I knew I should have called the 800 number.
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Always love some humor: "CHINESE SICK LEAVE:
I NO COME WORK TODAY.Wong Chow calls into work and says, I no come work today, I really sick. Got headache, stomach ache and legs hurt, I no come work..
The boss says, You know something, Wong Chow, I really need you today. When I feel sick like you do, I go to my wife and tell her to give me sex. That makes everything better and I go to work.. You try that.
Two hours later Wong Chow calls again. I do what you say and I feel great... I be at work soon..... You got nice house."
Do not monkey around trying unequal pay: The Monkey Test ~~ 2 Monkeys Were Paid Unequally; See What Happens
http://www.upworthy.com/2-
Andrew Klavan has a solution which makes sense but that is why it is impossible to enact. At least he brings humor to the insoluble problem called The Middle East:
This is a bit out of date because America is now more than $17 billion in debt, not counting the off balance sheet debt, which is so high no one ever talks about it, but probably is somewhere north of $60 billion more bucks!
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Sowell sees Obamacare as old wine in a new bottle and bad wine at that. (See 1 below.)
It is ironic that those who warned the nation about the pitfalls of Obamacare were scorned for being racists and wanting to see Obama fail. Now members of his own Party, who are up for re-election, have turned on Obama and they are being portrayed by the press and media as simply wanting to right the program's mistakes, when in fact they are actually engaged in a self-serving act of saving their own asses from defeat at the polls come November 2014. (See 1a below.)
It should now be evident, Obama has little regard for the consequences of his conceptual brilliance but then, is not that the pattern of virtually all progressive legislation and thinking? It's the idea stupid not the results!
Second, there were those, yours truly being one, who early on saw Obama to be a fraud. I even analogized him to The Music Man. My liberal friends were very critical of me and cited his work as a community organizer, Editor of The Harvard law Review, his teaching position at The Univ. of Chicago Law School and his brilliant oratory to prove what a great president he would make.
After a few months of his presidency I , among others, began stating Obama was out of touch with what American exceptional-ism meant, that he had narcissistic tendencies, blamed everyone else and was quick to jump to snap decisions. Once again, the Obama voices of support were quick to criticize we detractors as racist, blind to his unique qualities etc.
Five years of water has now run under the bridge and Obama's rating are down around his ankles, his premier legislation,which no one took time to read but overwhelmingly was passed by Democrats, no Republicans just Democrats, is under attack and it is becoming evident he lied to the American people in order to get it crammed down our throats.
There are still many who argue it is too early to judge Obamacare They say all it needs is some modest refining and time. I no longer hear it is all GW's fault. Now it is those bad insurance companies selling sub-standard policies which their owners seem to like because they fit their budget and which cover most of their needs. Why has Obama claimed these policies are sub-standard? Because they do not measure up to what Democrats believe uninsured should have and Obamacare policies are designed to bring in more funds, redistribute wealth and enlarge government control over freedom of choice. Obamacare is taxation without being called such. However, lurking in the background is the fact that GW handed Obama a mess, but of course all presidents hand their messes to the next one. Some messes are bigger than others but the cumulative effect of decades of all these presidential messes now seem to have reached a crescendo which Obama has simply made bigger and worse. Hillary, do you really want that baton? Damn right she does, because she is one power hungry frustrated woman.
Five years of Obama and our nation's debt is greater, unemployment is higher, families living in poverty is higher, food stamp dependency is breaking all records and the nation is more racially divided than ever. Our healer president has failed to fulfill the promised dreams his silvery tongued speeches led Americans to believe he would deliver and the impact on his own race has been nothing short of devastating.
Then we move overseas and Obama's acts of lying and denying and outright vacillation and fecklessness has lost us respect and with the decline in respect comes heightened prospects all will not end well. Obama, our first black president, has proven to be Chamberlain without the black umbrella.
Israel, on the other hand, is going through a quiet period. Hamas has been caged, Hezballah, according to its own leader, made a mistake in starting the last Lebanese War, Syria is a civil war basket case, Egypt is in turmoil and yet its military is more dependent and closer to Israel's IDF than ever. only Iran poses a real threat.
