Saturday, August 22, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/france-americans-heroes-gunman-train-europe/

Americans hailed as heroes for foiling train attack
CBS/AP
August 22, 2015

Photograph -- Three men who helped disarm an attacker on a train from Amsterdam to France, from left, Anthony Sadler, from Pittsburg, California, Aleck Sharlatos, from Roseburg, Oregon, and Chris Norman, a British man living in France, pose with medals they received for their bravery at a restaurant in Arras, France, Aug. 21, 2015. REUTERS/PASCAL ROSSIGNOL
Photograph -- French police stand over a man who is apprehended on the platform at the Arras train station after shots were fired on the Amsterdam to Paris Thalys high-speed train in Arras, France, Aug. 21, 2015. CHRISTINA CATHLEEN COONS/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS


ARRAS, France -- One serves in the Air Force, another recently served in Afghanistan in the National Guard, another is studying physical therapy in California - and all three Americans are being hailed as heroes for tackling and disarming a gunman they happened to encounter on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris.

Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone remained hospitalized Saturday after being stabbed in the attack Friday night as the train traveled through Belgium, though the Pentagon said the injury was not life-threatening. A dual French-American citizen was also wounded as he was hit by chance by a gunshot on the train, which eventually stopped in Arras in northern France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Cazeneuve, speaking to reporters in Paris on Saturday, said that the suspect may be a 26-year-old Moroccan flagged by Spanish authorities last year for links to Islamic radical movements, but the identity has not been 100 percent confirmed.

An official linked to Spain's anti-terrorism unit said the suspect lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to France, traveled to Syria, and then returned to France. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be identified by name.

French authorities are questioning the attacker and are expected to speak to at least one of the Americans on Saturday about what happened. Counterterrorism police are leading the investigation, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office has also opened an investigation into the incident on the grounds that the suspect had boarded the train in Brussels, said spokesman Eric Van der Sypt. He said Belgian authorities are assisting the investigation, which is led by France.

Cazeneuve said the violence began when a French passenger ran into the heavily armed suspect while trying to enter a bathroom and the gunman fired a weapon.

Cazeneuve said the Americans "were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances," and that "without their sangfroid we could have been confronted with a terrible drama." A British passenger also helped subdue the attacker.

Cazeneuve called for caution before jumping to conclusions. French authorities are on heightened alert after Islamic extremist attacks in January left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen. In June, a lone attacker claiming allegiance to Islamic radicals beheaded his employer and set off an explosion at an American-owned factory in France, raising concerns about other scattered, hard-to-predict attacks.

Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, was traveling with childhood friends Stone, of Carmichael, California, and Alek Skarlatos, a National Guardsman from Roseburg, Oregon.

"I saw a guy entering the train with an AK and a handgun," Skarlatos told CBS News, "... and I just looked over at Spencer and said, 'Let's go. Go,' and he jumped up, and I followed behind him by about three seconds. Spencer got to the guy first."

Stone grabbed the suspect by the neck and tackled him to the floor, CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti reports. The gun was fired, but Skarlatos disarmed the attacker. Sadler then helped Stone administer first aid to injured passengers.

"We saw that a man's throat had been slit, and he was bleeding profusely," Sadler told CBS News.

British passenger Chris Norman told French television that he helped tie the gunman up.

Throughout the brief but terrifying episode, Sadler told the AP, "The gunman never said a word."

Sadler said French authorities were to speak with him Saturday in Arras, where scientific police circulated around the cordoned-off train and train station.

The Pentagon confirmed that "one U.S. military member was injured in the incident. The injury is not life-threatening."

President Obama was briefed on the shooting, and said in a statement, "While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy."

Stone was to undergo surgery but he is doing "relatively well," Arras Mayor Frederic Leturque told the AP Saturday.

Skarlatos, 22, had returned from a deployment in Afghanistan in July, and Stone is stationed in the Azores, according to Skarlatos' step-mother Karen Skarlatos.

She spoke with her step-son immediately after the incident. "He sounded fine, but he was intense - he sounded like he had just thwarted a terrorist attack."

"Alek and Spencer, they're big, brave, strong guys and they decided they were going to tackle him. And they did," she told the AP from Oregon. "Spencer got a couple good slices on him. But they were able to subdue him while the train was still moving."

The Arras mayor praised the "extraordinary reflexes" of the Americans and awarded them special medals overnight.

"I wanted them to feel recognition not only from the city but also from French people in general and from all people who are against terrorism," he said.

"We avoided the worst, but the situation was tough, for them and for everyone," he said.

The attacker did not fire his automatic weapon but wounded one man with a handgun and the other with a blade, said Philippe Lorthiois, an official with the Alliance police union.

A third person, French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, suffered a minor injury while activating the train's emergency alarm, Lorthiois said.

The suspect is a 26-year-old Moroccan, according to Sliman Hamzi, an official with the Alliance police union who spoke on French television i-Tele.

European police agency Europol has offered its support to the investigations.

Europe's major rail stations, such as Paris' Gare du Nord and Brussels' Gare du Midi, are patrolled by soldiers armed with rifles, but passengers can board most high-speed trains without passing through metal detectors or having their bags searched or showing their passports.



http://www.emploi-scientifique.info/display.php?id=1739&lg=en

Jobs and careers of the French scientific police.


The scientific police's laboratories employ among others laboratory engineers, holders of a Master's degree or a doctorate in medicine, pharmacy or veterinary medicine. Recruitment is conducted through competitive entry.

Scientific Police's Careers and Recruitment
All information about the scientific police's jobs: professions, careers, salaries, recruitment campaigns, enquiries and applications.

National Institute of Scientific Police
The National Institute of Scientific Police (INPS) includes 7 departments and laboratories in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse. It specialises in ballistics, biology, documents and traces, fires and explosions, physical chemistry, narcotics and toxicology.

National Police Recruitment
The blog recruitment of the National Police features blogs of policemen who tell their daily lives, video reports about careers, a schedule of job fairs the National Police attends, and information about recruitment campaigns.


December 15, 2008






CBS -- “One serves in the Air Force, another recently served in Afghanistan in the National Guard, another is studying physical therapy in California - and all three Americans are being hailed as heroes for tackling and disarming a gunman they happened to encounter on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone remained hospitalized Saturday after being stabbed in the attack Friday night as the train traveled through Belgium, though the Pentagon said the injury was not life-threatening. A dual French-American citizen was also wounded as he was hit by chance by a gunshot on the train, which eventually stopped in Arras in northern France, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. Cazeneuve, speaking to reporters in Paris on Saturday, said that the suspect may be a 26-year-old Moroccan flagged by Spanish authorities last year for links to Islamic radical movements, but the identity has not been 100 percent confirmed. …. Cazeneuve said the violence began when a French passenger ran into the heavily armed suspect while trying to enter a bathroom and the gunman fired a weapon. Cazeneuve said the Americans "were particularly courageous and showed great bravery in very difficult circumstances," and that "without their sangfroid we could have been confronted with a terrible drama." A British passenger also helped subdue the attacker. …. Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, was traveling with childhood friends Stone, of Carmichael, California, and Alek Skarlatos, a National Guardsman from Roseburg, Oregon. "I saw a guy entering the train with an AK and a handgun," Skarlatos told CBS News, "... and I just looked over at Spencer and said, 'Let's go. Go,' and he jumped up, and I followed behind him by about three seconds. Spencer got to the guy first." Stone grabbed the suspect by the neck and tackled him to the floor, CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti reports. The gun was fired, but Skarlatos disarmed the attacker. Sadler then helped Stone administer first aid to injured passengers. …. Throughout the brief but terrifying episode, Sadler told the AP, "The gunman never said a word." Sadler said French authorities were to speak with him Saturday in Arras, where scientific police circulated around the cordoned-off train and train station. …. Stone was to undergo surgery but he is doing "relatively well," Arras Mayor Frederic Leturque told the AP Saturday. Skarlatos, 22, had returned from a deployment in Afghanistan in July, and Stone is stationed in the Azores, according to Skarlatos' step-mother Karen Skarlatos. She spoke with her step-son immediately after the incident. "He sounded fine, but he was intense - he sounded like he had just thwarted a terrorist attack." "Alek and Spencer, they're big, brave, strong guys and they decided they were going to tackle him. And they did," she told the AP from Oregon. "Spencer got a couple good slices on him. But they were able to subdue him while the train was still moving." The Arras mayor praised the "extraordinary reflexes" of the Americans and awarded them special medals overnight. ….

