September 14, 2015


News Clips For The Day


ON SEPTEMBER 15 I WILL BE UNDERGOING SURGERY, AND MAY NOT BE ABLE TO DO THIS BLOG FOR SEVERAL DAYS. HAVE PATIENCE WITH ME!


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-ben-carson-learned-from-ferguson/

Ben Carson on Ferguson, bullying, and Black Lives Matter
CBS NEWS
September 14, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Violence mars anniversary of Michael Brown's death
Play VIDEO -- Ben Carson on Michael Brown, Black Lives Matter


On Friday, a year after protests over the death of unarmed black teen Michael Brown rocked Ferguson, Missouri, Ben Carson paid a visit to Ferguson himself, and he had some observations to share with CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett.

"I'm hopeful that one of the lessons that comes out of Ferguson is to need to begin those dialogues before there's a problem, and to create those relationships before there's a problem," Carson said, in an interview with Garrett Friday. "You know, the reason that we have these complex brains with these big frontal lobes is so that we can process information from the past and the present and to project it into a plan for the future, instead of just reacting, like animals do."

Carson, a neurosurgeon by trade and the only black candidate in the 2016 presidential race, said he hoped the events of Ferguson of the last year -- including the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement -- will have a lasting impact.

Carson welcomes the grassroots movement and the concerns that were raised in the wake of Michael Brown's death, but he differentiated those expressions from "the Black Lives Matter movement, where it's foisting yourself on people - rather than engaging in dialogue - and bullying people. I never liked the idea of bullying on behalf of anybody."

Part of that stems from his well-known aversion to political correctness - which he said has a certain bullying undertone.

"I detest political correctness. People died -- they paid with their lives so we could have freedom of speech. And freedom of expression. And political correctness is the antithesis of that," he said.

Carson recalled the time one candidate (former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley - though he didn't name him) was heckled by Black Lives Matter activists for saying "all lives matter."

"He got so much grief he came back and apologized," Carson said. "That's bullying. Of course all lives matter. Of course we need to be concerned about everyone. Of course we need to extend respect to everyone. And you know, when we get off into a little thing that says 'no, this is the only thing you can say' -- that's sickening to me."




“Carson welcomes the grassroots movement and the concerns that were raised in the wake of Michael Brown's death, but he differentiated those expressions from "the Black Lives Matter movement, where it's foisting yourself on people - rather than engaging in dialogue - and bullying people. I never liked the idea of bullying on behalf of anybody." …. Carson recalled the time one candidate (former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley - though he didn't name him) was heckled by Black Lives Matter activists for saying "all lives matter." "He got so much grief he came back and apologized," Carson said. "That's bullying. Of course all lives matter. Of course we need to be concerned about everyone. Of course we need to extend respect to everyone. And you know, when we get off into a little thing that says 'no, this is the only thing you can say' -- that's sickening to me." …. "I'm hopeful that one of the lessons that comes out of Ferguson is to need to begin those dialogues before there's a problem, and to create those relationships before there's a problem," Carson said, in an interview with Garrett Friday. "You know, the reason that we have these complex brains with these big frontal lobes is so that we can process information from the past and the present and to project it into a plan for the future, instead of just reacting, like animals do."

I won’t vote for a Republican because I believe that as a party the Democrats are fairer, both socially and economically; and I think strictly unfettered survival of the fittest is not a good thing to base our society upon -- and that is usually what too many Republicans want. However, I agree wholeheartedly with Carson’s statements above about our need to use “our frontal lobes” in human relationships, especially in the strictures of the “culture wars” that we deal with daily in these last several decades. “Integration” was a “fighting word” when I was growing up in the South. It is also, however, the key to better human relationships so that rogue police officers would beat up or shoot suspects only because they are brutal individuals, not merely over racial or other cultural reasons.

I do think we need to rethink “hate speech” of all kinds and make a better definition of it so that politeness and respect are not called “political correctness, and so that it is grounds for a lawsuit or a harsher penalty in a case of assault or bullying. So if Carson would disagree with that statement, then he is more “conservative” than I would approve, which is probable since he is in fact a Republican. To me it is exactly the same as “fighting words,” and as a result is a constant irritant in a situation which should be as respectful as possible, instead.

Carson is 100% correct in saying that we as a society need to go into the neighborhoods on a one-to-one basis in order to build much better human relationships between all groups, and especially white police officers with all minority neighborhoods. The reason I am singling whites out in that is that we tend to have an automatically greater amount of power in any conflict. I’m not saying that minorities who respond with hostility to us are not also at fault. Also, we need to remember that it isn’t just blacks, but Islamic, Hispanic, Jewish, Catholic vs Protestant, relative degrees of wealth or poverty, educated vs uneducated – all these things tend to start hostile interactions. With a respectful interaction the Fergusons wouldn’t happen. We can, with some self-awareness and effort, be polite to all comers and open to friendly interactions, rather than the frigid tolerance I sometimes see among the wealthy. Good relations between people is 90% attitude.

Another thing -- I want to see the day when we have no black neighborhoods or Hispanic, but rather a liberal mixture of all human types. My old beloved neighborhood of Dupont Circle in Washington, DC is a prime example. There was a large variety of skin colors, languages, religions and wealth there. The homeless were in the park at the center, but they were not aggressively harassing people for money, nor were they being harassed by the police. Lots of others who enjoy sunshine and lunch out on the grass were also there. I saw international garb and the full range of races on the streets there. There were drummers who met to play together, and there were of course street musicians. It was a beautiful experience. I miss it to this day.

But deep within most US citizens there is some racial bias, and yes, I mean in the blacks also. Both races have been hesitant to some degree to partake personally in the social interaction between racial and ethnic groups, and this has shown up in school desegregation, housing, church membership, political party membership, swimming pool and gym usage, and ordinary daily encounters of all kinds. A lone individual walking down a dark city street may well cross to the other side to avoid meeting someone of another race face to face. Much of this is due to fear, some to feelings of superiority or inferiority and some as an inborn reaction to the circumstances. A dark night is simply more threatening than a sunny day. We have inborn problems of this kind, but especially in cities where many people meet and mix, we need to approach others with the openness and respect that we would like to receive from them. We just can’t afford to have race war in this country. Our democracy is a beautiful thing and we need to carefully maintain it, just as we go into our garden and hoe the weeds.





http://www.npr.org/2015/09/14/440139685/ferguson-commission-shines-light-on-racially-divided-st-louis

Ferguson Commission Shines Light On Racially Divided St. Louis
JASON ROSENBAUM
SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Photograph -- Members of the Ferguson Commission, including co-chairman Starsky Wilson (second from right), listen at a recent hearing. After months of deliberation, the commission is releasing a report laying bare racial and economic inequalities in the St. Louis region, and calling for change.
Jason Rosenbaum/St. Louis Public Radio


When Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., last August, his death set off riots and violence — and posed deep questions about race relations in America. The Ferguson Commission, appointed by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, was tasked with finding some answers.

The commission set out to examine racial and economic gaps through the St. Louis region, and come up with policy recommendations. In their final report, the commission provides an unvarnished look at how a racially divided St. Louis underserves the African-American community.


The report provides a host of recommendations to transform how the region polices and educates itself — and its most vulnerable residents. And in many cases, the suggestions would require the backing of a state Legislature that may well balk.

A Long History Of Failed 'Riot Commissions'

In all of this, Starsky Wilson, co-chairman of the commission, knows he's venturing into familiar territory.

During the commission's final meeting last week, Wilson, a St. Louis religious leader, talked about the work of political scientist Lindsey Lupo, who penned a book examining nearly 100 years of "riot commissions" set up after American rebellion and unrest.

Many of these commissions failed, Lupo argued, because they failed to tackle latent racial tensions and systemic discrimination.

But Wilson and his fellow commission members are taking another path. Wilson looked to places like Cincinnati where residents dealt head-on with their community's inequities — not just settling for "accommodation and quiet." And the commission's final report, set to be publicly released today, pulls no punches about the underlying causes behind last year's unrest.

"We have not moved beyond race," the final report states.

We have not moved beyond race. St. Louis does not have a proud history on this topic, and we are still suffering the consequences of decisions made by our predecessors.
The Ferguson Commission

"St. Louis does not have a proud history on this topic, and we are still suffering the consequences of decisions made by our predecessors. ... We are not pointing fingers and calling individual people racist. We are not even suggesting that institutions or existing systems intend to be racist.

