Arkansas Disenfranchises Legitimate Voters

On By southwerkIn Editorial

1859_Colton_Map_of_Arkansas_-_Geographicus_-_Arkansas-colton-1860Arkansas Disenfranchises Legitimate Voters

The curse of fake voter fraud strikes innocent Arkansans. I went and had a look at the opposing sides on this controversy. Those who say there is hardly any voter fraud at all can call forth an utterly impressive array of factual data. How about the other side? They explain with breathless enthusiasm that millions and millions of dead Americans are on the voting rolls and therefore there could be a lot of voter fraud although the cases prosecuted number in the tens.

Maybe I’m just not the kind of bold thinker that the proponents of voter ID are, but it seems to me that if you are worried about dead people on the voting, it should be simple matter of computer matching of state databases to remove them from the roles. Am I mistaken? Wouldn’t it just be simpler to let state and county computers go through the voting rolls and remove the dead than taking the risk of disenfranchising legitimate voters?

Of course, a cynical person might believe that the legislature is seeking to make it more difficult to vote for the young, the poor, the old and minorities. However, it is obvious that the upstanding members of the Arkansas legislature would not attack any right as sacred as the right to vote. So, there must be another explanation.

James Pilant

Arkansas County Disenfranchises 1 In 5 Absentee Voters Thanks To Voter ID | ThinkProgress

Last Tuesday, voters in Pulaski County, Arkansas voted on whether to approve a tax that would fund improvements at a local technical college. Yet, nearly 20 percent of the voters who cast an absentee ballot were disenfranchised thanks to the state’s new voter ID law.

In 2013, the Arkansas legislature enacted a voter ID law containing a provision requiring absentee voters to include a copy of their ID along with their ballot. The result, according to a statement Pulaski County Election Commissioner Chris Burks gave to the Arkansas Times, is that 76 of the 384 absentee ballots cast in last Tuesday’s election were not counted. Burks added that, “[i]n my opinion, those absentee ballots returned without ID were 76 real people’s votes that would have otherwise counted but for the sloppily drafted Voter ID bill.”

via Arkansas County Disenfranchises 1 In 5 Absentee Voters Thanks To Voter ID | ThinkProgress.

From around the web.

From the web site, Charles O’Halloran Boyd.

http://charlesohalloranboyd.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/reflections-on-voter-id-laws/

Another reason I have for opposing voter ID laws is their disproportionate impact on minority voters. Any policy that is enacted with the goal of preventing people of a certain race from voting obviously ought to be vehemently opposed. But given the history of racial discrimination and disenfranchisement in this country, it is also imperative that we try to avoid policies that have even an unintentional impact disproportionately on voters of a certain race. In order to continue to move closer toward a more racially egalitarian society, it is important to have a multitude of voters of all races. I would also state that while, as I mentioned earlier, some supporters of voter ID laws are well meaning and non-racist, others are certainly racist and working to disenfranchise minority voters. Not long ago, Mississippi had a governor named Haley Barbour who venerated Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy and had documented ties with the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Barbour was also in support of voter ID laws, and I do not think I am being overly judgmental to conclude that he had nefarious motivations. A somewhat similar case exists in my native state of Georgia. Back when he was making an unfortunately successful attempt to get elected, our current Governor Nathan Deal was championing our state’s voter ID law and let his true feelings be known. “We got all the complaints of the ghetto grandmothers who didn’t have birth certificates and all that,” Deal said, derisively. While in office, he has promoted “Confederate History Month” and called an attempt from a liberal organization to gain his endorsement for a racially integrated prom (frighteningly, segregation of high school proms is still an issue in the South) a “silly publicity stunt.” Again, Deal’s motives don’t look so good. The country has made a great deal of progress when it comes to achieving universal suffrage and breaking down racial barriers to voting. But voter ID laws are a step in the wrong direction, and they must be repealed.

Pilant’s Business Ethics Gets a Facelift!!

On By southwerkIn Editorial
James Pilant
James Pilant

Pilant’s Business Ethics Gets a Facelift!!

I have revised the web site to improve your viewing and reading experience. My new upgrades put me on the cutting edge of blog design. I am looking forward to another year of blogging and I hope you come along for the experience.

I try to look at business ethics from a macro point of view. It is not just the individual act that must worry us but the international and national effects of corporate policy and unethical behavior. We live in a time of massive power shifts, large economic units competing with nation states for political influence and control. We live in a time where the rules that govern our behavior are under challenge. There are those that believe that religion, the great philosophies, and the moral beliefs of the large population are irrelevant. They believe that each moral decision must be considered under all circumstances by individuals.

