Thursday, August 29, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 29, 2013


So... the kid is safe and sound in Abu Dhabi... posting photos on FB from atop her four-star hotel!

 Yep... Daddy's little girl...

 (*WINK*)

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10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationaljournal.com/domesticpolicy/obama-s-affordable-care-act-looking-a-bit-unaffordable-20130829

* THE HEADER AND SUB-HEADER:

Obama's Affordable Care Act Looking a Bit Unaffordable: Independent National Journal analysis finds premiums higher under Obamacare as employers weigh dropping coverage.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

Republicans have long blamed President Obama's signature health care initiative for increasing insurance costs, dubbing it the "Unaffordable Care Act."

Turns out, they might be right.

For the vast majority of Americans, premium prices will be higher in the individual exchange than what they're currently paying for employer-sponsored benefits, according to a National Journal analysis of new coverage and cost data. Adding even more out-of-pocket expenses to consumers' monthly insurance bills is a swell in deductibles under the Affordable Care Act.

Health law proponents have excused the rate hikes by saying the prices in the exchange won't apply to the millions receiving coverage from their employers. But that's only if employers continue to offer that coverage - something that's looking increasingly uncertain.

Already, UPS, for example, cited ObamaCare as its reason for nixing spousal coverage.

And while a Kaiser Family Foundation report found that 49% of the U.S. population now receives employer-sponsored coverage, more companies are debating whether they will continue to be in the business of providing such benefits at all.

* TAX-EXEMPT EMPLOYER PROVIDED INSURANCE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM... HOWEVER... NOTE... WHILE HONEST REGULARS WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY POSITION, HOW MANY WILL ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT OBAMA "SOLD" OBAMACARE MAINLY ON LIES AND BRIBES. COM'ON, FOLKS... ADMIT IT... DIDN'T OBAMA PROMISE THAT RATES WOULD BE LOWER (BY AT LEAST $2,500) AND THAT THOSE WHO WANTED TO KEEP THEIR INSURANCE COULD AS HE WAS "SELLING" OBAMACARE?

"To any small employer, it's a no-brainer," said Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative policy research organization. "If workers can get better coverage that's subsidized, it makes sense for the employer to stop providing health insurance."

* AND THAT'S THE DOUBLE WHAMMY, FOLKS... "SUBSIDIZED"... SUBSIDIZED BY THE TAXPAYERS WHO IN THE REAL WORLD CAN'T EVEN COME CLOSE TO PAYING FOR THE EXISTING WELFARE STATE (THE U.S. OPERATING BUDGET).

* FOLKS... AGAIN... ALL OBAMACARE IS DOING IS MAKING THINGS WORSE! THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IS THAT "INSURANCE" ISN'T INSURANCE - IT'S PRE-PAYMENT OF LIFETIME MEDICAL EXPENSES. THE WAY TO "FIX" THE SYSTEM IS TO RETURN MEDICINE TO THE FREE MARKET... ALONG WITH HOUSING, CLOTHING, FOOD...

August 29, 2013 at 2:17 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.expresspros.com/subsites/americaemployed/The-Great-Shift-white-paper.aspx

Express Employment Professionals today released a white paper ahead of Labor Day that shines a light on the growing damage done to workers and the country because so many American job seekers have quit looking for work.

* SEE: http://www.expresspros.com/subsites/americaemployed/documents/The-Great-Shift.pdf (IT'S ONLY 10 PAGES LONG...)

In post-recession America, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) — or percentage of adults who have a job or are looking for one — has declined to a 34-year low.

The decline is a “tragedy in the making, and its impact on the country has been underestimated. When Americans quit looking for work because they conclude not working beats working, America faces a significant problem,” the white paper reports.

The paper answers the pressing question, “Where have all the workers gone?” It also breaks down the causes and consequences of low labor force participation.

Baby Boomers’ retirement is one of the causes of the low LFPR and perhaps the most obvious one, but their retirement is only half the story. Younger Americans are giving up and leaving the workforce in a trend that has been called surprising, unexpected and unprecedented. In addition, more Americans than ever are trapped in taxpayer funded social safety nets.

The coming crisis isn’t caused by a lack of available jobs. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there are nearly 4 million jobs available right now. But Boomers and Millennials alike are feeling the impact of the skills gap: the skills employers need are not the skills job-seekers possess.

