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Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Richard Cordray, Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio, in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018.

Allison Farrand | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Barack Obama said on Thursday that technology has brought about greater inequality and made the public more divided, despite its potential.

The remarks reflect wider concerns about how central technology has become to modern life. Top technology companies such asFacebook, which runs platforms including Instagram and WhatsApp, and Google, which operates YouTube, now face antitrust scrutiny and regular criticism.

"If you follow one rabbit hole on YouTube," Obama told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, the world can look different than if you were to go down another one. "Part of what happens is that people don't know what's true and what's not, and what to believe and what not to believe," Obama said.

"That's part of why we're having so much trouble in our political culture," he said. "But it's not just affecting politics. We are siloing ourselves off from each other in ways that are dangerous."

People who watch Fox News live in a different reality than those who read The New York Times, Obama said. He contrasted the current environment with that of his youth, when there were three television stations and people who watched the same shows would have common ground.

Obama said technology has led to considerable creation of wealth.

"How do we modulate that, so every kid has a good school, and nobody is homeless on the streets, and those that have been lucky are giving back in a serious way to pave the path for the next generation of success?" he said.

"We have not adjusted our social institutions to make sure we benefit from this huge rise in productivity that comes from technology."

Today's culture, accelerated by technology and social media, leads to the pursuit of the wrong things, Obama said.

"So much of the anger and frustration that is taking place right now has to be issues of status and, you know, 'I wanna be up here, let me put other people down there.'"

Benioff said that's why Salesforce has people teaching mindfulness.

"Makes a difference," Obama said.

WATCH: President Obama warns against information bias on the internet

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Obama: 'People don't know what's true' with YouTube and social media - CNBC

To the editor: I watched hours of impeachment hearings and found Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were focused on eliciting kernels that can be popped into slogans like, Trump gave them Javelins, Obama gave them blankets.

The Trump administration providing Ukraine with anti-tank missiles has been universally praised by witnesses. In her testimony Thursday, however, former White House Russia advisor Fiona Hill qualified her support. Hill noted that during the Obama presidency, she had coauthored an op-ed article opposing the release of the Javelins, because she felt the Ukrainian military was not in a fit state to really take on board sophisticated weapons.

Hills counsel of restraint certainly resonated. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin imprudently bestowed surface-to-air missiles to his untrained proxies in eastern Ukraine. The result was the downing of a commercial airliner.

Two years later, Hill came to support the release of Javelins to Ukraine. The change came after she joined the National Security Council and learned from partners at the Pentagon that the Ukrainian military was now a competent, sustainable force.

Perhaps the more accurate slogan would read, Obama laid the foundation, Trump took the credit.

Michael Hawkins, Newbury Park

..

To the editor: Heres a reply to the article that said U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland saved himself, not Trump: The president doesnt need saving.

The result of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiffs circus is preordained. The House of Representatives will impeach Trump regardless of testimony for or against the president.

Then the Senate will acquit. Any questions?

Michael Sanchez, West Hollywood

See original here:
Did Obama really send just blankets to the Ukrainians? - Los Angeles Times

Former President Barack Obama told Democrats at a California fundraiser on Thursday evening that he was open to higher taxes on rich people, including himself, according to a report in The New York Times.

"I've got a lot of room to pay more taxes and I already pay really high taxes," he said. "That's one area where, I guarantee you, where you will get Joe six-pack and the single inner-city mom agreeing. They would like to see a little bigger share of the pie and you know, the rent is too damn high."

He noted that the debate around taxes had changed significantly since the time he ran for president, The Times reported.

Obama's remarks come as the current slate of Democratic candidates propose a variety of higher taxes on the rich, including imposing new ones on capital gains and other Wall Street transactions.

And Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have laid out plans to implement a wealth tax in the United States that would hit the accumulated fortunes of the richest US taxpayers.

Business Insider previously reported that Barack Obama's current net worth is $40 million. Since leaving the White House, the Obama family have enjoyed a lucrative life with book deals worth at least $60 million, one of which produced a bestselling memoir from former First Lady Michelle Obama.

They also signed a Netflix production deal last year estimated to be $50 million, according to the New York Post.

As a former president, Obama earns an annual pension of around $200,000, and he's made hundreds of thousands more from speaking engagements around the world.

Assuming the $40 million net worth, Obama would be exempted from the Warren wealth tax plan, which starts with a 2% levy on net worths above $50 million. But he wouldn't be spared from the Sanders tax, which begins at fortunes above $32 million at a 1% margin.

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Obama says he's open to higher taxes on the wealthy, saying 'I've got a lot of room to pay more taxes' - INSIDER

Last month, the nonpartisan Department of Justice inspector general released the findings of his investigation into the Drug Enforcement Administrations regulation of the ever-growing opioid crisis from 2010 to 2017.

The inspector general reported that the DEAs Office of Diversion Control exacerbated the opioid crisis by failing many of its most basic functions to create and enforce regulations to protect the public interest against the diversion and misuse of prescription opioid pain killers.

The Controlled Substances Act vests nearly all federal power to regulate opioids in the U.S. Department of Justice, under which the Office of Diversion Control is responsible for setting annual production and manufacturing quotas. It issues licenses (called registrations) for manufacturers, distributors, prescribers, and pharmacists, and it has the power and responsibility to deny applications or revoke registrations that are not in the public interest."

