Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the August 25, 2015 edition of Tidbits
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2015/tidbits082515.htm  
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Election Information --- http://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/

OpenSecrets (money and politics blog) --- https://www.opensecrets.org

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley,

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau

How a high-school dropout from China went on to build a $7 billion fortune
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-a-high-school-dropout-became-a-billionaire-ceo-2015-8#ixzz3iQ2uPTYD

One thing I garner from the reading media quotations from Donald Trump is that he seems to assume the USA president has dictatorial powers such as saying: " I will never allow Ford to move (productions) to Mexico" or "I will make Mexico pay for a border wall." Doesn't he realize that there are checks and balances on power in government?
Bob Jensen

Earlier this year Hillary Clinton said “there is no classified material” on her private server but on Wednesday her campaign acknowledged that some of the material is classified. Karl Rove writes today that Mrs. Clinton “has wounded herself with misleading statements or flat-out lies, putting herself in legal jeopardy, diminishing her standing with voters, and damaging her reputation.”
Karl Rove --- http://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-self-inflicted-wounds-1440024815?mod=djemMER

You Can Now Buy A Bologna-Filled "Trump Sandwich"
Christine Rousselle --- http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2015/08/13/you-can-now-buy-a-bolognafilled-trump-sandwich-n2038670?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig Eyes Protest Bid for (USA) President ---
Med Bernhard --- http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/harvard-professor-lawrence-lessig-eyes-protest-bid-for-president/103005?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

MIT:  Carbon Dioxide Removal Schemes Can't Cure Ocean Acidification ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/540071/dont-count-on-geoengineering-the-oceans/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20150811 

Donald Trump Won’t Eat Oreos Ever Again Since Nabisco is Moving to Mexico ---
John S. Roberts --- http://www.youngcons.com/donald-trump-wont-eat-oreos-ever-again-since-nabisco-is-moving-to-mexico/

Ferguson's new police chief was suspended from his old job three times (sometimes without pay) ---
 http://www.businessinsider.com/ferguson-chief-suspended-from-old-job-3-2015-8#ixzz3in24SRew

The fleet of battery-powered cars is rising, and their owners are more than twice as wealthy as most Americans.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/electric-car-aid-acid-test-1439249158?tesla=y
The bottom line is that low income electric power users are subsidizing the wealthy for both electric power to charge those vehicles and in paying for roads and bridges that are currently free to most electric car owners (except in Oregon). To add insult to injury the wealthy electric car owners are still getting tax rebates subsidies from taxpayers.

“He kept telling me this (rape) is ibadah,” she said, using a term from Islamic scripture meaning worship ---
Rukmini Callimachi --- http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/world/middleeast/isis-enshrines-a-theology-of-rape.html?_r=0

The report found that men in ISIS believe sexually violating women and girls of the Yazidi religious minority is sanctioned, and even encouraged by the Quran. “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God,” a 12-year-old rape victim told the Times.
Tesa Berenson --- http://time.com/3995972/isis-rape-religion/?xid=newsletter-brief

A year  long investigation by the Tampa Bay Times found that the Pinellas County School Board had transformed five schools in the county’s black neighborhoods into “failure factories” by abandoning integration and breaking promises of new resources. About 95 percent of black students tested at the schools are failing reading or math.
CARA FITZPATRICK, LISA GARTNER and MICHAEL LaFORGIA ---
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2015/investigations/pinellas-failure-factories/5-schools-segregation/

Put. God. First! Put God first in everything you do. Everything I have is by the grace of God. Understand that. It’s a gift.
Denzel Washington after being ordered never to mention the name Jesus when addressing graduates of Dillard University ---
http://www.teapartycrusaders.com/u-s-news/video-they-told-denzel-dont-say-jesus-at-our-school-his-response-silenced-them-all/

This Might Explain the Debate-FOX Is Hillary's 9th Largest Donor ---
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/

