In 2017 my Website was migrated to the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at 
rjensen@trinity.edu if you really need to file that is missing

Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the April 26, 2018 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2018/Tidbits042618.htm             
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time ---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history


State Income Taxes Ranked From Highest to Lowest
http://www.businessinsider.com/state-income-tax-rate-rankings-by-state-2018-2


The Federal budget for 2017 ---
http://ritholtz.com/2018/04/federal-budget-2017/

Jensen Comment
Note that even before the 2018 corporate tax cuts the corporate income tax has been a shrinking part of the Federal budget of the most recent decades. I've long been an advocate of replacing it with a VAT tax but liberals and conservatives alike hate that idea.

Medicare and Medicaid are the least sustainable entitlements predicted for the future.

Interest on government debt is a huge worry since foreign interests (think China and the oil-rich nations of the Middle East) own so much of it with the threat that one day these large investors will stop rolling over their investments in USA debt.

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $20+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
In 2018 Foreigners (think Asia and the Middle East) May Be Losing Interest in USA Treasuries ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-12/lackluster-u-s-bond-auctions-add-to-worries-of-foreign-pullback
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)
One worry is that nations holding trillions of dollars invested in USA debt are dependent upon sales of oil and gas to sustain those investments.

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100+ trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

How Americans Get Health Insurance ---
http://ritholtz.com/2017/08/americans-get-health-insurance/


To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $20+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)
One worry is that nations holding trillions of dollars invested in USA debt are dependent upon sales of oil and gas to sustain those investments.

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100+ trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

How Americans Get Health Insurance ---
http://ritholtz.com/2017/08/americans-get-health-insurance/

 

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it's been fertilized with more bullshit.
Anonomous

 

The Lucretius Problem is a mental defect where we assume the worst case event that has happened is the worst case event that can happen ---
https://www.fs.blog/2015/04/lucretius-problem/

 

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.
Aristotle

 

How many times have we heard ‘free tuition,’ ‘free health care,’ and free you-name-it? If a particular good or service is truly free, we can have as much of it as we want without the sacrifice of other goods or services. Take a ‘free’ library; is it really free? The answer is no. Had the library not been built, that $50 million could have purchased something else. That something else sacrificed is the cost of the library. While users of the library might pay a zero price, zero price and free are not one and the same. So when politicians talk about providing something free, ask them to identify the beneficent Santa Claus or tooth fairy.
Walter Williams

 

Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
Eric Hoffer.

 

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Winston Churchill

 

Shoot for the space in between, because that's where the real mystery lies.
Vera Rubin
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/28/remebering-vera-rubin/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=f053a9c4e2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-f053a9c4e2-234390133

 

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

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley
Even conversations that are not politically correct.

The enemy is fear
We think it's hate
But, it's fear

Gandhi

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
Thomas Jefferson

Why, we grow rusty and you catch us at the very point of decadence --- by this time tomorrow we may have forgotten everything we ever knew. That's a thought isn't it? We'd be back to where we started --- improvising.
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Act I)

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

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
What's sad is to witness what Syria has become because nobody will give up.

And "because they're nonstate actors, it's hard for us to get the satisfaction of [Gen.] MacArthur and the [Japanese] Emperor [Hirohito] meeting and the war officially being over," Obama observed, referencing the end of World War II. 
President Barack Obama when asked if the USA of the future will be perpetually engaged in war.
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-on-americans-being-resigned-to-live-in-a-perpetual-war-2016-7

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

And many writers have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation: for a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good.
Niccolo Machiavelli

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

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

You can get a lot farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.
Al Capone

Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.
Teddy Roosevelt

Fake Einstein:  You probably know a quote from him. He probably never said it ---
https://aeon.co/essays/why-do-we-love-to-quote-and-misquote-albert-einstein?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=22a6fcdab2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-22a6fcdab2-68951505
Also see
https://aeon.co/essays/why-do-we-love-to-quote-and-misquote-albert-einstein

