Turkey's Coup.

On Friday last week the Turkish military attempted a Coup to take control from its current President Erdogan.  The military sees itself as a protector of secularism and democracy in Turkey and this coup was a direct reaction to Erdogan's Islamist policies and his crackdown on democratic freedoms such as freedom of the press.  However the coup failed.

This coup was the fourth in Turkey's history and this one failed.  The military failed to gain public support or even support from the rest of the Turkish security and military forces.  As such Erdogan escaped and is now using the security forces he has to rout out all the members of the military and government that plotted the attempt.  According to the BBC over 6,000 have been arrested so far and more are expected to be as military and governmental facilities are taken back one by one.  Interestingly, the Turkish people see Erdogan as tyrannical and yet they did not back the militaries attempted takeover.  This could mean two things.  One, the Turkish people favor democracy and its ideals and thus trust their system and or two, there is enough refugees from Syria and other places that believe in Erdogan's version of Islamic politics that the Turkish citizens are intimidated into supporting Erdogan and his dictatorial policies.  That, or they are more fearful of Erdogan and what he can do to them if they support the other side.

Final Thought:  The situation obviously ended in failure for Turkey's military.  But the question is, did the United States and other countries back the wrong horse? (Yea America backed Erdogan).  Should we have supported Turkey's military coup as a means to save their democracy and the gateway to Europe rather than let the country fall into Islamic Fascism and become a terrorist haven?  In this only time will tell.

July 14th Terror Attack

Yet again France was attacked, this time on their Independence Day, Bastille Day.  What occurred was horrific.  A terrorist used a truck to slam into a crowd of people killing over 80 people.  The evil man responsible waited for the police to remove the vehicle barriers and disperse so that the truck could obtain its maximum killing potential.  As terrorist plowed through the crowed he began shooting from the crew cab as some heroic members of the crowed tried to grab on to remove the driver.  That terrorist was shot and killed by police.  It was planned and it will happen again.  

This is what we can expect from terrorists from now on.  They seek death and destruction alone and everyone is fair game.  Isis/Isil of course later claimed responsibility for this heinous attack on innocents.  These terror organizations have to be taken far more seriously and we have to be willing to get our hands dirtier.  These people use others as human shields and some of those "human shields" do so purposefully.  But because of how the Middle East is and its culture you cannot tell who is good or bad or even what side they will be on that given day.  Even Senator John McCain was embarrassed to find that he had taken a picture with a known Isis/Isil terrorist when he was in Syria.  These terrorists, Jihadists, flock from terror group to terror group seeking martyrdom and death.  People think we are taking this situation seriously, but in my opinion we are not.  Simply using drones to bomb the enemy will not work.  Also, according to a report from the "Blaze" show "For the Record" they are not even bombing all the targets of opportunity such as Isis/Isil headquarters in Dabiq Syria because it is in the middle of the city.  We Americans have become squeamish in this fight.

Final thought: France and other countries are suffering because of terrorism because we are failing to use the full resources available to strike back.  These people in France, or the terror attack last month in Istanbul or anywhere should not die needlessly because we fail to fight back.  We must mourn our lost loved ones and then strike in the same way a General Sherman or a General Patton would and rend the enemy asunder. 

Tax Returns: Public Knowledge!!!

Should how much we pay in taxes be made accessible to the public?  Let us review some of the arguments for and against.

The against unsurprisingly sights privacy.  You can see how much people pay along with how much they deduct for their debts, medical bills and even charity.  Some people don't want others to know they have high debts or medical bills as they feel embarrassed or they feel it may hurt them when interacting with their peers or potential job opportunities.  Basically, an employer, or group can see if you look like a liability more easily, or people can learn of your financial situation and try to take advantage of you.

Those in favor of release, it helps insure people pay by embarrassing people who try to dodge their taxes.  So it makes it harder to hide them siphoning money into a tax haven, and prevents corruption as all eyes are now on the people who earn so much yet contribute so little.  It basically leaves no place to hide for people with respect to paying their taxes.  Additionally, Sweden, Norway, and Finland all have public tax records.  Their reasoning according to the Economist is that it spurs continuous debate on the tax code to see that it is not too burdensome and that it helps people see if they are pulling their own weight with respect to contributing to the government in taxes.