Lois Lerner’s IRS Granted Only ONE Conservative Group Non-Profit Status in Three Years ---
https://www.atr.org/lois-lerner-s-irs-granted-only-one-conservative-group-non-profit-status-three-years
Pictures of the ISIS Price List for Sex Slaves ---
https://www.google.ca/search?q=ISIS++%22Price+List%22&lr=&as_qdr=all&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CC4QsARqFQoTCPDv4OzFqMcCFYkXkgodiI8CBw&biw=1024&bih=505

A week before The EPA disastrously leaked millions of gallons of toxic waste into The Animas River in Colorado, this letter to the editor was published in The Silverton Standard & The Miner local newspaper, authored by a retired geologist detailing verbatim, how EPA would foul the Animas River on purpose in order to secure superfund money..
Tyler Durden --- http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-12/did-epa-intentionally-poison-animas-river-secure-superfund-money

Why Any Male Student Should Think Twice Before Applying to Washington & Lee University
PJ Media --- http://pjmedia.com/blog/why-any-male-student-should-think-twice-before-applying-to-washington-lee-university/

We'd rather be obese on benefits than thin and working.
Janice and Amber Manzur
John Hill, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11347454/Mother-and-daughter-weigh-a-total-of-43-stone-and-get-34k-a-year-handouts-but-refuse-to-diet.html 

Moocher Hall of Fame --- https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/the-moocher-hall-of-fame/

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 12, 2015

MSNBC’s reboot: more news, less “leaning”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/msnbcs-reboot-more-news-less-leaning-1439337035?mod=djemCFO_h 
 Five years after branding itself the “lean forward” cable news network for liberals, MSNBC is taking a step back. The channel is gutting the bulk of its daytime schedule of partisan political talk in favor of straight news.

Cable channel tries different tack, as it looks to make up lost ground against Fox, CNN.

Five years after branding itself the “lean forward” cable news network for liberals, MSNBC is taking a step back.

The channel is gutting the bulk of its daytime schedule of partisan political talk in favor of straight news. Brian Williams, who earlier this year was removed as anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News” for embellishing his reporting résumé, is expected to play a prominent role in the makeover.

Also drafted to help jump start MSNBC is “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd, who will anchor a daily political news show in the afternoons. Among the programs MSNBC is saying goodbye to: “The Ed Show,” anchored by Ed Schultz and “Now with Alex Wagner.”

The overhaul, meant to reverse a ratings slump that has MSNBC in last place among major cable news outlets, is being orchestrated by Andy Lack, who ran NBC News from 1993 to 2001 and returned in March as chairman.

The shift to hard news is part of a bigger strategy by Mr. Lack to break down the wall that exists between the broadcast network’s news operations and MSNBC, a person familiar with his thinking said.

. . .

For now, MSNBC’s evening approach of left-leaning talk will remain intact but some of the personalities could change. Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow will remain centerpieces but “All In with Chris Hayes” could be in jeopardy, said people familiar with the network’s thinking. A spokeswoman for MSNBC declined to comment.

Continued in article

 

The bottom line is that unions want you to have to join a union to get a minimum-wage job
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 18, 2015

Minimum-wage waivers for union members stir standoff
Unions have been a driving force behind the wave of municipal minimum-wage increases sweeping the country. But some unions want their own members exempt from coverage under those laws. More than 20 U.S. cities and counties, recently including Los Angeles and Kansas City, Mo., have set minimum wages above state and federal levels.

"Another Surge in Student-Loan Risk," by James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/another-surge-in-student-loan-risk-1440154366

Avoiding on-time repayment becomes more popular than ever, plus Noonan and Strassel debate John Kasich and Donald Trump debates the Fourteenth Amendment.

“Enrollment in plans that cap student-debt payments as a share of borrowers’ incomes has grown 56% over the past year, the Education Department said Thursday. As of June 30, almost 3.9 million borrowers under the federal government’s main student-loan program were enrolled in the plans,” reports the Journal.

