Charlie Rose talks to Khaled Meshaal

Charlie Rose is a highly respected interviewer who has television programs on Bloomberg, CBS, and PBS in the United States.

Hamas’s exiled leader on the Gaza bloodshed and the effects of Israel’s seven-year blockade of the Palestinian enclave. Carefully read, Khaled Meshaal considers Israel as an occupier nation. The goal of Hamas, as stated in their charter, is the destruction of Israel.

Mr. Rose’s questions are in bold font. Key reply statements are underlined.

This interview was scanned from Bloomberg BusinessWeek and was shown on PBS.

How does the killing stop?
What do you want?
Human beings have to defend themselves. If we are starved, if we are besieged, we have to defend ourselves. When [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu stops every effort to reach peace, the rest of the world ought to expect an explosion in the West Bank and Gaza. What do I believe Hamas needs or wants? Peace. But we want peace without occupation, without settlements, without Judaization without the siege. We want to live on par with every single nation. We need to live in Palestine.

Will you pledge not to eradicate Israel?
Do you want to live in coexistence with Israel?
I do not coexist with occupation and with settlements. Do you think that Palestinians who suffer from occupation and settlements can eradicate Israel? No, this is beguiling, misleading propaganda …. We in Hamas believe in moderation of Islam. We are not fanatics. We do not fight the Jews because they are Jews per se. We fight the occupiers. I’m ready to coexist with the Jews, with the Christians, with the Arabs, with the non-Arabs. I do coexist with other religions …. When we have a Palestinian state, then the Palestinian people can have their say. There are disproportionate standards, but we have the upper hand. Every single occupation ends, and the people are victorious.

Will the people of Gaza continue to support
Hamas despite the terrible consequences?
The Palestinians of Gaza are saying we are suffering because of the crimes of Israel. Even with the carnage and their homes reduced to rubble, they say, “Mr. Khaled Meshaal, we don’t want to emerge from this war without breaking the siege. We were dying slowly. Now we are dying instantly because of the F-16s and all the Israeli and American technology.” The Palestinian people have had enough. They do not make distinctions between slow death and instant death. They say, “Our families are targeted in their homes. However, we want to resist, to insist on lifting the siege.”

Why are you in Qatar and not Gaza?
This is a very reasonable question. You can ask not only Khaled Meshaal, you can ask the 6 million people in the diaspora. Why are they not in the West Bank? Why are they not in Gaza? Because Israel expelled the Palestinians in 1948 and 1967. I’m from the West Bank. Since 1967,I was expelled. I used to live in Jordan, in Kuwait, when I used to be a student. Then I moved to Syria and now Qatar. You have hundreds and thousands of Palestinians in America. They long to go back to Palestine. Although they are American citizens, Palestinians long for their home country. That’s why we insist on the return of the refugees, for me and for others to return. My natural existence is there, but I’m compelled to be here.

Some suggest, to preserve Israel’s
security, the sovereignty of a
Palestinian state must be restricted.
Why does the world understand Israeli security issues and not take heed of Palestinian security issues? In order to have a Palestinian state, why ought that state be demilitarized? Who accepts a state without arms? It will be subject to the aggression of others. I cannot accept any tutelage of any other entity. If you say, “Come, you are Palestinian. We can give you a piece here an a piece there in piecemeal fashion”-no. No.

How do you create trust between
Israelis and Palestinians?
You think the key is trust. We actually are enemies. They are the occupiers. The solution doesn’t start with trust. The international community’s full mission is to say to the Israeli occupation, “Stop. Enough is enough.” They ought to compel Israel to withdraw. How could I trust my enemy? We had a number of negotiations. The negotiations failed.

Do you need the approval
of the military wing of
Hamas to commit to any
agreement?
We are not two heads or two bodies. We are one single movement. When the political leadership commits to something, then the military wing will commit itself, too. If the leaders take a decision, then every single person, whether militant or civilian, they will follow.

DAVID BANCROFT

Try to Remember

THOUGHT SOME OF YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS ...

‘Someone asked the other day, ‘What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?’
‘We didn’t have fast food when I was growing up,’

I informed him.

