Any tax reform will find favor with Americans if it provides relief to the working poor and families with children.

Ben Carson, a candidate for the Republican nomination for President, has changed his ideas about the annual income tax.

He now states he favors a Flat Tax. What else is new for a rhetorical Republican? But, he now states his Flat Tax would be 15 percent with all deductions and loop holes removed. He originally stated 10 percent with closing of loop holes and removal of deductions.

That means as a young person coming out of an Associate Program as a nurse, would have at approximately $30,000 or more per year. The federal income tax under Ben Carson's 15 percent would be $4500 per year. That is a lot of money. Add to that state income tax, state unemployment and/or temporary disability tax, add on SSI and Medicare and what is left from an the salary of an ambitious student?

Ben Carson also states, even with the 15 percent federal income tax that leave the current government funding short by $800 billion. That is the difference between an expected federal budget of $3.5 Trillion and the amount the Carson Flat Tax would bring in. That doesn't even touch the national debt.

Now, let's say President Obama's plan for Community Colleges removes tuition, there is still a debt for loans to pay all the other costs. So, a newly graduated and newly employed American will have student loans to pay along with their tax burden.

One of the reasons student loans are under attack is because students don't have a chance to save part of their income in order to purchase a home. So, in contrast to Donald Trump's tax plan, Dr. Carson has no empathy for the low income and working poor. Donald Trump wants to provide a zero federal income tax up to and including $50,000.

The difference between the Carson Flat Tax and that of Donald Trump is a lot of money for the lower income American. In the case of $50,000 income that is an increase to their take home pay of $7500 annually. That is a new car payment and a savings account for the purchase of a home.

There is no doubt the working American would prefer not to be taxed until they break into a strong salary over $50,000.  The Trump tax plan provides a breather for the poor and lower middle class. It will provide a better quality of life for Americans, including toys for the kids if they have or start a family.

One of the criticisms by Pope Francis at the World Meeting of Families of the American financial pressure on young people, is that they postpone marriage and the start of a family because of the amount of money they have to save for the wedding. When is that going to change so young people don't just live together, but, actually get married for a perfect match they have found? Living together is not a relationship recognized by the Catholic Church. At the best there is a decision of Palimony by the American legal system if they split up.

We have to ask ourselves what pressures are Americans under that prevents them to live honestly within their religious practices. The government, society and private enterprise should not be working against them. Today they are and that has to change.

While on the subject of the oppression of the poor and low income Americans, there is this: 

The political right wing wants to end abortions. Really?

The FACTS to end abortions lies in the ability of a woman to secure contraception. Poor and low income women often can't afford contraception.

The highest numbers of abortions are among the poor and low income women. Now, who was it exactly that wants to end abortions?

Unintended pregnancy (click here) rates have increased among poor women while they have declined among higher-income women.

Source: Finer LB and Zolna MR, Unintended pregnancy in the United States: incidence and disparities, 2006, Contraception, 2011, 84(5):478–485.

Scott Allen has been confirmed by US Senate to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Scott Allen, (click here) Nominee for United States Director , European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Scott Allen is a private investor and former investment banker in Bethesda, Maryland.  Previously, Mr. Allen served as a Managing Director of Credit & Rates at J.P. Morgan Securities LTD in London from 2001 to 2004.  Prior to J.P. Morgan, he worked at Chase Manhattan Securities LTD in London as a Senior Sales Manager from 1992 to 1999 and as a Managing Director from 1999 to 2000.  Mr. Allen was Vice President of Manufacturers Hanover Corporation in Tokyo, Japan from 1986 to 1992 after serving as an Assistant Vice President in the Sovereign Risk Group at Manufacturers Hanover in New York City from 1982 to 1986.  Mr. Allen received a B.A. from Sophia University and a M.S. from Georgetown University. 

He is also on the Board of Directors of "The Advocacy Project." (click here)

The Advocacy Project (click here) was created in 1998 when a group of friends was commissioned to produce daily reports from the Rome Conference, called to draft the statute for an International Criminal Court. We were contracted by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC), which had lobbied long and hard for a more forceful response to the horrors of war. Our team was led by Iain Guest, an experienced journalist and former UN official....

