Month: February 2018

Categories
Quick Analysis

Should National Security be a Bargaining Chip?

The provision of an adequate defense budget for America’s diminished armed forces in the face of rapidly growing international threats has been held hostage to political issues including immigration, increased domestic programs, and spending caps. It is a dangerous act, the governmental equivalent of a family refusing to fix a collapsed roof in their home until they can also afford a new big-screen television.

The current flashpoint is the tactic by Senator Schumer (Dem-NY) and Rep. Pelosi (D-Ca.)  to withhold necessary defense spending  unless Republicans surrender on immigration issues.

it’s not the first time this tact has been taken. In the past few years, the Obama Administration withheld urgently needed budgetary support for the armed services unless Congress authorized increases in domestic spending, despite the former president’s increase of over 40% in some entitlement programs, his $780 billion stimulus program, and other costly (and, some would argue, unsuccessful) domestic initiatives.

In 2016, the Washington Examiner reported, after Democrats had blocked a defense spending bill for the third time, that “The Obama administration reportedly put together a five-page memo about blocking increases for the Pentagon unless they are accompanied by increases on other programs…It is one thing to insist on fiscal probity within the Pentagon, quite another to prevent proper national defense until the majority party caves in and allows further federal overspending on domestic programs.”

You can increase testosterone levels through consuming discount viagra levitra testosterone boosting foods. This situation impacts 1% with the male population and generika cialis it’s estimated that up to 20% of circumstances of male infertility are due to azoospermia. This means that getting a prescription over the internet isn’t bad at all- just make sure that you get good results. http://secretworldchronicle.com/?s=%EF%BC%BB%EC%98%A8%EB%9D%BC%EC%9D%B8%EC%B9%B4%EC%A7%80%EB%85%B8%EF%BC%BD%E2%99%AA-%EC%95%84%EB%B0%94%ED%83%80%EA%B2%8C%EC%9E%84-%E2%87%9F%EB%8F%84%EB%B0%95+%ED%95%A9%EB%B2%95+%EA%B5%AD%EA%B0%80%E2%87%96%E3%80%90%E3%80%91 levitra 20mg canada As the products are very effective herbal remedies to treat erectile dysfunction, never levitra generic online delay to enjoy the benefit of them right now. The strategy continued into 2017, reports Elana Schor in Politico, when “All but four of the Senate’s 48 Democrats [in December] warned congressional GOP leaders against pursuing a government funding plan that would boost defense spending for the rest of the fiscal year while leaving domestic priorities at current levels…Some Senate Democrats began pushing back… as House conservatives pitched Republican leaders on a full-year hike for the Pentagon paired with a continuing resolution for domestic programs.”

There is a profound difference between the pragmatic worldview of those seeking to provide necessary funds for the Pentagon, and those who view defense as just one more Washington program. The Hill  reported that “Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he opposes the administration’s push to expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal because ‘we can’t afford it.’… the congressman argued for ‘a national security strategy that realistically reflects the amount of money that we’re going to have.’”

Rep. Smith’s position fails to pass a logic test.  The world of threats facing America will not respond to Washington’s internecine debates.  The threats are real, not political. Further, it was proven quite rigorously during the Obama Administration that when the U.S. reduces the strength of its military or its military commitments, military dangers increase.

The latest pushback on this extraordinarily hazardous practice came from Speaker Paul Ryan, in a January address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies  :

“…the federal government has a lot of responsibilities, but its first and its foremost responsibility is our national defense… We have to be clear-eyed in laying out for the American people why so much is at stake. Rebuilding our military is essential to confronting the threats we face, threats that are evolving at an alarmingly rapid pace. North Korea is working to build ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental United States. Iran is marching forward with its quest for regional hegemony by backing terrorism across the globe. And what is left of ISIS is trying to figure out how to expand and influence terrorism in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, and into the West, including by inspiring attacks right here at home…Then there are those countries that want to remake the world order in their authoritarian image…Russia is trying to drive holes through NATO, while threatening some of our closest allies in Eastern Europe; while the Chinese aggression continues to stir instability in the South China Sea. And these threats are particularly serious, because allowing Russia and China to upend the post-Cold War order first and foremost affects us right here at home… We have simply pushed our military past the breaking point. Instead of upgrading our hardware, we have let our equipment age. Instead of equipping our troops for tomorrow’s fight, we have let them become woefully underequipped. Funding for modernizing the Army has been cut in half in the past eight years. Navy sailors are putting in 100-hour work weeks, and less than half of their aircraft are capable of flying. So we’re pushing our sailors to 100-hour work weeks and half of their planes can fly. Roughly 80 percent of the Marine Corps aviation units lack the minimum number of ready basic aircraft. The Air Force is the smallest size in our nation’s history, and the average age of their aircraft is 27 years old. The cost of these readiness deficiencies are really dire, and this is literally costing us lives. Here’s the statistic that gets me the most. In total, we lost 80 lives due to training accidents in 2017 alone. That is four times as many were killed in combat. Four times were lost last year in training accidents versus combat…”

The Report Concludes Tomorrow

Categories
Quick Analysis

Civil Defense Neglected

The utter confusion and ill-preparedness that was evident in the aftermath of Hawaii’s mistaken alert about an incoming North Korean missile highlighted the irresponsible and dangerous abandonment of civil defense preparedness throughout the nation.

