MURDER – EXPLOSIONS and a REMINDER: PG&E Ordered To Develop Compliance And Ethics Program As Part Of Its Sentence For Engaging In Criminal Conduct | USAO-NDCA | Department of Justice

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/pge-ordered-develop-compliance-and-ethics-program-part-its-sentence-engaging-criminal

EXCERPT:

PG&E Ordered To Develop Compliance And Ethics Program As Part Of Its Sentence For Engaging In Criminal Conduct

Five years of probation and fines make up sentence for PG&E’s violations of the National Gas Pipeline Safety Act and for Obstructing Agency Proceeding

SAN FRANCISCO—  Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG&E”) was sentenced today to submit to an expansive program of probation after having been found guilty of multiple willful violations of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 (“PSA”) and obstructing an agency proceeding, announced U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch, San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe, U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Charge William Swallow, and FBI Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.  Among the provisions included in the program of probation issued by the Honorable Thelton E. Henderson, District Judge, are the obligation to submit to a corporate compliance and ethics monitorship, the obligation to complete 10,000 hours of community service, and the requirement to spend up to $3 million to inform the public in print advertisements and television commercials to notify the public of the utility’s criminal and neglectful behavior.

Camp Fire

Only 4 properties are in this email, but they seem to show significance. This is so messed up to the people in Paradise/Concow/Magalia, etc. And if we can document proof (I’m not public nor do I have a following) if it turns out that we can stop this, I am soooooo anxious to help. This has hurt my family and so many other innocent people. I need to do something. Thanks.

COP’s – Setting Up Soviets . . . in America (Detective Phil Worts)

Community Policing — Communist Oriented Policing

Jul 19, 2016 by

By Detective Phil Worts –

The consensus (dialectic) process

There is a myth that communism is dead and that the cold war is over. Nothing could be further from the truth. The problem is that few people today understand what communism really is and just where the cold war battle lines are actually drawn. Crack open a dictionary and look up the term �Dialectical Materialism.� You should find something like this:

�A philosophy founded by Karl Marx� which forms the basis of Communist doctrine: it combines the materialistic idea of matter over mind with the Hegalian dialectic in which opposing forces are constantly being reunited at a higher level.� –Webster Dictionary

But that definition might beg the question, �What is the Hegelian dialectic?� For modern man, the answer to that question is epic. The Hegelian dialectic has profoundly impacted the world in which you live.

What is communism?

The Dialectic:
Fomenting the Revolution

The concept of the dialectic has been around for a long time. It is simply that of opposite positions: Thesis (position) vs. Antithesis (opposite position). In traditional logic, if my thesis was true, then all other positions were by definition untrue. For example, if my thesis is 2+2=4, then all other answers (antithesis) are false. George W.F. Hegel, the nineteenth century German philosopher, turned that concept upside down by equalizing Thesis and Antithesis. All things are now relative. There is no such thing as absolute truth to be found anywhere. Instead, �truth� is found in Synthesis, a compromise of Thesis and Antithesis. This is the heart and soul of the consensus process.

This is diametrically opposed to the Judeo-Christian world-view prevalent in the Western world for the better part of two millennia that held that God existed, that He existed outside of the material creation and that man had a moral obligation to Him and His laws. God was transcendent and thus truth was absolute and transcendent, outside of our ability to manipulate it. This all changed with Hegel and modern man was born. Man could now challenge any authority and position, even God. Since there is no such thing as absolute truth, �my truth� is just as good as �your truth,� so don�t tell me what to think or how to behave. As Nietzsche, the �God is Dead� philosopher, would later say, �There is absolutely no absolute.� Now 2+2 can equal 5, or 17, or whatever you feel is right. (Hint: This is why our schools are failing. All teachers are certified on Benjamin Bloom�s work. He said ��we recognize the point of view that truth and knowledge are only relative and that there are no hard and fast truths which exist for all time and all places.�)

