Sunday, June 04, 2017

Elect Jim Johnson for Governor of New Jersey. He is the change candidate with a history to prove it.

Jim Johnson for New Jersey (click here)

He is from Montclair, is 56 and brings new generational ideas. He is married with four children. He is a former US Treasury undersecretary. Any Wall Street candidate has nothing on him. Jim's experience in government secures his knowledge of governance.

"Does anyone believe that if we keep running the same playbook written by the same insiders that your lives are going to get any better? I don't. ... That old playbook got us the highest property taxes" in the nation."It got us Jon Corzine, it got us Chris Christie, Chris Christie again, and it will get us Phil Murphy unless we demand real change."

Given his knowledge and experience in government he doesn't have to have a department of so called experts to write policy. He knows where the change needs to take place and can instrument it without holding anyone's hand.

HE VALUES ETHICS! Yes, yes, yes!

Ethics reform: Johnson wants to eliminate no-bid contracts, ban political contributions from lobbyists, require greater disclosure of lobbying activity, and limit public officials to one public pension.

There may be a pension crisis, but, that doesn't mean the NJ State Pension Funds are valueless, quite the contrary. The very last person that should be leading New Jersey is another Wall Street executive. New Jersey was built by the Middle Class who invested in unions and the pension provided. The vote for Governor has to begin with the promise to fix the pension system to take away the burden from voters to young to vote right now.

January 5, 2016
By Mark J. Magyar'

Next November, (click here) New Jerseyans will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment to require the state government to make regular quarterly pension payments, which would put the state's pension system -- and the state of New Jersey itself -- on the road to fiscal solvency within six years.

The biggest winners, if the constitutional amendment passes, are not public employees -- who will get their pensions anyway -- but all of New Jersey's taxpayers.

State laws, Supreme Court rulings and legal opinions have already established that public employees are entitled to the vested pension benefits they have earned....

...New Jersey's pension system for teachers and state government workers has a $40 billion unfunded liability that is growing exponentially and is in danger of collapse because governors and legislatures treated the pension system like a credit card that would  never come due.

Over a 14-year span, Republican governors underfunded the pension system by $2.6 billion, then Democratic governors did so by $10.2 billion. The Christie administration promised to fix the problem, but instead made it worse by underfunding the pension system by $17.5 billion in its first six years -- and a projected $23.7 billion by the time the governor's term ends in January 2018

Every year that the pension system goes underfunded, the long-term cost of fixing the problem grows exponentially.

It would have cost only $1.1 billion a year to restore the pension system to full funding when Sweeney first flagged the problem in 2005. Five years later, at the end of the Corzine administration, it would have cost $2.5 billion. It would have cost over $4.5 billion by 2018 when the seven-year ramp-up to full funding was to have been completed under the bipartisan 2011 pension law....

Do not let Wall Street go near this issue. Today, Wall Street, including and especially Goldman Sachs are gamblers, not investors. Greed and not growth is the Wall Street model in the year 2017.

July 11, 2016
By Samantha Marcus

The state Supreme Court (click here) on Thursday upheld a landmark 2011 law freezing cost-of-living adjustments for retired government workers, a decision that will slowly erode the value of pensions paid to 800,000 current and former public employees.

The 6-1 ruling is a major legal victory for Gov. Chris Christie's administration, which warned that restoring the annual increases would hurl a pension system already underfunded by $59 billion closer to insolvency.

"State taxpayers have won another huge victory," Christie said. "One that spares them from the burden of unaffordable benefit increases for public employee unions."

The lawsuit filed by a group of retired prosecutors hinged on whether the legal promise not to reduce workers' pensions includes cost-of-living adjustments. Christie and state lawmakers suspended the regular increases in 2011 as part of a sweeping overhaul of employee benefits that also raised the retirement age and required workers to pay more for their pensions and health care....

Jim Johnson as Governor will be ready from inauguration to target issues that burden future generations. That readiness begins with future generations today, since, New Jersey's education is badly underfunded. The education of future generations is already compromised and New Jersey taxpayers need someone in the Governor's seat that appreciates the priorities they hold.

