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From: Gregory Brown To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bcc: jeevacation@gmail.com Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 11/24/2013 Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 11:18:21 +0000 Attachments: Exclusive„Reuters investigates business empire_ofiran's_supreme_leader_Reuters_11.12 .2013.docx; AINSL1Y_BURROiNS bio.clocx; The Hearing,Reality,Delusion,arid_the_Federal_Reserve_Richard_Eskow_Huff_Post_11 .1550 I 3.docx; Growing_Clamor About_Inequities_ofClimate_Crisis_Steven_Lee_Meyers_and_Nicolas_ Kulish_NYT_11. T6.2013.docx; China_to Ease_Longtime_Policy_Chris_Buckley_NYT_November_15,2013.docx; George Lmmerman arrested after his_girlfriend_alleges he_threatened_her_with_a_shotg un-Atisiovember_li,2013Zocx; Endless_Afghanistan„1.1S- Afghan agreement would_keep_troops_in_place_andfunds_flowing„perhaps_indefinitely Richard Engels_biBC_November 19,2013.docx; the weetend_that_America_lost_iTs_innocencen responses_- _week of_July_17,2013.docx; Let 's_ceIae_a_Deal_Thomas_Friedman_NYT_November_19,_2013.docx; Democrats_were_forced_to_go2nuclear_at_las_t_Eugene_Robinson_TWP_November_21, 20 I 3.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; image(13).png; image(14).png; image(I5).png; image(16).png; image(17).png; image(18).png; image(19).png; image(20).png; image(21).png DEAR FRIEND EFTA01141247 Last Sunday I began my Weekend Readings with a piece inspired by a poetic commentary from CBS's Bob Schieffer on Face The Nation commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of titled - The weekend that America lost its innocence - "several weeks ago, only those of us who were alive before that awful weekend can really know how much it changed America. We have been a confident nation. We had won World War IL We believed in our leaders. We came to see our Presidents as all but invincible. Because of television, we came to know John Kennedy and hisfamily more intimately than any of his predecessors. Then in a matter of seconds, he was killed by a mad man. As the entire nation watched in horror and shock as the events of the weekend unfolded on television in real time, thefirst time that it ever happened, our national confidence was shaken to the core. That weekend began one of the most violent decades in our country's history--more assassinations, Vietnam, the beginnings of Watergate--a time that Americans came to question almost everything we had once takenfor granted. As it always had, the nation reboundedfrom those dark days, but it was never quite the same. It was the weekend America lost its innocence." Video Website: http://www.cbsnews.combideo/watch/?id=591579_On What followed was a barrage of rebuttals from both my Conservative and Liberal friends pointing out a number of flawed (disastrous) policies as evidence that America was far from innocent and our 35th President was far from perfect. But his greatest gift to the country and the world, was that in his three years on the world stage, inspired America, as well as the rest of the world like very few others. (see attached, 2 rebuttals and exchanges) Since I am sure that there may be others who feel the same, I would like to clarify the reason why I embraced Bob Schieffer's commentary. I was fourteen years old the day that JFK was assassinated and like almost everyone else I too remember where it was; Dr. Schulman's science lab, when it was announced over the school's PA system that the President had EFTA01141248 been shot. And although I was only eleven when JFK was elected I personally felt the difference, as there was both a new sense of tolerance and optimism that even a black pre-teen age boy, growing up in the white area of my suburban town sensed. And yes, most of the accomplishments attributed to the Kennedy's inspiration, such as the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head State, National Endowment for the Arts and other Great Society programs happened under Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon who should be credited for largely ending segregated classes in the south, expanding revenue sharing, ending the draft, adding new anti-crime laws, starting the process of ending the Cold War, fighting against foreign oil price gouging, and implementing a broad environmental program (he is largely responsible for the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). And although the moon landing didn't happen until 1969 under President Nixon, it was a young President John F. Kennedy who on May 25, 1961 before a special joint session of Congress the announced a dramatic and ambitious goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade. This optimism began with Kennedy's presidential campaign slogan of The New Frontier. His 1960 campaign was premised on impatience with the quiet satisfactions of the Dwight Eisenhower years. Kennedy's emphasis on the "vigor" of a new generation ready for responsibility set the tone for social upheavals and generational conflicts later in the decade that would probably have surprised him. For all his emphasis on change and departures, Kennedy was speaking for a deep consensus in the country with the iconic challenge -- "ask not what your country can dofor you, ask what you can dofor your country." It is easy to forget that JFK's announcement/promise goal of sending an American safely to the Moon before the end of the decade was both dramatic and beyond the beyond ambitious. Especially when it was obvious that the Soviet Union was ahead in the `space race' because of the launch of Sputnik shock of 