On the Supreme Court Oral Arguments about the Muslim Ban

1. The government says there are three (3) standards by which the handful of nations were picked out of the fifty-five (55) or so nations which have a primarily Muslim belief population. But, in arguments, Noel Francisco said that someone trying to come to America from a nation designated as a "terrorist state" may still be denied if that nation's government refuses to provide certain documentation. What that means is that there is really only one (1) standard.

I suspect this means there is really an ulterior motive to the Ban. And that is (essentially) to tell those visa applicants their government has refused to cooperate with the United States and that they have to stay in that country and perhaps they should get mad, protest, demonstrate, riot, and even overturn that government to make us happy. This would most likely apply to a nation such as Iran which many Conservatives have wanted to attack for many years. During the 2008 presidential campaign it was the Republican candidate for the presidency, John McCain, who repeatedly chanted "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran".

If this is true it means the Ban may appear to be a political promise kept, but in fact be a foreign policy statement which the public did not vote to put into place.


2. Though the statements of a private citizen during the presidential campaign may have no meaning after that person becomes president, our current president, Donald Trump, has made statements after taking office which confirm his view that his political statements (racist as they are) were in fact the basis for the Ban and that he knew it wouldn't pass muster (as indeed his first tries failed) with SCOTUS, so he specifically had his advising agencies find a set of tests which they believed could pass muster. They did so. This process makes it clear that it was not THEY who were advising the president we had a national security issue he must address with the Ban. Even more clearly, the changed list of nations indicates the original lists were more about finding nations where he could ban individuals and less about national security. In the end, even with the Ban in place, there are many nations with Muslim individuals who might come here to perform terrorist acts. If this were a national security issue that would not be possible.

This shows we can not trust that the Cabinet departments analysis and suggested list has any meaning beyond satisfying the President who views himself as a Unitary with sole power to decide things in the Executive branch (as he has said). We don't know the process by which they chose standards, such that a list of some nations were produced. We don't know what other set of standards might have been considered. Given the proclivity of this president and his assistants to lie on a regular basis we don't know anything about their intents or methods. The only thing we only know for certain is the text of the Ban. We don't know if the process the Ban outlines would be upheld or if a pure and complete Ban of all Muslims would in fact be installed. There is no real oversight or Judicial Review despite the suggestion by Justice Kennedy that review would obviously or naturally occur.

3. There is Congressionally written law on this issue and the Ban attempts to unilaterally change that. We simply do not give any president the power to change law by themselves. That way leads to dictators and disaster.

4. There is no mention in the text of the Ban (according to Mr. Katyal, representing the state of Hawaii) of a limit to the ban. And, despite the suggestion there is a report to be made, there is no time limit or rationale for the Ban to end or "sunset". This kind of unlimited ban makes no sense when the purported reason for the Ban is 'national security dangers'. Those do not last forever. If the Ban were a Presidential Executive Order which enabled a state of national emergency and giving the president sole government power, eliminating Congress and the Courts, then perhaps the Courts could see more easily a reason for such Orders to have a time limit or some other kind of conditions-based duration and/or oversight and review by other interested parties than the Executive branch.

5. I would like to be able to say our president is NOT in the grips of a foreign power and that he has NOT tried to subvert our FBI and judicial processes, but I cannot. He cannot be trusted with any kind of unlimited powers. That isn't a Constitutional Law argument of a normal kind, but it was the very basis for the creation of our nation. The leading lights of the Colonies didn't trust the King of England with such powers to decide matters in the Americas and neither should we trust any individual to decide them for us now. Congress can act if it deems this important.

6. If it were a true national security issue we would have felt the impact by now of not having it. We haven't. There is no national security basis for the Ban.

Cops and Cell Phones

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/desmond-marrow-arrest-video_us_5ae3833ce4b02baed1ba3cc5

How long will it take for police officers to get used to black people holding a cell phone in their hand and not immediately believing it is a gun?

