Thursday, July 31, 2014


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/former-irs-official-called-gop-crazies-email-162459872--finance.html

Former IRS official called GOP 'crazies' in email
AP 
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
July 29, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former IRS official at the heart of the agency's tea party controversy called Republicans "crazies" and more in newly released emails.

Lois Lerner used to head the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status. In a series of emails with a colleague in November 2012, Lerner made two disparaging remarks about members of the GOP, including one remark that was profane.

Republican Rep. Dave Camp, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, released the emails Wednesday as part of his committee's investigation. Camp says the emails show Lerner's disgust with conservatives.

In one email, Lerner called them crazies. In the other, she called them "assholes." The committee redacted the wording to "_holes" in the material it released publicly, but a committee spokeswoman confirmed to the AP that the email said "assholes."

Congress and the Justice Department are investigating whether the IRS improperly scrutinized applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups.




This is indeed wrong, but it doesn't prove that the President had anything to do with this. It also doesn't prove Lerner violated anyone's rights knowingly, either. There is, however, so much bad feeling between the parties nowadays that this kind of enmity on the part of some people is not surprising. To put it in writing in a medium that could become public is very foolish indeed, though. It does make me curious to see what else is in the emails, and it makes me wonder where they were finally found. I was behind her until this story, but now I'm not so sure. I just wish the Tea Party wouldn't be so hostile and contrary in their dealings in Congress. It does make for bad feeling among the Democrats. It's no wonder Obama has started bypassing them in order to get anything done. The following from Breitbart details some of the emails. I will try to get more copies of them as well.


http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/30/New-Emails-Expose-Lois-Lerner-Rants-About-Conservative-Crazies

NEW EMAILS EXPOSE LOIS LERNER RANTS ABOUT CONSERVATIVE 'CRAZIES'
by CHARLIE SPIERING  30 Jul 2014, 9:33 AM PDT

When she wasn’t working to persecute conservative Tea Party groups, former IRS official Lois Lerner spent her time taunting conservatives on her Blackberry. A new email chain shows Lerner participating in a conversation describing conservatives as scary, crazy, right wing, whacko, assholes.

“So we don’t need to worry about alien teRrorists,” Lerner wrote in an email about right wing radio shows. “It’s our own crazies that will take us down.”

The new emails were released by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Later Lerner wrote that “maybe we are through” as a country “if there are that many assholes.”

“Well you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP,” the recipient of Lerner’s email replied, criticizing conservatives for buying and storing food and ammunition while complaining about illegal immigrants.

“This email shows that Ms. Lerner’s mistreatment of conservative groups was driven by her personal hostility toward conservatives,” Camp writes in his letter to Holder. “This new evidence clearly demonstrates why Ms. Lerner not only targeted conservatives, but denied such groups their rights to due process and equal protection under the law.”

See Email quotations below:


On terrorists:

“So we don't need to worry about alien terRorists. It's our own crazies that will take us down.”

On right wing radio shows:

“And I'm talking about the hosts of the shows. The callers are rabid.”

On the far right:

“Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP. The US is through; too many foreigners sucking the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food, and prepare for the end. The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to.”

On A-holes:

“Maybe we are through if there are that many __ holes.”




It would have been better if she hadn't put these emails on the IRS computer system to be found and used against her. They still don't prove she purposely cheated conservative groups on their IRS records merely because they are conservative, but they do show her rancor toward them. They show her saying some things I agree with, unfortunately. The right wing “Patriots” and terrorists like Timothy McVeigh are as bad as any foreign terrorists – they all plant bombs that hurt innocent people, from abortion clinics and black churches to government buildings.

The right wing radio shows are “scary” if you believe what the hosts like Rush Limbaugh say. He tries to be as controversial and crude as he can to appeal to the “angry white men” who are his primary audience. He gets his salary for “keeping the pot stirred.” I'm sure there are members of the GOP who financially support his radio spot. I never, ever listen to him, or read anything he has said except when it is so outrageous that it makes the news. He once, for instance, called a female who called in to the show “a vagina.” That made the news. I can't believe so many people listen to that kind of bilge water day after day and actually like it.

About whackos – there are whackos of all persuasions including left wing whackos, but there is a certain set that are planning for a race war or “the end times.” I have seen things on the Internet giving advice on how to stock your fallout shelter with canned and dry goods, and stockpile ammunition. The groups who call themselves “Patriots” are groups who get together out in the woods and dress in camouflage, shooting at targets and making assault maneuvers against an imaginary foe. They are “training” so they can prevent the Federal government from sending troops in to take over their communities and declare martial law. To me that really is “whacko.”




Big-box stores may see dark days ahead – CBS
By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH July 31, 2014, 5:45 AM

Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) gained dominance by offering everything from groceries to children's toys, often putting smaller, local stores out of business in the process.

Now, it's the revenge of the smaller retailers.

Walmart is being forced to focus on "defensive investments" as it seeks to counter the popularity of online retailers such as Amazon (AMZN), as well as smaller chains such as dollar stores and drugstores. That's according to a new report from Goldman Sachs (GS), which downgraded its investment rating on the retail giant.

Walmart is creating its own smaller stores through its Neighborhood Market and Express brands. But it may be tough for these operations to "move the needle" for Walmart, Goldman wrote in the Tuesday report.

"The firm contends that Neighborhood Markets offers competitive returns, but the jury is still out on its Express stores, as well as on the concept of tethering these boxes to supercenters for inventory, labor, and management," the Goldman analysts noted.

Walmart may generate only 2.8 percent of revenue off its total 2013 revenue base from these smaller stores, the report adds.

Yet with Walmart reporting fiscal second-quarter earnings on Aug. 14, Goldman said it doesn't see an "unusual 2Q earnings risk."

Both Walmart and Target have had tough years. Walmart recently said it's replacing Bill Simon, its U.S. chief, shaking up its management after several quarters of declining same-store sales. As for Target, it tapped a new chief executive following its data-breach debacle, which may have affected as many as 110 million customers and caused some people to shun the store.

On top of that, competitive pressure on big-box retailers may become more intense, given the recently announced $8.5 billion deal for Dollar Tree to buy Family Dollar. The combined ultra-discount retailers will have more than 13,000 locations -- more outlets than Walmart.

As consumers' pocketbooks grow more strained -- thanks to flatlining household income and higher prices for consumer items -- they're seeking out bargains at smaller stores, such as dollar stores, and at online retailers, such as Amazon.

Amazon, Goldman noted, "clearly lurks as the biggest external competitive threat" to Walmart.




The day of the small store in small towns may be permanently gone. In the 1950's and 60's I lived in a small city of about 10,000. The downtown wasn't much, but to get to larger stores the shopper had to drive seven miles to the next slightly larger city, and many people did. To many, however, we just went to our local Belks and Roses, a men's clothing store, a shoe shop, a bakery, a butcher shop, a drugstore and a hardware store. The drugstore did double duty as a soda shop. Now it is possible to buy all of these things at any Walmart. The downtown of Thomasville is all but gone now, with several shopping centers around the town housing big box stores, a movie theater and some restaurants. One change now is that when I was young, we who were relatively poor only bought what we thought we needed, going without a new wardrobe of clothing at the beginning of every school year or lots of books. Luckily there was a pretty well-stocked public library there, and I was a member from the time I was in the fourth grade.

For myself, nowadays, I try not to go to Walmart because it is so large, and I hate having to walk miles past thousands of displays searching for one item. Walmart has made an improvement, however. They have created a link between their website and each local store for ordering items on the Net. I now pay ahead on the Net with a credit card and then simply go to the store I have designated to pick up the item from the service desk, so I no longer have to walk the aisles feeling bewildered and lost. I still don't buy groceries at Walmart, as their prices are not all less expensive than my local grocery store, and I have to drive four miles to the nearest Walmart.

I don't shop at Dollar Tree or Family Dollar, but there is a Dollar General I go to when I go to the Southside to eat lunch with my friend. I buy condensed milk, coffee, and small items that are definitely less expensive there, as I use large quantities of both. I pick up a dozen or more cans of milk and three large cans of coffee there once a month or so. Most of my shopping, however, is done at my local Publix grocery store and Walgreens drugstore. If I buy anything that is electronic or related I will probably go to Walmart or Staples. I prefer shopping at Staples, but Walmart is closer. Staples is great, though, because if I can't find something the sales counter attendant will call a manager, who will walk me right to it and they never act grumpy about it. Their selection for electronics or other office supplies is also much better than that at Walmart.

The other problem with Walmart besides its sheer size is the fact that it is nearly impossible to get someone to help me find anything there. They have lots of customers and very few sales clerks. The wait at a line may be ten minutes or more. I'm not like so many women – I hate to shop. I don't clip coupons or follow sales. The only time it's fun for me is if I have a friend with me and we eat lunch afterward. I'd much rather go sit in a park and feed the squirrels for sheer entertainment.

I would like to know how the large shopping malls are doing financially. Are they losing money to the dollar stores? My nearest shopping mall and a trip to Staples are the only shopping experiences that are fun for me. My local shopping mall is Regency Square and they have nice women's clothing stores, a jewelry store, numerous other stores, a candy shop, Auntie Annie's hot pretzels, and a food court with pretty good restaurants. After going there and having lunch there is a movie theater two blocks away. I still want a companion for the day, but that is my idea of shopping fun.