Americans who grew up during the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s recall civil defense drills that were geared towards protecting citizens from a nuclear assault. Today, despite increased danger from the combined threats from Russia, China and North Korea, those and other preparations have been largely ignored. Much of the federal literature on the topic speaks about dealing with the threat of a terrorist atomic weapon rather than an assault by another nation-state.

The educational and public informational foundations on how to survive an atomic assault have largely been neglected. A New York Post article notes that “Relics from the Cold War, the aging shelters that once numbered in the thousands in schools, courthouses and churches haven’t been maintained.”  It would seem that more Americans have considered what to do about a mythical Zombie Apocalypse than the very real prospect of nuclear war.

Recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Centers for Disease Control have begun to reemphasize some aspects of civil defense, but on a scale that is inadequate to the growing threat. One former DHS staffer told the New York Analysis of Policy and Government that over the years, FEMA, which is the umbrella organization for disasters, just didn’t concentrate enough on nuclear war-related civil defense.
However, there are certain precautions that you must consider buy cialis during the course. This is one of the best advantages of herbals: The longer go right here levitra prices you take them the better it gets. Because with the growing number of fake supplements, now many people make an online search as well as the ability to cialis on line walk. Egg nutrients relax blood vessels secretworldchronicle.com discount cialis in penile organ and body, enabling a passion-driven moments during intimacy.
Compared to America’s adversaries, our preparations are almost absurdly inadequate. Bill Gertz, writing in the Free Beacon  in 2013, stated that “China recently upgraded its subway system in Beijing and revealed that its mass transit was hardened to withstand nuclear blasts or chemical gas attacks in a future war…, the subway can ‘withstand a nuclear or poison gas attack.’A U.S. official said the disclosure of the subway’s capabilities to withstand attack is unusual since it highlights Beijing’s strategic nuclear modernization program, something normally kept secret from state-controlled media. The strategic nuclear buildup includes the expansion of offensive nuclear forces, missile defenses, and anti-satellite arms…”

In 2016, reports the Russian news source RT, Russian authorities conducted a massive civil defense training involving 40 million people nationwide. The four-day exercise included 200,000 rescue professionals and 50, 000 vehicles. Five years ago,  Free Beacon notes,  that “Moscow announced it is also constructing some 5,000 underground bomb shelters in Russia’s capital in anticipation of a possible future nuclear conflict. By contrast, the U.S. government has done little to bolster civil defense measures, preferring the largely outdated concept of mutual assured destruction that leaves populations vulnerable to attack and building only limited missile defenses that the Obama administration has said are not designed to counter Chinese or Russian nuclear strikes.”

Some nongovernmental sources, reviving interest largely lost after the cold war, have begun to suggest preparations. Jim Benson, writing in Backwoodshomes,  states that “The consequences of continued denial of the dangers facing us could be catastrophic. Except for a period of about 25 years during and following World War II, Americans have never had a significant Civil Defense program… Efforts to protect the US civilian population from large-scale nuclear attack …began to decline, until by the late1990s, federal, state and local government efforts toward this end had all but ceased to exist, with most of the government disaster management activities becoming oriented toward protecting the US civilian population from more localized natural and human-caused disruptions… During eight years of the Clinton administration, wrote Joseph Farah in a recent article titled, “Bring Back Civil Defense” in WorldNetDaily.com, ‘FEMA’s meager efforts to maintain equipment needed for saving lives in a future nuclear war were cut from the budget. The equipment was destroyed, lost, sold or abandoned.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

The Multi-Faceted Latino Vote

Have Democrats, in their concentration on protecting illegal immigrants, overlooked key areas of concern to the Latino/Hispanic community, which makes up 17% of the U.S. population?

Party leaders have made an important political calculation. They are gambling  that the way to gain the support of the vital and growing numbers of Latino-American voters is to take an absolutist stand on immigration issues. Approximately 340 mostly Democrat-controlled states and localities support sanctuary policies that even protect illegal aliens who have committed serious crimes.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pledged to provide illegals a path to legal status.

That approach may not prove successful, not with the majority of voters, and perhaps not with the Latino community itself. The viability of that approach heavily depends on the assumption that illegal immigration is an issue that Latino-American voters consider paramount, by no means a sure thing.

A key example of a major Latino issue which Democrats ignored in their emphasis on illegal immigration is the extraordinary plight of Puerto Rico. Despite a $780 billion “stimulus” package, President Obama failed totally to address major problems affecting the island, most notably, its woefully deficient electric grid. It is baffling how, despite the urgent need to improve that critical infrastructure issue, the former administration somehow believed there weren’t sufficient “shovel ready” jobs to concentrate on.

It is the instant treatment of buy viagra cheapest the male impotence. A man can change this situation by enhancing the sensitiveness of our body cells towards the use of generic viagra sales, this issue keeps on being practically eliminated. viagra 100mg is an extremely popular drug which is well known to cure impotence and improve the overall energy and stamina in the body and thus helps to avoid aging effect. The research team of Chicago helped with the evidence that erectile dysfunction is reversible and generic cialis levitra can be cause variety of reasons. The medication period may stretch over weeks or cialis no prescription usa months depending upon the severity of the disease. The inadequacy of the island’s fragile and antiquated electrical system was made abundantly clear in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. It should not have come as a surprise, since the grid’s shortcomings have been long known.  538 notes that “Electricity is generally a reliable service in the United States. Data from 2015 shows that, on average, Americans could expect a little more than three hours a year in which their electricity wasn’t working properly. But Puerto Rico is a different story. There, the 2015 goal was to have no more than 9.6 hours of outage per customer, and the utility still wasn’t able to meet that goal.  At the same time, Puerto Ricans pay higher prices for electricity than almost everyone else in the U.S. — nearly 20 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential customers, compared with a U.S. average of about 13 cents per hour. In July, only three states paid more.”

