Well it turns out to make practical use of a CFP(R) designation, which I have yet to earn because I have not performed 6000 hours (that's 3 years for you non-lawyers) of work to meet the experience requirement. And many people in the NYC area give this product away to earn money by selling products or managing money, which was certainly not my intention when I started this process.
But reality is what it is, something politicians should ponder once in a while.
Anyway, back to my sorry saga. My CFP mentors both recommended that I get my insurance licenses. But you can only do that if you are sponsored by an insurance company. So I posted by stripped down resume on-line and low and behold 2 insurance companies contacted me for sales positions. I went with the one that I thought offered me the best path to achieving my goal and past the insurance exams, so I am now licensed. As for the sales part and making a little money, it turns out this insurance company hires agents like rabbits breed. And they have a significant established base of clients from past agents. And many of the non-clients have already been approached by other agents who are part of the rabbit colony representing this insurance company. And this company likes to send people out into the field while they are being trained but are inadequately trained. That is my current predicament.
I am now pondering Plan C (or is it Plan D, E or F?) I have lost track. How can I help people and make a little money at the same time?
But that saga is not what motivated me to start writing this blog today.
It was the news that someone with legal authority is investigating Hillary's use of the personal server. I have no idea what rights an ex-President and 1st Lady have under the law that might create a different situation for Hillary, but as one who always separated work from personal, for both email and cell phones, I don't understand why she did what she did. But here is the bright thought for anyone who does not want to see a Clinton-Bush III campaign. Hillary finally realizes she is sufficiently toxic in certain key states (we will see how those polls develop) that she is not a viable candidate and that opens the door to a "Draft Joe Biden" campaign. One can only hope.
Meanwhile, Marco Rubio has gone off the deep end of logic. If you disavow a treaty by your predecessor, doesn't that hamstring you in your future ability to conduct foreign policy if your successor can undo what you did? Government is of the people and the country, and each administration has to work incrementally upon what previous administrations and Congresses have done. This is why the Radical Tea Party is so unpopular in the Blue States. They do not believe that and I am truly worried if they somehow win the Presidency.
And meanwhile, random gun violence that the NRA refuses to acknowledge justify some sensible gun control continues and, since it usually occurs in states that are firmly in the NRA's grasp, it demonstrates that bad sh*t happens even when everyone in the theater is potentially carrying a gun. In this case, the shooter apparently shot himself with the last bullet. We will see why he wanted to kill innocents before he committed suicide.
The GOP is so hyped up about Jihad and they ignore domestic terrorism in their rhetoric. I don't mean to minimize anarchism, it is a real problem and threat and I am glad that Turkey is finally doing something about ISIS. There is no other country that can stop them because all the flow of $ to ISIS comes through Turkey. And Turkey is the ultimate bulwark against Iran. And Turkey is anything but a steady ally these days. So we should support the Kurd's.
And on the one year anniversary of Russia shooting down the Malaysian Air jumbo jet, let us remember that President Putin promotes terrorist policies just as other sh*tty countries do. Unfortunately, Russia is a country we must use diplomacy with because a war is an unthinkable nuclear holocaust that I thought we were done with the risk of after 45 years of cold war. Another thing the GOP candidates should remember.
Friday, July 24, 2015
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Thomas Friedman Explains Coherently the Case for the Iranian Nuclear Agreement
And believe it or not, the root for the deal lies in United States policies over the last 20 years, including all those of Bush II, who was so busy in Iraq and Afghanistan (at least there was a valid reason there) that he could not focus on Iran.
Link to Friedman column
Link to Friedman column
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
We Can Only Hope That This Writer is Correct
And I don't mean myself where that statement is always a hope. I mean Maria Cardona.
Link to Column: GOP is in Big Trouble and Doesn't Realize It.
Link to Column: GOP is in Big Trouble and Doesn't Realize It.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Racism is Expressed in Many Ways
And I am far from believing that everyone who has flown a Confederate Flag is a racist as opposed to being someone simply proud of a modern Southern culture that has existed since NASCAR became such a big thing and the flag has been part of that culture since the beginning.
But I have wondered how African Americans living in Virginia feel about a license plate with a confederate flag on it. But Virginia has a number of license plates and the standard one does not have the Confederate Flag on it.
So, when I see KKK and White Supremacist types using the Confederate Flag as a symbol for their purposes, I wonder why more genteel types don't want to end the government sanctioning use for a symbol that is used to promulgate such violence. And certainly stands for a horrible situation in our history.
A man of the South (one Patterson Hood) expressed it well.
