Scott Kelly: One of our space Ambassadors with our earthly neighbors...and not just Russia

                                          Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka of the 
                                            Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), center, and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko

March 27th! Almost here. Houston's Scott Kelly takes off with a Russian to arm wrestle in the International Space Station (ISS). NOT.

I have met Scott at his home in Houston. NICE guy! He will be in space with Russia's Mikhail during strange times between the US and Russia since the "cold war" Soviet days -- due to Ukraine...

If Putin had not gone nuts and  sent his troops and military hardware into the Crimea and East Ukraine we'd still be buddies.

Astronauts, fortunately, are not politicians; they could be more valuable as our space Ambassadors with our earthly neighbors...and not just Russia.

We really need to involve CHINA since they are going to the moon independently from us - and will have their own NEW space station when ours is falling into the ocean due to Congress neglect and old age. China has the hordes of cash needed to be in the space business - and their kids at tops in the world of science and math. 

Right now, an astronaut like Scott cannot even LEGALLY talk to a Chinese astronaut, or official for that matter...Now isn't that just silly? I've been a terrorism analyst and international lawyer who has been to China and it is beyond silly. It's a short-sighted, foolish policy to continue. Because otherwise they will pass us by due to Congress' inaction and poor funding.

I have and will be covering this issue in Global American Values blog...follow the fast moving world that impacts our lives every day.  

Stay informed to stay ahead.

Michael Fjetland, Publisher & Editor
Global American Values blog
Author, Better Times Ahead April Fool
Houses of Straw

Armor Glass blog

Give George W Bush Credit for Showing Up at Selma's 50th When Most GOP Leadership Didn't Bother

Give George W Bush Credit for Showing Up at Selma's 50th When Most GOP Leadership Didn't Bother. 

I opposed his war in Iraq while on TV as a terrorism adviser (story at www.BettertimesAheadprilFool.com). Yet I am willing to give W credit for showing up at this historic occasion when most of the current GOP leadership could not be bothered.

That shows the current state of the GOP, who are either hostile to minorities of all kinds --and/or are afraid being seen with the President since they know it would get them "primaried" in the next election. The next candidate would claim that "Incumbent X" didn't hate Obama enough because he did go to Selma.  It's crazy. And getting crazier.

That happens because gerrymandering districts --today's common practice--gives the most extreme candidate the edge. The moderates on both sides who get things done are left out.

It is the politicians stacking the political deck like a card shark does with the marked cards. They pick their voters instead of the voters picking them.

Gerrymandering is covered in the chapter "Predicting 911 and Running Against the Hammer" in Better Times Ahead April Fool, my true global adventure story. "Running Against the Hammer" refers to when I ran against the most powerful Congressman of the time (his nickname was "The Hammer"). I saw 3 different boundaries in the same district in 3 consecutive election cycles....

Gerrymandering and our own extremists in Congress are killing our ability to get important things done. Right now it can't even do simple things easily - like funding Homeland Security! 

This is sabotaging our future. 

Let Congress prove otherwise by doing these things:

•  Actually PASSING a new Voting Rights Act that President's Obama and Bush support.

• Let Congress ENACT CYBER-Security legislation -- which it has failed to address, despite foreign governments and global crooks stealing our most secret of secrets (like the designs to the billion dollar F-35 program) as well as our citizens social security numbers.

• Let's see Congress finally invest in America's 100 year old infrastructure, from bridges to roads and pipelines. Half of Houston's water is wasted from leaks. 50 year old gas pipelines are exploding in neighborhoods all the time, and it will get worse if neglected. MILLIONS of jobs would be created and our kids would have a better future infrastructure to keep America in the lead.

Follow Global American Values blog and/or Like us on Facebook to stay up on these events that impact the future prosperity of every American.

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If Obama Were Like Putin the GOP Leaders Would Be in Jail or DEAD now - Fox Would Be Shut Down

2 March 2015
Texas Independence Day

Republicans have said how much they admire Russia’s Vladmir Putin’s “leadership style” over President Obama’s. If Obama was like Putin, the GOP leaders would be either in jail, exile or DEAD. People like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fox executives would be off the air and so would FOX NEWS. Do they really have a clue what Putin is like?

The latest incident in Moscow proves it.  Be careful what you wish for.  Putin is Frank Underwood (House of Cards) on steroids, with nukes! Except Putin couldn't care less what even Frank Underwood thinks.

Putin has turned Russia into a country Mafia. Except if it was a room with just Putin and the Godfather Michael Corleone, it would be Corleone getting the bullet. 

The killing of Putin's most vocal opponent who dared remain in Russia -- Boris Nemtsov—was clearly a cold, deliberate, bold assassination.  Doing it in the shadow of the Kremlin is like having your opponent shot on the steps of the capitol. It is not unlike what happened to JFK, MLK and Robert Kennedy in the U.S.  

Boris was not the first opponent of Putin to catch a bullet – or be poisoned.  More than six have been killed since the 1990’s. One woman reporter was shot to death in her apartment entrance. The poison was delivered in an umbrella in London on the street. That’s how Putin rolls.