“Europe's major rail stations, such as Paris' Gare du Nord and Brussels' Gare du Midi, are patrolled by soldiers armed with rifles, but passengers can board most high-speed trains without passing through metal detectors or having their bags searched or showing their passports.” Things are being done in the name of expediency that is not intelligent in this new age of terrorism. Let the train passengers line up well ahead of time if necessary to get on the train. Every federal building in the city of Jacksonville has armed guards and metal detectors. It really only takes a couple of minutes for me to put my handbag in the plastic tub provided and let it scan. Metal detectors would have discovered the two guns even if the armed soldiers missed him. How do you miss an AK47? However this scary story has a happy ending, and some “Yanks” are heroes with the mayor awarding them “special medals.” I hope Obama will also award them a medal. By the way, I did look up the term "Scientific Police" on the Net and it simply means the forensic science task force.




THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-inspires-hundreds-to-spread-kindness/

Man inspires hundreds to spread kindness
By STEVE HARTMAN CBS NEWS
August 21, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Man with ALS shares joy of tuxedos with Steve Hartman
Play VIDEO -- On the Road: Grand theft donut
Photograph -- hartmanbutterfly-effect-copy-02frame2796.jpg
Cate Cameron, right, and her sister Anna, left CBS NEWS
Photograph -- p1020285.jpg
Children in Sierra Leone hold signs thanking Chris for spreading kindness STEVE CAMERON


DURHAM, N.C. -- His voice is almost gone, but as we first reported last March, Chris Rosati still has a lot to say about how to make the world a better place.

His most recent revelation -- was about the butterfly effect.

The butterfly effect is this idea that a single butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the globe can, in theory, start a hurricane on the other. It's a physics concept, but Chris wondered if it could be applied to kindness as well.

"An act of kindness, how far could it go?" he wondered.

Last winter he decided to test the theory at a diner in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina. He saw two girls at the table next to his and gave them each $50 with one very simple instruction -- do something kind.

Rosati says he left the diner and forgot all about it until he got an email. It included pictures from a village in Africa with people holding signs that read, "Thanks a lot for spreading kindness -- Chris Rosati."

"It was the butterfly effect," said Rosati.

The two girls responsible were 13-year-old Cate Cameron and her 10-year-old sister Anna. They said they couldn't believe it when a stranger gave them each $50 dollars.

"That makes you want to do something good with that money," said Anna.

The girls say they already knew about this village in Sierra Leone where their dad had worked in the Peace Corps. They knew the people there had been working hard to fight Ebola, so the girls paid for a feast to help them celebrate being Ebola-free. They say it felt great to help.

"It inspired me," said Anna.

"I would definitely encourage other people to do it," added Cate.

I asked Rosati what he'll do now that he's proven the butterfly effect.

"Oh man," he said. "You get a whole lot of butterflies to flap their wings."

To that end, Rosati, who's already done so much for North Carolina, launched his latest campaign. He told screaming fans his plan to give out hundreds of little butterfly grants -- $50 each -- to any kid who wants to start changing the world.
Since this story first aired, hundreds of kids across the country have either gotten a grant or acted on their own.

"We did a bake sale for cancer in order to raise money for our cancer hospital," said one child.

"We did a project where we put a bookshelf in a soup kitchen," said another.

And it continues to spread, all these acts of kindness, all inspired by one man's simple gesture. Looks like a hurricane's brewin'.

If you're interested in being a part of Rosati's campaign, go to:http://inspiremedianetwork.org/littleBIGG/



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

Butterfly effect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image -- A plot of Lorenz's strange attractor for values ρ=28, σ = 10, β = 8/3.

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the metaphorical example of the details of a hurricane (exact time of formation, exact path taken) being influenced by minor perturbations such as the flapping of the wings of a distant butterfly several weeks earlier. Lorenz discovered the effect when he observed that runs of his weather model with initial condition data that was rounded in a seemingly inconsequential manner would fail to reproduce the results of runs with the unrounded initial condition data. A very small change in initial conditions had created a significantly different outcome.

The butterfly effect is exhibited by very simple systems. For example, the randomness of the outcomes of throwing dice depends on this characteristic to amplify small differences in initial conditions—the precise direction, thrust, and orientation of the throw—into significantly different dice paths and outcomes, which makes it virtually impossible to throw dice exactly the same way twice.

History[edit]

Chaos theory and the sensitive dependence on initial conditions were described in the literature in a particular case of the three-body problem by Henri Poincaré in 1890.[1] He later proposed that such phenomena could be common, for example, in meteorology.[2]

In 1898,[1] Jacques Hadamard noted general divergence of trajectories in spaces of negative curvature. Pierre Duhem discussed the possible general significance of this in 1908.[1] The idea that one butterfly could eventually have a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent historic events made its earliest known appearance in "A Sound of Thunder", a 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury about time travel (see Literature and print here).

In 1961, Lorenz was running a numerical computer model to redo a weather prediction from the middle of the previous run as a shortcut. He entered the initial condition 0.506 from the printout instead of entering the full precision 0.506127 value. The result was a completely different weather scenario.[3] In 1963 Lorenz published a theoretical study of this effect in a highly cited, seminal paper called Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow[4][5] (the calculations were performed on a Royal McBee LGP-30 computer).[6][7] Elsewhere he stated

One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a sea gull's wings would be enough to alter the course of the weather forever. The controversy has not yet been settled, but the most recent evidence seems to favor the sea gulls.[7]

Following suggestions from colleagues, in later speeches and papers Lorenz used the more poetic butterfly. According to Lorenz, when he failed to provide a title for a talk he was to present at the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1972, Philip Merilees concocted Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? as a title.[8] Although a butterfly flapping its wings has remained constant in the expression of this concept, the location of the butterfly, the consequences, and the location of the consequences have varied widely.[9]

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in another location. The butterfly does not power or directly create the tornado. The term is not intended to imply—as is often misconstrued—that the flap of the butterfly's wings causes the tornado. The flap of the wings is a part of the initial conditions; one set of conditions leads to a tornado while the other set of conditions doesn't. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which cascades to large-scale alterations of events (compare: domino effect). Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different—it's possible that the set of conditions without the butterfly flapping its wings is the set that leads to a tornado.

