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Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
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Page 6: Politix
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Six Studies That Show Everything Republicans Believe is Wrong
OK, give me a few seconds to get out of the way before all you yahoos start shooting! ;-)
The great 20th-century economist John Maynard Keynes has been widely quoted as saying, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" Sadly, in their quest to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the wealthiest members of society, today's Republicans have held the opposite position – as the evidence has piled up against them, they continue spreading the same myths. Here are six simple facts about the economy that Republicans just can't seem to accept:​

1. The Minimum Wage Doesn't Kill Jobs.

The Republican story on the minimum wage takes the inordinately complex interactions of the market and makes them absurdly simple. Raise the price of labor through a minimum wage, they claim, and employers will hire fewer workers. But that's not how it works. In the early Nineties, David Card and Alan Krueger found "no evidence that the rise in New Jersey's minimum wage reduced employment at fast-food restaurants in the state." Since then, international, national and state-level studies have replicated these findings – most recently in a study by three Berkeley economists. Catherine Ruetschlin, a policy analyst at Demos, has argued that a higher minimum wage would actually "boost the national economy" by giving workers more money to spend on goods and services. The most comprehensive meta-study of the minimum wage examined 64 studies and found "little or no evidence" that a higher minimum wage reduces employment. There is however, evidence that a higher minimum wage lifts people out of poverty. Raise away!

2. The Stimulus Created Millions of Jobs.

In the aftermath of the 2007 recession, President Obama invested in a massive stimulus. The Republican belief that markets are always good and government is always bad led them to argue that diverting resources to the public sector this way would have disastrous results. They were wrong: The stimulus worked, with the most reliable studies finding that it created millions of jobs. The fact that government stimulus works – long denied by Republicans (at least, when Democrats are in office) – is a consensus among economists, with only 4 percent arguing that unemployment would have been lower without the stimulus and only 12 percent arguing that the costs outweigh the benefits.

3. Taxing The Rich Doesn't Hurt Economic Growth.

Republicans believe that the wealthy are the vehicles of economic growth. Starting with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, they tried cutting taxes on the rich in order to unleash latent economic potential. But even the relatively conservative Martin Feldstein has acknowledged that investment is driven by demand, not supply; if there are viable investments to be made, they will be made regardless of tax rates, and if there are no investments to be made, cutting taxes is merely pushing on a string. Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two of the eminent economists of inequality, find no correlation between marginal tax rates and economic growth.

In fact, what hurts economic growth most isn't high taxes – it's inequality. Two recent IMF papers confirm what Keynesian economists like Joseph Stiglitz have long argued: Inequality reduces the incomes of the middle class, and therefore demand, which in turn stunts growth. To understand why, imagine running a car dealership. Would you prefer if 1 person in your time owned 99% of the wealth and the rest of the population had nothing, or if wealth was distributed more equally, so that more people could purchase your cars?

Every other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has far lower levels of inequality than the United States. Since there are no economic benefits of inequality, why hasn't the right conceded the argument? Because it's based on class interest, not empirical evidence.

4. Global Warming is Caused by Humans.

Even as global warming is linked to more and more extreme weather events, more than 56 percent of Republicans in the current congress deny man-made global warming. In fact, the infamous Lutz memo shows that Republicans have actually created a concerted campaign to undermine the science of global warming. In the leaked memo, Frank Lutz, a Republican consultant, argues that, "The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science."

In truth, the science of global warming is not up for debate. James Powell finds that over a one year period, 2,258 articles on global warming were published by 9,136 authors. Of those, only one, from the Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, rejected man-made global warming. That one article was likely motivated by the Russian government's interest in exploiting arctic shale. Another, even more comprehensive study, examining 11,944 studies over a 10-year period, finds that 97 percent of scientists accepted the scientific consensus that man-made global warming is occurring.

This is not an abstract academic debate. The effects of climate change will be devastating, and poor countries will be hurt the worst. We've already seen the results. Studies have linked global warming to Hurricane Sandy, droughts and other extreme weather events. More importantly, doing nothing will end up being far more expensive than acting now. One study suggests it could wipe out 3.2% of global GDP annually.

5. The Affordable Care Act is Working

President Obama's centrist healthcare bill was informed by federalism (delegating power to the states) and proven technocratic reforms (like a board to help doctors discern which treatments would be most cost-effective). Republicans, undeterred, decried it as Soviet-style communism based on "death panels" – never mind the fact that the old system, which rationed care based on income, is the one that left tens of thousands of uninsured people to die.

