Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: January 20, 2015


I can't believe this friggin' cold...!

(No! Not the temperature! I'm talking "cold" as in "illness.")

I finally made it back to the gym yesterday. An hour of BodyPump, followed by 10 miles of "roadwork" split between the stationary bike and recumbent bike.

(Not bad for an old man... resistance set on 18!)

This morning, though, the cough is back!

You would think that with the amount of alcohol I consume that no germ or virus could live within my body... but here we are... two full weeks of this crap!

Anyway... on to newsbiting!


4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obamas-two-earner-tax-credit-wouldnt-cover-two-weeks-of-infant-care-or-commuter-costs/article/2558919

Among the highlights of President Obama’s State of the Union address plans to pull the American family out of economic plight is a $500 tax credit for two-earner families.

* GEEZUS CHRIST... MORE TRYING TO BRIBE US WITH OUR OWN FRIGGIN' MONEY!

* THESE BOZOS CAN'T AFFORD TO MEET EXISTING SPENDING BILLS WITHOUT BORROWING AT INTEREST... AND YET NOW THEY'RE PASSING OUT $500 CHECKS...???

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Here’s how the White House presented it in a fact sheet: “Provide a new, simple tax credit to two-earner families. The president will propose a new $500 second earner credit to help cover the additional costs faced by families in which both spouses work — benefiting 24 million couples.”

* CREATE A BUDGET. SPEND NO MORE THAN WE CAN AFFORD TO VIA EXISTING TAXES. CUT SPENDING EACH YEAR BY 1% FOR THE NEXT DECADE. PERIOD!

Administration officials said families earning up to $210,000 would get a piece of the tax credit.

* MIDDLE-CLASS WELFARE IS BAD ENOUGH... BUT UPPER CLASS WELFARE...???

* FOLKS... OBAMA SUCKS!

That is four-times the earning of the “typical” middle class income of $51,939 calculated by the Obama-supporting Center for American Progress.

* YEP! (FOLKS... I KNOW... MY OWN FRIENDS HERE IN NEW YORK AND CALIFORNIA AND ELSEWHERE... THIS IS REALITY!)

* FOLKS... THIS IS INSANITY!

William R. Barker said...

https://www.atr.org/obama-tax-hike-college-savings-plans-breaks-middle-class-tax-pledge

Tonight, in his State of the Union address, President Obama will propose a series of tax increases on the American people. One of these tax increases is indisputably an income tax hike on middle class families with children.

Under Obama’s plan, earnings in “Section 529” (named for its location in the Internal Revenue Code) college savings plans will face full income taxation upon withdrawal.

* MOVING THE GOAL POSTS...

Under current law, earnings growth in 529 plans is tax-free if account distributions are used to pay for college tuition and fees. The Obama plan will tax earnings in these accounts even if they are used to pay for college tuition and fees.

* PEOPLE WERE PROMISED ONE THING... AND INSTEAD...

(*SHRUG*)

These accounts are commonly used by middle class families. There are about 12 million 529 accounts open today, and they have an average account balance of approximately $21,000. Most 529 plans permit monthly contributions as low as $25 per month.

This middle class income tax increase is a clear violation of President Obama's “firm pledge” against “any form of tax increase” on any family making less than $250,000.

William R. Barker said...

http://buchanan.org/blog/selma-50-years-on-15490

On Martin Luther King Day, 2015, how stand race relations in America?

Race relations today seem in some ways more poisonous than in 1965, when there were vast deposits of goodwill and LBJ pushed through the Voting Rights Act easily, 77-19 in the Senate and 328-74 in the House. Only two Republican Senators voted against the VRA.

* DO THE MATH, FOLK; THAT MEANS (HOW MANY...???) DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAINST THE VRA...?

(*SMIRK*)

But not a week after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act, the Watts section of Los Angeles exploded in one of the worst race riots in U.S. history. After seven days of pillage and arson, there were 34 dead, 1,000 injured, 3,000 arrested, and a thousand buildings damaged or destroyed.

The era of marching for civil rights was over and the era of Black Power, with Stokely Carmichael, Rap Brown and The Black Panthers eclipsing King, had begun.

In July 1967, there were riots in Newark and Detroit that rivaled Watts in destruction.

After Dr. King’s murder in Memphis in April of 1968, riots broke out in 100 more cities, including Washington, D.C.

By Oct. 1, the nominee of the Democratic Party, civil rights champion Hubert Humphrey, stood at 28% in the Gallup poll, only 7 points ahead of Gov. George Wallace.

