Let’s Put an End to the Election of 2016

Let’s Put an End to the Election of 2016

The Electoral College voted that Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated President of the United States, and the Republican Party, in control of both houses of Congress, will begin to implement the new Republican Platform. The Democrat Party, still in shock over the election results, continues to search for reasons to explain the defeat and ways to delegitimize the Republican victory.

Many things had some effect on the election results; there were ongoing FBI investigations, and emails from the Democratic National Committee and from the Clinton campaign were hacked and made public, but these issues were not fake.  The FBI investigations were not invented, they were real then and they continue today.  The hacking of the email was illegal and should be investigated, but the content of the email is what had a negative effect.  In the final analysis, these harmful realities hurt the Clinton candidacy to some degree, but not enough to decide the election.  Republicans won 33 of the 50 states, 80% of the counties in the country, most governorships and state houses, a sizeable majority of the popular vote if we exclude ultra-liberal California, and both houses of Congress; it was a conclusive triumph of conservative principles over the agenda of the left.

So, let’s end the 2016 election and try to return to a normal state, where we have an elected government running the country and a loyal opposition fighting to prevent the party in power from indulging in excess in the pursuit of its ideals.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at www.CarlosLArce.Blog.com

Purchase my books from Amazon.com 

Aleppo, Syrian Refugees and the U.S. Military

Aleppo, Syrian Refugees and the U.S. Military

It is naïve to think that the Syrian Government and its patron, Russia, are going to stop pursuing total victory against the Syrian rebel forces, regardless of the humanitarian crisis being created in Syria.  It is also naïve to propose that the American military is not needed to confront aggression from time to time around the world.

We were wrong to pursue “nation building” under the Bush administration, but we have been terribly wrong in becoming militarily feckless under the Obama administration.  By doing nothing about the Syrian refugee crisis, we have allowed a humanitarian disaster with millions of these destitute civilians descending on Europe and neighboring Arab countries.

The refugees want to stay home in Syria, but only the United States can create “safe zones” there with its military power.  This can be done without getting involved in another endless land war and getting the rich Arab nations in the area to foot the bill.  This is the stated policy of the new Trump administration.  The bottom line is that America will have to get directly involved in both the creation of safe zones for refugees and in the elimination of  ISIS, simply because we are a decent nation with the strongest military in a restless world.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at www.CarlosLArce.BlogSpot.com

Purchase my books from Amazon.com 

Misguided Challenge to President Trump's Election

Misguided Challenge to President Trump's Election

Presidential elections are won or lost in the Electoral College not in the total of the general population vote.  Let's not forget that the Electoral College is largely responsible for convincing all the semi-autonomous states to join our federated republic.  Each state, however small, gets two senators and the right to influence the presidential election.  We have been wise to avoid a pure direct democracy and the possible tyranny of the majority it can create.

President-elect Trump obtained 1.2+ million votes less than candidate Clinton in the general vote, yet California, along with its concentration of liberal voters, gave Clinton three million more votes.  New York City gave Clinton two million more votes than Trump.  Excluding California, Trump got two million more votes in the general population, and he won at least 85% of the 3,141 counties in the nation.

It is also ludicrous to suggest that the Russian government sabotaged the Clinton campaign.  The hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign could have been done by a number of bad actors, but the main issue is the content of the emails and the intent of the senders.

The bottom line is that the election is over, the Republican Party won, and Donald J. Trump will be the next President of the United States in the traditional American, peaceful transfer of power.  The time is for unity and national loyalty.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at www.CarlosArceBlog.com

Purchase my books from Amazon.com 

Education: The Tunnel Back

Education: The Tunnel Back

Education, defined as the imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning, has been one of the foundations of American social and economic success. Historically, the introduction of universal public education in this country has been a cornerstone of our democracy. It is the poor's most reliable social path for upward mobility. It is thus tragic to witness that promise to America's poor disintegrate into a failing public education system. Gangs, drugs, and violence are too often found in poor neighborhood schools, with discipline becoming the first casualty. Academic achievement becomes non-competitive in an increasingly competitive world. Middle-class neighborhoods suffer less from the existence of gangs and violence, but many also have unacceptable levels of drug abuse. Here again, discipline and order are often less than desirable; academic achievement as well is too frequently disappointing.