1957, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space on April 12, 1961, greatly embarrassing the U.S. Under immense public pressure to catch up and move ahead, and after consulting with Vice President, NASA Administrator James Webb, and other officials, he concluded that landing an American on the Moon would be a very challenging technological feat, but an area of space exploration in which the U.S. actually had a potential lead. Thus the cold war is the primary contextual lens through which many historians now view Kennedy's speech. The enormous human efforts and expenditures to make what became Project Apollo a reality by 1969 — Only the construction of the Panama Canal in modem peacetime and the Manhattan Project in war were comparable in scope. Today we live in world that is so cynical that our politicians pray for failure and do everything that they can delay, obstruct and kill government policies just so that they can deny success being credited to President and his administration. They refuse to confirm judicial appointments and won't even consider immigration reform or stronger gun laws, even though more than 10,000 Americans die each year from gun violence. And although I personally believe that Republicans are much more at fault because of their constant obstructionism, there is a certain amount of cynicism that should be attributed to my liberal friends too. So if there is one day to point to where the optimism ushered in with the election of John F. Kennedy, it was the day that he was shot. And the loss of innocence that both Bob Schieffer and I believe, is the slow erosion of that optimism, even if some of the perceived promise was naive. People forget that like the Affordable Care Act website, the space race started with a number of NASA disasters. But with the support of the American public and our politicians working together, President Kennedy's promise was realized when on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong stepped off the Lunar Module's ladder and onto the Moon's surface. EFTA01141249 We could do this today with healthcare, sustainable energy, reducing carbon emissions and other frontiers and challenges if we only believed. But in order to do this, we have to recapture that optimism and work together. We have to support policies that benefit the collective and just not the few at the top. We as a collective, have to be tolerate of others and their beliefs. There was a connection between the country embracing liberal social policies in the 196os and the success of the Apollo Moon Landing. And there was a connection between JFK sending troops into the South to protect black students integrating whit public school and the many accomplishments of the movement itself. The decade of the 196os was seeded with the infectious optimism of 'Camelot' that permeated across the country and around the world. The moment that Walter Cronkite (the most trusted voice in America) said these immortal words, "President Kennedy died at ipm Central Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago," the promise his election ignited began to die, as he represented the best in us (hopes, ambition and the possibilities). And because his life was cut short and we don't know what the future would have been had he lived longer his dreams live on. He was only 46 years old. His administration lasted only moo days. And his is the sixth shortest stay in office. Yet he inspired us as a collective to be great, with the belief that one slave enslaves us all. Most of all he inspired endless possibilities that truly is the root of American Exceptionalism. President Kennedy may not have been the prefect President, but he was prefect for his time. As a preamble to a piece below in this Week's Readings on Janet Yellen's confirmation as Chairman of the Federal Reserve before the US Senate Banking Committee, we have to ask ourselves why partisan purity become such a stalwart whereby institutions like the Federal Reserve which was created in part to protect Americans became the biggest unregulated institution in the country that protects the interests of Wall Street and the Big Banks, with the example of its quantitative easing program, which after the 2008 crisis really only benefited the big banks and allowed major Wall Street player including Goldman Sachs and GE capital to retroactively become banks, receiving TARP funding, relaxed regulations and other freebees — instead of policies which would have stimulated employment and lowering unemployment, helping millions of American families. We have to ask ourselves why our politicians in both major parties cheer for failure, even when they know it hurt the country and distracts attention from the search for alternative solutions. We have to ask ourselves why are Republicans are doing whatever they can to destroy the Affordable Care Act and are taking so much pleasure in its web site launch debacle. Although I opening denounced President George W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq, once he did I put my total support behind his success understanding that the perception of a defeat would seriously damage the psyche and international standing of the country. And although I totally disagree with Reagonomics, I hope that it would work because if it did the country as a whole would prosper. And although I am a died in the wool Democrat, I wish George W. Bush's Administration success with it's promised of compassionate conservatism. And although, I have disagreed with Ronald Reagan since his days as the Governor of California, when I heard that he was shot, I was sadden and outraged that