Monday, December 28, 2015

Warren Buffet Taking Advantage Of Poor People.....

Warren Buffet taking advantage of poor people and minorities to make himself ever richer.  

It is the best kind of wealth redistribution.  Take the money from the poor people and hand it over to Warren.  

Of course Warren doesn't want to talk about it.  

If you want to talk about how amazing Warren Buffet is than he is more then ready to do that.  

If you want to talk about what a dirt bag Warren is well suddenly Warren has nothing to say.  He is funny like that.

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/minorities-exploited-by-warren-buffetts-mobile-home-empire-clayton-homes/


Clayton Homes has used a pattern of deceptions to help extract billions from poor customers around the country — particularly people of color, who make up a substantial and growing portion of its business. The company is controlled by Warren Buffett, one of world’s richest men.

its methods hardly match Buffett’s honest, folksy image: Clayton systematically pursues unwitting minority homebuyers and baits them into costly subprime loans, many of which are doomed to fail, an investigation by The Seattle Times and BuzzFeed News has found.

Clayton’s predatory practices have damaged minority communities — from rural black enclaves in the Louisiana Delta, across Spanish-speaking swaths of Texas, to Native American reservations in the Southwest. Many customers end up losing their homes, thousands of dollars in down payments, or even land they’d owned outright.

Over the 12 years since Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought Clayton Homes Inc., the company has grown to dominate virtually every aspect of America’s mobile-home industry. It builds nearly half the new manufactured homes sold in this country every year, making it the most prolific U.S. homebuilder of any type. It sells them through a network of more than 1,600 dealerships. And it finances more mobile-home loans than any other lender by a factor of more than seven.

In minority communities, Clayton’s grip on the lending market verges on monopolistic: Last year, according to federal data, Clayton made 72 percent of the loans to black people who financed mobile homes.The company’s in-house lender, Vanderbilt Mortgage, charges minority borrowers substantially higher rates, on average, than their white counterparts. In fact, federal data shows that Vanderbilt typically charges black people who make over $75,000 a year slightly more than white people who make only $35,000.

Through a spokeswoman earlier this month, Buffett declined to discuss racial issues at Clayton Homes, and a reporter who attempted to contact him at his home was turned away by security.

Clayton and Berkshire Hathaway did not respond to numerous requests for interviews with executives, delivered by phone and email, as well as in person at Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters in Omaha. The companies did not answer any of 34 detailed questions about Clayton and its practices. Nor did they respond to an extensive summary of this article’s findings, provided along with an invitation to comment. On its website, Clayton says that it seeks to “treat people right” and “preserve our integrity above all else.”

Clayton’s practices are part of a corporate culture that has condoned racism, including black employees fired while white workers used discriminatory slurs and kept their jobs, and phone collectors casually insulting borrowers with racist stereotypes.

For an earlier story in this series that detailed Clayton’s widespread abuse of borrowers, a Clayton spokeswoman said in a statement that the company helps customers find homes within their budgets and has a “purpose of opening doors to a better life, one home at a time.” Buffett later defended the company, telling Berkshire Hathaway shareholders he “makes no apologieswhatsoever about Clayton’s lending terms.”

For this story, The Seattle Times and BuzzFeed News analyzed hundreds of internal company documents, thousands of legal and regulatory filings, more than 40 hours of internal company audio recordings and federal data on hundreds of thousands of mobile-home loans over a decade. Reporters conducted interviews with more than 280 customers, employees and experts, including some Clayton insiders who said they were appalled by the company’s practices.

Meanwhile, in the first nine months of this year, Clayton generated more than half a billion dollars in profit, up 28 percent from the same period last year.

“It’s a perpetual system of people who are never able to get themselves out of the hole,” said Gwen Schablik, who worked as a collector and handled borrowers’ bankruptcies at Clayton’s Maryville, Tenn., headquarters from 2011 until she quit in 2014.

“I felt, ethically, I couldn’t continue working there,” she said.

In at least six states, Clayton managers have permitted open racial hostility toward people of color, according to interviews and legal filings by more than 15 former workers with direct knowledge of the incidents. In at least seven cases documented in court records, sales reps — both black and white — were fired after complaining about racism on the job. Four cases were dropped or dismissed, and Clayton settled three.