Conclusion:  I find myself siding against people's privacy on this issue for government is something that is owned by the people and people do need to see who is pulling their weight with respect to contributions.  Not to mention embarrassing people into not having a tax haven and preventing corruption and tax dodging is an extreme benefit as we can boycott those people who try to usurp the system.  It even ensures that our politicians don't take bribes as we can see all the money in all of the bank accounts if they multiple and are able to ask where the additional money came from that they did not earn through their job.  Basically we can tackle corruption and tax dodgers all at once.

Drones and cops

For the first time a drone was used to kill a person in the United States by police.  In this case it was the active shooter who shot police in Dallas Texas.  This is history making.

Now I do not celebrate death of anyone including a murderer.  However, it is important to note that a drone (one typically used to disarm bombs) was used to detonate a bomb close enough to the suspect to kill him.  It is these kinds of situations where a shooter holds an advantageous position that drones in my opinion should be used in place of an officer.  If police went in to apprehend the shooter, the shooter would have opened fire, potentially killed more police, and the cops would have shot the shooter anyway.  In essence the shooter was most likely going to die anyway.  And this is exactly the kind of jobs drones excel at.  They perform the dull, the dirty and of course the DANGEROUS.  Once a suspect is determined to be nonnegotiable and is a danger to police and those around them, then a drone should be sent in to settle the matter.   It was excellent police work by cops, in my opinion, in order to protect themselves and other innocents in the area.  

This however sets a precedent where cops may begin deploying drones more readily to "end" incidents.  As such this particular incident must be looked at with close scrutiny to help develop standards and procedures for when drones may be used to exhibit deadly force.  If not developed carefully by using the Dallas shooter situation as a case study, then the drones may be abused with respect to lethal capacity.  Remember, drones were originally used in war as recon machines and to disarm bombs which correlated directly with what police do in various situations.  Now the drone’s capacity for killing is being explored as well.

Final Thought:  Like I said, we must be careful so as to not screw this up.  Cops know this was an extreme situation and they also know this is going to change how they operate.  So cops, and lawmakers are going to have to decide how to use this "tool" in future situations.  I am glad it exists for it will protect more lives, but the potential for abuse and misuse is still there.  Thankfully I have faith in police to do the right thing. 

Should Cops wear cameras?

After all the incidents and questions of innocence or guilt between Black Americans and cops I feel cops have to wear cameras.  Not to protect the people from the cops, but to protect the cops.

An audio/visual camera recording a cop constantly especially during an incident can mean all the difference in keeping a cop out of jail in these situations where onlookers can be confused or misinterpret what is going on between a cop and an individual they are interacting with.  But to do this, a 360 degree view is needed and really good microphones.  So we would be able to see what happened in the Ferguson shooting, or the shooting in Dallas from the cops’ point of view.  No longer will we question what a cop is saying or what the suspect is doing/saying as we will get a clearer picture of who and what cops are dealing with.  It even may help with investigators seeing things they may have missed and can also help in court cases with the claims of suspects and inmates who resist while being detained and the public having a conversation on uses of force by police.  Basically a camera and microphone covers all the bases with respect to covering the cops from being harmed in the public eye.

Police may even begin to announce what they are doing to clarify what is going on via these cameras so that people who do not know of police tactics or procedures can readily understand why cops do what they do.  Basically it will aid in clearing up misunderstandings.  Also, a 360 degree camera may aid in identifying witnesses and cameras in the back of police cars and on and in police vehicles will help with cases like with the death of Freddy Grey.  

Final Thought:  Cameras and microphones can give us a 360 degree view of the world around a police officer.  They can even identify where a particular sound is coming from and from whom via technology and with a heads up display can warn officers of approaching danger from behind.  We can protect our police and even eliminate the select minority of bad officers who abuse their power.  Let us end the confusion and the potential race war by giving our cops a tool to help protect themselves.

On the Cops and Shootings

This is entirely my opinion and mine alone as a reaction to the violence going on between Black Americans and Police.  