All of Israel's Arab/Muslim enemies still have the intent to destroy it but lack the capability so Israelis are enjoying an unprecedented economic and social period but with Obama on stage I doubt it will last. (See 1b below.)
Israel is not without its own problems. Like America, the disparity between rich and poor is widening, the cost of decent and adequate housing is beyond the reach of most Israelis. the cost of living is very high, Israel continues to suffer from not having a Constitution and, underneath the surface, the political parties are as fractured and divided and contentious as ever.
Other fissures in Israeli society are lack of competition, creating enough jobs to retain the talent of their growing educated population and their frustration over the consequences of their military victories which has left them reigning over millions of Palestinians which has become Israel's Tar Baby!
I see military service as Israel's great equalizer not only because it trains Israeli youth to protect their nation, but also because the shared experiences and vocational knowledge gained is beyond comprehension.
Israel would make peace in a heartbeat if they were convinced they could trust the word of their partner but the consequences of ceding land in Gaza to Hamas has left ashes in their mouth. Furthermore, getting Palestinians to agree to accepting Israel's right to exist , and Israel's insistence Palestinians show good faith by closing schools that teach hate is worse than pulling teeth and Israeli's are justified in being reluctant.
Pushing Israel to cede to Palestinian demands is a dead end strategy and simply emboldens Palestinians to escalate their demands and remain obstinate until their demands are met.
There will come a day when circumstances will be of such nature that a settlement can be reached but I doubt it is within ear shot at this time.
Israel would make peace in a heartbeat if they were convinced they could trust the word of their partner but the consequences of ceding land in Gaza to Hamas has left ashes in their mouth. Furthermore, getting Palestinians to agree to accepting Israel's right to exist , and Israel's insistence Palestinians show good faith by closing schools that teach hate is worse than pulling teeth and Israeli's are justified in being reluctant.
Pushing Israel to cede to Palestinian demands is a dead end strategy and simply emboldens Palestinians to escalate their demands and remain obstinate until their demands are met.
There will come a day when circumstances will be of such nature that a settlement can be reached but I doubt it is within ear shot at this time.
I am reminded of a description my father stole from one of the great Jewish writers - "Jews are like people only more so" and that is certainly true of Israelis.
If you enjoy travel, want a unique experience and have never had an Israeli breakfast then you must visit Israel!
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There is no question The Fed's impact on the stock market has been vastly different than when it played its more traditional role.
Bernanke would have us believe the times forced him to take extraordinary steps and they have saved us from a financial catastrophe.
Bernanke is leaving at a propitious time and Yellen will have to deal with the consequences. (See 2 below.)
===
There is no question The Fed's impact on the stock market has been vastly different than when it played its more traditional role.
Bernanke would have us believe the times forced him to take extraordinary steps and they have saved us from a financial catastrophe.
Bernanke is leaving at a propitious time and Yellen will have to deal with the consequences. (See 2 below.)
===
Dick
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1) An Old 'New' Program
By Thomas Sowell
Like so many things that seem new, ObamaCare is in many ways old wine in new bottles.
For example, when confronted with the fact that millions of Americans stand to lose their existing medical insurance, as a result of ObamaCare, defenders of ObamaCare say that this is true only when those people have "substandard" insurance.
Who decides what is "substandard"? What is older than the idea that some exalted elite know what is good for us better than we know ourselves? Obama uses the rhetoric of going "forward," but he is in fact going backward to an age when despots told everybody what they had better do and better not do.
ObamaCare is old in yet another way. One of the fundamental reasons why private medical insurance has gotten so expensive is that politicians in state after state have mandated what this insurance must cover, regardless of what individuals want.
Insurance covering everything from baldness treatments to sex-change operations is a lot more expensive than insurance covering only major illnesses that can drain your life's savings. Now these mandates have moved up from the state to the federal level.
Insurance is an institution for dealing with risks. It is a costly and counterproductive way to pay for things that are not risks -- such as annual checkups, which are known in advance to occur every year.