At about the same time that Hegel was passing from the scene, Karl Marx caught the revolutionary fever. He drew heavily from Hegel (the dialectic) and Feuerbach (materialism). He picked up where the other philosophers left the discussion, but with a twist. He scornfully stated, �The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways. The point, however, is to change it.� To CHANGE the WORLD was to become the warp and woof of Marxism. In the Marxian interpretation of reality, God had been abandoned. Alone in his universe, man was to fill the vacuum left by religion with materialism. Religion was the enemy of all progress. As he wrote in 1843, �Religion is the opium of the people.� No longer bound to a relationship with his Creator, the social relationship of �man to man� became the principle of Marx�s theory. It followed that these social relationships, which necessarily involve conflict, cause the changes in human progress. As the opening words of the Communist Manifesto announce: �The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.� Note the dialectic reasoning: the clash of opposites produces synthesis and change. Man, freed from religious restraints will carry the revolution (change via conflict) forward until all are equal in a man made utopia on earth. To that end, the Manifesto concludes, �Working men all countries, unite!�

  1. It is Dialectical Materialism, or, in simpler terms: a God expunged human reasoning process.
    2. REVOLUTION is its goal, to �change the world,� Marx said.
    3. The CHANGE is to be from a Theistic World View (Old World Order) to a Humanistic World View (New World Order). The term New World Order was a popular euphemism for world communism for years. Conspiracy kooks did not invent it. When it started to take on negative connotations, it was dropped for a nicer sounding label, Global Governance.
    4. Change is to occur through CONFLICT, (Crisis/Problems/Issues).

The Cold War. Where is the battlefield?

Change Happens: The re-culturing of America

Even as the worldwide communist revolution got underway in earnest around the glove, a rift was forming within Marxist intellectual circles. Around the turn of the century there was a growing trend within this movement that a better way to change the world is not abruptly and violently at the point of a bayonet, (traditional Marxist revolution), but rather it should be done slowly and incrementally by transforming individuals and their cultural institutions. Then you can control a country as effectively as if you conquered it militarily. In fact, this method is preferred because one does not have to rebuild bombed out cities and dig all those mass graves!

The home for this new wave of dialectical Marxist thinking became the emerging �science� of socio-psychology. It may come as a surprise to many to discover that virtually all of the pillars of modern psychology were humanistic utopians who believed that there is no God, that mankind can and should be manipulated (for its own good, of course), and that all social problems can be solved by the proper reprogramming of man�s mind. This would lead to an era of peace and prosperity based on diversity, tolerance and unity. Most of their work dealt with the details of human behavior, but their over-arching view was that of transforming society (echo the revolution). Hence, they came to be known as �Transformational Marxists.�

One such group was the Fabian Socialists, who took their name from the Roman general, Fabius. Fabius, it will be remembered, was confronted with Hannibal�s invasion of Italy. Hannibal with his elephants held the advantage of superior forces, but was far from home and supplies. Instead of confronting his foe head on, a battle he would have certainly lost, Fabius utilized hit-and-run tactics. Harassing his enemy and wearing him down incrementally piece-by-piece over time until Hannibal capitulated, Fabius won the war. The Fabian Socialists adopted this strategy in their goal of world socialism. In a similar vein, the transformational Marxists advocated a �slow march through the institutions,� as famous Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci would say. Gramsci�s theories cannot be overstated in this regard, as this strategy has become synonymous with his name. The Gramsci Strategy is the �War of Position,� (i.e. the battle ground is for the mind and culture) vs. the �War of Maneuver,� (i.e. traditional battlefield warfare with guns and bombs.) Gramsci engendered the anger of his communist counterparts in Moscow when he basically told them they were doing it all wrong. Gramsci died in prison under Mussolini�s regime, but his strategy has become the strategy for changing society.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a group of some 21 Marxist socio-psychologists gathered in Frankfurt and formed the Institute of Marxist Research. Perhaps that was a little too obvious for their opponents and they renamed it the Institute for Social Research. When Hitler rose to power, most of these men fled to America and continued their work here. Kurt Lewin, J.L. Moreno, Theodor Adorno, Erik Fromm, Max Horkhiemer and others found positions in American universities and had their work funded by pro-Marxist foundations.

Kurt Lewin is of special interest for this discussion because it was he who went to M.I.T. and conducted the research involving group dynamics that laid the foundation for Total Quality Management. At the risk of oversimplifying how the process of group dynamics works, it could be summarized as a method of belief and behavior modification, using dialectic-reasoning skills (remember, all truth is relative), in a group setting. It utilizes the inherent fear an individual person has of being alienated from the group. By use of a change agent, or �facilitator,� individuals are herded toward �consensus� by compromising their position for the sake of �social harmony.� According to Lewin, �A successful change includes, therefore, three aspects: UNFREEZING the present level, MOVING to the new level, and FREEZING group life on the new level.�

This is precisely the technique with which the communists brainwashed American POWs, the only difference being they could accelerate the �unfreezing� phase with physical torture.

