The WORST CASE scenario : The middle-east.

Nostradamus may have had somethings
right , but it all depends on
how You interpret him.

A few weeks ago I was reading up on my (1)>  NOSTRADAMUS .Nostradamus (1503-1566) came from a Jewish family that converted to Catholicism before his birth. As he grew up, he studied medicine and astrology. He became a respected physician in Aix, the capital of Provence, France, for minimizing the number of deaths from bubonic plague among local residents.When he began studying the occult, he wrote an almanac, which was a fashionable thing to do in the day. Soon nobility and other prominent persons began asking him for horoscopes and psychic advice. With this success, he continued to write a new almanac each year.  Several years ago just before and after September 11, 2001. There were numerous astrologers that were peering into the future , not as much as conjecture  & speculation that something was coming . September 11 , 2001 seems a bit strange to me , and there has been conspiracy buffs that have written some off beat stuff , but sure the 911 report cleared any false theories that it was our government who was behind it.  ANYHOW what I am about to write is a bit disturbing , and it could happen by chance , but this is as simple as (3) > SOOTHSAYING'S  . This concerns the terrorist Islamic State . I have for a long time have tried to place the Islamic State in some biblical kinda setting in what bible prophecy . Events in the middle-east are in the worst shape ever . It's hard to imagine that it is not going to get worse . Sorry to say , but the American Obama administration is naive , what the Iraq invasion under Bush II did basically is to plant the "seed" of a potential serious enough war in the middle-east that will involve (2)> Russia , Europe , United States and China . ( Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran will be involved ) It may be the big war . Those powers along with the United States will descend to fight against the Islamic State . YOU MIGHT ask HOW did this happen? So I am going to tell you . Its not easy to swallow .

The Fall of Palmyra . Syria.
The fall of the Assad Regime is coming , but it has great consequences for America and Russia the two powers that played a chess game over the years with the politics of the region . The conquest of Palmyra is a great alarm , it a warning that they are going to Damascus next . I am assuming that now Assad will appeal for help from the Russian government . The Russian's under Putin will send arms , perhaps a Russian naval ship will be near the coast of Syria . (4)> We have entered the endgame in Syria. That doesn't mean that we have reached the end by any means, but it does mean that the precondition has been met for the fall of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad . It seems the Russians began calculating the end for the regime some time ago. Russia continued to deliver ammunition and other supplies to Syria but pulled back on a delivery of helicopters. Several attempts to deliver the helicopters "failed" when British insurers of the ship pulled coverage. That was the reason the Russians gave for not delivering the helicopters, but obviously the Russians could have insured the ship themselves.With the fall of Palmyra (Tadmur in Arabic) in Syria and Ramadi, east of Baghdad, to the Islamic State (IS), and the fall of the strategic town in the north of Syria – Jisr el Shughur – to the Jabhat el Nusra, the Middle East has entered a new phase in the disintegration of its nation-states. The fall of Ramadi and Palmyra came as a stunning surprise to both analysts and intelligence agencies (including the United States) who only a few weeks ago claimed that IS had been contained. After the Iraqi forces’ recapture of Tikrit in April 2015, it seemed as if it was the beginning of the “reconquista” against the Sunni jihadist organization that had also suffered from the loss of several top commanders and the incapacitation of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  Reports claimed he was unable to lead and conduct the Islamic State’s affairs following a severe injury in March 2015. The U.S. administration was taken by surprise by IS attacks (as it was in the Saudi attacks on Yemen), and described the fall of Ramadi as a “set back.”3The policy of countering IS by air attacks has proven to be faulty (the failure to support the Iraqi forces in Ramadi was attributed by some to a sandstorm that grounded aircraft4). Stopping short of being involved in ground attacks against IS, the U.S. has decided to assist the Iraqi Army by providing more weapons, mainly anti-tank weapons meant to stop at a distance suicide bombers’ vehicles sent in a first wave against Iraqi positions, preceding the engagement of the IS troops. With Syria being carved up , the fall of Damascus nearing means another big war is coming.

The worst Case Scenario. 

Destroyed: The 1,900-year-old Lion of Al-Lat statue
(pictured before ISIL seized *** Palmyra)
 is said to have been destroyed by the terrorists. The celebrated
monument was built as a tribute to a pre-Islamic Arab goddess.
The fall of Syrian city of Palmyra marks
a fearful turning point .

Let's say its the year 2017 . The Syrian Assad regime is overthrown by the Islamic State . Assad is captured and killed by Islamic Jihads  ( whom the US Government sent weapons as "freedom fighters") . After the Islamic  (ISIL) conquers all of Syria . They next feast their eyes on :Lebanon, and Jordan . Lebanon falls in the year 2018 .  With the "conquest" of Syria . The terrorists gain access to the weapons of mass destruction that Assad had in his arsenal. I am speaking of the chemical weapons .  I am asking my self , can this possibility happen ? For me it seems as a yeas. You can almost predict how the political map will emerge from looking at things now . First of all half of the Syrian nation is controlled by ISIL. Worst of all I say to predict by 2020 the Iraqi Capital of Baghdad will fall under the Islamic State black banner. As I have said the American government is shackled to the point that it can't do nothing now . Remember the pot is boiling over for catastrophic UNLESS the major powers get a wake up CALL!  So how does this end ? OK , here it is and YOU will now have to open your eyes! . The Islamic State bombs Israel with Chemical weapons stolen from the long dead Assad Syrian regime . We all know that Israel will retaliate and get involved . This likely will draw the United States back to send troops on the ground , but it shall involve more nations of the (5)> "north" . Right now this stuff I am writing is a frighting scenario. I am worried .  We just have to just sit  and wait how long the middle-east will disintegrate  after President Obama leaves office.


NOTES AND COMMENTS:
(1): NOSTRADAMUS had some how "predicted" that most of the western powers will be fighting some Arab ( Muslim sect) in the future . He clearly names them as the "Sect of Adaluncatif" . Mentioned in NOSTRADAMUS QUATRAIN X 961568 Lyon Benoist Rigaud. X.96. Original text of 1568 edition

Religion du nom des mers vaincra,

Contre la secte fils Adaluncatif,

Secte obstinee deploree craindra,

Des deux blessez par Aleph & Aleph.

