July 18, 2016


News and Views


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-responds-to-petition-to-label-black-lives-matter-a-terror-group/

White House responds to petition to label Black Lives Matter a "terror" group
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
July 17, 2016, 5:07 PM

Play VIDEO -- Mayor Rawlings: Dallas police died for Black Lives Matter movement


After days of violence and heightened racial tensions in the U.S., the White House responded this week to an online petition asking the federal government to formally label the Black Lives Matter movement as a "terror group."

"Terrorism is defined as 'the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims,'" read the "We The People" petition, created July 6 on the White House website. "This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations."

Black Lives Matter, the petition said, "earned this title due to its actions in Ferguson, Baltimore, and even at a Bernie Sanders rally, as well as all over the United States and Canada." It asked the Pentagon to recognize the group as such "on the grounds of principle, integrity, morality, and safety."

Because the online document received at least 100,000 signatures -- at the time of this reporting, it had garnered over 141,000 names -- the White House was automatically prompted to respond.

The "We the People" team noted that "The White House plays no role in designating domestic terror organizations," nor does the U.S. government "generate a list of domestic terror organizations."

"[T]herefore," the response read, "we are not able to address the formal request of your petition."

The White House then went further: Acknowledging that it was a "difficult time" for the country -- and that the debate remains a "charged" one -- the statement additionally prompted petition signers to consider President Obama's words calling for compassion towards the movement.

"I think it's important for us to also understand that the phrase 'black lives matter' simply refers to the notion that there's a specific vulnerability for African Americans that needs to be addressed," the president said last week, talking to a Washington, D.C. gathering of enforcement officials, civil rights leaders, elected officials and other activists on the issue of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. "We shouldn't get too caught up in this notion that somehow people who are asking for fair treatment are somehow, automatically, anti-police, are trying to only look out for black lives as opposed to others. I think we have to be careful about playing that game."

The petition came on the heels of deadly officer-involved shootings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Falcon Heights, Minnesota, and after days of Black Lives Matter protests for more police accountability.

On July 7, one day after the petition published online, seven law enforcement officers policing a BLM demonstration in Dallas, Texas were shot and killed in a shower of sniper-like fire. And on Sunday, three more policemen were shot and killed in Baton Rouge.

Black Lives Matter protesters condemned the massacre in Dallas, and prominent members did the same after Sunday's Baton Rouge shooting of police officers.

One public voice of the movement, DeRay McKesson, urged peace after news of the Louisiana deaths broke.

"I'm waiting for more information like everybody else," McKesson told the New York Times. "I have more questions than answers."

"The movement began as a call to end violence," he said. "That call remains."

Errol Barnett contributed to this report.



Only Rightwingers would call a legitimate nonviolent group like BLM a terrorist group. They do protest, but that isn't the same thing at all. Now the Cliven Bundy bunch and many of the Sovereign Citizens are terrorists. So are the Open Carry Marchers who parade through the neighborhood Walmart with AK47s strapped across their (very fat) bellies!! Oh, yes, and the KKK, which still exists, and whose leader David Duke offered to support Trump recently, who claimed that he didn't know anything about Duke! Ridiculous.



SICK AND SAD – TWO ARTICLES


http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/france-truck-attack/nice-attack-investigation-two-more-arrests-after-truck-massacre-n611066

Nice Attack Investigation: Two More Detained After Truck Massacre
by CASSANDRA VINOGRAD and NANCY ING
NEWS FRANCE TRUCK ATTACK
JUL 17 2016, 9:44 AM ET

Video -- Nice Attacker's Father Speaks out on Son's Troubled Past 2:25
Photograph -- Flowers left on a road in Nice, France, on Saturday. VALERY HACHE / AFP - Getty Images
Video -- Remembering the American Victims of the Nice Terror Attack 1:40



NICE, France — Two more suspects were detained for questioning early Sunday in connection with the Nice truck attack, officials said, amid lingering questions over whether the killer had accomplices.

The Paris prosecutor's office told NBC News that a man and a woman were taken into custody for questioning. That leaves six people still being held in wake of the bloodbath. A seventh, the attacker's ex-wife, was released from custody Sunday morning.

At least 84 people were killed and 200 injured when a truck driver mowed down revelers after a Bastille Day fireworks display Thursday.

The arrests come as new details emerged about attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel amid the ongoing investigation.

Bouhlel scouted out the Promenade des Anglair twice before the attack — on July 12 and 13, the prosecutor's office told NBC News. It said surveillance footage showed him in the truck he used to carry out the carnage.