Congress Repeals Country Of Origin On Beef and Pork......

90% of Americans say they want to know where their food comes from.
In a Democracy that is supposed to mean something. Your government is supposed to do what you want. They are supposed to do what is in your best interest. They just did neither and they don't care.
Your government knows you are not paying attention. They know even if you are paying attention it still doesn't matter. Both Democrats and Republicans don't give two sh*ts what you want.
You can get mad at the Republicans and vote for the Democrats. You can get mad at the Democrats and vote for the Republicans. Either way it means nothing because you are going to get the same thing no matter what happens.
Jammed into the new Republican Deficit busting budget are rules that take away your right to know where you beef and pork come from. They used to have to tell you. You used to be given the right to not purchase it if you didn't like the country of origin. That kept everyone honest but your Government just took that right away from you. Now you just have to shut your mouth and buy it and hope for the best.
If companies want to cut corners and buy beef from filthy disgusting countries they are now free to do that. That is good news for them and terrible news for you.
If you were paying attention maybe you would speak up and raise a ruckus. Unfortunately you are not paying any attention and they just slid it in. They voted on their budget in the middle of the night (they do their best work in the middle of the night) while you were snoring away.
The correct response to this action is to leave the unlabeled meat in the case at the supermarket. Walk by with your shopping cart and just leave it sitting there..... When enough people walk by maybe they will figure out their problem.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nancyhuehnergarth/2015/12/21/quashing-consumers-right-to-know-congress-repeals-country-of-origin-labeling-for-beef-and-pork/

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Southwest Fined Peanuts for Their Safety Violations.....

Wow....2.8 million.  That will teach them.



FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said the settlement give Southwest strong incentives to correct problems discovered by FAA investigators.  

(Yes where will they ever come up with 2.8 million.  I bet they are emptying their piggy bank right now.  Way to bring the hammer down.....)

The FAA charged that from 2006 to 2009 Southwest used 44 Boeing 737 planes that had undergone improper fuselage repairs. According to Boeing instructions, when repairs are made to overlapping aluminum panels that make up a plane's fuselage, workers are to apply sealant between the panels and install new fasteners within a limited time.
ATS workers placed fasteners in only some of the rivet holes during the allowed time, and they didn't properly support the fuselage during the work, the FAA charged.
The FAA said it alerted Southwest about the improper work in April 2009 but the airline continued to use the planes for another six months before doing further repair work.



The FAA also said Southwest flew two planes in 2012 after workers failed to move electrical wiring when altering systems that drain wastewater from galleys and lavatory sinks, which could create a fire risk in event of a lightning strike.

Monday, December 21, 2015

China burying people Alive with Their Stupidity.....

Another example of why Corporate America LOVES making things in Communist Red China.
No Rules. No Regulation. No Oversight. No Human Rights issues. Do whatever you want and nobody cares.
In the United States this kind of thing would not be allowed. It would be illegal. You would go to jail if you tried it. But in Communist Red China nobody cares.
You don’t have to make sure people are safe. Consumer safety doesn’t matter. Worker safety doesn’t matter. Environmental safety doesn’t matter.
It is fantastic…… Well it is fantastic assuming you are not a consumer, a worker, or the environment. But if you are just looking to maximize profits (at the expense of everything else) China is the place.
What should we do with all the construction waste? Pile it up. 100 feet high……200 feet high……300 feet high…..Whatever….. But there are buildings near by….Not our concern. But it might be unsafe……Not our concern. But people could get hurt……Not our concern.
Couple of months ago chemical factories were exploding. 150 people were killed. 700 people were injured. Last month the air quality was breaking records. Today people are being buried alive. It is always an adventure…..

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/20/asia/china-landslide/

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Apple Defending their Poor Practices On 60 Minutes......

