Friday, June 15, 2018

Children succumb much quicker to heat than adults. The children that have crossed the southern US border with their parents and are now housed in a tent city in Texas are in danger of dehydration and potently death. They are probably exposed to the natural world including any living creature and insects. This is outrageous treatment of innocent children.

The Flint Model for rescuing missing children.

June 14, 2018
By Dominic Adams

Flint -- Police from seven different local, (click here) county and state law enforcement agencies flooded the county on Thursday in search of 76 missing kids.

In total, police were able to locate 51 children, according to the Michigan State Police. Nine children were taken to the Genesee Valley Regional Center and one to Weiss Advocacy Center.

The children were those who were reported missing, who missed court dates or who had run away, police said...

..."This is the first time in the 20 years since I've been the sheriff that we've put a strikeforce team together of this magnitude involving law enforcement agencies from all over the county as well as social agencies, hospitals," said Genesee County Robert Pickell. "We've got 76 kids right now that are in potentially dangerous situations. We are concerned if they're not already being exploited that they're potential people to be exploited. The whole purpose of us here today is to protect these kids -- get them. It's a rescue mission in that sense."...

Initially, it might be expensive, but, everything worth doing sometimes is expensive. Once the projects to replace lead pipes is completed there won't be
anymore worry. 

One has to put this into perspective. How much is a pregnancy worth? How much is a child's mind worth? How much is the public safety worth?

I think to minimize the change needed for today and the future such measures have to be taken. Water pipes aren't sexy and politicians like to bid for office with exciting ideas that will attract voters. Water is sexy. Water is vitally important. A successful political campaign can be launched to protect the public's health with permanent changes to the water system. There are more reasons to make these changes than not.

The truth cannot be sacrificed for a quick sexy high.

May 29, 2018
By Daniel C. Vock

Four years after the start of the Flint water crisis, (click here) Michigan state regulators are on the verge of approving some of the strictest rules in the country to reduce the risk of water-based lead poisoning. But local governments warn that the rules are needlessly expensive, likely unconstitutional and won’t necessarily improve public health.

Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) drafted the rules, which could officially take effect in the next two weeks. The most ambitious aspect of the regulations would require water utilities to replace all lead service lines (the pipes that connect water mains to buildings) within the next 20 years. Utilities would have to do the work and pay the costs for doing so, even if all or part of the line is privately owned, as most are.

State environmental regulators also want to lower the threshold of lead taken from home water samples that would trigger more scrutiny of a utility’s water system....

See there. WWKD otherwise stated, What Would Karen Do? She would take the bull by the horns and stand up for the good and moral decisions of the Flint City Council.

That is pretty sexy stuff. Sort of reminds me of Clint Eastwoods' Dirty Harry, "Make my day."

June 12, 2018
By Ron Folger

Flint -- Mayor Karen Weaver (click here) says she won't cooperate with new "unnecessary and unwarranted" state oversight of the Flint water system.

In a defiant letter to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Weaver told the state she will not sign a consent order that would impose new deadlines for water system improvements, said she will request a hearing if the state attempts to impose the order and called the move "retaliatory and punitive."

"During two years of collaborative remediation efforts, an (administrative consent order) has not been necessary," Weaver wrote in a Monday, June 11, letter to the state. "Now, after the state and MDEQ have been publicly castigated for their abrupt and unilateral termination of bottled water funding, MDEQ proposes an ACO that raises no issues not previously agreed upon.

"I thus see this ACO as a deliberate and willful misuse of the DEQ's authority for political purposes and not a good faith effort to address the issues faced by the city of Flint."...

Caution: Rated XXXX : Stereotypes and color barrier. Children unaccompanied by a seriously liberated adult should not see this loop.

Paul Manafort is not trustworthy. He has become desperate in attempting to change the outcome of the prosecutors. If he will tamper with witnesses, he will find a way to leave the country as well.

There is a strong likelihood Paul Manafort will be spending some time in jail anyway.

There is an American Jewish Movement called "IF Not Now"

There is an understanding in Israel that Americans Jews oppose the aggression shown by the conservatives and the increase in settlements.

In Israel, it plays differently in that Israelis in small numbers demonstrate to prevent the sale of homes to Arabs. Demonstrates of such bigotry number about 50 (click here) in comparison to the Gaza border demonstrations.

IFNOTNOW (click here)

June 7, 2018
By Ben Sales

New York — When Aviva Schwartz (click here) started praying publicly for Palestinians at her Jewish summer camp, she knew it would be controversial.

