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Trump This!

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Donald Trump announces that he is running for president, and Twitter goes wild! If you need more snark in your life, go read about it.

A couple of examples:

Donald Trump is doing an amazing Donald Trump parody right now.

Wow. The music tried to get Trump off the stage at his own rally.

Even the Democratic National Committee couldn’t resist a bit of sarcasm:

Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days. He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the G.O.P. field, and we look forward hearing more about his ideas for the nation.

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Health Gouging

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

I believe in free markets, but to have a free market you have to have transparency in pricing and information about the product. Which brings us to the health industry, which has neither. Can you believe a market where the seller doesn’t tell you how much the product will cost or even what you are buying until after you have purchased it? Even when you receive the bill, it is often indecipherable. And then, if you can’t pay, they can bankrupt you (or worse).

How bad is it? According to a nation-wide study, hospitals (especially for-profit hospitals) charge far more than it costs them to provide care. One hospital in Florida routinely charged patients 12.6 times the actual cost of patient care (that’s compared to what Medicare says it should cost).

That hospital is not an outlier. The study found fifty hospitals that charged more than 10 times their cost. All but one of those fifty was a for-profit hospital. Twenty five of the price-gouging hospitals are operated by Community Health Systems. Another fourteen are operated by the Hospital Corporation of America.

Forty percent of the worst hospitals operate in Florida, presumably where they can take advantage of seniors.

How do they get away with it? According to a co-author of the study (a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health):

They are price-gouging because they can. They are marking up the prices because no one is telling them they can’t. These are the hospitals that have the highest markup of all 5,000 hospitals in the United States. This means when it costs the hospital $100, they are going to charge you, on average, $1,000.

It is time for conservatives to stop claiming that the government should stay out of health care and let the free market take care of it. We tried that, and it doesn’t work. Even Obamacare doesn’t regulate how much hospitals can overcharge. Currently, only two states (Maryland and West Virginia) have laws that regulate hospital rates. It is time to do this on a national level.

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Late Night Political Humor

Monday, June 15, 2015

“Former governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. During his announcement, he said, ‘I realize I’m not that well known, don’t have a ton of support, I’m limited on funds, and … why am I doing this again?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee announced his run for president yesterday. And he said he wants the U.S. to switch to the metric system. OK, you know what? I will start — Lincoln Chafee won’t get within a kilometer of the White House. He’s several hectares away.” – Seth Meyers

“During his announcement, Chafee said it would help our economy if we embraced the metric system. Finally answering the question: What is the world’s worst campaign slogan?” – Jimmy Fallon

“We have a new Republican candidate for president who also happens to be an old Republican candidate for president, former Texas Governor Rick Perry. He’s at it again, and why not? There are only so many coyotes you can shoot on your ranch. What else does he have to do?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“On the Republican side, today former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he is running for president. While growing up he wanted to be a veterinarian, but his grades weren’t good enough. Luckily for us, now he wants to be in charge of people.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Republican presidential race has more characters than ‘Game of Thrones’.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“Have you seen Kim Jong Un lately? There are photos of him and he has put on pounds. According to sources, Kim Jong Un has been emotionally eating since Dennis Rodman was spotted on a date with another dictator.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The Christmas-themed town of North Pole, Alaska, has officially approved marijuana dispensaries. So don’t expect your presents from Santa until next April.” – Conan O’Brien

“Santa will be showing up with Rudolph the Red-Eyed Reindeer.” – Conan O’Brien

“IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, pledged over $1 billion earlier today to help slow climate change. But knowing IKEA, it’s probably going to take forever to put the money together.” – Seth Meyers

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The Upcoming Election

Sunday, June 14, 2015

This pretty much sums up the upcoming election and the inevitable media response:

Brian McFadden
© Brian McFadden

Except isn’t it a refreshing change to have Bernie Sanders in the race? Not because I agree with his views, but just because it is nice to have someone on the left as a counterpoint to all the nut jobs on the right running for president.

