COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Rotten to the Corps




Jessica L. Wright, the acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said today that the Defense Department must maintain its commitment to diversity and inclusion, which contribute to mission success.
She asserted that diversity helps civilian and military employees perform well because they “represent the nation in our workforce.”
The Defense Department not only talks “about diversity in terms of race and gender, and ethnicity, but it is much more than that in my mind,” Wright said. She declared that diversity included “your thought process, how you grew up, [and] what you can add to the greater good because of your background.”
Wright, the very model of a modern retired major general in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, was speaking Tuesday on best practices for inclusion and diversity at an event hosted by the German Marhsall Fund of the United States.
The webpage for the event, titled “Mission Critical: Transatlantic Security and Diversity,” declared, “it is a security imperative for military leaders to proactively advance diversity and inclusion (D&I) best practices,” because of the “rapid demographic change [and] advances in gender and LGBT equity and a new generation of veterans in NATO countries.”
-----------------------------------------

"The US Armed Forces have become rotten through political correctness. 

5,000 years of recorded military history show that unit cohesion, esprit de corps, combat effectiveness, etc., is not enhanced by increased 'diversity', whatever that means. It is done through people seeing themselves as one single unit, not as a collection of individuals. 

From Gen. Dempsey's worries that the worst possible outcome of the Ft. Hood shooting would be if it harmed the Armys diversity, to this dingy broad, the fact that so many of our so-called military leaders seem to believe 'diversity' is essential to the military's mission makes me wonder exactly what the mission of the military is these days."

 - tanarur

206 comments:

  1. Jessica L. Wright

    Secretary Jessica L. Wright was selected to serve as Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readinesson January 1, 2013. Previously, she was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs on May 24th, 2012.

    She is the deputy senior policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense on recruitment, career development, pay and benefits for 1.4 million active duty military personnel, 1.3 million Guard and Reserve personnel, 680,000 DoD civilians, and is responsible for overseeing the overall state of military readiness.

    Mrs. Wright retired as a Major General in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Her distinguished 35 year career of military service culminated in her final assignment as Adjutant General of Pennsylvania and commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard. In this State of Pennsylvania Cabinet-level position, she was responsible for command, control and supervision of all Air and Army National Guard units allocated to the state of Pennsylvania, six state-owned veterans’ homes, and programs for Pennsylvania’s one million veterans. Prior to this assignment, she also served as the deputy adjutant general for the Army.

    Mrs. Wright began her military career as an enlistee in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1975, after graduating from Alderson Broaddus College with a bachelor's degree in social work. She also holds a master's degree in management from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Army Ready

    ...graduating from Alderson Broaddus College with a bachelor's degree in social work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can’t cut a penny from the mission muthafuckas.

    OOrah

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cut it in half, starting with leasing out half of the Pentagon to______________________ (fill in the blank)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Let’s see, how about the Veterans Administration for a rehabilitation hospital for all the pathetic maimed and injured.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Diversity is mission one. Be all you can be.

    ReplyDelete
  7. First, the Bad news:

    Our National Debt Service increased about $25 billion/yr.

    The Good News is, Our National Income Increased $325 Billion.

    Congrats, America

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Federal Reserve is now printing 900 billion a year in free money.

      Delete
    2. That's what they're supposed to do when Year Over Year inflation is running at 1.2%.

      Delete
    3. Remember, they (The Federal Reserve) can Sell those bonds just as fast as they're buying them.

      Delete
    4. Our National Debt Service increased about $25 billion/yr.

      The Good News is, Our National Income Increased $325 Billion.

      -------------------

      With the fed having purchased so many assets, what is their income?

      Delete
    5. I guess I should have included the 7.2% Unemployment Rate, along with the 1.2% CPI.

      Delete
    6. The income must exceed the incremental debt service.

      Delete
    7. Remember, Deuce, most of the Federal Reserve profits go back into the Treasury.

      Delete
    8. How would you like a business that increases its Income Thirteen Times its increase in debt service?

      Add $25,000.00 in debt service, and pick up $325,000.00 in Cash Flow.

      Delete
    9. Gotta quit typing; my shoulder says No Mas.

      Delete
    10. Well the government is taking in 23% of that, but it is still not shoddy.

      Don’t look now, but another Asian crisis may be brewing — courtesy of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

      A paper recently published by the Bank of International Settlements — a multilateral club of monetary authorities that includes the Fed as a member — noted that central bank bond-buying, or “quantitative easing,” has made dollar-based loans so cheap that Asian companies are ramping up their borrowing in greenbacks. The paper’s authors fear that once the Fed and the Bank of Japan eventually turn off their liquidity taps, rising dollar interest rates will leave these Asian debtors unable to pay back the money.

      That should trigger uncomfortable memories of the debt and currency “death spiral” of 1997-98, when plunging local currencies fueled a crisis in Asia that spread financial contagion around the world.

      - Marketwatch

      Delete
    11. :) What? That's the only time all day I know what I'm doing.

      Delete
    12. Rufus IIThu Oct 31, 08:46:00 AM EDT
      I guess I should have included the 7.2% Unemployment Rate, along with the 1.2% CPI.

      The actual unemployment rate when using the same metrics and statistics as just 6 years ago is over 10%. The workforce has shrunk, they do not measure those unemployed for more than 60 days now.

      Now if you take into account the numbers of college kids who now get loans for advanced degrees to stay in school rather than even try to get a job?

      it's a clusterfuck.

      Delete
    13. Rufus IIThu Oct 31, 08:42:00 AM EDT
      That's what they're supposed to do when Year Over Year inflation is running at 1.2%.

      That's why a set of tires is now $800, health care for a family of four is $1200 a month, your water and electric bills have doubled...

      But the government says 1.2% inflation.

      LOL

      Delete
    14. The CPI is a fraud, as many noted economists have pointed out. When you get to adjust accounting rules to meet the needs of propaganda, you are left with...well...a hoax.

      As to good news, it is being reported that the deficit will be less than a trillion dollars. Let's have a party!

      Delete
    15. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    16. Flat screen TVs are WAY DOWN.
      Gasoline is down, almost 15% from last year.
      Housing costs are WAY DOWN

      The rate of inflation depends upon what is in the basket of goods being measured

      Medical insurance, go get a ObamaCare subsidy.
      If you earn to much to qualify, pay the fees, keep your mouth shut and soldier on..

      Bunch of whining sissies.




      Delete
  8. If you have nothing nice to say? Say nothing at all....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”

      Delete
    2. A Wild Ride


      A soft, cool wind blew over the grass, riffling it
      in gentle waves on the slope leading down to the lake.
      Birds chirped in nearby trees, and a rabbit sat on
      a rock near the water, scratching it’s ears with it’s
      long hind leg.

