Life without parole. No death penalty because the jury was not unanimous on sentence.

August 26, 2015

The mother (click here) of Colorado theatre shooter James Holmes gave an impromptu public apology Wednesday, telling a judge during his sentencing hearing that her son feels remorse but his mental illness and medications made it hard for him to express it.
Arlene Holmes took the stand after more than 100 victims and survivors of the 2012 attack testified about the searing physical and emotional scars the shooting has left.
"We cannot feel the depths of your pain. We can only listen. ... And we pray for you," she said through tears. "We are very sorry this tragedy happened and sorry everyone has suffered so much."
Standing at a lectern with her husband, Robert, by her side, she told Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. that she has been researching mental illness and ways to prevent mass violence.
"I am not proud I didn't know more about mental illness. We should have known our family history better and realised that the signs of mental illness can appear at a very early age," said Holmes, who previously testified that she didn't know her son suffered schizophrenia until after he killed 12 people and injured scores more in the attack....

...Marriages ended. Friendships shattered. Toni Billapando, who was shot and whose friend, Alex Sullivan, was killed, wondered about the effects of the shooting on her son, now 3. He was born just two weeks after the attack, as Billapando was recovering from her wounds. She was married at the time. Now, she's divorced.
"Imagine telling your child that monsters are real and not to be afraid of the dark when you're scared of the dark yourself," said another survivor, Stephanie Davies, who also has an 8-month-old son. She went to the theatre with her best friend, cradling her when she was shot. Now, the two no longer speak. "It was easier to heal ourselves in our own messed-up ways," Davies said in a statement read aloud by a prosecutor.
- AP

Univision

Making a bad decision after another bad decision is not the way to effect an election.

Univision's attack today on a Trump meeting was a really bad decision.

I'll tell you where this is going. "Univision" is trying to influence the election by throwing it's weight around. Somehow standing in a room where other press was sitting and refusing to sit down while rambling adverse comments is not making friends. People are going to see a media outlet that backs illegal immigration. They aren't going to see the much needed immigration reform in the USA, they are going to see people that give permission and encourage illegal immigration.

The entire focus of immigration reform is headed in the direction of criminal content. FOX News regularly now carries reports of murders caused by illegal immigrants. The next image people will see is Univision attacking a presidential candidate.

Attacking Donald Trump is not going to succeed. That is what Univision has to realize. Univision wants immigration reform as does the majority of Americans. Attacking Donald Trump is not going to bring about immigration reform and will begin to turn Americans away from those we want as US residents. Currently, other than the young people born in the USA, immigration reform will never include citizenship. That isn't because I said so, but, because Republicans are terrified of Hispanic voters.

Univision has a lot of work to do and attacking presidential candidates isn't going to get them what they want. FACT. It hasn't worked yet. What makes anyone think it will work in the future? 

Univision needs to put forward the NEED for immigration reform and the injustice of postponing it. Get people to listen to the valid reasons for immigration reform and why postponing it is adverse to the USA. WIN over the people and WIN the election that will pass immigration reform.

July 16, 2015
By Antonia Blumberg

..."This humanitarian emergency (click here) requires, as a first urgent measure, these children be welcomed and protected. These measures, however, will not be sufficient, unless they are accompanied by policies that inform people about the dangers of such a journey and, above all, that promote development in their countries of origin."...

Those are words by Pope Francis. He would never encourage a policy that would break up families and put people in danger of any kind.

"Alpha Males"

Wow, I didn't know the Republican primary is a real dog fight.

Donald Trump went from having a personality disorder to be one of many Alpha Males. 

Amazing. 

An alpha male has certain unmistakable characteristics. A natural leader, he is a pack-builder. He leads, provides for and protects his pack (his significant other, his buddies, his teammates, and so on).

The reason the attack by Megyn Kelly is more important than Donald Trump's reply is because it was egregious. The 'pack' at FOX would love for the fact Kelly attacked Donald Trump to be overshadowed by screams of sexism, which Donald Trump denies.

One more time now, Megyn Kelly had INTENT. She specifically asked if anyone would run as an independent if denied the Republican nomination. There was only one person on that stage able and willing to carry out an election as an independent candidate. THE INTENT of the question was to cause national polls to turn against Donald Trump. That's a debate, huh? That isn't what I call it. I call it interfering with free and open elections in the USA.

I and many, many other Americans are tired of the interference by American media with elections.

Alpha Males. What are the women called Alpha Bitches?  

Why were the trend in Wall Street so volatile on Monday? 