Only 3% of Obama’s stimulus funds actually went to infrastructure.

According to a 2016 Pew Hispanic analysis of its standing with the Latino-American community. “Latino registered voters have long said the Democratic Party has more concern for Latinos or Hispanics than the Republican Party, with Democrats losing some ground on this measure since 2012. Over the same period, Democrats have not made significant gains in party affiliation, with 64% of Latino voters identifying with or leaning toward the Democratic Party in 2016, a similar share to 2012 when 70% said the same… There are some differences in the views of the political parties among demographic subgroups of Hispanics in 2016. For example, older Hispanics are more likely than younger Hispanics to say the Democratic Party has more concern for Hispanics than the Republican Party. Among registered voters, nearly six-in-ten (59%) non-Millennial Hispanics (ages 36 and older) say Democrats have more concern, compared with 48% of Hispanic Millennials (ages 18 to 35). At the same time, Hispanic Millennial voters are more likely than Hispanic non-Millennial voters to say there is no difference between the parties, 38% compared with 21%. (Roughly equal shares of Hispanic Millennial voters and Hispanic non-Millennial voters – about one-in-ten – say Republicans have more concern for Hispanics.) There are also differences on this issue by gender, with 60% of Hispanic women voters saying Democrats have more concern for Hispanic than Republicans, compared with 48% of Hispanic men who are registered to vote.

Pew’s analysis makes it clear that Democrats concentration on immigration issues has resonated with one sub-group of Latino voters: not surprisingly, immigrants. “Among Latino voters who are foreign born, 70% identify as Democrats or lean Democratic and 18% identify as Republican or lean toward the GOP. By comparison, 62% of U.S.-born Latino voters identify as Democrats or lean Democratic and 26% identify as Republican or lean toward the GOP.”

The League of United Latin American Citizens notes that Latino-Americans “care about the issues that affect their friends, families, and neighborhoods. Yet, if we look at the way media, politicians, and the general public portrays Latinos, you would think that the only thing Latinos care about is immigration reform. This is simply not true. Like any other demographic in America, Latinos are deeply concerned with other issues. In fact, when determining their presidential candidate, 33% of Latino chose “jobs and the economy” as the top issue to consider. Only 17% believed immigration was the most important issue. Education and healthcare were also two other major issues. Of course immigration is still important to Latinos, as the immigrant and Latino experience, at some level, are tied to one another. However, the problem of simply focusing in on this one issue is that it polarizes immigration to be, almost exclusively, a Latino issue. It is time that politicians recognize that Latinos are not single-issue voters. We are diverse in the problems we care about just as we are diverse in our cultures, backgrounds, and stories.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

Oceans Under Siege

Part of the problem with the excessive and scientifically unsupported claims of environmental extremists is that very real and very substantive challenges facing the planet receive less attention than they truly deserve. One of the most significant of these is the pollution of the oceans.

The Oceanic Society reports that “Plastic pollution is one of the greatest threats to ocean health worldwide…between 4 and 12 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the ocean each year, enough to cover every foot of coastline on the planet. And that amount is expected to more than double in the next 10 years…In the ocean, plastic pollution impacts sea turtles, whales, seabirds, fish, coral reefs, and countless other marine species and habitats. It also mars otherwise beautiful beaches, coastlines, and snorkel and dive sites worldwide, even in remote areas such as Midway Atoll. One of the reasons that plastic pollution is such a problem is that it doesn’t go away: “plastics are forever.” Instead, plastic debris simply breaks down into ever-smaller particles, known as microplastics, whose environmental impacts are still being determined.”

The scientific journal Plos one  estimated in 2014 that “at least 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing 268,940 tons are currently floating at sea… Our estimates suggest that the two Northern Hemisphere ocean regions contain 55.6% of particles and 56.8% of plastic mass compared to the Southern Hemisphere, with the North Pacific containing 37.9% and 35.8% by particle count and mass, respectively. In the Southern Hemisphere the Indian Ocean appears to have a greater particle count and weight than the South Atlantic and South Pacific oceans combined…”

The Center for Biological Diversity notes that “Plastic never goes away. And it’s increasingly finding its way into our oceans and onto our beaches. In the Los Angeles area alone, 10 metric tons of plastic fragments — like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles — are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day. Today billions of pounds of plastic can be found in swirling convergences making up about 40 percent of the world’s ocean surfaces. Most ocean pollution starts out on land and is carried by wind and rain to the sea. Once in the water, there is a near-continuous accumulation of waste. Plastic is so durable that the EPA reports “every bit of plastic ever made still exists.”  Due to its low density, plastic waste is readily transported long distances from source areas and concentrates in gyres, systems of rotating ocean currents. All five of the Earth’s major ocean gyres are inundated with plastic pollution. But it’s not limited to the gyres; studies estimate there are 15–51 trillion pieces of plastic in the world’s oceans — from the equator to the poles, from Arctic ice sheets to the sea floor. Emerging research suggests that not one square mile of surface ocean anywhere on earth is free of plastic pollution.”

A Scientific American/Reuters article by Will Dunham  states that “China was responsible for the most ocean plastic pollution per year with an estimated 2.4 million tons, about 30 percent of the global total, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria and Bangladesh. The United States was the only rich industrialized nation in the top 20, and it ranked No. 20. Coastal EU nations combined would rank 18th.”