Microsoft Wins Again -- Man Sentenced to 15 Months for "Stealing" Free Software

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180426/00051939718/how-microsoft-convinced-clueless-judges-to-send-man-to-jail-copying-software-it-gives-out-free.shtml

Microsoft offers their Windows recovery software for free. You have to provide a license ID to make it actually work.

A man copied the recovery software and put it on discs and gave it away to PC shops which help people. He didn't steal any license IDs.

Microsoft claims he stole "intellectual property" from them and a Court agreed. The Court may not have understood he didn't steal License IDs.

The man has been sentenced to 15 months of jail. I hope he appeals and the conviction is overturned. Greedy prosecutors and crazy Microsoft should be punished for this huge over-reach.

Microsoft is concerned their software will have malware included in it when it is given to someone else. They prefer that their software move directly from their servers to a user's PC. But, they give away the software for FREE, so it's hard to see how they can claim it was "stolen". Perhaps the Judges on the Court were simply out of touch with the reality of the software world. Their average age (according to the article) is 65.

Two Koreas Shake Hands

Apparently North and South Korea have agreed on some major changes to be secured by the end of the year.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-27/two-koreas-agree-to-end-war-this-year-pursue-denuclearization

The ideas about building North Korea into something new are coming forth and ways of financing it are being discussed. I would certainly hope that with the major changes toward solar and wind power, that any new energy construction in N. Korea would include those. In America almost all new energy construction is with wind, solar, and natural gas. If commercial businesses which seek to make a profit have made this decision (to move away from nuclear, coal, oil), then there is little reason to talk of bringing N. Korea into the present world, but to then push them back to 20th Century energy plans.

It is a symbolic start with much work ahead. I hope it is successful. Any financial costs will be less than that of constant potential of nuclear war.

Capitalism, Middle-Class Buying Power, and Retail Stores

http://theweek.com/articles/761124/how-vulture-capitalists-ate-toys-r

The fact that Amazon.com has become the nation's largest retailer and that Walmart hasn't disappeared is interesting. Many retailers without the power of a Walmart have indeed failed. The article (see link) is about the failure of Toys R Us and how Vulture Capitalists sped the way over the cliff for that firm. It says the middle-class is buying more via the Internet and they have less money to spend on frivolities like toys for the kids. In these changes there will be opportunities for some people, but a lot of agony for others.

America is a nation and as such has to be beneficial for all citizens or it is in trouble if not a failure. Right now it's hard to say it works well for the vast majority of Americans. There is still time to improve on that and a growing economy may help avoid catastrophe while we work to improve distribution of the benefits to everyone. But, we can't just look at a growing GDP and think that's all that matters. If we start to see Walmart closing stores in large numbers, then you may want to reconsider stocking up for the Apocalypse.

A New Nuclear Accord with Iran?

http://www.leparisien.fr/international/macron-et-trump-appellent-a-un-nouvel-accord-sur-le-nucleaire-iranien-24-04-2018-7681917.php

Why would Iran be willing to return to the negotiation table? What's in it for them? Haven't they already gotten millions of dollars freed from American banks? Does anyone think they would return that money to its previous state (locked up so they couldn't use it)?

We can either stick with the treaty or wonder if N. Korea would ever stick with a treaty we would sign with them. Let's stick to our "word" (the treaty we signed with Iran).

The Statement of the Day has to be ...

Some people were discussing Michael Cohen and whether he might turn state's evidence (flip) when one commenter wrote, "Trump would flip on himself" if he thought he could escape trouble.

Science, Disease, Health

I like to see improvements in our medical systems and capabilities to cure diseases or treat those which remain incurable. Here are some links to interesting stories:

Autism may stem problems prediction

Autism social deficits reversed by anti-cancer drug

How close are we to a cure for Huntington's

Diabetes is actually five separate diseases

A new test can diagnose malaria in under two minutes without taking blood

Low-level lead exposure and mortality in U.S. adults


Maxim Borodin, Russian journalist, has died in a fall from a balcony. He covered the Wagner Group.

Yes, it's still dangerous to stand on a balcony or to be above the first floor of any Russian building, particularly if you have criticized Vladimir Putin in any way or expose anything he has done.

