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."

Monday, November 09, 2015

Kentucky screws itself



What May Happen If Obamacare Is Rolled Back in Kentucky



Governor-elect Matt Bevin said he plans to dismantle Kynect, Kentucky’s health insurance exchange, by the end of 2016.
He also said he plans to roll back the state’s expansion of Medicaid.
During a press conference Friday, Bevin said he committed to dismantling Kynect over the long term because it “adds no value.” He said he believes the state’s health insurance exchange is redundant because Kentuckians can get the same benefits via the federal exchange.
But the Bevin administration won’t officially begin until early next month, and health care is complicated with or without the governor-elect’s plans. How, precisely, the changes would be implemented will likely not be known for months to come.
How much can he do without the backing of the state legislature? How soon would his changes actually go into effect? There are also questions about the cost of dismantling Kynect and rolling back Medicaid, and what would happen to the people who get their insurance through the current system.

Executive Order

Gov. Steve Beshear implemented the Affordable Care Act in Kentucky through executive order. It’s possible that Bevin could dismantle the law just the same.
“He certainly has that power,” said state Rep. Joni Jenkins, chair of the House Budget Subcommittee on Human Services.
But Jenkins, a Louisville Democrat, said it’s not something that would happen immediately.
“I certainly hope that the governor-elect is going to look at all the ramifications, both positive and negative, of that type of decision,” Jenkins said.
There is also a chance the General Assembly would seek to weigh in. Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, supports Bevin’s proposal to roll back Kynect. But Demoratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo told media outlets on Election Day that there could be a “big battle” in the legislature over the program’s future.
People Most Affected
The most glaring aspect of altering the state’s health insurance market is the possibility that thousands of people may once again find themselves uninsured.
Before the ACA, Kentucky’s uninsured rate was 20.4 percent. Earlier this year, the uninsured rate had dropped to 9 percent, according to Gallup-Healthways.
Audrey Haynes, secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said many people will be affected if Bevin goes through with his plan to decommission Kynect.
Before the Medicaid expansion, about 850,000 people were enrolled in the program who were aged, blind, disabled or had a qualifying child. Now, there are about 1.2 million Kentuckians on Medicaid, and about 500,000 of them are children.
People would still be able to go to social service offices to enroll in Medicaid, but only to the extent that the Medicaid expansion is kept in Bevin’s administration, Haynes said.
Under the current model, Kentuckians qualify for Medicaid if they earn less than 138 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. On Friday, Bevin said he intends to change the qualifications so that fewer people qualify for the program. He said the state cannot afford the cost of the Medicaid expansion once the federal government begins requiring states to pick up part of the tab for the additional recipients.
Starting next year, Kentucky will pay roughly $109 million for the program, or about 5 percent of the cost of the expansion. By 2020, the state will pay 10 percent, or an estimated $409 million. The federal government will continue paying 90 percent of the expansion cost after that.
Bevin acknowledged some people would fall into the Medicaid gap if he rolls back the expansion, which he would need federal approval to do. He said he and his team have begun reaching out to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to apply for waivers that allow the state to customize a program for people who are currently receiving Medicaid.
“It will involve people having skin in the game,” he said. “It will involve people having involvement in their own health outcomes — taking financial and personal responsibility for these things.”
The Affordable Care Act required states to expand up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level to receive full federal funding for the Medicaid expansion.
“I don’t know if the federal government allows you to go from 138 percent of poverty down to 100 percent or 120 percent,” she said. “I have no idea because we have not explored those rules.”
She said the seven insurance companies offering private plans through Kynect would also be affected.
“They would have to make a business decision as to whether they go to the federal exchange or not,” she said. “The federal exchange charges 3.5 percent to operate and sell on the federal exchange. We only charge 1 percent, so that all makes a difference.”
Haynes said insurance agents would also be affected because more than 50 percent of private health plans were sold by agents.
And nearly 175 employees of a Kynect a call center in Lexington may lose their jobs if the exchange is shut down.

Count the Cost

Once Kynect is closed, Bevin said he intends to transfer people who had used the state exchange to the federal marketplace.
Since the first open enrollment period in 2013, more than 500,000 Kentuckians have signed up for health insurance through Kynect or the Medicaid expansion, both of which are the result of the Affordable Care Act.
Jenkins and Haynes said it would cost an estimated $23 million to decommission Kynect, all of which would likely come from the state’s general fund. And it could cost more, depending on how the federal government takes to Kentucky ending its health care exchange.
“I have asked the question, and I do not have an answer: If we decommission this exchange that we set up with federal dollars, do we owe any money back to the federal government?” Jenkins said. “And I haven’t found an answer to that yet.”
So far, $136 million in federal funds have already been invested into the creation and operation of Kynect, Jenkins said.
Other states have transitioned from faltering health insurance exchanges to the federal marketplace. But Haynes said a successful health insurance exchange has never been decommissioned, so the cost to dismantle it could be different.
“The federal government is not going to kick in funds to help a state decommission a successful exchange,” she said. “Therefore, any funds — whether it’s $10 million, $20 million or $30 million or more — would all be general funds.”

The Process

If Bevin follows through and decommissions Kynect, it wouldn’t be an immediate change to the system.
The federal government requires states to officially notify them one year prior to decommissioning an exchange.
“If the governor-elect wanted to decommission Kynect for the next open enrollment period, he would certainly, at the latest, have to get a letter to them by Jan. 1, 2016,” Haynes said.
Bevin takes office Dec. 8. The earliest Kynect could officially be decommissioned would be Jan. 1, 2017. The technology work for decommissioning alone would take about nine months, said Jenkins.
This isn’t the first time a politician has set out to get rid of Kynect. Bevin’s desire to scale back Medicaid and get rid of the state insurance exchange mirrors that of another well-known Kentucky Republican: Mitch McConnell.
Before McConnell became the Senate majority leader, he repeatedly voiced his desire to repeal the ACA “root and branch” while also claiming that Medicaid coverage wouldn’t be lost if the federal law were axed.
Last year in a debate with Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who he would later defeat to win re-election, McConnell called the ACA “the worst piece of legislation that’s been passed in the last half century.” But he didn’t elaborate on how Kynect could exist without federal support.
At the time, Carrie Banahan, Kynect’s executive director, said the exchange would no longer be able to serve its purpose if the ACA were repealed.
“People would not be able to get subsidies if the Affordable Care Act were repealed and states could not have the Medicaid expansion,” she said.
While McConnell still supports full repeal of the ACA, he softened his stance on the state-level insurance programs during the course of the 2014 campaign.

2016 Open Enrollment

Open enrollment for Kynect began Nov. 1. Haynes said about 7,000 people have chosen a new health plan or enrolled in a health plan for the first time since then.
“People who sign up for their health insurance will be fine for calendar year 2016,” she said.
Jenkins said the House is willing to work with Bevin on the future of the health care exchange.
“I think you really have to give a lot of thought to the exchange, and that we’ve had this very successful model exchange that’s very unique to our state, and that we are running it in a way that makes sense to Kentucky,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins also said a lot of thought needs to be put into the future of the Medicaid expansion, as it provides health care to working families who don’t have salaries that enable them to purchase health care for themselves and their families.

99 comments:

  1. Kentucky ...

    Is that not hillbilly country?
    Those hicks don't need health insurance, they've got home brewed whiskey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The funny thing is, those hillbillies set up one of the best exchanges in the country. :)

      Delete
    2. They'll tweak the Medicaid to look probably identical to Arkansas, and, as for the exchange, . . . we'll see.

      Delete
    3. The country being held captive to the ideas of Arkansas and Kentucky ...
      Almost as scary as following Massachusetts lead.
      Nah, it's scarier.

      ;-)

      Delete
  2. I noticed that thread by the veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces ...

    Good to see that there are Israelis that have not swallowed the Cool-Aid

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whle the distaste for things Israeli continues to grow in the United States ...
      Sodastream International Ltd
      NASDAQ: SODA - Nov 9 4:00 PM EST
      15.49 per share.

      Down over 50% since our Israeli poster told us it was undervalued, just a tad over a year ago.
      Down from a high of $72.82 in June of 2013, just before the company was targeted by the BDS Movement.
      Retail sales of Sodastream products have cratered.



