Skip to main content

Home/ History Readings/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by johnsonma23

Contents contributed and discussions participated by johnsonma23

Simple Middle Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics
johnsonma23

North Korea: How to get serious with it (Opinion) - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

korea opinion US

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • How to get serious with North Korea
  • (CNN)North Korea's nuclear test last week follows a well-worn pattern that spans over a quarter century: Resort to periodic provocations, wait out the flurry of condemnations
  • All the while as Pyongyang advances its nuclear and missile technolog
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • The record of the past quarter-century of nuclear diplomacy vis-à-vis Pyongyang is distinguished by blame, denial, and fantasy masquerading as policy.
  • The only way to change this equation is to persuade Pyongyang that its regime preservation is dependent on reform and disarmament.
  • Today, China will yet again make token gestures like signing on to U.N. Security Council resolutions while repeatedly violating those resolutions and actually increasing trade with Pyongyang
  • Second, delegitimize Kim's rule in the eyes of his people and the world by engaging them through broadcasting and other information operations directed at the North Korean people
  • Such tactics proved lucrative during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, when the U.S. appeased Pyongyang with some $1.3 billion in effectively unconditional aid. Instead, we must show Pyongyang that time is not on its side.
  • Pyongyang's first long-range missile test on August 31, 1998, led to the Clinton administration's reengagement of the North
  • First, block the Kim Jong Un regime's offshore hard currency reserves and income with financial sanction
  • But all Beijing has done so far is demonstrate a disingenuous pattern of diplomatic ambidexterity.
  • China will not solve the North Korea problem for the United States until China sees the Kim regime as a financial liability
  • A regime that systematically brutalizes its own people, deliberately starves its population and remains unaccountable to its people or the norms of civilization will feel little moral restraint about making war on its neighbors or arming terrorists.
  • Recent U.N. reports confirm that North Korea continues to rely on the dollar, and its access to the dollar system, to move its streams of hard currency, much of it derived from proliferation and illicit activities, in and out of its vast offshore deposits.
  • sanctions against North Korea have failed to achieve their objectives.
  • The Treasury Department has blocked the assets of Sudanese officials for human rights violations, of Iranian entities for censorship, of the leaders of Belarus and Zimbabwe for undermining democratic processes or institutions, and of Russian officials and financiers for aggression against a neighboring country
  • It has imposed comprehensive anti-money laundering restrictions on Iran and Myanmar, but not North Korea, the only state in the world known to counterfeit U.S. currency.
  • Until Washington applies sufficient financial pressure to threaten the survival of the regime in Pyongyang, it will lack sufficient leverage for diplomacy to work. T
  • The North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act, which this Tuesday passed the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly, would codify this strategy and require the administration to keep this pressure in place until it verifies North Korea's disarmament and humanitarian reforms.
johnsonma23

ISIS steps up attacks far from its 'caliphate' - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

cnn Crisis attacks

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • ISIS steps up attacks far from its 'caliphate'
  • Istanbul, Jakarta, Philadelphia, multiple locations in Libya, the Russian republic of Dagestan: within the past two weeks all have been the target of attacks by ISIS supporters or affiliates, killing and wounding dozens of people.
  • Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is spreading its wings as it comes under greater pressure in its Iraqi-Syrian heartland
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • Abu Bakr al Baghdad
  • rusader" countries and beyond.
  • indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets
  • , symbols of Western power or decadence
  • Beyond ISIS "branded" attacks -- those launched by affiliates and members -- ISIS also seeks to make political capital out of individuals who claim to be "inspired" by it, such as those in San Bernardino, California, in December and last week in Philadelphia.
  • stage of the investigation, there is no evidence accused gunman Edward Archer was part of an organized cell or that other attacks were in the works.
  • here is no doubting ISIS' lure to a fringe of extremist Muslims and Muslim converts
  • A year ago, ISIS was focused almost exclusively on carving out its self-declared caliphate. Overseas terror attacks in the style of al Qaeda did not appear high on the agenda
  • An early indication that ISIS' leadership favored overseas attacks came when the Belgian jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- a high-profile member of the group, if only a lieutenant -- plotted a series of gun and bomb attacks against police stations
  • "Know that we want Paris -- by Allah's permission -- before Rome and before Spain, after we blacken your lives and destroy the White House, Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower."
  • the "caliph" himself, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, suggested ISIS will look for further opportunities to export its war to the "far abroad."
  • Throughout 2015, there was a steady stream of terror attacks that could be linked firmly to ISIS-associated groups, even if the relationship between them and the group's central leadership was often opaque
  • What, if any, role the central ISIS leadership had in the bombing of the Metrojet plane is still unknown. Its Sinai affiliate claimed the attack, and it was some time before the ISIS online publication Dabiq referred to it.
  • The suicide bomb attacks in Ankara were likely ordered by ISIS itself
  • The Paris attacks in November were a landmark: the first clearly organized and claimed by ISIS itself from Syria rather than the autonomous actions of affiliates or individuals.
  • t has a growing network of wilayat, or provinces -- places where it has an established presence such as Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan -- where government is weak and conflict endemic. In some instances it has sent fighters from Syria and Iraq to expand its presence in these places, most notably in Libya.
  • It also has a pool of experienced foreign fighters
  • The disappearance of one of the Paris attackers, Salah Abdeslam, and several alleged co-conspirators suggests ISIS may have a network of safe houses and travel facilitators in Europe
johnsonma23

