Hasta La Gadget!

If you are interested in growth and development you will have power to evolve and create new patterns. We are conditioned at a young age to build a foundation of complaints, surviving and egotistical thoughts. These are normal for the human species and seem to protect us. Or so we think. If you can not truly look at yourself or allow someone else to give you constructive criticism your growth and development will be stopped.

This is not about being right or wrong. In fact, once we give ourselves permission to be right or wrong we create a pattern of blaming and/or being a victim in life.

As humans we all have conditions of fight or flight when a situation arises. It is easier than diving into the issue to solve it. When a situation occurs that we are uncomfortable with we often fight with the other or run. Where does this get us?

Clear communication and getting to the core of the situation is where true empowerment comes in.

We can be thinking one way and the other another way. We will not know what the truth is until we speak authentically to another and them to us. It is normal to have miscommunications as this happens often. We think what the other is thinking or feeling which could be true or not true.
Unless we open up and reveal ourselves we will be in the same situations over and over.

Have you noticed that most of your issues come up with the people you are most intimate with wether they be your mate, work relationships or family. This is when we revert to our younger self and can feel comfortable coming from a victim-state versus and empowered adult.

When we learn to openly observe ourselves, our thoughts, communication, actions and the impact we have on others we can access true power that benefits you and others.

Being open-minded gives you freedom to hear, listen, learn and grow.

It does not mean that you have to believe or go with what another is saying.

It means by fully listening and hearing another with an open-mind and putting yourselves in their shoes, you can then begin to come from a place of understanding and compassion.

This will give you access to humble yourself and grow and develop. This is when the heart opens and souls connect. Letting go of old patterns, baggage and our ego will bring us the freedom and peace to move forward positively.

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday gave former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) the reprieve of his life — reversing his multiple convictions for corruption and effectively sparing him from federal prison.

McDonnell had been fighting since last summer for the high court to get involved in his case, and a major stroke of luck came in January, when the justices granted him a rare opportunity to not turn himself in until they issued a final ruling.

When the court finally heard the merits of McDonnell’s appeal, he seemed to have gotten lucky yet again, with a clear Supreme Court majority expressing deep skepticism over the way the federal government handled his criminal prosecution.

In a unanimous ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court left open the possibility for a new trial for McDonnell, while making clear the case is filled with indiscretions that may dismay the public.

“There is no doubt that this case is distasteful; it may be worse than that,” Roberts wrote. “But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes, and ball gowns. It is instead with the broader legal implications of the Government’s boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute.”

At the crux of the case was the question of what kind of behavior by elected officials counts as an “official act” under federal anti-corruption laws. McDonnell — aided by a coalition of legal scholars, former government officials and defense attorneys — argued against a definition that sweeps too broadly and punishes otherwise innocent, everyday political activity.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Failure is a part of life. You can call it whatever you want — a setback, an emotional let down, a breakup, a loss, but part of the reason why the experience is so incredibly painful is because at some level you feel you failed. You might be reluctant to admit this even to yourself, so you outwardly you label it as growing pains or transition; however, inwardly you’re a mess.

Here are five ways to cope with failure:

1. Examine the truth. Examining the truth burns and isn’t fun; yet, healing and recovery generally begins when the truth is exposed. Lies keep you in the dark and however you try to spin your situation the bottom line is that the truth matters. Too often people attempt to dilute the situation with fancy words or a cute story, but this only delays the pain. And delaying the pain can cause more conflict.

For example, if you see your recent financial decision causes a decrease in the weekly household income, be truthful about this. Don’t try to cover it up with by telling yourself in four months it will be different. By not addressing this your now, you are pretending that nothing happened. This is how the problem festers. Eventually, the situation grows out of control and then needs a professional intervention.

2. Become transparent with yourself. Transparency is necessary. When mistake occur, there is emphasis on forgiving others, including yourself. However, you can’t forgive yourself for that which you are not transparent with. And you can’t fully forgive yourself as long as you minimize the error. This doesn’t mean that you are overly critical of yourself, but it means being honest. Instead of telling yourself that your business is closing because one manager made poor decisions, be truthful and examine your role in this situation. Ask yourself: Did you look the other way when there was business conflict? Were you overly harsh in meetings so that it made communication difficult?

These same questions can be used when a relationship is torn. I’m not referring to any type of abusive relationship, rather, a relationship where conflict occurred and healing didn’t take root.

