Author Topic: Politics, Religion, etc.  (Read 386856 times)

otto105

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #30 on: September 12, 2015, 07:33:50 pm »



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Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #31 on: September 12, 2015, 08:08:22 pm »

Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #32 on: September 12, 2015, 08:12:42 pm »

Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #33 on: September 12, 2015, 08:16:10 pm »

Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #34 on: September 12, 2015, 08:29:26 pm »
   








Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #35 on: September 12, 2015, 08:29:56 pm »

davep

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #36 on: September 12, 2015, 09:16:39 pm »
Price of 87 octane gasoline was $2.039 in Bloomington, on 9/11.


I am on my way to Florida.  Staying the night in Columbia, TN.  Gas on the corner is 1.99

Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #37 on: September 13, 2015, 11:00:55 am »
Washington's latest hunger charade
USDA plays games with definitions to create fraudulent scare. 'Food insecure' is the new hungry.
James Bovard 10:38 a.m. EDT September 9, 2015

The Agriculture Department announced this morning that 48 million Americans live in "food insecure" households. Soon you’ll hear we’re suffering an epidemic of hunger. While the federal government is already feeding more than 100 million Americans, we’ll be told that it just isn’t enough.

But it isn’t true. “Food insecurity” is a statistic designed to mislead. USDA defines food insecurity as being “uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”  USDA noted: “For most food-insecure households, the inadequacies were in the form of reduced quality and variety rather than insufficient quantity.”

The definition of “food insecure” includes anyone who frets about not being able to purchase food at any point. If someone states that they feared running out of food for a single day (but didn’t run out), that is an indicator of being “food insecure” for the entire year — regardless of whether they ever missed a single meal. If someone wants organic kale but can afford only conventional kale, that is another “food insecure” indicator.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine have criticized USDA for how these statistics are contorted from a measure of household "security" into a misleading estimate that millions of individuals go hungry. After the 2009 USDA food security report was released, President Obama announced that “hunger rose significantly last year. ... My administration is committed to reversing the trend of rising hunger." The latest report will likely be heavily exploited  by Democratic presidential candidates and others who see a chance to burnish their benevolent image. (Sen. Bernie Sanders has claimed that “hunger is at an all-time high.”)

Private nonprofit organizations exploit USDA statistics to create a crisis atmosphere. Feeding America proclaimed September as Hunger Action Month, encouraging people to “take selfies while balancing orange spoons on their noses and sharing the photos, tagging their friends and challenging them to participate and raise awareness.” The North Carolina governor’s executive mansion was lit up with orange last week to promote Hunger Action Month.

USDA food security reports, by creating the illusion of a national hunger epidemic, have helped propel a vast increase in federal food aid in recent years. But that has been a dietary disaster across the land. A Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics study concluded that “food insecure” adults are far more likely to be obese than “food secure” adults — indicating that a shortage of food is not the real health problem. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, “seven times as many (low-income) children are obese as are underweight.” President Obama proclaimed September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

Most federal food aid is poorly targeted to boost nutrition. Forty percent of food-stamp recipients are obese. And food-stamp recipients are far more likely to be obese than low-income Americans not on food stamps. A 2014 Stanford University study concluded that prohibiting the use of food stamps for sugary drinks would prevent 141,000 kids from becoming fat and save a quarter million adults from Type 2 diabetes, but the Obama administration fiercely resists any constraints on how food stamps are spent. When food stamps are distributed on weekends, recipients purchase up to 7% more beer during the month (even though beer is not covered by the stamps), according to a recent National Bureau of Economic Research report.

The insecurity = hunger switcheroo  is also fueling campaigns to compel schools to give free breakfasts to all kids after school starts each day. An American Journal of Public Health study warned that such programs “may contribute to excess calorie intake;” the survey found that more than half of all kids participating in such programs eat twice in the morning. USDA’s nationwide 2012 School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study found that the average elementary school breakfast provided almost all of children’s daily recommended calories from solid fats and added sugars. Donuts continue to be a popular item on school breakfast menus.

Some Americans are going hungry but USDA has never attempted to create an accurate gauge to measure actual hunger. Instead, citizens are supposed to be satisfied with federal reports that are little more than a subsidy for political grandstanding. Unfortunately, bogus numbers rarely spawn good policies.

James Bovard is the author of Public Policy Hooligan and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

packrat

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #38 on: September 13, 2015, 09:58:02 pm »
Mark's Market Blog
9-13-15: Will she or won't she?
by Mark Lawrence
The market is in a flag formation (blue lines below) and clearly it will break out early next week. Up or down? That's always the question. China is not resolved. The Fed has not made public their decision on raising rates. Liquidity continues to be an issue. And bonds, which always go in the opposite direction of stocks are going in the same direction - both are going down together. No one wants to own either stocks or bonds, no one has any cash they want in any market, no one knows how bad things are or will get in China, no one knows what Yellen will do on the 17th. You have to figure the high probability is the flag formation breaks downwards. Personally I'm looking for a drop to about 1820 or so, then a bounce to maybe 1860 or perhaps 1980. I'm not predicting that, I'm just watching for it.
 
S&P 500 March 21 2014 to September 11 2015
Fed week. They raise rates this week, or hold off until December. If they raise rates it will almost certainly be by 1/4%, which is pretty minuscule, but somehow everyone is all caught up in the hysteria / mythology.

Goldman Sachs now says oil is likely heading to $20, something you've been reading about here for three weeks. The gods of finance expect oil to be at $45 a year from now, rebounding from the drop to $20. They base the rebound on the elimination of most US oil producers.

