Economic inequality : Evangelii Primer.

 The Pope in a church document attacks
Capitalism , and Greed.

Pope Francis I may have spoken it well. Pope Francis now faces an onslaught of attacks calling him a "Marxist" just for pointing to the world the vary answers to social justice which now is a rotten little word.The document of the Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel )  He said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap. In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, marked around the world on January 1, he also called for sharing of wealth and for nations to shrink the gap between rich and poor, more of whom are getting only "crumbs." Using unusually blunt language, he sharply criticized the market economy. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality," wrote the pontiff in the 224-page document known as the apostolic exhortation. "Such an economy kills," wrote Pope Francis, denouncing the current economic system as "unjust at its roots" and one "which defend(s) the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation." Such a system, he warned, is creating a "new tyranny," which "unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules." The Pope is better in addressing the issue of poverty , on the other hand Pres. Obama is having  a hard sell with the Democratic party as it seems Economic populism is the hardy perennial recommendation of liberal pollsters and labor-union political directors. It keeps coming back, even though election results have never quite borne it out. Deeply invested in the individualistic“American dream,” and deeply divided by race, ethnicity and religion, Americans have proven less susceptible to class-based economic appeals than voters in other nations. Raising the minimum wage, for example, is a populistic theme that 76 percent of Americans support, including a solid majority of Republicans, a November Gallup poll found. There are are a lot of "cons" about raising the minimum wage , I first have to say when I was in High School I was flipping burgers making a late night Friday Shift and working Saturdays closing . I was making 3.35 $ an  hour to compare with a 8 to 10 dollars an hour these days ,  it was a  "entry-level" job. There have been protests nation wide at McDonald's on Washington Street East in favor of raising the minimum wage for fast food workers. Punishing "fast food" companies to push the wages up can only go so far . I honor the idea of making the minimum wage 10 $ an hour  , but dragging that wage any higher is economic disaster.  Fast Food wasn't suppose to be a career choice, it is suppose to be a place to gain work experience, and if you applied yourself you could move up to manager then maybe its a career right there , but the Fast food industry is hell . It's vary exploitative labor , you work at will and the shift managers can cut your hours . ( Non -Union )  at any time . I believe that there should be some kind of 'watch dog' in regards to fast food industry , but if  you take that into account most low wage jobs fall under what Marxist call " Exploitation of the masses " . Karl Marx was for wage equality , he fought against *** "child labor" which during the 1880's was a society evil  during the eve of the Industrial revolution . Poverty was a reactionary evil that consumed nations , and to this day has not been totally eradicated. Francis, who was named Time magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday, has urged his own Church to be more fair, frugal and less pompous and to be closer to the poor and suffering. His message will be sent to national leaders, international organizations such as the United Nations, and NGOs. Titled "Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway to Peace," the message also attacked injustice, human trafficking, organized crime and the weapons trade as obstacles to peace.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

*** Child Labor still exists in India , and many parts of the world . As you know many goods are manufactured overseas bidding the cheapest way for American goods . It appalling to me to buy something that was manufactured using child labor . I argue why ship jobs overseas why can't we pay Americans a decent wage ? In stead the "greedy and selfish Capitalists"  ( 1 %) prefer paying children 90 cents a day to sow clothing so it can be shipped overseas to America.. The  Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) however fails to lift the inequality of women in the church . Pope Francis stuck to traditional church doctrine in key teachings such as rejection of abortion and not allowing women to be ordained priests. But he pointedly mentioned that women must have more influence in the church. The Argentine-born pope, who is particularly devoted to the Madonna, ended the document with a long prayer to Mary.

The Budget's Raw deal.

It's a "raw" deal that Obama might not sign.

