Friday, July 05, 2013
Worldscope: Brazil
It's interesting to note how protests get started. Sometimes they can be something as innocuous as the closing of a park as in Turkey. Other times they can be something huge like the clear intent of theocracy as in Egypt. With the protests in Brazil, it started as public transit fare increases. Now, it has ballooned into a referendum on corruption, high cost of living, the precarious public transport system, Brazil’s red tape, politicians in general, the absurd amounts of taxpayers’ money being spent to host the FIFA World Cup next year and against more, much more.
Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff has attempted to placate the protesters across the country (now in well over 300 cities) by offering a plan to curb corruption, invest in public transit, and have a more fiscally responsible government. The people think the steps are nice but they aren't satisfied yet. Her approval rating has sunk 27% points. Further, the people that are protesting overwhelmingly back no political party and are highly educated. Many are young and first time protesters. That means Rousseff is going to have to be more aggressive if she is going to save her government.
It's amazing to me that there are so many places in the world now where people simply are not going to put up with bullshit any longer. I wonder if we will start having more active involvement here in our own country. Can we get off the couch to seriously affect change as they are in these other countries?
Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff has attempted to placate the protesters across the country (now in well over 300 cities) by offering a plan to curb corruption, invest in public transit, and have a more fiscally responsible government. The people think the steps are nice but they aren't satisfied yet. Her approval rating has sunk 27% points. Further, the people that are protesting overwhelmingly back no political party and are highly educated. Many are young and first time protesters. That means Rousseff is going to have to be more aggressive if she is going to save her government.
It's amazing to me that there are so many places in the world now where people simply are not going to put up with bullshit any longer. I wonder if we will start having more active involvement here in our own country. Can we get off the couch to seriously affect change as they are in these other countries?
Thursday, July 04, 2013
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Good Move
The Obama administration has delayed the employer mandate contained the Affordable Care Act for one year in order for smaller businesses to have more time to prepare for the changeover. Even though the adolescents on the Right are calling this a "victory" and are vowing to now repeal the law (the 38th time is the charm:)), I think it's a good move.
It demonstrates that the president is sympathetic to the concerns of small business in a time of economic recovery. This was a legitimate beef with the law. How does an employer of 51 people end up covering everyone without causing problems on his or her margin? Now, they have some more time to sort it out. We are also going to be able to see just how many small businesses that are around this size do not offer health care to their employees. That is also a good thing.
Republicans are vowing to use the ACA as a major talking point in 2014. I hope they do. If I were a voter, I'd wonder what else they were doing aside from voting to repeal Obamacare.
It demonstrates that the president is sympathetic to the concerns of small business in a time of economic recovery. This was a legitimate beef with the law. How does an employer of 51 people end up covering everyone without causing problems on his or her margin? Now, they have some more time to sort it out. We are also going to be able to see just how many small businesses that are around this size do not offer health care to their employees. That is also a good thing.
Republicans are vowing to use the ACA as a major talking point in 2014. I hope they do. If I were a voter, I'd wonder what else they were doing aside from voting to repeal Obamacare.
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Right-Wing Group Simply Lied on Tax Forms
A right-wing group that ran attack ads simply lied on its IRS forms:
The group that put out the mailer [that attacked Texas Democrat Pete Gallego], A Better America Now, reported to the Federal Election Commission it had spent about $65,000 for the mailer and TV advertising in the hard-fought race to represent Texas’ 23rd district.
But in a tax return recently filed with the IRS, the group claimed it did not spend any money at all on “direct or indirect political campaign activities.”This group admitted to the left hand of government that it was running political ads, and then lied to the right hand of government and said it wasn't.
Maybe this is why these Tea Party groups got additional scrutiny from the IRS.
Worldscope: Turkey
I've always been fascinated by Turkey. A country with a rich history steeped in a magnificent culture. I think it was the transformation from being the center of all the religious wars in the world to a secular country. Sadly, in 2013, that has now changed.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been moving the country into a more religiously conservative direction since the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power more than a decade ago. What began on May 28th as a simple "occupy" protest against the closing of Gezi Park (a highly symbolic and historic park in Istanbul) has now mushroomed into large protests against current Turkish leaders all over the county with thousands injured due to police overreaction.
Gezi stands as a monument to modernity in Turkey and the plan to demolish it was angered the secularists in the country and is seen as a move backwards. Indeed, the government plans to build an Ottoman style barracks and mosque on the site so it's understandable that the people are upset. Like the Egyptians protesting in Cairo, these young Turks are young, secular-minded women students to football fans, from the urban middle class to "the typical urban poor youth", according to the BBC's Paul Mason, who has been reporting from Istanbul.