The butterfly effect presents an obvious challenge to prediction, since initial conditions for a system such as the weather can never be known to complete accuracy. This problem motivated the development of ensemble forecasting, in which a number of forecasts are made from perturbed initial conditions.[10]

Some scientists have since argued that the weather system is not as sensitive to initial condition as previously believed.[11] David Orrell argues that the major contributor to weather forecast error is model error, with sensitivity to initial conditions playing a relatively small role.[12][13] Stephen Wolfram also notes that the Lorenz equations are highly simplified and do not contain terms that represent viscous effects; he believes that these terms would tend to damp out small perturbations.[14]




“Last winter he decided to test the theory at a diner in his hometown of Durham, North Carolina. He saw two girls at the table next to his and gave them each $50 with one very simple instruction -- do something kind. Rosati says he left the diner and forgot all about it until he got an email. It included pictures from a village in Africa with people holding signs that read, "Thanks a lot for spreading kindness -- Chris Rosati." "It was the butterfly effect," said Rosati. …. The girls say they already knew about this village in Sierra Leone where their dad had worked in the Peace Corps. They knew the people there had been working hard to fight Ebola, so the girls paid for a feast to help them celebrate being Ebola-free. They say it felt great to help. …. To that end, Rosati, who's already done so much for North Carolina, launched his latest campaign. He told screaming fans his plan to give out hundreds of little butterfly grants -- $50 each -- to any kid who wants to start changing the world. Since this story first aired, hundreds of kids across the country have either gotten a grant or acted on their own. "We did a bake sale for cancer in order to raise money for our cancer hospital," said one child. "We did a project where we put a bookshelf in a soup kitchen," said another.”

So how’s this Butterfly Effect work again?? The description in the Wikipedia article above really explains it – “… the randomness of the outcomes of throwing dice depends on this characteristic to amplify small differences in initial conditions — the precise direction, thrust, and orientation of the throw — into significantly different dice paths and outcomes ….” People since the theory was first advanced, including the great scifi writer Ray Bradbury, have expanded on the ability of a small change to have a large effect. Here we now have the “Butterfly grant” and a large number of enthusiastic individuals all contributing toward the good of the world rather than spreading hatred like the ISIS and Aryan Nation websites. Okay, this is a “feel good” story, but don’t be cynical. Real good has been done, and if a huge number people would be positive in their thought processes rather than so darned negative we would have a much better country and world.

A good Internet article by a psychiatrist that I saw within the last year on the psychology of “conservatives” and “liberals” said that conservatives are “more negative” in their outlook than liberals. They are ruled by fear and anger -- no surprise there -- so that a darker skin color or a differently shaped eye is really threatening to them. It really may make them "fear for their life" as the cops keeps saying -- in the exact same words from city to city after they shoot a another black person. Following the guidance of this principle, I intend to keep pulling news articles to expose negativity and hateful actions, while collecting as many great stories like this one as I can, in an effort to provide a "fair and balanced" production just like Fox News says they do. How people think and feel is crucial in whether we have a benign government and society or an evil one. Forward ho the wagons!





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jury-deadlocked-in-north-carolina-officer-shooting-trial/

Jury deadlocked in North Carolina officer shooting trial; mistrial declared
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP
August 21, 2015


CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A North Carolina jury has deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial in the case of a white police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of an unarmed black man.

Judge Robert C. Ervin declared a mistrial Friday afternoon after four days of deliberations.

Ervin brought the racially diverse jury back into the Mecklenburg County courtroom around 4:10 p.m. and the foreman said he saw no possibility of reaching a verdict.

"Honestly, we have exhausted every possibility," the foreman said.

Defense attorney George Laughrun called the jury "hard-working," but nonetheless called for the mistrial because jurors had met for 19 hours and were at an impasse.

Prosecutors had asked Ervin to urge the jury to continue its deliberations.

Officer Randall Kerrick was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the September 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell. Kerrick is suspended without pay from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police force. Earlier on Friday, the judge instructed jurors to continue deliberating the case when they told him they were deadlocked.

The foreman said an initial vote taken was 7-5. The second vote, taken Thursday, was 8-4, and that was the same outcome when the jury voted again prior to entering the courtroom.

Jurors have spent the previous two days asking the judge for material and testimony from the trial, which is wrapping up its third week.

Charlotte Mayor Dan Clodfelter called for calm post-mistrial during a press conference Friday afternoon.

Outside the courthouse, around a dozen protesters lay down in the middle of the street to protest the decision. Several shouted "No justice, no peace" at members of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Randall Kerrick's family as they left the courthouse.

Prosecutors said the 29-year-old Kerrick used deadly force when he shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell in September 2013. They say nonlethal force should have been used to subdue the former Florida A&M football player. Two officers with Kerrick didn't fire their guns.

But Kerrick's attorneys said the officer feared for his life when he shot and killed Ferrell while responding to a breaking-and-entering call.

The case was one of several in recent years that raised questions about police use of deadly force against black men.

Police say Ferrell wrecked his car on the morning of Sept. 14, 2013, went to a nearby house and banged on the door, apparently for help. The resident inside the home called police, and three officers responded. Investigators say one officer deployed his Taser without apparent effect on Ferrell before Kerrick fired 12 shots, 10 of which hit Ferrell. Kerrick was the only officer who fired his .40-caliber semiautomatic service weapon.

Kerrick testified that he repeatedly fired because Ferrell kept charging at him and he didn't think his weapon was even working.

Holding back tears and in a quavering voice, Officer Randall Kerrick re-created the events, at one point yelling "Stop!" and "Get on the ground!" to a nearly packed courtroom

Police training expert Dave Cloutier testified that Kerrick's decision to shoot Ferrell was consistent with the department's training.

Cloutier, who has served as an instructor at the North Carolina Justice Academy, said Kerrick was responding to a potentially dangerous 911 call: a report of a man breaking into a woman's house.

However, Police Capt. Mike Campagna testified that the shooting violated department policy. He said nonlethal force should have been used to subdue Ferrell.

Kerrick's attorneys have argued that Ferrell was moving quickly in the officer's direction. They say Kerrick opened fire because he feared that Ferrell was going to attack him and take his gun.

Officer Adam Neal, who was also at the shooting scene, testified that he never considered pulling a weapon that night and instead viewed the situation as one that would require physical force to restrain the subject.

Defense attorneys targeted Ferrell's condition at the time of the shooting, pointing to the fact that he had smoked marijuana and drank alcohol before the wreck that led to the deadly confrontation.

The Ferrell family has already settled a lawsuit with the city of Charlotte, receiving $2.25 million.

Ferrell was killed a little less than a year before an unarmed black man in New York and an unarmed 18-year-old black male in Ferguson, Missouri, died after separate violent encounters with police - cases that shined a national spotlight on how police departments treat minorities and sparked calls for widespread reforms. Protests and rioting followed Michael Brown's death in Ferguson and a grand jury's refusal to indict the officer.

Protests also followed the deaths of two unarmed black men after encounters with police earlier this year in Baltimore and South Carolina. Officers have been charged in both of those cases. Kerrick's trial, while packing the courthouse, has drawn little outside attention.

Unlike some other cases, the officer was arrested and charged about 12 hours after the shooting.




“Officer Randall Kerrick was charged with voluntary manslaughter in the September 2013 shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell. Kerrick is suspended without pay from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police force. …. Charlotte Mayor Dan Clodfelter called for calm post-mistrial during a press conference Friday afternoon. Outside the courthouse, around a dozen protesters lay down in the middle of the street to protest the decision. Several shouted "No justice, no peace" at members of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Randall Kerrick's family as they left the courthouse. Prosecutors said the 29-year-old Kerrick used deadly force when he shot and killed Jonathan Ferrell in September 2013. They say nonlethal force should have been used to subdue the former Florida A&M football player. Two officers with Kerrick didn't fire their guns. But Kerrick's attorneys said the officer feared for his life when he shot and killed Ferrell while responding to a breaking-and-entering call. …. Police say Ferrell wrecked his car on the morning of Sept. 14, 2013, went to a nearby house and banged on the door, apparently for help. The resident inside the home called police, and three officers responded. Investigators say one officer deployed his Taser without apparent effect on Ferrell before Kerrick fired 12 shots, 10 of which hit Ferrell. Kerrick was the only officer who fired his .40-caliber semiautomatic service weapon. Kerrick testified that he repeatedly fired because Ferrell kept charging at him and he didn't think his weapon was even working. Holding back tears and in a quavering voice, Officer Randall Kerrick re-created the events, at one point yelling "Stop!" and "Get on the ground!" to a nearly packed courtroom. Police training expert Dave Cloutier testified that Kerrick's decision to shoot Ferrell was consistent with the department's training. …. Unlike some other cases, the officer was arrested and charged about 12 hours after the shooting.”