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (click here)

The EBRD's capital base (click here)

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is owned by 64 shareholder countries and organisations.

When each country or organisation became a shareholder - in many cases at the point of the Bank's establishment in the early 1990s - they made a contribution to an overall capital base.

Additional contributions as well as commitments - in the form of callable credit guarantees - have also been made in the period since the Bank's founding, contributing to its very strong capital base, which in turn has led to its robust credit ratings.

That capital base allows the EBRD to raise funds which ultimately form the investment in projects.

Grateful tribute to American Agri-Women

American Agri-Women (click here)  is the nation’s largest coalition of farm, ranch and agribusiness women with more than 50 state, commodity and agribusiness affiliate organizations throughout the country. AAW members have been advocating for agriculture since 1974 and are now celebrating their 40th anniversary. 

Defense Appropriation Bills have been vetoed because OUR SOLDIERS do not believe in corruption.

Close Gitmo!

The idea a terrorist in Gitmo is too dangerous to relocate to Fort Leavenworth is nonsense. Complete nonsense.

There are other terrorists already in and among the communities of the USA. The terrorists from the Feb. 26, 1993 attack on the World Trade Tower.

Ramzi Yousef, Mohammad Salemeh, Yousef, Ismoil, Mahmud Abouhalima, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj were successfully tried and jailed until their death within the sovereign boundaries of the USA.

I am insulted as an American for any Senator to make the statements our country is not secure enough on our mainland to imprison any person. The USA is perfectly capable of trying and imprisoning for the length of their natural life any terrorist that commits crimes against this country.

Gitmo is an insult to this country and needs to be closed. I find it more than interesting that it is the Republican Party that quakes in their shoes at the thought of a terrorist being near their state and/or their communities.

US Fire Service needs to be fully funded.

According to the Senate panel on Wildfire Threats and Impacts there is wildlife loss because of the loss of wildlife habitat.

The wildlife that is lost directly contributes to a contraction of the USA economy. Hunting of elk and deer alone has an economy of $11 million per year in the US. While that is not billions there are also losses of wildlife and it's habitat because of the lack of funding of the Land and Water Conservation Act. 

These monies are not a matter of frivolous activities. This is not about tree hugging. This is about protecting land that is beautiful and contributes to the country's economy. 

The fire fighting budget should be a separate consideration when they are megafires. The medgafires take funding away from other activities of the US Forest Service and the habit loss, hence, wildlife loss becomes common place resulting in an impact on the USA economy. Also in consideration are the States. They collect fees to act on their own lands that are not federal to protect the economy attached to those State lands. When the federal government does not act to protect habitat and wildlife it impacts the state lands as well. 

I doubt seriously anyone in the USA cannot identify with the fact drought is a profound problem that complicates wildfires in the USA. Protecting US land and water is vital to the full spectrum of activities to stem the further danger of more land and habitat loss.





This is a far better reporting:

...Hunting in America (click here) is big business, generating more than $67 billion in economic output and more than one million jobs in the United States. The vast majority of Americans embrace hunting lock, stock and barrel for its social, cultural and conservation contributions...

There needs to be far better forest restoration in the USA. The lands and water being discussed today ie only a small percentage of the tragedy. The forests provide a great deal of value to those lands. Besides the hunting, fishing and economic benefits from the forests there are also aesthetic values.

Currently, the US Forest Service incorporates logging into the forest management plans. When the US Forest Service is not able to address the restoration of our national forests because the fire fighting removes most of their budget that means there will be far less to log year after year of fire losses.

For legislators not familiar with the VALUE of forests to our economy the issues are frivolous and make for excellent political fodder. It is wrong to consider our forests as nothing more than liberal expenditures in the federal budget. These forests provide for a great deal of value to our country and society than 'just a liberal, tree hugging thing.'

