90 Miles From Tyranny

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Saturday, May 2, 2015

Girls With Guns

Why Does ‘Never Again’ Keep Happening Again

Genocide is the systematic and deliberate attempt to extinguish a race, ethnic group, social group or religion.

After the most well documented and systematic act of genocide in recorded History, the so-called Final Solution to the Jewish Problem perpetrated by the death cult known as the Third Reich, the surviving Jewish people adopted the motto, “Never Again.” They had been the target of countless pogroms throughout History and this was their vow, this is their pledge to themselves, “Never Again!”

This seems to have been ratified by the victors of World War Two at the Nuremburg Trials where they convicted anyone they could find who was even remotely responsible and convicted them of crimes against humanity. It has been ratified over and over again since by war crime trials before the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Never Again! As a world we have all affirmed it. Genocide is a crime against humanity and it cannot, it will not be tolerated and yet NEVER AGAIN keeps happening again....

Friday, May 1, 2015

Girls With Guns

Fury rises at Disney over use of foreign H-1B workers

At the end of October, IT employees at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts were called, one-by-one, into conference rooms to receive notice of their layoffs. Multiple conference rooms had been set aside for this purpose, and in each room an executive read from a script informing the worker that their last day would be Jan. 30, 2015.

Some workers left the rooms crying; others appeared shocked. This went on all day. As each employee received a call to go to a conference room, others in the office looked up sometimes with pained expressions. One IT worker recalls a co-worker mouthing "no" as he walked by on the way to a conference room.

What follows is a story of competing narratives about the restructuring of Disney's global IT operations of its parks and resorts division. But the focus is on the role of H-1B workers. Use of visa workers in a layoff is a public policy issue, particularly for Disney.

Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of eight co-chairs of thePartnership for a New American Economy, a leading group advocating for an increase in the H-1B visa cap. Last Friday, this partnership was a sponsor of an H-1B briefing at the U.S. Capitol for congressional staffers. The briefing was closed to the press.....

The Appalling Mr. Zarif

Not since Baryshnikov has a foreigner so captivated a New York
audience. “A Conversation with H.E. DR. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran” played the other day at NYU. The show ran for just 90 minutes, but reviews were spectacular. Give this man a Tony: Zarif slayed ’em.

“Demonstrating suave fluency in English and a familiarity with American history and law,”wrote the New York Times, “Iran’s foreign minister said Wednesday that the United States would risk global ostracism if it were to scrap a signed international pact that resolves the Iranian nuclear dispute.” Zarif, the Times went on, “was easygoing and smiling, living up to his image as a diplomatic charmer to an audience that was polite and respectful.” Not to mention sycophantic.

Zarif, adds Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker, “comes off as practically American.” Why? Well, “He went to college in the United States, at San Francisco State University, and to graduate school at the University of Denver. As Ambassador to the United Nations, he lived in New York for five years. His English is perfect.”

Perfect English? Is that all it takes to have reporters and diplomats praise your suavity and charisma, chuckle at your jokes, cavil to your every demand? Bibi Netanyahu’s English is perfect too—but Hell will freeze before he sees Zarif’s press.

I don’t find the Iranian foreign minister a “diplomatic charmer” at all. His demeanor at NYU was arrogant, insulting, bullying, unrepentant....

Morning Mistress

Hot Pick Of The Late Night

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Girls With Guns