LEAD POISIONING AND FLINT, MICHIGAN, WATER

I hear a lot of hysteria about lead in Flint.  They say things like "You can't shower in bottled water."  Well, lead is not a skin poison* so showering or baths should be no problem unless you drink the shower or bath water.  When I was a child, we were told not to drink water from the hot water tap because it might contain lead.  Apparently a lot of the plumbing in Flint is very old and probably needs to be replaced anyway.  Modern plumbing uses PVC pipe and other plastic tubing in the homes.

Lead in blood does not have a long half life so just switching to bottled water should rapidly deplete lead in the blood.  For a more permanent basis, lead and iron removing filters work well although not all filters remove lead so you need to check.

If that is not fast enough, then there is chelation therapy that works well using agents like EDTA.**  Curiously EDTA at least used to be found in commercial salad dressing to preserve flavor.  This strips all the heavy metals from your body, including essential ones.  It may also be found in shampoos, body washes, deodorant and skin creams.***

The two main repositories of lead in the body are bones and kidneys.  Bone is the major repository so children growing bone can take on a large lead burden that then leaks out later in life.  A colleague of mine came from South Africa, and he found the lead in his blood had the isotopic composition of South African lead that is very distinctive. The effects of lead on the brain are above my pay grade and I refer you elsewhere.****

I heard on the Rachel Maddow show (where the Flint, Michigan, water-lead problem was brought to public attention), that a large part of the Flint water system has water standing in pipes averaging only about a day whereas in another large part it stands for an average of six days and is the area with the highest blood lead levels.  She recently held a Town Hall in Flint (http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/01/27/rachel-maddow-flint/79424440/)  In addition to lead poisoning, it is now suspected of causing legionnaires disease.

Calcium Disodium EDTA
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or simply known as EDTA, is a preservative found in many foods including sodas, sandwich spreads and sauces. EDTA is also found in many cosmetic products including shampoos, body wash, deodorant and skin creams. EDTA may cause allergic reactions, asthma attacks, skin rash and possible kidney damage. Studies have also found that sustained intakes of calcium disodium EDTA can lead to essential mineral depletion in dogs. - See more at: http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/harmful-food-additives-in-salad-dressing#sthash.1BO09aeT.dpuf

Calcium Disodium EDTA
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or simply known as EDTA, is a preservative found in many foods including sodas, sandwich spreads and sauces. EDTA is also found in many cosmetic products including shampoos, body wash, deodorant and skin creams. EDTA may cause allergic reactions, asthma attacks, skin rash and possible kidney damage. Studies have also found that sustained intakes of calcium disodium EDTA can lead to essential mineral depletion in dogs. - See more at: http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/harmful-food-additives-in-salad-dressing#sthash.1BO09aeT.dpuf

Calcium Disodium EDTA
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, or simply known as EDTA, is a preservative found in many foods including sodas, sandwich spreads and sauces. EDTA is also found in many cosmetic products including shampoos, body wash, deodorant and skin creams. EDTA may cause allergic reactions, asthma attacks, skin rash and possible kidney damage. Studies have also found that sustained intakes of calcium disodium EDTA can lead to essential mineral depletion in dogs. - See more at: http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/harmful-food-additives-in-salad-dressing#sthash.1BO09aeT.dpuf

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning
** If you have to know, EDTA stands for Ethylene-Diamine-Tetra-Acetic acid
*** http://naturallysavvy.com/eat/harmful-food-additives-in-salad-dressing
**** http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro00/web2/Patel.html

BULLS AND BEARS ON THE STOCK MARKETS

Saul Williams of Motley Fool has a very nice article on Bull and Bear markets.*  A few excerpts are below.  He also present two figures from Yardeni Research that show the details of the figure reproduced below that show the details. I recommend you read the full article.  How long the current downturn occurs and how deep it ends up going remains to be seen, of course.  The beginning of it is unique.