Pennsylvania town applauds plan to shelter migrant children
By HANNAH FRASER-CHANPONG CBS NEWS July 30, 2014, 10:45 PM

EMSWORTH, Pa. -It was standing room only at a community meeting in a western Pennsylvania town as Sister Linda Yankoski explained why she's opening her doors to migrant children who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone.

"There are children sleeping on the floor," Yankoski said at Tuesday night's meeting, "and I have a bed."

Yankoski, the chief executive officer of Holy Family Institute, a Catholic children's home and school in Emsworth, says she has room for up to 36 unaccompanied alien children, or UACs. Yankoski says her decision to take in some UACs - more than 57,000 have crossed this year - is rooted in faith.

"They are the most vulnerable children right now living in America," she said in an interview. "We have the resources, we have the ability and we have the will to do this. It's just part of who we are."

The decision raised some concern in the community, a mostly residential enclave of about 2,800 outside Pittsburgh. People raised questions about health, safety and the misuse of dollars which some say are better off serving local children.

"If we have needs here and we have bills we have to take care of here, what is responsible?" asked Rob Medonis, a resident from nearby South Hills who attended the meeting.

Emsworth Mayor Dee Quinn, who was initially "stunned" to hear the news that Holy Family would become a shelter, said she wanted answers for her constituents.

"A lot of them are concerned about the illnesses that the children could be bringing here," Quinn said Tuesday afternoon, "to not only the community but even if the people that work there get in touch with these children, then they could be carrying that to wherever they live."

But most at the meeting, which drew nearly 200 people, were supportive of Yankoski's plan.

"This is something...we're called to do as human beings," said Fox Chapel resident Sara Cuada Berg. "If you're not Christian, than at least believe it to be something that you do for your fellow human beings."

Cuada Berg, who was one of about two dozen to approach a microphone set up between chairs at Sacred Heart Church, arrived in the area from Nicaragua when she was a teenager. She recounted her first years in the United States, living at Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden, Pa.

"You gave me a home," she said. "It is because of what you did for me that I am the person I am today."

Others offered to donate money or volunteer at the shelter on Holy Family's 10-acre campus. One man, who described himself as a "blue-collar American," summed up his reaction with a question: "Will you call me if you need any help?"

It's unclear how long each child will be at Holy Family, but Yankoski says she was told that stays usually last between 30 and 40 days. She didn't know, however, how many of the children coming to Emsworth may have relatives or other sponsors in the Pittsburgh area. While Pittsburgh is the second largest city in Pennsylvania, census data shows that only 2.3 percent of its population is Hispanic or Latino.

"There isn't any way for us to know how many of the children coming to our Pittsburgh shelter will stay in Pittsburgh," she said. "There may be some that are placed with their relatives in Pittsburgh but from what I understand families live across the U.S."

The timeline is important to some residents, who have voiced worry about the children attending local public schools. Holy Family plans to arrange classes - math, English, history - led by Spanish-speaking educators for the children on its campus, at a cost that Yankoski says will be reimbursed by the U.S. government, along with costs for food and clothing. A child might be enrolled in a public school, but only after leaving the shelter.

"We are not going to have to utilize community resources for the care of these children," she said.

The meeting came to a close after about an hour and a half of discussion but no changes to Holy Family's plan.

"There will always be people for it and there's always going to be people against it," Quinn said. "But at least hopefully they will be more at peace with what's going to happen in our neighborhood."

The children are set to arrive later this year, though no exact date has been set.




“The decision raised some concern in the community, a mostly residential enclave of about 2,800 outside Pittsburgh. People raised questions about health, safety and the misuse of dollars which some say are better off serving local children.... Emsworth Mayor Dee Quinn, who was initially "stunned" to hear the news that Holy Family would become a shelter, said she wanted answers for her constituents. "A lot of them are concerned about the illnesses that the children could be bringing here," Quinn said....But most at the meeting, which drew nearly 200 people, were supportive of Yankoski's plan.”

“The timeline is important to some residents, who have voiced worry about the children attending local public schools. Holy Family plans to arrange classes - math, English, history - led by Spanish-speaking educators for the children on its campus, at a cost that Yankoski says will be reimbursed by the U.S. government, along with costs for food and clothing. A child might be enrolled in a public school, but only after leaving the shelter.”

This is an ideal situation for the undocumented children, as the city doesn't have to finance their stay there and they won't go to the local schools unless they leave the shelter. The charity is set up for giving shelter to people, and it is a part of their religious mission. There is question about illnesses spreading to the local community, but in one earlier article it said that medical screening is one of the things that the Border Patrol are doing, so hopefully the children who arrive will be healthy. The best news, however, is that the people in this community are mainly welcoming to the children rather than being hostile to immigrants. I hope to see more towns like this one in the news, since there is such a great need for welcoming communities. Until we get our laws set up to discourage such children from coming, these are not adults who are able to work and care for themselves, and it is indeed inhumane to keep them in prison-like conditions without human contact. I think not even most Republicans would want that.







Filmmaker ​Richard Linklater on "Boyhood" and time
CBS NEWS July 27, 2014, 10:23 AM

Richard Linklater's 2003 film "School of Rock" starred Jack Black as a musician who never grew up. Martha Teichner tells us about Linklater's NEWEST film:

Never before has one of filmmaker Richard Linklater's movies generated the kind of buzz "Boyhood" has.

The film follows a boy, Mason (played by Ellar Coltrane) from age six to 18. He literally grows up before your very eyes.

His sister is played by Lorelei Linklater, the director's daughter; their divorced parents, by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke.

What's remarkable about "Boyhood" is that it was shot over twelve years. Time (and how it changes people) is the subject.

"What Rick is doing with this movie has been done in literature a lot," said Hawke, "But it hasn't really been done in a movie, and you get the chance to really watch a family develop over the course of a decade, and it's a powerful tool."

"The manipulation of time is the unique property of cinema," said Linklater. "If cinema is painting, time is the paint. It's that fundamental."

Linklater visited one of the earliest locations used in the film, when the main character is in first grade. "I haven't been back here . . . it's been 12 years since we filmed here," he said.

"I had one of these in my life, from [the time] you're born 'til you're about seven. It's the house you kind of grew up in and that seems like home. For the rest of your life you kind of have dreams that you're still back there."

The story is moved along by the accumulation of small but emotionally-loaded moments, including one scene that came straight from Linklater's own boyhood.

"I call it my redneck bar mitzvah year," Linklater said. "I got a personalized Bible and a 20-gauge. I look back and say, "Oh that is kind of funny," but I think there's a part of this that wants also wants to see something that is part of my life."

Born in Houston, Linklater went to college on a baseball scholarship, but when a heart condition ended his sports career, he dropped out and went to work on an offshore oil rig.

"When I was on land, I was watching three, four films a day and going home and reading about the actor, the director, the studio. So it was a great education."

In his early twenties, with his oil rig earnings, he moved to Austin, Texas, determined to make films. Austin was a prominent feature of his first film, "Slacker." Linklater is in it as well. His eccentric characters kind of bounce off each other randomly over a 24-hour period.

He made "Slacker" for $23,000. Released in 1991, it grossed more than $1.2 million.

"I just kind of dedicated my life to film," he said. "It's like, if it's the priesthood, I joined. And that was it. That was just my whole life, and I didn't know where that would lead."

It led to another movie about time, "Dazed and Confused," a comedy cult classic about Austin high school kids on the last day of school. The film introduced moviegoers to an unknown Matthew McConnaughey ("All right all right all righhhhttttt!")

Linklater has made 18 features, including popular hits like "School of Rock" starring Jack Black. His "Before" trilogy about one romance ("Before Sunrise," "Before Sunset" and "Before Midnight") with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, was nominated for two Oscars.





Some experimental films are very hard to follow as they hop from subject to subject, or just very strange, as with the early trials of movies shot in front of a single stationary camera, or whole movies filmed in the same room and consisting mainly of conversation or even monologues. I don't always like experimental films, but this one sounds very interesting. Exactly how faces and bodies change with age is fascinating to me. I will probably invest a few dollars to see this one when it comes out, even though it will lack a “plot” for the most part. Perhaps the narrator will give some information about the life of the family as background, and there will probably be real life conversations between the people, which I find interesting. One of the best films I have ever seen was Sacha Baron Cohen's “Borat.” It was full of very broad humor and offended some of the people in the film enough that they sued Cohen, but it was so entertaining in its natural, unscripted, bizarre action that I laughed all the way through. To someone who tends to love anthropological or sociological subjects, it was excellent. Another film that was great for similar reasons was “The Gods Must Be Crazy,” by Jamie Uys from 1980. Those two are probably available in any large public library for anyone who is interested in seeing them.






Maine police officer stops driver for speeding, then saves his life
CBS/AP July 30, 2014, 1:57 PM

KENNEBUNK, Maine -- Not many people can say they owe their lives to a near speeding ticket.

