Everyone is talking about the approval of the healthcare reform bill and what it means for us (Read here and here). But where is the public option?
“High risk pools” will be created to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, which should address the problem of adverse selection.
It seems that health insurance companies seem to gain the most from this bill because the government is going to require everyone to have health insurance or pay a penalty, unless purchasing health insurance presents a financial hardship or if it goes against your relgious beliefs.
Meanwhile, the teabaggers are still their hateful selves.
LONDON — U.K. engineering company Smiths Group said Monday that it has agreed to buy Interconnect Devices Inc. from private equity firm Milestone Partners for $185 million. Smiths said the acquisition of Interconnect Devices, which makes probe technology for use in industrial and semiconductor testing, is expected to be immediately earnings accretive and will be funded primarily from internal resources payday loans. The deal is expected to complete in early April.
Many years ago a tall, good-looking guy named Evan Bayh, essentially then known as the son of former Indiana U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, spoke to a group of Democrats and well-wishers in Frankfort, Ind. He was not running for any specific election then, but he was being groomed for big things.
More than anything, he sounded like the kind of fresh progressive, forward-leaning Democrat the party desperately needed in those early Reagan years. He talked about social issues and working men and women, not tax breaks for the wealthy or infusing religion in the classroom. His family was stylish and beautiful. Evan Bayh was the product of authoritative, enlightening dinner discussions in Washington D.C. He was ready. He was perfect, and Indiana soon embraced him for eight years in the governor’s mansion and two terms in the U.S. Senate.
That was then.
Now before I say more, you must appreciate Hoosiers’ nature. They do not like progressive ways of doing anything, unless perhaps it is a new way to grow more corn from the same earth. They do not like spending money, especially for things they do not yet have. They hate taxes, though those taxes pay for their roads, schools, bridges, and police. Unlike most states, for example, Indiana ratepayers do not have to pay utility companies for power plants not yet completed (I like that).
And, to the state’s credit, Hoosiers are all behind balancing the budget, and they always do. The state knows almost two years in advance when it might go broke and acts on that knowledge immediately. A few years ago a powerful tornado tore through southern Indiana, killing two dozen. The federal government took quick action to direct rebuilding, but the governor, a former bean counter in the Bush Administration, said thanks, but Hoosiers take care of Hoosiers. A check would be nice, though. He got one. Indiana is not Louisiana.
All that said, it’s a tragedy that a brilliant, charming, successful political leader such as Evan Bayh lost his balls. I have no better way to put it. There he was, sent to Washington D.C. to lead, negotiate, guide, assess, and take action on behalf of his proud country, particularly the Hoosiers who elected him, and he decided it is too hard and aggravating. Washington politics does not compose the friendly, patriotic activity it once did. Bayh gave up.
I was a Hoosier for more than 25 years. I voted for Bayh every time his name appeared on the ballot. I admit I also voted for Richard Lugar, a Republican. Frankly, two finer men could not represent any state. Either man could give three speeches during an election year and remain in office until he died. But has Lugar given up? Lugar is no more hard core Republican conservative than Bayh is hard core Democrat liberal, and he has more reason to be frustrated than Bayh. I cannot imagine Lugar giving up and going home.
What I am talking about here to some extent is a way of life in the Midwest, a sort of mantra out here in flyover country. We believe in that Protestant Work Ethic even though it means, for the most part, we’ll work hard for very little money. We show up on time and give it our all. We appreciate having jobs. We love building things, and we particularly value doing it fast and first. We take pride in just slugging it out on a job. It’s not perhaps the best example, but how many Big Ten teams remain in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament most years? That ethic rubs off everywhere. We do not quit.
But Evan Bayh quit. When the job got frustrating and difficult, he decided he would go home and find something else to do. Aren’t those the situations for which we send people to Washington? If the job were easy, we could send anybody. But we all try to elect men and women who can duke it out together and get the job done.
We know it is a tough job. Democracy is hard. We thought Evan Bayh had the stuff for it. We were wrong.
There’s just so much juicy stuff on Obamacare out there, I don’t know where to begin.
Let’s start by looking at that CBO report on Obamacare, and what Obamacare will actually cost. Kevin Glass at Townhall brings up some of the budgetary manipulations that were used in the CBO report to make Obamacare look better than it is:
I noted before the massive amounts of qualifiers that the Congressional Budget Office has attached to its scores of the health care bill at every stage of its evolution. This latest bill, however, rivals the greatest magic tricks that J.K. Rowling could come up with.
1. Double-counting Medicare cuts as both saving Medicare and spending on new programs
2. Counting revenue that must be used for future spending as deficit-reducing savings
3. Starting revenue provisions immediately while delaying spending provisions until 2014
4. Carefully writing the language so that the CBO can’t count the individual mandate in the cost of the bill (which they had done in the past)
5. Claiming that additional tax money raised will go to pay for spending in the bill when it must be used for other programs
Phillip Klein at the American Spectator also looks at the CBO gimmicks, and points out that part of the trick the Democrats are using is to implement the bulk of the spending past the end of the CBO’s 10-year window:
An initial reading of the report suggests that Democrats employed similar accounting gimmicks as in previous iterations of the health care bill, while making up a shortfall with more cuts to Medicare Advantage, siphoning money from the Student loan bill, and raising taxes further. While I’ll go into further detail later once I’ve had a chance to look at all of the moving parts, and analyze the actual bill itself, one thing worth highlighting is that as expected, Democrats have maintained the strategy of delaying the major spending provisions until 2014 to create the appearance that the bill is cheaper over the CBO’s ten year budget window, from 2010 through 2019. In this version, the bill spends $17 billion in the first four years, while the remaining $923 billion, or 98 percent, is spent in the next six years. I’ve illustrated this tactic in the chart below. One thing to note is that the oft-quoted $940 billion number only pertains to the cost of expanding coverage — which is the bulk of spending in the bill — but it does not include all other costs, such as the providing more Medicare prescription drug subsides, which costs about $38 billion. I’ve used the $940 billion figure in the chart below, but have specified that it’s only the cost of the coverage provisions.
The Left Coast Rebel points to a Weekly Standard report that the full cost of Obamacare will approach 2 trillion dollars. Legal Insurection also mentions the Weekly Standard article, and questions the credibility of the CBO.
The CBO is supposed to be a neutral calculator of legislation. And it is. I have no doubt that the people at the CBO do their best to calculate the cost of a bill, given the assumptions the CBO is required to follow.
And that is the catch. Whereas on less politicized legislation there may be reasonable assumptions built into a bill and requested by those seeking a cost estimate, as to the health care bills proposed by Democrats it has been all games.
Completely unrealistice assumptions have been foisted upon the CBO, and the CBO has been required to score the bill with phony math.
Jeffrey Anderson at The Weekly Standard has a devastating take-down of the CBO report on the cost of the latest Democratic incarnation of the health care bill, CBO: Obamacare Would Cost Over $2 Trillion:
For a variety of reasons, this tally doesn’t remotely reflect the bill’s real ten-year costs. First, it includes 2010 as the initial year. As most people are well aware, 2010 has now been underway for some time. Therefore, the CBO would normally count 2011 as the first year of its analysis, just as it counted 2010 as the first year when analyzing the initial House health bill in the middle of 2009. But under strict instructions from Democratic leaders, and over strong objections from Republicans, the CBO dutifully scored 2010 as the first year of the latest version of Obamacare. If the clock were started in 2011, the first full year that the bill could possibly be in effect, the CBO says that the bill’s ten-year costs would be $1.2 trillion.There is more, much more. Read the full article.
The CBO report amounts to a fraud perpetrated not by the CBO, but by the Democrats who forced the CBO to play these games.
Michelle Malkin also addresses the CBO report:
The CBO didn’t release its non-report report because it was finished. The agency released it because Democrats needed cover for their bogus transparency pledge to post the bill 72 hours before voting for it (which they still didn’t fulfill). The good news is that the number-crunchers say they may have a real, final, useful analysis done by Sunday. The bad news is that the House Democrats – moving forward with their “deem-and-pass” trickery to – are scheduled to ram this monstrosity through by Sunday.
Chris Moran at American Thinker also slams the CBO report, as does Sister Toldjah.
And while we’re mentioning cost, Brian O’Connell at the American Spectator points to a Washington Examiner column that estimates and additional 16,500 IRS employees will be needed to enforce Obamacare. Or maybe that was part of the jobs bill?
Obamacare will likely have other negative impacts on the economy. NewsBusters reports that economic guru Jim Cramer claims that Obamacare will topple the stock market. Economist Larry Kudlow also predicts that Obamacare will depress the economy further.
Steve Foley at the Minority Report presents a list of costs, figures, and others impacts that Obamacare will have. The Political Inquirer revisits the constitutionality of the individual mandate. Jillian Bandes at Townhall refers to a Wall Street Journal column that predicts years of political and legal battles over Obamacare, should it pass.