Is there a difference between health and good environmental policy? No. Good environmental policy insures a better quality of life with increased health capacity. Every time a jogger or runner or walker heads out the door for exercise, they will not be getting a full does of pollution, unseasonable heat, extreme freezing temperatures or ground ozone in their face and lungs to impact wellness. Yes, freezing temperatures despite the obvious, causes stress on the body and mind. If that stress is also due to high energy costs, the switch to alternative solar and wind will improve the budgets of New Jerseyites.

IT WORKS IN CALIFORNIA. It will work in New Jersey.

March 3, 2016
By Craig McCarthy

In its annual list (click here) ranking the world's richest people, Forbes has included eight New Jersey residents, all of whom have amassed a personal net worth in the billions. 


Most of the people who made the cut in New Jersey, according to Forbes, are self-made men with fortunes in finance and investments. 

There are more billionaires in the United States, 540, than any other country in the world, according to Forbes. Trailing the U.S. is China with 320 people who have a 10-figure fortune and Germany with 120....
It is very possible a temporary tax increase would benefit the long term for the state. Where should those taxes be increased first? There are at least eight billionaires in New Jersey who would not feel the tax increase. Promise. Stop to think about the return to the state while their lives go unchanged.

New Jersey needs a change and the person best qualified of ANY of the candidates is Jim Johnson. 

He can keep his promises when no one else can because he is prepared to do so.

Saturday, June 03, 2017

"Car Talk" always saw a responsibility to bring out the best in car ownership. Their specialty was 'the old beater.'

Sorry, this was suppose to go up last night.

June 1, 2008

Dear Tom and Ray,

While on my evening walk, (click here) I went past a small SUV with the engine running. On the return leg of my walk, the engine was still running. At the completion of my walk, I went back to check the vehicle. It was still running, so I went up to the house and asked the owner if she knew her engine was running. She was charging her cell phone! Question: How long can a modern passenger car be left idling? How much does it cost in gas? Can a cell phone be charged by using just the battery? Would it be cheaper to get an emergency cell-phone charger battery? And safer? What is the wear and tear on the engine? -- Mike

TOM: Well, we can do the math, Mike. An average car burns about 0.15 gallons of gas an hour while idling. That's 45 cents' worth of gas at $3 a gallon. Plus, in an hour you create three pounds of carbon dioxide and who knows how much nitrous oxide emissions? But we don't need to do all of the math to conclude that this is a wasteful way to charge a cell phone.

RAY: It's like air-conditioning your house down to 30 degrees to keep the ice-cream cold, instead of just putting it back into the freezer.

TOM: I assume the cell-phone owner had lost her home plug-in charger, and was using the car adapter because that was the only way she could charge her phone.

RAY: But what she didn't know was that she didn't have to run the engine. If she had simply plugged the adapter into the power point (formerly called the cigarette lighter) and then turned the key to the appropriate position (on some cars, the power point will work without the key in at all, and on other cars the key needs to be in one of the "on" positions), she could have charged her cell phone using only the car's battery.

TOM: No harm would have come to the battery. Charging a cell phone takes so little energy that it's virtually impossible to run down a healthy car battery by doing that. And the battery would have completely recharged itself the next time she used the car.

RAY: Plus, the added advantage of using the car's battery instead of the engine to recharge your cell phone is that you're less likely to attract the unwanted attention of potential car thieves. Or nosy evening walkers.



November 3, 2014

Tom Magliozzi's laugh boomed in NPR listeners' ears every week as he and his brother, Ray, bantered on Car Talk.

Tom Magliozzi, (click here) one of public radio's most popular personalities, died on Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 77 years old.
Tom and his brother, Ray, became famous as "Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers" on the weekly NPR show Car Talk. They bantered, told jokes, laughed and sometimes even gave pretty good advice to listeners who called in with their car troubles.
If there was one thing that defined Tom Magliozzi, it was his laugh. It was loud, it was constant, it was infectious....

Ray Magliozzi (click here) was born in 1950. He is an actor and writer, known for Cars (2006), Cars 3 (2017) and Divided Highways: The Interstates and the Transformation of American Life (1997).




Below is a phone charging system that is portable to anywhere including and especially the beach. On second thought, be sure it doesn't get wet.