This worker exodus has serious implications for America’s competitiveness, the country’s immigration policy and the survival of the social safety nets. Governments, businesses, schools and workers all have a role to play in reversing an alarming trend.

“Following the Great Recession, we've entered into the Great Shift,” said Bob Funk, CEO of Express Employment Professionals, and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “This is a period defined by the Boomer retirement, Millennial frustration, and growing reliance on government programs. All indicators suggest this shift is not sustainable, which means we need action on everything from immigration policy to job training.

“Labor force participation is an issue too often overlooked in the headlines. We see unemployment ticking down and think things are getting better, but for the last few years, there’s been this unsettling trend that demands more focus. We have to come to terms with what it means for our economy before more damage is done,” Funk said.

August 29, 2013 at 2:20 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130829/METRO01/308290046/Death-certificates-took-holiday-wake-bankruptcy-filing?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

* TURN YOUR EYES AWAY FROM THE REALITY, FOLKS, BUT BURYING YOUR HEADS DOESN'T CHANGE THINGS... OR FIX THINGS.

Detroit’s funeral directors received this unusual text message last month. “FYI, city of Detroit can’t process death certificates because they have no paper and don’t have money to buy any.”

* HOW MANY TENS OF MILLIONS... HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS... OF DOLLARS WILL OBAMA (LITERALLY) BURN UP AND BLOW UP IS/WHEN HE ATTACKS SYRIA?

The message, from a fellow funeral director, was mostly true: The city did stop issuing certified copies of birth and death certificates on July 23, days after the July 18 bankruptcy filing. That day, a nervous paper vendor demanded cash — and the city wanted to do business as usual, on credit.

FYI: In bankrupt and frequently bizarre Detroit, dying is easy. It’s proving you are dead that’s hard.

“Have you ever heard such a crock?” asked Wallace Williams, president of the Michigan Select Funeral Directors Association, when asked about the paper shortage. “They told us they ran out of paper and it might take five days to get some.” Williams, who texted his 20 or so funeral director members, says the potential impact of a death certificate shortage was dire.

(Without certified copies of death certificates, families couldn’t access bank accounts, file insurance claims, or access probate court.)

Cutbacks in hours, balky vendors, and the news that Herman Kiefer Complex will close Oct. 1 are all affecting the city’s death and dying business. The city’s vital records department will close and Wayne County will assume responsibility for issuing birth and death certificates, according to Bill Nowling, spokesman for Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr.

Without certified copies of death certificates, families couldn’t access bank accounts, file insurance claims, or access probate court. The families are often struggling financially, grieving and frustrated by any bureaucratic delay.

* OH... AND TO TOP IT OFF... (READ ON!)

“Employees (at the vital records department) were sitting outside because they didn’t have anything to do,” says the Rev. Gleo Wade, Stinson Funeral Home director, who drove to the vital records department that day to see what was going on. “I’ve never seen the employees just sitting outside like that before.”

Bill Nowling, spokesman for Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, says the problem was short-lived, once the vendor was assured payment. It was the kind of scenario Orr knew could occur from the beginning of his tenure here. Calming nervous vendors — the ones whose services are needed as part of the city’s function — is a new skill set for city officials.

August 29, 2013 at 2:39 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_SYRIA_INTELLIGENCE_DOUBTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-29-03-11-56

President Barack Obama declared unequivocally Wednesday that the Syrian government was responsible [for recent chemical weapons attacks], while laying the groundwork for an expected U.S. military strike.

We have concluded that the Syrian government in fact carried these out," Obama said in an interview with "NewsHour" on PBS.

However, multiple U.S. officials used the phrase "not a slam dunk" to describe the intelligence picture - a reference to then-CIA Director George Tenet's insistence in 2002 that U.S. intelligence showing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk" - intelligence that turned out to be wrong.

A report by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence outlining that evidence against Syria includes a few key caveats - including acknowledging that the U.S. intelligence community no longer has the certainty it did six months ago of where the regime's chemical weapons are stored, nor does it have proof Assad ordered chemical weapons use, according to two intelligence officials and two more U.S. officials.

* ONCE MORE... (KEEP READING!)