someone shot My President. On Tuesday, November 12, 2013 there was another mass shooting in northeast Phoenix, Arizona. Four people were found dead, including the suspected gunman, in what appears to be a case of domestic violence. But where was the outrage? Where is the outrage that 15 million children go to sleep each EFTA01141250 night in the wealthiest country in world hungry? Where is the outrage that almost 25% of Americans are either out of work, under-employed or working two or more jobs just to survive? I am also outraged when I watch Judge Judy and the both complainants are on public assistance and arguing about that the other litigant should pay them for their $3000 of flat-screen televisions, X-Boxes and Play Station games. And like Judge Judy, I am appalled that taxpayers are supporting these grifters. But then I understand why they feel entitled. They feel entitled because they perceive that everybody else is doing it. Wall Street is doing it by bundling complex derivatives and selling junk bonds. The big banks are doing it when they issue "Liar Loans." Universities are doing it when they pay coaches seven figure salaries yet suspend a student athlete for accepting an airline ticket so their parent can see them play. But most of all, the divisive destructive partisan culture in Washington where politicians, egged on my lobbyist and media pundits cheering for failure, without concern for the pain and suffering that failures causes to those caught in the middle, is why I understand that these small-time grifters, Welfare cheats, etc feel entitled. As I mentioned earlier, I wish that Reagan's Trickle Down Economic policies had worked, but after thirty years of the American Middle Class being squeezed and growing inequality, what other proof is needed that cutting taxes on the rich and relaxing regulations on businesses and banks has been an abysmal failure. We spend more per-capta on healthcare yet we are ranked last of all industrialized countries. So why are Republicans so against Obamacare, which is based on Romneycare, which itself was proposed by The Heritage Group (Conservative Republican think-tank)? Republicans like to talk about Benghazi, but ignore that they demanded government to cut costs to the point that guarding the US Consulate was awarded to a British company who offered the lowest bid. As my mother use to say, "You get what you pay for." Obviously, choosing the lowest bid didn't work out too well for Christopher Stevens and his associates. 25% of all of the people living in Texas are uninsured, yet Governor Rick Perry declined to participate in Obamacare even though it wasn't going to cost the state one dine during the first several years and then only io% afterwards. Wouldn't it have been better that Texans were given the opportunity to access affordable healthcare, even if it only helped 5%? As Deputy White House counsel Vince Foster wrote on July 20, 1993, about the culture in Washington DC before committing suicide, "Here ruining people is considered sport." Why wasn't there any outraged then? And why has this culture been allowed to get worse? I watched Dick Cheney on one of the Sunday morning network news programs call President Obama a liar, with no response from the moderator. This is the same Dick Cheney who misled the country about Saddam Hussein having WMDs and the Iraqi war would pay for itself? Yes, President Obama may have missed spoke and even lied about people who currently have junk insurance might lose their policies. But this lie pales in comparison to the lies and deception that got us into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These lies pale in comparison to the fact that Cheney's misdeeds costs hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of American taxpayer's dollars, destroying the infrastructure or an entire country of 25 million people, in addition to destabilizing the entire Middle East. We have a culture now that no longer believes in the tenets of Democracy, when we cheered against extending a helping hand and criticize those who are unable to keep pace or have fallen through the cracks. I remember twenty years ago sitting with Ed Whitacre (later CEO of AT&T and General Motors, who started his careet in 1963 as a 22 year-old facility engineer for Southwestern Bell) and his EFTA01141251 buddies reminiscing about stringing the last three miles of phoneline to a farm house in the hinterlands of rural Oklahoma one Christmas Eve. I mentioned this, because there was no way that this one phone line paid for itself. The expansion of telecommunications across the country was subsidized by millions of Americans in the urban areas and this helped make the United States become the envy of the rest of the world. There was no outrage by New Yorkers that they phone bills subsidized expansion in the rural areas of Oklahoma, North Dakota and Montana. And everyone agrees that if this expansion had been obstructed, delayed or stopped the consequences would have hurt all Americans. The same is true about healthcare. Because if expansion of wired communications had been left up to moneyed interest alone, telecommunications in America would be as dysfunctional as healthcare, with probably 20% plus of the population still not covered. If you believe that Obamacare is flawed, why not insist on Medicarefor all, or at least lowering the age of eligibility. Because the one thing that we know for a fact is that health cost under Medicare is 20% lower than under private-sector insurance. Also claiming that healthcare is going broke is a dishonest argument, when the truth is that if people paid a