Boynton man gets two years for embezzlement he blames on gambling – Palm Beach Post

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WEST PALM BEACH

A 59-year-old Boynton Beach man was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to get help for a gambling problem that he claimed led him to embezzle roughly $1.7 million from construction companies where he worked.

Alan Gainsborg was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to pay $1.1 million in restitution to MSP Enterprises Inc. and PH Developers LLC, two Boynton Beach development companies owned by Michael Puder. He repaid roughly $560,000 and handed over the deed to his house when his scheme unraveled and he was fired in November 2015, according to court documents.

Gainsborg, who pleaded guilty in December to two charges of mail fraud, was allowed to remain free on bond. He is to turn himself in on April 24.

With the help of a Deerfield Beach man who wasnt charged, federal prosecutors claim Gainsborg sent fake invoices to Puder. When Puder questioned the bills, Gainsborg ran them through two general contractors. Those men, however, didnt know Gainsborg was stealing from Puder and didnt make any money on the scam, prosecutors said.

Gainsborg began working for Puder in July 2013. Puder is a developer of both commercial and residential projects, including the 130-home Waterview at Boynton Lakes, 115-home Montego Bay at Boca Pointe and The Grove, a 550-unit townhouse complex in Boynton Beach.

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Boynton man gets two years for embezzlement he blames on gambling - Palm Beach Post

Quebec Moves Toward Euthanasia for Alzheimer’s | National Review – National Review

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Our neighbor to the north demonstrates vividly how the logic of euthanasia consciousness spreads like a virus.

Once a society generally accepts killing as an acceptable response to human suffering, the killable categories expand exponentiallyclearly seen in the Netherlands and Belgium where psychiatrists kill the mentally ill, sometimes coupled with organ harvesting.

Abuses? What abuses?

Canada is driving that same road with the pedal to the metal. Quebec is now actively considering expanding euthanasia to include the mentally incompetent if they asked to be killed in an advance directive. From the Montreal Gazette story:

A consensus is emerging among Quebec parliamentarians to launch a public debate on the appropriateness of legalizing medically assisted suicide for persons unable to give informed consent, such as patients suffering from Alzheimers disease.

My mother died of Alzheimers, so I know what this disease is like.

I also know that it would have been wrong to allow herworst fears about what her life was going to belike when the illness beganto bite, to allow her to order herself poisoned to death when she lost capacity.

Even in my mothers very difficult final days, there were good moments in which she was able to receive and give love.

To say she would have been killable because she was so ill would have been to say that her loss of capacities rendered less than human. Not on my watch.

And that brings up an ironic point: At the same time in whichconcerted efforts are being undertaken to reduce the categories of animals killed by euthanasiaa worthy causesimilar efforts are underway where euthanasia is widely accepted to expand the number of people so killed.

That path leads to extreme moral peril.

The same progression we have seen in Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and now Canada, will happen here if assisted suicide ever becomes widely accepted. Its only logical.

And heres the worst part: When that happens, people wont care because societys adherence to the equality/sanctity of human lifewill have been fundamentally subverted.

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Quebec Moves Toward Euthanasia for Alzheimer's | National Review - National Review

JAILED: Drug and gambling addict brought misery to train passengers – Eastwood Advertiser

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14:15 15:08 Friday 24 February 2017

A drug and gambling addict who brought misery to thousands of rail passengers across the East Midlands area has been jailed for 26 months.

Lucas Niewiem, 35, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday for stealing cable from the railway line in the Long Eaton and Nottingham areas on eight occasions in March and April last year.

Niewiem, who had previously admitted to using an axe to chop the cable from live lines, pocketed a total of just 1,000 for his crimes by selling the cable to a scrap metal dealer.

His actions, however, resulted in 3,267 minutes of delays to trains in the East Midlands area and cost Network Rail over 164,500.

Niewiem was arrested at his home address on Lawton Close in Nottingham on April 28 after he was identified through forensic evidence left at the scene.

When officers searched his house, a cannabis farm was discovered above a child's bedroom in the loft.

Twenty-four plants cultivating cannabis with a street value of 24,000 were found which Niewiem claimed to be growing for personal use.

Detective Inspector Gareth Davies, of British Transport Police, said: "Niewiem's drug and gambling addition led him to risk his life to target the railway to steal cable to fund his habit and lifestyle.

"His selfish actions resulted in misery for thousands of passengers who were left stranded on platforms waiting for delayed trains throughout the East Midland area in March and April last year."

Niewiem was given a 26-month jail term, 16 for the theft of cable, eight months behind bars for cannabis production and a further two-months' term for an unrelated theft, drugs and breach of a non-molestation order from January.

DI Davies added: "Cable theft is not a victimless crime; it costs the rail industry millions of pounds each year and disrupts passenger journeys and busy lives.

"We take this type of crime extremely seriously, and we will do all we can to bring offenders to justice.

"We worked closely with Network Rail and East Midlands Trains to secure the sentence against Niewem which we hope sends act as a deterrent to others."

Hayley Bull, community safety manager at Network Rail, said: "This case demonstrates just how costly cable theft from the railway can be.

"Trespassing onto the network for any reason is extremely dangerous, as well as being illegal.

"This incident shows how cable theft can end up costing the taxpayer huge sums of money to put right, as well as causing mass disruption to passengers trying to go about their daily lives.

"It also causes delays to improvement work, which is vital to create a more reliable railway.

"We are continually developing better ways to protect the railway from cable thieves and will continue to work with the British Transport Police to prosecute anyone caught carrying out such a mindless act of vandalism."

Sarah Potts, crime and security strategy manager for East Midlands Trains, said: "We are delighted with this result as cable theft not only costs the railway industry a lot of money but can cause significant disruption for travelling customers.

"The jail term demonstrates that we take cable theft seriously and will continue to support our partners at British Transport Police and Network Rail in seeking convictions for individuals who selfishly inconvenience our customers."

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Inside The Quiet, Prophetic Politics Of Theologian C.S. Lewis – The Federalist

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Although it was published more than 70years ago, C. S. Lewiss The Abolition of Man reads like a commentary on modern American education, sociology, and politics. With uncanny prophetic powers, Lewis, an Oxford don and Cambridge professor who never read a newspaper orset foot in America, accurately diagnosed our twenty-first-century social-political-educational ills.

At the core of Lewiss critique lies modernitys abandonment of all objective aesthetic, moral-ethical, and philosophical-theological standards. There is nothing essentially sublime about a waterfall; that is just a subjective preference that we project on to it. In the same way, virtues like courage and loyalty and values like patriotism and the inherent dignity of every individual are not universal absolutes written into our conscience but mere feelings and opinions.

Statements like this is good (as opposed to wrong) or this is true (as opposed to false) or this is beautiful (as opposed to ugly) have no factual, scientific basis and thus have no binding power outside the individual or group that makes them. The realm of objective science may be governed by unchanging laws of nature, but no such natural law exists to govern the subjective realms of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

What this has led to in the halls of public education, the central focus of The Abolition of Man, is the debunking and dismantling of the teachers traditional task of training students to know, heed, and embody the universal, cross-cultural moral-ethical codewhat Lewis calls the Tao. No longer a virtuous guide and mentor, the teacher morphs into a controller who manages students the way a commercial farmer manages chickens. In the absence of fixed, objective standards, students become malleable commodities that can and will be shaped in accordance with the prevailing orthodoxies of those in power.

Such is the inevitable outcome of a Tao-less education, an outcome that itself carries ominous sociopolitical implications. For once our social and political leaders have thrown out any Tao-based understanding of what it means to be human, they can begin to reshape all of humanityand, because they now have at their disposal scientific methods of eugenics and social engineering, they will most likely succeed in their goal.

No one who reads The Abolition of Man carefully can fail to see the political implications of Lewiss critique, and yet, anyone who knows Lewiss life and writings knows that he was not a person who took an active interestindeed, any interestin politics. What is the Lewis scholar or aficionado to do with this seeming dilemma? Until now, not much.

Thankfully, however, that situation has been remedied by Justin Buckley Dyer and Micah J. Watsons brief but incisive new book, C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law. Through a close analysis of Lewiss extensive works and letters, Dyer, associate professor of political science and director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, and Watson, 2015-16 William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar Chair and associate professor of political science at Calvin College, demonstrate that Lewis not only had much to say about politics, but that what he said needs to be heeded by those of us who live half a century after his death.

The Abolition of Man, Dyer and Watson argue, is indeed a political book grounded in the foundational biblical teaching that man was made in the image of God (imago dei) but is fallen. It is because of this dual aspect of our nature that we know the Taoit is inscribed in our conscienceand are bound to obey it, while also knowing, when we are honest with ourselves, that we do not and cannot keep it. Everything Lewis wrote about ethics and politics rested on his understanding of these two first acts [Creation and Fall] of the biblical drama, observe Dyer and Watson.

Because Lewis believed firmly in the imago dei, he believed we all had access, through our reason and conscience, to the Tao: that is, the natural law. Because he believed just as firmly in the Fall, he, despite his love of medieval monarchy, advocated a classical liberal view of government that bears much similarity to Lockes view of limited government and Mills harm principle. It is in ferreting out these two aspects of Lewiss non-systematic political views that Dyer and Watson make their greatest, and their most original, contribution to Lewis studies.

