Thoughts about Planet "9".

What’s a planet, exactly?  Astronomers claim to have found “good evidence” of a (***)>>mysterious ninth planet in the far reaches of the outer Solar System,  which they believe has for decades escaped ...Today, two scientists announced evidence that a body nearly the size of Neptune—but as yet unseen—orbits the sun every 15,000 years. During the solar system’s infancy 4.5 billion years ago, they say, the giant planet was knocked out of the planet-forming region near the sun. Slowed down by gas, the planet settled into a distant elliptical orbit, where it still lurks today The claim is the strongest yet in the centuries-long search for a “Planet X” beyond Neptune. The quest has been plagued by far-fetched claims and even outright quackery. California Institute of Technology (Caltech) astronomer Michael Brown and planetary scientist Konstantin Batygin released a report on (1)>>The Astronomical Journal on Jan. 20 saying that they may have found evidence that supports the possibility of another planet in our solar system. The researches came to this conclusion after observing a cluster of Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) that seem to be following a certain orbit and the only explanation is that they are orbiting a distant exoplanet. "We have found evidence that there’s a giant planet in the outer solar system," astronomer and "Pluto Killer" Mike

Brown told Popular Science. "By 'giant' we mean the size of Neptune, and when we say 'outer solar system' we mean 10 to 20 times farther away than Pluto."Since 2003, Brown and other astronomers have discovered six new dwarf planets orbiting on the fringe of the (2)>>Kuiper Belt. They all appear to follow a similar orbital pattern, albeit a really strange one. Well, for one thing, it’s not definitively a planet just yet. For now, (3)>>Planet 9 is a bunch of clues that all seem – to the eyes of the researchers following it – to point in the direction of a previously-unknown planet. Scientists are extrapolating a possible conclusion from odd data they have collected. Which is definitely not the same thing as coming to a firm conclusion.Even if Batygin and Brown can convince other astronomers that Planet X exists, they face another challenge: explaining how it ended up so far from the sun. At such distances, the proto planetary disk of dust and gas was likely to have been too thin to fuel planet growth. And even if Planet X did get a foothold as a planetesimal, it would have moved too slowly in its vast, lazy orbit to hoover up enough material to become a giant Instead, Batygin and Brown propose that Planet X formed much closer to the sun, alongside Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Computer models have shown that the early solar system was a tumultuous billiards table, with dozens or even hundreds of planetary building blocks the size of Earth bouncing around. Another embryonic giant planet could easily have formed there, only to be booted outward by a gravitational kick from another gas giant. How Planet 9 found itself in so remote a place is unclear. It’s unlikely that it formed in situ, essentially coalescing out of the primordial cloud of dust and gas that formed the rest of the solar system, since there probably would not have been enough raw material to form so big a world out that far. Rather, the new planet might have accreted closer in like the other planets, and then been ejected by their gravitational forces. If this planet is found, this would force a reincarnation of our current solar system model which has been around since 2006, after Pluto was officially named a dwarf planet.Professor Sir Martin Rees told The Telegraph that the planet will be detected by their telescopes if it exists, so they just have to wait until their instruments do the job.Mike Brown, the astronomer who discovered this evidence, said that what they found is so big that the conclusion is obvious. The 9 planet’s gravity dominates its surroundings in the solar system, unlike the smaller ones. This is one of the key tests to classify a planet. So while Planet 9 is by no means the only answer to the question of the Kuiper Belt’s odd orbital mystery, it is far from being an impossibility. But until we get a telescope trained in that direction – exactly in that direction – we won’t know for sure. Even then, there won’t be a lot of light from the far-distant sun, so spotting it will be tricky.

Our Sun's MYSTERIOUS COMPANION STAR.

Why do scientists think something could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system?What if I told you that our sun was part of a binary relationship to a shadowy, hidden star theorists have referred to for 20 to 30 years as Planet X or Zechariah Sitchin’s Nibiru?  There was also recently discovered a dwarf planet, known as  (4)>>Sedna, that has a very unusual, and highly elliptical, orbit. At its farthest point it is nearly 1000 times further away from the Sun than the Earth is from the Sun. Scientists are baffled by its very existence, claiming that it could not possibly remain in its current orbit unless it is being influenced by another, massive object. So it would seem that even though no companion has yet been confirmed, it would seem likely given the observational data we have thus far.  At the time of Sedna's discovery in 2003, it was the farthest body ever seen in our planetary club. Its peculiar path—it never ventures near the giant planets—suggested an equally peculiar history. How did it get there? The Binary Research Institute (BRI) has found that orbital characteristics of the recently discovered planetoid, "Sedna", demonstrate the possibility that our sun might be part of a binary star system. A binary star system consists of two stars gravitationally bound orbiting a common center of mass. That if  this object actually exists and that NASA has been analyzing it now for over 30 years appears to be close to certain. In official circles the object has been called a ?hypothetical? gas giant living in the far reaches of the Oort cloud, which astrophysicists and NASA callTyche, but NASA now claims in a more recent infrared satellite search for it they couldn’t find it so therefore it must not exist. Other names being used run the range of Planet X, (4.1)>>The sun may have snatched Sedna away from another star, new computer simulations show. Our solar system is surrounded by a vast collection of icy bodies called the (5)>>Oort Cloud. If our Sun were part of a binary system in which two gravitationally-bound stars orbit a common center of mass, this interaction could disturb the Oort Cloud on a periodic basis, sending comets whizzing towards us.John Matese, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, suspects Nemesis exists for another reason. The comets in the inner solar system seem to mostly come from the same region of the Oort Cloud, and Matese thinks the gravitational influence of a solar companion is disrupting that part of the cloud, scattering comets in its wake. His calculations suggest Nemesis is between 3 to 5 times the mass of Jupiter, rather than the 13 Jupiter masses or greater that some scientists think is a necessary quality of a brown dwarf. Even at this smaller mass, however, many astronomers would still classify it as a low mass star rather than a planet, since the circumstances of birth for stars and planets differ.The Oort Cloud is thought to extend about 1 light year from the Sun. Matese estimates Nemesis is 25,000 AU away (or about one-third of a light year). The next-closest known star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, located 4.2 light years away. The case for the companion star is perhaps solid enough to score a victory in a court of law, but in the court of science, the ultimate proof will be in the finding it . The probability of a companion star also gains support by the fact that more than 50% of stars in a galaxy are in a binary system, Of course there is no guarantee on these speculations, above all because we do not know all the astronomical data with enough thoroughness  and everything is based on clues come out in the course of the search for Planet X and Nemesis (a Dark Star, perhaps a brown dwarf) carried out by NASA, by U.S Naval Observatory and by other scientific institutions involved in the last century. The same existence of Nibiru beyond Neptune is not sure and accepted by modern Astronomy yet.Much of the Physics of the theory that the our Sun has a Unseen binary companion has been studied by scientists , not giving the probability that a low mass star orbits the sun at a vast distance no farther than 1 light year in an elongated orbit has not yet been detected visually . The "evidence" for this object is based on the gravitational effects it has on objects , so far long period comets with long elongated orbits , some of the recently discovered dwarf planets provided us with a clue that something is really out there. FOR more discussion see this web site .    (http://planetxnews.com/2015/07/30/the-suns-dark-companion-according-to-physics/)

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

 (***)>>mysterious ninth planet .Others, like planetary scientist Dave Jewitt, who discovered the Kuiper belt, are more cautious. The 0.007% chance that the clustering of the six objects is coincidental gives the planet claim a statistical significance of 3.8 sigma—beyond the 3-sigma threshold typically required to be taken seriously, but short of the 5 sigma that is sometimes used in fields like particle physics. That worries Jewitt, who has seen plenty of 3-sigma results disappear before. By reducing the dozen objects examined by Sheppard and Trujillo to six for their analysis, Batygin and Brown weakened their claim, he says. “I worry that the finding of a single new object that is not in the group would destroy the whole edifice,” says Jewitt, who is at UC Los Angeles. “It’s a game of sticks with only six sticks.”(1)>>The Astronomical Journal.