couple percent more it would be solvent forever. But enough with my own partisanship piety and let's get back to my initial premise, we have to stop the partisan "winner take all" culture in politics and call out the people who are haters and divisive, as it is hurting the country and creating untold pain for tens of millions in America and possibly hundreds of millions around the world, because when America sneezes other countries can end up with pneumonia. Yes, people can be outraged but it shouldn't be because people who tried, made mistakes, when we are not offering solutions other than saying no. And as author and journalist, Doris Kerns Goodwin said a week ago, "What's happening to our country when we're cheeringfor the other side's (failure)?" This cheering for failure, should be left at the sports stadium and not be allowed in politics or in our culture. The Shame of American Health Care By THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD Even as Americans struggle with the changes required by health care reform, an international survey released last week by the Commonwealth Fund, a research organization, shows why change is so necessary. The report found that by virtually all measures of cost, access to care and ease of dealing with insurance problems, Americans fared poorly compared with people in other advanced countries. The survey covered 20,000 adults in the United States and to other industrial nations — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain, all of which put in place universal or near-universal health coverage decades ago. The United States spends far more than any of these countries on a per capita basis and as a percent of the national economy. EFTA01141252 For that, it gets meager results. Some 37 percent of American adults went without recommended care, did not see a doctor when sick or failed to fill prescriptions in the past year because of costs, compared with 4 percent in Britain and 6 percent in Sweden. Nearly a quarter of American adults could not pay medical bills or had serious problems paying them compared with less than 13 percent in France and 7 percent or less in five other countries. Even Americans who were insured for the entire year were more likely than adults abroad to forgo care because of costs, an indication of how skimpy some insurance policies are. When Americans got sick, they had to wait longer than people in most of the other countries to get help. Fewer than half were able to get same-day or next-day appointments with a doctor or nurse; one in four had to wait six days or longer. (Only Canada fared worse on both counts.) But Americans got quicker access to specialists than adults in all but two other countries. The complexity of the American insurance system is also an issue. Some 32 percent of consumers spent a lot of time on insurance paperwork or in disputes with their insurer over denials of payment for services they thought were covered. The Affordable Care Act was created to address these problems by covering tens of millions of uninsured people and providing subsidies to help many of them pay for policies; by setting limits on the out-of-pocket costs that patients must bear; and by requiring that all policies cover specified benefits. Americans are understandably frustrated with the Obama administration's failure to produce a functioning website. President Obama's erroneous statements that all people who like their current insurance policies can keep them — not true for many people buying insurance in the individual market — has added to anger and misunderstanding. The reform law, however imperfect, is needed to bring the dysfunctional American health care system up to levels already achieved in other advanced nations. "The change Obama announced yesterday to the people who have crummy crappy F....up plans want to keep them, what I call 'hospital gown policies' because plainly your ass is not covered. And one reason why he had to do this is because Bill Clinton open his bigfat vegan mouth and said Obama should let people keep their crappy insurance even if it screws up the whole system. You know if you are a Democrat, the Clinton are a pre-existing condition." Bill Maher in his opening monologue last week on his HBO show REAL TIME: November 15, 2013 Last Tuesday in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania marked the i5oth anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, thousands gathered at the national cemetery to remember President Abraham Lincoln's call for "a new birth offreedom." The U.S. Marine Band played some of the same songs played when it accompanied Lincoln to Gettysburg for the dedication of the cemetery that holds many of the Union soldiers killed in EFTA01141253 the decisive Civil War battle four months earlier. A Lincoln impersonator, hatless and wearing white gloves, recited the address Tuesday with a Kentucky twang. But the emotional highlight came when 16 people, some with flags in their lapels, stood at a railing in the front row before the stage and raised their right hands to take the oath of citizenship from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The United States, Scalia told the gathering, is "a nation of immigrants" who came seeking opportunity and freedom. "Thatfreedom is notfree, as the dead who rest here can attest," Scalia said. The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known and greatest in American history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by the secession crisis, with "a new birth offreedom," that would bring true equality to all of its citizens. Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality. Beginning with the now-iconic phrase "Four score and seven years ago" — referring to the Declaration of Independence, written at the start of the American Revolution in 176 — Lincoln examined the founding principles of the United States in the context of the Civil War, and memorialized the sacrifices of those who gave their lives at Gettysburg and extolled virtues for the listeners (and the nation) to ensure the survival of America's representative democracy, that "government of the people, by the people,for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Despite the speech's prominent place in the history and popular culture of the United States, the exact wording and location of the speech are disputed. The five known manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address differ in a number of details and also differ from contemporary newspaper reprints of the speech. Modern scholarship locates the speakers' platform 4o yards (or more) away from the Traditional Site within Soldiers' National Cemetery at the Soldiers' National Monument and entirely within private, adjacent Evergreen Cemetery. Gettysburg Address: Text of President Lincoln's Nov. 19, 1863 speech EFTA01141254 There are several variations of the address. Here's the one that's etched into the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington: Four score and seven years ago ourfathers broughtforth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of thatfield, as afinal resting placefor those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogetherfitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can neverforget what they did here. It isfor us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they whofought here have thusfar so nobly advanced. It is ratherfor us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- thatfrom these honored dead we take increased devotion to that causefor which they gave the lastfull measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth offreedom -- and that government of the people, by the people,for the people, shall not perishfrom the earth. ****** EFTA01141255 As Chris Matthews said this week on his MSNBC show HARDBALL: The dirty little secret of American politics today is that this battle between President Obama and his enemies is not a contest of achievement. No, it's a battle between a president who wants to do great things -- extend health care to the tens of millions of working people, many of them poor, ending two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and preventing a third war with Iran -- and almost totally negative force arrayed and barking against him, a campaign of verbal terror and negativity aimed at denying tens of millions decent health care, denying immigrants the chance to be come citizens, denying people of other sexual orientations and identities an equal chance to provide for themselves, obviously, also denying marriage equality. It's a strange, unbalanced battle between a man who wants to do great things and an enemy aimed at ensuring he does not. It's a tale of a political party that once freed the slaves and battled the monopolies, built the transcontinental railroad and created scientific agriculture to the land grant colleges reduced now to playing jackal in the moonlight. To which his guest Howard Fineman, editorial director of the Huffington Post Media Group and an MSNBC political analyst replied: The president's enemies have tried to destroy, kill, defund, block or destroy everything in his program. The president, in contrast, has made it his goal to fight to extend rights to minorities, the uninsured and the oppressed. His opponents are trying to take away these rights. Here are just three examples of how this works. The opponents of the president prevented millions of people from having access to health care under the law. They've waged a three-dozen-state war aimed to suppress voting rights of minorities, especially African-Americans. And they've systematically derailed anything that would extend the principles of equality and fairness, whether it be health care, sexual orientation and identity, or the right to marry. Let's look at the first one of these segments. Republicans in 24 states now have rejected the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act as part of a blatant attempt, I think, to destroy the law. As a result, there are more than five million low-income working Americans, many of them in Republican- controlled states, whose access to the insurance under the law has been voided. by the far right. Astonishingly, preventing people from getting insurance is now a badge of conservative honor by Tea Parties like Rand Paul. Here's Senator Paul on CNN just yesterday attacking Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey for his decision to expand Medicaid in New Jersey. Republicans have spent millions and millions of dollars spreading rumors and innuendos about all of the reasons in an attempt to delay, derail and kill the Affordable Care Act. From all the negative coverage of the health care roll-out, you would think it had been a disaster from coast to coast. But there are more than a few health care success stories out there emerging, by the way, in states around the country where Republicans -- or at least vicious Republicans -- aren't actually working to sabotage the law. The Los Angeles Times, in an article headlined "Health Care Plan Enrollment Surges in Some States After Rocky Rollout." Well, here's what we learned. California's Covered California program is having — quote -- "incredible