Union membership leads to a vibrant Middle Class. A vibrant Middle Class equates to economic growth!

To quote most regressive Republicans, "California drank the Kool-Aide." Yep. They sure did and it shows! 

California is not an experiment, it is proof!

February 1, 2017
By Jonathan Lansner

...A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (click here) shows union influence in the entire California workplace grew slightly last year, a stark contrast to declining union rolls nationwide.

Here are six things worth knowing:

1. Big numbers: California is a comparative union town, with 2.55 million members statewide in 2016, highest in the nation. Those unionized workplaces roughly equal all the jobs in Minnesota. New York was second last year at 1.9 million; Illinois third, at 812,000.

2. Growing rolls: California union membership grew with the state job market, up 65,000, or 2.6 percent, in a year. Nationally, it’s a different story: Unions had 14.6 million members in 2016, down 237,000, or a dip of 1.6 percent....

What happened to Democrats? They lost the Middle Class supported by a good quality of life and union membership. The Middle Class has been replaced by the Working Poor facilitated by the god awful Gingrich Welfare Class and a lost generation of "Occupy Wall Street."

...6. Trump voters? Forget exit polls. My trusty spreadsheet translated this union data into curious presidential political insight. The 30 states that Trump won had a total of 5.5 million union members last year (7 percent of their workforce) vs. 9.1 million in the other 20 states and D.C. (15 percent of all jobs.) But in Trump states, union rolls were down 244,000 and up 7,000 elsewhere. Did Trump draw well from the recently unemployed? Look at key swing states like Florida (down 90,000 union jobs in 2016) or Pennsylvania (off 62,000), both won by the new president....                    

200,000 people die in the USA of air pollution....(as Governor of California) we passed the strictest environmental rules in the country...

...And our economy is now booming. Today, we are number one in protecting our environment and we are number one in economic growth.

That is a Grizzly Bear not a Russian bear (Brown Bear).

November 16, 2017
By Niall McCarthy

...According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, (click here) California is the 6th largest economy in the world. In 2015, its economic output reached $2.46 trillion, surpassing France. Only the United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom are able to boast a higher GDP than the Golden State....

California is making America great again!

June 6, 2016
By Matthew Winkler

...California last year created the most jobs of any state, 483,000, more than the second- and third-most-populous states Florida and Texas combined (they added 257,900 and 175,700) and at a faster rate than any of the world's developed economies. The pace of employment growth was almost triple the rate of job creation for the 19 countries that make up the euro zone and more than 3.5 times that of Japan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The high taxes and ubiquitous regulation critics cite when assailing Golden State government are proving no impediment to business and investment. They may even be a benefit, as public policy and people's preferences converge. Four of the world's 10 largest companies are based in California. Two of them -- Alphabet and Facebook -- were conceived in the past 18 years. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, the world's largest bank by market capitalization, routinely outperforms any of its peers from Wall Street.

California produces almost all of the country's almonds, apricots, dates, figs, kiwifruit, nectarines, olives, pistachios, prunes and walnuts among dozens of crops that make it No. 1 in the U.S., with an equivalent GDP from agriculture, forestry and hunting totaling more than $37.7 billion, dwarfing No. 2 Iowa's $12.1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. No state comes close to California in manufacturing totaling $255.6 billion. Texas is next with $239.1 billion. The trailing 12-month revenue from California technology companies totaled $732 billion, or 53 percent of all tech revenues in the U.S. ...

...The 482 companies in the Russell 3000, which are based in California, produced a total return of 144 percent during the past five years, easily beating the 114 percent return for non-California companies during the same period....

With a population approaching 40 million, California is known for its diversity. But it's not just the people; the industries are diverse as well....In contrast, more than 60 percent of the largest publicly traded Texas firms are tied to oil and gas....

...No state comes close to California in recognizing the peril of global warming and addressing it with policies that expand the opportunity to develop clean or alternative energy. Among the 127 North American companies in the Bloomberg Americas Clean Energy Index, 26 are based in California, with average revenue growth of 11 percent -- 2 percent more than the average for the rest of the sector across the continent. Texas has three companies in the group, with revenue growth of 2 percent. During the past 12 months, the clean energy companies based in California spent an average 25 percent of their revenue on research and development and a median of 16 percent. Non-California firms spent an average of 13 percent and a median of 1 percent.

