Thursday, July 28, 2016

Congratulations, Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic Nomination for President.

Her life experience is different than that of Donald Trump. The differences are clear.



Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Oct. 6, 2007: The children’s health program wouldn’t be in existence today if we didn’t have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
\The children's health care plan as of 2014 (click here).


















Student Debt Clock (click here)  

It has to be addressed. The clock is adding up debt in interest, not spending. That is the problem. While the interest on loans is adding up, the spending of these Americans is stunted. They don't have purchase power. First, we promised this generation an education would bring them a good income, so they invested. Now, that same generation was excluded from any real job, "Occupy, Wall Street." The Republican administrations never bothered to realize the generation growing up post September 11th needed work when they graduated from the college education they invested in in good faith. 

Today, there are some jobs, many chased down by the members of this generation themselves. As they finally move into jobs, they have no disposable income. They are the USA's first subsistence generation. The American Dream doesn't exist for them. That isn't acceptable. The USA Congress has to legislate to intercept this growing debt and remove this disastrous future from the landscape of America.

The student debt clock can be stopped rather than accruing more and more debt. When the loans continue to be payed the disposable spending will grow. It is only when the interest rate ends and the principle of the loans are paid off, the American Dream will return. This isn't difficult. 

The little girl that grew up. (click here)

It was a wonderful tribute to her mother, Hillary Clinton, in more ways than one.




"Roar" sung by Katy Perry

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath
Scared to rock the boat and make a mess
So I sat quietly, agreed politely
I guess that I forgot I had a choice
I let you push me past the breaking point
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down, but I got up (hey!)
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, your hear that sound
Like thunder, gonna shake the ground
You held me down, but I got up
Get ready 'cause I had enough
I see it all, I see it now

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter
Dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar!

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar!

Now I'm floating like a butterfly
Stinging like a bee I earned my stripes
I went from zero, to my own hero

You held me down, but I got up (hey!)
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, your hear that sound
Like thunder, gonna shake the ground
You held me down, but I got up
Get ready 'cause I've had enough
I see it all, I see it now

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter
Dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar!

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar!

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar!

Roar, roar, roar, roar, roar!

I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter
Dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar!

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar!

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar!
January 11, 2011
And yet more than 3,500 Muslims have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Defense Department figures provided to The Times. As of 2006, some 212 Muslim-American soldiers had been awarded Combat Action Ribbons for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and seven had been killed.
Too many Americans overlook the heroic efforts of Arab-Americans in uniform, said Capt. Eric Rahman, 35, an Army reservist who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq at the start of the war. He cited the example of Petty Officer Second Class Michael A. Monsoor, a Navy Seal and practicing Christian of Lebanese and Irish descent who was awarded the Medal of Honor after jumping on a grenade and saving at least three team members during a firefight in 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq....

Having Reverend Barber at the Democratic Convention was a high point. Thank you.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (click here) is co-author of The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics and the Rise of a New Justice Movement, published in January 2016 by Beacon Press. In January 2016 he also began filing regular dispatches from the southern movement for racial justice for The Nation, resuming a role Martin Luther King Jr. once filled for the magazine.
Rev. Barber is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Monday Movement, president of the North Carolina NAACP and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Goldsboro. He is also president of Repairers of the Breach. He is the 215-2016 recipient of the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship....

April 2, 2015
By Wesley Lowery

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) (click here) on Thursday afternoon signed into law a revised version of a controversial religious freedom bill, that included new language to clarify that businesses and service providers cannot use the legislation as a justification to discriminate based on a client’s sexual orientation.
The original Religious Freedom Restoration Act came under fire nationally, with critics contending that it could allow businesses to refuse to serve gay and lesbian patrons. Under scrutiny, Pence asked that the language of the bill be clarified, and lawmakers unveiled new language on Thursday morning that explicitly stated that no “provider…may deny service to anyone on basis of sexual orientation, race, religion or disability.”

In signing the revised bill, which was approved by the legislature on Thursday, Pence continued to argue that there had been a misunderstanding about the bill’s intent....
A total of 1,439 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 61 hours or 144 per year. There were 123 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2015.

I have police in my family across two generations. They all want to make that human connection to make a difference.

There is also one other aspect of this that needs to be stated. None of the police officers that died were killed by an unarmed Black man.

Hillary Clinton should have a position on illegal aliens that kill. It is one of the signature issues of Donald Trump.

They don't pass through immigration processes. There is a problem and here it is again. He claims he didn't kill anyone. He points to Gary Condit.

