Tamerlan Tsarnaev was known to the FBI, too.

May 5, 2015
By Wajahat S. Khan and Alastair Jamieson

...Simpson was known to the FBI (click here) and was convicted of lying to federal agents five years ago about his plans to allegedly join a terror group in Africa. 

"I think that they could have had a reason to at least start investigating him," Kristina Sitton, the lawyer who represented Simpson during his terror case, told The Associated Press... 

What I want to know is did the group in question send them an invitation and if not how did the gunmen learn about their inflammatory meeting or convention or whatever it was?

I think the police officer responding was a heck of marksman. He did an impossible job when the demand was called on him. He should receive a commendation from at the very least The State of Texas. 

I also believe the group that caused this conflict completely disregarded the lives of people in the building and those responding. The meeting was completely out of line. 

The France issue is very different. They were professional artists that made a living by publishing a magazine full of commentary. 

The Garland, Texas group had nothing to do with people that earn their living in such a manner and simply want to continue to do so. The content for the meeting was intended to cause exactly what happened. The organizers should receive summons for the danger they placed themselves and responding police officers to incite such an incident. 

Huckabee is certainly comfortable in life, but, he is the moralizer. He continues to be an anchor of the Republican Party.

Mike Huckabee getting a shave and haircut in Des Moines, Iowa, on New Year's Eve, 2007.
 Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times  

May 5, 2015  
By Alan Rappaport
...On War (click here)

In 2007, Mr. Huckabee said: “We did a great job of going in and toppling Saddam Hussein. The tough part has been bringing some sense of stability there. And so it’s been a struggle for the president. I think the domestic agenda has also been something that’s almost been ignored and overlooked because we have spent so much of a time on Iraq.”

On Tuesday he said: “As president, I promise you that we will no longer merely try to contain a jihadism, we will conquer it. We will deal with jihadis just as we would deal with deadly snakes. And let there be no doubt, Israel will know, as will the whole world, that we are their trusted friend.”...

No one likes abortion. The many children in this country is testament to that fact. Americans love children and we love our families, so to that reality Former Governor Huckabee is way off base when he covets uterus not belonging to him.

There are more than 320 million people in the USA; of those citizens 74.5 million are children age 17 or younger. That is about 23 percent of the country's people. That is not a country that doesn't want children. It is easy to tell the USA loves family in reflection of the diversity of faiths which is a First Amendment right. 

The moral content of the country is intact with acceptance of the LGBT members and their excellent parenting skills. There is no reason to believe any LGBT in the USA is some sort of profane aspect of our society. Huckabee is a perversion from the past.

We are a democracy and accept the diversity of our lives and celebrate it. I am grateful everyday the USA is a diverse melting pot and not a society that ostracizes one religion over another. The USA is a strong and good country. The Former Governor has never accepted the very foundation of our USA Constitution. He is of the old school that the USA is a Christian country in need of spiritual guidance daily to function and make decisions.

The First Amendment DICTATES all Americans accept any forms of religion and it's benevolence to the stability and moral content of the country. The Former Governor has no right to hack away at any person's personal choices. Personal choices are guaranteed to Americans and it makes our economy vibrant to that reality. 

This is nearly laughable.

The companies that own the leases to USA natural resources don't know what they are doing.  The country puts faith in the people receiving leases that they are doing it right and now this shows exactly how remiss the CEOs are with those leases.

May 4 (Reuters) - In an attempt to increaseproductivity, (click here) shale oil drillers in the United States have begun moving rigs to more productive areas of the Permian and Eagle Ford basins, analysts at Goldman Sachs said.
Data from oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc showed on Friday that the fall in U.S. oil rig count slowed last week, suggesting the collapse in drilling may be coming to an end as prices recover. "The county level rig data is showing potential signs of high grading with rig increases in some of the more productive counties of the Permian and Eagle Ford plays, despite the aggregate rig count still declining," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a weekly report. The observation comes after the analysts in the past several weeks have said the rig data showed little evidence of high grading....

This is not what I would expect from a well managed company. The CEOs in the oil sector simply put holes in the group and if there is a trickle coming up from who knows how deep or where with horizontal fracking that is called a well. What are the inspections saying on these drilling enterprises. Obviously, the production in the USA in this sector is very poorly managed. So, what are the inspectors finding in the way of viable wells. Anything? Anything means the well is producing? Aren't there records to validate the companies are actually utilizing leases of public lands well?

