American Man Detained in North Korea

Olivia Elswick, Asia CorrespondentLast Modified: 09:36 p.m. DST, 14 June 2014

PYONGYANG--North Korea has detained an American man as he tried to leave the country following his tourist trip which began on 29 April 2014. State media identified the man as Jeffrey Edward Fowle, 56, of Maimisburg, Ohio and he is the third American citizen to be detained by Pyongyang in the past 18-months.

He was arrested for what they describe as activities inconsistent with his stated intent on his tourist visa. Japanese news agency Kyodo reports that he allegedly left a Bible in a hotel where he had been staying. North Korea has been promoting tourism in an effort to attain foreign currency, but the country is sensitive to how visitors act while in the country.

The State Department has warned against travel to North Korea, and being part of a tour group will not prevent possible arrest. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said there’s “no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad,” though they cannot give any further information about specific details without consent from the individual.

Because the U.S. has no diplomatic presence in North Korea, the Swedish Embassy handles consular matters for Americans in North Korea and are working to return Fowle to his three children, ages 9,10, and 12, and his wife, Tatyana, a 40-year-old Russian immigrant.

The Swedish embassy has been in contact with one of the other two U.S. detainees, Kenneth Bae, 45, a Korean-American missionary from Lynwood, Washington who is serving 15 years of hard labor for alleged hostile acts against the state aimed at bringing down the regime of Kim Jong-un.

North Korea contains state-controlled churches but forbids independent religious activities. Bae is fearful for his health after he was returned to labor camp following a stay in the hospital. He told Swedish diplomat, Cecilia Anderberg, that he has likely lost 10 pounds since his return to the camp. Bae spends eight hours a day doing manual labor with his hands, and he suffers back and neck pain.

U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has offered to go to North Korea to help with Bae’s release. For a second time, North Korea has rescinded its invitation to Ambassador Robert King, with no explanation. Former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Donald Gregg, has visited Pyongyang, but for matters unrelated to the 3 Americans held captive.

Matthew Miller, or Miller Matthew Todd, 24, is being detained for improper behavior after he entered North Korea on April 10th with a tourist visa, tore it up, and shouted that he wanted to seek asylum with North Korea “as a shelter.” Last year an 85-year-old veteran of the Korean War, Merrill Newman, was freed from Pyongyang, after being held for several weeks following an organized private tour in the country. He was released after involuntarily giving a videotaped confession apologizing for killing North Koreans during the war.

Follow Olivia on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Asia Correspondent: @OCELswick

Related articles

• North Korea Seizes, Imprisons US Tourist for Leaving Bible in Hotel Room (breitbart.com)

• North Korea says it is holding an American tourist (nzherald.co.nz)

• US citizen detained in North Korea (thehindu.com)

• Jeffery Edward Fowle, American, Arrested In North Korea For Having Bible In Hotel Room (ibtimes.com)

• Lawyer: Detained American Was Touring North Korea (abcnews.go.com)

World Cup Gridlocked in São Paulo

SÃO PAOLO, Brazil -- The demonstration that shutdown subway networks in São Paulo, Brazil has halted, if only momentarily, after having plagued the biggest city in Brazil since last Thursday, 5 June 2014 .

Organizers of the transit union walkout suspended the five-day protest this morning, 10 June, in response to escalating traffic congestion that have turned the streets of São Paulo into one giant gridlock. International soccer enthusiasts have turned to taxi services in order to travel to Arena Corinthians, a major stadium located outside of São Paulo city limits.

Both sides in the ongoing saga are looking to compromise, although the leaders of the São Paulo transit union and Governor Geraldo Alckmin are currently stuck in stalemate. 60 employees have been fired after chaos erupted during union demonstrations yesterday, 9 June 2014.

During the protest on Monday, riot police removed the demonstrators by any means necessary, scattering hundreds of union members and sympathizers with stun grenades, tear gas and pepper spray. But the hostility between police and protestors has only further divided the opposing camps.

The São Paulo transportation union is now warning that subway employees will not return to work on Thursday, 12 June, unless the 60 employees are rehired and a 12.2% wage increase is met by authorities. On Thursday, Brazil welcomes the world to São Paulo during the opening World Cup match between Brazil and Croatia.

In the months leading up to the biggest sporting event in the world, Brazil has spent billions on infrastructure and planning. The effort to accommodate masses of international spectators has angered many Brazilians, especially those living in poverty. Those most affected include the residents evicted from select slums throughout Rio de Janeiro in preparation for World Cup fervor.

Governor Alckmin will honor a 8.7% increase in worker's salary, but has firmly rejected the 12.2% demand. Also, he has notified union officials that the fired men and women will not recover their lost jobs. Unless Alckmin or the union authorities rethink their position, continued disorder is guaranteed throughout Sao Paulo in the coming days.

The subway stoppage is only one of many concerns in an ongoing saga of protests against the Brazilian government. Notably, the eviction of blacks to make way for parking lots in Rio have been called racially-biased and unjust. Prices have increased for products across the board, surpassing even high-end predictions. And the investment of billions of dollars into the tournament has upset even more throughout the country.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Brazillians widely disapprove of the direction of their country. An April poll affirmed that 72% of nationals are discontented with their government.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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• Subway strikers, police clash in Sao Paulo, Brazil (miamiherald.com)

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• Striking Brazil Subway Workers Clash With Police iIn Sao Paulo (theepochtimes.com)

• Brazil braces for uneasy start to World Cup as strikers' protests grip São Paulo (theguardian.com)

FIFA Fans & Sex Tourism

Jessamy Nichols, Contributing JournalistLast Modified: 17:40 p.m. DST, 09 June 2014

Eyes all over the globe are turning to Brazil, where the 2014 World Cup begins on June 12th. Hundreds of thousands of people will travel to the South American country in hopes of watching exhilarating games, tense overtime moments and emotional victories for their team of choice. For many, the tournament serves as a bonding thread that brings people of all races and nationalities together over the love of the sport and its history.

However, off the soccer field, there are illegal and horrifying trends that follow such global tournaments such as these. Sports events like World Cups and Olympics bring in an influx of tourists, construction workers, event staffers, and others, which creates a disorderly balance that host cities are commonly unprepared for.

In recent weeks, there has been international concern over men coming to Brazil to engage in sex with underage children, which is especially alarming because Brazil has long been seen as a prime getaway for men who want to engage in carefree sexual exploits.

In an article published May 24th, The Independent stated that girls as young as 11 are being targeted by human traffickers in advance of the World Cup to work as prostitutes and bring in money for pimps and gangs. To make matters worse, there is currently a "culture of silence" around the issue, where families and even law enforcement keep quiet on the growing issue.

Many human rights groups around the globe have been trying to bring awareness to this compounding issue by speaking out and producing documentaries. However, it seems like this widespread and deeply engrained problem in Brazil requires much more action and vocality before there would even be a possibility of it being resolved.

To keep these innocent children out of harm's way, there will need to be a full-fledged effort from local and international law enforcement, human rights groups, internet monitoring groups to monitor the deep parts of the web where these transactions can take place, and an aware audience. At the end of the day, is a soccer match worth sacrificing any child's innocence and sense of safety?

Follow Jessamy on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Journalist: @JessamyNichols

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• World Cup Images: Editorial Versus Commercial Submissions (shutterstock.com)

• Sponsor Adidas concern at FIFA corruption claims (miamiherald.com)

The Wolf of the Matter

Two Wolves | A Cherokee Legend

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."

