Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the March 29, 2016 edition of Tidbits
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2016/tidbits032916.htm       
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
 And he wasn't even thinking about Jihads in those days but I am thinking Jihads these days

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 you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
Randy Pausch --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm#Randy

 

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

Americans bought more legal pot than Girl Scout cookies in 2015 ---
http://qz.com/638605/americans-bought-more-legal-pot-than-girl-scout-cookies-in-2015/

The Daily Show skewered all of Hillary Clinton’s recent gaffes. It’s hard to watch ---
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/16/11244294/daily-show-hillary-clinton-gaffes

The Trumptionary (Trump's Words) ---
http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/03/17/the-trumptionary-part-2/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=989427d71b7f4e969a23a5690d004705&elq=d2176100d43640dbb83c4b50da311cd9&elqaid=8312&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2698

According to newly released data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 124 illegal immigrant criminals who were released from prison by the Obama administration have been charged with 135 murders since 2010 ---
Leah Barkoukis ---
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2016/03/14/unreal-124-criminal-aliens-released-by-obama-admin-policies-charged-in-135-murder-cases-n2133838?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Also see
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/insight-obamas-prisoner-clemency-plan-faltering-as-cases-pile-up/ar-AAgKpji?ocid=spartanntp

Germany is Making a Radical Change in Its Rape Laws ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-germany-tightening-rape-law-in-wake-of-cologne-assaults-2016-3

Australia’s Gun 'Buyback' Created a Violent Firearms Black Market. Why Should the U.S. Do the Same? ---
http://reason.com/archives/2016/03/22/australias-gun-buyback-created-a-violent

Strange things happen in USA politics. In 2017 the risk of President Hillary Clinton recommending only liberal candidates for the Supreme Court are high. That would suggest that it might be better to for the GOP to accept a reasonable Obama appointment while the Republicans still control the Senate in 2016. What I think is driving the GOP strategy of refusing an Obama recommendation, however, is to make conservative-leaning voters in Novenber 2016 fearful that a Democratic Party-controlled Senate in 2017 will approve a very liberal Supreme Court candidate. Therefore, the GOP adopted a strategy in 2016 to make voters want to leave the GOP in control of the 2017 Senate or face the prospect of having a Supreme Court that rubber stamp liberal issues. Thus the 2016 GOP strategy of delaying a Supreme Court appointment is really a strategy to help the GOP retain control of the Senate.
Bob Jensen

Judge Merrick Garland’s 19-year tenure on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals “demonstrates a reliable vote for progressive causes . . . After studying the Garland record NFIB concludes he would be “a strong ally of the regulatory bureaucracy, big labor and trial lawyers.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-supreme-politicsobamas-supreme-politics-1458170388?mod=djemMER

The Worst Campaign Promises of 2016 ---
http://reason.com/archives/2016/03/16/the-worst-campaign-promises-of-2016

Strange things happen in USA politics. Black-Lives-Matter activist thugs, including those who stormed the Dartmouth campus library, are now hurting Republican Party efforts get rid of Donald Trump among GOP voters. Do these thugs realize they may be hurting the Democratic Party in Congressional voting outcomes simply by bringing more and more fearful conservative voters to the polling places?
Bob Jensen

Time Magazine States:
Trump’s crowds, indeed, are convinced that this is an effort to sabotage their candidate—and are vowing to campaign harder and shout louder to help get Trump to the White House. “He’s talking about making America great again,” said Natalia Lesko, a 50-year-old Novelty, Ohio, resident who has internalized Trump’s slogan as Gospel. “There is nothing that these protesters can say to change my mind. Trump is my guy.”
Why protesters help Donald Trump (Time Magazine) ---
http://time.com/4256684/donald-trump-protests-help/?xid=newsletter-brief

As Rachel Maddow is beginning to suspect, Donald Trump set a trap at the University of Illinois at Chicago and young Sanders advocates fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Nothing brings out Republican voters like Ferguson-styled riots that in Chicago years ago became the beginning of the end for violent confrontations by socialists ---
Bob Jensen
See Rachel's take at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/13/rachel-maddow-donald-trump-campaign-violence-no-accident

Donald Trump’s Victory Speech Is a Reminder That He’s the Ultimate Scam Pitchman ---
Peter Suderman --- http://reason.com/blog/2016/03/08/donald-trumps-victory-speech-is-a-remind

Mitt Romney awoke a sleeping giant -
Judge Jeanine --- http://video.foxnews.com/v/4788291323001/judge-jeanine-mitt-romney-awoke-a-sleeping-giant/?intcmp=hpvid1#sp=show-clips

Will the GOP Break Apart or Evolve? ---
Peggy Noonan --- http://www.wsj.com/articles/will-the-gop-break-apart-or-evolve-1458257138?mod=djemMER 

Trump’s rise illustrates how democratic processes can lose their way ---
Larry Summers --- http://larrysummers.com/2016/03/01/6428/ 
Jensen Comment
Perhaps the anti-establishment democratic processes are working but just not in a way that Larry Summers would like.Trump's rise shows how desperate they are to have their voices heard.
Trump Asked to Denounce David Duke -- But Not Farrakhan --- 
http://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2016/03/17/trump-asked-to-denounce-david-duke--but-not-farrakhan-n2134939?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Larry David returned to 'Saturday Night Live' to reprise his role as Bernie Sanders ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-david-bernie-sanders-impersonation-saturday-night-live-snl-supporters-2016-3