The payoff for investors owning the shares of California clean energy companies is huge compared with returns from similar firms outside the state: An average gross margin of 42 percent, turning $100 of sales into $42 gross profit compared to a gross margin of 31 percent for non-California clean energy during the past 12 months. Analysts also say the shares of the California clean energy companies will gain 40 percent during the next 12 months compared with a predicted 23 percent for the non-California firms.

California's outstanding performance across so many metrics isn't a fluke -- if you ask Jerry Brown, the longest-serving governor of the state, now in his fourth term....

The California is not simply about governing Democratic principles and morals, it is about GETTING IT RIGHT.

Real Median Household Income in California (click here)
20151 Year Change3 Year Change
US$55,775+3.83%+5.17%
California$64,500+4.02%+7.12%
"Getting It Right" equates to a sustainable income. With the petroleum industry being 60 percent of Texas' publicly traded businesses, it is unsustainable and will fail far more often than succeeds.

Techys are nerds, they aren't died in the wool oppressors as Christian Conservatives are. Techys are from the culture that respects diversity while being respected as well. They 'live the life' and not just talk about it.

It all works. All of it. 

Friday, June 02, 2017

Thousands of children in Flint are set to receive additional money for nutritional foods that can limit the effects of lead exposure.

May 15, 2017

Flint, Mich. (AP) — Thousands of children in Flint (click here) are set to receive additional money for nutritional foods that can limit the effects of lead exposure, though families who recently left the Michigan city because of the lead-tainted water crisis won't be eligible.

About $7 million in aid is going to about 15,000 children who qualify for food assistance, meaning qualifying families will receive a one-time payment of $420 per child to be used throughout the year. The funding is in addition to the $30 per child families got in March, the Detroit Free Press (http://on.freep.com/2r93CWh ) reported.

The city switched to untreated Flint River water as its drinking-water source in a money-saving effort in 2014, while under state management. But the move resulted in lead being leached from pipes into the water supply. Flint returned to Detroit's water system in 2015.

To qualify for the new food assistance, residents must have lived in a ZIP code identified as being served by the city's water system on Feb. 28, and still live in an eligible ZIP code as of April 1. Families who left the city because of the water to escape the lead won't be eligible, regardless of whether their children suffer health effects....

That is outrageous. Flint is a closed community? No one can move out and no one can come in? That is bizarre. I am confident the children who have left Flint that are effected can be found and provided for in a meaningful way. I think Michigan needs to continue to administer the funds, but, there is no reason why the monies cannot follow the child. 

Lawsuit!

So what is so special about food and lead. 


Lead stays in the body for different periods of time, depending on where it is.  Half of the lead in the blood will be excreted in 25 days (this is called the "half-life").  In soft tissues, it takes 40 days for half of the lead to be excreted.  In bones and teeth it takes much longer, up to 10 years or longer.
Since lead is stored in the body, a person can get poisoned from exposure to just small amounts of lead over a long period of time (chronic exposure).  You do not need to get exposed to just large doses of lead to be poisoned (acute exposure).  It can take months or years for the body to get rid of lead.  A person will continue to be exposed to lead internally even after the actual exposure to lead stops....

Basically, increasing the body's ability to build a healthy body through good nutrition, will increase the chances of healthy tissue over a more unhealthy chance.

Lead replaced iron in the children drinking the leaded water. There is permanent damage because lead can effect hemoglobin and deprive body tissue of oxygen. There are places in the body where lead has permanently become a part of the cell structure.

Information provided by the American Dietetic Association: Your Link to Nutrition & Health

When you think of ways to build strong and healthy bones, most people immediately mention calcium. However, new research indicates that iron might also make a difference in your bone health.

A recent study at the University of Arizona and University of Arkansas found that postmenopausal women who consumed at least 18 milligrams of iron a day had the greatest bone mineral density levels.

The role of iron in bone density may be linked to its role in the production of collagen, a key component of our bones. Good sources of dietary iron include beef, poultry, fish and beans.