"What we are pointing out is that the data suggests, time and again, that our institutions and existing systems are not equal, and that this has racial repercussions," the report continues. "Black people in the region feel those repercussions when it comes to law enforcement, the justice system, housing, health, education, and income."

To change that status quo, the report points to several dozen "signature priorities." They include changes to law enforcement practices, economic development strategy and education policies. While many of the ideas could be implemented without governmental actions, some of the big proposals will require the blessing of a state Legislature that's been hesitant to back overhauls of law enforcement.

The changes wouldn't be easy or comfortable — but the commission's leaders say the need is compelling.

A Focus On Criminal Justice

At the heart of the report are suggested changes to the region's law enforcement agencies and municipal courts, including:

Bringing in Missouri's attorney general as a special prosecutor for police-involved killings. The report also recommends using the Missouri Highway Patrol as an investigative agency.
Setting up a public database keeping track of police-involved killings from around the state.
Expanding the amount of police officer training, particularly on interacting with residents, handling demonstrations and dealing with minority communities.
Creating municipal and county review boards of police departments.
Consolidating municipal police departments and municipal courts.
Treating nonviolent offenses as civil violations — and collecting municipal court debts similarly to collecting civil debts.
Creating "Community Justice Centers" that would provide "case management and social work services," giving judges and prosecutors "a broad range of alternative sentencing options."
During an interview on St. Louis on the Air last month, Ferguson Commissioner Dan Isom said Missouri badly needs a law enforcement policy shift — especially when other states are making more progress.

"If we look at ourselves in comparison to other states, we're behind the curve on police professionalism, accountability and oversight on the state level," Isom, who is a former St. Louis police chief, said last month. "The reality is we're going to have to make the case that this is important for our community. ... It's important just on a human level for this. But it's also important for the success for our region and our state."

The report also includes a host of recommendations to improve St. Louis' schools, including changing school discipline policies; establishing school-based health centers that provide "access to mental health, case management and reproductive health"; and expanding early childhood education.

It also suggests that the Legislature adopt broader statewide policies, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, raising the minimum wage, cracking down on unscrupulous lenders and bolstering the amount of low-income housing.

"The response we have seen to the process says that people in St. Louis want to make a difference, and they believe that the region can be better," the report states. "It also says they want to work together to do it. This report, and the policy changes we have called for, will be part of the legacy of the Ferguson Commission."

With Prominent Opposition, Will Report 'Gather Dust'?

The commission, which conducted roughly nine months' worth of public hearings and other inquiries, doesn't have the power to implement any of the recommendations.

In fact, many would require the backing of a GOP-controlled Missouri General Assembly that almost certainly will be hostile to some of the suggestions — especially expanding Medicaid or raising the minimum wage. Republicans may also balk at some of the law enforcement proposals — especially when they didn't adopt some of them during the last legislative session.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who has long been skeptical of the commission, openly questioned whether the report would vanish into history like other studies — such as the Kerner Commission report that came about after racial riots in the 1960s.

While praising individual commission members for their work, Kinder last week challenged whether the Missouri Legislature would embrace the proposals. He's also raised issues with the commission's costs, including paying managing director Bethany Johnson-Javois nearly $140,000 for her role. (Kinder notes that's more than the governor makes in a year.)

"I certainly hope that it will not be another commission report that gathers dust," Kinder said. "But it was reasonable, I think, at the outset of this to have that suspicion and to question the budgetary outlays, which have ... made this process very, very expensive."

It's not just Republicans who could be hostile to the proposals. St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch gained national attention for examining Brown's shooting death. Many called for him to step aside from the inquiry because they felt he was too friendly with law enforcement.

But earlier this summer, he sharply criticized proposals to bring in special prosecutors for police shootings, calling them impractical and misguided.

"We elect prosecutors in the state of Missouri. And we elect them to do the job, and that includes investigating and prosecuting every case within that jurisdiction," McCulloch said. "And if you don't trust the prosecutor to do that, then don't elect them. Or throw them out at the next election when it comes."

At least one outside observer worries that the commission's bully pulpit isn't strong enough to engender policy change.

Al Gerhardstein is a Cincinnati attorney who helped facilitate a legally binding agreement in his city after a rash of police shootings. Without the blessing of a court order, Gerhardstein isn't sure that the Ferguson Commission's suggestions will go anywhere.

"Blue-ribbon commissions generate reports that go into nice bound documents and then go on shelves," he said. "We spent 20 years, probably 13 different reports, and never got anything accomplished."

Optimism And 'Natural Energy'

Still, some commissioners remain optimistic that their proposals will find favor with the public.

Gov. Nixon says he'll use his last year in office to push for some of the commission's recommendations. While he faced immense criticism for how he handled the aftermath of Brown's death, the governor says the lessons learned from the past year are too important to ignore.

"I do think that the splinter point was whether or not, with what happened last summer and into the fall, whether as a state we were going to back up and say problems don't exist and we're going to ignore them," Nixon said last week, "or whether we're going to lean forward and work together to move our state forward."

Johnson-Javois said earlier this year that many people who provided suggestions to the commission are prepared to incorporate them — without legislative action — into schools, police departments and individual communities.

"People are getting excited about ... how to implement," Johnson-Javois said. "And that natural energy that's built up is what's already sustaining this beyond an individual, a leader or commission."

While the commission's charge is set to expire at the end of the year, Wilson said the individual members could go back to the corporate, educational, law enforcement and governmental realms to push for the policy changes in the report.

And while the report itself acknowledges that its recommendations may not be the complete answer for what ails St. Louis, it goes on to say "we believe to be the best starting point, the beginning of a path toward a better St. Louis."

"We expect that as we travel, the path will change, and we'll find ourselves navigating places we couldn't have imagined," the report states. "That is the nature of efforts like this."




“Many of these commissions failed, Lupo argued, because they failed to tackle latent racial tensions and systemic discrimination. But Wilson and his fellow commission members are taking another path. Wilson looked to places like Cincinnati where residents dealt head-on with their community's inequities — not just settling for "accommodation and quiet." …. "What we are pointing out is that the data suggests, time and again, that our institutions and existing systems are not equal, and that this has racial repercussions," the report continues. "Black people in the region feel those repercussions when it comes to law enforcement, the justice system, housing, health, education, and income." …. It also suggests that the Legislature adopt broader statewide policies, including expanding Medicaid eligibility, raising the minimum wage, cracking down on unscrupulous lenders and bolstering the amount of low-income housing. "The response we have seen to the process says that people in St. Louis want to make a difference, and they believe that the region can be better," the report states. "It also says they want to work together to do it. This report, and the policy changes we have called for, will be part of the legacy of the Ferguson Commission." …. In fact, many would require the backing of a GOP-controlled Missouri General Assembly that almost certainly will be hostile to some of the suggestions — especially expanding Medicaid or raising the minimum wage. …. But earlier this summer, he sharply criticized proposals to bring in special prosecutors for police shootings, calling them impractical and misguided. "We elect prosecutors in the state of Missouri. And we elect them to do the job, and that includes investigating and prosecuting every case within that jurisdiction," McCulloch said. "And if you don't trust the prosecutor to do that, then don't elect them. Or throw them out at the next election when it comes." …. Still, some commissioners remain optimistic that their proposals will find favor with the public. Gov. Nixon says he'll use his last year in office to push for some of the commission's recommendations. While he faced immense criticism for how he handled the aftermath of Brown's death, the governor says the lessons learned from the past year are too important to ignore. …. "People are getting excited about ... how to implement," Johnson-Javois said. "And that natural energy that's built up is what's already sustaining this beyond an individual, a leader or commission." While the commission's charge is set to expire at the end of the year, Wilson said the individual members could go back to the corporate, educational, law enforcement and governmental realms to push for the policy changes in the report.”

"The reality is we're going to have to make the case that this is important for our community. ... It's important just on a human level for this. But it's also important for the success for our region and our state." The list of needed changes in the article above would make a great improvement in the courts and policing systems around the country, not just in St. Louis. We tend to blame the South and West for all racial problems, but all we need to do is watch the daily news to see that this is not the true case. It is in our emotions, our personal identities and the agility and development of our minds that make the difference, along with more exposure to those who differ from us. A lack of association means a lack of knowledge. We can’t learn that the color on a man’s skin “won’t rub off on you” unless you reach out and shake his hand. That’s one of the more grotesque things I heard about black people in my childhood.

