The "More Balls than Brains" Donald Trump lost his shirt on the sale of his estate.

Master brander Donald Trump(click title to entry - thank you) has sold his custom estate in Rancho Palos Verdes for $7.15 million.

Located at Trump National Golf Course, which he owns and operates, the 11,000-square-foot Mediterranean mansion features a game room with a bar that is a replica of the one at the course restaurant.

The five-bedroom, nine-bathroom home, built in 2010, has a great-room entry, a 1,000-square-foot kitchen, marble flooring and wall-to-ceiling sliding doors that disappear from view. A wine room is enclosed behind glass, and off the master bedroom are a patio and fire pit. An infinity pool sits in the courtyard....


...He listed the manse last year at $12 million....


I would like to return to reading "The American Jobs Act" tomorrow.

The St. Louis Cardinals had an incredible season. They believed when no one else did.

A TEAM FOR THE AGES: How these Wild Cards fought back (ciick title to entry - thank you)

The St. Louis Cardinals have won World Series with speed. They've won with power. They've won it with pitching, defense and mastermind managers.

Until now, however, the Cardinals had never won a World Series with a team like this. A team that was lost, left behind and stranded in the standings.  A team that fought back like no other has in franchise history....

A consumer can't purchase a new appliance on unemployment benefits....

The American Jobs Act and its partial bill were defeated in the Senate due to a filibuster requirement by the Republicans.  I know this is probably getting old, but, the Republicans are destroying this economy; for everyday the recovery is stalled the longer the recovery will take as the contraction becomes greater.  

The CEO of Whirlpool is stating their overseas market was lackluster and contributing to missed projections he estimated.  Really?  How is it a quarter of missed stock prices is suddenly a reality that results in plant closings?  Perhaps the CEO is more worried about his future job prospects with unhappy stockholders?

The longer it takes for the Senate Republicans to give up their filibuster obstructionism the longer the contraction of the economy will go on.  Whirlpool lost 'market share' because of a jobless recovery.  It will continue to loss market share with more and more unemployed even by its own hand.  The more joblessness that exists, the more market share corporations will lose.  Can't have one without the other.

Recession-Level Demand (click title to entry - thank you)

Demand for major appliances in the U.S., Whirlpool's largest market, has fallen back to the "recessionary levels" of 2009, Fettig said. Whirlpool's shipments in North America may drop as much as 5 percent this year, down from an original forecast of as much as a 2 percent gain, the company said....

Ohio Firefighters for Freedom

...More than 250 firefighters (click title to entry - thank you) and working families rallied for an early vote  in Mansfield, Ohio, to defeat Issue 2. Voting “NO” on Issue 2 would repeal S.B. 5, passed earlier this year, that gutted collective bargaining rights for public employees. Working families gathered at the historic Mansfield Fire Museum, which celebrates firefighter history, heritage and the first responders that keep the community safe.  Immediately following the rally, a caravan of a dozen jeeps carried 85 firefighters to the Richland County Board of Elections where they cast their vote against Issue 2/S.B. 5....

Taxi Drivers have dangerous work, I am glad the AFL-CIO is now an ally.

Justin Molito from WGAE, Bhairavi Desai, president of the National Taxi Workers Alliance, and Boston University professor David Weil take part in the Future of Work panel.

...Joining Desai (click title to entry - thank you) were Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Justin Molito, director of organizing for the Writers Guild of America, East; and Bill Cruice, founding executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, NNU. The panel was rounded out by economist David Weil, a professor at Boston University, who discussed how changing business models affected the exercise of employee rights. Before the program began, dozens of exuberant taxi workers, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ”Justice, Rights, Respect, Dignity” crowded around Solis, Trumka and  Desai. Trumka said the taxi workers are:

an inspiring example of how working people are organizing even in the face of employment relations that have eroded all of our rights....

Mark Block and his checkered past. Another Mavericky Person. THAT 'hard to pin down Palin pesona.'

Mark Block (click title to entry - thank you)  is the State Director of the Wisconsin Chapter of Americans for Prosperity.
Mark has been involved in the political arena for over 30 years having served as the campaign manager for former Governor Tommy Thompson, George H.W. Bush, Supreme Court Justices Janine Geske and Jon Wilcox. In addition he has managed over six statewide campaigns for State Superintendent for Public Education, initiative referendums, along with numerous congressional races.
He began his political career having been elected as the first 18 year old in Wisconsin in 1974 as a Winnebago County Board Supervisor and legislative assistant to the late Congressman Bill Stieger.
Mr. Block’s private sector experience includes 12 years as the Midwest director of NCR Corporation, and founder of Telecommunications Group, LLC and GeoMarketing, Inc....