‘All the food was slow.’

‘C’mon, seriously. Where did you eat?’

‘It was a place called ‘at home,” I explained. !

‘Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.’

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn’t tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck.Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.

Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)

We didn’t have a television in our house until I was 19.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called ‘pizza pie.’ When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It’s still the best pizza I ever had.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn’t know weren’t already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers– my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6 AM every morning.

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren

Just don’t blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn’t what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother’s house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes with because we didn’t have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.

Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.

Real ice boxes.

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz:

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum

2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water

3. Candy cigarettes

4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes

6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers

7. Party lines on the telephone

8. Newsreels before the movie

9. P.F. Flyers

10. Butch wax

11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels…[if you were fortunate]

12. Peashooters

13. Howdy Doody

14. 45 RPM records

15. S& H green stamps

16. Hi-fi’s

17. Metal ice trays with lever

18. Mimeograph paper

19. Blue flashbulb

20. Packards

21. Roller skate keys

22. Cork popguns

23. Drive-ins

24. Studebakers

25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You’re still young, If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older, If you remembered 11-15 = Don’t tell your age, If you remembered 16-25 = You’re older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

American Corporations try to Dodge U.S. Taxes

As more and more giant American corporations try to dodge U.S. taxes by moving overseas, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday, July 25, announced legislation to ban those businesses from receiving lucrative U.S. government contracts. Sanders said that he will file an amendment to a Department of Defense authorization bill to prohibit the U.S. government from awarding federal contracts to companies that reincorporate overseas to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. “I have a message for these corporate deserters: You can’t be an American company only when you want corporate welfare from American taxpayers or you want lucrative contracts from the federal government. If you want the advantages of being an American company then you can’t run away from America to avoid paying taxes.”

Sanders announced the legislation on the same day pharmaceutical giant AbbVie said it plans to take over Shire, its European rival, in a merger that would allow the Chicago-based drug maker to reincorporate in Britain and lower its effective U.S. income tax rate from 22 percent to just 13 percent by 2016.

Walgreen’s, the giant drugstore chain, recently announced that it is considering moving its corporate headquarters from the U.S. to Switzerland to avoid $4 billion in U.S. taxes over the next five years. According to a recent report from Americans for Tax Fairness, nearly a quarter of Walgreen’s $72 billion in sales last year came from Medicare and Medicaid.

At least a dozen other major companies are considering abandoning America through a loophole in the tax code known as corporate inversion. Such inversions allow U.S. companies to move their corporate headquarters overseas by merging with a foreign company in a low-tax country, even though most of their profits and sales occur in America.

Sanders last year introduced the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act (S.250) that would prohibit these companies from receiving tax breaks by shifting their headquarters to the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens. That bill would also stop rewarding companies that ship jobs and factories overseas with huge tax breaks. The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated in the past that the provisions in this bill will raise more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade. Nearly two-thirds of the companies who have established subsidiaries in tax havens have registered at least one in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, according to a June 2014 report from Citizens for Tax Justice.

Companies that have received billions in corporate welfare and have made billions in profits should not be allowed to renounce their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying U.S. taxes,” Sanders said.

RULES ARE RULES!

RULES ARE RULES!

The Good news: It was a normal day in Sharon Springs , Kansas , when a Union Pacific crew boarded a loaded coal train for the long trek to Salina .

The Bad news: Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing became overheated and melted, letting a metal support drop down and grind on the rail, creating white hot molten metal droppings spewing down to the rail.

The Good news: A very alert crew noticed smoke about halfway back in the train and immediately stopped the train in compliance with the Governmental Regulations.

The Bad news: The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties and trusses. When crew tried to explain to higher-ups they needed to move the train, they were instructed not to move the train because Federal Regulations prohibit moving the train when a part is defective.

Well okee-dokey then, and the pictures tell the rest.

As always the Government knows what is best for us

REMEMBER, RULES ARE RULES!

Don’t ever let common sense get in the way of a

Government Regulation.

And now they decide your health care!

