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A panel of judges has ruled that subsidies are no longer legal. For millions of Americans, this means they will immediately be slapped with charges up to $800 a month for what many are paying under a hundred…
They will drop their insurance out of necessity, or will be dropped for non-payment.
Republicans are celebrating this…
When the law was written in 2010 it was assumed that all states would do their own exchanges. In states that are doing their own exchanges, there will be no change. That is what the law says and as Republicans say: the law is law….
But for states like Delaware which rightly decided that the Federal exchange would be cheaper for its citizens because of the larger pool, that line in the law was never changed…. It says “state exchanges”… (Remember the law is alleged to be some 15,000 pages long, and is still, believe it or not, something I have not yet read….)
But in one line the word “state” is indeed there and that, according to this particular court, means that it is illegal for the federal exchanges to be subsidized… I have looked, and at this early moment just hours after the decision, there is no confirmation (just estimates) on how many insured that will affect…..
But to all you who were insured in the Federal exchange? Guess what? You got no Obama care….
Map courtesy of Kaiser
To hear the far extremist right saying “ha, ha, ha, suffer bitches” you can go here or here…
Now…
On this same day, another Federal court in the same city, decided this was indeed legal. There were two cases before two different conservative courts, and we got two opposite decisions. It now goes up the next step and will probably hit the Supreme Court. Which should mean that IF insurance companies are willing, the Obamacare program can continue as is until struck down… But as we saw with Obamacare last November, when it comes to making money, private insurance companies are ruthless and lack heart…
Second… to fix this, all we need is a bill put forth, worded like this…. A bill: To amend the ACA Healthcare law by removing the word “state” and inserting “all or any”…..
That will happen in the Senate, but will never happen in the House…. Which is why, in whatever state you read this, you must get Democrats into your Congressional seat… IF you succeed, or if ENOUGH of you succeed, your insurance can and will continue… You will continue to be insured.
Remember it is just one stupid word so don’t be bulldozed by smart-assed Republicans gloating over the “rule of law” .,… (They don’t honor rule of law when it applies to one of their favored corporations….) It can easily be changed… but it must require people sympathetic to Obamacare for it to get passed….. Only Democrats can guarantee you your insurance will continue… Only Democrats.
You must, must make your vote count this November; you must make your friends, neighbors, church goers go to the polls in your behalf; unfriend them if necessary, bitches….. Your entire future depends on this one vote… Seriously, you could be dead next year thanks to your … Republican friends….
This kind…
Doesn’t he have an election coming up soon? If so, how can anyone expect to make a credible run for Attorney General IN THIS STATE, AFTER BEAU BIDEN’S TERM, and be guilty of keeping a tiny little bill, which has no harm but opens all board meetings to being recorded and accessible on line?
Only Simon Barsinister could be against something so inane… Or…. Hmmmmm…. Somebody … With… Something…. To …. Hide….
Hmmm. Now… Why would the surprise future attorney general, be sooooo adamant, even to the point of losing an election over blocking legislation so inane, that all it does is open school boards of all things, open to the public as a service… Anyone can walk into a school board and hear exactly the same thing they’d hear on tape… But sometimes… a diaper needs changed. But sometimes, a family meal needs prepared. Sometimes extra work for the office must be done for deadline the next day…. Darn we say now….I guess we won’t get to know what happened…
So why? Why is HB 23 being put on ice as my compatriot Kilroy is found of saying. Who is soooooo scared someone will find out what is really going on in school board meetings? Is it Charlie Copeland? Is it Mark Murphy? Is it… Darryl Scott? Is it Pete Schwartzkoph?
Hmmm. I wonder if it has any sponsors in the General Assembly right now?
HOLY MOLY!!!!!! LOOK AT THIS!!! Sponsors: Hudson, Sen. Peterson, Reps. Dukes, D. Short, Miro, Peterman, Wilson, Baumbach, Bennett, Mitchell, K. Williams; Sens. Hocker, Lavelle, Simpson, Townsend….