The US's national debt spiked $1 trillion (to over $20 trillion) in less than 6 months ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-national-debt-spiked-1-trillion-in-less-than-6-months-2018-2
|USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/
USA unbooked entitlements commitments are now over $100 trillion

The 20 Worst Quotes From Louis Farrakhan, Liberal America's Favorite Racist ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2018/03/24/the-20-worst-quotes-from-louis-farrakhan-liberal-americas-favorite-racist-n2463869?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Grassley: Fake Schools Are Operating Visa Mills For Foreign "Students" in Exchange For Profit ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2018/03/27/grassley-universities-are-operating-visa-mills-for-foreign-students-in-exchange-for-money-n2465098?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Canada Kidnapped Native Children to ‘Kill the Indian’ in Them ---
http://reason.com/archives/2018/04/14/canada-kidnapped-native-children-to-kill

23 Cornell Professors Say Their School Violated Due Process ---
http://reason.com/archives/2018/04/12/23-cornell-professors-say-their-school-v

How the Assad Regime Tracked and Killed Marie Colvin for Reporting on War Crimes in Syria ---
https://theintercept.com/2018/04/09/marie-colvin-syria-assad/

The Atlantic:  The Logic of Assad's Brutality ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/syria-chemical-weapons-assad-trump/557483/

The Trump administration’s new migratory bird policy undermines a century of conservation ---
https://theconversation.com/the-trump-administrations-new-migratory-bird-policy-undermines-a-century-of-conservation-95038

Vox:  The media is treating Comey like a hero. He’s not one ---
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/13/17194396/james-comey-book-interview-higher-loyalty-hero

Time Magazine:  James Comey Met President Trump on His Own Terms – and Came Away Looking Smaller ---
http://time.com/5241104/james-comey-donald-trump-abc-interview/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2018041610am&xid=newsletter-brief&eminfo=%7b%22EMAIL%22%3a%22MOt2LMJiSIk%2fSjadSWyB4I9Monw61fXF%22%2c%22BRAND%22%3a%22TD%22%2c%22CONTENT%22%3a%22Newsletter%22%2c%22UID%22%3a%22TD_TBR_9341E248-F74B-4FC4-8A5B-F29E5D8E9ECB%22%2c%22SUBID%22%3a%2224083557%22%2c%22JOBID%22%3a%22712651%22%2c%22NEWSLETTER%22%3a%22THE_BRIEF%22%2c%22ZIP%22%3a%22035864237%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22%22%7d

Loretta Lynch torches James Comey for throwing her under the bus over Hillary probe ---
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2018/04/16/loretta-lynch-torches-james-comey-for-throwing-her-under-the-bus-over-hillary-probe-624381?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=BPR Email&utm_campaign=DMS

James Comey and Loretta Lynch Snipe at Each Other Over Who's Telling the Truth ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2018/04/16/james-comey-and-loretta-lynch-snipe-at-each-other-over-whos-telling-the-truth-n2471317?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

New York Times:  Inspector General's Report:  Andrew McCabe's Lack of Candor and Misconduct ---
https://static01.nyt.com/files/2018/us/politics/20180413a-doj-oig-mccabe-report.pdf

Also see the NYT article
Former F.B.I. Deputy Director Is Faulted in Scathing Inspector General Report
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/us/politics/former-fbi-deputy-director-is-faulted-in-scathing-inspector-general-report.html
Did you notice how ABC, CBS, and NBC are avoiding this OFG report (this is called cherry picking of news items)
 

Washington Post:  Comey and McCabe, once strong defenders of each other, stake out opposite positions in burgeoning feud ---
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/comey-and-mccabe-once-strong-defenders-of-each-other-stake-out-opposite-positions-in-burgeoning-feud/ar-AAw7wp6?ocid=spartandhp

 

