Is there a difference between prostituion by choice and sex traffiking?

Amnesty International believes there is a difference from sex trafficking and a woman's right to prostitution by choice. Internationally prostitution is a method women use to earn a living and even providing an income that supports her family. Many countries don't seek to stop prostitution as a profession. I am sure that will be a reality any candidate for office will have to face. Do the laws and policies of the USA inhibit prostitution while providing a vital path to women who can be self-supporting when provided with training in a new economy?

July 31, 2015
Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Sex workers around the world (click here) aren't taking lightly to a celebrity campaign against decriminalizing prostitution. Hundreds of sex workers, academics, social workers, and human-rights organizations have signed a letter in support of Amnesty International's position that "consensual sexual conduct between adults ... is entitled to protection from state interference."

Amnesty's position has earned the ire of dozens of activist groups, feminist icons like Gloria Steinhem and Eve Ensler, and Hollywood stars including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathway, Carey Mulligan, Lena Dunham, and Phoebe Cates. On July 22, they released a letter calling Amnesty's Draft Policy on Sex Work "deeply disturbing" and equating the decriminalizaiton of prostitution with "gender apartheid." 

In response, the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) drafted its own letter to Amnesty. "We are aware that Amnesty International will be pressured to back down from this position, but we urge you to show courage and tenacity and to adopt this policy," it states. "Sex workers worldwide are organizing and advocating, often in very precarious and dangerous contexts, for the decriminalization of sex work. Having Amnesty International take this position would make a significant contribution to promoting sex workers’ human rights and protecting them from discrimination and violence."...

The USA is a prime location for sex trafficking. Men pay well here for sex. When will women across the world be valued to the point where their countries can value women as a wage earner and not a sex commodity.

July 31, 2015

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — After just an hour of deliberation, (click here) the verdict is in for a White Bear Lake man accused of sex trafficking crimes.
A Ramsey County jury found Michael Mark Jordan, 43, guilty on two counts of engaging in prostitution with a minor Friday afternoon. Each conviction carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
According to the Ramsey County Attorney’s office, Jordan purchased sex from a 17-year-old girl on a number of occasions between December 2012 and July 2013. In April of this year, Jordan was arrested and charged with another man — 54-year-old Steven Robert Kjelstad. Kjelstad pled guilty in June and will be sentenced on August 28....

I can't but think the loss of former Secretary Clinton in the US State Department caused increases in prostitution internationally resulting in this policy from Amnesty International.

Sometimes it takes a woman to garner respect for all women. Just that simple.

These are gun statistics from 2013. Gun control works.

Kaiser study reflecting te above statistics.  (click here)

Florida has some of the most liberal gun laws in the country due to ALEC. (click here) Liberal gun laws kill.

What good are economic driven laws if one can't live through them. Cronies are more important to Bush's economy. Bush frequently invokes god in his dialogues. He doesn't recognize the separation of church and state. He recognizes deaths that are sympathetic such as those in South Carolina without demanding reform to end such violence in the USA. God never stated dying before one's time was the ideal society.

Hooked on high profits, Wall Street is pleading for another Bush run to the Executive Branch.

Thirty cents a share from earnings of over $40 billion and the stockholders don't view this as a reasonable return on investment. That is nonsense. Chevron is doing just fine on an oil glut economy, but, the CEOs are screaming for more.

August 1, 2015
By Tom DeChristopher  

Chevron posted net income of 30 cents a share (click here) on revenue of $40.36 billion, compared with analyst estimates of per-sharing earnings of $1.16 on $30.91 billion in revenue. 
The company maintained its quarterly dividend at $1.07 per share in the second quarter, returning $2 billion to shareholders. Chevron hasn't raised its dividend since Q2 2014 and kept investors guessing as to whether it would do so later this year. 
Asked on the company's conference call whether Chevron would raise the dividend by the fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer Patricia Yarrington said, "We don't want to get out over our skis. We want to do it in a manner and at a time that we can do it in perpetuity.... We'll do it at a time that the financials allow us to get there." 
Chevron said maintaining a strong dividend was its No. 1 priority and the company was committed to covering the dividend from free cash flow in 2017, and not just at the previously stated oil price of $70.... 

These are the folks that want to re-elect another Bush. The folks that know no end to the growth of the 1% and the 0.1%. This only takes money out of the hands of the American people and extends the timeline in the ability to develop wealth. 

And what was that about election law violations so Bush could raise more money for his super-pacs? 

In question after a prepared speech Bush hatred of Obamacare.

Bush had nothing constructive to say. He advocated an economy that would result in four percent growth by re-perfusion of the old Bush economy. The old Bush economy never solved any minority problems before, why would revisiting it perform differently.

..."I don't think you can credibly (click here) say that everyone has a right to rise and then say you're for phasing out Medicare or repealing Obamacare," Clinton said. "People can't rise if they can't afford health care. They can't rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on. They can't rise if their governor makes it hard for them to get a college education and you cannot seriously talk about the right to rise and support laws that deny the right to vote."

