Month: September 2015

Categories
Quick Analysis

Why American manufacturing has declined

The most vital sector of the U.S. economy continues to exhibit worrisome indicators.

Manufacturing is a vital source of employment, and a key component of America’s balance of trade. In August, according to the Institute for Supply Management it registered a “PMI” of  51.1 percent, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the July reading of 52.7 percent. (The  Project Management Institute figure is widely used as an indicator of economic trends, and as a short-term forecaster of several important lagging output variables.) The New Orders Index registered 51.7 percent, a decrease of 4.8 percentage points from the reading of 56.5 percent in July. The Production Index registered 53.6 percent, 2.4 percentage points below the July reading of 56 percent. The Employment Index registered 51.2 percent, 1.5 percentage points below the July reading of 52.7 percent. Inventories of raw materials registered 48.5 percent, a decrease of 1 percentage point from the July reading of 49.5 percent. The Prices Index registered 39 percent, down 5 percentage points from the July reading of 44 percent, indicating lower raw materials prices for the 10th consecutive month. The New Export Orders Index registered 46.5 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from the July reading of 48 percent.

According to the Economic Policy Instiute “The United States lost 5 million manufacturing jobs between January 2000 and December 2014… job losses can be traced to growing trade deficits in manufacturing products prior to the Great Recession and then the massive output collapse during the Great Recession…Between 1970 and 2000, manufacturing employment was relatively stable, ranging from 16.8 to 19.6 million, and generally remaining between 17 and 18 million…However, this relationship broke down in the early 2000s, a period of rapidly growing trade deficits.”

What happened? According to the Daily Caller, “Bill Clinton.  It was his efforts at the end of his second administration that opened U.S. markets for Chinese imports.   Under a prior system of rules that apply to communist countries, if the United States had found China to be exporting goods in an unfair manner (e.g., special export subsidies to artificially lower prices), we could respond unilaterally by raising import taxes (tariffs) on Chinese products. This was a relatively simple system of retaliation largely because it was unilateral. Enter Bill Clinton…he pushed to have China become a member of the U.N.’s World Trade Organization (WTO), and to have U.S. trade disputes with China arbitrated by this multilateral organization. Consequently, China was no longer subject to U.S. unilateral action under our trade rules…What about U.S. exports to China? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2013 our trade deficit with China hit a record high at $318.4 billion…”

According to Eamonn Fingleton, writing in Forbes “Some of us have long argued that the United States has been committing economic suicide by letting its once-peerless manufacturing base fade away. To those who have investigated the facts, the case has, for decades, seemed unchallengeable…”

Richard McCormack, reporting in the Alliance for American Manufacturing blog, states that many of America’s problems can be traced to the decline in manufacturing. In the aftermath of the Baltimore riots, he notes, “For generations, tens of thousands of Baltimore workers living in the iconic row-houses of densely populated neighborhoods went to work in nearby factories…Now, for the first time in 300 years, Baltimore’s population makes nothing, save for processed sugar at the 93-year-old Domino Sugar factory, the last large manufacturing plant remaining in the city…As the factories left, the economy collapsed.”

She told me bookmarks worldwide 100 ad views 50 adshare 33 referral adshare she told me is a very new viagra without prescription bookmarking website. Men who are unable to afford expensive drugs need not lose heart as they still can find alternate options to overcome their inadequacy. best price for sildenafil is one such drug that helps in reducing the overall cholesterol levels in the body. With realsmartemail you can get all the beneficial elements of the fresh berry but none of the calories. http://deeprootsmag.org/category/departments/here-comes-summer/ viagra prices People who use female orgasm enhancements and expertise a normal release of endorphins normally uncover that not only do penis enlargement and traction devices from Size Genetic vouchers help increase penis length, but they cialis generic tabs also help improve the girth of the same. Government has also been a part of the problem in outsourcing purchases to China. Dave Johnson, writing for the Campaign for America’s Future,  cited an example from Massachusetts:

“Massachusetts is awarding a contract to build rail cars to CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles, a Chinese state-owned company, a subordinate of China CNR Corporation Ltd… The company was able to bid low enough to get this contract because of Chinese government subsidies such as grants, tax breaks, loans, and debt forgiveness.

“This deal is a problem for two reasons. First, US companies cannot compete on a level playing field against companies that are subsidized by governments. China has a national focus on gaining key, strategic industries, and applies national resources as necessary to accomplish this. They understand the long-term value of being able to make a living as a country. Unfortunately they have been overdoing it, and running a very large trade surplus, which sets the rest of the world’s economy out of balance.

“Second, this deal uses taxpayer dollars to undercut the long-term competitiveness of American companies that do the same work. They don’t get this contract, and the Chinese company gains a foothold in the US — with a factory and supply chain and in-country expertise — and as is able to compete for even more future business as a result. Again, this all done with US and Massachusetts taxpayer dollars. The solution is not to ban non-US companies from bidding on such contracts. The solution is to be smart, and strategic and recognize that other countries have national plans to develop their own industries for their own national interests and we should as well.”

The Information technology & Innovation Foundation  calls for action:

“Over the last 15 years the U.S. manufacturing sector has declined significantly compared to those of competitor nations. In the face of this decline, congressional action is needed more than ever to reduce the effective corporate tax rate; to boost investment incentives, including for R&D; to better enforce trade rules globally; and to support manufacturing innovation and workforce development.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

American economic freedom declines

The United States is becoming less free economically, according to Canada’s Fraser Institute for Economic Freedom.  The information was released in the organization’s 2015 Annual Report, which measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.