But 86-year-old Gavin Falconer can. He was pulled over Saturday by a police officer in Kennebunk, Maine. But shortly after handing over his license and registration, Falconer suffered an apparent heart attack and slumped over without a pulse.

Police say Officer Michael Harrington quickly transitioned from writing out a warning for the speeding infraction to administering CPR. A second officer then arrived with a defibrillator.

Falconer was brought to a hospital and is recovering. He tells WMTW-TV that he hopes to see the officer again and thank him.

Harrington says the incident is proof there is no such thing as a "routine" traffic stop.

"When you're thinking you're just going to give a guy a warning and -- next thing you know -- you're doing chest compression in the middle of rush-hour traffic. It's a little overwhelming," Harrington told the station.





“Harrington says the incident is proof there is no such thing as a 'routine' traffic stop. 'When you're thinking you're just going to give a guy a warning and -- next thing you know -- you're doing chest compression in the middle of rush-hour traffic. It's a little overwhelming,' Harrington told the station.” The experiences of real life police officers are more interesting to me than fiction, and they can be important. From the videotaped beating of Rodney King by what looked like dozens of policemen to the occasionally televised dash camera recordings, they show true human responses to situations and real “action” shots.

Sometimes they show heroism as in this news article, and other times they show hard core police abuse of their very high degree of power and trust. I respect “good” policemen very highly, but I have great scorn for racism, unnecessary violence, corruption or other harmful behavior. Is it worse for police to do these things? Yes, to me, because they are placed in a position of trust and if they are essentially criminals, I think they should not only be fired, but do prison time. That's like parents who abuse their children rather than administering good, healthy discipline. They are violating nature's highest and most honored responsibility.




Polio's Surge In Pakistan: Are Parents Part Of The Problem?
by NURITH AIZENMAN
July 30, 2014

What do the parents think? That's always a crucial question when it comes to vaccinating kids.

And it's particularly important in Pakistan, which is one of the last places in the world where the polio virus is still making kids sick.

Health workers in Pakistan are trying to convince millions of parents to allow their children take the polio vaccine. But the program faces vehement — and at times violent — opposition.

So researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health recently did a poll to find out if parents are part of the problem. The results surprised them.

Imagine you're a parent in northwest Pakistan. You live in a remote village, perhaps in a mud hut on top of a mountain. Every few weeks some strangers carrying vials of a clear liquid come knocking on your door.

"Frankly, if someone came to my house and said, 'You know, you don't know me from Adam, but I'd like to vaccinate your child,' I wouldn't let them," says Sona Bari, of the World Health Organization.

But eradicating polio worldwide depends on these parents in Pakistan saying yes.

Strangers showing up at your door isn't the only hurdle to getting children vaccinated. In Pakistan, the Taliban threaten to kill parents who immunize their kids. More than 60 vaccinators have already been killed in the past two years.

"There have been health worker attacks, and there have been bans on polio campaigns for two years now," says Sherine Guirguis of UNICEF, a co-sponsor of the vaccine poll. "So there's this climate that we're working in."

The result of those bans: a surge in polio cases in Taliban-controlled regions. About 50 kids have been paralyzed this year in the two regions where the polio vaccine is banned, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

The message to parents from all this: Don't even think of opening your door for a vaccinator.

And it's not just in the regions controlled by the Taliban. Rumors about the vaccine are common across Pakistan, the Harvard poll found.

"The vaccine is not halal, for example," Guirguis says. "Or that it's not made with ingredients that they feel comfortable with."

There's also the belief that the vaccine is a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children, or worse, that the vaccine gives kids AIDS.

On the plus side, only 1 in 10 parents nationwide thought the rumors might be true, the Harvard poll found. And even in theFederally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, only about a third of parents thought there might be something to the tales.

But researchers say these rumors can still be a problem. "People don't necessarily have to believe them in full," says Harvard's Gillian SteelFisher, who ran the poll. "But you worry about that kind of atmosphere of misunderstanding about the vaccine."

That's because of another challenge facing the polio eradication effort. With other vaccine initiatives, it's enough to reach a good majority of kids. But when it comes to polio, health workers are trying to wipe this disease off the planet. So even reaching 75 percent of kids isn't good enough, says UNICEF's Guirguis.

"Polio is a 100 percent program," she says. "You need to find every child, living in the most far-flung area, living in the most conflict-affected area."

And vaccinators don't need to reach kids only once, or even twice. They need to convince parents to vaccinate their child at least four times, in a single year. That's what it takes to get full immunity with this vaccine.

And when vaccinators keep showing up, some parents start to get exasperated, the WHO's Bari says. "So this is one of the few services they're seeing come to their door, for free," she says. "And yet it's coming over and over, which is something that's hard for them to understand."

Polio is a big priority for the international community. But it's become rare enough, even in Pakistan, that a lot of parents haven't ever seen it. It's not really on their minds.

The Harvard poll found that many parents don't think polio is that serious — that the paralysis it causes is curable. It isn't.

And yet, for all of these obstacles, when vaccinators can get to homes in the FATA region, parents there aren't turning them away. The poll found that among parents who confirmed that a vaccinator reached their door, 95 percent said that yes, their child did get the vaccine.





“Health workers in Pakistan are trying to convince millions of parents to allow their children take the polio vaccine. But the program faces vehement — and at times violent — opposition.... 'There have been health worker attacks, and there have been bans on polio campaigns for two years now,' says Sherine Guirguis of UNICEF, a co-sponsor of the vaccine poll. 'So there's this climate that we're working in.' The result of those bans: a surge in polio cases in Taliban-controlled regions. ...There's also the belief that the vaccine is a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children, or worse, that the vaccine gives kids AIDS.... They need to convince parents to vaccinate their child at least four times, in a single year. That's what it takes to get full immunity with this vaccine.”

That all sounds like bad news; but even with these problems, about 95% of the children have successfuly been vaccinated. Still UNICEF needs to reach every child – and presumably adults, too – for each to be vaccinated four times in a year or it won't achieve complete immunity.

There is very little trust of anything Western in such places as Pakistan, so it seems to me that the government of Pakistan should mandate the vaccination of the citizens. After all it will be their problem more than the world's if the disease runs rampant there. There is very little control over the actions of the Taliban by their government, however, so I don't have much hope for the people and their problems.

It's very sad. Religion can be ennobling, or it can bring unadulterated evil to a society. It all depends on what the religion is, and how much it rules the minds and lives of the people. In the US there are few such cults, but there have been some. Some people will willingly turn their entire ability to think over to the domination of some person or people in power. There is no cure for that situation except to ban the religion or educate the public to the point that they can see with full rationality the truth of any situation. We in the US don't believe in doing that, of course, and it is a solution that leaves a society open to whatever moral code, or lack thereof, may exist. There is really no way to root out deep-seated cultural beliefs, except by totalitarian control, which brings other evils which are undoubtedly worse.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014


News Clips For The Day

http://healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/human-trials-ebola-vaccine-11812

The Disease Daily
Human Trials For Ebola Vaccine?
Jason Hayes – Research and Policy
November 8, 2012

Recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda underscore a persistent challenge about the terrifying little virus: we don’t yet know how to prevent it. In fact, we only recently made steps towards curing it.

However, based on new research from Canada, the same scientists who identified antibodies that stopped Ebola infection in monkeys believe they have identified antibodies that may predict whether the immune system can overcome Ebola. The new discovery from Gary Kobinger and his team at the Public Health Agency of Canada means that scientists can assert if a vaccine for Ebola will work.

Quick refresher: Antibodies are proteins that the immune system produces when it detects the presence of pathogens. Each pathogen has a particular set of identifiers, called antigens, which trigger the release of specific antibodies. The immune system releases antibodies to identify and neutralize pathogens.

Until now, the serum that saved monkeys in the lab could not be tested on humans because it would require scientists to expose humans to one of the deadliest viruses in the world, without knowing if they could be saved.

Kobinger’s research provides reassurance. In a study published in Science, Kobinger compared animals with IgG levels – blood borne immune system triggers – of the antibody produced against potentially lethal inoculations of Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV). The findings confirm that this specific antibody can offer immunity. As a rule of thumb with other diseases, the antibodies Kobinger found provide correlates of protection, or expected immunity – with up to 99 percent accuracy. Not only can scientists now predict immunity but they can also confirm a vaccinated person will become immune, which is a step towards human trials.



http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/no-more-ebola-outbreaks-hopes-canadian-expert-1.1924926

CTV News – My Health
Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press 
Last Updated Monday, July 21, 2014 7:54PM EDT
No more Ebola outbreaks, hopes Canadian expert

TORONTO -- A Canadian scientist who recently returned from the front lines of the West African Ebola outbreak says he hopes this is the last time the world has to combat the virus without specific treatments or protective vaccines.

Dr. Gary Kobinger, chief of special pathogens at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, suggested this outbreak -- the largest on record -- will speed efforts to get emergency use approvals to employ some of the experimental vaccines and therapies in future Ebola epidemics.

"My really, really deepest wish -- and I don't want to call this a dream, because it's not a dream -- is that there won't be another outbreak like this. (That) this is the last one. Next time, we'll be ready," Kobinger said in an interview Monday.