Putin now rules like a dictator on the level of a Saddam or Kim Jung Un in North Korea. Americans need to realize that he is far more dangerous than ISIS. He is far more dangerous than China, Kim Jung Un, or Iran. Putin has gone rogue on a whole new level.

Putin--the ex-KGB man--has engineered a series of unnecessary, dangerous confrontations and land grabs from Georgia, the Crimea, and now eastern Ukraine. Which country will he attack next?

Putin has turned Russia into an oligarchy--run by a few super rich billionaire friends who keep contracts as long as they don’t oppose him politically--and a nation of fear. The fear and hate is fed to the public 24/7 by state-controlled media that praises Putin and blames ALL of their troubles on the United States. 

Does it help us to have the people of a major nuclear power run by a one-man mafia lying about us every day 24/7?

Most Americans have no idea that millions of Russians are being told on their "Fox" TV that Putin is wonderful and the U.S. is the reason for their inflation and lousy job situation!  Russian media NEVER mentions that Putin's budget was based on $100 oil and it went to half that. You either clap for Putin or get condemned as a traitor. There is no "Meet the Press" of opponents and talking points. The opponents are dead or living outside Russia, in fear.

His air force has been having near misses crossing over borders of almost every European country. Ukraine has seen a ridiculous series of promises by Putin not kept--arming rebels and supplying tons of advanced weapons like GRAD rockets to the rebels who rain it down on civilian and soldier alike. Inch by inch Putin is stealing Ukraine, like Saddam tried to take Kuwait.

ISIS is a threat but not a nuclear threat. Russia is. China will be.

Stay tuned. If Putin has the nerve to kill a man in sight of the Kremlin, he is capable of anything."Follow" to keep advised as a Global Tsunami of threats come our way, and events unfold....

Which GOP Candidate Has Foreign Experience - More than Me~! NONE....But Hillary does...

Dismissing an expert seems to be in vogue by the mindless these days. I just heard on a "Meet the Press" discussion about the GOP candidates for President, not one of them has any real foreign experiences (or knowledge for that matter).

Not Rick Perry, not Ted Cruz, not Scott Walker, not Jeb Bush, not even Donald Trump!  Come to think of it, after having been blown off by trolls as a "know nothing," NONE of the GOP Presidential candidates at CPAC can even match my bio of expertise (negotiations in over 50 countries including child kidnaping in Syria) and time as a terrorism expert on TV!

The ONLY person in the Presidential pack with more global expertise than little ole me and all the GOP candidates is Hillary Clinton, who had an intense global schedule as Secretary of State. It is impossible to top being the chief global political negotiator for the United States as a qualification to be an astute President.  Perry's guided tours of foreign countries is not experience; Scott Walker or Chris Christie going to London is not experience -- it is being a tourist!  They know about as much as I did as a naive young attorney three decades ago whose first trip abroad was Nicaragua after growing up on a farm in Iowa, and that was nothing. LOL. Being President is not for global amateurs - not with ISIS, China, India, Russia competing to win in the global economy.

My final advice on social media: NEVER waste your time arguing with cement-heads (you won't change ISIS mentality by talking any more than our own trolls or zealots). 

You can try to speak Spock logic to them, but without a mind meld, I am afraid that's an impossible task. Beam me up Scotty! We miss Spock's logic down here. lol

That's how I roll.

WHAT makes Kids from 90 countries Join ISIS? How about AMERICAN produced VIDEOS?

WHAT makes Kids from 90 countries Join ISIS? How about AMERICAN produced VIDEOS?

What force is ISIS/ISIL using that is sucking in kids from 90 countries around the world, including the U.S. and Europe?  Part of it could be due to their social media videos being produced by a U.S. person. Yep, an AMERICAN, with unique video editing skills not found in the Middle East could well be the key in making this sick bunch look like Hollywood.

This is apparently a “shock” to people. The sad truth is that professional video editing is likely the reason ISIS/ISIL has been successful sucking in innocent middle-class Muslim kids from around the world into its black hole of death. Estimates are that about 150-200 of them are from the U.S., 2,000 – 3,000 from Europe and the rest from other countries, making up about a total of 20,000 to 30,000 members (good enough to defeat a much larger Iraqi army.) That’s out of 1.5 BILLION Muslims worldwide (mathematically 30,000 of 1.5 billion is 0.002%!). So you can see why no President has framed this as a ‘war against Islam’ because that would be both wrong and nuts!

The ISIS/ISIL videos are not the boring ones that grandpa Osama bin laden did. Osama was like the YouTuber who thinks an hour of them yakking into a camera is exciting to see. I recall from my days doing television terrorism analysis that bin Laden’s videos mostly consisted of one guy (him) sitting with a rifle, blabbering for an hour! Just words and a stale presentation.  A couple shots of him firing an AK-47. No black uniforms. Definitely not an Oscar winner or nomination there.

ISIS is Osama 3.0 with modern Internet and Social Media fueling recruits. They show ACTION-- lots of U.S. style quick edits of reality TV-type people talking trash and doing stuff (like breaking 3,000 year old ancient artifacts recently -- using slow motion scenes of statues falling, accompanied by a singing soundtrack in Arabic in the background!

