A report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice and released earlier this year found that there are an estimated 23-27 honor killings annually in America, though the numbers are not “completely reliable” due to a variety of challenges, according to a Fox News report . . .
[The report] found that there are essentially four types of honor violence that are frequently discussed and perpetuated: “forced marriage, honor-based domestic violence, honor killing, and female genital mutilation.”
The report also detailed that the vast majority of victims in North America — 91 percent — are believed to be killed for being “too Westernized,” Fox News reported.
Here’s how researchers define honor violence: “a mechanism to maintain or regain a family’s honor by punishing or eliminating girls and women whose actions invite rumors of sexual impropriety or disobedience. Boys and men may also be victims of honor violence if they violate sexual norms or defy patriarchal authority.”
Westat noted in the report that there is no reliable data regarding honor violence in America, though the phenomenon does appear to be rare. One reason that information is difficult to discern is the fact that honor violence is generally not spoken about by families in which it occurs. (Read more from “How Many Honor Killings Unfold in America Each Year?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:17:562016-04-11 10:56:11How Many Honor Killings Unfold in America Each Year?
With less than a year before his successor is elected and he officially becomes a lame-duck president, time is running short. Obama has moved the ball forward on a number of legacy items already this year. Some have solidified; others remain in limbo . . .
Here are things on Obama’s final to-do list.
1. Finally close Guantanamo. Shuttering Guantanamo is less of a legacy issue and more of a moral one for the president, Stokes said. Since the first days of his presidency, Obama has maintained the prison, where men can be held indefinitely, is a propaganda tool for terrorists. But congressional Republicans say closing it will create more risk than it’s worth, and they — and the realities of what to do with existing prisoners there — have successfully blocked the president for six years from doing anything about it . . .
2. Get the TPP through Congress. Obama already scored a major legislative victory this summer when he persuaded enough congressional Democrats — yes, he was working against much of his own party on this one — to give him authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership without congressional say-so on every little detail . . .
3. Ink an international climate change deal. Here’s one place Obama might not need to do battle with Congress. Whatever comes out of a major United Nations summit on climate change held in Paris at the end of this month will likely not have to ratified by the Senate. (Read more from “The 3 Big Things on Obama’s To-Do List, With One Year to Go” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:17:512016-04-11 10:56:11The 3 Big Things on Obama’s To-Do List, With One Year to Go
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump launched an attack on rival Ben Carson’s biographical claims at a rally in Iowa Thursday, at one point repeating a comparison between Carson’s “pathological temper” and child molestation.
At one point, after questioning the retired neurosurgeon’s story of how he nearly stabbed a friend during his adolescence, Trump bellowed, “”How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of this country to believe this crap?”
Earlier, in an interview with CNN, Trump pointed to Carson’s own descriptions of his violent actions during his youth.
“That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that,” Trump said. “That’s like, you know, I could say, they say you don’t cure — as an example, child molester. You don’t cure these people. You don’t cure the child molester.” Trump also said that “pathological is a very serious disease.”
When asked if he was satisfied with Carson’s claims that his anger was in the past, Trump responded, “You’ll have to ask him that question … Look, I hope he’s fine because I think it would be a shame.” (Read more from “‘Don’t Be Fools’: Trump Attacks Carson Biography” HERE)
In a new McClatchy-Marist poll, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leads Republican candidate Donald Trump by a landslide margin of 12 percentage points, 53 to 41. In the McClatchy poll, Sanders also leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) by a landslide margin of 10 points, 51 to 41.
The huge Sanders advantage over Trump is not new. In the last four match-up polls between them reported by Real Clear Politics, Sanders defeated Trump by margins of 12, 9, 9 and 2 percentage points.
The huge Sanders advantage over Bush is new. In previous match-ups, the polling showed Sanders and Bush running virtually even, with Bush holding a 1-point lead over Sanders in most of the polls. Future polls will be needed to test whether the huge Sanders lead over Bush in the McClatchy poll will be repeated in future polling or whether the McClatchy poll is an outlier.
It is shocking that the data suggests that Sanders has a lead over Trump that could be so huge that he would win a landslide victory in the presidential campaign, with margins that would almost certainly lead Democrats to regain control of the Senate and could help Democrats regain control of the House of Representative — if, of course, the three polls that show Sanders beating Trump by 9 to 12 points reflect final voting in the presidential election . . .
For today, there are two issues these polls present. First, the national reporting of the presidential campaign completely fails to reflect Sanders’s strength in a general election, especially against Trump, and against Bush as well. (Read more from “In Shocking Poll, This Candidate Has Landslides Over Both Trump and Bush” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:16:112016-04-11 10:56:12In Shocking Poll, This Candidate Has Landslides Over Both Trump and Bush
The United States flew two B-52 bombers over the weekend near man-made islands constructed by China in the South China Sea, a U.S. official told The Hill, in a clear challenge to China’s territorial claims to the area.
