The situation in Ukraine

Ukraine is a testing ground to end cold
war diplomacy .

Well America  again is jumping up the old  cold war era band wagon . The situation in Ukraine . Here is my little analysis of the problem . The Ukrainian people revolted when President Viktor Yanukovich walked away from a treaty with the European Union under pressure from Russia. President Barack Obama referred to Ukraine in his  last State of the Union address on , voicing support for the principle that all people have the right to free expression. Vice President Joe Biden has spoken to Yanukovich at least three times. And two U.S. senators, Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut, traveled to Kiev last month and addressed demonstrations. It seems to me that with all the pomp of being a world leader as such we seem to be meddling the nations own nose where it should not be .Why I ask? Our American foreign  policy has not exactly worked well , we have Egypt , Syria as 'examples' . Now our nation is off again to poke it's nose in the 'name of freedom' with out any kind of justification  If Yanukovych government was democratically elected, why should we support anarchy?  Why should we impose our values on a sovereign nation?  Isn’t Ukraine itself divided about its future?  With so many problems of our own. The Obama administration is still playing from the cold war blue book . In every international conflict since 1917 the US has laid its principles and beliefs on the line as a guide to the purpose of the conflict, and its key objectives ie: Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. From The trenches of WW1 to the burned out alleyways of Aleppo these freedoms have been at the core of the reason Americans have gone into battle. No other country has done this.Obama believes this is the right path for his country and will continue to follow it.Warning Russia not to make any moves. Anyhow Ukraine has always been under the Russian umbrella for a 1000 years . Here is some points to ponder as I call them. Many point out that Viktor Yanukovych was elected President in free and fair elections.  This is true, but the issue at hand isn’t his election, but his actions in office. Case in  point of the "revolt". Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he is concerned that Russia will invadeUkraine, just as it started a war with Georgia when it sent troops to back rebels in the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008. Although I doubt that Obama has any plan (other than which celebrity to party with in the White House next) I have to ask Senator Corker: what plan do you suggest? If Russia does invade Ukraine what can the U.S. government really do about it? How should this crisis end . Look no further than what Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev urged the presidents of Russia and the United States on Thursday to help broker negotiations to end violent protests in Ukraine, which he said was facing a possible "catastrophe".Gorbachev, 82, a Nobel Peace laureate whose reforms helped end the Cold War but led to the Soviet Union's demise, appealed to Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama to help Ukraine resolve the conflict peacefully. "Without the help, without the cooperation of authoritative representatives of our two countries this (situation) could lead to catastrophe," Gorbachev, who has Ukrainian heritage, said in an open letter posted on his foundation's website. "I ask you to seize the opportunity and take a decisive step to help Ukraine return to the path of peaceful development. I am really relying on you," he said. "The opposing sides should sit at the negotiation table."

Michelle's 'Get Fit' initiative .

School Lunches are in danger of going hungry.