Mr. Sanders’s own political career illustrates what can happen when a revolutionary has no ground troops. For 25 years in Congress, Mr. Sanders has held fast to his progressive message and principles. But he hasn’t gotten many big things done. As an uncompromising political independent, his outsider status has largely prevented him from attracting the support that would be needed among Democrats to turn into law his liberal ideals on health care, on college education and on fighting poverty and climate change . . . Mr. Sanders’s supporters say his election will inspire more such candidacies, giving him the congressional backup he needs. But given Democrats’ problems on the state and local level, that could take years — and that’s evolution, not revolution
Editorial Board of The New York Times --- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/opinion/sunday/the-bernie-sanders-revolution.html?_r=0

Who votes for Trump aside from crossover Democrats in the primaries who just want to GOP to have the candidate most likely to lose the general election? ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/here%e2%80%99s-who-supports-donald-trump-%e2%80%94-and-why/ar-BBqhHuj?ocid=spartanntp

 

If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates ---
Jay Leno

The problem with political jokes is that they get appointed to office ---
Henry Cate

 

A moral hazard moocher strategy:  
A very poor parent in public housing might feed a child as much lead as it takes to win a lawsuit of $5 million from the government. That way the kid is sacrificed for the drug addiction of a legal-savvy immoral parent.
Bob Jensen
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-probes-new-york-city-over-lead-at-public-housing-court-filing-2016-3

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

Top Republicans are working hard to help Bernie Sanders ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-works-hard-to-help-bernie-sanders-2016-1 

Is Donald Trump a Democratic secret agent?
Anthony Zurcher --- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35066940

 

Trump part of conspiracy to ensure Clinton presidency ---
Jeb Bush --- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/8/jeb-bush-suggests-donald-trump-part-of-conspiracy-/
Jensen Question
Is such a conspiracy necessary given the slate of losers running as GOP candidates for President in 2016?

The Black Panther: Newspaper of the Black Panther Party ---  https://libcom.org/history/black-panther-newspaper-black-panther-party

More than half of the black and Latino students who take the state teacher licensing exam in Massachusetts fail, at rates that are high enough that many minority college students are starting to avoid teacher training programs, The Boston Globe reported. The failure rates are 54 percent (black), 52 percent (Latino) and 23 percent (white).
Inside Higher Ed, August 20, 2007 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/20/qt

"This new education law could lower the standards for teachers' qualifications," by Gail L. Boldt and Bernard J. Badiali, Business Insider, March

. . .

Teacher academies

The support for the ESSA has largely come from its reducing much of the heavy-handed federal oversight of education. States and local school districts can now make more decisions about how best to support student learning.

We are happy that the ESSA supports less testing. In addition, it emphasizes a “well-rounded education.” Students will study arts alongside the academic subjects that were favored under No Child Left Behind.

However, our concern is the inclusion in Title II of the ESSA of language which authorizes routes to teacher certification that attempt to fast-track the preparation of teachers for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade positions.

Nationwide, in order for graduates of teacher education programs based in colleges and universities to gain state certification as a teacher, the programs must follow state requirements such as required entrance and exit exams and the number of credit hours in specific subjects such as reading, math and special education.

In the new ESSA legislation, the envisioned fast-track academies will be exempt from states' teacher certification requirements.

In other words, they do not have to meet the standards for accountability and accreditation required of university-based teacher education programs.

Continued in article

"Do Education Programs Dole Out Too Many Easy A’s?" by Rebecca Koenig, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Do-Education-Programs-Dole-Out/149947/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Are teacher-training programs rigorous enough? A new study, completed by a group that has long been critical of the quality of teacher preparation, makes the case that they’re not.

Education students face easier coursework than their peers in other departments, according to the study, and they’re more likely to graduate with honors.

The report—"Easy A’s and What’s Behind Them," which is to be released Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality—argues that a more-objective curriculum for teaching candidates would better prepare them for careers in the classroom.

"We’re out to improve training," said Julie Greenberg, the report’s co-author, who is a senior policy analyst for teacher-preparation studies for the advocacy group. "We want teacher candidates to be more confident and competent when they get in the classroom so their students can benefit from that."

Continued in article

"‘Easy A’s’ Gets an F," by Donald E. Heller, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 2014 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Easy-A-s-Gets-an-F/150025/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en 

Wow:  97% of Elementary NYC Public Students Get A or B Grades ---
"City Schools May Get Fewer A’s," by Jennifer Medina, The New York Times, January 28, 2010 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/education/30grades.html?hpw

 

"The US military is everywhere, except history books," by Robert Neer, Aeon, March 2016 ---
https://aeon.co/opinions/the-us-military-is-everywhere-except-history-books?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b09e40c661-Weekly_Newsletter_18_March_20163_18_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-b09e40c661-68951505

War defines the United States. Domestically, it is the country’s greatest budgetary priority: $598 billion, 54 per cent of discretionary spending, in fiscal year 2015. Globally, we have more than 800 bases in some 80 countries, and spend more than the next nine nations combined. Yet academic historians, especially those at the nation’s most richly endowed research universities, largely ignore the history of the US military. This year, historians at the Ivy League schools, plus Stanford, the University of Chicago, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – who collectively offered instruction on hundreds of scintillating subjects from Puritan New England to women in the workforce – provided just six that directly examined the US military.