      Delete
    2. Sales in the Americas segment fell 11% to $26.2M in Q3.

      Sales in Western Europe declined 8% to $68.5M.

      Product segment revenue growth: Soda maker/starter kits -17% to $34.2M, Consumables -9% to $73.9M.

      SodaStream's gross margin rate slid 280 bps to 48.4%.

      Sales and marketing spend ratio -30 bps to 32.8 with marketing expenses lower.

      The company ended the quarter with a cash position of $43.5M and bank debt of $43.9M.

      Delete

  3. ICC Prosecutors Allege U.S.-Trained Georgian Units Committed War Crimes

    by Joshua Kucera

    Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have identified Georgian military units trained by the United States as being suspected of war crimes, possibly jeopardizing future American aid to those units.

    Last month, the ICC prosecutor's office formally requested the authority to start investigations into war crimes in the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia over the disputed territory of South Ossetia. According to the prosecutor's initial report, Georgian and Russian military forces, as well as units of the de facto South Ossetian security forces, all were implicated in war crimes.

    In the Georgian case, the crimes involved attacks on Russian units of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces under the Sochi agreement between Georgia and Russia, which formally ended the conflict. Intentionally attacking peacekeepers is a war crime under the Rome Statute, under which the ICC operates. From the ICC report:

    During the night from 7 to 8 August 2008 the Georgian armed forces conducted a military operation against JPKF HQ and the base of the Russian Peacekeeping Forces Battalion (RUPKFB) claiming that it had lost its protected status. According to the Russian authorities, 10 peacekeepers belonging to the Russian peacekeeping contingent were killed and a further 30 were wounded as a result.

    http://www.eurasianet.org/node/75971

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mean while ...
    The socialist welfare state the US supports in Palestine ...
    They want the US to borrow more from its lenders, and then have the money gifted to the Zionist regime in Israel.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Israel’s economy is projected to expand at a moderate 2.5% for 2015 but will pick up the pace to 3.2% for 2016 and 2017 — more quickly than many of the world’s economic leaders, the OECD forecast Monday. Unemployment is projected to stay at a moderate 5.2% through 2017

    ReplyDelete
  6. IRAN - SOUTH AFRICA

    TEHRAN, Nov. 09 (MNA) – In a meeting between Iranian President Rouhani and visiting SA deputy President Ramaphosa on Monday, the two sides stressed closer bilateral cooperation.
    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a meeting with visiting South African deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in Tehran on Monday stressed the need for taking advantage of the extensive capacities and opportunities in Iran and South Africa for developing relations and all-out cooperation between the two countries.

    Rouhani deemed necessary the expansion of cultural and academic cooperation, saying “Iran’s scientific and research centers will warmly welcome South Africa’s young and academic generation.”

    He also added that the two countries have access to an extensive ground for developing economic and trade relations in the fields of industry, mines, agriculture and new technologies; “with the new opportunities presented to us thanks to Iran’s nuclear accord with the 5+1 group of countries and the lift of sanctions, we must be able to further increase Tehran-Pretoria relations,” said Rouhani.

    ReplyDelete
  7. IRAN - GERMANY

    The southern German region of Bavaria aims to increase economic ties with Iran and sent a delegation of businessmen and diplomats to the Middle Eastern nation Saturday to begin building that relationship, the Tehran Times reported Monday. Bavaria has looked to increase trade up to four-fold, one economic minister said.

    Iran is a “a very attractive and profitable market” that businesses in Bavaria would like to trade with, Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs Ilse Aigner said, reports the Tehran Times. Aigner led the 130-person delegation to Tehran that aimed to strengthen ties between the two regions.

    Trade relations between Iran and most European countries, including Germany, have been sparse in the past decade because of strict sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activity. Following passage of the historic Iran nuclear agreement in July, where Iran exchanged tough limits on its nuclear capacity for the easing of sanctions, trade is becoming increasingly possible between Iran and Europe.

    ReplyDelete
  8. IRAN - INDIA - AFGHANISTAN

    MUMBAI (TIP): India is looking to step up the pedal over its ambitious Chabahar port project in Iran by signing an international transit corridor agreement with Iran and Afghanistan.

    One of the reasons why the port project is important for India as it will facilitate access to Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. Over the past 2 days, officials from the 3 countries have met to finalize agreement for a Chabahar transit corridor. “We are looking at a trilateral transit corridor MoU,” India’s ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha said.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Iran - Brazil

    Iran is also a major buyer of corn, with imports forecast to match those of wheat. Bunge shipped almost a million tons of corn from Brazil to Iran last year, the most of all exporters, according to data from shipping agency SA Commodities. Cargill exported about 269,000 tons in 2014.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Iran - France

    TEHRAN — France opened a trade office in Tehran on Monday, leading the charge of European countries angling for a share of the Iranian market after the July nuclear agreement.

    The opening occurred at the end of a two-day visit that brought more than 130 representatives of French companies, including Airbus, the carmakers Renault and Peugeot and the oil giant Total.

    Several European and Asian business delegations have been visiting the Iranian capital since the signing of the nuclear agreement, meeting with ministers and business leaders. The United States, however, continues to be a political outcast here, on the order of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Iran - Japan

    TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has described Iran as a “responsible major power” in the Middle East which can play a vital role in restoring peace and security to the region.

    “Iran is a major power in the Middle East. The international community, including Japan, strongly hopes that Iran, as a responsible major power, will make further contributions to bringing peace and stability into the region and the world. Japan also would like to make such contributions to making regional and global peace and stability,” Kishida made the remarks ahead of his visit to Tehran in an interview with Iran's English language daily newspaper, Iran Daily, published on Monday.

    The Japanese foreign minister is in Tehran at the head of an economic delegation to hold talks with Iranian officials on bilateral ties and trade cooperation.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Iran - Korea

    Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency See ‘Big Opportunities’ In Cuba And Iran As Both Nations Agreed To A Timeline Of Economic Sanctions Relief

    ReplyDelete
  13. While the rest of the world is trading with Iran or will be shortly, we are stuck with Israel. Our politicians have their nose up Netanyahu’s ass, all options on the table, and are hurt that Iran is in no hurry to deal with Israel’s bitch in Washington.

    ReplyDelete
  14. WHAT DOES FAT ASS BRING TO WASHINGTON JUST TO BE HELPFUL?

    Just in time for his meeting with President Obama this morning, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has flipped the bird to the U.S. A fresh settlement approval by his government showed up in Haaretz today:

    Israel moves to green light 2,200 new settlement units, recognizes outposts


    Chaim Levinson’s article says that the decision was unusual. Note the presence of the Defense Minister:

    Israel’s civilian planning committee for construction in the West Bank moved last week to green light some 2,200 new housing units within existing settlements and retroactively recognize two outposts, most likely in a bid to preempt legal attempts by Palestinians and rights groups to see the sites evacuated. The move is only preliminary and is still subject to changes before the new units break ground.

    The Higher Planning Council of the Civil Administration agreed to advance a master plan for the Ma’aleh Michmash area east of Ramallah that will retroactively approve two outposts and add thousands of homes to the settlements in the region. The plan includes the settlements of Ma’aleh Michmash, Rimonim, Kochav Hashahar, Tel Zion and Psagot, and the area south of the settlement of Ofra.

    The plan was originally submitted in 2014, and last month Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon gave the green light for the council to discuss it. A hearing was held on October 21 and a decision was reached on November 3 and published on Thursday. Ya’alon’s adviser on settlement issues, Koby Eliraz, attended the council hearing, which is considered unusual.

    - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/netanyahu-flips-settlements#sthash.PsYcSm2T.dpuf

    ReplyDelete
  15. My humble opinion, tell them to “FUCK OFF”

    ReplyDelete
  16. The only “exceptionalism” in Washington is exceptional corruption and cowardice.

    ReplyDelete
  17. .

    Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said if given the opportunity he would kill Adolf Hitler as a baby.

    “Hell yeah, I would,” Bush told the Huffington Post in an interview previewed on Monday. “You gotta step up man.”

    Bush, the former governor of Florida, was responding to an interviewer’s question about the funniest or most bizarre email he has ever received in light of the fact that he provides his personal campaign email address to anyone who asks for it.