Tonight Apples CEO Tim Cook was on 60 Minutes and 60 minutes asked some tough questions.
Why do you hire workers in Communist Red China (to make your products) and not US Citizens in the United States? (It was worded a little differently but it was generally the same idea)
Tim said nobody knows how to make Apple products in the USA. People in the USA have no "vocational skills". In China they must offer a class "How to make an Iphone". But in the USA no such classes are offered and Apple (the most profitable company on the planet) doesn't have the resources to train anyone.....I guess.
So Apple MUST use slave laborers in Communist Red China because there is simply no other way. Think Different.....
I love hearing CEO's talk about how people in the United States don't have the education to do a job........
This in a country where student loan debt is now exceeding $1,200,000,000,000.00. That always brings a smile to my face.
Make sure you pay back your student loans kids.....Oh and sorry you are not educated enough to do any jobs. Enjoy living in your parents basement for the next 20 years.
The real reason Tim Cook prefers to hire slave laborers (in Communist Red China) is because he can treat them like sh*t and nobody cares.
Workers making Iphones in China would rather kill themselves (literally) then make any more Iphones. But you don't need to worry about that (anymore) because Apple has solved that problem.
Now they have suicide nets hanging all around the buildings so when their workers do jump they no longer die. The nets catch the disgruntled workers and they can then be (reprimanded) sent back to work. Problem solved. Tomorrow when you go to work look up and see if there are any suicide nets. I am going to guess the answer is no. I am pretty good at guessing these things.
Then 60 minutes asked why Apple doesn't pay their fair share of taxes. Tim said they do pay their fair share. Tim is a liar.
Apple....Google.....and lots of other companies hide their profits overseas so they do not have to pay US Taxes. Apple made it sound like this revenue was earned overseas, and was therefor not subject to US Taxes..... but like I said......Tim is a liar.
The money is earned in the United States and moved to Ireland (and hidden there) to avoid US Taxes. In Ireland Apple pays 2% in taxes. In the USA Apple pays 14% in taxes....And then complains they pay too much.
All in all the United States loses 90 Billion each year because of companies and their hidden profits. But don't worry because the government will cut something you care about to make up the difference. It will all work out in the end.
Based on its public filings, the company pays just under 14 percent of its income in taxes worldwide, according to Scott D. Dyreng, an assistant professor of accounting at Duke University’s business school whose research specializes in the actual tax rates of large U.S. companies.
By shifting income from countries where they operate to offshore tax havens, multinational companies such as Apple, maker of the iPhone and iPad, can manipulate their tax rates and boost their profit.
“Apple has shifted enormous amounts of profits from the United States to an untaxed entity overseas. That’s the issue.”
Apple, Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and other companies cut their tax bills using “transfer pricing,” transactions between subsidiaries that allow them to move profits to tax havens and expenses to higher-tax countries. Such strategies cost the U.S. at least $90 billion per year, according to Kimberly Clausing, an economics professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
The 30.5 percent rate asserted by Cook is based on Apple’s reported U.S. pretax income last year of $19 billion, about a third of the company’s worldwide pretax profits.
In fact, Senate investigators raised questions about whether Apple shifted billions of dollars offshore that should have been included in its U.S. income. Apple has attributed $30 billion in income since 2009 to an affiliate that is incorporated in Ireland, where it has no employees.
The company’s tax rate worldwide is driven down because Apple’s Irish affiliates pay taxes at a rate of just 2 percent, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found. Apple’s worldwide rate was just under 14 percent both last year and over the past decade, according to Duke University’s Dyreng.

Exporting US Oil.....Helps Everyone except you......Awesome!

For the last 40 years it has been illegal for Oil drilled in the United States to be exported out of the country.  It was a matter of National Security.  

For the last 15 years what you were told is we need to drill more oil in the United States so we could become "energy independent".  We could no longer count on unstable countries in the Middle East to provide our oil and we needed to drill baby drill.  

This meant pumping toxic chemicals into the ground to extract the oil.  The toxic chemicals would create record amounts of earth quakes.  The toxic chemicals would contaminate some ground water.  This was OK though because the benefit would be enjoyed by everyone in the United States.  In the big scheme of things it would be a great thing.  Wave that American Flag.....

