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The Romney campaign is trying to keep Obama's support among Hispanics and Latinos to 65-70%. Latino leaders say Romney's positions on immigration during the primaries, when he chose to go to the right of Governor Perry, have affected their perceptions and his more recent centrist positions are being discounted. Republicans are awakening to their weak position in the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. Positions on abortion, gay marraige and religion are affecting a portion of the Latino vote. One question is how enthusiastic is the voter turnout, especially because president Obama failed to take up immigration reform in his first term and gave it a lower priority.

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Adam Nagourney who has covered Governor Jerry Brown of California, describes the Bernie Sanders supporters and the California delegation with many Bernie supporters feeling the loss of their candidate. Jerry Brown says he expects "a convergence around the core issues of this campaign," as the effort to rally people behind Clinton continues.

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Michael Gerson was a policy advisor to Geroge W. Bush when Bush announced the PEPFAR program to fight AIDS in Africa. Here he reflects on its lessons. He recalls visiting sub-Sharan Africa and finding only about half a million people being treated out of about 30 million afflicted with the disease. About 14 million orphans had already resulted from AIDS, life expectancy had declined by 20 years, and in whole villages only grand parents and grand children were to be seen, says Gerson. The support came from Rep. Hyde, Rep Barbara Lee, Senators Frist and Kerry- in 4 months after the announcement in a State of the Union address the law was signed. Bush said: "a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 milion new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life extending drugs and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children orphaned by AIDS." By late 2005 PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria had treated 800,000 people, and by 2012 this had increased to 5 million....

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"Kurzarbeit" job preservation programs incorporate an idea that workers make up for less pay when a company is doing well by being paid and on the job when a company is doing poorly, leading to job preservation benefitting the employee and skills preservation benefitting the company. In 2013 in the throes of the eurozone crisis France passed a labor reform law and committed to improving competitiveness by adopting some ideas from its close neighbor and partner in the eurozone experiment, Germany. But experts say little has changed. France's unemployment is at a high of 10.4% in the third quarter 2014, according to the French statistics office Insee, with little prospect of economic growth in 2015. What happened? A report commissioned by the French and German governments from economists Jean Pisani-Ferry and Henrik Enderlein, says job preservation agreements in France are too strict and ineffective. Half a million more people are without jobs in Dec. 2014 compared to May 2012 when president Hollande took office. Insolvencies in France are 35% higher in 2014 than the average between 2003-2007, for Germany 31% lower, according to credit insurer Euler Hermes. Just in the 12 months to Sept 30, 63,000 companies in France were declared insolvent. Job preservation agreements have failed because other changes in the legal system are needed. Currently a company must prove to an employee council why it is reducing wages in a downturn. A small group of employees can still reject the agreement and ask for severance packages, leading to layoffs. The reforms were done in piecemeal fashion, say economists Jean Pisani-Ferry and Henrik Enderlein....

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Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas declare their opposition to the Republican Health Care bill proposed by Senator McConnell. This decision by the two senators makes it impossible to begin debate on the bill. Earlier two other senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky announced their opposition. This means the Republican health care bill has no chance in the Senate even after changes to the bill passed by the House of Representatives. Republicans have a thin majority in the Senate make it difficult to pass legislation. Collins met with residents in Maine and Moran with people in his home state of Kansas, and both senators heard a lot about the negative effects of the Republican bill on people in their state. The bill is seen as hurting people in rural areas, elderly, and not likely to do enough to bring down premiums. Its plan to slash Medicaid spending has drawn strong opposition from all Democrats.

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An off the cuff remark by Romney in Nashua, New Hampshire- "I like to fire people who provide services to me"- referred to health insurers that are not providing good care. Perry, Gingrich and Huntsman, the other candidates in the Republican primaries seize on this reference to firing, and another about pink slips made by Romney, to focus attention on the people Romney fired at the companies he acquired for Bain Capital. Huntsman tells reporters in Concord- "Governor Romney enjoys firing people, I enjoy creating jobs." Gingrich tells NBC's "Today" show- "Look I'm for capitalism, but if someone comes in, takes all the money out of your company and then leaves you bankrupt while they go off with millions, thats not traditional capitalism."