Borrowers can reduce their monthly payments and eventually have debts forgiven in many cases—especially if they choose Obama-favored careers in government or the non-profit sector. Earlier this week the Journal reported on a Florida lawyer who plans to stick taxpayers with a $300,000 unpaid bill.

Yet even with recent expansions in such plans allowing borrowers to avoid timely repayment, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Thursday that a full 21% of student-loan borrowers are still more than 30 days delinquent. Naturally, Hillary Clinton has decided that the problem in higher education is that it needs more taxpayer funding...

Today’s lead editorial helpfully explains the history of the Fourteenth Amendment and why Donald Trump and roughly half the GOP field are wrong about babies born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants...

Continued in article

Florida lawyer who plans to stick taxpayers with a $300,000 unpaid bill.
"Grad-School Loan Binge Fans Debt Worries," by Josh Mitchell, The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/loan-binge-by-graduate-students-fans-debt-worries-1439951900?mod=djemMER

Graduate students account for 40% of borrowing; many seek federal forgiveness.

Virginia Murphy borrowed a small fortune to attend law school and pursue her dream of becoming a public defender. Now the Florida resident is among an expanding breed of American borrower: those who owe at least $100,000 in student debt but have no expectation of paying it back.

Ms. Murphy pays just $330 a month—less than the interest on her $256,000 balance—under a federal income-based repayment program that has become one of the nation’s fastest-growing entitlements. She plans to use another federal program to have her balance forgiven in about seven years, a sum set to swell by then to $300,000.

The promise of forgiveness is “the only reason I would have ever considered” amassing so much debt to attend Tulane University Law School, says Ms. Murphy, 45 years old. She earns $56,500 a year as an assistant public defender in West Palm Beach.

The doubling of student debt since the recession, to $1.19 trillion, has stoked a national discussion over how to rein in college costs and debt and is becoming a major issue in the 2016 presidential race. Little noted in the outcry is the disproportionate role played by postgraduate borrowers, who now account for roughly 40% of all student debt but represent just 14% of students in higher education.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

"Report: States Lack Consistent Standards for Literacy Teacher Preparation," by Leila Meyer, T.H.E. Journal, August 15, 2015 ---
http://thejournal.com/articles/2015/08/19/report-states-lack-consistent-standards-for-literacy-teacher-preparation.aspx

Day 830 of the IRS Scandal
Finance Committee Releases Bipartisan IRS Report, August 5, 2015 ---
http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=11f4db1f-9986-4ecb-ba61-f3a8abeb2672
The IRS successfully delayed this report for over a year.

. . .

Bipartisan findings of the report include:

• During the years 2010 to 2013, IRS management failed to provide effective control, guidance and direction over the processing of applications for tax-exempt status.

• Top IRS managers did not keep informed about the applications involving possible political advocacy and thereby forfeited the opportunity to provide the leadership that the IRS needed to respond to the legal and policy issues presented by these applications.

• Lois Lerner, who headed the Exempt Organizations Division, became aware of the Tea Party applications in early 2010, but failed to inform her superiors about their existence.  While under Lerner’s leadership, the Exempt Organizations Division undertook no less than seven poorly planned and badly executed initiatives aimed at bringing the growing number of applications from Tea Party and other groups to decision.  Every one of those initiatives ended in predictable failure and every failure resulted in months and years of delay for the organizations awaiting decisions from the IRS on their applications for tax-exempt status.

• The Committee also found that the workplace culture in the Exempt Organizations Division placed little emphasis or value on providing customer service. 
  • Few if any of the managers were concerned about the delays in processing the applications, delays that possibly harmed the organizations ability to function for their stated purposes. 

• The Committee made a number of recommendations to address IRS management deficiencies as follows:

• The Hatch Act should be revised to designate all IRS, Treasury and Chief Counsel employees who handle exempt organization matters as “further restricted.”  “Further restricted” employees are precluded from active participation in political management or partisan campaigns, even while off-duty. 

