Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Harvey Fierstein. You are wrong about the Olympics.

To begin this is not WWII or Hitler. You are going out on a limb without the support of the tree.

This is going to sound strange Mr. Fierstein, but, it is the truth. Russia's political culture is none of our business. We are attending the Olympics, we are not observers to their elections.

Do you remember Matthew Shepard? Matthew was killed by those that have no value for human life. They treated Matthew as an object and killed him. Something tells me that Russia is not ready for a cultural revolution.

Now, I don't know about you, but, when I run a revolution and/or resistance I want to be sure there are people alive at the end of the revolution or why bother fighting it in the first place?

Russia doesn't even have hate crime legislation to tell the country if they kill a young man for being himself there will penalties over and above that of what the initial crime is.

Mr. Fierstein, do you know we had a Secretary of State named Hillary Clinton? Sometimes people are too busy to keep up. You are very successful and that did not happen over night. You are respected and that didn't happen without building a substantial understanding of your talent and personable insight. But, if you had the chance to hear Former Secretary Clinton speak while serving in office you would have heard words that would rattle the most extremist of any country. She traveled with body guards. She measured her content and leveled opinion in a way that was non-threatening to governments so there would be no retaliation of people living in their borders.

I am quite sure Secretary Kerry is just as forthright in regard to women's rights and gay rights. The USA believes oppression of any group regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or whom they love is a human rights violation. That same focus is in the UN among some very powerful nations, but, leaders know how to bring opinion without causing adverse effects that kill people.

Freedom of speech is a right in the USA. At least most of us like to think so. The USA has never stood in support of oppression of any people and demands retraction of it under this administration. I realize sometimes a single person can move mountains. But, in order for that to occur, Mr. Fierstein the country has to be ready for the movement. Russia is not there. The changes President Obama's administration instituted spread like wildfire. The country was more than ready we were disgusted with the oppression and victimization.

There are signs there is movement in Russia. There are more political leaders standing up to what they state are illegal elections. There have been demonstrators expressing themselves and they are serving time in prison for their bravery. But, they are alive Mr. Fierstein. We need to work to keep them alive. We need to value their message and be sure our leaders value them as well and make inquiry to their well being. They are our heroes as well as those in the country.

And it is their message we need to hear. Not ours. If we are to respect them for their cultural differences while gay we need to hear them correctly, not just in our own understanding.

I believe in much of President Obama's administration has accomplished in regard to Gay Rights in the USA. I am proud of it. I am not gay. But, I have a country now that is unashamed of our citizens and providing a path to personal happiness for all our people. I am sure you are aware of the struggle, but, our Freedom of Speech protected many regardless of those that died violently and without cause.

Boycotting the Olympics is huge, Mr. Fierstein. We don't have to boycott those events when we have an administration we can trust. The changes for our gay community in the USA are historic. Someday, many more countries will be able to measure that same pride for their citizens, too. But, in Russia at this time 'the church' is a focus of cultural clout. Odd, isn't it? I mean I grew up being told the church in Russia was simply for 'Show and Tell.' It was propaganda. Now, we know how deeply that propaganda was wrong. 

When I run into a wall with others of the same mind and it feels as though we are defeated; what I say is, "We keep at it." That is the best we can do Mr. Fierstein. We hold up our heads, deny the defeat and point to the short comings of those that appear to be the victor.

"We keep at it" and I promise you the day will come and probably not to much of a distance into the future when all citizens of Russia will respect diversity while changing the culture of their identity. 

Non-threatening, Mr. Fierstein and steady dialogue. It will happen. It is inevitable. Russians aren't stupid people and they love their social content. When they realize how their social culture will be enriched when they open their minds and hearts to diversity it will happen. We will rejoice with them, but, we will do it together and trust our President and his administration to help.

I wish you well. I wish you much success. Hey. Every hear of Radio Free Europe? Just a thought.

June 9, 2013 10:12 AM
These days it's not easy (click here) for Harvey Fierstein to make his way through the crowded Theatre District. He has two hits playing nearby: "Newsies," which won a Tony last year; and "Kinky Boots," which is up for a slew of them tonight.
If you don't know him Harvey Fierstein by sight, you know him by sound. His VOICE was once compared to "a deep-throated jazz diva who has just tossed back a double-bourbon."
"One of my favorites was 'a sixth grader in shop class learning to use a rasp,'" Fierstein said.
"I mean, at very least, I'm the guy with the voice, you know? Then hopefully, I'm the guy who's really funny with the voice. And then the guy who can not only do comedy, but can do tragedy as well with the voice. And the guy that can really command a stage with the voice."
He comes by the voice naturally...

