The Right to Spread Disease

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease. It is widespread in many parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, and Asia. Measles begins with a fever that lasts for a couple of days, followed by a cough, runny nose, conjunctivitis (pink eye), and a rash. The rash typically appears first on the face, along the hairline, and behind the ears and then affects the rest of the body. Infected people are usually contagious from about 4 days before their rash starts to 4 days afterwards. Children routinely get their first dose of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine at 12 months old or later. The second dose of MMR is usually administered before the child begins kindergarten but may be given one month or more after the first dose. For anyone planning to travel internationally, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) strongly encourages all Californians to make sure they are protected against measles and other dangerous diseases before they go abroad.

In December 2014, a large outbreak of measles started in California when at least 40 people who visited or worked at Disneyland theme park in Orange County contracted measles; the outbreak also spread to at least half a dozen other states. On April 17, 2015, the outbreak was declared over, since at least two 21-day incubation periods (42 days) have elapsed from the end of the infectious period of the last known outbreak-related measles case.

Pneumonia is one of several serious common complications of measles and the most common cause of death from the virus, said William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. Measles kills one or two children out of every 1,000 infected, according to the CDC. At least one person was reported dead from this disease in July 2015.

At the end of June 2015 California passed a law requiring all children be vaccinated before they will be admitted to public schools. Three days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed one of the nation’s strictest mandatory vaccination bills, several hundred opponents rallied in Santa Monica on Friday and vowed to repeal it. Opponents of California’s tough new vaccine law filed petitions this past Monday seeking to put a referendum on the issue on the November 2016 ballot, but it may be a month before elections officials determine whether the ballot measure qualifies.

People have called California’s governor a fascist and other names for signing the law. The mystery is why would you not want to protect your children?

Bill Clinton Defends His Wife Hillary

Appearing on Erin Burnett’s “Out Front” on CNN former president Bill Clinton did a good job of defending his wife Hillary on her performance as Secretary of State.

“When we look at the job that Hillary did as secretary of state, she goes down as perhaps the worst secretary of state in history,” Trump said then.

Bill Clinton pointed to his wife’s efforts to impose sanctions — getting Russia and China on board — that precipitated negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal. He said that while that deal has proven controversial, the sanctions were roundly considered a success.

“Even the Republicans admit that the sanctions on Iran were well done,” he said.

“And that was a major achievement, to get Russia and China to agree to sign off on these sanctions and enforce them,” he said. “She did that. That’s what made the talks possible, so even the people who don’t like the Iran deal, like the sanctions.”

He also highlighted her work on the new START treaty with Russia, saying that “having these two sides still committed to reducing the number of nuclear warheads and missiles, I think, is a good thing.”

He said Hillary Clinton’s efforts to expand the number of beneficiaries from the George W. Bush-era anti-AIDS program known as the “President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,” or PEPFAR, from 1.7 million people to 5.1 million by using more generic medicines. The expanded program did not cost on additional cent.

“These are all facts, so they’re not common to the diatribe here,” Bill Clinton said.

Of course there was no discussion about Libya, Benghazi, and e-mail records.

Los Angeles – The City that Never Looks Back?

Once upon a time there was a very smart man named Henry Huntington, nephew of Collis Huntington who built the Southern Pacific Railroad, who believed that Los Angeles would grow into a very widespread city. He conceived an electric railroad that would connect all of the area. That year was 1901. Along with his financial partner, banker Isaias W. Hellman, he proceeded with his dream. The electric car system, called the Red Car, stretched from Newport Beach to the south, San Bernardino and Riverside to the east, and the northern parts of the San Fernando Valley. The system was shut down in 1961. Its demise was caused by the belief that the Los Angeles area would be better served by the car. Large-scale land acquisition for new freeway construction began in earnest in 1951.

About 10 years ago Los Angeles County created a 1½ mile long replica of the old Red Car in the San Pedro area near other tourist attractions just for fun. It cost millions to build and maintain but only collected $460,000 in revenue. Now it too will be shut down.

These are my photos taken with a Panasonic FZ150 camera.

There used to be a funicular in downtown Los Angeles but that too has been shut down.