But I have wondered how African Americans living in Virginia feel about a license plate with a confederate flag on it. But Virginia has a number of license plates and the standard one does not have the Confederate Flag on it.
So, when I see KKK and White Supremacist types using the Confederate Flag as a symbol for their purposes, I wonder why more genteel types don't want to end the government sanctioning use for a symbol that is used to promulgate such violence. And certainly stands for a horrible situation in our history.
A man of the South (one Patterson Hood) expressed it well.
"It’s high time that a symbol so divisive be removed. The flags coming down symbolize the extent to which those who cry “heritage, not hate” have already lost their argument. Why would we want to fly a symbol that has been used by the K.K.K. and terrorists like Dylann Roof? Why would a people steeped in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible want to rally around a flag that so many associate with hatred and violence? Why fly a flag that stands for the very things we as Southerners have worked so hard to move beyond?"
"If we want to truly honor our Southern forefathers, we should do it by moving on from the symbols and prejudices of their time and building on the diversity, the art and the literary traditions we’ve inherited from them. It’s time to study and learn about who we are and where we came from while finding a way forward without the baggage of our ancestors’ fears and superstitions. It’s time to quit rallying around a flag that divides. And it is time for the South to — dare I say it? — rise up and show our nation what a beautiful place our region is, and what more it could become."
When a public survey reveals that 28% of White Americans think they should be able to not sell their house to a person of color and 12% of White Americans think neighborhoods should be segregated by color I know we still have a problem with racism in this country. And yes, it is part of Young Black Men's Lives Matter, but it is not the whole part there. African American policemen kill unarmed young black men too. For that we can thank the fear of guns fostered by NRA positions that the NRA will not back down from.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Who Knew, the GOP wants to increase Medicaid spending to increase the population of the poor.
I guess they figure it will either fill the ranks of the military or prisons. This is from a Yahoo article. I assume they do some fact checking. Anyway, the House GOP wants to slash Federal spending on Title X family planning which costs $286 mm in 2015 and serves the really poor who make less than $10,000 a year.
"there’s evidence that Title X saves taxpayers money: For every public dollar invested in family planning, the American taxpayer saves approximately $7 in Medicaid-related costs. Nearly half of all births in the U.S. are paid for by Medicaid, the health care program for low-income families and individuals; the average national cost for one Medicaid-covered birth is $12,770. This is a stark contrast to the $239 per-client cost of publicly funded contraceptive care through Title X family planning. It is estimated, then, that Title X saves taxpayers nearly $7 billion a year."
Half of all births in the U.S. are paid for by Medicaid. When did that happen?
So if the GOP doesn't want abortions to increase (and they certainly don't want to pay for them), and the GOP doesn't have a solution to raise the income of the poor (35 years of trickle down economics hasn't helped these people) and the GOP doesn't want to pay for the health care of the poor (they just want to repeal ObamaCare and spend less on Medicaid which is being drained by the indigent elderly who needed custodial care due to dementia), I don't know why they would curtail family planning.
But they do, so they must be more serious about ending government family planning than they are about curtailing the budget deficit, and if they are serious about that, then they are truly heartless SOB's and want to see an increase in the poor children who don't get sufficient food or health care. So they will end up in the military or in crime.
GOP policies are incoherent and lack a soul.
"there’s evidence that Title X saves taxpayers money: For every public dollar invested in family planning, the American taxpayer saves approximately $7 in Medicaid-related costs. Nearly half of all births in the U.S. are paid for by Medicaid, the health care program for low-income families and individuals; the average national cost for one Medicaid-covered birth is $12,770. This is a stark contrast to the $239 per-client cost of publicly funded contraceptive care through Title X family planning. It is estimated, then, that Title X saves taxpayers nearly $7 billion a year."
Half of all births in the U.S. are paid for by Medicaid. When did that happen?
So if the GOP doesn't want abortions to increase (and they certainly don't want to pay for them), and the GOP doesn't have a solution to raise the income of the poor (35 years of trickle down economics hasn't helped these people) and the GOP doesn't want to pay for the health care of the poor (they just want to repeal ObamaCare and spend less on Medicaid which is being drained by the indigent elderly who needed custodial care due to dementia), I don't know why they would curtail family planning.
But they do, so they must be more serious about ending government family planning than they are about curtailing the budget deficit, and if they are serious about that, then they are truly heartless SOB's and want to see an increase in the poor children who don't get sufficient food or health care. So they will end up in the military or in crime.
GOP policies are incoherent and lack a soul.
Unintended Consequences: Putin & Neo Conservative War Mongering
I write this as a former supporter of neo-conservative positions as they won the cold war. However, devastation of existing order has consequences which are not positive.