Globalization and transnational competition, fueled by the mushrooming internet technology, no longer afford us the safety of the domestic employment of yesteryear. The playing field has been leveled, and our children will compete for internet-based jobs with the children of the world. The only remaining question is who will enjoy a better education. As more and more jobs go overseas, our economic power will be comparatively reduced; so will, inherently, our military supremacy. For America to remain the preeminent global superpower, American children must be the best educated.

Money alone is not the answer; desperate calls to throw more money at the problem will not bring us victory. Let's remember that we spend more per capita than any other country, yet we are behind more than thirty other nations in critical areas. India and China today greatly outpace our production of scientists and engineers, and there is a significant deficit in other areas as well. Even in our own highest education schools, we are out-competed; as much as half the graduate engineering students in American schools are foreign. Not that we do not benefit from educating foreign students in our schools. Many schools would have to close without them, and a significant number of graduate foreign students have in the past remained in America after graduation, adding to our brain pool. The issue is that most of them return home and the balance continues to tilt and not in our favor.

The net results are not much better in our primary and secondary schools, where we are relegated to the celebration of minimal improvements in the comparatively dismal levels of math and reading scores. There are reports suggesting that one-third of our children drop out of high school. In poor neighborhoods, the figure is reported to be frequently higher than fifty percent. These statistics seem to affect all American groups except the Orientals. It may be accurate to say that Oriental children are not smarter than the rest of our children; perhaps their parents just have not yet stopped disciplining them. Teachers, often left at the mercy of intimidation from some unruly students and some equally unruly parents, have, in too many instances, thrown up their hands and surrendered to our American educational reality. Many concerned but exasperated parents, more often than not, follow suit. Politicians are, as usual, content with squeezing some credit out of rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.

Where could we start changing? Fundamental transformation is not necessary. At least this article is not an attempt to reinvent American Education. Neither curriculum selection nor pedagogical methodology is being addressed here. Structural organization, proportional funding, and rules of order are the areas of immediate interest. The greatest drawback to our public education organization may be its tendency toward universal inclusion in the student population mainstream. With some exemptions for serious emotional or behavioral dysfunction, the bulk of the student population is housed together in ever-larger school buildings. The academic performance of these schools is set at whatever level they can collectively achieve, not at the level that competing institutions in other neighborhoods and abroad are demonstrating as desirable, as if their children were not preparing to compete as adults in the real world. We have to consider the creation of a dual or multi-tier system where the greatest possible number of students can reach a pre-set competitive level of academic standard. The balance of the student population would be provided education at the highest attainable level. We need a structure where no child is left behind, but no child is held behind.

Most important the school system has to become transparent to parents. Video cameras, which are already used in many school hallways, may be a valuable addition to the classroom as well. The quality of teaching and student behavior would dramatically improve if classes were recorded. Evaluations of teacher competence and student behavior would become evidently clear. Access to recorded classes could be limited to viewing by school principals and review boards or, in its far-reaching application, available in real-time to parents via the Internet. Millions of Americans throughout society now work under the eye of video cameras.

The disproportional distribution of funding in the public school system is perhaps the direct result of a system of county and city-based property taxes. Affluent counties accumulate adequate funding for their schools, while poor neighborhoods await government handouts. Wealthy segments of society set aside school cash, which is deductible from their state and federal taxation, while state legislatures turn a blind eye to crumbling and malfunctioning schools in poor neighborhoods. This economics determined separate and unequal structure needs to be altered, not by busing the students, but by equalizing conditions. It would, by necessity, require higher spending in the poorer areas.

