- John Boehner apparently has no idea what goes on in Congress despite being the Speaker. Boehner stated it was important to investigate Benghazi again because some questions haven’t been answered, like these:
“Why wasn’t the security for our embassy in Libya given to our ambassador after repeated requests the night of the event,” Boehner continued. “Why didn’t we attempt to rescue the people that were there? Why were the people there told not to get involved?”
All of those questions have already been answered and answered multiple times by the Congress Boehner allegedly leads. Maybe he didn’t notice the last report since the Republicans strategically released it on a Friday late in the day so the news cycle wouldn’t pick it up. This was done, of course, since it debunked every argument they’ve made about questions still existing about the attack. Regardless, the propaganda machine continues…
- Republicans further show their immoral and disgraceful position on hard-working immigrants. The GOP is out to stop immigrants with children who have worked jobs and paid taxes to the government for years from getting proper benefits for their contributions. And it should be noted that many illegals have paid taxes and been a boost to federal tax coffers, particularly since they get little out of federal programs. Some other commonly believed myths are busted in the article and should always be pointed out when discussing the issue:
Over the past decade, immigrants in the U.S. illegally have paid an estimated $100 billion in Social Security payroll taxes, even though few will ever be able to collect benefits…At least half are paying income and payroll taxes…Even if these immigrants pay taxes, they are ineligible for most federal programs. They cannot legally get food stamps, unemployment benefits, Pell grants or federal student loans. They cannot get Medicaid, except for emergency medical services, and are ineligible for subsidies under Obama’s health law.
- Shiites are now reacting to ISIS brutality with brutality of their own, which has been going on since “Mission Accomplished”. If people chose to ignore the fact that Shiite death squads were executing Sunnis in Iraq as soon as Saddam Hussein was out of power, that’s their choice to be ignorant. But violence begets violence and that situation forced people to turn to more violent groups like ISIS so they could take revenge for the countless murders of their friends and families. This isn’t to say it was/is right for anyone to join an extremist group or death squad. But it does show how horrible the U.S. plan for post-invasion Iraq was just an absolute disaster and there is little that can be done by the U.S. to fix this bloody situation now. And with this vicious reaction by Shiites against Sunnis, this situation is continuing to get worse.
- The West is still disgracefully and inexplicably supporting the brutal monarchy in Bahrain. Great piece by one of the activists for change in Bahrain who recently had his citizenship taken away from him after years of punishment, including torture, for expressing his opinion and calling for a better government in his home country. It is a very reasonable question to ask why the West continues to display such hypocrisy on democracy when it comes to certain areas of the world. (Spoiler alert: it’s oil.)
- Egypt purchases military planes from France at the expense of its people. I mentioned the purchase of the Rafale fighters a few days ago but this article points out two further realities of the purchase. First, it’s not needed: “One thing is very clear,” says (Jon) Alterman (senior vice president and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies). “On the basis of national priorities there is no military urgency to buy more combat aircraft.” Second, by spending the money on the military instead of infrastructure or social programs (clearly taking a cue from the U.S., unfortunately), this means the spending won’t go to put Egypt’s unemployed to work, which includes more than half of its citizens under the age of 25. Stupid priorities now will equal a bad situation in the future.