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."

Sunday, December 15, 2013

“If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25 percent more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year.



The 1% is Hogging so much of our Income that it’s Holding the Economy Back



(By Anthony W. Orlando)

Over the past few years, I have encountered a lot of myths about the so-called “One Percent.” Now that my book Letter to the One Percent has been published, I’d like to share one of the most pernicious myths with you.
We all know that inequality has been rising and the average American household has been suffering. There is a myth that says all this suffering is necessary, that extreme inequality is the by-product of a rapidly growing economy—or worse, that it’s a good thing because it motivates everyone to work hard and climb the long ladder to the One Percent.

Even a brief glance at the historical record reveals just how perverted this hypothesis is.

For one thing, the economy has not been growing rapidly since inequality started climbing. From 1950 to 1980, “real gross domestic product (GDP)”—the output of the economy, adjusted for inflation—grew by 3.8 percent per year. From 1980 to 2010, it grew by 2.7 percent per year. (Since then, it’s been even worse.)

So income inequality hasn’t been “growth-enhancing” at all. In fact, just the opposite.

The United States isn’t alone in this experience. Economists at the International Monetary Fund recently compiled the most comprehensive data set to date: 140 countries over 6 decades. They consistently found that countries with less inequality experienced stronger, more sustained economic growth and fewer, less severe recessions.
It’s been widely publicized, for example, that Europe has suffered from higher unemployment than the United States in recent years. Many Americans falsely believe that Europe is more equal than the U.S., but a new data set compiled by the economist James Galbraith and the University of Texas Inequality Project shows inequality between countries and regions across Europe for the first time—and they find that Europe has had higher inequality than us since the 1970s. It’s only within specific countries that inequality is lower than the U.S., and guess what: Those countries tend to have lower unemployment than us.

The reason is quite simple: Those workers are also consumers. When the 99 Percent earn more, they spend more, and the One Percent can produce more and earn more themselves.

“In this sense,” says the wealthy entrepreneur Nick Hanauer, “an ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me. […] Anyone who’s ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last resort, something we do only when increasing customer demand requires it.”

Or, as the late economist Michal Kalecki used to say, “The workers spend what they get and the capitalists get what they spend.” What he meant by that was that the rich can afford to save more of their income—and, indeed, we find that the One Percent continue to save 15 to 25 percent, while the saving rate of the 99 Percent has plummeted close to zero. If too much money goes to the One Percent and not enough to the 99 Percent, the economy will save more and more and spend less and less, until there isn’t enough consumer demand to justify increasing production and investment. Thus, the economy will slow down.

For awhile, the 99 Percent were able to make up for lower incomes by saving less and borrowing more, and for awhile, the economy indulged them with rising asset prices—first in the stock market, then the housing market—and falling interest rates. But this was not sustainable. Eventually, interest rates hit zero, households spent all their savings, incomes couldn’t keep up with debt payments, and asset prices stopped rising. Hence, the Great Recession.
The only real solution is to pay them higher wages.

“If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25 percent more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year.

Here’s how Hanauer frames it: “If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25 percent more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year. Where would the economy be if that were the case?”

When those workers earn more, they also invest in health and education, making them more productive. They’re also less likely to go out on strike, resulting in less uncertainty and more investment. Higher wages also force companies to invest more in advanced technologies that reduce costs, increasing productivity and global competitiveness.

More equal societies also don’t have to waste resources on what the economist Samuel Bowles calls “guard labor,” employing people to keep the lower classes in line. Bowles estimates that one in four Americans are working as guard labor, everything from factory supervisors to police officers.

And our government is more likely to invest in public resources that we all need to be productive—infrastructure, research and development, safety and quality standards—if all Americans feel that they’re “in it together” and not separated by class, and thus they’ll all benefit from the investments.
But the effect that strikes at the heart of the American Dream is the way that inequality makes people in the 99 Percent feel that they’ll never succeed, no matter how hard they work. The theory that extreme inequality is motivational, it turns out, is completely backward.

The divergence between the One Percent and the 99 Percent is clearly at odds with the America we want to live in.
Anthony W. Orlando is a Lecturer in the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Los Angeles. This op-ed is an excerpt from his new book Letter to the One Percent, published this month by Lulu Press, Inc. 


To learn more, visit www. LetterToTheOnePercent. com.

210 comments:

  1. Cite one point where the speaker on the video is wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When the middle class thrives, everybody wins.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is not one very wealthy person that I know, and I know a legion of them, that would not work harder if their effective tax rates were higher. How the government spends the money is another matter, but the competitive nature of the acquisitive-class is that they will always work for more, always. A bigger house, more expensive cars and a longer boat are embedded in their DNA.

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  4. I’m always amused how Ken Langone of Home Depot waxes on about his job creation. Home Depot was and is a job wrecking machine. From smaller local retailers through small and medium local manufacturers that were squeezed out of existence by cheap foreign manufacturers, hundreds of thousands of middle class jobs were lost due to the rise of Home Depot and their consorts.

    Just for the hell of it, engage in a conversation with some of the forty and over “associates” in a Home Depot and ask them what they did before. It will soon become obvious that getting “associated” is a polite way of saying they got screwed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the wages suck. Retirees used to take jobs there for the extra health insurance coverage. How Obamacare will affect that remains to be seen, although I recall having read that HD was going to set them adrift.

      Delete
  5. From Wikipedia:

    The speaker in the video is Nick Hanauer is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. After earning his philosophy degree from the University of Washington, Hanauer got his business start at a family-owned business, The Pacific Coast Feather Company, where he is co-chair and CEO. In the 1980s he co-founded Museum Quality Framing Company, a large West Coast franchise.

    In the 1990s Hanauer was one of the first investors in Amazon.com (where he served as adviser to the board until 2000). He founded gear.com (which eventually merged with Overstock.com) and Avenue A Media (which in 2007, under the new name aQuantive, was acquired by Microsoft for $6.4 billion).

    In 2000, Hanauer co-formed the Seattle-based venture capital company, Second Avenue Partners. The company advises and funds early stage companies such as HouseValues, Qliance and Newsvine.

    Hanauer is co-founder of The True Patriot Network, a political action tank framed upon the ideas he and Eric Liu presented in their 2007 book, The True Patriot.

    Hanauer is active in the Seattle community and Washington’s public education system. He co-founded the League of Education Voters (LEV), a non-partisan political organization dedicated to improving the quality of public education in Washington. He also serves on the boards of Cascade Land Conservancy, The University of Washington Foundation, The University of Arizona's Mount Lemmon Science Center and the Biosphere2 climate research project.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...glad you brought up education...

      While not the fault of the educational system per se, millions of youngsters are either dropouts or functionally illiterate. They are unemployable.

      In the most recent apptitude testing on an internaional level (three grade levels used as determinative), the US did not make the top twenty (20) list. "Human capital", as you have just shown, is the single most important factor to growth and prosperity. Under the present conditions, how is this brain power to be had? Worse yet, given the exponential growth of technology driven employment, even the marginaly educated may well be unemployable.

      Delete
  6. For this, we will not be able to depend on the politicians. The Democrats are just as invested in the status quo as the republicans. They get their campaign money from the same crooks, and thieves, and invest in the same stock market, and hedge funds. This will have to be done by the Citizens, through ballot initiatives, and referendums.

    The good news is, Higher Minimum Wage Initiatives, once they're on the ballot, Never Fail. It's the most perfect record in all of sports, sports fans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But isn't that a "Zero Sum" game? All costs are passed on to the consumer. At some point the consumer will find a substitution and/or forego use of the good or service whenever possible.

      Delete
  7. It's not surprising that the country with the highest minimum wage, Australia, is also the country with the highest Median Wealth (about 4 times that of the USA.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Canada's minimum wage is about a third higher than the U.S. minimum wage, and Their Median Wealth is about 3 Times that of the United States.

      Delete
    2. So, how does that work in the United States, you ask?

      Well, how about Santa Fe, NM. The Highest Minimum Wage in the country, at $10.29 and Hour.

      Santa Fe

      Well, Lookee here: An Unemployment Rate of 5.2%!!

      5.2%

      Delete
    3. Oops, Santa Fe is the 2nd highest.

      San Francisco minimum wage is $10.55 and Hour.

      $10.55/hr

      And how is Their unemployment rate, you ask? Weeelll, it's running a full percentage point lower than the National Rate.

