Saturday, April 26, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Ukraine Monastery Unites the Faithful as Country Splinters
By Jim Maceda
First published April 26 2014

SVYATOGORSK, Ukraine - Revolution in the West, insurrection in the East and Russian troops massing just across the border: There are plenty of reasons why Ukrainians might seek solace in God.

At this quiet monastery atop a hill, faith is bringing together regular parishioners despite their deep political divides.

"All Ukrainians have faith," said Alexandra Panova, a nurse visiting Svyatogorsk monastery with her nine-year-old son. "We all believe. I come here for peace of mind, both generally, and because of the current conflict."

Many indeed are trying to find peace in this ancient spiritual center about 20 miles from Slaviansk, an eastern stronghold of pro-Russian, armed men and checkpoints reinforced by truck tires and sandbags.

Svyatogorsk, or Holy Hill, is surrounded by fir trees and overlooks the Donets River. Monks built the first monastery on the summit five centuries ago, and it has been a citadel of pilgrimage for millions of Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Church members.
But contemplation and prayer don’t erase the political differences between those who attend services at Svyatogorsk.

Elena Naunova, a middle-aged Ukrainian who’s worked her whole life as a cook, believed Ukraine should remain united, and rejected the aggression of the pro-Russian insurgents.

She also blamed the media for drumming up trouble and disrupting the peace.
"The TV is constantly going on about terrorists and provocations. Jet fighter planes shooting and bombing. But look, you see, it is calm, thank God," she said. "Everything should be peaceful, they should demand their rights in a peaceful way, and the authorities should listen."

While the monastery has been able to unite regular parishioners like Naunova and Panova in prayer despite their opposing beliefs, those at the top of the church seem unable to remain above the political fray.

The Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Patriarchs’ words could hardly have been more discordant during the traditional Easter messages last weekend. Kirill, the Russian, asked to pray for the people of Ukraine.

"For an end to violence, for people’s love for each other, so that they should not be divided," he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Filaret openly called Russia "the aggressor."
"Russia has taken Crimea from us the eastern regions of Ukraine," he said. "But we must remember that before the resurrection there was the crucifixion and suffering."

The Russian church encompasses its Ukrainian affiliate, although they have their own hierarchies.

Meanwhile, inside the Church of St Nicholas next to the monastery, monks moved busily in unison in their black robes, lighting candles before a sumptuous altar, rolling out carpets, kissing icons and preparing incense.

Men like these have repeated the same rituals in this church thousands of times. But this time, dozens of worshippers all seemed to be praying with a purpose, bracing for a civil war that could be just around the corner.

Kolya Kaupatenko fears the growing violence in his hometown of Slaviansk.
"Ukraine has been left without God," said Kolya Kaupatenko, a twenty-something Ukrainian who feared the growing violence in his hometown of Slaviansk. "It’s terrible. There’s banditry everywhere. What kind of life is this?"
Still, people here feel they will survive because Svyatogorsk always has through the centuries.

"The events in Kiev, the revolution, should never have happened the way it did," Panova said. "But I have Svyatogorsk, and I don’t think I’ll leave Ukraine, no matter what. Life goes on, as they say."




Svyatogorsk or Holy Hill was first built by monks 500 years ago and serves both Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox members. Elena Naunova, who believes Ukraine should “remain united,” and opposes the Russian advances, but blames the media for the constant focus on the separatists and “disrupting the peace.” She says of the separatists, "Everything should be peaceful, they should demand their rights in a peaceful way, and the authorities should listen."

Well, she's right. It just isn't the Russian plan to do that, and apparently it isn't the Kiev Ukrainians view that they should give in without a struggle. It is also obvious that the unrest is not caused by “the media,” but by partisan Ukrainians struggling for control with the help of Russia. Russia has said at least once that the US is involved in the Kiev revolution, but I don't believe it. There is no evidence of that, and I would expect Putin to make a much greater outcry if it were true. He just expected the Ukrainians to roll over and play dead with “the world” allowing him to march in and take control, and that hasn't happened.

