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Barack Obama had been president for roughly as long as Donald Trump when, on July 16, 2009, the black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates was arrested on his front porch in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a white police officer who thought he might be a burglar. At a news conference a few days later, Obama said the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, had acted stupidly. Conservatives were furious, saying Obama had sided against a policeman doing his job.

To defuse the tension and set an example of racial reconciliation, Obama hosted the professor and the policeman at the White House for a beer. He also conceded error: I could have calibrated those words differently, Obama said. He called the episode a teachable moment for the nation.

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In his explosive Tuesday news conference, President Donald Trump seized a far more dramatic moment not so much to teach as to fight. He admitted no fault, calibrated no words, and in the eyes of Republicans and Democrats alike inflamed rather than defused racial tension.

It wasnt just that Trump defended the pro-Confederate sympathies of a group of demonstrators heavily populated by anti-Semitic white supremacists, or that he seemed to draw equivalence between them and what he called a very violent group of alt-left counter-protesters who opposed them.

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Along the way, he castigated Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is fighting brain cancer; refused to endorse the job security of his embattled senior aide Stephen Bannon (or Mr. Bannon, as Trump called him); snapped at the dishonest reporters who questioned him; and turned a question about Charlottesville, a city mourning a 32-year-old resident killed on Saturday, into a plug for the vineyard he owns nearby. (I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States. Its in Charlottesville.)

It was a Trump familiar to those who followed his wildly unorthodox campaign, but one rarely on display since his election unpredictable and politically incorrect to a degree unseen since his visit to the Central Intelligence Agency a day after he was sworn in, when he raged at the media over reports about the crowd size at his inauguration.

And even by the standards of a politician who has repeatedly shocked his critics and dazzled admirers with his flouting of convention, Trumps performance stood out.

A team of the country's most eminent behavioral psychologists, cultural historians, statesmen and clergy could have been asked to design the worst leader imaginable for this moment and Trump would have exceeded their imaginations, said Mark Salter, a former longtime chief of staff and speechwriter to McCain. (Trump lashed out at McCain for voting against a Republican health care bill last month.)

Leaders of the Republican establishment also scrambled to distance themselves from Trump and his comments his third effort since the violence erupted on Saturday. "We must be clear," House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted. "White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity."

But segments of the pro-Trump right were downright delighted. Potus Comes Roaring Back With Press Smackdown at Trump Tower, cheered one Breitbart News headline. Doubles Down, declared another.

Such headlines raise the question of whether Trump is consciously scandalizing the political mainstream in an effort to re-energize voters who thrilled to his taboo-busting style during the 2016 campaign.

But to Trumps harshest critics, Tuesday was merely a sign that Trump who aides said was not supposed to take questions at a news event meant to promote his infrastructure plans has no self-control or sense of propriety.

I think this guy is deeply ill. I really do, former Democratic Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said on MSNBC shortly after Trump spoke.

Either way, left in the dust was any sense of tradition or continuity with the way past presidents have handled similar moments and the subject of race in America. An empathetic, lip-biting Bill Clinton, whose first term included the racial trauma of the O.J. Simpson trial, kicked off a national dialogue on race, appointing a panel of esteemed race relations experts.

Speaking at the memorial service for five Dallas police officers murdered by a radicalized black man last July, former president George W. Bush cited scripture, spoke of empathy and urged Americans to reject the unity of fear for the unity of hope, affection and high purpose.

Obama repeatedly confronted Americas open racial wounds as president.

Asked to contrast Obamas 2009 beer summit with Trumps response to Charlottesville, Dan Pfeiffer, Obamas former White House communications director, was almost at a loss for words.

It's hard to compare Obama and Trump or Trump and any other sentient human with an ounce of empathy or self-awareness, Pfeiffer said. Obama made a statement when more facts came out and made it clear that first statement was incorrect, he took responsibility. Trump has proven time and time again that he is incapable of such an approach.

That was hardly Obamas only response to racial strife. In July 2015, Obama sang "Amazing Grace at the funeral of a pastor who was one of nine African-Americans massacred by a white gunman in a Charleston, South Carolina, church.

And after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman in July 2013 on charges that he murdered the black teenager Trayvon Martin, Obama offered words that echo Tuesdays bipartisan response to Trump.

"Those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature, Obama said at the time, "as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions."

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Trump chooses fighting over healing - Politico

In the past few days, much has been made of President Trump not condemning the violence in Charlottesville in strong enough terms. The media and social media are percolating with people claiming that the President should have named names and condemned the KKK and Neo-Nazis as hate-mongering terrorists. Many people are furious with the President and interpret his condemnation via generalities as a tacit endorsement of the acts of the radical groups.