Officials have said he wasn't known to intelligence services. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters Saturday that Bouhlel "appears to have become radicalized very quickly."

A close friend of Bouhlel's ex-wife, however, said he was not a radical Islamist but rather a violent man with nothing left to lose after his marriage fell apart.

Anger continued to run high Sunday over the government's failure to thwart the third major attack in just over 18 months.

The Interior Ministry's move to call up reservists and ramp up security in the country, which has been under a state of emergency since the Paris attacks, was viewed by many as too little, too late.

One man with a poster on the Nice promenade drew applause as he shouted for the government to resign.

"Out, out" he cried. "Where were the politicians... on July 14?"


Cassandra Vinograd ✔ @CassVinograd
Anger at govt for perceived security failings. "Out! Out (Govt)! ... Where were the politicians... On July 14?"
8:34 AM - 17 Jul 2016


BFMTV reported that Bouhlel had visited the scene of the crime twice in the lead-up to the attack. NBC News was unable to confirm that report.

France was on the second of three days of national mourning on Sunday. The Promenade des Anglais — the scene of the carnage — was filled with flowers and tributes placed over blood stains on the pavement.


Cassandra Vinograd ✔ @CassVinograd
Blood still stains the pavement on the Promenade des Anglais
6:25 AM - 17 Jul 2016


Around 85 people remained hospitalized — with 18 in life-threatening condition, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said Sunday. Five children are among those in intensive care.

Several people also remain unaccounted for: photos of the missing were mixed with the condolences at memorials around the city.

The family of missing UC Berkeley student Nick Leslie, was expected to arrive in Nice to search for the young man, according to NBC San Diego.


Cassandra Vinograd ✔ @CassVinograd
Still missing. Sunday in Nice.
5:59 AM - 17 Jul 2016


Late Saturday there was a bit of good news: a boy who had been lying in a coma for two days, unidentified, had been found by his grandmother. The 7-year-old's parents, however, have not been located.

All along the promenade Sunday, there were people stopping to make the signs of the cross. Many wiped away tears. From time to time, snippets of conversations could be heard among those who escaped the carnage, describing the horrors they had witnessed.

France's health minister joined calls for survivors to seek counseling in wake of the attack. The local children's hospital said it had seen 150 people it its psychological unit.

At the end of the long line of makeshift memorials, a shrine of a different sort has taken shape.

There are no flowers, just stones in this spot where the attacker's murderous rampage ended due to a burst of police gunfire.

In the spot where his white truck finally stopped still, lit cigarettes burn and stones hold down angry messages: "savage assassin," read one. "Wild killer."

One man walking by pointed at the pile and sputtered the words echoed in the rocks below: "burn in hell, son of a b***h."


Cassandra Vinograd ✔ @CassVinograd
At end of line of memorials for victims, words for attacker at site where he was stopped: "Burn in hell."
8:00 AM - 17 Jul 2016


KASICH SPEAKS OUT –


http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/during-rnc-john-kasich-will-look-forward-outside-n610696

During the RNC, John Kasich Will Look Forward From the Outside
by KAILANI KOENIG
POLITICS JUL 17 2016, 9:57 AM ET

Video -- Kasich still not attending RNC 3:56
Video -- Donald Trump and Mike Pence Step Out Into the Spotlight For the First Time 2:25
Video -- Philando Castile's Mom: We Need New Laws 1:08
Video -- Possible lineup of GOP convention speakers 5:38
Video -- Inside the Last Days of the Kasich and Cruz Campaigns 3:48
Related: John Kasich Suspends Presidential Campaign


COLUMBUS, Ohio — Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of Ohio Gov. John Kasich becoming the final entrant in a crowded GOP primary field in which Donald Trump was viewed as little more than a celebrity sideshow.

But that same day — July 21 — will also be when Trump steps on the stage in Cleveland to accept the party's presidential nomination. And Kasich won't be there to welcome him.

Kasich remains one of the more popular political figures in Ohio and across the country, according to recent polling data.

But while the governor circles the city next week, he isn't expected to set foot inside the Quicken Loans Arena — where the official convention speeches and ceremonies are taking place.

Instead, he will operate in an orbit beyond the party convention's walls, much like he did over the course of his campaign.

During the primary, Kasich tried to project inclusiveness and civility even as voters clearly favored the brash and confrontational Trump.

He would regularly drop lines on the campaign trail like, "the Republican Party is my vehicle, but not my master," "my Republican Party doesn't like ideas," and "I have a right to shape what it means to be a conservative and what the Republican Party is all about."