There needs to be a separate fund and organization within the US Forest Service to exclusively fight fires. There needs to be complete funding of the US Forest Service, including additional funding for the next three years to make up for losses in past budgets. The US Forest Service has to catch up on forest restoration. The USA Forest Service has many partners that can come on board to assist in more aggressive forest restoration.

This is an emergency. There is not enough funding to create a separate fire fighting agency within the US Forest Service. There is not enough funding to return forests to their prior standing. This is not an option. If funding does come forward there will be more and more adverse outcomes to these lands and the to the communities who enjoy these lands.

There were many homes and building lost this past fire season. That increases costs to insurance companies. The more healthy a forest is managed the far less possibility of fire. Forests with a moist forest floor will fight off any sparks that might occur out of lightning. Proper management will save our lands, increase moisture on the forest floors to end fires before they start and protect communities from housing loss. 

Last but not least are watersheds. The watersheds to the country begin in places where there are forests. The watersheds require forests for soil conservation and an effective filter to the water that falls within the forests. Proper management and restoration of the forests protect our watersheds. Where there are parched and disappearing forests because of fire there is a watershed stressed to provide sufficient water to communities. 

There are many reasons for forests to be returned to the lands of the country. The Congressional Acts that support these forests need to be fully funded without question and quickly.  

While many wildfires (click here) cause little damage to the land and pose few threats to fish, wildlife and people downstream, some fires create situations that require special efforts to prevent further problems after the fire. Loss of vegetation exposes soil to erosion; runoff may increase and cause flooding, sediments may move downstream and damage houses or fill reservoirs, and put endangered species and community water supplies at risk. The Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program addresses these situations with the goal of protecting life, property, water quality, and deteriorated ecosystems from further damage after the fire is out....

What will it take to bring about the funding for organizational changes and restoration activities, the complete loss of wildlife and dead lands that add to the heat within the troposphere over the USA contributing to greater heating of the entire troposphere.. Yes, the decisions regarding restoration of forest systems are directly related to slowing and ending the climate crisis. How can the USA ask Brazil to do more to protect it's tropical rainforests if the USA doesn't even care for it's own forests?

Is democracy under seige by Daesh?

Philip Hammond is correct in the generous offer for Great Britain to accept 20 thousand of the most vulnerable migrants from Syria. Great Britain does not have the square inches to accept vast numbers of migrants into the country. But, Great Britain does have resources enough to provide care to the worst of the migrants. 

Phillip Hammond is also correct there needs to be a plan for the migrants to return home as it is possible. The right of return has to exist in Syria including religious freedom without fear of violence.

Democracy is a focus of extremists as a place of power that will ultimately harm existing democracies. I think the laws that govern democracies have to be strong enough to survive "Freedom of Speech" and the demands of extremists to effect change.

01 Jun 2015
By Tim Stanley 

...With the Tories accused of acting like 'Nazis', (click here) the Left-wing campaign against the Government's reform agenda is distorted and hyperbolic.......1. The ECHR has tried legislating from the bench. There’s nothing unusual in that: the US Supreme Court does it all the time. But because the US Supreme Court judges are appointed by the US President and confirmed by the Senate, they at least have a symbiotic relationship with American democracy. Not so the ECHR which is appointed by a European assembly. Hence when ECHR judges try to tell the UK that it should give prisoners the vote, this is undemocratic and a serious affront to British sovereignty.... 

The re-examintion of human rights policies is bringing the criticism that soldiers will have greater rights to simply kill with impunity. We have already seen that with the George W. Bush administration and their withdrawal from the Geneva Conventions.

No one will tell me the "W" administration had not decided long before they took office to resign from the Geneva Conventions. They most certainly did. There is the idea vastly popular in the Republican Party the USA stands alone in the global view of governance as above any convention it has signed. The Republican Party does not recognize the United Nations as a valuable institution to promote peace. So, let's get that straight. If there needs to be an examination of the soldier as an instrument of death with impunity, it has already happened and it needs to be well documented and brought before the international community for judgement and decision making.