Angel’s Flight

Interestingly the Los Angeles new light rail and subway system that won’t be complete for another 20 to 30 years is being built along and near the paths of Huntington’s Pacific Electric. They also want to build a loop trolley line in the downtown area.

Auto Manufacturers Cannot be Trusted

Once again we have been reminded that auto manufacturers cannot be trusted. Remember that fact when you shop for your next car.

I always held Toyota in the highest regard. I used Toyota as a standard when urging my employees to do their best. I would say, “I want Toyota quality.” Those were my words in the 1980s and 1990s, well before Toyota’s developed an acceleration problem that cost lives. In my opinion there has never been an adequate explanation of the cause of that problem. Toyota ended up paying out a staggering $1.3 billion to settle lawsuits related to unintended acceleration, and in some of those cases the drivers were probably at fault.

General Motors kept quiet about the ignition switch that would shut off while their cars were in motion. That too cost lives. 13 people died. Almost 780,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s were recalled and the company paid a $35 million fine. What is sad is that it would have only cost 57 cents to fix each faulty ignition switch.

Now we have the VW installed software that masks the real performance of its diesel cars. There is no direct impact on the buyers of the cars but the company and its dealers will notice a substantial decline in sales. The company management is to blame for this stupid decision. 20% of German exports are cars shipments. Imagine what the impact will be on German factories.

How many other industries lie about their products?

Jeb Bush and Multiculturalism

Most nations in the world reject multiculturalism. Even in Canada they have decided to define Quebec as the French speaking, French oriented province while the rest of the country speaks English and is oriented towards the UK.

CNN reported that Jeb Bush argued today that the United States is “creeping toward multiculturalism” and described it as “the wrong approach.”

But Bush, who’s fluent in Spanish and lives in Miami, has made cultural diversity a key staple in his campaign. He routinely talks about his wife, who’s from Mexico, and the “bicultural” children that they’ve raised together. On Monday, while addressing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Houston, Bush lauded the country’s mixture of cultural backgrounds, saying the immigrant experience adds a “vitality that is different and unique and extraordinary for our country.”

So what is Jeb Bush’s real opinion? At this point in the race to win the GOP nomination I am guessing that his words today, Tuesday, are meant to win the Conservative vote in Iowa.

His real problem is that his desire to win the nomination has made him turn and twist as Mitt Romney did in 2012. We all know how that worked out. No one believed him in the race against Obama and the loss that year was overwhelming.

No matter who the Democratic nominee is; Jeb as the GOP candidate, will face the argument that he does not have a clear reliable opinion and cannot be trusted on any issue. The Democrats are collecting the words of every GOP candidate and will be using them after the conventions in 2016. Hillary couldn’t be happier.

What Bernie Sanders means by ‘democratic socialism.’

These are the reasons I am supporting Bernie Sanders for president. This is the Washington Post article.

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — The shorthand that the media uses to describe Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has changed.

“It used to be that I was known as ‘the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress,’ which is true,” Sanders said during an appearance Saturday at Saint Anselm’s College here. “Now I’m a ‘self-professed democratic socialist.’ Things change when you run for president.”

In response to a student’s question, Sanders, whose campaign for the Democratic nomination has surged in recent weeks, went on to give a lengthy of explanation of what “democratic socialism” is — and is not.

“So what does that mean?” Sanders asked the students. “Does anyone here think I’m a strong adherent of the North Korean form of government? That I want all of you to be wearing similar colored pajamas?”

When the laughter died down, the longest-serving independent in Congress asked how many of the students were familiar with the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland and Norway.

“Are these democratic societies? Obviously they are,” Sanders said, relaying that voter turnout in Denmark tends to approach 90 percent.

“Is it a society where the government owns every mom-and-pop store?” he asked. “Of course not. You have all kinds of capitalist entrepreneurship going on, a lot of wealth being created. But what else do you have? … An effort to make sure that all people benefit from the wealth that’s being created. So you have a much more equitable distribution of wealth and income. … I talked to a guy from Denmark, and he said, ‘In Denmark, it is very hard to become very, very rich, but it’s pretty hard to be very, very poor.’ And that makes a lot of sense to me.”