momentum in enrollment." Washington State is -- quote -- "on track to easily exceed October enrollment." In Minnesota -- quote - - "Enrollmentfor the second half of October triple rate offirst half." In Kentucky, whose Democratic governor we have had on the program, is outperforming enrollment estimates. And in Connecticut, a survey of those who used the state exchange showed a satisfaction level of 96.5 percent. What do these states have in common? Well, for starters, they all set up their own state health care exchanges, which is how the Affordable Care Act was supposed to work in the first place, rather than rely on a big federal exchange. They also expanded Medicaid coverage, as they were supposed to. And perhaps the most important point, they EFTA01141256 all have Democratic governors trying to make it work, who have not been working at every turn to block a program that is actually of course the law of the land. Republican governors who are all about state's rights with Bobby Jindal and Rick Perry (whose state has the highest rate of people with health insurance in the country, with the largest number of children without health insurance and the highest rate of poor adults without health insurance, with more than 852,000 children in Texas not having health insurance in 2012), choosing not to set up health care exchanges in their states, thus denying their residents access from affordable healthcare. The week in an article in the New York Times, Republican leaders admitted that they are not going to advocate any new policies (solutions), and just engage in "oversight" which is code for a search and destroy in an attempt to scuttle health reform. They have no healthcare plan. They have no solutions other than to keep the status quo. It is easy to see that these people are against everything while standing for nothing, other then making the Obama Administration a failed Presidency. Bill Maher Puts The Kennedy vs. Reagan Debate To Rest Web Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/20 l 3/1 l /23/bill-maher-jfk-kennedy-vs-ronald-regan- video n 4329327.html Bill Maher delivered an impressive comparison of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan on Friday Night's "Real Time," concluding of course that JFK wins the competition, hands down. EFTA01141257 Maher understands that politics is tribal, and Republicans will never feel the way Democrats do about JFK, but he wants to know: "Can we at least agree that Kennedy was cooler?" "I mean, sorry, but our liberal icon was a smart, sexy war hero who said he wanted to go to the Moon. Yours was an old fuddy-duddy who tried to rock denim." "Don Draper vs. Rooster Cogburn," and "James Bond vs. Matlock" are just a few of the other ways Maher compared the two political idols. He thoroughly explained why Kennedy's style, friends (The Rat Pack), and era (the 6os) were all more favorable than Reagan's -- and Maher has pictures of himself from the 8os to prove it. .... One reason that we looked uglier in the 8os is because we were uglier. It was when the Baby Boomers the generation that was supposed to be different, just gave up and sold-out completely. Kennedy's time was the time of "ask not what your country can dofor you." Reagan's time was the time of "greed is good." "JFK was far from perfect, but he was a true wit and a sex machine, and he knew how to wear a pair of shades. Reagan was an amiable square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called "Mommy"." Kennedy was James Bond. Reagan was Matlock. Love him or hate him we win. Republicans can call Reagan their Kennedy all they want but that's like calling Miller High-Lite "The Champagne of Beers." It's why calling someone your Kennedy will never really cut it, because our Kennedy is Kennedy. THIS WEEK's READINGS EFTA01141258 According to an article this week in Reuters - This year is the seventh warmest since records began in 1850 with a trend to weather extremes and the impact of storms such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines aggravated by rising sea levels, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday.A build-up of manmade greenhouse gases in the atmosphere meant a wanner future was now inevitable, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks among almost 200 nations in Warsaw. The WMO, giving a provisional overview, said the first nine months of the year tied with the same period of 2003 as seventh warmest, with average global land and ocean surface temperatures 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 1961-1990 average. "This year once again continues the underlying, long-term trend," towards higher temperatures caused by global warming, Jarraud said. The WMO said it was likely to end among the top lo warmest years since records began in 1850. Among extremes have been super typhoon Haiyan, one of the most intense storms in history that smashed into the Philippines last Friday. President Benigno Aquino said local officials had overstated the loss of life, which was closer to 2,000 or 2,500 than the 10,000 previously estimated. His comments, however, drew scepticism from some aid workers. AUSTRALIA HEATWAVE Other extremes this year have included record heatwaves in Australia and floods from Sudan to Europe, the WMO said. Japan had its warmest summer on record. Apparently bucking a warming trend, sea ice around Antarctica expanded to a record extent. But the WMO said: "Wind patterns and ocean currents tend to isolate Antarctica from global weather patterns, keeping it cold." In September, The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) raised the EFTA01141259 