Folks, I’m not going to be sitting at my laptop much the next few days, but hey, that’s no reason for y’all not to have something to talk about. How about these topics?
Europe and U.S. to Sharply Escalate Russia Sanctions — About time.
Central SC Red Cross chapter, United Way end 90-year partnership — The way this is explained, I suppose this was inevitable, with the United Way’s new funding model. Will other major local nonprofits do the same?
John Kerry’s gigantic blunder — David Ignatius says his short-term push for a cease-fire in Gaza has backfired spectacularly. Netanyahu is now warning of a prolonged conflict.
Related Posts
1) What is Obama going to do now that Russia has reneged on their 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty obligations? Threaten more sanctions? It’s a good thing that this is his second term, and he has “more flexibility” on arms control issues. Time to press that “Reset” button again.
2) When it comes to foreign policy, either this administration is a bunch of incompetent clowns, or they are intentionally sabotaging our interests.
3) Good for the local Red Cross, getting out from under the malignant umbrella of the United Way. Having dealt with our local United Way, I made a solemn vow that I would never give them one thin dime of my money again, and I try not to support charities that are their affiliates.
Agree on United Way, Silence. When I worked for a large company years ago, we would get harassed by management to sign up for weekly donations to the United Way. There was an implied threat that not participating would be a treated as not being a “team player”. Luckily that ended when it was revealed how much money was being siphoned off by overpaid management of United Way.
Donate directly to the charities you support. Eliminate the middle man.
Doug, 100% agree on giving directly for no overhead. They run about 25% overhead over there just for salaries, last year they made grants totalling about 64% of revenues.
Looking at the United Way of the Midlands form 990’s on GuideStar:
2013 received contributions of 11.9M
2012 – 12.4M
2011 – 13.2M
2010 – 16.0M
2009 – 17.2M
2008 – 14.1M (including 2.1M in government grants)
Seems like our local leadership has been fairly successful at running potential donors off. What exactly is Mac Bennett doing to earn his $186k/year?
When it comes to foreign policy, either this administration is a bunch of incompetent clowns, or they are intentionally sabotaging our interests.
-Silence
What exactly are “our interests”. That’s the same ole tired cliché that ends up getting us in trouble. With gas prices exceedingly stable, unemployment dropping and our homeland proper safe without thousands of troops engaged in combat I’d say “our interests” are doing very well thank you.
Obama’s handling the Ukraine issue just about right. He’s imposing a few sanctions to show we don’t appreciate Russian imperialism. Otherwise refraining from sending arms to the Ukraine government is absolutely the proper course of action. In the end the only nation to suffer a decline in it’s “our interests” will be Russian. The USA will be just fine.
Color me skeptical on even these sanctions having much effect. I’d be thrilled if they did, but I’m not holding my breath. An example of Moscow’s current mindset:
There was a ruling on Monday by a panel in The Hague that basically entered a $50 billion dollar judgment against Russia in favor of some stockholders in a Russian oil company. Yeah, $50 Billion. Putin’s response?
“One person close to Mr Putin said the Yukos ruling was insignificant in light of the bigger geopolitical stand-off over Ukraine. “There is a war coming in Europe,” he said. “Do you really think this matters?””
Wow.
Well, one thing’s for sure. You can’t say the Russians haven’t given us fair warning.
I thought that this article in USA Today contained an interesting fact: “Short of horse-drawn carriage makers, few industries have suffered such a pronounced decline in market share than government-run schools in America’s urban centers. Consider the numbers: forty-four percent of the District’s public student population has abandoned conventional neighborhood schools for public charters.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/07/29/teacher-tenure-refugees-reform-column/12728131/
Just to show there can be common ground between libs and conservatives I fully agree with Doug and Silence assessment of the United Way. I never gave a dime after I found out what their CEO makes.
Amen bud!
You used the correct word, bud. “makes”. That’s the difference between some rich people and others. Some “make” money, others “earn” it.
Remember when Brad had a blog? Those were the good old days.
I was just thinking, “I wonder what’s happened to Brad?” I hope nothing untoward has happened to him…
What does everyone think about the 4th Circuit’s holding which invalidated Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban? That’s the federal circuit for South Carolina, FYI.
I think it’s only a matter of months, not years, before South Carolina’s law against same sex marriage is struck down.
Why is this even still an issue in 2014?
A.G. Alan Wilson has said for South Carolina he will continue to enforce the existing ban on same-sex marriages until the US Supreme Court rules otherwise. May be more than a few months before this gets resolved in SC, I suppose…
One issue where Vincent Sheheen could separate himself from Nikki Haley. He should try and throw SOMETHING to the Democratic base voters rather than just trying to be slightly left of Nikki.
I think it makes sense for the AG to enforce the laws on the books until they are invalidated. I can’t blame the AG for taking the position that the law should be enforced.
I first encountered Judge Floyd when I was observing trials for my SC law license at the Richland County Courthouse. He was impressive and continues to impress me. He was elevated to the fed bench by Bush II and to Appeals by Obama.