Why Ethiopia is making a historic 'master plan' U-turn - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-africa-35325536

ethiopia bbc

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Why Ethiopia is making a historic ‘master plan’ U-turn
  • Any form of development the world over is going to upset someone, and the Ethiopian authorities have always said they would consult communities before bulldozing ahead.
  • The Oromo, who constitute about 40% of Ethiopia's 100 million inhabitants, frequently complain that the government is dominated by the Tigray and Amhara who hail from north of the capital.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The country's political stability is fragile and it faces numerous domestic and international disputes.
  • Ethiopia has up to 10 domestic armed rebellions,
  • long-standing rebel activity in the south-eastern state of Somali,
  • Besides the border dispute with Eritrea, which sparked a 1999-2000 war, the country shares volatile borders with Somalia and South Sudan.
  • Most of Ethiopia's population is based in the rural areas and engaged in subsistence farming.
  • While shelving the plan would be a major retreat for the government, it is a sign of political maturity of the EPRDF, which has consistently been accused by rights groups of being heavy-handed towards dissent since coming to power in 1991.
johnsonma23

Amnesty is not immigration reform - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...78943240

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Voting rights advocates observe somber King holiday
  • While most of the country will spend the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday remembering the peaceful nature and civil rights successes lodged by the late leader, voting rights advocates say this is a dark time for them.
  • Many might spend Monday reflecting on King's 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march to push for voting equality for black Americans,
  • ...33 more annotations...
  • voting rights advocates note that there has been a major setback in their world.
  • Also, 33 states now have Voter ID laws in place with increased identification requirements for people seeking to cast ballots
  • “I anticipate arrests, in and outside the Capitol,” Brooks said. “Congress allowing the Voting Rights Act to be gutted has disrupted our democracy … so our democracy should get back to functioning as it should.”
  • acts of civil disobedience and even a mid-April march from
  • What many view as the gutting of the Voting Rights Act has prompted civil rights advocates to take action. A coalition of 100 organizations including the NAACP will stage a string of protests
  • controversial one for civil rights advocates, who maintain that some groups of Americans, including older people and minorities, are less likely to have the sort of identification that would be required.
  • "We are making it very clear that we're protecting the right to vote, insuring the integrity of the right to vote and getting out the vote. This is not all of us registering people to vote and waiting for November with polite patience."
  • Rights that had appeared to be resolved as matters of controversy in American politics are unfortunately once again up for grabs. It’s hard to imagine what’s more American than insuring the right to vote for all Americans, and what could be more un-American than impeding it?”
  • Citizen Cruz: Our view
  • Legal case against the Canadian-born senator's eligibility is weak, but not non-existent.
  • The most boisterous exchange in Thursday night's Republican debate was not over terrorism, guns or the economy. It was over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s eligibility under the Constitution
  • to run for president because
  • “Democrats are going to be bringing a suit,” Trump predicted, adding, “There’s a big question mark on your head.”
  • the chances of any litigation proceeding and succeeding on this are zero.”
  • Cruz is as American as anybody born on U.S. soil.  And Trump, by suggesting that the Constitution’s “natural born” citizen clause could actually keep Cruz out of the White House, is trying to eliminate an oppone
  • the founders wrote that only "a natural born citizen" is eligible to be president. They  did not define the phrase further.
  • Cruz was born in Canada, but there is no doubt that he is an American citizen because his mother was a U.S. citizen.
  • 1787, the founders feared that some foreign-born interloper, perhaps from England, might come to the USA and seek the presidency for nefarious reasons
  • candidacies of others have been challenged on this point. Former Michigan governor George Romney, who was born in Mexico to two American parents and ran for the 1968 GOP nomination, was threatened with legal action before he dropped out for other reasons.
  • The overwhelming weight of legal scholarship is on Cruz’s side. Many scholars assert that an infant born to an American parent, regardless of location, acquires citizenship “at birth” and therefore passes the “natural born” test
  • They argue that the meaning of “natural born” should be viewed in the context of the 1700s, when where you were born was the controlling factor.
  • In 2008, a bipartisan Senate resolution was passed by unanimous consent, asserting that McCain was indeed a “natural born” citizen
  • If the problem can't be fixed legislatively, a constitutional amendment would be necessary. Those are hard to pass, as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, discovered after he introduced one in 2003 that would have allowed anyone who has been a citizen for 20 years, and is otherwise eligible, to become presiden
  • Amnesty is not immigration reform: Opposing view
  • There have been several legislative attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration policy over the past decade. All of them failed
  • how immigration affects the economic, social and national security interests of the American people — was, at best, an afterthought.
  • Immigration has taken center stage in the 2016 campaign because many Americans have come to recognize that it is a policy without any definable public interest objective
  • Granting amnesty — euphemistically called “a pathway to citizenship” — is not immigration reform
  • institutionalizes the government’s failure to protect the interests of the American people, and encourages still more illegal immigration.
  • amnesty benefits illegal aliens, it does not promote any public interest. Nearly half of all adult illegal aliens have not completed high schoo
  • high-productivity, high-earning workers. What it will do, over time, is make them eligible to add to the 51% of immigrant-headed households in the U.S. that rely on some form of welfare.
  • Amnesty would also exacerbate the already alarming erosion of America’s middle class, as former illegal aliens would be eligible to compete legally for all U.S. jobs and petition for millions more similarly skilled relatives to join them here.
  • The American people are seeking a new direction in the long simmering debate over immigration.
johnsonma23