“However, Police Capt. Mike Campagna testified that the shooting violated department policy. He said nonlethal force should have been used to subdue Ferrell. Kerrick's attorneys have argued that Ferrell was moving quickly in the officer's direction. They say Kerrick opened fire because he feared that Ferrell was going to attack him and take his gun. Officer Adam Neal, who was also at the shooting scene, testified that he never considered pulling a weapon that night and instead viewed the situation as one that would require physical force to restrain the subject.” Officer Neal “never considered pulling a weapon” and thought that physical force to restrain him was the proper thing to do. This is really a basic part of all the police killings, they draw their gun when they should instead be taught to deescalate or use their physical strength – something which most police officers have in plenitude – along with a knowledge of wrestling and/or martial arts. This officer shouldn’t have drawn his gun in the first place. I know police work is dangerous, and they should get paid pretty well for that danger. In querying the Net for police salaries I found $28,000 for the average on the website www.indeed.com/salary/police-officer.html, while on another site www1.salary.com/Police-Officer-salary.html it said $52,529 for the median officer income, “so 50% of the people who perform the job of Police Patrol Officer in the United Sates are expected to make less than $52,529.” This is really not good. We need individuals who are intelligent, caring, physically hardy and strong, emotionally healthy individuals – a fearful or aggressive person is not emotionally healthy – and who also have at least three or four courses in psychology and sociology and interpersonal relations, not to mention a practical knowledge of law. We need a winner, not a loser, so they need to be paid better than that.

This case will have to be tried again, I understand, since it turned out to be a mistrial. I don’t believe the prosecutor should drop the charges, because these cases are all so similar and so corrupting to the relationship between the police and their communities. Yes, it is “their” community, and it is they take an oath to “protect and serve.” Killing a man who has come to get help after an accident is not good enough. If he was actually “charging” the officers, that makes the killing more understandable, but as I said earlier, Officer Neal thought they could tackle and restrain him. They should have tried it, anyway. Everybody knows that if you get into a fist fight you may end up with a bruise or two, but that does NOT usually kill you. The average cop weighs well over 200 pounds and is a weight lifter trained in kickboxing or some such thing. I simply don't tend to believe the stories they have been telling.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-teens-mock-elderly-mans-house-stranger-steps-in-to-help/

Strangers repaint 75-year-old man's house after teens' cruel comments
By JENNIFER EARL CBS NEWS
August 11, 2015

Photos -- A before and after look at Leonard Bullock's house. FACEBOOK/JOSH CYGANIK

Every morning, Josh Cyganik gives Leonard Bullock a smile and a wave as he walks past the 75-year-old man's house on his way to work.

For four consecutive years, the 35-year-old track inspector for the Union Pacific Railroad has nodded to the Pendleton, Oregon, resident, who sits on his porch all day long, but not once has he ever said a word to the man.

Last month, he finally broke his silence.

As Cyganik stepped out to the curb to fill a garbage can, he overheard two teenage boys walking past Bullock's house yell, "Look at this crappy house. They just need to burn it down!"

As Cyganik glanced over, he saw Bullock with his head down.

"I couldn't believe what those kids had said," Cyganik told CBS News. "It was Leonard, this elderly, old man, who never hurt anybody a day in his life -- sits there all day long."

Later that day, Cyganik went home and stewed about the boys' rude comment.

After a couple days of thinking, he decided to do something about it.

He called a friend who runs a lumber and paint store, asking him if he'd be willing to donate materials to fix up the stranger's house. His friend agreed; "anything you need," he said.

Once Cyganik knew he had enough materials, he moved on to the next item on his check list: workers.

He posted a Facebook status, explaining his call for help.

To his surprise, more than 6,000 people shared the post and dozens commented.

With a little bit of faith, Cyganik knocked on Bullock's door the next day and asked him if he would like his house repainted.

"He was just flabbergasted," Cyganik said. "He was excited and he said he would love that!"

The following Saturday, Cyganik and his five coworkers headed over to work on Bullock's house, unsure how many people would join them.

One by one, people started coming. In fact, the number exceeded Cyganik's expectations so much, he stopped counting at 95 people.

"It was amazing. That's the only word I can say," Cyganik said proudly. "I had no plan. I had no guidance. The way it all fell together -- the way it turned out."

It took nine hours to finish the job, but they did it.

Bullock can now sit proudly outside of his freshly painted house and call it "home." Even better, he can now call Cyganik not a "stranger," but a "friend."




“As Cyganik stepped out to the curb to fill a garbage can, he overheard two teenage boys walking past Bullock's house yell, "Look at this crappy house. They just need to burn it down!" As Cyganik glanced over, he saw Bullock with his head down. "I couldn't believe what those kids had said," Cyganik told CBS News. "It was Leonard, this elderly, old man, who never hurt anybody a day in his life -- sits there all day long." Later that day, Cyganik went home and stewed about the boys' rude comment. After a couple days of thinking, he decided to do something about it. …. Once Cyganik knew he had enough materials, he moved on to the next item on his check list: workers. He posted a Facebook status, explaining his call for help. To his surprise, more than 6,000 people shared the post and dozens commented. …. "He was just flabbergasted," Cyganik said. "He was excited and he said he would love that!" The following Saturday, Cyganik and his five coworkers headed over to work on Bullock's house, unsure how many people would join them. One by one, people started coming. In fact, the number exceeded Cyganik's expectations so much, he stopped counting at 95 people. "It was amazing. That's the only word I can say," Cyganik said proudly. "I had no plan. I had no guidance. The way it all fell together -- the way it turned out."

Folks aren’t all bad, though we could begin to think so when we read the news. The power of the Internet, especially Facebook, is amazing. I would also mention that what happened here is that ONE PERSON SPOKE UP about something that he could have ignored and gone about his own business. Bullies are often vanquished by the simple voice of one person in the crowd. If someone is being abused, even if you tend to be afraid for your own safety, don’t keep silent. Speak up in a loud, clear voice and some others are likely to hear you and come to help. I believe in the power of individuals. This story proves my philosophy, in my opinion. It is possible to join with others for a good purpose without becoming a tool of “the group.” That’s what America is all about.



WHO'S FOR PREZ IN 2016?


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/us/politics/bernie-sanders-evokes-obama-of-08-but-with-less-hope.html?_r=1

Bernie Sanders Draws Big Crowds to His ‘Political Revolution’
By JASON HOROWITZ
AUG. 20, 2015

Photograph -- Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont during a sweep through Iowa on Sunday. His wife, Jane, said, “He’s feeling the weight of ‘Wow, people really need this.’” Credit Jim Young/Reuters

DUBUQUE, Iowa — As 1,800 mad-as-hell supporters jumped out of their seats and pumped their fists last Sunday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered the message they had come to hear.

We will “give these guys an offer they can’t refuse,” he shouted in the jam-packed gym, vowing to bust up the banks, bring down the billionaire class and smash the political establishment.

“So I welcome you all,” he said, “to the political revolution of 2015.”

The presidential election is, of course, in 2016, but Mr. Sanders can be forgiven for living in the moment. By overtaking Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hampshire in some polls and drawing tens of thousands of people to his events on the West Coast, as well as thousands in Iowa and Nevada, Mr. Sanders, 73, has recaptured the enthusiasm that fueled the 2008 Obama campaign, with T-shirts that say “Feel the Bern” and show an image of floppy white hair and glasses replacing the famous image in the Obama “Hope” poster by Shepard Fairey.