I find it very heartening that the people in Turkey and Egypt are not putting up with any sort of shift to religious conservatism. They want democracy, liberty and freedom and they are getting it, interestingly, with the help of social media. Prime Minister Erdogan has been attempting to shut down Twitter feeds, calling them "a scourge." He, like many other leaders trying exert more control on their people, are stymied by American technology. Love it!
BBC has a nice Q & A on the situation in Turkey. Check it out!
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been moving the country into a more religiously conservative direction since the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power more than a decade ago. What began on May 28th as a simple "occupy" protest against the closing of Gezi Park (a highly symbolic and historic park in Istanbul) has now mushroomed into large protests against current Turkish leaders all over the county with thousands injured due to police overreaction.
Gezi stands as a monument to modernity in Turkey and the plan to demolish it was angered the secularists in the country and is seen as a move backwards. Indeed, the government plans to build an Ottoman style barracks and mosque on the site so it's understandable that the people are upset. Like the Egyptians protesting in Cairo, these young Turks are young, secular-minded women students to football fans, from the urban middle class to "the typical urban poor youth", according to the BBC's Paul Mason, who has been reporting from Istanbul.
I find it very heartening that the people in Turkey and Egypt are not putting up with any sort of shift to religious conservatism. They want democracy, liberty and freedom and they are getting it, interestingly, with the help of social media. Prime Minister Erdogan has been attempting to shut down Twitter feeds, calling them "a scourge." He, like many other leaders trying exert more control on their people, are stymied by American technology. Love it!
BBC has a nice Q & A on the situation in Turkey. Check it out!
Monday, July 01, 2013
The Rich Getting Richer off the Poor
An article in The New York Times describes how many employers pay workers with payroll cards instead of cash or paper paycheck:
The banks get employers to coerce employees into using the cards by giving them kickbacks:
Just another example of the rich getting richer off the poor.
[...] Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay.Not only do these people get screwed for taking their money out, they also get screwed for saving their money!
But in the overwhelming majority of cases, using the card involves a fee. And those fees can quickly add up: one provider, for example, charges $1.75 to make a withdrawal from most A.T.M.’s, $2.95 for a paper statement and $6 to replace a card. Some users even have to pay $7 inactivity fees for not using their cards.
These fees can take such a big bite out of paychecks that some employees end up making less than the minimum wage once the charges are taken into account, according to interviews with consumer lawyers, employees, and state and federal regulators.Many of the people who are paid with these cards are at the bottom of the economic ladder: they work part-time for McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Taco Bell, and so on.
Devonte Yates, 21, who earns $7.25 an hour working a drive-through station at a McDonald’s in Milwaukee, says he spends $40 to $50 a month on fees associated with his JPMorgan Chase payroll card.
The banks get employers to coerce employees into using the cards by giving them kickbacks:
In the case of the New York City Housing Authority, it stands to receive a dollar for every employee it signs up to Citibank’s payroll cards, according to a contract reviewed by The New York Times.The richest banks in the country are using their economic muscle to bribe employers into participating in a scam to nickel-and-dime the poorest people in the country to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Just another example of the rich getting richer off the poor.
Worldscope: Egypt
Over the next few days, I'm going to be highlighting areas of the world that have been bustling with activity-both good and bad. First up today is Egypt. Take a glance over in the news feeds to the right of this post and take note of the latest events. In a nutshell, Egyptians are having buyer's remorse.
The people are not happy with the Muslim Brotherhood and have attacked and looted their headquarters. Eight people died in a night of fighting around the Brotherhood building, where guards fired on youths hurling rocks and fire bombs. A Brotherhood official said two of its members were injured. As of right now, the streets are quiet as another wave of protests gears up.
At issue is the leadership of President Mohamed Morsi. The opposition does not trust the head of the Islamist movement, which critics accuse of using a series of electoral victories to monopolize power. They want a total reset of the rules of a democracy imperfectly worked out over the past two years. Morsi became Egypt's first freely elected president a year ago when he won 51 percent of the vote. But Saad said Morsi has damaged Egypt so much in one year, that it was impossible to wait another three to vote him out of office. "They want to kill us," said another man when asked why he wanted to break into the headquarters. "They're choking us."
This shift towards theocracy is playing out in other areas of the world such as Turkey and the people are not happy about it. The United States has urged Morsi and his supporters to share power with the secular opposition. Thus far, he has refused and Egypt is essentially right back where it was two years ago-a bloviating strong man wielding the power of the state.