This sector is in a sorry state if they didn't see the price collapse coming and now they have to decide which wells actually pay their own way. Which wells are causing a deficit balance for it's use and which wells are producing a profit. Amazing. They don't know what they are doing and they don't care about the land, the people or what is expected from a lease with the USA. 

Leases are provided because the people of the USA have needs, NOT THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. Private industry is allowed to seek profits in their service to the people from these leases. These companies never bothered to decide whether they were productive wells. The companies are not reliable in handling USA natural resources and cause too many problems.

The USA doesn't make money from shipping our natural resources abroad. The petroleum industry makes money from shipping the USA's natural resources abroad. This isn't like a manufacturing sector that actually produces good from raw materials and then are sold abroad. The petroleum industry takes our finite natural resources and makes a profit from selling them overseas. That should never occur. I realize there are some loopholes and why the Texas ports are coveted by the industry to boost profits supposedly; but, the regulations state countries that are allies and have a need can apply for a permit to bring USA natural resources to their country. 

The country's natural resources is not a Wall Street toy. It is the natural resources of the United States of American and they belong to the people of this country.  If the USA doesn't have use for them then there are suppose to be leases sold. What is more simple than that? 

If the lessees are found to be negligent in the use of the public lands, there should be a complaint filed against them by inspectors and/or the public. simply putting holes in the ground in hopes of finding some oil or natural gas is not competent practice and the company should not continue the lease.

It is always a surprise when gross mismanagement of our public lands makes it to the surface and the people finally hear of it. Sometimes it is articles such as this or sometimes it is burning rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, but, it the surprises never end. Spills, unemployment and tanking oil prices are all part of the excitement of leasing lands to incompetents. 

There is a name for the phenomena occurring with the petroleum industry in the USA.  It is called "Dutch Disease."

Dutch disease
Named after the negative effects of the North Sea oil boom on industrial production in The Netherlands, this phenomenon occurs when resource booms cause real exchange rates to rise and labor and capital to migrate to the booming sector. This results in higher costs and reduced competitiveness for domestically produced goods and services, effectively ‘‘crowding out’’ previously productive sectors.

The companies went to North Dakota and began to drill for oil. Many people followed them. I witnessed it from articles written about the migration of not just labor but oil rigs as well. The companies indiscriminately drilled for oil. There were leaks in the pipelines because there was so much oil there was no way of knowing there was a leak. A farmer discovered it when he went to plow his fields in early spring. 

There was such a glut of oil being pushed into trains, pipelines and trucks the entire infrastructure of the USA and Canada for that matter became stressed in a way it never had before. All of a sudden there were no rail capacity to move grain or any other commodity normally transported by rail. The grain elevators had to move their commodities by barge on the Great Lakes. If that wasn't enough of an insult to the USA's economy, now we witness an industry that never bothered to police itself in regard to production and profit. 

So, the collapse of the oil prices were two fold. The glut pushed the prices down and then the arrogance of the petroleum industry showed up when their operations weren't producing enough to overcome the losses they were sustaining. 

The industry is a menace across this planet and they prove every day what an unwitting people and economy the USA actually is. 

The USA better decide how the currency of the country is being effected by these morons. While the 'assets' add to the buoyancy of the USA dollar, the actual mismanagement of those assets may prove detrimental in time. 

Moral to the FACTS: "Don't devalue the dollar anytime soon."

And. 

The railroads SHOULD NOT spend any significant monies on more rail cars to expand services to the country. The petroleum industry does not have reliable production at all. Not to the extent it demands returning rail tracks back into service or new cars are best for the current demand. Don't go there. Purchase new and better and safer rail cars, but, the petroleum industry's demand is not a sustainable path. 

Railroads need to watch their balance sheets with these companies. Don't over extend any credit to an uncertain industry. 

The application of "Broken Windows" is abusive if the underlying social content is deeply impoverished. There is nothing there to bring about social pressures.

Poverty is not a lifestyle.

I am not so sure "Broken Windows" policing serves the people so much as the police. The basis of Broken Windows is that once a neighborhood's environment is in good repair social pressures take over to minimize crime. That is not what is occurring. People are being killed by an overbearing police presence. Broken Windows may have statistics on it's side, but, the price the neighborhood pays is not reasonable.

To begin, "Broken Windows" is not the law. It is a theoretical practice instilled by police to bring benefit to neighborhoods. This is from George Mason University.