But Kobinger agreed with others in his field who have argued that it would be unwise to use these untested tools this time, saying the Ebola vaccines and drugs must go through Phase 1 clinical trials in people before they could be used in an outbreak setting. Phase 1 trials involve giving a drug or vaccine to a small number of healthy adult volunteers to ensure that it is safe for human use.

"These are all experimental drugs that have not met the requirements ... even for a Phase 1 (trial) right now in humans. So they have to pass all the toxicity (tests), they have to pass the safety trials," he said.

A case that serves as a reminder of the importance of clearing these regulatory hurdles involves an Ebola drug being developed by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Burnaby, B.C. Their product was one of the Ebola treatments considered to be furthest along in the developmental pipeline.

The company was recently told to suspend its Phase 1 trial by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is demanding more information about a reaction experienced by one of the subjects in the study. On Monday, Tekmira said it was preparing its response to the FDA's clinical "hold" letter.

Kobinger and two other researchers from the Winnipeg laboratory -- Allen Grolla and Dr. Jim Strong -- returned late last week after nearly a month in Guinea and Sierra Leone, working as part of the international efforts to contain the prolonged outbreak. Grolla and Strong are both specialists in diagnostics for special pathogens, the term used by laboratories to describe deadly viruses such as Ebola and the related Marburg virus.

Over the past 15 years or so the Winnipeg lab and several in the United States have made significant headway in developing Ebola vaccines and treatments that look highly promising when studied in non-human primates. The vaccines even appear to prevent death in some cases when given after exposure to the virus, if they are administered quickly enough.

But bringing these treatments to the field has proven to be difficult, with financial and regulatory hurdles frustrating the best efforts of the scientists involved.

The scale of this outbreak is renewing interest in breaking down those barriers, however. A number of experts are now talking of the need, once this outbreak is over, to chart a path so the next time there will be therapeutic options.




Hopefully the funds will be provided to finish the trials on this vaccine so that it can be used on humans. Even an experimental vaccine would be welcome in an outbreak like this one that is ravaging Africa today, and threatens to spread to wider regions. One health worker got on a plane recently while feeling healthy, only to find that he had developed a fever by the time he reached his destination. It is not impossible for the next travel destination to be Europe or the US. I'm looking forward to some good news about the vaccine. I hope the slowness of the research on this disease isn't due partly to the fact that most of the citizens of Africa are black. I wonder why no scientists in the US have been doing research on it. According to these two articles we are close to having a successful vaccine, though. That is great news.






How to retire with no retirement savings
By STEVE VERNON MONEYWATCH July 30, 2014, 5:30 AM

What retirement planning advice do I have for people who make an average salary in America and have little to no retirement savings?

A reader posed this question in the comments section of a recent post I wrote that provided retirement planning advice for a hypothetical 65-year-old woman who earned $75,000 per year and had accumulated $500,000 in retirement savings. Our reader pointed out that most workers in the U.S. make less than $75,000 annually and probably don't have that much in retirement savings.

So, I'll take on this challenge. This time, let's say this 65-year-old woman makes $50,000 per year -- close to the median U.S. household income in 2011 according to Census Bureau statistics. Further, let's assume she has no retirement savings.

I'll start by stating the obvious: Investing strategies and methods for generating retirement income from savings won't help her because she doesn't have any assets to invest.

At this point, the most important decision she can make is to continue working until age 70 and wait to start her Social Security benefits at that age. Based on estimates from the Quick Calculator on Social Security's website, if she had retired at age 65 and started collecting her Social Security benefit then, her monthly benefit would roughly be about $1,500 per month, or close to 36 percent of her monthly salary. But if she keeps working until age 70 and starts Social Security then, her monthly income will increase to about $2,050, or close to 49 percent of her monthly salary.

If she wants to retire full-time at age 70 and no longer earn any employment income, she'll need to reduce her living expenses to the level of her Social Security income. She'll need to focus on buying "just enough" to meet her needs and be happy. Most likely this will be a struggle, unless she has paid off the mortgage on her house, which will make things a little easier.

To help cover her living expenses, one option she may want to consider is the "Golden Girls" solution of sharing living quarters with other people in her situation. If she owns her house, she may want to consider renting a room to bring in more income.

While these ideas may have obvious drawbacks, they would help reduce her living expenses significantly and also address the issue of loneliness, a serious problem for many elderly people.

If she wants to continue her current standard of living, instead of retiring full-time at age 70, she'll need to continue working to supplement her Social Security income. In fact, she could work half-time and still have about the same total income compared to when she was working full-time (remember that her Social Security benefit equals about half of her salary if she starts it at 70).

This way, she'll still have plenty of extra time to pursue her interests and feel like she's retired. Eventually she'll need to reduce her living expenses, though, because chances are good she won't be able to work much past 80. At that age, it's still likely she'll live for several more years, based on current life expectancies.

If she has home equity, another option would be to sell her home to gain some liquid assets, then deploy those assets to generate retirement income. If her home equity is $500,000 or more, this plan would help her retire earlier than age 70. In this case, she could use the retirement income generating strategies presented in a recent post.

Another possibility is for her to use a reverse mortgage to generate supplemental retirement income. Most likely, however, her home equity is much less than $500,000, so she should wait to deploy her home equity until she's physically no longer able to work and truly needs the additional income.

Many people might groan at the idea of working into their 70s, but our hypothetical retiree really doesn't have much of a choice unless she's able to dramatically reduce her standard of living. It's entirely possible she can't wait to retire for a variety of reasons -- she's bored at work, she doesn't like her job, she doesn't want to keep pace with changes at work, her health prevents her from working and so on. But that only identifies the problems she needs to address.

She could continue working if she found work that was flexible, enjoyable and keeps her physically and socially active, working with people whose company she enjoys. Easier said than done, I know, but that's the goal. She might take some consolation in evidence that suggests working in your retirement years enables you to keep your wits longer and be healthier.

To be satisfied with her life, our retiree will want to shift her goal from being retired full-time to being happy because a traditional retirement of "not working" in her mid-60s may not be feasible for her. Retirement for her will be more of a state of mind than a reality.

I can imagine that some readers will comment that the suggestions in this post aren't ideal or fair, and that hard-working people deserve a better outcome. While that may be the case, I'm addressing the reality of the circumstances of people who arrive at their retirement years with little or no savings.

People in their retirement years with little or no retirement savings have limited choices -- that's the reality of retirement in the U.S. today. I'm encouraged, however, by the flexibility, resilience and resourcefulness of most Americans, who'll need these characteristics to survive in their retirement years.




I have considered having a housemate into my old age (which I consider to be 75 or so) because I have always enjoyed the companionship of another woman who is politically and philosophically similar to me. I like having someone to sit with in the living room or at the dining room table and talk. I don't really want to be married again, though people in their sixties and seventies are doing that now, and not totally without sexual activity, either. Either way the rent and living costs are shared if you buy groceries and cook together. I think people who are absolutely against the thought of moving into an apartment with someone rather than staying by themselves in a house with all the expenses of house living may need to change their attitude and outlook unless they can find a way to bring in more income.

My income is completely from Social Security and a very small pension now, but I do have a few thousand dollars in savings, which I try not to spend. If my car breaks down and a large amount of money needs to be spent to fix it, I may have to bite the bullet and give up driving. After all the city has bus service from the very door of my apartment building to most places around the city, though it may require changing buses several times. Senior citizens get to ride free of charge, however, and I have plenty of time on my hands to spend on long and tedious bus routes, and I always carry a library book to read. In addition I live in Federally subsidized housing, so that if my income goes down so does my rent. I have managed to set up a budget that is within my monthly income and I'm not dipping into savings.

I don't buy extras, of course. Luckily I have no desire for a new smart phone every time one comes out or a big-screen wall mounted television. I do want to keep my computer and the Internet, which is not cheap, but so far I'm able to afford it. My advice to people who have retired without much in savings is to set up a reasonable budget that fits within your income and strictly live on it. It really isn't bad at all.






GOP demand for IRS special counsel faces long odds
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS NEWS July 30, 2014, 6:04 AM

House Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they don't trust the Obama administration to investigate the way the IRS from 2010 to 2012 unfairly targeted some political groups.

In May, the House went so far as to pass a resolution calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint special counsel to investigate the misconduct. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will press the matter further, hearing from legal experts about the case for a special prosecutor.

"Over a year has passed since we first learned that the IRS had been targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny as they applied for tax exempt status and today, no one has yet been held accountable," committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement.

Charging that President Obama and administration officials have "repeatedly and publicly undermined" investigations into the matter, Goodlatte said, "The American people have lost confidence in the Justice Department's ability to get to the bottom of this scandal without spinning or covering up the facts."

What Goodlatte and others seeking a special prosecutor will hear Wednesday won't be entirely encouraging: even some legal experts who agree that a special prosecutor would be appropriate for the case say that Holder has complete discretion over the matter. Since the rules regarding the appointment of independent special prosecutors were changed in 1999, only one special prosecutor has been appointed: in 2003, the Justice Department appointed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

Meanwhile, the White House said bluntly last month that they're not considering the appointment of a special prosecutor, dismissing the interest in one as politically motivated.