Distilled to its essence, Tehran’s steadfast support for Assad is not driven by the geopolitical or financial interests of the Iranian nation, nor the religious convictions of the Islamic Republic, but by a visceral and seemingly inextinguishable hatred for the state of Israel ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/iran-syria-israel/558080/

The Atlantic:  How the FBI Helped Sink the Clinton Campaign ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/comey-mccabe-fbi-clinton/558200/

 

 

The New Yorker Publishes Hate Piece Against Chick-fil-A’s Christian Ethos ---
http://thefederalist.com/2018/04/15/new-yorker-publishes-hate-piece-chick-fil-christian-ethos/#disqus_thread

University of Georgia ranked America’s No. 1 public flagship university for Ph.D.s awarded to African-Americans ---
https://news.uga.edu/rankings-african-american-phds/

The New York Times Best-Seller List: Another Reason Americans Don't Trust the Media ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2018/04/17/the-new-york-times-bestseller-list-another-reason-americans-dont-trust-the-media-n2471554?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Anti-Trump American history textbook 'blatantly biased,' critics say ---
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/16/anti-trump-american-history-textbook-blatantly-biased-critics-say.html

Weaning African leaders off their addiction to power is an ongoing struggle ---
https://qz.com/1255609/africas-longest-serving-presidents-in-uganda-cameroon-equatorial-guinea-others-are-addicted-to-power/

I'm happy the witch (Barbara Bush) is dead ---
California State University, Fresno professor Randa Jarrar who sent out tweets of celebration an hour after media reports of the death
http://freebeacon.com/politics/california-tenured-professor-celebrates-barbara-bush-dying-happy-witch-dead/
Also see
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article209204069.html

Kentucky has ditched its so-called progressive income tax in favor of a flat rate tax (overriding the Governor's veto) ---
http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/House-overrides-Gov-Bevins-tax-bill-veto-479659283.html

Probation for gang-rape of 13-year-old girl ---
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/09/2-men-sentenced-to-probation-for-gang-rape-13-year-old-girl-triggering-backlash.html
The rape leaders were aged 19 and 29.
Who says the USA is tougher on violent crime?

Cuba’s new president: What to expect of Miguel Díaz-Canel ---
https://theconversation.com/cubas-new-president-what-to-expect-of-miguel-diaz-canel-95187

White Evangelical Support for Donald Trump at All-Time High ---
https://www.prri.org/spotlight/white-evangelical-support-for-donald-trump-at-all-time-high/

Where the World’s Ultra Rich ($500+ Million) Population Lives ---
http://ritholtz.com/2018/04/worlds-ultra-rich-population-lives/
Jensen Comment
Rich does not necessarily mean rich in terms of liquidity. Some valuable assets can be hard to unload such as real estate or mineral reserves in some nations.
The richest man in the world, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, is highly restrained as to how much of Amazon's shares he can unload --- partly due to regulation and partly due to price impact of unloading large volumes of shares on short notice.
Sometimes a billionaire's wealth can implode due to a single bad strategy ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Bunker_Hunt

Democratic Party Files Lawsuit Against Russia, the Trump Campaign and Wikileaks ---
http://time.com/5248317/democratic-party-lawsuit-russia-trump-wikileaks/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief-pm&utm_content=2018042018pm&xid=newsletter-brief&eminfo=%7b%22EMAIL%22%3a%22MOt2LMJiSIk%2fSjadSWyB4I9Monw61fXF%22%2c%22BRAND%22%3a%22TD%22%2c%22CONTENT%22%3a%22Newsletter%22%2c%22UID%22%3a%22TD_TBP_D67FCAE7-F3B7-4357-9082-476F8ACD8245%22%2c%22SUBID%22%3a%2284575328%22%2c%22JOBID%22%3a%22717594%22%2c%22NEWSLETTER%22%3a%22THE_BRIEF_PM%22%2c%22ZIP%22%3a%2235864237%22%2c%22COUNTRY%22%3a%22%22%7d

