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Security experts have discovered tantalising evidence that the eerily sophisticated Flame cyberweapon discovered in May was part of a family of four programs whose development goes back to 2006.
An analysis of Flame's Command and Control (C&C) servers by Kaspersky Lab in conjunction with Symantec, Germany's CERT-Bund/BSI and ITU-IMPACT found a stripped-down interface which had been designed to attract as little attention as possible from hosting admins who chanced upon it.
Although all commands were uploaded as server scripts rather than through a GUI, the team found the protocol handlers referenced four clients', SP, SPE, FL and IP, where 'FL' is understood to relate to Flame (a previous analysis identified 'Flame' as its most likely name from text buried in its code).
This leaves the mystery of the three unidentified clients; as far as Kaspersky can tell none of them are references to Stuxnet or Gauss, two other cyberweapons already pulled apart by its researchers.
"Obviously, this means there are at least three other undiscovered cyber-espionage or cyber-sabotage tools created by the same authors: SP, SPE and IP," says Kaspersky Lab.
Evidence has been mounting that cyberweapons have been around for a lot longer than realised and the latest analysis backs that up. Scripts appear to have been run from four different authors going back as far as December 2006.
This might explain why Flame itself was so vast and complex by malware standards, comprising 20 or more modules, a sign of a longstanding development.
Data stolen by the malware was removed on a regular schedule after being carefully encrypted using PKI, making recovery of the content impossible even some were found. But it was pilfering huge volumes of data nonetheless, 5GB in a single week at one point.
On the basis of infected IPs connecting to the C&C, Kaspersky reckons that the number of 'victims' of Flame must have exceeded 10,000, with the most likely targets being Iran (3702 bot IPs) and Sudan (1280 bot IPs) connecting during a seven-day period in March 2012.
Where does all this leave cyberweapons research? The most likely protagonists are the US and Israel, which have been using covert software for more than half a decade on a previously unsuspected scale. These programs certainly pre-date the current Obama administration.
A few sippets have emerged to explain what Flame was for with one claim being that it was an intelligence-gathering tool to aid the 2010 Stuxnet attacks on Iran's nuclar installations.

subset: commoncrawl


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Time is running out for Congress to act. And low-income college students will pay a high price if a deal can't be reached by Monday's deadline.
Interest rates on many new subsidized Stafford loans will skyrocket—from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent—on Monday, unless the Senate reaches a compromise.
(Read More: Senate Can't Save Student Loan Rates)
More than 7 million undergraduates receive these loans, for which the federal government pays the interest while the students are enrolled in school.
But the nation's student debt crisis affects so many more.
More than 38 million Americans have student loan debt, totaling nearly $1 trillion, a staggering number that has quadrupled in 10 years and keeps rising. Student loan debt now surpasses credit card and auto loan debt in this country—and it's only expected to get worse before it gets better.
Most in Congress agree the loan rates should to stay lower than 6.8 percent, at least for the subsidized Stafford loans used by the country's lowest-income students. But they're stuck on how to get there.
Republicans want to let the rates fluctuate with the markets every year and use the proceeds for deficit reduction. Democrats say that's unreasonable and want to cap how fast rates can rise.
"I see the debate about interest rates as a distraction from the real problem, which is the amount of debt," said Mark Kantrowitz, founder of FinAid.org and senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors.com.
"Each year the average cost of graduation goes up by about $1,000 or more. And having less expensive debt is going not going to make much of a difference if the total amount owed keeps on going up."
A study done this spring by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the share of 25-year-olds with student debt has increased from just 25 percent in 2003 to 43 percent in 2012. The average student loan balance among those 25-year-olds with student debt grew by 91 percent over that time, from $10,649 in 2003 to $20,326 in 2012.
The amount of debt has risen as tuition, room, board, fees and other college expenses have soared. The cost of attending college has risen about 4 percent in the past year alone—and has far outpaced the rate of inflation in recent years.


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Read your book Mating Season, first book I have read by you and the last, I don't think you shouldput (sic) your politics in your books by bashing Pres. Brush (sic!) and his Cabinet which shows your liberal views which we can do without.
You're really going to hate the next one, dude.


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ReBar Owner Arraigned in Brooklyn Court
The owner of popular Brooklyn restaurant and wedding spot reBar was arraigned in Brooklyn's criminal court Thursday and charged with grand larceny in the second degree and criminal tax fraud in the second degree, according to Sheila Stainback, a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney.
Jason Stevens abruptly closed his restaurant last Friday, emailing a handful of employees to say that his restaurant in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood was "bankrupt and closed." Dozens of employees did not receive their last paycheck, and engaged couples were left in the lurch. The venue was booked with events through next year, according to former reBar staff.
The investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney centers on Mr. Stevens' failure to pay more than $1 million in taxes, said Ms. Stainback, and not an investigation of reBar's closure. Brides and grooms looking to recoup wedding deposits would need to pursue that in civil court, she said.
Mr. Stevens' lawyer, Allan Bahn, had no comment.
In the days since the restaurant's closure, former reBar employees and soon-to-be-married couples scrambled to keep wedding dates, banding together with the wider Brooklyn community to pull off last-minute arrangements.
The news of Mr. Stevens' arrest was "sweet justice, but it's bittersweet," said Brian Cavanaugh, who was to have his wedding at reBar on June 7. Mr. Cavanaugh, 28, who works for a foundation, and his bride, Heather Epstein, 27, are still trying to pull off their 70-person wedding, albeit a scaled-down affair. The couple said they paid $19,000 to have their wedding at reBar. "We know our money is gone," said Mr. Cavanaugh.
"Individually, it's been devastating for all of us," said Mr. Cavanaugh of the other brides and grooms affected by reBar's closure. Together the couples have created a community, he said, meeting up with attorneys. "Out of this devastating experience is coming some positive, especially with the Brooklyn community. And that's hopeful," he said.
According to a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney, Mr. Stevens' bail was set for $30,000 cash and $100,000 bond. He was released, and the case was adjourned.
Corrections & amplifications: An earlier version of this article said bail was set at $300,000 cash.


text: Malian soldiers man a checkpoint on the Gao road outside Sevare, some 385 miles north of Mali's capital, Bamako, on Sunday. Jerome Delay/AP hide caption toggle caption Jerome Delay/AP The Two-Way Mali Crisis Likely To Dominate Summit Of African Leaders January 27, 2013 The French-led intervention against Islamist rebels is gaining strength. African military chiefs say a minimum of 5,000 regional troops are needed to join the intervention against the rebels.


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The man found guilty of murdering binman Stephen Whitehead claimed his responsibility was diminished by his moderate learning difficulties - giving him the capacity of an eight-year-old.
Aaron Jenkins (20) was convicted today following a week-long trial at Preston Crown Court and will be sentenced on March 3rd.
Jenkins admitted bludgeoning Stephen Whitehead to death with a sledgehammer at Pendle Skips when he broke in on July 25th.
But he claimed he did not premeditate the attack and admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Three weeks before the killing, the pair had come to blows when Mr Whitehead had called Jenkins lazy as they worked together in the yard.
After a fist fight which left both men requiring hospital treatment, Jenkins was told not to come back to his casual job at the sorting and recycling plant in Burnley.
On July 25th, Jenkins had been drinking with two teenagers. Mr Whitehead had also been drinking in a number of local pubs and had decided to sleep at the yard - something colleagues said he sometimes did.
The boy Jenkins was with said he was considering buying a motorbike and Jenkins said he knew where there was one he could steal.
As the trio made their way to the skip plant where Jenkins had previously worked, the boy decided he was not going along and Jenkins and the girl - who can not be named for legal reasons - carried on.
At the gates, Jenkins told the girl to wait while he climbed over and made his way to the canteen area, where a motorbike was stored on an upstairs mezzanine.
But as he approached the canteen he heard a radio playing and saw Mr Whitehead asleep between two chairs and thought: "Payback time."
Jenkins then took the motorbike to the bottom of the canteen steps but realised it would be too heavy to carry over the gates.
He walked to an office where the sledgehammer was kept and returned to where Mr Whitehead was sleeping, raining down five or six heavy blows to his head.
He then returned to the teenager who was waiting for him by the gates.
She told the court: "He just climbed over the gates and we just walked and he was like, normal at first.
"As soon as we got onto the main road, that's when he started looking around and being weird and then Aaron told me he thinks he's killed someone.
When colleagues arrived at the plant to start work on July 27th, Mr Whitehead was found slumped in the chair with severe head injuries.
Jenkins was hanging around the gates when the site opened, claiming to have come to speak to the boss about getting his job back.
But during police interview, Jenkins admitted he killed Mr Whitehead. He claimed diminished responsibility due to having moderate learning difficulties.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Lucy Bacon told the court he had difficulty in controlling his impulses but prosecutor Francis McEntee argued there had been no altercation between the men when they had been together at the hospital, following the fight.
The teenage girl who waited at the gates also gave evidence, telling the court she had provided a false alibi for Jenkins as she was afraid of what he would do if she did not do what he told her.
But the jury found her guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice. She will also be sentenced on March 3rd.
Related content:
Binman killer found guilty of murder
Binman killing: 'The level of violence used was truly shocking' says police chief


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Qualifications: Ph.D. in Rhetoric/Composition or related field with a specialization in Assessment and/or Writing across the Curriculum.


