Category: America

Making sense of the Ankara embassy bombing from Istanbul

Emergency personnel are seen on Friday in front of a side entrance to the U.S. Embassy in the Turkish capital.

ISTANBUL — “Have you heard the news?” my editor at the local Turkish newspaper asked. Lazily clicking through various media outlets’ homepages as I shouldered the phone to my ear, I assumed he was referring to the still-missing New Yorker in Istanbul.

“Yeah, but the investigator hasn’t —”

“No, not Sierra,” he interrupted. “The U.S. Embassy was bombed this morning.”

I immediately jumped on Twitter, where I watched and retweeted as developments unfolded. First, news of a blast near the embassy in Ankara. Then, photos of the damaged front entrance. After that came 140-character blurbs reporting several injuries, a suicide bomber (or was it a package?) and one, no, two deaths.

The distance between Ankara and Istanbul, where I live, is more than 200 miles. But I felt a world away as I drank my latte, watched two boys rough-house in the street and wrapped up another story on the investigation into Sarai Sierra’s mystifying disappearance.

Meanwhile, my American cellphone has not stopped buzzing since 3:30 p.m. I’ve received dozens of Facebook messages and e-mails from concerned family members and friends back home. As I rushed to meet my daily deadline, I put my phone on silent.

After filing, I cautiously opened my inbox. My heart sank — three messages from mom. I knew what they said before I read them.

“IMPORTANT!!” shouted the first subject line. I took a deep breath before clicking it open. As I read the message interspersed with exclamation points and phrases in all caps, I could hear her frightened voice and see her furrowed brow.

Let me add an important aside: Mom’s been trying to get me to come home since I moved here two years ago. The oldest of three daughters, I was the first in my immediate family to go to college and the first to travel abroad. She had no idea I was going to end up living in Turkey when I hugged her goodbye in January 2011. Neither did I.

She and my sisters traveled to Istanbul this past summer and, as I did when I first stepped off the plane, fell in love with the city and its storied history, generous people and distinct cuisine. But that hasn’t stopped my mom (and many of my family members, for that matter) from sending frantic messages every time a protest occurs or bomb detonates, not just in Turkey but anywhere in the region.

As much as I hate to admit it, she’s got a point.

According to the Pew Research Center’s 2012 Global Attitudes Project, only 15 percent of Turks have a favorable opinion of the United States. Conversely, 72 percent view the United States unfavorably.

In the past, I’ve been able to alleviate my chronically worried mother’s fears about my safety by pointing out that none of our governmental buildings had been targeted recently, as has happened in the Arab Spring countries. Perhaps, in retrospect, that wasn’t the greatest example I could have given.

After all, this isn’t the first time a U.S. diplomatic mission has been attacked in Turkey.

In 2008, six people were killed when gunmen attacked Turkish police guarding the entrance to the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. Only five years before that, an al-Qaeda-linked gang of Turks killed 58 people in various suicide truck bombings around Istanbul.

As my mom reminds me every day, Turkey also is in a geopolitical hot spot.

Think of what’s happened in the past two years alone — social and political upheaval has swept the Middle East and North Africa; Syria is riddled with conflict; already tense relations between the United States and Iran have deteriorated; four people were killed in an attack on an American diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, etc.

But do I worry about my safety in Istanbul? Honestly, other than frequent harassment, no. Perhaps it sounds naïve, but those concerns don’t match my reality here. It hasn’t affected my daily life.

And it hasn’t, at least until now, stopped others from visiting Istanbul, consistently ranked among the world’s most popular tourist destinations.

I pumped out a quick message, knowing my mother’s anxiety would not subside until she heard from me. “Hey mom, I’m fine. Promise I’m being safe. Just sitting in a café, writing.”

Less than a minute later, my inbox chirped. “OK, love you.”

via Making sense of the Ankara embassy bombing from Istanbul.

