On the domestic side:

Evidently Donald Trump is bringing up some personal problems the Clintons have a history with as a significant problem for the future of the USA.

It seems as though the media is stuck in the 'talking Trump' mode for days on end now, so I figured I'd give it some thought. I said some thought. Believe me this Trump dilemma is far less a problem for me than the media. You will find on this blog at the beginning of the day serious issues that are far more perplexing than Bill and Hillary's future personal problems.

To begin with Vince Foster is a very sad situation. He was a close friend to the Clintons and he went to Washington, DC with them. I sincerely believe the scandal of "White Water" was instrumental in his self inflicted death. The Clinton White House was immediately entrenched with all sorts of mess at the beginning of their first term leading the USA. There was "Travel gate" which has nothing to do with TSA. 

But, I read about the tragic loss of Vince Foster and I sincerely believe he was overwhelmed by the reality of Washington, DC blood sport. I hope his family is settled today after this death so long ago. But, I don't blame the Clintons for this unfortunate death.

There is the sex scandal that lead to impeachment. If Bill finds himself compromised with a woman other than his wife, he should do his level best to realize what he has in the bed next to him in Hillary Clinton.

That said, if Hillary starts defaming women she may feel Bill is involved with, it will take up time that belongs to the country. She needs to prioritize her time to balance dealing with personal issues outside the business of the country.

Now as far as Bill being an embarrassment to her since he won't be baking cookies with his time as "First Gentlemen," I'd think of it as President Carter regarded his brother Billy. Billy made Billy's Beer and it made him appear somewhat useful to the country. Chin up, Hill.

And as far as Donald Trump being preoccupied with the POTENTIAL of the Clinton's personal problems being a burden to the country, I suggest he read some of the entries on my blog for some grounding in real concern.

The battle fronts in Iraq today are to bring back homes that are safe from execution and violence in general from Daesh. The refugee crisis is ridiculous and they need a place to come home to where they will not be threatened with their lives everyday.

I know there are human rights groups concerned these battles will cost civilians their lives. No more than the USA invasion did or the heinous lives taken by Daesh. 

Land is an issue in the middle east. The battles for the land have to go forward. The real problem is holding the land after the battle is won. It was a problem for the USA on a regular basis, but, if Iraq's government and holy men can maintain loyalty of the people and bring back refugees there will be a real chance at ending the grip of Daesh.

...and moving right along....

May 24, 2016
By USA TODAY Sports

The Super Bowl (click here) is headed back to the Los Angeles area.

NFL owners voted Tuesday to award the city Super Bowl LV in 2021, which returns the event to the country's second-largest urban region for the first time since 1993.

Atlanta was awarded Super Bowl LIII in 2019, and South Florida will host the Super Bowl LIV in 2020. The Falcons plan to open a new stadium in 2017, while the Dolphins have $450 million in stadium renovations planned. 

"A lot of work went into this. It was a nine-year project," Falcons president Rich McKay said after the vote. "One of the reasons you build stadiums is to continue to get the big events."

Said Dolphins owner Stephen Ross: "The only thing that can be better is when we're playing the game and winning it."

In Tuesday's vote, New Orleans lost out to Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII, and Tampa fell short against South Florida for Super Bowl LIV....

Are we not in control of our USA economy? Yes, we are, ohhhh, yes we are!

Crashes is how Wall Street makes their money. There is always a bail out. Wall Street with the exception of stalwarts like Berkshire Hathaway, always is riding THE BUBBLE.

"W"s White House saw one of the longest Bull Runs in history. It started under Reagan and deregulation. It slumped under "H.W." simply because he really believed in trickle down economics. Reagan didn't believe in trickle down, he was a carpetbagger that open every possible aspect of the USA government to deregulation. H.W. had no real economic plan other than the rhetoric.

Reagan even demoralized the unions for profit. He was a carpetbagger from the day he took office. He didn't care how or why he was going to turn profits for Wall Street. That would translate well if everyone garnered a well being from it, but, that isn't how it works. Wall Street rides the deregulation bubble and then moves on taking all the residual monies to be found when the bubble bursts.

Clinton came along after H.W. and put people to work in the service industry by building good relations with other countries and promoting tourism. There was also record numbers entrepreneurs that sprang up in the USA under Clinton. Those same entrepreneurs disappeared under "W." Small businesses no matter what Republicans say are competition for Wall Street. It is that reason alone local economies have to be prepared to fend off the aggression of any trade agreement.

