Finally, some right wing suggestions for immigration reform, and Jamycheal Mitchell's life mattered as well.

*I thought that immigration reform was a serious subject. If it is, why are some of the GOP candidates saying such crazy things?

Let's start with Scott Walker. This dude things that it might be cool to build a wall on the Canadian US border. You heard that right; a northern wall. 

"Republican presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said on Sunday that a wall along the border between the United States and Canada is a "legitimate issue" to consider.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that he would build a wall along the border between Mexico and the U.S. to curb illegal immigration — and has vowed that Mexico would foot the bill.

NBC's "Meet The Press" host Chuck Todd asked Walker on the Sunday program if he would consider building a wall along the country's northern border.

Walker said that some people along the campaign trail have raised the issue.

"They raised some very legitimate concerns, including some law enforcement folks that brought that up to me at one of our town hall meetings about a week and a half ago. So that is a legitimate issue for us to look at," Walker told Todd." [Source]

Sorry Scott, this issue is a loser for you. Did you forget that "Mexican is the new black?" Please take a closer look at the racial makeup of the folks up in Canada. They don't look anything like the Mexicans.

And then there is Chris Christie. His idea is just as outrageous. (Man Trump has these guys tripping over themselves to out crazy him.)

"Christie said Saturday that if elected president, he will track undocumented immigrants like FedEx packages.

"I'm going to have Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, come work for the government for three months. Just come for three months to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and show these people," the New Jersey governor said at a town hall event here.

Christie added that while FedEx can track boxes, the U.S. can't track undocumented immigrants.

"You go online and at any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is," he said. "Yet we let people come into this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them."

Christie added, "We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in and then when your time is up," he said. "However long your visa is, then we go get you and tap you on the shoulder and say, 'Excuse me, it's time to go.'" [Source]

Chris, I am going to use your own words on you: "Excuse me, it's time to go."

**Finally, if you were wondering why all the hue and cry about "black lives matter",  this story might help you to better understand.

"A young black man arrested by police in Portsmouth, Virginia, has been found dead in his jail cell after spending almost four months behind bars – without bail –  for stealing $5 worth of groceries.

Early Wednesday,  Jamycheal Mitchell, who had mental health problems, was discovered lying on the floor of his cell by guards. Prison officials say his death is not being treated as suspicious.

“As of right now it is deemed ‘natural causes’,” said Natasha Perry, the master jail officer at the Hampton Roads regional jail in Portsmouth. Yet Portsmouth police are looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of the 24-year-old.

On April 22nd, Mitchell was accused of stealing a bottle of Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake worth a total of $5 from a 7-Eleven. His family reportedly believes he starved to death after refusing meals and medication at the jail, where he was being held on misdemeanor charges of petty larceny and trespassing.

“His body failed,” said Roxanne Adams, Mitchell’s. “It is extraordinary. The person I saw deceased was not even the same person.” Adams, who is a registered nurse, said Mitchell had practically no muscle mass left and had lost about 65lbs by the time of his death. [Source]

* Pic from theatlantic.com

**Pic from facebook

What brown did not do for you this Christmas.

Will all the folks praising the mighty private sector have something to say about the UPS Christmas fiasco?

It's not a good look when the company that's supposed to be putting the post office out of business can't deliver Santa's gifts on time.

Apparently, like the government, the boys with the big brown trucks didn't properly plan for the holiday spike in business.

 "UPS originally expected to ship about 7.75 million packages in its air network Monday, with about 3.5 million of those sorted at Worldport, as the Louisville hub is known. The facility handles on average 1.6 million packages a day. It isn't yet known how many packages arrived at Worldport during the last minute crush, but on Christmas Eve UPS said the volume of air packages in its system had exceeded its capacity.

It is still too early to know what went wrong, UPS said, adding that the company is analyzing the situation.

Some shoppers also complained of delays with shipments handled by FedEx. A spokeswoman said FedEx "experienced no major service disruptions during this holiday season, and we experienced no major service disruptions in the week before Christmas, despite heavy volume." She said FedEx is working with customers "to address any isolated incidents."

UPS carefully plans how it will handle the holiday peak. Extra resources such as additional cargo planes had been lined up as "hot spares"—company lingo for aircraft that could be fired up quickly in case of a logistics emergency. But it ran into a confluence of factors. Retailers have been encouraging online sales, which have grown much faster than retail sales overall. And retailers likely contributed to the logjam by offering some of their best discounts late in the season in a final push for sales. Many chains dropped prices on the final Saturday before Christmas to levels below what they were offering on Black Friday, according to Simeon Siegel, an analyst with Nomura Equity Research.

That, coupled with retailers' promises of just-in-time deliveries, encouraged many shoppers to put in orders at the last minute. People buying from more than 70 retailers including Toys "R" Us Inc. and Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., whose online shipping is handled by eBay Enterprise, were able to place Web orders as late as 11 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 23, a full 24 hours later than last year.

The result was a surge in online sales shortly before Christmas. UPS had been forecasting an 8% average rise in its daily shipping volumes during the holidays. But online sales in the last weekend before Christmas jumped by 37% from the year before, according to data from IBM Digital Analytics."

This all sounds familiar. But I am sure we won't hear talking heads pontificating about the death of the private sector in America. Rather, it's just a by- product of the capitalist system at work.

This leads me to another company in the private sector with some holiday issues.

Forty million people had data stolen from their credit and debit cards. That is a serious invasion of our privacy. But no outcry from the same folks who are worried about the government having our information and tapping into our phone lines and computers.

 "The retailer was alerted its systems might have been compromised by credit card processors who had noticed a surge in fraudulent transactions involving credit cards that had been used at Target, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss the matter.

The timing of the breach could not have been worse for Target, coming just before three of the four busiest days of what has been a bruising holiday season for retailers, with the highest level of discounting in years. Target itself last month lowered its profit forecast for the year after disappointing sales in the third quarter.

Complaints from customers began to surface on social media as they learned of it early Thursday morning.

Most of these attacks are just a cost of doing business," said Mark Rasch, a former U.S. prosecutor of cyber crimes." [Source]

"Just the cost of doing business". The people who support the NSA being all in our business would argue that this particular apparatus is in place because they have to protect the American people, and the occasional infringement on our right to privacy is just the cost of living in America.

It's not a point of view I tend to agree with, but I am all to glad to point out the double standard when it comes to how we view the government as opposed to the private sector here in America.