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."

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Winter storm sweeps US, hits mid-Atlantic and Northeast, causing flight chaos and government office shutdown




A massive winter storm packing up to a foot of snow, strong winds and icy temperatures slammed into the northeastern United States on Tuesday, canceling flights, closing government offices and sending children home from school.
The sprawling storm, which stretched for a 1,000 miles between Kentucky and Massachusetts, could bury BostonpastedGraphic.pdf in up to 15 inches of snow while delivering 10 to 14 inches to Philadelphia, a foot in New York City and up to 10 inches in Washington, D.C.pastedGraphic_1.pdf area, the National Weather Service and Fox affiliates reported.
Authorities warned of heavy winds and hazardous driving conditions along the east coast as the storm, which began mid-morning, was expected to continue through the late evening hours, with the heaviest snow expected Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky sent students home early on Tuesday or stayed closed for an extra day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.
The storm put a damper on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's inauguration, forcing the cancellation of an evening party on Ellis Island. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick postponed his annual State of the State address, while the Philadelphia Flyers postponed their Tuesday night hockey game.
Both chambers of Delaware's General Assembly canceled sessions Tuesday.
Nearly 3,000 flights were canceled Tuesday, with airports from Washington to Boston affected. An additional 885 flights for Wednesday were called off as well. Amtrak planned to cut back train service in the afternoon.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reduced speeds on interstates and other major roads, and said it had already blown through more than half of its $189 million winter weather budget. 
"Lots of nuisance storms this season have meant that Penn DOT crews have been plowing and treating roads more frequently this winter," agency spokeswoman Erin Waters-Trasatt said. 
The storm is part of a bitter blast of arctic air that is expected to sweep south into Iowa and as far east as Maine by Tuesday night, and remain entrenched through Thursday.
Paul Collar, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said highs could be in the single digits.
"It's not to the extent of the last outbreak, but it's still bitterly cold," he told The Associated Press.
Some areas across the U.S.-Canada border could see nighttime lows in the negative double digits in the next few days, he said.
Portions of Minnesota, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were under wind chill warnings, meaning wind chills could be 34 degrees below zero or colder.
"With these temperatures you're going to have issues with exposed skin and frostbite, but not to the degree of severity of the last outbreak," he said, describing it as "a normal cold event you'd see in a typical winter."
The last blast of arctic air caused a propane shortage in several states, with some declaring energy emergencies to speed up deliveries.
David Field, the executive vice president of the Ohio Propane Gas Association, told Fox8.compastedGraphic_1.pdf that the Department of Transportation has issued a regional order loosening rules for propane transportation in 10 Midwest states. A similar order is in effect for 14 Eastern states, he said.
“The month of December brought historically cold weather, ice and snow, which further inhibited the transportation of propane. Demand for residential, commercial and agricultural heat soared,” Field told the station. "All these combined to prevent regional inventories from recovering and the existing pipeline and terminal infrastructure has been unable to recover.”
According to the Washington-based Propane Education & Research Council, more than 14 million families use propane to fuel their furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners, outdoor grills, fireplaces, clothes dryers, and ranges.
Across the east coast, people tried their best to cope with the cold conditions.
Standing in Philadelphia's LOVE Park with snow swirling around her, visitor Jenn Byrne of Portland, Ore., said the nasty weather put a crimp in her plans to do a "giant walking tour" of the city. But she vowed to soldier on, taking cabs instead of trudging. She wasn't wearing snow boots.
"I'll keep going. Just the means of transportation will change a bit," Byrne said.
Others shrugged off the snow as well.
In Herndon, Va., where voters were casting ballots in a special election that was likely to determine control of the state Senate, Earlene Coleman said she felt obligated to make her selection: "It only made sense to come out and do my duty."
Construction worker Tony Cockrell, stopping for coffee at a Hagerstown, Md., gas station, said he planned to continue driving to work sites in western Maryland and northern Virginia to supervise the installation of insulation in building projects.
"If you don't work, you don't get paid," he said, adding that deep cold is good for business. "We're trying to get stuff insulated so it doesn't freeze up."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

67 comments:

  1. Looks like Deuce made it out in the nick of time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi MeLoDy,

    It is cold in Georgia this morning, but not a snowflake in sight. Friends in Texas are wearing shorts, they report.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A mere dusting.

