The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to
In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.
Thanks!
patricknd said:
redtreviso said:Neut
""Newt Gingrich doubled down on his clever new slur against President Obama as "the food stamp president." He tried the line in a Friday speech to the Georgia Republican convention, and he used it again on "Meet the Press Sunday." It's a short hop from Gingrich's slur to Ronald Reagan's attacks on "strapping young bucks" buying "T-bone steaks" with food stamps. Blaming our first black president for the sharp rise in food-stamp reliance (which resulted from the economic crash that happened on the watch of our most recent white president) is just the latest version of Rush Limbaugh suggesting that Obama's social policy amounts to "reparations" for black people.
But when host David Gregory suggested the term had racial overtones, Gingrich replied "That's bizarre," and added, "I have never said anything about President Obama which is racist." That's not quite as extreme or silly as Donald Trump declaring "I am the least racist person there is," but it's up there. He also told Georgia Republicans Friday that 2012 will be the most momentous election "since 1860," which happens to be the year we elected the anti-slavery Abraham Lincoln president, and he suggested the U.S. bring back a "voting standard" that requires voters to prove they know American history -- which sounds a lot like the "poll tests" outlawed by the Voting Rights Act.
Just last week Gingrich said Obama "knows how to get the whole country to resemble Detroit," which just happens to be home to many black people. And last year Gingrich accused Obama of "Kenyan anti-colonialist behavior" that made him "outside our comprehension" as Americans, spreading Dinesh D'Souza's idiocy that Obama inherited angry African anti-colonialism from the Kenyan father he never knew. “This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich told the National Review Online last year.
All this from the guy who's supposed to be the "smart" candidate for the GOP nomination?""
ChrisE said:Crying "racism" all the time starts taking the gravity out of the word, and makes people passive when real racism takes place.
Instead of providing fodder for us to post about, why doesn't the press ask Gingrich head on what he means and poke holes in his gibberish real time, and make the term stick more easily?
The logical next question from Gregory today would be "well Newt unemployment is down since he took office so why do you brand him that way?" That would give Gingrich more rope and not let him weasle out of the racism charge as he so easily did.
Instead, Gregory probably sat there with his thumb in his **** because he is an idiot, or he wanted to appear "fair and balanced" by not jamming the wingnut.
redtreviso said:Dead Peasant
""House Speaker Pro Tem Joel Robideaux said Thursday that he is uncertain whether he will push forward with legislation that would allow the state to insure the lives of state workers.
House Bill 386 generated criticism by state retirement system officials, some of whom called the proposal morbid.
Robideaux, No Party-Lafayette, said the uproar is not influencing him. He said he is uncertain whether the proposal pitched to him by lobbyists for tax attorneys would even work.
“I’m not convinced it’s a good investment,” he said.
HB386 would give the state retirement systems what is known as an insurable interest in its members and retirees.
Insurable interest determines who can apply for life insurance policies. The law limits who can be the beneficiary on such policies. Spouses can insure spouses. Parents or guardians can insure children in their care.
The limitations stem from a once common corporate practice of using life insurance policies as tax shelters. Companies would take out policies on employees without their knowledge and without any payout for their families. The benefits were derided as “dead peasant” policies because they often targeted low income workers.
Under HB386, the state retirement systems would pay the premiums on life insurance policies in exchange for receiving a portion of the proceeds when a member dies. Workers and retirees could cancel the policies as long as they object within a 10-day timeframe."""
http://www.2theadvocate.com/blogs/politicsblog/121717974.html
Scott SoCal said:I doubt the insurance companies involved will see an insurable interest (which is the basis for any insurance product).
The only way the State could argue there to be an insurable interest would be if each State worker was so valuable to the State in terms of their job function that the employees death would cause financial harm to the State. We know this is not true, so I don't think this will fly.
This seems to be a clever way to bolster the State pension fund in future years when former workers die. If this were presented to me and I were a State worker I would be all for this.... if, by actuary, it would keep the defined benefit plan in place.