      San Francisco Unemployment Rate

      Delete
    4. Let's go down to the Rat's neck of the woods. What's the most liberal city in Az? Tucson?

      Okay, you've got a minimum wage Higher than the National Average, at $7.80 /hr,

      Tucson

      and, an Unemployment rate that is 1.4% Lower than the Arizona Average.

      Arizona Unemployment Rate

      Delete
    5. The State with the Highest Minimum Wage is Washington (at present) with a min. wage of $9.19 / hr.

      Their Unemployment Rate? Oh, about 0.4% Below the National Average.

      Washington State Unemployment Rate

      Delete
    6. The Right Wing has been Blowing Smoke up your Assholes, Kiddies.

      Delete
    7. How about Vermont? That's a very liberal state.

      Yep, Their Min. Wage is $8.60 / hr

      And, their unemployment rate?

      Yikes, 4.5%

      Vermont

      Delete
    8. Portland, Or. $8.95 Min. Wage

      Unemployment Rate about 0.8% Below the National Average.

      Min Wage

      Portland Unemployment Rate

      Delete
    9. Oh, Yeah. They been blowin' that smoke up your asses, Real Good!

      Delete
    10. You might mention Texas.

      But you didn't.

      Anyway we need a Revolution and right now too anyone can see that. The top 5% need to quit paying about 80% of the taxes.

      Delete
    11. You want me to mention texas?

      Okay. They're in the middle of a monster oil boom, and 25% of Texans Still don't have Healthcare.

      Delete
    12. A monster oil boom?

      In this day of peak oil?

      I thought them Texas fields was played out long ago.

      Delete
    13. Texans are Brainiacs. They are paying taxes so the people of California can have Healthcare.

      Delete
    14. Peak oil is an International phenomenon, not a local one.

      And, don't worry; the eagle ford will peak within another year and a half.

      Delete
    15. SeaTback minimum wage $15 / hr, upheld in a recount

      Delete
    16. People making a minimum wage working in San Francisco cannot afford to live there.

      Hilton Head is a beehive of activity during the day (or was). At 5PM there is a miles' long line of traffic leaving the island for Bufford County. Most people employed on the island cannot begin to afford to live there.

      Delete
    17. people making well over a minimum wage working in San Fransisco cannot afford to live there.

      Delete
    18. Hi, MeLoDy

      Indeed. Aside from another factor, this is one of the reasons SF has the lowest birthrate in the country: Working families cannot live there.

      Delete
  8. What this country needs is more small farms.

    You guys try to make sense out of the cities. I can't.

    This is my niece's last day at Max Planck.

    :):):):)

    She toughed it out. Things should go easier now. And it is going to look super on her resume. Five months in Dresden then we are going on a long drive. To Taos for one, to commission two Navaho rugs with the Pollen Path design, which fundamental design, as I have mentioned, derives from India.

    Cheers for my niece!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Ash - Mon Dec 09, 01:11:00 PM EST

      bob, quite your whining about folk posting as anonymous and get a log in.
      YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF, you do not need your daughter.

      I've told you how - why don't you just do it?

      If you can't remember that far back (like a week) then simply go to google.com and select sign in.
      When presented with the sign in page select "sign in with different account" then select "add account" and follow the instructions from there.

      Quit your whining.
      Be a master of your own destiny and quite hanging on to the apron strings of your daughter.


      Roberto - el auténtico anónimo

      Delete
  9. Deuce will like this, as we all should -

    http://hotair.com/archives/2013/12/14/snowden-still-has-1-7-million-docs-nsa-considering-amnesty/

    Snowden may be winning......

    :):)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. ANONYMOUS: WARNING WE ARE IN AN OBAMA POLICE STATE ...

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN7KWZwqFw4

      boberto - el auténtico anónimo

      Delete
    2. And NSA is clueless as to what he took, by a "convenient" set of anomalies.

      Officials Say U.S. May Never Know Extent of Snowden’s Leaks

      Delete
  10. The "typical American family" is today not a family, more than half the kiddies being born out of wedlock.

    It's sad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Ash - Mon Dec 09, 01:11:00 PM EST

      bob, quite your whining about folk posting as anonymous and get a log in.
      YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF, you do not need your daughter.

      I've told you how - why don't you just do it?

      If you can't remember that far back (like a week) then simply go to google.com and select sign in.
      When presented with the sign in page select "sign in with different account" then select "add account" and follow the instructions from there.

      Quit your whining.
      Be a master of your own destiny and quite hanging on to the apron strings of your daughter.


      bobbo

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

    ReplyDelete
  12. HOLY SMOKES BATMAN am I at the LIBERTARIAN or the LIBERTINE. All this talk of the 1% hogging it all to the detriment of others is just plain socialist, heck, it is bordering on COMMUNIST!!

    This is America we are talking about, home of the free, land where, if you work hard, you get the trimmings. Obviously most of America, 99% by your numbers, are just lazy bitches looking for Ma Governments teat to suck on!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right on, bro Ash, I almost said that too.

      Now we know Deuce's new girlfriend is not only an Arabic skirt but a commie as well.

      Delete
    2. And think on how the lumpenproletariate's income has risen in those years too. Why shit soon each typical American welfare family will be a two car family.

      If this doesn't make sense just think on it for awhile.

      Delete
    3. Okay, libertarianism refresh for the blog admin. In a free market, labor is a commodity, and the price is set by a buyer and seller reaching an agreement. If the government sets a floor price, the buyer (employer) is not free.

      Delete
    4. :)

      Finally, a wise Philippino/American.

      You for the Supreme Court, honey.





      Delete
    5. Common Sense refresh: Unadulterated "free market" will, Always, end up in Feudalism.

      Delete
    6. Impossible to say, since a truly free market has never actually been tried. Libertarians vote in such a way as to approach a free market as an ideal.

      Delete
    7. Sure it has. It was in Europe, and it's called "The Dark Ages."

      Delete
    8. Even the "Lord of the Manor" class ended up living like shit.

      Delete
    9. Although, not like the shit of the other 99.9999%.

      Delete
    10. Rufus IISun Dec 15, 10:11:00 AM EST
      Common Sense refresh: Unadulterated "free market" will, Always, end up in Feudalism.

      Oligopoly - I thought we regulated that out of existence about a century ago. Right...

      If the average guy wants to go home after work and enjoy his leisure, he is at the mercy of men whose home is work and for whom leisure is a vice.

      For the closest thing to a "free market" bringing wealth to the middle class, see: AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES (Dutch Republic). Eventually, even this paradise was infected by the virus of inequality; although the systemic problems might have been worked out had the English navy not curtailed Dutch access to trade routes and markets.

      Delete
  13. One percent envy on Deuce's blog and it's not a Rufus post. What is the world coming to?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She's an Arabic commie, I tell you.

      Delete

    2. Be a master of your own destiny and quite hanging on to the apron strings of your daughter.


      bob

      Delete
  14. From the Relaxation Without Representation Department:

    Breaking:

    http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/money/2013/12/13/obamacare-pushing-puerto-rico-further-into-social-welfare-state-doctors-say/

    "What Me Worry?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Two big screens in every subsidized apartment NOW!!

      Delete
    2. More Welfare for Farmers, NOW!!

      Delete
    3. The Most Subsidized Assholes in America Need Your Help, Now!!

      Delete

    4. You are just jealous of my relationship with my new niece!
      She is the light of my life.

      She is the reason the sun rises in the morning!



      bob

      bob

      Delete
    5. I don't have to pretend a woman is a family member to get a hard-on.

      Delete
  15. Replies
    1. End the OccupationSun Dec 15, 10:36:00 AM EST


      "Spengler's Laws": "When a nation is reduced to selling its women, it's lost."


      Unlike many countries, prostitution in Israel is legal.

      To many people it is shocking to learn that in the "Holy Land" prostitution is allowed.
      Prostitution is legal, but what is not legal, is running a brothel or living off the earnings of a prostitute, in other words being a pimp.

      Prostitution in Israel is not kept on the down low.
      Everyone knows about it and where to go to find a prostitute.
      It is a choice whether they decide to pay for sex or not.
      Prostitutes are known to be discrete.
      They do not go around talking about the men they have sex with.
      Some of the places where prostitution is more popular is in cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa.
      That could be because the population is more secular and not as religious.
      Prostitutes can be found on the streets, strip clubs and "massage parlors."
      Politicians, businessmen and even police officers are known to visit the upscale "massage parlors" and high price strip clubs.