    You are all wimps and wusses on a slow news day.........

    Bet the crime rate doesn't even fall......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not a slow news day...

      Iran moving war ships to the Atlantic, Israel took out terrorist responsible for multiple rocket attacks, also arrested several in Jerusalem (arabs) planning massive car bomb attacks (supplied by hamas), russia having more gun battles moslem terrorists. And more...

      Delete
  4. My daughter lives in FL and was wearing a hat and coat on Sunday. And yesterday she was gloating about the sunny and 70 degree weather she was having while we were being slammed with a foot or more of snow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is wrong! Life is so unfair. If government offices were not closed, they could do something about it. Instead, we will just have to get through the day without them.

      Delete
  5. It could be worse. What do these poor fellows do on a cold, winterbound day at home? No cuddling under a warm down comforter for them.

    34m Chinese men face life without a woman

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They could always resort to the next best thing, the companionship of a man's best friend.

      Delete
    2. They probably do a lot of that. A dog would not be a bad idea either.

      Delete
  6. What do they expect when they kill the female infants, the turds don't deserve any women at all.

    My son says it's 'nice' in Lexington whatever that means, and I'm in my short here though I'm in bed. No snow outside......cat is inside which means it might be below 40 degrees out there.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did anyone see the photos of the smog in Beijing the other day? I don't see how they can live in it. You couldn't see down the street a half a block.

      Delete
    2. Do you recall the days when smog was a major killer in London and other cities in the UK?

      Delete
  7. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-21/resolved-obamacare-is-now-beyond-rescue.html

    · 2014: Small-business policy cancellations. This year, the small-business market is going to get hit with the policy cancellations that roiled the individual market last year. Some firms will get better deals, but others will find that their coverage is being canceled in favor of more expensive policies that don’t cover as many of the doctors or procedures that they want. This is going to be a rolling problem throughout the year.

    · Summer 2014: Insurers get a sizable chunk of money from the government to cover any excess losses. When the costs are published, this is going to be wildly unpopular: The administration has spent three years saying that Obamacare was the antidote to abuses by Big, Bad Insurance Companies, and suddenly it’s a mechanism to funnel taxpayer money to them?

    · Fall 2014: New premiums are announced.

    · 2014 and onward: Medicare reimbursement cuts eat into hospital margins, triggering a lot of lobbying and sad ads about how Beloved Local Hospital may have to close.

    · Spring 2015: The Internal Revenue Service starts collecting individual mandate penalties: 1 percent of income in the first year. That’s going to be a nasty shock to folks who thought the penalty was just $95. I, like many other analysts, expect the administration to announce a temporary delay sometime after April 1, 2014.

    · Spring 2015: The IRS demands that people whose income was higher than they projected pay back their excess subsidies. This could be thousands of dollars.

    · Spring 2015: Cuts to Medicare Advantage, which the administration punted on in 2013, are scheduled to go into effect. This will reduce benefits currently enjoyed by millions of seniors, which is why they didn’t let them go into effect this year.

    · Fall 2015: This is when expert Bob Laszewski says insurers will begin exiting the market if the exchange policies aren’t profitable.

    · Fall 2017: Companies and unions start learning whether their plans will get hit by the “Cadillac tax,” a stiff excise tax on expensive policies that will hit plans with generous benefits or an older and sicker employee base. Expect a lot of companies and unions to radically decrease benefits and increase cost-sharing as a result.

    · January 2018: The temporary risk-adjustment plans, which the administration is relying on to keep insurers in the marketplaces even if their customer pool is older and sicker than projected, run out. Now if insurers take losses, they just lose the money.

    · Fall 2018: Buyers find out that subsidy growth is capped for next year’s premiums; instead of simply being pegged to the price of the second-cheapest silver plan, whatever that cost is, their growth is fixed. This will show up in higher premiums for families -- and, potentially, in an adverse-selection death spiral.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Replies
    1. ...so the government site says...In a day or two, objective numbers will be available.

      Delete
    2. California continues to knock it out of the park.