Researchers also found that iron's benefits may be tied to calcium consumption in the range of 800 to 1,200 milligrams per day. It appears that a balanced intake of iron and calcium has the best benefit in terms of bone health.

Iron and calcium are among other important nutrients for healthy bones so be sure to include a variety of foods from the Food Guide Pyramid every day.

There are some permanently damaged tissues with the children from Flint. By increasing the good nutrition the body has it's best chance to build a body that can achieve optimal wellness for the challenge these children face.

Why take chances that will complicate their ability to be well? 

ALL the children from Flint, regardless of where they and their parents reside now, should be receiving this nutritional subsidy. Honestly! All these children should be followed through their pediatricians and parents as much as is possible.

Follow the 2015 Dietary Guidelines (click here) to include a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, protein foods and dairy products. When there is healthy food in the body, it is more difficult for lead to be absorbed. Make sure your diet is rich in important nutrients such as calcium, iron and vitamin C....

These children will become adults. Handicapped individuals have a different quality of life which means increased costs for health care and wellness. What are going to be their outcomes as adults? Will they do well and carry on a normal life or will they be effected and find life such a challenge they can never achieve a normal quality of life? It is the obligation of the State ,Governor Snyder and all other contributing government and private organizations to be sure these youngsters have the chance they need.

Thursday, June 01, 2017

It is laughable. The USA now joins Nicaragua and Syria.

It is easy to be a blithering idiot as a politician, it is quite different to convince a nation of people to take themselves seriously. If a USA president is willing to sell the country to Russia for his own fortune, does anyone actually believe he values an intangible and valueless climate?

The climate crisis doesn't speak Trump's language, there is no profit angle to it.



















Larsen C ice shelf has the greatest mass of all the ice shelves within the Larsen system.
The Larsen C ice shelf is not only the largest in ice mass, but, has the greatest exposure to the warming circumpolar circulation.

The crack that will release the largest block of ice shelf to date has cracked something like 11 miles in six days.

This is the climate crisis. It is real and it is happening. While an ice shelf in Antarctica seems a distant place and of little consequence to the USA, it will increase sea level rise and add to the deteriorating thermostat that are the North and South Pole.

It is not surprising this segment of the Larsen ice shelves should be the next one to melt away, the waters of the south Pacific are passing along their warmth to the Antarctica circumpolar circulation.

There has been a growing impingement of heat into the Antarctica circumpolar waters for the past 19 years.

Maybe these are the USA's new allies; Nicaragua and Syria. No citizens that values their dignity wants to live in a country that is a joke.






No different than other creative people, inventors do best in a culture that appreciates them.

May 31, 2017
By Adam Brinklow

The Oaks Theatre (click here) at 1875 Solano Avenue in Berkeley opened in 1925, built in “Moorish style” by the Reid brothers, the pair behind Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater and San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.

Since then it’s been remodeled, renovated, and redesigned over the decades, gaining an Art Deco overhaul in the 1930s, an additional screen in the 1970s, antique chandeliers and doors salvaged from other old theaters in the 1990s, and then, sadly, multiple closures this century.

New investors swooped down in 2010 with a plan to revive the Oaks’s business with a combination of American and Indian cinema. That plan, however, fizzled out by year’s end....

The Oaks needs to be revitalized. It is incredible and needs a sponsor. The charm of an era cannot be replaced, it has to be preserved.
June 1, 2017

Donald Trump is expected to ignore billionaire businessman Elon Musk's advice to stick with the Paris Accord on climate change.
Musk - who serves on three White House economic advisory councils - says he will dump Trump if the President withdraws US support on the major climate change agreement.
"Don't know which way Paris will go, but I've done all I can to advise directly to POTUS, through others in WH & via councils, that we remain," Musk said on Twitter.
He added he would have "no choice" but to depart Trump's advisory councils if the US pulled out of the climate deal.

Influencing policy doesn't matter if it isn't applied in practice. In realizing Elon Musk is ignored, Trump's councils are probably an opportunity to picks the brains of geniuses rather than improve USA jobs and economics.

June 1, 2017
By Danielle Muoio

...Musk is on two of Trump's councils: (click here) an economic advisory board and the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative....

