Showing posts with label united states. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united states. Show all posts

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Feverish Fox Fear Porn About ISIS

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Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News went ballistic over the Middle East last week:

I've told you that you need to be afraid because they are coming for you (points at camera). The ISIS assault, the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria signals the beginning of the "Reverse Crusade." They ARE coming for us. To them, WE are the Infidels. But I for one am not willing to let one more American die or come home with fewer limbs from that part of the world. Americans have shed enough blood there.

My resolution? Air strikes. Bomb them! Bomb them! Keep Bombing them again and again, and I don't care how long it takes. Just take out ISIS. Take out their convoys. Take out those troops!

And even though our President says he "didn't know" - The TOLD us they were coming for us! The head of this band of savages, Abu al-Bagdadi, was released by the Obama Administration and started ISIS one year later in 2010.

. . . ISIS is a fanatical religious terrorist organization. And if you think they are nothing more than rag-tag rebels, you are WRONG!!! They are a sophisticated band of militants who add to their ranks by emptying out jails...

. . . Now, Mr. President, you may see yourself as a war hero. The truth? There has been a 60 percent increase in radical Islamist terrorism since you’ve been in office. And you keep letting these guys out! Like the Bergdahl trade and the five terrorists, you didn’t have the balls to try in GITMO or federal court. You were simply clueless. A paper tiger who only knows how to cut and run!




Bob Cesca on The Daily Banter described Pirro's rant quite well:
Pirro’s five-minute tirade had everything: finger-wagging, fear-mongering, misinformation, wild conspiracy theories, the phrase “cut and run” and, naturally, ball-shaming. It’s a cocktail of Obama Derangement Syndrome delivered with laser-like precision directly into the outrage cortexes of typical Fox News viewers, likely inducing octogenarian white-guy erections with tensile strengths not experienced since Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley and Hume Cronyn splashed around in that magical pool in Cocoon.

GrafZeppelin127 on Daily Kos explained it as "The Truman Show In Reverse" - referring to the Jim Carrey movie about a man whose whole life has been filmed for reality TV
What we are watching on that YouTube video embedded above, what Bob Cesca describes today on his blog, is an IMPROV ACT. It is nothing more or less than a scene in an elaborate, ongoing, endless, perpetual, well-funded, well-orchestrated, non-stop 24/7 production of improvisational theatre, in which the performers get to make up the story as they go along and perform it for the audience. The person called "Jeanine Pirro" that we see and hear on the TV screen, is an actress, a character in a play. This is not a real person saying real things. She's an actress in character doing a performance piece.
. . . The difference between "The Truman Show" as portrayed in the movie and what we see on "Fox News" every day (such as the ugly fact-challenged rant by this character named "Jeanine Pirro" in the video above) is that Truman himself is not on the show. The audience does not tune in to watch Truman and see what happens; the audience is Truman. They don't know that they're watching improv. Just as Truman can't tell the difference between actors/characters and real people, Fox's audience in large part can't tell the difference between an improv act called "News," and news.

One strong response to this fire-breathing fear-mongering came from Russell Brand, a British comedian who took Pirro and Fox News to the woodshed over this tirade with a video entitled "Is Fox News More Dangerous Than Isis?". Towards the end, as he watches Pirro heap abuse on President Obama, even referring to his "b*alls," Brand says she reminds him of a dominatrix yelling at a masochist victim in a porn movie. Gives new meaning to the phrase "fear porn" to describe the nonsense Fox spews into the atmosphere day after day just to frighten their paranoid conspiracy-crazed viewers.

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She called them "Infidels"...Don't try to counter religious extremism with religious extremism!
. . . Imagine living with this woman. 'Get in there and cook my dinner! Cook it and cook it again! I don't care how long it takes!' . . . 'I will punch you and punch you again!'
. . . And don't call your fellow human beings savages.... Give aid for the refugees in the region. Try and help them and stabilize their region, and try to build infrastructure. Not the bombing, bombing, bombing system. 
~ Russell Brand

From Huffington Post
Brand fired back. "(Fox News is) ... a fanatical terrorist propagandist organization. This isn't reasonable, is it? Like the way she's talking? 'Bomb them! Bomb them!' She's worse ... She's the savage, she's totally espousing savage values."
"It's invective, just incendiary language, just volatile combative, angry language. That - I'm not being sensational - that is more dangerous than ISIS," he added. "That's attitude. That's far-reaching. That's affecting millions and millions of people."



