Robert Reich has the Facebook post Republicans jeopardizing the safety and security of the United States.  The headline is mine, however, all  but one word can be found as a phrase in Reich’s post.

For the first time in American diplomatic history, one political party is devising its own foreign policy with its own entreaties to foreign governments.

His post asked my opinion, so this is what I wrote.

Prosecute under the Logan Act. If we don’t stop this Republican escalation of flaunting the law, who knows where this might end. The President took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Could he be impeached if he fails to act?

How might the Senators react if the President at least asked the FBI to interview each of the 47 Senators to get them to admit or deny that they authorized their signatures to be put on the letter.

Could Mitch McConnell still be majority leader if 47 of his Senators were in jail?

Call on President Obama to protect and defend our Constitution or face the consequences.

The Daily Banter has the article 47 Republicans May Have Just Broken the Law By Writing An Outrageous Letter To Iran.  I particularly like the opening paragraph of the article.

Just when you thought congressional Republicans couldn’t look any more like a troupe of treacherous clowns hellbent on circus-ifying anything President Obama tries to do, they pull another bag of tricks from the trunk of their tiny car.

The Daily Banter has a related article Why the White House Won’t Pursue GOP Senators’ Iran Letter As Logan Act Violation.

However, such an uphill fight would not be worth the gamble, politically, and under the current set of facts, the White House is getting the best of both words.

I agree that the Whitehouse might see it this way, but I completely disagree that this attitude is correct.

As I said in my previous post 47 Senators Charged With Violating Logan Act,

I would like to see Obama have FBI agents record interviews with each one of these Senators to verify that they approved adding their names to the letter.  If they did approve, then they can be charged.  If they say they didn’t approve, but it can be proved that they did, then they can also be charged with lying to the FBI.  It would be fun to see if Mitch McConnell can maintain his position of majority leader in the Senate if 47 of his Senators are taken away to jail.

There comes point when the President has to say enough is enough.  He follows a dangerous path if he fails to act against these Senators.

Please sign the Whitehouse petition mentioned in my previous post Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran is a direct violation of the Logan Act and should be prosecuted.  The least we can do to try to regain some control over our government is to sign a petition.  It is even easier than dragging yourself to the polls to vote.

Your might have heard of this right that you have:

the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In this age of the internet, you don’t even have to physically assemble.

The United States Insititute of Peace has the article Part II: Iran Responds to GOP Letter.

Foreign Minister Zarif added that “I should bring one important point to the attention of the authors and that is, the world is not the United States, and the conduct of inter-state relations is governed by international law, and not by US domestic law. The authors may not fully understand that in international law, governments represent the entirety of their respective states, are responsible for the conduct of foreign affairs, are required to fulfil the obligations they undertake with other states and may not invoke their internal law as justification for failure to perform their international obligations.”

Thanks to Nancy Weinberg for posting this on Facebook.

The Iran Primer Blog has all the pieces to this series nicely arranged on their web site. In case this presentation gets altered, I will give you links to the various pieces that exist as of the writing of my post.

Part I: GOP Letter on Iran

Part II: Iran Responds to GOP Letter

Part III: White House and Democrats Respond to GOP Letter

Vice President Joe Biden

Around the world, America’s influence depends on its ability to honor its commitments. Some of these are made in international agreements approved by Congress. However, as the authors of this letter must know, the vast majority of our international commitments take effect without Congressional approval. And that will be the case should the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany reach an understanding with Iran.

Well, at least the America public is getting lessons in our government. Perhaps some Senators might learn a lesson or two. Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif seems to be much more knowledgeable about our Constitution and International Law than our Republicans. Is America embarrassed at all about the nincompoops we elect?

If you liked my previous post 47 Senators Charged With Violating Logan Act, then here is something you can do about it.

Sign the petition, Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran is a direct violation of the Logan Act and should be prosecuted, on the Whitehouse web site. (as of 1:48PM, the link has been fixed so that you can sign the petition).

Senator Tom Cotton and 46 others have written an Open Letter to the Iranian Government as an attempt to influence and interfere with our President’s current negotiations.

This is a violation of the Logan Act, a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.

The Republicans’ flaunting of the law is getting bolder and bolder.  If we fail to prosecute, the escalation will just continue.  When you see the smoking gun, why wait for the mushroom cloud?

