Random Politics & Religion #09

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an unprecedented travel warning Monday, advising pregnant women and their partners not to travel to a small community just north of downtown Miami, where Zika is actively circulating. This is the first time the CDC has warned people not to travel to an American neighborhood for fear of catching an infectious disease, according to agency spokesman Tom Skinner.
This week, 11 additional people in Florida were found to have been infected with Zika virus after being bitten by local mosquitoes, bringing the total to 15.

New cases were found by door-to-door surveys of 200 people in their homes and businesses, and they were identified by urine and blood samples that tested positive for the virus or an antibody.

Late last week, Florida health officials confirmed that four people had contracted Zika from mosquitoes in the same 150-square-meter area. It's a mixed-use development with upscale as well as economically stressed businesses and homes, which CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said complicates mosquito control efforts.
"New test measurements over the weekend showed a risk of continued active transmission in that area," Frieden said. "Because of this finding, we are advising pregnant women not to travel to that area and if they have traveled there on or after June 15 to visit their health care provider for testing."



June 15 is the earliest day, Frieden said, that local health officials believe the mosquitoes could have passed the virus, which they obtained by biting a person who had returned to the United States with the disease. Since four out of five people with Zika have no symptoms, it's possible that "person zero" had no idea they were infectious.
"With 40 million travelers to and from areas where Zika is actively circulating, many can come back who feel perfectly fine," Frieden said. "But the virus could be hitchhiking in their blood. That's why everyone who travels to one of those areas should use insect repellent for at least three weeks after they return."

Additional precautions recommended by the CDC about the Miami outbreak include:

Pregnant women who live in or travel to the area should be tested for Zika infection in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, even if they have no symptoms of the virus.

Pregnant women and their male and female partners who live in the area should prevent mosquito bites and use proper sexual protection for the length of the pregnancy, or abstain from sex altogether.

Male or female partners of pregnant women who have traveled to this area should use safe sex measures for the rest of the pregnancy.

Women and men who have traveled to the affected area should wait eight weeks to conceive after their return, while men with symptoms should wait a full six months.


The vast majority of cases of Zika in the United States have been from travel to other countries where the virus is actively circulating, a total of more than 60 countries and territories.

Nearly every state is reporting cases of the virus; only Idaho, South Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska have not reported it. Until the announcement Friday in Florida, none of those cases was from local mosquito transmission. Fifteen of those individuals were infected by sexual transmission, and there is one case of a laboratory-acquired infection.

...
I live in a city of ~25,000, and our mayor(s) are full time employees of the city.

The city I was born in, has a population of less than 1,000, has a full time mayor/city staff.

Don't know if that's state law or whatnot. Maybe those two towns/cities are outliers.

I have been thinking about this King.

I have lived in small cities and large ones, and in small towns. I really can't imagine what need a city of 25K would have for a full time mayor unless the city clerk's functions were rolled into the job. And a town of 1k? not even that.

It really sounds to me like someone is taking a ride on the taxpayer's dime.

Oh... County seats be different. True.

Japan's Emperor Akihito has said he fears age and deteriorating health mean he is finding it difficult to continue in his role.

The revered 82-year-old emperor's comments came in his second-ever televised address to the public.

While he did not use the word "abdicate", he strongly indicated that he wishes to hand over his duties.

PM Shinzo Abe said the government would take the remarks "seriously" and discuss what could be done.

Akihito, who has had heart surgery and was treated for prostate cancer, has been on the throne in Japan since the death of his father, Hirohito, in 1989.

In his 10-minute pre-recorded message, he said he had "started to reflect" on his years as as emperor, and contemplate his position in the years to come.

If he were to abdicate, it would be the first time a Japanese emperor has stepped down since Emperor Kokaku in 1817.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo says right wing nationalists who support Mr Abe's government do not want any change to the current law, which insists emperors must serve until they die.
Akihito's address to Japan

"While, being in the position of the emperor, I must refrain from making any specific comments on the existing imperial system, I would like to tell you what I, as an individual, have been thinking about.

