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Conservatives — not only across Nevada, but all around the U.S. — have been told by their GOP Congressional delegations to “bend over and take more of the same.” Disgustingly, Nevada’s Mark Amodei, Joe Heck and Crescent Hardy are in that same boat, each having voted to keep John Boehner as the Speaker of the House for a third term.

So, lets take a glance at what Boehner has done for the American people and analyze why they voted as they have:

In 2011, Boehner signed off on the Budget Control Act, which also came to be known as “sequestration.” The sequestration deal was designed to cut $1.2 trillion from 2013 to 2021; a gang of legislators was supposed to cut a deal to avoid half of those cuts coming from the military budget, but the deal never happened, and the military took the brunt of the cuts.

In September 2011, Boehner attempted to ram through a stopgap funding measure that would have jacked up spending on disaster relief. In the end, many Republicans voted against the measure not because of the disaster relief funding, but because they did not believe the bill cut enough spending.

In December 2012, Boehner purged conservatives from leadership slots in Congress. Conservatives in Congress have routinely complained for years about Boehner’s attempts to stifle their leadership trajectories.

After Senator Ted Cruz led an effort, along with his allies in the House, to pass a budget that did not include funding for Obamacare – an action that led to a short-lived government shutdown when Democrats refused to sign off on such a budget – Boehner caved, funding Obamacare and reversing some cuts from sequestration.

In July 2013, Boehner found himself on the same side as Nancy Polesi as both had to defend their votes to maintain the spying program that lets the National Security Agency collect Americans’ phone records. Conservatives argue that the program violates basic rights to privacy and constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures.

Finally, in December 2013, Boehner signed off on a $1.1 trillion budget deal with President Obama. The nearly 1,600-page bill provides funding for ObamaCare implementation and government-backed preschool programs.

Amodei, Heck and Hardy’s support of Boehner proves that the outcome of last November’s elections mean absolutely nothing.

UPDATE:  John Boehner is already purging from key positions, members who failed to vote for him, including Florida Congressmen Ted Yoho and Rich Nugent, Randy Weber of Texas and Tim Huelskamp from Kansas, proof that Boehner isn’t about leadership but about power.

While there were six governors sworn into office on Monday, it was California’s Jerry Brown taking the oath of office for a record fourth term that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams gushed over last night.

“Then there’s Jerry Brown, today at age 76 he was sworn today to a record fourth term. He first came into office when Jerry Ford was President his first time around,” Williams fawned. “No one has led the most populous state in the Union longer than Jerry Brown, who’s finally been able to turn around California’s troubled finances.”

My head practically exploded as I shouted at the TV, calling William’s an “effing liar.”

Even I know that Brown’s budget spikes year-over-year by over $12 billion, taking it to a high of $108 billion. If you take an honest look at California spending from all fund sources, total state spending hits a high of $230 billion.

Beyond that, last year and for the 10th year-in-a-row, CEO Magazine named California as the worst state to conduct business in, pointing out it takes two years to open a restaurant.  Furthermore, the Heritage Foundation finds that between 2003 and 2012, “a net 1.4 million people left California for other states,’ while the Cato Institute ranks Brown in last place with an ‘F’ as a governor.

If Williams’ isn’t lying, than he is dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks.

Every time I start to believe the U.S. is going to ‘hell in a handbasket,’ all I have to do is look at how ‘good’ the folk in other country’s have it. It’s a real wake-up call.

Eighty people have been publicly executed in North Korea. The State permits executions for conspiring to overthrow the government, treason, terrorism, religious activism, cell-phone use and stealing food.

The victims, their heads covered by white bags, ties to stakes, were machine-gunned to death. North Korean officials forced a crowd of over 10,000 people in seven different cities, including children, to witness the killings.

This is the first time under Kim Jong-un’s reign that public executions have taken place. State officials say the executions will stop the spread of capitalism across North Korea.

Yeah — we have it pretty good, but I also know we can do better.

Al Sharpton hosts a show for MSNBC and is a public speaker, both of which bring in money for him. However, there are more details behind his finances that have raised some eyebrows – and, it’s just not the money he owes in back taxes or the fact that his ventures are in debt.