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The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican healthcare plan advocated by Mr. McConnell, Senate Majority leader, is that it would add 22 million uninsured if implemented. That plan ran into opposition from Republican Senators Collins, Capito, Murkowski, Paul, and Moran, and lacked enough support in the Senate. All Democrats opposed it and with the thin majority Republicans were divided. By taking away some benefits given under the existing Affordable Care Act the plan hurt the elderly and low income people, making some Republicans listen to their constituents in home districts and not the Republican leadership. The NYT profiled two in particular who astonishingly in a sign of today's strange politics were the only ones publicly holding townhall type meetings to hear the views of people in their voting districts- Susan Collins of Maine and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Both senators were listening to rural communities and Moran stated his opposition with the words- "I am a product of rural Kansas." With it the nation takes a breather and the message goes out that it is best to listen first and then to seek middle ground, not do what both parties Democrats and Republicans did in 2009 and 2017- rush serious legislation through without support across party lines and without serious discussion.   ...

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A Nikkei poll shows only 36% of people in Japan support a reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to allow "collective self defense," and 51% disapprove. Prime minister Abe cites the need for "thorough debate," and legislative moves in this area will be held back, to gain support for reforms in the agriculture and other sectors. Abe appears to have lost some goodwill for reform measures to launch the Third Arrow. In an address to the Australian parliament in English Abe made a committment to the principle underlying Article 9 by saying- "This vow that Japan made after the war is still fully alive today." He also stated that Japan woud never let the horrors of World War II be repeated. Japan and Australia have agreed to share military equipment, and Japan has a role in developing a submarine fleet for the Australian navy of 30 billion Australian dollars (US $28.1 billion). At about this time in Beijing U.S. leaders for the foreign and finance ministries, Lew and Kerry, met for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue sixth round in Beijing's Diaoyutai State guest house. China's president Jinping, probably aware of the waves created by its own assertive stance in the region and the response of neighbors and Japan, said that the Pacific was large enough to accomodate both the U.S. and China....

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Bank of America's mortgage unit will have a new head who reports directly to CEO Brian Moynihan. Terry Laughlin who worked previously with Moynihan at FleetBoston Financial will head the unit. The unit is called the "Legacy Asset Servicing" group and has 1.3 million delinquent loans. This is part of an effort to deal with the losses from delinquent loans. As part of this effort the bank will exit the busiess of reverse mortgages to concentrate on critical areas. Because of the bad loans that came with the acquisition of Countrywide in 2008, the mortgage unit lost $8.9 billionin 2010. In the fourth quarter the bank also recorded a $2 billion noncash impairment on a drop in value of that business and took a $4.1 billion provision to cover buybacks of mortgages that government agencies and others purchased from Countrywide.

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U.S. president Obama called Libya and the policy of not following up on helping establish a stable democratic government in Libya his biggest mistake. Kristof of the NYT says people looking back would say Syria and not establishing safe zones is Obama's biggest mistake. He describes the 470,000 deaths in Syria as a huge tragedy that could have been avoided to a large extent by setting up safe zones. In addition the UN estimates that millions of refugees on a scale similar to the partition of India in 1947 were created.There is bipartisan opinion on this. Kristof cites General Cartwright's opinion in a conversation he had with Cartwright that this should have been done. Others who agree are Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, who spoke at the Democratic Convention about how America helped change her life as a young refugee after Russia's invasion of Czechoslovakia following Prague Spring. Albright says force should be used carefully so as not to aggravate the situation but action taken where needed, something that was done successfully under Bill Clinton in the Bosnian conflict following Serbia's ethnic cleansing policy under Milosevic. Not only that, with the diplomacy of ambassador Holbrooke Clinton was able to negotiate the peace accords that hold till today- a huge achievement.  Kori Schake, director of defense strategy in the George W. Bush White House also agrees. This would have improved U.S. relations with Turkey as this was a key Turkish request. And it would have reduced the dimensions of the refugee crisis in Europe, which has hurt the European Union. The Brexit "No" vote many in Britain have attributed to ads showing refugees in endless numbers streaming across Europe's borders. Similar ads were used in Austria's elections. Kristof points out that Secretary of State Kerry's job of negotiating a peace is difficult in these conditions. Another issue raised by Kristof is the lack of Obama's leadership in helping the refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, as he points out only 41% of this is funded. David Miliband former British Foreign Secretary, who heads the International Rescue Committee , says 200,000 Syrian kids are growing up in Lebanon without an education. George Washington counseled against getting involved in the wars on the European continent for a young nation, this advice was not followed in the Reagan and other administrations without showing the carefulness needed before action is taken. As Hillary Clinton has once pointed out the situation has resembled a pendulum swinging in the other direction under president Obama, and former Defense Secretary, Panetta, has expressed similar views. Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta, Gates, Gen. Jones, served in the first term of the Obama administration, many of these mistakes were made in the second term by president Obama and his White House advisors Dennis McDonough, Valerie Jarrett who clearly lacked the deep foreign policy experience of Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta (who served under Bill Clinton), and Gates who served under many presidents). ...