There is no commercial enterprise that is suppose to have more power than the USA government.

I take it "The Suits" in the picture don't have much flight time logged.

Horton (click here) has a long track record of leadership and results in both business transformation and operational performance. Since his appointment as Chairman and CEO in November 2011, Horton has led a disciplined strategy to put American back on top as the leading global airline.

There is no one company that is suppose to monopolize the markets either. Too big to fail has become a strategy, rather than a plight on our country. It is about time the courts started to look at these companies and decide about the viability of such a strategy when it impacts our economy and way of life.

It doesn't matter how benevolent the facade is, companies are never suppose to be able to control any aspect of our economy to the point of being more powerful than the government.

Airlines have always had trouble being viable. They always come to the USA to reorganize and continue to serve their customers. I appreciate the Justice Department for acting to keep our nation's economy diverse and healthy with room to grow. This merger is appropriate to challenge for anti-trust. Enough is enough.

If the merger goes through it will create unemployment and challenges to other airlines to compete. This merger will lead to more of the same. It is time to stop the downward spiral of our economy due to lack of competition and poverty wages.

11/14/2012
...Some of the nation’s largest (click here) operating companies have succumbed to the temptation to profit off their employees’ retirement savings plans by creating investment advisory subsidiaries that earn rich fees from managing the assets in these plans. American Airlines, Bechtel, Caterpillar, General Dynamics and General Electric are but a few of the major corporations that have, or had, affiliated investment advisory firms which none-too-coincidentally were selected by pension fiduciaries to manage the retirement assets of their employees....

...When the assets of retirement plans are managed by an affiliate of the employer, I refer to these plans as “conflicted” because of the obvious conflict of interest that exists whenever an employer, or named fiduciary of a plan controlled by the employer, decides to hire itself (or an affiliate) to manage the plan....

When there is competition, companies also have to compete for talent. That means if there is one less airline there is less of a market for pilots, mechanics and other staff. Their wages will be controlled by few and few companies. This is ridiculous. We don't need an airline cartel.

August 29, 2012
...Remember the old joke: (click here) the doctors all agreed the operation was a great success … unfortunately, the patient died. Only lawyers could conclude that the results of a retirement plan investment program don’t matter. I can assure you that the results do matter to the workers that participate in these plans and rely upon them for retirement security....

Boo hoo, boo hoo the CEO won't be making his billion dollar bonus this year. If the airlines aren't viable I know of a half dozen airlines waiting to be at the garage sale. Just because there is a merger doesn't mean American Airlines won't file for bankruptcy in the future anyway. It seems to me the Board of these airlines needs to look at the 'talent at the top' more than other means to save themselves.

By Terry Maxon 
Staff Writer
August 14, 2013

American Airlines’ (click here) future may have changed dramatically Tuesday. But it will take time to determine what that future holds.

American plans to go forward with its date Thursday with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane. It will ask Lane to approve the plan of reorganization, despite the cloud now hanging over the proposal.

American and merger partner US Airways express confidence that they’ll win the legal challenge. But at the least, the lawsuit will delay indefinitely a deal that the two carriers had expected to close next month.

“While we do not yet know how long the court process will run, it will likely take a few months,” American chairman and chief executive Tom Horton told employees in a message....
This was the sky yesterday, August 13, 2013 at "Day Farm."

Those are mesocyclonic clouds at the lower end of the cloud, near the horizon.

Day grew hay and corn (click here) to feed his 400 hogs and prize herd of 200 Holsteins. The farm is just south of Glen Haven and has a large white barn and several out-buildings that stand as a landmark of the agricultural heritage of this area. The buildings were built in the 1880s and 1890s.

National Park faces major decisions as spotlight focuses on D.H. Day farm

published August 28, 2003
By Jacob R. Wheeler
Sun editor


At least once a day (click here) a curious tourist nudges up to the fence surrounding the D.H. Day farm to snap a photo or draw a sketch of the majestic 116-foot-long dairy barn that dominates the landscape along historic route M-109. This is one of the images that people associate with Northern Michigan, nearly as much as the great lake just to the west. In fact, the Society of Architectural Historians chose the D.H. Day farm as one of the “50 Most Significant Structures in Michigan”, alongside stalwarts like the Mackinac Bridge and the Renaissance Center....

