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PARIS Could France elect Barack Obama president?

Not really but thats not stopping the organizers of Obama17, a guerrilla campaign trying to entice the former U.S. president to head to Paris.

Its totally crazy, but the cool thing is that once you get past that, you start thinking that maybe its possible. Who cares that hes not French? Hes Barack Obama, one of the campaign organizers told CNN.

Theyve launched a web site and they put up 500 posters of Obama around Paris last weekend, said the organizer. He asked to be identified only as Antoine.

Theyre hoping to get 1 million people to sign a petition urging Obama to run.

Yes, its a joke, he admits but one with a serious purpose.

We want to show that people are fed up with the politicians here. People are tired about it and they like this joke. It gives people a little fun amid all these scandals, he said.

French voters go to the polls April 23 in the first round of voting for a new president. If no one gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers go to a runoff on May 7.

Someone to vote for, not against

Polls suggest that Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front party, will top the field in the first round, but wont get the absolute majority a candidate needs to win outright.

Antoine isnt a fan of the frontrunner.

We are so fed up with what Marine Le Pen is doing, and with the fact that we werent able to find a candidate to vote for, only one to vote against, said Antoine. We started talking about that and it came up that Obama is free so why not hire him?

Antoine knows theres not much chance Obama will play along with his joke.

But he says people have been getting in touch with serious suggestions for example, how to get around the problem that Obama isnt French.

Weve had some funny e-mails from lawyers telling us how it could be possible. He would have to be naturalized by the president of the French Assembly, Antoine said.

Its not clear whether Obama is aware of the project, but Antoine is hopeful.

I think if Barack Obama answers this, there will be a huge amount of reaction. I think he might like this kind of thing, said Antoine. People in France would get crazy, especially young people. But he wont say yes to our proposal.

Read the original here:
Voters call on Obama to run for president of France - Fox17

Were all well acquainted with the fake news phenomenon. But the good news is, Facebook has started to fight back, working with a coalition of fact-based media outlets.

Better late than never. The 2016 campaign was festooned with phony scoops like Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president and FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apartment in murder-suicide and Hillary sold weapons to ISIS. Credulous social media users clicked and shared and were happy to get suckered.

Its no surprise that the con lives on. My new favorite bit of fakery, which has already been shared tens of thousands of times, and re-posted on dozens of websites with names like Angry Patriot and Trump Media, features this eye-candy headline:

BREAKING. Congress Moves to STOP Obamas Treasonous Coup Attempt Against Trump

Last I saw, Obama was photographed on a boating vacation, wearing cool shades and flashing a grin. He sure didnt look like somebody plotting a coup and seething with treason, but hey, maybe his vacay vibe was just part of the conspiracy. Maybe that explains why not a single Republican in Congress, or Spicer or Kellyanne, has breathed a word about what Obama has afoot.

Anyway, I bring all this up because ABC News - working with Facebook - has posted a deconstruction of the fake-news story, explaining how the infauxmation process worked.

Basically, this was the fake-news logic: Trump is plagued by government leakers; many government officials are civil servants who stay on the job from one administration to the next; some leakers might be officials carried over from the last administration; therefore, the leakers are partisan Obama loyalists; therefore, Obama is directing his loyalists; therefore, Obama is plotting a treasonous coup.

ABC News dryly concluded that, aside from the people making stuff up, no one is alleging that former President Obama is connected to the leaks or has committed treason because of these revelations.

But the most noteworthy true info comes at the bottom of the post: ABC News has launched The Real News About Fake News powered by Facebook data in which users report questionable stories and misinformation circulating on the platform. The stories will undergo rigorous reporting to determine if the claims made are false, exaggerated or out of context. Stories that editorial partners have also debunked will then appear flagged in your News Feed.

Facebook announced this project earlier this winter. The social network had long prided itself as a neutral bulletin board, but its leaders had come to realize that allowing sewage to flow unchecked was a negative.

So Facebook hooked up with ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org (housed at the University of Pennsylvania), Politifact and Snopes. Users can now flag stories they suspect to be fake, and stories that draw enough flags are typically steered to these fact-checking media sites. The Obama slime job met the specs for scrutiny.

Its nice to see some kind of pushback, even if these efforts dont really make a dent. The users who guzzle fake stories about Obama certainly wont accept a thumbs-down verdict from ABC News, which they probably dismiss as part of the conspiracy.

But theres hope for the reality-based community. A new Quinnipiac poll says when Americans are asked whom they trust to tell the truth about important issues, 52 percent choose the media, and only 37 percent tilt to Trump. No doubt he would dismiss those stats as fake news. I call it good news.

