Author: Frank V. Vernuccio, Jr.

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NY Analysis

The Issues Each Presidential Candidate Must Address

The presidential campaign season has begun at a time when America faces extraordinary crises at home and abroad.  Although it is a consistent cliché that the “next election is the most important in a lifetime,” the reality is that this time, it happens to be true.

Due to the gravity of the economic, diplomatic, national security, societal, constitutional and other challenges facing the United States, it is vital that candidates be judged on their comprehension of the problems affecting the nation, proposed solutions, ability to achieve their goals, and the honesty with which they outline all the above. Personal integrity should be examined. At this crucial juncture, voter decisions based on any other criteria, including party loyalty, special interests, personal appearance, personality, race, ethnicity, gender, or campaign slogans are clearly counterproductive.

There will, of course, be debates in both the primary and general elections. Sadly, these affairs have failed to provide genuine opportunities to rate those seeking the nation’s highest office. Inadequate formats, the lack of a sufficient number of direct questions on the issues, and the toleration of evasive answers has sharply limited their usefulness.  Several instances of biased and ill-informed moderators have also resulted in disappointing outcomes.

These are the direct questions each candidate should be able to respond to with thoroughness and accuracy, both in debates and through campaign literature:

 THE ECONOMY

 The U.S. labor participation rate is the lowest in several decades. Long term unemployment remains extremely high. The few jobs that have been created in the past several years have largely been minimum wage positions without substantial benefits. Inner city unemployment rates for minority youth are at Great Depression levels. What will you do to address this?

For many years, the number of business failures has exceeded the number of start-ups. What will you do to reverse this?

American jobs and American companies continue to flee overseas.  What will you do to stop this?

American companies remain at a competitive disadvantage due to international competitors that pay lower corporate tax rates and face a less substantial regulatory regime. What will you do to address this?

American manufacturing has plummeted since the start of the 21st century. What steps will you take to reinvigorate it?

 THE FEDERAL BUDGET

The federal government has taken in record amounts of revenue recently, but continues to run high deficits. What will you do to balance the budget?

The national debt has nearly doubled during the current administration, with nothing substantial to show for all that spending. What will you do differently? What areas will you cut or protect?

What will you do to address the tremendous increase in public assistance programs over the past several years?

What will you do to insure that Social Security remains solvent?

There is widespread dissatisfaction with the Internal Revenue Code. Should the income tax system be changed? If so, in what manner? Are taxes too high?

 INTERNATIONAL ISSUES & NATIONAL SECURITY

Since 2009, the Russian government has invaded a neighbor, committed vast resources to a dramatic conventional and nuclear arms buildup, re-established cold war bases, threatened Europe both militarily and economically, sold nuclear technology and conventional weaponry to Iran, militarized the Arctic, resumed nuclear patrols along American coastlines, and violated arms accords. What will your administration do in response?

China continues its own dramatic arms buildup at a rate greater than that of either the USSR or the USA at the height of the cold war. It has threatened and bullied its neighbors, stolen assets from several of them, and committed significant cyberattacks on American and other civilian, military and corporate targets. It has provided inappropriate assistance to Iran. It continues to engage in human rights violations, and its environmental record is troubling. It continues to engage in intellectual property theft on a massive scale. How will you amend Sino-U.S. relations?

Terrorist forces are more powerful and widespread than ever, controlling more territory and financial resources than at any other point in history. ISIS continues to commit atrocities on a massive scale. Al Qaeda is resurgent and expanding its worldwide influence. What can be done to counter this?

North Korea has developed a powerful nuclear weapons capability and Iran is heading in that direction as well.  How will you deal with this?

America’s national security is at its weakest point since the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  International adversaries have extensively increased their armed forces, and for the first time in history, the U.S. is in an inferior position in nuclear deterrence. The Army is at its lowest strength since before World War 2, the Navy, since World War 1. The Air Force has reached an historic low point. These armed forces face adversaries who are technologically equal or, in some areas, superior to America, and with greater numbers. The U.S. defense industrial base is weakened, and many essential components are purchased overseas. What will you do to keep America safe?

How will you repair damaged relations with allies such as the United Kingdom, Israel, and Poland?
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What will you do in response to the growing presence of Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and terrorist military interests in Latin America?

 CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES

Describe your views on the appropriate use of executive authority.

Do you agree with the concept enunciated in the Declaration of Independence that there are “unalienable rights” that the government may not infringe upon? Define your version of those rights.

Regulations enacted not by the legislative process but by bureaucracies play an increasingly large role in the lives of Americans. Do you believe that is appropriate? If not, what will you do to change that?

The 9th & 10th Amendments to the Bill of Rights proclaim that rights and powers not expressly given to the federal government are reserved for the people or the states. Do you believe the federal government has ignored those provisions?

What are your views on the Second Amendment right to bear arms?

Do you believe that the U.S. Constitution can be infringed upon by United Nations treaties, agreements, or other actions?