Does Secretary Sebilius actually believe the companies of any nature complaining about the law belongs in the economy?

She is "W"rong. Some of the most verbose complaints are coming out of Texas. Too bad. If a company has to close it's door and can't discern the best venue for their employees they don't need to be there anymore. Texas doesn't have a viable economy or government. The people are impoverished and so are their businesses. That goes for Louisiana, too.

There are going to be businesses that will have to reflect on what they are doing with their employees pay rates and the benefits they offer and whether or not they can stay in business. No American should be choosing between a paycheck and their life. 

NONE. 

We can do better across the board and should.

The current "Dysfunction" in the Affordable Care Act is due to mischief by the Republicans.

Sebilius didn't implement this correctly at all. She was far too willing to 'work with everyone' rather than leveling the law. Because she has been to soft 'on crime' there is all kinds of mischief by the Republicans. She played into the political demands of Republicans.

The waivers should never have occurred and now the Republicans are simply attempting to obstruct the Affordable Care Act year after year for their political pandering.

She has allowed 40 votes in the House to continue this idiocy.

There are going to be industry SURVIVORS to this law and there are going to be those that can't 'hack it.' That is life. The egregious nature of the Wall Street companies in handling the well being of the American people in regard to their health care insurance has caused DEATHS. These bastards need to go down and go down hard. There is to be no more DOMESTIC American Deaths allowed! 

Sebilius has allowed playing with the law for 'economic' purposes. This isn't JUST about economics, it is about the health and well being of the American people.

Corporate deaths will occur. Too Bad!!!!!!!!! 

...The delay means some Americans (click here) will have to wait a little longer to realize the full benefit of one of the Affordable Care Act's key consumer protections -- a first-ever legal limit on how much people have to spend on their own health care.
The hiccup in implementation primarily affects people enrolled in group health plans with separate administrators for medical services and prescription drug benefits, government officials and industry representatives told ABC News.
Under the law, combined out-of-pocket spending on medical care and prescription drugs cannot exceed $6,350 a year for an individual or $12,700 a year for a family, including co-payments and deductibles, starting in 2014.
Those caps will take effect as planned for all health plans sold in the new insurance exchanges and offered through employers whose medical and drug benefits are administered by the same entity. But Americans enrolled in other plans could still face higher costs.... 

This is appalling job performance by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to implement the Affordable Care Act. I would have fired her at the first blush of failure. The Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010 after a full year of debate and law writing. Four years have passed and there has to be delays because computer systems aren't ready? Then don't participate and we'll find a better way. 

Since when does it take four years to implement computer changes? That stuff happens overnight which also means the National Security of the USA from Wall Street NSA invasion "Need to Know" should have been solved already.

For god sakes Computer Apps multiple like rabbits.

When are the Egyptian elections? The military is decentralizing the power. It is not good.

Supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy distribute cold waters to protesters outside Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque, in Cairo. File photo 

This is insight from "The Hindu" a long standing news media source in India. It is fairly reliable. They are reporting this military crackdown is not simply clearing the streets of demonstrations. Better said, they aren't just dispersing.

August 14, 2013
...Eyewitnesses reported (click here) thick smoke rising from the areas of the assemblage amid sounds of gunfire. Television pictures showed an army bulldozer taking down the tents, sandbags and a makeshift brick wall that the protesters had erected in Nasr city encampment for their illusionary defence. Protesters set alight tires as the raid progressed, while the security forces torched the tents.

Significant casualties

The storming of the two sit-ins has caused significant casualties, but claims of the death toll have fluctuated wildly. The Muslim Brotherhood - Mr. Morsy’s parent organisation - claimed that 250 people had been killed, describing the encounter with the police as a “massacre.” In the absence of an official count, others estimated that 40 people had died.

"This is not an attempt to disperse, but a bloody attempt to crush all voices of opposition to the military coup," said Brotherhood spokesman Gehad al-Haddad on Twitter.

