Xtra Mile Recordings are excited to announce that they will present a fantastic three-band bill on Wednesday 20 September 2017 at Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany.
Taking place at the infamous Kaiserkeller venue, Xtra Mile Recordings will showcase some of the best talent on the roster with folk-punk sextet Skinny Lister headlining the evening with touring pals Beans on Toast and Will Varley bringing the bill to boiling point. Each artist's live credentials are impeccable. There will also be a limited t-shirt and poster for the night, on sale at the venue. Take a look at the lineup and buy tickets here.
Xtra Mile has been increasing its profile in Germany, currently its third biggest market, with more airplay, building record sales and most of its roster now touring the country regularly. In the past year, and next couple of months, Frank Turner, Against Me!, Counterfeit. (nominated for Best Live Act at the Association of Independent Music Awards 2017), Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., Skinny Lister, Beans on Toast, Will Varley, Ducking Punches, Rob Lynch and Seán McGowan have toured or will play Germany. Curating a stage at Reeperbahn represents another step towards a closer connection with the German music market.
Skinny Lister have been on a constant tear since the year began, from a European tour with the Dropkick Murphys to a US stint in March with Flogging Molly, before a widespread UK tour. They've played Glastonbury among other festivals in Europe, and will return to Hamburg with Beans on Toast on Halloween (31 October) during a headline European tour. They end the year with a massive UK co-headline tour with Beans on Toast, ending at Camden's Koko in London on 10 December.
Beans on Toast hasn't stopped all year either. He kicked off 2017 with a New Year's Day show, joined the Flogging Molly Salty Dog Cruise, toured Germany (including a sold out show in Hamburg). In May he played UK pubs the entire month and has played over 22 festivals this summer including Glastonbury. He will also release his ninth studio album in nine years on his birthday, 1 December.
Will Varley spent mid-January supporting Frank Turner on a big North America and Canada tour. He played a few German dates on a European tour with Valerie June in the spring before returning to the US to support Lincoln Durham throughout May. He heads back into the studio after the Xtra Mile Reeperbahn showcase to record his third album in three years before playing his headline UK tour in January and February 2018 taking in London's Shepherd's Bush Empire.
And of course, all three played the Frank Turner's AIM (Association of Independent Music) Award-nominated Lost Evenings festival, across four nights at Camden's legendary Roundhouse back in May.
Reeperbahn Festival, established in 2006, is a four-day music festival and business to business industry conference for music and digital spread across venues in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg, Germany.
You can also stream 'Broad Street', the first single to be taken from the album, here.
PJ Bond has been compared to Elliot Smith, Micah P Hinson, and Wilco, while his new album reveals all the bombast and ambition of someone who has listened to a fair amount of Dylan or Springsteen, and dreamed. He's spent years travelling and playing to everyone he could, essentially homeless, while recording a heap of songs, including for the breakout solo release, You Didn't Know I Was Alphabetical.
His lyrics cover topics that lace the modern musical lexicon – love, loss, friendship, family, and music. But you've also got a wink and nod to infidelity and murder on 'Everglades', while '87 Broadcast' (which revolves around his "complex relationship with music, 'making it', songs, connecting with other people") boasts the refrain 'the radio makes you honest'.
Xtra Mile and PJ Bond were introduced by labelmate Billy the Kid, when Billy put forward 'I'm In a Bad Way' for Xtra Mile's fifth Xtra Mile High Club compilation, which included unsigned artists picked by the entire XMR roster. It was such a good choice, and fit with the label so well, that releasing the record seemed inevitable.
We couldn't agree more, and we're happy to have him.
Singer-songwriter Rob Lynch has announced his next single 'Whiskey', which you can listen to below, and will be released through Xtra Mile Recordings on 22 September 2014. The track is taken from his forthcoming debut album All These Nights In Bars Will Somehow Save My Soul.
Always one to focus on the positives, Rob's debut album is full of potential singalong favourites, despite its often weighty and emotionally-driven content. He's currently inciting such singalongs on the whole of the Vans Warped Tour in the US and will follow this rigorous bout of touring up with a full UK and European tour throughout September and October. You can get tickets here.
He'll also play a special free entry show on the album release date in his adopted hometown of London. In addition, Rob has just been announced to play Hevy Fest on the acoustic stage as part of their pre-festival Thursday night line-up. So, plenty of chances to learn words and sing with everyone!
Following the release of their fourth album Famous Graves. Michigan trio come to the UK and Europe in November to tour with Joyce Manor. Tickets go on sale Friday, 25 July 2014.
Famous Graves, their first album for Xtra Mile Recordings, has been described as "a collection of good. honest punk jams for us all to enjoy" by Rock Sound, and Kerrang! said "(it) will entertain you, your mum and your 70-year old grandma all at the same time….they rock in all the right places".
We hope this trip makes good use of the first meaning!


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The rear edge of the German battle zone along the ridge, had been reinforced with machine-gun posts and the German divisional commanders decided to hold the front line, rather than giving ground elastically and few of the Eingreif divisions were needed to intervene in the battle. In 1939 Wynne wrote that the French lost 117,000 casualties including 32,000 killed in the first few days but that the effect on military and civilian morale was worse than the casualties. In the 1939 volume of Der Weltkrieg, the German official historians recorded German losses to the end of June as 163,000 men including 37,000 missing and claimed French casualties of 250,000–300,000 men, including 10,500 taken prisoner. In 1962, G. W. L. Nicholson the Canadian Official Historian, recorded German losses of c. 163,000 and French casualties of 187,000 men.[43] A 2003 web publication gave 108,000 French casualties, 49,526 in the Fifth Army, 30,296 casualties in the Sixth Army, 4,849 in the Tenth Army, 2,169 in the Fourth Army and 1,486 in the Third Army. In 2005, Doughty quoted figures of 134,000 French casualties on the Aisne from 16–25 April, of whom 30,000 men were killed, 100,000 were wounded and 4,000 were taken prisoner; the rate of casualties was the worst since November 1914. From 16 April – 10 May the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth armies took 28,500 prisoners and 187 guns. The advance of the Sixth Army was one of the largest made by a French army since trench warfare began. The Battle of La Malmaison (Bataille de la Malmaison) (23–27 October) led to the capture of the village and fort of La Malmaison and control of the Chemin des Dames ridge. The 7th Army commander Boehn, was not able to establish a defence in depth along the Chemin-de-Dames, because the ridge was a hog's back and the only alternative was to retire north of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. The German artillery was outnumbered about 3:1 and on the front of the 14th Division 32 German batteries were bombarded by 125 French artillery batteries. Much of the German artillery was silenced before the French attack. Gas bombardments in the Ailette valley became so dense that the carriage of ammunition and supplies to the front was made impossible. German retreat from the Chemin des Dames, November 1917 From 24–25 October the XXI and XIV corps advanced rapidly and the I Cavalry Corps was brought forward into the XIV Corps area, in case the Germans collapsed. On 25 October the French captured the village and forest of Pinon and closed up to the line of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. In four days the attack had advanced 6 miles (9.7 km) and forced the Germans from the narrow plateau of the Chemin des Dames, back to the north bank of the Ailette Valley. The French took 11,157 prisoners, 200 guns and 220 heavy mortars. French losses were 2,241 men killed, 8,162 wounded and 1,460 missing from 23–26 October, 10 percent of the casualties of the attacks during the Nivelle Offensive.