There is also some more general commentary on Obamacare. Brian Faughnan at Red State points out that due to the buy-offs and special deals in Obamacare, Florida seniors will actually lose out on their benefits. Robin of Berkeley at American Thinker presents as narrative of how Obamacare indicates a lack of respect and caring for the indigent and elderly by pawning them off on he government. And Philip Klein at the American Spectator makes predictions on how Obamacare will fail:
To start with, Americans would still be facing skyrocketing premiums. There’s been a lot of debate over the Congressional Budget Office report on this matter, with Republicans emphasizing that premiums would be higher in the individual market, and Democrats touting the finding that in the employer-based market, they could be slightly lower. But the important thing to keep in mind is that these estimates are all relative to what people would otherwise be paying if we simply did nothing. So even if you look at the employer-based market, according to the CBO, a family policy would cost roughly $20,100 for the average employee in 2016 under the Senate bill, rather than $20,300 under the status quo. Good luck to any Democrat who attempts to tell those families and businesses struggling to pay $20,100 for insurance coverage that if it weren’t for Obamacare, they’d be paying $200 extra.
While Obama claims that we need to pass his bill to avert spiraling health care costs, the Chief Actuary for the Centers for Medicare Services, which is responsible for tracking this, estimated that if the Senate health care bill passed, spending would actually rise to 20.9 percent of GDP, compared to 20.8 percent under the status quo Obama has rightly deemed “unsustainable.” In other words, a decade from now, Americans would still be reading stories on the devastating effects of health care spending on our economy – a problem that Obamacare was supposed to cure.
While it’s true that Social Security and Medicare have remained popular even as the programs threaten to bankrupt the country, they are different from Obamacare because at least conceptually, everybody pays into them and everybody receives benefits. Yet Obamacare would be a welfare program in which one segment of the country receives benefits, while others have their coverage disrupted, and are punished with higher taxes, longer wait times, and poorer quality of care.
There’s a lot of stuff going on with this bill, and the Democrats in congress still seem eager to force it upon the American people. All that seems left is to sit and wait.
I have said it before and I will say it again, Congress is a rotten, stinking corpse. It is no wonder that it currently has the lowest approval rating of all time. This week more ridiculous legislation was introduced in that body that will only make our lives worst. The bipartisan bill that was introduced would punish any country that practices currency manipulation as an unfair trade subsidy. It would give President Obama the ability to impose retaliatory protectionist measures to level the playing field. Of course, the impetus for the legislation is China’s alleged undervaluing of its currency, the yuan, in order to support Chinese exports to other countries.
Now, it’s funny, how the legislation comes in an election year when there is a very strong anti-incumbent mood amongst the electorate. Many Americans who have lost their jobs in this depression are naturally fixated on statements from Washington dealing with job creation. So as not to disappoint, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer was quoted as saying, “”There is no bigger step that we can take to promote job creation here in the US than to confront Chinese currency manipulation.” This sounds logical on the surface, but upon closer analysis the senator as usual has it all wrong.
In the first place, to even threaten protectionist measures in such a fragile economic environment as we live in is dangerous. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was passed in 1930 and placed protective tariffs on thousands of imports coming into the United States from abroad. At the time, during the Great Depression, its purpose was to protect American jobs. Sound familiar? Instead, the tariff caused our trading partners to retaliate with tariffs of their own thereby exacerbating an already horrendous employment situation. What makes our politicians believe that China would not retaliate with protective measures of its own or worst yet cause the collapse of our currency by flooding the world markets with hundreds of billions of dollars it keeps in reserve?
But secondly, and much more importantly to our situation, we need inexpensive Chinese products otherwise our inflation rate would be through the roof and unemployment would be right there with it. Here is the vicious cycle of events that is American/Chinese trade relations. China’s products are cheaper because the cost of doing business there is less than in the U.S. Thus, we purchase Chinese goods with dollars and treasury notes. China holds these dollars and interest-bearing bonds in reserve and then prints yuan to pay off the Chinese suppliers of our purchases. When the smoke clears, we get cheap Chinese goods to buy, the Chinese manufacturer makes a profit, and the Chinese government acquires more units of the world’s reserve currency. Everybody wins, right?
If the Obama Administration ends this cycle by imposing protective tariffs on Chinese goods coming into the United States, not only will the Chinese government reciprocate with retaliatory measures of its own, the prices of goods in the U.S. will rise sharply. You see right now we export our inflation to China by way of treasury bonds and newly printed Federal Reserve notes. Without the ability to export our debt and a lot of the dollars the Federal Reserve has been printing, all of that liquidity will be spent in the U.S. instead on more expensive goods. As more money enters our economy prices in general will be bid up and will rise and given how much the Federal Reserve has inflated the money supply over the last few years prices will rise by a lot. At that point, Economics 101 tells us that high prices will squelch demand and huge increases in unemployment will result.
Since the 1970s, the politicians in Washington have placed us in this no win situation with regard to trading with China. They have destroyed our industrial base with unconstitutional mandates and regulations, and collective bargaining laws. They have spent us into oblivion by financing a welfare/warfare state unmatched in human history. If we impose protectionist measures against China we will incur inflation in the short run and high unemployment in the long run. If we continue to borrow from China to buy their inexpensive goods we put ourselves on an unsustainable course. At some point, if it isn’t happening already, China will stop financing our purchases and absorbing our inflation. They will sell their goods elsewhere and Americans will pay higher prices. Our standard of living will plummet and China will replace us as the world’s number one economic superpower.
But, Chuck Schumer and his colleagues on the Hill are oblivious to all of this. Of course, they also ignore the fact that the Federal Reserve is the biggest currency manipulator in the world. Ben Bernanke and his cabal of economic central planners better known as the Federal Open Market Committee fix interest rates and determine the supply of money. These actions directly determine the value of the dollar. Before Congress complains about China for not using market forces to value the yuan it should look in the mirror.
And that is really why I consider Congress a rotten, stinking corpse. Time and again its members grandstand for personal political gain and leave the American people with the mess. Its hypocrisy is appalling. Lastly, it seems like it is constantly coming up with cockamamie schemes to ruin our economy further. This latest scheme places the blame on China for our own financial incompetence.
From Keith Hennessey, Understanding The New Health Care Reconciliation Bill. A good site to get caught up.
Megan McArdle sounds dejected: First Thoughts On The CBO Score. Some interesting comments.
Paul Krugman back in 2006 at the NYT: The Health-Care Crisis And What To Do About It. Krugman offers his vision of what to do to contain rising costs due to vast inefficiencies, and what has caused the inefficiencies:
“First is the increasingly rapid unraveling of employer- based health insurance. Second is the plight of Medicaid, an increasingly crucial program that is under both fiscal and political attack. Third is the long-term problem of the federal government’s solvency, which is, as we’ll explain, largely a problem of health care costs.”
Of course, “free market ideology” and politics are getting in the way of what Krugman argues is the only effective solution: these separate problems need comprehensive reform, and the government is the only entity capable of delivering it.
Of course, we’ll still have poor people without much/any access, a need for rationing (never enough money, always too much need), waste, inefficient spending due to self-interest etc as well as what I think Krugman underestimates as the potential for simple corruption, government inefficiency, and the dangers of tying political interests to so much money and human need (the innovation that will be lost). He doesn’t spend much time discussing the downsides.
But, where is there a counter-vision by a fiscal conservative?
Lesson to Republicans: plan ahead. Clinton also had a pretty deep, statesman-like vision, and tried (Hilary) to get this rolling some time ago…so here we are.
Update: A reader sent this link to the Heritage Foundation. It’s a start. If you have other links, fell free to send them in.
Also On This Site: From Youtube Via Althouse-’Paul Ryan: Hiding Spending Doesn’t Reduce Spending’
The most knowledgable articles I’ve read that make the case for some government involvement are here:
Atul Gawande At The New Yorker: ‘The Cost Conundrum Persists’
Remember those hazy days at the beginning of March? It was obvious, innit: a hung parliament spells doom to the pound. Since then, the possibility of a hung parliament has remained just as strong (see Betfair)
and yet the Pound is up. From the $1.50 level to $1.54. Nothing spectacular: just enough to confirm my hunch that this is not “tories down, sell the pound’. The sort of dumb stuff that Tory newspapers were and are desperate to believe.
Although FT Alphaville have every reason to pick on him, it was not just Jim Rogers. Every saloon bar economist thinks that you can go from 1. not remembering what the UK produces (read Policy Exchange’s recent report on manufacturing) to 2. assuming the pound should fall.
Why is the pound up? Perhaps the unemployment figures – stronger economy, stronger finances, safer gilts (gilts are also up today). Perhaps the mildly hawkish BOE minutes. It is not likely to be eurozone strength: they have weaker prices than since the Euro was brought in. Nor inflation in the US, which is still kinda missing. Though if the UK is going to outgrow both these it might be good for the pound, it might just as easily translate into even more export weakness, more QE, and the other direction.
