Monday, April 17, 2017

Why are the Democrats and Republicans so different when it comes to the USA southern border?

What is troubling about the Trump administration to the Undocumented is the policy of hand washing. There is no responsibility within that Republican policy.

Mexico is our southern border. Canada is our northern border. The stark difference between the quality of life is more than remarkable. When one looks as to why that is the case, it leads to an understanding of a greater dynamic. Mexico also borders with South America and the northern border of Canada is where Polar Bears are protected.

But, the idea the USA can simply look the other way in regard to the profound poverty in Mexico is remiss. The Republican policy in regard to Mexico's emigrants is simply and best illustrated as washing their hands of responsibility.

The USA is the world's last superpower. It has ability to bring about a far more peaceful western hemisphere. The idea profound poverty exists in Mexico because the Mexican government is overwhelmed by drug cartels is a national security issue for the USA.

So, what do we do about that? Nothing? Or do we take on the posture that the Trump administration takes and puts barriers to our southern border IN HOPES it will stop the Mexican emigrants and their drug cartels?

OR.

Do we take on the challenge of changing the face of despair in Mexico, the Caribbean and South America? Are we brave enough to realize Americans can bring about a greater hope to leaders and end the fear of international criminals?

The best way to handle the Mexican emigrants/the Undocumented is to build a better Mexico. Build a better Western hemisphere. Build alliances with governments in our own hemisphere to instill profound peace and not simply enforced peace by rules and dictators and hideous ideas of deportation of people who have lived decades in the USA. What is it we do? 

Countries that embrace the idea of peace and ending drug cartels can benefit from global market places with a well trained worker class all facilitated by USA international policy and USA aspirations to trade with these countries. Quality of life will change the minds of those emigrants. Instead, they will stay within their own countries to love their families and enjoy a quality of life that is foreign to them; something they dream about.

What works? Border walls? Sometimes, in multiples of three. But, in reality border walls don't work. Blast walls work somewhat in places like Iraq, but, when the drug cartels of Mexico decide it is in their best interest to think outside the box they do exactly that.

Do border walls end cartels? Of course not. Do border walls make the USA safer? Not from my perspective. Do border walls stop the emigrants from entering the USA? Doesn't seem to. Is it more expansive for the USA to deport the Undocumented or allow them to work and pay taxes? 

Why break up families and cause adversity within the USA? Because that is what Republican policy does. It causes hardship to families with some being born in the USA and some not. Do we value families or do we value LAW AND ORDER more than families?

There is no enforcement that is going to end the problem at the USA southern border. Working with countries in Latin America will bring about stability of other governments, peace within their borders and our and will provide pride in our country in providing solutions to problems that appear at our border.

The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Republicans see opportunity with incarceration and a broken trial system.

The difference between Democrats and Republicans is the difference between valuing human life or valuing profits?

Will a border wall and deportations end crime in the USA? No. Will it end a certain type of crime in the USA? Maybe, but, more than likely not. The reason sanctuary cities exist is because it lowers crime rates and no go zones in cities.

The people of the USA need to make the decision to pay their bills with the help of newly minted Undocumented or to create more bills by building walls and staffing the border with weapons and officers?

Did I mention the unemployment rate in the USA? It would seem as though the Undocumented are doing their part to add to the USA economy with an unemployment rate of 4.5%. We are not displacing Americans from jobs if the Undocumented stayed and became citizens.

Problem solved.

It is arrogance due to loyalty that should not exist. He needs to ask for a statement by the IRS to the status of his tax audits.

Value of online gaming in the USA (click here)

April 15, 2017
By Andrew Quinlan

America's governors (click here) want to make sure that Attorney General Jeff Sessions won't move to override state online gaming laws. The bipartisan heads of the National Governors Association, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, wrote in a recent letter to Sessions that "States are best equipped to regulate and enforce online gaming." They're right. He should heed their words and restrain himself from reversing a DOJ ruling that paved the way for states to legalize online gaming if they choose.

For years Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson has been trying to stop the proliferation of legal online gaming....  

This blog stated same as it happened.

The politics during the Obama years was relentless. There wasn't anyone except form speculation and investigation. Considering all that went on during the 2016 elections, I sincerely believe the White Republican Congress was scared of being replaced by African Americans.

The Obama Administration, despite all the accomplishments, was the most harassed administration in history. There is only one reason why.