In all cases, whites and “conservatives” of all kinds need to take this report to heart and adopt the goal and directions that are included here. Minority groups will also have to aim more at blending with the larger group and in some cases, becoming better citizens. The wealthier ones need to be respectful and kind in dealing with the poor and the socially alienated; the disaffected need to view the world from the other side. Selling drugs is not an acceptable way to make a living, and studying in school is a necessity to get ahead in our society. Cooperation and collaboration make a successful community of minds.

I wish every local news organization would reprint this NPR article. I have sent the whole thing to my Facebook account, and my G+ as well.




RUSSIA BACK IN THE NEWS – TWO ARTICLES


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-is-russia-increasing-its-presence-in-syria/

Why is Russia increasing its presence in Syria?
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
September 12, 2015

Play VIDEO -- U.S. involvement in a showdown with Russia?


While Russian President Vladimir Putin has made no secret of his support for the Assad regime in Syria, the latest movement of Russian forces into the war-torn region is pressuring the United States to take notice.

"[Russia's] supporting Assad against the Islamic State and these jihadi marauders," CBS News senior national security analyst Juan Zarate said. "So they're forcing the U.S. to come to grips with what's happening from a Russian and an Assad perspective."

Last week, Russia set up an air traffic control tower near Syria's Mediterranean port of Latakia -- a sign, Zarate said, that Putin and his administration "want to remain a player there."

"They have an interest in not just the Assad regime, a longtime ally, but their base -- their naval base, which gives them an entrée to the Mediterranean," he told CBS News homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues.

"They're trying to build leverage as they realize that the United States and the rest of the world is going to try to come to some sort of political accommodation in Syria," Zarate said.

The Obama administration has already said it would not introduce ground troops into the Syrian conflict. Zarate said the proxy forces that the U.S. have attempted to align with -- like the Kurds in the north and some elements of the Free Syrian Army -- have achieved few results.

The U.S. has limits when it comes to Putin, Zarate said.

"The U.S. isn't going away," he said. "The U.S. is going to apply its air power. It's going to continue to supply its forces. If this humanitarian disaster increases, there are going to be calls for a safe zone, which will implicate taking broad swaths of territory sort of off the map militarily. So [Putin's] going to have to contend with a very messy environment."




"[Russia's] supporting Assad against the Islamic State and these jihadi marauders," CBS News senior national security analyst Juan Zarate said. "So they're forcing the U.S. to come to grips with what's happening from a Russian and an Assad perspective." Last week, Russia set up an air traffic control tower near Syria's Mediterranean port of Latakia -- a sign, Zarate said, that Putin and his administration "want to remain a player there." "They have an interest in not just the Assad regime, a longtime ally, but their base -- their naval base, which gives them an entrée to the Mediterranean," he told CBS News homeland security correspondent Jeff Pegues. …. The Obama administration has already said it would not introduce ground troops into the Syrian conflict. Zarate said the proxy forces that the U.S. have attempted to align with -- like the Kurds in the north and some elements of the Free Syrian Army -- have achieved few results. …."The U.S. isn't going away," he said. "The U.S. is going to apply its air power. It's going to continue to supply its forces. If this humanitarian disaster increases, there are going to be calls for a safe zone, which will implicate taking broad swaths of territory sort of off the map militarily. So [Putin's] going to have to contend with a very messy environment."

If Russian ground troops are actually going to fight ISIS, it will give me some relief. Somebody needs to stop ISIS. Zarate said that the US sponsoring the Kurds and the Free Syrian Army – “have achieved few results.” Well it seems to me that the Kurds have helped. ISIS hasn’t spread any farther in the last six months or so, and somebody has to fight them on the ground or they will simply take over. If we would give the Kurds the equipment they want, it would improve their ability to fight ISIS. I want to see Islamic people fight ISIS, after all they have their very land to lose if they don’t. We can at least help them with heavy weaponry. Dropping bombs on them is helpful, but ground forces are necessary also.

I don’t see in this article that the Russian force going in there amounts to an immediate hostile move toward the US except that we have, in fact, been fighting against Assad as well as against ISIS. That could develop into a direct conflict between the two of us. What does look important is that this will give them a Mediterranean seaport and a Russian military base there. That could go against us in the long run. I didn’t realize it, but it seems that none of their territory so far touches on the Mediterranean. Of course, if Putin’s true goal is to take over Syria under the guise of helping Assad, that’s another matter. After they made a land grab in Ukraine I’ll never trust Putin again. The numerous war zones and hostile groups involved there do make me very nervous. I keep thinking that if there is to be a WWIII front emerging, will it be there?





http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/13/440009352/deal-to-remove-heavy-weapons-from-ukraine-very-close

Deal To Remove Heavy Weapons From Ukraine 'Very Close'
Scott Neuman
SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Photograph -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin pose for a picture ahead of their meeting at the foreign ministry's guesthouse, Villa Borsig, at Lake Tegel in Berlin on Saturday.
Tobias Schwarz/AP


Two weeks after a cease-fire that appears to have held in eastern Ukraine, Germany's foreign minister says the warring sides are "very close" to a broader agreement to remove heavy weapons from the front lines.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who met in Berlin with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and their Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin, said the brief cease-fire had paved the way for moving toward a resolution of the crisis, set in motion by Russia's annexation of Crimea last year and its ongoing support for Ukrainian separatists.

"I can tell you with relief that our meeting today has been one of the less confrontational and more successful ones," Steinmeier said in a statement.

"Both sides are not far apart," the statement said.

Lavrov, speaking after the meeting, sounded a less optimistic note, saying that while the deal was "90 percent ready ... the devil is in the details."

The ministers agreed that the temporary truce, "'needs to be further strengthened and safeguarded' by a clear commitment to withdraw weapons from the conflict zone," according to The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ reports: "The ministers also made 'significant' progress on key political issues such as plans for local elections in rebel-held areas. A separate working group will draw up the modalities and timing of local elections, based on proposals that are already on the table, Mr. Steinmeier said. The working group should quickly discuss all other questions that are still contentious—such as the election process and constitutional issues—based on existing proposals, he said."

The cease-fire deal has halted fighting in Ukraine between government forces and Moscow-backed rebels. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday he welcomed the truce.

"It's heartening that the main thing is the cessation of shelling of the Donbass (eastern Ukraine) from the side of the armed forces as well as the so-called volunteer battalions of Ukraine," he said in the Crimean town of Chersoneus, according to Reuters.

Leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine are due again to meet at a summit on Oct. 2 in Paris.

As the BBC notes: "Ukraine is due to hold its elections on 25 October, while separatists in the rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions have said they would hold their own votes on 18 October and 1 November respectively."




“Two weeks after a cease-fire that appears to have held in eastern Ukraine, Germany's foreign minister says the warring sides are "very close" to a broader agreement to remove heavy weapons from the front lines. …. "I can tell you with relief that our meeting today has been one of the less confrontational and more successful ones," Steinmeier said in a statement.
"Both sides are not far apart," the statement said. Lavrov, speaking after the meeting, sounded a less optimistic note, saying that while the deal was "90 percent ready ... the devil is in the details." The ministers agreed that the temporary truce, "'needs to be further strengthened and safeguarded' by a clear commitment to withdraw weapons from the conflict zone," according to The Wall Street Journal. …. A separate working group will draw up the modalities and timing of local elections, based on proposals that are already on the table, Mr. Steinmeier said. The working group should quickly discuss all other questions that are still contentious—such as the election process and constitutional issues—based on existing proposals, he said." …. Leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine are due again to meet at a summit on Oct. 2 in Paris. As the BBC notes: "Ukraine is due to hold its elections on 25 October, while separatists in the rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions have said they would hold their own votes on 18 October and 1 November respectively."

I have been more interested in Ukraine than most other war zones because I became friends with a young Ukrainian woman at my data entry job in Bethesda, MD. She was exceptionally pretty, with jet black hair and a trim figure, and very much like an American in her thinking. I haven’t bought the Russian story that Ukraine is full of fascists. I think that Russia is still partly communist and as a result they will think any Democratic government is fascist by comparison.