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Republican Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell no's and 50-50 US Senate vote, a tie on Hegseth nomination. Only a last minute change of heart by Senator Tillis gets the 50-50 tie that was broken by VP Vance's vote to get the Hegseth nomination through. Armed Services chairman Wicker in questioning in the Senate supported Hegseth as he faced tough questioning from Democrats Duckworth, Slotkin and Peters.  Wicker cited Hegseth's service in two wars in combat as a Major in Iraq and Afghanistan and the way many who had fought in these wars had struggled and overcome difficulties, the need for second chances in some situations. Other Republican senators said the position was held by others who did not have experience running large organizations. Panetta was a lawyer and Gates an academic who had CIA positions before appointment to Secretary of Defense. Perry had experience running defense supplier companies. Chuck Hagel served in combat in the Vietnam war and started his own company Vanguard Cellular and was a talk show host.   ...

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The Obama administration delays a decision on the Keystone pipeline till after the 2012 election. State Department officials say they will extend their review of the 1700 mile Keystone pipeline so that Nebraka's objections about the pipeline route affecting drinking water from the Ogallala Aquifier - which provides drinking water to Nebraskans- can be addressed. Kerri Ann Jones, of the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, says choosing a new route inside Nebraska will mean a new environmental assessment is required, taking an additional 15 months. In addition to environmental concerns, the Obama administration is concerned about how approval would affect enthusiasm for Obama's re-election in 2012 among environmentally conscious voters. TransCanada officials point out that of the 14 routes considered in the review by the State Department, one route entirely bypasses the Sandhills region and the Ogallala Aquifier, and six routes reduce the pipeline mileage crossing Nebraska....

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For a change see parts of Tokyo you normally do not see, and way down in Kyushu island see the Kagoshima region. It is part of this trip to Japan for a 4 day break suggested in The Times of London. 1) Take the Toei streetcar- take the Tokyo Sakura tram running from Minowabishi station in Arakawa, where bits of old Tokyo still exist in narrow alleyways and pubs. Take the tramcar to Waseda station in Shinjuku. An hour's ride and 30 stations with a one day ticket to hop on and off as you feel like. 2) Take in the Sumoida Hokusai museum, and see the famous works of Katsuhika Hokusai, at a museum dedicated to him. Don't miss the woodblock print Under the Wave off Kanagawa, and the series Thirty six views of Mt. Fuji.  3) On Day 2 head to Kagoshima, a 2 hour plane ride from Tokyo. There are 20 flights from Hnaeda airport in Tokyo to Kagoshima airport. You will see Mt. Fuji from the plane at 11,000 feet. In Kagoshima take the airport bus to the city centre and get on the Sakurajima Ferry, about 15 minutes running 3-4 times an hour, 24 hours a day. It goes to Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park, with active volcano Mount Sakurajima, cedar woods, sandy beaches, azalea covered mountain slopes. Try the mineral springs or onsen for a serene atmosphere. 4) For Day 3 take the Ibutama train for an hour ride from beachside town of Ibusuki for sea views, and look for "Mystery Island." During the summer months a sandbar causeway appears for some time allowing one to cross and look at the uninhabited island amidst the sound of the waves and sea air. Then back to Tokyo after a zen period of serenity and calm.   ...