Metallic Glass? AI at work!

This is one of the first articles I've read which describes a new use of AI.

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2018/april/artificial-intelligence-accelerates-discovery-of-metallic-glass/

It describes the process by which various metals were used before to create a glassy form and how the use of AI has sped the process.

Guns in America: A Great VOX.com artcle w/video

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts

Mark

recipe: potato salad, as my mother made it

The weather is getting warmer and my mind drifted to sunnier recipes like potato salad. I have had potato salad in restaurants and from a supermarket, but I have never liked them. The recipe my mother used (or created) is very simple and yet tastes a lot better in my opinion. I hope you too will like it.

Today i made some potato salad, so I will tell you the ingredients and portions for that. It's delish and should be about 4-6 servings.

3 good-sized potatoes, Russet or Yukon Gold are good. I haven't tried others.

1 stalk of celery

1 sweet pickle

1/2 medium sweet onion

4 large eggs

salt

pepper (I use the grinder, so it's a very fresh sharp pepper zing)

mayonnaise (or Kraft MiracleWhip if you prefer)

yellow mustard (you could try brown, but I can't guarantee success)

Preparing some ingredients:

1. Potatoes: peel them, cut out any bad spots, and wash off any dirt. Set them aside in a bowl.

2. Celery: clean, wash, dice it, and put aside in another bowl.

3. Sweet pickle: cut off the ends, then finely dice the rest, and add it to the bowl with celery.

4. Onion: cut half an onion, remove peel of the part you intend to use, finely dice, and add to the bowl with celery and pickle.

Begin cooking some things:

Note: Cooking the eggs and potatoes can be done simultaneously. The potatoes won't take as long, so there won't be a problem when you have to work with these later.

5. Eggs: Add 4 to a pot with warm/hot water. After they have warmed a bit, begin heating them to a boil. They'll be hard after about 11 minutes of boiling.

    Remove, drain off the hot water, move the eggs to another pot with cold water and ice cubes. Let them cool a while.

6. Potatoes: dice them. Some people like them in small dices. I prefer a variety of sizes, but it doesn't much matter. Make yourself happy.

    Toss 'em in a pot of water and boil on medium boil. Watch them carefully as you don't want them to over-cook and become mushy.

    Remove them when a knife point or fork tyne goes in easily, but without mashing that piece of potato. They must be chewable, but not mushy.

    Drain all the water and put them to the side. You can also leave them covered to absorb the steam. Hopefully you will be ready to use the potatoes when the steam has all been absorbed.

    A perfect piece of potato will be a bit rough around the edges when you toss it with a spoon. That indicates it's soft enough for our purposes. The rough edges will help hold mayonnaise.

    Don't worry if it doesn't seem perfect at this moment. Once you start mixing ingredients if can still be perfect.

So, we have the ingredients, the cooking, and now they need to be mixed properly!

7. Mayonnaise: In a good-sized mixing bowl, use a large mixing spoon to add some mayonnaise. Don't add too much. You can always add more later, but removing "too much" isn't easy.

8. Mustard: In that same mixing bowl add some mustard to the mayonnaise and stir it to check the color. It should be a light yellow throughout. Check for taste and suit yourself.

9. Potatoes: Add the diced potatoes and toss a little to coat the potatoes with the mayonnaise/mustard mix.

10. Veggies: Add some of the diced onion/pickle/celery mix. don't add it all at once. Only add a little and when you have precisely the amount you want you can toss out the rest.

    I find that too much pickle can ruin the taste and forgetting celery also kills it. Some people don't like or can't handle onion, so that's okay to 'forget'.

11. Okay, so we have the potatoes and mayo coating and other veggies tossed together. Now add some salt and pepper to taste. Add a bit, toss, taste a bit, repeat as needed.

    Don't add a lot as your guests may have different preferences.

12. Finally, peel each boiled egg and slice or dice (as you prefer). Mix some of the diced egg into the mixing bowl ingredients.
    Eventually, move your mixed ingredients to a serving dish and put the last sliced egg (or two) on top.

