April 21, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/queen-elizabeth-ii-britain-honors-monarch-90th-birthday/

As the queen hits 90, we hear about the 2 sides of "Lilibeth"
CBS NEWS
April 21, 2016, 10:46 AM

Photograph -- gettyimages-522595044.jpg, This official photograph, released by Buckingham Palace to mark her 90th birthday, shows Queen Elizabeth II with her five great-grandchildren and her two youngest grandchildren in the Green Drawing Room, part of Windsor Castle's semi-State apartments. ©2016 ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
Play VIDEO -- Elizabeth II becomes Britain's longest-reigning monarch


WINDSOR, England-- Britain wished Queen Elizabeth II a happy birthday on Thursday with music, ceremony and personal greetings.

As CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports, if any proof were needed that queens are different from you and me -- it's in their birthdays; queens get two of them. There's the real one, which for Queen Elizabeth II is Thursday. Then there's an official one, with full state trappings, in June.

But even for queens, it's the date on which one was born that counts.

A choir sang "Return to Sender" as the queen began her birthday celebrations Wednesday with a visit to a post office west of London.

Elvis may be the king of rock'n'roll, but Phillips says the British monarchy most certainly hasn't left the building, and new stamps issued for the queen's 90th indicate it'll be around for a while yet. A new family portrait shows the queen, and three kings in waiting.

According to the second-in-line, her grandson Prince William, Queen Elizabeth has been the best possible teacher.

"I think the queen's duty and her service, her tolerance, her commitment to others -- I think that's all been incredibly important to me and it's been a real guiding example of just what a good monarch could be," William said.

She's a 90-year-old monarch who's been on the throne for 64 years. Maybe that's why the next choir sang "When I'm Sixty-Four."

This queen has witnessed so many milestones over her long life, a collection of 90 photographs taken over 90 years has been pulled together in celebration.

But this is a private milestone too, and the latest photo of the queen with her youngest grandchildren and her great-grandchildren may be the most personal, with 11-month-old Princess Charlotte in her arms, and William and Kate's other child, Prince George, in short pants just beside her.

People who know her say there are two queens; the public, dutiful one, and the private one -- a country girl at heart, where she can be herself.

No one knows that better than her cousin Margaret Rhodes, who's known the queen since childhood and who still enjoys a private friendship with her.

"I call her by her childish name. She's Lilibeth," Rhodes said.

"Does she still respond to Lilibeth?" Phillips asked.

"Oh, yes," Rhodes said.

Lilibeth -- even at 90 -- is showing few signs of slowing down. Other members of her family now fill in at some official engagements, but she still does plenty of them herself. Being there is what the job is all about.

"Wev'e had prime ministers by the dozen, but we have the queen who is always there, you know? And I think that gives people a sense of safety somehow, almost, you know," Rhodes said. "I think that she herself... does all the things that she's proud to do like putting on a crown and opening Parliament and things like that, but at the same time she likes to take her dogs for a walk, talks to the ponies, and pull out weeds she sees. She's a mixture."



http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Elizabeth-Intimate-Portrait/dp/1250022843

The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II Paperback – January 29, 2013
Andrew Marr (Author)
Kindle $9.98, Paperback $15.08


A surprising and very personal biography of a woman who may be the world's last great queen, published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of her reign

Elizabeth II, one of England's longest-reigning monarchs, is an enigma. In public, she confines herself to optimistic pieties and guarded smiles; in private, she is wry, funny, and an excellent mimic. Now, for the first time, one of Britain's leading journalists and historians gets behind the mask and tells us the fascinating story of the real Elizabeth.

Born shortly before the Depression, Elizabeth grew up during World War II and became queen because of the shocking abdication of her uncle and the early death of her father. Only twenty-five when she ascended to the throne, she has been at the apex of the British state for nearly six decades. She has entertained and known numerous world leaders, including every U.S. president since Harry Truman. Brought up to regard family values as sacred, she has seen all but one of her children divorce; her heir, Prince Charles, conduct an adulterous affair before Princess Diana's death; and a steady stream of family secrets poured into the open. Yet she has never failed to carry out her duties, and she has never said a word about any of the troubles she has endured.

Andrew Marr, who enjoys extraordinary access to senior figures at Buckingham Palace, has written a revealing and essential book about a woman who has managed to remain private to the point of mystery throughout her reign.


“I think the queen's duty and her service, her tolerance, her commitment to others -- I think that's all been incredibly important to me and it's been a real guiding example of just what a good monarch could be," William said. …. She's a 90-year-old monarch who's been on the throne for 64 years. Maybe that's why the next choir sang "When I'm Sixty-Four." My, what a time period I’ve lived through – definitely “interesting.” Though she was in the background of the US news most of the time, this particular queen was always important to me. I was in the second grade when my school closed on the day of her coronation, so we kids could watch it on TV. I still remember scenes from it, and how she looked, handsome and regal with a touch of humility. She is a warm human while still being royal. The recent biography by Andrew Marr, see above, is a wonderful book. I read it last year and then sent QEII a letter about my trip to England and the sites we visited. She had her secretary to write me back, including a comment from the lady herself. That letter is in my folder of important papers, and I read it again occasionally.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-shows-deeply-disturbing-scene-in-classroom/

Video shows "deeply disturbing" scene in classroom
Crimesider CBS NEWS
April 21, 2016, 7:37 AM

Play – CBS News video


MILWAUKEE --A teacher's aide at Bay View High School has been arrested following an incident captured on video in a classroom Wednesday morning, reports CBS Milwaukee affiliate WDJT-TV.

The video, captured by a student in the 9th grade biology class, shows the 39-year-old staff member pushing a 14-year-old onto a desk, then holding him by his neck and pushing him to the floor.

Police say the staff member was arrested for alleged physical abuse of a child.

In a statement, the Milwaukee Public School District said, "MPS finds this incident deeply disturbing. As soon as the school administration was notified of the incident, the Milwaukee Police Department was contacted and the staff member was removed from the classroom. We are cooperating with MPD. This staff member - who is a paraprofessional (teacher aide) - faces disciplinary action, including termination."