Unsurprisingly, though dismayingly for armchair political pundits determined to use their rules of thumb to dictate messages linking the Pound to Political Weakness, I think the direction of sterling is something to do with economics. I have no idea where it is going, but don’t think it will be much to do with the latest gossip about Liberal Conservative alliances, no matter how well informed.
Please click to download answer to Marty’s Frozen Yogurt. Ace your paper with the help of My Little Tutor!
Marty’s Frozen Yogurt is a small shop that sells cups of frozen yogurt in a university town. Marty owns three frozen-yogurt machines. His other inputs are refrigerators, frozen-yogurt mix, cups, sprinkle toppings, and, of course, workers. He estimates that his daily production function when he varies the number of workers employed (and at the same time, of course, yogurt mix, cups, and so on) is as shown in the accompanying table.
a. What are the fixed inputs and variable inputs (sort out the examples from the question) in the production of cups of frozen yogurt? (12pts)
b. Draw the total product curve. Put the quantity of labor on the horizontal axis and the quantity of frozen yogurt on the vertical axis. (8pts)
- See ‘How to do the Graphs’ in the Doc Sharing for graphing methods -
c. What is the marginal product of the first worker? (2pts)
The second worker? (2pts)
The third worker? (2pts)
Why does marginal product decline as the number of workers increases? (4pts)
There’s an expression among entrepreneurs: “You are what you read.” Here is a list of the most popular business books, including those in paperback(P).
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. How besides talent, luck and opportunity help people succeed.
Freakonomics (P) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The economics behind the events of daily life.
Superfreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. This sequel deals with a scholar and a journalist applying economic thinking to different situations.
Drive by Daniel H. Pink. What really motivates people is the quest for autonomy, mastery and purpose, not external rewards.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Life isn’t all about work.
Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The 2008 financial implosion on Wall Street and in Washington as written by a New York Times reporter and columnist.
Women and Money (P) by Suze Orman. Financial advice directed at women.
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Fiscal fitness for families.
The Tipping Point (P) by Malcolm Gladwell. How certain products and ideas become fads.
On the Brink by Henry M. Paulson,Jr. The former Treasury secretary describes decisions made to deal with the financial crisis.
The Blind Side (P) by Michael Lewis. The evolving business of football, viewed through the rise of the left tackle Michael Oher
Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. How to make transformative changes at work and in life..
The Quants by Scott Patterson. How a new breed of math whizzes conquered Wall Street and nearly destroyed it.
How We Decide (P) by Jonah Lehrer. Making better decisions by learning more about how we think.
Mojo by Marshal Goldsmith with Mark Reiter. Principles for achieving a positive attitude.
Ana “bought” (supported? inspired? incentived?) a poem from Molly Gaudry – it rocks! Worth the cash-o-line? You decide:
YOU ARE ONE BAD MAMA JAMA, MISS ALABAMA for Amy King and Ana Božičević
Hitching home, I hear her holler and honk, and when I turn
she pulls over and parks, levels her gauzy eyes on my face, says,
Where ya headed, Doll? I’d like to try on that tiara sometime.
So I get in, still wearing my suit and sash, which she tells me
to take off and tie to her antenna. Baby, you got a flag, fly it.
I lean back and close my eyes, recalling the onstage question
I’d answered about whether Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass
should be banned from public school libraries. My mother,
I’d said, and her mother, and her mother, before her, were librarians.
Is this America, I asked, or were freedom of speech and democracy
and art and free expression and love things that we no longer
cared about? And how was this the message we were sending
to our children? And if you really wanted to ask a question
about moral decency then why were they asking women onstage
who had just changed out of bikinis before the watching gaze
of all of America? Was voyeurism American? Which is when
I realized I’d said enough, so smiled and went back to my place
marker. I liked your talent. What? Your talent. I cracked a grin.
Oh yeah? Yeah, I said I did, didn’t I? How’d you learn to do that,
anyway? I looked out the window, past the kudzu and wildflowers
whipping by, into the distance where it seemed so cool and quiet
in the darkness of those far-off trees. Benny, I say. Benny the
Wonder Bunny. He was a housewarming gift from my father
to my mother when they bought their first home. I was six.
Till then we’d lived in apartments. They were working more
because the mortgage was higher than rent ever was, so what
I did was wait for them at the door, and when they came home I’d
show them whatever trick we’d perfected. It was a long time before
I was any good. Well I thought you were great, just great. I thought
you said you weren’t going to come, you couldn’t support pageantry.
She shrugs. So I came to support you, okay? Why are you in your suit?
I thought I needed a ride. In the backseat, Benny XIV nibbles a carrot
in his cage. Good doggie, I say, reaching back to stroke his ears.
She doesn’t get it, and neither do I. Sometimes we just say things,
I guess, because why not. You are one bad mama jama, Miss Alabama.
She places her hand on my thigh and I sigh, lace my fingers in hers.
–Molly Gaudry
~~
At this rate, she’s gonna write a book soon… perhaps she’ll write one for you too.
Every request that the military commanders made to us for equipment was answered. No request was ever turned down.
(Gordon Brown, Iraq Inquiry, 5th March 2010)
Fighting a war brings all sorts of challenges. There is a foe to contend with, but it’s harder when your armoury’s missing some key bits of kit, or when you step onto hot desert sand and find your boots melting. Effective transport is crucial, but the Snatch Land Rover used in Iraq and Afghanistan has been described as a ‘death trap’. And helicopters have been slow to arrive, their absence sometimes blamed by parents who feel their injured sons might have survived had they reached a field hospital sooner.
In some cases, parents report shelling out for better kit: webbing or helmets for example.
So what was the problem? The Prime Minister is careful not to accept blame for this under-resourcing. Why then do the generals (or admirals/air marshals) feel compelled to say they didn’t have enough?
He cannot get away with saying ‘I gave them everything they asked for’. That is simply disingenuous.
(Lord Guthrie, Chief of Defence Staff 1997-2001, speaking on 6th March 2010)
He is dissembling, he’s being disingenuous.
(Lord Boyce, Chief of Defence Staff 2001-3, speaking on 6th March 2010)
There is a clear sense of frustration among some key military leaders. They haven’t accused Mr Brown of lying; the word ‘disingenuous’ is their weapon of choice. It makes me curious. Did the generals ask for what they needed? Did they go to war claiming they had what they needed when in fact they did not? Should they have resigned for resource reasons as Robin Cook did for political reasons?
Gordon Brown hinted his predecessor would not have gone to war if the generals told him they were unprepared. Well, of course not! But it’s a rhetorical point. The generals are unlikely to say ‘no’ to their masters; it’s not in their blood. They know that fortune favours the brave. They know the difference between essential and desirable. And with the essential kit, they know that all things are possible.
What our troops lacked in Iraq and Afghanistan could perhaps best be described as ‘highly desirable’ rather than essential. While the political struggle continues, we have been able to undertake military operations with broad success. The generals have their cut their cloth as required, but some men and women needed better provision and have paid for its absence with their lives.
What the Prime Minister yesterday said… narrowly and precisely was correct… What Gordon Brown didn’t address… was the underlying underfunding of defence that goes right back to the outcome of the defence review in 97/98.
(General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of General Staff 2006-9, speaking on 6th March 2010)
Finally some clarity. As I expected, while the fact-claims of the generals and the politicians appear to conflict, the truth accommodates both.
But now we have a problem. In recent times, retired military chiefs have routinely criticised the government. We don’t expect this so much from serving officers; as men under authority, such insubordination would be at odds with the career that took them to the top.
General Dannatt is a notable exception. Before his retirement, he was happy to make life uncomfortable from time to time for his political masters. In so doing, he voiced publicly what other generals may have said in private to the ministers. He is a man of great experience and wisdom. He also has a natural outspoken honesty which I believe may be sorely tested under a Conservative government.
That’s because General Dannatt is now an adviser to the Conservatives. If they win the general election, he will take a peerage, but won’t become a minister. He will bring great strength to David Cameron’s team, but his decision is clearly a controversial political judgement. The announcement was leaked while he was still in the pay of the army. I believe it has dented his authority.
With regard to the other defence chiefs, an explanation has arisen as to why they might have felt motivated to speak out against the prime minister.
When Guthrie and Boyce attack Gordon on defence spending note they are consultants and non-execs of defence coys. and have vested interest.
(Lord Foulkes, via Twitter, 13th March 2010)
Well, perhaps they do. But what they said is either true or it isn’t. If it is true then I would expect to hear from them. In these circumstances, who else could speak out? If it is not true then Guthrie, Boyce, Dannatt and others are all singing from the same flawed hymn sheet. Gordon Brown had plenty of facts at his disposal for his appearance before Sir John Chilcot. But they were spun carefully and the truth behind them was hidden.