Though Nixon won narrowly, the Great Society endured.

* AND THUS...

(*SIGH*)

And in the half-century since, trillions have been spent on food stamps, housing subsidies, Head Start, student loans, Pell Grants, welfare, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and other programs.

How did it all work out?

Undeniably, the civil right laws succeeded. Discrimination in hotels and restaurants is non-existent. African-Americans voted in 2012 in higher percentages than white Americans. There are more black public officials in Mississippi than in any other state. In sports, entertainment, journalism, government, medicine, business, politics, and the arts, blacks may be found everywhere.

Yet the pathology of the old urban ghetto has not disappeared. In some ways, it has gotten much worse. Crime in the black community is still seven times what it is in the white community.

* SEVEN TIMES...

Test scores of black students remain far below those of Asian and white students.

* FAR BELOW...

While 40% of all infants are born to single moms, the illegitimacy rate in black America is over 70%.

* 73%.

Whether it is dropout rates, drug use rates, delinquency rates or incarceration rates, the rates for blacks far exceed those of white and Asian-Americans - and of immigrants and Hispanics.

* AND IMMIGRANTS AND HISPANICS!

White households have a median family income below that of Asians...

* BELOW! (NOT ABOVE!)

* SO MUCH FOR WHITE PRIVILEGE...

(*SNICKER*)

...but far above that of black Americans.

White households have on average $143,000 in wealth in stocks, bonds, home equity and other assets, 13 times that of the average black household.

* SOUNDS BETTER THAN IT IS, FOLKS; HOME EQUITY UNREALIZED... IS... Er... NOT LIQUID.

At Howard University in 1965, LBJ declared, “We seek … not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”

Equality as a result?

Measured by the average incomes and wealth of Asians and whites and Hispanics and blacks, we have failed.

After 50 years of affirmative action and the greatest wealth transfers in human history, “equality as a fact” has not been achieved and will not be, absent a greater seizure of power by the U.S. government and larger and virtually endless transfers of wealth.

The reports of Karl Marx’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/militiamen-seize-yemen-presidential-palace-1421754740?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

* ANOTHER MILITARY AND FOREIGN POLICY "TRIUMPH" (*SMIRK*) FOR OUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!

Houthi militiamen have taken over the presidential palace in Yemen’s capital, Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday, causing panic as fighting spread across San’a and residents emptied the streets and stocked up on food and other supplies.

The Houthis’ seizure of the presidential palace followed the capture less than an hour earlier of the nearby headquarters of the 5,000-strong 3rd Brigade, which serves as Yemen’s presidential guard.

The Houthis represent the country’s Zaidi sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, and in September forced the government to resign after occupying the capital.

The rebels took dozens of hostages among the country’s U.S.-trained special forces and seized heavy artillery and Russian-made tanks, government officials said.

* GREAT FUCKING TRAINING WE MUST BE GIVING...! (TRAINING IN WHAT - SURRENDERING? RUNNING AWAY? LOSING...?!?!)

The whereabouts of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the number of casualties were unknown.

Mr. Hadi is an important counter-terrorism ally of the U.S.

(*SNORT*)

* YES... OUR "IMPORTANT ALLY" WHO HAS JUST BE TOPPLED...

...which has provided Yemen with nearly $1 billion in economic, military and humanitarian assistance since 2011.

* WHY NOT JUST BURN PALLETS OF HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS? WHY NOT JUST HAND THEM OUT AS TOILET PAPER?

* FOLKS... EVERYTHING OBAMA TOUCHES...

(*SIGH*)

Yemen is a cornerstone of U.S. counter-terrorism strategy...

* IS...??? (EARTH TO REPORTER AND EDITOR - OUR "ALLY" HAS JUST BEEN TOPPLED!)

...and dozens of American airstrikes have targeted the leadership and training camps of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

* WHICH HASN'T BEEN ENOUGH TO STOP THE TOPPLING OF OUR "ALLY!"

Yemen-based AQAP is considered to be the organization’s entity that is most capable of launching global attacks, said U.S. officials. It claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris this month. The Houthis oppose the U.S. military program in Yemen.

* WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO...

Houthi militiamen have taken over the presidential palace in Yemen’s capital...

(*GNASHING MY TEETH*)

* FOLKS... I CAN'T BEAR TO CONTINUE THIS... YOU HAVE THE LINK... USE IT.

* YOU DO REALIZE THAT THIS IDIOT (OBAMA) IS GOING TO REMAIN PRESIDENT TILL JANUARY 2017 - RIGHT?

* WE... ARE... SO... SCREWED...