Thursday, July 24, 2014


News Clips For The Day


5 immigration issues Central American leaders will raise with Obama
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS July 24, 2014

President Obama will sit down Friday with the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala - the three countries that have been the greatest source of children illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

In addition to their meeting with Mr. Obama, the leaders are visiting Capitol Hill and are taking part in a panel discussion - and they're armed with a laundry list of issues to discuss with U.S. Leaders.

Deportations

The U.S. is already sending planeloads of apprehended Central Americans back to their home countries, and children who have arrived with their parents are starting to make the trip back as well.

The administration has spoken about the need to speed up the removal of unaccompanied children who have no valid claim to stay in the U.S., and though Congress is still grappling with the question of whether to change the laws to speed up deportations, the administration insists that most of the children who have been apprehended will not be allowed to stay.

"I would like to ask congressmen and senators and those who make political decisions in the United States that they think first in the interest of the child, because the child as well being a human being, is more vulnerable than the adult. But also they [children] go with the very human, very natural desire to be with their parents," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said in recent interview with Time Magazine.

Family reunification is a common theme with the three presidents. Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren told reporters after a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden last month that it should be easier for immigrant parents in the U.S. to legally reunite with the children who are trying to join them, according to the Associated Press.

Hernandez also asked that unaccompanied children being deported from the U.S. not be sent alongside with immigrants who were removed from the U.S. for committing crimes.

U.S. Immigration Policy

The wave of unaccompanied children at the border seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for a broad overhaul of the U.S. immigration system, which already seemed extremely unlikely as the crisis came to a head earlier this summer. But the Central American leaders haven't given up on the idea just yet.

"As Guatemalans, we support the efforts that have been made by the U.S. government. President Obama and Vice President Biden have been pushing immigration reform which we know depends on the Republican Congress," Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina told reporters in Spanish when he met with Biden in June.

It ties into the desire the leaders have expressed for family reunification. And there's also an economic reason some leaders to let their citizens remain in the U.S.

"There's an economic incentive for the government of El Salvador to have Salvadorans in the United States working," Charles Glazer, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador under President George W. Bush, told CBS News. He explained that the many of the more than 2 million Salvadorans who live in the U.S. send money back to their home countries. That cash has "a major impact on their economy," he said, noting it was estimated at 17 or 18 percent a few years ago.

Molina, the Guatemalan president, has also floated the idea of a temporary legal status for certain Guatemalans. He noted that some Hondurans and Salvadorans have this special status, which is granted when a country's nationals cannot return home safely after events like wars or natural disasters (both of those countries' statuses were related to natural disasters).

"I would be surprised if they didn't talk about immigration and immigration reform and the need to deal with that issue," Carl Meacham, the director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CBS News.

While there is some support for U.S. immigration reform - particularly if it will make family reunification easier - Hernandez also told Time that it is time for the U.S. to define its immigration rules "with clarity." When U.S. policy lacks clarity, smugglers convince parents to pay to have their children sent north, Hernandez said - making a similar argument to many Republicans in Congress.

Security Cooperation

Experts say that the key to stopping the flow in the long run is to improve safety and economic opportunity in Central America - the "root causes" that push people to leave. Part of that will involve combating the many gangs and other organized criminal elements that terrorize civilians in these countries.

The U.S. created a program called the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) aimed at helping create stronger governments and safer communities, but Meacham said that studies have shown less than half the program's funds have been committed or paid out because there isn't a sufficient way to track resources or impact. However, Central American governments will still look to the U.S. for help creating a safer environment, as the U.S. has done before with initiatives in Mexico and Colombia.

"You really haven't had the effective implementation or oversight of that investment," Meacham said.

Economic Development

The other half of the equation to improve life in Central American countries is providing economic opportunity. Honduran Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero suggested last week that the U.S. create a "mini-Marshall plan," according to Reuters, in the style of the U.S. plan to help rebuild Europe after World War II.

Molina, the Guatemalan president, also told Biden last month that the U.S. should think about ways to have temporary work programs for Central Americans so they don't have to leave their families permanently - an idea that is part of larger immigration reform. Meacham said that would be high on the list for many residents of those countries.

"A lot of them don't want to stay [in the U.S.] because they're leaving their families so they want arrangements that basically allow for them to...work here so they can send money home," he said.

The Drug Trade

In his Time interview, Hernandez, the Honduran president, said the U.S. shares responsibility to combat violence in Central America fueled by organizations that move drugs to consumers in the U.S.

"In the United States, many officials see the drug problem as basically one of health, as how much it costs to treat an addict and stop them getting involved. But for us it is life and death. That is the difference," he said. "This is a problem they generate, I repeat, because of the connection between the drugs they consume in enormous quantities in the United States that are produced in the south and pass through Central America, generating violence, generating this migratory flow."

