Friday, September 3, 2021

STEM education: A deficit framework for the twenty first century? A sociocultural socioscientific response

 

STEM education: A deficit framework for the twenty first century? A sociocultural socioscientific response

Abstract

After speaking with a lifelong friend, "Mrs. Naomi Cerre", happily retired from the NY Board of Education I was motivated to learn more about "the deficit network". I'll post more as I learn more. NDJ


The ubiquitous of STEM education initiatives in recent years has created a bandwagon that has moved at nearly light speed. The impulse of the science education community and policy-makers is to grab hold for dear life or be marginalized from subsequent discussions about the necessity and consequences of using STEM initiatives to prepare and inform our next generation of citizens. This commentary questions the prudence of STEM-related science education goals, as typically represented and discussed in the literature, and likens the current practice to a deficit framework. A sociocultural perspective framed through socioscientific considerations is offered as an alternative conceptualization as well as surplus model to hegemonic STEM practices.


Thursday, September 2, 2021

Is 5G Harmful to People?




 5G is the latest network of wireless technology. It’s used to transmit data between appliances, like mobile phones and Bluetooth devices.

5G works by producing a type of energy called electromagnetic radiation. It uses higher frequencies than previous wireless networks, making it faster and more efficient.

Electromagnetic frequencies, like those produced by 5G, create an area called an electromagnetic field (EMF). Some people believe EMFs have negative health effects.

As a result, there is concern about how 5G affects health. But there are currently no known health risks linked to 5G.



Wireless technology is constantly evolving. Approximately every 10 years, mobile companies release a new generation of wireless systems. Each generation is an upgraded, more advanced version of the last one.

In 2019, 5G networks were released. The term “5G” stands for “fifth generation.”

5G provides faster mobile communications. This is expected to support the increasing number of electronic devices and services, including:

  • self-driving cars
  • virtual reality appliances
  • telemedicine
  • remote surveillance
  • telesurgery

5G works by using higher frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. The frequencies range from 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) to several tens of GHz.

Before 5G was launched, these higher frequencies weren’t used in mobile networks. They are typically used in devices like security scanners.

It’s worth noting that electromagnetic frequencies are produced by anything that uses electricity. This includes:

  • microwaves
  • power lines
  • computers

5G also uses a method called beamforming, which sends data directly to devices. This is different from previous generations, which sent signals in all directions.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO)Trusted Source, there is limited research on the frequencies used in 5G.

There is more research on the health effects of electromagnetic fields across the spectrum. However, the results are inconsistent.

To date, EMFs have been potentially associated with:

Tissue heating

small 2017 studyTrusted Source showed that mobile phones use frequencies of 1.8 to 2.2 GHz. These frequencies cause tissue heating, according to WHO.

Tissue heating occurs when your skin absorbs electromagnetic energy. This causes a slight rise in temperature in your brain and body.

2021 studyTrusted Source also found that people experience more EMF-related tissue heating as they get older. Plus, the higher the EMFs, the more they absorb. That’s because older individuals tend to have reduced skin thickness and blood flow.

However, tissue heating is considered to be short-term and minimal. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also states that the public is exposed to very low frequencies of EMFs. These levels are too low to cause considerable tissue heating.

More research is necessary to determine how 5G specifically affects human tissue.

Cognitive function

The effects of 5G exposure on cognitive function have not been studied yet.

There’s some research involving EMFs from other sources. In a small 2017 studyTrusted Source, researchers examined how using a mobile phone affects cognitive function. The researchers found that using a mobile phone for at least 90 minutes a day is associated with attention difficulties.

small 2018 research review found conflicting evidence. The researchers examined 43 studies regarding EMFs and cognitive function. They concluded that there is no solid link between EMFs and cognitive concerns.

Cancer

In 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) stated EMFs are “possibly carcinogenic” to humans. The classification was determined by 30 scientists from 14 countries.