April 17, 2017
By Ken Dilanian

A review of the surveillance material (click here) flagged by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes shows no inappropriate action by Susan Rice or any other Obama administration official, Republican and Democratic Congressional aides who have been briefed on the matter told NBC News.

President Donald Trump told the New York Times he believed former National Security Adviser Rice broke the law by asking for the identities of Trump aides who were mentioned in transcripts of U.S. surveillance of foreign targets. Normally, the identities of Americans are blacked out in transcripts circulated by the National Security Agency, but they may be "unmasked," if their identities are relevant to understanding the intelligence....
April 17, 2017

Little Rock, Ark. — The Latest on executions scheduled to take place in Arkansas before the end of April (all times local):

5:15 p.m.

A federal appeals court (click here) has cleared one legal obstacle Arkansas faces in its plan to execute several inmates.

The state still must overcome other court orders blocking the inmates’ executions if it is to carry out any of the lethal injections it had scheduled for the last two weeks of April.

The federal appeals court on Monday overturned a judge’s order halting the executions over concerns about one of the lethal injection drugs to be used.

The decision came even as the Arkansas Supreme Court was issuing an order halting two executions set for Monday. That order remains in place.

Arkansas had scheduled the executions to occur before the state’s supply of midazolam expires at the end of April. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker halted the executions over the use of the drug, which has been used in flawed executions in other states, and over the inmates’ access to attorneys on the day of the executions....

Midazolam is proven not to be reliable in executions. It is very short acting and that is the pitfall with this drug.                            
17 April 2017
By Amie Gordon

A child minder (click here) who looked after Madeleine McCann has broken her silence nearly ten years after the three-year-old went missing.
The witness, who was working at the Portuguese resort where Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007, said she is still haunted by the night's events a decade on. 
She said Gerry McCann desperately tried to find his missing daughter as his wife Kate wailed, 'They've taken her'.
The woman, who has not been named, reportedly looked after Madeleine several times. 
She told The Mirror the resort Madeleine vanished from was considered so unsafe nannies were given rape whistles and told not to go out alone....

Russia is not a passive observer. The region, no doubt, is worried about Trump's impulsivity.

April 17, 2017

Russia’s policies (click here) regarding the South China Sea (SCS) dispute are more complex than they might seem. Moscow’s official position presents Russia as an extra-regional actor with no stakes in the dispute. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia “had never been a participant of the South China Sea disputes” and considers it “a matter of principle not to side with any party.” However, behind the façade of formal disengagement is Russia’s military build-up in the Asia-Pacific region, and the multi-billion dollar arms and energy deals with the rival claimants. These factors reveal that even though Moscow may not have direct territorial claims in the SCS, it has strategic goals, interests, and actions that have direct bearing on how the SCS dispute evolves....


...Russia’s military cooperation with China has progressed to the point that President Putin called China Russia’s “natural partner and natural ally.” The two countries’ most recent joint naval exercise – “Joint Sea 2016” – took place in the SCS, and became the first exercise of its kind involving China and a second country in the disputed SCS after The Hague-based tribunal ruling on China’s “nine-dash line” territorial claims....

...The first level – systemic balancing – is driven by the global power distribution and perceptions of major threats. As a systemic balancer, Russia challenges the U.S.-led unipolarity in multiple ways, as evidenced by its policies in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria. The drive to balance the system leader (the United States) makes Russia seek alignment with China, which, like Russia, also challenges American unipolar dominance and perceives the U.S. “Pivot to Asia” as a major threat to its security....

No fly-bys with Russia yet? Are they going to let the Carl Vinson leave the area? Or is this it? At this point the Carl Vinson is a lonely soldier counting on Japan and South Korea. I mean. This seems a bit strange to me. Entering into waters where two major nuclear powers exist, especially considering China 'was going to handle it.'


17 April 2017
By Neil Connor

China and Russia (click here) have dispatched spy vessels to shadow Donald Trump’s ‘armada’ as it steams to North Korean waters, amid rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Japanese media reported the deployment as Mike Pence, the US vice president, warned Pyongyang the “era of strategic patience is over” during a visit to South Korea.

Beijing sought Russian help in averting a crisis over North Korea last week, as concerns grow in China that Donald Trump is seeking to confront North Korea over its weapon’s program....

The USA is now the country where Billionaires can behave badly.

April 18, 2017
By Aaron Blake

President Donald Trump, joined by the Easter Bunny, during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll


Have you ever?