If I were the insurance company I would say "no thanks."
redtreviso said:death-derivatives
""(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which bundled and sold billions of dollars of mortgage loans, now want to help investors bet on people’s deaths.
Pension funds sitting on more than $23 trillion of assets are buying insurance against the risk their members live longer than expected. Banks are looking to earn fees from packaging that risk into bonds and other securities to sell to investors. The hard part: Finding buyers willing to take the other side of bets that may take 20 years or more to play out.
“Banks are increasingly looking to offer derivative solutions,” said Nardeep Sangha, 43, chief executive officer of Abbey Life Assurance Co., a London-based Deutsche Bank unit that helps pension funds manage the risk of retirees living longer than expected. “Making the long maturity of the risks palatable for investors, including sovereign wealth funds, private-equity firms and specialist funds, is the challenge.”
As insurers reach the limit of how much pension-fund liability they’re willing to shoulder, companies such as JPMorgan and Prudential Plc (PRU) last year set up a trade group aimed at establishing and standardizing a secondary market for so- called longevity risks. They’re also developing indexes that measure mortality rates and securities to let pension funds pay fixed premiums to investors in return for coverage against major deviations from projections.""
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-16/death-derivatives-emerge-from-pension-risks-of-living-too-long.html
Scott SoCal said:This is actually a little scary. When (if) life spans begin to shorten dramatically you will have a pretty good idea why.
redtreviso said:Just think of the equities themselves.. Imagine 2 issues of bundled pension overhead potential debty things.. One group frequents baskin robbins a lot and also buys products from RJ Reynolds and Budweiser.. The other group frequents starbucks and buys products from Pinarello and Vittoria.. The later represents the biggest risk to the pension fund..
Scott SoCal said:Exactly. That's the scary part as the financial incentive will be to manipulate the actuary to lessen the pressure on the pension.
But how do you have an ebola outbreak on only those below 20% body fat??
The Obama administration approved 204 new waivers to Democrats' healthcare reform law over the past month, bringing the total to 1,372.
Beyond irony: Nursing homes need waivers from Obamacare
Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.
Scott SoCal said:Maybe someone can explain this to me.
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/161203-hhs-approves-200-more-new-healthcare-reform-waivers-
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/05/beyond-irony-nursing-homes-need-waiver-obamacare
http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%E2%80%99s-district/
Scott SoCal said:Maybe someone can explain this to me.
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/161203-hhs-approves-200-more-new-healthcare-reform-waivers-
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/05/beyond-irony-nursing-homes-need-waiver-obamacare
http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%E2%80%99s-district/
redtreviso said:death-derivatives
""(Bloomberg) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which bundled and sold billions of dollars of mortgage loans, now want to help investors bet on people’s deaths.
Pension funds sitting on more than $23 trillion of assets are buying insurance against the risk their members live longer than expected. Banks are looking to earn fees from packaging that risk into bonds and other securities to sell to investors. The hard part: Finding buyers willing to take the other side of bets that may take 20 years or more to play out.
“Banks are increasingly looking to offer derivative solutions,” said Nardeep Sangha, 43, chief executive officer of Abbey Life Assurance Co., a London-based Deutsche Bank unit that helps pension funds manage the risk of retirees living longer than expected. “Making the long maturity of the risks palatable for investors, including sovereign wealth funds, private-equity firms and specialist funds, is the challenge.”
As insurers reach the limit of how much pension-fund liability they’re willing to shoulder, companies such as JPMorgan and Prudential Plc (PRU) last year set up a trade group aimed at establishing and standardizing a secondary market for so- called longevity risks. They’re also developing indexes that measure mortality rates and securities to let pension funds pay fixed premiums to investors in return for coverage against major deviations from projections.""
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-16/death-derivatives-emerge-from-pension-risks-of-living-too-long.html
Bala Verde said:It truly is a casino.