    Someone emailed Bush and asked him if he would kill the Nazi leader as an infant if given the opportunity, he said.

    The original question was raised late last month by The New York Times Magazine for “Back to the Future” Day, in honor of the 1980s movie series in which characters travel back in time and changed the course of their history.

    Some 42 percent of the magazine’s online readers said they would use a time machine to go back and kill baby Hitler. Another 30 percent said no, and 28 percent said they were unsure.


    Bush acknowledged in the interview released Monday, however, that you never know how such an action could change the course of history, citing the popular films starring Michael J. Fox.

    “It could have a dangerous effect on everything else, but I’d do it — I mean, Hitler,” Bush said.


    http://www.jpost.com/International/Hell-yeah-Jeb-Bush-would-kill-baby-Hitler-432529
    /Hell-yeah-Jeb-Bush-would-kill-baby-Hitler-432529

    42 percent of the magazine’s online readers said they would use a time machine to go back and kill baby Hitler.
    30 percent said no,
    28 percent said they were unsure
    100percent have way too much time on their hand if they would participate in this dumb ass survey.

    Bush?

    Well, he is just "steppin up, man."

    At one time, I thought Bush might make a good candidate but that was before he opened his moth.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But would Jeb! go back and kill baby Mohammad ?

      Delete
  18. .

    Appeals Court Shoots Down Obama's Immigration Plan

    A federal appeals court dealt a potentially fatal blow Monday to President Obama's immigration plan, leaving more than 4 million undocumented immigrants in legal limbo and setting up a possible Supreme Court battle at the sunset of his administration.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a challenge to the deferred deportation program brought by Texas and 25 other states with Republican governors, who argued that Obama lacked the authority to protect about one-third of the nation's undocumented immigrants by executive fiat.

    The authority that the administration claimed, the court said in a 2-1 ruling, would allow it "to grant lawful presence and work authorization to any illegal alien in the United States."

    The White House said in a statement that it strongly disagreed with the court and that the departments of Justice and Homeland Security will review the ruling to determine the "next steps" in the case."The Supreme Court and Congress have made clear that the federal government can set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws," the statement read. "This lawsuit is preventing people who have been part of our communities for years from working on the books, contributing to our economy by paying taxes on that work, and being held accountable."

    The decision had been anticipated by the administration and immigration rights groups, who have hung their hopes on the Supreme Court rather than the conservative appeals court with jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. But the four-month wait for a ruling, since oral arguments were held before the three-judge panel, could mean that the justices won't get the case during their current term — and won't decide it before Obama leaves office.

    Under that scenario, the 4.3 million undocumented immigrants deemed eligible for the program would be at the mercy of the next president — either a Democrat who favors giving them temporary protection from deportation, or a Republican who most likely would have campaigned against it...


    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/09/appeals-court-obama-immigration-plan/75491724/

    .

    ReplyDelete
  19. The University of Missouri has been take over by the students, 'the kids' as they used to be called.

    They have issued a list of eight 'demands'.

    See them here:

    http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2015/11/08/missouri-protest-list-demands-issued-to-university.html


    This one, Number 7, makes some real sense:

    VII. We demand that the University of Missouri increases funding and resources for the University of Missouri Counseling Center for the purpose of hiring additional mental health professionals -- particularly those of color, boosting mental health outreach and programming across campus, increasing campus-­wide awareness and visibility of the counseling center, and reducing lengthy wait times for prospective clients.

    They should increase mental health funding for the faculty, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  20. DEMAND: ADMIT YOUR 'WHITE PRIVILEGE'...
    MISSOURI PREZ RESIGNS AFTER RACE COMPLAINTS...
    Protesters Clash With Press, Declare 'No Safe Space'...
    'Hey hey, ho ho, reporters have got to go'...
    VIDEO: 'You don't have a right to take our photos'...
    STUDENT: 'Only first step'...
    Taxpayer-funded diversity officials compare Reagan Library to KKK...
    MAG: New Intolerance of Student Activism......................Drudge Headlines


    I think the demand of 'no reporters' ought to be granted.

    Then they can raise hell all day and no one will be disturbed by them, or know a thing about it, they will finally exhaust themselves, and, just possibly, go back to class.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Missouri’s Lesson: the Campus Wars Are about Power, Not Justice
    Protesters disrupt Missouri's homecoming parade in October. (Image via YouTube)
    by David French November 9, 2015 6:23 PM @DavidAFrench

    Earlier this morning, Tim Wolfe, the president of the University of Missouri system, abruptly resigned. Why? The popular narrative is that his “inadequate” response to a series of racist incidents on campus triggered a massive student backlash, including an unprecedented “strike” by the university’s football team, and he finally caved to the pressure. Yet this explanation collapses under the slightest scrutiny.

    The idea that Wolfe presided over a racially insensitive educational empire is a sad joke. A timeline of racial outrages in Columbia is sparse indeed, showing two allegations of racial name-calling (on a campus with 35,000 students) and one disturbing incident in which a swastika was drawn on a dorm wall with human waste. No rational, sentient human being believes system presidents can be responsible for what lunatics do with their own feces, or that they can prevent any given student from shouting racial slurs. Not even the worst communist dictatorships could control the speech of all their subjects. Wolfe couldn’t stop drunk undergraduates from hurling insensitive insults even if he established his own gulag and deployed commissars across campus.

    The campus culture wars aren’t about “victims” or “racial injustice” or “safe spaces.” People who shriek in the quad, launch hunger strikes in a blaze of publicity, or stand outside free-speech events and chant for censorship aren’t anyone’s victims. They’re not weak. They don’t need “protection.” They’re revolutionaries, and the revolution they seek is nothing less than the overthrow of our constitutional republic, beginning with our universities. This is a movement built from the ground up around power and coercion. This is a movement built from the ground up around power and coercion. They hate free speech because free speech represents nothing but a threat — a chance for dissenters to expose the bankruptcy of their ideas. They hate due process because due process stands in the way of class-based justice, of identity-based jurisprudence. They hate the orthodox Christian faith because it rejects their sexual ideology and places the human conscience beyond the reach of mortal man.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It’s a movement enabled by weakness and empowered by cowardice. Only the intellectually and emotionally weak fall for the notion that students truly are “traumatized” by exposure to dissenting ideas. Only cowards lack the conviction to stand for the most basic American constitutional values, preferring capitulation to enduring even a few days or weeks of public critique.

      Fortunately for the radicals, our universities are populated by the craven and the cowardly. Push a professor, even slightly, and it’s likely he’ll fold. Demand faculty support for your protest, and dozens will rush to join, self-righteously advancing their own false oppression narratives even as they enjoy lives billions of others would covet. There is nothing brave about these people. They are not “elite.” They don’t deserve a single dime of taxpayer money or one cent of student tuition. They dishonor their schools and their country. The Left has the will to power. University leaders have no will at all. They have earned nothing but contempt. Closeted campus conservatives are worse than useless. Indeed, their very timidity contributes to the narrative that there is something shameful about their beliefs. To read anonymous letters from professors who are afraid to “out” themselves in a hostile campus culture is to read the sad dispatches of people too pitiful for their profession. Do something else, anything else, than merely sit and watch while the revolutionaries shred the Constitution, reject our culture, and assert their own will to power.

      The true shame is that it doesn’t even require actual courage to defeat the university Left, just a tiny bit of will — a small measure of staying power. No one is shooting at trustees. No one is beheading professors. There’s no guillotine in the quad. Instead, campus “leaders” tremble before hashtags and weep at the notion of losing a football team so inept that it couldn’t score a touchdown through most of the month of October. Let them strike. With an offense that inept, the SEC won’t even notice. These are the times that try men’s souls? No. These are the times of men without chests. The Left has the will to power. University leaders have no will at all. They have earned nothing but contempt. — David French is an attorney and staff writer at National

      Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426808/university-protests-missouri-power-not-justice

      Delete
  22. Another specious comment by our Iranian Firster Blogger: Deuce ☂Mon Nov 09, 11:18:00 PM EST
    While the rest of the world is trading with Iran or will be shortly, we are stuck with Israel. Our politicians have their nose up Netanyahu’s ass, all options on the table, and are hurt that Iran is in no hurry to deal with Israel’s bitch in Washington.