• The IRS should track the age and cycle times of applications for tax-exempt status to detect backlogs early in the process and allow management to take steps to address those backlogs. 

• The Exempt Organizations Division should track requests for assistance from both the Technical Branch and the Chief Counsel’s office to ensure the timely receipt of that assistance.

• A list of over-age applications should be sent to the Commissioner on a quarterly basis.

• Internal IRS guidance should require that employees reach a decision applications no later than 270 days after the IRS receives that application.  Employees and managers who fail to comply with these standards should be disciplined.

• Minimum training standards should be established for all managers within the EO Division to ensure that they have adequate technical ability to perform their jobs.

Issuance of the report was delayed for more than a year after the IRS belatedly informed the Committee that it had not been able to recover a large number of potentially responsive documents that were lost when Lois Lerner’s hard drive crashed in 2011. 

• By failing to locate and preserve records, making inaccurate assertions about the existence of backup data, and failing to disclose to Congress the fact that records were missing, the IRS impeded the Committee’s investigation.  These actions had the effect of denying the Committee access to records that may have been relevant and, ultimately, delayed the investigation’s conclusion by more than one year.

A table of contents for the appendix can be found here. :

Continued in article

California's  Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act" isn't living up to its promise

In the Wake of Proposition 47, California Sees a Crime Wave ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2015/08/16/in-the-wake-of-proposition-47-california-sees-a-crime-wave-n2039121?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

. . .

Gascon spokesman Alex Bastian told me, "The voters indicated that possessing small amounts of narcotics" should not constitute a felony. Californians don't want three-year sentences for drug possession. I don't, either, but on the ground, the legal fix is not living up to its hype. Prop 47 has made it easier for drug offenders to avoid mandated treatment programs. The measure reduced penalties for the theft of goods worth less than $950. Habitual offenders know that, critics say, and they've changed their habits to avoid hard time. The measure's approval also prompted the state to free some 3,700 inmates.

In San Francisco, theft from cars is up 47 percent this year over the same period in 2014. Auto theft is up by 17 percent. Robberies are up 23 percent. And aggravated assaults are up 2 percent, according to San Francisco police spokesman Carlos Manfredi. Burglaries are down 5 percent.

The City of Angels saw a 12.7 percent increase in overall crime this year, according to the Los Angeles Times; violent offenses rose 20.6 percent, while property crime rose by 11 percent. Mayor Eric Garcetti says Prop 47 may explain Los Angeles' change in course from crime reduction to crime increases.

"It used to be that if you were caught in the possession of methamphetamine, you would be arrested; you'd end up in drug court or in some other program, probably in custody receiving some type of treatment," Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig told the Daily Democrat. "Well, now the officers on the street just give them a ticket. So they have been arrested for a crime. The case actually gets forwarded to my office. We charge them with a crime, but they never show up to court. They get arrested again and are given another ticket for methamphetamine. And so we've seen that."

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell says LA substance abuse treatment rolls are down 60 percent. Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean told the Ventura County Reporter that Prop 47 got drug offenders out of jail "but it also got them out of treatment." He also believes the measure will increase violent crime, as substance abusers commit more robberies and assaults.

Continued in article

RANKED Based On Default Swap Market: The world's national debts, from safest to most Risky ---
http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-riskiest-sovereign-bonds-ranked-2015-8#ixzz3imnTxc63

"Greece has a new bailout, but there's a 'Catch 22' ," by Alastair Macdonald, Business Insider, August 14, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-bailout-imf-still-balking-2015-8

. . .

"There's a bit of a Catch 22 that we need to solve," said Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb, whose government was among those most ready to favor a Greek exit from the euro before a last-minute deal struck by EU leaders a month ago.

"The IMF wants to be involved only if there is debt relief; we want the IMF to be involved but we don't want debt relief. Some kind of solution will have to be found."