Because it was Monday.

Brokers had the weekend to plot their course. That is why Monday was a real roller coaster ride. The brokers are isolating China. So, while they were at it the soft stocks with sincere problems were abandoned as well.

August 25, 2015
By Samuel Shen and Nathaniel Taplin

Chinese stocks tumbled again (click here) on Tuesday, despite a rebound in markets elsewhere in Asia, as investors despaired at the lack of policy action from Beijing in response to recent data suggesting the downturn in the world's second-largest economy is deepening.
Major Chinese stock indexes nosedived more than 7 percent, hitting their lowest levels since December, following their more than 8 percent plunge on Monday that sent shockwaves through global financial markets. [MKTS/GLOB]
China, one of the main engines of the world economy, has overtaken Greece at the top of the worry list of global investors, who fret its economy is growing at a much slower pace than the official 7 percent target for 2015....

China does not have a history of bailing out poor performance companies, they litigate it and level criminal charges, prison time and/or death sentences.

The hurricanes of 2005 are extinct.

By Barbara Hollingsworth
August 24, 2015

(CNSNews.com) – As of today, (click here) it has been a record 118 months since the last major hurricane struck the continental United States, according to records kept by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Hurricane Research Division, which list all hurricanes to strike the U.S. mainland going back to 1851.

A major hurricane is Category 3 or higher hurrucine. The last one to strike the continental U.S. was Hurricane Wilma, which made landfall in Florida on Oct. 24, 2005.

President Obama is the first president in 122 years, since Benjamin Harrison was in office, who has not seen a major hurricane strike the U.S. during his time in office. In a statement on its website, NOAA expressed concern that Americans might suffer from “hurricane amnesia.”

The second longest stretch between major hurricanes hitting the continenatla U.S. was the eight years between 1860 and 1869, NOAA records show.
“It has been 10 years since Hurricanes Katrina (Aug. 29), Rita (Sept. 23/24) and Wilma (Oct. 24) made landfall along the Gulf Coast during one of the most active hurricane seasons in recorded history,” NOAA said in a statement marking the 10-year anniversary of the 2005 hurricane season....

FOX News doesn't want Trump for a candidate. Just that simple and there will be ill feelings for a long time to come.

I have to comment on all the excitement over the Trump-Kelly perpetual conflict. It is not going away. 

I don't know exactly when it happened, but people got the idea that a simple apology was necessary to settle any disagreement. In other words, the parties have decided to disagree but all social niceties will be resolved for the sake of function. It is rather strange when one reflects on the idea people smile and get on with the day while under the surface mutual distrust exists. 

Donald Trump is not going to apologize and the family feud will continue within plain site of those interested. Donald Trump made up his mind about Megan Kelly the night he was assaulted. There isn't going back because niceties have to reign supreme. 

I find it interesting to hear how the so called necessary apology has become political fodder. There won't be any apology, the facts are what they are. And from time to time the issue will present itself because IT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

He was attacked and Roger Ailes is defending that attack in what is very bad relations between FOX News and Donald Trump. Quite frankly, I am rather pleased someone is standing up to FOX. The first question in the first Republican debate was intended to disgrace Donald Trump as anything other than a true Republican. The attack was specifically to defame and disgrace and embarrass along with any other descriptor that Donald Trump was not a loyal Republican because in his judgement he is not being treated fairly.

That question proves FOX News is not a media organization interested in FAIR AND BALANCED, but, indeed is a propaganda network that uses it's media power to control the politics practiced within it's reach. It has been widely known FOX is a power broker and not a media organization. It is about time someone took them on.

Does every moment in life have to be calculated for a specific media moment?

The video below is a window to the 'terror' FOX News journalists live within to carry out the proper message to control any outcome. It is ridiculous. Standing in line to greet the President and First Lady turned into a nightmare. It's ridiculous. Did Megyn Kelly accept the invitation to garner a gossip point about the Obamas? 

Donald Trump was attacked with the first question of the first Republican debate for a very specific reason to move national polling against him. That is control, it is not journalism. Donald Trump knows he was attacked and called FOX on it. Megyn Kelly happened to be the chosen messenger. She could have thought differently as a professional and posed a question to all the candidates, but, she didn't. She carried the message Roger Ailes would approve of. Donald Trump has every reason to continue to confront this very public attack and not forgive Megyn Kelly for carrying it out. There isn't going to be a happy family between Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly.  

This is the real world and not FOX World. In the real world there are consequences for attacks on a person. Welcome to the real world.