                        The sect with sea-like name shall victory gain

                        Against the heirs of Abdalah Caliph.

                        The stubborn sect deplored shall fear the twain,

                        Wounded alike by Aleph and Alif.

Aleph and Alif might signify a major division in the Arabs as far as which sect of Muslims they belong to his book of 1,000 quatrains—a quatrain being four lines of a poetic stanza—which he called The Prophecies. This work was first published in 1555. In it, he deliberately mixed words from different languages, which made his predictions so vague as to make them impossible to use in predicting the future. It was only after an event that people could try to link what he had written with what had occurred.Nostradamus’ obscure style—which made understanding anything in advance impossible—also prevented others from declaring him a fraud and a false prophet. Furthermore, he was careful not to practice any magic arts in order to avoid being executed by the Catholic Church.The Mention of a "Caliph" is interesting for me to match it with the Islamic State Caliphate that now is growing in the land of the two rivers . For Bible Students the anti-christian nature of the Caliphate demonstrates  who the potential that the Antichrist really is. (2). The NORTHERN POWERS who will fight the Caliphate were disused by Nostradamus , named with one cryptic word   Aquilon, seven years of war :

And all these Eastern Kings will be chased, overthrown and exterminated, but not altogether, by means of the forces of the Kings of the North, and because of the drawing near of our age through the three secretly united in the search for death, treacherously laying traps for one another. This renewed Triumvirate will last for seven years, and the renown of this sect will extend around the world. The sacrifice of the hole and immaculate Wafer will be sustained. *** In one of the first images the world has seen of Palmyra since ISIL militants seized the ancient city last week, a black ISIL flag flutters above the 2,000-year-old Roman city's theater. The Jihadist media outlet Welayat Homs released the image on Thursday.An ISIL commander has reportedly claimed that the extremist group will not destroy the ancient ruins — but said that they would "pulverize" any statues in the city.(3)> Scientifically it's hard to make predictions , some have fail'd you might say that most of the predictions are just gibberish . The BIBLE condemns all forms of divination . Note this saying "  and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead ...... " (4)> With the fall of Ramadi and Palmyra the outlines of a new map of the Middle East are starting to take form. The Arab-nation states are trying to oppose this trend: Saudi Arabia and its allies are fighting this development in Yemen; Egypt is trying to create an all-Arab intervention force to deal with Libyan quagmire; while the Sahel countries are also trying to organize militarily to counter the IS and Al-Qaeda threat in their areas of Africa.(5)> The King of the North , and the King of the South . Daniel 11:40 : 39"He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over the many, and will parcel out land for a price. 40"At the end time the king of the South will collide with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, with horsemen and with many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them and pass through. 41"He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon.…

2015: A SPACE ODYSSEY , Part 6.

Pluto's moons seen by NEW HORIZONS.

Count down : 51 days , 12 hours and 46 minutes . The NEW HORIZON's mission is nearing the mysterious dwarf planet . It was way back in July 2013 that New Horizons first saw Pluto’s large moon Charon. Now the space probe is only 77 million miles from Pluto . It is for me an exciting time in my interest in astronomy way back as a "kid" when I saw images of the first Pioneer probes of Jupiter and Saturn , they were followed by Voyager's 1 and 2 . They are part of the grand tour of the outer solar system . These NASA probes began with the Moon , Mercury , Venus and Mars . *** 30 years later ( that's how long it took) we have learned a great deal about these worlds. In MANY ways I feel sad that Pluto is the last stop . Currently the Saturn -Cassini mission is orbiting Saturn , a good billion miles away. New Horizons’ most sensitive camera, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), acquired the images of Kerberos and Styx shown here from April 25-May 1. Each observation consists of five 10-second exposures that have been added together to make the image in the left panel. Images were extensively processed to reduce the bright glare of Pluto and Charon and largely remove the dense field of background stars (center and right panels). This reveals the faint satellites, whose positions and orbits – along with those of brighter moons Nix and Hydra – are given in the right panel. Kerberos and Styx were discovered in

Pluto and Charon seen by
New Horizons  ( May 1st) .

2011 and 2012, respectively, by New Horizons team members using the Hubble Space Telescope. Styx, circling Pluto every 20 days between the orbits of Charon and Nix, is likely just four to 13 miles (approximately seven to 21 kilometers) in diameter, and Kerberos, orbiting between Nix and Hydra with a 32-day period, is just six to 20 miles (approximately 10 to 30 kilometers) in diameter. Each is 20 to 30 times fainter than Nix and Hydra. The latest images taken by NASA’s New Horizons‘ Long Range Reconnaissance Orbiter (LORRI) instrument show intriguing dark and light patches on the surface of Pluto, including a bright region that could be a polar cap. These latest round of pictures come at a time when the spacecraft is fast approaching its flyby of the far-flung and frozen world.The images were taken over a single  (1)> Pluto ‘day’, which equals 6.5 Earth days, between April 12 and 18, at thirteen separate times, as the spacecraft traveled from 69 million miles (111 million km) to 64 million miles (104 million km) in Pluto’s direction.Two movies were made out of the images, which were magnified three times—one showing Pluto and its large moon Charon rotating around their center of mass, known as a barycenter, as the system completed one full rotation, and the other keeping the center of Pluto fixed in the frame.From May 8-14, LORRI will conduct high resolution observations, taking eight high resolution images per visit two or three times a day.Imaging will be halted between May 15 and 27 to allow downlinking of all the data collected, which will then be made into another movie.Daily observations of Pluto will begin on May 28, with images getting better as the spacecraft approaches the planet.

Observations of the Dwarf Planet Ceres.

close ever yet of  Ceres , and the Bright Spots.
This is not the Moon folks.

