EFTA01132209.pdf

From: Gregory Brown To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bcc: [email protected] Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 11/16/2014 Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 08:00:46 +0000 Attachments: Which_Foods_are_the_Worstfor_the_Environment_Michele_Berger_The_Weather_Chann el_Oct. 23,2014.docx; Jack Bruce bio.docx; Next_Time Someone Says C7Vhite jrivilege_Isn't_Real„Show_Them_This_Kevin_Short_ Huff_Post 10.21.2011.door; The wores biggest_economic_problem_The_Economist_Oct._25„2014.docx; Map„Thejfiica_without_Ebola_Adam_Taylor_TWP_Nov._3,2014.docx; Extremism,How_Democrats_Blewitieff_Schweitzer_Huff_Post_11.04.2014.docx; Triumph_ofthe_Wrong_Paul_Krugman_NYT_Nov„7,2014.docx; The_U.S._and_China_reach_a_landmark_climate_deal_Editorial_Board_TWP_Nov._ I2,_20 I4.docx; Fareed_Zakaria„China's_gtowing_clout_Fareed_Zakaria_TWP_Nov._13„2014.docx Inline-Images: image.png; image(I).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png DEAR FRIEND Map: The Africa without Ebola EFTA01132209  GUINEA SIERRA LEONE NO EBOLA LIBERIA Ebola is a frightening, unpredictable disease. Nearly 5,000 West Africans have died from the current outbreak with more than 13,000 people thought infected. However, so far the problem remains largely limited to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Two other countries, Nigeria and Senegal, have had cases, yet are now Ebola-free. The DR Congo had an outbreak of a different strain of Ebola that now looks like it might be contained. And while there has been one case of the disease in Mali, the patient died and no others have been confirmed at the time of writing -- though that may well change. Despite clear geographical limits to the Ebola outbreak, many Americans seem confused. How else could you explain the two Rwandan children sent home from school in New Jersey, despite the fact their East African home country is Ebola-free (and further from West Africa than New Jersey is to Texas)? Or the resignation of a teacher in Kentucky due to a backlash to her traveling to Kenya? Or the significant cancellation of tourist trips to places like Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa? These countries are nowhere near the West African countries where Ebola is actually a problem. Frustrated by this, Anthony England, a British chemist who earned a doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has spent a significant amount of time in sub-Saharan Africa, decided to make a map to help explain what countries currently have Ebola cases and which don't. You can see the map above. Ignorance & misinformation is a big problem with Ebola. So a clueless Kentucky school causing the resignation of a teacher because she spent time in Kenya is just idiocy. And that idiocy leads to fear which leads to people like Chris Christie implementing nonsensical anti-science quarantine restrictions. Ebola in the U.S. is becoming a farce." EFTA01132210 There are some caveats to the map. The map maker's decision to not include Mali or the DR Congo, despite the fact neither have been declared free of Ebola, has caused some thoughtful criticism. He writes that he understands the criticism, but his point still stands: "There are only 3 problem countries, and the world needs to know that." It's a fair point. Africa is a vast, under-covered continent and Westerners often have trouble understanding its geography. Earlier this year, The Washington Post ran an online quiz that asked our readers to name African nations. The results were not heartening as most earn failing grades with less than 4% earing perfect grades. In addition to geography the biggest ignorance in the US, is that only one individual has entered the country with Ebola other than several health-workers who handled infected patients yet there is a media fed hysteria that pales in comparison to the concern that most Americans have for the flu which actually kills more than 40,000 Americans each year and 30,000 from gunshot wounds. By the way what happen to all of the Ebola hysteria prior to the Midterm Election? And as of today there is not one case of Ebola in the United States and the number of infected in Liberia and elsewhere is receding As usual the out-of-control hysteria was another sham ploy by Republicans and Conservative Media used against the President and Democrats for partisan purposes Why else is it no longer longer on heavy rotation on FOX and other Conservative media the day after the Midterm Elections? And I am sorry to be partisan But this misuse of a serious situation was so obvious that it needed to be outed For added perspective, ifs worth looking at a map first published in 2010 by cartographer Kai Krause. Keep it in mind when thinking of Ebola and Africa. Top 100 Countries The True Size of Africa Sal weSste SeserillSIST SUSS SI•SNISIIS I ISIsfessSISIS Sas* IISSISSaseSS/e 4•ISIS bieSseara cotarrmr MIA LSO 540M. •. TOTAL ALIO MICA =II In nabob So rb net SIMII 'OS tr.. d Ss SI 'num WnIPThonsm44 , e- A Ss SI so] m An n.n irSatlel. N *MO pas S. isle/ - SI LIS OM Id are a. NA min* wananint bd mL of unnientS nowN1 &ow Nu A0,t W laNint m ft ion. 'um wIto bun ed 'MSS OSI +Wes. us. cam oil In Lsand z, 11u W pull. tAr Kea:. anbe.., a eu,N. the rent cnns-nN unctenqconsinn,ntara NAN n Menu, A petbuNek mole nAttple n Ihr.•44,0, nashsna .t.