      . . . California has finally let the dust settle on their Christmas-week craziness and have released new, comprehensive enrollment data for both Private QHPs as well as Medicaid/CHIP, and the numbers are impressive indeed: After closing out 2013 with just over a half a million private enrollments (about 1,300 more trickled in in the final 3 days of the year), the first half of January has proven that, while the completely expected post-December drop-off did happen, enrollments are still proceeding at a very healthy pace, as over 125,000 more people enrolled in the first 15 days of the month, more than a 25% increase since New Year's Eve. Broken out, that comes to over 8,300 per day for California alone.

      It's also worth noting that with this update, the total Private QHP enrollment figure has now broken the 2.5 million mark.

      Meanwhile, Medicaid enrollments have also continued to show a similar 25% gain, up from around 460,000 (or 472,000...see today's Medicaid Spreadsheet update) up to 584,000.

      . . . . . . .

      ACA Signups

      Delete
    3. ACA Signups is Not a "Government" site.

      Charles Gaba has spent an incredible amount of energy, and time, aggregating information from multiple government, state, and non-state sources. He has pretty much become the 'go to' guy for accurate guesstimates about overall enrollment.

      Delete
    4. Yesterday, I posted three links to sites from MIT, Harvard, and Oregon showing that the Medicaid insured were 40% more likely to use the ER rather than visit a GP. ACA had anticipated that the reliance upon ER usage would be substantially reduced once a primary care health care provider was made available under Medicaid.

      There is no clear cut explanation for why this is happening, since the vast majority of the ER visits were non-emergent. One possibility posited was habit. Since ER care of a non-emergent nature is on average about $1,000.00 a remedy must be found.

      Delete
  9. The Oregon study was pretty short-term.

    In Massachusetts, emergency room usage surged at first, and then fell back. It's assumed that those newly insured gradually found Doctors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its short duration was a questionmark to my mind as well. I also wondered how the temporary nature of the coverage would be taken.

      Delete
  10. Generic Congressional Ballot

    Rasmussen, Likely Voters


    Dem - 41

    Pub - 35

    Rasmussen Reports

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From Rasmussen:

      Most voters have opposed the new national health care law’s individual mandate in past surveys, but voters are now evenly divided when asked whether the federal government should force every American to have health insurance.

      A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 42% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the government should require every American to buy or obtain health insurance, up from 33% in mid-December. But now only 43% oppose the individual mandate, down 15 points from a high of 58% last month. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

      Most voters have opposed the mandate from the start, and a high of 69% said in November 2011 that the government does not have the constitutional authority to force everyone to buy or obtain health insurance. In late June 2012, however, the U.S. . . . . . . .

      Rasmussen Reports

      Delete
    2. Obama back in the Positive - 50 / 49

      Delete
    3. You really believe those numbers?

      Delete
  11. QuirkTue Jan 21, 10:26:00 PM EST

    .

    "In my opinion, Ash, you commit the same error that you accuse T of making; however, I see it rather than a statistical issue one of logic, using limited data and the resulting false assumptions to come to erroneous conclusions."


    As I pointed out last time I brought up the child molesting priest issue I do it in direct response to tripe brought up here condemning Islam for the actions of the fundamentalists so, yes, you are correct. For some reason when the logic is applied to Islam all Muslims are bad and it is because their religion is inherently flawed but when the logic is applied to Catholics they say it is just 'bad priests'.

    You objected to my use of "many here" but, given the responses over the last day it would appear I should have used "most here". You Quirk, Rufus, and MLD appear to be the minority who don't condemn all 1 billion or so Muslims as the others do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All moslems oppress women, some more some less. Women aren't fully human, says so in their stupid book. Moslems accept the Koran, they all oppress women, some more, some less. Simply by accepting the book that says women aren't fully human.

      You like the Koran, don'tcha Ash?

      Just as good a book as any other religious tract, right?

      You can't change the Koran, it comes from Allah.

      Islam is a jail cell shut tight. Getting out is a death sentence.

      Delete
  12. WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The Republican Party is expected to approve a resolution this week, calling for repeal of an Obama administration law that is designed to crack down on offshore tax dodging.

    In what would be the party's first appeal to scrap the law - the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) - a panel was slated to vote at the Republican National Committee's (RNC) winter meetings in Washington, likely approving the resolution on Friday, according to party members driving the repeal effort.

