December 12, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-mosque-fire-police/
Authorities announce whether California mosque fire was intentionally set
AP December 12, 2015

Photograph -- A police car is parked near the Islamic Society of Palm Springs in Coachella, California, Dec. 11, 2015, after the area was sealed off when a fire broke out at the mosque. GUILLAUME MEYER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


COACHELLA, Calif. -- A Southern California mosque was damaged in a fire that authorities said was intentionally set.

Flames were reported just after noon Friday at the Islamic Center of Palm Springs, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The fire was contained to the small building's front lobby, and no one was injured.

By late Friday night, the Sheriff's Department released a statement calling the blaze "an intentional act" and saying it would use all available resources to investigate.

People at the mosque described hearing a "loud boom" and seeing flames, said Reymundo Nour, the mosque's acting imam, who was not on the site at the time. He said the mosque had been "firebombed."

Authorities provided no details on how the fire was set or whether the department has any suspects.

State fire investigators, the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI are assisting in the investigation.

The mosque is about 75 miles from San Bernardino, where last week a couple who federal officials say were inspired by Islamist extremists killed 14 people. Some Muslims in Southern California and beyond have worried about the potential for reprisals, while leaders of various faiths have called for tolerance.

In a statement released Friday evening, U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, whose district includes the area in which the mosque is located, called on authorities to investigate the blaze as a possible hate crime.

"Our faith in humanity will not be intimidated," he said. "And we stand together against any form (of) violence towards the innocent."

County and city officials also condemned the attack.

"We see this as a cowardly act of vandalism that we not tolerate in our community," Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez said.

The mosque was hit by gunfire in November 2014 in what authorities investigated as a possible hate crime. No one was injured in the early morning incident. The case remains under investigation, and no arrests have been made.



“Flames were reported just after noon Friday at the Islamic Center of Palm Springs, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The fire was contained to the small building's front lobby, and no one was injured. …. People at the mosque described hearing a "loud boom" and seeing flames, said Reymundo Nour, the mosque's acting imam, who was not on the site at the time. He said the mosque had been "firebombed." …. In a statement released Friday evening, U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, whose district includes the area in which the mosque is located, called on authorities to investigate the blaze as a possible hate crime.” …. County and city officials also condemned the attack.”


I hope all these vigilante type attacks will be investigated for real and in real time. This article says that in November of last year shots were fired at the same mosque and nothing has yet been done. We should not drag our social and political feet in these cases just because the victims are unpopular. Maybe that isn’t what’s been going on, but if our authorities aren’t keeping track of rightwing extremists as much as we do of Islamic people we can’t hope to maintain either justice or safety. I hope there will be results soon on both the 2014 crime and this new fire bombing.



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-ali-idUSKBN0TT09220151210

Boxer Muhammad Ali appears to take jab at Trump over Muslim comments
Sports | Thu Dec 10, 2015

Photograph -- U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali poses during the Crystal Award ceremony at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 28, 2006.
Reuters/Andreas Meier/Files

Former boxing champion Muhammad Ali, one of the best-known U.S. Muslims, appeared on Wednesday to join the chorus condemning the proposal by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to temporarily stop Muslims from entering the country.

"We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," Ali, 72, said in a statement that appeared in a report by NBC News headlined: "Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States," but did not actually name Trump.

The Louisville, Kentucky-born Ali, a three-time world heavyweight champion who joined the Nation of Islam in 1964 and later converted to Sunni Islam, also took aim at Islamist extremists.

"I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world," Ali said in the statement. "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion."

"I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is," he said.

Robert Gunnell, a spokesman for Ali, said later the statement "was not a direct response to Donald Trump. This statement was Muhammad Ali's belief that Muslims must reject Jihadist extremist views."

Asked by Reuters why the headline on the statement was later changed to "Statement from Muhammad Ali Calling on all Muslims to Stand Up Against Jihadist Radical Agenda," Gunnell said in an email it was "not meant toward Trump so we edited the headline."

Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the November 2016 presidential election, has been harshly criticized by world leaders and fellow Republicans for saying on Monday that Muslims, including would-be immigrants, students and tourists, should be blocked from entering the country.

His proposal followed last week's deadly shootings in San Bernardino, California, last week by a married couple inspired by Islamic State militants.

(This story fixes typo in headline)

(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Peter Cooney)


Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-ali-idUSKBN0TT09220151210#qZ1Xb89I8k8AMEpi.99




"We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," Ali, 72, said in a statement that appeared in a report by NBC News headlined: "Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States," but did not actually name Trump. …. "I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world," Ali said in the statement. "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion." "I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is," he said.”


We forget that many of the Muslims in the US aren’t from Syria, but are native born Americans, and many are black. As enlightened Muslims continue to stand up for peace we will have a better chance of an end to the conversion of radicals who are politically inclined more than religious. It’s a kind of nationalism which is popping up where the people are poor and the government is corrupt or weak. The worldwide economic problems are also part of the problem. Also in Western areas many Islamic refugees are living in poor neighborhoods and being treated badly by the locals. Ghettoizing a population does not make them more peaceful or more benign in their general attitude. Hate fuels hate.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-bernardino-shooting-enrique-marquez-sleeper-cells/

Report: San Bernardino gunman's pal spoke of "sleeper cells"
CBS/AP
December 11, 2015

Play VIDEO -- FBI searching lake near site of San Bernardino attack
Photograph -- marquez.jpg, An undated photo shows Enrique Marquez, who purchased the assault rifles used in the San Bernardino shooting. CBS NEWS
Play VIDEO -- Marquez's mother speaks out: My world is upside down
Photograph -- Yvette Velasco, 27, of Fontana, California, was one of the youngest victims of the San Bernardino shooting. COURTESY OF YVETTE VELASCO'S FAMILY
Play VIDEO -- Friend of California attackers could be charged
Play VIDEO -- U.S. visa process faces tough questions
Play VIDEO -- First officers on scene of San Bernardino shooting speak out


A friend of one of the San Bernardino attackers spoke about terrorism and sleeper cells at the Southern California bar where he worked, The New York Times reported Friday.

Enrique Marquez was a friend and and relative-through-marriage of Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out last week's rampage at a holiday luncheon that killed 14 people. Marquez purchased the assault rifles that Farook and Malik used in the attack.

A senior law enforcement official told CBS News justice correspondent Jeff Pegues that investigators have examined Farook and Malik's cell phones and have found "levels of built-in encryption." The official said investigators did not know if the couple used the encryption to conceal conversations because technicians at the FBI lab have been unable to get into certain parts of the devices' memory.

In addition, investigators were still looking for connections between Farook, Malik and ISIS leadership which could demonstrate that the attack was directed by the terrorist organization. So far, investigators have only been able to determine that the San Bernardino attack was at least inspired by ISIS.

Nick Rodriguez, a customer at Morgan's Tavern in Riverside where Marquez worked, told the Times that the 24-year-old talked about terrorism when he was drinking.

"He would say stuff like: 'There's so much going on. There's so many sleeper cells, so many people just waiting. When it happens, it's going to be big. Watch,'" Rodriguez told the newspaper. "We took it as a joke. When you look at the kid and talk to him, no one would take him seriously about that."

