Gun Control That Actually Works – The New York Times

“.FOR more than 80 years, the United States has enforced a tough and effective gun control law that most Americans have never heard of. It’s a 1934 measure called the National Firearms Act, and it stands as a stark rebuke to the most sacred precepts of the gun lobby and provides a model we should build on.Leaders of the National Rifle Association rarely talk about the firearms act, and that’s probably because it imposes precisely the kinds of practical — and constitutional — limits on gun ownership, such as registration and background checks, that the N.R.A. regularly insists will lead to the demise of the Second Amendment.

In speeches, publications and a steady stream of fund-raising literature, the N.R.A. rails against gun registration and gun owner databases. In 2008, the organization’s chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, claimed that photographing and fingerprinting gun owners was “the key gun control scheme” of the candidate Barack Obama, who, Mr. LaPierre predicted, would confiscate every gun in America before the end of his first term as president. The N.R.A. now says that the “real goal” of “gun control supporters” like Hillary Clinton is “ gun confiscation.”

But the longstanding National Firearms Act not only already mandated the registration of all owners of machine guns, short-barreled rifles, silencers and other weapons deemed highly dangerous at the time, it created a national database of those gun owners with their mug shots and fingerprints, and a detailed description of each weapon purchased, including its serial number. Purchasers of “N.F.A. weapons,” as they are known, must pass an F.B.I. background check, be approved by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and pay a $200 tax. Stolen weapons must be reported to the A.T.F. immediately — the sort of requirement the N.R.A. opposes for other gun thefts.”

Source: Gun Control That Actually Works – The New York Times

As U.S. Admits Migrants in a Trickle, Critics Urge Obama to Pick Up the Pace – The New York Times

InconvenientNews.Net

“WASHINGTON — President Obama invited a Syrian refugee to this year’s State of the Union address, and he has spoken passionately about embracing refugees as a core American value.But nearly eight months into an effort to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States, Mr. Obama’s administration has admitted just over 2,500. And as his administration prepares for a new round of deportations of Central Americans, including many women and children pleading for humanitarian protection, the president is facing intense criticism from allies in Congress and advocacy groups about his administration’s treatment of migrants.

They say Mr. Obama’s lofty message about the need to welcome those who come to the United States seeking protection has not been matched by action. And they warn that the president, who will host a summit meeting on refugees in September during the United Nations General Assembly session, risks undercutting his influence on the issue…

View original post 303 more words

As U.S. Admits Migrants in a Trickle, Critics Urge Obama to Pick Up the Pace – The New York Times

“WASHINGTON — President Obama invited a Syrian refugee to this year’s State of the Union address, and he has spoken passionately about embracing refugees as a core American value.But nearly eight months into an effort to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States, Mr. Obama’s administration has admitted just over 2,500. And as his administration prepares for a new round of deportations of Central Americans, including many women and children pleading for humanitarian protection, the president is facing intense criticism from allies in Congress and advocacy groups about his administration’s treatment of migrants.

They say Mr. Obama’s lofty message about the need to welcome those who come to the United States seeking protection has not been matched by action. And they warn that the president, who will host a summit meeting on refugees in September during the United Nations General Assembly session, risks undercutting his influence on the issue at a time when American leadership is needed to counteract a backlash against refugees.

“Given that we’ve resettled so few refugees and we’re employing a deterrence strategy to refugees on our Southern border, I wouldn’t think we’d be giving advice to any other nations about doing better,” said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York.”

Source: As U.S. Admits Migrants in a Trickle, Critics Urge Obama to Pick Up the Pace – The New York Times

 

“The Syrian situation is the most pressing humanitarian crisis of our time,” Mr. Durbin said in an interview,….” Possibly true. But climate change, the sixth extinction, and the global explosion of human population growth are the most pressing issues of our time, even as most politicians are afraid to even mention that over population is an issue.

The planet has gone from 2 to 7 billion humans in about 100 years. Our planet is starting to die. Some one in Washington should start mentioning that any immigration policy should be linked to family planning and population control. I support engagement in the world, and humanitarian efforts. It would be wonderful to take care of all the refugees in the world. But my thought is that what makes most sense for our country, is to contain populations, while trying to reduce misery and suffering.

It is not any country’s responsibility to take the excess population of another when population growth is the elephant in the room. Such thinking does lead me to probably support such serious interventions as a no fly zone in northern Syria. In dealing with the drug cartels of South America, legalizing all addictive substances, or at least, decriminalizing them, would help make those places safe for their own people to live in.

The World Reaps What the Saudis Sow – The New York Times

“Saudi Arabia has frustrated American policy makers for years. Ostensibly a critical ally, sheltered from its enemies by American arms and aid, the kingdom has spent untold millions promoting Wahhabism, the radical form of Sunni Islam that inspired the 9/11 hijackers and that now inflames the Islamic State.