Well the Chemicals went in the ground.  The oil came out of the ground.  But instead of the county becoming energy independent (as we were promised) now the oil companies want to export the oil out of the country.  This could raise the price and make more money for the oil companies.  (YAY!)  You could pay more and they could profit more.  Everyone wins.  Well they win.  You can go to hell. 

The Republicans think this is a great idea.  They added lifting the export ban into their new defect busting budget.  The Democrats and President Obama also think it is a great idea (that you pay more while they profit more) and supported the idea whole heartily.  Anytime your elected officials can screw you royally they never miss the opportunity.

Anytime the oil companies can benefit at your expense all the politicians stand up and clap.  

Well enjoy the ground water.....If it tastes a little funny just put some flavoring in it and shut your mouth.

Friday, December 18, 2015

The Republican Spending Binge.....

Republicans are about Fiscal Conservatism.  

You don't spend money you do not have.  You do not raise the deficit.  If you want something than you have to pay for it.  

Republicans will tell you all about how Obama has exploded the deficit.  It is all Obama's fault.  Yet the only branch of government that can spend money is the congress.  The Congress is controlled by Republicans.  The Republicans just went on a drunken spending bender.  Next year those same Republicans will tell you it is Obama's fault.

These are the same Republicans that shut down the government just a couple of years back because they would not raise the debt ceiling.  The Credit Rating of the United States was down graded as a result of the Republicans strong belief that you need to pay for what you are spending.  The result was the Sequester cuts....Automatic cuts to spending in order to reign in the budget.  Many of those Sequester cuts just got thrown out by those same Republicans.

Republicans are the party of principle....  That is the propaganda.

Then you have the reality.  The reality is very, very, very different from the propaganda.  The Reality is the Republicans spending money like it grows on trees.  There are lots of tax breaks for there corporate masters.  Tax Breaks that you will be paying for when they cut your social security down the line.  They will tell you there is no money for your Social Security.  Money for corporations.....You bet.  Money for you....Sorry there is none.



GOP lawmakers are steaming toward passing a mammoth $680 billion tax package without offsets.

The cost, combined with the interest the U.S. would pay after borrowing the money to pay for it, would rise to $830 billion and undo much of the savings squeezed from painful automatic spending cuts called the sequester

Republicans have instituted rules that block such measures unless they’re paid for — restrictions they will waive for themselves on this particular occasion.

Speaker Paul Ryan can count on strong support from Republicans to pass the measure, which he negotiated as one of his first acts since taking over the House. On Thursday, the House voted overwhelmingly, 318-108, to pass the measure, with dozens of Democrats joining Republicans to vote 'yes.'

Democrats are seizing on what they see as a disconnect between the GOP’s national platform and their end-of-year tax bill. And they’re calling the GOP hypocritical for failing to require the new spending to be offset with cuts elsewhere — particularly after spending years battling with President Barack Obama over deficits and spending cuts.

Appropriations Committee member Mike Honda (D-Calif.), who often hears Republicans on his panel balk at spending for Democratic priorities, said reading the tax deal was “like being in a candy store.”

White Terrorists You haven't Heard About......

Listen closely to Donald Trump this weekend to see if he wants to ban all white people from the United States.  It is the right thing to do until we can figure out what is going on with White People in this country.

After all if you have a bowl of 200 M&M's and 10 of them will kill you are you going to chance it?  Time to ban all white people just to be safe.


"Eric Feight aided Glendon Scott Crawford in altering a dispersal device to target unsuspecting Muslim Americans with lethal doses of radiation,” Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said on Wednesday. “Feight and Crawford’s abominable plot to harm innocent Americans was thwarted thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement.”

The FBI called the device a "weapon of mass destruction" in August

In June 2012, an undercover investigator brought Crawford X-ray tubes to examine for possible use in the weapon, and provided technical specifications a month later. At a meeting that November in an Albany coffee shop with undercover investigators, Crawford brought Feight. Both men committed to building the device and named the group "the guild,"

It's exactly the kind of horrific plot that might raise the alarm amid the heightened concern over terrorist attacks on the United States.

