Tuesday, December 22, 2015

That was an incredible moment. Thank you.

Our young (click here) are muted from their concerns, this was too rare a moment to show the depth Hillary Clinton understands the people of this country.

Of the three hours of the Democratic Debate it would have been appropriate to spend at least a half hour with some of our youngest members of the party.

Young people today are very involved in some of the worst problems the USA has, including, gun violence, testing and quality of education. They with parents seated nearby would be invaluable to put some of our neglected problems into context.

Congratulations, Elon Musk. It is an amazing accomplishment. Very well done.


I am not convinced there was a plan at the time they met to carry out an attack within the USA.

The San Bernardino shooters (click here) -- Tashfeen Malik and her husband Syed Farook -- emailed for several weeks before deciding to meet each other for the first time, according to Malik's immigration file, portions of which were released today by the House Judiciary Committee. 

The 21-page file reveals information Syed Farook submitted to United States officials to prove that he and Malik had met in person within two years of the application -– a requirement for the visa -- and planned to get married.
Malik, who was from Pakistan but had lived in Saudi Arabia, came to the U.S. last summer on a “fiancé” visa and later obtained a Green Card, U.S. officials have said. Malik married Farook, an American of Pakistani descent, in August 2014 and the couple had a baby six months before the Dec. 2 massacre that killed 14. Both died in a shootout with police afterwards. 

A statement from Farook in Malik's immigration file explains how their relationship began. “My fiancé and I met through an online website. After several weeks of emailing, we decided to meet each other,” the letter reads.
According to the letter, Farook and Malik’s families met on Oct. 3, 2013, at the house of Malik’s relatives in Mecca -- where Farook and his family were performing the Hajj -- and that the couple planned to marry in the month of her arrival in the U.S. Records show Malik and Farook married within her first month in the U.S....

Either Farook's family is aware of his intent or they didn't. There is nothing according to the immigration files of Malik that she was a risk to the USA. Farook didn't have a file. They had a lot in common and there is every reason to believe they were not terrorists. I am assuming Malik obtained a green card after the wedding.

...Chairman Bob Goodlatte says immigration officials did not do enough to screen Malik’s application and alleges that the passport stamps on Malik's Saudi visa don’t prove she and Farook were in Saudi Arabia at the same time....

Where is the proof that Bob Goodlatte states doesn't match? PROOF, not rhetoric. I know therhetoric of the right wing is deliberately to cast shadows over President Obama, so where is the proof the USA messed up.

...According to Goodlatte, stamps show Malik arrived on June 4, 2013, on a 60-day visa, and that the exit date is illegible. Goodlatte says that Farook’s entry stamps show he was there from Oct 1 to Oct. 20, 2013....

I don't want to hear the facts according to Goodlatte, I just want the facts. 

A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the couple met all the requirements for Malik to receive a fiancé visa, and that officials “thoroughly vet” every application. 

The last thing the USA needs is politicians seeking to taint the truth for political dogma. If the application was processed according to standards set for them, then what could have been done that wasn't done, but, no Republican should think they can simply lie and get away with it. Not this time.  

...“Tashfeen Malik was subjected to numerous background checks at all stages that the agency handled her case, and those background checks did not reveal any derogatory information about Malik."... 

US Rep. John Conyers has stated Mr. Goodlatte is coming to conclusions that are not based in facts. What else is new for a Republican? 
This is the theme song for Donald Trump. 

Have a great holiday Mr. Trump and family. 

No can sing it like Frank Sinatra. He was a one of a kind.

This was in Michigan.

Two women (click here) wave an American flag as they attend a campaign rally for presidential hopeful Donald Trump at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids on Monday, Dec. 21, 2015. (Emily Rose Bennett | The Grand Rapids Press)

Michigan was the most effected state in the country. They have never received support for their circumstances. What does anyone expect? Now, the Michiganders are seeing their water contaminated without a ESTABLISHMENT Governor that only cares about his own priorities.

