Amazon if you can believe this, SHUT DOWN the kindle/advertising account claiming I didn't "fill out" some form saying we do not have children material on our site, when of course I did fill this out a while back. What rude jerks. The good news is they pay so little, financially their pennies hurt us not. The bad news is there are some subscribed via Kindle.

I STRONGLY suggest just reading the site via your browser. The site will scale for tablets of any size and you will save a few bucks since you don't have to pay Amazon subscriber fees (of which we got very little of!) If that isn't OK, just email me offline.

I personally am disgusted with Amazon. We are an upstanding site and very obviously publish no smut or any untruths, etc. Not only did they never pay anything for their ads in reality, to shut down an account over pretty much nothing and refuse to reinstate it is absurd. All I can say is, way to go Amazon, you lost a free advertising site, you paid pennies, and on top of it, you lost a group of customers who purchases tally over $30,000 a month. Unbelievable and they paid PENNIES to us!

From the thousands of complaints with the Better Business Bureau and elsewhere it's pretty clear Amazon could care less about treating advertisers and many others so badly.

the October Import -Export price index showed September import prices down 0.6%, not the down 0.1% previously reported..export prices for September were revised from -0.7% to -0.6%...other prices back to July were also revised...on the other side of the coin, wholesale inventories were up 0.5%; the BEA assumed they'd be down...

Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (born May 13, 1977) has been serving in the Senate since January 3, 2015. He recently spoke at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation about Social Security disability. In his 8 minute speech he tells us about proposed legislation he introduced because the country is on it’s way to a "Disability Tipping Point".

He says: "Population continues to fall, and a downward spiral kicks in, driving once thriving communities into further decline. Not only that, but once this kind of spiral begins, communities could begin to suffer other social of plagues as well, such as heroin or meth addiction and associated crime."

Cotton revealed that he planned to introduce legislation that would single out non-permanent disability recipients and set a timeline for them to return to work. Disabled people who are not ready to return to work would be forced to reapply for disability benefits.

Article:
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/11/sen-tom-cotton-social-security-benefits-...

His speech at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmutNk-SceI

* Tom Cotton once worked at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where Chelsea Clinton and Mitt Romney and other elites have worked.

Read The Mystique of McKinsey & Co.
http://www.cnbc.com/2013/09/25/behind-the-singular-mystique-of-mckinsey-...
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-08-26/the-mckinsey-mystique

Has anybody ever taken that CPS survey? Or know of someone that has? Or knows somebody who knows somebody? I've been a round for a few decades, and was never called about this survey. And in all those years, I don't know of a single person that has ever taken that survey either. Odd, isn't it?

(What does Nike think of the TPP trader deal?) "The U.S. agreement with Vietnam requires the country to legalize independent unions and allow unions to strike and contains a provision that allows the US to "withhold or suspend tariff reductions for Vietnam if Vietnam does not comply with its commitment to provide the right to form labor unions across enterprises and at higher levels within five years."
https://medium.com/the-trans-pacific-partnership/labour-66e8e6f4e8d5

(Maybe Nike doesn't have anything to worry about.) "The Vietnamese government has tolerated wildcat strikes as a way for workers to let off steam and to demand raises... Vietnam does not have a large underground labor movement that might quickly benefit from legalization. Vietnam's tolerance of wildcat strikes may have discouraged the formation of such a broader movement."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/business/international/vietnam-tpp-tra...

American casualties in the Vietnam War:
58,307 KIA or non-combat deaths
153,303 WIA requiring hospital care
150,332 WIA not requiring hospital care
1,626 MIA
Nike should be giving our Vets jobs in the U.S. -- or set up their corporate headquarters in Hanoi.

The Heritage's reason for a flat benefit was to lower the Social Security cap for richer people, not to "means test" richer people from getting higher benefits to help poorer people.