 Feight on Wednesday was sentenced to prison for 97 months -- more than eight years -- for providing material support to terrorists, according to the FBI. He would have gone through with the plot, but federal agents fooled him by posing as Ku Klux Klan members who promised to finance and obtain a "radiation device" 

In a world where the mere mention of a plot by a jihadist gets wall-to-wall news coverage, and where fear of terrorism leads presidential candidates to call for a full ban on Muslim immigration, the New York state death ray plot received relatively little notice.  

Juniper Networks Outsourcing Putting the US Government At Risk Of Hacking.....

Juniper Networks just announced their sh*tty outsourced networks have put the entire United States Government (and lots of big corporations) at risk for hacking. The risk goes back 3 years.
A major breach at computer network company Juniper Networks has U.S. officials worried that hackers working for a foreign government were able to spy on the encrypted communications of the U.S. government and private companies for the past three years.
The FBI is investigating the breach, which involved hackers installing a back door on computer equipment
The concern, U.S. officials said, is that sophisticated hackers who compromised the equipment could use their access to get into any company or government agency that used it.
One U.S. official described it as akin to "stealing a master key to get into any government building."
This is the same Juniper Networks that was in "Security Week" Magazine 5 years ago bragging about their expansion in India. In the same article Junipers competitor bragged about NOT going overseas. Not trusting overseas.
Coincidentally the competitor is not mentioned putting the United States at risk for hacking. Neat how that works.
Juniper Networks is planning a major expansion to its “India Excellence Center (IEC),” a research and development center in Bangalore, India. The company announced this week that it would add 750 seats and 450 equipment racks at a new site in Bangalore over the next two years. The company currently has 1,800 staff members and 300 development partners working at its existing campus in Bangalore.
While Jupiter Networks has chosen India as a key component of its R&D and support initiatives, competitor Palo Alto Networks has taken the opposite approach and has kept its entire development team in the United States. “We have a strong belief that the synergies of keeping all product groups co-located far outstrip the perceived advantages of moving resources to low-cost locations.
Palo Alto Networks’ entire development team, which numbers approximately 90 engineers, all work together in California.
Nir Zuk, founder and CTO at Palo Alto Networks, has focused on keeping development in the United States from the start. Zuk, who interestingly served as CTO at Jupiter Networks for a short time following the acquisition of NetScreen, in a recent interview with Sramana Mitra, said he wanted to make sure the company would be 100 percent U.S.-based. “It was very important for me that we did not offshore or outsource. We do all our development and manufacturing here. That was important to me for several reasons. I am a U.S. citizen, even though I did not grow up here. I want to support the United States, not India and China,” Zuk told Mitra. “I believe that it is a social responsibility of entrepreneurs who were educated in the United States, or learned how to be entrepreneurs in the United States, to give back to the United States. They should not take their skills to China or India. The second side of that is that I just do not believe in offshoring. In the early days of a company, everybody needs to be in the same building.”
For Juniper Networks, its operations in India are responsible for a full spectrum of activities including hardware and software development, test engineering, field trials, program management, quality assurance, technical documentation and product line management. It also provides 12-hour-a-day global customer support covering all Juniper products and operates a Finance Shared Services Center, which delivers functions to Juniper Finance organizations across the world.
India is known to pump out a mass of software engineers from its universities each year. These software engineers can work cheaply and quickly, but many question the quality
There will always be a debate over the effects offshoring has on the domestic economy and on U.S. jobs, but how does it affect the quality and pace of innovation for technology companies? Does it bring a competitive advantage? Again, Palo Alto Networks doesn’t think so: “Today, our team of about 90 engineers has out-innovated and out-delivered in the network security space and we are convinced that this is in large part due to our belief of having them all work together in California,” said Bonvanie.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Slaves Peeling Your Shrimp......Good For Profits.....

