POVERTY IN AMERICA AND THE WORLD…..TIS THE SEASON!

POVERTY IN AMERICA AND THE WORLD…..TIS THE SEASON!

(Martin Ravallion, Aldi Hagenaars, Klaas de Vos)

(David Boyle, Alan Gillie, Adam Smith, Robert W. Greene)

(Courtney Mabeus, Frederick News-Post, The Nation, Bill Moyers)

(New York Times, Mark R. Rank, U.S. Census Bureau, Huffington Post)

(Greg Kaufmann, Deborah Weinstein, Dr. Mariana Chilton, Frazer Chronicle)

There are few topics in American society that have more myths and stereotypes surrounding them than poverty, misconceptions that distort both our political and domestic policy makers. Think about it for a minute, people in poverty seem to be woebegone folks, usually with a poor education, satisfied to lead the life that they are mired in…..and to many of us so called haves, these people are to be avoided like a plague.

There is a notion out there that poverty affects a relatively small number of Americans that the poor are impoverished for years at a time, that most of those in poverty live in inner cities that too much welfare assistance is provided and that poverty is ultimately a result of not working hard enough. Sadly, although pervasive, each assumption is dead wrong.

Today in America, contrary to popular belief, the percentage of the population that directly encounters poverty is exceedingly high. Research shows us that nearly 40% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 will experience at least a year below the official poverty line during that period, a little over $22 grand for a family of 4, and that 54% will spend a year in poverty or near poverty.

Even more astounding, if we add in related conditions like welfare use, near-poverty and unemployment, four out of five Americans will encounter one or more of these events. In addition, half of all American children will at some point during their childhood reside in a household that uses food stamps for a period of time.

CAUSES OF POVERTY IN AMERICA

The definition of poor primarily revolves around the purchasing power of an individual; it may not always be related to fulfillment of basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. In that context, one has to consider the purchasing power of an individual with respect to the average population.

Just as the definition of poverty changes with the condition of the economy, the causes of poverty also differ in that sense. While population explosion, lack of infrastructure, corruption, natural disasters, political instability, war, are some of the causes of poverty in third world, poverty in America can be on account of some other factors.

Shift in Business Economy; American economy has been greatly dependent upon manufacturing industries such as steel, textile, and automobiles. These industries presented a number of opportunities to the uneducated, but capable laborer. Most of the workforce in these areas consisted of African Americans; however, this scenario has undergone huge changes with the emergence of new economical sectors such as health care and information technology. As a result of this, the reliance of American economy on traditional manufacturing sector has been greatly reduced.

These sectors, now highly educated and trained professionals, which has caused a loss of business opportunities for the minimally educated workforce, leading to an increase in unemployment and poverty. The middle of the Midwest, or the rust belt virtually doesn’t exist anymore, and probably never will.

Lack of Education; I used to wonder about what value an education, a higher education really meant with regards to jobs that seemed to require experience as well as an education…..but not anymore, clearly there’s been a shift. As the economy continues an almost flat move, laborious jobs have diminished, leaving uneducated people to welter in poverty. As these people neither have the compulsory education nor the required skills, they have little or no prospects in gaining employment. This fact has led to an increase in poverty levels over the years.

Rise of Suburbs; Most American cities have sprawled to outskirts, leading to the creation of the modern suburbs. Suburbs offer better living conditions to people, and naturally many businesses have shifted their base of operation to these newly developed areas. People who live back in the core cities face a steep shortage of employment opportunities, which of course leads to poverty.

Breakdown of Family System; Increase in divorce rates means that there are more single parents, facing the challenge of raising a family on a single source of income. Women, especially, are more affected by this, a lack of education, unplanned pregnancies compound the problems of a single mother. As a result, they cannot find suitable employment to maintain their home life, causing the entire family to be dragged into poverty.

Limited Effects of Government Policies; A country of America’s stature should not have even minimal levels of poverty; the government has been involved in creating numerous welfare plans for the poor, with really little success. The war on poverty needs to be won here in America at all costs, and government should make it a top priority. While dealing with the problems of poverty, the emotional strain, as well as the physical issues that are caused needs to be understood, and dealt with.

While dealing with the issue of poverty, one cannot overlook the condition of minorities in America, and I’m not talking about the illegal immigrants…..(illegals should be shipped back to where they came from). The government needs to implement a holistic approach to curb poverty in our country.

MISSING IN ACTION: CONGRESS IGNORES AMERICAN POVERTY!

As poverty increases throughout almost all strata of life in America, lawmakers seem to be “missing in action,” there is little debate, and absolutely no action with regards to solving the problem. There has been only fleeting discussion among Washington lawmakers. Tucked into the budget proposal in February there was a proposal this year calling for a strategy to cut poverty in half in the next ten years.

Poverty and low paying jobs are a fact of life in the United States, a lack of meaningful education is prevalent in the lower middle class as well as the bottom part of our society. Health and a sustainable diet for all people needs to be dealt with, not in the next ten years, but now.