Swedish Schools Increase Security, Hire Guards After Rising Violence Towards Teachers ---
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/04/20/swedish-schools-security-hire-guards-violence-teachers/

Book publishing’s fact-checking failure, as illustrated by the Sally Kohn controversy ---
https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/20/17246784/book-publishing-fact-checking-sally-kohn-aminatou-sow-controversy

California Running Ponzi Scheme with Unclaimed Property Program ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/brucebialosky/2018/04/22/california-running-ponzi-scheme-with-unclaimed-property-program-n2472108

The fact that Canada still has overall rates higher than those in the U.S., then, lies squarely at the feet of the provincial governments ---
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/you-can-thank-provincial-taxes-for-canadas-higher-overall-tax-rate
Jensen Comment
It's virtually impossible to compare international tax rates, and this article highlights the major reason. The reason is that government outlays differ so much in terms of what is funded by those taxes. In the Canada the provincial taxes fund most of the national health care plan. In the USA income taxes fund very little in the way of health care except for Medicaid, although payroll taxes fund a lot of Medicare. To be more comparable, we would at least have to add medical insurance

Walter E. Williams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
Educational Fraud Continues
https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2018/04/25/educational-fraud-continues-n2473622?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

 




MIT:  Here’s how hackers could cause chaos in this year’s US midterm election ---
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610774/heres-how-hackers-could-cause-chaos-in-this-years-us-midterm-election/


NYT:  San Francisco’s Big Seismic Gamble ---
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/17/us/san-francisco-earthquake-seismic-gamble.html

SAN FRANCISCO — Sailors arriving in San Francisco in the 19th century used two giant redwood trees perched on a hill to help guide their ships into the bay. The redwoods were felled for their lumber at around the time of the gold rush, but San Francisco now has a new beacon: Salesforce Tower, the tallest office building in the West.

Clustered around the 1,070-foot tower are a collection of high rises built on the soft soil and sand on the edge of the bay. They represent a bold symbol of a new San Francisco, but also a potential danger for a city that sits precariously on unstable, earthquake-prone ground.

San Francisco lives with the certainty that the Big One will come. But the city is also putting up taller and taller buildings clustered closer and closer together because of the state’s severe housing shortage. Now those competing pressures have prompted an anxious rethinking of building regulations. Experts are sending this message: The building code does not protect cities from earthquakes nearly as much as you might think.

It’s been over a century — Wednesday marks the 112th anniversary — since the last devastating earthquake and subsequent inferno razed San Francisco. Witnesses on the morning of April 18, 1906, described the city’s streets as rising and falling like a ribbon carried by the wind.

The violent shaking ignited a fire that lasted three days, destroying 500 city blocks and 28,000 buildings.

Half of the population of around 400,000 was made homeless. Many were forced to flee the city.

. . .

With the Millennium Tower, San Francisco got a foretaste of what it means to have a structurally compromised skyscraper. If the city is hit by a severe earthquake, experts fear there could be many more. The area around Millennium Tower is considered among the most hazardous for earthquakes. The United States Geological Survey rates the ground there — layers of mud and clay — as having a very high risk of acting like quicksand during an earthquake, a process known as liquefaction.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
This brings back a memory of the criticism (right or wrong) of how Houston built too far into flood plains and then paid a price for 2017 Hurricane Harvey ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Harvey

I lived in the San Francisco Bay area for eight years over two various time periods in the 1960s and again in 1970s. As I dimly recall the SF Bay is only about half as large as it used to be due to landfill. Buildings constructed on landfill typically cannot withstand earthquakes very well. There is no question that the SF Bay area will one day be hit with another large earthquake like the one that previously leveled San Francisco and the Stanford University campus down the peninsula. . The only question is when Silicon Valley will be a disaster area. This should also give Tesla pause for thought since its major auto assembly plant is by the Bay.