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Late Night Political Humor

Saturday, June 13, 2015

“Hillary Clinton is headed to L.A. this month to attend a fundraiser hosted by ‘Spider-Man’ star Tobey Maguire. Hillary is a big fan of Spider-Man because he proves that Americans still love sequels.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Hillary Clinton announced that she will officially kick off her presidential campaign on June 13 in New York City. The good news is it’s free to get in. Which sounds great until you find out it’s $100,000 to get out.” – Jimmy Fallon

“According to a new poll, the number of Americans who trust Hillary is dropping. Specifically into a hole that Hillary covered with leaves.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Senator Lindsey Graham announced that he’s running for president because, you know, you want 50 people to run for president.” – Seth Meyers

“If elected, Lindsey Graham would be the first bachelor elected president in 130 years. And he’d also be the first candidate to choose his running mate in an elaborate rose ceremony.” – Seth Meyers

“According to an email from his staff, Donald Trump is set to announce on June 16 whether he will run for president. Seriously? At this point, Donald Trump announcing whether he’s running for president is like soccer’s World Cup — it happens every four years and no one in America cares.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Senator Ted Cruz said he thinks John F. Kennedy would be a Republican if he were alive today. Well, of course he would be Republican. He’d be 98 years old.” – Seth Meyers

“In the world of soccer, FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced he’s resigning only four days after he was re-elected. Now Sepp Blatter will go back to sounding like a disease you look up on WebMD.” – Jimmy Fallon

“In the world of soccer, after the arrest of numerous other officials, FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced his resignation this afternoon. Sepp Blatter doesn’t sound like the name of a guy who’s stepping down. It sounds like the reason.” – Seth Meyers

“The 79-year-old FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, will resign less than a week after the organization was rocked by a corruption scandal. But if you only learned one thing from all this, it’s that you can never trust a 79-year-old Blatter.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The TSA is under fire for major security lapses. The TSA has let through pipe bombs, knives, and the last three Nicolas Cage movies.” – Conan O’Brien

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Dead Last

Friday, June 12, 2015

Everybody, including Republicans, like to tout small businesses as the strongest source of economic development. It is where most new jobs come from, not to mention new ideas.

Which is why people should shake their heads when Gov. (and likely presidential candidate) Scott Walker brags about his record in Wisconsin. A major study released this month shows that Wisconsin ranks dead last in new business start-up activity.

And this isn’t something that he can blame on his predecessor or on something else beyond his control. There is plenty of good reasons to blame Walker for the bad economic outlook for small businesses in the state.

For example, Walker (like other Republican governors) turned down federal money that Obamacare provided to expand Medicare and Medicaid. So if you depend on your regular job to provide health insurance, it is very difficult to quit it in order to start your own new business. It is just too risky.

Walker also turned down federal money to build a high-speed rail system, which would have provided thousands of jobs. In addition, his refusing the money caused a multinational manufacturing company to shut down their Wisconsin plant and sue the state for $65 million for breach of contract.

Perhaps most damning of all is that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation removed Walker as the agency’s chair because of scandals.

And you can’t blame it on other economic factors in the area. Ironically, Walker famously traveled to next-door Illinois with the slogan “Wisconsin is open for business” and tried to lure companies to relocate from that state. But while Wisconsin is suffering, Illinois is one of the states at the top of the rankings for start-up activity. And the country as a whole enjoyed the largest year-over-year start-up growth in two decades.

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Wages or Wagers?

Thursday, June 11, 2015

June 9, 2015
© Adam Zyglis

It’s no fairy tale. According to an article in the NY Times, around 250 information technology employees working for Disney were laid off from their jobs. These are the people who keep the computer systems running at DisneyWorld.

But the ironic part is that in order to get their severance package, these workers were required to train their replacements. They weren’t laid off because their work wasn’t needed, instead, they were replaced by foreign workers (brought in by outsourcing firms from India) with temporary work visas (called H-1B visas), who would work for significantly less money.

But according to federal rules, H-1B visas are supposed to be used to allow foreign workers to come in on a temporary basis when there are no Americans with the required skills. Indeed, they are required to not “adversely affect the wages and working conditions” of Americans. Instead, the reality is that the majority of H-1B visas are going to outsourcing companies.

Now, I am not entirely against outsourcing. As the founder of several technology startups, I have even used outsourcing. But only when there was a specific, limited term project and it didn’t make sense to spend the time and effort to hire a bunch of highly skilled people who would then need to be laid off after the project was done.

Laying off a bunch of workers and replacing them with H-1B visa holders goes completely against the spirit of the law, and is only possible because of numerous loopholes. These loopholes need to be closed.

Even worse, companies are often shooting themselves in the foot when they pull stuff like this just to save a little money. The theory that highly skilled workers are fungible assets (can be replaced by lower cost workers who can then do the same job) has been shown to be false over and over again. Workers are not just a set of replaceable skills. Companies (like Costco and Starbucks) who try hard to keep their workers happy and reduce turnover rates tend to have happier customers and end up making more money.