At the RTCA dinner in Washington, D.C., last month, Kasich told a harsh joke at the expense of RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

Kasich so far has refused to endorse Trump. Never before has the governor of a state hosting his own party's nominating convention refused to get behind the nominee.

Keeping His Distance

As governor, Kasich will receive regular security briefings during the convention as demonstrators from across the country gather to protest the candidate he fought for months to decry and defeat.

Kasich's team has also lined up an extensive schedule of appearances and speaking engagements next week that offer clear undertones about what the governor values in his party's political climate.

While he won't address the Republican convention, he will be speaking at another convention in Ohio on Sunday night, the NAACP's annual gathering in Cincinnati.

On Monday, he will meet with Mexico's ambassador to the United States. On Tuesday, he will speak to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (which endorsed him during the primary).

These events are in addition to engagements with the International Republican Institute, speeches to numerous state delegations, and a reception at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in his honor.

"I think where he sees himself is he's going to continue to do what he thinks is the right thing to do, which has served him well for the first 30 years of public life," spokesman Chris Schrimpf said, pointing to the governor's recent comments to the Washington Post: "I'm more worried about my country than I'm worried about my party right now."

Kasich's appearance at the NAACP Convention — while delegates from his party touch down in Cleveland — underscores the distance he stands from the Trump nomination. Trump declined the NAACP's invitation to speak, and the real estate mogul's absence marks just the 4th time since 1980 that a presidential candidate did not speak at their convention.

The NAACP convention this year falls as the nation continues to mourn the deaths of two more black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, at the hands of police, and the killing of five police officers in Dallas.

Over the course of his presidential campaign, Kasich spoke often of his work in Ohio related to police-community relations and criminal justice issues. In December, after a Cleveland police officer was not indicted in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Kasich told reporters that protesters in the wake of the decision "need to be heard."

In a NBC News/WSJ/Marist poll released Wednesday, it was clear that Trump has significant ground to gain among African-Americans in Ohio. The poll found African-Americans in the state favored Clinton at 88 percent to Trump's 0 percent.

The Convention Kasich Couldn't Have Predicted

This is not how Kasich imagined the Republican National Convention would be. A few years ago, he talked very enthusiastically about the prospect of bringing the convention to his home state.

After his chances of clinching the nomination became mathematically impossible this spring, Kasich would speak daily about how "exciting" the convention could be if it were contested, and he and his staff spent months wooing delegates so he could take the nomination away from Trump in Cleveland.

Now that he lost, Kasich and his team are working to walk a delicate line. They are getting hounded with media requests, yet are not planning on breaking any news or making big headlines. "I'm not going there to disrupt," Kasich told MSNBC in June.

But at the same time, the wheels of Kasich's political operation are still in motion as a team around him tries to keep his profile high and his political capital a valuable commodity.

The governor's team reiterates he wants to do everything he can to keep his options open for what he might do after his term as governor ends in January 2019 — whether that could be a position in business, in the media, or another run at the White House.

In the 2020 Republican presidential field, "I would think he would be in the upper tier almost immediately," said Tom Rath, one of Kasich's top advisers in New Hampshire. "Think about how much further ahead we would be. People would know him and know what he stood for."

Instead of focusing on the top of the ticket this year, Kasich is campaigning and raising money for other down-ballot Republican candidates, something he was not as involved with before he ran for president this year — a lack of action some supporters believe hurt him in while he was trying to raise money and court endorsements this year.

In the two months since Kasich left the race, he has dug in and continued his work as governor of Ohio, generating big headlines when he signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana and took some heat from his own party for vetoing a voting bill that Democrats likened to a poll tax.

Kasich is working on writing a book about his message and his experience over the course of his campaign, and he plans on holding town hall-style meetings across the country to promote the book as soon as this October, his advisers say.

Kasich believes it's too early talk about 2020. "That's like asking somebody once they finish a marathon, you know, meet them at the finish line, saying, 'you going to run another one?'" the governor told WEWS earlier this month.

Confronting the Trump Question

Kasich has still only spoken to Trump once since dropping out of the race on May 4, when he told Trump to read his "two paths" speech and explained why he couldn't back him.

"It's painful. It's painful. People even get divorces, you know?" Kasich told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough last month. "I've been a Republican all my life. How do you think I feel about this? I'm the Republican governor of Ohio. It's difficult."