In group dynamics the pain is not physical, it�s emotional. Do not underestimate the force of emotional pain. POWs frequently described their long periods in isolation as worse than some of the most brutal physical torture Isolation from the group is a powerful behavior modification weapon.

Transformational Marxists such as Kurt Lewin refined their weapon for the new battlefield: Using group dynamics to invade the culture to affect the paradigm shift. The weapon looks like this:

  1. A Diverse Group (�Diversity� needed for conflict)
    2. Dialoging to Consensus (Dialectic process)
    3. Over a Social Issue (Problem/Crisis/Issues)
    4. In a Facilitated Meeting (Controlled environment using facilitator/change agent)
    5. To a Predetermined Outcome (Paradigm shift)

The Marxist Trojan Horse

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

TQM is an organizational transformation strategy that uses:

  1. Group Dynamics
    2. Facilitator/Change Agents (�Strategic Planning� occurs in councils)
    3. ï¿½Problem Solving�
    4. Systems Management (ISO 900

Decoding the term �Total Quality Management� is impossible without an understanding of the Marxist foundation upon which it was built. I use the word �Decoding� because so many of the dialectic concepts are masked by nice sounding double-talk.

TOTAL= Holistic, Gestalt, Global 
QUALITY
= People. (Also slang, short for TQM systems in general, e.g. �We have a Quality Organization.�)
MANAGEMENT
= the facilitators, the agents of change.

With this background we arrive at our current application of the dialectic in our nation. I would like to now focus on the role that your local law enforcement agency has in the �re-culturing of America.� Your local beat cop has a special part to play, and he doesn�t even realize it. Not only has TQM change agents restructured many of the police departments in America, they are now in a position to turn the police themselves into the facilitators of the community through a program called COPs, or Community Oriented Policing. COPs is a federally funded program administered through the U.S. Department of Justice. What is COPs? The most succinct definition I found was in a DJ brochure:

COMMUNITY POLICING WHAT IS IT?

Shift in philosophy about police duties vs. community responsibilities to a team concept of TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT of the community. Re-identifying the police role as a FACILITATOR in the community (Emphasis mine).

Translation: Transformation from a constitutionally empowered local police force performing their duty to keep the peace to that of a change agent working within the community to affect a Marxist paradigm shift. Pay close attention to what the influential German Marxist Georg Lukacs had to say about who the facilitators are in the community: �The institutions in socialist society which act as the facilitators between the public and private realms are the Soviets. They (facilitators) are the congresses (diverse groups), which facilitate the debate (dialoguing to consensus) of universal problems (social issues) in the context of the everyday.�

  1. Leaders of the community (law enforcement, government, business, education, health, civic, non-profit, medical, religious, etc.) collaborating to identify problems in the community, what the significant impact on people will be, and suggesting solutions to those problems. (This is POP, or Problem Oriented Policing.)
  2. Identifying common ground, where all factions of a community can work together for the COMMON GOOD of the community in a broader problem-solving approach. Forming a partnership between police and the rest of the community where each is accountable to each other and the community as a whole. (Emphasis mine. End of COPs definition).

Note the reference to the �common good,� the ever-present ideal in the communist state. Individual rights become subordinated to the so-called greater good. This raises serious concern over the role of the police officer in society as a �partner� with community groups and social service programs, which, due to the blurring of lines of responsibility, are unaccountable to the public (voters).