The rent it too damn high. Mayor Deblassio needs to explore the possibility of rent control.

Here again capitalism and greed has produced a dysfunctional paradigm that have forced good people to the street. The days of Ronald Reagan resulted in the exact same paradigm of power and greed.

What is the minimum wage in NYC? See, the more expensive the cost of living goes through the roof, the more homeless that will exist.

$8.75 per hour minimum wage will not result in the homeless taking up an apartment or otherwise with escalating rent. There is usually a good reason for an increase in homelessness. It is usually based in greed.

Greed has to be curtailed otherwise the homeless population will become demoralized to the point where looking for a job is for others and not the individual that can't seem to succeed. Homelessness provides an oppression of people that then become permanently homeless. 

The USA is suppose to be about the people, not corporations. This is what occurs when corporations actually have more power than the people. Mayor de Blasio needs to govern NYC as an example to good governance and return dignity to the homeless and function to the city. Rent control and programs to bring people back to the work place is definitely needed in New York City. The day women with painted bodies can actually make more money at a job with dignity is the day NYC can state it is a functional.

July 8, 2015
By John Podhertz

If you’ve been out (click here) and about in Manhattan over the past six weeks and you have eyes and ears, you know something’s happening — something worrisome.
The urban streetscape is ­degrading.
Take a walk down Broadway on the Upper West Side from the 100s to the 70s, as I did Sunday, and you’ll see it everywhere. It seems every barren storefront with a rental sign in the window has ­become impromptu outdoor housing for a homeless person.
There are many such storefronts — ironic signs of prosperity, not recession. Rents have risen so high that small businesses often can’t afford to continue and landlords will keep a storefront unoccupied for a very long time to secure a wealthy customer willing to take a very lengthy lease (i.e., a bank).
The number of people living on the street in the neighborhood, or at least taking up daytime residence to beg for change, has skyrocketed from a mere handful to several dozen or more....

Members currently to the TPP is Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The countries in red italics are also members of the Trans-Pacific Parternship (TPP) and Asian Infrastructure Infrastructure Bank. The losses these countries experience from their investment into the AIIB will impact the USA economy. That is also true for the countries in the TIIP and AIIB such as Great Britain. 

The impact of China on the global economy is not clearly defined. It would be a gross error to embark on trading partnerships that are unkowns to their future growth or failure including the countries of NATO. The USA needs to avoid expose to burgeoning bank failures. The global economy needs stability not further speculations.

The TPP and AIIB are not good treaties, especially now. The treaties are built out of faux expectations. 

China's approach to it's economics based in regional dynamics is wrong. China is creating an infrastructure based in duplicity or worse. Rather than creating a cohesive and strong infrastructure it is creating competitive states/provinces with their own identical infrastructure. It is too much investment in infrastructure. It isn't needed.

Infrastructure should be build out of NEED and not simply because it seems like a good idea. Infrastructure is the last investment to an economic outcome. The MARKET is built first. That means China has to have people with good paying jobs and a strong economy. Just building infrastructure doesn't create a market for goods. The economy has to exist first and then infrastructure is built to accommodate growth.  

A growth economy is built from a central place outward. Let's say Beijing has a strong economy for baby formula. That means profits are easy to come by quarter after quarter. When there is enough profits in the Baby Formula Company's treasury it can develop a plan to expand into the neighboring province. 

The Baby Formula Company approaches the Beijing Bank and obtains a loan that can be serviced out of current revenues. The Baby Formula Company then builds a satellite in a neighboring province. That satellite begins marketing of it's product within the neighboring province and finds a strong market for that product. 

The satellite investment then begins to add profits to the main company and stock prices go up. The Baby Formula Company then has a strong reputation for it's product. 

The expansion beyond the primary Baby Formula Company plant and it's satellite can then take place because the product is a good product, parents are happy because market research proves that. Then new satellites can be built and services to the good people throughout China can prove growth in jobs and profits. At that point if the Chinese Baby Formula Company has a superior product compared with those on the global market place, the banks of China may finance a global approach to supply this Chinese product on a worldwide basis. 

Economies grow because there is DEMAND of a good product.  

China has not managed it's growth, it simplly let it happen..

Capitalism in China is not a pretty picture. Turning toward a "new China" was to simplistic. I am curious about the new China Infrastructure Bank though. President Obama had warned against the investment by Great Britain.