      Nature, in all it’s peaceful glory.

      Delete
  9. That should trigger uncomfortable memories of the debt and currency “death spiral” of 1997-98, when plunging local currencies fueled a crisis in Asia that spread financial contagion around the world.

    Around that time, gas dipped below a buck. Sucked to be Indonesia or Korea, great to be a Yank. Gas down to $3.11 here as it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Diesel is still $3.77.. the real price of fuel

      Delete
    2. Gas is selling in Middle Georgia for less than $3.00/gal. As usual, Atlanta is an exception.

      Delete
    3. That diesel price, DOWN by over 15%, locally.

      Delete
    4. Was over $4.16, locally, that is a piece of DEFLATION, year over year.

      As noted above, it is all in the contents of the basket

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. In case you're wondering, this one isn't looking a lot better:

      Gulf of Mexico

      Delete
    2. Down 29% from its recent high, and falling fast.

      Delete
    3. Do not confuse them with facts, rufus.

      Especially when the facts challenge their opinions.

      Delete
    4. Yeah, the "fact" is, they're right to be worried, Rat; it's just that they're worried about the thing that is diametrically opposite of what they Should be worried about.

      :(

      It's frustrating, but there's nothing to do about it, I suppose.

      Delete
    5. If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once.
      Then come back and hit it again.
      Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

      Delete
    6. Whackadoodle is a professional asshole.

      Ditto

      Ditto
      ]
      DITTO



      (though there's nothing important about it, and everyone knows it anyway)

      Delete
    7. .


      The Bobsy Twins at the seashore.


      .

      Delete
    8. I've maintained here, only partly in jest, that the whole wind blown riffle was a literary event, a contest between two opposed readings of the Christian Bible.

      One wonders how he could show such callous disregard of the human carnage, the 600,000 or even more dead Americans, all that pain, and treat it so lightly as a wind riffle across the pairie?

      It has been documented that Fudd is …
      …. a fella that would not even protect the women of his community from a rapist.

      Delete
    9. The girls and he, combined to create a Zone of Silence about the assault.
      He broke down and told us about it, self discipline never being on of Fudd's character points. It seems that 'Breaking Cover' was an attempt to clear his conscience. Saying he had only been concerned with appearances, his daughter's reputation not her or their family friends and neighbor's safety, not his community's security.

      After she had been raped, after the news leaked out of Fudd's butt, there were suspicions in the community that the assault may well have been a "family affair".

      Farmer Fudd, he and the girls subsequently moved from that town.

      His wife will no longer sleep in the same room with him.

      Delete
    10. “Life is indeed a storm and while there are times you can sit and watch from the safety of a window pane there are moments you need to grit your teeth and take on the wind and the rain.”

      Delete
    11. Modestas RinkeviciusThu Oct 31, 01:39:00 PM EDT

      Sometimes all you need is a simple 'sorry.'

      Delete
    12. “It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.”

      Delete
    13. William Tecumseh ShermanThu Oct 31, 01:42:00 PM EDT

      You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war.
      They are inevitable, and the only way that Farmer Fudd can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.

      Delete
    14. .

      It's what happens when the asylum grants inmates access to computers.

      .

      Delete
    15. monomanic - Intent concentration on or exaggerated enthusiasm for a single subject or idea.

      resolve - firm determination to do something.

      There is a monomanic resolve to garner an apology or ruin his experience.
      To cause Farmer Fudd to obsess on the desert rat, while the rat dances away under any number of other aliases.

      As Ernest Hemingway said ...
      When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.

      And desert rat is having a lot of fun with this ...
      Make no mistake, about that.

      Delete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A big step forward, and another indication that US foreign policy does , indeed ...

      Stay the Course!

      Syria has destroyed critical equipment for producing chemical weapons and poison gas munitions, the global chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday as fierce clashes raged in the country's north, close to one of the sites where toxic agents are believed to be stored.

      The announcement by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons came one day ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline set by The Hague-based organization for Damascus to destroy or "render inoperable" all chemical weapon production facilities and machinery for mixing chemicals into poison gas and filling munitions.

      The completion of what is essentially the initial stage of destruction is a significant milestone in an ambitious timeline that aims to destroy all of Damascus' chemical weapons by mid-2014.

      Destruction of the equipment means that Syria can no longer produce new chemical weapons.

      Delete
    2. See, there you go - just another Obama foreign policy disaster.

      Delete
    3. Disaster for Lockheed, and Northrup, anyway.

      Delete
    4. .

      Destruction of the equipment means that Syria can no longer produce new chemical weapons.

      A good thing. Too bad the US and Russia weren't in the same boat.

      While the destruction of the chemical weapons was a good thing in and of itself it is insignificant in the broader issue of the war in Syria. Thousands (not hundreds) continue to die, 7 million refugees. All of the players are still in place.

      The only thing this did was replace newspaper headlines of the carnage in Syria with a 'feel good' story.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      Disaster for Lockheed, and Northrup, anyway.


      LOL

      .

      Delete
    6. "Destruction of the equipment means that Syria can no longer produce new chemical weapons."

      :-)

      Delete
    7. Just to perfectly clear, I think the statement incorrect to the point of childishness.

      Delete
  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Business Activity in the U.S. Midwest Surged

    By Alister Bull and Pedro da Costa
    WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 31, 2013 10:47am EDT

    (Reuters) - Business activity in the U.S. Midwest surged past expectations in October as new orders hit their highest level since 2004, countering recent evidence of soft economic growth.

    Weekly unemployment claims also fell, in welcome news for the nation's battered labor market after the impact of a government shutdown on furloughed federal workers diminished.

    The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business barometer jumped to 65.9 from 55.7, the strongest reading since March 2011 and well above the most optimistic forecast in a Reuters poll.

    Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

    The U.S. job market has apparently slackened in recent months, with private-sector employers hiring fewer workers in October after uncertainty caused by budget brinkmanship in Washington dented confidence among both consumers and businesses.

    ReplyDelete
  14. .

    Our National Debt Service increased about $25 billion/yr.

    The Good News is, Our National Income Increased $325 Billion.


    The article referred to revenue rather than National Income so I assume that was what was meant. However, most of the revenue increase was due to taxes increases (FICA, higher incomes, various smaller taxes) rather than actual growth except possibly at the high end. The FICA hit was the big one and was one more instance of the little guy taking it in the ass.

    As for Debt Service, it never goes away. Like Topsy, it just keep growing.

    .





