Go ahead, tell me this wouldn't work.

It would work.

In fact something like this is probably all Trump can ever hope to actually get for all of his efforts to wall off America from Mexico.

Instead of the Great Wall of China that he envisions he will probable have to settle for increased border patrols, drone surveillance, and stricter laws concerning undocumented immigrants.

Though to be clear I think the invisible wall scam would work just as well.

Gun injuries cost Americans 730 million annually.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Americans paid more than $6.6 billion over eight years to care for victims of gun violence, according to a new tally of hospital bills. And U.S. taxpayers picked up at least 41% of that tab. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, say the authors of a study published this week in the American Journal of Public Health. Their sum does not include the initial — and very costly — bill for gunshot victims’ care in emergency rooms. Nor does it include hospital readmissions to treat complications or provide follow-up care. The cost of rehabilitation, or of ongoing disability, is not included either. 

“These are big numbers, and this is the lowest bound of these costs,” said Sarabeth A. Spitzer, a Stanford University medical student who co-wrote the study. “We were surprised” at the scale, she added. 

That, arguably, makes gun-injury prevention a public health priority, Spitzer said. The GOP’s healthcare reform measure would reduce federal contributions toward Medicaid, which foots roughly 35% of the hospital bills for gunshot victims. The GOP plan would also cut payments to the hospitals that absorb much of the cost of caring for self-paying (in other words, uninsured) patients, whose hospital bills accounted for about 24% of the $730 million-per-year tab. 

“These are expensive injuries,” Spitzer said.

But can we REALLY put a price on a citizen's constitutional right to bear arms?

Hell yes we can! And it is a lot less than 730 million dollars a year.

I think that every gun owner should not only be forced to register their weapon, AFTER going through a strenuous background check, but that they also be forced to purchase insurance that specifically pays for any injuries that they or others may suffer as a result of that purchase.

I can tell you that I personally do not want to pay for the hospital bills of some fool who accidentally shot himself with his own gun. In my opinion he is too dumb to live anyhow.

Donald Trump files his financial disclosure with the FEC today. Did he not get the memo that his candidacy is just a joke?

Courtesy of Forbes: 

Donald Trump filed his personal financial disclosure with the Federal Elections Commission today, claiming 2014 income of $362 million dollars. His campaign also said that his net worth “is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.” 

“Mr. Trump‟s net worth has increased since the more than one year old financial statement produced at his presidential announcement,” the campaign release states. “Real estate values in New York City, San Francisco, Miami and many other places where he owns property have gone up considerably during this period of time. His debt is a very small percentage of value, and at very low interest rates. As of this date, Mr. Trump‟s net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS.”

Interestingly enough that ten billion number is one that Forbes disagree with:

Forbes continues to disagree with Trump about his net worth, and has, in fact, chopped the net worth valuation from $4.1 billion to $4 billion since Trump’s remarks about Mexican immigrants during his campaign launch speech caused an end to business deals with NBCUniversal, Univision, Serta Mattresses, and Macy's M +7.91%, as well as PVH PVH -0.81% Corp. and Perfumania, the manufacturers of his menswear line and fragrances, respectively. In the wake of these deals, we have dropped the value of his brand to 0 (previously, it was at $125 million).

Currently the personal financial disclosure form is not yet available on the Federal Elections Commission site, so we do not as of yet have a way of checking to see who is right on the numbers.

If it turns out that Trump is full of shit, I wonder how he will manage to blame the whole thing on Obama?

It should also be noted that currently Trump is leading in the polls among his GOP rivals: 

The Suffolk University/USA Today survey showed Trump getting 17% of the Republican vote, placing him ahead of Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) 14%. 

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University political research center, attributed Trump's rise to the ongoing controversy over his harsh rhetoric against illegal immigration. 

 "Trump is making daily headlines in advance of the primary season,” Paleologos said. "This has vaulted him to the top of the pack on the backs of conservative voters."

This has really irritated some of  those in the Republican party. In fact one Florida state congressman has outright stated that he believes Trump is nothing more than a plant by the Democratic party.