"There have been a large number of claims and conspiracy theories that have been floated about this process by Republicans that just have not panned out, frankly," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "And we've demonstrated our willingness to collaborate with them with legitimate oversight."

Earnest pointed to the extensive work Congress has done investigating the misconduct, without finding any solid evidence of White House connections. He also noted that an independent inspector general concluded that no one outside of the IRS was involved. That lack of evidence of White House interference suggests there's no conflict of interest corrupting the Justice Department's own investigation.

Still, some see plenty of evidence of a conflict of interest. They're holding out hope that the Justice Department may change course as Republicans in Congress keep up the pressure.

"If you look at the facts of the case, this is unique in our history not simply because it's an agency that's confessed to wrongdoing -- that's happened before," Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice told CBS News.

"You've also got here the Justice Department's engagement in this -- the DOJ's investigating itself, in a sense," he added, pointing to evidence such as an email from Lois Lerner -- the former IRS official at the heart of the scandal -- suggesting the Justice Department wanted to "piece together" a case against the political groups the IRS was targeting.

Sekulow represents several of the conservative groups that were subject to undue scrutiny by the IRS, and he plans to tell Congress Wednesday that the Justice Department has "reached a point where there's a complete lack of credibility."

At the same time, Sekulow acknowledges in his prepared testimony that under current federal regulations, "the appointment of a Special Counsel is completely discretionary with the Attorney General."

He told CBS News, "My hope is the cumulative efforts, through hearings like this one and the daily disclosures of what really went on here, would lead Eric Holder to make the right call, and that would be to appoint general counsel."

Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore, told CBS News that the Justice Department's involvement in this scandal is scant compared to past instances when the White House similarly refused to appoint a special prosecutor.

For instance, Senate Democrats in 2007 formally asked for a special prosecutor to investigate the claims Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made to Congress about the NSA wiretapping program.

"Unlike today's Justice Department conspiracy, this was a potential very specific perjury charge against the attorney general personally, making the conflict of interest patent and strong," Tiefer says in his prepared testimony for Wednesday's hearing.

Additionally, in 2006, dozens of House members asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether the enhanced interrogation of detainees -- justified by a memo written by a Justice Department official -- was illegal.

Prior to 1999, the rules governing the appointment of special counsel were not simply federal regulations but codified law.

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Congress passed a law in 1978 requiring the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor -- one named by a court panel -- if there were credible criminal allegations against certain executive branch officials.

"When it was a statute... it took away a lot of the [attorney general's] discretion and made it more obligatory for the Justice Department to appoint special counsel," Tiefer said. That's why in the 1990s, he said, "Ken Starr was made the Whitewater independent counsel and got piece after piece of prosecutorial jurisdiction -- Janet Reno was hemmed in by the statute." Both Tiefer and Sekulow said that no one is calling for a return to this kind of legal requirement.

"Anyone who lived through the Clinton administration, the never-ending Kenneth Starr role -- nobody can want that back," Tiefer said.

The 1998 elections, he argued, proved that point. That year marked the only midterm election in modern history during an administration's second term in which the president's party actually gained seats.




“In May, the House went so far as to pass a resolution calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint special counsel to investigate the misconduct. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will press the matter further, hearing from legal experts about the case for a special prosecutor.... What Goodlatte and others seeking a special prosecutor will hear Wednesday won't be entirely encouraging: even some legal experts who agree that a special prosecutor would be appropriate for the case say that Holder has complete discretion over the matter. Since the rules regarding the appointment of independent special prosecutors were changed in 1999, only one special prosecutor has been appointed....”

"There have been a large number of claims and conspiracy theories that have been floated about this process by Republicans that just have not panned out, frankly," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.... He also noted that an independent inspector general concluded that no one outside of the IRS was involved. That lack of evidence of White House interference suggests there's no conflict of interest corrupting the Justice Department's own investigation.”

I, personally, don't think Obama is basically dishonest or as predatory in his party politics as Richard Nixon was, so I doubt that the IRS would be told by him to investigate conservatives as a dirty trick or a political warfare technique. Articles from a year or so ago which spoke for the IRS said that rules on how to select organizations had been reworded slightly, making the distinctions less clear. The matter had to do with how much political activity the organization does, as opposed to their social services or church work, in order to decide whether they should get tax free status. IRS officials said that they had misinterpreted the new wording and had ceased the practice since. In other words, it wasn't a conspiracy, but a mistake. That article also said that liberal organizations which did a great deal of political work were also cut out from going tax free. I believe them.






Mississippi abortion law ruled unconstitutional in appeals court
AP July 29, 2014, 3:26 PM

JACKSON, Miss. - A federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday that a Mississippi law that would close the state's only abortion clinic is unconstitutional.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its 2-1 ruling in a case involving the state's 2012 law, which required physicians at the clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Physicians at the clinic applied for the privileges at Jackson-area hospitals but were unable to get them.

Attorneys for Mississippi argued that if the clinic closed, women could get abortions in other states.

"Today's ruling ensures women who have decided to end a pregnancy will continue, for now, to have access to safe, legal care in their home state," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a news release.

The appeals court panel ruled that a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 established a constitutional right to abortion. The panel ruled that Mississippi may not shift its obligation for established constitutional rights of its citizens to another state.

"Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion. H.B. 1390 effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi's borders," wrote the two judges in the majority ruling, E. Grady Jolly of Mississippi and Stephan A. Higginson of Louisiana.

The Mississippi law, signed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, was in House Bill 1390.
The 5th Circuit handles cases from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Judge Emilio M. Garza of Texas wrote that he disagreed with the ruling by Jolly and Higginson.

"Because the undue burden test requires an assessment of the difficulty of obtaining abortion services, whether in a woman's own state or a neighboring state, and because neither the district court nor the majority has undertaken this assessment, I respectfully dissent," Garza wrote.

In late March, the 5th Circuit upheld a 2013 Texas law that puts several restrictions on abortion clinics, including requiring their physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. After that, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a new lawsuit challenging parts of the Texas abortion law, including the admitting privileges requirement.





“The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its 2-1 ruling in a case involving the state's 2012 law, which required physicians at the clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. Physicians at the clinic applied for the privileges at Jackson-area hospitals but were unable to get them. Attorneys for Mississippi argued that if the clinic closed, women could get abortions in other states.... The panel ruled that Mississippi may not shift its obligation for established constitutional rights of its citizens to another state.”

State laws simply enacting rules that make it impossible for an abortion clinic to operate is a sneaky, backdoor way of attacking a woman's right to an abortion. Being a lawyer or a legislator requires a great deal of legal scholarship and research just to keep up with the times. Just because the Supreme Court deemed abortion under certain circumstances to be legal doesn't mean that the war won't go on. Of course, religious people may believe that it is a holy war, but not everyone in this country is required to be religious, and those citizens have rights, too. I am relieved to see this case put forward to challenge the Mississippi law. The same people who call a woman's right to choose whether or not to bear a baby, “murder,” often are “conservative” about the death penalty and approve of it thoroughly. Whenever there is an execution there are Catholics outside the prison protesting, and "conservative" Protestant citizens cheering the process on. The death penalty and soldiers fighting in a war could both be called “murder.” Yet pacifists are scorned by many and considered to be unpatriotic. The "culture wars" go on unabated as we move through this new century. 2014 is a lot like 1975 -- it gets tiresome, but I will continue to support Democratic causes, give what little money I can and vote at every election.






Speaker Boehner Shoots Down Impeachment Talk, Blasts Democrats for Pushing It – ABC
By Jeff Zeleny
July 29, 2014

Speaker John Boehner shot down talk of impeachment once again today -- raising his voice as he blamed Democrats for trying to push the idea for political gain.

“We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans,” Boehner said, answering a question from ABC News at a news conference. “Listen, it’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”

Scam or not, Democrats say they are raising record amounts of money over the threat of impeaching President Obama. Republican leaders have repeatedly said they have no plans to call for articles of impeachment. But they are moving forward with a lawsuit against the president, accusing him of overreaching his executive authority, which has kept the talk of impeachment alive. The House is set to approve this rare lawsuit in a vote Wednesday.

On the Senate floor today, Majority Leader Harry Reid also seized on the impeachment idea.

“We shouldn't be off on the tracks of impeachment and suing the president,” Reid said. “We should be legislating.”

Democratic leaders have flooded supporters with fundraising appeals, including one that said: “House Republicans Refuse to Rule Out Impeachment.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it raised $2.1 million in online contributions last weekend alone.

But Boehner blasted Democrats for misleading Americans.

“This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president’s own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill,” he said. “Why? Because they’re trying to rally their people to give money and to show up in their year’s elections.”





Well, if this is a scam aimed at raising Democratic participation and donation of funds, it is certainly working. I wonder if the Republicans will profit from trying to sue Obama for doing what George W. Bush did before him. If Obama's administration has been clever in its methods, that's all to the good. Obama saw Boehner and his Tea Party friends block Democratic bills time after time and decided to act within his authority to make some improvements. It shows his initiative and political courage. Hooray for him!