Part of making sure that you don’t find yourself in this type of situation again is being able to do an accurate assessment. As long as you hold back and rationalize, justify or minimize your shortcomings, a barrier to the truth still exists. And that barrier is you.

3. Give yourself permission to feel the pain. After a failure occurs, the immediate mode for many is moving onward because very few desire to be present with pain. This is why when pain exists people often use a substance to dilute the intensity of the hurt. Some people use work to avoid the pain. However, learning to be present with the pain is critical in healing. This is not a sign of weakness.

When you immediately cover the pain you don’t know and remember what your emotional baseline is so when healing does begin to occur you can’t recognize it. Failure hurts but healing is possible.

Sometimes after a romantic relationship ends the one who feels dumped quickly finds another person to date. Weeks later they are dating the same personality only with a different name. Why does this happen? Instead of being still with their pain and fully healing, they use another relationship as a distraction and find out that this is a repeat experience of the previous relationship.

In many articles and books that address emotional pain, there is an emphasis on finding meaning and purpose in your pain. Finding a greater meaning can’t occur if you aren’t able to rest in the pain.

4. Commit to being open to the bigger lessons. This is when being willing to be a student of life is so important. When you think you are certain of everything and that life has nothing to teach you, then you will repeat your mistakes. Learning a new way to see situations can be the very key to your next success.

Learning is a humbling experience. You become aware of all that you didn’t know. When you see the deficits in your knowledge base, use this as an opportunity to grow and change.

As a student, your greatest teachers might be the people you least expect to impact you. However, when you are open to learning from all, you will find that the person next to you might be your guide. Sometimes it is not the person with the fancy Ivy League degree that will provide you with better vision.

5. Be willing to change. A popular quote from Mahatma Gandhi is “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I wholeheartedly agree with this quote, but sometimes, I think that we can’t impact true change in our own lives and the lives of others until we change ourselves.

Change at all levels is possible. And sometimes the greatest changes when we illuminate our path from within and in how we decide view our situation.

Kristin Meekhof is a speaker, writer and author of the book, A Widow’s Guide to Healing (with cover blurbs from her friend Deppak Chopra, MD and Maria Shriver- Sourcebooks, 2015). Kristin is also a contributor to the Live Happy book (HarperElixir, 2016). She is a licensed master’s level social worker, obtained her B.A. from Kalamazoo College, and completed the M.S.W. program at the University of Michigan. Recently, Kristin was invited to the United Nations to attend the CSW60 conference where she introduced Lord Loomba. She can be reached via her website. Kristin is the author of this recent Jiyo piece about creating abundance.

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There are statements that may appear foolish and wrong-headed when initially uttered, yet which–after the passage of time–we recognize as containing previously unseen wisdom. This ain’t one of them.

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 12, 2016

A few hours after we learned of the horrific massacre of 49 people on Latin night at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, the Republican nominee for president reacted. He knew that this attack was about “radical Islamic terrorism.” He didn’t need no stinkin’ investigation. He just knew. Or maybe that was just the narrative that best suited his campaign.

Of course, we have since learned that Omar Mateen’s motives for carrying out this mass murder are not so clear. There is a great deal of evidence that at least suggests Mateen was conflicted about being gay, and that he targeted Pulse for that reason. If that is so, his pledge of allegiance to ISIS may well have been a cover story or, at the very least, not the whole story.

There were a number of other disturbing elements in Trump’s response to Orlando–which included the sickening intimation that President Obama was somehow on the side of ISIS (“Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind…There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”) Let’s focus, however, on what Trump had to say about Muslims.

Trump claimed that this “radical Islamic” terrorist attack justifies a ban on all Muslim immigrants entering the U.S., as well as a ban on all immigrants from places that have a “proven history of terrorism” (ahem, maybe other states shouldn’t allow whites from South Carolina to cross their borders?). It is worth noting that his immigration proposals–which Trump said he could implement directly through executive orders–envision the exercise of enormous presidential authority, far beyond anything claimed by President Obama or previous presidents on immigration.

On Trump’s response to Orlando, Princeton professor Julian Zelizer noted the GOP nominee was using it as a “confirmation of all the things he has been saying about the threat the United States faces and the need to be more aggressive,” and connected Trump to a long tradition of politicians who–when our national security appears to be threatened–“play to fear, you play to the anger of the electorate and you offer promises of military might as the solution.”

