Bob's Byte

What's the fuss over a killing in Istanbul? 1. It involves America... Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and longtime critic of the Saudi Royal Family, was a permanent resident of the United States, where he moved after it was unsafe to remain in his home country. Khashoggi spent the past year as a columnist for the Washington Post, where he regularly published articles about Saudi Arabia and its leadership. The man lived in USA, was a legal resident and worked for an American company. He was born a foreigner and held a foreign passport but it was public knowledge he hoped to fulfill the conditions of US citizenship.  E ligibility for naturalization is based upon being a permanent resident for at least five years and Khashoggi was only on Year 2 when he was brutally murdered. 2.  What happened? Jamal Khashoggi disappeared two weeks ago in Istanbul during a visit to the Saudi consulate to attain documents for his upcoming marriage. According to details from audio ...

Once upon a time in America we had two Thanksgivings--  a Republican Thanksgiving and a Democratic Thanksgiving.  Of course, on two different days.. For those of us who take our Day of Thanks as a given, this US national holiday has a political history. Oh, yes...we didn't always agree on everything like we do nowadays. Most of us know the history of American tradition:  early English settlers shared their autumn bounty with friendly native Americans in the 1620s. A harvest festival. But who remembers that in 1789 it was George Washington himself, in the very first presidential proclamation ever, who called for a day to nationalize the tradition, calling for Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November? Washington's Thanksgiving nearly caused a revolt. Members of Congress (who were as cooperative and forward thinking back then as they are now) objected. Their argument: the president does not have that authority over the states. You can imagine ...