probability that mankind was the main cause of warming since 1950 to at least 95 percent from 90 in a previous assessment in 2007. It predicted impacts including more heatwaves, downpours and rising sea levels. "2010 was the warmest year on record, ahead of 2005 and 1998," the WM0 said. The IPCC said the pace of temperature rises at the Earth's surface has slowed slightly in recent years in what the panel called a "hiatus" that may be linked to big natural variations and factors such as the ocean absorbing more heat. The WM0 said that individual tropical cyclones, such as Haiyan, could not be directly attributed to the effects of climate change. But "higher sea levels are already making coastal populations more vulnerable to storm surges. We saw this with tragic consequences in the Philippines," Jarraud said. Seas have risen by about 20 cms (8 inches) in the past century. As of early November 2013, there had been 86 tropical cyclones, from typhoons to Atlantic hurricanes, closing in on the 1981-2010 average of 89 storms, the WM0 said. (Reporting By Alister Doyle; editing by Ralph Boulton) Web Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2507719/The-world-explained-maps-revealing-need-know.html In addition to the video on the above web link, please find below five examples of the chaos that man- made climate change is causing. According to a 2011 U.S. Interior Department report, "annual flows in three prominent river basins - the Colorado, Rio Grande and San Joaquin - could decline by as much [as] 8 percent to 14 percent over the next four decades," reported the Associated Press. Expected changes in temperature and precipitation are likely to alter river flows "with increased flooding possible in the winter due to early snow-melt and water shortages in the summer due to reductions in spring and summer runoffs." Along with deforestation, climate change also poses a serious threat to South America's Amazon rain-forest. A 2009 study from the U.K. Met Office found that a global temperature rise of four degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels would cause 85 percent of the Amazon to die off in the next 1OO years. Even a two degree Celsius rise would kill 20 to 4o percent of the rain-forest, reported The Guardian. In May, The Club of Rome think tank predicted a global average temperatures rise of "2 degrees Celsius by 2052 and a 2.8 degree rise by 2080," reported Reuters. Jorgen Randers, author of the club's report, said, "It is unlikely that governments will pass necessary regulation toforce the markets to allocate more money into climate-friendly solutions, and (we) must not assume that markets will work for the benefit of humankind." He added, "We are emitting twice as much greenhouse gases every year as are absorbed by the world's forests and oceans. This overshoot will worsen and will peak in 203o." Bad news for allergy sufferers -- climate change, and specifically warmer temperatures, may bring more pollen and ragweed, according to a 2011 study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Along with allergies, a changing climate may be tied to more infectious diseases. According to one study, climate change could affect wild bird migratory patterns, increasing the chances for human flu pandemics. Illnesses like Lyme disease could also become more prominent. As average temperatures rise over the course of this century, states in the Southern U.S. are expected to see a greater number of days with temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit each year. And as global temperatures rise this century, sea levels are also expected to increase. South Florida may be hit particularly hard. According to a 2012 report from New Jersey-based nonprofit Climate Central, EFTA01141260 thousands of New York City residents may be at risk for severe coastal flooding as a result of climate change. Climate Central explains, "the NY metro area hosts the nation's highest-density populations vulnerable to sea level rise." They argue, "the funnel shape of New York Harbor has the potential to magnify storm surges already supplemented by sea level rise, threatening widespread areas of New York City." If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, global sea levels could rise over three feet by 2100, with a six foot rise possible. The U.S. Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming notes: This threatens to submerge Florida's coastal communities and economies since roughly 9 percent of the state is within 5 feet of the existing sea level. Rising sea level also threatens the beaches, wetlands, and mangrove forests that surround the state. University of Florida professor Jack Putz said in 2008, "People have a hard time accepting that this is happening here," reported the Tampa Bay Times. Seeing dead palm trees and other impacts "brings a global problem right into our own back yard," he added. As humans increase atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, oceans absorb some of the CO2. The resulting drop in ocean pH, known as ocean acidification, has been called climate change's "equally evil twin" by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco. Coral reefs, which are an invaluable part of marine ecosystems and tourism economies, are threatened by ocean warming and acidification. At the 2012 International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns, Australia, 2,600 scientists signed a petition calling for international action to preserve global coral reefs, reported the BBC. Noting that 25 to 3o percent of the world's reefs are already "severely degraded," the statement