In a way that no Lewis critic I am aware of has yet done, Dyer and Watson set Lewiss Broadcast Talks, which were later collected and published as Mere Christianity, in their historical context. Notably, World War II drove Lewis toward an affirmation of natural lawif there is no Tao, then no one can justifiably condemn Nazi ethics as universally and cross-culturally wrong. By contrast, World War II drove German theologian Karl Barth away from natural law, because he concluded that if we allow for a source of divine truth apart from the Bible, then the door is left open for the Nazis to baptize their own culture and fuse it with the revealed gospel.

Although Dyer and Watson treat Barth sympathetically, they argue, convincingly, that, in allowing the horrors of Nazism to push him away from the ability of human reason to perceive general revelation, Barth not only broke from the traditional theology of Luther and Calvin but set reformed Protestantism on a trajectory away from natural law. Even after the war, Barth remained antagonistic to any claimed source of theological knowledge outside of Gods revelation in the person of Jesus Christ, including any claim that God had revealed truths in reason, in conscience, in the emotions, in history, in nature, and in culture and its achievements and developments, they note.

In a knowing rebuttal of the anti-natural law stance of Barth, Lewis begins the Broadcast Talks (and later Mere Christianity) with a what the authors describe as defense of objective moral principles. In offering the twentieth centurys finest apologetic for Christianity, Lewis was also consciously preaching fidelity to the old moral law, revealed in nature and known by reason, at a time when the idea of natural law was under serious attack by prominent Protestant theologians [like Barth] as well as secular philosophers, scientists, and social planners. Indeed, when it came time for Lewis to write his seminal work of literary history and theory, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (1954), Dyer and Watson note Lewis coined the term Barthianism to describe the modern Calvinist penchant for flattening all things into common insignificance before the inscrutable Creator.

What has all this to do with politics? A great deal. Barths abandonment of natural law has by no means protected us from the encroachment of totalitarianism into our public schools and social programs. To the contrary, in the absence of Lewiss Tao, it has become all the easier for educators and politicians alike to carve out new goals and rights for man that have nothing to do with our true ontological status as creatures made in the image of God but fallen.

What then is to be done? Though Lewis was clearly drawn toward monarchy, a system he incarnates and celebrates so memorably in his Chronicles of Narnia, he nevertheless upheld democracy as the best form of government. Lewis was a partisan of classical liberal democracy, not because it allowed for maximum political participation for all of a nations citizens, but because it curtailed the likelihood of political tyranny. He was a democrat because he believed human nature had been corrupted, the authors note. Given our fallen state, it was unwise to entrust too much power to a single individual or group, a sentiment that was expressed even more strongly by one of Lewiss mentors, G. K. Chesterton.

But does this put Lewis in the same camp as Locke? Though I was initially skeptical on this pointI view Locke as a deist whose rejection of innate knowledge leaves little room for a God-given conscienceDyer and Watson won me over through careful argumentation and balanced proof texting. Both Locke and Lewis believed that the end of government was the protection of individuals and their property, broadly understood. Both claimed that God is the ultimate source of property, and as such, God is the ontological source of genuine morality, though people could still access that morality without acknowledging God as its source or agreeing on how to best relate to God, they write.

If Dyer and Watsons equating of Lewis and Locke made me do a double take, then their equating of Lewis with John Stuart Mill made me do a triple take. Could there possibly be any meeting ground between the great Christian apologist and the Victorian utilitarian who, to my mind at least, was a functional atheist? Though more circumspect in making this link, Dyer and Watson demonstrate that Lewis, like Mill, saw governments role, not to make men moral, but to do as little harm as possible. And that includes, as disturbing as it may appear to conservative Christians like myself, Lewiss suggestion that secular states need not criminalize divorce, homosexuality, or other victimless crimes.

Still, Dyer and Watson make it clear that Lewiss liberalism does not put him in league with utilitarianism as a theory of politics or of the nature of man. Accordingly, Lewiss liberalism stems from a commitment not to neutrality among competing conceptions of the good nor to the greatest happiness for the greatest number. . . . Lewis invokes the harm principle to protect society from the dangers of theocracy and to protect the Church from the dangers of blasphemy. Lewis prudentially adopted a utilitarian strategy in order to foster a regime most likely to promote and facilitate human flourishing. As such, his commitment to teleology is not necessarily undermined by his use of Mills harm principle.

It is through discerning passages like this one, in which careful distinctions are drawn between theory and practice, foundational principles and pragmatic realities, that Dyer and Watson prove themselves to be reliable guides through Lewiss scattered writings on politics and the too often scatter-brained attempts of modern and postmodern educators, sociologists, and political theorists to establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility in a world that has lost its moorings in the Tao.

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Inside The Quiet, Prophetic Politics Of Theologian C.S. Lewis - The Federalist

Uber Is Doomed – Jalopnik

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Illustration credit: Jim Cooke/Jalopnik

If there is one quote that sums up the ethos of Uber, it might be this cut from the companys firebrand CEO Travis Kalanick: Stand by your principles and be comfortable with confrontation. So few people are, so when the people with the red tape come, it becomes a negotiation. But after a month marked by one disaster after another, its hard to see how Ubers defiant, confrontational attitude hasnt blown up in its face. And those disasters mask one key, critical issue: Uber is doomed because it cant actually make money.

After a discombobulated 2016, in which Uber burned through more than $2 billion, amid findings that rider fares only cover roughly 40 percent of a ride, with the remainder subsidized by venture capitalists, its hard to imagine Kalanick could take the company public at its stunning current valuation of nearly $70 billion.

And now, in the past few weeks alone, Uber has been accused of having a workplace that fosters a culture of misogyny, accused of stealing from Google the blueprint of a successful self-driving system, and has lost 200,000 customers over ties to President Donald Trump and how it responded to a taxi driver boycott.

Yet even when those factors are removed, its becoming more evident that Uber will collapse on its own. Barring a drastic shift in the companys businessan implausible rollout of self-driving car fleets across the U.S., an increase of fares by three-fold, or a complete monopolization of the taxi and ride-hailing marketsUbers lifeline is shrinking. Its business model could collapse if one court case, and there are many, goes against it. Or perhaps more pressing, if it simply runs out of cash.

That Kalanick quote about confrontation may be as innocuous as a random sound bite, but its representative of the ride-hailing giants methodology since its founding in 2009: a perpetual resistance to regulatory oversight; a belief that, ultimately, an unfettered market is the key to prosperity.

At first glance it seems like Kalanicks libertarian ideals have paid off. Most recently valued at a reported $69 billion, Uber has captured a majority of the ground transportation market and flipped the taxi industrya sector Kalanick once famously and snidely referred to as the Big Taxi Cartelon its head. His philosophy mirrors the mindset of one of his favorite authors, the laissez-faire Ayn Rand. In 2012, Kalanick proffered that Ubers battle against government regulations has an uncanny resemblance to the Randian philosophy. A billionaire fighting The Systemand prevailing. Its a good story for those who find truth in Atlas Shrugged.

Ubers long had skeptics, and its not innovative to paint Kalanick, 40, as the boogeyman of Silicon Valley, where unseemly savants exist in vast supply.

The precarious moment in the companys eight-year history falls on Kalanicks lap. Its his baby after alla startup founded on seemingly nothing more than a vague idea, without much regard for the workforce to make it possible, or even a clear idea of what business model it actually wants to pursue. Uber has jumped from one idea to the next: UberX, UberEats, autonomous cars, and now flying cars, of all things.

The impact of Ubers death would probably be as much of a rebuke of Kalanicks vision of running on a scatterbrained dream, not so much a solid business model and philosophy, that you could muster.

It would also be devastating for some. The livelihood of 11,000 employees across the world rests on Kalanicks decision to submit to that philosophywhich, at its core, is a ruthless way of doing business. At the very least, drivers in the pre-Uber market could earn a decent living. Conversely, for example, Uber drivers taking advantage of new vehicle solution pilot program in Boston renting cars by the hour through Zipcar will earn less than Massachusetts minimum wage. How innovative.

One of the biggest issues that has left Ubers business model hanging in the balance is its resistance to classifying its driversthere are reportedly600,000 in the U.S.as employees, not contractors. If Uber is a house of cards, this is a key part of the foundation that, once removed, would demolish the structure.

Indeed, the company has said reclassifying drivers could force Uber to restructure its entire business model. The result of its opposition to readjust has been entirely expected. Without the perks and protectionsthat an employee may enjoyhealth care, benefits, gasoline and work reimbursements, vehicle maintenance, all of which could reportedly total as much as $730 millioncomplaints from drivers have piled up, ranging from low pay to new services like UberEats (a loathed food delivery service thats reportedly set to lose over $100 million annually) and UberPOOL, its carpool option which increases the companys take per-ride, lowers the take-home pay for drives, and is understood to be quite a drag for drivers and passengers alike. Drivers themselves said as much in a recent, disastrous question-and-answer session with Ubers president.

The counter-argumentperhaps one that would come from Kalanick himselfis that Uber drivers have the freedom to work whenever and wherever they want, or for the company at all. But the reality is that perception is built on a lie.