August 25, 2015

..."The Northeast (click here) still thinks of itself as the big brother, because they were the first to get rich after the new China was founded. They are sitting on their glories and not advancing with time. Their mindset is still the old planned economy stuff. They don't see that small businesses can do big things."
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to write China's economy off, or to conclude that the Northeast has no hope of recovery.

Shenyang Machine Tool Group (SYMG) company chairman Xiyou Guan talks enthusiastically about joining the next global revolution in smart machines. SYMG rose from being the 36th largest machine tool company in the world in 2002 to the largest in 2011.

Times are much tougher now - revenues have since dropped sharply and the company is projecting a net loss in the first half of this year, while it has fallen back to third place globally. Nevertheless, Guan, who is also a senior Communist Party official, remains upbeat - about his company and for the region as a whole.

"In my opinion, the fact that we are in an economic downturn is not a bad thing: when something old dies, something new will be born," he said, turning to his colleagues to cite a line from Russian writer Maxim Gorky. "'Let the tempest come strike harder!' - because this will give birth to new things much faster."...

Another failed Chinese bank. How many does that make? Three or four, right?

August 18, 2015
By Cathy Kit Ching Chan

Don’t be surprised (click here) to see a few empty corner offices at global investment banks in Asia these days.
Tougher regulation and the rise of Chinese competitors have reduced the initial public offerings and other large China deals being won by U.S. and European banks, a business which yielded $7 billion in fees last year and has supported a legion of well-heeled bankers in Hong Kong.
As the business has changed, the investment banks are increasingly willing to leave top executive roles vacant and dispense with the services of so-called relationship bankers, who brought in lucrative deals by dint of their extensive networks with China’s corporate titans. At the same time, stricter rules have made the roles less appealing for ambitious bankers.
 “The regulatory environment is more rigid and each firm is going through a strategic adjustment in different ways, so senior people have become less eager to work at the investment banks” in Asia, said David Chin, 47, who stepped down as UBS Group AG’s Hong Kong (click here)-based head of Asian investment-banking in June.
Chin spent 21 years at UBS and worked on deals such as the $4 billion Hong Kong share sale of China Minsheng Banking Corp. in 2009 and the $11.2 billion IPO of Bank of China Ltd. in 2006. He plans to take up a position as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University in the U.K. in September.
UBS hasn’t announced a replacement for China....

Goldman Sachs invested heavily in China after 2008. They lost a years growth yesterday.

Goldman has never fully recovered to it's pre-2008 highs. Quantitative Easing was a give away to Wall Street that in turn dumped it into China. Wall Street had too much money and acted like a kid in a candy shop. The privatization of China wasn't about real growth, it was about over investment. QE 1 through 3 did nothing but provided liquid assets to throw in a black hole while keeping fingers crossed behind investor's back to China's outcome.

THE BANKS ARE TOO BIG.  The US Congress needs to hold hearings as soon as possible. Wall Street is headed for more than an adjustment. Adjustments correct projections of income to stockholders, this isn't an adjustment, this is a failure. 

China's leadership created a vision of growth based in capitalism based in a dreamscape. The leaders believed the dream presented by Wall Street investors who created the Chinese oligarchy. The monies put into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) simply was swallowed up in attempts to create stability. The investors into the AIIB have lost the money they put into it and now have to ride the tide of time in hope to regain those monies. The investors lost their entire investment as soon as it was deposited. Rather than living with failed banks the Chinese simply built another one and put out a prospectus on dreams and not reality. 

Currently, Wall Street is attempting to come home to mommy. Seriously. They are unwinding from speculative investing during the QE Era.  

June 29, 2015
By Duncan Hewitt
 
SHANGHAI -- Representatives from 57 countries (click here) have attended a signing ceremony in Beijing for the founding of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The institution, designed to promote regional development, has been seen as a significant foreign policy success for China, which proposed the idea. It has also become something of an embarrassment for the U.S., which announced early on that it would not be joining, only to discover that many of its allies had no such qualms.
Australia was the first country to sign the agreement at a ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. The other 49 countries that signed up -- seven others are still waiting for approval from their domestic legislatures -- included Germany, the U.K. and South Korea.
China has said the bank, which will be based in Beijing and is expected to start work by the end of this year, will play a major role in speeding up development, in a region where some $8 trillion in investment is expected to be required in the next five years alone. It is seen as providing an alternative to U.S.-dominated institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, which some in Asia consider slow to respond to the needs of the region -- and as imposing too many conditions on development....

The investors are gambling the region of China will be capable of exceeding an investment of $8 Trillion. You've got to be joking.