µ... The wick nineInn to mt./ the manne ..., .wban Lew. then the I Nt e fflgeal• [(loss Inf.. Apn ntlanitunre w ••••• •••••••• !Is eh SS <me t•rnivni. Pe NS Powain sti EFTA01132211  The Troubling Rise of Far-right Parties in the Europe From the French National Front and the Dutch Freedom party headed by Geert Wilders, the growth in support for far-right, anti-European, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic parties has been fed by the worst world recession since at least the 1930s — mass unemployment and falling living standards, made worse by the self-defeating austerity obsession of European leaders. Parties that skulked in the shadows, playing down their sympathies with fascism and Nazism are re-emerging, having given themselves a PR facelift. Marine Le Pen, leader of the French NF, plays down the anti- Semitic record of her party. The Dutch far-right leader has ploughed a slightly different furrow, mobilizing fear and hostility not against Jews but Muslim immigrants. Like Le Pen, Wilders focuses on the alleged cosmopolitan threat to national identity from the European Union. It is a chorus echoed in other countries by the Danish People's Party, the Finns Party and the Flemish Vlaams Belang, among others. For now, the French and Dutch populists are carefully keeping their distance from openly neo-Nazi parties such as Golden Dawn, whose paramilitary Sturmabteilung has terrorized refugees and immigrants in Greece, and the swaggering Hungarian Jobbik, which targets the Roma minority. According to some pollsters, the far right might win as many as a third of European parliament seats in elections next May. That would still leave the center parties — Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals - with many more members. But for the European parliament to form a credible majority, all of these parties might well be forced much closer together than is good for democracy. Such a situation would be unsettlingly reminiscent of 1936, when the center and the left — notably in France — temporarily halted the swing to fascism but formed an unprincipled and ineffective coalition. Its collapse on the eve of the Second World War accelerated the advent of Phillippe Petain's Nazi- collaborating regime. History does not normally repeat itself in an automatic fashion, but it would be foolish to take the risk. More worrying than the growth of the far right are the temporizing gestures to EFTA01132212 the racists and anti-immigrants now coming from mainstream Conservative and even Liberal Democrat politicians and from some of the new "Blue Labor" ideologues. The warning from the likes of David Blunkett that hostility to Roma immigrants might lead to a popular "explosion" is reminiscent of Enoch Powell's rhetoric. An antidote to the far right requires that the European left articulates and pursues a comprehensive alternative to economic stagnation, an ever-widening income and wealth gap and the degradation of our social standards, civil liberties and democratic rights. But that alternative has to be fought for at European as well as national and local levels, and will require more, not less, European integration. But time is running out, not only for the European Social Democrats, but also for the wider socialist left and the greens, to show they can create a counterbalance to the rightward drift of the center. Without that, the new far-right alliance may only have to hold together and wait for its hour to strike. Far-right makes major gains in Europe in last decade Europe sees huge growth in anti-Semitic parties, with some winning as much as 20% of votes by taking advantage of massive immigration influx and the devastating financial crisis. The rise of far-right politics in Europe reached new heights in last Monday's elections in Hungary when "Jobbik", the self-professed 'radical right-wing' political party which has often been accused of blatant anti- Semitism, won 20.54% of votes, making it the third largest party in the country and the single largest extreme right party in Europe. Hungary however, is not alone. In the last decade, in particular in the wake of the EU's economic crisis and ongoing influx of immigrants into Europe, the continent's far- right parties' popularity have made dramatic leaps. "Anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Europe are always connected to citizen'sfinancial difficulties," Professor of Political Science at Bar Ilan University Shmuel Sandler. This is a review of the strongest and most prominent far-right parties in Europe. Finland The right-wing party "The Finns", born out of the party "The True Finns", was founded in 2005 and rose to popularity in Finland's 2011 elections when it garnered 19.1% of the vote (or 39 seats in the Finnish parliament). It is led by Timo Soini, and the win made Soini's "The Finns" the third largest political party in the country. The massive victory of 'The Finns", a party that advocates opposition to the European Union, immigrants, NATO, and international aid, surpassed expectations at the polls on Election Day and caused the collapse of the Finland's political center. Soini, the party's leader, was one of the loudest opponents to the EU's austerity package to bail out Portugal from its financial crisis. Party members also voiced their opposition to circumcision and in 2012 called for a ban on the practice. Austria EFTA01132213 The far-right "Freedom Party of Austria" led by Heinz Christian Strache, won 22% of the votes in the country's last parliamentary elections. Strache took control of the party in 2005 and then-leader Jorg Haider left its ranks to create an additional right-wing group called the "Alliance for the Future of Austria" (BZO) which directly competed with Strache's "Freedom Party of Austria" in the elections. Both parties gained significant support in the polls thanks to an aggressive anti-immigration campaign they waged. France The "National Front" party in France led by Marine Le Pen is well known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration. The party won control of ii towns in local elections held just last week. Most of the towns that voted for the "National Front" in elections are located in the south of the country where anti-immigrant sentiment is strongest, but the party also made gains in support in some northern and eastern towns where homegrown French industry has been suffering. 