“Tis the season” is upon us, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, food pantries around the country will be taxed to serve the people that need these free food stuffs or meals. Toys, clothes and other similar items will be donated for those people that are less fortunate.

Volunteerism will be solicited for soup kitchens, food pantries, and in some cases, door to door campaigns to help the needy. All of this activity is a tremendous help…..however it’s not enough…..government, down both aisles needs to take action. Cutting these helpful programs that are already in place is not the answer that I’m talking about. Our government and our people need to look inside themselves…..and take the actions that their heart would have them do.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

A SEEDY PR0POSITION!

A SEEDY PR0POSITION!

(Ian Berry, John Davison, Scientific America, James Clive, World Health Organization)

(Regine Anderson, Barry A. Law, Charles Ophandt, John S. White, Asian Times)

(Russell McLendon, Ellen Brown, M.E. Johnson, Frazer Chronicle)

I’m a real fan when it comes to what I eat; I used to think that potato chips, Mountain Dew and Twinkies were the breakfast of champions. I thought those microwavable belly bomb grease ball burgers were manna from heaven. I knew that french fries were a food group to be washed down with a Budweiser or two.

Salad, fruits and I were never very close, it wasn’t that I dislike them, I just could think of other foods to eat that were more fun. Bacon, breakfast sausage smothered in hash browns topped with three (over easy) eggs and Texas toast to slop up what was left on my plate were all good for me…..little did I know.

Until I was 60 I never worried about what went into my mouth, I’d always been relatively active, had however always had a bit of a weight problem, but figured that my more or less active lifestyle would help to keep me in the pink.  

I was brought up on oatmeal, fried eggs, or pancakes for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich or two for lunch, and then would devour the big mean of the day, supper with meat and potatoes, apple pie with ice cream on top, and homemade bread with tons of butter…..(real butter) no oleo on the Frazer table.

My folks always gardened when we were kids living at home; all sorts of vegetables, some berries and our mother always canned fruit and some of the vegetables. To say the least, the Frazer family eat pretty damn good.

My mother came from a farming background, her brother, my uncle had well over a hundred milk cows and farmed a section of ground. My wife’s families owned a farm, always had a bountiful garden, and ate…..if it was possible, better than the Frazer’s.

So when I read or hear about genetically modified food, I immediately drop the word modified, and insert the word altered! Sure I understand that we live in a great big world with billions of hungry people that need to be fed, but as little as I paid attention to the subject, very few companies or organization were mentioned more than Monsanto, the World Health Organization, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

MONSANTO CORPORATION

Monsanto Company is big, really big, they weld much weight in political circles…..world-wide, they are a publicly traded American multinational chemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

Monsanto Company is a leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed and of the herbicide glyphosate which it markets under the Roundup brand.

Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John Queeny, and by the 1940’s was a major producer of plastics, including polystyrene and synthetic fibers. Notable achievements by the company and its scientists as a chemical company included breakthrough research on catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation and being the first company to mass-produce light emitting diodes (LED’s). In addition, Monsanto also manufactured controversial products such as the insecticide DDT, PCB’s, Agent Orange and recombinant bovine (growth hormone).

In 1983 Monsanto was among the first to genetically modify a plant cell, along with three academic teams, and was the first company world-wide to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops, which it did in 1987. Between 1997 and 2002 the company divested itself from most of its chemical business through a process of mergers and spin-offs that focused the company on biotechnology.

IT’S HOW THEY ROLL

Monsanto is notable around the world for its involvement in high profile lawsuits, as both plaintiff and defendant. It has been involved in a number of class action suits, where fines and damages have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, usually over health issues related to its products. Monsanto made frequent used the court system to defend its patents, particularly in the area of agricultural biotechnology, as have other companies in this field.

In the early 1990’s Monsanto faced dozens of lawsuits over the harm caused by PCB’s, and one Charleston, West Virginia attorney filed 70 cancer lawsuits for a chemical plant in suburban Nitro, West Virginia.

300,000 organic farmers have filed suit against Monsanto for allegedly contaminating seed that was manufactured by Monsanto. Many lawsuits have been brought by hundreds and thousands of disgruntled farmers for what they claim seed has done to their fields, their livestock, and the resistance that pesticide weed killers can cause in the fields.

Without exception the Monsanto Company uses a legion of attorneys, the legal system, and H.R. 933 an appropriations bill that President Obama signed into law in April. Here’s what Section 735 of H.R. 933 says:

“In the event that a determination of non-regulated status made pursuant to section 411 of the Plant Protection Act is or has been invalidated or vacated, the Secretary of Agriculture shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon request by a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately grant temporary permits or temporary deregulation in part, subject to necessary and appropriate condition consistent with section 4511 (a) or 412 (c) of the Plant Protection Act, which interim conditions shall authorize the movement, introduction contained cultivation, commercialization and other specifically enumerated activities and requirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimize potential adverse environmental effects, if any, relevant to the Secretary’s evaluation of the petition for non-regulated status, while ensuring  that growers or other users are able to move, plant, cultivate, introduce into commerce and carry out other authorized activities in a timely manner: Provided. That all such conditions shall be applicable only for the interim period necessary for the Secretary to complete any required analyses or consultation related to the petition for non-regulated status: Provides further, that nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting the Secretary’s authority under section411, 412 and 414 of the Plant Protection Act.”