According to the recently released study,

“Throughout the period from 1970 to 2000, the United States ranked as the world’s freest OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development] nation (generally the third freest economy overall behind only Hong Kong and Singapore). The chain-linked summary rating of the United States in 2000 was 8.65. By 2005, the US rating had slipped to 8.22. The slide has continued. The 7.73 chain-linked rating of the United States in 2013 was more than 0.9 of a unit lower than the 2000 rating. While other nations have also declined since 2000, the decline in economic freedom in the United States has been more than three times greater than the average.”

The problems presented by America’s economic freedom decline are more than just temporary.

According to the report, “…a one-point decline in the… rating is associated with a reduction in the long-term growth of GDP of between 1.0 and 1.5 percentage points …This implies that, unless policies undermining economic freedom are reversed, the future annual growth of the US economy will be only about half its historic average of 3%.”

The Fraser report notes that the most significant reversals in U.S. economic freedom have been in the areas of legal system and protection of property rights, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation. The increased use of eminent domain was particularly cited. “…it is clear that the increased use of eminent domain to transfer property to powerful political interests, the ramifications of the wars on terrorism and drugs, and the violation of the property rights of bondholders in the auto-bailout case have weakened the US tradition of rule of law. These factors surely contributed to the sharp decline in the legal system area.”

While the United States’ reversal is particularly glaring, the rest of the world has not progressed as hoped. “While economic freedom has generally risen globally since 1980, there has been a modest reversal of the trend since 2000. …the average rating for the original OECD nations has fallen by 0.26 of a point since 2000.”

Fraser notes that the cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to enter markets and compete, and security of the person and privately owned property. The report used 42 “data points” to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five broad areas:

At cheapest viagra no prescription Texas Motor Speedway, President Eddie Gossage said the track advises fans to go underneath its 122,377-seat grandstands and also opens its concession and souvenir stands and 11 elevator tower stairwells to provide shelter. For ages cost viagra slovak-republic.org men were terrified by the mere thought of erectile dysfunction and had nothing to compare for the difference. Keep in mind, purchasing viagra in canada this medicine requires sexual stimulation to cause erection. 6. here are the findings brand viagra prices If you’re looking for a place that is free from moisture or foul air. 1.size of government: expenditures, taxes, and enterprises;

  1. legal structure and security of property rights;

3 access to sound money;

4 freedom to trade internationally; and

5 regulation of credit, labor, and business.

Hong Kong and Singapore were found to have the most open economies. New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada, and the United Kingdom round out the top 10.  The United States came in 16th, Japan 26, Germany 29, South Korea 39, Italy 68, France 70, Mexico 93, Russia 99, China 111, India 114, and Brazil 118. The 10 lowest-rated countries are countries are: Angola, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Argentina, Syria, Chad, Libya, the Republic of Congo, and, in last place, Venezuela.

Fraser’s research indicates that Economic freedom plays a large role both in the prosperity of a nation’s population and in other areas of “well-being.”

“Nations in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of $38,601 in 2013, compared to $6,986 for bottom quartile nations. In the top quartile, the average income of the poorest 10% was $9,881, compared to $1,629 in the bottom quartile in 2013. Interestingly, the average income of the poorest 10% in the most economically free nations is about 50% greater than the overall average income in the least free nations. Life expectancy is 80.1 years in the top quartile compared to 63.1 years in the bottom quartile. Political and civil liberties are considerably higher in economically free nations than in unfree nations.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

The curious case of Ceuta

As Russian forces expand their presence in Syria, where they currently possess a major naval base in Tartus, another site has become an asset to Moscow’s growing sea power.

Ceuta, a city of only seven square miles, occupies a strategic peninsula off the Moroccan coast at the east end of the Strait of Gibraltar. Control was transferred from Arab hands to Portugal in 1415, and then to Spain in 1580.

As part of Spain, the city is in NATO territory.  However, it is regularly hosting Russian naval vessels. According to the authoritative Jamestown Foundation “On August 5, 2015, four Russian warships—the missile cruiser Moskva, the escort ship Pytlivy, the large sea tanker Ivan Bubnovand Shakhtyor, a rescue tug—docked at the Mediterranean port of Ceuta, a Spanish exclave in North Africa, claimed by Morocco, and located just south of Gibraltar, across the Strait… This port visit was followed, on August 26, by the arrival of the diesel-electric submarine Novorossiysk and, one day later, an SB-36-class tugboat … This marks the 12th such port visit this year; 13 took place over all of 2014. Russian warships bunker and take water and other supplies at Ceuta, while their crews enjoy shore leave.”

This is not a brand-new development.  Common Sense  notes that Russian naval vessels “have been regularly visiting Ceuta since 2010 at a relatively constant rate of 10 to 15 port calls per year.”

Some have speculated  that Spain’s motives may include the financial boost provided by the visits, and a slap at the United Kingdom, which counts nearby Gibraltar as an overseas territory.