The latest chapter in this long, sorrowful history involves tiny Kosovo. With a population of only 1.8 million people, Kosovo has sent more of its young people per capita than any other country to fight and die in Iraq and Syria. Since 2012, some 314 Kosovars have joined the Islamic State, including two suicide bombers, 44 women and 28 children. Even Belgium, widely seen as a hotbed of extremism after the attacks on Paris and Brussels, lags behind it in the recruitment rankings.

As detailed by Carlotta Gall in a recent article in The Times, Kosovo is in this position largely because Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states have spent years developing and funding a network of imams, mosques and secretive associations there. And while there is no evidence that any group gave money directly and explicitly to persuade Kosovars to go to Syria, senior officials in Kosovo told Ms. Gall that extremist clerics and groups have spent heavily to promote radical Islamic thinking among young and vulnerable people. “The issue is they supported thinkers who promote violence and jihad in the name of protecting Islam,” Fatos Makolli, head of Kosovo’s counterterrorism police, told her.”

Source: The World Reaps What the Saudis Sow – The New York Times

When we invaded Iraq, it was a huge mistake. Should we have invaded Saudi Arabia?

Here is a popupular comment from the NYT:

Rick Gage

mt dora 2 days ago

“On 911 17 Saudis, led by a Saudi prince, funded by Saudi money and fueled with a religious fervor encouraged by the Saudi government took down the twin towers in NYC. Our response was to invade Iraq. A country run by a secular government with no ties to religious extremism, who’s leader called Osama Bin Laden a dog and where Shiite, Sunni and Kurd lived together in relative peace. Instead of dealing with the underlying religious motivations of a few Saudi crackpots, the U.S., instead, started a war that destabilized the middle east ensuring that the religious crackpots would gain traction by being the last refuge for those with no further allegiance to their destabilized governments. Mission accomplished?”

• 864 Recommended

Here is a second good comment:

sdw

Cleveland 2 days ago

“At no point in its history has the House of Saud been a friend of the United States or Europe. The need for Saudi oil and for oil-rich customers for American armaments has encouraged our politicians to turn a blind eye to the obvious. Wahhabi extremism has always had as its endgame the destruction of Western influence. Saudi Arabia may carefully push the right buttons in Washington and at the Pentagon and even in Tel Aviv, but the nation which dominates the Arabian Peninsula is our worst enemy in the region.

• 221 Recommended

A Walk in the Dead Woods A certain climate-change denier wants to build a wall to protect a golf course “from global warming and its effects.” And get the ocean to pay for it? nytimes.com|By Timothy Egan

Tim Egan: “CRESTLINE, Calif. — They appear at random, cinnamon-and-silver-colored pines and firs, the standing dead amid otherwise healthy groves of cloud-snagging trees in the mountains of Southern California. Last week, the Forest Service said there were 40 million of them — that is, 40 million dead trees in this state, almost one for every resident.

Soon, they will be fuel, for what rangers fear will be a catastrophic wildfire season — “40 million opportunities for fire,” as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack put it. Or they will be ghosts, gone in that sweep when the earth broke all records for overheating……
….”Of course, Trump would never take a walk in the dead woods; he’s nature-averse, unless it’s tailored to his tastes. And truth, to a demagogue, is a bark beetle to a thick tree. But if Trump won’t pay a visit to reality, reality may soon pay a visit to him. He acknowledged this in his filing to build a giant sea wall to protect one of his golf courses in Ireland “from global warming and its effects.” Perhaps he’ll get the ocean to pay for it.”

A Walk in the Dead Woods

A certain climate-change denier wants to build a wall to protect a golf course “from global warming and its effects.” And get the ocean to pay for it?

nytimes.com|By Timothy Egan

States Lead the Way on Justice Reform – The New York Times

“In New Jersey, voters and lawmakers gave judges more power to release low-risk defendants who can’t afford bail, letting them go home rather than sit in jail while they await trial. In Idaho, a new law created 24-hour crisis centers to help keep people with mental health issues from being locked up unnecessarily. Georgia and Louisiana established courts for military veterans accused of crimes. Hawaii funded programs to help reunify children with parents who are behind bars.

These are just a few of the hundreds of criminal-justice reforms that states around the country have put in place over the last two years, according to a new report by the Vera Institute of Justice.”

Source: States Lead the Way on Justice Reform – The New York Times

“Big Fish” Acts to preserve image, environment. – Mereconomics

“Date: May 27, 2016Author: Brooks Kaiser 0 Comments Industrial concentration can sometimes be good for the environment, if not cheap prices or even economic playing fields.This week a group of mass retailers and processors of Northeast Atlantic Cod (Espersen (Privately held, Danish), Nomad Foods Europe (NOMD on the NYSE), Icelandic Seachill/The Saucy Fish Co. (Icelandic Holding company/subsidiary), Young’s Seafood Ltd (Privately held, British), Tesco (TSCO on the LSS), Morrisons (MRW on the LSS), ASDA (British subsidiary of WalMart (WMT on the NYSE)), Marks and Spencer (MKS.L on LSS), Sainsbury’s (JSNSF on OTC) and McDonalds (MCD on NYSE)) acted in concert with Norwegian and Russian fishermen (Fiskebåt, Karat) to stem the trawl fishing that Greenpeace has identified moving toward Svalbard as the Arctic ice retreats and grants access.”