To further understand the philosophy of COPs, one does not have to look further than the late socio-psychologist Dr. Robert Trojanowicz. Formerly the director of the National Center for Community Policing at the University of Michigan, he is considered the father of Community Oriented Policing. Consider the following selections from his writings:

�Social control is most effective at the individual level. THE PERSONAL CONSCIENCE IS THE KEY ELEMENT in ensuring self-control, refraining from deviant behavior even when it can be easily perpetrated.�

�The family, the next most important unit affecting social control, is obviously instrumental in the initial formation of the conscience and in the continued reinforcement of the values that encourage law abiding behavior.�

This is an astonishing admission of the fundamental dynamics of crime prevention and social disorder. The most conservative thinkers alive today couldn�t have been better articulated what makes for domestic tranquility in any society. Our founding fathers were keenly aware of this fact. James Madison cited the fact that our form of limited government is �wholly inadequate� without personal conscience as the internal social control. So then, in an effort to solve America�s moral chaos, we are going to restore the personal conscience by encouraging accountability to a higher authority (Ten Commandments) and strengthening the family, right?� Don�t be silly, says Dr. Trojanowicz.

�Unfortunately, because of the reduction of influence exerted neighbors, the extended family and even the family, social control is now often more dependent on external control, than on internal self-control.�

Oh, darn, he says. Since that �unfortunate� breakdown of conscience and the family structure, the social order is now dependent on �external control.� Read that, �The State.� Unfortunately indeed! Dr. Trojanowicz ponders the dilemma of the current state of affairs in his paper Community Policing and the Challenge of Diversity:

�In addition to raising questions (dialectic reasoning questions all absolutes) about our national identity, increasing diversity also raises questions about how we define American �values and morality.� (Absolute values of right and wrong vs. relative values). Many strongly held traditional beliefs derive from Judeo-Christian traditions. Blended with faith in the intrinsic virtues of family and the American Dream of the United States as a meritocracy where those who are willing to work hard will succeed. Can this model encompass the experience of the growing number of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists among us? (What, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists aren�t willing to work hard?) Does it reflect sufficient sensitivity to the concerns of people of color, women and gays?�

Got that? Traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs (with their absolute truths and morals) are out, diversity and relative values are in. If we are not to restore the personal conscience and the family, what is his solution? He continues:

�The community of interest generated by crime, disorder and fear of crime becomes the goal to allow the community policing officer an entre into the geographic community.�

If you did not fall out of your chair with that line, you weren�t paying attention. Social chaos is the GOAL for the transformational Marxist. The crisis of crime and disorder is the door for the police officer as facilitator/change agent to enter the community (the �client,� or the latest term, �customer,� and to initiate the paradigm shift! Even though these social architects plainly admit what is most vital in making for a crime-free community, they have absolutely no intention of restoring �individual conscience� or going back to repairing the traditional family. On the contrary, for the past sixty years these social-psychologists have been introducing these very dialectic concepts into our school system with the intent on demolishing personal conscience. Is there any doubt they have succeeded? For them, there is no going back.

�They (Americans) may not yet recognize that there is no �going back to basics� in education.� -Training manual for Goals 2000

�If �Equality of Opportunity� is to become a part of the American Dream, the traditional family must be weakened.�

Socio Psychologist-James Coleman:

�In order to effect rapid change, one must mount a vigorous attack on the family lest the traditions of present generations be preserved.� -Socio-psychologist Warren Bennis in his book, The Temporary Society. Bennis� book �Leaders,� was recommended reading at one time when one was promoted to sergeant on the S.D.P.D., wherein he identifies the leaders in any organization as �agents of change.”

Dr. Trojanowicz admits in no uncertain terms that is what his research is all about:

�It should also be noted that the continuing interest in finding a viable definition for the term community has not merely been an intellectual exercise. The theme underlying much of the research is that once you can identify a community, you have discovered the primary unit of society ABOVE the level of the individual and family that can be mobilized to take concerted action to bring about POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE.�

Just in case you doubt the Marxist nature of their concepts of community transformation, Trojanowicz quotes Saul Alinsky, the extreme Marxist change agent of the �60�s who authored Rules for Radicals. Alinsky proposed �we begin viewing community through the prism of issues (Issues=problems=crisis= conflict) which, in essence, constitutes the most urgent kind of community of interest.�

�What community policing does is put an officer in daily face-to-face contact with the community, so that he or she can have the input of the community in setting priorities. Unlike police programs of the past where police administrators or so-called community leaders set the police agenda, the community policing movement encourages average citizens to become involved.�

Formerly, the police administrators were accountable to the elected officials who were accountable to the voters (representative democracy). This new paradigm that Trojanowicz describes is exactly what Marxist George Lukacs termed �participatory democracy� and is nothing more than the Soviet style council. The United States Constitution was the law of the land (absolute authority) restraining government intrusion into the rights of the individual. The framers designed it to insulate the private realm (the individual) from the public realm (government). Allow me to repeat Lukacs:

�The institutions in socialist society which act as the facilitators between the public and private realms are the Soviets.�

By practicing the dialectic, we are removing the only barrier between a tyrannical government and the private citizen. Your neighborhood cop is now that facilitator, the Soviet. Why a police officer?