WHY do kids from Europe or the U.S. (or 90 other countries) go to ISIS? Is it just the slick videos that an American created?  Are they really aware of the hell hole they are stepping into? 

You have to know that fact in order to know how to address it. Then we know HOW to STOP it from taking more innocent youth into their dark, violent, intolerant world. It's a world where women are used as breeding stock, bought and traded like sex slaves. It's a world that hates every religion, even other Muslims! It kills Shia Muslims because even they are not "pure" enough. Christians are but one of many minority sects assaulted by this genocidal mob of ignorant men who act like a religious mafia. 

ISIS is insane level intolerance. It's  one step removed from what happens in Congress today. Congress isn't shooting anyone except from drones; Congress displays intolerance when it prefers to starve people to death by cutting food stamps or denying them medical care! lol.

Do these kids go to join ISIS because they have no job or self-esteem? 

Or because they were abused by police and the authorities like "Jihadi John" claims? If police can shoot minority kids like Michael Brown and countless others, could you see how they might be attracted to fight back via ISIS?

Or do these kids travel to Turkey in order to cross into Syria and its horrors chambers for something else? 

I have worked globally including the Middle East. I was treated with respect and I treated them with respect. I found people extraordinarily helpful and kind even when I couldn’t speak their language.   I have seen what being poor is like to self-esteem. I have seen prejudice against people because of their color or religion or sexual preferences. None of this is helpful.  

I think these kids go for some or all of the above reasons. If you can’t get into school in America or Europe, why not go where they give you a gun and you feel like a hero?  It’s not until they get there will they realize their cell phones are taken away and they become raw meat for the front lines and a pawn who can’t escape Pandora’s Box they just opened.

We must change our own thinking to address all of it to solve it.

Our youth need education opportunities and jobs. Adults need to leave the world a better place for them than we found it. 

We as individuals need to break out of our mental silos and–and our comfort zone—and get to know people of other cultures and religions that live in America. I found them to be people just like you and me when you finally break bread together over a meal and meet their families.  I wrote of these things in Better Times Ahead April Fool.  I never landed in a new country without having butterflies in my stomach. But every time it proved to be a rich and rewarding experience in what I saw and learned. Do some traveling!

Congress has been more interested in fueling political wars than creating jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and investing in leading this global, high tech 21^st century. They can’t even vote to FUND HOMELAND SECURITY department during all these new threats! If that isn’t an indictment of our own petty purists who put partisanship in front of American security, nothing is!

We people cannot wait on small-minded politicians to make it better. Start reaching out now…go to a new place to meet people--at a mosque or synagogue or a Hindu temple, whatever. America has many of each.

If you are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist or Martian, embrace the interfaith groups. They are the bridge builders we need to live together. That act alone will make this a better world.

Michael Fjetland, BBA/JD

Global American Series

Author, Better TimesAhead April Fool

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Obama's Legacy - Road Video of Michael Smerconish and Historian on Obama's Legacy - SURPRISE result

This Dash Cam video captures a satellite radio broadcast of the Michael Smerconish show on POTUS with a historian with surprising results of Obama's legacy.

I will let you hear the words. What you will be SEEING is footage from my two dash cam cameras, both of which can be turned in different directions. One is wide angle and one is telescopic. It one point I turn one of them to give my opinion on what I am hearing. I have global economic experience and can confirm it if you look at my book "Better Times Ahead April Fool" and the final chapter, "Agenda for American Greatness."

Michael Smerconish "Stuck in the Middle With You" is probably one of the most intelligent, thought-provoking, fair, honest personality on radio - unlike those who ignore facts and take extremists views. 

Stop the Crazy Shoot Outs: Respect & Equality - Values for Americans to Live By

The recent case of the Arizona mother who went home after being followed and got her son and his gun all started over her giving a child without a learners permit a lesson on a public road, and equally poor conduct by the other driver who went ballistic over someone in the slow lane. Both parties showed a total disregard of restraint nor tried to get professional police involved. The hunted turned into a hunter.  It resulted in a wild west shoot out on their front yard and the mother being killed.

Where does any of this make sense?

I ask Americans to follow a code that has worked for me in America and over 50 countries in traveling overseas. They are:

1) Earn respect by showing respect.  I found people to be nice and helpful in every country I've been in, even on kidnapping cases.
2) Treat everyone as you wish to be treated.  Being courteous won't kill you or waste your time.
3) Treat people as equal regardless of color, sex, etc. because they are.  Except for the extremists, all of us share the same dream of education, family, fairness, a good job and to be left alone.
PLUS
4) Be flexible - I earned that everyone has a different sense of time and "things happen."  Focus on finding a solution since stressing out does nothing to help. If the jerk wants to cut you off, shock people by letting them in (it makes you look noble compared to the jerk). I had to be very inventive at a moment's notice in many countries (and in the US) when things didn't go as planned....

That's it! Let's face it, if everyone is going to be an "anger management case" grabbing and shooting their guns at the slightest insult, our quality of life is going to suck. That will just make us look like the 3rd world countries I describe in Better Times Ahead April Fool. We are better than that.

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