This is a tragedy. Knowledge is power, as Francis Bacon observed. Insofar as we neglect to study our military, we reduce our ability to understand it, and weaken ourselves.

I am not a disinterested observer. Since 2011, when I received my PhD in history from Columbia University, I have taught a course called ‘Empire of Liberty: A Global History of the US Military’ on and off at the university during the summers – a survey of ideas and events from King Philip’s War in 1675 to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. It surprised me to discover that this was the first course on the history of the US military in many years at Columbia. It startled me even more to learn that there is little research into the history of military power at elite US universities (themselves key players, ironically, in the story: Columbia and the University of Chicago gave us atomic weapons, Harvard invented napalm, and MIT and others are major military research centres). In fact, academics nationwide often dismiss military history as the home of fetishists of suffering and antiquarians obsessed with swords, muskets and battlefield tours.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on war --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#War
 

Bob Jensen's threads on American History --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#---AmericanHistory
 

Solar Power --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power

MIT:  Solar energy is booming business in the USA, China, and other parts of the world but still generates less than 1% of the world's energy (in spite of generous government subsidies)
Solar Is a Booming Business, but It’s Still Not Generating Much of Our Power
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601053/solar-is-a-booming-business-but-its-still-not-generating-much-of-our-power/#/set/id/601109/

 

Solar Thermal Energy --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy

"MIT:  Ivanpah’s Problems Could Signal the End of Concentrated Solar in the U.S.," by Richard Martin, MIT's Technology Review, March 24, 2016 ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601083/ivanpahs-problems-could-signal-the-end-of-concentrated-solar-in-the-us/#/set/id/601103/

Cancellations of solar thermal projects likely mean the technology’s future is dim in the U.S., so companies are looking overseas.

When it first came online in late 2013, the massive Ivanpah concentrated solar power plant in the California desert looked like the possible future of renewable energy. Now the problems it faces underline the challenges facing concentrated solar power, which uses mirrors to focus the sun’s rays to make steam and produce electricity.

Last week the California Public Utilities Commission gave the beleaguered Ivanpah project, the world’s largest concentrated solar facility, one year to increase its electricity production to fulfill its electricity supply commitments to two of the state’s largest utilities (see “One of the World’s Largest Solar Facilities Is in Trouble”). The $2.2 billion plant is designed to have 377 megawatts of capacity. But it has been plagued by charges of numerous bird deaths (zapped by the fierce beams between the mirrors and the collecting tower) and accusations of production shortfalls.

Saying that over the last 12 months the facility has reached 97.5 percent of its annual contracted production, BrightSource officials dismissed the supply issues as a normal part of the plant’s startup phase. But the troubles at Ivanpah have joined the delay or cancellation of several high-profile projects as evidence that concentrated solar power could be a dying technology.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This does not of course doom solar power in general as an alternative energy source, nor is it even spelling the end of concentrated solar thermal energy in other parts of the world.

Massive solar power generators must be combined with sound financing.

Nearly all all alternative power financings are now troubled by significantly lower pricing of gas and oil on world markets. This is also troubling alternative sourcing of gas such as from shale and tar sands.

One advantage of solar is that it can generate power on a small scale such as from the roof of a house or barn. This allows for financing to be dispersed to homeowners who in the USA are, however, still depending upon government subsidies. Especially troubling is the costly technology for storing solar power for when it may be needed the most at night for lighting, heating, and cooling.

Solar is rapidly increasing in many countries, notably in Asia and Africa. These are boom times for solar in China. One of the neat things about solar is that it can provide power to remote (think jungle) homes and businesses without having a tremendous investment in power line infrastructure.

Coal appears doomed earlier than expected since it's becoming one of the costlier alternatives for energy.

There are high hopes that experimental nuclear fusion plants in Germany and France will become cost effective.

Many of us, however, have higher hopes for the cheapening of hydrogen electrolysis of water ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water 
Hydrogen can fill fuel cells that, in turn, eliminate the need for costly infrastructure of enormous power plants and power lines. It would be terrific to eliminate the ugliness of power lines as well as the fear of power outages due to wind and ice storms.

Alternative Energy --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_energy

March 24, 2016 reply from Zane Swanson in Oklahoma

Hi Bob,

I agree that solar power financing is the key issue. When the stock market had a previous low point (not this one), I invested in solar panels for my roof. It had a positive net present value then, and has increased in value as the electric company rates went up. If anybody considers solar power, they should get out the calculator.

I sort disagree about the home overnight storage power. Tesla will have a home battery coming out in the near future. Homeowners can also store power with geothermal systems. The tipping point for most people where home overnight storage becomes economically viable will happen some time in the future. I do have a relative who has done it and lives off the grid.

Regards,

Zane

March 24, 2016 reply from John Brovosky in Virginia

It is not the overnight storage that is a problem. It is the seasonal storage. I put in a system that will generate enough energy to cover my annual needs but am still grid tied due to the fact that I do not generate enough power to take care of winter needs (and will have a lot of excess generation in the summer). I put in a battery backup (since we tend to lose grid power for a few hours or days on a fairly regular basis) which would be more than adequate for overnight but does not touch a candle to the seasonal needs. I will go off grid whenever there is adequate storage (at a reasonable price) for seasonal variations.

John

March 25, 2016 Reply from Gordon MacAlpine

Bob, you did bring up birds in that post, as you have in the past when demeaning renewable energy. You should read what you post. Previously, you included the claim that wind turbines kill far more bald eagles in the lower 48 states, than even exist in the lower 48 states. In the present case, you posted a "quote" from an article, altered to give the impression that birds are zapped by fierce solar collector beams, whereas the article actually suggested otherwise.