Not only does Monsanto operate with impunity, there is a section of law that was written (above) that enables the company to navigate throughout the world unfettered, and left to their devises to alter seed that has been modified, and that they deem safe for human consumption.

I GUESS REPLACING WORDS IS OKAY

Guess I’m not too far out a tree limb when I replace the word modified with altered when I address the Monsanto Company and what they seem to be doing around the world on an every escalating speed. This is one industry where seed and pesticide are intricately tied together at the hip. Without weed control, without crop dusting, and without seed that will produce good annual harvests, people will go undernourished or will starve and die.

It is a balancing act that developing countries must identify and be aware of, as climate changes occur, agritech companies plan to introduce advanced crops that are designed to survive heat waves, drought, resilient qualities that will become increasingly important in a world marked by weather patterns.

Any issue that is discussed with regards to food supplies, seed cultivation and the pesticides to strengthen plants, and ride fields of weed infestation starts and ends with the Monsanto Corporation, It would seem to be another of those business concerns in the world today that are too big to fail! With more than 20,000 employees throughout the world, and a marketing strategy designed to take full advantage of evolving country’s short sightedness, at the present time, the industry is a self policing mostly out of control world-wide service.

It would seem…..at the present time that we have little say with our food stuffs, it’s impossible to fight patents, contamination of original seeds, and food safety laws that make it illegal to save your own seed without approval of the seed companies.

It would seem to me, as the danger to food born diseases continue to mount, government, or some other international organization needs to “step up to the plate” and monitor these agri companies that we have to put our faith in to bring us safe foods to eat.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA, A SNARLED MESS!

(The Waking Giant, Forbes, Mike Patton, Paul Hsieh)

(Associated Press, Green Bay Press Gazette, Washington Tribute)

(Carla K. Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, David G. Savage, Frazer Chronicle)

First you see it (kinda,) and then you don’t…..what in hell is a citizen supposed to think about this issue that we call the Obama Care or the Affordable Care Act? You got your religious zealots talking about abortion costs, birth control issues, like potentially the millions of women who can benefit from free birth control. Nothing in the United States, I repeat, “nothing in the United States is free.

Even though the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land you’ve got these religious do gooders asking, and getting their day in the courts…..to be accurate, the U.S. Supreme Court. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? I want to make one thing clear right now…..I don’t agree with abortion except in certain circumstances, but I will not force my opinion on others. If I gotta pay a smidgen for somebody else’s procedure, so be it, better to abort an unwanted conception then to bring it into the world to fend for itself from birth.

Now plastered all over the front pages of the newspapers that I daily read, more problems with the computer programs that have cost millions, and at best work…..once in a while. Who the hell put this software together, the Marx Brothers? Now the online portal for small business is off…..until November 2014. How can that be, does anybody know how simply horrible the continuous problems with web-sites, portals is?

No, you’ve got to cancel your insurance plan (even if you like it) and purchase a government issued plan, even if it costs more. No wait, you can keep your present plan…..if you like it, wait…. if you like your current plan you can keep it until after the 2014 mid-term elections. But wait…..(very few) like the rich and shameless have really ever had health insurance.

What most people consider health insurance is actually genuine insurance combined with inefficient pre-paid medical care. Hospitals, doctors and medical health clinics would go out of business if they dispensed an affordable preventatively health care service, they’d be out of business in six months. I’ve said it before…..and I’ll say it again, “hospitals, health clinics and doctors only see dollar signs whenever you walk, are carried in on a stretcher, limp in or are covered with blood on your arrival at your favorite health provider…..ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching!”

AN ARTIFACT FROM THE 1940’s

Actually the current system of employer-based health insurance is an artifact of federal tax rules from World War II. When the United States government imposed wartime wage and price controls, employers could no longer compete for workers during war time by offering higher salaries. Instead, they competed by offering more generous fringe benefits which included health care insurance. In 1943, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that employees did not have to pay taxes on health insurance paid for by employees, and in 1954 made this rule permanent.

This law permanently distorted the health insurance market in favor of employer-based plans. If an employer pays $100 for health insurance with pre-tax dollars, the employee enjoys the full benefit. However if the employer pays that $100 as salary, the worker will only be able to purchase between $50-70 of insurance after taxes. The law also created perverse incentives for insurers to shift as many services as possible into pre-tax plans.