      Regular citizens are more likely to just look for a prostitute on the streets.

      When Arab Israelis or Orthodox Jews, whether married or not, want to have sex with a prostitute, they go somewhere far from their homes.
      The reason for them going far is so they will not be recognized by anyone.

      One negative effect of the rising popularity of prostitution is that venereal diseases have
      rapidly increased over the years.

      http://adsocceriloveran.blogspot.com/2013/05/prostitution.html

      "Spengler's Laws": "When a nation is reduced to selling its women, it's lost."

      Delete
    2. A Madonna–whore complex is the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving relationship:
      based on a man's primary hatred of women, stimulated by the child’s sense that he had been made to experience intolerable frustration and/or narcissistic injury at the hands of his mother. According to this theory, in adulthood the boy-turned-man seeks to avenge these mistreatments through sadistic attacks on women who are stand-ins for mother.
      The man is therefore reluctant to have sexual relations with his wife for, according to his unconscious mind, this would be incest. He will reserve sexuality for "bad" or "dirty" women, and will not develop "normal" feelings of love in these sexual relationships. This introduces a dilemma where a man may feel unable to love any woman who can satisfy him sexually and is unable to be sexually satisfied by any woman whom he can love.

      Delete
  16. Siskiyoukid for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:42:00 AM EST


    Chapito Isidro BLO Lieutenant Ignacio "Nacho" González Peñuelas Captured
    Siskiyoukid for Borderland Beat

    Guasave-Authorities confirmed the arrest of "Nacho" González
    and identified the other three detainees in the shootout against the military in the Batamote.

    Elements of the army led the group of law enforcement in the arrest of "Nacho" González in Batamote.

    "Nacho" González has been pointed out in several narcomantas as one of those responsible for the death of journalist José Luis Romero.

    Police officials confirmed the arrest of Ignacio González Peñuelas,
    better known as "Nacho" González, analleged drug trafficker and one of the leaders of the criminal group operating in the North of the State, yesterday at almost noon after a clash between soldiers and armed individuals in the Ejido Batamote, belonging to Sinaloa municipality [county].  

    A presumed gunman was killed and three more people,
    besides "Nacho" González were arrested,
    and they seized an arsenal and several vehicles.

    Police revealed that in the takedown,
    besides "Nacho" González, 41 years old,
    who lives at the rancho of his brother  El Gallo de Limones,

    they also arrested Hugo Moreno Sarmiento, 33-years-old, who lives in the city of Guasave, who was injured in the operation;

    Marcos Eduardo Félix Arredondo, a 20 year-old resident of Batamote,
    and José Cruz Pérez Vega, also 20, who's home is in the village of Figueroa.

    The alleged gunman who was killed was identified as Alejandro Rivera Montoya, 20, who had his home in Colonia Santa Maria, in the city of Guasave.

    The four detainees were transferred to the city of  Culiacán.

    In the report the authorities released they seized an arsenal,
    including a Barret .50 calber rifl ,
    several long weapons, a pistol, grenades,
    cartridges, boots, bulletproof vests,

    several packages with white powder, apparently cocaine, and four vehicles:
    an armored white Dodge Ram RT, with overlapping plates;
    a black Ford F-150 Lobo Sport;
    a grey Cheyenne and a gold Nissan Maxima.

    As we promptly reported yesterday, the detainees, the vehicle, drug and arsenal were secured after a clash that occurred on Thursday starting 11:30 AM in a safehouse in the Ejido Batamote.

    There the military were trying to search a vehicle when they were shot at and the takedown ended with the arrest of "Nacho" González.

    The village lived through several hours of a tense shootout,
    even it was besieged by troops of the army, marine, federal and ministerial police and municipal agents, from Guasave and Los Mochis.

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/chapito-isidro-blo-lieutenant-ignacio.html

    ReplyDelete
  17. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:44:00 AM EST


    Sinaloa politicians and the narco clans who support them 
    
    Written by Adán German for Borderland Beat

    Many readers are probably already aware of alleged links between current Sinaloa governor Mario López Valdez, Malova, and various elements involved with the Sinaloa Cartel.

    There is also the well publicized case of Sinaloa legislative deputy Óscar Félix Ochoa, who is the brother-in-law of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel capo Javier Torres  Félix,
    and who's brothers were detained in 2008 with 40 kilos of cocaine, high-powered weapons, and cash.

    At the same time the army raided a safe house in Culiacán owned by Félix Ochoa, where they found $5 million and arrested a group of sicarios implicated in the killing of federal police.

    In the municipality of El Dorado,
    local political leader Dámaso López García kept a strong hold on local appointments for years, up until his death in 2009.
    López García was the father of Dámaso and Adolfo López Núñez, who have been accused of involvement with the Sinaloa Cartel.


    Dámaso López Núñez was as central figure in the escape of Joaquin Guzmán Loera from the Puente Grande prison, where López Núñez worked as a security chief, in 2001.

    Now know as El Licenciado, López Núñez has been identified as a principal lieutenant for the Sinaloa Cartel.

    In 2007 the rancho of the elder López García in El Dorado was raided and seized by the Mexican Army, but nothing came of it.

    When an ally of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman Loera, the notorious kidnapper and killer Miguel Ángel Beltrán Lugo, alias "El Ceja Güera", was murdered in the La Palma prison in 2004, several PAN legislators from Sinaloa state were among the pallbearers.

    However, there are several other state legislators and political appointees in Sinaloa linked to the Beltrán Leyva organization and their local enforcers, the Mazatlecos.

    It is rumored that these legislators are elected with the help of narco money and community strong-arm tactics.

    The result is that these legislators have veto power over police commanders in their home districts.

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/chapito-isidro-blo-lieutenant-ignacio.html#more


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:45:00 AM EST

      The González clan

      Outside of Guasave, in the ejido Batamote and the surrounding mountains, the Gonzalez Peñuelas clan, led by Jesús "Chuy" González Peñuelas, and his brother Ignacio "Nacho" González Peñuelas, control local drug sales, but their primary concerns include marijuana and poppy production for the Beltrán Leyvas, as well as coordinating shipments of cocaine heading from South America to the United States.


      The González Peñuelas are in charge of the Batamote plaza for Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, "el Chapito Isidro", and his "Guasave Cartel".

      Batamote has been the scene of numerous incidents, including the March 2011 ambush of police who were carrying a Mazatleco detainee back to Culiacan, which left 7 police dead.

      In July of 2011 they ambushed a state police convoy escorting state security director Francisco Córdova Celaya, and killed 11 officers.

      On their rancho El Gallo del Limón,
      the González Peñuelas are reputed to have conducted training exercises for their sicarios, as well as the torture, murder, and mutilation of their enemies, or of accused traitors.

      This has also been the location where informants have claimed that attacks on police and rivals are planned and executed

      It is generally believed that the González Peñuelas and their gunmen were heavily involved in the fierce fight against Sinaloa Cartel forces in Choix in the spring of 2012

      As well as the ambush that followed against Sinaloa ministerial police near Tetamboca which left 7 agents dead, as well as 4 sicarios, including prominent Mazatleco leader Pablo Osuna Lizarraga, el 100.

      http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/chapito-isidro-blo-lieutenant-ignacio.html#more



      Delete
    2. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:46:00 AM EST


      A severed head is left on the steps of the Sinaloa Government Palace

      In 2010, a group of men working for the González Peñuelas brothers left a severed head is left on the steps of the Government Palace for the state of Sinaloa.

      A matching pair of severed hands are found nearby. The head and hands belonged to Sergio Soto Orduño, a taco vender from El Fuerte who also sold "ice", or crystal meth.


      The same group also left the body of Paúl Barraza Peñuelas,
      a municipal police agent from Guasave,
      who the Mazatlecos suspected of supporting the Sinaloa Cartel and it's capo Joaquin El Chapo Guzmán Loera, on the steps of the Sinaloa Congress.

      In 2011 a former Ahome police officer,
      Alejandro Gabriel Carmona Hernández,  El Chilango,
      was arrested  and he confessed to his involvement in these crimes and many more.

      El Chilango said that he had 30 people under his command and that they had been ordered to heat up the plaza and place naromantas throughout the state challenging the Sinaloa Cartel.

      http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/chapito-isidro-blo-lieutenant-ignacio.html#more

      Delete
    3. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:48:00 AM EST



      Héctor Beltrán Leyva is present at a meeting of 300 gunmen on the ranch of an influential Sinaloa politician


      Carmona Hernández, El Chilango, says that the plans to heat up the plaza were hammered out at two ranches.

