Open thread 11-22-15

Good morning 99percenters!
Sunday morning news dump and music by

UN Council Approves French Resolution for 'All Necessary Measures' Against ISIS
Member states should "intensify their efforts to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters to Iraq and Syria and to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism."

The United Nations security council has unanimously approved France's resolution to take "all necessary measures" against the Islamic State (ISIS) and urged all able member states to join in the fight.

The 15-member panel adopted the resolution Friday after the French government called for "merciless" military action against the militant group following the attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.

According to media outlets who saw the text of the resolution, it calls for "member states that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures—in compliance with international law, on the territory under the control of [ISIS]—to redouble and coordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts."

Member states should "intensify their efforts to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters to Iraq and Syria and to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism," the resolution says.

‘For Paris’: On Russian Missiles Hitting Syria as Islamic State Oil Facilities Are Targeted

The Syrian Observatory said that the Russian strikes on the eastern province of Deir al-Zor killed 36 on Friday.  Meanwhile, Russia also bombed positions in Idlib and other provinces, including with a cruise missile, which, according to the Russian foreign minister, killed 600 fighters of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and al-Qaeda (Nusra Front).

Despite these body counts, bombing alone will not win the war with Daesh.  There has to be some force on the ground that can take advantage of air strikes on Daesh. 

Moscow bombing raids are hurting the finances of Daesh.  Russia says it has hit 500 gasoline trucks in recent days.  Likewise, they have destroyed 15 petroleum storage facilities.  Russia estimates that this war on Daesh oil is costing the organization $1.5 million daily, i.e. that is the amount it is not making because of Russian strikes.

New Docs Reveal NSA Never Ended Bulk Email Collection, Just Hid It Better
Agency shut down email surveillance in 2011, only to relaunch it under different intelligence laws

The National Security Agency (NSA) secretly replaced its program monitoring Americans' emails and moved it overseas before the operation was exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013, according to new reporting.

NSA officials responded to Snowden's leaks by stating that the email records program had shut down in 2011—and in a way, it had. But newly released documents show the agency had simply created a "functional equivalent" that analyzed Americans' emails without collecting bulk data from U.S. telecommunications companies, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The Times obtained a copy of the NSA inspector general's watchdog report through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The report appeared to confirm that by moving its program outside of U.S. borders, the NSA was able to take advantage of several intelligence laws to conduct its surveillance operations with even less oversight and accountability than it had previously.

Tragic Farce of Anti-Refugee Threats: U.S. Was No Sanctuary for Syrians in the First Place

I’M CONCERNED for the education of Reese Kasich. The 15-year-old daughter of the Ohio governor and Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich, has reportedly received some troubling lessons from her father. In a foreign policy address Tuesday, the governor said he’s been explaining to his child why the U.S. should not accept Syrian refugees. “Reesy, you know, we understand these people are in trouble,” Kasich recounted saying. “But think about us putting somebody in our street, in our town, in our country who mean us harm. We can’t do that, can we, Reesy?”

For a teenager living in Westerville, Ohio (population: 36,120), I could imagine that 10,000 might sound like a lot of people. But I am keen to reassure Reese Kasich that she need not fear the U.S. government’s plan to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees over the course of the next fiscal year. This is a very limited number of extensively vetted individuals who go through the slow, staggered, and bureaucratically arduous process of refugee resettlement in the United States. No one is putting harmful people on your street, Reesy. Daddy’s trying to scare you.

Following the attacks in Paris last Friday, for which there is no solid proof of Syrian refugee involvement, more than half of U.S. governors — all Republican but one — and a number of conservative lawmakers stated that they would block the entry of Syrian refugees into their states. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday called for a “pause” in the program accepting refugees from Syria. Then, on Thursday, the House passed a bill that would see the program suspended until a stricter vetting system is established; the legislation now heads to the Senate.

The Brutal Paris Terror Attack

A strong tendency in the wake of major terrorist attacks is to associate the impact the event has on our own fears and thoughts (which generally are correlated with the number of Westerners who died in the incident) with the level of skill and sophistication of the attackers. The skill and sophistication in turn tend to be thought of as associated with the size and strength of some foreign organization that sponsored the attackers.

These presumed associations are false. The plain (and after such incidents, disturbing) fact is that the inherent vulnerabilities in our free and open Western societies are such that it does not require any noteworthy skill or sophistication to kill a lot of people. What it takes are extreme inclinations and a willingness to die in pursuit of malevolent ideas.

The terrorist attacks in Paris illustrate the point. Some organizational aptitude was needed to put together an operation that involved simultaneous dispatch of multiple attack teams, but this did not require organizing any more people than would be needed to put together a neighborhood soccer team.

The Saudi Connection to Terror

How does ISIS pay for its operations? This is the key question as the war against the terror organization advances to a new level in the wake of the Paris atrocities. But the mainstream’s approved answer is part of the problem.

That approved answer, from many political leaders and assorted “terrorism experts,” is that ISIS (also known as ISIL, Islamic State and Daesh) funds its operations through a variety of illicit activities such as illegal antiquity sales, kidnapping for ransom, holding up banks, and peddling crude from oil fields it controls in northern Syria and Iraq.