Clinton also lamented the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland and ticked off statistics on African-Americans receiving disproportionately longer sentences than whites. Blacks are also three times more likely to be denied a mortgage loan than people who are white, she said.

"Race still plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind," Clinton said. "And yes, while that's partly a legacy of discrimination that stretches back to the start of our nation, it is also because of discrimination that is still ongoing."...

As a matter of fact, the old Bush economy caused a profound loss of African American wealth in the USA.

But, to the questions of Bush after a prepared speech revealed sincere hatred of Obamacare. Bush stated, "Obamacare is using young people as a way to pay for healthcare insurance for older citizens like himself." That is an amazing statement. Bush assumes young Americans do not need health care. 

My children were covered under my health care insurance until they finished their college careers and had jobs of their own. One of the vital aspects of Obamacare is that is allows parents to claim their young people on their health care insurance until they are no longer a dependent due to college aspirations.

Many 20 somethings with a family can be eligible for Medicare. But, the need for health care by this American generation is more important than any other generation.

 July 14, 2015

...Many will get Medicaid coverage at virtually no cost. (click here) Others will qualify for private insurance at a fraction of the full premiums. And health plans offered under the law will limit individuals' out-of-pocket expenses to about $6,250 per year or less — a bulwark against gigantic, unexpected medical bills.

"It doesn't have to be cancer or a heart attack or even a bad car accident," said Karen Pollitz, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation whose own son needed $15,000 worth of surgery after he broke his wrist while skateboarding at age 20. "Once you show up in the ER (emergency room), it starts to cost you some money."

The plans also will cover at no charge preventive care such as HIV tests, screening for depression or alcoholism, flu shots, hepatitis vaccine, contraception and pregnancy care. And insurers will no longer be able to exclude or charge extra for people who already have health problems....

Twenty somethings are only beginning careers after college, without health care insurance they could lose a valuable early foothold to the promise of the middle class. Bankruptcy is the one reason that validates the need for all Americans to have healthcare insurance. This generation is no different. They have an advantage other generations never had, the right to pay reasonable costs for health insurance and health care.

There are still disadvantages to this generation of Americans in the cost of higher education and necessary loans. But, having health care is still an advantage to this generation of Americans. The US Congress needs to carry out a law for these Americans that address the unreasonable costs of college and the lasting damage to the American economy over daunting debt.

Congress has no right to state educational funding is an option and not a necessity to entrance to the middle class. The American people have witnessed the impoverishment of the country's former middle class. The American people have witnessed the loss of a good paying job to the high school graduate. Today, good jobs start at a Master's degree if one is lucky. There is much need for change in the USA that bring good paying jobs, period. 

The answer of reinfusing the Republican jobs paradigm is wayward at best. That paradigm has failed the American people time and again. It also provided rising costs of higher education and the demise of the public school system. There are many reasons to continue the education systems and economy that developed in local governments since 2008. The burgeoning trade agreements is a direct assault on the American middle class and local economies will remain intact and strong regardless of the foreign assault in these trade agreements.

You'll never hear "Repeal of trade agreements" by any Bush. But, the idea a four percent growth of the American economy can occur in a new world going forward is outrageous. Bush is seeing four percent growth with a return of the petroleum industry and expanding any opportunity for Wall Street wealth trough attacks on small business in local economies.

During his years as Florida's governor he trashed Affirmative Action and instilled his own brand of discrimination in a program entitled "One Florida." It delivered more enrollments to public universities and more tuition funding, but, it ends there except for small minority businesses. That would mean Florida graduates were stranded at the end of their education unless they had enough solvency to start a new small business.


December 13, 2009 
By Shannon Colavecchio
 
...The increasing diversity of Florida's 11 public universities (click here) has been fueled mostly by Hispanic enrollment — from 13.8 percent to 18 percent of total enrollment statewide — which reflects in part the changing demographics of the Sunshine State. 

Black enrollment offers a mixed picture: a statewide dip, from 14 percent to 13.6 percent, with increases at some universities and decreases at others. For example, the University of South Florida in Tampa went from 9.2 percent to 11.5 percent black enrollment while Florida International University in Miami dropped from 14.6 percent to 12.4 percent.... 

And the Florida Chamber of Commerce sounded a warning about falling opportunity in venture capital in Florida. So where all all those graduates going to begin a career that will result in upward movement in a middle class?

April 29, 2013
 
...Venture capital is often required (click here) for companies launching new technologies or starting unique business models. Recent data published by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Money Tree indicates that venture capital funds declined to approximately $11 million in the first quarter of 2013, a 35% decrease when compared to the first quarter of 2012. At the national level, venture capital declined only 6%. While recent data indicate a lack of venture capital funding for start-ups and expanding firms, it is important to note that particular industries did experience increases in venture capital funding. At the national level, the software, networking and equipment, and computer and peripherals industries all experienced an increase in venture capital funding of at least 30%....