Ever since my accession to the throne, I have carried out the acts of the emperor in matters of state, and at the same time I have spent my days searching for and contemplating on what is the desirable role of the emperor, who is designated to be the symbol of the state by the constitution of Japan. As one who has inherited a long tradition, I have always felt a deep sense of responsibility to protect this tradition.

At the same time, in a nation and in a world which are constantly changing, I have continued to think to this day about how the Japanese imperial family can put its traditions to good use in the present age and be an active and inherent part of society, responding to the expectations of the people."

Emperor Akihito said he he hoped the duties of the emperor as a symbol of the state could continue steadily without any breaks.

He said one possibility when an emperor could not fulfil his duties because of age or illness was that a regency could be established.

But he suggested this was not the ideal outcome, saying: "I think it is not possible to continue reducing perpetually the emperor's acts in matters of state and his duties as the symbol of the state."

Akihito's eldest son, 56-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito is first in line to the Chrysanthemum throne, followed by his younger brother Prince Akishino. Women are not allowed to inherit the throne and so Princess Aiko, the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito, cannot succeed her father.

Immediately after, Mr Abe said he took the fact the emperor had spoken to the people of Japan "seriously".

"Upon reflecting how he handles his official duty and so on, his age and the current situation of how he works, I do respect the heavy responsibility the emperor must be feeling and I believe we need to think hard about what we can do."
Why can't the emperor abdicate?

Abdication is not mentioned under existing laws, so they would need to be changed for the emperor to be able to stand down. The changes will also have to be approved by parliament.

The emperor is constitutionally not allowed to make any political statements, and the desire to abdicate could be seen as being political.
What has the reaction been?

The public seems to support the emperor's desire to abdicate, with the younger generation in particular saying he should be allowed to relax in his old age.

A recent survey by the Kyodo news agency found more than 85% saying abdication should be legalised.

But the move is opposed by some more conservative sections of society.
Is this the first time a revision of the law has been discussed?

A debate about whether or not a woman would be able to ascend the throne was discussed in 2006 when the emperor had no grandsons, but was postponed after a boy was born to a family.

Prince Akishino also called for a debate on whether a retirement age should be set for the Emperor in 2011, but it did not result in a law change.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday sought to regain momentum with an economic speech in which he floated new tax breaks and cuts to regulation, as protesters repeatedly interrupted him.

Trump said his plan would include imposing a temporary moratorium on new federal regulations, reducing rates for income and corporate taxes, and establishing new provisions for working parents dealing with childcare costs.

He told the Detroit Economic Club, a traditional venue for political candidates to discuss their economic vision, that policies supported by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, had hurt Michigan's economy.

"She is the candidate of the past," Trump said. "Ours is the campaign of the future."

Clinton will offer her own economic vision in a speech in Michigan on Thursday. In a statement ahead of Trump's speech, her campaign said his plan would give tax breaks to the wealthy and big companies, and would hurt working families and trigger a recession.

The Detroit speech was Trump's first on the economy since announcing a 13-man team of economic advisers last week, which held its first conference call on Sunday. It also came after what was widely seen as his worst week as a presidential candidate for the Nov. 8 election.

"He's trying to rebuild momentum after his serious stumbles over the past 10 days," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington. "This is to target voters in general that he's not just live-tweeting his candidacy, that there is some deeper thought behind his efforts."

Trump got entangled in days of dispute with the parents of a Muslim American soldier who was killed in the Iraq war, and sparred with party leaders. Frustrated Republicans plan to put forth a conservative alternative to Trump, former top House aide and former CIA officer Evan McMullin.

Trump's rough ride last week took its toll in opinion polls. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Sunday gave his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, an eight-point lead, 50 percent to 42 percent.