Well plant or no plant, it looks like Trump is now leading the presidential field. And if he is actually going through with the filing of his financial disclosures with the FEC then it might be time to stop seeing him as a joke for late night comedians, and instead see him as the embodiment of the joke that is now the Republican party.

One final thought for today.

Perhaps THAT is why humanists are so much more compassionate than Fundamentalists.

After all THEY have only been around for less than 10,000 years, and WE have been improving ourselves for so much longer.

Obamacare saves American consumers over 1.5 billion.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Consumers saved nearly $1.5 billion in 2011 as a result of rules in President Obama's healthcare law that limit what insurance companies can spend on expenses unrelated to medical care, including profit, a new analysis shows. 

Much of those savings — an estimated $1.1 billion — came in rebates to consumers required because insurers had exceeded the required limits. 

The study by the New York-based Commonwealth Fund also suggests that the Affordable Care Act forced insurers to become more efficient by limiting their administrative expenses, a key goal of the 2010 law. 

In some cases, insurers passed savings on to consumers in the form of lower premiums and higher spending on medical care, the researchers found. This was primarily true in the individual market, where consumers buy health insurance on their own. 

The rules "appear to be producing important consumer benefits," concluded the report's authors, Michael McCue, a professor of health administration at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Mark Hall, a healthcare law professor at Wake Forest University. 

Administrative costs in the individual market dropped in 39 states, with major improvements in Delaware, Ohio, Louisiana, South Carolina and New York.

I guess those "death panels" that Sarah Palin was warning us about were ones that kill off wasteful spending and unnecessary administrative costs.

My ultimate hope is that soon Obama will set up those government sponsored national health insurance plans and drive these greedy pricks out of business for all time. In my opinion that was the goal all along, which is yet another reason that the politicians who receive massive campaign donations from health insurance companies fought so hard against the Affordable Care Act, and then later against Obama's reelection.

No more government contracts for BP, and penalties equaling 4.5 billion. I STILL think they got off easy.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The U.S. government banned BP Plc on Wednesday from new federal contracts over its "lack of business integrity" in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, possibly imperiling the company's role as a top U.S. offshore oil and gas producer and the No. 1 military fuel supplier. 

The suspension, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency, comes on the heels of BP's November 15 agreement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The British energy giant agreed to pay $4.5 billion in penalties, including a record $1.256 billion criminal fine.

This very good news, though considering the devastation caused by the negligence of this company there will NEVER really be an appropriate cost which can be levied against them in my opinion.

However I have to say that being forced to pay 4.5 billion in penalties, which is the most EVER paid out by any company in US history, along with having the opportunity to bid on new contracts stripped away, MIGHT cause enough pain to the company to make them put safety concerns front and center from this point forward.

By the way I am not sure if any of you are aware, but the first time there were any allegations that BP cheated while testing those blowout preventers, you know the ones that failed and caused the giant oil spill in the Gulf, was up here in Alaska, was actually from tests performed on the North Slope to be exact.

And do you know who was the manager in charge of testing those blowout preventers on the North Slope at that time?

You guessed it.

Just ANOTHER example of the Palin curse at work I suppose.

Italy to strip churches of their tax exempt status. Seriously?

Courtesy of the Telegraph:  

The Church currently pays tax on several properties it owns that are commercial enterprises but is exempt if at least some of the activities on the property are "non-commercial" - for example a chapel in a hotel. 

"The regulatory framework will be definite by January 1, 2013 - the start of the fiscal year - and will fully respect the (European) Community law," Prime Minister Mario Monti's government said in a statement late Tuesday. 

In February, the government had amended Italy's property tax law to end the Church's privileges amid rising calls for the Vatican to share in debt crisis sacrifices and in the face of intense scrutiny from the European Commission. 

On Monday the Council of State, Italy's highest ranking court for administrative litigation, rejected the decree. But the government insisted everyone would pay property tax, Church included.

Way to go Italy!

I literally dream of the day when the churches in America are stripped of their tax exempt status and made to pay their fair share to support the services, like street repair, police support, and firefighters, which they currently enjoy for free.

By the way taxing the churches would bring in an additional 71 billion annually and essentially pay down this country's debts in no time at all. Just think about that for awhile.