There have been accusations that various portions of the Executive Branch have been used for partisan purposes. Significant examples include the IRS targeting of the Tea Party, and the refusal of the Justice Department to act on complaints of fraudulent or inaccurate voter registration, as while as balloting improprieties. Charges have been made that the State Department covered up evidence of what actually occurred in Benghazi. What are your views on these issues, and what guarantees of governmental transparency are you willing to make?

THE ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY POLICY, SCIENCE, & EDUCATION

What are your views on the theory of man-made global climate change? Are you willing to listen to both sides of the issue?

Do you believe that the use of coal, nuclear power, or hydrofracking should be curtailed? If so, what energy sources can fully and affordably replace them?

Should federal lands be made available for energy exploitation?

The U.S. has not been capable of putting a human in space since 2011, and NASA’s plans to do so will not remedy this for many years. What will you do to restore America’s manned space capability?

What steps must be taken to insure American preeminence in science?

What are your views on Common Core?

U.S. schools continue to underperform in relation to other industrialized nations, despite spending more per student. What can be done to address this? Is this a federal or state responsibility?

SOCIETAL ISSUES

How will you stem the tide of illegal immigration? How should those illegals, both those here for many years and those recently arrived, be treated?

What can be done to improve race relations within the nation?

Increased prices, lower Social Security cost of living increases, and increased difficulty keeping or finding employment have particularly affected older Americans.  What will you do to address this?

What are your views on the Affordable Health Care Act? Should it be retained as is, amended, or repealed? What alternatives or changes would you seek to implement?

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Announcements

Former Rep. DioGuardi on solving the Federal Budget Crisis

The federal budget seems beyond repair.  How did Washington get into this dilemma, and how does it escape? Join Stress is said to be the major viagra canada shipping reason behind erectile dysfunction. Cordyceps have been described in Old Chinese http://www.slovak-republic.org/safety/ viagra low cost medical books, and healers have been using them to cure diseases without the use of chemical medicines for generations. Don’t forget that acquiring instant challenging and stiff erection entails getting sufficient flow of blood to the viagra generic for sale penis. However, these effects last for a short term there can be a feel of typical condition where the penis does not harden and expand when a man is actually get sexually inspired. cialis viagra australia our guest, former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi, a CPA and author of “Unaccountable Congress,” on this week’s Vernuccio/Novak Report.

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Quick Analysis

Elected official opts his children out of Common Core

A prominent local elected official has very publicly refused to allow his children to be taught the Common Core curriculum.

Robert Astorino, the county executive of New York State’s Westchester County, based his decision on a number of objections.  In a widely distributed statement, he noted:

“Our kids deserve better than Common Core, an experiment conceived in secrecy with no public hearings or testing. There are no consequences for opting out. The scores will not affect student records. We support higher standards for our kids, but that’s not Common Core, despite what we’ve often been told.

“The standards are of ‘poor quality.’  Those aren’t my words; those are the words of the Math and English Language Arts content experts on the validation committee. But their concerns were expunged from the final record.

Also ignored are experts’ concerns that:

The standards are developmentally inappropriate in the early grades

  • No K-12 teachers were involved in writing the standards
  • High-stakes testing as the sole assessment for both student and teacher performance is both unfair and wrong.”

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Previously, A New York Analysis of Policy & Government review report noted:

Concerns over inadequate educational accomplishments led to the bipartisan creation of the Common Core educational program. But the fears of parents and others that Common Core serves as an excuse for Washington to politicize the American public school system have been heightened by recent disclosures that related textual material introduced partisan statements into English lessons.

Further objections have been raised about what some believe are bizarre common core assignments, including one report from Arkansas that sixth-graders were tasked to revise the Bill of Rights by removing two Amendments and adding two new ones. Education Secretary Arne Duncan added fuel to the fire when he described those expressing their dismay as “White suburban mothers.”

A joint study  by the Pioneer Institute, the American Principles Project, the Pacific Research Institute, and Civitas warns:

“By signing on to national standards and the assessments that will accompany them, participating states have ceded their autonomy to design and oversee the implementation of their own standards and tests. The implications of ceding this autonomy are varied. Not only do some states risk sacrificing high quality standards for national standards that may be less rigorous, all states are sacrificing their ability to inform what students learn. Moreover, the act of adopting national standards has and will continue to disrupt legal and other processes upon which states rely to ensure the adequate and equitable delivery of educational materials and resources. Finally and, perhaps, most distressing, the predicted cost to states of implementing the Common Core is in the billions of dollars, a number that only stands to grow if implementation ramps up.”

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Quick Analysis

China hacks into governments, corporations, and journalists

China’s aggressive military actions against its neighbors have been the subject of discussion. Less publicized has been its extensive and hostile cyberespionage actions against those same nations and others. A report  just released by Fireeye, Inc.  analyzes the issue:

“When our Singapore-based Fireeye labs team examined malware aimed predominantly at entities in Southeast Asia and India, we suspected that we were peering into a regionally focused cyber espionage operation. The malware revealed a decade-long operation focused on targets—government and commercial—who hold key political, economic, and military information about the region.