...between 1965 and the end of 2015 the S&P 500 underwent 27 corrections of 10% or more (numbers were rounded to the nearest integer). 
........................................................................
...we spend more time in rising markets than we do during periods of correction. This is more of an extension of the prior point that corrections, while not uncommon, tend to happen quickly and be over with. Only with rare exception (the 2000-2002 correction, which lasted 915 days, and the 2007-2009 correction, which went on for 510 days) do corrections last a prolonged period of time.

But here's the most important thing to note: The S&P 500 reclaimed the lost value in every single instance involving a correction of 10% or more. That's 27 corrections of at least 10% (again, rounded up) since 1987, and every single one of those corrections wiped out by a bullish rally at some point. Sometimes it takes just weeks to wipe out the effects of a correction, or as you can see with the dot-com bubble of 2000, it took a good seven years for long-term investors to be vindicated once more.

(Click on figure to enlarge)

* http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/01/18/the-only-chart-that-matters-during-a-stock-market.aspx

CRUZ - II

In my recent post on Cruz, I have included an excerpt* of the following: In his effort to get the evangelical vote, he has appeared at one meeting where the chairman gave an impassioned rant about how the bible says gays should be killed (though not now because they should be given a chance to repent.).  Cruz gave no criticism of the pastor who did this.

And it gets worse.  Now Cruz has been endorsed by "Pastor" Mike Bickle (of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City) who says things like:  I believe that one of the main pastors, as a forerunner to the Harlot movement, it’s not the Harlot movement yet, is Oprah. and Bickle says that "the most famous [heaven-sent] hunter in recent history is a man named Adolf Hitler", and has claimed that Jews collectively are "under the discipline of God because of... perversion and sin."**  Cruz says, "Heidi and I are grateful to have his prayers and support."

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/01/cruz.html from http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/11/06/23118593/christian-pastor-calls-for-execution-of-gays-at-event-attended-by-ted-cruz
** http://www.charismanews.com/politics/54652-ihop-s-mike-bickle-endorses-ted-cruz-for-president
 http://askanatheist.tv/2011/07/13/harbinger-of-the-antichrist-thy-name-is-oprah/

REVOLT OF THE REPUBLICAN GREAT "UNWASHED"

A large segment of the Republican "base" is the disaffected white wage earner (the so-called great unwashed in that they have only finished high school or maybe not even that) and another is the "Sit down and shut up!" crowd like Chris Christie that can be quite wealthy.  Exactly why the white working class is Republican, I have no idea because the party, well, hates them and thinks they are overpaid.  Even their hero, Donald Trump, has said at least a couple of times that the American worker's wages are too high compared to the rest of the world.  For some reason they forgive him for this although their wages have been essentially stagnant for 25 yrs. But every two to four years they stroke the wage earner's ego by telling them they are the "Real Americans" and the "Backbone Of The Country."

My guess as to why the white wage earners are disaffected from their natural ally, the Democratic Party, is that they feel the Democrats pay too much attention to women, African Americans, Hispanics, and homo sexuals who have taken many jobs from them.

The rreal problem is, however, two fold.  First there is the off-shoring of jobs and the second is automation.   There is also sort of third problem where jobs have been turned over to the consumer to do.  Some examples of this are "letting your fingers do the walking" on the telephone, pump your own gas,  auto-checkout outs at grocery stores and typing your own stuff (disappearance of clerk typists) among others.  To some extent these disappearing jobs are automated, but it is still the consumer that does any work required. Wages must be less then the costs of automation, and their wages will decrease until they approach some sort of equilibrium with low wage countries moderated by the costs of shipping, the price of natural gas, etc.*  Neither party seems to have an answer to this.

So I think that the disaffected white wage earner doesn't have a party anymore, although I suspect they would do better with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.

But an interesting thing has happened in that the disaffected white wage earner now has sort of a champion who talks like they talk and the "Sit down and shut up" crowd likes it also.  These two groups are trying to take over the Republican Party.  Time will tell if they succeed, but for now the Republican "establishment" doesn't know what to do and I'm not sure the Democratic establishment does either.