He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute, then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

The Cage Finally Open | A Tribute to Maya Angelou

Chrycka Harper, Poet & Literary CriticLast Modified: 00:07 a.m. DST, 31 May 2014

Not too long ago, Mandela joined the small community. He reunited with memorial friends, met with known ancestors, and joined the others to patiently wait for the next neighbor.

Eyes immediately focused on the glorious caged bird. Her songs send warm, comforting nostalgia to millions worldwide.

Our ears rejoice when she shares her wisdom, Our eyes rejoice when she graces the page with exceptional stanzas, Our mouths rejoice in smiles within her presence.

Maya Angelou, your songs kept us in remembrance of our history and heritage. But God said its time to unlock the cage So that the phenomenal bird can fly to its home.

Maya Angelou flew to her home, with Zora, Brooks, Wheatley, Aesop, but her spirit will never allow us to forget for the world.

Thank you, from an aspiring storyteller to a modern griot.

Follow Chrycka Harper on Twitter

Twitter: @nahmias_report

Poet & Literary Critic: @chrycka_harper

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The "Manosphere" | Feminists Shot Dead on Sight

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 03:43 p.m. DST, 29 May 2014

ENTER THE "MANOSPHERE" at your own risk. This community of blogs and user forums are think tanks of misogyny, where expert womanizers share their secrets and angry 'alpha males' disparage the opposite sex.

The various websites within the loosely affiliated "manosphere" often operate under the guise of gender equality. In the minds of the site administrators and talking heads, so-called equality means that 'alpha males' take back what is rightfully theirs: ubiquitous sexual opportunity, decreasing political power, and American gender roles reminiscent of the 1950's.

Objective organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center have classified many of these websites as hate blogs.

Interesting, the young 'alpha males' that populate the "manosphere" were not alive in the age they so long for. As an antidote to their perceived feebleness in the eyes of women, they are nostalgic for the decades and the gender roles within which their grandparents abided.

At the very least, you would think that the "manosphere" reporters would be well-versed in the history and the context of their declarations. Instead, reading through the "manosphere," one would think that these men come from an alternate reality, a science-fiction story, where men have been recently liberated from a society of domineering, authoritative, and suppressive women. Women who had historically disenfranchised them, used them as sexual objects, and restricted their self-sufficiency through calculated discrimination.

If you were unaware about these backwards breeding grounds, you are like me. Knowledge of these websites is very self-selecting; you are unlikely to frequent them if you do not share or condone the values they espouse. The readership of the "manosphere" is united in the mission to stop the feminist "agenda," many even declare that feminist ideologies are akin to terrorism.

To the world, Elliot Rodger is the gunman in the Santa Barbara massacre earlier this week, but to many websites throughout the "manosphere," Rodger was a contributing commentator. The vile dogma in his viral videos is representative of what you might read on many of the sites--women owe men sex, and men who are denied intercourse have a responsibility to remind women of their subservient place in society. Of course, not all participants of "manosphere" outfits are evil, potential killers. But it just so happens that Rodger had a reciprocal relationship to the community--he was both guided by thinkers of the "manosphere" and contributed to the hatred published therein.

The discussion of the mass-shooting in Santa Barbara and the rationale of Rodger are comparable to the study of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Following the tragedy, reports surfaces that shooters Klebold and Harris worshipped musician Marilyn Manson. The press crucified Manson, and he became all but an accessory to the 15 murders at the school. The public reaction also condemned violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto as a conspiring force in the massacre. These are important factors to consider, but certainly as a society we cannot believe that extreme music and games are causal to the slaughter and deny the role of gun laws and mental health.

In a similar vein, we can look to the "manosphere" for answers to the uncertain mindset of Rodger. Plenty of people play violent video games, listen to disturbed music, and have hateful views towards women and do not go on a killing spree. What pushed Rodger over the edge? We will never know. But we do know that with a serious review of the laws related to gun ownership [his choice of weaponry was purchased legally, just miles from the scene of the crime], and greater psychiatric support, the young victims in Santa Barbara would still be alive today.

It is noteworthy that the voices of the "manosphere" are equal-opportunity detractors. Unless you are a so-called 'alpha male,' regularly practice the aggressive pursuit of women, and claim an elevated genetic position over the opposite sex, expect to be belittled. Showing the nuances of the faction, Rodger is highly criticized throughout the social community, degraded as a 'beta male' and sometimes 'devalued' to a gay man. Please, ever-so-thoughtful men of the "manosphere," don't degrade the gay community, or anyone for that matter, during your journey to find yourself, love, and self-acceptance.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

Related articles

• Elliot Rodger Massacre: Family Releases Statement, New Details Emerge (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• "Alpha Male" Elliot Rodgers' Retribution (skepchick.org)
• Anti-woman website predicts more Elliott Rogers if society doesn't provide them with sex (rawstory.com)
• Elliot Rodger and Poisonous Ideals of Masculinity (theatlantic.com)
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The Neglect of American Veterans

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 06:51 a.m. DST, 28 May 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Veterans Affairs misconduct is a national dishonor. But while politicians in Washington coordinate partisan finger-pointing and a "hot potato" style pass-off of culpability, veterans remain under-served at home. As they have for generations.

While all politicians are theoretically behind the troops, few supplement their talking points with federal spending. It may not be apparent reading recent headlines, but this duplicity exists on both sides of the aisle.

In February of this year, Republicans in the Senate voted down a $24 billion proposal for increased Veteran healthcare provisions. The bill would have also allotted educational stipends for former military members.

There is plenty of blame to go around, as liberals have not championed the cause either. In 2008, Senate Democrat Jay Rockefeller sparked nationwide disapproval when he questioned presidential hopeful Senator John McCain's wartime humanity.

Towards this end, returning U.S. soldiers have become cannon fodder in a war waged between two fighting factions, each of which talks a good game, but in the end, do little to effect change.

Repeated, this has been demonstrated by the lack of legislative action, since every time the opportunity arises for representatives to actually enact legislation to amend this gaping wound in the landscape of veteran affairs, they choose not to honor the values and promises they espoused during their campaigns.

These men and women have faithfully served and protected and did not question why, but when they return and ask so little of the system, their requests are denied. The promises and the periods of outrage U.S. representatives display during the election cycle historically fail to translate into meaningful change. In the meanwhile, men and women returning from war face alarming and unaddressed domestic challenges trying to navigate a system fraught with land mines of confusing regulations, long-waits, and lack of mental health treatment because of the stigma of mental illness.

Homelessness is also a little-known but continuing difficulty for former soldiers. Approximately one in eight homeless Americans are veterans. Other estimates conclude a one to five ratio. African-American and Hispanic vets are three times more likely to live on the streets than their white comrades. And probable mental illness or substance abuse is more likely to go untreated when these men and women are living off-the-grid.

Each day, more than 22 American veterans take their own lives, which is approximately one person every hour. The actual number of suicides is significantly higher but under-reported for a number of reasons. Many states, [including Texas] do not report these statistics to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Equally notable, a lack of statistics on homeless vets preclude these individuals from being counted in the findings. Moreover, funeral homes vary in terms of reporting veteran status and suicide causation. Finally, a stigma towards suicide in the ranks plays into the deflated numbers. With increased funding and coordination, these deaths will become largely preventable.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) functions with the second largest budget in the federal government, behind the Department of Defense. But, the VA is notoriously mismanaged according to bipartisan reports. Everyone agrees that the health of American soldiers returning from duty should be a priority, and needs to match the importance given to the national weapons cache, or the development of aircraft technology, or their value when they are sent to distant lands to fight in wars dreamed up by old men.