In any case, Lord Foulkes has form. He sees the military as the enemy. He is a tribal Labour loyalist who defended Speaker Martin when the game was lost, freely attacks those he regards as his opponents without regard to the arguments and tried to smear General Dannatt last summer.
Am I saying the politicians are wrong and the generals are right? Not at all. We live in a world of limited resources. And it is for the government to decide on the allocation across ministries. I have no doubt that generals will always want more. So will doctors, head teachers and many others. When the resources fall short, they’ll have to make do. Or if not, then resign as Norman Tebbit has argued.
Resignation is the ultimate political statement. It is a very tough decision, especially when the stakes are so high. For most of us, there is a very practical reason we might not want resign out jobs. How would I to pay the mortgage? For generals and politicians the reason is likely to be more philosophical. Had Lord Boyce resigned before the Iraq war he could have pulled the plug on the whole adventure. Unless that was his objective, it would not have been an attractive option.
So while resignation is always an option, for the most part it is far from ideal. But speaking out against a sitting government is fraught with problems as Professor Vernon Bogdanor explains. We are not about to be led by a military junta, but the generals must think very carefully before engaging in politics. And if they back off, the politicians must show more respect.
In 1712, John Arbuthnot, chiefly known as a satirist, considered second only to Jonathan Swift, was also the Queen Anne’s doctor and a Fellow of the Royal Society, proposed the publication of a book with two volumes, titled, The Art of Political Lying. Sadly, the book never appeared although it would be more relevant than ever today. Arbuthnot praised, “the noble and useful art of political lying, which in this last age having been enriched with several new discoveries” (p. 8).
Obviously, he did not have the Internet in mind, but perhaps something similar had recently happened in England. The loosening of government restrictions opened the country up to a flood of pamphlets. A recent critic noted that “greater freedom to print is more deviously related to the prevalence of accusations of lying” (Condren 1997, p. 125). Arbuthnot, himself, pointed to the role of “the great fondness of the malicious and miraculous: the tendency of the soul towards the malicious, springs from self-love, or a pleasure to find mankind more wicked, base, or unfortunate than ourselves.”
Arbuthnot also promised to explore whether political lying should be the exclusive right of the government.
Not being erudite enough to follow through with Dr. Arbuthnot’s project, I appeal to you to complete his work.
Arbuthnot, John. 1712. Proposals for Printing a Very Curious Discourse, In Two Volumes in Quarto, Intitled, Psuedologia Politike, or, A Treatise of the Art of Political Lying: With an Abstract of the First Volume of the Said Treatise (London: Printed for John Morphew, near Stationers-Hall).
Scott Wong writing the Phoenix Beat for the daily is our hands-down nominee for the grand prize of the traditional Deerstalker version of the Sherlock Holmes cap.
Wong does a bit of sleuthing and unearths the news that Mayor Philly Gordon is heading back to the Middle East, with a weeklong trip to Qatar and possibly the United Arab Emirates port of Dubai.
Staffers and council members are excluded, but girlfriend and former fundraiser, Elissa Mullany, will be in tow for his “working vacation.”
Wong writes that during a two-hour phone call Wednesday night, Gordon defended his decision to bring his girlfriend — but none of the eight council members on the trip. “I have the right to bring whoever I want as long as I’m not abusing (public funds),” Gordon said. “No public money is being used. Not one penny from Arizona is being used.”
In recent years, Mullany has accompanied Gordon on privately funded trips to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“It’s a continuation of the business relationships that she has had,” Gordon’s senior assistant Marchelle Franklin said. “She has been a part of it for the past two years.”
Whatever “it” is.
The entire article can be read here. When you finish, ask yourself, “Did I vote for this clown?”
If the answer is in the affirmative, your punishment will be staring at this photograph for ten minutes. That‘s the equivalent of an hour of self-flagellation.
When even the Republic is fed up with Gordon, it’s clear his political future is not in Arizona.
Inside the TV Wars: Mergers, Monoliths and Shady Backroom Deals
Our media powerhouses aren’t ready to evolve, and they’re prepared to sabotage content, creativity and innovation to avoid doing so.
It’s important that people understand that what’s behind these media mergers is the Christian conservatives movement and the Republican Party. Because the Republican Party and the Christian conservatives have a master plan to control everything in this country and they are willing to kill their own families in kill children and murder them in the street in order to get what they want.
As I have said before, I was in communication with Gore Vidal before he died while he was living in Europe. And I have to tell you that Gore Vidal told me that his life with and threatened many times I the Republican Party and Christian conservatives who said they were going to kill him if you did not leave this country. Gore Vidal also explained to me that the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party and had a Jihad against the Jewish intellectuals and against intellectuals and scientists for many many years. And even explained that from his experience that he found the the Republican Party and the Christian conservatives actually got a kind of sexual pleasure or sexual enjoyment from the thought of killing the Jewish intellectual thought of killing intellectuals and the thought of killing a scientist. Because he said that he had never seen such hatred for science and Jewish intellectuals as he saw coming from the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party. And so he said that was one of the Main reasons the left the United States because he was afraid that the Christian conservatives were going to kill him. And then parade is on the around the country as a token of what he called their Jihad against the Jewish intellectuals of the United States.
And so consequently, the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party have declared a Jihad against creativity and against teachers and against Jewish intellectuals and against knowledge and again scientists. Because they hate everything the Christian conservatives hate every single kind of human being and every creation of God that has ever existed, unless that creation is strictly white and Christian and Republican and a man. Because that’s the only kind of God’s creation that the Christian conservatives and Republican party like are men who are white and Christian and Republican. Everyone else as far as the Christian conservatives, and Republican Party are concerned must die.
And so being a Jewish intellectual myself, and a scientist, I realize that it’s only a matter of time before, the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party come for me. Which is exactly why I have been as public and as outspoken as I have on the Internet. So that everyone will know that when the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party do break into my home and drag my body into the street and turn me alive and on fire while the Christian conservatives and their children dance around my burning body and sing happy songs of how they hate Jews and how they hate everyone in this world and how they are going to kill everyone in this world with your holy war a Jihad against humanity, that everyone in the world will know the Christian conservatives did this to me because they hate Jews and they hate intellectuals and they hate teachers and they hate knowledge and they hate scientists and they’re prepared to kill every single human being in the entire world to be able to get what they want.
As American citizens we have seen the creativity of the entertainment industry a much destroyed because the Christian conservatives refused to allow anything to be presented on TV that does not fit their extremely narrowminded and ethnocentric and egocentric hatred of everything in this world that is not white and Christian. Adolf Hitler used the same methods when he was forming is Nazi regime during World War II. He used the same methods of propaganda and mass murder of the the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party are employing now he used the same methods of control over the media services in Germany that the Christian conservatives are in fact using now.
That’s because the Christian conservatives every single one of them has a copy of Mein Kampf in their homes and every Republican Party member of the United States Congress reads Mein Kampf, which have a copy of in their offices. And they really every single month and swear allegiance to Mein Kampf above and beyond their duty as American citizens because they don’t care about the Constitution they care about Mein Kampf and establishing a new Nazi regime in these United States. And they will do so even if they have to destroy every single the creativity and kill every single intellectual Jewish and otherwise and murder every scientist in this country. The Christian conservatives will be the voice of God your under even if they have to kill God and Jesus Christ to do so.
And so like I’ve already explained, you can see how the quality of creativity has become completely soured and almost virtually destroyed in this country are the Christian conservatives of these United States. This is one of the reasons I refuse to do business with Rupert Murdoch and his television service known as DirecTV. Because Rupert Murdoch is using his service of DirecTV to promote his propaganda and spread his racial hatred of Jews and black Americans. Because Rupert Murdoch is known all over the entire world as someone who hates everyone in the entire world. He hates the royal family of England he would love to kill them. He hates everyone in this world and he wants to do everything he can to steal as much money as he possibly can because he doesn’t care if yes to kill his own children. He will get all the money he can. And he doesn’t care who has to kill in order to do that.
So consequently, that’s why I’m not using my DirecTV service and why I’m canceling it and why refuse to do business with anyone who is under the control of Rupert Murdoch. And if the Christian conservatives take over all the media services. I won’t be watching television anymore. But then I have over 1000 movies your I home that I’ve already recorded before, the Christian conservatives were able to destroy the media services in this country. So I don’t need TV if I don’t want to have to be I can watch any one of my movies that the Christian conservatives have not enabled to destroy. And no matter what the Christian conservatives do they will not win over me. The only way that the Christian conservatives will win in their attempt to destroy this country and to destroy the media services of this country and destroy America’s lives is over my dead body. And if that’s exactly what the Christian conservatives want. I don’t have any problem with that. Bring it on.
