Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Mandate Repeal

From USA Today:
"20 states seek Affordable Care Act mandate repeal"


Twenty states have asked a federal court in Texas to hold the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate unconstitutional because the tax that penalized anyone who did not carry health insurance has been repealed. The filing, made in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth on Monday, also asks that the court find the entire health care law unconstitutional, but if not, to amend the law by repealing the mandate. The filing is largely based on the argument that the repeal of the law's tax penalties, included in the tax cut bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in December, effectively does away with a key reason the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law in a 2012 case.  The filing argues the Supreme Court in that case upheld the individual mandate and penalties based on the reasoning that it fell within Congress' power to impose taxes. However,  the amendment passed in December repealing the penalties now "forces an  unconstitutional and irrational regime onto the states and their citizens,'' the states argue. The filing contends that in its 2012 ruling, the Supreme Court stated that it was the tax that justified the mandate that Congress passed requiring people to purchase a health care plan — a mandate that Congress otherwise would not have the authority to impose. "The individual mandate and the tax penalty are inextricably intertwined — one cannot exist without the other,'' the states' filing argues. The filing names the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Services as defendants, along with each agency's director.
The case was filed by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of their states and attorneys general in 18 other states, including Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. About 8.8 million Americans enrolled for coverage in 2018 during last fall's enrollment period, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. That figure was down from the previous year, but also occurred during a shorter enrollment period than the prior year. In addition, federal funding was cut for promoting the sign-up period. In addition to Wisconsin, Texas and Arizona, participating states in Monday's court action include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. 

^  I am so glad that the individual mandate will be gone in 2019. Forcing people to have health insurance is one thing, but forcing people to pay for it themselves  - when most countries in the world give it to their citizens  - is dumb. Obamacare may not be completely gone, but with the individual mandate gone it is only a matter of time before Obama's legacy goes the same way. Health care in the US needs to be fixed, but not by forcing millions upon millions of new people onto an already crumbling system without doing a thing to fix the system. ^


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/27/20-states-seek-affordable-care-act-mandate-repeal/380130002/

Purim!


Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Backtracking Plan

From the DW:
"Israel backtracks on plans that enraged Christian Churches in Jerusalem"

Israel has suspended a plan to tax Church property in Jerusalem following a backlash. A separate land bill has also been suspended pending negotiations with Church leaders.  Israel on Tuesday said it would suspend a controversial tax and expropriation bill that Christian leaders in Jerusalem had earlier described as a "systematic and unprecedented attack against Christians in the Holy Land." The Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic churches closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday in protest against the Jerusalem municipality's tax and land right plans.

Suspension of tax collections
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it would:

    - Suspend tax collection on Church properties

    - Suspend a proposed bill covering the sale and expropriation of church lands.

    - Assemble a team to negotiate with Church leaders.

Jerusalem's original plans: Jerusalem's Municipality wants to tax church "commercial" properties, saying that churches have uncollected tax debts of roughly €151 million ($185 million).  The tax plan would not affect places of worship. A separate piece of legislation in parliament seeks to allow the Israeli government to expropriate land the Church sold to private land developers. The land bill, according to its drafters, is designed to protect homeowners from not having their leases extended.

Church shutdown: In protest Church leaders of all denominations on Sunday closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre indefinitely. Church leaders said Israel was trying to upset the status quo running back to the Ottoman Empire, and later the British Mandate in Palestine. The Churches are major landowners in Jerusalem. They said both the tax and land rights changes would make it more difficult to fund operations. What is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the holiest places in Christianity. It is where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected. The Church is located in the Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. Christians from around the world make pilgrimages to the Church, which is run by several denominations. 
^ Hopefully the Church will remain open and the Israeli Government and the Christian Churches can come to an agreement that both sides will like. ^