Mr. Putin, who lest we forget is responsible for shooting down a passenger Malaysian Air 747 just because he could arm untrained idiots with dangerous weapons, now faces the specter of your enemy is my enemy so lets get together. Chechen fighters, who were limited to Chechnya where they were frowned upon by U.S. policy of both parties, have now fought in Syria and migrated to The Ukraine where they are welcomed by The Ukrainian politicians who lack a sufficient number of serious fighters in their army. You can believe that these fighters will return to Chechnya with more support than they had before.
An unintended consequence of Putin's actions, just as Russia's dismantling of Afghanistan starting in 1979 had the unintended consequence of fostering jihadism which had been more or less out of vogue for hundreds of years.
And then the U.S. dismantled Iraq and more unintended consequences were the result.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the liberal reading of the 2nd Amendment that the NRA broadcasts, results in all kinds of weapons available for sale for people with nefarious goals and murder of innocent people who are supposed to be protected by the armed militia that the 2nd Amendment actually protects. Even our Constitution has unintended consequences.
And silly me, I thought the one thing good about conservatism was that they recognized the danger of enacting policies that result in unintended consequences.
Mr. Putin, who lest we forget is responsible for shooting down a passenger Malaysian Air 747 just because he could arm untrained idiots with dangerous weapons, now faces the specter of your enemy is my enemy so lets get together. Chechen fighters, who were limited to Chechnya where they were frowned upon by U.S. policy of both parties, have now fought in Syria and migrated to The Ukraine where they are welcomed by The Ukrainian politicians who lack a sufficient number of serious fighters in their army. You can believe that these fighters will return to Chechnya with more support than they had before.
An unintended consequence of Putin's actions, just as Russia's dismantling of Afghanistan starting in 1979 had the unintended consequence of fostering jihadism which had been more or less out of vogue for hundreds of years.
And then the U.S. dismantled Iraq and more unintended consequences were the result.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the liberal reading of the 2nd Amendment that the NRA broadcasts, results in all kinds of weapons available for sale for people with nefarious goals and murder of innocent people who are supposed to be protected by the armed militia that the 2nd Amendment actually protects. Even our Constitution has unintended consequences.
And silly me, I thought the one thing good about conservatism was that they recognized the danger of enacting policies that result in unintended consequences.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Just to be Clear, It is this writer's opinion that Greece Should Leave the Euro
At least then there would be hope for the future, no matter how bleak the immediate future would be.
Greece should never have been allowed into the Euro.
Greece should never have been allowed into the Euro.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
A Greece Financial Chaos Might Serve a Purpose
When your banking system collapses, your economy goes into a free fall, the only solution is printing money, and too high an inflation results, but it is far better than the alternative.
Those critics who are still mad about TARP and the Fed acting as a lender of last resort to the banking system in our near financial panic of 2008 need to see what their preferred path looks like.
Greece, as a member of the Euro cannot print money and they are about to default on everything, including payments to their own population. So, with no lender of last resort we will see a demonstration of what happens when that function does not perform well in a crisis.
Then, hopefully, the lender of last resort function will be restored to a position of widespread respect in the U.S.A.
Those critics who are still mad about TARP and the Fed acting as a lender of last resort to the banking system in our near financial panic of 2008 need to see what their preferred path looks like.
Greece, as a member of the Euro cannot print money and they are about to default on everything, including payments to their own population. So, with no lender of last resort we will see a demonstration of what happens when that function does not perform well in a crisis.
Then, hopefully, the lender of last resort function will be restored to a position of widespread respect in the U.S.A.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Things to Ponder: ISIS, Racism, Guns, Chris Christie, Gay Rights, Joe Biden
Neo-conservatives really need to think about exactly what they hope American troops would accomplish if they enter the fight against ISIS. ISIS we learn today is now fighting Hamas in Gaza. They have lone wolf's in Tunisia, Kuwait, France, the U.K. and the U.S.A. These lone wolf's uniformly say they want to fight America and its allies because there is a war on Islam. America and its allies see a War on Terrorists (or anarchists as I prefer). But the one thing that is clear is that if we put American troops in harm's way, ISIS's recruiters will be very successful in increasing their numbers of people who join ISIS. Might it not be better to go after the money that is necessary to support this gang and might it not be better for Islamic Armies to put them down. After all, if there is a non-anarchist philosophy to ISIS it is a Sunni-Shiite divide and why should American troops be part of that. It has been 1500 years in development and breaks out now? We should try to fix the source of what caused it to break out now (which means restoring Sunni governance somewhere in Iraq) and allow Islamic armies to control the radicals. American troops can only do so much and they cannot do that unless they occupy Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Libya, Yemen and who knows where else. We haven't even gotten to the Taliban and if American troops were in all those places, it sure would look like a Western War on Islam, even if we were doing the Saudi's and Iran's bidding. Those 2 countries are after-all the source of funding for ISIS, AlQaeda, HAMAS, and Hezbollah. I don't know who funds the Taliban.