Schwartz had grown up ensconced in the Conservative movement, had attended three of its Ramah camps and had moved up the ranks as a staff member at Ramah Wisconsin. When Israel’s war in Gaza broke out in the summer of 2014, she was the unit head for incoming seventh-graders — a position reserved for staff veterans.

She was also a college student who, after a lifetime of pro-Israel education, was becoming more critical of Israel’s control of the West Bank and its treatment of Palestinians. So when fellow staff members began saying Kaddish, the mourners’ prayer, for Israelis killed in the conflict, she began praying for Palestinian victims as well.

Her superiors let her do it — but they did not back her up when she felt backlash from her unit counselors.

“I felt pretty strongly that we needed to acknowledge and remember the lives of Palestinians and Israelis,” Schwartz said....

I knew it; Sessions and Trump are escalating the entire issue of border crossers.

Israel is the excuse, but, Haley will continue to escalate rhetoric regarding Israel in anticipation of a war with Syria and Iran. Geneva Conventions will be next. These folks are pure hate.

Bush left the Geneva Conventions when he engaged in the illegal war into Iraq.

Israel should use caution in who they call their ally.

June 15, 2018
By Mythili Sampathkumar

The administration of US President Donald Trump (click here) is reportedly pulling out of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has accused the 47-member organisation based in Geneva for “chronic anti-Israel bias” since she came into office last year and according to a source who spoke to Reuters, the withdrawal is “imminent,” particularly after UN's recent condemnation of Israel's violence against Palestinians in Gaza

Diplomatic sources said it was not a question of if but of when,” the news outlet reported. The next session of the global body will begin 6 July....

I don't believe for a minute the people of Israel are looking for any type of war. USA aggression is unjustified. There is no threat to the USA and it's role in the Middle East is a peace broker and enforcer of chemical weapons treaty. 

June 14, 2018

The Supreme Court of Israel (click here) temporarily blocked the deportation of a Ugandan Jew who sought to immigrate there.

On Thursday, Justice Isaac Amit issued a temporary injunction against Kibita Yosef’s deportation, Haaretz reported. Last month, the Interior Ministry ruled not to recognize Yosef, whose visa expired Thursday, and his community as Jewish for purposes of immigration. The injunction said the ministry had to explain its decision by July 29, according to Haaretz.

The Ugandan Jewish community, also called the Abayudaya, was converted to Judaism under the auspices of the U.S. Conservative movement and has approximately 2,000 members.

Last month’s decision outraged the Conservative movement, which submitted the petition that led to Thursday’s injunction. The movement said the decision violated the Law of Return, which gives anyone who has a Jewish grandparent, is married to a Jew or has converted to Judaism the right to move to Israel....

The only way Trump could carry out aggression in the Middle East is to do it within 90 days until Congress votes to end all conflicts. Israel will find itself a bit lonely if it goes down that road.

The vote can always come sooner than 90 days as well. The rhetoric of Trump is baseless and holds to sincerely authority. Bush had the opportunity to do as he pleased because of 911; the American people will never back a war in the Middle East. Iraq was a complete failure and another Iraq would be no different. War would create a vacuum in which extremists could launch yet another destabilizing war. That is all the extremists need, Israel and the USA launching war in the region. Such a war would never result in anything than the return of perhaps reoccupation of Gaza.

With such aggression by the USA, Trump will institute "The Draft."
By the way, is Kushner still in Israel planning World War III with Netanyahu, while his wife is in New York taking all the heat from the wayward charity engagements?

Also to mention...

May 2, 2018

...Morocco will sever diplomatically (click here) ties with Iran over Tehran's support for the Polisario Front, a Western Sahara independence movement, the Moroccan foreign minister said on Tuesday. 

Morocco claimed Western Sahara after colonial Spain left, but Polisario fought a guerrilla war for independence for the Sahrawi people until a UN-backed cease-fire was implemented. 

Morocco will close its embassy in Tehran and will expel the Iranian ambassador in Rabat, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told reporters. 

He said that Iran and its Lebanese Shi'ite ally, Hezbollah, were supporting Polisario by training and arming its fighters via the Iranian embassy in Algeria....

There is a lot going on in North Africa. The Dutch peacekeepers are so poorly equipped they serve no purpose and in 2019 will be deployed to Afghanistan to increase the security of the government.

