Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders met in the US Senate recently. Why not Cruz and Trump?

I think Ted Cruz wants to get into a solid political issue that will sustain through the presidential elections. The Immigration Reform debate is taking shape and I think both the Republicans and Democrats should be happy Donald Trump was politically unafraid.

This is finally moving. I am happy about it. Donald Trump has been ostracized and for no good reason by his own party. Ted Cruz is a Tea Party member and Donald Trump has said supportive things regarding the Tea Party, too. 

Could it be Americans are finally finding solid ground under their feet?

'TERRIFIC': (click here) Texas Sen. and tea party darling Ted Cruz (shown entering Trump Tower on Wednesday in New York) has been full of praise for Trump, but may be the only Republican presidential candidate to play that role

July 15, 2015
By David Martosko

Trump (click here) has responded with mutual admiration, telling The Washington Post: 'I really respect him for saying what he did.'

An informal Cruz-Trump alliance could prove to be an important moving piece in the GOP primary season if one endorses the other when he drops out of the race....

The majority of Americans believe their vote has become empty. The election of President Obama turned the Republicans into obstructive treason that have caused a change in the credit rating of the USA. That is not what Americans want. They want a government that functions.

Americans want immigration reform, but, they are realists. They know immigration of people from Mexico can come with people that are dangerous. The fact illegals have been released to Mexico is not our problem. We want Iran to release our citizens from their prison system and in proving we return people to their homelands, we do so with Mexicans. 

Gitmo is just a national shame. 

But, the American people can't build prisons on US soil to detain illegal immigrants. That is crazy. These people need to be released to Mexico. I find some of Senator Cruz comments about releasing murderers into the USA interior as outrageous. There are illegals in our prisons and 77 percent are Mexicans. Mexicans are 16 percent of our entire prison population, so Senator Cruz needs to prove his point. Donald Trump has validated his statements with solid and real examples. The recent death of an innocent and loved American woman is a real example. 

The debate will center on all sorts of information, but, there are Undocumented that sincerely belong here. They work and live within the laws most Americans live within. They are more American than they ever could be Mexican, hence, the return time and again to the USA. 

The way to end the Undocumented from coming to the USA is to support Mexico in law enforcement. Mexico all the way to the reaches of South America have problems with drug cartels. The more civilized a country becomes the more citizens will want to stay within their homelands. I firmly believe that. 

But, immigration needs to be addressed. Demonizing these people serves no one's best interest. There are problems. The American people don't buy the idea life for the Undocumented is perfect if all were citizens. That is true for the majority and those facts need to be part of the understanding of the electorate. 

But, there are problems and while we are addressing immigration reform we may as well address everything. We won't get this chance again. Sanctuary cities are a part of that as well. Why are they viewed as anti-federal government? There is no need for it. Sanctuary cities have a reason for their laws and they are valid reasons, but, there is a limit when someone like Mr. Sanchez continues to return over and over again. 

Twenty years is a very long time for an illegal immigrant to live between the USA and Mexico. During that 20 years of Mr. Sanchez, the courts never found reasons to end his deportations. He was deported and returned five times. I don't think Mexico actively sends people into the USA. We witnessed children coming across the Mexican border after they risked their lives on trains. There was no escort from Mexico or anywhere else. They walked and they sustained danger to their lives, but, they came anyway. That is exactly the definition of the Undocumented in the USA. They place their lives in danger to come to the USA.  

The debate going forward has to have real solutions. There are real problems and we have some magnificent young people we cannot afford to send anywhere, except into the USA work force to earn and buy homes and set down roots. The USA is their home. It is the only home they have known. It is morally wrong to think they belong anywhere but here. 

With those young people are their families. If these young people can be this wonderful, they were raised by someone and it wasn't an American born here because they would have been adopted already. Families that are Undocumented and have brought their children and raised them in the USA have a right to stay and make their children's reality complete. Breaking up families serves no one.

President Obama saw 5 million of the Undocumented as unnecessary to process in deportation. He had something in mind when he wrote that Executive Order regardless of the political activism of the appeals court. If he has a clear understanding of those that would be left alone to carry out their lives because they are an asset to the USA that is a special class of people. There is no reason to move away from that understanding and instead protect them and the Dreamers. 

So, the debate begins and those that make extremist statements better have real information to back up their statements otherwise it will be dismissed as election rhetoric and discriminatory to the Undocumented.

Even the police can't demand drug screening.

Drug testing is a function of the medical community, be it urinalysis or blood draws. There is no percent of welfare recipients or food stamp recipients that have proven these are programs used illegitimacy. 