February 2, 2013
U.S. And Indian Army Military Exercise – WOW ViDEO

January 31, 2013
Obama Calls For Citizenship For Illegals

Immigration Reform Could Raise Cost Of ObamaCare By Hundreds Of Billions

Posted on January 30, 2013

In the wake of the U.S. Senate’s “Gang of Eight” announcement on immigration reform yesterday, President Barack Obama traveled to Las Vegas today to deliver his proposals on immigration reform.

“I am here because most Americans agree that it is time to fix a system that has been broken for way too long,” he said. He added it is time to tackle immigration reform, for immigration strengthens “our economy and our country’s future.”

Placing emphasis on bipartisanship, Obama said, “The differences are dwindling and a consensus is growing.”

Despite the years of partisanship, the president today said he felt the time has arrived to where Republicans and Democrats can “finally work together.”

Using the Kennedy-Bush amnesty plan of 2007 as a model, Obama said the infrastructure for “consensus is already in place” and he wants Congress to work immediately and take a vote on the measures “right away.”

While Obama admits those he’s helping have broken the law, he said, “They are not looking for any trouble” and “they are members of the community.”

He said the U.S. needs to make certain everyone is playing “by the rules,” but he insists “in order for immigration reform to work,” there must be a pathway to citizenship.

The president’s reasoning is that to lose these immigrants would be “bad for the economy.” He said many illegal aliens currently are studying for high tech positions but upon their graduation, they will leave America and travel to other countries with their skills.

Additionally, the president elaborated on other requirements needed for comprehensive immigration reform – elements almost identical to the proposals of the Gang of Eight from the U.S. Senate.

He said requirements for amnesty would include passing a background check, paying taxes, “going to the back of the line” and learning to speak English so that “they can earn their way to a green card and eventually citizenship.”

He also adds the nation needs to keep up enforcement and create a national system to figure out who is eligible to work and who is not.

Though the president promised to enact comprehensive immigration reform and never did, he still said in his first administration he worked to “patch up the worst cracks in the immigration system.”

The push for “comprehensive immigration reform” has not been without opposition. U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said yesterday, “The president has demonstrated he will only enforce the laws that he likes.”

Additionally, Congressman Steve Stockman, R-Texas, said, “I will not be supporting the Senate’s proposed ‘immigration reform’ should it reach the House. I cannot and will not support any immigration reform proposal that institutes an amnesty program or does not begin with a comprehensive plan to secure the borders.”

He continued, “It rewards law breaking and encourages a new flood of illegals, perpetuating the very problems it claims to solve.”

He also echoed the point of many other anti-illegal immigration activists by saying, “Our nation’s failed experiments with amnesty have proven it only encourages more illegals willing to wait it out for their turn at free citizenship.”

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Immigration Reform Could Raise Cost Of ObamaCare By Hundreds Of Billions

Posted on January 30, 2013

Earlier today, I posted on why I thought it was unlikely that immigration reform would actually pass this year. But there’s another reason why it will be difficult for Republicans to back legislation as currently outlined – immigration reform could represent a massive expansion of Obamacare, potentially costing hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

As the Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff details, legalizing immigrants who are currently in the country illegally could make millions of them eligible for Obamacare. Though the exact number is difficult to pin down for a number of reasons, and we don’t know how many immigrants would obtain legal status as a result of any reform package, one Congressional Budget Office report estimated that 7 million to 8 million illegal immigrants would be uninsured after Obamacare because they won’t qualify for benefits. If this population were legalized and became eligible, it would mean increasing the number of Obamacare beneficiaries by over 20 percent. (The CBO has estimated that Obamacare would cover 36 million people either through the Medicaid expansion or the exchanges.)

My very rough estimate based on existing CBO analysis is that an expansion of Obamacare on that scale could easily cost several hundred billion dollars over a decade – maybe more than a half trillion. The reason why it’s difficult to make a projection is that it’s hard to say who would qualify for Medicaid and who would qualify for subsidies. Also, given that the subsidies vary by income level, it’s hard to say (beyond educated guessing) where on the scale this newly eligible population would fall and thus how generous their subsidies would be. Also, it’s hard to say how many of them would have incomes low enough to qualify for existing Medicaid benefits anyway, which they would have been able to claim with or without Obamacare.