    If adopted, the anti-FATCA resolution would reflect the party's political priorities for the time being but would not change its presidential campaign platform, according to the RNC.

    Approved in 2010 after a tax-avoidance scandal involving a Swiss bank, FATCA requires most foreign banks and investment funds to report to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service information about U.S. customers' accounts worth $50,000 or more.

    Criticized by banks, libertarians and some Americans living abroad as a costly and unneeded government overreach, FATCA is on the books, but its effective date has . . . . . . .

    Party of the 0.0001

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You always want to poke your nose in other people's business.

      Some Libertarian you are.

      An old geezer who thinks everybody else's business is his own.....

      And half the people with overseas accounts are democrats, and you know that......

      Just a jealous snoopy old geezer.....who wants heroin and crack sold at the local pharmacy.

      Bat shit crazy......

      Delete
    2. This is intended as a polite, carefully balanced, and fair analysis of the poster's own words over the years.

      Not meant to be harmful, or hurtful, or libelous.

      Delete
    3. .

      'Blessed are the rich for they shall inherit the earth.'

      .

      Delete
    4. But they won't see God, a much more important matter.

      Delete
    5. .

      But hiding money in an offshore tax dodge is ok?

      .

      Delete
    6. It's not a tax dodge. It is just parked.

      Romney explained this all to you, but you weren't listening.

      All the dems have their money parked off shore too.

      Even the Chinese, big in Switzerland.

      I would too if had enough.

      So would you.

      Thinking of you, and your exploits, I posted about a film shown at the Sunfuck Film Festival in Utah which I thought might like. All about dicks. Seems they're everywhere, even in Utah.

      Delete
  13. Fox News Breaking -

    John Bolton is saying the Obama peace talks regarding 1) Syria, 2) the Palestinians, and 3) Iran will all fail.

    He's right.

    They will all fail.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Here's a striking chart from Eric Sundquist of the State Smart Transportation Initiative. For the past decade, state and federal governments have consistently overestimated future growth in U.S. road travel.

    kinda discombobulatin'

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sex Strom Sweeps Across Mid
    By Steven Zeitchik
    January 22, 2014, 7:00 a.m.



    PARK CITY, Utah -- By this point in his career Lars von Trier has done so much that’s shocking that it’s stopped being shocking.

    Maybe it’s that, or maybe just that, give or take an extended penis montage (of course), there actually isn't as much that’s sledgehammer-startling about “Nymphomaniac, Vol. 1,” the Danish director’s first of two installments in his sex-addict tale, which, for all its naked women in compromising positions, has an unexpectedly straightforward and surprisingly (if not always intentionally) comedic undertone.

    Von Trier premiered his new movie at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday. Well, he didn't premiere it, because he doesn't fly and is somewhere in Europe thinking of the next action star whose image he can soft-core up now that he’s given it a whirl with Shia LaBeouf. But the film indeed played for the first time, part of a surprise screening orchestrated by the festival and one that generated a decent amount of laughter, some genuine and some awkward. Next month the full five-hour-plus director’s cut will premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, with a two-part set of shortened cuts, each a little longer than two hours, opening March 21 and April 18 in the U.S. This is the first of those installments.


    MORE: Complete list of Sundance film festival selections

    Here’s how it plays out. A late 40's-ish woman named Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is found bloody in an alley by Stellan Skarsgard's professorial Seligman. After bringing her up to his apartment to convalesce, he begins listening to her erotic tale. From there we flash back to a child with a preternatural sexuality and, eventually, a voracious young woman played by Stacy Martin.

    Martin’s Joe is fearless, practically nihilistic, about her conquests, their execution almost entirely joyless. She and a friend engage in wagers over who can sleep with the most men on a train before it reaches its destination (the bet is for a measly bag of candy, the one and only time a Von Trier movie will elicit thoughts of “Trading Places”). She eventually comes to have so many lovers on a given night that it practically requires a presidential scheduler just to keep them all straight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sex Storm Sweeps Across Mid Utah, continued -

      Joe’s exploits, portrayed with a kind of heartless abandon in flashback but conveyed with guilty regret by Gainsbourg, are all meant to show a woman in crisis (she is prone to describing love as "the lowest form" of expression), though whether compulsive sex is the answer or more of the problem is, at least for a little while, part of the movie’s ambiguity. Less ambiguous are the cutbacks to Seligman, who is prone to finding comparisons between Joe's hard-core eroticism and everything from fly-fishing to a Bach sonata. (Upon hearing that her first encounter with a young LaBeouf involved three thrusts in one position and five in another, Skarsgard tells Gainsbourg, “Those are the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence.” This is what made people laugh.)