The broken windows model (click here) of policing was first described in 1982 in a seminal article by Wilson and Kelling. Briefly, the model focuses on the importance of disorder (e.g. broken windows) in generating and sustaining more serious crime. Disorder is not directly linked to serious crime; instead, disorder leads to increased fear and withdrawal from residents, which then allows more serious crime to move in because of decreased levels of informal social control. The police can play a key role in disrupting this process. If they focus in on disorder and less serious crime in neighborhoods that have not yet been overtaken by serious crime, they can help reduce fear and resident withdrawal. Promoting higher levels of informal social control will help residents themselves take control of their neighborhood and prevent serious crime from infiltrating.

There are also former police officers coming on media stating there have been eight people killed and 12 shootings since the arrests were made of police in Baltimore. 

Informal social control (click here) refers to the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws.

"Broken Windows" model is suppose to bring about greater freedom to the neighborhood to bring about social norms. That isn't what is happening. A human being is not a broken window.

Freddie Gray was innocent. He was part of the social norms of the neighborhood. The social norms of the neighborhood was a Drug Economy because there was no other alternative for money to live. In the USA there is very little alternative to the 'Abject Poor.' That is why the neighborhood is so challenged. The fact there was a CVS is testimony to the priorities and efforts by the neighborhood in Baltimore. But, it wasn't the neighborhood that spontaneously burned down the CVS building, it was because they reached their breaking point when still yet another man died in 'the van/wagon.' 

The application of "Broken Windows" to a neighborhood with 50 percent unemployment is completely wrong. It is not good policing. These folks need more than police. 

I think President Obama has it right. Cities are using their police to contain a larger problem. If there was a community plagued with severe violence and citizens could not walk to the CVS without fear of assault or a danger of some kind, "Broken Windows" might apply. 

How many times was the CVS robbed? I found one armed robbery of a CVS in Baltimore.

April 3, 2013
By Julia Baughman

...On Jan. 18, at about 9 p.m., (click here) police said two women assaulted a third woman in the parking lot of the CVS Pharmacy in the 5600 block of Baltimore National Pike and tried to take her car keys....

I am not sure about the geography of the city. This may or may not be the CVS that was burnt down. It appears from this article the police didn't ask for help from the community in identifying the armed robbers for over two months. That's ridiculous. Community leaders should be tasked as soon as possible to bring about results.

The problems the people of this neighborhood have are due to society's willingness to allow abject poverty. The larger society is not answering the problems these folks face day to day that are due to poverty and not crime. Crime exists in the absence of opportunity. That is a fact. The police aren't to blame for the poverty. They are doing a job asked of them, but, the police are also not advocating for the people to relieve the presence of crime and guns by addressing the economic needs of the people they seek to protect.

Baltimore, Maryland and the USA needs to do better. The country's police, especially police leadership, have to bring attention to the poverty and the crime that results. The police are in neighborhoods everyday. They have knowledge of the poverty first hand and the danger that presents for doing their jobs. Police leadership is not doing the right job if they simply dispatch police. Police leadership has to take on the responsibility of advocating the problems the people face leading to crime. If police leadership simply work to contain a problem without identifying it so the city, state and country 'have no problem,' that is not being an officer so much as a jailer.

People cannot ignore the stark reality of black men in their encounters with police. People are dying at the hand of the officer. They are unarmed and sometimes they are only 12 years old. We can demonize 'the gun' forever without results. But, to address the underlying problems of the neighborhoods will be effective. 

Police leadership should be answerable to their officers that encounter the poverty all the time. The police should be answerable to the people of communities in a relationship that works to end crime and brings about a quality of life every citizen of this country is guaranteed by their birth. Communication all along the line of authority is paramount. We witnessed what communication did in Baltimore yesterday to calm a neighborhood with anxiety over more deaths of innocent people. The power structure is all wrong and works to oppress the problems of the people and not solve them.

Informal social control refers to the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws.

Source: Boundless. “Informal Means of Control.” Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 06 Jan. 2015. Retrieved 05 May. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/deviance-social-control-and-crime-7/social-control-60/informal-means-of-control-369-3188/

Daesh can claim anything is theirs simply because Muslim populations are international. It doesn't matter. The violence and it's provocation is a domestic issue. There weren't Daesh troops landing in Garland, Texas. The media just goes right along with it as if it is fact and actually news.