Comcast, MSNBC and NBC Universal all directly funded Sharpton’s National Action Network as recently as this September, but Sharpton and the cable giants have done business in the past, as well.  In 2010, Sharpton spent time lobbying Congress when Comcast wanted the acquisition of NBC Universal to go through.

The following year, Sharpton was given his own show.

When Sharpton sought involvement in the December 2014 funeral of Akai Gurley, shot by a rookie police officer in the darkened stairwell of a housing project in Brooklyn, New York, Gurley’s family told him to stay away. Sharpton held a news conference condemning the cop and promised to deliver a eulogy at the wake.

Gurley’s aunt said: “Al Sharpton came in, put his name on the situation, but has not even made one single call to the parents of Akai,” adding that all Sharpton sees “is money and political gain and he is turning the tragedy into a circus.”

Sharpton has often sparked controversy with his race-baiting language. During a rally in Brooklyn, he called white people “crackers,” and when Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was running for president in 2007, Sharpton said: “As for the Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway.”

Sharpton also had financial issues on the personal front, being sued for not paying his rent in 2004 by his landlord to the tune of $56,000 and again in 2007 for another $42,000. It’s unclear what happened to the suit, as neither has commented on it.

In December 2005, Sharpton agreed to repay $100,000 in public funds he received for his 2004 presidential campaign, because he had exceeded federal limits on personal expenditures for his campaign.  At that time his most recent Federal Election Commission filings stated his campaign still had debts of $479,050 and owed Sharpton himself $145,146 for an item listed as “Fundraising Letter Preparation — Kinko’s.”

Also in 2005, Sharpton appeared in three TV commercials for LoanMax, an automobile title loan firm that charged fees that was the equivalent of 372-percent APR loans. When asked about the television commercials he made, Sharpton said: “I don’t understand why it’s wrong for the little guy with no credit not to be able to get money. If I felt this is in any way abusive, I would stop doing the ads. ”

Sharpton landed in jail for 90 days in 2001 on trespassing charges stemming from his protest against U.S. military target practice exercises in Puerto Rico. Sharpton got involved in the demonstrations at Camp Garcia after a person died and four others wounded in April 1999, when the Navy accidentally dropped bombs near where they worked.

In 1995, an African-American Pentecostal church in Harlem, New York, asked a Jewish tenant of one of its properties, Freddie’s Fashion Mart, to evict a black-run record store that was subletting part of the property. Sharpton showed up outside Freddie’s vowing to a crowd: “We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.”

Two weeks before Christmas that year, a man attacked Freddie’s, shooting several customers and then setting fire to the building, killing seven employees. Sharpton later apologized for his “white interloper” remark, but denied responsibility for the violence.

Speaking at Kean College in 1994, Sharpton referred to gay men as ‘homos,’ saying “White folks was [sic] in caves while we was building empires. We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

When cornered about the comment, he claimed to be misquoted and deflected the issue of gay rights onto the Republican Party.

“Well, first of all, I don’t know that you’re quoting me properly or not. But let’s talk about the issue of homosexuality. Let’s talk about how many Republicans are not dealing with the problems that we’re even facing today with fellow churchmen of mine, who are trying to act as if homosexuals are the cause, rather than pedophiles are the cause.”

In 2003, Sharpton found himself called out for the remark, and responded by saying: “Homo is not a homophobic term, but I think even the reference is irresponsible and I don’t do that any longer.”

In recent years, Sharpton has been one who has called for the “n-word” to be banned. But he called New York’s first black Mayor, David Dinkins, that word.

“You wanna be the only nigger on television. The only nigger in the newspapers. The only nigger that can talk. Don’t cover them, don’t talk to them, cause you got the only nigger problem. Cause you know, if a black man stood up next to you, they would see you for the whore that you really are.”

Later in the speech, Sharpton would crack jokes about “Chinamen, Koreans, and Crackers.”

“We’re the black chicken friers of the universe. We gonna go buy some Colonel Sanders chicken. Then the Chinamen comin…Koreans sell us watermelons. We eat watermelons all our lives. But they gonna come cut it up, put it in a bucket with a rubber band around it, and we gonna buy it like it’s somethin’ and we didn’t know what it was.”

In 1993, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for failing to file a state income tax return and fined $5,000 with an order to file his 1986 tax paperwork. Of course the New York Time’s painted a different picture, reporting, “The settlement concluded a lengthy conflict between Mr. Sharpton and Attorney General Robert Abrams, opponents in the 1992 Democratic primary for United States Senate.”

