ALWAYS HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE!
Follow the News with an open mind.
Never stop asking to find out the truth!
Criticisms / Disagreements lead to a better future.
Participation of all is the key.
This page is also a way to improve your English.
Be critical of the current president
President Barack Obama Weekly Address The White House May 8, 2015
Hello, everybody. Today marks an historic anniversary—70 years since
the Allied victory in Europe during World War II. On V-E Day after the
Nazi surrender, people swarmed the streets of London and Paris and
Moscow, and the cloud of fear that had hung for so many years finally
lifted. Here at home, from small towns to Times Square, crowds gathered
in celebration, singing and dancing with joy. There would still be
three more months of deadly fighting in the Pacific. But for a few
hours, the world rejoiced in the hope of peace.
General Eisenhower announced the news with little fanfare. “The
Mission of this Allied Force,” he said, “was fulfilled.” But his simple
message belied the extraordinary nature of the Allied victory—and the
staggering human loss. For over five years, brutal fighting laid waste
to an entire continent. Mothers, fathers, children were murdered in
concentration camps. By the time the guns fell silent in Europe, some
40 million people on the continent had lost their lives.
Today, we pay tribute to all who served. They were patriots, like my
grandfather who served in Patton’s Army—soldiers, sailors, airmen,
marines, coast guard, merchant marines—and the women of the WACs and the
WAVES and every branch. They risked their lives, and gave their lives
so that we, the people the world over, could live free. They were women
who stepped up in unprecedented numbers, manning the home front,
and—like my grandmother—building bombers on assembly lines.
This was the generation that literally saved the world—that ended the war and laid a foundation for peace.
This was the generation that traded in their uniforms for a college
education so they could marry their sweethearts, buy homes, raise
children and build the strongest middle class the world has ever known.
This was the generation that included heroes like the Tuskegee
Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers and the Japanese-Americans of the 442nd
Regiment—and who continued the fight for freedom here at home, expanding
equality and opportunity and justice for minorities and women.
We will be forever grateful for what these remarkable men and women
did, for the selfless grace they showed in one of our darkest hours.
But as we mark this 70th anniversary, let’s not simply commemorate
history. Let’s rededicate ourselves to the freedoms for which they
fought.
Let’s make sure that we keep striving to fulfill our founding
ideals—that we’re a country where no matter who we are or where we’re
from or what we look like or who we love, if we work hard and take
responsibility, every American will have the opportunity to make of our
lives what we will.
Let’s make sure that we keep striving to fulfill our founding
ideals—that we’re a country where no matter who we are or where we’re
from or what we look like or who we love, if we work hard and take
responsibility, every American will have the opportunity to make of our
lives what we will.
Let’s stand united with our allies, in Europe and beyond, on behalf
of our common values—freedom, security, democracy, human rights, and the
rule of law around the world—and against bigotry and hatred in all
their forms so that we give meaning to that pledge: “Never forget.
Never again.”
Krystal
Ball speaks with French economist Thomas Piketty about Jeb Bush’s and
Hillary Clinton’s economic plans and why the Wall Street Journal has got
him all wrong.
President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
April 25, 2015
Hi, everybody. I’ve talked a lot lately about why new trade deals are important to our economy.
Today, I want to talk about why new trade deals are important to our values.
They’re vital to middle-class economics -- the idea that this country
does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair
share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.
These are simple values. They’re American values. And we strive to
make sure our own economy lives up to them, especially after a financial
crisis brought about by recklessness and greed. But we also live in a
world where our workers have to compete on a global scale. Right now, on
an uneven playing field. Where the rules are different. And that’s why
America has to write the rules of the global economy -- so that our
workers can compete on a level playing field.
I understand why a lot of people are skeptical of trade deals. Past
deals didn’t always live up to the hype. They didn’t include the kind of
protections we’re fighting for today.
We have lessons to learn from the past -- and we have learned them.
But trying to stop a global economy at our shores isn’t one of those
lessons. We can’t surrender to the future -- because we are meant to win
the future. If America doesn’t shape the rules of the global economy
today, to benefit our workers, while our economy is in a position of new
global strength, then China will write those rules. I’ve seen towns
where manufacturing collapsed, plants closed down, and jobs dried up.
And I refuse to accept that for our workers. Because I know when the
playing field is level, nobody can beat us.
That’s why, when I took office, we started thinking about how to
revamp trade in a way that actually works for working Americans. And
that’s what we’ve done with a new trade partnership we’re negotiating in
the Asia-Pacific -- home to the world’s fastest-growing markets.
It’s the highest-standard trade agreement in history. It’s got strong
provisions for workers and the environment -- provisions that, unlike
in past agreements, are actually enforceable. If you want in, you have
to meet these standards. If you don’t, then you’re out. Once you’re a
part of this partnership, if you violate your responsibilities, there
are actually consequences. And because it would include Canada and
Mexico, it fixes a lot of what was wrong with NAFTA, too.
So this isn’t a race to the bottom, for lower wages and working
conditions. The trade agreements I’m negotiating will drive a race to
the top. And we’re making sure American workers can retool through
training programs and community colleges, and use new skills to
transition into new jobs.
If I didn’t think this was the right thing to do for working
families, I wouldn’t be fighting for it. We’ve spent the past six years
trying to rescue the economy, retool the auto industry, and revitalize
American manufacturing. And if there were ever an agreement that
undercut that progress, or hurt those workers, I wouldn’t sign it. My
entire presidency is about helping working families recover from
recession and rebuild for the future. As long as I’m President, that’s
what I’ll keep fighting to do.
