Bernie Sanders has criticized Uber for not having the same government regulations, worker protections, and employee benefits as regular taxi companies.
However, public campaign records show that Sanders’ campaign has actually used Uber for 100% of its taxi rides.
I would love to hear Sanders explain his hypocrisy.
February 25, 2016. Tags: 2016 election, Bernie Sanders, Capitalism, Politics, Socialsim, Taxis, Uber, Unions. Bernie Sanders, Politics. .
Why do the people who run the Olympics choose to put the athletes’ health at such high risk like this? Surely, there are other countries where they would be much safer.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d92f6af5121f49d982601a657d745e95/ap-investigation-rios-olympic-water-rife-sewage-virus
AP Investigation: Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio’s filth
July 30, 2015
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Athletes in next year’s Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.
An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea…
Extreme water pollution is common in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated. Raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites.
As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses that in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach…
“What you have there is basically raw sewage,” said John Griffith, a marine biologist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Griffith examined the protocols, methodology and results of the AP tests.
“It’s all the water from the toilets and the showers and whatever people put down their sinks, all mixed up, and it’s going out into the beach waters. Those kinds of things would be shut down immediately if found here,” he said, referring to the U.S…
The AP viral testing, which will continue in the coming year, found not one water venue safe for swimming or boating, according to global water experts.
Instead, the test results found high counts of active and infectious human adenoviruses, which multiply in the intestinal and respiratory tracts of people. These are viruses that are known to cause respiratory and digestive illnesses, including explosive diarrhea and vomiting, but can also lead to more serious heart, brain and other diseases.
The concentrations of the viruses in all tests were roughly equivalent to that seen in raw sewage — even at one of the least-polluted areas tested, the Copacabana Beach, where marathon and triathlon swimming will take place…
Besides swimmers, athletes in sailing, canoeing and to a lesser degree rowing often get drenched when competing, and breathe in mist as well. Viruses can enter the body through the mouth, eyes, any orifice, or even a small cut…
February 21, 2016. Tags: 2016 olympics, olympics, Sanitation, sewage, Sports. Sports. .
Although this wonderful news happened three months ago, I just found out about it now: the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Obama’s attempt to keep low income black children trapped in horrible government schools.
Some background information…
In August 2013, the Obama administration sued Louisiana to try to bring an end to its school voucher program – a program which had just been passed in 2012.
Under the Louisiana program, both of the following criteria had to be met in order for a student to get a school voucher. First, the student must come from a family whose income is below 250% of the poverty level. And second, the current public school that the student is attending must be rated as “C” or below.
86% of students who received vouchers had used those vouchers to flee from public schools which had been rated as “D” or “F.”
Only the most vulnerable children were eligible for the vouchers – the poorest students attending the worst schools.
Obama’s reason for filing the lawsuit was that “many of those vouchers impeded the desegregation process.”
However, in response to Obama’s claim that the vouchers discriminated against blacks, Louisiana Education Superintendent John White pointed out that almost all of the students using the vouchers were black, and said that “it’s a little ridiculous” for Obama to claim that these vouchers caused discrimination against blacks. The Washington Post reported that 90% of the students who received the vouchers were black.
It’s also worth noting that only students whose parents requested such vouchers were eligible to participate in the voucher program. Obama was therefore claiming that parents wanted their own children to be discriminated against. Obama was extremely wrong on this. These parents did not want their children to be discriminated against. In reality, what these parents wanted was for their children to have a chance at a better education.
This also makes Obama a hypocrite, because while he was living in both Chicago and Washington D.C., he always sent his own children to private schools. Does Obama really want us to believe that he subjected his own children to racial discrimination by sending them to private schools?
Furthermore, two different studies, one by Ph.D. students at the University of Arkansas, and the other sponsored by the state of Louisiana, both found that this voucher program made racial integration better, not worse. This further proves that Obama is a liar, and that his entire claim against these vouchers is bogus.
In September 2013, the Washington Post editorial board criticized Obama in this editorial, which is titled, “The Justice Department bids to trap poor, black children in ineffective schools.”
In April 2014, the Daily Signal published this article, which is titled, “Meet one of the students Eric Holder is blocking by standing in the schoolhouse door.”
Fortunately, in November 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Obama’s attempt to keep low income black children trapped in horrible government schools. The court’s ruling can be read here.
February 17, 2016. Tags: Barack Obama, Dumb lawsuits, Education, Federal court, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Lawsuits, Louisiana, Obama, Politics, School choice, School vouchers, vouchers. Barack Obama, Dumb lawsuits, Education, Politics. .
Obama just gave approval for Cleber LLC, an Alabama-based company that builds tractors, to open a factory in Cuba. This will be the first new U.S. factory to be built and operated in Cuba in over 50 years.
As a libertarian, I totally agree with Obama on this issue. Bringing global capitalism to Cuba is a wonderful idea.
The average Cuban citizen earns $20 per month.
Usually, when U.S. corporations open up factories in poor countries, in order to attract workers, they usually pay between two and five times what the average worker in that country makes. So if this trend is followed in Cuba, we can expect this factory to offer workers between $40 and $100 per month.
