Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Veterans Day November 11 - the years will never wipe out the memory of their sacrifice and deaths for us - God Bless our Veterans and Families


41 million men and women
served in our military

They have done enough for us - it is time we take care of them!

With impeachment, investigations and petty politics still dominating our national debate, confusion over our war policy, and partisanship again dominating our headlines, how does that make those who returned from the war zones feel about what little we do as a nation to honor our veterans upon whose back we have built this temple to the Gods of greed and malicious behavior. Don't you think we could do a little better?



Since hot air and no substance have ruled in our nation's capital  for years, it seems the least we could do is take a few moments to pause and ask what have we done for those who risk their lives to defend us. If we were truly in to soul searching as opposed to partisan babble the answer would be clear. Our failure to address the cost of government, rising debt and deficit spending, greed mongering by the very banks we bailed out with taxpayers money, and the entire specter of empty promises and political lies is a sorry testament to leadership, concern, compassion and honesty toward veterans.


1,309,000+ Died in the war


Korea - Vietnam - Desert  Storm - Kuwait - Iraq
 Afghanistan -Libya - Syria


During that time not only did we lose several thousand brave men and women defending a bizarre foreign policy and a non-existent war strategy, but America brought back over 700,000 disabled veterans, meaning we now have over four million disabled veterans from wars since World War II.


1,498,240+ Were wounded



Our new president has finally begun to fulfill the empty promises to our heroes and their families which have been so long neglected.


Let us vow to not let our political failures of the past continue to harm our veterans, those proud souls who answered the call to arms and now cannot get help for risking and often giving their lives.  

Let us not let the malaise of failure continue to punish our veterans, and especially our wounded warriors and those suffering the many stressful results of war against terrorism.  

These brave men and women and their families who depended on them should be the first priority for our government, before big bankers, big pharmaceuticals, and those who profit from the fruits of war.



Over the past decade our government has demonstrated little to give people confidence, certainly nothing to indicate it is any different than business as usual, and even less to demonstrate they have a clear policy and the ability to implement the strategy. Our veterans and the people deserved much better.

President Trump vowed to fix the mess facing veterans, and never let it happen again. Godspeed.  So far he is making good progress but much remains to be done.



The time is now to act.



Honoring our Vets and taking care of them for their sacrifices is not a political problem, not Democrat or Republican, but an American problem.


If our government wants to honor the veterans, truly honor the veterans, then stop playing politics with war and foreign relations and give our new president the chance to make decisions, act bold, and demonstrate leadership.



Every day we should wake up and remember that it is our Constitution our politicians pledged to defend, the people's Constitution, and nothing can be more appropriate than protecting those who fought for our freedom.


So Washington, DC, stop the partisanship. Stop the bickering over ideological nonsense. Stop taking care of special interests and protecting people who should be prosecuted. Listen to the pulse of the country, listen to the heartbeat of America, and you will see how far you have strayed from our expectations.



When we reach that point we have honored our veterans by honoring their families and friends.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Harvard versus Yale - The Ivy League versus the World - The Presidency of the United States to the Winner - Where did Penn come from?


Will the Yale and Harvard Streak End?

In 2016 the American voters had to decide whether to continue the Harvard-Yale presidential monopoly, or just continue the Ivy League monopoly of the presidency.  After 28 straight years of Yale and Harvard controlling the most powerful position in world politics, another Ivy League school broke the streak.




When Trump won, his Ivy League School, Penn University Wharton School of Business, snatched the crown jewel, the US presidency, from their fellow Ivy League universities.  Now we face 32 straight years of elitist, Ivy League rule with a chance, if he gets reelected, of 36 straight years by graduates of just three schools. 


Now average Americans are going to have a hard time accepting this because average Americans consider the Ivy League to be something found on Wall Street, Madison Avenue, in the history books, movies, or maybe in prose or fiction books.  The Great Gatsby comes to mind.

When it comes to power, the Ivy League is IT but normally in terms of the dominant Ivy influence over Wall Street, the international banking community, the State Department, and various other engines of commerce.

Of course, the Ivy League is firmly placed in the middle of many great conspiracy theories involving the mysterious Illuminati, the Council on Foreign Relations, Freemasons, the Bilderberg Group, the Bohemia Club, the Skull and Bones Society and the Trilateral Commission.


Where did the following Latin phrases come from?
In Deo Speramus - (In God We Hope)

In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen
 - (In Thy light shall we see the light)

Quisquam qui ars
  - (Any person -Any study)

Vox clamantis in deserto
 - (The voice of one crying in the wilderness)

Veritas -(Truth)

Dei sub numine viget
 - (Under God's power she flourishes)

Leges sine moribus vanae
 - (Laws without morals are useless)

Lux et veritas
 - (Light and truth)



Those are the mottos of the eight venerated Ivy League schools.

Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Princeton
Pennsylvania
Yale

It seems we understand the power and influence of the Ivy League in terms of commerce but we really do not when it comes to national politics.  In fact, the attitude of the general public, in terms of the Ivy League in politics, is rather bleak.

According to recent Rasmussen polls, only five percent (5%) of American Adults think it is better for America to have presidents only from Ivy League schools.  A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 85% believe it is better for the country to have presidents who come from a variety of schools.