Climate change is changing our economy, health and communities in
diverse ways. Scientists warn that if we do not aggressively curb
climate change now, the results will likely be disastrous.
The Basics
Carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants are collecting in
the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and
causing the planet to warm up.
Although local temperatures fluctuate naturally, over the past 50
years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate
in recorded history. Scientists say that unless we curb the emissions
that cause climate change, average U.S. temperatures could be 3 to 9
degrees higher by the end of the century.
The United States Global Change Research Program (which includes the
Department of Defense, NASA, National Science Foundation and other
government agencies) has said that "global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced" and that "climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow." Read more
Here's the good news: technologies exist today to make cars that run
cleaner and burn less gas, modernize power plants and generate
electricity from nonpolluting sources, and cut our electricity use
through energy efficiency. The challenge is to be sure these solutions
are put to use.
NRDC is tackling global warming on two main fronts – cutting pollution and expanding clean energy.
Transitioning to a clean energy economy will bring new jobs and reduce air pollution. We can’t afford to wait. Read more
President Barack Obama Weekly Address The White House April 18, 2015
Hi everybody. Wednesday is Earth Day, a day to appreciate and
protect this precious planet we call home. And today, there’s no
greater threat to our planet than climate change.
2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Fourteen of the 15
hottest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this
century. This winter was cold in parts of our country – as some folks
in Congress like to point out – but around the world, it was the warmest
ever recorded.
And the fact that the climate is changing has very serious
implications for the way we live now. Stronger storms. Deeper
droughts. Longer wildfire seasons. The world’s top climate scientists
are warning us that a changing climate already affects the air our kids
breathe. Last week, the Surgeon General and I spoke with public experts
about how climate change is already affecting patients across the
country. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to
our national security.
And on Earth Day, I’m going to visit the Florida Everglades to talk
about the way that climate change threatens our economy. The Everglades
is one of the most special places in our country. But it’s also one of
the most fragile. Rising sea levels are putting a national treasure –
and an economic engine for the South Florida tourism industry – at risk.
So climate change can no longer be denied – or ignored. The world is
looking to the United States – to us – to lead. And that’s what we’re
doing. We’re using more clean energy than ever before. America is
number one in wind power, and every three weeks, we bring online as much
solar power as we did in all of 2008. We’re taking steps to waste less
energy, with more fuel-efficient cars that save us money at the pump,
and more energy-efficient buildings that save us money on our
electricity bills.
So thanks in part to these actions, our carbon pollution has fallen
by 10 percent since 2007, even as we’ve grown our economy and seen the
longest streak of private-sector job growth on record. We’ve committed
to doubling the pace at which we cut carbon pollution, and China has
committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because
the world’s two largest economies came together, there’s new hope that,
with American leadership, this year, the world will finally reach an
agreement to prevent the worst impacts of climate change before it’s too
late.
This is an issue that’s bigger and longer-lasting than my
presidency. It’s about protecting our God-given natural wonders, and
the good jobs that rely on them. It’s about shielding our cities and
our families from disaster and harm. It’s about keeping our kids
healthy and safe. This is the only planet we’ve got. And years from
now, I want to be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye
and tell them that we did everything we could to protect it.
The EU spends billions in subsidies on pharmaceutical research,
with funds going to the Innovative Medicines Initiative, an alliance of
corporations and universities with the aim of developing new drugs. Its
record has been disastrous.
It was a good idea -- at least in theory. The European Commission wanted
to create a program with billions in funding to subsidize universities,
smaller research institutions and drug manufacturers. The goal was to
collaborate in the development of essential medicines. But an
investigation by SPIEGEL ONLINE, Swiss public broadcaster SRF and the Belgian daily newspaper De Standaard shows that the Innovative Medicines Initiative
(IMI), funded with more than €2.5 billion ($2.74 billion) in taxpayer
money, has been used almost exclusively to subsidize the pharmaceutical
industry through the circuitous route of research.
The investigative team spent half a year analyzing IMI's structure,
procedures and finances, interviewing more than 70 people in the
process. Those interviewed included researchers, politicians and
employees of pharmaceutical companies and non-governmental
organizations.
When it was launched in 2009, former European Commissioner for
Science and Research Janez Potocnik described the new flagship as a
"Champions League for biomedical research." The IMI's anticipated
projects relating to diabetes, mental disorders, pain and drug safety
were intended to usher in a new era of research.
IMI currently has a budget of more than €5 billion. Half of its
funding comes from the EU and is disbursed to project partners,
including universities, small and mid-sized companies and research
institutions. The other half is provided by the European Federation of
Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), which provides
investment in the form of payments in kind, such as making laboratories
available for research.
So what has become of the project? After five years, it is clear that
IMI has developed in different directions than initially envisioned.
SPIEGEL ONLINE and its partners reviewed key aspects and problem areas
of the project.
We fact-checked IMI in seven important areas, which can be read by clicking on the following links:
In its research, the investigative team determined that the following problems pose key challenges for IMI's credibility:
The European Union pays while industry cashes in.
Participating universities and research institutions have little influence over what happens at IMI.
In practical terms, IMI's main purpose is to conduct research in
areas that benefit the pharmaceutical industry, as opposed to its
original purpose, which was to develop treatments and essential
medicines.