Conservative GOP leaders who want to expand their party need to look closely at what is going on in the South. Low life pick-up truck drivers flying confederate and American flags together parading around small towns in the South. 6 African American churches burned to the ground in the South, at least 3 known to be arson, in the last week. The Congressional GOP rhetoric against Obama has fueled this by giving it political cover. When you want to ruin a Presidency and do everything in your power including shutting down the government to try and accomplish that and fail, the hate in that message provides fuel to low life action, which in the rural south, is aimed at local African Americans and results in different forms of violence against those African Americans. The GOP needs to ponder what cost their messaging creates.
And Chris Christie calls Obama feckless. He took out Osama Bin Ladan, has drones taking out everyone they can. Just what does Chris Christie want to do in addition to that? I hope he reads the 1st paragraph.
And finally, with almost 300 million guns in America, we cannot put the genie back in the bottle anytime in anyone living's lifetime. But I do not believe mentally ill people should have access to guns. And I do believe that Policeman kill young unarmed black men because they are in fear for their lives from not knowing who possesses a gun when they are in difficult situations, although there are certainly examples where they had no valid reason for fear and they shot/killed someone anyway. So I hope police everywhere will ponder their responsibility to protect everybody. And I certainly respect the civilian populations desire to hold police accountable, just as I respect the job the police do when they put their live's in danger from people who just want to cause harm to them.
Any while I know Conservative bloggers are mad as hell at the Supreme Court for extending what 36 states had already done to the last 14 states, I am putting a quote below that one of my Evangelical Conservative friends put on his Facebook page. I give him credit for seeing the equality rights of individuals as a unifying theme in the American fabric.
"Claiming that someone else's marriage is against your religion is like being angry at someone for eating a doughnut while you are on a diet.
And lastly as an edit add-on thought that I picked up in a Washington Post op-ed column. Run Joe Run. I know it will be painful, but you care deeply about the issues without being a liberal wing nut and don't have Hillary's baggage. Please Joe, Run. Save us from Bernie. Save us from a Bush Clinton race. Joe Biden for President, YES!!!!
Conservative GOP leaders who want to expand their party need to look closely at what is going on in the South. Low life pick-up truck drivers flying confederate and American flags together parading around small towns in the South. 6 African American churches burned to the ground in the South, at least 3 known to be arson, in the last week. The Congressional GOP rhetoric against Obama has fueled this by giving it political cover. When you want to ruin a Presidency and do everything in your power including shutting down the government to try and accomplish that and fail, the hate in that message provides fuel to low life action, which in the rural south, is aimed at local African Americans and results in different forms of violence against those African Americans. The GOP needs to ponder what cost their messaging creates.
And Chris Christie calls Obama feckless. He took out Osama Bin Ladan, has drones taking out everyone they can. Just what does Chris Christie want to do in addition to that? I hope he reads the 1st paragraph.
And finally, with almost 300 million guns in America, we cannot put the genie back in the bottle anytime in anyone living's lifetime. But I do not believe mentally ill people should have access to guns. And I do believe that Policeman kill young unarmed black men because they are in fear for their lives from not knowing who possesses a gun when they are in difficult situations, although there are certainly examples where they had no valid reason for fear and they shot/killed someone anyway. So I hope police everywhere will ponder their responsibility to protect everybody. And I certainly respect the civilian populations desire to hold police accountable, just as I respect the job the police do when they put their live's in danger from people who just want to cause harm to them.
Any while I know Conservative bloggers are mad as hell at the Supreme Court for extending what 36 states had already done to the last 14 states, I am putting a quote below that one of my Evangelical Conservative friends put on his Facebook page. I give him credit for seeing the equality rights of individuals as a unifying theme in the American fabric.
"Claiming that someone else's marriage is against your religion is like being angry at someone for eating a doughnut while you are on a diet.
And lastly as an edit add-on thought that I picked up in a Washington Post op-ed column. Run Joe Run. I know it will be painful, but you care deeply about the issues without being a liberal wing nut and don't have Hillary's baggage. Please Joe, Run. Save us from Bernie. Save us from a Bush Clinton race. Joe Biden for President, YES!!!!
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