The following article on Fascism from Huffington Post, one of my very favorite sources, gives some very good commentary about it. It enthusiastically slices and dices Putin and makes me feel justified in my admittedly knee-jerk loyalty toward Ukraine and hostility toward Putin personally, though not against all Russians. There is, however, undeniably an increasing number of right-leaning trends across Europe right now including open hostility against the “other” ethnic groups, whoever they happen to be at any given time and place. The classic scapegoat, of course, is the Jewish people. There has been more group persecution in the last few years, and that does make me worried. It is popping up here in the US among the white, relatively poor, and uneducated citizens, along with a push toward installing the religious right in our government as our State Religion. I pray they don’t succeed.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-motyl/putin-calls-ukraine-fasci_b_6600292.html

Is Ukraine Fascist?
Alexander Motyl
Ukrainian-American Political Scientist, Rutgers University
04/05/2015

So which is it? Is Ukraine a hotbed of fascism, as the Kremlin and its supporters insist? Or is it a tolerant democracy, as Kiev and its supporters insist?

The issue is important to sort out since members of the new Greek government, including Prime Minister Tsipsas, have suggested in the recent past that the new government in Kiev has neo-fascist links that harken to memories of World War II. And that has been the view often promoted by the Kremlin from the outset of the conflict.

Although there are often two sides to a story, in this case, there really isn't. The Kremlin is dead wrong, and even though Ukraine isn't quite the consolidated democracy that its government says it is, the country is certainly far more democratic now than it was just over a year ago. And, despite some zigzags, it is becoming more democratic with every day.

Let's start with a brief discussion of what fascism is and then ask whether any of Ukraine's present or past government fits the bill.

WHAT IS FASCISM?

Fascism is often used as an epithet, especially by the left, but it actually is a perfectly respectable academic term that refers to a particular type of political system. Everyone can agree that fascist states are authoritarian -- that is, they lack the fundamental attributes of democracy. Unlike democracies, fascist systems lack meaningful parliaments, judiciaries, parties, political contestation and elections. In fascist systems, as in all authoritarian systems, parliaments are rubber-stamp institutions, judiciaries do what the leader tells them, opposition parties are marginal and electoral outcomes are preordained.

Like all authoritarian states, fascist states are highly centralized and hierarchical, they give pride of place within the power structure to soldiers and policemen, usually secret policemen, and they always have a supreme leader. Indeed, there can be no fascist state without a supreme leader. Like authoritarian states, fascist states limit freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly; and espouse some form of ethnocentrism glorifying their nation and their state and their fabulous past, present and future.

But fascist states are not just run-of-the-mill authoritarian states. The latter typically connotes images of dour old men ruling a sullen population. Fascist states exude youth and vigor, and they always implicate the population in its own repression. Fascist leaders strut. They want to appear youthful, manly and active: they are machos, par excellence. They also appeal to those qualities in the population, usually co-opting the young into their movements or parties. No less important, fascist states are popular: they incorporate the population into the system of rule, promising it a grand and glorious future in exchange for its enthusiasm and support.

Not surprisingly, fascist states tend to sound and act aggressively. The soldiers and policemen that run fascist states have a natural proclivity to toughness and weaponry. The ethnocentrism appeals to national and state glory, and cult of vigor sees enemies everywhere. The machismo-based cult-like status of leaders encourages them to pound their chests with abandon. And the population's implication in its own repression leads it to balance its self-humiliation with attempts to humiliate others.

Seen in this light, Franco's Spain, Pinochet's Chile and the Greece of the colonels were really just your average authoritarian states. So, too, is today's China. In contrast, Mussolini's Italy was clearly fascist, as was Hitler's Germany and Atatürk's Turkey. What of today's Ukraine?

I trust the question answers itself. Ukraine has a tri-partite government structure characterized by an independent presidency and parliament and a semi-independent (though corrupt) judiciary, a vigorous multi-party system, fair and free elections -- most recently, of both president and the parliament -- a free (if sometimes irresponsible) press and protection of human, civil and minority rights. Of special importance is the fact that Ukraine's government is run by civilians only and that its president -- Petro Poroshenko -- has none of the strongman features that a fascist supreme leader promotes via a machismo-based cult of personality. Last but not least, Ukraine has not pursued any of the repressive policies associated with fascism. Oppositions, minorities and marginal groups thrive, civil society is strong, and, if anything, Ukrainians accuse the government of being too weak -- and certainly not too strong.

Ukraine is far from a consolidated democracy. Its democratic institutions are young and weak; its commitment to democratic practices has not yet stood the test of time. Police, judges and politicians are often corrupt, and bad policies are frequently adopted. These faults make Ukraine a flawed democracy, possibly a very flawed democracy, but they do not come anywhere near to making it a fascist state.

IS UKRAINE RULED BY FASCISTS?

Supporters of the Ukraine-is-fascist argument might say that Ukraine is not fascist, but its rulers are fascists who want to establish a fascist system of rule. Alas, this claim is absurd.

Poroshenko and his predecessor, Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, are obviously not fascists. None of the current cabinet members has anything resembling fascist credentials. The government that succeeded the corrupt Yanukovych dictatorship in late February 2014 consisted of 19 individuals: only two (Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh and Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych) were members of the right-wing Svoboda party and one, the Secretary of the National and Security Defense Council Andriy Parubiy, had right-wing ties until 2004.

In early 2014, Svoboda had 38 seats in Ukraine's parliament -- out of a total of 450. Svoboda's leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, had run for president in the 2010 elections that brought Yanukovych to power and received 1.43 percent of the vote. He ran again, in the presidential ballot of May 25, 2014, and received 1.16 percent. Dmytro Yarosh, head of the right-wing Right Sector, received a mere 0.70 percent in 2014. In the October 26, 2104, parliamentary elections, Svoboda and the Right Sector got, respectively, six seats and one seat.

Tyahnybok has made some anti-Semitic and anti-Russian statements in the past but his language and behavior changed significantly during, and as a result of, the Maidan Revolution that ousted Yanukovych. He has since attempted to position himself as a moderate nationalist.

Svoboda's approach to ethnic relations has been termed fascist but in point of fact it is strikingly similar to official policy in Estonia, Latvia and Israel. In effect, Svoboda aspires to create a "lite" version of what Israeli scholar Oren Yiftachel calls an "ethnocracy," a system of rule within which the titular nation holds a position of dominance over the other nations inhabiting the land, such as Estonians and Latvians vis-à-vis Russians or Jews vis-à-vis Palestinians. As the Baltic and Israeli examples show, ethnocracies can be democratic, but they're obviously not as democratic as liberal democracies and, with their penchant for hierarchy, can easily violate the civil rights of minorities.

Although Tyahnybok has gone on record praising Israel for the fact that all its parties are nationalist, Svoboda does not call for disenfranchising minorities in the manner of the Balts and Israelis. Instead, it supports a radical affirmative-action policy that would decisively promote Ukrainians and their language and culture within all spheres of the Ukrainian state and restrict citizenship to ethnic Ukrainians, everyone born in Ukraine and foreigners who speak Ukrainian. It goes without saying that Svoboda is anything but liberal (its representatives often deride Ukrainian liberals as "liberasts" -- a combination of liberal and pederasts) and that its ranks also include genuine anti-Semites, xenophobes and racists (the openly neo-Nazi ideologue, Yuri Mykhalchyshyn, comes to mind). But their relative presence in the party is probably no greater than that of Russian supremacists and Ukrainophobes in Yanukovych's Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Svoboda's socio-economic program, which is a mishmash of socially conservative, capitalist and socialist elements and often reads like a Tea Party document, is pretty much irrelevant to its supporters. It is not surprising that the party has done next to nothing in the provincial councils it controls in western Ukraine. Svoboda has neither implemented xenophobic policies nor bothered with economic issues. What they have done is engage in the shrill, anti-establishment, populist rhetoric that got them elected in the first place. Their inactivity is probably due to their ingrained preference for street politics, their absence of economic knowledge and their paucity of intellectual skills. In the first and second respects, the nationalists resemble Ukraine's Communists. In the second and third, they resemble the Party of Regions.

