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The Dark Undertone Of The Negative Gearing Debacle

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Class wars.

The rich are getting richer and they don't care about those who aren't. It's that simple.

This argy bargy banter going back and fourth between the generations has gone far enough. For goodness sake, money doesn't even exist yet we throw the threat of losing is around like we're taking our last breath.

I'd better be attending some pretty amazing funerals of these wealth driven baby boomers in years to come for they ultimately will only be the richest humans in the grave yards, nothing more, and nothing less.

The childish banter that is thrust upon us on our screens and in our print media day in day out is outrageous. Honestly, how do we expect our future humans to behave in an 'appropriate' manner when the behaviour displayed by grown adult humans is nothing short of temper tantrums and slagging at each other? This occurs on our morning shows and at this countries political level. Shameful.

I feel like I should challenge the definition floating around invented by the over 50's of the 'millennials' as we've been termed. We are said to the generation born after 1980 who expect everything for nothing, get prizes for simply turning up to things and want to go straight to the top when we get out of Uni. I feel like a point missed here is that were it not the adults around us during our younger lives that decided to patronise us with prizes for attendance, telling each of us we were special and amazing and throwing more material possessions at us than generations gone by?

*cough*

I might also add here, I was born in 1983, I grew up on a farm and money was tight. I knew this so I did not expect miracles, we had food on the table every night and cloths on our backs as kids and this was enough for me. I decided early on in life that I wanted to buy things one day, so I started working at a dairy farm at the age of 13 and thus began my working life, like many people I know of this 'millennial' generation, despite what the over 50's say from their V8 4WD Vehicles in the city in transit from one investment property to the next in between games of golf and counting the numbers on screens that they believe is real money.

Oh, did I just make a generalisation there?

There is a massive underrepresentation of the millennials in the data, and that is those who are out there working 3 or 4 jobs to just get by plus put some away to live life. Factor high rent, food, fuel, private health insurance, loans, running vehicles, mobile phones, internet and all of the modern cons of life these days, which, mind you have stemmed as a result of the current over 50's lack of foresight, knowledge or skills in basic accounting has created, and we have a number of hamsters on wheels here who are facing a dim future compared to that of generations passed.

Conversations such as these happen often right now in the world we live in. I can't fathom how one believes that property investment is the be all and end all of financial security. I can't fathom how it is thought that by allowing negative gearing to continue to operate the way it does, that the system will continue to sustain itself. I can't fathom that people are borrowing in excess of a million dollars for 2 or 3 properties on top their barely paid off original mortgage and that they feel nothing will go wrong with it.

The current property council advertising campaign shows a deck of cards collapsing and how this will happen if there are changes to negative gearing. Well no shit, of course the deck of cards will eventually collapse because the housing market has become an entity unto itself and it is pointed out during each argument that no one is getting paid any more...

If there were 20 people given a total of 20 litres of water and they were allowed 1 litre of water each, then 1 person decided to approach another to buy their litre of water and then rent it back to the other person, this simply would not happen. Number 1, there would only be 20 litres of water in total, number 2, what possible gain would anyone achieve, number 3, it's stupid and defies the laws of logic and common sense. Something which our schools or universities fail to teach, hence the loss of the art, it's an extinct species so to speak.

But if we were to invent more water based on this base 20 litres of water and then make it electronic and put it onto a screen, or even on a bar graph, or even a chart, then perhaps, just perhaps we could make more water! Right? Right? How about no?

I feel like I have just uncovered a major flaw in the world that we know, but then again I also feel like this flaw is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about because deep down, despite positive affirmations and quotes on Instagram, people want nice things and they want to feel better than the next person by having nice things and also power and control over them. And there it is, money, power control, the ego driven system that we've allowed to be built right before our eyes because it's said to be convenient.

WAKE UP HUMANS.

So I realise that this started out as a specific topic and has gone a little off track, but in my opinion, it's all relevant as it gets back to a core topic of many of the issues we face in the world today. The need for massive change and to attack issues at the source, not just put band aids over the symptoms until we can't see them anymore and are able to draw from our self-managed super funds, spend our kids inheritances, post the pictures on the internet and then die. Leaving a trail of destruction for the next generation. But at least we told them they were special and could achieve anything they want if they put their minds to it.

#inspired

This piece was originally published as There is something we are not talking about with this Negative Gearing debacle.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 2 days ago.

Growing Support For a National Health Program and Health Care as a Human Right

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We can thank Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign for putting single-payer national health insurance (NHI) on the front burner of today's  national political discussion. This is long overdue and especially timely as the two parties debate alternatives for future U. S. health care. It appears that political feasibility for NHI may finally be approaching a time of acceptance, if our democracy can prevail over oligarchy and plutocracy.  

The 20,000 physician-strong Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) has released today a Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform, updated from its 2003 proposal (1), with an accompanying editorial. (2) It describes how traditional Medicare can be expanded to cover our entire population for necessary health care, provide comprehensive benefits to all Americans, give us free choice of physician and hospital, reduce waste and bureaucracy, and save money at the same time. This proposal by a non-partisan, not-for-profit national organization has been endorsed by more than 2,200 physician colleagues in all specialties. (3) More recently, it has been endorsed by an additional 560 physicians and medical students. (4) In its 2004 report, the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) called for universal health care by 2010, listing single-payer NHI as one of the alternatives; none of the other alternatives could ever be expected to achieve universal coverage, as they remain part of the problem. (5)

This 2016 election season brings us three very different alternatives concerning future health care in this country: (1) continuation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with changes as necessary; (2) a Republican "plan" for health care; and (3) single-payer NHI. Despite some expansions of coverage, especially through Medicaid, the ACA has failed to make health care more affordable, has accelerated waste, bureaucracy and profiteering, and is unsustainable. Yet Hillary Clinton calls for expansion of the ACA to 100 percent coverage with no possible way of doing it by retaining some 1,300 private insurers. She also claims disingenuously that NHI will raise our taxes--without acknowledging that Gerald Friedman's classic 2013 study found that 95 percent of Americans will pay less for insurance premiums, deductibles, co-payments, actual care and out-of-pocket payments, and that only the wealthiest 5 percent would pay more. (6)

Although no concrete plan has yet been advanced by the GOP, we can expect that it will repeal the ACA, then "replace" it with long discredited reliance on free markets in health care, consumer directed health care, health savings accounts, selling insurance across state lines, and high-risk pools.

Neither the ACA nor GOP options will make health care more affordable or accessible. Single-payer NHI is the only alternative that will achieve universal coverage in an affordable and sustainable way. A strong case for it has been made elsewhere on economic, sociopolitical, and moral grounds. (7) It will meet conservatives' principles regardless of party affiliation, including efficiency, maximal choice, minimal waste, value, and everyone contributes in proportion to his or her income. (8) Long an iconic guru of free-market economics, Kenneth J Arrow, has recently acknowledged that "a single-payer system is better than any other system", as long as private practice is preserved (as it would be with NHI). (9)

We know that powerful forces are aligned against passage of NHI,
including private insurers, Big PhRMA, medical device makers, and other members of the medical-industrial complex. They are empowered further by their hundreds of lobbyists and corporate money in our post-Citizens United world. As Bernie Sanders has observed: "the Koch brothers, as the second-wealthiest family in America with $82 billion in wealth, advocate destruction of federal programs that are critical to the financial and personal health of middle-class Americans." (10)

Sorting through the three major financing alternatives for our health care will test whether or not we have a real democracy. Much of the corporate-owned media under-report the single-payer alternative, misinform the public, and perpetuate myths, such as we can't afford NHI, net spending would go up because of increased taxes, or the government would ration care. These myths and memes have been discussed in detail elsewhere (11). Solid, reliable updated information on NHI can be found on PNHP's website (www.pnhp.org).

Democracy can win, but we will need progressive leadership. It is encouraging that Bernie is leading in recent polls in a matchup against Donald Trump or any other Republican presidential nominee. With a large and growing grassroots support from across the country, Bernie should have considerable leverage on the Democratic platform, which hopefully can move Hillary to a progressive position on health care. Recall Hillary's words in 1994, speaking to a group at Lehman Brothers Health Corporation:

. . . if there is no health care reform this year, and if, for whatever  reason, the Congress doesn't pass health care reform . . . I believe that by the year 2000 we will have a single-payer system . . . I don't even think it's a close call politically. I think that the momentum for a single-payer system will sweep the country . . . it will be such a huge popular issue . . . that even if it's not successful the first time, it will eventually be. (12)

Health care is too important to be gridlocked in polarized partisan camps. All Americans will win with NHI, including the business community, which will be relieved of its burden of paying growing costs of employer-sponsored health insurance. Time will tell whether or not the oligarchy wins again.

Visit: http://www.johngeymanmd.org*References: *

1. The Working Group on Single-Payer Program Design. Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians' Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform. Available a supplement online version of ref. 1 at http://www.ajph.org

2. Gaffney, A, Woolhandler, S, Angell, M, Himmelstein, DU. Editorial. Moving forward from the Affordable Care Act to a Single-Payer system. Am J Public Health, 106 (6): e1-e2, June 2016.
 
3. Carroll, AE, Ackermann, RT. Support for national health insurance among U. S. physicians: five years later. Ann Intern Med 1481: 566-567, 2008.

4. Woolhandler, S, Himmelstein, DU. Setting the record straight on Medicare for All: An open letter from 560 physicians and medical students. The Huffington Post, February 28, 2016.

5. Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance. Institute of Medicine. Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations. National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 150-151, 2004.

6. Friedman, G. Funding H. R. 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. How We Can Afford a National Single-Payer Health Plan. Physicians for a National Health Program. Chicago, Il. July 31, 2013. Available at: htpp://www.pnhp.org/sites/default/files/Funding%20HR%20676_Friedman_final_7.31.13.pdf

7. Geyman, JP. The Human Face of ObamaCare: Promises vs. Reality and What Comes Next. Friday Harbor, WA. Copernicus Healthcare, 199-202, 2016.

8. Light, DW. A conservative call for universal access to health care. Penn J Bioethics 9 (4): 4-6, 2002.

9. Arrow, KE. As quoted by Pro-Market. The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, March 15, 2016.

10. Sanders, B. This is what oligarchy looks like. Bernie 2016, January 4, 2016.

11. Geyman, JP. Myths and memes as barriers to health care reform. In Geyman, JP. How Obamacare Is Unsustainable: Why We Need a Single-Payer Solution for All Americans. Friday Harbor, WA. Copernicus Healthcare, 2015, pp. 223-241.

12. Clinton, H. Speaking to a group at Lehman Brothers Health Corporation, June 15, 1994, as reported by Health Care for All-WA Newsletter, Winter 2015, p 9.  
            

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 2 days ago.

Republicans in Arizona Strike a Blow for Conservatism by Killing Children's Health Insurance Program

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The Arizona legislature has struck another blow for conservatism! They have killed a program which provides health insurance to children in low income families, although it is paid for entirely by the federal government. The program called KidsCare provides vital services such as medical, dental, and vision insurance to at least 30,000 children in the state under age 19. It costs $50 to insure a child for a month and every state in the union has a similar program now excepting Arizona. Ayn Rand would be proud! Because if it is one thing that Republicans reflexively know it is that people who are dependent on government services are freeloaders.

Mitt Romney made his famous 47% remark.
"All right, there are 47 percent who are with him (Obama), who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what... These are people who pay no income tax..."[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
This philosophy apparently applies to children under 19 years old from low income families as well because now they have no access to medical care in Arizona unless visiting emergency rooms and being stuck with the resultant huge medical bills that will keep their families in debt into perpetuity. Of course years ago in her contest against Senator Harry Reid, the Republican senate candidate from nearby Nevada said people could barter for medical expenses with chickens. Of course, her plan never caught on and no chickens strutting around doctor's waiting rooms have been observed. Perhaps the doctors just aren't hungry!

Now conservatism is no stranger to authoritarianism. Conservatives in the Arizona legislature have already threatened to defund the courts by six million dollars unless the governor gets to pack the state supreme court with an additional two appointees of his choosing increasing the number of justices from five to seven. This blackmail would guarantee conservatives could use their majority to pass any legislation they please unfettered by democratic checks and balances.

Now what is the grand reason behind denying children in the state access to health care? Is it that the state is deeply in debt and can not afford it? Well, besides the program again being free to the state through 2017 and perhaps 2019, Arizona has a $600 million dollar budget surplus. Republican Governor Doug Ducey simply has a philosophical disagreement with accepting federal dollars for health insurance. Can one imagine denying health care to children for such a flimsy ideological predisposition built upon little but meanness?

According to the Daily Kos: "In his 2014 run for governor, Ducey questioned the financial viability of the Medicaid program. As governor, he introduced a Medicaid reform plan that would kick 350,000 people off the rolls." Imagine your legacy as governor being that you made sure 350,000 and the state's low income children had no medical coverage. As a conservative such cold, calculating actions usually propel a run for the presidency.

The Daily Kos continues:
"They did say "Yes" to Gov. Ducey's $21 million Border Strike Force, and they appropriated $5 million for three right-wing university think tanks seeded with Koch Brothers cash--money the schools did not request. But authorizing no state money for children was too much to ask. (The senate vote was 25-24 with 11 GOP cowards not voting because their sick political philosophy wouldn't allow them to say "Yes" to the feds, i.e., Obama.)"
Funding border strike forces at a time when illegal immigration from Mexico is at its lowest point in two decades! Five million dollars for three right-wing think tanks within the university system that propagandize the sacredness and infallibility of capitalism! What is the point? Such actions show just how corrupt and barren the conservative philosophy is. Of course Republicans, no strangers to false narratives, said "allowing the amendment would have "blown up" the state budget, even though the program costs the state nothing." Yet these same right-wing politicians are voted in time and time again because the marginally educated white Republican base insists on voting against their own economic self-interest striking some imagined blow against the coastal elites and intellectualism itself. Too bad!

Well, perhaps the three right wing think tanks can produce enough pseudo-scholarship about the joys of the poor pulling themselves up by their bootstraps so these children without any health insurance will realize just how lucky they are to live in a free market economy where they can praise American Exceptionalism when sick!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 2 days ago.

Gloucester schools face large, unbudgeted health insurance cost increase

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GLOUCESTER – Health insurance costs are going up sharply for Gloucester County schools but the increase was not included in the division's approved budget for the coming year – leaving officials scrambling to fill a substantial gap.

School officials originally budgeted no increase in its health... Reported by dailypress.com 2 days ago.

AIS Webinar Will Detail How the 'Zenefits Model' Could Reshape the HR/Benefits Space

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In a May 17 Atlantic Information Services webinar, two executives from broker and benefits consulting firms will offer an accurate picture of online health insurance benefits space today and the possible risks and rewards.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) May 06, 2016

Online HR/benefits platforms offer a range of benefits functions to employers of all shapes and sizes and are changing the game for traditional brokers and health plans. “The Rapid Emergence of Online Benefits Firms: Strategies for Health Plans and Brokers,” an upcoming May 17 webinar from Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS), will offer an accurate picture of online benefits today, and the possible risks and rewards. Featuring two executives from broker and benefits consulting firms, the webinar will explain how organizations can transform this new trend into a strong financial opportunity.

Michael Lujan, co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Silicon Valley-based start-up Limelight Health, and David Reid, the CEO of EaseCentral, will describe the model Zenefits — the well-financed start-up human resources platform — and how it could reshape the industry, answering questions such as:· How does the Zenefits model change the small-group benefits paradigm? How do new partnerships deliver quote-to-enrollment and market advantage?
· How is Silicon Valley influencing health plans and insurers with new technology and business models? What’s new? What’s coming next?
· What impact will direct “real time” carrier connectivity for group business mean for brokers and carriers?
· What steps are brokers taking to adapt to change and survive the market disruption?
· What practical strategies should be in play for insurers? How can health plans benefit from the Zenefits model?
· What are the pros and cons of these new models for employer/purchasers? How useful is the new technology likely to be for purchasers of what size?
· What have brokers and health plans learned over the past year on how to avoid costly mistakes, pick the most appropriate tech vendor and get internal adoption?
· What are the lessons from the recent Zenefits meltdown? Are they expected to fully recover and continue to grow market share?

Visit https://aishealth.com/marketplace/c6m12_051716 for more details and registration information.

About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for nearly 30 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals and health systems, health insurance companies, medical group practices, purchasers of health insurance, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, databases, websites, looseleafs, strategic reports, directories, webinars, virtual conferences and training programs. Reported by PRWeb 1 day ago.

Florida Today Reports Conflicts with School Head Lice Policies and Privacy Laws - Lice Troopers Offers Insight and Services to Keep Outbreaks at Bay

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Parents fear continued spread of head lice, the all too common parasite, as Florida schools rethink and repeal "no-nit policies"

Miami, Florida (PRWEB) May 06, 2016

According to Florida Today, recent outbreaks of head lice in Florida have parents scratching their heads as they try to get rid of the bugs and keep them away. As more and more schools repeal their no-nit policies, parents are left trying to figure out how to protect their kids and their homes from the parasite that will affect between six and twelve million individuals annually.

Lice Troopers, the Miami-based professional lice removal company continues to support the no-nit policies that have recently been under discussion, and in many districts have even been repealed. They have also been working directly with schools to set up school-wide screenings to help identify children with lice so they can be treated immediately.

Said Arie Harel, owner and operator of Lice Troopers, “The no-nit policy serves a purpose, keeping kids with an infestation from passing a highly contagious condition. We understand that schools are concerned about absences, but when the condition is handled properly, most children wouldn’t need to miss more than half a day.”

HIPPPA, designed to protect health-related information, is another part of the issue. Even when a parent is willing to disclose information about a lice outbreak at home, schools are reluctant to share this knowledge with other parents for fear of violating privacy policies. This information, however, can often help prevent further spread.

Unfortunately, the new, relaxed policies aren't allowing parents to relax. Many, especially those who have already lived the nightmare of an outbreak, complain that schools aren't doing their part in helping to help stop the spread of lice. Allowing children with nits (lice eggs) in their hair to return to school, while simultaneously not informing other parents, seems like a recipe for an epidemic. Counties like Brevard are actively petitioning for the return of the no-nit policy, parental notification and in-school head lice screenings.

Said Harel, “We understand that schools want to keep kids in school, and that they’re also concerned about privacy. But ongoing lice epidemics put an impossible strain on families, with many mothers reporting incredible levels of stress and anxiety over the issue. School screenings, for example, are a way to quickly and efficiently identify who has lice so the individual(s) can be treated immediately. We’ve been helping schools stay lice free with screenings for years and will continue to do so throughout the current outbreaks.”