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以下のとおりお答えします。字数が制限をオーバーしたようですので、2回に分けて送信します。 (回答その1) >The rear edge of the German battle zone along the ridge, had been reinforced with machine-gun posts and the German divisional commanders decided to hold the front line, rather than giving ground elastically and few of the Eingreif divisions were needed to intervene in the battle. In 1939 Wynne wrote that the French lost 117,000 casualties including 32,000 killed in the first few days but that the effect on military and civilian morale was worse than the casualties. ⇒尾根に沿った交戦地帯の端に展開するドイツ軍後衛部が、機関銃哨戒陣地によって補強されたことで、ドイツ軍師団長は弾力的に退くことよりはむしろ最前線を占拠することに決めたので、アイングライフ師団にとって戦いに介入するのに必要な兵士は少数でよくなった。1939年にウィンは、フランス軍が最初の数日に死亡者32,000人を含む117,000人の犠牲者を失ったが、それは犠牲者数より軍人や一般人の士気に対する悪影響が大であった、と書いた。 >In the 1939 volume of Der Weltkrieg, the German official historians recorded German losses to the end of June as 163,000 men including 37,000 missing and claimed French casualties of 250,000–300,000 men, including 10,500 taken prisoner. In 1962, G. W. L. Nicholson the Canadian Official Historian, recorded German losses of c. 163,000 and French casualties of 187,000 men.[43] A 2003 web publication gave 108,000 French casualties, 49,526 in the Fifth Army, 30,296 casualties in the Sixth Army, 4,849 in the Tenth Army, 2,169 in the Fourth Army and 1,486 in the Third Army. ⇒1939年、世界大戦関係の数値についてドイツの公報史家が、6月の終わりまでのドイツ軍の損失として、37,000人の行方不明を含めて兵員163,000人の犠牲者数を記録し、フランス軍の犠牲者を、捕縛された10,500人の囚人を含めて250,000–300,000人であったと断言した。1962年、カナダの公式歴史家G.W.L.ニコルソンは、ドイツ軍の損失を約163,000人、フランス軍の犠牲者を187,000人と記録した。2003年のウェブ発表では、フランス軍の犠牲者は108,000人で、そのうち第5方面軍で49,526人、第6方面軍で30,296人、第10方面軍で4,849人、第4方面軍で2,169人、第3方面軍で1,486人という数値を示した。 >In 2005, Doughty quoted figures of 134,000 French casualties on the Aisne from 16–25 April, of whom 30,000 men were killed, 100,000 were wounded and 4,000 were taken prisoner; the rate of casualties was the worst since November 1914. From 16 April – 10 May the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Tenth armies took 28,500 prisoners and 187 guns. The advance of the Sixth Army was one of the largest made by a French army since trench warfare began. The Battle of La Malmaison (Bataille de la Malmaison) (23–27 October) led to the capture of the village and fort of La Malmaison and control of the Chemin des Dames ridge. ⇒2005年、ドーティは4月16–25日の間エーンにおけるフランス軍の犠牲者の数値は134,000人で、そのうち30,000人が死亡、100,000人が負傷、そして、4,000人が捕虜になった、という数値を引合いに出した。犠牲者の率は、1914年11月以来最悪であった。4月16日–5月10日の間、第4、第5、第6、第10方面軍は、28,500人の囚人と187門の銃砲を捕縛した。第6方面軍の進軍は、塹壕戦が始まって以来フランス軍によって行われた進軍のうち最大級の1つであった。「ラ・マルメゾンの戦い」(10月23–27日)は、ラ・マルメゾン村と砦の攻略、およびシュマン・デ・ダム尾根の制御に至った。 >The 7th Army commander Boehn, was not able to establish a defence in depth along the Chemin-de-Dames, because the ridge was a hog's back and the only alternative was to retire north of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. The German artillery was outnumbered about 3:1 and on the front of the 14th Division 32 German batteries were bombarded by 125 French artillery batteries. Much of the German artillery was silenced before the French attack. Gas bombardments in the Ailette valley became so dense that the carriage of ammunition and supplies to the front was made impossible. ⇒第7方面軍の指揮官ベーンは、シュマン・デ・ダムに沿って広範の防御を行うことができなかった。その尾根が豚背丘(とんぱいきゅう、切り立った山の瀬)で、唯一の選択肢はオワーズからエーンに至る運河の北に退却することしかなかったからである。ドイツ軍砲兵隊は3対1の数的劣勢で、第14師団の前線では、ドイツ軍の32個砲兵中隊がフランス軍の125個砲兵中隊によって攻撃された。ドイツ軍砲兵隊の多くは、フランス軍の攻撃の前に沈黙した。エレット渓谷でのガス爆撃は濃厚すぎて、前線への弾薬や供給品の運搬が不可能になったほどであった。
(回答その2) >German retreat from the Chemin des Dames, November 1917 From 24–25 October the XXI and XIV corps advanced rapidly and the I Cavalry Corps was brought forward into the XIV Corps area, in case the Germans collapsed. On 25 October the French captured the village and forest of Pinon and closed up to the line of the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. In four days the attack had advanced 6 miles (9.7 km) and forced the Germans from the narrow plateau of the Chemin des Dames, back to the north bank of the Ailette Valley. The French took 11,157 prisoners, 200 guns and 220 heavy mortars. French losses were 2,241 men killed, 8,162 wounded and 1,460 missing from 23–26 October, 10 percent of the casualties of the attacks during the Nivelle Offensive. ⇒シュマン・デ・ダムからのドイツ軍の撤退(1917年11月) 10月24–25日、第XXI、第XIV軍団は素早く進軍して、ドイツ軍が崩壊する場合に備えて、第I騎兵軍団が第XIV軍団地域に送り出された。10月25日、フランス軍はピノンの村と森を攻略して、オワーズからエーンに至る運河を封鎖した。4日間で、攻撃は6マイル(9.7キロ)前進して、ドイツ軍をシュマン・デ・ダムの狭い台地からエレット渓谷の北岸へ押し戻した。フランス軍は、11,157人の囚人、200丁の銃と220門の重迫撃砲を捕縛した。10月23–26日のフランス軍の損失は、2,241人の死亡、8,162人の負傷、1,460人の行方不明で、犠牲者率は「ニヴェーユ攻撃」の間の10%であった。
Mason wrote in 2000 that there had been 378,000 French and 337,000 German casualties. In 2003, Clayton quoted 330,000 German casualties, of whom 143,000 were killed or missing and 351,000 French losses, 56,000 killed, 100,000 missing or prisoners and 195,000 wounded. Writing in 2005, Doughty gave French casualties at Verdun, from 21 February to 20 December 1916 as 377,231 men of 579,798 losses at Verdun and the Somme; 16 percent of Verdun casualties were known to have been killed, 56 percent wounded and 28 percent missing, many of whom were eventually presumed dead. Doughty wrote that other historians had followed Churchill (1927) who gave a figure of 442,000 casualties by mistakenly including all French losses on the Western Front. (In 2014, Philpott recorded 377,000 French casualties, of whom 162,000 men had been killed, German casualties were 337,000 men and a recent estimate of casualties at Verdun from 1914 to 1918 was 1,250,000 men).
The états numériques des pertes give French losses in a range from 348,000 to 378,000 and in 1930, Wendt recorded French Second Army and German 5th Army casualties of 362,000 and 336,831 respectively, from 21 February to 20 December, not taking account of the inclusion or exclusion of lightly wounded. In 2006, McRandle and Quirk used the Sanitätsbericht to adjust the Verlustlisten by an increase of c. 11 percent, which gave a total of 373,882 German casualties, compared to the French Official History record by 20 December 1916, of 373,231 French losses. A German record from the Sanitätsbericht, which explicitly excluded lightly wounded, compared German losses at Verdun in 1916, which averaged 37.7 casualties for each 1,000 men, with the 9th Army in Poland 1914 average of 48.1 per 1,000, the 11th Army average in Galicia 1915 of 52.4 per 1,000 men, the 1st Army Somme 1916 average of 54.7 per 1,000 and the 2nd Army average on the Somme of 39.1 per 1,000 men.
日本語訳をお願いいたします。
In The World Crisis, Winston Churchill used figures from French parliamentary records of 1920, to give French casualties from 5 August to 5 September 1914 of 329,000 killed, wounded and missing, German casualties from August to November of 677,440 men and British casualties in August and September of 29,598 men. By the end of August, the French Army had suffered 75,000 dead, of whom 27,000 were killed on 22 August. French casualties for the first month of the war were 260,000, of which 140,000 occurred during the last four days of the Battle of the Frontiers. In 2009, Herwig recorded that the casualties in the 6th Army in August were 34,598, with 11,476 men killed and 28,957 in September with 6,687 men killed. The 7th Army had 32,054 casualties in August, with 10,328 men killed and 31,887 casualties in September with 10,384 men killed. In the 1st Army in August there were 19,980 casualties including 2,863 men killed and in the 2nd Army 26,222 casualties. In the last ten days of August, the 1st Army had 9,644 casualties and the 2nd Army had losses of 15,693 men. Herwig wrote that the French army did not publish formal casualty lists but that the Official History Les armées françaises dans la grande guerre gave losses of 206,515 men for August and 213,445 for September. During the battle, French casualties were c. 260,000 men, of whom c. 75,000 men were killed.
A German counter-attack on 20 August, forced separate battles on the French armies, which were defeated and forced to retreat in disorder. The German pursuit was slow and Castelnau was able to occupy positions east of Nancy and extend the right wing towards the south, to regain touch with the First Army. During 22 August, the right flank was attacked and driven back 25 kilometres (16 mi) from the position that the offensive had begun on 14 August. The First Army withdrew but managed to maintain contact with the Second Army. Between 24–26 August, both French armies repelled the German offensive at the Trouée de Charmes and subsequently regained the line of 14 August by early September. Casualties In 2009, Herwig used records from the Sanitätsberichte to give 34,598 casualties in the 6th Army during August, with 11,476 dead. In the 7th Army there were 32,054 casualties in August, with 10,328 men killed.
英文翻訳をお願いします。
At Rossignol German casualties were c. 1,318 and French casualties were c. 11,277 men. The French 4th Division had c. 1,195 casualties at Bellefontaine against c. 1,920 German casualties. At Neufchâteau the 5th Colonial Brigade had c. 3,600 casualties against units of the German XVIII Reserve Corps, which lost c. 1,800 men. At Bertrix the artillery of the 33rd Division was destroyed and c. 3,181 casualties incurred, against c. 1/3 the number of German casualties, which were noted as greater than all of the casualties in the Franco-Prussian War. At Massin-Anloy, the French 22nd Division and 34th Division lost 2,240 men killed and the 34th Division was routed. German casualties in the 25th Division were c. 3,224, of whom 1,100 men were killed. At Virton the French 8th Division was "destroyed" and the 3rd Division had c. 556 casualties; German losses were c. 1,281 men. In the fighting around Éthe and Bleid, the French 7th Division lost 5,324 men and the German 10th Division had c. 1,872 casualties. At Longwy the French V Corps with the 9th and 10th divisions had c. 2,884 casualties and German units of the 26th Division lost c. 1,242 men. South of Longwy, German casualties in the 9th and 12th Reserve and 33rd divisions were c. 4,458 men against the French 12th 40th and 42nd divisions, of which the 40th Division was routed. In 2009 Herwig recorded 19,218 casualties from 21–31 August in the 4th Army and 19,017 casualties in the 5th Army. Herwig also recorded 5,500 casualties in the French 8th Division at Virton and wrote that at Ethe, the 7th Division had been "stomped". At Ochamps the 20th Infantry Regiment lost 1,300 men (50%) and the 11th InfantRy Regiment lost 2,700 of 3,300 men. The 5th Colonial Brigade lost 3,200 of 6,600 men.
The Second Battle of the Aisne (French: Bataille du Chemin des Dames or Seconde bataille de l'Aisne, 16 April – mid-May 1917) was the main part of the Nivelle Offensive, a Franco-British attempt to inflict a decisive defeat on the German armies in France. The strategy was to conduct sequenced offensives from north to south, by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and several French army groups. General Robert Nivelle planned the offensive in December 1916, after he replaced Joseph Joffre as Commander-in-Chief of the French Army. The objective of the attack on the Aisne was to capture the prominent 80 kilometres (50 mi) long, east–west ridge of the Chemin des Dames, 110 kilometres (68 mi) north-east of Paris and then attack northwards to capture the city of Laon. When the French armies met the British advancing from the Arras front, the Germans would be pursued towards Belgium and the German frontier. The offensive began on 9 April, when the British attacked at the Battle of Arras. On 16 April, the Groupe d'armées de Reserve (GAR) attacked the Chemin des Dames and the next day, the Fourth Army of Groupe d'armées de Centre (GAC), near Reims to the south-east, began the Battle of the Hills.