Believe me, I understand their frustration. I know exactly how they feel because it is precisely how I felt during the last few years of President Obamas administration with his refusal to condemn the Black Lives Matter movement. Its an awful feeling isnt it, wishing your President would speak out in no uncertain terms against something that is clearly evil, leaving you wondering why the individual in Americas highest office wont condemn something that clearly contradicts our core American values?

The Black Lives Matter organization is a racist terrorist hate group launched in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tomeki in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman after the killing of Trayvon Martin. Terrorism is defined as the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims, which fits the Black Lives Matter movement perfectly.

This extremist hate group has stoked riots in Ferguson, Baltimore, St. Paul, Baton Rouge, Dallas, Oakland, and other cities that have resulted in violence, the murder of police officers, and massive property destruction complete with signs and chants about killing white people and police officers.

The members of this hate-group vocally advocate violence against white people and the murder of individuals in law enforcement. In an essay on the Black Lives Matter Facebook page, leaders expressed unflinching support and breathless admiration for Fidel Castro, a brutal dictator, along with Michael Finney, Ralph Goodwin, Charles Hill, and Huey Newton. All cop killers.

Toronto Black Lives Matter co-founder Yusra Khogali has argued that whites are subhuman and suffer from genetic defects and has tweeted about killing white people. Then there is Eric Ukuni, a Denver Black Lives Matter acolyte who proclaimed, Three people will die today and proceeded to steal a truck by stabbing the owner in the neck with a screwdriver before intentionally driving into pedestrians, killing an elderly man this time last year. Sound familiar? The examples could go on and on.

Did President Obama condemn the hate-group? No, President Obama embraced it, inviting its leaders and other Ferguson protesters to the White House on more than one occasion and appointing one, Brittany Packnett, to a task force on policing. He defended the slogan Black Lives Matter when asked, Dont all lives matter? and he went out of his way to defend the group at a memorial service for five Dallas policemen murdered by a black sniper at a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Be thankful that President Trump hasnt gone that far.

The media, which is now obsessed with the Alt-Right, Nazis, and the KKK, did no better than the President, constantly giving fawning coverage to Black Lives Matter. In 2015, Time named Black Lives Matter a runner-up for its annual Person of the Year. Can you imagine living in a country where the KKK was a runner-up for Person of the Year for a major mainstream publication? You think things are bad under President Trump?

We cannot afford to have selective memories and selective outrage. We cant be against hatred when it suits us. You cant condemn Charlottesville but try to justify Ferguson. You cant decry Neo-Nazis and the KKK and support Black Lives Matter. If you do, you are the worst kind of hypocrite. Hatred is hatred is hatred. Lets stand together against all of it.

Paul Rivers Chattanooga

* * *

Mr. Rivers hit a home run with this post!

The nut cases that riot at a legal protests need to be locked up and the police share some fault in this one taking their time to react (a la Baltimore). No one should disagree that those bent on destroying American values (KKK, BLM etc.) are on the edge BUT the Constitution gives them the right to be as nasty as they wish as long as they don't physically harm another.

I wrote Obama off when he went to play golf as an American's blood was still running into the sand after his head was cut off. I most definitely applaud President Trump for waiting for ALL the information to come in before making statements that could come back on him (remember "the police acted stupidly)?

Face it America, this President absolutely cannot win regardless of what he does/says as far as the media is concerned. I liked what Ms. King had to say today, she too hit a home run.

Sue White

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Selective Outrage Is Unacceptable - And Response - The Chattanoogan

Facebook is the go-to platform for pharma marketers. In a new study, 73% of pharma marketing teams say they plan to use the platform during the next two years,an 8-percentage-point increase since Cutting Edge Information'sprevious survey in 2013.

That's notsurprising, considering Facebooks mainstream ubiquity and large reach, along with stepped-up efforts by Facebook to reach out to the pharma industry. What might be surprising, however, is how much other social platforms have gainedor lostin the world of drug marketing. Twitter took a big fall below the 50% mark, while LinkedIn soared upward in its place. Pinterest? Gone. Instagram? Finally popped up.

LinkedIn made the biggest gain in projected use since the last survey. The business-friendly social networking site grew by 29 percentage points. Just 26% of pharma marketers planned to use it in 2013; this year, that grew to 55%.

RELATED: The top 10 pharma companies in social media

Not nearly as important anymore was 140-character Twitter, where projected usage among pharma marketers dropped 19 percentage points. Only45% plan to use it now, down from 64% in 2013.