Merkel Joins In

From the BBC:
"Chancellor Merkel enters 'Germans only' food bank furore"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the latest politician to criticise a major food bank's decision to bar foreigners from receiving free food. The charity Essener Tafel called it a temporary restriction necessary because the share of foreigners using the food bank had soared to 75% in recent years. The charity says it helps about 16,000 poor people in Essen, a city in the western industrial Ruhr region.  Vandals have sprayed "Nazis" on the charity's delivery vans.  Mrs Merkel spoke out against Essener Tafel's new rule requiring visitors to show a German passport in order to receive food.  "One shouldn't run services on the basis of such categorisations. That's not good. But it also shows the amount of pressure there is, and how many people are needy. That's why I hope they can find good solutions which do not exclude groups," she told the broadcaster RTL. An estimated 1.2 million asylum seekers entered Germany during the migrant crisis of 2015-2016, more than half from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The record influx boosted support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Essener Tafel is part of a national food bank group called Tafel. Essen is part of Germany's old coal-and-steel hub in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state. The far-right AfD defended the charity's policy on Facebook (in German), saying "if you fight back, you're a Nazi". Like hundreds of other German food banks, Essener Tafel collects tonnes of surplus food at or past its sell-by date, which would otherwise be thrown away. The charity's managers are holding an emergency meeting now to tackle the row over its new policy, which took effect last month. Essener Tafel head Jörg Sartor spoke angrily about the criticism. "A load of politicians are laying into us now - but they are ill-informed. They ought to reciprocate and help out here - after that they can voice an opinion, by all means." He defended his staff and said he was "sick and tired" of the criticism. "I'm almost ready to quit," he said. Earlier, he said the restriction had nothing to do with xenophobia; he said it was all about fairness, because large numbers of elderly women and single mothers had stopped coming to Essener Tafel. Data from Germany's national migration agency BAMF shows that NRW has the highest number of asylum claims among the German states.  In January NRW handled 19.9% of claims, followed by Bavaria (15.1%). Asylum claims in Germany soared to a record 745,545 in 2016, but fell back to 222,683 in 2017.  A new EU border agreement with Turkey, and new border fences, drastically cut the numbers of migrants heading to Central Europe via the Balkan route.  

^  While it is good that Merkel has joined in against this discrimination it also highlights the fact that it was Merkel who opened Germany's borders to 1.2 million asylum seekers. There seemed to be no checking or any controls over who came in and there were several terrorist attacks by some of those who entered the country. That was a big mistake by Merkel. It is one thing to allow asylum seekers into your country, but you have to have safeguards to make sure you aren't letting ISIS or other terrorists to enter. Getting back to the food bank. Merkel not only needs to get involved with stopping any discriminatory action, but the German Government also needs to do more to provide for it's own people. Germany is a complete welfare state and seems to be proud of that fact yet the welfare people receive clearly aren't enough if they need to go to these kinds of food banks. There are a whole more issues in this one case that highlight the real problems in Germany today. ^



Opening Military

From the BBC:
"Saudi Arabia allows women to join military"

Saudi Arabia has for the first time opened applications for women to join its military. Women have until Thursday to apply for positions with the rank of soldier in the provinces of Riyadh, Mecca, al-Qassim and Medina. The roles do not appear to involve combat, but will instead give women the opportunity to work in security. A list of 12 requirements says hopefuls must be Saudi citizens, aged between 25 and 35, and have a high-school diploma. The women and their male guardians - usually a husband, father, brother or son - must also have a place of residence in the same province as the job's location. The decision to recruit female soldiers is one of many reforms enhancing women's rights introduced in recent months in the conservative Muslim kingdom. King Salman has decreed that women will be permitted to drive from June, while women spectators were allowed to attend football matches from last month.  However, human rights activists say Saudi Arabia's discriminatory male guardianship system remains intact despite government pledges to abolish it.  Under the system, adult women must obtain permission to travel, marry or leave prison. They may be required to provide consent to work or access healthcare. Women are also separated from unrelated men and must wear full-length robes known as "abayas" in public, as well as headscarves if they are Muslims. 

^ It seems odd that women only have until Thursday to apply to be a solider. Also the fact that they need a male relative's permission to join (or do anything in the country) is still discriminatory. Things seem to be changing for the better in Saudi Arabia for women, but it is a very slow process. ^



2nd Straight Week



- Snow yesterday.
- 48 F and sun today
- 56 F and sun tomorrow
- Snow and sleet Thursday and Friday
For the second straight week we will start with snow then have above normal temperatures and then end with snow.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Closed Church

From the BBC:
"Jerusalem: Christianity's 'holiest site' closed in protest"