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Earnhardt honors father and connection to Goodyear in new ad
By JENNA FRYER
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Ralph Earnhardt died in 1973, almost a full year before his grandson was born. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had seen photos of his grandfather and listened to stories about the first racer in the family, but he never felt as if he knew the man.
Then Dale Earnhardt Sr. discovered footage the Earnhardts believe is the only known video of Ralph Earnhardt speaking on film. He was being interviewed after a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Earnhardt Sr. popped the tape in for his son to watch.
"We were sitting in Dad's office in DEI and he said `You are going to see Ralph Earnhardt talk, and you are going to hear him talk and this is the only footage that exists.' So me and Dad sat there and watched it. I had seen pictures of Ralph, I had no idea what he sounded like and I had no idea what his mannerisms were like and in that moment, I was meeting him."
Earnhardt recalled that moment with his father, watching the grandfather he never met, in an interview with The Associated Press about a new Goodyear commercial that will air during the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
The spot is called "Make a Name" and honors the Earnhardts' long relationship with the tire maker. A.J. Croce covered his late father's song, `I Got A Name,' for the commercial, which depicts a young Earnhardt idolizing his father, growing into his own role as a racer, and now shifting in retirement to a job in television.
The Goodyear blimp will feature (hash)MakeAName instead of its usual brand name at the Daytona 500, where Earnhardt is the grand marshal.
Earnhardt has always been careful about incorporating his father, a seven-time champion and Hall of Famer, into his own marketing. Earnhardt Sr. was killed in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
His son went on to win two Daytona 500s but retired at the end of last season because of a history of concussions. He's now married, expecting his first child this spring, and transitioning into jobs outside the race car.
This Goodyear script was a winner for him, though, because he's long felt a connection to the Croce song and because his family had such a strong relationship with the tire company. When Goodyear battled Hoosier in the brief tire war to hit NASCAR, Earnhardt Jr. said his father was one of only two drivers to remain loyal to Goodyear.
"I really try to stick with things that are told in a way that I am celebrating him, and Goodyear and his relationship with Goodyear was really strong when he was racing," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I've always been mindful of people saying that I rode on his coattails. I've been aware of that my whole career and I don't want people to think I've ever taken advantage of my last name, or done anything that my Daddy wouldn't appreciate.
"I just go off of my gut feeling. If it feels weird or uncomfortable, or is not something I'm proud of, then I just don't have to do it. I'm in a good financial position. I don't need to be out there selling my father. He's not mine to sell."
Earnhardt was proud of the finished Goodyear spot, and he understands the importance of imagery and video in capturing the essence of his family. His sister's children never had a relationship with Earnhardt Sr. Neither did his wife, and his unborn daughter will never know her grandfather.
"We have to try our best to paint this picture for them and one of the greatest examples of this is when Daddy showed me the Ralph Earnhardt footage," Earnhardt said.
Seeing the material doesn't bother Earnhardt. But he admitted that talking about his childhood, or recalling his father, can be difficult.
"I get emotional when I talk about it. I don't get emotional when I watch it. When I sit down with Kelley and talk about our childhood or Dad, it always gets emotional. It always does," he said. "It's sad sometimes. When I have my daughter, it will be super sad thinking about Dad, wishing he could see what I was able to accomplish, the man I have become, having a child. I just would love if he could meet her and see what's going on."
More AP Auto Racing: https://racing.ap.org/
Updated February 14, 2018


