Monday, July 13, 2015

The Mexican - American War took place before Asia knew it existed. That happened after the California Gold Rush.

The Mexican-American War (click here) (1846-1848) marked the first U.S. armed conflict chiefly fought on foreign soil. It pitted a politically divided and militarily unprepared Mexico against the expansionist-minded administration of U.S. President James K. Polk, who believed the United States had a “manifest destiny” to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. A border skirmish along the Rio Grande started off the fighting and was followed by a series of U.S. victories. When the dust cleared, Mexico had lost about one-third of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico....

That is major plunder.

President Xi Jinping and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto celebrate after they signed a joint declaration in Mexico City on Tuesday. Photo by Yao Dawei / Xinhua

June 5, 2013
By Zhu Zhe

China and Mexico, (click here) two of the world's emerging powers, "relaunched" their partnership, strengthening it with the signing of a dozen agreements on Tuesday — the first day of President Xi Jinping's three-day visit....

Rather than a 'near border' war with Mexico, a summit with Mexico's allies could bring more clout to ending the drug cartels. Seriously. Any near border war is not the best path forward. If Mexico's allies joined forces the drug cartels could be vanquished with the current Mexican government sustaining a sovereign power.

There has been some improvements in Mexico's economy and standard of living in recent years. The problem is the cartels are still powerful and disruptive to insure domestic peace. A lot of people die in Mexico every year because of the violence. 

One other thing. The countries that share the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were coveting a near border war while "W" was in office. 

It was getting a little scary, because, "W" sent US submarines into close proximity of Cuba. Supposedly it was to try out new radar. The radar that causes hearing loss and ultimately death to whales because they echo-locate.  But, the tensions were real. It is better today. At least President Obama meets with them regularly now. Oddly, the first gift President Obama received during his very first visit was a book presented by Venezuelan's Late President Chavez. I read the book. It is interesting. Central and South America is missing a lot of silver. 

But, any President of the USA should do everything possible to find common ground and improved economy with improved quality of life to countries at near border proximity. It is the moral thing to do. 

Quality of life would vastly reduce any USA border crossings.

Think about it. 
I want a Scott Walker Bobblehead Doll. Let me know when he finally says something.

There is a 3D machine where a bobblehead of anyone can be generated. I think it would be easier for Scott Walker to simply make those rather than speak with a steady bobbing head.

...I put my head inside, (click here) and it took a 180-degree picture of my head. 
One week later, I got a small package in the mail containing a figurine that featured my face sculpted onto a model of a character I can only describe as the blonde long-lost half-brother from Raiden from "Mortal Kombat."'...

A new campaign slogan for Scott Walker, "I am the rhetoric king." Producing Scott Walker Bobblehead Dolls would improve the Wisconsin GDP. And that is good advise he can have for free. Better than Kohl's Kash.

 This is a report from "Chase." (click here)

This is the accomplishment of the "Wuss from Wisconsin." The Wisconsin GDP is in negative to near zero numbers.

Wisconsin continues to fall in job creation. Even all the deadly mines Walker opened up doesn't help.

March  19, 2015
By John Schmid and Kevin Crowe

...the state's national ranking (click here) fell from a revised rank of 31st three months earlier, in the previous release of quarterly jobs data, which covered the 12 months through June 2014. In that period, Wisconsin created 36,732 private-sector jobs.
Wisconsin continued to trail the national rate of job creation, as it has continuously since July 2011. The United States created private-sector jobs at a rate of 2.3% in the latest 12-month period, twice Wisconsin's 1.16% rate, the data show.
"Given the historical relationship of employment in Wisconsin versus the nation, I would have expected Wisconsin growth to be faster," said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Among its peer states in the Midwest, Wisconsin tied with Iowa for last place. Both states created private-sector jobs at a 1.16% rate....

Scott Walker doesn't have any policy points to make. He has been practicing AUSTERITY since he took office as Governor. The state is failing. No one should be surprised.  

He loves Kohl's. I just don't think Kohl's love him.

...A breakdown of Thursday's numbers show Wisconsin trailed the nation's job-creation average among retailers, a sector that includes cashiers and clerks, as well as construction and a combined sector called health care and social services. In the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes wait staff, hotel clerks and baristas, Wisconsin lost jobs while the nation added them at a 2.6% pace....

It doesn't matter what is viewed in the "Chase" report; Wisconsin seriously lags behind the USA averages. An average includes the Wisconsin data. Got that? The USA averages includes the Wisconsin data. What does that say about the rest of the country when it far exceeds the Wisconsin average. 

Hillary says, "Put familes first."

She gave a great speech that just ended. She has ideas. They are her ideas. Her approach to the USA economy is fair growth, sustained growth and collaboration between all citizens to benefit the best outcomes for the American people.

Each of her ideas is self supporting to work and not disappear. She is focusing on the entire spectrum of citizens, but, much of that focus is on young Americans that were left behind in past Republican economies. 

