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Surprise At The UN

The son of the founder of Hamas gave a brief speech at the U.N. recently, and shocked the heck out of delegates:

He really tore into the PLO.

 

Relief May Be On The Way

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider striking down mandatory fees that support collective bargaining by public-sector labor unions in Oregon and several other states. With confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch earlier this year, a reversal of existing case law appears likely.

Public Employee union bosses are calling the case a political and well-funded plot to undercut "everyday working people". But there was a decision back in 1977 in which the court ruled that unions could collect "dues" for representational work only - not for political activities. Perhaps the unions should have taken that ruling to heart.

But no, that would have been too easy; what happens in many cases is that the schmucks get the full monthly dues deducted from their paychecks and later have to apply for a rebate to recover part of their money, and the union may well claim that the entire amount went strictly to representation. This pending case, known as the Janus casewould blow that horse-hockey out of the water:

The Janus complaint contends that all public sector collective bargaining activities are inherently political and hence, mandatory fees amount to government-compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment.

If one wants to fund Democrats, join the union and pay the dues. If not, don't.

 

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The Supreme Court is taking on another case that could gut public-sector unions

Right to work scores a major win in Wisconsin

Last Of Summer

With clouds returning for the foreseeable future, Seattle got to see off the last clear skies Wednesday night.

NWS sent out this time-lapse shot of the northern lights, and the link contains several more images from the Puget Sound area.

 

Left Coast Lunacy

Redefining "snowflakes":

San Francisco residents' cell phones buzzed and dinged at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

S.F.'s Department of Emergency Management sent a warning to residents for a heat wave, advising them to drink water and check on their neighbors.

 

Well, hey - the projected high temperatures were anticipated to be as much as 82 degrees F.

DEM indicated that it might get all the way up into the mid-80s, so out of an abundance of caution they issued the emergency warning. That seems to be a good way to get people to turn off their phones....

Meanwhile, in the northern loony bin:

A trucker pulled into a rest stop on I-90 in Washington state, and saw a pickup truck burst into flames. So she sprinted around the rest stop, looking for an extinguisher, but the only one she could find was inside a coffee shop, which was closed for the night. She broke the door, grabbed the extinguisher, put out the fire, and rescued the kid who was still in the pickup.

Washington State Patrol informed her that no matter her intentions, she committed burglary and will be charged unless she replaces the broken door - and presumably, the "stolen" extinguisher.

Apparently, they don't have a "Good Samaritan" law in Washington.

WSP is "reviewing" how the case was handled. Probably not a bad idea.

 

Florida Obamacare Premiums Lift Off

Rockets at Cape Canaveral aren't the only things shooting up in Florida - next year's Obamacare premiums will increase by nearly 45%.

The Trump administration has refused to commit to long term funding of subsidies that help reduce out-of-pocket costs, such as deductibles, for eligible Americans who buy their health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange at healthcare.gov. Florida health insurers said they raised monthly premiums for 2018 ACA plans by an average of nearly 45 percent in part due to the uncertainty over the subsidies.

Standard plans sold on healthcare.gov are the only ones that provide the subsidies, called cost sharing reductions, to consumers who earn less than two-and-a-half times the poverty level, which in 2017 was $30,000 for an individual and $51,000 for a family of three.

It's all a scam anyway; when an individual buys coverage with a $5000 deductible, odds are that the "insurance" will never fully kick in anyway, and even less so if a family buys but has a deductible of $10,000 or $12,000. And every year, the companies find an excuse to jack up the premium rates; more often than not, they increase the deductibles as well. As for those mythical healthy young people who were going to buy insurance and lower everyone's costs: they're not stupid; they know a scam when they see one. It's cheaper to work out a cash arrangement if they need to see a doctor and just pay the fine for failure to buy an approved "plan".

If you have to buy, you'd better get moving:

Open enrollment for 2018 coverage on healthcare.gov runs from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15.

Good luck with that.

On a somewhat related note:

A previously-unknown species of giant rat has been identified. How big is it? Big enough to crack coconuts open with its teeth, it"s claimed.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article175550671.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article175550671.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article175550671.html#storylink=cpy

Five times larger than your average rat and weighing upwards of two pounds, they're so elusive that they were thought to be mythical until after years of searching, a researcher found one. As it happens, they're hard to find because they live high up in forest canopy - as in around 30 feet up. They're roughly the size of opossums.

 

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Self-employed? Here’s What Obamacare Means for You

Crackdowns

China's ordered all North Korean businesses that operate in China to shut down by January. And in a couple of days, they'll be banning North Korean textiles and imposing a cap on refined petroleum products.

That's going to sting, but as long as Kim's still getting his meals, it's not at all clear that he'll care. Still, it's refreshing to see China finally stepping up. That last nuke test must have finally ticked them off.

And Canada's done a 180 regarding their welcoming of "refugees":

Canada has an urgent message for immigrants in the U.S. fearing deportation: Don’t count on us for refuge.

As a matter of fact, the politicians up north have taken to mentioning that Canada may just deport those folks back to their home countries.

Justin Trudeau‏Verified account @JustinTrudeau

To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada

Maybe Justin kind of overdid things.

Now they're doing the old back-peddle, pointing out that there's no free pass into Canada.

 

Related articles

China to shut down North Korean companies - St. Lucia News Online

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

The latest in U.S. military planning: network every asset, from planes and ships to tanks and more. The idea is to build a global neural network that happens to be heavily weaponized.

Sort of like Skynet in the old science fiction films - a giant armed nervous system.

 

Welcome To Oregon Hotel, 1950

It was a residential, per-day rental.

Maria Mines North Carolina

Still ain't dead yet:

Hurricane Maria arrived in North Carolina with a bang Monday, washing up two naval mines along beaches on the Outer Banks, according to reports.

There haven't been any injuries, but it's never a good sign when Nature starts lobbing your weapons back at you.

And Hurricane Harvey's still killing people - slowly:

KINGWOOD, Texas - The Kingwood community is mourning the loss of yet another victim of Hurricane Harvey.

Autopsy results confirm the life of Nancy Reed, 77, was taken by necrotizing faciitis, more commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria.

According to the Harris County Institute for Forensic Science, Reed came in contact with the bacteria in the floodwaters.

There may be no good way to go, but probably not many worse ways.

You May Not Be Privy To This Now

But you soon might be; some folks in the Boston area think they've found Paul Revere's outhouse.

A bit of a window into history, perhaps, because back in the day, those things weren't exclusively related to bodily functions; they also were where people dumped household trash. When I started college, my major was going to be archaeology, but then I found that everyone who had a degree in that field was waiting tables - except this one guy, who was digging out a Scandinavian privy somewhere in Illinois.

Hmm. I switched to biology with a minor in behavior modification. It seemed like a better way to eventually find work. It was. As it happened, there weren't a lot of people who knew much about animal biology, psychology, and conditioning. That's not changed much over the years.