Keeping with historical trends, the improprieties of the Department of Veterans Affairs [that lead to 40+ dead veterans] is prompting more outrage than action. It will be telling if either party responds to these misconducts with concrete legislative improvements to the structure of the VA. There are plenty of places to start: increased VA personnel, funding and promoting veteran well-being, and requiring all states to accurately report data on veteran's health to the national department.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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Elliot Rodger | The Phenomena of Mass Murder

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 00:13 a.m. EDT, 25 May 2014

SANTA BARBARA, California – In the early morning hours of Saturday, 24 May 2014, the tranquility and safety of the community of Isla Vista was shattered forever when one of its own, Elliot Rodger, 22, took to the street shooting indiscriminately out of his BMW at innocent and unsuspecting victims.

The Los Angeles Times broke the story based upon information provided by a police official that Rodger’s shooting spree resulted in 7 dead, including him, while seven others were wounded. He allegedly drove through the streets of the Isla Vista neighborhood of Santa Barbara firing from his car and trying to run down pedestrians.

What makes this story more than a human interest piece is the dynamic between privilege versus the ordinary and what this escalating gun violence says about us as a country.

I could revisit the issue of gun control in America, but the NRA and its powerful lobby, along with the Second Amendment to the Constitution which grants individuals with ‘the right to keep and bear arms,’ makes winning this argument about as successful as winning an Olympic Gold metal while running through wet concrete.

Instead, there is the question of why Rodger, the son of privilege and heir apparent to Peter Rodger, an assistant director on the 2012 film “Hunger Game,” would feel the need to take such drastic measures by embarking upon his killing spree.

Mass murders have unfortunately become a too often occurrence in our society which has become increasingly fluid, and the community ties that so closely bound the country in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s dissipated, leaving many adrift in despair and loneliness.

This void has been filled with Internet ‘communities’ where people can ‘friend’ and be ‘friended,’ but ultimately what is needed most – human touch and intimate interaction is unavailable. Couple this with increased economic pressures, changes in social mores, and “do anything to anyone so I can get ahead’ attitudes, further complicates matters.

Many people, but not all, increasingly feel isolated. Some of this can be attributed to the effects of income inequality which retards upward mobility, and for others the lack of access to higher education due to the prohibitive costs, also breeds hopelessness.

Add to this the belief, as heavily marketed and promoted by the media, that you can be anything you desire you just have to take it, leaves many feeling inept and in extreme cases impotent.

This is not an excuse for murder, mass killing, or suicide, but I believe it to be a contributing factor to the desperation and isolation that is the pressure cooker churning out more mass murderers decade after decade.

According to Mother Jones’ article, “A Guide to Mass Shootings in America” there have been since 1982 “at least 70 mass shootings across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii. Thirty-three of these mass shootings have occurred since 2006.

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Published: 25 May 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

Seven of them took place in 2012, and another five occurred in 2013, including in Santa Monica, California, and at the Washington Navy Yard. The first five months of 2014 brought another bloodbath at Fort Hood, Texas, and mass killings in northern and southern California.”

Then last month, April 2014, in Overland Park, Kansas, Frazier Glenn Cross, who also went by Frazier Glenn Miller, a 73-year-old Missouri resident killed anyone and everyone in his reach, as he acted upon his racist beliefs by trying to kill Jews at a local community center.

With so much violence on television, Internet, and in the movies, and the constant threat of domestic and foreign terrorism, people are becoming inured to these killings, which often capture the public's attention and news cycles for 24 to 48 hours before moving on to the next trending item.

I think that it is important for us to remember that these men are average, they could be your coworker, your husband, your son or boyfriend, and they are becoming the greatest internal threat to the safety of American citizenry since 9/11. This partial list of 2012 mass killers includes average men who but for circumstance, probably would have continue to live anonymous existences.

• 14.12.12 - Adam Lanza, 20, shot his mother dead at their home then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary school. He forced his way inside and opened fire, killing 20 children and six adults before committing suicide. Total injured and killed: at least 28;

• 27.09.12 - Andrew Engeldinger, 36, upon learning he was being fired, went on a shooting rampage, killing the business owner, three fellow employees, and a UPS driver. He then killed himself. Total injured and killed: 8;

• 5.08.12 - U.S. Army veteran Wade Michael Page, 40, opened fire in a Sikh gurdwara before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a shootout with police. Total injured and killed: 10;

• 20.07.12- James Holmes, 24, opened fire in a movie theater during the opening night of "The Dark Knight Rises"  and was later arrested outside. Total injured and killed: 70.

Today, Rodger has been added to this list, for trying to take out his pain of rejection, isolation, and loneliness on innocent people who may have been suffering the same feelings as him, but chose not to violently act upon them.

He justified his actions in a YouTube manifesto in which he proclaimed that "… I've been forced to endure an existence of loneliness, rejection and unfulfilled desires, all because girls have never been attracted to me. Girls gave their affection and sex and love to other men, never to me...I'm 22-years-old and still a virgin, never even kissed a girl.” (Source: Chicago Tribune)

And now he never will………

Return to Page 1 »

 

Follow Nahmias Cipher Report on Twitter

Twitter: @nahmias_report Editor-in-Chief: @ayannanahmias

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The Thievery of McDonald's Execs

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 04:35 a.m. DST, 22 May 2014

OAK BROOK, Illinois -- Yesterday, 21 May 2014, over 1,000 people protested against the McDonald's corporation at their corporate headquarters, located in suburban Chicago. The peaceful demonstration was the second attempt to bring attention to wage inequality in the internationally known, globally recognized food chain.

The localized protests are part of a larger international campaign to raise awareness of poverty wages and the role that fast-food giants play in the servitude.

The movement is taking place throughout 33 different countries, where McDonald's and other restaurant "whoppers" like Burger King, KFC and Wendy's have uniquely tailored menus and strong market footholds. Hundreds of McDonald's employees came to the rally in Oak Brook wearing their uniforms, some of whom boycotted shifts to participate.

The concept of a wage hike is nothing new to CEO Donald Thomson, whose earnings have seen a steady appreciation in recent years. He is expecting to earn $9.5 million next year. While executives count their pay increases in the hundreds of thousands, the average hands in the assembly line bring home a paycheck that is not even consistent with inflation.

Over 100 McDonald's employees were arrested and over 30 union members and spiritual leaders are in police custody after demonstrators occupied campus buildings yesterday. Headed by organizations such as Fast Food Forward and Service Employees International Union, the collective was relatively small but extremely vocal. The action was purposefully orchestrated one day before an important shareholder meeting, scheduled for today, 22 May, at the corporate offices. In anticipation, an entire branch of campus was encouraged to stay home and work remotely yesterday.

The day before the annual meeting proved to be an excellent platform for the collected grievances. Those with partial ownership of McDonald's will weigh in on Thomson's salary during the shareholder's meeting. His pay is over 600 times that of his average foodservice employee, which is not totally surprising. McDonald's is famous for their minuscule raise policies. They also supplement profits with various forms of wage theft.