The President has taken the oath of office in which he promised to protect and defend the Constitution.  It is his duty to look into prosecution as a way of defending the Constitution and protecting it from being violated by people who want to ignore the separation of powers.

Reuters is full of interesting news this morning.  They have the article Florida bans use of ‘climate change’ by state agency: report.

Former employees of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) detailed the unwritten policy in interviews to the non-profit news agency, which reported the ban on Sunday in an article published by the Miami Herald and other state media.

“We were told not to use the terms ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming’ or ‘sustainability,’” attorney Christopher Byrd, who worked with the DEP’s Office of General Counsel in Tallahassee from 2008 to 2013, told the Florida investigative reporting outlet.

According to Wikipedia, an aide to Karl Rove issued this now well known explanation.

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The War in Iraq and other events in the Middle East and elsewhere proved the aide to be wrong.  At least in human affairs, what the aide said has some sense of plausibility.  However, Florida seems to have taken this thought to new levels of implausibility. Do they really think that the laws of physics are changed by what politicians allow people to say?  Could anybody be that stupid?

Reuters has the story Republicans warn Iran against nuclear deal with Obama.

(Reuters) – Republican senators warned Iran on Monday that any nuclear deal made with U.S. President Barack Obama could last only as long as he remains in office, in an unusual intervention into U.S. foreign policy-making.

The letter, signed by 47 U.S. senators, says Congress plays a role in ratifying international agreements and points out that Obama will leave office in January 2017, while many in Congress will remain in Washington long after that.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about The Logan Act.

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 30 January 1799, currently codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953) is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.

The Act was intended to prohibit United States citizens without authority from interfering in relations between the United States and foreign governments.

I hereby charge these Senators with violating this act.  If Obama won’t take action, then I guess it is left up to me to make the charge.  Other violations have been more surreptitious than this blatant act.  One example would be Ronald Reagan’s interference to prevent the Iranian hostages from being released during Jimmy Carter’s term in office.  Since Reagan took office as President before the hostages were released and this egregious interference was discovered, there was little chance that he would be prosecuted.  When Speaker Boner colluded with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu  for Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress without even informing President Obama, perhaps there could have been some wiggle room that would have allowed Boner to escape conviction under the Logan Act.

It seems like this latest incident is an escalation of tactics by the Republicans.  This blatant violation of the Logan Act is a direct challenge to President Obama. I don’t know how much plainer the Republicans can make this. If Obama doesn’t put a stop to this, what will they do next?

I would like to see Obama have FBI agents record interviews with each one of these Senators to verify that they approved adding their names to the letter.  If they did approve, then they can be charged.  If they say they didn’t approve, but it can be proved that they did, then they can also be charged with lying to the FBI.  It would be fun to see if Mitch McConnell can maintain his position of majority leader in the Senate if 47 of his Senators are taken away to jail.

March 10, 2015

On his Facebook page, Bruce Taub posted the article Lawfare › The Error in the Senators’ Letter to the Leaders of Iran:

But as the Senate’s own web page makes clear: “The Senate does not ratify treaties. Instead, the Senate takes up a resolution of ratification, by which the Senate formally gives its advice and consent, empowering the president to proceed with ratification”

Perhaps this is just a technicality, but it shows that besides being treasonous, the Republicans are stupid. quelle surprise!

March 10, 2015

If you want to take action, sign the Whitehouse petition as described in my subsequent post Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iran is a direct violation of the Logan Act and should be prosecuted.

The Daily Kos has the article and videos Jon Stewart offers awesome smackdown of Fox News in only 6 seconds.

Below is the 6 second part.  To stop the video on a particular item, click on the video and then move your cursor away to see the whole item.

The rest of The Daily Kos article has the video of the whole Daily Show segment.

Remember this post if anyone ever asks you to prove to them that Faux Noise ever told a lie, just one single lie. I have been challenged that way.

The Daily Kos has the story ‘I’m white, call them twice bitch’.  I am not sure you can imagine what this story is from its headline.  But the story and the thoughts of the commenters are a sad commentary on

Just another day in post-racial America.

Something else about the story occurred to me.  If you were white and the recipient of this tirade, would you have thought twice about calling the police?  Has it ever occurred to you wonder what it says about what non-white people in this country have to live with? Think about the impression some white people have of what the police will let them get away with. Think about the evidence you have heard recently that gives credence to that impression.

