Friday, July 4, 2014
Independence Day Newsbites: Friday, July 4 (THRU) Sunday, July 6, 2014
Just got in from the gym...
Overcast, drizzly day...
Mary's doing the laundry as I blog...
Hmm... hash, eggs, and cheese for breakfast...? (Sounds good!)
Plenty of time for socializing (and watching fireworks!) tonight, tomorrow, and on Sunday...
(Hell... might as well make THIS my weekend newsbites post... newsbites today thru Sunday...)
Indeed, over the weekend perhaps I'll even get around to finishing the UAE travelogue - not to mention posting 2014's Richmond-Charleston-Savannah travelogue!
Anyway... poke your heads in occasionally, folks... watch for updates... AND... scroll down the page if you've missed previous stand-alone posts and newsbites!
(The more you know... well... the more you know!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/black-unemployment-107-more-double-white-unemployment-53
The unemployment rate for black Americans is more than double that of white Americans, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
* SO LET'S IMPORT MORE FOREIGN LABOR!
(*SNORT*) (*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)
In the numbers released today, covering the month of June, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for black Americans age 16 and over was 10.7%, reported the BLS.
(*DEAFENING SILENCE*)
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5735
Female Arizona State University students can receive extra credit for defying social norms and refusing to shave for 10 weeks during the semester.
* HIGHER EDUCATION...
* GOVERNMENT RUN SCHOOL...
Men are also allowed to receive extra credit, as long as they shave their bodies from the neck down.
* THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM...
* FOLKS... THESE PEOPLE ARE F--KING RETARDED!
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/va-employees-switched-processing-va-applications-obamacare-applications
* READ IT. WATCH THE VIDEO. (I KNOW... "TRUTHREVOLT" THAT'S WHY I'M PROVIDING A MORE AUTHORITATIVE LINK NOW:
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/va-investigates-atlanta-enrollment-office/ngS6H/
Federal investigators are examining allegations that thousands of veterans who applied for health care benefits had their applications purged improperly by the national Veterans Affairs enrollment eligibility office based in Atlanta, according to VA employees interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
* THE AJC UTILIZES A PAY WALL. THEREFORE... BACK TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE...
A Veterans Affairs whistleblower from Atlanta will testify before Congress next Tuesday about widespread destruction of applications, retaliation against whistleblowers, and people being shifted from processing VA applications last summer to working on ObamaCare enrollment.
Scott Davis is a program specialist at the VA’s national Health Eligibility Center in DeKalb County, Georgia. His story was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this past Sunday and appeared on the Neil Cavuto program on Fox News Wednesday.
Davis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that health benefit applications for more than 10,000 veterans may have been improperly purged from the Health Eligibility Center's national data system. He began filing complaints in January 2014, revealing that managers were focused more on meeting goals linked to the Affordable Care Act to meet their bonus targets than processing VA applications.
Davis expanded on his revelations to Neil Cavuto on Wednesday, explaining that 17,000 applications for VA Healthcare were destroyed, and they're "also looking into a backlog of over 600,000 pending applications for VA Healthcare." The applications were purged as a way to deal with pressure from Washington D.C.
According to Davis' account, it would be logical to assume that part of the reason for the huge backlog in applications was the reallocation of workers from VA to ACA applications.
http://www.infowars.com/feds-threaten-journalist-with-prison-over-report-on-illegal-immigration/
* I KNOW IT'S "INFOWARS." I WISH IT WERE THE NYT! IN DAYS GONE BY... ONLY AS FAR BACK AS PRE-OBAMA... IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE NYT!
It would appear that Department of Defense officials are somehow more threatened by a journalist reporting on illegal immigration than they are with illegal aliens using military accommodations at taxpayers’ expense...
* AT $250.00 PER DAY PER ALIEN!
...while homeless vets wander the streets.