asserts that "climate-related stressors [represent] an unprecedented challenge for the future of coral reefs and to the services they provide to people." A recent report from the World Resources Institute found that the Coral Triangle, an important area from central Southeast Asia to the edge of the western Pacific with many reefs, is threatened at a rate far greater than the global average. EFTA01141261 Last week Reuters published a three-part (six-months) investigation into the financial empire of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which was built based on billions of dollars in property seized from Iranian citizens through an organization called Setad. As a result Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls a business empire worth around $95 billion - a sum exceeding the value of his oil-rich nation's current annual petroleum exports. Little is known about Setad even though it is one of the keys to the Iranian leader's enduring power and now holds stakes in nearly every sector of Iranian industry, including finance, oil, telecommunications, the production of birth-control pills and even ostrich farming. Setad has built its empire on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians - members of religious minorities, Shi'ite Muslims, business people and Iranians living abroad. The Reuters investigation documents how Setad has amassed a giant portfolio of real estate by claiming in Iranian courts, sometimes falsely, that the properties are abandoned. The organization now holds a court-ordered monopoly on taldng property in the name of the supreme leader, and regularly sells the seized properties at auction or seeks to extract payments from the original owners. The organization's full name in Persian is "Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam" - Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam. The name refers to an edict signed by the Islamic Republic's first leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, shortly before his death in 1989. His order spawned an entity intended to manage and sell properties abandoned in the chaotic years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. An organizational chart labeled "SETAD at a Glance," prepared in 2010 by one of Setad's companies and seen by Reuters, illustrates how big it had grown. The document shows holdings in major banks, a brokerage, an insurance company, power plants, energy and construction firms, a refinery, a cement company and soft drinks manufacturing. Today, Setad's vast operations provide an independent source of revenue and patronage for Supreme Leader Khamenei, even as the West squeezes the Iranian economy harder with sanctions in an attempt to end the nuclear-development program he controls. EFTA01141262  SETAD at a Glanc EIKO (SETAD) Real Estate & Tadbev Economic Development Group Barkat Foundation Properties Organization Corporals Oovenriall tiviastaratalanOnarlDalE Fiona Dept Business Dona lopment Dept. .NANCiAt NOW 'c otOos tA. NOCANK, CONSTRUCTION KT NOI,COOG Nag/ m0t.DIN0 arm ?Aphis 1104*.f *SI Co Taut Com, Desigell CO OIMOOR.00 Primo Bark Rarsartin Cvne•l OwEd Prop 6 COW H:inog ROM"? CO stabna an lAtrso Paalharol CO Nowt° SRNshada Co BS' Weak Co AnnIMISII`el Bart IAA Inortkrort C: Royalkas CO Sabl &sin* CO IN SCORN °pettier Prost itioenntnt Co SOO Dotalto Pars Conicomert Co tiptoe Co 33 LOPONI COI IrrArarrs Co Posy Plant: FNAM Certil iteleuen Ininkrat Iran Snatch toasts) Co ottnal Co Operator. Tata &does CO Nal 6 Copper According to one of its co-founders, Setad was created to help the poor and war veterans and was meant to exist for just two years. Almost a quarter-century on, Setad has morphed into a business juggernaut with real estate, corporate stakes and other assets. While Setad controls a charitable foundation, ifs not clear how much money goes to charity. Under IChamenei, the organization has expanded its corporate holdings, buying stakes in dozens of Iranian companies, both private and public, with the stated goal of creating an Iranian conglomerate to boost the country's economic growth. The supreme leader, judges and parliament over the years have issued a series of bureaucratic edicts, constitutional interpretations and judicial decisions bolstering Setad. "No supervisory organization can question its property," said Naghi Mahmoudi, an Iranian lawyer who left Iran in 2010 and now lives in Germany. Setad's total worth is difficult to pinpoint because of the secrecy of its accounts. Reuters estimates it at around $95 billion, made up of about $52 billion in real estate and $43 billion in corporate holdings. The estimate is based on an analysis of statements by Setad officials, data from the Tehran Stock Exchange and company websites, and information from the U.S. Treasury Department. The amount is roughly 4o percent bigger than Iran's total oil exports last year, which totaled $67.4 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund: * The U.S. Treasury Department assessed Rey Investment Co, controlled by Setad, as worth about $40 billion in 2010, the year Setad took control of it. (The Treasury did not put an overall value on Setad). * Through a subsidiary, Setad bought a 19 percent stake in Telecommunication Co of Iran, the country's largest telecom provider, for about $3 billion. EFTA01141263 * Reuters also identified at least 24 publicly traded companies not named in the recent Treasury sanctions in which Setad, or a company it invested in, held a minority stake. At the current official exchange rate, those investments are worth more than $400 million, according to valuations from t