July 28, 2016
By Sarah Beth Hensley

Washington - Prosecutors will no longer (click here) seek a retrial of Ingmar Guandique, the man who was charged in the death of Chandra Levy, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced Thursday.
“Today, in the interests of justice and based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week, the Office moved to dismiss the case charging Ingmar Guandique with the May 2001 murder of Chandra Levy,” the office’s public information officer, Bill Miller, said in a statement.
In the statement, the office said it can no longer prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ingmar killed Levy.
The retrial of Ingmar was set for Oct. 11.  He was convicted in 2010 and has been serving a 60-year sentence.
The Levy case gained national attention. She was having an affair with then-Rep. Gary Condit, a married man when she disappeared and was later found murdered.

I believe it is the obligation of the investigators to provide facts to Chandra Levy's parents. There are statement that Ingmar was responsible for other murders of women. The facts don't line up there either? He is being deported, but, evidently there isn't sufficient proof he killed anyone.

May 10, 2016
By Keith L. Alexander
Two purported ex-lovers (click here) of former California congressman Gary A. Condit told the FBI that he had a penchant for bondage during sex, and one of the women said he was “aggressive” with her during a sexual encounter, according to a new court filing.
The statements, made in 2001 to agents investigating the disappearance and slaying of federal intern Chandra Levy, were cited by defense attorneys representing the man facing retrial in the case.
At a hearing in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday, the attorneys for Ingmar Guandique asked to depose the women in preparation for his trial. They said the accounts of the women, who were not publicly identified, could help their client and point to Condit as a “main suspect” in the killing....

There are deaths related to illegal immigrants. These immigrants find their way back into the USA after deportation. Perhaps there needs to be an understanding that when illegal immigrants kill or are repeated offenders to our borders and are deported, they are imprisoned in their own countries or deported to a distance that is unreasonable to return. Perhaps a country like Argentina or Chili might be willing to accept these illegals for a fee. It would add a few thousands of miles more to their migration back to the USA.

There needs to be an answer. It continues to occur. The countries of origin don't press charges against them for leaving the country in the first place. If there are no customers the illegal truck loads of human beings will stop. The countries of origin do little to prosecute offenders of this industry. The illegals serve to improve the quality of life of those they leave behind and indirectly feed the economies of these countries. 

It's an issue. It needs to stop.

The Republicans have been completely against immigration reform. This is all part of it.
20 February 2016

President Francois Hollande of France (click here) has given details of the country’s nuclear arsenal and said maintaining it was necessary in a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous.

"The international context does not allow for any weakness... the era of nuclear deterrence is therefore not over," Hollande said during a trip to an air base in the southern city of Istres on Thursday. The Istres-Le Tubé base is home to a detachment of nuclear-capable Mirage 2000N fighter-bombers.

"In a dangerous world – and it is dangerous – France does not want to let down its guard," the president said as cited by AFP.
"The possibility of future state conflicts concerning us directly or indirectly cannot be excluded."

Hollande went on to reveal for the first time the make-up of France’s current nuclear arsenal. He said Paris had "less than 300" nuclear warheads at its disposals.

Some of them are carried by 54 ASMP missiles; the medium-range air-to-surface cruise missiles that French military doctrine says can be used as a last resort before a full-scale nuclear war. The rest compose the three sets of 16 submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the M45 and M51....
July 19, 2016

British lawmakers (click here) voted Monday to replace the country's aging fleet of nuclear-armed submarines with new vessels, heeding Prime Minister Theresa May's warning that relinquishing atomic weapons would be a "reckless gamble."

May's Conservative government is committed to keeping the country's nuclear arsenal, a powerful but costly symbol of the country's military status that consists of four Royal Navy submarines armed with Trident missiles.

After six hours of debate, lawmakers in the House of Commons voted by 472 to 117 to build new submarines to replace the current fleet, in service since the 1990s. The government estimates the cost of the new subs at up to 41 billion pounds ($54 billion) over 20 years....

There is more than one Pokeman. The USA is occupied by Pokeman.

I can't imagine naming a child Pokeman. I think there can be limited use of the name Pokeman because of trademark restrictions. I would be very cautious in naming anything after Pokeman.

July 28, 2016
By Garla Baker-Whitelaw

Like the sudden surge of babies (click here) named after Katniss Everdeen and characters from Game of Thrones, Pokémon Go may be influencing what people choose to name their babies.
According to BabyCenter.com, there's a growing trend for naming babies after Pokémon. Specifically, people seem very fond of the lovable, fluffy-tailed Eevee.
Since 2015, Eevee has climbed 1,377 places in BabyCenter's list of popular names for baby girls, coinciding with the stratospheric rise of Pokémon Go....

It is morning in Japan.

July 28, 2016
By AP


Pyoungyang, North Korea — North Korea's top diplomat (click here) for U.S. affairs told The Associated Press Thursday that Washington "crossed the red line" and effectively declared war by putting leader Kim Jong Un on its list of sanctioned individuals.
Han Song Ryol, director-general of the U.S. affairs department at the North's Foreign Ministry, said a vicious showdown could erupt if the U.S. and South Korea hold annual war games as planned next month.
He added that recent U.S. actions have put the situation on the Korean Peninsula on a war footing.
The United States and South Korea regularly conduct joint military exercises south of the Demilitarized Zone, and Pyongyang typically responds to them with tough talk and threats of retaliation....