The testing has legal implications and will result in fear and will keep people away even if not taking drugs illegally. There are issues as well with medications ordered by a physician. Will that require additional time to validate the American's answers? Food stamps can't be delayed. It is a need that is immediate. 

The only way I see any type of testing being conducted is when a person or family receives Medicaid and has options for treatment if there is a problem with KNOWN drug addiction. There are all kinds of problems, including false positives. Otherwise it is pure victimization and serves no purpose to society except additional costs. Once again, the only people qualified to collect such specimens are certified labs and licensed personnel. The only place the specimens are evaluated are also certified labs. 

Costs (click here) start at $30 for a simple urinalysis, but, for a drug screen it is more like $165.00. Drug screens are a special request and need more analysis than a simple chemistry test. 

For as often as positives would show up, the request is a burden for society. The subject is just politics. It is amazing the money the political right wing spends on lawsuits that fail. 

The costs to such testing redirects monies from food stamps and welfare programs in the pockets of the private sector. It reduces the benefits available.

July 15, 2015
Arthur Delaney

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, (click here) one of many Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination, is suing the federal government over his plan to make some food stamp recipients pee in cups to prove they're not on drugs. 
Federal law doesn't give states much room to impose new conditions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The program is known informally by its former name, food stamps, and in Wisconsin it's called FoodShare. 
“This lawsuit seeks to provide clarity that the State of Wisconsin has the authority to require drug testing for FoodShare recipients,” Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said in a press release on Tuesday.  
While federal law doesn't allow states to impose drug tests on SNAP recipients, it does allow states to drug test and in general make up their own rules for the much smaller Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which serves about 4 million Americans. Roughly 46 million Americans receive SNAP benefits....

Oslar Groening will be 98 years old when he finishes his sentence as accessory to murder as the Auschwitz bookkeeper, if he is required to serve his sentence.

There are not many people who do not look for justice to war crimes. The people committing them are required to stand trial and face sentencing. It is a form justice.

There have been other genocides in our world and Rwanda is just one. There were genocides committed in Cambodia as well. 

The world continues to try to bring modern day values of tolerance and brotherhood to most countries. We recognize human rights abuses as well.

We are conscience of disparities in a changing world. Some modern day injustices can be traced to Western consumerism that deprives countries and nations of people of water.

But, genocide never goes unanswered. That is the case ever since the atrocities that lead to WWII.


With the help of a Red Cross worker, former SS guard Oskar Groening leaves the court after the verdict of his trial in Lueneburg, Germany, Wednesday, July 15, 2015. Groening, 94, who served at the Auschwitz death camp was convicted on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder and given a four-year sentence. | Markus Schreiber A

July 15, 2015 
By Matthew Schofeld

 BERLIN

In what was certainly (click here) among the last verdicts for Nazi crimes against humanity, the 94-year-old “Accountant of Auschwitz” on Wednesday was sentenced to four years in German prison for his role in the deaths of 300,000 Hungarian Jews.
The sentence – about seven minutes for each of the victims – handed to Oskar Groening raised the difficult question of whether justice can ever be done for the mass murders of the Holocaust, whose victims numbered 6 million Jews and millions of other “undesirables,” including Gypsies, gays and political dissidents.
German historian Michael Wolffsohn, a professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, suggested that nothing short of the biblical “mark of Cain” was a sufficient punishment....

"It was hard to watch them...." That is a statement of conscience from a foot soldier. A statement that acknowledges the fact the average soldier could recognize atrocity when he saw it. Is it too much to ask that everyone walk in the shadow of Lieutenant Martynushkin and stop the crime before it starts?

January 27, 2015
By Ishaan Tharoor

When the Soviet Army's 322nd Rifle Division entered the concentration camp at Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945, they found a desolation. Mounted on shaggy ponies, they had proceeded with caution as they entered the camp, fearful of a Nazi ambush. But there was no trace of the German enemy....
 
..."It was hard to watch them. (click here) I remember their faces, especially their eyes which betrayed their ordeal," Martynushkin told Agence France Presse this week, ahead of the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation. Martynushkin is one of the few surviving Soviet soldiers from that day, and has spoken on numerous occasions about his experience then....

..."At first there was wariness, on both our part and theirs," he said in an interview with Radio Free Europe. "But then they apparently figured out who we were and began to welcome us, to signal that they knew who we were and that we shouldn't be afraid of them — that there were no guards or Germans behind the barbed wire. Only prisoners."...

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article27284962.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article27284962.html#storylink=cpy

President Netanyahu has hurt himself in the global community because his politics are so very vicious.