[Questions remain] about who actually controls some of Syria's chemical weapons stores and doubts about whether Assad himself ordered the strike, U.S. intelligence officials say.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that it was "undeniable," a chemical weapons attack had occurred, and that it was carried out by the Syrian military, U.S. intelligence officials are not so certain that the suspected chemical attack was carried out on Assad's orders. Some have even talked about the possibility that rebels could have carried out the attack in a callous and calculated attempt to draw the West into the war. That suspicion was not included in the official intelligence report, according to the official who described the report.

* READ THE FULL AP PIECE. THIS WAS A HARD ONE TO "BARKERIZE" BECAUSE EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE FOCUSED ON CYA.

August 29, 2013 at 4:34 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_SYRIA?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-29-17-43-07

British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat for a government which had been poised to join the U.S. in strikes to punish Bashar Assad's regime for an alleged chemical weapons attack this month.

Cameron's nonbinding motion...

* FOLKS. A "NONBINDING MOTION" IS PURELY A LEGALISM. UNDERSTAND - THIS VOTE EFFECTIVELY STOPPED CAMERON IN HIS TRACKS.

...was defeated 285-272 and he conceded after the vote that "the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action."

* GREAT BRITAIN... A MONARCHY... IS MORE DEMOCRATIC THAN ARE WE IN AMERIKA 2013. THIS VOTE JUST PROVED THAT.

The prime minister said in terse comments while he believes in a "tough response" to the use of chemical weapons, he would respect the will of the House of Commons.

* AND HERE IN AMERIKA 2013... A CRITICAL MASS OF OUR CONGRESS WILL CONTINUE TO STICK THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND WHILE DESPERATELY SEEKING TO AVOID TAKING ANY RESPONSIBILITY... TURNING AWAY FROM THEIR CLEAR CONSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES.

August 29, 2013 at 10:32 PM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/97797d0a-1095-11e3-b291-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2dPqwXGxT

By Georgy Mirsky, a professor at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow.

Every now and then one of my English-speaking colleagues asks me what Russia will do if the western powers make good on their threats and strike at Syria. My answer is: nothing. Russia does not have to do anything, it can just sit quiet. The situation is advantageous to Moscow. Our leaders will be only too happy to see the U.S. start a new war it cannot win.

* WE COULD TURN SYRIA INTO A PARKING LOT. BUT WE WON'T. "CANNOT" WIN IS THUS A REASONABLE STATEMENT. ALL WE'RE GONNA DO IS FURTHER HURT OUR INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION, WASTE TENS OF MILLIONS, PERHAPS HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, AND FURTHER POISON POLITICS WITHIN THIS COUNTRY.

Consider the options. A land invasion is out of the question. Sustained air bombardment risks the loss of pilots, and would therefore be unacceptable for the public in the west. The likeliest avenue is missile strikes; President Bashar al-Assad’s regime will undoubtedly suffer – but Russia and Iran will be able to make up for any losses. The allies will give Mr. Assad a bloody nose and that is it. Punitive strikes cannot bring about a turning point in the hostilities. Any substantial change in the correlation of forces on the ground is not feasible.

* AGAIN... THIS IS WHAT THE AUTHOR MEANT BY "CANNOT WIN."

So, morally and psychologically, the Assad regime will score points, at least in the eyes of the developing world – and certainly in those of Russia.

Propaganda is certain to draw parallels with the intervention in Iraq 10 years ago. It is, of course, very easy to picture the U.S. as a global bully ever bent on inventing pretexts for aggression.

* AND THEY'RE RIGHT TO DO SO. ASK YOURSELVES THIS, FRIENDS: IF A REBELLION AGAINST THE COMMUNIST PARTY WERE TO BREAK OUT IN CHINA AND THE CHINESE ARMY CRACKED DOWN... USED GAS... WOULD OBAMA LAUNCH CRUISE MISSILE STRIKES AGAIN PLA TARGETS AND OTHER CHINESE GOVERNMENT TARGETS?

* FOLKS... WE DON'T EVEN HAVE THE BALLS TO TAKE ON NORTH KOREA!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 29, 2013 at 10:53 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Iran will be jubilant. Many people in Syria will be inclined to resist a new imperialist crusade.