To date, most studies have examined the potential link between EMFs and brain cancer. But the results have been inconsistent.

For example, a 2017 research review found that EMF radiation from mobile phones are associated with glioma, a type of brain cancer. A 2018 study, on the other hand, did not find a clear association between high frequency EMFs and brain tumors.

Again, more studies are needed to determine if 5G frequency can contribute to cancer development.



Step by step guide to safely accessing the dark web

 We'll show you how to access the dark net safely and anonymously using Tor. Don't charge blindly into the abyss. Take these precautions to protect yourself!

PAUL BISCHOFF TECH WRITER, PRIVACY ADVOCATE AND VPN EXPERT

@pabischoff UPDATED: March 31, 2021


Google only indexes a tiny fraction of the internet. By some estimates, the web contains 500 times more content than what Google returns in search results. The links that Google and other search engines return when you type in a query is known as the “surface web,” while all the other, non-searchable content is referred to as the “deep web” or “invisible web”.


The dark net, or dark web, constitutes a small fraction of the deep web. The dark web is made up of purposefully hidden websites and services. Both the owners and users of the dark web are anonymous. Although not everything on the dark net is illegal, it’s where you’ll find many of the internet’s black markets, hacker forums, malware vendors, and other illicit activity.


See also: The best VPNs for Tor


What is the dark web?

The dark web, or dark net, is a small part of the deep web that is kept hidden on purpose. Websites and data on the dark web do typically require a special tool to access.


The type of site most commonly associated with the dark web are marketplaces where illicit goods such as narcotics, firearms, and stolen credit card numbers are bought and sold. The darkest corners are used to hire hitmen, engage in human trafficking, and exchange child pornography.


More than that, though, the dark web contains content and data that can be accessed with anonymity. It could be a blog, forum, chat room, or private gaming server.


The beauty of the dark net is anonymity. No one knows who anyone else is in the real world, so long as they take the necessary precautions. Users’ identities are safe from the prying eyes of governments and corporations.


The dark web and Tor are often used by journalists and whistleblowers to exchange sensitive information, including Edward Snowden himself. The Ashley Madison data dump, for instance, was posted to a site only accessible to Tor users.


To learn all there is to learn, click here.


5 exceptional retirement spots in Ecuador

 


Situated in South America’s northwest, Ecuador is bounded by the world’s largest ocean on one side and the planet’s largest jungle on the other. At the same time, slicing straight through the tiny country is the earth’s longest mountain range. What this all means is that people who decide to retire in Ecuador can choose to relax on serene ocean beaches or settle in scenic Andean mountains, not to mention the Amazon rainforest or the country’s Galapagos Islands.


Ecuador’s low cost of living makes luxury retirement possible … even on middle-income budgets. What’s more, because Ecuador is one of the most affordable places to retire in the Americas, even middle-income retirees can enjoy comfortable and even luxurious lifestyles, availing themselves of quality housing, world-class healthcare, trendy eateries, and a vibrant cultural life just outside the door.

Still, as retired life in Ecuador can be challenging, we’ve begun collecting information on what you need to know about launching a new life overseas in this enthralling South American nation. What we present here are five top places to retire in Ecuador, since your lifestyle could vary dramatically depending on where you choose to live.

Cuenca: Understandably a magnet for foreign retirees

Unquestionably one of Ecuador’s most attractive colonial cities, Cuenca not only offers a step back in time but the laidback culture here is both endearing and addictive. This UNESCO World Heritage Site – one of the best examples of well-preserved colonial and indigenous heritage in the country – has cultural and architectural influences dating back over 3,000 years.

Buffalo, NY.




Any trip to Cuenca can easily be spent quietly wandering cobbled streets and historical buildings. Many of the old structures have since been turned into museums and cafés, so soak up the atmosphere of this ancient place while casually sipping a cappuccino! Cuenca is rivaled only by Quito in terms of its rich past, though without quite the same level of urbanization one might find in the capital.