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/10/dumbing-down-of-america-if-you-listen.html

HOW TO GET OUT OF GREAT DEPRESSIONS AND GREAT RECESSIONS

I'm sure you have heard that Roosevelt's policies did not get us out of the Great Depression but that it was WW-II that did it.  You hear this especially from Republicans.  But it wasn't the war per se that got us out of the Great Depression, it was massive government spending that did it with an assist from forced savings as there wasn't much to buy during WW-II.

So if we wanted to rapidly get out of the Great Recession of 2008-2009 what should we have done.  We should have had massive government spending.  Yes, Bush's (43) TRAP program to rescue the banks had some deficit spending and Obama's small stimulus fund plus his increased Defense budget helped keep the Great Recession from getting worse, but they weren't big enough to get us out of the Great Recession.  In WW-II everyone who had a lath or drill press or spot welder worked  for the government war effort.  So  what was needed was a "war on infrastructure"  of at least several trillion dollars.  But of course, we can go into massive debt for shooting wars but not for building roads, airports, bridges, and buildings, etc.

CRUZ

I find that Ted Cruz's popularity with Republicans is shocking.  It seems to me that he might even be barred from running because he led the abortive charge to shut down part of the government.  This not only wasted a lot of money but it did not even achieve its goal of getting rid of ACA (Obamacare).  I find him scary pursuing government by shutdown.

I have said previously* that Cruz means what he says, but he is turning out to be a major liar like Trump.  He has lied about his being a natural born Canadian citizen when he said he became only aware of it shortly before he decided to run for the Republican nomination for president.**  Can an outstanding constitutional lawyer be so stupid?  And then there is the matter of his claim that he didn't know he had borrowed up to a million dollars from Goldman Saks and Citibank that he failed to report  - laughable.  Then there are some other wild claims showing he doesn't know what he is talking about such as the article in the conservative leaning Daily Beast:**

 “There are 110,000 agents at the IRS. We need to put a padlock on that building and take every one of those 110,000 agents and put them on our southern border.” There are not 110,000 agents at the IRS. There aren’t even that many employees. There are about 82,000, of whom about 14,000 are agents.***
...............................................................
Exit poll respondents were asked to complete the sentence, "Do you think the 2010 federal health care law…," with one of three options. The most common answer -- 49 percent -- was that the law "went too far." But the other two options -- that the law "was about right," or that it "did not go far enough" -- collectively totaled 46 percent.***

Then there are his wild statements about carpet bombing the ISIS controlled area in Iraq and Syria which would kill many, many innocent civilians.

Cruz said, And this instance, this deal to bring back Americans who were wrongly imprisoned, we release seven terrorists who helped Iran with their nuclear program Cruz was lying. There were no terrorists released in exchange for the four Americans that were being held in Iran. The Washington Post reported  that the seven Iranians were arrested for violating trade sanctions,...Ted Cruz knows exactly what is in the agreement that brought the American prisoners home. He didn’t make a mistake. Cruz lied, and in the process smeared the President Of The United States.****
  
One might also wonder about Cruz's honesty in his attacks on Wall Street.  You see his wife used to work for Goldman Saks (for 10 yrs and currently on leave while Cruz runs for president), as a vice -president in the wealth management section, no less. (1)  And, ahem, At his CPAC speech in 2014, Cruz made a big show about repealing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. (1).

No One Is Too Bad For Cruz To Accept Them
In his effort to get the evangelical vote, he has appeared at one meeting where the chairman gave an impassioned rant about how the bible says gays should be killed (though not now because they should be given a chance to repent.).(3)  Cruz gave no criticism of the pastor who did this.

 And it gets worse.  Now Cruz has been endorsed by "Pastor" Mike Bickle (of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City) who says things like:  I believe that one of the main pastors, as a forerunner to the Harlot movement, it’s not the Harlot movement yet, is Oprah. and Bickle says that "the most famous [heaven-sent] hunter in recent history is a man named Adolf Hitler", and has claimed that Jews collectively are "under the discipline of God because of... perversion and sin."  (2)  Cruz says, "Heidi and I are grateful to have his prayers and support."