Marquez, who checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack, told investigators that he and Farook were plotting an attack in 2012. The FBI is trying to corroborate that claim, CBS News has learned.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said they had an actual plan, including buying weapons, but became apprehensive and shelved it because of law enforcement activity and arrests in the area. Marquez hasn't been charged with a crime.

Lawmakers said the FBI wouldn't provide details about his ties to the case, citing an "ongoing criminal investigation." Marquez's mother Armida Chacon told reporters Thursday that her 24-year-old son is a good person.

Meanwhile, an FBI dive team searched a small, urban lake about 3 miles north of the shooting site. CBS News has learned that the divers are looking for a computer hard drive that may have been dumped in the lake as well any other items Farook and Malik may have thrown in it.

On Friday, a diver was seen handing an item to investigators.

Authorities said the shooters had been in the area. The couple died in a shootout with law enforcement hours after the attack and left behind a 6-month-old daughter.

American officials said the couple discussed martyrdom and jihad online as early as 2013. But they never surfaced on law enforcement's radar and Malik was able to enter the U.S. on a fiancee visa last year despite having professed radical views online.

FBI Director James Comey and other senior American officials on Thursday briefed members of Congress, who were curious to know whether any red flags may have been missed in the last two years.

"Everyone's asking the same questions about how it is that law enforcement didn't know, or intelligence officials didn't know - that they could have flown under the radar and nothing gave an indication that they were a threat," said Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode island Democrat and member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said it was his understanding that Malik was subjected to an in-person interview during the application process for a visa, but that he did not have additional details on it. He noted that while there were some indications that might have alerted law enforcement to Farook, he declined to detail what those might have been.

"I don't think we know yet enough to say these were apparent without the advantage of hindsight," Schiff said.

Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said there's currently no evidence Malik's radicalization would have been readily apparent when she was evaluated for a fiancee visa.

"I don't think there was missed information," he said. "It appears that there was not any evidence that would have been discoverable during an interview for a visa."

He declined to discuss what specifically led investigators to conclude that the couple had radicalized independently as early as 2013, but suggested the information did not come from intercepts. Comey has said Farook had been in communication with individuals who were being scrutinized by the FBI in terrorism investigations, but that the contact he had was not enough to bring him onto the law enforcement radar.

"It's safe to say that the information about what happened prior to their marriage and to the attacks in San Bernardino was acquired through forensic investigations of these individual lives," Hurd said, adding: "These people weren't on the radar."

Multiple lawmakers raised the fact that neighbors saw suspicious activities but failed to mention them to investigators until after the attack.

"There were people who were aware of things, thought they were suspicious, but did not want to be accused of being discriminatory for reporting something," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He said these people saw activity around the garage that they thought was suspicious.

Asked repeatedly whether any hints could have led law enforcement to prevent the attack, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. replied, "Explain to me how you do that without any bread crumbs that are obvious, without somebody that's inside a mosque, that's inside a person's family that tips you off. In this particular case there was nothing like that that gave them a reason to look at this couple sooner than after the attack."



“Nick Rodriguez, a customer at Morgan's Tavern in Riverside where Marquez worked, told the Times that the 24-year-old talked about terrorism when he was drinking. "He would say stuff like: 'There's so much going on. There's so many sleeper cells, so many people just waiting. When it happens, it's going to be big. Watch,'" Rodriguez told the newspaper. "We took it as a joke. When you look at the kid and talk to him, no one would take him seriously about that." Marquez, who checked himself into a mental hospital after the attack, told investigators that he and Farook were plotting an attack in 2012. The FBI is trying to corroborate that claim, CBS News has learned. …. Meanwhile, an FBI dive team searched a small, urban lake about 3 miles north of the shooting site. CBS News has learned that the divers are looking for a computer hard drive that may have been dumped in the lake as well any other items Farook and Malik may have thrown in it. On Friday, a diver was seen handing an item to investigators. Authorities said the shooters had been in the area. …. "Everyone's asking the same questions about how it is that law enforcement didn't know, or intelligence officials didn't know - that they could have flown under the radar and nothing gave an indication that they were a threat," said Rep. Jim Langevin, a Rhode island Democrat and member of the House Homeland Security Committee. …. Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said there's currently no evidence Malik's radicalization would have been readily apparent when she was evaluated for a fiancee visa. "I don't think there was missed information," he said. "It appears that there was not any evidence that would have been discoverable during an interview for a visa." …. Comey has said Farook had been in communication with individuals who were being scrutinized by the FBI in terrorism investigations, but that the contact he had was not enough to bring him onto the law enforcement radar. …. Multiple lawmakers raised the fact that neighbors saw suspicious activities but failed to mention them to investigators until after the attack. "There were people who were aware of things, thought they were suspicious, but did not want to be accused of being discriminatory for reporting something," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He said these people saw activity around the garage that they thought was suspicious.”


Well, as Obama recently said, “If you see something, say something,” and to go back to WWII there is the phrase “loose lips sink ships.” An overall increase in American vigilance from the man on the street to the CIA and NSA and whatever other agencies there are is needed. For crime reporting in general there are some telephone numbers for anonymous crime reporting. Why not have one for potential terrorists? The official response to those reports should investigate thoroughly, of course, before swooping in with a SWAT team and shooting everybody in the dwelling, and the identity of the neighbors should be hidden for their safety. This is one case where “suspicious activity” around the garage was noticed by neighbors, and that turned out to be the attackers bomb factory. Here in Jacksonville there is a local FBI branch, but I don’t know of an anonymous phone line. We need to gather more highly specific information to apply it to a particular threat.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/treasury-department-delays-decision-on-which-woman-to-put-on-10-bill/

Treasury Department delays decision on which woman to put on $10 bill
CBS NEWS
December 11, 2015

Photograph -- Both sides of the redesigned $10 dollar bill are shown at the Treasury Department in Washington in this Nov. 16, 1999 photo. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Play VIDEO -- A woman on the back of the $10 bill?


Treasury Secretary Jack Lew won't be deciding which woman to feature on the next $10 dollar bill until 2016, after initially saying he would finalize a pick by the end of the year, a Treasury spokesperson tells CBS News.

"The public's input on redesigning our currency has been a valuable part of Secretary Lew's decision making process," the spokesperson told CBS News' Julianna Goldman. "As a result of the tremendous amount of engagement, we have many more ideas than we had originally anticipated. Therefore, we are taking additional time to carefully review and consider a range of options to honor the theme of democracy as well as the notable contributions women have made to our country."

The Treasury added that the redesign can be expected in 2016: "As the Secretary has said, this process is about more than just one square inch on a bill, and we look forward to sharing the Secretary's decision on currency redesign in the new year."

After a lengthy deliberation process, the Treasury Department announced early this summer that the denomination would feature a woman, a decision that "reflects our aspirations for the future, as much as it is a reflection of the past," Lew said in June.

Earlier this year, the department opened up the decision-making process to the public, asking people to share their ideas about who should be the new face for the $10 bill. Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury Secretary, currently graces the face of the bill, and the Treasury Department is still working on options that would continue to honor him on the new bill, in addition to the chosen woman.

The new $10 note is expected to be unveiled in 2020, on the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. And the Treasury Department anticipates putting the new bill into circulation after 2020.