From the beginning, Republicans have predicted disastrous consequences or Obamacare, none of which came true. They predicted that the ACA would add to the deficit; in fact, it will reduce the deficit. They claimed the exchanges would fail to attract the uninsured; they met their targets. They said only old people would sign up; the young came out in the same rates as in Massachusetts. They predicted the ACA would drive up healthcare costs; in fact it is likely holding cost inflation down, although it's still hard to discern how much of the slowdown was due to the recession. In total, the ACA will ensure that 26 million people have insurance in 2024 who would have been uninsured otherwise.

It's worth noting that every time the CBO estimates how much Obamacare will cost, the number gets lower. Odd how we've never heard Republicans say that.

6. Rich people are no better than the rest of us.

Politicians on the right like to pretend that having money is a sign of hard work and morality – and that not having money is a sign of laziness. This story is contradicted by human experience and many religious traditions (Jesus tells a graphic story about a rich man who refused to help the poor burning in hell). But it's also contradicted by the facts – more and more rich people are getting their money through inheritances, and science shows that they are no more benevolent than others.

More and more, the wealthy in America are second or third generation. For instance, the Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, own more wealth than the poorest 40 million Americans. Thomas Philippon and Ariell Reshef have found that 30 to 50 percent of the wage difference between the financial sector and the rest of the private sector was due to unearned "rent," or money they gained through manipulating markets. Josh Bivens and Larry Mishel found the same thing for CEOs – their increased pay hasn't been correlated to performance.

If rich people haven't really earned their money, are they at least doing any good with it? Studies find that the wealthy actually give less to charity as a proportion of their income than middle-class Americans, even though they can afford more. Worse, they use their supposed philanthropy to avoid taxes and finance pet projects. Research by Paul Piff finds that the wealthy are far more likely to exhibit narcissistic tendencies. "The rich are way more likely to prioritize their own self-interests above the interests of other people," Piff recently told New York magazine. "It makes them more likely to exhibit characteristics that we would stereotypically associate with, say, assholes."
Posted by: gorb || 04/23/2014 15:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can't reason with closed minds in the face of empirical evidence. If socialism and its redistrbution dogma worked why haven't those practicing it exceeded the free market models by leaps and bounds? As for the Nordic models, they're basically steady state with a heavy cultural reliance upon a white Lutheran population, hardly 'diverse'.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 04/23/2014 17:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Its from the rollingstones magazine.

I recently watched a 'Ted Talk' video (or started to watch...) where the speaker suggested that the way to fund these UN aid programs to feed the poor and other programs was to simply print more money. Need $6B for some tin-pot African country? No problem - just print it up!

Ahh.. here is a link.

What is scary that people actually took him seriously! Read some of the comments.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/23/2014 17:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Shooting? Hand me my framing hammer.

1. Yes it does. I washed dishes at 16 and looking back was not worth even minimum; the prep line had to quit their work to show me wheres and whats and whys. First raise made me proud and reinforced I was doing it right. In fact, with so many regs I doubt that today I would have been hired. But the college kids who would show up drunk or whatever, when they showed up, they wouldn't be worth $2/hr today.

2.I could hear shifted jobs around..oh expanding the IRS gotchya.

3.I passed a level this year! Yeah successful business! Oh, business income counts as personal income, that was a hit. Could have added a whole other product line. Or fixed the roof.

4.Sniffing farts doesn't create or prevent hurricanes. Bison fart too - so we should be proud of almost ridding North American of the Bison. Its called weather, its been around as long as the Earth, and it used to be considered a bit of a dullard's topic. How about that spam machine putting out all those mad lib papers?

5.Premium up 30% nearly immediately after the passage, binder full of reassurances my insurance was not going to be canceled, union strikes to renegotiate health benefits, and that Sebelius is just so darn successful she quit because she already finished her next three years of chores. Then there are those who say it is working exactly as planned and if you mean that then we need to step outside.

6.Well kinda agree except for one thing - money = freedom so they are quite a bit more free then I am. I can't afford to buy a senator so my pet solar plant can get some government bucks.

