Social Media - News Shaker MH17

I am a "late comer" to social media- this blog is barely two months old. I have always been of the opinion that social media could never replace investigative journalism of the Edward R. Murrow's. I was shaken positively with this week's events regarding the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

British blogger, Eliot Higgins, and his collaborators were able to track the movements of a Buk missile launcher through rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on the day the plane was shot down.
(http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/731964/social-media-sleuths-cracked-mh17-missile-case.)

. "As part of our new report examining the open source evidence of the downing of Flight MH17 we tracked the movement of the Russian military convoy that transported the Buk missile launcher to the border with Ukraine. Using StoryMap we’ve put together this interactive map of the route the 53rd Brigade."

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/10/08/exploring-russias-53rd-brigades-mh17-convoy-with-storymap/

I found Higgins website quite interesting, it is definitely worth a look. The latest for the blogger(s) is the Russian activity in Syria

John Boehner- Shaker in the news

Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, made an announcement that shook not only members of his party, but the Democrats as well. He announced his resignation as Speaker. It has been reported that after the announcement, he sang a few bars of "zip-a-dee-doo-dah."
This announcement is significant for a number of reasons - Boehner is the most powerful Republican in America. He is only the fifth speaker to resign and the first to not be either moving to another government position or under investigation. The speaker is also the next person after the Vice President in the line of succession to the presidency.
It has been reported that he had "had enough" of the ideological combat in the Republican Party. What is almost as surprising was - the "odds-on" favorite to succeed him, Kevin McCarthy, subsequently announced he would not seek the Speaker position.
For me, this speaks volumes about America at this moment. Working "across the aisle" occurs no more in Congress. In fact, it looks they can't work across the invisible aisle within their own party. We have hard line members of Congress willing to shut down the government, as occurred in 2013, again this year and the year is not over and could still happen.

News Maker - Prison debate team

A very interesting incident occurred in the penal system of New York State - "Harvard debate team loses to prison debate team." (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/02/1427151/-Harvard-debate-team-loses-to-prison-debate-team)
A debate team formed in a prison facility in New York State defeated the debate team from Harvard University. The prisoners were prepared in a program created by Bard College and they accomplished this feat without access to the internet.  (http://bpi.bard.edu/ )
Last year, New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced plans to increase funding for prisoners to earn college degrees during their incarceration.
Georgia has one of the highest recidivism rates in the country and in our state, 1 in 13 residents is either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. However, educational opportunities are not offered and the cycle continues to repeat itself.  L.C."Buster" Evans, assistant commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections, said: "It has been many years, if ever, since an inmate has completed his or her high school diploma while incarcerated in a state correctional facility for adults."
I say our state can and should do much, much more.

Meeting of the Presidents

For me, the meeting of Putin and Obama is larger than the current topic - Syria. The world is held under the threat of military escalations between our two countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there existed hope of a Russia with political philosophy more aligned with the US and multiple treaties including the START nuclear reduction treaty pointed to a normalization of relations.

President Putin's rise to power coupled with what Putin saw as an aggressive westernization of former Soviet states through NATO admissions created a "caged animal" response by Russia. We have witnessed several military exercises and armed conflict in Crimea and Ukraine, for example, and more recently the infringement of western airspace by Russian military aircraft. Our placing sanctions on Russia have not seemed to have the effect that many might have hoped for.

Earlier this year, KSU sponsored a talk by Dr. J Arch Getty, professor at UCLA. Getty discussed "Does Putin have a point?" in which he provided an interesting glimpse of his experiences in Russia and how the US is viewed and how Putin is perceived in Russia. What I took away was - if we were in Putin's shoes what would we do? What would we do if we saw Russian assimilation attempts to annex Puerto Rico, or Guam or American Samoa?

This is the area that I see as a bigger agenda item than Syria - for the US and Russia to respect each other's viewpoint and diminish the escalation of military exercises in Europe.