Meet Mark Block, (click here, from the Boston Globe) Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party leader who's left a trail of questionable campaign work behind him.

Block has been accused of voter suppression and was banned from running Wisconsin political campaigns for three years to settle accusations he coordinated a judge's re-election campaign with a special interest group.

Records show Block has faced foreclosure on his home, a tax warrant by the Internal Revenue Service and a lawsuit for an unpaid bill. He also acknowledges he was arrested twice for drunken driving.

On the presidential trail, some former Cain staffers say Block broke promises. Traditional GOP strategists have been scratching their heads at his renegade tactics to win the White House, all but ignoring some early states in favor of a book tour and swings through states without early primaries.

Those who know Block say he's long been a maverick who isn't afraid to reset boundaries....

President Obama has every right, that was not privilege, but RIGHT to sign Executive Orders when the country is in turmoil.

The USA Congress has proven beyond a reasonable doubt it is in absolute deadlock that focuses on Republican Ideology.  Even the Super-Committee, composed of the finest the House and Senate has to offer is in complete deadlock over Republican ideology.


This country needs taxes raised on those most able to pay, by public testimony of those that would fall into that category including the President and First Lady themselves.


The country is in a free fall, some might call it a slippery slope, to the fate of an entire generation of Americans in a Stock Market with a jobless recovery and no notice end to it.


President Obama is OBLIGATED to carry out the business of the nation for what is its best interest in recovery to economic well being.  If signing Executive Orders will bring about relief and employment for the Middle Class and Poor then he is required to move in their best interest.  Americans should not be dying in the back allies or the country side to please a "W"rongful and "W"illful Republican ideology that seeks to turn the tables on democracy and victimize permanently the poor and working class of this nation.


The President must act in an emergency and if he has to do it alone, then so be it.  The USA is in an economic emergency, is a nation at war and has an entire generation of Americans without a future or an American Dream to hang on to.  This is not the USA, this is a stalemated ideological divide that is destroying freedom and prosperity in this country.

President Obama is getting some traction on Broadband.

There is a recent study that shows 22% of new jobs are linked to increased internet usage.  Broadband is a hot topic.  The internet is a big deal in Red States, especially if that means connecting rural areas to consumers.

In regard to the Jackson Murder trial....

...is the lack of discussion of the IV Pump controller that SHOULD have been in operation at the time the propofol was administered.


It is difficult to understand how an overdose could happen if there was a IV Pump controller in use.  The Pump controller could deliver a lethal dose if the setting was wrong, but, if this was the sleep inducer of choice it should have had an defined amount known to be programmed into the electronics of the machine.


Odd, unless there was a malfunction, which happens on a rare occasion.  They need to be serviced from time to time, so the most minor of malfunction usually results in the pumps being removed from patient care areas to maintenance.

For those puzzled about Herman Cain's strange ads featuring violence and adverse health conditions...

...one has to remember of whom one is seeking to solicit for votes.  These are the guys where men are men and women are delicate flowers.  These are the guys with the American Flag on the back of their pick up trucks.  After all they don't like to be known as bigots or racists, they want the country to know they are just as open minded as everyone else, they just needed to find the right Black Man, that's all.  It's not that they don't believe the President was born in the country, they simply understand the 'right of power' to make up stuff more than they do.  There ain't no such thing as adverse health effects to smoking cigarettes, it is just body chemistry 'gone wrong,' that's all.  Why should people be denied the right to make a living just because its goin' ta kill 'em?

Rick Snyder announces that proposals President Obama has put forth are good ideas. Without mentioning the President's name, of course.

He also didn't propose revenue increases on the wealthy to do it, but, instead on 'The little guy.'  Sounds like a Republican to me.

Published: Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 4:18 p.m. MDT

Snyder: Motorists need to invest more in roads

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Gov. Rick Snyder called Wednesday for motorists to pay higher taxes and fees as he introduced radical changes in the way roads are built, paid for and overseen.

Speaking to scores of road advocates at Lawrence Technological University, Snyder said he wants to distribute road funds based on road use and traffic. Currently 39 percent of state and federal road funds go to the state, while 39 percent go to county road commissions and 22 percent to cities and villages. He said that formula should be changed over the next seven years so that road funds are spent where they'll do the most good....