It could put Obama in a difficult spot, Meacham noted, since he will have to defend federal drug policy even as some states are taking steps to legalize marijuana.

"But I also think that its tough for them just to blame it on us," he said. "I think there's some issues there about what kind of commitment the presidents in Central America have demonstrated towards this fight."






“President Obama will sit down Friday with the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala - the three countries that have been the greatest source of children illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In addition to their meeting with Mr. Obama, the leaders are visiting Capitol Hill and are taking part in a panel discussion - and they're armed with a laundry list of issues to discuss with U.S. Leaders.” Deportations, U.S. Immigration Policy, Security Cooperation,
economic development and the drug trade are top on the list.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez asks Congress to “think first in the interest of the child,” as they are more vulnerable than adults, and are in many cases trying to reach their parents who are presumably already in the US. Of course if their parents are here illegally they may themselves be deported if they are caught. Hernandez also asked that “unaccompanied children being deported from the U.S. not be sent alongside with immigrants who were removed from the U.S. for committing crimes.” This is a true danger, just as when American juveniles who commit a serious crime are tried as an adult and therefore are mixed with the more hardened criminals in adult prisons. “Family reunification is a common theme with the three presidents. Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren told reporters after a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden last month that it should be easier for immigrant parents in the U.S. to legally reunite with the children who are trying to join them, according to the Associated Press.”

"'There's an economic incentive for the government of El Salvador to have Salvadorans in the United States working,' Charles Glazer, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador under President George W. Bush, told CBS News. He explained that the many of the more than 2 million Salvadorans who live in the U.S. send money back to their home countries. That cash has 'a major impact on their economy,' he said, noting it was estimated at 17 or 18 percent a few years ago.” Molina of Guatemala has asked for a temporary legal status for Guatemala based on hardships at home, as San Salvador and Honduras now have. “While there is some support for U.S. immigration reform - particularly if it will make family reunification easier - Hernandez also told Time that it is time for the U.S. to define its immigration rules "with clarity." When U.S. policy lacks clarity, smugglers convince parents to pay to have their children sent north, Hernandez said - making a similar argument to many Republicans in Congress.”

This is one of those issues that Republicans and Democrats fight over – broad immigration reform if it were enacted could improve this lack of specificity of portions of the law that are tempting smugglers to sell to parents in Central America. Republicans have been saying that the surge of children moving to Texas was caused by recent tweaking to the law by Obama, but according to an article on the net the “surge” began in 2008 when the new law – a largely Republican law and signed by Bush – was enacted.

“The U.S. created a program called the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) aimed at helping create stronger governments and safer communities, but Meacham said that studies have shown less than half the program's funds have been committed or paid out because there isn't a sufficient way to track resources or impact. However, Central American governments will still look to the U.S. for help creating a safer environment, as the U.S. has done before with initiatives in Mexico and Colombia.”

A Central American “Marshall Plan” has been proposed by Honduran Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero. Some Democrats have suggested that, too. One thing that has occurred to me more than a few times is that the US has a distanced relationship to South and Central America, more or less leaving them up to their own devices except for the occasional support for some highly dictatorial leaders down there. Central and South America have more deep seated poverty and lack of democracy than we have in the US and therefore they tend to be revolutionary tender boxes, so a radical right government can “control them.” We supported a number of dictators – despite our claim to being a sponsor of democracy – and the result now is that economics and social order don't have that bottom up basis as we have in the US with small businesses and a voting public with guaranteed rights. It is sad that some of these leaders are pleading for us to allow their citizens to have temporary passes to come to the US and send some of their money back home, as it is a sizable part of the national economy.

Concerning the drug trade, Hernandez of Honduras called for the US to accept partial responsibility for the situation. “'This is a problem they generate, I repeat, because of the connection between the drugs they consume in enormous quantities in the United States that are produced in the south and pass through Central America, generating violence, generating this migratory flow.'" Meacham noted that Obama will have to defend our drug policy, but that the governments in Central America are at fault, too – “'there's some issues there about what kind of commitment the presidents in Central America have demonstrated towards this fight.'"

Hernandez sees the drug trade as “passing through” his country rather than starting there, and doesn't seem confident in his ability to stop it at his borders. Likewise he speaks of the movement of children as a flow, but that clearly starts in Central America among the individual parents who are sending their children north, and it is up to his government to stop them from doing that – yes, make it illegal to consort with a coyote to smuggle their children. It is also the Central American nations' responsibility to investigate and identify the human smugglers who operate from their soil; putting them in prison for a long time would be a good and fining them heavily. I think the US government could help them enforce their anti-smuggling laws – or make laws if they don't have enough – as a part of a Central American Marshall Plan. The problem starting for us as a flow of children is for them a whole complex of issues, most of which they don't have much control over, but they need to develop control.