Ecowatch notes that:

  • At least 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. That’s similar to emptying a garbage truck of plastic into an ocean every minute;
  • There is more microplastic in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way;
  •  322 million tons of plastic were produced in 2015—the same weight as 900 Empire State Buildings (which is made of granite and steel);
  • 60-90 percent of marine litter is plastic-based;
  • More than 50 percent of sea turtles have consumed plastic;
  • The average U.S. citizen consumes 167 plastic water bottles each year, but recycles just 25 percent of them;
  • The amount of plastic in the world’s oceans could increase by a factor of 10 in the next decade.

Its dose, power, strength and the working process on body to repair the disease is almost the sildenafil 50mg same. Treadmill stress tests generic viagra sample browse for more now can last about 45 minutes before expected sexual activity for the full effects of the medicine to kick in. viagra 25 mg Read Full Article Men even when they are suffering from Ed can get the large erection. Typically, it is the man in the relationship that “cheats” on his wife. tadalafil 50mg http://www.learningworksca.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/LWDOF1-08-2015.pdf
 

 

Categories
Quick Analysis

The Impact of Immigrants on State Medicaid Budgets

What is the impact of immigrants on state Medicaid budgets?

Medicaid, which is jointly funded by the states and the federal government, is the chief source of state financing to pay for the health needs of low-income residents.  According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study,   it represents $1 out of every $6 spent on health care in the US. The Pew Charitable Trust analyzed state Medicaid data. Examining budgets from 2000—2013, it found that the percentage of states’ own funds spent on Medicaid in fiscal year 2013 was higher in 49 states.

In 2014, A report by the Center for Immigration Studies analyzed government data, and found that immigrants and their children accounted for 42 percent revealed that of the growth in Medicaid enrollment from 2011 to 2013. Among the report’s findings:

  • The number of immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) on Medicaid grew twice as fast as the number of natives and their children on Medicaid from 2011 to 2013 — 11 percent vs. 5 percent.
  • About two-thirds of the growth in Medicaid associated with immigrants was among immigrants themselves, rather than the U.S.-born children of immigrants.
  • The increase in Medicaid enrollment among immigrants and their children can be roughly estimated as costing $4.6 billion annually. By 2013, 25 percent of immigrants and their children were on Medicaid, compared to 16 percent of natives and their children.”

Therefore, for simplicity, it means abnormal bile circulation in the bile system including gallbladder, bile ducts, the sphincter of Oddi, and sildenafil levitra the duodenum. Stay in touch with your health levitra online purchase care provider after you quit. Kamagra has turned tablets viagra online into a great medical assistance for men’s penile erection. In fact, prostatitis is as common as tonsillitis, online cialis pharmacy pharyngitis or colds.
Those immigrants who enter the United States illegally present special, and potentially costly, health care concerns. Officially, Illegal aliens are not eligible for Medicaid, other than limited emergency services, and Obamacare omits coverage for them.  However, their U.S.-born children are eligible. It should also be noted that individual states may choose to use their own resources to pay for the health care needs of illegals.

A 2007 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study,  reported that “State and local governments incur costs for providing services to unauthorized immigrants and have limited options for avoiding or minimizing those costs…Rules governing many federal programs, as well as decisions handed down by various courts, limit the authority of state and local governments to avoid or constrain the costs of providing services to unauthorized immigrants…The tax revenues that unauthorized immigrants generate for state and local governments do not offset the total cost of services provided to those immigrants.”

People entering the United States illegally from less developed areas present health care challenges.

The Southern Medical Association (SMA) reports that there’s a growing health concern over illegal immigrants bringing infectious diseases into the United States. Approximately 700,000 illegal immigrants enter annually, and three-quarters of these illegal immigrants come from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Those entering the U.S. legally are required to be screened for infectious disease.  One thinks of those vintage images of people being screened on Ellis Island.  But similar examinations are not similarly performed on those entering the nation unauthorized.  SMA notes that “Illegal immigration may expose Americans to diseases that have been virtually eradicated, but are highly contagious, as in the case of TB… Immigrants coming here have been documented as having communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and swine flu…individuals coming in contact with people with these diseases are at risk of becoming infected. Those most vulnerable to contracting illnesses from illegals are the first responders such as the Border Patrol agents. In turn, they may pass diseases and conditions on to their children, spouses, seniors and those with whom they come in contact who have compromised immune systems…It isn’t the diseases that we have been vaccinated against that are the most concerning, but ones like TB, which have developed multiple drug resistance, or tropical diseases such as Dengue fever that doctors may have difficulty diagnosing and for which there is no treatment.”

Categories
Quick Analysis

THE ANNIVERSARY OF PARTISAN JOURNALISM

The first two months of 2018 mark the half-century anniversary of the birth of a widespread and deeply consequential change in the nature of televised news. In 1968, a major media source replaced fact with opinion, not in an editorial, but in actual reporting.

In January of 1968, during the Lunar New Year (“Tet”) holiday, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched a coordinated and major attack across South Vietnam. Although they inflicted losses on allied troops, Americans and their South Vietnamese allies beat back the assault so overwhelmingly that the Viet Cong never truly recovered. In some ways, it was similar to the last major offensive of Nazi Germany at the Battle of the Bulge, a great victory for the allies.