The Right Sector, meanwhile, only emerged during the Maidan Revolution. Its members have indeed been among the foremost anti-Russian and anti-Yanukovych militants who then manned the barricades. Since then, they have actively participated in volunteer battalions in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. There are probably no more than a few hundred or a few thousand members, and their support within the population at large is under one percent. Interestingly, Yarosh, their leader, has criticized Svoboda for being anti-Semitic, while one of Right Sector's leading activists is a practicing conservative Jew.

In sum, the right-wing presence in Ukraine's post-Yanukovych government has been so slight as to be virtually invisible.

WHY PUTIN CALLS UKRAINE FASCIST

So why, then, do Putin and his supporters see fascism ablaze in Kyiv? There are several reasons for this bizarre charge.

First, as the above characterization of fascism's key features should have suggested, the country that possesses all of them is not Ukraine -- but Putin's Russia. Its democratic institutions are at best moribund, having been transformed into pliant tools of the Kremlin; civil society and the press have been severely circumscribed; representatives of the military and secret police dominate all ruling elites and suffuse them with their antidemocratic ethos; the Russian nation and state are unabashedly glorified; Putin is the undisputed leader, and his macho image exudes vigor, youth and manliness; a variety of rabidly pro-Putin youth groups act as the vanguard of the state; the population overwhelmingly supports Putin and has done so since he assumed the presidency; ethnocentrism, a mistrust of both internal and external foreigners and a corresponding glorification of Russia's past (including its criminal Stalinist period) and present are the official worldview; Russia has taken to asserting its "rightful" place in the sun by engaging in war against Georgia and Ukraine.

It makes a great deal of sense for Putin and his propaganda apparatus to accused Ukraine of the very crime that he has committed -- so as to deflect world attention from his own transformation of Russia into a repressive state.

Second, the Kremlin needs to insist that Ukraine's democrats are fascists because it insists that Yanukovych was a democratic leader. Yanukovych was corrupt and dictatorial. He was rapidly closing down Ukrainian civil society and transforming the parliament into a rump institution, but he was too incompetent and too comical to be able to project the he-man image that Putin had perfected. Since the Kremlin refuses to acknowledge the right of people to oust tyrants, it has to insist that Ukraine is ruled by a "junta" -- which is just shorthand for fascism. According to this logic, Americans had no right to rebel against King George, and the government led by Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton was nothing but a junta!

Finally, the Kremlin's insistence that democratic Ukraine is fascist goes back to old Soviet -- as well as tsarist Russian -- stereotypes of Ukrainians who insisted on their democratic and/or national rights as traitors, agents of imperialism, capitalist stooges and, of course, fascists. Ironically, continued use by Putin and his supporters of such terminology demonstrates just how deeply they are still ensnared in Stalinist political culture.

The bottom line is this: Putin has transformed Russia into a fascist state. Ukraine ousted Yanukovych in order to avoid becoming fully authoritarian. The war Putin unleashed against Ukraine is his way of telling Ukraine that fascism and democracy are incompatible.






http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/09/11/439252263/women-in-india-speak-out-on-facebook-trolls-threaten-rape-and-murder

For Speaking Their Mind Online, Women In India Face Threats
RHITU CHATTERJEE
SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Art – Indian woman by Maria Fabrizio for NPR


She was doing what a lot of people do — using her Facebook page to voice her opinion.

She didn't expect to be called a prostitute — and see her son attacked as well.

Preetha G. Nair, a 41-year-old single mother of a 12-year-old, lives in a small town in the southern state of Kerala, where she's working to set up a school. She uses Facebook to engage with others about social and political issues. After former Indian president Dr. Abdul Kalam passed away in late July, she posted a link to an online article titled "Kalam was no great man: don't let news of his death confuse you." The article described Kalam's ties to right-wing Hindu nationalist groups.

An Author's Confession: She Was Attacked, Too

Rhitu Chatterjee, a frequent contributor to Goats and Soda, was attacked online after we published her essay on feeling all too visible in public spaces in New Delhi. Someone created a Twitter handle called "BanTerroristRhituC" and tweeted to her calling her "leftist Maoist," "short haired lesbo" and an "Indophobe" for writing about gender-based violence in India. She says: "I was flustered at first, but laughed about it later and continue to report on women's issues in India."
And then the abusive comments began. "Bastard daughter, you should blame the one who made you," wrote one commenter. "Kalam was not a great man but preetha is. This is wat [sic] is called broken condum [sic] effect," wrote another. More than one person called her a slut. Then, someone created a Facebook page named "Preetha Prostitute." They used her picture for the profile of this page and littered it with aggressive and lewd remarks.

They posted a picture of her 12-year-old autistic son on this new page, copying it from her Facebook page. "They were asking who is his father?" recalls Nair. "They called him mentally retarded."

Nair is used to being attacked online for voicing her opinions on a range of issues on her Facebook page. But this time, she felt the attackers had taken things too far. "To even bring my son in this issue, I feel really bad."

And then the attacks went global. Over in Miami, Florida, Inji Pennu learned about Nair's experience through her Facebook network and decided to blog about it. Originally from Nair's home state, Kerala, Pennu wanted to show solidarity, but she too was attacked online with abusive language and threats of violence. One commenter threatened to choke her. Soon, her Facebook page was blocked by Facebook because someone had complained to Facebook that she had a "fake" profile. Pennu thinks trolls were responsible for this. She had to send Facebook a proof of identification in order to unblock her page.

Pennu and Nair's experiences are not unusual. As more and more Indian women become vocal in the online space, they are increasingly the target of online abuse. Some are ordinary citizens. Some are well-known. Sagarika Ghose, a journalist formerly with CNN-IBN who is vocal on Twitter and has 608,000 followers, has repeatedly received threats of rape. In 2012, Meena Kandasamy, a poet and activist, was threatened with acid attacks and "televised gang rapes" when she wrote about a Dalit festival where beef was served. Eating beef is a taboo among upper caste Hindus, and Kandasamy was attacked for writing about eating beef.

The abuse is often sexist, according to a 2013 study by the non-profit, Internet Democracy Project. The researchers did detailed interviews with 17 Indian women active in the online space, either on Facebook or Twitter or on blogs. Richa Kaul Padte, one of the study authors, recorded death and rape threats as well as sexualized messages and gender based slurs.

"We're not saying that men don't face abuse [online]," she says. "But they don't face abuse on the basis of their gender."

The phenomenon isn't unique to India. It has been documented in the West too. As British journalist Laurie Penny wrote in 2011, "A woman's opinion is the miniskirt of the internet." It doesn't matter what she's saying so much as the fact that she's saying it. Still, there are certain issues that are more likely to attract online abuse says Kaul Padte. Politics is one of them. So is gender. "When women express their opinion on gender, that's another trigger," she says.

Kaul Padte's study also explored how women react to online abuse. "We wanted to know how many women actually went to the police," she says. "No one really wants to go to the police station in India. You know you're going to have a really s****y experience." The Indian police force's gender insensitivity has been a topic of public discussion lately — there are many accounts of the police blaming victims of sexual abuse.

Kaul Padte and her colleagues further confirmed this by speaking to the Mumbai Cyber Cell, where an officer put the responsibility of avoiding online abuse on women themselves. "Females should not find themselves in a position where they have to go to the police," the unnamed official told the study authors in an interview. "They should not give their personal information and should not post their original photographs on the Internet. Anyone can snatch the photograph on the Internet and use it for their own purposes. One should do those things to avoid probable offenses."

What does seem to work for a lot of women is calling out the abuser online and threatening to report him to the police. "One or two women found it was enough of a deterrent," she says.

For most women, such abuse takes an emotional toll, says Pennu, who herself has been attacked for writing about eating beef on her food blog. "You wonder if it's worth it," she says. She's since changed the url for her blog, blocks it from search engines and only sends the link to people she knows and trusts.

There's one silver lining, says Pennu: "More people are coming out and saying that this kind of harassment is not OK."

Ultimately, it is important that women don't disappear from the online space, says Nair, who has returned to voicing her opinions on her Facebook page. "Everyday, again and again I put post," she says. "I never backed [down]."