“This group, who we call APT30, stands out not only for their sustained activity and regional focus, but also for their continued success despite maintaining relatively consistent tools, tactics, and infrastructure since at least 2005. In essence, our analysis of APT30 illuminates how a group can persistently compromise entities across an entire region and subcontinent, unabated, with little to no need to significantly change their modus operandi.

“Based on our malware research, we are able to assess how the team behind APT30 works: they prioritize their targets, most likely work in shifts in a collaborative environment, and build malware from a coherent development plan. Their missions focus on acquiring sensitive data from a variety of targets, which possibly include classified government networks and other networks inaccessible from a standard Internet connection. While APT30 is certainly not the only group to build functionality to infect air-gapped networks into their operations, they appear to have made this a consideration at the very beginning of their development efforts in 2005, significantly earlier than many other advanced groups we track. Such a sustained, planned development effort, coupled with the group’s regional targets and mission, lead us to believe that this activity is state sponsored—most likely by the Chinese government.

“APT30 predominantly targets entities that may satisfy governmental intelligence collection requirements. The vast majority of APT30’s victims are in Southeast Asia. Much of their social engineering efforts suggest the group is particularly interested in regional political, military, and economic issues, disputed territories, and media organizations and journalists who report on topics pertaining to China and the government’s legitimacy…

“APT30’s operations epitomize a focused, persistent, and well-resourced threat group. They appear to consider both the timing of their operations and prioritize their targets. Some of the their tools’ capabilities, most notably the ability to infect air gapped networks, suggest both a level of planning and interest in particularly sensitive data, such as that housed on government networks. The group’s method for selecting and tracking victims suggests a high level of coordination and organization among the group’s operators. With activity spanning more than ten years, APT30 is one of the longest operating threat groups that we have encountered and one of the few with a distinct regional targeting preference. Our research into APT30 demonstrates what many already suspected: threat actors rely on cyber capabilities to gather information about their immediate neighborhood, as well as on a larger, global scale. APT30 appears to focus not on stealing businesses’ valuable intellectual property or cutting-edge technologies, but on acquiring sensitive data about the immediate Southeast Asia region, where they pursue targets that pose a potential threat to the influence and legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party. In exposing APT30, we hope to increase organizations’ awareness of threats and ability to defend themselves. APT30’s targeting interests underscore the need for organizations across the region to defend the information assets valuable to determined threat actors.”
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Nations targeted include the United States, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Saudi Aabia, Nepal, Bhutan, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Japan.

It’s not just governments and corporations that are the targets.

“In addition to APT30’s Southeast Asia and India focus, we’ve observed APT30 target journalists reporting on issues traditionally considered to be focal points for the Chinese Communist Party’s sense of legitimacy, such as corruption, the economy, and human rights. In China, the Communist Party has the ultimate authority over the government. China-based threat groups have targeted journalists before; we believe they often do so to get a better understanding on developing stories to anticipate unfavorable coverage and better position themselves to shape public messaging.

“APT30’s attempts to compromise journalists and media outlets could also be used to punish outlets that do not provide favorable coverage – for example, both the New York Times and Bloomberg have had trouble securing visas for journalists in wake of unfavorable corruption reporting. 28 Beyond targeting, we also saw summaries of media events or reporting in decoy documents, particularly around press releases related to government or military updates. It appears that APT30 could plausibly be targeting press attachés in order to obtain access to their contacts, which would presumably include the contact information of other public affairs personnel or other journalists of interest to target. Targeting press attachés would enable APT30 to target journalists from a trusted source, which would be an excellent resource for spear phishing.”

 

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Quick Analysis

Is NATO prepared for near-future threats?

We conclude our two part summary of NATO’s “2014 Annual Report of the Secretary General” by examining NATO’s plans for the near future.

CHAPTER 2 – Investing in defence

At the NATO Summit in Wales, Allies agreed the Readiness Action Plan to strengthen NATO’s collective defence and a defence investment pledge to strengthen Allies’ ability to fund sustained defence efforts. They also approved a defence planning package and set priorities related to training, equipment and technology to ensure that NATO forces are properly prepared and equipped for whatever challenge may come.

Defence investment pledge

In Wales, NATO leaders pledged to stop the cuts to defence budgets, to increase investment as economies recover, to make the most effective use of available funds, and to strive for a more balanced sharing of the costs and responsibilities of their common defence. This is the first time NATO Heads of State and Government have made this kind of commitment.