Uber, which didnt respond to questions from Jalopnik about its viability, recently paid $20 million to settle claims that it grossly misled how much drivers could earn on Craigslist ads. The companys explosive growth also fundamentally required it to begin offering subprime auto loans to prospective drivers without a vehicle.

Drivers with loans need to work to pay their monthly tab, thereby necessitating they work more for less, and so on. (Figures released in 2015 indicated that nearly 40 percent of Ubers driver force has no other source of income, while 30 percent work for Uber while holding down a second part-time job.)

To maximize their income, some have taken to sleeping in their car to be close to busier work areas. And beyond drivers, the company has also been accused of lying to prospective engineers about promises of lucrative stock options, in a move that could allegedly save it millions of dollars of tax deductions.

The Craigslist ads, for one thing, succeeded in reeling in drivers.

I thought I would try it out because I was desperate, said one driver who learned about the company after reading an online ad and declined to be named for fear of retribution in an interview with Jalopnik. Back then, the pay was quite a bit more than it is now. There have been a number of fare cuts since then. So, at the beginning, it was kind of different because not only was the pay higher, [but] because the pay was higher, there was a different type of customer that was using the service.

He added, And then contrast that with now with uberPOOL, a driver can be getting paid just 80 cents for a ride, and all the sudden you have these people who mightve been taking the bus, and now all the sudden theyre your boss for 80 cents and you better hop to and do what they say with a smile, or youre going to get a 1 star rating, if not [physically] assaulted in some cases.

That strikes at a core tenet of Ubers case that it provides a far-superior taxi service. Violent incidents, for example, involving drivers and passengers have popped up timeandagain against a backdrop of the companys campaign to prevent it from having to subject prospective drivers to extensive fingerprint background checks. Really, what is an Uber but a taxi with a smartphone app? Even then, taxi services have launched apps of their own.

Customers want to get from A to B quickly, pleasantly, and at a reasonable price, said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business. The Uber thing worked because it was cheaper and, initially, it was more pleasant than the typical taxi. So thats why it worked. But people dont have loyalty to Uber, not even the drivers. The drivers tend to drive for both Uber and Lyft, its chief competitor and a company with a remarkably more cuddly public image, albeit one that is probably not deserved.

But its the driver classification as contractors thats routinely staked out as potentially devastating for Uber. A $100 million settlement for a high-profile federal class-action suit over driver classification was denied last year, but the judge in the case believes Uber has enough wiggle room to readjust and still survive, despite the companys insistence that it would have to wholly restructure its operations. While that case remains pending, more suits over the driver classification have continued to emerge.

If you lose a case in a statethe state asserts theyre employees for state lawit would encourage other states to file lawsuits, but you only lose state by state, Gordon said. If you lose it at the federal level theyre in huge trouble.

The part-time model can last forever, he continued. But with drivers doing this more or less full time, he said, Something has to change; the price of the rides has to change... And if what changes is these people end up being employees, then I think the whole house falls down.

Its not just Uber drivers who feel downtrodden. A widely-circulated essay published last week by a former engineer described a series of incidents that painted the companys headquarters as a space that fostered repeated, systemic sexual harassment.

The essay by Susan Fowler Rigetti alleged that her former boss, for instance, solicited her for sex.

On my first official day rotating on the team, my new manager sent me a string of messages over company chat. He was in an open relationship, he said, and his girlfriend was having an easy time finding new partners but he wasnt. He was trying to stay out of trouble at work, he said, but he couldnt help getting in trouble, because he was looking for women to have sex with. It was clear that he was trying to get me to have sex with him, and it was so clearly out of line that I immediately took screenshots of these chat messages and reported him to HR.

When Fowler Rigetti engaged with HR, she said, they responded that even though this was clearly sexual harassment and he was propositioning me, it was this mans first offense ... he was a high performer. Translation: Nothing would happen to him.

Kalanick immediately issued a statement that what Fowler Rigetti described is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in. He added that it was the first time hed learned of the allegations. An investigation was ordered, and Uber hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct the internal probe.

But Silicon Valley is a small place, where high-profile talent bounce around companies on a regular basis. People talk. For Uber, the damage may have already been done.

I think this could definitely take a toll, said one former Uber exec who requested anonymity, adding: Its going to be difficult to continue to recruit the best and brightest talent.

Fowler Rigetti claims Uber had a game-of-thrones political war ranging within the ranks of upper management in the infrastructure engineering organization. Managers and peers duked it out, she said, while some attempted to undermine their direct supervisors with the intention of taking their job.

The ramifications of these political games were significant: projects were abandoned left and right, she said. The discontent and disorder at Uber HQ that she describes doesnt lend credence to the idea that its facilitating a decent work environment to succeed going forward.

In late November, the financial blog Naked Capitalism published the first of a series of pieces by transportation industry analyst Hubert Horan on the financial viability of Uber. The posts asked a simple question: Can Uber Ever Deliver? According to Horan, based on a significant amount of data on the companys finances that has been released, the answer is no.

Horan argues that, in order for Uber to prove that its domination of the taxi industry will improve overall economic welfare, it would have to earn sustainable profits; provide service at a significantly lower cost; create new competitive advantages through major product redesigns and technology/process innovations; and, eventually, be incentivized to pass on its efficiency gains to consumers.

This hinges on an autonomous driving fleet. Despite optimistic overtures from automakers and self-driving car start-ups, the likelihood of that coming to fruition, if ever, is decades away. Ford has an optimistic plan to roll out fully-autonomous cars by 2021, for example, but they would be limited to use in a geo-fenced area.

Kalanick himself has said the development of self-driving cars is existential to Uber. Labor drives up operating costs; removing 160,000 drivers from the equation makes it a lot easier to balance the books. Though Uber has a reported $11 billion war chest stowed away, by burning through billions at a rapid clip, the path and timeline to becoming a driverless car company however that would materialize is muddled.

Even then, Ubers likelihood of success appears slim.

If you put driverless cars totally aside, the near-term future of Uber is the question of whether they could succeed in establishing a reasonably secure quasi-monopoly position in the United States and other large developed country markets before the cash runs out, Horan said in an email to Jalopnik. This is certainly possible but by no means certain. If yes, cash flow would improve considerably. If no, cash flow problems could get worse as the world becomes increasingly aware that it will never generate sustainable profits in its core business. Kalanick said that Uber had an existential need to succeed in driverless cars. This suggests his optimism about taxi profitability is not what it used to be. And at the rate its going, Uber could crash and burn through its stockpile of cash by the end of the decade.

Like a lot of Silicon Valley companies, Uber has survived on the backs of wealthy investors that have propped it up, despite eye-popping losses for several years. Horans analysis found that Uber has maintained operating losses of $2 billion a year, surpassing any start-up in history, with a negative 143 percent profit margin. Thus Ubers current operations depend on $2 billion in subsidies, funded out of the $13 billion in cash its investors have provided, he wrote.

Further, Horan found that Uber passengers fares only covered 41 percent of the actual trip cost, suggesting it charges far-too little for fares. Even public transit systems, long lambasted for being money-losing ventures, perform better: for instance, fare revenue for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which serves the nations capital, accounts for 47 percent of its operating costs.

Uber ... was using these massive [investor] subsidies to undercut the fares and provide more capacity than the competitors who had to cover 100 percent of their costs out of passenger fares, Horan wrote.

If a monopoly is the key to success, its hard to figure how Uber can achieve total dominance. In the third quarter of 2016, for instance, Uber lost $800 million, according to The Information, a tech news site. Its chief rival, Lyft, is backed by General Motors and recently secured market share gains against Uber in significant U.S. markets, the site said, adding that Lyfts continued relevance in the U.S. has changed the math for Uber in terms how much it projected it could profit from developed markets in the next few years.

Steven Hill, a former fellow at the New America Foundation think tank, who has regularly criticized Uber, said the company has been successful only because taxi service has kind of sucked.

I think ride-sharing may survive, but Uber may not, said Hill, who published a book on the so-called gig economy called Raw Deal: How The Uber Economy Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers.

Because the other thing thats really bedeviling Uber: instead of just focusing on being a good taxi company for the digital age finding the way, a sweet spot, to make that work, its blowing all sots of money [on] self driving-cars and China and now India. The company just so much reflects the megalomania of Travis Kalanick and whatever he thinks hes doing.

I mean, seven out of 10 silicon valley startups fail, Hill went on. Theyre producing a product or service that no one necessarily wants to buy at the cost you can produce it for. Capitalism 101, right? So thats what were seeing with Uber. At this moment, it does not appear that Uber is able to produce a service that customers will pay enough more to make it sustainable.

Its unclear in what markets Uber may be turning a profit, if any at all. The company reportedly said it wanted to achieve profitability in the second quarter of 2016, and it claimed at the time it had reached that goal in the U.S. and Canada. But by December, according to Bloomberg, Uber was losing money again in the U.S., to the tune of $100 million per year.

Its also striking that Uber tapped Wall Street banks for a billion dollar loan by convincing several financial institutions to focus only on its nearly $70 billion valuation, and not operating losses in certain markets. According to Reuters, regulators at the Financial Reserve were bothered by the loan because the banks carved out Ubers more mature operations from the rest of the business.