Well the MYSTERY deepens in regards to the dwarf planet Ceres . The BRIGHT spots are such a puzzle . Reports from NASA are inconclusive . (3)>  UFO theorists say that we are looking at some ALIEN BASE on Ceres ?? Volcano's ..... we are not even close enough as the Dawn Mission probe stands at a mere pace of 4,700 miles from Ceres. The puzzling white spots on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres are definitely reflecting sunlight, scientists said, but the cause of the marks remains a mystery.The newest batch of images from the Dawn spacecraft, which began orbiting Ceres on March 6, was released May 15. The data gleaned from these images has increased Dawn scientists' confidence that the white spots are caused by reflected sunlight, and that idea can help them narrow down the possible candidates for the spots' contents. "Dawn scientists can now conclude that the intense brightness of these spots is due to the reflection of sunlight by highly reflective material on the surface — possibly ice," Christopher Russell, principal investigator for the Dawn mission, said in a statement from NASA.Hints of the white spots on Ceres were seen almost a decade ago in images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, said Marc Rayman, chief engineer for the Dawn mission. But prior to Dawn's approach of Ceres, scientists were able to say very little about what the white spots might be. As Dawn has provided increasingly better images of these regions, Dawn scientists have stated that the spots appear to be reflections of sunlight.These new photos show additional differentiation between the glowing spots, and actually make the case for ice somewhat stronger. Dawn entered orbit of Ceres back in March, but has been moving in closer since then. (2)>  The new surface images were taken from an altitude of 4,500 miles (7,200 km) with a resolution of 2,250 feet (700 meters) per pixel. For reference, the crater containing the glowing objects is about 57 miles across.The only thing astronomers can say for sure at this point is that the glowing spots are some sort of reflective substance on the surface.The aliens should turn their lights off, they are destroying their ozone layer. I bet some left wing tree hugger would lecture them something like that on any first encounter. Theories have renaged from reflective ice patches or signs of ice volcanoes, or cryovolcanos, which form on icy moons or asteroids, erupting contaminated water which solidifies, instead of magma, to more far-fetched ones including it being an alien space station like the Star (4)> Wars Death Star. The "spots"  have been a subject of speculation. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently launched a website inviting members of the public to join in the debate over the nature of the bright spots. So I am going to give my opinion on them .

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

*** Disturbing thought of the year: an entire lifetime's dream, and over nine years' travel smashed! -- by an unforeseen opaque cloud layer (however multicolored!) covering Pluto's entire surface (as with Venus and Titan). But with these new images coming in, I AM starting to realize: there may be hope yet! If we DO see any surface features, well then that in itself would be a cause for celebration!( 1)>In addition to the polar cap, these images reveal changing brightness patterns from place to place as Pluto rotates, presumably caused by large-scale dark and bright patches at different longitudes on Pluto's surface. In all of these images, a mathematical technique called "deconvolution" is used to improve the resolution of the raw LORRI images, restoring nearly the full resolution allowed by the camera's optics and detector. (2)> Yet the jumpy video shown above of Ceres spinning on its axis shows the same level of brightness when it comes out of the sun's shadow as when it is in full sunlight and again when it returns to shadow. That cannot be. Have the scientists measured the light coming from these spots at each "jump" in the picture? If it behaves as reflected light would, then it helps reinforce the theory (indeed, probably confirms it), but if as it appears there is no change in brightness, then it rather suggests that these spots are actually the source of the light. I'd have thought all this was obvious, but the article doesn't touch in it. Could someone suggest this as an approach to these dumb scientists and ask for the results? (3)> Ever since news of the lights spread, UFO hunters have speculated they could be light sources made by alien inhabitants, with the more bizarre theories including it signalling Ceres is actually a well-hidden alien space station. News of lights being more widespread has only feulled this with one speculator commenting on an online forum that "It could be that these are like the lights of cities on earth which are visible from space" and that Dawn may be about to discover something "historic". (4)> UFO Sighting Daily's Scott Waring said they were either electric lights or massive reflectors on a pair of massive doors leading to an underground alien space station.  He believes the lights are beacons to guide alien space ships approaching the entrance to an underground station. Other conspiracy theorists believe it is simply a method used by aliens that were trying to establish contact with other civilizations.

California : the "un-liveable" State.

California's Gov. Jerry Brown just released his May "revise" . With state revenues running $6.7 billion more than predicted in January’s preliminary budget, Democrats in the Legislature were looking to restore some of the billions in social service cuts made during the bleak years of the recession. There lots of money ,sure that revenues are up.California has become a mess over the last decade  and it is now completely controlled by hard core leftist Democrats in the state legislature who have bankrupt the state in the past while living like royalty at taxpayer's expense.Whenever a free-market research or business group releases a “best and worst” list of states, my eye goes straight to the bottom: To see whether California is last or was edged out for the lowest rank by one of the other mismanaged liberal bastions. Illinois seems to exist to boost the self-esteem of Californians.California and its cities can probably put New York to shame. San Franciscans ban McDonald’s Happy Meals and plastic bags even as they debate bizarre “freedoms,” such as the right to walk around in public naked. After much bad publicity, a state assembly committee recently rejected a “homeless bill of rights” that would have, until amended, established a constitutional right to “engage in life sustaining activities that must be carried out in public spaces.” In other words, it would have established a right to urinate in public. ***The BIGGEST problem with California is the fact that it's hard to live in this state .Why in the world would anyone want to live in the state of California at this point?  The entire state is rapidly becoming a bright, shining example of everything that is wrong with America.  While the money is flowing to Sacramento from honest tax payers , the money never goes to any infrastructure repairs . California roads are crumbling . Worst of all there is no affordability housing ,  (1)> most homes are selling near a 1 million dollars . Another piece that look with scrutiny is why is any part of the budget going to address the drought ? Gov. Jerry Brown recently ordered a 25% cut in water use in urban areas, and there are new rules for watering lawns and golf courses. The California’s debt levels, which crush public services and lead to demands for higher taxes. A new California Public Policy Center report found that “the outstanding debt owed by California’s state and local governments, using responsible actuarial assumptions, is almost certainly in excess of $1.0 trillion.” 

California's cost of living .