Regarding financing issues for alternative energy, all new technologies have initial financing problems. As an example, I'm certainly glad the LIGO people didn't let financing problems stop them, as their recent measurement of gravitational waves opens up all kinds of new possibilities for studying the Universe.

Regarding your comment about "high hopes" for fusion power, as Fred Loxsom and I have indicated, that is a false hope for the foreseeable future. The temperatures required for the types of reactions being considered are many times that in the interior of the Sun, and confining such a plasma, dealing with its effects on a fusion chamber, and dealing with waste heat produced are formidable challenges. I would love to see nuclear fusion during my lifetime, but optimistic guesses for the advent of viable fusion reactors put them at least several decades away. We don't have time to wait for that. With serious consequences of global warming and climate change taking their toll around the world, we must switch to clean energy like solar and wind now. Although fusion does hold hope in the distant future, it is unfortunately being used at present as a ploy by those who are trying to stall the advent of solar and wind.

Regarding your high hopes for electrolysis of water to make hydrogen for use in fuel cells, this can be important, and it's something we used to do in our classes at Trinity. However, it takes electricity for the electrolysis, and we won't gain by reducing pollution if that electricity comes from fossil fuels The electrolysis must be driven by electricity from clean sources like solar or wind (or perhaps solar concentrators may produce hydrogen directly through a process of thermal splitting).

Writing this letter makes me think back to my proudest moment at Trinity University. It was near the end my very last class on energy and the environment. I wanted a particular reaction from the students, and I got it. I went over the scientific evidence for what we're doing to our planet (largely by burning fossil fuels), and I showed them the scientific predictions for what lies ahead in terms of heat waves, droughts, storms, rising oceans, and loss of fresh water. Then I apologized for what my generation has irresponsibly done and told the students I couldn't offer them much hope for their futures. Immediately, a large number of hands went up, and the students said almost in unison: "WE'RE THE HOPE." I know they will do their best to fight for their futures...to educate others about global warming and climate change, to elect educated politicians, and to promote clean, renewable energy sources. Shouldn't we use the time we have left to do our best to try to help them?

Gordon

These Are the Least-Effective Members of Congress ---
http://members-of-congress.insidegov.com/stories/5278/least-effective-members-congress?utm_medium=cm&utm_source=outbrain&utm_campaign=ao.cm.ob.dt.5278&utm_term=dt&utm_content=57762

Rep. Steve King (least effective)

Rep. Jim Jordan

Rep. Donna F. Edwards

Rep. Andre Carson

Rep. Leonard Lance

Rep. John Garamendi

Rep. Judy Chu

Rep. Daniel Webster

Rep. Austin Scott

Rep. Richard B. Nugent

Connecticut Bill Would Tax Yale's $25.6 Billion Endowment ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/03/connecticut-bill-would-tax-yales-376-billion-endowment.html

Jensen Comment
This is an interesting attempt to single out a single university to tax its endowment income. The most successful universities are vulnerable to such discriminatory taxes because they cannot easily fold their tents and move to more friendly states. For example, GE just gave the middle finger (figuratively speaking) to taxing fanatics in the Connecticut legislature and is in the process of moving its enormous headquarters to to tax-friendlier Boston ---
http://www.theneweconomy.com/business/ge-is-moving-to-boston

What I find interesting is what will happen to this case if it eventually ends up in the USA Supreme Court ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/03/connecticut-bill-would-tax-yales-376-billion-endowment.html

The USA Supreme Court has been officially taken over by Harvard and Yale law schools ---
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/yale-harvard-law-taking-over-supreme-court/?_r=0
How can the current justices be "independent" when evaluating whether Yale and possibly Harvard can be singled out and taxed to high heaven?

I did not check but I strongly suspect Yale University alumni (from one department or another) dominate the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Palo Alto --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Alto,_California

"Palo Alto residents who earn up to $250,000 a year to qualify for SUBSIDIZED housing in new affordable housing plan as teachers, cops and janitors are forced out of the city," by Mia Di Graaf, Daily News, March 24,  2016 ---
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3507025/Palo-Alto-residents-earn-250-000-year-qualify-SUBSIDIZED-housing-new-affordable-housing-plan-teachers-cops-janitors-forced-city.html#ixzz43oHFQaJt

. . .

The city's biggest problem is that low-income workers cannot afford to live nearby, 'indicating in a large unmet need for worker housing in the City,' the plan explains.

There are far more jobs in the city than there are employed residents.

And the impact is crippling.

'Since many of Palo Alto’s workers cannot afford to live in the City, the imbalance creates negative impacts such as long commutes for workers both inside and outside the region, increased traffic congestion during peak commute periods, and increased air pollution end energy consumption,' the proposal warns.

Continued in the article

Jensen Comment
This might even include Stanford University employees who cannot get into Stanford's own overcrowded subsidized housing. Newer Stanford faculty are often temporary renters with plans to eventually move to places like Austin, Texas for affordable housing. Stanford does have a limited number of employee-owned houses on Stanford land beside the campus, but houses built in the 1970s for less than $50,000 now sell for millions of dollars even when the buyers are required to be Stanford employees.