Elizabeth Warren favors having the IRS create software for filing many more taxpayer returns ---
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/13/11417676/elizabeth-warren-tax-return-free-filing-tax-day-intuit-hr-block-turbotax-automatic-simple

Jensen Comment
This might put TurboTax, TaxAct, and other tax software companies out of business, but it may not eliminate the need for professional tax help and return filing by tax specialists, CPAs, and attorneys. Senator Warren's proposal would simplify filing of tax returns but not simplify most of the very complicated USA Income Tax Code that confuses so many taxpayers.

The article is critical of the present IRS free-filing program that's allegedly used only by less than 3% of the taxpayers even though nearly 50% of the taxpayers who file tax returns owe no income taxes.

Comparisons of the filing simplicity of other nations with the USA is misleading because their income tax laws are so simple compared to the exceedingly complicated USA Tax Code. Also many of those nations rely on taxes other than income taxes such as the VAT tax that's popular in Europe. Another example is the way the USA provides complicated income tax relief for medical services and medications compared to other nations with relatively simple national health care plans that do not complicate income tax filing.

Reply from Barbara Scofield

An additional complication is the interaction of state returns and federal returns. I do volunteer tax preparation with AARP Tax Aide which targets low income senior citizens. Many of our clients come because the state of Kansas gives a refundable tax credit for property tax paid by those who meet the age and income requirements. To file for this "homestead credit," the taxpayers must file federal and state returns, even though they have had no tax withheld from their social security and do not meet the thresholds to file taxes. We have to trick the software by adding $1 of Other income, which we call "For Filing Purposes" so that the software will be willing to efile the returns.

The "homestead credit" is a great program, but it breaks my heart when clients get back the $250 they paid in property tax, which suggests that the value of their home is incredibly low.

Barbara W. Scofield, PhD, CPA
Professor of Accountancy
Washburn University
HC 311L Topeka, KS 66621


WSJ:  How North Korea’s Hackers Became Dangerously Good ---
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-north-koreas-hackers-became-dangerously-good-1524150416

SEOUL—North Korea’s cyber army, long considered a midlevel security threat, is quietly morphing into one of the world’s most sophisticated and dangerous hacking machines.

Over the past 18 months, the nation’s fingerprints have appeared in an increasing number of cyberattacks, the skill level of its hackers has rapidly improved and their targets have become more worrisome, a Wall Street Journal examination of the program reveals. As recently as March, suspected North Korean hackers appear to have infiltrated Turkish banks and invaded computer systems in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, cybersecurity researchers say.

For years, cybersecurity experts viewed North Korea as a second-rate hacking force whose attacks were disruptive but reasonably easy to decode. Researchers rated its operational skills well behind countries such as Russia, Israel and the U.S.

Those days appear to be over, with Pyongyang flashing levels of originality in its coding and techniques that have surprised researchers. It also has shown a willingness to go after targets such as central banks and point-of-sale systems. As North Korea prepares for possible negotiations with Washington aimed at freezing its nuclear program, its hacking capabilities could help it generate money to compensate for economic sanctions or to threaten foreign financial institutions.

North Korea is cultivating elite hackers much like other countries train Olympic athletes, according to defectors and South Korean cyber and intelligence experts. Promising students are identified as young as 11 years old and funneled into special schools, where they are taught hacking and how to develop computer viruses.

“Once you have been selected to get into the cyber unit, you receive a title that makes you a special citizen, and you don’t have to worry about food and the basic necessities,” says​ a defector familiar with North Korea’s cyber training.

Continued in article


Walter E. Williams --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
Educational Fraud Continues

https://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2018/04/25/educational-fraud-continues-n2473622?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Earlier this month, the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka The Nation's Report Card, was released. It's not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.

The atrocious NAEP performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math. For blacks, the news is worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level. It's grossly dishonest for the education establishment and politicians to boast about unprecedented graduation rates when the high school diplomas, for the most part, do not represent academic achievement. At best, they certify attendance.