The far reaches of the Solar System ,
new discovered "dwarf planets" have
mysterious orbits that
hide the presence of large
planet far beyond Pluto.

 The discovery of the world that Brown and Batygin refer to in The Astronomical Journal simply as “Planet 9” began in 2003, with the discovery of a far more modest object named Sedna. A dwarf planet even smaller than Pluto, Sedna is a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), like Pluto one of a vast band of icy, rocky objects that surround the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune. Brown was part of the team that found Sedna too, and if anything made the new world remarkable, it was its extreme distance from the sun—one that has it completing a single orbit in 11,400 years, compared to Pluto’s 248. There is more to the Planet Nine story:  “A predicted consequence of Planet Nine is that a second set of confined objects should also exist. These objects are forced into positions at right angles to Planet Nine and into orbits that are perpendicular to the plane of the solar system. Five known objects  fit this prediction precisely.” (2)>>Kuiper Belt. Another curious feature of the distant scattered disk is the lack of objects with perihelion distance in the range q = 50–70 AU. It is yet unclear if this property of the observational sample can be accounted for by invoking a distant eccentric perturber such as the one discussed herein. but it's looking likelier that there is an undiscovered planet orbiting beyond the Kuiper belt. If it's there, it's big, far, and slow. It would be roughly 10 times the mass of Earth (or about half the mass of Neptune), likely never gets closer to the Sun than about 100 200 AU, and takes more than 10,000 years to orbit the Sun.(3)>>Planet 9 is a bunch of clues that all seem. The evidence for 'Planet X' - the mysterious hypothesized planet on the edge of our solar system - has taken a new turn thanks to the mathematics of a noted astronomer.Rodney Gomes, an astronomer at the National Observatory of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, says the irregular orbits of small icy bodies beyond Neptune imply that a planet four times the size of Earth is swirling around our sun in the fringes of the solar system.Planet X - perhaps mis-named now that Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet - has been widely hypothesized for decade, but has never been proven.Gomes measured the orbits of 92 Kuiper belt objects - small bodies and dwarf planets - and said that six objects appeared to be tugged off-course compared to their expected orbits. (4)>>Sedna. The trans-Neptunian object Sedna has an extra-long and unusual elliptical orbit around the Sun,ranging between 76 and 975 AU. Sedna's orbit is estimated to last between 10.5 and 12 thousand years. Its discoverer, Michael Brown of Caltech, noted in a Discover magazine article that Sedna's location seemed to defy reasoning: "Sedna shouldn't be there", Brown said. "There's no way to put Sedna where it is. It never comes close enough to be affected by the Sun, but it never goes far enough away from the Sun to be affected by other stars."---Brown therefore postulated that a massive unseen object may be responsible for Sedna's anomalous orbit.  (4.1)>>The sun may have snatched . In a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, lead author Eric Mamajek from the University of Rochester and his collaborators analysed the velocity and trajectory of a low-mass star system nicknamed “Scholz’s Star.”The star’s trajectory suggests that 70,000 years ago it passed roughly 52,000 astronomical units away (or about 0.8 light-years, which equals 8 trillion kilometres, or 5 trillion miles). This is astronomically close; our closest neighbour star Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years distant. In fact, the astronomers explain in the paper that they are 98% certain that it went through what is known as the “outer Oort Cloud” — a region at the edge of the Solar System filled with trillions of comets a mile or more across that are thought to give rise to long-period comets orbiting the Sun after their orbits are perturbed. While the close flyby of Scholz’s Star likely had little impact on the Oort Cloud, Mamajek points out that “other dynamically important Oort Cloud perturbers may be lurking among nearby stars.” The recently launched European Space Agency Gaia satellite is expected to map out the distances and measure the velocities of a billion stars. With the Gaia data, astronomers will be able to tell which other stars may have had a close encounter with us in the past or will in the distant future. (5)>>Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is a theoretical spherical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals that is believed to surround the Sun at a distance of up to around 100,000 AU (2 ly). This places it in interstellar space, beyond the Sun’s Heliosphere where it defines the cosmological boundary between the Solar System and the region of the Sun’s gravitational dominance.  The Oort Cloud is an extended shell of icy objects that exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is named after astronomer JanOort, who first theorized its existence. The Oort Cloud is roughly spherical, and is the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed. Like the Kuiper Belt and the Scattered Disc, the Oort Cloud is a reservoirs of trans-Neptunian objects, though it is over a thousands times more distant from our Sun as these other two. 

Let's talk about Bernie Sanders.........

(**)>>Bernie Sanders obvious wanna be for the Presidency . I have looked at some of his "ideas", many of them are really good  . My own thoughts would be . If there was a slightest chance I'd for vote Barnie . I know I am getting those "chuckles" in the background , but it seems to me that he is more closer to what the public wants for a President . If you want to get out of poverty , you want to fix the system , you have to vote for him. I'm not into endorsing him , but it beats the nonsense of Hillary Clinton. He's a  (1)>>REAL SOCIALIST , unlike Obama who is a crony  capitalist , who "did not spread the wealth ....."  but raised your taxes . Barnie might just raise your taxes as well . Barnie Sanders has already altered the course of the 2016 campaign. His resonance with the Democratic Party's activist base has forced Clinton to tack left, repeatedly. But don't mistake this as Sanders' endgame. Senator Sanders accomplishments in fundraising, organization and support tell me he deserves far more and far better coverage by all media and especially the New York Times. Sanders has been around for a long time in political activism ,  Sanders also participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s and 1970s, Sanders was active in several peace and antiwar movements. He was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Student Peace Union while attending the University of Chicago. Sanders applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War; his application was eventually turned down, by which point he was too old to be drafted. Although he opposed the war, Sanders never placed any blame on those who fought and has been a strong supporter of veterans' benefits.Sanders has always been an easier fit in Vermont than in Washington. Being a Socialist in the seat of two-party orthodoxy will do that. While he has generally championed liberal Democratic positions over the years — and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed his Senate campaign — Sanders has strenuously resisted calling himself a Democrat. And he has clung to a mantle — socialism — that brings considerable stigma, in large part for its association with authoritarian communist regimes (which Sanders is quick to disavow). Mr. Sanders is seen greeting voters on the campaign trail, first in small groups, then in gymnasiums, and finally at the huge rallies that became his hallmark. His wife is shown twice. At least 10 American flags can be spotted in different settings. And there are probably more Bernie Sanders smiles in evidence than many voters have ever seen. Despite a lack of name recognition, Sanders was the first candidate to reach a  million online donations in late September, in addition to catching up to the Clinton fundraising juggernaut. According to Think Progress, "Bernie Sanders is raising a lot of money from individual donors for his presidential bid, and he's doing it even faster than President Obama did during both of his campaigns."In September, Bernie Sanders was 7 points behind Hillary Clinton nationally, with momentum on his side and polls reflecting a genuine challenge to the former Secretary of State. Gone were the apathetic talking points about Clinton's inevitability, especially since Sanders had surpassed Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The media, and the Democratic political establishment, had no choice but to accept a genuine challenge from Bernie Sanders. Nothing exemplifies the difference between Clinton and Sanders more than the speech given by Representative Bernie Sanders in 2002.  (2)>>Opposing the Iraq War, Sanders foreshadowed the dire consequences of removing Saddam and engaging in a counterinsurgency war without an exit strategy. In terms of U.S. history, Bernie Sanders was unfortunately right about the Iraq War. From 2003-2010, there were 1003 suicide bombings in Iraq. MIT estimates that between 3.5 and 5 million refugees have been displaced because of the war. Recent studies have concluded that because of the civil war between Shia and Sunni, internal upheavals resulting from the American-led invasion, and other factors, over 500,000 Iraqis have been killed because of the war.Bernie Sanders recently won the Congressional Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, in part because he has always worked to protect American soldiers and veterans. In his opposition speech to Congress, Sanders states clearly in his first reason to oppose the invasion that, "I have not heard any estimates of how many young American men and women might die in such a war.