�In the role of the community ombudsman/liaison (i.e. facilitator), the community policing officer also acts as the community�s link to other agencies. The police are the only governmental agency open 24 hours a day, which makes them the ideal public agent to begin regenerating community spirit.�

The Soviet:

  1. A Diverse Group
    2. Dialoging to Consensus
    3. Over a Social Issue
    4. In a Facilitated Meeting
    5. To a Predetermined Outcome

Conclusion:

Useful idiots?

When Lenin was consolidating the Bolshevik revolution, he wrote how he would implement the communist bureaucracy without hardcore Marxist believers. While the elite rulers of his inner circle understood the structure he was building, Lenin said he would exploit the natural vanity and ambition of people to forward his agenda without them knowing what they were really doing. Eager to gain his favor and to enhance their political careers, they would fall all over themselves trying to promote his agenda. He called these types of people �useful Idiots.� Before you brand every police officer you see as an undercover Marxist, understand that most of them comprehend little of what they are participating in. In reality, most officers intuitively know that something is wrong in their organization, but they play the game rather than risk damaging their career. Sadly, they constitute a vast army of �useful idiots.�

I�m all for �promoting mutual trust� and �cooperation between the people and the police� and �empowering neighborhoods.� These �positive social changes� are the selling points for Community Policing. But in reality, those appealing ideals camouflage the vehicle of Marxist change.

Who asked the citizenry if they wanted their communities �transformed� and their government �reinvented�? Who asked parents if they wanted their children to learn with their feelings instead of learning facts? Who asked your local police officers if they wanted their beliefs and attitudes manipulated? No one asked because if someone did, they would have been run out of town. Instead, using dialectic-reasoning skills, they have schemed to seduce, deceive and manipulate every community in the land into a utopian vision of so-called �unity in diversity.�                       These social engineers have no intention of taking America back to individual conscience within the family structure in order to preserve domestic peace and tranquility. That would mean a return to recognizing and submitting to the higher Authority. This �vision� has failed wherever it has been tried. By participating in the dialectic, we have deified human reason; traded in God and truth for relative values and consensus; and abandoned individual liberty and inalienable rights for the common good and diversity. In the final analysis, we are destined for Totalitaria, and worse, the loss of our souls.

The terms �communism,� �socialism,� �Marxism,� �New World Order,� etc., may be worn out and abandoned. The names change, because deception is one of the rules of the game. Many erroneously believe that the cold war is over and that we actually won. But the revolution is still very much alive and America is losing. The culture war is raging in our schools, our workplaces, our media and our churches. Antonio Gramsci would be very pleased if he could see just how effective his strategy has been.

GLOBAL DIGITAL ID and the WORLD BANK (Rothschild): Empowering refugees and internally displaced persons through digital identity | Voices

https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/empowering-refugees-and-internally-displaced-persons-through-digital-identity

Empowering refugees and internally displaced persons through digital identity

Oria Adamo, 72 years old and the mayor of a small town in Central African Republic shows his ID card in the village of Ndu, Bas Uele province, Democratic Republic of the Congo where thousands fled after fleeing a surge in violence that began in May 2017. © Simon Lubuku/UNHCR Oria Adamo, 72 years old and the mayor of a small town in Central African Republic shows his ID card in the village of Ndu, Bas Uele province, Democratic Republic of the Congo where thousands fled after fleeing a surge in violence that began in May 2017. © Simon Lubuku/UNHCR

Fardowsa, a 20-year old Somali refugee in Uganda, knows the vital importance of identity documents to refugees. She and her family were forced to flee her homeland in 2001 without any official documentation. The refugee ID card she was issued by the Government of Uganda not only provides her with protection and access to humanitarian assistance, but it has also given her the opportunity to study at university and open a mobile money account. With this foundation, Fardowsa is planning to start her own business to further improve her and her family’s new life. In the process, she will also be contributing to Uganda’s economy while realizing her potential as a young female refugee.