The control mechanisms lack transparency, and reports are only disseminated within IMI.
Pharmaceutical companies are not providing controllers who represent
the EU and the public with access to the details of individual IMI
research projects.
The European Union, for its part, defends the project, saying it combines the strengths of the participating institutions.
"Today, no one company or organization can solve a major health or
drug development problem on its own," says EU Commission spokeswoman
Lucia Caudet. As Caudet explains, IMI bundles the strengths of key
partners in a network consisting of the Commission and the European
pharmaceutical industry.
According to Caudet, these combined efforts enable IMI to achieve
advances in our understanding of diseases like Alzheimer's and diabetes
and lead to the development of new drugs. "The collaborative approach
has already proven successful in many areas," says Caudet. This
approach, she adds, is also reflected in IMI's governance structure and
the project selection process. According to Caudet, IMI stands for open
innovation and offers a platform with which data and knowledge is shared
among participants. (Read the complete statement in English here.)
Critics, meanwhile, argue that it is high time to address the conflicts of interest inherent that plague the current IMI setup.
Inge Grässle,
chair of the European Parliament Budgetary Control Committee, is
skeptical of the organizational form. "It's time for the individuals in
charge to finally resolve the inherent conflict of interest," she says.
"They are biased, and yet they should in fact be answerable to taxpayers
for the proper use of funds."
The journalists conducting the investigation drew some conclusions on
their own, as well. Topping them is their feeling that the
pharmaceutical industry is long overdue in terms of offering more
transpareny and dislosing its internal structures. They also argue that
universities and research institutions need to be treated with equal
footing within IMI and that non-transparent regulations should be
abolished. These, they feel, are the prerequisites necessary for IMI to
truly innovate.
Additional reporting by Christina Elmer, Timo Grossenbacher, Sylke Gruhnwald, Maximilian Schäfer
Vice President Joe Biden Weekly Address The White House April 11, 2015
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Joe Biden and I’m here filling in for President Obama, who is traveling abroad.
And I’m here with a simple message: middle-class economics works.
Our economy has gone from crisis to recovery to now to
resurgence—with the longest streak of consecutive job growth ever
recorded in the history of this country and more than all other advanced
countries combined.
But to make sure everyone is part of this resurgence, we need to
build on what we know widens the path to the middle class—and you all
know what it is, access to education.
Folks, the source of our economic power and middle class strength in
the 20th Century was the fact that we were among the first major nations
in the world to provide twelve years of free education for our
citizens.
But in the 21st Century, other countries have already caught up and
twelve years is simply no longer enough—a minimum of fourteen years is
necessary for families to have a surer path to the middle class and for
the United States to be able to out-compete the rest of the world.
Consider that by the end of the decade, two out of three of all jobs
will require an education beyond high school, from an 18-week
certificate to a two-year associate’s degree to a four-year bachelor’s,
or a PhD.
And consider that folks with an associate’s degree earn 25% more than
someone who graduated just from high school. And folks who graduate
with a four-year degree make 70% more.
But today, the cost of higher education is too high for too many
Americans. Too many folks are priced out of a piece of the middle-class
dream.
And that’s why the President and I have a straightforward plan to
remove that barrier and expand the pathway to the middle class—by
bringing the cost of community colleges down—down to zero.
Zero—for anyone willing to work for it and for the institutions that meet certain basic requirements.
Our plan is no give-away. Students must keep up their grades and stay
on track to graduate. States must contribute funding and hold community
colleges accountable for the results. And community colleges must
maintain high graduation and job placement rates.
And here’s a key point—community colleges will have to offer courses that are directly transferrable to a four-year degree.
If two years of community college are free—and credits can transfer
to a four-year university—that means the cost of a four-year degree will
be cut in half for a lot of working families struggling to send their
children to college, qualified children.
And under our plan, students from low-income families will be able to
keep the benefits that flow from other financial aid, like Pell grants,
to cover childcare, housing, transportation—costs that often keep them
from attending class and completing a degree in the first place.
But here’s another key point. Not every good-paying job will require a
two-year or four-year degree. Some of these jobs will require just a
training certificate that can be earned in just a few months.
For example, you can go to an 18-week coding bootcamp—with no
previous experience in computers—and become a computer programmer making
up to $70,000 a year.
There are other jobs in fields like advanced manufacturing and energy
that pay $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 a year—jobs you can raise a family
on.
It’s a simple fact that community colleges are the most flexible
educational institutions we have. I’ve traveled all over this country,
from New York to Iowa to California, to see how community colleges
create partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and local businesses to
generate jobs; support apprenticeships with organized labor, and prepare
hardworking students for good-paying jobs in the areas in which they
live.
Making community colleges free is good for workers, it’s good for companies, and it’s good for our economy.
Here’s what we propose: Close loopholes for the wealthiest investors
and levy a .07% fee on the biggest banks to discourage the kind of risky
behavior that crashed our economy just a few years ago.
Doing just that would pay for free community college—and provide a
leg up for working families through tax credits to cover necessities
like childcare.
That’s what middle-class economics is all about—giving folks a fair
chance to get ahead. A fair tax code. No guarantees. Just a fair chance.
It’s simple folks, two years of community college should become as
free and as universal as high school is today if we’re to make this
economic resurgence permanent and well into the 21st Century.