Unlike that of Mr. Obama, Mr. Sanders’s appeal is less about oratorical lift and finding common ground than about the opportunity his campaign gives disaffected Democrats to vent their anger at the list of national ills they believe are caused by big business and its conservative allies and have been left unaddressed by President Obama. If Mrs. Clinton’s pitch to voters is that she can make the system more effective, Mr. Sanders is arguing that Mr. Obama was naïve to even bother with a system that needs to be fundamentally changed.

It is not a new message for Mr. Sanders, who came up in radical left politics, but the response is something unfamiliar. For someone who has always had a sweepingly macro, if not entirely Marxist, critique of America, having the largest crowds of the election cheering each description of income inequality, and each proposal to eradicate it, amounts to the validation of a career spent in relative obscurity. Mr. Sanders’s grumpy demeanor, his outsider status and his suspicion of all things “feel good,” are part of the attraction.

“He’s feeling the weight of ‘Wow, people really need this,’ ” Jane Sanders said after one of the seven appearances her husband made last weekend in Iowa. She said Mr. Sanders was “humbled” by the success, remained as focused on the issues as ever, and “doesn’t believe in the cult of personality.”

Yet when asked why Mr. Sanders was attracting so many people, she added: “Because if not now, when? And if not him, who?”

Anybody else appears to be the answer of the Democratic establishment.

Yet while the candidate’s own staff sees the immense challenges before them with a professional eye, Mr. Sanders admits to no doubts. And he treats any trespassers to his circle of believers accordingly.

When a gaggle of reporters — “corporate media” in Sanders parlance — mentioned Mrs. Clinton here, he snarled, “That’s the sport you guys like,” meaning their focus on the kind of political questions he disdains. When asked to reconcile his anti-establishment status with being a “career politician,” Mr. Sanders, who except for two years has held political office continually since 1981, glared at the young reporter who asked the question.

“Career politician?” he said to her with a disdainful laugh. “Other questions.”

Mr. Sanders is clearly a different sort of political animal. If the tradition is to campaign in poetry and govern in prose, Mr. Sanders does both with a long list of bullet points written on a yellow legal pad he looks at when he speaks.

“We’re going to practice democracy. How’s that?” he exclaimed to huge applause at the start of the Dubuque event, before launching into an hourlong speech that left no time for questions.

A day before, a supporter wore a T-shirt that is becoming a trademark of the campaign. Credit Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

In front of crowds, Mr. Sanders dispenses with his biography as quickly as possible, introducing his wife, who waves back or shoots video on her iPhone, and mentioning that he has kids and grandkids and a father who immigrated to America from Poland with nothing. He seems to go through the motions of reaching for the emotional connection that other candidates try to seize, referring to the joy of childbirth as “extraordinary, unbelievable, O.K.,” before quickly shifting to the dearth of family leave time for working women.

But the people don’t come to hear Mr. Sanders’s story. They come for his analysis of what’s gone wrong.

Americans, Mr. Sanders says, live under an oligarchy of billionaires, the Koch brothers and Walmart owners and Wall Street chieftains who conspire to keep the workingman down. Their information is dumbed down by a news media that avoids the issues, treats campaigns like soap operas and begs him to “beat up on Hillary Clinton.”

In Iowa, where he is inching up in polls, the crowds nodded passionately as he cited the real unemployment level and bemoaned institutional racism and the “starvation wages” hobbling American workers already handicapped by international trade deals. There were also mentions of Republican attempts at voter suppression, which “profoundly disgusts me,” the increased oceanic acidity and rising temperatures that threatened the globe, as well as the pharmaceutical companies and enemies of Social Security who prey on the sick and elderly.

“What’s wrong with that picture?” he asked at another Iowa appearance, and then proceeded to describe what life would be like “under a Sanders administration.”

He would invest in enormous infrastructure projects that he said would create more than 10 million jobs. He would expand, not shrink, Social Security, and move the United States to a single payer health care system. Legislation that he intends to propose or already has would automatically register anyone older than 18 to vote, kick private corporations out of the prison business, make public college tuition free, guarantee sick and paid family leave and a “couple of weeks paid vacation” to workers.

He would break up the banks that are too big to fail, keep us out of any more wars and pay for much of his spending program with a tax on Wall Street trading.

“The middle class and working class bailed you out,” he bellowed. “Now it’s your turn.”

As for the critique that none of these proposals is remotely plausible given the political realities in Washington, the Sanders campaign argues that the “nightmare scenario” of a Democratic president with a Republican Congress would never happen.

“It is an unlikely outcome to have Bernie Sanders elected president and to keep the Congress in its current composition ,” said Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager, explaining a sort of fantasy scenario.

Or, as Mr. Sanders put it at a labor meeting in Clinton, Iowa: Without a revolution, “Forget about it, nothing’s going to happen.”

And that, he says, was the problem with Mr. Obama. While Mr. Sanders offered “congratulations” to Iowa for having the courage to vote for an African-American in 2008, he said “one of his mistakes” that Mr. Obama made after winning with a movement behind him was then saying, “I’ll take it from here.”

“What Obama should have known and what I know,” Mr. Sanders said, is that wealthy vested interests were too powerful for any one person to take on.

It was around then that Fred Bowes, a 77-year-old Democrat, walked out of an event in Boone.

“Everything he said is true,” Mr. Bowes said. “Implementing what he says is next to impossible.”

That is a dissenting view among the crowds at Mr. Sanders’s rallies and events, where he welcomes gushing comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“Bernie, Bernie, Bernie,” the crowd of Sanders supporters chanted as the senator approached the entrance of Iowa State Fair. As Mr. Sanders made his way toward the fair’s famous Soapbox Stage, Mitchell Wear, who had come from Columbus to hear Mr. Sanders speak, was able to shake his hand.

“Oh my God, that was awesome,” Mr. Wear said as the entourage made its way past pork chop, caprese-on-a-stick and fried cheese curd stands.

Back in Burlington after the weekend, Mr. Sanders called his close friend Richard Sugarman, a University of Vermont professor of Jewish philosophy and self-described “biblical socialist.”

Mr. Sugarman said he grilled the candidate on whether he had eaten a pork chop (“I didn’t,” Mr. Sanders, who is also Jewish, assured him), listened to Mr. Sanders confide that “This celebrity stuff is strange,” and discussed “how far he’s come.”

“His enthusiasm is growing” Mr. Sugarman said, because “people are responsive to what he is saying in a larger venue than has ever been the case before, and probably because they agree with him.”



http://www.forexnews.com/questions/who-is-the-troika/

Who is the “Troika”?

With relation to current events, the Troika is vernacular for the 3-part commission that is charged with monitoring the Euro debt crisis. They are also responsible for making recommendations on policy to help solve the Euro debt crisis, so they weild a tremendous amount of power.

The Troika is currently made up of the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- See more at: http://www.forexnews.com/questions/who-is-the-troika/#sthash.Vd0EEy0d.dpuf



http://www.democracynow.org/2015/8/21/sen_bernie_sanders_from_greece_to

Sen. Bernie Sanders: From Greece to Puerto Rico, the Financial Rules Are Rigged to Favor the 1%
Friday, August 21, 2015


Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders recently convened a panel of economists in Washington to discuss the debt crisis in Greece and throughout the world. In his opening statement, Sanders talked about the debt crisis in Greece as well as in Puerto Rico. "It is time for creditors to sit down with the governments of Greece and Puerto Rico and work out a debt repayment plan that is fair to both sides," Sanders said. "The people of Greece and the children of Puerto Rico deserve nothing less."