These Illinois protests are just one voice in an international chorus of dissent. The similarities between Japanese, Indian and Brazilian strikes shows the vast subjugation that sustains the American-based restaurant machine.

In the past year, business tycoons and politicians have been critical of demands to raise the minimum wage in the United States. In the same vein, critics of the striking employees are calling the terms of the demonstration absurd.  But, even the twofold increase to $15-an-hour would be below the living wage in the US, according to a breakdown by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The MIT Living Wage Calculator indicates the severity of the poverty that fast-food employees almost necessarily face. At $7.25-an-hour, an individual making minimum wage in New Orleans, Louisiana is earning well under the regional living wage of $10.51. In an expensive city like Washington, D.C. the minimum wage is set at $8.25. But the living wage for a one parent, one child household is $26.37, according to MIT statistics. The average McDonald's worker supporting one child in the District is not making even a third of the baseline living wage.

Notably, research indicates that more women are pigeonholed into poverty wages than male coworkers.

Opponents of the measure claim that increased wages will cause a decreased number of jobs. And by simple arithmetic, this may be true.

But so often, the rhetoric of corporate employers follows the notion that the company is creating job opportunities as if some sort of charity. Obviously, a business is not going to extend a job at the expense of the bottom line.

In reality, it is a give-and-take, as the corporation is only viable with hard-working men and women on the ground, and people need opportunities to make money. With McDonald's' lobbying effort to paralyze the minimum wage, and their ban on unions, the ideal "give-and-take" is actually veiled exploitation.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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HIV Prevention Pill Now Available

HIV Infected H9 T-Cell, photo by niiaid

ATLANTA, Georgia -- An HIV prevention pill is recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for those at risk for contracting HIV.  The pill, called pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP, brand name Truvada), works by lowering the amount of the virus circulating in a person's bloodstream.  It has already been used as part of some HIV/AIDS treatment plans, but recently has been approved as a prevention method as well.

Each year in the United States, there are 50,000 new cases of HIV. Currently there are about 1.1 million people in the US who are living with HIV.  PrEP trials have shown that users of the pill can reduce their chance of contracting HIV by up to 92%.

Naysayers of the pill claim that with increased availability of Truvada, at-risk individuals will be less careful with other methods. Dissenters also say that it will be hard for people to remember to take the one-a-day pill.

However, supporters say that there is no evidence that the availability of the pill will lead people to neglect other methods of HIV prevention. The CDC says that for various reasons, there are many at-risk people who have not been using condoms or who do not use condoms correctly. PrEP will provide another option for these people.

A three-city initial trial of the pill showed that 98% of subjects involved had some amount of the drug in their system at the end of the trial period -- disproving fears that people will forget to consistently take the daily dosage.

PrEP, which currently costs about $13,000 a year and is covered by most insurance companies, is not recommended for everyone. Its target group is people who are at a substantial risk for HIV, such as someone with a partner who has tested positive for an HIV, people not engaged in mutually monogamous relationships, people who practice anal sex without regular condom use and people who inject drugs under potentially unsanitary conditions.

Currently a vaccine version of PrEP is being tested in monkeys.  This injectable version would have the convenience of giving several months worth of protection.

1/3 Native Women Are Raped, Non-Indian Attackers Still Immune to Prosecution

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 15:25 p.m. DST, 19 May 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On American Indian reservations, Native women's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are seriously threatened. Study after study confirm the appalling frequency at which Indigenous women are raped, sexually assaulted and battered. Throughout Indian country, more than one-third of women will be raped during their lifetime.

Today, it is no secret that these women stand a greater chance of being assaulted than living unscathed. The US Department of Justice found that 61% of American Indian women have been subjected to some form of physical assault. Because of the historic and ongoing inaction of the federal government, these women experience a crapshoot application of security and justice.

More disturbing is the role that American citizens and officials play--and don't play--in the violence. Over 70% of assailants are not tribal members, but rather American nationals who entered reservations for a variety of reasons. Some come to hunt. Other perpetrators live with woman who they abuse. And many simply cross the street into neighboring Indian country. [When tribal lands were downsized by the federal government, the borderlines of reservations were manipulated.]

This territorial patchwork could be acceptable, if tribal law applied to non-Natives who travel into reservation grounds. But, reservations are considered dependent nations according to US policy, and therefore cannot arrest, try or incarcerate non-Natives. Heinous crimes like rape are therefore defacto permissible, and a violent or deranged man can assault a women in Indian country with legal immunity.

According to the Supreme Court decision in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, Federal prosecutors have jurisdiction in reservation regions. This 1978 ruling set a dangerous precedent of nonexistent federal law enforcement, and fundamentally compromised tribal attempts to self-govern and protect members. In 2011, the Justice Department put a plan in motion to place Assistant Attorneys in prosecution capacities within reservations, and a task force to prioritize the safety of women and children.

Many see these measures as too little, and certainly decades late. Indian country largely remains a lawless area, and not because American Indians want it that way. Before 2010, councils were unable to sentence Indian convicts to less than one year of jail time. Recently enacted, the Tribal Law and Order Act now allows tribal courts to incarcerate members for up to three years. Unfortunately, that is the limit, even for the most deplorable crimes.

The roadblocks to prosecution are embedded in the established legislation, but progressive action is beginning to take shape. President Barack Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act in early 2013. This legislation will help protect domestic violence committed by non-Indian husbands, but fails to address non-Indian attackers that are outsiders in the community. When seven of every ten attackers are protected from prosecution, the law is far from impressive. Plus, it is only in a trial phase now in three reservations.

Conservative members of Congress decreased provisions that would punish non-Indian criminals, concerned that non-Native suspects would not receive far trial, and may be crucified for the historic crimes against the First People of the continent. Perhaps the fears of these lawmakers are just projection; statistics clearly show that women are victimized by the current legal system, not men. Republicans would be hard-pressed to find instances where White men have been wronged by the intersection of American and Native law codes.

The United States continually plays Big Brother to tribal officials. By butting into supposed tribal authority, Washington limits the power of the Native justice system as to render it ineffective. Plainly, reservations do not want a weak police force and court system, but many in the federal government would rather risk women's well-being than see bolstered Indigenous agency of any kind.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

Related articles

• The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010: A Step Forward for Native Women (whitehouse.gov)
• Who Deserves Protection in America? Native American Women and the New VAWA (firstpeoples.org)
• How abusers get away with targeting Indian women (salon.com)
• Rape on the Reservation (readersupportednews.org)
• Native Indian women get U.S. Federal legal power to report violence (womennewsnetwork.net)

US Hypocritical Response to Ukraine Conflict

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 08:57 a.m. DST, 13 May 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine -- On Sunday, 11 May, two Ukrainian provinces conducted supposed democratic referendums to determine their international identity. The motions were suspicious at best, as 90% of votes counted in Donetsk favored withdrawal from Ukrainian authority and turnout in Luhansk determined 96 of every 100 voters supported provincial autonomy.

Certainly the numbers appear exaggerated. These reports of airtight consensus must be questioned by the rational world. Dissent is pervasive throughout much of Ukraine. So when voting officials came forward on Monday with claims of unprecedented solidarity, the West responded as would the teacher of the struggling student who scores 105% on a self-graded assessment.

But the conflict in Ukraine covers more ground than the Western press are willing to turn over. A thoughtful discussion of modern Ukraine can not endorse the interim Kiev government wholesale, nor should it condemn all separatists as patent burglars. Both approaches are reductive towards the legacy of corruption and organized injustice in Ukraine.