And then, if current trends continue, we can expect U.S. protesters on the radical left, who never complained about Cubans making $20 per month while employed by the Cuban government, to complain that the $40 to $100 per month the Cuban workers get paid by this U.S. corporation is “exploitative,” just as they always make that same complaint whenever U.S. factories in other poor countries pay their workers between two and fives times what the average worker in those countries makes.
My take on this? Unlike those leftist U.S. protesters, I actually trust Cuban citizens, and citizens in all other poor countries as well, to choose the job that they believe if best for them. I would never protest against someone switching to a new job that pays between two and five times as much as their old job.
Anyway, as someone who believes in free trade and global capitalism, I applaud Obama for letting a U.S. corporation open up a factory in Cuba.
February 15, 2016. Tags: Barack Obama, Capitalism, Communism, Cuba, Cuban embargo, Economics, embargo, exploitation, free trade, global capitalism, globalization, Obama, Politics. Barack Obama, Economics, Politics. .
Campaign promises
In May 2008, Obama campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt said that Obama would end DEA raids on medical marijuana in states where it’s legal.
Also in 2008, Obama said that he supported the “basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs” and that he was “not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws.”
Federal raids against medical marijuana in states where it’s legal
Despite Obama’s campaign promise, in February 2010, DEA agents raided a medical marijuana grower in Highlands Ranch in Colorado, a state where medical marijuana is legal.
Also in February 2010, DEA agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in Culver City in California, a state where medical marijuana is legal.
In July 2010, the DEA raided at least four medical marijuana growers in San Diego, California.
Also in July 2010, the DEA raided a medical marijuana facility in Covelo, California.
Then in September 2010, the DEA conducted raids on at least five medical marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas, Nevada, where medical marijuana is legal.
In 2011, the DEA conducted raids on medical marijuana in Seattle, Washington, West Hollywood, California, and Helena, Montana, all places where it is legal.
In April 2012, the DEA carried out several raids on medical marijuana in Oakland, California.
Also in April 2012, federal agents raided Oaksterdam University, an educational institution in Oakland, CA, which teaches people about medical marijuana.
Furthermore in April 2012, federal agents raided a medical marijuana facility which had been serving 1,500 patients near Lake Elsinore, CA.
In July 2012, federal prosecutors filed civil forfeiture actions against Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, CA, which claims to be the world’s largest, and which claims to serve more than 100,000 medical marijuana patients.
During the first seven months of 2012, the DEA shut down 40 medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, all of which had been operating in compliance with state and local law.
In April 2013, the DEA raided four medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, California.
Also in April 2013, the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in San Diego, California.
In July 2013, the DEA conducted multiple medical marijuana raids in Washington state, including the cities of Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle.
In August 2013, the DEA raided People’s Choice Alternative Medicine, a medical marijuana facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In October 2013, the DEA raided 28 medical marijuana facilities in Michigan. In November 2013, the DEA raided 12 medical marijuana facilities in Denver, Colorado.
In April 2014, the DEA raided four medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver, Colorado.
In October 2014, the DEA raided two medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, California.
Threats against doctors
In June 2014, DEA agents visited the homes and offices of doctors in Massachusetts who had written prescriptions for medical marijuana, and threatened to confiscate their federal licenses to prescribe certain medications if they did not stop writing prescriptions for medical marijuana.
Threats against landlords
In June 2012, the Obama administration filed asset-forfeiture lawsuits against two landlords who rented their buildings to medical marijuana stores in Santa Fe Springs, CA. At the same time, the Obama administration also sent warning letters which threatened similar legal action to dozens of other, nearby landlords.
Criticism from the political left
In February 2012, Rolling Stone magazine wrote that Obama’s war against medical marijuana went “far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush.”
In April 2012, Mother Jones magazine wrote: “The president campaigned on the promise that he’d stop federal raids on medical marijuana operations that were in compliance with state laws, a vow that Attorney General Eric Holder repeated after the election. But then the Obama administration raided more than 100 dispensaries in its first three years and is now poised to outpace the Bush administration’s crackdown record.”
In a May 2012 opinion column published by the Washington Post, Rob Kampia, the executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, wrote, “Obama has become more hostile to medical marijuana patients than any president in U.S. history.”
In May 2012, U.S. Congressperson Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said she had “strong concerns” about Obama’s forced closure of five medical marijuana facilities in Pelosi’s congressional district.
In April 2012, commenting on Obama’s crackdown on medical marijuana, U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) said, “I’m very disappointed… They look more like the Bush administration than the Clinton administration.”
Obama’s own illegal use of recreational marijuana has never been prosecuted
In May 2012, ABC News reported that during Obama’s youth, he often smoked large quantities of recreational marijuana. Obama’s marijuana smoking wasn’t even medical – it was recreational. And yet now, he is taking large scale, widespread action to prevent people with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, and other illnesses, who have prescriptions from their doctors, from using their prescription medicine. How cold hearted, as well as hypocritical, can a person be?
February 6, 2016. Tags: Barack Obama, Health care, Marijuana, Medical marijuana, Obama, Politics, War on drugs. Barack Obama, Health care, Politics, War on drugs. .
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 