Transcript


This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who recently convened a panel of economists in Washington to discuss the debt crisis in Greece as well as, well, throughout the world. Senator Sanders said austerity has worsened the situation in Greece. This is some of what he had to say.


SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: [What] we are here today to talk about is the very, very important issue regarding the ongoing debt crisis in Greece and the way that people and governments all over the world are struggling with too much debt. This is—we’re going to be focusing on Greece, but, in truth, this issue goes beyond Greece. And countries that are struggling not only with too much debt, too much inequality, and too little growth and income.

Today, as I think all of you know, there is a very, very serious economic situation unfolding in Greece. In many ways, Greece today resembles the United States of the 1930s in the midst of the worst depression, economic downturn in the history of our country. The Greek economy has basically collapsed, and the people of Greece are trapped in a very, very deep depression.

I want to begin by expressing my solidarity with the people of Greece, where five years of cruel and counterproductive austerity policies, policies demanded by the European Central Bank, the European Commission and International Monetary Fund, have left the people of Greece facing a full-blown humanitarian crisis. In my view, there is no more obvious example of the failure of austerity policies than what is going on in Greece.

For more than five years, Greece has cut pensions. Greece has slashed its government workforce. Greece has made deep spending cuts that have eviscerated its social safety net. In other words, despite what we have been led to believe by many in the media, Greece has not gone on a shopping spree. It has not overfunded its government. Rather, it has imposed massive spending cuts that have caused devastating pain to some of its most vulnerable people. It has done this because its creditors, led by Germany, have insisted that austerity is the only way to dig Greece out of its debt.


As a result, today, Greece has the highest levels of inequality and the worst unemployment rates in Europe. The official unemployment rate is 26 percent—26 percent. Youth unemployment in Greece today is more than 50 percent. More than 30 percent of the people in Greece are living in poverty. And the Greek economy is 25 percent smaller, has shrunk by 25 percent over the last five years. That is really quite incredible.

Instead of solving the problem, austerity, in my view, has made a bad situation much worse. Greece has seen its debt-to-GDP ratio shoot up from about 120 percent to about 175 percent today. And now to, quote-unquote, "fix" the problem, the troika wants Greece to borrow more money and make deeper cuts to wages, pensions and other social programs.

In January, as you all know, the people of Greece stood up and said, "Enough is enough." They elected a new government, known as Syriza. Their promise: to end the harsh austerity policies—that was their campaign pledge—by increasing their minimum wage, by increasing job production, by protecting the most vulnerable against pension cuts, and ensuring that the wealthiest people in Greece started paying their fair share of taxes, a very serious problem in that country. But instead of working with the new government to find a rational path forward, the troika demanded more austerity than ever.

On July 5th, the people of Greece spoke once again: In an overwhelming show of solidarity with their government, 61 percent of the people of Greece said no to more austerity for the poor, for the children, for the sick and for the elderly. Yet, instead of working with the Greek government on a sensible plan that would allow Greece to improve its economy and pay back its debt, Germany and the troika continued to push Greece to accept even greater austerity.

They want even deeper pension cuts; an increase in the regressive VAT tax from 13 percent to 23 percent; automatic budget cuts if the Greek economy underperforms; privatization of state assets, including the electricity grid; deregulation of the transportation, rail, pharmaceutical and other sectors in the economy; weakening of trade unions. In other words, the people of Greece are being told that their voices, which they cast in two elections, really do not matter, that their misery does not matter, that an entire generation of young people who are unemployed or underemployed does not matter, that the sick and the elderly do not matter, that democracy itself does not matter. And that, to my perspective, is unacceptable.

I believe that this plan is simply unsustainable. In my view, austerity has failed, and continuing with austerity means the Greek economy will continue to fail its people. Unemployment, poverty and inequality will increase from already obscene levels.

And maybe, just maybe, some people are beginning to wake up to this reality. In a confidential report that was made public earlier this month, officials from the IMF warned that the IMF could not take part in any new bailout for Greece unless the Greek government was offered a substantial debt relief package as part of any new deal. In light of this report, it is time for the troika to provide the Greek government with the flexibility it needs to create jobs, raise wages and improve its economy. Without a substantial improvement in its economy, Greece will never escape its debt crisis.

And let us not forget a little bit about history. Let us not forget what happened after World War I, when the Allies imposed oppressive austerity on Germany—on Germany—as part of the Versailles Treaty. And I think all of you who know anything about history understand what happened. And that is, the Germany economy collapsed, unemployed skyrocketed, people were pushing their money around in wheelbarrows to buy a loaf of bread. And the result of all of that massive discontent was that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party won an election and took power. And you all know the results of that.

What many people do not know about Greece today is that the party that finished third in the Greek—recent Greek election is called Golden Dawn. This is a party which some people call a neo-Nazi party, but other people believe that it is nothing "neo" about it. It is a Nazi party, which came in third place in the recent election. In my view, we should learn from history. And we should understand that when democracy fails, when people vote for something and cannot get what the government promised because of outside forces, this leads to massive discontent, it leads to contempt for democracy, and it opens the path for right-wing extremist parties, like Golden Dawn.

Finally, let us remember that one of the main reasons why Greece was unable to take on so much debt was because it had help from Goldman Sachs, who helped disguise the nature of the Greek debt. Today, when we talk about debt, we should appreciate that something similar is happening right now in Puerto Rico, where the government there is struggling with unsustainable debt, and a group of hedge fund billionaires are demanding austerity in Puerto Rico. They are demanding the firing of teachers, the closing of schools, so that they can reap huge profits off the suffering and misery of the children and the people of Puerto Rico. It is time for creditors to sit down with the governments of Greece and Puerto Rico and work out a debt repayment plan that is fair to both sides. The people of Greece and the children of Puerto Rico deserve nothing less.

Over 70 years ago, the major economic leaders of 44 countries gathered at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to establish international economic and financial rules. As a result of that conference, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were established. I think it is clear to anyone who has taken a look at this situation that the rules regarding our international financial system today are rigged in favor of the wealthy and the powerful at the expense of everyone else. Today, 85 of the wealthiest people in this world own more wealth than the bottom half of the world’s population, over 3 billion people. By next year, Oxfam has estimated that the top 1 percent of the world’s population will own more wealth than the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population. In my view, we have got to begin—and I hope this forum today is a start in that process—a serious discussion about how we change our international financial rules to expand—expand economic opportunity and reduce income and wealth inequality, not only in Greece and in Puerto Rico, but throughout the world. The global economy is simply unsustainable when so few have so much and so many have so little.

AMY GOODMAN: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaking in July at a hearing he convened at the Hart Senate Office Building on the Greek debt crisis. On Thursday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation, paving the way for new elections, in which Tsipras will run.

This is Democracy Now! When we come back, July is the hottest month on record. This year, so far, has been the hottest year in history. We’re going to talk about the links between climate change and the California drought. Stay with us.