I am just shaking my head at this , and you might think I am over critical  and so on that  Michelle Obama and her fight against child hood obesity is not a bad thing  . Sure it's a good thing , but there is something that not clicking right as a image maker for the First Lady of the nation .  @Why can't she have  been focused on ending poverty on the national level  ? I know that School foods across the nation have been the subject of issues,yes there is lots of grease , lots of sugars. The problem is that children don't eat their lunch anyway, they throw it away anyhow regardless .  It's hard to get a grip on what is healthy at a school lunch table.  ***You NEVER HAVE PARENTAL INPUT ON THIS anyway!!  The proposed rules are part of first lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative to combat child obesity, which is celebrating its fourth anniversary this week. Mrs. Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the new rules at a White House event.  ##Rules set to go into effect next school year will make other foods around school healthier as well, including in vending machines and separate "a la carte" lines in the lunch room. Calorie, fat, sugar and sodium limits will have to be met on almost every food and beverage sold during the school day at 100,000 schools. Concessions sold at afterschool sports games would be exempt. The healthier food rules have come under fire from conservatives who think the government shouldn't dictate what kids eat - and from some students who don't like the healthier foods.  Some on-campus marketing will be slowly phased out, however, and there are ways that schools can opt out of the new limitations altogether. The other, less flashy announcement made today will have a much broader, more sustained impact: universal free school meals for all students at more than 22,000 schools around the United States. The 9 million children who will receive breakfast and lunch at no cost starting on July 1 attend schools where at least 40 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals. Among other problems the universal meal program will eliminate is the social stigma that subsidized breakfast and lunch programs create for low-income students. No longer will these students be ostracized or, worse, forgo free or low-cost meals to not tip off their peers to the poverty they experience at home. It sounds good , but School Districts could lose money here is a news item . School officials in Carmel Clay, Ind., said they lost $300,000 last school year because students are rejecting the healthy menu changes brought on by First Lady Michelle Obama’s federal lunch regulations.  A school in New York that was getting rid of the Mrs.  Obama way of feeding kids  because they were hungry at the end of the school. They didn't like the food. They weren't eating it. There wasn't enough of it.  Now we have this other district here in Indiana losing hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to comply and failing because the kids hate it. Damage is already done. Many districts were already forced to increase the price of lunches even if they didn't want to. There is no chance those prices will come down, even after the rules are 'relaxed'. Many also had to spend hundred of thousands to millions of dollars in order to comply with the new rules.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***Parents are up in arms, saying their kids can’t learn because they’re so hungry. There is no provision in the guidelines to recognize the difference between a 250 pound linebacker and a 90 pound cheerleader…..There are two reasons for why a lot of these kids are ending up just plain hungry: the strict federal limits on fat, carbs and calories aren’t giving them enough food to fill them up, and many kids just won’t eat the food that’s being forced on them, like dark brown whole wheat bread and chocolate skim milk. All this hunger is the result of the ironically-named “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,” which got Washington involved in local school cafeterias by providing federal funds in exchange for control over the menu. ##  Even the scoreboards in high school gyms will have to advertise only healthy foodsunder new rules announced Tuesday by the Obama administration. The "obesity epidemic," could be more readily addressed by having schools (at the K-8 level) expand the lunch time, outdoor and gym recess periods to what they were, 20-25 years ago. At some schools, the kids have to wolf down their food in 20 minutes, and get a whopping 15 minutes of recess. An hour of the school day used to be allotted to lunch plus recess - about 30 minutes of each. The schools have got the mealtime and recess shrunk from an hour, to only 35 minutes. Also, when home, a lot less time on the video games and i pads, where the parent is in direct authority, would go a long way towards reducing obesity in children. @ Kids were eating fine. The fact that kids are fat in America is a testament to how well-fed they are.

ICE AGE POLITICS.

The St. Joseph Lighthouse on North Pier, Lake Michigan, on Jan. 6, 2014; Photographer: HotSpot/Landov. Ice builds up along Lake Michigan at North Avenue ..

Great Lakes Frozen Over . Sign of an Ice Age?

California has been experiencing dry weather , seasonally warm temperatures . I am sure the Global Warming people are up and arms as "proof" . I am going tell you readers this . There is no GLOBAL WARMING , but there is "Climate Changes" , that I believe is in the works , rather if you believe in it or any theory . Back east most of the "Antarctic " conditions  that froze over the Great Lakes is vary PECULIAR . I heard one weatherman remake that " It's almost as cold as the Planet Mars.........."  My response is that MAY BE we are going into the NEXT ICE AGE . Just what scientific proof we need? The blizzard conditions that came along with the shift the Polar Vortex  might just be another twist . Oddly I have not heard a public peep out of former Vice -President Al Gore on this . With  the minus -30 F temps lately one of things that struck me is that was that the COLDER it get's there is a volatile limit for Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere . CO2 which is a green house gas , typically has been blamed for the rise of warmer temperatures in the last decade.  The "colder" temps work the opposite with CO2 . Learning about the planet Mars for instance , ***it has a thin atmosphere of CO2 that literately freezes out and snows onto the surface of Mars at winter temperatures below -50F. With this in mind if you remember the news reports of wind chill factors back east where temp's  dropped nearly to Mars winter levels . This means that whatever CO2 is in Earth's atmosphere also freezes out causing more and more colder weather .  NEXT we have the SUN spot activity , If you thought the polar vortex was bad, get a load of a new climate phenomenon that just might be coming our way. First, a bit of background. The sun goes through cycles that last roughly 11 years, marked by the ebb and flow of sunspots on its surface. At peak sunspot activity, the so-called solar maximum, the sun sports lots of sunspots and is steadily unleashing solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Since our current solar cycle, Number 24, kicked off in 2008, the number of sunspots observed has been half of what heliophysicists expected. But a relatively quiet sun could cause problems. Some scientists say that this period of weak solar activity may mirror what happened before the so-called Maunder Minimum of 1645 to 1715 -- a period named after solar astronomers Annie and E. Walter Maunder, who studied sunspots and helped identify the sun's strange activity in the latter part of the 17th Century. That time period saw only 30 sunspots (one one-thousandth of what would be expected) and coincided with a "Little Ice Age" in Europe, during which the Thames River and the Baltic Sea froze over. While scientists have not proven that low sunspot activity directly caused the "Little Ice Age," and say other factors may have been involved in plunging Europe into the frigid period, they do believe that fewer sunspots may mean less solar energy reached Earth. And this in turn could have led to global cooling. So if the sun did enter another extended period of low activity, how likely is it we'd enter into our own "Little Ice Age?"

