Friday, June 12, 2015

Sixty percent of the children born in the USA are born to single parents. Attitude by government is not going to change a thing.

The official poverty rate (click here) was 14.5 percent, down from 15.0 percent in 2012. This was the first decrease in the poverty rate since 2006. In 2013, there were 45.3 million people in poverty.

June 11, 2015

WARSAW, Poland – Facing scrutiny (click here) over his rhetoric and record regarding single mothers, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told reporters on Thursday that two-parent homes help children “live lives of purpose and meaning.”

In a chapter of his 1995 book ”Profiles of Character” entitled “The Restoration of Shame,” Bush, who is in Europe this week on an international tour, complained that having children outside of marriage had become common because there was “no longer a stigma attached to this behavior” and that “parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior.”...

"W" was in office in 2006. He owns the increase in poverty in the USA. 2013 was the first time since 2006 the poverty rate decreased and it was under President Obama. "Setting an example" for behavior from the White House doesn't work. Reality and governing does work. 

There is no reason for any Bush to hold onto the idea there simply needs to be someone that demonstrates clean living in the White House and all the problems will clear up. The only reason Bushs put on a happy face, besides they are happily married, is for politics. Evangelicals do believe all that has to be done is have the PROPER demonstration of morality in the White House and all problems in the country vaporizes. 

45.3 million people are 14.2 percent of the USA population. That is a national shame. When the number of people in the USA are actually stated, I think it makes people realize how completely horrible 14.2 sounds.

It is the poverty that hurts children, not the fact they have ONE LOVING PARENT raising them.

Russia has a poverty rate of 5.3 percent in 2009.

Ireland has 6.8 percent poverty. 

Canada has 4.9 percent poverty.

In Canada (click here) there were 5,587,165 children aged 14 and under who lived in private households in 2011. Most of these children lived with married (63.6%), common-law (16.3%) or lone (19.3%) parents, while 0.8% of children lived with other relatives or non-relatives.

The Minimum Wage in Canada is $10.20 per hour, except, Ontario where the minimum wage is $11.00 per hour. Canada also has National Health Care. 

Brazil, an emerging economic country, has a poverty rate of 12.1 percent.

Argentina has a poverty rate of 5.4 percent. 

Ukraine has a poverty rate of 1.3 percent. 

Turkey has a poverty rate of 13.9 percent. 

Slovakia has a poverty rate of 1.2 percent. 

Montenegro's poverty rate is  8.9 percent.

Lithuania has a poverty rate of 4.7 percent.

Latvia has a poverty rate of 7.3 percent.

All these poverty rates were between 2010 or 2012 except for Russia.

Hungary has a poverty rate of 2.5 percent. 

Estonia has a poverty rate of 3.3 percent.

The Czech Republic and Croatia and Belarus each have a poverty rate of 0.3 percent. That's right nearly zero. 

Costa Rica has a poverty rate of 12.2 percent.

Chile's poverty rate is 9.9 percent. 

Bulgaria's poverty rate is 11.3 percent.

Bosnia and Herzegovina have a poverty rate of 1.7 percent.

All other countries are higher than the USA or didn't publish it such as Germany. Knowing Germany they probably doesn't have a word for unemployment.

This was a good stop for Jeb Bush. He is interested on all the dirt he can find on President Obama and Former Secretary Clinton.

Bush is ruthless. He doesn't care what a former President of Poland said about the USA. The more insults the better. Why did the President of Police diss the USA in the first place?

August 11, 2015
By Benjy Sarlin

WARSAW, Poland – Former Florida governor (click here) and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush paid his respects to Poland’s tragic history and met with national leaders on Thursday to discuss America’s role in Europe, continuing his international tour in the run-up to his June 15 campaign launch. 

While a number of candidates have struggled in their trips abroad – Mitt Romney’s own 2012 visit to Poland ended with his spokesman telling reporters on camera to “kiss my a–” – Bush has managed to keep things calm. It’s the home front where the trouble has occurred, as Bush’s pre-campaign team works to steady the ship after a major staff shakeup. And Bush has faced fresh scrutiny of a passage in a 1995 book he co-authored about the value of shaming unwed parents.... 

I have absolutely no doubt the Former President of Poland hates the USA because NATO didn't engage Russia over Ukraine. That is why he would be saying "...they are losers...." He was having a tantrum. What does Bush want to destroy the competition? All the dirt he can find! So why not solicit angry comments from a former President?  