Try this!
There have been 44 men who served as US President including President Obama and Trump.  It is often said that President Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America. However, President Obama is only the 43rd different person to serve as President of the United States. This is due to the fact, that President Grover Cleveland served non-consecutive terms and so is often counted as both the 22nd and the 24th President.

  • Sixteen out of forty-four presidents have attended one or more Ivy League schools.
  • Twenty-five out of one hundred U.S. Senators have attended one or more Ivy League schools.
  • Fifty-seven out of one hundred and nine Supreme Court justices have attended one or more Ivy League schools.

All considered, more than a third of all U.S. presidents, Supreme Court justices, and currently serving U.S. senators have attended an Ivy League school for undergraduate or graduate study.


It gets better.
When Obama completed his 2nd term we had 28 straight years of presidents from Yale and Harvard alone, consisting of Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2 and Obama.  In fact, in the 227 years we have elected presidents, remember George Washington first took office in 1789, the Ivy League has held the presidency 85 of those years, or 37% of our history.



No matter who won in 2016, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, it was assured the 15th president from the Ivy League would serve and that may be a bit much for a nation in which the Ivy League represents just 8 out of 4,140 institutions of higher education.



For those of you into decimals the Ivy League makes up under two tenths of one percent (.001932) of our institutions yet controlled the presidency 37% of the time.
Public 4-year institutions           629
Private 4-year institutions       1,845
Total 4 year                             2,474

Public 2-year institutions        1,070
Private 2-year institutions         596
Total 2 year                            1,666

Total 4 and 2 year                  4,140


Money talks and legacy institutions prosper but you may be surprised when it comes to the costliest universities in America, long thought to be dominated by the Ivy League.



A recently compiled list of the 20 Most Expensive Colleges in the country shows prices, which include Tuition, Fees, Room and Board, range from $63,750 to just under $67,225 per year.


   #1  Harvey Mudd College $67,255
   #2  Columbia University $66,383
   #3  New York University $65,860 
   #4  Sarah Lawrence College $65,630
   #5  University of Chicago $64,965
   #6  Bard College at Simon's Rock  $64,519
   #7  University of Southern California $64,482
   #8  Claremont McKenna College  $64,325
   #9  Oberlin College $64,266
 #10  Scripps College $64,260   
 #11  Bard College $64,254
 #12  Haverford College $64,216    
 #13  Duke University  $64,188      
 #15  Northwestern University $63,983
 #16  Trinity College $63,970  
 #17  Pitzer College $63,880
 #18  Southern Methodist University  $63,840  
 #19  Amherst College  $63,772
#20  John Hopkins University $63,750

Source: Business Insider and U.S. Department of Education

To my amazement only two Ivy League schools, Columbia and Dartmouth, made the list.



Compare that to a list of the best colleges and universities in the world for 2020.



The Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020

  1.  University of Oxford
       United Kingdom

  2.  Cambridge University
       United Kingdom

  3.  Stanford University
       United States

  4.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
       United States

  5.  California Institute of Technology
       United States

  6.  Harvard University
       United States

  7.  Princeton University
       United States

  8.  Yale University
       United States

  9.  Imperial College London
       United Kingdom

10.  University of Chicago
        United States

11.  ETH Zurich
        Switzerland

12.  John Hopkins University
        United States

12.  University of Pennsylvania
        United States

14.  UCL
        United Kingdom

15.  University of California Berkeley
        United states

16.  Columbia University
        United States

17.  University of California Los Angeles
       United States

18.  Duke University
       United States

19.  Cornell University
       United States

20.  University of Michigan Ann Arbor
        United States

21.  University of Toronto
       Canada

22.  Tsinghua University
       China

23.  National University of Singapore
        Singapore

24.  Carnegie Mellon University
        United States

25.  Northwestern University

        United States

(Ivy League Schools in Green)

Source: The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Sorry rest of the world, but seventeen of the top twenty-five are from the United States, including seven of the top ten.  Harvard is the top ranked Ivy League school but six of the eight Ivy League schools are in the top twenty in the world.  

What does this all mean?  Here in the colonies it seems the more other schools catch up with the Ivy League in terms of the number of schools and the cost of education, the stronger those dastardly Ivy League schools get control of our presidency and political processes.



Harvard was the first university in America founded in 1636.  By 1800, six of the first 16 universities in America were Ivy League, 37%.  Now the Ivy League represents less than one percent of institutions of higher education.  In spite of that we are completing 32 straight years of presidents from just three Ivy League schools, Harvard, Yale and Penn, and now Donald Trump assures an extension of that Ivy stranglehold on the presidency up to 36 straight years.
                                     

Isn't it about time we give someone else a chance like The California Institute of Technology, Stanford, MIT, Slippery Rock, or even The Pennsylvania State University New Kensington Campus of the Commonwealth College, (the longest college name in the USA)?


My goal was to attend Yale for undergraduate and Harvard Law for graduate school and I went through the multi-year application process, but fate had other plans for me and I wound up at the University of Arizona in Tucson.  Though I retain my Ivy League loyalty, even I think enough is enough, give someone else a chance.  What do you think?