Tidbits
Political Quotations
To Accompany the September 11, 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/
Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:
Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm
Table of Contents
Funding Losers
Communications Juggernauts in Crossover Voting Frauds
Funding Opponent Scandals
FlackCheck.org ---
http://www.flackcheck.org
Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the
University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org offers resources that help students
"recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular"
Bloggingheads.tv (political commentary --- http://bloggingheads.tv/
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
Denmark has a clear message for the many
migrants and refugees looking to seek safety from Northern Africa and the Middle
East: Don't come here.
http://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-to-refugees-dont-come-2015-9#ixzz3lAdw13pV
Turns out the Cold War is not over either. Putin is
intent on reviving it. Helped immensely by Obama's epic misjudgment of Russian
intentions, the balance of power has shifted — and America's allies feel it.
Charles Krauthammer, The
Washington Post
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-obama-administrations-reset-with-russia-has-only-benefitted-putin-2015-8
As John Kerry awaits his upcoming Nobel and Obama
plans his presidential library (my suggestion: Havana), Putin is deciding how to
best exploit the final 17 months of his Obama bonanza. The world sees it. Obama
doesn't.
Charles Krauthammer, The
Washington Post
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-obama-administrations-reset-with-russia-has-only-benefitted-putin-2015-8
Hamas just released a video showing off their
rebuilt Gaza tunnels ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/hamas-show-video-of-rebuilt-tunnels-2015-8
London is the most congested city in Europe ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/traffic-congestion-in-london-2015-8
An ominous precedent is lurking over Hillary
Clinton's email scandal ---
Marc A. Thiessen, The
Washington Post ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/theres-an-ominous-precedent-lurking-over-hillary-clintons-email-scandal-2015-8#ixzz3jpnWXsYu
Hillary Clinton has tried to confuse the public
about the definition of “classified,” but some in the press corps are cutting
though the fog. We’re learning, in particular, that Mrs. Clinton’s self-serving
decision to use a private email server for official communications may have
resulted in far greater mishandling of classified information.
Sidney Blumenthal ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillarys-classified-falsehoods-1441236307?mod=djemMER
Donald Trump Is Running A Perpetual Attention
Machine ---
Nate Silver ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/donald-trump-is-running-a-perpetual-attention-machine/
Jensen Comment
Something like Lady Gaga and Madonna who found that any kind of attention, even
negative attention, has a payoff. The worst thing is to be ignored.
Trump’s Policy Papers Are Empty Gimmicks ---
Peter Suderman ---
http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-policy-papers-are-empty-gimmicks-365797
Democratic candidates are actually off-target on
student debt
Editorial Board of The Washington
Post ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/democratic-candidates-are-actually-off-target-on-student-debt-2015-8
The myth of Joe Biden's political appeal. During his
2008 presidential run, Biden performed abysmally, dropping out after getting
less than 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Since becoming veep, he
has not been particularly well-liked among the public, with more people usually
viewing him unfavorably than favorably. He's performed worse than Clinton in
most polls testing both of them against major Republicans.
---
Andrew Prokop ---
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/4/9091043/joe-biden-2016-president
Most Of The Biden Speculation Is Malarkey ---
Nate Silver's 5:38 Blog ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/most-of-the-speculation-about-a-joe-biden-presidential-run-is-malarkey/
Not only has energy as a group generally fallen, but
the vast majority of individual energy stocks themselves have also collapsed in
value. In fact, since the start of 2015, only 1 out of every 6 newly issued
stocks or bonds in the energy space has appreciated in value.
Michael McDonald ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-bad-its-gotten-for-energy-stocks-2015-8
EPA Spill Conspiracy Theories Gain Traction in Utah
Legislature ---
Zoë Schlanger ---
http://www.newsweek.com/epa-spill-conspiracy-theories-gain-traction-utah-legislature-365819
A federal judge has blasted its new Clean
Water Rule as unscientific.
The Wall Street Journal ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-epas-water-woes-1441322262?mod=djemMER
Most of the
trillions of fiat dollars the Federal Reserve Bank has pumped into the U.S.
economy as part of its Quantitative Easing (QE) strategy since 2009 have gone
directly into the stock market, inflating the value of stocks to unsustainable
levels.