Your annual checkup does not cost any less because it is covered by insurance. In fact it costs more, because the person who is insured must pay premiums that cover not only the cost of the checkup itself, but also the costs of insurance company paperwork.
If automobile insurance covered the cost of paying for your oil changes, would that make oil changes cheaper or more expensive? Obviously more expensive, since additional people would have to be paid to become involved in handling the transaction, instead of your simply paying directly out of your own pocket to the people who changed your oil.
Different people have different risks and different willingness to take care of risks themselves, instead of paying to have them transferred to an insurance company. But politicians in state after state have mandated what must be covered by insurance, regardless of what policy-holders and insurance companies might agree on if left free to make their own choices.
That has made it impossible to get less expensive insurance that covers only costly but rare medical problems.
Politicians love to play Santa Claus by handing out favors to voters, while depicting insurance companies as Scrooge when they raise insurance premiums to cover the costs of government mandates.
This kind of political game has been played for generations in other areas besides insurance.
Municipal transit used to be privately owned and run, but politicians would not allow the fares to be raised to a level that would cover costs. The net result was that private companies were driven out of business and local governments took over, saddling the taxpayers with the costs that fares don't cover.
That is what "single payer" means in any context -- a government monopoly that virtually guarantees worse service. Why would anyone want that for something as crucial as medical care?
One reason, of course, is the ever seductive illusion of something for nothing, an illusion spread by glib politicians, posing as saviors of the public against villains in the private sector.
Yet another way in which ObamaCare is an old political story is that it began as supposedly a way to deal with the problem of a segment of the population -- those without health insurance.
But, instead of directly helping those particular people to get insurance, the "solution" was to expand the government's power over everybody, including people who already had health insurance that they wanted to keep.
Since there has never been a society of human beings without at least some segment with some problem, this is a formula for a never-ending expansion of government power. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are all on record as believing in a "single payer" system -- that is, a government monopoly able to impose its own will on everybody. Even the current and future problems of ObamaCare can help them to reach that goal.
1a)The ObamaCare Dozen
The torrents of Affordable Care Act monsoon season aren't letting up, so Democrats are scrambling to help the victims: namely, their own careers. The Senators up for re-election in competitive states in 2014 are starting to panic, though they still aren't offering solutions for anything other than their own growing political jeopardy.
1a)The ObamaCare Dozen
The Democrats who voted for the debacle are now scrambling for cover.
The torrents of Affordable Care Act monsoon season aren't letting up, so Democrats are scrambling to help the victims: namely, their own careers. The Senators up for re-election in competitive states in 2014 are starting to panic, though they still aren't offering solutions for anything other than their own growing political jeopardy.
Fifteen Senate Democrats plus Colorado's Michael Bennet who chairs the Senatorial Campaign Committee sat down at the White House Wednesday, and they want all and sundry to know that they let President Obama have it. Alaska's Mark Begich put out a statement saying he chewed out the big cheese for "absolutely unacceptable" mismanagement and "an understandable crisis in confidence." He must have drafted it in advance.
Oregon's Jeff Merkley chimed in to report that even after the two-hour encounter session that was not on the public schedule, he was still "very frustrated" and "I remain deeply convinced that this is a 'show-me' moment." Asked by Politico if Democrats were losing credibility, an anonymous attendee said, "You got to have it, to lose it."
Mr. Obama held their hands and told them not to worry. But that's also what he, Bill Clinton and other horse whisperers said in 2010. The "moderates" who made theNancy Pelosi majority went on to be wiped out in the largest turnover of House seats since 1938.
Mr. Obama then comforted the party regulars that all would be well once the exchanges launched. That day arrived, sort of, since the website doesn't work. He's now urging Democrats to keep calm because the public will love it once the subsidies start to roll out. Yet insurance is being cancelled, premiums are surging and patients like Edie Sundby can't keep their doctors.
Meanwhile, the Salesman in Chief has been exposed for his fraudulent promises. Before October Mr. Obama's rhetoric seemed desperate like Shelly Levene in "Glengarry Glen Ross," repeating discredited assurances that few believed. Now it seems somewhat sinister as he tries to falsify his history of false claims.