At last week's Easter service the Russian priest prayed for unity and love among Ukrainians and the Ukrainian priest openly blamed the Russians for aggression. “Men like these have repeated the same rituals in this church thousands of times. But this time, dozens of worshippers all seemed to be praying with a purpose, bracing for a civil war that could be just around the corner.”

Kolya Kaupatenko says of life in Slaviansk, "It’s terrible. There’s banditry everywhere. What kind of life is this?" We have had our racial riots and some political disturbances here, especially in the 1970s, but the US government is strong enough that it does, when necessary, step in and prevent the unrest from becoming a revolution. The real key, though, is that we have a very active communication line between citizens and their legislative representatives, and even the President monitors public concern and comments on issues from time to time. On his website is a collection of petitions which collect citizens' signatures on any number of issues. If the number of signatures reaches a certain number he will consider addressing the issue publicly.




Last Residents of Picher, Oklahoma Won't Give Up the Ghost (Town) – NBC
By Dan Shepherd
First published April 26 2014

PICHER, Okla. -- Thirty years and hundreds of millions of dollars since work began to clean up this former lead and zinc mining boomtown, progress is still being measured in inches or feet. That gauge is provided by the towering but slowly diminishing piles of “chat,” or tailings, that still loom over what is now a virtual ghost town.

Picher, which in its heyday in the 1920’s boasted a population of nearly 20,000 people, no longer exists as a town. After being labeled one of the most polluted places in America by the EPA, declared a federal “Superfund” hazardous waste site, and also getting hit by a destructive tornado, it ceased municipal operations in 2009.
That same year, Picher-Cardin High School, perhaps best known for its distinctive “Gorilla” mascot, graduated its last class of 11 students.

Finally, in November 2013, after nearly all of its residents had accepted federal buyouts on their homes and moved away, the town formalized the obvious -- and dissolved its charter.

Today, there are only about 10 hardy souls left in Picher to watch as the clean-up slowly carves away at the dozen or so remaining piles of chat and restores Tar Creek, whose waters still run red from heavy metal runoff, to some semblance of its former self. If their health holds out, they likely have another 20 or 30 more years to take in the slow-motion show in this quiet northeastern corner of Oklahoma, near the Kansas and Missouri borders.

Among those still living and working in the town is 59-year-old Gary Linderman, who has owned and operated the Ole Miner Pharmacy on U.S. Highway 69 for 16 years. He first came to Picher in 1975, when he went to work as a student extern for the previous owners of the pharmacy. Despite the hardships visited on his town over the last century, he senses a change of fortune in the wind.

“I think there’s going to be a resurgence in Picher -- in time,” he said.

Pharmacist Gary Linderman, 59, runs the remaining retail business in Picher, Ole Miners Pharmacy. It's a social hub for former residents who remain loyal to the store and travel from nearby towns for their medicine.

That time is still some way off, according to Bob Sullivan, the Environmental Protection Agency site manager for the cleanup.

He says the federal government has spent $301 million since Picher and the surrounding areas were declared a “Superfund” site in 1983, when the town’s toxicity levels surpassed even those of the infamous Love Canal site in upstate New York in the mid-1970s.

Another $178 million is expected to be spent on the cleanup over the next 20 years, Sullivan says.

Most of the remediation work going on now involves excavating contaminated sludge and remodeling stream beds with clean soil, adding water treatment units, collecting clean water from existing uncontaminated wells and distributing it via a pipeline network to the few remaining homes and farms in the area, while also drilling new wells. Contractors continue to chew away at the chat piles as well, although the pace of that work can appear slow, since down-river Oklahoma residents have to wait for contaminated areas of Kansas and Missouri to be cleaned first.