Trump's style is to retaliate, so Elon and his enterprises should be ready with attorneys. If that is the course of this administration, I would expect Mr. Musk to take his business to Canada or some other western country willing to entertain that talent, like New Zealand where their space program is in it's earliest stages.

It would not surprise me if talented people, like Elon Musk depart from the USA to seek peace from Trump's harassing behavior should he take that path. An individual leaving a country is far different than threats to a company with excise taxes, etc.

The USA should pay attention to it's inventors and experts. The country needs them. They should be respected for their points of view. They are some of the most talented people in this country and their opinions matter. Trump doesn't like them because their stereotyped as "Liberal" and who wants them within US borders anyway.

Drug gangs in Mexico cause a great deal of problems other than sending illegal drugs to the USA.

The thefts, while cleaver, were really facilitated by the lack of substantial governance in Mexico. This is a decades old problem. Nearly any type of motor vehicle, including 18 wheel semi-truck and trailers, can be sold in Mexico without a title. The Mexican government has never been able to stop the practice because of the interruption of drug gang activity.


June 2, 2017
By Hamza Shaban

In a cross-border auto heist (click here) that resembles a scrapped plot from the "Fast and the Furious" franchise, nine members of a Tijuana-based biker club have been charged with stealing 150 Jeep Wranglers using stolen computer code and key designs, the Justice Department announced earlier this week.
Known as the Hooligans, the biker gang allegedly stole the Jeeps in the San Diego area over the past several years, selling the vehicles or stripping them for parts, across the border in Mexico, US Attorney Mark Conover said during a news conference recorded by the San Diego Union-Tribune. The value of the stolen Jeeps was US$4.5 million (NZ$6.4m).
According to the indictment, the Hooligans staked out vehicles days before the thefts to obtain their vehicle identification numbers. With these numbers in hand, the suspects were able to get details to create duplicate car keys as well as the codes needed to program the keys, linking them to the Jeep Wranglers.
The key designs and codes were stored in a proprietary database. But law enforcement officials don't know how the Hooligans were able to access it.
In the course of the investigation, authorities said they learned that nearly 20 requests for duplicate keys were made by a single Jeep dealership, in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico....

Cannabidiol finds legitimacy in New Zealand.

July 2, 2017

Among the wide range (click here) of therapeutic uses CBD’s have been shown to be an effective anti-inflammatory, shown to support the reduction of pain and easing the symptoms of stress and anxiety.
Doctors (click here) will be able to prescribe a form of medical marijuana without needing Government approval, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne announced today.
Dunne said that restrictions around cannabidiol, or CBD, would be removed, bringing New Zealand into line with other countries including Australia.
CBD, which is extracted from cannabis, has little or no psychoactive properties and can be used for pain relief.
Until now, it has been classed as a controlled drug, meaning the Ministry of Health needed to approve its use.
"I have taken advice from the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs (EACD) that CBD should not be a controlled drug and am pleased Cabinet has now accepted my recommendation to make this change," Dunne said.
"Therefore, I am now taking steps to remove restrictions accordingly.
"In practical terms, the changes mean CBD would be able to be prescribed by a doctor to their patient and supplied in a manner similar to any other prescription medicine."...
America's Race (click here)

WINSLOSSESLVACWS*TOTAL
ORACLE TEAM USA6117
Emirates Team New Zealand6106
Land Rover BAR3525
SoftBank Team Japan3403
Artemis Racing2502
Groupama Team France2602
June 2, 2017

Nigel Farage (click here) spotted leaving a meeting with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (not pictured)


London: Britain's Nigel Farage, (click here) a leading Brexit campaigner, has branded as "hysterical" a new report stating he is a "person of interest" in the US investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The Guardian newspaper said on Thursday that Farage had not been accused of wrongdoing and was not a suspect or target of the US investigation. 

But it said the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) had "raised the interest" of FBI investigators because of his relationships with individuals connected to both the Trump campaign and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The report stated being a person of interest meant "investigators believe he may have information about the acts that are under investigation and he may therefore be subject to their scrutiny."

Mr Farage met Mr Assange in March this year at the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has been holed up for five years....

There are some rumors of Trump engaging in an orgy with Russian prostitutes playing pin the tail on the donkey. ?????