“We will “give these guys an offer they can’t refuse,” he shouted in the jam-packed gym, vowing to bust up the banks, bring down the billionaire class and smash the political establishment. “So I welcome you all,” he said, “to the political revolution of 2015.” The presidential election is, of course, in 2016, but Mr. Sanders can be forgiven for living in the moment. By overtaking Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hampshire in some polls and drawing tens of thousands of people to his events on the West Coast, as well as thousands in Iowa and Nevada, Mr. Sanders, 73, has recaptured the enthusiasm that fueled the 2008 Obama campaign, with T-shirts that say “Feel the Bern” and show an image of floppy white hair and glasses replacing the famous image in the Obama “Hope” poster by Shepard Fairey. …. . If Mrs. Clinton’s pitch to voters is that she can make the system more effective, Mr. Sanders is arguing that Mr. Obama was naïve to even bother with a system that needs to be fundamentally changed. It is not a new message for Mr. Sanders, who came up in radical left politics, but the response is something unfamiliar. For someone who has always had a sweepingly macro, if not entirely Marxist, critique of America, having the largest crowds of the election cheering each description of income inequality, and each proposal to eradicate it, amounts to the validation of a career spent in relative obscurity. Mr. Sanders’s grumpy demeanor, his outsider status and his suspicion of all things “feel good,” are part of the attraction. …. She said Mr. Sanders was “humbled” by the success, remained as focused on the issues as ever, and “doesn’t believe in the cult of personality.” Yet when asked why Mr. Sanders was attracting so many people, she added: “Because if not now, when? And if not him, who?” Anybody else appears to be the answer of the Democratic establishment. Yet while the candidate’s own staff sees the immense challenges before them with a professional eye, Mr. Sanders admits to no doubts. And he treats any trespassers to his circle of believers accordingly. When a gaggle of reporters — “corporate media” in Sanders parlance — mentioned Mrs. Clinton here, he snarled, “That’s the sport you guys like,” meaning their focus on the kind of political questions he disdains. When asked to reconcile his anti-establishment status with being a “career politician,” Mr. Sanders, who except for two years has held political office continually since 1981, glared at the young reporter who asked the question. …. But the people don’t come to hear Mr. Sanders’s story. They come for his analysis of what’s gone wrong. Americans, Mr. Sanders says, live under an oligarchy of billionaires, the Koch brothers and Walmart owners and Wall Street chieftains who conspire to keep the workingman down. Their information is dumbed down by a news media that avoids the issues, treats campaigns like soap operas and begs him to “beat up on Hillary Clinton.” In Iowa, where he is inching up in polls, the crowds nodded passionately as he cited the real unemployment level and bemoaned institutional racism and the “starvation wages” hobbling American workers already handicapped by international trade deals. There were also mentions of Republican attempts at voter suppression, which “profoundly disgusts me,” the increased oceanic acidity and rising temperatures that threatened the globe, as well as the pharmaceutical companies and enemies of Social Security who prey on the sick and elderly. …. He would invest in enormous infrastructure projects that he said would create more than 10 million jobs. He would expand, not shrink, Social Security, and move the United States to a single payer health care system. Legislation that he intends to propose or already has would automatically register anyone older than 18 to vote, kick private corporations out of the prison business, make public college tuition free, guarantee sick and paid family leave and a “couple of weeks paid vacation” to workers. He would break up the banks that are too big to fail, keep us out of any more wars and pay for much of his spending program with a tax on Wall Street trading. “The middle class and working class bailed you out,” he bellowed. “Now it’s your turn.” …. Or, as Mr. Sanders put it at a labor meeting in Clinton, Iowa: Without a revolution, “Forget about it, nothing’s going to happen. “What Obama should have known and what I know,” Mr. Sanders said, is that wealthy vested interests were too powerful for any one person to take on. It was around then that Fred Bowes, a 77-year-old Democrat, walked out of an event in Boone. “Everything he said is true,” Mr. Bowes said. “Implementing what he says is next to impossible.”

“His wife, Jane, said, “He’s feeling the weight of ‘Wow, people really need this.’” I do believe that this is exactly what is behind the level of attention that Sanders gets when he tours the country. Maybe his crowds in the Northeast will be better than in the Red states. Maybe not. There are Democrats hungry for his social views everywhere. I know I was when I saw what his views are. We are departing so far from our intended form of government as I personally believe the intention was of our Founding Fathers that I may not be allowed to vote or get a Social Security pension after 2016. I also may not be able to go to a Unitarian Universalist Church anymore. Those things do frighten me, so I am glad to hear someone who has the moral courage to advocate what I believe in against the cries of the Christian Right.

I didn’t try to clip all of the important parts of the three articles above because it's just too long. You probably read them anyway. I do want to do something useful for Bernie's “revolution.” Go around my apartment building and take up orders for “Go, Bernie, go!” t-shirts, maybe? I’ll try to remember to take a look on the Net for inexpensive custom TShirts when I finish this blog. A plausible second choice would be Biden and Elizabeth Warren. See the article below.




http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-holds-meeting-with-elizabeth-warren-in-dc/ar-BBm0elz?ocid=iehp

Biden holds meeting with Elizabeth Warren in DC
The Hill
Mark Hensch
August 22, 2015

Photograph -- Biden holds meeting with Elizabeth Warren in DC© Provided by The Hill Biden holds meeting with Elizabeth Warren in DC
Photograph -- Vice President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Washington, D.C.’s Naval Observatory on Saturday for a confidential talk with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), CNN reported.


Biden’s return to the District comes amid buzz he is seriously weighing a 2016 Oval Office bid.

CNN said that two sources confirmed the pair’s face-to-face, the biggest indicator yet that Biden is seriously tempted by an Oval Office bid next year.

“The vice president traveled last minute to Washington, D.C. for a private meeting and will be returning to Delaware,” an aide told CNN. Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff declined further comment on the alleged rendezvous.

CNN initially reported Saturday that Biden arrived in Washington around 11 a.m. and had planned on returning home to Wilmington, Del., later in the weekend.

Warren, a beloved figure in progressive circles, has resisted calls to mount her own presidential candidacy. She reportedly told WBZ radio in Boston on Friday that she considers the 2016 Democratic primary up for grabs.

“I don’t think anyone has been anointed,” said Warren, who has not yet endorsed a candidate.

Hillary Clinton, the heavy favorite for the party’s nomination, is currently grappling with sinking poll numbers amid voter concerns that she is neither a transparent nor trustworthy candidate.

Biden, 72, began mulling a third White House run following the death of his son Beau Biden in late May after a battle with brain cancer.

The vice president is widely expected to make a final decision next month. His entrance into the 2016 campaign would expand the Democratic field to six contenders.

Multiple national polls show Biden would have significant support from Democratic voters should he pursue the presidency next election cycle.


He previously ran for president in 1988 and 2004, both times dropping out early in the Democratic primary process.

In this May 26, 2015 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden listens to remarks to the media during a meeting between President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.© AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais



http://www.2016election.com/joe-biden/


2016 Election
Joe Biden
Nate Parkhouse

Will Joe Biden run for President for the third time in 2016? He’s leaving the door open. In 2008, after two failed Presidential campaign attempts, Biden told Barack Obama that he was never going to run for President again. In June, 2009, however, during an interview on “Meet the Press,” Biden said he wouldn’t rule it out. If he runs, he will have a strong advantage as the sitting Vice President (assuming, of course, that Obama wins in 2012). Fourteen former Vice Presidents have gone on to become President

Biden’s biggest disadvantage is likely to be his age. If sworn in in 2017, he will be seventy-four years old. That’s two years older than John McCain would have been, had he won – and McCain’s age was clearly an issue in his campaign. Ronald Reagan, who was the oldest President, was a comparatively youthful 69 on his inauguration day.

Another weakness for Biden may be his famous tendency to put his foot in his mouth. He seems to mean well, but too often he ends up speaking without thinking first and having to apologize later.

His strong points are his reputation for empathy, his ability to work well with some Republicans, his long experience as a leader in Congress, the depth of his knowledge and the strength of his relationships, and his life story, which demonstrates a heart-rending ability to overcome adversity. His background as a working-class Catholic from Pennsylvania should serve him well. He’s a salt-of-the-earth type of guy, and many voters will find it easy and pleasant to identify with him.

Early Life

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was born on November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The family moved to Delaware in 1953. Biden attended parochial school, the University of Delaware, and Syracuse Law School. After graduating, he set up his own law firm.