Yes, President Obama and Secretary Clinton also spoke about “terrorism” after Orlando. But, of course, it was a terrorist attack, an attack designed to strike terror in the American people through violence. But Obama as well as Clinton rebuked Trump for using this attack to sow greater fear about Muslim immigrants and Muslim Americans in general. Neither Democrat put forth radical proposals that violated our country’s core values.

It’s worth drawing a broader parallel here. Trump reacted to the mass shooting at Pulse by claiming it was one thing, when it might actually have been another, and proposed a response that would not in any way have prevented that attack–but which does fit his preconceived plan for our country. His use of Orlando to push his broader policy agenda should remind you of our most recent Republican president. Substitute 9/11 for Orlando, substitute the (non-existent) connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein for Omar Mateen’s supposed connection to ISIS, and substitute Trump’s proposals on immigration for the decision to invade Iraq, and this really begins to look familiar.

Let’s directly address those voters who are having a hard time seeing a real difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, in particular those of you who, like me, supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. Given what we know now (and still don’t know) about Omar Mateen two weeks after he murdered 49 people, and given the way Trump reacted the day of and in the days after those murders, here is a question for you:

If one year from now there was a violent attack on Americans that appeared to be connected to Muslims in some way, do you feel confident that a President Trump would take the time to learn exactly what happened before formulating a response? Would you feel comfortable, after such an attack took place, with a President Trump sitting in the Oval Office, in control of our country’s vast military arsenal, with him having the nuclear codes and the ability to order our forces to start shooting?

Whatever you think of Hillary Clinton, please consider these questions as you decide how to cast your ballot for president of the United States come November.

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FALLUJAH, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraq’s army sought on Monday to eliminate Islamic State militants holed up in farmland west of Fallujah to keep them from launching a counterattack on the city a day after Baghdad declared victory over IS there.

Backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi artillery bombarded targets as troops closed in on up to 150 insurgents in areas along the southern bank of the Euphrates river, an army officer participating in the operation said.

The government’s recapture of Fallujah, an hour’s drive west of the capital, was part of a broader offensive against IS, which seized large swathes of Iraq’s north and west in 2014 but is now being driven back by an array of forces.

Fallujah‘s recovery lent fresh momentum to the campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the biggest anywhere in the jihadists’ self-proclaimed caliphate and which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has pledged to retake this year.

Colonel Ahmed al-Saidi, who participated in Monday’s advance, said ground forces were moving cautiously to avoid triggering roadside bombs planted by Islamic State.

“They (holed-up militants) have two options: either they surrender or they get killed. We want to prevent them catching their breath and attacking our forces with car bombs.”

Saidi said radio intercepts suggested the militants were running out of ammunition and he expected them to fold shortly.

The insurgents mounted limited resistance to Iraqi forces earlier this month inside Fallujah before scattering after some commanders abandoned the fight, according to Iraqi officials.

The military’s swift advance surprised many who anticipated a protracted battle for Fallujah, a bastion of Sunni Muslim insurgency where some of the fiercest fighting of the U.S. occupation of Iraq took place in 2004 against Islamic State‘s forerunner, al Qaeda.

ASSESSING THE DAMAGE

Control of Fallujah is now shared between the army, elite counter-terrorism forces and federal police. Some fighters from Shi’ite Muslim militias, which have held several outlying areas for months, are also present inside Fallujah proper.

The army along with local police are expected to take full control in the coming days, a military source said.

Central districts of Fallujah, which in January 2014 became the first Iraqi city to fall to Islamic State, were mostly quiet on Monday as bomb-removal operations along roadways and in buildings began in earnest.

Military sources said the city had been heavily mined by IS but the extent of damage to infrastructure and property could not be assessed easily.

Dozens of buildings across the city have been torched, something blamed by government forces on fleeing militants, though Reuters could not verify their accounts.

Some officials estimate that as little as 10 percent of Fallujah had been destroyed, comparing that favorably with Ramadi and Sinjar, cities recaptured from Islamic State last year but widely devastated in the process.

A spokesman for the governor of Anbar province, where Fallujah is located, said the worst damage had occurred in the southern industrial district where Islamic State had assembled car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad.

More than 85,000 civilians displaced by the fighting in the past month are waiting in government-run camps to return home; at least twice as many people fled Fallujah during IS rule.

(Additional reporting and writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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