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This article appears in the Spring 2017 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here.
Nothing about Governor Steve Bullock bears a resemblance to President Donald Trump. The son of educators, he had a humble, unremarkable upbringing in the Rocky Mountain town of Helena, Montana's state capital. He is less than comfortable in front of flashbulbs. A Columbia-trained attorney, Bullock is happiest being left alone to study his briefing notes or the minutiae of legislation in his quiet office. His interactions with constituents come across as a little forced but, humble and solicitous, his earnestness shines through. Bullock opened his first State of the State address in 2013 by saying, "My name is Steve and I work for the state."
While Hillary Clinton lost Montana by more than 20 points in 2016, Bullock was narrowly re-elected, winning by a margin of 50 percent to 46 percent.
He is cautious about interviews with the press—not because he overtly distrusts reporters, but because he wants to ensure he is fully prepared for any question that may arise. So when I interviewed him in the governor's capitol chamber, my first question must have been some kind of nightmare.
"What do you and Donald Trump have in common?" I asked.
Shifting in his seat, he began to shuffle through the pages of prearranged notes sitting tidily on his lap. Finding nothing especially pertinent, he peered out a window, seeking a diplomatic but satisfying response from an unseasonably warm February afternoon. None came to mind.
"I've never spent time with Donald Trump, and I don't govern the same way," he finally said. Quizzically, the second-term Democrat added, "20 percent of my voters supported him on the same ballot though."
"Well, that's just it," I said. "Surely, they must see something they like in both of you."
"I think Montanans knew that I was fighting for them. I spoke about public education, public lands, public money, and those are things that affect us all. We hunt, we fish, and I asked whether we are promoting all Montanans' interests or only narrow special interests, and how we are going to build folks up individually."
Perhaps realizing that this doesn't exactly coincide with most people's impression of the president, he added, "If there is overlap, it's making people know that I will fight for them, and that I work for them. I'm not sure that the values are that different in Manhattan, Montana; Manhattan, Kansas; or Manhattan, New York. People want to feel safe, have good schools, and want their kids to do better than they did."
Bullock's party colleagues in Washington are in a desperate search for ways they can appeal to those multiple Manhattans, but particularly to white working-class people—a label that could apply to nearly all of Montana, and a constituency that Republicans dominated to flip swing states and salvage contested House and Senate seats in the 2016 election. Indeed, the more white, rural, and sparsely populated the district, the less likely a Democratic House or Senate candidate was to win it.
In the race for the White House, the Democratic presidential candidate has won steadily fewer U.S. counties with average incomes under the national median and with populations that are more than 85 percent white in every general election since 1996. Concentrated in the Midwest, Appalachia, and the upper Rocky Mountains, there are 660 such counties today. Hillary Clinton won two of them.
More optimistically, the party's performance with white working-class voters can hardly get much worse. Even so, Hillary Clinton's fate was decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—where white working-class people are abundant. Imagine if her campaign had made any inroads with this constituency at all.
So what does Steve Bullock know that Hillary Clinton's army of consultants and advisers missed? Indeed, how can local politics inform a more national strategy for general elections and down-ballot races? In a predominantly white working-class state, Democrats have won four straight gubernatorial races, maintained one U.S. Senate seat since 1913, and recently won a series of other statewide races until losing the incumbent secretary of state and attorney general last autumn. Do Montana Democrats have a template that can be applied elsewhere?
GREAT FALLS IS A GRITTY, working-class town on the banks of the Missouri River, a hundred miles north of Helena. Its story is one heard in post-traumatic cities across the United States and Western Europe. An industrial hub that was once oriented around an Anaconda Company refinery, Great Falls understands loss.
Once America's fourth-largest corporation, with railroad, logging, mining, and refining operations across Montana, Anaconda at one time provided a third of the state's paychecks. For nearly a century, its towering smokestack defined Great Falls' northern skyline and stood as a 506-foot monument to the city's industrial history, even after its associated factory was shuttered for ten years. After "the Stack" was deemed structurally unsound in 1982, it was demolished in front of 40,000 witnesses—who watched as if it were the execution of a martyr. When the carefully set dynamite failed to collapse the hulking cylinder, leaving a stubborn shard of brick and mortar, onlookers rejoiced in triumphant defiance.
However, Great Falls has not been able to resist global trends. Its manufacturing sector has shrunk, unions were undercut, the surrounding landscape of ranchers now supplies an international market for meat and grain, and a once reliably Democratic region is far more contested by Republicans and frustrated by the status quo. Trump voters who also supported Governor Steve Bullock abound.
In interviews with locals, I found exhaustion with detached national Democrats, and a pervasive appreciation of straight talk. Bullock is connecting with his brand of progressive populism—a focus on providing solid public education to level the playing field, protecting access to public lands, and maintaining public services without increasing taxes or instituting a sales tax.
Tom Conners has run the Stein Haus, a bar on 1st Avenue, for 39 years. For four general-election cycles, the 69-year-old has supported the Republican presidential candidate and a Democrat for governor.
Ticket Splitter: Dan Mathis, an active homesteader and nutrition retail salesman, voted for Trump—yet is deeply loyal to Governor Bullock.
"One thing's for sure," he said from his perch on a barstool. "Trump'll [discomfort] all those politicians who are out for themselves and not for the country. I'm for the independent guy who doesn't bend over for this guy and that guy. I want to focus on this country. You can't solve the world's problems. And I think white working-class people have a better chance with him. He has surrounded himself with people who are smarter than him. And they're people who know how to balance a budget and get things done like a business. I don't care about the wall, but I do care about infrastructure and focusing on this country. The reason why Donald Trump got elected is because the general working guy is infuriated by what's happened in Washington."
"But Bullock is different?" I asked, as Conners fed his customers' parking meters out front.
"Bullock isn't wishy-washy. Yeah, he's vetoed a few things since he's been in there, but he understands that you've got to take care of the dough. I was in debt once, but I made it work. You just don't buy your pet cup of coffee for a while. He gets that."
Amanda Sanne is a 25-year-old front-desk manager at a roadside hotel. She and her husband both cast Trump-Bullock ballots last November.
"Donald Trump tried to make sure that you knew that your hard-earned tax dollars were going to go to Americans," she said while shopping at a sporting goods store. "There are so many people living on assistance, and so much money goes out of the country. I just want a living wage and my rights. Hillary Clinton was very snobbish. She wanted to show that she's strong, but she was trying too hard to reach women and Mexicans. I think that sends a big message that she's more interested in their votes than those of the actual American people."
Lynn Berryhill is a 64-year-old interior designer and registered Democrat who voted for Bullock but could not bring herself to support Hillary Clinton. She voted for Gary Johnson instead.
"None of them know what it's like to scrounge, what normal people go through, living paycheck to paycheck, working day and night without having someone home to take care of the kids," she said. "So they lost the support of people who need the help. Politics is turning into high school gossip, and I'm giving up."
Dan Mathis is a 30-year-old nutrition retail salesman. Burly and blunt, he is an active homesteader, a Western tradition of settling wilderness for subsistence living. He voted for Donald Trump.
"There's just too much of a gap between my life and what Hillary Clinton does," he explained from the electrical aisle of a Great Falls farm store. "It is so isolated here. Most people never leave. So it's very hard to relate for the average person."
However, Mathis is deeply loyal to Bullock. He called the governor's office when Montana's child protection agency dillydallied his partner's application for custody of his stepdaughter. Bullock's staff responded immediately.
"I thought I would leave a message and hear back in six months, but it was like that distance wasn't even there. It was almost personal, the way he was able to do that. At the time, I felt like I had no voice. Those little girls mean the world to me," he said, tearing up. "So I would go to the end of the earth for the governor."
WHAT MAKES GOVERNOR Bullock such an interesting case study for the Democratic Party is that he isn't exactly a unicorn—that rare, transcendent candidate whose personality crosses social divides. He simply combines a reassuring cultural style with a practical progressive message on issues that people care about. That recipe seems to work for more than one personality type.
The rather unassuming Bullock was preceded by the charismatic and bombastic Brian Schweitzer, a Democratic governor whose plain-spoken swagger appealed to Montanans and frustrated his rivals. Schweitzer famously wielded branding irons to publicly veto bills passed by a Republican-controlled legislature.
"I do best at explaining things by telling a story," Schweitzer told me by phone from Arizona. "Young people approach me who want to go into politics, and they ask me what to do. I would change your major out of political science or law. Get a practical trade, study science or math. Go out and try to change the world in the private sector. Start a business and lose it. Start a family. … Do not learn how to run this country by working for people who already do. Look at congressional staffers. In 20 years, they'll all be in office themselves—looking, talking, and droning on like the ones we have right now."
Schweitzer wasn't referring to Bullock, but the governor could be forgiven for thinking so. Were he in Washington, D.C., Bullock would fit right in. Though gregarious, he is also cerebral, measured, even wonkish. After law school, he worked as a legal counsel to the Montana secretary of state, and was later promoted to executive assistant attorney general and chief deputy attorney general before being elected Montana's attorney general in 2008.
I asked Bullock if Schweitzer, whose name has been mentioned in 2020 presidential chatter, offered any memorable pieces of guidance before he was term-limited in 2012. "We lead in different ways," he said.
However, it is Bullock's way that Democrats are more capable of reproducing elsewhere. Without being that once-in-a-generation politician, he is able to connect with rural and working-class white voters with symbolic messaging and a customized platform.
While I was in Great Falls, Bullock came to the A.T. Klemens metal shop to promote a new bill that would give tax credits to businesses that hired apprentices and veterans. He would later tour the workshop machinery and observe the craft of several young apprentices. It was all a bit forced, but what Bullock lacked in magnetism, he compensated for with his propensity to honor the past before pursuing the future.
"Hey, college isn't for everyone," a workshop supervisor told Bullock in a brief exchange. "It's a good living here, and you don't have loans to pay back. Sheet metalwork is a lost art. There's a shortage of labor supply in the trades. The kids just want electronics and college these days. They don't want to use their hands and work."
While many Democrats would roll their eyes, Bullock engaged him. "We look on the horizon and we think that's what's going to limit our growth is a shortage of guys like this. But that extends to other sectors like IT, too." Bullock was celebrating both Montana's past and its future—and honoring people who work with their hands.
White working-class people are accustomed to being considered anachronisms with no place in America's high-tech information economy, foot-draggers slowing our evolution into a new economic and social era. In the 2016 election, Trump was the first presidential candidate in a generation to make a deliberate appeal to this constituency and envision an economy that valued their contribution. Clinton was the establishment candidate, but also one who heralded and symbolized a future that reoriented the country's workplace, society, and relationship with a globalized world. The election was a referendum on America's past.
Indeed, promising to "Make America Great Again" means something wholly different than promising to "Make America Great." The former overtly implies that America was once great, but no longer is. This specifically appeals to white people, who were not subject to the United States' history of racial oppression and discrimination, particularly white working-class people who have seen their well-being and social status plummet since the 1970s.
Based on a nationally representative poll of white Americans just before the 2016 primaries, new research shows that voters most attracted to Donald Trump and the far right perceive the greatest discrepancy between their status in today's society and the status of people like them 30 years before. Their sense of deprivation is nostalgic.
"Steve's been able to honor industries of the past," said Nancy Keenan, a past president of NARAL who now leads the Montana Democratic Party. "Timber, mining, coal. He has said that's part of who we are, but also talked about how do we grow and what the future looks like. He has been able to keep a foot in each of those worlds.
"He just recognizes economically a changing world. The days of mining—I grew up in a mining town, it's all we knew—you'll still have them as part of Montana's economy but it'll change because of technology and a global marketplace. It goes back to trust. They trust him, and trust that he has their best interests at heart."
Bullock has earned that trust by first identifying with Montanans, and that has lent him the credibility to veto 124 bills in the 2013 and 2015 legislative sessions—more vetoes over two consecutive sessions than any Montana governor in more than 40 years—and also pass progressive litmus tests without alienating too many social conservatives. He has voted against broadening access to guns, enrolled Montana in Obamacare, pushed for universal preschool, new funding for infrastructure, and was honored with an award from Planned Parenthood while I was in town. Meanwhile, bills like the apprenticeship tax incentive serve veterans and Montanans without university educations, and keep business owners happy.
Bar Keep: Tom Conners, who runs the Stein Haus, voted for Bullock but thinks "white working-class people have a better chance" with Trump.
In linking past with present, Bullock also resists national Democrats' propensity for all-or-nothing thinking. "Let's use coal as an example," he said. "It's not just about what I say, but what I do. We're outdoors people and we see how our climate is changing. I think it's a false choice between addressing climate change and continuing to produce energy from fossil fuels."
In so doing, Bullock eases his constituents into a progressive future by weaning them off the past instead of insisting on a sharp break.
POLICY PLATFORMS ASIDE, Keenan insisted that her candidates can't win statewide office in Montana without a story. What is Steve Bullock's?
"I think Steve does connect with white working-class voters," she said, "with his knowledge of Montana. He grew up here. He hunts and he fishes."
I asked the same question to Dave Hunter, a Montana political strategist since 1978. "White working-class men like to hunt, and they like to fish," he said. "Fifty percent of Montana residents have a fishing license; 20 percent have a hunting license, and Bullock does too."
Even Andrew Bardwell, a 40-year-old bison rancher whom I met in a farm store, said, "Bullock represents average Montanans. He hunts, he fishes, he's a businessman."
If it isn't abundantly clear, Bullock is from Montana. He likes to hunt. And he likes to fish.