Governor Snyder is attempting to build his methods into a challenge to the presidency of the country sometime down the road. It is why he insists his policies and methods are perfect and the people have problems with actual improvements in their lives. 

Michigan has been so impoverished Snyder couldn't fail in improving the state no matter how he might try. 

When someone like Donald Trump states he will solve their problems he is going to get their support. There is nothing new here. The establishment GOP is about money and the wealthy. These folks in Michigan have had enough of the establishment anyone.

The officer baited Sandra.

He never stated to her that sometimes people speak up and that can be misunderstood as disrespect of a police officer. The signals she received from the officer stated it was okay to speak her mind. She did and evidently was simply led down a path that prompted his deciphering an insult to him. He was asking questions of her before she ever understood she was walking directly into an arrest.

The officer never stated she was compromising herself by speaking openly about her personal circumstances. If she spoke openly in hopes he would compassionately understand her life and it's path ahead, it was not regarded as important. He over reached his authority in engaging questions such as "Are you all right?", "Are you okay?, "You seem irritated to me." She answered his questions and believed it was an expression of respect to the officer. If she  wasn't suffering from a physical malady the question was inappropriate. 

He decided he didn't like her and her words and decided to arrest her. She lit a cigarette, probably to cope with the stress she was felling and she had no idea why she was suppose to put her cigarette out in her own car. As far as she was concerned there was nothing she did wrong. When he stated she was under arrest Sandra had no idea why. She asked why she was under arrest and he never answered her. He was abusive and asserting power over a woman that had no idea what was going on.

At one point the officer warns people that had gathered because of a woman being assaulted by police. What was he going to do if they didn't disperse shoot them? Tazer more people? The police officer's behavior was completely inappropriate and the arriving officer automatically believed there was a guilty woman out of control regardless of what upset her. 

Basically, to these police officers, citizens are nothing and the imposition of law overrides life itself.

This is so very tragic.

If there is any chance this can be appealed, it should be. In the jail, she died of criminal negligence. Jails have protocols to protect prisoners from desperate feelings. They never bothered to realize how desperately she was trying to find someone who could place her bail and the fact she had every right to be considered innocent.

December 22, 2015

A grand jury (click here) has decided not to indict anyone in the case of Sandra Bland, who died in a Texas jail earlier this year.
The jury ruled that neither sheriff's officials nor jailers committed a crime in their treatment of Bland.
It has not yet been determined whether the police officer who arrested her should face charges, a prosecutor said.
The 28-year-old African-American was arrested after a confrontation with a policeman who had pulled her car over. She was found dead three days later.
In recent years, the deaths of black Americans in police custody have caused much debate and protests in the US.
Police say that Ms Bland hanged herself while being held in the Waller County jail....

Complete lack of expertise. Complete negligence of placing a prisoner alone in a cell. Complete lack of compassion for a woman caught in a meat grinder. This is negligent homicide. There is no other reason for her death. I don't care if she committed suicide, she was neglected by the prison staff. If she was in a cell alone, there needs to be closed circuit to insure her well being. Take the doors off the lavatory. 

This is outrageous.

The officer escalated the circumstances without purpose except to satisfy his own understanding of law. A traffic turns into an officer assaulting a driver and then calling in back up to pretend Sandra is actually dangerous.

I cannot believe how willing police are to find an issue in a simple exchange of words. It is unbelievable what happened to Sandra. Her death is completely related to her handling by police from start to finish. Sandra was a victim of the law enforcement system in Texas and it is completely obvious to me. 

So beautiful.


Last I read anything about the intensity of refugees was 2 million in Jordan. Jordan has closed it's borders in recent months.

It is possible to overwhelm a country. NATO may very well be stationing troops in Europe if this continues.

The experience of Jordan with refugees is that it occurred over a length of time in years and not months.