That’s because cleaning up the Picher area is just part of the challenge. The so-called “Tar Creek Superfund Site,” which covers 40-square miles and also includes the towns of Quapaw, Commerce, Cardin and North Miami, is just one of four “sub sites” within what is called the “Tri-State Mining District,” an area that covers 2,500 square miles and extends into southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri. Rivers and soils in Kansas and Missouri are also polluted by toxic runoff, and work needs to continue there to prevent that pollution from undoing the progress that’s been made in Oklahoma.

The length of the cleanup in Picher is largely due to the long period of time that environmental damage was inflicted on the town and its surroundings.

Starting in the late 19th century, Picher was at the forefront of Oklahoma’s lead and zinc mining industry. At the height of the boom, in the 1920s, it had over 14,000 resident miners and possibly another 5,000 townspeople.

During both World Wars, 75 percent of all the bullets and bombshells expended by American troops were made from metals mined in the region.

The chat piles – mountains of crushed limestone, dolomite and silica-laden sedimentary rock that sometimes rose to heights of 300 feet or more – were the leftovers after the metal ore was separated.

Jack Greene, 91, worked in the mines beneath Picher from 1938 to 1941, before he was drafted into the Army during World War II. He remembers tremors from the mines shaking pencils off the desks at the high school. "They let people destroy this country from being so greedy," he said, describing the practice of removing pillars of rock originally left in place by miners to support the caverns they'd dug out.

By the time mining ceased operations in the late 1960s, there were an estimated 178 million tons of chat, mill sand and sludge in about 30 piles scattered in and around Picher. As the town dwindled to fewer than 2,000 residents, the chat piles became an integral part of the local culture. Families picnicked on them, 4-wheelers rode their bikes up and down them, while the local high school track team trained on them.
They knew to avoid Tar Creek after the waters started running red in the late 1970s – the result of pollution from heavy metals like lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic, iron and manganese – but folks were slow to realize the extent to which the “chat” piles were slowly poisoning them.

A few local doctors did notice that kids in Picher seemed to get sick often, and teachers observed that their students always seemed to be lagging behind those in other parts of the state in testing. But no one linked the high lung cancer rates, cases of hypertension, respiratory infections and high infant mortality rates to the “chat” piles in Ottawa County.

Then health studies from the University of Kansas School of Medicine via an EPA Technical Assistance Grant in 2004 produced some alarming statistics. Some rates of disease in the three state mining area were 20 to 30 percent above average, but the rate of the chronic lung disease pneumoconiosis, for example, was 2,000 percent higher.

“People didn’t connect any of this to the mine,” said Rebecca Jim, executive director for the Local Environment Action Demand (LEAD) agency, a local, nonprofit environmental group. “They didn’t go, ‘This is causing me to get sick.’ Lead poisoning in children, you can’t tell it. They don’t walk funny. They don’t walk with a limp. With lead poisoning, it’s so subtle you don’t notice it unless it’s an extreme dose.”

Karen Harvey, 53, lived in Picher from 1960 to 2002, and as a kid she played on chat piles and swam in tailings ponds. "We'd go swimming in them and our hair would turn orange and it wouldn't wash out," she said. At age 18 she had surgery to correct bone growth in her ears that interfered with hearing. Noting that she's also dyslexic and was recently tested with an I.Q. of 65, she said she's starting to wonder if her childhood in Picher contributed to her health problems. "I don't know if that has something to do with it or not," she said. "I'm just figuring it out as I get older."
The federal and state governments were slow to appreciate the hazard as well.
After tests ordered by the state of Oklahoma showed heavy metals contamination in 1980, the EPA plugged wells and studied the local aquifer more closely. By the mid-1990’s, crews started removing six to 10 inches of surface soil from residents’ yards, hoping this would limit resident’s exposure to chat dust and contaminated drinking water.

By the early 1980’s, however, it became clear that half measures would not suffice and that the health risks were far greater than initially thought.