Source: “Big Fish” Acts to preserve image, environment. – Mereconomics

In Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima, a Complex Calculus of Asian Politics – The New York Times

ISE, Japan — Eleven United States presidents have been elected since President Harry S. Truman decided to drop an atomic weapon on Hiroshima, and none has set foot in that traumatized city in the 71 years since, at least not while in office.President Obama intends to end that streak with his visit on Friday, a decision that speaks volumes not only about his presidency but also about the increasingly worrisome struggle among powers great and small in East Asia.Mr. Obama’s predecessors had good reasons to avoid Hiroshima. None wanted to be seen by American voters as apologizing for a decision that many historians even today believe, on balance, saved lives. And there were worries about how such a visit would be viewed in China, South Korea and other countries in Asia that suffered from the brutal World War II killing machine that was Imperial Japan.

Source: In Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima, a Complex Calculus of Asian Politics – The New York Times

Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel-Palestine, by Tom Friedman – The New York Times

“Israel has recently been under intense criticism on the world stage. Some of it, like the “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (B.D.S.) campaign, is a campus movement to destroy Israel masquerading as a political critique. But a lot of it is also driven by Israel’s desire to destroy itself — thanks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s steady elimination of any possibility that Israel will separate itself from the Palestinians in the West Bank.Netanyahu is a man who is forever dog paddling in the middle of the Rubicon, never crossing it, always teasing you (“I’m coming your way — I’m going to make a decision”), only to remain right where he is, balancing between all his rivals, so that he alone survives. Meanwhile, Israel sinks ever deeper into a de facto binational state controlled by Jewish extremists.Soon, this newspaper will have to call Netanyahu what he’s made himself into: “Prime Minister of the State of Israel-Palestine.”I raise this now because Israel under Netanyahu has gone from bad to worse. He just forced out Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Yaalon, a former army chief of staff, is a very decent man — a soldier’s soldier, determined to preserve the Israeli Army as a people’s army that aspires to the highest standards of integrity in the middle of a very dangerous neighborhood.”

Source: Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel-Palestine – The New York Times

My comment to the NYT:

David Lindsay

Hamden, CT Pending Approval

This is so complicated, that I always feel like a freshman in this arena. My quick reaction, is to vote that we discontinue our $3-4 Billion annual subsidy to Israel. Could the NYT explain the old and the new rationale for continuing this gigantic subsidy, when the the Netanyahu continually thumbs his nose at our President, and the advice of our military. I remember thinking, the illegal and brutal land grabs in Palestinian lands by Israeli setters is immoral. How can supporting Israel, in turning Palestine and the Palestinians into a perpetual gulag and killing field, help US interests? Have the Palestinians refused every and all reasonable offers for reconciliation? The Reverend Robert Cromey reported that the mistreatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli government was unconscionable. Is this true? If it is, why are we supporting it? If our support is misguided, doesn’t it fuel our enemies in Al Qaeda, ISIS and the angry, unemployed, Muslim world. If so, it is costing us a lot more than the cost of the subsidy?

Obama, Perhaps Slyly, Calls Attention to Vietnam’s Brain Drain – The New York Times

“HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — President Obama told a gathering of young Vietnamese on Wednesday that the country need not worry about losing its most talented people, but then he proceeded to describe conditions for emigration that fit Vietnam perfectly.“

The places that lose talent, it’s where there’s a lot of corruption,” Mr. Obama said in Ho Chi Minh City at a town-hall style meeting of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, a United States-sponsored mentoring program.Mr. Obama said that people despair of having to pay bribes to start businesses or do the things they want to do, so they leave.Vietnam is deeply corrupt, and development agencies and businesses say they must pay bribes to government officials for anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent of the cost of a project to get it completed.Another reason people leave their home countries is environmental issues, Mr. Obama added. “No job is so important that it’s O.K. if your children have asthma and they can’t breathe.

”Photo President Obama greeting the crowd after the gathering in Ho Chi Minh City. Credit Doug Mills The New York Times

The United States Embassy in Hanoi, the capital, recently installed air pollution monitors, and during Mr. Obama’s speech, the level of the most dangerous particles in Hanoi was 158, which is considered unhealthy. High pollution levels substantially increase the risk that children grow up with asthma and weakened lungs. Heavy pollution also increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in adults.”

Source: Obama, Perhaps Slyly, Calls Attention to Vietnam’s Brain Drain – The New York Times