No. Some things are wrong, evil per se. You don’t have to analyze them. You don’t have to consider them in the light of all the circumstances. You have an obligation to act responsibly to every other human being. We all have a duty to our nation and our fellow citizens. What’s more, religion is a guide in many people’s lives and is relevant. The great philosophies like virtue ethics will always be effective and intelligent guides to human behavior. And there is a wisdom that resides in the general populations about ethics matters.

My writing is along those lines and I don’t have any apologies for not writing about these issues in a purely academic style. There is a certain pleasure in being plain spoken.

Nevertheless I believe as time goes by that as I learn more about the subject in an academic format that my writing may turn more in that direction. We’ll see.

My thanks for your kind patronage!!

James Alan Pilant

 

Minimum Wage is Pathetically Low

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice2 Comments

c27aMinimum Wage is Pathetically Low

You can read it below: last years banker’s bonuses were twice the entire income of all those making the minimum wage.

Certainly, this should be considered evidence that the minimum wage is set too low. A good argument can be made that the social utility of what minimum wage earners do is far superior in benefits for our larger society than investment banking and some of the practices of regular banking.

It’s important to think about fairness and just deserts when dealing with this issue. In this country, the game is tilted toward those with influence and power. The minimum wage workers hardly register on either of those scales.

It is for the rest of us to add to their voice, to sometimes be their voice. What isn’t fair for our fellow Americans is a part of our responsibility.

We are not individual atoms floating in some kind of cosmic vacuum. We live, work and thrive with other people and those connections are important and a big part of what we consider civilization.

James Pilant

New report: Bankers’ bonuses more than double full-time minimum wage workers’ pay – Salon.com

The $26.7 billion spent on Wall Street bonuses last year was greater than the entire 2012 income of America’s full-time minimum wage workforce, according to a new report from the progressive Institute for Policy Studies.

Had that $26.7 billion instead gone to increased wages for the country’s 1,085,000 full-time minimum wage workers, writes report author Sarah Anderson, those workers’ wages ($15.1 billion total in 2012) would have more than doubled. Anderson estimates that such a raise for minimum wage workers would have done much more than bank bonuses to spur economic growth: In contrast to a $10.4 billion multiplier effect from the payouts to bankers, she calculates a $32.3 billion multiplier if the cash had gone into the pockets of those now making $7.25.

via New report: Bankers’ bonuses more than double full-time minimum wage workers’ pay – Salon.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Arindrajit Dube.

http://arindube.com/2014/01/22/the-poverty-of-minimum-wage-facts/

So to take stock, if you consider the Sabia and Burkhauser simulation results  as “facts” you also are claiming that no worker reporting a wage below the old minimum will get a raise, and no one above the new minimum will get a raise. These are not very good assumptions, and they certainly are not facts.

Of course, you don’t have to make these assumptions. You could allow for spillovers. You could allow for wages to rise below the minimum. You could allow for measurement error in reported wages and other sources of income. But then you are not in a world where tabulating survey data gives you simple facts that are beyond reproach. You need to make additional assumptions to make causal claims. And we have not even begun to talk about behavioral effects—be they on labor demand side, or on labor supply side such worker search effort, etc. (And by the way those do not all go in the same direction.)  So you could add a lot more assumptions and continue with the simulation route, or you could use quasi-experimental approach used in almost all of applied micro-economics to empirically estimate the effect of minimum wages on poverty and other outcomes.  Of course, you would want to subject your identifying assumptions to specification checks and falsification tests to ensure you have reliable control groups; and you would account for possibly confounding policies such as state EITCs. And when you do all of that, and some more, you would probably end up with a paper like this one.

So where does this leave us?   As I said in my paper, policies like cash transfers, food stamps, and EITC are better targeted to help the poor, although even there minimum wages are better thought of as complements and not substitutes. More generally, however, motivations behind minimum wage policies go beyond reducing poverty. The popular support for minimum wages is in part fueled by a desire to raise earnings of low and moderate income families more broadly, and by fairness concerns that seek to limit the extent of wage inequality, or employers’ exercise of market power.  And the evidence suggests is that attaining such goals through increasing minimum wages is also consistent with a modest reduction in poverty, and moderate increases in family incomes at the bottom.

The U.S. Government is Spreading Malware

On By southwerkIn corruption

003thThe U.S. Government is Spreading Malware

Some years ago, I predicted the government was reading all of our e-mails and looking at our financial records. I thought I was on the edge of the curve, understanding what others did not. I was wrong. I only anticipated the edge of the iceberg. Those crazy bureaucrats sucked up more information than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

And now our pseudo-protectors are planting malware in our computers to evade our protections.

