Thursday, November 1, 2018

Mid Term Election info for November 2018.

Mid term election results since 1934;

Only three (3) mid term elections since 1934 have resulted in a gain (in Congress) for the president's party.  In 1934 F.D. Roosevelt 's Democratic Party gained nine (9) seats in the House and nine (9) in the Senate.  In 1998 Bill Clinton's Democratic Party gained five (5) seats in the House and no gain or loss in the Senate.  In 2002 G.W. Bush's Republican Party gained eight (8) seats in the House and two (2) in the Senate.

On average the incumbent's party loses 30 seats in the House and four (4) in the Senate.  The largest loses were in 1938 (FDR) the Democratic Party out a total of 77 seats and in 2010 (Obama) the Democratic Party lost 69 seats.

On Nov 1st of 2010 President Obama's approval rating was 45 %.
Today President Trump's approval rating is between 41 to 47 % (four different polls)

Point: It will be interesting to see what this mid term election will be.

Voter Disenfranchisement.

In 2016 5.85 million Americans could not vote due to a felony conviction.  In 1960 that number was 1.7 million people, had declined to 1.1 million in the late 70's and has risen steadily since.  The states with the highest % of felony disenfranchisement are Florida with 10.4 %, Mississippi 8.3 %, Kentucky 7.4 %, Virginia, Tennessee, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia (all from 7.3 too 3.8 %)  Ten (10) states impose life time ban on voting for a felony conviction, while two (2) states allow prison inmates to vote.  Only 3 other countries ban life time voting by former felons (Armenia, Belgium and Chile).

In one case, Florida, a felony is "Grand Theft" or the unlawful taking of property worth $ 300 (this area needs more research; what are felonies in each of the states listed above).

Prior to 2013 the Federal Government under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 required some states with a history of denial of voting rights, to get pre-approval from the Federal government to make any changes in their election laws.  In 2013 the Supreme Court (in the case of Shelby v. Holder) struck that provision out of the VRA.  Since that time 14 states have enacted restrictions on voting.  Most of these required photo ID's, purging names from voting lists, reducing the time period for early voting. Those 9 states covered by the Shelby ruling are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Point: Even if a few cases can be found of non-citizens voting, how many millions of American Citizens will be denied their basic constitutional right necessary for any country to call itself a democracy?

(Source: Brennen Center for Justice at NYU 2/9/17 and ProCon.org 11/7/12)


Sunday, September 9, 2018

Early American Migration.

"A new study of fluted projectile points indicates early Americans were moving north to Alaska, rather than south from it, as they spread throughout North America".  A research team from New Mexico University and Texas A & M University has written about their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for April 2018.  These fluted projectile points get younger as you go north from the Clovis site.  This study seems to refute the belief that peoples moved into North America by way of the Ice-Free Corridor.

This information was presented in a short article in the magazine American Archaeology for Summer of 2018.  The article was entitled "Fluted Spear Point Study indicates Northward Migration of Early Americans" by Paula Neely.

(If they were moving north rather than south, it seems the question becomes, where were they moving from, or how did the early Americans get to the Americas if not by migration over the land bridge.  This is my observation; the article does not deal with that question).

Sunday, September 2, 2018

President Eisenhower's "Cross of Iron" speech.

In 1953 President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the mistake and error of committing so much
of our wealth to the building of military weapons.  He referred to this
as the Military Industrial Complex.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

History Magazine Dec/Jan 2018

During World War II in the Pacific the US Navy was faced with the threat of Kamikaze airplane attacks (as we all know).  This article says those planes were old training planes of wood and fabric that were slower than the more modern Japanese fighter planes.  This is important due to the fact that these planes were slower and for some reason more difficult for Navy gunners to shoot down.  These planes were also more difficult to pick up on radar thus able to get closer to their targets before crews could react.  Towards the end of the Pacific war the Kamikaze attacks were more of a problem than submarines.  One of the last US combat ships to be sunk by Kamikaze attack was the USS Callaghan on 28 July 1945.  
Source: "The sinking of the USS Callaghan" by Andreas Forrer, History Magazine Dec/Jan 2018.

In a book review in the same source (above) James Hamilton-Paterson reports on the US spy plane the SK 71 which could fly at 85,000 feet and at speeds three times the speed of sound.  It appears the planes flew from 1964 to 1999 when they were made obsolete by satellites and the growing use of un-manned flight.  The book title is "A History of Untouchable Spy Plane".