Kasich said that day that Republican donors and other party leaders courted him heavily to get re-involved in the 2016 race in a number of ways.

"Look, if you saw the people that have contacted me, and want me to run as a third-party candidate, or the number of people that have come to me and say they want, you know, 'Would you run with Donald Trump?' I mean, you would be shocked," he said.

Meanwhile, a number of Republicans are still urging Kasich to get behind Trump. "It's about time he got on the Trump bandwagon," Newt Gingrich, who vied for Trump's vice presidential nod, said recently in Ohio.

But Kasich's aides say that doesn't bother him. "There's differences between requests and pressure," John Weaver, Kasich's strategist, said. "They have control of that in the way that they conduct themselves and the way that their policy proposals are. They should feel the pressure. You don't win states like Ohio unless you can cobble together coalitions and you can only cobble together coalitions with attractive, positive inclusivity."

This is why Kasich will stay on the outside at the convention. If he gets invited to a party and he can't say anything positive about the host, his advisers say he doesn't want to be a part of it. Weaver continued, "Even if he spoke and just laid out his positive message, critics and pundits would want to contrast that with Trump."

Kasich is well aware of his role.

"I know that as the governor of Ohio, with some people who pound on me — I said, 'I'm not prepared to do it,'" Kasich said in his MSNBC interview last month. "He's going to have to change. Period. End of story."



http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/john-kasich-joe-scarborough-i-m-not-interested-being-spoiler-n593486

John Kasich to Joe Scarborough: I'm Not Interested in Being a 'Spoiler' at RNC
by KAILANI KOENIG
JUN 16 2016, 7:29 AM ET

Image: John Kasich -- In this photo taken April 25, Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks during a town hall at Thomas farms Community Center in Rockville, Md. Evan Vucci / AP file
Play -- Inside the Last Days of the Kasich and Cruz Campaigns 3:48
Play -- Kasich suspends 2016 campaign 16:23


WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ohio Governor John Kasich insists he is not interested in being Donald Trump's running mate, or in launching a potential third-party bid for the White House — but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been strongly urged to consider it.

"Look, if you saw the people that have contacted me, and want me to run as a third-party candidate, or the number of people that have come to me and say they want, you know — 'Would you run with Donald Trump?' — I mean, you would be shocked," Kasich told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough in an exclusive interview. "And, the answer to that is no. I've given it my best."

Since suspending his presidential campaign in May, Kasich and his team say they have heard from donors and the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, gauging Kasich's interest in launching an independent candidacy. Kasich has no interest, stressing he wants to stick with his job in Ohio.

He told Scarborough that he would have no part of any uprising or rules change before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month — even as Trump's poll numbers continue to plummet.

"I think it's very unlikely, and I won't be involved in it," Kasich said. "I'm not going there to disrupt. I gave it my best, I didn't win, I have no regrets about the way I conducted myself, and I'm not interested in being a spoiler."

Kasich said he could never imagine Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan ever asking him to step up in that situation, and that he doesn't want to "deal with hypotheticals … I don't think it's going to happen." He then added: "I can't predict the future. This is the craziest political year that you and I have ever seen."

Kasich remains one of the nation's prominent Republicans who have not announced support for Trump, but he still has not completely ruled out the idea, leaving out hope that Trump's rhetoric might change.

Pressed with a retweet from Trump telling Kasich that he ought to "get on board" or leave the GOP, and the fact that he signed a pledge last summer to support the party's eventual nominee, Kasich said: "It's painful. It's painful. People even get divorces, you know? Sometimes things come about that, look, 'I'm sorry this has happened, but we'll see where it ends up.' I'm not making any final decision yet, but at this point I just can't do it."

The governor said that when Trump called him and asked him for his support, Kasich told him they were like two companies with different values, and that he would send him a copy of his "Two Paths" speech, a stark warning he offered in April about the potential dangers of a Trump or Cruz presidency.

Kasich still plans to go to the RNC next month in Cleveland, as he has been invited to a number of events in the area that week — but his role at the convention remains uncertain. "I know I'm going to have some of my own events outside," he said. "As to what I'm going to do there, I'm not quite sure yet."


Kasich eyes the future

Kasich spoke with Scarborough while visiting Washington, D.C., to deliver the keynote address at the annual Radio & Television Correspondents' Dinner — a speaking engagement with a tremendous media attendance and national profile.

Kasich is meeting Thursday morning with Sen. John McCain, one of a number of Senate and House candidates for whom he will be raising money and campaigning ahead of November's election.

