Category Archives: Viva!

We Thought We Could Take a Break From the Harvey Weinsteins of the World. But Here Comes James Toback

By Shruti Sunderraman

Toback has been accused of harassment by over 30 women. Image courtesy: Michele Ansemni

Just when we thought we’d done away with one avalanche of horror that is Harvey Weinstein, a report surfaced about another Hollywood director and producer accused of sexual assault. James Toback, the writer for the 1991 Oscar nominated movie Bugsy and the director of movies like The Pick-Up Artist and When Will I Be Loved, has been accused of sexual harassment by over 30 women he has worked with.

Most of his accusers are actresses who claimed that Toback had lured them with offers to act in his movies. He’d then proceeded to perform sexual acts like dry hump them or masturbate to them, against their will. As it was with Weinstein, most women were scared of speaking up against the 72-year-old director and were afraid of losing out on work.

Toback’s story is all too familiar. When I mentioned this story to an acquaintance, he remarked that in a post-Weinstein world, an avalanche of similar stories is bound to come out. “It’s the media pressure,” he’d remarked. But it’s not the media pressure that’s bringing all the dirt buried under the carpet. Weinstein getting his due for his actions and the number of women speaking out against him (including a fantastic, if not heart-breaking story about Weinstein by actress Lupita Nyong’o) encouraged other women to speak out against their harassers. You know how when we start pest control in our homes, all the insects start coming out of their corners? The onslaught of voices against Weinstein propelled others to no longer stay silent and lure the insects out of their shady corners. The homecoming prom of the likes of Weinstein, the Affleck brothers, Bob Weinstein and now, James Toback sings a familiar tune; that the women they made victims out of are coming for them and they are running out of carpets to hide under.

The post We Thought We Could Take a Break From the Harvey Weinsteins of the World. But Here Comes James Toback appeared first on The Ladies Finger.

Russian radio host Tatyana Felgenhauer stabbed in the neck

In the political system that #TraitorTrump so admires, this is how they deal with people who try to tell the truth they see.

41075970_404.jpg

Tatyana Felgenhauer, a well-known journalist for Russia’s top independent radio station, has been stabbed in the throat by an attacker who burst into her studio. Felgenhauer is in an induced coma in hospital.

Editorial: Honor the Truth, John Kelly

I’d hate to be the criminal fool who fed him a false story to try and destroy the trumped-up offense Trump felt from the Congressmember. Power does seem to corrupt judgment even in someone ho many believed had good judgment – but he took the job offered him and now he has spent his honor cheaply. Of all people, he should have known how to handle a controversy with a Gold Star family, without making matters worse.

Can Japan Be Great Again?

He really has only one dream – recreating the Japan that launched a Pacific was to establish a Japanese empire – it is in the mind only, since China is not the China of 1938-1939. Ultra-Japanese nationalism will not serve Japan or the world well.

By Shihoko Goto

Shinzo Abe, the reelected Prime Minister, will have a hard time to make his vision of a Japan as the biggest Asian power a reality.

In the end, the Japanese prime minister’s gamble paid off. Shinzo Abe’s big win in the latest election made clear once and for all his firm hold over the government.

That should allow him to move one step closer to achieving his lifelong objective: Making Japan a major power in Asia that is to be reckoned with once again.

Without doubt, with his reelection, Abe has enhanced his own standing in the annals of history: He is now well on his way to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister since World War II.

Japan’s real challenges

But while he may have cleared a political hurdle to beef up his country’s defense capabilities, Japan actually has far bigger challenges than simply trying to enhance its military options against the threat of North Korea.

For Shinzo Abe to go down in history books as a great leader, he will need to focus on two major challenges; defining a new relationship with China and dealing with the country’s rapidly aging society.

Granted, prospects for confrontation with Kim Jong-un’s regime remain uncomfortably within the realm of reality. Options to rein in North Korea appear to be running out, and Japan as well as South Korea are directly in the cross-hair of increasing tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

Nevertheless, with the international community by and large in agreement that North Korea is the single biggest immediate threat to regional stability, Japan can expect cooperation from the United States and the broader international community for support.

Managing China’s rise

There is, however, no international consensus on how to manage China’s rise and increased aggressions on the part of Beijing. At the latest Party Congress, Xi Jinping made clear that China would not be content with simply being an economic power, but it must be a great power both economically and militarily.

China is already clearly the former. In the region, China is the single biggest trading partner of almost all Asian nations, including Japan.

But when it comes to military power, China and Japan have remained rivals throughout their intertwined history over centuries. What’s more, there has never been a time when the two countries have been equals: Either Japan or China has always been the dominant power that towered over East Asia.

Having secured two-thirds of total seats in the Lower House of the Diet in the October 22, 2017 election by forming a coalition yet again with the Komeito Party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party remains the political force that still has no credible opposition to unseat its strong hold in government.

A more muscular military?

The latest win has not only cemented Abe’s position as the head of the LDP, but also his hopes to revise the nation’s restrictive pacifist constitution, which is the prerequisite to increasing Japan’s military capabilities and options.