Famous for its colorful festivals, distinctive food, and breathtaking scenery, many Ecuadorians and travelers alike consider Cuenca to represents the best in Ecuadorian city life. Being smaller than the capital city (Quito), Cuenca poses fewer typical big-city problems, though (with a metro population of more than a half-million) it’s large enough to possess the cultural and infrastructural conveniences appreciated by most foreign retirees. Along with its year-round spring-like weather, the city boasts plenty of supermarkets and malls, great restaurants, handsome condominium complexes, comfortable suburbs, and some of the best hospitals and medical care in the country. Cuenca’s stunning flower market exemplifies this welcoming city.

                                                             Complete Article



Top IT Priorities: Leadership Vision - 2021 IT Trends / eBook DNLD

 




Despite the challenges that 2020 brought, IT leaders adopted many valuable trends in IT — how to quickly shift their entire organizations to remote workforces, how to create a secure work environment, and how to prioritize digital initiatives like never before.

But there is still work to be done. For the IT organization, 2021 brings with it the imperative to generate more business value using innovative information technology trends.

This E-Book highlights the Information Technology trends and challenges that these IT leaders will have to reconcile in the coming year, and actions they can take in response: 

  • CIOs and heads of IT
  • Security and risk management leaders
  • Application leaders
  • Program and portfolio management leaders
  • Data and analytics leaders
  • Infrastructure and operations leaders
  • Enterprise architecture leaders 
  • Sourcing, procurement, and vendor management leaders 

Complete the form to get your free copy of Top Priorities Leadership Vision and read some of the top 2021 IT Trends today. 

DNLD

Nano Technology / Why We Should Be Worried About Tiny Robot Spies

 DARPA has been trying to develop tiny spy drones for years. Once perfected, they will be a powerful new weapon against groups like ISIS, but they'll also mark the end of ever being able to go offline.

Six years ago, I was a daily news blogger for PCMag's sister site, ExtremeTech. I was recently reminded of a story I covered back in the day that—in retrospect—marked the beginnings of an important and still-unfolding technological trend: a hummingbird-shaped drone developed by the military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).


OpinionsI titled my hummingbird write-up "DARPA's Robot Hummingbird Takes War on Nectar to a New Level." That "witty" headline completely sidestepped the fact that this drone was being developed as a tool of urban warfare; these tiny robotic spies were intended to slip behind enemy lines.


The functioning 6.5-inch "nano hummingbird" was never in any danger of being mistaken for an actual hummingbird, mostly due to the fact that when in flight, it sounded like an army of flying lawnmowers. Still, when you consider that this bot was on the wish list of an agency with near-bottomless resources and a not-too-shabby track record of achievement, improvements were inevitable.


So, why did DARPA want a hummingbird drone? Roboticists often look to nature for design inspiration. In this instance, the engineering team was attempting to recreate the versatile, all-direction aerial acrobatics achieved by real hummingbirds in nature.

The drone used two rapid-fire wings to obtain stop-and-start maneuvers in all spatial directions and even hover in mid-air. The device was an early attempt to create the perfect invisible spy tool: One that could a) avoid detection and b) maneuver around a complex and unpredictable environment.

DARPA's Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) program was retired a few months after the hummingbird's debut, but it was a success from the agency's point of view because it now had a rough draft of the bird-sized spy drone researchers had hoped to achieve. And what military wouldn't want a squadron of tiny spy drones—particularly as the nature of warfare has shifted from open battlefields to block-by-block pitch battles?

Living Cyborg Super Spies
In the years since the hummingbird roared through the skies, there have been numerous developments in micro-robotics by DARPA and other interested parties. One fascinating line of research eschews the full-robot paradigm altogether and instead embeds tech directly into a living insect's brain and body. In effect, these engineers have created living cyborg super spies.