Upping the ante is advantageous for Moscow. The more the western powers are involved in the conflict, the more deeply they are immersed, the more opportunities emerge for Russia to back the Assad regime as a “legitimate authority under attack.” Since a land operation can be ruled out, it may appear in the end that not only has Mr. Assad survived but also that Moscow and Tehran have won in the global confrontation with the coalition of the west, Turkey and the Arab League.

(*NOD*)

Western officials imply that a punitive strike is not intended to engineer regime change, nor is it meant to give the opposition an opportunity to deal Mr. Assad a decisive blow. “We just want to punish the dictator and send him a message: do not even think of using the chemical weapons again or else . . .” Well, suppose he never uses these weapons again. Does this mean that he is bound to lose the war? Not by a long shot.

* AS AN ASIDE... FOLKS... REMEMBER WHAT THE ADMINISTRATION AND THEIR MEDIA ALLIES WERE TELLING YOU MONTHS AGO... MONTHS AND MONTHS AGO? YOU KNOW... ASSAD WOULD BE TOPPLED ANY DAY! (*SNORT*) FOLKS... I CAN'T STRESS TO YOU ENOUGH THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU READ SOMETHING IN THE MSM TIME AND TIME AGAIN, THIS DOESN'T MEAN IT'S TRUE. FOLKS... OFTEN... PERHAPS MORE OFTEN THAN NOT... THE FIX IS IN. THAT'S WHY I AUTHOR THIS BLOG - TO TRY AND SEPARATE FACT FROM FICTION, TRUTH FROM UNTRUTH.

Some observers seem to believe that Mr. Assad, sensing mortal danger to his regime as a result of the strikes that may signal the start of a full-scale western invasion, will be more amenable to make concessions. According to this view, he would agree to a peace conference and delegate some of his powers to a person acceptable to the opposition. In this case, however, there can be no doubt that the rebels, particularly those affiliated with al-Qaeda, would never comply with this arrangement. “Assad in Damascus? Never.”

Other analysts have been insisting for months that the only solution is to press Vladmir Putin to convince Mr. Assad to take a softer line, maybe even to relinquish powers. It must take an extremely naive person, however, to believe that the Russian president would ever be ready to do any such thing – or, even if he were to, that Mr. Assad would obediently step down and leave Syria.

* ESPECIALLY AFTER WHAT HAPPENED TO MUBARAK...

At this moment – when the wheel of fortune seems to have turned in Mr. Assad’s favor (thanks to assistance from Iran and Hizbollah) the Syrian leader is more likely than ever to believe that it pays to tough it out. Indeed, he is vigorously asserting himself and now looks more confident than ever.

As regards what some critics call Mr. Putin’s incomprehensible intransigence, the bottom line is this: even if the Assad regime ultimately crumbles, the Russian president will not be regarded – at least not by domestic public opinion, which is vital for him – as a loser. The official line from the Kremlin will be: “We did our best to help the Syrian people in their struggle against those determined to impose their will and topple a government they disliked. We acted true to our principles but what can you do against the combined forces of the west, Turkey and Saudi Arabia? America has shown its true ugly face once more.”

(*NOD*)

On the contrary, if Mr. Putin comes on board now and goes in for some concessions, he looks like a loser since it can be interpreted as backing down under American pressure. And that really would be absolutely unacceptable to the Russian people.

August 29, 2013 at 10:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/29/200769/teen-employment-hits-record-lows.html#.UiAJ43_fLXQ

For the fourth consecutive summer, teen employment has stayed anchored around record lows, prompting experts to fear that a generation of youth is likely to be economically stunted with lower earnings and opportunities in years ahead.

The trend is all the more striking given that the overall unemployment rate has steadily dropped, to 7.4% in August.

* STEADILY "DROPPED" BECAUSE LABOR RATE PARTICIPATION KEEPS DROPPING! DUH! (SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... WHY TRY TO MANIPULATE... TO FOOL.. READERS?)

And employers in recent months have been collectively adding almost 200,000 new jobs a month.

* NOPE. (WHICH IS WHY THEY'RE NOT GIVING THE ACTUAL MONTHS AND NUMBERS.) (*SMIRK*)

* IN ANY CASE, HOW MANY OF THESE NEW JOBS ARE PART TIME JOBS... TEMP JOBS... PART TIME TEMP JOBS... (*SHRUG*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 29, 2013 at 11:16 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 3)

It led to hopes that this would be the summer when teen employment improved.