After a car in a Hasidic rabbi’s motorcade killed a 7-year-old black boy in Brooklyn in 1991, Sharpton referred to the Hasidic Jews as “diamond merchants” and said “if the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”  Shortly afterward, a mob attacked an innocent Hasidic Jewish student visiting from Australia, stabbing him to death.

Again, Sharpton refused to accept responsibility for the violence.

In 1990, a jury acquitted Sharpton of felony charges that he stole $250,000 from a youth group. During a victory party afterwards, Sharpton declared that his acquittal would ”change the political landscape.”

Sharpton said in 1988 that he worked with the government to stem the flow of crack cocaine into black neighborhoods. However, in 2002, HBO aired a 19-year-old FBI videotape of an undercover sting operation showing Sharpton as a government informant for the FBI, while an agent poses as a Latin American businessman and a reputed Columbo crime family captain.

The year before, the reverend accused an upstate New York prosecutor, Steven Pagones, of being part of a group of white men who raped teenager Tawana Brawley in 1987.  A grand jury found “overwhelming evidence” that the rape allegation were false.

Pagones sued Sharpton for defamation and won a judgment of $65,000. Sharpton paid the judgment with money raised by his supporters.

All this, despite his dubious background and questionable personal activities, Sharpton has also visited the White House 81 times and continues to create conflict where ever he appears, saying, “Every time there’s a Sean Bell or a Ferguson or a Trayvon Martin, we go through my taxes. It’s the same agreement y’all.”

Sharpton’s current tax troubles began in 2008 when the IRS filed personal liens against him totaling nearly $1 million. At that time, he also owed nearly $365,558 to the New York City for unpaid personal income tax and his for-profit company, Rev. Al Communications, which owed the state of New York $175,962 in delinquent taxes.

To help clear the ever-increasing tax bill, Sharpton held a ‘Party for a Cause,’ on his 60th birthday, where $1,500 got supporters in as “medallion” committee members, $2,500 bought “tracksuit” status, and $25,000 “preacher status.”  The event raised an estimated $1 million in donations.

Four-days into 2015 and my plan to stop blogging has already gone south on me. During the last 30-days, I looked at my blogging pattern and realized it has increased from one article a month to sometimes several in one day.

The word ‘addicted’ comes to mind. So I decided to quit, but can’t since I keep finding stuff I want to write about.

E.L. Doctorow was right when he said, “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”

 

The heads of Animal right’s groups and their mindless minions are nothing but frauds. I say this knowing it’s going to piss a lot of people off.

To be clear — many of my friends and my family (including my wife) all support ‘animal rights,’ meaning we do not want to see any animal suffer. I can honestly say that jus’ about everyone I know is more than willing to step in if they were witnessing an animal being abused in some way (and you know who you are.)

But there are times when common sense is simply trounced by ‘progressive stupidity.’

Below is a ‘cute’ picture which aired on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in July 2014.

No one complained. In fact, many found this picture to be endearing and cute, including me.

On New Year’s Day 2015, former political candidate Sarah Palin posted pictures of her child doing the same thing.

Animal Right’s activists went crazy. PETA president Ingrid Newkirk tweeted, “Odd that a mother found it appropriate 2 post that, w no sympathy 4 the dog.”

Odd d prez of PETA cn’t b bthrd 2 type actl wrds lik n adlt, bt o wll

And while Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral released a statement that contained full words and real sentences, it made even less sense:

“It’s no surprise to Friends of Animals that Sarah Palin is so insensitive she thinks a black Lab should be tolerant of a child who isn’t told to not put his full weight on top of the dog’s back by standing on him,” Feral’s statement read. “How lazy of Sarah Palin not to move the dog out of the way and teach her child the right lessons.”

Of course, when the picture from DeGeneres’s show resurfaced in the argument showing the glaring inconsistency’s, neither were anywhere to be found.

Nevada’s senior Senator Harry Reid broke “a number of ribs and bones in his face” while exercising. He was using a piece of equipment to exercise Thursday when it broke, causing him to fall.

Reid was admitted overnight at University Medical Center in Las Vegas for the injuries after first being taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson.  Doctors expect a full recovery.