Bernie Sanders knows what's wrong.

Barnie Sanders knows exactly what is wrong with our economy, the  poverty inducing system  . Last April he gave out some points that hit the reality with me  , (3)>>why America is going the wrong way . This is from the Article "For A Political Revolution" :

This is what a rigged economic system looks like. At a time when millions of American workers have seen declines in their incomes and are working longer hours for lower wages, the wealth of the billionaire class is soaring in a way that few can imagine. If you can believe it, between 2013 and 2015, the 14 wealthiest individuals in the country saw their net worth increase by over $157 billion. Children go hungry, veterans sleep out on the streets, senior citizens cannot afford their prescription drugs -- and 14 individuals saw a $157-billion increase in their wealth over a two-year period.

 (4)>>Bernie's Heathcare Plan.

Bernie Sanders deserves credit for one-upping Barack Obama.  The President claimed to give everyone affordable coverage and save families $2,500.  Sanders says he’ll give everyone unlimited access to every provider in the country and all conceivable health services that are provided now or will be invented in the future — saving middle-class families $5,807.  Don’t expect to spend that money any time soon.This is all the more unbelievable because the Sanders plans appears to fling open the doors to the Treasury.  “Medicare for All” is far more generous than Medicare or private health plans.  It would eliminate all cost-sharing requirements, making all services free to the patient.  With no out-of-pocket costs, patients will no longer question the value of an additional test or office visit, which would bend the cost curve the wrong way.  Sanders would also cover all of Medicare’s benefits plus vision, hearing, and dental care, as well as long-term and palliative care.  If his plan is really as generous as claimed, health spending would skyrocket.The truth is that if you want to save a trillion dollars a year in health-care spending, you can’t do it solely by cutting administrative costs and drug prices. You have to be willing to spend far less on medical procedures and services, and to be far more rigorous about expenditures for new medical technology. That would probably mean a drop in income for some doctors, particularly high-priced specialists, as well as for many hospitals. Providers would also have to relinquish a great deal of control over their facilities and equipment.It’s unclear whether Sanders would eliminate deductibles and co-pays. These costs currently exist under Medicare, and his 2013 bill makes no mention of changing the system. But the breakdown from his campaign lists both as $0. (See website : http://www.healthcare-now.org/index.php?s=Bernie+Sanders+S.+1782 ) As far as I can tell, Sanders’ plan has not yet been analyzed by independent think tanks or academics. So we ran back-of-the-envelope estimates for revenue from Sanders’ health care taxes using 2013 tax return data from the Internal Revenue Service. Skeptics pummeled Bernie Sanders this week for proposing sweeping policies that defy political realities, but almost nothing compares to his approach on immigration.Some 9 million undocumented immigrants would gain health care under the Democratic presidential candidate’s single-payer plan, senior policy adviser for the Sanders campaign Warren Gunnels said. But before that could happen, Sanders must first nearly double the number of immigrants given executive relief from deportation. Then he would pass comprehensive immigration reform. By the time Sanders would implement his “Medicare for All” plan, Gunnels said, millions of immigrants would already be on a pathway to citizenship. Hitting the campaign trail on her mother’s behalf, Chelsea Clinton attacked Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ universal health care plan."Sen. Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance," Clinton said in New Hampshire Jan. 12. "I don't want to empower Republican governors to take away Medicaid, to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans. And I think very much that's what Sen. Sanders' plan would do." The Sanders campaign and his supporters swiftly called Clinton’s statements inaccurate, so we decided to look into them ourselves — in particular, her claim that Sanders’ plan would "empower" governors "to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans."Given that Sanders’ proposed plan specifically calls health insurance an entitlement for all, we found that this is a mischaracterization at best.

CAN HE WIN?