Snyder's new assessment of 'where the money goes' is not so radical.  For decades city and county governments have prioritized based on 'high traffic areas.'  There isn't anything new about that.  How does Snyder think the nation's infrastructure got to be such a mess?  There are bridges falling apart for lack of attention and he is proposing to formalize the solution now.


To formalize the 'high traffic infrastructure' for state and federal dollars first will mean there will be less angry voters.  

A veteran survives a war to be wounded in battle at a peaceful rally. What?

"The Rolling Stone" (click title to entry - thank you) has this under "Politics."  It's politics to aim at a rally participant and cause brain injury?  Since when?


In Oakland, California protesting economic oppression of an entire generation of people can only occur between 6:00 AM and 10:00 PM?  Really?


...Over 1,000 (click here) Occupy Wall Street protesters returned to a public square late Wednesday in the western city Oakland, Calif., one day after clashes with police left one demonstrator critically injured.

Activists say 24-year-old Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen suffered a fractured skull late Tuesday when riot police clashed with protesters attempting to hold a demonstration in the square from which they had earlier been evicted due to illegal camping activities.

Police used tear gas and bean bag bullets to disperse the protesters, some of whom were throwing rocks, paint and other debris at police.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan on Wednesday announced an investigation into reports that his department used excessive force to disperse the protesters....

Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen with fractured skull after Oakland police enforce illegal camping law, October 25, 2011.


It would seem no matter where rally participants take their plea it is only tolerated long enough so as not to inconvenience the government.  Perhaps the government needs to understand now inconvenient the economic oppression of pandering to the wealthy and Wall Street sincerely is on a 24-7 basis.  The rally participants know that reality all too well.

WTF?!?! 2YR Chinese girl ruthlessly run over twice and pedestrians do no...

Evidently, a country with a policy to limit one child to a family has little compassion for the child. It seems as though when a country has a billion people there are plenty more where that one came from. In the reporting of another such incident, the argument was not about how the child was run over, but, whether or not the child was backed over again or even a second time. Evidently, running over children is a national past time so long as it doesn't happen twice.

CLIFFORD COONAN

CHINA WAS still reeling (click title to entry - thank you)  from the national outpouring of grief over the brutal killing by indifference of a two-year-old toddler in the south when another story of the horrific death of a child emerged from Sichuan province.

A cement truck had struck five- year-old Xiong Maoke, who attended the local kindergarten in Yunfeng in Luxian county, and the driver reportedly reversed over the body to kill the child, because compensation for a dead child is less than that for an injured one. The hospital bills are a lot less.

“How much shall I pay?” was the driver’s reported first comment.

Local officials now insist the story is not accurate. “An investigation found no evidence that the boy had been run over twice,” Li Zekun, head of the Luxian county traffic police team, told a news conference, in remarks carried by the China Daily newspaper....

Coats for Kids compliments of Local 223 (click title to entry - thank you)

Kids in Monroe, Mich., will be able to bundle up against the cold Michigan winter with new coats, thanks to Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 223 and DTE Energy. The workers and management at the Monroe Power Plant raised $1,600 to purchase coats that were then donated to the Salvation Army’s Coats for Kids program.

During the 11 years that the local union has taken part in the program, it has donated more than 1,000 coats, says Pete Burkit, co-chair of Community Action Committee.

In addition to collecting donations from the workers, including onsite Building  Trades workers, the committee works with local merchants to get a discount, “so we can stretch our dollars,” says Linda Schmidt, the other co-chair of  the committee.

Along with the new coats, 21 “gently used” were donated and then cleaned free of charge by a local dry cleaner.

Car Wash Workers Unite !

Oliverio Gomez, who has worked at Bonus Car Wash for nine years, says: "The contract includes a wage increase, health and safety protections, grievance and arbitration procedures and protections for workers if the carwash is sold. The agreement also establishes rights that protect workers from being unfairly punished or dismissed, among other things."

“As big as a football field” (click title to entry - thank you)

...In less than three months, the crew of over 100 Local 26 workers installed over 8,000 solar panels at FedEx Field, connected by over 19 miles of new wiring. Beyond the solar panels above the parking lot and affixed to the side of the stadium, more solar power is captured by the solar sculpture of a football player—affectionately dubbed “solar man” by the Local 26 crew—that can be seen outside one of the stadium’s main entrances. The solar panels create enough energy to meet all of the stadium’s power needs on non-game days, and about 20 percent of the stadium’s power during a game, keeping 1,780 metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere while keeping the lights shining bright on the Redskins. “This installation shows how, through innovation, creativity and expertise, we are working towards a more secure energy future,” said David Crane, CEO of NRG, which oversaw the design and installation of the solar project....