"W" dissolved the Clinton surplus and then launched into wars that are still 'on the take' of the USA treasury.

When Hillary Clinton states Donald Trump was rooting for a deep collapse, she is most probably correct. Donald Trump is in real estate. While the collapse impacted his casinos and hotels he could have easily acquired properties he normally could not. Starting in 2007, the real estate market, especially commercial real estate was significantly falling in price. Donald Trump is not a diplomatic wonder. I find it very believable he would openly say he had hoped for a deeper recession and probably a depression never seen in the USA before. It is unfortunate for him President Obama was elected. President Obama turned the continuing "Great Recession" into a jobs market, instead of worthless real estate for anyone who wanted it.

Case in point regarding the growth of small and medium businesses under President Obama. I know what you are thinking, "Ah, come on, Obama wasn't all that and this is some kind of statics of some obscure partisan organization."

Nope.


January 22, 2015
By Jane Callen

In his State of the Union address, (click here) President Obama said that “21st century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas.  Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages…”
Following on the President’s remarks, we thought it would be valuable to take a quick “data snapshot” of the most recent annual report on exporting companies published by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2014 report shows that small-and-medium-sized companies continue to contribute a larger share of our exports than in the past. As the below graph shows, in 2013 (the most recent year for which we have data), these companies accounted for approximately 35 percent of total goods export value -- continuing a steady growth trend of the past decade....


AND

If there are still skeptics in the face of valid facts, read it for yourself.

"Trade Up" White Paper; 2014 Summary - State of SME Finance in the USA (click here)

I guess wait times are under attack as political leverage.

Washington, DC - JULY 22: Robert McDonald, (click here) President Obama's nominee to be the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, holds up a copy of the Veterans Affairs 'Strategic Plan Framework' while testifying before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee July 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. McDonald, if confirmed, would lead the recently scandal plagued Department of Veterans Affairs.

Secretary McDonald doesn't appreciate the difference of apples and oranges. I am sure the wait times at Disney, especially during the summer, is considerable. But, that is comparing apples and oranges. The apple and apple comparison is how much better is the general healthcare system doing compared to the Veteran's Administration?

Neither apples are doing well. The really interesting part of this article is it was written in 2014 before Obamacare rolled out. In this article, the wait time leader was Massachusetts. It already had a law requiring everyone have healthcare insurance. At the time this article was written comparing Massachusetts to the rest of the USA is another apples and oranges instance.

July 5, 2014
By Elisabeth Rosenthal

One small consolation of our high-priced health care system — our $2.7 trillion collective medical bill — has been the notion that at least we get medical attention quickly....

...Merritt Hawkins, (click here) a physician staffing firm, found long waits last year when it polled five types of doctors’ offices about several types of nonemergency appointments including heart checkups, visits for knee pain and routine gynecologic exams. The waits varied greatly by market and specialty. For example, patients waited an average of 29 days nationally to see a dermatologist for a skin exam, 66 days to have a physical in Boston and 32 days for a heart evaluation by a cardiologist in Washington....

The increased wait time at the VA is because it has INCREASED capacity for more patient care. Caring for 7 million more veterans ANNUALLY is no minor accomplishment. The only way of decreasing wait times across the spectrum of health care in the USA is to graduate more doctors and health care providers as well as build more infrastructure.

Infrastructure projects are completely opposed by Republicans. What are ya going to do?

Privatizing the VA is not the answer. The civilian system isn't much better and is no indication of success over what the VA is already doing. The VA prescription program alone is worth stating it out performs any commercial insurance. Secretary McDonald should be speaking to the vast improvements at the VA and it's anticipated improvements with sincerely needed infrastructure.

June 22, 2015
By Katie Pavich

...The number of veterans seeking health care (click here) but ending up on waiting lists of one month or more is 50 percent higher now than it was a year ago when a scandal over false records and long wait times wracked the Department of Veterans Affairs, The New York Times reported.
The VA also faces a budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion, the Times reported in a story posted online ahead of its Sunday editions. The agency is considering furloughs, hiring freezes and other significant moves to reduce the gap, the newspaper reported.
In the last year, the VA has increased capacity by more than 7 million patient visits per year, double what officials originally thought they needed to fix shortcomings, the Times reported. However, the newspaper added, department officials did not anticipate just how much physician workloads and demand from veterans would continue to soar. At some major veterans hospitals, demand was up by one-fifth, the paper reported....

This article first appeared in the New York Times. The horror of life in the USA has become the business of the international community.