Lets face the facts , Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton with a 8 point lead , he is popular as a alternative to the regular Democratic fanfare . I guess if he ran as a Independent , he'd be even more popular . His chances in the The  (5)>>Iowa Caucuses will be held on February 1, 2016. seem vary big .In 2016, Bernie represents the activists and Hillary the establishment . In the January 17th debate, Sanders pounded on this theme: "we have a corrupt campaign finance system where millionaires and billionaires are spending extraordinary amounts of money to buy elections." When each candidate was asked what she or he would do to bring the country together, Bernie replied, "The real issue is that Congress is owned by big money and refuses to do what the American people want them to do." Pew’s latest poll about attitudes toward government underscores the disgust: 74% of voters said most elected officials put their own interests ahead of the country’s. Just 19% of voters said “government is run for the benefit of all” vs. 76% who said it’s for “a few big interests.” They see politicians as the riggers of the system, not the unriggers who can solve it. They blame Washington for creating the loopholes, not the “special interests” for taking advantage of them. As the country begins to decide how it feels about the idea of socialism — thanks to Bernie Sanders's ascendant Democratic primary campaign — it's worth noting here that it's a word that many Democratic caucus-goers have clearly embraced. And, in fact, many even call themselves "socialists."Iowa is a swing state. But when it comes to its first-in-the-nation caucuses, its conservatives tend to be quite conservative, and its liberals tend to be quite liberal.Vote with your conviction of the best president for the country, do not try to jump on the bandwagon who has a chance to win. Bernie will definitely can be a  blessing for this country.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(**)>>Bernie Sanders . Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Born in Brooklyn, Bernie was the younger of two sons in a modest-income family. After graduation from the University of Chicago in 1964, he moved to the Green Mountain State. Early in his career, Sanders was director of the American People’s Historical Society. Elected Mayor of Burlington by 12 votes in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont’s at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York(1)>>REAL SOCIALIST .In a similar manner, libertarians sometimes accuse National Socialism of being similar to, or a form of, communism. This is due to a misunderstanding of the word “socialism” as used by National Socialists. In the minds of many, “socialism” today refers to a society where all of the means of production are owned collectively (in reality, by the state). This is the Marxist goal: the abolishment of private property. It is not, however, a goal of National Socialism. (2)>>Opposing the Iraq . The costs of the war in Iraq, which Hillary Clinton voted for, are unfathomable. Over $2 trillion, including benefits owed US servicemen, and estimates as high as 1,000,000 deaths, including US servicemen. All for a war that even Bush officials now admit was based on a lie, i.e., that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Bernie Sanders, like 70% of Americans, opposed that war. The difference between the two candidates is night and day. Hillary's top four funders are Wall Street corporations, whereas Bernie's supporters are the American people. (3)>>why America is going the wrong way . YES he is right . There is something wrong. Politicians on both sides of the two party system have always known what is the root cause of income inequality . It's not just the wage gap as the cause , but it appears the American system has let the Big Neo - con cooperations like the banks devolve the American dream . If this trend continues we will have a nation of poor that will not be able to affording living with a decent wage . Say 30 years from now a person who today has a salary of 100,000 a year would not be able to afford living in the year 2030s  , since his wages would have to catch up , exceed 1 million a year just survive in the year 2030.  if you count the current and past levels of inflation , comparing salaries since the 1960s . The trend is going to further income inequality . So raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars now will not be any good to any one  living in the year 2030.(4)>>Bernie's Heathcare Plan. Bernie's plan will cover the entire continuum of health care, from inpatient to outpatient care; preventive to emergency care; primary care to specialty care, including long-term and palliative care; vision, hearing and oral health care; mental health and substance abuse services; as well as prescription medications, medical equipment, supplies, diagnostics and treatments…As a patient, all you need to do is go to the doctor and show your insurance card. Bernie's plan means no more copays, no more deductibles and no more fighting with insurance companies when they fail to pay for charges.....Under this plan, a family of four earning $50,000 would pay just $466 per year to the single-payer program, amounting to a savings of over $5,800 for that family each year. He will raise $630 billion by increasing the employer part of the payroll tax by 6.2 percent. He will raise $548 billion in various taxes on the rich along with the end of current tax breaks that subsidize health care.That's a total of $1.4 trillion.Current public spending on health care (mostly Medicare and Medicaid) runs around $1.2 trillion.This means that Sanders is figuring that under his plan total national health care spending will be about $2.6 trillion. (5)>>Iowa Caucuses. On Feb. 1, a few hundred thousand Iowa residents will gather in a couple thousand caucus sites and finally, finally kick-start the presidential nomination process. It's been 44 years since the first presidential caucuses that mattered, and 40 years since both parties held them. And yet, for the 315.8 million Americans who do not live in Iowa —The Iowa presidential caucuses are local party precinct meetings where registered Republicans and Democrats gather, discuss the candidates and vote for by party preference to elect delegates to the 99 county conventions and choose their candidate for their party’s nomination.The purpose of the caucus vote is to select delegates to attend a county convention. Each caucus sends a certain number of delegates, based on the population it represents. The delegates at the county convention in turn select delegates to go to the congressional district state convention, and those delegates choose the delegates that go to the national convention.

The Poisoned Waters of Flint Michigan.

When I first heard this story it rang a few bells ( if not ) harking you back to another tragedy of decades ago when the government of the United States was in denial . The Poisoned Waters of Flint Michigan is a federal disaster , but it parallels  (1)>>the Love Canal story of the 1970's  . The actions drew new scrutiny to an environmental crisis that poisoned the water supply for a year and a half before it was addressed. The contamination has left a city of 100,000 people unable to use tap water for drinking, cooking or bathing, and has caused mounting political woes for the governor, Rick Snyder. What is going on in Flint, Michigan is criminal, and at the very least, Gov. Rick Snyder, along with a number of state officials should be indicted for attempting kill off the people of the community of Flint, Michigan.  In recent days, even as Mr. Snyder has declared a state of emergency, requested federal action and summoned the National Guard, he has continued to face intense criticism that the state has been slow to react, despite admitting that it bungled the problem.The governor, a Republican, did virtually nothing to help the city until an outpouring of rage from Flint residents, city leaders, journalists and independent researchers forced him to wake up and focus on the calamity,which started more than a year ago. Despite being several months into a contaminated water crisis that  (2)>>US president Barack Obama has declared ( rather late ) a federal state of emergency,  (@)>>(while ) the city of Flint, Michigan is still charging residents up to $200 a month for their supply, it has been claimed. 10 people have also died from the pneumonia-like condition Legionnaire's disease.When tested by a team from Virginia Tech, the water was so contaminated with lead that the US Environmental Protection Agency branded it “toxic waste”.Meanwhile  The Mayor of Flint  Dr. Karen Weaver, was only just sworn into office in November, after running on a platform of solving the water crisis. Since 2011, the city has been under control of an emergency manager appointed by Snyder, who made the decision in 2013 to switch the city off of its shared water system with Detroit and instead use water from the Flint River that flowed through contaminated pipes.  From the time of switching to the river water people started to complain but were ignored!! The mayor got on the news and drank water in a coffee cup you could not see through and told  it was safe!! There have been complaining since 2014 and it's heartbreaking to learn that because they didn't want to spend a $100 a day too have made it safe for the people to drink, they ignored what they were told in 2010 and raised the water rates several times and served it up ignoring what they were told!!!. It (3)>>AMAZES me  talk about a corrupt government system. (4)>>Michigan Republicans suggested that Flint’s water crisis wasn’t all that bad — and might even be a hoax — during a lunch meeting of business leaders and elected officials. This bizarre crap is a perfect illustration of one of ultra-conservatives' most vile, destructive attributes:Anything they don't like, anything that puts them in a bad light or nails their ass to the wall, they simply ignore, spin, "reframe", whitewash and worse of all, twist the facts and try to blame someone / something else for their own errors. One of the reasons for their blanket denial is that it's just plain easier for them to believe all kind of BS than to actually have to admit that life isn't fair, that the rich are always ahead of the game, etc   The damage done by this misguided decision, and the callous apathy on the part of officials to quickly admit their error and work expeditiously to correct it, displays a staggering level of ineptitude, if not criminal negligence.Lawsuits are sure to spring up by the thousand. It’s not clear whether anyone will be held criminally responsible, but it is highly likely that civil suits for damages could be successful, so much so that they could bring the state to its knees.The possible damage seems almost incalculable and one can imagine that a jury would find that the monetary damages should match. Protests are growing in Flint, Michigan, over the state’s cover-up of the ongoing water contamination crisis. Filmmaker Michael Moore is asking fans to sign a petition on his website calling for the immediate resignation of Governor Rick Snyder. In an open letter to the governor, he writes: "[Y]ou have effectively poisoned, not just some, but apparently ALL of the children in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. And for that, you have to go to jail."