Wealth of richest 1% 'equal to other 99%' - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...business-35339475

bbc equal wealth

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Wealth of richest 1% 'equal to other 99%'
  • It criticised the work of lobbyists and the amount of money kept in tax havens
  • It takes cash and assets worth $68,800 (£48,300) to get into the top 10%, and $760,000 (£533,000) to be in the 1%.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • if you own an average house in London without a mortgage, you are probably in the 1%.
  • As a global report, the figures also necessarily include some estimates of levels of wealth in countries from which accurate statistics are not available.
  • the 62 richest people having as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the population is a remarkable concentration of wealth, given that it would have taken 388 individuals to have the same wealth as the bottom 50% in 2010.
johnsonma23

US Democratic debate: Candidates spar on gun control - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-us-canada-35340061

gun control bbc

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • US Democratic debate: Candidates spar on gun control
  • Before the debate in South Carolina, Mr Sanders unveiled a healthcare plan for all American citizens.
  • move risked derailing healthcare legislation introduced under President Obama.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Gun control was the first subject in the debate, that was held near a church where nine parishioners were shot dead in June 2015
  • released an advertisement this week attacking Mr Sanders for his attitude towards gun control
johnsonma23

British Labour Leader Offers Compromise on Trident Program - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...romise-on-trident-program.html

shared by johnsonma23 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • British Labour Leader Offers Compromise on Trident Program
  • Stirring a divisive internal debate over defense, Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, suggested on Sunday that he might support the continued existence of the country’s Trident submarine fleet if it were sent on patrol without carrying nuclear
  • warheads.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Mr. Corbyn, who was elected as the party’s leader last year, is trying to shift Labour leftward on a range of economic issues, such as opposition to inequality and government spending cuts,
  • As a lifelong opponent of nuclear weapons, Mr. Corbyn has opposed Labour’s support for the Trident submarine system
  • Prime Minister David Cameron would be unlikely to order the use of Trident missiles, and when asked about the point of keeping submarines on patrol, Mr. Corbyn replied, “They don’t have to have warheads on them.”
  • a channel of communication to Islamic State militants should be created, and cited the secret contacts between the British government
  • Trident is a highly sensitive issue for Labour.
  • For Mr. Corbyn’s internal opponents, the issue is totemic because, while out of power in the 1980s, Labour shifted away from a unilateralist position on nuclear disarmament as part of a change championed first by Neil Kinnock and later by Tony Blair.
  • Some military figures have also argued that, in an era of strained budgets, Britain could be better off spending its scarce resources on conventional capabilities.
  • “keeping the capability to launch nuclear weapons, and therefore the ability to cause catastrophic and unimaginable destruction, is not a suitable solution, and Trident should be scrapped altogether.”
  • protection of employment in the defense sector as a priority, suggesting that his position was designed at least partly to allay concerns among union leaders
johnsonma23