They are deliberately sabotaging our property. Others can piggyback in on the holes they are making in our anti-virus programs. They are making all of us vulnerable to hacking and theft.

Isn’t this a crime? If not, shouldn’t it be?

James Pilant

Mark Zuckerberg: US government surveillance is a threat to the internet | Technology | theguardian.com

The billionaire CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, criticised US government surveillance in a Facebook post on Thursday, saying it was a “threat” to the internet – and revealed he had called Barack Obama personally to air his concerns.

Zuckerberg made his remarks a day after the The Intercept website reported that the NSA has been using automated systems to spread malware over the internet, sometimes using “fake” Facebook servers.

“The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday. “They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.”

In the post, Zuckerberg said he had called Obama to express his “frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future” and said he was confused by the government’s actions.

“The internet works because most people and companies do the same. We work together to create this secure environment and make our shared space even better for the world,” he wrote.

He went on: “This is why I’ve been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.”

via Mark Zuckerberg: US government surveillance is a threat to the internet | Technology | theguardian.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Setanta Solutions.

http://setantablog.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/russian-government-accused-of-making-malware/

German computer security and antivirus detection company G Data Security has alleged that the Russian goverment has created, or has contributed to the creation of the newly detected malware known as “Uroburos”.

G Data bases its allegations on the Russian governement in the complexity of the malware and the presence of Cyrillic words in the malware sample. File names, encryption keys, and the behaviour of Uroburos are also being used to support G Data’s claim.

Another key piece of “evidence” according to G Data blogger “MN”, is that Uroburos functions by looking for a piece of malware that has been tied to Russia (although not its government conclusively).

The Flight of the Morpheus

On By southwerkIn Editorial

The Flight of the Morpheus

Morpheus is a lander similar in a way to the lunar lander that took Neil Armstrong to the surface of the moon. Watch the film. It’s pretty.

James Pilant

Morpheus test bed: NASA lander completes another test flight.

Over the weekend I wrote about Morpheus, a very cool vertical takeoff and lander being used to test advanced navigation for potential landings on asteroids and moons. On March 11, 2014, Morpheus made another short test flight that’s every centimeter as amazing as the first one:

via Morpheus test bed: NASA lander completes another test flight..

From around the web.

From the web site, Ibrahim El Merehbi.

http://elmerehbi.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/morpheus-and-loon-projects/

Morpheus is a vertical test bed vehicle demonstrating new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. Designed, developed, manufactured and operated in-house by engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Morpheus Project represents not only a vehicle to advance technologies, but also an opportunity to try out “lean development” engineering practices.

Boomers are Doomed. I know.

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

004dBoomers are Doomed. I know.

Just face it. The nation would probably be better off if the Baby Boomers had stayed in the womb. And yes, I am one of them. We took a nation with a thriving middle class and made it into the current economic nightmare. They should make all of us put an asterisk on our tombstones and a little note at the bottom – Part of a Generation that looked after the individual and forgot humanity.

I look to my students and tell them they are the great hope of this nation. I tell them they bear the responsibility of fixing the failures of my generation.

I’m trying to build a future for this country, one student at a time.

And let me tell you another thing – if there was ever an entitlement generation, it was mine not this one. We went to college when it was virtually free and absorbed a host of government benefits virtually all of which we deny this generation. And if this clearly hypocritical and nation damaging behavior wasn’t enough, we shower disdain and contempt on our young people.

We were always looking to find ourselves, the latest self help books, cultish belief systems, fashionable get rich quick schemes, self interest politics and a fascination with style over substance.

I’ll write about this more later. I’ve too much anger for one post and I want to think about it some more. There are a number of things that were admirable about my generation and it would not be fair to ignore those.

James Pilant

Baby Boomers retirement: Why Boomers are doomed.

“No one wants to talk about just how unprepared the Baby Boomer generation is for the years when they will no longer be able to work,” Oppenheimer’s John Stoltzfus told Business Insider in a recent interview.