Dick Polman: can be reached at dickpolman7@gmail.com.

Original post:
Obama not planning coup - The Star Beacon

U.S. environmental chief Scott Pruitt has unveiled plans to roll back at least three Obama-era rules at the EPA while vowing to give businesses regulatory certainty.

Those policy reversals, set to start this week, will empower the Environmental Protection Agency to focus on its core mission of protecting the air and water, Pruitt said Saturday in a speech and question-and-answer session on the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

The previous administration was so focused on climate change and so focused on CO2, some of those other priorities were left behind, Pruitt said in his first detailed remarks since being sworn in to lead the EPA on Feb. 17. I really believe that at the end of eight years, were going to have better air quality, were going to have better water quality because its going to be vested in a partnership with states.

As soon as Monday, President Donald Trump is slated to sign documents compelling the EPA to begin undoing recent regulations, including the Clean Power Plan that slashes greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation and the Waters of the U.S. rule that defined which waterways are subject to pollution regulation.

Documents drafted by the Trump administration would direct Pruitt to begin dismantling those measures, helping fulfill the presidents pledge to eviscerate rules he describes as hampering U.S. energy development.

There are some regulations that in the near term need to be rolled back in a very aggressive way, Pruitt said. In the next week, you may be hearing about some of those.

We know what those are: The previous administration took the Waters of the United States rule and transformed the Clean Water Act and made puddles and dry creek beds across this country subject to the jurisdiction of Washington, D.C., Pruitt said. Thats going to change.

Pruitt described another high-priority target: an EPA rule imposed last year that limits methane gas emissions from oil and gas wells. He took aim at the measure while he was Oklahomas attorney general, with the urging of oil and gas producer Devon Energy Corp., according to recently disclosed e-mails.

Pruitt built his political career fighting federal regulations he said usurped states power, joining more than a dozen lawsuits challenging EPA actions.

View post:
EPA set to ax Obama policies - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Inside Higher Ed

Title IX Enforcement and LGBT Students Inside Higher Ed The Trump administration last week generated plenty of headlines by withdrawing guidelines issued by the Obama administration regarding Title IX's protections for transgender college students. Remaining unnoticed, however, is an apparent conflict ...

Continued here:
Title IX Enforcement and LGBT Students - Inside Higher Ed

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said on Sunday she is reviewing self-driving vehicle guidance issued by the Obama administration and urged companies to explain the benefits of automated vehicles to a skeptical public.

The guidelines, which were issued in September, call on automakers to voluntarily submit details of self-driving vehicle systems to regulators in a 15-point safety assessment and urge states to defer to the federal government on most vehicle regulations.

Automakers have raised numerous concerns about the guidance, including that it requires them to turn over significant data, could delay testing by months and lead to states making the voluntary guidelines mandatory.

In November, major automakers urged the then-incoming Trump administration to re-evaluate the guidelines and some have called for significant changes. Automakers called on Congress earlier this month to make legislative changes to speed self-driving cars to U.S. roads.

Chao, in her first major public remarks since taking office last month, told the National Governors Association: This administration is evaluating this guidance and will consult with you and other stakeholders as we update it and amend it, to ensure that it strikes the right balance.

She said self-driving cars could dramatically improve safety.

In 2015, 35,092 people died in U.S. traffic crashes, up 7 percent and the highest full-year increase since 1966. In the first nine months of 2016, fatalities were up 8 percent.

Chao, noting research that 94 percent of traffic crashes were due to human error, said: Theres a lot at stake in getting this technology right.

She said the Trump administration wanted to ensure it is a catalyst for safe, efficient technologies, not an impediment. In particular, I want to challenge Silicon Valley, Detroit, and all other auto industry hubs to step up and help educate a skeptical public about the benefits of automated technology.

Companies including Alphabet Inc.s self-driving car Waymo unit, General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Uber Technologies Inc,. Tesla Inc. and other are aggressively pursuing automated vehicle technologies.

Chao said she was very concerned about the potential impact of automated vehicles on employment. There are 3.5 million U.S. truck drivers alone and millions of others employed in driving-related occupations.

She also said she would seek input from states as regulators develops rules on drones. We will ask for your input as the (Federal Aviation Administration) develops standards and regulations to ensure that drones can be safely integrated into our countrys airspace, she said.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Peter Cooney)

See the article here:
Trump Administration Reviewing Obama's Autonomous Vehicle Guidance - Insurance Journal