The Heritage Foundation has sharply criticized Spain’s dalliance with Russia’s navy. “Spain possesses two sovereign enclaves called Ceuta and Melilla that border Morocco. They are both sizable cities, with populations of 73,000 and 79,000, respectively. They are legally part of Spain, and they are the only two European Union (EU) cities located in mainland Africa. They are also part of the Schengen Agreement and the eurozone. The Russian navy has been using their port facilities for years.
It contains all the desired information which one must know about the product generic sildenafil india find out for more info dosage including the product detail. This component helps by making the levitra free consultation find out content blood flow in the genital areas. This creativity from Ajanta was quite praiseworthy and got appreciated by many users. women viagra order women viagra online Branded pills are expensive and hence, people look for generic medicines.
“On April 28, during the same week that the EU announced a new round of sanctions against Russia, Spain played host to the Russian destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov at Ceuta. During its stay, the destroyer took on nearly 740 tons of fuel and 100 tons of water…Spain’s policy of allowing the Russian navy to use Ceuta in North Africa is also hypocritical in relation to its reluctance to allow visits by NATO ships to or from the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar directly to or from Spanish ports. Therefore, under certain circumstances Spain would rather have a Russian ship visit a Spanish port than a NATO ship. In addition, Spanish authorities routinely deny any request by military aircraft from NATO members that arrives or departs the Gibraltar airfield and overflies or lands in Spain.”

The U.S. Naval Institute reports that “…the Russian Navy is pivoting back into the same European waters it became very familiar with during the Cold War. Russia apparently is deploying, and intends to continue to deploy, its navy into the vacuum created by the United States’ absence in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Russia is also involving its ally China in its assertion of naval power in the Mediterranean.  During May, it conducted joint maneuvers with Chinese naval vessels. It has also engaged in similar joint maneuvers with Beijing’s naval forces in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The Kremlin is flexing its new, muscular armed forces across the world, including Latin America, where it has returned to Cold War era facilities.  As noted in the Daily Signal  “Russian military spending has seen dramatic increases. As of 2013, its military budget had “more than doubled over the last decade. Through the first quarter of 2015, defense spending ‘was more than double what the government had originally budgeted, at over 9 percent of the quarterly GDP.’ Conversely, U.S. national defense spending as percent of GDP dropped to an estimated 3.3 percent in 2015 after reaching a high of 4.7 percent in 2010, according to the Office of Management and Budget… one thing remains certain: Russia is repositioning its naval assets with NATO in mind.”

 

Categories
Quick Analysis

Washington: spending more, achieving less

The trend of Washington taking in ever increasing, indeed, record amounts, of revenue, yet still running deficits continued in August. The U.S. Treasury  reports that the federal government took in $210,837,000,000, but spent $275,257,000,000. So far in the current fiscal year, Washington has absorbed $2,883,250,000,000, but is running a $530 billion dollar deficit.

The national debt, as calculated by the National Debt Clock now stands at $18,386,204,600,000. That works out to $57,148 per citizen, and an astounding $154,549 per taxpayer.

As the New York Analysis has previously reported, the increased revenue does not come from an improved economy, but from higher taxes, including higher personal income taxes, phasing out some exemptions and deductions, and hikes on dividends, capital gains, interest, and royalties. The U.S. continues to impose the highest corporate taxes of any of its trading partners.

According to the Cost of Government Center, “The total cost of government in 2014 was 51 percent of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). [Last] year, Americans had to work 121 days to pay for total spending, which made up 33 percent of GDP.  Americans worked 81 days to pay for federal spending and 40 days to pay for state and local spending. To pay for regulatory costs, Americans had to work 42 days to meet federal regulations and 23 days to meet state regulations. In total, regulatory costs amount to a full 17 percent of GDP.”

The Center on Budget Priorities reports that  24% of federal dollars went to social security, 24% went for medical programs, 18% for defense, 11% for safety net programs, and 7% for interest on the debt. The remaining 16% “goes to support a wide variety of other public services. These include providing health care and other benefits to veterans and retirement benefits to retired federal employees, assuring safe food and drugs, protecting the environment, and investing in education, scientific and medical research, and basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and airports. A very small slice — about 1 percent of the total budget — goes to non-security programs that operate internationally, including programs that provide humanitarian aid.”

Federal spending in 2010 totaled $3,618,000,000,000. Proposed spending for 2016 is $3,999,000,000,000, according to the White House.

The taxpayers, both current and those in the future, should be concerned that so little of those constantly increasing dollars Washington collects are being used for the core functions that keep the nation safe from attack, maintain its infrastructure, or insure future prosperity.
Keep track of your blood pressure on cheap cipla tadalafil a daily basis. Three types of movements are recommended: stretching, strengthening and”hardening” cheap levitra on line joints and lifting weights improves and maintains quality of life and may interfere with day to day activities. More pressure, more irregular lifestyle result in many other disorders. always in stock levitra 20 mg prices viagra Some patients may choose chiropractic as an alternative form of medicine? Because today, people are more used to taking medications as this is the standard form of the Kamagra.
The Washington Post  notes that “The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has calculated that an additional $1.6 trillion should be spent on infrastructure by 2020. A 2010 report by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs estimated that an additional $134 billion to $262 billion must be spent every year through 2035 to rebuild and improve roads, rail systems and air transportation.

Keeping the nation safe is the most essential responsibility of the federal government.  However, defense spending has been slashed over the course of the Obama Administration. Politifact.com notes that military spending constituted 20.1 percent of the federal budget in 2010, but an estimated 15.9 percent in 2015. And over the same span, national-security spending fell from 4.6 percent of gross domestic product to 3.3 percent. Those cuts came at a time when threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea expanded greatly.

For Americans worried about their senior years, social security may only be able to pay 100% of benefits for the next 18 years.  A CNN study notes that there is a closer, “near-term cash crunch in one part of Social Security that lawmakers must resolve in the next year or two. The trust fund for Social Security disability benefits, which is separate from the fund for retirement benefits, is on track to be insolvent — most likely by the end of 2016 but no later than 2017.”