Thats a vague statement, but Reuters said the regulators scrutiny was not a surprise because it is rare for young, unprofitable technology firms to tap the leveraged loan market which is traditionally restricted to companies with long histories of generating cash. (The reserve declined to release any documents related to the loan in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, saying: Such information, including any statement confirming or denying that any such information exists, would constitute a disclosure of confidential supervisory information and thereby was exempt from public release.)

Again, its commonplace for venture capitalists and early stage investors to fund operating deficits. The belief is that the company is going to grow fast enough and that, with enough growth, its going to turn profitable, and its going to turn highly profitable, said Gordon, the University of Michigan business professor.

A common comparison to describe Ubers approach is Amazon, which lost money consistently over the first several years of its existence. As Horan notes, however, Amazons worst losses were $1.4 billion in its fifth year of operations, but shrank rapidly thereafter, while Ubers losses have been steadily growing and will be over $3 billion in its seventh year.

The problem with Uber, Horan argued, is that it doesnt have a powerful economy of scale that is, the savings in cost that are produced when production increases, particularly through fixed costs being spread out. Unlike Amazon, which had significant fixed costs, Horan said that 85 percent of Ubers costs are variable.

Uber cannot expand into new markets at very low cost since it faces unique driver recruitment, political lobbying and competitive marketing challenges in each city, Horan said.

Gordon said thats why the typical approach by venture capitalists with Uber probably wont work.

They dont have an economy of scale, he said. So, every day, venture capitalists fund loss-making companies, but not one [with] a model you cant see how its going to flip twice as many rides that you keep losing money on. Youre not going to start making twice as much money because youre doing twice as much rides. Its not like a factory [with fixed costs].

Maybe Kalanick knows something we all dont. Maybe Uber has a secret team of genius scientists wholl surpass all expectations of driverless cars and, somehow, have a fully-automated fleet of vehicles for the company to use everywhere within a few years. Maybe billionaire investors are actually fine with propping up a money-losing venture into perpetuity.

But until Uber can prove it has found a sustainable modelor, perhaps, stop the investor leaks of its financialstheres little to suggest it has the bandwidth to survive. Whether its sold, drastically shrinks its market footprint, or just outright shutters, its untenable for Uber to exist long term as the tech juggernaut it is today.

Kalanick has pushed an enterprise on little more than a grandiose bet: that Uber could exist on a playing field of its own with few regulations, carving a path to financial salvation by dominating the taxi market simply through the sheer force of investors with bottomless pockets. It isnt working.

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Uber Is Doomed - Jalopnik

Ron Forthofer: To live by the Golden Rule, we must recognize the ‘others’ – Longmont Times-Call

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People early on learn the Golden Rule, essentially to treat others (regardless of differences) as you wish to be treated. This idea is found in many faiths as well. For example, love and compassion, not hatred and coldness, are a key part of Jesus' teachings as well as part of other religions.

The political campaigns and outcome of the Nov. 8 election have served as a wake-up call for many and emphasized the need for people to recommit themselves to the Golden Rule. There is now a widespread realization that there are increased threats, including violence, to vulnerable populations, especially minorities, immigrants, gays, poor people and the disabled in this country. It is great that so many people today are engaging in the effort to support the vulnerable who have been suffering for decades or longer.

However, it's not just individual and group acts of discrimination that are of concern. Vulnerable groups have long been targeted by biased policies and by systemic racism. Examples include the abuse of blacks during the Jim Crow period and the theft of properties and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

From colonial time, and especially in hard economic times, the rich and powerful used the idea of divide and conquer to keep the overwhelming majority of people from coming together to challenge the power of the few. Unfortunately, this approach is still effective. Hatred against and fear of minorities (including immigrants) is stoked by scapegoating them for the recurring economic hardships and for crimes. Until we understand how we are being manipulated to protect the interests of the 1 percent, we won't achieve an economic system meet the needs of the people and the race to the bottom will continue.

Martin Luther King Jr. said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Therefore we also have to consider our treatment of peoples in other nations. For example, we have allowed and often encouraged our government to use extreme violence against people who were different from us, especially when we coveted their lands and/or resources. We tended to view the other as inferior, even less than human, and therefore we seemed to think that we could violate the Golden Rule as well as international and human rights laws.

The genocide against Native Americans is a horrific example of our violations. Our government and population acted shamefully against Native Americans, including breaking most treaties negotiated with them. Unfortunately, the treatment of the Sioux water protectors at Standing Rock demonstrates that we have made little progress in following the Golden Rule toward these fellow humans.

The fire bombings of several German and Japanese cities and the use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed our almost total disregard for civilian lives. By its bombing of cities, the U.S. followed the lead of the enemies and of Britain in committing atrocious war crimes.

According to J. Robert Oppenheimer, even before the approval of the use of the atomic bomb, Secretary of War Henry Stimson expressed dismay at the "appalling" lack of conscience and compassion ushered in by the war. Stimson stated that he was disturbed by the "complacency, the indifference, and the silence with which we greeted the mass bombings in Europe, and, above all, Japan." This indifference likely was also found in the populations of Germany, Japan and Britain.

More recently, the U.S. committed horrendous crimes in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as well as in the Middle East, starting in Iraq. The illegal and immoral attack on Iraq has played a major role in creating the disaster spreading throughout the Middle East. We, the U.S. public, have generally shown a lack of compassion for the victims of our crimes.

If we are ever to live up to the Golden Rule, all people must realize that the "others" are fellow human beings with equally valuable lives.

Ron Forthofer is a retired professor of biostatistics who lives in Longmont.

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Ron Forthofer: To live by the Golden Rule, we must recognize the 'others' - Longmont Times-Call

United Way to present Golden Rule-Lightkeepers, Fabric of our Community Awards – Jacksonville Daily News

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The Golden Rule Lightkeepers Awards a partnership between the United Way and The Daily News along with the City of Jacksonvilles Fabric of Our Community Award will be presented at this years luncheon on Friday

Excellence will be recognized this week at a luncheon to honor community volunteers.

The Golden Rule Lightkeepers Awards a partnership between the United Way and The Daily News along with the City of Jacksonvilles Fabric of Our Community Award will be presented at this years luncheon on Friday at noon at the Courtyard by Marriott in Jacksonville.

The awards are something United Way Volunteer Onslow Director Shelly Kieweg said highlight the accomplishments of local volunteers.

When we recognize excellence, we acknowledge volunteer efforts that go above and beyond, which in turn makes them feel proud of their own accomplishments and want to continue to volunteer for us, Kieweg said. Volunteers are priceless. They are the backbone and add value to nonprofit organizations.

For recipients to qualify for an award, they must be a volunteer in a capacity that helps the community and be nominated as Lightkeepers, from which the Golden Rule winners are also selected, by an individual or a community agency, Kieweg said. Golden Rule Award winners will then be nominated for the N.C. Governors Volunteer Service Award.

The Fabric of our Community Awards new this year will recognize community members who through a lifetime of work, have helped achieve higher civic education, improved the civic infrastructure of our community or performed efforts to advance citizenship, citizen participation and encouragement of our community.

For Kieweg, the experience of watching volunteers receive these awards is truly moving. Its something she said makes the staffs hearts happy.

Most volunteers dont volunteer for recognition, she said. They volunteer because they are giving back to their community, and that is what matters most. To see their faces when they are being recognized is priceless.

Kieweg said that while no award can match the satisfaction a volunteer can receive from serving a neighbor in need, the event is the least they can do. She encouraged the public to nominate individuals who do much to make the community better. To nominate a volunteer, visit JDNews.com/UnsungHeroes to fill out a nomination form.

The luncheon, catered by The Flame, is open to the public. Those who wish to attend can RSVP at UWOnslow.org. Tickets, which are $15 each, can be paid for online or at the door.

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From mushroom picker to deputy sheriff: Herc Avello relishes golden rule – Daily Local News

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More than three decades ago, an unlikely confluence of regional influences mushrooms, the Wyeths, and a passel of crooks redefined a Kennett Square residents career path.

Hercules Herc Avello, who marked his 30th anniversary with the Chester County Sheriffs Office last month, said he expected to follow his fathers footsteps into the mushroom industry. From the age of 10, he had performed a variety of odd jobs, ranging from washing to picking, at ACA Mushrooms, his fathers company.

Born and raised in Kennett Square with a brother and a sister, Avello joined the Future Business Leaders of America Club at Kennett High, and he recalled being the only male in his typing class. He selected it because he figured it would serve him well in the mushroom industry as well as at the Poolside Deli, a family store next to the YMCA that was run by his mother.

I thought that was my path, Avello said. Then, a couple of incidents made him reconsider his vocation.

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Avello said his father had a heart attack in the late 1970s at the young age of 47, an experience that necessitated some major lifestyle changes. As his father struggled to rebound, another setback occurred. Avello, who was 19 at the time, remembered coming home one day from work and finding his parents distraught as police officers and detectives combed their home.