Christian leaders in Jerusalem have taken the rare step of shutting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in protest against a new Israeli tax policy and a proposed property law. Church leaders have described the legislation as an attack on Christians in the Holy Land. Supporters of the bill though say the concerns are unfounded. Many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected on the site of the church. It is considered Christianity's holiest place and is a key destination for pilgrims. In a joint statement, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Church leaders said the church would be closed until further notice. The protest was launched because Church officials object to a bill the Israeli government is considering, which they fear would let the state claim church-owned land. Branding the bill "abhorrent", the leaders said it "reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during a dark period in Europe". Supporters of the bill say it is meant to protect Israelis living on former Church land sold to private developers from the risk these companies will not extend their leases. Christian leaders say the proposed law would make it harder to sell Church land, a key source of funds. They are also angry about attempts to tax Church property which authorities in Jerusalem view as commercial.  Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has said the city is owed 650m shekels ($186m; £133m) in uncollected taxes on Church assets. He said all churches were exempt from the tax changes, and that only Church-owned "hotels, halls and businesses" would be affected.  After the protest, an Israeli cabinet committee delayed its consideration of the property bill by a week.  The legislator promoting the bill, Rachel Azaria, told the BBC: "I understand that the Church is under pressure, but their lands will remain theirs, no-one has any interest to touch them ever.  "My bill deals with what happens when the right over the lands are sold to a third party."  Ms Azaria said that only land sold by the Church to private real estate firms after 2010 would be affected.   

^  I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre last October and it was very crowded with visitors from around the world. I can't imagine how it would feel to not be able to visit one of the holiest sites because of a disagreement between the Church authorities and Israel. They both need to fix this and keep the Church open. ^



David Hogg

From MSN:
"Parkland Survivor Says Thanks To Online Conspiracy Theorists"




Florida high school shooting survivor David Hogg wants to say thank you to all the conspiracy theorists and detractors he believes have helped amplify his real message. Hogg, 17, said the people attacking him online as a "crisis actor" who's been "coached" on anti-gun talking points are really just "great advertisers." "These people that have been attacking me on social media, they've been great advertisers. Ever since they started attacking me, my Twitter followers are now a quarter of a million people. People have continued to cover us in the media. They've done a great job of that, and for that, I honestly thank them," Hogg told CNN's Brian Stelter on "Reliable Sources" on Sunday. Hogg is one of the outspoken students from Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who has been talking about the need for gun control after a gunman killed 17 students and teachers there and wounded more. He has become the subject of smear campaigns and demonstrably false conspiracy theories that say either he has been "coached" by his father, a former FBI agent; or he is a "pawn" for anti-gun campaigners; or he is not a victim but a "crisis actor," paid to travel to disaster sites to argue against stricter gun laws. Hogg said the only thing that these conspiracy theorists have exposed is how "disgusting they are," he said. "The fact that they're calling out me, as a witness of this horrifying incident, that I'm a crisis actor? ... I feel for those people, honestly," he said. "They've lost faith in America. But we certainly haven't. And that's ok, because we're going to outlive them," he added. 

^ It is pretty pathetic that people would stoop to making things up about the victims of a mass shooting. ^



Olympics Over

Finally the Winter Olympics are over. Canada came in 3rd place with 29 medals. The US came in 4th place with 23 medals (despite having the largest team with 242 athletes.)

The Russians (who are officially called "the Olympic Athletes from Russia") aren't allowed to represent Russia, carry the Russian flag or hear the Russian national anthem - which is only right since 2 of them were banned for failing their doping tests after they won medals and after the whole Russian Olympic Committee were banned for the Russian Government Doping Scandal. I know many Russians look forward to the Winter Games and go crazy when their athletes win medals - not this year.


We now return to our regularly scheduled TV shows. 


Don't forget to watch the Paralympic Games March 9-18, 2018.


No Welcomes

In every place around the world that I have lived in from foreign countries to different US States - 15 places totaled.  I have never had anyone come to the house to "Welcome us" to the neighborhood. I've seen it only in the movies and on TV shows.

1921 Vs 2008

Today is Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia. It remembers the Soviet invasion of Georgia in 1921 (3,200 Georgian soldiers and 5,000 Georgian civilians were killed during the invasion which lasted 1 month.) It also remembers the 70 years that Georgia was forced to join the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991) in which millions of innocent men, women and children were imprisoned, deported or murdered by the Communists. 97 years later Russia continues to occupy parts of Georgia (South Ossetia and Abkhazia) and encouraged the ethnic cleansing (massacres and deportations) of the Georgians from those territories: around 250,000 ethnic Georgians became internally-displaced in other parts of Georgia. Only Nauru, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela recognize the current 2008 occupation (although they consider those territories to be independent countries even though the citizens there have Russian passports, speak Russian, use Russian rubles and receive Russian government pensions.) Today, Georgia helps the UN, the US and NATO by sending soldiers and peacekeepers to: Iraq, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan and Kosovo even with parts of its own territory occupied.