He has been condescending and denouncing all the efforts to bring Iran into a state of controlled nuclear program PROVIDED under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, that he has caused judgement of his motives. 

This is Israeli politics. This is not a global community sincerely concerned about the peace that can disturbed by angry and irrational politics. Interestingly, the Israeli Arabs TODAY have little reservation about the Iran agreement. These are the very Israeli Arabs that only a short time ago, Netanyahu and his political allies tried to remove from Israeli ELECTED government and even cast them into exile.

This article is from Haaretz. The people of Israel are not blind to other opinions within the country.

July 14, 2015
By Jack Khoury

Survey by Coalition Against Racism (click here) also shows increase in racist comments by elected officials.

The summer Gaza war and winter election campaign increased the incidence of racism in Israel, including anti-Arab acts, the group the Coalition Against Racism said Tuesday. 

This racism in Israel is being used to divide politics into pro and anti Israel. A joint session of US Congress was even used for the divisive purpose of the Netanyahu politics in Israel AND the USA.

Israel is in a very dangerous place if it exhibits hate of any of it's own citizens or hate toward other countries in the region. Israel has to provide for a peaceful path in the region and today that is completely absent. 

Netanhayu was more comfortable with silence between the USA and Iran because they are Neocons. They value control through war and killing. This is was the same paradigm of the Bush/Cheney administration. Hatred is an asset and not a plague. 

The fact that President Obama within the P5+1 framework has worked, the political paradigms are reeling with deceit and lies. 

There is an agreement today after years of talking and fits and starts. This has been a very long road whereby all parties, including The West's political parties were respected. President Obama and Secretary Kerry took all the apprehensions seriously and asked the process to accept Dr. Moniz to consult to provide expert assessment of the agreement.

The right wing extremists, including Netanyahu, need to shut up because they know nothing of THE TRUTH! 

The global community, including the USA, will be watching for further human rights violations because Israeli political vapors want to institutionalize racism.

Enough!

Saudi Arabia is far ahead of any American politician.

This August 21, 2010 file photo shows the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant outside Iran’s southern city of Bushehr.(AP Photo)

15 July 2015
By The Arab News

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia (click here) said it supported an agreement to stop Tehran gaining nuclear weapons but emphasized the importance of a strict inspections regime and the ability to reimpose sanctions.

An official source, quoted by the SPA, said the Kingdom has always stood by the importance of an agreement that prevents Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons at all costs, and includes on-going and specific monitoring mechanism of all sites, especially military sites, as well as the mechanism to reintroduce sanctions immediately in the case of any violation of the agreement by Iran. The official also stressed that sanctions relating to terrorism and violation of international arms treaties would remain intact. 

“In light of this agreement, Iran must take advantage of its resources to promote domestic development and improve the situation of Iranian youth, rather than using it to create chaos in the region — an act that will be faced with determination by countries in the region,” the official said....

June 2015 

The USA (click here) is the world's largest producer of nuclear power, accounting for more than 30% of worldwide nuclear generation of electricity. 

The country's 100 nuclear reactors produced 798 billion kWh in 2014, over 19% of total electrical output. There are now 99 units operable (98.7 GWe) and five under construction....

Those in opposition to a historic and negotiated verifiable agreement should have specific arguments and not theoretical. 

Updated 2015

Iran (click here) produced 254 billion kWh gross in 2012, with consumption of about 200 TWh, per capita about 2600 kWh/yr. Its 2012 electricity production comprised 170 TWh from gas, 69 TWh from oil, both of which it has in abundance, 12.5 TWh from hydro which is less reliably available, and 2 TWh from nuclear power. Demand is growing about 4% per year, and Iran trades electricity with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Turkey. Net export is about 7 TWh/yr....

...In 2013 and 2014 senior officials were talking of a target of 20 GWe nuclear by 2020. AEOI cites parliamentary approval for this capacity target (if not deadline) as being binding on it....

Is Iran's economy complimented by nuclear power plants. If so, how. 

Pope Francis should construct his speeches well, because, the US Republicans use language and words to justify all their immoral laws and the politics that precedes them.

Perhaps, Pope Francis also has a view and guidance regarding the Middle East as well.  

US policy frequently acts as a stone dropped in still water. It ripples across the world. Pope Francis should use that understanding to address those with the stone. 

I am hoping the Pope will remove the faux morality of American politics in stating procreation is best left to God and the choices that lead to his favor and not the legislation of supposed moral content that lends to illegitimate policy and economic oppression.

Pope Francis has returned to Rome.