Some of our Republicans see it as an enforcement problem and a simple one – just send them back immediately and they will stay at home, and any law that interferes with that goal should be scrapped. But a couple of those children were quoted as saying that if we send them home they will just come back again. I personally think we need to send most of them back – those who don't qualify for refugee status – but when they get home their parents need to be prohibited by their government from going back to the local coyote and sending them back up again. Those governments also must stop the prevalent violence there which deeply frightens the population and makes them feel desperate. They probably will need US aid for that, too. It's a complicated set of problems and will require complicated solutions. I am very relieved to see the leaders of those governments up here talking to Obama and to Congress, because I think that allows an international solution to emerge. I have more hope for the future now.





White House announces $10b fund for rural infrastructure
By ABIGAIL BESSLER CBS NEWS July 24, 2014

WASHINGTON - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and CoBank CEO Robert Engel are announcing $10 billion in private funding to invest in rural infrastructure projects across the country.

The announcement is a part of a two-day "Rural Opportunity Investment Conference" that began Wednesday in Washington, D.C., which aims to bring together investment firms, government officials, and business leaders to promote investment in rural communities. Vilsack said the $10 billion fund will not only provide jobs to rural areas, but it will also be a catalyst for further private investments in infrastructure projects nation-wide.

"This is a new way for us to do business," Vilsack said. "This is us connecting. We're going to be able to do more projects and create more opportunities as a result."

The funding, which will be managed by Capitol Peak Asset Management, is part of an ongoing effort by the Obama administration to focus on infrastructure improvements in rural areas. In 2011, the president established the White House Rural Council, and this February, he announced the "Made in Rural America" initiative, designed to help rural businesses export their products to new markets at home and abroad.

Investment in rural areas has been a core function of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for decades. Just in the past five years, the USDA has funded $2.75 billion in rural development, which doesn't even include farm loans or subsidies. But the agency has also seen huge budget cuts--from 2010 to 2013, its operational budget was cut by $3 billion, or 12 percent.

That's made partnering with private investors look more and more necessary.

"Over the past six years, USDA has been a critical source of funding for [rural] companies today," Engel said. "But the agency has finite resources, and there's an understandable backlog of projects across many of these sectors. We have to do everything we can to facilitate the flow of capital to rural infrastructure projects."

In May, the USDA announced a $150 million equity fund uniting farm lenders with a large investment firm, Advantage Capital Partners. And more public-private funds like that one are under consideration, according to the Statesman Journal, which reported that one attendee of this week's conference is Blackrock Inc., the world's largest asset manager.

Now, with the promised $10 billion investment by CoBank and in partnership with Capitol Peak Asset Management Co., Vilsack hopes that more investors will join in by adding to the fund or creating their own.

"There's not much of a limit on this," he said. "We know the need is out there and we also know the profit opportunity is out there."

Last year, U.S. agriculture exports supported nearly one million jobs and reached a record value of $144 billion. The USDA predicts that by 2020, that value will have increased further.

Vilsack said the largest challenge is making sure investors know about the agriculture projects going on in rural areas. He said many investors expressed at the conference that they had not known about how much the USDA funds annually or that there was a waiting list of unfunded projects.

"These are loans that everybody would like to do," Vilsack said, citing transportation, waste-water treatment, and broadband construction projects.

Engel agreed, saying that CoBank, which already lends money to rural companies in all 50 states, is excited about the opportunity.

"Everyone in our country has a real stake in the long term health of rural America," he said.

Last year, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. a D+ on infrastructure, estimating that the country needs to spend $3.6 trillion by 2020 to maintain maintenance levels of roads, waterways, bridges, and waste systems.



http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/white-house-to-begin-10-billion-farm-investment-fund/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Wall Street is looking for ways to invest in America’s heartland, and the government is ready to play matchmaker.

The White House Rural Council will announce plans on Thursday to start a $10 billion investment fund that will give pension funds and large investors the opportunity to invest in agricultural projects. Those include wastewater systems, energy projects and infrastructure development in rural America.

The fund, called the Rural Infrastructure Opportunity Fund, will be backed by CoBank, a cooperative bank and a member of the Farm Credit System, a government-sponsored network of banks that lend to the agriculture industry. CoBank has committed the first $10 billion to the fund.

Capitol Peak Asset Management, an investment firm, will manage the fund’s investments and the Agriculture Department will help find projects for the fund. Investors will be able to make debt and equity investments in individual and bundled projects. They will earn returns on their principal investments along with interest.

Flows into the hedge fund industry from institutional investors are at all-time highs. Faced with what he described as “extraordinary” demand from local communities in rural America for capital, Mr. Vilsack last year enlisted the help of Matthew McKenna, a former executive at PepsiCo, to help find a way to attract Wall Street and large institutional investors. Through the process, Mr. McKenna discovered that investors with big war chests were interested in making investments in more than just one or two individual projects at a time.

As a result, the fund will offer investors the opportunity to put money into bundled projects. One specific area where investment is needed is in California, Mr. Vilsack said, where the state is facing one of its most severe droughts on record.