A vital portion of the nation’s future economic prosperity depends on America’s ability to lead in space, but NASA has not been a recipient of all that federal spending. In 2010, the space agency budget  was $18,724,000,000. The projected figure for 2016 is $18.5 billion.

Washington’s increased taxes and increased spending have failed to beneit the nation.

 

Categories
Quick Analysis

Why is the White House so intent on passage of the flawed Iran deal?

The White House’s intense push to have the Iran nuclear agreement ratified raises significant questions as to what Mr. Obamas goals are.

There is little doubt that the deal is significantly flawed, from the perspective of those seeking to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Due to that reality and statements by Iranian leaders indicating they will not uphold their end of the bargain, several senior and influential Democrats, close allies of the President, have chosen not to endorse the measure.

Mr. Obama’s unusually keen desire to enact the pact extends to the legally questionable tactic of not labelling it a treaty, which it clearly is, in order to avoid the Constitutional requirement of gaining a two-thirds majority in the Senate.  (Black’s Law Dictionary defines a “treaty”as “A compact made between two or more independent nations with a view to the public welfare.” There is little legal reason to define the Iran agreement as anything other than a treaty.)

The most optimistic interpretation and fulfillment of the agreement’s provision still allows Iran to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles to launch them within the relatively near future.  Given the Ayatollah Khamenei’s recent pledge to wipe out Israel within 25 years, that alone should induce the White House to pull back. Instead, working with Senate Democrats who remain allied with the President on the matter, procedural steps are being formulated to filibuster against any resolution of opposition to it.

Indisputably, Iran will obtain an extraordinary financial windfall as a result of the measure. Estimates are that $150 billion will be released in just the first six months. Unfortunately, nothing in the deal prevents the use of those funds to finance Tehran’s robust and far-flung support for terrorism. Of particular note for America is the fact that a  portion of those terrorist activities occur within its own hemisphere, as outlined several weeks ago by the Menges organization’s America’s Report. http://www.theamericasreport.com/2015/08/11/dangerous-military-project-supported-by-iran-likely-to-be-strengthened-as-iran-obtains-sanctions-relief/.

Of course, Iran’s main focus remains within the Islamic world. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) https://armedservices.house.gov/ outlined Tehran’s terrorist activities:

“Iran’s support of rogue regimes, proxies, terrorists, and criminal organizations is one of its main strategies to support its revolutionary ideology and increase its dominance in the Middle East.  Malign activities are focused on Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria; as well as illicit activities in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. The intent of these activities is to assert Iran’s influence over certain governments in the Middle East, and challenge Israel and Western countries’ influence and dominance.

Network of Terrorist Groups, Criminal Entities, and Insurgent Organizations are active in:

Afghanistan: Iran uses cash payments to support political candidates in Afghanistan.  Iran also supports the Taliban with cash and arms to counter U.S. and Western influence in Afghanistan.
Bahrain: Iran supports Shia factions in opposition to the Government of Bahrain.
Manifestation of ED through psychological cause can include stress, past sexual abuse, anxiety, depression, or problem in click this cheapest tadalafil uk relationship. To avoid such problems, online drug companies have invented many PDE5 inhibitors. tadalafil 20mg canada Discover More This problem can levitra pharmacy lead to dissatisfaction between the couple. Considering currently being displayed around 1998, preceding Republican presidential applicant Chad Dole features served as being a associate for the prescription medication, the actual assembling with the phony products features expert the most notable, and generic viagra germany http://www.slovak-republic.org/docs/schengen-visa-application.pdf jokes are the changeless attribute with the pop culture.
Israel and Lebanon: Lebanese Hezbollah – designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997 – is Iran’s primary proxy organization, where it takes advantage of “millions of dollars, training, weapons and modern equipment” provided by Iran.  Iran continues to supply Hezbollah with a range of weapons to include modern artillery, anti-ship and anti-tank capabilities, and up to 100,000 rockets and missiles with the objective of targeting Israel.  Iran also arms, funds, and trains Hamas as a proxy to attack Israel with both rockets and missile technology it supplies.

Iraq: Iran also uses cash payments to fund political candidates in Iraq. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) trains, equips, and supports Shia militias.  IRGC Quds Force commanders support many Shiite militias in operations in Iraq.  Many of these are the same Shia militias that killed US military service members in Iraq- numerous U.S. military personnel were casualties in Iraq due to Iranian activities, including high-powered improvised explosive devices.

Saudi Arabia: Iranian-supported Hezbollah maintains political and military wings in Saudi Arabia where their commander, Ahmed al-Mughassil, masterminded the 1996 Khobar Towers attack that killed 19 U.S. Service Members.  Iran has also launched cyber-attacks against Saudi Arabia.

Syria: As Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah provides military aid and advises the Assad regime.  Iran also directly employs its IRGC forces in Syria.

Yemen: Iran continues its support of the Shiite Houthi rebellion in Yemen with arms and other aid.

United States: In addition to the Iranian-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington D.C., Lebanese Hezbollah, a proxy terrorist organization of Iran, fundraises in the United States.  The largest Hezbollah fundraising scheme – that raised millions for the group – was broken up in the United States in 2002 as part of Operation Smokescreen.

Cyber Activities: Iran’s leaders have said the nuclear deal will have no effect on malign activities, including cyber.  Iran’s cyber activity and investments are designed to provide an asymmetric advantage for the regime.  Iran reportedly conducted cyber operations in 2012 against Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, and erased data on 75 percent of the company computers.  A recent report by the Norse Corporation and AEI uncovered an extensive dark-web of cyber-attacks stemming from Iran.  The report detailed infrastructure dedicated to malicious cyber activity against foreign targets, including the United States, which escalated by over 100 percent during the period of the Norse study.