Dirty Tricks (Note Added February 07, 2016)
Donald Trump claimed that Cruz stole the Iowa election and he might well have as he pulled two dirty tricks right before and during the caucuses.  The first and most mild one is:
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is defending a campaign mailer that Iowa’s secretary of state says misrepresents election law.
The mailer bills itself as a “voting violation” notice and tells the recipient it’s been sent due to “low expected voter turnout in your area.” It then grades the recipient’s voting history and that of several neighbors, citing public records.
..........................................................................
 Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says in a statement that there’s “no such thing” as an election violation related to voting frequency and that insinuating otherwise is “not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses.”
It is not clear to me that this notice benefited Cruz except that expect he sent to to districts or more elderly people where he thought he might benefit.  It has been said that the names and the number of elections they have missed do not track and that the notice is just made up.(4)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday accused rival Ted Cruz of stealing a victory in the Iowa caucuses and called for another vote or nullification of Cruz's win.
Trump had gone into Monday's caucus voting ahead of the Texas senator by 5 percentage points in a key poll but Cruz ended up winning, four points ahead of the New York billionaire.
"Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it," Trump (@realDonaldTrump) tweeted. "That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!"
..........................................................................  
Trump, who finished second behind Cruz, lit up Twitter on Wednesday with a series of posts saying the outcome was tainted because the Cruz campaign had deliberately spread misinformation about Trump's stand on Obamacare and an erroneous report that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race.
........................................................................
 "The press is reporting that Dr. Ben Carson is taking time off from the campaign trail after Iowa and making a big announcement next week," the Cruz email read, according to CNN. "Please inform any Carson caucusgoers (sic) of this news and urge them to caucus for Ted Cruz."

I wonder what dirty tricks Cruz has planned for new Hampshire?

* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2015/12/trump-or-cruz.html
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/01/what-is-natural-born-citizen.html
*** http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/22/the-truth-behind-ted-cruz-s-lies.htm
 **** http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/17/fox-news-lets-ted-cruz-lie-claim-obama-swapped-iranian-terrorists-prisoners.html
(1) http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/why-did-ted-cruz-refuse-disclose-how-much-his-wife-vp-goldman-sachs-makes
(2) http://www.charismanews.com/politics/54652-ihop-s-mike-bickle-endorses-ted-cruz-for-president
 http://askanatheist.tv/2011/07/13/harbinger-of-the-antichrist-thy-name-is-oprah/
(3) http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/11/06/23118593/christian-pastor-calls-for-execution-of-gays-at-event-attended-by-ted-cruz
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/10/18/15172/771
(4) http://nbc4i.com/2016/01/31/ted-cruz-campaign-sends-iowans-notice-of-voting-violation/
(5) http://www.reviewjournal.com/politics/elections/trump-ted-cruz-stole-iowa-caucuses

WHAT IS A NATURAL BORN U.S. CITIZEN?

I think a way should be found to litigate what "natural born American" means.  You couldn't do it for Papa Romney who was born in Mexico because he didn't get the Republican nomination.  You have to have "standing" i.e. you have to be injured. Because he didn't win the nomination, no one was injured. Democrats decided not to try McCain who was born in the Panama Canal zone, but he was born in a U.S. military hospital on an American military base to two American parents; however he didn't win the presidency either so it was mute.  At any rate, I would accept McCain as a natural born American.  Goldwater was born in Arizona, but before it became a state, his credentials are suspect also, but he didn't win the presidency either so Democrats had no "standing."   If anyone was injured in these three cases it was the candidates Republican opponents in the nomination process but none have tried to take out a lawsuit over it.