Now he’s laying out reasoning. Here’s Stoltzfus’ 11 reasons to be concerned about this aging demographic:

  1. The wholesale demise or dismantling of traditional defined benefit pension programs by corporations looking to cut expenses and liabilities that has occurred in the past 10 to 15 years.
  2. The widespread underuse of 401(k) plans (defined contribution plans) by eligible plan participants as well as those who qualify for but don’t enroll in 401(k) plans at all. We’d note that 401(k) plans often replace traditional pension plans when an employer closes the defined benefit plan but still wants to offer employees a retirement savings plan in the employment benefit menu.
  3. Potential for increasingly later age requirements ahead to get full Social Security benefits as Washington lawmakers work to preserve the program for Boomers and generations that follow.
  4. Reduced cost of living increases likely ahead for those receiving benefits in a pro-austerity environment.
  5. A pronounced and general ignorance by the general public of the importance of asset allocation and long-term planning in allocating money within 401(k) plans.
  6. The tendency for 401(k) participants to select low yielding nonfluctuating choices on 401(k) menus as a result of the tech bubble, the financial crisis of 2008, other past bubbles, along with prominent news items that accentuate the negatives of investing vs. the positives in a landscape of job insecurity.
  7. General lack of discipline and commitment to a personal investment program by many individuals either as a result of job insecurity or personal choice.
  8. Emphasis by too many individuals on DIY programs that focus mostly on fee containment and present the individual with programs heavy on brochures or website generalities and little access to the 1:1 or team capabilities available from experienced market and retirement professionals.
  9. Taking early distributions from 401(k) plans to meet nonemergency needs.
  10. Taking early distributions from 401(k) plans as the result of personal emergencies tied to job loss, health, and other unavoidable issues.
  11. Low interest rates in traditional savings vehicles and in much of fixed income product over the past five years that has compounded the likely problem ahead instead of compounding the money placed in them.

via Baby Boomers retirement: Why Boomers are doomed..

From around the web.

From the web site, Larry Gross Online.

http://larry5154.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/a-baby-boomer-thinking-about-his-kids-and-the-younger-generation/

’m a baby boomer and while I used to associate those two words with being young, I no longer can fool myself. Being a baby boomer now means I’m older.

Being older also means not understanding young people—at least not all the time. I think this is why I found this article on The Huffington Post sort of interesting. It gives five reasons why we, the boomers, don’t understand young people. Of course, there are more than five reasons but it’s a start.

You can click here to read the article, then, when you come back, I’ve got some comments on three of the five reasons why us boomers don’t understand young people. I’ll wait for you.

Merkel Effect!!

On By southwerkIn Editorial1 Comment

CapitolBuilding_000Merkel Effect!!

The Merkel effect is when you are an elected official and the fact that intelligence agencies have probed into every aspect of the citizens’ lives doesn’t so much as raise a frown but when that same politician discovers she has been surveiled, the outrage rises to the boiling point.

Well. our pseudo-defenders and NSA enablers are having a hissy fit today.

Make no mistake. This is a form of justice. What kind of fool thinks that empowering the intelligence agencies to do every kind of evil and stupidity wouldn’t wind up back on their doorstep? Spying on me doesn’t really get an intelligence agency much. But spy on a member of Congress and get something on them; well that’s a different deal. Think of J. Edgar Hoover and the days of really excellent FBI budgets. It is fun to have something on an occasional Congressman and even better if you get put them all under the microscope.

Let’s see if our outraged Congress will actually do anything. After all, the NSA, etc. have probably already got a lot on them.

James Pilant

Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a staunch defender of government surveillance of ordinary citizens, took to the Senate floor Tuesday with the stunning accusation that the Central Intelligence Agency may have violated federal law to spy on Congress.

Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, railed against the CIA for compromising the legislative branch’s oversight role — a theme echoed by many of her Senate colleagues throughout the day. The outrage was palpable among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and some suggested CIA Director John Brennan should resign if the allegations are true. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has stuck up for intelligence agencies in the past, declared a potential war.

“This is Richard Nixon stuff,” Graham told reporters. “This is dangerous to the democracy. Heads should roll, people should go to jail if it’s true. If it is, the legislative branch should declare war on the CIA.”

When former contractor Edward Snowden revealed last year that the National Security Agency was secretly collecting phone and electronic records from millions of ordinary Americans, the response in Congress was far more muted. Top senators insisted the surveillance was critical to U.S. counterterrorism activities.

“It’s called protecting America,” Feinstein said then. Graham said he was glad Verizon was turning over customer records to the government to ensure that his phone was not linked to any terrorist activity.

It was not until reports that the NSA had spied on foreign leaders and allies, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Feinstein offered criticism of the agency’s surveillance.

Snowden said Tuesday it was hypocritical for some lawmakers to finally express anger when the privacy of elected officials was breached.

“It’s clear the CIA was trying to play ‘keep away’ with documents relevant to an investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that’s a serious constitutional concern,” Snowden said in a statement to NBC News. “But it’s equally if not more concerning that we’re seeing another ‘Merkel Effect,’ where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it’s a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them.”

via Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress.