One would think he would learn his lesson after what happened to Hosni Muburak but Morsi has adopted many of the same tactics and discourse. Keep an eye on the headlines over the next few days as the situation in Cairo will likely grow more destabilized.
The people are not happy with the Muslim Brotherhood and have attacked and looted their headquarters. Eight people died in a night of fighting around the Brotherhood building, where guards fired on youths hurling rocks and fire bombs. A Brotherhood official said two of its members were injured. As of right now, the streets are quiet as another wave of protests gears up.
At issue is the leadership of President Mohamed Morsi. The opposition does not trust the head of the Islamist movement, which critics accuse of using a series of electoral victories to monopolize power. They want a total reset of the rules of a democracy imperfectly worked out over the past two years. Morsi became Egypt's first freely elected president a year ago when he won 51 percent of the vote. But Saad said Morsi has damaged Egypt so much in one year, that it was impossible to wait another three to vote him out of office. "They want to kill us," said another man when asked why he wanted to break into the headquarters. "They're choking us."
This shift towards theocracy is playing out in other areas of the world such as Turkey and the people are not happy about it. The United States has urged Morsi and his supporters to share power with the secular opposition. Thus far, he has refused and Egypt is essentially right back where it was two years ago-a bloviating strong man wielding the power of the state.
One would think he would learn his lesson after what happened to Hosni Muburak but Morsi has adopted many of the same tactics and discourse. Keep an eye on the headlines over the next few days as the situation in Cairo will likely grow more destabilized.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
The Next Generation?
The recent report that students leaving high school today aren't doing much better than they did in the 1970s seems like bad news at first glance. Dive into it a little deeper, however, and we see this.
The news was brighter for younger students and for blacks and Hispanics, who had the greatest gain in reading and math scores since the 1970s, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. “In some ways, the findings are full of hope. Today’s children ages 9 and 13 are scoring better overall than students at those ages in the early ’70s,” said Brent Houston, principal of the Shawnee Middle School in Oklahoma and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which administers the tests.
Does this mean the achievement is closing? Possibly. A big part of the reason for this is the Common Core program started by the states, not the federal government, although it does have the full support of President Obama. The key thrust of the CC standards is to develop students' critical thinking skills and not simply test their short term memories. This leads to what we call in the biz "enduring understandings" and the best instructors know how to achieve this goal.
It's going to be very exciting and interesting to watch how our test scores rise over the next decade due to the changes being made now in our education system. It's about time!
The news was brighter for younger students and for blacks and Hispanics, who had the greatest gain in reading and math scores since the 1970s, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. “In some ways, the findings are full of hope. Today’s children ages 9 and 13 are scoring better overall than students at those ages in the early ’70s,” said Brent Houston, principal of the Shawnee Middle School in Oklahoma and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which administers the tests.
Does this mean the achievement is closing? Possibly. A big part of the reason for this is the Common Core program started by the states, not the federal government, although it does have the full support of President Obama. The key thrust of the CC standards is to develop students' critical thinking skills and not simply test their short term memories. This leads to what we call in the biz "enduring understandings" and the best instructors know how to achieve this goal.
It's going to be very exciting and interesting to watch how our test scores rise over the next decade due to the changes being made now in our education system. It's about time!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Do Big Brothers Make You Gay?
I read this article on Slate that mentions a study that found that fraternal birth order influences the likelihood of being gay:
The irony is that families who belong to religions that encourage large families -- Catholics and Mormons -- are more likely to produce gay younger brothers.
Perhaps this is why so many Catholic priests are gay (from an article in the Washington Times):
But it must be frustrating for these groups -- the more they do what "they're supposed to do" (have big families) the more negative feedback they get (bearing gay sons). Is it God's will? Karma? Or just biology?
In men, sexual orientation correlates with an individual’s number of older brothers, each additional older brother increasing the odds of homosexuality by approximately 33%. It has been hypothesized that this fraternal birth order effect reflects the progressive immunization of some mothers to Y-linked minor histocompatibility antigens (H-Y antigens) by each succeeding male fetus and the concomitantly increasing effects of such maternal immunization on the future sexual orientation of each succeeding male fetus.I knew that the presence of certain environmental hormones in the womb could influence fetal brain development that produced gays and lesbians, but this was the first I'd seen of the birth order correlation. If true, the more older brothers you have the more likely it is you'll be gay.
The irony is that families who belong to religions that encourage large families -- Catholics and Mormons -- are more likely to produce gay younger brothers.