Meanwhile, another mining-related problem continued wreaking havoc in Picher. So many tunnels had been carved beneath the town that sinkholes began to appear as mines were abandoned, and officials realized they couldn't guarantee the safety of residents. An Army Corps of Engineers study in 2006 showed that almost nine out of 10 buildings in town were susceptible to sudden collapse. The federal government began making buyout offers to residents and business owners, many of whom were reluctant to leave a place that had been called 'home' for several generations.

Tires float with other junk in a pond formed by a collapsed mine outside Picher. Before the ground at this spot collapsed into the cavern below, leaving a 250-foot wide hole, there were three mine shafts visible at the surface, each with a five-by-seven-foot opening. The threat of more such collapses eventually prompted the government to offer buyouts to Picher residents.

The final blow to the town was delivered in May 2008, when a powerful EF4 tornado decimated 20 blocks of homes and businesses, killing eight residents and injuring 150 others.

After the tornado, nearly all of those who had rejected the buyouts were ready to concede that maybe it was time to move on.

Linderman was one of the few who didn’t. He says he didn’t want to leave his home and the government wasn’t offering all that much anyway.

So he continues to commute from his ranch near the small town of Welch, Okla., occasionally staying in the apartment he keeps at the back of the pharmacy. Even though the town of Picher no longer exists, his business is still on the electrical grid and he gets his water from wells that are tested and serviced by the nearby Quapaw tribe.

He says he believes the water is safe and that he has no concerns about his health -- “not one bit.”

Even though he’s very nearly the last man standing in town, he says business is still good, with former neighbors driving extra miles to pay a visit and pick up their medicines.

Why does he stay?
“Well, I’m very person-oriented and Picher, the people here are a very close-knit family, as I call it,” said Linderman. “They’re not just a clientele, they’re friends."




Piles of “chat” or industrial waste from the lead and zinc mining industry, according to Wikipedia is gravel (chat) or dissolved (tailings) which contain heavy metals and are dangerous to humans. The gravel is sometimes used during snow emergencies to put on the roadways for greater safety. The city's former population was 20,000, but in 2009 ceased civic operations. “After being labeled one of the most polluted places in America by the EPA, declared a federal “Superfund” hazardous waste site, and also getting hit by a destructive tornado.” There are 10 people left living in the former city limits.

Gary Linderman, who owns a pharmacy there, is hopeful, however. He said, “I think there’s going to be a resurgence in Picher -- in time.” Bob Sullivan who heads up the cleanup says that Federal funds are expected to be used there for at least 20 years. The polluted water from the Tar River also affects nearby towns of Quapaw, Commerce, Cardin and North Miami, while rivers in Kansas and Missouri are also polluted by the mine there. The length of the recovery is due to the long years of mining there, from the late 1800s through the two world wars.

Jack Greene, an ex-miner, said "They let people destroy this country from being so greedy." Around 2000 residents continued to live there after the mines stopped operating in the 1960s, but schools noticed that their kids were showing low achievement scores and there were more illnesses than normal. “But no one linked the high lung cancer rates, cases of hypertension, respiratory infections and high infant mortality rates” to the polluted water and gravel piles until an EPA Technical Assistance Grant in 2004 showed test results about the local illnesses. “Some diseases” were occurring at a rate 20 to 30% higher than normal, with a lung disease pneumoconiosis at 2000 times above normal throughout the Tri-state area.

Rebecca Jim, executive director for the Local Environment Action Demand (LEAD) agency states that the mining pollution was not blamed for the diseases. Karen Harvey, 53, a long time resident of the city tells of years of contact with the chat and polluted water growing up, and of her abnormal bone growth in her ear, dyslexia and a recent test giving her an IQ score of 65. Another health hazard began to appear in the 1970s in the form of sinkholes from the mining tunnels underneath the ground. “An Army Corps of Engineers study in 2006 showed that almost nine out of 10 buildings in town were susceptible to sudden collapse.” At that point the Federal government began making buyout offers to the citizens. Of Linderman the pharmacist, he says “he believes the water is safe and that he has no concerns about his health -- “not one bit.” To each his own.