Lice Troopers is the all-natural, guaranteed Head Lice Removal Service™ that manually removes the head louse parasite safely and discreetly in child-friendly salon settings, or other chosen location. Providing safe solutions for frantic families, the Lice Troopers team has successfully treated thousands of families nationwide, with services widely recommended by pediatricians and reimbursed by many major health insurance carriers, flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts. Reported by PRWeb 1 day ago.

Trumped! Why It Happened And What Comes Next, Part 2 - The Peace Deal

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Trumped! Why It Happened And What Comes Next, Part 2 - The Peace Deal Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

When it comes to the economic future, *a Trump presidency could bring either a shitstorm or salvation.* Regrettably, the odds of the former are immensely the higher.

That’s because *Trump is a welcome, but extremely unguided missile. *

*On the one hand,* his great virtue is that he is a superb salesman and showman who has captured the GOP nomination and has a serious shot at the White House with absolutely no help whatsoever from the Washington/Wall Street establishment.

So unlike any other candidate in recent memory, he owns his own talking points; is not saddled with a stable of credentialed advisors schooled in three decades of policy error and failure; and has the hutzpah to trust his own instincts——many of which, especially on foreign policy, are exactly the rebuke that Imperial Washington and its legions of parasites and racketeers so richly deserve.

*On the other hand*, the Donald’s policy thinking, if you can call it that, is thoroughly inchoate. His policy pronouncements amount to little more than spontaneous eruptions of sentiment, prejudice, hearsay, bile, applause lines, wishful thinking and disconnected non sequiturs. That’s where thoughtlets like Muslim bans, mass deportations, a Trump Wall on the Rio Grande, paying off the national debt, 40% tariff barriers, obliteration of ISIS and numerous other stray verbal hand grenades come from.

Yet occasional wild pitches are not really the problem, and the cynics are surely correct in predicting that Trump will excise most of them from his patter even before the GOP convention.* The real problem is that Trump has no detectable economic philosophy or policy framework, and it is in that arena that he could go careening off into a cacophony of misfires, mistakes and statist mayhem.*

To wit, Trump has already said that he likes the Fed’s low interest rates, is considering a minimum wage hike, thinks social security and medicare should remain untouched, will rebuild the military, intends to drastically increase spending for veterans, wants to slash income taxes on corporations and individuals, thinks a big infrastructure program is warranted, plans to spend tens of billions on border security and the Wall and will drastically hammer $2.2 trillion of imports in order to bring jobs back home.

Not only is most of that unaffordable, counter-productive and wrong. More importantly, Trump’s mish mash of economic policy utterances thus far* fails to address why the Washington/Wall Street/Bicoastal/Bubble Finance status quo is failing main street so badly and causing 90% of Americans to realize that they are not winning economically anymore.*

*The heart of what went wrong is the lethal combination of free money and free trade that has been practiced ever since Greenspan panicked after Black Monday in October 1987.* That is what has gutted the fly-over economy while gifting casino prosperity to Wall Street, Washington and the bicoastal elites, as I documented in Part 1. (click here for Part 1)

*But as I indicated yesterday, there is a sliver of hope if *Donald Trump does not capitulate to mainstream policies and is willing to set aside his potpourri  of shibboleths and panaceas in favor of a disciplined and coherent game plan that builds on his bedrock political insight that American families are losing the economic battle. To repeat, there is a way forward for the self-proclaimed world class deal maker to move the whole mess out of the hopeless paralysis of governance that now afflicts the nation.

*A President Trump would need to make Six Great Deals...*



A *Peace Deal* with Putin for cooperation in the middle east, defeat of ISIS, withdrawal from NATO and a comprehensive worldwide disarmament agreement.

 

A *Jobs Deal* based on slashing taxes on business and workers and replacing them with taxes on consumption and imports.

 

A *Federalist Deal* to turn back much of Washington’s domestic programs and meddling to the states and localities in return for a 4-year freeze on every single pending regulation and statue.

 

A *Health Care Deal* based on the repeal of Obamacare and tax preferences for employer insurance plans and their replacement with wide-open provider competition, consumer choice and individual health tax credits.

 

A *Fiscal Deal* to slash post-disarmament spending for defense, devolve education and other domestic programs to the states and cities and to clawback *unearned* social security/medicare entitlement benefits from the affluent elderly.

 

And a *Sound Money Deal* to end the Fed’s war on savers and retirees, repeal Humphrey-Hawkins and limit the central bank’s remit to providing last resort liquidity at a penalty spread over market interest rates based on good commercial collateral.



Under what would in effect be a restoration of the original vision of Carter Glass, who was a storied financial statesman and author of the 1913 enabling legislation, the Fed’s authority to conduct open market operations and unlimited money printing would be eliminated. And its liquidity backstop would be limited to “narrow banks” which just take deposits and make loans, and have nothing to do with Wall Street trading, underwriting, hedging, derivatives and other forms of financial gambling.

*Needless to say, this all sounds like radicalism relative to the prevailing system of Casino Capitalism and the Big Government status quo. But all of that is in for a rude awakening, and soon.*

That’s because the Bubble Finance status quo as we know it is on its last legs. With each driblet of “incoming data” it is evident that a new recession is just around the corner. With each limpid trading session on Wall Street it is also evident that most carbon units have vacated the casino and that the robo-machines are running out of chart points to chase. That means a big market dive is coming soon.

In fact, a recession, a market crash, an explosion of deficit projections and, for good measure, double digit increases in next year’s health insurance premiums and copays will be hitting the headlines before the final Hillary/Donald debate duals of the fall campaign*. It is this impending perfect storm that offers Trump the chance to hang 30-years of failed policy on Hillary Clinton as the insider totem, and to bombastically demand in the patented Trumpster style a clean sweep of the Washington/Wall Street/Federal Reserve policy mess.*

*I know from personal experience and long observation that it has to start with a Peace Deal.* That’s the secret to unlocking the entire Washington policy gridlock and the resulting drift toward national bankruptcy, which otherwise will prove unstoppable. Indeed, nothing can change until at least $200 billion is whacked out of the defense budget, and under the circumstances ahead that could easily be done.

*That propitious opportunity for peace is the emerging worldwide Great Deflation.* It is taking down the Red Ponzi in China already and is administering the coup de grace to Russia’s third rate, New York SMSA-sized oil, mineral and wheat based economy. At the same time, the next US administration will be grappling with recessionary trillion dollar annual deficits while the socialist enclaves of European NATO will face fiscal burial in a renewed eruption of public debts that already average nearly 100% of GDP.

*The key to a global Peace Deal is renunciation of Washington’s encroachment on Russia’s backyard in Ukraine and the former Warsaw Pact nations; and a Russian/Washington/Shiite alliance to encircle the Islamic state and enable Muslim fighters from Syria, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah to finish off the butchers of the mutant Sunni Caliphate.*

The NATO renunciation part of the deal is already in Trump’s wheelhouse because he thinks he can make a deal with Putin anyway, and has had the common sense to see that NATO is obsolete. What he needs to further understand is that Russia is incapable of threatening Europe and has no designs to do so.

Moreover, it is Washington, not the Europeans, who insisted on the pointless expansion of NATO. And it was Washington which betrayed George HW Bush’s sensible promise to Gorbachev in 1989 that in return for his acquiescence to the reunification of Germany NATO would “not be expanded by a single inch”.

There is even a bonus presidential debate point for the Donald on the latter matter. The betrayal of the elder Bush’s pledge was initiated by none other than Bill Clinton in the midst of his political crisis during the blue dress affair. Do not doubt the Donald’s capacity to put that one straight to Hillary.

*Likewise, Trump is already half way there on the ISIS threat.* Unlike the neocon adventurists of Washington, he has welcomed Putin’s bombing campaign against the jihadist radicals in Syria and recognizes that the enemy is headquartered in Raqqa, not Damascus.

God willing, it is to be hoped that he somehow comes to understand that the Iranians have a justified grudge against Washington for its historic support of the Shah’s plunder and savage repression; for CIA aid to Saddam’s brutal chemical warfare against Iran during the 1980s war; and for Washington’s subsequent demonization of the regime and false claims that it is hell-bent on nuclear weapons—–a charge that even the nation’s top 16 intelligence agencies debunked more than a decade ago.

*To wit, the way out of the bloody mess in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya—-all of which are projects bearing Hillary’s support and even inspiration—–is a rapprochement with Iran’s able and moderate statesman, President Hassan Rouhani, who has just received another wave of political reinforcement in the recent elections.*

Someone needs to tutor the Donald on the great General Eisenhower’s pledge to go to Korea and make peace immediately after the election in 1952, which is exactly what he did. Likewise, the presumptive GOP candidate should pledge to go to Tehran to “improve the deal”, and this time Trump even has the plane!

Yes, “improving” the deal might be positioned as somehow strengthening Obama’s “bad deal” on the nuclear accord, but that would be the diplomatic fig leaf for domestic political consumption. The far broader purpose would be to bury the hatchet on the general bilateral relationship between the US and Iran, and to secure Rouhani’s agreement to a leadership role in the above referenced Muslin-led ground campaign to extinguish ISIS and liberate the territories now controlled by the Islamic State.

*An “I will go to Tehran” pledge by Trump could electrify the entire mideast policy morass and pave the way for early US extraction from its is counter-productive and wholly unaffordable military and political intrusion. The fact is, the Islamic State is on its last leg because of US and Russian bombings, $30s oil and its own barbaric brutality. These forces are rapidly drying up its financial resources, and without paychecks its “fighters” rapidly vanish.*

Indeed, ISIS is now so financially desperate that its fighters are literally disappearing. That is, it is shooting its wounded and selling their organs on the black market.