In spite of Western backing, the previous Ukrainian establishment and the placeholder administration are fraught with human rights violations. And while Vladimir Putin exploited political rifting in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, perhaps the United States should also be concerned that Moscow has obviously made off with a whole chapter from the American playbook on how to seize foreign land.

The history of the United States is a clinic on nabbing territory illegally while simultaneously claiming martyrdom. In 1836, the Battle of the Alamo came to symbolize the American attempt to play martyr, while illegally holding Mexican land by whatever means necessary. In the same year, Texans fought the Mexican military in the Battle of San Jacinto and established Texan sovereignty. The slaughter lasted a matter of minutes and left over 600 dead, all but nine were fallen Mexican soldiers.

During the early 19th century, Americans began occupying Texas legally, but it did not take long for the Anglo residents to begin defying Mexican prohibition of slavery and other important legal codes. Americans continued to flood the region and soon outnumbered ethnic Tejanos 4 to 1. With some exception, the Texan army was American born and armed by the mother country, which in 1845 would welcome Texas into the union.

Unlike the takeover of Texas, Moscow did not inundate eastern Ukraine with Russian militants. They have been living in Ukraine for generations. Pro-Russian rebels represent the fragmentation of the Republic, not the forced entry exercised by American citizens and weaponry throughout its history.

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Published: 13 May 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

Perhaps more egregious than the theft of Texas is the coup d'état of the Kingdom of Hawaii, organized by Americans and flanked by US Marine encroachment on the islands.  Wanting to spare bloodshed, Queen Lili'uokalani surrendered her crown and was placed under arrest. The United States' intent to annex the Kingdom was explicit, and during the in-no-way democratic proceedings, a provisional government took charge until American lawmakers brought Hawaii into the fold.

The Crimean Peninsula at the heart of the Ukraine conflict has a joint identity as a Ukrainian and Russian region. During the Soviet era, Crimea was nominally transferred within Ukraine's demarcation. When the Soviet Union disbanded, Ukraine maintained jurisdiction of the region. The peninsula remains divided in terms of religion, ethnic makeup and political affiliation. If the United States is so concerned with the will of the people, there are several well-documented injustices ongoing within American boundaries that could be addressed immediately.

The United States practices selective attention--joining the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Russian involvement in the Ukrainian arm wrestle, while downplaying the United Nations when they become critical of America's parallel behavior. A recent report by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations shows both the longstanding injustice experienced by indigenous peoples in North America and the irony in the United States searching the globe to point out instances of criminality and misconduct.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are some of the oldest mountains in North America and are considered sacred ground to the Lakota-Sioux people. At first, white settlers were uninterested in the land, until surveyors began trespassing on the terrain in 1849. Through a series of treaties, the land was promised to the Sioux, and later expressly removed from Sioux possession when gold prospectors found valuable deposits in the Hills.

Since then, the Black Hills have been the subject of desecration, as the United States government thought it appropriate to carve out the faces of Anglo oppressors into the mountains that the Sioux people so revere. Mount Rushmore stands as a permanent reminder of white tyranny, and an obvious symbol of the ongoing violation of Sioux religious freedom.

In the ongoing international debate over the Ukraine conflict, the United States has very little legal or moral footing on which to base their criticism of Russia. Each day, the United States affirms the right for an empire to occupy land against international law. While the global community generally recognizes Putin's exploits as unjust, the White House has long modeled similar undertakings. The oligarchies in America and Russia imitate each other more than either would like to admit.

What makes the plight of one people more pressing than another?

Washington's unbalanced attention to the sister concerns does not appear very democratic. For the most part, America cannot change the course of action in Ukraine. But if politicians are so bothered by illegally seized land, there are plenty of instances to address within their own jurisdiction. Start with the Black Hills.

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Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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Could You Murder Her? Some Say Yes

LOS ANGELES, CA - This post is neither for nor against the difficult choice some people face as they attempt to exercise their right to self-determination. We are, however, emphatically for human rights and against injustice.

We encourage everyone who weighs in on this issue to remember the old Native American saying, "Do not judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccassins.'

Life is not easy anywhere, and it is exponentially challenging in countries with stagnant or emerging economies. Female infanticide occurs most often in countries where females are perceived as a drain on finite economic resources, and this burden serves as justification for aborting or killing a girl.

According to Palash Ghosh in a September 2013 article titled "A Deadly Preference For Male Offspring: The Killing Of Baby Girls In India And Pakistan," there is an ancient preference for male offspring in South Asian society and other parts of Asia and the Middle East.

This preference, according to Ghosh, resulted in the horrendous murder of a one-and-a-half year old Pakistani baby girl who was drowned by her father in front of her mother because he wanted a son.

Amazingly, less than a year later, in April 2014, India's supreme court in a landmark ruling declared that "It is the right of every human being to choose their gender," as it granted rights to those who identify themselves as neither male nor female.

According to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, 2013 marked "the highest number of murders of minors in the five years it has been keeping statistics. Since the beginning of that year, 22 trans people were reported killed. Eleven of these were under the age of 18.

These include a 13-year-old trans girl strangled in Macaiba, Brazil, on June 9; a 14-year-old trans girl strangled in the city of Ibipora, Brazil, on Oct. 15; and 16-year-old trans girl murdered by a mob at a house party in St. James, Jamaica, on July 22.

Since 2008, Transgender Europe has documented 1,374 murders of trans people in 60 countries worldwide. Of these, 108 victims have been under the age of 20." (Source: Buzzfeed)

Given those circumstances, and the fact that men in general enjoy greater economic prowess, freedom to chart their own destinies, and a host of other intangible benefits; it is a wonder that any person born male would opt to live as a female.

Thus, when people learn about the beautiful transgender child pictured above and in the video below, the bias against females is tossed out, but an often less defined, but more visceral response is evoked. Unlike millions of transgender people around the world, the angelic child whose name is Jazz Jennings has the full support and love of her family, which has often been the only thing standing between her and the people who desire to physically harm her.

I Am Jazz: A Family In Transition, aired on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, and presented a transparent view into the life of Jazz and her family; thus transmuting her from the status of "the other" to that of "human." We may not understand. We may even feel from a cultural or religious standpoint that she is anathema. But, at the end of the day, not one human has a heaven or a hell to send someone to, and we would do well to remember that despite our individual struggles we are all God's creatures.

Support Jazz: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jazztrans?fref=ts Jazz's mermaid tails: http://www.purplerainbowtails.com/ Purple Rainbow Foundation: http://www.transkidspurplerainbow.org/ Documentary about a 10 year old transgender girl named Jazz.

When Justice Backfires: At Least 4.1% Of Death Row Convicts Are Innocent

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 20:38 p.m. DST, 6 May 2014

WASHINGTON, DC - Until last week, the accuracy of death penalty application in the United States had been the subject of speculation. Given to the trades of debate and guesswork, even prominent thinkers with important positions in the judicial system add to the growing body of conjecture. In 2007, Justice Antonin Scalia calculated that the American legal system is correct 99.973% of the time. His math, data and motives are altogether dubious, and his claims carry very little weight in both judicial and scientific circles. 