The Nuremberg Trials were suppose to set the standard for global governance. It isn't. As of the invasion into Iraq in 2003 the international community had a circumstance that stood in defiance of humanity. 

So, now exists Daesh. It is a genocidal militia that governs by fear and kills at it's pleasure. Now, Daesh is identifying democracies as weak governance that they can conquer by sheer numbers alone encouraging sympathizers to turn against their own government and kill at will. 

Daesh is a charismatic movement centered on destroying sovereignty and creating a global jihad that will deliver their particular brand of worship to al Baghdadi. For decades those interested in human rights in identifying the vulnerability of any human life to power have worked diligently and in transparency to bring violations of human rights to the world. For decades governments have been working toward the ideals of human rights. It is a standard that effects every aspect of global governance including trade and economy. "Special Status" is decided to countries that have overcome many human rights issues. Now, according to Daesh all that is suppose to be conquered and turned into a global blood bath.

Communists decide their governance of their sovereignty all the time. Each communist country does that in different paradigms. China prefers five year plans and those plans work for China.  It is time for democracies in the world to decide where their vulnerabilities exist and where human rights turns into a nightmare. The definition of sovereignty demands that examination by the governments of such vulnerability to citizens that exist like sitting ducks to such a charismatic movement.

I remind, Daesh governs by NUMBERS of people willing to kill for al Baghdadi. If Baghdadi is successful and every democracy is turned into a paradise for him to exploit, the communists won't have a chance either. Nukes anyone?

I apologize I am feeling a little under the weather this evening.

So, I am taking Benadryl and sleep. I'll leave you with Kenny G. and the Chinese peace movement. Kenny G. can be such a show off with his sustained note.

Really, now. I don't know if the Chinese Peace Movement needs near anoxia as a requirement.

Oh, don't know about the Chinese Peace Movement in the South China Sea? Ask John Oliver. He has all the details.

Good night, until tomorrow.

I don't believe the right wing propaganda should be left to information without scrutiny by other political interests, including the Progressives.

When these discussions are excluded from dialogues of Progressives, Democrats or Liberals it adds to the idea these are very important to the defeat of the established Democratic Party. It is wrong to leave these poisons in our country's dialogue.

As the nation’s chief diplomat, (click here) Hillary Clinton was responsible for ascertaining whether information in her possession was classified and acknowledged that “negligent handling” of that information could jeopardize national security, according to a copy of an agreement she signed upon taking the job.
A day after assuming office as secretary of state, Clinton signed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement that laid out criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure” of classified information.
Experts have guessed that Clinton signed such an agreement, but a copy of her specific contract, obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through an open records request and shared with the Washington Free Beacon, reveals for the first time the exact language of the NDA....

Already the right wing political media is stating these documents are fool proof evidence of crimes committed by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. That is a lie and the only reason it is in the Republican rhetoric is because it LEADS a believable deception.

The only assault against the private server of the then Secretary Hillary Clinton were ATTEMPTS by Russian hackers (click here) to gain entry. Evidently, the FBI is somewhat impressed by the Secretary's private server as hackers did not make it into information. There is nothing forthcoming about actual damage to the country's national security.

That stated, if there were hackers successful'; it isn't as though the government hasn't experienced hackers as well. Additionally, we have witnessed whistle blowers come forward to report to the people they aren't safe from the intrusions of their government.

The non-disclosure agreement states there can be no negligence. There was none. The Secretary successfully handled private emails on her server. There is no solid legal infraction when laypersons say, "But, everything she did and everything she said is confidential." That is sniping and it is testing the waters for ANY evidence of acceptance to the political vapors of the electorate. That is completely hideous. If that was the case there would be no press conferences or daily briefings. The State Department has daily briefings as well.

Now, when someone finally comes forward with litigable evidence I might even be interested in reading rather than having the lies permeate the low information voters of the right wing extremists. Such dialogue only proves the tabloid media has more success than establishment media.

Is there something wrong with featuring a strange set of lights over Area 51 when in fact there were strange lights over Area 51? I don't ever remember a documentary featuring complete transparency to Area 51.