The governor is likely trying to remain a visible force in the Republican Party and keep his political future options open — whether that means another presidential run in 2020 or other opportunities that might arise after his term expires at the beginning of 2019.

Kasich used the dinner to poke some fun, noting the anxiety in the media about revoked press credentials, and joking that his campaign paid people to take press credentials and cover him. And he told a story about a man he met on the campaign trail who was losing control, lost, and confused: "Hang in there, Reince Priebus."

But the governor also struck a very serious tone, mourning the tragic attack in Orlando, telling the audience it was "clearly aimed at our friends in the gay community. No question about it, and secondly it was a hate crime but it was also an attack, that is branded now as a terrorist act, which we all agree with."

At the dinner, Kasich also remained critical of both the lawmakers in Washington and the journalists who cover them. He challenged members of the press before him to recognize the seriousness of their responsibility: "Don't do tabloid. The country needs depth, the country needs education. And don't do eyeballs and profits because no one will remember you if you do that."

And he had very tough words for his fellow elected officials. "Plain and simple, the politicians are doing a terrible job," he said. "They're failing us," adding that politicians live in fear of special interest groups and "losing re-election."

"They're failing to put the public first and it is wrong — and when I say that leaders today are weak, I'm actually complimenting them in my mind."



http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/laying-out-two-paths-kasich-issues-stark-warning-gop-n554656

POLITICS APR 12 2016, 10:00 AM ET
Laying Out 'Two Paths,' John Kasich Issues Stark Warning to GOP
by KAILANI KOENIG

Video -- Speech Kasich Suggest Rivals' Behavior 'Not Worthy' of White House 0:42
Play Kasich: Kasich: 'Empty Victory' for GOP If I'm Not Nominee 0:33
Related: How Kasich's 2016 Run Got on the Offensive


Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday issued a clear, stark warning for what he sees as the "two paths" forward for the country in the 2016 race, deriding the policy proposals and tone of "vicious" attacks launched between his rivals, and calling the election one of the most consequential in history.

In remarks to the Women's National Republican Club in Midtown Manhattan, the Republican presidential candidate alluded to his opponents Donald Trump and Ted Cruz while cautioning his party and the nation against what he sees as "the path that exploits anger, encourages resentment, turns fear into hatred and divides people."

"This path solves nothing, demeans our history, weakens our country and cheapens each of us. It has but one beneficiary and that is to the politician who speaks of it," he said. "The other path is the one America has been down before. It is well trod, it is at times steep, but it is solid."

Although Kasich never mentioned his GOP competitors by name, his targets were clear. He listed off a string of policy proposals that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz have floated -- including a religious test for immigrants, targeting of Muslim neighborhoods for surveillance, imposing 'draconian' tariffs, dropping out of NATO, instituting a value-added tax, and "whimsical cuts in 'fraud, waste and abuse.'"

"I have stood on a stage and watched with amazement as candidates wallowed in the mud, viciously attacked one another, called each other liars and disparaged each other's character," Kasich said. "Those who continuously push that type of behavior are not worthy of the office they are seeking."

The speech comes at a moment in Kasich's campaign when he lags far behind Trump and Cruz in delegates for the Republican nomination and when his only hope of snagging the GOP nomination would be a contested convention in Cleveland this summer. His speech in New York City offered him the chance to flatly outline many of the critiques of Trump and Cruz he has offered on the campaign trail but before a wider audience in the nation's media capital.

Consistently maintaining he will "not take the low road to the highest office in the land," Kasich has become more and more comfortable distinguishing himself and drawing sharp contrasts with his GOP rivals in recent weeks. But his speech Tuesday serves as a particularly crisp warning about his concerns with other candidates and the nation's political climate.

As Kasich outlined a "path to darkness" in his speech, he described people who view the country "as a broken place, and the people who did the breaking are 'the other:' people with more money—or less money, people with different-sounding last names, or different religious beliefs, or different colored skin or lifestyles."

"Some who feed off of the fears and anger that is felt by some of us and exploit it feed their own insatiable desire for fame or attention," he proclaimed, then alluded to the slogan of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump: "That could drive America down into a ditch, not make us great again."

On the campaign trail, Kasich has voiced exasperation with other candidates who he feels make promises they know are unattainable, and called out those actions Tuesday morning: "Just as an all-consuming fear of America in decline ends in visions of America's destruction, a political strategy based on exploiting Americans instead of lifting them up inevitably leads to divisions, paranoia, isolation, and promises that can never, ever be fulfilled."