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Mort Kunstler, a painter in Long Island, has a more historically correct painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River on Christmas Day 1776 to attack Hessian forces in the Battle of Trenton. The crossing was made on a 50 foot flatboat ferry and not in a smaller boat as shown in the classic painting- the 1851 portrait, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," by Emmanuel Leutze. Leutze did not have good access to historical detail when he created the painting in Germany. Leutze's painting is the most asked-about painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It shows Washington in a heroic posture. The new painting by Kuntsler is smaller, more realistic in details, and was commissioned by Thomas Suozzi. Suozzi was inspired by David McCullough's book "1776," and says Washington's decision to rally his troops with a victory during an especially bleak period is something that impresses him most. It will be displayed at the New York Historical Society in Manhattan.

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The South Ferry station, terminus for the No1 trainopens January 2009 with artists work by Doug and Mike Starn commissioned by the rts for transit Program of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It includes curved floor to ceilin glass walls with silhouettes of trees, a marble mosaic of a vintage topographic map of Manhattan, and other imagery drawn from nearby Battery Park. Says Mike about the artwork, the brothers have been working with the idea of the splitting and changing of the trees and branches of the subway system, something that happens in time as well as in space. Its also rooted in their preoccupation with time and natural bonds part of their continuing project on the "Structure of Thought." The Starns proposal was selected in 2004 because of its imagery and its melding of technology for materials and of organix and urban history, and is part of the rebuilding of lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.

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Texas is becoming a swing state for 2024 The deep divisions in the Republican party in Texas with one faction supporting former Governor Rick Perry who was the longest serving Texas governor 2000-2014, and the Bush family and the other faction supporting Mr. Trump. Attorney General Ken Paxton who supports Mr. Trump faces impeachment by Republicans who support Perry-Bush. Texas is the home of Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) who was John F. Kennedy's vice president and then president, and also of the 2 Bush Republican presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush. It is also a state that has swung to Republicans since 1976, but has a history of Democrats under LBJ.

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This story in the NYT describes how the flawed effort to pass the Republican healthcare bill or repeal the Affordable Care Act passed under president Obama failed after another effort. Many developments killed it. In the end the president lost interest, especially when he saw Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky go on talk shows on the weekend before its collapse to complain about the bill. Senator Collins of Maine was exasperated by the way the bill was being rushed through Congress, and she voiced her strong opinions about this by talking to people back home in Maine and sharing her conversations with the media. The bill pushed by Senator McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, imposed annual caps on Medicaid spending. And did this without any discussion, shutting out committee debate, any public discussion, or formal drafting. Once this process was set in motion in this way the Republican Senators formed camps. Senator Grassley of Iowa and Jerry Moran of Kansas, normally conservative moved to the moderate side. Moran held a town hall meeting covered in the NYT, where older people voiced their concerns. Most of the patient advocacy groups, the hospital groups such as the American Hospital Association, and other medical groups also opposed it.  After Senator McCain of Arizona said he could not return following a surgery in Phoenix, Senators Lee and Moran announced their opposition. With this the bill's support crumbled including any effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  ...

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Republicans Kasich, Walker and Snyder won reelection for governor in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. Republicans also won elections for governor in Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Kansas and Maryland. Democratic Governor Brown won in California and Iowa Republican Governor Terry Branstad won a sixth term. Voter issues focussed on the economic uncertainty for households, and on school funding and services in states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. Local issues affected some elections, and some campaigns were seen as badly run such as the Udall campaign in Colorado. Governors Snyder in Michigan and Brown in California ran on their own record by aiding Detroit and tackling budget and water issues in California. A Pew Center research poll shows only 27% of Americans feel comfortable about their economic future- 27% say the economic future will be better in 2015, worse than in 2010 and 2012. Rauner in Illinois spent $27 million and Brown in California a negligible amount running on his record, showing there are different pathways in a midterm U.S. election that cost candidates $4 billion....