It's too good to be true .  Budget negotiators announced Tuesday a bipartisan deal to set spending levels for the federal government for two years and partially replace unpopular spending cuts with other savings.House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., led the negotiations that had intensified in recent days as a Dec. 13 deadline approaches.In a joint appearance Tuesday evening in the U.S. Capitol, Ryan and Murray said the agreement would stop the government "lurching from crisis to crisis" and eliminate the threat of another government shutdown. The current stopgap funding measure is scheduled to run out again Jan. 15. “the emerging agreement amounts to little more than a cease-fire. Republicans and Democrats are abandoning their debt-reduction goals, laying down arms and, for the moment, trying to avoid another economy-damaging standoff.” In other words, congressional leaders are going small. Given what’s transpired in Congress during the last couple of years in the budget debate, it’s not difficult to see why a broader arrangement simply wasn’t in the cards .The real news here is that a bi-partisan working group in Congress actually came up with something. Most of the other attempts at bi-partisanship ended with Republicans walking away from negotiations.  The something they came up with is rather small and not totally satisfying for either side. Not to worry - Koch Brothers and Karl Rove will make sure none of it passes. They can't seem to accept "yes"..  The agreement eliminates about $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts while adding an additional $25 billion in deficit reduction by extending a 2 percent cut to Medicare through 2022 and 2023, two years beyond the cuts set by the Budget Control Act of 2011. House Democrats unsuccessfully sought to use the negotiations as a vehicle to secure an extension of unemployment benefits set to expire at the end of the month. Benefits affecting 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers are set to expire if Congress doesn't act, and the budget deal could be the only vehicle headed to President Obama's desk before the U.S. House adjourns until the new year on Friday. The Senate is scheduled to be in session next week. One of the deficit-reduction proposals is to cap civilian and military pay increases, according to CBO. Those caps could save as much as $78 billion through 2023. Federal pay raises are set at 0.5 percentage points below the annual rate of increase in the Employment Cost Index. The CBO report recommends reducing that amount by an additional 0.5 percentage points from 2015-2013 to cut federal outlays by $53 billion. The proposal would decrease the cost of operating the government without diminishing services, CBO notes . Pay isn't the only thing being examined by CBO. The analysis also looks at the impact of cutting the size of the federal workforce. The report recommends using attrition to cut the overall size of the federal workforce to save about $43 billion through 2023. It recommends reducing the government workforce by 10 percent by limiting federal agencies to one hire for every three workers that leave. The president would be able to exempt certain agencies and about two-thirds of the workforce - mostly the Department of Defense - would be off limits so the total reduction would be around 70,000 employees.This country has not passed a budget since 1997, which means we've been on continuing resolution since than. Why is this a big deal now? Why can't we simply find new sources of revenues?  It's simply on the backs of people. The measure, known as Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC), is designed to step in with federal insurance after a person’s state benefits run out, usually after 26 weeks. It was enacted in 2008 by President Bush during the early stages of the economic recession; at the time unemployment hovered at 5.6 percent and jobless Americans could expect an average of five months searching for new employment. It has survived a number of renewals since. Without traction on Capitol Hill it is likely 1.3 million will lose the insurance immediately after the program expires on Dec. 28, with an additional 3.6 million by the end of 2014, according to a report released today by the Labor Department and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Nelson Mandela is no FRIEND of Yours.

Mandela was no  Martin Luther King Jr. His
legacy leaves South Africa in tatters . 