I am watching the news and all I am seeing right now is misunderstanding, hate and anger.  If the cops in question are guilty, then let the system work. We must have faith in a jury, people chosen for their neutrality to judge innocence or guilt based on facts and arguments.  Yes, I know historically Black Americans did not get fair trials and likewise evil men got away with murder of black Americans.  I know my history, but we live in a different America where whites and blacks serve on the same jury and a consensus has to be reached.  In other words whites and blacks on a jury have to be unanimous for such trails in judging innocence or guilt.  So why are we not relying on the jury to decide?  Why are people commuting acts of violence against cops who had nothing to do with the indecent in question?  Those officers should not have been murdered in Dallas Texas or other places in the country.  We are not in a race war, but if we continue down this path then we may just end up in one.  

The media is not helping at all in disarming this violence.  All they show is an indecent without adding context.  As such all we see on the media is a black man being killed without knowing the circumstances.  Is not the media supposed to help report what goes on and provide all the facts they know as the first recorders of history?  I think they are, but all I see is a commentator making up a play by play of a man being shot.

Final Thought:  I think Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be crying.  I think he would be asking where is the love for each other that overcomes violence and hate.  But no, we stab each other in the back because of a perception that people are out to get Black Americans, when I don't think they are.  I think the officers are scared because a country is turning on them which makes them jumpy.  I think they are victims too of laws that force police into confrontation with people who commit what are known as victimless crimes which in my opinion should not be crimes at all.  Our country is in pain and we must try to remember what we learned from Jesus and reiterated through Dr. King, to solve hate with love, to solve injustice with justice.

Living the Milgram Experiment

The "Milgram experiment" (look it up, it’s interesting) was a series of tests done at Yale University to see how willing people are to Obey someone in authority.  In the tests, a man (who was actually an actor) was put in a booth, and the unknowing test subject was set up as a questioner.  The test subject would ask questions of the person in the booth and if the person in the booth got the questions wrong they would get shocked, with each wrong answer causing the shock to be worse than the last one.  Next to the questioner would be the authority figure.  As the test was conducted the questioner, at the urging of the person playing the authority figure would continue shocking the person in the booth even when the person in the booth begged for the test to be over due to the pain of the shocks they were receiving (the shocks were of course fake as the person in the booth is an actor, but the test subject has no knowledge of this).  At some point the actor would stop responding to indicate they were passed out, at which time the authority figure would urge more shocks because of the failure to respond to the questioning.  Our test subjects continued to shock the passed out person and then the person in the booth (our actor) let out a dramatic scream to indicate the test subject had shocked them to death.  

Surprisingly the test results show that we human beings have a tendency to listen to authority figures.  Of the 40 subjects, 26 administered the lethal dose, but all subjects in the course of the experiment at some point questioned the experiment and apparently exhibited emotional distress.  Milgram would repeat the experiment with some colleges around the world with similar results (he and his colleges even tried it in groups of people).  Basically the reason why the Germans obeyed the NAZI's is because of this psychological flaw that we have.  Now the question is, are we being told what to believe even by people who want the best for us?

I say yes.  President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and those in power have the same authority and position that many of the world’s greatest heroes and villains had.  When Obama says Republicans are bad, how many think long enough to question him?  When Trump says to ban Muslims for a time, how many cheer?  We allowed concentration camps to exist in America during WWI and WWII for those people we perceived as our enemies (German, Italian, and Japanese concentration camps to name a few).  And do you know who gave the order for those to exist, President Woodrow Wilson, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  People in authority ordered us to do things even though at the most basic level we knew it was wrong.  President Bush and our Republican and Democrat lawmakers ordered the spying on American citizens via the Patriot act.  And we blindly follow these authority figures by justifying our actions by citing things like safety, comfort and at times even greed.

Final Thought:  We have a problem.  Maybe we listen too much to authority.  On top of this, we give radicals like Trump and Hillary our tacit consent to seize property, ban our freedoms and harm individual groups simply because it is convenient.  I think we rely on them so much that we think they are indispensable.  Truth is the old boss is the same as the new boss and is the same as every other boss.  They are expendable and our politicians don't even realize that is what they were designed to be with respect to being public servants.  It is time we questioned everything and stop listening to people who tell us to throw away our morals and our ethics.