The Trump Administration (click here) is essentially threatening North Korea now - just 10 days after launching an unprecedented strike against Syria and a few days after dropping an unprecedented bomb in Afghanistan.
And back home, that's likely to give a fair amount of the US population heartburn. About 63 per cent, in fact.
US President Donald Trump's biggest liability on the 2016 campaign trail was almost always his temperament. An October Washington Post-ABC News poll showed 64 per cent overall - and 3 in 10 Republicans - said Trump didn't have the right personality and temperament to be president.

Comey.
The first three months of the Trump Administration have done nothing to disabuse them of this belief. A new Pew Research Centre poll shows 63 per cent of registered voters say Trump is "too impulsive" in making important decisions. And that includes 30 per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents....

New Zealand has a new appreciation for low income workers.

The best part of this achievement for New Zealand is that all this money will be returned to the economy and growth. The additional income will spur all kinds of growth, including, investments for retirement and savings for homes and children's higher education.

There is nothing wrong with capitalism, but, there never ending problems with greed.

It is the responsibility of the New Zealand government to monitor any movement of inflation and if necessary govern it by law.


April 18, 2017

Rest home caregiver Kristine Bartlett's pay will go from about $16 an hour to about $23.

About 55,000 low-paid workers, (click here) mainly women, are about to get one of the biggest pay rises ever after details of a historic pay equity settlement are revealed today.

The deal will cost the Government over $500 million a year when fully implemented in five years, assuming it is signed off by union members and the Cabinet.

The settlement will mean hefty pay increases from July in three government-funded service sectors that employ mainly women on low rates: aged residential care, home support, and disability services.

The Herald understands that for the primary litigant, rest home caregiver Kristine Bartlett, it will mean an increase from about $16 an hour to about $23 an hour - more than 43 per cent.

The deal allows for annual increases over five years to $27 an hour....                                  

Every city in the world should be concerned about building beautiful and functioning infrastructure.

April 17, 2017
By Michael Smith

Amanda DeCort (click here) is blunt about her belief in the ability of architecture to raise a community’s spirit and in her belief that the attitude of Tulsans toward downtown treasures has changed.

“I think that interest took a nap for a while, so it’s been fantastic to see all of the excitement about downtown, and the appreciation for the architecture, and now the residential living in that area as well,” said the executive director of Tulsa Foundation for Architecture.

“We’ve stemmed the tide from tearing down buildings and making new parking lots (in the past). We missed the boat on that for several decades, but expectations have changed.”

It’s a sense of community that DeCort has helped to create through her historic preservation efforts while working at City Hall and now through TFA events like the wildly popular downtown walking tours.

Now, she said she hopes to further grow that sense of place and of pride in a city’s design aesthetic, with an innovative film festival.

The Architecture & Design Film Festival begins Thursday at Circle Cinema, presenting 20 films focused on the best architecture and design from around the world over four days....

April 4, 2017
Bu Michael Smith

...‘Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future’ (click here)
Eero Saarinen’s son is the director of photography, using the latest drone technology to film this April 22 documentary that follows him around as he visits his father’s most iconic works, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. It’s followed by director Peter Rosen answering questions....

In order for the Non-Proliferation Treaty to work there needs to be direct talks and negotiations with the five major nuclear powers and those countries that have them illegally.

April 17, 2017
By Simon Denyer

...Even though coal imports from North Korea (click here) appear to have been cut, and Air China canceled some direct flights from Beijing to Pyongyang from this week, overall imports and exports between the two countries were up sharply in the first quarter of this year, data released by Chinese customs showed.

In the final analysis, some experts say, the legacy of the Korean War, and the survival of the regime China backed at the cost of so much blood, remains paramount.

“China may marginally increase economic pressure on North Korea by cutting down trade, tourist flows or food aide, but its primary goal is to placate Washington,” said Yanmei Xie, a politics and foreign policy expert at Gavekal Dragonomics. “Beijing has reasons and means to discipline Kim, but is more concerned with ensuring the survival of his regime, thus maintaining a buffer against U.S. military presence in the South.”...

Most every decision maker, with the exception of Trump and Putin, believe nuclear war has to be completely avoidable. In order to end the threat of nuclear war there has to be elimination of nuclear weapons. It would be best if the five permanent members arrived at a number to reduce their arsenals to match that of illegal stores within Third World countries.