"The IMF is on board as concerns program conditionality," said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission's vice president for the euro. "We know that IMF has its own program, but we do not expect a formal decision on this today."

Read ,more at  http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-bailout-imf-still-balking-2015-8#ixzz3ishC5hZg

Brazil's President could be brought down by a massive accounting scandal ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fiscal-probe-for-brazils-rousseff-poses-impeachment-threat-2015-8#ixzz3iWwU1D2H

Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Thomas Piketty --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty

"Piketty's Doom Scenario of Inequality in the Twenty-First Century,"
SSRN
July 31, 2015

Author

Adriaan Ten Kate Sr.

Link
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2638480 

Abstract

For Piketty there are two laws of capitalism and one fundamental inequality which, taken together, drive us towards a world of increasing inequality. For what is left of the twenty-first century he foresees a less meritocratic society with an enhanced role for inherited wealth. In this article I do not criticize the data on which his conclusions are based, but his reasoning. I show that his laws of capitalism are accounting identities valid by definition, regardless of the way society is organized and that his fundamental inequality compares incomparable variables. I argue that his concept of inherited wealth is poorly defined and susceptible to wide margins of interpretation. In my opinion, there is no need to be so pessimistic. To avoid misunderstanding, I do believe there are reasons to be concerned about increasing inequalities, but I do not think there is an iron mechanism ingrained in the capitalist system that drives us inevitably to an ever less equal world, as suggested by Piketty.

Krugman Slams Piketty's 'New' Book On Inequality ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/08/krugman-slams-pikettys-new-book-on-inequality.html

Jensen Comment
Stanford University had a professor of management in the 1960s who made a lot of money selling his textbook. In tiny fonts it was typed  on very large index cards in a clever way where he could get a new edition by merely shuffling the deck for each chapter and then re-arranging the chapters.

"Candidates and Their Lobbyist Piñatas," by Joel Jankowsky, The Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/candidates-and-their-lobbyist-pinatas-1439335154?tesla=y

Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig Eyes Protest Bid for (USA) President ---
Med Bernhard --- http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/harvard-professor-lawrence-lessig-eyes-protest-bid-for-president/103005?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law School professor and Internet-law expert, is exploring a run for president, The New York Times reports. Mr. Lessig, a prominent copyright scholar who helped found the nonprofit organization Creative Commons in 2002, wrote on his blog that, if elected, he would be a “referendum president” who would push forward a package of reforms and then promptly resign from the post.

Mr. Lessig has already opened his own campaign website, where he describes his proposed Citizen Equality Act, a package of three reforms aimed at fixing a “corrupt political system.” The legislation focuses on creating equal voting rights, promoting citizen-funded elections, and ending partisan gerrymandering.

Continued in article

"The Coddling of the American Mind," by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Atlantic, September 2015 ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.

Something strange is happening at America’s colleges and universities. A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense. Last December, Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law—or, in one case, even use the word violate (as in “that violates the law”) lest it cause students distress. In February, Laura Kipnis, a professor at Northwestern University, wrote an essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education describing a new campus politics of sexual paranoia—and was then subjected to a long investigation after students who were offended by the article and by a tweet she’d sent filed Title IX complaints against her. In June, a professor protecting himself with a pseudonym wrote an essay for Vox describing how gingerly he now has to teach. “I’m a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” the headline said. A number of popular comedians, including Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college campuses (see Caitlin Flanagan’s article in this month’s issue). Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke.

. . .

Finally, universities should rethink the skills and values they most want to impart to their incoming students. At present, many freshman-orientation programs try to raise student sensitivity to a nearly impossible level. Teaching students to avoid giving unintentional offense is a worthy goal, especially when the students come from many different cultural backgrounds. But students should also be taught how to live in a world full of potential offenses. Why not teach incoming students how to practice cognitive behavioral therapy? Given high and rising rates of mental illness, this simple step would be among the most humane and supportive things a university could do. The cost and time commitment could be kept low: a few group training sessions could be supplemented by Web sites or apps. But the outcome could pay dividends in many ways. For example, a shared vocabulary about reasoning, common distortions, and the appropriate use of evidence to draw conclusions would facilitate critical thinking and real debate. It would also tone down the perpetual state of outrage that seems to engulf some colleges these days, allowing students’ minds to open more widely to new ideas and new people. A greater commitment to formal, public debate on campus—and to the assembly of a more politically diverse faculty—would further serve that goal.