Rate of false conviction of criminal defendants who are sentenced to death is a landmark study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and written by Gross, O'Brien, Hu and Kennedy, who are researchers at University of Michigan Law, Michigan State Law, American College of Radiology and University of Pennsylvania Medicine, respectively. They conclude that no less than 4.1% of death row inmates have been wrongly convicted, a percentage they say is the most conservative calculation possible, according to records from 1989 to 2012.

These experts use data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics from the Department of Justice and numbers from The Death Penalty Information Center to arrive at their findings. Using survival analysis, the team is able to isolate the frequency at which wrongful convictions are overturned, and apply that ratio to the death row population. Resources and legal expertise are rationed to inmates nearing their scheduled execution, and survival analysis standardizes the effects of these efforts in uncovering groundless convictions across the board. The authors of the study and many in the national conversation agree that the true number of innocent convicts living on death row is much higher.

Meanwhile, executions throughout the country have gained considerable media attention. As European producers of lethal drugs have stopped supplying their products to the United States for the express purpose of execution, officials have struggled to obtain injections that are neither cruel nor unusual. Last week, convicted murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett was put to death in Oklahoma with a needle that introduced only certain ingredients of the drug cocktail into his bloodstream. Lockett's execution was halted midway, and he died ten minutes later of a heart attack. Charles Warner is the next to be executed in Oklahoma, and he is seeking postponement while Lockett's proceedings are investigated by a third-party.

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Published: 6 May 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma has recently sounded off on inmates' request for the names and types of substances that they will be administered. The court found that it is constitutional to withhold this information from convicts. Justice Steven Taylor responded that they had no more right to this disclosure than "if they were being executed in the electric chair, they would have no right to know whether OG&E or PSO were providing the electricity; if they were being hanged, they would have no right to know whether it be cotton or nylon rope; or if they were being executed by firing squad, they would have no right to know whether it be by Winchester or Remington ammunition."

Well, that sounded poetic, and almost made sense. But Lockett's inadequate execution is just one of many similar cases recently, ever since untested American drugs have taken the place of better-researched European counterparts. This national experiment has yielded cruel results, such as the Ohio inmate who cried "I can feel my whole body burning" during his lethal injection earlier this year. So, Taylor's statement would be more accurate if he offered comparisons that mirror the humane nature of former injections and the inhumane reality of newer concoctions. Surely Taylor would agree that death row convicts should know whether they would be killed by high voltage or low voltage electric shocks; nylon rope or barbed wire; Winchester rounds or rubber bullets. Similarly, Taylor should acknowledge the inherent difference between the type of injection that renders the individual unconscious before killing him, and the type that leaves people writhing on the gurney, slowly dying from a heart attack. 

True, the crimes of these two men in Oklahoma are heinous, and true, they should never be free to walk the streets again. But soon the nation will have to come to terms with the costs of capital punishment, and not in terms of dollars and cents. Of the 121 inmates on death row in Arizona, at least 5 are innocent according to Rate of false conviction. In Texas, the national sanctuary of  the death penalty, 273 are awaiting execution and no less than 10 of these individuals are innocent. California's collection of convicts numbers 746, which includes at least 29 innocent people. Nationwide, 3,108 offenders are waiting on death row. The only problem? 124 of these people did not commit the offense. And probably more.

A common and intelligible rallying cry behind the death penalty is "if your loved one was senselessly taken by a vicious predator, maybe then you would understand." Certainly. It is a tragedy that anyone should be taken before their time. Inherent in that statement, though, is the value of human life, especially moral and upright people. Americans will need to address issues in the application of the death penalty and the conditions in society that make murder and rape commonplace. When the stakes are life and death, why perpetuate the injustice to 124+ more victims? Why extend that pain to countless more family members?

These 124 and more upcoming executions are preventable deaths. The desire to apply justice to reprehensible perpetrators should not turn us into criminals ourselves.

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Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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Washington's Split Personality | House Approves $310 Billion in Corporate Tax Breaks, Rejects Sensible Foster Care Initiative

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 01:20 p.m. DST, 1 May 2014

WASHINGTON, DC - Legislators in Washington continue to buttress the wealth gap that separates a few at the top from mainstream America.

On Tuesday, 29 April 2014, the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives voted to give billions in tax write-offs to the ultra-wealthy, and their familial corporations that masquerade as human beings.

The committee will bring the bill before the House in the coming weeks to see it to completion. Once written into law, the new tax credits will spare the nation's most lucrative businesses $310 billion over the next ten years. The measure will help companies who notoriously camouflage assets in offshore holdings.

Among these beneficiaries is Merck & Co., who famously defrauded Medicaid for millions of dollars in the years leading up to a 2000 federal investigation. The pharmaceutical giant had drawn blood from state and local medical aid programs under the guise of ignorance. Investigators and representatives reached a $650 million settlement to reimburse taxpayers in 2008.

Apple will also benefit by the decision. This top American earner has a long track record of depositing billions in revenue into international accounts, where assets are free from taxation.

But that is only half of the story. In the same meeting on Tuesday, the committee stripped the "Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act" of a $12 million dollar provision, to be paid out in the course of the next decade. The money would have addressed a host of issues in the foster care system.

Not least of these concerns is the number of children diverted from the foster care network into sex trafficking. Facilities administering to foster youth are popular targets for the prostitution industry, and the proposal explains why. Without a birth certificate, Social Security card, health insurance, medical records and financial records, young people are funneled into underground, illegal industries.

The "Youth in Foster Care Act" sought to change this. Through proposed transitional strategies and permanent living alternatives, Democrats such as Rep. Lloyd Doggett wanted to put a small amount of federal funding behind the initiative. Republicans rejected the idea, on account of spending concerns.

The contradictory decisions are insincere at best, and better described as 'piggish.' The most vulnerable and impoverished in society are left hanging when politicians can justify tax cuts for the wealthiest, but fall flat on a provision 1/30,000 the size of the corporate credits. Powerful members of American society continue to marginalize foster youth and like demographics, thrusting them to the peripheries of the pursuit of happiness.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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The Myth of American Democracy

Michael Ransom, Contributing EditorLast Modified: 00:57 a.m. DST, 24 April 2014

UNITED STATES - A 240-year-old illusion is under scrutiny, and the data is conclusive. All dogma and buzzwords aside, the United States of America operates as an Oligarchy.

New empirical research disproves the idea that the U.S. is a democracy. A common response to these claims is "of course not, America is a Republic." Well, also incorrect, it turns out. According to a joint study by leading experts in the political sphere, the terms "democracy" or "republic" are erroneous adjectives.

Testing Theories of American Politics is a recent study to be published in Perspectives on Politics academic journal this Fall. The report is authored by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, who teach at Princeton and Northwestern Universities respectively. The professors compiled 20 years of political data to cross-reference political decisions with the will of the American majority.

Their results are telling. The model takes 1,779 unique policies into account, and finds that with uncanny predictability, the intentions of wealthy Americans are fulfilled through the actions of politicians. Thus, the study concludes that the government is run by a select few. However, unlike a military state, those in power in America rule through the dollar, and not by the sword.

The findings of Gilens and Page are rooted in prevailing philosophies of American democracy. The four possible outcomes of the statistics are also the four principle theories of public policy control: power either lies with the majority, the wealthy, collected citizens or collected wealth. Marjoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic Elite Domination, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism are the theories that correspond to each of these demographics, when each group is at the reins of political power.