Nelson Mandela has so many things in common with Yassir Arafat ,Prepare for a nauseating outpouring of media praise . How  it was really ridiculous that public buildings in the United States were told to fly the flag at half staff for this man who is being falsely  credited for ending apartheid  in South Africa . Apartheid never ended in South Africa when Mandela became it's first black President it became worse as I will explain. Everyone has turned to star-struck mush on the death of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but it should be remembered that he chose to side with murderers, despots, and communists when he emerged from prison in the 1980s. He also headed up a political party guilty of murder and terrorism. How can it be that President Obama claims that he was "inspired " by  Nelson Mandela is beyond the cranial logic of explaining .I guess we live in ignorant rimes , I for one thought that Obama got his rhetoric from Malcolm X rather than Mandela , but oh well....When Mandela gave up his position as president of the African National Congress to Thabo Mbeki — the first step to retiring from politics two years hence in 1999 — remember  *** he almost immediately gave a fiery, five hour speech on December 16, 1997, in Mafikeng that was perceived by many as being uncharacteristically radical, overtly hostile in tone and menacing in imagery. Many Jews in particular, fearful because of understandable historical reasons, found his rhetoric completely inexplicable, even frightening. American journalist Richard Stengel writes that when they heard excerpts from the speech, many white South Africans felt betrayed. In the speech Mandela attacked whites for clinging to apartheid privileges, criticized the “white dominated” media, and described a white “counter revolutionary network” whose goal was to undermine South African democracy. “Could this be our beloved ‘Madiba,’ our smiling symbol of racial harmony in the rainbow nation?” Stengel imagined many white South Africans thinking. How could such a loving, forgiving man say such things? Mandela was the head of the African National Congress Party (ANC) a party guilty of decades of murder, terrorism, and violence. In fact, South African President P.W. Botha gave Mandela the opportunity to walk out of jail for free if he just renounced the ANC’s terrorism. He always refused to renounce terrorism. But beyond the crimes he was accused of before he became “the” Mandela that everyone so gauzily remembers, he had a long list of crimes accredited to him. At the bottom of the page you can see a list of the charges leveled against him. The truth is, Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. He had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilizing terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists–murderers he never, ever renounced. So the United States , and most of the world leaders are going to honor this "saintly" man who has been embraced by the west as a symbol of a freedom fighter . If this is so America must also honor and embrace Yassir Arafat of the PLO as well.

POST SOUTH AFRICA BLOOD SHED and VIOLENCE.

Many South African cities are fulled of armed
men shooting at each other and no local
police . Some police men are self
appointed ( Photo)

South Africa today is a society on the verge of collapse where any kind of racial harmony is but an illusion . First of all it is a Post Mandela South Africa is a place where white's are living in fear , most of the Afrikaners are being driven from their homelands , and hunted down by blacks . You might call this a reversal of justice on account of the long wait against apartheid , but it was never as you would think that Mandela's dream was unlike Martin Luther King Jr. No . Many whites had fled South Africa , it's estimated that 700,000 whites left as the South African nation descends into chaos . JOHANNESBURG - Approximately 250 protestors clad in red and brandishing balloons of the same colour hit the streets of Pretoria on Thursday demonstrating against white genocide.Red October aims to draw attention to oppression of and violence against White South Africans. It was a protest that was mirrored in cities across South Africa - and in some around the globe.“This is an international call to action. It’s time we make a stand and tell our government that enough is enough,” Sunette Bridges, Red October organiser and Afrikaans singer told the mostly white Afrikaner crowd.“17 of our people are murdered every month by a black person. Now I can only imagine the international outcry if 17 black people a month were murdered by a white person.” Of course the violence and privations South Africa’s blacks faced under apartheid were just as unforgivable  Certainly, there would have been more bloodletting after the white government fell in the Nineties were it not for Mandela’s message of reconciliation.But now, as he nears death, fears are growing that a wave of violence will be unleashed against the white population.The statistics — and the savagery of the killings — appear to support claims by these residents that white people, and farmers in particular, are being targeted by black criminals.Little wonder that what unfolded on the all homestead has sent tremors of fear through the three-million-strong white community.Last month alone there were 25 murders of white landowners, and more than 100 attacks, while Afrikaner protest groups claim that more than 4,000 have been killed since Mandela came to power — twice as many as the number of policemen who have died.It is not just the death toll, but the extreme violence that is often brought to bear, that causes the greatest fear in the white community.Documented cases of farm killings make for gruesome reading, with children murdered along with their parents, one family suffocated with plastic bags and countless brutal rapes of elderly women and young children.These horrors have prompted Genocide Watch — a respected American organisation which monitors violence around the world — to claim that the murders of ‘Afrikaner farmers and other whites is organised by racist communists determined to drive whites out of South Africa, nationalise farms and mines, and bring on all the horrors of a communist state’. The mainstream media report regularly on atrocities in Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Syria. We rarely hear about South Africa. But what is happening there is deeply troubling—for a number of reasons. It also holds some powerful lessons for those of us who live elsewhere. It's also the "legacy" of Nelson Mandela , but it was never as he intended at the end.