Due to the simple nature of insect brains, it's possible for scientists to commandeer control of their bodies to a certain extent. Recently, tech bloggers around the web went a gaga over a sci-fi-tastic "cyborg dragonfly" project under development by Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The "DragonflEye" project uses "steering neurons" inside the genetically modified bug's spinal cord, which allow scientists to control where the bug flies. The biomedical tech utilized in this project may one day be used to help disabled people regain control of their bodies, but the military and surveillance applications are a potential game-changer for the entire world.

These cyborg insects are far more versatile than any human-built drone (big or tiny) and don't require any bulky batteries (the DragonflEye tech actually utilizes tiny solar cells to power itself). But, perhaps more importantly, the cyborg insect is quiet and would only arise as much suspicion as an actual dragonfly.

The technology is in its early days, for sure. However, once it is perfected, it's not hard to imagine how capable micro-bots (cyborg or otherwise) could completely reinvent civilization. This isn't an oversell. Ubiquitous robotics will make it nearly impossible to ever be completely offline—even if you were far from your phone or laptop. And that's a frightening prospect.








Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Coming Soon

   Coming soon, "Niko In Ecuador".😃



Click Me

Run Your Own VPN Server

 



How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power


George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

Remarkably, little of Bush's dealings with Germany has received public scrutiny, partly because of the secret status of the documentation involving him. But now the multibillion dollar legal action for damages by two Holocaust survivors against the Bush family, and the imminent publication of three books on the subject are threatening to make Prescott Bush's business history an uncomfortable issue for his grandson, George W, as he seeks re-election.

While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade. The Guardian has seen evidence that shows Bush was the director of the New York-based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that represented Thyssen's US interests and he continued to work for the bank after America entered the war.

Tantalising

Bush was also on the board of at least one of the companies that formed part of a multinational network of front companies to allow Thyssen to move assets around the world.

Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler's efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen's international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush's links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen's American assets were seized in 1942.

Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush's involvement. All three are readily available, thanks to the efficient US archive system and a helpful and dedicated staff at both the Library of Congress in Washington and the National Archives at the University of Maryland.

The first set of files, the Harriman papers in the Library of Congress, show that Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with Thyssen.

The second set of papers, which are in the National Archives, are contained in vesting order number 248 which records the seizure of the company assets. What these files show is that on October 20 1942 the alien property custodian seized the assets of the UBC, of which Prescott Bush was a director. Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. By November, the Silesian-American Company, another of Prescott Bush's ventures, had also been seized.

The third set of documents, also at the National Archives, are contained in the files on IG Farben, who was prosecuted for war crimes.

A report issued by the Office of Alien Property Custodian in 1942 stated of the companies that "since 1939, these (steel and mining) properties have been in possession of and have been operated by the German government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country's war effort".

Prescott Bush, a 6ft 4in charmer with a rich singing voice, was the founder of the Bush political dynasty and was once considered a potential presidential candidate himself. Like his son, George, and grandson, George W, he went to Yale where he was, again like his descendants, a member of the secretive and influential Skull and Bones student society. He was an artillery captain in the first world war and married Dorothy Walker, the daughter of George Herbert Walker, in 1921.

In 1924, his father-in-law, a well-known St Louis investment banker, helped set him up in business in New York with Averill Harriman, the wealthy son of railroad magnate E H Harriman in New York, who had gone into banking.

One of the first jobs Walker gave Bush was to manage UBC. Bush was a founding member of the bank and the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in UBC worth $125.

The bank was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens, Germany's most powerful industrial family.

August Thyssen, the founder of the dynasty had been a major contributor to Germany's first world war effort and in the 1920s, he and his sons Fritz and Heinrich established a network of overseas banks and companies so their assets and money could be whisked offshore if threatened again.

By the time Fritz Thyssen inherited the business empire in 1926, Germany's economic recovery was faltering. After hearing Adolf Hitler speak, Thyssen became mesmerised by the young firebrand. He joined the Nazi party in December 1931 and admits backing Hitler in his autobiography, I Paid Hitler, when the National Socialists were still a radical fringe party. He stepped in several times to bail out the struggling party: in 1928 Thyssen had bought the Barlow Palace on Briennerstrasse, in Munich, which Hitler converted into the Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi party. The money came from another Thyssen overseas institution, the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvarrt in Rotterdam.