Dart Location

It's funny to see a movie or TV show and know that the people who created it didn't have a clue about the locations. From New England never getting snow to Schenectady, New York being a good place to live or even visit you can tell the people in Los Angeles, Vancouver or New York City simply throw a dart on the map and wherever it lands they use.

Friday, February 23, 2018

May Opening

From the BBC:
"US to open new embassy in Jerusalem in May"

The US Department of State has announced plans to open a new embassy in Jerusalem this year. "In May, the United States plans to open a new US Embassy in Jerusalem," said spokeswoman Heather Nauert. The opening of the mission will coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary, the statement said. The announcement brings forward the controversial plan, announced by President Trump in December, by at least a year Donald Trump said in December that the US would recognise Jerusalem - not Tel Aviv - as Israel's capital, infuriating Palestinians. The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel regards Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided" capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem - occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - as the capital of a future state. On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the embassy announcement as "a great day for the people of Israel". The US Department of State spokeswoman said the embassy would initially be located at existing consular facilities in the Arnona district of the city.  US Vice-President Mike Pence said last month in a speech to the Israeli parliament that the move would occur sometime before the end of 2019. A senior Palestinian official, Saeb Erekat, called Friday's announcement a "blatant provocation".  In December, the Palestinian general delegate to the UK told the BBC that acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would be the "kiss of death" to the two-state peace solution. Manuel Hassassian said the decision would amount to declaring war in the Middle East. 

^ Mazel Tov! ^



Racist Food Bank

From the DW:
"German food bank slammed for barring foreigners from registering"
An Essen food bank says it is only allowing Germans to sign up for free food because the elderly feel uncomfortable with the large number of foreign men during pick-ups. Its chairman denies allegations of xenophobia.  The board of "Tafel" food bank in the western German city of Essen has caused a stir by imposing a new rule: For the time being, foreigners cannot receive new membership cards. No German passport, no free food. There are more than 930 "Tafeln," or tables, across Germany. They collect groceries that are nearing their sell-by date from stores and restaurants and hand them out to people in need. To qualify, you need to receive state assistance such as unemployment payments. With proof of that, people can sign up with the Tafel and receive a one-year membership card for their family that allows them to come to a food pick-up at a specified time once a week.   The Tafel in Essen originally established its controversial rule in December but the story blew up on Thursday when local media got wind of it. On Friday morning, Jörg Sartor, the chairman of the Essen Tafel held an impromptu press conference in the organization's office. As more and more camera crews and journalists piled into the room, he alternated between offering everyone coffee and defending his decision. Sartor and Nebel claim that the large number of foreigners, especially young men, caused trouble when it came to handing out the food, saying that elderly Germans weren't feeling comfortable anymore and stopped showing up.  I really don't understand all the excitement," Sartor said after stressing that neither he nor anyone on his team was xenophobic. Other Tafel branches from across Germany have condemned the step and some critics are calling the rule racist. But Sartor says they changed the rules simply because 75 percent of people who came to pick up food from the Tafel locations across Essen were foreigners — a number the board considered too high. The Essen Tafel currently has 1,800 membership cards issued that cover roughly 6,000 people. And yet, "you could pick the few German people out of the crowd at the food handover sometimes," board member Rita Nebel said. "I was approached several times because there was too much pushing and shoving," Sartor told DW. "I want the people here to behave in an orderly way toward each other. And when there isn't an equal balance [of Germans and foreigners], that doesn't work."  Horst, a German retiree, was among the roughly 30 people waiting to pick up groceries outside the Essen Tafel on Friday. He said he could see that the new rule was unfortunate for some, but that it did have a point. "There are many Russians, Polish, people from Africa," Horst said. "They can get brash sometimes, for example some show up late for their 12:30 pick-up time and then try to cut in line in front of us, who have the 1:30 pick-up time. I think we should all be thankful that a service like this exists at all." The Tafel is an nongovernmental organization that is neither affiliated with the cities where branches are located nor with the state or federal government. Its number one task is to save food from going to waste. Its drivers — most of whom, like almost all those who work at the Tafel branches, are volunteers — go from store to store to pick up groceries. The Tafel is not, however, solely responsible for making sure that no one goes hungry — that is the state's task, as Sartor pointed out. "We support people in need so that with the money they save on groceries, they can maybe take their kids to the pool or the movie theater for once," the 61-year-old said. "If anyone here starved just because the Tafel didn't exist anymore, something would be going very wrong in this country." That's why the chairman doesn't see too much of a problem with denying service to foreigners who are now trying to register with his food bank. And the ban is only supposed to last for another six or eight weeks anyway — definitely not longer than summer, Sartor said. That is of no help to Carole. The French single mother of two came to the food bank two weeks ago to get a membership card and was turned away. On Friday, she was in line at the Tafel to pick up the groceries for her pregnant friend. "This makes me sad," she told DW while comforting her crying toddler. "I've been in Germany for years and I have an EU passport, but I can't get food." Carole hopes the ban will be lifted soon. Speaking to journalists on Friday, Sartor proudly announced that the percentage of Tafel card-owners without a German passport had already decreased from 75 to 71 percent since he established the new rule in December. The board of the Essen Tafel considers this a success.  