The family had fallen prey to a brazen burglary ring that made national headlines in 1982. Among its victims: Andrew Wyeth. Fortunately for the artist, the thieves, who included a mushroom grower from Avondale, were not particularly skilled at fencing stolen paintings. By early 1983, a massive FBI investigation resulted in five indictments.

But repercussions from the crime continued for his family, Avello said. His father, who had been targeted for his coin collection, decided to sell the mushroom business. By then, his sons brush with law enforcement had left an indelible, positive impact. I remember being really impressed with the job they did, Avello said, adding that he wanted to emulate them.

Avello learned that the Chester County Prison had an opening. So he took a job there, and he enrolled in the Municipal Police Academy at Delaware County Community College. A year and a half later, a position opened in the Chester County Sheriffs Office.

By then, he was married and starting a family, which now includes his lovely wife Kathy, a son, a daughter and a granddaughter, and the regular schedule appealed to him. So he changed gears on Jan. 5, 1987. A bonus: He started working with gun permits, a position he has continued.

I grew up hunting, Avello said. So I was very comfortable in that role. It really seemed to be my calling. He even got to utilize those typing skills.

But it wasnt until seven years ago that Avello fully appreciated the wisdom of his career choice. He was playing ice hockey with colleagues from the Sheriffs Office at Ice Line in West Goshen Township when genetics caused history to repeat itself. At age 46, Avello experienced a heart attack.

He credits county resources and the fast action by deputies and West Goshen police with saving his life.

Were really fortunate to live in a county that ensures that first-responders have the tools they need, he said, explaining that a defibrillator was in the police car. He said a recent Valentines Day demonstration of hands-only CPR by the county commissioners reinforced their continuing commitment to citizens health.

Avello said he hoped to replicate the recovery of his father, who went on to enjoy more than 3 decades. In the meantime, Avello still finds great satisfaction in assisting people with gun permits.

A lot has changed, he said, ranging from the disappearance of typewriters to the countys significant growth.

Thirty years ago, Avello said that he knew about five percent of the people who came into the office. Back then, the office processed 30 to 50 permits a month; that number now runs from 250 to 300. The increase hasnt slowed the process, though, since technology enables background checks to be done almost instantly.

Avello said he believes the Sheriffs Office is a special place to work. When I hear people say the boss is only as good as the people below, I have to disagree, said Avello. That hasnt been my experience: I work hard because of Sheriff (Carolyn Bunny) Welsh. She sets the tone.

Part of the office philosophy mirrors his own, Avello said.

I was always taught to treat people the way you want to be treated, and that seems to work well here, he concluded.

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Keith Ellison is too liberal to run the DNC, says Muslim ex-spokesman for Clinton – TheBlaze.com

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Former Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee said Fridaythat fellow Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is too liberal to run the Democratic National Committee. Ellison is considered a front-runner in the election for DNC chair which will be held Saturday.

He made the comments to Vox, saying,Youre going to be shocked at me telling you this: Ellison is too liberal to run the DNC.

Ellisons greatest competition is former labor secretary to Obama, Tom Perez. Elleithee explained why he was favored over Ellison, explaining,Tom is not in bed with anybody he served President Obama; he knows the Clintons that doesnt make him establishment any more than it makes me establishment. I served in Clinton and Obamas administrations, but Im not establishment.

Backed by the Bernie Sanders wing, Ellison is seen as the more progressive alternative to Perez, perceived as the establishment pick and backed by the Obama and Clinton wing of the party. Also in the running is the dark horse mayor from South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg.

The Sanders wing is the far more animated and spirited portion of the party, but their far left ideology is considered a negative after the devastating 2016 election.

The average voter in the United States is moderate, Ellison explained. A lot of people in my circles agree with that. And Ellison is too close to Bernie Sanders.

Ellison has been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism, something he addressed during the CNN debate for the DNC chair Wednesday.

These are false allegations, and thats why I have 300 Rabbis and Jewish community leaders who signed a letter supporting me, Ellison said, going on to cite works he had done on interfaith issues for the benefit of the Jewish community.

He also appeared to want to dish out some left-wing red meat for his progressive supporters during the debate, as he declared that President Trump was impeachable on the first day of his presidency. Some of the other candidates beat around the bush on the issue, wanting to not appear as extreme as Ellison. Perez, meanwhile, distinguished himself by touting cooperation among Democrats as being the worst nightmare of President Trump.

Democrats will vote for DNC chair Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Keith Ellison is too liberal to run the DNC, says Muslim ex-spokesman for Clinton - TheBlaze.com

Liberal candidates revealed as preselection closes for South Australia election – ABC Online

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Updated February 24, 2017 18:27:34

Liberal preselection nominations for 18 South Australian state seats have closed, and among the candidates is a former Liberal minister who retired from politics more than 10 years ago.

Wayne Matthew was the member for Bright from 1989 to 2006, and held ministerial portfolios including police and emergency services in the Brown and Olsen governments.

He has nominated for the seat of Davenport and is one of many candidates who are taking a tilt at preselection, as boundary redistributions appear to have made a Liberal election win more likely.

Alex Brown, the son of former premier Dean Brown, has nominated for Colton, while six candidates are vying for retiring MP Isobel Redmond's seat of Heysen.

There is also strong interest in two Labor-held seats, with five nominees for both Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan's seat of Lee, and Sports Minister Leon Bignell's Mawson electorate.

Both seats have become more marginal under boundary redistributions.

"It is fantastic to see such a high calibre of people nominating for preselection to represent the Liberal Party at the next state election," Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum said.

"The party is calling for hard-working candidates committed to representing their local communities as part of a newly elected Liberal state government that will provide responsible leadership and deliver a clear pathway for the state's recovery and success."

Sitting MPs Rachel Sanderson, Corey Wingard, Vickie Chapman, David Speirs, Vince Tarzia and Dan van Holst Pellekaan have all been preselected unopposed.

The names of the other candidates remain confidential until they are endorsed by the party's review committee next week.

Topics: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, liberals, sa

First posted February 24, 2017 18:22:49

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Liberal candidates revealed as preselection closes for South Australia election - ABC Online

Are town hall crowds stirring up a liberal tea party? – Chicago Tribune

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I get a kick out of the Republican members of Congress who claim the angry constituents at their town hall meetings are paid agitators. I remember how Democrats tried to dismiss noisy tea party protesters the same way in 2009.

Not surprisingly, President Donald Trump doesn't see it that way.

"The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans," Trump tweeted Tuesday, "are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!"

Gee, imagine that: Angry liberals are strategically encouraging people to come out and let their lawmakers know what's on their minds. Liberals are calling it grass roots politics while some conservatives are calling it "AstroTurf politics."

But that's what a lot of liberals called it when the conservative tea party movement erupted in 2009. Now many of those tea party critics are trying to employ the same tactic.

Angry constituents have made headlines across the nation, upset over everything from the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and evidence of Russian interference in the U.S. elections and the Trump White House's travel ban, just for starters.

As for "liberal activists"? Republican have known since December that a growing number of liberal organizations and activists have been sharing strategies for ways to encourage voters to light up town halls with tough questions for members of Congress.

More than a thousand local groups have popped up across the country, organizing around an online how-to manual called "Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda."

Drafted by former Democratic congressional staffers who say they came up with the idea at an Austin, Texas, bar a couple of days after Thanksgiving, the manual has gone viral on the web, helped along by some prominent liberal groups such as Organizing for Action, in promoting the Indivisible Guide.

Following the tea party model makes more sense than the Occupy Wall Street movement, which captured public attention for a few months, then faded without much follow-up. By contrast, the tea party grew potent enough to help take away the Democrats' House majority in 2010, its second year. President Barack Obama's momentum was never the same.

Does Indivisible have a chance to do the same to Trump? That depends mainly on how well local organizers can keep their enthusiasm and momentum going.

The first big test for this new Indivisible movement may not come until next year's midterms, just as it did for Republicans in 2010.

That's a good test because Democratic Party turnout tends to drop in midterm elections. The most recent and notable exception was 2006. Dissatisfaction over President George W. Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War and a series of scandals involving Republican politicians, among other woes for the Grand Old Party, resulted in a Democratic sweep. The donkey party captured both houses of Congress and a majority of governorships and state legislatures.

Could they do it again? The election map doesn't look nearly as good for Democrats this time, but that, too, makes 2018 important. State lawmakers will be elected that year who will draw the electoral maps for 2020.

And Democrats have another unusual asset: President Trump. Defying traditions, as he loves to do, he has continued to focus on whipping up his conservative base without making the traditional pivot that others have made toward the political center.

The result has been approval ratings in almost all of the major polls that are historically low for a new president. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, for example, found only 38 percent of voters think he is doing a good job while 55 percent said he is doing a bad job.

Worse for the GOP, a Pew Research Center poll released the day before showed rank-and-file Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are still so psyched up for Trump that 52 percent of them say they are likely to side with Trump in a dispute with party leaders.

If Trump fails to keep his promises, even his core support could erode.