The line, dutifully parroted by news outlets from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal and the Guardian, is nothing if not politically convenient. If ISIS is truly self-supporting, then it’s essentially self-contained. If so, then all the Western powers have to do once they’ve sealed it off in its self-proclaimed caliphate is to send in the F-18’s and Mirage 2000’s to rain down smart bombs and blow it to smithereens.

The ‘War on Terror’ Has Been Lost

Last week’s attacks in Paris offered a painful and tragic reminder that despite the unprecedented counterterrorism measures implemented since the attacks on New York and Washington 14 years ago, citizens in the West remain as vulnerable as ever to the threat of extremist violence. This may come as a bit of a shock to those who may have expected that the massive investment in fighting terrorism would have resulted in more safety and security by now.

With trillions of dollars spent on overseas military adventures, unprecedented “homeland security” and mass surveillance, and countless lives lost in U.S. wars, it’s not unreasonable to have thought that perhaps more measurable progress would have been made in countering the terrorist threat against the United States.

But with transportation agencies, football stadiums and tourist destinations across the U.S. now bolstering security following the attacks in Paris – and with the Islamic State, or ISIS, promising more attacks to come in New York and Washington – it is clear how vulnerable Americans remain to the threat of jihadist terrorism, despite all these sacrifices over the past decade and a half.

State of Emergency: Crimea Without Electricity After Pylons in Ukraine Are Blown Up
Power supplies have been entirely shut off after pylons in Ukraine were blown up. Just in time for the second anniversary of the start of Maidan!

More than 80% of Crimeans say they are happy that their peninsula has been reunited with Russia - which of course is irrelevant, because only NATO gets to choose who has the right to self-determination. Luckily, Ukraine has developed a brilliant strategy to win back the hearts and minds of its former subjects:

Russia’s Crimea has switched to autonomous reserve power after transmission towers in the adjacent Ukrainian Kherson region were blown up, causing a blackout. Meanwhile, the Right Sector and Crimean Tatar “activists” have been attempting to block repairs.

Crimean authorities rushed to connect hospitals and other vital infrastructure to reserve power stations and generators late on Saturday after the four main transmission lines from Ukraine were cut off in an apparent act of sabotage. The regional energy ministry has created an emergency response center to deal with the power cut.

“Crimea has been completely cut off,” the Krymenergo energy company’s director Viktor Plakida told TASS, adding that he could not immediately provide any more details.

The Crimean Emergencies Ministry has declared a state of emergency due to the complete power outage and has put rescue teams on high alert.

Toxic Dust: The Invisible Legacy the US Left in Iraq
The Story of Depleted Uranium

A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is defined as one that can cause indiscriminate death or injury on a large scale. One of the weapons the American military used in Iraq fits that definition — only it was a much more insidious substance, quiet, slow-acting, and persistent.

It’s called depleted uranium (DU) and takes the form of a brown, radioactive, super-fine dust that is everywhere — in the air, in the sand, in the water supply, inside houses and tents, on top of clothes in closets, on the sheets and pillows, on hair and toothbrushes.

Once a particle gets into the body, it irradiates its immediate surroundings forever, causing all kinds of damage — cancers including leukemia, organ damage, toxic encephalopathy, cognitive dysfunction, and birth defects.

The dust is formed when a projectile containing a core made of depleted uranium strikes an armored target. The rapid release of energy upon penetration of the target causes near instantaneous vaporization, and the release of a radioactive aerosol.

Noam Chomsky: The Country Where Journalism Is Being Murdered
Imagine facing prison for doing journalism.

Journalists are the “watchdogs” of democracy, according to the European Court of Human Rights. Anyone who wants to control a country without being troubled by criticism tries to muzzle reporters, and unfortunately, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a past master at stifling the cries of freedom. As journalists from around the world converge on Antalya to cover this weekend’s Group of 20 summit, many of their Turkish colleagues are being denied accreditation.

Sidelining opposition media has become a bad habit in Turkey, which is ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index. Four days before the Nov. 1 parliamentary elections, the police stormed Ipek Media Group headquarters and shut down its two opposition dailies and two opposition TV stations. After control of management had been secured and 71 journalists fired, these outlets resumed operations with a new editorial line verging on caricature. The dailies, Bugun and Millet, ran Erdogan’s photo on the front page along with the headlines “The president among the people” and “Turkey united.”

Journalism is being murdered. The fact that the AKP, the ruling party for the past 13 years, recovered an absolute majority in parliament has not sufficed to halt the oppression. Two days after the elections, two journalists were jailed on charges of “inciting an armed revolt against the state” in a story. Since then, some 30 other journalists have been placed under investigation for “terrorist propaganda” or “insulting the president” — the two most common charges.

How Police Became Part of the Public School System and How to Get Them Out

Charges have yet to be brought against Ben Fields, the white police officer in South Carolina who slammed a 16-year-old Black student to the floor of her classroom at Spring Valley High School, injuring her face and neck and breaking her arm.

Nearly a month has passed since the video of the October 26 incident went viral, and while Fields was fired from his job on October 28, he has not been arrested or charged with assault or battery under South Carolina law.

Fields had previously been sued for use of excessive force and currently faces a federal lawsuit in which attorneys claim that he "recklessly targets African-American students." A federal investigation to determine whether or not any federal laws were violated during the incident is underway.