Needless to say, no army of fighters has ever prevailed or even survived by harvesting its own flesh. And especially not when confronted by an opposing force of better trained, better equipped, air-power supported fighters motivated by an equal and opposite religious fanaticism.

*Accordingly, a Trump-Putin-Rouhani alliance could very readily celebrate the liberation of Raqqa and Mosul by July 4th next year, along with an history-reversing partition agreement to cancel the destructive Sikes-Picot boundaries of 1916. The latter would be superseded by Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish states, respectively in their historic areas of Iraq and a shrunken state of Alawites, Christians and other non-Sunni minorities in Syria , with protectorates in the north and east for Kurds and Sunnis.*

At that point, Trump could put on his own “mission accomplished” pageant by bringing home every last American military personnel now stationed in the middle east, either overtly or covertly and wearing boots on the ground or not. And he could do so from the deck of an aircraft carrier that had been withdrawn from the Persian Gulf as part of the comprehensive Peace Deal with Putin and Rouhani. The Persian Gulf would be an American Lake no more.

*The Donald might even be positioned to collect his Nobel Peace Prize on the way home.*

Before then, however, he would also be in a position to collect some giant domestic political plaudits that could be married with the defeat of ISIS and peace in the middle east and Europe. *To wit, Trump should promise to sign legislation day one permitting families of the victims of 9/11 to suit the Saudis for their losses*.

Nothing could better bring closure to the vastly exaggerated domestic terrorist threat than the simultaneous eradication of the Islamic State and mutli-hundred billion lawsuits against the alleged 9/11 puppeteers hitting the headlines day after day.

*Also, nothing would do more to provide political cover and impetus for the balance of the Peace Deal.*  That’s because the indigenous terrorist threat in Europe is not sponsored, supported or funded in any manner by the nations of the Shiite Crescent. Instead, it is an extension of the mutant jihadism of radical Sunni and Wahhabi clerics.

Needless to say, even the unspeakably corrupt and arrogant princes of the House of Saud would get the message when the 5th Fleet leaves the Persian Gulf and the Trump/Putin/Rouhani alliance takes out its proxies in Syria and the Islamic State itself. In short, the financial lifeblood of terrorism would dry up—-whether the Saudi royals remained in Riyadh or decamped to Switzerland.

The essence of the great Peace Deal required to save the American economy is an end to procurement and R&D spending by the Pentagon and a drastic demobilization of the 2.3 million troops in the regular armed forces and national guards. *And that can happen under the auspices of a global military “build-down” agreement and freeze on all further weapons exports*.

Bankrupt governments in a world where NATO has been decommissioned, the Jihadi terrorist threat quelled and the middle east stabilized will absolutely be interested in a defense “builddown” and global arms reduction agreement. *And there is no one better qualified to lead a sweeping military cost “restructuring” deal among bankrupt nations than the well experienced Donald Trump.* Reported by Zero Hedge 1 day ago.

58 Companies That Care About Your Families Just As Much As You Do!

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They say, it takes a village to raise a child. If you are a busy parent striving to be at your best productive selves as a parent and a professional, it takes your employer to raise your child as well!

In a quest to find out the most parent friendly companies, Kidskintha reached out to several organisations across the world.
Here are 58 great companies that unabashedly support the parental responsibilities of their employees. Reading through this might just inspire you to spruce up your CV and LinkedIn profile - and who knows, I may even receive a thank-you email from you someday :)

Note: This amazing list is a result of all those people who patiently responded to my queries over email, phone and skype interviews. A huge shoutout to this collectively amazing team! Thank you!