The Department of Defense has threatened me [Kit Daniels] with imprisonment in response to Infowars' report on the illegal alien shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
In a certified letter sent to Infowars, the Defense Department claims that I engaged in “unauthorized photography and broadcast” which were somehow “detrimental” to the “safety and security of the installation” - even though the photos of Lackland’s illegal alien shelter, which is housing nearly 2,000 illegals at a cost to taxpayers of around $250 per immigrant per day...
* YOU DO THE MATH, FOLKS!
...were taken outside the shelter and are clearly in the public’s best interest.
* FOLKS... CLEARLY IT'S IN THE PUBLIC'S INTEREST TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON! THIS IS INSANE! JUST THE OTHER DAY A UNITED STATES CONGRESSMAN - JIM BRIDENSTINE (R-OKLA) - WAS DENIED ACCESS TO A FEDERAL FACILITY HOUSING ILLEGAL ALIENS!
* HERE'S PART OF THE LETTER:
“You are hereby put on notice that should you make unauthorized entry into any of the Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) installations in the future, a debarment order will be issued,” stated the letter, which added, "further action could lead to imprisonment."
* SIGNED BY ROBERT D. LABRUTTA, BRIG. GEN., COMMANDER
* FOLKS... AS I'VE OFTEN REMARKED... CLINTON HAD EIGHT YEARS AND OBAMA HAS HAD ANOTHER FIVE AND A HALF... DON'T CONFUSE TODAY'S MILITARY BRASS WITH HEROES OF TIMES GONE BY.
“Our military bases are turning into refugee camps,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas). “I never thought I’d see this in the United States of America.”
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_07_04/Beijing-Seoul-agree-to-direct-trade-in-national-currencies-4477/
* HERE'S THE HEADLINE, FOLKS...
Beijing, Seoul agree to direct trade in national currencies
* OUR... FUCKING... "ALLY"... SOUTH KOREA.
(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)
China's central bank has authorized the Bank of Communications, the country's fifth largest lender, to undertake yuan clearing business in the South Korean capital, the People's Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
The announcement came as Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a state visit to South Korea on Friday. China is seeking to make the yuan - also known as the renminbi - used more internationally in keeping with the country's status as the world's second biggest economy behind the United States.
A joint communique endorsed Thursday by Xi and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-Hye also pledged to strengthen efforts to launch direct trading between the yuan and the won.
* MEANWHILE... THE AMERICAN SHEEPLE CONTINUE TO "LIVE THE DREAM" - I FEAR LITERALLY.
(*SIGH*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/john-hood-north-carolina-got-it-right-on-unemployment-benefits-1404509638?mod=hp_opinion
A year ago, North Carolina became the first state in the nation to exit the federal government's extended-benefits program for the unemployed.
(*STANDING OVATION*)
Facing the prospect of job-killing hikes in payroll taxes to pay back Washington, Gov. Pat McCrory and the state legislature instead reduced the amount and duration of unemployment-insurance benefits, which had been higher in North Carolina than in most states. As a result the state lost its eligibility to participate in the extended-benefits program on July 1, 2013.
National media and liberal activists pounced. Citing the decision and several other "outrages" by the state's first Republican-led government since Reconstruction — such as adopting a pro-growth flat tax, clearing out the state's regulatory thicket, and rejecting ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion — Left-wing critics subjected the Tar Heel State to months of invective and ridicule.
Within the state, the so-called Moral Monday movement drew thousands of protesters to the capital on a nearly weekly basis. Hundreds of arrests were made for violating the rules of the state's Legislative Building. Outside the state, liberal media outlets excoriated North Carolina for ending extended benefits. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman called it a "war on the unemployed."
North Carolina didn't descend into the Dickensian nightmare critics predicted.
* ONE... MORE... TIME...
North Carolina didn't descend into the Dickensian nightmare critics predicted.
For the last six months of 2013, it was the only state where jobless recipients weren't eligible for extended benefits.
Yet...