During the 2018 election cycle, Democrats railed against everyone in the supply chain, except the people vested with national authority to make the changes needed. And since the release of the inspector generals report, their silence is deafening. The regulation of prescription opioids during the eight years under President Obama is the elephant in the room that the mainstream media and lawmakers are talking over, under, and around. But the inspector general has laid it all out for us to see and use as a roadmap back to safe and sane regulation of much-needed pain-relief medicine and a reduction in overdose deaths and addiction.

The inspector general revealed that from 2003 through 2013, the DEAs Office of Diversion Control approved increasing the aggregate production quota for opioids by more than 400%. The Office of Diversion Control also increased active registrants to 1.6 million from 2005 to 2015, an increase of 45%. Meanwhile, from 2013 to 2017, opioid deaths rose by 71% all while the DEA kept increasing the allowable flow of the drug in the marketplace.

The inspector general reported that the Office of Diversion Control did not conduct background checks or otherwise check-out applicants properly. In essence, the Office of Diversion Control was rubber-stamping registrations to produce, deliver, prescribe, and sell opioids without performing even simple background checks or going beyond applicants' affirmations, via checkbox, that they lacked criminal records.

Registrants are required to submit suspicious orders to the Office of Diversion Control; the purpose of those reports is to identify rogue doctors and pharmacies that may be overprescribing opioids. The reports are supposed to be housed in the Suspicious Order Reporting System, which was not even created until 2008. Unfortunately, that system was unable to properly detect drug diversion because most of the reports were sent to DEA field offices and never uploaded to the database. This is how, of the 1,400 manufacturers and distributors required to submit suspicious order reports, the DEA database only included reports from the eight manufacturers and distributors that had agreements to send the reports to DEA headquarters. Amazingly, when the inspector general asked for the reports that had not been uploaded, the field offices were unable to locate them.

So although several drug distributors ended up footing a $260 million bill for the economic burden that two Ohio counties suffered from the opioid crisis, the actions and inactions of the last administration are what really put the opioid crisis into overdrive.

The real power of a congressional investigation and hearings is to make real policy changes that can make life better for everyday Americans. This is one such opportunity. Congress owes it to its constituents to immediately begin an investigation into how the previous administrations Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration utterly failed to take even the most basic steps to stop the opioid crisis in its tracks.

Ian Prior iis former principal deputy director of public affairs at the Department of Justice.

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The Obama administration's overlooked failure on opioids - Washington Examiner

(ANSAmed) - ATHENS, 18 NOV - The ongoing refugee crisis inGreece continues to lurch from one tragedy to the next with thedeath of a nine-month old baby at the notoriously overcrowdedMoria reception center on the island of Lesvos the latest in along line of black pages in what continues to be an extremelysad story.

The Greek arm of NGO organization Meicins Sans Frontieres(Doctors Without Borders) confirmed at the weekend that a babyhad died a few days ago in hospital after being admitted withsevere dehydration. Despite receiving emergency care inhospital, the infant did not survive.

"The MSF team has confirmed the information with the hospital.

We are overwhelmed by this new tragedy," said a statement byeicins Sans Frontieres via their Twitter account.

The organisation urged the Greek government and EU once again toact quicker and take drastic measures to resolve the currentmass overcrowding and squalid living conditions refugees faceespecially on the island camps. "Children are dying in Europe due to neglect of health care andunacceptable living conditions; nothing has improved nearly fouryears after the EU-Turkey agreement. It's outrageous and cannotgo on. The mental and physical health of people at Moria isconstantly at risk. Greece and the European Union must actimmediately!"This latest death another dark stain in the history of Greece'srefugee crisis which exploded in 2015, stabilized somewhat from2016-18 but has once again blew up in a big way in 2019.

Approximately 15,000 people are staying in and around the Moriacamp on Lesvos, cramped into a space more than four times itscapacity of just 3,000.

Greece continues to struggle with the ongoing migrant crisis,which has begun to spiral out of control since the summer. Theisland camps are desperately overcrowded and the flows of peoplecoming into the country continues unabated.

According to the latest official data, a total of 10,882migrants crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands from September16 to October 16 alone. And the influx has continued in theearly part of November.

The government has begun to step up a program of transferringmigrants from island camps to alternative sites on the mainland,but progress is slow and exacerbated by continuing incomingflows of people as well as opposition from locals in themainland communities where the state wants to build new orextend existing facilities.

Although Greece's parliament finally approved a newcontroversial bill on asylum earlier this month, in an effort totackle the growing refugee crisis, there has been strongopposition from SYRIZA and human rights groups, who havelabelled the new stricter laws "a naked attempt to block accessto protection and increase deportations." The controversial and complex 237-page bill entitled"international protection and other provisions" is mainlyfocused on asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, andthe idea is that it will empower Greece to process asylum claimsquicker, as well as send more people illegible back to Turkey.

But the bill is being seen as inhumane, especially by humanrights groups. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR alsoexpressed its concerns about the legislation, saying that itcould weaken the protection of refugees.(ANSAmed).

See the article here:
Another week, another migrant tragedy in Greece - Analysis - ANSAMed - ANSAmed