Cruz on prisoner swap: Obama administration was 'negotiating with terrorists' | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...gotiating-with-terrorists.html

cruz obama terrorists

shared by johnsonma23 on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Cruz on prisoner swap: Obama administration was 'negotiating with terrorists'
  • GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Sunday criticized the prisoner swap this weekend between the U.S. and Iran, saying the Obama administration is “negotiating with terrorists” and suggested the deal is part of the president’s overall weak foreign policy.
  • U.S. officials said the Iranians were either sentenced or awaiting trial in the United States but were not associated with terrorism.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • whom Cruz said were detained for trying to help Iran with its nuclear program.
  • “They tried to kill us,” Cruz said Sunday.
  • The United States also removed any Interpol red notices and dismissed any charges against 14 Iranians previously sought but not in U.S. custody, as part of the deal.
  • “Praise God, Americans are coming home,” said Cruz, who is trailing front-running GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump but leading in Iowa, according to most polls. “But this deal is really problematic.”
johnsonma23

Sanders works to neutralize Clinton's assault on his gun record - LA Times - 0 views

www.latimes.com/...nders-guns-20160117-story.html

gun US history

shared by johnsonma23 on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Sanders works to neutralize Clinton's assault on his gun record
  • Hillary Clinton seeks to weaken his upstart bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' is primed to quell the onslaught of criticism over his record on guns.
  • Sanders cautioned that he had concerns about the legislation, which in a Republican-controlled Congress faces an uphill battle, and said he would propose an amendment that would require the secretary of Commerce to monitor the impact of the measure on “non-negligent”
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Clinton, the former secretary of State, has repeatedly castigated Sanders for voting in favor of a 2005 law that protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when their products are used to commit crimes
  • Sanders announced over the weekend that he is open to legislation being circulated in Congress that would reverse the law
  • While the two offer few major ideological differences, the Clinton campaign has sought to cast Sanders as out of touch with the party on the issue in recent days
  • Sanders has represented Vermont, a state with a strong hunting and gun-owning culture, in Congress for two and a half decades.
  • "I do want to make sure that this legislation does not negatively impact small gun stores in rural America that serve the hunting community,
  • Clinton's criticism of Sanders is more about weakening Sanders' momentum than it is about the issue, said Dick Harpootlian, a former South Carolina Democratic party chairman.
  • “I’m calling on him to also flip-flop in the right direction and sign onto legislation to change the Charleston loophole,” she said.
  • "There has to be some concern there that a repeat of 2008, when they underestimated Obama, could come back around," he said. 
johnsonma23

'I Have a Dream' should be required reading - CNN.com - 1 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by johnsonma23 on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Looking for Martin Luther King's 'Dream'
  • Violence, hatred and the spiritual sickness he talked about in our country are alive and we
  • We do ourselves a great disservice if we do not challenge ourselves, and others, to actually spend time, throughout our lives, to read and listen to his words
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • If we did, we would know that this speech so deeply connected to the notion of a dream of a different America begins with a history lesson, tying modern America to President Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • But there is more in the "I Have a Dream" speech that is often ignored or forgotten. King used the term "police brutality" twice in this historic address, and here we are many seasons later wondering why police-community relations are so tainted.
  • "'When will you be satisfied?'
  • Yet they, too, will pause on the King national holiday and say they loved the man and his ideals, when we know that is not the truth.
  • But they heard about the March on Washington, they heard about these people, mostly black but also white sisters and brothers, too, who were making their way to America's capital to fight for freedom, equality and jobs for all people.
  • And as he instructed folks to go back to their home states to keep marching and fighting for what was righ
  • learn that King had been killed because he was fighting for the rights of black people, of all people. Doubly confused me that his words spoke of love and peace, yet he was gunned down in cold blood on the balcony of a motel.
  • I lost respect for King, when I was in college, because I did not think he was as fearless as other black leaders of his time, like Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party.
  • For it takes great courage to love any people who do not love you. It takes great courage to push for peace with every fiber of your being when violence is the language of those who believe in hate, division and fear.
  • And it takes great courage to see an America full of unity and togetherness even when fellow Americans cannot imagine it for themselves.
  • The killings of the prayer group in Charleston, South Carolina, echoes the four little girls killed in a Birmingham church the same year King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. That kind of trauma and shock makes you question America, makes you question humanity, and makes you question King's dream itself.
  • To paraphrase the words Bobby Kennedy said to an Indianapolis crowd on the night King was assassinated, we've got to make an effort to be compassionate and show love, toward ourselves, toward each other, for the sake of ourselves and for the sake of America.
johnsonma23