In May 2011, Reid slipped and fell in the rain during a morning run suffering minor injuries.

She arrived in Del Norte County around 8 p.m., on October 26, 1994, having been dropped off at the Texaco service station on Highway 101. The petite red-head would write in her diary of the trip:

“The third car that picked me up were two old guys, Chris Collins and Ernie. They took me to Brookings to Chris’s house; he wanted me to see it so badly. They are good men. Chris offered for me to stay the night. I probably should have but I declined from his offer. I really don’t know why. I got a ride to Crescent City. Now I’m here. What now?”

Four days later, hikers would find the mutilated body of 18-year-old Camellia Randall — raped, stabbed, beaten and heart removed — less than 100 feet from Howland Hill Road. Her death would stay unsolved for more than seven years and eventually would become California’s first cold-case DNA hit.

Known as Cammie by her family and ‘Forest’ by her friends, she was born May 25, 1976, in Longview, Washington, the eldest of three children. She attended R.A. Long High School, where she excelled in running track until she began hitchhiking when she was 18.

Cammie’s travels led her to the Ashland area, where she stayed part of the time on the street with her friends and at other times with her aunt, who owned a flower shop. Her friends in Ashland were part of a street culture that got by by begging for spare change.

But Cammie didn’t beg. Instead, she bartered her handcrafted-beaded jewelry for anything she needed and helped her aunt with flower arrangements to earn extra cash.

The last known contact Cammie had before her death was a phone message she left for her aunt on Wednesday, four days before her body was discovered. In the message, Cammie told her aunt that she was in Crescent City and planned to sleep on the beach that night.

The final entry in Cammie’s diary penned that same day, read: “I’ll sleep on the ocean tonight. I tried calling aunt, but no one’s home. I hope all is well. Tomorrow is Mom’s birthday. Happy birthday, Mom. Best wishes. Feel sort of sad.”

Eventually, a match was made with Crescent City native Robert Wigley. A sample of his DNA was taken in 1999 after he pleaded no contest to sexual battery in Del Norte County.

That sample was then sent to the California Department of Justice’s DNA laboratory in Berkeley, California, and kept on file. Through periodic random comparisons of DNA profiles and DNA evidence from unsolved crimes, they linked Wigley with Cammie’s murder.

Already booked into Del Norte County Jail in late November for a probation violation, he was charged on December 1, with Cammie’s murder.

At first, he claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments that affected his memory and insisted that he didn’t remember Cammie. However, in court, it was revealed he had met her when he and his wife managed the Super 8 Motel in Crescent City.

Wigley would later argue that she had killed Cammie – something that was more and more unlikely when Wigley’s past was revealed. As it turned out, she’d also been a victim of his brutality and had divorced him because of his abuse years before.

In the 2005 TV series, “Cold Case Files,” in the episode, “A Detective’s Promise,” she spoke about how her ex-husband treated her when they were married: “Hitting me, pushing me across the room, throwing me across the room. He choked me until I passed out. He held a gun to my head.”

It was in September 2003 that the case finally made it to trial. By that time Wigley had earned an additional charge of solicitation of murder after he and another inmate made plans to escape by murdering a bailiff while en route to a court hearing.

A letter, written by Wigley and given to inmate David Anderson, included names and telephone numbers for Anderson to contact upon his soon-to-be release. In it, Anderson was coached by Wigley to get a gun, two vehicles, and some cash in an elaborate plan to escape from custody while the defendant was being transported to court on June 10, 2002.

During a 2002 preliminary hearing, Wigley claimed the escape plan was a lie made up by Anderson. However, Anderson told investigators he was asked by Wigley to shoot a bailiff while being escorted to court, then aiding Wigley in the escape.

It took the eight-woman, four-man jury just 22 minutes to decide that Wigley acted alone when he raped, tortured, murdered and then mutilated Cammie. For her murder, Wigley was sentenced to life in San Quentin State Prison without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years for the count of solicitation of murder.

After Cammie’s death, in Guerneville along the Russian River, where she would have ended her journey, her family had a memorial service for her. She’s buried at Murray Hill Cemetery in Clatskanie, Oregon, where she has other family members reposed.

Keep your eye on the price of oil over the coming weeks. Right now, the U.S. produces more oil than both Saudi Arabia or Russia and this has resulted in the creation of millions of jobs.