“There is a business opportunity there because people will pay for water,” he added.

One group of investors has begun to buy farmland through real estate investment trusts — including the American Farmland Company, Farmland Partners and the Gladstone Land Corporation — that combine crops and land into an asset classfor ordinary investors to buy.

So strong is the demand from some corners of the financial world that agricultural conferences once attended mostly by farmers and others in related fields are now crowded with institutional investors, venture capitalists and hedge fund managers.

Mr. Vilsack will announce the new Rural Infrastructure fund on Thursday at a conference in Washington. Nearly 600 financial executives, investors and government officials have convened for the White House’s Rural Opportunity Investment Conference. The list of speakers for the event includes Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and Ken Wilson, vice chairman ofBlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.





“The announcement is a part of a two-day "Rural Opportunity Investment Conference" that began Wednesday in Washington, D.C., which aims to bring together investment firms, government officials, and business leaders to promote investment in rural communities. Vilsack said the $10 billion fund will not only provide jobs to rural areas, but it will also be a catalyst for further private investments in infrastructure projects nation-wide.” This sounds like a very good plan, and it addresses a need that has been neglected – rural areas tend to be poverty stricken areas for many of the population, as those people have to travel long distances to get jobs or they may work as hands on large farms, making very little in pay. An area needs local businesses, good roads, community centers and services, and medical facilities to flourish.

“In 2011, the president established the White House Rural Council, and this February, he announced the 'Made in Rural America' initiative, designed to help rural businesses export their products to new markets at home and abroad.” Republicans say that Obama hasn't don't much for business, but this is a big step forward. The income gap between rural and city areas is part of the poverty problem in this country, especially in places like Appalachia, parts of the West and the rural South. Someone who lives 20 miles from the nearest town has less chance to get and keep a good job, and therefore has to depend on his ability to save every penny rather than having more goods and services, much less being able to save money or buy a house.

The USDA, responsible partly for financing rural projects, has “seen huge budget cuts--from 2010 to 2013, its operational budget was cut by $3 billion, or 12 percent.... That's made partnering with private investors look more and more necessary.'Over the past six years, USDA has been a critical source of funding for [rural] companies today,' Engel said. 'But the agency has finite resources, and there's an understandable backlog of projects across many of these sectors. We have to do everything we can to facilitate the flow of capital to rural infrastructure projects.'... Vilsack said the largest challenge is making sure investors know about the agriculture projects going on in rural areas. He said many investors expressed at the conference that they had not known about how much the USDA funds annually or that there was a waiting list of unfunded projects. 'These are loans that everybody would like to do,' Vilsack said, citing transportation, waste-water treatment, and broadband construction projects. Engel agreed, saying that CoBank, which already lends money to rural companies in all 50 states, is excited about the opportunity.

This is, looking at the basic poverty problem in the US, one of Obama's best achievements and most needed. I think even Republicans will approve of it, as it unites private and public funding. It is well-conceived and already achieving a good deal of success. The demand for funding is there, and the businessmen who want to invest are also stepping up. It's a win-win situation.






Night owls and early birds have different personality traits
By AGATA BLASZCZAK-BOXE CBS NEWS July 24, 2014

Whether you are an early bird or a night owl may not only determine when you prefer to sleep -- it can also affect your personality and quality of life. And it looks like night owls may have it tougher when it comes to their overall well-being and functioning in a predominantly 9-to-5 world.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of Barcelona, Spain, compared "morning people," those early birds who like to get up at dawn, and "evening people," night owls who prefer to stay up late and sleep in. Among the differences they found is that morning people tend to be more persistent. Morning types are also more resistant to fatigue, frustration and difficulties, which often translates into lower levels of anxiety and lower rates of depression, higher life satisfaction and less likelihood of substance abuse.

On the other hand, evening people tend to be more extravagant, temperamental, impulsive and novelty- seeking, "with a higher tendency to explore the unknown." They are more likely to suffer from insomnia and ADHD. They also appear to be more likely to develop addictive behaviors, mental disorders and antisocial tendencies, and even to attempt suicide.

In the study, researchers looked at the lifestyles and personality traits of 700 Spanish psychology students from two universities. The subjects ranged in age from 18 to 32 and included slightly more women than men.

So where do these differences between night owls and early birds stem from? There are two possible explanations, the researchers said. One is that people's genes play a role in determining their circadian rhythm -- the inner clock that regulates sleep and other physiological processes.

Study author Ana Adan at the University of Barcelona told CBS News in an email that "several studies have linked different circadian rhythm genes with the development of mood disorders, schizophrenia and drug consumption."

Another possible explanation is related to so-called "social jet lag," which is a term used to describe the lack of synchronization which can occur between a person's biological clock and the society around them, Adan said.