13 July 2015

...Coca leaves, (click here) which are the raw ingredient for cocaine, are used legally for medical and religious purposes in Bolivia.
The leaves are chewed or brewed in teas and work as a mild stimulant, helping also to alleviate nausea caused by high altitudes.
Bolivia's left-wing President Evo Morales began his political life as the leader of the cocaleros, traditional coca leaf producers.
The pontiff, who had part of a lung removed when he was young, only stayed in the La Paz area - which lies 3,650m (12,000ft) above sea level - for about four hours....

Pope Francis has been available to the people in interviews throughout his trip.

...Aboard the papal plane, (click here) Jul 13, 2015 / 11:43 am (CNA).- In the course of his 64 minute in-flight press conference while en route to Rome, Pope Francis answered questions ranging from politics, his upcoming trip to the Unites States, and his feelings about taking selfies.
The Pope responded in Italian to 14 questions posed by journalists during his July 12 overnight flight from Asuncion to Rome.
Paraguay was the last of the three stops on the Pope's trip to South America. He visited Ecuador July 5-8 and spent a few days in Bolivia before heading to Paraguay on July 10 to finish his visit....

Pope Francis was presented with a communist cross during his travels. He stated it was protest art and was not offended in any way by the gift.

July 13, 2015
By Cindy Wooden

Before arriving (click here) in the United States in September, Pope Francis said, he will study American criticisms of his critiques of the global economy and finance.
“I have heard that some criticisms were made in the United States — I’ve heard that — but I have not read them and have not had time to study them well,” the Pope told reporters traveling with him from Paraguay back to Rome on July 12.
“If I have not dialogued with the person who made the criticism,” he said, “I don’t have the right” to comment on what the person’s saying.
Pope Francis said his assertion in Bolivia on July 9 that “this economy kills” is something he believes and has explained in his exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel” and more recently in his encyclical on the environment....

We are all looking forward to his September visit and the words that accompany that visit. I doubt he'll be holding special dispensation for Wall Street.

This article is very graphic. Don't read with a weak stomach.

La Familia Michoacán was the focus of a country wide drug sweep a few years ago in the USA. They have plans of repopulating it's network.

The escape is a guarantee to increased violence. The cartel is not interested in illegal immigration, that is simply part of the picture; they are interested in destroying governments. Governments and moral content of a country is the enemy of the cartels. They rather their own form of justice and corruption.

Understand when these cartels kill it is as much a personal gratification as instilling fear of it's power. They are dangerous. The former Mexican President Felipe Calderón found that out. President Calderon instituted the first military stance with the cartels. The domestic violence exploded. It hasn't stop since.

They go down hard. When President Calderon took on the cartels what manifested was a defense of the DRUG HIGHWAYS that begins in South America. He hit a vital capacity of the cartels. Fighting the cartels from as far north as the USA and Mexico is extremely difficult. The death of the snake really will be best ended at it's roots, not it's head. South American governments need to recognize a new power in establishing a sovereign peace based in removing the cartels influence.

Quite frankly, the influence of the cartels is hemispheric. There is no single government in the world that has control of a hemisphere.

July 14, 2015

By Walid Shoebat

“Neither the government nor priests (click here) can handle El Chapo” was a warning sent by Joaquin Guzman (El-Chapo) to what he considered his two biggest threats at the time: Christian priests and the government.

To ensure he was taken seriously, the note accompanied two corpses: soldiers that he arranged to be killed so everyone gets the message: you need to fear the drug cartel of Sinaloa, especially the infamous El Chapo.

The message was sent in response to Hector Gonzalez, the archbishop of the northern state of Durango, who raised fears of attacks on the clergy. Indeed, according to the Catholic Multimedia Center (CCM) Mexico is the most dangerous country in Latin America for priests.

The strange thing in America, is that so many act as if El-Chapo’s operation is a colorful background setting for popular American TV shows and movies. On Twitter, one comments “notice how much more love El Chapo gets compared to Trump”. Some tweets even offered to aid El-Chapo to kill Donald Trump. If one can use this as ‘the Twitter poll’ El-Chapo will be in the lead. Such are so many liberal democrats....

The housing market has been a focus of Chairwoman Yellen since the beginning of her leadership.

...“Looking forward, (click here) prospects are favorable for further improvement in the U.S. labor market and the economy more broadly,” she told the committee.

Ms. Yellen tipped her hat to problems in Greece and China but, like other Fed officials, she does not seem overly worried. “Although the recovery in the euro area appears to have gained a firmer footing, the situation in Greece remains difficult,” she said. “And China continues to grapple with the challenges posed by high debt, weak property markets and volatile financial conditions.”...

The ultra-rich are effecting the burgeoning middle class in China. It is really odd China is struggling with real estate markets in the same way it effects the USA.  It is no minor coincidence.