Hillary Clinton Woos Coal Communities

Candidates for the Democratic nomination for president are scrambling to show that they care about the coal miners and communities that are suffering due to the industry's downturn.

Frontrunner Hillary Clinton last week released a $30 billion plan to safeguard pensions, retrain workers, fund local schools, update telecommunications and lure new businesses to these communities. Just the week before, her top rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, stood in front of the Capitol with other Democratic Senators and vowed to protect workers even as he declared that it's time to start keeping coal in the ground to fight climate change.

Republicans and industry representatives blasted Clinton's proposal. "I think it's a cynical ploy to gain votes in coal producing states," said Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Coal Association. "It would be a crying shame to destroy jobs in the coal industry and then soak tax payers for an expensive governmental program that is likely to be inadequate. There's just no way to replace high paying jobs in this industry."

Hillary is in too deep: Why she’ll never be able to extricate herself from Wall Street
She's been cozy with the big banks since her husband was in office. No amount of populist talk can change that

The highlight of Saturday night’s Democratic debate was when former Secretary Clinton invoked the September 11 attacks to try to defend her courting of Wall Street donors. The awkward defense of her political ties even spawned a rare New York Times editorial criticizing Clinton.

The fact is, there is no way that Hillary Clinton can pretend she doesn’t have a cozy relationship with an industry that personally enriched her family, formed the basis of political support for her career and is doing everything it can to make her president.

Dollar Dollar Bill

After leaving the White House, Bill and Hillary Clinton had a steady source of income; pensions from both the federal government and Arkansas. They also both wrote books that generated millions of dollars of income. That’s why, over the next 10 years, Bill Clinton raked in over $125 million in speaking fees, almost all of them from for-profit mega-corporations and trade associations. Shortly after presiding over a historic and catastrophic deregulation of Wall Street, Mr. Clinton’s first paid arrangement was a $125,000 speech at Morgan Stanley. His next speech was at Credit Suisse First Boston, for the same asking price. The same year Wall Street banks started to pour funds into the the joint Clinton bank account, Hillary went on to vote for a bankruptcy bill that made it much harder for people to qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy; the bill was backed primarily by banks and credit card issuers.

Energy Revolution Is Possible... And It Would Only Take 782 Rich People To Pay For It
Less than 800 of the world's wealthiest people could power half the world with 100 percent renewable energy within 15 years, says forthcoming report

The personal fortunes of just 782 of the world's wealthiest people could power half the world—Africa, Latin America, and "most of Asia"—with 100 percent renewable energy within 15 years, according to a new report to be published Monday.

Broken down by continent, it would take the wealth of just 53 rich people to power all of Africa, and a mere 32 prosperous people could plug in the vast majority of Latin America.

Though the analysis from Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), a copy of which was shared with Common Dreams ahead of its release next week, does not argue "that the wealth of these particular individuals can or should be directly used to drive the needed energy transformation," the figures do reveal "a gross injustice" when it comes to global inequality that should serve as "a shocking and stark reminder that the finance for an energy transformation is certainly available."

However, the report points out: "The political will to drive the transformation is, on the other hand, shockingly absent," as evidenced by "weak pledges of emission reductions" issued ahead of COP21 climate change negotiations scheduled to begin later this month.

How Europe's Good Environmental Intentions are Inadvertently Destroying America's Forests
Extremely vulnerable natural forests in the southeast are being felled to send biomass fuel to Europe.

In 2007, the European Union set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020. It's an ambitious goal that has forced energy companies to look far and wide for renewable sources of energy.

Power plants that have traditionally burned coal to generate electricity have found a solution: burning wood. And the growing demand for biomass in Europe — where forests are often highly regulated — has been filled in large part by the American wood pellet industry.

According to a new, first-of-its-kind report (with an accompanying fact sheet) authored by the Natural Resources Defense Council in conjunction with the Conservation Biology Institute, there's a big problem with this arrangement: Due to increasing European demand, wood pellet production has put 15 million acres of unprotected forests in the southeastern United States at risk.

Humanity vs. the Climate Supervillains

The cover of a recent issue of Scientific American reads, "How We Conquered the Planet, Our Species Wielded the Ultimate Weapon: Cooperation." When I read that, I nearly choked on my kale smoothie. Humans once cooperated?

The article explained that 70,000 years ago many different human species inhabited the earth, but after that Homo sapiens eventually drove other archaic human species, like Neanderthals, into extinction, ultimately colonizing the entire planet. Homo sapiens flourished over other human species because of our unique grasp of scientific cause and effect, and a likely unique genetic propensity for "cooperation with unrelated individuals," i.e. people outside our family or sphere.

As the site of the latest terrorist tragedy, Paris is now struggling to prepare for the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference. Serious cooperation among the members of our species seems almost unfathomably out of reach, especially on the climate crisis.

Conflict Makes Nations Vulnerable to Climate Impacts

Syria, Libya and Yemen are among the countries whose ability to withstand climate change shocks and stresses has deteriorated most in the past five years, suggesting conflict makes people more vulnerable to climate impacts, researchers said.

The University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN) uses 46 indicators to measure climate change risks to 180 countries and how ready they are to accept investment that could help them cope with more extreme weather and rising seas.