    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know why you would "assume" that. I multiplied the increase in debt ($680 Billion) by a, perhaps slightly high, estimated interest rate of 3.68%

      Delete
    2. Government Revenue, on the other hand, increased by $325 Billion.

      Delete
    3. Government Debt is not similar to "household" debt. Your "household" does not own its own printing press.

      Delete
    4. At least, not legally, anyway. :)

      Delete
    5. .

      Go back and read what you wrote and what I wrote again.

      You said National Income not Revenue rose by $325 billion.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      The Good News is, Our National Income Increased $325 Billion.

      Good Lord, Rufus, has that pain in your arm gone to your head?

      .

      Delete
    7. Okay, okay, the "revenues to the government" increased by $325 Billion."

      Is that better? gimmee a break.

      Delete
  15. MOSCOW, October 31 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive former US security contractor Edward Snowden has found a website maintenance job in Russia, his lawyer said Thursday.

    Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia this summer, will start work November 1 in maintaining one of Russia’s largest websites, Anatoly Kucherena said.

    Kucherena refused to reveal the name of Snowden’s new workplace “for security reasons.”

    Snowden, a former employee of the US National Security Agency, fled the United States for Hong Kong and then Moscow after leaking details of several top-secret government surveillance programs to the media.

    Russia granted him asylum, despite repeated demands from the US for his extradition. Snowden has since August been living at an undisclosed location in Russia.

    Technology news website Digit.ru speculated that Snowden may have joined social networking site VKontakte.ru, Russia’s equivalent of Facebook.

    The website, an affiliate of RIA Novosti, said other major Russian online companies, including Yandex and Mail.ru, had categorically denied they had hired Snowden.

    VKontakte spokesman Georgy Lobushkin said he could not comment on the issue, but would not rule out his company had recruited Snowden.

    ReplyDelete
  16. IT'S SUNNY TV FOR HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/31/sunnytv-hey-obamazombies-bite-me-video/

    Subject: ObamaZombies (think Rufus)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.”

      Delete
  17. Desert Rat's wife sleeps with a self confessed professional asshole and self confessed criminal. She must have more stomach than the first wife, who 'dropped the kid' and got the hell out. Rat doesn't pay child support. Meanwhile, Bob humps his wife with regularity and then leaves her to sleep peacefully, like gentlemen do. And sends his kids money each month, even though they are grown.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. . . . sends his kids money each month, even though they are grown.

      The above is indication of one of two things.

      1. He did such a poor job raising his children that they cannot support themselves.

      2. He abused them so, that the hush money payments have to be sent each month, or the Authorities will be informed of his transgressions.

      He reports, you decide.

      Delete
    3. Bob humps his wife with regularity and then leaves her ...

      Marital rape, also known as spousal rape, is non-consensual sex in which the perpetrator is the victim's spouse. It is a form of partner rape, of domestic violence, and of sexual abuse. It can be equally, if not more, emotionally and physically damaging than rape by a stranger.

      Once widely condoned or ignored by law, spousal rape is now repudiated by international conventions and increasingly criminalized.

      Delete
    4. Damned right he is.

      Doesn't accuse the host of the blog of destroying evidence of capital crimes in the course of a FBI invesigation.
      Doesn't accuse any other contributor of crimes.

      Just Farmer Fudd.
      A character created just for that purpose.

      Don't blame me if Robert identifies so thoroughly with the Character.
      Just because I knew he would.

      If he didn't, he wouldn't be incensed.
      But he does, and I find it entertaining.

      As I am sure he found accusing desert rat of murder to be joyous.

      Turn about, is fair play.
      It will continue until he signs on and apologizes for those claims of criminality.

      Delete
    5. Don't stop thinkin' about tomorrow!

      Delete
  18. Email from Mat --

    http://imgur.com/9YSxdlM

    out

    ReplyDelete
  19. Quirk will be out Halloweening tonight with the other kids with his gunny sack, seeking free food. One year he dressed up a a red Indian and got an arrow in his ass. Another time was was in cowboy duds and got a fist in his face. Once he was dressed as Sonny Crockett and got two or three girls. Finally, I recall him dressed a a vandalizing Viking from Vendel (Vendle), Sweden, and he was arrested for slicing garden hoses.

    Tonight? Probably dress as Sebelius, who certainly has the look of a demented zombie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk always asks for Skittles, and if he gets, say, Milk Duds instead your garden hose is a gonner.

      Delete

  20. Here Is the Short GOP Quote That Perfectly Defines the Shutdown
    Forty-eight hours into the negotiations, one Republican stalwart's official position is that he has no idea what he's negotiating for.

    “We’re not going to be disrespected,” conservative Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., [told the Washington Examiner].
    “We have to get something out of this.
    And I don’t know what that even is.”


    .The Libertarian, a microcosm of the whirled.
    Make no mistake, the Hegemony of Character knows EXACTLY what it wants.

    It will not tire, will not slacken in its resolve.
    It will garner its apology or not, but if not, the battle rages on.

    It will carpet bomb, it will harass, it will sanction.
    It will take Winston's words to heart.

    Whatever the cost may be,
    we shall fight on the beaches,
    we shall fight on the landing grounds,
    we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
    we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.


    Farmer Fudd said we should take Winston's words to heart.
    Just one of the reasons Mr Churchill has been enlisted in ...
    The Hegemony of Character.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The disrespect sentiment echoes vintage Newt Gingrich, ...
      who famously bragged in 1995 to have shut down the government partly because ...
      President Clinton forced him to sit in the back of Air Force One on a trip to Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral.

      “It’s petty,” Gingrich said then, “but I think it’s human.”


      Gingrich has always been an asshole, too.

      Delete
    2. ...a microcosm of Bellevue...

      Delete
  21. Major Robert RogersThu Oct 31, 02:49:00 PM EDT

    Standing Orders:

    If somebody’s trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you.

    Don’t stand up when the enemy’s coming against you. Kneel down, lie down, and hide behind a tree.

    Let the enemy come till he’s almost close enough to touch. Then let him have it and jump out and finish him with your hatchet.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Henry David ThoreauThu Oct 31, 02:52:00 PM EDT

    The frontiers are not east or west, north or south; but wherever a man fronts a fact, ...
    though that fact be a neighbor, there is an unsettled wilderness between him and Canada, ...
    between him and the setting sun, or, farther still, between him and it.

    Let him build himself a log house with the bark on where he is, fronting IT, and wage there an Old French war for seven or seventy years, ... with Indians and Rangers, or whatever else may come between him and the reality, and save his scalp if he can.