December 22, 2015
By Sewell Chan

London — The number of migrants and refugees (click here) who have entered Europe by sea and land this year has passed the one million mark, a long-expected but symbolically significant capstone to a year in which displaced people flocked to the Continent in historic proportions.

The huge influx — the largest movement of people on the Continent since World War II — has strained the resources of Germany, which has been the ultimate destination for most of the migrants; prompted a right-wing backlash there and in much of Europe; and exposed the European Union’s inability to coordinate an effective response.

As of Monday, the figure stood at 1,005,504, more than four times the number in 2014, the previous record, the International Organization for Migration announced on Tuesday.....

The population density has changed in Jordan a country with only six and one half million natural resident. The Syrian refugees are in the minority of refugees in Jordan.

December 19, 2015
By Khetam Malkawi

Amman — Although the number of refugees (click here) from different nationalities in the Kingdom varies from one estimate to other and is difficult to identify, a World Bank official last week said, in Jordan “one in every three persons [is] being a refugee”.Colin Bruce, senior adviser to the World Bank Group’s president, made this statement at a press conference last week to launch a World Bank new report, without elaborating on numbers of refugees or their nationalities.The government did not reject or confirm this percentage but noted that figures are difficult to estimate.Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani, who is also government’s spokesperson, told The Jordan Times it is difficult to identify the total number of refugees in the country, “especially if we want to include Palestinians in these estimates”.According to UNHCR, Jordan is the second largest host of refugees per capita in the world following Pakistan.Still, the agency has only some 700,000 persons from 41 nationalities registered as refugees in the Kingdom, said Mohammad Hawari, senior mass information and communication associate at UNHCR.Hawari, however, added that the number differs when adding number of Palestinians who are registered with UNRWA.An infograph that was recently published on the World Bank Twitter account states that there are 2.7 million registered refugees in Jordan, which stands for 41.2 per cent of the total population....

The problem for Jordan as it stands today is employment. Jordan is seeking investment to open employment to refugees.

December 21, 2015
By Khetam Malkawi


Amman — The integration of Syrian refugees (click here) in the Kingdom’s economy and allowing them to legally join the workforce will never be at the expense of Jordanians, a senior government official stressed on Monday.

Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury said Jordan has been preoccupied with how to transform the challenge ensuing from the refugee crisis into an “opportunity”, ensuring, that employment chances for Jordanians would not be compromised.

Fakhoury was responding to a question by The Jordan Times on economic inclusion of the Syrian refugees during the launch of Jordan Economic Monitor developed by the World Bank.

He announced that the government is working on creating “limited” job opportunities for Syrians, but such a measure hinges on new incoming investments, explaining that the ratio of Syrians employed in these projects relies on the size of investment.

Fakhoury seized the opportunity to re-highlight Jordan’s  “holistic approach” to the refugee crisis, which he has for the past weeks presenting to its development partners… “partners who invest in Jordan and give us loans”. 

These include the G-7, the rest of the European countries, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The idea is to follow “an approach that gets us out of this crisis to reach a win-win situation that would help the Kingdom economically, create job opportunities and, at the same time, alleviate the refugee burden on the international community”....

The large influx of refugees/migrants out of the middle east is a problem. During the time the USA was occupying Iraq, Jordan was taking refugees. The alarm went up when four Iraqis assaulted the infrastructure of Jordan with suicide vests. All three men were successful in carrying their particular idea of terror, but, the woman survived when her vest did not explode.

It isn't possible to empty the middle east of all the people that are seeking quality of life as well as running from war.