Do you support Slavery?
Do you enjoy Shrimp?
If you enjoy Shrimp then you are probably supporting Slavery.
When people think of Slavery they think of something that happened 150 years ago. In reality it is happening today.
It is your fault.
Every time you pop a delicious piece of shrimp in your mouth you are guilty of supporting the practice.
There is $7,000,000,000.00 at stake.
Governments are ignoring the problem. If you don’t see it happening….. then maybe it is OK to ignore it.
Corporations are also ignoring the problem. There are too many $$$$$$ at stake to rock the boat. Lets all just look the other way.
The only one bringing attention to the crime is the Associated Press. Everyone else is dipping their shrimp in cocktail sauce and looking the other way.
Now that you know about the problem you will have a decision to make. Do you eat the shrimp (this holiday season) and continue to be part of the problem….. or do you leave the shrimp on the store shelves to send a message. The message is this is not OK.
The choice is yours.
Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States.
After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. Always, someone was watching.
No names were ever used, only numbers given by their boss — Tin Nyo Win was No. 31.
Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world's biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country's $7 billion seafood export industry, an Associated Press investigation has found shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the U.S., Europe and Asia.
The problem is fueled by corruption and complicity among police and authorities. Arrests and prosecutions are rare. Raids can end up sending migrants without proper paperwork to jail, while owners go unpunished.
More than 2,000 trapped fishermen have been freed this year as a result of an ongoing Associated Press investigative series into slavery in the Thai seafood industry. The reports also have led to a dozen arrests, millions of dollars' worth of seizures and proposals for new federal laws.
Hundreds of shrimp peeling sheds are hidden in plain sight on residential streets or behind walls with no signs in Samut Sakhon, a port town an hour outside Bangkok. The AP found one factory that was enslaving dozens of workers, and runaway migrants led rights groups to the Gig shed and a third facility. All three sheds held 50 to 100 people each, many locked inside.
As Tin Nyo Win soon found out for himself, there's no easy escape. One woman had been working at Gig for eight years. Another man ended up peeling shrimp there after breaking free from an equally brutal factory.
"I was shocked after working there a while, and I realized there was no way out," said Tin Nyo Win, 22, who has a baby face and teeth stained red from chewing betel nut.
"I told my wife, 'We're in real trouble. If something ends up going wrong, we're going to die.'"
Last month, AP journalists followed and filmed trucks loaded with freshly peeled shrimp from the Gig shed to major Thai exporting companies and then, using U.S. customs records and Thai industry reports, tracked it globally. They also traced similar connections from another factory raided six months earlier, and interviewed more than two dozen workers from both sites.
U.S. customs records show the shrimp made its way into the supply chains of major U.S. food stores and retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General and Petco, along with restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden.
It also entered the supply chains of some of America's best-known seafood brands and pet foods, including Chicken of the Sea and Fancy Feast, which are sold in grocery stores from Safeway and Schnucks to Piggly Wiggly and Albertsons. AP reporters went to supermarkets in all 50 states and found shrimp products from supply chains tainted with forced labor.
European and Asian import and export records are confidential, but the Thai companies receiving shrimp tracked by the AP all say they ship to Europe and Asia as well.
The businesses that responded condemned the practices (how nice….) that lead to these conditions. Many said they were launching investigations (wonderful) when told their supply chains were linked to people held against their will in sheds like the Gig factory, which sat behind a gate off a busy street, between railroad tracks and a river.
Inside the large warehouse, toilets overflowed with feces, and the putrid smell of raw sewage wafted from an open gutter just outside the work area. Young children ran barefoot through suffocating dorm rooms. Entire families labored side-by-side at rows of stainless steel counters piled high with tubs of shrimp.
Tin Nyo Win and his wife, Mi San, were cursed for not peeling fast enough and called "cows" and "buffalos." They were allowed to go outside for food only if one of them stayed behind as insurance against running away.
But escaping was all they could think about.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Pete Rose Will Remain Banned.....