His effort to move to a new phase of the campaign on Monday was marred by frequent outbursts from protesters. Trump waited for the interruptions to end, refraining from his practice at campaign rallies of asking security to "get them out of here."

CUT TAXES

Trump on Monday proposed cutting the number of federal income tax brackets from seven to three and reducing the top rate to 33 percent from 39.6 percent. He had previously said he would drop that rate to 25 percent, an idea many tax experts said would dramatically reduce government income and balloon deficits.

He called for a new deduction for childcare costs. There is now a tax credit for child and dependent care, which is determined based on income and capped at expenses of $3,000 for one individual or $6,000 for two.

Trump also repeated his plan for a 15 percent corporate tax rate. The current corporate rate is 35 percent, and Republicans have long sought to reduce it. Trump's Detroit event gave him a chance to outline substantive policy proposals before a key audience of business leaders. Bonjean called the Detroit Economic Club, where 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney spoke, a "rite of passage" for White House hopefuls. The New York real estate developer, who has never held elected public office, touts his practical experience on economic matters and potential to create jobs, blaming President Barack Obama for what he calls a weak recovery from the economic recession. Trump has vowed to rewrite some international trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico that was signed into law in 1994 by Clinton's husband, then-President Bill Clinton. Critics blame NAFTA for costing American jobs. Trump, whose core support is among white blue-collar workers, has long targeted Mexico with a signature, controversial proposal to keep illegal immigrants out by building a wall along the southern U.S. border.

And that's just what it is, an outline.

As usual details are avoided. This is not particular to Trump BTW.

Some specifics will have to wait

Monday’s speech was billed as a major economic address for Trump as he laid out his ambitious agenda for the country. But while Trump promised ground-shaking action to make America dominate on the global stage, he was less precise when it came to explaining exactly how he would accomplish it.

Multiple times throughout his remarks, Trump said that the details of his policy plans were still not public and would be fleshed out in the coming days. That includes his plan for tax reform, how he would repeal and replace ObamaCare and how he will help Americans address growing child care costs.

Meanwhile, Trump pulled his own tax plan from his website before his remarks and has yet to put up an alternative.

Trump did not bring up other policy pitches that he has made in the past — including raising the federal minimum wage to $10 per hour or his vision for a $500 billion investment in the nation’s infrastructure.

He also failed to detail how his policy ideas would be paid for, lest they add to a national debt that he lamented had doubled under President Obama.

Ah, yes. The "free" health care myth. Even the Huff Post doesn't think Canada gets a good deal for how much tax money they lose.

'Free' Health Care in Canada Costs More Than It's Worth

The only thing that is free is love and free love comes with herpes !

I wouldn't expect a lot of falsehoods in a speech designed to outline a policy proposal. All that a fact check accomplishes is comparing this proposal to his previous ones. He has obviously made several changes to it.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents whose appearance at the Democratic National Convention created a firestorm for Donald Trump, say they felt compelled to speak out because the welcome they felt when they immigrated to the United States nearly four decades ago is eroding in the face of this year's presidential campaign.

Even the decision to wear a hijab, the traditional head scarf worn by some Muslim women including Ghazala Khan, has become the source of anxiety.

"You see people wearing scarves, people are pointing fingers at them and throwing them out of flights and calling them names when they pass by and all of that," Khizr Khan, 66, said on Capital Download. "Most Americans are against this kind of nonsense, but there is an element that has gotten voice, has been encouraged by this political rhetoric, and especially this election season has made it worse."

He says Trump's call to ban all Muslim immigrants — a position the Republican nominee has since modified — and his provocative statements against Mexicans and others bear some of the responsibility for a loss of civility and restraint. "The voices that wouldn't dare because they were afraid of the decent America to condemn them ... have gathered courage to show their ugliness," he told USA TODAY's weekly video newsmaker series.