Greg Lewis ---
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/_the_china_syndrome.html
For the past quarter of a century, China’s economy
has been rising to what many analysts have claimed is a level that will
challenge the U.S. for the title of largest economy in the world. In fact, the
Chinese economy, fueled by state-funded credit and money-printing, has enabled
the size of the Chinese stock market to rise to dangerously overblown levels
more than 50 times higher than they were only two decades ago.
Greg Lewis ---
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/_the_china_syndrome.html
The Work Versus Welfare
Program in Europe: What High Welfare European Nations Trap People in
Poverty ---
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa779_1.pdf
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/
Election Gaming "Fraud" in Primary Elections in the USA:
Making Sure Your General Election Opponent is a Real Loser
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudulentElections.htm
Table of Contents
Funding Losers
Communications Juggernauts in Crossover Voting Frauds
Funding Opponent Scandals
The Week In Congress --- http://theweekincongress.com/
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Question
What do courses on athletes' transcripts at the University of North Carolina and
women on Ashley Madison's Website have in common?
Answer
Lots of them were fake:
UNC fakery for 20 years ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#RebeccaHoward
(scroll down to UNC)
Ashley Madison where the majority of the women were fake ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/ashley-madison-almost-no-women-2015-8
"Islam and Slavery: The Persistence of History,"
The Economist, August 22, 2015 ---
http://www.economist.com/news/international/21661812-islamic-states-revival-slavery-extreme-though-it-finds-disquieting-echoes-across
As they look for crowd-pleasing solutions to the
college debt "crisis," the Democratic candidates aren't making the right
distinctions.
Democratic candidates are actually off-target on student debt, Editorial
Board of The Washington Post ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/democratic-candidates-are-actually-off-target-on-student-debt-2015-8
Jensen Comment
Bernie Sanders is somewhat realistic. He realizes that when everybody has a
college diploma it will be even harder for them to find a job commensurate with
their education. So he leans toward the (former) Greek solution. Put them to
work doing almost nothing on the government payrolls (but not in the military).
And how do we pay for that? The Greek solution was to borrow more and more until
the Greek government could borrow no more with Paul Krugman applauding all the
way to economic Hell.
Most of the
trillions of fiat dollars the Federal Reserve Bank has pumped into the U.S.
economy as part of its Quantitative Easing (QE) strategy since 2009 have gone
directly into the stock market, inflating the value of stocks to unsustainable
levels.
Greg Lewis ---
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/_the_china_syndrome.html
For the past quarter of a century, China’s economy
has been rising to what many analysts have claimed is a level that will
challenge the U.S. for the title of largest economy in the world. In fact, the
Chinese economy, fueled by state-funded credit and money-printing, has enabled
the size of the Chinese stock market to rise to dangerously overblown levels
more than 50 times higher than they were only two decades ago.
Greg Lewis ---
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/_the_china_syndrome.html
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 26, 2015
The late-day selloff in U.S. stock markets Tuesday shattered the veneer of stability that had settled over global markets after China’s central bank moved to stanch the stock-market rout. The Dow industrials have now shed 11% after six straight days of losses, and Tuesday’s drop underscored that the pain sparked by China’s surprise devaluation of its currency earlier this month has yet to come to an end. Wall Street traders are betting that the adjustment isn’t over with increasing bets against the yuan.
China is in the midst of a tectonic shift in its giant economy that is rattling markets world-wide. The country is transitioning from an era when smokestack industries, huge exports and massive infrastructure spending—underpinned by trillions in state-backed debt—powered China’s seemingly unstoppable rise. Instead of them, China is pushing services, consumer spending and private entrepreneurship as new drivers of growth that rely less on debt and more on the stock market for funding.