"Evening-type subjects are well-known social jet lag sufferers, as they must develop a behavioral pattern in order to adapt to the social schedule," which tends to be oriented towards "morningness," Adan said. And if evening types struggle to adapt to this kind of schedule, they may develop symptoms of depression and anxiety, Adan said.

Evening-type men in the study were more likely to suffer from mental disorders than evening-type women, which surprised the researchers, Adan said. This was unexpected, as women generally tend to be more vulnerable "to the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms than men," Adan said.

However, it seems that there might also be some more positive aspects of being a night owl. "Creative people tend to be night owls," Dr. Argelinda Baroni, an assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, told CBS News.

Baroni, who was not involved in the study, also pointed out that "eveningness" is more common in the age group that the researchers used in the study, especially among males. It would be interesting to see whether the people's sleeping patterns and personality traits would change with age, as "eveningness" tends to decrease when people get older, she said.

Overall, she said, "I think it is a study that is consistent with other research," on differences between morning and evening types. For instance, other research has found that adults with ADHD indeed tend to be night owls, as shown by their sleep-wake schedules and their levels of melatonin, a sleep-regulating hormone, she said.

Adan said that the new findings may be helpful to healthcare professionals who could use them to develop new and more accurate therapies for the treatment of different disorders affecting people with different circadian rhythm patterns.

The new findings are being published in the October 2014 issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences.






“Among the differences they found is that morning people tend to be more persistent. Morning types are also more resistant to fatigue, frustration and difficulties, which often translates into lower levels of anxiety and lower rates of depression, higher life satisfaction and less likelihood of substance abuse.... On the other hand, evening people tend to be more extravagant, temperamental, impulsive and novelty- seeking, 'with a higher tendency to explore the unknown.' They are more likely to suffer from insomnia and ADHD. They also appear to be more likely to develop addictive behaviors, mental disorders and antisocial tendencies, and even to attempt suicide.”

The researchers have speculated that ones circadian rhythm is determined by genes rather than habit. Another researcher named Ana Adan said that a number of studies have linked circadian rhythms to genes already, and that circadian rhythms have also been linked to mood disorders, schizophrenia and drug use. “Another possible explanation is related to so-called "social jet lag," which is a term used to describe the lack of synchronization which can occur between a person's biological clock and the society around them, Adan said. So there could be disruptions in personal relationships or societal success, which is certainly depressing.

As one who has always had a tendency toward insomnia, I have found a solution that works for me. I have started going to bed ridiculously early, about an hour after eating, with the TV on – news and my favorite game shows, and then with a tape full of educational documentaries to take my mind off whatever I may be worrying about -- my mind finally stops going around in circles and I begin to get drowsy. I can take the long time it takes me to relax enough to sleep, dropping off about 9:00 or 10:00. I get enough hours of rest to function much better the next morning and I then wake up spontaneously between 6:00 and 7:00 when the sun is just coming up outside my window, thus giving me a big boost of serotonin.

In other words, these studies shouldn't discount the role of habitually trying to function with no sleep day after day in causing depression, fatigue, lack of persistence, or worse problems; and being out of synch with the morning sunlight because we sleep too late to bask in the sun makes us depressed, grouchy and anxious. That's what psychologists thought was the mechanism for setting the circadian rhythms, not genes, back in the 1970's when people were first talking about it – the morning sunlight. Of course a number of often severe mental conditions are now considered to be genetically determined with or without the circadian rhythms. If a person has inherited anxiety, a tendency to worry, negative thoughts and depression they will probably have uncontrollably tense muscles and be unable to drop off to sleep. No wonder so many people get addicted to sleeping pills. Then to compound it more they will wake up late, miss the early morning sun needed for a good set of circadian rhythms, be late to work and as a result of that be full of anxiety and depression again the next day.

I suggest a good psychological counselor and some antidepressants and if necessary, start going to bed right after supper. Homo Sapiens, when he first came up from Africa, went to bed when it got dark. Now we have excellent artificial lights, cars for speedy and convenient transportation, and many people, especially young people, just aren't tired yet at 8:00 and want to get together and party, or at least watch TV until 1:00 AM. After all, they didn't put in 10 hours of hard work during the day tending the farm by hand – no gas powered plows back when Homo Sapiens was a young species.

I think much of it is linked to circadian rhythms, but those rhythms can be reset by getting up super early with the sun and lying down to relax with the intention of sleeping when it gets dark. Most people can reset their rhythms with a concentrated effort. I think schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are inherited, but circadian rhythms are made by the right personal habits that fit with our inborn natural impulses as a diurnal creature. Circadian rhythms were “discovered” by biologists who were studying things like why birds know when it's time to migrate. It's the sun.






Dogs really can get jealous of their owners
By AGATA BLASZCZAK-BOXE CBS NEWS July 23, 2014

Just like humans, dogs can act jealous, a new study confirms -- especially when they think their owners are paying attention to another dog.