The China property market problem is a long time issue.

August 18, 2014
By Bonnie Cao

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- China’s new-home prices (click here) fell in July in almost all cities that the government tracks as tight mortgage lending deterred buyers even as local governments eased property curbs.
Prices fell in 64 of the 70 cities last month from June, the National Bureau of Statistics said today, the most since January 2011 when the government changed the way it compiles the data. Beijing prices fell 1 percent from June, posting the first monthly decline since April 2012.
“The falling trend of China’s property market has no sign of improving,” Shen Jian-guang, Hong Kong-based chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd., said in a phone interview today. “The key issue is the mortgages, despite all types of local government easings. The high rate is damping sentiment of owner occupiers.”...

Chairwoman Yellen is stating more transparency between the Fed and Congress would be damaging to relationships with the financial sector. She states the US Central Bank is the most transparent bank in the world. She also called attention to the investigations of the Justice Department and the oversight practiced at that level.

"Ron Paul Lives" 

It is also Congress's role to be sure the oversight is appropriate and not one designed by the NSA.  

It is interesting to realize how late a Republican Congress is when reacting to Fed policy. In 2008 everything that occurred in the financial markets was a surprise. And then the Fed was suppose to 'do something, anything' to stop the catastrophic Republican policies over the previous decade. It wasn't completely the Fed that stopped the failing market, it was a Democratic lead Congress that acted to increase economic activity in one that was contracting daily. 

Now, over a decade of Republican economic polices of "W" the Republicans are having a rush of conscience. 

The Republicans should consult with a favorite son in Donald Trump regarding their financial policy. I am quite sure he knows quite well what zero percent interest means to the American markets. 

Planned Obsolescence

It is not a question as to whether or not the Iran agreement will work, it is whether or not the rest of the world provides a peaceful place for Iran. A war can only exist if there are two that consider each other enemies. 

It was important Europe, Russia, China and the USA all had a vested interest in the agreement. Every major country involved in these talks have vital interests in the region. It all has to work and the agreement is a catalyst to a lasting peace. 

One of the worst cases of failed agreements was the invasion into Iraq. It caused an enormous shift in the USA's trustworthiness. The world has a chance to garner peace and make it work. The USA cannot simply wait and place another president in office that seeks reasons to war. 

It is important the entire global community embrace this agreement with Iran and bring the country into a desired peace. We know the region is capable of it. The Sunnis, Shia and Kurds accept each other in domestic peace. It is time to bring war to an end. Pandora's Box and Slippery Slopes are some of the best reasons to end hate and promote peace. This agreement is important, but, the timeline to ten to fifteen years into the future is to secure a stable and prosperous Middle East. 

When reflecting on Iran and the current war environment, it is easy to appreciate Iran's ability to defend their own people. Without the Shia militia, Iraq would have been lost. Iran is capable of being a strong ally.

I can't speak for him, but, I can know how I understand him. 

His emotional distance from the attacks of September 11, 2015 requires some degree of empathy. If one doesn't experience empathy how can one return the emotion.

We are not fully mature in emotional competency simply because we exist. Emotional competency comes with a full experience of life and how love is given and received.  

July 14, 2015
By Syreeta McFadden

I first read (click here) James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time 20 years ago, and it saved me. At the time I was living in Morningside Heights, a neighborhood to the south-west of Harlem. The months before I picked up that book had built in me a kind of dread I couldn’t name, spurred on by a constellation of events that were all designed to remind me of “my place”. I had just finished a year at Columbia University as one of just a very few black students there....

I really don't care to hear any politics over this agreement. The Iranian Revolution occurred in 1979. There is every reason to believe this should never have occurred. This tells the world something about the current government of Iran.

The US Republicans are simpletons. They will yell and scream that Iran will have nuclear weapons in ten years. It is nonsense.

Iran has yet to be known by the world. It is the country's scholars that have carried the will of the people to the negotiation table.This is not only a historic agreement, but, defied all odds it exists at all.

I sincerely believe Iran will come into a new world identity. Iran's neighbors need to reach out to the government diplomatically to extend this agreement to end hostilities and bring Iran into the fold of allies that is seeking to protect the peaceful people and their nations. Now is the time when Iran needs to come to terms with it's current status of defense and realize there is an alliance of Arab countries that want peace. 

Lifting the sanctions is easy. Asking for trade relations is even more simple. But, to bring this agreement full circle to hold peace in the palm of their hands and know all of the Middle East is of the same will and esteem is nothing to be ignored. 