WDJT spoke with a 14-year-old who was inside the classroom when it happened.

"[The student] was talking stuff and then the teacher came, slammed him on the chair, and started choking him, saying, 'You don't know who you're [expletive] messing with,"' the teen said.

Parents were surprised by what the video showed.

"That was really scary watching the video," said Willie O'dell Jones. "I've never seen anything like that."

"There's no need for actions like that. It's just too much," said James Sinkey.

Students say the teacher and 14-year-old have been arguing back and forth for quite some time.

The video doesn't show the moments leading up to the altercation, but classmates say the student was being "disrespectful" to the teacher's aide.

"This teacher's just bogus," said one student. "But then again, the kid shouldn't have been talking stuff."

The student was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries, police said.

When investigation is complete, the case will be presented to the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office.



“WDJT spoke with a 14-year-old who was inside the classroom when it happened. "[The student] was talking stuff and then the teacher came, slammed him on the chair, and started choking him, saying, 'You don't know who you're [expletive] messing with,"' the teen said. …. The video doesn't show the moments leading up to the altercation, but classmates say the student was being "disrespectful" to the teacher's aide. "This teacher's just bogus," said one student. "But then again, the kid shouldn't have been talking stuff."


“The video, captured by a student in the 9th grade biology class, shows the 39-year-old staff member pushing a 14-year-old onto a desk, then holding him by his neck and pushing him to the floor.” Whoever you are and wherever you are, remember that most kids and adults nowadays are carrying a smart phone which will record a video. Not me, though. If you act up in front of me, you’ll be okay.

All the witnesses backed up the story that the 14 year old was “talking stuff,” and “shouldn’t have been.” Personally I think we as a (timid) society have lost control of situations which should be orderly and efficient – kids like that one severely disrupt the class, aren’t learning or even trying to, and are probably breaking some law or other. Still, in the “old days” when I was in school, very few students did things like that, and if they did they were “sent to the principal’s office” potentially to receive “a paddling.” There was also the threat of “reform school.” No cops were called and 99.9% of the time, no teacher committed violence. Both teacher and student in this incident are black.

Too many parents do not bring their kids up to be “good citizens,” of course, and then they sue the school board if the slightest “disrespect” is shown their student, or as they often say, their “baby.” A fourteen year-old is old enough to sire a child – not a baby. In the case of the Affluenza Defense, the mother actually drove her kid into Mexico where the authorities picked them both up so he wouldn’t have to spend any time in jail. These violent events are indeed an unacceptable loss of control by the teacher, but they aren’t necessarily racial in nature. They’re an emotional reaction to harassment. Such teachers have not been trained well enough, however, and should be dismissed, or suspended without pay. That video shows some serious violence. The kid shouldn’t have been taunting that teacher, for more reasons than just one. He was muscular and outweighed the boy by at least a hundred pounds, it appears to me. Do watch the video.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/14/tennessee-governor-vetoes-bill-making-bible-the-official-state-book/

Tennessee governor vetoes bill making Bible the official state book
By Elahe Izadi
April 14, 2016

Photograph -- Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam in Nashville on April 12, 2016. (Samuel M. Simpkins /The Tennessean via AP)
Related: Symbols of Tennessee, by law: salamanders, tomatoes, a sniper gun and…the Bible?
Related: Thomas Jefferson and the fascinating history of Founding Fathers defending Muslim rights
Video: Washington Post -- In April 2015, Republican Tennessee state legislator Jerry Sexton
Photograph -- Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, speaks in favor of his bill to make the Holy Bible the official book of Tennessee on Monday, April 4, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. (Mark Humphrey/AP)


Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the state’s official book.

“In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,” Haslam (R) wrote in a letter to the speaker of the statehouse.

“If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance,” continued Haslam. “If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”

The controversial measure made it through the state senate earlier this month after it died in that chamber during last year’s legislative session.

In April 2015, Republican Tennessee state legislator Jerry Sexton introduced a bill in the House to make the Bible the official state book. At the time, the former pastor told the house chamber doing so would recognize the Bible for "its value and worth." (Tennessee General Assembly)

Lawmakers can still override Haslam’s veto by a simple majority, according to the Tennessean.

Backers of the measure have emphasized the historical, religious and economic importance of the Bible for the state; the bill asserts “printing the Bible is a multimillion dollar industry for the state with many top Bible publishers headquartered in Nashville.”

Earlier this month, the bill’s sponsor — Republican Sen. Steve Southerland, an ordained minister — responded to questions on whether he considered the Bible a historical or religious book.

“It’s about a lot of different things,” Southerland said, according to the Associated Press. “But what we’re doing here is recognizing it for its historical and cultural contribution to the state of Tennessee.”


Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, speaks in favor of his bill to make the Holy Bible the official book of Tennessee on Monday, April 4, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. (Mark Humphrey/AP)

Haslam and State Attorney General Herbert Slatery had previously expressed reservations about the constitutionality of declaring the Bible as the state’s official book.

Some opponents also argued that the measure was tantamount to endorsing Christianity over other religions.

“Lawmakers’ thinly veiled effort to promote one religion over other religions clearly violates both the United States and Tennessee Constitutions, as our state attorney general has already pointed out,” ACLU-Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg said after the bill passed the Senate.

On Thursday, Haslam explained he “strongly” disagrees “with those who are trying to drive religion out of the public square.”

“Men and women motivated by faith have every right and obligation to bring their belief and commitment to the public debate,” Haslam wrote. “However, that is very different from the governmental establishment of religion that our founders warned against and our Constitution prohibits.”

Tennessee would have been the first state to have the Bible as its official state book, had the measure been signed into law, the Tennessean reported.


“Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the state’s official book. …. Lawmakers’ thinly veiled effort to promote one religion over other religions clearly violates both the United States and Tennessee Constitutions, as our state attorney general has already pointed out,” ACLU-Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg said after the bill passed the Senate. …. [Symbols of Tennessee, by law: salamanders, tomatoes, a sniper gun and…the Bible?] …. Lawmakers can still override Haslam’s veto by a simple majority, according to the Tennessean. Backers of the measure have emphasized the historical, religious and economic importance of the Bible for the state; the bill asserts “printing the Bible is a multimillion dollar industry for the state with many top Bible publishers headquartered in Nashville.” …. “Men and women motivated by faith have every right and obligation to bring their belief and commitment to the public debate,” Haslam wrote. “However, that is very different from the governmental establishment of religion that our founders warned against and our Constitution prohibits.”


In the last month or two there have been three or four or more Republicans publically standing up against some of the most unAmerican Right wing efforts from Tea Partiers, etc., both in federal and state fora. I am not only relieved to see this, I am proud of them for being full human beings and thinking citizens as well as politicians. John Kasich is one of those. I won’t vote for a Republican, but he wouldn’t frighten or disgust me as President. He’s smart, and seems honest from all I’ve heard and seen of him.



http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/04/21/473997323/racial-awakening-pride-and-fear-one-latino-perspective-on-the-obama-effect

Racial Awakening, Pride And Fear: One Latino Perspective On "The Obama Effect"
ADRIAN FLORIDO
April 21, 20169:37 AM ET

Photograph -- Pablo Ramirez, left, with his family in Los Angeles. Since moving to San Francisco for college, Pablo has become less tolerant when he notices racial slights directed against his family. Adrian Florido/NPR, Photograph -- Ramirez, center, at a protest at San Francisco State University. Students were demanding more funding for Ethnic Studies, a field Ramirez says helped him better understand his Latino identity.
Adrian Florido/NPR
Photograph -- A portrait hangs in the Ramirez family living room in Los Angeles. Pablo Ramirez, center, with his parents Maria and Daniel, and his siblings, Ramon and Daniela.
Adrian Florido/NPR
Photograph -- Ramirez gets feedback after presenting in a communications class. He delivers speeches about the struggles of being bilingual and bicultural in the United States. Adrian Florido/NPR


This story is part of an occasional Code Switch series we're calling "The Obama Effect." The series explores how conversations about race and identity have evolved over the course of the Obama presidency. You can read more about the series here.

Earlier this spring I met Pablo Ramirez, a Mexican-American, first-generation college student at San Francisco State University. I had gone to the campus on a day when hundreds of students, including Ramirez, were rallying to increase funding for the school's College of Ethnic Studies.

That college focuses on the histories and contributions of people of color in the U.S., and it was among several that administrators had said would have to get by with less money. But students were having none of it. At a time that anti-minority sentiment seems to be pervading so much of the nation's political discourse, they argued that having a robust ethnic studies department was more important than ever.

A racial awakening

Pablo told me that for him, ethnic studies is about rejecting the notion that to be truly American, you have to be white. It's an idea that he believes too many Americans still embrace.

One of the first classes Pablo took at San Francisco State was an ethnic studies course, in which he learned about Mexican-American protest movements and other civil rights struggles. "And it really was the spark that lit the flame to just understand my history as a Latino male," Pablo says. "It wasn't until really college that I was able to identify my race."

Before college, Pablo mostly thought of race in terms of blackness and whiteness. But after he began his studies, he was suddenly noticing race in his own life, particularly when he would go home to Los Angeles to visit his parents. They're both Mexican immigrants who are now U.S. citizens.

"I started noticing that my mother would be called wetback," he says, "that people would say, 'Oh, she's an idiot because she doesn't know English.'" But when he'd try to point these slights out to his parents, he says they'd brush him off because they're uncomfortable talking about race and racism. But Pablo says he won't be silent: "I'm not here to play nice to these ignorant people; I'm here to defend myself and my family and my heritage."

Scared in his own country

That he even has to defend his family's heritage makes Pablo angry. He was born in Los Angeles, and his parents are U.S. citizens. They came to the U.S. from the border town of Mexicali in the early 1980s. After living in the country illegally for a few years, they gained amnesty through a bill signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.

Through it all, Ramirez says, his parents worked hard to provide for the family, instilling in him the ethic that drove him to pursue a college education. "My father calls it the American Dream," Ramirez says, "though I wonder how much of a dream it really is, when they still live in poverty and have racist slurs used against them."

When I ask Ramirez if I can meet his family, he invites me to come along when he goes home for spring break a few days after the campus protest. I meet him at the Greyhound bus station in downtown San Francisco as he waits for his overnight bus to Los Angeles. In his bag, he has three forms of identification: his school I.D., his driver's license, and his U.S. passport.

Ramirez says his parents urge him to carry all three anytime he travels, "because if you just look at me, I'm just a Latino male. I may or may not be undocumented. And my parents and I are afraid that they'll just profile me and whisk me off. Because of the political climate, I'm scared."

Becoming American

The Ramirez family owns a small stucco house in South Los Angeles. A few chickens cluck in the backyard, though the city recently asked Ramirez's father, Daniel, to get rid of them. He plans to comply, though it's another small reminder that he doesn't fully belong.

"I only planned to come for a year or two, maybe buy a truck, and then go back to Mexico," Daniel tells me. That was more than 30 years ago. "And here I am."

As so often happens to immigrants who come to the United States with similar expectations, life changed the plan for Daniel and Maria Ramirez. They had children. The kids started going to school, learning English and growing up American. "And even though you think of them as Mexican," Mr. Ramirez says, "they think of themselves as American, they learn American customs. They're from here."

At some point, the Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez realized their life was here, that they wouldn't be returning home. And so in the late 1990s, they decided to become citizens. But as much as they appreciate living in the U.S., the two of them have never felt truly American. "For us, being American is more about respecting U.S. laws, and knowing those laws also protect us," Mrs. Ramirez says.

This feeling — that even though they're U.S. citizens, it isn't really their country — seems to get to the heart of the tension Pablo has felt with his parents. He wants them to be more assertive, to stand up for themselves and demand their rights as Americans. But they don't really feel American, and so they're more willing to put their heads down, work to get ahead, and endure the little indignities their son can no longer tolerate.