Is Pete Schwartzkoph there?….. No…… Is Bryon Short there? ….. No…… Is Melanie George Smith there?….. No…… Is Valarie Longhurst there?……. No…… Is Darryl Scott there? … No….Is Earl Jacques there?…… No Is Patty Blevins there? …… No…… Is Quentin Johnson there? …. No…. is John Viola there?…… No…. Is Ernie Lopez there?….. No?
Hmmmmmm… What do those all have in common…… 🙂 Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…. Do they all drink their coconut milk imbibed with lime? …. No….. Do they all call each other up and wear the same color of underwear each daily session?…… No…… Ummm. Do they all have the same Delaware extension tatoo’d to their buttocks?….. Ummmm…..M a y… b e…….
It is someone with a lot to hide; that is for sure… And it is nobody from here:
Red Clay, Christina, Capital, Delmar, Brandywine and Colonial currently already voluntarily record their board meetings! As well as the Delaware State Board of Education records their meetings!
So why is this something that has to be kept secret, and never brought to pass?….. Because we are not talking about individuals VOTING on a bill…They could vote YEA or NEA and it wouldn’t matter! What concerns us and you, is the pure morality of KEEPING A BILL FROM BEING VOTED FOR YOU BECAUSE IT WILL PASS….
So according to its sponsor, Deborah Hudson, Matt Denn is sitting on this bill…. He is doing it to protect someone else, to whom perhaps he is loyal…. How seriously then, were a procedural crime to be committed requiring a judicial investigation, can he be trusted to dig and search for the truth instead of whitewashing the whole affair to protect this same someone, when he can’t even be trusted to get a vote for heaven’s sakes….on a voice recording of school board meetings, out on to the floor for a vote? Let that sink in for a second…. Really?
Put all else aside….. Really?
IS that really the kind of attorney general we want after Beau Biden…. a crony?
Really? He’s going to throw his whole career away …. on that?
Really? Why would he do that? But it is definite a campaign issue, like blocking the GW bridge, one that resonates and will stick, because EVERY parent has a child in school….Whether they would ever listen themselves or not, this concerns them now… They too will question: why is Matt Denn, who is running for Attorney General, trying so hard to keep information regarding my kid and his friends, from ever being made public??? Hmmmmm….
Seriously, this blemishes his entire pro-family image he developed while serving as our insurance commissioner. This makes him one of the snakes….. with those evil eyes…..
Thursday it was released that 200 pounds of Sulfur Dioxide was accidentally released from the Delaware City’s PBF refinery..
It was allegedly caused by a mechanical malfunction at the facility ….. Sulfur Dioxide when mixed with H2O creates Sulfuric Acid. Air is full of water. So are our lungs.
Bloomsberg reported on October 9, 2013 that Delaware City was postponing its Sulfur Dioxide fix till late 2014. The refinery, which was initially expected to do the work as part of maintenance that month (October 2013), was halting its replacement of an exchanger on the sulfur unit, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t to be made public. … Work was pushed up one year to October 2014.
Had that work been done in a timely fashion, the Thursday’s reported release would never have occurred……..
According to Bloomsberg’s sources, a coker, crude unit and hydrocracker, a hydrogen plant and desulfurizer, were all originally scheduled for maintenance upgrades last fall. Upon receiving costs estimates it was decided to split the job up to cover two fiscal cycles, and the desulfurizer maintenance was pushed to the next fiscal year. It was known by upper management that this would necessitate a release of SO2 because of accumulations caused by the outdated equipment. Another release is tentatively planned for September, just before work started.
Due to wind conditions, the only Delawareans affected would be those downwind. Only 1713 people live downwind from Delaware City’s gas crackers. 853 men, 860 women.
The average amount of SO2 from an oil burning plant, is 12 pounds per MWh…. Natural Gas is a hundred times less. About one percent of oil and that amounts to .12 pounds or 1 ounce per MWh… Therefore 200 pounds of SO2 released is equivalent to 19 hours running at a one megawatt hour oil fired plant running full kilter… At a 248 MWh natural gas plant (TDC) running full kilter 24/7, it would be the equivalent of… (248 MWh X .12 lbs SO2/ MWh ) = 29.76 pounds of SO2 per hour….