    ReplyDelete
  23. from The Hilarious and Sad file -

    Rep. Cory Gardner: "Why aren't you losing your insurance?"
    HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: "Pardon me?"
    Gardner: "Why aren't you losing your health insurance?"
    Sebelius: "Because I'm part of the federal employees' medical plan."
    Gardner: "Why aren't you in the exchange? You're in charge of this law, correct? Why aren't you in the exchange?"
    Sebelius: "Because I'm part of the federal employee health benefit plan."
    Gardner: "Why aren't you in the exchange? Why won't you go into the exchange? You're a part of this law - you're literally in charge of this law - should you be any different than all of the other Americans out there who are losing their health insurance?"
    Sebelius: "I am a part of the 95% with affordable available health care coverage as are most of your colleagues."
    Gardner: "You part of a plan that most Americans are not available to them. Why will you not agree to..."
    Sebelius: "I am not eligible for the exchange."
    Gardner: "You can decide to drop the coverage from your employer. You have the choice to decide not to choose..."
    Sebelius: "That is not true, sir."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gardner: :I chose not to go..."
      Sebelius: "Members of Congress are now part of the exchange thanks to an amendment that was added by Congress, but I am not eligible. If I have affordable coverage in my workplace, I am not eligible to go into the marketplace."
      Gardner: "With all due respect, Madam Secretary, I would encourage you to be just like the American people and enter the exchange and agree to find a way to do that."
      Sebelius: "It's illegal."
      - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/craig-bannister/sebelius-im-not-losing-my-health-care-insurance-because-im-federal#sthash.Mfjpxcus.dpuf
      Rep. Cory Gardner: "Why aren't you losing your insurance?"

      HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: "Pardon me?"

      Gardner: "Why aren't you losing your health insurance?"

      Sebelius: "Because I'm part of the federal employees' medical plan."

      Gardner: "Why aren't you in the exchange? You're in charge of this law, correct? Why aren't you in the exchange?"

      Sebelius: "Because I'm part of the federal employee health benefit plan."

      Gardner: "Why aren't you in the exchange? Why won't you go into the exchange? You're a part of this law - you're literally in charge of this law - should you be any different than all of the other Americans out there who are losing their health insurance?"

      Sebelius: "I am a part of the 95% with affordable available health care coverage as are most of your colleagues."

      Gardner: "You part of a plan that most Americans are not available to them. Why will you not agree to..."

      Sebelius: "I am not eligible for the exchange."

      Gardner: "You can decide to drop the coverage from your employer. You have the choice to decide not to choose..."

      Sebelius: "That is not true, sir."

      Gardner: :I chose not to go..."

      Sebelius: "Members of Congress are now part of the exchange thanks to an amendment that was added by Congress, but I am not eligible. If I have affordable coverage in my workplace, I am not eligible to go into the marketplace."

      Gardner: "With all due respect, Madam Secretary, I would encourage you to be just like the American people and enter the exchange and agree to find a way to do that."

      Sebelius: "It's illegal."
      Rep. Cory Gardner: "Why aren't you losing your insurance?"
      HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius: "Pardon me?"
      Gardner: "Why aren't you losing your health insurance?"
      Sebelius: "Because I'm part of the federal employees' medical plan."
      Gardner: "Why aren't you in the exchange? You're in charge of this law, correct? Why aren't you in the exchange?"
      Sebelius: "Because I'm part of the federal employee health benefit plan."

      Delete
    2. Gardner: "Why aren't you in the exchange? Why won't you go into the exchange? You're a part of this law - you're literally in charge of this law - should you be any different than all of the other Americans out there who are losing their health insurance?"
      Sebelius: "I am a part of the 95% with affordable available health care coverage as are most of your colleagues."
      Gardner: "You part of a plan that most Americans are not available to them. Why will you not agree to..."
      Sebelius: "I am not eligible for the exchange."
      Gardner: "You can decide to drop the coverage from your employer. You have the choice to decide not to choose..."
      Sebelius: "That is not true, sir."
      Gardner: :I chose not to go..."
      Sebelius: "Members of Congress are now part of the exchange thanks to an amendment that was added by Congress, but I am not eligible. If I have affordable coverage in my workplace, I am not eligible to go into the marketplace."
      Gardner: "With all due respect, Madam Secretary, I would encourage you to be just like the American people and enter the exchange and agree to find a way to do that."
      Sebelius: "It's illegal."


      Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/10/sebelius_testifies_in_snl-like_hearing.html#ixzz2jKMMMP2A

      Delete
    3. Gardner is a pompous fool.

      To encourage a Federal employee to break the law, foolish.
      The Congressman is unimpressed with facts, with the reality of the law, which the Congress has passed and amended.

      Not satisfied with the answer, he continues to ask a question, the answer to which does not fit his propaganda needs. As if the answer was going to change.

      A pompous fool of a Congressman, fer sure.

      Delete
  24. Obama's likeness to Lincoln cannot be discounted. Obama is a wanna be dictator. Lincoln was a dictator in fact. He used his office to maneuver the South into firing the first shot. He needed that to justify the war that followed in which he oversaw the cold blooded murder of nearly 3/4 of a million, men, women and children during his War of Northern Aggression.
    the United States is the only country that resorted to war to resolve its slavery question.

    Lincoln used the power of his office to shutdown newspapers and imprison editors that opposed his war making policies. He had one Ohio Congressman arrested and deported to the South for opposing him. Lincoln was responsible for the draft riots in New York in which many were killed by U.S. forces.

    Lincoln didn't free the slaves out of the goodness of his heart or for his love of the American negro. His over hyped Emancipation Proclamation freed only the slaves in the states still in open conflict with the United States government. He hoped that this would cause those slaves to rise up in rebellion against their masters.

    Lincoln didn't use the slavery angle until the war became so unpopular in the North that he needed something to rekindle Northern blood lust against their southern brothers. He came up with the Emancipation Proclamation

    The southern states seceded because of the tariffs and duties collected on southern cotton that were ruining their economy. Lincoln began the war to restore the revenue houses that collected the tariffs and duties in the South that were lost by the secession.

    Contrary to government propaganda and Lincoln's legacy, secession is and was legal. It is a legal remedy to restore the balance between federal oppression and individual and state's rights. many of the state's that ratified the Constitution had language in their ratification documents that explicitly retained the secession option.

    Lincoln had meetings with prominent negro leaders in the White House during which he tried to convince them that after the war it would be wise for the negroes to emigrate to Liberia and South America.

    Obama was afraid that the parallels to his administration and Lincoln's might come out and that would have been bad for Lincoln.less

    ReplyDelete
  25. hmm, Israel just bombed Syria.

    well, that's helpful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...happened yesterday...naval...It is helpful to Israel.