      In Sinaloa de Leyva, the ranch of Jesús "Chuy" González Peñuelas, El Gallo del Limón,

      and another ranch, El Alacrán, owned by Joaquín Vega Acuña,
      an important PRI politician from Los Mochis,
      who was the head of the party for the entire state of Sinaloa,
      and his son Joaquín Vega Inzunza,
      a breeder of world-class quarter horses,
      which have won millions of dollars in purses in California.
       
      El Chilango said that at a meeting where he was present,
      Héctor Beltrán Leyva, "El H" and the current supreme leader of the Beltrán Leyva Organization, was present and supervising the planning of military operations for the Northern part of Sinaloa.

      El Chilango claimed that 300 gunmen were present at the meeting with Héctor Beltrán Leyva and Jesús "Chuy" González Peñuelas. 

      He claimed that Héctor Beltrán Leyva  (at left) would be on hand to supervise the offloading of shipments of "books" or kilos of cocaine and crystal meth at the port of Topolobampo and sometimes in Ohuira Bay.

      The drugs would arrive by yacht during the final three days of each month, and would be offloaded by the cell and brought to the Ejido El Gallo, where it would be distributed to the local dealers.

      Up to two tons would be offloaded each month.

      Delete
    4. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:48:00 AM EST





      El Chilango renounces his confession


      Upon appearing in court to make a plea,
      Alejandro Gabriel Carmona Hernández,  El Chilango,
      accused the police of guiding his confession,
      and he denied ever meeting Jesús "Chuy" González Peñuelas,
      ever visiting the rancho El Alacrán.

      He said that on the night that the body parts were left on the steps of the Palace of Government, he was home watching television with his wife and kids.

      http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/chapito-isidro-blo-lieutenant-ignacio.html#more

      Delete
  18. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:49:00 AM EST



    Analysis of the political situation in Sinaloa

    Recent revelations by former Malova bodyguard Frank Armenta Espinoza that the governor personally met with the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel,

    coupled with the vigorous attacks against his replacement, former Ahome police commander Jesús Carrasco Ruiz by El Dos Letras,

    have reinforced the public perception that top Sinaloa government officials are in the pocket of the Sinaloa Cartel,

    the dominant criminal group in Mexico.


    However, there are still dozens of strategic political posts filled with candidates loyal to cells aligned with the Beltrán Leyva organization.

    Some of these include state congressional deputies,
    but mainly these politicians are mayors and police officials in geographically large municipalities [counties] where poppy and marijuana plantations are located, as well as strategically important smuggling routes up the coast and over the mountains.

    The municipality of Guasave has long been a Beltrán Leyva stronghold,
    and Chapito Isidros cell has even been dubbed the "Guasave Cartel".

    This perception was further reinforced during a recent attack on a police convoy ferrying former Ahome commander Jesús Carrasco Ruiz from Los Mochis to Culiacán.

    Carrasco reported that several Guasave police unit were on hand nearby during the attack, yet did nothing to offer support.

    Some reports even accuse the Guasave police of being complicit in the attacks.


    It appears that the criminal cells allied with the Beltrán Leyva organization are frustrated by their inability to infiltrate Sinaloa ministerial departments, particularly the security directorate,

    but they still have a widespread presence in municipal governments and their accompanying security apparatus.

    The future appears to hold more violence in store for residents of Sinaloa, particularly in the mountainous Sierra Occidental,

    as the less connected Beltrán Leyva cells struggle to regain the strength that they enjoyed within Sinaloa's political elite when they were allied with Ismael El Mayo Zambada García, Joaquin El Chapo Guzmán Loera, and their dominant Sinaloa Cartel.
     
    The victims are often low-level police, local drug vendors and halcones [lookouts], but more often than not, they are innocent pawns in violent struggle for dominance, that relies on ever-increasing brutality to make a point of appearing to be in control.
     
    written using the following sources: Noroeste  El Universal, El Debate, La Jornada, Rio Doce

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/chapito-isidro-blo-lieutenant-ignacio.html#more

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adán German for Borderland BeatSun Dec 15, 10:56:00 AM EST


      Sponsor

      Mexico's Criminal Insurgency:
      A Small Wars Journal-El Centro Anthology
      - Paperback - $15.10
      by John P. Sullivan (Author) , Robert J. Bunker (Author)


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      Dave Dilegge
      SWJ Editor-in-Chief

      http://www.amazon.com/Mexicos-Criminal-Insurgency-Journal-El-Anthology/dp/1475927290/

      Delete
  19. If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25 percent more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year.

    If I was diagnosed with stage III inflammatory breast cancer in 1980 I'd be dead by 1982, since they didn't have Herceptin. I figure that infrastructure alone is with $13,000.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Deuce: How the government spends the money is another matter, but the competitive nature of the acquisitive-class is that they will always work for more, always. A bigger house, more expensive cars and a longer boat are embedded in their DNA.

    "Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind; and he saw Samwise the Strong, Hero of the Age, striding with a flaming sword across the darkened land, and armies flocking to his call as he marched to the overthrow of Barad-Dur. And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit. He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be. In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command." (Lord of the Rings, 880-881).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, at least it wasn't from Ayn Rand.

      Delete
    2. Why is it, that when the subject turns to Economics, the so-called "conservatives" always start quoting fiction? Atlas Shrugged, The Hobbit, . . . . .

      Delete
    3. Poor, with no healthcare? Tough noogies.

      Heceptin for Me, but not for Thee.

      Republican Healthcare Plan:

      1) Don't get sick

      2) If you do get sick, Die Quickly

      Delete
    4. Perhaps I should quote from Torah. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors ass, nor thy neighbor's wife, nor thy neighbor's wife's ass."

      Delete
    5. Herceptin, and we're in an Obama-approved co-op. Go figure.

      Delete

    6. “The question of whether one alleges the Superiority or Inferiority of any given race is irrelevant;
      racism has only one psychological root: the racist's sense of his own Inferiority.

      ― Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

      Delete
    7. Teresita RedingerSun Dec 15, 11:14:00 AM EST
      "Already the Ring tempted him, gnawing at his will and reason. Wild fantasies arose in his mind

      :-)

      Delete
  21. McCain: CIA misled Congress on missing American



    WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain is suggesting that the CIA has misled Congress on details surrounding an American who vanished nearly seven years ago in Iran.

    An Associated Press investigation published this past week found that Robert Levinson was working for the intelligence agency — investigating the Iranian government.

    McCain says he's confident the U.S. is doing all it can to learn what's happened to Levinson. But McCain is disturbed that the Obama administration hasn't been more forthcoming.

    The U.S. long has publicly described Levinson as a private citizen who traveled to an Iranian island on private business.

    McCain tells CNN's "State of the Union" that "CIA did not tell the truth" to Congress.

    The Arizona Republican says he's sure Iran knows Levinson's fate, even though Iran has said it does not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 'funny' thing is, the vast majority of people in the US government, the entire Congress & Mr McCain a US Senator, did not know that Mr Levison was working for the US ...

      ... but Mr McCain is sure that 'Iran' knows Mr Levison's fate, ...

      Does Mr McCain really believe that the Iranian government is more transparent and has better internal lines of communication than does the Federal government of the United States?



      Delete
  22. The family farm - cosigned to the dustbin of history - rightly so! They can't compete, nope, it is Factory Farms and, SCIENCE, yes, SCIENCE, Genetics that lead the way to riches. Soon, we too can engineer a better person.

    Ann fucking Rand - you go girl. Everyone for themselves, may the strong survive and the weak eat dirt. You need a leg up, form a corporation, for corpses are people too!

    You are sick and need the drug, the doctor, belly up with your wallet. No dust? No service. Sucks to be you!

    The gang banger scares you 'cause he's got a gun? Simple, get a bigger gun, hire guards, protect yourself! It is only money and if you can't get any, welp, sucks to be you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yo, Ash, that as a whole is totally incoherent.

      And you are the only one who doesn't recognize it.

      What you on this fine Sunday morning, lad?

      Delete

    2. “If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive?

      Nothing can make it moral to destroy the best.
      One can't be punished for being good. One can't be penalized for ability.”
      ― Ayn Rand

      Delete

    3. 'But are there not many Fascists in your country?'