Thomas Jefferson, upon founding the University of Virginia, said:

This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

We believe that this is still—and will always be—the best attitude for American universities. Faculty, administrators, students, and the federal government all have a role to play in restoring universities to their historic mission.

Common Cognitive Disorders
A partial list from Robert L. Leahy, Stephen J. F. Holland, and Lata K. McGinn’s Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders (2012).

.  . .

Dichotomous thinking. You view events or people in all-or-nothing terms. “I get rejected by everyone,” or “It was a complete waste of time.”

9. Blaming. You focus on the other person as the source of your negative feelings, and you refuse to take responsibility for changing yourself. “She’s to blame for the way I feel now,” or “My parents caused all my problems.”

10. What if? You keep asking a series of questions about “what if” something happens, and you fail to be satisfied with any of the answers. “Yeah, but what if I get anxious?,” or “What if I can’t catch my breath?”

11. Emotional reasoning. You let your feelings guide your interpretation of reality. “I feel depressed; therefore, my marriage is not working out.”

12. Inability to disconfirm. You reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict your negative thoughts. For example, when you have the thought I’m unlovable, you reject as irrelevant any evidence that people like you. Consequently, your thought cannot be refuted. “That’s not the real issue. There are deeper problems. There are other factors.”

 

How naive can a University of Wisconsin leader (a former assistant district attorney) get?
Shoplifting should be allowed in big box stores because the companies can get shoplifting insurance?
http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/21/wisconsin-college-admin-police-shouldnt-prosecute-shoplifters-video/

. . .

“I just don’t think that they should be prosecuting (shoplifting) cases … for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I just don’t think that, right?” said UW-Madison director of community relations Everett Mitchell. “I don’t think [with] Target or all them other places, them big box stores that have insurance, they should be using justification, the fact that people steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police practices, right?”

Everett’s remarks were made Tuesday as part of a UW-Madison panel on the topic of “Best Policing Practices.” Everett argued that community police shouldn’t prioritize enforcing the law, but instead should focus on achieving “safety” as it is defined by a local community, even if that definition includes allowing some stores to be robbed with impunity.

Read more:
http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/21/wisconsin-college-admin-police-shouldnt-prosecute-shoplifters-video/#ixzz3jTvWGQfY

Jensen Comment
Using the same reasoning homeowners who cannot get an adequate price for their houses should be allowed to burn them down for the insurance.

Doesn't Everett realize that the price of shoplifting insurance would go through the roof if shoplifters were not restrained by the law? The ultimate price of allowing shoplifting will be the loss of the stores where shoplifting is not prosecuted. The poorest neighborhoods once again will be those either without stores or without shopping freedoms.

For example, while at a conference in San Francisco I went to a nearby liquor store. The clerks and all the merchandise were behind bars and bulletproof glass. Shoppers could not pick up bottles and read labels. They had to either wait for a clerk to hold the bottle up to the bulletproof glass or buy the product without inspecting the label. In order to buy a bottle, the money (cash only) had to be put into a slider drawer where it was impossible to point a gun through even a tiny hole. This would not be a good way to sell shoes, clothing, and any product that customers like to try out before making a purchase.

There will be no big box stores in neighborhoods that do not prosecute shop lifting. If traffic laws (like speeding limits) are not enforced it will be dangerous just to be on the roads and sidewalks. Since black lives matter let's protect the black victims of crimes.