A glimpse of hope

For Mrs. Ramirez, this feeling of not really belonging began to change when Barack Obama was elected president. She says she'd never seen so many young brown and black people go to the polls in her neighborhood. She felt like Obama was a president for her family and her community. She hoped he would deliver on immigration reform, because even though by 2008 she and her husband were already U.S. citizens, an immigration bill would send the message that immigrants like her and her husband play an important role in this country.

But that reform never came, something that Mr. and Mrs. Ramirez blame more on an intransigent Congress than on President Obama. In the meantime, his administration has deported 2.5 million people. In the current election cycle, anti-immigrant rhetoric has reached a fever pitch.

"It feels like we're going backwards," says Pablo's sister, Daniela.

Tensions at home

Coming home can be a challenge for Pablo. While he loves seeing his siblings and gossiping with his mother, he also has to remind himself that he's not at school anymore. The jargon and buzzwords of academia that have become his currency don't fly here. His big pronouncements about structural racism don't always land.

Pablo's older sister Daniela puts it like this: "He likes to rant." And she says she checks him constantly. "I tell him all the time, 'You need to tone it down with your big words,'" she says. Everyone laughs when Daniela says this, including Pablo. They all know it's true.

Even so, their father says this educational rift developing in the family is not a bad thing. He says college is opening his son's mind to new ideas. "He's gaining a better understanding of things," Mr. Ramirez says. "He's gaining a better facility with words." And Mr. Ramirez sees this as good for the whole family.


He and his wife have been thinking a lot about Donald Trump, his anti-immigrant rhetoric, and his supporters — the ones who believe in that message. "They want to go back to a time when this was a whiter country," Mrs. Ramirez says.

But her husband says that's not possible, "because back then, people of color didn't have a voice or a vote. And now they do."

Mr. Ramirez says he's proud of his son's willingness to speak out in defense of his family and immigrants generally. Pablo recently traveled to Florida to compete at a national speech and debate competition. His speech was about how hard it can be for immigrants and their families to embrace their heritage when they face so much pressure to assimilate.

Pablo Ramirez says one thing he's learned since he's gone to college is that he should embrace all of his heritage proudly and unapologetically. "I identify as Mexican-American, and I wouldn't give up either of my identities," he says.



“This story is part of an occasional Code Switch series we're calling "The Obama Effect." The series explores how conversations about race and identity have evolved over the course of the Obama presidency. …. . I had gone to the campus on a day when hundreds of students, including Ramirez, were rallying to increase funding for the school's College of Ethnic Studies. That college focuses on the histories and contributions of people of color in the U.S., and it was among several that administrators had said would have to get by with less money. …. Pablo told me that for him, ethnic studies is about rejecting the notion that to be truly American, you have to be white. It's an idea that he believes too many Americans still embrace.”


"I started noticing that my mother would be called wetback," he says, "that people would say, 'Oh, she's an idiot because she doesn't know English.'" It’s the US native born citizens who are the idiots, here. They hang on to their ignorance like a badge of honor, and it isn’t just in the South and West, either. New York City people, who so often consider themselves to be superior to others (especially Southerners), are among the worst about culturally based abuse. One of my favorite musical plays was West Side Story. The same situation is involved in this article. There’s been some change, but not enough.

A similar issue is the increasingly prevalent social disease of bullying in general. When I was young especially, but even today, it is often treated as a perfectly acceptable “rite of passage,” and the weak, timid, gay, mentally disabled, non-white, non-black, etc. etc. etc. are considered to be fair game by school authorities and parents – if they themselves are white and straight, that is. I remember one young boy in the news a couple of years ago who had a book bag with “My Little Pony” on it, which he loved. Unwisely his mom let him take it to school. He was abused for being “gay.” While I question her judgment, as a practical matter and perhaps as a matter of the boy’s actual mental health, the school’s action to prohibit the boy from carrying the offensive item -- as a provocation to the bullying – without punishing the bullies, is just another case of a thinking pattern that pervades our country. If a kid fights, he gets in trouble. If he doesn’t fight he loses respect, even to the teachers.

We just aren’t very civilized sometimes. I am happy to see, though, that Latino students are in college in reasonable numbers and that they are standing up for their causes. I hate to say it, but the only way to survive in a society like the US is to fight back. Not all parts of the country or groups of people are that abusive, but many, many are. This “melting pot” of a country is made up of plucky people who take care of their own needs, for the most part. When you’re dealing with a population of many millions, that is a necessary characteristic. It’s impossible to effectively police such a society with any fairness whatsoever. We don’t want to become a fascist nation, or at least most of us don’t. Personally, if I had a kid these days, boy or girl, I would take them to a martial arts school to learn some effective self-defense. Then I would teach them enough gentleness and social skill that they wouldn’t, hopefully, have to use it.



ISLAMIC ISSUES IN US – TWO ARTICLES

http://www.npr.org/2016/04/20/475015239/flying-while-muslim-profiling-fears-after-arabic-speaker-removed-from-plane

'Flying While Muslim': Profiling Fears After Arabic Speaker Removed From Plane
Heard on All Things Considered
NPR STAFF
April 20, 20166:30 PM ET

Photograph -- Khairuldeen Makhzoomi (left) came to the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee and says he was recently unfairly removed from a flight. Haven Daley/AP
Video -- INTELLIGENCE SQUARED U.S. Should Airports Use Racial And Religious Profiling?
Related: THE TWO-WAY, NYPD Shuts Down Controversial Unit That Spied On Muslims, Men pray on the street before the start of the American Muslim Day Parade in 2010 in New York.
Photograph -- John Donvan, Hassan Abbas, Debra Burlingame, Michael Chertoff, INTELLIGENCE SQUARED U.S., Should Airports Use Racial And Religious Profiling?
Photograph -- Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, student who was removed from a Southwest flight


Earlier this month, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, who came to the U.S. as an Iraqi refugee and is currently a student at the University of California, Berkeley, was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight because another passenger overheard him speaking on his cellphone in Arabic.

