History for March 15

History for March 15 - On-This-Day.com:
Andrew Jackson 1767, Emil von Behring 1854 - Physiologist, Judd Hirsch 1935 - Actor ("Taxi")


Jimmy Lee Swaggart 1935 - Pastor, Mike Love 1941 - Musician (The Beach Boys), Fabio 1961 - Model


44 BC - Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by high ranking Roman Senators. The day is known as the "Ides of March."


1892 - Jesse W. Reno patented the Reno Inclined Elevator. It was the first escalator.


1916 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 troops, under General Pershing, over the border of Mexico to pursue bandit Pancho Villa. The mission failed.


1935 - Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.


1937 - In Chicago, IL, the first blood bank to preserve blood for transfusion by refrigeration was established at the Cook County Hospital.


1956 - The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.


1977 - The first episode of "Eight is Enough" was aired on ABC-TV.


1990 - The Ford Explorer was introduced to the public.

Kremlin: Russian ambassador met with Clinton campaign, too – TheBlaze

Kremlin: Russian ambassador met with Clinton campaign, too – TheBlaze:

"Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Sunday that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign several times throughout the 2016 presidential campaign season.

During an interview with CNN host Fareed Zakaria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted that Kislyak met with Clinton advisers before the election, and that it wasn’t abnormal for the ambassador to speak with both candidates in the running to discuss relations between the two countries."

Are You Worse Off If You 'Lose' Your Health Insurance?

Are You Worse Off If You 'Lose' Your Health Insurance?:
The CBO has released its estimated cost of the new GOP health care plan and the numbers are getting some bad spin from the usual suspects.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday projected that the number of people without health insurance would grow by 14 million in 2018 under the Republican ­ObamaCare replacement bill, with that number rising to 24 million in a decade.

"The Hill described the report as a "bombshell."

The Washington Post called it "cruel."

The New York Times said the Republicans were anticipating an "almost certain to be a bleak accounting" of the plan.

The implicit standard in analysis of the health insurance system is that every consumer must have government-selected coverage. 

But why? 

This chosen paradigm doesn't take into consideration the most forceful motivation of human behavior, namely, whether a large expenditure of limited resources is in one's economic interest. 

This standard of "universal coverage" is as artificial as the government's bloated health care costs.

A young person with minimal health expenses is well served not to purchase one of these government-created insurance policies: their yearly medical expenses do not exceed the cost of their premiums and deductibles. 

With the rate Obamacare costs are skyrocketing, that pool isn't just confined to young people anymore. 

If an individual or family has to fork out tens of thousands of dollars before seeing health care benefits, what's the point? 

Why not save that money and when services are needed, pay directly to the care providers?..."

Read on!

How The Federal Reserve Is Setting Up Trump For A Recession, A Housing Crisis And A Stock Market Crash

How The Federal Reserve Is Setting Up Trump For A Recession, A Housing Crisis And A Stock Market Crash:
"'Most Americans do not understand this, but the truth is that the Federal Reserve has far more power over the U.S. economy than anyone else does, and that includes Donald Trump.  
Politicians tend to get the credit or the blame for how the economy is performing, but in reality it is an unelected, unaccountable panel of central bankers that is running the show, and until something is done about the Fed our long-term economic problems will never be fixed.  
For an extended analysis of this point, please see this article.  
In this piece, I am going to explain why the Federal Reserve is currently setting the stage for a recession, a new housing crisis and a stock market crash, and if those things happen unfortunately it will be Donald Trump that will primarily get the blame.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to hike interest rates, and there is even the possibility that they will call for an acceleration of future rate hikes…

Economists generally believe the central bank’s median estimate will continue to call for three quarter-point rate increases both this year and in 2018. But there’s some risk that gets pushed to four as inflation nears the Fed’s annual 2% target and business confidence keeps juicing markets in anticipation of President Trump’s plan to cut taxes and regulations.

During the Obama years, the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates all the way to the floor, and this artificially boosted the economy.
In a recent article, Gail Tverberg explained how this works…"

Read on and prepare!

Oversight chairman angrily issues subpoenas after two ATF agents refuse to appear before Congress – TheBlaze

Oversight chairman angrily issues subpoenas after two ATF agents refuse to appear before Congress – TheBlaze:

"Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) lost his cool Thursday during a hearing with the members of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency.