^  I would rather see Tafel and other organizations like it feed no one than have such discriminatory practices. If anyone (German or foreigner) acts disrespectfully while inside Tafel then that person should be asked to leave and not allowed to come back, but to ban ALL foreigners out-right is immoral and wrong (and should be illegal.) I wonder if these same old Germans who are afraid of foreigners are the same ones that goose-stepped into these foreigners' countries and forced themselves as the "Master Race." Germans have a long history of hating foreigners. It didn't start with the Nazis and it didn't end with them. When I lived in Germany the second time there were several attacks on us foreigners (never on me myself, but I saw the attacks happen.) It seems that over recent years more and more attacks and acts of discrimination against foreigners have been allowed to happen. The German Government (the local, state and Federal) needs to do a lot more to stop these attacks. The world has seen what happens when a group of people are singled-out for attacks and discrimination and we can not allow that to ever happen again. ^



Partial Recognition

From the BBC:
"Dutch MPs vote to recognise disputed Armenian 'genocide'"

The Dutch parliament has passed a motion recognising that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was a "genocide". Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people died in the atrocities of 1915. Turkey says the toll was much lower and rejects the term "genocide". The move is likely to heighten Dutch-Turkish tensions at a time when they are already strained Turkey condemned the vote, saying it was not valid or legally binding.  "The politicisation of 1915 events by taking them out of historical context is unacceptable," a spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry said. Only three Dutch MPs opposed the motion, which includes sending a cabinet-level representative to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, for a commemoration event in April. But the government has stressed that it will not change the Netherlands' official policy. "The government will not follow the judgment of the parliament," Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag told Dutch television before the vote. "This cabinet wants to be very careful about relations with Turkey, which have been better," she added.  The two Nato allies fell out last year over the Netherlands' decision to block the entry of Turkish officials who wanted to hold rallies ahead of a referendum in Turkey on expanding the president's powers. Since then, relations have deteriorated and earlier this month the Netherlands formally withdrew its ambassador to Turkey. The vote in parliament is unlikely to alleviate these tensions, but other countries have tabled similar motions in the past. More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, as well as Pope Francis, have recognised the 1915 killings as genocide. Turkey denies that there was a systematic campaign to slaughter Armenians as an ethnic group during World War One. It also points out that many Turkish civilians died in the turmoil during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.


^ Every country in the world should recognize the Armenian Genocide. Even Adolf Hitler recognized it back in the 1930s and if anyone would know about genocide it would be him. As for the Netherlands it seems that this partial recognition is a step in the right direction  - of full recognition. Turkey (and other countries) need to understand that the only way to move past the crimes and mistakes of your country's past is to accept what happened, apologize for allowing it to happen and work to make sure it doesn't happen again. Ignoring that it happened or distorting facts is not the right way to move forward. ^


Bring Back Shows

I can't wait for the Winter Olympics to be over with so they will start showing new episodes on TV again. The most exciting thing about these Games is that 2 Russians (who aren't allowed to play under the Russian flag because of the Russian Government doping scandal ban) have failed their doping tests. It certainly isn't that the US is in 4th place with only 21 medals (especially when you consider the US team is the largest team there with 242 athletes. The second largest team is from Switzerland with 169 athletes.) Bottom line: new episodes of TV shows seem more exciting than the Games at this point.