Robin Williams and the Search for Happiness

One of the greatest actors and funnymen of our time. From Mork and Mindy to The Crazy Ones and a favorite movie of mine, Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams was a great entertainer who did not realize his own value. This incident proves that great success and wealth do not guarantee happiness.

I believe a loving and caring family is the answer.

Compromise is not a Dirty Word

Some random thoughts.

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The more suggestions the better. At some point in time we will have to reach a compromise. Those that refuse to compromise need to be ignored. Compromise is not a dirty word.

—

“Barack Obama believes in government; we believe in you.” This is not what Americans want to hear. Americans want to hear the ways our government will make America more successful. Does “we believe in you” mean we will do nothing to further America? It is a hands off philosophy that would make Ayn Rand proud.

American government has continuously invested in the country. First it was canals and postal roads. Then it was the railroads and building highways. It was America that stood up to the Soviet Union with the Marshall Plan and the G.I. bill that sent our WWII vets back to school. It was America that put a man on the moon.

We don’t want a do nothing government. We want a government that helps lead the country to new successes!

—

The median American family income in 2009 was $49,777, not statistically different from the 2008 median according to the U.S. Census Bureau. (Arithmetic Median Definition: Median is the middle of the given numbers or distribution in their ascending order.) The U.S. Census Bureau also reports that 43.6 million people in 2009 were defined as being in poverty.

However over 1% of the population has earnings of more than $250,000 per year. That is more than 3 million people. The GOP obtained extension of Bush income tax cuts for that group. Even worse is capital gains are taxed at 15% while salaries are taxed on a graduated tax scale. Thus a family earning taxable income of $212,300 – $379,150 is in the 33% tax bracket.

—

Representative Paul Ryan is the un-Robin Hood.

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On Social Security. As I listen and watch political talk shows it is obvious that politicians do not want to deal with this issue. There are only four possible solutions and even a combination of solutions is too hot for most people.

Raise the retirement age.
Raise taxes.
Lower benefits.
Change the plan to a private investment option that does not guarantee a specific payout.

Since politicians won’t deal with the problem the solution is an independent commission similar to the commission that raised taxes and the retirement age. The National Commission on Social Security Reform, chaired by Alan Greenspan in 1983 was the last time changes were made. The next commission will have to take more drastic measures to ensure the viability of the system.

Commentary of Highly Respected American News Anchor

Bob Schieffer on last Sunday’s Face the Nation. This doesn’t need any explanation.

In the Middle East, the Palestinian people find themselves in the grip of a terrorist group that has embarked on a strategy to get its own children killed in order to build sympathy for its cause, a strategy that might actually be working, at least in some quarters. Last week, I found a quote of many years ago by Golda Meir, one of Israel’s early leaders, which might have been said yesterday. “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, she said, “but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”

David Bancroft

Valley Rail Coalition on Track

From the San Fernando Valley Business Journal

By Mark Madler Friday, August 1, 2014

A coalition formed to bring light rail projects to the San Fernando Valley has added a significant number of members, the Valley Industry and Commerce Association announced this week.

Joining the Valley on Track coalition formed by VICA are L.A. City Councilmembers Mitch Englander, Tom LaBonge and Nury Martinez; Assemblyman Matt Dababneh, D-Woodland Hills; Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles; and Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Van Nuys. Institutional members joining were the North Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce.

L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield and Assemblymember Raul Bocanegra, D-Pacoima, were the only listed supporters when VICA first announced the coalition in June.

“The high speed and ridership potential of light rail, and low cost compared to heavy rail, makes it the best option for the desperately traffic-burdened Valley,” said VICA Chairman Coby King, in a statement.

The group is lobbying for three light rail projects in the Valley: converting the Orange Line busway into a railway and developing two wholly new routes – an East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor north-south from Sylmar to Van Nuys and a Sepulveda Pass Corridor that would link the Valley to the Westside via a tunnel under the Santa Monica Mountains.

Dilbert on Apple

Today’s cartoon immediately struck a chord with me. Apple Computer (Apple Inc – AAPL) split every share into seven. The value of those split shares has not increased by any significant amount. The new technology from Apple? Well there has not been any of late. Their last new idea was the iPad.

Dilbert by Scott Adams