Discipline and order must be dramatically improved throughout the public school system. Many articles have been written documenting countless horror stories, ranging from refusal to do homework to murder. Schools in the upper-tier system must adopt a credible policy of expulsion. Administrators in all schools should have an unlimited supply of school guards, academic tutors, and family intervention counselors and investigators. The desperately needed infusion of trained manpower must become available.

We will never be able to address this problem with insufficient resources any more than we have been able to pacify Iraq. National service conscription of young Americans across the board may be necessary, with the use of a fair universal lottery system. The nation must finally transcend the paralyzing intimidation of the civil rights explosions and the anti-Viet Nam War youth revolution. We should stop expecting so little from our youth; it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they are not the better for it. Most Americans would support a draft system that offers a free choice between military service and a host of civilian social services. Those draftees who freely choose the military option would be part of what would continue to be an all-volunteer military. The others, presumably the great majority, would provide many of our social institutions with desperately needed manpower at a plausibly affordable price. They would become a rotating, but endless supply of well-trained supplemental labor. This would be a labor supply, which could be decreased as easily as it could be increased to respond to changing needs; no high salaries, work contracts or pension plans would exist to hamper the progression. Those draftees, who refuse to serve, would in the process forfeit many of the perks of American citizenship, which they now unthinkingly take for granted as birth rights. Why don't we decisively tackle some of our major national problems without surrendering to them; why don't we let our young people make us and them selves proud by joining us in the effort?

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

Undocumented Immigration Fact

The undocumented immigration crisis will not be resolved without an effective mechanism to prevent future illegal immigration, both through border crossing and through Visa overstaying.  All opposition to the legalization of the 11+ million undocumented residents will eventually disappear after that.  The insistence by some on the granting of another amnesty, number eight since 1986, without preventing future illegal entry, is disingenuous and divisive; it also prolongs the suffering of the millions living in the shadows.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

What to Expect from President Trump on Education

The American public education system is not going to be destroyed by the President Trump administration as the left claims, it will instead be restructured to become competitive by world standards.  The federal Department of Education has become an overbearing, centralized bureaucracy imposing a one-size-fits-all educational recipe on every state.  This administration will begin by cutting this bureaucracy down to size and returning power and funding back to the states so they can continue to be the laboratories of democracy they were always intended to be.

A constructive restructuring of the public school system should start by eliminating the funding reliance on local property taxes that provide good schools for the wealthy and substandard schools for the poor.  Equal funding for all students should instead come from government general funds, and the allotted amount for each student should be portable in the form of school vouchers.  Parents should decide where their children attend school, not fixed zip code assignments and school vouchers should be permitted for use in private, even religious schools.

All public schools should gradually become privately administered as chartered schools without the stranglehold of the teachers' union.  Their individual survival should depend on their ability to attract students with government-funded vouchers.  These privately administered chartered schools, like other private schools, should be able to hire, reward, or fire teachers based on merit evaluation, without seniority or tenure rights.  They should also be able to expel disruptive or non-performing students thereby maintaining a disciplined environment conducive to proper learning.  Students with learning disabilities requiring special education should have their own school programs that do not interfere with the mainstream curriculum.

A second-tier public school system will, by necessity, emerge to collect disruptive or non-performing students expelled from other schools. These schools of last resort would need to have a heavy security presence and vigorous remediation support programs. Students who show desired behavior modification will always have the opportunity to return to chartered or private schools. Our philosophy should always be to try to leave no child behind while assuring that disruptors are not allowed to hold other students behind.

The present American public school system costs more than in other industrialized countries and has dismal comparative results; it has to change, and change is on the way.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net
Visit my blog at www.CarlosLArce.BlogSpot.com

Purchase my books from www.Amazon.com 

What to Expect from President Trump on Immigration

There is no plan for the universal deportation of illegal immigrants in the country, but left-wing controlled cities and campuses are openly declaring their sanctuary resistance plans against the fabricated monster; it creates media attention at the expense of the frightened undocumented immigrant population.  Many detractor groups undoubtedly have their camera-ready ambushes waiting to film the tearful breakup of families, as well as the potentially violent confrontations between anti-deportation demonstrators and federal law enforcement officers.  