      'There are many who do not know they are Fascists, but will find it out when the time comes'.

      Delete
    4. While Railing Against Government Programs, Ayn Rand Collected both, Social Security, and Medicare.

      An interview with Evva Pryror, a social worker and consultant to Miss Rand's law firm of Ernst, Cane, Gitlin and Winick verified that on Miss Rand's behalf she secured Rand's Social Security and Medicare payments which Ayn received under the name of Ann O'Connor (husband Frank O'Connor).
      As Pryor said, "Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out" without the aid of these two government programs. Ayn took the bail out even though Ayn "despised government interference and felt that people should and could live independently... She didn't feel that an individual should take help."

      But alas she did and said it was wrong for everyone else to do so.

      Just another Russian Bullshit Artist

      Delete
    5. We won't mention her ethnicity.

      Delete

    6. Some people conflate nationality with ethnicity and/or race.

      Those people are stupid,at least ill informed.

      Delete
  23. .

    Good post, Deuce.

    Wish I had more time to respond.

    I note the sheeple are out in force though, Ash spouts 1950's inanities about mom and apple pie, the faux farmer mixes confused assumptions about current trends with ridiculous idylls of an imaginary 'niece', and T offers us fairy tales as argument. Another typical day at the old 'Libertarian'.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While Quirk-O can't really think of a thing to say, for once, probably from lack of Vodka, so begs off.

      Delete
    2. The obvious solution is to apply the policies of Quirk's beloved global village city to our national problems:

      The Detroit Model

      he he he heh heh heh

      Delete

    3. “Isn't it kind of silly to think that tearing someone else down builds you up?”
      ― Sean Covey

      Delete
    4. You want to eat organic Quirk? Pay for it! Monsanto GM products sold via WalMart for those who can afford meals not prepared at Colonel Sanders!

      Pappy made bundle? The kid will rule cause it takes money to make money and they'll be well on the way to the top 1%

      Delete


    5. “The respectable family that supports worthless relatives or covers up their crimes in order to "protect the family name"
      (as if the moral stature of one man could be damaged by the actions of another)

      -the bum who boasts that his great-grandfather was an empire-builder,

      or the small-town spinster who boasts that her maternal great-uncle was a state senator
      and her third cousin gave a concert at carnegie hall
      (as if the achievement of one man could rub off on the mediocrity of another)

      -the parents who search geneological trees in order to evaluate their prospective son-in-law.

      -the celebrity who starts his autobiography with a detailed account of his family history

      -All these are samples of racism.”

      Delete
    6. none of that - abolish estate taxes! Pa and Ma earned it the kids get to keep it and make it grow larger than ever!!

      Delete
  24. And NSA is clueless as to what he took, by a "convenient" set of anomalies.

    Yet he's a "heroic whistleblower". He could have the launch codes to all our boomers, but he's just a "whistleblower". Idiots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well Teresita Redinger, in that case, they could just change the launch codes. But they probably haven't thought of that yet.

      duh

      Delete
    2. If an enlisted man can lift and publish our launch codes, he is a greater hero than I thought for having exposed an idiotic flaw in our security systems. The villain is the incompetent in charge of the security system.

      Delete
    3. .

      Take a moment and consider the inanities and absurdities encapsulated in your one sentence. Then, if you were to assume that there was the possible chance that what you said was true, where the indictment should lie, with Snowden or with the dummies at the NSA and the other intelligence services.

      .

      Delete
    4. If I typed on, here, what I suspect is really the truth about l...ch c....s and boomers, I probably would get a visit from the Eff Bee Eye.

      Delete
    5. We should all be terrified. This guy may well have over a million documents, some incredibly dangerous if in the wrong hands. Yet, not once did anyone or any internal security monitoring system detect that he was raiding Fort Knox, at will, over a period of a few months.

      Did you read the complaint we sent to the Chinese after the near-miss collision the other day?
      Basically, we scolded them for "a lack of good seamanship". Are you kidding me!!!! The Chinese are determined to control the Western Pacific and the best we can do is lecture them on "seamanship". Give me a break!

      Are there any adults out there whose brains have not been turned to jelly by drugs, alcohol, and VD?

      Delete
    6. Recently, it was reported that the launch code used by POTUS for years was "0000000" (more or less, and, no, it wasn't Bush's fault).

      Delete
    7. That's amazing! I have the same number on my luggage!

      Delete
    8. Teresita RedingerSun Dec 15, 12:31:00 PM EST
      That's amazing! I have the same number on my luggage!

      A really clever person would have added some "1s". Wow! That's like totally binary. No one will ever make sense of it.

      Delete
    9. You missed the Mel Brooks reference.

      Delete

  25. Kerry rejects notion US has abandoned search for American missing in Iran, says hunt continues

    From your trusted Saudi Arabian news source ...

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/15/kerry-rejects-notion-us-has-abandon-american-missing-in-iran-says-hunt/

    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. FBI Sabotaged Levinson Investigation, Family Lawyer Says
      By Jeff Stein

      http://www.newsweek.com/robert-levinsons-family-knew-years-cia-involvement-224553

      Delete

    2. Last Thursday afternoon, an urgent call went out from CIA headquarters to the spy agency’s director, John Brennan, who was giving a speech to a graduating class at “The Farm,” the CIA’s training facility near Williamsburg, Va.

      An aide warned Brennan that the Associated Press and Washington Post were about to publish a lengthy story revealing that Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who had gone missing while “on private business” in Iran years earlier, was actually working for the CIA.

      A handful of other national security reporters in Washington had known of Levinson’s CIA connections for years but agreed to sit on it, accepting the CIA’s rationale that publishing the information could endanger the life of Levinson, who was ostensibly pursing an investigation of cigarette smuggling for a private client when he went missing on Iran’s Kish Island in March 2007. Levinson was thought to be in Iranian hands.

      On Thursday, the entreaties of lower ranking CIA officials to the reporters -- the AP’s Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, who had recently left the news agency to join The Washington Post -- not to publish the story had failed. Other high-ranking Obama administration officials, including White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, as well as FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliani, made the same argument to the reporters and their editors.

      By the time Brennan got the warning from headquarters, however, it was too late to make his own appeal. The story was online.

      Levinson’s family also did not want the story published, according to their attorney David McGee, a veteran former federal prosecutor in Florida.

      “The family did not authorize them breaking the story,” McGee told Newsweek. “We assumed the AP would actually call and ask for permission. They didn’t call and ask.”

      White House spokesman Jay Carney called publishing the story "highly irresponsible.”

      The AP said “publishing this article was a difficult decision.”

      After years in hostile hands, AP Executive Editor and Senior Vice president Kathleen Carroll said, “It is almost certain that [Levinson's] captors already know about the CIA connection but without knowing exactly who the captors are, it is difficult to know whether publication of Levinson’s CIA mission would make a difference to them. That does not mean there is no risk. But with no more leads to follow, we have concluded that the importance of the story justifies publication.”

      Delete
  26. There is no 1% envy. That is an empty self-servings shibboleth for the 1%, by the 1%. An assembly line worker creates more real wealth than a flash trader. The common wealth of a nation of 300 million is not protected by the 1%. It is protected by the fleet of owners of ten year old Chevys. It is in our common interest and the interest of the assholes in the 1% to get them into five year old Chevys.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are focused on the artificial value of markers (money) which are used to represent tangible wealth. If the government cut everyone a check for $100,000 a year, the price of televisions would rise to soak up that excess liquidity. If American workers were compensated at the level of rice pickers, a lot of goods would be slashed in price, because they'd remain on the shelf unsold. And once more you reach an equilibrium point, unless the government interferes and sets a floor price with a tariff, or a ceiling with price controls, and you get distortions like the gas lines of 1973.

      Delete
  27. As to the bullshit that the 1% got to be in the 1% despite the government, the opposite is true. They got there in almost all cases because of government favors and special categorical treatment.

    The best example is all the billionaires created by the internet. These guys were all great innovators but hardly made their billions in a vacuum. There would be no internet without the TCP/IP protocol, which was invented by Vincent Cerfand Robert Kahn while working on a government grant.

    Don’t fall for the absolutism trap of doctrinaire thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If there were no TCP/IP protocol. someone else would have invented something like it, and the Internet would have emerged peer-to-peer from people running PCs with phone-modems. It would have been a better model anyway, a swarm like bit-torrent rather than a gatekeeper model with ISPs charging fees. Think outside the box, Deuce.

