Something a little more superficial. Today was the 30th Anniversary of "The Breakfast Club."

February 12, 2015

Attention all brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, and criminals: The Breakfast Club is coming back to movie theaters. 
The John Hughes film, which is celebrating 30th anniversary this year, will be screened across the country March 26 and March 31 courtesy of Fathom Events, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and BY Experience. A newly restored version of the movie will be shown, and preceded by a featurette with remarks from cast members and filmmakers like Diablo Cody and Amy Heckerling, who have made teen movies of their own.

It was a good deal of fun.

Vladimir you ain't doin' a good job, man.

Did I hear a voice from Russia? 

Perhaps, huh?

Can the world actually do without a Russian voice to maintain stability?

If there is an obvious example of the instability that occurs when Russia takes their toys and goes home, is Syria. Everything was lost in Syria when Russia was not there to provide input and stability. What happened there? Why leave Syria? I don't understand that one. The Black Sea is that important? Wow, I don't get it. Instability in the region directly effects Russia, why leave? 

The USA should have been at least given a 'heads up' if Russia is going to leave a region. It isn't as though the USA and Russia aren't interested in the same scope of a regional stability. With Russia in Egypt, they need to rethink their presence in Syria.

I doubt I am the only one in the world that realizes Russia's withdrawal from the region is palpable. At least let the USA know their is a change in dynamics and let them have a leg up to get on top of it. I doubt anyone was entertaining the instability in Syria. 

I know for a fact, the military leadership of major powers talk about all kinds of stuff. So, what happened in Syria? I was completely surprised to realize Russia was out of the Mediterranean for years when Syria was falling apart.   

It doesn't make sense. For god sake, Russia has all the gas they want. It can't run it's ships? Huh? Huh? For real, huh? 

The USA just wanted to get rid of all the major weapons still in Libya. Russia wasn't going to be next. I thought we said hello when Russia pulled into the port in Cuba. Like what is Russia thinking already? 

Gaddafi was off the hook and killing major numbers of people. That had to stop. It was the right thing to do. 

Vladimir, did you notice the danger the African Elephants are in? The elephants need the kind of protection you provided to the tigers. 

I want the elephant groups to do some fund raising to hire rangers to protect the African elephants. 

They are gorgeous animals. And they are social. Different than tigers. Tigers are more autonomous, but, elephants are very social. If you ever think you can lend a hand, and I know there are other demands on the Russian economy right now, but, it would appreciated. 

The BEST assessment states extinction in 20 years, Vladimir. When you finish as President this time may be you could take up the African elephants as a hobby. Think about it. Take the kids. 

It's the poachers, Vladimir. Maybe talk to China and ask China to get rid of the ivory culture. A big consumer of ivory is China. They need to use plastic, man. They should not use ivory. Find something else.

Where is the superviors? Do the police officers involved have a quota to meet? Are we looking at fines to pad a city treasury?

March 25, 2015
By Mike Householder and Jeff Karoub

INKSTER, Mich. (AP) — A pastor leading (click here) a protest Wednesday outside a Detroit-area police department threatened to shut down the city until white officers are fired for the bloody arrest of a black man who was pulled from his car and repeatedly punched in the head.

The march in Inkster came a day after TV station WDIV aired police dashcam video of the Jan. 28 arrest of Floyd Dent, 57. In it, an officer punches Dent many times in the head while another officer tries to handcuff the motorist, who is on the ground. Dent's face and shirt were bloodied.

Police say Dent disregarded stop signs and refused to pull over, then resisted arrest and threatened them. They also say they found a bag of crack cocaine in his car....

Here again a supposedly a simple traffic violation turned into major confrontation. I am sure Mr. Dent is grateful to be alive.

If police officers can roll a traffic violation into a court case the fees and fines go up. 

I am somewhat curious about what a police shooting does to the employment record of a police officer? Are shootings disincentives opposed to perhaps traffic tickets a greater incentive. How are these officers evaluated on their employment record? 

Lufthansa needs to consider admitting the crash was due to poor policy with the control of the cockpit.

If Lufthansa can't make that leap of faith to change their policy, the legislature needs to assist in moving them along to better procedures.

...At least four airliners, (click here) including easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle, announced they would adopt new cockpit rules. Unlike many US carriers, European companies generally do not require two people in the cockpit at all times. Lufthansa does not voluntarily implement such a protocol....