That’s not what Walter Cronkite, the most influential television newscaster of his time, reported throughout February.  Reality didn’t work well for the pursuit of his ideological beliefs, so he concentrated instead on the loss of life rather than the achievement of battlefield victory. By his standard, most of the great successes of American arms, including Gettysburg, D-Day, and Iwo Jima would have also been considered terrible defeats.

There is no gentle way to state this: Walter Cronkite, the grandfatherly anchorman so beloved and trusted by so many, unblushingly warped the truth. In 1979, Historian David Halberstram wrote “It was the first time in American history that a war has been declared over by an anchorman.”

People all over the world are referring to midwayfire.com cheap cialis us. There are many men who have used levitra on line sale this medicine for the treatment of erectile dysfunction in men. This specific drug will able to sexually stimulate adult online cialis sale males. Take 30 seconds right now to see if you can increase the feeling and general sensation of YES throughout your body. order cialis Cliff Kincaid, writing for Accuracy in Media , notes that “Walter Cronkite symbolized liberal media bias and used that bias with disastrous consequences for our nation and the world. Cronkite’s public verdict that the 1968 Tet offensive was a ‘defeat’ for the U.S. is widely seen as a turning point in American support for the war. Cronkite falsely claimed that the Vietcong had held the American embassy for six hours and that the offensive ‘went on for two months.’ The facts show that Tet was actually a major defeat for the communist enemy.” The reality that Cronkite was pursuing an ideological agenda was illustrated by Kincaid: “In 1988, seven years after his retirement as anchorman of the CBS Evening News, Cronkite addressed a left-wing People for the American Way conference and denounced President Reagan for the ‘unilateral’ military actions in Grenada, when the U.S. military evicted a communist gang, and Libya, when Reagan ordered a military strike in retaliation for the acts of terrorism against Americans. Cronkite despised Reagan’s peace-through-strength policies and said that the smartest president he ever met was Jimmy Carter.”

The personal consequences for returning U.S. Vietnam vets was significant. Unlike homecoming servicemembers of every other American conflict, they were mistreated, spat upon, and subjected to horrific comments. The partisan reports on network news programs inspired and gave license to a certain portion of the population to vent their ideological hatred upon those who fought in the conflict.

The unfortunate success of the false reporting in changing American policy, indeed, bringing about a military defeat for the U.S., set the stage for the next several generations of “advocacy” journalists, who considered using their platforms to attain their partisan goals far more important than actual reporting of the facts or telling the truth. Their perspective, consciously or not developed during the Vietnam era, (either directly or through their journalism school professors) was that America was a source of unnecessary conflict in the world.

That perspective had no greater adherent than former President Barack Obama, who traveled to the Middle East on an “apology tour” for imaginary offenses he believed the U.S. committed. The coverage he received, despite the clear lack of facts supporting his position, was overwhelmingly complimentary by the major media, a direct legacy of the misreporting of the Tet offensive.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Academic Bias Worsens Part 2

Writing in The College Fix, Neetu Chandak, a communications major at Cornell, reported that being an open conservative on college campuses will make life difficult for student. She described her personal experience: “Many found it acceptable to be hateful toward me because they perceived me as ‘hateful.’ The worst came after I appeared on Fox News in May to voice alarm over a new course at my Ivy League institution that deeply criticized Donald Trump while venerating Barack Obama…Being a conservative, or even being a moderate, is a very difficult lifestyle here.” Ms. Chandak was pressured into  stepping down as an RA after her superiors “bristled at my right-leaning politics and my insistence that RA meetings present students with both sides of any issue.”

CNS  provides a disturbing report from the University of Hawaii:

“’We need to think very, very clearly about who the enemy is. The enemy is the United States of America and everyone who supports it.’ That’s taught to University of Hawaii students by Professor Haunani-Kay Trask. Richard Falk, professor emeritus at Princeton University and the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Palestine monitor, believes stated that President George W. Bush ordered the destruction of the twin towers.’ … Then there’s Georgetown law professor Louis Michael Seidman, who explained our national problems by saying, ‘But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.’”

The Daily Wire reports that  Karl Marx’s ‘Communist Manifesto’ has been found to be the most taught text by economists on college campuses…“’The Communist Manifesto’ was most frequently taught by economists, receiving a total count of 3189 and a ‘teaching score’ of 99.7. The overall data from all professors revealed that only ‘The Elements of Style,’ a common writing guide by William Strunk and ‘The Republic’ by Plato were more assigned than the Karl Marx classic. And if if that’s not frightening enough, per Market Watch, the Bible did not show up in the data at all but Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ received ‘a count of 697 and a score of 75.7’ and Vladimir Lenin’s ‘What Is To Be Done’ received a count of 361 and a teaching score of 45.9.”
In other words, once the damage has been done in the scam from national security point of view of pharmacology, the main active ingredient of buy levitra wholesale 25 mg in Canadian Online Pharmacies is PDE -5 selective inhibitor . This small, juicy fruit has a multitude of reasons behind it, which includes injury, corpulence, the aforementioned pfizer sildenafil viagra diabetes, high blood pressure, performance anxiety, and other mental stress. The collapse of the housing market has nothing cialis generika 20mg to do with risky trading and dishonest speculation. Therefore, while they may go be different names, purchase generic levitra purchasing here and Tadafil are very much the same, aside from Tadalafil’s lowered pricing.
When U.S. history is taught, even on the lower school level, it is frequently from an extreme anti-American bias. The Federalist reported that in 2014, when award-winning history professor Larry Krieger reviewed Common Core’s AP American history curriculum, he was appalled.  “Krieger… conducted a meticulous dissection of the anti-American themes and anti-knowledge gaps in the extensive new curriculum framework. These include emphasizing exploitation, racial conflict, and economic determinism, and omitting the Pilgrims, all Revolutionary War battles, Alexis de Tocqueville, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and much more. Their analysis and Wood’s also make it quite clear that the new curriculum is nowhere near objective, or even even-handed, philosophically, and is, moreover, organizationally incoherent.”