New York Skyscraper's Separate 'Poor Door' Sparks Outrage – NPR
by JANET BABIN
July 30, 2014

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration is under fire for signing off on a building plan that allows a new luxury high-rise on Manhattan's western edge to have a separate entrance for low-income residents.

About 20 percent of the units in the 33-story tower will be reserved for low- and middle-income residents. But all the affordable units will be grouped in one area, and those tenants will have to enter through a separate door.

"This developer must go back, seal the one door and make it so all residents go through the same door," City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal said. "It's a disgrace."

Rosenthal is demanding an end to what some here have dubbed the "poor door."

Civil rights attorneys say a significant number of tenants in the subsidized apartments could be minorities. Lawyer Randolph McLaughlin says that makes the building's design more than disgraceful — but possibly illegal.

"To permit developers or encourage them to create separate and unequal buildings and take tax credits and benefits from the city," he said, "I think that's a constitutional violation."

The developer, Extell Development, defends the two doors, saying it complied with zoning laws by essentially creating two separate buildings.

Housing advocates say Extell is exploiting a loophole in the laws, while City Hall blames the prior administration for creating those laws and approving the deal. De Blasio swept into office promising to address income inequality.

"The plans for this building were submitted and construction commenced on the project in 2013, prior to the new mayor being elected," said Alicia Glen, the deputy mayor for housing and economic development.

Extell's president, Gary Barnett, said the zoning law is aimed at creating more affordable housing. In this building, he said, the affordable units will rent for about $15 a square foot, whereas market-rate units will fetch five or six times that.

"Would you rather not have the affordable housing? Ask any one of the thousands of people who are applying for that, and they don't give a damn," he said. "They want to have a beautiful apartment, in a beautiful neighborhood, and you know, at a super price."

But some New Yorkers aren't persuaded by that super price.

"Once again we're putting segregation right up front, and we're making it legal to segregate people," a caller from Queens said on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show.

On streets near the new building, it was hard to find a resident who would mind a separate entrance in exchange for a sweet, cheap rental.

"I definitely understand why people would be upset, but I would not take it too personally," said Roman Golubov, who lives in a subsidized apartment. "If I had the opportunity to live in a skyscraper and I had to walk through the poor door, I'd get over it."

Meanwhile, City Hall is trying to get over the controversy. Officials are promising a comprehensive review of the zoning laws and say they will work to close the poor-door loophole.





It's two steps forward and one step back in the social culture of the US. Some conservatives are really undemocratic in their views, to the degree that they will require poor people to go to another door. That's directly from old Victorian novels in England and the Jim Crow South – the hero who was not an aristocrat or who as a black person was supposed to go to the kitchen door to enter the house. There is no logical reason for that except to humiliate the members of the poorer classes. Everybody should be able to walk through the same door, and should nod and say hello when they meet someone there.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014


News Clips For The Day


U.S. says Russia violated 1987 nuclear missile treaty
CBS/AP July 28, 2014, 10:06 PM

WASHINGTON - In an escalation of tensions, the Obama administration accused Russia on Monday of conducting tests in violation of a 1987 nuclear missile treaty, calling the breach "a very serious matter" and going public with allegations that have simmered for some time.

The treaty confrontation comes at a highly strained time between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia's intervention in Ukraine and Putin's grant of asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

An administration official said Obama notified Putin of the U.S. determination in a letter Monday. The finding will be included in a State Department annual report on compliance with arms control treaties that will be released Tuesday.

The U.S. says Russia tested a new ground-launched cruise missile, breaking the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that President Ronald Reagan signed with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Russian officials say they have looked into the allegations and consider the matter closed.

"This is a very serious matter which we have attempted to address with Russia for some time now," an administration official told CBS News. "The United States is committed to the viability of the INF Treaty. We encourage Russia to return to compliance with its obligations under the treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner."

The Obama administration has expressed its concern over possible violations before, but this is the first time that the administration has formally accused Russia of violating the treaty. It comes in the wake of the downed Malaysian airliner in Ukraine and as the U.S. and the European Union seek to ramp up sanctions against Russia, offering the administration a convenient time to release the report which had been due to come out in April.

Two officials said the U.S. is prepared to hold high-level discussions on the issue immediately and want assurances that Russia will comply with the treaty requirements going forward. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive issue publicly by name ahead of Tuesday's report.

The New York Times first reported the U.S. move Monday evening

In raising the issue now, the U.S. appears to be placing increased pressure on Russia and trying to further isolate it from the international community. The European Union and the United States plan to announce new sanctions against Russia this week in the face of U.S. evidence that Russia has continued to assist separatist forces in Ukraine.

The formal finding comes in the wake of congressional pressure on the White House to confront Russia over the allegations of cheating on the treaty. The treaty banned all U.S. and Russian land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 300 miles and 3,400 miles.

The officials said the Obama administration has informed Congress and U.S. allies of its decision to seek Russian compliance.

"The United States will, of course, consult with allies on this matter to take into account the impact of this Russian violation on our collective security if Russia does not return to compliance," an administration official told CBS News.

Indeed Obama, who has made nuclear disarmament a key foreign policy aim, has little interest in having Russia pull out of the treaty altogether.

Obama won Senate ratification of a New START treaty, which took effect in February 2011 and requires the U.S. and Russia to reduce the number of their strategic nuclear weapons to no more than 1,550 by February 2018.

Obama last year announced that he wants to cut the number of U.S. nuclear arms by another third and that he would "seek negotiated cuts" with Russia, a goal now complicated by the accusation of a missile treaty violation.




“The U.S. says Russia tested a new ground-launched cruise missile, breaking the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that President Ronald Reagan signed with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Russian officials say they have looked into the allegations and consider the matter closed.... 'The United States is committed to the viability of the INF Treaty. We encourage Russia to return to compliance with its obligations under the treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner.'”

This CBS article states that Obama's move to confront Putin now is due partly to Congressional pressure, and the missile test is not a newly discovered act. Obama's complaint over the treaty violation is also part of an attempt to put more and more stress on Russia due to it's interference in the affairs of Ukraine in what looks now like a civil war. Russia's actions in both issues show a complete lack of international goodwill at the least, and a plan to take over the whole nation of Ukraine at the worst. The potential of an atomic war, however, threatens the whole world, even Russia; so for a sane man, as I think Putin is, such a war would be a very unintelligent move. Hopefully he will scrap the new missile plan at the least, and begin to cooperate over the Ukrainian situation as well.





White House projects huge costs for delaying climate action
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS NEWS July 29, 2014, 6:00 AM

A new White House report makes the economic case for pursuing policies to curb climate change now, arguing that delaying policy changes will significantly increase the cost of action -- and potentially put the nation at risk. The report also defends newly proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules at a time when the proposed policy changes have become midterm campaign fodder

"The signs of climate change are all around us," says the report, produced by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, citing the results of the recently published National Climate Assessment.

The new report notes that harms from greenhouse gas emissions aren't reflected in the price of carbon-based energy. Consequently, it says government action is necessary to make up for this market failure and "thereby to limit the damage to economies and the natural world from further climate change."

The costs of inaction could be large, the report says, citing economic estimates that letting the Earth's temperature rise 3 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, instead of 2 degrees, could increase economic damages by about 0.9 percent of global output.

"To put this percentage in perspective, 0.9 percent of estimated 2014 U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately $150 billion," the report notes. "Moreover, these costs are not one-time, but are rather incurred year after year because of the permanent damage caused by increased climate change resulting from the delay."

The report gives specific examples of how climate change would impact the economy. For instance, it cites research showing that when the temperature in the U.S. rises above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the labor supply in outdoor industries declines by up to one hour a day relative to temperatures 20 to 25 degrees cooler.

Furthermore, the longer policies to curb climate change are delayed, the costlier they are to implement the report says. "An analysis of research on the cost of delay for hitting a specified climate target (typically, a given concentration of greenhouse gases) suggests that net mitigation costs increase, on average, by approximately 40 percent for each decade of delay," it says.

The report also makes the case that action to curb climate change "can be thought of as 'climate insurance' taken out against the most severe and irreversible potential consequences of climate change. Events such as the rapid melting of ice sheets and the consequent increase of global sea levels, or temperature increases on the higher end of the range of scientific uncertainty, could pose such severe economic consequences as reasonably to be thought of as climate catastrophes."

The Council of Economic Advisers specifically makes the case for new carbon limits that the EPA has proposed. The proposed rule would require the existing plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Republicans have dismissed the proposed policy changes, skewering President Obama and his party as anti-coal.

The proposed EPA rule, the report notes, would generate $27 billion to $50 billion in net benefits annually by 2020 and as much as $49 billion to $84 billion in 2030.

While Congress is unlikely to do anything to address climate change this year, particularly in the GOP-led House, Democrats are keeping up discussion about the issue. On Tuesday, a subpanel of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is hosting a hearing on the effects of unchecked climate change. The panel plans to hear from a local Florida official, economists and others.