'Kill Jews' Town Highlights Spain's Struggles with Anti-Semitism – NBC
By F. Brinley Bruton
First published April 26 2014

It is a case of better late than never: Centuries after thousands of Jews were forced to convert, burned at the stake or expelled, Spain is still grappling with its brutal and deep-seated anti-Semitic past.

The 56 residents of Castrillo Matajudios, which is near the northern city of Burgos, are set to decide on May 25 whether to change the village's name, the second half of which translates to "Kill Jews."

Matajudios is also still a surname and remains an expression in Spain used to say that someone's "a bit of a Jew."

“In some ways the name of the town tells us so much about Spanish history,” said Fordham University Professor Doron Ben-Atar. "Part of what Spain is, Spanish nationalism, is defined by its hostility to Judaism."

The looming vote does not obscure the fact that the country has not yet completely erased traditions that are directly linked to the extinction of a once-thriving Jewish culture in Spain.

Jews existed alongside Christians for centuries in Spain, often uneasily, until Roman Catholic forces expelled the ruling Muslim Moors in the 14th and 15th centuries. After that, being Jewish was deemed unacceptable.

Residents of the small Spanish town of Castrillo Matajudios, which means "Castle Kill Jews" in English, chat on Monday.

"I always tell my students that the expulsion from Spain -- one doesn't even want to think about it -- would be like the expulsion of Jews from the United States today," said Moises Orfali, a professor of Jewish history at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University.
Jewish-Christian conflict appears to have started pretty much from day one on the Iberian Peninsula where modern Spain is located.

"The Jews were being set upon by Christians early on"
In 308 A.D., bishops issued a decree preventing Christians from marrying and dining with Jews, says Elizabeth Drayson, who specializes in medieval and early Spanish literature and cultural history at Britain's Cambridge University.

“The Jews were being set upon by Christians early on,” she said. “What is interesting is there is a tale of Jewish treason that establishes itself from those times in the Christian cultural memory."

A concept of Christian purity which grew from the unification of Spain when the Moors were driven out and then brutally enforced for centuries by the Spanish Inquisition, continues to this day, according to Drayson.

“There is an element of denial of how appalling that sort of prejudice is in Spain,” Drayson said. “There is still a very strong right-wing faction that wants to foster that idea that it was a great thing that Christianity conquered the other two religions and drove out the Muslims and Jews from the peninsula. It is part of a kind of ethos of purity in Spain among some high-ranking academics and politicians.”
Indeed, this strict Christian view of Spanish history extends to the way the Moors are dealt with. Statues and other depictions of St. James the Moor-slayer, or "Matamoros," dot the country.

It isn't clear exactly how Castrilla Matajudios got its now-offensive name -- historic chronicles are notoriously unreliable.

Castrillo Matajudios Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez Perez speaks to Spanish TV on Tuesday.
It is thought that the town's original name, which translates to "Hill or Mount of Jews," came about after dozens of Jewish men were slaughtered by Christians in the neighboring town of Castrojeriz in 1035.

Fleeing families took refuge on the hill and the town’s name was born, and in a significant nod to its past, the town’s crest contains the Jewish star of David.
But in 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled or burned at the stake Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism.

"The reality is that European Jews feel terribly unsafe."
The town only changed its name to Castrilla Matajudios in the early 17th century. One version of the story is that the name was mis-transcribed onto official documents -- Matajudios is only one letter away from Motajudios -- which means "Hill of Jews."
Another version is that the town intentionally changed its name amid the intense pressure to conform to the ideal of Christian purity that had become central to Spanish identity, according to experts.

The town is only about 30 miles away from Burgos, a city renowned for its elaborate cathedral and being a major stop along the Camino de Santiago, one of Europe's most popular Catholic pilgrimage routes.

Regardless, the name seems to hit on the fact of persistent and some say growing anti-Semitism throughout Europe (a recent study found that 76 percent of respondents felt that anti-Semitism had worsened over the past five years).