Researchers studied the behavior of 36 dogs and found that most of them got jealous of their owners' affection, and acted on their jealousy by snapping and pushing at their owners or the potential "rival," which in the study was actually a stuffed dog that wagged its tail, whined and barked.

Almost 80 percent of the dogs in the study pushed or touched the owners when the owners interacted with a stuffed dog, and 25 percent of the dogs snapped at "the other dog."

The dogs seemed to believe that the stuffed animal was a real rival, as they sniffed its rear end during and after the experiment.

"Our study suggests not only that dogs do engage in what appear to be jealous behaviors but also that they were seeking to break up the connection between the owner and a seeming rival," study author Christine Harris, a professor of psychology at UC San Diego, said in a statement. "We can't really speak to the dogs' subjective experiences, of course, but it looks as though they were motivated to protect an important social relationship."

In the study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, the investigators used a test that is normally used for research on 6-month-old human babies. The researchers worked with the dogs in the pets' own homes and videotaped the owners ignoring the animals by diverting their attention either to a jack-o-lantern pail or a stuffed, animated dog. The owners were instructed to treat both objects as though they were real dogs by petting them and talking to them. In the third scenario, the dog owners read a pop-up book that played music.

The vast majority of dogs appeared to be jealous of the stuffed animal. A smaller number, 42 percent, showed a jealous reaction to their owners interacting with the pail, and 22 percent reacted to their reading books.

"Many people have assumed that jealousy is a social construction of human beings - or that it's an emotion specifically tied to sexual and romantic relationships," Harris said. "Our results challenge these ideas, showing that animals besides ourselves display strong distress whenever a rival usurps a loved one's affection."





"'We can't really speak to the dogs' subjective experiences, of course, but it looks as though they were motivated to protect an important social relationship.'" The animals reaction to the jack-o-lantern pail and the book was more interesting to me. They surely didn't think those things were alive, therefore a rival, but they may have recognized the behavior of the owner as being “attentive” and therefore assumed the objects were rivals. I can understand why they nearly all reacted to the toy dog, because it was one of those mechanical ones that moves, wags its tail and barks. The study reports that the dogs “sniffed its rear end during and after the experiment” which shows how convincing the toy was.

Several cats I've owned have reacted to the fact that I was paying attention to an inanimate object – once a computer, several times books or newspapers, and twice my telephone. My cat, when I started talking into the object my telephone, got up off the bed and started jumping up higher and higher on my furniture, I think because she realized I wasn't paying attention to what she did. She wasn't supposed to jump up on the book shelves. I was afraid she would knock over my toy animals which were displayed there. As to the newspaper, she could clearly see I was paying attention to something besides her. As for the computer, she jumped up on the computer table and walked right in front of the keyboard and lay down so that I had to stroke her instead. I thought that was very sweet of her.

"Many people have assumed that jealousy is a social construction of human beings - or that it's an emotion specifically tied to sexual and romantic relationships," Harris said. "Our results challenge these ideas, showing that animals besides ourselves display strong distress whenever a rival usurps a loved one's affection." With a social animal, it probably doesn't take a very high degree of intelligence to figure out that they have been displaced, but there is no doubt in my mind that both cats and dogs, undoubtedly horses, and one parakeet that I used to know have enough emotional depth to feel pain when separated from the person they love, and I have no doubt that they do feel “love.” I think it's a mammalian instinct, not a human intellectual construct.

A psychologist of mine once said, “Pay attention to your instincts. I think the best part of the human mind is our instincts.” It is certainly what makes most moms love their babies, tells us when a man we meet on the street is staring at us in a menacing way, and makes us feel better in a group of friends than in an isolated situation. I think it is also an instinct that makes us curious and exploratory as we grow up, thus learning useful things we will need later. This was a good article on one of my favorite subjects. Hopefully my readers enjoyed it, too.








MH17 Shootdown: Russian Cossack Leader Made 'Spies' Phone Call – NBC
BY ROBERT WINDREM AND MIKE BRUNKER
First published July 24th 2014

A man heard cursing about “spies” aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in a phone call allegedly intercepted just after the plane was shot down is the leader of a band of Russian Cossacks and may have been involved in the firing of the fatal missile, U.S. officials tell NBC News.

Technical analysis has confirmed that the voice heard on the audiotape obtained by Ukrainian authorities is that of Nikolai Ivanovich Kozitsyn, longtime leader of Russia’s Don Cossacks, according to the intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also has vouched for the authenticity of the intercepted calls.

The officials cautioned that investigators are still uncertain who ordered the firing of the missile that destroyed the jetliner, killing all 298 people on board. They say the missile –- likely a Russian-made SA-11 Buk surface-to-air missile -– was launched from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists, a term that includes Ukrainians as well as Russian soldiers and nationalists, including the Cossacks. The latter are Slavic militaristic groups inspired by -- and in some cases descended from -- the fierce horsemen who battled to defend Czar Nicholas II against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.