December 21, 2015
By Khetam Malkawi

Amman — After four years of gradual recovery, (click here) the Kingdom’s economic growth is expected to slow down this year due to the spillover of security conditions in Syria and Iraq, a World Bank report said on Monday.Titled “A Hiccup Amidst Sustained Resilience and Committed Reforms — Jordan Economic Monitor for Fall 2015", the report said real growth in the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to reach 2.5 per cent, in contrast with 3.1 per cent in 2014, which is the slowest rate since the first half of 2010.“This setback in growth in the first half of 2015 is due to the closing down of trade channels with Syria and Iraq,” the report said, adding, however, that the low oil prices continue to have a positive effect on the current account deficit and the budget deficit.This also led to an increase in the investment volume, especially in the diversification of sources of energy, according to the report.Recent government incentives in regard to the real estate and tourism sectors have had a positive influence that will back growth in 2015, the World Bank said....

The Syrian civil war has to end, but, at this point it is completely sectarian. So, some of the answer has to be a shared - power government. Nothing else will bring about an end to the conflict. Outside the sectarian war, there is Daesh. Daesh is probably something both sides of the civil war can agree on, however, we know for a fact such extremist regimes have played the part of an ally to other parties involved in any war.

Al Qaeda's strength was not that it had it's own legions of soldiers; Al Qaeda brought an uptick to those already engaged in war. Al Qeada is the one entity that consistently provides skills in terrorism and the monies to back it up. When realizing where Al Qaeda is actually involved, it requires far less financing than a military answer. Al Qaeda involvement is one measure to realize how deteriorated the parties at war has diminished. Al Qaeda is a last resort strategy. 

The problem with Al Qaeda is that the USA identifies it as an enemy. In that is the chronic and reliable response of the USA military. The USA military has claimed the right to war because of it's ability to identify al Qaeda's involvement. So, both al Qaeda and it's affiliates in places like Syria oppose the USA and fuel each other's reason for involvement to either war or terrorism.

The USA and al Qaeda has become a self-feeding loop. The wars will never end. As soon as a civil war reaches a war of deteriorating forces, ie: Assad's barrel bombs (impoverished war) Al Qaeda is called upon to escalate victories and feed the fear to sustain dedicated forces. As soon as al Qaeda is involved the USA has a reason to enter still yet another war environment.

So, as to Syria's civil war; either armed forces will actually cause the defeat of one or both parties while mutually defeating Daesh or there will be a peace agreement with a joint power sharing government. The power sharing government is a given to end sectarian issues. Realizing that, the process has to begin and cease fire by the two opposing sectarian forces is a ultimate requirement.

I think it was 2012 when all the United Nations efforts for peace keepers completely failed and the chronic death of people became the reality of Syria. Now, the middle east and Europe is experiencing the refugee fears and movement. Unfortunately, what is coming with the refugee movement which goes back to the Iraq occupation of the USA, is the influx of willing terrorists of Daesh along with the refugees.

The peace talks must go forward regardless of what is happening on the ground in Syria. There needs to be a strong central government to build a central and undefeatable military.

The hideous and unwise part of Syria's negotiations is to have the USA involved as if a representative to the Sunnis interests in a Syrian rebel force. Then on the other side is Russia in an alliance with Syria's Shi'ite leader and Iran. The peace talks must be very interesting. But, the rebel forces (if there is such a thing - that idea failed in Saudi Arabia) and Assad forces need to coalesce in order to defeat Daesh and from a strong AND DEDICATED Syrian military.

President Obama is in a perfect position in that he no longer has to face elections. He should be involved in the Syrian negotiations to bring an end to the civil war. He can work with Russia to bring about a power sharing agreement ACCOMPANIED with a strong central Syrian military. But, the USA should not enter into a war in Syria or Iraq and it should be phasing out in Afghanistan. The USA presence is used as propaganda to recruit angry young men into jihad and violent acts against any entity Daesh believes needs to die.

There have been plenty of other civil wars the USA never even recognized, yet be involved with it. The global community, if they work together, can end any organized violence anywhere in the world. I sincerely believe that. As an example, every Christian should be outraged at the violence level in Gaza that is driving Christians out of their millennial residence. The link between Christians and the Muslims in Gaza had never been realized before and only serves to PROVE the propaganda surrounding THE TRUTH in Gaza is causing the problem and not ending it.