(*DRUM ROLL*)
...during that period North Carolina had one of the nation's largest improvements in labor-market performance and overall economic growth.
(*SHRUG*) (*SMILE*)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of payroll jobs in North Carolina rose by 1.5% in the second half of 2013, compared with a 0.8% rise for the nation as a whole.
Total unemployment in the state dropped by 17%, compared with the national average drop of 12%.
The state's official unemployment rate fell to 6.9% in December 2013 from 8.3% in June, while the nationwide rate fell by eight-tenths of a point to 6.7%.
As North Carolina began beating the national average month after month, defenders of the extended-benefits program said it was all a mirage. They said discouraged North Carolinians were simply dropping out of the labor force, not being nudged by a loss of benefits into jobs they might not otherwise have taken.
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
While North Carolina did experience a significant drop in labor-force participation, the trend began in February 2013 and was evident in a number of other Southeastern states. Unless you factor in time travel and massive cross-border unemployment-insurance fraud, it was impossible for North Carolina's exit from extended benefits in July to have caused the phenomenon.
(*SHRUG*)
More important, broader measures confirmed that North Carolina's labor-market gains after leaving the extended-benefits program weren't statistical quirks. In addition to the standard unemployment rate released every month (U-3), BLS computes annual averages for unemployment rates that include discouraged workers (U-4), all other marginally attached workers who have stopped looking for jobs (U-5), and people working part time who would rather have full-time jobs (U-6). By each measure, North Carolina still experienced one of the nation's largest drops in unemployment.
* BY... ALL... MEASURES...
Furthermore, the decline in North Carolina's labor force didn't last. By early 2014, it had bottomed out and begun to rise.
(*THUMBS UP*)
As of May, the most recent month of BLS data available, North Carolina's labor force is down only 0.04% from June 2013. During the same 11-month period, the nation's labor force dropped 0.1%.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
North Carolina has also continued to add jobs at a healthy clip. According to BLS data, from June 2013 to May 2014, the state's employment-population ratio — which takes both labor-force participation and population trends into account — rose at a rate three times the national average.
Still not convinced that leaving the extended-benefits program encouraged both job creation and job acceptance?
As of Jan. 1, 2014, the extended-benefits program expired nationwide. Yet there has been no sudden exodus of discouraged workers to the fringes of the national economy. Both job creation and household employment are up.
(*SHRUG*)
The nation's employment-population ratio was 58.9% in May, up from 58.6% in December. The labor-market effects of reforming unemployment insurance may not be massive. But they certainly don't appear to be negative.
Left-leaning economists may still cling to their demand-side popguns and Keynesian religion. But here in the Tar Heel State, the governor and state legislature have decided to promote growth and opportunity by reducing and reforming taxes, streamlining regulation and improving public education and infrastructure. Given the state's impressive economic growth rate in 2013 — 4.2% in total GDP and 4.9% in private GDP, both far exceeding the national average — they are not likely to change their minds soon.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/washingtons-next-big-bailout-1404509076?mod=hp_opinion
Labor unions like to promote their generous defined-benefit pensions. Yet when these benefits prove unsustainable, workers can lose their jobs and retirement savings. The kicker is that taxpayers may soon be tapped to perpetuate this double fraud.
That's the main take-away from a new report by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which insures multi-employer pension plans for 10.4 million workers and retirees.
The federal agency projects that its deficit for multi-employer plans will balloon to $49.6 billion by 2023 from $8.3 billion.
(Last year the PBGC forecasted a deficit of $26.2 billion in 2022, and its upward revision reflects the increasing likelihood that more plans will become insolvent and sooner.)
Multi-employer plans are prevalent in industries like mining, manufacturing and construction where workers often shift among employers. Because unions collectively bargain benefits across multiple employers, workers don't lose pension benefits when they change jobs. While unions cite portability as a selling point, it's also a fatal design flaw because the plans require multiple businesses for support.
* YEP...