So I want to thank you all for listening. I hope you have a great weekend and God bless you all and may God protect our troops.
Source: Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) Levels of Trust Continue to Slide Across there Board, All Institutions Below 50% Compared to one year ago, the level of trust that
young Americans between 18- and 29- years old have in most American
institutions tested in our survey has dissipated compared even to last
year’s historically low numbers. For example, in the last 12 months,
trust in the President has decreased from 39 percent to 32 percent, the
U.S. military has decreased from 54 percent to 47 percent (the first
time below a majority) and the Supreme Court from 40 to 36 percent.
Below is a graph that charts the composite trust index (an average of
six public institutions tracked using the same methodology) since 2010.
COMPOSITE TRUST INDEX:
PRESIDENT, US MILITARY, CONGRESS, SUPREME COURT,
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, UNITED NATIONS
— % WHO RESPOND ALL OR MOST OF THE TIME —
x
Trust
2/10
39
2/11
37
3/12
38
4/13
35
4/14
31
The level of trust that young
Americans have in the President and the U.S. Military has suffered the
most over the last year. The growing lack of trust in the President
comes from Democrats (64% trusted the President to do the right thing
all or most of the time in 2013, today the number is 53%) and
Independents (31% in 2013, 23% today) — and not from Republicans whose
opinion has not changed in the last year. Thirteen percent (13%) of
Republicans trust the President to do the right thing all or most of the
time.
These findings stand in contrast to the U.S. Military;
over the last year, the military has lost trust across all parties
(Democrats are down 6 points to 44%, Republicans 5 points to 63% and
Independents down 8 points to 40%).
BELOW IS A SHORT LIST OF INSTITUTIONS, HOW OFTEN DO YOU
TRUST EACH OF THEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING?
— % WHO RESPOND ALL OR MOST OF THE TIME —
FEB 2010
FEB 2011
MAR 2012
APR 2013
APR 2014
THE PRESIDENT
44%
41%
41%
39%
32%
THE US MILITARY
53%
50%
55%
54%
47%
THE CONGRESS
25%
23%
23%
18%
14%
THE SUPREME COURT
45%
44%
45%
40%
36%
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
29%
27%
27%
22%
20%
THE UNITED NATIONS
40%
38%
38%
34%
34%
YOUR STATE GOVERNMENT
_
28%
32%
30%
28%
YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
_
33%
37%
34%
33%
WALL STREET
11%
_
13%
12%
12%
THE MEDIA
17%
_
_
11%
11%
THE NSA
_
_
_
_
24%
In 2010, the question asked about “Wall Street executives” and “traditional media.”
Appeal and Effectiveness of Politics Also on Decline While we have seen a consistent and across the board
drop in trust levels for some time, we also see a similar pattern on
issues relation to the efficacy of the political process more generally.
For example, since 2010, there has been a consistent six-point increase
in those who agree with the statement that“elected officials seem to be
motivated by selfish reasons,” more than three-in-five (62%) now agree
with this; and a similar six-point increase with agreement that
“political involvement rarely has any tangible results” (23% in 2010,
29% in 2014) and “political involvement rarely has any tangible
results”23% in 2010, 29% in 2014). We also have tracked a seven-point increase in the
number who agree with the statement, “electedofficials don’t seem to
have the same priorities I have” (51% in 2010, 58% in 2014).
DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH EACH STATEMENT?
— % WHO AGREE STRONGLY OR SOMEWHAT —
FEB 2010
FEB 2011
MAR 2012
APR 2013
APR 2014
COMMUNITY SERVICE IS AN HONORABLE THING TO DO
70%
69%
69%
70%
70%
ELECTED OFFICIALS SEEM TO BE MOTIVATED BY SELFISH REASONS
54%
55%
59%
59%
62%
ELECTED OFFICIALS DON’T SEEM TO HAVE THE SAME PRIORITIES I HAVE
51%
-
55%
56%
58%
POLITICS HAS BECOME TOO PARTISAN
46%
44%
49%
48%
49%
POLITICS TODAY ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OUR COUNTRY IS FACING
-
-
45%
47%
48%
PEOPLE LIKE ME DO NOT HAVE ANY SAY ABOUT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT DOES
36%
35%
37%
37%
41%
RUNNING FOR OFFICE IS AN HONORABLE THING TO DO
35%
36%
35%
35%
32%
POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT RARELY HAS ANY TANGIBLE RESULTS
23%
24%
29%
28%
29%
THE IDEA OF WORKING IN SOME FORM OF PUBLIC SERVICE IS APPEALING TO ME
President Barack Obama Weekly Address The White House March 28, 2015
Hi, everybody. Five years ago, after the worst financial
crisis in decades, we passed historic Wall Street reform to end the era
of bailouts and too big to fail.
As part that reform, we created an independent Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau with one mission: to protect American
consumers from some of the worst practices of the financial industry.
They’ve already put $5 billion back in the pockets of more
than 15 million families. And this week, they took an important first
step towards cracking down on some of the most abusive practices
involving payday loans.
Millions of Americans take out these loans every year. In
Alabama, where I visited this week, there are four times as many payday
lending stores as there are McDonald’s. But while payday loans might
seem like easy money, folks often end up trapped in a cycle of debt. If
you take out a $500 loan, it’s easy to wind up paying more than $1,000
in interest and fees.