      Delete
    2. More evidence of Israeli support of al-Qeada terrorists.
      This being the third or fourth incidence of Israeli air strikes in support of the terrorists operating in Syria.

      The Israeli neither confirm nor deny the reports.
      The US government does confirm the reports, though does not confirm the day of the attack.
      CNN reporting ...
      There was some confusion about the timing of the attack, with some reports saying it happened Wednesday, and others saying Thursday.

      Delete
    3. Reports from the JPost...

      Pan-Arab news outlet al-Arabiya reported on Thursday evening that Israel attacked two different targets in Syria on Wednesday: one target near the port city of Latakia and the other in Damascus.

      Al-Arabiya quoted sources saying that the target of the alleged Israeli attacks were SA-8 surface to air missiles that were being delivered to Hezbollah. The missiles were destroyed completely according to the report.

      Missiles fired from the Mediterranean sea targeted the air defense base near Latakia, according to Syrian opposition sources quoted by the report

      Delete
    4. Desert rat wrote, "This being the third or fourth incidence of Israeli air strikes in support of the terrorists operating in Syria."

      Not so, Sherlock. Stick with whatever it is you do other than sadistically harass Bob. Realpolitik is not your forte.Unlike the US, Israel has neither the time nor the trillions to play war games.

      Delete
    5. I do believe this would the fourth strike, in support of al-Qeada, by the Israeli, if there were two separate strikes in the past 48 hours.

      One was one the port, previously, when Russian AA missiles were being off loaded.
      The other on a convey of supposed chemical weapons, 30 days ago, mas o menos.

      I could dig up the dates, it'll take most of a minute.

      Delete
    6. Report: Israel led air strike in Syria on July 5
      AP 11:53 p.m. EDT July 13, 2013
      http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/13/israel-air-strike-syria/2515095/

      ///////////////////////////////
      Israel carried out an attack on July 5 near Latakia to destroy the missiles, which Russia had sold to Syria. While the warehouse was destroyed, American intelligence analysts have now concluded that at least some of the Yakhont missiles had been removed from their launchers and moved from the warehouse before the attack.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/world/middleeast/syrian-missiles-were-moved-before-israeli-strike-officials-say.html?_r=0

      //////////////////////////////

      Updated 6 May 2013
      Syrian opposition forces got a boost from two nights of Israeli airstrikes against President Assad's regime, NBC's Richard Engel reports.

      Israel strikes Syrian military research center, US official says
      By Robert Windrem, Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell, NBC News

      Israeli jets bombed a military research facility north of Damascus early Sunday, a senior official told NBC News. It marked the second Israeli attack on targets in Syria in recent days.


      ///////////////////////

      www.jpost.com/.../Israel-confirms-Syria-strike-on-Hezbollah-bound-miss...‎
      May 4, 2013 - Israel has carried out an air strike into Syria, targeting a shipment of ... target was not a Syrian chemical weapons facility, while a US official said ...


      So, it was a tad more than 60 days ago, but the Israeli HAVE been running air operations in support of al-Qeada, for months, now.

      Delete
    7. That allen would have forgotten those Israeli air strikes, surprising, or he is explicitly providing misinformation to the readers.

      Perhaps it is just a case of "convenient memory"

      Delete
    8. Allen was talking about the latest strike.

      Delete
    9. Re: allen providing misinformation to the readers

      You amaze me. :-)))

      Delete
    10. This exchange did cause me to reflect upon what I believe was a strategic error made by Israel. In 1987, Israel was "convinced" to stop development on the Lavi. At the time it had orders for over 400 of them.

      Had Israel seen the project through, it would now be a world class competitor in fighter aircraft and would not find itself dependent on the US. Of course, the American government saved its aircraft manufacturers from serious competition.

      Eventually, I hope the project is taken up. If so, Israel will be building the best fighters in the world and will not find itself at the mercy of an ally who would tell the world about Israel's latest action in Syria, for instance. Time will tell. At some point, even Israel will get far less corruptible leaders.

      http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/10/15/In-Israel-lingering-bitterness-over-a-failed-fighter-project/UPI-78961381856103/

      Delete
    11. I was talking about the Israeli striking at the Syrian five or six times, in support of al-Qaeda.
      Which they have done.

      As noted above.

      Delete



  26. Rufus IIThu Oct 31, 08:44:00 AM EDT

    Remember, they (The Federal Reserve) can Sell those bonds just as fast as they're buying them.









    say what!?



    Who will buy all those bonds if they should put them up for sale? Who will buy those bonds and at what price if interest rates should go up a bit?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...the Treasury...It's a shell game that will eventually lead to systemic collapse.

      Delete

    2. Been hearing that my entire adult life.

      Has not happened yet.

      Doubt that it happens any time soon.

      Delete
    3. Actually, it is the Fed that does the buying.

      Delete
    4. And the Fed is a conglomerate of the private banks, in the US.


      Delete
  27. As long as the Fed is buying, the interest rates won't be raising.

    If the scenario outlined in ...
    "The Supply Side Nightmare Scenario"
    is correct, interest rates will not be raising, regardless.

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/09/a-supply-side-nightmare-scenar.html

    There will be buyers, all around the world, ash.
    There is a surplus of supply, limited demand.

    US Treasuries are still the safest bet in all the world.
    And will remain so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ummm rat, errr Ed, you don't seem to understand what is going on.

      Basically the Fed is working to keep interest rates low - bend the yield curve. They have limited means to do this with the primary tool being the overnight rate. The overnight rate is virtually zero so it can't go any lower. Their new 'tool' is buy the US bonds on the open market - it keeps yields low because there is a buyer (the FED) to the tune of 85 billion US a month (note they are still buying Mortgage backed securities as well).

      Recent history - the Fed led the market to believe that they were going to start tapering which simply means they will be buying LESS per month than they are now. Interest rates immediately started to rise. They then said NO to tapering, interest rates fell.

      Now take Rufus confident assertion in to consideration. He said, with air of confident knowledge, that they can simply start selling the suckers as easily as they are buying them. You really think that is the case? If so, please tell me who will step up and buy these bonds (at their very low interest rate plus those wonderful MBS's) when there is the normal supply (current sale of new issue bonds) PLUS the backlog sitting on the FED shelves?

      Please tell us Rat, errrr ED, or Rufus why there would be a hungry market for all those bonds with a low coupon rate!

      Delete
    2. It wouldn't matter, Ash. They don't have to sell anything. They can if it suits them. You're way overthinking this.

      Delete
    3. Because there is NO WHERE else to go, ash.

      There is a surplus of production capacity in the global market.
      There is a surplus of labor.
      There is a surplus of supply.