"The irony is that I don't think he does," Hunter confessed. "Yeah, he's hunted, but not for a while. But it is the cultural messaging."
"I mean, he can produce pictures of him and his buddies hunting," he continued. "They put them up on Facebook, but I haven't seen one for four years. There's both a cultural test that is ethnocentric, and then you need an economic message. If you really are one of us, then people will listen to the economic message. If you're not really one of us, then nothing else matters."
Bullock's campaign exploited this ethnocentrism by drawing attention to his 2016 Republican opponent businessman Greg Gianforte's roots in New Jersey and California. Gianforte might as well have been from Syria.
Every successful statewide Montana Democrat has been able to sell himself as an average, local man—and they all have been local men—even when there is countervailing evidence about how average they are. Not only do they revere the region's heritage; they embed themselves in it.
Montana's former at-large congressman, Pat Williams, served in the House of Representatives for 18 years and consistently made references to his jobs as a miner, sewer serviceman, and track layer for the Butte-Anaconda-Pacific railroad that hauled ore to smelters. Never mind that he held all those jobs before he graduated from college.
Longtime U.S. Senator Max Baucus came from one of Montana's wealthiest families, but is known as a rancher from north of Helena who once walked 800 miles across Montana while campaigning.
Current Senator John Tester actively farms 1,800 acres northeast of Great Falls and is prone to poking fun at city folk.
"It's authenticity," Keenan said. "Candidates have to be true to themselves. People want you be authentic, to share their experiences. When grain prices fall through the floor and the entire community is feeling the pinch, Montanans want you to understand that. You don't have to always agree with them, but you do need to look them in the eye and be honest with them. John Tester says, 'Don't tell me something's not happening with the climate; my crops are harvesting three weeks ahead.' His hands are in the dirt."
"The Democratic Party is full of these damned do-gooders," Keenan carried on. "A lot of the people who run as Democrats think that if we could just get into the depths and detail of the policy and make people understand it, then we'll get elected. Oh, hell no! The detail doesn't matter, people! What's the first rule of politics? Show up. Everywhere. The second rule is: Show up where they didn't want or ask you to come. I used to show up at the stock growers' convention or the Chamber of Commerce conventions, and they'd all ask, 'What the hell is she doing here?'" She guffawed. "And I'd tell everyone how terrific it was to be with them."
In an eerie echo, when I asked Bullock what national Democrats need to do, he said: "They need to recognize that there are no such things as national issues; they're all local. It's not about pigeonholing issues to score votes. Rule number one is to show up, and if you're just going to write off parts of the country, your success will be limited. I think that we need to have a 50-state strategy. In 2008, you'd be tripping over Obama people [in Montana]. President Obama brought his wife and kids to the Butte Fourth of July Parade. They lost Montana by 2 points, and he came after the primary."
Get Us Good Jobs: Governor Bullock listens to Shane McCune, a tanner apprentice at the A.T. Klemens metal shop in Great Falls.
Sitting inside Electric City Coffee in Great Falls, I listened to a conversation between two old friends: Ken, a retired state transportation worker who is a Democratic-leaning independent, and Pat, a recently retired Army warehouse chief who voted for Bullock and wrote in "Justin Trudeau" rather than support Hillary Clinton.
"This isn't the party or the state I grew up with," Pat lamented. "We don't have two railroads, the unions are all but dead, the things that I remember in my formative years no longer exist. I think back to my sophomore year of high school, and Max Baucus came to our basketball game."
"Believe it or not, he came to work with us one day," Ken recalled. "We were painting stripes for the day, and we got him a hard hat and vest. That was in character with the guy. It showed he cares. You got any questions, he was there."
In an era when so much of politics is mediated by cable news, scripted social media missives, and airbrushed web profiles, showing up reveals candidates' humanity. It is where bonds are born.
BUT CAN STORIES LACED with American nostalgia create bonds in coastal communities acutely aware of history's social ills, or in economic powerhouses forging a digital future? What bonds can emerge when the candidate who shows up is a shotgun-toting, coal-dusted, grain-farming moderate? Perhaps the Democratic Party is simply too unwieldy a coalition.
The January 21 post-inaugural protests revealed a leftist coalition composed of everything from dreadlocks to Drybar, people part of labor unions and civil unions, arriving via transit but also Teslas. Can such an eclectic community expand to include the voices of marginalized white working-class people from post-industrial spaces?
"You can't," Dave Hunter said. "There is a disconnect between the things a Democratic candidate has to do to win primaries in California and New York, and what is culturally acceptable for white persuadable voters in Montana. Look at Tester and Baucus, they are always running away from the national party. They pitch themselves as an independent voice for Montana. There isn't any national messaging. Running on a national party platform is death. In a state that is almost exclusively white, the imagery of the national Democratic Party as a multicultural, liberal, gun control, anti-coal party is tough messaging."
"In Montana, yes, there is very little racial diversity, aside from Native Americans [who comprise about 6 percent of the state's population]," Keenan told me. "But the other part is that folks never leave their county. They never go to a city. They might go to Billings, but I'd love to know the statistics about how many go to New York, D.C., or Atlanta, because that's how you see what the rest of this country looks like. Republicans are much more homogenous."
"Yeah, I suppose it's a benefit, the homogeneity," Bullock told me, upon reflection. "But if the premise is that Democrats have lost white working-class men, then that could be a [national] problem, yeah. In 2020, you could weave together a coalition based on identity politics. If that's the bedrock foundation, you might win the presidency, but you'll lose the country. I don't want to be part of a party that ideologically only reflects the East and West Coasts. And while our experiences are different, I think a Native American, Latino, or me, as parents, have the same aspirations for our kids. Your hopes are the same."
However, many Democrats believe that broadening their party further only thins the glue that holds them together. Recent research by Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins shows that Democrats are a coalition of diverse identity groups—African Americans, Latinos, youth, and women—to whom the party directly sells its policies. The social group that makes up Democratic activists binds them to the party, leaving little space for other interests who don't identify.
Currently, searching for rural Democrats in the national party caucus is, as they say in Montana, diggin' where there ain't no taters. There is little space for Pat Williams who was broadly against gun control, Brian Schweitzer who supported the construction of oil pipelines, John Tester who pushed for the once-endangered gray wolf to be fair game. In turn, the party of diversity appears quite exclusive and inhospitable for key electoral constituencies, like the working-class voters of Montana.
The Montana experience suggests that Democrats must either compromise or risk being ideologically "pure" but confined to their strongholds in coastal cities. But the last great compromise put the national party at odds with these voters.
THAT IDEOLOGICAL compromise, set in the late 1980s, came with the creation of the Democratic Leadership Council and the party's profitable alignment with the financial class. Both an embrace of globalization and a strategy for American campaign financing, Democrats' cultivation of liberal, urban cosmopolitans and professionals complicated their relationship with unions and working people who supported far more protectionist positions. And as Democrats further embraced free trade, labor immigration, and cozied up to multinational corporations, the economic policy distinctions between Democrats and Republicans became murkier and white working-class people found less and less to like.
"Step by step, Democrats tried to broaden their base at the expense of working-class families," said Leo Gerard, the president of the Steelworkers Union. "You didn't lose the [2016] election because you had a shortage of rich white voters; you lost because working-class people, unionists, had nowhere to go."
I think of these white working-class people as the "Exasperated," as I wrote in Politico in February: "They feel betrayed by the countless politicians who have stood in front of shuttered mills and smelters and promised to bring manufacturing and mining economies back to life. It's why they have swung from party to party, from year to year—often reacting to the failures of previous candidates to deliver." They choose to sit elections out. "They are not 'Independent' so much as they are just constantly disappointed. The Exasperated voted against Clinton in 2016 because, as a longtime member of the Washington establishment, she portended more broken promises. They voted for Trump because he was the first politician in a generation to make a deliberate, authentic pitch for their support."
What is so frustrating to older leftists is that Trump resurrected the David versus Goliath themes that once characterized the Democratic identity of yesteryear. Certainly, Democrats still support the wage standards, infrastructure, and redistributive policy prescriptions they once touted and that have since been mimicked by the president.
Why are these principles no longer credible to enough working-class people—regardless of whether they are white?
I posed this question to Celinda Lake, Brad Martin, and Joe Lamson, strategists who have worked extensively in Montana. The consensus is that progressive platforms cannot be proposed without the cultural symbolism that "shows" rather than "tells" the white working class that they matter, that they belong.
"America is not a pretty place when things are contracting," said Lake, who hails from Montana and now runs a prominent polling firm in Washington, D.C. "Racism and sexism emerge when people think that America is losing its place—when things start to feel zero-sum. And identity politics accentuates that. We articulated 'Stronger Together' with a divisive candidate and 'Together' didn't seem to include white, blue-collar types. They don't think they're part of that togetherness."
"Hillary's campaign could not fathom losing the Rust Belt," and they weren't speaking to their particular issues, said Lamson. "People just couldn't relate to her because they thought that she would take away their guns and shut down the natural resource industry. It was hard to go anywhere after that. … I mean, why are we spending all of our time talking about bathrooms? It's not that it's not important; it's just a matter of perspective."
Lake recalled a line Brian Schweitzer liked to use: "Yeah, I'm for gay marriage rights, but I think you care a whole lot more about whether there's grain on the High Line."
DONALD TRUMP IS NOT from Montana. He does not like to hunt. He does not like to fish.
That a New York City aristocrat is recognized as the national voice of white working-class people reveals how exasperated his supporters truly are, and how empty the field really is for candidates who want to compete with him for white working-class support. It is noteworthy that Obama lost Montana by a mere 2 points in 2008. Bill Clinton won Montana in 1992.
And many Trump supporters in Montana remain wary.
Shane McCune is a 27-year-old tanner apprentice who spoke with Governor Bullock during his visit to the metal shop. "What do Democrats need to do to win white working-class votes?" I asked him.
"Get us good jobs," he replied immediately. "Plain and simple. Seems like I got to work my butt off, and I barely get by. And then I see people on benefits having it so good. Stop giving them handouts. Around job sites, that's what people talk about. [Democrats] just need to get together, come up with some ideas, and follow through with them. It's a lot of little ideas. I don't know if Trump can do it."
"What if Trump fails to deliver?" I prodded.
"Then it's just another president. If there had been a better opponent, I may not have voted for Trump in the first place."
McCune's responses reveal the contingency of his support for Trump, but also the persistent challenge for Democrats—showing that not only is there tension between white working-class people and other disadvantaged groups, but that their fates are actually linked.
Montana Governor Steve Bullock.
Andrew Bardwell, the bison rancher, acknowledges this linked fate. He and his wife, Annie, met at a hunting camp and work as farmhands in Choteau, 50 miles northwest of Great Falls. Both are Bullock voters, but were dissatisfied by Hillary Clinton's candidacy:
I can't think of a single [trucking] rig with a Trump sticker on it, and I think most people don't think that Donald Trump is doing people like us any favors.None of his jobs are coming here. He wasn't talking about building elevators on the High Line. We export everything we produce—our wheat, our barley, our children—so his anti-trade thing is going to kill us. I just think that people around here are scared shitless about Hillary Clinton taking their guns away. And I know that sounds trite, but they are scared shitless. She connected with no one.
A lot of the time, there is an impression that Republicans represent independent, flag-waving Americans. But in a rural environment, we have to realize that we are highly dependent on public services. The kids are going to be the only ones on a school bus that takes them 25 miles to the nearest school. We use roads that are built into the countryside to serve just a few people.
Many Trump voters are close friends and family of mine. And I think they fail to see the irony. You can't sit there and complain about freeloaders. They think they're doing God's work and feeding the people, but we overproduce and export most of our goods. And they don't realize how much the government does. Think of price supports on grain, which has an effect on the cost of beef. And so while Christianity and the Second Amendment are core values for us, it doesn't trump our other values.
MERE MONTHS AGO, the conventional wisdom was that it was the Republican Party that was near implosion. Whether authors were referring to the Republican Party's electoral chances or its historic profile as a party of small government, fiscal responsibility, foreign engagement, and neoliberalism, the message was clear: Donald Trump has crafted a Republican Party that marginalizes the people who believed in these bedrock principles, and narrowed its focus to a hard core of bitter white people who yearn for yesteryear. What few anticipated was the power of partisan ties, and Hillary Clinton could not poach moderate Republicans and independents to the extent many expected.
What if moderate white voters had turned out and voted Democratic in slightly higher numbers? What if anyone other than Hillary Clinton had been running? What if Democrats made a more deliberate appeal to white working-class voters in order to keep those on the partisan margins? What if Trump disappoints a significant share of the Exasperated?
Unless Democrats meaningfully reach out and connect with these groups, we will never know.
President Obama's victories lulled many Democrats into a complacency induced by the slogan "demography is destiny"—the idea that a rising electorate of various minorities was the new majority. However, demographic change is a slow process and this all ignores the unique context of Obama's success—a pervasive sense of desperation in 2008 and a 2012 opponent who profited from offshoring and layoffs.
Integrating Montana's template into Democratic success will entail integrating Montana's constituents—white, working-class, often rural voters who, despite their cultural differences, face many of the same frustrations with debt, health care, and labor as other working-class people in the Democratic coalition.
No doubt, much of the national partisan landscape depends on how Donald Trump and congressional Republicans govern. But for Democrats, this is also a question of how inclusive their party really is.
Click here to read the rest of our series on the White Working Class and the Democrats.