Pope Francis - Climate change

I am saddened by the attitude Fox news and specifically Dr. W. David Montgomery, take regarding the Pope's call to all inhabitants of this earth to address climate change. In his Encyclical Letter "LAUDATO SI’" sub-titled "On care for our Common Home" Pope Francis talks about numerous things that we should be addressing. He quotes previous Pope's, for example Pope Paul "he warned that human beings frequently seem to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption.” Dr. Montgomery steps in and states "some leaders, including President Obama, who exaggerate the current impacts of climate change on the United States to promote the idea that self-interest demands action." He also stated "The poor in wealthy countries, however, will suffer additionally from the efforts Pope Francis proposes to limit emissions, as the price of energy rises against their small and sometimes shrinking incomes." Finally - "Laudato Si also blames wealthy countries for causing global poverty by exhausting the world's resources. This is simply false."

A documentary released this year "Merchants of Doubt" presents a fact filled assessment of the "experts" that corporations hire to combat the issues raised surrounding GMO's, climate change, water quality. The overarching theme - these "experts" are excellent public speakers and have minimal to no scientific training. Their entire goal is find the tiniest thread of uncertainty and build it to a level of doubt that is hard to overcome in the untrained public. In my search on Dr. Montgomery's background, I could not find one piece of evidence that he has had any scientific training on the causes of climate change. 

From the movie, "Merchants of Doubt" a scene that I think sums it up. Talk show host, Morton Downey Jr. challenged a scientist that was raising the alarm regarding the dangers of cigarettes (in the midst of spin doctors presenting evidence that those claims were false and could not be proved). Downey yelled at the scientist and said he, Downey, looked a lot younger than the scientist. Sadly on two fronts - the scientist seemed to lose the discussion, but Downey paid the ultimate price - he died from lung cancer at 67.

May we all have a more open mind to scientific alerts than Morton Downey and thousands of others.

News Maker

Today’s item is about a News Maker. For me a news maker is someone that is not an “arm waving,” “hear yea hear yea” grandstanding “shaker”, nor someone who “cooks” the news event to his or her situation. It is someone whose words and/or actions just “make” news.

I believe the upcoming visit of Pope Francis and the openness in his statements on a wide variety of topics certainly qualify him as a news maker. I am not a Roman Catholic, but I feel that the positive impact on the Catholic religion and the world in general is definitely worth further reading.

Interesting for me is the fact that he has not visited the U.S. before and, I believe, we are down at number 15 on the list of countries he has visited. While he has not been directly quoted, snippets of his conversations convey the idea that he believes that the U.S. needs to remember we are not the center of everything.

I hope his visit goes well, I hope non-believers (not about his religion, but his openness to investigating climate warming, financial ruthlessness, etc.) will, at least, listen to what he has to say.

News Bakers

I conveyed at the opening of my blog that I would comment on News shakers, makers, and bakers. This post is about a baker or two.
So how about the latest attempt to "bake" the news.
Let me lead in with - politicians, voters, clergy, and almost all humans that inhabit this earth can face gruesome interrogation when something doesn't "smell" right. Heck, there is no congressional committee with all of its high priced lawyers to formulate questions, that can match the interrogation of a suspicious spouse.

Topic today: Two Michigan state lawmakers have been recommended for removal from office after admitting misconduct in covering up an extramarital affair.
Todd Courser ran on a Tea Party/Republican ticket espousing the core "family" values, the sanctity of marriage, and previously from his web page, "This is not my normal email leading into the 4th of July - Last Thursday was a sad day for America. Last Thursday was a crushing day for those who believe in traditional marriage and traditional morality." Of course, "last Thursday" refers to the same-sex supreme court marriage decision.

So, believe me, I am the last to judge a person, but politicians - they are fair game. Todd Courser decided to "bake" the news. Knowing that multiple sources were on to him he decided to state that he really didn't have an affair. From CNN - "the lawmaker sent an email from a pseudonym in May to other state House Republicans describing a fake scandal in which Courser paid for sex with a male prostitute. The email supposedly was an attempt to cover up an affair Courser was allegedly having with fellow Republican state Rep. Cindy Gamrat.

Of all people/groups on which to place the "blame" !!!"

If you would care to hear more- http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/10/politics/michigan-lawmaker-fake-email-male-prostitute-apology/

He talks about blackmailers, news media, and if he could, in my opinion, would have eliminated them as his plan of action (He does talk about letting multiple staff members go).

Todd - a major "I am guilty" and no more would have been what your wife wanted (oh and to state that the inadequacies of your marriage was the cause needs your major reassessment and forget your words about what God wants).
And the Lansing Mafia brought you down !!! No Todd, you brought you down.  Next time - "I'm Sorry " and nothing more would be a better choice.