When the illegal countries realize there is seriousness within the five permanent members to bring about the final reality of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, they may very well trade their nuclear arsenals for conventional weapons.        

I'd like to know what sanctions China or anyone else is going to deploy that will actually matter to Un?

November 30, 2016

Following North Korea’s sale to China of fishing rights in large areas of surrounding seas,(click here)  competition among North Korean fishing boats for what is left has led to robberies and other clashes, sources say.

Fishermen who formerly fished freely in resource-rich areas are now crowded into smaller zones where competition is “intense,” a source in North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service.

“Big fishing boats, small fishing boats, steel ships, wooden ships, and other kinds of boats now sail out to increase their catch, and marine accidents constantly take place,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In addition, fishing boats attached to North Korean military units now frequently approach privately owned vessels and “commit acts of piracy by violently taking fish and gas,” the source said.

“The Ninth Corps Fisheries Base has a 500-horsepower fishing boat, a 200-horsepower fishing boat, and other big fishing boats,” the source said.

“When there is a decrease in their own catch, the military fishing boats attack and rob civilian fishing boats affiliated with the Chongjin Fishery Company, the Yu-Gi-Hang-Man Fishery Company, and the Go-Mal-San Fishery Company,” he said....

North Korea is a third world country and no economic sanctions will matter. I believe half the reason Un sold these rights to China is because China has bigger guns that can settle disputes. The other half of the reason Un sold the fishing rights to China is to continue to develop missiles capable of reaching to it's favorite enemies.

Regardless, the reason, the FACT Un sold fishing rights of an impoverished country proves without a doubt there is little regard for the condition of the North Korean people so much as his STRATEGY to finally end the isolation of North Korea.

The real problem here is communication. No one in the free world understands the culture and politics within North Korea. We know they like basketball.


Ri Myung-Hun, also known as Michael Ri after his favorite basketball player Michael Jordan (born September 14, 1967 in North Korea), is a former North Korean basketball player. He played the center position for the national basketball team of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Once proclaimed to be the tallest living human being in the world, he stands 7’8½” (2.35m) tall and once planned to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1990s.

But, American politics demands there is all kinds of fear within the Korean Peninsula. That reason alone the idea aggression will work is nonsense. North Korea has problems beyond problems. The nuclear program DOES prevent "The Axis of Evil" military from invading the country and taking over to remove the DMZ.

I suggest the failure of the missile by North Korea is more proof the country has failed economically and continues to deteriorate. The desperate Un has few choices, either he continues his reign of international terror to the extent it exists or he leave North Korea in exile. It makes sense Un will take everyone with him should a nuclear war break out. That attitude includes any country within the fall out distance of such foolishness.

Maybe every decision maker in this chain of self-destruction needs a reminder. The words, "Nuclear winter is severe, but, survivable." is irresponsible. What kind of survival are they talking about?

The idea of "unintended consequences" is very real.

The tensions between the North and South, while scary after the "Axis of Evil" speech, isn't all that.

Seoul, May 26 (UPI) -- North Korea (click here) has turned a secluded border island into a site where multiple rocket launchers could be deployed, the South Korean military said Tuesday.

The North Korean island of Gal is just 2.8 miles north of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, reported Yonhap. Pyongyang bombarded the island in November 2010, leaving four South Korean civilians dead.

An unidentified South Korean military officer told the Korea Times North Korea is "expected to either deploy 122-millimeter multiple rocket launchers there, or to use [the military encampment] as guard posts."...

...North Korea disputes the NLL that sets water boundaries for North and South Korea. The reclusive country has stated in the past the NLL violates the Korean armistice agreement and U.S., South Korean insistence on the line is justification for potential provocation.

In 2009, North Korea extended a "peacetime firing zone" to waters south of the boundary.

South Korea said the military remained confident on Tuesday a North Korean attack from a 122-millimeter multiple rocket launcher could be deterred with the deployment of Spike, guided missiles currently stationed on Yeonpyeong and Baekryeong Islands....

Two years later, the people are within reach of community bunkers, including the school, along with fear and tensions.

22 November 2016
By Julian Ryall

Entrance to a bomb shelter on Yeonpyeong Island.

A South Korean island is on high alert for an attack after North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un made a rare visit to artillery batteries on nearby border islands....


..."When you consider what they have done before (click here), how close they are and the tensions at the moment, we feel we could die at any moment", he said. "That's how bad things have become."