"kiss my a-" is standard conversation between Americans and Poland. Poland's President was the reason South Ossetia and Abkhazia was cleaved off by Russia. There were 1000 people dead. There is nothing more Poland would like, but, to have the USA annihilate Russia. So, we are losers. Amazing. This what would happen if Poland had nuclear capacity.

Three Polish ministers and a household name in Brussels, (click here) Radosław Sikorski, the speaker of parliament and former foreign minister, resigned Wednesday (10 June) following an eavesdropping scandal that has rocked Poland’s centre-right government. EurActiv Poland contributed to this article.
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said yesterday that three ministers connected to a high-profile eavesdropping scandal have tendered their resignations.
Treasury minister Włodzimierz Karpiński, sport minister Andrzej Biernat and health minister Bartosz Arłukowicz will step down.
Parliamentary speaker Radosław Sikorski has also offered his resignation, she said.
Poland was rocked last year by a scandal involving secret recordings of government officials making derogatory comments about domestic and international allies....

Next time Poland's President starts a civil war while massacring citizens, NATO really should be the first to respond and end the conflict before it gets deadly.
The conditions could not be better for the convicts to put a distance between the prison and chance of being caught. Dogs can track in poor weather, but, it isn't easy for them.

...“Being wet, cold, and muddy (click here) is not my favorite, but it is necessary to teach your dog how to work under these conditions. You have to go out tracking in the rain and wind as the dog needs to learn to track in poor weather; tests are in the winter and you’re likely to be dealing with these conditions. When I first started training for this sport, I had no idea it would change my sleeping patterns and create so much dirty laundry!”...

She's going to need a good lawyer for the problems she may have caused.

June 12, 2015
By

DANNEMORA, N.Y. — A worker (click here) at an upstate New York maximum-security prison has been arrested on charges she helped two convicted killers escape, state police said Friday.

Fifty-one-year-old Joyce Mitchell was arrested and will be arraigned on charges of first-degree promoting prison contraband and fourth-degree criminal facilitation, state police said.

Mitchell is accused of befriending inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora and giving them contraband....

I hope the State of New York is looking at their employee programs and if they are oriented well when working in a maximum security prison. Why did the State know she was having an inappropriate relationship with prisoners and never removed her from that environment. She needed to be assigned to a different facility.

...Within the past year, officials looked into whether Mitchell had improper ties to the 34-year-old Sweat, who was serving a life sentence for killing a sheriff’s deputy, Wylie said....

The state investigation didn't turn up anything, but, it was wrong. How could the investigation be so very wrong? How many times has this happened with other employees as well?

...The garment shop is intended to give prisoners job skills and work habits. In general, an inmate assigned to such a job might work several hours a day there, five days a week, meaning he would have significant contact with supervisors....

I can understand someone with a limited sentence, even 25 years, could be considered appropriate for this environment, but, someone with a life sentence without a chance of parole isn't really appropriate.

I appreciate the fact such environments can provide a better quality of life in prison, but, to work directly with employees that can sympathize with their permanent incarceration is obviously dangerous. 

The employees have to be told they can face consequences if they have any type of friendship with an inmate. This is a maximum security facility. What the heck was going on? It is disappointing this occurred from more than the danger to the public, but, an employee now faces prison herself. It is not making sense to me. There are statements that she is a good upstanding citizen and now this. It is very upsetting. 

People make choices, but, this sounds outside her normal life. She had absolutely no concept of the dangers surrounding her in her work place? If employees understand the depth of the danger that exists in their work place, they can learn defensive postures that will prevent this. 

There was no coercion? She simply stepped right up to the plate. That is strange. 

The people that work with inmates should be admired for their work and improving the lives of those incarcerated; but; they need to have an annual certification to be sure they haven't let their defenses down. There needs to be an employee hot line to report dangers to them, etc., etc. It is a shame this happened.  
I think Ms. Dolezal (click here) has a responsibility to correct her personnel records. I also believe her employers have a right to ask her to speak to a councilor. Most employers have a benefit to receive counseling during difficult times. I think this is a difficult time. 

She obviously believes she is genetically black and that is an identity problem if she is not. Identity issues can be difficult for people to come to terms with. Her employers have a right to ask her to see a councilor.