      BEST MOVIES OF 2013: Turan | Sharkey | Olsen

      LaBeouf actually keeps his clothes on most of the time (the teaser to "Vol. 2" suggests otherwise) and is somewhat curiously seen by Joe as some kind of romantic ideal, though whether the heroine is also someone turned on by defiant tweets or an affinity for the story lines in graphic novels is an open question. Decidedly winning is Uma Thurman, who steals the show as a wife of one of Joe’s many conquests; she shows up with her kids to confront Joe, in a wickedly sarcastic turn that has her inviting the children to see “the whoring bed.”

      So to recap, Stacy Martin has lots of sex while Charlotte Gainsbourg tells a story and Stellan Skarsgard lectures us about science, which in one sense would be short-shrifting the film and in another describes pretty much all you need to know.

      There are no shortage of story lines outside the movie. Is the graphic aspect a help or a hindrance at the box office (and, by extension, will the fact that a lot of this cut is not qualitatively more shocking than, say, the director’s “Antichrist” a help or a hindrance)?

      Will Von Trier’s infamous Cannes appearance a few years ago in, which he thought it funny to call himself a Nazi, work against him? (There is a reference made by Seligman, whom Von Trier saw fit to identify as a Jew, to the character as “anti-Zionist” that is not even worth citing, so devoid is it of anything but a cry for attention.) And will the star attachments break the film out of the art house or just fill up some entertainment news magazine air-time with breathlessness about stars baring it all?

      Seligman would invoke scientific principles to answer these questions. Joe might seek enlightenment elsewhere.

      ALSO:

      Sundance: 'Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter' looks for gold

      Sundance: In Richard Linklater's 'Boyhood,' a profile of a man

      Sundance: For embattled Matt Sandusky, a rare moment of redemption


      http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-sundance-nymphomaniac-shia-labeouf-lars-von-trier-20140122,0,1186705.story#ixzz2rA1pNlKv


      Delete
    2. Just in, hot off the wires, from OGF, attending.

      Sounds like rare footage of true trash to me.......

      Delete
  16. Just a week or ten days ago, many here were celebrating the coming of peace in our time -


    The Blog


    Iran Foreign Minister: WH Wrong About Deal, 'We Did Not Agree to Dismantle Anything'


    5:44 PM, Jan 22, 2014 • By DANIEL HALPER

    Foreign Minister Zarif of Iran said on CNN that the White House is getting the nuclear deal wrong -- and that they don't have to give up anything:

    Said the Iranian foreign minister, "The White House version both underplays the concessions and overplays Iranian commitment. And I'm not interested in that. I'm simply saying, why don't we all stick to what we agreed? Why do we need to produce different texts?"

    CNN reporter: "Explain, then, to our viewers, what's different in terms of Iran's commitment to what you agreed to and what the White House says you agreed to?"

    The Iranian responded, "Well, the terminology is different. The White House tries to portray it as basically a dismantling of Iran's nuclear program. That is the word they use time and again. And I urge you to read the entire text. If you find a single, a single word that even closely resembles dismantling or could be defined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would take back my comment."

    Zarif clarifies, "What Iran has agreed is not to enrich above 5 percent. We did not agree to dismantle anything."

    The White House refuses to release the text of the Iran nuclear deal.

    **********

    "THE WHITE HOUSE REFUSES TO RELEASE THE TEXT OF THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL"

    Obviously the W.H. doesn't want spontaneous demonstrations of pure joy and relief breaking out all over the country.......

    ReplyDelete
  17. Obama's approval ratings and the upcoming elections -

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/22/how_obamas_job_approval_could_sway_senate_races.html

    Sean Trende

    If it stays where it is now, hovering around 43%, it's bad news for the dems.......the middle class and the independents have given on the moron.