The bombers made one pass within 12 nautical miles of the islands, the official said, in what the military refers to as a “freedom of navigation” operation.
During the operation, the Chinese military radioed the bombers, telling them to “get away from our islands.” The bombers did not comply, according to the U.S. official . . .
Pentagon spokesman Navy Cmdr. Bill Urban said two B-52s took off and returned to Guam on Nov. 8 and 9 respectively, flying a “routine mission in international airspace in the vicinity of the Spratly Island of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.”
Urban confirmed that the pilots received two verbal warnings from a Chinese ground controller “despite never venturing within 15 nautical miles of any feature,” he said. “Both aircraft continued their mission without incident, and at all times operated fully in accordance with international law.” (Read more from “US Flies B-52 Bombers Near Disputed Islands Claimed by China” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:16:012016-04-11 10:56:12US Flies B-52 Bombers Near Disputed Islands Claimed by China
The death from a ‘heart attack’ of a longtime close ally of Vladimir Putin in a Washington hotel has led to a swirl of speculation that he was murdered on Moscow’s orders after offering to help the FBI.
Mikhail Lesin, 57, was announced last weekend to have been found dead in the US capital. He was a Svengali figure for Putin, who was alleged to have menaced the Russian media into idolizing the strongman president . . .
Former Russian vice premier Alfred Kokh openly asked this week whether Lesin could have been murdered – like a new Alexander Litvinenko, a Putin foe poisoned by radioactive polonium poured into his tea in London nine years ago.
Kokh spoke amid fears in Moscow that he was ready to trade his inside knowledge of the Putin court for an end to any American investigation into the propriety of his wealth . . .
‘Maybe they were afraid that Lesin was telling the FBI something in return for suspending the investigation?’ (Read more from “The Alleged Reason a Putin Associate Was ‘Murdered’ Will Startle You” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:15:542016-04-11 10:56:12The Alleged Reason a Putin Associate Was ‘Murdered’ Will Startle You
“Please remember to arm the alarm before you leave, honey,” I told my wife as I left the house yesterday morning. With the rash of car thefts, vandalism, and home burglaries of late in our suburban Baltimore neighborhood, it feels just like it did when I was a kid in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
Although Baltimore is particularly bad, undoubtedly countless millions of Americans who will be casting ballots next year are feeling the same apprehension. Last year, Americans were victims of 1.17 million violent crimes and 8.3 million property crimes. Who is speaking for this silent majority as Obama busts open the prisons and intimidates state and local law enforcement?
Certainly not House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).
Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the prison break bill (S. 2123), which would accelerate Obama’s agenda to retroactively release tens of thousands of violent criminals from federal prison. With Mitch McConnell, being the best Senate Majority Leader the Democrats ever had, committed to bringing this bill to the Senate floor, Goodlatte is looking to run the ball into the end zone for Obama by passing it in the House. Instead of using the House as the bulwark against this bill, as was the case with the Gang of 8 amnesty bill, Goodlatte is looking to become the best House Judiciary Committee Chairman the Democrats ever had. He plans to mark up his bill, H.R. 3713, next week.
Sensing some blowback from conservatives, Goodlatte is defending his bill as an improvement of the Senate version, claiming that it contains more limitations on retroactive releases, even though his bill retains most provisions, including the retroactive release of heroin dealers. Most egregiously, he is positing an argument reminiscent of those pushed by Senator Rubio (R-FL) during the amnesty debate in 2013 – that we must respond to Obama’s executive prison break… by implementing a legislative prison break!
How about not giving Obama any tailwinds to push his last remaining priority of his presidency, and instead use his leverage to combat and oppose the prison break?
During the Gang of 8 amnesty bill, proponents first denied the most appalling provisions in their bill. Then, when the evidence against them was too compelling, they dropped a few of the worst provisions. But they missed the broader point that we should not head in this direction during the Obama presidency at all.
The same dynamic is playing out with criminal justice “reform,” which by the way, would result in the release of thousands of criminal aliens – something Goodlatte fails to mention. Moreover, just like the original House Gang of 8 on immigration, the goal with a criminal justice bill in the House is to turn a few provisions into shiny objects enough to pass that chamber and go to conference with the Senate, transmogrifying into something much worse.
As Chairman of the committee, Goodlatte has a front row seat watching the train wreck of Obama’s criminal alien release, his general prison break, and his war on law enforcement. As Obama’s own FBI Director, James Comey, warned “something deeply disturbing is happening all across America.” Even liberal Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger, who recently testified in defense of sanctuary cities, noted the danger in release of repeat offenders. “There is a likely chance that they will become our problem again … whether it’s a violent crime, a theft to support a drug habit, or an overdose.”
It truly is a tragedy that there are over 2 million people in prison (although mostly in state prisons). But it’s an even bigger travesty that we have so much violent crime – to the point that only a small percentage of violent crimes result in arrest and incarceration. It’s time to address the root societal problems instead of complaining about the symptoms.