California , like wise the whole  "bay area" is a terrible place to buy groceries , each county has it's own taxes on purchases . You have your state tax superimposed on the county tax . So between 8 % to 11.5 % on sales often makes buying food lousy .Bay Area shoppers pay steeper prices at the grocery store than people who live much farther from farms. The fact that milk costs more in San Francisco than Washington, D.C., might, on the surface, be the most surprising finding. California, after all, produces more milk than any other state, and milk is highly perishable, meaning timing and temperature during transport are critical.However, only a small fraction of California's milk supply is kept fluid, with the vast majority converted to frozen or soft products like ice cream, yogurt, cheese and butter that can be more easily exported.And because milk prices are regulated and the commodity is relatively inexpensive, retail stores in California generally don't attempt to compete aggressively on the basis of milk prices.One confounding example is that of new regulations on the sale of eggs,  took effect in 2015. It's generally accepted that the rule, which will require more space for each egg-laying hen, will add costs at the farm level. But it remains to be seen what will happen to egg prices when what is currently a specialty product becomes the standard for everybody.Why are prices up to 40% too high across the board, why real wages are flat for most Americans for the past 40 years and why wealth is so obscenely concentrated in the hands of so few and why one of the greatest pits for your taxes in paying off interest on government debt to the private tax avoiding money changers? *** The 1.4 million people who left CA for other states is the NET domestic migration (migration between states). In other words, during that 8 year time frame, perhaps one million from other states moved to California, and 2.4 million left. And sadly, the people who left were the very people we need in CA -- the young, the educated, the entrepreneurial -- and the wealthy. (1)> California has the greatest number of overpriced cities on our list (nine), with San Jose the highest-ranking Golden State metro area (No. 4). In the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA, according to NAHB figures, only 26% of homes are affordable to families bringing home the median income of $101,300. (The median home sales price was $625,000 in Q4 2013.) “In areas in California where salaries are high, demand is high, and building activity is restricted, prices are high,” says Cynthia Kroll, chief economist for the Bay Area Association of Governments. Housing affordability is even worse in San Jose’s northern neighbor, San Francisco, where the median family making $101,200 can afford only 14.1% of local homes (median sales price for Q14 2013: $800,000) according to NAHB data. In fact, that ranks San Francisco dead last in terms of housing affordability among the cities we evaluated for this list. The only reason San Francisco comes out less overpriced than Silicon Valley is that greater San Jose’s lower home prices were offset with higher costs for daily expenses. Groceries are 20% above the national average (compared to SF’s 16.2%), utilities 24.2% (compared to 7.6% lower than the national average in San Francisco); Silicon Valley also has a slight advantages in transportation and health care costs. But we’ll admit that the difference in our scores for these places is fairly minimal.- 4th highest capital gains tax at 9.55 percent

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***There’s a wide range of sales tax rates in California, some rates are increasing this week and if pending legislation is successful, the range will get even wider.Currently, sales tax rates range from as low as 7.5 percent in a few rural counties to as high as 10 percent in some cities.The state collects 6.5 percent – 4.1875 percent for itself, then another 2.3125 percent that it automatically sends to schools and local governments for specific purposes. On top of that, another .25 percent is collected for county transportation services and another .75 percent for city and county operations.(1)> When it comes to real estate, we know that Californians enjoy drinking from the gold cup of mania. Lusting over real estate seems to be as common as traffic on the 405. People in California have a deep rooted cultural and economic amnesia. I bet half the population has very little idea regarding the history of many cities in Southern California. Heck, most don’t even know where their drinking water comes from. So trying to discuss Fed policy, skewing based on investors, or market manipulation with a large portion of people is like talking to your dog about Hemmingway. Some people only understand “real estate goes up!” and when it doesn’t, they only understand “buying is bad!” California real estate is overvalued by most economic measures. Sure, people are willing to pay insane prices but they did this as well in 2006 and 2007 and people also paid crazy prices for tech companies in a previous delusion based boom. Investors are pulling back because they simply don’t perceive value at current prices. We are now seeing more reports putting a price on how overvalued the region is. Fitch Ratings and Trulia both point to SoCal as being massively overpriced. In fact, Fitch Ratings has Orange County overvalued by a whopping 30 percent. Congratulations to Orange County for being the most overpriced county in the entire United States.

Iraq Knowing What We Know Now.

"Those are two different questions; it was not a mistake," Rubio said. "The question was whether it was a mistake, and my answer was it was not a mistake. I still say it was not a mistake, because the president was presented with intelligence that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ... [Bush] made the right decision based on what he knew at that time. We learned subsequently that information was wrong. My answer is, at the time, it appears the intelligence was wrong." Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) struggled to reconcile past statements he has made about the 2003 invasion of Iraq with an answer on whether he thought the decision to invade was a mistake during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." Jeb ***Bush For days, he had offered confusing answers to questions about the war in Iraq. He had disappointed Republicans in Iowa, the leadoff state in the nomination chase. The former Florida governor was trying to recover from what was undeniably his worst week in politics since announcing he was considering a run for the White House.Bush's response also fueled Democrats' preferred narrative of the former Florida governor: that he's an apologist for a brother who is viewed favorably by less than a third of Americans six years after leaving office. We bombed the hell out of Libya and handed it over to Al Qaeda. That's not an invasion? You mean because 0bama and Clinton claimed there were "no boots on the ground" when there actually were, not to mention bombers in the sky?Republicans most certainly opposed war in Syria and ultimately stopped 0bama's mad rush to war there, because they knew it would hand Syria to ISLAMIC STATE ....Well, everyone but  (1) >John McCain knew that. He flew to Syria and hung out with ISIL for a photo op. And he's probably mad that he and Obama didn't get their war in Syria. LAST year in 2014, (2)>  Glenn Beck led off his radio show on morning with a stirring monologue about all the ways he believes the left and right can come together to “heal” America. As part of that, Beck suggested that perhaps all Americans can come together to recognize the blunder that was invading and occupying Iraq in 2003 — an act that he now regrets having supported. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Tuesday that he would not have invaded Iraq in 2003 if he were President at the time and knew what we know in hindsight. Christie's comment came after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) caused a stir for his own comments about the Iraq War. When Fox News' Megyn Kelly asked him in an interview that aired Monday whether he would have authorized the invasion of Iraq knowing "what we know now," Bush responded "I would have." The problem Republicans like Christie have is that "knowing what we know now..." is  (3)>the same intelligence that Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz "knew" then. They were briefed by the  (4)>Clinton team and they even had the PDB indicating that bin Laden would strike. For Mrs. Clinton in 2008, mishandling what her opponent Barack Obama called “the biggest foreign policy disaster of a generation” created an opening for him and ultimately helped undermine her campaign.They were running the intelligence community then and they failed...miserably and it cost more than 3,000 lives in the Twin Towers and more than 4,500 soldiers' lives. In this case, as well as John Ellis Bush...hindsight is not 20/20. For these folks hindsight is totally blind...and they should be called on it.The real issue is not what Jeb said regarding the Iraq War but what he believes. If you wanna know what Jeb really believes don't be distracted by his recent claims of mishearing and mis-speaking in his answers regarding the Iraq War simply turn your attention to his team of Foreign Policy Advisors nearly all of which spearheaded and orchestrated the Iraq disaster during his brother's administration. A clear thinking individual whom truly believed that "mistakes where made" to the level they were made in Iraq would be hard pressed to reconvene the very same people responsible for those "mistakes". Perhaps it isnot only the relationship with his brother Jeb is having trouble navigating but a fear of offending his would be Cabinet if elected President that troubles Jeb the most. The IRONY here is if Jeb Bush is elected in 2016 he would have to deal with the Islamic State anyhow ,you might call it a "troubling" paradox for Jeb Bush as President he too like his father and brother would have to send troops in Iraq , and inherit the same curse ......................