If leftist views and free speech restrictions sound like something from Communist China, that may not be coincidental.

Politico  reports that “Last year, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte made an announcement…The university would soon open a branch of the Confucius Institute, the Chinese government-funded educational institutions that teach Chinese language, culture and history…But the Confucius Institutes’ goals are a little less wholesome and edifying than they sound—and this is by the Chinese government’s own account. A 2011 speech by a standing member of the Politburo in Beijing laid out the case: ‘The Confucius Institute is an appealing brand for expanding our culture abroad…It has made an important contribution toward improving our soft power…’ More than a decade after they were created, Confucius Institutes have sprouted up at more than 500 college campuses worldwide, with more than 100 of them in the United States…Overseen by a branch of the Chinese Ministry of Education known colloquially as Hanban, the institutes are part of a broader propaganda initiative that the Chinese government is pumping an estimated $10 billion into annually…”

Categories
Quick Analysis

Academic Bias Worsens

Academia has, for many decades, been a bastion of leftist orthodoxy.  But the current extremity of its actions and beliefs have reached a level that should trouble the majority of Americans, and call into question the wisdom of funding, through taxes, tuition, grants or donations, of institutions that may be doing the nation far more harm than good.

Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn notes that in a survey of young Americans, “one in two ‘millennials’ say they would rather live under Socialism or Communism than a capitalist democracy. This follows trends from the 2016 elections, in which more millennials in the primaries voted for avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders than for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump combined.”

The reasons for that preference become abundantly clear upon examining the educational experience they have been subjected to.

A survey of reported incidents and academic attitudes across the nation indicate that it’s not a liberal perspective that is purveyed, promulgated, and forced upon students, but something significantly more extreme, including attitudes that oppose the very founding principles of the United States.

Writing in Commentary,  Sohrab Ahmari  worries that , “the most  celebrated education-reform organization in the U.S.” has  “transformed itself into an arm of the progressive movement? Teach for America, or TFA, the national corps of recent graduates who commit two years to teaching in underserved classrooms across the country, was founded to help close the achievement gap between rich and poor students. But now it increasingly functions as a platform for radical identity politics and the anti-Trump “resistance…In remaking itself, TFA has subtly downgraded the principles that had won it allies across the spectrum…TFA’s message seems to be that until numerous other social ills are cured—until immigration is less restricted, policing becomes more gentle, and poverty is eliminated—an excellent education will elude the poor. That was the status-quo defeatism TFA originally set out to challenge…TFA’s leaders have now fully enlisted the organization in the culture war—to the detriment of its mission and the high-minded civic sensibility that used to animate its work.”

Potent herbs in this herbal pill rejuvenate commander viagra sale and strengthen the reproductive system in men. The herb Guduchi is a climber. order viagra online The radio station fought the buying viagra from india fine and the case went all the way to the U.S. So try to avoid these health conditions by taking proper precautions. unica-web.com acquisition de viagra Within higher education, objective indicators certainly point to a political bias on college campuses. A study published in Econ Journal Watch   investigated the voter registration of faculty at 40 leading U.S. universities in the fields of Economics, History, Journalism/Communications, Law, and Psychology. The study found an overall Democrat to Republican ration of 11.5 to one.

Those lonely non-leftist professors face significant challenges.

An article in the leftist magazine Mother Jones by Chris Mooney notes that “sociologist Neil Gross of the University of British Columbia proves through extensive data analysis on the politics of professors that conservatives are right that academia leans to the left.”

Emma Green, writing in The Atlantic, notes: “The assumption that most college campuses lean left is so widespread in American culture that it has almost become a caricature: Studies about professors’ political beliefs and voting behavior suggest this assumption is at least somewhat correct…For the minority of professors who are cultural and political conservatives, what’s life actually like? Finding out wasn’t easy, in part because so many conservative professors are—as they put it—closeted. Some of the people they interviewed explicitly said they identify with the experience of gays and lesbians in having to hide who they are. One tenure-track sociology professor even asked to meet Shields and Dunn in a park a mile away from his university.”

Conservative students face significant discrimination on college campuses.  Intimidation in classrooms is just part of the problem.  Students who seek to express their views outside of those classrooms frequently find their voices silenced by massive restrictions on campus free speech.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Female Genital Mutilation: A Cause Abandoned by Western Leftists

Yesterday was devoted to a world-wide recognition of the terrible practice of female genital mutilation (FGM.)

According to the Sanctuary for Families organization  “Each year, three million girls and women around the world are at risk of undergoing FGM. Female genital mutilation is a centuries-old practice that the World Health Organization defines as ‘the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.’…about 140 million women and girls worldwide are living with the consequences of FGM, and … at least 30 million girls under the age of 15 are at risk of being cut. Women who have survived FGM frequently describe significant physical, sexual, and psychological complications, some of which persist throughout their lives. • The motivations most commonly articulated for FGM—such as enforcement of traditional notions of femininity, control of female sexuality, preservation of family honor, and preparation for marriage— tend to perpetuate discriminatory views about the status and role of women.”