The new, simple, and clear-cut government policy includes four steps: 1. Stop further illegal immigration, 2. Deport all illegal immigrants with criminal records; 3. Reform the immigration statutes, and 4. Provide conditional amnesty to non-criminal, undocumented immigrants already established in the country.

I anticipate a wise implementation of the new policy that would include the following:

•        Postpone all confrontations with organized resistance groups while concentrating on the rapid achievement of available options. It would begin with the construction of modern physical barriers on vulnerable segments of the border and an increase in the manpower of border guards and visa enforcement officers, using existing funds and new funding legislation.                                            
•     Simultaneously, proceed at the maximum possible speed with the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records.  Even after tripling the present number of annual deportations, it would take two to three years to deport the estimated two to three million illegal immigrants in this category.  A sudden and massive deportation regime would create shock at home and economic calamity in the receiving countries of Mexico and Central American nations.
•         Introduce statutory changes to our immigration laws that would lessen chain migration, Increase screening of import workers to protect American labor, and emphasize skills and education for new immigrants.
•          Create a registration program for undocumented immigrants over a fixed period of time, leading to a conditional amnesty and a normal path to citizenship.
•         Finally, a strict E-Verify system should be instituted, and sanctuary cities, counties, and institutions in the country should be challenged.

At the end of this process, most undocumented immigrants will be legal residents, and our nation can begin to heal from this hurtful dilemma.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at www.CarlosLArce.BlogSpot.com

A Fair Deal for Our Youth

Before we rush to consider free college tuition and refinancing student debt for all, which we probably could not afford, why don't we offer these new entitlements only to qualified young people willing to give back to the country?

Our nation desperately needs a National Youth Service Program to remedy the personnel shortages in areas like school tutoring, border patrol, environmental improvement, and military service. Let's offer our youth a fair deal, not a free lunch.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

Desperate Need to Clarify the Immigration Policy

President-elect Trump did give the impression, at the genesis of his presidential campaign, that he wanted universal deportation of illegal immigrants.  During the course of the campaign, his stated views were gradually modulated to reflect the clear position of the bulk of the American People.  There is no national support for a massive deportation force to expel eleven million (or more) illegal immigrants in the country.  There is, however, substantial popular consensus on ending illegal immigration through vigorous law enforcement, as well as for the deportation of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of felony crimes.  The nation wants sensible and legal immigration that benefits our society.

Sadly, the popular belief, aggravated by distorted liberal media reports, continues to reflect a fear of impending mass deportation.  Major sanctuary cities are reaffirming their intent to resist indiscriminate immigration enforcement, and student protestors conveniently label as racist the imaginary universal deportation policy.  This fiery discontent may fizzle out, but it may also fester ad nauseam, and the president-elect may soon be compelled to dispel all notions of the deportation of decent, law-abiding immigrants already here.  Yes, first, we end further illegal immigration and expel those involved in crime, but saying that we'll see what happens to the rest later is not good enough at this time.  

  

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at www.CarlosLArce.BlogSpot.com

Gazing Beyond the Noise

When I returned from military service in Vietnam, not as a hero but as a deplorable American, to a nation far more rancorous than today's mild political polarization, I learned to count my blessings and to look up beyond the noise and into our nation's great promise. Some public protests and expressions of discontent are part of that great promise—it's freedom. 

There are strong feelings of rejection among many towards our President-Elect, caused by some hasty comments he made during the campaign, but mostly by the relentless vilification of Donald Trump by the liberal media.  This too shall pass, it's politics.