Among the smaller social media platforms, Tumblr was on the to-do list for 9% of pharma marketers, while Instagram showed up for the first time in the survey,with 18% saying theyll use it in the coming two years, said Natalie DeMasi, research team leader at Cutting Edge Information. Gone this year was Pinterestwhich got zero reports of planned use, same as Vine, Flickr and Reddit.

RELATED: Bayer blazes new trails for pharma with Betaseron Facebook ad

In general, pharma social media use remains targeted at patients,with key focus areas in brand education and corporate communications, DeMasi said.

The study also looked at overall use of digital, including mobile as a key tool for pharma marketing. Worth noting in this years study was a shift in mobile marketing: Pharma has turned its attention away from consumers to focus mobile efforts more on healthcare providers, sales reps and medical science liaisons.

Patient adherence used to be a pretty big objective for mobile apps, for example, but that decreased a good amount in 2017, DeMasi said. In talking to executives, it sounds like the mobile health market is saturated with so many consumer appslots of fitness apps, nutrition apps and so many othersthat there arent many opportunities for pharma to make a new app that patients would use. Pharma is moving away from developing patient-focused mobile apps and instead making apps for physician education, detailing for sales reps, or investigator apps for coordinating clinical trials.

Challenges still remain in digital marketing as pharma gets up to speed on technologybut continues to deal with some audiencessome old-school doctors, for instancewho dont want tech solutions.

Today pharma marketers have to do a lot of research ahead of time to figure out what will speak most to their target audiences. Sometimes, the best thing to do might not be using the new technology. But other times you have to go all the way. Do the research to find out, DeMasi said.

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Pharma's social status: LinkedIn and FB up, Twitter down, Instagram finally appears - FiercePharma

The government of India may have asked internet majors Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and Instagram to remove all links of the lethal online game Blue Whale challenge but it does not make Indian youths, especially teenagers, completely secure from the reach of the games administrators/curators.

However, parents can try to keep track of whether their children are trying to get in touch with the administrators of the game or have already got addicted to it.

HT spoke to hackers and dug the cyber world to access the advisories issued by government agencies in Russia and Kazakhstan where the game earned maximum curiosity and witnessed maximum casualties to find out what parents can do.

Here are the 10 commandments they can follow:

1. Link your social media profile with your childrens and watch out if she/he is using the hashtags #Iamawhale, #IAmWhale, #curatorfindme, #f57, #f58, #SeaOfWhales, #wakemeat420am, #silenthouse, #quiethouse, #iaminthegame.

2. The game is also known by the name Quiet House, Sea Whale, Wake me up at 4:20, Silent House, f33, f40, F57, F58, Whales float up, Nyapoka, 50 days before my . Watch out if the teenager is member of such groups on social networking sites.

3. Also keep track if these Russian words are being used with hashtag #Tihiydom, #Siniykit, #50dneyDoMoego, #mlechnyyput, #yavigre, #Razbudimenyav420

4. The game requires the player to wake up at 4.20 am. So, if the teenager is unusually waking up around that time, parents need to be cautious.

5. The game requires continuous self-harming. So, watch out for cut marks on arms and legs, especially veins, and if she/he has inscribed f40, f57, f58 with cut marks with razors on arms, or have drawn a whale on an arm with cut marks.

6. Watch out if the teenager is drawing blue whale, unicorn and butterflies on papers, notebooks.

7. This game requires the player to maintain utmost secrecy. So, keep watch if she/he looks completely removed from the world.

8. If the teen, despite having an existing social networking profile, has opened new ones, especially if on the English version of Vkontake, which comes as https://vk.com/club200. HT found out several teens have opened account on this site in August, possibly with fake identity and profile photo, only to draw the attraction of the games curators.

9. If the teen suddenly closes public or friends access to his page on the social networking sites.

10. If the teenager is seen walking or sitting on the edge of roof, especially of multi-storeyed buildings.

So far three Indian teenagers one each in Maharashtra, Bengal and Kerala are suspected to have killed themselves under the influence of the curators of the game. Two deaths have been prevented in the country.

Hackers pointed out that since it is an underground game, it is not accessible through search engines. The game exists in closed groups. Administrators of the game, who are also called curators, choose players and contact them through direct messages on various social networking sites. The link to download the game is generally shared through direct messages.

People who intend to play the game can also draw the attention of the games administrators by using certain hashtags from their social networking profiles. It then depends on the administrators whether to choose the intended person as a potential player or not.

Moreover, those who in India have the game already downloaded can share the link through such sharing apps as SHAREit and Xender, said Jins K Sebastian, a Kerala-based ethical hacker who is associated with hacking groups i-hos, Mallu Cyber Soldiers and Lulzsec India.