Kim Na-yeon's sea-front bar was badly damaged in the 2010 attack and she says she now always leaves a small bag of essentials by her front door for the next emergency.

"When I was a child, this island was beautiful and peaceful", she said. "Now there are more soldiers than residents and it has been turned into a fortress."

Her children frequently ask her to move to the mainland to be with them - but she plans to stay, at least for now.

"My parents escaped from the North and they are buried here", she said. "This is my home town, it's where I grew up and I don't want to go.

"But it breaks my heart when I see the old people hurrying to the bunkers when we have an alert."

"We're living in a state of constant fear and it's a tragedy for everyone here", Mrs Kim said. "It's too sad for words that we have to live like this."            

If these figures are correct THAAD proves to be a significant deterrent to nuclear war.

Flight tests (click here) of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system since developmental testing resumed in 2005 and planned future tests.

THAAD has never been tried with nuclear weapons. I think that is a good thing, however, if used against nuclear missiles, what will be the outcome?

THAAD destroys/intercepts missiles in it's line of detection. What happens if a nuclear missile is intercepted? There would be debris. There is no contest to that reality. What happens to the debris? Nuclear debris from a yet to arm itself missile and one that is already armed?

Will the nuclear missile explode on contact? Or. Will THAAD prove to be too much of a danger to people on the ground in regard to nukes?

No mushroom cloud or will there be? What happens when an armed nuclear device proves to explode on contact with an interceptor? No one knows. It has never been tried.

THAAD is not a completely developed system if it unknown to what will occur when it intercepts an armed nuclear missile.

ECONOMIC SANCTIONS do not work with a Third World country such as North Korea. There is little to lose when sanctions are placed. The people already suffer and will sustain their lives based in poverty.

The economic sanctions with Russia worked because it targeted the wealthy. But, to tell Pyongyang there will be no wheat or coal, there is little North Korea leadership will regard as important. North Korea is a dictatorship, not a republic or democracy. The leadership secures their well being first and as long as one is not on Kim Jon Un hit list, live goes on as usual. The people don't matter to him to the extent he will sacrifice his nuclear weapons because of sanctions that hurt the citizens of North Korea. He has no real obligations to the majority of North Korea. 

Un assumed office in North Korea on April 11, 2012. The aggressive stance of North Korea started before that.

November 23, 2010
By Jack Kim and Lee Jae-won 

North Korea fired scores of artillery shells (click here) at a South Korean island on Tuesday, killing two soldiers, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.

The barrage -- the South fired back and sent a fighter jet to the area -- was close to a disputed maritime border on the west of the divided peninsula and the scene of deadly clashes in the past. South Korea was conducting military drills in the area at the time but said it had not been firing at the North.

The attack came as the reclusive North, and its ally China, presses regional powers to return to negotiations on its nuclear weapons program and revelations at the weekend Pyongyang is fast developing another source of material to make atomic bombs.

It also follows moves by leader Kim Jong-il to make his youngest, but unproven, son his heir apparent, leading some analysts to question whether the bombardment might in part have been an attempt to burnish the ruling family's image with the military.

"Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can't see very well because of plumes of smoke," a witness on the island told YTN Television before the shelling, which lasted about an hour, ended.

YTN said at least 200 North Korean shells hit Yeonpyeong, which lies off the west coast of the divided peninsula near a disputed maritime border. Most landed on a military base there.

Photographs from Yeongyeong island, just 120 km (75 miles) west of Seoul, showed columns of smoke rising from buildings. Two soldiers were killed in the attack, 17 wounded. Three civilians were also hurt....

Published on Jun 27, 2012

The bombardment of Yeonpyeong was an artillery engagement between the North Korean military and South Korean forces stationed on Yeonpyeong Island on November 23, 2010. Following a South Korean artillery exercise at waters in the south, North Korean forces fired around 170 artillery shells and rockets at Yeonpyeong Island hitting both military and civilian targets. The shelling caused widespread damage on the island, killing four South Koreans and injuring 19. South Korea retaliated by shelling North Korean gun positions. The North Koreans subsequently stated that they had responded to South Korean shells being fired into North Korean territorial waters. The incident caused an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula and prompted widespread international condemnation of the North's actions. The United Nations declared it to be one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War, and by December 18 former UN ambassador Bill Richardson said tensions had escalated to become "the most serious crisis on the Korean peninsula since the 1953 armistice which ended the Korean War."



continued in next entry...