Michigan's other problems...
The Flint water crisis and the problems in  (4)>>Detroit public schools didn’t just start in the second week of January 2016. Republicans will blame local mayors (in this case Democrats), and Democrats will blame the governor (a Republican), but to be fair, many of these are long-term, systemic infrastructure and budgeting problems that go back many decades and are beyond the power of any single government entity. However, what can’t be disputed is Snyder’s desire to gut democracy and replace elected accountable officials with his political friends and cronies, which has brought these crises to the tipping point. Every time public school students look under their crumbling desks, they’re getting a brand-spanking-new financial manager to “clean up their schools.” 

NOTES AND COMMENTS: 

(@)>>(while ) the city of Flint.  Residents of the impoverished City of Flint pay some of the highest water bills in Michigan. And those bills have not stopped coming or been reduced since state and local officials acknowledged the water is unsafe to drink without filtering.They say the State of Michigan — which has acknowledged significant responsibility for the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, which began in April 2014 and continues to pose a health threat today — should be picking up some or all of the tab.Given the potential health and infrastructure implications of the Flint drinking water crisis, the water bill issue could be small change in the big picture. But it's galling for residents who get big invoices for water they now know they can't drink, and that — in some cases — they and their families consumed before knowing it wasn't safe. Lead can cause permanent brain damage in children. (1)>>the Love Canal story .Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation acquired the use of the site for private use in 1947 and buried 21,000 tons of toxic waste there over the next five years. After the site was filled, Hooker filed the canal in 1952.During this period the Niagara population was rapidly expanding and the city was desperate for land. The city bought the Love Canal for $1 (the corporation added a caveat highlighting the prior use of the site).The subsequent construction of the school punctured a copper barrier Hooker had used to contain the chemical waste. Additionally, sewers were constructed around the site as well.Health reports and strange odors were reported the following years, but not until the President of the Love Canal Homebuilders Association, Lois Gibbs, investigated was the severity of the situation realized.The homeowners, many sick, were fought by both Hooker's parent company and government and were not allowed to relocate with compensation until national attention on Love Canal intensified. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared the site a federal emergency area. Right now . (2)>>US president Barack Obama has declared. Speaking at a joint General Motors-United Auto Workers facility, Obama opened his speech decrying the water contamination calamity, which has spurred accusations of government negligence and cover-ups."If I was a parent in Flint, I'd be beside myself over my kids' health," Obama told a crowd of auto workers and their families, adding that the government can't "shortchange basic services that we provide to our people."Obama didn't visit Flint on Wednesday, but the White House did dispatch an administration official, Nicole Lurie, to the city to coordinate federal efforts there. Lurie is the deputy secretary for preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services. (3)>>AMAZES me . In November 2013, Michigan lawmakers revealed the lengths to which they’d go to maintain the state’s secret system of funding election campaign activities.A Senate committee was meeting in the Capitol to discuss and approve a bill that would double the maximum amount that individuals could contribute to legislative, executive and judicial candidates. The senators were told that the higher limits were unnecessary because 99 percent of Michiganians never give the maximum amount. The shadowy aspects of Michigan’s money-driven politics serve as a key reason why the state ranks last among the 50 states with a grade of F and a numerical score of 51 out of 100 from the State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of state government transparency and accountability by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. Michigan received an F in 10 of the 13 categories of government operations that were examined. (4)>>Michigan Republicans suggested. Republicans are trying to get out of the Flint water crisis’ clear denouncement of their failed ideology by blaming the Democrats for corrupting the EPA. The GOP never ceases to amaze with its consistent insanity. This time the insanity has to do with the water contamination issue . It boggles the mind that the Republicans would rather talk about IS or repealing Obamacare, while they dismiss an unfolding tragedy in an American city that’s affecting thousands of American kids.(4)>>Detroit public schools.  In recent decades, large numbers of people have left Detroit, which was once the nation’s fourth most populous city. Many of those who stayed chose to enroll their children in traditional public schools in the suburbs, or in charter schools, which more than half of school-age children from Detroit now attend. And it’s not just the academics that are sub-standard and failing in the Detroit Public School (DPS) system — its finances are in complete disarray as well. Again according to Gov. Snyder, “Detroit Public Schools has accrued $483 million in accumulated operating debt that is growing each day, and combined capital and bond debt of $1.54 billion.” Further, DPS is burdened with an estimated $1.2 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, and the district was $53 million behind in pension payments last spring according to the Detroit News last March, “costing the cash-strapped district $7,600 a day in interest penalties — the equivalent of one child’s annual state funding grant. Based on minimal payments, the Detroit school district would be $81 million behind in mandatory pension contributions by July 1. The cost is exacerbated by $78,000 in fees for each month DPS remains delinquent — depriving the city schools of the equivalent of one teacher’s annual salary and benefits.”

President Obama's LAST state of the Union.

I was spending some time reviewing President Obama's LAST state of the (**)>>Union address . Personally I am just going to give my over view of him . For the last 8 years Mr. Obama , from the first day in office , he was the subject of political racism . Conspiracy theorists , right wing Tea Party extremists have tried to place a Marxist label on him . I never viewed Obama's Progressive attempts in any way communistic . On the (1)>>Progressive front Obama  was a  failure , he would not make a good Marxist if he tried . I am just trying to be fair . Obama tried to be a radical for change & Hope .....but what happened ? His last State of Union speed although superb , really honest , his 8 years were producing few benefits to Americans . Obama ran for office promising to bridge the divides that separated the United States during George W. Bush’s presidency. While Obama’s advocates point to a massive, underappreciated policy resume, his failure to deliver on that likely unrealistic promise has haunted him, as he noted with uncharacteristic humility. Yet he can't take all the blame . Why is it that when Obama ran for president he criticized the state of the country because of Bush's leadership. He promised hope and change and ask you to help him change the country as we knew it. Now when a GOP presidential candidate criticizes the direction of the country and says he/she wants to change it, they are evil, unAmeiican right wingers? He should have just said, "Are you better off today than you were when I first took office?"  The goal of the speech, aides said in previews, would be for Obama to begin to frame his own legacy for the historians.The top people and what's left of the middle class are for sure. Congress has prevented doing anything for the people below. There is still tremendous income  inequality , that no elected official has yet to fix .One of the classiest presidents we've ever had, will go down as one of the top 10 presidents of all time. Funny not one mention about taking money out of politics or income inequality... This president has had the best opportunity of any president in recent history to change America for the good. He squandered it. He has clearly shown lack of leadership and will be remembered for his failures. Never in America have we been so divided, dis-jointed and on the "wrong track", all because of his lack of leadership. He has divided this nation more than ever.If there were any doubt about how tuned into the 2016 race Obama is, Tuesday night ended that. No, he didn't call them out by name, but the two current leaders in the race for the Republican nomination — Donald Trump and Ted Cruz — were not far from the president's mind.  I sat and listened carefully at the president's State of the Union speech and to the remarks made by the commentators afterwards and I must say the American Media tries to put the blame of this countries down turn on his shoulders and dismiss the fact that the responsibly rest on the shoulders of Congressmen and Senators that were voted for and put in office by the citizens of this country.  The fact is, members of congress have more to do with our freedom or lack there of. The sad fact is that they can make it a career and retire with better benefits than "WE THE PEOPLE". That's right. They have a golden parachute. They have benefits and a retirement package that makes Social Security look like chump change. Sadly we are the chumps, the American people that go to the booth and elect the same person, be it right or wrong and mostly following party line. 