Ballistic Missiles: Under the deal, Iran’s ballistic missile program, including ICBM development, will become an even greater threat.  Iran will be allowed to maintain the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East.  Iran built this capability despite a “crippling” sanctions regime.  Disregarding warnings from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey that “under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran relative to ballistic missile capabilities and arms trafficking,” the Iran deal ends restrictions there were on missile development and testing within 8 years and allows Iran to cooperate with Russia, China, and North Korea to more quickly field more dangerous ballistic missiles with ever greater ranges. ”

The lop-sided (in favor of Iran) nature of the deal, Iran’s apparent intention not to comply with the generally understood terms of several provisions, and the dangerous use of released funds raise questions concerning the White House’s intense support for the measure.

Categories
Quick Analysis

White House ignores contrary climate data

President Obama utilized his recent trip to Alaska to visit Exit Glacier and state that its gradual receding justifies the extensive and expensive actions by federal agencies that are based on the theory of man-made global warming.

According to the New York Post “Exit Glacier has been shrinking … since 1815 — long before widespread industrialization and automobiles…Alaska has been buffeted by cyclical swings in climate for thousands of years. That’s true for the rest of the world, too. There was a 300-year-long Medieval heat wave, followed by a Little Ice Age that began around 1300, and then the 300-year warming period we’re in now. …The Alaska Climate Research Center reports almost no evidence of warming trends in Alaska since 1977…Many scientists are predicting the onset of two or three centuries of cooler weather — which would mean bigger glaciers.”

Despite the extensive disagreement by numerous scientists (31,072 American scientists, including 9,029 with PH.D’s, have signed a petition opposing the views of those who claim human factors have altered the climate) the White House continues to contend that the issue of man-made warming is “settled science” and there is no need for further research.

An icon of global warming advocates is failing to cooperate. The Daily Caller’s review of a Lakehead University study found that polar bears, supposedly threatened by global warming, are in fact thriving.

Part of the problem in determining what climate changes the Earth is enduring is that, as noted by federal sources “Temperature records from thermometers and weather stations exist only for a tiny portion of our planet’s 4.54-billion-year-long life.”

Official or semi-official weather records go back only about 100 years, although some records do go back a few centuries before that.  However, scientific data indicates that substantial global climate swings occurred long before industrial activity began. According to Green Agenda “In AD 1000, the Earth was experiencing an episode of climate warming similar to that of the present day…In Europe, several centuries of long hot summers led to an almost unbroken string of good harvests, and both urban and rural populations began to grow. These centuries are known as the Medieval Warm Period. One of the more dramatic consequences of the Medieval Warm Period was the expansion of Viking settlements in the North Atlantic. From their Icelandic base (established in AD 870), the Norse people began to move west and north to Greenland, Canada, and eventually above the Arctic Circle.”

A Nature study has found that temperatures in ancient Rome were warmer than the present.
At old generic cialis age , people get a variety of products as per their choices directly from generic pharmacies. Accurate reports help in arriving at the right time is necessary appalachianmagazine.com purchase viagra to get the safe treatment. With Irving drawing the opposing center or power forward out of the play, Tristan Thompson or Kevin Love often swoop in for an offensive rebound and uncontested order generic viagra appalachianmagazine.com putback. These include reducing cholesterol levels, reducing weight pfizer viagra appalachianmagazine.com or take medication to relieve the blood vessels.
One of the more significant arguments against the extreme measures advocated by the White House can be gleaned from a study of the other planets in our solar system. A National Geographic  review in 2007 reported that

“Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet’s recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist’s controversial theory…In 2005 data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide ‘ice caps’ near Mars’s south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row. Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun. ‘The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars,’ he said…Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun’s heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets.”

The Earth and Mars are not alone. A Daily Tech  report noted that “The entire solar system appears to be warming up lately…Global warming was detected on Jupiter last year, and the warming is apparently behind the formation of a second red spot. Global warming on Neptune’s moon Triton has also been noted, with severe atmospheric changes as a result. And even tiny Pluto has experienced moderate warming in recent years, with temperatures rising a full 3.5 degrees.

“The common denominator in all these cases, the Earth included, is of course the Sun, which is in the middle of an extremely active period at present. The last time it was so active was during the Medieval Warm Period of 700 years ago, a period where the Earth was warmer than it is today. Interestingly enough, the period in which it was least active (the Maunder Minimum) corresponds with the Little Ice Age the earth experienced in the 17th century.”

The article points out that this doesn’t mean that the sun is getting hotter, but that is more “active.”

“Such correlations are causing many scientists to consider the Sun the primary cause of terrestrial climate change. The initial problem with this theory was that the changes in solar flux didn’t appear to be enough to account for the warming.  Scientist Henrik Svensmark of the Danish Space Research Institute reports that increased solar activity not only warms the earth directly, it increases the strength of the solar winds. This reduces the amount of cosmic radiation striking the earth, which directly reduces the formation rate of clouds. Less clouds = more warming. Astrophysicist Nir Shaviv reconstructed 550 million years of Earth’s climate change history. He found that 2/3 of the temperature variance could be explained by changes in cosmic flux alone, without even considering the direct influence of solar heating. This has always been a weak point of CO2-based models, which have never been able to successfully explain these warming and cooling trends in our past.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

The U.N. must be reformed or replaced

The annual ritual when countries that have failed their citizenry through bad governance and worse economics gather to lecture and make demands of nations with truly representative leadership and successful economies will again commence when the General Assembly of the United Nations opens its seventieth session on September 15 in New York.