Gradually insurance companies started covering not just major medical expenses but minor routine expenses such as immunizations and well baby checks. Over time, this tax disparity helped employer-based health insurance dominate the private insurance market. Hence most workers don’t own their own health insurance, like homeowners or automobile insurances.

Convoluted and extremely hard to understand, absolutely, it’s what health insurance has become in America today. Imagine being able to purchase only insurance that covered selected major illnesses and accident (and otherwise pay for routine health expenses with the money that you save from this type of insurance). For many people this would be an excellent combination…..yet you would be unable to purchase this plan because of legal mandates, insurance companies can’t sell this type of coverage.

ObamaCare did not create these problems, but doesn’t address any of these problems either. Eliminate the tax disparity between employer-provided health insurance and individual-purchased health insurance. Eliminate mandated benefits, allow insurers a free hand to offer willing consumers inexpensive policies covering only catastrophic accidents and illnesses, and allow insurers to sell their policies across state lines.

OBAMACARE-AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE ACT DOESN’T GO FAR ENOUGH

The Affordable Care Act can be a start…..almost anything is better then what we have now, however legislators need to act in concert to create insurance coverage that benefits the entire nation. What we have now is a hodge-podge conglomeration of laws, rules and regulations that benefits only the insurance companies.

According to ObamaCare, in the future, Americans will acquire their health insurance through one of three venues, (1) Government provided, (Medicaid, Medicare,) (2)  employer provided, and (3) health exchanges, and there is talk of several other ways that will become available for consumers.

The entire issue of affordable health care that can be assessed by every American needs to be dismantled, evaluated on a piece by piece basis…..with absolutely no politics involved in this process. For the president and his administration to continue to push back certain areas of his program only serves to confuse everybody.

And let’s all get one thing clear…..health insurance companies have little interest in offering consumers cheap plans…..they only make money from the premiums that they are paid, for the insurance plans offered. If I buy an insurance plan for say $200 a month with a $5000 deductable, and have a medical procedure for $100,000 dollars, my premium won’t come close to allowing the insurance company to break even…..unless I’ve paid my $200 premium for say…..ten years.

The Affordable Care Act has been nothing more than a bungled mess for everybody involved, citizens, government, and the insurance companies who are getting bombarded with all sorts of new issues that they’ll have to learn how to deal with.

In the end…..you and me will be the ones to suffer, a grand experiment might be so screwed up that it won’t work…..and we’d be left holding the bag. Almost everybody agrees that something needs to happen with how are health care system works…..or doesn’t work. Possible we should have appointed some sort of committee to sift through the maze of the system we now have in place. ObamaCare just might be one of the biggest jokes in recent memory.

HAVE A GOOD DAY!

U.S. MILITARY DEPLOYMENTS…..STAGGERING!

U.S. MILITARY DEPLOYMENTS…..STAGGERING!

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Tom Vanden Brook, Dave Alexander)

(Lynn E. Davis, Stacie L. Pettyjohn, Melanie W. Sissons, Stephan Worman)

(Reuters, Phil Stewart, Department of Defense, U.S. Deployment Map, Frazer Chronicle)

According to an article that appeared in today’s Green Bay Press Gazette (11-27-13), the United States is worried about keeping access to China and is fortifying existing military installations and looking to revive World War II-era air bases! It’s part of an effort for the United States to survive a Chinese missile attack that could wipe out critical military installations on Okinawa and elsewhere.  

For me…..I can’t figure this attitude out, I also have a problem with the two B-52 bombers that flew over an island in the East China Sea, that defying China’s declaration of a new airspace defense zone, raising the stakes in a territorial standoff. A speck of land surrounded by water, the Senkaku Islands an uninhabited chain of islands that are thousands of miles from the Pentagon and the United States War Department.

Except from 1945 to 1972, when the U.S. administrated the property, the island chain has been controlled by Japan. The People’s Republic of China has disputed a proposed U.S. handover of authority to Japan since 1971, and has asserted its claims to the islands since that time.

Does China really pose a threat to the United States…..well I guess so, because it seems as if the U.S. considers anybody with the gall to stand up to its wishes an instant enemy. Japan figures the islands in question to be Terra nullius, (Latin: land belongs to no one.) So it would appear that Japan doesn’t even want the disputed islands.

WHAT DOES THIS ACTIVITY INDICATE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD…..AND ME AND YOU

The United States military deployment encompasses more than 150 countries around the world, with about 172,966 of its active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories. Many of the deployed personnel are deployed in combat zones in the Middle East…..as part of the war on terror.

Many of the remaining personnel are deployed at installations activated during the cold war, by which the U.S. government sought to challenge the Soviet in the aftermath of World War II. There are also several peacekeeping missions, military attaché’s, or are part of embassy and consulate security.

Throughout the United States and the world, U.S. military deployment…..omitting facilities with less than 75 personnel…..(because I couldn’t locate this information) totals 529 different U.S. bases that are paid for by taxpayers, that are maintained by U.S. taxpayers, and have been built by taxpayers. I couldn’t find initial construction costs…..but you can bet your bippy that it was a pretty penny.