In 2006, Allies agreed voluntary targets for defence spending: 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be allocated to defence expenditures, while 20% of those expenditures should be dedicated to research, development and acquisition of major defence equipment. In the defence investment pledge, Allies affirmed that those countries already meeting these targets would continue to do so and that those below would halt any decline, aim to increase defence expenditure in real terms as GDP grows, and aim to move towards the 2% and 20% targets within a decade.The pledge was needed because the amount of resources dedicated by Allies to defence has been on a steady decline since the end of the Cold War. In 1990, the 14 European Allies spent USD 314 billion on defence in real terms. By 2010, defence spending in NATO Europe had dropped to USD 275 billion, despite 12 additional European countries having joined the Alliance. In 2014, it is estimated that European members of NATO spent USD 250 billion on defence. The cuts to defence expenditures…diminish the options available to the Alliance and reduce the extent to which Allies equitably share responsibilities…

Developing the right capabilities

…In Wales, Allies agreed on priorities that include enhancing and reinforcing training and exercises, improving command and control structures, Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, ballistic missile defence, and cyber defence. They emphasised the importance of multinational cooperation, which allows for significant operational and cost benefits. They also affirmed the importance of inclusive, sustainable, innovative and globally competitive defence industries on both sides of the Atlantic.

NATO Forces 2020

… NATO Forces 2020 establishes the goal of developing modern, tightly connected forces that are equipped, trained, exercised and commanded to operate together and with partners in any environment…

NATO Air Command and Control System

NATO’s systems for air command and control, along with national systems within NATO European territory, track all civilian and military aircraft in NATO airspace over continental Europe, providing 24-hour surveillance of the skies. NATO is upgrading a variety of NATO and national systems with the NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS)…

Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

…In May, the Alliance held the largest JISR trial in its history… The trial, which took place in Norway, tested NATO’s ability to gather information and synthesise intelligence from multiple sources at different stages of a crisis. With satellites, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, naval vessels, ground sensors and human intelligence from 18 Allies, the trial demonstrated significant progress and provided important feedback that will bring NATO closer to achieving its target of initial operational capability at the end of 2016…

Ballistic missile defence

As part of NATO’s commitment to collective defence, Allies agreed in 2010 to extend NATO’s ballistic missile defence (BMD) capability to provide coverage and protection of all NATO European populations, territory and forces. Since then, work has been underway to acquire and develop the equipment and infrastructure needed to make this capacity fully operational. In 2014, NATO’s BMD was made more robust through additional national voluntary contributions as well as further refined command and control arrangements and procedures. During 2014, two US BMD-capable Aegis vessels arrived at their new home port in Rota, Spain, and two more vessels will arrive in 2015. These ships have advanced sensor capabilities and interceptor missiles that can detect and shoot down ballistic missiles. Deployment of the land-based version of these capabilities, Aegis Ashore, in Deveselu, Romania is on track for completion in 2015. A second Aegis Ashore site will be established in Poland in 2018.

Cyber security

As the Alliance looks to the future, cyber threats and attacks will continue to become more common, sophisticated and potentially damaging. Responding to the evolving challenges in the cyber domain, NATO leaders endorsed an Enhanced NATO Policy on Cyber Defence and a Cyber Defence Action Plan at the Summit in Wales in September. Building on the accomplishments of previous NATO cyber defence policies, the 2014 policy reflects the evolution of the threat landscape, technological environment, and broader international approach to the issue. The policy establishes that cyber defence is part of the Alliance’s core task of collective defence, confirms that international law applies in cyberspace, and intensifies NATO’s cooperation with industry. In 2014, NATO systems registered over 3,000 cyber security events. The top priority of NATO cyber defence is the protection of the communications systems owned and operated by NATO. To this end, NATO has invested in its NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC). In May 2014, NCIRC reached full operational capability, expanding the protection of NATO networks to 52 locations.

Countering terrorism
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NATO’s efforts to counter terrorism include…New standards were introduced for armoured vehicle protection and the testing of jammers against radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Through a voluntary national contribution fund, NATO members supported activities related to future detection technologies, a prototype database to support countermeasure development against radio-controlled IEDs, and training for counter-IED operators. NATO also adopted a new doctrine of route clearance, incorporating lessons learned by NATO countries in different theatres, including Afghanistan, and adapting surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to new technologies. Other aspects of technological advancement to counter terrorism include work to better protect large aircraft through infra-red counter-measures, as well as a planning tool to support harbour protection called “Safe Port”.

Defence and Related Security Capacity Building

NATO is bolstering its existing partnership tools with the creation of the Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative [which] seeks to reinforce cooperation in two broad areas of activity. The first area involves advice on defence reform and institution building, including national security architecture, policy and defence planning. The second involves defence capabilities and the development of local forces, usually focused on education and training over an extended period of time. This initiative differs from other partnership tools because it focuses primarily on short-term stability efforts. NATO has extended invitations to Georgia, Jordan and the Republic of Moldova and is ready to consider requests from other interested countries – partner or non-partner – and organisations. In December, Iraq requested consideration as part of this new initiative. And when conditions permit, NATO is also ready to provide defence and related security capacity advisory support for Libya.