Pundits at Fox pushed back and took Pirro's side:

From Washington Post
This is how Eric Bolling, co-host of the marvelous roundtable program “The Five,” played Brand’s rant: “First up, actor, musician and political provocateur Russell Brand has issues with Fox News and our own Judge Jeanine Pirro. Brand goes bananas in a ten-minute rambling and at times incoherent rant, comparing Fox News to the radical terror group ISIS.”
. . . During the discussion on “Hannity,” for example, Fox News’s own Geraldo Rivera said this: “But furthermore, where are the beheaded bodies here at Fox News? That kind of hyperbole only undermines any argument he has.”
When you’re disavowing studio decapitations, you’ve lost the PR war.




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Monday, September 9, 2013

Greenwald Poutrage: Reuters is "Pro-US-Government Activist Ring"


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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wikileaks Associate Bradley Manning Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

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Previous Related Posts:
Bradley Manning Apologizes at Trial
Julian Assange Says Libertarians are the Only Hope for America
Snowden Finally Leaves Russian Airport

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From ABC News
FT. MEADE, Md. -- Bradley Manning, the Army private convicted of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison today.

 Pfc. Manning will also be reduced in rank to private, forfeit all pay and allowances and receive a dishonorable discharge.
Manning expressed no emotion as a military judge announced the sentence. He was then quickly escorted out of the courtroom.

 He will serve his prison sentence at the military's detention facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

From the American Civil Liberties League
August 21, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – A military court-martial today sentenced Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for giving classified material to WikiLeaks. Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, had this reaction:
"When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system. A legal system that doesn't distinguish between leaks to the press in the public interest and treason against the nation will not only produce unjust results, but will deprive the public of critical information that is necessary for democratic accountability. This is a sad day for Bradley Manning, but it's also a sad day for all Americans who depend on brave whistleblowers and a free press for a fully informed public debate."

Statement from Julian Assange
Today the well-known whistleblower Bradley Manning has been ordered by a military court in Maryland to spend a minimum of 5.2 years in prison with a 32 year maximum (including time already spent in detention), for revealing information about US government behaviour to the public.

This hard-won minimum term represents a significant tactical victory for Bradley Manning’s defense, campaign team and supporters. At the start of these proceedings, the United States government had charged Bradley Manning with a capital offence and other charges carrying over 135 years of incarceration. His defense team is now appealing to the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals in relation to this sentence and also for due process violations during the trial.

While the defense should be proud of their tactical victory, it should be remembered that Mr Manning’s trial and conviction is an affront to basic concepts of Western justice. On Mr Manning’s arrest in May 2010, he was immediately subjected to punitive incarceration by the US government, which was found to be "cruel, inhumane and degrading" by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, and even found to be unlawful by US military courts.

The period Mr Manning has already spent in prison will be subtracted from the sentence, and dispensations for good behaviour, parole and other factors mean that it is likely he will now spend less than ten years in confinement. Mr Manning’s defense team are now seeking to reduce this sentence further on appeal. US military law stipulates that the sentence can only be reduced. It is important that support for Bradley Manning continues during this time.

The only just outcome in Mr Manning’s case is his unconditional release, compensation for the unlawful treatment he has undergone, and a serious commitment to investigating the wrongdoing his alleged disclosures have brought to light.

Mr Manning’s treatment has been intended to send a signal to people of conscience in the US government who might seek to bring wrongdoing to light. This strategy has spectacularly backfired, as recent months have proven. Instead, the Obama administration is demonstrating that there is no place in its system for people of conscience and principle. As a result, there will be a thousand more Bradley Mannings.




































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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Bradley Manning Apologizes at Trial

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Complete Apology Transcript Via Huffington Post
First, your Honor. I want to start off with an apology. I am sorry. I am sorry that my actions hurt people. I am sorry that it hurt the United States. At the time of my decisions, as you know, I was dealing with a lot of issues -- issues that are ongoing and they are continuing to affect me.

Although they have caused me considerable difficulty in my life, these issues are not an excuse for my actions. I understood what I was doing and the decisions I made. However, I did not truly appreciate the broader effects of my actions. Those effects are clearer to me now through both self-reflection during my confinement in its various forms and through the merits and sentencing testimony that I have seen here.