We are seeing men and women as young as 35 having heart attacks, strokes, neurological illnesses, and it has been within the last 10 years that we saw a dramatic increase in young adults sustaining life long impairments. After diagnosis and treatment, the person is usually put on some kind of medication that they have to take some kind the rest of their lives. Considering that the FDA controls our food and grocery, and those food and grocery items are sending people to an early grave, and forcing some young adults out of the workforce, The government should take responsibility. Also It is the FDA's fault when the medications they allow to be marketed and prescribed cause long-lasting impairments. Thing is, most people who sustain impairments due to pharmaceuticals, and toxic chemicals in our food, water, and in some work environments can't afford to hire representation to hold the true culprets accountable. They are forced to survive off the whatever money they can get! Then there are children who are being forced to take extremely powerful pharmaceuticals for mental or hyperactivity problems, which has created a generation of men and women dependent on some type of drug, drugs which the FDA regulate, and the illegal kind. I will just be honest, The entire medical complex in partnership with FDA is at fault here. It appears like the entire Unites States of America is targeting one of the most vunerable class of citizens who recieve a survival pittance $119 fs and $750 in sdi, because our government has made everyone powerless to hold to account the true roots of these problems! We all have become nothing more THAN THE LEAD THAT MAKES THEIR GOLD.

The "file and Suspend" rule for Social Security ends in the new budget deal...

Slate: People weren’t just using the "file and suspend" strategy out of greed. They were using it to boost what are often less than adequate income replacement levels in retirement. It came about as part of legislation designed to encourage people in their 60s to remain part of the paid workforce by eliminating caps on what seniors could earn and still claim Social Security. The "file and suspend" strategy allows one member of a married couple to file for his or her Social Security benefits on reaching the full retirement age but then suspend them. This allowed the lower-earning partner—usually the wife—to take her spousal benefits when she turned 66, while the other member of the marital team—usually the husband—continued to work. When the file-and-suspend spouse turned 70, he would once again claim his benefits, this time for good. At that point, the other partner forgoes Social Security’s spousal benefit in favor of her now-larger personal monthly stipend.

[* The new budget deal now disallows this; and that might be bad news for divorced women heading toward retirement.]

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/10/budget_deal_close...

TIME: The "file and suspend" strategy calls for the higher-earning spouse to file for Social Security benefits at his or her full retirement age, but then suspend that filing while the benefit grows, until as late as 70. The lower-earning spouse can then claim spousal benefits at his or her own full retirement age, and later shift to their own full benefit, if it is larger. (A spousal benefit is half of the primary earner’s benefit.)
The Center for Retirement Research has estimated that file-and-suspend adds $9.5 billion in annual benefit costs to the program. The White House targeted it for elimination in the budget plan issued last year, calling it an “aggressive” move used by high-income households to “manipulate” benefits. The budget deal approved by the House this week would clamp down on the practice for anyone who turns age 62 after calendar year 2015.

http://time.com/money/4092844/social-security-file-and-suspend-end/

ANGRY BEAR: "File and suspend" allows someone to get Social Security benefits prior to retiring, while not having to accept the lower benefits one gets if one retires at 62 or 66. One can get the higher benefits later. This will now not be allowed, so one must accept the lower benefits if one starts getting benefits early. This has only been possible for married couples with this involving one getting spousal benefits and then their own through some semi-complicated maneuvers that have been allowed since 2001."

[*The article says something about Paul Ryan too.]

http://angrybearblog.com/2015/10/vsps-get-their-way-with-budget-deal-soc...

Thanks Greg, but if you notice in the comments since I posted this, The LA Times reported that the Heritage's plan to create a "flat benefit" and lower the cap wasn't included in the last budget deal. When I first posted this article, the media wasn't talking much about this proposal, so I've been trying to follow it. But it doesn't mean the GOP won't stop trying. They have been relentless in trying to cut Social Security, and in a number of different ways. They keep coming at it in many angles. Their talking points might change, but their end game is always the same ... end or privatize Social Security. Now with Rep. Paul Ryan as the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee AND the Speaker of the House, all the more reason to worry...and especially if a Republican is elected president in 2016 with a majority of Republicans in Congress. If that happens, you can bet for sure cuts will come.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-social-security-medicar...