Looking forward, our new president is not an inflexible ideologue; in fact, he's already showing signs of reasonable compromise. The essential thing is that he has promised to unleash our people's creative forces and asked the nation to dream big. Once again, we aspire to greatness; it's hope.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

The New Republican Platform of 2016

It is unwise to refer to the new Republican Platform of 2016 as the Trump Platform or, likewise, the New Democrat Platform as the Clinton Platform.  This only continues the politics of personal destruction, which conceals the glaring issues that continue to weaken our nation.  There are significant historical shifts in political philosophy driven by technology, demographics, and economic dislocation.  It is these and other changes that have created the political movements away from traditional leaders, mainly within the Republican Party.

Free economic forces will always pursue their own interest, and The Internet makes it possible to control production in faraway places, where existing salaries and regulations make it extremely profitable when selling their goods back at home.  It is also profitable to bring illegal immigrants in droves across the border.  The economic powers that be have gained control of both major parties in America and continue to push for open borders and unrestricted trade.  The winds of change in the Republican Party, which first became visible with the creation of the TEA Party, have transformed the agenda.  Name-calling aside, the Republican Platform of 2016 is what the elected delegates to the Republican Convention decided for this election period.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

How to Vote in 2016

How to Vote in 2016

I would first fill in these blanks: 

Trump is, said and did                                                                    (to be filled by angry Democrats)  

Clinton is said and did                                                                 (to be filled by angry Republicans), and I would then completely disregard their content.  I wouldn't suggest that the information in the blanks would be mostly erroneous since there's enough wrongdoing in the history of both of our major undeserving candidates.  I do suggest that our minds shrink when we limit ourselves to talking about other people over a mind-expanding conversation about ideas.

From my God-believing perspective, the world, that's to say humanity, exists in a struggle between good and evil, albeit right and wrong.  In political ideology, this struggle morphs into competition among different views of justice: inevitable struggles among classes, rich versus poor, integration versus racism, free competition versus socialism, central planning versus local control, democracy versus authoritarian rule, economic development versus environmentalism, nationalism versus globalism.  Truth, always elusive, usually dwells in the middle of those dichotomies.  Ultimately, the government imposes the final arbitration.  My belief is that in choosing a government, "Democracy," as Churchill has told us, "is the worst form of government, except for all others."  And let me add that I could easily substitute "America" and "other countries" in this analysis.

For those of us who still remember, America has preserved freedom in the world by confronting the rise of totalitarianism everywhere.  It is foolish to think that the work is done or is no longer valuable.  Globalism is not only a noble goal but an environmental imperative for humanity; its time is near, but unfortunately, not yet here.  America is still needed to preserve freedom, advocate for human rights, and expand economic opportunity; it is still an indispensable country in the world.  We should not rush into a blind pursuit of globalism at the expense of American economic strength.  For the sake of the world and for our own, we have to rebuild American strength first. 

Open borders, unrestricted international trade, and the unilateral imposition of costly environmental restrictions on American industry are not helpful.  Wealth accumulation in the hands of government, through tax increases on the productive class, for the purpose of centralized "investment" planning, is never preferable to the creative forces of an aspirational and free society.  On the topic of the "culture wars," I would simply say that history has never rewarded societies based on "relative morality."  What's the bottom line for me?  I'm voting for the Republican Platform this time around. 

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

February 10, 2016

There Will Be Change

When I wrote my books entitled "Mirror to a Nation" in 2006 and "Surrender Management: America in Retreat" in 2011, I argued that our nation was surrendering to critical problems without solving them.  From national debt to undocumented immigration, from inferior education to criminal justice injustice, from a weak defense to the abandonment of the space race, from energy dependence to drug abuse, it all seemed that our political leaders were leading us over the cliff.  I wondered for how long would the public wait to say enough.  I'm delighted to see the volatility of the current presidential contest because whoever wins, I believe many things will finally change.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

Registration of Undocumented Immigrants 

It is not possible, politically, socially, economically, or even morally, to attempt a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States.  The 11-? million immigrants illegally residing in the country are mostly productive, law-abiding people.  Any fair historical analysis would illustrate that the desperately poor people who sneak into our nation across the Mexican border have been lured by and rewarded with relatively dream jobs by American corporations and by the general American public.  We have, as a nation, de-facto invited them to risk their life, walking hundreds of miles through Mexico's countryside on their way to our dreamland.