I post the link to my problem report, youtube-nocookie domain has problems in Firefox, but not in Google Chrome,  because I use the “youtube-nocookie” domain when I embed YouTube videos in this blog.  I do that at the suggestion of YouTube because I presume that avoids putting cookies on your computer when you watch the video.  That presumption may be false, but that is a matter for another post.

I have reported the problem to Mozilla the owners of Firefox.  It seems that Mozilla and YouTube just point the finger at each other.  Since the problem is as yet unsolved, I gave you the link so you can follow the back and forth until the problem gets resolved.  You may also find this entertaining and educational if you have experienced this problem on your own, and have been wondering what the issue is.

I have also replied to a YouTube support forum question.  I have had a response from someone who wants to look into the problem.

March 9, 2015

My Final response is https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/youtube/6JmM2mr_r10/Cr4L0HvM1McJ

I should have pointed out that the file http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw does exist, but the file http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw does not. The file is on the www.youtube.com server but not on the www.youtube-nocookie.com. You’d think that would be an easy oversight to fix. You wouldn’t think it would take YouTube this long to notice the problem, or that I would have to be the one to point it out. I think YouTube should send me a cookie for finding the problem for them 🙂

If you click on the link of the file that doesn’t exist, it appears to be blank. If your browser shows URL titles in tabs, then you will see the title “404 file not found.” You have to be wide awake to notice that this is how YouTube is trying to deliver the message to you. Would you normally look to the title of the file that surprisingly shows up empty?

Remember, this is a problem that shows up in Firefox and some other browsers, but not in all browsers.

The file that does not exist, does not exist for all browsers. The issue is that YouTube only tries to use the non-existent file for some browsers. So it is not the browser’s fault that YouTube does this to them.

I found out exactly how YouTube screws things up for other browsers. When I insert a YouTube video in this blog, I use code that accesses a file like https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TLT2nV3sWtw in an iframe.

When YouTube constructs the contents of the iframe for Firefox, it sets up a video player and gives the player the URL https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TLT2nV3sWtw. When YouTube sets up the same player in the Google Chrome browser, it give the player the URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLT2nV3sWtw. It is smart enough to take out the “-nocookie” in the domain name. In other words when it sets up Google Chrome, it gives it a URL that exists. When YouTube (owned by Google) sets up Firefox, it gives it a URL that it knows does not exist.

Of course Google wouldn’t sabotage browsers from other companies. It just made sure that the setup worked for its own browser, and didn’t bother to do the same for the other browsers. I am sure it was just an oversight. Google’s motto is “Do no harm”, right?

March 11, 2015

There is now a reply on the Google Product forums.

ytcrschmidt 9:36 AM (50 minutes ago)

Hi all,

YouTube developers are aware of the problem, and are working on a solution. I apologize for the inconvenience.

March 12, 2015

I have verified that YouTube has fixed the problem. I checked one of the many videos that requests no cookies be used and it is now playing again.

However, if you click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right corner of the video, you still do not get to a working version of the video on YouTube. You get what looks like a blank page. The title of that blank page is “404 Not Found”. Google developers are still working to fix that and whatever other problems continue to lurk.

If You Only News has the article Fox News In A Panic: Google Researches Ranking Websites By Accuracy Of Facts (VIDEO).

Imagine an Internet search engine that shows you top results not based on how many links to it there are, not how many hits it has, but how accurate its facts are. A search engine like that would certainly not benefit organizations like Foxnews.com or dozens of others who refuse to post the truth.

Now imagine that search engine is Google, the choice of nearly 70 percent of all searches in America.

Unfortunately for Fox “News,” Google just may be developing that very system.

The last link in the above excerpt takes you to The Daily Mail article Google to rank search results based on accuracy of web pages.

The video in the original article credited to Media Matters is from the article Merchant Of Doubt Marc Morano Deeply Concerned Google Won’t Promote His Website’s Climate Denial.

It is somewhat amusing how the three articles focus on three different aspects of the story.  It is also quite amusing how little self-awareness that Faux Noise has. The video clip is pure comedy.  Jon Stewart of the Daily show could just play the clip without any commentary.

It may be difficult to determine what the absolute truth is, but it would be a truly sad commentary if there no objective way to judge the truth of anything at all.  Admittedly there are many examples of things we thought for sure were true that later we find were not true.  However, it would be utterly disturbing to find that the case for everything we have ever thought was true.

One of the three headlines shown above is about what is truly news.  I wonder if the readers of this blog post can even agree on which one that is.