The Obama legacy:
The Un-Affordable Care Act.

In 2008 many Americans who voted for Obama may have done so with the ideas that we all were going to get some kind of   (2)>>"Universal Healthcare " . Now in 2016 we are seeing that Obama-care is not affordable , and it's not any way near socialized medicine . It nothing more than a new bureaucratic capitalism bait and switch tactic . It has heavy fines if you don't get their  healthcare , it also had negative effect on current policy holders who had their own old insurance rate go up as high at 40 % in two years .The plan was obviously written by the blind who did not care to read the 3000 page document on new regulations . A matter of fact Obama-care is good business for the greedy healthcare bureaucrats who are now lined their coffers with a new influx of enrollees . It's a shame that the GOP did not present a alternative  to this monster that soon is going squeeze taxpayers to dish out more money to cover everyone else except Americans. President Obama promised, "If you like your health insurance, you can keep it." It was a more ambiguous promise than it sounded. Who likes his or her health insurance?  Blah ah !!!! Not cheap , I always thought we were all be scammed by our government , but NEVER like this, luckily I have insurance through my employer , though still going up every year , but Obama's plan if look with careful examination and compare rates , it's basically no different what it will cost you if you got Kaiser on your own had to dish out over 500 dollars a month for s single person at 48 years of age . What a total "rip off". The President deceived the public on his plan without even explaining it to the American people . When the media started to question it (him on occasions on CNN) he President flubbed over and over again . He did not even know what he was talking about , even along the lines of Nancy Pelosi ( senile congress women) defended the plan with out knowing its contents when signed into law . So WHO WROTE THE DUMB ASS LAW ? It's not President Obama , he could not write 3000 pages of new regulations , he did not understand. So the Affordable Care Act may have been precisely penned by the big Healthcare lobby who certainly , and lucratively  benefited for this law . Bait & Switch .

RACE RELATIONS.

Trayvon Martin
did NOT deserve what happened to him.
The Media made a martyr  of him ,
while Obama jumped in only
bungle the situation.

Race relations in America have never been any better , we would think with a African -American President who be the light , cross the bridge that still divides the nation  . Contrary. On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American high school student. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic man. The  (3)>>Trayvon Martin story was so overblown at the beginning that the first reports from the news media reported that a  " white police officer just shot and unarmed black teen age male " ( Cop shootings see below) . Well the media overreacted , it was not a white officer who killed Trayvon , but a wannabe nut case  who thought he was protecting the neighborhood , who claimed that Trayvon was peering threw windows . What is interesting about this how people took sides ( I did two on occasions. flip flopping ) I wrote before that Zimmerman had no business to take the law into his own hands . The Zimmerman acquittal was to lead the nation into the worst decade of gun violence . Zimmerman's self defense was an obvious ruse , he antagonized , ran after Trayvon , who was probably defending himself , and bashed Zimmerman's head to the ground when Zimmerman pulled his gun and shot Trayvon Martin .Now how this simple tragedy gripped the nation is vary suspicious , if you look  do research on black on black shootings , white on black shootings. Trayvon was another black that was killed that year . Many black youths who died that year never had a peep in the news media until President Obama some how got involved , spoke out on Martin's behalf. President Barack Obama weighed inon the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, calling it a national tragedy — and saying that the young man reminded him of his own children."When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids," Obama said in the Rose Garden. "I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this. And that everybody pull together." How this tragedy was turned into a morass , first by the media moguls who on the right wing media FOX news sided with Zimmerman ( who was guilty of murder ). Then the stupid left wing hawks threw in the race card , and called it a hate crime . It lead to nation wide protests , the first in a series . So the Obama administration was looking to charge Zimmerman with a hate crime , Federal investigators spent millions of tax payer dollars trying to make it a hate crime. With the Fed's investigating nothing came out of it .  Federal prosecutors then  decided not to charge a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, with a hate crime for killing Martin in Florida. They blundered it by calling it a hate crime , so they over looked a murder charge . It turned out to be a but of jokes to the Obama administration by over sensationalizing "race" as the issue instead of charging for murder .The boy’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said she believes Mr. Zimmerman got away with murder.“He took a life, carelessly and recklessly, and he shouldn’t deserve to have his entire life walking around on the street free. I just believe that he should be held accountable for what he’s done,” she told The Associated Press Mr. Obama said civil rights progress in America “happens only because seemingly ordinary people find the courage to stand up for what is right, not just when it’s easy but when it’s hard.”.  Howver , President Obama misapplied it for this case . So the Prosecutors threw it out , a murder got away into a almost celebrity status . Thank You Obama!

THE POLICE SHOOTINGS.

The Trayvon Martin shooting was just the beginning , perhaps a significant exposure of a serious problem with enforcement .  In the fist year of the Obama presidency in 2009. Oscar Grant III was fatally shot by BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, Officer Johannes Mehserle and another officer were restraining Grant, who was lying face down and handcuffed. Officer Mehserle stood and, according to his attorney, said, "Get back, I'm gonna Tase him." Then, Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Grant once in the back. During his court testimony, Mehserle said that Grant then exclaimed, "You shot me!" Grant was unarmed; he was pronounced dead the next morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland. Though story barely caught the attention of the national media , this was catalyst to what was going to be a national epidemic of officer misconduct , which was going to boil over the race issue , setting the state for BLACK LIVES MATTER. Johannes Mehserle  defently ANTECEDENTLY shot Grant , he did mistook his "gun" for his "taser" , it was clearly shown in the cell phone video. Never the less no Cop should be above the law , Cops should use caution with dealing with sensitive issues in the public . Since 2009 there was an increase of Police officers using excessive force that we never would known had it been  thanks to the cell phone , people just started recording off beat aggressive acts of violence by the people we are supposed to trust . There were obvious signs of militarization of local police departments  .  Then came Michael Brown, 18, is shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. According to reports, Mr. Brown was walking down the middle of Canfield Drive with a friend, Dorian Johnson, when the officer stopped his Chevy Tahoe to order them to the sidewalk. Within seconds, the encounter turned into a physical struggle, as the officer and Mr. Brown became entangled through the open driver-side window of the police vehicle/ Yes he robbed a moms and pops liquor store for a few cigars , there is  no denying that. We will never really know what transpired within seconds of Officer Wilson's encounter with Brown . It was still hard to prove otherwise without recording the events . I think Officer Wilson should have called for back up , if he did , just maybe we would have had a different out come , Micheal Brown would still alive facing charges for strong armed robbery . Yet, I personally believe that Wilson shot Brown not out self defense , but the fact that Ferguson police department was full of racist idiots , Wilson was just one of them who happens  to shoot Brown in hopes that he would get away with it just by citing what happened in the Zimmerman case. The media storm followed . More police shootings would not be enough to start the Federal Government intervention , but this one the Obama administration was slow. A video surfaced that showed Officer Michael Slager, who is white, firing eight shots at 50-year-old Walter Scott as Scott has his back to him and is running away. Scott, who was unarmed, was struck five times. The whole thing was crazy, a cop shooting an unarmed man in the back , but with the cell phone revolution nothing escapes . In the nitty gritty of it all , we have seen more police brutality exposed under President Obama two terms . It has lead to some  reform (wake up call )  , as people took to the streets protesting nation wide , perhaps these people killed by police brutality did not die in vain .