By the late 1930s, Brown Brothers Harriman, which claimed to be the world's largest private investment bank, and UBC had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany, both feeding and financing Hitler's build-up to war.

Between 1931 and 1933 UBC bought more than $8m worth of gold, of which $3m was shipped abroad. According to documents seen by the Guardian, after UBC was set up it transferred $2m to BBH accounts and between 1924 and 1940 the assets of UBC hovered around $3m, dropping to $1m only on a few occasions.

In 1941, Thyssen fled Germany after falling out with Hitler but he was captured in France and detained for the remainder of the war.

There was nothing illegal in doing business with the Thyssens throughout the 1930s and many of America's best-known business names invested heavily in the German economic recovery. However, everything changed after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Even then it could be argued that BBH was within its rights continuing business relations with the Thyssens until the end of 1941 as the US was still technically neutral until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The trouble started on July 30 1942 when the New York Herald-Tribune ran an article entitled "Hitler's Angel Has $3m in US Bank". UBC's huge gold purchases had raised suspicions that the bank was in fact a "secret nest egg" hidden in New York for Thyssen and other Nazi bigwigs. The Alien Property Commission (APC) launched an investigation.

There is no dispute over the fact that the US government seized a string of assets controlled by BBH - including UBC and SAC - in the autumn of 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy act. What is in dispute is if Harriman, Walker and Bush did more than own these companies on paper.

Erwin May, a treasury attache and officer for the department of investigation in the APC, was assigned to look into UBC's business. The first fact to emerge was that Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush and the other directors didn't actually own their shares in UBC but merely held them on behalf of Bank voor Handel. Strangely, no one seemed to know who owned the Rotterdam-based bank, including UBC's president.

May wrote in his report of August 16 1941: "Union Banking Corporation, incorporated August 4 1924, is wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart N.V of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. My investigation has produced no evidence as to the ownership of the Dutch bank. Mr Cornelis [sic] Lievense, president of UBC, claims no knowledge as to the ownership of the Bank voor Handel but believes it possible that Baron Heinrich Thyssen, brother of Fritz Thyssen, may own a substantial interest."

May cleared the bank of holding a golden nest egg for the Nazi leaders but went on to describe a network of companies spreading out from UBC across Europe, America and Canada, and how money from voor Handel travelled to these companies through UBC.

By September May had traced the origins of the non-American board members and found that Dutchman HJ Kouwenhoven - who met with Harriman in 1924 to set up UBC - had several other jobs: in addition to being the managing director of voor Handel he was also the director of the August Thyssen bank in Berlin and a director of Fritz Thyssen's Union Steel Works, the holding company that controlled Thyssen's steel and coal mine empire in Germany.

Within a few weeks, Homer Jones, the chief of the APC investigation and research division sent a memo to the executive committee of APC recommending the US government vest UBC and its assets. Jones named the directors of the bank in the memo, including Prescott Bush's name, and wrote: "Said stock is held by the above named individuals, however, solely as nominees for the Bank voor Handel, Rotterdam, Holland, which is owned by one or more of the Thyssen family, nationals of Germany and Hungary. The 4,000 shares hereinbefore set out are therefore beneficially owned and help for the interests of enemy nationals, and are vestible by the APC," according to the memo from the National Archives seen by the Guardian.

Red-handed

Jones recommended that the assets be liquidated for the benefit of the government, but instead UBC was maintained intact and eventually returned to the American shareholders after the war. Some claim that Bush sold his share in UBC after the war for $1.5m - a huge amount of money at the time - but there is no documentary evidence to support this claim. No further action was ever taken nor was the investigation continued, despite the fact UBC was caught red-handed operating a American shell company for the Thyssen family eight months after America had entered the war and that this was the bank that had partly financed Hitler's rise to power.

