Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

New Jobs in America – No Time Soon

My life work was in manufacturing businesses.  As a consequence I still receive newsletters and magazines from manufacturing websites.  This item says it all.  Headline is Foxconn’s New China Plant to Produce 200k Phones/Day, Mostly iPhones.  That company will employ 200,000 people at the new facility.  The problem is we love iPhones but we don’t manufacture them in the United States.  The reason is those workers in China will be earning 1/5 or less the pay we want in the USA.   (The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports assembler average annual pay in the United States is $26,820.00 per year.)   Technicolor moved its three manufacturing facilities to Mexico.  Those facilities each employed at least 1,000 people. Care to guess why they would do that?

Today I received another on-line newsletter from asiaone business.  The headline reads Foxconn to raise wages again at China plant. The item says that employees at their facility at its Shenzhen factory will be increased by two-thirds.  That will bring the pay up to $392.00 per month.  Businessweek (September 13, 2010 edition) reports that there are 470,000 employees at that facility.  

Back in the United States: Where are the ideas from either the GOP or the Democrats for bringing jobs back to America?  There are no sensible ideas.  The GOP want to give more tax breaks to the corporations that are sitting on almost $2 Trillion in earnings that are being held for some future projects. The Democrats just want to enlarge government to take up the slack but have no idea how to create private sector jobs.

The political parties just hope that the public won’t notice that neither of them has even one worthwhile idea.

Terrorism Succeeds

The U.S. State Department has issued a “travel alert” for Europe that advises Americans to stay vigilant on the continent because of threat information.  They probably wanted to issue a warning not to travel in Europe but the consequence of that warning would be devastating to the travel industry.

Wisegeek.com offers this definition of Terrorism. “The commonly accepted meaning of the word terrorism is any use of terror in the form of violence or threats meant to coerce an individual, group, or entity to act in a manner in which any person or group could not otherwise lawfully force them to act.” In other words, intimidation.

This means that Osama bin Laden and his Al-Queda group have successfully accomplished their goal.

Rick Sanchez Fired from CNN

This situation reminds me of radio talk show host Don Imus.  He is most remembered for making remarks about black women on a basketball team. (“That’s some nappy-headed hos.”)

Recall that all this started by Sanchez being upset as the butt of Stewarts’ comedy line.  I listened to the Pete Domenick interview.  At the end of the day Rick Sanchez suffers with problems of his own feelings inadequacy.  He really doesn’t have any inadequacies.  He will likely say he was fired because he is Cuban or non-white or not Jewish.  Many people of minority groups play the “victim card” for their failings.  He won’t conclude that he was fired for voicing his bigotry.

“Sanchez is among the many cable-news guys and gals Jon Stewart regularly pokes fun at on “The Daily Show,” but Sanchez couldn’t laugh off the treatment; instead, he was humiliated by the teasing in a way that clearly tapped into earlier slights and ongoing self-doubt.”

Melinda Henneberger at aol.com discusses the whole ugly episode.

Follow-up on October 8, 2010: Ex-CNN host Rick Sanchez says he ‘screwed up’

Michael Bolton Can’t Dance

Chelsie Hightower and Michael Bolton in "Dancing with the Stars."

Chelsie Hightower and Michael Bolton on “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Dancing with the Stars” on ABC Television is my favorite show.  The program offers really wonderful dance and music.  The professional dancers are magnificent (especially those beautiful female dancers).  The stars are all fun to watch and the cameras pan an audience filled with celebrities.

The judges have been known to be harsh.  It’s all part of the game.  Many really good dancers have been voted off the show well before the end.

Michael Bolton’s dancing was plain bad.  Judge Bruno Tonioli was rather harsh when he said “it was the worst jive I have seen in 11 seasons.”  Bolton’s response and behavior wasn’t appropriate.  First he demands an apology for the judge’s critique and then when he was voted off the show he was visibly upset on stage and abruptly left the theater.

Bolton was a poor sport.  The whole dancing thing is all just for fun.

Quit Whining, Buck Up!

A testy U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry [Friday] blamed clueless voters with short attention spans for the uphill battle beleaguered Democrats are facing against Republicans across the nation.

“We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening,” Kerry told reporters after touring the Boston Medical Center this past Friday.