On the other side of that coin is you snotball, who will sit there and covet and covet and covet their money then turn around and lecture on Jesus. You know what? I want my sponsor bio and picture like in those Feed Africa deals. I want my picture of little Jimmy nailed to my corkboard, how in the process of being so the awesome in video games he has a blister on his thumb and little finger. How he has no employable skills and 20% disability because of carpel tunnel. I want to read that when I think of the budget of next years groceries go out the those tax cheats at the IRS.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/23/2014 19:29 Comments || Top||

#4  This article is comfort food for progressives. It's a way to reassure themselves that they're right when they're alone at the end of the day and beginning to be scared that reality is intruding.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/23/2014 22:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Bah. One word disproves all leftist ideologies.

Reality
Posted by: Silentbrick || 04/23/2014 23:29 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Comments made against atheists and sects are hateful and should be resisted
[Dhaka Tribune] The extraordinary demand made by Hefazat Secretary General Junaid Babunagari, that followers of minority Islamic sects such as Ahmadiyya and Ahle Hadith should be banned, and that atheists should not be allowed to live in Bangladesh, cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.

We are confident most Bangladeshis, regardless of their faith and background, value the spirit and letter of Bangladesh as a free country which constitutionally guarantees freedoms of belief and religion. Moreover, many devout Moslems would disagree with such calls on the Koranic basis that there should be no compulsion in religion.

As a religious body, his organization may be expected by its followers to disagree with or even dislike contrary religious opinions.

However the comments made against atheists, non-Moslems, and Moslems of sects, with which the Hefazat does not agree, are hateful rhetoric which should be resisted.

There is no justification for the state to ban minority sects of any faith. The Hefazat leader's accompanying remark that Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and people from other religions can still live in the country should not be taken as any form of moderation.

By using blood--curdling language to describe and threaten non-believers and those with whom he disagrees, he opens the door to discrimination and persecution.

All people, whatever their beliefs, or lack of them, deserve equal protection under the law. There is no room in Bangladesh for the state to discriminate between citizens on the basis of their religious beliefs or practices.
Posted by: Fred || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
The Russian Military Has a Tiny New Friend
Meet the new Finland?
I'm pretty sure that never in any way will Cyprus resemble Finland.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cyprus also has a reputation for a tax haven—one that’s become increasingly attractive to wealthy Russians.

Someone followed the money.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 0:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder what EuNich management has to say about that...and what they plan to do about that. Nice little poke in the EU eye you got going in Cyprus, Russia.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/23/2014 1:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Brits still have an airbase at Akro ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/23/2014 1:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Problematic link.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/23/2014 6:08 Comments || Top||

#5  It worked for me, g(r)omgoru. Try pasting this instead of clicking through:

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/ea51967900d5
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/23/2014 8:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Wonder what EuNich management has to say about that...and what they plan to do about that. Nice little poke in the EU eye you got going in Cyprus, Russia.

The same EU that's selling the Russians carriers and night vision equipment? The same EU whose heads-of-state 'retire' to work for Gazprom?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/23/2014 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  OTOH
How many new friends has American made lately?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/23/2014 11:52 Comments || Top||

#8  SO it would seem, B - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia
Posted by: Bobby || 04/23/2014 13:40 Comments || Top||

#9  Let me see: in 1975 Turkey conquered half of Cyprus, and ethnically cleansed Greeks from it. And Greek Cypriots been looking for allies against NATO member Turkey ever since.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/23/2014 16:06 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Hezbollah's Unsuccessful Revenge
[Ynet] Most of Lebanese terror organization's attempts to avenge its commander's liquidation have failed thanks to improvement in Israel's intelligence collection abilities.

On March 17, 1992, a jacket wallah detonated a boom-mobile near the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. Four Israeli embassy workers and five local Jews were among the 29 people killed in the terror attack.

Two days later, American intelligence officials intercepted a phone call received by Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mugniyah, from his commander in Argentina, Talal Hamiyah, who briefed him on the successful attack.

Two years later, in March 1994, Hamiyah, who had since been appointed head of Hezbollah's foreign operations, sent a suicide bomber to the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok. The attack was prevented after the terrorist changed his mind at the last minute.

This week, exactly 20 years later, that same Hamiyah, according to information published in Thailand, tried to come full circle and correct his mistake. But this time the telephone in Beirut did not ring. There was nothing to report. The attack was foiled.