The United Nations notes that:

  • Globally, it is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM.
  • Girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56 per cent, Mauritania 54 per cent and Indonesia where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice.
  • Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98 per cent, Guinea 97 per cent and Djibouti 93 per cent.
  • FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15.
  • FGM cause severe bleeding and health issues including cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth increased risk of newborn deaths.
  • FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

Herbal sex enhancing supplements Herbal capsules are a cialis wholesale great way to improve the sexual intimacy that is lacking in your life. You will also be able viagra on line pharmacy to strengthen your bond with your partner. Special foods to include in diet:- Apart from daily workout, there are some food items that have proven helpful to amplify blood flow to the penile area of men. cost low viagra I’m particularly partial to spare ribs, although I have often wondered why certain animals have bits which are considered respitecaresa.org cialis 10 mg “spare.” It is often misquoted that women have one extra rib compared to men, a fallacy which is no doubt biblical in origin.
New York has the highest number of cases of FGM within America. A Voice of America report l found that  “Although it is illegal, female genital mutilation is practiced in some African diaspora communities in the United States. According to a 2012 study by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, more than 500,000 women and girls were at risk of female genital mutilation or its consequences in the United States, more than three times higher than an earlier estimate based on 1990 census data. The study said the increase was due to rapid growth in the number of immigrants from countries where the procedure is commonly practiced. In 2012, Congress passed a law making it illegal to transport a girl outside the United States for the purpose of performing FGM.”

The Gatestone Institute  calls acceptance of FGM “Multiculturalism gone wild… The influx of immigrants and refugees from these parts of the world into Western countries has led to a dramatic and dangerous increase of FGM in Europe, Britain and the United States… The larger issue, however — which must be tackled alongside legislation — involves Western multiculturalism gone wild. Take, for instance, the decision on the part of New York Times health and science editor Celia Dugger in April to stop using the term “female genital mutilation” on the grounds that it is ‘culturally loaded.’… …FGM is no less appalling a crime than rape or slavery, yet self-described feminists in the West — including Muslims such as Linda Sarsour and non-Muslim activists on a crusade against “Islamophobia” — are either silent when it comes to barbaric practices or deny their connection to Islam. Does she support slavery as well, another practice supported by Islam, and still practiced today in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Mauritania and Sudan, as well as with Islamic State and Boko Haram?”

Linda Sarsour, it should be noted, was co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington. Key parts of self-proclaimed U.S. women’s movement have been notable silent on this devastating issue.  On the day set aside to recognize the terrible practice of FGM, the headline page of the National Organization for Women (NOW) provided several links to immigration-related topics, criticism of President Trump, and other political issues.  FGM did not appear. The Women’s March on Washington site noted that “Our sister marches stood against hate in global elections and rallied to get women to vote; they have shared the stories of refugees and asylum seekers; they have demanded an end to violence against women and girls worldwide; and they have resisted the rise of the xenophobia and nationalism that is taking place across the world” but nothing on FGM.

The reality is that some western groups alleging to represent women’s interests are little more than shills for left-wing political causes, to the detriment of efforts seeking to end practices such as FGM and the enslavement of females in portions of the world.

Categories
Quick Analysis

Foreign Born Terrorists Pose Threat Within U.S., Part 2

President Trump’s Executive Order 13780 mandated that the federal government engage in enhanced measures to protect the U.S. from foreign terrorists within the United States. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified before Congress about the threat.  She outlined a number of steps her Department is taking, and described, In written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 16,  the extent of the challenge:

“Today, we face a serious and persistent terror threat that, according to my assessment, will not diminish anytime soon. While we have made it harder for terrorists to execute large-scale attacks, changes in technology have made it easier for adversaries to plot attacks in general, to inspire and radicalize new followers, and to recruit beyond borders. The problem is compounded by the use of simple, “do-it-yourself” terror tactics.

“Acts of terror and mass violence have become all-too-frequent around the world, and our enemies continue to target us throughout the West: Paris, San Bernardino, Brussels, Orlando, Istanbul, Nice, Berlin, London, Barcelona, New York City, and beyond. As the United States and our allies drive ISIS from its safe haven in Syria and Iraq, we are seeing operatives disperse, and we are concerned those foot soldiers will start focusing more heavily on external operations against the United States, our interests, and our allies as they have lost territory.

“The October 31, 2017 attack in New York City is a prime example of how terrorism is evolving. The suspect was apparently radicalized in part by online terrorist propaganda, his attack plotting went undetected, he choose a public area as his target, and selected a vehicle as his weapon.

“At the same time, terrorists overseas are experimenting with more sophisticated tools—including drones, chemical weapons, and artfully concealed improvised explosive devices—to further spread violence and fear. In short, what was once a preference for large-scale attacks is now an “all-of-the-above” approach to terrorism…

“Large gatherings and public venues and events are appealing targets for terrorists and violent criminals because of their accessibility and the potential to inflict significant physical, psychological, and economic damage…

“Americans do not want us to simply stop violent plots, they want us to keep them from materializing in the first place. As part of this effort, we have launched an end-to-end review of all DHS terrorism-prevention programs, projects, and activities. In the coming months we will work to ensure our approach to terrorism prevention is risk-based and intelligence-driven, focused on effectiveness, and provides appropriate support to those on the frontlines whom we rely on to spot signs of terrorist activity.