      Delete
    2. Most things that are "outside the box" are there for a reason. Your Ayn Rand claptrap is looney-tunes.

      Delete
    3. DeuceSun Dec 15, 12:30:00 PM EST
      As to the bullshit that the 1% got to be in the 1% despite the government, the opposite is true.

      While just an opinion, I think the stock market has been rigged for years. Insiders help others in the club, despite the "rigorous" oversight of the SEC.

      Delete
    4. You don't believe Hillary parleyed $1000 into $100,000 by her own day-trading acumen?

      Delete
    5. Most things that are "outside the box" are there for a reason. Your Ayn Rand claptrap is looney-tunes.

      That's what they said in Greece, Spain, and Portugal.

      Delete

    6. None of the above print US dollars.
      None of the above print Euros

      Your argument just self destructed, Mel O. D.


      bobbo

      Delete
    7. You said I said the N word, so no surprise you call me Melody too, even though I was the one who tagged MLD with that, and it stuck. I don't mind, she's a nice gal.

      Delete
    8. Teresita RedingerSun Dec 15, 01:21:00 PM EST
      You don't believe Hillary parleyed $1000 into $100,000 by her own day-trading acumen?

      No

      Delete
  28. Teresita RedingerSun Dec 15, 01:23:00 PM EST
    You missed the Mel Brooks reference.

    Yep! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies


    1. "Spengler's Laws": "When a nation is reduced to selling its women, it's lost."

      Israel, the highest rate of prostitution in the world (CNN)

      One million visits made by clients every month to brothels in Israel (population 7 million)

      “For this we yearned?”


      "Spengler's Laws": "When a nation is reduced to selling its women, it's lost."

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

      Delete
  29. Analysis of the political situation in Sinaloa

    Santa Ana downtown reminds me of downtown Guadalajara, except that Guadalajara is nicer.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Legendary British Actor Peter O'Toole has died at 81

    ReplyDelete
  31. ...just found this...not into conspiracy theories, generally, but this deserves a look...couldn't hurt...

    Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup

    After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.
    But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.
    It was kept secret and remains so today.
    President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).
    A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Theodore RooseveltSun Dec 15, 02:49:00 PM EST


      "The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”

      Theodore Roosevelt 

      Delete
    2. There is, of course, a flip-side. If the U.S. abandons its political structures, it will lose its identity more thoroughly than states that define nationality by blood or territory. Power is shifting from the 50 states to Washington, D.C., from elected representatives to federal bureaucrats, from citizens to the government. As the U.S. moves toward European-style health care, day care, college education, carbon taxes, foreign policy and spending levels, so it becomes less prosperous, less confident and less free.
      We sometimes talk of the English-speaking nations as having a culture of independence. But culture does not exist, numinously, alongside institutions; it is a product of institutions. People respond to incentives. Make enough people dependent on the state, and it won't be long before Americans start behaving and voting like…well, like Greeks.

      Delete
  32. "I don't have any use for the federal government," Rupe said, even though his household's $13,000 yearly income comes exclusively from Washington. "It's a bunch of liars, crooks, and thieves, and they've never done anything for me. I'm not ungrateful, but I don't have much faith in this health care law. Do I think it's going to work? No. Do I think it's going to bankrupt the country? Yes."

    Rupe sounds like he could be standing on a soapbox at a tea-party rally, but he happens to be sitting in a back room at the Family Health Centers' largest clinic in Louisville—signing up for Medicaid. Rupe, who is white, insists that illegal immigrants from Mexico and Africa get more government assistance than he does. (Illegal immigrants do not, in fact, qualify for Medicaid or coverage under the Affordable Care Act.)

    He's not alone in thinking this way. A majority of whites believe the health care law will make things worse for them and their families, according to a United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

    "President Obama's idea is taking from the working people to give to the people who won't take care of themselves. It's redistribution of wealth," Rupe said. "I've always taken care of myself. You got these young girls who go out and get pregnant and then they get $1,500 a month for having a kid, so they have two."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On the other side of town, Adele Anderson was signing up for Medicaid at a public library. The white, middle-aged woman makes $10 an hour as a child-care provider; she also gets $86 a month in food stamps. She was unaware that Republicans voted to cut $40 billion over 10 years from what's called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. "Democrats are too liberal," Anderson said. "They just want to give handouts."

      The disdain she and Rupe show toward living on the government dole at the very moment they are doing just that is typical in a state that distrusts Washington as much as it needs federal help.

      Kentucky's antiestablishment fervor dates back at least to the Civil War. While sticking with the Union, the state sympathized, culturally and economically, with its Southern neighbors and was the second-to-last state to ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Since the civil-rights movement, Kentucky has backed only Democratic presidential nominees who were fellow Southerners—Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

      In late May of 2008, even as Obama was on the verge of clinching the nomination, Kentucky Democrats overwhelmingly renounced the African-American by way of Hawaii, Indonesia, and Chicago in favor of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He lost the state by double digits to John McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012.

      But even deeper than Kentucky's aversion to Obama is its desperation for health care. Nearly one of six Kentuckians is uninsured. The state rates first or near the top nationally in statistics on smoking, cancer deaths, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. In contrast to the slow and tumultuous rollout of the federal website under the new health care law, enrollment in the state-run exchange and Medicaid is surging in the Bluegrass State.

      Just don't call it Obamacare. In Kentucky, a marketing campaign has cleverly branded it "kynect."

      "It really is strategic," said Barbara Gordon, director of the state's division of social services, which is helping to oversee enrollment. "We've had events where people say, 'This sounds a whole lot better than that Obamacare!' We train . . . . .

      Delete
  33. There is no economy on this planet more controlled, therefore not free, than the US economy right now; not even China comes close. WTF does Rufus think the massive bailouts were? Or the printing and pumping of billions of dollars a month in so called quantitative easing? And all we hear is Ayn Rand is a nutburger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I read somewhere that upto a million doctors will opt out. Will they be forced at gunpoint to participate?

      Delete
    2. That's because Ayn Rand was a nutburger.

      A vile, filthy old nutburger.

      A hypocritical, lying, vile, filthy old nutburger.

      Delete

    3. No, not at gun point, but their license to participate in the dispensing of medicine for profit will be revoked.

      It is 'license required' industry.

      Delete
    4. And if they still do it without a license, the DEA comes calling, with guns pointed.

      Delete

    5. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.".

      - Mao Zedong - The Little Red Book -1964

      Delete
    6. Up to a Million? opt out?

      I doubt it.

      According to a report by the US Census Bureau there were over 661,400 doctors and surgeons practicing medicine in 2008.

      Delete
    7. Rufus, This is newer than your data, but indicates 878,194 actively licensed physicians as of 2012.
      The data base from which this number comes was developed in 2004 and contains the names of 1.7 total licensees, active and inactive. Surely some are deceased, no doubt. But unless there has been a major die off of physicians, I doubt that has much effect other than on the deceased.

      This number does not include chiropractors as I understand it. In 2012, "there were in excess of 60,000" actively practicing chiropractors in the US. Moreover, it does not include practicing psychologists. The APA estimates there are over 110,000 practicing psychologists as of 2012.

      I doubt 1,000,000 opt-outs as well.

      A Census of Actively Licensed Physicians
      in the United States, 2012

      Delete
    8. It probably will not change things markedly, but the Federal government and some state governments use "psychologists" of less than a PhD competency. In fact, socialists often fill the role.

      Delete
  34. But the Ryan-Murray deal is not without its critics. In the Senate, a growing number of Republicans have objected to bill's provision to reduce the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) by one percentage point for military retirees under the age of 62. Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma have all cited the issue as a dealbreaker for them Ryan defended the provision on Saturday as a modest reform that's part of a broader plan to save the military from devastating cuts.

    "We give them a slightly smaller adjustment for inflation because they're still in their working years and in most cases earning another paycheck,” Ryan said. "Our goal here is to make sure that no other country comes close to matching the U.S. military, and the stress on the budget in the future brings that whole entire notion into question. We still have a Pentagon budget that is not where it needs to be."

    Ryan Defends Reduction to Cost-of-Living Adjustments for Early Military Retirees

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Henric Ştefan Streitman was a Romanian Jew, a journalist, translator and political figure,
      who traversed the political spectrum from socialism to the far right.

      He was a physicist, social commentator and publisher,
      known for both his polemical stances and his erudition.