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Military, Personal/Corporate, Products, Regulatory
By By Robert Moorman | October 1, 2009
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While the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) cancelled the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter Program for significant cost overruns, all may not be lost for proponents of a replacement rotorcraft fleet for the President of the United States.
DOD has held numerous meetings on how to replace the fleet of aging Sikorsky VH-3Ds since the VH-71 program was cancelled, Rotor & Wing has learned.
The meetings did not include the Lockheed Martin-led US101 team that won the initial $1.7-billion contract in January 2005. Nevertheless, the team, which includes AgustaWestland and Bell Helicopter, seem a bit more optimistic these days about the possible resurrection of a portion of the VH-71 program, or the adoption of an alternative plan to replace the USMC Marine One Presidential transport fleet. The team had offered a variant of the AgustaWestland EH101.
At present, the Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX1) operates 11 VH-3Ds and 8 VH-60 Blackhawks. The OEMs and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), which have oversight responsibility for the VH-71 program, declined to be interviewed for this story, but gave the following statement that puts the future of the program in the hands of Congress:
"Since the VH-71 termination, the focus of day-to-day activities has shifted to the termination of one program and the prompt development of an FY11 follow-on program... Work in the near-term will focus on supporting development of these options as supported by the President's budget submitted to Congress. The Navy continues to explore all options for retaining government equities from our investment in the VH-71."
Lockheed Martin was equally cryptic: "The role of Congress in the annual budget process is well defined. We will not know the ultimate outcome until later this year, when Congress approves a budget bill and the President signs it," said the team leader. "In the meantime, we are required to comply with program termination as directed."
The ultimate fate of the VH-71 will most likely be determined by congressional funding in the FY2010 Defense Appropriations bill.
The U.S. Navy formally terminated the VH-71 system development and demonstration (SDD) contract on June 1, 2009, although the decision to scrap the program was made months earlier.
The two-phase program, which called for a total of 28 helicopters, had doubled to nearly $13 billion, according to DoD. So the axe fell with the blessing of cost-conscious Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has been on a tear of late dumping inefficient, outdated and costly military programs. But even Gates said when recommending termination of the VH-71 program in April that a new fleet of aircraft for the Presidential fleet was necessary to replace the Vietnam era H-3s.
The VH-71 program was red flagged some time ago. Even if DoD hadn't acted, the program was already in violation of the so-called Nunn-McCurdy provision, which requires DoD to notify Congress whenever a major defense program exceeds a 10 percent cost overrun threshold. The VH-71 program had busted that threshold, and then some. Programs that violate Nunn-McCurdy face cancellation unless certified for continuation by the DoD secretary.
For the most part, Gates and the White House are getting high marks for eliminating wasteful programs. But terminating the VH-71 program created an unwanted and somewhat unexpected political firestorm for President Barack Obama, who stated in February 2009 that the VH-71 Program was an example of the "procurement process gone amok." He also said — presumably to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on the White House lawn — that his 40-year-old plus helicopter "seems perfectly adequate." It was an embarrassing incident, particularly for the makers of the VH-71.
More than $3 billion has been spent on the program, which includes research and development and production costs of the first phase, Interim 1.
"Now we find ourselves in a position where the [Obama] administration has no plan, but we have these [nine] aircraft that are considerably better than what is in the fleet," said Loren Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank. "What remains to be seen is the disposition of these aircraft."
All nine aircraft required in Interim 1 have flown; five were to have been production vehicles, while four were for testing. Initial operating capability (IOC) for the Interim 1 aircraft was scheduled for April 2011.
There is no shortage of opinions on the VH-71 program. Shutting it down would cost around $555 million in termination and liability costs, according to the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), citing Navy figures. Then there are the billions of dollars in direct operating costs to maintain the current fleet of H-3s for another decade.
"In light of these facts, said CAGW President Tom Schatz, "starting a do-over program from scratch would be even more costly than completing the current program, leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill twice rather than maximizing the current investment."
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Defense, told Rotor & Wing that it is "unacceptable" for DoD to spend more than $3 billion on a replacement helicopter program and not get anything out of it in the end. "That is not good government," Murtha said.
The US101 team submitted alternatives to the full-blown program to both NAVAIR and Congress before Gates announced the cancellation in April, according to one high level official at Lockheed Martin. But so far, no official response to those suggestions, the most plausible of which is to dump the more expensive Increment 2 from the program, has been received. Yet, behind the scenes, work continues, according to several sources.
On Capitol Hill, politicians are busy. Murtha's subcommittee included the $485.2 million in the Defense bill, which passed the full House in late July. Although tagged as research and development funding, the money would be used to "operationalize" the previously purchased five VH-71A presidential helicopters.
To date, the Navy hasn't provided a plan for the disposition of the five aircraft that were to provide interim service in the Presidential helicopter fleet, said Murtha, who is expected to lobby strenuously to salvage some portion of the original program.
In the Senate, Sen. Charles E. Schumer is leading the fight to save the program, as well as the hundreds of jobs at the Lockheed Martin Systems Integration (Owego) facility in upstate New York. The cost to complete Increment 1 and to replace the entire fleet of 19 aircraft with VH-71As is approximately $3.8 billion, Schumer estimates.
Another reason to restore Increment 1, Schumer said, is that the current fleet of H-3s used by the president, vice president, cabinet officers and visiting dignitaries do not possess the "safety and survivability capabilities" of the new aircraft.
The Senate is likely to pass its own version of the Defense bill, which could contain the $485.2 million to keep the VH-71 program alive when Congress reconvenes in early September.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations, whose chair is Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), is tentatively scheduled to mark up the Defense bill during the second week of September. It then has to pass the full Senate. Assuming the bill passes, House and Senate conferees will then work out differences between the two bills.
There are three possible outcomes. The Senate could adopt the House provision earmarking the $485.2 billion in its bill. It could add more money to the program, which the program's observers think is highly unlikely. Or the Senate could kill the funding entirely.
"The fact that the funding is included in the House bill means that some action is required in conference unless the Senate has identical language [regarding continued funding for the VH-71 program] in its bill," said one Senate staffer. "It is also possible for a senator to offer an amendment on the floor to strip out the money before it even passes the Senate."
Such a scenario occurred in late July when Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Michael A. Arcuri (D-NY) were successful in stopping an amendment from being offered in the Defense bill to cut $200 million to continue development of the new presidential helicopter fleet.
The combined Defense bill has to pass each chamber individually before going to President Obama for signature or veto. In a perfect world, the Defense bill would be passed before the end of fiscal year, on Sept. 30, 2009. But if the White House has problems with the final bill, a continuing resolution would be passed. Many on Capitol Hill believe this could happen. There is definite possibility that passage of the Defense bill could take months and leave the future of the VH-71 in limbo. There is also the possibility that the plan of resurrecting a portion of the VH-71 program would be tabled for a year.
One of the biggest wildcards in the process will be the reaction by Gates, who is considered by many political observers to be one of the more powerful DoD chiefs in recent years.
Meanwhile, layoffs continue. As of this writing, Lockheed Martin had terminated the jobs of around 600 people at its Owego facility, while AgustaWestland and Bell let go 40 and 70 workers, respectively. Those layoffs are expected to accelerate in coming weeks unless some budgetary reprieve is forthcoming.
Should some portion of the program be reconstituted, Congress and DoD might want to carefully consider the findings of the Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Integration Commercial Systems into the DoD before proceeding. In its report released in February, the Task Force concluded why the initial program, which had a very aggressive and high-risk delivery schedule, failed: "Poor communication among White House, Navy, Marines, the prime contractor, and the helicopter designer/manufacturer did not provide the alignment needed for successfully executing a high-risk schedule."
The schedule, driven by "post-9/11 global war on terror urgency," also had a number of engineering changes, which added to the delays and costs of the program, said the report.
Adding to the confusion was the removal of two appendices of technical requirements from the request for proposal (RFP), "apparently to ensure a fair competition," the report stated. These requirements were reinserted post award, "leading to communication breakdowns and eventual reengineering of entire subsystems and structures."
When one reads the required capabilities for the new presidential helicopter, it isn't surprising that the VH-71 program was billions of dollars over budget, noted several observers. Somehow, in the development process, the VH-71 went from being an aerial taxi, with short-range capability, to the rotorcraft equivalent of Air Force One and cost about the same, some argued.
According to the DSB report, the VH-71 must be "capable of operating day or night; in adverse weather worldwide; in climates including, but not limited to, arctic, desert, mountainous, littoral and tropical; and in a variety of threat spectrums, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear."
The increasing requirements "added substantially to the empty weight of the aircraft, and would have required substantial redesign of the rotor and tail," said Lexington Institute's Thompson. "Most of the cost increases were associated with those modifications in Increment 2," he clarified.
Lockheed Martin declined to discuss the mission equipment that was to have been onboard the aircraft. Nor would it or any of the team provide basic performance statistics of the VH-71, saying the program was classified.
From the beginning, the White House was the impetus behind the development of a new presidential helicopter fleet. In the early days of the George W. Bush Administration, then-Chief of Staff Andrew Card told the Secret Service he was very concerned about how old and ill-equipped was the existing fleet of Sikorsky H-3s.
That concern led to DoD issuing an RFP in December 2003 for 23 helicopters to replace the aging units in operation with HMX-1. The Lockheed Martin-led US101 team offered a variant of the AgustaWestland EH101. Sikorsky Aircraft offered a variant of its S-92 known as the VH-92 (See sidebar page 34).
The VH-71A, part of Increment 1, was to have been operational sometime in 2010, while the VH-71B, Increment 2, was to have entered service in 2017, according to the DSB. Average unit cost of the VH-71 was nearly $480 million, which is a dramatic figure when compared to the $57 million unit cost of the EH101. The EH101, which first flew in 1987, is in service for military units in Great Britain and several other countries.
Despite the myriad of problems with the initial program, there remains a real need for a new presidential helicopter fleet. The VH-71, powered by three GE CT7-8E turboshaft engines, is the only aircraft that can fill the bill, according to one former Marine One pilot. [GE's CT7-8C-1 was to have powered the Interim 2 helicopter.]
"The White House is basically flying the same helicopter when I was there," noted retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard Peasley, a former commander of the HMX-1 Squadron that flew under President Ronald Reagan. "The aircraft is hindered significantly by its lack of performance," he added.
The H-3, which was designed to carry 16 passengers, only carries around 10 people now, said Peasley. Because of its lack of hot and high performance capability, the H-3 could not be used to ferry President Obama during a recent trip to Colorado.
Those problems wouldn't occur with the VH-71, which offers "tremendous growth capability," said Peasley.
Perhaps, but why did the program veer way off course? "The White House and the Navy, particularly, got carried away with uncontrolled requirement creep," observed Peasley, who until recently worked for Bell Helicopter. Over the last two years, Peasley worked on the VH-71 program. He is now retired.
Since the VH-71 was based on an Anglo-Italian design, the Navy added "so many requirements to the airframe that it became very expensive," said Peasley. "And no one from the White House or DoD ever said no."
Despite the cost overruns and program delays, Peasley believes the VH-71 should be the next presidential helicopter. The three GE engines, three independent hydraulic systems, enhanced navigation and surveillance capability, including a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) provide a significant safety enhancement for presidential operations, according to summaries on the VH-71 program used in DoD briefings. Equally impressive is the "specific modifications" made to provide enhanced protection against electromagnetic fields and electro magnetic pulse (EMP).
All of these upgrades are part of Increment 1, which Peasley feels was all the White House ever needed. While the Increment 1 VH-71A was designed to be a short-term solution, the service life could be increased beyond 10 years through life extension programs. On this point there is some confusion. Early on, DoD said these Interim 1 aircraft were to only last between 5 – 10 years, but the useful life of the aircraft was actually 30 years or beyond, according to the OEMs.
The Increment 2 aircraft, VH-71B, would have cost too much for a small gain in performance, said Peasley. To satisfy the requirements of Increment 2, the team would have had to build an entirely new aircraft with new engines, new gearboxes, new tail, bigger tail rotor and a bigger rotor, said the Marine One pilot.
For now, interested parties must wait to see whether Congress allocates continued funding for the VH-71 Increment I program and, if so, what DoD and the White House's next move will be.
For Sikorsky Aircraft, it is all about hope. And the hope is that its enhanced VH-92 will be seriously considered if Congress resurrects some portion of the presidential helicopter replacement program. Based on the S-92 platform, the twin-engine VH-92 is expected to be more robust than the demonstrator offered for the initial competition against the Lockheed Martin-led team, which offered the VH-71.
"I think we are clearly back in the running," said Joe Haddick, vice president of U.S. government business for Sikorsky. "The Defense Department is holding weekly meetings on alternatives to the original program."
Losing the initial competition to a competitor offering a helicopter of Anglo-Italian design was a bitter pill to swallow for Sikorsky, which has held the presidential mission for 40 years.
Sikorsky lost the competition because the S-92 couldn't satisfy the White House's basic performance requirements for range and payload, according to DoD sources.
When the contract was awarded in January 2005, John Young, the Navy's acquisition executive, said that the Lockheed Martin team won because the EH-101 "was deemed more likely to meet the program's operational requirements on time and at a lower cost," according to the Congressional Research Service. But that did not happen.
If the VH-92 were given a second chance — and that is a big if — this variant would have fly-by-wire technology, which was not offered in the previous competition. The VH-92 also would have higher gross weight based on increased rotor diameter, improved gearbox, and strengthened landing gear, all of which were developed for the Canadian Maritime Helicopter program.
In addition, there would be improved cabin ergonomics enabled by relocation of avionics and exit ways. Also expected are improvements in ballistic tolerance and crashworthiness.
When word went out months ago that the VH-71 program would be scrapped, Sikorsky President Jeffrey Pino sent a letter to DoD reoffering it's all-American made VH-92. In a surprising gesture, Sikorsky also offered to team up with rival Lockheed Martin by installing its secret-mission equipment on the VH-92. This would be a far more cost-effective alternative than starting the bidding process for a new presidential helicopter, Sikorsky noted.
DoD thanked Sikorsky for the letter, but there has not been any further formal communication between the parties, Haddick remembered with some humor. The VH-92, powered by two CT7-8E engines, would include an advanced cockpit designed to reduce workload and provide advanced situational awareness.
For the initial competition, Sikorsky increased the VH-92 cabin size by nearly five feet through an internal re-configuration of aircraft components. This redesign allowed for a rear air stair door to the H-92 along with additional storage space.
The VH-92 demonstrator included a fully integrated enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), weather radar and a closed circuit television system that enabled pilots to see underneath the aircraft to help with pinpoint landings. All of the upgrades on the earlier demonstrator would be offered if the VH-92 were chosen.
At present, there are approximately 100 S-92s operating worldwide that collectively have flown 170,000 hours. The S-92 was certified in 2002. — By Robert W. Moorman
Despite problems with the initial program, there remains a real need for a new presidential helicopter fleet.
Despite problems with the initial program, there remains a real need for a new presidential helicopter fleet.