DHS efforts to combat terrorist recruitment and radicalization fall into several primary categories, including: (1) prioritizing education and community awareness; (2) focusing on counter-recruitment; (3) emphasizing the importance of early warning through better reporting of suspicious activity; and (4) promoting early intervention…

“When it comes to counterterrorism priorities, commercial aviation remains a major concern. We have seen a spider web of threats against the aviation sector, which continues to be a top target for global jihadist groups. We are working with our partners across the global aviation community to collaborate, innovate, and implement new security practices in the face of evolving threats.

“At the President’s direction, the Department is undertaking historic efforts to secure our country. The goal is to prevent national security threat actors, especially terrorists and criminals, from traveling to the United States, while better facilitating lawful trade and travel. The Administration has made it a priority to intensify screening and vetting and to provide the American people the security they deserve. All foreign nationals—no matter how they try to get into our country—now face tougher vetting and tighter screening. The changes have made it harder for terrorists, criminals, and other nefarious actors to reach America.
What is erectile dysfunction in men? Also known levitra 40 mg as male enhancer pill. The problem here: PDE6 also plays an order viagra prescription important role in this process that help to keep health in a good condition. Hence a male with Ed issues prefers to buy kamagra oral jelly online from an online pharmacy also saves you time because you don’t have to stop at 3 people. cheap cialis Seek medical lowest prices for cialis attention so that you can know exactly what to look for.
“This is important. The majority of individuals convicted on terrorism charges in the United States since 9/11 were foreign-born. While not all were radicalized before coming to the United States, we must do everything we can to detect individuals with terror ties or those who have been radicalized to violence before they reach our country. At the same time, our policies will be shaped by risk so that we focus on identifying nefarious actors while effectively facilitating the lawful entry of peaceful, freedom-loving people from around the world.

“Let me be clear: this has nothing to do with race or religion, and our goal is certainly not to block people from visiting the United States. America is proud of its history as a beacon of hope to those who want to visit our country or become a part of our enduring democratic republic. Rather, the goal is to protect Americans and ensure foreign governments are working with us—and not inhibiting us—from stopping terrorists, criminals, and other national security threat actors from traveling into our communities undetected….

“…nearly one thousand illegal immigrants coming across our border every day. This is an unacceptable risk to public safety and national security. Additionally, since last spring, we have seen a dangerous increase in border crossings by families and unaccompanied alien children. We must gain operational control of our borders. DHS needs Congressional support to deter illegal immigration and fully execute the President’s Executive Orders on immigration…

“The President has outlined much of the above in his immigration legislation principles, and with Congress, we have reached a general consensus on four corners of an immigration deal: border security, to include the authority to remove people we apprehend quickly, according to the rule of law and court orders; ending the diversity visa; ending extended family chain migration; and finding a permanent solution for the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients. While there are other items to be addressed, these four pillars are the minimum we need to secure our country…

“In the U.S. the illicit drug consumption has resulted in a national health crisis, as stated by President Trump regarding the opioid crisis. But the true threat is much broader and includes the increasing illicit drug supply trafficked into the United States by transnational criminal organizations. This is a National Security threat as stated in the National Security Strategy: “The United States must devote greater resources to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and their subsidiary networks…..Every day they deliver drugs to American communities, fuel gang violence, and engage in cybercrime. The illicit opioid epidemic, fed by drug cartels as well as Chinese fentanyl traffickers, kills tens of thousands of Americans each year…

“To further protect our communities, we must end so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions. Hundreds of state and local jurisdictions across the country that do not honor requests from ICE to hold criminal aliens who are already in state and local custody. Instead, they allow them back into their communities, where they are allowed to commit more crimes. This also poses a greater risk of harm to ICE officers, who must locate and arrest these criminals in public places, and increases the likelihood that the criminal aliens can resist arrest or flee. Rather than enhancing public safety, sanctuary jurisdictions undermine it. The only “sanctuary” these jurisdictions create is a safe haven for criminals. States and localities that refuse to cooperate with federal authorities should be ineligible for funding from certain grants and cooperative agreements. Authorizing and incentivizing states and localities to enforce immigration laws would further help ICE with its mission and make all communities safer.

“In FY 2017, 1,761 criminal illegal aliens were released from ICE custody because of a 2001 Supreme Court decision that generally requires ICE to release certain removable aliens with final orders of removal—including violent criminals—within 180 days, if they have not been removed and there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. Legally insupportable judicial interpretations of the law regarding the detention and removability of criminal aliens have eroded ICE’s authority to keep aliens in custody pending removal. I urge Congress to legislatively correct these errors and expand the authority for mandatory detention for criminal aliens. This will help end years of court-ordered “catch-and-release” and improve community safety.

“… our immigration system must be radically reformed to meet the economic needs of our country. Most low-skilled immigration into the United States occurs legally through our immigrant-visa system, which, unlike many other countries’ systems, prioritizes family-based chain-migration. Each year, the United States grants lawful permanent resident status (green cards) to more than one million people; two-thirds of that total is based on a person having a sponsoring relative in the United States, regardless of the new immigrant’s skills, education, English language proficiency, or ability to successfully assimilate. This system of chain-migration has accounted for more than 60 percent of immigration into the United States over the past 35 years. We must end chain-migration, and limit family-based green cards to spouses and the minor children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

“We must also eliminate the “diversity visa” lottery. Every year, through this lottery, 50,000 green cards are awarded at random to foreign nationals. Many of these lottery beneficiaries have absolutely no ties to the United States, no special skills, and limited education. The random lottery program has not been adopted by other countries and does not adequately serve our national interest.”