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***Maybe spun like this: with a certain level of Co2, conveniently 400-600ppm, Co2 actually acts as a coolant. We can’t wait 80 years for Co2 to once again to show it’s ugly uncontrollable green house effect. We have to act now, we must act now to stop this cooling, cooling we have created. If we don’t act now this cooling may trigger the next ice age. An Ice Age we conveniently caused, because of AGW. “…In addition the Avg. Global Temperature line in the graph appears to indicate that we are on descent into, and are currently in an ice age. The depths of which we simply do not know…” The length and “depth” of the previous glacial periods (of the present Ice Age) indicate an increasing trend that agrees with your statement,http://muller.lbl.gov/pages/IceAgeBook/Image5.gif

The High Cost of Common Core.

The " Smarter Balanced Assessment" known as " Common Core" may have disrupted the learning and testing process in California . I just spent several hours watching a Pro's and Con's about Common Core on TV . Regardless some of the panelists agree that  California 's suspending the STAR TEST may have dug the state's educational  nails into the soil. California is defying the requirements of No Child Left Behind, Testing season begins soon in U.S. public schools, requiring millions of students to spend days answering standardized questions in math and reading, as mandated by an outdated federal law. But this year is filled with tumult. Educators are questioning the purpose of testing, lawmakers in several states are pushing back against federal regulations, and a momentous standoff between California — the state with the largest number of public school students — and the Obama administration looms. But California says it can’t administer the tests this year because, like much of the country, it has adopted new Common Core national academic standards and the corresponding exams aren’t ready. Remember the words " aren't ready" , the Sate Department of Education is vary behind in creating the "test" to replace the STAR , it convinces me that Common Core is vary poorly conceived as a replacement for STAR . There is a boiling opposition of it on both the Right and Left .  The Common Core curriculum it's self as was examined by the panel on TV with some outstanding remarks . First , This was done with insufficient public dialogue or feedback from experienced educators, no research, no pilot or experimental programs — no evidence at all that a floor-length list created by unnamed people attempting to standardize what’s taught is a good idea. Second, The Common Core Standards assume that what kids need to know is covered by one or another of the traditional core subjects. In fact, the unexplored intellectual terrain lying between and beyond those familiar fields of study is vast, expands by the hour, and will go in directions no one can predict. Third, So much orchestrated attention is being showered on the Common Core Standards, the main reason for poor student performance is being ignored—a level of childhood poverty the consequences of which no amount of schooling can effectively counter. Forth,  he Common Core Standards are a set-up for national standardized tests, tests that can’t evaluate complex thought, can’t avoid cultural bias, can’t measure non-verbal learning, can’t predict anything of consequence (and waste boatloads of money). Fifth, In a recent white paper, “Lowering the Bar: How Common Core Math Fails to Prepare Students for STEM,” professors James Milgram and Sandra Stotsky explain how the Common Core math standards do not include academic standards that prepare high school students for STEM programs. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The lead author for the Common Core math standards, Jason Zimba, publicly stated that the standards provide students enough mathematics to make them ready for nonselective colleges and not for STEM. One has to wonder why Tom Raffio, chairman of the state board of education, failed to mention that deficiency. The Common Core math standards put students on a path to complete algebra I by the end of 9th grade. This is two years behind students in the top-performing countries and one year behind the old superior California math standards.