The step the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
announced this week is designed to change that. The idea is pretty
common sense: if you’re a payday lender preparing to give a loan, you
should make sure that the borrower can afford to pay it back first.
As Americans, we believe there’s nothing wrong with making
a profit. But there is something wrong with making that profit by
trapping hard-working men and women in a vicious cycle of debt.
Protecting working Americans’ paychecks shouldn’t be a
partisan issue. But the budget Republicans unveiled last week would
make it harder, not easier, to crack down on financial fraud and abuse.
And this week, when Republicans rolled out their next economic idea, it
had nothing to do with the middle class. It was a new, more-than-$250
billion tax cut for the top one-tenth of the top one percent of
Americans. That would mean handing out an average tax cut of $4 million
a year to just 4,000 Americans per year, and leaving the rest of the
country to pay for it.
I don’t think our top economic priority should be helping a
tiny number of Americans who are already doing extraordinarily well,
and asking everybody else to foot the bill. I think our top priority
should be helping everybody who works hard get ahead. This country does
best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair
share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.
That’s what middle-class economics is all about, and as long as I’m your President, that’s what I’ll keep on fighting to do.
President Barack Obama Weekly Address The White House March 21, 2015
Hi, everybody. One of the most important positions in the
President’s Cabinet – and to our national security, our law enforcement,
and our criminal justice system – is Attorney General.
It has been more than four months since I nominated Loretta Lynch to
serve as the next Attorney General of the United States. For 30 years,
Loretta has distinguished herself as a tough, fair, and independent
attorney. As the U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of New York,
she successfully prosecuted the terrorists who plotted to bomb the
Federal Reserve Bank and the New York City subway. She helped secure
billions in settlements for people wronged by some of the world’s
biggest banks. She’s been dogged in her pursuit of public corruption.
She’s jailed some of New York’s most violent and notorious mobsters and
gang members. And through it all, she’s worked closely with law
enforcement and local communities to get the job done.
In short, her qualifications are superb. That’s why, in the past,
the Senate easily confirmed Loretta to lead one of the most prominent
U.S. Attorney offices in the country – not once, but twice.
Still – it has been more than four months since I nominated Loretta Lynch to serve as Attorney General.
And this time, Republican leaders in Congress won’t even let her
nomination come up for a vote. In fact, by Monday, Loretta will have
been languishing on the Senate floor for longer than the seven previous
Attorneys General combined. Let me say that again – she will have been
waiting for a simple yes-or-no vote on the Senate floor for longer than
the seven previous Attorneys General combined.
No one can claim she’s unqualified. No one’s saying she can’t do the
job.
Senators from both parties say they support her. This is purely
about politics. First, Republicans held up her nomination because they
were upset about the actions I took to make our broken immigration
system smarter and fairer. Now they’re denying her a vote until they
can figure out how to pass a bill on a completely unrelated issue. But
they could bring her up for a yes-or-no vote at any time.
Republicans promised that Congress would function smoothly with them
in charge. Here’s a chance for them to prove it. Congress should stop
playing politics with law enforcement and national security. They
should support good people in both parties who want to reform our
criminal justice system. And that means they should end the longest
confirmation process for an Attorney General in three decades, and give
Loretta Lynch a vote.
President Barack Obama Weekly Address The White House March 14, 2015
Hi, everybody. Earlier this week, I visited with students at Georgia
Tech to talk about the importance of higher education in the new
economy, and how we can make it more affordable.
In an economy increasingly built on innovation, the most important
skill you can sell is your knowledge. That’s why higher education is,
more than ever, the surest ticket to the middle class.
But just when it’s never been more important, it’s also never been
more expensive. The average undergrad who borrows to pay for college
ends up graduating with about $28,000 in student loan debt.
That’s why my Administration has worked hard to make college more
affordable. We expanded tax credits and Pell Grants, enacted the
largest reform to student loan programs in history, and fought to keep
interest rates on student loans low. We’ve acted to let millions of
graduates cap loan payments at 10 percent of their income, so they don’t
have to choose between paying the rent and paying back their debt.
I’ve sent Congress my plan to bring the cost of community college down
to zero – because two years of higher education should be as free and
universal as high school is today.
But all of us – elected officials, universities, business leaders –
everybody – needs to do more to bring down college costs. Which is why
this week, I unveiled another way that we can help more Americans afford
college. It doesn’t involve any new spending or bureaucracy. It’s a
simple declaration of values – what I call a Student Aid Bill of
Rights. It says that every student deserves access to a quality,
affordable education. Every student should be able to access the
resources to pay for college. Every borrower has the right to an
affordable repayment plan. And every borrower has the right to quality
customer service, reliable information, and fair treatment, even if they
struggle to repay their loans.
That’s it. Just a few simple principles. But if we all rally around
these principles, there’s a lot that colleges, lenders, and the people
you sent to Washington and to your state legislatures can do to realize
them across the country.
So if you believe in a Student Aid Bill of Rights that will help more
Americans pay for a quality education, I’m asking you to visit
WhiteHouse.gov/CollegeOpportunity. Sign your name to this declaration.
Tell your families, and your friends, and fellow students. I’m going
to ask Members of Congress, and lenders, and as many business leaders as
I can find. Because making sure that students aren’t saddled with debt
before they even get started in life is in all our interests.
In America, a higher education cannot be a privilege reserved for
only the few. It has to be available to everybody who’s willing to work
for it.
What I'd like to do today is talk about oneof my favorite subjects,and that is the neuroscience of sleep.