“The new report notes that harms from greenhouse gas emissions aren't reflected in the price of carbon-based energy. Consequently, it says government action is necessary to make up for this market failure and 'thereby to limit the damage to economies and the natural world from further climate change.'.... The costs of inaction could be large, the report says, citing economic estimates that letting the Earth's temperature rise 3 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, instead of 2 degrees, could increase economic damages by about 0.9 percent of global output. 'To put this percentage in perspective, 0.9 percent of estimated 2014 U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately $150 billion,' the report notes. 'Moreover, these costs are not one-time, but are rather incurred year after year because of the permanent damage caused by increased climate change resulting from the delay.'

The Council of Economic Advisers is proposing a reduction in carbon emissions by 30% by the year 2030. The Republicans have responded by accusing the Democrats of being “anti-coal,” The Democrats are continuing the argument, and will host a hearing on the subject including “a local Florida official, economists and others.” Of course the mining of coal is a large factor in the economies of several US states, and if power plants were to go more heavily to solar power or another alternative energy source, those states would lose money. If the Democrats are “anti-coal,” it is not without good reason. In multiple ways coal mining is damaging to the environment and the burning of coal in power plants releases a great deal of CO2. We desperately need to get away from coal, not because we hate big business, but because of the environmental issues dependence on coal involves.





Obama considers large-scale move on immigration
CBS/AP  July 28, 2014, 5:32 PM

WASHINGTON -- White House officials are making plans to act before November's midterm elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants in this country illegally.

The move could scramble election-year politics and lead some conservative Republicans to push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama.

Advocates and lawmakers who've been in touch with the administration say officials are weighing a range of options including changes in the deportation system and ways to grant relief from deportation to targeted populations in the country.

That might include parents or legal guardians of U.S. citizen children - which could be around 3.8 million people - or parents of immigrants brought here illegally as kids who've already received executive relief from Obama. That could be an additional 500,000 to 1 million people.

Obama recently put a $3.7 billion proposal on the table to provide resources for additional border security and additional immigration judges to deal with an increasing number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Central America. Last week, he urged Congress to pass his proposal, saying "we need action and less talk."

"It is my hope [that Congress] will not leave town for the month of August for their vacations without doing something to solve this problem," Obama said.

Several Republicans have expressed interest in including a provision in the funding to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) -- the program that Mr. Obama enacted in 2012 to allow certain undocumented youths to stay in the country legally (temporarily) if they meet certain requirements. However, it's unclear whether many GOP members would insist on including this provision in any bill.

A bipartisan coalition of senators passed a reform bill last June that would extend an earned path to citizenship to some undocumented immigrants, throw considerably more security resources at the border, and strengthen domestic enforcement of immigration laws.

House Republican leaders refused to take up the Senate bill, and though some smaller bills targeting border security and visas for skilled workers have passed through the House Judiciary Committee, nothing has reached the House floor.

GOP leaders tried earlier this year to rally their caucus around a bill that would confer citizenship on those who have served in the military, but even that proved too heavy a lift for the fractious Republican conference. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., even lost his seat to a conservative challenger in a stunning primary upset last month that some blamed on his support for the measure.




“White House officials are making plans to act before November's midterm elections to grant work permits to potentially millions of immigrants in this country illegally. The move could scramble election-year politics and lead some conservative Republicans to push for impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama. Advocates and lawmakers who've been in touch with the administration say officials are weighing a range of options including changes in the deportation system and ways to grant relief from deportation to targeted populations in the country.”

That would include parents of US citizen children and children brought here illegally by their parents. Conservatives in the House are firmly placed against any new bill to extend a path to citizenship, including one passed in the Senate last June, and some conservatives want to include wording to abolish DACA in the President's recent request for funds for the current border crisis. Despite the crisis, Republicans aren't showing a great desire to deal with the Border control funding issue before August is out. Meanwhile conservatives in the House are still planning to sue the President over the limits of executive power, and Obama is persisting in his executive actions which the conservatives so hate. The situation lies somewhere between exciting and downright scary. I can't wait to see what happens. I am pleased by Obama's willingness to stand up against the House move to test the limits of the conservatives.







Obama, EU poised to hit Russian economy hard
CBS/AP July 29, 2014, 6:31 AM

Last Updated Jul 29, 2014 10:15 AM EDT
BRUSSELS -- The United States and the European Union are preparing a powerful one-two punch against the Russian economy, with EU ambassadors meeting Tuesday to discuss a dramatic escalation in the trade bloc's sanctions on Russia.

Measures under consideration include limiting Russia's access to European capital markets and halting trade in arms and dual-use and sensitive technologies. A decision on proposed new EU sanctions was expected later in the day.

In a rare videoconference call with President Obama, the leaders of Britain, Germany, Italy and France expressed their willingness Monday to adopt new sanctions against Russia in coordination with the United States, an official French statement said.

The Western nations are demanding Russia halt the alleged supply of arms to Ukrainian separatists and other actions that destabilize the situation in eastern Ukraine.

The show of Western solidarity comes as the U.S. accuses Russia of ramping up its troop presence on its border with Ukraine and shipping more heavy weaponry to the pro-Moscow rebels.

"It's precisely because we've not yet seen a strategic turn from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that we believe it's absolutely essential to take additional measures, and that's what the Europeans and the United States intend to do this week," said Tony Blinken, Mr. Obama's deputy national security adviser.

Russia's leaders have staunchly denied supporting the rebels in Ukraine, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that any new sanctions would fail to influence the Kremlin in any direction.

"I assure you, we will overcome any difficulties that may arise in certain areas of the economy, and maybe we will become more independent and more confident in our own strength," Lavrov said in Moscow, according to the Reuters news agency.

"We can't ignore it," he said, but suggested Moscow would not respond with its own sanctions against the West.

"To fall into hysterics and respond to a blow with a blow is not worthy of a major country," he told reporters.

Europe, which has a stronger trade relationship with Russia than the U.S., had lagged behind Washington with its earlier sanctions package, in part out of concern from leaders that the penalties could hurt their own economies. But a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said following Monday's call that the West agreed that the EU should adopt a "strong package of sectoral sanctions as swiftly as possible."

CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante was told Monday by a senior administration official that Washington intended to wait and see what specific sanctions its partners in the EU actually managed to agree to before hammering out any new punitive measures at the Treasury.

According to the official, if the Europeans were to make good on their promise to bring tough new measures, the U.S. would follow suit later in the week with an elaboration of the U.S. sanctions announced two weeks ago.

The teleconference on Monday night came amid concerns within the administration that the Europeans were backsliding on their vows to hit Russia's economy hard over Putin's role in Ukraine, said Plante.

Russia's economy is already struggling to cope under the weight of sanctions already imposed on many companies and individuals. The government says the economy grew a tiny bit in the last quarter, which has allowed the nation to avoid a technical recession, but capital is flowing out of the country at an alarming rate, and growth forecasts for the year are dismal.

The new round of sanctions from Europe and the EU are expected to target vast swathes of the Russian economy in a way that current measures have not, which could have a far more significant impact.




Measures against Russia are being considered, to include “limiting Russia's access to European capital markets and halting trade in arms and dual-use and sensitive technologies. “Britain, Germany, Italy and France have agreed to stand with the US in imposing new sanctions. Their demand is that Russia stop its action to destabilize the legitimate government of Ukraine by sending in arms “and other actions.” The Russians are continuing to deny their aid to the Ukrainian rebels.

Lavrov boasted that Russia will “overcome any difficulties” that the EU/US sanctions cause them, but this news article states that Russia is “already struggling” under current sanctions. The new sanctions should affect “vast swathes of the Russian economy and could have a “far more significant impact.” I hope that proves to be true, because nobody in the West wants a war with Russia, but to allow them to progressively overtake European nations to form a new USSR is not acceptable to me, personally, or to most Americans. My whole life has been spent watching political improvements from the time of the 1940s – Hitler was conquered and the USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev was liberalized. We don't need another Iron Curtain. Now Putin is trying to reverse some of the progress and antisemitism is popping up all over Europe. The goal of America to aid democracy still goes on.





Teacher Tenure Lawsuits Spread From California To New York – NPR
by BETH FERTIG, ANYA KAMENETZ and CLAUDIO SANCHEZ
July 28, 2014

Why are so many low-income and minority kids getting second-class educations in the U.S.?

That question is at the center of the heated debate about teacher tenure. In New York today, a group of parents and advocates, led by former CNN and NBC anchor Campbell Brown, filed a suit challenging state laws that govern when teachers can be given tenure and how they can be fired once they have it.

As WNYC reported, Brown announced the suit on the steps of City Hall:

"I am so inspired by what these people are doing," Brown said, tearing up during her brief appearance at the press conference. "This is not going to be easy and they are so incredibly brave to be taking this on."

Some of the named plaintiffs also appeared:

Bronx resident Angeles Barragan said her daughter fell behind due to an incompetent teacher who didn't assign homework and didn't help her child learn to read. Now Natalie is repeating second grade at Kings College School P.S. 94.

"What I'm looking for is changes. I'm not looking for them to get rid of anybody," Barragan said in Spanish. "I'm looking for changes so that teachers in classrooms really want to teach children."

The suit is the second of its kind in New York. The first, filed earlier this month, comes from a group calling itself the New York City Parents Union. Both arrive on the heels of last month's ruling in Vergara v. California. There, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge found similar state laws unconstitutional, ruling that tenure rules disproportionately saddle poor and minority students with "grossly ineffective" teachers, a violation of the right to equality of education spelled out in California's constitution.