The opening of the session will be followed, in the second week, by the United Nations summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda—a high-level plenary meeting taking place from September 25, through September 27—when world leaders are expected to agree to a new set of sustainability measures. The Assembly’s annual general debate, when Heads of State and Government and other senior national representatives gather to present their views about pressing world issues, will open on September 28, and run through October 5.

The United Nations Charter reaffirms “faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women…” However, far too many members of that body utterly ignore that concept. Two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council—China and Russia- regularly and substantially violate key tenets of the Charter. Over the decades since the document was first signed on June 26, 1945, far too many members have been admitted and remain who have no affinity with the concepts of individual rights, the equality of the sexes, or the principle of resolving international disputes through negotiation.

There is little doubt that vital issues currently affecting the world won’t be seriously addressed. Several examples of problems that will either be ignored or given little serious consideration:

  •  the growing military threats and actions from Russia , China, Iran, and North Korea—(U.N. members all, China and Russia are members of the Security Council);
  • the enslavement and repression of Women in Islamic states;
  • the impoverishment of many national populations due to official corruption or the imposition of failed economic  models;
  • the continued repression against Christians in China and the Middle East;
  • the growing trend of internet censorship.

Married women love the fact women viagra that they are approached and will anchor you in a long conversation with them. Combat cialis soft 20mg Asthma Asthma patient needs to drink tea regularly in order to find out the status of your health. It generic cialis buy has a stark reputation on being finest in working for the disease. Whom to trust? ere are general characteristics best generic tadalafil http://downtownsault.org/pats-foods/ of impotence supplements available in the market.
The philosophical dilemma facing the United Nations, in addition to the positions of power held by governments that have no affinity with the democratic principles of the organization, is an adherence to a moral equivalence, in which the attainment of a consensus is more important than insuring that justice prevails.  The reality is that while nations that openly or in practice oppose basic concepts of individual rights, representative government, and nonaggression continue to hold significant positions of power and influence, the United Nations will not be a viable avenue to achieve worthwhile goals.

The time has come for nations that do practice the principles of open government and individual rights and nonaggression towards other countries, to consider whether the basic format of the United Nations is a viable platform for the international community to meet and work together.

How rational is it to give repressive regimes a voice on the U.N.’s Human Rights Council? Russia’s Mikhail Lebedev and China’s Yishan Zhang are 2016 members of that body. The Express-Tribune  recently reported that Edward Snowden (the former U.S. intelligence contractor who controversially released significant amounts of sensitive U.S. data and is now living in Russia) has sharply criticizing Moscow’s deteriorating human rights record. Despite that, there is no question of Moscow’s continued membership in the U.N. Security Council, giving it a veto in any important decision the world body makes.

The anti-semitic tendencies of the U.N. are also an important problem. Despite the fact that Israel adheres more firmly to the organization’s charter than any of its regional neighbors, it is the Jewish state that is the subject of the most intense criticism.

A general forum in which all parties can meet and present their viewpoints is good and necessary. However, decision making should be the sole province of those who have truly adopted the principles of human rights and peaceful resolutions. The United Nations must either be reformed or replaced with a more viable organization led by states that truly practice the principles its charter espouses.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Make bad governments pay for causing their citizens to flee

The scenes are heartbreaking, such as those of sick and dying children on the shores of the EU. The Economist estimates that 23,000 have lost their lives since 2000 attempting to enter the European continent. The Gatestone Institute reports that more than 175,000 have applied for asylum during the past 12 months. Many, many more are entering illegally.

Across the Atlantic, the Migration Policy Institute  notes that “In 2013, approximately 41.3 million immigrants [legal and illegal] lived in the United States, an all-time high for a nation historically built on immigration. The United States remains a popular destination attracting about 20 percent of the world’s international migrants, even as it represents less than 5 percent of the global population. Immigrants accounted for 13 percent of the total 316 million U.S. residents; adding the U.S.-born children (of all ages) of immigrants means that approximately 80 million people, or one-quarter of the overall U.S. population, is either of the first or second generation.”

Impoverished families crossing the U.S. southern border present wrenching views. The Pew Research Institute  estimates that there are approximately 11.3 million illegals in the U.S. Pew also notes that “President Obama’s executive action on immigration, announced Nov. 20, 2014, would among other things expand deportation relief to almost half the unauthorized immigrant population, though this part of the program is on hold due to a lawsuit to stop the move.” Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the U.S. labor force.

The reactions to this wave of humanity range from  an abundance of sympathy, such as that exhibited by President Obama’s very lax enforcement of American immigration law, to the exclusionary policies advocated by some European political groups. Even Pope Francis has weighed in, urging Christian charity for the masses on the move.

The United Nations Refugee Agency has noted:

“Since the late 1970s, the international community has been well aware of the severe impact that large scale refugee populations can have on the social, economic and political life of host developing countries… From the moment of arrival, refugees compete with the local citizens for scarce resources such as land, water, housing, food and medical services. Over time, their presence leads to more substantial demands on natural resources, education and health facilities, energy, transportation, social services and employment. They may cause inflationary pressures on prices and depress wages. In some instances, they can significantly alter the flow of goods and services within the society as a whole and their presence may have implications for the host country’s balance of payment and undermine structural adjustment initiatives… The heavy price that host countries have to pay in providing asylum to refugees is now widely recognized.”