Now, there is a sound --(Alarm clock) --aah, it worked --a sound that is desperately, desperately familiar to most of us,and of course it's the sound of the alarm clock.And what that truly ghastly, awful sound doesis stop the single most important behavioral experiencethat we have, and that's sleep.If you're an average sort of person,36 percent of your life will be spent asleep,which means that if you live to 90,then 32 years will have been spent entirely asleep.
Now what that 32 years is telling usis that sleep at some level is important.And yet, for most of us, we don't give sleep a second thought.We throw it away.We really just don't think about sleep.And so what I'd like to do todayis change your views,change your ideas and your thoughts about sleep.And the journey that I want to take you on,we need to start by going back in time.
"Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber."Any ideas who said that?Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.Yes, let me give you a few more quotes."O sleep, O gentle sleep, nature's soft nurse,how have I frighted thee?"Shakespeare again, from -- I won't say it --the Scottish play. [Correction: Henry IV, Part 2](Laughter)From the same time:"Sleep is the golden chainthat ties health and our bodies together."Extremely prophetic, by Thomas Dekker,another Elizabethan dramatist.
But if we jump forward 400 years,the tone about sleep changes somewhat.This is from Thomas Edison, from the beginning of the 20th century."Sleep is a criminal waste of timeand a heritage from our cave days." Bang.(Laughter)And if we also jump into the 1980s, some of youmay remember that Margaret Thatcherwas reported to have said, "Sleep is for wimps."And of course the infamous -- what was his name? --the infamous Gordon Gekko from "Wall Street" said,"Money never sleeps."
What do we do in the 20th century about sleep?Well, of course, we use Thomas Edison's light bulbto invade the night, and we occupied the dark,and in the process of this occupation,we've treated sleep as an illness, almost.We've treated it as an enemy.At most now, I suppose, we tolerate the need for sleep,and at worst perhaps many of us think of sleepas an illness that needs some sort of a cure.And our ignorance about sleep is really quite profound.
Why is it? Why do we abandon sleep in our thoughts?Well, it's because you don't do anything muchwhile you're asleep, it seems.You don't eat. You don't drink.And you don't have sex.Well, most of us anyway.And so therefore it's --Sorry. It's a complete waste of time, right? Wrong.Actually, sleep is an incredibly important part of our biology,and neuroscientists are beginning to explain whyit's so very important.So let's move to the brain.
Now, here we have a brain.This is donated by a social scientist,and they said they didn't know what it was,or indeed how to use it, so --(Laughter)Sorry.So I borrowed it. I don't think they noticed. Okay.
(Laughter)
The point I'm trying to make is that when you're asleep,this thing doesn't shut down.In fact, some areas of the brain are actually more activeduring the sleep state than during the wake state.The other thing that's really important about sleepis that it doesn't arise from a single structure within the brain,but is to some extent a network property,and if we flip the brain on its back --I love this little bit of spinal cord here --this bit here is the hypothalamus,and right under there is a whole raft of interesting structures,not least the biological clock.The biological clock tells us when it's good to be up,when it's good to be asleep,and what that structure does is interactwith a whole raft of other areas within the hypothalamus,the lateral hypothalamus, the ventrolateral preoptic nuclei.All of those combine, and they send projectionsdown to the brain stem here.The brain stem then projects forwardand bathes the cortex, this wonderfully wrinkly bit over here,with neurotransmitters that keep us awakeand essentially provide us with our consciousness.So sleep arises from a whole raftof different interactions within the brain,and essentially, sleep is turned on and offas a result of a range of interactions in here.
Okay. So where have we got to?We've said that sleep is complicatedand it takes 32 years of our life.But what I haven't explained is what sleep is about.So why do we sleep?And it won't surprise any of you that, of course,the scientists, we don't have a consensus.There are dozens of different ideas about why we sleep,and I'm going to outline three of those.
The first is sort of the restoration idea,and it's somewhat intuitive.Essentially, all the stuff we've burned up during the day,we restore, we replace, we rebuild during the night.And indeed, as an explanation,it goes back to Aristotle,so that's, what, 2,300 years ago.It's gone in and out of fashion.It's fashionable at the moment because what's been shownis that within the brain, a whole raft of geneshave been shown to be turned on only during sleep,and those genes are associated with restorationand metabolic pathways.So there's good evidence for the whole restoration hypothesis.
What about energy conservation?Again, perhaps intuitive.You essentially sleep to save calories.Now, when you do the sums, though,it doesn't really pan out.If you compare an individual who hasslept at night, or stayed awake and hasn't moved very much,the energy saving of sleeping is about 110 calories a night.Now, that's the equivalent of a hot dog bun.Now, I would say that a hot dog bunis kind of a meager return for such a complicatedand demanding behavior as sleep.So I'm less convinced by the energy conservation idea.
But the third idea I'm quite attracted to,which is brain processing and memory consolidation.What we know is that, if after you've tried to learn a task,and you sleep-deprive individuals,the ability to learn that task is smashed.It's really hugely attenuated.So sleep and memory consolidation is also very important.However, it's not just the laying down of memoryand recalling it.What's turned out to be really excitingis that our ability to come up with novel solutionsto complex problems is hugely enhanced by a night of sleep.In fact, it's been estimated to give us a threefold advantage.Sleeping at night enhances our creativity.And what seems to be going on is that, in the brain,those neural connections that are important,those synaptic connections that are important,are linked and strengthened,while those that are less importanttend to fade away and be less important.