Iran and the Arab Alliance have a common enemy. It is time for Iran to appreciate the countries in the Middle East and bring an end to Daesh. It would be a profound understanding the Shia of the Middle East have lived through decades of fear to come into the 21st Century without it. There is no need for any Shi'ite to fear other peoples and nations. 

The conflicts between the Shi'ites and Sunnis has to stop. Iran has come this far, it is time it make a few more steps to bring security to it's country. The Iranian people deserve to be protected in peace. It would be wrong for Iran to continue to believe any Shia are in danger when there is a simple solution.

Eric Garner was selling cigarettes that he paid taxes on, for a $1.00.

Eric Garner was piecing together a lower middle class life in order to elevate his children. He was paying for activities in their school. He was looking forward to supporting them in college. I can only imagine the cruel thoughts going through the mind of Mr. Garner as he lay in the street being strangled by six police officers. It wasn't one, it was all of the police officers. They were all on the same high horse. Not one of them stopped the death of Eric Garner. 

The Garner young people have a task before them. They need to finish the schooling their father wanted for them. They need to make him proud. I am sure their father will be dearly missed. They won't be able to get past the empty chair at their graduations and other special moments in life, but, they can be proud of him and his dreams for them.

July 14, 2015
By Kevin Conlon

(CNN) Almost one year to the day (click here) after he died at the hands of New York City police officers -- an episode that fueled months of racially underscored anti-police protests across the nation -- the family of Eric Garner accepted a pretrial settlement from the city Monday. 

Garner's estate, which filed a claim against the city in October 2014 for damages related to his death, will be paid $5.9 million, according to a city official. 

"Following a judicious review of the claim and facts of this case, my office was able to reach a settlement with the estate of Eric Garner that is in the best interests of all parties," said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose office is charged with settling claims against the city....

The Executive Branch of the US Constitution has significant power. The Presidency means something.

This post has been updated now that the Obama administration has reached a deal with Iran.

July 14, 2015
By Amber Phillips

Pretty soon, Congress (click here) could have an up-or-down vote on President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran.
But don't let your lawmaker fool you: It's not written in stone that Congress has the right to approve or disapprove of major international negotiations. It's not even a law.
The dirty little secret of U.S. international negotiations is this: Exactly how our government approves of most of this stuff is decided on a case-by-case basis.
Depending on what the president calls a deal with another country -- is it a treaty? an executive agreement? -- and the political movement du jour, a deal like the one with Iran could need a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to be approved or could slide by without any vote at all.

Hyeonseo Lee, the North Korean peacemaker. She asks for us to appeal for the North Korean people.

As a child growing (click here) up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee thought her country was “the best on the planet.” It wasn't until the famine of the 90s that she began to wonder. She escaped the country at 14, to begin a life in hiding, as a refugee in China. Hers is a harrowing, personal tale of survival and hope — and a powerful reminder of those who face constant danger, even when the border is far behind.

As per usual, the political media in the USA is unable to find the correct words for the VERIFIABLE AGREEMENT. 

It is not a deal that has been negotiated with Iran. It is a verifiable agreement that is expected to pass the UN Security Council to become a UN Resolution.

The USA looks forward to the end of misunderstandings with Iran and a return of US citizens.

July 13, 2015

A third hearing (click here) in the trial of jailed Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian on espionage charges took place behind closed doors in Tehran on Monday, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
The first and second hearings of Iranian-U.S. citizen Rezaian were held behind closed doors on May 26 and June 8 respectively at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Rezaian has been in Tehran's Evin prison since his arrest in July 2014. "The trial will continue and when the verdict is issued we will announce it to people,” judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said, according to the semi-official ILNA agency....

Iran needs to join the Middle East Coalition to end Daesh. It cannot do it alone.

The Shi'ite militias in Iraq have joined the Iraqi military to reduce the imposition of Daesh; there is no reason similar alliance can't exist to end the threat of Daesh.

Iran is not used to thinking of itself as a part of a larger Middle East and it is time that goes forward. Iran cannot defeat Daesh alone. The greater Middle East has no plans to use the opposition of Daesh to victimize any Shia population within their countries. 

Nasrallah is correct to call for consolidation with Iran, however, to exclude that consolidation as a great force in alliance with sovereign governments is a terrible error. 

There is a renewed interest in peace with Iran by the major powers of the world, the Shia should recognize this as a chance to join coalitions of peace that will insure the place of the Shi'ites in the region. Iran needs to see their place in the Middle East differently from the past. It is important Iran seek stability and peace. The celebration of Eid is a perfect time to change the relationships between Iran and other countries. 