      The money that is floating around the globe has NO WHERE else to go.
      The US, weak as it may be, will still be the "Last Man Standing".

      Go read the article, it is quite interesting.
      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/09/a-supply-side-nightmare-scenar.html

      As to the minor fluctuations, based upon the "News", that is inconsequential.
      You are conflating micro market moves with macro economics.

      I have this handy book
      "Payment Tables for Monthly Mortgages and FHA Loan

      Published in 1986.
      It STARTS at 6% and tops out at 16%

      Now, it does not even begin to contemplate 3% or 4% mortgages.

      The cost of money is much, much, much less than it has ever been in the past.
      It is part of the deflationary spiral.

      There is a surplus of cash in the market and NO WHERE for it to go, but into Treasuries.
      Go read the story

      http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/09/a-supply-side-nightmare-scenar.html

      Delete
    4. I'm not over thinking anything. You are the one blithely pontificating on things you don't understand while posing as an expert.

      of course they don't have to sell but you stated that can just as easily sell as they can buy. They can't.

      Delete
    5. Of course they can, Ash. They might lose a nickel, but that's nothing to the guy with the printing press. I can't see the sense of worrying about weird, far-out scenarios when there is a clear, and scary as hell danger looking you dead in the face.

      Delete
    6. Anon, grow some stones and pick a google name and maybe I'll consider your opinion. Most stuff published of late here isn't worth reading much less considering and responding.

      Delete
    7. Rufus, the problem is not their loss of money but rather what it will do to interest rates. If buying has an effect then selling will also.

      Delete
    8. Rat answered that, Ash. It's just really, really hard to see that "inflation/high interest rate" story coming to completion.

      Delete
    9. Ash, I've got two of those sign-ons, for the 6:56PM, I didn't use either one of them.
      Does not change the fact you should go read the story.

      Delete
    10. You were anon above rat?

      Rufus, the bond market works, fundamentally, on supply and demand. Large supply requires higher interest rate to lure buyers. The reverse is also true.

      Delete
    11. And, you adjust the interest rate "higher" by lowering the price. Yeah, Ash, it's a market; we get it. :)

      Delete
    12. And, to circle back to my original post, your statement that the fed can just as easily sell them as buy them is false!

      Delete
    13. What icons are those?

      Have you read that story, Ash
      Supply Side Nightmare Scenario

      I really would like your opinion of it.

      Delete
    14. Now, I'm doubly confused. First, I don't understand why we're having this argument, and second, I can't understand why you obviously think you have, somehow, "won" it.

      Whatever, take the pot. I'm tired of it.

      Delete
  28. The point I was trying to make was, the Fed doesn't just "make" money, it also "takes it away."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with Rat. I'm afraid we are, if anything, skating perilously close to the "Deflation" scenario.

      Delete
    2. I can't think of anything more dangerous for a Democratic, Capitalist Country than Declining Median Income.

      Delete
    3. Now, what rufus is saying, that could lead to a "System Failure".
      Not the Fed buying Treasuries.

      Which is what the Supply Side Nightmare is ALL about.

      Delete
    4. I don't think you understand, Rufus, how the FED works. In the traditional scenario, yes, they can mop the excess cash. The traditional setting is they lend to the banks at the overnight rate to put cash into the system and they call in the loans to mop up the cash.

      Please explain how they can do that with the new method of buying bonds. See my comment above for further reference.

      I look forward to you answer.

      Delete
    5. Aw, shit, Ash. Nobody understands how the Fed works. I'm watching television, giving out candy to" trick or treaters," and typing with a torn rotator cuff (I think.) They buy, and sell, bonds to their member banks. They don't have to "turn a profit" on every transaction. They have, to simplify the hell out of it, the power of the purse, And the printing press. They'll be fine (even if we're not.)

      Might I suggest Wikipedia.

      Delete
    6. He can't explain because he is wrong.

      Delete
    7. But, honestly, the whole "Fed" meme is just totally uninteresting. That isn't where the danger lies. Our problem is that everyone, down here, at least, is going broke. The jobs have gone to China, and the money is ending up in the Caymans.

      Delete
    8. Ash,

      See John Law and Mississippi Company Bubble. Law's proposition was brilliant, however it had a mortal flaw: Law did not control the printing press, the Crown did. What a million shares would do, a billion would do better, etc etc etc.

      Delete
    9. You explain to us how the Fed works, dimwitted Anonymous Farmer fuckin' Fudd.

      You are just a dumb shit that is challenged by a Google account sign-on.

      Delete
    10. And from the Caymans, into Treasuries.


      Delete
    11. There is not "To Much" money chasing "To Few" goods, the cause of inflation.

      There is "To Much" supply, driving down prices.

      Which is why inflation in the US was 1.5%, last year.
      It is not basket manipulation, it is that there is no inflation, across the entire breadth of the economy.

      Where there are some isolated price increases, mostly in food, it is offset by the decreasing costs of manufactured goods.
      Which is not about to end, because of the increase in production capacity, world wide.

      Delete
    12. And I'm sipping wine handing out candy and pecking in my phone. Yes, demand, well, the lack of, is a problem. Pouring money in at the top does not seem to be solving the demand problem. I agree tighter monetary policy will exacerbate that problem.

      rat, your stated cause of inflation is simplistic, too narrow.

      Delete
    13. It is a blog, ash.
      Go read the story ...
      A Supply Side Nightmare Scenario.
      If is a few thousand words, not simplistic, but quite informative.

      Tell me what you think of the concepts laid out in it.

      Delete
  29. Religious fanaticism is destructive and ugly no matter its guise.

    http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Shas-has-caused-poverty-says-Deputy-Minister-Ben-Dahan-330294

    ReplyDelete
  30. The Middle Class Businessmen around here are mad. They rail against Obama, but they're really upset because the lower class people that they make their money selling to are walking around with "lint" in their pockets.

    The guys that used to have good jobs in the factories are also out of luck - and money. They're not spending much time in the local Red Lobster franchise, either.

    This shit could blow up - in a hurry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good description of the Obama economy.

      Its sucked for nearly six years and will continue to do so for the next two, at least.

      Delete
    2. No one in MS can compete wth Russia or Chinese or Indian workers on a cost basis.

      The factories in those locales are newer and more efficient than the factories in the US.
      The factories in the US cannot compete.

      That is why no TVs are built in the US.
      Why Apple imports ALL of its IPhones, from China.

      There is a systematic collapse but it is not because of the Fed and its policies.
      It is because the US "won" the Cold War, the entire world is in the marketplace, now.
      No longer "walled off" from competing with US.

      Delete
    3. You're a crazy old racist fool.