Okay. So we've had three explanations for why we might sleep,and I think the important thing to realize is thatthe details will vary, and it's probable we sleep for multiple different reasons.But sleep is not an indulgence.It's not some sort of thing that we can take on board rather casually.I think that sleep was once likened to an upgradefrom economy to business class, you know, the equivalent of.It's not even an upgrade from economy to first class.The critical thing to realize is thatif you don't sleep, you don't fly.Essentially, you never get there,and what's extraordinary about much of our society these daysis that we are desperately sleep-deprived.
So let's now look at sleep deprivation.Huge sectors of society are sleep-deprived,and let's look at our sleep-o-meter.So in the 1950s, good data suggests that most of uswere getting around about eight hours of sleep a night.Nowadays, we sleep one and a half to two hours less every night,so we're in the six-and-a-half-hours-every-night league.For teenagers, it's worse, much worse.They need nine hours for full brain performance,and many of them, on a school night,are only getting five hours of sleep.It's simply not enough.If we think about other sectors of society, the aged,if you are aged, then your ability to sleep in a single blockis somewhat disrupted, and many sleep, again,less than five hours a night.Shift work. Shift work is extraordinary,perhaps 20 percent of the working population,and the body clock does not shift to the demandsof working at night.It's locked onto the same light-dark cycle as the rest of us.So when the poor old shift worker is going hometo try and sleep during the day, desperately tired,the body clock is saying, "Wake up. This is the time to be awake."So the quality of sleep that you get as a night shift workeris usually very poor, again in that sort of five-hour region.And then, of course, tens of millions of peoplesuffer from jet lag.So who here has jet lag?Well, my goodness gracious.Well, thank you very much indeed for not falling asleep,because that's what your brain is craving.
One of the things that the brain doesis indulge in micro-sleeps,this involuntary falling asleep,and you have essentially no control over it.Now, micro-sleeps can be sort of somewhat embarrassing,but they can also be deadly.It's been estimated that 31 percent of driverswill fall asleep at the wheel at least once in their life,and in the U.S., the statistics are pretty good:100,000 accidents on the freewayhave been associated with tiredness,loss of vigilance, and falling asleep.A hundred thousand a year. It's extraordinary.At another level of terror,we dip into the tragic accidents at Chernobyland indeed the space shuttle Challenger,which was so tragically lost.And in the investigations that followed those disasters,poor judgment as a result of extended shift workand loss of vigilance and tirednesswas attributed to a big chunk of those disasters.
So when you're tired, and you lack sleep,you have poor memory, you have poor creativity,you have increased impulsiveness,and you have overall poor judgment.But my friends, it's so much worse than that.
(Laughter)
If you are a tired brain,the brain is craving things to wake it up.So drugs, stimulants. Caffeine representsthe stimulant of choice across much of the Western world.Much of the day is fueled by caffeine,and if you're a really naughty tired brain, nicotine.And of course, you're fueling the waking statewith these stimulants,and then of course it gets to 11 o'clock at night,and the brain says to itself, "Ah, well actually,I need to be asleep fairly shortly.What do we do about that when I'm feeling completely wired?"Well, of course, you then resort to alcohol.Now alcohol, short-term, you know, once or twice,to use to mildly sedate you, can be very useful.It can actually ease the sleep transition.But what you must be so aware ofis that alcohol doesn't provide sleep,a biological mimic for sleep. It sedates you.So it actually harms some of the neural proccessingthat's going on during memory consolidationand memory recall.So it's a short-term acute measure,but for goodness sake, don't become addictedto alcohol as a way of getting to sleep every night.
Another connection between loss of sleep is weight gain.If you sleep around about five hours or less every night,then you have a 50 percent likelihood of being obese.What's the connection here?Well, sleep loss seems to give rise to the releaseof the hormone ghrelin, the hunger hormone.Ghrelin is released. It gets to the brain.The brain says, "I need carbohydrates,"and what it does is seek out carbohydratesand particularly sugars.So there's a link between tirednessand the metabolic predisposition for weight gain.
Stress. Tired people are massively stressed.And one of the things of stress, of course,is loss of memory,which is what I sort of just then had a little lapse of.But stress is so much more.So if you're acutely stressed, not a great problem,but it's sustained stressassociated with sleep loss that's the problem.So sustained stress leads to suppressed immunity,and so tired people tend to have higher rates of overall infection,and there's some very good studies showingthat shift workers, for example, have higher rates of cancer.Increased levels of stress throw glucose into the circulation.Glucose becomes a dominant part of the vasculatureand essentially you become glucose intolerant.Therefore, diabetes 2.Stress increases cardiovascular diseaseas a result of raising blood pressure.So there's a whole raft of things associated with sleep lossthat are more than just a mildly impaired brain,which is where I think most people thinkthat sleep loss resides.
So at this point in the talk, this is a nice time to think,well, do you think on the whole I'm getting enough sleep?So a quick show of hands.Who feels that they're getting enough sleep here?Oh. Well, that's pretty impressive.Good. We'll talk more about that later, about what are your tips.
So most of us, of course, ask the question,"Well, how do I know whether I'm getting enough sleep?"Well, it's not rocket science.If you need an alarm clock to get you out of bed in the morning,if you are taking a long time to get up,if you need lots of stimulants,if you're grumpy, if you're irritable,if you're told by your work colleaguesthat you're looking tired and irritable,chances are you are sleep-deprived.Listen to them. Listen to yourself.