MASS SHOOTINGS.

No, there haven’t always been so many mass shootings. It hasn’talways been this way. Mass shootings have skyrocketed in this country just in the last seven years under President Obama. Along the lines of police brutality which made public headlines . The gun violence has reached its peak , our nation has never been so gripped with fear , that trying to challenge the gun lobby (NRA) had put the President in a difficult position , so we have become to accustom to violence ,  now that it is time to put the trigger down . Pres. Obama pretty much even with executive orders can't do much , but thanks for trying . I can't be critical here . The gun enthusiasts fearing the Obama ruling have in record numbers purchased weapons ( for self defense? ) in record sales with in the last year . On TV I saw a Hispanic looking man with a beard with a cart at a Gun show loading boxes and boxes of ammo , carrying what looked like two semi -automatic military style rifles . Funny the news reporter was trying to question  "Hay do you really need this....?" obviously dogging the question . I am sure that at gun shows there are "law abiding" citizens who just do want to buy a pistol , PROBABLY have a legal license to own a gun , others look suspicious,  that gun shows are unregulated . WE as nation need a reality check , screw NRA.

So here is a rundown :

Mass Shootings under the Last Five Presidents

Ronald Reagan: 1981-1989 (8 years) 11 mass shootings

Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 5

George H. W. Bush: 1989-1993 (4 years) 12 mass murders

Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 3

Bill Clinton: 1993-2001 (8 years) 23 mass murders

Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 4

George W. Bush: 2001-2009 (8 years) 20 mass murders

Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 5

Barrack H. Obama: 2009-2015 (in 7th year) 162 mass murders

Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 18

I think that since Ronald Reagan the nation had become more "liberal" about guns . The statistics show that if we did have "conservative" gun laws , the mass shooting would on the reverse with proper gun checks , if the GOVERNMENT did it's job by enforcing the laws it already has we would have a different picture. Notice anything here? We’re talking about a more than six-fold increase from the number of mass shootings in the eight years Bush Jr. was president compared to the last seven years under Obama, and his 2nd term isn’t even up yet! Not only that, but the number of mass shootings where the shooter killed eight or more people has also increased rather significantly. Obviously this isn’t so easily simplified as more guns in the hands of more crazy people, the way the media likes to spin it. We have more gun laws now than ever before. Less types of guns are legally available to the average citizen than ever before. We also have more “gun-free zones,” zones where, just by the way, most of these shootings happen (because mass shooters do not follow laws or care about zones, obviously).Not to mention that five out of the 12 deadliest mass shootings in American history have happened not just since Barack Obama became president, but just under his first term as president alone. That’s nearly half.After the controversial Sandy Hook shooting, Obama passed 23 gun control executive orders. He continually says wants to do more and he’s frustrated with how limited his powers as mere president are. 

LIFTING THE CUBAN EMBARGO.
I had to agree with Obama on this one , the decades old Cuban sanctions have no reason to have continued. Since President John F. Kennedy imposed it in 1961, the embargo has been the centerpiece of Washington's policy of hostility, and remains today the oldest and most comprehensive set of U.S. economic sanctions against any country in the world.The embargo's original purpose was straightforward: to make the Cuban economy scream--to use Cuba's economic dependence on the United States to plunge it into a crisis so severe that the Cuban people would rise up and overthrow Fidel Castro's revolutionary government. "If they are hungry, they will throw Castro out," President Eisenhower surmised when first contemplating economic sanctions.. . . Thirty years later, when the collapse of the Soviet Union revived hopes in Washington that Fidel Castro's government could be overthrown, Congressman Robert Torricelli sponsored the Cuban Democracy Act to tighten the embargo in order to "wreak havoc on that island." But regime change remained beyond the horizon of the possible, leaving punishment for punishment's sake as the only real rationale for the embargo.

THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL.
The major aspect of the deal is a major flip flop in the Obama administration dealings with Syria , a major part of the  "deal" not so reported ( by our news media of course ). Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate decision-maker, banned further talks between the United States and Iran beyond the nuclear deal – thus undercutting not only Obama but also Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who had expressed interest in such U.S.-Iranian discussions. Also mocking Washington's hopes of warmer U.S.-Iranian ties, a majority of Iranian lawmakers voted this week not to abandon the nation's "Death to America" slogan, which is chanted at Friday prayers and public protests, terming it a "symbol of the Islamic Republic and all struggling nations." Khamenei echoed the sentiment, asserting, "America is the main part of the problem in the region, not part of the solution."Thus, rather than accept Obama's invitation to build on the nuclear agreement and nourish warmer U.S.-Iranian relations, Tehran is preparing to pocket the sanctions relief that the deal will bring – thank you very much – while doubling down on all of its other points of conflict with the U.S.-led West.

OBAMA'S MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY BLUNDERS .

 Here are two major political blunders . Obama's other two foreign policy mistakes include his Middle Eastern policies, namely the  (4)>>Syrian crisis and a possible failure to secure a nuclear agreement with Iran. The peculiar thing is that by establishing warmer relations with Russia from the get go, the Obama Administration could have probably avoided foreign policy failures in the Middle East; or at least made them less grim than they currently are. By needlessly provoking Russia, the Obama Administration "missed opportunities for cooperative action with Russia on everything from terror to global warming,"  Obama's inability and unwillingness to find common ground with Moscow will stand as the single worst feature in his foreign policy legacy,Relations between Russia and the United States have been strained over the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine. The United States and the European Union also have imposed economic sanctions against Russian officials and entities, which Moscow has called counterproductive. Missteps and indecision concerning the Middle East on the part of President Barack Obama have thrown away more than four decades of U.S. foreign policy achievements in the region. Moscow's stated purpose in its 2-week-old air campaign in Syria is to fight the Islamic State group, which has strengthened its ranks there. But along with strikes against Islamic State fighters, Russia also hasreportedly targeted other resistance groups in Syria's multifaction civil war that began in 2011. The U.S. and its allies also have been waging a yearlong bombing effort against Islamic State militants, while trying to diplomatically edge President Bashar Assad from power.Obama has "essentially left Putin to take the initiative ... while we try to figure out what to do next," Ferguson said. "The president dragged his feet since this civil war began."What’s really going on is that Putin despises Obama. “Despising” someone isn’t the same as disliking them. It means that you dislike them because you think they’re unworthy of being liked. Indeed, they are so unworthy, because they are weak or morally flawed, that you “despise” them.Pravda, which is Russia’s “official” newspaper – meaning that it spouts the government line – Relations between Russia and the United States are currently at their worst point in 20 years. The specter of a nuclear war between these two global super powers is actually greater today than it was during the Cold War. At least during the Cold War there were security mechanisms put into place in an effort to prevent such a disaster, and the possibility of said disaster was discussed quite openly unlike today.Can the United States afford to continue with its current aggressive stance towards Russia over the conflict in Ukraine? Do we really want to destroy our hard earned peace with Russia, especially at a time when America is digging its way out of a financial crisis and is already involved in several wars around the globe? Ah yes, our long standing friendship with Russia, starting with the end of WW2, culminating in Regan and Gorbachev's secret one night stand, and then being promptly destroyed by Obama.