California's big loss.......

California, threatened with the loss of $3.5 billion in federal funds for suspending high-stakes testing next spring, has tweaked its exam plan. But it's not certain that the change, which was not cleared first with U.S. officials, will ease the threat to take away funds. Federal lawrequires states to annually test students in English and math and publish results. The state still doesn't plan to release results, and it doesn't plan to give any student a comprehensive sample test. Instead, most students will take about half the math test and half the English test. A representative sampling of California students, or 5 percent of those tested, will take the full test in just one subject or the other -- so that the test developers can refine their questions. Without test results, the state will not calculate an Academic Performance Index score for each school and school district in 2014, and possibly in 2015. Meanwhile, educators across the country are watching California’s standoff with Washington. California officials say that beginning March 18, they will give the math and reading Common Core field tests to all 3.4 million students in the designated testing grades, at a cost of about $51 million .The federal government has not resolved what to do about California, but federal officials said a decision could come as soon as this week.

A technology that costs too much.

School Districts have been spending more and more on getting the students ready for Common Core , one of the budgeted items is the expansion of touch I pads , Google  Chrome laptops . Sacramento-area school districts have spent millions of dollars in the past two years upgrading their broadband connections and buying computers and other technology so thousands of students can simultaneously take the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, which will replace the former pencil-and-paper STAR test. The arrival of these standards – and the accompanying tests – have put the purchase of computers at the top of every district’s priority list. The Legislature boosted the effort by making $1.25 billion available this school year for computers, bandwidth and training. School districts also passed bonds, dipped into their general funds and used federal technology dollars. States will spend up to an estimated $10 billion up front, then as much as $800 million per year for the first seven years that the controversial program is up and running. Much of the cost is on new, Common Core-aligned textbooks and curriculum, but the added expenses also include teacher training, technology upgrades, testing and assessment. The figures are taking states by surprise.

It's not my Tea Party.

Tea Party coloring book was not
popular with parents , most of
all the  Tea Party is all in
the shadows.

The Tea Party ( as it is so called ) began along side with the Occupy movement  just right about the same time Pres. Obama was sworn in . The Tea Party began something like the Howard Jarvis anti -tax movement, and ended up being hijacked by right wing radicals . The radicals , the religious right for name , and my good friends the Mormons ( Glenn Beck , Blaze TV ) where behind the movements creation , plainly and simply it is the anti-Obama movement in disguise. The Tea Party failed on many levels first of all it's not a "political Party" *** like the old time Whigs , or Peace and Freedom parties were are so used to seeing on the ballots by name , it's a shadow organization made up of many members , some Congress men who are Republican by name only .  This week the ball came crashing for the Tea Party a high-stakes drama played out over the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill this week. It ended with President Obama getting exactly what he'd asked for — an extension of the Treasury's borrowing authority with no strings attached — and an even wider gulf between GOP congressional leaders and Tea Party-aligned conservatives. JOHN BOEHNER’S speakership hasn’t provided much reason for optimism in Washington, with his feeble leadership on national immigration reform and repeated failure over the last three years to manage restive House Republicans. But Boehner’s actions over the last week provide at least a glimmer of hope that he — and therefore the House — might be turning a corner. Boehner, defying the most hard-right members of his party,allowed a vote on legislation raising the debt ceiling. The debt-ceiling legislation was simply common sense that never should have been at issue. But the political dynamics were nonetheless encouraging: Hopefully, his slight of the GOP’s Tea Party wing signals a higher level of assertiveness on Boehner’s part that will translate into action on immigration. During a recent meeting with Congressional Republicans, Mr. Obama acknowledged the potency of these attacks when he complained that depicting him as a would-be despot was complicating efforts to find bipartisan solutions. The ebbs and flows of the Tea Party ferment are hardly uniform. It is an amorphous, factionalized uprising with no clear leadership and no centralized structure. Not everyone flocking to the Tea Party movement is worried about dictatorship. Some have a basic aversion to big government, or Mr. Obama, or progressives in general. What’s more, some Tea Party groups are essentially appendages of the local Republican Party. With the Republican Party being torn apart by its internal civil war, an ideological battle that pits establishment Republicans against the no-compromise Tea Party/Christian Right, party backers are doing their best to suppress the @ craziness as the 2014 midterms approach. Blake Farenthold, another Tea Party Republican from Texas, who voted against the fiscal cliff deal as well, and told constituents "there are several [cabinet] departments we could completely get rid of", wasassailed by "birthers" for the GOP's failure to impeach President Obama. (His defense was not that impeachment would be insane, but that it would be infeasible.) Tea Partiers in North Carolina pummeled Congressman Robert Pittenger for refusing to support defunding Obamacare even though he has supported a number of bills repealing Obamacare. Somehow Boehner has seemed to have gone lost in the comments below. He has looked to party consensus, something that cannot occur if there are any near-reasonable GOP party members as the Tea Party is dogmatically rigid. Boehner might seek what is good for his country, or even what is good for his own party. He has chosen to do neither. He is doing what is possible to maintain his position. The Nation would be best with concensus or at least with stability of some compromise. (The only compromise many of the Tea Party would have would be unconditional surrender by the opposition). The GOP would be best served by some return towards 'the Center', however that might be defined. Eisenhower and Rockefeller Republicans have been jettisoned and Hispanic voters are increasingly alienated by GOP policies. Having successfully defied the Tea Party on the debt ceiling, now it is time for Boehner and McConnell to use that momentum to pass three bills: An extension of unemployment benefits for people suffering long-term joblessness; a minimum wage hike; and, most important of all, immigration reform. The Tea Party caucus in the House and the Tea Party star in the Senate – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — are never going to love Boehner or McConnell. Both Congressional leaders have tried for years to accommodate Tea Party passions but they can never do enough.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