Officer Outside

From the BBC:
"Florida school shooting: Armed officer 'did not confront killer'"
An armed officer assigned to the Florida school where a gunman killed 17 people last week stood outside the building during the shooting and did not intervene, the local sheriff says. Deputy Scot Peterson has resigned after being suspended, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. "I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in," Sheriff Israel said.  Sheriff Israel said Mr Peterson was on campus, armed and in uniform when the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus in Parkland began. He said video footage showed Mr Peterson arriving at the building where the shooting was taking place about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired and that he remained outside for about four minutes. The attack lasted six minutes, Sheriff Israel said. Asked what Mr Peterson should have done, Sheriff Israel said: "Went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer." Mr Peterson is yet to publicly comment on what happened. Sheriff Israel said he had not given a reason for why he did not go into the building where the shooter was. It is unclear if he will face charges. Sheriff Israel said he would not be releasing the video showing Mr Peterson and might never do so, "depending on the prosecution and criminal case" against the 19-year-old suspect accused of carrying out the shooting, former student Nikolas Cruz. The gunman used a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle, police say, and escaped the scene before being seen and arrested later.  School resource officers are police officers who are responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools, the US government says.  There are between 14,000 and 20,000 such officers in the US, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers. Mr Peterson had been in his position at the school since 2009, local media report.  

^  This whole story just gets worse and worse every day. The fact that innocent people (most of the students) were killed should be the only awful thing about this shooting, but when he hear the FBI did nothing to the numerous tips about the shooter beforehand and this whole thing could have been prevented or that the armed school officer refused to go inside and do his job - try to protect the students and the teachers - it just makes you even more sick to your stomach. I am sure we will be hearing even more things that should not have happened regarding all of this. ^

American Theater

76 Years Ago today (February 23, 1942) The Japanese attacked near Santa Barbara, California in which there were no deaths or wounded, but there was minor damage to an oil refinery.
I know that most people only believe the US was attacked at Pearl Harbor during World War 2. That was not the case. The Germans and the Japanese attacked and occupied parts of United States territory:
- December 7, 1941: Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii: 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 Americans were wounded.
Resulted in the US entering World War 2 on the Allied side.
- December 8-10, 1941: Japanese Attack on the US Territory of Guam: 17 Americans were killed. 35 Americans were wounded and 406 Americans were captured.
Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of Guam which lasted from December 10, 1941 to August 10, 1944 in which thousands of Guamanian -American civilians endured war atrocities such as forced marches, internment, forced labor and beatings. 1,170 Guamanian -American civilians and 1,880 American servicemen were killed.
- December 8-23, 1941: Japanese Attack on the US Territory of Wake Island: 320 American soldiers were killed, 333 American soldiers were wounded and 70 American civilians were killed.
Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of Wake Island which lasted from December 23, 1941 to September 4, 1945 in which 1,104 American civilians were interned, of whom 180 died in captivity.
- December 8, 1941 to May 8, 1942: Japanese Attack on the US Territory of the Philippines: 25,000 American and Filipino soldiers were killed, 21,000 American and Filipino soldiers were wounded and 100,000 American and Filipino soldiers were captured and forced on death marches.
- Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines which lasted from May 8, 1942 – September 2, 1945 in which 1 million Filipino civilians were killed. Hundreds of both Filipino and American women were forced to become "Comfort Women" - sex slaves - for the Japanese. Thousands upon thousands of American men, women and children were interned in internment camps by the Japanese where 36,550 American civilians were starved and beaten. 10,380 American civilians were killed.
- December 11, 1941 to May 1945: German Attacks on US Shipping in the Atlantic Ocean to/from Europe
- Resulted in 72,200 Allied naval and merchant seamen dead (American dead not separated from all Allied dead and includes data from September 1, 1939.)
- March 3, 1942 German Attack on the American island of Mona, forty miles west of Puerto Rico
- Resulted in no damage or American casualties.
- February 23, 1942: Japanese Attack near Santa Barbara, California in which there were no deaths or wounded. Minor damage to an oil refinery.
- Resulted in the internment of between 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese-American citizens. Also resulted in numerous air raid and invasion scares throughout the Los Angeles, California area (the “Battle of Los Angeles.”)
- June 21, 1942 Japanese Attack on Fort Stevens, Oregon: Minor damage and no American deaths or wounded.
- Resulted in numerous air raid and invasion scares from Washington State to Mexico.
- 1942 to 1945 German attacks on US Shipping off the coast of North Carolina
- Resulted in the deaths of 5,000 American civilians and merchant seamen.
- June 3, 1942 Japanese Attack on Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska in which 79 American soldiers were killed and 3 American soldiers captured.
- Resulted in the Japanese Occupation of the Aleutian Islands of the US Territory of Alaska which lasted from June 3, 1942 to August 15, 1943. 1 American civilian was killed, 46 American civilians were captured and sent to internment camps in Japanese-occupied parts of the Pacific. 1,481 American soldiers were killed, 3,416 American soldiers were wounded to retake the islands.
- September 9-29, 1942 Japanese Air Raid Attacks on Oregon
- Resulted in no damage and no American deaths or wounded.
- 1941 to 1942 Japanese Attacks on US Shipping Several ships were torpedoed within sight of West Coast Californian cities such as Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Santa Monica.
- November 3, 1944 to May 5, 1945 Japanese Fire Balloon Attacks Canada and the United States
- Resulted in 350 of the balloon bombs making it across the Pacific, several were intercepted or shot down by the U.S. military. From 1944 to 1945, balloon bombs were spotted in more than 15 states—some as far east as Michigan and Iowa.
- May 5, 1945 Japanese Fire Balloon Attack on Bly, Oregon
-
Resulted in a pregnant woman (Elsie Winters Mitchell) and her five children killed.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