'The results prove that we can win on a large scale," Le Pen told reporters after learning of her party's impressive win in municipal elections. Her first move after the party's success in the election seemed to target Jews and Muslims. In an interview with int radio Le Pen said France would no longer provide non- pork meals for schoolchildren, claiming Kosher and Halal meals at schools go against the Christian values of the French nation. Greece "Golden Dawn", the far-right political party in Greece, won 18 of 300 seats of parliament in 2012 after receiving more than 6% of the vote, thus entering the Greece's house of representatives for the first time. The party success was premised on exploiting Greek disappointment at the country's large political parties, who were unable to save Greece from a massive financial recession. The leader of "Golden Dawn", Nikolaos Michaloliakos, has publicly denied the existence of crematoria and gas chambers in the Nazi death camps. The party, which has already been called neo-Nazi and fascist, was connected to a number events generally labeled as hate crimes. The worst of these, was the murder of the popular, leftist Greek musician who was suspected of being killed by a party activist. R.I.P. EFTA01132214 One third of the group responsible for Hip-Hop's first hit, Rapper's Delight, Big Bank Hank, a member of the early Hip-Hop group the Sugarhill Gang has died of complications from cancer at age 57 this week. The group were responsible for one of the most popular rap songs of all time, Rapper's Delight. The musician died Tuesday at a hospital in Englewood, New Jersey, according to David Mallie, a business manager for two former members of the group, and Aree Booker, a funeral director with Eternity Funeral Services. Big Bank Hank, whose real name was Henry Jackson, was born in the Bronx borough of New York. He was a part of the Sugarhill Gang in 1979 when it had hip-hop's first hit with Rapper's Delight. The song was released as hip-hop began to emerge as a genre, and landed in the top 4o on the Billboard charts. It also peaked at No 4 on the Hot Soul singles chart, now called the Hot R&B/Hip- Hop songs chart. The Sugarhill Gang, which was formed in Englewood, also included Guy O'Brien (Master Gee) and Michael Wright (Wonder Mike). "So sad to hear about our brother's passing," O'Brien and Wright said in a statement issued through Mallie. "The three of us created musical history together with the release of Rapper's Delight. We will always remember traveling the world together and rocking the house. Rest in peace Big Bank." A beefy, boisterous presence onstage, Hank handled vocals in the early to middle portion of "Rapper's Delight," which despite its extended length -- one version was more than 14 minutes long -- became the first rap song to reach the Top 4o on the U.S. Billboard charts. Jackson traded rhymes with bandmates "Wonder Mike" Wright and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien and spoke some of the song's catchiest lines, including.... "Ho-tel, mo-tel, Holiday Inn/If your girl starts acting up, then you take herfriend." Rapper's Delight became a success thanks in part to the late record label owner Sylvia Robinson, who released the song on Sugar Hill Records. Robinson, who was known as the "mother of hip- hop", died in 2011. After Rapper's Delight, the trio had minor successes with songs such as Apache and 8th Wonder, but faded away. Their last album was a 1999 children's rap album, Jump On It! O'Brien and Wright currently perform under the name Rapper's Delight Experience Featuring Wonder Mike and Master Gee, Mallie said. Robinson's son owns the Sugarhill Gang trademark, and O'Brien EFTA01132215 and Wright haven't been able to perform under the name since 201O, he said. The pair were on good terms with Big Bank Hank before he died, Mallie said. Without a doubt, Rapper's Delight not only being the first major breakout Hip-Hop record it is easily the most important Rap Record ever. And if you are like me every time you hear Rapper's Delight, a cassette memory of a great party/dance time surfaces again, again and again. Rest In Peace my man Hank, because you truly are one of the OGs of Hip-Hop/Rap Music as well as a founding member of its Pantheon Election 2014: Should Black Voters Keep Their Faith in Obama? MY trainer, a 31-year-old black man, doesn't vote. It doesn't make any difference which party wins, he says. He doesn't believe that President Obama is really in charge. I respect my trainer. An injury last year ended his professional boxing career. He sometimes works 12- hour days, exhorting client after client. He and his girlfriend have a 3-year-old daughter; he is supporting his girlfriend while she earns a master's degree. He himself did not go to college, but he got off the Harlem streets. He says that he saved himself from the player's life of his father, who is younger than I am. His ambition, his sheer work ethic, make it disheartening for me to hear him say that the Illuminati, or the Trilateral Commission, or some secret council of white men straight out of Ishmael Reed's early satires, control our destinies. This is the kind of thing black nationalists used to say in the 1.97os, when they argued that to join the system was to fall for the white man's con. To hear my young trainer give voice to such fatalism tells me how easily black people can lose faith in the democratic process, become disaffected, alienated, in spite of the amazing fact that there is a black man in the White House. EFTA01132216 Nearly 5o years before Mr. Obama was first elected, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that