The OBAMA LEGACY:

I think it’s fair to say that Obama’s legacy will include memories of him as America’s first African-American president, who in the final months of his term forcefully addressed the enduring issue of race and anti-black prejudice in America, or, as the Washington Post put it in a July 15 story, “The Black President Some Worried about Has Arrived.”. Obama will be remembered, first and foremost, for his incompetence in the Middle East chaos and the resulting humanitarian crisis. His "red line" in Syria and the failure to act once it was crossed allowed for years of tragic suffering in that country, the rise of IS, and the current migrant crisis in Europe. Add to that his over-eagerness to pull all troops out of Iraq and ignore his generals' advice to leave a residual force behind and thereby losing the peace there after Bush won the war with "the surge" and allowing the newly formed IS to take over northern Iraq has been a double-whammy of unprecedented foreign policy incompetence and an historic blunder the likes of which we haven't seen since Vietnam. If the Iran deal leads to the destruction of Israel, I am pretty sure Obama won't be remembered fondly for that, either, but it is too early to tell on that one--we will have to wait ~8 years to see if what they decide to do with all their nuclear material (I hope they don't sell it to terrorist groups for use in dirty bombs here on our home soil). We will also have to see if this re-surgent USSR style Russia leads to a new cold war, also (this Russia/Iran alliance is quite unnerving). And as for the cited 'accomplishments' in this artcile, many are due to the Supreme Court ruling with little to no influence by the President (for example, he campaigned on "marriage is between a man and a woman" during both of his elections and only took credit after the court decision when he lit up the white house in rainbow colors). And this article also makes zero mention of the unprecedented levels of debt he has racked up for this country through hand-outs to special interest groups, corporate welfare and bailouts to whomever they subjectively decided should get them, and huge subsidies for the ironically named Affordable Care Act which it turns out we can't actually afford. And to praise this president for race relations during one of the most turbulent times in modern history with spiking violence in major cities across the country is beyond farcical--Obama has obvioulsy increased the racial divide in this country, not improved it. The list of failures is a mile long, but as long as history professors like this are writing the books and teaching our children, I guess it doesn't really matter what the truth is--he might go down in history as a great president despite the actual results of his presidency.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>Progressive front He has not been nearly progressive enough for me, but he was the exact right man at the exact right time to pull us back from the precipice that Bush left us teetering on. He is a man of careful consideration, strong moral fiber, and high intellect; he arrived just in time. His very presence has exposed the right for the hatred driven, racist… (**)>>Union address .  State of the Union ratings have been in steady decline over the past two decades, gathering less than half the audience they once did. In 1993, 66.9 million people watched President Clinton's first address to a joint session of Congress. The previous record low was 31.7 viewers last year. The problems we have now with out  being too specific.  (2)>>"Universal Healthcare " .President Obama used a campaign-style, rally liberals on his sputtering health care law, calling it a system of “universal health care” and calling out Texas Republicans for, he said, denying health insurance to 1 million state residents.For decades, liberals have dreamed of a “universal health care” system in America and Mr. Obama used that phrase, which he rarely does, in telling a group of volunteers that, under his leadership, it has become a reality. Single payer health care is a universal health care system where a “single payer” fund, rather than private insurers, pays for health care costs. The “single payer” part refers to funding, not delivery. A single payer fund can have a private healthcare delivery system, a public delivery system, or a mix of the two. A fund can be controlled by any agency, but is typically organized and overseen by the government. Although Mr. Obama’s health care law requires all Americans to buy insurance or face fines, the system is built on private companies offering coverage to individuals or groups of consumers and thus is far from the kind of Canadian or European system the phrase “universal health care” connotes. Such systems — also called “single payer” — usually consist of one national government entity paying for and providing care for all citizens. With almost 50 million people lacking health care in the America, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, millions still won’t have coverage after Obamacare is established. And we will still continue to spend about twice as much per capita than other countries on health care, despite sometimes having worse health outcomes.Let’s follow the money: most insurance stocks went up after Obamacare’s passage and the health insurance giants’ profits continue to climb, while Americans will be forced to buy their crappy product or pay a fine. Opponents of Obamacare want to get rid of what is good in the law by way of exemptions and repeal, eventually paying meager fines for violating it, which will be covered by their corporate profits. All this in order to fulfill the sociopathic pursuit of corporate profits without any compromise.(3)>>Trayvon Martin story. A combination of pressure through social media and poor journalism led to the trial of George Zimmerman, who is accused of second-degree murder in last year’s shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.Immediately after the shooting in Sanford, Fla., which is 20

miles northeast of Orlando, the media described Mr. Zimmerman as white, setting up the racially divisive meme of a white man killing a black teenager — a characterization that proved to be wrong. Meanwhile, George Zimmerman was arrested  since being freed over and over again  for aggravated assault and domestic violence with a weapon, marking the third time in as many years that he’s been arrested after an alleged domestic violence incident. This time around, he is alleged to have thrown a wine bottle “in the direction” of his girlfriend, who reported the incident after being pulled over by police. During a Saturday court appearance, Zimmerman was charged with aggravated assault and ordered to surrender his guns. Zimmerman also headed to a place called Na coincidental Ferguson Missouri, here Zimmerman was again   arrested   after an altercation outside of a Dunkin’ Donuts, where Zimmerman allegedly aimed a handgun at two black teenagers who confronted him. Zimmerman is heard yelling something again, and finally the teens stop. One of the teens rather articulately asks Zimmerman to leave him, his friend, and his town, alone. “Sir, sir, we don’t… we don’t have an issue with you, sir. Please leave us alone,” the younger teenager says in the video, while Zimmerman continues to rant about something in the background. “Mr. Zimmerman, I don’t know why you’re here in Ferguson, but It’s pretty damn insensitive, you showing up here. This town’s been through enough already, we don’t need you here intensifying things, okay? And my friend and I didn’t say anything to you.” Police found two handguns, a shotgun, and several knives inside Zimmerman’s car at the time of his arrest. It is unclear why Zimmerman was visiting Ferguson, when he arrived, or where in town he was staying. Police say the teens will be allowed to release the full video to the public after their investigation is complete.  (4)>>Syrian crisis.  Letting Russia take the lead in Syria is a very smart move. My guess is that Russia gets mired down, will become hated and distrusted by all, and will spend a trillion dollars of money it doesn't have over the next ten years, just like we spent during the last ten. Obama's greatest achievement will be having ratcheted down our involvement in the middle east. (If Hillary was really astute, she would publicly buy into that concept as well). We need to solve things at home and let the middle east stay in a perpetual state of war soaking up the tax revenues and lives of young soldiers of anyone that wades in - with no return on the investment. Whether you are right or left, we need to start living within our means and one aspect of that is staying out of foreign wars.