NOTES AND COMMENTS :

*** BUSH . The Bush family is simply yesterday's news. He seems out of touch not only with his own party but also with the direction that country has moved over the last 10 years. Not too surprising. He's been living in a conservative bubble with no real interaction with most Americans. (1)> In 2013 Sen. McCain made his historic rip to Syria, The Arizona Republican made the trip from Turkey into Syria alongside Gen. Salam Idris, according to The Daily Beast, which first reported McCain’s visit. Idris leads the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army and accompanied McCain as they met with rebel leaders from throughout the country. Remember the "Free Syrian Army" later incorporated themselves with the Jihadists ie: Islamic State. (2)> Beck here lamamted just what bthe lawmakers at Washington D.C. are now saying. " Now, in spite of the things I felt at the time when we went into war, liberals said: We shouldn’t get involved. We shouldn’t nation-build. And there was no indication the people of Iraq had the will to be free. I thought that was insulting at the time. Everybody wants to be free. They said we couldn’t force freedom on people. Let me lead with my mistakes. You are right. Liberals, you were right. We shouldn’t have." (3)> Having Christie and Cruz, two guys at opposite poles of the party, give the same answer to this question is all the proof you need that it’s the “correct” answer politically, even in a primary filled with hawkish voters. That goes double for Jeb Bush since the Iraq albatross around his neck is twice as heavy as it is for everyone else; there’s a reason why he’s been telling audiences for months that “I’m my own man.” And yet, having seen this question twice now from two friendly-ish interviewers in Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity, knowing that it’s the one topic more than any other on which he needs a very good answer, Bush whiffed.Christie said that he believed former President George W. Bush did make "the best decision he could at the time" given the information coming from the U.S. intelligence community and the situation on the ground in Iraq."Well, no...no he didn't.This was a man who literally didn't know the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni and had to have the word "neocon" reduced to "Israel friendly" by James Baker to have the slightest grasp of the Mideast dynamics. So unprepared and incurious was he that delegated all the decisions to a coterie of advisers and Dick Cheney so he could focus on the "Big Picture" which, to him, was smirking and swaggering as a way to project strength and decisive leadership." (T)he information coming from the U.S. intelligence community" was a mix of honest assessment and manufactured- stovepiped- horseshit serving an agenda. I'm just a damned fool with a keyboard and I knew what was going on at the time yet we're still being sold this nonsense that it was just a legitimate misinterpretation of conflicting intel. (4) Clinton support for the Invasion of Iraq . Hillary Rodham Clinton, in 2002, declared that Saddam Hussein, "left unchecked will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security." (Associated Press) Eight years after Hillary Rodham Clinton was haunted by her Senate vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, another leading White House hopeful is struggling with questions about the war.

Carly Fiorina go home!

"Carly Fiorina go home!" My message to this wealthy woman . The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, whose only previous attempt at elected office was an unsuccessful 2010 bid to displace Sen. Barbara Boxer—going after Clinton for her is what Sarah Palin did for Obama. Such a waste of a character . First of all she needs to run for a public office that she could win .Fiorina doesn’t have a long political track record, aside from a failed run for the U.S. Senate in 2010 *** First she is not vary popular , she is listed as one of the " worst bosses" ever. Judging by a resume that consisted of 30,000 firings and a 50-percent HP stock decline, Fiorina is a sure shot for any worst CEO list. In 2001, she suggested employees take voluntary pay cuts, and while 86 percent agreed, she still outsourced thousands of jobs overseas and implemented huge layoffs. A 2008 article in Entrepreneur Magazine touched on the employee morale during Fiorina’s reign: "A survey of 8,000 employees revealed widespread unhappiness about poor communication and poorly implemented decisions...Some workers booed the CEO at company meetings.” As a now-official presidential candidate, there’s no way Carly Fiorina can ignore her tenure at Hewlett-Packard, which she ran as CEO for six tumultuous years before the board ousted her in 2005. (1)>  By that time, the company’s stock had lost about half its value and tens of thousands of people had lost their jobs. @ Fiorina registers near the bottom of polls of the dozen or so Republican hopefuls and has never held public office.But she has already attracted warm receptions at events in the early voting state of Iowa where she is positioning herself as a conservative, pro-business Republican highly critical of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. This logic (however gendered and arguably sexist) may well get Fiorina an initial hearing from the Republican electorate in the months to come. But if that initial hearing goes well, then the tough questions will begin: Why is she running for president? What is her essential message to GOP voters? And, beyond an ability to lambaste Clinton, is she actually a good messenger? Fiorina also expressed the "gender card" against Mrs. Clinton , “If Hillary Clinton were to face a [Republican] female nominee, there are a whole set of things that she won’t be able to talk about,” Ms. Fiorina told reporters Thursday at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. “She won’t be able to talk about being the first woman president. She won’t be able to talk about a war on women without being challenged.  She won’t be able to play the gender card.” Since she entered the 2016 presidential race, Fiorina has deftly managed to control the media narrative around her candidacy. The former CEO has assembled a crack team around her that managed to turn what might have been a bad news cycle into a success story. Fiorina was briefly mocked for failing to purchase a URL that could be linked to her campaign.  FAILURE. But then maybe Ms.Fiorina knows this feeling as well.  Be GLAD you LEFT Carly.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