Unfortunately, the shale oil boom is coming to an end and OPEC has declared a price war on U.S. shale oil producers. This has happened before.

In the mid-80s, as oil output from Alaska’s North Slope and the North Sea came on line, OPEC set off a price war to compete for a market share.   As a result, the price of oil sank from around $40 to just under $10 a barrel by April 1986.

The U.S. industry collapsed by 90-percent and the Saudis regained their leading role in the world’s oil market.

There has only been one other time when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than six months — that was during the second half of 2008. The beginning of that crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later in the year.

Finally, as the average American currently enjoys paying less at the pump, we are going to be hurt by the falling prices. Several states rely on oil revenue taxes to fund their annual budgets and have factored into their spending projections prices above $100 for the fiscal year of 2015.

The first day of the New Year saw the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act go into effect. However on June 30, the Supreme Court ruled that some companies can refuse insurance coverage for contraceptives due to religious objections.

Colorado legalized the purchase of marijuana for recreational purposes on January 1. It wasn’t until July 8, that Washington state began allowing the sale of marijuana for recreational purposes.

The Senate voted on January 6, to confirm Janet Yellen as the first woman to head the Federal Reserve. And by the middle-of-the-month, President Barack Obama announced changes to the National Security Agency and its surveillance programs.

At least 500 veterans were found to have died since 2010 due to delays in simple medical screenings like colonoscopies or endoscopies, at various VA hospitals or clinics. This is according to an internal document from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that deals with patients diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and 2011.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned on May 30, following fallout from the deaths. The U.S. Senate would not confirm Robert McDonald as the new Veterans Affairs secretary until July 29.

Obama signed into law a $16 billion bill on August 7, providing money to build more VA medical facilities and hire more doctors and nurses.

General Motors recalled more than 30 million vehicles throughout the world since February 14, 2014. The recalls have drawn questions about when GM CEO Mary Barra knew about the problems and if the company was slow to take action.

By June 30, GM announced compensation of at least $1 million to families of at least 13 people who died as a result of a faulty ignition switch. GM is also offering money to those injured.

After months of protests in Ukraine, a battle broke out February 18 between protesters and security forces, leaving around 100 people dead by the 20th. Today’s later, Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office.

A March 16 election in Crimea showed that 96.7% voted in favor of being annexed by Russia. Within two days, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an annexation pact with the Prime Minister of Crimea and the mayor of the city of Sevastopol.

Then on April 1, NATO announced that it was suspending “all practical civilian and military cooperation” with Russia. This was in direct response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Despite this voters in the eastern Ukrainian areas of Donetsk and Luhansk on May 11, vote in favor of independence from Ukraine. Then Petro Poroshenko declares victory in Ukraine’s presidential election on May 25.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in eastern Ukraine after being shot down on July 17 by a surface-to-air missile. All 298 people aboard died.

It’s believed separatists, back by Russia, fired the missile that brought the plane down. The Dutch Safety Board’s investigation continues and isn’t expected to be completed until August 2015.

But that isn’t the only catastrophic incident Malaysian Airlines suffered in 2014. Flight 370, traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar in airspace over the Gulf of Thailand.

No wreckage has so far been recovered. The lost of the plane remains under investigation.

Then with only a few day’s left in the year, Malaysia-based AirAsia Flight 8501, carrying at least 162 people disappeared en route from Surabaya to Singapore. The plane lost contact with air traffic control while over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java islands.

There were other deadly incidents over the year including the South Korean ferry that capsized, on April 16, killing about 294 people. Hundreds of high school students on a field trip were among the dead.

Then on July 23, least 48 people died and 10 injured when a twin-engine turboprop plane crashes in Taiwan. The next day, Air Algerie Flight 5017 which crashed in Mali, killing 116 people.

However is was a natural disaster in the form of Super Typhoon Rammasun that struck the Philippines, China and Vietnam in July, that left more than 100 people dead.

During the summer, the number of minors — largely from El Salvador, Nicaragua Guatemala, and Honduras — crossing the U.S.-Mexico border peaked, reaching over 50,000 since October 2013. President Obama said on June 30, he is starting “a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress,” in response to a surge of unaccompanied children crossing the border.