    ReplyDelete
  18. A Devastating Poll on Obama -- and Obamacare
    A Commentary By Michael Barone

    "The Affordable Care Act's political position has deteriorated dramatically over the last week." That, coming from longtime Obamacare cheerleader and Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, was pretty strong language. And it was only Wednesday.

    That was the day after the release of a devastating Quinnipiac national poll. It showed Barack Obama's approval rating at 39 percent, with his disapproval rating at 54 percent -- sharply down from 45 percent approval and 49 percent disapproval on Oct. 1, the day the government shutdown began and healthcare.gov went into (limited) operation.

    Democrats hoped that Republicans would take a shellacking in public opinion for the Oct. 1-16 government shutdown. They did, briefly. But Quinnipiac's survey, conducted three weeks after the shutdown ended, indicated that the Obamacare rollout inflicted much more damage on the Democratic brand -- and the party's leader.

    Quinnipiac's numbers on Obamacare were also exactly the same as their numbers on Obama: 49 percent favored the health care legislation, 55 percent were opposed. Moreover, a near-majority -- 46 percent -- said the president knowingly deceived them when he assured Americans over and over that they could keep their health insurance plans.

    There are few names a president can be called that are more damaging than liar.

    The numbers are particularly daunting when you look at the groups that Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg identifies as major parts of "the big cultural and demographic wave that threatens to swamp the Republican party" -- young voters and Hispanics.

    Obama carried voters under 30 by 66 percent to 32 percent in 2008 and 60 percent to 37 percent in 2010. He carried older voters by 1 point in the first election and lost them to Mitt Romney in the second.

    Obama did even better with Hispanics: 67 percent to 31 percent in 2008 and 71 percent to 27 percent in 2012. This was one of the few demographic groups among which he ran stronger than four years earlier.

    But that was then, and this is now. Quinnipiac shows young voters disapproving of Obama 54 percent to 36 percent and Hispanics disapproving 47 percent to 41 percent.

    Both groups rate him negatively on the economy, the federal budget, immigration, foreign policy and health care. Bare majorities, 51 percent of both groups, say Obama cares about people like them.

    Obamacare, popular among both groups in 2012, is now an Obama albatross. Young voters oppose it 51 percent to 42 percent and Hispanics 50 percent to 44 percent. Majorities of both groups give Obama negative ratings on health care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One must note that this is just one poll and that opinions may change as events unfold. But it looks very much like the astonishingly disastrous Obamacare rollout has moved opinion decisively against the president and his trademark policy.

      And all those predictions -- not just by Democrats -- that the Republican Party faced extinction because of overwhelming opposition from Millennials and Hispanics look to be, like Mark Twain's famous obituary, premature.

      There's one other interesting result from Quinnipiac. Has the Obama administration "been competent in running the government"? Overall, 53 percent said no and only 43 percent said yes. Young voters (47 percent said yes, 46 percent said no) and Hispanics (51 percent said yes, 46 percent said no) were only slightly more positive.

      The fiasco of the healthcare.gov website undoubtedly contributed to this. But perhaps Americans are also starting to notice that this president is not performing his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the law -- and in this case, a law he and his party wrote.

      The Obama administration announced last July that it is not enforcing Obamacare's employer mandate. It has admitted that it cannot verify the eligibility of applicants for Obamacare subsidies. (Come and get it!)

      It says it will provide subsidies for those buying insurance through the federal health care exchanges in 36 states -- even though the legislation nowhere authorizes that.

      And last Thursday, as congressional Democrats were panicking and supporting measures to allow people to keep their current health insurance policies, Obama announced that he would not impose penalties on policies that don't comply with the law.

      That was plainly a transparent attempt to fob off the blame for cancelled policies on insurers and state regulators who complied with the law as written. It is a political ploy inconsistent with the rule of law.

      Quinnipiac and other pollsters are not in the habit of asking Americans whether presidents are faithfully executing the law. The assumption has been that, unlike in Russia, they mostly are -- or were.

      The Framers of the Constitution regarded refusal to faithfully execute the law as tyranny. Barack Obama, with his Swiss cheese exceptions to Obamacare, seems to take a different view.

      Delete
  19. Rufus IIWed Jan 22, 10:49:00 AM EST

    Obama back in the Positive - 50 / 49

    ...grasping at straws, look at the chart!