      Delete
    4. It is not the Obama Economy, you fuckin' fool.
      It is the Global Economy.

      For the first time ever, the US has to compete with people that get by on $10 dollars a day.
      People that save money being paid $10 dollar a day.

      Go read the story, learn something.

      Delete
    5. The recipe for perpetual ignorance is:
      Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.

      Delete
    6. That is why no TVs are built in the US.
      Why Apple imports ALL of its IPhones, from China.

      you fuckin' fool....

      too stupid to understand things...

      Not a clue.

      Knows what you can google..

      I suggest mister Fuckin' Fool you learn more about the subject before cursing out others...

      You just look ignorant.

      Now of course I KNOW the reason I think you are a fuckin fool about China and Apple.

      Don't think for a minute I will try to educate you, cause I won't.

      I like you sounding like a "fuckin' fool"...

      Now go catch your farts and try to light them and then tell us about gas conservation....

      Delete
  31. NSA SPYING ON OBAMA?.....drudge headline

    Ans: But of course they are spying on Obama.


    By the way, movie fans, it was warm chocolate syrup that was used as blood in the original "Psycho".

    Black and white movie,popcorn kiddies, and it flowed down the shower drain just right.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Looking at another photo of Sebelius. That woman doesn't have to dress up for Halloween, and she has such an evil sounding name.

    Perfect fit for the part she is playing in our idiot national five act tragedy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With Rufus in a clown suit cheering from the sidelines.

      :(

      How low we have drooped!

      Delete
    2. You have no curiosity, do you bub? No desire to think things through, and try to visualize solutions. Just divide people up into groups, and root for a "side." dumber than a vegetable.

      Delete
    3. Now, for the Solutions:

      We must jerk that "China genie" back into the jug. That $30 Billion Deficit with China, month after month, just has to go. We Have to get some of those jobs, back.

      We have to raise the minimum wage, Immediately. Get a little money back down into the hands of the people that will move it around.

      Then, . . . . .. . . wait for it . . . . . . yep, 3,000 ETHANOL REFINRIES!!!!!! :)

      Delete
    4. Raise minimum wage?

      Get real.

      A better solution? DRILL and drive the price of oil down, then the wages EARNED mean more.

      I love the communist in you Rufus, pay more for less....

      How about this?

      Teach the minimum wagers to LEARN and add value, improve thru hard work, ethics and loyalty.

      Not a sense of entitlement.

      Oh that's right a family that earns minimum wages? GETS all sorts of government subsidies. From health care, food assistance, free phones, free cable, free computers, housing allowances...

      Now you want to pay them more for doing nothing more?

      OK, you will raise the minimum wage, I will raise prices, I will invest in machines to reduce the number of employees...

      Tax that...

      Delete
    5. Just hope there's someone left to buy your candy.

      Delete
    6. “He showed the words “chocolate cake” to a group of Americans and recorded their word associations. “Guilt” was the top response. If that strikes you as unexceptional, consider the response of French eaters to the same prompt: “celebration.”

      Delete
    7. Candy? LOL Less than 2% of my sales are candy.

      I sell to the uber rich, they always have money...

      Delete
  33. Oh, forgot one. Eliminate ALL FOREIGN AID. PERIOD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There you go, that's the first thing, put $10 to $15 billion back into the US economy.
      Pay for doctors and medicine for folks that can't afford it, otherwise

      Delete
  34. Rufus, you VOTED for the guy that's the problem.

    You ain't the fellow to be talking solutions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are a fuckin' nut job, Robert.

      The President of the United States is not a dictator, he cannot do a thing with the Economy.

      They cut taxes to the lowest they have been in over fifty years.
      There was higher spending due to the Bush Depression of 2008.

      The reason the recovery is anemic is Global, not National in scope.

      But since you are ignorant, refusing to read anything but American Thinker, there is little wonder you cannot think.

      Delete
  35. ...diversity here, but not there for Copts...

    Khalil Masiha lost two of his granddaughters in the attack. Maryam was just 8 years old.

    "I found little Maryam; she was hit by 14 bullets," said Masiha. "A little girl, hit by 14 bullets."

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57610115/attacks-on-christians-by-islamic-militants-rise-in-egypt/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Drive by shootings, lots of 'em in the world.
      Gotta choose the right neighborhood.

      Targeting all sorts of folk, in all kinds of places.

      Limiting gun ownership is one option floated to control the violence.
      Arming the populous is another.

      Was a big problem in LA for years.
      Chi-town is having problems, currently.

      Why should anyone in the US really care about Egypt when Chicago is burning?

      Delete
    2. ...to demonstrate the barbarity of Muslims as a group...

      Delete
  36. After 24 hours of ObamaCare? enrollments, "six enrollments have occurred so far." HT CBS, Scott Pelley

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57610328/obamacare-enrollments-got-off-to-very-slow-start-documents-show/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Such is life.

      When ObamaCare, a Heritage Foundation proposal, fails
      To remedy the situation, they'll just have to go to "Single Payer".


      Same policy, same coverage, for everyone.
      If the Doctor does not participate, he cannot be a doctor any more.

      We'll just import new doctors from Pakistan and India.
      Or ship the patients there.

      Delete
    2. Wow! ...just get "new doctors"...If a doc does not participate, well, "he cannot be a doctor any more."

      So, it's really that simple, is it? We must not overlook the need for commissars. Will they get to wear those funny looking riding pants and knee-high polished boots? Oh, I forgot the riding crop. Every commissar must have a crop with an effigy of "Dear Leader" carved on the handle end.

      Delete
    3. Well, by not donating to Israel's "Universal Healthcare System, and Doctors" to the tune of $3 Billion, we'll have a little more to pay our own.

      Delete
    4. It was that simle when they floated HillaryCare, allen.

      That is where the Federals will go, if the Heritage Foundation program fails.

      Whether or not that involves riding crops, or not ....

      But yes, it is that simple.
      Read Mr Gardner's questions, above in the thread.
      Everyone should be in the Exchanges.

      What happens when he gets his wish fulfilled?

      Guess no one ever told Mr Gardner to be careful ...
      ... of what he wishes for.


      Delete
    5. I Still haven't seen any of those Massachusetts Doctors wandering around Mississippi looking for our Better "No-Obamacare" Deal.

      Delete
    6. Meanwhile over at the ranch, Germany is being insensitively scolded by the US Treasury for being competent. This administration just has no end of uppity ____________. It looks like Europeans are not so hot for The Won these days. (Why couldn't we have elected Herald Ford Jr)

      Raw Nerve: Germany Seethes at US Economic Criticism

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-defends-trade-surplus-after-critical-us-treasury-report-a-931126.html

      Delete
    7. If the private insurance companies cannot provide EVERYONE with coverage, with a Federal mandate, then the Federals will have to do it, themselves, directly.