What this activity means to the rest of the world…..and me is clear as a bell ringing on a chilly night, to alley and foe alike, the United States is the most war-like country on the face of the earth at the present time. We have somehow learned to wage war without very many casualties to our military personnel. I can say this with much veracity, read on:

(Below is a list of countries that have suffered the most casualties during World War II!

Soviet Union, 23,400,000

China, 20,000,000

Germany, 8,680,000

Poland, 5,820,000

Dutch East Indies, 4,000,000

Japan, 2,700,000

India, 2,587,000

French Indochina, 1,500,000

Philippines, 1,057,000

Yugoslavia, 1,027,000

Notice anybody that’s missing…..yea, both Great Britain and the United States, one who was into empire building (Britain,) and now it’s the United States. Oh sure, you’re going to get a mighty argument by a whole bunch of red necked patriots here in the U.S. but I’d be lost for words (believe it or not) if you couldn’t accuse the U.S. of empire building.

The U.S. sticks their military nose into all sorts of issues that aren’t their concern, almost always in the name of peace-keeping or democracy spreading. In many, many instances we’re just setting up proxy governments that are willing to do our bidding because of the handsome financial aid that comes flowing their way.

While the U.S. doesn’t take a position on the sovereignty of the islands, it does recognize that Japan has administrative control over them, and therefore is found by treaty to defend Japan in the event of an armed conflict.

What in hell is going on here, what treaty…..treaties are written to be broken, don’t take my word for it…..check with our very own Native American brethren…..the U.S. State Department, the Department of War, and the Indian Affairs Agency all made treaties with the red man, and broke almost every one.

Stupid treaties in European that were signed back in the late 19^th century lead to a barbaric world war that took millions of lives, pushed back the advancements of human-kind, and opened the door for a dictator like the world had never seen…..Adolph Hitler.  

The largest of the Senkaku island chain, Uoturi-shima measures 1.7 square miles…..it’s 1.7 square miles, or 4.3 kilometers. That’s a bit more than 6500’, not enough room for the big air force planes like the B-52’s that the U.S. War Department used to fly over the islands the other day. You’d need way more land to land those big babies…..oh wait, drones, sure that’s it, these uninhabited islands could support a U.S. drone surveillance program, or a strike assault.

WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT

Okay we are one mighty SOB, a nation that nobody in their right mind would force an encounter on a face to face basis…..it would probably be suicide for whoever was dumb enough to try such an action. So what do our enemy’s do, they nibble at us, a little skirmish here, a little skirmish there, kind of like a fart in a mitten, you know it’s in there, you can kind of feel it, and you sure as hell can smell it, but you can’t capture it.

We’re not very smart militarily, we spend billions in war preparation, to do battle preemptively so we won’t get our own people killed (civilians,) but we only accomplish two things, (1) we keep U.S. citizens safe so that the military industry can continue, and (2) we completely piss off the world, and have to dole out financial aid of all sorts to quell the feelings of disgust and hatred.

Nobody has the right to do what we do under the guise of the world’s peacemakers, as well as the neighborhood cop! It doesn’t work that way…..and we’d better sit up, come to that conclusion, and make some major changes…..while we still can.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

DID YOU EVER WONDER WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES THINK ABOUT THE U.S.?

DID YOU EVER WONDER WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES THINK ABOUT THE U.S.?

(Joseph Logan, Huffington Post, Russian Times, Peace House)

(Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter, Washington Post, Asia & Pacific News)

(CNN U.S. Jack A. Smith, Joe Sutton, Tim Craig, Haq Newas Kahn, Frazer Chronicle)

Russia seems to have a case of the red-ass, or at least that’s what the Officers of Russia and Soldiers Mothers think about President Obama’s book quote: that he was “very good at killing people,” this coming from a NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE!

What kind of hokey statement is this…..coming from our President, the guy who was supposed to close Guantanamo detention center in Cuba, said that he’d stop the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in fact….for me, it was one the strongest part of his platform for the presidency. Like some others, I was hoping against hope that he could pull off a withdrawal after his 2008 victory.

However that didn’t come to pass until the latter part of 2011, and although I strongly supported the troop withdrawal, nobody can deny that Iraq is in far worse shape than when Saddam Hussein was in power. The war that was launched in March of 2003 with missile strikes in Baghdad aimed at ousting Hussein closed in December of 2011 with a fragile democracy in place…..facing insurgents, sectarian tensions and the challenge of defining its place in an Arab region in turmoil.

I have never understood the attitudes that seems to be like the flu in the White House (whenever there’s one case, it mushrooms to everybody in power and worse…..there’s absolutely no known cure). And now the nation has to put up with an Anton Tsvetkov, spokesman for the Officers of Russia, and a Flora Salikhovskaya, chairwomen of the Soldiers Mothers Committee condemning a passage from Obama’s book, Double Down, written by Mark Helperin and John Heilemann.