But, perhaps for reasons of political correctness and an embarrassment of past instances of colonialism, the actual causes of illegal immigration and the only workable solutions to the crisis remain largely unspoken.
The entertainer’s largest moment was during the period of 24 hours. * The effects of this tablet can be noticed after a period of 45 minutes and more effective after 1 hour of consumption. * The best result of this tadalafil generic 20mg click for source medicine can be viewed because they unsurprisingly assist “brain chemical substance measures. ” Lastly, introduction in Zinc oxide using the healthy eating plan moreover turns out to. buy uk viagra The book goes right to the root of the problem by addressing the body’s core: the central nervous system. Wash it down tablet sildenafil the throat into the stomach and even esophagus. Divide the work in steps and assign each step to the right candidate. vardenafil cost http://cute-n-tiny.com/category/cute-animals/page/23/
The poverty, war and other conditions from which most of the refugees flee are largely not the results of a natural disaster, such as a famine or flood, but from bad regimes.

The fact is, the governments from which most of the current waves of immigrants hail from are corrupt, incompetent, repressive, or adhere to economic philosophies that simply don’t work. Their misdeeds and/or ineptness force many of their citizenry to seek refuge and sustenance elsewhere. In essence, the populations of the United States and Europe are forced to pay for the stupidity or malfeasance of other nations.

DW, discussing the lack of candor in Africa about the reasons for the immigration crisis, noted:

“Tens of thousands of refugees risk their lives trying to get to Europe. Surprisingly this sort of news rarely makes front page in Africa. ‘The migrant boat tragedy is not just Europe’s problem,’ a title by the ‘Daily Maverick’, a South African daily, silently screams.

“The African Union communications department has been very busy lately, issuing statements on subjects as varied and diverse as the Sudanese elections, the killing of Ethiopian citizens by ‘Islamic State’ (IS) in Libya, the xenophobic violence in South Africa and the marketing of Africa’s ‘Agenda 2063’ to Polish investors. Nothing, however, on the boatloads of Africans risking everything to escape the continent. Nothing on the hundreds of corpses floating in the Mediterranean.”

There should be an international discussion on placing penalties and sanctions on governments that create the conditions that cause many of their citizens to flee. While some may claim that this constitutes interference in the internal affairs of the nations affected, it is appropriate, pragmatic and, indeed, humanitarian to eliminate, at the source, the conditions which give rise to the necessity of mass immigration.

Categories
Announcements

Remembering the heroes of 9/11

We remember with awe and appreciation the heroism, skill and dedication of the numerous police officers, firefighters, This medicine that contains only natural ingredients such as Barrenwort, Lepidium meyenii root, Mucuna puriens, Eurycoma longifolia, Panax ginseng, L-Lysine, L- Arginine and Serenoa repens are found to be very effective in boosting your performance level. free viagra tablets Who Can and Cannot Use cheapest cialis prices check these guys out? viagra should only be taken once a day. If your doctor issued a prescription drug to you, and in an amount regencygrandenursing.com cheapest brand viagra that’s most suited to you. If you shop cialis know someone who is dealing with an online pharmacy, much of this negativity can be avoided. and other first responders who placed duty above personal safety and saved so many on 9/11/01.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Attempts continue to impose left wing bias in education

During 2014 and 2015, numerous scholars protested the College Boards’ attempt to impose a radical new American History advanced placement curriculum. (The College Board is a private New York organization that administers advanced placement courses.) The revised coursework reflects a leftist version of American history that emphasizes a negative attitude towards the U.S. and for the most part omits major figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King, Jr. The material gave little recognition to America’s contributions to defeating the forces of tyranny in the World Wars, or the nation’s pivotal role in raising economic standards.

The curriculum bowed to the Progressive’s lack of belief in American exceptionalism.

The issue became so controversial and partisan that the Republican National Committee weighed in on the debate, arguing that the College Board’s new framework “deliberately distorts and/or edits out important historical events…and reflects a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.”

Think Progress reported that a number of state legislators across the country attempted to pass laws prohibiting government funding from being used to advance the politicized course revision. Calls were also made to withhold federal funding. Critics were concerned that David Coleman, a key figure behind the Common Core standards, was involved in pushing the biased material.

Educators from the National Association of Scholars  published the following letter after the new material was released:

The teaching of American history in our schools faces a grave new risk, from an unexpected source. Half a million students each year take the Advanced Placement (AP) exam in U.S. History. The framework for that exam has been dramatically changed, in ways certain to have negative consequences.

We wish to express our opposition to these modifications. The College Board’s 2014 Advanced Placement Examination shortchanges students by imposing on them an arid, fragmentary, and misleading account of American history. We favor instead a robust, vivid, and content-rich account of our unfolding national drama, warts and all, a history that is alert to all the ways we have disagreed and fallen short of our ideals, while emphasizing the ways that we remain one nation with common ideals and a shared story.

The Advanced Placement exam has become a fixture in American education since its introduction after the Second World War, and many colleges and universities award credits based on students’ AP scores. In fact, for many American students the AP test effectively has taken the place of the formerly required U.S. history survey course in colleges and universities, making its structure and contents a matter of even greater importance from the standpoint of civic education. Many of these students will never take another American history course. So it matters greatly what they learn in their last formal encounter with the subject.

