Mystery solved: Don’t blame the Americans! The real origin of the word ‘soccer’

Interesting.

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/the-rio-report/mystery-solved-don-t-blame-usa-real-reason-123344142.html

"You're not helping"

"I know that you think you're helping, but you're not helping."

Hey, what happened to Ebola? Where did it go?

Oh, that's right. The mid-term elections are over.

Prediction: Here's what the Republicans will offer as "health insurance" and what will happen.

The Republican alternative will be the following:

(1) Allow policies to be sold across state lines.
(2) Prohibit lawsuits to insurance companies that sell across state lines
(3) Prohibit states from regulating these policies
(4) Prohibit any disclosure laws about these policies or the companies that sell them

What will happen

(1) Some red state (or states) will completely de-regulate health insurance companies operating in their state
(2) Cheap "policies" wil be sold to people across the country. Even businesses will buy them for their employees.
(3) People will buy these by the bundles
(4) When people go to use the insurance, they will find that their provider(s) won't take it.
(5) Hospitals will refuse to accept it.
(6) Medical expenses won't be reimbursed.
(7) Companies that sold the insurance will declare bankruptcy and escape all liability.
(8) No one will be able to sue. See point 2 above.
(9) People who bought the policies will be shit-out-of-luck with no place to turn.
(10) The sick won't get care because their policies are fradulent.
(11) The people running the schemes will be living the good life and escape any criminal prosecution.

If you want to see something different at the movies, see Birdman.

For everyone who complains that movies don't take chances and does the same shit over and over again, go see Birdman. Even if you don't like it, you have to appreciate that people took a chance and did something different other than a super hero movie or remake of a TV show.

Really shitty movies with a very talented cast

What if I told that a movie had the following cast:

Robin Williams
Ed Norton
Danny DeVito
Catherine Keener
Jon Stewart
Harvey Fierstein

You would be excited to see it? No? That's the cast list to Death to Smoochy, a terrible, awful movie.

List some others.

Americans hate poor people.

It's really that simple. They flat out hate the poor. Sure, there's racism and xenophobia is co-mingled in their hate, but by and large, they really, really, really hate the poor.

They believe that people are poor because of poor choices or character flaws. That the American educational, economic and social system, though flawed, provides everyone with an equal opportunity to succeed. If you're not doing well, then you are a failure. You didn't study in school. You didn't go to college. If you did go to college, then you didn't take the right major. If you cannot find a job, then you don't have enough experience. If you have too much experience, then you have to re-train for something else. If that doesn't work, then you should move to North Dakota and work in the oil fields there.

The ironic thing is, the majority of Americans are poor when you look at their net worth which is negative. The ones that think that they are doing well are really up to their necks in debt with mortgages, car leases, credit cards, and student loans.

A Cat's Guide to Loving a Human

Since 1980, the Democrats have not won without Bill Clinton or Barack Obama heading the ticket

The lone exception was 2006, but that was after the twin disasters of Iraq and Katrina.

The Dems need an extremely charismatic leader out in front in order to get the electorate excited enough to vote. Additionally, the Democratic party leadership and political consultants always advise candidates to run away from Clinton (in '94, '98, '00) and away from Obama (in '10 and '14) always get their asses handed to them by the Republicans.

In the end, the Dems need to stand united as one party behind their leadership in order to win. You cannot run away from the leader of the party and expect to win because your opponent is going to hang your leader around your neck whether you like it or not. It was folly for Gore to do it in 2000 and folly for the Dems in '10 and '14.

The party leadership is using a strategy from a bygone era. All elections are now national. You cannot run against your leader and your opponent at the same time. Grimes should have invited Obama to KY. Run with him. Talk up the ACA. Talk about moving KY's economy away from dependency on coal and onto a new future. Face it, the folks who cling to the coal industry are already lost to Republicans. The votes for the Dems in KY lie with those young voters who want a different future for themselves and their families.

Would she have won with that strategy? Probably not, but she would have laid the ground work for future wins by the Dems in that state which is far more important.

My advice to the party: build a strong message that's different from the Republicans, get behind the leadership, run hard in all 50 states, and stop this nonsense of having conservative/moderate Dems trying to appeal to a voter bloc that won't ever vote for them no matter how much they compromise.

For everyone wallowing in self-pity today...

Stop focusing on the personality campaigns by crappy politicians and look at the intiatives that won last night:


Voters say yes to paid sick days: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/05/news/paid-sick-days-vote/index.html?iid=Lead

Red-leaning states say yes to a higher minimum wage: http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/05/news/economy/higher-minimum-wage-2014-elections/index.html?iid=TL_Popular

Washington state had two competing and contradictory gun-related measures on the ballot this cycle. Voters in that state approved one that seeks background checks for all gun sales and transfers, including private transactions. They rejected another that would have prohibited background checks on firearms until a federal standard is established.

Oregon backed a measure that makes it legal for an adult ages 21 and over to possess up to eight ounces of "dried" marijuana and up to four plants.

Washington, D.C., embraced a measure that makes it legal for an adult ages 21 and over to possess up to two ounces of pot and up to three marijuana plants for personal use. The measure, which does not allow the legal sale of marijuana, will not take effect until after a review by Congress.

Alaska said yes to a measure that makes it legal for adults aged 21 and over to possess up to one ounce of pot and up to six plants.
Florida turned down a measure that would have made the state the 24th to legalize marijuana use for medical reasons. The constitutional amendment failed to win the 60 percent approval it needed to pass

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/ballot-initiatives-how-did-america-vote-controversial-issues-n241346



What I see is a nation moving towards our way of thinking. I am not wallowing in self pity.