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Hello! We've got an exciting and quick project to share with you today. We are very happy to be posting our first tutorial here on Moda Bake Shop!! Heather and I (Megan) are sisters and we love all things crafty. We work together on our blogs Fresh Poppy Design and QuiltStory. We would love for you to stop by! We have linky parties, ideas, tutorials and quilt patterns. Hope you have fun with this cute banner and pillow 🙂
1 charm pack- Just Wing It! by MoMo
1/4 yard- It's A Hoot by MoMo 32375 24
1/2 yard- Bella Solids Bleached White 9900 97
18″ pillow form
pinking sheers
Part 1: Creating the Ruffle Banner
Using pinking sheers and taking one charm square, find the center and cut from center to the opposite corner. Do the same on the other side to create your pennant or triangle. Repeat until you have 10.
Cut the 1/4 yard fabric in strips, two strips 2″ x WOF (width of fabric). This will be the band the pennants hang from. Cut two pieces 1.5″ x WOF this will be the ruffle.
Sew the 2″ x WOF strips end to end, roughly 2″ x 86″. Fold the piece in half, right sides together, sew, turn right side out and press. Set aside for now.
Next sew the 1.5″ x WOF strips end to end, roughly 1.5″ x 86″. Now sew the length of one side, very loosely in the widest stitch you can. Pull the thread to create a ruffle. Work the ruffle end to end to make it even and the right length to accommodate the pennants (roughly 45″). (The edge of the ruffle is an unfinished edge).
Pinning along the back, sew the pennants to the ruffle. The right side of the pennants to the wrong side of ruffle.
Again pinning carefully, sew a topstitch from end to end on the band, including attaching the ruffle and pennants. Stand back and admire 🙂
Back to work.
Part 2: Creating the Brick Pillow
Choose 18 squares from the remaining charm pack. Cut in half, 2.5″ to create the bricks.
Sewing end to end, create four rows with 4 bricks in them and four rows with 5 bricks in them.
Lay the rows out in the design you wish. Sew each row together, keeping in mind to sew them in brick style as in photo above.
Trim off excess fabrics and square the piece to 17″.
Using the 1/2 yard of Bella White fabric, cut two pieces to 17″ x 13″. Using the photo above as a guide, finish one end on each piece. Line it up with the right side of fabric of the brick piece, the white fabric will overlap. This is to create an envelope pillow, where you can insert the pillow and remove anytime for cleaning. Sew around the outside of the square.
Insert your pillow!
A gorgeous and fast little duo that would make a great seasonal gift, or a fun new way to spruce up your own living spaces!
Thanks so much, hope you love the tutorial. Please make sure to stop by and see us at QuiltStory!
Megan and Heather