Economic Fact Sheet (Current as of March, 2010)
The United States currently has a national debt in excess of $12.5 trillion.
The interest on the national debt is now in excess of $11 trillion.
The operating budget for the United States government is now in excess of $43 trillion.
The members of the United States Congress stole $200 million from the Medicare fund, which was going to go for cost-of-living increases to Medicare recipients, so that the members of Congress could have their paper medical records converted to computerized medical records. The attitude by the members of Congress was that they didn’t care if they murdered American citizens as long as they get the medical protection they wanted.
The Christian conservatives and the Republican Party are taking the stand that they do not want American citizens to have any kind of healthcare the of healthcare is extended to anyone that the Christian conservatives or the Republican Party does not like. And this is based not on constitutional law or the Christian conservatives and the Republican Party being patriots. It’s based upon the Christian conservatives Republican Party demanding that the American government understand that no Christian conservative or Republican Party member will in any way ever support the US Constitution above their Christian religion and above their Christian Bible. And so as a result, their Christian Bible and Christian religion says that healthcare should not go to Hispanic Americans or black Americans or Jews or Muslims or gay Americans or Native Americans or anyone who is an immigrant that the Christian conservatives Republican Party just doesn’t happen to like.
And so as a result, the Christian conservatives Republican Party members are trying to commit mass murder in United States by denying health care to millions of American citizens who are in desperate need of medical attention. But the Christian conservatives Republican Party doesn’t really care about that because as far as they’re concerned if they have to walk through rivers of blood to make sure that their Christian religion and their Christian faith is supported more than the Constitution of these United States and the Christian conservatives will do just that.
The current level of unemployment in the United States is now over 9.7%.
The current cost for liquidating the national debt is now in excess of $40,000 per person, which means that every man woman and child in the United States would have to pay at least $40,000 to be able to liquidate the national debt.
When you look at the history of United States from the American Civil War until present day you find that the Republican Party and Christian conservatives were in total and complete control of the United States government every single time there was a financial crisis from the American Civil War to present day. And that basically means that all the policy decisions that were being made by the American government during these times when these financial catastrophes were taking place were being made strictly by Christian conservatives and the Republican Party . And of course that’s all public record.
As my financial analysis of the global economic system , in my see also section below, clearly shows, it was the Republican Party and the Christian conservatives under President Bush who gave the American banking industry $400 billion of taxpayer money and simply told the banking industry to use the money anyway they wanted to. And the banking industry did just that they use the money to pay for expensive gifts and presents and take vacations. To date, the banking industry has only paid back $30 billion out of the over $500 billion that was given to them by the American taxpayers.
The issues of profitability indexing, pursuant to profit margins and per unit costs and customer bases as they relate to compensation packages throughout the entire corporate sector have not been resolved. That basically means that most businesses are being held hostage by upper level management and executive employees in their own companies who are demanding more and more for their compensation packages. As a result of this most companies are having to readjust their per unit costs for their goods and services in such a way so that what they are doing is pricing their services and their products. So that mostly the upper class and the wealthy will be able to afford them. And this is being done so these companies and corporations can get as much money into their company as possible.
But they are in fact forgetting one of the major factors which is that while most of the money that any company gets comes from the wealthy are customers most of their day-to-day cash flow actually comes from the middle and lower income customers. This is true regardless of where that company exists. So as a result of this most of the companies in the corporate sector are operating on what is known as a cash poor basis. And this basically means that since they are pricing their goods and services in order to get the most money possible they are foregoing pricing their goods and services so they will be more affordable to the middle and lower income customers, which actually provide these companies with their day-to-day cash flow. And so as a result, these companies don’t have enough money to pay for employees or many of the other day-to-day costs that come up.
This factor has not been dealt with in any country in the world at this time. Furthermore, these companies are refusing to be honest about their financial reporting. They are constantly using and accounting,/statistical variance, which is .5%. And .5% variance is such a large variance pursuant to statistical and financial analysis that you can basically drive a moving van through the space. That is allocated for plus or minus error correction in the statistical analyses and financial analyses that are in fact done with .5% variance. This is why I have never used that level of variance statistically or financially. I’ve always used .05% variance because it is such a small variance that the statistical analysis of the profitability analysis cannot be falsified. It is true that using .05% variance does require an additional 100,000 to 200,000 calculations in order to be able to complete the analysis. But when you consider that the final product is incredibly more honest and reliable. It’s worth it.
The banking industry has turned cruel. For example here in Cleveland Ohio Keycorp is taking a lot of pride and threatening senior citizens and kicking them out of their homes so that they can foreclose on the property. This is happening all over Cleveland Ohio and KeyCorp actually is one of the most hated banks in the entire state of Ohio. But KeyCorp is not the only one who’s doing this practice. Because was really happening is that banks all over the United States are basically threatening senior citizens with foreclosure to the point where suicides are now escalating and accelerating at an alarming rate. So badly that the medical community is swamped by the number of suicide calls they are getting. And this is all happening because KeyCorp and other banks like KeyCorp are basically taking the attitude that they don’t care how many men and women and children they have to murder. They just want their money.
When you consider these kinds of factors are going on in the banking industry you realized that the other thing that’s happening is that senior citizens and homeowners are becoming incredibly sick. Do becoming physically ill as a result of the horrible attitude that KeyCorp in other banks like KeyCorp are pushing on the citizens. And there is no help for this at all.
Additionally, the medical community is helping with this because we have a hospital here in Cleveland Ohio called MetroHealth that basically is working hard. Just like KeyCorp to threaten senior citizens and have them thrown out of their homes. So that they can foreclose on the property. And basically kill the individuals. I have been personally threatened by KeyBank and MetroHealth and have recorded conversations proving that.
So MetroHealth does all these commercials where they’re talking about how good a hospital they are and yet they have been sued a number of times for Medicare fraud. They have also been sued by their own employees for unfair business practices. And they have lost doctors so badly because they don’t treat their doctors very well either. Nobody likes MetroHealth.
And for the record, it needs to be understood that my grandfather’s brother, Dr. ally Maschke, was the director of medicine at mount Sinai medical center here in Cleveland Ohio until his death. And my cousin, Dr. Victor Vertese, was also the director of medicine at mount Sinai medical center until his death. Additionally, my grandfather, Maurice Maschke, and his business partner, Mark Hanna, who founded the Hana mining company, which became the 3M company, basically built mount Sinai medical center in Cleveland. And in addition to that, my father, Maurice Maschke Junior, was on the Board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University, University hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland clinic, and mount Sinai medical center until his death. And in addition to that, my father, Maurice Maschke Junior, and I., were partners and co-owners of pioneer linen supply company of Cleveland Ohio for 25 years until 1975 when we sold the company.
So given all of the foregoing as actual facts. The only reason that the accelerated growth has taken place is because certain industries in the United States have in fact been making money. Only because their industries are addressing sections of the population who are otherwise disenfranchised by most of the business sector. For example Tyco International is a business that specializes and fire prevention and warning systems and security systems. And of course they’ve done a really good job because people are scared to death and living in their homes and there are so many foreclosures going on that people are having to protect their homes because in most cities the number of police has dropped so badly because most cities are in a huge budget crisis. In Cleveland, Ohio, for example, the city went from 1,500,000 people down to approximately 400,000 people in only a matter of months. And conditions are so bad in Cleveland that Cleveland is now charging nine dollars a month just pick up our garbage.
So given those facts Tyco International for one example is making a lot of money because people are having to protect their homes because they can’t really, the police that much because the number of police has dropped so the greatly because of the budget crisis going on throughout the world and throughout the United States.
Additionally, when you look at a company like Microsoft, who reported a huge profit. This is because Microsoft isn’t doing really well. Because they’re not the only reason Microsoft made this huge profit was because their previous product, Microsoft Windows Vista was actually one of the worst programs and products Microsoft ever created. And so since it did so terribly in the market naturally Microsoft’s increased now is looking fantastic, which is not because if you analyze the overall productivity and effectiveness of Microsoft you will see that they are basically floundering under Steve Ballmer’s direction.
So again, it’s really easy for people to talk about how well the market is doing that the foregoing represents the actual facts of what’s going on in business. And as I said before, I have been studying the stock market since I was six years old. At age 6 I started studied the stock market at Prescott ball and turban here in Cleveland Ohio. With one of the partner broker’s, Bernie Towell, who was a personal friend of mine. And so every day for four hours every day and age 6 until age 16 I studied the stock market and learned economics and financial analysis . At age 16, while working and being a partner and co-owner of pioneer linen spy company in Cleveland, I did my first financial analysis and profitability analysis . It was done on the linen supply company’s of Cleveland Ohio. The analysis was so good that the results were used to program some computers at the time. And in 42 years and having been a financial analyst I’ve never once been wrong in any financial projection I’ve ever done. Not once. Just like I’m not wrong now.