Yes, we do need to rapidly deport all undocumented immigrants who have violated our criminal laws, and we need to effectively seal our southern border, as well as institute e-verify, end "chain migration," and pursue those who enter with a temporary visa and then stay.  Immigration in American must be a legal process and one that benefits our nation.

The sensible solution for the millions of undocumented people already established here is to provide a period of registration for them to come out of the shadows and identify themselves without fear of deportation.  Those with criminal records, those who refuse to register, and those who enter illegally in the future will then be fair game for deportation.  The ones that do register will no longer be called illegal and will join our society in whatever path to legalization is ultimately devised.  

This crisis has divided our nation for far too long; let's turn our attention to other vigorous arguments in our wonderful democracy.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

From the Politics of Personal Destruction to Reasonable Compromise:

#2 Defense Spending

It is unfortunate that candidates for president concentrate their statements on character attacks of their opponents and polarized and intransigent policy positions.  I believe that candidates themselves would better serve the public by presenting proposals for viable compromises on the issues that have lingered in the limbo of inaction and gridlock.  Surrogates and the media will take care of the personal destruction part.  May I humbly propose here in my blog and probably simply repackage some of the thinking of many others, a series of what I consider reasonable compromises.

Defense spending in our nation is by any standard excessive, and one side wants to make major cuts, while the other side is insisting that we are weakening our military with draconian cuts to its budgets.  I believe both sides are right.  First, we should remember that our nation has been and continues to be the indispensable nation that draws the line, preventing powerful dictatorships like Russia from invading Europe and China from imposing Communism in all of Asia.  In the words of President John F. Kennedy, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."  Today, we have weakened our defenses by the undue shrinkage of our naval fleet and the

inadequate supply of spare parts for our planes, tanks, and other equipment.  Manpower is often also in short supply.  In conclusion, we need to increase spending in these areas.

Nevertheless, while some defense spending increases are warranted, the waste and mismanagement are astronomical, and much of it is caused by Congress.  Costly military bases that the Pentagon would close but that the local district congressmen and state senators prevent.  The purchase of fighter jets and battleground vehicles was not what the military wanted but that congressmen forced them to buy.  The general public would support legislation and even a constitutional amendment preventing Congress from altering the military requests.  The cost of recruitment and retention of soldiers in a professional army is ruinous, and although the American population dreads the idea of a lottery draft, presidential and congressional leadership should step up.  Our commitments to cover the high cost of defending some of our allies, which are wealthy nations invariably failing to pay their promised fair share, should be renegotiated.

I dare guess that we could spend more to bring our military up to par and save money at the same time.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

Forfeiting the Space Race to China

One of the most frightening things about the wrong direction our nation is following is the virtual surrender to the new space race, the one we should be having with China.  The overwhelming lead we had in space technology is rapidly disappearing.  Our failure to consider space exploration as an industrial and military imperative, beyond our commendable scientific inquisitiveness, has made our space program an afterthought in the national political debate.  It last appeared in a presidential debate when Newt Gingrich suggested the creation of an American Moon base during the 2012 campaign.  The idea was instantly ridiculed by the mainstream media.

The first sign of an American decline in space came with its commitment to the International Space Station (ISS) without pursuing any other major American dream project. Our magnificent fleet of space shuttles, which became the primary building tool for the ISS, was allowed to fizzle out with the last flight of the shuttle Atlantis on July 21, 2011. For years thereafter, U.S. astronauts had to hitchhike on Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets.  