    At last check the USA trades with the entire world. Even Iran, just not selected dual use military products and now that Obama has lifted sanctions, even some of those.

    Now Iran claims no matter what the USA DOES, it will not allow Ameircan consumer goods in it's markets.


    As for "stuck" with israel?

    Israel trades with most all of the world. Even SodaStream has thousands of re-sellers in Europe!

    BTW Sodastream is doing fine and is a profitable company, now speculators are not happy, but who cares? INVESTORS are doing fine.
    The company? Now that it's shed it's 500 west bank arab employees and west bank plant? Has moved to the Negev, a safer location with a new physical plant and lower security costs. Of course those of the BDS don't care about the actual 500 arab families now reduced to literally begging to survive where once they actually had jobs (now that's karma). Also it's shown that Sodastream is still adding 236,000 users every year, these will continue to grow and be an annuity going forward purchasing their CO2 containers.

    There is a strong BUY recommendation for Sodastream in the market today.

    Meanwhile Iran continues to kidnap and hold Americans hostage. (Deuce could care less)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Netanyahu’s remarkable comity of errors with the U.S.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/world-insider/netanyahus-remarkable-comity-of-errors-with-the-us/article27181255/?service=mobile

    ReplyDelete
  24. Deuce, our Palestinian Cheerleader is upset with Israel building within Existing Neighborhoods!!! Oh the humanity.

    Meanwhile there have been 2 more stabbing attacks by his friends...

    I propose that for every stabbing attack, every rocket, every red, every tunnel found? 5 acres of un-populationed lands of Judaea and Samaria (west bank to those with historic amnesia) be annexed. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      That's happening as we speak. Why worry about excuses?

      .

      Delete
    2. Quirk, rather than call you names, could you be specific and show me any examples of lands, unoccupied by anyone, being taken over by Israel on the west bank (as you would call it) in recent history?

      Delete
  25. More excellent news on the Hillary front -


    How weak a candidate is Hillary?
    By Richard Baehr

    Everybody but Ted Cruz beats Hillary Clinton in Minnesota, according to a Survey USA poll done for KSTP Television.

    Nate Silver rated Survey USA as one of the best polls in 2010, and more in the middle among all pollsters in 2012. It does automated surveys.

    Via Real Clear Politics, here are the Minnesota poll results:

    Keep in mind that Obama won Minnesota by 8% in 2012, and Republicans have not won the state in a presidential election since 1972.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/11/how_weak_a_candidate_is_hillary.html

    You have to follow the link to see the poll results but Carson beats her by 9, Rubio by 6, Fiorina by 4, Trump by 3, Bush by 1, and Cruz loses to her by 5.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. More good news -


      FBI 'FULL-BLOWN' INVESTIGATION'...
      ACOLYTES 'TRYING TO SHUT DOWN PROBE'...
      TRUMP: SHE'S RUNNING TO STAY OUT OF JAIL!...................Drudge


      Good old Hillary, the beating ethical heart of the Democratic Party !

      Delete
    2. TRUMP: SHE'S RUNNING TO STAY OUT OF JAIL!


      :) heh

      Delete
    3. FBI probe of Hillary e-mail survey intensifies
      posted at 8:41 am on November 10, 2015 by Ed Morrissey

      While Hillary Clinton and her campaign try to shrug off the e-mail scandal as much ado about nothing, the FBI has started to put more resources into the probe, according to Politico. They have expanded the scope of the probe and have begun requesting records from people connected to the use of the secret e-mail server. One former high-ranking FBI official surmises that the agency has turned the corner from an inquiry into a full-blown investigation:

      Even as Hillary Clinton tries to put questions about her private email server behind her, the FBI has stepped up inquiries into the security of the former Secretary of State’s home-made email system, and how aides communicated over email, POLITICO has learned.

      The FBI’s recent moves suggest that its inquiry could have evolved from the preliminary fact-finding stage that the agency launches when it receives a credible referral, according to former FBI and DOJ officials inteviewed by POLITICO.

      “This sounds to me like it’s more than a preliminary inquiry; it sounds like a full-blown investigation,” said Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI. “When you have this amount of resources going into it …. I think it’s at the investigative level.”

      The investigation appears to be expanding in parallel lines. One track focuses on the physical server itself and the data that resides on it, or at least used to reside on it until Hillary and her team wiped it. That line of inquiry has taken them through the initial set-up to the backups at Datto and Platte River Services. A broker, Tania Neild, has confirmed to Politico that the FBI has asked for documents related to her work between Hillary and Platte River, which she refused to provide to a Senate committee but gave up when the FBI asked. The very fact that the FBI has started making formal demands for documentation indicates that the investigation is getting more serious.

      The other track apparently focuses on the classification of the information and State Department handling of it. One “former high-ranking policy official” at State confirmed anonymously that FBI investigators have asked about concern within the State Department over transmissions of classified material. The source had no knowledge of such concerns, but again, this indicates a more active probe than just a preliminary inquiry.

      The question remains, however, of just how far the Department of Justice wants to go with this. If the server was used to transmit and store classified data, the onus for that is on the person who set up the system and had her staff use it. It would be impossible to go after, say, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan for transmitting classified information through an unauthorized e-mail system without going after the woman who made it necessary by refusing to use a State Department e-mail account. On top of that, all of the effort needed to get the e-mails from Hillary demonstrates an obstruction of justice, especially wiping the server and willfully keeping it a secret for more than 18 months.

      Some media outlets want to keep saying that Hillary isn’t a “target” of the investigation (a statement of fact which is at the very least out of date, and is altogether unconfirmable now), but there is no other outcome here except charges against all, or charges against none. And if all of this exposure of classified material doesn’t result in prosecution, one would have to wonder who can get prosecuted for violations of 18 USC 793 and 18 USC 1924 in the future.

      http://hotair.com/archives/2015/11/10/fbi-probe-of-hillary-e-mail-survey-intensifies/

      Delete
  26. Wow, Import/Export Prices continue to plummet.

    Export Prices Down 0.2%. YOY Down 6.7%

    Import Prices Down 0.5% YOY Down 10.5%

    Import/Export Prices

    ReplyDelete
  27. Heather Mac Donald
    Racial Hysteria Triumphs on Campus
    Missouri, Yale, and America’s Cultural Revolution
    November 9, 2015
    Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images

    The pathological narcissism of American college students has found a potentially devastating new source of power in the sports-industrial complex. University of Missouri president Timothy Wolfe resigned Monday morning in the face of a threatened boycott by black football players of an upcoming game. Wolfe’s alleged sin was an insufficient appreciation for the “systematic oppression” experienced by students of color at the university. Campus agitators also alleged that racial slurs had been directed at black students and feces had been smeared in the shape of a swastika in a dormitory.

    The university’s board of overseers had convened in emergency session to discuss the football boycott; Wolfe resigned before meeting with them, issuing the standard mea culpa: “I take full responsibility for this frustration, and I take full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred.” According to the New York Times, the university could have lost more than $1 million had it forfeited its football game with Brigham Young University on Saturday. A group called “Concerned Faculty” had walked off the job in solidarity with the student activists and was calling on other faculty to join them.

    There is no evidence that the University of Missouri denies equal opportunity to its black students; those black students, like every other student on campus, are surrounded by lavish educational resources, available to them for the asking on a color-blind basis. The university’s faculty and administrators are surely among the most prejudice-free, well-meaning group of adults in human history. Thousands of Chinese students would undoubtedly do anything for the chance to be “systemically oppressed” by the University of Missouri’s stupendous laboratories and research funding.................

    http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon1109hm.html

    $1,000,000 dollars lost to the Athletic Department for a forfeited football game ?

    We surely can't have that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Vandals got $1.1 million for playing Southern California.

      Granted, nothing at all for playing Wofford.

      Delete
    2. We need racial diversity at college campuses as per the student's demands/

      1st thing of course is the correction of the athletics department.

      African Americans should not be represented more than by 12% of the coaches and players.

      If increases or reductions to meet this goal are needed?

      Then so be it.

      No longer will fat, slow, white boys be excluded from starting positions on football and basketball team due to racial privilege of African Americans.

      Delete
    3. It's time to embrace diversity...

      Way to many Black rappers...