If she has been a good employee and has made a difference within her employment, the employers may want her to stay on and continue, but, she should correct her records.

TAA is not a new thing. The program is still meeting it's qualifications to assist displaced workers.


  • The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015, signed by President Barack Obama on December 16, 2014, appropriates funds for states to fully carry out the TAA program during fiscal year 2015, including the provision of benefits to groups of workers certified after December 31, 2014. 
  • OTAA will continue to investigate petitions, including petitions filed after December 31, 2014, and issue determinations of group eligibility for workers based on the Reversion 2014 program.  Certification of petitions will allow these new groups of workers to apply for TAA benefits and services under the Reversion 2014 program.  States will continue to administer benefits (including ATAA and RTAA) to eligible workers under the 2002 program, the 2009 program, the 2011 program, and Reversion 2014 in accordance with applicable guidance and regulations

    It isn't as though the program is ineffective, it is that the insult to the USA economy by previous agreements is on going. It isn't as though the insult is deeply felt one time and the USA then mostly recovers with retraining of workers. It is the fact this program never ends as job assistance under previous TAA authority continues over time. The lost jobs never stops.

September 17, 2011 saw a movement of an entire generation because they could not find employment after college.

It wasn't because they may have an unusual degree that hasn't found a job in a century, it was because the US Congress didn't protect their jobs. For the first time in the USA the youngest generation could not find work and could not find upward movement. Their birth right states they will achieve more in their lives than their parents.

Even as they brought problem to the front pages of the USA media, they were being oppressed in a New York City park where they gathered in recognition of the far reaching reality they were illustrating. Because they could not have an electronic communication system, their brilliantly came up with a process of communication called "Mic Check" and the #.

They started a movement that has lent itself to crowding funding and every innovative idea they could come up with to secure more and more jobs. Many of these young people were able to create their own businesses and affiliations. Now, a trade agreement could AGAIN rob them of their future.

Hey all of our amazing fans! (click here)

Thanks for hanging in there with us as we try to figure out our small role in such a tremendous movement. For all of our generous donors, please know that we are wrangling this all volunteer effort into fulfillment of the rewards for the funding that you so graciously gave to us. To date we have published five papers, two of them in Spanish and finally we mounted a volunteer run website at http://occupiedmedia.us/ come by and say hi! 

Stay tuned as we figure out how to help you and your #occupy efforts! If you would like to download issues of the paper check out: 
http://occupiedwallstjournal.com/download-the-paper/ issue five will be posted online shortly!...

The USA legislature needs to protect them in realizing how they first abandoned them. 

Enough!

A trade agreement is suppose to recognize what makes the economy work. Leaders of countries need to mutually find a way to bring greater numbers to their markets that are ready to expand. That trade that needs to increase has to do so WITHOUT removing the very base of the economy that fuels the trade in the first place. 

How many of these young people currently working or managing their own businesses will have to file bankruptcy when their personal economy implodes with the trade agreements? 

The trade agreements only protect workers within the trade industry. It does nothing to protect the American economy or jobs.

Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated both previous president did not have Fast Track. The statement about this being the first time Fast Track is not granted to a president is a lie.

Former President Clinton submitted Fast Track twice and both time the legislature voted it down.

Former President Bush was denied Fast Track as well. 

Minority Speaker Pelosi will be voting against it. 

Paul Ryan has no clue. He states there has to be approval of Fast Track to keep it in the legislature. He is such a liar. The only reason he is still in office is because he ran for Vice President. No one needs his help. 

"The global rules for any trade economy is being written right now without the USA." That is buloney. The world economy does not run without the USA.

Let's get this clear. Fast Track is a way for the legislature to wash their hands of responsibility for trade agreements.

Fast Track (click here) was an extreme and rarely-used procedure initially created by President Richard Nixon to get around public debate and congressional oversight. Fast Track is how we got into the job-killing, wage-flattening North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Thanks to Fast Track, NAFTA and the WTO included terms that promote the offshoring of U.S. jobs to low-wage countries.

President Obama knows how he wants to structure these agreements. When he submits those agreements (with Fast Track) to congress they will have sold out labor (benefiting Wall Street profits) while upholding more stringent environmental regulations for other countries. The terms of the agreements on Fast Track will be irresistible for the Republican cronies so it pass with an up or down vote.