Burkina Faso Begins 3 Days of Mourning After Al-Qaida Attack - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...burkina-faso-hotel-attack.html

attack

shared by johnsonma23 on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Burkina Faso Begins 3 Days of Mourning After Al-Qaida Attack
  • OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders after al-Qaida militants killed at least 28 people in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners.
  • people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced on the national broadcaster,
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation,"
  • The national mourning began Sunday, a day after Burkinabe and French forces ended a more than 12-hour siege at the upscale Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou
  • White House National Security Council Spokesperson Ned Price said Riddering "had devoted his life to working with the Burkinabe people" in a statement strongly condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso and mourning those killed "in these senseless acts of violence."
  • "During the Ebola crisis, when it was hard to find people to do the digging, Mike would go out and join them so they could continue doing the work,"
  • Swiss authorities said its two nationals who were killed were also in Burkina Faso for humanitarian reasons.
  • The al-Qaida group claiming responsibility for the carnage released an audio tape titled: "A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts."
  • The attack, which began around 7:30 p.m. Friday, was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadist attack
johnsonma23

U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Over Iran Missile Tests - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-remains-us-officials-say.html

iran new york times US

shared by johnsonma23 on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Over Iran Missile Tests
  • he Obama administration announced Sunday that it was imposing new, more limited sanctions on some Iranian citizens and companies for violating United Nations resolutions against ballistic missile tests.
  • after a Swiss plane carrying Americans freed by the Iranian authorities departed Tehran.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • new sanctions on those involved with Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests conducted in violation of United Nations restrictions, but he did not elaborate or dwell on that dispute.
  • “We have a rare chance to pursue a new path, a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world,” said Mr. Obama,
  • But Mr. Obama vowed to continue monitoring Iran’s nuclear program to ensure it does not cheat and said he would work to restrain any aggressive behavior by Iran, including terrorist activity and human rights abuses.
  • The release of the Americans came a day after Iran and the United States concluded delicate negotiations on a prisoner exchange tied indirectly to the completion of a nuclear agreement.
  • optics of the back-to-back sanctions announcements might seem to suggest that Washington was imposing new measures to make up for those that were lifted Saturday, they are actually nowhere near comparable.
  • The action taken Saturday allowed Iran to re-enter the world’s oil markets;
  • The new sanctions are mostly aimed at individuals and some small companies accused of shipping crucial technologies to Iran,
  • in addition to the completion of the nuclear deal and the prisoner swap, the United States and Iran had resolved a three-decade-old financial dispute.
  • Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, did not address the prisoner swap on Sunday. At a news conference, he said that since the sanctions were lifted, the door had opened for foreign investments in the country, even by American companies.
johnsonma23

Four things to watch at the final Democratic debate before Iowa | MSNBC - 0 views

www.msnbc.com/...e-final-democratic-debate-iowa

US debate democratic

shared by johnsonma23 on 17 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Four things to watch at the final Democratic debate before Iowa
  • The fourth Democratic debate, which is also the first one of 2016 and the last one before voters finally weigh in, is shaping up to be the most heated and consequential face off yet.
  • polls have unexpectedly tightened between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Sunday night’s debate, hosted by NBC News and the Congressional Black Caucus, may give voters the purest look at the differences between the candidates thus far.
  • The two previous debates were overshadowed by late-breaking news that came in the day before candidates met onstage (the Paris terror attack in November and the Democratic data breach in December
  • Clinton has plenty of other fodder with which to attack Sanders on gun
  • Sanders has yet to release the details of a tax plan he needs to fund his proposed single-payer health care plan, and his campaign has given conflicting answers about when it would come.
  • Sanders worked to remove another piece of baggage the night before the debate, when his campaign announced he would support a bill to revoke the legal immunity granted to gun makers by a 2005 bill for which Sanders voted
  • Clinton would not give Sanders a pass on what he called a “debate-eve conversion.” Expect the words “flip flop” to come up a lot as Clinton tries to paint Sanders as typical politician. 
  • In the previous two weeks, the Clinton and Sanders campaigns have exchanged fire on Wall Street regulations, electability, guns, health care, and whether a new Sanders TV ad qualifies as negative.
  • On health care, Clinton and Sanders have a deep policy difference that reflect a philosophical as well as strategic divide. Sanders supports a single-payer system, while Clinton has defended Obamacare, saying she wants to improve the president’s sweeping healthcare law.  
  • Clinton and her staff made a series of claims about Sanders’ proposal that many found tendentious
  • And even many Clinton allies have privately expressed doubts about the wisdom of campaign’s strategy to accuse Sanders of violating his own pledge not to run negative TV ads
johnsonma23