Identification is also crucial for internally displaced persons (IDPs), who have been forced to flee their homes to other areas within their own country. During a recent participatory assessment conducted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Diffa, Niger, Mohammed, an internally displaced man, emphasized: “having an identification document makes life more dignified. The community respects you and knows you are somebody”. His ID helps him pass through security checkpoints in the conflict-affected area where he lives, allowing him to continue in his business. Having an ID also facilitates social participation for many IDPs and can contribute to addressing gender-based issues and other risks of marginalization.

Advances in digital technology and the introduction of ID systems by governments around the world are resulting in new approaches to providing IDs to forcibly displaced persons. In past situations of mass influxes, receiving governments would often request UNHCR to undertake refugee registration and documentation on their behalf. But host countries are now taking an increased role even during the first phases of a crisis, often in partnership with UNHCR, using shared identity management tools and registration processes. In some countries, refugees are now being included in the host country’s national population registry or ID system, which means they are issued a Unique Identity Number (UIN) and their life events are being recorded in the civil registry – something that used to be accessible only to citizens.

UNHCR staff member Winnie Mugisa is hard at work verifying Congolese refugees using the biometric equipment at Oruchinga settlement in Uganda.UNHCR staff member Winnie Mugisa is hard at work verifying Congolese refugees using the biometric equipment at Oruchinga settlement in Uganda. © Michele Sibiloni/UNHCR

Key drivers of this trend include the commitment by all countries, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to “provide legal identity for all, including birth registration” by 2030 (target 16.9) and the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. Regional civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) initiatives in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific  have also shone a light on the importance of host States registering the births of refugees, IDPs and stateless persons, to protect child rights.

Past research by the World Bank has shown the potentially transformative impacts of proper identification for the inclusion of refugees in local communities and economies. The use of digitally-enabled IDs that are interoperable across different aid agencies can greatly enhance the efficiency of humanitarian assistance delivery. Importantly, the provision of IDs that are officially recognized will facilitate the financial inclusion of refugees by, for example, allowing them to register SIM cards in their own name and to open mobile money or bank accounts. Host communities will also benefit from the extension of coverage of ID systems across the whole country, including hard-to-reach and border areas.

But there are also risks that need to be managed. The collection and use of personal data is a great responsibility. It must be done in such a way that protects against misuse or unauthorized disclosure, and ensures that the individual’s right to privacy is respected. UNHCR’s data protection policy recognizes that the stakes are even higher for refugees, requiring additional considerations. To address these risks, governments should adopt and implement strong legal and regulatory frameworks for data protection, ensure that they are collecting and using personal data with the informed consent of the data subjects, and capture and process only the minimum data needed for the purposes of an ID system.

UNCHR and the World Bank’s collaboration on Identification

UNHCR and the World Bank share the goal of ensuring that the voices and needs of the forcibly displaced and host communities are considered in the design and implementation of robust, inclusive, and responsive ID systems. This is a central feature of the 10 Principles on ID for Sustainable Development that both organizations have endorsed, along with over 20 other international, philanthropic, academic, and private sector organizations.

To implement UNHCR’s Digital Identity and Inclusion Strategy, consultations are being held with forcibly displaced persons and host communities to understand how to develop digital ID systems that best meet their needs. This work is based on UNHCR’s existing participatory approaches and also supports efforts to issue documentation to refugee men and women on an equal basis.

Girl students using tablets pre-loaded with educational software at their Instant Network Schools (INS) classroom in Juba primary school, Dadaab. © Assadullah Nasrullah/UNHCR Girl students using tablets pre-loaded with educational software at their Instant Network Schools (INS) classroom in Juba primary school, Dadaab. © Assadullah Nasrullah/UNHCR

Similarly, the World Bank is working to ensure that projects to support ID systems in client countries reflect the experiences and needs of the population, and that they leave no one behind—particularly the poorest and most vulnerable groups such as refugees and IDPs. To make this happen, it is critical to keep local stakeholders engaged throughout the process, and to create channels for people to actively provide feedback on their experiences getting and using IDs, including through grievance redress mechanisms.