The market tumult has exposed flaws in the new architecture of Wall Street, where stock-linked funds, as much as the shares themselves, trade en masse. For instance, circuit breakers, which are designed to pause trading in single stocks and ETFs during big moves, were triggered nearly 1,300 times Monday. The circuit breakers were added to make markets more orderly after the May 2010 “flash crash,” but Monday, they sometimes exacerbated problems by preventing prices from returning to normal levels quickly.
Jensen Comment
Shifts from public debt to private equity mean a greater need for
integrity of financial reporting and market regulation/enforcement that underlie
trust of investors in capital markets. This rarely happens in highly corrupt
economies.
"Wal-Mart to Stop Selling Semiautomatic
Rifles, Citing Declining Demand," by Paul Ziobro, The Wall Street Journal,
August 26, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-to-stop-selling-semiautomatic-rifles-citing-declining-demand-1440616954?mod=djemCFO_h
The Work Versus Welfare Program in
Europe: What High Welfare European Nations Trap People in Poverty ---
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa779_1.pdf
If welfare benefits become too generous, they can create a significant incentive that encourages recipients to remain “on the dole” rather than to seek employment. Benefits in European Union (EU) countries vary widely, but in many of them, benefits are high relative to what an individual could expect to earn from a low-wage or entry-level job. For example, for a single parent with two children in 2013—
■ Welfare benefits in nine EU countries exceeded €15,000 ($18,200) per year. In six countries, benefits exceeded €20,000 ($24,300). Denmark offers the most generous benefit package, valued at €31,709 ($38,558). ■ In nine countries, welfare benefits exceeded the minimum wage in that country.■ Benefits in 11 countries exceeded half of the net income for someone earning the average wage in that country, and in 6 countries it exceeded 60 percent of the net average wage income.
■ In Austria, Croatia, and Denmark, the effective marginal tax rate for someone leaving welfare for work was nearly 100 percent, meaning that a person would gain virtually no additional income from working. In
another 16 countries, individuals would face an effective marginal tax rate in excess of 50 percent.■ Benefits in the United States fit comfortably into the mainstream of welfare states. Excluding Medicaid, the United States would rank 10th among the EU nations analyzed, more generous than France and slightly less generous than Sweden. Thirty-five states offer a package more generous than the mean benefit package offered in the European countries analyzed.
Many European countries have recognized the problem and have begun to reform their welfare systems to create a better transition from welfare to work. In fact, the United States is falling behind some European countries with regard to welfare reform. Countries that are serious about reducing welfare dependency and rewarding work should consider strengthening work requirements, establishing time limits for participation, and tightening eligibility. Perhaps more important, countries should examine the level of benefits available and the effective marginal tax rates their welfare systems create, with an eye toward reducing disincentives and encouraging work.
Continued in article
Bob Jensen's threads on the American
Dream ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htm
What big USA government program has not
been a piñata for enormous fraud?
September 4, 2015 message from Dennis Huber
The nation's premier federal program that provides work for people who are severely disabled is mired in widespread corruption, financial fraud and violations of the law, numerous sources tell CNN. And instead of helping the severely disabled find work, the taxpayer-funded agency is at times allowing jobs to be taken away from the disabled, the sources say.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/27/us/disabled-work-program-investigation/
Bob Jensen's Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
"Obama has done the unthinkable
with his Syria policy," by Fred Hyatt, The Washington Post, September
7, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-has-done-the-unthinkable-with-his-syria-policy-2015-9
This may be the most surprising of President Obama's foreign-policy legacies: not just that he presided over a humanitarian and cultural disaster of epochal proportions, but that he soothed the American people into feeling no responsibility for the tragedy.
Starvation in Biafra a generation ago sparked a movement.
Synagogues and churches a decade ago mobilized to relieve misery in Darfur. When the Taliban in 2001 destroyed ancient statues of Buddha at Bamiyan, the world was appalled at the lost heritage.
Today the Islamic State is blowing up precious cultural monuments in Palmyra, and half of all Syrians have been displaced — as if, on a proportional basis, 160 million Americans had been made homeless. More than a quarter-million have been killed. Yet the "Save Darfur" signs have not given way to "Save Syria."