Sheffield wrote that the losses were "appalling", with 419,000 British casualties, c. 204,000 French and perhaps 600,000 German casualties. In a commentary on the debate about Somme casualties, Philpott used Miles's figures of 419,654 British casualties and the French official figures of 154,446 Sixth Army losses and 48,131 Tenth Army casualties. German losses were described as "disputed", ranging from 400,000–680,000. Churchill's claims were a "snapshot" of July 1916 and not representative of the rest of the battle. Philpott called the "blood test" a crude measure compared to manpower reserves, industrial capacity, farm productivity and financial resources and that intangible factors were more influential on the course of the war.
In May, Falkenhayn estimated that the French had lost 525,000 men against 250,000 German casualties and that the French strategic reserve had been reduced to 300,000 troops. Actual French losses were c. 130,000 by 1 May and the Noria system had enabled 42 divisions to be withdrawn and rested, when their casualties reached 50 percent. Of the 330 infantry battalions of the French metropolitan army, 259 (78 percent) went to Verdun, against 48 German divisions, 25 percent of the Westheer (western army). Afflerbach wrote that 85 French divisions fought at Verdun and that from February to August, the ratio of German to French losses was 1:1.1, not the third of French losses assumed by Falkenhayn. By 31 August, 5th Army losses were 281,000 and French casualties numbered 315,000 men.
The Chemin des Dames ridge had been quarried for stone for centuries, leaving a warren of caves and tunnels which were used as shelters by German troops to escape the French bombardment. The offensive met massed German machine-gun and artillery fire, which inflicted many casualties and repulsed the French infantry at many points. The French still achieved some substantial tactical successes and took c. 29,000 prisoners in their attacks on the Chemin des Dames and in Champagne but failed to achieve their strategic objective of a decisive defeat over the Germans. The failure had a traumatic effect on the morale of the French army and many divisions mutinied. Nivelle was superseded by General Philippe Pétain, who adopted a strategy of "healing and defence"; on 19 May Pétain issued Directive No 1 for limited offensives, intended to resume the wearing-out of the German Army while conserving French infantry. The new French strategy was not one of passive defence. In June and July the Fourth, Sixth and Tenth Armies managed to conduct several limited attacks and the First Army was sent to Flanders to participate in the Third Battle of Ypres.
Much of the new digging on the rest of the Western Front was done on reverse slopes, invisible to ground observers and capable of being engaged only by howitzer-fire. The French methods of attack had been made obsolete by the time of the resumption of the offensive in September 1915, when many French troops were killed on such slopes, in front of uncut wire, before an undamaged second position. French sources put casualties from 3 May to 18 June at 102,500 of whom 35,000 men were killed; another 37,500 casualties were incurred in secondary operations. The German official historians of the Reichsarchiv recorded c. 102,500 French casualties from 9 May –to18 June, 32,000 British casualties and 73,072 German casualties. Sheldon recorded the same figures for French casualties, quoting the French Official History and c. 30,000 casualties for the German divisions most involved in the battle (1st and 5th Bavarian Reserve divisions, 3rd Bavarian, 5th, 11th, 15th, 16th and 115th divisions) noting that some figures are estimates believed to be too low but that the total was far fewer than French losses. In 2013 Krause recorded ranges of 100,000–121,000 French and 50,000–80,000 German casualties. The battle had great influence on the French army during the preparations for the autumn offensive of 1915 in Champagne and Artois, which were also based on an assumption that strategic victories were possible after one or two days of offensive action. Joffre ordered another 5,500 machine-guns, to double the number per brigade by 1 January 1916. Production of the 240 mm Trench Mortar (240 mm (9.4 in)) and 340 mm (13 in) trench mortar was increased and manufacture began of artillerie lourde à grande puissance (ALGP, long range heavy guns); production of 75 mm ammunition was reduced to increase quality and large orders were placed for aircraft and for gas shells. The growth of French war production by September 1915, enabled the French to attack in two places simultaneously. At the end of June, Joffre discussed strategy with the army group commanders and Pétain, who had been promoted to the command of the Second Army. Foch again advocated a series of limited attacks, particularly in Artois where strategically important railways were relatively close behind the German lines.[j] Castelnau believed that it was still possible to advance through the German defences in one attack and that Champagne was a likely region for such an attempt, if the mistakes made on 9 May could be avoided. Pétain agreed with Foch but doubted that another offensive could quickly be prepared in Artois and was sceptical that any part of the Western Front was free of villages like Souchez and Neuville, which could be fortified and against which, only attacks even more limited than those advocated by Foch were practical. On 8 July, Joffre decided to make the principal attack in Champagne, with a supporting attack in Artois a few days earlier to attract German reserves.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Importance of PRO-Afro Films – BLOOD and WATER on NETFLIX
By Haute People May 29, 2020
I remember watching TV as a young girl and would only see one ethnicity –White! Certainly, this could not be the only people on TV as there were more people in the world. As my "TV watching" went on there were a few more Black people who would occasionally appear on screen but they played the same role —"Angry Black Woman", "Side Mistress", "Poor Black Man" or the most stereotypical role "Black Man in Jail". Even more, time went on and as I became a Teenager my network of choice was Nickelodeon where I was introduced to diversity without even knowing it.
Sure the network was predominantly White but they introduced different types of Teens and their struggles and their cultural norms. I was introduced to "The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo" that starred an Asian Teen Detective who lived with her grandfather who happened to be "Mr. Miyagi" from The Karate Kid and also "Taina" which was centered around a Latina Teen living in New York with dreams of stardom and how could I forget "My Cousin Skeeter" with a predominantly Black Cast. There was also "All That", which had a melting pot of kids from many races –Kenan and Kel and The Nick Cannon Show. Those days were good as we were all represented! Fast-forward to today when we are suddenly all "woke" yet #lowkey still asleep and we have somehow become invisible and less represented on TV or typecast as the stereotypical roles of "yesteryears".
BLOOD AND WATER ON NETFLIX
When I got the notification of a new show, at first I wasn't interested until Netflix sent that second email "Blood and Water" is out. I clicked and within a few hours, I watched the entire season.
The Premise
After crossing paths at a party, a Cape Town teen sets out to prove whether a private-school swimming star is her sister who was abducted at birth.
The show is set in Cape Town but this heavily relied on the different languages and the cultural norms and the scenic view displayed throughout the film. The show opens with a birthday party being celebrated for a 17-year-old girl but it was later revealed this girl was abducted from the hospital shortly after birth and the story is set! I commend the way the story was told at the beginning and how it progressed to make things so realistic. Most Netflix films have a way of creating mystery from the 1st episode and you have to keep watching all the way to the final episode to know the truth. This is not that show! You know right away what's up and you are still intrigued to see what happens because of the stellar storytelling of the writers.
The Importance of Family
This series is important as it puts diversity and African Culture back on the map though it's one of the largest Continent and very hard to not be seen. It paints the picture of Africa in a positive light as it features teens of an affluent background and showcases the family structure in a positive light. The lead character Puleng is the second of three children and though they have their struggles, the family sits down to dinner each night and she is close to her younger brother. They have a normal nuclear structure where the parents are of the working-class and the children go to regular public schools. South Africa, in this case, is not seen as a place of poverty or unsafe but a City of hope where one can live and work comfortably.
Important Themes
We also see the popular theme "Woman in Society" through her Mom referred to as " Mama" and sometimes " Ummi " as she becomes the matriarch of the family when her Husband lives separate from the family until things settle down. She cares for her two children and ensures she is their source of refuge and is open to conversation when necessary and she ensures her daughter could afford private school through a loan she acquires through the bank. This is quite different from other typical teenage shows as the parents seem to live on a planet by themselves and the children are disrespectful and delinquent and often getting into trouble.
Family is the hallmark of this series as no matter what happens, they come together as a unit in good and bad cases as seen in the various family structures.
Blood and Water is Netflix's second original African series and certainly won't be the last!
I would highly recommend watching this series!
Leave your comments below to let me know how you like the series.
#Blood and Water on Netflix
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Maris Budnick 7 months ago	 Reply
This was a really wonderful article. Many thanks for providing this information.
vonhaus aerator 4 months ago	 Reply
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Today we're going to look at how you can build your own bond ladder. Is this a good option for private investors?
Me and bond ladders go way back.
In 2006 and 2007 I was looking to diversify away from stocks as I approached retirement age (I was 45 at the time – I've always been a long-term thinker).
The bond yields on offer then were pretty good – around 5%+.
I didn't know much about bonds at the time so I started to study.
I got weekly updates from a website that I think was Investors Intelligence (I haven't visited for many years and the site looks very different today).
Then the credit crunch hit, and interest rates went down, and so did bond yields.
I forgot about my ladder.
The IF-ISA will allow you invest your ISA allowance on a P2P lending platform (Funding Circle and Zopa are the two that I've seen announcements from, but I'm sure that many more are on the way).
Me and P2P go way back, as well.
I even applied for a Consumer Credit Licence so that I could lend through my limited company, which helped with tax planning.
But again, when the credit crunch hit, I got cold feet. I thought that there would be lots of defaults.
I didn't see seven years of historically low interest rates coming.
I still like the idea of P2P lending (but not crowdfunding, which is very risky equity investment in tiny firms).
P2P cuts out an expensive middleman, and there should be decent returns available.
But the credit risk (counterparty risk) is still there, waiting for interest rates to eventually rise.
And the massive expansion of the sector since I first got involved means that the people taking out loans today are necessarily of lower credit quality.
So I'm basically looking at a bond ladder in the context of P2P lending.
Can we get the same returns as P2P at lower risk?
Most people approach bonds through funds or ETFs.
Once upon a time, that used to be a reasonable approach, but with yields this low the management fees on funds will eat up quite a bit of the yield.
So it's worth looking at the idea of buying your own bonds directly.
this is not a bad time to be buying.
Bengt's article reminded me that since I last looked, the London Stock Exchange has introduced the "order book for retail bonds" (ORB).