All of which has the ObamaCare Dozen—the Democrats who each cast the decisive 60th vote and are running for re-election in 2014—fleeing for political cover. We offer a list of the dozen nearby, and they're right to worry that voters might punish ObamaCare's implementation as they did its passage. But so far the 12 are trying to pull off nothing more than confidence tricks.
New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen is leading a coalition asking for an unspecified extension of ObamaCare's March 15 enrollment deadline. Mr. Begich (Alaska), Mark Pryor (Arkansas) and Mark Udall (Colorado) are among those on this bus, though Ms. Shaheen has special cause for alarm given that New Hampshire's joint state-federal exchange enlisted only a single insurer, whose narrow network excludes 10 of the state's 26 acute-care hospitals.
But her idea would merely draw out the technical agony, and the exchange premiums are based on assumptions of a full year of coverage. Premiums may not cover claims if people delay or forgo signing up in 2014, and then rates will spike the next year. All of this would also give the exchanges a stigma as untrustworthy, more so than even Health and Human Services incompetence.
Here again, complex insurance contracts take months to plan financially and negotiate with providers. They could be renewed for maybe a few months but not forever, which is why the Landrieu bill is simply a new mandate ordering insurers to continue offering these plans. But the hard business truth is that these plans are already gone. The only way to solve the problem is a time machine to go back to 2010 when HHS published its deliberately restrictive rule on "grandfathering."The Shaheen plan also won't un-terminate insurance or help the people who face a gap in coverage through no fault of their own. Louisiana's Mary Landrieu is hoping to cauterize that crisis with a bill that supposedly allows people to keep their plan if they stay current on premiums. About 80,000 Louisiana policy holders—or half of the individual market—will be dumped in 2014, according to the state's insurance commissioner.
The Shaheen and Landrieu proposals are merely ploys for these Democrats to distance themselves from ObamaCare while still embracing it. But they can't have it both ways. Either they can vote to take down the whole regulate-subsidize-mandate apparatus for a year and propose major reforms to prevent a reprise of the last six weeks. Or else they will be enablers of the current and future disruptions, cancellations and limited health choices.
No doubt the ObamaCare Dozen noticed the Virginia Governor's race, which revealed that even presumably safe Democrats could be vulnerable on health care if Republicans can field decent candidates. As flawed and out-fundraised as GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli was, he closed a huge gap in the polls by relentlessly belting ObamaCare in the final stretch.
Exit polls report that only 46% of the Virginia public supports ObamaCare, while 53% were opposed, 41% strongly opposed. Mr. Cuccinelli pulled 89% of those opposed. In 2014, Mr. Udall, Mr. Merkley and Virginia's Mark Warner might not be as fortunate as Terry McAuliffe.
***
The ObamaCare Dozen are receiving an overdue education in the damaging consequences of the bill they supported, all of which were predicted by critics in 2010. Any one of these Senators could have prevented the current madness by voting no. And now the President they empowered to govern from the ideological left has rejected even their de minimis fixes and is promising to "grind it out" even if the problems get worse. These Senators deserve to be held accountable at the ballot box.
1b) 'Vive La France!' Say US Opponents of Iran Nuclear Deal
Thankfully there is one country that stood up and realized that we have Iran where we want them, and that the facade of Rouhani as Mr. Nice Guy is simply a ruse. While five of the six world powers — the United States, Britain, Russia, China and Germany — were apparently ready to sign an interim agreement that would offer sanctions relief in return for a promised freeze in the Iranian program, an arrangement Israel considers “bad and dangerous,” France blocked what it called “a sucker’s deal.”
A huge problem is a White House led by Mr. Obama a Muslim leaning President, that is among the weakest we have ever had.
Paris aspires to play a larger role in world affairs; after the US, France has the highest number of diplomatic offices across the globe, she noted, adding that the Middle East is seen as a “high-priority” area. Since America’s clout in the region appears to be waning — following the Obama administration’s perceived serial weakness in dealing with Egypt, Syria and Iran — France is more than happy to step in and extend its sphere of influence,
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2)Economist Jeffrey Dorfman: Fed Policy Has Turned the Stock Market Upside Down
The Federal Reserve has turned the stock market upside down, making bad economic news a reason to buy stocks, and good economic news a reason to sell them, according to Forbes contributor Jeffrey Dorfman.