*CADENCE*
Cadence Design Systems, an American electronic design automation (EDA) software and engineering services company with customers all over the world that use their products to make other great products to connect the world.Cadence cares about its employees so much that it pays to freeze their eggs for future use! I think Demolition Man has inspired them!
*What makes it great for parents?*
New Parent Leave provides both male and female employees one week of paid time off to celebrate the addition of a new member to the family by birth or adoption; apart from maternity leave.
Flexible schedules and transtion mentoring for new mothers.
Quiet rooms for lactating mothers.
Fertility Preservation Benefit provides cryopreservation services of eggs to help with flexibility in family planning.
College Coach is a program in collaboration with Bright Horizons that assists parents and students with college admission and career counseling for their adolescent children.
*ACCENTURE*
Accenture is one of the world's leading management consulting, technology services and outsourcing companies that helps its clients become high-performance businesses.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Parental leave benefits: 16 weeks of paid leave, 8 weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a new child for primary caregivers
Backup dependent care recently doubled from 40 hours to 80 hours per year
Hospital-grade equipment for lactating mothers
Breast Milk Shipping services that ships breast milk for new mothers who are on business travel.
Personalized portal and one-on-one support for childhood issues, such as ADHD and learning and developmental disabilities are also available.
*SAS*
A data-analytics giant, SAS has helped customers make better decisions with the power of business intelligence and data management software. I think the clincher for parents here is the subsidized on-site childcare facility.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Unlimited sick time for themselves and family
Flexible work options.
Subsidized on-site child-care centers at the world headquarters.
Private nursing rooms for lactating mother along with lactation consultants and breastfeeding support network.
Free on-site healthcare centre with adjacent pharmacy which is used by 90% of the employees to take care of their families.
Free Work/Life counselling services and resources provided to manage everyday stress and distractions.
Subsidised cafes with low-cost meals are available on-site, which many employees utilize for meal-planning at home.
Catering services at low-cost (and payroll deduction) for employee personal events.
*ERNST & YOUNG*
Considered one of the "Big Four", Ernst and Young is a multi-national professional services firm that offers assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services and operates as a network of member firms.
*What makes it great for parents?*
EY proudly states that men avail all the parental benefits equally!
Parental leave: 14 weeks of paid parental leave for mothers and 6 weeks of paid parental leave for al fathers after one year. Approximately, 1,200 people in the US each year take parental leave - and roughly half of them are men.
Executive Coaching for New Parents: EY offers individual and group coaching throughout the parental leave period to help employees transition back to work. To date the coaches have worked with about 700 parents.
Flexible work options.
Privacy rooms for lactating mothers, dependent day care reimbursement, EYAssist for child and elder care, Backup Day Care, Adoption Assistance reimbursement, College Coach, Today's Families Network and Parents of Special Needs Children Network.
MomEY, a program in India provides guaranteed jobs for working mothers who take a career break for child care, within 5 years of leaving the organisation without a formal interview process
*gDIAPERS*
Appalled by the statistics that about 50 million disposable diapers( each taking 500 years to decompose!) were discarded every single day in the United State alone, founders Kim and Jason Graham-Nye brought the idea of having fully compostable and flushable diaper inserts to the United States. gDiapers is very vocal about their environment-friendly policies.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Mostly run by mums, gDiapers has the energy of a team that is distributed across the world and yet has a fierce common goal. Distributed across US, UK and Australia, the teams meet once or twice every week in a coffee shop or an all-hands lunch. They also have:
Subsidised on-site day-care
Compressed work hours -where they work 4 days instead of 5
Extended paid maternity leave, and extended paid time off each year.
*BUFFER*
One of the fastest growing companies that has leveraged the rampant growth of social media, Buffer spews positivity and have established themselves as an unstoppable, transparent, fun and incredibly focused team.
They make work look like actually a cool thing to do!
*What makes it great for parents?*
The Buffer Team works from around the world.
Paid vacation policy and nobody counts the days anybody has taken off.
Both mothers and fathers to take at least 1 to 3 months of (paid) parental leave
Subsidies to Buffer retreats(which are a matter of envy, so to speak!).
Dependent benefit of $3000 per year, per dependent.
*ZAPIER*
Zapier makes your computer work harder for you- so you can just work smarter. Zapier makes it a breeze to connect all the apps you use, automate tasks and make more out of your data.
*What makes it great for parents?*
The Zapier team is very nimble with a generous 14-week parental leave policy with no hidden expectation that you will be "available" during that time and a very supportive transition plan.
*PERKINS COIE*
Perkins Coie is an international law firm working in Intellectual Property, Venture Capital, Emerging Companies, Labor & Employment, Corporate Governance and Securities, Investigations and White Collar Defense, and Products Liability practices. Their clients range from FORTUNE 100 corporations to small, independent startups, as well as public and not-for-profit organizations.
*What makes it great for parents?*Perkins Coie shatters the image that lawyers can hardly loosen up at all. Their parental policies are some of the coolest!
Parental policies: 14 weeks paid parental leave for primary care parents, regardless of gender and including adoptive parents. 4-weeks paid parental leave for non-primary caregivers over a 6-month period following the birth or placement for adoption of a child.
Leave bank of hours: 140 hours of legal credit for transition time to be used to extend the paid leave to a maximum of 18 weeks. The firm also offers a
A near-site firm-sponsored child-care centre.
Travel with children: Lawyers can take their children on business trips!
Flexibility policies: reduced schedule, flextime and remote working unlimited rest and relaxation time.
*PATAGONIA*
An adventurer's clothing haven, Patagonia has carved a niche for itself as a highly conscious environment- friendly fabric-maker. Rose Marcario, CEO of Patagonia recently made a public appeal to learn the art of mending products to mend your clothes and other products to make the switch from being consumers to being owners(despite being a clothing company!).
*What makes it great for parents?*
Patagonia believes that prioritizing families has a direct business benefit.
On-site child-care program: Buses dropping off kids from their day-care or school locations to the center
Paid Leave program: for increased employee engagement
Shared adoption fees with employees trying to become parents.
*COTOPAXI*
Another great company that inspires adventure, Cotopaxi sells high-quality outdoor gear at affordable prices based on their direct-to-consumer approach. They believe in their "move to do good" motto and have mission-driven ambitions.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Cotopaxi forces you to raise adventurous kids! And, get off your back yourself.
Cotopaxi doesn't just limit its outdoor adventure spirit to its products and customers- The company encourages the spirit of adventure among their employees and families alike.
Travel with kids Employees can take their children along when the fulfill their 10% travel requirement.
*FACTSET*
Factset converts raw data into powerful information by using their analysis and reporting tools. that are used by financial and investment professionals for their work.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Maternity Leave:16 weeks of paid maternity leave in addition to 4 weeks of parental leave effective 2016.
Adoption leave: 6 weeks of adoption leave for the primary care-giver @100% base pay and 4 additional weeks of unpaid leave which is payable to the employee after returning to work at least 3 days a week.
Flexible work options.
*CANVA*
Canva is an online graphic design platform.that offers free as wella s premium access to a wide assortment of design tools. It has neat templates for various graphics like blog posts, facebook & cover pictures, infographics and many more.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexi-hours and work-from-home options to start and finish their workdays as per their choosing.
Child-safe areas in office where parents can spend time with their children at work.
Generous paid parental leave package for new parents as soon as a child is born or adopted.
Catered breakfast and lunch for all staff which helps stressed parents feel cared for and support.
*X.ai*
x.ai brings you a personal assistant who will take care of all the scheduling of your meetings. All you need to do is send an email ccing your own 'assistant' and forget about further follow-ups or back-and-forth email.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Full healthcare and dental coverage which is not standard of startups at their stage. Fully self-managed vacation and time-off by employees.
Remote working options facilitated by collaborative tech tools.
X.ai also supports bringing kids to work in case of a daycare fiasco.
To work for a company that provides everyone a personal assistant! Wow!
*CRYPHO*
Crypho is an end-to-end encryption service for messages and files that ensures they are decrypted only after reaching the recipient.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Parental leave: 12 months off for the mother with (government funded) 80% of their normal paycheck or 10 months of 100% and 12 weeks is reserved for the father. The rest of this time can be divided among the parents freely.
One year unpaid leave for each parent if they choose to avail it.
10 paid days off every year to care for sick children (or sick caretaker).
These are however, base rules, and shared for all Norwegian companies and funded by the Government.
*IKEA*
IKEA is a homeware giant that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture appliances and home accessories with 332 giant stores in 38 countries and plans for rapid expansion.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Life insurance for co-worker and families
Flexible work options
Healthy meal deals, private nursing rooms for young mothers.
'Smaland' facilities in every IKEA store where children can be brought in and even left in the care of coworkers.
Talk of playdates- I think that's taken care of on campus!
*Children need to meet requirements by being at least 47" tall.
*ELLO*
Ello is a positive and safe community for creative people who want to discover and share inspiring content. Ello identifies itself as an alternative to other mainstream social networks- predominantly facebook and has a public manifesto that says they will never sell ads on the network.
They also have three lovely dogs as part of their staff! How cool is that! Perhaps I will finally get rid of my fear of dogs if I visit them!
*What makes it great for parents?*
Fully paid maternity leave package
Part-time work options to help with transitioning back to work,
Invitation to bring children to work (or enroll in nearby day care)
6-hour workdays for parents to focus on their growing child
*ZERVANT*
Zervant is a super-simple online invoicing software and expense management tools for small business owners especially designed to make it easy for those with no background in Finance.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Full Salary Compensation for up to 4 days in a row to care for children under 10 years.
Flexible work hours and work from home options to accommodate kids' schedules.
'Kids' Corner' in office where kids can be brought to office in case of emergencies.
*BLINKIST*
Blinkist has the perfect solution for people constantly on the move. Blinkist provides 2 -15 minute summaries of the classic best-selling to the newest non-fiction books to help professionals stay tuned and learn as they go!
*What makes it great for parents?*
Completely management-free and have adopted Holocracy wholeheartedly where there's every tool, channel and freedom needed for the employee to take it upon oneself to balance work and home.
No scheduled timeframes or core working hours. They have no ranks - only responsibilities.
Work from home options in the event of an epic daycare fail
*AFFECTIVA*
A product of the MIT Media Labs, Affectiva strives to bring emotion into the digital world. Affdex, their emotion recognition software gives brands invaluable insight into real customer engagement with their branding videos and other campaigns, and enables developers to add emotion-sensing to their apps and digital experiences.
Uh! Guess they will find out even when I am making disgusting faces in my own home!
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible work hours and ability to work remotely.
Unlimited vacation time to manage personal responsibilities.
*LEGO*
Lego is a household name all over the world, and probably there's no parent who doesn't know the brand. It was founded in Denmark in 1932 and is still a family-owned company.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flex time policy to select their own flexible work hours, or work remotely
Invitation to bring children to work in case of emergencies.
Maternity leave: Up to 26 weeks and paternity leave up to 4 weeks. Employees are also welcome to bring their children to work when necessary. The Maternal/Paternal policy is
Subsidized child care facility at the LEGO Enfield campus (US hub-office)
Guess this compensates for all the agony of stepping over LEGOs.
*PwC*
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a multinational professional services network headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services firm in the world, with focus on audit and assurance, tax and consulting services. It is one among the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, EY and KPMG.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Fully paid parental leave for childbirth, adoption or foster care placement; with no differentiation between primary and secondary caregivers.
Flexible three weeks of intermittent time off or 6 weeks of consecutive time-off in the first year for those who return to work for at least 20 hours a week. Unlimited sick days can be availed in case of illness or to care for a sick family member.
Flexibility: Working reduced hours or from home for 60% of the time job-sharing or compressed workweek.
Extended job protection of 26 consecutive weeks beyond the 12 weeks the federal Family and Medical Leave Act
Nursing Moms' program provides resource support and discounted breastfeeding equipment for new mothers who wish to continue to breastfeed after returning to work
*COOLEY LLP*
Cooley LLP offers a wide range of legal resources with added expertise in intellectual property, patent issues, employment law and complex business. CooleyGO, an outfit of Cooley LLP specifically addresses the legal concerns of entrepreneurs.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible work hours to facilitate alternative work schedules and job share consideration for certain roles.
Back-up Childcare Bright Horizon child care solutions available for up to 20 days for a small fee.
Family Leave to stay connected to the group and the firm with the help of a liaison in the event of a family leave.
Family-Friendly Events Cooley strives to create a very family-friendly environment, and proudly participates in the annual Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
Celebrating New Family Members to celebrate the addition of Cooley babies to the family.
Wellness Up to $65/month reimbursement on health club dues, yoga classes, tennis lessons, and other fitness activities and covers a one-time initiation fee of up to $350 at a health club of the employee's choice
Generous Paid Time Off Cooley offers a generous amount of paid time off to employees, often exceeding up to thirty days a year.
Leverage Concierge The complimentary personal assistant service helps book travel, run errands, make restaurant reservations, source child, elder and pet care, and help source and book auto and home repair.
*MITRE*
A not-for-profit organization that operates federally funded research and development centers that assist the United States government with scientific research and data analysis. MITRE works solely in the public interest.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Work-life balance at MITRE is achieved through 3 important areas of focus. They encourage flexible work schedules and telecommuting arrangement to meet employees' needs. They have a referral program that helps employees find professional services like child care, elder care, family counselling to legal services and financial advice. Their wellness programs include on-site health services including massage and physical therapy, on-site fitness centers, healthy cafeteria menus and much more!

