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Harold Meyerson compares the continuing inhumanity of separating parents from children that president Obama has to face with the choice presented to Lt. Colonel Jager at the Berlin Wall in 1989. Jager decided to let both parents visiting West Germany to return to East Germany to their children, even though the father had a stamp on his passport banning a return. He says the Republican control of Congress could last till 2023 by which time current law would have separated millions of parents and children. In 2012 about 13% of schoolchildren in California and Texas had an undocumented immigrant as a parent, according to the Pew Research Center. And for the last 6 years of the Obama administration deportations have reached 400,000 a year, leading to a lot of broken families.

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A new family sedan will come out of a new manufacturing plant VW has built in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2011. The plant will turn out a new version of the Passat to compete with the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. Production capacity will be 150,000 A new Beetle will also be introduced. This is the first time VW has built a car specifically designed for the U.S.. During its previous efforts in the 80's VW used European designs and transferred them to the U.S. Its plans are to sell 400,000 VW's in the U.S. by 2013. VW sold 213,000 cars in the U.S. in 2009, so this means doubling sales in 4 years. At it height VW sold 577,000 cars in 1970, but this was before the Japanese and the Koreans entered the market in a significant way, and now the potential is there for Chinese and Indian imports at the low end of the price scale. Another factor making this goal difficult to achieve is the smaller car market and lower economic growth. By 1992, sales had dropped to 49,000, after the boxier replacement to the bug- in its Rabbit and Golf models- never took off. The new Beetle's introduction in 1998 improved sales, which reached 356,000 in 2001, and then declined as a result of too few new models, declining quality and a weakening dollar. There is a feeling among VW's American dealers, that VW's European headquarters staff is not giving the US the priority it deserves. The revolving door change in CEO's for the US operations, has only reinforced this impression. Mr Browning of GM's European operations replaced Jaccoby recently. Jaccoby joined Volvo as its new CEO. Steps taken to address these issues are to revamp the Jetta model for American customer preferences, and advertising that appeals to price conscious customers with the line: "Great for the price of good." Another innovative effort is an ad strategy that tries to capture Hispanics in the US market, with ads on Spanish language television networks. A sign of how much German management is involved in the detail of the new Jetta, is the discussion at the management board level about whether the new model should have American style cup holders. This meant pushing the brake two inches forward towards the driver, a decision that was made to do so after some deliberation at the management board. This will lead to intense competition in the US market, with Asian, European and US manufacturers all vying for the same price conscious customers....

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The Journal cites figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing 44.7 million participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program in fiscal 2011. This is a big jump from the 28.2 million people in 2008. Texas has 4 million on food stamps, California 3.7 millon, Florida 3.1 million.

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Radio Marti and other pending issues in U.S.- Cuba relations as steps towards normalization.

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The 2016 Republican platform is written to express the ideas in the Republican Party for family values, child rearing using the Bible and traditional values, calling pornography a "public health crisis."  The Family Research Council and tradition or family focussed groups played an important role in writing it, with Mr. Trump playing less of a role. Instead of "physical barrier" with Mexico, it says "a wall"  should be built in a taking up Trump's idea, but in general it is a clear expressing of traditional family values that Republicans have supported for years and expressed frustration with the movement of social lives in an opposite direction. The same sex marraige decision by the Supreme Court and transgender debate were not present in 2012 election, so in that sense the Republicans see the country as moving in a different direction. More of the pendulum having swung too far in another direction is how Republicans perceive it, and their response is to go back to how things used to be and the world they knew, based on what they see as positive outcomes for the whole of society. Hence language that encourages teaching of the Bible in public schools, condemning pornography as a menace particularly for children, and insisting on "man made laws being consistent with God given natural rights." A good understanding of the Bible is considered "indispensable for the development of an educated citizenry."   Amendments opposing gay and transgender are being added. ...

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Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio differ on their approaches to immigration. Cruz takes a tougher line. As Jonathan Martin points out in the NYT, this was not always so, citing an instance when Cruz prepared a campaign document as advisor to the 2000 Bush presidential campaign.

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Stories of children in New York City overcoming adversity to go to college with the help of the New York Times College Scholarship Fund. Children with poor or sick parents in the city, from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and other countries.

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About 50% of the workforce in Los Angeles earns less than $15 an hour, by some estimates. The Los Angeles City Council voted 14-1 in May 2015 to increase the minimum wage to $15 over 5 years.

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John Lewis, is the last surviving speaker of the March on Washington in 1963, when Martin Luther King gave his historic speech. Here he describes how Martin Luther King would see today's America. Foremost he points out is that MLK would want to see justice not just as racial justice, but justice in a broader sense that says something about the dignity and value of human beings. And this means, says Lewis, the president getting away from advisers and polls, and talking to ordinary people. It means focussing on jobs, the unemployed and people facing foreclosure, and seniors struggling on limited incomes. He calls for a "freedom budget" that would pool resources for infrastructure and investments that would create a better environment for people to live in.

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Attorney General Sessions says the driver of the car who drove into protesters could be prosecuted in a number of ways including for a hate crime. The protest was against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. A car driven by 20 year old James Alex Fields drove into protesters injuring 19 and killing one woman. The local charges being made are for hit and run, malicious wounding, and the Justice Department is conducting its own probe. The comments by Sessions contrasted with the statement blaming both sides by president Trump, which led to strong criticism in the media and by the business community.

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David Brooks of the NYT says the Republican party is failing when it embraces Trump's version of populism with its racial division, tax plan that favors Republican donors and ignores fiscal conservative concern over deficits that affect future generations, supporting the election of Moore in Alabama, the constant Twitter comments that show prejudice. He says this will have destructive effects that could last an entire generation. This isn't the Republican party he has known for so long, says Brooks. The time is passed says Brooks when sensible republicans could go along in the middle by not agreeing with Trump, yet avoiding the task of opposing the elements of Trump policies that conflict with America's long held ideals shared by both parties. He calls its a corrupt deal that Republican party leaders in the Senate and Congress have agreed to make with Trump thinking that somehow this will all work out for them even if it doesn't for the party. Selling one's soul is somehow not an option that people would take in their right mid, so he wonders aloud what is happening in the party- and calls it a rot besetting the party of Lincoln, TR and Eisenhower that won't get it to any good place.   ...