NOTES AND COMMENTS: 
*** Contrast to Martin Luther King Jr's " I have a Dream" was for thought inspired that it made in the 'American Bible' comparable to Abraham Lincoln  Gettysburg Address  > Mandela was a Marxist by nature  his speeches reflect Marxist ideals . In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan placed Mandela’s African National Congress on America’s official list of “terrorist” groups. In 1985, then-Congressman Dick Cheney voted against a resolution urging that he be released from jail. In 2004, after Mandela criticized the Iraq War, an article in National Review said his “vicious anti-Americanism and support for Saddam Hussein should come as no surprise, given his longstanding dedication to communism and praise for terrorists.” As late as 2008, the ANC remained on America’s terrorism watch list, thus requiring the 89-year-old Mandela to receive a special waiver from the secretary of State to visit the U.S.

If the polls lie , then what else ?

If the polls lie , then what else ?California is a deep blue state without its reason. Democrats could double the state tax and majority of Californians will still vote for democrats. Maybe different democrats but they will still vote for democrats. In California which in a predominate blue state  would give President Obama his worst ratings  is vary baffling . Even in deep blue California, *** disapproval of Democratic President Barack Obama is rising and voters are souring on the country’s prospects, according to a new Field Poll.   Stung by plunging approval numbers at a low point in his presidency, President Barack Obama is urging donors to buck up while making a thread-the-needle appeal for bipartisanship with Republicans even as he calls for replacing the House GOP majority and holding his Democratic edge in the Senate. The survey also shows a dramatic worsening in voters’ views on the direction of the country: 33 percent believe the U.S. is moving in the right direction, while 55 percent feel it is on the wrong track. In February, 48 percent felt the country was turning a corner and 44 percent said it was heading the wrong way.The Field Poll found California voters expressing increasing disapproval on the administration’s handling of the health care issue, with 50 percent disapproving and 43 percent approving (when the same question was asked in March 2010, the poll found an even split at 45 percent). The poll also found sharply declining support for the president’s handling of foreign policy. Whereas the poll found very strong support for the president’s foreign policy early in his first term — 63 percent approving, 16 percent disapproving in March 2009 — the latest survey shows 49 percent approving and 40 percent disapproving. The president’s rating for his handling of the economy is virtually unchanged from three years ago, with 49 percent approving and 45 percent disapproving.  An ABC-Washington Post poll released last week found the president's approval rating at an all-time low of 42 percent, down 13 percent from January when he began his second term. His job approval was down 6 percent in the last month following the faulty rollout of the heathcare.gov website and revelations of the extent National Security Agency surveillance program"I've gone up and down pretty much consistently throughout," Obama told Walters in a White House interview set for broadcast Friday evening on a special edition of ABC's "20/20." "But the good thing about when you're down is that usually you got nowhere to go but up," he said.  Just about all recent polling suggests Americans are angry and frustrated, and it's not just the President who's feeling the heat. According to the NBC/WSJ survey, only 22% see the Republican party in a positive light, another all-time low those surveys. The poll also indicates that more than six in 10 want to replace their own member of Congress, the highest percentage ever recorded on that specific question. And only 22% say the nation's headed in the right direction. Now get this ,  another Field Poll found three potential GOP presidential candidates are viewed favorably by more than half of California Republicans: Christie rides highest, at 59 percent favorability and 13 percent unfavorability, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, close behind. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., trail. The poll provides a worrying data point for both parties. While 33 percent of voters in the poll identify as Democrats, a dip from earlier polling of the demographic group, just 24 percent identify as Republicans. Approval ratings of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress continued to plunge: Just 35 percent approve of Democrats in Congress, while 19 percent approve of Republicans in Congress.


NOTES AND COMMENTS:

 *** The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Obama's job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove (see trends).

The latest figures include 26% of all likely voters who Strongly Approve of the way Obama is performing as president and 40% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14.