      Then, as we all know, equality of outcome will be paramount.

      Delete
    8. The US is correct, allen.
      Germany's policies do hamper Eurozone recovery.
      The are good for Germany, though.

      So sure, the Germans do not like to be told they are screwing the Greeks, Italians and Spanish.
      Even when they are.

      Just as the Israeli bristle when told they have a Jim Crow society and do not grant Palestinians equal economic opportunities or freedoms.

      The truth often cause seething to occur, especially when the truth hurts.

      Delete

    9. Why is it impossible to have a conversation with you two without bringing Israel into the mix? Israel is living rent free in your heads.

      Delete
    10. Because Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid and does not require or deserve it.
      It has a multitude of social programs that the US subsidizes, by gifting to Israel $3 to $4 billion USD each year.

      Money be fungible.



      Delete
    11. desert rat wrote, "But yes, it is that simple."

      So would machine guns.

      "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." ___H. L. Mencken

      Delete
    12. Medical care and money are not fungible because, by definition, they are not equally interchangeable. Consider: A liver transplant may cost $200,000 in case "A", but because of unique circumstances in case "B" the cost may be $500,000. The course of any medical procedure cannot be known; therefore, its cost cannot be known. Fungibility requires single units of known quantities, e.g. $35.00 for all 32 oz. hammers at all Home Depot stores.

      Foreign aid and "ObamaCare?" are entirely different subjects, save to the extent that they give some folks the opportunity to vent their inner anti-Semites.

      Delete
    13. America has 17, thousand BILLION dollars in debt.

      that's: 17,000,000,000,0000

      military aid to Israel is 3 billion a year.

      America's debt? 17,000 billion. America aid to Israel? 3 billion.

      Israel is hardly the issue.

      Obama wasted 643 Million on a website. LOL (sorry that's too funny)

      The federal reserve? printed 17 TRILLION in 4 years in free money. It's now printing at 80 BILLION a month..

      Israel's 3 billion? LOL Compared to what?

      The HUNDREDS of billions a month spent on Nato? Protecting the Chinese Oil supply?

      LOL

      Delete
    14. desert ratThu Oct 31, 09:51:00 PM EDT
      Because Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid and does not require or deserve it.
      It has a multitude of social programs that the US subsidizes, by gifting to Israel $3 to $4 billion USD each year.

      Maybe Israel should cut back on aid and just charge market prices to the USA for Israeli innovations and inventions?

      As it stands now? that 3 billion in military aid gives America an inside DEAL on Israeli inventions and innovations.

      If America were to cut that aid? israel could then sell it's inventions to the highest bidder....

      Becareful of what you wish for....

      You might get it...

      Delete
    15. I have long advocated that Israel should cut the aid back. Sadly America supplies and supports Israel's enemies with aid, tanks, jets, training and support...

      Maybe if America would stop supporting the Islamists and their war machines? Israel could end it's need to take the money. Cause the strings that are attached? Suck...

      Delete
  37. “Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and to enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. And the time has now arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and to help them get that protection.”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Harry S. Truman,

      So, by executive order, today, I have fired all obstetricians - no babies, no patients, no people, no problems.

      Delete
    2. Don't think that happened.
      But Mr Truman's remarks do indicate that the challenge of medical security has been with US for quite a while.

      Should the US follow the Israeli example, in Health Care delivery systems?
      Socialized and Subsidized for all?

      Delete
    3. Mitt Romney thinks it's a Great system. he said so.

      Delete
    4. Should the US follow the Israeli example, in Health Care delivery systems?
      Socialized and Subsidized for all?

      Only if and when America embraced it being a "Jewish" nation.

      Til then? You're stuck with the socialist progressive state of looters...

      Delete
    5. For years I have strongly advocated for Mr.Netanyahu to keep his word and cut Israel loose from American aid. I believe Israel could work out some extremely lucrative deals on its own, say, helping the Chinese put together a state of the art stealth fighter.Israel already has the prototype. With the addition of its other avionic innovations (incorporated on the F-35 and FD-22) the best fighter in the world would be the outcome. This is why the US demanded a halt to Israel's previous work.

      I'm all about free trade and am opposed to foreign aid other than foodstuffs in general emergencies. All that is needed is some honest Israeli politicians (Yes, there may be an oxymoron there).

      Delete
    6. End the OccupationThu Oct 31, 11:55:00 PM EDT

      Define Jewish

      Delete
  38. EIGHT RECIPIENTS OF US FOREIGN AID
    2012
    Israel $3.075 Billion
    Afghanistan 2.327 Billion
    Pakistan 2.102 Billion
    Iraq 1.683 Billion
    Egypt 1.557 Billion
    Jordan 0,676 Million
    Nigeria 0,625 Million
    Tanzania 0.531 Million

    Israel (non-Muslim majority) $3.075
    Seven of Top Ten, Muslim 9.501
    In the top ten of recipients of US foreign aid, the seven Muslim majority countries get over 3 times the aid as Israel.

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    1. don't forget the 12 billion that egypt got in loan forgiveness and the extra billions obama gave to the moslem brotherhood...

      don't also forget to add in the aid to lebanon and the palestinians... billions more...

      then the free protection of the oil routes for the saudis and china...

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    2. I did not forget, rather I am trying to stick with a single topic. There are those who just cannot debate/discuss without racial atmospherics.

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    3. End the OccupationThu Oct 31, 11:54:00 PM EDT

      The Invention of the Jewish People is a book written by Shlomo Sand, an Israeli professor of history at the University of Tel Aviv.

      The author wasn’t probing a belief system but Zionist fabrications of a spurious common lineage for people of the Jewish faith.

      Sand argues that the idea of Jews having a common ethnic identity is implausible because, as with Christianity and Islam, Judaism was originally a “proselytising religion”.

      The notion of Judaism as a “race”, rather than a religion of various races, is without foundation.

      The recent study by John Hopkins geneticist Dr Elhaik confirms that the common genome structure of the European Jew gravitated towards an origin in old Khazaria.

      “The majority of Jews do not have Middle Eastern genetic component,” he told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

      Founded on a mélange of myths and manufactured historical tales, Israel has failed the archaeological test of time and is now exposed by DNA science.
      Today’s genetics prove unequivocally that in 1948 “the children of the original Jews” were replaced by converts with no roots in the Middle East.

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  39. Without question, all that foreign aid given to Muslim allies, like Pakistan and Afghanistan is the sensitive course.

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