"First they pulled me out of the plane, then they didn't allow me to go back," Makhzoomi told member station KPCC. "They got my bag until the moment they started searching me in front of everyone and the police officer, he called the FBI."

The passenger who overheard Makhzoomi also spoke Arabic. A Southwest official says the passenger overheard what she perceived as threatening comments. And the airline official says it was the content of Makhzoomi's conversation, not the language used that prompted the response.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is providing Makhzoomi with legal representation. Zahra Billoo, executive director of the group's San Francisco offices, spoke with NPR's Kelly McEvers on the issue.

Billoo says she could see a possible reason why Makhzoomi would have been reported by another Arabic speaker. "The word that was being discussed was shahid," she says. "Shahid means martyr. He says he never said shahid."

Billoo says the fact that the person who reported Makhzoomi also spoke Arabic doesn't affect the case. "It doesn't change how ... absurd and bewildering the entire situation is, how invasive and traumatizing the law enforcement searches were," she says.

While Billoo says she could see how hearing the word shahid might make someone raise an eyebrow, she says no single word spoken should be a problem.

For now, I'm asking for an apology. ... They have to admit that there is a problem.

"It amazes me that this person speaks Arabic enough to call law enforcement and airline staff on Khairuldeen, but didn't catch that he was telling his uncle that he was at a luncheon with the U.N. secretary-general and had the opportunity to ask him a question."

Does this mean Arabic speakers are policing each other? Billoo says it's hard to tell. She cited several other complaints against airlines "and they don't always involve an Arabic speaker complaining about another Arabic-speaking passenger."

"What I do worry about is that it's a pattern of airlines acting disproportionately and then law enforcement supporting them in those actions," she says.

Meantime, Makhzoomi says he has no plans to sue Southwest.

"For now, I'm asking for an apology," he told KPCC. "I can sue. I have many lawyers, they've reached out to me, but I have said it many times, a human's dignity, it cannot be bought. This is something important. They have to apologize. They have to admit that there is a problem."

In a statement, Southwest said: "We will not be apologizing for following our obligation to adhere to established procedures. ... Were we given an opportunity to speak with him (many attempts have been made) we would offer regret for his experience."

Makhzoomi says he has also tried to reach out to Southwest.

Billoo says there are no plans to pursue a lawsuit against the airline.

"We are exploring the options available in Mr. Makhzoomi's case and seeing how we can best connect it to what we are worried about as being a pattern — the new reality of flying while Muslim, as some Muslims refer to it. We are looking at the different options to see what will make the most sense."



"First they pulled me out of the plane, then they didn't allow me to go back," Makhzoomi told member station KPCC. "They got my bag until the moment they started searching me in front of everyone and the police officer, he called the FBI." The passenger who overheard Makhzoomi also spoke Arabic. A Southwest official says the passenger overheard what she perceived as threatening comments. And the airline official says it was the content of Makhzoomi's conversation, not the language used that prompted the response. …. Billoo says she could see a possible reason why Makhzoomi would have been reported by another Arabic speaker. "The word that was being discussed was shahid," she says. "Shahid means martyr. He says he never said shahid." Billoo says the fact that the person who reported Makhzoomi also spoke Arabic doesn't affect the case. "It doesn't change how ... absurd and bewildering the entire situation is, how invasive and traumatizing the law enforcement searches were," she says. …. Does this mean Arabic speakers are policing each other? Billoo says it's hard to tell. She cited several other complaints against airlines "and they don't always involve an Arabic speaker complaining about another Arabic-speaking passenger." "What I do worry about is that it's a pattern of airlines acting disproportionately and then law enforcement supporting them in those actions," she says. …. In a statement, Southwest said: "We will not be apologizing for following our obligation to adhere to established procedures. ... Were we given an opportunity to speak with him (many attempts have been made) we would offer regret for his experience." Makhzoomi says he has also tried to reach out to Southwest. Billoo says there are no plans to pursue a lawsuit against the airline.”


I am sorry to say it, but after 9/11 and several other lesser but similar airline events, not to mention that Al-Queda actually had its’ members placed in small flight schools in the US to learn just enough about flying to run their airplanes into the Twin Towers, the mind of the US is permanently edgy about Middle Eastern people flying in US territory. They should be aware that if they get out a cell phone and talk in Arabic, or if they leave a small unidentified package under their seat, someone may get nervous and report them to the flight crew, who will then follow self-defensive procedures. If there were air marshals on every plane that would help, but there aren’t enough of them for that. All that said, if the flight crew did rough the man up, they should apologize to him.


RELATED:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/15/303425055/nypd-shuts-down-controversial-unit-that-spied-on-muslims

NYPD Shuts Down Controversial Unit That Spied On Muslims
SCOTT NEUMAN
April 15, 2014 7:06 PM ET

Photograph -- Men pray on the street before the start of the American Muslim Day Parade in 2010 in New York., Spencer Platt/Getty Images


The New York Police Department said Tuesday it would disband a special unit charged with detecting possible terrorist threats by carrying out secret surveillance of Muslim groups.

The squad that conducted the surveillance, known as the Demographics Unit, was formed in 2003. It brought the NYPD under fire from community groups and activists who accused the force of abusing civil rights and profiling.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said his administration has promised "a police force that keeps our city safe, but that is also respectful and fair.

"This reform is a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve, so that our cops and our citizens can help one another go after the real bad guys," he said.

The Associated Press says:

"The program relied on plainclothes officers to eavesdrop on people in bookstores, restaurants and mosques. The tactic was detailed in a series of stories by The Associated Press and became the subject of two federal lawsuits."

Police reportedly had "systematically spied on Muslim neighborhoods, listened in on sermons, infiltrated colleges and photographed law-abiding residents as part of a broad effort to watch communities where terror cells might operate. Individuals and groups were monitored even when there was no evidence they were linked to terrorism or crime," the AP says.

The New York Times says:

"To many Muslims ... the Demographics Unit ... was a sign that the police viewed their every action with suspicion. The police mapped communities inside and outside the city, logging where customers in traditional Islamic clothes ate meals and documenting their lunch-counter conversations.