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    5. If this catches on, the Athletics Department at colleges all across USA will replace The Boards of Regents as the governing bodies at our universities.

      Delete
    6. We need Swedes, those dour folks, represented by the numbers among soul singers.

      Delete
    7. Maybe football needs to be taken out of the college system and spun on it's own?

      Oh wait too much cash for the colleges to do that..

      Delete
  28. Is Congress paving the way for a Christian safe zone in Iraq?

    Can the US Congress help save Middle East Christians from extinction

    A bipartisan effort to denounce an ongoing genocide is picking up steam. That's just the first step.
    Author Julian Pecquet Posted November 9, 2015

    Christian activists are making the unlikely gamble as their yearslong exodus from Syria and Iraq has turned into an outright stampede under the Islamic State (IS). They’re launching a lobbying blitz to get the United States to label their plight a genocide — and create pressure for the subsequent creation of a Christian safe haven in Iraq.

    “We are forming a lobby team and trying to raise some money to hire [a] very respected diplomat so we can get more countries involved in this issue,” said Loay Mikhael, head of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council.

    “What we are trying to do right here, right now, is we’re trying to push this genocide resolution to be passed by the House or Senate,” he told Al-Monitor. “If that passes, then we can go and speak to people and tell them, OK, the Christians and other minorities face genocide and it’s recognized by the Congress. That means they face atrocities and crimes against humanity, so it’s time to do something for them.”

    The genocide measure’s chief sponsor says that’s exactly its purpose.

    “The first goal is to elevate international consciousness of the problem,” Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., told Al-Monitor. “You then create the gateway for a fuller discussion about security concerns, economic and political integration. One of the ideas out there is safety zones guaranteeing security of religious minorities in certain areas."

    The resolution, introduced exactly two months ago, had garnered 146 cosponsors as of Nov. 9. It had the support of former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and has been co-sponsored by Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., whose House Foreign Affairs panel is now reviewing the resolution.

    The resolution does not spell out a plan for helping the Christians and other minorities, but calls on other countries and the United Nations to follow the US lead and call their slaughter a genocide...........

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/congress-paving-way-christian-safe-zone-iraq-isis.html#ixzz3r6CiHc39

    ReplyDelete
  29. The Donald has pledged to prosecute Hillary for the crimes she has committed if he is elected President. He reminds that there is a six year statute of limitations on such crimes.


    If that is not a reason to vote for the man, I don't know what is.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The Bettors are giving Hillary Clinton a 91% Chance of getting the Dem. Nomination, and a 57% Chance of Winning it All.

    Big Favorite

    ReplyDelete
  31. This is raising a big stir out this way, the family blaming the officers -



    Story
    Comments 181

    November 2, 2015 in City
    Idaho cattle rancher killed in gunfire exchange with sheriff’s deputies
    Kip Hill

    The Spokesman-Review

    Tags:Adams CountycattlecouncilhighwayidahoIdaho State Policeshootingtraffic

    A 62-year-old Idaho cattle rancher died after he exchanged gunfire with local sheriff’s deputies Sunday night.

    The shooting followed a collision between a bull belonging to the rancher and a car carrying two passengers north of Council, Idaho, just before 7 p.m., according to the Idaho State Police.

    Two passengers in a Subaru station wagon were injured in the collision on a two-lane stretch of U.S. Highway 95, the ISP reported in a news release. Adams County, Idaho, deputies were dispatched to the scene. Deputies began removing the injured passengers from the car when the injured bull began charging emergency personnel and cars, according to the news release.

    The bull’s owner, identified as Jack Yantis by the ISP, arrived on scene with a rifle. Deputies intended to euthanize the injured bull, the ISP said. Instead, gunfire was exchanged between two deputies and Yantis.

    Yantis was declared dead at the scene. One deputy received minor wounds, but details of what caused his injuries were not immediately released.

    The Idaho Statesman reported that Yantis’ wife was taken to a Boise hospital after suffering a heart attack. She was listed in critical condition Monday, according to the Statesman.

    The Adams County sheriff’s deputies have not been named. They have been placed on paid administrative leave, according to the news release.

    Sheriff Adam Zollman said the bull also was killed in the incident. The injured deputy was treated and released, Zollman said.

    U.S. 95 was closed for eight hours while the ISP conducted its investigation.

    The motorists injured in the collision were airlifted to a hospital in Boise. Their conditions were not immediately available.

    “Our thoughts are with our community and especially all those involved in this incident,” Zollman said in a statement.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Iran has stopped dismantling inactive centrifuges -- what will President Obama do -- nothing

    November 10, 2015
    Iran halts its dismantling of centrifuges
    By Rick Moran

    The deal the US signed with Iran regarding its nuclear program clearly specifies that Iran must dismantle all but a few thousand of its nearly 20,000 centrifuges. Iran began the dismantling process last week.

    But so-called "hardliners" in the Iranian government sent a letter to President Rouhani accusing him of moving too quickly to implement the deal. Yesterday, the government announced it had stopped decommissioning the centrifuges.

    Reuters:

    Iran has stopped dismantling centrifuges in two uranium enrichment plants, state media reported on Tuesday, days after conservative lawmakers complained to President Hassan Rouhani that the process was too rushed.

    Last week, Iran announced it had begun shutting down inactive centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordow plants under the terms of a deal struck with world powers in July that limits its nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions..............


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/11/iran_halts_its_dismantling_of_centrifuges.html

    ReplyDelete
  33. What is "Occupation"Tue Nov 10, 07:55:00 AM EST
    Deuce, our Palestinian Cheerleader is upset with Israel building within Existing Neighborhoods!!! Oh the humanity.

    Meanwhile there have been 2 more stabbing attacks by his friends...

    I propose that for every stabbing attack, every rocket, every red, every tunnel found? 5 acres of un-populationed lands of Judaea and Samaria (west bank to those with historic amnesia) be annexed. :)


    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    QuirkTue Nov 10, 10:51:00 AM EST
    .

    That's happening as we speak. Why worry about excuses?

    .


    What is "Occupation"Tue Nov 10, 12:37:00 PM EST
    Quirk, rather than call you names, could you be specific and show me any examples of lands, unoccupied by anyone, being taken over by Israel on the west bank (as you would call it) in recent history?




    Quirk, please answer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. because the questions are idiotic. Getting stabbed when you are an occupier and oppressor goes with the territory. It is low tech and indiscriminate but Israel kills people all the time who are innocent. The indiscriminate killings create individuals built on. revenge.

      Delete
    2. so you can't answer the query?

      I love the retort..

      So by your logic you should be stabbed being any occupier in America?

      Are you saying that?

      Or is there one standard for Israelis/jews and none for anyone else?

      Delete
    3. Deuce ☂Tue Nov 10, 03:37:00 PM EST
      because the questions are idiotic. Getting stabbed when you are an occupier and oppressor goes with the territory. It is low tech and indiscriminate but Israel kills people all the time who are innocent. The indiscriminate killings create individuals built on. revenge.


      Deuce are you saying jews have no right to their state of Israel?

      If so what right do the any of the arabs have to national statehood?

      Were there no jews living in that land as long as the arabs? (which by all accounts the majority moved there in the last 100 years (not counting their offspring)

      Delete
    4. .

      Actually, WiO was very polite in asking the question, so I have no problem giving him an answer. Deuce was right in stating the question was idiotic though not necessarily for the reasons he gave. It is idiotic because of the qualifiers he inserts, 'unoccupied by anyone' and 'in recent history'. What difference does it make when or where the land was expropriated? The Palestinian claim the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Any settler occupation amounts to a crime against international law.

      But be that as it may, the first link that popped when I plugged in Israel confiscates Palestinian land was the following from Haartz (although the entire first page of links carried the same story),

      Israel Appropriates Massive Tract of West Bank Land

      Takeover from five Palestinian villages is biggest West Bank land appropriation in 30 years, says Peace Now; settlers laud Netanyahu, Ya'alon, government.

      Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank yesterday announced the takeover of 988 acres (3,799 dunams) belonging to five Palestinian villages between the Etzion settlement bloc and Jerusalem. The move clears the way for construction of a new settlement named Gvaot.

      The announcement follows the cabinet’s decision last week to take over the land in response to the June kidnapping and killing of three teenage Jewish boys by Hamas militants in the area.