What do you do?Well -- and this is slightly offensive --sleep for dummies:Make your bedroom a haven for sleep.The first critical thing is make it as dark as you possibly can,and also make it slightly cool. Very important.Actually, reduce your amount of light exposureat least half an hour before you go to bed.Light increases levels of alertness and will delay sleep.What's the last thing that most of us do before we go to bed?We stand in a massively lit bathroomlooking into the mirror cleaning our teeth.It's the worst thing we can possibly dobefore we went to sleep.Turn off those mobile phones. Turn off those computers.Turn off all of those things that are also going to excite the brain.Try not to drink caffeine too late in the day,ideally not after lunch.Now, we've set about reducing light exposure before you go to bed,but light exposure in the morningis very good at setting the biological clock to the light-dark cycle.So seek out morning light.Basically, listen to yourself.Wind down. Do those sorts of things that you knoware going to ease you offinto the honey-heavy dew of slumber.
Okay. That's some facts. What about some myths?
Teenagers are lazy. No. Poor things.They have a biological predispositionto go to bed late and get up late, so give them a break.
We need eight hours of sleep a night.That's an average. Some people need more. Some people need less.And what you need to do is listen to your body.Do you need that much or do you need more?Simple as that.
Old people need less sleep. Not true.The sleep demands of the aged do not go down.Essentially, sleep fragments and becomes less robust,but sleep requirements do not go down.
And the fourth myth is,early to bed, early to risemakes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.Well that's wrong at so many different levels.(Laughter)There is no, no evidence that getting up earlyand going to bed early gives you more wealth at all.There's no difference in socioeconomic status.In my experience, the only difference betweenmorning people and evening peopleis that those people that get up in the morning earlyare just horribly smug.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Okay. So for the last part, the last few minutes,what I want to do is change gearsand talk about some really new, breaking areas of neuroscience,which is the association between mental health,mental illness and sleep disruption.We've known for 130 years that in severe mental illness,there is always, always sleep disruption,but it's been largely ignored.In the 1970s, when people started to think about this again,they said, "Yes, well, of course you have sleep disruptionin schizophrenia because they're on anti-psychotics.It's the anti-psychotics causing the sleep problems,"ignoring the fact that for a hundred years previously,sleep disruption had been reported before anti-psychotics.
So what's going on?Lots of groups, several groups are studyingconditions like depression, schizophrenia and bipolar,and what's going on in terms of sleep disruption.We have a big study which we published last year on schizophrenia,and the data were quite extraordinary.In those individuals with schizophrenia,much of the time, they were awake during the night phaseand then they were asleep during the day.Other groups showed no 24-hour patterns whatsoever.Their sleep was absolutely smashed.And some had no ability to regulate their sleep by the light-dark cycle.They were getting up later and later and laterand later each night. It was smashed.
So what's going on?And the really exciting news is thatmental illness and sleep are not simply associatedbut they are physically linked within the brain.The neural networks that predispose you to normal sleep,give you normal sleep, and those that give younormal mental health are overlapping.And what's the evidence for that?Well, genes that have been shown to be very importantin the generation of normal sleep,when mutated, when changed,also predispose individuals to mental health problems.And last year, we published a studywhich showed that a gene that's been linked to schizophrenia,which, when mutated, also smashes the sleep.So we have evidence of a genuine mechanistic overlapbetween these two important systems.
Other work flowed from these studies.The first was that sleep disruption actually precedescertain types of mental illness,and we've shown that in those young individualswho are at high risk of developing bipolar disorder,they already have a sleep abnormalityprior to any clinical diagnosis of bipolar.The other bit of data was that sleep disruptionmay actually exacerbate,make worse the mental illness state.My colleague Dan Freeman has used a range of agentswhich have stabilized sleep and reduced levels of paranoiain those individuals by 50 percent.
So what have we got?We've got, in these connections, some really exciting things.In terms of the neuroscience, by understandingthe neuroscience of these two systems,we're really beginning to understand how both sleepand mental illness are generated and regulated within the brain.The second area is that if we can use sleepand sleep disruption as an early warning signal,then we have the chance of going in.If we know that these individuals are vulnerable,early intervention then becomes possible.And the third, which I think is the most exciting,is that we can think of the sleep centers within the brainas a new therapeutic target.Stabilize sleep in those individuals who are vulnerable,we can certainly make them healthier,but also alleviate some of the appalling symptoms of mental illness.
So let me just finish.What I started by saying is take sleep seriously.Our attitudes toward sleep are so very differentfrom a pre-industrial age,when we were almost wrapped in a duvet.We used to understand intuitively the importance of sleep.And this isn't some sort of crystal-waving nonsense.This is a pragmatic response to good health.If you have good sleep, it increases your concentration,attention, decision-making, creativity, social skills, health.If you get sleep, it reduces your mood changes, your stress,your levels of anger, your impulsivity,and your tendency to drink and take drugs.And we finished by sayingthat an understanding of the neuroscience of sleepis really informing the way we think aboutsome of the causes of mental illness,and indeed is providing us new waysto treat these incredibly debilitating conditions.
Jim Butcher, the fantasy writer, said,"Sleep is God. Go worship."And I can only recommend that you do the same.