“The reality is that European Jews feel terribly unsafe,” Fordham University's Ben-Atar said.

Orfali, the Jewish history professor, notes that the word "Matajudios" is not just a name.

"It is a tradition to drink on Easter during the festivals of Good Friday, a special sort of sangria and toast saying 'killing Jews,'" he added. "'Matar judios' does not mean to kill them physically but to have this drink. The connotation of this is to remember other times in the Middle Ages in which Jews were afraid to be seen in public by Christians."

And while the mayor of Matajudios, Lorenzo Rodríguez Pérez, is making moves to come to terms with the village's past -- he wants to commission excavations to look for Jewish history, for example -- the proposed name change might not have enough support at the ballot box.

"Let's see what the voters say," Orfali said.




“The 56 residents of Castrillo Matajudios, which is near the northern city of Burgos, are set to decide on May 25 whether to change the village's name, the second half of which translates to "Kill Jews." Fordham University Professor Doron Ben-Atar said "Part of what Spain is, Spanish nationalism, is defined by its hostility to Judaism." According to this article the government and society didn't endanger Jews until the Catholics took over from the Islamic Moors.

Moises Orfali, a professor of Jewish history at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, likens the expulsion of the Jews from Spain to that of the USA, if such were to occur. There were apparently many prosperous Jews in Spain before that the Catholic conquest. A bishop's decree in 308 AD prohibited the intermarriage or even dining together of Christians and Jews. A myth of ethnic and religious “purity” in Spain exists among right-wing people today, who comprise a very strong faction, many of whom have good educations and high positions in the society and government. “There is an element of denial of how appalling that sort of prejudice is in Spain,” Elizabeth Drayson said.

Though Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez Perez “is making moves to come to terms with the village's past -- he wants to commission excavations to look for Jewish history, for example -- the proposed name change might not have enough support at the ballot box.” According to 75% of people in Spain polled recently, the problem of anti-semitism is worsening over the last five years. “The reality is that European Jews feel terribly unsafe,” said Fordham University's Ben-Atar.

So much of this is linked with nationalism. Nationalism has always been a good thing for societies, and at the same time the source of conflict. It is based on conflict – self-determination by excluding “the other” can bring unity and strength to a group of people – definition. In bad times of such economic turmoil as we are having today, there tends to be more anger in general.

If people could learn to have high self-esteem without looking down on somebody else, we would have much less trouble in our Western culture, and of course such things exist everywhere else as well. The hatred of “the other” is a part of the clan mentality that all humans have at a basic level. Humans are fighters. Anyone who is different is the enemy. It's not one of the signs of our so-called high IQ.

One reason the South has remained a more or less right-wing part of the US is because of their total defeat and humiliation in the Civil War. The Southern states have remained economically and educationally impoverished to a great degree, though there has been a good deal of improvement on that in the last fifty years or so. Piedmont NC, when I go home, is really “looking up.” The South and the West in general are still strongholds of racial, religious and economic bigotry, however, which makes me lucky that I am white and not Jewish or Catholic. I also am glad I don't live in Europe, with the possible exception of England. The European nations are beautiful areas with fascinating histories, but not so easy to live in as the US.





25 million middle-class Americans live hand-to-mouth – CBS
By Aimee Picchi MoneyWatch April 25, 2014

If asked to describe the typical American who lives paycheck-to-paycheck, you might conjure up the image of a minimum-wage worker struggling to make rent each month.

But a new study out of the Brookings Institution finds that two-thirds of U.S. households living "hand-to-mouth" are actually middle class, with homes and retirement assets. Only about one-third of those just getting by financially are what most would consider poor, with median incomes of about $20,000.

Overall, about 38 million American families live hand-to-mouth, or about one-third of all U.S. households.