This entire movement to reduce prosecuting crime makes no sense to me. Reducing prosecutions increases to number of victims (black as well as white and the cost of crime itself. How often are armed home invaders committing crimes out of desperation to get money to buy drugs on the street? There are exceptions of course. I'm reminded of a case years back where a guy mugged a tourist because of an urgent need to get a higher-priced massage in a massage parlor.

Exhibit A:  California's  Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act" isn't living up to its promise
In the Wake of Proposition 47, California Sees a Crime Wave ---
http://townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2015/08/16/in-the-wake-of-proposition-47-california-sees-a-crime-wave-n2039121?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

. . .

Gascon spokesman Alex Bastian told me, "The voters indicated that possessing small amounts of narcotics" should not constitute a felony. Californians don't want three-year sentences for drug possession. I don't, either, but on the ground, the legal fix is not living up to its hype. Prop 47 has made it easier for drug offenders to avoid mandated treatment programs. The measure reduced penalties for the theft of goods worth less than $950. Habitual offenders know that, critics say, and they've changed their habits to avoid hard time. The measure's approval also prompted the state to free some 3,700 inmates.

In San Francisco, theft from cars is up 47 percent this year over the same period in 2014. Auto theft is up by 17 percent. Robberies are up 23 percent. And aggravated assaults are up 2 percent, according to San Francisco police spokesman Carlos Manfredi. Burglaries are down 5 percent.

The City of Angels saw a 12.7 percent increase in overall crime this year, according to the Los Angeles Times; violent offenses rose 20.6 percent, while property crime rose by 11 percent. Mayor Eric Garcetti says Prop 47 may explain Los Angeles' change in course from crime reduction to crime increases.

"It used to be that if you were caught in the possession of methamphetamine, you would be arrested; you'd end up in drug court or in some other program, probably in custody receiving some type of treatment," Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig told the Daily Democrat. "Well, now the officers on the street just give them a ticket. So they have been arrested for a crime. The case actually gets forwarded to my office. We charge them with a crime, but they never show up to court. They get arrested again and are given another ticket for methamphetamine. And so we've seen that."

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell says LA substance abuse treatment rolls are down 60 percent. Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean told the Ventura County Reporter that Prop 47 got drug offenders out of jail "but it also got them out of treatment." He also believes the measure will increase violent crime, as substance abusers commit more robberies and assaults.

Continued in article

Friedrich Hayek --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek

Hayek’s most striking intellectual trait was one uncommon in academic life – independence of mind, which enabled him to swim against some of the most powerful currents of the age.
John Gray --- http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/07/john-gray-friedrich-hayek-i-knew-and-what-he-got-right-and-wrong

Milton Friedman --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman

In Honor of His 103rd Birthday, Here Are The 20 Best Quotes From The Late, Great Milton Friedman --- Click Here
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2015/08/01/in-honor-of-his-103rd-birthday-here-are-the-20-best-quotes-from-the-late-great-milton-friedman-n2033298?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

1) “I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing. Unless it is politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing, the right people will not do the right thing either, or if they try, they will shortly be out of office.”

2) "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."

3) "Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."

4) "There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income."

5) "Workers paying taxes today can derive no assurance from trust funds that they will receive benefits from when they retire. Any assurance derives solely from the willingness of future taxpayers to impose taxes on themselves to pay for benefits that present taxpayers are promising themselves. This one sided 'compact between the generations,’ foisted on generations that cannot give their consent, is a very different thing from a 'trust fund.' It is more like a chain letter."

6) “The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.”

7)“We economists don't know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can't sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. It's the same with oil or gas.”

8) "I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintenance of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing and it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind. It requires a willingness to put up with temporary evils on the basis of the subtle and sophisticated understanding that if you step in to do something about them you not only may make them worse, you will spread your tentacles and get bad results elsewhere."