Much as I would like to contribute to the decision of who the lucky lady will be, I need help. I want the Treasury Department to add a feature on their website for voting, with a reasonably short list of candidates given. Twenty or so sounds reasonable. Women’s suffragettes, Rosa Parks, the underground railroad, women in politics, etc. are all fertile grounds for good choices.




http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/saudi-women-vote-time-landmark-election-35729026?nfo=/desktop_newsfeed_ab_refer_homepage

Saudi Women Vote for the First Time, Testing Boundaries
By AYA BATRAWY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Dec 12, 2015, 2:15 PM ET


Photograph -- Saudi women vote at a polling center during the country's municipal elections in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015

Women across Saudi Arabia marked a historic milestone on Saturday, both voting and running as candidates in government elections for the first time, but just outside polling stations they waited for male drivers — a reminder of the limitations still firmly in place.

The landmark election for local council seats was not expected to immediately advance the status of women in Saudi Arabia, who are still not permitted to drive, but it seen as a chance for them to make their voices heard as citizens.

"We are making history. I just made history," said candidate Karima Bokhary, 50, after casting her ballot at a polling station in the capital Riyadh.

Bokhary was one of 979 women candidates vying for a seat on the country's municipal councils, the only government body in which Saudi citizens can elect their representatives. An additional 5,968 male candidates were running in the election, with no quotas on the number of female candidates.

Results were expected to be reported on Sunday.

More than 130,000 women registered to vote, compared to 1.35 million men. The General Election Commission estimated there are at least 5 million eligible voters out of a population of 20 million, but the figure could be much higher.

At the King Salman Social Center in Riyadh, Shara Al-Qahtani, a 50-year-old mother of eight, wearing a loose black dress known as an abaya that all women must wear in public and a traditional veil covering her face and hair, said women being allowed to vote "is good for people and good for society ... Women are partners of men."

Najla Khaled, a 24 year-old English literature major, described voting "as a huge step for women in Saudi."

Though women make up just 10 percent of registered voters, the right to simply cast a ballot sends a wider message to society, she said.

"If you look back at the history of women (in Islam), there are so many strong women," she said. "The Prophet (Muhammad) worked for his wife Khadija. The prophet's wife was his boss technically."

The election tested just how far the kingdom's conservatives were willing to bend while bringing to the fore more liberal voices advocating for greater freedoms and reforms.

In line with Saudi Arabia's strict gender segregation rules, men and women cast ballots at separate polling stations. During the campaign period, female candidates could not directly address male voters and had to either present their platforms from behind a partition, relying on projectors and microphones, or through male supporters and relatives presenting for them.

The candidates were vying for about 2,100 council seats. An additional 1,050 seats are appointed with approval from King Salman, who could use his powers to appoint female candidates who don't win outright. The candidates serve four-year terms that begin on Jan. 1.

While the municipal councils do not have legislative powers, they oversee a range of community issues, such as budgets for maintaining and improving public facilities. All major decision-making powers rest solely in the hands of King Salman and the all-male Cabinet of ministers.

The first local council election since the 1960s to be held in Saudi Arabia was in 2005 and the second in 2011, with only men taking part.

The late King Abdullah granted women the right to participate in elections before he died in January. He also appointed 30 women to the country's top advisory Shura Council, which laid the groundwork for women to take part in municipal councils.

Few clerics have dared to openly criticize the royal decree to allow women the right to vote, and in mosques across the kingdom Friday, there were few mentions of the election in sermons.

Despite women's participation in the vote, however, there's a widely held sentiment among many Saudis that women do not belong in public life.

Abdullah Al-Maiteb summed it up as he made his way into a polling station in Riyadh. "Her role is not in such places. Her role is at home managing the house and raising a new generation," he said. "If we allow her out of the house to do such business, who is going to take care of my sons?"

Amna Ahmed, a 23-year-old Quran teacher, didn't bother to register to vote because she too believes Saudi women have no place in government.

"The rulers are male and usually make the decisions so we're not used to women making decisions," she said. "We prefer men to win."

Karen Young, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC, says the success rate of women in the Saudi municipal elections "will be slim to zero."

"There is not a clear understanding of what the value of representation can be within the current political system, though there are many activists who are committed to continuing this opening and trying to expand it inch by inch," she said.

Many Saudi women activists say more important than the right to vote is the easing of Saudi's restrictive guardianship laws. Under such laws, women cannot obtain a passport, work in government, travel abroad or enter university without the permission of a male guardian, usually the father or husband.

Hatoon Al-Fassi, general coordinator for the grassroots Saudi Baladi Initiative that worked closely with women to raise voter awareness and increase female participation in the election, said the ultimate goal in this election wasn't to win votes.

"It's the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point," she said. "We are looking at it as an opportunity to exercise our right and to push for more."

Associated Press writer Bassam Hatoum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia contributed to this report.

Follow Aya Batrawy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ayaelb



“Women across Saudi Arabia marked a historic milestone on Saturday, both voting and running as candidates in government elections for the first time, but just outside polling stations they waited for male drivers — a reminder of the limitations still firmly in place. …. Bokhary was one of 979 women candidates vying for a seat on the country's municipal councils, the only government body in which Saudi citizens can elect their representatives. …. More than 130,000 women registered to vote, compared to 1.35 million men. The General Election Commission estimated there are at least 5 million eligible voters out of a population of 20 million, but the figure could be much higher. …. "If you look back at the history of women (in Islam), there are so many strong women," she said. "The Prophet (Muhammad) worked for his wife Khadija. The prophet's wife was his boss technically." …. female candidates could not directly address male voters …. While the municipal councils do not have legislative powers, they oversee a range of community issues, such as budgets for maintaining and improving public facilities. All major decision-making powers rest solely in the hands of King Salman and the all-male Cabinet of ministers. The first local council election since the 1960s to be held in Saudi Arabia was in 2005 and the second in 2011, with only men taking part. …. The late King Abdullah granted women the right to participate in elections before he died in January. He also appointed 30 women to the country's top advisory Shura Council, which laid the groundwork for women to take part in municipal councils. …. "There is not a clear understanding of what the value of representation can be within the current political system, though there are many activists who are committed to continuing this opening and trying to expand it inch by inch," she said. …. "It's the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point," she said. "We are looking at it as an opportunity to exercise our right and to push for more."


I could weep with joy at this news. It gives me hope that Darkness will not forever rule. On the other hand a Saudi man says, "If we allow her out of the house to do such business, who is going to take care of my sons?" Note there is no mention of daughters, and no joy at the King’s ruling, and “no mention” of the election in Mosques. Time moves incrementally and change is so small. Still, it is something. Now if we can only get the CO2 emissions way down and stop the cutting of the rain forests around the world we may be okay.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-democrats-bash-scalias-affirmative-action-comments-as-racist/

Top Democrats bash Scalia's affirmative action comments as "racist"
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
December 11, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Justice Scalia under fire for affirmative action comments


Leading Democrats are condemning the words of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as "racist," after he implied that African American students should be attending "slower-track" schools during the oral arguments of an affirmative action case focused on the admissions policy of the University of Texas.

"It is deeply disturbing to hear a Supreme Court justice endorse racist ideas from the bench on the nation's highest court," Reid said Thursday, pronouncing them "racist in application."