The violence and retaliation belong to Wall Street. #Occupy Wall Street is a non-violent movement.

'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters Debate How to Deal With $500,000 in Donations (click title to entry - thank you)

Published October 27, 2011

| The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK –  Once a rag-tag group that relied on donated pizzas for sustenance, the protesters camped out in a Lower Manhattan park are grappling with a new problem: how to manage and spend the nearly $500,000 they've raised in five weeks....

...Members of the group's finance committee are meeting with lawyers and accountants to get a handle on its spending and consider next steps, like whether Occupy Wall Street should incorporate and apply for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Such a move would require doing something that's so far been anathema to the protesters: naming leaders.

At the moment, Occupy Wall Street protesters say they don't have leaders. The only way big decisions can be made and money can be spent is if the General Assembly—a daily meeting at which everyone who shows up has equal standing—reaches a consensus....


Incorporating to form a non-profit corporation sounds right.  I wish them luck and the dream of employment for Main Street America again.  The most profound problem facing the Middle Class is actually being the Middle Class.  How the return of the Middle Class regains its foothold may be in the hands of groups such as "#Occupy."


At some point in time the General Assembly needs to elect Officers to the new non-profit.  It is required for incorporation and application for a 501(c)(3).  The General Assembly can still maintain control of the outcomes, but, officers need to be realized to carry out the business of the group.

CBO: Top 1% getting exponentially richer (click title to entry - thank you)

Protestors participate in an Occupy Oakland rally Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo)

October 25, 2011 9:57 PM

(CBS News)  The Occupy Wall Street movement has, for the most part, been formed around the idea that wealth distribution in America is unfair, and that the economic system is skewed to reward the already wealthy with the highest gains. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office appears to have confirmed that.


Specifically, it has confirmed that the rich really are getting richer.


Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1 percent of Americans with the highest incomes have seen their incomes grow by an average of 275 percent, according to the CBO study (PDF).


In comparison, the 60 percent of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their incomes increase by just 40 percent during the same time period, according to the study, which was based on a combination of IRS and Census data....

The span of time is interesting as well.  It is the same period of time that saw an aggressive assault against unions when Reagan attacked the unions.  The Worship of Wall Street began along with the abandonment of the Middle Class.  The CEOs found outsourcing and bonuses.  When anthropologicial dynamics are applied to these statistics a very interesting picture emerges.

This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis finds that, over the past three decades, the distribution of

income in the United States has become increasingly dispersed—in particular, the share of income accruing to higher-income households has increased, whereas the share accruing to other households has declined. Despite definitional and methodological differences, other analyses using data from tax returns or surveys have reached similar conclusions.....

The study only goes until 2007 which is the beginning of the Great Recession.  If the statistics were carried out throught today the disparity would be far greater.  The CBO did well to limit the study to 2007 as otherwise it would appear to be political rather than analytical.

Introduction (click here)

...The dispersion of household income rose almost continually throughout the nearly 30-year period spanning 1979 through 2007 except during the 1990–1991 and 2001 recessions. The recent turmoil in financial markets, the prolonged recession that began in December 2007, and the ongoing slow recovery may have caused a pause in that upward trend, but the present analysis does not extend beyond 2007....

Included in the measure of wealth by the CBO was health insurance.  The degree the measure of wealth was effected by health insurance was higher in the lower scale of income.  The employer sponsored health insurannce increased the wealth of the lower income which allowed for other discretionary spending.  The upper income had less impact by health insurance in increasing their wealth. So the equity in actual income is greater when that dynamic is removed.

...Using the CPS-based measures of health insurance, the authors found that the inclusion of that insurance raised average income by about 8 percent in the first half of that period and by more than 10 percent in the latter half of the period. The relative increases in income were larger in the lower part of the income distribution than in the higher part, so the inclusion of health insurance reduced measured income inequality....

The 'trend' as noted by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) can be noted in a global picture as well.  It is noticably a dynamic dictated by Wall Street CEOs.  There is absolutely no conceivable way these countries plotted against their own Middle and Lower Income.  Their economies are dominated by capitalism and Wall Street.  Hello?  This is a Wall Street trend, not that of a healthy economy based in 'the people' and economic development at the grassroots.

...A recent report covering the 30 developed countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concluded, “Overall, over the entire period from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, the dominant pattern is one of a fairly widespread increase in inequality (in two-thirds of all countries)...