The scholars conclude that "The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Marjoritarian Electoral Democracy or Marjoritarian Pluralism." In layman's terms, the wealthy and the interest groups of the wealthy have primary sway over government dealings.

Later in the report the authors introduce tables to illustrate their findings. This data indicates that the voice of the majority is largely silenced by corporate America. Even in the face of the people's dissent big-money interests will win-out in policy making.

All this is disturbing, especially in a nation that claims to be the home of a special breed of democracy and independence. Some even claim the New World to be the origins of democratic government. But anyone with an internet connected or a reputable textbook can unravel this fabrication.

A host of nations claim to be the birthplace of democratic government, but some have more founded reasoning than others. Iceland created the Althing parliament in 930 CE, creating a commonwealth society where representatives met to make laws and nominate judiciaries. By some standards, they are the inventors of the democratic state.

The Isle of Man holds the record for the oldest democratic body still in operation. The Tynwald legislature began in 979 CE and elects its members into positions in the executive branch. And New Zealand set a global precedent by establishing universal suffrage in 1893.

The United States cannot be decorated with any of these accolades. And now, their status as a democracy is questionable at best. If America could check the power of the dollar on supposed democratic dealings by limiting the impact of private monies in public elections, the voice of the majority would be audible for the first time.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Contributing Editor: @MAndrewRansom

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KKK Targets Jewish Community Center Killing Three Christians

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas -- So often, hatred is crippling. On Sunday, hatred was blinding in Kansas City. On a mission to incite terror and assail Jewish community buildings, Frazier Glenn Cross killed anyone and everyone in his reach. 

Cross, who also went by Frazier Glenn Miller, is a 73-year-old Missouri resident. This weekend, his well-documented history of ignorant rhetoric turned deadly.

The elderly man targeted the Jewish Community Campus of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom senior center, before being captured by police outside a local elementary school.

During the shooting spree, Cross killed three Christians while spouting "Heil Hitler" and other bigoted slogans. According to authorities, he had a shotgun, pistol and assault rifle at his disposal. An eyewitness remembers the perpetrator smiling as he was taken into custody. 

Among the victims were two Methodists, Dr. William Lewis Corporon, age 69, and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood. Corporon passed away outside of the community center.

Underwood was transported to a hospital where he would later die from his wounds. The high school freshman was auditioning for a vocal competition at the Jewish Community Campus. He and his escort were bombarded outside the event. 

The third victim was 53-year-old Terri LaManno, who was visiting her mother at Village Shalom when she was attacked. LaManno was also a Christian. Cross allegedly attempted to kill two others, who escaped to safety. Certainly, the foundation of the community has been shook. 

The defendant is a veteran of hate-mongering. Cross rose to power as the "grand dragon" leader of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, known more commonly as the KKK. Realizing he had not reached his potential to perpetuate ignorance, Cross would later create the White Patriot Party in 1985, a group founded on anti-Semitic and white power platforms. His other lowlights include the intimidation of Morris Dees, a Civil Rights activist and lawyer who used civil lawsuits against groups like the Ku Klux Klan in a successful career that lasted decades. 

Often in the spotlight, Cross was a proud white-supremacist who shared his divisive message in television interviews and publicized Klan meetings. In 2006, he ran for the House of Representatives but gained little support. Cross tried again to gain political office in his failed 2010 Senate campaign. During both attempts, he sponsored radio advertisements lobbying his hate-filled agenda. In 1999, he authored "A White Man Speaks Out." By all accounts, the memoir is steeped in equal parts paranoia and hostility. 

According to police, Cross will appear in court on Tuesday, 15 April 2014. However, this will not be his first stint in prison. In 1987, Cross served three years after failing to comply with his bond agreement. A national search for the runaway ended in a Missouri trailer, where Cross and several others had retreated with a massive weapons stockpile. The one-time fugitive will likely spend the rest of his life in detainment. 

The Overland Park community and the nation are grieving the loss of three wonderful citizens. But the incidence has also raised serious questions about possible preventative measures. Given his well-documented history of militant behavior and criminal history, many question how Cross was able to obtain the arsenal used in this weekend's attack. As with any act of terrorism, Cross sought to alter the world outside of the small Kansas City district. Sadly, he has gained the attention of the American people. Hopefully, the collective reply will be a positive one. 

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Senior Correspondent: @MAndrewRansom

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United States' Senate Sidesteps Wage Equality Issue

Michael Ransom, Senior CorrespondentLast Modified: 13:02 p.m. DST, 15 April 2014

WASHINGTON, DC--The votes have been cast. The message is clear. Collectively, the United States does not yet prioritize wage equality between men and women.

On Wednesday, Senate members voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill proposing more safeguards against pay discrimination. Currently, corporations are given the benefit of the doubt when employees raise concerns about unequal compensation. The proposal sought to change this.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is an addendum to two historically groundbreaking statutes. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 provided baseline protections for women entering the workforce. This 75-year-old document set the precedent that employers can explain pay differentials by any factor besides gender. While radical in its day, many believe supplemental laws are necessary.

The defeated legislation also included amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Notably, it would increase the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, giving this department oversight and enforcement power. Companies would be mandated to report the sex, race, nationality and income of their workforce, in order to achieve greater consistency.

The bill is a response to well-documented pay disparities between male and female colleagues. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that for every dollar a man makes, his female counterpart will bring home 77 cents. Critics of the study argue that differences in education, hourly-workload and job-type explain the pay gap.

Even so, there is a body of evidence confirming the persistence of sex-discrimination. The Government Accountability Office published a salient study of workplace inequity, examining statistics from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and referencing sociological experts. Their findings? While controlling for all variables, a woman is paid only 80% of a man's earnings.

In spite of the overwhelming data, the Senate could not reach a consensus Wednesday. Republican senators like Mitch McConnell and Rob Portman spoke out against the measure, stating that it would allow for frivolous lawsuits in the future. To many Americans, this reasoning is simply a talking point. Thankfully, the judicial branch has safeguards against unfounded court cases; they can be thrown out.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would not overextend women's rights. It would serve as a protective document in helping female employees gain their rightful pay. The bill's provisions are not all punitive, either. This legislation would have created the "Secretary of Labor's National Award for Pay Equity in the Workplace" to recognize businesses who actively work against sex discrimination. Greater transparency would be a welcome change. 

This is the third time the Paycheck Fairness Act has been struck down, and every Republican, male and female, voted against the initiative. Perhaps, opponents of the act may have forgotten that the bill could help men and women alike. The effects of inequality reach farther than purses and pocketbooks of American females. Two-income households would see an incremental pay increase. And pay equality would give single mothers a fighting chance to support their families. Surely, prioritizing everyday Americans would strengthen communities and economies nationwide. 

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Senior Correspondent: @MAndrewRansom

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Fowl Play? China to Serve as Middleman in Chicken Processing for American Consumers

WASHINGTON, DC - In case you were looking for another reason to try a vegetarian diet, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will likely allow the exportation of U.S. grown chickens to China for processing and packaging.

China's limited food regulations have tarnished the nation's reputation in terms of food safety. While seafood sold throughout the world is commonly prepared in Chinese butcheries, many Americans are alarmed that the USDA would oversee the outsourcing of even more raw foodstuffs.

While American butchers and processors earn around $11 an hour for their work, their Chinese counterparts earn $2 at best. Beyond the apparent human rights implications, Americans should also question the final product.