So why do families with decent incomes and assets have to live "hand-to-mouth," spending all their cash with each paycheck? The reason may be that such middle-class consumers are opting to put money into illiquid investments with better rates of return than a savings account, such as real estate or a retirement portfolio, Greg Kaplan, assistant professor of economics at Princeton University, told CBS MoneyWatch.

"This behavior might look on the face to be kind of crazy, but in some of our other work we show it looks like a very sensible thing to do, given the incentives to invest in retirement accounts and real estate," he said.

Those incentives include tax-deferred contributions to retirement accounts and the home mortgage interest deduction.

Middle-class households living hand-to-mouth tend to be older, at about 40-years-old, than poor paycheck-to-paycheck families and hold an average of about $50,000 in illiquid assets, according to the study, which is from Kaplan, Giovanni Violante of New York University and Justin Weidner of Princeton University.

The findings may alarm financial experts, who typically recommend that households sock away about three to six months of income in a savings account to cover emergencies such as a health problem or the loss of a job. Such crises "are a real risk, but they are fairly uncommon," Kaplan said. Americans may be balancing those unlikely risks with the fact that returns on real estate, stocks and bonds far outpace the almost zero rate of return on a savings account.

America isn't alone: More than one-third of the populations of Canada, the U.K. and Germany also live paycheck to paycheck. The one outlier is Australia, which has almost no poor "hand-to-mouth" households, while about one-fifth of the country is comprised of middle-class paycheck-to-paycheck households. That's due to Australia's requirement that employers contribute to their workers' retirement accounts, the study noted.

The study was designed to consider which households are served by fiscal policies such as government transfers -- tax rebates, for instance -- to stimulate the economy.

"To understand how effective it is, you have to think about whether households are likely to spend that income," Kaplan noted. For fiscal policy to get the "biggest bang for the buck," it's important to figure out which households are actually living hand-to-mouth, which turns out to be a large number of middle-class households.
Of course, that might not come as a surprise to many Americans. For those working for companies with 401(k) programs or pension plans, it may seem painless to put aside money for their golden years. And after taking out taxes, retirement savings and other deductions from the median household income of $53,000, there may be little left for middle-class earners to sock away, even if they wanted to.




According to the Brookings Institute, “two-thirds of U.S. households living "hand-to-mouth" are actually middle class, with homes and retirement assets. Only about one-third of those just getting by financially are what most would consider poor, with median incomes of about $20,000.” Canada, the UK, and Germany are in the same financial condition, but Australia has a law requiring employers to pay for a retirement fund for each employee, so their citizens tend to be better off. That would never be enacted in the US I don't think. I can't imagine the Republican Congress passing it.

This article does explain that the heavy investment in houses and retirement funds do offer better income returns than a simple bank savings account, so the lack of a “rainy day” savings account is understandable, and of course it is usually possible to get cash by selling your house or car if the market is good. The truth is, though, that the Middle Class and the poor are on their way to becoming poorer and the rich are indeed, just like the old song says, “getting richer.” This doesn't make me happy, with medical costs and college tuition going up all the time. I am prepared to hold on tightly financially for the rest of my life and hope for the best. It's all I can do, since I probably won't win the Lottery.





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What Russia Might Gain From A Decentralized Ukraine – NPR
by Corey Flintoff
April 26, 2014

Ukraine's interim government is facing major obstacles: a separatist uprising in the east of the country, an economy in tatters and a presidential election next month.

But the leadership is also facing a longer-term challenge, one that will shape the future of the country: the creation of a new constitution.

The task will be complicated by pressure from Russia, which has already made clear what kind of constitution it thinks Ukraine should have. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, laid out Russia's position in an interview last month.

"They should start agreeing on a federation, where each region has broad authority over its language, education, economic and cultural ties with neighboring countries," Lavrov said.

What Lavrov seemed to be outlining is a country whose regions have such broad authority that they can even control a certain amount of foreign policy. Other Russian statements have specified that Ukraine's constitution should keep the country neutral so it can't join NATO, and that the nation should declare Russian to be an official state language.