But, of course, Trump only gives Democrats someone to vote against. Let's see whom they offer us to vote for.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime

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Are town hall crowds stirring up a liberal tea party? - Chicago Tribune

How one liberal group is trying to help Democrats win back the House in 2018 – PBS NewsHour

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats join activists at a gun control rally at the Capitol last year. A new liberal group, Swing Left, is working to help House Democrats pick up seats in the 2018 midterm elections. Photo by REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Ethan Todras-Whitehall was disappointed when Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. After his victory, sitting on your hands and just reading the news was intolerable, said Todras-Whitehall, a 36-year-old freelance writer and GMAT tutor from Amherst, Massachusetts. It still is.

So in the weeks after the election, Todras-Whitehall called two friends, Joshua Krafchin and Miriam Stone, and proposed a plan of action: creating a grassroots organization aimed at helping Democrats win back control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.

The result is Swing Left, part of a loosely-connected network of liberal groups, like Indivisible, that pundits across the political spectrum are calling the lefts answer to the conservative Tea Party movement that emerged after President Barack Obamas victory in 2008.

Democrats havent been as focused on the House because weve held the presidency, Todras-Whitehall said. But now that Republicans control the White House along with both chambers of Congress, he said, regaining control of the House went from the last thing [liberal activists] think about to being a top priority.

To that end, Swing Left was specifically designed to target competitive House races, while leaving safe Democratic seats alone. Volunteers sign up by entering their ZIP code. From there, Swing Left points them to the closest swing district, in the hopes of boosting engagement in areas where Democrats have the most potential to pick up seats.

The model is based on the idea that its easier for people to volunteer close to home, where they feel they can make a difference on a regular basis, Todras-Whitehall said.

The group is targeting 52 House districts where the winners margin of victory in 2016 was 15 points or less. If the party wins 80 percent of those races, Democrats can regain a majority in the House, the group says.

Republicans currently hold 238 seats in the House, the GOPs largest majority in eight decades. Democrats control 198 seats; there are four vacancies.

Given those numbers, flipping control in the House is a tall order for groups like Swing Left, whose founders dont have much political organizing experience. Krafchin and Stone have never worked on a campaign; Todras-Whitehill did some phone banking for John Kerrys presidential campaign in 2004 and ran a small get-out-the-vote campaign in Ohio in 2008.

Most political experts agree the Democrats chances of regaining control of the House and Senate next year are slim.

No one thinks they can take back the House or the Senate in 2018, Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser, a former Tea Party organizer, said.

Congressional Republicans have taken note of the energy on the left since Trumps election, said Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOPs campaign arm.

But House Republicans plan to stick to their agenda in the face of the top-down effort from liberal activists to oppose Trumps presidency and make gains in Congress, Gorman said.

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event last August in Ashburn, Virginia, a town in GOP Rep. Barbara Comstocks district. Swing Left is targeting swing districts like Comstocks in the 2018 midterms. Photo by REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Despite Swing Lefts long odds, the group is gaining traction. Roughly 300,000 volunteers have signed up with the group, Todras-Whitehall said.

Linda Keuntje said when she saw an advertisement for Swing Left on her Facebook newsfeed after the election, she immediately signed up to volunteer in Virginias 10th congressional district, a swing seat now held by Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock.

My coping strategy is to act, said Keuntje, a Democrat who lives in Arlington, Virginia. I feel like Im doing something to improve the situation.

Experienced organizers including some former Clinton campaign staffers have also signed up with Swing Left, Todras-Whitehall said.

Swing Left is helping volunteers plan house meetings next week so activists can meet in person and start organizing. After that, Todras-Whitehall said he hopes volunteers will begin canvassing, knocking on doors and registering voters in swing communities.

I want people to know their local swing district better than they know their own [district], he said.

In addition to targeting swing districts, Swing Left also plans to play defense in Democratic seats where voters shifted right and voted for Trump, like Rep. Matt Cartwrights district in eastern Pennsylvania. Obama carried the district in 2008 and 2012. But in 2016, Trump won the district and Cartwright was narrowly re-elected by a 7.6 percent margin.

Voters in his district are desperate for economic change and backed Trump because he effectively painted himself as the economic candidate, Cartwright said in a phone interview.

Nevertheless, I dont intend to change my messaging one iota, Cartwright said. Those are core values for me, and theyre not going to change cause the wind changed directions.

Political observers said it was too early to tell if liberal groups had the kind of organizing Democrats need to defend districts like Cartwrights and make further gains in the House.

Its really easy to join a march, sign a petition, said Emily Ekins, a research fellow at the right-leaning Cato Institute. Its quite another [thing] to do the hard tedious work of local and political activism.

But Steinhauser, the Republican strategist, said he saw some similarities between the Tea Party movement and the grassroots activism growing on the left today.

When [voters think they] see a disaster coming, you fight like hell to say no, Steinhauser said.

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How one liberal group is trying to help Democrats win back the House in 2018 - PBS NewsHour

Democratic Congressman: Yes, There Are Liberal Groups Organizing These Town Hall Protests – Townhall

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Liberals are getting rowdy at GOP town halls. Its become so intense that it appears that some of them are avoiding these events altogether, especially Republicans who are considered vulnerable in 2018. Thats still not good. This is part of their job and they just cant flee like scared wombats when a group of liberals confront them. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) has been dealing with these protesters, diffusing some of the tension with humorbut uncompromising in his positions. Cortney wrote about how Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) also voiced his support for people who attended one his town halls, even though they probably hate his guts. In a previous post, I wrote about how one groupIndivisiblewhich was launched by ex-Democratic aides, shows one of the reasons why this so-called movement will fail: its not organic. Ex-Republican aides didnt start the Tea Party, but before we get into whether the Democrats have a liberal Tea Partylets not forget that the Left tried this with Occupy Wall Street. They stuck around for a bit, but it ultimately failed. I feel that rowdy town halls will continue to be rowdy, but it will do next to nothing to change the composition of the next Congress. Case in point, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) had a rather intense town hall, but he was re-elected with almost 74 percent of the vote. I doubt hes going anywhere if even more liberals vote against him in the next election. Yet, one area that the GOP needs to get a better grasp on is what theyre going to do with Obamacare, which has been one of the main rallying cries with this group of people, but I digress.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) was on MSNBC with Hallie Jackson who was adamant that these are organic protests, though he cited the Womens March as his main example and admitted to Jackson that liberal activists were organizing these town hall protests.

Hallie Jackson: But congressman there are groups though. I mean, you dont deny that there are groups of more liberal activists who are helping to organize some of these protests at town halls

Rep. Lieu: Well, yes, there are groups that are organizing people to show up at town halls, but these are people who are constituents of these members of Congress. Thats what people do. They show up at town halls and they give their voices to these members of Congress and youre seeing this huge reaction to Donald Trumps extreme and cruel policies.

Okayso thats another reason why Republicans probably shouldnt panic with these town hall events, especially congressmen like Chaffetz and Amash who won in landslide re-elects. These are liberals who have probably never voted for you anywaytheyre just more vocal about it.At any rate, the GOP majority is fine thanks to the partys dominance at the state level, which keeps the congressional maps drawn in their favor. Second, moreDemocratsare livingin urban areas than ever before, so liberal organizers will have to tap into that well to bring havoc to the heartland in their campaign to stop Trump.The well of support is rather depleted on the Democratic side in rural America.

TheGOP should continue to hold town halls and engage with these people. Its not like liberal anger was going to be a factor once Trump beat Hillary Clinton. In all, to say that this movement is wholly organic, as some havesuggested iswellsimply not true. Congressman Lieu admitted it.

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Democratic Congressman: Yes, There Are Liberal Groups Organizing These Town Hall Protests - Townhall

Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity’s Liberal Partner on Fox News, Dies at 66 – New York Times

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New York Times
Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Partner on Fox News, Dies at 66
New York Times
Alan Colmes, who for 12 years was a mild-mannered and moderately liberal sparring partner to the conservative firebrand Sean Hannity in Fox News Channel's most conspicuous effort to fulfill its fair and balanced credo, died on Thursday in Manhattan.
Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Foil on Fox News, Dies at 66NBCNews.com
Remembering Alan Colmes, a liberal who could laughFox News
Alan Colmes, co-host of 'Hannity & Colmes' and liberal in 'lion's den' of Fox News, dies at 66Washington Post
Daily Beast -Chicago Tribune -Slate Magazine (blog) -Fox News Insider
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Alan Colmes, Sean Hannity's Liberal Partner on Fox News, Dies at 66 - New York Times

Alan Colmes, liberal voice on Fox, dead at 66 – Philly.com

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NEW YORK (AP) - Alan Colmes, the radio and television host and commentator best known as the amiable liberal foil to the hard-right Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel, has died.

Fox spokeswoman Dana Klinghoffer confirmed his death Thursday. Fox also aired a tribute to Colmes, narrated by Hannity, and a statement from his family saying that he died Thursday morning after "a brief illness." Colmes was 66 and is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, the sister of longtime Fox contributor Monica Crowley. In a statement issued through Fox, Hannity called Colmes "one of life's most decent, kind and wonderful people."