The most tantalising part of the story remains shrouded in mystery: the connection, if any, between Prescott Bush, Thyssen, Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC) and Auschwitz.

Thyssen's partner in United Steel Works, which had coal mines and steel plants across the region, was Friedrich Flick, another steel magnate who also owned part of IG Farben, the powerful German chemical company.

Flick's plants in Poland made heavy use of slave labour from the concentration camps in Poland. According to a New York Times article published in March 18 1934 Flick owned two-thirds of CSSC while "American interests" held the rest.

The US National Archive documents show that BBH's involvement with CSSC was more than simply holding the shares in the mid-1930s. Bush's friend and fellow "bonesman" Knight Woolley, another partner at BBH, wrote to Averill Harriman in January 1933 warning of problems with CSSC after the Poles started their drive to nationalise the plant. "The Consolidated Silesian Steel Company situation has become increasingly complicated, and I have accordingly brought in Sullivan and Cromwell, in order to be sure that our interests are protected," wrote Knight. "After studying the situation Foster Dulles is insisting that their man in Berlin get into the picture and obtain the information which the directors here should have. You will recall that Foster is a director and he is particularly anxious to be certain that there is no liability attaching to the American directors."

But the ownership of the CSSC between 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and 1942 when the US government vested UBC and SAC is not clear.

"SAC held coal mines and definitely owned CSSC between 1934 and 1935, but when SAC was vested there was no trace of CSSC. All concrete evidence of its ownership disappears after 1935 and there are only a few traces in 1938 and 1939," says Eva Schweitzer, the journalist and author whose book, America and the Holocaust, is published next month.

Silesia was quickly made part of the German Reich after the invasion, but while Polish factories were seized by the Nazis, those belonging to the still neutral Americans (and some other nationals) were treated more carefully as Hitler was still hoping to persuade the US to at least sit out the war as a neutral country. Schweitzer says American interests were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Nazis bought some out, but not others.

The two Holocaust survivors suing the US government and the Bush family for a total of $40bn in compensation claim both materially benefited from Auschwitz slave labour during the second world war.

Kurt Julius Goldstein, 87, and Peter Gingold, 85, began a class action in America in 2001, but the case was thrown out by Judge Rosemary Collier on the grounds that the government cannot be held liable under the principle of "state sovereignty".

Jan Lissmann, one of the lawyers for the survivors, said: "President Bush withdrew President Bill Clinton's signature from the treaty [that founded the court] not only to protect Americans, but also to protect himself and his family."

Lissmann argues that genocide-related cases are covered by international law, which does hold governments accountable for their actions. He claims the ruling was invalid as no hearing took place.

In their claims, Mr Goldstein and Mr Gingold, honorary chairman of the League of Anti-fascists, suggest the Americans were aware of what was happening at Auschwitz and should have bombed the camp.

The lawyers also filed a motion in The Hague asking for an opinion on whether state sovereignty is a valid reason for refusing to hear their case. A ruling is expected within a month.

The petition to The Hague states: "From April 1944 on, the American Air Force could have destroyed the camp with air raids, as well as the railway bridges and railway lines from Hungary to Auschwitz. The murder of about 400,000 Hungarian Holocaust victims could have been prevented."

The case is built around a January 22 1944 executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt calling on the government to take all measures to rescue the European Jews. The lawyers claim the order was ignored because of pressure brought by a group of big American companies, including BBH, where Prescott Bush was a director.

Lissmann said: "If we have a positive ruling from the court it will cause [president] Bush huge problems and make him personally liable to pay compensation."

The US government and the Bush family deny all the claims against them.

In addition to Eva Schweitzer's book, two other books are about to be published that raise the subject of Prescott Bush's business history. The author of the second book, to be published next year, John Loftus, is a former US attorney who prosecuted Nazi war criminals in the 70s. Now living in St Petersburg, Florida and earning his living as a security commentator for Fox News and ABC radio, Loftus is working on a novel which uses some of the material he has uncovered on Bush. Loftus stressed that what Prescott Bush was involved in was just what many other American and British businessmen were doing at the time.