This article begs the question of how many full-time Stanford faculty earn less than $250,000? Of course, Palo Alto might discourage Stanford employees from getting into Pala Alto's subsidized housing since the main intent is to subsidize Palo Alto municipal workers.

San Francisco has similar housing price issues, but lower-income workers in San Francisco can conveniently commute via BART from the much more populated Oakland metro area where a lot of lower-income people find affordable housing. Palo Alto is uniquely situated where there is no convenient commuting alternative. Palo Alto is surrounded by the Silicon Valley where housing prices have soared between San Jose and San Francisco. Bridges crossing the SF Bay are badly congested. Workers can commute via rail but the trains only lead to other high-priced real estate.

Hence municipal workers and other lower income workers are forced to seek housing between a rock and a hard place. I suspect a significant number are living in cars and motor homes in parking lots. Recently it was reported how a Google employee worth more than a million dollars was living in a van in Google's parking lot.

Palo Alto's proposed subsidized housing units may not be all that great. They will be exceptionally small, and there are some proposals for families to share kitchens and bathrooms.

From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on March 21, 2016

GMO labeling law roils food companies
The first law in the U.S. requiring mandatory genetically-modified-organism labels is slated to go into effect in Vermont on July 1. Facing fines up to $1,000 a day per product, food makers from giants like General Mills to regional businesses like Vermont Fresh Pasta are making big adjustments, many of which extend beyond the state’s borders.

Jensen Comment
Vermont is being extremely hypocritical with respect to GMO heath concerns. The state made history by being the first to require GMO lables, but then exempted foods central to the Vermont economy like beer, cheese, and dairy products in general produced in Vermont such as animal meat, beer, booz, eggs, and dairy products as well as food served in Vermont restaurants. Animal feed is among the most likely products to be genetically modified.

How is the word "hypocritical" defined?

One only has to look at the current labels on a soda can to appreciate how difficult it is for companies to label genetically modified items since there are so many ingredients in most any food item in a grocery store. If every package simply says some of these 27 ingredients may be genetically modified it will defeat the purpose since there may be almost no packages without such a warning. And if the label is more specific about the nature of the genetic modification of all ingredients in the package, the booklet accompanying each can of soda or each package of cookies may be as thick as the Chicago telephone directory. Vemont gets around this somewhat by not requiring GMO information on any ingredient having less that 0.9% of weight of the entire package. However, what makes weight the main criterion of possible dangers of genetic modification? What about accumulations such as small amounts of an ingredient that people eat regularly (bread) versus large amounts in an ingredient that people only eat occasionally (likr fruit cake).

Free Trade --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade

It’s enough to take the word of an eminent Nobel laureate (Paul Krugman)
"Three Cheers for Free Trade," by Ross Kaminsky, The American Spectator, March 16, 2016 ---
http://spectator.org/articles/65797/three-cheers-free-trade

. . .

Allow me to offer a few quotes (emphasis added) from one prominent economist, at the time a professor at an elite university, who was lamenting the poor understanding of international trade in the United States:

So who is this paragon of capitalist dogma, this right-wing hater of the Rust Belt, this heartless fiend in the pocket of the Koch Brothers? Is it Steve Moore? Larry Kudlow? Ben Stein? Is it a deep-thinking conservative from the American Enterprise Institute or a Cato Institute libertarian?

No, these words are from a 1993 paper published by one Paul Krugman (H/T Don Boudreaux), at the time a professor in the economics department at MIT, who later won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (the official name of the world’s most famous non-athletic prize) for innovative explanations of free trade including that similar countries may trade with each other, including importing and exporting similar products, to satisfy consumer demand for a wider variety of products.

Again, although there is debate at the margins, the very large net benefit of free trade to a nation that engages in it is largely uncontroversial among economists, at least among honest ones — a group that sadly no longer includes Dr. Krugman. This includes the fact that free trade benefits the importing country even if the exporting country does not equally reciprocate with reduced tariffs. As the aforementioned Don Boudreaux puts it, just because the other guys are filling their ports with boulders doesn’t mean we should.

Continued in article

Bernie Sanders' Free Trade Mythology:  More economic illiteracy from the Vermont socialist ----
Steve Chapman --- http://reason.com/archives/2016/03/10/bernie-sanders-free-trade-mythology

Jensen Comment
The fact of the matter is that candidates for public office like Bernie Sanders are appealing for votes from workers who are either unemployed or, like Michael Moore of Roger and Me fame, believe in their hearts that selected high tariffs will lead to high wages for them personally. At a personal level they may even be correct for particular trades. But what these voters don't take into account or don't care about is the adverse effect on millions of other workers and consumers who benefit greatly by free trade.

And the hourly worker advocating a high tariff for strictly personal reasons may find that the higher tariffs backfire on him or her personally. The guy on a GM assembly line may think this wage will quadruple with a tariff only to discover that the tariff puts him out of a job or lowers his wage. The current unemployed person may discover that tariffs further reduce the chances of finding work.

And the guy on the GM assembly line anticipating a quadruple increase in wages in Detroit may discover that, if a USA tariff puts 10 million skilled assembly line workers in Mexico out of work, most of those 10 million workers will find their way to Detroit in a matter of weeks and compete for the high wage jobs.

The bottom line is that protectionism is great for getting votes but lousy for the economy except in very rare instances where national defense and economic well being becomes a serious concern. I say "well being" because when the USA entirely stops producing a very strategic ingredient the nation is at risk of being extorted by foreign producers. Our current dependency on China for lithium, for example, is a serious concern. But there are ways other than tariffs when strategic supplies are of concern.