The "Politics" of Mars Exploration.

There have been more robotic missions to Mars in this last decade than there have been . I was thinking to write a  piece about Mars , the planet.  In a political sphere Mars exploration is costly to American nationalism , but lets  figure on this since 1976 we landed on Mars beginning with Viking 1 and Viking 2 We have analyzed the soil , the air . We have "discovered"  that Mars was "earth-like" in some distant past , with orbital photo's of dry river beds , channels and ocean-like coastlines . My ARGUMENT is why is the United States sending more probes and rovers , have we learned already about Mars is a bit intriguing .Mars has lots of water and so on . The newest Mars probe called MAVEN successfully sneaked through its weather window and launched from Cape Canaveral . Blasting away to join 20 other orbiting human made satellites . NASA's MAVEN is basically has nothing "new" as far as instrumental , it is an "atmosphere" probe . What get's me is , and it draws a line for "conspiracy kooks" is that NASA/ Government must have "discovered" something on Mars already to account for it's massive spending for Mars projects . NASA has planed for future Mars missions that will include a sample return mission . Is NASA covering up evidence of life on Mars? That’s what University of Cardiff astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe claims as quoted in an article on the Helium website (warning: site has autoloading video ads) Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, acclaimed astrobiologist from Cardiff University of Wales said the discovery of water on planet Mars combined with other discoveries point to the existence of life on the planet. In an interview he said, “The discovery of liquid water on Mars combined with earlier discoveries of organic substances in a meteorite that came from Mars, and also of methane in the Martian atmosphere all point to the existence of life – contemporary life – on the “Red Planet”. “I am not speaking of fossilized life but contemporary life,” he emphasized. Professor Wickramasinghe , is the world’s leading proponent of Panspermia, which suggests that all planets including earth in the universe have been seeded for life by microbes from outer space. He recently said such life could even exist on the upper layer of the clouds of Venus and could be blown out to earth by solar wind. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and Dr Janaki Wickramasinghe (his daughter) of the Cardiff Astrobiology Center claim that Venus’s clouds contain chemicals that exist with the presence of micro organisms. “Our research proposes that the two sisters, Earth and Venus may be biologically interconnected as well,” Wickramasinghe added. Speaking of earth’s other sister planet Mars, Chandra Wickramasinghe said, “ Even as early as 1976, when the two NASA space probes “Viking 1 and Viking 2” landed on Mars, experiments carried out in situ pointed strongly to the existence of active microbial life. In one experiment nutrient broth was poured onto a sample of Martian soil, and it frothed up so vigorously exuding carbon dioxide, that a positive detection of life might have been inferred. But when the NASA scientists looked for organic material, the detritus of living organisms, around the landing site, their experiments yielded negative or ambiguous results. So NASA cautiously concluded – no organics means no life detected. But 32 years on,  Gil Levin, who was Principal Investigator on this project maintains that life on Mars was indeed detected in 1976! The experiments of 1976 to detect the dead bodies and decomposition products of bacteria were simply not sensitive enough.” > So I have argue . No wonder the United States has invested so much on a Mars exploration missions , yes its not admitting that it "found" life on Mars as of yet . Yet in the scientific community there is a fringe group of NASA scientists who are willing to accept that the  Red Planet  is alive and well.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