I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was gonna help people, not hurt people. The last few years have been a learning experience. I look back at my decisions and wonder, 'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?'

In retrospect I should have worked more aggressively inside the system as we discussed during the Providence Statement and had options and I should have used these options. Unfortunately, I can't go back and change things. I can only go forward. I want to go forward. Before I can do that though, I understand that I must pay a price for my decisions and actions.

Once I pay that price, I hope to one day live in the manner I haven't been able to in the past. I want to be a better person -- to go to college -- to get a degree -- and to have a meaningful relationship with my sister's family and my family.

I want to be a positive influence in their lives, just as my aunt Deborah has been to me. I have flaws and issues that I have to deal with, but I know that I can and will be a better person. I hope you can give me the opportunity to prove -- not through words, but through conduct -- that I am a good person, and that I can return to a productive place in society.

Thank you, your Honor.



Complete Response from Wikileaks HERE
EXCERPTS:

. . . Mr. Manning has been an emblem of courage and endurance in the face of adversity. He has resisted extraordinary pressure. He has been held in solitary confinement, stripped naked and subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment by the United States government. His constitutional right to a speedy trial has been ignored. He has sat for three years in pretrial detention, while the government assembled 141 witnesses and withheld thousands of documents from his lawyers.

The government has denied him the right to conduct a basic whistleblower defense. It overcharged him until he faced over a century in prison and barred all but a handful of his witnesses. He was denied the right at trial to argue that no harm was caused by his alleged actions. His defence team was pre-emptively banned from describing his intent or showing that his actions harmed no one.

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But Mr. Manning’s options have run out. The only currency this military court will take is Bradley Manning’s humiliation.

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Mr. Manning’s apology is a statement extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system. It took three years and millions of dollars to extract two minutes of tactical remorse from this brave soldier.

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Bradley Manning’s apology was extracted by force, but in a just court the US government would be apologizing to Bradley Manning.

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Public pressure on Bradley Manning’s military court must intensify in these final days before the sentencing decision against him is made.
WikiLeaks continues to support Bradley Manning, and will continue to campaign for his unconditional release.
Free Bradley Manning.

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Friday, August 2, 2013

Snowden Finally Leaves Russian Airport

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Previous Posts:
Crime or Punishment? Snowden Remains Stuck at Moscow Airport
Opinions Range from Naive Joy to Good Riddance as Snowden Plans to Leave Moscow Airport

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From Wired
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia for one year and has finally left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

It’s unclear whether Snowden, 30, plans to settle in Russia for the long term, or pursue safe passage onward to one of four Latin America countries that have offered him permanent asylum: Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

His local Russian lawyer told the Guardian that Snowden left in a taxicab.

WikiLeaks said in its Twitter feed that Snowden remains in the company of WikiLeaks activist Sarah Harrison. WikiLeaks has been helping Snowden since he escaped Hong Kong last month one step ahead of U.S. requests for his arrest.


Update: The US is now on record with a response to Snowden's newfound asylum, with White House spokesman Jay Carney saying the Obama administration is "extremely disappointed" with Russia's decision. The offering of asylum stands to damage an already rocky relationship between the two countries; Carney hinted that the US may call off a summit with Russia that's currently scheduled for September. "We are evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this," he said.
~ From The Verge

There are so many things the U.S. and Russia could be working on together now, and Russia really doesn't have a lot going for it these days. I mean, they have oil production and all that, but there's not much of a way they can leverage the United States. But it's almost as if Putin has now sort of adopted a Hugo Chavez sort of mentality: 'We'll just keep poking our finger in the eye of the giant to show everybody we're big and tough.'
. . . It's just like tormenting, the little guy tormenting the big guy to see if he'll do something. . . . Almost like a high school kind of thing.
~ Bob Schieffer on CBS News



Snowden received immigration papers on Thursday from his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, and immediately jumped into a taxi with a pre-packed suitcase and headed into Moscow.
"Snowden is in a safe place. I didn't suggest it to him, it was his decision," Kucherena told Dozhd TV, RIA Novosti reports. "He will decide for himself how to live his life from now on. He has friends with him, including Americans with whom he made contact via his friends from the United States when he was still in the [airport] transit zone."
~ USA Today