Fraudulent high school diplomas aren't the worst part of the fraud. Some of the greatest fraud occurs at the higher education levels -- colleges and universities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70 percent of white high school graduates in 2016 enrolled in college, and 58 percent of black high school graduates enrolled in college. Here are my questions to you: If only 37 percent of white high school graduates test as college-ready, how come colleges are admitting 70 percent of them? And if roughly 17 percent of black high school graduates test as college-ready, how come colleges are admitting 58 percent of them?

It's inconceivable that college administrators are unaware that they are admitting students who are ill-prepared and cannot perform at the college level. Colleges cope with ill-prepared students in several ways. They provide remedial courses. One study suggests that more than two-thirds of community college students take at least one remedial course, as do 40 percent of four-year college students. College professors dumb down their courses so that ill-prepared students can get passing grades. Colleges also set up majors with little analytical demands so as to accommodate students with analytical deficits. Such majors often include the term "studies," such as ethnic studies, cultural studies, gender studies and American studies. The major for the most ill-prepared students, sadly enough, is education. When students' SAT scores are ranked by intended major, education majors place 26th on a list of 38.

The bottom line is that colleges are admitting youngsters who have not mastered what used to be considered a ninth-grade level of proficiency in reading, writing and arithmetic. Very often, when they graduate from college, they still can't master even a 12th-grade level of academic proficiency. The problem is worse in college sports. During a recent University of North Carolina scandal, a learning specialist hired to help athletes found that during the period from 2004 to 2012, 60 percent of the 183 members of the football and basketball teams read between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. About 10 percent read below a third-grade level. Keep in mind that all of these athletes both graduated from high school and were admitted to college.

Continued in article

 




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

World Wealth & Income Database --- http://wid.world/

OECD Health Statistics 2016 --- http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm

Facts and statistics (Fast Facts) --- http://gwu.edu/~gprice/handbook.htm 


The (London) Times:  Doctors across Scotland have expressed "deep concern" that dying patients will miss out on vital support after the Scottish government made a last-minute move to restrict benefit payments for the terminally ill ---
Read the full story
Jensen Comment
In the USA the biggest bite out of Medicare is in keeping terminally ill patients alive. Families readily agree to pull the plugs only when Medicare payments reach their limit. Hospitals love Medicare at ICU billing rates.

On November 22, 2009 CBS Sixty Minutes aired a video featuring experts (including physicians) explaining how the single largest drain on the Medicare insurance fund is keeping dying people hopelessly alive who could otherwise be allowed to die quicker and painlessly without artificially prolonging life on ICU machines.
"The Cost of Dying," CBS Sixty Minutes Video, November 22, 2009 ---
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-cost-of-dying-end-of-life-care/

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


Bob Jensen's links to data and statistics ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Bob Jensen's World Library ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm

 


Bob Jensen's threads on health coverage are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

Harvard:  The costs of health care are now the greatest financial concern for most Americans—more than the costs for housing, food or retirement ---
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/hidden-savings

The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found that, by exploiting Obamacare’s expansion of the program, California has enrolled hundreds of thousands of ineligible adults in Medicaid. Consequently, the state has bilked the federal government out of more than $1 billion in funding to which the state was not entitled.
https://spectator.org/california-commits-massive-medicaid-fraud/
Jensen Comment
Nearly half of the Medicaid recipients in Illinois were found to be not elgible for Medicaid due to their income levels.

The fact that Canada still has overall rates higher than those in the U.S., then, lies squarely at the feet of the provincial governments ---
http://business.financialpost.com/legal-post/you-can-thank-provincial-taxes-for-canadas-higher-overall-tax-rate
Jensen Comment
It's virtually impossible to compare international tax rates, and this article highlights the major reason. The reason is that government outlays differ so much in terms of what is funded by those taxes. In the Canada the provincial taxes fund most of the national health care plan. In the USA income taxes fund very little in the way of health care except for Medicaid, although payroll taxes fund a lot of Medicare. To be more comparable, we would at least have to add medical insurance

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

Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.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://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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