From around the web.

From the web site, Unredacted.

http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/the-top-10-surveillance-lies-edward-snowdens-leaks-shed-heat-and-light-on/

“What I can say unequivocally is that if you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your e-mails.” President Obama, June 16, 2013, on the Charlie Rose Show

During the same June 16, 2013, interview with Charlie Rose, President Obama said the NSA is not allowed to target U.S. citizens, though Greg Miller reported in his June 30, 2013, Washington Post article, “Misinformation on Classified NSA Programs Includes Statements by Senior U.S. Officials,” that “the NSA has significant latitude to collect and keep the contents of e-mails and other communications of U.S. citizens that are swept up as part of the agency’s court-approved monitoring of a target overseas.” This information is stored, for up to five years, and can be accessed as soon as the FBI gets a National Security Letter, for which there are still no requirements to seek approval or judicial review when sending.

Fracking Causes Earthquakes?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism

006thFracking Causes Earthquakes?

It is truly interesting to discover an industrial process that literally undermines the earth upon which we stand but combine American know-how, de-regulation and greed, and the sky is just the limit.

James Pilant

Ohio earthquakes linked to fracking | Al Jazeera America

Ohio authorities shut down a hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) natural gas operation in Mahoning County on Monday after two earthquakes were felt in the area, which is near the Pennsylvania border, local newspapers and broadcasters reported.

The quakes registered magnitudes of 3 and 2.6, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center said on its website.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) halted operations of Texas-based Hilcorp Energy — which conducts fracking in the area — while experts from the department analyze data from the earthquakes, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper said, citing a statement it received from the ONDR.

“Out of an abundance of caution we notified the only oil and gas operator in the area, and ordered them to halt all operations until further assessment can take place,” the department was quoted as saying.

There were no immediate reports of injury or damage.

The magnitude 3 quake at about 2:26 a.m. was strong enough to wake up some residents in Poland Township, according to local NBC affiliate WFMJ. Reports said the smaller quake followed at 11:44 a.m.

via Ohio earthquakes linked to fracking | Al Jazeera America.

From around the web.

From the web site, Akron Dave.

http://akrondave.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/fracking-suspected-as-cause-of-texas-earthquakes/

A group of residents of a small Texas community traveled to the state capital to protest hydraulic fracturing, “fracking,” in their community that is being blamed for about 30 earthquakes since November.

This follows reports of earthquakes near Youngstown, Ohio, last year that were linked to fracking wells, which led the usually business-friendly Gov. John Kasich to order the operation to shut down.

If Texas quakes are like the Ohio seismic activity, the problem could be the injection of fracking wastewater into the ground near a fault line. Geologists say the liquid can create “slippage” in faults, which triggers the quakes.

The fact that fracking has helped dramatically reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil and natural gas makes shutting down fracking operations highly unpopular in some circles. But when the earth is shaking under your feet, you gotta take it seriously.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this.

An explanation on what is happening with Russia and Ukraine Unrest in 2014

On By southwerkIn business ethics

“Reddit user murder_cheese” wrote the original article.

 

 

In the Pocket of the Lumber Industry

On By southwerkIn business ethics

In the Pocket of the Lumber Industry

Blatant cronyism on a massive unapologetic scale? How do you top this? Do you kiss the industry’s feet?

Well, don’t worry about Tony Abbot. We can be confident that his next campaign will be very well financed.

James Pilant

Wildlife Extra News – Australian PM outrages with anti national parks stance

March 2014: The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared he will not support the creation of any new national parks in Australia and that the country has quite enough, despite the fact that they cover just four per cent of Australia.

Speaking at the ForestWorks dinner in Canberra Tony Abbott said he was committed to supporting the Tasmanian logging timber industry and that too many of Australia’s forests are “locked up”.

“We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up forests already. Why should we lock up as some sort of World Heritage sanctuary, country that has been logged, degraded or planted for timber?”

Abbott also reaffirmed his commitment to removing part of Tasmania’s forest from World Heritage listing, made under the forest peace deal. This is the first time a government has ever sought to delist a World Heritage area when its heritage values are still intact. The forest is home to areas, like the Weld, Styx and Upper Florentine Valleys, and the World Heritage Committee has already rigorously assessed these places as being of Outstanding Universal Value to all of us who inhabit the planet.

“Getting that 74,000 hectares out of World Heritage Listing, it’s still going to leave half of Tasmania protected forever,” said Abbott. “But that will be an important sign to you, to Tasmanians, to the world, that we support the timber industry.”

via Wildlife Extra News – Australian PM outrages with anti national parks stance.