It will work. She has some great statistics.

The youngest Americans; the newborn to five years old when provided quality child care and read to by parents and caregivers alike results in twenty five percent higher incomes as an adult. Wow. That is a really good perspective. It makes sense as it comes from a lady that has been a child advocate all her career.  

She spoke about college debt and the ability of Americans to achieve their dreams. She states the college debt puts a drag on the USA economy and has to be evaluated for a better outcome for America and those that trusted their focus in education to provide a great life. Young Americans were promised a future if they educated themselves and now they are burdened in ways they cannot reach for the American Dream.

She states while technologies provide new jobs and opportunity, the USA cannot ignore the blue collar workers and their importance to the economy. No longer will American labor be polarized between tech advances and labor. The importance of American labor has to be a long term strategy and not a short term profit to hedge funds. She sees long term investment as the key to a sustainable economy and upward movement of the middle class. She is correct. The strength of the middle class is based in long term strategies of wealth. She also sees profit sharing as a method to build on a sustainable middle class and stability for investments.

She sees a daily responsibility to protect and grow the American middle class. She states her daily priority to the middle class will bring alive the impacts of policy and how it effects the economy and a stable and thriving middle class. 

She wants to hold responsible the individuals that have caused banks and organizations to break the law. The fines will remain for business practices that include working with drug cartels, but, the CEOs allowing such practices will face prison as well. 

She wants to raise the income of Americans. Stated was the concern of empty promises of Republicans such as Marco Rubio who believe reducing taxes on the Americans paid $3 million per year will result in economic growth. The tax cuts Senator Rubio proposes will result in $300,000 less in taxes to the US Treasury that will increase the national deficit and national debt.

Hillary Clinton wants to reform the tax code, but, with reform that will build the economy such as a $1500 tax credit for each person a business hires and trains into sustainable jobs. She points to the fact Republicans, like Rubio, respect the demands of high paid lobbyists while the Middle Class has no lobbyist to bring equity to them as they work their jobs. 

She made a statement that caused me pause, but, she is correct. The people that benefit most from unions are men. To date a full one third of inequality among men is caused by the destruction of unions. In recognizing the important place men have in their households there will be no more undermining of bargaining power that is used to reduce wages. The attacks on union bargaining power is mean spirited and unguided that causes damage to the men of the middle class. 

The chart below (click here) shows the 10-year growth rates in actual and potential GDP since 1949 (the first year that data are available).

She didn't stop there in recognizing the impact of bad policy of both genders.

Secretary Clinton states women are responsible for $3 trillion in growth in the current economy.

She pointed to the fact there was a significant contribution by women, but, the fact is plain; the USA has fallen in GDP. When third in the world, the USA has dropped to 96th today. The USA has a strong economy, but, still isn't enough to spawn sustainable growth that insures the employment of all Americans. Over the decades before the USA has lost GDP and not gained it. She sees her collaborative effort stabilizing any fall in GDP while turning the corner on permanent economic growth for the USA.

Hillary Clinton completely rejects old rhetoric as ideology that simply hasn't produced the economy the USA needs. She states this is 2015 and what might have worked in the past isn't work today and Americans know that. 

She sees the American middle class growing with affordable child care, continued vigilance and policy that will focus on health care and education from Pre-school to graduation from a university. She stresses the importance of early engagement of our youngest people because by age three a person's brain reaches it's maximum function. She wants to see brain research to continue because it benefits the youngest and oldest Americans. 

She lauds the effect of women on our country and how important fair pay will improve their outcomes. She sees President Obama's initiatives as important, but, they need to be expanded to include brevity of the American Dream to Americans and real incentives for savings. According to Hillary women should have options if they choose to work after child birth. Paid leave is important, but, also options of the type of work should include broad potential for women.   
Former Secretary Clinton views our minorities as the most victimized among us. The minorities in the USA have the burden of impoverishment with far higher statistics in unemployment and economically stranding them to lose ground on income and wealth equality. 

She demands immigration reform and addresses the Undocumented as important Americans. She states the current population of Undocumented works very hard to earn their way in the USA. Once they are provided a way to citizenship their contribution of $7 billion over ten years to the USA economy will leave the Republicans wondering why the country didn't bring them aboard more than a decade before. 

I am quite sure while my notes are extensive to a well thought out speech regarding the economy under the Clinton presidency, there is much I left out. But, to summarize, the Clinton Administration will bring about a well defined middle class that is sustainable and able to achieve the American Dream. She sees education beginning at pre-school through life long learning a preparedness strategy for a very healthy people and their economy. She wants to destroy income and wealth inequality. Basically, she sees income inequality as Un-American (my words, not hers). Her speech really did portray income inequality as a moral issue the USA cannot fail surmounting.