@  The only thing the tea party does effectively is destroy Republican primaries and ensure that Democrats win elections.  *** Good old Rush Limbaugh said this vary discreetly on his radio show giving advice to the Republican Party : " The Republican establishment may in fact be so desirous of getting rid of the Tea Party as its base, they may be willing to lose some elections in order to get rid of their base and put up a new base " .

Gov. Brown's Pension Crisis.

California here we come , with another problem.

Between the "budget" the "high speed rail" , and the "drought" .  California has a big problem , and Gov. Jerry Brown wants to kick the debate in . It's all about pensions , most focus has been about Teacher pensions , how to pay for them .  We have had pension issues before , like here in San Jose Ca , where it's Mayor Chuck Reed took a chunk out of it by reducing the police force in the city . The states problem is bigger , it all has to do with the fact that in the last decade and three quarters it has been borrowing to keep it floating . The Mercury News recently reported that : 

"wall of debt."That's a term Brown coined when he took office to describe the tens of billions of dollars California owed to public schools and special funds whose coffers were raided to help balance budgets in the past.But look behind that $24.9 billion wall and you'll see a $330 billion skyline of other liabilities threatening the state's financial health. It includes $80 billion needed to cover teachers' pensions and $64 billion to pay for state workers' health care in retirement -- two particularly troublesome liabilities because the state isn't even making the minimum payments on them.

Years later it seems that  CalSTRS debt was mounting  and it practically  now swallows the entire state budget . The CTA ( California Teachers Association) on it's  web site makes some curious little bits of truth regarding it's system , by comparing Wall Street. 

The economic collapse is the result of many factors, including the subprime mortgage crisis, Wall Street banking scandals, the deregulation of financial institutions, high corporate and consumer debt levels, a high unemployment level, and unbridled corporate greed. It is an epic global crisis, and it affects all of us. It was not caused by middle-income teachers and education support professionals who worked hard and contributed part of their pay toward their pension throughout the years so they could live modestly during their retirement. It was caused largely by Wall Street bankers, who, instead of going to prison, continue to receive outrageous pay raises and $100 million bonuses.In California, most educators belong to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second-largest public retirement fund in the country. The retirement fund is not a taxpayer giveaway, as critics have charged. Over the span of their careers, CalSTRS members contribute 8 percent of their monthly pay to help finance their retirement. Employers kick in an equal 8.25 percent of monthly pay, the state contributes a little more than 2 percent (which previously was 4.7 percent but was reduced a decade ago, saving the state over $3 billion), and the returns garnered by CalSTRS investments do the rest.