Obama was born in the U.S. to an American mother and an immigrant father* (He is a natural born citizen on two counts and many Republicans (including Trump) refuse to recognize him as a legitimate American born.  Snopes has an interesting discussion as to whether Obma is a legitimate president. The minimum qualifications for the presidency of the United States specified in Article II of the Constitution are few and seemingly straightforward: In order to be President, a person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, must be at least thirty-five years old, and must have been a resident of the United States for fourteen years.**  Mitt Romney may have claimed he was injured by Obama's victory, but he too didn't take out a suit.  At any rate, I doubt he would have won.
.........................................................................
A few facets of this claim [of being a natural born American] immediately jump out as being far-fetched: first, that a sitting U.S. Senator who has already spent a good deal of time and money securing his party's nomination for the presidency would suddenly be discovered as ineligible due to an obscure provision of U.S. law; and second, that U.S. law would essentially penalize someone who would otherwise qualify for natural-born citizenship status simply because his mother was too young. The fact is, the qualifications listed in the example quoted above are moot because they refer to someone who was born outside the United States. Since Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, they do not apply to him.

The Fourteenth Amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Since Hawaii is part of the United States, even if Barack Obama's parents were both non-U.S. citizens who hadn't even set foot in the country until just before he was born, he'd still qualify as a natural-born citizen.

Some have claimed that Barack Obama's Hawaiian birthplace doesn't qualify him as a natural-born citizen because Hawaii was not yet a state when he was born. This claim is wrong: Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state almost two years before Barack Obama's birth there (21 August 1959 for statehood vs. 4 August 1961 for Obama's birthdate).

But Cruz was born in Canada to one American parent (mother) and even carried a Canadian passport and he didn't renounce his Canadian citizenship until he decided to run for president.*  I certainly hope he doesn't win because he scares the H@LL out of me, but his case is questionable.  Constitutional law Prof. Laurence Tribe of Harvard said that as a student, Cruz was an "originalist" who said that the constitution should be interpreted as it was originally intended.***

Here are some other possibilities.  Consider this one, suppose you are born in the U.S. to legal immigrants or even better suppose you are born in the U.S. to illegals.  Technically you are a natural-born American even if your parents are not citizens (see above quote).  Can you imagine Republicans on that one?  Or suppose you are born by C-section.  Is that "natural born?"

I think we ought to get this thing out of the way for good.  It is fine with me if the Supreme Court says born anywhere in the U.S. and/or born to an American citizen.

NOTE ADDED 01-16-2016: Houston attorney Newton Schwartz, who said he isn’t connected to any campaign, filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Texas. The court is being asked to settle whether Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, meets the “natural born citizen” requirement in the Constitution. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawsuit-filed-over-whether-ted-cruz-is-a-natural-born-citizen-2016-01-15)

* Until 1934 if your mother was American but the father wasn't, you were not considered a natural born American citizen and had to be naturalized.  In 1934 a law was passed making you a citizen not needing naturalization if it is you mother is an American citizen and your father isn't. So it is only since 1934 that you are considered an American citizen with either parent being an American citizen.
** http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp
***https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/01/11/professor-laurence-tribe-questions-whether-ted-cruz-is-a-natural-born-citizen/

WORST FIRST OF YEAR WEEK FOR STOCKS EVER!

Though the article cited was written after the first four days of trading in the New Year, the fifth day was down even further affirming the worst first week of trading in a new year.  In addition 2015 had now Santa Claus Rally (the week between Christmas and New Years) for the second year in a row.  A part of Wall Street lore is that as the first trading week of the new year goes, so goes the year.  So the very bad first week of trading this year is not a good sign though not definitive.

The SandP 500 traded more than 1 percent lower, holding more than 10 percent from its 52-week intraday high, joining the Dow and Nasdaq composite in correction territory in intraday trade.*
...............................................................................
U.S. stocks are sharply lower on the week, with the Dow Jones industrial average and SandP 500 posting their worst first four days of a year in history as of Thursday's close. 
 ...............................................................................
European stocks closed sharply lower, with the STOXX 600 and German DAX posting their biggest weekly losses since August 2011.
...............................................................................
High-frequency trading accounted for 49 percent of January's daily trading volume of about 8.43 billion shares, according to TABB Group. During the peak levels of high-frequency trading in 2009, about 61 percent of 9.8 billion of average daily shares traded were executed by high-frequency traders.

* http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/08/us-markets.html

DEATH AND INJURIES BY GUNS IN THE U.S.