The main contributing factors to the falling scores of the three fragile states in the Middle East and North Africa, riven by armed conflict, are increases in political instability, violence, corruption and poor rule of law, according to the index.

"Even without climate change, you're going to see that countries that have done a poor job on their governance or economic systems are a source of refugees, (and) because of conflict, they haven't been able to serve their people, and things are deteriorating there in all different sectors," said Joyce Coffee, ND-GAIN's managing director.

Unmitigated Climate Change to Shrink Global Economy

When the world heats up, economies around the globe will cool down. That's according to a new study which predicts that rising temperatures due to climate change will wreak havoc on economic output.

"Our best estimate is that the global economy as a whole will be 23 percent smaller in 2100 than if we would avoid climate change entirely," said co-author of the study Solomon Hsiang, an associate professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley.

The study looked at the relationship between temperature and economic activity in 166 countries over a 50 year period. The findings indicate climate change will widen global inequality, perhaps dramatically, because warming is good for cold countries, which tend to be richer, and more harmful for hot countries, which tend to be poorer. In the researchers' benchmark estimate, climate change will reduce average income in the poorest 40 percent of countries by 75 percent in 2100.

"There is sort of an optimal temperature band where countries seem to do really well from an economic standpoint and on either side there are temperatures that are too cold and temperatures that are too hot," Hsiang said.

Merle Travis - Lost John

Merle Travis - Smoke Smoke Smoke

Merle Travis - John Henry

Chet Atkins, Merle Travis - Is Anything Better Than This

Merle Travis - Sixteen Tons (original version) from 1947

Merle Travis and Chet Atkins - I'll See You In My Dreams

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it's cold here, got down to 6 above last night, it's too early for that shit.

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but......ta da! We had a whole house generator installed about a year ago, and of course, we never lost power until last night. I cannot tell you how sweet it is. It is even running my wifi. Worth every penny.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

I saw the storm tracking up your way and thought "watch out dk"! Does your generator run off of propane or natural gas?

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Don't have to turn it on or off - completely automatic.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

NCTim's picture

Broadband, cable, uses repeaters that depend on the electric company. I considered a generator. We were without power for five days following an ice storm. We had the pine tree impaled in the bach roof removed, but I never went for the generator. I still have sleeping bags and comforters from our days in PA. It doesn't get cold enough to be life threatening. I could just crawl into the zero degree sleeping bag.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

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lotlizard's picture

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JayRaye's picture

even in northern MN where I come from!

Hope you and yours are staying nice and warm!

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

Yep, we're warm. I guess we're paying for the above normal temps we've had for the last month or so. You know what they say about the weather here in the midwest.

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gulfgal98's picture

Another gorgeous fall day here in western NC. Cool temps in the mid 30's with a high in the low 50's today and clear Carolina blue skies. It's too nice a day for bad news, so I think I will wait unti later to read all the news blips.

I hope you were able to replenish your beer supply before the big snow. Good

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Nope, no beer, just snow. It's going to be in the mid to upper 50s by Thanksgiving though.

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NCTim's picture

When it gets cold out, I like to start a fire.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

good tune thanks. Just got in from digging out my stuck truck, that made me pretty hot. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet and I'm already sick of winter. Conventional wisdom says this part of the midwest is mild in El Nino years, so far NOT!.

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Donna Ulisse - Papa's Garden

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When Islamic State fighters overran a string of Iraqi cities last year, analysts at United States Central Command wrote classified assessments for military intelligence officials and policy makers that documented the humiliating retreat of the Iraqi Army. But before the assessments were final, former intelligence officials said, the analysts’ superiors made significant changes.

In the revised documents, the Iraqi Army had not retreated at all. The soldiers had simply “redeployed.”

Such changes are at the heart of an expanding internal Pentagon investigation of Centcom, as Central Command is known, where analysts say that supervisors revised conclusions to mask some of the American military’s failures in training Iraqi troops and beating back the Islamic State. The analysts say supervisors were particularly eager to paint a more optimistic picture of America’s role in the conflict than was warranted.

In recent weeks, the Pentagon inspector general seized a large trove of emails and documents from military servers as it examines the claims, and has added more investigators to the inquiry.

And more

Barack Obama’s intelligence chief is said to be in frequent and unusual contact with a military intelligence officer at the center of a growing scandal over rosy portrayals of the war against the Islamic State, the Guardian has learned.

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, is said to talk nearly every day with the head of US Central Command’s intelligence wing, Army Major General Steven Grove – “which is highly, highly unusual”, according to a former intelligence official.

Grove is said to be implicated in a Pentagon inquiry into manipulated war intelligence.

In communications, Clapper, who is far more senior than Grove, is said to tell Grove how the war looks from his vantage point, and question Grove about Central Command’s assessments. Such a situation could place inherent pressure on a subordinate, sources said.

Knowledgeable former officials are doubtful that Clapper directly intends to manipulate intelligence. And they do not say that the director of national intelligence – who apologized to his Senate overseers in 2013 for publicly misleading Congress on the scope of domestic surveillance – ordered Grove or anyone else to change the command’s assessment of the war.