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Jerry Seib provides a summary of the reasons why Chuck Hagel was asked to step down as Secretary of Defense. He was not deeply involved in the decision to not follow up on the president's "red line" remarks on Assad. He was seen as too laid back as the Iraq and Syria conflict flared up. His fit initailly seen as favorable as a war veteran bringing 2 wars to an end, suddenly appeared to be unfavorable as the administration had to increase committment to the war effort. Following the midterms and the president's NSA defense team being seen as weak by Republicans the pressure to make changes increased. The military establishment did not want to see the loss of gains made in Iraq and pushed in one direction, whereas the NSA team was pulling in another direction, and Hagel's recent memo to the NSA advisor expressed the frustration that action was too slow. As spokesman for the administration's policy Hagel was not seen as credible to adminstration critics.

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The title may not reflect the content of this report on Admiral Giroir who heads the U.S. coronavirus testing effort. He is a pediatrician who worked for hospitals in Texas before heading a vaccine project at Texas A&M University.  Internal politics led to his resigning from the effort to build a vaccine development capability with pharmaceutical companies at Texas A&M. Most of the rest of this report shows a physician who is determined to pursue big projects such as the one he is tackling today. President Trump appointed him to lead FDA, and to be the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. With the missteps of Secretary Azar testing suffered in the early months of the crisis as reported in the WSJ. Adm. Giroir has taken a leading role since  this period. He also heads the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps of 6200 staff playing a vital role. On March 13 he was asked to lead the effort in testing.  He comes to this role with experience in the field of vaccines realizing that "the challenges are not just biological but engineering." New technology would be needed to make massive amounts of vaccine. His idea is that transformational efforts are needed. His idea for a billion dose per month facility in Texas did not work, yet he worked on it for about 5 years from 2010 to 2015 at Texas A&M University, at one point being the vice chancellor. He was selected by Texas Governor Perry as chairman of the task force in Texas in 2014 to oversee the effort to fight the Ebola virus. He now is in a position to bring all his experience and aspirations to tackle the coronavirus, cutting through much of the red tape and bureaucracy, and pulling together the effort combining science of pharmaceutical companies with the technology of manufacturing billions of vaccine doses in a record time. Today he sees capacity for testing reaching 40-50 million tests a month by September 2020.   ...

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Jerry Muller, professor of history at the Catholic University of America, offers some useful insights into the nature of inequality in advanced capitalist societies and other parts of the world, and a clear eyed way to tackle the problem of inequality. Tackling the problem should be done in a way that preserves the economic protections for the middle class and the poor which are needed for capitalism to work- unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Earned Income Credit, and the Affordable Care Act. Much of this system is already in place in advanced capitalist societies. Incremental gains in this area will be much smaller and it is important to recognize the need for strengthening the economic engine that supports these benefits, says Muller. Economic dynamism has to be preserved and nurtured with human capital deployed in the best possible way, and competitiveness of countries increased. Each country and society has to find its own way of achieving this. The family matters, and matters a lot in taking advantage of educational opportunity, says Muller. The culture of different ethnic, immigrant groups, also matter. These differences were present in earlier periods in the nineteenth and twentieth century and are likely to remain. Strengthening the pool of human capital and deploying it is essential to progress. In an earlier book "Adam Smith In His Time and Ours- Designing a Decent Society," Muller emphasized the importance Smith placed on the civic duty of citizens to promote the welfare of the whole society, and the importance of education, family and moral character, with no substitute for the "general prevalence of wisdom and virtue." ...