The "anything goes" Hermaine Cain presidential campaign is breaking the law.

Their latest cigarette advertising carries no warnings regarding the danger of cigarette smoking. 


-CITE-
   
15 USC CHAPTER 36
CIGARETTE LABELING AND ADVERTISING     
01/07/2011
-STATUTE- (click here)      It is the policy of the Congress, and the purpose of this hapter, to establish a comprehensive Federal Program to deal with cigarette labeling and advertising with respect to any relationship between smoking and health, whereby - 

        (1) the public may be adequately informed about any adverse health effects of cigarette smoking by inclusion of warning notices on each package of cigarettes and in each advertisemen of cigarettes; and

        (2) commerce and the national economy may be (A) protected to the maximum extent consistent with this declared policy and (B) not impeded by diverse, nonuniform, and confusing cigarette labeling and advertising regulations with respect to any relationship between smoking and health.

Anyone watching the video knows full well what the ad is all about.  It shows a man engaged in discussing politics to the viewer with a 'glamour' shot when he takes a drag on a cancer stick.  There is absolutley no statement regarding the dangers of cigarettes and it is in a video, not print.  Their campaign is in violation of the law.  They did it to pander to the tobacco cronies left to actually pander to.

The ad should read "Balls."

It makes more sense for boys to be vaccinated, even more so than girls.

To left HPV virus.

msnbc.com news services
updated 55 minutes ago 2011-10-25T15:42:55
U.S. vaccine advisers Tuesday (click title to entry - thank you)The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, voted unanimously to recommend routine use of Gardasil in 11- and 12-year-old boys to fight the sexually transmitted virus, with 13 yes votes and one abstention.
Previously, the CDC has said doctors are free to use the vaccine in boys but it has stopped short of recommending routine vaccination. The committee's recommendation is subject to approval by the CDC.... 

Women contract HPV from men. It is not autonomously infected. So, it would be better if men were immune to the virus to insure there is no possiblity for a woman to even receive the virus.

The antibody titers, (click here) measured in ELISA units/ml, induced by Cervarix remain 13- and 12-fold higher than natural infection titers at 6.4 years for HPV-16 and -18, respectively, with over 98% of the women vaccinated maintaining initial seroconversion through 6.4 years. An increased memory B-cell response has been demonstrated in women 18–30 years of age who were seronegative and PCR negative for HPV-16/18 at the time of vaccination at 1 month after the three doses of Cervarix compared with the HPV-16/18 VLPs adjuvanted with aluminum alone....

Excessive titer levels are not necessarily better. There are concerns about Gardasil as far as I am concerned. It is a new vaccine with no long term history of female exposure to it. I am a bit disappointed in the 'quality control' after vaccine advocated by Merck. Any medication distributed after FDA approval inevitably shows up some 'outlier' statistics that were invisible in controlled studies. The reason is the larger group of people now receiving the vaccine. As the group receiving the vaccine increases so does the number of statistical events.

I strongly recommend all vaccine manufacturers regardless of their end user recommend measuring titer levels and report these levels to the CDC.  While high titer levels are considered a measure to the success of the vaccine, I also am concerned about levels too high and the potential long term effects.

In regard to Gardasil, Merck should be recommending abdominal ultrasounds for any receipient over the first twenty to thirty years of vaccine exposure to women.  It would add to the information base and could be deterimined to the effectiveness of the titer level to prohibiting cervical cancer. 

Those titer levels should apply to men and women or girls and boys.  It is not just data that is of concern, it is to monitor the effectiveness of the vaccine and the need for boosters no different than DPT.

While the human body spins out 'natural levels' of antibodies to any form of disease or virus, the truly effective level in males and females are not necessarily realized.  "In practice' can be differnt than 'in vitro' results.  This is the first time these viruses are being targeted and it is only prudent to continue to seek information regarding the populations of the vaccinated.  It is not only smart medicine, it is reassuring to all those receiving it.  The cost of the titers and ultrasounds are not that of Merck, but, simply a recommendation for physicians to follow.  I hope the CDC and Merck consider following receipents closely enough to realize 'the trends' of effectiveness of this vaccine.

Non-invasive pelvis ultrasounds show a great deal of cervical details.  I recommend pelvic ultrasounds to any woman in addition to a palpation exam.  It should be routine for at least one generation of Gardasil recipients.  Pelvic ultrasounds do absolutely no harm to women while showing the minorist of details in changes of ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, cervix and internal supporting tissue.