Scalia, who can be heard in audio released Friday of the Supreme Court arguments, had argued against the admission policies of Texas' flagship university, saying that "there are those who contend that it does not benefit African­ Americans to --­­ to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-­advanced school, a slower-­track school where they do well."

"Most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas," Scalia added. "They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they're that they're being pushed ahead­­ in classes that are too ­­ too fast for them."

Scalia was, the New York Times pointed out, talking about what is known as the mismatch theory, in which students who have lower grades and test scores who are admitted to the most competitive schools "are almost certain to do badly academically," Stuart Taylor, Jr., told the Times. Taylor is a lawyer who cowrote the book, Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It."

The University's lawyer, Gregory Garre, countered Scalia's comment by saying that the holistic minority students improve their academic performance over time, and the solution could not be "to set up a system in which not only are minorities going to separate schools, they're going to inferior schools."

Reid denounced Scalia's argument on the Senate floor, saying that "ideas like this don't belong in the Internet, let alone the mouths of national figures."

He also compared it to the controversial statements made by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

"As we speak, Donald Trump is proposing to ban Muslim immigration. Other leading candidates are proposing a religious test, tossing around slurs on a daily basis," Reid said. "And now a Republican-appointed justice endorsing racist ideas from the Supreme Court bench. The only difference between the ideas endorsed by Trump and Scalia is that Scalia has a robe and a lifetime appointment."

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California joined in Thursday with condemnation of the justice's remarks.

"It's such an indication of the lack of appreciation for the people of our country," she told reporters. "It is indicative of why they make the decisions they do but it has no place on the court or in our country."

Later, Pelosi called on Scalia to recuse himself from the case.

"It clearly shows a bias," the California Democrat told Politico Friday. "I think that the justice should recuse himself from any case that relates to discrimination in education, in voting, and I'm sorry that he made that comment."

And Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, added that the comments were "disgusting, inaccurate, and insulting to African Americans."

"His statements undervalue the historic achievements we have made," Butterfield said.



“… that "there are those who contend that it does not benefit African­ Americans to --­­ to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-­advanced school, a slower-­track school where they do well." This long and apparently fondly held view that black people were “suited” to being slaves and ditch diggers, were “happy” in that status, and can’t be effectively taught academic subjects at “fast track” colleges is one of the primary reasons why the public school teachers have “dumbed down” what is being taught there, have not demanded the performance out of black kids that they do with whites, and why schools are quicker to eject them from the system for misbehavior. Many schools now even have permanently employed security men with guns who have been caught on camera roughing up black kids over typical teenaged behavior, and the kids are sometimes charged with crimes, fueling the belief in black communities that the schools are the beginning point of the incarceration of an overly large percentage of blacks.

“The University's lawyer, Gregory Garre, countered Scalia's comment by saying that the holistic minority students improve their academic performance over time, and the solution could not be "to set up a system in which not only are minorities going to separate schools, they're going to inferior schools.” Garre’s statement says it all. I certainly don’t think that everybody should go to Harvard or Yale, but the state college systems should admit and educate all citizens at a minimal tuition rate equally, disregarding their race. The conservative complaint that quota systems are unfair to white students ignores the fact that colleges before the 1960s automatically discounted applicants who were black simply based on their skin color.

Justice Scalia seems to be arguing for this very behavior again. If a young person has failed in high school or can’t pass the SAT or ACT tests, then he should probably start at a community college and/or get a tutor to beef up his skills. Very few college courses are as easy as high schools, and students will all have to study to pass. There is a “learning curve” involved as vocabulary, reading speed, basic knowledge increases over time.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-the-most-demagogic-candidate-in-recent-history/

Donald Trump: The most demagogic candidate in recent history?
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS NEWS
December 10, 2015

Photograph -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2015. AP
Play VIDEO -- How will Donald Trump's controversial comments affect campaign?
Play VIDEO -- Republicans react to Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims


After his latest controversial proposal to bar Muslims from entering the U.S., Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump was admonished by scores of public figures on the left and the right, from Hillary Clinton to Dick Cheney.

The bombastic businessman finally seemed to push his demagoguery to a point that even those within his own party couldn't tolerate.

"I do not comment on what's going on in the presidential election -- I will take an exception today," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said angrily one day after Trump announced his idea. "This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly, it's not what this country stands for."

"Trump's words are more explicitly bigoted than those of any leading American presidential candidate in recent memory. I cannot think of anything like it from an American political leader in the last 50 years," Princeton Professor Tali Mendelberg, author of "The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality," told CBS News.

Among elected officials, there seems to be widespread agreement that Trump has crossed a line. So what does that mean for American politics? That depends on whether Trump is considered part of a larger trend of demagoguery that dates back to the Civil Rights era, or whether he's dubbed an outlier, argues Ian Haney-López, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of "Dog Whistle Politics."

"The advent of Donald Trump may prove a watershed moment in American politics," Haney-López told CBS.

The bombastic front runner may help the Republican Party through the soul searching it tried to do after the 2012 election and help the American public at large consider its tolerance of divisive politics.

"Once you say, this is race baiting, this has been going on for too long... these are the sort of soul-searching questions one will hope Donald Trump will help the whole country to confront," Haney-López said. "This depends on seeing Trump as symptomatic of American politics rather than exceptional."

"Dog whistle" politics dates back to the early 1960's, when the Republican Party adopted the "Southern strategy" of appealing to segregationist white voters in the South who were previously aligned with the Democratic party.

Barry Goldwater, the GOP's presidential candidate in 1964, openly acknowledged he wouldn't win the support of African-Americans. He lost to President Lyndon Johnson, but he carried five states in the deep South -- and 1964 was the last year a Democratic candidate for president won the majority of the white vote in America.

Goldwater and GOP candidates thereafter put forward platforms of forced busing, law and order, and states' rights -- suggesting they could insulate white voters from minorities.

"The basic message of fear and resentment that undergirds all of this is there are good and decent people in society whose position is being threatened by dark and dangerous 'others,'" Haney-López said. "The Republican Party especially, but to some extent the Democrats, have essentially trained voters to expect and respond to this sort of fear-mongering."

Today the Republican Party draws around 90 percent of its support from white voters. But that doesn't mean that the GOP's strategy for electoral victory is one that is predicated on race-baiting. President George W. Bush made a point of rejecting bigotry, particularly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Six days after the attacks, he visited the Islamic Center of Washington. Democrats have also been charged with race-baiting in recent history. Bill Clinton, for instance, ran his 1992 campaign on "dog whistle" themes of ending welfare as a "way of life" and cracking down on crime.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is familiar with the dog-whistle coding in the context of crime. She talked about it in blunt terms 2007, when she was a U.S. attorney in New York. "Even with the statements as a DA, 'I'm going to be tough on crime,' there are people who take that and have taken it for years --because it has meant for year -- I'm going to be tougher on African Americans, depending upon the context, depending upon what else is being said in an election," Lynch said.

Some cases of race-baiting and demagoguery have been more egregious than others, such as the infamous 1988 "Willie Horton" ad, or Jesse Helms' 1990 Senate ad, "White hands." In 2000, Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan warned that immigrants are "taking our country away from us," while Newt Gingrich in 2010 objected to putting a mosque next to the World Trade Center site. "Nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington," Gingrich said. "We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor."