Following their arrival, and ‘resettlement,’ the CDC reported that from mid-August to December 18, 2014, they’ve confirmed a total of 1,152 people in 49 states and the District of Columbia with respiratory illness caused by EV-D68. The disease is common to El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Speaking of diseases, a specially equipped medical plane carrying Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly on August 2, landed at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, where he was then taken by ambulance to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. On the fifth, missionary worker Nancy Writebol was medically evacuated to Emory as well.

Both recovered from the disease.

Over two months later Ebola became major news story again after Thomas Eric Duncan became the first person in the U.S. to die of the disease. He arrived in the U.S. under false pretenses.

By October 12, Nina Pham, a Dallas nurse who treated Duncan, is diagnosed with the disease. She is the first person to contract the disease in the U.S.

Pham’s treated at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland and released October 24.

Less than two days later, Amber Vinson, a nurse who also treated Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, is diagnosed with Ebola. After being treated successfully in Atlanta, she’s released October 28.

In the meantime, Dr. Craig Spencer, who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa, was diagnosed with the disease on October 23, in New York. He recovers from the disease and leaves the hospital on November 11.

Finally, Dr. Martin Salia, who became infected with Ebola while treating patients in Sierra Leone, arrives on November 15, at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Salia, a native of Sierra Leone, is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., died November 17.

Donald Sterling’s tenure as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers came to a sudden end, after a recorded conversation of Sterling making racist remarks became public. Within weeks, the league banned Sterling from the NBA for life, who ended up selling the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

Months after former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocked out his then-fiancée and now wife Janay Rice in an Atlantic City elevator, he received a two-game suspension until a new video emerged showing the April 27 assault. At that point, Rice’s suspension extended to indefinitely, and the Ravens cut Rice from the team.

The issue became embarrassing for the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, who pundits said should have seen the video long before it became publicly available. Goodell also tried to say that Rice mislead him about what happened in the elevator, but Former U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones threw out the indefinite suspension ruling that Rice did not mislead the commissioner.

The incident brought domestic violence to the forefront of the sports landscape.

However violence wasn’t limited to the world of sports as a several school shootings made the spotlight again. University of California Santa Barbara, Seattle Pacific University and Florida State University all had deadly shooting incidents with multiple people injured and where the shooter randomly fired at people.

In the Florida State case, only the shooter died, but three were injured. In the UC Santa Barbara incident, seven people, including the shooter, died while 13 were injured.

Some of the other deadly shootings included Marysville Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington also had a deadly shooting where five teenagers, including the shooter. Reynolds High School in Oregon also had a deadly shooting.

In addition, three people died following multiple shootings at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom in Overland Park, Kansas.

Obama announced the release of prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl, on May 31, after being held for five years by a militant group linked to the Taliban. In exchange for Bergdahl’s release, five detainees at Guantanamo Bay are released to Qatar. Jus’ three days prior, Obama announced that 9,800 troops will stay in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of most troops at the end of 2014.

The Army concluded its investigation into the disappearance of Bergdahl on December 19, and must now decide whether Bergdahl should face criminal charges. Based on the investigation, the Army must now decide whether Bergdahl should be charged with desertion or a lesser charge of being “absent without leave,” AWOL.

The U.S. and Afghanistan also sign a joint security agreement on September 30, that will allow U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan beyond the previous December deadline to withdraw. Great Britain ended its combat mission in Afghanistan on October 26, handing over its last remaining base to Afghan forces.

On September 29, Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new president of Afghanistan.

Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, died July 17, after white New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, put him in a ‘chokehold.’ Garner’s death was later ruled a homicide by the New York medical examiner.

Then on August 9, Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson told Michael Brown to get out of the middle of the road. What ensued led to racial tension, protests, looting and arson.

A grand jury chose not to indict Wilson, leading to more violence, looting and arson in Ferguson and elsewhere across the country. Shortly after Wilson was cleared, Pantaleo also was cleared in the death of Garner.

Since then two New York police officers were murdered, execution-style, in retaliation for the Brown-Garner incidents.

During a secret raid between June 15 and 16, U.S. commandos apprehend Ahmed Abu Khattala, accused of leading the attack on the Benghazi consulate in 2012. At least a dozen others are known to have been charged in sealed criminal complaints about the Benghazi attacks, although none of the others have been apprehended.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department could bring more charges against Abu Khattala. Then on September 25, Obama announced the resignation of Holder, who will stay in office until his replacement is confirmed.