No doubt about it.  Americans do not want to be called whiners.  However, that is precisely the word used by Vice President Joe Biden in his commentary about voters.  He said that in a campaign speech yesterday and followed up today by saying that voters “needed to buck up.”

The Democratic administration has failed to deliver what Americans want most.  That would be help for the average man on the street.  Most working people feel neglected and believe the wealthy were rescued while they were left to fend for themselves.  I am including those who still have their jobs.

Most of us are watching CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.   Those networks are all telling the same story.  The CEOs and other corporate managers are earning 200 to 300 times our pay and we are barely getting along.  The banks won’t help us re-finance our home loans and health care costs are going up this year (an average of 20% in California).  The country is in serious debt with no end in sight and wars that appear to be never ending.

You want us to support your political party?  No way!

World’s oldest man marks 114th birthday in US

GREAT FALLS, Montana — A Montana resident believed to be the world’s oldest man celebrated his 114th birthday Tuesday at a retirement home in Great Falls.

Walter Breuning was born on Sept. 21, 1896, in Melrose, Minnesota, and moved to Montana in 1918, where he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway for 50 years.

His wife, Agnes, a railroad telegraph operator from Butte, died in 1957. The couple had no children.

Breuning inherited the distinction of being the world’s oldest man in July 2009 when Briton Henry Allingham died at age 113. Allingham had joked that the secret to long life was “Cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women _ and a good sense of humor,” according to Guinness World Records.

The Guinness organization and the Gerontology Research Group each have verified Breuning as the world’s oldest man and the fourth-oldest person. Three women were born earlier in the same year as Breuning.

Robert Young, senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records, presented Breuning with a copy of the book’s 2011 edition that lists him as the record holder.

“Walter wasn’t in last year’s edition,” Young joked. “He was too young.”

The Great Falls Tribune reported that Breuning gave a speech before about 100 people at an invitation-only birthday party at the Rainbow Retirement Community, with a guest list that included Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and representatives from Guinness World Records.

Breuning was helped up to a lectern from his motorized cart, appearing somewhat frail but speaking with a strong voice.

He recalled “the dark ages,” when his family moved to South Dakota in 1901 and lived for 11 years without electricity, water or plumbing.

For the rest of the story click here.

Canada Learned a Lesson from the United States

Richard Florida (born 1957 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American urban studies theorist.  On Sunday, August 29, he was interviewed on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and pointed out that the United States seems to have forgotten its basic message to the world.  That message was that this is the country that will take “…your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,…”  Guesting on that show from Toronto, Canada, he pointed out that ½ of all the residents in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada are immigrants from around the world.  The mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba is an expatriate from Israel. Canada has taken the mantle from the United States.

Here we are arguing about legal versus illegal immigration.  We are not alone.  Business Week reports in its September 6, 2010 edition that Australia is concerned about the impact on their nation of Chinese investments for the purpose of mining their minerals.  They haven’t visited Vancouver, Canada.  The first thing you notice driving into the city is that Mandarin is the primary language on many building signs and English beneath in a smaller font.  Check out this article by another Canadian.  Canada’s Teck Resources has the Chinese government’s China Investment Corp. sovereign wealth fund as a strategic 17% shareholder.

All races, all religions, all sexual orientations are accepted without reservation.  Taxes are high but more American cars are manufactured in Canada than in the United States.  The taxi driver said, “medical care is free.”  It isn’t.  They pay for it in higher taxes.  Canada is growing despite its major reliance on the United States.

There is a lesson here.  Will the United States learn too?

A Middle of the Road Leader

Political Independents are people who do not follow any political party philosophy even though they believe it is correct in some ways.  After all, political party philosophy has been determined by party leaders.  Thus, it is estimated by the Pew Research Center that between 36% and 39% contend to be Independents.  I am one of them.  I receive email from Republicans, Democrats, and the Tea Party.  What I don’t do is attend any of their events.

It has been gratifying to watch New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  He has been a Democrat, a Republican, and most recently an Independent.  Now AOL reports that “he will plunge into this year’s elections to raise money and campaign for candidates for both parties who he sees as capable of compromise.”

This is a philosophy I can relate to.  America functions best when we find common ground and compromise.  The banner wavers and extremists provide no solution to our mixed and multi-cultural society.