It is unclear who those "American friends" are, and how Snowden, who has not had visitors for 39 days, and has never been to Moscow, made them. What we do know is that Moscow is still crawling with American spooks—as we learned from the CIA agent nabbed in Moscow while wearing an obscene blond wig—so maybe those are his American friends in Moscow. Likely, though, Snowden will live in an apartment that is bugged to the hilt, as any of my American (and British) friends in Moscow can tell you. They'd also likely tell you about how the Russian security services will regularly pay visits to your apartment, usually when you're not there, and leave overt "we were here" clues behind: missing rugs, opened emails, a ladder in the bedroom, a gun on your welcome mat. It may not be as excruciating as intercom announcements from a world now closed to you, but it's a close second, believe me.
~ Julia Ioffe on New Republic

Angry people, confused by not enough education and too much information, or unwilling to face their own poor choices in life, or bearing vague grudges about the forces that always seem to deprive them of the right job, or mate, or status among their peers, cheer on a Snowden or a Manning as a kind of self-actualizing exercise.
They’re happy that someone’s finally sticking it to the Man, or the system, or the Coca-Cola Corporation, or whomever they resent for not giving them a round of applause every morning just for getting dressed without help.
. . . Think about it: when people say that Snowden and Manning had the right to do what they did, they’re saying that a 23 year old Army private knows what the hell he’s doing with 700,000 classified documents. No experience needed: his youth and good sense are justification enough.
. . . Snowden and Manning’s supporters constantly wail that they had “nothing to gain” by doing what they did. But that’s exactly wrong: they had everything to gain, because anything would have been better than the stalled-0ut lives they were living — and by this, I mean the lives they think they were supposed to be living. The drudgery of the Army, the slog of government contracting, even a job in Hawaii with a pole-dancing girlfriend with lit cupcakes on her boobs: none of it was enough for hollow young men who craved the frisson of heroism on the cheap.
~ Tom Nichols on The War Room Blog


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Monday, July 15, 2013

Greenwald Threatens America


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From Reuters
"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.
"The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare."

From Guardian UK ~ "About the Reuters Article" by Greenwald
...That Snowden has created some sort of "dead man's switch" - whereby documents get released in the event that he is killed by the US government - was previously reported weeks ago, and Snowden himself has strongly implied much the same thing. That doesn't mean he thinks the US government is attempting to kill him - he doesn't - just that he's taken precautions against all eventualities, including that one (just incidentally, the notion that a government that has spent the last decade invading, bombing, torturing, rendering, kidnapping, imprisoning without charges, droning, partnering with the worst dictators and murderers, and targeting its own citizens for assassination would be above such conduct is charmingly quaint).

From the Associated Press
He said the "literally thousands of documents" taken by Snowden constitute "basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built."

"In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do," the journalist said Sunday in a Rio de Janeiro hotel room. He said the interview was taking place about four hours after his last interaction with Snowden.

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It's one thing to say that Mr. Snowden possesses some information that could be harmful, and that could be part of the calculation that everybody makes here. It's another to make that kind of an aggressive, non-reportorial statement [that] a reporter has no business making.
~ Famed Reporter Carl Bernstein on Morning Joe

I realize Carl Bernstein hasn't done any actual reporting for a couple decades now, but he should nonetheless take the time to read what he's opining on. The Reuters article he's referencing is a complete distortion of what I actually said in that interview. The point I made is the opposite one: that Snowden has been as responsible as a whistleblower can be in ensuring that only information the public should know is revealed, but not gratuitously harmful information.
~ Glenn Greenwald in letter to Politico, responding to Carl Bernstein on Morning Joe



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The USA should be "on it's knees"? Who talks like this? What is this, the W.W.E.? This is an absolute joke.
Is Greenwald a journalist or Snowden's agent? I've seen subtler hype machines for Paris Hilton reality shows.
~ WinSmith on Daily Kos

What an amazingly arrogant, skin-crawlingly creepy statement, even for this most arrogant of journalists. Is Greenwald trying to get Edward Snowden killed?
~ Charles Johnson on Little Green Footballs