After two agents who were summoned failed to show to the hearing concerning the 2011 murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata, Chaffetz became frustrated and laid down the law for ATF acting director Thomas Brandon. Zapata was murdered by a hit squad in Mexico in February 2011 with weapons that the ATF had been tracking."

Credit Reports to Exclude Certain Negative Information, Boosting FICO Scores

Credit Reports to Exclude Certain Negative Information, Boosting FICO Scores:
"Many tax liens and civil judgments soon will be removed from people's credit reports, the latest in a series of moves to omit negative information from these financial scorecards. 
The development could help boost credit scores for millions of consumers, but could pose risks for lenders.
The three major credit-reporting firms -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- recently decided to remove tax-lien and civil-judgment data starting around July 1, according to the Consumer Data Industry Association, a trade group that represents them.
...The result will make many people who have these types of blemishes on their credit reports look more creditworthy..."

16 Reasons Not To Live In California | Zero Hedge

16 Reasons Not To Live In California | Zero Hedge:
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

It has been said that “as California goes, so goes the nation”.  That is why it is such a shame what is happening to that once great state.  
At one time, California seemed to be the epicenter of the American Dream.  
Featuring some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the entire world, the gorgeous weather and booming economy of the state inspired people from all over the world to move to the state.  
But now people are moving out of the state by the millions, because life in California has literally become a nightmare for so many people.

...In fact, if I was living in California today I would be immediately looking for a way to move out of the state unless I specifically felt called to stay.  
The following are 16 reasons why you shouldn’t live in California…

#1 The entire California coastline is part of the “Ring of Fire” seismic zone that roughly encircles the Pacific Ocean.  The San Andreas Fault has been described as a “time bomb“, and at some point there will be a catastrophic earthquake that absolutely devastates the entire region.  In fact, a study that was just released says that a “major earthquake” on the San Andreas Fault “is way overdue” …
Read on!

Noon-toon

Obama asked Point Blank about Wiretaps – Answer Speaks VOLUMES

Obama asked Point Blank about Wiretaps – Answer Speaks VOLUMES:

"Recently, Obama was questioned about President Trump’s accusations that he had Trump Tower wiretapped. Instead of answering the question, Obama “rolled his eyes” and deflected to Obama Care. He commented that he was more concerned about Donald Trump kicking people off his precious insurance program.
The man who kicked more people off their insurance than any other leader in history has some nerve."

How to Convince Skeptics that Climate Change is a problem-Scott Adams' Blog

How to Convince Skeptics that Climate Change is a... | Scott Adams' Blog
"I don’t know much about science, and even less about climate science.
So as a practical matter, I like to side with the majority of scientists until they change their collective minds.
They might be wrong, but their guess is probably better than mine.
That said, it is mind-boggling to me that the scientific community can’t make a case for climate science that sounds convincing, even to some of the people on their side, such as me.
In other words, I think scientists are right (because I play the odds), but I am puzzled by why they can’t put together a convincing argument, whereas the skeptics can, and easily do.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
As a public service, and to save the planet, obviously, I will tell you what it would take to convince skeptics that climate science is a problem that we must fix. 
Please avoid the following persuasion mistakes.
1. Stop telling me the “models” (plural) are good.
If you told me one specific model was good, that might sound convincing.
But if climate scientists have multiple models, and they all point in the same general direction, something sounds fishy.
If climate science is relatively “settled,” wouldn’t we all use the same models and assumptions?..."
Read 'em all!

CDC?!! Center for DISEASE Control?!!-----CDC Puts Renewed Emphasis on School Recess

So much edukatin goin' on the kids r gettin' fat!
CDC Puts Renewed Emphasis on School Recess:
"As many schools reduce or even eliminate recess time for students, the CDC has issued guidelines pertaining to recess for students: planned activities are ideal rather than simply sectioning off time for play.
WSJ health reporter Sumathi Reddy explains on Lunch Break with Tanya Rivero."

Must read of the day!-----The Real Motor of Fake News

The Real Motor of Fake News:
"The motor of fake news is not inaccuracy. 
It's malice.

I had an insight into this important truth a couple weeks back when I was at a swank New York club for an evening event. 