"Pushing Back Against Progressive Bullies," The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pushing-back-against-progressive-bullies-1458342391?mod=djemMER

Any day now a Canadian court could force the radical environmental group Greenpeace to open up its records world-wide to scrutiny from attorneys for Resolute Forest Products. The progressive green bullies may have picked on the wrong business.

Standard operating procedure for many companies faced with a protest campaign is to write a check and hope it goes away. But not at Montreal-based Resolute. CEO Richard Garneau tells us, “If you believe you’re on firm ground, you stand firm.”

In 2012 Greenpeace claimed that Resolute was violating forestry practices that the company had agreed to follow. Resolute threatened legal action and so Greenpeace retracted its claims. But Resolute says that even after the retraction the environmental outfit kept publishing and broadcasting the same false claims, along with some new ones. According to the company, one Greenpeace tactic is to show video footage of trees damaged by an insect outbreak hundreds of miles away but pretend it is the forest harvested by Resolute. Greenpeace denies this.

In 2013 Resolute sued Greenpeace for “defamation, malicious falsehood and intentional interference with economic relations” and sought $7 million Canadian in damages. The company has clearly been harmed by Greenpeace’s fact-challenged denunciations of logging in Canada’s vast boreal forest. As a result of the green media campaign, Resolute says it has lost U.S. customers including Best Buy. Greenpeace says in its court filings that its publications on Resolute “present fair comment based on true facts” and that the company is “engaged in destructive forest operations.”

But Greenpeace may be forced to defend those comments. In January 2015 an Ontario court refused to consider an appeal of its motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Then last June Superior Court Justice F. B. Fitzpatrick rejected Greenpeace’s motion to strike part of the Resolute complaint that details the environmental group’s activities around the world.

It’s a greatest hits collection of green distortions. One paragraph reads: “In 2006, Greenpeace USA mistakenly issued a press release stating ‘In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world’s worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]’.”

That howler is followed by a roster of less amusing cases in which media stunts were later found to be built on falsehoods or resulted in arrests, such as the case of Greenpeace Japan activists convicted in 2010 of theft and trespass. No corporation could get away with the tactics employed by Greenpeace and stay in business, but the organization has managed to play by its own rules for years. Until now.

Continued in article

 

Crime in Finland --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Finland

Finnish Prisons: No Gates or Armed Guards ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/02/international/europe/02FINL.html#h[]

In All of Europe, Finland has the Most Prison Breaks ---
https://atlas.qz.com/charts/EkyegHT2x

Jensen Comment

Finland may have the most prison breaks in Europe, but without gangs to help escaped convicts on the outside Finland most likely has Europe's highest recovery rate for escaped convicts.

Either Finland has no psychopath or sociopath serial killers and rapists or there are some extremely dangerous prisoners that are kept in locked cells like Norway keeps its infamous mass murderer of children in solitary confinement ---
http://triblive.com/usworld/world/10134849-74/breivik-prison-government

There's also a question of whether Finland rehabilitates serial killers, serial rapists, and child molesters better than other nations. Finland seemingly does better than Sweden in terms of rapists since Sweden has the highest percentage of rapes in all of Europe. But Sweden is also having mover immigrant strife than Finland.

Finland does not have the ethnic gang warfare like we find in Sweden and the USA in part because of how Finland discourages immigration both by law and by low employment opportunities.

In Venezuela the prisoners run the prisons. But in comparison with Finland Venezuela is a very, very dangerous place to live.

 

"Should Campus Leaders Ever Disinvite a Controversial Speaker?" by Courtney Kueppers, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 15, 2016 ---
http://chronicle.com/article/Should-Campus-Leaders-Ever/235699?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=a1f31eaf18ed417c8ff0f8534dd244ed&elq=4ff55e8a641d4b0f89407604acd6be80&elqaid=8252&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=2659

Dashwood's Comment after the end of the above article

Universities MUST permit the unfettered discussion of ideas, not matter how controversial or offensive. People in the university community who are offended have a right not to attend or otherwise participate in a lecture or speech, or they have a right to demonstrate and protest peacefully. They do not have a right to disrupt a speech or presentation, no matter how offensive or controversial the speech. Universities should not cancel speeches or presentations because those who find the speaker/presenter to be offensive threaten violence and mayhem; indeed, those who disrupt speeches that they find offensive should be subjected to university disciplinary action and/or arrest.

Public universities should have little discretion over these matters, given First Amendment considerations. Private universities have more discretion, since the First Amendment does not apply, but by cancelling speaking events private universities demonstrate that they are not committed to free and open inquiry but rather are only interested in supporting popular speech or speech that reinforces their personal values.

"Virginia Tech Debates Upcoming Visit by Charles Murray," Inside Higher Ed, March 15, 2016 ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/03/15/virginia-tech-debates-upcoming-visit-charles-murray?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=d6fcbeddde-DNU20160315&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-d6fcbeddde-197565045
Jensen Comment
Is it better to not allow debate on campus regarding heredity and intelligence?

it’s enough to take the word of an eminent Nobel laureate (Paul Krugman)
"Three Cheers for Free Trade," by Ross Kaminsky, The American Spectator, March 16, 2016 ---
http://spectator.org/articles/65797/three-cheers-free-trade

. . .