In my financial analysis of the global economic system in my see also section below, I clearly show that the American market system was going to lose $800 trillion of market value in the third business quarter of 2009. I further substantiated this claim last January in January of 2009. When I explained that the American market system was going to take a huge hit in the third quarter and that it would come out to about $800 trillion of market loss. And that this was in fact in line with the Kondratieff wave . And in fact that’s exactly what did happen. Which means the analysts were wrong. And I was right.
So again, if you go ahead and look at all these factors without looking at all of the peripheral details than you are going to be responding to the information in a very symptomatic, or symptomatically oriented manner whereby you will behave to the information in an extremely reactionary way. By the like term, if you look at all of the information regarding economics throughout the entire global economic system in a problematically oriented manner you will be looking at the financial information in a more anticipatory manner. And much more pervasive rather than in a stereotypical or linear manner. And as a result, you will begin to understand that all of these different factors that I have brought forth in this article right now. Actually do justify what I’m saying that the American market system is on the verge of collapse. And that the economic system for Greece is about to go under. And that unemployment in Spain and France and England is running at almost 30%.
These do not make things look like they’re going good in the United States is basically doing nothing but lying about the economic they I went to school with most of the people who run a lot of these companies in the United States and who are working on Wall Street either went to school with them at Case Western Reserve why went to school with them at Fort Lewis college board went to school with them at southern Arizona school in Tucson Arizona. Or, I did business with them throughout my life.
So again, this is a reality check. And all I can say is, if you don’t believe what I’m saying that’s not a problem. Because you haven’t believe me, for 40 years, what I’ve been talking about all of these issues facing the economic system in the United States and the global economic system. So why would you believe me now?
But the fact is that just because you may not believe what I’m saying doesn’t mean that what I’m saying is not true. Simply means you are refusing or are not able to see the veracity in what I’m saying and that’s all it means.
The Christian Black Codes Of 1724:
Article 1 We want and understand that the law of the late King of glorious memory our lord and father, of the April 23rd 1615, be executed in our islands. We order to all our officers to chase out of our islands all the Jews who have established their home, to who, like to declared enemies of the Christian name, we order to get out within three months, from the day of publication of the law, on pain of confiscation of body and possessions.
Article 2 All the slaves who will be in our islands will be baptized and educated in the catholic, apostolic and roman church. Order the inhabitants who buy Negroes newly arrived to inform the governor and quartermaster of the islands within eight days the latest, on pain of arbitrary fines; that will give order to baptize and educate them in adequate time.
Article 3 We forbid public exercise of other religion than the catholic, apostolic and roman one; want that the contravening persons be punished as rebels and disobeying persons to our commandments. Forbid any assembly for this reason, we declare those one as illicit and seditious subject to the same pain, which will be the same even for the masters who let this done by his slaves.
Article 4 There will no commander to direct the Negroes, who is no of the catholic, apostolic and roman religion, on pain on confiscation of those Negroes against this masters who put a such commander and arbitrary punishment against the commanders who accept this job.
Article 5 We forbid our subjects of the so-called reformed religion to cause trouble either impediment to our other subjects, even to their slaves in the free exercise of the catholic, apostolic and roman religion, on pain of exemplar punishment.
Article 6 We enjoin, all our subjects, whatever function and condition they are, to observe the Sundays and holidays; which are kept to our subjects of catholic, apostolic and roman religion. Forbid them to work either to make their slaves work the appointed days, since midnight to other midnight, to culture the land, making sugars and any other work, on pain of arbitrary fine and punishment against the masters, and of confiscation of the sugars as well as the slaves that our officers will see working. [NB: all pretexts are good, to deprive the slaves of weekly rest and holidays.]
Article 7 We forbid them to hold Negroes market and any kind of goods the appointed days too, on same pain of confiscation of the goods on the market, and arbitrary fine against the merchants.
Article 8 Declare our subjects who are not of the catholic, apostolic and roman religion incapable to contact in the future any valid marriage. Declare bastards the children who will birth from these conjunctions, that we want to be held and reputed, we hold and repute for real cohabitation.
Article 9 Free men who had one or several children in their cohabitation, with their slaves, the master and him will be condemned to a fine of two thousand pounds of sugar. And if they are the slave masters with who they had the so-called children, we want that further the fine, they will be deprive of the slave and the children, and she and them be confiscated to profit of the hospital, without any possibility to be emancipated. This article is not valid when the man is free and he is not married to an other person during his cohabitation with the slave, will marry in the church rules his so-called slave, who will be emancipated by this mean, and the slave become free and legal.5in the black code of 1724 (Louisiana): no possible marriage between white and black, banning of celebrate mix marriages for the priests; no cohabitation between whites and blacks emancipated or free, and slaves.]
Article 10 The so-called solemnity prescribed by the edict of Blois and the declaration of the month of November 1639, for the marriages, will be observes as for free persons as slaves, with nevertheless that the consent of the slave’s father and mother be necessary, but only the master’s. [NB: the slaves who would be constrained to marry by their master have no legal mean to refuse.]
Article 11 Forbid very expressly the priest to proceed to slaves’ marriages, if they don’t have their masters’ consent. Forbid to the masters to use no compel on their slaves for marry them against their will.
Article 12 The children who will birth from marriages between slaves will be slaves and will belong to the masters of the slaves women and not to their husband’s one, if the husband and the wife have different masters.
Article 13 Want if the husband has married a free woman, the children as males as females follow their mother’s condition and be free like her in spite of their father’s servitude; and if the father is free and the mother slave, the children be slave too.
Article 14 The masters are required to bury in holy land in a cemeteries intended to this aim their baptized slaves; and for those who will die without receive baptism, they will be buried by night in some field close to where they’ll deceased. [NB: the black men "holy land" is quite different to the whites "holy land".]
Article 15 Forbid to slaves to carry offensive weapon, either big sticks, on pain of whip and confiscation of the weapons to the benefit of who will seize them; except only those who have been sent hunting by their masters, and will have their notes or know marks.
Article 16 Forbid also to slaves belonging to different masters to form a crowd by day or night on the pretext of wedding party or otherwise, either at one of their masters or elsewhere, and more less in big paths or place away, on pain of corporal punishment, which will not be less than whip and lily flower; in case of frequent repeat offense and others aggravate circumstances, will be able be punished of death, what we let to the judges arbitration. Enjoin our subjects to hunt for the contravening, and arrest them and lead them in jail, although they are not officers and there is no decree against them.
Article 17 The masters will be convinced to have let or tolerated such assemblies composed by slaved who don’t belong to them, will be condemned in their own and private names to repair any damage which will be done to their neighbors during these assemblies, in ten ecus fine for first time and twice for subsequent offense.
Article 18 Forbid the slaves to sell sugar canes for any reason or occasion, even with their masters’ permission, on pain of whip for the slaves, and of ten pounds for the masters who let this and the same for the buyers.
Article 19 Forbid them too to expose for sell in the market, either bring in the particular houses to sell any kind off foodstuff, even fruits, vegetables, firewood, grasses to feed animals and the products they made, without an express permission of their masters by a note or known marks, on pain of claims of the sold goods, without restriction of price by their masters.
Article 20 Want for this reason that two persons are in charge of each market to verify the foodstuff and goods that have been brought by the slaves, together the notes and known marks of their masters, the carry.
Article 21 Permit to all our subjects inhabitants of our islands to seize all the things they’ll find the slaves in charge when don’t have notes of their masters, either known marks, to be delivered very shortly to their masters, if the plantations are close of where the slaves will be surprised at committing offense; or else the things will be very shortly sent to the hospital to held in trust till the masters are informed.
Article 22 The masters will be obliged to make supply, per each week, their slaves aged of ten more for their food, with two pots and half, measurement of the country, of manioc flour, or three cassavas weighting two pounds and half each at least, or equivalent things, with two pounds of salted beef or three pounds of fish or anything else with same proportion; and the children, since they are weaned till ten years old, the half of provisions above. [NB: the mortality of black people was very important. They were poorly fed. The white people make them work out of their possibilities for more benefits.]
Article 23 Forbid them to give to the slaves sugar cane brandy for the provisions mentioned in previous article.
Article 24 Forbid them also to release themselves of the food and subsistence of their slaves, by letting them work some days of the week "to be self-employed"
Article 25 The masters will be obliged to supply each slaves every years two clothes or four alders of cloth, as so-called masters like. [NB: in fact, the masters don't care of clothing them.]
Article 26 The slaves who won’t be fed, clothed and maintained by their masters in accordance with what we have order by the presents rules will be able to give the opinions to general attorney and the memories in his hands, on what and automatically, if the opinions come to him from other persons, the masters will be prosecuted by his petition and without pay anything, what we want to be observed as the masters’ crimes and barbarian and inhuman treatments toward their slaves. [NB: the articles 30 and 31 quash purely and simply the good intentions of the article 26.]