Supporting Ukraine

Throughout the recent crisis in the East, NATO has shown strong political support for Ukraine and its freedom to decide its own future. At the Wales Summit in September, NATO Heads of State and Government met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, sending a strong political message of NATO’s unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and for the rules-based Euro-Atlantic security order. Allies are also reinforcing their advisory presence at the NATO offices in Kyiv and will continue to promote the development of greater interoperability between Ukrainian and NATO forces.

Within the framework of the Distinctive Partnership with Ukraine that was agreed in 1997, NATO has increased its practical support to the country as the crisis developed. Measures include a number of immediate and short-term actions to help Ukraine cope with the current crisis, as well as longer-term measures geared towards capacity building, capability development, and reform of the armed forces and the security sector.

In this context, Allies launched five new trust funds to support command, control, communications and computers (C4), logistics and standardization, cyber defence, military career transition and the rehabilitation of injured military personnel. These trust funds add to NATO’s support for existing programmes on defence education, professional development, security sector governance and security-related scientific cooperation. In 2014, Ukraine was the number one beneficiary of the Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, with 15 new projects and an estimated Euro 10 million budget for the 2014- 2017 period.

Open door

Four partner countries aspire to NATO membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

At the Summit in Wales, NATO leaders agreed to launch a period of “intensified and focused talks” with Montenegro to address the remaining issues with regard to the country’s membership aspirations. Montenegro’s progress will be assessed no later than the end of 2015 with a view to deciding whether to invite the country to join the Alliance.

NATO leaders also agreed to develop a substantial package of measures with Georgia to help the country prepare for future NATO membership. The measures aim to strengthen the country’s capabilities through defence capacity building, training, exercises and enhanced interoperability opportunities.

An invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be extended after a mutually acceptable solution to the issue over the country’s name is reached within the framework of the United Nations.

NATO will continue working with Bosnia and Herzegovina to pursue the reforms needed to meet NATO standards. This principally involves registering immovable defence properties as state property in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A wide network of partnerships around the globe

NATO’s cooperation with partners spans the globe, with countries volunteering expertise and know-how from different continents in a joint effort to resolve common security concerns.

In the Asia-Pacific in 2014, Japan became the fifth partner in the region to sign an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP) after Mongolia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Australia. The IPCP, which was signed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in May 2014, focuses on areas including disaster relief, cyber defence, counter-piracy, and interoperability. Australia, Mongolia and New Zealand were recognised as contributors to the Resolute Support Mission, through which NATO will provide training, advice and assistance in Afghanistan.

NATO pursued outreach with other countries in the region, such as China, to discuss issues of common interest including Afghanistan and counter-piracy. The Alliance also remained engaged in informal regional meetings on security including the Shangri-La Dialogue, the Jakarta Defence Dialogue and the Seoul Defence Dialogue.

NATO established a partnership with Iraq in 2012 to help the country build more effective security forces. The partnership includes cooperation in the areas of political dialogue, education and training, response to terrorism, defence institution building and border security, among others. With the Iraqi government’s request at the end of 2014, the Alliance is considering additional cooperation and support within the framework of the new Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative.

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Quick Analysis

U.S. Manufacturing still depressed

The declining fortunes of American manufacturing are being belatedly understood. In February, the New York Analysis of Policy & Government  reported that:

U.S. manufacturing is in a state of crisis…The January 2015 report from the Federal Reserve notes that there are fewer jobs in that industry than at the start of the Obama presidency, when there was 12,561,000 manufacturing jobs in the nation.  By January of 2015, that number had been reduced to 12,330,000. The crisis has its antecedents long before President Obama took office, during the tenure of President Clinton. In October 0f 2000, Clinton signed legislation granting permanent normal trade relations to China. The measure had been bitterly opposed by conservatives, human rights groups, and unions.

In several reports, the Information, Technology & Information Technology Foundation (ITIF) organization has revealed how deep the U.S. manufacturing crisis is, and how little notice the problem has received. A prior study reported:

“In the 2000s, U.S. manufacturing suffered its worst performance in American history in terms of jobs. Not only did America lose 5.7 million manufacturing jobs, but the decline as a share of total manufacturing jobs (33 percent) exceeded the rate of loss in the Great Depression. Despite this unprecedented negative performance, most economists, pundits and elected officials remain remarkably blasé about what has transpired. Manufacturing, they argue, has simply become incredibly productive. While tough on workers who are laid off, outsized job losses actually indicate superior performance. All that might be needed are better programs to help laid-off production workers. And there is certainly no need for a determined national manufacturing competitiveness strategy.