The establishment in question is overwhelmingly conventional, i.e., leftish in that smug "We're-all-beautiful-people-who-are-you?" sort of way that publications like The New Yorker and the New York Times, along with such media outlets as CNN and MSNBC, exude like the cloying aroma of paperwhites.

I ran into an acquaintance, a female journalist I hadn't seen in years. 

I knew that her politics were echt conventional in the above sense, but I had also found her an amusing and lively person. 

We were chatting with a couple of other people about this and that when someone she knew from the Times joined in. 

I then overheard him explain to her that she had to be careful about what she posted on Facebook, Twitter, etc., because anything too explicitly anti-Trump could be used against her when that glorious day came and "they" -- the conventional fraternity of groupthink scribblers -- finally took down that horrible, despicable man.

"We've got dozens of people working on it all the time," he explained, adding that it was only a matter of time before they got the goods on Trump and destroyed him.

There in a nutshell, I thought, is the existential imperative that has been so gloriously productive of fake news and its exacerbated allotrope, first delineated by Donald Trump in his famous media-bashing presser on February 16, "very fake news."

News is the reporting of facts. 
Someone says "this happened on such-and-such a day in such-and-such a way," and independent, publicly available sources confirm that, yes, what was alleged happened at just that time and in just that fashion.

Fake news insinuates a skein of innuendo and a boatload of shared presumption floating on an ocean of fantastic desire into the mix. 
Repetition, like Rumor in the Iliad, whips this unstable congeries into an intoxicating frenzy:

" Trump's transition is in chaos, pass it on."

"Trump is a puppet of Putin, pass it on."

"Trump is Steve Bannon's puppet, pass it on."

"Trump, like Steve Bannon, is a white supremacist/racist/homophobic/woman-hating xenophobe, really pass that one along."

Every one of these fantasies is not only untrue, but ostentatiously, extravagantly untrue. Liberals of sound mind understand this.
Thus the British journalist Piers Morgan, than whom a more reliably left-liberal figure is hard to imagine, noted to Tucker Carlson that the Left's hatred of Donald Trump has blinded them to reality. 
Godwin's law, which states that the longer an online exchange proceeds, the more likely it is that Adolf Hitler will be dragged into the conversation, has been exacerbated in the case of Trump. 
It is true that every Republican since at least Ronald Reagan has been compared to Hitler, but in the case of Trump the comparisons have taken on an especially surreal tone. 
This, too, is something that Piers Morgan, in another interview with Tucker Carlson, noted with a sense of exasperated amazement.

In fact, Donald Trump's first 30-odd days have been extraordinarily successful. 

That's the news.

As Charlotte Allen noted in a column for USA Today, to date Trump has been even more successful than was Reagan in beginning to fulfill his campaign promises...

Read on, lots more!

Superstar reporter goes public with Obama’s creepy spying on her

Superstar reporter goes public with Obama’s creepy spying on her:

"The five-time Emmy Award winner and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting announced in January she is suing the Justice Department and seeking $35 million in damages for illegally hacking her computers and monitoring her work between 2011 and 2013.

Three separate computer forensic exams of her computers revealed what appears to be stunning evidence pointing straight to the Obama administration.

“The most important and irrefutable finding is: forensic evidence of a government-owned I.P. (internet protocol) address accessing my computer,” Attkisson told WND.

She said she was told that was “better evidence than the U.S. had when it accused China of various acts of hacking into our government, which the government accepts as proven.”"

2017’s Best Tax Blog Competition | WalletHub®

2017’s Best Tax Blog Competition | WalletHub®:
"Tax season can be a very stressful, confusing time, but it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. 

There are plenty of people in the same boat and a wealth of great resources to help guide you to a successful outcome. 

The question is: Which one will make it easiest to put a smile on Uncle Sam’s face without opening your wallet wider than necessary?
Since paying taxes is a communal, democratically determined task, we figured we’d put it to a vote. You can find our finalists below..."

Lots more at link!

 

1. Liberty Tax Service

Every year, Americans are faced with the prospect of tax return preparation. Although many will try to go it alone, every year more turn to a tax consultant like Liberty Tax. Our goal is to provide the feeling of a personal tax consultant alongside the… show more

https://www.libertytax.com/tax-lounge/

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AM Fruitcake