OPED

Arab Nations Hire 10 New PR Agencies Since Last Year – PR Firms Assist In Selling Terror And Brutality

by Ronn Torossian

The U.S. Public Relations industry is one which is very high profile, but is a tiny, close knit industry, with only perhaps 75 American PR firms having more than 50 employees (i.e. enough scope/influence to represent a foreign government or foreign interests). Over lunch this week, one of my peers, who like me, owns 1 of the 25 largest US PR Agencies explained why his firm would no longer work with Jewish organizations and Pro-Israel concerns. He explained there is simply too much money working for Arab organizations and interests, and between front groups, organizations and projects from a business perspective he was no longer working for Pro-Israel or Jewish organizations. It’s a trend which will grow – and will see Arab interests even more positively portrayed in American media.
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Senator Bernie Sanders could not handle the Presidency

By James C. Benerofe, Editor Suburban Street News

Senator Bernie Sanders biggest problem is his age. The mainstream media totally ignores this issue. Our last two presidents have been young. The job is exhausting. Presidents do not get a lot of sleep.

The next problem that Sanders has is that he is a socialist.   America was not built on socialism or for that matter ideology. America was built on practicality and capitalism.   Sanders does not like the stock market or big business. There are clearly things that need to be done to improve the stock market activities of large investors.
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A Federal Tax Plan

by James C. Benerofe
If I were President, this is what I would propose as a tax cut.

Anyone with W-2 income of $50,000.00 or less would pay ZERO Federal Income Tax. They would continue to pay Social Security.

They would still file a tax return. If states that have an income tax wished to participate they could offer the same tax cut. This plan would not require any elaborate legislation and would likely create an immediate stimulus to the economy. There would also be written into the legislation a qualification gap so that individuals earning say $51,000.00 would still qualify. Reasonably, the gap would be limited to $5,000.00.   After five years, an economic review of how effective this was in stimulating the economy would be undertaken. If it was determined successful, it would be permanent.  It might also be considered at that time to apply it to higher income levels (although there should be a limitation on how it should go, perhaps based on the cost of living index).

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Dealing with Devastation

by James C. Benerofe
With the onslaught of natural disasters in recent months, there are practical steps that we could take to make recovery easier and allow for dealing more effectively with long and short term recovery. We have been faced with hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes.  Hurricanes and floods have devastated island and coastlines.
Why don’t we have some large cruise ships come into places like Puerto Rico and other tropical islands and house  thousands of people until  construction of infrastructure can be completed.
This would be an immediate interim solution–an obviously temporary measure.
For the long term,  FEMA should consider and evaluate building disaster recovery ships that would essentially be floating cities. These ships would be designed like cruise ships. FEMA might  also explore buying and modifying existing cruise ships.  These ships would have the ability to move to a disaster area within a matter of days. The ships would be designed with all of the facilities that a community has–apartments, retail stores, medical services, recreational services, and a lot of other necessities. The ship would be stocked and maintained at all times. The ships would vary in size starting at accommodating 500 to 1000 people and going to as large as 5000 to 6000 people.
The objective of this concept would be to bring families and individuals back to some kind of normal lifestyle as quickly as possible.This kind of program will require extensive evaluation.
We are dealing with catastrophic events involving millions of people and we need to do something.
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Too Old To Lead

The three leading candidates for president of the United States are all in their mid to late seventies. Probably 90 percent of people in that age group are retired or planning to retire in the very near future. They are not thinking of running a major corporation or even a small company—to say nothing of running the most powerful country in the entire world. These three men–President Donald Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden, and United States Senator Bernie Sanders have all exhibited age related behavior during their campaigning. The national media seems to be ignoring this issue. These men are old and it is a serious issue. The odds of them dying or developing an incapacitating illness during their term in office is very high. Additionally, the normal aging process will also take its toll.
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Where Do All The Pictures Go?

A new security trend got started in the 1990s aided by new technologies. It was adopted early and widely in many places, like Britain, and it now peers from cameras on public and private buildings all over the United States. The trend I am referring to is the use of closed circuit television systems (CCTV), recording all that goes on in the public space and billed as a crime deterrent. Is it?

A report, on February 24, 2005 by Ben Leapman, the Home Affairs Correspondent for the Evening Standard, suggests there is more hype than substance in the crime deterrent abilities of CCTV.
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Exchanging New taxes for Sharpe Solutions in November

By: Kim Schjang

On March 7th, Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure bill guaranteed to increase the burden on New York State taxpayers. The western region of our state is a large trade zone, with the St. Lawrence Seaway providing excellent access for exporters. Rochester, in particular, is a large hub for optics and high tech manufacturing. But will they remain so, if businesses face more taxes?

Business mogul and Tesla CEO Elon Musk supported amending of the Force Majeure clause: a contract provision that relieves the parties from performing their contractual obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise. That clause was recently changed to include federal, state or municipal policies that may “materially and adversely” affect the company’s business. Which means if SolarCity Corporation, a subsidiary of Tesla, Inc., feel some strain from a business arrangement, they could just walk away from Buffalo and find a lower tax state.


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No More Financial Nonsense!

By James Benerofe

It is time to stop the financial nonsense. The stock market seesaw is helping to drive the economy into a ditch filled with financial quicksand. The first thing we need to do is stop day trading. For at least the next year, all stock investments in the stock market would have to be held for six months before they could be sold (no exceptions!!!). Buying stock would clearly become an investment not a gamble or a speculation. Investors would be a lot more careful about where they were putting their money. Companies would be a lot more careful with information they were putting out to potential investors about their company. Most of all, this action would stabilize the stock market. It would give companies a source of capital for a period of time to straighten out problems.

The stock market is vehicle for investing capital over a period of time, to hopefully generate a reasonably steady return on your investment or reasonably steady capital appreciation . It is not vehicle for becoming an instant millionaire—though it can happen– it is not an intelligent way to make careful investments. The stock market has been turned into a financial roller coaster filled with investment gimmicks. This is one of the major reasons for our lousy economic situation.

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