How can Disney claim that its parks are the “Happiest Places on Earth” if their employees are not happy?

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Bailing out of Justice

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

John Oliver points out the lack of justice in one important aspect of our justice system – paying bail – which makes a mockery of “innocent until proven guilty”:

And not only is this putting quite a few innocent people in jail, it is costing taxpayers a ton of money.

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Late Night Political Humor

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

“During a speech in Iowa this weekend, Bernie Sanders criticized the billionaire class and said they ‘can’t have it all’. Billionaires would’ve responded but they were busy this weekend literally having it all.” – Jimmy Fallon

“There’s massive corruption, a massive scandal, in international soccer. The first clue was when a soccer team scored a suspiciously high three goals in one game.” – Conan O’Brien

“Officials from the soccer organization FIFA, which decides which cities get to host the World Cup, are accused of accepting bribes when making their decision. Of course the toughest part for the soccer officials was taking bribes without using their hands.” – Jimmy Fallon

“A lawyer from Africa wants to marry Malia Obama in exchange for goats, sheep, and cows. In response, President Obama said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. My daughter isn’t marrying a lawyer.'” – Conan O’Brien

“In Michigan, the world’s oldest person recently turned 116. When the president called to congratulate her, she said, ‘Tell McKinley I’m busy.'” – Conan O’Brien

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Torture

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

A few weeks ago, the PBS program “Frontline” broadcast “Secrets, Politics and Turture”, which they describe as “The secret history of the CIA’s controversial ‘enhanced interrogation’ methods”. You can watch this program online, and you really should.

Why am I saying this to you? Because there was a small amount of publicity after it was shown, but there was no major outcry. I think the media is afraid to make a big story out of this. And even worse, many Americans do not want to admit that we violated international law, our constitution, every reasonable moral code, and deliberately tortured people.

What’s worse to me are the people who claim torture was necessary to obtain important information in the fight against terrorism, when there is no evidence to support that claim. In fact, the program provides strong evidence that our rush to use torture actually prevented us from obtaining important information.

Not only are they lying about the use of torture, the CIA illegally destroyed evidence of it. The CIA’s chief operations officer destroyed hundreds of hours of videotape even though they were ordered not to by Congress and the courts. A reporter for The New Yorker was told “if those videotapes had ever been seen, the reaction around the world would not have been survivable.”

This is a big deal, and it shouldn’t just go away in a puff of abject denial. If we do not take strong steps now, we will torture again. We are better than that as a country. We have to be.

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Meet the New Boss

Monday, June 8, 2015

Same as the old boss! [sometimes I wonder if anyone else is old enough to get these references. –iron]

Rebecca Hendin
© Rebecca Hendin

Don’t you feel so much better now that instead of the NSA spying on you, they changed the law so that now the telcos will be doing the spying?

So much for not getting fooled again.

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Affirmative Political Action

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Yesterday I posted about how Americans almost unanimously say that our system for funding elections is broken and needs to be dramatically changed. Here’s a good example of why they feel that way, and an organization that is doing something about it.

The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has announced that they are suing the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the government entity responsible for enforcing election laws. Why?

First, because Republican FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman publicly admitted that he is deliberately holding up election complaints against Republican and conservative groups. What’s amazing is he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he is doing. His logic? He said that he is merely exercising his discretion as a commissioner to solve a problem. The problem, he argued, is that the number of complaints filed against Republican and conservative groups outweighs the number of complaints filed against Democratic and liberal groups, so investigating all complaints equally would unfairly impact Republicans.

Maybe we should apply that excellent argument in other important areas. Like, blacks are proportionately more likely to be arrested for violating drug laws, so we should stop prosecuting blacks. And immigration laws unfairly target Mexicans and other Hispanics, so we should stop prosecuting them. Am I right? Unfortunately, I don’t think Republicans would go for this, because they claim to be against affirmative action. Or are they against it only when it benefits someone else?

Secondly, Goodman’s admission came while the FEC was discussing whether to implement a policy requiring action on complaints within six months (in most cases). The CLC notes that of the 19 complaints they have filed with the FEC since 2011, only four of them have been resolved. Six of them have been pending (in limbo) over four years. That means it is easily possible for a politician to have their campaign law violation ignored for longer than they serve in office.