racist whites were not the only obstacles to the black vote. Black people had to overcome the intimidation and fear they had internalized after centuries of slavery and decades of Jim Crow. The black vote increased significantly after passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Civil rights organizations took an active role in the education of black voters, teaching them how to be comfortable with the exercise of the franchise. Black candidates won mayoral and congressional elections in the early 1970s, when the black population was concentrated in major cities. In the 1980s, black voters in the Democratic primaries made Jesse L. Jackson Sr.'s presidential bids more than symbolic. In the days of the Reagan and Bush backlashes, black candidates needed to have broad appeal, but the coalitions that elected Carol Moseley Braun a senator from Illinois, in 1992, Deval L. Patrick the governor of Massachusetts, in 2006, and Mr. Obama a senator, also from Illinois, in 2004, and then president, in 2008, had the black vote at their cores. Black turnout outstripped white turnout in 2012, when Mr. Obama won every major demographic group — except white men. As the political scientist Martin L. Kilson notes in his recent book, "Transformation of the African American Intelligentsia, 1880-2012," Mr. Obama stands at the apex of an African-American political class comprising 10,000 elected black officeholders in cities, counties and state legislatures, 43 members of the United States Congress, a black attorney general, a black national security adviser, black secretaries of homeland security and transportation, a black deputy White House chief of staff for policy, and other black policy makers and administrators. Yet — as Mr. Obama's critics on the left point out — conditions for black people over all have sunk back to what they had been around the time of Dr. King's assassination: more than a third of black children are born into poverty; there are more black men in the criminal justice system than there are black men in college; the median income of blacks has fallen; unemployment among blacks remains higher than the national average. As the former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert said, "We know all this, but no one seems to know how to turn things around." An Okinawan-Japanese high school classmate of the president's explained to me after the first inaugural that in Hawaii everyone is a mongrel, and where you come from doesn't matter. But once the young Mr. Obama went to Los Angeles for college, and was treated as a black youth by the police, he understood what his brave white mother had made him learn during all those mornings of reading black history before school in Indonesia. Some people want to say that Mr. Obama somehow isn't with blacks, because he does not descend from people who were enslaved. He is the son of an immigrant — a Kenyan graduate student who was just passing through. Those who say that that somehow makes him different, or less black, don't know enough about the violence and oppression of colonialism. Class doesn't determine how black people feel about Mr. Obama. Who supports him in black America and who doesn't is largely a generational question. Just as my father was jealous of and ambivalent about Mr. Obama, because Mr. Obama had achieved something that blacks of the G.I. Bill generation had not thought possible, so young black people like my trainer miss in the president the performance and tone that historical footage of the civil rights era has subtly led them to expect of black leaders — an impassioned challenger of the system, someone coming from the outside. I am 6o years old — how did that happen? — and to me, what Mr. Obama has accomplished is far from insignificant: He saved us from economic meltdown, he got us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and he signed the Affordable Care Act. He would perhaps be the first to admit we still have far to go. Because I am an old head now, I can accept incremental change, even value it. I voted for him, though I know he EFTA01132217 is more of a capitalist than I am. I voted for him twice, though in my heart I cannot forgive him for turning to economics advisers like Lawrence H. Summers (whom I despise). And I am dismayed by those who are obsessed by the mysteries of Mr. Obama's personality, by his distance, his opacity. Nobody can make him lose his cool, just as nobody can move him from the center. So long as he occupies the middle ground as president, the Republicans are forced to stay on the right. Most of the world is relieved that the president of the United States is a man of integrity and intelligence. But here he is described as a flawed politician, a man not cut out for trench warfare, not the man for our historical moment. His early notion that the country could reconcile in him because of his personal story is dismissed as naive. Mr. Obama is criticized for not having done more for black people — not because they are black people, but because they are among his party's most loyal supporters. Yet many whites resent or are afraid of those moments when the president seems to be taking the black side, speaking from the black point of view. Black people in turn can be frustrated that the black point of view is always ghettoized, never allowed to be, simply, the American point of view — especially when the issue at hand is about social justice. Historically, blacks have looked to the federal government for protection against the doctrine of states' rights, a euphemism for the reactionary in American politics. But Mr. Obama's experience in office has shown blacks the limits of executive power. All my adult life, the argument in black America concerning electoral politics has been about trusting