Khan and his wife are newcomers to the political wars, naturalized citizens who have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. It was less than two weeks ago that, standing on stage at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Khizr Khan pulled his worn pocket-sized copy of the Constitution from his pocket and defiantly offered to loan it to Trump to read.

A lawyer, Khan has long passed out copies of the Constitution to students and others. The binding of his own copy is falling apart, with passages including the Fourteenth Amendment highlighted and notes written in the margins.

Since the convention, the couple have become among the best-known Muslim Americans in the nation — interviewed on TV and radio, profiled on the front pages of newspapers, even the subject of a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign encouraging him to run for the Virginia House of Delegates. Their home here features a large American flag flying near the entrance and a wall of the living room dedicated to the memory of their son, Humayun, a U.S. Army captain who died a hero in Iraq in 2004.

After their appearance, Trump complained Khizr Khan unfairly had attacked him and questioned why Ghazala Khan hadn't spoken on stage. (She says the photo of her son projected behind them would have made her break down in tears.) The Republican leaders who implicitly rebuked Trump by publicly expressing sympathy and respect included Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who called their son "an American hero."

In an ABC News/Washington Post Poll released Sunday, three of four Americans disapproved of the way Trump had handled the situation. Just 13% of registered voters in the nationwide survey approved.

Hundreds of letters and cards, most friendly, have arrived at the Khans' home since then, many addressed simply to "Mr. and Mrs. Khan, Charlottesville, VA." They nearly fill a cardboard banker's box on the dining-room table. Dozens more are piled on the kitchen table, where Ghazala Khan is reading and responding to them. For now, she puts aside the ones without return addresses or signatures — more than likely negative ones that accuse them of being political pawns or worse.

During the past year, the Khans say they have heard rising fears from Muslim friends and family members, especially children.

"For the whole year last year, we’ve been sitting very quietly like many, many, many American citizens, watching this political process take shape, watching the disrespect of Donald Trump, him disrespecting immigrants, Muslim immigrants, women, judges, even senior members of his own party," Khizr Khan said. When they would go out to dinner and other community gatherings, the American-born children of Muslim immigrants would sidle up to him. "They would come to me, personally close to me, and they’ll say, 'Mr. Khan, you're a lawyer. Will we be thrown out of this country?'

"We go to school and our friends taunt us: 'You will be thrown out when Trump becomes president.' "

Ghazala Khan says she received a nervous call from her niece, who had grown up in the United States and was returning after spending two years in Pakistan. "She called me, 'Auntie, I'm so disturbed because all I have heard in Pakistan: Trump is going to teach Muslims a lesson.' "

Now that she's back, Khan says her niece says it's "not that bad," though she encounters more hostility toward the hijab she wears than she did before.

The Khans say they hope to continue speaking out during the fall campaign. They don't rule out doing political events for Hillary Clinton, although they say her campaign hasn't asked them to do so. In the days after the convention speech, Clinton did phone to thank them, telling Ghazala Khan that she would be thinking of her during the rest of the campaign.

Khizr Khan says the campaign didn't write his convention speech or edit it, other than to insist he shorten a six-page speech to a page-and-a-half for time constraints.

Ghazala Khan was his editor, convincing him to remove a section that alluded to the controversy over lifted passages in the speech Melania Trump delivered at the Republican convention. Only in the cab on their way to the arena did he decide to add the gesture of taking out the pocket Constitution he always carries.

On his wife's advice, he practiced in the cab pulling it out of his jacket and holding it right-side-up and cover facing out.

During the interview Monday, a box arrived at the front door: another shipment of pocket-sized Constitutions.

Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, the parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.

The lawsuit contends that "the deaths of Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods were directly and proximately caused by the negligent and reckless actions" of Clinton, who was secretary of State at the time. It goes on to specifically fault Clinton's use of a private email server while at the State Department, saying any information received or sent through her personal account was "compromised" and ultimately helped facilitate the attack.