I am going to ask if airlines would consider placing two co-pilots and/or a navigator in the cockpit to take over for relief of any pilot. It could be minimally expensive to add another co-pilot, but, the safety margin will pay for itself.

I would think if there was that type of measure taken by an airline their passengers would have greater confidence in their safety and would gravitate to those airlines. 

I realize there is a bargain airline industry of which Germanwings is in that class. One more co-pilot on even the short hops of these less expensive seats is still prudent and can be a method to add fly miles to a new pilot and accelerate the number of experienced pilots available to the fleet.

Kindly consider it. Basically, there will be two co-pilots to protect from such actions when a pilot takes necessary breaks. 

We are in the age of unpredictability and as societies we deserve to take a closer look at the emotional stability and mental health that is somewhat invisible to the average person. This was mass murder. There has to be security at a level sufficient to prevent these disaster if the industry is to survive. 

The policy used in the USA by simply placing a flight attendant in the cabin when the pilot takes a break has been in place for awhile now. There should be some degree of understanding to the effectiveness of the training. The industry might want to interview the flight crews that have the protective policy in place to evaluate their view of the things. 

Pilot unions and crew unions should provide such information to the airline. There is nothing preventing unions from asking for input to increase passenger safety and how the crew believes the protective policy works. Unions should be providing helpful surveys and information to the airlines, quite possibly, without asking. 

Any survey could be classified under working conditions, especially with the danger these crews are facing.

This is the first time I have had to listen to the House Judiciary Committee on the President's Executive Order,

Link to hearing (click here).

It is all political rhetoric and driven by Ms. Elizabeth Price Foley who is affiliated with "The Tea Party" through the book she wrote (click here) and she appears as an author on the Wall Street opinion pages.

After all her notoriety to the public she came before the committee as a professional capable of opinion without conflict of interest. I don't that ever came through in her testimony. I was not impressed with her testimony nor that of Attorney General Laxalt of Arizona. I wasn't impressed for basically the same reason.

Rep. Jackson Lee was impressive and very well prepared to discuss the question. 

The folks with the political pinion about the executive order regarding immigration had no definitive measures to discuss. They hold the President hostage to his own words stated 22 times that carries the words, "...I don't have the power to..." That is NOT a legal opinion or carries legal brevity. It is hearsay. So, the committee has no legal basis to proceed in any way. The AG of Nevada's only focus was the President's words. That is why they filed the lawsuit. On one hand the plaintiffs state the President has no right to be dictator while they insist his 22 time stated words are law and the basis to the lawsuit. Go figure. 

The entire issue regarding the accusation against the President in regard to his Executive Order is nonsense. It is all politics.

Ms. What's her name,..., Price states the President is "boot strapping" his order. In other words he is committing conspiracy against the constitution. According to her this boot strapping has occurred with every action the President takes in order to (my words, not hers) over throw the Constitution.

The other reason Ms. Price states the President is unlawful in his Executive Authority is the fact he stated (again 22 times) he has changed the law. As was pointed out by others it was nothing but a slip of language. The President has the right to effect POLICY and not LAW. 

So, the people that would benefit from the Executive Order regarding 5 million Undocumented are being postponed because of these words stated 22 different times and an activist judge AND references to "The Federalist Papers" and it's warning about dictatorships. 

I can't believe this country is carrying on by Federalist Papers that have become antiquated in their paranoia and political rhetoric in a stump speech by President Obama in his visits across the USA to bring about an understanding of his promise to these people.

The lawsuit should have been thrown out a long time ago. I think it was Rep. Jackson Lee that stated, the DHS funding should never have been held separate from the rest of the budget because the funding was approved for 2 years long before the Republicans decided to make an political exception of it.

This hearing is 3 hours, ten minutes and 34 seconds long spending the American people's treasury on political nonsense.

Bootstrapping rule was used in a criminal prosecution for conspiracy, while deciding whether to allow the jury to consider a statement of conspiracy. Moreover, the allegation must be supported by an independent evidence. If an independent evidence can convince the court that a conspiracy existed, only then such a statement can be introduced into trial and heard by the jury.

Bootstrapping in the case of President Obama's executive authority means measures he is taking are adding up to destroying the US Constitution.

Those are the three premise of the lawsuit that is prohibiting 5 million Undocumented from carrying on with their lives without worrying about deportation. The words stating, "...I changed the law" by President Obama 22 times, the alleged bootstrapping and some nonsense in the Federalist papers. 