the system, wondering if trying to be a part of the mainstream was possible or worth it. To join the larger society involves a loss, the sacrifice of authentic blackness, some black people would say. Throughout black American history, white people have demanded that black people prove their readiness to become full citizens, which is why I really don't like it when President Obama or Bill Cosby chastises blacks for their behavior. As James Baldwin so often said: He wasn't the problem, white people were the problem. There are white Americans who cannot forgive him for having won. They can't handle the fact that a black man is in charge of the money, of so much patronage and power. Black people didn't shut down the government; white people did. To such whites, it's a matter of ownership, not partnership. If who wins doesn't matter, then Republicans on the right would not be trying to suppress the black vote. They, too, have heard what the demographics promise. Single mothers now account for a third of eligible voters; most newborns are members of a "minority" group. Republicans have gerrymandered districts so that they can win the House without the Latino vote, and districts have also been redrawn so as to reduce the impact of the black vote either by spreading it around or confining it. Conservative opposition to inclusive democracy has not changed in substance since the immigrant vote was routinely suppressed, along with the black vote, in the late 19th century, back when voter registration days in New York could just so happen to fall on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (as I learned from the historian Alexander Keyssar). The vote, power elites contended, was a privilege, not a right. Distrust of direct democracy is as much an American tradition as the quest for freedom. The shooting in Ferguson, Mo., did not leave the news, because demonstrators stayed in the streets, just as Occupy Wall Street movement brought up the urgent matter of wage and wealth inequality and has not let the subject go. Maybe we are at the beginning of another age of activism on the part of youth. In Europe, disaffection from the major political parties has benefited far-right politicians. In America, the rabid Tea Party is the beneficiary. Mr. Obama said somewhere that troublemakers were EFTA01132218 catalysts for positive change, while others were caretakers of that change. History will remember him as the calm president who steered the nation through dangerous waters. DARRYL PINCICNEY - NOV. 4, 2014 New York 'limes Like Darryl Pinclmey's trainer when I was 31, I didn't vote. And again like Pinckney's trainer I did not believe that it made a difference which party wins or that that any President really was in charge. I also worked twelve and fourteen days and my ambition and work ethic bordered on obsession. The only difference was I didn't think that it was the Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission running the President because by that time, I knew that our Presidents were more and more at the beck and call to special interest, whether that be Wall Street, Big Three Automakers the defense industry or the major oil companies and for the last thirty-plus years, the NRA. In fact, I didn't vote until I was in my 5os even though I was eligible to vote in 197o because I didn't want to do jury duty. It was the opportunity to vote for Barrack Obama that inspired me to vote for the first and again for the second time. He inspired me as he did to millions of other Americans. Although I didn't vote, I regularly supported Black candidates across the country. From Carl Stokes in Cleveland, Harold Washington in Chicago, Maynard Jackson in Atlanta, Ken Gibson in Newark and Carol Moseley Braun in Illinois to name a few. In fact I turned down several opportunities to meet Barrack Obama when he first came to Northern California to fund raise when he ran for his senate seat, telling the host that it was a waste of time and money backing a Black Muslim named Barrack Hussein Obama. By the time I was convince that he had a slim chance of winning the Presidency a dinner invitation was $28,000. What made most Black candidates whether they were seeking the mayor's job in a big city or a state- wide seat in the Senate or as a Governor it took a coalition to get them elected and it usually began with a strong core of Black voters. Black turnout outstripped white turnout in 2012, when Mr. Obama won every major demographic group — except white men. I grew up when there were still lynching in the South and whites believe that Blacks did not have the intellect to coach in the Major Leagues or play the position of quarterback. So to witness a Black man named Barrack Hussein Obama take the oath for the office of the President of the United States brought tears to my eyes.... As like anyone my age we never thought that we would live to see it. Even before his election there was a concerted effort by Whites to disqualify him with many demanding to see his long-form birth certificate, he was a Moslem, Reverend Wright or that he somehow wasn't really Black enough, in hope that he would pull out his Mike Tyson to confirm their worst fears and form a White backlash or that Black voters might lose their enthusiasm for him and not vote. Obviously that didn't work. Neither were their efforts to kill Black turnout by making it difficult for them to vote, as Black voters in Florida and elsewhere travel long distances and sometimes stood in lines for hours just to vote. That's passion and not only did they turn out in 2008 they turned out again in 2012 making Barrack Obama being the only person who got more than 51% of the vote since FDR. So why then do so many white candidates not mine this proven voter pool? Instead, they distance themselves