Allow me to offer a few quotes (emphasis added) from one prominent economist, at the time a professor at an elite university, who was lamenting the poor understanding of international trade in the United States:

So who is this paragon of capitalist dogma, this right-wing hater of the Rust Belt, this heartless fiend in the pocket of the Koch Brothers? Is it Steve Moore? Larry Kudlow? Ben Stein? Is it a deep-thinking conservative from the American Enterprise Institute or a Cato Institute libertarian?

No, these words are from a 1993 paper published by one Paul Krugman (H/T Don Boudreaux), at the time a professor in the economics department at MIT, who later won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (the official name of the world’s most famous non-athletic prize) for innovative explanations of free trade including that similar countries may trade with each other, including importing and exporting similar products, to satisfy consumer demand for a wider variety of products.

Again, although there is debate at the margins, the very large net benefit of free trade to a nation that engages in it is largely uncontroversial among economists, at least among honest ones — a group that sadly no longer includes Dr. Krugman. This includes the fact that free trade benefits the importing country even if the exporting country does not equally reciprocate with reduced tariffs. As the aforementioned Don Boudreaux puts it, just because the other guys are filling their ports with boulders doesn’t mean we should.

Continued in article

Fast Food Restaurant Replacement of Workers With Machines ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/carls-jr-wants-open-automated-location-2016-3

Greenspan: Worried About Inflation, Says “Entitlements Crowding Out Investment, Productivity Is Dead,” by Mike Shedlock, Townhall, March 22, 2016 ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2016/03/22/greenspan-worried-about-inflation-says-entitlements-crowding-out-investment-productivity-is-dead-n2137333?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

. . .

Greenspan was critical of negative interest rates but refused to comment directly on the recent decision of the ECB. He is also worried about interest rates and the level of debts.
  • Entitlements now probably require a three to four percent growth rate in the United States.
  • Rate cuts, negative interest rates, buying corporate debt is no part of the solution.
  • Gross domestic savings as a percent of GDP has been declining over the years largely because entitlements have dug into them.
  • You just can’t print money and buy the infrastructure. Productivity will only increase if there is savings behind the investment.
  • We should be more concerned about inflation than we appear to be.
  • The issue is how long can we maintain long-term interest rates by continuously pushing money into the system, at rates which I would say, human psychology doesn’t continence.

Interview Transcript Courtesy of Bloomberg

DAVID WESTIN: Thanks very much, Stephanie. So we are here sitting with Dr. Alan Greenspan, who led the Fed for eighteen and a half years. I ask him, he’s very precise about this. So welcome to Bloomberg GO. It’s great to have you here. Beyond that, he’s really one of the major economic thinkers of our era.

So we had the Bank of England just hold their rates. We had the Fed yesterday, we’ve had the Bank of Japan. It’s all about central banks right now. Everyone one of those central banks, whatever their approach, is focused on growth and the problem of getting growth going. …..

Continued

Entitlements Actuarial  Lies
A trillion lie here and a trillion lie there and pretty soon you're talking about an unsustainable future covered up by lying in politics.

Entitlements --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entitlement

Harvard, Dartmouth:  Social Security forecasts have been too optimistic — and increasingly biased ---
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/05/09/harvard-dartmouth-social-security-forecasts-have-been-too-optimistic-and-increasingly-biased/

Republicans have tried a decade ago to reform the Social Security system, warning that the program would tip over into the red earlier than expected and the trust fund would entirely dissipate while some current recipients were still alive to see it. Democrats led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi claimed the crisis didn’t exist when George W. Bush proposed limited privatization options, and the 2008 financial-sector crash put an end to further GOP reform efforts. Studies from Harvard and Dartmouth this week corroborate Bush’s warnings on Social Security, and further accuse the SSA of increasing bias in its analyses in order to maintain the illusion of a slower decline:

New studies from Harvard and Dartmouth researchers find that the SSA’s actuarial forecasts have been consistently overstating the financial health of the program’s trust funds since 2000.

“These biases are getting bigger and they are substantial,” said Gary King, co-author of the studies and director of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. “[Social Security] is going to be insolvent before everyone thinks.” …

Researchers examined forecasts published in the annual trustees’ reports from 1978, when the reports began to consistently disclose projected financial indicators, until 2013. Then, they compared the forecasts the agency made on such variables as mortality and labor force participation rates to the actual observed data. Forecasts from trustees reports from 1978 to 2000 were roughly unbiased, researchers found. In that time, the administration made overestimates and underestimates, but the forecast errors appeared to be random in their direction.

“After 2000, forecast errors became increasingly biased, and in the same direction. Trustees Reports after 2000 all overestimated the assets in the program and overestimated solvency of the Trust Funds,” wrote the researchers, who include Dartmouth professor Samir Soneji and Harvard doctoral candidate Konstantin Kashin.

How bad is it? Barron’s notes that the estimates are off by $1 trillion, maybe more.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's threads on the pending entitlements disaster being ignored by all candidates for public office ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

"For-profit education is a $35 billion cesspool of fraud—and the US government has let it fester," by Amy X. Wang, Quartz, March 17, 2016 ---
http://qz.com/640872/for-profit-education-is-a-35-billion-cesspool-of-fraud-and-the-us-government-has-let-it-fester/

It may have taken a while, but things are finally starting to unravel.