No Fast Response

From USA Today:
"U.S. can't respond as fast to disasters in Hawaii, Alaska as mainland"

The U.S. isn’t prepared to respond to disasters in Hawaii, Alaska or on Pacific Islands as fast as on the American mainland, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. Islands such as Guam could suffer the same fate as Puerto Rico, where thousands of residents are still waiting for power to be restored five months after Hurricane Maria struck the island. In the rest of the country, the Corps has plans in place for emergency power generators, debris removal crews, bucket trucks and linemen to roll into mainland states as a storm recedes. Those plans did not apply to Puerto Rico, where the Caribbean Sea posed an obstacle to getting supplies and people to the island.  Lessons learned from the slow pace of restoring power to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last September should be applied to other isolated states and territories, including Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Virgin Islands and U.S. atolls in the Pacific, said Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  “I don’t think you can treat the (U.S.) Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska and the atolls the same way you treat the Lower 48,” Semonite told a small group of reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Hurricane Maria raked Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Sept. 20 and Sept. 17, bringing down a neglected and weakened power system. Nearly 86% of customers now have power, according to the Department of Energy .Future planning should include identifying priorities in every city and permanently parking supplies and equipment on isolated states and territories for emergencies, he said. “I’m not satisfied that people in Puerto Rico should have to wait 158 days for power,” Semonite said Wednesday. “It’s too long.” Semonite said he hopes to get 95% of residents hooked up by the end of March, but that it’s unclear if or when the last 5% will have power.  Those customers tend to be the “four houses at the top of a mountain, with a wire that goes up the side of a cliff,” he said. “The question is how to get power there,” and whether those homes still exist or will be rebuilt, he said. The Corps sent people to Puerto Rico's capital San Juan  a few days before the storm, but there were not enough plans, contracts and supplies in place so much of the recovery effort had to ramp up later. The logistics of transporting gear and supplies such as cement, transmission towers and electric poles to the island is still an issue today, he said. In the future, “I want them there earlier,” Semonite said.  

^ The United States has military bases and ships stationed across the world and so should be able to go to any US territory (or state) right away to give immediate assistance. Hopefully, things have changed after what happened in Puerto Rico so they won't happen in the future. ^

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/02/22/u-s-cant-respond-disasters-hawaii-alaska-pacific-islands-fast-mainland/362429002/

Secret Improving

From the MT:
"Russian Attitudes to Soviet Secret Police Are Improving — Poll"