Following the midterm elections, where the Republican party won a majority of seats in both the House and the Senate to take control of Congress and after five years of review, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the post-9/11 era. The highly-partisan report, presented by California Senator Diane Feinstein, revealed that “CIA detainees were tortured.”

It was April 24 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is suspending peace talks with the Palestinians after rival factions Fatah and Hamas announce a unity deal. On June 2, Hamas and Fatah swear in a unity government with Rami Hamdallah as prime minister.

Ten days following the three Israeli teens on their way home from school in the West Bank are abducted by Hamas militants. Their bodies are discovered June 30 in the West Bank.

Shortly after the trio was found, on July 2, a Palestinian boy wass kidnapped and murdered, allegedly by Israeli Jews, possibly in retaliation for the murders of three Jewish teens. Then Israel declares Operation Protective Edge against Hamas on the fifth.

Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire on August 26, but not before more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in the violence in Gaza. On the Israeli side, there are 68 casualties, 65 of them soldiers and three civilians.

As tensions grew between Irael and Hamas, Iraqis went to the polls on April 30, to elect members of the Council of Representatives. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s party won only 92 seats in parliamentary elections, short of the 165 seats needed for a majority.

He would resign by August 14. Haider al-Abadi would sworn in as the new prime minister of Iraq on September 8.

Before that would happen, on June 10, ISIS took control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. By the eleventh, it would also control Tikrit.
Obama authorized “targeted airstrikes” if needed to protect U.S. personnel from ISIS militants, sending two U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters to bomb extremists on August 8. The U.S. military claim they’ll use airstrikes to prevent what officials warn could be a genocide of minority groups by the ISIS fighters.

In retaliation, American journalist James Foley, missing in Syria since 2012, was beheaded by ISIS militants on the 19th. The militants then threaten the life of another captured U.S. journalist, believed to be Steven Sotloff, who was beheaded September 2.

ISIS releases a video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines on September 13. Then a couple of days later, two Palestinian cousins, wielding a gun and butcher knives, kill four rabbis and a policeman at a Jerusalem synagogue.

Finally, a coalition of military forces from the United States, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan launch air strikes on September 23 against ISIS targets in Syria. The U.S., on its own, also launches airstrikes against a terrorist organization known as the Khorasan Group, saying that the al Qaeda affiliated group was planning attacks on Americans.

It was on Septemeber 14, that North Korea sentenced U.S. citizen Matthew Miller to six years of hard labor after being convicted of “hostile acts.” Miller was later released on November 8 along with fellow-American Kenneth Bae, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in April 2013.

On October 12, the hermit state then released Jeffrey Fowle after detaining him in June. North Korea accused Fowle of leaving a Bible at a club for foreign sailors and interpreted the act as a violation of law.

However on November 24, hackers infiltrated the computer network of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The attackers stole a huge number of confidential documents from file-sharing networks.

Then by December 17, after receiving several cryptic messages from a group calling itself, the ‘Guardians of Peace,’ to blow up theaters that show the film ‘The Interview,’ Sony scraped the planned Christmas Day release.

The movie is about two tabloid journalist, who land an interview with a surprise fan, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and then are recruited by the CIA to turn their trip to Pyongyang into an assassination mission.

Gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau opened fire at Canada’s National War Memorial and Parliament Hill in Ottawa, killing army reservist Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on October 22. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot and killed by the House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers.

Then on December 15, in Sydney, Australia an Iranian immigrant named Man Haron Monis took a some hostages at a café. After a 16-hour standoff with police, commandos storm the cafe and ended the siege.

Two hostages died along with Monis.

The following day, Taliban gunmen attack the Army Public School and Degree College in Peshawar, Pakistan. 145 people are killed, most of them children.

Then on December 17, Cuba released American contractor Alan Gross after five years in prison. As part of a deal the U.S. released three Cuban intelligence agents convicted of espionage in 2001; in return, Cuba freed an unidentified U.S. intelligence source who had been jailed in Cuba for more than 20 years.

The same day, President Barack Obama announced plans to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba and ease economic restrictions on the nation. Obama said the U.S. will move towards re-opening its embassy in the communist nation and allow some travel and trade that had been banned during the Kennedy administration.