One reason is that Obama — who ran for president on the promise of restoring the United States' moral stature — has constantly reassured Americans that doing nothing is the smart and moral policy. He has argued, at times, that there was nothing the United States could do, belittling the Syrian opposition as "former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth."
He has argued that we would only make things worse — "I am more mindful probably than most," he told the New Republic in 2013, "of not only our incredible strengths and capabilities, but also our limitations."
He has implied that because we can't solve every problem, maybe we shouldn't solve any. "How do I weigh tens of thousands who've been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?" he asked (though at the time thousands were not being killed in Congo).
On those rare occasions when political pressure or the horrors of Syrian suffering threatened to overwhelm any excuse for inaction, he promised action, in statements or White House leaks: training for the opposition, a safe zone on the Turkish border. Once public attention moved on, the plans were abandoned or scaled back to meaningless proportions (training 50 soldiers per year, no action on the Turkish border).
Perversely, the worse Syria became, the more justified the president seemed for staying aloof; steps that might have helped in 2012 seemed ineffectual by 2013, and actions that could have saved lives in 2013 would not have been up to the challenge presented by 2014. The fact that the woman who wrote the book on genocide, Samantha Power, and the woman who campaigned to bomb Sudan to save the people of Darfur, Susan Rice, could apparently in good conscience stay on as U.N. ambassador and national security adviser, respectively, lent further moral credibility to U.S. abdication.
Most critically, inaction was sold not as a necessary evil but as a notable achievement: The United States at last was leading with the head, not the heart, and with modesty, not arrogance. "Realists" pointed out that the United States gets into trouble when it lets ideals or emotions rule — when it sends soldiers to feed the hungry in Somalia, for example, only to lose them, as told in " Black Hawk Down," and turn tail.
"Scarborough Thanks MSNBC Boss for
Booting Liberal Hosts," by Mark Finkelstein. Newsbusters, August 27,
2015 ---
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/08/27/scarborough-thanks-msnbc-boss-booting-liberal-hosts
The morning after Al Sharpton was booted to the Sunday morning desert from his evening show, and not long after Ed Schultz and Alex Wagner were relieved of their hosting duties, Joe Scarborough has profusely thanked NBC News honcho Andrew Lack for making those changes.On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough was discussing stunning poll results in which the first word that came to voters' minds about Hillary was "liar." Asked what was the worst thing said about him in such polling, Scarborough said "he works for MSNBC was always the worst." But Joe then added, his hands steepled in a gesture of gratefulness: "not any more though, cause things have changed. Thank you, Andy. Thank you very much."
- See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/08/27/scarborough-thanks-msnbc-boss-booting-liberal-hosts#sthash.byYatAsk.dpufThe morning after Al Sharpton was booted to the Sunday morning desert from his evening show, and not long after Ed Schultz and Alex Wagner were relieved of their hosting duties, Joe Scarborough has profusely thanked NBC News honcho Andrew Lack for making those changes.
On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough was discussing stunning poll results in which the first word that came to voters' minds about Hillary was "liar." Asked what was the worst thing said about him in such polling, Scarborough said "he works for MSNBC was always the worst." But Joe then added, his hands steepled in a gesture of gratefulness: "not any more though, cause things have changed. Thank you, Andy. Thank you very much."
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
Making MSNBC less partisan and firing or moving some of its controversial
liberal activists is terrible news for the Republican Party. The GOP was relying
more heavily for vots in the 2016 election.
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
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 26, 2015
More than a quarter of employers expected to face “Cadillac tax.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/08/25/more-than-a-quarter-of-employers-expected-to-face-cadillac-tax/?mod=djemCFO_h
One in four companies are likely to be impacted by the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health plans when it begins in 2018—and that could almost double in 10 years, CFO Journal’s Emily Chasan reports.
Bob Jensen's universal health care messaging --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on August 27, 2015
Insurers win big health-rate increases
http://www.wsj.com/articles/insurers-win-big-health-rate-increases-1440628848?mod=djemCFO_h
Several insurance regulators throughout the country have approved big premium increases sought by the largest health plans in their states for the new health-law sign-up season that begins Nov. 1.
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/