Incidentally, apart from various government agencies in Europe, hacktivist group Anonymous has also launched a drive against the game in March and vowed to end the menace. It seems, none of them have fully succeeded yet.

Searches through social networking sites revealed that an increasing number of Indian youths are trying to draw the attention of the games curators since early August 2017. Many have opened new accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even VKontakte, where the game originated from and is mostly played.

The Indian government is yet to announce any advisory so far.

Archismita Chaudhury, a youth from north Bengal, claimed to have tracked down several teenagers by searching #iamwhale hastag on Facebook and sent messages to some of them.

I did this today and got many posts and texted 4 fellows....one child was of 15 years....And more three.... All were teens. I got reply from one of them.....He said he stopped playing the game yesterday as he understood how harmful it is....He was in 11th task, Chaudhury posted on Facebook on August 15.

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Parents can track whether their children are fishing for Blue Whale: Here's how - Hindustan Times

Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images

Fourteen of the biggest US tech companies filed a brief with the Supreme Court on Monday supporting more rigorous warrant requirements for law enforcement seeking certain cell phone data, such as location information. In the statement, the signatoriesGoogle, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft among themargue that the government leans on outdated laws from the 1970s to justify Fourth Amendment overreach. One perhaps surprising voice in the chorus of protesters? Verizon.

Verizon's support means that the largest wireless service provider in the US, and a powerful force in Silicon Valley, has bucked a longtime trend of telecom acquiescence. While carriers have generally been willing to comply with a broad range of government requestseven building out extensive infrastructure to aid surveillanceVerizon has this time joined with academics, analysts, and the companys more privacy-focused corporate peers.

Carpenter v. United States is one of the most important Fourth Amendment cases in recent memory, Craig Silliman, Verizons executive vice president for public policy and general counsel, wrote on Monday. Although the specific issue presented to the Court is about location information, the case presents a broader issue about a customers reasonable expectation of privacy for other types of sensitive data she shares with any third party. Our hope is that when it decides this case, the Court will help us better apply old Fourth Amendment doctrines to an evolving digital era.

From the early days of landlines, telecoms have complied with law enforcement requests for customer data such as call length, location, and who has called whom. As the variety of data customers generate has exponentially expanded and evolved, so has this information gathering by government officials, often under a general mandate and without a case-specific warrant. For its part, Verizon cooperated with the National Security Agency as part of broad bulk surveillance programs for years. Details of this coordination was revealed in NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013, but some aspects of it had been publicly debated for years prior.

Carpenter v. United States, which the Supreme Court will hear this fall, relates to the acquisition, without a warrant, of months of individuals location records by law enforcement officials in 2011. Officials looked back on 12,898 location records, spanning a four-month period, of one of these individuals, Timothy Carpenter, to build their case; Carpenter was eventually convicted. His appeal argues that location-data collection by law enforcement without a warrant violates his Fourth Amendment rightsand Verizon agrees.

Verizon stands out because they actually hold the specific kind of location records that are directly at issue, says Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Carpenter. The telecoms have a long history in general of cooperating with law enforcement surveillance demands, but I think Verizons participation reflects a growing understanding of the importance of standing up for customers privacy rights."

As the general public becomes increasingly aware of the privacy risks associated with entrusting their data to corporate entities, a strong stance on data protection has been a boon to companies like Apple. This economic incentive may be even stronger for the numerous telecoms that now straddle the line between traditional utility and tech company. Verizon, for example, now owns Yahoo and AOL in addition to its role as a top-four wireless provider in the US.

"At the end of the day, a company like Verizon isnt going to stick its neck out if it doesnt think that theres a business rationale in addition to it being the right thing to do," Wessler says.

Verizon has laid the groundwork for this move for months. Silliman wrote publicly last year about potential Fourth Amendment concerns when telecoms comply with warrantless law enforcement data requests. The company's stand won't necessarily prompt peers to followno other telecoms joined this particular briefbut it still represents a turning point in the dialog between privacy advocates and monolithic telecoms. And in Carpenter v. United States, it's only one of the voices that matters in the larger discussion about data privacy.

"The other tech companies bring the perspective that this case is also about our emails and our smart devices and all the kinds of cloud-stored data that we create in the course of our daily lives now," Wessler says. "The Justices should not be under the misapprehension that they can just try to narrowly apply these outdated precedents from the 1970s in this case. The implications are really huge, and this is the chance to make sure that our understanding of the Fourth Amendment keeps up with digital technology.

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VerizonYes, VerizonJust Stood Up For Your Privacy - WIRED