Why lower gas prices this year will hurt millions of Americans next year

                                     Good Day World!

Lower gas prices this year has been good news for the American consumer.

But, those low gas prices are going to take an unexpected toll on over 70 million people, more than one-fifth of the nation's population, next year.

Why?

The main reason for no benefit increases next year for millions of people is…believe it, or not, low gas prices.

By law, the annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation. This year, because gas prices have dropped, no one will get a cost of living increase in 2016.

It’s Official: No COLA in 2016

That affects retirees, disabled workers, and spouses with children, who get Social Security benefits.

That also goes for 4 million disabled veterans, 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor. (Source)

It seems ironic to me that when something good happens for consumers in this country, it comes with a caveat.  

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Pass the Burrito Challenge and Get 10% of a Mexican Restaurant

                                      Good Day World!

Although I have no experience in the restaurant industry, I’m thinking about becoming a partner with Don Chingon, a restaurant in Brooklyn.

Yawn, right?

Not so fast. You could do the same thing, if you wanted. It’d help if you had a huge appetite.

All you have to do is eat a 30-lb burrito and drink a ghost pepper margarita in under an hour and you’ll own 10% of Don Chingon’s Mexican restaurant.

BTW – no bathroom breaks or discharge of bodily fluids allowed during that hour. The restaurant also will not accept responsibility for illness or death incurred while participating in the challenge.

You should also know why George Shea, a partner in the International Federation of Competitive Eating, calls the contest a "great PR stunt." He’s sure no one on the planet can meet that challenge.

Perhaps not… but, I’d try if there wasn’t a $150 entry fee!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Meet Florida’s Candidate for US Senate: He plans on Starting a 2nd Civil War!

Good Day World!

So, you thought Donald Trump was a crazy political candidate. You haven’t seen anything yet.

Meet, Augustus Sol Invictus, an Independent running for a US Senate seat in Florida. He believes he was born to start a 2nd Civil War in America.

Even Trump can’t top that thought. 

Invictus has repeatedly vowed that it is his destiny to start a second civil war in America.

In a 2013 memo to his colleagues, he wrote, “I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War, I would begin it myself.” (Source)

Trump’s campaign slogan of Make America Great Again may be misleading, but when you take a look at Invictus’s campaign logo you’ll find yourself blinking in disbelief. It’s nearly identical to that of Benito Mussolini’s. He also likes to display swastikas in his published campaign materials.

Crazy enough for you?

But wait! There’s more: He has expressed support for a eugenics program, which would sterilize, euthanize or forcibly abort 'the weakest, the least intelligent, and the most diseased.”

If that doesn’t convince you he’s a true Loony Tune, the US Senate hopeful has admitted that he sacrificed a live goat and drank its blood. He’s a Pagan by the way.

FYI: Invictus has a frequently asked questions section on his website .

Sound’s like the Republican and Democratic candidates in Florida seeking senate offices are really going to have a challenge for the “crazy vote” in that state.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Whatever you do, don’t say…

Good Day World!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Who was chasing me? You're slow as ***!" like this DUI suspect did after claiming his dog was driving his car.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I left town because Hollywood Star-Wackers were hunting me,” and expect authorities to forget you committed a felony and had been hiding for five years when you got caught crossing the Canadian border into Vermont – like actor Randy Quaid did!

Whatever you do, don’t say…"Just give me some (expletive) bacon-jalapeno mac and cheese." A University of Connecticut student faces criminal charges over a confrontation with a campus food court manager who wouldn't let him buy macaroni and cheese with bacon and jalapeno peppers.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “Officer, come over to my house quick. I’m too high on marijuana!” like one 22-year old Youngstown, Ohio, man did recently and not expect to be the butt of jokes for the rest of your natural life! 

Whatever you do, don’t say… “I’m a federal agent and I need a free pass to catch a fugitive at this event (Comic Con in Salt Lake City),” and actually just be a dweeb trying to scam a freebie.

Whatever you do, don’t say… “There’s a bomb here,” at your workplace just so you can get fired. There’s got to be an easier way!

Time for me to walk on down the road…  

Why the mainstream media didn’t cover report showing 78% of Americans against Citizens United decision

Good Day World!

Americans are sick of the corporate masters that rule them.

Skepticism of corporate power is what the American Revolution - or at least the event that sparked it - was all about, which makes the latest polling about money in politics anything but surprising.

According to Bloomberg Politics, a full 78 percent of Americans think we should overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that opened up our election process to floods of corporate money. This isn't, by the way, a situation where a bunch of Democrats are tipping the scales.

Money in politics often gets painted in the media as "liberal" or "progressive" issue, but this new Bloomberg poll shows that Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly oppose Citizens United.

Eighty-three percent of Democrats want to overturn it, as do 80 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of self-declared independents.

The ever-more-concentrated corporate media really don't want to discuss Citizens United or the public's overwhelming desire to overturn it. In fact, even though our TV networks have spent hours breaking down every single Donald Trump poll, they've so far completely ignored that amazing Bloomberg study on opposition to Citizens United. And I mean completely ignored.

Maybe there's a good justifiable, journalistic reason for this. Maybe the fact that Americans hate Citizens United is so obvious that the mainstream media don't think it was worth reporting on.

But it's doubtful.

The big open secret about Citizens United is that the mainstream corporate media support it. More money in politics means more money spent on elections ads, which, of course, means more money for the corporations that run the major news networks.

But luckily, the American people are figuring out what's up. If the rise of Bernie Sanders is any indication, they're more than ready to take part in another political revolution against corporate power - just like the one that founded this country 239 years ago. (read the full version here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Peto's Paradox: Why Don’t Elephants and Whales Get Cancer As Much As Smaller Animals?