This new relationship between Iran and the world should be seen by countries such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia to resolve all countries act to end the threat of Daesh. The Arab Coalition should consider talks with Iran as a method to stabilize the region. 

The Shia Crescent can be a new strength to the region to end instability and violence.

July 14, 2015

Recently, Foreign Affairs (click here) magazine ran an article on the growing ties between Iran and the Taliban. Ahmad Javid, the author of the article, points to a number of reports that document Iran’s ongoing effort to recruit and train Taliban fighters. Iranian policy in this regard, according to Javid, is alarming.

Of course, it is not as if this is the first time Iran is meddling in the internal matters of other countries. Earlier on two occasions, the international forces in Afghanistan did seize shipments of Iranian ammunitions and weapons intended for the Taliban. 

Javid argues that the shipments in 2007 and in 2011 were big enough, therefore, the Iranian authorities must have known about them. Commenting on Iran’s policy, former US army General David Petraeus said he believed that Iran was not oblivious to the fact that its help to the Taliban would not change much, but it sought to make the American task in Afghanistan a difficult one.

Iran was driven by its security concerns. In fact, the objective is primarily to make the Americans bleed rather than to help the Taliban return to power. In the past, Iran opposed the Taliban rule in Afghanistan lest they joined forces with Jundallah, a Sunni group that operates inside Iran. In 1998, Iran was about to launch an attack against the Taliban. Moreover, Iran supported the United States’ effort in 2001 to bring down the Taliban regime....

July 14, 2015
By Elizabeth Drew

Those having trouble making sense (click here) of the American presidential election need not worry. It doesn’t make sense. Indeed, the ongoing campaign is the weirdest contest for the country’s highest office in modern times, owing not just to the number of candidates — there are currently 14 of them, with two or three more expected soon — but also their nature.

The usual question posed to presidential aspirants is: Why are you running? This year, the answer seems to be: Why not? As long as one is not too attached to one’s dignity, there is little to lose and a lot to be gained from running. A failed presidential campaign, even a disastrous one, can lead to higher speaking fees, richer book contracts, or a television gig. Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee both failed to win the Republican nomination, but secured seats on cable talk shows....

July 14, 2015
By Reuters 
 

TUNIS — Tunisia’s interior minister (click here) said security forces had almost wiped out an Islamist militant group linked to Al Qaeda during a crackdown launched after two deadly attacks on tourists.

Clashes last week killed leaders, including two veteran Algerian militants, from the Okba Ibn Nafaa brigade, blamed for an assault on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March, minister Najem Gharselli told reporters late on Sunday.

The North African country has come under growing international pressure to show it is in control of militants after a gunman also killed 38 holidaymakers at a beach hotel in Sousse last month, an attack claimed by the Daesh group.

“After we killed some of their leaders in [the central region of] Gafsa a few days ago we have now destroyed 90 per cent of Okba Ibn Nafaa,” the minister said.

Okba Ibn Nafaa, allied with Al Qaeda’s north African wing, was among the most active of hardline groups that emerged after Tunisia’s 2011 “Arab Spring” uprising ousted autocrat Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali....

July 15, 2015
By Reuters

ISTANBUL — Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (click here) kicked off long-delayed talks on forming a coalition government on Monday after firing a warning to opposition parties not to question the role of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the political process.

Opposition parties have signalled they want Erdogan to keep out of daily politics if they join any coalition government — a direct challenge to the president, who wants to turn his largely ceremonial role into a powerful executive post....

Saudi Arabia is resolved to protect all it's people, including the Shia. In that terrorism will never have a foothold in the kingdom. Iran needs to stop demanding the Houthis rise in opposition to it's Yemen government. Houthis are dying in significant numbers. Iran has to require peace in all it's international relationships. Protecting the Houthis by exposing any assault is more important than attacks that result in their deaths.

June 5, 2015

Terrorists (click here) have failed to understand the Kingdom and its people. They have underestimated the strength of the forces they are trying to confront. They have misjudged the Saudi people. In the second bombing of a Shiite mosque last Friday, they sought to sow their stock-in-trade. They sought to sow terror. But instead, they have reaped the cold anger of every decent man and woman. They have also discovered the resolution of all who live and work in the Kingdom. 

They have sought to create discord and suspicion. Instead they have brought forth a mighty wave of determination, determination to preserve the unity and safety of the Kingdom and each and every one of its citizens.

The May 29 attack on the Al-Anoud Mosque in Dammam was another heinous crime, coming just one week after the suicide bombing at Al-Qadeeh, Qatif, which killed 21 worshippers attending Friday prayers. This time the authorities were prepared. There are no “soft targets” in Saudi Arabia any more. Though three innocent people died in this latest attack, the men of violence had hoped for a far bigger butcher’s bill. And they were disappointed....