As part of their wider partnership, UNHCR and the World Bank will work together to develop practical tools that a wide range of stakeholders can use to consult with refugees, IDPs, people at risk of statelessness, and host communities in the design and implementation of ID systems. Listening to their voices is crucial to ensuring that their ID needs are met and their protection enhanced. This will complement other collaboration such as joint work in countries where governments are seeking to include refugees and IDPs in ID systems, guidance on key privacy and data protection safeguards for refugees in ID systems, as well as an upcoming report on existing and emerging models across the world for providing digital IDs to refugees.

Today, many forcibly displaced persons are among the approximately 1 billion people around the world  who lack any form of government recognized ID. Our collective hope is that in closing the identity gap every forcibly displaced person, like Fardowsa and Mohammed, can have access to a digital ID and to the rights, protection, and opportunities that come with it.

 

Watch your steps! AA

https://gsowatch.aamo.info/tony/index.htm

AAWS Inc., NY, is proud to report:

1. We have successfully prosecuted one member of the Mexican AA General Service Board in 95. We thought their retail prices for big books were too low and somehow in competition with our other Spanish speaking AA organizations. He was properly sentenced for a term of one year in jail. 2000 groups collected some bail money and helped Javier G. out. Too bad! But anyhow, we picked up almost all of those dumping priced AA literature stuff and had it locked up together with drugs, guns and other highly dangerous crap. And last not least, crazy chairman Javier G. is properly branded in public as being a duly sentenced criminal now. And that’s a nice result, isn’t it? 


Click on the image!

2. We have brought more law suits:  Against one book manufacturer, Elsner GmbH, in Berlin who accepted money to print tens of thousand of pocket size big books for California jails and Russian suburbs. We would not have been bothered too much had they not been given away entirely for free. During our 1998 AA World Service meeting Swedish delegates reported pirate copies coming in. The General Service Board warned the Fellowship about this project via announcements and notices published in the Servicebladet, newsletters and bulletins. We wish to thank our Swedish executives for making such valuable and extended efforts to block the AA message from being carried. In full accord with our long-standing policy the Board pointed out the damaging effect that copyright violation could have on our finances. In a letter to the Big Book Study Group, AA-Forlaget noted the illegality of the group’s action and demanded that distribution of the pirated version cease and desist. 

We sell a big book for US$44 in Sweden. To our knowledge about 5000 pirates appeared to enter prisons and treatment centers all over the country. These institutions are generously supported by public taxpayer funds and used to purchase our beautiful overpriced big books for US$ 44 each. The market was saturated with those free pirates in short. Hell, we could have taken in US$ 200,000.00 and more of outside contributions according to AA tradition Seven. And the worst: Countless dumb drunks appreciated those booklets and recovered without our participation. They are giving us pressure to follow BBSG’s example and supply them with pocket editions. Our cartel is ruined!

Father knows best. We recommend to fully support the integrity of our monthly paychecks!

THE GEYSERS

http://geysers.com/history11

THE GEYSERS : A VERY SPECIAL PLACE

The Geysers is a truly remarkable place.

A million years ago, a plume of molten magma intruded close to the Earth’s surface. The heat from this 1400˚F intrusion recrystallized the overlying rocks, making them hard and brittle, then caused fracturing to create permeability. Subsequent magmatic activity over the next half-million years maintained high temperatures as water seeped down through fractures to form a hot water geothermal reservoir. At about a quarter million years ago, the caprock overlying the ancestral Geysers reservoir fractured, allowing steam eruptions as the high temperature water boiled down to form the current steam reservoir.

Native Americans, the first inhabitants of this region, visited the thermal areas for their healing powers and ceremonial importance. When rediscovered in the 1840’s, The Geysers soon became a world-famous tourist destination. Although there are no actual geysers at this wonder-inspiring region, the inaccurate name stuck. In the past 50 years, The Geysers has emerged as the world leader in generating sustainable geothermal power using steam from deep beneath the Earth’s surface.

Calpine, in honoring the history of The Geysers from its original discovery by Native Americans to its development as the premier geothermal development in the world, takes its role as a steward of this amazing resource very seriously. Calpine is dedicated to the sustainability of The Geysers.