Even so, no other candidate in recent history has been as "explicitly exclusionary," Mendelberg said. "Trump-style rhetoric about any minority group is very rare," she said. "Some candidates do make racial appeals but they are much more subtle and implicit."

Mendelberg predicts that Trump is about to "lose big" because he's gone too far, for public figures and voters.

"Americans have a strong norm of racial and ethnic equality when it comes to public speech," she said. "The norm has probably weakened over the past couple of decades with the rise of talk radio and social media. People feel more free now to make explicit derogatory comments. But the norm still holds for public figures. Trump is weakening that norm, but now that he has gone so far, even right-wing Republican leaders are excoriating him."

Yet so far, Trump has held fast to a dedicated group of supporters. After months of pushing the envelope further and further -- with inflammatory comments about Mexicans, the spread of misinformation about crime and African-Americans, and his stance on Muslims coming to America -- he has remained the lead Republican presidential candidate.

Haney-López suggests that Trump's appeal is holding because he hasn't quite veered into the realm of outright racism. Coded language, he said, "is helping the people who are responding positively to Trump's message to believe they are fundamentally good people, that they are not racist -- that there's a real crisis that Trump's articulating," he said. Trump supporters, he continued, are by and large "good, decent people who are dead set against racism -- but they understand racism very narrowly."

In an interview with Boston radio station WRKO on Wednesday, Trump argued that his anti-Muslim policy proposal isn't bigoted.

"This isn't about religion," he said. "This is about safety... These are people coming from outside. We are at a point in this country where we just can't afford to make mistakes. You will have a lot of problems in the future. We just can't have it. This has nothing to do with religion."



"Trump's words are more explicitly bigoted than those of any leading American presidential candidate in recent memory. I cannot think of anything like it from an American political leader in the last 50 years," Princeton Professor Tali Mendelberg, author of "The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality," told CBS News. …. That depends on whether Trump is considered part of a larger trend of demagoguery that dates back to the Civil Rights era, or whether he's dubbed an outlier, argues Ian Haney-López, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of "Dog Whistle Politics." …. "Once you say, this is race baiting, this has been going on for too long... these are the sort of soul-searching questions one will hope Donald Trump will help the whole country to confront," Haney-López said. "This depends on seeing Trump as symptomatic of American politics rather than exceptional." …. 1964 was the last year a Democratic candidate for president won the majority of the white vote in America. Goldwater and GOP candidates thereafter put forward platforms of forced busing, law and order, and states' rights -- suggesting they could insulate white voters from minorities. …. "Even with the statements as a DA, 'I'm going to be tough on crime,' there are people who take that and have taken it for years --because it has meant for year -- I'm going to be tougher on African Americans, depending upon the context, depending upon what else is being said in an election," Lynch said. …. "Americans have a strong norm of racial and ethnic equality when it comes to public speech," she said. "The norm has probably weakened over the past couple of decades with the rise of talk radio and social media. People feel more free now to make explicit derogatory comments. …. Coded language, he said, "is helping the people who are responding positively to Trump's message to believe they are fundamentally good people, that they are not racist -- that there's a real crisis that Trump's articulating," he said. Trump supporters, he continued, are by and large "good, decent people who are dead set against racism -- but they understand racism very narrowly." ….


“This has nothing to do with religion." Yes, Mr. Trump. If a veritable flood of faceless immigrants is forcing their way into Western nations and bringing terrorists with them, we need to be on guard. We do not, however, need to base it on their religion as we exclude the terrorists, but on their demonstrable ties with criminals and political radicals.

ISIS is a political movement, not a religious one. We need to do a tedious and difficult kind of examination of their backgrounds before allowing them to take up residence here. Stopping the Visa Waiver Program might be one step in the right direction. We do not actually have the same problem that some of the European nations do because the oceans that surround us are practical barriers against that.

As for the fear of terrorists crossing the Rio Grande, there is a February 2015 article from the Washington Post verifying that there have been such instances, however most of the problems at the border have been with Latin American immigrants and drug cartels. That article says that to “fully secure” that extremely porous border, it would require “the constant presence of an incredible number of troops — as many as 76,000, the report found. This summer, the surge sent about 1,000 National Guard soldiers to the border.”

Read the whole article at “https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/02/26/texas-officials-warn-of-immigrants-with-terrorist-ties-crossing-southern-border/”. I acknowledge that there is a problem, but we don’t need to perform a “knee-jerk” action like banning all Muslims whatever their beliefs and backgrounds. In a time like this we need to preserve democracy as well as meet our security needs, so how we choose to do that is very important.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cop21-climate-change-conference-final-draft-historic-plan/

Climate change conference releases final draft of deal
By PAMELA FALK CBS NEWS
December 12, 2015

Photograph -- From left to right, French President Francois Hollande, Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, president-designate of the World Climate Change Conference 2015, or COP21, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, applaud during a plenary session at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, Dec. 12, 2015. REUTERS/STEPHANE MAHE

LE BOURGET, France -- French leaders presented the final draft of a historic plan to slow global warming Saturday. The takeaway was a shift from dependence on fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, with the hope of averting dangerous climate effects.

After the final overnight negotiating session, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, as president of the conference, presented delegates with the final draft (PDF). The product: a plan to slow global warming that came out of the Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP21.

"Nobody will get 100 percent of what they want," Fabius said. "What I hope is that everyone remembers the message of the first day, when 150 heads of state and government came from all around the world to say, 'The world needs a success.'"

There was little doubt that high-level arm-twisting made the draft happen, most notably a Thursday call by President Obama to China's President Xi Jinping, which followed earlier calls to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Janos Pasztor, the U.N. assistant secretary-general on climate change, told CBS News that the message of the plan is to "send a strong signal to the markets, the private sector that this is the direction we are going, to a low-carbon, low-emissions world, so investing in new technology is the way to go."

"What it means is, for example," Pasztor said, "is get your act together, oil and gas industry, and develop these carbon capture storage systems."

"What we want is zero emissions at some point in the future; from a climate point of view, it is perfectly OK to continue oil and gas for some time to come," Pasztor said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that 186 countries, representing close to 100 percent of global carbon emissions, had submitted their national climate plans, called the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

"This is quite encouraging," he said, adding that municipal and business leaders as well as civil society organizations were also at the conference to play a role.

An agreement would be judged, delegates and U.N. officials say, on its ability to send a message to the markets if investors shift from fossil fuels and put it into low or zero-carbon energy sources.

"I have absolute confidence in the ability of capital to move where the signal of the marketplace says 'go' after Paris," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said to the "Earth to Paris" summit earlier in the week.

Not everyone is thrilled with the final compromise result; during the negotiations some scientists said that the final draft was too weak and that sections were deleted in the intense, often politically motivated negotiations, leading to an agreement that will not avert the dangerous warming of the world. Others believed it will restrict the U.S. and other developed countries too much.

What can Paris climate conference hope to achieve?

Included in the draft is a temperature goal to keep warming to a limit, but that, along with who would pay for damages brought on by global warming and what countries would contribute to the $100 billion to be raised, were the contentious issues, resulting in the negotiations dragging into an extra day.