Below are some excerpts from Fact Check on guns in the U.S. vs the rest of the world.  There is much more in the original article.  We have the most guns per hundred thousand population in the world by far.  I suspect some people own guns never opened and  still in their original wrapper or however you buy them.  It seems like people who own handguns say they own them for protection.  Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you.  I'm 84 year old and never was threatened by a gun and I have lived in some of what was billed tough neighborhoods.  I did almost walk in on two stick ups, however, but through luck didn't do it.

Dan Gross, head of the Brady Campaign used the number of daily gun murders as proof that “gun violence rates are not” going down. But the rate of gun murder is at its lowest point since at least 1981: 3.6 per 100,000 people in 2010. The high point was 7 in 1993. However, non-fatal gun injuries from assaults increased last year for the third straight year, and that rate is the highest since 2008.
....................................................................
The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world — by far. And it has the highest rate of homicides among advanced countries. And yet, gun crime has been declining in the U.S. Firearm murders are down, as is overall gun violence —  even as gun ownership increases.
.....................................................................
One thing that is clear: Guns are effective lethal weapons. “If there were no guns, the lethality of crimes would be less,” says Wellford. “You can’t have a drive-by knifing.”
 ...................................................................
The 2011 and 2006 FBI crime reports show that firearm murders have declined each year since 2006. There were 10,177 such murders in 2006 and 8,583 in 2011 — a drop of 1,594 or nearly 16 percent in five years, even as the nation’s population continued to rise.
....................................................................
The number of reported gun injuries, however, is on the rise.

There were 55,544 non-fatal injuries in 2011 resulting from assaults involving guns — up from 53,738 in 2010 and 44,466 in 2009, the CDC’s database shows. Since 2001, the rate of gun injuries is the second highest in 11 years when adjusted for population.
.....................................................................
The Department of Justice, which commissions the Census Bureau’s victimization surveys, reports that there were more than 1 million firearm incidents and more than 1.2 million firearm victims in 1993 and again in 1994. But by 2009, the number of firearm incidents (326,090) and firearm victims (352,810) dropped by more than two-thirds.
...................................................................
By our count, there were 62 school shootings since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, that resulted in more than one student, teacher or school employee being killed or injured — a description that could fit “major school shooting.” There were another 68 where one student, teacher or school employee was killed (not counting suicides) or injured.
..................................................................
The numbers in the chart above are from the Small Arms Survey. The project gives high and low estimates, along with an average. We used the average numbers. They show the U.S. with 88.8 guns for every 100 people. That’s No. 1 in the gun ownership rate in the world. Switzerland, with 45.7 guns per 100 people, is No. 3 in the world, with nearly half the rate of the U.S. Switzerland also requires military service. (Yemen is No. 2, with 54.8 guns per 100 people.) [Note: All Swiss males have to serve in the military and the guns are (were?) kept in the home.]
.................................................................
The firearms homicide rate, and homicide rate overall, is also higher in the U.S. than other advanced countries, such as Canada, Australia and those in Europe, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The U.S. gun homicide rate was 3.2 per every 100,000 people in 2010, according to UNODC figures. The UNODC measures “intentional homicide,” which is “an unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person.”

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/

AUTO SALES VERY GOOD IN 2015 WITH DECEMBER CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Looks like people gave themselves a Christmas present with their gasoline cost savings:

Sales in 2015 were seen topping the previous record in 2000 of 17.35 million vehicles, as low gasoline prices, easy credit and moderate economic growth helped boost the industry.
..........................................................................
A poll of 38 economists and analysts by Thomson Reuters yielded a forecast of 18.1 million vehicles sold in December on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/05/nissan-chrysler-us-december-auto-sales-up-by-double-digits.html

U.S. HAS MOST OF EVERYTHING INCLUDING GUN AND GUN MURDER RATES

The U.S. has nearly 2 TIMES the number of guns per 100 inhabitants as Switzerland., but the U.S. has 4 TIMES the murders per 100,000 inhabitants as Switzerland.  So much for the argument that the answer to gun murders is more guns.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/28/opinion/rattner-2015-year-in-charts.html?ref=opinion