There are three main reasons for what happened: First of all, Imad Mugniyah was assassinated, and there is no one with similar military skills to avenge his death. Secondly, the Thai authorities respond quickly to any warning received from Israel, according to foreign reports. And most importantly, there has been a significant improvement in Israel's intelligence collection abilities.

Hezbollah's efforts to continue targeting Israelis are part of a pattern of action which has been going on since Mugniyah's liquidation in 2008. Since then, his authorities have been divided between at least four people. Hamiyah is one of them, and one of his jobs is to achieve Dire Revenge™.

Those same intelligence abilities which, according to the foreign press, made it possible to locate -- and assassinate -- Mugniyah likely helped thwart Hezbollah's attempt to avenge his death.

Despite a series of bold and murderous operations the Revolutionary Guards sought to execute together with Mugniyah's successors -- which included abducting Israelis, bombing Israeli offices abroad, targeting Chabad emissaries and Israeli tourists -- almost all were foiled in time.

It was only in one case that Hassan Nasrallah's men had the upper hand: In the terror attack in Burgas. In July 2012, a suicide bomber sent by Hezbollah succeeded in blowing himself up on a bus carrying Israeli tourists at the Bulgarian resort city's airport.

The corpse count was heavy: Six dead and 30 injured. It's a terrible price, but the Hezbollah men, who have not let go of their fatal schemes for a minute in the past few years, had sought a much higher corpse count.

The criminal masterminds of the Burgas attack are now on trial in Bulgaria. The affair, which refuses to be forgotten, still causes great embarrassment for the terror organization.

Nonetheless, the recent arrests in Thailand prove that Nasrallah's list of priorities has not changed: His desire to achieve Dire Revenge™ and target Israelis is still bigger than his sensitivity towards the public opinion and international law.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/23/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Home Front: Culture Wars
Steyn: Happy Erf Day
In his Guardian column this week, our old friend George Monbiot argued persuasively that poverty made people happier: "In southern Ethiopia, for example," wrote George, "the poorest half of the poorest nation on earth, the streets and fields crackle with laughter. In homes constructed from packing cases and palm leaves, people engage more freely, smile more often, express more affection than we do behind our double glazing, surrounded by remote controls."

He's so right. That's why I'm glad I made the effort to attend the opening gala of the Earth Summit, truly a night to remember. The banqueting suite of Johannesburg's Michelangelo Hotel was packed as Bob Mugabe warmed up the crowd with a few gags: "I don't know about you," he said, "but I'm starving..." With his usual brilliant comic timing, he paused just long enough. "...millions of people!"

The canned laughter - an authentic recording of happy Ethiopian peasants clutching their bellies and corpsing - filled the room.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/23/2014 09:29 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Told one of my Lib co-workers that I burned a tractor tire in celebration of the day. Doubt that I'll be getting a "Holiday Card" this year.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/23/2014 21:32 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
3Govt of Pakistan
3al-Qaeda
2TTP
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2Arab Spring
2Jamaat-e-Islami
2Palestinian Authority
2Taliban
1Hezbollah
1Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant
1al-Qaeda in Europe
1MUJAO
1Commies
1Ansar al-Sharia
1Govt of Syria

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2014-04-23
  Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
Tue 2014-04-22
  33 killed, dozens injured in terrorist attacks across Iraq
Mon 2014-04-21
  30 'Qaida' Suspects Killed in Yemen Drone Strike
Sun 2014-04-20
  Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Sat 2014-04-19
  Drone Kills 15 'Qaida', 3 Civilians in Yemen
Fri 2014-04-18
  Afghan woman MP shot in Kabul
Thu 2014-04-17
  Al-Nusra Chief Killed by Rivals in Syria
Wed 2014-04-16
  Deputy Minister Kidnapped in Kabul
Tue 2014-04-15
  Twin bomb blasts kill 71, injure 124 in Nigeria
Mon 2014-04-14
  Boko Haram massacres students, kills 200 others in Borno
Sun 2014-04-13
  Gunmen storm 'pro-govt' Pak village, kidnap 100 men
Sat 2014-04-12
  ISIS on retreat in Deir al-Zor after surprise attack
Fri 2014-04-11
  5 Killed as Houthis Press 'Advance' on Yemen Capital
Thu 2014-04-10
  Baloch separatists claim Islamabad terror attack; 24 killed
Wed 2014-04-09
  Netanyahu instructs government ministries to cease cooperation with Palestinians

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