I’ve been thinking about this all weekend: what’s to keep Snowden from changing the terms of the threat? What if Snowden is apprehended by U.S. officials and they take away his beloved computer? What if he doesn’t like the ways he’s being treated in custody? This is a very paranoid guy under a lot of self-imposed stress, and he’s surrounded by a team of other paranoiacs. As far as I’m concerned just about anything could engage the “dead man switch.”
. . . Greenwald volunteered the threatening language, not Snowden or Wikileaks or Assange. He did it in classic noir mob movie style: “Don’t nobody move, see, or the United States government gets it!”
~ Bob Cesca on The Daily Banter

Starved for attention? Greenwald is becoming rather obnoxious. I wonder if he's actually the one afraid for his life, and he's trying to make himself feel better.
~ StarGazer09 on Democratic Underground

Greenwal and snowden are sounding more and more like terrorists
With their threats, demands, and accusations.
~ BushIsAnIdiot on Democratic Underground

The American government does not negotiate with terrorists and will not negotiate with Snowden while he holds a gun to the head of Americans security.
~ Bocalou in Huff Post

Glenn "it's all about me" Greenwald.
~ Shadrack Hyde on Huff Post

Is this Blackmail??? Is this a Felony??? Is he a Conspirator???
~ Bob A D on Huff Post

pure and total b.s. if that was the case snowden would have been dead weeks ago. the navy seals would have done a bin laden on him and he would be deep in the pacific ocean. i am losing respect for greenwald more every day. america will get him, he wil serve his 10, and then become a greeter at walmart. that is his future.
~ aldoray on Huff Post

This is what heroes do, right, inflict damage on their country and bring it to its knees. So says the hero's champion, the altruist and all-wise journalist Greenwald--just like Ben Franklin.
~ Humble Sage on Huff Post

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Monday, April 15, 2013

North Korean Missile Threats Equal Comedy Gold

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Tensions continue to mount in this North Korea situation. The U.S. has moved a Navy warship off the coast of the Korean Peninsula. Is that going to scare the North Koreans? If you really want to scare them, don't send a warship. Send a Carnival cruise ship.
~ Jay Leno on The Tonight Show

Japan and South Korea are on high alert after North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket. Both countries are surprised by North Korea's successful launch, but definitely not as surprised as North Korea.
~ Jimmy Fallon

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Why do I feel like this whole thing could be solved by sending Kim Jong Un a Disneyland pass?
~ Jimmy Kimmel

North Korea has the same ability to launch a nuclear strike against America as I do. It's like walking through a parking lot and getting barked at by a chihuahua locked in a car.
~ Bill Maher

In high school Kim Jong Un starred in a production of the musical 'Grease.' That's also where Kim met his first wife, Olivia Newton Jong.
~ Conan O'Brien

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Japan gave warnings too. They said if North Korea tests this new weapon, Japan will have no choice but to set up their own missile defense system. They're adorable little missiles with 'Hello Kitty' on them.
~ Craig Ferguson

Dealing with the North Koreans is very difficult. They have a history of making irrational decisions to divert the world's attention from the fact their system has totally collapsed. No wait, sorry. I was thinking of NBC.
~ Craig Ferguson


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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Mitt's Anointing Postponed Due to Hurricane

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Memo from Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Convention
Due to the severe weather reports for the Tampa Bay area, the Republican National Convention will convene on Monday August 27th and immediately recess until Tuesday afternoon, August 28th, exact time to follow.

Our first priority is ensuring the safety of delegates, alternates, guests, members of the media attending the Republican National Convention, and citizens of the Tampa Bay area. RNC Convention officials and the Romney campaign are working closely with state, local and federal officials, as well as the Secret Service, to monitor Tropical Storm Isaac and preserve Florida’s emergency management resources. Officials have predicted participants may encounter severe transportation difficulties due to sustained wind and rain.

The Republican National Convention will take place and officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and the Party has other necessary business it must address. We also are remaining in constant contact with state and federal officials and may make additional schedule alterations as needed.

The Convention staff is working around-the-clock to ensure the delegations housed in storm-impacted areas have alternative housing if needed. The Committee on Arrangements will provide additional information to delegates and alternate delegates who are affected by Isaac by Sunday morning. We will also provide guidance to those delegates and alternate delegates who may encounter travel difficulties due to the storm.

We will begin issuing revised convention programming as early as Sunday.

We have an experienced team that will ensure changes are operationally smooth and create as little disruption as possible. The most important concern is safety, but our Convention program will proceed.

Map from NOAA's National Hurricane Center
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