Unless the USDA reverses their decision, the poultry that ordinary Americans will soon consume will have made a round trip of over 14,000 miles. All the while, it will be exposed to undocumented risks and unknown contaminants.

Health and capitalism are often at odds throughout the United States. The shortcomings of the fast food industry have been the subject of nationwide media attention in recent years. ABC News educated the American people about the use of "pink slime" in beef products in 2012, alerting the public that ammonia was commonly used to sanitize the bacteria-ridden ingredient. Since then, many corporations have pledged to discontinue the unsafe practice. By informing consumers about the dangers of the USDA's plans to cut chicken costs, activists hope that people will vote against the measure with their purchasing dollar.

A major problem with the USDA's plans is that Americans would be unable to discern meat processed domestically from meat sent abroad. The Chinese government's lax oversight into food production is a continued problem. In 2008, hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians became sick from milk that included dangerous adulterants. The same agents found their way into baby formula, forcing over 50,000 children to seek medical treatment. Six would later die from the contaminants.

A similar story reached international headlines in 2012. The Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, a Chinese top-producer in the dairy industry, was forced to recall thousands of baby formula units after testing showed signs of mercury contamination. While the incident is disturbing in its own right, the response of the Chinese government exacerbated the issue.

The Republic censured reports of the Yili mercury scare to ease concerns and protect the name of the corporation. This approach is reckless, and prioritized money interests over the awareness about the serious and ongoing health risk. While government's lack of foresight in terms of health standards is regrettable, their ongoing censorship is far worse than the original indiscretion.

The inclusion of Chinese processed chicken in the American diet would be a seeming step backwards in a country vying to source higher quality meat into school cafeterias, drive-through establishments and high-scale chains alike. The benefits are far outweighed by the potential dangers, as quick-fix business dealings will do little to help our consumers or domestic meat processors. While our capitalist economy is naturally concerned with the bottom-line, the unscrupulous actions of the Chinese government could return mainstream American cuisine to the former trajectory of "pink-slime," or worse.

Follow Michael on Twitter Twitter: @nahmias_report Senior Correspondent: @MAndrewRansom

Related articles

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• Chicken from China? (momsrising.org)
• Poisoned Chicken from China Could Soon Turn Up on Your Dinner Table ...Thanks USDA! (asheepnomore.net)
• USDA May Allow Chicken Grown and Sold in US to be Processed in China (inhabitat.com)
• USDA to allow U.S. to be overrun with contaminated chicken from China (sgtreport.com)

Battered Men. Fact, Not Fiction

Man in Silhouette, Photo by Chairman 7w

UNITED STATES - According to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistic in June 2013, an estimated 85% of women and 15% of men are the victims of domestic abuse.

According to the statistics listed on the American Bar Association's website, the aggregate number of female and male victims of domestic abuse is estimated at 2.2 million victims each year in the United States.

Of this number, 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually. (Source: Patricia Tjaden & Nancy Thoennes, U.S. Dep't of Just., NCJ 183781, (2000) Read Full Report)

In crunching the numbers based upon these figures, the physical abuse suffered by men at the hands of their female partners is actually closer to 42% of the estimated annual domestic abuse cases in this country. Part of the gap in these statistics is probably due to under-reporting of female against male domestic abuse.

Even when statistics seem to support an increasing trend in women physically abusing their intimate male partners, people remain resistant to the idea. It is easier to accept men abusing women because this is often the norm in many countries and cultures throughout the world, including the United States. In an attempt to present fair and balanced reporting, we often note that not all women are victims or all men abusers.

But somehow, it is easier for people to accept a woman being victimized by a man than the converse. This bias was starkly illustrated in an ABC News undercover program in which two actors in a public park feigned domestic abuse in which the women hits, curses at, and otherwise abuses her male partner.

With one exception, when a group of three women decided to intervene and call the police, everyone else walked by as the woman continued to violently strike the seated man. Most of the witnesses passed without so much as a glance, and many who were subsequently interviewed admitted that they believed the man deserved the violent treatment being meted out by the woman.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlFAd4YdQks]

This role play caught on camera, seemed to illustrate that women who have long been victimized, either felt empowered by witnessing another woman “turning the tables” on a man, or sympathized with the female abuser because she was expressing her outrage at the man who must have “cheated” on her.

If in fact infidelity were the cause of this abuse, which it was not, this does not take into account the fact that it takes two people to cheat and neither should get a pass. Nor does cheating give anyone the right to physically or verbally abuse their intimate partner. But this article is not addressing marital infidelity or its causes, but rather, why people in this video felt that it was okay for a woman to physically assault and verbally berate a man in public without consequence.

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Published: 19 March 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

Why isn’t there more of an outcry? Is this payback for millennia of abuse women have suffered at the hands of men? Or is it that the victims remain silent because they have been emasculated in their homes and fear being further diminished by public admission of this fact? Whether it is all, some, or none of these reasons, many men don't report physical abuse at the hands of women because they are supposed to be strong enough to "keep their women in check."

This is a patently sexist assumption which further reinforces conditions that foster an environment in which ordinary and not-so-ordinary men silently endure abuse at the hands of their female partners. In America alone, there are famous athletes, musicians, actors, a scientist, and two American Presidents who are suspected of having been the victims of domestic abuse either through anecdotal evidence or court documents. (Source: 11 Famous Men Who Were Beat Down By Their Women, by Sam Greenspan) 

Though informative, even the tone of the aforementioned article belies the seriousness of the issue. It is yet another reason why men won’t admit to being abused, preferring to keep the abuse a secret even from their closest friends and family for fear of ridicule. But even more serious is the threat and fear of retribution by the woman they accuse, as she may subsequently report to the police that she was merely defending herself against his aggression.

Many people may find this difficult to believe, but I know a man whose former wife hit him, threw a drink at him, and when he left the house to avoid getting into a more heated altercation, he returned a few hours later to find two police cars parked in front of his house, with policemen waiting to arrest him. Though he tried to present his version of events, and even though he never had a complaint of domestic abuse lodged against him, in fact he didn’t have any arrest record at all; he was jailed.

He was subsequently subjected to a restraining order barring him from the house for nearly 2-months until the court date. His wife subsequently dropped the charges and apologized in open court for overreacting, and admitted to her ‘part’ in the altercation; however, this man now has a permanent criminal record. Whereas she has severe anger management issues which were never addressed nor resolved during their 18-year marriage, he was forced to attend court mandated psychological treatment.

Though his story is hard to believe, one need only look at the ABC News video to see how probable his case is, and the likelihood that somewhere, at this very moment, a man continues to be abused by his wife because he has chosen to stay for any number of reasons. Some like the man I know had small children and he knew that his wife would be punitive and keep him from seeing his children.

She also had a history of physically abusing the children by slapping and cursing at them, and thus he felt it would be better for him to remain in the house where he could at least protect them from the brunt of her anger. “Studies show that women who commit violence against the men in their lives have anger management issues, are likely to abuse their children, yet courts still favor giving the custody of the children to the female even after domestic abuse has been proven.” (Source: Domestic Violence: Men Being Abused by Women)

There is such a thing as a “Battered Man,” and there is such a thing as a "Woman Batterer/Abuser," and the sooner we de-stigmatize this type of abuse, the easier it will be for the victims and the victimizers to get the help they need to break the cycle of violence.

If you need support, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-7233 or the Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men and Women at (888) 743-5754.

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