That's all of it. There is no basis for the lawsuit, Congress has not acted to legislate Immigration Reform and the President's Executive Order is being postponed because of an activist judge and President Obama's respect for the process of our legal system.

The Federalist Papers (click here) can be called "The paranoia of the colonists" and they are not the US Constitution.

Conclusion section of the Federalist Papers:

To the People of the State of New York:
ACCORDING to the formal division of the subject of these papers, announced in my first number, there would appear still to remain for discussion two points: "the analogy of the proposed government to your own State constitution," and "the additional security which its adoption will afford to republican government, to liberty, and to property." But these heads have been so fully anticipated and exhausted in the progress of the work, that it would now scarcely be possible to do any thing more than repeat, in a more dilated form, what has been heretofore said, which the advanced stage of the question, and the time already spent upon it, conspire to forbid....

They are a framework of which laws or better said a state's constitution can be written. It was an intellectual exercise to provide a document that would allow consistency in understanding freedom. The USA is an experiment. It started over 200 years ago and the Founding Fathers while hopeful never expected it to hold up centuries. The Federalist Papers are interesting. They show the thinking of some of the most important people in the construction of our democracy, but, they are not law and have no place in any legal proceedings.

It is completely obvious the Republicans are engaged in racism and have no real reasons to OBSTRUCT immigration reform. 

Ask Ted Cruz what his plans are for immigration reform and where he can point to it in The Federalist Papers. And make sure he includes his birth certificate. I think there might be a reference to that in the Federalist Papers somewhere.

The Constitution’s Natural Born Citizenship Clause states that “no person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

The Founding Fathers, there were no women, didn't know who should be President because they were a citizen of a colony of England. The land they were standing on had a sovereignty and a name. So, when they wrote the Constitution they basically IMMIGRATED from a British colony to the USA of 13 states. The constitutionally sound policy of a natural citizen had to start somewhere.

Bush. His political profile had to be perfect. All this was swept under the carpet.

I think this is really strange. The exact same thing was occurring at US Minerals and Mining Management under his presidency, too.

No one can accuse Bush of being transparent. 

March 26, 2015
By Adam Edelman

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (click here) agents partook in wild sex parties with hookers hired by Colombian drug cartels, claims a bombshell report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General.
The parties, which took place between 2005 and 2008, were held at properties in Colombia paid for by the U.S. government and were ignored by multiple federal agencies, according to the report.
In addition, the report says, several DEA agents were gifted money and weapons from drug cartel members in Colombia.
“The (DEA) foreign officer allegedly arranged ‘sex parties’ with prostitutes funded by the local drug cartels for these DEA agents at their government-leased quarters, over a period of several years,” the report said.

The relationship between the USA and Israel is not damaged. The use of the word 'occupation' of the West Bank is correct. Very correct.

The only dynamic that occurred with the self-righteous Netanyahu is that he didn't receive the political endoresement by the Oval Office. That is also correct. The USA should not be picking and choosing leadership in Israel.

There are many, many documents that state Palestine is to be an autonomous people with a homeland. Currently and in the past, Israel has destroyed the villages of Palestinians living a pastoral existence. Got that part, A PASTORAL EXISTENCE. These villages never attacked Israel and lived to grow their livestock and their olives. Their reward in life was to have their land taken from them without any other place to live. Palestinians have been made homeless with no place to be or to have a way to find a livelihood. It is ridiculous. Israel is wrong and it is absolutely correct to state that Israel is occupying land that belongs to Palestine.

Former Prime Minister Sharon is rolling over in his grave realizing the destructive relationship that now exists between Israel and Palestine. This has been a continual degradation of the Palestinian lands under Netanyahu. Those occupied lands have to go back to the Palestinian people.

Kindly rid the conversation of 'on the brink.' The USA had drones in Yemen long before the brink.

The New York Times has it correct. The Middle East is in the midst of power struggles. This is not entirely new. There have been groups since the beginning of time seeking to unseat any government, other than their holy men.

Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, (click here) is embroiled in a struggle for power that has serious implications for the region and the security of the United States. The expanding conflict took an ominous step on Wednesday when Saudi Arabia said it launched airstrikes against rebels who have tightened their grip on Yemen.

Here are some concerns raised by the crisis in Yemen. 

The New York Times also had an interesting article regarding the numerous power groups in the region. I'll see if I can find it. 

I mean, if we are to understand the region and it's problems we need to be on the same page. Right? 

This is a better understanding of the growing relationships of 'fighting men' in Iraq.