Today, NASA sets its aim on Martian voyages and flyby missions to the outer planets. At the same time, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has an accelerated program of technological development, which already sent men into space with its Shenzhou 5 spaceships.  It now has plans for its own space station and men on the Moon by 2020.  Their leaders openly talk of Earth-Moon industrial development and space-based energy projects, which is obvious considering that the Moon is rich in the mineral Helium 2, essential for fusion energy development. And just to highlight the danger to America, the Chinese have tested satellite-killing missiles that could literally blind our military in a conflict.

We have not gotten here for lack of money, not when we have borrowed and spent 20 trillion dollars in the last two decades.  Someone is asleep at the switch.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

From the Politics of Personal Destruction to Reasonable Compromise:

#1 Undocumented Immigration

--- It is unfortunate that candidates for president concentrate their statements on character attacks of their opponents and polarized and intransigent policy positions.  I believe that candidates themselves would better serve the public by presenting proposals for viable compromises on the issues that have lingered in the limbo of inaction and gridlock.  Surrogates and the media will take care of the personal destruction part.  May I humbly propose here in my blog, and probably simply repackage the thinking of many others, a series of what I consider reasonable compromises.

Undocumented immigration has been a divisive issue for as long as I can remember, and I have been around for a while.  In the 50s and 60s, the exploitation and mistreatment of "braceros," cheap manual laborers imported across the Mexican border by American farmers, became a national scandal.  Cesar Chavez, a Mexican-American labor leader, founded the United Farm Workers Union in 1962.  His struggle gained national attention and the active support of political figures the likes of Robert F. Kennedy.  Over the years, the illegal employment of undocumented aliens by American industry, as well as households, has created a magnet for border crossers in search of a better life.  As the population of illegal immigrants grew, Congress granted a series of seven amnesties as follows:

  

1.         Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986

2.        Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994

3.        Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997

4.        Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997

5.        Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998

6.        Late Amnesty, 2000

7.        LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000

1.     

 In total, these amnesties provided legal status to more than six million illegal aliens.  In the past 16 years, the undocumented population has accumulated again, but this time with more than 12 million people.  Calls for amnesty number eight have divided the nation.  Democrats want Hispanic immigrants to come and vote but not to take jobs from their union supporters, while Republicans want them to come and work cheaply but not to increase the democratic voting bloc.  The hypocrisy goes on at the expense of those who are forced to live in the shadows.

Today an argument on the "left" is that the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.  have contributed to our economy and deserve some form of legalization and not the cruel separation of individuals from their families, ergo amnesty number eight.

An argument on the "right" is that immigrants from countries with similar languages and cultural backgrounds are arriving in indigestible numbers and overwhelming our natural "social assimilation machine." It is further argued that what our country needs is more educated immigrants, who are in short supply for our economy, not more unskilled laborers to compete with the ones we already have.

Without taking sides, let's consider a simple compromise as follows:

1. For the "Right." 

a)      Provide the Immigration Control and Enforcement Agency (ICE) with whatever resources are needed to verifiably secure the Mexican-American border.

b)   Provide ICE with whatever resources are needed to pursue and deport all those who overstay their "visa period."

c)     Create a national electronic verification for employment system and provide ICE with whatever resources are needed to detect and substantially fine employers of undocumented immigrants.

d)      Prioritize future migration to favor those with the skills needed by our economy

2.  For the "Left."

a)      Suspend deportation of undocumented immigrants without a criminal record.

b)      Provide a grace period for undocumented immigrants in the country to register with the government for legal status and provide resources for a community-based registration system.

c) Reform the process that keeps applicants for legal entry waiting for many months and even years so that it can be a quick and efficient experience for future would-be Americans.

The trick to the compromise is that it all needs to be approved and funded simultaneously, without new promises of future compliance.  This compromise is simple and obvious if both sides act in good faith, it leads to gridlock when one side or the other tries to cheat.  The big losers are the undocumented immigrants now in the country and the country itself.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

China, the Impending Threat

There was a time when American corporations were viewed by the public, perhaps with naiveté, as patriotic organizations that would place national interest first.  Not so today in the age of outsourcing manufacturing and the sourcing of undocumented cheap labor.  American and other Western corporations have pursued both in the endless sea of humanity of China, which also offers a future astronomical market.  The West did not recoil from doing business with China after its massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square but rather rewarded its communist government brutality with the greatest transfer of wealth in human history.  America and the rest of the West would be well advised to remember the anti-communist metaphor used by President John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address in 1961; "those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside."