Analysis: Too late to stop Trump? As he glides, other candidates fall back in debate - ... - 0 views

www.latimes.com/...ysis-trump-20160115-story.html

trump debate US

shared by johnsonma23 on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Analysis Too late to stop Trump? As he glides, other candidates fall back in debate
  • Donald Trump sailed above the other candidates, who mostly engaged in round-robin fighting that left each of them wounded and him largely unscathed.
  • the sixth in a nomination contest that has defied predictions, left a GOP establishment that fears disastrous repercussions from a Trump nomination no closer to finding a way to head him off, with the first balloting now a little more than two weeks away.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Trump repeatedly dismissed the nuanced arguments of his peers in favor of the blunt and forceful assertions that have made the billionaire the party’s national front-runner.
  • "I will gladly accept the mantle of anger," he made clear that he understands what many of his establishment foes still seem not to — that much of what they see as weaknesses in his campaign are the wellsprings of its support
  • His opponents, by contrast, often acting with visible desperation to attract attention as voters start making up their minds, seemed mostly intent on fighting among themselves. That precluded any single candidate from rising above the others.
  • Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, tied with Trump in first-voting Iowa,
  • He was himself pummeled by other candidates who want to replace him as Trump’s main nemesis.
  • Rubio offered an upbeat new-generation pitch as the centerpiece of his campaign
  • In the course of the conflict, he and Cruz emptied their opposition research files onto each other
  • "Edward Snowden is a traitor. And if I am president and we get our hands on him, he is standing trial for treason," Rubio said
  • Republicans typically pick as their nominee the person who placed second the last time out, but this race has been nothing the party has seen before.
  • Instead, it is Trump who has controlled the race.
  • The survey also showed a dramatic shift in Trump’s direction on another important measure.
  • In March, 23% of GOP primary voters said they could see supporting him. Now it's 65%.
  • "I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa," Cruz said, "but the facts and the law here are really quite clear."
  • Trump responded by citing a contrary view by Cruz’s former Harvard professor and jocularly suggested he was concerned lest there be complications if he picked Cruz as his vice presidential nominee.
  • Trump when he defended an assessment days ago that Trump represented "New York values.
  • New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made."
  • “Radical Islamic terrorism was not invented 24 months ago,” he said, citing precursors to the Islamic State.
johnsonma23

FBI investigating Philadelphia cop shooting as terrorism - CBS News - 0 views

www.cbsnews.com/...d-archer-shooting-as-terrorism

shooting terrorism US

shared by johnsonma23 on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • FBI investigating Philadelphia cop shooting as terrorism
  • FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday that last week's shooting of a Philadelphia police officer was being investigated as "a terrorist attack."
  • Late last Thursday, police said Edward Archer approached Officer Jesse Hartnett's patrol car and fired a hail of bullets at close range.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Hartnett, 33, was shot three times in the arm and will require multiple surgeries.
  • Archer confessed to the shooting and told investigators he was following Allah, and had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS
  • The 30-year-old is being held without bail.
  • The tip said Archer is "part of a group that consists of three others." She went on to say that Archer "is not the most radical of the four" and that "the threat to police is not over."
johnsonma23

In Syrian Town Cut Off From the World, Glimpses of Deprivation - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...madaya-syria.html