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The Social Democrats leader Sigmar Gabriel is Economics Minister in the coalition government of Angela Merkel in Germany. He is sympathetic to French premier Manuel Valls effort to reduce austerity in the 2015 French budget now being reviewed by Brussels. Here he takes the initiative to call for discussion on the issue of growth and austerity facing the European Union, by joining French Economics minister Emmanuel Macron in asking two economists Pisani-Ferry and Enderlein at the Berlin Institute of Governance for advice on generating growth. The process started in late summer with the defeat of the centre right government in Sweden which supported Merkel's strict austerity policies for balanced budgets. The elections to the European parliament showed the dire situation facing Cameron in Britain and Hollande in France with the unpopularity of austerity policies, higher taxes and cutbacks. The Socialist Hollande government has the lowest public opinion ratings of any postwar government in France, at 18%, and it is unwilling to go further down the road with austerity. At the same time Valls has found a partner in Italy with the growing popularity of Matteo Renzi in Italy who won 40% of the vote in Italy for the EU parliamentary elections of 2014. ECB president Mario Draghi, has generated the debate by saying at a October 2014 Brookings Institution conference in Washington D.C. that countries that have fiscal space (referring to Germany) should use it. He added that governments that did not take action in the economic crisis facing the eurozone of no growth will be swept away by public opinion. IMF president Lagarde, a former French Finance Minister under Sarkozy, has also questioned policy of strict austerity. For the first time since the start of the eurozone crisis in 2010 there is an opportunity for open discussion on future policies for renewal in the eurozone....

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The last thing we want to do is to bring back the images of the 1953 American sponsored coup, which ousted Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh and returned Shah Pahlavi to power, says Senator John Kerry in an op-ed article in the NYT. He cautions America getting involved in Iran, letting Iranians decide on their own, as the CIA supported coup that overthrew Mossadegh's elected government and put a king in his place because he would be more friendly to American oil and other interests in the region, may arouse bitter memories of America's influence in avery negative way in an earlier period. Most Americans may not remember the American sponsored coup. Mossadegh was a socialist during the Cold War and wnated to nationalize the oil industry run by foreign companies in the country. During those days the interests of American oil companies, the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and British-French colonial era interests in the Middle and Africa and Asia, were all intertwined. The Korean war had just ended, Suez crisis of 1956 with the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt, was a few years away, the French were fighting to keep their colonial empire in Vietnam, and America was supporting Pakistan with Sabre fighter jets bringing a version of the cold war to the Indian subcontinent even though India was the largest democracy in Asia. Partly because its leader Jawaharlal Nehru, was an independent minded socialist, who avoided joining the cold war with his non-alignment policies. Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate for President against Eisenhower was very enthusiastic about Nehru in his speeches, but Republican Secretary of State Dulles saw things differently, just as today there are huge differences between the way a Rumsfeld and an Obama see the world. Many of the problems today in places like Pakistan Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq had their beginning during this period....

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The cost of fixing the nation's financial system could be around $2.5 trillion with an additional $350 of the second TARP funding and the rest of the money coming from the Federal Reserve through the Fed's ability to print money and from private investors. About $1 trillion of this is to compensate for the lack of issuance of securities backed by consumer loans of $1.2 trillion between 2006 and 2008, so that credit markets can function again like they used to. Another component of the plan is to give banks more government money which they will now be expected to lend to consumers and businesses. But a key feature of the plan much awaited by markets was the bad bank or aggregator bank solution which would enable banks to transfer bad assets to this bank. And on this one Geithner said very little so it was adisappointment for financial markets. Also the plan lacked details and was more broad brush and small on specifics. Another area on which Geithner said little is how the government will tackle rising forecolosures and keep people in their homes, which in turn would help stabilize housing prices. But by building up expectations and offering little of specifics on the bad bank solution Geithner earned withering criticism from Senators Kerry, Shelby, Frank, and others. A former managing director at Morgan Stanley Frank Pallotta, now aconsultant to buyers and sellers of distressed mortgages, says the fundamental problem still is the pricing and the gap between what abank like Chase thinks its mortgage is worth of 75 cents to the dollar and aprospective buyer who thinks its worth 45 cents or 25 cents. This is a huge gap and would be expensive to fill in. A bad bank one analyst says could be very expensive and this is why Geithner acknowledges the goal of setting up a fund of some $1 trillion. ...