Colmes was a New York City native and Hofstra University graduate who worked for years in radio, notably on WABC and WNBC, and standup comedy before joining Fox in 1996. That same year he and the conservative Hannity began a 12-year run as co-hosts of the popular "Hannity & Colmes" program, which brought Colmes both fame and ridicule. Admittedly a minority voice on the conservative channel, Colmes was often mocked as too nice and easily overshadowed by the ever-aggressive Hannity. The liberal media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Media likened him to the hapless Washington Generals, the dependable losers to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters. Al Franken, in his best-selling "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," imagined Colmes earning his salary by "adding toner to the copiers and printers, loofah-ing Roger Ailes in his personal steam room, and ordering Chinese food for editors working on misleading video packages."

Colmes was aware of the criticism, but said that getting mean was not his style.

"People say to me, 'Why don't you fight fire with fire?'" he told The Associated Press in 2003. "You fight fire with water, not fire."

Colmes continued to appear as a commentator on Fox after his show with Hannity ended. He also was an author, his books including "Thank the Liberals" and "Red, White & Liberal."

Published: February 24, 2017 7:51 AM EST

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Alan Colmes, liberal voice on Fox, dead at 66 - Philly.com

Woes of the Liberal party go all the way down to arcane NSW state politics – The Australian Financial Review

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Tony Abbott, as a conservative, is the one figure who can shore up the party's base against the surge in support for Pauline Hanson's nativist One Nation Party, and the recent defection of South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi.

In Working Girl, a charming film made by Mike (The Graduate) Nicholls, a male character is caught by his girlfriend, played by Melanie Griffith, engaging in what H.G. Nelson calls "horizontal folk dancing" with another woman.

The male character, played by Alec (Saturday Night Live) Baldwin, blurts out: "This isn't what it seems."

Expressed in different ways, this has been pretty much the standard response of Liberal politicians to the all-but-declared warfare between former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the man who blasted him out of the job, current Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

But even this flimsy verbal charade collapsed on Friday in a welter of bitter recriminations against Abbott by Malcolm Turnbull and cabinet ministers such as Mathias Cormann and Christopher Pyne.

These followed Tony Abbott's attack on his successor at a book launch, followed by an interview on TV, in Sydney on Thursday night, including the incendiary: "The risk is we will drift to defeat if we don't lift our game."

In response, Turnbull said his nemesis "knows exactly what he's doing and so do his colleagues" and that Turnbull's government had achieved more in the last six months than had been achieved in the previous three years, when Abbott was PM.

Finance Minister Cormann, who backed Abbott during that fateful meeting of Liberal MP's on September 14, 2015, branded the former PM's intervention "deliberately destructive". Pyne, a senior moderate in the government and minister for defence industry, slammed Abbott's proposals, including sharp cuts in government spending and a slowdown in the immigration rate, as either "catastrophic" or ones that had failed when he was in office.

This new, open war phase means there will be intense focus on the result of a looming NSW Liberal Party ballot. At one level it is just a state parliamentary preselection, one that routinely creates little interest outside the relevant political party and political commentators.

But at another level the preselection result for Manly, a Sydney harbour-side seat held by NSW Premier Mike Baird until he suddenly resigned last month could affect the future course of the Abbott-Turnbull warfare, on the careers of both, and even the Turnbull government's survival.

Manly lies inside the federal seat of Warringah, which has been held by Abbott since he won a byelection in 1994. The current Liberal Party preselection for the seat is being contested by six candidates. These include Walter Villatora, who was campaign manager for Mike Baird when he first won the seat in 2007, and is President of the Liberal Party's Federal Electorate Conference (FEC) in Abbott's seat of Warringah.

The close ties Abbott has with Villatora showed up again last year when he backed him in his unsuccessful bid to win Liberal Party's preselection for the adjacent seat of Mackellar, which had been held by former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop since she, too, won a byelection in 1994. The final winner was Jason Falinski.

Complicating matters another strong possible Liberal candidate for Manly who is also on the right in a highly factionalised NSW Liberal Party is John Hart, the chief executive of Restaurant & Catering Australia. Hart lost his bid to succeed former federal treasurer Joe Hockey in the nearby federal seat of North Sydney in late 2015 to Trent Zimmerman.

He is well-liked in the Liberal Party, although he attracted some controversy as the head of Joe Hockey's now mothballed electorate fundraising arm, the North Sydney Forum.

But in what is shaping up as a close contest, both Villatora and Hart are facing a strong challenge from James Griffin, who, at 34, is already a director in the risk consulting practice of KPMG in Sydney.

In preselection manoeuvring, Griffin, a moderate, is being framed by the right as the candidate of the NSW Liberal Party's dominant moderate faction, but he is in fact non-aligned and has deep roots in the area as a former local councillor.

So far, Baird, who resigned as premier to spend more time with his family and sick parents, has studiously kept his distance from the preselection process. However, it would not surprise close observers of the Liberal Party if Baird swung his support behind Griffin, touted as a possible future minister, in the final stages of a preselection which is likely to occur in mid-March.

Whatever the outcome, attention will inevitably shift to Abbott's parliamentary future. His Liberal Party opponents will argue that Abbott cannot remain as an MP when he is openly undermining Malcolm Turnbull, and even publicly casting doubt on the ability of a Turnbull-led Liberal Party to win the next federal election.

But the Abbott argument for remaining as the Liberal member for Warringah assuming he wants to stay in that role was already being put by his close Liberal Party supporters in private conversations by the end of the week. The nub of it is that Tony Abbott, as a conservative, is the one figure who can shore up the party's base against the surge in support for Pauline Hanson's nativist One Nation Party, and the recent defection of South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi.

One of those who may be attracted to such an argument is Walter Villatora. As a seasoned Liberal Party figure, he also knows that even prior to last July's federal election, there were stirrings in Abbott's own electorate of Warringah.

At a tense four-hour meeting at the Warringah Golf Club last April, Abbott fought off an attempt to curb his control of the Warringah electorate by former Liberal Party Treasurer Philip Higginson, a one-time friend and now a fierce Liberal Party foe.

Higginson was defeated in his attempt to replace Villatora as President of the Liberal Party's Warringah Federal Electorate Conference, which selects the party's candidate for the seat. Villatora defeated Higginson 57-41.

The position of FEC President is honorary. It is also sensitive, and the tension at that closed meeting may be just a mild foretaste of what is to come.

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Woes of the Liberal party go all the way down to arcane NSW state politics - The Australian Financial Review

NRA boss Wayne LaPierre lambasts ‘militant, paid’ liberal protesters who hate ‘everything America stands for’ – New York Daily News

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, February 24, 2017, 2:57 PM

The NRAs top gun revealed a paranoid vision of the world in a Friday speech that painted Democratic protesters as well-paid criminals bent on terrorizing the country.

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre unloaded on the left, saying its demonstrators are paid $1,500 a week to wreak havoc.

Theyre angry. Theyre militant and theyre willing to engage in criminal violence to get what they want, LaPierre said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

Many of these people literally hate everything America stands for.

Trump demands no more anonymous 'sources' after W.H. briefing

LaPierre described protesters in black ski masks who spit in the face of Gold Star families, tomahawk beer bottles and rocks at police, and smash business plate glass windows while customers cower inside.

And that was just on Inauguration Day, according to LaPierre.

The Lefts message is absolutely clear, LaPierre said. They want revenge. Youve gotta be punished. They say youre whats wrong with America, and now youve gotta be purged.

The NRA honcho also took aim at the media and lumped together reporters and protesters with drug lords and terrorists.

Steve Bannon says 'globalist media' will stay 'opposed' to Trump

If youre a member of the leftist media or a soldier for the violent left, a violent criminal, a drug-carteled gang member or a would-be terrorist, hear this, LaPierre said, youre not going to win and you will not defeat us. LaPierre cheered President Trump and chillingly exhorted the NRAs 5 million members to be prepared to fight back.

With all the threats facing America today, your right to protect yourself and your family may be more relevant and urgently needed than ever before, he said.

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NRA boss Wayne LaPierre lambasts 'militant, paid' liberal protesters who hate 'everything America stands for' - New York Daily News

Economic Freedom Up Again, But Not in the US – Investor’s Business Daily

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The San Ysidro Port of Entry the largest land border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. Such crossings are gateways for trade, one of the economic freedoms that make Americans much richer. Unfortunately, a new measure of economic freedom shows the U.S. has become less economically free in recent years. (Howard Shen/UPI/Newscom)

A new report from the Heritage Foundation, the 2017 Index of Economic Freedom, shows advances worldwide in cutting regulations, curbing government spending, rooting out corruption, and increasing openness to international trade and investment. Lagging behind? The United States.

The Index is a comprehensive measure of economic freedom that compiles data from dozens of independent sources to measure the extent to which a government intervenes through economic policy to control the actions of its citizens and businesses. The latest edition reflects conditions in the world economy through the middle of 2016.

Since 1995, when the Index was first produced, there has been about a 5% increase in economic freedom around the world. That may sound small, but that modest increase has been accompanied by massive improvements in human well-being. Global poverty rates have dropped by two-thirds as economic freedom has grown.

Economic freedom matters for a lot of reasons beyond income and wealth. It's true that improvements in economic freedom correlate with increases in economic growth. And countries with higher levels of economic freedom have much higher average per capita incomes.

In addition, however, their citizens enjoy myriad other benefits. They are better educated, for example, and they enjoy better health and longer lives than those who lack economic freedom. Economic freedom even helps the environment: Economically free countries scored almost 30 points higher on the Yale University 2016 Environmental Performance Index than did countries where economic freedom is repressed.