The number of Russians who associate Soviet-era secret police with oppression has fallen by half, according to a new poll published by the Levada Center. Russia’s Justice Ministry labelled the independent Levada Center a “foreign agent” in 2016 after an inspection of the pollster’s documents determined that it was receiving foreign funding and engaging in "political activity." As a result of the ruling, Levada announced it would be withdrawing from election-related polling ahead of the March 2018 presidential elections.  Only 12 percent of Russians said they associated the Cheka Soviet-era secret police force with political terror and the persecution of dissidents, according to the new Levada poll published on Thursday. Levada said the number had decreased by almost two-fold since 1997 when 23 percent of Russians held the same views. Meanwhile, the number of Russians who associate the KGB secret police with “defending national interests and state secrets” has nearly doubled, from 22 percent in 2000 to 41 percent this year. Sociologist Denis Volkov told the RBC business portal that Russians’ attitudes toward the Soviet secret police may have improved due to the "increasing legitimacy of state and law-enforcement agencies" following the 2014 referendum in Crimea and the war in Syria. He also attributed the change to the absence of criticism of intelligence agencies in state TV programming and the positive portrayals of secret agents in movies and television shows. The Levada Center poll was conducted among 1,600 people in 48 Russian regions on Jan. 19-23.  

^ This is a sad poll and shows the true reality for ordinary Russians. ^


New Operation

From UNIAN:
"Ukraine's Gen. Staff says ATO over, new Operation in Donbas kicking off"

Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Gen. Viktor Muzhenko says the Ukrainian Armed Forces are completing the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas, while a new Operation of the United Forces will start. "The law, which was signed by the president of Ukraine on Feb 20, systematizes the use of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to perform tasks they were assigned in the ATO and changes the format of the main Operation. The ATO will be completed and we will move on to the Operation of the United Forces. This implies a clear command structure, subordination of certain forces and resources to the military, setting up a joint operational staff as the main controlling body of the Operation in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Muzhenko said, RFE/RL's Ukrainian service reports. The change in format will allow for systematizing the involvement of the Ukrainian army units as well as units and forces of other components of the security sector, and "using the AFU more effectively within the legal framework." The Staff of the United Forces will be headed by a "man with combat experience". "We have appropriate candidates. They require a certain approval procedure, and after that, their names will be submitted to the president of Ukraine in the shortest possible time to approve such a candidate. It will be a person with combat experience and sufficient skills, knowledge, and practical experience to perform such tasks," Muzhenko said. As UNIAN reported earlier, on Feb 20, President Poroshenko signed a bill on Donbas re-integration into law, designating Russia as an aggressor state. 

^ Hopefully this new Operation will help end the War and bring peace to the Ukraine. ^

Chicken Shortage

If you believe you have things bad please take a minute to think of the people in the United Kingdom. I'm not talking about issues with Brexit or the lack of Government in Northern Ireland, but the multi-day closing of around 500 KFCs across the country due to a lack of chicken. People are calling 999 (their equivalent of 911) to file complaints. Where are the gofundme pages, the chicken relief airlifts and the hashtag shows of solidarity?
(This is definitely not the generation that stood alone against the Germans during the Blitz where in 8 months of constant bombing 43,000 men, women and children were killed and up to 139,000 more wounded.)

Bezos Clock

From the BBC:
"Bezos-backed 10,000 Year Clock now under construction"


A clock designed to run for ten millennia without human intervention is now under construction. The 10,000 Year Clock is a project of the Long Now Foundation, a non-profit organisation that wants to make "long-term thinking more common".  It is being built on property owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, beneath a mountain in the middle of a desert in Texas, There is currently no completion date scheduled for the project. The clock's creator, American inventor Danny Hillis, first publicly shared the concept in an essay for Wired in 1995.  In it, he describes his vision of a timepiece that ticks once every year, with a century hand that moves just once every 100 years and a cuckoo that emerges every 1,000.  The clock is designed to capture energy from changes in temperature to power its timekeeping apparatus, according to the Long Now Foundation. But it will not be able to store enough energy to display the time unless visitors "wind" it with a hand-turned wheel.  Bezos shared a video of the clock's construction on Twitter on Tuesday: The project has attracted the support of influential artists and thinkers in addition to Bezos, whose contribution of $42 million (£30m) makes him its largest financial backer.  British musician Brian Eno, famous for his ambient compositions, has built a mechanical melody generator that will produce a different chime sequence every day for 10,000 years. Like the clock hands, the chimes will only work if visitors power the clock.  The first prototype of the clock, which was completed in 1999, is now on display at the Science Museum in London. According to the Long Now Foundation, visitors will be able to hike to the site to see the finished product.

^ This is a little odd. I think long-term thinking is good in some circumstances (the Government, Wars and retirement) but other than that it should be "live for today." ^