The biggest "riddle" of possible Mars life has been the recent detection of Trace amounts of methane (CH₄), at the level of several parts per billion (ppb), were first reported in Mars's atmosphere by a team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2003.^[3][25] In March 2004 the Mars Express Orbiter^[26] and ground based observations from Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope^[27] also suggested the presence of methane in the atmosphere with a mole fraction of about 10 nmol/mol.^[28] Because methane on Mars would quickly break down due to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and chemical reactions with other gases, its reported persistent presence in the atmosphere also necessitates the existence of a source to continually replenish the gas. Current photochemical models alone can explain neither the fast appearance nor the disappearance of the methane, or its reported variations in space and time.^[29] It had been proposed that the methane might be replenished by meteorites entering the atmosphere of Mars,^[30] but researchers from Imperial College London found that the volumes of methane released this way are too low to sustain the measured levels of the gas.^[31]The methane occurs in extended plumes, and their profiles imply that the gas was released from sources in three discrete regions. In northern midsummer, the principal plume contained 19,000 metric tons of methane, with an estimated source strength of 0.6 kilogram per second.^[32][33] The profiles suggest that there may be two local source regions, the first centered near 30°N 260°W and the second near 0°N 310°W .^[32] It is estimated that Mars must produce 270 tons/year of methane.^[32][34][35] The existence of life in the form of microorganisms such as methanogens is among possible, but as yet unproven sources. If microscopic Martian life is producing the methane, it likely resides far below the surface, where it is still warm enough for liquid water to exist.^[22]Since the 2003 discovery of methane in the atmosphere, some scientists have been designing models and in vitroexperiments testing growth of methanogenic bacteria on simulated Martian soil, where all four methanogen strains tested produced substantial levels of methane, even in the presence of 1.0wt% perchlorate salt.^[102] The results reported indicate that the perchlorates discovered by the Phoenix Lander would not rule out the possible presence of methanogens on Mars.^[102][103]

Exactly! Why cover it up? If NASA had proof of life anywhere, they would suddenly find they had funding for new missions. Even if they did cover it up, why continue when their funding gets slashed, the JIMO mission canned? That would be the time to come out.

Interestingly enough INDIA is also launching a space craft to Mars .  India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is any indication (see above), then we can expect absolutely gorgeous scenes of the Red Planet once the groundbreaking probe arrives there in September 2014. But despite all that’s been accomplished so far, the space drama is still in its infant stages – because MOM still needs to ignite her thrusters this weekend in order to achieve escape velocity, wave good bye to Earth forever and eventually say hello to Mars!

THANKFUL FOR and WHAT I AM NOT THANKFUL FOR.

THIS THANKSGIVING IS ALL ABOUT A BIG MEAN BIRD

What I am *** THANKFUL FOR and WHAT I AM NOT THANKFUL FOR. I want to write this post in my blog stepping aside political social events .   There is much to be thankful for about life in America, especially when compared to those beyond our borders whose daily lives are marked by war, hunger and disease. Despite our kvetching, grumbling and complaining, most Americans have it pretty good compared to less fortunate s the world over. Perhaps if we look at the Stock Market lately ? It's close to 16,000 DOW. The "Rich" get "Richer" as the saying goes . The Poor are even more miserable these days . I am not thankful for...........This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for our nation and even our nation's leaders, but I am not thankful for how they have been behaving themselves. Like most Americans, I believe that Congress is behaving irresponsibly. The inviolable partisanship and lust for power that glues Washington together is a laughable affront to our reputation as the world's lone superpower, and it is – above all – representative of a moral crisis in leadership that it has brought. There is virtually nothing that the Left isn't willing to politicize, and that includes holidays. Obama's Organizing for America is trying to make ObamaCare a part of your Thanksgiving celebration. They are encouraging Americans to discuss ObamaCare talking points around the dinner table.First, we have the Department of Education which spent $20.3 million to fight “isms.” That's right, over the last three years we've spent over $20 million to help school boards fight “all of the –isms, like racism, ableism, orientation, etc.,” in our schools. Then we have the TSA which spent $900 million – almost a $1 billion! – over the last five years on behavior detection officers. Their job is to detect terrorists in airports. Five years and $900 million later, they've detected zero terrorists. Zero. In light of this fact, the Government Accountability Office recommends that Congress put an end to this program. The technique of behavioral profiling isn't bad, but the private sector could do it a lot more effectively and less costly The government isn't good at a lot of things, but it has perfected the art of spending a lot of money on projects that don't necessarily gain us any return on investment. The following NOT to be thanked , but are part of a GROWING trend in America.

Police shootings of unarmed citizens.