This year, more than 100 countries recorded increases in their economic freedom. Those winners are found around the world, but the Asia-Pacific region had the highest number of countries recording major gains. Forty-nine countries recorded their highest economic freedom scores ever. This group included both China and Russia, though even with their improvements, both continue to lag far behind most western developed economies in economic freedom.

The U.S., regrettably, headlined the list of countries not only losing freedom, but recording their lowest scores ever. Driving the U.S. decline was a new category in the Index: fiscal health. That category measures fiscal deficits and government debt relative to the size of the economy. U.S. government spending has accounted for over 38% of total U.S. economic activity over the last three years, with deficits averaging above 4% of GDP and total government debt exceeding a full year's output of the economy.

U.S. business and labor freedom both also declined slightly over the last year, increasing concerns that the combination in recent years of expanding government, increased regulatory and tax burdens, and the loss of confidence that has accompanied perceptions of increased cronyism, elite privilege, and corruption is eroding U.S. international competitiveness.

The big question, of course, is whether the election of PresidentTrump will change the trajectory of economic freedom in America. He has promised a strong break with the policies of his predecessor, particularly in areas such financial and health care regulation, tax policy, and trade.

Regulatory and tax reform are clearly areas where even modest improvements could have a major positive impact on U.S. economic freedom and performance. The U.S. corporate income tax rate remains one of the highest in the world, and the explosive regulatory burden of mammoth laws such as the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill has stifled investment and slowed recovery. Policy fixes in these areas will pay big dividends.

Any increase in protectionism, by contrast, could have a devastating impact on U.S. economic growth and job creation. Though U.S. trade accounts for a relatively modest share of our overall economy (exports and imports together equaling roughly 28% of GDP), the jobs created by the international flows of goods, services, and investment capital are a vital factor in the productivity growth necessary to keep the U.S. on top in terms of economic performance and our standard of living.

One of the most interesting conclusions of the Index of Economic Freedom is that intentions matter. Policy changes that increase or retard economic freedom can have an immediate impact for good or ill on economic performance. The free market, now ascendant in much of the world, is an incredibly fast and accurate monitor of economic prospects, whether at the level of the household, the firm, or the national economy.

At the moment, most market indicators are pointing up for the U.S. Hope is high that policy changes are coming to restore American's economic freedom. We'll see if the politicians can deliver.

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Economic Freedom Up Again, But Not in the US - Investor's Business Daily

Solution created for county builders – Morehead News

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County builders who have had projects on hold due to lack of technical review will finally be able to start construction.

Rowan County Fiscal Court unanimously hired Richie Newton, county surveyor, to a two-month contract as the official in charge of enforcing the countys subdivision regulations during Tuesdays monthly meeting.

Those technical reviews are necessary before the Morehead-Rowan County-Lakeview Heights Joint Planning Commission can approve design plans.

With the retirement of city planner and building inspector Joe Parson last month, those wishing to construct within subdivisions in the county havent been able to begin.

Parson would approve the technical review before it moved to the Commission.

We are just looking for answers on what needs to happen because we have been on hold for months, said Cliff Lewis, area developer.

Lewis said he and his partner Greg Blackburn submitted plans to the city in November, meeting the 21-day requirement of submitting before Decembers commission meeting.

The commission did not meet again until February due to lack of a quorum.

I hope you all understand how big of a bind that this puts us in, said Blackburn. We have put a lot of money into projects in this county and we are really wasting a lot of time, especially with this great weather we are having now.

County Attorney Cecil Watkins said the county was only made aware of the ramifications of Parsons retirement after he had left.

We didnt know this would be the case and my correspondence with Cliff earlier this month was the first time that we were made aware of this issue, Watkins said. Thats something that I believe we need to make a decision on during this meeting so these guys can get to work.

Newton now has the authority through the county to approve the technical reviews so they can be sent to the Planning Commission.

He will be compensated $500 a month for his services.

The county does not having any zoning laws in place; however, there are certain restrictions on how subdivisions are constructed.

After Parson announced his retirement, Mayor Jim Tom Trent said they would begin a search for a new building inspector and city planner with the hopes of hiring someone by March.

In the past, the county has paid the citys building inspector $500 a month to enforce those subdivision regulations.

In other business, Fiscal Court appointed Ashley Adkins and Joe Sartor to the Rowan County Arts Board.

The Court also changed Eagle Trace Road (CR 1459) to Ben Lowe Drive. They added an extension to Rosedale Road (CR 1114).

Fiscal Court also approved Danny Knipps request to insure Freedom Park at $675 a year.

Knipp thanked the court on behalf of the 3,500 veterans in Rowan County.

Also unanimously approved was for all Rowan County dogs at the Tri-County Animal Shelter to be taken to Rowan County Veterinary Clinic to be spayed and neutered.

Brad Stacy can be reached at bstacy@themoreheadnews.com or by telephone at 784-4116.

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Solution created for county builders - Morehead News

Dj vu all over again – The Capitol Fax Blog (blog)

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* He doesnt have an ownership stake in his law firm, he says his salary at the firm is less than his legislative pay and that his total compensation is less than the governors official salary and he doesnt work for or financially benefit from state-related clients. And yet

State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, is one of the most powerful people in Springfield, talked about as a possible future president of the Illinois Senate.

Hes also a partner in a Chicago law firm thats been paid more than $9 million in the past five years for doing legal work for state agencies, government workers pension funds and local governments whose citizens he represents in the Senate, a Chicago Sun-Times examination has found.

That covers work done for more than 20 government bodies, including the city of Chicago, Cook County, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the agency that owns McCormick Place and Navy Pier.

The firm Burke Burns & Pinelli has done work for agencies whose budgets Harmon votes on, including the Illinois Department of Transportation, and government pension funds regulated by Harmon and his fellow legislators, as well as the village of Rosemont, one of the suburbs he represents in the Illinois Senate, according to records and interviews. []

Harmon who once worked as deputy legal counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago was elected to the state Senate in 2002.

Theres a whole lot of sizzle and not a lot of steak in that piece, not unlike an eerily similar BGA story from 2012

Since bringing an influential state legislator on board as a partner in 2005, a small Chicago law firm has secured at least $6.3 million in legal work from state agencies that receive funding and oversight from the General Assembly, the Better Government Association has learned.

While that relationship smacks of a conflict of interest, its not the only curiosity involving the legislator, state Sen. Don Harmon, and the firm where hes a partner, Burke Burns & Pinelli Ltd.

The BGA also found that Harmon a Democrat from Oak Park who once served as deputy legal counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan voted earlier this year on a casino bill that his firm helped craft on behalf of its client, the City of Des Plaines. []

A BGA review of state financial records shows Burke Burns, a firm of 10 or so attorneys, was paid more than $1 million in each of the past two fiscal years for state-related work.

Overall, the firm was paid more than $6.3 million or an average of $900,000 a year from 2006 to 2012 for state-related work, according to interviews, and documents obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. (Fiscal year 2006 was Harmons first full year with the firm.)

By contrast, in the four years before Harmon joined the firm, annual payments exceeded $575,000 only once, topping out at $711,734, records show. However, those totals may be incomplete because several state agencies indicated they no longer had data for fiscal years 2001 and 2002. In addition, some records relating to bond work are not always tracked by state agencies.

Harmon says if all payments were included it would show the firms state work hasnt increased dramatically since his hiring, especially given the rate of inflation. But he declined to disclose actual payments or turn over financial records to the BGA.

* One of the reporters who wrote todays Sun-Times story was with the BGA when that 2012 story was published. An opinion piece above his name was also published back in 2012. It threw the kitchen sink at Harmon

Harmons street cred as a reformer or progressive has to be questioned.

Why does his law firm advise public-sector clients not to speak to the media?

Why did he vote to water down the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, which ensures journalists and regular citizens can access most government documents?

Why did he accept $300 in campaign donations just a couple months back from D & P Construction, a waste-hauling company thats repeatedly (and publicly) been linked to the Chicago mob?

Why did he introduce a piece of legislation that would allow office holders to double dip hold two elected positions at once?

Peter Silvestri, a Cook County commissioner and Elmwood Parks village president, told the BGA that Harmon fronted that bill at his request. After the BGA learned of the legislation, Harmon relayed that he changed his mind and was withdrawing his support.

But about a month later he quietly resurrected the bill in the form of an amendment to an unrelated piece of legislation. When we tried to ask him about the flip-flop, Harmon wouldnt return our calls. He later told the BGA he regretted getting involved in the matter. The legislation was never approved.

Lastly, although were not into branding people with guilt by association, its worth noting Harmon started out his career as an aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who is the ultimate Machine guy one of the most powerful political figures in the state and one of the largest obstacles to reforming our troubled government system.

This isnt to say Harmon hasnt done good things. In fact, hes worked with the BGA on legislation, including a successful effort to kill the misused and abused legislative scholarship program.

But judged through a larger prism, Harmon isnt challenging the status quo. He is the status quo.

Ergo, todays piece.

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Dj vu all over again - The Capitol Fax Blog (blog)