A rule requiring faster action on election complaints seems sorely needed, but here’s the truly crazy part. It isn’t. The Federal Election Campaign Act already requires the FEC to act on complaints within 120 days of the complaint being filed (that’s 4 months, not 6). So the commission that is supposed to enforce the law is actually violating it.

You would think that since the Citizens United decision it would be even more important to prosecute violations of what few election laws we have left. And the CLC is trying to do that. But Commissioner Goodman even took a swipe at organizations like the CLC in his comments, implying partisan bias. However, the CLC is non-partisan, and files complaints against both Democrats and Republicans. In fact, the founder and (still) president of the CLC is Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the FEC who served as a lawyer for three Republican presidential candidates.

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Money in Politics

Saturday, June 6, 2015

A recent poll performed by the NY Times and CBS News confirms that Americans believe that money is causing major problems with our politics.

A stunning 84% say that money has too much influence on political campaigns, and 85% say that candidates who win public office then promote policies that favor people and groups who donated money to their campaigns (55% say “most of the time” and another 30% say “sometimes”). And 66% say that the wealthy have more of a chance to influence elections than other Americans.

But the interesting result is that Americans are virtually unanimous in saying that our campaign finance system needs changes. 13% says that only minor changes are needed, 39% (3 times more) say that fundamental changes are needed, and a whopping 46% wants to throw our current system away and completely rebuild it. Absolutely nobody answered that no changes were needed.

The poll goes on in the same way about what to do. 78% say that spending on advertising should be limited. 75% say that donors should be publicly disclosed. And 54% say that donating money to political candidates is not free speech (Citizens United notwithstanding).

There’s just one big fat ironic problem with this poll. They clearly only polled the 99%. If the 1% has as much power as this poll suggests, then everyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter.

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Late Night Political Humor

Saturday, June 6, 2015

“This week presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced a new bill that would make four-year college tuition free. Which was great news, unless you were the student who was just walking out of your graduation.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Bernie Sanders made around $2,000 last year for two speeches and a TV appearance, compared to the $25 million the Clintons made. Making him the first person in history to run for president just because he really needs the money.” – Jimmy Fallon

“I was surprised to hear this. Hillary Clinton’s Super PAC has reportedly been struggling to raise money. It’s gotten so bad, they may have to start reaching out to Americans.” – Seth Meyers

“Chelsea Clinton has written a children’s book titled “It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going.” It’s a great book to read to your workaholic toddler.” – Seth Meyers

“President Obama, by the way, has set a Guinness World Record as the fastest person to get a million Twitter followers. Obama now has as many followers as the Republicans have presidential candidates.” – Conan O’Brien

“First Lady Michelle Obama has posted an exercise video of her beating up a punching bag. But don’t worry, Vice President Biden is going to be OK.” – Conan O’Brien

“The government released hundreds of documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s compound. Among the items is a job application for al-Qaida. It’s like a regular job application except it asks questions like, ‘Where do you see yourself exploding in the next five years?'” – Jimmy Kimmel

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Leaving Science to the Scientists

Friday, June 5, 2015

One advantage that people of faith enjoy is that they are not limited to being consistent. A good example is presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Santorum has long been a proponent of “intelligent design”, which is a fancy term for requiring public schools to “teach about the role of God or a Creator” as part of their science curriculum.

So it is ironic that Santorum recently chastised the Pope for talking about climate change, saying “the church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think that we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we’re really good at, which is… theology and morality. When we get involved with political and controversial scientific theories, I think the church is probably not as forceful and credible.”

Pope Francis (who has a degree in Chemistry) has said that causing climate change is a sin because the Earth is God’s creation and should be protected. And in a speech last month, he said “if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us. Never forget this!” An encyclical about the environment will be published on June 18, ahead of the climate talks in Paris.

If, as Santorum claims, religion has “gotten it wrong a few times on science” then why is it a good idea to teach religion as part of science in the classroom? Does Santorum use his faith to decide which science is right and which is wrong? Shouldn’t he take his own advice and leave science to the scientists?

UPDATE: On Fox News Sunday, Santorum was asked why he is more qualified that the Pope to discuss climate change. Santorum responded that his job as a politician was to make decisions about public policy, and that he felt that there are more pressing problems confronting the earth than climate change and questioned the Pope’s use of his moral authority to combat the issue of climate change.

Fair enough that Santorum disagrees with the Pope, but aren’t “devout Catholics” supposed to believe in Papal infallibility?

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