But one former intelligence official said Clapper “has to be careful of the Cheney effect, going over to the CIA and how does that affect people” – a reference to pressure felt by CIA analysts before the 2003 Iraq invasion to portray Saddam Hussein as posing a more dire threat than he actually did, following then Vice-President Dick Cheney’s direct interaction with far more junior analysts and officials.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

others) who are experiencing extreme cold, already! (We use the RV with a generator, when we lose electricity for extended periods of time. If this cr*ppy cold weather continues, we will start spending 2-3 months of winter on the Gulf Coast, period.)

[Update: Sorry, forgot to mention that the taxes that I'm referring to, are cigarette/tobacco taxes.]

I'm in a total rut creating my WP blog, since I wiped out almost two days work on widgets--worked into the early morning, and wasn't thinking straight. It may be easier to ditch it, and start over. The real work is setting up the widgets.

Help

I'm going to post a couple of screenshots of the blog format (later), and would appreciate feedback. I've chosen a much blander theme for this blog, because I sorta like its simplicity, or minimalist look. OTOH, I worry that it will be considered 'too dull.' So, frank appraisal would be greatly appreciated. It only takes a mouse click, to change themes.

Wink

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anyhoo, wanted to share the following piece about FSC's proposal for a new (Social Security) tax credit for caregivers.

Clinton To Propose $6,000 Tax Credit For Caregiving Costs

Reuters, By Amanda Becker

CLINTON, Iowa (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will on Sunday propose a tax credit offsetting up to $6,000 in costs associated with caring for elderly and disabled family members, and allowing caregivers to accrue Social Security retirement benefits for such work.

The care giving credit, which would have a maximum value of $1,200 for qualifying families, will be the latest in a “range of tax cuts aimed a boosting the take-home pay for middle-class families” that Clinton will announce over the coming weeks, according to a campaign aide. . . .

I'm fine with allowing caregiving to count toward Social Security earnings--this is a policy that is long overdue.

But, I must say, from what I'm finding, practically all the programs proposed by Dem candidates are geared toward letting corporations and 'the wealthy' off-the-hook (regarding pay-fors). Instead, most of the costs will be spread among the masses.

Incredibly, in the President's 2015 Budget, several programs will be primarily paid for by taxing the lowest quintile of Americans--including those who live in 'Deep Poverty,' making $6,000 or less annually.

Before the General Election, I will post remarks ( by, believe it or not, the Heritage Foundation) arguing against taxing such a small subset of the citizenry--especially, poor and low income folks--to pay for sweeping social welfare programs which benefit large swaths of folks. (Of course, they are very anti-tax, period. Which is probably 'why' they are arguing against this tax.)

I'm hoping that the Dem Party Base will look harder at the details of some of these proposals. After the ACA, personally, I don't want anything to do with more 'mandates.'

Of course, I have no problem with the creation of additional properly constructed progressive programs--if they're opt in/opt out. I want everyone to have plentiful leave to cover family illness, maternity leave, emergencies, etc. But this can be accomplished without causing millions of employees to lose their hard-fought-for leave and STD benefits.

Hey, Everyone have a great rest of the weekend!

Bye

Mollie


"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."--Japanese Proverb

[In advance, apologize for typos/syntax.]

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

snoopydawg's picture

I thought it was well written, but her supporters complained about the title of the diary but said nothing about her proposal except to praise it obviously.

Gawd, that site is getting worse every day. As are her supporters.

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Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Unabashed Liberal's picture

time I checked, I had dropped to a "Mojo" of 3.

Heck, I couldn't find anything at DKos when the site was set up reasonably well. I'll see if I can find the post that you're referencing, but I won't hold my breath that I'll be able to locate it.

Wink

You know, the policy is not Hillary's idea. I hear think tank wonks/shills, Ron Haskins and Isabelle Sawhill (Brookings) on C-Span and NPR a good bit. These are their neoliberal policy ideas, intended to bolster US workforce numbers.

IOW, these policies haven't been hatched up out of the goodness of lawmakers' hearts. The One Percent is worried about our 'competitiveness,' if we don't get more folks--especially working class Moms, and single men--back into the workforce. (according to the Brookings shills)

They claim that wages have fallen so drastically for this cohort--the least skilled--that they 'lose money' if they are in the workforce, due to child care costs, transportation costs, etc.

So, instead of tackling the problem of wages by raising the federal minimum wage, demanding that employers pay a decent wage, and taxing business and/or 'the wealthy,' the bipartisan corporatist neoliberal PtB have devised a workaround. They're getting ready to pass a federal income tax overhaul, further slashing their own taxes, and those of corporations (PBO supports dropping the corporate tax rate to 28 percent; 25 percent for manufacturers). And, they're intending to raise other taxes, such as the proposed huge cigarette tax--the second such tax increase since PBO assumed office.

Look, we're nonsmokers, and I'm definitely not backing policies that would encourage smoking.

But, IMHO, there is something untoward about taxing poor and low income folks, who also have (nicotine) addictions, instead of having those who've benefited the most, economically, for the past 40 years, chip in their fair share. Particularly, since many lower income smokers don't have access to smoking cessation programs, since Medicaid wasn't expanded in many states.

You could say that our neoliberal overlords have adopted the policy,

'The Little People can pool their resources to support one another, while we continue to adopt policies which further enrich us.'