*** Fiorina stated that she is qualified : “Yes, I am running for president. I think I’m the best person for the job because I understand how the economy actually works. I understand the world, who’s in it, how the world works,” she said. However "...and the 30,000 people you shit-canned know EXACTLY what kind of shit stain you'll leave this country...... @ Carly destroyed Bell Labs. Then she went on to run Hewlett Packard to the brink of bankruptcy before the board of directors fired her. Now she thinks she knows how to run the U.S. Government? She knows how the world works? She sure didn't know how HP worked. Had to resign. If she thinks a lousy record as a failed CEO is going to get her in the WH, she's going to be in for a surprise. What is it with this people who have a false sense of confidence? They get far in life, no matter how badly they do things or how bad their ideas really are. (1)> Fiorina laundry is dirty for example : Fiorina skipped California owing buckets of cash to her onetime pals. She owes $60,000 to former campaign manager Marty Wilson, who now works for the California Chamber of Commerce, and another $20,000 to his former communications firm. She shorted campaign counsel Ben Ginsberg, formerly of Patton Boggs, to the tune of $44,000. She owes $3,750 to a former press secretary, $5,000 to another communications aide and $7,500 to her erstwhile political director. She stiffed political consultant Joe Shumate, who died in 2010, to the tune of $30,000.

America's leap of Un-Faith .

The news reported that more and more Americans are leaving the ++ traditional churches (Christian). The Christian share of the U.S. population has been  declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the *** religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups.  and embracing no-faith can be ambiguous , a bit short sighted . There are reasons to why the "young , new millennial's" left .Almost every major branch of Christianity in the United States has lost a significant number of members, Pew found, mainly because millennials are leaving the fold. More than one-third of millennials now say they are unaffiliated with any faith, up 10 percentage points since 2007.The alacrity of their exodus surprises even seasoned experts. (3)>  Every American has a religion story, which is why it’s a little strange to think of America as an increasingly secular nation. That would be one way to read the  (1)> Pew Research Center’s new Religious Landscape Study, a massive survey of more than 35,000 American adults. Over the last seven years, it found, the share of Americans who aren’t part of any religion has grown significantly, rising from 16 to nearly 23 percent of the population. A small portion of this group are atheists and agnostics—3 and 4 percent, respectively. More commonly, though, they are detached from organized religion altogether. When asked what religion they identify with, they answer simply: “Nothing in particular.” All in all, roughly one in ten Americans say religion is “not at all important” to them. The Decline is not new , its been going on since the 1960's , but the poll numbers don't tell the entire story .The collapse of American Christianity can't simply be laid at the feet of religious leaders, I personally  blame the  (2)> Politicians who have mixed religion using it in a bigoted way , Fewer Christians because the far right has hi-jacked Christian identity as well as the GOP, making it less attractive to be identified as "Christian" if that also means bigoted, as the far right has painted them. Many in that group have not acted religious nor right. Instead of being inclusive to minorities groups they have made known their bigotry loud and clear. The more in tune Americans become including the younger folks, many, see thru all the smoke and mirrors that all of this is nothing more than a divide and conquer by politicians to connect with religious zealot voters to gain money in the churches, votes and power. 

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***See to discuss "religion" you're discussing numbers of religion, not numbers of adherents, because you're comparing ritual and belief. In the number of religions, monotheism is a tiny minority compared to the thousands of animist and polytheist faiths in history, many of which still exist. Small localized religion is the historic norm, not universal monotheism.(1)> The "seven" years of the Obama Administration you can say that Most Americans lost "faith" in the nations political system first . Most Bible Belt "rednecks" have lobbied Congress , but I am assuming that it's a backlash first of all .  The United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith.1 But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014.(2) >The politicians pretend that they care, pretend that they represent us, then they get into power and do...whatever suits their own personal goals. And we, the People, are stupid enough to still believe in the lie that this is not what is occurring around us, every day of the week.(3)> The Christian share of the population has been declining for decades, but the pace rivals or even exceeds that of the country’s most significant demographic trends, like the growing Hispanic population. It is not confined to the coasts, the cities, the young or the other liberal and more secular groups where one might expect it, either.+++ Americans embrace non traditional religions . What is the fastest growing religion in the United States?  If you said Christianity, you would be way off.  In fact, the most recent numbers show that Christianity is in a serious state of decline in America.  If you said Islam, you are much closer to a correct answer.  Islam is the fastest growing major religion in the United States.  But there is a faith that is growing even faster than Islam.  It is called Wicca, and it is currently growing at an astounding pace.The American Religious Identification Survey gives Wicca an average annual growth of 143% for the period 1990 to 2001 (from 8,000 to 134,000 – U.S. data / similar for Canada & Australia).  According to The Statesman Anne Elizabeth Wynn claims “The two most recent American Religious Identification Surveys declare Wicca, one form of paganism, as the fastest growing spiritual identification in America“. The "only" Christian faith that has show some "growth" ,  I am not being Bias here , but it's the Mormon Church . Why I don't know , but as the report says : A new survey shows that mainline Protestants, the religious group that has dominated America’s religious terrain for most of the country’s existence, and Catholics, the largest single denomination in the country, may be beginning to ceding size and influence to new religious groups. The 2012 Religious Congregations and Membership Survey (RCMS), released on May 1, shows that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (in other words, Mormonism) reported 2 million new adherents and new congregations in 295 counties where no Mormons lived a decade ago, making Mormonism the fastest-growing religious group in the United States. Muslims came in second, with growth of 1 million adherents in 197 new counties. ( on average 15 million claim to be Mormons).

The Clinton's on the Dark Side.