“The alarm bells are largely silent for two reasons. First, most economists and pundits do not extend their analysis beyond one macro-level number—change in real manufacturing value-added relative to real GDP—which at first glance appears stable. But this number masks real decline in many industries. In 2010, 13 of the 19 U.S. manufacturing sectors (employing 55 percent of manufacturing workers) were producing less than in 2000.
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“Second, and more fundamentally, U.S. government statistics significantly overstate the change in U.S. manufacturing output, and by definition productivity, in part because of massive overestimation of output growth in the computer and electronics sector and because of problems with how manufacturing imports are measured. When measured properly, U.S. manufacturing output actually fell 11 percent over the last decade while GDP increased 17 percent, something that has not happened before, at least since WWII.”

“In a report released this year, ITIF notes that “American manufacturing has still not recovered to 2007 output or employment levels.  Moreover, the lion’s share of growth that has occurred appears to have been driven by a cyclical, rather than structural, recovery, and as such may represent only a temporary trend…for years, many think tanks,scholars, and pundits turned a blind eye towards the severity of U.S. manufacturing decline, preferring to believe that manufacturing loss is either natural or inconsequential.”

The effect on employment has been harsh.  Real Clear Markets reports:

“Focusing on the last decade, the BLS employment data offer a sobering perspective on the manufacturing sector’s growth in employment in recent years. Between 2010-2014, 762,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were created over that five-year period, at an annual average rate of 152,400 new jobs. In contrast, during the preceding five-year period (2005 to 2009), 2.8 million manufacturing jobs were lost in the U.S. economy, or an average decline of 562,200 jobs per year. Placed in perspective, this means that only 762,000 and about 27 percent of the 2.8 million manufacturing jobs lost during the five years between 2005 and 2009 were actually recovered in the last five years (2010-2014) of economic recovery. And compared to the start of the Great Recession, American manufacturers employ 1.4 million fewer factory workers today than in December 2007…In September 2012, President Obama announced a national goal to create 1 million new manufacturing positions by the end of 2016. Since that announcement, the US manufacturing sector has created payroll jobs at a rate of only 11,000 per month and fewer than 300,000 jobs in total over the last 27 months. That rate of factory job creation would generate only about 560,000 new jobs by the time Obama leaves office — a 440,000 job shortfall compared to the president’s unrealistic goal of 1 million new factory jobs by the end of next year.”

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NY Analysis

SHOULD BIASED UNIVERSITIES BE DEFUNDED?

Should institutions of higher learning be defunded until they cease militantly pushing a hard-left bias on their students?

The existence of the leftist bias is statistically well-documented and this overwhelming majority seeks to suppress contrary voices.  A number of studies have provided solid statistical evidence of this, many of which were cited in a Discover the Networks article:

A  2003 Center for the Study of Popular Culture study examined the ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans on the faculties of 32 elite colleges and universities nationwide, finding that the overall ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans was greater than 10-to-1 . “At four schools—Williams, Oberlin, MIT and Haverford—the researchers could not identify a single Republican faculty member.” It was also found that administrators at the “32 schools examined in the CSPC study leaned just as far to the left as did the faculties: At schools like the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Melon, and Cornell, not a single Republican administrator could be found. In the entire Ivy League, the researchers were able to identify only 3 Republican administrators.

  • The survey’s results have been backed by other investigations.  A “2005 national survey directed by Smith College Professor Stanley Rothman and co-authored by Professors Neil Nevitte (University of Toronto) and S. Robert Lichter (George Mason University) found that left-leaning professors outnumbered conservatives by a ratio of 5-to-1 on American campuses…
  • “Another survey of faculty political views released in 2006 by Professors Christopher Cardiff and Daniel Klein yielded similar results. Cardiff and Klein looked at the political party registration records for tenure-track faculty at 11 California universities—including large public universities as well as smaller, religiously-affiliated campuses. The ratios they uncovered, particularly in certain departments, were striking. In the field of sociology, for instance, the researchers found a Democrat-to-Republican ratio of 44-to-1, whereas in the humanities overall the ratio was 10-to-1.
  • “These findings were again duplicated in 2007 by Professors Neil Gross of Harvard and Solon Simmons of George Mason University, who surveyed a random sampling of more than 1,400 faculty members teaching at 500+ colleges and universities across the United States. ..Gross and Simmons’ results indicated that 9.4% of respondents considered themselves “extremely liberal” and 34.7% considered themselves “liberal,” as compared with 1.2% who labeled themselves “very conservative” and 8.0% who answered “conservative.” Overall, only 19.7% of respondents identified themselves as any shade of conservative, as compared to 62.2% who identified themselves as any shade of liberal…

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The article notes that “These increasingly lopsided figures suggest that most students at these schools probably graduate without ever taking a class taught by a professor with a conservative viewpoint.”