“While discussing the use of drones in counter-terrorist operations in a closed conference with his aids, Barack Obama cynically noted he was “very good at killing people” with regards to the use of drones. Tsvetkov told reporters at a press conference in Moscow said that “Russian military professions were strongly against the use of drone aircraft in combat because attacks often causes casualties among civilians.”

Flora Salikhovskaya said there her group supports Tsvetkov’s statement, adding that solving all problems through military force has become an Obama trademark in foreign affairs. “One should never brag or boast about their proficiency in killing,” according to Aleksandr Mikhalilov, another high ranking military official.

CENTER RIGHTIST

It is obvious that Barack Obama either was or has moved to the center right of many of his opinions regarding his foreign policies and the use of the United States military might. He has virtually fallen into the same foot-steps as George W. Bush did during his time in the White House, the only difference is that Obama calls his war, the Global War on Terror.

With one exception, Iraq, President Obama has extending former President George W. Bush’s wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and elsewhere and has hiked military spending as well as troop support in Afghanistan. He has, in addition, encouraged the growth of militarism in U.S. society by repeatedly heaping excessive praise on the armed forces and has tightened the military encirclement of China.

The Middle East is in turmoil, Israel still threatens to attack Iran, the Syrian regime refuses to fall, there are problems in Egypt, The plight of Palestinians has worsened during Obama’s presidency and relations with both Russia and China are shaky and only lukewarm at best.

Some Liberals, centrist, and almost all conservatives continue to site September, 11, 2001 and use it as a rallying point as the country continues its policies of peace through military might. For once and for all, anything gained through a military action is, in the long run…..doomed to failure.

According to Obama “we have strengthened our defenses, hardening targets, lightening transportation security, and given law enforcement new tools to prevent terror. Most of these changes were sound. Some caused inconveniences. But some, like expanded surveillance, raised difficult questions about the balance we strike between our interests in security and our value of privacy. In some cases, there was a compromise in our basic values…..by using torture to interrogate our enemies, and detaining individuals in a way that might have ran counter to the rule of law.”

Now if the above doesn’t sound almost verbatim to what the Bush administration would have said…..if they were still in power? Again according to the president, “today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants. There are no large scale-attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure.”

HERE A DRONE, THERE A DRONE…..EVERYWHERE A DRONE

Now before we go any further, I want to make one thing crystal clear…..I don’t give a damn what other countries say, or think about the United States…..however I do care what methods we use, and the results of our practices or efforts.

Since January of 2007, up through the Lake Ontario crash, there has been 143 crashes of drones…..reported, out of which 27 were for some sort of failure, or one in five. I say “one in five” because the vast majority of crash investigations aren’t reported.

There are also incidents of drones crashing into U.S. ships and injuring Navy personnel or into the Great Lakes. I wonder how valuable these stealth apparatuses really are. The cost a little over $3 million, we’ve lost at least 147…..at $3 mill each, that would be $441 million, close to half a billion…..ouch!

I wonder, since we have Fox news, CNN, MSNBC, and all the other news outlets in the U.S. clambering to fill their 24 hour wall to wall news, what must the rest of the world be thinking…..no wonder whenever there’s a natural disaster…..or otherwise…..people come calling with dirty faces and hands extended looking for a freebie.

Maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world has us figured out and see us as overbearing, frivolous, self indulging power mongers. How long is it going to take us to figure things out?

HAVE A NICE DAY!

STICKS AND STONES…..AND NAMES CAN HURT YOU!

STICKS AND STONES…..AND NAMES CAN HURT YOU!

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dave Umhoefer)

(American History, Julie Hutchins, Frazer Chronicle)

Nicknames can be righteous, interesting, descriptive, a shorter form of a proper name, subtitled for the proper name, a family pet, or derisory name, and finally a nickname can be language unit that describes where a person is from, or what he does in life.

Some of these monikers I’ve never heard of, some that have nicknames hate them, or disregard them, and chose not to acknowledge them…..ever. Some nicknames are outrageous, can be apropos and downright slanderous…..but no matter, it’s almost that glorious season when name calling, barbs and accusations fly around like a snow-storm in January.

For politicians, nicknames can be earned, be a black mark, or refer to an incident that a person would rather forget. Names do matter…..how would you like a first name like Adolph, or a last name like Hitler, for a politician, the race would be over.

Of course you got your Tom the Taxer, Loophole Louie, Diamond Jim, Scooter, or the Old Woof Woof. Of course you’ve got your Tricky Dick, Slick Willie, or the Ozone Man. An initial disrespectful nickname right out of the shoot, in a political race can reap benefits, or…..depending on the nickname, and the constituents involved can actually lay an egg, a political boo boo that can’t be overcome.