Kim Jong Un put his money in the wrong bank. Pyoungyang needs to take it's grievances before the UN Security Council.

April 16, 2016
By Merra Gidden

The British banker Nigel Cowie, (click here) who lived in North Korea for over two decades, allegedly set up an offshore company used by Pyongyang to expand its nuclear weapons program and sell arms. News of his involvement came to light following Sunday’s leak of the Panama Papers, which have shed light on global offshore finance arrangements.
Cowie moved to North Korea in 1995, rising to become head of Daedong Credit Bank (DCB), the country’s first foreign bank, The Guardian reports. In 2006, he led a group of investors that bought a 70 percent stake in the bank. That same year, Cowie registered an offshoot of DCB in the British Virgin Islands, which law firm Mossack Fonseca—whose clients make up the Panama Papers—incorporated.
In 2013, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the company, claiming that it provided financial services to institutions central to North Korea’s arms race, Reuters reports. The offshoot also, the U.S. alleges, carried out international financial transactions with countries trying to avoid North Korea. Mossack Fonseca didn’t notice Cowie’s links to North Korea—despite him giving an address there—until 2010 when it resigned as agent....

It seems as though the South China Sea is going to be crowded. So much for shipping lanes. I told you so.

President Obama has shown infinite patience with aggression by communist countries. If it were Bush/Cheney we would already be looking at a limited nuclear engagement. Or a full scale nuclear engagement. The USA is in international waters or those of allies.

I hope everyone is having fun.

29 July 2016


China and Russia (click here) will hold naval drills in the South China Sea in September, the Chinese Defense Ministry told a news conference on Thursday, adding they are designed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and were not aimed at raising tensions.
"This is a routine exercise between the two armed forces, aimed at strengthening the developing China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership," China's Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a news conference, as cited by Reuters. 
He also added that the exercise is “not directed against third parties."...

To secure the countries of the South China Sea confidence, the USA is in those waters.

July 27, 2016
By Jim Sciutto

WashingtonThe U.S. will continue freedom of navigation operations (click here) in the South China Sea, a senior Navy officer says, as the region continues to react to a landmark Hague ruling on territorial claims in the disputed waters.
The Obama administration has made it "absolutely clear" to China that the U.S. will continue engaging in flights and naval activities in the disputed waters despite objections from Beijing, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said Tuesday.
    This month, an international tribunal in the Haguedeemed the bulk of China's territorial claims in the South China Sea to have no legal basis under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The case was brought by a fellow South China Sea claimant, the Philippines. China immediately dismissed the court decision as "null and void" and said it would not affect its claims....

    South China Sea countries are asked to exercise solidarity in response to international court finding,

    Realize China never attended to the complaint before the international court. China has decided the only venue it will participate in is confrontation.

    July 27, 2016
    By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

    In the lead-up to an international court ruling (click here) on China's claims in the South China Sea this month, United States officials talked about rallying a coalition to impose "terrible" costs to Beijing's international reputation if flouted the court's decision.
    But just two weeks after the July 12 announcement by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague - which at least on paper, appeared to be a humiliating defeat for China - the U.S. strategy appears to be unraveling and the court's ruling is in danger of becoming irrelevant.
    Earlier this year, U.S. officials spoke repeatedly of the need for countries in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere, including the European Union, to make it clear that the decision of the court should be binding.
    "We need to be ready to be very loud and vocal, in harmony together ... to say that this is international law, this is incredibly important, it is binding on all parties," Amy Searight, the then-U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia, said in February.

    Then in April, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China risked "terrible" damage to its reputation if it ignored The Hague's ruling....
    July 28, 2016
    By Corki Siemaszko

    President Ronald Reagan's daughter (click here) Patti Davis said she has forgiven her dad's would-be assassin, but thinks he should remain behind bars.
    Davis weighed-in on John Hinckley Jr. just hours after a judge Wednesday sprung him from the mental hospital that has been his home for 35 years -- and granted him permission to live full-time at his mom's home in Virginia.
    "When my father was lying in a hospital bed recovering from the gunshots that nearly killed him, he said, 'I know my ability to heal depends on my willingness to forgive John Hinckley'," she wrote at length on her web site. "I too believe in forgiveness. But forgiving someone in your heart doesn't mean that you let them loose in Virginia to pursue whatever dark agendas they may still hold dear."
    Hinckley, Davis wrote, "will have to check in sometimes with his doctors, and he will have to live with his 90 year old mother, which shouldn't cramp his style too much given her age and infirmities."...