Why doesn't the USA simply provide better equipment to the Dutch as part of a NATO initiative? I don't get it. If this is a Wall Street crony thing, then it needs to end and the Dutch made to be secure as peacekeepers and defenders of their country.

Also, the people of Iran and it's leadership are a bit annoyed with the Supreme Leader for ending the public display of the World Cup games where Iran has a team. The Supreme Leader does not approve of women and men in the same space to watch video together. The Iranian television is trying to get permits for the remaining games. Let's hope they do so and allow children to cheer their favorite team member with ideals that will bring the hopes of doing the same some day.

A country can't expect to do well economically by only defining their society based in religion. Women are more important to Shi'ite religion than Sunni's faith. I would expect that importance to reflect in the wishes of Iranian women for health, enjoyment and love of family in one open air space!

The long term victory can be elusive.

June 15, 2018

Forces from an alliance of Arab states (click here) seized the entrance to the airport in Yemen’s main port city on Friday, in an offensive against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that the United Nations fears could trigger a famine imperiling millions of lives.

The swift advance was an important early success for the Saudi and Emirati-led alliance, which launched the operation in Hodeidah three days ago and says it can seize the city quickly enough to avoid interrupting aid to millions facing starvation.

“We saw the resistance forces in the square at the northwestern entrance to the airport,” said a Hodeidah resident, referring to Yemeni allies of the Saudi-led coalition. Two Yemeni military officials allied to the coalition confirmed it....

Something has turned the corner for Saudi Arabia and Emirates. The real test for any of the battles won in these wars, is time. It is not unusual for such fronts being won by forces that hope to bring stability and peace. However, over time it has proven to reverse the trend and become a protracted war, If Saudi Arabia and the Emirates want a lasting peace they have to continue to root out the rebels that caused such chaos and human tragedy in Yemen. Yemen desperately needs stability and peace, but, it can be difficult to achieve over time.

Erik Prince is the chairman of the Hong Kong-listed (click here for video) logistics and securities company Frontier Services Group, an Africa-focused company that is building a pan-African fleet of aircraft. The former Navy Seal and CEO of the private security firm Blackwater USA is a controversial figure. Blackwater was contracted by the US State Department for thousands of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and its contractors have been linked to the killing of innocent civilians....

Erik Prince has been in Africa since 2015. This is the first real significant victory in that region. We know Iran is involved in the Houthi uprising. Iran wants more land for it's people and finding it can be difficult. Yemen was not taking shape to be a benevolent country under the Houthis and quite frankly it seems as though the Houthis were treating Yemen as a stepping stone to Saudi Arabia.

I am quite confident Iran is in violation of the Small Arms Treaty. I didn't look to see if it is a member of the treaty. If not, Iran should be pursued to join these treaties and declare peace among it's neighbors, but, it's neighbors need to do the same thing.

Iran should remove the Taliban at it's border with Afghanistan. The Taliban are migrants and have no real homeland. They cause instability and the Iranians would find as soon as they attack any settlement within Iran, the Taliban will no longer be peaceful within Iran's borders.

The USA might recall the large reconnaissance drone lost in that region of Iran. Well, most likely the USA was seeking information about the Taliban within Iran. What would follow are drones to kill the Taliban and Iran would be shouting obscenities in the United Nations about the American pigs invading it's land. If the Taliban are there, that is harboring an enemy of the Afghan government. 

The Taliban need to proceed with a peace treaty and end the killing in the region.

June 15, 2018

Debris from five missiles fired at Saudi Arabia (click here) by Yemen’s Houthi group since July 2017 “share key design features with a known type of missile” manufactured by Iran and some of the components were manufactured in Iran, UN chief Antonio Guterres wrote in a confidential report to the Security Council.

However, the United Nations has not been able to determine when the missiles, components or related technology were transferred from Iran and if they violated UN restrictions, Guterres said in a biannual report on the implementation of UN sanctions on Iran.

The June 12 report, seen by Reuters on Thursday, is a further blow to US efforts to hold Iran accountable over accusations it violated UN resolutions on Yemen and Iran by supplying weapons to the Houthis. In February Russia vetoed a western attempt to have the Security Council call out Tehran....

Why it is important to fight corruption.

This law was passed by the Michigan legislature in 1995. It was corrupt then, but, when cronies are important legislation passes anyway even without sound reasons.

State legislatures pass these erroneous laws all the time. They do it to attract businesses and are usually considered giveaways at the time companies are courted to hopefully bring jobs to the area.