" 'The Demographics Unit created psychological warfare in our community,' said Linda Sarsour, of the Arab American Association of New York. 'Those documents, they showed where we live. That's the cafe where I eat. That's where I pray. That's where I buy my groceries. They were able to see their entire lives on those maps. And it completely messed with the psyche of the community.' "

Even so, as recently as February, a federal judge in Newark threw out a suit brought against the NYPD by eight Muslims living in the New Jersey community.

The judge wrote that "the police could not have monitored New Jersey for Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself."

Ultimately, the years of surveillance proved fruitless and "the police acknowledged that it never generated a lead," the Times says.



“The squad that conducted the surveillance, known as the Demographics Unit, was formed in 2003. It brought the NYPD under fire from community groups and activists who accused the force of abusing civil rights and profiling. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said his administration has promised "a police force that keeps our city safe, but that is also respectful and fair. …. Individuals and groups were monitored even when there was no evidence they were linked to terrorism or crime," the AP says. The New York Times says: "To many Muslims ... the Demographics Unit ... was a sign that the police viewed their every action with suspicion. The police mapped communities inside and outside the city, logging where customers in traditional Islamic clothes ate meals and documenting their lunch-counter conversations. …. Even so, as recently as February, a federal judge in Newark threw out a suit brought against the NYPD by eight Muslims living in the New Jersey community. The judge wrote that "the police could not have monitored New Jersey for Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself." Ultimately, the years of surveillance proved fruitless and "the police acknowledged that it never generated a lead," the Times says.”


The sad thing here is that it seems to have been random surveillance. What about all that telephone data? Wasn’t it supposed to net real clues as to who the bad dudes were, which the police could then follow up on the ground? The news reports of such arrests almost always included sting operations which interrupted plots in action. Mayor deBlassio now promises police activity that will be effective and fair, and with good cause. That is, after all, how police are supposed to operate.

The very name “Demographics Unit” is a giveaway to what they were doing. To this day, black neighborhoods in big cities and small, all across the country, are being treated this way, however, so it isn’t just their religion or assumed radical nature. Whenever there is a noticeable difference between groups, a large number of our general population will line up into armed camps and pursue direct conflict. I’m waiting for human nature to grow out of this characteristic, but I don’t see it happening in my lifetime.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-class-resentment-is-fueling-donald-trumps-run/

How class resentment is fueling Donald Trump's run
By LARRY LIGHT MONEYWATCH
April 21, 2016, 5:30 AM

Play VIDEO -- Trump faces lawsuits from former Trump University students
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Play VIDEO -- Donald Trump asks Pennsylvania voters how Joe Paterno's doing


The fabulously rich candidate becomes the hero of working-class people by identifying with their economic distress. That formula worked for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. Today, Donald Trump's campaign benefits from a similar populist appeal to beleaguered, white, blue-collar voters -- his key constituency.

Trump's thumping victory in Tuesday's New York primary renews his momentum as he struggles to overcome the GOP establishment's efforts to block him from seizing the party's presidential nomination. If he continues to win as big as he did in his home state, he may have the delegates needed to prevail in the party convention in Cleveland in July.

How can someone born to wealth so ably channel what frankly is class resentment to become his party's front-runner and very likely its nominee? By depicting himself as a rebel among his plutocratic peers, showing a common touch and promising to bestow financial manna on the working stiff. The psychological enticement is powerful, and very crafty.

Certainly, his populist views differ from those of Roosevelt, a liberal Democrat who fathered the New Deal, and whose closest spiritual heir is Bernie Sanders. For one thing, Trump's brand of populism is to the right of center, although many conservatives say he isn't a true conservative. His disparagement of Mexicans, Muslims and women makes the moneyed elite cringe, regardless of party affiliation.

It's significant that in the New York primary, Trump lost in his own congressional district, the 12th, encompassing Manhattan's Upper East Side. This is one of the richest and best-educated districts in the nation. Ohio Gov. John Kasich won the 12th with his best showing in the state, capturing 44.4 percent. (To be fair, Trump wasn't far behind, at 44 percent.)

Nowhere else in Trump's New York blowout was the margin so tight. He handily won every other district, sweeping economically hammered upstate.

As many commentators have noted, people are understandably upset when they're cast out of manufacturing jobs as production gets shipped to China or when they lost out on construction work to illegal immigrants. And when they see no relief from their duly elected officials, many succumb to Trump's allure. The establishment, from Wall Street to the corporate suite to Washington, makes an easy target for the billionaire developer.

American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray wrote that "the central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class. During the past half-century of economic growth, virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class."

Tellingly, a CBS News Poll finds that 56 percent of Republican primary voters think Trump is best equipped among the candidates to deal with the economy and unemployment. As Trump said in his New York victory speech: "Our jobs are being sucked out of our states. They're being taken out of our country, and we're not going to let it happen anymore. We're going to stop it."

Three parts of Trump's class-based call taps into this resentment and economic unease:

He's a rebel against other rich types. How often have you heard: "Trump tells it like it is"? His insult-peppered behavior at party debates -- chief rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz became "Lyin' Ted," for instance -- are foreign to polite society. Trump is a disruptive force in the stodgy GOP, sort of like the Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup." Some expect that Trump, who recently hired seasoned political operative Paul Manafort to professionalize his campaign, will lighten his tone up ahead. If so, let's see how often his old self sneaks out.

Lately, with the Never Trump movement out to thwart him, the real estate mogul has the perfect foils. Roosevelt's fellow toffs used to say he was "a traitor to his class." Trump's detractors show the world how, despite his money, he is not one of them.

Top Republican donors now have joined in the effort to stop him. The Ricketts family (it founded brokerage T.D. Ameritrade and owns the Chicago Cubs), for example, has given more than $2 million to Our Principles PAC, a group bent on exposing Trump's past liberal views. In response, Trump tweeted: "They better be careful. They have a lot to hide."