      Peace Now, which monitors settlement construction, said it was the largest Israeli appropriation of West Bank land in 30 years.


      As I said the question, as stated, was rather dumb but this should meet the criteria anyway unless you don't consider a year ago pretty recent history.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      The announcement follows the cabinet’s decision last week to take over the land in response to the June kidnapping and killing of three teenage Jewish boys by Hamas militants in the area.

      As I said in my initial post, why worry about excuses? Anyone who believes Israel will give back the occupied territories is nutz.

      .

      Delete
    6. Interesting.

      So the land, which is actually disputed, is claimed by both arabs and Jews.

      The largest two villages nearest? Are jewish towns.

      Digging a bit deeper in the actual history of the area and lands once finds a Jewish presence for at least 2000 years, that is until 1948 when the Jordanian Arab League fought and conquered the area slaughtering the surrendering Jews.

      The land was resettled in 1967.

      So it's not really just jews taking arab's lands is it?

      It's jews liberating their own lands...

      Funny how when jews resettle their own lands they are occupiers and oppressors.

      But I like your style Quirk, from now on every attack, every IED, every rocket and every palestinian violent action should be linked with direct and specific land annexations.

      But your example was crap, no offense, as the area is listed was within the borders of the existing Jewish "settlement" to use your vernacular.


      But I like this snippet from Wikipedia.

      Legal status[edit]
      The international community considers Israeli settlements a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the transfer of an occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory and are as such illegal under international humanitarian law.[31] Israel disputes that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the Palestinian territories as they had not been legally held by a sovereign prior to Israel taking control of them

      There was no sovereign power that ever held the land prior to Israel's capture in a defensive war...

      :)

      Maybe America should give back Pennsylvania? and washington DC to the natives, they America could speak with moral authority..

      Delete
    7. Quirk : As I said in my initial post, why worry about excuses? Anyone who believes Israel will give back the occupied territories is nuts.


      Maybe israel should expel all the arabs from the "west bank" and ship them to europe with their cousins?

      Delete
    8. Quirk give it up. You are outgunned.

      Delete
    9. .

      Outgunned?

      You nitwit, shall we put it up for a vote? You live in lalaland and view the world through that new Israeli invention WiO glasses.

      .

      Delete
    10. .

      So the land, which is actually disputed, is claimed by both arabs and Jews.

      The only ones who call the lads disputed are the Israelis and their minions in the diaspora. Everyone else calls them 'occupied'.

      .

      Delete
    11. .

      Digging a bit deeper in the actual history of the area and lands once finds a Jewish presence for at least 2000 years, that is until 1948 when the Jordanian Arab League fought and conquered the area slaughtering the surrendering Jews.

      You know my views on all this, but more to the point what the hell does this have to do with the specific question you asked me. This appears to be another example of your own BDS movement: Bullshit, Diversion, and Subornation.

      .

      Delete
    12. .

      The land was resettled in 1967.

      So it's not really just jews taking arab's lands is it?

      It's jews liberating their own lands...



      You, sir, are batshit crazy. You should really consider aliyeh. Bibi could use another nut like you.

      .

      Delete
    13. .

      Funny how when jews resettle their own lands they are occupiers and oppressors.

      Other than the 'their own lands' the statement is true. However, the 'funny' is not the 'ha ha' funny definition.

      Delete
    14. .

      But I like your style Quirk, from now on every attack, every IED, every rocket and every palestinian violent action should be linked with direct and specific land annexations.

      My style?

      What is it you don't understand? It is what they are doing, now.

      .

      Delete
  34. Yup, the Athletics Departments will soon be running the universities -



    Sam Mellinger

    November 9, 2015
    Why the last few days at Mizzou have college administrators everywhere scared

    Football players boycotted, and essentially forced the tumbling of Mizzou’s power structure

    All across the country, college administrators are taking notice and some are scared

    The power dynamics in a billion dollar industry are changing
    Missouri-Columbia athletic director Mack Rhodes
    Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel spoke during a press conference Monday afternoon at the Mizzou Athletic Training Facility.
    Missouri-Columbia athletic director Mack Rhodes
    Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel spoke during a press conference Monday afternoon at the Mizzou Athletic Training Facility.
    1 of 2
    Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel spoke during a press conference Monday afternoon at the Mizzou Athletic Training Facility. DAVID EULITT deulitt@kcstar.com

    By Sam Mellinger

    smellinger@kcstar.com


    COLUMBIA

    The intention, presumably, was to show strength and solidarity.

    On the surface, Missouri's two most powerful athletics officials did that in a press conference here on Monday. Gary Pinkel, the football coach, talked of supporting his players. Mack Rhoades, the athletics director, talked of using an extraordinary last few days to improve life on campus.

    But underneath all of that is a layer of fear, which is an awkward look for those used to power. The fear is here at the state's flagship university the same as it is growing at Kansas and Kansas State and every other school across the country in the billion dollar business of major college sports.

    This is a major moment. College sports, or at least the power dynamics within college sports, will never be quite the same. Coaches and administrators can be divided into two categories: those who adjust the way they deal with athletes, and those who will struggle and even lose their jobs because they refuse.

    That's the general sentiment from several college administrators and coaches who spoke for this column with the understanding their names would not be used.

    From Washington to Miami, and from Maine to Hawaii, college athletes are watching the Heartland and seeing undeniable proof of the power they hold. A show of unity and strength from Mizzou's football players essentially forced Pinkel, the $4 million-per-year coach and most influential man on campus, to back their boycott, which ended when the MU system president and the Columbia campus chancellor each resigned two days later............

    Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article43894332.html#storylink=cpy


    It is totally fucking nuts but there it is.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I have to admit, I'm proud of those football players at Mizzou. They took a stand, and they're going to make a change.

    Good on ye, Mates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am proud to say they should yank everyone of those player's scholarships.

      They should also limit the number of african american players to 12% as that is an accurate % of the population, just as the black activists are demanding 10% of employees of the University be black, to reflect proper diversity.

      The shoe fits.

      No more than 12% of any university shall be african american or it would be in violation diversity laws.

      Delete
    2. Absolutely.

      What is good for the goose is good for gander.

      And no more of this calling me whitey.

      Delete
    3. The whole business is totally idiotic.

      Michael Savage thinks it's being out of the White House basement somewhere.

      Hell, it might be.

      Delete
  36. What is so bad about young people wanting to be treated with fairness, and respect?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are being treated with fairness and respect.

      Some punk puts a swastika on some wall, and the University President, probably a democrat, is forced to resign over it ?

      According to the Student Demands, guys like you ought to write and read in public apologies for your former Republican behavior.

      Delete
    2. The one guy not being treated with fairness and respect is the University President.

      Delete
  37. So my question stands.

    "What is "Occupation"Tue Nov 10, 12:37:00 PM EST
    Quirk, rather than call you names, could you be specific and show me any examples of lands, unoccupied by anyone, being taken over by Israel on the west bank (as you would call it) in recent history?"


    The lands you sited were part and parcel of Jewish history and were considered part of a jewish settlement.


    Please find ONE example that fits the specific query.


    Jews will expand on what they claim as their lands, and a news flash so will the arabs of Judea and Samaria.

    In fact by your logic? The arabs citizens of israel that now number 1.2 million have done exactly the same thing EXPANDED.

    Also if you were to look at a map of the disputed lands of the "west bank" and look 100 years ago?

    The arabs that call themselves "palestinians" have built hundreds of villages.... EXPANDING on disputed lands...


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here is a new arab cities on the disputed lands of the west bank..

      http://www.rawabi.ps/panorama.php


      Go and look... notice the emptiness around it???

      Delete
    2. .

      The lands you sited were part and parcel of Jewish history and were considered part of a jewish settlement.

      Bullshit. What don't you get about, The move clears the way for construction of a new settlement named Gvaot. This is just another example of Israeli encroachment into the West Bank. I don't know the details on the 1600 settler units authorized a short time back or the 2200 units just announced within the last few days, but there is no doubt about this being a 'new settlement' or, that to construct it, they will be destroying 5 Palestinian villagers.