This is a platform aimed at private investors.
It lists a sub-section of company and UK government bonds that can be traded through normal stock-brokers in deal sizes appropriate to PIs.
In general corporate bonds are aimed at institutions and trade in eg. £50K blocks.
The ORB bonds can be held in an ISA or a SIPP, so the income is tax-free.
Now for a quick sketch of how bonds work.
The way to deal with both of these is to build a bond ladder.
A bond ladder is a set of bonds which mature at different points in the future.
You stagger the maturities so that the proceeds can be reinvested at regular intervals.
Each of the holdings has the same weight in the portfolio.
Let's say that your portfolio is large enough to fit ten bonds (at a deal size where commissions aren't too painful).
Then you might decide to hold one bond per year stretching out for 10 years into the future.
Or you might decide to hold bonds that mature every six months and a ladder that only stretches five years into the future.
These are idealised designs, and your actual ladder will depend on what maturity dates are available from which providers.
As each bond matures, you use the proceeds to buy a new bond at the far end of the ladder.
So it's more like a conveyor belt of bonds constantly moving towards you.
See also: Peer-to-peer lending - time to build a portfolio?
The bond ladder protects against credit risk through diversification, in the same way that a fund or an ETF would.
Note that since you are re-investing the proceeds of each maturing bond, there are still long-term impacts from interest rate rises (up or down) on the prices of the new bonds that you buy.
what yields and YTMs are available?
do we like the credit risk of the issuers?
will we use government or corporate bonds, or a mix?
how long do we want the ladder to stretch in the future for?
how many bond ("rungs") do we want on our ladder?
Here's Bengt's model portfolio from February 2016, designed around a £15K ISA investment.
With luck, your SIPP / ISA broker will charge you the same dealing commission for ORB bonds as he does for stocks.
This means that deals around £2K are practical and Bengt has gone for 7 bonds.
At first glance, the spread of issuers looks good (apart from the doubling up on property firms).
The yield to maturity of 5.2% is also attractive.
Bengt has gone for a large spread of maturities, from 4 to 20 years, with an average of close to 10 years.
I might not stretch things out this much with seven bonds, depending on what alternatives are available.
I'd also want to do a bit more digging about the credit-worthiness of the firms involved.
But as a proof of concept, it looks pretty good.
I'll be back next week with a closer look at the ORB platform and the bonds on it, a look at how to evaluate credit risk, and my own model bond ladder.
I'll also look at the practicalities of constructing an ORB bond ladder using my existing brokers, and check out the term maturity iBonds from BlackRock.
For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.


text:
Spending and the deficit
There is a lot of information floating around out there, but I just got these charts from my Congressman, Mike Capuano, and I wanted to share them.
The statistics and chart below will prove two points despite any rhetoric to the contrary:
Federal spending is headed towards the lowest share of GDP in memory;
The federal government is making great progress towards reducing our annual deficit.
A Note about Federal Spending
If you listen only to a few talking heads you might think that the federal government is engaged in a spending frenzy. That is actually not the case. In fact, our government is currently spending LESS than it did in 1974 on discretionary spending programs, the year that detailed economic records were first compiled.
We all know that a dollar doesn't go as far as it once did – so measuring any spending over a 40 year period demands adjustment. One way to do this is to look at government spending as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The chart below with data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) illustrates that in 1974, federal government spending under the Nixon Administration equaled 9.3% of ALL spending in the country (the GDP). Discretionary spending peaked in 1983 under the Reagan Administration at 10% of GDP. The most recent figures show that federal spending last year under President Obama fell to just 7.2% of GDP and is estimated to decline even further over the next several years.
Historically, the lowest level of discretionary government spending in the last 40 years occurred in 1999 under the Clinton Administration, and it rose steadily from 6.1% to 7.7% during the George W. Bush Administration.
The point I am trying to make is that it is important to keep federal spending in perspective. Your federal government today is spending a much smaller share than President Reagan ever did and more spending cuts are coming. Many of us think it is long past time to face reality and truly consider the future of our country. Do we want good roads? Do we want good schools? If the answer is yes, then it's time to start paying for them.
At this point in our nation's history, we should be investing again in our future. Our economy is improving and the federal budget has stabilized. The notion that federal spending is out of control just isn't accurate. Take a look at the chart (or click here for a larger version) and table below, which illustrate my argument:
Discretionary Outlays Since 1974
as % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Nondefense
Nixon 1974
Carter 1977
Reagan 1981
Clinton 1993
GW Bush 2001
Obama 2014 EST
2017 EST
Sources: Cong Budget Office; Office of Management and Budget
The Federal Deficit
We have heard a lot of talk about the federal deficit. The chart belowshows the amount of the annual deficit, or in some cases, surplus,generated by the federal government. There are many ways to interpret these statistics and I would like to offer a few comments.
You can see there have been only four years since 1974 wherea surplus was generated– the last three years under PresidentClinton and the first year under PresidentGW Bush. One could argue that the 2001 surplus should be credited to Clinton policies – butI will leave that aside. However, it is clear that the federal governmentstarted regenerating deficits under Bush policies – most notably his first tax cut in 2001 (before the 9/11 attack). Certainly, the terrorist attacks on September 11th and the country's decision to engage in Afghanistan impacted the economy. However,the federal government made a conscious decision to turn away from fiscal discipline BEFORE September 11th.
One can quickly notice the impact of the 2008 economic crisis and our reaction to it. Regardless of how you might feel about the stimulus and the bailouts – at least it was clearwhat the short term effect would be on the federal deficit. I happen to think BOTH those actions were necessary and appropriate to save our economy from an even worse fate. Certainly the bailout should have had more teeth. Remember though it was passed under the Bush Administration so those of us calling for more teeth were drowned out.The only choice we faced was action or inaction, and we chose action. I also believe that the stimulus should have been more targeted on creating jobs. Unfortunately, Congress never has a choice between perfect options – it is always a choice between imperfect plans. I understand thatmost people have formed pretty strongopinionsabout the actions that the government took and I will let history decide whether those actions were appropriate.
Since the economic crisis in 2008, the federal government has been making significant and steady progress towards reducing our annual deficit. The average deficit over the 43 years covered by this table equals 3.1% of the GDP. This chart doesn't show it, but by the end of the Obama Administration it will be below that historic average. Remember, absolute numbers like these only tell a portion of the story.
My final note on this is historic. This chart shows the deficits and surpluses under 20 years of Democratic Presidents and 22 years of Republican Presidents … good times and bad … war and peace. I think the most important measure is the change from one year to the next. Maybe we cannot achieve our goals in one year, but are we making progress? Based on this chart you can calculate that under Democratic Presidents, the deficit was REDUCED by an average of $22.3 billion each year … under Republican Presidents that Deficit has been INCREASED by an average of $44.5 billion each year. I'll let you decide which course is the better one.
Revenues Change %
Outlays
Outlays Change %
Total Deficit / Surplus
Change $
-1,412.7
My bottom line? Let's spend some money and create some jobs.
Post is cut and pasted from an email update from Congressman Michael Capuano. 7th CD, Massachusetts.
Posted in Budget, Economics, Economy, Politics	| Tagged Democrats, Economics, federal government, Michael Capuano, Politics, President Obama, Republicans | Leave a comment
The more things change…
the more they stay the same. I'm reading "The Mansion of Happiness" by Jill Lepore, a collection of essays arranged so they comprise a history of life and death which is the book's subtitle. Lepore is an historian and essayist. (We heard her lecture on her newest book about Jane Franklin and my husband came home and ordered all of his books.) One chapter is titled Mr. Marriage. In it, Lepore recounts a number of things including the history of marriage counseling and the history of eugenics. I bet you didn't know they were connected; I certainly didn't.
Cover of Can This Marriage Be Saved?
When I was a kid, my mother used to subscribe to the Ladies Home Journal and I would read "Can this Marriage Be Saved?". I wonder how many of my generation got some of their ideas about marriage from reading this feature. In any case, Paul Popenoe who wrote the column was the father of marriage counseling. He was also a leader in the movement to sterilize the "unfit" to prevent them from having children. Lepore writes, " He considered marriage counseling the flip side of compulsory vasectomy and tubal ligation: sterilize the unfit; urge the fit to marry." The early eugenicists were influenced by Darwin and the theory of evolution. If one could breed better plants and livestock, why not better people?
Lepore writes
…In the United States, what come to be called social Darwinism provided conservatives with an arsenal of arguments in favor of laissez-faire economic policies, against social welfare programs, and in support of Jim Crow. "The Negro", it was argued, was "nearer to the anthropoid or pre-human ancestry of men" than any other race, a living missing link; only slavery had prevented the extinction of the black American; if not for the peculiar institution, natural selection would have led to the death of the entire race.
I guess they ignored the fact that many, likely most, African-Americans had a white ancestor in the family tree. No matter, Paul Popenoe thought about 10% of the population should be sterilized. This would have been determined in part by the IQ test that was relatively new at the time and, of course, by race. In 1918, Popenoe wrote a book with Rosewell Hill Johnson titled "Applied Eugenics".
Popenoe and Johnson deemed miscegenation "biologically wrong" because "the Negro lacks in his germ-plasm excellence of some qualities which the white races possess. For poverty, Popenoe and Johnson blamed the poor, citing a study reporting that 55 percent of retarded children belonged to the laboring class. The solution to want was to sterilize the needy. Following Terman [Lewis M.], Popenoe and Johnson opposed old-age pensions, minimum-wage legislation, and child-labor laws: by helping the biologically and mentally unfit, these programs perpetuated a poor gene pool, just as slavery had protected blacks from extinction.