Pete Rose has been banned from Baseball for 26 years.
Pete has been trying to be reinstated for those same 26 years.
There have been 4 MLB Commissioners since Pete was first banned. Each one of those commissioners has looked at all the evidence and concluded the exact same thing. This guy is not getting back into baseball.
The latest to conclude this is Rob Manfred who just announced Pete Rose will remain banned.
Pete's biggest obstacle to getting reinstated has been himself.
For the last 26 years Pete Rose has done nothing but lie, and lie, and lie, and lie, and then lie some more. The man has been incapable of telling the truth. Incapable of seeing what he did was wrong. Incapable of saying he is sorry. Incapable of changing his life. This has made giving him a second chance impossible.
If the only thing Pete did was bet on baseball...... but then he admitted it...... and then he apologized for it....... he would have been given a second chance years ago. Unfortunately at every turn he has made the wrong decision.
In 1989 he signed the report banishing him from the game. All the evidence showed that Pete did bet on baseball, including the team he was managing. He even placed bets from the dugout during games. In signing the agreement (banning him for life) Pete did not have to admit guilt....... BUT he could NOT claim he was innocent. If he abided by the agreement he could seek reinstatement.
Pete then went on to claim he was innocent every day for the next decade.
From 1989 to 2004 Pete Rose said over and over and over and over he did not bet on baseball. Anyone who would listen he told the same thing. He said it with conviction. HE DID NOT DO IT!!!!!
Then in 2004 he wrote a book and wanted to sell lots of copies of that book. In order to do that he said.... OK he did do it. He did bet on baseball. BUT he said his betting days were over and he no longer bets on baseball. To prove he was a different person he went to live in Las Vegas. There is no safer place for a person with a gambling problem then Vegas baby.......Yeah.......
In his latest meeting with the commissioner he admitted that he STILL does bets on baseball. 26 years years after being banned Pete Rose still has not learned a single thing about the error of his ways. As a result he will remain banned.
Major League Baseball is serious about removing all gambling from the game. That is right.......There is no place in Baseball for gambling. The integrity of the game is the most important thing.
This report has been brought to you by Draft Kings. Proud sponsor of Major League Baseball. Place your bets today.

Sandy Hook 3 Years Later.....Nothing Has Changed.

Well it is 3 years since Sandy Hook.
Since that tragedy there has been a new school shooting pretty much every other day.
Since Sandy Hook 554 kids (under the age of 12) have been killed by firearms. That number does not account for Suicides.
Since Sandy Hook a lot of states have made it easier to get guns.
People thought Sandy Hook was going to be a defining moment in the history of our countries crazy fascination with guns. The reality is Sandy Hook was just another sad event. The reality is nothing has changed.
After Sandy Hook the NRA said they had a serious proposal. The NRA’s plan was to have an armed security guard at every school. The only way to protect our kids from guns was to have a good guy with a gun standing watch.
Well if you go to your kids school today you might see a lot of things, but what you won’t see are any armed guards with guns. If you go to Washington DC you will hear discussion on a lot of things. What you won’t hear are any discussions on adding armed security guards to every school.
If you talk to the NRA (today) they will tell you about a lot of things they are working on…… but what they are not working on is adding armed security guards to every school.
In 2012 they said they were serious about fixing the issue. They said they really cared. Then they proceeded to show you they cared by doing absolutely nothing. Their actions (or lack thereof) has proven they are a completely phony and insincere organization.
If you wanted to pass a law preventing mentally ill people from getting guns the NRA would move heaven and earth to fight you every step of the way.
If you wanted to pass a law so potential terrorists could not get guns…….. the NRA would shift into overdrive to make sure every terrorist could get any gun they wanted.
But when it comes to protecting 7 years olds the NRA has nothing more to offer than one speech (given 3 years ago). That was the end of their effort.
No the NRA will not be holding a press conference today updating you on all the progress they have been making protecting schools. The NRA will be very quiet today.
Happy Anniversary Sandy Hook……It has been 3 years and nothing has changed. Maybe year 4 will be different……..Yeah right.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

North Korea Has Hydrogen Bomb......

The United States will not allow North Korea to have Nuclear Weapons.
President Clinton said that. President George W Bush said that.
North Korea was not listening very well. They say they have upgraded to Thermonuclear Weapons.
Effective foreign policy brought to you by Republicans and Democrats.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/10/asia/north-korea-thermonuclear-claim/index.html

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The Long Slow Death Of The US Middle Class......

The long slow death of the middle class.

Brought to you by Republicans and Democrats.