Corporate leaders, who customarily keep a low political profile, are joining in the fray. Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently slammed Trump, although not by name, for fomenting ire against immigrants. "I hear fearful voices talking about building walls," he told a tech conference, referring to Trump's plan to erect a huge wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump previously had criticized Zuckerberg's call for more open immigration.

Trump is hardly breaking up with old friends. Indeed, he never has fit in with New York's grand old real estate families, who regard him as gauche. They disdain his glitzy buildings with their brass and marble, as well as his nonstop promotional patter, where all his projects are "amazing" and "the best."

He has the common touch. Historian John Lukas, in his 2005 book, "Democracy and Populism," wrote that "populists in every country respected and supported millionaires of their own kind." When former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Trump, she said "he has spent his life looking up and respecting the hard hats and steel-toed boots and the work ethic that you all have within you."

In addition to stoking his supporters' fears, Trump comes across as one of them. He lacks the polish and erudition of the Republican candidates that the elite have backed. Plus, he presents himself as a self-made man (conveniently omitting how his father's money and influence launched him in the 1970s).

Trump grew up in the unpretentious New York borough of Queens, albeit in a fancy section. His father, Fred, made a fortune constructing apartment blocks in Queens and Brooklyn. When Donald Trump bought the Mar-a-Lago estate of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and in 1995 turned it into a private club, the old money neighbors in elegant Palm Beach were upset at the loud music and raucous partying. The club didn't cater to Joe Sixpack, but it did to newer wealth.

Trump has fought several legal battles in the tony Florida resort -- one sought to overturn town restrictions on how many people could attend club events. To the Palm Beach set, such fracases simply are not acceptable.

He pledges to make people rich. The core of Trump's message to his followers is that he'll restore prosperity to those left behind in the wake of a globalized economy that offshores jobs. But if you listen closely, what's apparent is that Trump is promising not merely a return to middle-class financial stability, but actual wealth.

His pitches are reminiscent of another populist, Louisiana's Huey Long in the 1930s, who pledged to make "every man a king." At a rally in Rothschild, Wisconsin, Trump told the crowd, "I am so good at business. You people are going to be so rich, so fast."

The theme of his books, like "The Art of the Deal," and some of his ventures, like the ill-fated Trump University, is that ordinary people can get rich through pluck and stamina. His TV show, "The Apprentice," was all about how run-of-the-mill Joes and Janes could make it big.

As a business promoter, Trump has used this get-rich-with-Donald lure for a long time. No wonder he was a casino operator, hawking dreams of instant wealth. Back in the 1990s, when he crossed the floor of one of his Atlantic City casinos, gamblers would touch him for luck. His gamblers tended to be day-trippers in on a bus, feeding coins into slot machines, not tuxedoed swells at the baccarat table. In other words, his constituency.

Wage stagnation and rampant layoffs have made millions of them disgruntled -- and open to Trump's diagnosis that they've been cheated. As historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in his 1964 essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," such aggrieved believers in their own powerlessness and victimization "find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed."

To these people, Trump is their well-heeled savior, the guy who knows how to work the system and will do it for them.



“For one thing, Trump's brand of populism is to the right of center, although many conservatives say he isn't a true conservative. His disparagement of Mexicans, Muslims and women makes the moneyed elite cringe, regardless of party affiliation. …. During the past half-century of economic growth, virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class." Tellingly, a CBS News Poll finds that 56 percent of Republican primary voters think Trump is best equipped among the candidates to deal with the economy and unemployment. …. He pledges to make people rich. The core of Trump's message to his followers is that he'll restore prosperity to those left behind in the wake of a globalized economy that offshores jobs. But if you listen closely, what's apparent is that Trump is promising not merely a return to middle-class financial stability, but actual wealth. His pitches are reminiscent of another populist, Louisiana's Huey Long in the 1930s, who pledged to make "every man a king." At a rally in Rothschild, Wisconsin, Trump told the crowd, "I am so good at business. You people are going to be so rich, so fast." …. Wage stagnation and rampant layoffs have made millions of them disgruntled -- and open to Trump's diagnosis that they've been cheated. As historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in his 1964 essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," such aggrieved believers in their own powerlessness and victimization "find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed." To these people, Trump is their well-heeled savior, the guy who knows how to work the system and will do it for them.”


Both Trump and Sanders are whacking away at the same problems, but in different ways. Sanders doesn’t appeal to the Right because he doesn’t rant against immigrants, blacks and other group outsiders, but against Wall Street and classism. Both of them are right about the nature of our economic and cultural problem in the US, however. It is that “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” It’s not new, though. It just has never been conquered. It is the economic impetus that is pushing both of them ahead. Poor white people have always been taught the Horatio Alger story and believed in it. Blacks know better. Both are trapped.

I believe the center of the situation is that those who tend to be permanently on the bottom truly are: too often uneducated, lacking in self-confidence and personal drive, have serious mental health issues, sometimes addicted to drugs and alcohol, lacking in hope and with too little financial means to do something like start their own business. They are therefore stuck on the bottom unless they win the lottery or exert themselves to make a major change in their life pattern. The permanently poor also live, too often, in a dangerous, demoralizing environment and with too little good quality food and medical care. We have done, as a nation, very little about these things, unfortunately. Our young people are growing up without an ability to rise up and out of their situation.

If these very people are white they tend to feel cheated of their “white privilege,” and therefore are very angry. They love leaders like Donald Trump who speak disparagingly of everyone from blacks to Islamic people to Hispanics. That rhetoric puts him “on their side,” and so they are practically rioting at his rallies. They feel that if they could just have a fair shake they would be doing much better in life. Blacks feel the same way, but with better reason. They really have been turned down for jobs, jailed, etc. directly because of their race.

Everybody, however, who comes from whatever group, must force themselves to get an education, dress reasonably well with neatness and style, speak well, be at least in appearance honest and have a good personal reputation. They should, above all, maximize every opportunity. They need the kind of intelligence that I call “foxy” – alertness and with some aggressiveness. Too much aggressiveness is not an advantage, though, because it makes as many enemies as friends. Finding a loyal and respectable peer group is important. The Masons are great for that. Part of the reason whites get ahead is because they stick together and back each other up in societally approved endeavors.