In 1999, slightly more than 52% of teens 16 to 19 worked a summer job.

By this year, that number had plunged to about 32.25% over June and July.

“We have never had anything this low in our lives. This is a Great Depression for teens, and no time in history have we encountered anything like that,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “That’s why it’s such an important story.”

The picture these teen employment statistics provide looks even worse when viewed through the complex prism of race. Sum and colleagues did just that, comparing June and July 2000 and the same two months of 2013.

In 2000, 61.28% of white teens 16 to 19 held a job...

* AND THIS SUMMER...???

...39.25% this summer.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

For African-Americans, a number that was dismal in 2000 - 33.91% of 16 to 19 year olds holding a job - fell to a staggering low of 19.25% this June and July.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

It wasn’t terribly better for Hispanics...

* HJW'BOUT ASIANS...???

* SERIOUS QUESTION, FOLKS! ASK YOURSELVES... WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE NEITHER THE REPORTER NOR HIS/HER EDITOR TOUCHED ON ASIAN-AMERICAN TEENAGED EMPLOYMENT/UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS?

(*SMIRK*)

One of the more surprising findings of Sum’s research is that teens whose parents were wealthy were more likely to have a job than those whose parents had less income. Some 46% of white male teens whose parents earned between $100,000 and $149,000 held a job this summer, compared with just 9.1% of black male teens whose family income was below $20,000 and 15.2% for Hispanic teen males with that same low family income.

* WHITES... BLACKS AND HISPANICS...

(*GRIN*)

* AGAIN... ASK YOURSELVES... WHY WOULD THE MEDIA NOT BE INTERESTED IN REPORTING ON THE SITUATION OF ASIAN AMERICANS...???

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 29, 2013 at 11:17 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 3 of 3)

That finding is important because a plethora of research shows that teens who work do better in a wide range of social and economic indicators. The plunging teen employment rate is likely to mean trouble for this generation of young workers of all races.

“Kids that get work experience when they are 17 or 18 end up graduating from college at a higher rate,” said Michael Gritton, executive director of the Workforce Investment Board, which promotes job creation and teen employment in Louisville, Ky., and six surrounding counties. “There are economic returns to those young people because they get a chance to work. Almost every person you ask remembers their first job because they started to learn things from the world of work that they can’t learn in the classroom.”

The weak employment numbers sometimes prompt a mistaken narrative that younger workers are just staying in college longer rather than entering the workforce, or are going on to graduate school given the impaired jobs market.

“I think there is this myth out there that there is some silver lining for young people, that they are going on to college. . . . You don’t see an increase in enrollment rates over and above the long-term trend. You can’t see a Great Recession blip,” said Heidi Scheirholz, a labor economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, a research group. “They are not in school. There’s been a huge spike in the not-in-school, not employed. It’s just a huge missed opportunity.”

* ONE... MORE... TIME...

“They are not in school. There’s been a huge spike in the not-in-school, not employed. It’s just a huge missed opportunity.”

Even before the economic crisis exploded in the summer of 2008, workers ages 16 to 19 made up a declining share of the overall workforce, in part because of a decades-long climb in college enrollment, and in part because universities now place less importance on work and more on life experiences and community service.

* BULLSHIT OVER WORK ETHIC. "FEELING" RATHER THAN DOING. YEP... DISGUSTING BUT TRUE, FOLKS.

“People entering into the labor force in their 20s, it looks like more and more now they’re not going to have any work experience as teens. Labor force participation is as low as it’s ever been,” said Keith Hall, who served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2008 to 2012.

* AND NOW THEY GET AROUND TO MENTIONING LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION!

(*SNORT*)

Hall points to a troubling trend within an already worrisome statistic. Because of the so-called Great Recession and the sluggish growth that’s followed, middle-age and older workers are not moving up the career ladder. The natural order of career progression has been stunted.

(*NOD*)

“I think that means that a lot of workers aren’t advancing through their careers,” he said. “Younger workers aren’t going to be progressing through their careers as they did before.”

(*SIGH*)

August 29, 2013 at 11:17 PM

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