The Soviet Union collapsed during the Cold War because by aiming to be a military power, it became an economic basket case.  China would have suffered the same faith, except that the West transferred the bulk of its manufacturing base there, flooding the communist-controlled nation with cash.  China's central planners have managed to squander a great deal of its reaches, but the Chinese military is expanding to confront us with another and far more dangerous "cold war."  Their military leaders have taken aim at America's underpinning might by developing aircraft carrier-killer missiles and satellite-killer space vehicles.  Their land forces, with vastly superior numbers, are massing on their neighbors' borders, and they are defying international law by claiming ownership of the China Sea and building artificial islands in it.

Allowing China to grow more powerful will not improve matters.  As Frederick Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did, and it never will." Without necessarily starting an all-out trade war, the U.S., in particular, must arrest the transfer of wealth to China by demanding a balanced trade policy and reminding Chinese leaders that becoming an international bully will have consequences.  China must be made to realize that its future development rests on fair international trade and the rule of international law, putting aside for now the conversation on human rights and the dignity of man.

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

Requiem for the European Union?

There are real concerns about the stability and cohesiveness of the European Union, which have been brought center stage with the departure of Britain, the so-called "Brexit."  Open borders and open markets under a centralized, socialist model of government have not produced the desired effects.  The South European nations of Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal are facing economic ruin, while in the North, France and Germany are struggling with massive Muslim migration.  European nations have also suffered from globalization with the outsourcing of good-paying jobs, although perhaps not as much as the U.S.

The unrestrained migration of Muslims into France, Germany, the Netherlands, and others, with rising resistance to integration and the existence of no-go neighborhoods, is fueling an anti-union movement in Europe, probably more than any other factor.  France is facing social turmoil, and President François Hollande has stated that France is at war — and that it must be fought both inside his country and outside in the Middle East.  Operations are underway in towns and cities across France.  It is a battle on two fronts.  It is no longer unthinkable that France may descend into a form of civil war.

The departure of another nation from the union may trigger an irreversible domino effect and the rapid demise of the Union.  It behooves the remaining members to rapidly amend their charter concerning the re-establishment of national borders, fair international trade practices, and consequences of irrational deficit spending by member nations.  The premise of a European Union is still a worthwhile goal within reasonable limits.    

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com

Nationalism-vs.-Globalization

---As communications and information began to travel around the world at lightning speed with the birth of The Internet, humans everywhere have gotten to know more about each other.  The feeling of global brotherhood predicated in that reality has been a blessing in which we all rejoice. Humans, nevertheless, are still the architects of world communities and continue to be far from perfect.  Globalism expressed in a rush to create open borders and open markets, regardless of intentions, has produced serious complications for our nation and for others.  Poor people from neighboring nations have flooded our land in unprecedented and indigestible numbers, and well-paying jobs have moved to other nations that have no minimum-wage laws and few regulations.  It has been a noble experiment, and nothing is gained by retro-blaming; rather, forward-looking changes in policies must be adopted.

It would be irrational to suggest that anyone is going to deport the 12+ million undocumented immigrants in our country. Yet, it would be equally foolish to insist on maintaining an open border that inevitably invites millions more to come across.  International trade must not be stifled, provided that nations can agree to respect the need for and bring about a reasonable balance.  There is nothing wrong with sovereignty and a measured degree of nationalism in today's world. 

Visit my website at www.CarlosArce.net

Visit my blog at American Analysis (carloslarce.blogspot.com)    

Purchase my books at Amazon.com : Carlos L. Arce

Purchase my art at www.TheStatuette.com

Use my Real Estate Service at www.FindaFloridaHome.com