from the President hoping somehow Black voters were brave the same obstacles for them. EFTA01132219 I agree with Pinckney who says that he is dismayed by those who are obsessed by the mysteries of Mr. Obama's personality, by his distance, his opacity. Nobody can make him lose his cool, just as nobody can move him from the center. So long as he occupies the middle ground as president, the Republicans are forced to stay on the right. Most of the world is relieved that the president of the United States is a man of integrity and intelligence. But here he is described as a flawed politician, a man not cut out for trench warfare, not the man for our historical moment. His early notion that the country could reconcile in him because of his personal story is dismissed as naive. This is the person who got the first meaningful healthcare bill passed in more than a half of century that has added 10 million more to the insurance rolls, in addition to ensuring that everyone can get insurance even those with pre-existing conditions and heath cost has risen less than before it was enacted. He has cut the deficit in half. Allowed policies that has more than doubled the production of crude oil to almost 9 million barrels a day. Under his stewardship, inflation is nil, unemployment is now 5.9%, we have enjoyed 6o straight months of growth and the economy now growing at more than 3%, we no-longer have boots on the ground in Iraq, the US auto industry was saved, so was Wall Street and the major banks and bin Laden is dead. Yet President Obama gets no credit, or these positives are dismissed as unimportant. Republicans were able to convince voters that Obama is responsible for all of our ills and deserves credit for none of our successes. And I definitely agree with Pinckney that history will remember Barrack Obama as the calm president who steered the nation through dangerous waters. GREAT ECONOMIC NEWS A job seeker fills out an application during a career fair. I Getty U.S. employers add 214K jobs; rate falls to 5.8 percent Three days after voters registered their sourness about the U.S. economy, on November 7,2014 the government said that employers added a solid 214,000 jobs in October, extending the healthiest pace of hiring in eight years. The Labor Department also said 31,00o more jobs were added in August and September than it had previously estimated. Employers have now added at least 200,000 jobs for nine straight months, the longest such stretch since 1995. Also growth was broad based, gains in food and drink jobs, retail, healthcare and business services. The burst of hiring lowered the unemployment rate to 5.8 percent from 5.9 percent. It's the lowest rate since July 2008. Along with the job gains, economic growth has accelerated this year. Yet despite the improvement, Midterm voters identified economic anxiety as their top concern in Tuesday's elections. That suggests the improvement hasn't yet been felt by many Americans. Nearly 6o percent of voters said they thought the economy was stagnating or worsening. Only one-third saw it as improving. The picture has still improved enough that the Federal Reserve announced last month that it was ending its bond purchase program, which had been intended to lower interest rates and stimulate economic growth. At the same time, better hiring and growth have barely boosted paychecks for the vast majority of earners. Adjusted for inflation, average hourly pay rose just o.3 percent over the 12 months EFTA01132220 that ended in September, according to government data. And what wage gains have occurred have benefited mainly the wealthiest. Average income grew 10 percent from 2010 through 2013 for the wealthiest one-tenth of Americans, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Fed. For everyone else, incomes stagnated or declined causing many workers to have to work two and three part time jobs. Analysts say the economic expansion remains strong enough to support the current pace of hiring. Over the past six months, the economy has grown at a 4.1 percent annual rate. U.S. manufacturers are expanding at the fastest pace in three years, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group. A measure of new orders showed that factory output will likely continue to grow in coming months. A separate survey by the ISM found that retailers, restaurants and other service companies grew at a healthy pace last month. Home sales rose in September at their fastest rate this year, a sign that housing could pick up after a sluggish performance for most of this year. After China the United States has the strongest and most robust economy of any of the major industrialized countries in the world. The country's economy is growing above 3% annually, unemployment has sank to 5.8% which is the lowest number in seven years as it has had 61 straight months of growth. And inflation is almost non-existent. Although Republicans castigating President Obama and his policies have claimed that the economy is bad these numbers are contrary to the fact that the US economy not only is in good shape it is growing even stronger. And for those of you who still don't believe this, just try to find a parking space at your closet WalMart or Costco on any weekend Again, it is difficult to understand why so many difficult were afraid to run on this record Because if Mitt Romney were President, Republicans would be lamenting that these achievements are better than any of those during the Reagan years. President Barack Obama, second left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, second right, walk together at Zhongnanhai leaders compound before their private dinner; Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. The others walking with them are their translators. EFTA01132221 