    I find that a teaspoon is very helpful for removing boiled egg shell. Just crack is on a counter-top a couple of places and then use the spoon to remove shell.

If you like you can sprinkle some paprika on top for the appearance you want.

Ideally, the amount of salt and pepper should be a bit on the light side, so each person served who wants more can add it to their taste.

Et voila !

Cancer, Immune Response, New System of Categorization, 6 Groups, etc.

It appears this new research has resulted in, or perhaps fleshed out, a new system of categorizing cancer cells/tumors based on their immune response.

http://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(18)30121-3

Trump, Cohen, Russian Mafia

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/18/1758063/-Explosive-The-Russian-mafia-ran-U-S-operations-out-of-a-club-partially-owned-by-Trump-s-lawyer

There was another article just a minute ago, but now I can't find it. Oh well, there was a lot of overlap in the two.

Apparently Michael Cohen has known Alex Sater since childhood and is quite familiar with the Russian mafia in New York. Whether he's directly involved isn't entirely clear (as one might expect). Still, the number of connections between Donald Trump and Russians (mafia or Putin) grows and grows.

"It's your First Amendment right to terrorize."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/4/17/1757827/-How-rogue-FBI-agents-Guiliani-and-diGenova-may-have-pushed-Comey-to-hand-Trump-the-White-House

This is a story about why FBI Director James Comey announced the investigation of Hillary Clinton and who forced his hand.You should take some time to read this and be patient. It takes a while to go through the bits and pieces which link the story together.

Here are a few articles which are referenced in the article:


https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/pizzagate-anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-w511904

This one is about "Pizzagate".

https://truepundit.com/breaking-bombshell-nypd-blows-whistle-on-new-hillary-emails-money-laundering-sex-crimes-with-children-child-exploitation-pay-to-play-perjury/
This one is about the discover that Anthony Weiner's laptop computer had e-mails on it.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/couple022798.htm

Here's an old profile from the Washington post about Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, (married couple and) lawyers of Sean Hannity and advisers to Donald Trump via FOX News.

There are some other links you can check. It's a sordid disgusting story of manipulation, insanity, gullibility, and lack of respect for real civic discourse and Democracy.

Privacy in America

I was watching a recent C-SPAN show which was/is part of a series on major Supreme Court cases. The one I watched was about a case in the 1960s  where the Court was considering the degree of privacy which a man in a telephone booth should expect and be granted by the state. Apparently the police wanted to tap the telephone booth line and catch the man who was a 'bookie'. At that time the precedent was to review each kind of place and situation to decide privacy rights and that of a man in a telephone booth had not been considered.

For young people today, a telephone booth was a small space, generally metal with glass panels, with a telephone owned by AT&T ("Ma Bell") and you could go into the booth, put money in the phone, dial a number and get service. There were no cell phones.

The lawyer representing the bookie was only out of college a short time and he had never been before the Supreme Court, so it was a new experience. Perhaps that was part of the reason he thought differently during the case and it may have allowed him to "think outside of the box". Usually a lawyer before the Court has to stick to the facts established at the lower court and to the arguments made in written briefs. In this instance he had an epiphany during oral arguments before the Court and it was powerful, so the Justices allowed him to argue it. The idea was contrary to established law, that Privacy rights were not located in the phone booth or home or office or automobile, but with the Person. The Founders of this nation had no idea about a telephone or automobile or cell phone and they had a clear idea that Privacy was about the person's personal papers and their body. This lawyer won the day. The Court decided in his favor with only one dissenting justice who continued to argue for the older concept.

This evening I was watching a C-SPAN show with two guests being interviewed about the Facebook case, Mark Zuckerberg, and Privacy. It was fascinating to see this same argument arising all over again and the male guest argued the OLD policy that privacy had to do with the kinds of information or data, where it was held, who had access to it, but not to the rights of the person to ALL data and information they had provided or generated.