    (shows daily variations, no new trend whatsoever, at this point)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Is Ramussen on Acid?

    This is his link to Rufus's more positive story:


    New High: 58% View Obamacare Unfavorably

    WTF?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rufus IITue Jan 21, 01:49:00 PM EST
      Probably, the only possible "losers" in this deal are those taxpayers that earn more than $250,000.00 / Yr.

      And, a lot of those are Healthcare Professionals. This is important because Doctors' incomes went up something like 2 hundred percent following the introduction of Medicare.

      ---

      Well that sure proves Government intervention drove costs down, doesn't it?

      ...in Dreamland.

      Delete
    2. from Your link:

      The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters rate the new law at least somewhat favorably, while 56% share an unfavorable opinion of it.

      What you dreamers always overlook is that if you separate out the 15% that want the law to go further (single payer,) it becomes 56% Positive, and 40% Negative.

      Don't worry, though, plumbdumbpolling agrees with you.

      Delete
    3. On acid.

      Rasmussen, or Rufus? -- both, I'd say.

      When the middle class has decided that you are toast, you are most certainly toast.

      Delete
    4. I simply said Rasmussen's link was misleading according to his polling, Rufus.

      Delete
    5. And, you pulled a poll Out of the Archives to prove it?

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

      Delete
    7. Jan 20 is the Moldy Oldy Archives, Mr. Boldy?

      Delete
  21. allenTue Jan 21, 07:04:00 PM EST

    Roman Catholicism has found itself the target of its failures. I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is making a sincere effort to clean house. But whatever the failures, they were not Roman Catholic Doctrine and were considered abhorrent and hurtful to the Church and its charges.

    This cannot be said of Islam, which provides instructions on the appropriate protocols for bestiality, pedophilia, and pederasty.

    On one hand is a church which regrets the sins of its errant sons; on the other is a political system (Islam) which normalizes and encourages the sins of its savage sons. The moral void is unbridgeable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama replies:

      "Al-Qaeda is Jayvee, nothing to see here, move along."

      Delete
    2. "Death to America"

      ...a mere figure of speech by our new allies in Peace.

      Delete
    3. The Canadians have better sense than we, these days.

      Delete
    4. How's the weather over there, Doug?

      Buried in three feet of snow, are you?

      With a wind chill of -40?

      Delete
    5. Dunno, haven't crawled outta bed yet, too damn cold.

      ...computer says it's 79, tho.

      Delete
    6. Lordy dougo, paradise is so miserable no wonder everything else (I.e. ACA) is equally bad.

      Delete
  22. Up at Commentary Daily -

    Number of ObamaCare Losers Rises

    But I guess I won't post it, Rufus is dealing with too many issues today as it is.....

    ReplyDelete
  23. Here is a long term graph that shows ATA's For-Hire Truck Tonnage index.

    The dashed line is the current level of the index.

    The index is up solidly year-over-year. The index is at a record high, and this was best year for growth since 1998.
    Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/01/ata-trucking-index-increased-in-december.html#7cSO2d4fxoyDTkl2.99

    Clickable

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 9 Million fewer people employed.

      Record numbers on Foodstamps.

      Great Record.

      Delete
  24. Hey there!
    I stumbled upon your article about the winter storm sweeping across the US and had to drop you a comment. First off, kudos to you for such a timely and insightful piece. I'm writing this from my cozy little nook in Chicago, and I can totally relate to the chaos that a winter storm can bring. Your vivid descriptions took me back to the last storm we had here, and I felt like I was right there with you in the midst of it all. It's always comforting to know that others are experiencing similar weather woes, and your writing made me feel connected to a broader community of people battling the elements.

    The way you detailed the impact on daily life was spot on. From the joys of a snow day to the frustration of shoveling, it's a rollercoaster of emotions, and you captured that beautifully. I particularly loved your tips for staying warm and safe during the storm. As someone who often forgets to stock up on essentials, your reminders are a lifesaver! Thanks for sharing your experiences and advice. I'm looking forward to more of your articles, and I hope this winter treats you kindly. Stay warm! 🌨️❄️🔥 visit https://certifiedtranslationservicesusa.com

    ReplyDelete