The Question of solvency is this pension system big problem , the CTA are in denial of any insolvency but Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) said that  ***The fund currently faces a $71-billion shortfall, Pérez said, and it's growing every day because contributions aren't keeping up with costs.  Now who are the "contributors"? Take a hint , it's  Local School Districts . Over the "years",  the  not so lean years of past decade most School Districts were "cutting" their pension spending due to budgets issues , ^^while more and more contributions were going into salaries , and growing health care costs,  pension contributions were being cut , there's no explaining this . The Lucky teachers who retired in the last 10 years probably are getting their full contribution while others are getting less , and less . Pension reform signed by Brown in 2011 reduced pension benefits for new workers, meaning most of the savings will be years away. 

 The Bitter truth.

I don't think MY SELF that I am going to get my money  from CAL-PERS when I retire  either , if there is any money left ,  but here is the run down on CAL PERS . The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) reported that its unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities in its main pension fund for state and local governments was over $49 billion-consisting of about $23 billion for the state and $26 billion for other public agenciesⁱ Showing a bigger problem, a report by the bipartisan Little Hoover Commission found that the top 10 public employee pension systems in California - including plans for both state and local government workers - faced a combined $240 billion shortfall as of 2010. A study by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research more recently pegged the combined total unfunded pension liabilities of CalPERS, the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the University of California retirement plan at $485 billion.  It seems to me that both pension agencies may have been misleading it's members.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***I'm curious why they are going after the teachers.  I'd rather see them go after state employees first. Gov. Jerry Brown, whose administration has pegged the shortfall at $80.4 billion, also wants to address the issue but has been willing to wait until next year to implement potential solutions. ^^  Most Californians would be surprised to learn that 100 percent of education’s share of the tax increase proposed by Governor Jerry Brown will go to pensions instead of classrooms. But that would be no surprise to longtime observers of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which administers teacher pensions. Unfortunately, “down the road” is where school districts are now. Because Calstrs has earned only 60 percent of its forecasted investment return since 1999, it needs school districts to boost contributions by more than $100 billion. Worse, Calstrs waited so long to seek more contributions that its request is now for an extra $4.5 billion a year, almost double the $5 billion a year it already receives in contributions. School districts can’t come up with such a large amount of money without harming classrooms. 

A Quick Review of things.

It's all true , no caption needed.

President Obama this week laid out his plan to side step Congress , so far his plan can only work to a certain degree . Barack Obama had in mind after winning his historic election five years ago. But it is the one he believes he has left. For the first time since taking office, Obama spoke to Congress on Tuesday evening from a clear position of confrontation, threatening to veto new Iran sanctions, warning against further moves against his health-care law and demanding action on a series of previously proposed economic measures. In his fifth State of the Union address, Obama set that aside. By declaring his intention to ignore Congress when necessary as lawmakers looked on, the president framed an election-year debate about which party is more determined to solve the nation’s enduring economic problems. Frustrated as Obama has become Many of Obama’s big policy goals have ended up stranded in limbo between the Democratic-controlled Senate trying to advance his agenda and the Republican-led House bent on stopping him. And, heading into a midterm election year, he faces lame-duck status unless his party can regain control of the House this November. Of course we have a lame duck Congress. Pres. Obama has got work a curve ball on many items , but here are two sticklers.

Job's growth .U.S. payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 113,000 in January after December's lackluster gain of 75,000 jobs, marking the weakest two-month stretch of job creation in three years, the Labor Department said Friday. Yet the unemployment rate ticked down to <> 6.6%—the lowest level since late 2008. The decline came because more people found jobs last month as opposed to last year when it fell in part because of unemployed Americans abandoning their job hunts and dropping out of the labor force. Remember,for months prior to January 20, 2009, America had been losing over 750,000 jobs per month because of policies these same elected Republican lawmakers had enacted and their goal, their goal that night, was to plot ways to sabotage and undermine any and all legislation that would pull American families up and out of the economic calamity they [lawmakers] had helped create. The report could also give the Federal Reserve second thoughts about continuing to pull back on its stimulus program aimed at holding down long-term interest rates. Employers added a net 113,000 new jobs in January, far below many analysts’ expectations that hiring had bounced up to 180,000 or more after the surprisingly weak performance in December.Job growth averaged 194,000 a month last year and 186,000 in 2012, according to revised figures released Friday.Economists had largely dismissed the poor December jobs report, chalking it up to unusually cold weather, and some were expecting the Labor Department on Friday to revise higher the initial December tally of just 74,000 new jobs. But that figure was adjusted upward by only 1,000. November's job growth was revised up by 33,000, to 274,000.