9) "When the United States was formed in 1776, it took 19 people on the farm to produce enough food for 20 people. So most of the people had to spend their time and efforts on growing food. Today, it's down to 1% or 2% to produce that food. Now just consider the vast amount of supposed unemployment that was produced by that. But there wasn't really any unemployment produced. What happened was that people who had formerly been tied up working in agriculture were freed by technological developments and improvements to do something else. That enabled us to have a better standard of living and a more extensive range of products."

10) "There is all the difference in the world, however, between two kinds of assistance through government that seem superficially similar: first, 90 percent of us agreeing to impose taxes on ourselves in order to help the bottom 10 percent, and second, 80 percent voting to impose taxes on the top 10 percent to help the bottom 10 percent - William Graham Sumner's famous example of B and C decided what D shall do for A. The first may be wise or unwise, an effective or ineffective way to help the disadvantaged - but it is consistent with belief in both equality of opportunity and liberty. The second seeks equality of outcome and is entirely antithetical to liberty."

Continued in article

Finding and Using Health Statistics --- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Inspector General's report warns that billions in federal loans might not be repaid.
"Obamacare’s Government-Backed Nonprofit Health Plans Are a Disaster—and Could Cost Taxpayers Billions," by Peter Suderman, Reason Magazine, July 31, 2015 ---
http://reason.com/blog/2015/07/31/obamacares-government-backed-nonprofit-h 

The federal government shelled out $2.4 billion in loans to a series of non-profit health plans under Obamacare, but now they’re struggling to stay alive.

The plans, dubbed CO-OPs (Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans) were intended to increase competition in the insurance market and serve as a check on private insurers by providing an alternative that wasn’t focused on profit. They were a compromise measure intended to satisfy liberals who wanted the law to set up a fully government-run health insurance option. 

As it turns out, Obamacare’s CO-OPs weren’t focused on profit—or, it seems, financial viability of any kind.

The CO-OPs have struggled to meet enrollment targets, with 13 of the 23 non-profit plans showing “considerably lower” enrollment than projected, according to a report by the Health and Human Services Inspector General. Finances were shaky all around with 21 of 23 plans incurring losses through the end of 2014, the report says.

This isn’t just a problem for the CO-OPs. It’s a problem for the taxpayers. The $2.4 billion in loans given to these startup plans were supposed to be repaid to the government with interest. Loans given to start the plans were supposed to be repaid in five years; “solvency” loans were supposed to be repaid in 15 years.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

From the CPA Newsletter on August 21, 2015

How the Affordable Care Act changed Medicare taxes
http://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2015/aug/navigating-murky-medicare-tax-waters-for-small-business-owners.html
The health care law added an additional Medicare tax on wages above a certain threshold for high-income taxpayers and the net investment income tax, which applies to unearned income. This article explains how these new taxes affect high-income individuals and small-business owners. The Tax Adviser (8/2015)

"Taxpayers' health care costs are rising — and so are the profits of big pharmaceutical companies," by Eric Pianin, The Fiscal Times via Business Insider, July 30, 2015 --- 
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/30/Drug-Company-Profits-Soar-Taxpayers-Foot-Bill#ixzz3hTDtCglN

t was a coincidence hard to overlook: The government released a new report on Tuesday projecting rising health care costs for the coming decade while a major pharmaceutical company issued a new earnings report showing extraordinary profits on the sale of new wonder drugs.

While drug spending increased by a modest 2.5 percent in 2013, it surged by 12.6 percent last year according to estimates in a new report on trends in health care costs by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Read more:
 http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/30/Drug-Company-Profits-Soar-Taxpayers-Foot-Bill#ixzz3hTEWcL3G

Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on medicine ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine

The Atlantic: Health: Family --- http://www.theatlantic.com/health/category/family/

Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm 

Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Summary of Major Accounting Scandals --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals

Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:

Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Enron --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

Rotten to the Core --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

American History of Fraud --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm

Bob Jensen's fraud conclusions ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on corporate governance are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

·     With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier

·     With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams

·     With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR

·     With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave  --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Bob Jensen's threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/