He soon turned to politics. He won his first race, for a County Council seat, when he was only 27. Two years later, Biden was elected to the U.S. Senate – one of the youngest people ever elected to that body.

Tragedy Strikes

Only weeks after he was elected Senator, his first wife and their 13-month-old daughter were killed in a car accident. Their two young sons were critically injured, and Biden was at his sons’ bedside when he was sworn into the Senate.

His Career

Biden was the Senator for Delaware for 36 years. For 17 of those years he was in leadership roles on the Senate Judiciary Committee. When Obama invited Biden to be his running mate, Biden was Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and at first he wasn’t sure whether being Vice President would be a better job.

In the Senate, he was known for his strong working relationships. Among his many legislative initiatives, he’s perhaps best known for championing the Crime Bill of 1994 and the Violence Against Women Act. He was one of the least wealthy Senators, although that’s relative, as he had a family income of over $300,000 in 2007. He has been a strong Vice-President, taking an active role, especially in supporting Obama’s economic stimulus reforms.

He married Jill Jacobs in 1977. She has a doctorate in education and teaches in a community college. He has three children and five grandchildren.

[miniflickr user=”” tags=”Joe Biden” per_page=”14″]

Sources:

White House biography
ABC News Political Punch: VP Biden Keeping the Door Open for 2016?
CBS Political Hotsheet: Is Biden Looking Ahead to 2016?
The New Yorker: Biden’s Brief
Organizing for America: Meet Joe Biden



OOOPS!!

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/18/us/biden-admits-plagiarism-in-school-but-says-it-was-not-malevolent.html

Biden Admits Plagiarism in School But Says It Was Not 'Malevolent'
By E. J. DIONNE Jr., Special to the New York Times
Published: September 18, 1987

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17— Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., fighting to salvage his Presidential campaign, today acknowledged ''a mistake'' in his youth, when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school.

Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing ''malevolent,'' that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully. And he asserted that another controversy, concerning recent reports of his using material from others' speeches without attribution, was ''much ado about nothing.''

Mr. Biden, the 44-year-old Delaware Democrat who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, addressed these issues at the Capitol in a morning news conference he had called expressly for that purpose. The news conference was held just before he presided over the third day of hearings on the nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court.

To buttress his assertions of sincerity and openness, Mr. Biden released a 65-page file, obtained by the Senator from the Syracuse University College of Law, that he said contained all the records of his years there. It disclosed relatively poor grades in college and law school, mixed evaluations from teachers and details of the plagiarism.

Both the current dean of the law school and Mr. Biden's professor today played down the incident of plagiarism. [ Page A23. ] Brushing aside any suggestion that he might be forced to withdraw from the Presidential race, Mr. Biden declared at the news conference, ''I'm in the race to stay, I'm in the race to win, and here I come.'' Blames Rivals

Mr. Biden also suggested that the recent damaging information about him had originated with other campaigns, which he did not identify, and that it had emerged now because he was enjoying a chance in the limelight with the Bork hearings.

''Look, I'm a big boy,'' he said. ''I've been in politics for 15 years. This is not my style. If they want to do it this way, so be it.''

The file distributed by the Senator included a law school faculty report, dated Dec. 1, 1965, that concluded that Mr. Biden had ''used five pages from a published law review article without quotation or attribution'' and that he ought to be failed in the legal methods course for which he had submitted the 15-page paper.

The plagiarized article, ''Tortious Acts as a Basis for Jurisdiction in Products Liability Cases,'' was published in the Fordham Law Review of May 1965. Mr. Biden drew large chunks of heavy legal prose directly from it, including such sentences as: ''The trend of judicial opinion in various jurisdictions has been that the breach of an implied warranty of fitness is actionable without privity, because it is a tortious wrong upon which suit may be brought by a non-contracting party.'' Just One Footnote

In his paper, Mr. Biden included a single footnote to the Fordham Law Review article.

In a letter defending himself, dated Nov. 30, 1965, Mr. Biden pleaded with the faculty not to dismiss him from the school.

''My intent was not to deceive anyone,'' Mr. Biden wrote. ''For if it were, I would not have been so blatant.''

At another point, the young Mr. Biden said that ''if I had intended to cheat, would I have been so stupid?''

''I value my word above all else,'' the impassioned letter said. ''This is a fact which is known to all those who are or have been acquainted with my character.'' Misunderstanding, He Says

Mr. Biden said today, as he did 22 years ago, that he had misunderstood the rules of citation and footnoting.

''I was wrong, but I was not malevolent in any way,'' Mr. Biden said. ''I did not intentionally move to mislead anybody. And I didn't. To this day I didn't.''

The faculty ruled that Mr. Biden would get an F in the course but would have the grade stricken when he retook it the next year. Mr. Biden eventually received a grade of 80 in the course, which, he joked today, prevented him from falling even further in his class rank. Mr. Biden, who graduated from the law school in 1968, was 76th in a class of 85.

The file also included Mr. Biden's transcript from his days as an undergraduate at the University of Delaware. In his first three semesters, his grades were C's or D's, with three exceptions: two A's in physical education courses, a B in a course on ''Great English Writers'' and an F in R.O.T.C. The grades improved somewhat later but were never exceptional. Biden's Defense on Speeches

As for the issue of borrowing speeches, Mr. Biden was insistent that he had done nothing wrong. He said it was ''ludicrous'' to expect a politician to attribute all the quotations of others, and he cited two examples to support his argument.

One was from one of his adversaries for the Democratic nomination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whom Mr. Biden described as ''a friend.'' Mr. Jackson, Mr. Biden said, has used the same part of a speech by Hubert H. Humphrey that Mr. Biden has been accused of improperly appropriating, and Mr. Jackson has called him to say so.

Robert F. Kennedy, another of those whose speeches have been echoed by Mr. Biden, also used passages without attribution, the Senator said.




MSN -- “CNN initially reported Saturday that Biden arrived in Washington around 11 a.m. and had planned on returning home to Wilmington, Del., later in the weekend. Warren, a beloved figure in progressive circles, has resisted calls to mount her own presidential candidacy. She reportedly told WBZ radio in Boston on Friday that she considers the 2016 Democratic primary up for grabs. “I don’t think anyone has been anointed,” said Warren, who has not yet endorsed a candidate. …. Biden, 72, began mulling a third White House run following the death of his son Beau Biden in late May after a battle with brain cancer. The vice president is widely expected to make a final decision next month. His entrance into the 2016 campaign would expand the Democratic field to six contenders. Multiple national polls show Biden would have significant support from Democratic voters should he pursue the presidency next election cycle.”

His plagiarism in the past was “not malevolent,” but unfortunately not forgotten. Somebody dragged a 1987 article up out of the depths and put it up near the top of all the articles under his name -- probably either Hillary or the Koch Brothers. One article about him also said that he didn’t have very good college grades. I still like him. I like his human virtues and I could forgive his foibles. I don’t like people who are not “genuine” and “warm.” His gaffs, which are not malicious like those that Trump is famous for making, show that he has an emotional side that is near the surface in his character. I also like Elizabeth Warren a great deal. She hasn’t been in the news for a very long time, but she is smart and is a “real” Democrat.

I’m glad to see that some plausible Democrats are emerging to replace Hillary Clinton, because I am not too very enthusiastic about her in general, and it is looking as though she is in pretty deep trouble politically if not legally over those gosh darned emails. There is a good Wikipedia article on the Democrats who are running in 2016 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_candidates,_2016. Have a look at them all. There is Lincoln Chafee, Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Jeff Boss, Robby Wells and Willie Wilson, with Lawrence Lessig, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Al Gore as “possibles.”