Article 27 The infirm slaves by age, illness otherwise, either the illness is incurable or non, will be supported and will maintain by their master; and incase they would have neglected themselves them, the so-called slaves will be assigned to the hospital; the masters will condemned to pay six sols by day by days for the food and the maintain of each slave. [NB: the current practice is pure and simple desertion]
Article 28 Let us declare that the slaves can not have anything which is not belong to their master, and all come them by industry or liberality of other persons or otherwise whatever the way, is acquired in full property to their master, without the slaves’ children, their father or mother, their parents and any free or slave others can lay claim nothing by inheritance, provision of a will between living people or because of death. We declare the such provisions are useless, both all the promises or obligations which would be made, as being made by people legally incompetent to incline and to contract by their own.
Article 29 Let us want nevertheless that the masters are responsible of what their slaves will make by their commandment, and together for what they’ll will have managed and negotiated in the shops, and the particular kind of trade of which their masters will appoint them; and the case the masters didn’t give any order and didn’t appoint them, they will be responsible only for what will profit to them; and if nothing profit to the masters, the earning of this so-called slaves that their masters permitted them to have will be seized, after the masters will have deduced what will be owed to them; except if the earning is, all or a part of goods which the slaves have been permitted to trade for their own, on what their masters will take only by contribution of a sol for a pound with the other creditors.
Article 30 The slaves won’t have office neither commission with public functions, neither be constituted agents by others than their masters for manage neither administrate any shop, neither be arbitrators, experts or witnesses in civil and criminal matter. And in case they are listen as witness, their deposition will serve only for memories to help the judges to find out, but those depositions won’t be able to be used to have presumptions, neither circumstances, neither evidences.
Article 31 The slaves won’t be able to be litigant neither is in judgment in civil matter, in plaintiff or in defendant; neither be private party in criminal matter, except their masters to act and to proceed, and to prosecute for compensations for insults and excess their slaves have been subjected.
Article 32 The slaves will be prosecuted without the need the master get responsible but only in the case of complicity; and so-called slaves will be judged in first pending by ordinary judges and on appeal by the supreme council on the same pre-trial investigation of the case, with the same procedures than free persons.
Article 33 The slave, who hit his master, his mistress or his mistress husband or their children with contusion or bloodshed, or at the face, will be punished by death.
Article 34 And as for the immoderate language or assault which will be committed by slaves against free people, we want that it’s be severely punished, even by death if it’s necessary.
Article 35 The daylight robberies, even the horses, the mares, the mules, the oxen and the cows one which will be made by slaves, or by emancipated persons, will be punished by corporal pains, even by death if necessary.
Article 36 The robberies of sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, sugar canes, peas, millet, manioc, or others vegetables made by the slaves will be punished regarding the degree of robbery, by the judges, if they’ll be able if it’s necessary condemn them to be beaten by birch by the enforcer of the great justice, and marked by lily flower.
Article 37 The masters will be obliged, in case of robbery or other damage caused by their slaves, besides the slaves corporal pains, to right the wrong in their name, if they don’t prefer to abandon the slaves to the one who the wrong has been made; what they have to choose in three days, starting from the day of the sentence, otherwise they will be waned.
Article 38 The runaway slave who has been on the run during one month starting from the day his master will denounce him to justice, will have the ears cut off and will be marked by lily flower on a shoulder; if he re offends one more time starting from as well as the day of his of the denunciation, will have the ham cut off and will be marked by lily flower on the other shoulder; and the third time he will be punished by death.
Article 39 Emancipated people who will harbor in their house runaway slaves will be condemned for each one toward their masters in fine of three hundred pounds of sugar by retention day; and the other free people who help them in the same way, in ten pounds of fine for each day.
Article 40 The slave, punished by death on denunciation of his master, non accomplice of the crime for what he will have been condemned, will be appraised before the execution by two major inhabitants of the island who will be appointed automatically by the judge; and the price of appraisal will be paid to the master; and to satisfy for what, it will be fixed by the quartermaster for each head of Negroes who rights of the amount of money given by the estimation. It will be settled up for each so-called Negroes, and will be levied by the farmer of the western royal property to avoid charges.
Article 41 It is forbidden to the judges, to our prosecutors, and to the clerks to collect any tax in the criminal trial against the slaves, in pain of misappropriation of public funds.
Article 42 The masters will have the right, when they’ll estimate it’s necessary, to chain up the slaves and make beat them by sticks and ropes; defend them to torture them, neither make them member mutilations, on pain of confiscation of the slaves and very extraordinarily the masters will be prosecuted. [NB. The reality is that settlers bully, wound, torture, and kill.]
Article 43 We demand to our officers to prosecute the masters and the commanders who will kill a slave under their power and leadership, and punish the murder regarding the atrocity of the circumstances; and in case the forgiveness it’s necessary, permit our officers to sent back the forgiven masters and commanders, without it’s needing letter of mercy from us.
Article 44 We declare the slaves be movable, and as such enter the community, can not be seize by mortgage, can be shared equally between co-heirs without possibility for one of them to take a part before the sharing neither birthright, neither to be reserved to their wife before death by the husband, and be subject of feudal or descendants retract, feudal and seigniorial rights, to the formalities of the decrees.
Article 45 We don’t want to deprive our subjects of the faculty to stipulate them proper to their persons and to their own folks by their side and lineage, as it’s the use for money and other movable things.
Article 46 In slaves seizures will be fulfilled prescribed formalities by our orders and customs for seizure of movable things. We want that the money which coming from to be distributed by order of the seizures, or, in case of ruin, a sol for a pound, after the privileged debts will have been paid, and generally that the slaves condition to be well-ordered in all matter, as the one of the others movable things, except these cases.
Article 47 Do not let them be seized and sold separately the husband and the wife with their under age of puberty children, if they are all under the power of the same master; we declare null seizures and separate sale which will be done of them, what we want to take place in voluntary alienations, on punishment against those who would do alienations to be deprived of the one or those they will have kept, who will be awarded to the acquirers, without they would pass to do any supplement of value. [In the practice the master can sell children separately of his parents and to bargain for separately the spouses.]
Article 48 Do not let them can therefore slaves working now in the sugar-refinery, indigo houses and plantations, age of fourteen years and overhead until sixty years, be seized for debts, otherwise as to will arise of the value of their purchase, or that the sugar-refinery or the indigo house or the plantation where they work would been seized really, we defend, hardly of nullity, to proceed by real seizure and adjudication by decree on the sugar-refineries and indigo houses neither plantations, without comprising in it the slaves of the aforesaid age and there working now.
Article 49 The judicial farmers of sugar houses, indigo houses or plantations really seized with slaves will have to pay the entire price of their lease: without the possibility to count as the fruits they perceive the slave children born during their lease.
Article 50 We want, nevertheless all contrary conventions that we declare null, that the so-called children belong to the seized part, if the creditors are satisfied or to the adjudicator if it intervenes a decree; and for that purpose mention, will be done in the last forepart notice before the interposition of the decree, the so-called children born the slaves since the real seizure; that in same notice mention will be done the deceased slaves since the real seizure in which they were counted.
Article 51 We want to avoid expenses and procedure lengths, that the giving away of entire value of the conjoined fund adjudication and slaves and what will proceed from the value of judicial leases, be done between creditors according to the order of their privileges and mortgages, without distinguishing what is for the fund value of what is for the slaves value.
Article 52 And nevertheless the feudal and seigniorial rights will be paid only in proportion to the funds price.
Article 53 It will be only admit to retire the ordered funds, the persons of noble lineage and feudal lords who retire the slaves who have been sold with these funds, neither the purchasers won’t be able to keep the slaves without the funds.
Article 54 We enjoin to noble guardians and burgesses, persons who rent usufruct and others enjoying of the funds to which are joined who work, to steer the appointed slaves as good paterfamilias without they would pass after their administration to give back the value of those who will be deceased or full-fashioned by illness, age or otherwise without their lack, and without they draw as to hold back as fruits to their profits born of slaves children lasting their administration; who we want be preserved and return to those who will be his masters and proprietors.
Article 55 The masters of twenty years old will be able to free their slaves by all actions between living persons or because of death, without they would to pass to give reasons of their emancipation, neither that they would need of opinion of their parents, though they would be minor of twenty five years. [Measures will come hereafter to penalize hardly the emancipation]
Article 56 Slaves who will have been done residuary legatees by their masters, or named executors of their testaments, or guardians of their children, will pass and will consider as free men. [It didn't ever has been any black guardian neither of mulatto of the whites, and of course, there hasn't been a black executor or half-breed of the white deceased masters.
Article 57 We declare their emancipation made in our island serve as them as place of birth in our island, and the emancipated slaves don't need our letters of naturalization to enjoy our natural subjects advantages in our kingdom, lands and countries of our obedience, even they born in foreign countries.