In Denmark, Sanders said, health care is a right, and college education is free. “Sounds like a very terrible form of government,” he said sarcastically.

In Finland, Sanders said, the public education system is the strongest in the world. There’s a strong child care system. Wages are generally higher than in the United States. And retirement programs are strong.

“Now is all that stuff free? No,” Sanders said. “They pay more in taxes. … And the wealthy there pay a lot more in taxes.”

But at the end of the day, Sanders said, Americans should ask themselves what it would be like to have a country where the elderly don’t have to worry about how to pay for prescription drugs, where all parents have access to high-quality child care, and where they know their children can go to college, regardless of their income.

Sanders acknowledged the Scandinavian countries he cited “are no utopias.” But he asked his audience to compare how secure people are there compared to here.

“We’ve got an economy that basically says everybody is out there on their own,” he said. “And if you don’t make it, well that’s tough luck. You don’t have any health insurance and you get sick, good luck to you. … You’re a bright kid and you come from a family that doesn’t have any money. Tough luck, you’re not going to go to college.”

“So what democratic socialism means to me,” he said, “is having a government which represents all people, rather than just the wealthiest people, which is most often the case right now in this country. And it is making sure that all of our people have health care as a right, education as a right, decent housing as a right, child care as a right. That’s what I believe.”

Presidential Debates where the Candidates Tell Us Nothing About Real Issues

A bizarre three hours.

After listening to the second GOP debate you would think that the choice for president is all about who would have his/her finger on the nuclear button and who has been the smartest CEO. Trump says the leaders of other countries are destroying American jobs but offers no solutions (at least he has identified the loss of jobs as an issue).

Or is the real threat to America the Muslim world.

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said he would not support a Muslim as President of the United States. Responding to a question on “Meet the Press” today, the retired neurosurgeon said, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” He also said that Islam, as a religion, is incompatible with the Constitution.

On that Meet the Press program commentator guest Hugh Hewitt, who is also a constitutional scholar, pointed out that the sixth article of the Constitution specifically says that religion shall not be a criteria to hold any office. The end of the last sentence in that article reads, “but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

The problem is that the voting public can decide they do not want anyone to hold office that is not a Christian. This is not a new issue.

We have a spotty history of bias against those who hold beliefs that are not held us (that personal us). Laws aside, the first Catholic to run for President was campaigned against because of his religion. Al Smith was the first Roman Catholic presidential nominee, and lost the 1928 election in a landslide to Republican Herbert Hoover. Influential Lutherans and Southern Baptist ministers believed the Catholic Church and the Pope would dictate Smith’s policies.

Source: Boundless. “Al Smith and the Election of 1928.” Boundless U.S. History. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 20 Sep. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/from-the-new-era-to-the-great-depression-1920-1933-24/resistance-to-change-188/al-smith-and-the-election-of-1928-1045-2231/

Much of those very same arguments against Al Smith were again used when John F. Kennedy ran for president. Americans were not dissuaded by the anti-Catholic arguments and Kennedy won. The 1960 presidential race was one of the closest elections in U.S. history. The popular vote was 49.72% for Kennedy against 49.55% for Richard Nixon. 303 electoral votes for Kennedy of the 537 total electors.

Anjem Choudary, a famous Muslim cleric in the U.K., in 2013 said, “Inevitably, I’m convinced, I’m 100% certain that the sharia will be implemented in America and in Britain one day. If we have enough authority and power, we are obliged as Muslims to take the power away from the people who have it, and implement sharia law.”

Chris Christy accurately pointed out in that last debate that the public wants to hear specifics about what candidates would do to help Americans obtain decent middle class jobs. Did any of the other candidates hear his message? I doubt it.

In my opinion no candidate in either party are worth voting for. None have proposed any specific actions they would take on any issue.

The Evasive Hillary Clinton

This is short but not sweet.

Hillary Clinton did appear before a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing on May 8, 2013. However, she evaded explaining what happened in Benghazi, Libya. Instead there was a discussion of State Department Accountability Review Board report that was linked to a Tampa Bay Times article. That long report did not answer the key questions that everyone has been asking

When did the Secretary know the Benghazi facility was under attack?
Could any help been sent to save lives?