"You can't blame Bush for what his grandfather did any more than you can blame Jack Kennedy for what his father did - bought Nazi stocks - but what is important is the cover-up, how it could have gone on so successfully for half a century, and does that have implications for us today?" he said.

"This was the mechanism by which Hitler was funded to come to power, this was the mechanism by which the Third Reich's defence industry was re-armed, this was the mechanism by which Nazi profits were repatriated back to the American owners, this was the mechanism by which investigations into the financial laundering of the Third Reich were blunted," said Loftus, who is vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg.

"The Union Banking Corporation was a holding company for the Nazis, for Fritz Thyssen," said Loftus. "At various times, the Bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a Dutch bank and it wasn't until the Nazis took over Holland that they realised that now the Nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the Bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. Both the American treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in Europe completely bely that, it's absolute horseshit. They always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were."

"There is no one left alive who could be prosecuted but they did get away with it," said Loftus. "As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averill Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany."

Loftus said Prescott Bush must have been aware of what was happening in Germany at the time. "My take on him was that he was a not terribly successful in-law who did what Herbert Walker told him to. Walker and Harriman were the two evil geniuses, they didn't care about the Nazis any more than they cared about their investments with the Bolsheviks."

What is also at issue is how much money Bush made from his involvement. His supporters suggest that he had one token share. Loftus disputes this, citing sources in "the banking and intelligence communities" and suggesting that the Bush family, through George Herbert Walker and Prescott, got $1.5m out of the involvement. There is, however, no paper trail to this sum.

The third person going into print on the subject is John Buchanan, 54, a Miami-based magazine journalist who started examining the files while working on a screenplay. Last year, Buchanan published his findings in the venerable but small-circulation New Hampshire Gazette under the headline "Documents in National Archives Prove George Bush's Grandfather Traded With the Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor". He expands on this in his book to be published next month - Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media and the Religious Right.

In the article, Buchanan, who has worked mainly in the trade and music press with a spell as a muckraking reporter in Miami, claimed that "the essential facts have appeared on the internet and in relatively obscure books but were dismissed by the media and Bush family as undocumented diatribes".

Buchanan suffers from hypermania, a form of manic depression, and when he found himself rebuffed in his initial efforts to interest the media, he responded with a series of threats against the journalists and media outlets that had spurned him. The threats, contained in e-mails, suggested that he would expose the journalists as "traitors to the truth".

Unsurprisingly, he soon had difficulty getting his calls returned. Most seriously, he faced aggravated stalking charges in Miami, in connection with a man with whom he had fallen out over the best way to publicise his findings. The charges were dropped last month.

Biography

Buchanan said he regretted his behaviour had damaged his credibility but his main aim was to secure publicity for the story. Both Loftus and Schweitzer say Buchanan has come up with previously undisclosed documentation.

The Bush family have largely responded with no comment to any reference to Prescott Bush. Brown Brothers Harriman also declined to comment.

The Bush family recently approved a flattering biography of Prescott Bush entitled Duty, Honour, Country by Mickey Herskowitz. The publishers, Rutledge Hill Press, promised the book would "deal honestly with Prescott Bush's alleged business relationships with Nazi industrialists and other accusations".

In fact, the allegations are dealt with in less than two pages. The book refers to the Herald-Tribune story by saying that "a person of less established ethics would have panicked ... Bush and his partners at Brown Brothers Harriman informed the government regulators that the account, opened in the late 1930s, was 'an unpaid courtesy for a client' ... Prescott Bush acted quickly and openly on behalf of the firm, served well by a reputation that had never been compromised. He made available all records and all documents. Viewed six decades later in the era of serial corporate scandals and shattered careers, he received what can be viewed as the ultimate clean bill."