Kozitsyn’s remarks on a phone call with an unidentified “militant” -– and other comments implicating “Cossacks” -- have heightened suspicions that he was involved in the shootdown of MH17, though the officials declined to describe him as a suspect. Suspicions also have been raised about other figures in the Ukrainian separatist movement, including Igor Strelkov, the self-declared defense minister of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, who allegedly “boasted” on social media about shooting down a Ukrainian aircraft shortly after Flight 17 crashed– a post that was later deleted.

As translated from Russian by the International Business Times, the militant was giving Kozitsyn a situation report on the crash site in eastern Ukraine in the conversation captured by Ukrainian security services and made public to bolster Kiev’s assertion of Russian involvement in the shootdown.

“They say on TV it’s AN-26 transport plane, but they say it’s written Malaysia Airlines on the plane. What was it doing on Ukraine’s territory?” the militant asked.

Kozitsyn’s unapologetic response, “That means they were carrying spies. They shouldn’t be f----ing flying. There is a war going on.”

In another call released by the Ukrainian government, a pro-Russian separatist identified as “Major” described the crash scene for another separatist known as “Greek.” In the call, “Major,” who said he had visited the outer perimeter of the crash scene – “where the first bodies fell” – said, “These are Chernukhin folks who shot down the plane. From the Chernukhin checkpoint. Those Cossacks who are based in Chernukhino (a Ukrainian town midway between the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk).” (Chernukhino is approximately 20 miles northwest of the Ukranian town of Snizhne, where an Associated Press reporter spotted a Buk missile batteryshortly before Flight 17 was shot down.)

More than a month before the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet, the Ukrainian government released a narrated videotape and transcripts in English that it said detailed intercepted phone conversations in which Kozitsyn ordered rebel military operations against Ukrainian outposts.

In one excerpt from that video, as translated by Ukrainian authorities, Kozitsyn tells an unidentified “terrorist” that the rebels should target an army fuel depot, saying “We need to make it disappear.”

In another call, he threatened recalcitrant rebel fighters, saying, “There are clashes in Sloviansk, people are dying! While the fights are in progress they hid there! I will vanish them all personally! Tell them that!” according to the transcripts. (NBC News has not confirmed the authenticity of the videotape or translation.)

Kozitsyn also was suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of nine observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported last month. (The OSCE observers were later quietly released.) On July 12, the European Union added him to its list of individuals subject to financial sanctions as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

An article in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published on May 12 reported that Kozitsyn had launched a recruiting campaign in the Russia’s Rostov region, seeking detachments of Cossacks to help the pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.

It said Kozitsyn, the “ataman” (which literally translates as “father of horsemen”) had ordered “all Cossacks who have conscience to stand up to defend their brethren” against “Poles, Romanians and Hungarians” that he claimed fighting on behalf of the Ukrainian government.

Since the outbreak of hostilities between Ukraine and Russia in February, the Cossacks have emerged as key go-betweens for the Ukrainian separatists and Moscow, according to U.S. academic experts.

While the original Cossacks were freedom-loving frontiersmen akin to the American cowboy of the Old West, the modern version are members of religious-based community groups who identify with the storied Cossack history, said Matthew Rojansky, director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute. While most are ethnic Slavs who live near the border with Ukraine, the groups accept members from other regions , he said.

“Normally it’s a kind of community organization where young Russians with a nationalist and religious orientation can go and participate in activities like you’d expect from the Boy Scouts – parades, fish fries, that sort of thing,” he said.

Long persecuted during the communist Soviet Union era, both for their allegiance to the czars and their Russian Orthodox beliefs, the Cossacks have rebounded in recent years to play an active societal role, often acting as proxies for the Kremlin.

Among other activities, they have been enlisted in a sort of national neighborhood watch program, though one with a xenophobic reputation, said Jeff Mankoff, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Russia and Eurasia Program.

“They’ve essentially been deputized as a kind of public order force in parts of southern Russia,” he said. “A lot of this has to do with ethnic tensions. … There is concern with migration and ‘southerners’ – which is to say people from the Caucuses – and they keep an eye out for people breaking laws or who are not in the country legally and then harass them and, in some cases, turn them over to the police. It’s sort of like the groups on the border in Texas.”

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Cossack groups also have a history of joining fights outside Russia’s borders if they perceive a conflict as threatening Russian-speaking peoples or ethnic Slavs, said Rojansky, noting that the Cossack involvement in Ukraine in some ways resembles the War of Transnitria, which broke out in 1990 when a Russian-speaking enclave on the border between Ukraine and Moldova sought to break away from the latter. Cossacks from Russia rushed to defend the separatists, who were ultimately defeated.

Ukraine also considers the Cossacks part of its national identity, and also has Cossack groups fighting on its behalf, according to both Rojansky and Mankoff.