Tektronix, IEMN Demonstrate 100 Gb/s Wireless Transmissions Using New IEEE 802.15.3d Standard | 2018-05-16 | Microwave Journal

http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/30342-tektronix-iemn-demonstrate-100-gbs-wireless-transmissions-using-new-ieee-802153d-standard

Tektronix, IEMN Demonstrate 100 Gb/s Wireless Transmissions Using New IEEE 802.15.3d Standard

Tektronix, Inc. and IEMN, a major French research laboratory, demonstrated a single carrier wireless link traveling at a 100 Gb/s data rate. This demonstration uses advanced data coding, THz photonics and wideband and linear devices to enable ultra fast wireless connections in the 252 – 325 GHz band per the recently published IEEE 802.15.3d standard.

“Achieving 100 Gb/s transmission in a single carrier helps to fill the gap between the worlds of fiber-optics and radio. By combining the concept with dedicated architectures and photonic-based THz circuits we are paving the way for far faster wireless transmission than what’s possible today,” said Guillaume Ducournau, an associate professor at IEMN/CNRS/University Lille working on THz communication systems.

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The purpose of the new 802.15.3d standard is to provide for low complexity, low cost, low power consumption, very high data rate wireless connectivity among devices and in the future ‘low THz’ bands. Potential applications include consumer multimedia, wireless switched point-to-point applications in data centers, wireless backhaul/front haul, intra-device communications and a wide variety of additional use cases such as rapid large multimedia data downloads and file exchanges between two devices in close proximity.

Achieving 100 Gb/s and beyond requires the extension of carrier frequencies to the millimeter/sub-millimeter range, around 300 GHz, also called the “THz band.” Using a combination of optical coherent technologies and THz transceivers, this latest demonstration showcased the advances being made toward operational wireless links with THz frequencies and optical-equivalent data rates.

The demonstration was accomplished within the framework of several research projects including the COM’TONIQ, Era-net Chistera TERALINKS and TERASONIC ANR projects in THz communications. The French Equipex programs, “FLUX” (high-speed guided fiber/wireless-based advanced data coms) and “ExCELSIOR” (advanced characterization of nano-devices and systems) also supported this effort along with IEMN platform facilities and the RENATECH French nanofabrication network, IRCICA USR-3380. The demonstration was also supported by the CPER “Photonics for society” and contributes to the “digital world” Hub 3 of the I-Site Université de Lille Nord de France.

“Tektronix is delighted to be working in such close collaboration with IEMN on achieving this prestigious breakthrough,” said Dr. Klaus Engenhardt, CTO Tektronix EMEA. “It’s exciting to see our industry-leading end-to-end transmit and receive solution used to help bridge coherent optical and THz transceiver technologies. Advanced test tools are needed today to generate and characterize signals at 100G, 400G and beyond and Tektronix offers a wide portfolio of optical communication test solutions.”

Tektronix has a long history of collaboration with IEMN on THz communications research and most recently supported the first data transmission through a THz multiplexer.

Verizon Names Los Angeles as 2018 5G Market | 2018-05-16 | Microwave Journal

http://www.microwavejournal.com/articles/30348-verizon-names-los-angeles-as-2018-5g-market

Verizon Names Los Angeles as 2018 5G Market – 5/16/2018

Verizon said it plans to deploy 5G technology in Los Angeles starting in the fourth quarter of 2018. Los Angeles is the second city Verizon has identified as part of its 3 to 5 market 5G deployment plans, first announced in November 2017. Verizon previously announced Sacramento would be a 5G city.

In an interview, McAdam told CNBC’s David Faber that relationships with progressive-minded cities like Sacramento, Los Angeles and Boston, where Verizon is testing IoT solutions, are critical to putting next-generation technology into the hands of consumers and business. “We’ve had some great partnerships with some forward-looking mayors like Marty Walsh in Boston… Mayor Garcetti in L.A.” said McAdam.

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement, “Innovation, hard work and creativity are the foundation of Los Angeles, and that’s why we are proud to partner with Verizon to be one of the first cities in America to start building their 5G network for businesses and residents, which will open doors to opportunity and inspire the next generation of tech leaders and entrepreneurs.”

McAdam also told Faber that “this has been a three-year journey for us,” noting that the company had worked with partners around the world to develop a standard and test it across 11 markets in the U.S. The tests proved that millimeter wave spectrum is outstanding for 5G. “We’re charging ahead,” said McAdam. “I have never seen a technology that is as disruptive and has as much benefit to consumers as 5G.”