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a liberal politician and former member of Russia's lower house of parliament, says federation can work for countries that are diverse and complex, like Russia itself, or the United States, Canada or Germany.

"It's a very good concept for complicated countries, because federalism lets different regions, different minorities to be represented," Ryzhkov says.
Ryzhkov says a federal system could be useful in Ukraine as a way to balance the rights of the country's linguistic and religious minorities, including the Russian speakers in the east and south.

Keith Darden, associate professor at American University's School of International Service, agrees — in principle. Darden says the problem is with the system that Russia is proposing for Ukraine.

"What they're currently putting on the table is really a very weak confederation, with very little central governmental authority in Kiev," Darden says. "Almost all power in separate regions, which would give them authority to conduct their own foreign affairs, for example."

Ryzhkov says the key to successful federations is a strong central government, with power over the regions — again like Russia, the United States and Germany.
The "problem for Ukraine now is, that central government is so weak, almost bankrupt, that federalism could destroy Ukraine, if [the] regions will be almost independent," Ryzhkov says.

Another key ingredient for creating a successful federation, Darden says, is respect for the rule of law.

"In Germany, you had a firm commitment to the rule of law, so that a written constitution actually was realized in a way that was similar to the way it was designed," he says. "In Ukraine, because there's this sort of legal anarchy in some ways, that who controls power controls the law, you have to be a little bit more careful in designing a constitution."

Darden says Russia stands to gain two things if its version of federalism were to be implemented in Ukraine. First, it would guarantee that Ukraine would never become part of the NATO alliance, because Russian-speaking provinces would veto such a move.
"The second thing that they get is the prospect of de-legitimizing the government in Kiev," he says. "This is a way of pulling power out of Kiev, and it's an extreme form of pulling power out of Kiev, to the point where it will destabilize the Ukrainian government."

The debate over constitutional reform has already begun in Ukraine, where the prime minister has promised to start a process that will deliver the new document by September.




The big decision now is how to construct a new constitution, about which Russia has very strong views. "They should start agreeing on a federation, where each region has broad authority over its language, education, economic and cultural ties with neighboring countries," Lavrov said. The article goes on to say that Russia in addition wants Ukraine to be “neutral so it can't join NATO” and have Russian as the national language.

From the article, “Ryzhkov says the key to successful federations is a strong central government, with power over the regions — again like Russia, the United States and Germany....The "problem for Ukraine now is, that central government is so weak, almost bankrupt, that federalism could destroy Ukraine, if [the] regions will be almost independent," Ryzhkov says.

I also foresee Russia constantly messing in the politics in all sections of Ukraine, trying to destabilize the area further – “divide and conquer.” I think a stronger central government with one strong legislative body like the US, with “states rights” as we have under our constitution, giving some rights and responsibilities to the state – or regional unit – and others to the capital or Federal government in Kiev.

In our country, the Federal government sees to that all children will be sent to school until they are a certain age – 16 I believe – and that the schools will not be racially or otherwise segregated, but the states can have a great deal of control about who is hired to teach and what textbooks are selected. That's why some school texts teach “intelligent design” in their biology classes rather than only Darwin's theory of evolution. It's also why many public schools would like to have prayer daily in the school classrooms, but the Federal government doesn't allow it, because an absolute freedom of religion is guaranteed in our constitution, and mandating a Protestant or Catholic or Jewish prayer would violate that.

Many “conservative” religious people would like to change that, but I don't consider that viewpoint to be conservative at all. It is radical. Anyway, they will have to make a constitutional amendment to make a change, and I don't think they have enough votes to do that. Too many people in the US think education should not be prejudiced as to religious views. That is partly why the position of Jews is our country is not as endangered as it is in Europe. Our textbooks are not allowed to denigrate anyone by race or religion.




Apology -- I drive to church and a visit with my friend one Sunday a month and that is going to happen tomorrow, so I will not do a blog. It is too time consuming. Best wishes to you all.