Echoes of the eugenicists can be heard in the current efforts of certain members of the Republican party who only wanted to fund programs they liked during the recent government shutdown. And the intense dislike, maybe hatred isn't too strong a word, of President Obama perhaps isn't just because he is black, but because he is the product of a an African father and white mother. You hear it in the effort to defund the Affordable Heath Care Act. As my husband pointed out when I was reading Lepore and ranting, Ron Paul stated during a Republican Presidential debate the if someone couldn't afford care or didn't have a policy that would be their own responsibility. (Going back to the transcript, Paul didn't actually say that person should be left to die, but that nonprofits like churches would help after the hospital provided medical care, that having health insurance should be a private decision, and provision of health care should not be a governmental responsibility. Actually, given the current state of the economy and the finances of nonprofits these day, it is the equivalent of letting someone die.)
I will listen to the arguments in the upcoming budget fight with great interest and I bet I will hear more echoes of Paul Popenoe. The more things change…
The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics (dawnmarie4.wordpress.com)
Festival Dispatch: Jill Lepore on the History of Privacy (newyorker.com)
Jill Lepore on the Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin (wnyc.org)
Posted in Budget, Culture, History, Human Rights, Politics	| Tagged Eugenics, Jill Lepore, Mansion of Happiness, Paul Popenoe, President Obama, Racism | Leave a comment
Moving toward the cliff
Yesterday I had lunch with a friend, a federal employee, who is not working because of the shutdown. She can't check her work email or phone messages and fears the backlog of problems that awaits her when she does get back to work. She said the only way she was fortunate was that she was not one of the essential employees who had to work anyway. We speculated on how people will get to work if October moves to November and people's monthly transit passes run out. Will they be expected to shell out money they don't have to get to a job they aren't paid for? All her friends can do is to buy her lunch. Fast forward 24 hours and we still have no deal. Even if the Senate comes up with a solution it is not clear if 1) the House will even vote on it and 2) if they do, if this is just another short term postponement. All my friend hopes is that the next deadline is past the holidays and that there is back pay.
I was trying to find some humor in the whole situation, but find that I actually feel very sorry for John Boehner. John Cassidy posted this for the New Yorker.
Give the Republicans on Capitol Hill one thing: they don't leave a job half done. Evidently disturbed by polls showing Congress with a single-digit approval rating, they appear intent on driving it to zero.
What other explanation can there be for Tuesday's farcical maneuvers, which saw the House Republican leadership try and fail to seize the initiative in the debt-ceiling standoff from the Senate, in the process humiliating Speaker Boehner yet again. By the end of the day, facing renewed opposition from some of his own members, Boehner had dropped his efforts to pass a bill that would have ended the shutdown and raised the debt ceiling until February, but one with more riders than an agreement that Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, and Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, have been working on.
From the point of view of the country, that's good news. Overnight, officials representing McConnell and Reid were rushing to complete their negotiations, which were called off on Tuesday after Boehner's unwise intervention. As it stands now, the Senate agreement would reportedly fund the government until January 15th and raise the debt ceiling until February 7th, with the only concession from the Democrats being an agreement to toughen up the policing of eligibility requirements for obtaining federal subsidies to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Boehner is in a box. He can't control his own party caucus and can't turn to Democratic votes because then he would lose his Speakership. If the country goes into default, he will likely lose it anyway.
Once the Senate passes a bill and sends it to the House, the Speaker will face the unenviable choice of allowing it to pass with Democratic support or exercising the nuclear option of forcing a default. Having already ruled out this second option in public comments, there were reports on Tuesday night that Boehner was prepared to bring the Senate bill to the floor, which would probably insure its passage. That wouldn't end the budget crisis—it's never-ending—but it would put off the next showdown until the new year, whilst ensuring that the Republican ultras had gained almost precisely nothing for their willingness to shut down the government and raise the prospect of a debt default. (In another development on Tuesday, Fitch, one of the big ratings agencies, placed U.S. government debt on watch for a potential downgrade, saying that "the prolonged negotiations over raising the debt ceiling (following the episode in August 2011), risks undermining confidence in the role of the U.S. dollar as the preeminent global reserve currency by casting doubt over the full faith and credit of the U.S.")
From the point of view of the Republican Party, things have been going from bad to worse. With the party divided, its poll ratings tanking fast, and its leadership unwilling to risk an actual default, it has been clear for some time that it was in a losing position. The discussions in the past few days have been about the terms of surrender, with the White House and Reid pressing for something close to an unconditional capitulation.
So here are a few cartoons to weep at as we proceed at a Senate's slow pace, to the edge.
From Tony Auth
Tom Toles
Signe Wilkerson
And Wilkerson, again.
Can we hope that there are still some adults who won't drive us over the edge?
GAME ALMOST OVER: Boehner To Let The Senate Debt Ceiling Deal Come To The Floor (businessinsider.com)
U.S. faces debt ceiling crash at stroke of midnight (cnn.com)
John Boehner: A pathetic profile in Jell-O (salon.com)
No House votes tonight: Boehner game plan up in the air. Next move, Senate (voices.suntimes.com)
Senate leaders restart negotiations (politico.com)
Posted in Budget, Congress, Economy, Humor, Politics	| Tagged Democrats, Economics, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, Signe Wilkerson, Tea Party, Tom Toles, Tony Auth | Leave a comment
Can we send David Ortiz to the budget negotiations?
It has been a discouraging last few days with the only real bright spot being Friday (and then we went back Saturday) at Symphony Hall with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. We wanted to hear Thomas Ades, Polaris a second time and Friday night the BSO did not do Franck's Symphony in D Minor which my husband loves. But we came home Saturday night to no budget/debt ceiling deal and the Red Sox striking out, also. I often tune in to some of the Sunday news shows, but couldn't stand to hear any more Republican Congresspersons who have no clue about what the debt ceiling is much less understand any thing about the economy. One of my friends posted this on Facebook the other day
Despite their lofty status in managing American affairs, it appears to me that few Congresspersons have any meaningful understanding of how their chronic politicization of economic policies substantially degrades, perhaps permanently, the dollar's status as the global reserve currency. Evidence of the dollar's decline to a commodity status is increasingly apparent. In time, every American will feel a crippling pain that no amount of political negotiating can cure.
Given this state of things, I retreated to a game of Civilization V where I could control, more or less, my own universe until after Sunday dinner when the Red Sox could take over. But, after watching strike out after strike out with Clay Buchholz pitching sooo very slowly while getting slammed around in the sixth, I retreated. I woke up just before 6 am this morning having just had a dream that I woke up and the Sox had come back. I turned on the radio, I found that is was true!
Peter Abraham explains
In what has been a season full of memorable late-inning victories at Fenway Park, the Red Sox saved the best for when they needed it the most in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series Sunday night.
Trailing by four runs against the Detroit Tigers, the Sox tied the game on a grand slam by David Ortiz in the eighth inning then won it, 6-5, when Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled to drive in Jonny Gomes in the ninth.
The remarkable victory had the players chasing Saltalamacchia across the outfield and the sellout crowd of 38,029 chanting "Let's Go Red Sox!" as they left Fenway.
"When you back us into a wall, you either do two things: cave or fight. We're gonna fight," Dustin Pedroia said.
That wall was hard to get over. The Sox had scored one run through the 16 innings in the series, going 3 for 51 at the plate with 30 strikeouts. Detroit starter Max Scherzer allowed one run on two hits over seven innings and struck out 13.
And then.
Will Middlebrooks doubled to left field off Jose Veras to start the rally. Then Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk off Drew Smyly.
Al Albuquerque was next out of the Detroit bullpen. He struck out Shane Victorino for the second out, but Pedroia singled to right. Third base coach Brian Butterfield held Middlebrooks, wanting to make sure Ortiz got his chance.
Ortiz swung at the first pitch, a changeup away, and was strong enough to pull it into the Red Sox bullpen in right field for his first career postseason grand slam and the fourth in Red Sox history.
Right fielder Torii Hunter tumbled over the wall trying to make a catch as Boston police officer Steve Horgan raised his arms in joy. Bullpen catcher Mani Martinez, who was warming up Koji Uehara, casually turned and caught the ball.
It was bedlam at Fenway and the crowd kept cheering until Ortiz emerged from the dugout and tipped his helmet to them.
"My idea wasn't to go out and hit a grand slam," Ortiz said. "If I was telling you about thinking about hitting a grand slam, I'd be lying to you now."
A hero of postseasons past, David Ortiz rounds third base — as the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera looks on — to a standing ovation after his grand slam in the eighth inning tied Game 2 at 5.
Gotta love David.
There was still a game to win. After Uehara retired the Tigers in order, Gomes was again the catalyst.
He reached on an infield single off Rick Porcello and took second on a throwing error by shortstop Jose Iglesias, the former Sox player known for his defensive skills.
"No is not an option for this team," Gomes said. "Once I got on second, I was going to do anything I could to score."
Gomes advanced on a wild pitch and scored when Saltalamacchia singled to left field.
"I felt good," Saltalamacchia said. "Trying to hit the ball up the middle and take your chance."
It was the 12th walkoff win of the season for the Red Sox.
So now we have something to watch on the highlight reels other than strike out after strike out. There is joy in Mudville after all. The Red Sox head for Detroit to face Justin Verlander, still another one of the Tigers' great pitchers. Let's end this with something to ponder. My husband heard Verlander ask this question: If a pitch grazes a Red Sox's beard, did he get hit by the pitch?
Now if only someone would hit a grand slam on the budget and knock out Ted Cruz and his friends.
Photograph: Jim Davis/Globe Staff
Ortiz, Red Sox Even Series in Grand Fashion (lockdownsports.com)
Down 5-0, Ortiz and Red Sox slam the Tigers to even ALCS (miamiherald.com)
Ortiz comes through in the clutch again as Red Sox topple Tigers (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
GIF: Cop celebrates as Torii Hunter flips over wall chasing David Ortiz's grand slam (mlb.si.com)
Ortiz's slam gives Red Sox life in ALCS win (scores.espn.go.com)
David Ortiz Completely Changes Complexion of ALCS With One Swing on Special Night at Fenway Park (nesn.com)
David Ortiz puts the Red Sox back in the game with a game-tying grand slam (hardballtalk.nbcsports.com)
VIDEO: David Ortiz ties ALCS Game 2 with a grand slam – CBSSports.com (cbssports.com)
Posted in Baseball, Budget, Congress, Economics, Economy, Politics, Red Sox, Sports	| Tagged ALCS, Boston Symphony Orchestra, David Ortiz, Detroit Tigers, Dustin Pedroia, Economics, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jonny Gomes, Max Scherzer, Politics, Red Sox, Republicans | 1 Comment
The myth of small businesses and healthcare
One of the favorite talking points of the Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is that it will kill job growth and hurt small businesses. Quite honestly, I think that their government shutdown which they admit is largely about defunding/delaying/repealing the ACA is doing a fine job of doing both. Forget what they think "Obamacare" will do. But in the current issue of the New Yorker, James Surowiecki takes on the myth, at that, according to him, is what it is, that the ACA will do horrible, terrible, no good things to the economy.