At the core of the social compact and the entire purpose of creating government is the protection of the citizenry against threats to their life and property. Policing domestic violence is primarily the function of local governments, but Obama has violated federalism by intimidating police departments with racially motivated investigations. This is what Goodlatte and the Judiciary Committee should focus on for the remainder of Obama’s presidency. Be part of the solution, not the problem. (For more from the author of “The House GOP Member Pushing Obama’s ‘Prison Break’ Bill” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:15:302016-04-11 10:56:12The House GOP Member Pushing Obama’s ‘Prison Break’ Bill
Having exposed the world yesterday to the 2-mile long line of tankers-full’o’crude heading from Iraq to the US, several weeks after reporting that China has run out of oil storage space we can now confirm that the global crude “in transit” glut is becoming gargantuan and is starting to have adverse consequences on the price of oil.
While the crude oil tanker backlog in Houston reaches an almost unprecedented 39 (with combined capacity of 28.4 million barrels), as The FT reports that from China to the Gulf of Mexico, the growing flotilla of stationary supertankers is evidence that the oil price crash may still have further to run, as more than 100m barrels of crude oil and heavy fuels are being held on ships at sea (as the year-long supply glut fills up available storage on land). The storage problems are so severe in fact, that traders asking ships to go slow, and that is where we see something very strange occurring off the coast near Galveston, TX.
FT reports that “the amount of oil at sea is at least double the levels of earlier this year and is equivalent to more than a day of global oil supply. The numbers of vessels has been compiled by the Financial Times from satellite tracking data and industry sources” . . .
And unlike the last oil price collapse during the financial crisis only half of the oil held on the water has been put there specifically by traders looking to cash in by storing the fuel until prices recover. Instead, sky-high supertanker rates have prevented them from putting more oil into so-called floating storage, shutting off one of the safety valves that could prevent oil prices from falling further. (Read more from “Something Very Strange Is Taking Place off the Coast of Galveston, TX” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:15:222016-04-11 10:56:12Something Very Strange Is Taking Place off the Coast of Galveston, TX
Humans who have had their DNA genetically modified could exist within two years after a private biotech company announced plans to start the first trials into a ground-breaking new technique.
Editas Medicine, which is based in the US, said it plans to become the first lab in the world to ‘genetically edit’ the DNA of patients suffering from a genetic condition – in this case the blinding disorder ‘leber congenital amaurosis’.
The disorder prevents normal function of the retina; the light-sensitive layer of cells at the back of the eye. It appears at birth or in the first months of life and eventually sufferers can go completely blind.
The rare inherited disease is caused by defects in a gene which instructs the creation of a protein that is essential to vision.
But scientists at Editas Medicine in the US believe they can fix the mutated DNA using the ground-breaking gene-editing technology Crispr. (Read more from “The First Genetically Modified Humans Could Exist Within…” HERE)
To make sure all 15 of the Busch’s Fresh Food Market stores had enough turkeys over 22 pounds (10 kilograms) to sell for Thanksgiving this month, meat buyer John Taormina began ordering in January. He didn’t end up with a single one of the big birds, which last year accounted for more than a third of what the Michigan company sold for the holiday.
After the worst-ever U.S. outbreak of avian influenza destroyed almost 8 million turkeys earlier this year, there are fewer of them, and those that remain are smaller than normal. That’s boosting wholesale costs for grocers to a record, and consumer prices are the highest ever for this time of year. Americans will eat about 49 million turkeys for Thanksgiving holiday meals on Nov. 26, or roughly one of every five that will be consumed all year.
“The larger-sized birds will be difficult to get this year,” Taormina said, adding that the biggest available at his upscale stores will be 20 pounds to 22 pounds, which is big enough to feed about 15 people. Turkey is “center-of-the-plate for this holiday, so typically families get together and they’re looking for the bigger-sized” birds, he said.
Some turkey farmers haven’t recovered from a six-month outbreak that ended in June, and many were forced to sell birds earlier than normal and at smaller sizes, said Russ Whitman, vice president at commodity researcher Urner Barry in Bayville, New Jersey. Production fell to a five-year low, and the September weight decline for turkeys was the biggest for that month in four decades, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.
Wholesale, fresh turkey hens surged 18 percent from a year earlier to a record $1.5993 a pound as of Nov. 6, and frozen turkeys were up 5.6 percent at $1.309 a pound, after touching an all-time high of $1.385 a week earlier, USDA data show. The agency estimates birds at slaughter weighed 29.7 pounds in September, down 2.8 percent from a year earlier and the biggest decline for that month since 1973. (Read more from “Thanksgiving Turkeys Cost More Than Ever After Bird Flu Wipeout” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-11-13 01:13:562016-04-11 10:56:13Thanksgiving Turkeys Cost More Than Ever After Bird Flu Wipeout