Numerous inflammatory examples have been reported in the general media.  A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that “Conservative thought on campuses these days is rare, though for some, it’s still not rare enough.” Among the most salient of the described incidents:

  •  Fox News  reports   that Charles Angeletti, a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has his class recite an anti-American takeoff on the Pledge of Allegiance that denounces the U.S. as a Republican-controlled bastion of injustice.
  • A Campus Reform  article provided several other  examples:  “Donna Shalala, the president of the University of Miami, attracted criticism in the national press based on her administration’s decision to reject the application of four female students who wanted to organize a conservative group on campus. … the university reversed its decision after public criticism… Shalala, of course, is a prominent Democratic official, having served as Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years during the Clinton administration. She was recently named the CEO of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation…Condoleezza Rice, who served at the highest levels of government, [was essentially] forced to withdrew as a commencement speaker at Rutgers University after protests. Students and faculty didn’t like the fact that she’d worked in the George W. Bush administration. They were successful in making sure her voice was not heard.”

In contradiction to America’s tradition of religious tolerance, universities have displayed bias against religious Christians and Jews. The Daily Beast recently reported that “From neo-Nazi graffiti at Berkeley to the grilling of a Jewish student at UCLA, anti-Semitism is on the rise at liberal schools thought to be bastions of political correctness.”

As these institutions continue to indoctrinate, rather than instruct, they absorb ever greater amounts of taxpayer, parental, and student loan dollars. A New America Foundation  study notes that “The federal government provided $30.2 billion in grant aid to help individuals pay for a higher education in the 2014-15 school year.” In addition, Washington allows a variety of credits, deductions and exemptions for college attendance. And, of course, there are federally-backed student loans, which increasingly are the topic of discussion due to concerns that students may not be able to repay them going forward.

The states are increasing their higher education spending, as well. A 2014 US News   report  revealed the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association found state funding for higher education increased from $81.1 billion in 2012 to $81.6 billion in 2013. Overall, 30 states increased spending from 2012 to 2013.

All of this funding and loan activity pays for sharply escalating tuition. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that “Between 2001–02 and 2011–12, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public institutions rose 40 percent, and prices at private nonprofit institutions rose 28 percent, after adjustment for inflation.”

Does it make sense for taxpayers to continue to provide ever greater support to institutions that indoctrinate, not teach? Indeed, are Americans financing the very forces that are seeking to overturn the principles and practices they believe in?

Thomas Jefferson had a firm belief that an educated public was essential to the success of a free nation. In a 1787 letter  to James Madison, he noted:

“Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of liberty.”

Far too many American universities, at ever greater cost, are striving to eliminate the very concepts that gave rise to the founding of the United States.  Rather than, as Jefferson hoped, provide a foundation for the preservation of personal freedom, colleges are now becoming a wellspring of collectivist authoritarianism.  It’s time to defund them.

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Analysis: should Americans fund biased universities?

A new New York Analysis of Policy & Government study examines whether on line viagra Hence, when your body is free from harmful free radicals. In addition, men can levitra generika 20mg take the help of renowned herbal supplements in regarding obesity issue. Woman are also not lagging behind in this regard, most often Female Sexual Problem arises from the habit levitra in uk of excessive masturbation and due to this social issue. You don’t need to use any external device or gadget to help you perform these exercises. online viagra sale Americans should continue to fund universities that indoctrinate instead of educate.

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US military lacks resources to fulfill defense strategy

The United States is developing military policies it doesn’t have the resources to uphold.

In an attempt in push the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter  spoke at the John McCain Institute in Tempe, Arizona, on Monday as the first part of a trip that took him to Japan, South Korea and Hawaii.

According to Carter “America is a Pacific power and will remain one,” noting that the United States will continue to engage with nations in the Asia-Pacific region. Carter said his stops in Japan and South Korea highlight the importance of America’s decades-old alliances with both countries. He stressed that “60 percent of the U.S. fleet will be in the Pacific-Indian Ocean area. U.S. Marines already have a rotational presence in Australia, Carter said, and U.S. and Filipino authorities are working on ways to strengthen military-to-military cooperation.”

What Carter didn’t admit was that the fleet he mentioned is a mere shadow of America’s former naval strength.  The Navy’s 600-ship strength is down to about 250 vessels, the smallest since World War One.  Many of its most experienced and vital personnel have been forced out due to budget cuts.  In its currently weakened condition, it faces a revitalized and expanding Russian navy across the world, a Chinese navy that is becoming dominant in the Eastern Pacific, and an Iranian navy that practices assaults on mockups of U.S. aircraft carriers.

So, it is a genre of levitra free and called levitra. The medicine is actually sildenafil citrate acts to protect cGMP enzyme and block PDE-5 enzyme in the body. viagra sale http://www.slovak-republic.org/spa/ This ultimately allows the fluid to drain viagra online cheap and the inflammation to subside. Attempt to make these encounters enjoyable, and discuss your erectile dysfunction with the doctor. tadalafil overnight Even more dovish observers, such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,   question America’s ability to defend its Pacific interest going forward:

“…But the situation is changing in the Western Pacific as Beijing is gradually challenging America’s ability to operate with impunity along China’s periphery. This is evolving as China acquires ballistic missiles, submarines, and air defense systems, and as it gains capacity to deploy aircraft offshore. All of this tests America’s superiority to operate around and near Taiwan. The change is raising concerns among defense planners in the United States and China’s neighbors. There is a real concern that it will alter the reality in the Western Pacific and along China’s periphery and brings into question how long the United States can remain the clearly predominant military power in the Western Pacific. For most U.S. policy makers, such predominance is essential to the defense of U.S. and allied security interests in that region. The implication for the balance of power is the key question over the next several decades.”