As Kasich outlined the second path he sees - the one he's making the argument he could be part of - he claimed, "America's supposed decline becomes its finest hour, because we came together to say "no" to those who would prey on our human weakness and instead chose leadership that serves, helping us look up, not down."


NBC Koenig EXCERPT -- “He would regularly drop lines on the campaign trail like, "the Republican Party is my vehicle, but not my master," "my Republican Party doesn't like ideas," and "I have a right to shape what it means to be a conservative and what the Republican Party is all about." …. While he won't address the Republican convention, he will be speaking at another convention in Ohio on Sunday night, the NAACP's annual gathering in Cincinnati. On Monday, he will meet with Mexico's ambassador to the United States. On Tuesday, he will speak to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (which endorsed him during the primary). …. "I think where he sees himself is he's going to continue to do what he thinks is the right thing to do, which has served him well for the first 30 years of public life," spokesman Chris Schrimpf said, pointing to the governor's recent comments to the Washington Post: "I'm more worried about my country than I'm worried about my party right now." Kasich's appearance at the NAACP Convention — while delegates from his party touch down in Cleveland — underscores the distance he stands from the Trump nomination. Trump declined the NAACP's invitation to speak, and the real estate mogul's absence marks just the 4th time since 1980 that a presidential candidate did not speak at their convention.


NBC Scarborough Excerpt – “I gave it my best, I didn't win, I have no regrets about the way I conducted myself, and I'm not interested in being a spoiler." …. I don't think it's going to happen." He then added: "I can't predict the future. This is the craziest political year that you and I have ever seen." …. Over the course of his presidential campaign, Kasich spoke often of his work in Ohio related to police-community relations and criminal justice issues. In December, after a Cleveland police officer was not indicted in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Kasich told reporters that protesters in the wake of the decision "need to be heard." …. Kasich used the dinner to poke some fun, noting the anxiety in the media about revoked press credentials, and joking that his campaign paid people to take press credentials and cover him. And he told a story about a man he met on the campaign trail who was losing control, lost, and confused: "Hang in there, Reince Priebus." But the governor also struck a very serious tone, mourning the tragic attack in Orlando, telling the audience it was "clearly aimed at our friends in the gay community. No question about it, and secondly it was a hate crime but it was also an attack, that is branded now as a terrorist act, which we all agree with." …. And he had very tough words for his fellow elected officials. "Plain and simple, the politicians are doing a terrible job," he said. "They're failing us," adding that politicians live in fear of special interest groups and "losing re-election." "They're failing to put the public first and it is wrong — and when I say that leaders today are weak, I'm actually complimenting them in my mind."


Kasich’s views on our current political situation are very much like mine. Republicans are always more financially conservative than Democrats nowadays, but Kasich views ethnicity and other special needs with a more liberal-like view. As for BLM, he says that we not only “should” listen to them, but that we NEED to. I’m glad to see a Republican who sees a racist and abusive nation as being in danger of destruction from the inside. We need the cooperation and support of Black people as well as the privileged. Could he be another true blue liberal Republican? At any rate, if does become president in the future, I won’t be horrified. The following article does paint him as following tax “reform” that helps the wealthy rather than the 90% and as a “far right conservative.” Whatever. He succeeds in coming across as a decent human being in my eyes. See: http://inequality.org/kasich-moderate-inequality/.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/qandeel-baloch-brother-pakistan-murdered-honor-facebook-photos/

Brother admits murdering model sister over "honor" lost to Facebook pics
CBS/AP
July 17, 2016, 8:24 AM

Photograph -- Social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, who was strangled in what appeared to be an "honor killing," in Multan, Pakistan, is pictured in a selfie on her Facebook page. QANDEEL BALOCH/FACEBOOK/VIA REUTERS
Photograph -- pakistan576682998.jpg, Waseem Azeem (R), the brother of slain social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, is escorted by police following his arrest for Qandeel's death in Multan, Pakistan, early on July 17, 2016. SS MIRZA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES


MULTAN, Pakistan - The brother of slain Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch on Sunday confessed to strangling her to death for "family honor" because she posted "shameful" pictures on Facebook.

Baloch, who had become a social media celebrity in recent months, stirred controversy by posting pictures online taken with a prominent Muslim cleric. She was found dead on Saturday at her family home in the central city of Multan.

Police arrested her brother, Waseem Azeem, and presented him before the media in Multan, where he confessed to killing her. He said people had taunted him over the photos and that he found the social embarrassment unbearable.