“Some of them identify with Ukraine because they see that as the successor to the Cossack entities that existed in the past,” said Mankoff. “But others, like the Don Cossacks (who derive their name from a Russian river) identify with Russia because that’s when they were at their apogee, when they had a special status accorded to them. They identify with Russian greatness.”





“A man heard cursing about “spies” aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in a phone call allegedly intercepted just after the plane was shot down is the leader of a band of Russian Cossacks and may have been involved in the firing of the fatal missile, U.S. officials tell NBC News.” Could this mean that the plane was not shot down accidentally, but purposely? If he thought there were “spies” aboard the plane as it crossed over Ukraine, that could be the case. “Kozitsyn’s unapologetic response, “That means they were carrying spies. They shouldn’t be f----ing flying. There is a war going on.” “In the call (another call), “Major,” who said he had visited the outer perimeter of the crash scene – “where the first bodies fell” – said, “These are Chernukhin folks who shot down the plane. From the Chernukhin checkpoint. Those Cossacks who are based in Chernukhino.” The Cossacks are Russian soldiers, either under Putin's supervision or as mercenaries with his approval. According to the article, the Kossacks are often “acting as proxies for the Kremlin.”

Kozitsyn was taped by the Kiev government about a month earlier giving orders to the rebels on what to target with their weapons. “Kozitsyn also was suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of nine observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported last month.” In a Russian newspaper there is an account of Kozitsyn putting out a call for Cossack volunteers to “'stand up to defend their brethren' against 'Poles, Romanians and Hungarians' that he claimed fighting on behalf of the Ukrainian government.”

“Technical analysis has confirmed that the voice heard on the audiotape obtained by Ukrainian authorities is that of Nikolai Ivanovich Kozitsyn, longtime leader of Russia’s Don Cossacks, according to the intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.... The officials cautioned that investigators are still uncertain who ordered the firing of the missile.... Kozitsyn’s remarks on a phone call with an unidentified “militant” -– and other comments implicating “Cossacks” -- have heightened suspicions that he was involved in the shoot down. As translated from Russian by the International Business Times, the militant was giving Kozitsyn a situation report on the crash site in eastern Ukraine in the conversation captured by Ukrainian security services and made public to bolster Kiev’s assertion of Russian involvement in the shootdown.”

It sounds as though Kositsyn was not the shooter, but did justify the shooting, and he certainly had been giving orders to the rebels at times. The one report in which a man called “Major” was talking did state that it was Cossacks at Chernukhin who shot the plane down, though – that means Russian mercenaries did it. I do hope Obama and the UN get involved in this. Russia should be heavily sanctioned, enough to cause him real economic problems. This article gave more real information than any other article I've read, about this incident and several other recent events with the Cossacks, which is enough to put the blame on them. Obama threatened to send the Ukrainians “lethal” weapons. Kiev does need help. If there are Poles and others in there fighting with them, that's all to the good.







Iraq Elects Kurdish Politician To Ceremonial Post Of President – NPR
by SCOTT NEUMAN
July 24, 2014

Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum has been elected president of Iraq by the country's parliament, another step in forming a new government after months of deadlock.

As Leila Fadel reports from Erbil in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, "Massoum took his oath vowing to protect the constitution and the unity of Iraq. He made the promise as Iraq threatens to splinter into three pieces."

The vote for the largely ceremonial post of president was delayed for a day after the Kurdish bloc of legislators asked for more time to make their pick. Massoum was their choice.

Leila says: "In the Kurdish north calls for independence are growing and relations between Baghdad and the region have soured since Sunni extremists overran much of northern and western Iraq. The Kurds used the opportunity to seize disputed territories they believe are part of a future independent state."

"Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki angered Kurdish leaders when he accused them of harboring terrorists. World leaders, including Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-Moon, who is visiting Iraq today, are urging an inclusive government as violence escalates in the capital."






“Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum has been elected president of Iraq by the country's parliament, another step in forming a new government after months of deadlock. As Leila Fadel reports from Erbil in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, 'Massoum took his oath vowing to protect the constitution and the unity of Iraq. He made the promise as Iraq threatens to splinter into three pieces.'"

Many Kurds are known to want independence from Baghdad, and Leila Fadel stated that they have seized “disputed territories” for a future Kurdish state. Massoum, however, has pledged to uphold the Iraqi constitution and unity. Perhaps al Maliki's claims against the Kurds are baseless. He said they were “harboring terrorists,” but Fadel said the Sunni tribes overran the Kurdish territory. As long as the Kurds fight against the Sunnis they are being friends to Iraq rather than enemies. I personally want to see all Sunni groups controlled. One article on the various groups of Muslims said that both shia and sunnis are warlike, but the sunnis are the most violent. They're likely to continue to threaten Western people in the years to come, and should not be allowed to take over places like Syria to threaten us from there.