      Your protests make you look foolish. Your every reaction comes from the gut not the brain. Either the shit you put up here is instinctual and you can't help yourself or you are one of the dumbest dolts I've ever come across.

      Don't you have any idea of the process? It's best seen with the illegal settlements called 'outposts', how a percentage of those illegal settlement over time become 'legal settlements', and how Israel eventually fills in the space in between, sucking up more of the West Bank. If you don't understand the process you are either blind or stupid.

      For a man who professes to be defending Israel, you should learn something about it.

      .

      Delete
  38. What is "Occupation"Tue Nov 10, 05:33:00 PM EST
    I am proud to say they should yank everyone of those player's scholarships.

    They should also limit the number of african american players to 12% as that is an accurate % of the population, just as the black activists are demanding 10% of employees of the University be black, to reflect proper diversity.

    The shoe fits.

    No more than 12% of any university shall be african american or it would be in violation diversity laws.

    Delete

    USING YOUR IDIOTIC LOGIC AND WORDS< ONE COULD SAY:

    They should also limit the number of Jews in Ivy League Colleges to 2% as that is an accurate % of the population.

    The shoe fits.

    No more than 2% of any university shall be Jewish American or it would be in violation diversity laws.

    Let me paraphrase Putin, Don’t you realize what you have become? You are who you state to hate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't really think he was being entirely serious.....but underlining the absurdity of the situation...

      Delete
  39. Gitmo stays open -

    Senate passes new defense bill with blocks on Gitmo transfers, 91-3
    posted at 5:21 pm on November 10, 2015 by Ed Morrissey



    For the past week, the White House has been talking about its first-day promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay — on the last day, if need be, of Barack Obama’s presidency. And it might take that long, too, because Congress has overwhelmingly passed a new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to fund the military that extends a prohibition on transfers from Gitmo. Obama isn’t likely to issue a veto, either:

    The Senate voted 91-3 on the $607-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lays out broad defense policy requirements and restrictions.

    Obama vetoed the original bill largely because of concerns about an extra $38 billion in war funding. A two-year budget deal passed late last month resolved that policy fight by increasing both defense and non-defense spending.
    The new version cut $5 billion from the original bill to match the budget deal, including $250 million to the administration’s Counterterrorism Partnerships fund and more than $1 billion fuel savings.

    “I’m proud of this legislation. Could we have done more? Yes… But I would argue that this is the most significant reform legislation in the last 30 years,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who helped spearhead the bill in the Senate, said ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

    The legislation, which passed the House by a 370-58 vote last week, includes restrictions on transferring detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, adding roadblocks to a long-standing campaign pledge from Obama to close the facility........

    http://hotair.com/archives/2015/11/10/senate-passes-new-defense-bill-with-blocks-on-gitmo-transfers-91-3/

    ReplyDelete
  40. Update: Prime Working-Age Population Growing Again

    by Bill McBride on 11/10/2015 06:20:00 PM

    An update: Last year, I posted some demographic data for the U.S., see: Census Bureau: Largest 5-year Population Cohort is now the "20 to 24" Age Group, Decline in the Labor Force Participation Rate: Mostly Demographics and Long Term Trends, and The Future's so Bright ...

    I pointed out that "even without the financial crisis we would have expected some slowdown in growth this decade (just based on demographics). The good news is that will change soon."

    Changes in demographics are an important determinant of economic growth, and although most people focus on the aging of the "baby boomer" generation, the movement of younger cohorts into the prime working age is another key story. Here is a graph of the prime working age population (this is population, not the labor force) from 1948 through October 2015.

    There was a huge surge in the prime working age population in the '70s, '80s and '90s - and the prime age population has been mostly flat recently (even declined a little).

    The prime working age labor force grew even quicker than the population in the '70s and '80s due to the increase in participation of women. In fact, the prime working age labor force was increasing 3%+ per year in the '80s!

    So when we compare economic growth to the '70s, '80, or 90's we have to remember this difference in demographics (the '60s saw solid economic growth as near-prime age groups increased sharply).

    See: Demographics and GDP: 2% is the new 4%

    The prime working age population peaked in 2007, and bottomed at the end of 2012. There are still fewer people in the 25 to 54 age group than in 2007.

    The good news is the prime working age group has started to grow again, and is now growing at 0.5% per year - and this should boost economic activity.
    Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#EEoezRwzya7aopge.99

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Demographics are now improving in the U.S.!
      Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#EEoezRwzya7aopge.99

      Demographics are now improving again

      Delete
  41. University of Missouri: Academia’s Chickens Come Home to Roost
    Campus totalitarians run amok.
    November 10, 2015
    Jack Kerwick


    For close to a half-of-a-century, leftist college professors have betrayed their vocation, a calling to educate their students into the intellectual traditions that compose Western civilization.

    A liberal arts education is intended to civilize its recipients, to inculcate in them those excellences of head and heart that had always been recognized as the intellectual and moral virtues constitutive of human flourishing.

    However, once leftist professors began working around the clock to convince their students that the West, far from being the repository of a rich plethora of wisdom and strength that the liberal arts ideal presupposes, is, rather, the source of the world’s evils, this classical conception of the liberal arts became more difficult to sustain.

    The left produced nothing more or less than a paradigm shift. The older conception of the West implicates an ideal personality type, what we may call “the Heroic.” The newer vision of the West implies its own ideal personality type: the Victimized.

    And now, to quote Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s mentor of over 20 years, “the chickens are coming home to roost.”

    It would be a gross overstatement to lay the blame for the intellectual and moral weaknesses of college students solely at the feet of their professors. Larger cultural currents have been infantilizing the young for quite some time. But this makes college professors that much more culpable, for it is expected that they reverse this course, that they teach their students to challenge both this generation’s prevailing dogmas as well as their own prejudices.

    The university is supposed to be a place where boys and girls are made into men and women.

    To judge from the contemporary college scene, however, the university has failed miserably to fulfill its mission.

    As I write this, the president of the University of Missouri, Tom Wolfe, has resigned amid demands to do so from the school’s football players, their coaches, and faculty. Wolfe, a white man, was tried and convicted by his accusers of being insufficiently sensitive on matters pertaining to race.

    Since the beginning of the fall semester, black students alleged that a series of racist events have occurred on campus and gone unaddressed. These incidents include a feces-drawn swastika that appeared in a dormitory. Another incident supposedly involved a vehicle of unknown whites who were guilty of perpetrating “drive-by racism”: they are said to have shouted racial epithets at black students.

    One Jonathan Butler, a black graduate student, went so far as to embark upon a hunger strike until Wolfe stepped down.

    He has now resumed eating. Butler remarked: “Students who want to go to college and get an education can now have a fighting chance at having a fair education on a campus that is safe and inclusive.”

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    1. As for the fearless Tom Wolfe, he laments that his administration “forced” poor “individuals like” Butler “to take immediate action or unusual steps to effect change.”

      Butler concurred with Wolfe, adding that had administrators conceded to student demands for “change” years ago, he wouldn’t have had “to put my life on the line for us to get to this place.”

      You can’t make this stuff up.

      The thing of it is, even before Wolfe resigned, he and the Chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, had mandated on-line “diversity” training for all members of the university community.

      Yet Wolfe’s resignation wasn’t the only demand made of the University’s administration.

      Students also demanded that before Wolfe resigns, he write “a hand-written apology to ‘Concerned Student 1-9-5-0 demonstrators” and then hold “a press conference in the Mizzou Student Center” where he would read it aloud. In the letter and at the press conference, Wolfe “must acknowledge his white privilege” and “recognize that systems of oppression exist[.]” As well, Wolfe must confess to “his gross negligence[.]”

      Thirdly, subsequent to Wolfe’s removal, an amendment must be added to UM’s charter that would insure that “all future…president and Chancellor positions be selected by a collective of students, staff, and faculty of diverse backgrounds.”

      Fourthly, UM must satisfy “the Legion of Black Collegians’ demands…for the betterment of the black community.”

      Fifthly, the school must create and enforce a “comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum” in all departments and for all members of the university. This program “must be vetted, maintained, and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff and faculty of color.”

      Sixthly, within less than two years, UM must increase its share of black faculty and staff by at least ten percent.