*COMPASS*
Launched in 2013, Compass is a technology-driven real estate platform that combines the services of exceptional agents with technology to ease the process of buying, selling or renting home.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Fully paid leave of 12 and 4 weeks for the primary and secondary caretakers respectively
Flexible work options
Fully paid health insurance for any number of dependents is covered.
Dependent care flexible spending account (DCFSA) that allows employees to use pre-tax dollars towards dependent care services like daycare or preschool is widely used by parents.
A lactation room where new mothers can pump in a private space is set up.
*ZOCDOC*
Zocdoc was created to solve patient problems. It enables you to doctors appointments online, verify reviews for the doctor as well as for the treatment plan, provide feedback , bypass the waiting room forms to register online just once and not worry about missing appointments;
*What makes it great for parents?*
Zocdoc provides full-time team members and their dependents access to premium free healthcare.
Parental leave Paid leave for both primary and secondary caregivers.
Paid time off Up to six weeks off for secondary caregivers and 16 weeks for primary caregivers.
Active lifestyle offerings and discounts weekly in-office yoga classes and discounted memberships to local gyms to give Zocdoc'rs a chance to slow down and relax.
Family-wide events Many company-wide events are planned for Zocdoc team members and their families. A crowd favorite is Family Movie Night.
Free healthy catered lunch daily: Zocdoc offers free healthy catered lunch every day, which always comes with salad options and a vegetarian option. This is a particularly helpful offering for busy parents.
*GILT*
Gilt provides an exclusive member-only insider access to leading designer labels upto 70% off and promises to have something new everyday for men, women, kids, home.
Gilt City tailors its services to specific cities and offers its members coveted access to unique experiences and services across cities like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. along with a range of chosen national offers from luxury brands.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible working hours subject to the needs of the business to help create a work/parenting balance.
Unlimited time- off policy to spend more time with families.
Oh, and you also get to drool over all the coolest fashion clothing and accessories in town!
*MICROSOFT*
Microsoft needs no introduction. A worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions to help people and businesses and the company "that put a PC in every home".
*What makes it great for parents?*
Paid parental Leave : 12 weeks in addition to the eight weeks of maternity disability leave they currently receive for birth mothers at 100% pay and short-term disability leave of 2 weeks for birth mothers.
Flexibility around leave: employees are allowed to take their Parental Leave either in one continuous 12-week period or split into two periods.
Transition support for new parents with part-time work options-in addition to the other benefits available to all employees at Microsoft.
*IBM*
IBM is one of the world's oldest and largest information technology giants with products including hardware and software for a line of business servers, storage products, custom-designed microchips, and application software. IBM increasingly derives revenue from a range of consulting and outsourcing services. Even with intense competition, IBM has a long-established loyal base of customers among middle-sized and Fortune-100 companies.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible working options- work-at-home and telecommuting to enable work across time-zones.
Alternate work schedules for women talent post maternity.
Work-Life Flexibility Options like reduced workload during the transition period.
Quality child-care and priority seats with multiple childcare service providers.
IBM Senior Care Program with specific non-critical but essential care services especially for the sandwich generation.
*INTUIT*
Intuit offers online accounting software to help small businesses. Intuit is the creator of 3 flagship products in the accounting and personal finance- QuickBooks, Mint, and TurboTax . Intuit is fuelled by a growth strategy that aims to manage the nations' taxes for USA and Canada; and evolve as the operating system behind the success of small businesses.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Paid maternity leave up to 26 calendar weeks and paternity leave up to 15 working days under the #GotYouCovered program.
Gender-agnostic adoption assistance that helps new adoptive parents with adoption fees.
Six free confidential counselling sessions from an expert under the Employee Assistant Benefit program
*AMEX*
American Express provides innovative payment, travel and expense management solutions for individuals and businesses of all sizes. It is best known for its credit card, charge card, and traveler's cheque businesses.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Parents at Amex initiative- an employee network that aims to provide programs and resources to parent.
Special access to the Parent Need support group through quarterly meetings over phone -no matter where employees are located.
Back up Care program in collaboration with Bright Horizons if an employee's usual care arrangements fall through.
Support for children with special needs through specialized support groups.
Up to eight sessions of free, confidential counseling for employees and their families.
Flexible working arrangements.
*AUTODESK*
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in multinational 3D design software corporation that makes software for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media industries.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Paid sabbaticals, including a compulsory rest week in December.
Flexible work options like telecommuting and flexible hours.
A wellness program that includes fitness reimbursement for a health club membership Employee assistance program that provides employees and their dependents with access to counseling sessions
Multiple wellness rooms across facilities for use by nursing mothers, for relaxation, or to simply take a break.
*zSpace*
zSpace is a technology firm based in Sunnyvale, California dedicated to enhancing education and learning through the use of virtual reality and technology. It allows people to interact with simulated objects in virtual environments as if they are real.
*What makes it great for parents?*
zSpace Education Suite Access to the complete zSpace Education Suite for their children.
Priority consideration When seeking interns, zSpace prioritizes children of parents studying in college if their skills are a match for the internship role.
This pretty much means you get to show off what you do to your kids! Technically, now you are cooler than your teenager!
*HP*
Hewlett- Packard has a vision to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Parent Leave policy 4 weeks of paid leave for births and 8 weeks (40 days) of paid leave for adoptions for both new moms and.
Concierge and Convenience services To assist new mothers and fathers to find a nanny and other childcare services.
Partly paid back-up childcare HP provides 10 days paid per year of back-up childcare through Bright Horizons
HP Live and Work Well An Employee Assistance Program to assist with stress and parenting issues and Webcasts/Brown bag sessions: through Bright Horizons to counsel employees on parenting issues
Adoption assistance $3,000.00 in adoption assistance and participation in a pre-tax Dependent Care flexible spending account.
Flexible Work Arrangements
*CA Technologies*
CA Technologies is one of the largest software corporations in the world providing software for that runs in mainframe, distributed computing,virtual machine and cloud computing environments.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Robust Parental Leave -12 weeks of leave on the birth of a child, care of a new born child, or placement of a child for adoption/foster care
Short Term Disability- effective immediately upon hire and provides 100% of an employee's base salary for up to 26 weeks if they need to attend to their own medical needs which typically provides new mothers with 6 weeks of full pay for a medically uncomplicated delivery.
Family medical leaves Up to 6 weeks of paid time off for medical emergencies in family which adds an additional 6 weeks to the parental leave.
Two-week phase back to work program full pay while working a reduced schedule of 50% in their first week back and 75% of their regular schedule in the second week following their return.
Workplace Flexibility telecommuting or remote work
Onsite Montessori Children's Centers - CA Technologies provides subsidized onsite Montessori-certified Children's Centers.
Adoption Assistance Program - The adoption assistance policy includes reimbursement of adoption-related expenses up to a maximum of $5,000 per child and $10,000 per family within a 24-month period.
*DELOITTE*
Deloitte is among the largest international professional services networks, offering audit, assurance, tax, consulting, advisory, actuarial, corporate finance, and legal services and is counted among the Big Four.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Return-to-work placement programme aimed at women who are looking to return to work after a break of more than 3 years
Shared Parental Leave To be appropriately divided between the primary and secondary caregivers. Maternity and adoption leave can also be shared with the partners and spouses.
Paid time off Deloitte provides paid time off for fathers and partners to attend ante-natal appointments, and for co-adopters to attend adoption appointments. Deloitte also offers the same benefits and pay entitlement for those who become parents through surrogacy.
Time Out This benefit enables Deloitte employees to take a four-week block of unpaid leave each year. They are particularly encouraged to share their experiences with their colleagues once they are back.
*LYST*
Lyst is a fashion ecommerce platform that allows you to shop from over 10,000 top designers and stores in one place and delivers fashion tailor-made for their customers.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Complete flexibility leaving early, starting later and working from home when needed.
3 months full maternity leave and 2 weeks full paternity pay.
Shared parental and adoption policy where up to 50 weeks of leave between child's parents (or adoptive parents) can be shared with 12 weeks of full pay.
Baby Shower for expecting parents to show how much they care!
I guess, the ladies also occasionally swoon over all the awesome stuff! Lyst, do you have plans for that?
*BAIN & COMPANY*
Bain & Company is a global management consulting firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It provides advisory services to businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governments, and is one of the Big Three management consulting firms.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Bain no longer distinguishes between primary and secondary caregivers.
Paid Childbirth and Childcare Leave Eight weeks of paid childbirth leave and eight weeks of paid parental leave. This provides 16 weeks of paid leave for women giving birth and eight weeks of paid parental leave for all other new fathers and mothers not giving birth.
Flexibility to take parental leave when it best meets their professional and personal needs within the child's first year.
*GROOVE*
Built exclusively for small businesses, Groove understands how critical customer support is for the growth of small businesses. Their simple tool helps growing businesses deliver personal customer support.
*What makes it great for parents?*
The team is completely remote and everybody is free to build their work schedules around their families.
*OFFERPOP*
Offerpop is a software-as-a-service platform that changes how global brands engage and convert today's mobile and social consumers with engagement marketing.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible work-hours and work-from-home options whenever needed.
Paid time off but for no more than 10 business days in a row.
Kids are welcome in the OfferPop office.
*GLASSDOOR*
Glassdoor, headquartered in Mill Valley California is a platform where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management.
Glassdoor is home to a growing database of more than 8 million company reviews, CEO approval ratings, salary reports,interview reviews and questions, benefits reviews, office photos and more. The source of all of this information is those who know a company best -- the employees. Glassdoor also has the latest scoop on millions of job openings along with information on what it's like to really work or interview in that company. Glassdoor is seen as an effective recruiting tool for both employees and employers.
Glassdoor- I am actually feeling doubly honoured here. I got to interview a company that interviews thousands of other companies in the world! Thanks!
*What makes it great for parents?*
Paid maternity and paternity leave for 3 weeks.
Unlimited paid time off, reduced, flexible or remote hours, dependent health benefits, catered lunches and snacks, and exercise classes on sites like cross-fit.
An Emotional Intelligence Training which gives them additional skills to help relate and communicate with their family members, friends and colleagues.
*PHILIPS*
Royal Philips is a diversified technology company, focused on improving people's lives through meaningful innovation in the areas of Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and Lighting.
Note: The benefits listed here are for Philips India Limited, a subsidiary of Royal Philips of the Netherlands.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Creche tie-ups and support Discounted childcare and provides a network of childcare providers to choose from.
Avent Products for new-born babies.
Flexible work options for upto 5 working days in a month and one full month in case of exigencies.
Maternity Leave- 12 weeks of paid maternity leave and additional 12 weeks of part time working and 10 working days of Paternity Leave
Privilege leave - 28 days Privilege leave (one of the more aggressive in the industry)
Sabbatical of up to 6 months (for those completing 3 years of service) and 1 year (for those completing 5 years of service)
Honorary (no defined limit) Sick Leave
Child Adoption Leave- 8 Weeks for Female Employees and 10 working days for male employees.