The suit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Smith and Woods are represented by attorney Larry Klayman, who has long targeted the Clintons, dating back to the administration of President Bill Clinton during the 1990s.

Smith spoke at last month's Republican National Convention in Cleveland and delivered a blistering critique of Hillary Clinton's handling of Benghazi, where four Americans, including Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, lost their lives.

"I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son," Patricia Smith said.

In a statement provided to The New York Times and NBC News, Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said of the lawsuit: “While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton.”

In June, House Republicans issued a report from a two-year investigation into the Benghazi attacks that cited the Obama administration for security lapses but revealed nothing particularly new about Clinton's handling of the matter.

The following month, FBI Director James Comey sharply criticized Clinton's use of private email servers while at the State Department as "extremely careless," but argued that she should face no criminal charges, a recommendation Attorney General Loretta Lynch soon after adopted.

In "Slow News Day" news:

Before Trump there was no: violence, racism, hatred, bigotry, sexism, or umm microwave ovens !

Percy Spencer is generally credited with inventing the modern microwave oven after World War II from radar technology developed during the war. Named the "Radarange", it was first sold in 1946.

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946)

Sitting in front of his high-end computer, staring intently at the screen, chunky headphones on and mouse busily clicking away, Omar Omsen looks like a regular office worker.
Only the camouflage t-shirt and the tent walls billowing around him offer a hint that this is no ordinary workplace, but the epicenter of jihadi recruitment in Syria.
The clip he's working on is not a pop video or newsreel but a piece of radical Islamist propaganda, in praise of the "Charlie Hebdo" attackers who killed 12 people in Paris in January 2015.

Omsen -- a.k.a. Omar Diaby -- is France's "super jihadist."

Through his series of online videos, released under the name "19HH" (a tribute to the 19 perpetrators of the September 11 attacks), French authorities say he is responsible for recruiting about 80% of French-speaking jihadis heading to Syria and Iraq.
The clips fuse Hollywood special effects, rap music, religion and conspiracy theories in an attempt to convince young French Muslims to join the fight.
Omsen, 41, was born in Senegal, but moved to France as a child, and grew up in Nice. According to French media reports, he became radicalized during several spells in prison. He moved to Syria in 2013, to head up a French "katiba," or brigade, of jihadis.
Among his followers, who listen rapt as he preaches with messianic fervor, Omsen is treated as a spiritual leader.

"All the guys were looking at him like he was god, like it was a sect," says Fouad El Bathy, who has seen Omsen in action up close in Syria.
"He made me think of a guru -- they were venerating him."
El Bathy was in Syria to try and rescue his baby sister, Nora, who ran away to Syria when she was just 15 years old, one of the thousands who have made the journey.

The Institute for Economics and Peace says between 25,000 and 30,000 foreign fighters, 21% of them from Europe, traveled to Iraq and Syria between 2011 and 2015.
And US National Intelligence Director James Clapper says the number is now even higher. In February, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee "more than 36,500 foreign fighters -- including at least 6,600 from Western countries -- have traveled to Syria ... since the conflict began in 2012."



And while the promenades of southern France may seem a world away from the war zone, the region -- and Omsen's childhood home, Nice, in particular -- has become a hotbed of jihadi recruitment.
Local imam Boubekeur Bekri says he knows people who "have been attracted by this massive lie of paradise."

"They are transformed in a few weeks, or even in a few days -- it's like a bomb goes off ... ISIS can be very persuasive," he explains. "They take fragile people, and make them more fragile, and then they promise them paradise. They work to alienate and isolate these people."
Radicalization, he says, is "like a virus ... When a virus infects a lot of people, it's a pandemic and you can't use regular pills to cure it. You need bigger resources."
But despite a supposed crackdown -- France has been in a state of emergency since the Paris attacks in November last year -- the country's jihadi exodus is continuing unabated.