The Prescott Bush story has been condemned by both conservatives and some liberals as having nothing to do with the current president. It has also been suggested that Prescott Bush had little to do with Averill Harriman and that the two men opposed each other politically.

However, documents from the Harriman papers include a flattering wartime profile of Harriman in the New York Journal American and next to it in the files is a letter to the financial editor of that paper from Prescott Bush congratulating the paper for running the profile. He added that Harriman's "performance and his whole attitude has been a source of inspiration and pride to his partners and his friends".

The Anti-Defamation League in the US is supportive of Prescott Bush and the Bush family. In a statement last year they said that "rumours about the alleged Nazi 'ties' of the late Prescott Bush ... have circulated widely through the internet in recent years. These charges are untenable and politically motivated ... Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathiser."

However, one of the country's oldest Jewish publications, the Jewish Advocate, has aired the controversy in detail.

More than 60 years after Prescott Bush came briefly under scrutiny at the time of a faraway war, his grandson is facing a different kind of scrutiny but one underpinned by the same perception that, for some people, war can be a profitable business.




 

The U.S. credit downgrade: Who's to blame?

 Standard and Poor's strips the federal government of its AAA status, and a fingerpointing epidemic breaks out in Washington


Standard and Poor's controversial announcement on Friday that it would downgrade the U.S. government's credit rating — from AAA to AA+ — shook up global financial markets. As soon as American markets opened Monday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 200 points. And predictably, the first credit downgrade in U.S. history ignited a heated blame game in Washington. S&P said it lowered the rating because Congress and the White House had failed to come up with a credible plan to get the national debt under control. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) branded the move the "Tea Party downgrade," while conservatives blamed President Obama's "reckless spending." Whose fault is it really? Here, five possible culprits:

1. The Tea PartyDuring the debt-ceiling battle, Tea Party leaders made it clear they were willing to let the nation default on its debts and "cause a full-fledged economic disaster" if they didn't get all the spending cuts they wanted, says Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. They held the U.S. economy hostage while demanding massive cuts and no new revenues, and that made the federal government look so unreliable and dangerous that Tea Party Republicans effectively forced "the first U.S. credit downgrade in history, and that's not too shabby. Maybe next time, the apocalypse."

2. President Obama and Democrats The Left is in full spin mode to hide the downgrade's obvious cause — the "massive two-year binge of deficit spending embarked on by President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid," says Robert Stacy McCain at The Other McCain. During the debt-ceiling debate, instead of dealing honestly with the debt problem, Obama insisted Republicans were trying to "steal Granny's Social Security check" so the rich could keep their corporate jets. "Democrats don't want to fix the problem, they want to score political points against Republicans."

3. President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner"The bond rating drop unequivocally is a direct result of the Barack Obama-John Boehner national-debt deal," says Gregg Easterbrook at Reuters. The last-minute agreement is "as phony as a three-dollar-bill," with no real effort to reduce our ballooning debt. Everybody knows we can't balance our finances without trimming Social Security and other entitlement programs, and raising taxes. But "both parties, and both the White House and Congress, are more interested in blowing smoke than in firm action."

4. Standard and Poor'sThe analysts at S&P are supposed to base their decisions on an "honest appraisal" of the nation's financial health, says Chris Rupkey, the chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, as quoted by Bloomberg. Instead, they got entangled in the partisan political fight over the national debt, sticking to the downgrade even after the government pointed out an error in S&P's calculations that caused a massive $2 trillion overestimation of next decade's debt. "The U.S. is not out of money, it has the financial resources to make good on its debt, and it should not have been downgraded."

5. Every politician in Washington"Ultimately, S&P didn't only downgrade the U.S. credit rating. It downgraded the whole political system," says Jonathan Allen at Politico. Democrats would only consider minor changes to entitlement programs; Republicans flatly ruled out new revenues without which there is no solution. "In the eyes of the raters, both parties punted the tough decisions"





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