“She uses Facebook to engage with others about social and political issues. After former Indian president Dr. Abdul Kalam passed away in late July, she posted a link to an online article titled "Kalam was no great man: don't let news of his death confuse you." The article described Kalam's ties to right-wing Hindu nationalist groups. …. Rhitu Chatterjee, a frequent contributor to Goats and Soda, was attacked online after we published her essay on feeling all too visible in public spaces in New Delhi. Someone created a Twitter handle called "BanTerroristRhituC" and tweeted to her calling her "leftist Maoist," "short haired lesbo" and an "Indophobe" for writing about gender-based violence in India. …. They posted a picture of her 12-year-old autistic son on this new page, copying it from her Facebook page. "They were asking who is his father?" recalls Nair. "They called him mentally retarded." …. Pennu and Nair's experiences are not unusual. As more and more Indian women become vocal in the online space, they are increasingly the target of online abuse. Some are ordinary citizens. Some are well-known. Sagarika Ghose, a journalist formerly with CNN-IBN who is vocal on Twitter and has 608,000 followers, has repeatedly received threats of rape. In 2012, Meena Kandasamy, a poet and activist, was threatened with acid attacks and "televised gang rapes" when she wrote about a Dalit festival where beef was served. Eating beef is a taboo among upper caste Hindus, and Kandasamy was attacked for writing about eating beef. …. The phenomenon isn't unique to India. It has been documented in the West too. As British journalist Laurie Penny wrote in 2011, "A woman's opinion is the miniskirt of the internet." It doesn't matter what she's saying so much as the fact that she's saying it. Still, there are certain issues that are more likely to attract online abuse says Kaul Padte. Politics is one of them. So is gender. "When women express their opinion on gender, that's another trigger," she says. …. . "We wanted to know how many women actually went to the police," she says. "No one really wants to go to the police station in India. You know you're going to have a really s****y experience." The Indian police force's gender insensitivity has been a topic of public discussion lately — there are many accounts of the police blaming victims of sexual abuse. …. One should do those things to avoid probable offenses." What does seem to work for a lot of women is calling out the abuser online and threatening to report him to the police. "One or two women found it was enough of a deterrent," she says.”

Ultimately, it is important that women don't disappear from the online space, says Nair, who has returned to voicing her opinions on her Facebook page. "Everyday, again and again I put post," she says. "I never backed [down]." This is the key element to bucking the crowd whether it’s on the school grounds or in any public forum. Bullying will happen, but we mustn’t be cowed by it. One of my greatest life lessons was a time when I was walking past a business which had a tar paved area in front of a modest house which was their office. A few feet in front of the porch was a single crocus bloom which had forced its way up through the pavement to reach the sunlight. Persistence can be more importance than brute force. We have to keep saying the truth as we know it. Eventually those who agree will line up with us, and the bullies will be shouted down.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/secrecy-surrounds-waco-biker-shooutout-investigation/

Secrecy surrounds Waco biker shootout investigation
AP September 13, 2015

23 Photos -- A McLennan County deputy stands guard near a group of bikers in the parking lot of a Twin Peaks restaurant Sunday, May 17, 2015, in Waco, Texas. AP
Play VIDEO -- Undercover agent describes infiltrating biker gangs
Play VIDEO -- Biker explains Waco, Tex. brawl


WACO, Texas - The secrecy that enshrouds the investigation into a biker shootout in May that left nine people dead led to the mass-arrest of 177 people is hardly surprising in this city, where public scrutiny is rare and unwelcome.

On the banks of the Brazos River in Central Texas, Waco and the surrounding county are largely run by a close-knit circle of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement that defense lawyers complain leads local agencies to close ranks in the aftermath of this most recent calamity.

It's a city where a district judge and district attorney are former law partners, the mayor is the son of a former mayor, the sheriff comes from a long line of lawmen and Waco pioneers and the sheriff's brother is the district attorney's chief investigator.

Bikers and public watchdogs have criticized authorities here for how they've handled the investigation, citing the mass arrests in which people were held for days or weeks on $1 million bonds without sufficient evidence to support such actions four months after the shootings.

No formal charges have been made, and it remains unclear whose bullets, including police bullets, struck the dead and injured, or when cases will be presented to a grand jury, which is currently led by a Waco police detective.

"I don't know of any defense lawyer who hasn't looked at the facts of this case and gasped," said Grant Scheiner, a criminal defense attorney in Houston not connected to the bikers' case.

Waco police, McLennan County prosecutors and judges refused to comment - citing a gag order written by the DA - but law enforcement staunchly defend their actions, including the 12 shots that the police chief said officers fired into the melee after bikers allegedly opened fire on them.

The violence erupted May 17 before a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs that advocates rider safety. Police have said two rival biker gangs got into a confrontation that turned deadly when one group of bikers opened fire on another outside a Twin Peaks restaurant.

Some 177 people were arrested and remained in custody until their bonds were reduced. Defense attorneys have been critical of how the cases have been processed, accusing District Attorney Abel Reyna of writing "fill-in-the-blank" arrest affidavits. A police officer testified a justice of the peace approved the affidavits without making any individual determination of probable cause.

In the criminal case of one of the defendants, Reyna's former law partner, District Judge Matt Johnson, issued a gag order as written by Reyna.

Many bikers who previously told The Associated Press they were innocent bystanders are now reluctant to speak further because of the gag order.

Although police and the district attorney described last spring everyone who was taken into custody as criminals, an Associated Press review of a Texas Department of Public Safety database found no convictions listed under the names and birthdates of more than two-thirds of those arrested.

Justifying the mass arrests, Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, "A message was sent to the whole country that we will not tolerate this type of disorder in our community."

McNamara describes the county's criminal justice system as a close-knit Christian "posse" of Baylor University graduates committed to "putting away as many hard-core criminals as possible."

That kind of mentality led the county's former district attorney, John Segrest, to compare the McLennan County criminal justice system to a "bubble, a separate realm. When you're a member of the system, you tend to think that most everything revolves around anything that you do. You get an unrealistic view of the world from inside."

The city's crown jewel is Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university, which in the 1880s attracted Baptists from across Texas to Waco, then known as the buckle of the Bible Belt. The private university has an air of insularity that extends to the county courthouse, a domed palace whose Lady Justice lost her arm holding scales in a storm.

From a series of Ku Klux Klan lynchings nearly a century ago to a massive twister in 1953 that tore through downtown to the Branch Davidian siege in 1993, Waco's downtown streets, a mix of historic mansions, public buildings, dilapidated houses and empty spaces where nothing was rebuilt reflect a city perpetually recovering from its last disaster.

Sheriff McNamara, the descendent of one of Waco's early settlers, was formerly a U.S. marshal who participated in the Branch Davidian siege in which federal agents tried to arrest cult leader David Koresh for stockpiling weapons at a ranch outside town. The confrontation led to a 51-day standoff that ended when the complex caught fire, killing Koresh and nearly 80 followers.

The international attention brought by the tragedy left Waco residents wary of outside law enforcement, and they say they'll handle the biker shootout themselves.

"Waco's nickname is Six-Shooter Junction," McNamara said. "Not really anything we're real proud of, but that's just the way it is."




“The secrecy that enshrouds the investigation into a biker shootout in May that left nine people dead led to the mass-arrest of 177 people is hardly surprising in this city, where public scrutiny is rare and unwelcome. On the banks of the Brazos River in Central Texas, Waco and the surrounding county are largely run by a close-knit circle of judges, prosecutors and law enforcement that defense lawyers complain leads local agencies to close ranks in the aftermath of this most recent calamity. …. Bikers and public watchdogs have criticized authorities here for how they've handled the investigation, citing the mass arrests in which people were held for days or weeks on $1 million bonds without sufficient evidence to support such actions four months after the shootings. No formal charges have been made, and it remains unclear whose bullets, including police bullets, struck the dead and injured, or when cases will be presented to a grand jury, which is currently led by a Waco police detective. …. From a series of Ku Klux Klan lynchings nearly a century ago to a massive twister in 1953 that tore through downtown to the Branch Davidian siege in 1993, Waco's downtown streets, a mix of historic mansions, public buildings, dilapidated houses and empty spaces where nothing was rebuilt reflect a city perpetually recovering from its last disaster. Sheriff McNamara, the descendent of one of Waco's early settlers, was formerly a U.S. marshal who participated in the Branch Davidian siege in which federal agents tried to arrest cult leader David Koresh for stockpiling weapons at a ranch outside town. The confrontation led to a 51-day standoff that ended when the complex caught fire, killing Koresh and nearly 80 followers. …. Bikers and public watchdogs have criticized authorities here for how they've handled the investigation, citing the mass arrests in which people were held for days or weeks on $1 million bonds without sufficient evidence to support such actions four months after the shootings. No formal charges have been made, and it remains unclear whose bullets, including police bullets, struck the dead and injured, or when cases will be presented to a grand jury, which is currently led by a Waco police detective.”