March 24, 2015
By Anne Barnard and Kareem Fhaim
 
...The progress in Tikrit (click here) raises the possibility of increased cooperation among the militias, the army and Kurdish pesh merga forces, including those battling ISIS nearby around the northeastern oil hub of Kirkuk. But it will not be as simple as just having those two sets of forces link up and march onward....

There is also the fact the United Nations has weighed in on genocide by Daesh. So, it is determined legally this organization is an enemy of nations. This isn't just a civil war in Syria, this is a regime of ruthless killers willing to wipe out generations of people with a methodology. An easy reference are the camps of the Nazis. The camps had a one way process and it was to eliminate the very presence of genetic material in the world. The same thing applies to Daesh.

This very finding of Daesh being genocidal should be giving everyone pause, including the young people seduced by the propaganda. This is a legal determination by the joint powers of Earth this is a regime that is a danger to everyone. Young people need to realize they are being seduced into servitude to this regime. They have no reason to believe this is a group of people in service to god. That is all lies and propaganda preying on the innocent.

March 19, 2015
By Nick Cumming Bruce

GENEVA — United Nations human rights investigators (click here) on Thursday leveled accusations of genocide and war crimes at the Islamic State, citing evidence that the extremist group’s fighters had sought to wipe out the Yazidi minority in Iraq.

The investigators reported that the pattern of attacks against the Yazidis, a religious minority living mostly in northern Iraq, pointed to the intention of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, “to destroy the Yazidi as a group.”

Although the report states cautiously that the extremists “may have committed” genocide, one of the most serious international crimes, Hanny Megally, a senior United Nations rights official, told reporters in Geneva that “all the information points in that direction.”

Iraqi government forces and affiliated militia groups also appear to have committed war crimes, the United Nations said, pointing to what it called credible accounts of scores of summary killings, torture, abductions and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the use of barrel bombs....

I am fairly sure the article was in the NYTimes yesterday. It was about the groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban whom tend to be different groups. It also about their pledged allegiance to Daesh and it discussed Mullah Omar as a leader and al Qaeda as a presence. It drew many lines between the groups in the region that state they are a threat to any peace in the region. 

That is the kind of detail I believe journalists should have regardless of their positions/jobs in the news media. The reason the public gets more upset than they should is because 'the element of fear' is lumped into one understanding without knowing the sincere lack of reality that exists. But, that is me and what I always hope to bring to the discussions about the USA's involvement in other regions of the world.

Today there is controversy over Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Saudi Arabia knows what it is doing. The USA is there for allies if needed, but, Saudi Arabia has a very sophisticated national defense. They are competent to handle their own issues and have in the past. We don't have to be big brother to a competent Saudi defense force.

If interested, this article begins to identify how fluid the existence of militant groups form and continue their variety of composition.

The Early Development of the Islamic State in Khorasan Network
Defining the ISK network is a difficult task. The network is dynamic and changes occur weekly, (In my opinion, changes can happen daily as well. The idea turns to the "war lord" understanding in the region. That entire war lord capacity of the people unwittingly causes them a great deal of problems and danger in their lives. But, it is the way they understand life.) if not more frequently. The creation, spread, and development of the ISK network is also clouded in rumor and speculation, fanned by informational wars being waged by Islamic State supporters, the Afghan and Pakistani government, and their respective agents. The number of militant groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the diversity of their agendas, and the shifting and at times unclear nature of their allegiances often obscures things even further. Thus, what follows is an attempt to describe the contours of the ISK network in Afghanistan and Pakistan as it currently exists. It does not claim to be comprehensive....

What occurred on September 11, 2001 is not what is occurring right now. That network of terrorists lead by Osama bin Laden to attack the USA is dead. It doesn't exist and the only remnants of it can be found in the leadership of Daesh and even that is questionable.

The leadership of Daesh are the old Saddam soldiers. They are a political party.

The Arab Baath party (click here) is a political movement that drives its program from an "Arab adaptation" of European ultra nationalist ideology mixed with a bad dose of interpretation of Arab Muslim history. The result is terror, wars, and racist and chauvinist policies in dealing with non-Arab ethnic groups living within the Arab World. Unfortunately, Iraq, that great cosmopolitan society ended up with a political party with such an ideology on the reign of power. 

The reason they can be considered an enemy of the USA is really through the danger the pose to allies. The US military states there are members of Daesh with history back to Iraq in the Arabian Peninsula. I suppose, but, they have transformed into something very different. The relationship between Daesh and it's roots in al Qaeda is diffuse. I think it is.