This is from the Irish Times. If one follows where compassion exists globally, it is Ireland's people that uphold life at every turn.

The extremism the USA is experiencing in their politics as reflected by it's government is now a spectacle to countries that once admired us.

Every St. Patrick's day the USA and Ireland celebrate the occassion with the US President accepting a bouquet of clover representing the luck brought to people in finding a four leaf clover. These young children didn't have that kind of luck. The American people cannot rely on luck to protect the lives of it's people. The American people need sound law and regulations to protect people and hopefully regain it's respect internationally.

May 6, 2016
By Jack Healy, Julia
Bosman, Alan Binder and
Julie Yurkewitz


Zai Deshields, 4, at her home in Stone Mountain, Ga., this week. Last week she pulled a handgun out of a backpack at her grandmother’s home in Arlington, Tex., and shot her uncle in the leg

Sha’Quille Kornegay, (click here) two years old, was buried in a pink coffin, her favourite doll by her side and a tiara strategically placed to hide the self-inflicted gunshot wound to her forehead.

She had been napping in bed with her father, Courtenay Block, late last month when she discovered the 9mm handgun he often kept under his pillow in his Kansas City, Missouri, home. It was equipped with a laser sight that lit up like the red lights on her cousins’ sneakers. Block told police he woke to see Sha’Quille by his bed, bleeding and crying, the gun at her feet. A bullet had pierced her skull.

In a country with more than 30,000 annual gun deaths, the smallest fingers on the trigger belong to children like Sha’Quille. During a single week in April, four toddlers – Holston, Kiyan, Za’veon and Sha’Quille – shot and killed themselves, and a mother driving through Milwaukee was killed after her two-year-old apparently picked up a gun that had slid out from under the driver’s seat. It was a brutal stretch, even by the standards of researchers who track these shootings....

...Gun control advocates say these deaths illustrate lethal gaps in gun safety laws. Some states require locked storage of guns or trigger locks to be sold with handguns. Others leave safety decisions largely to gun owners. Twenty-seven states have laws that hold adults responsible for letting children have unsupervised access to guns, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, though experts say such measures have, at best, a small effect on reducing gun deaths....

The article goes on to talk about the safety of gun ownership. Massachusetts is the only state in the USA that requires guns be kept under lock and key. This is not even background checks, this is good ways to protect human life and it is considered an imposition on gun rights.

April 27, 2016
By Sarah Larimer

A 26-year-old Milwaukee woman (click here) was shot Tuesday morning as she drove down a Wisconsin highway. The person who pulled the trigger in the fatal shooting of Patrice Price, authorities believe, was Price’s toddler, who found a firearm in the car.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday identified Price as the victim in the incident. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a news release.
“According to witness accounts, Price’s 2 ½-year-old child was in the back seat, retrieved a firearm that slid out from under the driver’s seat and shot through the seat, striking the driver,” the release stated. “The driver’s mother and one-year-old child were in the front passenger seat.”
Price’s father, Andre Price, told WISN, an ABC affiliate, that his daughter was dating a security guard and was driving that man’s car when the shooting occurred....

Impeachment of the IRS Commissioner is a political stunt by the Republicans.

Rep. Darrell Issa is not an attorney. He is prosecuting the case.

Rep. John Conyers is an attorney and he is stating there has to be an investigation of Rep. Jason Chavetz's numerable subpoenas. 

Chavetz does not have a case. Automatically the Congressional oversight process has been used to overwhelm the IRS with subpoenas. There are over 500 subpoenas that Chavetz is citing as the reason for the impeachment. That is ridiculous. 

The IRS Commissioner has work to do today, which might be completing the audit of Donald Trump and could not be at the hearing today. It is impossible to answer over 500 subpoenas and continue to FUNCTION as a leader in the department. This charge for impeachment is nonsense. Chavetz has demanded a large number of subpoenas be answered while the US House has cut the budget to the IRS. The charges are baseless because it is impossible to carry out all responsibilities of the office of Commissioner while trying to balance answers to over 500 subpoenas. 

Rep. Jason Chavetz needs to be investigated for at the very least unethical practices of gaming the system to achieve a political act.

There has been 160 thousand man hours and  $20 million US spent on the investigation of the IRS by the FBI on behalf of US House. At the conclusion of the House investigation it was decided the IRS did not destroy documents or misdirect their activities. There were no crimes committed.