As a minor digression, I would suggest that had Conservatives in America paid attention to the issue of Privacy over the last years since the Roe v. Wade decision, we might not have this difficulty today. We would realize that individuals' privacy is protected by the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and that isn't related to where they are.

As a potential solution the two guests posited an idea, that there may need to be some government law which provides a foundation of Privacy for everyone's information not entirely unlike what they have done in the European Union. Isn't it ironic that the EU would have protected Privacy before America realized we already have such a law in the U.S. Constitution, if only Conservatives would stick to reading the plain text of the Constitution and apply that Law.

So, yes, we will probably need a federal government law, and probably a Supreme Court decision, to forcibly protect individuals' data and information from being made public or given to those who pay or given to political interest groups (such as Cambridge Analytica). Democrats have argued for decades that this is so. Perhaps now that Russians have meddled in our Democracy, some other people will catch on too.

Syria Attack

I was very happy the ban on use of Chemical Weapons was supported by the United States and allies. I watched some of the speeches and Q&As afterwards and thought they were very well done.

I don't know if Pres. Trump felt this would "wag the dog" to help him distract from other issues, but it was a good thing, a necessary thing to do, and I'm glad it was done.

Kudos to the militaries of the three nations involved. They worked well together and did great work.

Syrian Use of Chemical Weapons, Russian Protection

French language:
http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2018/04/12/berlin-ne-participera-pas-a-des-actions-militaires-contre-le-regime-de-bachar-al-assad_5284553_3214.html#meter_toaster

"Russia has asked the UN Security Council to meet on Friday to discuss the threat of US-led military action in Syria, diplomats said Thursday (12 April).

The request was submitted after Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said the priority was to avoid US-led strikes on Syria that could lead to a dangerous confrontation between Washington and Moscow. France and the United States threaten the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian ally since the recent chemical attack in the rebel city of Douma, in eastern Ghouta, fell on Thursday at the hands of the Syrian army."

Perhaps the request is valid, but it should include also a discussion of the presence of Turkish and Russian military in Syria.

Here Comes the Sun - some music

Music: Here Comes the Sun, by the Beatles, Arrangement by Gabriella Quevedo, guitar playing by Ms. Quevedo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGlIImajcRI

Is It Dangerous to Live in a Red State?

This comes by way of Kevin Drum's blog at motherjones.com

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/04/raw-data-the-worse-a-state-does-on-improving-health-the-better-it-is-for-trump/

What Kind of Leader Warns the Opposition of Battle Plans?

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-warns-russia-syria-strike-how-it-could-happen-2018-4

Wouldn't this be grounds for impeachment if the president were a Democrat?

Chemical Weapons Use in Syria, Trump Response

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-putin-syria_us_5aca1995e4b07a3485e5ab4c

All indications are that there has been an attack with chemical weapons on defenseless civilians in eastern Syria.

Why does Donald Trump bring Iran into this discussion? The leader of Syria is Assad and his only real defender is Vladimir Putin. Is this an effort by Trump and his new adviser John Bolton to trump up a reason to attack Iran? Attacking Iran is something Republicans have wanted to do for many years. In 2018 it was Republican candidate for the presidency, Sen. John McCain who chanted "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran". It's not a new policy idea.

The Russians are saying it simply didn't happen. As long as they pay no price they can say anything they like. If the international community is sick and tired of this law-breaking, they can act to punish Assad and Putin.

Our Condolences to All Canadians

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/saskatchewan-humboldt-broncos-bus-crash_us_5ac83e55e4b07a3485e4d7da

It's a sad story. Our hearts go out to all affected.

Stormy Daniels and Vladimir Putin

What do those two have in common? Donald Trump won't say a bad thing about either of them. Speculate as you will about what that could mean.

Political Sarcasm

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/04/02/egypte-les-resultats-officiels-confirment-la-victoire-d-abdel-fattah-al-sissi-reelu-president-avec-97-08-des-voix_5279645_3212.html

I feel certain Donald Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin on his 'electoral victory' and congratulated Sissi because of his great win because he believes their victories are at least as great as his own.