Since 1971 the Republicans have controlled the White House for 26 years.  The Democrats have controlled it for 19 years.  Regardless of who has been in control the results are always the same.  The Middle Class is being beaten up at every turn.

Middle class Americans now comprise less than half, or 49.9%, of the nation's population, down from 61% in 1971, according to a new Pew Research Center report. 
For decades, the middle class had been the core of the country. A healthy middle class kept America strong, experts and politicians said.
But more recently, these residents have struggled under stagnating wages and soaring costs.
Since 1970, upper class households saw their median income soar 47% to $174,600 in 2014. 
Meanwhile, the middle class only got a 34% boost to $73,400.
the lower-income Americans, who only received a 28% bump to $24,074.
the upper class now controls 49% of the nation's aggregate income, up from 29% in 1970.
The middle class used to earn the largest slice of the nation's income. It held 62% in 1970, but that share has since fallen to 43%.
The lower class, meanwhile, holds 9% of the country's income, just under the 10% it earned in 1970.
The rich are not only trumping the middle class in terms of income. They've also seen their wealth soar over the past 40 years.
The median net worth of upper class families doubled between 1983 and 2013, up to $650,100.
But the wealth of the middle class has increased a near negligible 2% over that time to $98,100.
lower-income Americans, who saw their wealth drop 18% to $9,500.

Even Dick Cheney Appalled By Trump....

Wow you know Donald Trump has gone off the deep end when even Dick Cheney is appalled by his ideas.

When Dick Cheney becomes the voice of reason in the Republican party you know that party is in deep, deep trouble.

Hillary Clinton must be rolling on the floor laughing.  When she gets up she can start thinking about her decoration ideas for the Oval Office. 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Don't Let Kids Play Football....

Bennett Omalu holds a total of eight advanced degrees and board certifications, later receiving: fellowships in pathology and neuropathology through the University of Pittsburgh in 2000 and 2002 respectively, a Masters in Public Health (MPH) & Epidemiology from University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in 2008.[3]
Omalu is currently chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, California and is a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.[3]
The risk of permanent impairment is heightened by the fact that the brain, unlike most other organs, does not have the capacity to cure itself following all types of injuries.
In more than 30 years of looking at normal brain cells in the microscope, I have yet to see a neuron that naturally creates a new neuron to regenerate itself.
We are born with a certain number of neurons. We can only lose them; we cannot create new neurons to replenish old or dying ones.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/dont-let-kids-play-football.html?_r=2

CT Hospitals Want Corporate Welfare.....

These hospital pity commercials are all over the TV.
They are whining because the Governor of The State Of Connecticut cut off their Corporate Welfare. Hospitals are acting like people are dying in the street as a result of these cuts.
We are supposed to believe the healthcare industry is short on cash. Maybe you should take a look at your last hospital bill to see if you agree.
See first everyone told the Governor to balance the budget. Then everyone told him he better not raise taxes.
So he cut 200 million bucks from hospitals.
The healthcare industry doesn't need taxpayer money. Healthcare costs a fortune. Patients pay for hospitals. Insurance companies pay for hospitals. The government hands out even more money too. So the Governor said no more tax payer welfare to (for) profit hospitals making $900,000,000.00 in profit.
Remember these are not charity cases. These hospitals exist for one reason and that is to make lots of money. And they do make lots of money. They are great at it.
It is funny that these hospitals are hard up for money but somehow found the cash for an expensive TV PR campaign.
The problem (For the Hospitals) is when States make Medicaid payments the Feds then come along and match those funds.
Double the Tax Payer Welfare for Hospitals....Hip Hip Horray.
But when the Governor decided to cut those State payments the hospitals get whacked twice....No state money and then no Federal money either. They do not like that. Not one bit.
Bottom line is if the hospitals need more money they should go talk to the insurance companies. The Insurance companies are the ones with all the money. Aetna, Cigna, Anthem....Those should be the targets for hospitals.
The governor is right to cut off the tax payer funds. Two hundred million less in profit won't kill anyone. Really...It won't.

http://wnpr.org/post/connecticut-hospitals-decry-budget-cuts-gov-malloy-pushes-back#stream/0