      Streitman turned to Nazi collaborationism during World War II,
      serving the NAZI cause becoming president of the Central Jewish Office.

      Henric Ştefan Streitman was a Fifth Columnist.

      Delete
    2. I guess that if you add the 3 Million young people that have been allowed to stay on their Parents' Plans to the 2.5 Million that have obtained insurance off the website you would come up with a Total of 5.5 Million Americans that have received coverage, so far, from Obamacare.

      Also, all those Millions of Seniors that are enrolled in Medicare Part D have had their Donut Hole cut in half.

      Delete
    3. Medicare is not within Obamacare other than for purposes of registration, I thought. Is this incorrect?

      Delete
    4. Every time someone brings in donuts, by the time I get to them, there's nothing left but the holes.

      Delete
    5. Yes, Obamacare cut the Part D donut hole in half.

      Delete
    6. The US Department of Health & Human Services wrote in its Aug. 20, 2012 press release “People with Medicare Save More Than $4.1 Billion on Prescription Drugs,” available online at www.hhs.gov:



      "The health care law includes benefits to make Medicare prescription drug coverage more affordable. In 2010, anyone with Medicare who hit the prescription drug donut hole received a $250 rebate. In 2011, people with Medicare who hit the donut hole began receiving a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs and a discount on generic drugs. These discounts and Medicare coverage gradually increase until 2020 when the donut hole is fully closed.”

      Donut Hole - Going Away

      Delete
    7. I have got to have a look at the "donut hole", if for no other reason than physics or metaphysics. "Black hole" I can relate to government. Hmm...

      :-)

      Delete

    8. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
      August 20, 2012

      Contact: HHS Press Office
      (202) 690-6343


      People with Medicare save more than $4.1 billion on prescription drugs

      18 million with Medicare also receive free preventive services in the first seven months of 2012

      Nearly 5.4 million seniors and people with disabilities have saved more than $4.1 billion on prescription drugs as a result of the Affordable Care Act, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today. Seniors in the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole” have saved an average of $768. During the first seven months of 2012, the new health care law has helped nearly 18 million people with original Medicare get at least one preventive service at no cost to them.

      “The health care law has saved people with Medicare over $4.1 billion on prescription drugs, and given millions of beneficiaries access to cancer screenings, mammograms and other preventive services for free,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Medicare is stronger thanks to the health care law, saving people money and offering new benefits at no cost to seniors.”

      Delete
    9. The health care law includes benefits to make Medicare prescription drug coverage more affordable. In 2010, anyone with Medicare who hit the prescription drug donut hole received a $250 rebate. In 2011, people with Medicare who hit the donut hole began receiving a 50 percent discount on covered brand-name drugs and a discount on generic drugs. These discounts and Medicare coverage gradually increase until 2020 when the donut hole is fully closed.

      The health care law also makes it easier for people with Medicare to stay healthy. Prior to 2011, people with Medicare had to pay extra for many preventive health services. These costs made it difficult for people to get the health care they needed. For example, before the health care law passed, a person with Medicare could pay as much as $160 for a colorectal cancer screening. Now, many preventive services are offered free of charge to beneficiaries, with no deductible or co-pay, so that cost is no longer a barrier for seniors who want to stay healthy and treat problems early.

      In 2012 alone, 18 million people with traditional Medicare have received at least one preventive service at no cost to them. This includes 1.65 million who have taken advantage of the Annual Wellness Visit provided by the Affordable Care Act – over 500,000 more than had used this service by this point in the year in 2011. In 2011, an estimated 32.5 million people with traditional Medicare or Medicare Advantage received one or more preventive benefits free of charge.

      Delete
    10. Ron Pollack, JD, Families USA Executive Director, wrote in a Sep. 6, 2012 article “Why Obamacare Is Good for Seniors and America: Families USA,” available at www.smmirror.com:



      "Like a bad dream, however, the doughnut hole is going to fade away. That terrible gap, where seniors have to pay 100 percent of the cost of their prescription drugs until the other side is reached, is getting smaller every year. By 2020, the doughnut hole would have grown to $6,000 a year; instead, under the Affordable Care Act, by 2020, the doughnut hole will be gone and seniors will only have to pay their copayments. The fact that something so bad is being eliminated is real reform.”

      Delete
  35. More radioactive pigs nabbed in Italian countryside

    Since I will not be eating any Tuscan wildboar stuffed intestines or testicles, I should be reasonably safe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
      ― Virginia Woolf

      Delete
    2. ...sounds good to me...In her case a little Lithium would have been advisable anywhere along the line. I wonder if she dined well prior to her suicide?

      Delete
  36. Talking typical -

    Typical Iranian Nuke Negotiations -

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/enraged-over-new-sanctions-iranians-abruptly-pull-out-of-nuke-talks.html

    "They know Obama is an easy mark."

    FARCE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is farcical about that?

      Delete
    2. Anon.

      According to the JP, they are coming back to the table to make their case for unfairness.

      ...same old stuff...politcal theater...

      Delete
    3. Ash, it is a farce because the negotiations are not now, nor will they ever be, about really negotiating Iran away from nuclear weapons. Iran has zero intentions of actually doing that. And that is why it is a farce.

      Delete


    4. Former Mossad Director Ephraim Halevy not only has publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran as anything but a last resort;
      he is a longstanding supporter of a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue.

      In September of 2012, Halevy told Haaretz‘s Ari Shavit that Israel needed to understand the Iranian perspective:

      The basic feeling of that ancient nation is one of humiliation.
      Both religious Iranians and secular Iranians feel that for 200 years the Western powers used them as their playthings.

      They do not forget for a moment that the British and the Americans intervened in their internal affairs and toppled the regime of Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953.

      From their perspective, the reason why, to this day, there is no modern rail network and no modern oil refineries in Iran is that the West prevented that.

      Thus, the deep motive behind the Iranian nuclear project
      − which was launched by the Shah −
      is not the confrontation with Israel,
      but the desire to restore to Iran the greatness of which it was long deprived.

      I believe that if the West could find a way to propose to Iran alternative methods to acquire that sense of greatness, Iran would forsake the nuclear road.

      If Iran were offered trains and oil refineries and a place of honor in regional trade,
      it would consider this seriously.


      A month later,
      in an interview with al-Monitor‘s Laura Rozen just before the U.S. presidential election,
      Halevy defended President Obama’s willingness to negotiate with Iran as ” very courageous.”


      http://2164th.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-brutal-truth-our-president-got-his.html?showComment=1385263221963#c2669905476206837535

      bob

      Delete
  37. “An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange and won’t participate, the head of the state’s largest medical association said.”

    According to California Medical Association (CMA) president Dr. Richard Thorp:

    “It doesn’t surprise me that there’s been a high rate of nonparticipation.”

    “We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community. But we can’t do it for free. And we can’t do it at a loss. No other business would do that.”

    CMA represents about 104,000 California doctors. California offers one of the nation’s lowest reimbursement rates.


    Making a Bad System Worse

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, someone did a Scientific Study, and it came out to about 20% they might not take Obamacare Patients.

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

      Delete
    3. This poll from Nov 2, '13 is the only thing I could find that might be considered "Scientific" and it is from New York.

      "The New York Post reported on a poll conducted by the New York State Medical Society on their participation in the Obamacare exchanges. The poll found that 44 percent of doctors said they would not be participating in the nation’s new health-care plan, while another 33 percent said they’re still not sure whether to become Obamacare providers"

      Will Obamacare leave any doctors in the house?

      Delete

    4. We will just import them from India.

      There are just like us.
      My niece told me so.


      bob

      Delete
  38. CMS – which has never before released Medicare opt-out figures – reports that 9,539 physicians opted out of the Medicare program in 2012. That is up from 3,700 physicians opting out in 2009. All in all, the number of doctors who opted out of Medicare in 2012 nearly tripled from just three years prior. According to The WSJ, many other doctors who are not opting out of the program are at least limiting the number of Medicare patients that they treat.

    ...from August 2013...
    Doctors Refuse To Accept Medicare Patients

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Medicare drives a pretty hard bargain. No "give-aways" at the guvmint store.

      Delete
    2. CMS is the Medicare and Medicaid site. They seem concerned as they should be.

      As to whomever blithely threw out the revoking of physicians' licenses for opting out, good luck with that. Then, of course, there is always the option of an expedited class action suit in Federal Court. I think doctors could get fairly good lawyers to handle that. With the right Federal judge an injunction is not out of the question.