The Clinton Administration would break down barriers to opportunity at every turn and focus on thousands of lost dollars to a middle class family because women are paid poorly. She sees a huge difference between the economy of opportunity she maps out and the old rhetoric of Republicans that continues to give preference to the wealthy without a single dollar of tax relief for the middle class. She also views the rhetoric as self-inflicted wounds. There will also be active enforcement of laws when it comes to the financial sector and the manipulation that occurs on nearly a daily basis. The regulators are going to have to do their work and enforce the law.

Recovered monies from law breaks will go to special funds to improve infrastructure in the USA and/or refund checks to citizens that all too often shoulder the burden of the financial sector criminality. 

Hillary Clinton views trade as an asset to the USA economy and not a drag on it. She wants a higher bar to trade agreements and when that is not meet by the other country the USA will walk away from any agreement. She sees the USA building things that will market well in international markets. She also sees USA research and development as key to new products that will market domestically and internationally such as precision medicines.

The American Family is to be valued by the Clinton Administration whereby they have a good income that insures the American Dream with education for children that will bring about better of quality of life in the long term with good jobs when they enter the work force. 

I liked it. I also believe it is real. She isn't handing out old fashioned rhetoric, but, instead a call to collaborate and growth which includes fairness.

Scott Walker enters the ranks of Jeb Bush by violating campaign laws.

The first step to end Citizens' United is to enforce campaign laws. The entire idea money can preempt the law is a violation of the public trust. Sweeping it under the carpet will only escalate the dynamics of the Supreme Court decision. That isn't obvious?

July 13, 2015
By Jordyn Phelps

Scott Walker (click here) made it official today, breaking the news that he is a Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential race first in a Facebook post this morning before a formal announcement event in Wisconsin later today. 

“I'm in. I'm running for President of the United States because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them," the two-term Wisconsin governor says in the Facebook post, which includes a video in which he argues that his track record as governor sets him apart from the rest of the Republican field as a proven leader who has succeeded in winning elections and taking on big policy battles.... 

Baby faced Walker has been raising monies since the end of January 2015. Six months of financing priorities before announcing his intentions of a run for President. Campaign rules mean nothing? Really? Political anarchy. Anarchy is treason.

The Republican defense, "Bush is still fund raising from long before his announcement, since when am I a scapegoat. I want to compete that means money. When Bush returns his illegal donations, I'll do the same."

Walker is the most corrupt administration in the country. Corruption is stamped across his forehead. Mining, including a very controversial iron mine, has sprung up in the state as if tulips in the spring. The mining is a pay off for the cronies of Walker.

January 27, 2015
By James Hohmann

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (click here) has formed a fundraising vehicle that will let him step up a presidential campaign-in-waiting before a formal announcement in late spring.
The Republican recently filed papers to set up a 527 committee called Our American Revival and rolled out a new website Tuesday afternoon....

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

July 10, 2015

A Calgary bird (click here for video) who lost his feet to frostbite is now walking thanks to a pair of artificial talons created on a 3D printer.

Left with just stumps and unable to walk, Foghorn the footless rooster was discovered earlier this year by the city's animal and bylaw services.

Dr. Daniel Pang, an assistant professor in the University of Calgary's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, wanted to help when heard about the rooster's condition. Pang's area of research is in small animal pain and welfare....

"Good Night, Moon"

The Waning Crescent

26.6 days old

9.3 percent lit

Moments ago:

By Nadia Drake

Remember (click here) when we reported that Charon would probably turn out to be an astonishing world in its own right? Well, the newest image released by the New Horizons team suggests Pluto’s largest moon is absolutely that.

In the photo, shot from less than 5 million kilometers away, the 1,200-kilometer-wide sphere appears riven with enormous canyons — at least one of which is deeper and longer than the Grand Canyon, said planetary geologist Bill McKinnon of the Washington University in St. Louis in a statement. In addition, Charon’s surface is mottled with impact craters. That alone is not surprising (in fact, craters were one of the team’s top predictions for surface features on Charon), but the size and color are intriguing. One of the crater bottoms appears darker than the surrounding surface; whether this is because it’s made of different material or is simply less reflective isn’t clear yet. And then there’s that mysteriously dark region capping the moon’s pole....

I have to say that the idea Mars could be a habitable planet is a bit an over calculation. It does not have the sunlight as Earth does and what exactly do people believe they are going to grow for food even if an Earth atmosphere could be established. 

By the way such an environment requires gravity.

...One involves (click here) a grow-your-own approach to life support and nutrition. It turns out that if you grow 10,000 wheat plants, you can generate more than enough oxygen to breathe while removing the human waste gas of carbon dioxide. Better still, you have a partial source of nutrition. For a while, the Space Center had a team of four volunteers locked up in a hermetically sealed tube, subsisting pretty independently on this self-regenerating, hydroponically grown life-support system.

And that’s all great — until you factor in the possibility of crop failure....

The only valid reason to seek deep space is to plot a course to another planet in a different solar system with a sun that is not old and growing cold. I would think any residence on Mars would be temporary at best.