So on one hand this may not seem like much… The 200 pound release is only the equivalent of 6.7 hours of a natural gas fired power plant running at full steam night and day…. precisely 6 hours and 43 minutes…. less than most of us sleep per night….
On the other hand that is quite a bit. The Newark power plant will spew out a level of what this report implies, is considered a toxic release requiring DNREC oversight, FOUR TIMES EVERY SINGLE 24 HOUR DAY!
President Harker wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times this toxic release at Delaware City, every single day.
Governor Markell wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out frou times the toxic release at Delaware City, every single day.
The Delaware Chamber of Commerce wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times the toxic release of Delaware City every single day.
The Hammer and Nails Club wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times the toxic release of Delaware City, every single day.
Sam Latham of the AFL-CIO, wants to build a power plant in town that will spew out four times the toxic release of Delaware City, every single day.
Everyone wearing green and holding green signs, is looking the other way when it comes to having this toxic release, occurring ongoing in the heart of Newark, every, single day…..
Whereas only 1713 people due to geography could be even remotely affected from the Delaware city spill, 41 times that amount or 70,500 will inhale 4 times that amount every single day, because of someone’s brilliant idea of building a 248 MWh plant right inside the center of town…
Pure brilliance. President Harker. Pure brilliance.
Although it is too complex to delineate here, after crunching numbers and possibilities there is dominant weight towards the idea that more Russian intrusions are planned for Ukraine…
In the terms of pure power, a language Russia understands, sanctions will not do the trick…Sanctions didn’t work on Saddam. Sanctions didn’t work on Syria. Both were under Russian influence. Therefore in language they understand, we will need boots on the ground in Ukraine.
- It is time to pull the A-10’s back out of retirement and put them in place inside of Ukraine.
- As soldiers return from Afghanistan, we will need to extend their tours a little longer and put them in Ukraine.
- We need to be clear our armies are defensive and not offensive. We can do that thorough our logistics which they can read.
- We need Americans on the ground inside those Russian territories most prone to invasion, and they will need to be on their best behavior to win friends and influence people…. Since they will no longer have to abide by Shari Law , I don’t think that will be a problem…
If the orders or plans have not yet been drawn, they need to be done ASAP.
This should be seen as a non aggressive force, but a deciding one. Sort of like how bouncers gather around a shouting match in numbers to help convince both parties that they really, really, really, really, don’t want to come to blows….
But if left alone as two voices in a vacuum, the fight will break out and it becomes much harder to then establish the peace.. Which is why , right now, we need boots on the ground somewhere in Ukraine’s Russian Territories… It is past time to realize the verbal assurances we have been given simply could be a stall for time… That is usually how it is done when you hear words but fail to see the actions accompanying them, in this case, the backing down of troops along the border.
As with a bar fight, the fastest and quickest way to ensure a lasting peace, is to have a solid physical threat close at hand, very visible to the perpetrators, so the fallout from their actions is readily assessed both scaring them and giving them the will to back down…Bringing in the Chinese would again, be the smartest thing. It is time for China to become a world player and with their future economic status briefly on shaky ground, I imagine they would appreciate the gesture and opportunity….
Plus it would take their eye off the China Sea for a while as well.
Finally, we can use this as a reason to ram higher taxes past the Republicans, by appealing to the patriotism of the American people, they won’t pay, the top 1% will… We earmark the tax increase to the military, and we paint all those Republicans who balk as being weak and unpatriotic Americans, willing to squander our troops in the face of a Russian threat…. If we play our cards correctly, we can pass that high rate of taxation, by calling it a war tax, sunset it after 10 years, and slip in marginal rates as high as up to 90 or 100%… We did the last big war… Tell America that this time, they won’t have to fight a war on a deficit. Our wealthy will happily pay our way in advance….
Domestically we should see great economic movement as we race to restaff defense plants, and get those contracts passed and rolling to upgrade our defense force, perhaps before October of this year…
But it all starts with boots on the ground in Ukraine… This we must do quickly.
Courtesy of Kaiser Foundation
Should you live or die from an accident or life threatening illness? Depends apparently on where you live… If you live in the Blue, you survive. If you live in the Orange, goodbye… Simple, clear, concise.