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Tag: Bustin' into Las Vegas
What was she thinking? This woman's massive O cup boobs put her life in danger (PHOTOS)
by Tutu Akinlabi A middle aged woman may be a victim of severe health risks and even death as a result of her breast implants. Elizabeth Starr, 44, had an illegal breast ...READ MORE +
'My husband often rapes me in the presence of our children' – Battered wife
by Isi Esene A 41-year-old woman, Taiwo Arum has pleaded with an Igando Customary Court, Lagos, to dissolve her 11-year-old marriage on the grounds of battery and rape. Mrs. Arum, ...READ MORE +
Tragic: 17 people killed in Maiduguri bomb blast (PHOTO)
by Oge Okonkwo The city of Maiduguri has experienced yet another bomb blast which has claimed the lives of 17 persons as the explosion ripped through a busy market on Tuesday, ...READ MORE +
'He's drunk, he's drunk!': Parrot reports intoxicated owner to police
by Adeola Balogun A man's feathery friend became an informant for the police in Mexico last week as he notified the officers that his owner was drunk. Guillermo Reyes, 49, ...READ MORE +


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Here's the official bio:
Michelle Mach is an independent writer, editor, and jewelry designer. She's the author of Unexpected Findings: 50+ Clever Jewelry Designs Using Everyday Components. The former editor of the popular Beading Daily site and a former reference librarian, she sells her book-inspired work at selected U.S. galleries and shops and online.
Her 100+ original jewelry designs have appeared in Beadwork, Beadwork Quick & Easy, BeadStyle, Bead-a-Day Calendar, Bead Trends, Bead-It Today, 101 Bracelets Necklaces and Earrings, Creative Jewelry, Easy Wire, Jewelry Affaire, Jewelry Gifts for the Holidays, Simply Beads, Simply Handmade, Step by Step Beads, and Jewelry Stringing. The fact that some of these fine publications are no longer publishing is an indicator of tough times in publishing, not Michelle's beautiful contributions. She also has created exclusive tutorials for B'Sue Boutiques, Halcraft USA, and other companies.
In addition to creating jewelry and tutorials, Michelle edits jewelry books and writes articles, blog posts, and other short pieces for various publications. Her work has appeared in more than a dozen anthologies, as well as in magazines and on websites.
Still want more? I'm flattered. Here are links to a few interviews:
- Michelle Mach: Featured Designer (Dakota Stones), November 2014
- Findings in Focus: An Interview with Michelle Mach (Creative Bead Chat), November 2014
- Monday Member Spotlight by Denver Handmade Alliance, December 2012
- A Jewelry Accord: Meet Our Editor: Michelle Mach, March 2011
- A Bead a Day: Featured Designer: Michelle Mach, December 2010
- Interview with Michelle Mach for Links by Jean Yates, May 2008


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'Twas the Night Before Previews…
Dateline: Rehearsal. Wednesday, August 29, 745 pm
'Twas the night before previews
And in the Clayton E. Liggett
Were just the sounds of fine-tuning
And a director shouting, "I dig it!"
The rope swings were hung
From the stage grid with care
In hopes that "knot spacing"
Was finally secure.
Patrick was tucked
In the sound booth and gave
Life to the piano
When Taylor would wave.
And what was there left
on the list to complete?
Sharon just smiles and says,
"I can't feel my feet."
The actors run round
In costumes and curls
Rehearsing their harmonic
Poetic pearls.
It was nigh around eight
When the last rehearsal began
The bower finally hung
As the actors filed in.
The company's final attempt
To make everything right
Knowing tomorrow's first preview
Would be a memorable night.