Wink

Clever bunch, they are.

Dash 1

Mollie


"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."--Japanese Proverb

Postscript: By the way, just heard that the Dem who won the Louisiana Governorship is a pro-gun, pro-life former military man, and a West Pointer. Sounds like Rahm recruited him.

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

may not be all bad. He's apparently for Medicaid expansion:

Governor-elect John Bel Edwards called expanding Medicaid "among the highest priorities" of his new administration, though he said Sunday (Nov. 22) he may not be able to approve an expanded program on Day One.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/11/john_bel_edwards_calls_me...

Of course, departing Gov. Jindal sets a very low bar for anyone to bring about "better days."

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Unabashed Liberal's picture

over Jindal--what a piece of work he is!

My concern about the piece on Medicaid expansion, is that it sounds very much like the Tennessee approach that privatizes Medicaid, passing along huge costs to the Medicaid beneficiaries. It failed to pass, initially. Don't know the status of the bill, now.

Note:

The Louisiana Hospital Association brokered a deal with lawmakers that would allow hospitals to pool their money to help pay for a percentage of the federal match.

(My words: The same thing happened in TN. The bill ultimately failed.)

The rest of the money would be raised through fees on insurance premiums and other revenue sources that are not expected to result in tax increases.

I'd be a bit concerned that the proposed expansion will occur without any tax increase.

If it's like the Tennessee proposal, it may be that the proposed Medicaid plan will require Louisiana Medicaid beneficiaries to foot the bill for exorbitant deductibles and co-pays. IOW, requiring higher out-of-pocket costs than catastrophic high-deductible plans.

(If I run across anything on their proposal, I'll let you know. Now, I'm curious to know if TN's proposal has become the template for other Red States.)

Also, I'm a strong advocate against the MERP (Medicaid Estate Recovery Plan). I'm planning to post a piece about this program on my WP site (when it's done). I'll cross post it, here. Hope you'll take a few minutes to read it. It's one of a couple of excellent articles written by Craig Paul Roberts on the topic of MERP, and it's devastating effects on Medicaid beneficiaries.

But, hey--maybe Edwards will be an improvement over Jindall. It seems that anyone would have to be.

(BTW, my crack about Rahm Emanuel was due to his propensity to recruit conservatives and former Republicans to run as Democrats, which Edwards' background sounded more in keeping with.)

My understanding is that Jindall's approval rating was in the 30's. Why on earth did he think that he had a chance to become President? Strange.

Hey, have a good one!

Oh, one more thing, we're considering visiting an eco-village in Missouri, called "Dancing Rabbit." Please, let me know if you know anything about this Community, or are affiliated with it. Wink

Mollie


"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."--Japanese Proverb
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Unabashed Liberal's picture

Association, etc.

Proposed Medicaid Expansion in Tennessee
Jan 28, 2015

In January 2015, Tennessee released a proposed amendment to its current Section 1115 demonstration to implement the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion. The two-year demonstration would cover newly eligible adults – parents from 103-138% of the federal poverty level (FPL, up to $16,242 per year for an individual in 2015) and childless adults from 0-138% of the federal poverty level – an estimated 200,000 beneficiaries.1 The ACA provides 100% federal matching funds for newly eligible adults through December 31, 2016, decreasing to a 95% match on January 1, 2017. Tennessee hospitals will fund the state’s costs of the Medicaid expansion through an increased state assessment on hospitals. . . .

Also,

Expand Medicaid coverage to newly eligible adults ages 21-64 primarily through capitated Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) already operating in the state. Under the Healthy Incentives Plan, most newly eligible adults would receive an Alternative Benefits Package consisting of the same benefits as provided to other Medicaid beneficiaries.

[My Words: That means that Medicaid Enrollees age 55-64 will be subject MERP--even for their monthly capitation fees, EVEN IF THEY NEVER SEE A PHYSICIAN. Which means that the state can lien their estates for the monthly fee paid to their managed care provider, even if they never darken the door of their office. And, all medical costs for services rendered are subject to recovery, as well.]

MCOs would administer health savings accounts in which newly eligible adults would accrue credits by participating in certain designated healthy behaviors. These credits could then be used to decrease premiums and co-payments.

[My Words: This is the type of health care plan that I referenced in my earlier comment. I hope to Heavens that Louisiana doesn't go this route. Considering they've gone with their financing plan, it wouldn't surprise me (if they did). I'll see what I can find out.]

Tennessee seeks waiver authority to require monthly premiums up to 2% of income (approximately $20 per month) for newly eligible adults from 100-138% FPL and would impose copays within existing limits in federal regulations.

Tennessee proposes disenrolling beneficiaries for failing to pay premiums for 60 days and reserved the right to seek waiver authority for a lock-out period before these individuals could re-enroll based on CMS’s decision on Indiana’s pending lock-out request. CMS subsequently did approve a six-month lock-out after disenrollment for failure to pay premiums for individuals from 100-138% FPL who are not medically frail in Indiana;

[My Words: Incredible that a Democratic Administration would approve such a plan--both the CDHP's and the 6-month lockout period.]

'M'

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link

The song “America the Beautiful” should be changed to “America the Invader.”