Osama bin Laden has exposure to the USA. We were infidels. His hate of the USA was played out in wars. The people in Daesh are more sophisticated because of the internet, not because they earned their strips in study like bin Laden did. It is different. What isn't different is the propaganda provided to innocents willing to be bombs and killers for god. That propaganda is the same and I suppose to them the USA is still the great evil in the world. 

It could easily be stated, the USA and it's war into Iraq actually facilitated Daesh. Daesh had our military equipment and I am fairly confident the soldiers in the beginning days of this "Death Regime" were trained by USA advisers in Iraq. So, the use of the USA in the Middle East is best left out of it. We cause more problems than we could ever solve. 

A commentator stated Airbus is breathing a sigh of relief today because this was a deliberate act? Seriously? 

This happened on an Airbus jet, what safeguards are built into a jet to prevent this type of tragedy. I would not be breathing a sigh of relief if I were them.

This isn't the first time this type of disaster has occurred. There is no reason for guns on board and there should be no axes on board, there has to be different locking mechanisms on the cockpit door to provide free and easy access to the crew members while keeping passengers out of any potential to interfere with the flight.  

The locking mechanism has to be mechanical and not electronic. This could have been prevented, Airbus needs to take their quality control seriously. 

The fact that a cockpit door locks and can't be opened is insane. It should never exist and the barbaric idea axes and guns are in access of the pilots is hideous. 

Legislators are not engineers. To actually have a major company such as Airbus sit ideally by to allow legislators decide what needs to be done is extremely negligent. Airbus should have answers before there are questions even asked.  

Why should a jet be considered safe transportation if the manufacturers have no regard for the passenger and their safety to live through that transit. Airbus and every other jet manufacturer have a lot in the balance of this investigation.

There is no excuse here.

We have witnessed large jets used as bombs and now as an end to some distress by a young pilot. Yet the jet manufacturers sit by to wait for the decisions of legislators so they can do MINIMAL modifications to their jets.

This is so typical of major Wall Street companies. They lobby legislators, they buy elections to prevent from regulation that MAY cost them a miniscule dollar in the cost of their jets. Every possible scenario of danger should be realized before the jets are even put into blueprints. 

No one is even discussing how much fuel was in that jet that caused it to be completely destroyed on impact.

All airlines need to immediately protect from this scenario.

There is no reason for this to happen. Flights should be grounded until there are guarantees in place to end this type of scenario. 

This was not a lengthy flight. Why did the pilot leave the cockpit at all?

There are already standards in place to prevent such scenarios. There is no excuse to have this type of tragedy occur by today's standards. I honestly don't care why the co-pilot decided he had the right to kill everyone along with himself. Every airline has to institute safeguards against such an act. 

There is no understanding 'the poor man.' This is inexcusable. 

There are guns in the cockpit with some airlines. That would be a possibility of murder to anyone who tried to stop the sabotage of the jet. All this has to end and people need to have confidence when flying.  

Europe has been traumatized. It has been one tragedy after another. There could be many reasons why this co-pilot decided to take his life and those of the passengers. The reason the countries' leadership is so public is to bring about reassurances of stability. All those leaders in Europe are very worried about the people due to all these tragedies that don't seem to be ending. This young co-pilot could have did this for a variety of reasons.

Europe is a very different place from the USA in many ways. People care about each other. This deeply traumatizes the public in Europe. 

Europe has a different social contract, this type of violence especially in Germany, is not conceivable. Germany has strong opinions about this type of violence. They have very little tolerance of any violence in their society. So, this is a major upset for everyone. 

March 26, 2015
By Ben Candea and Corinne Cathcart

The co-pilot (click here) of the doomed Germanwings plane appeared to want to "destroy the plane," Brice Robin, Public Prosecutor of Marseille, said today.

The co-pilot of the Germanwings airbus that crashed in the French Alps Tuesday had 630 hours of flight experience and had started working in 2013, an airline spokeswoman told ABC News.

Germanwings would not provide any other information on the co-pilot's identity.

One of the pilots may have been locked out of the cockpit, a senior military official involved in the investigation told The New York Times.

The official said the audio on the cockpit voice recorder indicated one of the pilots was outside of the cockpit and unable to re-enter, according to the paper. The unnamed official described hearing the pilot unable to re-enter the cockpit and lightly knock on the door at first, before pounding on it...