Immigration .At his weekly press conference Thursday, John Boehner threw cold water on the idea of immigration reform happening this year. "There's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws," Boehner said. "And it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes."That frank assessment came roughly a week after House Republicans put out a series of principles on immigration reform that included a pathway to legal status, an announcement that made the possibility of genuine immigration reform seem more likely than it had previously been. Immigration has dominated the American pulpit of debate for the last decade , in several postings on this blog I pointed out my belief that NO BODY in congress wants to fix the problems with immigration just as much as they don't want to deal with out shoring American jobs. Both of them are hand in hand as to what is wrong with the American economic system . Take the example of "Cheap labor" it's two fold , most lone shark type employer's would rather hire a illegal in America because they will do jobs that no average white , or black American would . This is the most common lie that has infected the American capitalist brain for the last decade .  ***The poor Mexican immigrant who sneaks across the boarder "dreams" of wealth in the American system , yes maybe the "free" stuff no white , black American would get , but the poor Mexican has been exploited because he is a hard worker , and the American exploitative system is glad to have them working  dirt cheap doing 3 jobs at below wages being paid under the table . The Next issue is sending jobs to India , China or some other nation just because you can make shoes for 99 cents a day , paying Indian children  the lowest  pay , using the most dangerous methods rather paying a American 10 dollars an hour to do the job . What are Americans saying about immigration? Only 3 percent think it is a top priority. They are far more concerned about the economy, health care, debt, spending, and government corruption.When asked about immigration, they say they want to see the border secured and our current laws enforced. Yet only 5 percent think it is very likely that a new immigration law will actually seal the border. Here is a catch -22 with the American system it's buyer beware ,so if the outsourcing model is applied and companies like Coke, Pepsi, UPS, Lowes, Home Depot, Fed Ex., Giant, Safeway, etc. decide lay off Americans making $15+/hour and replace them with newly legalized aliens making the now minimum wage of $7.25/hour, these companies have cut their labor costs by 50%. And Garmin, Magellan, Tom Tom GPS can navigate in Spanish. Corporate America loves to reduce their labor rates so it could happen. It is why outsourcing and automation is so successful. Ever notice that Home Depot and most grocery store have many self checkouts manned by one employee? One English/Spanish employee can supervise a dozen employees. Been to a fast food restaurant lately? Other than the cashiers at the front counter and drive through window, anyone else speak English? 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***I am not trying to insult Mexicans are calling them poor , or illegals .The underlining truth is their labor force has been exploitative for the wrong ends , the low wages , non -union work they do has always been tied up  with the issue of jobs in America , and why no one wants to increase the minimum wage. Mexican's do work hard , but don't deserve slave wages .

<> 6% national unemployment looks good on paper, it's been the lowest since President Obama took office. What's  wrong is that states like California have 8% unemployed . Sates are not doing enough to "really" bring the numbers down and get people back to work.

The "Super flu" - theory.