"I was determined either to kill myself or kill her," Azeem told The Associated Press as he was being led away.

He said that even though Baloch was the main breadwinner for the family, he slipped her sedatives the night before and then strangled her in her sleep.

"Money matters, but family honor is more important," said Azeem.

Nearly 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan each year for violating conservative norms on love and marriage. The so-called "honor killings" are often carried out by family members.

Such killings are considered murder. But Islamic law in Pakistan allows a murder victim's family to pardon the killer, which often allows those convicted of honor killings to escape punishment.

This year alone, a schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was set on fire for refusing to marry a man twice her age. The prime suspect in the case -- the father of the man she refused to marry -- and the other four are in custody.

A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van.

In June, a different 17-year-old girl was burned alive by her own family for eloping with the man she loved quietly. Her mom said she had no regrets.

Regional police chief Sultan Taimuri said authorities will seek the maximum punishment for Azeem, without providing further details.

Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was buried Sunday.

She had shot to fame and notoriety through social media postings that would be considered tame by Western standards but were seen as scandalous by many in deeply conservative Pakistan.

A video of her dancing to a popular rap song was widely circulated, and at the time of her death she had 40,000 followers on Twitter and 700,000 on Facebook. In postings and public comments, she presented herself as a symbol of female empowerment

YouTube ‎@YouTube
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Qandeel Baloch @QandeelQuebee
"BAN" Video getting awesome response from all over the World..Thanks Supporters for Your Unconditional Love <3 <3... http://fb.me/77wAsZUWe 10:31 AM - 15 Jul 2016 69 69 Retweets 295 295 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow Qandeel Baloch @QandeelQuebee I will fight for it. I will not give up. I will reach my goal. & absolutely nothing will stop me.#qandeelbaloch 10:46 PM - 13 Jul 2016 766 766 Retweets 1,005 1,005 likes She became embroiled in scandal earlier this month when she posted pictures taken with Mufti Abdul Qavi, a prominent cleric, in a Karachi hotel room during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. In one picture, she is wearing the cleric's trademark fur-lined hat. Qavi maintained that he only met with her to discuss the teachings of Islam. But the government suspended Qavi and removed him from the official moon-sighting committee that determines when Ramadan starts and ends in accordance with the Islamic lunar calendar. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-pregnant-14-year-old-girl-tortured-burned-honor-killing/

Pregnant girl, 14, burned in alleged "honor" killing
CBS/AP
July 18, 2016, 9:56 AM

Photograph -- An Afghan man, Mohammad Azam, 45, and father of Zahra, 14, who is dead after she was set on fire in her husband's home, talks during an interview in a tenet in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 18, 2016.


KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan man says his pregnant 14-year-old daughter was burned to death by her in-laws, the latest reported case of violence against women in the country.

Afghanistan faces serious human rights issues, including physical and sexual violence against women and so-called honor killings that often involve immolation.

The 45-year-old father, Mohammad Azam, said Monday he came to Kabul to seek justice for his daughter Zarah. He says she was tortured and set on fire by her husband's family last week. She died on Saturday.

He says her killing, which happened in a remote area of central Ghor province, was in revenge after he had eloped with a cousin of his daughter's husband.

Zarah's in-laws had allegedly reneged on a marriage deal with him and promised the cousin to another man.

Honor killings are not uncommon in Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan -- both deeply conservative Muslim societies.

Azam came forward a day after the brother of slain Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch confessed to strangling her to death for "family honor" because she posted "shameful" pictures on Facebook.

Baloch, who had become a social media celebrity in recent months, stirred controversy by posting pictures online taken with a prominent Muslim cleric. She was found dead on Saturday at her family home in the central city of Multan.

Police arrested her brother, Waseem Azeem, and presented him before the media in Multan, where he confessed to killing her. He said people had taunted him over the photos and that he found the social embarrassment unbearable.

Nearly 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan each year for violating conservative norms on love and marriage. The so-called "honor killings" are often carried out by family members.

Such killings are considered murder. But Islamic law in Pakistan allows a murder victim's family to pardon the killer, which often allows those convicted of honor killings to escape punishment.



“The 45-year-old father, Mohammad Azam, said Monday he came to Kabul to seek justice for his daughter Zarah. He says she was tortured and set on fire by her husband's family last week. She died on Saturday. He says her killing, which happened in a remote area of central Ghor province, was in revenge after he had eloped with a cousin of his daughter's husband. Zarah's in-laws had allegedly reneged on a marriage deal with him and promised the cousin to another man.”