According to Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock, the United States “has invaded or fought in eighty-four out of 194 countries” and “has had some form of military involvement with a spectacular 191 out of 194.” Their findings are published in the appropriately titled America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with Almost Every Country on Earth.
...
It turns out that the only countries the United States hasn’t intervened in militarily, yet, are Andorra, Bhutan, and Liechtenstein. Don’t tell the Defense Department about the countries it missed. It might decide to make it unanimous.

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link

America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, equal justice, and equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the inde-pendence of other nations, while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama, the European World, will be contests between inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.
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lotlizard's picture

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/larkpie.htm

The Episcopal church in Frankfurt held its Thanksgiving meal today. I had the dark meat (in lieu of lark meat) with dressing.

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enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mimi's picture

snow, cold, too many news, a day to stay in bed and be warm under the goose feathers ...

We had some very nice blue sky, sunny, and a bit coolish days here around the "Metropolitan Area".

More often these days I don't want to get up in the morning. That's why I caught on public TV a broadcast of the "West Side Story" today, snuggled in bed.

It's a long, long time ago I saw it, fifty years ago and then just the German version. I was a teenager, high school student, and I remember how impressed I was by that musical's performance and content. I didn't remember much of the scenes any more and only a couple of songs. To my amazement I found myself this morning watching it from beginning to end all over again. That was a strange experience for me.

First I thought how many things seem cheezy today, but before I knew it, I started to put it into today's perspective and embedded it in with my personal experiences of the last 50 plus years or so. I wondered about the scenes with the police and imagined how a scriptwriter would have written the scripts of those scenes today with police fully armed with tasers and combat gear. I wondered what if the Puerto Ricans of the West Side Story were today's Afro-Americans or Middle East immigrants, I wondered, if the human reactions on both sides (was pretty amazed about the lyrics or script's text too, as I heard it consciously in English this time and got an idea how "in your face the language was even back then". When I saw the German movie version in the early to mid sixties, I didn't know anything about the US, ghettos, immigrants from Puerto Rico and other ethnicity related tensions in the US etc. I was just fifteen or sixteen.).

Before I knew it, the whole musical moved me again. Though other kind of music you post here, I still admire the Bernstein's composition and the dance choreography.

I started to compare a lot of conflicts shown in the script to conflicts I lived through or observed. Something clicked and I saw the differences and understood that such a script probably could never be written again, describing similar "immigrant, tribal, ethnic conflicts" in the same way.

Well, I had such strange moments emotionally watching and listening to the West Side Story. I know you may think I am hopelessly romantic, old-fashioned and hyper-sensitive to have "such flashbacks", but I don't think that's what it was. It was more the realization that I understood, what's different between that story and the stories I experienced in my life. That was the shock, I guess.

Anyhow, it's very good music, very good script and ok acting. The movie can still ring through today, which is I think standing on its own quality still after all these years.

I won't bother you with a link to the "West Side Story", I know you think I am a weirdo older lady. Well, I guess I am. So be it. I had also once a similar experience watching "Guess who is coming to Dinner" in recent years. I saw it also just in the German version in the mid sixties. Watching it fifty years later I couldn't believe, what I missed seeing, when I was young. I won't talk about it, but it was
an eye-opener to me of what I didn't "get" back then. Oh, wandering around memory lane too much...

Have all a good rest of the Sunday and stay warm. I always miss to not have a good 'ol German
"Kachelofen" or an "Allesbrenner". A fireplace is also something nice to have, but nothing beats a
"Kachelofen".
kachelofen-5-82-1-Ka0.jpg
You can't imagine how cozy and toasty the warmth emanating from these "Kachelöfen" is, you want to cuddle right on the "Ofenbench" there.
This is an "Allesbrenner" ...
schnaeppchen_ofen_allesbrenner.jpg
... meaning you can burn everything in there, coal, wood, paper, pellets etc. In Germany you can buy coal for household heating purposes by the 120 pounds sacks. I have never seen them in the US. I would install one in a minute if they were available in the US. Sigh. And I don't believe it's environmentally damaging. What is damaging is producing electricity with coal and then use electricity for heating purposes in your homes with baseboard heaters or other heat pumps and heating devices using electricity. That brings the whole coal usage into another realm and category.

Berlin in the wwII and post wwII area wouldn't have survived without those "Allesbrenner". People burned their furniture in them, when everything else was collapsing.

So, where is my "Allesbrenner"? Feeling "the bern" isn't enough warmth and feels like a kabuki solution ... Smile Enough of my rambling chatter now. Good Night.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

like wood stoves (here)? I don't know much about different heating/cooling systems, since we normally have plain vanilla electric heat pump systems.

But, in Interior Alaska, we had (first) water baseboard heat, later, oil heat. Both heating systems were supplemented with wood stoves, which looked quite a bit like the "Kachelöfen" that you've posted.

I didn't realize it, but the temps here are going to drop tonight--to the low 20's. This is the first cold snap that we've had this winter season. We were supposed to be out-of-state, but the trip had to be delayed until later next week. Guess it was a good thing.

Mr M heard a worrisome interview on C-Span with Republican Congressman Tom Price--Budget and Appropriations Committees. Guess I'll make my way over there to give it a listen. Ugh!