Having made these caveats, here are some ways of looking at what it could cost to insure newly eligible immigrants under various assumptions. After the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision, the CBO estimated that the law would cover an additional 11 million people on Medicaid (at a cost of $643 billion from 2013 through 2022) and 25 million through the exchanges (at a cost of just over $1 trillion over the same period). So, for every additional 1 million people on Medicaid, the federal government will be spending about $58 billion over the next decade and for every 1 million people on the exchange, taxpayers would be spending about $41 billion. Projecting this out for 8 million new beneficiaries would give a range of $328 billion to $464 billion. This would be conservative, however, because the current 10-year CBO estimate includes fiscal year 2013, though the law isn’t going to be implemented until 2014 – thus the actual 10-year cost is understated. Also, this method understates the per capita cost, because I’m dividing for the decade as a whole, even though the population covered by Obamacare grows over time.

January 30, 2013
Brother, husband to search for New York woman reported missing in Turkey

In this image provided by the family, Sarai Sierra is shown in an undated family photo, in New York. Sierra has reportedly gone missing during a trip to Turkey. (AP/Family Photo)

NEW YORK – Relatives of a missing New York City woman who disappeared while on vacation in Turkey, her first trip outside the U.S., are heading to Istanbul to look for her, her brother said Sunday.

Sarai Sierra’s family was last in touch with her on Monday, the day she was supposed to start her journey home. The 33-year-old mother of two had been in Turkey on her own since Jan. 7.

Her brother David Jimenez told The Associated Press that he and Sierra’s husband, Steven, were planning to leave for Turkey on Sunday night. He said he had no return date planned.

“I don’t want to come home without my sister,” Jimenez said.

Sierra planned to head to the Galata Bridge, a well-known tourist destination that spans the Golden Horn waterway, to take some photographs, said her mother, Betzaida Jimenez. Her daughter was then supposed to begin traveling home and was scheduled to arrive in New York City on Tuesday afternoon.

Sierra’s father went to pick her up at the airport and “waited there for hours” with no sign of his daughter, Jimenez said.

Sierra had planned to go on the trip with a friend but ended up going by herself when the friend couldn’t make it. She was looking forward to exploring her hobby of photography, her family said.

“I was nervous. I didn’t want my daughter to go,” Jimenez said, but the trip had passed smoothly with Sierra in regular contact with her family and friends through text messaging and phone calls.

“She would always call and let us know, `This is what I did today,”‘ Jimenez said.

When she didn’t show up in New York City, her husband called the place where she had been staying, David Jimenez said. The owner of the hostel checked her room and saw that her passport, equipment chargers and other items were still there.

“It looked like she was just stepping out,” he said.

The family has been in touch with authorities in their efforts to find her. No one was available to comment after hours Sunday at Istanbul police headquarters. Crime in Turkey is generally low and Istanbul is a relatively safe city for travelers, though there are areas where women would be advised to avoid going alone at night. The Galata and the nearby Galata Bridge areas have been gentrified and are home to fish restaurants, cafes and boutiques.

Sierra’s children, ages 11 and 9, do not know their mother is missing, her brother said. Betzaida Jimenez said the situation has “been a nightmare.”

“I’m forcing myself to get up because I have to get up,” she said.

But she said the tight-knit family was holding onto their faith.

“We’re praying and trusting God that she’s safe somewhere and we’re going to find her,” she said.

via Brother, husband to search for New York woman reported missing in Turkey | Fox News.