Clinton’s “What difference does it make?” response to questioning only makes her look responsible.

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Why would anyone go to the trouble of installing a private e-mail server in their home for government business? Hillary Clinton’s answers to that question make absolutely no sense.

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The above two issues makes the public question her honesty. The 2016 election win by the GOP is a given unless their candidate is totally unacceptable to the American public. In other words it’s the Republican Party’s to lose if Hillary Clinton in the nominee.

GE says it may move up to 500 jobs overseas

When Donald Trump said “we-are-led-by-very—very–stupid–people” you probably thought he was exaggerating. The GOP lead congress refused to re-authorize the U.S. Export Import Bank on the grounds that it was helping companies that don’t need any help. This is the consequence of that very stupid decision.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

General Electric Co. may move about 500 American jobs overseas because Congress did not renew a government program that allows foreign companies to borrow money to buy U.S. products, the industrial conglomerate said Tuesday.

Authorization for the U.S. Export Import Bank was not approved by Congress, forcing it to stop lending July 1. Foreign companies use the agency to buy expensive U.S. products when bank loans are not possible.

As a result, GE says 100 jobs from a Houston plant that makes gas turbines will move to Hungary and China in 2016. The Fairfield, Connecticut, company says those countries have lending options in place for customers.

“We do not make today’s announcements lightly and in fact, have done everything in our power to avoid making these moves at all, but Congress left us no choice when it failed to reauthorize the Ex-Im Bank this summer,” said John Rice, GE’s vice chairman.

Another 400 jobs could be created in France instead of factories in South Carolina, Maine and New York if the company wins projects it is bidding on. The projects require financing, and the export credit agency in France has agreed to provide it.

GE said it’s bidding on projects valued at $11 billion that require export financing. It said it has reached agreement with the French export credit agency to provide a line of credit for global power projects. GE said the line of credit will initially support potential orders in international markets that include Indonesia.

To access the required export credit for its customers of its aeroderivatives turbines, GE will move its final assembly from the U.S. to Hungary and China. As related projects are bid and won in these two product lines, GE said it will move approximately 500 jobs from Texas, South Carolina, Maine and New York to France, Hungary and China.

The embattled and little-known banking agency has been at the center of a fight between tea party Republicans who say it’s not needed and Democrats and some Republicans — backed by manufacturers and large businesses — who say it promotes trade and helps create jobs.

The Ex-Im Bank’s principal role is to guarantee commercial bank loans to foreign businesses and governments to buy U.S. products. U.S. taxpayers would be responsible for a loan if a company operating overseas defaults on a bank loan used to buy a product made by a U.S. company.

Being a Boss is not the same as being President of the United States

Let’s consider the leading outsiders who want the GOP nomination.

When you’re the boss there is no democracy involved. You make the rules and all of your employees must do as they are told. That includes department heads and company CEOs. So when Donald Trump, owner of a large business or Carly Fiorina, when she was CEO of Hewlett Packard gave an order it had to be followed. The consequence of not following your orders is their termination.

When you are a legislator you must sit with other legislators and agree on a plan that is then acted into law. You alone cannot command anyone to do anything (other than your immediate staff).

Those differences between being the boss and working with others to initiate orders are the reasons that CEOs and bosses are not necessarily successful in elected office. Former President Ronald Reagan never was a boss. He was an actor and in show business you must learn to get along with others to make a movie or television program.

Donald Trump owns his business. It is not listed on a stock exchange. When he gives an order to his employees they do as they are told. Not following Trump’s directions can lead to termination.

Carly Fiorina tried to do what she wanted in Hewlett Packard but even as CEO, while still being as boss, she still had a boss. That was the roll of the Board of Directors. Carly Fiorina left Hewlett Packard effective immediately upon termination. There were no goodbye parties.

Doctor Ben Carson probably had a team of assistance who responded to his direction. They too had no choice.

The skill set to work successfully in politics is not the same as being the boss. You may like what the non-politicians say but can they carry out their promises? Well not if they use the same skill set used as a boss.