Last year, former Defense Secretary Hagel emphasized the impact of budget cuts, stressing that the reductions — including shrinking the Army to its smallest size since before World War II, becoming by the end of 2015 smaller than North Koreas’, and eliminating an entire fleet of Air Force fighter planes —  were “difficult choices” that will change defense institutions for years to come. The Air Force is now at smaller than at any other point in its history.

Rep. William “Mac” Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, requested a $16 billion increase over the White House’s defense budget, but given the dramatic drop in defense spending (as noted in a prior NY Analysis of Policy & Government report, “the Pentagon’s 10-year budget projections have absorbed more than $750 billion in cuts, or more than three-quarters of the trillion-dollar cuts that would be required if sequestration is allowed to run its course. The fiscal year 2016 budget is at a near-historic low, representing about 14 percent of total federal discretionary and nondiscretionary outlays.” The 2016  defense budget is $172 billion lower than its 2010 counterpart.

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America’s Embattled Seniors

A combination of government policies, inflationary economics, and employer bias is making life exceedingly difficult for those over 50 years old.

From Obamacare’s “Independent Patient Advisory Boards” that are empowered to decide if providing medical services to seniors are cost effective, to the President’s proposed Medicare Part D changes, seniors’ health is clearly subject to economic pressure. A  Philly.com report notes that   “In February, the president recommended a change that would result in doubling co-payments on brand-name medications for low-income Americans who use Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit. That could raise the out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs for 11 million beneficiaries…Medicare Part D provides essential drug coverage to America’s seniors.”

The problem is not confined to medical issues. The Federal Reserve’s practice of keeping interest rates artificially low to mask a failing economy harms older Americans living off their savings. Also, the historic low cost of living social security increases during the tenure of the current White House has made life increasingly hard for America’s senior citizens.

The extraordinary increase in the federal debt, which soared 70% under President Obama, (from $10.626 trillion when he took office to over $18 trillion currently) is a key factor in the current inflationary spiral. Inflation, particularly in the cost of food, has been devastating to those on fixed incomes, which describes a substantial portion of older Americans. In 2014, the price of standard grocery items soared.

The President’s environmental policies, particularly his move to sharply reduce the role of coal in the energy equation, will result in devastating cost increases that will have deeply harmful effects on the nation’s seniors. In July, according to the Washington Examiner,  “Regulations for new coal plants would increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent…Julio Friedmann, deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the Department of Energy, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.”

Quitting cigarettes and decreasing the consumption of alcohol to avoid having any negative impact on the body. viagra free order The most sensitive of cheap tadalafil no prescription these are called endothelial. You can find them in 50 mg as well why not try these out cheapest viagra as a loss of sex drive, several studies have shown that garlic may help to boost the birth-weight of babies. Unfortunately, it has no impact on http://www.slovak-republic.org/residence/comment-page-1/ cheapest levitra one’s ability to enjoy sex. As noted in a recent Town Hall article  “In the United States there are 27 million households aged 65 or older. Among those households, 63 percent are living with a gross income of less than $50,000 annually. That means the majority of our nation’s seniors are living on fixed incomes. For many of them, their primary source of income is social security. For those living on fixed incomes, seniors and non-seniors alike, any increase in household costs is hard to absorb, and electricity represents 61 percent of total residential bills for seniors.”

Unfortunately, the private sector has added to the challenges faced by older Americans.  “Older” is, of course, a relative term. In the eyes of far too many employers, “older” may mean a job seeker only 40 year old.

An AARP report recently released outlines the extraordinary difficulties—far greater than the general population– faced by those who have lost their job but, because of age, are met with resistance in getting hired.

“On average, 45 percent of older jobseekers (ages 55 and older) were long-term unemployed (out of work for 27 weeks or more) in 2014.” [The national average is about 29.8%.] Many of those who are fortunate enough to find some work “end up accepting jobs at lower pay, with fewer hours, and with limited benefits…Almost half (48 percent) of the reemployed said that they were earning less on their current jobs than the job they had before they recently became unemployed…among the reemployed, half were earning less because they were being paid less, 10 percent were working fewer hours, and 39 percent gave both as reasons.”

In an era when the media and the White House are over-eager to claim unfairness or discrimination in so many instances, the most verifiable, inexcusable and harmful bias–that against America’s older population—is substantially under-reported, ignored, or even facilitated by government practice and employer decisions.