January 28, 2013
Turkey in Obama’s Second Term

About This Event

President Obama invested considerable political capital in Turkey in his first term, cultivating a close relationship with Prime Minister Erdogan and relying on Turkey as a key regional partner. With the turmoil in Syria, continuing instability in Iraq and Southeastern Turkey, and the crisis in the Eurozone, the Turkish-American partnership has become a critical bilateral relationship. Meanwhile, Turkey faces the task of designing a new constitution which will redefine political life and the tenets of citizenship. Join our expert panel, including high-profile Turkish journalists and media personalities, for a discussion of these developments and their importance for Turkish democracy and regional stability.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a panel discussion of the challenges and opportunities confronting the U.S.-Turkish relationship at the start of President Obama’s second term, featuring Ambassador Marc Pierini, former EU representative in Turkey, and three leading Turkish journalists.

Introduction:

Rudy deLeon, Senior Vice President for National Security & International Policy, Center for American Progress

Panelists:

Ambassador Marc Pierini, visiting scholar, Carnegie Europe; former EU Ambassador to Turkey

Asli Aydintasbas, columnist, Milliyet; Regular contributor on Turkey to the Wall Street Journal and International Herald Tribune

Hamit Bilici, columnist, Zaman and Today’s Zaman, General Manager, Cihan News Agency

Ferhat Boratav, Editor-in-Chief, CNN-Türk; host, Daily Meeting; Ombudsman, Dogan TV Holding; Former producer, journalist and presenter at the BBC World Service

Moderator:

Michael Werz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

A light lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m.

RSVP

RSVP for this event →

Location

Center for American Progress

1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor

Washington, DC20005

Map & Directions External Link Icon

Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center

via Turkey in Obama’s Second Term | Center for American Progress.

January 24, 2013
2013

2013

          I have been a Real Stockbroker for over 55 years now and I love it! One reason for my longevity is that I have learned to look at the whole picture. Not just the good looking lady in the center. Others tend to concentrate on their specialty and are often blindsided by an “unforeseen event”.

The good news is that the economy is in a rebuilding process, despite the greedy players in the market place.

Our main growth will come from natural gas and exporting it to Asian and European countries. Stem cell research will pay huge dividends in the health care area. I will write more about these situations later and the investment opportunities available to the patient investor.

There is a pattern that is just developing and is very disturbing because of the implications. Gold bullion is being taken to their home countries because, I believe, that we are not trusted as much as we were. We have a weak dollar and have not passed a budget for years, and worse yet our debt ratio to GDP is over 90%. First it was Venezuela and then Iran wanted their gold bullion shipped to them. Then the Queen of England did a tour of the Bank of England’s vault with big smiles. Why would they drag the Queen down to their bank vaults for the whole world to see?

Is it because J P Morgan Chase bank is flouting the law by illegally manipulating the price of gold and silver in the commodity market?

Has Germany, with a very strong economic balance sheet, asked for their deposits back? After WWII their gold was deposited in various countries as a safeguard. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

What is it that the central bankers fear? Collapse of the dollar or devaluation? That is a distinct possibility if our Congress does not settle down to do it’s own business. ( The House creates a budget and the senate approves and then it is sent to the President- this is part of the checks and balances built into our system of government.)

Are they worried that the President will confiscate their holdings to suit his needs? Charles Krauthammer on FOX TV once editorialized “that do not listen to him, but WATCH what he does”. Presidents since Ronald Reagan have had disillusioned second terms.

Now that I have used up my disclaimers here are my predictions for 2013.

OPEC cartel will come crumbling down. History has proven that cartels do not last, but this one has lasted a long time supported in a way by the United States. Why? There has not been an oil refinery built since 1974!

Despite what our government can do, it is powerless in controlling the American entrepreneurship. The hydraulic fracking of shale oil has unleashed billions of metric cubic feet (Mcf) in natural gas fields. We are now the Saudi Arabia for natural gas. As we convert from oil to gas , the loss of OPEC’s biggest customer will raise havoc among cartel members and some will begin to cheat. As the price drops, some oil companies will find it tough sledding on the interest rate slopes. They will find it very tough to service their debt obligations at lower prices. These fields could last for centuries. There is a field that starts in Pennsylvania through New York State well into our borders in Canada.