So, while One Florida appears to have helped minorities into college, their aftermath on graduation is still reflecting those issues of the entire country. This American generation remains removed from the economic growth of the country because of educational debt. The educational debt continues to haunt young Americans and truncates their ability to enter the middle class in a meaningful way that would continue their upward movement into accumulating wealth.

Corruption with a capital J.

July 31, 2015
By Michelle Conlin and Grant Smith 

The first report (click here) of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s Super PAC, made public Friday, reveals for the first time, election lawyers say, just how much the group, Right to Rise, functioned as a kind of shadow campaign for Bush.f
The group shelled out $5.4 million from January through June for all the workaday line items, from travel to catering to political consulting, that have traditionally been paid for by candidates' campaign committees....

From January through June Bush refused to declare himself a candidate for the presidential elections of 2016. Running for office is not an entitlement when fund raising proves to violate election laws. ,

...The Super PAC's filing also reveals the gilded roster of Bush's top donors, a formidable collection of some of the world's most powerful and influential billionaires and GOP grandees, such as Coral Gables resident and private equity king Miguel Fernandez, who, with $3 million, was Bush's top donor.... 

It is amazing to realize how such violation of election laws are simply disregarded as a necessity to a run for President of the United States of America. There should be no tolerance of such violations. If donors were facing real prison time they would think twice before carrying out their strategies. Today the donors get a slap on the wrist, if that.

Such millionaire donors can afford any punishment that might arise as a result of their unlawful actions. Fines, if carried out at all, are not a strong enough deterrent. When donors break the law there should be a prohibition to any further federal funding for their businesses as well. Corruption should never receive any type of federal funding.

 San Franciscans William Oberndorf and Helen Schwab each gave about $1.5 million and 20 other people gave at least $1 million apiece....

Both Israel and Palestinian authorities need to maintain peace.

This is what happens when there is violence toward Palestinians. Yesterday Prime Minister Netanyahu stated the death of an 18 month old Palestinian child was caused by militant settlers. He stated he would do everything possible to find those that acted in violence. It was a relief to hear Israel taking the loss of life in Palestine seriously and was acting to bring justice.

This Palestinian youth is guilty of acting against Israel while the search is continuing. Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas need to continue to impress the importance of peace and an emphasis on non-violent justice. This death was unnecessary and the people of Palestine have to believe justice will be brought for the loss of life caused by radical settlers. 

The rule of law has to be respected. Conflicts that grow out of such an incidence have to be avoided. 

Sorry to hear there have been additional deaths, but, they could have been avoided. They should have been avoided. Retaliatory violence has a long history of driving greater conflict between Israel and Palestine and should never be encouraged or tolerated.

August 1, 2015

A Palestinian youth died (click here) on Saturday at a West Bank hospital following a clash with Israeli troops near Ramallah, Palestinian hospital officials said.
The confrontation was one of three in a matter of hours in which Palestinians died from Israeli-Palestinian violence on one of the most tense days in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in recent months.
Israeli soldiers fired at the Palestinian after he threw a fire-bomb at them, the military said.
Earlier on Friday, an 18-month-old Palestinian boy was killed in a house fire in the West Bank village of Duma near Nablus that was set by suspected Jewish assailants. His parents and a sibling are in critical condition in Israeli hospitals, officials said....

The toddler's family is not doing well at this point. The reason the tensions escalate that lead to more deaths is because Palestinians are afraid of dying at the hand of these Israeli extremists. It is difficult to stand by without acting after such heinous attacks are carried out against Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority has a vital role in enforcing peace as a method to justice. 

August 1, 2015
 The family of a Palestinian (click here) infant burned to death in a West Bank arson attack continued to cling to life Saturday afternoon as tensions sparked by the murder continued in the West Bank.8-

18 month-old Ali Saad Daobasa was killed Friday morning in an arson attack that has been attributed to extremist Jews and was labeled as "Jewish terror" by Israeli officials. During the incident, his father Sa'ad, mother Reham, and 4-year-old brother Ahmed all suffered serious to critical burn wounds.

According to the Israeli hospitals administering care to the Palestinian family, all three are still facing life threatening wounds. The mother, Reham, is suffering from third-degree burns on 90 percent of her body and is on life support at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer's intensive care unit.... 

An agreement between Palestine and Israel would result in an understanding there are fixed borders that cannot be dissolved by violence and radical ideas on either side of an border. Israel and Palestine should be placing peace talks and a final resolution high on their list to dissolve hate and intolerance. I believe lack of a vital agreement fuels this type of violence.

There is no one that is going to tolerate this level of violence against Palestinians. I am sure those words are meaningless as Palestinians grow more fearful with each such violent episode.