The draft agreement mandates that nations manage the rise in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C (1.7 degrees F), in order to reduce risks and impacts of climate change.

Another goal was to save the world's forests.

How to submit mandatory reports on reducing carbon emissions proved difficult. India wanted a voluntary measure. Locking horns with the U.S. and European Union countries, the China delegation wanted "differentiation," what their Deputy Chief Liu Zhenmin said meant that rich countries, which does not include China or India, would make deeper emissions cuts and pay more into the fund.

The deal would set $100 billion to be given from rich countries to poor countries to adapt to climate change. It was structured in a way so that countries that reduce the use of fossil fuel don't make the cuts while other countries benefit, which was the fear of several American lawmakers.

By making the reporting of the emissions reductions targets legally binding, even if the agreement is not, the U.S. delegation argued that the world will be able to see, for the first time, what each country is doing, or not doing, to keep their word. To encourage negotiators, at the conference, Kerry also announced the doubling of the money the U.S. provides for climate adaptation to $860 million.

World leaders move closer to climate deal, despite differences

The message to industry to develop new technology for clean energy was abundant at the Le Bourget conference center outside of Paris, where the negotiations took place.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which focuses on the development and distribution of new climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs), showcased a report which used data on patent applications, trade in these technologies and governments' foreign direct investment to look at the rise of alternative technology in Europe.

The report concluded that climate change policies, including taxes on polluting emissions and feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, have risen dramatically. The United Nations Climate Change Secretariat briefing book for delegates said, "Alongside energy efficiency, and other non-fossil fuel sources, carbon dioxide capture, use, and storage (CCUS) is another element to a low emissions future."

At the conference, a public-private coalition was announced that would increase spending on clean energy research and development in order to increase wind and solar power.

"It will be a big step forward for all of humanity," Fabius said Friday.

"The agreement is a mechanism for how countries will behave - the new rules of the game," Pasztor told CBS News. "Whatever they commit to is not legally binding but they have to report ... It is not name and shame, it is name and encourage."



“There was little doubt that high-level arm-twisting made the draft happen, most notably a Thursday call by President Obama to China's President Xi Jinping, which followed earlier calls to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. …. The deal would set $100 billion to be given from rich countries to poor countries to adapt to climate change. It was structured in a way so that countries that reduce the use of fossil fuel don't make the cuts while other countries benefit, which was the fear of several American lawmakers. …. To encourage negotiators, at the conference, Kerry also announced the doubling of the money the U.S. provides for climate adaptation to $860 million. …. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which focuses on the development and distribution of new climate change mitigation technologies (CCMTs), showcased a report which used data on patent applications, trade in these technologies and governments' foreign direct investment to look at the rise of alternative technology in Europe. …. The report concluded that climate change policies, including taxes on polluting emissions and feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, have risen dramatically. …. a public-private coalition was announced that would increase spending on clean energy research and development in order to increase wind and solar power.”


“Janos Pasztor, the U.N. assistant secretary-general on climate change, told CBS News that the message of the plan is to "send a strong signal to the markets, the private sector that this is the direction we are going, to a low-carbon, low-emissions world, so investing in new technology is the way to go." This story has been in the news for several days now, so much of it is repetitious, but it does include more information about scientific and technical issues than other articles I’ve seen.

The world’s nations, of course, still have to make individual commitments to the plan. In other words, Congress will have to vote the money to be used in this way. Human nature being what it is, that won’t be easy is my guess, because many of the Tea Partiers, for instance, are so irrational and stubborn that winning the war of words is their main goal. I’m sure it’s the same in other countries. Still, the number of nations expressing interest in this Paris conference is encouraging.

See the articles below about the science of stopping global warming, which is more advanced already than you might think, and if governments would put subsidies into pertinent new technologies for clean energy production – rather than into the Koch brothers’ operations et al. -- we would be in a much better position for saving the world as we know it.

These articles don’t mention the cycle between plant photosynthesis and the atmosphere. Plants “breathe” CO2 and eliminate their waste as oxygen, while animals breathe oxygen. SAVING OUR FORESTS WORLDWIDE will make a great difference in the amount of CO2 that is in the atmosphere, and will keep pumping our necessary oxygen into the system as well. That’s why stopping the worldwide deforestation by ignorant and greedy business interests for lumber and agriculture will be a necessary tool to keep our planet habitable.

There was also an interesting news article last week about inserting sulfur particles into the atmosphere to block the sun’s rays somewhat as a means of slowing the heating of the atmosphere. That is yet to be developed fully, but is being tested. I have clipped a short clip from each article below which give long discussions on the technologies that might help the situation we find ourselves in these days.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy --

“Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat.[2] Renewable energy replaces conventional fuels in four distinct areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, motor fuels, and rural (off-grid) energy services.[3]”

This article is fascinating in that it gives ten or more different methods of producing energy that in many cases are already in use. It includes ocean waves and tides, geothermal, etc.


carbon capture storage systems – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_capture_and_storage

“Carbon capture and storage (CCS) (or carbon capture and sequestration) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation. . . . .

Other examples include SaskPower's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power's Kemper Project. 'CCS' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of CO2 from ambient air as a climate engineering technique.

Storage of the CO2 is envisaged either in deep geological formations, or in the form of mineral carbonates. Deep ocean storage is no longer considered feasible because it greatly increases the problem of ocean acidification.[6] Geological formations are currently considered the most promising sequestration sites. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) reported that North America has enough storage capacity for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates.[7] A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain, and there is still the risk that CO2 might leak into the atmosphere.[8]”



http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/12/459473353/things-have-changed-says-judge-in-case-over-men-only-military-draft

'Things Have Changed,' U.S. Judge Says Of Case Over Men-Only Military Draft
Bill Chappell
Updated December 12, 2015

Photograph -- A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an all-male military draft could be revived, after the Pentagon changed its policy on women in combat. Here, soldiers attend a ceremony in Arlington, Va., earlier this year.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
YouTube -- Here's how KPCC summarized last week's hearing


One week after Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced women in the U.S. military can serve in any combat role, a federal appeals court is considering a lawsuit from a men's group that says a male-only draft is unconstitutional.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California will now decide "whether to dismiss the case or send it to a lower court for trial," member station KPCC reports.

At issue is the "ripeness" of the case — whether conditions are right for a federal court to rule on the government's policies, or whether the rules are still in a state of flux. Those are the grounds on which a district court disallowed the lawsuit from the National Coalition For Men in 2013.

"The question is, is it ripe now," said Judge Ronald M. Gould, "in light of what the Department of Defense has said so clearly."

After asking the plaintiffs' attorney whether they're arguing that the case should be sent back to district court to determine the merits of the case, Gould added, "As far as I'm concerned, just speaking as one judge, that's probably what we should do."

Here's how KPCC summarized last week's hearing:

" 'Things have changed,' Judge Marsha Berzon said at one point during Tuesday's proceedings. 'Right now the position is that all combat jobs are open to women, no?'

"Attorneys for the federal government said the case should still be thrown out arguing, in part, that because the named plaintiff, James Lesmeister, has registered for the draft, the point is moot.

" 'There is no assertion in the complaint of any injury whatsoever,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Sonia McNeil said.