The G.O.P.'s case hinges on the employer mandate, which requires companies with fifty or more full-time employees to provide health insurance. It also regulates the kind of insurance that companies can offer: insurance has to cover at least sixty per cent of costs, and premiums can't be more than 9.5 per cent of employees' income. Companies that don't offer insurance will pay a penalty. Republicans argue that this will hurt companies' profits, forcing them to stop hiring and to cut workers' hours, in order to stay below the fifty-employee threshold.
How much of this is true?
The story is guaranteed to feed the fears of small-business owners. But the overwhelming majority of American businesses—ninety-six per cent—have fewer than fifty employees. The employer mandate doesn't touch them. And more than ninety per cent of the companies above that threshold already offer health insurance. Only three per cent are in the zone (between forty and seventy-five employees) where the threshold will be an issue. Even if these firms get more cautious about hiring—and there's little evidence that they will—the impact on the economy would be small.
Meanwhile, the likely benefits of Obamacare for small businesses are enormous. To begin with, it'll make it easier for people to start their own companies—which has always been a risky proposition in the U.S., because you couldn't be sure of finding affordable health insurance. As John Arensmeyer, who heads the advocacy group Small Business Majority, and is himself a former small-business owner, told me, "In the U.S., we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial spirit, but we've had this bizarre disincentive in the system that's kept people from starting new businesses." Purely for the sake of health insurance, people stay in jobs they aren't suited to—a phenomenon that economists call "job lock." "With the new law, job lock goes away," Arensmeyer said. "Anyone who wants to start a business can do so independent of the health-care costs." Studies show that people who are freed from job lock (for instance, when they start qualifying for Medicare) are more likely to undertake something entrepreneurial, and one recent study projects that Obamacare could enable 1.5 million people to become self-employed.
English: This is a diagram depicting the percentage in US who have no health insurance by age. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Remember that large employers get tax incentives to provide health insurance. The ACA will actually do the same for small businesses.
Obamacare changes all this. It provides tax credits to smaller businesses that want to insure their employees. And it requires "community rating" for small businesses, just as it does for individuals, sharply restricting insurers' ability to charge a company more because it has employees with higher health costs. And small-business exchanges will in effect allow companies to pool their risks to get better rates. "You're really taking the benefits that big companies enjoy, and letting small businesses tap into that," Arensmeyer said. This may lower costs, and it will insure that small businesses can hire the best person for a job rather than worry about health issues.
Surowiecki ends his short piece with this kicker.
The U.S. likes to think of itself as friendly to small businesses. But, as a 2009 study by the economists John Schmitt and Nathan Lane documented, our small-business sector is among the smallest in the developed world, and has one of the lowest rates of self-employment. One reason is that we've never had anything like national health insurance. In a saner world, changing this would be a reform that the "party of small business" would celebrate.
So it seems that implementation of the ACA with small business health insurance exchanges will actually help lead to more job growth.
How Obamacare Is Good For Business (dish.andrewsullivan.com)
James Surowiecki: Why Obamacare is good for small businesses. (newyorker.com)
4 Ways New Exchanges Will Radically Alter Health Insurance (thehartford.com)
Is Obamacare Actually Good For Small Businesses? It's Complicated (businessinsider.com)
Why Obamacare is NOT Good for Small Businesses (lifelibertytech.com)
Posted in Budget, Congress, Economics, Economy, Health Care Reform, Politics	| Tagged Health insurance, James Surowiecki, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Small Business | Leave a comment
The Senate Chaplain Speaks
Maybe you didn't realize that the Senate and the House each have a chaplain. If you are a C-SPAN junky you might have seen them open each daily session. The Senate website has a brief description of the office and history.
Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of God and State. The first Senate, meeting in New York City on April 25, 1789, elected the Right Reverend Samuel Provost, the Episcopal Bishop of New York, as its first Chaplain. During the past two hundred and seven years, all sessions of the Senate have been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate's faith in God as Sovereign Lord of our Nation. The role of the Chaplain as spiritual advisor and counselor has expanded over the years from a part-time position to a full-time job as one of the Officers of the Senate. The Office of the Chaplain is nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and nonsectarian.
But the current Senate Chaplain, Barry C. Black, has begun to make news with what the New York Times called "our daily Senate scolding."
The disapproval comes from angry constituents, baffled party elders and colleagues on the other side of the Capitol. But nowhere have senators found criticism more personal or immediate than right inside their own chamber every morning when the chaplain delivers the opening prayer.
"Save us from the madness," the chaplain, a Seventh-day Adventist, former Navy rear admiral and collector of brightly colored bow ties named Barry C. Black, said one day late last week as he warmed up into what became an epic ministerial scolding.
"We acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our selfishness and our pride," he went on, his baritone voice filling the room. "Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable."
In case you were wondering, Chaplain Black was selected in 2003 by then Majority Leader, Republican Bill Frist. He says of his politics
"I use a biblical perspective to decide my beliefs about various issues," Mr. Black said in an interview in his office suite on the third floor of the Capitol. "Let's just say I'm liberal on some and conservative on others. But it's obvious the Bible condemns some things in a very forceful and overt way, and I would go along with that condemnation."
But back to some of his recent prayers.
During his prayer on Friday, the day after officers from the United States Capitol Police shot and killed a woman who had used her car as a battering ram, Mr. Black noted that the officers were not being paid because of the government shutdown.
Then he turned his attention back to the senators. "Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines itself to be above and beyond criticism," he said. "Forgive them the blunders they have committed."
Senator Harry Reid, the pugnacious majority leader who has called his Republican adversaries anarchists, rumps and hostage takers, took note. As Mr. Black spoke, Mr. Reid, whose head was bowed low in prayer, broke his concentration and looked straight up at the chaplain.
"Following the suggestion in the prayer of Admiral Black," the majority leader said after the invocation, seeming genuinely contrite, "I think we've all here in the Senate kind of lost the aura of Robert Byrd," one of the historical giants of the Senate, who prized gentility and compromise.
Senate Chaplain Barry Black
Chaplain Black is a federal employee who is not being paid during the shutdown. He is also one of the few adults in the Senate chamber.
Mr. Black, who is the first black Senate chaplain as well as its first Seventh-day Adventist, grew up in public housing in Baltimore, an experience he draws on in his sermons and writings, including a 2006 autobiography, "From the Hood to the Hill."
In his role as chaplain, a position that has existed since 1789, he acts as a sounding board, spiritual adviser and ethical counselor to members of the Senate. When he prays each day, he said, he recites the names of all 100 senators and their spouses, reading them from a laminated index card.
It is not uncommon for him to have 125 people at his Bible study gatherings or 20 to 30 senators at his weekly prayer breakfast. He officiates weddings for Senate staff members. He performs hospital visitations. And he has been at the side of senators when they have died, most recently Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii in December.
The Senate is lucky to have him and maybe they need to pay more attention to what he is saying.
"I remember once talking about self-inflicted wounds — that captured the imagination of some of our lawmakers," he said. "Remember, my prayer is the first thing they hear every day. I have the opportunity, really, to frame the day in a special way."
His words lately may be pointed, but his tone is always steady and calm.
"May they remember that all that is necessary for unintended catastrophic consequences is for good people to do nothing," he said the day of the shutdown deadline.
"Unless you empower our lawmakers," he prayed another day, "they can comprehend their duty but not perform it."
Senators, hear Chaplain Black. Be adults.
Photograph: Drew Angerer for The New York Times
Forgive us our transgressions, as we forgive… (inmyanguish.wordpress.com)
Senate Chaplain's Prayer: 'Deliver Us From Hypocrisy' (newser.com)
'God save us from the madness': Senate chaplain shames congress amid the shutdown (thegrio.com)
Senate chaplain's scathing prayers: 'Deliver us from the hypocrisy' (washingtontimes.com)
Chaplain asks God to forgive Senate's politics (usatoday.com)
Video- Senate Chaplain Prays For Divine Intervention in Gov't Shutdown (hapblog.com)
WATCH: Chaplain Barry Black Asks God to Forgive Senate for Prayers that are so 'Otherworldy they do No Earthly Good' and for 'Putting Politics Ahead of Progress' (blackchristiannews.com)
Posted in Budget, Congress, Culture, Economics, Politics	| Tagged Barry Black, Chaplain of the United States Senate, government, Politics, United States Senate | 1 Comment
The government shutdown: a letter from Congressman Capuano
I am posting the entire weekly email newsletter I just got from my Congressman, Mike Capuano. I am proud to say that he was my boss for several years when he was the Mayor of Somerville.
The government shutdown is in its fourth day. Speaker Boehner still refuses to bring up a clean Continuing Resolution (CR), even though it would pass Congress and be signed by the President, reopening the government.
The House has spent most of this week considering bills to partially fund the government. This process is more about appearances than responsible legislating. That's why you've seen attempts to fund the National Park Service so tourist attractions can reopen but not the Transportation Department. The Senate and President have both rejected this path. I'm not sure where or when this all ends. It's certainly true that this battle is about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the obsession many Republicans have with sabotaging it. I think there's more to it though.
This is also about one of the fundamental principles of our government, the idea of majority rule. The importance of that principle is vividly on display here and it's one worth protecting.