Of course, constitutional change will require not only approval from two-thirds of both the Upper and Lower Houses of the Diet, but also majority approval in a public referendum. Those are considerable obstacles to enhance Japan’s ability to defend itself against North Korea as well as China.

Another equally significant hurdle is the fact that, even if constitutional change were possible, Japan’s fiscal health may not be up to the task.

What Japanese voters want

While increased military risks in Asia garner headlines overseas, the single biggest concern of Japanese voters is the state of the economy, the outlook for public welfare and pension payments in particular.

Such concerns are easily understood. After all, about a quarter of the population is already 65 years or older. That already high number is expected to rise to one-third by 2050 — as a result of people living much longer on the one hand, and the birth rate continuing to slide on the other.

Meanwhile, Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio is the highest amongst OECD countries, and yet no Japanese political party has been able to tout a significant cutback in social spending in order to meet the obvious resulting financing gap.

Currently, Japan’s military spending amounts to about 1% of GDP. It is now at the highest level that it has been since 1945. Some legislators are pushing to increase that by another 20%, especially in light of concerns about U.S. commitment to the region.

Abe’s victory was, of course, not as straightforward as he had initially anticipated, given the emergence of a new opposition party only hours after the snap election was called. Yet, in the end he and the LDP prevailed, and Abe is unlikely to face any major opposition to his leadership any time soon.

Nonetheless, being voted into power once again was perhaps the easiest part of his leadership. He will not find it as easy to make his vision of a Japan that is once again the biggest Asian power a reality.

©2017 The Globalist

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

You can join the conversation about this story on the original post on theglobalist.com.

WHO: Plague Cases In Madagascar Increase To 1365

Pandemic Watch – Bubonic Plague

Madagascar.JPG

,850

With the epidemiological reports posted by Madagascar’s MOH becoming increasingly convoluted – and falling even farther behind the WHO’s tally of cases and deaths – it has become increasingly difficult to use them to  gauge the full extent of their pneumonic plague outbreak.

Exactly what is behind the stark (40%+) difference in cases totals being reported by the MOH and the WHO is unknown, although differences in what each consider `suspected‘ cases might be a factor.

Today the WHO has updated their numbers again, through October 20th, which shows an increased of 68 cases, and 4 deaths over the last 24 hours of reporting. Once again we are seeing a large increase in the number of HCWs reported as infected (n=54).

Madagascar%2BWHO.JPG

Some excerpts from today’s report follow:

http://ift.tt/2yNQtVR

EVENT DESCRIPTION
 
Madagascar has been experiencing a large outbreak of plague affecting major cities and other non-endemic areas since August 2017. Between 1 August and 20 October 2017, a total of 1 365 cases (suspected, probable and confirmed) including 106 deaths (case fatality rate 7.8%) have been reported. Of these, 915 cases (67%) were clinically classified as pneumonic plague, 275 (20.1%) were bubonic plague, one case was septicaemic plague, and 174 cases were unspecified. Of the 915 cases of pulmonary plague, 160 (17.5%) have been confirmed, 375 (50%) were probable and 380 (41.5%) were suspected (further classification of cases is in process). A total of 54 healthcare workers have contracted plague since the beginning of the outbreak.


Of 1 087 cases with age and sex information available, 58% (544) were children and young people aged less than 21 years, while 36% (387) were adults aged between 21 and 40 years. Male were the most affected, accounting for 57% of all cases, and have experienced a slightly higher case fatality rates in comparison to females, 9.4% to 7.7%, respectively.


Of the 1365 cases, 219 were confirmed, 520 were probable and 626 remain suspected (additional laboratory results are in process). Eleven strains of Yersinia pestis have been isolated and were sensitive to antibiotics recommended by the National Program for the Control of Plague.


Overall, 40 out of 114 (35.1%) districts in 14 of 22 (63.6%) regions in the country have been affected by pulmonary plague. The district of Antananarivo Renivohitra has been the most affected, accounting for 41.4% of all reported cases.


On 20 October 2017, 1 385 out of 2 293 (60.4%) contacts were followed up and provided with prophylactic antibiotics. A total of 141 contacts completed the 7-day follow up without developing symptoms.


(Continue . . . )

“Nails PC Angst for the fake and elitist, macho anger it is!” Female trains in Thomas the Tank? Political correctness is back – and I love it | Jack Bernhardt | Opinion | The Guardian

Why? Political correctness forces easy jokes off the table. Most people telling politically incorrect jokes like to tell themselves that they’re edgy, but in fact they’re just trading off of dull stereotypes. They’re not “saying what we’re all thinking”, they’re harking back to cosy, easy bigotry. You’re not being shocking, you’re telling jokes many of us have heard our racist family members tell. Stop wearing your inability to grow and listen to other people as a badge of honour.

Source: Female trains in Thomas the Tank? Political correctness is back – and I love it | Jack Bernhardt | Opinion | The Guardian