean that protests or even civil disobedience are completely off the table, just that they ought to remain generally peaceful and nonviolent. If you do happen to run into an elected official you disagree with in public and want to share your views, it’s best to do so politely and give them a real chance to respond. Your political opponents being mean and nasty toward you doesn’t mean you ought to respond in kind, either. A lot can be accomplished in this country if both sides take a step back from the endless sniping to actually listen to one another for a change.

Amsterdam/Valencia, 17 June 2018 – Following this week’s political stand-off over the fate of people rescued in the Mediterranean, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounces Italy’s closure of its ports to prevent 630 rescued people from disembarking and European governments’ choice of political point-scoring over saving lives at sea. “The men, women, and children on board the Aquarius have fled conflict and poverty, and have survived horrific abuse in Libya. “We are grateful to Spain for stepping in, even as Italian and other European governments have shamefully failed in their humanitarian responsibilities and placed politics over the lives of vulnerable people.” Ahead of the European Council meeting next week, MSF calls on European governments to put human lives first. Italy closes its ports and plays with the lives of 629 rescued persons Over the weekend of 9 and 10 June, the Aquarius search and rescue vessel, operated by SOS Méditerranée in partnership with MSF, rescued more than 200 people and received an additional 400 people from Italian naval and coastguard ships. MSF continued to press the Italian authorities to authorise disembarkation in the closest safe port as stipulated under international maritime law. Despite MSF’s concerns about the humanitarian and medical impact of the sea journey to Valencia, the Italian authorities instructed Aquarius on 12 June to transfer 524 people back to Italian ships and embark with the remaining 106 rescued on a four-day journey to Spain. “Italian authorities shamefully closed their ports to 630 rescued people and moved them around the sea for political point-scoring,” says Kleijer. Many European governments have not prioritised saving lives of vulnerable migrants and refugees at sea. “Europeans governments must appreciate the importance of search and rescue. As long as governments fail to fulfil their responsibilities, the teams on board the Aquarius will continue to conduct search and rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean.”

Molly talks about growing up in a creative household, her parents helping her break up with boyfriends, playing Melissa McCarthy's daughter in Life of the Party, and reveals how she embarrassed herself in front of Melissa and the cast. People…

Ben talks about his dad being in his new movie 'Life of the Party,' partying with him in college, and directing a love scene between his wife Melissa McCarthy and a much younger, handsome man on their anniversary. Jimmy Kimmel…

Melissa talks about getting injured when she guest-hosted our show, her mom and dad staying with her in LA for the winter and the difficulty she had saying goodbye to them, and reveals that her dad shows a little too…

Melissa talks about her new movie Life of the Party, being a wreck in college, and reveals why she hasn't stayed in touch with her first roommate. Jimmy Kimmel Interviews 20-Year-Old Attacked by Snake, Bear & Shark https://youtu.be/L3XD2TpVzdc SUBSCRIBE to…