Served to you courtesy of ALEC and the Republican Party of the United States of America
Uninsured percentage is lowest since 2008….. This is what was driving costs upwards and now? … they are insured…..
God bless Obamacare, and all those individuals who kept it moving forward into reality. We are truly witnessing something amazing in our times….
“Our classes aren’t divided equally. If you want us to have merit pay, you’ve got to base all our classrooms equally and give all teachers a chance to achieve those standards but it’s not set up that way. It never has been. “
“I’ve been teaching for nineteen years and I’ve had more evaluations this year than I had my first year of teaching. You are welcome in our classroom anytime. I want to be accountable. I am accountable,… but do it fairly,”
We’ve just watched the Olympics… What if any skier could start where they wanted to on the slope. As long as they had the shortest time, they won gold. What if a speed skater could skate as many times around the oval as he desired, and yet the shortest total time won?
Who would watch? No one. Because it is not fair… Obviously if you are going to give merit pay to teachers, you have to have equal arrangements… An equal start where you begin. An equal finish where you end. You can’t give one person all good students, and another all bad students, and golf-clap and pay the lucky one more? Perhaps lucky as she was, when it comes to teacher qualities, she isn’t the best one?
But how do you know? You certainly can’t tell from the test scores… because like a fake Olympics, you neglected to designate a starting line…
One seriously has to wonder if anyone thought merit pay through… Seriously! Did anyone really sit down for a day, play devils advocate, and think merit pay through?
Or did we base our whole system” on something that somebody said, because they though they fit together walking…. “, that is merit pay and teaching?
Do all teachers start with the same number of students in classes? Do all teachers start with the same spread of IQ’s across all their students? Do all teachers start with exactly the same low income mix in every classroom? Do all teachers start with exactly the same mix of non English students? Do all teachers start with the same number of Hispanics? Afro-Americans? American Indians? Asians? Caucasians?
What no? Then like the Olympics above, how can you say, whoopee, you win the gold?
Merit Pay will be the death of real education….
Last night the Delaware Educational establishment made a major push the Smarter Balanced Assessments. From a marketing point of view, I’m sure they consider it a success…..
If education was water… it went something like this…
Darrell Q Public……. Wait, you are taking water from the tap, putting it into a bottle, and selling it as a gourmet item?
Delaware Educational Establishment: Perhaps, but look, isn’t that water so clear? And look, see how those bubbles when you shake it, reflect the rainbow colors like a prism? And look, see the beautiful shape of the bottle? We tapered it to fit your hand. And look, we used 5 colors of ink in our labels to accent the colors you might see if you shake our water in the sun. We took regular water, and made it into something special, magical, something that is truly unique. If you want plain old water, go get that anywhere… this is special for all those reasons above….
Darrell Q. Public (from some of his tweets)….. Oh wow… That is so much better than water. I becoming a big fan. I want to take lots and lots of it home. I want to bath in it. I want it in my swimming pool it is so wonderful….
Yes, It sort of went like that…….
Have you ever seen those pumped up late night infomercials which hype a product so well that you want it, and you call immediately to save $30 dollars off a $730 order? Because you had to act right then, because they actually had… operators standing buy?
Yes, it sort of went like that……
Have you ever been to a carnival, and the barkers in the game trailers point you out, and draw you over telling you how easily you can win, all you have to do is flip a penny into goldfish bowl with a very small opening, but if you get one, keep trying for the fifth, and you will own the stuffed animal of your dreams? You spend $50 dollars on a $16 dollar toy?
Yes, it sort of went like that…..
For when you strip the myths from the man, when you remove the magic cloak, when you focus on the total outcome….. here were the four reasons we have to switch to the Smarter Balanced Assessments…..
- We now don’t test the skills and knowledge required for college and career readiness.
- We need a test that measures students progress to college and career readiness throughout the k-12 experience.
- This moves us away from test primarily assessing by multiple choice questions.
- The new test requires application better measuring student knowledge skills.
The fifth reason and the only reason we are going forward with this program in reality,…. it this one….
- We’ve already paid for the test using your money, and so we have to use it. $8,000,000 we paid last year alone!