Stay warm, Folks!

Bye

Mollie


"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."--Japanese Proverb
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mimi's picture

you can just burn wood, not coal, right? We used only coal in those "Kachelöfen" or "Allesbrenner", very seldom wood. We have not had that abundance of wood forests in Germany, but had always enough coal in mines to make out of it something like "briketts" (Braunkohle): braunkohlebriketts_heizen_holz_kohle.jpg
or "Steinkohle":
irleh-plus-steinkohle.jpg.
I think in Germany we used both "Steinkohle" (= stone or anthracite or black coal out of mines very deep under the earth) and "Braunkohle" (brown or soft or lignite coal - out of mines out of less deep mines). What you call "charcoal" here, I believe, is "Holzkohle" in German, made out of wood?

What is the coal, you use for outside grilling, made of here in the US? So, I don't know what kind of coal you could use in the US for burning in your wood stoves to heat up rooms, I just assumed you could only use wood.

Do you still mine coal for direct usage in stoves for heating purposes? I have never seen that here. I thought coal is mined and used in the US in electrical power production plants.

Whole cities in the 1920 to 1950 were heated with coal. Our house had a huge stove in the basement which used coal, that heated the water tanks, whose water was running through the radiators in each room. You have them in older houses here in the US as well up North. But I don't know with what you heated up the circulating water back in the days.

trush017-life.jpg.
Later the water got heated with oil then came the gas heating systems in the house. If I would inherit that house I would reinstall a coal based heating system with radiators plus solar panels. I don't like the dependency from oil and gas to heat water.

Well, in the most technological advanced country on earth, the US, I stay warm with my "stinky" kerosene heater, when I want to save electricity that my old baseboard heaters use in huge amounts to heat my rooms, but never to the point that it gets comfortably and toasty warm.

I feel like I am well roasted right now...with a tasty kerosene like smell. Smile

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lotlizard's picture

"[etwas] kann keinen Hund mehr hinter dem Ofen hervorlocken"

"Jetzt ist der Ofen aus"

"sich hinter dem Ofen verkriechen"

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

the topic, than I do.

Heck, I was worried sick (initially) about using a modern and relatively safe version of a wood stove. I definitely don't know about burning coal; but, you're correct, we did only burn wood.

It is the similar 'appearance' of the two stoves that struck me, and that probably means very little.

But like MarkfromQueens, I thought you made a very nice presentation of the stoves. If coal burning stoves were used in the US, I'm 'guessing' that it was mostly during my Grandparents' lifetimes--they were born in the late 1800's. Or, maybe in parts of 'coal country,' like Appalachia. My own Father was born in 1905, and was in his very late forties, pushing 50, when I was born, and I 'think' that he was only around coal burning stoves as a child. (I'm not a hundred percent sure, though.)

I do know that my maternal Grandmother was struck by lightening, using some type of stove. It knocked her down, and she was forever terrified of thunderstorms--as was my Mother, who was a very small child when it happened.

My Grandmother went on to live to be over 90. And, her youngest child (my Mother) was a centenarian, who underwent very major surgery at the age of 97. (Apparently, she was the oldest patient that the orthopedic surgical team had ever operated on. And she breezed through surgery 'with flying colors'--their words.) Pretty sturdy stock, I'd say.

Wink

Well, back to the grindstone . . .

Mollie


"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."-Japanese Proverb
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mimi's picture

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Mark from Queens's picture

Enjoyed listening to your cultural explorations, and hearing (and learning about) about the lovely "Kachelofen."

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Remember when the First Lady made a sad face? Remember #bringbackourgirls?

Well, 219 out of the 276 are still missing a year and a half later.
Every one of them that isn't missing escaped on their own.
That's not to say that we didn't have a chance of getting all of those girls back. We decided against it.

A deal to secure the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls held hostage in Nigeria in exchange for jailed Islamist terror suspects was called off, media reports said.
According to The Mail on Sunday, a Nigerian journalist trusted by both the government and extremists from Boko Haram acted as go-between, risking his life on a one-man mission to enter the gunmen's lair and broker an agreement, according to security sources.
However, last Saturday, at the 11th hour, officials scrapped the exchange in a telephone call from a crisis summit in Paris where Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan met foreign ministers including those from Britain, the United States, France and Israel.
According to the paper, it was agreed there that no deals should be struck with terrorists and that force should instead be used against them.
The U-turn is said to have enraged Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
The Mail on Sunday quotes insiders to say that the cancellation of the plan and the ensuing stand-off could put the girls' lives in even greater danger.
An intelligence source told The Mail on Sunday: 'The next video we see from the terrorists could show the girls being killed one by one.'
One hundred non-combatant, low-level sympathisers were to be freed and the two groups brought together in a convoy of buses accompanied by a hand-picked go-between, respected Nigerian journalist Ahmad Salkida, said the newspaper.

Three weeks later they found two of the kidnapped girls raped, "half-dead," and tied to a tree. Villagers said the Boko Haram group had left the two girls, and killed four other disobedient girls and buried them.
Four months later, four girls from the original kidnapped group had escaped and walked three weeks to freedom in Nigeria. They said they had been held in a camp in Cameroon and raped every day.
There has been no news about them since.

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