There have been, at least in my lifetime, blacks who do catch on to these characteristics and make it ahead up to the top, especially excellent entertainers like Sammy Davis Junior or my favorite, Morgan Freeman. There is also nowadays a real black Middle Class made up of educated people. They are doctors, lawyers and college professors, plus business owners.

For some important and interesting information, see the history of a black Middle Class group in the 1920s who were unionized workers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_porter, Pullman Porters. A shocking story, also from the 1920s, is in Wikipedia under the “Tulsa Race Riot.” That was an event in which a prosperous, apparently too prosperous, black community in Tulsa was attacked and burned, with its’ inhabitants being arrested by police if not hospitalized (just for being there, I guess.) A similar event happened in Rosewood, FL in the 1920s. The 1920s was another period like today in which the wide difference between the rich and the poor inflamed group hatred. The white poor -- who were very poor -- thought the blacks were taking their jobs. See excerpts below:


PULLMAN -- Pullman workers: “Pullman porters were men hired to work on the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Pullman porters served American railroads for 100 years from the late 1860s until late in the 20th Century.

Until the 1960s, Pullman porters were exclusively black, and have been widely credited with contributing to the development of the black middle class in America.

Under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, Pullman porters formed the first all-black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. Formation of the union was instrumental in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement.


Wiki, Tulsa Race Riot:

The Tulsa race riot was a large-scale, racially motivated conflict on May 31 and June 1, 1921, in which a group of whites attacked the black community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Greenwood District, the wealthiest black community in the United States was burned to the ground. Over the course of 16 hours, more than 800 people were admitted to local white hospitals with injuries, the two black hospitals were burned down, and police arrested and detained more than 6,000 black Greenwood residents at three local facilities. An estimated 10,000 blacks were left homeless, and 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences were destroyed by fire, resulting in over $26 million in damages. The official count of the dead by the Oklahoma Department of Vital Statistics was 39, but other estimates of black fatalities vary from 55 to about 300.

The events of the riot were long omitted from local and state histories: "The Tulsa race riot of 1921 was rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms or even in private. Blacks and whites alike grew into middle age unaware of what had taken place."[1] With the number of survivors declining, in 1996, the state legislature commissioned a report to establish the historical record of the events, and acknowledge the victims and damages to the black community. Released in 2001, the report included the commission's recommendations for some compensatory actions, most of which were not implemented by the state and city governments. The state passed legislation to establish some scholarships for descendants of survivors, economic development of Greenwood, and a memorial park to the victims in Tulsa. The latter was dedicated in 2010.




http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/obama-plans-attend-final-white-house-science-fair-38354565

Obama Touts Robots, US Ingenuity at White House Science Fair
By KEVIN FREKING AND KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Apr 13, 2016, 5:58 PM ET


They came with eco-glue and Lego launchers. Their tag board displays were filled with charts, graphs and research on pollution. There were no little kids with plaster volcanoes in this crowd. But there was a trash-eating robot.

This was the White House Science Fair, an annual opportunity to show off the nation's budding inventors, engineers, astronauts and researchers — and to impress the nation's science fan-in-chief.

"You remind us that together through science we can tackle some of the biggest challenges we face," President Barack Obama told the more than 130 students gathered at the White House on Wednesday. "You are sharing in this essential spirit of discovery that America is built on."

The fair is a favorite within the White House, in part because of the president's clear delight in the often impressive displays of young brains and creativity. As he has since he began the fair in 2010, Obama toured the sampling of exhibits, asking questions, pressing start buttons, smiling with approval and, at times, ribbing the earnest presenters.

"My only concern is that, you know, you may have trouble getting into college," Obama joked with 18-year-old Sanjana Rane from Prospect, KY, after listening to her detailed explanation of how she helped figure out a particular protein could be used to detect and treat renal fibrosis.

Olivia Hallisey, 17, of Greenwich, Connecticut, created a diagnostic test for the detection of the Ebola virus. Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna, 17, of Elmont, New York, found a way to improve undersea cement seals to keep offshore oil wells from leaking. And Hannah Herbst, 15, of Boca Raton, Florida, created a device to tap energy from ocean currents.

As he toured the exhibits, Obama admired the sticky "GlOo" (patent pending) a St. Louis Girl Scout Troop made out from Styrofoam, and a group of New York City teens' robot vacuum designed to pick up trash on the subway. He marveled at the "Loki Lego Launcher," a homemade spacecraft that shot up 78,000 feet in the air before it landed in a field next to a cow pie, according to its inventors, sisters Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung, 9 and 11.

"But cow poop didn't get on this?" the president said as he looked at the launcher. "You're sure?"

Obama, who is something of a frustrated science geek, noted this was not his path as a student.

"First of all, I didn't have a 'field,'" he said. "I don't know exactly what my field of study was at that time but it wasn't that."

The administration is also using the event to cite progress on improving education in science and math, noting $1 billion in private investment as part of a White House campaign and that the nation is more than halfway toward reaching Obama's goal of preparing 100,000 new math and science teachers by 2021.

Obama personally sent out a Twitter invitation to Cedrick Argueta after reading how the Los Angeles teen got a perfect score on his Advanced Placement Calculus exam.

"I couldn't believe it. But of course, I said yes," Argueta wrote on the White House blog. "I can't wait to meet other students who are also passionate about science and math — students who I'm sure will change the face of technology and help solve some of society's biggest problems, like fighting climate change and treating cancer."



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZoS9wtNA2c

President Obama Speaks At The 2016 White House Science Fair
Published on Apr 13, 2016
President Obama's full speech from the 2016 White House Science Fair. --

Give yourself a treat and watch this whole Youtube of Obama talking at the science fair. He is a really nice, bright person – a leader by persuasion. He makes me want to follow him. To me, that’s much preferable to a blowhard like Donald Trump as president.