new york times

shared by johnsonma23 on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • In Syrian Town Cut Off From the World, Glimpses of Deprivation
  • BEIRUT, Lebanon
  • The people of Madaya and neighboring Zabadani have tried, since the siege by pro-government forces began in July, to keep society functioning and adjust to their surreal new set of dynamics
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • And there is the relentless physical and psychological contraction of their communities,
  • “I don’t go anywhere,” said Maleka Jabir, 85, who said she inherited American citizenship from her father, a World War I veteran, and is so disabled from hunger and heart problems she can hardly walk
  • This portrait of life in Madaya is drawn from interviews with more than a dozen residents, conducted over several months and in recent days by telephone and over the Interne
  • While details of their experiences could not be independently confirmed, international aid workers who have visited the town or been in direct contact with groups on the ground provided accounts that echoed the residents’.
  • While parts of Homs and the Damascus suburbs have been blockaded for years, Madaya managed to survive relatively unscathed, until last summer
  • Both local residents and Hezbollah officials say most of the fighters in Zabadani are affiliated with a Syrian Islamist group called Ahrar al-Sham, and smaller numbers with the more moderate Free Syrian Army and the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
  • Looking for leverage, rebels allied with the local insurgents began blockading and bombarding Fouaa and Kfarya, two isolated, pro-government Shiite towns in Idlib Province, in Syria’s northwest.
  • The medical clinic in Madaya, which works with Doctors Without Borders, was bombed, and thus was moved to a basement. Mr. Mohammad, an anesthesia technician who has been acting as a doctor, said he was overwhelmed with cases he could not treat properly: broken bones, amputations, abdominal wounds
  • giving the most endangered children syrupy medicines, for the glucose, further depleting supplies.
  • Finding food was getting harder. Aid workers and residents said fighters on both sides profited from smuggling it across the lines.
johnsonma23

Deadliest Ebola Outbreak on Record Is Over, W.H.O. Says - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ebola-who.html

new york times US outbreak

shared by johnsonma23 on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Deadliest Ebola Outbreak on Record Is Over, W.H.O. Says
  • DAKAR, Senegal — The World Health Organization declared on Thursday the end to the deadliest Ebola outbreak on record, which killed and sickened tens of thousands of people in West Africa, even as it cautioned that more flare-ups of the disease were likely.
  • recent chain of cases in Liberia was snuffed out, marking the first time since the start of the epidemic two years ago that Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, hailed the “monumental achievement” in curbing the outbreak
  • United Nations said, killed more than 11,300 people and infected more than 28,500. At the height of the outbreak
  • “our work is not done, and vigilance is needed to prevent new outbreaks.”
  • The risk, although significant, was low, he said. The new cases had occurred on average 27 days apart, but there have been none since mid-November
  • The three West African countries now have the world’s biggest pool of expertise in handling Ebola and greater professionalism, confidence and resources for dealing with it, he said.
  • Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola transmission in November and Guinea at the end of December; Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May but then reported a few new cases.
  • Beating back Ebola is among the few tangible achievements that senior United Nations officials cite as an example of global cooperation
  • “Relative to its significance to global humanity, there is no issue that gets less attention,” said Lawrenc
  • “Frankly, this has not been on the A-list of global problems in the way that nuclear proliferation, or terrorism, or global climate change has been,
  • Investing roughly $4.5 billion a year to improve health systems, advance research, and strengthen the abilities of the World Health Organization and other bodies could avoid $60 billion in losses in the event of a pandemic, the commission concluded.
johnsonma23

At Republican Debate, Taunts and Quips as Rivals Battle - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...aunts-quips-rivals-battle.html

republican debate new york times US

shared by johnsonma23 on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • At Republican Debate, Taunts and Quips as Rivals Battle
  • — Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas sharply attacked each other on Thursday night over the Canadian-born Mr. Cruz’s eligibility to be president and Mr. Trump’s “New York values,” shedding any semblance of cordiality as they dominated a Republican debate
  • not only over issues like imposing tariffs on Chinese goods and fighting the Islamic State, but also over matters of character and integrity that drew some of the hardest punches of the race so far.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • In many ways, it was the darkest debate of the campaign, as the Republicans tried to paint the grimmest possible portrait of an America in decline economically
  • Mr. Rubio and Mr. Christie, along with Jeb Bush and John Kasich, are vying to emerge as the leading candidate of mainstream Republicans, yet they struggled to be heard on Thursday night.
  • After months as Mr. Trump’s closest ally in the race, Mr. Cruz pointedly noted that Mr. Trump had dismissed questions in the fall about Mr. Cruz’s constitutional eligibility given his birth to an American mother living in Calgary, Alberta.
  • Mr. Cruz gave his most aggressive performance so far as he sought to protect the support he has built among social conservatives and evangelical Christians
  • “I hate to interrupt this episode of ‘Court TV,’ ” he said, drawing laughs and applause. He then sought to refocus the conversation on President Obama’s shortcomings and what he said was a need to revive the country, safe terrain for Republican primary voters.
  • Mr. Cruz seemed more comfortably in command with his needling of Mr. Trump, who was booed frequently. But then he was asked to elaborate on his suggestion earlier in the week that Mr. Trump embodied “New York values.”
  • “I think most people know exactly what New York values are: socially liberal, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, focused on money and the media,” he said.
  • But Mr. Trum
  • recalled the way that New Yorkers suffered, grieved and recovered from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — drawing applause even from Mr. Cruz.
  • “And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everyone in the world watched and loved New York and New Yorkers. And I’ll tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.”
  • Mr. Bush — who had his best debate last month when he doggedly criticized Mr. Trump, but saw little bounce in his poll numbers in New Hampshire — took another pass at Mr. Trump when he urged him to “reconsider” his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.
johnsonma23