Article 58 We command the emancipated persons to respect singularly their ancient masters, their widows and their children; or else the insult they will have made to them be punished more severely than if it has been somebody else. We declare them franc and quit toward them of all other charges, services and useful rights that their ancient masters would like too pretend, both on the persons and properties and succession in quality of bosses.
Article 59 We grant to the emancipated persons the same rights, privileges and immunity, which enjoy the persons born as free, we want that merit of an acquired freedom produce in them, also as for their persons than for their goods, the same effects as the happiness of the natural freedom causes to our other subjects. [NB: a lot of restrictions will be added: no access to nobility, no access to the "whites class", no possibility to have a practice in magistrate and in the militia, no job which can make them meet, even far from, the juridical or judicial functions, etc.]
Article 60 We declare the seizures and fines, which have not particular destination by these present articles, belong to us, to be paid to those who are appointed to the collect of our incomes. We want nevertheless that the third of these so-called confiscation and fine be given to the hospital established in the island where they have been made. We ask the persons who hold our sovereign council established in Martinique, Guadeloupe, saint-Christopher, that they have to make read, publish and register these present articles, and keep and observe point by point in accordance with the form and the term of the content in them, without to agree on neither permit they are contravened in any way, in spite of all edicts, declarations and customs, we have departed and depart from by these present articles. Because it’s our good pleasure; in order to be firm and stable matter forever, we have made append our seal. Given in Versailles in the month of March sixteen eighty-five and our reign the forty-second. Signed Louis. Further, by the King, Colbert. Stamp Le Tellier. And sealed with the great green wax seal, in green and red silk shellac.
Bibliography: le Code Noir, Louis Sala-Molins, Presses Universitaire de France
The Christian Black Code Of 1724
The Christian conservatives and the Catholics don’t ever want to be responsible for the fact that since 78% of the United States is pro-life Christian that basically means that 78% of all the women and children murdered in the United States are killed by pro-life Christians and Catholics. It also means that Christians in United States are demanding that the world understand that to them being pro-life means killing, because while the Christian conservatives and Catholics are demanding that everyone understand they are pro-life. They are with their own actions, supporting a number of forms of killing, which means that they are NOT pro-life..
78% of all the women murdered in the United States are killed by pro-life Christians and Catholics .
78% of all the children abused in the United States are abused by pro-life Christians and Catholics .
78% of all the children murdered in the United States are murdered by pro-life Christians and Catholics .
78% of all the murders that take place in the United States are committed by pro-life Christians and Catholics .
78% of all the soldiers in the United States, who go out and kill are pro-life Christians and Catholics .
78% of the membership of the National Rifle Association, which support GUNS THAT KILL are pro-life Christians and Catholics .
Every single white supremacist group in the history of United States has always been white fundamentalist pro-life Christian. And these white supremacist groups are dedicated to killing anyone who is not white and Christian.
The Army of God is a white fundamentalist Christian group who is dedicated to murdering and killing every single nonwhite Christian in the United States.
78% of all the people who favor and support the death penalty meaning killing people for committing crimes are pro-life Christians and Catholics.
78% of all the ministers in the United States who carry firearms to church and are threatening to kill anyone who comes near the church was not white and Christian are pro-life Christians and Catholics .
78% of all the crimes against gay people in the United States are done by pro-life Christians and Catholics .
Every month between one and two transgendered females are murdered and every single one of these killings is done by pro-life Christian.
White fundamentalist Christians were the ones who demand the right to own black Americans and to kill them whenever they wanted to during the signing of the Declaration of Independence .
White fundamentalist Christians were the ones who took over the Republican Party during the battle of Washington and try to overthrow the United States government under president Hoover at the battle of Washington in 1932.
White fundamentalist Christians were the ones who took over the Republican Party on the evening before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War . And who then used the Republican Party to hire John Wilkes Booth to murder Pres. Abraham Lincoln .
When you have all these forms of killing being supported by pro-life Christians and Catholics it’s easy to understand that the pro-life Christians and Catholics are demanding that everyone else be responsible for their own actions. But the white fundamentalist Christians and Catholics under no circumstances want to be responsible for anything they do because they are demanding that the entire world understand that to them being pro-life means killing, because that’s what they support killing. That’s why that those who claim to be pro-life are now becoming known as nothing more than, “Killers For Christ”. And of course it the white fundamentalist Christians and Catholics don’t like what I’m saying or want to take exception to what I’m saying they need to disprove every single item in this journal entry and my see also section below. See Also:
Jesus Christ
The Sermon On The Mount
God
The Bible
The Ten Commandments
John The Baptist
The Burning Times
The Crusades
Joan Of Arc
The Children Of Lourdes
The Children of Fatima
The Spanish Inquisition
The American Civil War
Slavery
The Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth
The Christian Conservatives
World War I
Prohibition
The Great Depression
The Battle of Washington
World War II
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
Richard Nixon
Oliver North
The Iran-Contra Affair
The Gulf War
The Savings-And-Loan Crisis
Bill Clinton
The Balanced Budget Amendment
The Iraq War
The Kondratieff Wave
Profitability Analysis
Financial Analysis
Vance Packard
Laissez-Faire
Capital Punishment
Homophobia
Xenophobia
Racism
Prejudice
Bigotry
Fascism
Eugenics
White Supremacy
Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler
The Ku Klux Klan
The Army of God
US Domestic Violence Statistics
US Child Abuse Statistics
US Child Mortality Statistics
US Religious Demographic Statistics
Gay-Rights
Transgenderism
Women’s Rights
Pro-Choice
NRA
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The US Constitution
The Bill Of Rights
Recording Telephone Conversations
Treason
Sedition
How The Republicans Use The Constitution To Lie (article 1, section 6, subsection b) of The US Constitution
My Biographical Profile
My Philosophy Of Life
24 Hour Suicide And Crisis Help Center
How to stop a suicide
For Those Who Said I Never Knew Ronald Reagan, They Lied
My Encounter With Joan Baez
My Time Studying The Anasazi Indians
My 250 Million Variable Characteristic Hieroglyphic Language
My Tribute To Jim Varney
The Pebble And The Penguin
A Diamond On A Sea Of Glass
Regarding Me And My Journal
My Spinal Fusion And Me Doing 250 Situps
An Installment Notation of The Maschke Family History and Legacy
It’s A Crime
Hey God! You There? I’m Tired… Ok?
In The Midst Of Darkness The Smallest Spark Lights My Way…
I Wrote Something A Long Time Ago…
Kmart To Close Five More Ohio Stores
The Vanishing Of America
A Place Called Earth
How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down On The Farm
Sounds
Reality …
Second Gear
My Financial Analysis Of The Global Economic System
Adventures In Technocracy
An Explanation Of Vernacular Dynamics and Sequencing Regarding Various Forms of Advocacy
The Tortoise and the Hare
The Silent Seconds…
Quantum Mechanics And Newtonian Metaphysics
My Global Warming Research
For the record, I am pro-life. I do not support violence against, or the killing of any human being under any circumstances! And the only way that I ever deviate from that stand is that I do not believe that God has ever given any human the right to dictate to any woman how she is to arbitrate her life with the Almighty, and/or God. Therefore, I believe that all women deserve the right to choose for themselves the fate of their own bodies, pursuant to their relationship with the Almighty, and/or God. For an expanded explanation please see my article entitled: "Second Gear"
Chart a course for success in the fertile terrain of BRIC investing!
The world’s largest and fastest-growing emerging markets are those of the BRIC nations—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Combined, these countries house more than 40 percent of the world’s population, and their respective GDPs are growing at an impressive rate.
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About the Authors
Svetlana Borodina (Moscow) is a director of corporate governance at Standard & Poor’s Equity Research, based in Moscow. Her responsibilities include global product management for GAMMA, which measures corporate governance practices in emerging markets. Prior to joining S&P, Svetlana occupied a number of senior executive positions in the area of investor relations and financial communications with TNK-BP and Sibneft oil companies, both based in Moscow.
Oleg Shvyrkov (Moscow) is Associate Director in Standard & Poor’s Governance Services group. Based in Moscow, he acts as methodology and criteria coordinator for the group. He also serves as lead analyst on Corporate Governance Scores and GAMMA Scores on major companies in Russia including, MTS, MDM Bank, EuroChem, and Wimm-Bill-Dann, as well as several other companies in Russia, Kazakhstan and Brazil. He supervises governance-related research performed by the group, including the Transparency & Disclosure surveys, a Governance Infrastructure Reports on the BRIC countries. He holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Organization & Strategy from Tilburg University (Netherlands), and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Economics from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN).
and yet the Pound is up. From the $1.50 level to $1.54. Nothing spectacular: just enough to confirm my hunch that this is not “tories down, sell the pound’. The sort of dumb stuff that Tory newspapers were and are desperate to believe.
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