I have often wondered over the years about the Clinton's, and one of things I have noted is how powerful they seem . Over the last 20 years between the two Bush Presidencies , the Clinton images seem to have remained in the public mind. (1)> The Clinton presidency is still with the nation in ways that make it difficult to draw sound judgments about its lasting historical legacy. ***Whitewater scandal began with investigations into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal, in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.What happened way back in the 1980's is so vary mirrored   in the current Clinton Foundation scandal . There is so much which is utter suspicious about the Clinton's that it waved for me a red flag warning about them , that they are not just ordinary people . They may be hiding so much wealth that makes Mitt Romney an amateur . I wrote a few pieces that I believe Mrs. Clinton could possibly win in 2016, there is just a tip if the iceberg if she is elected as the first women President that a whole lot of the past will seep through floor . While the  Polls show that a size-able percentage of Americans distrust Hillary Clinton, with levels of suspicion only increasing in the wake of the recent controversy over her use of a personal email account and home brew server while serving as secretary of state: A Quinnipiac poll last week found that in three key swing states—Colorado, Virginia, and Iowa—between 49 and 56 percent of respondents think she's not honest or trustworthy, as Peter Schweizer’s book, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, hits the market, Hillary is utilizing the same defense while in New Hampshire. Asked specifically about the charges that the Clinton Foundation took cash while she was Secretary of State, and that administration policy magically changed in favor of those who gave the cash. It seem that in 1992 Bill Clinton Though his administration floundered at first, Clinton has quickly learned one aspect of Washington -- how to raise money from business interests. He has set records in fund-raising, eclipsing even Dole's huge haul (though not by much.) Of course, if Dole was President he would no doubt regain the lead.And some contributors seem to think their money is well spent. For example, Clinton raised over a quarter million dollars from ADM, Bob Dole's major benefactor, and pushed through a regulation benefiting them mightily.On the other hand, 2 Arkansas firms that formerly bankrolled Clinton (and received help from his administration) have switched their support to Dole -- both Tyson Chicken and Stephens investment brokers apparently figure Dole gives a better return per contribution dollar, or is more likely to win. A commonly mentioned weakness of a prospective candidacy is that the nation has Clinton Fatigue Syndrome: After eight years of the Clinton White House and another 16 where Bill and Hillary have both been major figures in American politics, people are ready to move on and get something new. But the two Clinton Fatigue categories—"Bill Clinton would be back in White House" and "Clinton scandals, baggage"—were only named as a top concern by a combined 5 percent of respondents. Just two percent named the much-hyped Benghazi flap.

The Clinton's created  America's problems.
The "loss" of American jobs began with Bill Clinton .

When Bill Clinton was President during those times than the nation called the feel good era , the 1990's . President Clinton laid the foundation of many of the Gordian knot type issues that our nation is struggling to unwind . many of his policies namely , the 'War on Drugs' was the child of the Clinton administration . Some of the most aggressive policies of incarceration , racial profiling , three strikes and your out laws were created during the Clinton era. School accountability for educators began under guess who? As strange as it may seem , the Clinton's were never really liberal at all.The Clinton's are bad news, period. Hillary has a bad record on the 1st, 2nd and 4th amendments. She voted for the war, before she started slandering U.S. troops and cutting funding. She believes in censorship, mandatory national health insurance, the drug war, seems hawkish about Iran, et cetera, et cetera, (NAFTA) et cetera. Not to mention the deceit and destructive politics we grew so fond of during Bill's time and continue to see today. In the New York Post, Charlie Gasparino uses the occasion to remind everyone that the seeds of our current economic malaise were planted during the Clinton years.Basically, it was under Clinton that Fannie and Freddie really began blowing the housing bubble, issuing epic amounts of mortgage-backed debt.Do those convention delegates, and the fawning media that were wowed by the former president’s rhetorical seductions, not recall that just before he left office Clinton signed off on the game-changing legislation that ended the sensible rules imposed on Wall Street during the Great Depression? It was Clinton who cooperated with the Republicans in reversing the legacy of FDR’s New Deal, opening the floodgates of unfettered avarice that almost drowned the world’s economy during the reign of George W. Bush.( Bush, Clinton and Bush, but the basic political and economic philosophy was Republican both Clinton and Blair adopted conservative policies for political reasons, and pushed their parties to the right). When President Bill Clinton signed off on the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade & Tariffs in 1993, otherwise known as (2).> NAFTA/GATT, he quite literally slashed the economic throat of the United States. We've been hemorrhaging jobs to foreign nations like Communist China ever since. Until 1993, the United States of America was the world's economic king, and our people enjoyed the highest standard of living in recorded history. But NAFTA/GATT changed all that by virtually removing all trade protections that ensured our general prosperity. Compared to the United States, labor costs in China, Indonesia and similar nations were substantially lower than what U.S. workers earned. NAFTA/GATT allowed our corporations and U.S. entrepreneurs to move their manufacturing technology overseas and take advantage of the reduced costs of doing business, while avoiding our former trade protections that made such a move prior to NAFTA/GATT unprofitable. For those enterprises that made the move overseas right away, there was nothing but exorbitant profits to be made. What could be better for a typical American manufacturer? You get to avoid all U.S. payroll taxes, worker's compensation costs and environmental regulations and hurdles. You no longer have to deal with unions and provide employee benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. You get to manufacture in China, Indonesia and similar foreign nations to your heart's content, and you still get to sell your products to the U.S. consumer at the same or nearly the same cost as before. Those who benefited are the stockholders of these firms and their top CEOs and CFOs. If you had money to invest before NAFTA/GATT, your returns on the investments spiked. But if you are just the typical middle-class American family with an average $9,000.00 per month credit card balance and little or no savings except what's in your 401k, you didn't have the chance to participate in that gold rush. You were blind-sided and left behind, and the immediate effect of NAFTA/GATT was for around five million people who had high-paying, family wage paying manufacturing jobs to lose them to low-wage workers overseas. The long-term effect of NAFTA/GATT just emerged in the form of Circuit City firing 3,400 of its highest paid employees for the publicly announced purpose of hiring replacements who will work for substantially less. One of the major points I tried to drive home was that the standard of living in the United States would be drawn down by NAFTA/GATT, while the nations that now host those manufacturing jobs will see a modest gain. Where China is concerned, everything is relative, and relative to the standard of living China had before NAFTA/GATT, the Chinese people are experiencing a surge on par with the typical American family of the 50s, with a modest home and one car, but it represents a vast improvement over what they had before. We've all heard stories of how people who once held higher-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs are now working two or three service jobs. Now we see that a major employer of service positions is forcing their highest paid workers out while bringing in people who will do the same job for less. Walmart has been doing that for years, although not blatantly. The shameless announcement by Circuit City is blatant, and there will be little if any backlash. The presently unemployed or under-paid employed will happily fill those Circuit City positions, and after a nice 10-week interlude, those former Circuit City employees can apply to get hired back at the reduced wage too. What does that tell you? Now, service employers domiciled in the United States, who have no union entanglements, are embarking on a quest to force American wages down to increase corporate profits. So again we see the only beneficiaries will be those who can still make investments, and those employed at the top of the corporate ladders ­ the very wealthiest Americans. The rest make up those often referred to now as, "The Shrinking Middle Class", but that's a misnomer. Considering a burgeoning debt level and a lack of personal savings not seen since the Great Depression, these people are the "New Poor" who just don't know it yet. They still have their expensive cars and nice homes for now, but they can't draw any more equity from their homes through refinancing, so they are adding to their credit card debt just to pay for basics like clothing and groceries. In case you missed the latest report, it is common for average American families to spend 110% or more of their actual income, year after year, and that trend is impossible to sustain. At one point or another, those at-risk families are going to hit the wall and lose just about everything, and in many cases they will be denied the right to discharge their debts through Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, due to the Bankruptcy Reform Bill pushed by the credit card companies and signed into law by President Bush. You may be unaware that the largest single contributors to Bush 43's election campaigns were predatory credit card companies, who saw this day coming from long distance and made sure they were insulated from the fallout when it hit. 