The intrusion by the security forces triggered an impassioned call by the Brotherhood for countrywide protests—its appeal finding deep resonance in several cities in Upper Egypt—the Brotherhood’s stronghold.... 

The New York Times is stating there are now 19 military governors of 25 in Egypt. I mean Egypt isn't that big a country. The USA has 50 okay? But, when one considers this decentralization of military authority it helps explain the escalation in confrontation.

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MAYY EL SHEIKH
Published: August 13, 2013 

CAIRO — Egypt’s new military-appointed government (click here) on Tuesday named a roster of generals as provincial governors, raising fears of a return to the authoritarianism of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Of the 25 provincial governors named, 19 are generals: 17 from the military and 2 from the police. One police general has become well known for his openly insubordinate refusal to protect supporters of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist whose candidacy was advanced by the Muslim Brotherhood.

A military general appointee, Gov. Mahmoud Othman Ateeq of Sohag, a former deputy governor in Alexandria, was filmed in 2011 raising a gun at a demonstration of teachers, who can be heard begging for their lives.... 

I am not willing to point fingers at Murbarak or anti-Murbarak and the same for Morsi. The 'brain trust' within the Morsi camp is simply not there. When a country is in disarray I am not surprised the leaders are coming from the most experienced people. The elections have to go forward. 

Some of this is the concern for a sovereign nation and the influx of militants. The Egyptian military in all honesty is attempting to keep order and function within the country. If the country is in complete disarray there can't be elections.

That said, the UN needs to entertain a power sharing arrangement that should come out of the elections. There should be Morsi influence in the country within a structured settlement after the elections. The purpose is to grow the brain trust of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is not pacifying them, it is about bringing them on board within a power structure that demands civility and ECONOMIC FUNCTION.

There can be dual candidate outcomes. The majority leader and the minority leader. The 'authority' of the power sharing can be proportional to the electorate favor, but, the minority has to have a function and not just a figurehead in the government. If the Muslim Brotherhood is to ever have a real place in Egypt it has to have some degree of recognition within the government to help mold policy.

There can't be a defacto dictatorship on either side of the equation. We value culture. Seeking to eliminate one culture over another is a form of genocide. Those at UN know that. Politics is part of the culture, it's integrity must be respected. 

How is it Jessie Jackson Jr. and his wife is slammed with negativity and Governor McDonnel and his wife simply say, "Oops."

Fox, CNN Provide Minimal Coverage Of VA Governor's Donor Scandal
August 7, 2013
Savlatore Colleluori & Charlie Rafkin

McDonnell Family Benefitted (click here) From At Least $145,000 In Gifts From A Wealthy Businessman And Donor. A Washington Post report highlighted the gifts given to the McDonnell family by businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., CEO of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific Inc., which are part of a federal and state investigation:

A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan, according to people with knowledge of the payments.

The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor's wife, Maureen, in 2011, the people said.

The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 -- funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations.

Williams, the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific Inc., also provided a $10,000 check in December as a present to McDonnell's eldest daughter, Jeanine, intended to help defray costs at her May 2013 wedding, the people said. [The Washington Post, 7/9/13]...

How does that work exactly? How does the media weight these issues to virtually eliminate the scandal in Virginia?

Jesse Jackson Jr., wife await sentencing (click here)


WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who pleaded guilty to misspending about $750,000 in campaign funds, will learn today how much his crime will cost him.
A federal judge will sentence Jackson on a felony conspiracy count and also will sentence his wife, Sandi, on a related charge of failing to report about $600,000 in taxable income.  
The sentencing hearings are scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Chicago time in U.S. District Court in Washington before Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is no relation to the defendants.



Land reclaimation of nuclear power plants is ridiculous. It takes generations.

How long San Onofre's decommissioning takes and how much it eventually costs will depend on how and where the plant’s radioactive fuel rods are stored and how long it takes to remove low-level radioactive material, a state Senate panel was told Tuesday. (Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times / June 7, 2013)



SACRAMENTO — Southern California Edison Co., (click here) by law, can spend up to 60 years to completely scrap its San Onofre nuclear plant near San Clemente, but less than 10 years is more realistic, lawmakers were told.
That was an estimate Tuesday from Michael F. Weber, deputy executive director of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If the Rosemead-based utility is close to the national average in dismantling such technically challenging and potentially dangerous facilities, he said, the process will last seven to 10 years....