Worried about the return of fascism? Six things a dissenter can do in 2016 | openDemocracy - 0 views

www.opendemocracy.net/...hings-dissenter-can-do-in-2016

fascism US

shared by johnsonma23 on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • 2015 was the year that concerns about the return of fascism went mainstream, thanks to the popularity of the likes of Donald Trump, who leads the polls to be the Republican presidential candidate in the US
  • When you dehumanised the people of Afghanistan and Iraq so that their fatalities weren't even worth counting.When you applauded drone attacks on nameless “combat-age men”.When you insisted that we really *must* have an "honest conversation" about "Muslim extremists".When you asked in total ignorance “where are the Muslim voices condemning X, Y and Z”?When you singled out something called the "Muslim community" as having a "problem" with "radicalisation".When you justified all of the above by swearing you weren't against *Islam*, just *Islamism*.Yes, Western liberals, when you did all of this and more, you were the warm up act for the main show now being brought to you by Donald Trump.
  • Secondly, resist the ‘war on terror’
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The declaration of a global ‘war on terror’ was a blank cheque to proto-fascist democracies and dictatorships everywhere
  • While counter-terrorism has become a servant of tyranny, the narratives underpinning the ‘war on terror’ have filled the troughs of the neo-fascists.
  • This includes the outright rejection of Bush’s greatest triumph: the premise that “you’re either with us or with the terrorists”.
  • This is what a “war on extremism” looks like – and this where it leads. Dissent and you too must be an extremist who should fall in line.
  • It is something of an aside, but when your own citizens can’t express religious or ideological beliefs, or study or debate terrorism without fear of a visit from the police, forcing a parliamentary debate on banning Donald Trump from Britain for his vile politics is the hollowest of victories for anti-fascism
  • Thirdly,  demand rights for refugees
  • All of this while their elites – with honourable exceptions – consigned the progressive ideals on which the European Union was founded to the dustbin by continuing the pandering to the Far Right that created “Fortress Europe”
  • As Steve Cohen argued a decade ago in Standing on the Shoulders of Fascism, there is a linear ideological and political connection between the popular acceptance of the brutality and repression of immigration controls and the softening-up process that enables other authoritarian legislation to be enacted.
  • Right
johnsonma23

Joe Biden praises Bernie Sanders on income inequality, calls Hillary Clinton 'relativel... - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

biden inequality hillary US politics

shared by johnsonma23 on 12 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Biden praises Sanders on income inequality, calls Clinton 'relatively new' to the fight
  • anders has sufficiently come around on the issue of gun control, Biden said, even as the Clinton campaign continued to launch withering criticism of Sanders' past vote allowing legal immunity for gun manufacturers
  • he suggested Clinton was a newcomer to issues like the growing gap between rich and poor.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • "It's relatively new for Hillary to talk about that," Biden continued, acknowledging that Clinton has "come forward with some really thoughtful approaches to deal with the issue" of income inequality.
  • "Hillary's focus has been other things up to now, and that's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues," he said.
  • Biden expressed little shock that Sanders was drawing ample support among Democrats, claiming that Sanders' self-identification as a socialist mattered little to his party's voters.
  • Vice President Joe Biden offered effusive praise for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders Monday, lauding Hillary Clinton's chief rival for doing a "heck of a job" on the campaign trail
  • you can limit who can own a gun, that people who are criminals shouldn't have guns,
  • "People who are schizophrenic and have mental illnesses shouldn't own guns. And he has said that."
  • Biden offered little praise for the leading Republican in the presidential race, saying Donald Trump would likely come to wish he hadn't used such disparaging language in this year's context.
  • "If Donald Trump gets the nomination and wins the election, if he's as smart as I think, he's going to regret having said the things he's said and done,
  • But Biden did reveal a longing for the campaign trail, a setting he occupied regularly for four decades as a U.S. senator,
  • The onetime prospect that Beau might have to resign as Delaware's attorney general, due to potential cognitive complications after a stroke, prompted a striking moment between Obama and the vice president, Biden recalled
« First ‹ Previous 41 - 60 of 100 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page