Wednesday, President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping — the leaders of the world's largest emitters of carbon dioxide, representing about 45 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions — announced a serious, historic, achievable commitments on emissions over the next two decades. According to the plan, the United States will double the pace of its carbon reduction efforts before 2025, by that point reducing emissions 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels. China, meanwhile, will cap its carbon dioxide output around 2030 and will try to halt its rising emissions sooner than that. Immediately Republicans slammed the agreement. Incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) claimed Wednesday that the deal would allow China to "do nothing at allfor 16 years." In fact, achieving that cap will require significant new effort. China will meet its goal in part by ramping up its use of non-fossil-fuel energy, including nuclear, hydro, wind and solar power, to about 20 percent of its total energy use. That commitment is astonishing in scope; the generating capacity of the clean-energy infrastructure China intends to build would nearly equal the installed capacity of the entire U.S. electrical system, the White House reckons. Already China has been experimenting with market-based carbon pricing programs and requiring its economy to waste less energy. Experts expect these efforts to expand. The Obama administration says it can put the nation on this path under existing executive authorities, without further congressional approval. We say "further" because Congress gave the president formidable powers to combat air pollution in the Clean Air Act and elsewhere; as the Supreme Court has confirmed, Mr. Obama has strong statutory authority to act unilaterally on greenhouse-gas emissions. Of course, it would be easier and less expensive if Congress enacted a more efficient anti- carbon policy, such as a fully rebated carbon tax, to achieve similar or greater reductions. But that's not likely to happen soon. There is some give in the various commitments: Each specifies imprecise targets or approximate amounts of time in which to reach them. The level at which China eventually caps its emissions is also crucial, and unstipulated. Wherever that is, it will take deeper reductions over longer periods of time by both countries to respond to climate change adequately. But more important than the details is the fact that China and the United States are finally leading on global warming, connecting the two largest pieces of an international climate puzzle that has been an ugly mess. Other nations will have confidence that they, too, will not be sacrificing in vain if and when they cut their emissions. Also, big developing countries, such as India, that have done too little should find it harder to avoid acting. But Republicans who attack the President no matter what he does, never think of the long game. Because as Fareed Zakaria points out in an op-ed las week in The Washington Post - China's growing clout - China's economy is nearly 16 percent and rising, now almost four times the size of Japan's and five times that of Germany. At the same time the Russians are trying make in roads with China to mend fences and weaken the United States' relationship with China. EFTA01132222 Republicans often say that the President should abandon his big initatives and just do the small things that both parties agree. Isn't this what President Obama is now doing with his counterpart President Xi Jinping in China? More importantly with this first historic small step other larger steps can happen. As The Washington Post wrote in the editorial — The U.S. and China reach a landmark climate deal - It took Republican leaders almost no time to attack the agreement, and they might need to wait only a few years to roll it back, if they win the presidency in the next election. That would be a mistake even larger in scale than Mr. Obama's achievement in Beijing. Free Speech Under Fire On American Campuses I remember the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley led by Mario Savio challenging the campus' restrictions on free expression. This initial one-institution protest inspired young people to demand the loosing of restriction of expression on other campuses across the country. In many ways several years later it also led to student protests against the War in Viet Nam as college students everywhere embraced their voice to fight against injustices where ever they saw them. So when students recently attempted revocation of HBO Real Time host Bill Maher's invitation to deliver UC Berkeley's fall commencement, I agreed with many other Progressives that this form of suppression not only threatens the institution's proud legacy, it is also a disturbing nationwide trend of campus censorship. Maher, 58, was invited in August by a committee of undergraduate students, called "The Californians" who for years selected commencement speakers. The Cornell educated social satirist, Emmy nominee and stand-up comedian is known for his biting, often mocking, commentary on important public issues, like religious and political hypocrisy. He has personally felt the sting of controversy when his ABC show was dropped in 2002 after he opined: We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building. Say what you want about it. Not cowardly. You're right. And he courted controversy again, on his October 3 HBO show when he and fellow atheist and neuroscientist Sam Harris got into a heated debate on Islam with Berkeley born actor Ben EFTA01132223 Affleck. Affleck called Maher's homogenous views on Islam "gross and racist." Affleck rightly stated that Maher's criticism of Islam was an exercise of "painting the whole religion