The Vergara ruling has been stayed pending an appeal, but critics of teacher tenure laws clearly consider it a promising template for potential battles across the country. New York is the second major front in that fight.

Out With 'Last In, First Out'?

Michelle Rhee and her group, StudentsFirst, are a major force behind these tenure law challenges. After resigning under a cloud of controversy as Washington, D.C.'s schools chancellor, Rhee embarked on a national campaign to target teacher tenure and seniority laws.

"There are states and jurisdictions in which the dismissal process is way too time-consuming and cumbersome, making it impossible for teachers to be fired," Rhee says. "And so, when we have nonsensical laws that give people a job for life regardless of performance, we should remove those policies or fix them."

The criticisms of tenure rules in both the Vergara case and today's New York lawsuit come in roughly three buckets. First, critics say that teachers receive tenure too quickly, before their performance can be evaluated reliably or tied to students' test scores. In California for example, teachers can be given tenure after just 18 months on the job. Second, they argue that rigid "last-in, first-out" seniority rules mean that younger teachers are dismissed before older teachers regardless of effectiveness. And third, they say, firing low-performing teachers is just too difficult and involves too much red tape.

Dennis Van Roekel, the outgoing president of the National Education Association, says groups like Rhee's simply want to go after unions. Partnership for Educational Justice, the group that filed the New York suit, is headed by Brown, who's been an outspoken critic of teachers unions on several fronts. Her husband sits on the board of Rhee's StudentsFirstNY chapter. Among Brown's advisors is David Welch, a telecommunications billionaire who also funded the Vergara lawsuit.

This anti-tenure activism "has nothing to do with students," Van Roekel says. At the same time, he concedes that unions are not opposed to streamlining the dismissal process for ineffective teachers or, for that matter, lengthening time to tenure. California's tenure process is unusually short, at just a year and a half; a three-year probationary period, the rule in New York State, or even five years is more common.

The California teachers NPR Ed talked to last month agreed that teacher protections are important but that it should also be easier to get rid of lower-performing colleagues. "Working with a bad teacher is an embarrassment," said Alan Warhaftig, a 25-year veteran of Los Angeles Public Schools. "You feel bad for their students."

'The Losers Are The Students'

Kevin Welner of the National Education Policy Center hasn't taken a position in the tenure fight, but he sees a problem with focusing on tenure and seniority laws in the quest to improve schools. Namely, it takes the focus away from everything else.

"It doesn't focus on attracting stronger teachers, it doesn't focus on developing stronger teachers," Welner says.

Other researchers have found that the main reason strong teachers leave low-performing schools is because of working conditions, including discipline problems and reduced opportunities for professional development. Making matters worse, compared to data from 2000, more students now attend schools with high concentrations of poverty.

If there is a silver lining, Welner says, it's that these suits are putting a magnifying glass to the nation's highest-poverty schools, and that could expose plenty of unjust policies that need addressing.

But the courts are a slow, tortuous path to change. The New York lawsuit is likely to take years, while the California decision is being appealed. Welner questions whether the courts are up to the task of, as he puts it, "mucking around" with complex, contentious educational policies and practices. Still, he says, asking the courts to play that role is "preferable to generation after generation of kids being denied basic equality of educational opportunities."

Rhee's group, meanwhile, is considering additional suits in Minnesota, Connecticut, New Jersey and Tennessee.




“There, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge found similar state laws unconstitutional, ruling that tenure rules disproportionately saddle poor and minority students with "grossly ineffective" teachers.... The Vergara ruling has been stayed pending an appeal, but critics of teacher tenure laws clearly consider it a promising template for potential battles across the country.... Michelle Rhee and her group, StudentsFirst, are a major force behind these tenure law challenges....” Critics of the teacher tenure laws have several complaints; “teachers receive tenure too quickly, before their performance can be evaluated reliably or tied to students' test scores... rigid "last-in, first-out" seniority rules mean that younger teachers are dismissed before older teachers regardless of effectiveness... firing low-performing teachers is just too difficult and involves too much red tape.”

I am generally in favor of labor unions – they have made great improvements in America's workplaces – but giving tenure for a teacher after working for a period of under 5 years or so doesn't make sense, and tenure that is not based on teacher performance ratings is unfair to the students and to the whole school system, as it will cause the school to be rated C to F rather than A as the students make lower and lower grades on standardized tests. I am in favor of changing tenure laws to make them reflect a high quality performance by teachers, but not of getting rid of tenure altogether, as tenure is to protect teachers from arbitrary or discriminatory firing.

A teacher who fails to give extra attention to a student who has trouble mastering basic skills like reading, spelling, grammar and math should be fired. They are failing to do their job. No child should be failed and then required to repeat the grade when a tutor or some extra attention from the teacher could have put him in line with the lessons that are currently being presented – failing in a subject like reading makes him incapable of self-education, which is essential in an educated public.

If a student is having trouble reading by the sight “see say” method, he should be trained thoroughly in phonics. By the third or fourth grade I think a child should be able to pronounce an unfamiliar word based on phonics and look the word up in a dictionary to find its meaning. Children who have dyslexia would have more trouble with that, and should be put in a special class. My family was blue collar, but my parents bought a good pictured dictionary and an encyclopedia set. I continue to look things up when I need to, as I sometimes do in technical reading or books that are written with an unusually high vocabulary. It makes reading more fun and interesting for me.






Medicare's Costs Stabilize, But Its Problems Are Far From Fixed – NPR
by JULIE ROVNER
July 28, 2014 3:43 PM ET

Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which finances about half of the health program for seniors and the disabled, won't run out of money until 2030, the program's trustees said Monday. That's four years later than projected last year, and 13 years later than projected the year before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

But that's not the case for the part of Social Security that pays for people getting disability benefits. The Disability Insurance Trust Fund is projected to run out of money in 2016, just two years from now, unless Congress intervenes, the trustees said.

"Medicare is considerably stronger than it was just four years ago," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday. She noted that slower growth of the program's spending will very likely mean that the Medicare Part B premium charged to beneficiaries — currently $104.90 per month — remains the same for the third year in a row. "That's a growth rate of zero percent," she noted.

All the trustees, however, including the secretaries of HHS, Treasury and Labor and two public members, stressed that Medicare's financial problems are far from fixed, particularly as 78 million baby boomers are on the precipice of joining.

"Notwithstanding recent favorable developments, both the projected baseline and current law projections indicate that Medicare still faces a substantial financial shortfall that will need to be addressed with further legislation," the report said.

And "the sooner lawmakers face that reality, the better," saidRobert Reischauer, a public trustee and former head of the Congressional Budget Office.

For the first time, the Medicare report deviates from current law and does not assume that scheduled deep cuts in reimbursements to physicians who treat Medicare patients will occur. Congress has suspended the cuts each year since 2003, and in this report the trustees assume that will continue until Congress fixes the formula, known as the sustainable growth rate, or SGR.

The change "should make the Part B cost projections more useful than they have been in the past," said Reischauer. Part B pays for most physician and outpatient costs. It technically does not have a trust fund because it is financed by a combination of general tax revenues and beneficiary premiums, but the trustees make projections for its spending each year.

The trustees opted not to wade into the ongoing debate over the extent to which the slowdown in Medicare's spending increases can be attributed to changes to the program made in the 2010 health law.

"No one knows and certainly there is an active debate," said Charles Blahous, the other public trustee and lone Republican on the panel. "And that's not something the trustees are going to settle," said Blahous, a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

But whatever the reason, no one contests that the slowdown has been dramatic. Medicare, which covered an estimated 52.3 million people in 2013, spent $582.9 billion, "and, for the second year in a row, per beneficiary costs were essentially unchanged," the report said.

The financial picture for Social Security's disability insurance fund, by contrast, is much more dire.

"The projected reserves of the DI Trust Fund decline steadily from 62 percent of annual cost at the beginning of 2014 until the trust fund reserves are depleted in the fourth quarter of 2016,"the Social Security report said. After that, the program would be able to pay only 81 percent of scheduled benefits.

The disability program has seen a dramatic increase in enrollment in recent years, yet Congress has not taken any action to change its financing, which is 1.8 percentage points of the overall 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax paid by employers and workers.




Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is not expected to run out of funds until 2030, but the Disability Insurance Trust Fund will run out in 2016 unless Congress acts. “'Notwithstanding recent favorable developments, both the projected baseline and current law projections indicate that Medicare still faces a substantial financial shortfall that will need to be addressed with further legislation....” The Medicare Part B premium is expected to remain at $104.90 a month. The program has not yet felt the stress of 78 million baby boomers enrollment, however, so more financial woes are ahead. The sustainable growth rate, or SGR which determines how much physicians are paid is due to be cut and needs a Congressional “fix.” I wonder if Medical doctors will start to opt out on taking Medicare patients rather than lose money, or if they are even legally allowed to do that. That would cause Medicare patients to lose doctors that they are used to and the continuity of care that they now have. Whether or not that really causes harm, it would certainly make patients uncomfortable and there would be complaints if it occurs.