The ACA was signed into law in 2010 after months and months of substantive and at times contentious debate. Since Republicans regained control of the House in 2010, there have been 42 attempts to repeal, defund or gut the law. Each time the effort has accomplished essentially nothing. As I noted earlier this week, Mitt Romney ran on a promise to repeal "Obamacare". He lost the election. House Democrats got more votes than House Republicans and Democrats retained control of the Senate. The ACA was even declared constitutional by the Supreme Court.
Despite all of that, a small percentage of the House Republican Caucus refuses to accept the will of the majority, democratically expressed. They shut the government down because they can't accept it. The ACA is the law of the land, affirmed by the results of a national election and a Supreme Court ruling. More and more moderate Republicans are speaking out on the need for a clean CR. Unfortunately there aren't enough of those moderate voices and the extremists in the House continue to drown them out.
Imagine what our government would look like if more Members refused to respect the principle of majority rule and insisted on getting their way without regard for the consequences. It wouldn't be 17 years between government shutdowns, that's for sure.
I believe that this battle is also about the role that government should play in our lives. Do we want to provide some help to those less fortunate in the form of nutrition assistance or home heating aid? Do we want to help our states build world class roads, bridges and subway systems? Do we want to attract cutting edge research that results in medical advances? All of that takes an investment of federal dollars.
What has been happening over the past couple years is a steady and steep reduction in federal spending. That often gets lost in the din but numbers don't lie. In two years, a total deficit reduction of almost $2.4 trillion has been achieved. In 2011, the Budget Control Act placed a cap on discretionary spending at $1.066 trillion for fiscal year 2014. That cap has been ignored by the House, with much deeper cuts going into effect as a result of sequestration.
Here are just a couple examples of how those cuts have impacted some important programs. In the past year, funding for the National Institutes of Health has been cut by $1.6 billion. Funding for Head Start has been cut by $400 million.
Earlier this year, the Senate passed a budget that proposed spending $1.058 trillion for fiscal year 2014. Under the clean CR proposed in the Senate in order to reopen the government, that spending is cut to $986 billion. This is much closer to the Republican proposal than the Senate's.
In terms of cutting spending, Republicans don't seem to recognize that they are gaining significant ground. The CR that many of them say they won't support includes deep cuts to discretionary programming.
More votes are expected in the House tomorrow and the schedule for next week is unclear. Thanks for your calls and emails of support. I appreciate all of them.
English: Official Congressional portrait for Congressman Mike Capuano. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Timeline of Continuing Resolution: Shutdown Showdown (asbmbpolicy.wordpress.com)
The Politics of Compromise (oldmanwilson.wordpress.com)
Prospect for Quick End to Shutdown Is Remote as Lawmakers Squabble Into the Weekend (theblaze.com)
Americans Reject Using A Government Shutdown To Legislate (dannyvinik.com)
Posted in Budget, Congress, Health Care Reform, Obama Administration, Politics, Public Policy	| Tagged Democrats, Mike Capuano, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Politics, Republicans | 1 Comment
Cartoonists view the government shutdown
We need to keep a sense of humor about things so we can survive this Republican tantrum. Here is my contribution.
Dan Wasserman from the Boston Glove.
Nick Anderson on Ted Cruz.
Carlson on Infant nutrition.
The new axis of evil?
Posted in Budget, Culture, Humor, Politics	| Tagged Dan Wasserman, Economics, Mike Luckovich, Nick Anderson, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, Stuart Carlson | Leave a comment
Trying to made sense of it all
I think I may be ready to retreat to my cocoon to read trashy books and watch baseball and reruns of NCIS before my head explodes from trying to make sense of what is going on out there.
Yesterday, Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker had a little anecdote from my Congressperson, Mike Capuano.
…Capuano said he was in an airport last weekend flying home from Washington when a TSA screener stopped him and said, "You really need to cut our taxes!" Capuano was incredulous to hear that from a federal employee, though he probably shouldn't have been.
"I asked him, 'Do you know taxes pay your salary?' " Capuano said with a laugh.
I wish I knew what the silly TSA screener said then. It is an example of how divorced from reality so many people are. Maybe we should expand the shut down to include furloughs for half of the screeners. This would cut flights so many of the members of Congress would have trouble getting home. I don't think this would be a bad thing. Maybe if they stayed in Washington more, they would figure out how to talk to each other informally over a beer. That could only help. Maybe some of them would get a grip on reality.
As I was getting ready to write this, I Googled both "Republican Alternate Reality" and "Republican Alternate Universe". Turns out people have been writing about the topic for a number of years now. It is one thing to talk sans facts, but another to act. And what is happening now is the action that they have all wanted: a government shutdown. I think they are hoping that a few weeks without government will show people they can live without it. Maybe a good plan except that there are already Republicans complaining that monuments in Washington are closed so veterans can't visit them. Duh!
Back in August 2012 (2012 not 2013), Michael Cohen wrote a piece in the Guardian about the Presidential campaign. If you recall, they had a slogan "You didn't build that".
On 17 July, President Barack Obama spoke at a campaign rally in Roanoke, Virginia. It was a typical event for an incumbent president who is seeking a second term. In his remarks, he offered his vision of government's role in spurring entrepreneurship and creating jobs in the United States:
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the internet so that all the companies could make money off the internet."
This is all fairly boilerplate rhetoric – a basic recitation of how Democrats view the role of government and its interplay with the private sector. But in this statement, there was one phrase that Republicans have grabbed on to like a famished dog with a new bone:
"You didn't build that."
That single phrase, taken out of context by Republicans, has become the GOP's symbol of Obama's supposed contempt for the free market and entrepreneurship, and for his socialist assault on America.
The Affordable Care Act is a prime example of government overreach and socialism even though it is built on private insurance companies.
"You didn't build that" became "We built that"
And so, the Republicans made "We built that" the theme of Tuesday's convention proceedings. Speaker after speaker hammered on this theme, accusing Obama of disrespecting small business. But they did so with almost a wilful sense of hypocrisy. For example, Delaware lieutenant governor candidate Sher Valenzuela attacked Obama for the line despite the fact that, just a few months ago, she gave a detailed speech to a business group about how they could do a better job getting government contracts.
Cohen goes on to detail a number of instances where the speakers at the Republican Convention ignored facts and concludes
But all of this is at pace with a conservative worldview that considers government to be nothing more than malevolent interference with the smooth operation of the private sector – except when it's not. "Jobs don't come from government," said Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz last night, a view that basically sums up GOP economic thinking. But if you listened to Republican governors on Tuesday, you might have found yourself surprised to discover that, in their states, the government has played an oddly integral role in spurring job creation. If you listened to Mary Fallin, governor of Oklahoma, extol the virtues of the energy industry in her state and bemoan "more government, bigger spending and more regulation", you might never know that the oil and gas industry is deeply reliant on – and spends millions lobbying for – tax breaks from the federal government.
One can believe that government should play a less direct role in the workings of the private economy – clearly, this is a defensible notion. But to listen to Republicans harping on Obama's "you didn't build that" line is to hear a party that views "government" in the most simplistic imaginable terms. This isn't a governing philosophy; it's a caricature of how the economy actually works.
To be sure, it's hardly unusual for political rhetoric to take liberties with the truth, or to stretch an argument to breaking-point, but with Republicans today, the issues runs much deeper. Very simply, the way they talk about what the federal government does or should do, and about the role of spending, taxation and regulation, is more than just a compendium of lies: it describes an alternate reality.
In the GOP's defense: at least they can argue they built that.
So now they have shutdown the federal government which was a goal all along. They built it. And in their alternate universe, President Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership should negotiate with them. Nancy Pelosi has tried to explain what she calls "regular order": The Senate passes a bill. Then the House passes one. Then there is a conference committee. Budget bills were passed back in March, but the House declined to appoint members to a conference committee. Contrary to what some members of Congress seem to believe there are rules and conventions as to how to proceed.
Gail Collins has a response in the New York Times.
On Wednesday, House Republicans pushed to refund bits and pieces of the government that the members particularly like, such as veterans and the National Guard. Also anything that lends itself to a dramatic press conference, such as national parks and cancer treatment for children. Since the House proposals are never going anywhere in the Senate, there's a limit to what you want to know about what went on during the debate. Let's summarize:
Democrats: "Meaningless political theater!"
Republicans: "Come to the table!"
Coming to the table has now replaced strangling Obamacare as the most popular G.O.P. war cry. There is a longstanding political rule that when all else fails, you demand more talking. If you're running for office against a guy who's got 70 percent in the polls, it's time to call for a debate. If you're already having four debates, it's time to call for six.
"Why don't we sit down and have a conference committee about how we're going to fund the federal government?" demanded Representative Ander Crenshaw of Florida. Republicans have posed this question a lot, and it would be an excellent one if they were not the same folks who have spent the last half-year refusing to sit down and have a conference committee about the federal budget.
Representative John A. Boehner, the House speaker, arrived at the Capitol on Thursday with his security personnel on the third day of the government shutdown.
I'll give the final word on reality to Elizabeth Kolbert in her New Yorker posted this morning.
…Shuttering the government is a dumb idea under pretty much any circumstances. Still, the objections that Republicans in Congress raise to the health-care law might be worth considering if they bore any relationship to the law in question. Rarely do they.
Some lawmakers' comments have been so off the wall that they defy parody. A few months ago, for example, Representative Michele Bachmann announced on the House floor that Obamacare needed to be repealed "before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens."
"Let's not do that," she added helpfully. "Let's love people."
"All of this would be funny," President Obama noted the other day, after bringing up the Bachmann line, "if it weren't so crazy."
The crazy list goes on and on. As the economist Paul Krugman has repeatedly pointed out in his Times column, congressional Republicans these days seem to think that they can override not just the laws of physics but also the rules of arithmetic. They insist that the federal budget is so bloated it could easily be cut by hundreds of billions of dollars. But when a transportation bill was drafted this summer that would have actually reduced spending, they refused to vote for it. (The bill had to be pulled from the floor.) It's hard to cut the federal budget if you're not willing to reduce the amount of money the government spends. "What Republicans really want to do," Krugman wrote recently, is "repeal reality."