*HACKEREARTH*
HackerEarth provides the perfect bridge between employers who are looking to hire the right technical talent and passionate developers waiting to be discovered. Their HackerEarth Recruit tool is seen as a trusted assessment tool to evaluate technical skills by scores of companies.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Unlimited maternity leave benefit for new mothers besides the 3-month mandatory paid leave.
Flexible working hours to support personal schedules.
Invitation to bring your child to work in case of emergencies.
*EXOTEL*
Exotel is one of India's largest cloud telephony companies. They help businesses, both large and small, plug their business phone system into a virtual phone system. Exotel's cloud telephony eliminates the need for companies to invest in any hardware or maintenance.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Extreme flexibility: Exotel believes that team members are perfectly capable of knowing what works for them - and the team. The culture is so flexible so there's no fear or reluctance in stating your constraints and expecting the team to work around it. They have no set policies around parental benefits and that gives employees the freedom to juggle work and children.
*BUZZSUMO*
A rapidly-growing company that serves as a great platform for discovering engaging and trending content, content ideas and outreach opportunities.
*What makes it great for parents?*
The team works from all over the world.
Working from home offices is the norm and the company follows no formal reporting hours but believes in meaningful challenging work.
*WHAT3WORDS*
what3words is in the business of better addressing the world to improve business efficiency, enhance customer experience and help social and economic performance of countries all over the world. what3words creates a unique combination of any 3 words for every 3mx3m square, anywhere on the planet to help identify and remember any spot better.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible hours of work and working from home or remote work are accepted.
Families are welcome to the office to enable empathy for the occasional long hours of work.
*CHARTBEAT*
Chartbeat strives to create and build the content that their users want to see. They provide real-time information that provides data to editors, writers, marketers and developers on what is driving or will drive their site.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Parental leave12 weeks of paid leave for primary caregivers and 4 weeks of transitional flex-time at 100% salary. 6 weeks of paid leave for secondary caregiver
Unlimited vacation days to take care of last minute exigencies.
Atleast 2 weeks of planned time off every year as strongly encouraged by the management.
*GOZOOP*
Gozoop is a digital services and products company of 150+ passionate digital intrapreneurs serving over 80+ of the world's top brands like Mumbai Indians, Dell, Ferrari, Asian Paints, Discovery Channel, Mad Over Donuts, ITC, Myntra, Lipton Ice Tea, Tim Horton's among others across India, Dubai, Singapore & New York. 4 year old Gozoop ranks No. 1 in the Professional Services Industry & also makes it to the list of Top 100 Best Places to work for in India in 2015. Gozoop is the only Digital Agency to have featured on the list for 2015 published by The Economic Times. Apart from their 360° digital marketing capabilities, they build their own products to help brands improve customer experiences. In June 2013, they increased their presence across India with the acquisition of Red Digital and in June last year, they further enhanced our technology capabilities with the acquisition of iThinkInfotech. Their objective is not just to be the largest independent or the most innovative digital agency, but one that their clients trust & where the team finds meaning in their work.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Gozoop is fairly new to parenthood with only 6 parents in the house.
Maternity & paternity leaves following birth or adoption
Flexi-work hours and work from home for new parents for up to a month after resuming work.
Unlimited sick days off to care for oneself or a family member
Team bonding where they visit each other's homes, especially during periods of absence.
*APPBOY*
Appboy is a mobile marketing automation service that empowers marketers to build better relationships with their customers with push, email, in-app campaigns that are sent out tailor-made to each individual customer to help businesses grow faster.
*What makes it great for parents?*
One week a day to take off early and dedicate their evenings entirely to their loved ones.
Changes its off days to align with school holidays.
Unlimited time-off
*MANAGEDBYQ*
Managed By Q is a service to simplify office maintenance where can customize tasks to suit your office needs.
*What makes it great for parents?*
ManagedbyQ offers paid parental leave of between 12-16 weeks, after one year of service with Managed by Q. They also offer flexible paid time off to help parent find the crucial balance.
*REI*
REI is a national outdoor retail co-op dedicated to inspiring, educating and outfitting its members and the community for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship that offers their own line of high-quality award-winning gear and apparel, in addition to products from the top brands for camping, climbing, cycling, fitness, hiking, paddling, snow sports and travel.
*What makes it great for parents?*
26 weeks of time off for both the mother and father
Flexible schedules in their retail environments and at headquarters
*PARSE.LY*
Parse.ly provides web analytics and content optimization software for online publishers. They partner with digital publishers to provide insights to the audience through an intuitive analytics platform.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Standing desks to encourage activity and movement for its employees
Flexible work hours that include work-from-home and altered hours of work.
*SCHOOLOGY*
Schoology strives to improve learning experience for students and instructors through its improved Learning Management Systems that is aligned with the education needs and learning styles of the real world.
*What makes it great for parents?*
A generous and open PTO policy that allows parents the flexibility to be present to address the needs of their family.
Parental Leave Policy For employees over a year old with Schoology- 12 weeks paid leave for primary caregiver and 3 weeks paid leave for the secondary caregiver.
For parents who have been with Schoology for less than a year - it would 8 and 2 weeks respectively.
Employees transition plan to help employees phase back into work.
Parent Support Chat Room for advice and support for parenting concerns.
*NAMELY*
Namely provides a complete HR-Technology platform comprising of HR, payroll, and benefits built for today's workplace. Namely is used by over 400 companies and 60000 employees worldwide.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Parental leave: For parents who have been with Namely between 6-12 months, Namely provides 9 weeks of paid leave for the primary caregiver and 3 weeks for the secondary caregiver. Those who have been at Namely for one year or more, get 12 weeks of paid leave for the primary and 6 weeks for the secondary caregiver.
*SHEKNOWS*
SheKnows is a digital media company for women headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. It helps empower women through articles and discussion related to women's issues including beauty, relationships, sex and parenting.
*What makes it great for parents?*
SheKnows believes in hiring the best and then provides them incredible flexibility while trusting them with challenging responsibilities.
Being a SheKnows Experts contributor myself, I can say first-hand that they are an excellent team! Kudos!
*MASTERCARD*
MasterCard is a technology company and payments industry leader reap the benefits of their innovative financial and payment products and solutions.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible work options.
Work from home for an agreed period of time.
Incremental parental leave which provides 16 weeks leave for mothers, and 8 weeks for fathers to care for new- born child: 8 weeks for adoption leave.
*WHIRLPOOL*
Whirlpool is an American manufacturer and marketer of home appliances.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Flexible work options- altered hours of work reduced work schedules, and work from home.
*HEADSPACE*
Already a favourite self-development tool among world's leading experts, HeadSpace's mission is to make meditation simple.
*What makes it great for parents?*
Headspace practices meditation together at work- everyday! For the uninitiated- it means less freaking out on diaper explosion.
This article first appeared on Kidskintha.

*About the Author: *
Devishobha is the founder of Kidskintha- a website dedicated to helping millennial parents raise happy kids. Grab the most comprehensive list of Productivity Hacks for Millennial Parents- totally FREE.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 23 hours ago.

Wall Street’s money machine is spluttering back to life (APO)

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Wall Street’s money machine is spluttering back to life (APO) The good times are rolling again.

That is according to Josh Harris, the cofounder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management. 

"The financing markets are back. They're back in all their glory," Harris said on a first quarter earnings call on Thursday. 

The New York-based private equity firm's potential leveraged buyout deals evaporated when the high-yield market went in to a tailspin late last year. Investors were spooked by the possibility of wide-spread defaults, prompting a massive selloff. 

That made raising new financing for takeovers was almost impossible. Harris had said in January that the "financing markets are shutting down" and the firm's "entire private equity pipeline dried up," according to Bloomberg's Devin Banerjee.

That hurts private equity firms because they usually use debt to finance takeovers. Private equity activity dropped off sharply as a result. 

It also hurts Wall Street banks, which tend to get a big chunk of fees from private equity firms. The amount of fees PE firms paid to Wall Street banks dropped 38% in the first quarter this year to $2 billion, according to Dealogic. That's the lowest since 2010.

But things have changed. High-yield bonds, also known as junk debt, have rebounded. Financing markets have reopened. Private equity deals are happening again. And that spells good news for Wall Street. 

Devin Ryan, an analyst at JMP Securities, asked Harris about the financing markets on the Q1 earnings call. Here's what he said (emphasis ours): 

*Yes ... the financial markets are back. They're back in all their glory.* Literally, again, things were relatively shut down for a few months and now we concluded a number of transactions based on having a rough expectation or an expectation of a relatively rough financing market and pricing that in. And then sometime having a little luck is good because the deals – we priced Fresh Market, we priced ADT.

Obviously, we still have a pipeline of deals to go into the market, but all the deals are getting done ahead of our expectation when we did the deals. And so the financing markets, the high yield markets was down five and now it's up six. It was down five last year. It's been up six or so in the first four months. 

Apollo announced a $6.8 billion deal to buy electronic security systems provider ADT Corporation in February, and also recently announced a deal to buy grocery chain Fresh Market for about $1.4 billion. 

Elsewhere in private equity, Hellman & Friedman this week has agreed a deal to buy health-insurance agency MultiPlan from Starr Investment Holdings. Activity is picking up again.

Now, the market can take a turn for the worst again just as quickly as it rebounded. Harris is focused on taking advantage of the more positive conditions while they last. He said (emphasis ours):

*So things are – the good times are rolling again at least for this month*, but you can't really predict what will happen given the relatively muted financial fundamentals of the economy, but very aggressive monitory technical out there in the world.