Current Clinton problems.

(1)> Bill and Hillary Clinton helped raise more than $1 billion from U.S. companies and industry donors during two decades on the national stage through campaigns, paid speeches and a network of organizations advancing their political and policy goals, The Wall Street Journal found. It's interesting to note how much of a global impact the Clinton's have had , its not just money and donations . Those deep ties potentially give Mrs. Clinton a financial advantage in the 2016 presidential election, , and could bring industry donors back to the Democratic Party for the first time since Mr. Clinton left the White House. A handful of deep-pocketed donors are reconsidering their gifts to the $2 billion Clinton Foundation amid mounting questions about how it’s spending their money and suggestions of influence peddling, according to donors and others familiar with the foundation’s fundraising.Criminal investigators may want to check under the enormous bags under Hillary's eyes for more illegal, undisclosed foreign donations. Clearly, the stress of spinning her criminal activities and driving the Scuby Van at high speeds to escape questions from the press is stressing her out. Why would a rich 68 year old woman want to run for president when she has a new grandchild to play with? She MUST WIN the presidency so that she's not prosecuted for the biggest laundry list of crimes I've ever seen, that's why.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***The "Clinton Body Count" Conspiracy theory postulates that the deaths of dozens of Americans allegedly associated with the former president William Jefferson Clinton can only be explained as homicides. The underlying assumption of the conspiracy theory is that the mortality rate among friends and associates of Clinton is higher that what would be predicted by the laws of statistical probability. Conspiracy theorists use the term "Arkanicide" (based on Clinton's home state) to describe the allegedly mysterious deaths. The sinister version of the Conspiracy theory posits that the Clinton played a direct role in the murder of some or all of his associated. The more benign version argues that individuals or groups working without the knowledge or approval of Clinton are responsible for the deaths. Admitting an inability to link Clinton to many of the deaths. Linda Thompson, who developed the original body count list, hypothesized that "people trying to control the president" are responsible for the deaths.The Clinton Body Count originated as a list of thirty-four suicides, accidental deaths, and unsolved murders posted by Thompson in 1994 on a website entitled "The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death." Thompson is a conservative activist who quit her one-year-old Indianapolis general law practice in 1993 in order to start and run the American Justice Federation. According to Thompson, Clinton was directly connected to twenty-eight of the thirty-four individuals on her list. Thompson described as "collateral deaths" an additional four people on the list who allegedly died because of their relationship with an associate of Clinton's, and also included on the list, two individuals (James Bunch and John Wilson) with a possible connection to Clinton.Former Republican representative William Dannemeyer brought the conspiracy theory to the attention of the U.S. political elite by mailing a letter to the congressional leadership, with copies going to all the members of both chambers of congress in 1994. In the letter Dannemeyer identified twenty-four individuals associated with Clinton who had died under "Other that natural circumstances." Most of the named listed by Dannemeyer in the letter could be found on the website maintained by Thompson. Arguing that the number of suspicious deaths "has reached a total that can only be described as frightening." Dannemeyer called for congressional hearings into the deaths.21, total confirmed deaths of persons connected to Clinton in the past year. All of these people died of unnatural causes. Four were shot, 17 were killed in crashes of helicopters or air-planes.  The statistical probabilities of Clinton knowing 21 people, all of whom died either in accidents or under mysterious circumstances in less than a year's time, is virtually zero.(1)> The No. 1 concern Americans have about an administration run by former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is that she is not qualified. This despite the fact that her resume would make her easily the best-qualified Oval Office holder on paper since George H.W. Bush. And before Bush, it's a long way back to anyone else on par: Nixon, perhaps? Eisenhower, though he had little domestic experience? FDR? (1)> Former Secretary of State Clinton has been dogged by questions about her foundation's fundraising practices. Paul and others have harshly criticized the $2 billion foundation for accepting donations from oppressive governments, and the foundation broke an agreement it had made with the White House by accepting $500,000 from Algeria when Clinton was secretary of state.(2)>When President Bill Clinton signed off on the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Trade & Tariffs in 1993, otherwise known as NAFTA/GATT, he quite literally slashed the economic throat of the United States. We've been hemorrhaging jobs to foreign nations like Communist China ever since.Until 1993, the United States of America was the world's economic king, and our people enjoyed the highest standard of living in recorded history. But NAFTA/GATT changed all that by virtually removing all trade protections that ensured our general prosperity.