Berzon pushed back, saying: 'but they do have an assertion of an injury, i.e. "We have to register. If I were a woman, I wouldn't have to register." ' "

When he announced the Pentagon's policy change, Carter was asked whether the shift would mean that women should now begin registering for the draft with the U.S. Selective Service Systems.

"That is a matter of legal dispute right now," Carter said.

The case represents a new chapter in arguments over gender and the draft. After President Jimmy Carter revived the registration process in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Rostker v. Goldberg case a year later that Congress could legally require men, but not women, to register for the draft. That decision reversed a district court's ruling for the plaintiffs.

The majority opinion in the Supreme Court ruling includes this reasoning: "In light of the combat restrictions, women did not have the same opportunities for promotion as men, and therefore it was not unconstitutional for Congress to distinguish between them."

Dissenting in that case, Justice Thurgood Marshall was joined by Justice William J. Brennan in saying that the U.S. policy "categorically excludes women from a fundamental civic obligation."



“At issue is the "ripeness" of the case — whether conditions are right for a federal court to rule on the government's policies, or whether the rules are still in a state of flux.” Feminists have long been in favor of a draft for women as well as for men, and have argued that the state of Israel, for instance has a draft for women.

The deciding issue to me would be the presence of children who would need a caretaker, and the potentiality of pregnancy. A birth control device like the IUD could be required during their period in the military, or a mandatory alternative national service of some other kind such as Peace Corps or locally based community service like Vista or Americorps. Those were the arguments on the issue back in the good old 1970’s, and it seems to me that they still make sense. An alternative service also could be allowed for religiously based releases from military service such as a vow of pacifism even in a case of self-defense or the defense of another. I personally could never take such a vow, and I frankly think that the number of people who would just like down and die rather than striking back are few indeed.

All this is leading up to a question of whether or not we as a nation will be back in the situation of needing a draft due ISIS or another threat. I certainly hope not, but I wouldn’t want the US to do nothing to help ourselves or our allies if that situation were to come up again. That isn’t virtuous. It’s foolish, in my opinion.





http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/12/11/459209383/why-brazil-doesnt-want-women-in-the-northeast-to-become-pregnant

Why Brazil Doesn't Want Women In The Northeast To Become Pregnant
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro
Updated December 11, 2015

Photograph -- Health inspectors collect samples of mosquito larvae from standing water in a garden in a middle-class neighborhood in the north of Rio de Janeiro. They are searching for places where the Aedes aegypti mosquito breeds — that's the one that carries Zika virus. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro/NPR
Related article -- GOATS AND SODA, Zika Virus 101: One More Mosquito-Borne Disease To Worry About
Photograph -- Pilar Goncalves, 22, with her husband, was told she had Zika virus, which health authorities suspect may be linked to a rare birth defect. After a blood test, she was "desperately relieved" to be given the all-clear. Courtesy of Pilar Goncalves


Brazil's Ministry of Health made an unprecedented announcement this month: It told women in the northeast of the country not to get pregnant for the foreseeable future.

And it's all because of a mosquito — the Aedes aegypti species, which can spread a variety of diseases, including Zika virus. Health experts in Brazil are concerned that the virus, whose symptoms are typically a low-grade fever and bright red rash, might be having a devastating impact on newborns.

In the past few months, doctors have been seeing a rise in microcephaly, a rare neurological disorder that results in infants having small heads and underdeveloped brains, causing severe developmental issues. Children born with this illness are likelier to die young and require constant care.

On Oct. 20 Dr. Kleber Luz, an infection specialist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in the city of Natal, got a call from a colleague in another northern city with a question: How many cases of microcephaly had been diagnosed recently?

"Normally in a year you'd have maybe three or four cases," he says by phone from his home city of Natal in Brazil's north. "In 24 hours when we asked around, there had been 11 in the city. And that was a shocking enough number that we realized something very serious was happening."

Luz and his team asked around and discovered that most of the mothers diagnosed with microcephalic fetuses had something in common: They had Zika virus early in their pregnancy.

Zika virus was first discovered in the 1940s in Uganda and named after a forest there.

It's not clear when Zika arrived in Brazil, though some doctors speculate it could have come with African visitors during the World Cup.

The Aedes mosquito can spread Zika virus in addition to dengue fever and chikungunya virus. The virus was first spotted in the Americas in 2014.

Initially, it wasn't a concern. Normally, Zika is not a serious infection, unlike malaria and dengue, for example. People are ill for a few days and generally recover.

But after the cases of microcephaly popped up, Luz remembered a paper that had been written in 1971, showing that rats infected with Zika developed a neurological condition.

Brazil's Ministry of Health says there is now a suspected link between Zika and the cases of microcephaly in infants.

"Everyone involved in this is extremely concerned about what could happen," says Luz. "We don't yet understand this illness."

The Health Ministry is now working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an arm of the World Health Organization to figure out what is going on. In the meantime, six states in Brazil have announced a state of emergency. There are 1,761 cases of microcephaly; many more are expected as Brazil's Health Ministry says more than 1 million people could have contracted the virus.

Luz also says women in the northeast should refrain from getting pregnant, echoing the recommendation of the ministry.

In the meantime, the government is sending out teams of health inspectors to try to control the mosquito that spreads the disease.

In a middle-class neighborhood in the north of Rio de Janeiro, health inspectors went door to door this week looking for places where the Aedes aegypti mosquito breeds. They looked into cisterns and empty plant pots, taking water samples.

At one house 36-year-old owner Elisabete de Abreu said her father-in-law has the virus, so she knows this is important.

"It's an enormous concern because of the children," she said.

The Aedes aegypti bloodsucker spreads not only Zika but yellow fever, chikungunya and dengue. It first arrived in Brazil on slave ships coming from Africa; in the mid-20th century it was almost wiped out after a huge outbreak of yellow fever led to a concerted eradication campaign.

But experts say the mosquito came back after those measures were relaxed. These days it's everywhere. Beyond Zika, Brazil is actually suffering a dengue epidemic right now as well, with over 1.5 million cases in the country.

One of the reasons is climate change, according to experts. A harsh drought has been affecting Brazil, so people are storing water on their rooftops. The Aedes aegypti loves to breed in standing water in urban environments. The female needs to feed on blood to mature her eggs, and cities have both a lot of people and places to lay eggs.

But it's not clear why Zika virus could be having this effect on fetuses.

"It's a mystery for everyone. We only just started looking into this a month ago," says Denise Valle, a researcher and entomologist at Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, a leading scientific research center in Rio de Janeiro, who studies the Aedes aegypti.

Dr. Angela Rocha is an infection specialist with the Oswaldo Cruz Hospital in the city of Pernanbuco, where many of the microcephaly cases have been detected.

"I've been an infection specialist for more than 40 years and I've never been through such a period of stress. If we don't get a handle on this, we are going to have a generation of damaged babies," she warns.

It could take years to determine whether the mosquito is to blame. The ban, meanwhile, is a suggestion. But many women are in a state of high alert — and some pregnant women are living in a fog of citronella.

Valdemar Geo contributed to this story.