*And there's sort of a battle between fundaments and technicals and one month fundaments wins and then another month technicals wins and you just have to be really on your toes to navigate what's a very challenging environment.*

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: THE STORY OF GOLDMAN SACHS: From foot peddlers to a powerhouse Reported by Business Insider 22 hours ago.

Workers are losing ground as Atlantic City casinos struggle

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City’s casino workers are making only 80 cents an hour more now than they did 12 years ago, having opted instead to secure benefits like health insurance and retirement plans as the casino industry shrunk and four properties went out of business. The city’s main casino workers union has […] Reported by Seattle Times 21 hours ago.

Louisiana first state to use food stamp data for Medicaid expansion

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The data will be used to auto-enroll tens of thousands of people who don't make enough money to afford health insurance. Reported by nola.com 20 hours ago.

Poll: Hispanics finding it harder to afford health care

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An increasing number of Hispanics are finding it harder to afford health care and the percentage of those without any health insurance is up slightly over a year ago, according to a survey by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative. More than 43 percent of respondents in the April poll said it's harder for them to afford health care, up almost 6 percentage points from a similar survey in March 2015. Only 13.7 percent said it was easier, down more than 9 percent… Reported by bizjournals 19 hours ago.

Arizona joins rest of nation with children’s insurance plan

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona is poised to join 49 other states that offer a federal health insurance program for low-income children after backers of the plan pushed it through the Legislature Friday and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey pledged to sign it immediately. Known as KidsCare in Arizona, the state’s version of the federal Children’s Health […] Reported by Seattle Times 17 hours ago.

Arizona Joins Rest of Nation With Children's Insurance Plan

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Arizona has joined 49 other states that offer a federal health insurance program for low-income children Reported by ABCNews.com 14 hours ago.

Arizona joins rest of nation with children's insurance plan

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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has joined 49 other states that offer a federal health insurance program for low-income children after backers of the plan pushed it through the Legislature on Friday and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey almost immediately signed it into law. Known as KidsCare in Arizona, the state's version of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program has been frozen since 2010, when lawmakers closed it because of a state budget crunch. [...] the bill's supporters used procedural maneuvers to get the plan passed, tacking it onto a bill in the House and then circumventing Republican Senate President Andy Biggs, who has blocked the legislation since March because he opposes the federal program. The fight was reminiscent of the 2013 effort to embrace Medicaid expansion, a major component of the Affordable Care Act, that left the Republican majority badly split and left lasting damage. Reported by SeattlePI.com 13 hours ago.

Workers Are Losing Ground as Atlantic City Casinos Struggle

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Atlantic City's casino workers are making only 80 cents an hour more now than they did 12 years ago, having opted instead to secure benefits like health insurance and retirement plans as the casino industry shrunk and four properties went out of business. Reported by Newsmax 11 hours ago.

Arizona joins rest of U.S. in adding health insurance program for children

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PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona's governor signed into law on Friday a bitterly contested proposal that will restore a federal health insurance program for children from low-income families, making it the last of its 49 counterparts to join the program. Reported by Reuters 12 hours ago.

Arizona rejoins federal program offering health insurance for kids in low-income families

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Arizona’s governor signed into law on Friday a bitterly contested proposal that will restore a federal health insurance program for children from low-income families, making it the last of its 49 counterparts to join the program. Arizona opted out of the federal Children’s Health Insuran... Reported by Raw Story 11 hours ago.

Elephant Graveyard

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The story is circulating this weekend that high-level operatives in the Republican Party are preparing a third-party candidacy to challenge Donald Trump and the winner of the Democratic nomination in the general elections this fall. Such a candidacy would be a mistake for two major reasons: First, the political figures leading this effort are simply wrong for America. And, second, given the Republican Party's evident fragility, a third-party candidacy at this particular moment will quite possibly leave it irretrievably broken.

Before I go further, however, I want to stipulate to certain facts: Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to serve as President of the United States. His racist pandering, his xenophobic calls for the deportation of undocumented aliens, and his proposals to exclude all members of a great world religion from entry into the United States are among the worst positions taken by a major presidential contender, ever.

The two men most often mentioned in connection with a nascent third-party candidacy are Mitt Romney and Bill Kristol. They are not the answers the United States is looking for. Their public careers suggest that they should not be elevated to positions of authority and influence.

Let's take Mitt Romney first. Read the following words and dwell on them. This is Mitt Romney's denunciation of the "47 percent" of vulnerable Americans who require some form of federal assistance to lead a decent life: "There are 47 percent . . . who are dependent on the government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."

Who are the "47 percent" Mitt Romney so callously dismissed? They are Social Security recipients who worked hard all their lives and now subsist on a fixed income and depend on Medicare for their health care. They are the working poor who labor and sweat long hours and require government subsidized health insurance. They are the parents of special-needs children. They are the disabled, many of them veterans, who cannot work.

Do you detect a sneer in Romney's voice? Contempt perhaps? I certainly do. In November, 2015, Donald Trump horrifically mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski for his disability. Trump has rightfully been taken to task for his inappropriate conduct.

But how is Romney's condescension to the less fortunate any different from Trump's cruel pantomime? It is cooler perhaps, more abstract and cerebral. The targets of the attack go unnamed. Romney doesn't seem to know anyone in the 47 percent, but he stereotypes them as, what exactly? Lazy? Indifferent? Tell me again, who is worse? There is no one who better bears the title "Mr. One Percent" more fittingly than Mitt Romney.

We live in an America that, since the New Deal, has made a commitment to provide for the vulnerable. The New Deal was a promise binding government and citizens that the State would serve as final guarantor of the common good. It is about time that men like Mitt Romney make peace with that social contract.

Nor is this all. Mitt Romney introduced a term into the American political lexicon that should rightly haunt him for the rest of his public life -- "self-deportation." In January, 2012, he explained that this was his solution to undocumented immigrants in the United States. He promised that he would introduce a tracking system that would prevent the undocumented from working in the United States and so force them "to self-deport to a place where they can get work."

Mitt Romney will always be remembered for two things: his condescending attack on the 47 percent and his popularization of the term "self-deportation."

What about Bill Kristol? In 2002 and 2003, there was probably no more enthusiastic cheerleader for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq than Kristol. On September 18, 2002, he predicted that Bush's impending invasion "could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East." On November 21, 2002, he wrote that the prospective invasion "would start a chain reaction in the Arab world that would be very healthy."

Kristol, as events proved, was horrifically, tragically wrong in his predictions. Over 4,000 Americans died in the invasion and occupation, and many thousands more were wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died. Has Kristol ever apologized? Does he feel any remorse? I can find no record of it.

And while it is not on the same level as the Iraq fiasco, we must also remember Bill Kristol as the individual responsible for introducing Sarah Palin to the American public. She was an obscure Alaska governor, not quite half-way through her first term when Kristol recommended to John McCain that he select her as his running mate. The rest, as they say, is history.

These are the two men who are said to be most deeply involved in planning for a possible third-party candidacy. They should not do it. Romney is an unsuitable candidate radically out of step with America, and Bill Kristol is a deeply flawed strategist. Just as importantly, however, a third-party candidacy at this moment in time might deal an irreparable blow to the Republican Party.

One would have to look to nineteenth-century examples to find a political party as fragile as today's Republican Party. One can identify three or four distinct sub-groupings within the Party that really have little in common with each other. There is the business roundtable wing, which was most closely associated with Jeb Bush in the just-concluded GOP primary. Mitt Romney is closely associated with this wing of the Party. They have money, they occupy positions of power and prestige, but they command little in the way of voter affection or allegiance.

Then there are the ethno-nationalists, who are most closely associated with Donald Trump. They are hostile to immigration and suspicious of foreign interventions. They are, many of them, the heirs and descendants of the Reagan Democrats of the 1980's, men and women who transitioned from the Democratic to the Republican Parties for cultural and racial reasons. In this election cycle, at least, they have the most energy, even if that energy is funneled into support for the odious Donald Trump.

Third, there are the true-believing religious conservatives. These are men and women who entered politics as an outgrowth of their high religious principles. These were the voters who remained with Ted Cruz to the bitter end and see compromise on moral issues as something akin to surrender or betrayal.

Finally, one might (or might not) see as a separate group the military interventionists. This grouping consists of Senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, and the many defense contractors who depend on an active military. If the primary vote for Lindsey Graham means anything, it suggests that this group has little support outside the Beltway.

A third-party candidacy at this point could explode this brittle amalgamation into its various component parts. It is anyone's guess whether it can ever be put back together.

The better course to follow is that taken by Nelson Rockefeller in 1964. Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee that year, had voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and openly courted southern segregationists like Strom Thurmond. Like Donald Trump today, Goldwater made himself unacceptable to large segments of the voting public. Rockefeller refused to endorse Goldwater and abstained.

That is the course of action I would recommend today. Do nothing to show your support. Repeatedly and publicly explain why Donald Trump is unacceptable. Quietly vote for the Democratic nominee or just abstain from voting. And stand ready to pick up the pieces after November.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 13 hours ago.

There's no place for rampant capitalism in treating the sick

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A good friend of mine recently found herself between jobs, with a gap in her health insurance and a recurrence of her kidney stones. What she needed were fluids and pain relief, fast. I'm a gastroenterologist, and hoping to minimize the financial impact, I went with her to our local ER and had... Reported by L.A. Times 4 hours ago.
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