So keep thinking about the tap water analogy while we dissect his reasoning one by one…
A. We now don‘t test the skills and knowledge required for college and career readiness.
We don’t test for the skills and knowledge required for “college and career readiness”? SAT’s? NYEP’s, ACT’s? . “College and career readiness” is a trademarked slogan representing the mark of 1550 on the SAT. It is a mark. In fact, we never have tested all public schools for 1550 on the SAT… If you take the entire population and rate them with an intelligence test, and create a bell curve of every American’s intelligence, 1550 sits right on the 65% line…
65% of the population, both children and adults, they arbitrarily say, are not capable of hitting the benchmark being proposed… Is that why we are sending our kids to school? It begs the question…. More graphically expressed,… should every child be forced to go to Harvard? Or Yale? Or a school of their equivalence? Those regular inner city children at Harvard and Yale, how will they do? Is being exposed to something too far advanced for them to understand,… , helpful to them?
This standard was created out of very thin air. It could have been the 50% level, which would then lower our failure rate to half of America. it could be at even lower as of around the 33% level, but probably, since we are talking about placing a stigma on all those who fail, we should put passing at just where we think it is needed to sort out a) who can function in our society, and b) who needs extra care.
All this “College and Career Ready” nonsense is doing is moving the bar. if you were an A student, you will now be a B- one at the stroke of a key. If you were at a C, you will now be an F+ one… What you know, what you learn, won’t change, doesn’t have to change. That stays the same. All that is happening is that you get a lower grade for the same work and will now be called stupider, and those who were A+ students will now have to work a little to make sure they stay at the top of the curve. For that top slot now becomes narrower. But there will always be an A student; someone has to anchor the top….
It’s the equivalent of saying Sallie may think they’re a good football team, but they couldn’t hold their own against the Eagles, so we will rate High School Football by how well they can perform in the NFL today… Which means we will need a new test,
So what the Delaware Educational Establishment is saying in plank one, is we chose to set the bar higher (so we could fire teachers we said weren’t meeting it) and now we need a test that is harder, (so it makes the students look dumber, and we can then fire those teachers who are not creating top notch students)….. Got it?
B. We need a test that measures students progress to college and career readiness throughout the k-12 experience.
Do we? Really? The DSTP didn’t? Of course they did. The DCAS didn’t? Of course they did! The old tests created by the teachers when we were children, didn’t prepare us for college and career? Of course they did!…….. What is being said here, is that since we can’t just fire 11th grade teachers, who are the last ones on the testing ladder. We need harder tests all down the line to kindergarten, so if any teacher is not making her children look good on them, we can fire her and hire someone who can make children look good on them…. So children who are A students, but listed as C+ now in kindergarten, will have to order remedial tutoring to learn the secrets of the new test and climb back upon the pedistle of being an A student again. I hope her parents are rich…. So, do we really need new tests from kindergarten up that essentially test the same thing we have been ( what 2+2 isn’t 4 now?) In reality. No.
C. This moves us away from test primarily assessing by multiple choice questions.
This is the one good thing. There is a downside. Not so much in mathematics where a number answer is right and no interpretation is needed. However interpretation is what ELA is all about. The grader of a child’s ELA written test grades 1000’s of tests in each single workday. He has 5 seconds to rate your child a 3 or 4… It is done by skimming, and if the rubric is not followed, the score is lowered. If you were to grade this essay I am now writing… What would you give it? Why? See, that is a problem we have to cross. And as we have seen, due to the scale of hiring so many people to grade all these tests, it won’t be done. Cut labor cost, give more multiple choice questions….
D. The new test requires application better measuring student knowledge skills. What this means is can a student fill out a real life dilemma? So it tests them on that. What we have found, is that the problemsit gives are rather simple math, and the explanations of what to find in the question, are tortuous and difficult. Imagine doing a math problem with all the instructions given in Chinese? It is like that. As an adult, it is hard to understand what the question is asking…… But the math is rather poor. In fact, currently the math curriculum is eliminating Algebra II. Almost every graduate currently takes algebra II. Under Common Core, their math level will stop at the level of Algebra I….