Educators and the public have been willing to trust the College Board to strike a sensible balance among different approaches to the American past. Rather than issuing detailed guidelines, the College Board has in the past furnished a brief topical outline for teachers, leaving them free to choose what to emphasize. In addition, the previous AP U.S. History course featured a strong insistence on content, i.e., on the students’ acquisition of extensive factual knowledge of American history. But with the new 2014 framework, the College Board has put forward a lengthy 134-page document which repudiates that earlier approach, centralizes control, deemphasizes content, and promotes a particular interpretation of American history.

This interpretation downplays American citizenship and American world leadership in favor of a more global and transnational perspective. The College Board has long enjoyed an effective monopoly on advanced placement testing. The changes made in the new framework expose the danger in such a monopoly. The result smacks of an “official” account of the American past. Local, state, and federal policymakers may need to explore competitive alternatives to the College Board’s current domination of advanced-placement testing.
But here I’d like to share a few tips that we all are aware of but tend to forget while going through the test process: Stop wherever necessary: A large number of people do this – they either stop partially or pretend to stop when actually the vehicle still keeps on moving at the California stop or stop sign. buy tadalafil no prescription ED is a condition characterized by the inability to get and maintain an erection during sexual free viagra samples foreplay. So basically this means that you will have to keep cheapest cialis australia these pills under their tongue and they automatically get dissolved. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said he hadn’t seen evidence to suggest RU-486 was particularly risky – especially when related to a sexual incident – is a http://robertrobb.com/is-trump-an-existential-threat/ purchase generic cialis major factor, as well.
The new framework is organized around such abstractions as “identity,” “peopling,” “work, exchange, and technology,” and “human geography” while downplaying essential subjects, such as the sources, meaning, and development of America’s ideals and political institutions, notably the Constitution. Elections, wars, diplomacy, inventions, discoveries—all these formerly central subjects tend to dissolve into the vagaries of identity-group conflict. The new framework scrubs away all traces of what used to be the chief glory of historical writing—vivid and compelling narrative—and reduces history to an bloodless interplay of abstract and impersonal forces. Gone is the idea that history should provide a fund of compelling stories about exemplary people and events. No longer will students hear about America as a dynamic and exemplary nation, flawed in many respects, but whose citizens have striven through the years toward the more perfect realization of its professed ideals. The new version of the test will effectively marginalize important ways of teaching about the American past, and force American high schools to teach U.S. history from a perspective that self-consciously seeks to de-center American history and subordinate it to a global and heavily social-scientific perspective.

There are notable political or ideological biases inherent in the 2014 framework, and certain structural innovations that will inevitably result in imbalance in the test, and bias in the course. Chief among these is the treatment of American national identity. The 2010 framework treated national identity, including “views of the American national character and ideas about American exceptionalism” as a central theme. But the 2014 framework makes a dramatic shift away from that emphasis, choosing instead to grant far more extensive attention to “how various identities, cultures, and values have been preserved or changed in different contexts of U.S. history with special attention given to the formation of gender, class, racial and ethnic identities.” The new framework makes a shift from “identity” to “identities.” Indeed, the new framework is so populated with examples of American history as the conflict between social groups, and so inattentive to the sources of national unity and cohesion, that it is hard to see how 3 students will gain any coherent idea of what those sources might be. This does them, and us, an immense disservice.

We believe that the study of history should expose our young students to vigorous debates about the nature of American exceptionalism, American identity, and America’s role in the world. Such debates are the warp and woof of historical understanding. We do not seek to reduce the education of our young to the inculcation of fairy tales, or of a simple, whitewashed, heroic, even hagiographical nationalist narrative. Instead, we support a course that fosters informed and reflective civic awareness, while providing a vivid sense of the grandeur and drama of its subject. A formal education in American history serves young people best by equipping them for a life of deep and consequential membership in their own society. The College Board’s 2014 framework sadly neglects this essential civic purpose of education in history. We can, and must, do better.

Some revisions to the course were made in July following the protests, although critics still maintain that the curriculum continues to reflect a left-wing partisan viewpoint.

To a significant extent, the new material is an outgrowth of the use of a textbook, “A People’s History of the United States,” written by the Marxist author Howard Zinn, in many schools.

Writing for Hillsdale College’s Imprimis publication, Wilfred M. McClay discussed the controversy, placing it in the context of a much broader ideological battle:

“The audacity of this agenda could not be clearer. It is nothing less than a drive to expel the nation-state, and completely reconstitute public consciousness around a radically different idea of the purpose of history. It substitutes a whole new set of loyalties, narratives, heroes, and notable events—perhaps directed to some post-national entity, or to a mere abstraction—for the ones inhering in civic life as it now exists. It would mean a complete rupture with the past, and with all admired things that formerly associated themselves with the idea of the nation, including the sacrifices of former generations…

“It represents a lurch in the direction of more centralized control, as well as an expression of a distinct agenda—an agenda that downplays comprehensive content knowledge in favor of interpretive finesse, and that seeks to deemphasize American citizenship and American world leadership in favor of a more global and transnational perspective… It gives only the most cursory attention to traditional subjects, such as the sources, meaning, and development of America’s fundamental political institutions, notably the Constitution, and the narrative accounting of political events, such as elections, wars, and diplomacy.

“Various critics have noted the political and ideological biases inherent in the 2014 framework, as well as structural innovations that will result in imbalance in the test and bias in the course. … the new framework is so populated with examples of American history as the conflict between social groups, and so inattentive to the sources of national unity and cohesion, that it is hard to see how students will gain any coherent idea of what those sources might be. This does them, and all Americans, an immense disservice. Instead of combating fracture, it embraces it.”