Perhaps this is why so many Catholic priests are gay (from an article in the Washington Times):
Based on his 17 years in the priesthood, [Rev. James Haley] estimates that 60 percent of the Diocese of Arlington’s 127 diocesan priests are homosexuals, which is high compared with national estimates of 30 percent to 50 percent from other authorities on the priesthood.I guess this worked out for medieval Europe with its laws of primogeniture, which allowed only the firstborn son to inherit, leaving the younger sons with no options except to join the Church.
But it must be frustrating for these groups -- the more they do what "they're supposed to do" (have big families) the more negative feedback they get (bearing gay sons). Is it God's will? Karma? Or just biology?
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Private Contractor Charged Government for Security Clearance Checks it Never Performed
The government contractor that did background checks for security clearances of people like Edward Snowden didn't actually do them half the time. They just lied:
After conducting an initial background check of a candidate for employment, USIS was required to perform a second review to make sure no important details had been missed. From 2008 through 2011, USIS allegedly skipped this second review in up to 50 percent of the cases. But it conveyed to federal officials that these reviews had, in fact, been performed.I'm so glad we're privatizing all our military and security infrastructure. It costs twice as much and they do only half the work. It's so efficient!
The shortcut made it appear that USIS was more efficient than it actually was and may have triggered incentive awards for the company, the people briefed on the matter said. Investigators, who have briefed lawmakers on the allegations, think the strategy may have originated with senior executives, the people said.
This is the problem with using people whose only motive is profit to do critical work. Apparently there's no room for honor, loyalty and patriotism when it comes to the bottom line.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Voting Rights Act Redux
My initial take on the Supreme Court decision yesterday to nullify sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act is not quite as outraged as my fellow Democratic and progressive colleagues. It's obvious that this was to be expected given the make up of the court but is it really as bad as they say it's going to be? Possibly but I have my doubts and the main reason why I do is the last election.
All of the gymnastics the Right did in 2012 simply resulted in a more concerted effort to get the non white vote out. It worked. They voted in record numbers in 2012. Changing demographics in the states affected by the SCOTUS decision means that there will be very little the state houses can do to suppress votes. The court is right to note that times have indeed changed and, although discrimination still exists, I just don't see any way they are going to get away with it.
And, if I can be extremely political here, the only states that matter for right now out of those nine affected the most by the changes are Florida and Virginia. The other states are going to be red for just a little bit longer, I suspect, with the exception, perhaps, of Texas. But the Lone Star state is a great example of those changing demographics. So is Florida, actually, as we saw people wait in line for seven hours to make sure they had the chance to vote.
People are resilient and will adapt to any bullshit the Right tries to pull with voting. It's happened before and it will happen again.
All of the gymnastics the Right did in 2012 simply resulted in a more concerted effort to get the non white vote out. It worked. They voted in record numbers in 2012. Changing demographics in the states affected by the SCOTUS decision means that there will be very little the state houses can do to suppress votes. The court is right to note that times have indeed changed and, although discrimination still exists, I just don't see any way they are going to get away with it.
And, if I can be extremely political here, the only states that matter for right now out of those nine affected the most by the changes are Florida and Virginia. The other states are going to be red for just a little bit longer, I suspect, with the exception, perhaps, of Texas. But the Lone Star state is a great example of those changing demographics. So is Florida, actually, as we saw people wait in line for seven hours to make sure they had the chance to vote.
People are resilient and will adapt to any bullshit the Right tries to pull with voting. It's happened before and it will happen again.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
We're Number On.....oh...wait a minute...Number Twenty Seven!
Conservatives like to sing about how wealthy our middle class is compared to the rest of the world. After all, look at how everyone has flat screens, X Boxes and cel phones? Never mind the fact that all of that is really cheap shit made in China and in no way a measure of wealth (see: it's not the year 1982 anymore where the family with the cool hi-fi set up is king)
The reality is our middle class isn't number one. In fact, we are number 27.
This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that's what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us. Unfortunately, it's a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people. Our middle class is falling further and further behind in comparison to the rest of the world.
So how do we compare to other countries?
Pretty craptacular if you ask me. Australia is number one? Even with their strict gun laws? I'm surprised that the middle class is doing so well considering that we have all been told by those "in the know" that gun bans lead to totalitarianism. Where is the suffering under communism that was promised?
So how is all of this measured?
Wealth is measured by the total sum of all our assets (homes, bank accounts, stocks, bonds etc.) minus our liabilities (outstanding loans and other debts). It the best indicator we have for individual and family prosperity. The most telling comparative measurement is median wealth (per adult).