The word "flu" has you running either to get a shot , or to stay under cover . I normally don't like anything about "conspiracies" . So Today I want to write one on the H1N1  virus . Way back in 2009 it was reported that  the H1N1 virus in Ukraine that nearly 300 people have died from the viral strain, and over 65,000 people have been hospitalized (the actual numbers are increasing by the hour). The virus appears to be either a highly aggressive mutation of the globally-circulating H1N1 strain, or a combination of three different influenza strains now circulating in Ukraine. Some observers suspect this new "super flu" might be labeled viral hemorrhagic pneumonia (meaning it destroys lung tissue until your lungs bleed so much that you drown in your own fluid), but that has not been confirmed by any official sources we're aware of.  The lingering thought is Scientists have suspected that the 2009 H1N1 virus may have originated in China, there are some speculations that a biological weapon may have accidentally had gotten loose , and spread some how mutated into the "bird flu" and "swine flue". The Deaths in California are bit to staggering beyond belief , and the CDC is probably not saying much , only telling you to get the flu shot . What the CDC office is not telling you with the exception of one case is that some of the flu victims had the flu shot already . The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts 50% of Americans will have H1N1; the same percentage that the multimillion dollar vaccine marketing campaign targets.  In other words, the government marketing campaign aims to convince 50% of Americans to get the H1N1 vaccine (Fox News, cited in D. Dupre, H1N1 October surprise prevention, October 21, 2009) and the released presidential and WHO reports predict that 50% of Americans could become infected with H1N1. There has not, nor ever been, "mandatory" vaccinations. You can always exclude ... of course, it means if there is an outbreak, your children might be asked to stay home from ***school for several weeks If this ever get's worse . News reports continue like something out of the Stephen King Novel The Stand , 28 deaths throughout California are being investigated, said state Public Health Director Dr. Ron Chapman. “Influenza activity in California is beginning to show a steady increase and is now considered to be widespread,” Chapman said.“Currently, there are more hospitalizations at this point than expected, based on historical trends.” The number of people admitted to hospital intensive care units with flu-like symptoms in Sacramento County ballooned from 10 a week ago to 37 on Friday, said county Department of Public Health spokeswoman Laura McCasland. It shows that the flu strain is vary contagious , if not "dangerous" , but no government agency is going to let the public get into a panic mood. What is odd is the that there is a "shortage" of the flu vaccine , if you want to panic . I have read some conflicting news  about  it. Even worse is that we don't know where the flu vaccines are manufactured , so here is a bit of a tip I found :

 Czech newspapers are questioning if the shocking discovery of vaccines contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus which were distributed to 18 countries by the American company Baxter were part of a conspiracy to provoke a pandemic.

The claim holds weight because, according to the very laboratory protocols that are routine for vaccine makers, mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible.

“The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses,” reports the Canadian Press.

Baxter flu vaccines contaminated with H5N1 - otherwise known as the human form of avian flu, one of the most deadly biological weapons on earth with a 60% kill rate - were received by labs in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia.

Initially, Baxter attempted to stonewall questions by invoking “trade secrets” and refused to reveal how the vaccines were contaminated with H5N1.

After increased pressure they then claimed that pure H5N1 batches were sent by accident. This was seemingly an attempt to quickly change the story and hide the fact that the accidental contamination of a vaccine with a deadly biological agent like avian flu is virtually impossible and the only way it could have happened was by willful gross criminal negligence.

According to a compiled translation from Czech newspaper stories, the media over there is asking tough questions about whether the contamination was part of a deliberate attempt to start a pandemic.

“Was this just a criminal negligence or it was an attempt to provoke pandemia using vaccination against flu to spread the disease - as happened with the anti-B hepatitis vaccination with vaccines containing the HIV virus in US? - and then cash for the vaccines against H5N1 which Baxter develops?

How could on Earth a virus as H5N1 come to the ordinary flu vaccines? Don’t they follow even basic precautions in the American Pharma companies?” states the translation.

 My Concluding words to this:

Well, as a whole, anything to come out of China in the past few years has either been declared toxic or recalled for various reasons. Remember baby formula with melamine in it? If anything, that alone—not knowing where vaccines were manufactured—ought to be the absolute reason why parents should reject vaccinations for their darling infants, toddlers, teens, and themselves. The death knell of vaccines—maybe? It gets scarier by the moment, I’d say. No one knows what could or will be found in vaccines made in a country where manufacturing standards apparently are lacking greatly than those in countries where vaccines currently are manufactured, and still are causing dreadful health problems for those receiving them. 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

*** There was a "report" about a school  that sent a letter home to staffers and parents blaming the mishap on the school nurse. But if they weren't injecting people with a useless vaccine for a non-pandemic, none of this would have happened in the first place. (Editor's note: The press originally reported this story as "children" being injected with insulin, but they later changed their report to "staffers." This paragraph has been updated to reflect that change.) Getting a flu vaccination year after year may make people more susceptible to getting the flu, according to studies highlighted by the National Vaccine Information Center. Worse, it helps spread H1N1, acording to some independent scientists. Could they be right? Could this be why the 2009 H1N1 ”pandemic” is back with a vengeance?