No longer is it unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later. This trend originates from a police preoccupation with ensuring their own safety at all costs

SWAT team raids. On an average day in America, at least 100 Americans have their homes raided by SWAT teams (although I've seen estimates as high as 300 a day), which are increasingly used to deal with routine police matters: angry dogs, domestic disputes, search warrants, etc.

Arresting Americans for altogether legal activities such as picking their kids up from school, holding Bible studies at home, and selling goat cheese.

Jailing Americans for profit. At one time, the American penal system operated under the idea that dangerous criminals needed to be put under lock and key in order to protect society. Today, as states attempt to save money by outsourcing prisons to private corporations, imprisoning Americans in private prisons run by mega-corporations has turned into a cash cow for big business

Transforming the schools into quasi-prisons and teaching young people that they have no rights. Zero-tolerance policies that criminalize childish behavior continue to destroy the lives of young people such as the 14-year-old arrested for texting in class or the 6-year-olds suspended for using their fingers as imaginary guns in a schoolyard game of cops and robbers.

Illegal, invasive spying on Americans. There is no form of digital communication that the government cannot and does not monitor -- phone calls, emails, text messages, tweets, Facebook posts, Internet video chats, etc.,

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

***For many the holiday will present us with yet another opportunity to dust off a "family tradition" that I'm sure has been handed down through the years. I love family traditions, if they are good. Some  family has one little tradition for Thanksgiving and probably a popular one; they  go around the table and each person talks about what they are really thankful for., but it keeps things interesting!It’s for giving thanks. And we do need to be thankful for all the things we have.

So my list.

WE should be "Thankful For." 

1.st Family .

2nd. Friends.

3rd. Your Spouse .

4th. Your New Born.

5th. Your Job.

The "Deal" with Iran . My Overview.....

The recent "deal" with Iran over it's nuclear development is already setting off a change reaction , but I think the easing of tensions is long over -due . Iran  and the United States could be a better allies . I personally believe that "cold war" fanaticism in America is the sole problem as to why Iran has been pushed around for the last decades . For me the most dangerous nation (s) with nuclear weapons is Pakistan  and North Korea , India . The sanctions against Iran have been rather unjustified by the United States . First while America has been hammering Iran ,  our nation has let the "genii" out of the bottle many times over , and the hypocritical seriousness of America has destabilized many parts of the world , the fine example of Pakistan which has over a hundred nuclear weapons , a nation that harbors terrorists , Bin Ladin . Not once did any President of the United States "condemn" the development of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal . America stood Idle when India exploded its first nuclear weapon underground . It's rather disgusts me that politically American policy has been "wasted" on Iran . America should thank "Israel" for decades of misunderstanding Iran , while ignoring other more dangerous world nations.  Thankfully Barack Obama has ignored Netanyahu and/or treated him with contempt.  Otherwise, the latest deal would not be possible. Netanyahu is the wrong leader for Israel at this critical time in its history.  He is a reckless and unbridled warmonger, who should be removed from political office. In the face of criticism from members of Congress and U.S. allies in the Middle East, administration officials have insisted that the Geneva agreement is just the first step toward a more far-reaching disarmament deal. But such a deal will require that the Obama administration promise not just to forestall the imposition of new sanctions, but also to reduce dramatically the sanctions already in place. And that depends on the cooperation of a Congress that has been singularly uninterested in assuming the role of good cop in the showdown with Iran. It's really embarrassing how the U.S. Congress kowtows to the Israelis. Any official from Israel speaks before them and they scream, cheer and swoon like girls at a teenage idol concert. So what will the U.S. Congress do? Whatever their masters in Israel tell them to do. Bipartisan skepticism in the Senate about the newly announced deal with Iran could mean a renewed push for tougher sanctions -- and a veto showdown with President Obama if the administration cannot ease senators' concerns. A number of senators, from both sides of aisle, appear to be pushing sanctions as a contingency plan in case the agreement on Iran's nuclear program falters. But some may not be willing to wait -- presenting a problem for the Obama administration, since the deal signed with Iran and five other nations guarantees no new sanctions for six months. If the Senate gets impatient and plows ahead with new legislation, Obama could be forced to veto -- and risk being overridden.