      Given the changes mandated by Mr. Obama, the law isn't the same law reviewed by the SCOTUS and upheld as constitutional.

      In a little more than two weeks, we will have an answer to the question of physician participation.
      Doctors may yet save us from ourselves.

      In looking at documents dealing with this matter, what seems to most offend physicians is their exclusion from the process that created the law. The administration and the Democrats decided to shove it down their throats. That may prove to have been a fatal strategic error.

      Rufus, I am not being facetious or sarcastic when I say that you would have been an excellent advocate for Obamacare. In all the reading I done to keep up with you over the past month, you are the only person who can articulate a clear, concise argument. Sebelius appears before Congress and acts like the old fashioned flight attendant: "Yes, I know you think we are hurtling toward the ground at 600 miles per hour - Would you like another beverage"?

      Delete
    3. Well, I do hope it works out fairly well, because there Are a whole lot of poor people that need health insurance.

      The other side of the coin is, Obama is going to spend an awful lot of time vetoing bills in his last two years - bills that have been sent to him from a Republican Senate, and House.

      Yes, in the spirit of "no good deed goes unpunished," I believe the '14 election is liable to be a wipeout for the Dems.

      There's an awful lot of folks (white, and black) out there that don't want to be told they have to buy insurance, even if Most of the premium is paid for with Rich People's taxes.

      From what I can see, those yahoos in Ky that were featured in the post above are NOT the anomaly.

      Delete
    4. I know that something must be done, and done pretty quickly to address the very real issue of caring for those unable to care for themselves. And the argument, "Well, they should have done A, B, or C differently or made better life’s choices doesn't cut it. I do not want an America where people just lie down on the street and die. This is not Bangladesh or freaking Venezuela.
      What I hate about this law is not its objective, it is its implementation. A Congress in toto) has walked away from its oversight obligations and permitted a president to act like the dictator of a banana republic. And the Republican argument, “We didn’t vote for it,” is utterly irresponsible. If this law is pushed through under the current circumstances (e.g. Sebelius ordering public servants and citizens to refuse lawful summons) then we are going to lose the very thing that has set us apart from much of the world: rule of law. With that gone, health care will be one of the least of our problems.

      Delete


    5. Age of Child Prostitutes in Israel Dropping

      Knesset study cites cases of 11-year-olds used for commercial sex that are among the several thousands of teenagers involved in prostitution.

      Vered Lee
      Haaretz

      http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.542420

      "Spengler's Laws": "When a nation is reduced to selling its women, it's lost."

      Delete
    6. A Madonna–whore complex is the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed, loving relationship:
      based on a man's primary hatred of women, stimulated by the child’s sense that he had been made to experience intolerable frustration and/or narcissistic injury at the hands of his mother. According to this theory, in adulthood the boy-turned-man seeks to avenge these mistreatments through sadistic attacks on women who are stand-ins for mother.
      The man is therefore reluctant to have sexual relations with his wife for, according to his unconscious mind, this would be incest. He will reserve sexuality for "bad" or "dirty" women, and will not develop "normal" feelings of love in these sexual relationships. This introduces a dilemma where a man may feel unable to love any woman who can satisfy him sexually and is unable to be sexually satisfied by any woman whom he can love.

      Delete
  39. The World's 5 Strongest Economies

    Three of the five are now confronting China in the Western Pacific, while a fourth, Germany is allied to the US. That would seem to make it 4 v 1. China needs a lesson. Who will give it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. "The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land,

      plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic.


      He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”

      Theodore Roosevelt 

      The foreigners should all go home!
      My niece would be home if she came to see me.

      She is lovely in the morning, lighting up the lives of those around her.

      :):):):):)


      Delete
  40. Balanced Budgets and Depressions

    Thayer, Frederick C., The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

    "... since 1791, there have been six significant economic depressions among the innumerable "business cycles." Each sustained period of budget-balancing was immediately followed by a significant depression. There are as yet no exceptions to this historical pattern.

    This is the record of six depressions:

    1. 1817-21: in five years, the national debt was reduced by 29 percent, to $90 million. A depression began in 1819.

    2. 1823-36: in 14 years, the debt was reduced by 99.7 percent, to $38,000. A depression began in 1837.

    3. 1852-57: in six years, the debt was reduced by 59 percent, to $28.7 million. A depression began in 1857.

    4. 1867-73: in seven years, the debt was reduced by 27 percent, to $2.2 billion. A depression began in 1873.

    5. 1880-93: in 14 years, the debt was reduced by 57 percent, to $1 billion. A depression began in 1893.

    6. 1920-30: in 11 years, the debt was reduced by 36 percent, to $16.2 billion. A depression began in 1929.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alexander Hamilton did his best to make the case for government debt as the means to stimulate credit. He did manage to get bonds pushed through the Congress that nationalized the War debt. For his efforts he was the target of a neverending volley of calumny.

      Debt in and of itself is not an evil. Public debt may be highly constructive as long as its object is the commonwealth. The railroads of the US were in large measure financed by debt held by British lenders.

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

      Delete
  41. China's leaders reaffirmed their intention to turn urbanization into a powerful engine to drive growth and remake the economy, saying they would encourage rural residents to move to smaller cities, rather than Beijing, Shanghai and other megacities.

    Over the past month, party leaders have rolled out their plans to revamp the Chinese economy and made few mentions of urbanization, though it had been seen as a priority...


    ReplyDelete
  42. This sounds about right. Why the Administration created the subsequent FUBAR is inexplicable.

    If we are going to have our people in Libya, maybe they should be better armed.

    ‘Stand down’: CIA Benghazi team clash led to controversial order

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

      ― Ernest Hemingway


      bob

      Delete

    2. "A plan, especially a very focused one, narrows down the possibilies of the future to just a couple of things: that things either go to plan, or they don't.”

      ― John C. Parkin, Fuck It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way

      bob

      Delete

    3. “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ...
      are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”
      ― Anthony Bourdain


      bob

      Delete
    4. Re: Bourdain

      I can see him saying that. :-)

      Delete

    5. "To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat,
      demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.”

      ― Anthony Bourdain

      Delete
    6. As I sucked up the Russian vodka the cold of the sidewalk began to fade away, tomorrow morning seemed all so near, I began to feel happy and planned to panhandle on 85th Ave and 146th Street.

      Ernest Quirk

      Delete
  43. I'm often amazed at our lack of knowledge about history. Ordinary people are hungry for this information, yet the organizations responsible to disseminate these facts seem to have an agenda to keep us in the dark.

    ...

    In 1959, Turkish army captain Llhan Durupinar discovered an unusual shape while examining aerial photographs of his country. The smooth shape, larger than a football field, stood out from the rough and rocky terrain at an altitude of 6,300 feet near the Turkish border with Iran.

    ...

    The first part of the survey was to examine the object and take its measurements. The shape looked like hull of a ship.


    Keeping Us In The Dark?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Watch Ancient Aliens Full Episodes & Videos Online - HISTORY.com

      http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/videos


      Ancient Aliens: Aliens and The Lost Ark
      (45 min) tv-pg

      The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most sought-after religious relics of all time. If it is found, will it reveal a long, lost connection to our extraterrestrial past?


      bob

      Delete


    2. Ancient Aliens: Aliens and the Creation of Man
      (45 min) tv-pg

      Did humans evolve from more primitive life forms, or did our intelligence and creativity develop from contact with an otherworldly source?


      http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/videos/ancient-aliens-aliens-and-the-creation-of-man?m=5189717d404fa&s=All&f=1&free=false


      bob

      Delete
    3. sam,

      Interesting, but they lost me at the point of petrification. Although Creationists claim the process can occur over short periods of time (months). Controlled lab attempts by universities have not been able to duplicate the process. Scientists will continue to try in an effort to understand the process, but it looks like tens of millions of years are necessary under very limited conditions.

      Assuming no attempt at deception, the metallurgy could prove an avenue worth examination by experts. Carbon dating would be useful as well.

      Delete
  44. Göbekli Tepe’s Oldest Temple in the World – an Archaeological Stone Age Site in Anatolia

    This is not supposed to exist according received anthropology.The builders did not read the books.

    ReplyDelete
  45. From the 'LIFE SUCKS" Department :

    Memo from :


    Quirk the Quark Quack Quack

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/faith_within_science.html

    Good article, nice overview of things as they currently are, on the blue guitar.

    ReplyDelete