It is abuse of power by Chavetz and quite frankly the waste of the FBI's time and House monies might be his downfall in any reelection. By successfully impeaching the IRS Commissioner; it would act to save his standing for re-election. Chavetz is corrupt.

Is there any aspect of the government that operates with some sufficiency? 

Government Oversight and Reform (click here)

Fathers and daughters. This was written on Facebook by James Beasley of Carolina Beach.

"7 years ago was one of the most conflicting days of my life. I walked my daughter down the isle. With each step she seemed to get younger and younger. By the time we were at the end of the walk, all I could see is that little 3 yr old who would crawl up in my lap to watch tv with me. I could hear her little voice saying I LOVE YOU DADDY. I didnt want to let go. I wanted to take her and hide her away. Then as I looked at the man who was to be her husband, I saw in his eyes that he loved her almost as much as I do. For the first time ever, I saw a woman where my babygirl had been. 7years later. I still havent really let go, I just loosened the grip."

Vietnam is doing just fine without the TPP. There is nothing new or exciting about a relationship between Vietnam and the USA, it happened with Japan post WWII.

May 23, 2016
By John Kerry, John McCain and Bob Kerry

...This wider agenda (click here) reflects changes to the relationship that are well underway. Twenty years ago, there were fewer than 60,000 American visitors annually to Vietnam. Today, there are nearly half a million. Twenty years ago, our bilateral trade in goods with Vietnam was only $450 million. Today, it is 100 times that. Twenty years ago, there were fewer than 1,000 Vietnamese students in the United States. Today, there are nearly 19,000.

Nearly half a century ago, when we were serving in Vietnam, we would never have imagined that our country would one day work with the government in Hanoi to help save the Mekong River Delta by helping create an initiative to manage its ecosystem and cope with the effects of climate change. We could never have imagined that our two countries would be partners in a landmark trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is intended to raise labor and environmental standards while expanding prosperity in our country and all along the Pacific Rim.

Those jobs belong to Americans. It is just that time during a political year in the USA those in the administration and Congress have to bow to Wall Street for those big money donors.

It would have been even harder to imagine that the United States and Vietnam would be cooperating on security issues. And yet the United States has helped establish a new training center for People’s Army of Vietnam on the outskirts of Hanoi, where young Vietnamese soldiers will prepare for service in United Nations-sponsored peacekeeping missions....

I can imagine plenty, like holding those that put the USA in southeast Asia because of the Domino theory should be held accountable! The same goes for Iraq.

The 58,220 dead Americans from the Vietnam War could even reach higher today because of those still missing.

From China Daily:

May 24, 2016

US President Barack Obama (R) and his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang review the guard of honour during welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam May 23, 2016.

Still yet another agreement to cloud the path of any American entity from assaulting the TPP. It has to be stopped before it gets started.

Hanoi - Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang (click here) and visiting US President Barack Obama on Monday adopted a joint statement on advancing bilateral comprehensive partnership.

During talks held after welcoming ceremony, Quang affirmed that Vietnam attaches great importance and desires for stable, extensive and effective development of Vietnam-US relations, reported Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA.

Obama, for his part, said he will urge the US congress to adopt the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as well as pledge to support Vietnam through robust technical assistance and capacity-building programs to effectively implement and meet the high standards of the TPP....

The current GDP per capita for Vietnam is $1910.51 and is comparable to other countries in the region, including the Philippines with a per capita GDP of $2,765.08 annually. The Philippines has had a long standing relationship with the USA, the people never improved their quality of life. Wall Street goes into countries to make lots and lots of money. Wall Street is not interested in sharing and the people of these countries never see improvement of quality of life.

The people of Vietnam will never benefit from the TPP!

Hanoi and other cities, towns and villages can become sister cities with a city, town or village in the USA. In that way the American people can be sure the quality of life is improved for the Vietnamese people in the trading parameters of local economies. Local economies can work no matter the country.

Pick a country, find a city and come to a real agreement to establish trade relationship that benefit and are benevolent to both people.

An explosion of an aircraft does not define terrorism alone. (click here). American Airlines 587, which was an Airbus A 300-600 is proof of that. The very problem that brought the jet down had nothing to do with the explosion. The explosion happened because the jet was disabled and disintegrated in air. The rudder was the reason for the loss of the jet.

May 24, 2016
By Charlene Gubash

Cairo - Human remains recovered following the crash of EgyptAir Flight 604 suggest there was an explosion on board, a senior Egyptian official reportedly said Tuesday....

The reason the jet crashed won't be known for years. Quite possibly eleven years.