That is how Fast Track authority works. Congress simply has an up or down vote. 

If the President can't trust the Congress with global agreements that are well balanced including environmental standards and regulations, then why do it? I makes to sense to agree to standards and regulations when they will be undone, no different than the Citigroup Amendment to the USA budget. Republicans are corrupt. It is the corruption that needs to be dealt with before any trade agreement can go forward.

The answer to corruption is not to allow it, it is to expose it and reject it. The Republicans are using coercion to achieve an end. Americans aren't afraid of the fight and we have only recently have been seeing unemployment rates in the 5% range. 

Fast Track proves how lazy the Congress actually has become. They are push button now, with Fast Track they'll be able to vote on holiday. 

Fast Track also empowered executive branch officials advised by large corporations to skirt Congress and the public and use secretive "trade" agreements to roll back a wide range of non-trade policies on which our families rely for safe food, a clean environment, affordable medicines, financial stability and more.

Fast Track is a corrupt law to begin with and then to believe it will ever uphold environmental standards is nonsense.

Bush never said it right. It goes like this, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

When Ryan lies, jobs can say good-bye.

TAA is voted down.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program (click here) is a federal program that provides a path for employment growth and opportunity through aid to US workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade. The TAA program seeks to provide these trade-affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, resources, and support they need to become reemployed. The program benefits and services that are available to individual workers are administered by the states through agreements between the Secretary of Labor and each state Governor. Program eligibility, technical assistance, and oversight are provided by the US Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration's Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance. 


TPA (Fast Track) passed.

Every $1 billion (click here) in exports of U.S. goods and services supports more than 5,000 U.S. jobs.  In 2012, exports of U.S. goods and services supported an estimated 9.8 million American jobs, including 25 percent of all manufacturing jobs. Expanded exports have added 1.3 million American jobs since 2009, and those export-supported jobs pay 13 to 18 percent higher than the national average wage.  The way to support more of these high-paying jobs is to expand trade and investment opportunities.   And the way to make sure that happens is to support TPA.

US Chamber of Commerce (click here) provides a website where the number of trade supported jobs exists.

What they don't talk about is the jobs that disappear because they are not linked to trade. Factories and shops close and the economy takes a down turn because there are jobs that disappear. 

Sure trade related jobs will be within these agreements, but, the people that work for a living aren't trade related. In Texas, less than 700,000 jobs are trade related. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statics there are 13,154,900 jobs in Texas with a population of over 26 million. That means there are 12,454,900 jobs completely unprotected from the trade agreements.

In California the TPP will protect a little more than 900,000 jobs. There is a population in California of 38.8 million Americans. There are 18,953,700 jobs in California. That means 18,053,700 jobs are unprotected. 

The population in Michigan is 9.9 million Americans. There are 4,740,600 jobs in Michigan. There are 178,875 trade related jobs in Michigan. That means 4,561,725 jobs are at risk with the trade agreements. 

The trade agreements are about Wall Street and greater wealth, while the USA Middle Class loses more ground and dissolves job security to the Middle Class. Then the political sphere wonders why Americans don't come out to vote. What difference does it make? 

June 11, 2015
The House (click here) is set to vote on a quirky sequence of trade bills beginning Thursday and going into Friday. That sequence was negotiated between Speaker John A. Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and it was supposed to allay Democratic concerns about a Medicare offset in the TPA bill while also not requiring the Senate to vote on it again....

The GOP assault against Medicare. 

April 15, 2015
By Peter Sullivan

Leading healthcare provider groups (click here) are objecting to Medicare cuts being used to help pay for a new House Republican trade bill. 

The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bill helps workers displaced by trade and provides a tax credit to help pay for health insurance. It was rolled out in addition to a proposal to give President Obama “fast-track” authority on trade. 
The healthcare providers object to the TAA bill including a 0.25 percent cut in Medicare payments in fiscal year 2024, which amounts to a $700 million cut, according to the Congressional Budget Office.... 

The Middle Class and the Poor are in the crosshairs of the Republicans in all their bills. This is the first time Medicare attacks are hidden in a major bill. This makes the total costs of Medicare cuts 2.25% since the Sequester. 

The Sequester was passed to assist in Republican priorities to reduce the National Debt. Not the deficit. But, these Medicare monies are going to support a Republican trade authority that will cause the loss of good paying jobs. 