Which brings up this conundrum. Why if our standards are not high enough now, are we applying a new curriculum to Math, which sets a lower bar from what we now do?
The reason is simple.
E. We already paid for it before we knew what it was, We bought magic beans in other words. All we can do is now climb this beanstalk and see if there is anything up there we can steal to get our money back…
So it is one thing to try and sell tap water for something better… If that is one’s job, one needs to do it well. But the rest of us need to keep our heads, and as Darrel Q. Public, remain skeptical over this selling of tap water in fancy new bottles… If we are buying it for the bottle, for the label, then say so.. I’ll admit. I’ve bought beer and wine for that very reason. Just don’t think the H2O is any different…. or that your children will become Einsteins from drinking it…. .
Most of us never call after the infomercial goes off the air. Just the occasional dumb ones do.
Hey, Joe… we need you to vote this way on this one… oh, ok.
Versus…..
Hey Steve… we need you to vote this way on this one…. Why?
I’d certainly prefer someone who uses thought and logic to determine what is best for all, as opposed to someone who simply holds space and takes orders from those higher up… I believe you do too….
This was a surprise. Today the Federal Appeals Court ruled against the FCC, and for Comcast and Verizon and AT&T…….
If you’ve always loved your cable company, XOXOXO, then have no fear. But….if they have ever pissed you off in your lifetime, GRRRRRR, …be afraid, very afraid.
Essentially what this ruling “could do” is give them unlimited power over what you see, or not see on the internet….. As well as unlimited power over what they can charge for the privilege (no longer your right) to see what ever it is they choose to show you…..
The internet is set become another payola as was the radio…. no matter what station you tune, you hear the same 10 songs, unless of course, you always listened to WVUD….. And the reason you hear the same 10 songs, is because those record companies paid the 10 highest fees to the corporate entity overseeing the music selection….
Now do you see where we are headed?
Ever heard of Netflicks? Of course you have. Dump your stock. They will now be charged between $75- 115 million extra a year, just to have their movies carried by Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T..
Prefer to use Google over the Alta Vista search engine on the Comcast Site? Expect to pay a premium. Wish to see a video from your children in South Africa? Expect to pay for it…. YouTube? Will now be pay in advance….
At stake is “common carriage”. It is a centuries old premise that if someone operates in the public arena, one must allow all the same option to use it. One can’t for example, run a ferry and not allow his mother in law to cross, or Ted Cruz… If one is providing a public service, under common carriage principles he must not discriminate between parties….
This was one of the tenants that helped strike down bus segregation in the Old South, the fact that this age old principle was violated.
However… what happened…. was in 2005, the Supreme Court in their “Brand X” decision, decided that broadband (and wireless), was NOT a common carriage entity under existing law… Phones, yes; old cable, yes; but broadband… no… The current court used that decision to say that since broadband was NOT a regulate common carrier provider (even though obviously it is), it did not have to comply with the common carriage principles every other entity has to follow….. Broadband is not a telecommunications network, and therefore FCC rules DO NOT APPLY.
The 2011 FCC rules being challenged in this court case, essentially state that broadband providers cannot block competing traffic on their network or discriminate against another company’s services that ride over its network in order to benefit its own competing services.
Here are the fears.
This happened immediately after the decision. Try going to the EFF site, Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization hostile to corporate takeover of the internet. It takes 5 minutes to load each page, and all other sites take under a second. I tried it repeatedly with always the same results. Prior to the decision, it had always been in an instant. So obviously now that companies can do what ever they want, any website critical or your cable company, is getting dissed… (No wonder Chris Coons uncharacteristically is sucking up to the Cable Industry.) If Christine O’Donnell runs again, she will be the only candidate in the race, according to the internet…. unless you do “their” bidding.
Mozilla responded with this…
And that is the solution. The FCC can simply redirect broadband and wireless to be back in the public domain, and net neutrality can continue.
Or Congress can pass legislation demanding he same.
Or the Supreme Court can overturn the Appeals Court’s decision.
It comes down to our rights to free access of knowledge, versus a corporation’s right to make money. As has been the trend lately, the Court decided the trump suit was a corporation’s right to make money….
kavips 