July 13, 2015
By AFP

...The rival General National Congress (GNC) (click here) is based in Tripoli and was set up by a militia alliance, including Islamists, known as Fajr Libya, after it seized the capital last August.

The two sides have been locked in months of thorny negotiations brokered by UN envoy Bernardino Leon who has struggled to clinch a deal on a national unity government and hold fresh polls.

The GNC boycotted Saturday's ceremony in the Moroccan resort of Skhirat, saying Leon's draft deal was not "satisfactory" and calling for "modifications".

Nevertheless, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was "encouraged" by the initialling of the accord, a UN statement said.

"He looks forward to the speedy conclusion of the full agreement and its implementation," a spokesman for the UN chief said.

"This act is a clear demonstration of political will and courage and brings the country one step closer to resolving the current institutional and security crisis."

There is a problem with the truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen. It appears, at the very least to Saudi Arabia, the Houthis are using the truce to rearm and plan a further assault. Any truce doesn't have a chance if there is continued arms build up. The Houthis have to prove they are honoring the truce to build trust and not further aggressions. Saudi Arabia is justified in it's defense of the truce to prevent further militarization of the Houthis.

July 13, 2015
 

...The southern fighters (click here) managed to push back the rebels in the coastal Ras Amran area, west of Aden, according to General Fadhel Hasan, a spokesman of the Popular Resistance.

"We have seized control of the area that represents the western entry into Aden," he said, adding that the group "received sophisticated weapons from the coalition".

But the rebels prevented a convoy of desperately needed relief aid travelling from the western port city of Hodeida to enter Aden, said local relief activist Adnan Al Kaf. 

Clashes also persisted in the central city of Taez and in the southern Shabwa province, where the Popular Resistance said 21 of its fighters were killed in three days of clashes. 

The UN-proposed humanitarian truce technically went into effect at 2059 GMT Friday and is supposed to run until July 17, the last day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan....

There is a real chance for global peace.

The "Axis of Evil" speech has been dissolved. 

I congratulate all the parties involved.  

July 14, 2015
By Justin Fishel and Molly Hunter

U.S. led negotiations (click here) between Iran and six world powers have concluded with a final, historic agreement that will temporarily cut off Iran's pathway to making a nuclear bomb in exchange for the relief of crippling economic sanctions levied by the U.S. and United Nations. 

The world needs to surround this agreement and build on it. This agreement is an overlay to the relationships that will come from it.
 

Iran has agreed to significantly reduce its stockpile of enriched nuclear material and cease further enrichment, effectively extending the time it would take Iran to build a bomb from a few months to one year, over to 10 years. Upon verification that Iran is keeping its commitments to dismantle much of its nuclear program, major economic sanctions will be lifted, effectively releasing more than $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets. That undetermined point in time is now known as "implementation day." 

Europe has an intense interest in peace when it comes to the Iranian nuclear program. I would think countries negotiating trade agreements with Iran after this historic agreement will also build solid reasons for Iran to end their nuclear program forever.
 

Negotiators also agreed that a long-standing arms embargo on Iran would be lifted over time, one of the major sticking points in the talks and a decision that will be seen as a major concession by the United States. The nuclear accord states that five years from now Iran will be able to buy and sell conventional arms on the international market, and in eight years it will be allowed to do the same with ballistic missiles....

Peace can be built on trade. With Iran belonging to the Non-Proliferation Treaty there is every reason to believe economic strength will develop the incentive to peace. War never solves the need for economic strength, it destroys it. The Iranian people have chosen wisely in their elections for a President that have lead them into the future. It is up to the world and the Iranian people to continue to build on this historic agreement. The future now invites peace and it should be pursued with vigor.

I am proud of the USA's role in this agreement. Tomorrow has promise for the Middle East, it should not be taken lightly. The people of Iran has spoken. Our people need to respond in kind. Opening relationships with Iran will help solve many problems that isolation never could.  

The P5+1 have developed a main document and five very detailed technical appendices.

Dr. Ernest Moniz is at the center of this agreement and will be vital in creating an understanding of it's depth to Congress. I look forward to hearing from him regarding the technical details.

The negotiations has been working on a UN Security Council Resolution that all members have consented. The agreement is expected to be unanimously agreed to by the Security Council. The IAEA will have access to report the steps taken by Iran to fulfill the agreement. 

All major power are involved; China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US have come to a historic agreement. This agreement should never be squandered for politics. The implications of the agreement are far reaching. All the major powers have concluded their participation, this is an international agreement and requires a sober approach.