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Global consumer confidence increased modestly in 2016, a time of great political and economic change around the world, rising three points between the first and fourth quarters to 101. Confidence scores finished the year more strongly than they began in every region except Africa/Middle East. And while quarter-over-quarter swings occurred in most markets, fourth-quarter confidence scores increased from the first quarter of 2016 in 44 of the 63 markets measured in the online survey, including eight of the world's top 10 economies (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, U.K. and U.S.).
North America saw the greatest change in 2016, with the index rising 12 points between the first and the fourth quarters to a score of 120. The increase across North America was fueled by consumer confidence increases in both the U.S. and Canada between the opening and closing of the year.
Confidence in the Asia-Pacific region strengthened modestly in 2016, rising three points between the first and the fourth quarter to 111. While fourth-quarter scores varied widely in the region, ranging from a high of 136 in India to a low of 43 in South Korea, the majority of markets (10 of 14) finished the year more optimistic than they started. The biggest increase was in the Philippines, where confidence rose 13 points from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. Sentiment declined slightly during the year in three markets, falling four points in Taiwan, two points in Singapore and one point in South Korea. Confidence was flat in Japan from the first quarter to the fourth quarter.
Confidence also increased modestly in Europe in 2016, rising from 78 in the first quarter to 81 in the fourth quarter. Scores increased in the majority of countries in the region (25 of 34), with the biggest jumps in the Netherlands (up 15 points to 100), Spain (up 12 points to 86), Switzerland (up 11 points to 102), Sweden (up nine points to 95) and Norway (up nine points to 87). Confidence declined in six countries during the year, with the steepest declines in the Baltic states of Latvia (down eight points), Lithuania (down five points) and Estonia (down two points), as well as in Turkey (down six points).
In Latin America, confidence rose five points in 2016, from 78 in the first quarter to 83 in the fourth quarter. Confidence in Brazil, the largest economy in the region, rose 11 points to 85, and it increased seven points in Colombia (to 90) and five points in Peru (96) from the start to the end of 2016. Confidence in Venezuela declined three points from the first quarter, finishing the year at 57, the lowest level recorded since the country was added to the survey in 2008. In Mexico (at 86) and Argentina (75), consumer confidence was flat from the start of the year.
Africa/Middle East was the only region where confidence declined from the first quarter to the fourth quarter of 2016, dropping five points to 83, driven by double-digit declines in Egypt (down 14 points) and Saudi Arabia (down 10). Nonetheless, while confidence fell in the fourth quarter in the majority of markets in the region, sentiment still improved modestly from the beginning of the year in four of six markets in the region: United Arab Emirates (up four points), Pakistan (up two), South Africa (up two) and Morocco (up one).
"The set of factors influencing confidence are multifaceted and go beyond economics and business," said Louise Keely, executive vice president and global retail practice leader, Nielsen. "In 2016, there were political and social factors that created uncertainty for consumers in many regions of the world. Those factors died down somewhat at the end of the year, and average confidence across regions rebounded a bit. There continues to be wide variation in confidence across countries, as confidence is affected more by local conditions than global ones."
Other findings from the recent Global Consumer Confidence Report include:
For more detail and insight, download Nielsen's Q4 2016 Global Consumer Confidence Report.
For a historical look at global consumer confidence by region, country and time period, explore the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Trend Tracker.
The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions was conducted Oct. 31–Nov. 18, 2016, and polled more than 30,000 online consumers in 63 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East/Africa and North America. The sample includes internet users who agreed to participate in this survey and has quotas based on age and sex for each country. It is weighted to be representative of internet consumers by country. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. However, a probability sample of equivalent size would have a margin of error of ±0.6% at the global level. This Nielsen survey is based only on the behavior of respondents with online access. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60% internet penetration or an online population of 10 million for survey inclusion. The China Consumer Confidence Index is compiled from a separate mixed-methodology survey among 3,500 respondents in China. The sub-Saharan African countries in this study are compiled from a separate mobile survey methodology among 1,600 respondents in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria. The Nielsen Global Survey, which includes the Global Consumer Confidence Index, was established in 2005.


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- Recruiter
- Compass Group UK Ireland
- Location
- Leominster
- Salary
- Meets national minimum/living wage
- Posted
- 04 Apr 2018
- Closes
- 02 May 2018
- Ref
- compass/TP/408098/40503GB
- Contact
- Miss Gaynor Beech
- Sector
- Pub and Bar jobs
- Job Function
- Chef
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
We currently have an exciting opportunity for a Chef/Cook to join our team. You will look after lots of hungry people, contributing to the efficient running of the kitchen. Responsible for producing a variety of dishes for the restaurant and meeting room areas to the highest standard, whilst ensuring the kitchen runs smoothly, safely and hygienically.Main responsibilities
- Working together with the team
- Using fresh ingredients to make good, quality food
- Implement Health & Safety legislation and COSHH at all times
- Cooking and preparation of high quality meals for potentially large volumes of customers
- Extensive food knowledge with the ability to cook and present fresh food to a consistently high standard
- Quality driven
- Have excellent culinary skills with an attention to detail
- A creative thinker with sound knowledge of the latest food trends
- Have sound knowledge of hygiene, health and safety requirements
- Self motivated with the ability to work in a pressurised environment
- A team player with experience of supervising a team within a similar environment
- You will have Qualified to NVQ level1/2 in food preparation and cooking or equivalent
Chartwells Independents, part of Compass Group UK & Ireland, is the leading provider of catering and support services to Independent Schools in the UK. You will be part of a team that supports high quality education at this school by providing outstanding food and service to the pupils and school staff.
Whether it be producing great food for pupils and staff or being involved in creating great hospitality events our teams have a passion for preparing food using fresh quality ingredients. Our belief is that it all starts with great tasting, healthy food that pupils look forward to and really enjoy.


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Stocks to watch at CLOSE on Friday
Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange at close on Friday:
CBA - COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA - up 38 cents, or 0.47 per cent, at $81.23
Retired High Court judge Ian Callinan will chair a review set up by the Commonwealth Bank to deal with the scandal surrounding its financial advisers.
FMG - FORTESCUE METALS - down one cent, or 0.23 per cent, at $4.34
Fortescue Metals says it's produced at a record 160 million tonne a year rate during June quarter as it continues its large volumes despite a weaker iron ore price.
ROC - ROC OIL - up two cents, or 3.54 per cent, at 58.5 cents
PERTH, July 11 AAP - Roc Oil shareholders have failed to change the company's constitution and allow a vote on an $800 million merger with fellow energy player Horizon Oil.
Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.


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A 2009 program, called the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria, or AMFm, tried to do it by giving subsidies directly to drug manufacturers, but critics are now saying that the program has promoted dangerous misuse of these expensive medications. A new study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher, however, suggests that misuse is a bigger problem in some areas than others, and that an AMFm-like approach could still have value in some regions.
The study is published in the Nov. 2 edition of the journal Science.
"It's a bit silly to talk about the private sector market for anti-malarials in Africa in general terms because there is so much variation in malaria prevalence, availability of health services, finances and culture within the region," said Justin Cohen, senior technical adviser for the Clinton Health Access Initiative and lead author of the study.
A "one-size-fits-all" approach to working with the private sector in Africa will inevitably be an ill fit for some places, he said.
In many African countries, more people have access to privately run health facilities or drug stores than to public health institutions, so using them as a means to get better quality medicines to people in outlying areas is an attractive strategy. However, the decentralized nature of the private sector has also made it difficult to assess how many drugs are being purchased and how the drugs are being used.
"Part of the problem has been that we've never had good information for how big the private sector market is for anti-malarials in sub-Saharan Africa," Cohen said.
Andrew Tatem, associate professor of geography at UF's Emerging Pathogens Institute, was able to help in that regard.
Tatem combined population data from a project he runs called AfriPop with sub-Saharan household survey information to estimate the number of people buying anti-malarials from private sector markets. The team then combined the results with data from the Malaria Atlas Project to see how demand for medication stacked up against known rates of malaria infection.
"We found that in some regions, as few as 5 percent of the people taking anti-malarials likely had malaria." Tatem said.
Malaria is often assumed to be the culprit when children run a fever in sub-Saharan Africa. When that happens, parents will often treat it with anti-malarials the way that Americans might treat flu symptoms with a cold medicine.
Taking the drugs when they are not needed wastes money, and it could possibly cause drug-resistant strains of malaria to develop. Cohen said that AMFm critics aren't wrong when they say that programs should be providing more diagnostic tests along with these medications. The study notes that while 655 million people purchased anti-malarial medications, only about 50 million rapid diagnostic tests were delivered globally in 2010.
However, Cohen said that increasing access to affordable drugs even in the absence of diagnosis may be a good short-term strategy in places like Nigeria where infection rates are high.
"Ultimately, everyone should receive effective diagnosis and the appropriate treatment for the true cause of their illness," Cohen said. "But in the short term, if most people in an area have malaria, we can do a lot of good by increasing accessibility to higher quality malaria drugs."
Testing everyone who needs it will be expensive and resources are currently limited. According to the study, donations for malaria control declined in 2012 for the first time in a decade.
"It's great to talk in the abstract about how things should be ideally," Cohen said. "But in the end, you have to get going and do your best with what you have."
- Writer
- Donna Hesterman, firstname.lastname@example.com
- Source
- Andrew Tatem, firstname.lastname@example.com
- Source
- Justin M. Cohen, email@example.com