It's been so long since reality has made much of a difference on Capitol Hill that it sometimes seems it genuinely has been repealed. But the thing you can always count on with reality is that it has staying power.
I hope I can hold out until reality and fact make a comeback.
Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York Times
Rep. Michael Capuano Talks Government Shutdown (radioboston.wbur.org)
Graham: Dems vote to keep their perks (bostonherald.com)
Obama's Dark Warning to Wall Street: Be 'Concerned' (theblaze.com)
White House meeting yields no progress on shutdown (ktvb.com)
Posted in Budget, Congress, Health Care Reform, Obama Administration, Politics, Public Policy	| Tagged 2012 Election, Democrats, Economics, Elizabeth Kolbert, Gail Collins, Health Care, Mike Capuano, Paul Krugman, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, The Guardian | 3 Comments
July 13, 2013 by mhasegawa
More nails in the Republican coffin?
For a number of years now, I have watched part of the Republican party that has as its main, if not sole, purpose, to dismantle government. They called the Democrats bluff with the sequester which so far has appeared to have little effect. Who cares if a military base can't afford fireworks or if the Blue Angels can't afford to do a fly over? In the big scheme of things, those are pretty unimportant. But now more and more federal workers are being furloughed. For example, local HUD (Housing and Urban Development) offices are closing for five Fridays in July and August. That is 5 Fridays that staff will not be paid. This is money that won't be spent on a vacation or for car repairs or for food and clothing – all things that add to the economy. (Here is an interesting website that tracks furloughs.) And while a number of agencies have figured out ways to avoid furloughs, many workers will still be affected – still more if Congress can't manage to pass a budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. The loss of incomes will slowly begin to mount.
But it isn't just the failure to produce a budget. A recent New York Times editorial summed up the issue quite neatly. They called it a refusal to govern.
On two crucial issues this week, the extremists who dominate the Republican majority in the House of Representatives made it clear how little interest they have in the future prosperity of their country, or its reputation for fairness and decency.
The two issues are immigration reform and the removal of the food stamp program for the House agriculture bill.
These actions show how far the House has retreated from the national mainstream into a cave of indifference and ignorance. House members don't want to know that millions of Americans remain hungry (in an economy held back by their own austerity ideology), and they don't want to deal with the desperation of immigrant families who want nothing more than a chance to work and feed themselves without fear of deportation.
On both issues, in fact, many House Republicans are proudly asserting that they will stand in the way of any attempts to conduct a conference with the Senate. That might, after all, lead to a compromise.
And it isn't just in the House.
Few things sum up the attitude of the current crop of Republicans in Washington than their loathing of conference committees. On issue after issue, they have passed radical bills and then refused to negotiate. On Thursday, for example, Senate Republicans refused for the 16th time to allow the Democratic Senate budget to be negotiated with its dangerously stingy counterpart in the House.
On immigration, House members fear a conference with the Senate would add back the pathway to citizenship that they consider a giveaway to undesirable non-English speakers. The eventual House border bills "should not be handed to a conference committee so that they can be reconciled with the Senate bill," wrote Representative Tom Cotton of Arkansas in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. Instead, he and others say, the Senate should be forced to take up whatever the House produces.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may believe that ending the filibuster with a majority vote will spell the end of the Senate and cause Harry Reid to be remembered "as the worst leader of the Senate ever", but in my opinion, the continuous use of the filibuster has already come close to destroying the Senate. Everything should not require 60 votes.
The New York Times editorial ends with this
A refusal to even to sit at a bargaining table is another way of refusing to govern. The nation's founders created two chambers for a reason, but Republicans, in their blind fury to harm the least fortunate, are forgetting even those fundamental national values.
From left, Representatives Tim Murphy, Mark Sanford, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Sean P. Duffy, all Republicans, after the House approved an agriculture bill.
This is why the most recent Quinnipiac poll shows that while 53% felt the President was doing too little to compromise with Congress, a whopping 68% felt the Republicans leaders in Congress were doing to little to compromise with the President. And everyone thinks Congress is dysfunctional blaming both parties.
There is something called the greater good and I think many in Congress, particularly Republicans, have forgotten that ideal.
Photograph: Christopher Gregory/The New York Times
Blog Running – 'Mitch McConnell's problem: How can he threaten to obstruct the Senate even more'? (thelastofthemillenniums.wordpress.com)
Republican filibuster derails student loan bill (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
Public knows Republican obstruction is the problem (dailykos.com)
Democrats March Closer to Changing Rules of the Senate (usnews.com)
IL Immigration Reform Advocates to U.S. House Leadership: Take Up The Senate Bill (progressillinois.com)
House GOP on Immigration: Our Way or the Highway (washingtonmonthly.com)
Reid vows 'nuclear option' to end nomination filibusters (upi.com)
Mitch McConnell's problem: How can he threaten to obstruct the Senate even more? (washingtonpost.com)
Posted in Budget, Congress, Economy, Politics	| Tagged Budget, Congress, Democrats, Harry Reid, Immigration Reform, Mitch McConnell, Politics, Republicans | 2 Comments


This is the very important iOS update, hence don't recommend for ignore this update. You can download OTA update or use iTunes. Please check whether your device is compatible before download the update.
Now all you are able to jailbreak iOS 8.1 using Pangu8 jailbreak tool. Pangu8 provides untethered jailbreak solution for iOS 8.1 devices. We know, Cydia is the final destination of all iOS device user. Until that, Cydia was not compatible with iOS 8.1. But, now you can Cydia install for not only iOS 8.1, but also iOS 8 & 8.0.2. Pangu team brings you to that chance.
Therefore Cydia install on your iOS 8.1 device, you have to wait another little bit time. At this time Cydia not install for iOS 8.1. It's not bundle with Pangu8 jailbreak. Because, Cydia not compatible with iOS 8 yet. Cydia developer Saurik was not yet updates their tool (Cydia) for iOS 8 versions. He will update Cydia for iOS 8 in near future, cause; he knows peoples want Cydia for iOS 8 much. After that Pangu team will update their tool, bundle with Cydia for iOS 8.
At that time, Cydia support latest iOS major version is iOS 7. evasi0n7 & Pangu7 are the jailbreak tools, which install Cydia on iOS 7. Pangu support Install Cydia for iOS 7.1.x versions. Pangu also can jailbreak iOS 8.0 to 8.1, but it doesn't support for Cydia install on those iOS versions yet.
Without any doubt, you can Cydia install for iOS 7.1, 7.1.1 & 7.1.2 devices with Pangu7 & Cydia install for iOS 7.0 – 7.0.6 devices with evasi0n7. We provided all the required information to success your Cydia installation.
OR, if you are able to upgrade device up to iOS 8 (compatible devices shown above the post), Please don't be panic! Harry to download iOS 8.1 updates, and upgrade the device to latest. Pangu now ready to jailbreak & Cydia will be available for you to download & install.


text:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;

namespace Tectil.NCommand
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Application instance. Extensions available inside client packages.
    /// </summary>
    public class NCommanderContext
    {

        #region ctx

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="NCommanderContext"/> class.
        /// </summary>
        public NCommanderContext()
        {
            Configuration = new CommandConfiguration();
            AddEntryAssembly(); // default value
        }

        #endregion

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the configuration.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>
        /// The configuration.
        /// </value>
        public CommandConfiguration Configuration { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Autodetects assemblies containing commands. All assemblies will be reflected.
        /// </summary>
        public void AutodetectCommandAssemblies()
        {
            var loadedAssemblies = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().ToList();
            var loadedPaths = loadedAssemblies.Select(a => a.Location).ToArray();
            var referencedPaths = Directory.GetFiles(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "*.dll");
            var toLoad = referencedPaths.Where(r => !loadedPaths.Contains(r, StringComparer.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)).ToList();
            toLoad.ForEach(path =>
            {
                try
                {
                    loadedAssemblies.Add(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(path)));
                }
                catch { } // todo: log
            });
            Configuration.CommandAssemblies.AddRange(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().Where(x => !Configuration.CommandAssemblies.Contains(x)));
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adds executing assembly for command detection.
        /// </summary>
        public void AddEntryAssembly()
        {
            AddCommandAssembly(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly());
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adds assembly containing commands.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="assembly">The assembly.</param>
        public void AddCommandAssembly(Assembly assembly)
        {
            if(!Configuration.CommandAssemblies.Contains(assembly))
            {
                Configuration.CommandAssemblies.Add(assembly);
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Adds assemblies containing commands.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="assemblies">The assemblies.</param>
        public void AddCommandAssembly(Assembly[] assemblies)
        {
            Configuration.CommandAssemblies.AddRange(assemblies.Where(x => !Configuration.CommandAssemblies.Contains(x)));
        }

    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Accessing multiple realm databases simultaneously I have two users who have made realm databases. User1 has given admin access level to User2. Both create a list of objects. How can User2 get a list of objects made by himself and User1?
Currently User2 can access only 1 realm database on signing in.
I am using android.

A: If you are having two db, means you have two RealmConfiguration, one for each. You can get the realm appropriate db by calling Realm realm = Realm.getInstance(realmConfigurationInstance). Whichever, configuration you will pass, you will get that instance of the db.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Lisa Nooren and VDL Groep Sabech d'Ha. Photo (c) Jenny Abrahamsson.
The 18-year-old Lisa Nooren was awarded as 2015 Rabo Talent of the Year on Saturday. Nooren received the prestigious Dutch award at Jumping Amsterdam, in the presence of Maarten Rosenberg, director at Rabobank Amsterdam, Anky van Grunsven, ambassador of the Rabo Talentenplan as well as KNHS president Theo Ploegmakers.
Nooren jumped into the spotlight last year, winning the CSI5* Grand Prix in La Coruna as well as ending third in the CSI3* Grand Prix in Maastricht. The daughter of Henk Nooren also has medals from the European Championships for ponies, children and juniors as well as becoming Dutch champion both for junior and young riders in 2014.
"A hugely driven and passionate horsewoman with amazing technical riding abilities and performances," praised Dutch Chef d'Equipe Rob Ehrens of one Holland's biggest talents.