Allow me to remind the media, regardless of main stream or not, we have some very interesting people running for office on both sides of the aisle. As of January 20, 2017 we will have our Executive Branch replaced with the winner of the elections from the year before. I think everyone needs to pay attention.

The USA is a democracy where people with the ambition and talents to be President are encouraged to run for office. The American people want a real hero. They want someone they TRUST. They want their government back. That is the basis of the choice in 2016.

The American people need plenty of good information and not rhetoric or lies that pander to their gullibility. They need the truth leading to real facts. I would hope all the media values their freedom and safety in the USA. I would expect that freedom and safety equates to a truth telling media rather than a 'gotcha media.' We need to hear what competency sounds like, not what the media believes is best for their venue. If the media can sell a candidate like "W" that turns out to be a nightmare that won't go over well with the country.

I mean, let's face it, the American media oversaw the election of "W." It doesn't get worse than that.

President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is proving itself in astonishing ways.

There were plenty of opportunities for the USA to go to war with Russia and/or China. It never happened although anticipated. Ukraine and the Pacific Islands are just two examples. Now. Russia feels perfectly comfortable in asking for USA expertise to help answer difficult questions regarding the death of so many of it's citizens.

Today we have jet pilots talking to each other over Syria. This is unprecedented cooperation between countries that have called each other enemies for so very, very long. I hope this trend continues and the world becomes a safer place for all countries and nuclear military capacity disappears off the face of Earth.

November 7, 2015
Micheal S. Schmidt and David D. Kirkpatrick
 

Washington — The F.B.I. (click here) has agreed to help the Russian government with its investigation into the deadly crash of a Russian charter plane in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, senior American officials said on Saturday.

Some American officials said that the Russians want help doing a forensic analysis to determine what brought down the Airbus A321-200, while other officials said that the request from the Russians was more general. Although most of the debris is scattered over nearly eight square miles in the desert, some parts of the plane were taken to Russia for analysis....

Stop the racism. It is possibly trickling down to character diminishment with the gun in police hands.

If Ben Carson were elected to the Presidency of the USA he would face the same racism President Obama faced during his presidency and not necessarily his campaign. President Obama during his run for the nomination didn't have a racial headwinds in the way he did nationally to the White House and beyond. When President Obama was running for the nomination everyone wondered if his race would hurt his electability. But, when he entered the national race he was dogged by the same racism now being witnessed with Ben Carson in his nomination run. NO ONE BELIEVES HIM.

President Obama upon entering office had to provide his long form birth certificate because he was not believed. Even today, there are people that believe when he leaves office it will be easier to find out the truth about him.

When Ben Carson states he was offered a scholarship he is naively stating scholarship rather than a nomination. West Point does not have scholarships, the academy has a nomination process (click here) to CHOOSE men and women for their placement into West Point.

Ben Carson needs to be verified when he makes statements, but, when the verification proves he is telling the truth or is correct that is where the questioning ends.

Telling the truth is vital to the USA's political process. It is vital to the USA's justice process. When a person running for office can be portrayed as a liar no matter the FACTS and truth telling it serves to diminish his judged character. That is racism. 

President Obama and the Democratic Party have suffered diminished capacity because of the chronic racism of character diminishment for the entire time President Obama has been and is in office. It is racism. The political right wing, including the Congress have used the tool of character diminishment as a method to cripple the USA politically and it works well for the one percent and the 0.1 percent.  

These campaigns of hate are carried in media sources and the more money spent to spread the lies the better it works. Media like FOX thrive on character diminishment and chronically steer the country in the absolute wrong direction. Voters are eager to point out the country is on the wrong track but they never assign it to "White Lies" of the USA media, otherwise known as propaganda.

If media sources didn't reward the hatred and racism it would not exist.

Character diminishment is racism/hatred and it is litigable.

BELIEF SYSTEMS can change with the winds and serve the political stage. The truth is the only way to guarantee a substantial character of the President of the USA.