“Justifying the mass arrests, Sheriff Parnell McNamara said, "A message was sent to the whole country that we will not tolerate this type of disorder in our community." McNamara describes the county's criminal justice system as a close-knit Christian "posse" of Baylor University graduates committed to "putting away as many hard-core criminals as possible." That kind of mentality led the county's former district attorney, John Segrest, to compare the McLennan County criminal justice system to a "bubble, a separate realm. When you're a member of the system, you tend to think that most everything revolves around anything that you do. You get an unrealistic view of the world from inside."

This article is fascinating. I’ve heard of towns like this one, but luckily never lived in one. It reminds me of a great movie from 1967 called “In the Heat of the Night.” It also calls to mind a real life nightmare that happened in Florida not far from Gainesville, the site of the state university. It was at what used to be a town, but is no more – “Rosewood.” I read the book, saw the TV documentary and saw the movie, also a very good production. See these websites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Heat_of_the_Night_(film) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_(film). When I was a young adult in college the mentality of small towns infuriated me, but today it chills me as I see it emerging again on the coattails of the Tea Party. It’s not unlike an invasion by barbarians.



MIGRANT ISSUES -- EUROPE AND AMERICA


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-decision-refugees-fleeing-syria-civil-war-criticism/

Obama's decision to take in refugees faces criticism
CBS NEWS
September 12, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Migrants suffer disturbing conditions in Hungary refugee camp
Play VIDEO -- U.S. to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees
Photograph -- Migrants, who mostly crossed into Hungary from Serbia and are hoping to make their way to Austria, wait for trains heading to Hegyeshalom or Gyor in a transit area at Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary, Sept. 12, 2015. REUTERS/BERNADETT SZABO



There's a call on the United States to take in more of the refugees fleeing Syria's civil war, CBS News' Margaret Brennan reports.

President Obama bowed to international pressure and decided this week that the U.S. will take in around 10,000 refugees from war-torn Syria over the next year. The U.N. refugee agency says that number just isn't enough.

"The refugee crisis is not just a European problem; it's a world problem, and we have obligations," Mr. Obama said Friday.

Four million people have fled Syria, and now hundreds of thousands of them are flooding into Europe. Germany alone expects to take in 800,000 by year's end.


"There is desperate need that's not being met," said David Miliband, who runs the International Rescue Committee.

He said the White House commitment falls short.

"The figure of 10,000 is deeply disappointing because it won't be adequate to the scale of the problem, which demands a global response on a far more effective scale," he said.

The policy change came after public outcry over the image of a 3-year-old Syrian refugee whose body recently washed up on Turkish shores.

Over the past four-and-a-half years of war, Syria's neighbors have shouldered much of the exodus.

During that same time, the U.S. accepted only 1,500 Syrians.



U.S. officials say the slow acceptance rate is due to intensive vetting, which can take two years or more to complete.

"The fact is, our main goal has to be to protect the United States," said Republican Congressman Peter King of New York.

He argues Americans' safety should be the primary concern.

"I know that ISIS will attempt to infiltrate those refugees and runs the risk of having terrorists coming into the country," he said.

The White House insists that no corners will be cut when it comes to security. U.S. officials have already selected the group of refugees who will come to the U.S. After they're processed, they'll be resettled in communities across the country starting sometime after Oct. 1.




"President Obama bowed to international pressure and decided this week that the U.S. will take in around 10,000 refugees from war-torn Syria over the next year. The U.N. refugee agency says that number just isn't enough. "The refugee crisis is not just a European problem; it's a world problem, and we have obligations," Mr. Obama said Friday. …. The fact is, our main goal has to be to protect the United States," said Republican Congressman Peter King of New York. He argues Americans' safety should be the primary concern. "I know that ISIS will attempt to infiltrate those refugees and runs the risk of having terrorists coming into the country," he said. …. "The figure of 10,000 is deeply disappointing because it won't be adequate to the scale of the problem, which demands a global response on a far more effective scale," he said. The policy change came after public outcry over the image of a 3-year-old Syrian refugee whose body recently washed up on Turkish shores.”

The UN says it’s not nearly enough, and Republican Peter King says we must protect our national security. There is wisdom on both sides, but European nations are allowing in a great many more than we are. There will be a societal reaction there against the influx of so many potentially radical Islamic people later, I feel sure. Germany and France in recent years have already had the buildup of ethnic hostility in Islamic communities there, and this will be worse. I hate to say it, but this is one time I agree with the conservatives. Keeping the number down and vetting them individually is good, if cautious, procedure. They would do better to stay in Syria, band together as a group, and stand up to ISIS with whatever forces they can put together. Of course, that would mean “civil war,” but it seems to me that what they have now is exactly that. People who cannot get up the courage and the political organization to fight off invaders are doomed to the fate of losing their land. That includes us, too. War isn't great, but it's better than being run over bodily by first one group and then another.





http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/14/440227190/as-eu-ministers-meet-migrants-rush-to-beat-hungarys-border-crackdown

Hungary Seals Its Border, As EU Meets On Migrant Crisis
Scott Neuman
SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Here are the latest developments in the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe:

— Lauren Frayer, reporting for NPR from Hungary's southern border with Serbia, says: "Hundreds of Hungarian police and soldiers have just moved in to make a human chain along the border. Trucks have moved in, Humvees, and they are quickly unfurling a chain-linked fence topped with barbed wire to seal off this border."

That comes after refugees, mainly from Syria, raced by train, bus and taxi to beat imposition of the border crackdown ordered by Budapest's right-wing government. Police acted hours before the Tuesday deadline given earlier by the government, which says it will arrest anyone else caught trying to sneak across the border.

Reuters quotes Hungarian police as saying a record 5,809 people had entered from Serbia on Sunday and a further 5,353 by noon on Monday.

— A meeting in Brussels among European Union interior ministers is aimed at hammering out a quota system for EU member nations to accept refugees, relieving some pressure on Germany, which has borne the brunt of the influx in recent weeks. The Guardian is running a live blog of the meeting.

— Germany's vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, says that his county is bracing for 1 million refugees this year, 200,000 more than previously forecast by the Interior Ministry. Germany has stepped up checks of identification at border crossings.

— Austria has announced that it will impose border controls, dispatching the armed forces to guard its eastern frontier after Germany instituted its own border controls.

"If Germany carries out border controls, Austria must put strengthened border controls in place," Austrian Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner told a joint news conference with Chancellor Werner Faymann. "We are doing that now."

— Another 38 migrants, including 14 children, drowned when their overloaded boat capsized off the Greek island of Farmakonisi. The Greek coast guard rescued the others from the vessel carrying 112.




"Hundreds of Hungarian police and soldiers have just moved in to make a human chain along the border. Trucks have moved in, Humvees, and they are quickly unfurling a chain-linked fence topped with barbed wire to seal off this border." …. A meeting in Brussels among European Union interior ministers is aimed at hammering out a quota system for EU member nations to accept refugees, relieving some pressure on Germany, which has borne the brunt of the influx in recent weeks.”

"If Germany carries out border controls, Austria must put strengthened border controls in place," Austrian Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner told a joint news conference with Chancellor Werner Faymann. "We are doing that now." A new Europe made up of walled cities and armed encampments would make an interesting novel, I think. Or, perhaps, war zones made up of Syrian jihadists and set in Europe. Or, more likely, a massive new Nazi movement that takes over our former democracies. Better still, all of those things together in the same book. Unfortunately, none of it is too very unlikely. We Western societies need to fight ISIS in the Middle East, or we will fight them on our own soil. A few scattered bombing runs is not likely to be enough. Apparently Russia is already setting up forces there to do just that. Even the Pope has advocated that we fight them. As in the 1920s and 1940s “great forces are afoot.” See the following CBS article below.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fractured-europe-blocks-unified-response-to-refugee-crisis/

Fractured Europe blocks unified response to refugee crisis
By ROBERT HENNELLY MONEYWATCH
September 14, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Boats from Greece confront refugees at sea
Play VIDEO -- Germany welcomes Syrian migrants


When it comes to existential challenges to the European Union's cohesion, it's now clear that the Greek debt drama was just the opening act. The biggest threat to the EU since its founding in 1993 may be the unrelenting flood of refugees from the Middle East.