The US government is intensely scrutinizing for-profit colleges, many of which stand accused of stealing federal dollars, preying on low-income students, and falsely reporting job placements, among other deceptive practices. Big names like ITT Tech, DeVry University, and the University of Phoenix are all being called to account. The 107-campus Corinthian Colleges  stumbled to its end last year.

Corruption in for-profit education is hardly new, and the recently retired US education secretary Arne Duncan says the biggest regret of his tenure is not cracking down on its “bad actors” sooner.

The question is: Why didn’t he—or anyone?

“There’s been a serious gap in our understanding about where these institutions came from and how they’ve developed over time,” says Winthrop University history professor A.J. Angulo, who calculates the size of the industry, based on government documents, to be over $35 billion.

Angulo traces the surprisingly long legacy of for-profits in his new book, Diploma Mills: How For-Profit Colleges Stifled Students, Taxpayers, and the American Dream. Schools that operate around profit have indulged in unscrupulous practices since as far back as the 18th century, Angulo argues. Diploma Mills calls out all those practices, as well as the institutions that’ve let them slide for so long. Quartz spoke with the author for a look at the myriad of tensions involved.

QZ: Why’s it important to look back at the history of for-profits?

Angulo: Right now, we have a great deal of literature from economists and political scientists and sociologists who offer case studies from the 1990s onward. But there’s been very little on the historical evolution of how these institutions came about. When I was looking through the 2012 Senate investigations, I saw these startling documents—four-volume, multi-thousand-page studies on for-profits in recent history—and I got to thinking I’d like to put it in historical context.

Continued in article

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

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

Medicare Fraud is Rampant ---
 http://townhall.com/columnists/stevesherman/2016/02/05/medicare-fraud-is-rampant-n2115375?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

"How to Fix the Scandal of Medicaid and the Poor," by Scott W. Atlas, The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2016 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-fix-the-scandal-of-medicaid-and-the-poor-1458080771?mod=djemMER

Many doctors won’t take the insurance, and the care patients do receive is inferior. Here’s a solution.

The two principal expenditures of the Affordable Care Act so far include $850 billion for insurance subsidies and a similar outlay for a massive Medicaid expansion. The truth is that Medicaid—a program costing $500 billion a year that rises to $890 billion in 2024—funnels low-income families into substandard coverage. Instead of providing a pathway to excellent health care for poor Americans, ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion doubles down on their second-class health-care status.

Already 55% of doctors in major metropolitan areas refuse new Medicaid patients, according to the 2014 Merritt Hawkins annual survey. Even of those providers signed up with Medicaid, 56% of primary-care doctors and 43% of specialists are not available to new patients. Moreover, numerous studies have found that the quality of medical care is inferior under Medicaid, compared with private insurance. Lower quality means more in-hospital deaths, more complications from surgery, shorter survival after treatment, and longer hospital stays than similar patients with private insurance.

The two principal expenditures of the Affordable Care Act so far include $850 billion for insurance subsidies and a similar outlay for a massive Medicaid expansion. The truth is that Medicaid—a program costing $500 billion a year that rises to $890 billion in 2024—funnels low-income families into substandard coverage. Instead of providing a pathway to excellent health care for poor Americans, ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion doubles down on their second-class health-care status.

Already 55% of doctors in major metropolitan areas refuse new Medicaid patients, according to the 2014 Merritt Hawkins annual survey. Even of those providers signed up with Medicaid, 56% of primary-care doctors and 43% of specialists are not available to new patients. Moreover, numerous studies have found that the quality of medical care is inferior under Medicaid, compared with private insurance. Lower quality means more in-hospital deaths, more complications from surgery, shorter survival after treatment, and longer hospital stays than similar patients with private insurance.
.
Legislation signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 transformed the federal welfare program into a pathway to self-sufficiency. In the same way, Medicaid should be redesigned as a bridge toward affordable private insurance. First, the new Medicaid should include a private-insurance option with catastrophic coverage but few coverage mandates for all enrollees.

Second, new Medicaid should establish and put initial funds into health savings accounts using part of the current federal dollars already going into Medicaid. This will empower beneficiaries and give them incentives to follow healthy lifestyles to protect those new assets. With these reforms, doctors and hospitals would receive payments from the same insurance as from non-Medicaid patients. Because health providers receive the same payments whether they treat Medicaid or non-Medicaid patients, the limited access and substandard treatment options under Medicaid would be eliminated.

To ensure availability of the same coverage to both Medicaid and non-Medicaid beneficiaries, federal funding would go only to eligible people in states that offer these same coverage choices to the entire state population. Federal money will be contingent on states meeting thresholds for the number of Medicaid enrollees moved into private coverage. Federal funds would go directly into beneficiary HSAs or to premium payments, rather than into state bureaucracies. States should want this new program because it will reduce the administrative costs of running a separate insurance program and, most important, provide access to quality health care for their residents.

Ultimately, traditional Medicaid would be eliminated as new enrollees move into private coverage. These reforms would change the purpose and culture of Medicaid agency offices from running government-administered plans to establishing HSAs and finding private insurance for beneficiaries.

Why focus on lower-cost, high-deductible health insurance coupled with HSAs? Published studies have shown that pairing HSAs with high-deductible coverage reduces health-care costs. Patient spending averages 15% lower in high-deductible plans, with even more savings when paired with HSAs—without any consequent increases in emergency visits or hospitalizations and without a harmful impact on low-income families. Secondarily, wellness programs that HSA holders more commonly use improve chronic illnesses, reduce health claims and save money.

Continued in article

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

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