The distortion keeps the real value of assets obscure and stuck in an Alice in Wonderland maze, he claims.
“The answer to this bizarre market behavior is simple: the stock market is being ruled by the Fed, not by fundamentals,” Dorfman, an economics professor at the University of Georgia, wrote in a Forbes column.
“Good news is bad for the market because it makes people worry that (quantitative easing) may come to an end. In simple terms, what matters to the stock market is the easy money from the Fed, not the performance of the companies whose stocks they are buying and selling.”
Cheap money from the Fed benefits hedge funds, institutional investors and money center banks because they can borrow huge sums at low interest rates and invest it in stocks.
But the Fed stance also means millions of individual Americans have been forced out of low-yielding fixed income investments and into stocks whether they like it or not.
“The manner in which the stock market indices slide on any hint that the Fed’s easy money policies may be approaching an end show that the Fed is artificially inflating the stock market,” Dorfman said.
“Clearly, the stock market’s boost from the Fed is not permanent as the market has made clear it will drop as soon as the Fed turns off the pump.”
The Fed should be pushing policies that create actual economic growth via increased production and job gains, not goosing stock prices, according to Dorfman.
One influential member of the Federal Open Market Committee, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, told CNBC he believes the central bank should not be so quick to withdraw stimulus so long as inflation is low.
Bullard voted at last week’s FOMC meeting to maintain the Fed’s current monthly $85 billion in asset purchases.
Outspoken Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said irresponsible federal government behavior – he apparently was referring to budget battles played out between Congress and the White House — has thwarted the U.S. economic recovery.
"Unlike in most recoveries, government has played a countercyclical, suppressive role. The inability of our government to get its act together has countered the pro-cyclical policy of the Federal Reserve," Fisher said in remarks reported by Reuters.
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2)Economist Jeffrey Dorfman: Fed Policy Has Turned the Stock Market Upside Down
The Federal Reserve has turned the stock market upside down, making bad economic news a reason to buy stocks, and good economic news a reason to sell them, according to Forbes contributor Jeffrey Dorfman.
The distortion keeps the real value of assets obscure and stuck in an Alice in Wonderland maze, he claims.
“The answer to this bizarre market behavior is simple: the stock market is being ruled by the Fed, not by fundamentals,” Dorfman, an economics professor at the University of Georgia, wrote in a Forbes column.
“Good news is bad for the market because it makes people worry that (quantitative easing) may come to an end. In simple terms, what matters to the stock market is the easy money from the Fed, not the performance of the companies whose stocks they are buying and selling.”
Cheap money from the Fed benefits hedge funds, institutional investors and money center banks because they can borrow huge sums at low interest rates and invest it in stocks.
But the Fed stance also means millions of individual Americans have been forced out of low-yielding fixed income investments and into stocks whether they like it or not.
“The manner in which the stock market indices slide on any hint that the Fed’s easy money policies may be approaching an end show that the Fed is artificially inflating the stock market,” Dorfman said.
“Clearly, the stock market’s boost from the Fed is not permanent as the market has made clear it will drop as soon as the Fed turns off the pump.”
The Fed should be pushing policies that create actual economic growth via increased production and job gains, not goosing stock prices, according to Dorfman.
One influential member of the Federal Open Market Committee, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, told CNBC he believes the central bank should not be so quick to withdraw stimulus so long as inflation is low.
Bullard voted at last week’s FOMC meeting to maintain the Fed’s current monthly $85 billion in asset purchases.
Outspoken Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said irresponsible federal government behavior – he apparently was referring to budget battles played out between Congress and the White House — has thwarted the U.S. economic recovery.
"Unlike in most recoveries, government has played a countercyclical, suppressive role. The inability of our government to get its act together has countered the pro-cyclical policy of the Federal Reserve," Fisher said in remarks reported by Reuters.
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