New reports indicate that over 50 intelligence reports about fighting ISIL have been altered by senior intelligence officials to fit with Obama's insistence that the US is winning. Former CIA deputy director Michael Morrell said, "One of the central tenants, one of the key aspects of the policy-making process in the United States is that analysts get to say what they think without any interference, without anybody changing it, so this is a very, very serious charge. If there is truth that somebody has been meddling with their analysis, I think somebody needs to lose their job over it."

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has ruled out the use of quantitative easing as a policy to help stimulate growth in the world's second- largest economy. He said during a speech at the World Economic Forum, "The stable fundamentals have not changed. We are fully capable to address it if there are signs that the economy slips beyond a reasonable range. China won't see a hard landing in the economy." When I read this my immediate first thought was to remember LBJ's famous quote, "I don't care if it's true, I just want to hear him deny it!"

Minnesota's US attorney, Andrew Luger, said Wednesday that groups "like the Islamic State" have since exclusively targeted the Twin Cities Somali community - 30,000 muslim Somalis brought in to the US as refugees and settled in Minnesota, I have no idea why. Now some are being arrested and charged with recruiting for terrorism. Luger said, "To be clear: We have a terror- recruiting problem in Minnesota. And this case demonstrates how difficult it is to put an end to recruiting here. Parents and loved ones should know that there is not one master recruiter organizing in the Somali community locally. What this case shows is that the person radicalizing your son, your brother, your friend, may not be a stranger. It may be their best friend right here in town." Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame, who was born in Somalia, said, "What my community, the Somali-American community, needs today is no less than a 'Marshall Plan' tailor-made to the community's employment challenges." Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges "Minneapolis' Somali community is a tremendous asset to our city. We must all support this community and their ability to contribute to our prosperity, or we will not be the city we need to be." Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on young Muslim men in the United States and other Western countries to carry out attacks, "I call on all Muslims who can harm the countries of the crusader coalition not to hesitate. We must now focus on moving the war to the heart of the homes and cities of the crusader West and specifically America." How can the Somali community be a tremendous asset yet also need a Marshall plan and support? Personally, I think anyone in the US who wants to support ISIL or Al Qaeda should be flown to the middle east immediately, stripped of their US passport and residence rights, and turned loose. Why on earth would we want to collect ISIL supporters here in the US? How can this end well? Here's some must-see TV: Ann Corcoran on Refugee Resettlement.

221B Baker Street - the home of Sherlock Holmes - is now worth well north of £1 million. In fact about half the houses in a 5 mile radius of Sherlock's home are worth over £1 million. It's actually harder for us normal folks to buy a place in London than it is in Manhattan. Sherlock lived about half way between Kensington Palace and the Regent's park, about a mile from Buckingham palace.



otto105

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #39 on: September 14, 2015, 11:28:52 am »
SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Cutting Losses, Kochs to Sell Scott Walker

BY ANDY BOROWITZ



WICHITA (The Borowitz Report)—Saying that “things just didn’t work out,” the billionaire Koch brothers have decided to put Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker up for sale.

The Kochs, who earlier had purchased Gov. Walker with great fanfare, announced their plan to sell the politician in a terse statement from Koch Industries headquarters in Wichita.


“Scott Walker is a fine individual, and we wish him well,” the Kochs’ statement read. “We are confident that he will be a good fit for some other billionaire industrialists.”

Republican insiders, however, called the Kochs’ plan to sell Walker highly optimistic, and noted that the market for the Wisconsin Governor was, at this point, virtually nonexistent.

The Kochs, who reportedly had been frustrated by Walker’s poor performance in the polls, finally decided to sell the Wisconsinite after last weekend’s odd pronouncement, in which he seemed to support a border wall with Canada.

According to a Koch associate, “Ignorance has always been a part of Scott’s appeal, but that Canada thing was just too much.”

After their plan to sell him was announced, the Kochs immediately pulled Walker off the campaign trail for fear that he might say something that would further reduce his dwindling market value.

In Iowa, an aide to Walker said that the Governor was “still processing” the news that he had been put up for sale. “It takes a while for Scott to understand things,” the aide said.
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Jes Beard

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #40 on: September 14, 2015, 05:06:24 pm »
I believe that is #7 in the Saul Alinsky playbook.

Jackiejokeman

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #41 on: September 14, 2015, 06:12:08 pm »



 Man gasoline sure in the **** isn't UNDER $3.25 in California !


 What the **** are we getting stepped on for and how long is this going to last ?


 There's NO answers out there.


 It's like lets ream this state and give no reason ... because we can.


 If you add in every tax from California ... it's still $.70 cents lower in Nevada with those taxes from Nevada who gets their gasoline from California.


 Now explain that LOGIC to me. Dave, you're up at first bat ... explain this.


 Justify it in your post.

Pekin

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #42 on: September 14, 2015, 06:27:42 pm »
You are still paying for the regulations.  It costs more to make gas just for your state and for it to be under such strict standards.  Until that changes you will pay more for gas then the rest of the country.

Your only solution is to move or elect more conservative politicians (good luck with that).

Jackiejokeman

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #43 on: September 14, 2015, 06:33:53 pm »



 LOL ! If you Google "Why are California gasoline prices so high" ...


 Google **** freezes ! You get a BLANK REPLY SCREEN from Google.


 Check it out ...  ;D

otto105

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Re: Politics, Religion, etc.
« Reply #44 on: September 14, 2015, 07:02:50 pm »
Peak

What stupid point are you trying to make?
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