According to the latest Interior Ministry figures obtained by CNN, the number of French nationals caught up in jihad have jumped 13% over the past six months: between May and July this year alone, 67 more people became involved.
Europol says "a significant percentage of all foreign terrorist travellers in Syria/Iraq are now female." Most women making the trip are married to fighters soon after they arrive, and "historical data suggests women are less likely to (be able to) return than men."

When Nora disappeared from her home in Avignon two years ago, her family had no idea where she had gone.
"It was 6.30pm, 7.30pm and she was not at home," says El Bathy. "We were worried, since this was not her way, she always came home and did her homework." He began a frantic search for his much-loved youngest sibling.

"I went around the neighborhood, and there was no sign of her. I went to the train station and she was not there, to the town center and it was the same ... I called the hospital, the clinic, there was no news. I went to the police station, nothing."
Eventually, El Bathy recalls "She spoke to me on Facebook. She said 'How are you?' and I said 'What do you mean how are you? I'm not okay! Where are you?'
"'I'm in Syria, thank God,'" his sister told him. "'I'm finally going to help Syrians.'"
"We were in a state of shock," El Bathy says. "My sister spoke like she was in heaven, like she had reached her goal. Finally, she thought, she was going to have a role on earth. My mother fainted."

It wasn't until much later that he realized Nora had been taken in by the notorious "super jihadist."
"I heard about Omar Omsen in the media -- I didn't know who it was," El Bathy says. "He gave an interview to a journalist and he was speaking about Nora. He said that my sister was like his own daughter."

El Bathy decided he had to follow in Nora's footsteps, to risk it all and travel to Syria and try to bring his sister home to France.
When he arrived, he was put into a pick-up truck to be driven "like crazy" to the group's compound: "I thought I was going to die on my way there."
"I saw a Kalashnikov right next to me -- that's when I realized it was serious," he says. "You never see weapons so close to you.
"There was a Syrian guy called Abu Khalid, he was the one driving. He said to me. 'You should fight, you should save Syrians, and fight for Allah' -- he was trying to radicalize me."
And the radicalization attempts didn't stop when he reached the group's shared home, where he was forced to sit and listen while Omsen preached jihad. "I could feel he was trying to manipulate me," El Bathy says. "What he was saying was too good to be true."

Eventually, El Bathy was allowed to visit Nora -- accompanied by Omsen.
"We walked toward my sister's house ... We stopped at a shop and bought candies for my sister, because she loves candies. Omar said 'I love your sister like she was my own. It's because of me that she's not married to a fighter.'

"He told me to get in [to the room where Nora was being kept], and my sister jumped on me. We couldn't stop hugging each other. She kissed me here, here, here -- she even kissed me on the mouth by mistake," he remembers, sobbing and smiling.
"I told her 'Let's go home.' She said 'I can't, I can't.' She knocked her head against the wall of the room. I saw there was a CCTV camera monitoring us, and I understood ... She wanted to come back but Omar stopped her from coming with me."
El Bathy, who works for a deradicalisation program and filmed his trip to Syria on hidden cameras, says he spent several days living among Omsen's followers, and was surprised to find that Nora was not the youngest there.
"There were more than 50 minors where I was. There were 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 year-old kids, all ages," he says. "They were from all around the world."

But he was not permitted to spend much time with his sister: "I could only see my sister twice. The last time I could only give her a bit of money to keep in touch with us -- I gave maybe 200 euros and a phone, but they took everything away."

El Bathy says Omsen and those around him suspected that he planned to "kidnap" Nora and take her out of the country; as a result, he says "I was held in the villa with an armed man."
In the end, he says, "they told me to go back to France," leaving him little choice but to go home alone.
French President Francois Hollande says the country is at war, but with terror attacks at home and jihadi converts abroad, it is increasingly a battle within itself -- and families on both sides -- those of the victims and the perpetrators -- are suffering.
And even as El Bathy and others like him bravely speak out, Omsen and his propaganda machine continue to lure men and women to wage war at home and abroad.