                                    Good Day World!

Researchers have long wondered why Cancer is much less common in elephants than in humans, even though the big beasts' bodies have many more cells.

PETO’s PARADOX

Peto's paradox refers to the fact that large animals including elephants and whales, have comparatively low cancer rates even though they have many more cells than smaller species.

STUDY RESULTS SHOW PROMISE

Elephants' cells contain 40 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene called p53, two teams of scientists report. Humans have just two - one from each parent. The gene helps damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.

The findings aren't proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists could try to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

A Perfect Storm of Islamophobia Hitting This Weekend

                                      Good Day World!

I usually don’t pay attention to hate rallies – there’s too many these days – but I’m having a hard time ignoring one in my backyard!

My hometown of Medford, Oregon has joined 21 other cities across the USA (see map here) in protesting Muslims “Global Rally for Humanity.”

Self-described “Patriots” have brought weapons to protest outside Muslim worship centers today.

A perfect storm of Islamophobia is hitting the nation thanks to one so-called patriot from Arizona. 

According to the Center for New Community, the protests are the brainchild of Phoenix anti-Muslim activist Jon Ritzheimer, who made headlines in May by organizing an armed protest outside a Phoenix-area mosque.

Ritzheimer also has a history of issuing ugly threats, including his threat to arrest Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow for having voted in favor of President Obama’s arms deal with Iran. Even his fellow militiamen from Michigan disavowed that one.

Preparing for the worst

The Council for Islamic-American Relations issued an advisory urging mosque-goers to be careful and take safety precautions this weekend. 

These protests are a sad footnote in American history, and proof that this country does not guarantee religious freedom for everyone. Intolerance is the password for today’s protests.

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

 

 

Gowdy’s Vendetta Against Hillary Exposed, But Continues

                                        Good Day World!

There isn’t anything Trey Gowdy wouldn’t do to make sure Hillary Clinton is not elected president.

No big deal you say…there’s plenty of other conservatives that are making it a mission to derail Clinton’s campaign.

True. But none of them are so blatantly using taxpayer money to fund their vendetta against Hillary Clinton like Trey Gowdy is. He’s had the gall to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in pursuit of his political plans to discredit Hillary - instead of really trying to get to the bottom of what happen in the Benghazi incident where four Americans died.

Gowdy, as House Select Committee on Benghazi chairman, has unabashedly directed all efforts towards targeting Hillary.  Gowdy’s name, image, and position has been used to solicit political donations by Stop Hillary PAC, which describes itself as “created for one reason only—to ensure Hillary Clinton never becomes President of the United States.

Gowdy has not held any of the hearings on his schedule (he initially had an investigative plan that set out monthly hearings  with all the different agencies involved in preparing for and responding to the attacks in Benghazi, including the State Department, the Defense Department, and the Intelligence Community).

The only hearing actually scheduled thus far however, is with Hillary Clinton.

The Committee has never held even one public hearing with anyone from the Department of Defense. Why?

The Committee was given an unlimited, taxpayer-funded budget, and it has now spent more than $4.6 million in one of the longest and least productive investigations in congressional history—focused on Clinton.

The Committee is being used by Republican fundraisers to attack Clinton.The Committee’s attacks were described by the conservative PAC America Rising as a taxpayer-funded political activity. 

Gowdy’s approach has been criticized even by conservative commentators who fear that it will forever be plagued by allegations of unfairness, and politics if this investigation is dragged into 2016. (full article source)

They should be concerned because Gowdy isn’t going to end his vendetta until after the elections.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Don’t you just love it when…

Good Day World!

Don’t you just love it when… you read about medical miracles like this?

Don’t you just love it when… some people get their comeuppance?  Months after winning a national title, Harvard's debate team has fallen to a group of New York inmates.

Don’t you just love it when…you run across animal stories like this?

Bettina the Orphaned Bushtail Possum Finds Comfort in Toy Kangaroo

Don’t you just love it when…you can’t get a straight answer from authorities?

Feds Won't Say If Artificial Turf on Your Kid's Soccer Field Is Safe

Don’t you just love it when…you hear about a teenager doing something really special that could save lives?

Don’t you just love it when…a crime story is funny instead of depressing?

Time for me to walk on down the road….

Birdie, birdie in the sky…

“Birdie birdie in the sky
Why do you do that in my eye
I will not laugh I will not cry
I’m just glad that cows don’t fly!”

-Camp Songs

(Photo/Archaeopteryx Live Science Staff)

Good Day World!

Are you a bird lover?

Even if you’re not, you may find the following brief history of birds entertaining.

And then there were birds…

The evolution of birds is thought to have begun in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropoda dinosaurs named Paraves. Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves.

The earliest known isArchaeopteryx lithographica, from the Late Jurassic period, though Archaeopteryx is not commonly considered to have been a true bird.

The raven-sized animal in the photo above lived about 150 million years ago and had feathers identical to that of modern flying birds. But Archaeopteryx also had sharp teeth, a long bony tail and clawed fingers.

At 7 feet long and 3 feet tall, Beipiaosaurus is one of the largest known feathered theropods the group of swift upright dinosaurs from birds are thought to be descended.

(Photo/Beipiaosaurus Live Science Staff)

Like Archaeopteryx, Microraptor was about the size of a crow and had teeth, claws and feathers on all four limbs that it may have used to glide between trees.

(Photo/Microraptor by Julius T. Csotonyi)

As of the mid-2000s, new fossil and molecular data provide an increasingly clear picture of the evolution of modern bird orders, and their relationships.

A 2008 study published in Science examined DNA sequences from 169 species of birds that represented all of the major extant groups. The findings may necessitate a wholesale restructuring of the avian phylogenetic tree.

Time for me to walk on down the road…