(*SIGH*)
The Government Accountability Office reported last year that numerous bankruptcies "combined with an aging workforce and declining unionization" leave "many plans facing demographic challenges that threaten their long-term financial outlook."
* IN OTHER WORDS... "FUCKED."
Investment returns also haven't been enough to sustain the rich benefits that unions collectively bargained during the go-go 1980s and 1990s.
(*HEADACHE*)
In 2006 Congress passed the Pension Protection Act to prop up insolvent multi-employer pensions.
* GEORGE W. BUSH... PRESIDENT; REPUBLICANS IN CONTROL OF... BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS.
(*SIGH*) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Trustees were required to develop "rehabilitation plans," which could include raising employer contributions, cutting so-called adjustable benefits like early retirement subsidies and scaling back future benefit accruals. Yet employers have struggled to negotiate lower benefits with their unions. Only 32 of 107 severely under-funded plans surveyed in 2011 by the Segal Company had reduced future accruals. About 1.5 million workers or retirees are now covered by multi-employer plans that are less than 40% funded, up from 80,000 in 2001.
* AND GOVERNMENT ALLOWS THIS... ENCOURAGES IT!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
The PBGC acts as a federal backstop when plans become insolvent.
* MEANING "FUCK YOU!" "FUCK ME!" THEY'LL "FIX" THE PROBLEM BY ROBBING YOU AND I - WHO HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH CREATING THE PROBLEM!
However, the insurer guarantees a maximum pension of $12,870 per year with no cost-of-living escalator for employees who have worked 30 years. Those who have worked fewer than 10 years stand to collect much less.
Because so many plans are at risk of going broke, the PBGC warns that it is "itself on course to become insolvent with a significant risk of running out of money in as little as five years" and a 90% likelihood by 2025 "at current premium levels." And there's the rub. As with other federal insurance programs (e.g., flood insurance, home loans), the premiums that Congress has set for multi-employer pensions low-ball the risk.
* HOW CAN NOT KILLING THE POLITICIANS BE A VIABLE PLAN...???
Multi-employer plans pay the PBGC $12 per participant per year, which the agency projects will raise $1.2 billion through 2023. This doesn't come close to covering its liabilities. Employers and unions say higher premiums could further weaken plans, yet the PBGC says that if it runs dry, benefits could be slashed "virtually entirely."
Unions know that politicians won't let that happen, so they think they can get away with opposing serious reforms. So does Congress. The truth is that unions and politicians are teeing up taxpayers to pay the bailout bill.
* YEP...
(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2681829/Global-warming-latest-Amount-Antarctic-sea-ice-hits-new-record-high.html
* HERE ARE THE HEADING AND SUBHEADERS:
Global warming computer models confounded as Antarctic sea ice hits new record high with 2.1million square miles more than is usual for time of year
Ice is covering 16m sq km, more than 2.1m unusual for time of year
UN computer models say Antarctic ice should be in decline, not increasing
* OR... YOU COULD JUST STEP OUTSIDE...
The levels of Antarctic sea-ice last week hit an all-time high – confounding climate change computer models which say it should be in decline.
America’s National Snow And Ice Data Center, which is funded by NASA, revealed that ice around the southern continent covers about 16 million sq km, more than 2.1 million more than is usual for the time of year. (It is by far the highest level since satellite observations on which the figures depend began in 1979.)
In statistical terms, the extent of the ice cover is hugely significant.
* YA THINK...?!?!
In its authoritative Fifth Assessment Report released last year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted that the computer models on which scientists base their projections say Antarctic ice should be in decline, not increasing. The report said: ‘There is low confidence in the scientific understanding of the observed increase in Antarctic sea ice extent since 1979, due to… incomplete and competing scientific explanations for the causes of change.’
* SO... IN PLAIN ENGLISH... THEIR MODELS ARE WRONG... THEY HAVE NO CLUE AS TO WAY... AND YET THEY KEEP ON ISSUING REPORTS.
Post a Comment