This will be boom for companies that are energy dependent for cheap fuel.

A new industry has been kick started. Converting natural gas to Liquid natural gas. Right now there is one company that built a plant in the 1980’s to IMPORT natural gas. They reversed the process and are the only US company that has approval for exporting. They own 2 tankers that are running at full capacity. It takes time to build the ships and time to build the plants but eventually our balance of payments problem will reverse. With natural gas selling for under $3.50 mcf here and in Europe and Asia north to $7.00 plus; it will be a no brainer unless the government muddies the waters with inane provisos.

Right now there are 6 companies awaiting the President’s approval to begin building the plants.

The world as of today has copied or bastardized our ability to borrow or print money. The problem is that they do not have people power or natural resource capabilities to maintain the lifestyles they desire now.

China, Japan, Russia AND Europe have declining populations. In Japan they sell more adult diapers than baby diapers. Only in Asia do they have expanding populations. That means growth. Kids need many items in order to survive. One should look to Asian countries that have governments for investment ideas.

Pension plans face a disaster if they have been currently buying US Government bonds. There will come a day when interest rates will have to rise and that will cut their prices in half or more. The only way out of this heroin addicted low interest rates is devaluation. If the government devalues by 20% that means you will have 20% more dollars and prices of everything will drop by 20%. Except silver and gold. They should rise by 20% .

It is reported, using government agencies figures, that JP Morgan Chase is short 45% of silver stored in COMEX warehouses worldwide. This equals 25% of the known world production.   (When one sells short they sell something that they do not own and hope to buy it back at a lower price. ) Thus the price of silver could explode above the price of gold in a short covering rally because there are no stockpiles of silver like there is for oil.

There are four companies one can purchase to protect their hind quarters.

Stems cells are going to be the real game changer. Don’t fret – they are not made from human embryos.

These companies can work with vaccines which is far cheaper than drug research. For a few million dollars they can work on a vaccine and determine if it is doable in just six months. If the mass population is involved then they must seek FDA approval. But here the waiting period is short.

An example of this is Nannovercides (NNVC $.50) which has developed a pill for the flu vaccine. It supposedly is more effective than the flu shot, but since it involves millions of people the FDA is cautious about approval.

There are companies that can regenerate body organs, restore sight, monitor blood sugar and all kinds of sterile non harmful injections.

Many of these companies are being financed by major drug companies so they have staying power. The problem is that it takes time for fruition, but it is there I believe.

There is a major drug company that is researching over 200,000 different compounds but not a single vaccine.

The bottom line here is that this industry will extend the average human life and the average age will be over 110. This means extending social security retirements to 80, then 85 and eventually 100. Governments are going to reform or go broke.

The entitlement programs that are around today will become late night jokes on TV. This change will be both smooth and bumpy depending upon which social adjustment will be effective.

INSURANCE COMPANIES WILL HAVE TO READJUST ALONG WITH ALL KINDS OF AGE RELATED INDUSTRIES.           Imagine taking an early retirement at 85 so you can visit the moon!

My point is start thinking about star treckie stuff. Don’t get caught in the “I remember when” trap. Always look forward.

Do not tie your funds in non-liquid investments. Do not speculate because no one can tell you when and where the hammer and axe will fall.

Use common sense and always look around you and observe what is going on.

Those of us seeking income better have an attitude change. Income securities are fine when you can truly find them, but eventually interest rates have to return to normal and that spells losses for bond holder and income stocks. Eventually this will happen so it is wise to invest in solid companies and to sell some shares when income is needed.

As we grow older and mature more, and hopefully wiser, we must also change our preconceived ideas of wise management.

An example of this is that one buys a home to live in and prosper in the community – not to make money.

So today, January 2013, Precious metals, Natural gas stocks and associated businesses along with stem cell securities and CASH. Not money market funds – cash. Cash is King!

We are entering an era that will be challenging and exciting and fortunes can be made, but when and where is still to be determined.

Cheerio !~!!

January 24, 2013