A person’s name can tell us volumes about them, whether they are well-known in the community, their reputation, what kind of family they are identified with. Are they formal, do the prefer David, or Dave, are they a regular guy, can they be stereotyped by how they choose to be addressed. Nicknames are much more personal than formal names, so inventing a negative nickname in a political race might be intended to insult or link a candidate to an unsavory incident.

There are political pundits out there who organize a negative campaign using all sorts of tools from unsavory nicknames to accusations that are totally untrue, but like crop-dusting.....the pesticide remains long after the initial act.

There is little oversight, regulations are usually self imposed, and little of the actual issues are ever addressed. Somehow it doesn’t matter; people get caught up in the ebb and flow of what the candidates say, think, or do. With little exception, political campaigns descend into a deep dark pit of almost bickering children…..and we as the voting public continue to allow it.

ALMOST REVERED NICKNAMES

Try some of the following nicknames on for size…..many we’ve never heard of…..but I’ve looked them up, and by golly these presidents actually used them, or allowed them…..however in many cases…..not to the man’s face:

George Washington, (The Sage of Mount Vernon)

James Madison, (little Johnny-his little Majesty)

William Henry Harrison, (Old Granny)

Andrew Jackson, (King Andrew the First)

John Tyler, (His Accidency)

Zachary Taylor, (Old Rough and Ready)

Millard Fillmore, (The Accidental President)

Rutherford B. Hayes, (The Fraudulency, Lemonade Lucy)

Chester A. Arthur, (The Dude President)

Grover Cleveland, (The Elephantine Economist)

Benjamin Harrison, (The Human Iceberg)

Calvin Coolidge, (Silent Cal)

Harry S. Truman, (Haberdasher Harry)

Dwight D. Eisenhower, (Duckpin)

Richard M. Nixon, (Richard the Chicken-hearted)

Gerald Ford, (Jerry the Accidental President)

George Herbert Walker Bush, (Poppy)

William Clinton, (Slick Willie)

George Walker Bush, (Shrub, Baby Bush)

Barack Hussein Obama, (No Drama Obama)

I ran across hundreds of political nicknames, but I figured presidential monikers, with mid-terms coming up could kick off the campaign season a bit early. All of the above named presidents really seemed to earn their nicknames. Some of the names I had to look up cause I’d never heard of them.

Like Duckpin, a small bowling pin displayed on the lapel, or Gerald Ford, (the accidental President) was meant to point out what a klutz he was, falling down Air Force One’s ramp, or hitting a fellow golfer with a golf ball.

I’m surprised that none of the presidents weren’t call slim; there were however several who were referred to as little denoting their shortness of height. There were also several rotund presidents who were called Elephantine or Big Bill.

It’s going to be that glorious season when the pundits come out of the woodwork, newspapers endorse their selected candidates…..and the mud really starts flying. I wonder which of the candidates will fall flat on their faces over some sort of scandal…..I can only hope for a sex scandal.

It’s also the time when wanna-be journalists and cub reporters like myself grind out blog after blog, always hoping for that exclusive that’ll land a big time contract for free-lance reporting…..or better yet, a book deal. Now I could really dig something like that.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

203 FEET ABOVE THE WATER!

203 FEET ABOVE THE WATER!

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Scott Cooper Williams)

(Department of Transportation, Jim Fowler, Frazer Chronicle)

 

That’s really high, 203 feet above a river…..not nose bleed high, but high enough that a fall would probably be your last. The Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge has a height of 203 feet above the Fox River on the north side of the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The most exciting events connected with the bridge (named to honor Leo Frigo, a civic philanthropic leader in the Green Bay area) was the occasional suicide jumper and closings for fog, high winds, and blizzards along with ice conditions.

I must have driven over the structure a thousand times during my twenty five years living in the city and I was aware of the effects of high winds…..especially when I’d drive my tractor-trailer over the bridge. However other than the winds or fog I never really gave traveling across the 1.51 mile a thought.

That however all changed on September 25, 2013, on or before 4:45 A.M. when Brown County 911 operators received multiple calls about sagging on the bridge. The bridge was closed at 5:30 A.M. local time by local law enforcement after investigations found a 400’ stretch of the bridge sagging approximately two feet along the east approach of the bridge along all lanes.

Further investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, pier number 22’s footing was found to have settled about 2’. Initially it was not known whether the pilings, which extend 100’ to bedrock, are still supporting the footings under the pier.

This double speak boils down to a very simple fact, a concrete and steel structure, for whatever reason the support mechanism that was supposed to keep the Frigo bridge in an upright position…..and to not allow any sagging activity…..failed. On October 3, 2013, initially the Wisconsin Department of Transportation released findings of a one week investigation that the sinking action was the result of corrosion on the pilings, and pier number 22, the corrosion was significant enough to cause buckling.

The Green Bay Press Gazette stated that the state’s highway department officials said that new testing proved that Green Bay’s troubled Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge is on solid ground…..despite records showing that few of the bridge’s original underground support beams were driven down into solid bedrock.