with that broad brush." Maher pointedly responded, "It's the only religion that acts like the mafia that willf*****g kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture or write the wrong book. There's a reason why Ayaan Hirsi Ali needs bodyguards 24/7..." Harris, added, "We have to acknowledge that Islam has doctrines like jihad and martyrdom and death to apostates, which are central to thefaith in the way that they aren't in otherfaiths." Harris also insultingly called thefaith "the mother lode of bad ideas." Maher has consistently maintained that the American left has been hypocritical in how it treats Islam on such issues as gender and sexual orientation equality, free expression, and religious conversion. The telecast also prompted a student-led petition that generated thousands of signatures in support of revoking Maher's invitation. The petition argued that Maher's religious bigotry and "dangerous rhetoric" ran counter to the campus community: The students at the University of California at Berkeley represent a diverse array of students from all walks of life. Every semester a commencement speaker is given the privilege of inspiring a class of talented and capable students. This year, UC Berkeley has chosen to invite Bill Maher to speak. Bill Maher is a blatant bigot and racist who has no respect for the values UC Berkeley students and administration stand for. In a time where climate is a priority for all on campus, we cannot invite an individual who himself perpetuates a dangerous learning environment. Bill Maher's public statements on various religions and cultures are offensive and his dangerous rhetoric has found its way into our campus communities. Too many students are marginalized by his remarks and if the University were to bring this individual as a commencement speaker they would not be supporting these historically marginalized communities. I totally agree with Ben Affleck and last month did a piece in my Weekly Offerings explaining why I felt what Mather and Harris was saying not only was racist it was grossly offensive as it painted 1.6 billion Moslems with the same brush of the most radical elements in their religion. And I definitely disagree with the students at UC Berkeley who are trying to stop Bill Maher from speaking at their December Commencement. As Brian Levin pointed out in the Huffington Post last month — In the US Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), invalidating compulsory school flag salutes, they said: If there is anyfixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act theirfaith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us. For fifty years, the University of California, Berkeley, was the vanguard of the free speech movement and free expression. There has been a disturbing, often de facto, censorship of important, yet controversial speakers, by a community of progressives, to which I belong. The targets are often controversial speakers, some of whom are conservatives. Just this month three time Pulitzer Prize winner Washington Post photojournalist Michel du Cille was disinvited from Syracuse University over fear that he covered Ebola in Africa three weeks earlier. Other censored folks include former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelley, former Secretary of State Condelezza Rice, International Monetary Fund Christine Lagard, columnist George Will, and ironically former UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. EFTA01132224 The UC Berkeley Chancellor on Wednesday thoughtfully announced that the administration was rejecting the committee's reversal of their previous decision: The UC Berkeley administration cannot and will not accept this decision, which appears to have been based solely on Mr. Maher's opinions and beliefs, which he conveyed through constitutionally protected speech. For that reason Chancellor Dirks has decided that the invitation will stand, and he looks forward to welcoming Mr. Maher to the Berkeley campus. It should be noted that this decision does not constitute an endorsement of any of Mr. Maher's prior statements: indeed, the administration's position on Mr. Maher's opinions and perspectives is irrelevant in this context, since we fully respect and support his right to express them. More broadly, this university has not in the past and will not in the future shy away from hosting speakers who some deem provocative. Free speech principles have protected numerous other wackjobs to speak freely at UC campus events. Imam Musa blamed the government for 9/11 and Jews for the slave trade at a UC, Irvine, lecture.v Despite a record of virulent anti-Semitism, Mohammad al Asi was invited to speak in the UC system. Al Asi has argued that thousands of Israeli Jews skipped work to escape 9/11. The erudite humanist and promoter of Holocaust denier Nazi Ahmed Huber has also written: "It is precisely what qualifies Yahud [Jews]for displacement, dispossession and depression. That is why they have been stamped with shame, mortification and the wrath of the Almighty." In a 2001 Washington, D.C. speech he stated: "We have a psychosis in the Jewish community that is unable to coexist equally and brotherly with other human beings." Yet another controversial speaker invited to both the University and UC, Irvine was firebrand convert Yvonne Ridley. She wrote that the mastermind of the Chechen school massacre was a 'fearless" martyr who led an "admirable" struggle. She also called hook handed British extremist Abu Hamza al Masri "quite sweet, really," while criticizing his moderate Muslim detractors. He was recently convicted in federal district court of n counts of terrorism. She further wrote that a series of hotel bombings included not only a wedding party with Americans, but also "martyrdom operations" at