The unprecedented humanitarian crisis it's creating reveals a continent deeply divided between those who see the new arrivals as good for their country's economy and those who see them as a drain on the public treasury and a threat to national security.

The TV visuals of Hungarian riot police throwing food at penned-in refugees contrasts radically with footage of everyday German citizens lining up with flowers to greet the weary travelers from a continent away.

The lack of a European consensus comes at a time when the economic recovery remains fragile and uneven for the 28-member EU. Official unemployment rates range from 4.7 percent in Germany to 25.6 percent in Greece, with youth unemployment as high as 50 percent in some places.

Experts say how Europe chooses to face up to the mass migration could affect the continent's economic destiny for decades to come, while exacerbating the domestic and regional political tensions that have boiled to the surface since the Great Recession.

The current crisis in Europe is just one facet of a broader upheaval that has seen 60 million refugees around the world uprooted from their homes, up from 37.5 million just a decade ago. Last year, by contrast, only some 127,000 refugees were repatriated to their homelands, a 30-year low.

Even as refugees stream into Europe from Syria and other conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, the European nations have been slow to respond, experts say.

"Europe had its head in the sand on this. They saw people drowning in the Mediterranean and said, 'yes, that's terrible,'" said Judy Dempsey, senior associate and editor in chief of Carnegie Europe, a branch of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The reality is Europe has spent 20 years talking about it, but today there is no coherent European Union policy covering migration, even basics like how we define an asylum seeker or a refugee."

Part of the challenge of forming a coherent response to the crisis is that the costs and benefits of absorbing a large number of immigrants vary significantly among the potential host countries.

"For the moment, Germany and Austria have been open to the thousands seeking refuge, but you can't imagine the cost they're facing to do deal with it: translators, temporary shelter, clothes, health care and, of course, the longer-term issues of education, permanent housing and employment," Dempsey said.

Germany, which expects to see 800,000 asylum seekers and other refugees by year-end, has already committed as much as $3.7 billion annually to help them assimilate. And that figure could more than double by 2019, according to an estimate from Germany's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

Yet Germany, where there are many foreign workers in low-wage sectors, may also see the influx of immigrants as a way to compensate for its aging workforce and low birth rate. The Wall Street Journal reports that Germany's social welfare system last year posted a $22 billion surplus thanks to a revenue windfall from the 6.6 million foreign workers already paying into the system.

"Germany may be compassionate and caring toward refugees. But they are also calculating and smart about their own needs," said Frank J. Contractor, professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School. "This wave of immigrants is relatively well educated, enterprising, persistent and physically strong, and it helps fulfill [the Germans'] need to inject youth vitality in their culture as well as their consumer base."

In the less prosperous Central and Eastern European countries, by contrast, the immigration wave has the potential to cause political and economic disruptions as countries tighten entry restrictions or even seal their borders altogether.

"There is a nontrivial risk that such practices will escalate, thus effectively undermining the European common market that is founded on the principle of the free movement of goods and people," Tsveta Petrova, an analyst with political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said in a note.

Within Europe, the strongest opposition to European Commission proposals on how to share responsibility for taking in immigrants comes from Hungary -- the scene of chaos earlier this month as desperate Syrian refugees tried to enter Germany and Austria -- along with Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

Historically, these countries have little direct experience with people from the Middle East and North Africa, Petrova wrote, citing their poor track record integrating poor, ethnic minorities. Many in this part of Europe see a flood of non-Christian migrants as a threat to their cultural identity and values, as well as a strain on the public purse.

"Currently, the emigration is occurring against the backdrop of high domestic rates of unemployment in most European countries outside of German," Gary Bosworth, an expert on fiscal and monetary policy with the Brookings Institution, told CBS MoneyWatch. ''Hence it will be difficult to employ the emigrants, and there will be social consequences of increased competition for jobs."

The primary risk that poses is that "it will heighten the domestic political conflicts and opposition," Bosworth added.

Across Europe, the Syrian refugee crisis has become a lightning rod for political debate, posing risks even for popular leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And in countries such as France, Greece and Hungary, the issue is proving a boon for nationalist parties both through rising support by voters wary of immigration and by spurring incumbent governments to align with right-wing elements on the issue.

Jocelyne Cesari, a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School and an expert on the challenges countries face in integrating immigrants, acknowledges the potential benefits for nations of adding labor, especially as aging societies grapple with how to support costly pension and health care systems. But the tangible economic benefits must be weighed against the complex and unpredictable social dimensions inherent in immigration.

"No doubt, expanding the work force is a great opportunity, but we know from history that we don't fully anticipate the cultural, linguistic and religious challenges to a successful integration," she said.

Cesari added that Europe's fractured response to the arrival of immigrants fleeing war, persecution or poverty is problematic. "We need a coherent and unified response," she said.

That response, Cesari warned, has to avoid putting the immigrants into ghettos and must waste no time in getting immigrant youth into local schools. "The sooner they are integrated into the local culture," she said, "the better."




“The unprecedented humanitarian crisis it's creating reveals a continent deeply divided between those who see the new arrivals as good for their country's economy and those who see them as a drain on the public treasury and a threat to national security. The TV visuals of Hungarian riot police throwing food at penned-in refugees contrasts radically with footage of everyday German citizens lining up with flowers to greet the weary travelers from a continent away. …. Experts say how Europe chooses to face up to the mass migration could affect the continent's economic destiny for decades to come, while exacerbating the domestic and regional political tensions that have boiled to the surface since the Great Recession. …. Even as refugees stream into Europe from Syria and other conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, the European nations have been slow to respond, experts say. "Europe had its head in the sand on this. They saw people drowning in the Mediterranean and said, 'yes, that's terrible,'" said Judy Dempsey, senior associate and editor in chief of Carnegie Europe, a branch of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The reality is Europe has spent 20 years talking about it, but today there is no coherent European Union policy covering migration, even basics like how we define an asylum seeker or a refugee." …. the costs and benefits of absorbing a large number of immigrants vary significantly among the potential host countries. "For the moment, Germany and Austria have been open to the thousands seeking refuge, but you can't imagine the cost they're facing to do deal with it: translators, temporary shelter, clothes, health care and, of course, the longer-term issues of education, permanent housing and employment," Dempsey said. …. "Germany may be compassionate and caring toward refugees. But they are also calculating and smart about their own needs," said Frank J. Contractor, professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School. "This wave of immigrants is relatively well educated, enterprising, persistent and physically strong, and it helps fulfill [the Germans'] need to inject youth vitality in their culture as well as their consumer base." In the less prosperous Central and Eastern European countries, by contrast, the immigration wave has the potential to cause political and economic disruptions as countries tighten entry restrictions or even seal their borders altogether. "There is a nontrivial risk that such practices will escalate, thus effectively undermining the European common market that is founded on the principle of the free movement of goods and people," Tsveta Petrova, an analyst with political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said in a note. …. Historically, these countries have little direct experience with people from the Middle East and North Africa, Petrova wrote, citing their poor track record integrating poor, ethnic minorities. Many in this part of Europe see a flood of non-Christian migrants as a threat to their cultural identity and values, as well as a strain on the public purse. …. Across Europe, the Syrian refugee crisis has become a lightning rod for political debate, posing risks even for popular leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And in countries such as France, Greece and Hungary, the issue is proving a boon for nationalist parties both through rising support by voters wary of immigration and by spurring incumbent governments to align with right-wing elements on the issue.”

“That response, Cesari warned, has to avoid putting the immigrants into ghettos and must waste no time in getting immigrant youth into local schools. "The sooner they are integrated into the local culture," she said, "the better." This is the new challenge for the West, including the USA. We are more like the nations of France and Hungary who are already having a lack of jobs and some intolerance for ethnic mixing than like Germany in this case. I don’t like that about us, but it’s true. Interestingly England wasn’t mentioned in these last few articles, but one a couple of days ago said they have accepted some 70,000 Syrians as immigrants. Russia also hasn’t been mentioned, but as Hungary is related culturally to Russia, it may be a predictor of how they will react. The future, judging by this article, is going to be a perilous time period for the West, unless we militarily stop ISIS, which should help. I dread another big war, but I’m afraid it’s coming.