“Health experts in Brazil are concerned that the virus, whose symptoms are typically a low-grade fever and bright red rash, might be having a devastating impact on newborns. In the past few months, doctors have been seeing a rise in microcephaly, a rare neurological disorder that results in infants having small heads and underdeveloped brains, causing severe developmental issues. Children born with this illness are likelier to die young and require constant care. …. How many cases of microcephaly had been diagnosed recently? "Normally in a year you'd have maybe three or four cases," he says by phone from his home city of Natal in Brazil's north. "In 24 hours when we asked around, there had been 11 in the city. And that was a shocking enough number that we realized something very serious was happening." …. Zika virus was first discovered in the 1940s in Uganda and named after a forest there. It's not clear when Zika arrived in Brazil, though some doctors speculate it could have come with African visitors during the World Cup. The Aedes mosquito can spread Zika virus in addition to dengue fever and chikungunya virus. The virus was first spotted in the Americas in 2014. …. In the meantime, six states in Brazil have announced a state of emergency. There are 1,761 cases of microcephaly; many more are expected as Brazil's Health Ministry says more than 1 million people could have contracted the virus. …. Dr. Angela Rocha is an infection specialist with the Oswaldo Cruz Hospital in the city of Pernanbuco, where many of the microcephaly cases have been detected.”


It really is traumatic that the exact cause of the rise in microcephaly is not known to be the virus, though a 1970 study in rats showed “neurological damage.” Perhaps a vaccine can be developed. Meanwhile people there must be in an agony of suspense waiting for more information while they try not to become pregnant. As any young couple knows, that can be a problem in itself. It’s very easy for most women to wind up in that condition.

The good news is that some clue as to what is causing a virtual epidemic of a very rare and horrible condition does exist, and if mosquitos can be killed the problem may simply stop. My first suggestion would be that the government should issue an absolute ban on storing water in open containers where mosquitoes can lay their eggs. Several articles on the water shortage in Sao Paulo specifically show the problem, though. The following article is a good one on the subject of a half century of “drought and mismanagement.” This is yet another example of what global warming is going to look like.



http://time.com/4054262/drought-brazil-video/

A Megacity Without Water: São Paulo’s Drought
Jon Gerberg @Jongerberg
Oct. 13, 2015

Drought and bad management mean São Paulo is running out of water


The biggest city in the Western hemisphere is facing its greatest water crisis in over 80 years — and climate change is only part of the problem.

Millions of residents in São Paulo, Brazil face daily water shutoffs unless the city manages its water better. It is not only a problem of drought. The city of 20 million is plagued by failing infrastructure across the city, and it has been unable to deliver the water it does have to residents in need. Without major changes to the city’s infrastructure and planning, commentators say the crisis is bound to continue.

The crisis is most acutely felt in the Periferia — the generally poorer districts on the outskirts of the city. These oft-neglected neighborhoods, many of which sit at higher altitudes in the hills around the city, require more water pressure to reach their tanks. And even on days when it is raining outside, the pipes in the Periferia are often dry.

On top of it all, São Paulo has now suffered two of the driest seasons on record, back-to-back.

The Cantareira reservoirs, which supply water to over 9 million residents, were operating at 12% capacity in October. The water level has fallen so low that large parts of the surface of the reservoirs are dried mud.

“This is what we would call a real emergency,” said Paulo Dallari, deputy secretary for the São Paulo mayor’s office. “The reservoirs are much lower than they used to be. It is raining much lower than the average. So we might have some difficult situations in the near future.”

Dallari is now working to expand the emergency water reserves around São Paulo – especially in facilities like hospitals and schools, which he points out are particularly vulnerable in situations of extreme water shortage.

Some neighborhoods and surrounding towns have fared worse than others. The outlying city of Itu saw massive protests last year – sometimes turning violent – when the city tried to cut them off from the water network entirely.

Many São Paulo residents have had daily 12-hour water cutoffs over the last year. But Dallari points out that while wealthier residents have been able to build water tanks and purchase water from private sources, the poorest residents can’t do that.

Residents of the indigenous Gaurani community, who live in the Periferia town of Itakupe, complained that the little amount of water that flows to them is a milky, white color.

“When there was no water the children went thirsty,” says Sonia Aramirim, a Gaurani teacher from Itakupe. “Many of them would get dehydrated. Some women had urinary problems from not drinking enough water.”

In the south of the city lies the Billings reservoir, which holds 20% more water than the Cantareira. Environmentalists point out that this could be a better source of water for the city, but it is polluted. Over one million people now live by its banks, but there is no proper sewage system so waste flows into the reservoir.

“There are two extremes: on one side a rural reservoir that has a serious deforestation problem, on the other side an urban reservoir that has a pollution problem,” says Marussia Whately, coordinator of Aliança pela Água, an alliance of 30 NGO’s brought together to devise and propose solutions to the city’s crisis.

Whately has spent years advocating for alternative approaches to the city’s water use. Like many other environmentalists, she points out that climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme weather events like droughts, so the city is likely to face even greater catastrophes in the future.

“Either we change, or São Paulo will continue to face these kinds of problems for years to come,” she says.

The crisis facing São Paulo today might seem an unlikely one for this proud city in a nation that has been referred to as “the Saudi Arabia of water.” Brazil accounts for 12-16% of the world’s freshwater, more than any other country on the planet.

But much of this water is contained in the Amazon river and rainforests in the north. And without the proper infrastructure, the city is left unable even to harness the water sources right under its feet.

“There is a lot of water out there that could be used, spread through various points in the city of São Paulo,” said Adriano Sampaio, a local activist. “All we need is a little bit of goodwill and a new policy to recuperate these resources.”

Sampaio’s facebook page, titled Existe água em SP (“There is water in São Paulo”) has received over 8,000 likes. He has begun mapping the vast network of rivers and natural springs that already exist in São Paulo, buried deep under roads, buildings, pipes and infrastructure. He hopes to encourage other paulistanos to learn to take advantage of the natural resources already available, rather than polluting and neglecting them, and importing supplies from elsewhere.

Others have found a silver lining in the shortage. “Water is life,” said Vinicius Pereira. “It’s time for us to realize that we have to keep it, and to treat it as the most valuable thing we have.”

Pereira is a local jazz bassist who started a group called Movimento Cisternas Já (“Cisterns Movement Now”). The group works to install rainwater cisterns in private homes – particularly in low-income communities – that collect rainwater to be used for cleaning and flushing toilets. So far he says he has installed 36 cisterns around the city; and over 200 people have attended his workshops on cistern installation.

While only a drop in the bucket, Pereira’s work could already have accounted for 15,000 liters of water saved. And he encourages all paulistanos to do their part.

“I believe this is not a crisis,” he said. “I believe this is an opportunity.”




Pereira, a musician, is now leading a movement around a simple idea which won't totally solve the water problem, but will make a real difference. In the capital city of Petra in Nabatea, a part of Jordan which has an extraordinary system or cisterns, a fresh water spring. The water is provided by clay water pipes moving water from a spring and "hundreds of underground water cisterns." That city is amazing because it is literally carved out of the rock and has been there since 300 BCE, when the Romans took over and set up trade routes. It was unknown to Westerners until 1812 when a Swiss explorer found it. I have mentioned it because it is an example of a real solution to an increasingly difficult water problem. If this is going to be the situation of the future due to global warming, we had better be looking at such things from the past.