Newly released records of the bridge’s construction in the 1970’s, show that of the nearly 2000 vertical steel beams, fewer than 10% were driven to the limestone bedrock formation. In early design plans, it was recommended to drive the supports to the bedrock formation under the bridge.

I’M NOT AN EXPERT…..BUT

I’m not an expert, I’ve never worked for a bridge building company, I’m not a geologist, nor a construction engineer, but I do know how to ask questions…..and the short research that I’ve done on this subject, (bridge building) it would seem from what I’ve read, that the Frigo supports should have been driven to solid bedrock.

However officials with the Transportation Department, officials with a hell-of-a lot more experience than I have (I have none) say that new soil borings indicate that that the Frigo’s elaborate steel frame rests atop a hard layer of underground earth just as stable as when the bridge opened in 1981.

Okay…..if that was the case, how did the bridge sag by 24 inches in a day, or whatever the time-line was, anyways, when dirt and water are mixed together…..don’t they make mud. Are these transportation experts and officials trying to tell me that every time I drove across that bridge, I was driving on a bridge that was supported by mud…..possibly?

Something doesn’t sound quite right here, and then you have the outside expert, at least a geologist, from the University Wisconsin-Green Bay who hasn’t an ax to grind, holds no vested interest saying that “the fact that most steel beams were not driven down to bedrock (only about 200 of the 2000) might suggest that changing underground soil conditions could have caused some beams to sink into the ground. “If that happened under pier number 22, it could be happening elsewhere.” Yea like maybe mud.

DENNIS PAULI, JOHN LUCZAJ

Why is there always at least two different opinions about everything, don’t these experts ever get together, compare notes and settle on one particular answer that everybody can accept. According to Luczaj, the geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay maintains that investigators of the bridge have not adequately checked all 51 piers hold up the bridge.

Luczaj further states that the theory reached by the investigating team is insufficient, there was very limited science, and the geologist also said that the findings were a rush to judgment. Of the 40 beams under pier 22, state officials acknowledged that they excavated and examined only three, partly out of concern that further investigation would delay the bridge’s reopening to traffic.

Can’t anybody remember the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge disaster in August of 2007, a bridge that I crossed in my semi at least 20 times. The bridge, built in 1965 and opened in 1967, suddenly collapsed on August 1, 2007, and took 13 lives and injuring 145. Although the Frigo and the I-35W have only one similarity, both are bridges over a river, the danger in under-inspection can result in a catastrophic disaster.

Work is scheduled to be completed sometime in January at a cost of $15 to $20 million dollars, of which the Federal Government will be picking up around 90% of the cost. Where does the other $3 to $4 million coming from…..maybe the Army Corp of Engineers, or the bridge construction company, and just because some engineer say’s that the clay dirt was as firm as a rock formation, do we have to take his word for it…..kind of like on blind faith.

There is a differing tone between what geologist Luczaj says, and former state highway engineer, Dennis Pauli has to say. Pauli oversaw construction in the late 70’s said that he is certain that investigators have correctly identified the problem and have done an adequate job of investigation.

Hummmmm…..let me see, what does that word mean…..adequate….sufficient, barely satisfactory, as much or as good as necessary, reasonably sufficient for starting legal action. I think that the final meaning of the word “starting legal action” might make adequate a poor choice of words.

Luczaj says that very little science is going into the equation of rooting out the problem as to the reason that the Frigo sunk two feet.

Pauli said that all the steel beams registered the required load-bearing capacity at construction time, 150 ton each, and that he agrees that the current issue is a combination of corrosion and buckling under pier number 22. Pauli also voiced confidence in the state highway department’s commitment to restoring the bridge to a safe operating condition. I can’t believe that they’d do anything half way.

WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT…..TWO DIFFERENT PROFESSIONALS, TWO DIFFERENT OPINIONS

You take all the information, all the facts, put um in a big hopper and blindly take a piece of paper with an opinion written on it. That’s no way to come to a fact based opinion, both of these guys, Pauli and Luczaj have undoubted knowledge and experience behind their opinion…..however…..more questions persist, like:

a. A preliminary design study found that limestone bedrock was located 100 to 140’ below the surface, was very competent, (strong and stable) and that the steel frame should be driven to that rock formation…..all of the beams, why weren’t they?

b. Why are the records of the pile-driven work jotted down by hand in a small engineer’s log-book?

c. Records of the 1949 beams that were driven into the earth identify only 130 reached a depth equal to where the bedrock was located?

d. Where there vugs (small cavity or vain in rock formation) in the bedrock formation?

e. Why is the state transportation people worried about the time it is taking for the repair project, shouldn’t safety be upper most in their minds…..remember I-35W!

Well there’s my take, or rather questions with regards to the Leo Frigo Bridge and the dipping problem it seems to have. I might be using an alternative route even after the Frigo reopens and is deemed safe by the experts.

HAVE A NICE DAY!