These horrible practices are not only found in Islamic groups, but Hindu also. See this article as well: http://www.smh.com.au/world/india-burning-brides-and-ancient-practice-is-on-the-rise-20150115-12r4j1.html. In India it’s done to make money through extortion. The wife’s family is supposed to pay the husband dowry payments. The husband’s family almost immediately begins to harass the woman mentally and physically until her father increases the amount of the dowry.

There is also sati or suttee (“widow burning). Whenever I hear that word, “conservative,” usually spoken as a compliment, I think primarily of ignorance and abusiveness. Conservative means having a closed mind, and therefore accompanies ignorance and injustice. These abuses against women are “conservative,” because they have existed down through thousands of years. They are, in my opinion, truly evil. Too many Hindus and Islamic people have no regard for women at all. I think that view of women has more to do with geography and lack of exposure to the outside (more advanced) world than religion. I’ve also heard that statement given in defense of the Islamic religion as being one of “peace” and tolerance, and that the abusiveness is not written into the religion, actually, but comes from old localized barbaric tribal beliefs in the region. From what I can see, that does seem to be true.

There are also variables in the antifeminist views including whether women can own property, drive a car, work for money, or go out without a male family member. In trying to find information about a story I heard in college that the early Hebrews did not believe that women HAD SOULS -- which I couldn’t corroborate that -- I found two references to that same belief among early Christians. Another article after that one, apparently defensively, said that the belief about early Christians is “a rumor.” It is the kind of story that caught my attention immediately, so that I remembered it, so maybe it is a “rumor.”

Similar antifeminist beliefs exist in other parts of SE Asia, Bangladesh specifically, according to Wikipedia. I did make my mind up in my early 20s that I would never date or keep company with anyone from an area any farther East than Europe, and even that isn’t safe, nor for that matter not even the US. Let’s face it wife beating and emotional abuse go on everywhere. I personally have been happier since I stopped being married. Freedom is one of my favorite things in life. As for DOING anything about barbarism outside the US that is effective, I think the only way to make changes is to educate, educate, educate! Improving the economy so that the people are not as impoverished also helps. One thing that is contributing to social change worldwide, however, is the INTERNET. People see, and then think about adopting the new ways themselves.

Christians have been similarly afflicted also up into the 1900s. For an eye opener, see also:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=coverture:

cov·er·ture
ˈkəvərˌCHo͝or,-CHər/Submit
noun
1.
literary
protective or concealing covering.
2.
LAWhistorical
the legal status of a married woman, considered to be under her husband's protection and authority.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_legal_rights_(other_than_voting). The data begins in Germany in the year 1707 when a legal precept called “coverture” was abolished.

“1707
Germany: The efforts of Dorothea von Velen—mistress of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine—led to the abolition of couverture in the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1707, making it an early beacon of women's rights. The Palatinate was the first German state to abolish couverture, but it was briefly re-instated by Karl III Philipp, Johann Wilhelm's successor. Dorothea protested from exile in Amsterdam. She published her memoirs, A Life for Reform, which were highly critical of Karl III Philipp's government. To avoid a scandal, Karl III Philipp yielded to Dorothea's demands, and couverture was once again abolished.[1]”



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/titusville-florida-hospital-parrish-medical-center-shooting-deaths/

Police call deadly Florida hospital shooting "random"
CBS NEWS
July 17, 2016, 7:02 AM

Photograph -- The interior of the Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Florida, in an undated publicity image @PARRISHMED VIA TWITTER


TITUSVILLE, Fla. - An elderly patient and a hospital employee were shot to death inside a third-floor room of a central Florida hospital early Sunday morning.

Police in Titusville, Florida, described the shooting at the Parrish Medical Center to CBS affiliate WKMG as "random."

A male suspect has been taken into custody, but few details have been released. Officials say the gunman acted alone in the 2 a.m. pair of shootings.

"It appears to be extremely random," said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey before adding that the investigation is in the preliminary stages.

Other officials said there would have been more deaths had two unarmed security guards not responded quickly to the active shooter situation.

"Our response was within minutes, and two security guards already had the sole shooter in custody," Titusville Police Chief John Lau said. "I cannot stress enough the response of the Parrish Medical staff. (They), without a doubt, saved more lives."

Police have not yet released a motive nor the weapon used in the slayings.



There’s not much detail, here, but it does seem to be another meaningless whack-job killing. Thank goodness for the cop and the security guards who captured him. I hope the press will flesh this story out a bit later.