It is amazing to realize the TPP is not accessible in a meaningful way to legislators, yet, the IRS is raided by hackers.

China does not need a trade agreement to 'up their game.' China made a conscience decision to increase the quality of life of it's citizens. China now has a Middle Class that is growing in number when none existed before. There was no need to leverage power over China to move their leaders to take the well being of their citizens seriously. It is all nonsense. China with a far higher number of citizens within it's borders than all other countries, with the exception of India, did what no one thought would ever happen. If China can do it, every other country on the planet can do it, too. 

As the Middle Class in China grows into a larger percentage of it's people, the country is proud of itself and it didn't compromise anything. The Chinese people want CO2 controlled. Do you believe that. People with profound poverty want Earth's environment to return to balance. The Chinese people are good friends to the rest of the world as it works on it's human rights issues and changes the outcomes for it's people.

Do you know China makes their own solar panels? It is going to be easy for the people of China to change their methods of achieving reductions in CO2. Easy. The leaders know it, too. And what does the USA do? COMPLAIN. 

The escaped convicts must have a traceable path in the way they used contraband.

Did the escaped convicts use the contraband with other convicts to obtain pieces of power tools to assemble when they had all the pieces? The contraband could be used for many things. Joyce may not have realized how dangerous contraband can be. It sounds as though employees in the sewing shop didn't get a good orientation. She allowed a friendship with a convicted murderer. They work in a prison and showed some real naivety when dealing with those inmates.

The funding for job training in the agreement cannot guarantee the NEW job with no seniority will pay the same as the OLD job.

June 11, 2015

Trying to close out (click here) a tight game after a day when his trade agenda reached the brink of failure, President Barack Obama made a last-minute, unscheduled run to the congressional baseball game Thursday night.

Popping up out of the Democrats’ dug-out at Nationals Park with 24 White House beers on offer for the winning team, Obama was greeted with Republicans chanting “TPA, TPA!”...

...Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough finished the afternoon in a meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whom the White House has been counting on to help bring the trade deal over the line — but who in the last few days seemed on the brink of derailing the legislation over a dispute about paying for Trade Adjustment Assistance, a safety net program for workers displaced by trade deals.

Retraining means homelessness and entrance to The Working Poor. I don't think so.


Contraband can be turned into weapons within the facility. There are always safeguards for prisons regarding contraband.

June 12, 2015


Joyce Mitchell, (click here) the prison worker who has fallen under suspicion in the escape of two killers in New York, did not provide the two men power tools, but she did take contraband into the prison, the local prosecutor said Friday. 

Andrew Wylie, the Clinton County district attorney, declined to say what the contraband was. Speaking generally, he said that contraband could be anything from toothpaste to blades and drugs. 

Asked whether bringing in contraband would be considered criminal activity, he said: "Of course it is."...

The MEK has no relevent information about Iran's nuclear program, they are exiled.

People's Mujahedin of Iran

They can protest to bring their reality to the world stage, but, they have no real information. We don't need another "Curveball." Thanks anyway.

Here is a link to their demonstrations. (click here)

The Iranian scientists wouldn't talk to people. They would be too scared to be assassinated by Israel. The USA is not going to invade Iran and "Do an Iraq." Won't happen. 

What makes anyone believe these people, who are all political power players, has more and more valid information than the IAEA?  

Here we go again with the political right wing carrying on about Iran and accepting exiled citizens of Iran as experts. This is Curveball all over again. 

The right wing politicians want to make the public believe they know more than any other organization because of their loyalists that carry no real information. The exiles need to carry on with their lives and accept a thank you for any insight they may have, but, demanding war over peace isn't the best path for the world. 

Rubio's financial mishandling pf his personal money has nothing to do with the Clinton Foundation. That's hideous. The foundation does incredibly good work and there is nothing about Rubio's benevolence and he is not a foundation. Americans aren't making this analogy because there is suppose to be underhanded management of the Clinton Foundation. The idea regarding the electorate and The Clinton Foundation isn't there until the media wants to attract viewers. Now, that analogy is accurate. Boo, who, boo, who the Clintons are wealthy and benevolent at the same time, that is not a reality that makes gossip digestible to talk shows.

Eat it!

Can we open White Water again. That would be fun. 

Let's see, Harry Potter is on HBO. 

TGIF.