This 1995 law is just a giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry for whatever reason was deemed important. Today, Michigan now stands alone and cannot carry out the will of the people to end the abuse of drug company sales which facilitates abuse. The responsibility to the American people have now fallen to law enforcement which carries Narcan in their cars or on their person. That is a burden to a society that is a direct result of massive sales of pain medications.

The current Michigan legislature needs to realize its folly and pass new laws that will protect the people, law enforcement and ultimately relieve the costs of saving lives and treating people in rehab. The sooner this is addressed the better and the current lawsuits have to be incorporated as "having good standing" with the new legislation.

June 14, 2018
By Karen Bouffard

A one-of-a-kind law (click here) is likely to prevent Michigan communities and the state from winning lawsuits to reclaim the millions of dollars they've spent fighting the opioid epidemic, legal experts say.

The 1995 Michigan Product Liability Act grants pharmaceutical companies nearly absolute immunity from lawsuits filed by consumers and has kept the state of Michigan from suing over dangerous or deadly drugs. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette was then a state senator who co-sponsored the bill, but now says he is open to reconsidering the law.

At least 50 Michigan communities — from Detroit, Saginaw and Lansing to Grand Traverse County and Escanaba — have filed lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, arguing in part that the companies aggressively promoted their products by falsely claiming the drugs aren't addictive. 

Nationally, about 700 state and local governments have filed similar lawsuits, and the cases have been consolidated into multi-district litigation to expedite their consideration this fall by Judge Dan Aaron Polster in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland. ...

Ramadan is a time of atonement and Eid is a time to remember innocense.

I think I have that correct.

Eid is a time of coming together as families and allowing a rebirth so to speak. Muslim families in many countries, not just The West, watch movies that warm the heart and teach lessons. Family lessons, such as remembering what it is like to be young. Both holidays are important and complement each other.

June 15, 2018

Muslims in various parts of the world (click here) including Saudi Arabia, Indonasia, France, Germany and the United States celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr today. Celebrities, politicians and sportsmen have extended greetings to those celebrating.

Celebrities including supermodel Gigi Hadid, Indian actor and director Farhan Akhtar, Amitabh Bachcan, Kumail Nanjiani and Malala Yousufzai also extended their greetings....

Rachael Denhollander is above reproach as are the other women, all 300 of them.

They suffered horribly for the love of their sport. It is a statement of the tenacity of women and how they are emotionally strong and able to carry such burdens as if they never happened.

Today, women can now refuse to carry those burdens and carry on a life full of joy and happiness. That is never going to change. Women are strong, but, should never be so strong they deny atrocities in their lives. Make no mistake Larry Nassar is an atrocity. The idea the highly regarded Michigan State University ever allowed such abuse of women athletes is nearly as unspeakable as Nassar himself.

Now, John Engler is willing to continue the Nassar legacy by looking for an excuse to demean women and make them victims all over again. MSU needs to continue to clear it's administration of those that create victims. MSU needs to completely understand this is hatred of women known as misogyny. Creating women victims is definitely misogyny. Looking for excuses to victimize women is absolutely misogyny. MSU allowed misogyny to dictate it's female athletic programs.

Brian Mosallam seems to have woken up to the fact such victimizing statements and continued victimization of women is not an option at MSU.

John Engler must go. How many half billion dollar settlements can MSU afford?

June 15, 2018

Michigan State Trustee Brian Mosallam (click here) on Friday became the first trustee to call for Interim President John Engler to resign.

“Unfortunately, and with great regret, John Engler’s tenure as interim president has continued the bleeding rather than stem it,” Mosallam said in a statement. “His misguided actions and comments have failed to reestablish trust and confidence in Michigan State University.”

Mosallam made the comments in the wake of Engler’s private emails that emerged this week, suggesting that Rachael Denhollander, the first gymnast to come forward and speak about the sexual abuse of Larry Nassar, would get “kickbacks” for her role in bringing forward hundreds of other Nassar victims.

MSU recently reached a historic $500 million settlement with more than 300 women who accused the university of not protecting them from Nassar, the former MSU doctor who sexually abused young women for decades and is now imprisoned.

Denhollander, who has been widely praised as a hero for stopping Nassar, has said Engler's comments are not true.

Ms. Denhollander is a recipient of the settlement. End of discussion. She should continue her friendships and support of and from other women that were victims of MSU's Larry Nassar. She is exempt from skepticism and the facts stand on their own. She is not to feel the bite of a man's hate of women ever again.