Just north of $38,000. Like I said, pathetic.
Of course, any sort of discussion about addressing this problem jumps immediately to a mouth foaming rant about communism and merrily we go on avoiding how, in some very key ways, we are falling behind the rest of the world.
As a country, we can't go on with a government that represents only the wealthy citizens. While this article presents nothing new (Stiglitz says much of it in his book), all of its bullet points are truly depressing and make me sick. When is it going to end?
More importantly, which party is going to have the guts to change the system we have now?
The reality is our middle class isn't number one. In fact, we are number 27.
This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that's what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us. Unfortunately, it's a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people. Our middle class is falling further and further behind in comparison to the rest of the world.
So how do we compare to other countries?
Pretty craptacular if you ask me. Australia is number one? Even with their strict gun laws? I'm surprised that the middle class is doing so well considering that we have all been told by those "in the know" that gun bans lead to totalitarianism. Where is the suffering under communism that was promised?
So how is all of this measured?
Wealth is measured by the total sum of all our assets (homes, bank accounts, stocks, bonds etc.) minus our liabilities (outstanding loans and other debts). It the best indicator we have for individual and family prosperity. The most telling comparative measurement is median wealth (per adult).
Just north of $38,000. Like I said, pathetic.
Of course, any sort of discussion about addressing this problem jumps immediately to a mouth foaming rant about communism and merrily we go on avoiding how, in some very key ways, we are falling behind the rest of the world.
As a country, we can't go on with a government that represents only the wealthy citizens. While this article presents nothing new (Stiglitz says much of it in his book), all of its bullet points are truly depressing and make me sick. When is it going to end?
More importantly, which party is going to have the guts to change the system we have now?
Labels:
conservatives,
Managing Fantasies,
Wealth Inequality
Monday, June 24, 2013
End of the Phony IRS Scandal?
Well, the IRS "scandal" turned out to be phony. It was apparently what I thought it was: some IRS agents taking shortcuts to determine which political organizations seeking tax-exempt status should receive additional scrutiny. In particular, ones that seemed to be overtly political -- or commercial -- and not "social welfare" organizations.
They demanded more information from groups of all stripes: medical marijuana advocates, groups advocating the president's health care law; interestingly, "occupied territory advocacy" groups received the most scrutiny of all. Most telling to me is the following:
But groups with no political inclinations were also examined. “Open source software” organizations seeking nonprofit status “are usually for-profit business or for-profit support technicians of the software,” a lookout list warns. “If you see a case, elevate it to your manager.”I'm in software, and I know how these open-source software companies work: they let the broader community of software developers write all their code for them -- for free -- and then they turn around and sell their own version of it (with support) for real money. (These are usually systems like Linux.) In essence, these companies are lining their pockets with the labor of volunteers who nobly donate their own time -- lots of it -- to the cause of open-source software.
In short, the IRS agents were looking for scammers: political scammers on the right looking to offer tax deductions to their billionaire donors for political action, political scammers on the left looking to leverage their smaller donor pool with tax-exempt status, as well as corporate scammers just looking to get the rest of us to pay for their lobbying expenses.
The real scandal here is not the IRS took these shortcuts: can you really blame these IRS agents for using keywords to identify the organizations that are most likely to try cheating the government? They're just trying to do their jobs efficiently. Seriously, isn't that what we'd expect the IRS to do in the first place?
No, the real scandal is that the Treasury inspector general omitted the salient fact that the IRS was looking into all groups seeking questionable tax-exempt status, and was not singling out conservative groups.
Perhaps we could get the NSA to look into the inspector general's cellphone, email and Internet usage to determine who gave him those instructions...
Maybe Old-Fashioned Government Bureaucrats Aren't So Bad After All...
From the South China Morning Post:
Boy, those new-fangled private security contractors like Booz Allen sure do a bang-up job on protecting American secrets. So much better than those fuddy-duddy government employees who stay on the job for life, in order to make sure they keep their government pensions. Which happen to be much less than what Booz Allen pays Snowden and their ilk...
Snowden sought Booz Allen job to gather evidence on NSA surveillance
Fugitive whistle-blower reveals for first time he took job at US government contractor with the sole aim of collecting proof of spying activities
Boy, those new-fangled private security contractors like Booz Allen sure do a bang-up job on protecting American secrets. So much better than those fuddy-duddy government employees who stay on the job for life, in order to make sure they keep their government pensions. Which happen to be much less than what Booz Allen pays Snowden and their ilk...
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