      The disgruntled students (and those of the staff and faculty who support them) also demand that UM figure out a way to retain “marginalized students;” expand “diversity curriculum and training, promote a more safe and inclusive campus;” and hire more “mental health” specialists and “social justice center” personnel “of color.”

      Meanwhile, over at Yale University, students are demanding the resignations of Erika Christakis, Associate Master of Silliman College, and her husband Nicholas, who is the Master of the college. Such is the stridency of the Victims’ demands that a large group of them have actually gone so far as to surround Nicholas in the college’s courtyard.

      The unspeakable evil for which the Christakis’ are guilty, you see, is Erika’s reply to the Dean’s memo discouraging Halloween costumes that “disrespects, alienates or ridicules segments of our population based on race, nationality, religious belief or gender expression.” Erika wrote that while she agrees “in theory” that people should avoid giving offense, “in practice” she fears “the consequences of an institutional…exercise of implied control over college students.”

      She notes that “American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a regressive, or even transgressive, experience[.]” However, “increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.”

      But it isn’t just administrators who have fueled the immaturity of students. Many of the Christakis’ colleagues among college and university faculties around the country are at least as guilty, and doubtless, significantly more so, of elevating the Victim into a noble type.

      The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

      http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260729/university-missouri-academias-chickens-come-home-jack-kerwick

      Delete
    2. If Deuce doesn't offer up a public apology for his former misbehavior as an Ayn Randian, I'm going on a hunger strike.

      Delete
    3. (I need to lose some weight)

      Delete
  42. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2015

    Employment: October Diffusion Indexes

    by Bill McBride on 11/09/2015 04:41:00 PM

    The BLS diffusion index for total private employment was at 61.8 in October, up from 53.4 in September.

    For manufacturing, the diffusion index was at 51.9, up from 37.5 in September.

    Think of this as a measure of how widespread job gains are across industries. The further from 50 (above or below), the more widespread the job losses or gains reported by the BLS. Above 60 is very good.

    From the BLS:
    Figures are the percent of industries with employment increasing plus one-half of the industries with unchanged employment, where 50 percent indicates an equal balance between industries with increasing and decreasing employment.

    Overall private job growth was widespread in October.

    Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2015/11/employment-october-diffusion-indexes.html#UuDbwH0qXIk0DU7M.99

    Calculated Risk


    ReplyDelete
  43. deuce: They should also limit the number of Jews in Ivy League Colleges to 2% as that is an accurate % of the population.

    The shoe fits.

    No more than 2% of any university shall be Jewish American or it would be in violation diversity laws.

    Let me paraphrase Putin, Don’t you realize what you have become? You are who you state to hate.




    Of COURSE deuce I know what that means...

    After all that's what KEPT JEWS out of Ivy League Colleges for decades, til the Jewish opened their own hospitals and universities


    But it's the Blacks demanding it now, they want to see promotional representation...

    My feelings about the college system in the USA?

    It's overpriced, delivers shit and 60% don't belong in college but trade schools.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. The insanity of the blacks and affirmative action and proportion representation is insanity.

      I'd rather have real standards.

      If you can't cut it? You don't get in, no more lowering the bar for selected minorities..

      Deuce you are gullible.

      Delete
    2. I judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

      a quote from the modern day Moses (the Jew)....

      Martin Luther King Jr.


      Today in Israel?

      http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.673200

      IN PHOTOS: Palestinian Bodybuilder Becomes Israel's Miss Fitness
      Anoush Belian won the Miss Fitness category in the competition organized by the National Amateur Bodybuilders Association (NABBA) in Israel.


      MAYBE AMERICA SHOULD LEARN FROM ISRAEL

      Delete
  44. Here is real history for ya deuce... learn it and embrace it.

    Harvard University
    and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were both sued last month for allegedly discriminating against Asian-American students in their undergraduate-admissions policies.

    The lawsuits, filed by newly formed nonprofit group Students for Fair Admissions, claim Harvard and UNC's race-based affirmative-action policies hurt the admissions chances of Asian-American students. Notably, the lawsuit against Harvard argues that the Ivy League university "is using racial classifications to engage in the same brand of invidious discrimination against Asian Americans that it formerly used to limit the number of Jewish students in its student body."

    University of California, Berkeley sociology professor Jerome Karabel details this discrimination against Jewish students in his acclaimed book "The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton." In one chapter, Karabel highlights the controversial actions of A. Lawrence Lowell, Harvard's president from 1909-1933, who very publically attempted to limit the number of Jewish students admitted to the university.

    At one point, Lowell wrote to a Harvard philosophy professor to explain that enrolling a high number of Jewish students would "ruin the college" by causing elite Protestant students to attend other schools, according to Karabel's book. Harvard would be ruined "not because Jews of bad character have come; but the result follows from the coming in large numbers of Jews of any kind, save those few who mingle readily with the rest of the undergraduate body," Lowell wrote in the letter.

    The only way to prevent this, Lowell argued, was to impose strict quotas and restrictions. Ideally, Lowell wanted to cap Harvard's Jewish population at 15% of the student body, according to Karabel. The size of the Jewish student body had quickly risen from 7% of freshmen in 1900 to 10% in 1909, 15% in 1915, 21.5% in 1922, and 27.6% in 1925.

    Below, Karabel expands on Lowell's desire to limit Harvard's Jewish student population, using "a covert attempt to impose a quota" in 1922:

    Left to his own devices, the authoritarian Lowell would have been more than willing to impose his own solution to the "Jewish problem." Indeed, that is precisely what he tried to do when he asked the Committee on Admission to admit as transfers only those "Hebrews ... possessed of extraordinary intellectual capacity together with character above criticism" and to impose a higher standard for admission to the freshman class on members of the "Hebrew race."

    The plan was ultimately rejected by the Committee on Admissions — who Karabel writes were "reluctant to publically endorse a policy of discrimination" — but it reveals the explicit motivation for changing how Harvard chose its incoming students.

    By 1926, Harvard moved away from admissions based strictly on academics to evaluating potential students on a number of qualifiers meant to reveal their "character." A report released that year by an admissions committee endorsed a limit of 1,000 freshman per class — allowing a shift in policy, as Harvard could no longer admit every student who achieved a certain academic cutoff.


    Hey Deuce, they use the tern "chosen" also!

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    1. Here's how Karabel sums up the new changes approved in 1926, which would effectively allow the Harvard administration to limit its Jewish student population:

      The committee decisively rejected an admissions policy based on scholarship alone, stating that "it is neither feasible nor desirable to raise the standards of the College so high that none but brilliant scholars can enter" while stipulating that "the standards ought never to be so high for serious and ambitious students of average intelligence."

      When the faculty formally approved the report eight days later, Lowell was further elated, for they also approved measures making the admissions process even more subjective. In particular, the faculty called on [Committee on Admissions chairman Henry Pennypacker] to interview as many applicants as possible to gather additional information on "character and fitness and the promise of the greatest usefulness in the future as a result of a Harvard education." Henceforth, declared the faculty, a passport-sized photo would be "required as an essential part of the application for admissions."

      Elite colleges also began to use legacy admissions during this period — giving preference to children of alumni — in order to maintain a predominantly Protestant student body, Karabel explains.


      So by giving in to black activists demand that 10% of the facility be black, that special jobs be set up to help blacks and to continue to lower the bar for blacks?

      Is racism

      Delete
  45. Jewish educational quotas could be statewide law or adopted only in certain institutions, often unofficially. The limitation took the form of total prohibition of Jewish students, or of limiting the number of Jewish students so that their share in the students' population would not be larger than their share in the general population. In some establishments, the Jewish quota placed a limit on growth rather than set a fixed level of participation to be achieved.

    According to historian David Oshinsky, on writing about Jonas Salk, "Most of the surrounding medical schools (Cornell, Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Yale) had rigid quotas in place. In 1935 Yale accepted 76 applicants from a pool of 501. About 200 of those applicants were Jewish and only five got in." He notes that Dean Milton Winternitz's instructions were remarkably precise: "Never admit more than five Jews, take only two Italian Catholics, and take no blacks at all."[1] As a result, Oshinsky added, "Jonas Salk and hundreds like him" enrolled in New York University instead.[2]

    Nothing new deuce... been there done that..

    try again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No kidding, that’s why you should try thinking before talking.

      Delete