Pay It Forward Friday - Homeless Lottery Winner

I'm starting a new Friday feature here on Nonsensible Shoes,  Pay It Forward Friday.  Sharing good news and positive stories is always a good thing.  Hopefully there will be enough good news out there to keep this feature going indefinitely.  This feature will supplement the Friday Musical Interlude rather than replace it.  

Our first one is something quite new, from Youtube user MagicofRahat. Here's something that will make you feel good about humanity, no matter what your political stripe.  A prankster who does something for a homeless man, set up like a prank, but not really a prank, just a good deed done in a moving way.

Very moving.  Let MagicofRahat know on Youtube, you appreciate this video, and pay attention to where you can make donations as well.

Please spread the word too.

Friday Musical Interlude - Timber - Vintage 1950's Doo Wop Pitbull / Ke$ha Cover

Postmodern Jukebox has talent, and a knack for creative re-working of songs into versions often far better than the original.  Improving a Justin Beiber song to the point it is likable is an enormous undertaking, but they've done that successfully.  Here, they've reworked Timber -a Pitbull / Ke$ha song, into a cool, 1950s Doo Wop tune.

It's amazing how different the same song can sound when produced, arranged and played with a different vision.

Here's the original for comparison purposes only:

Thursday Hillary Bash - On the record on Obamacare

Hillary Clinton has chosen to side with those behind Obamacare.  It's somewhat surprising.  She used the opportunity to unfairly portray Republicans as anti-people.  But to go on record in support of a government program that is losing ground in the battle of public opinion month after month, is somewhat odd. 

It's not as if she hasn't said anything in support of Obamacare previously.  But the timing seems odd, making statements about it now.

Via Politico:

Hillary Clinton showed more signs of flexibility Wednesday on how Obamacare is implemented, but she insisted the law is too important to “turn the clock back.”

In a question-and-answer session following a lecture at UCLA, Clinton suggested she’s open to different ways of achieving the health law’s goals. She praised Arkansas — the state where she and her husband rose to political fame — for carrying out a new approach to expanding Medicaid coverage, by using the federal money to buy private health insurance for more than 100,000 low-income residents....

“I think it’s important for people to realize what’s been accomplished. There’s been an enormous amount of, frankly, misinformation and disinformation,” Clinton said.

She also used a line of defense that other Democrats have encouraged: Obamacare will help end “job lock,” in which people hang on to a job they don’t like because they’re afraid their health problems will prevent them from getting insurance again if they move. “I have said many times that if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn’t have built an employer-based system,” Clinton said. But since that’s the system we have, she said, it’s important to make it work.

(emphasis added). 

Going on record, particularly with the piece emphasized above, is perhaps meant as a way to gain credence with the liberal base for the Democratic primaries, which she may assume, once won, will grant her a cakewalk to the White House against all comers from the GOP side of the election.  But with a shrinking percentage of the American people approving of the law, equivocating on the specifics is like the proverbial re-arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic.

Checkpoint: Americans still not digging Obamacare.

The latest Gallup poll confirms that Americans still don't like Obamacare.

This update is from Gallup polling conducted between Feb. 28 and March 2, just prior to the Obama administration's announcement this week that insurance companies will be able to delay until next year the requirement that they cancel or replace policies that don't conform to the provisions of the law often referred to as "Obamacare."

The 23% who feel the law has hurt them is the highest percentage for the question since Gallup began asking Americans about it in 2012, and is up from 19% in previous polling.

It's an interesting way of burying the lead that Gallup has used here. 23% doesn't sound so bad. Even in comparison to 10% who said that it has helped them it doesn't seem as terrible. The real story is that the majority of Americans disapprove of the law, by a significant margin.

Obama's wrong again: Crimea is a win for Putin.

Obama yesterday claimed that Putin was not being clever strategically in rushing into Crimea.  Obama is 100% wrong. Russian leader Putin claims he's interested in protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea which is why he's sent "plainclothes" Russian military into the region after Ukraine's recent .upheaval.  But Russia has ulterior motives.  It's about the money, and the strategic military value of the region.

Crimea has some strategic importance to Russia.  Consider:

The Black Sea is Russia's only warm-water port.

Though Crimea is recognized worldwide as a part of Ukraine, the Russian Navy has kept its Black Sea Fleet stationed at a naval base in Sevastopol (in southern Crimea) since the late 1700s. In 2010, Russia negotiated an agreement that allows the country to share the all-important Sevastopol naval base through 2042, in exchange for deep discounts of about $40 billion on natural gas from Russia.

The Ukraine, which is a very big producer of corn and grain, sends much of it's exports through Crimean ports.  Crimea also has it's own agricultural base and Crimea also serves as a tourist destination.  These things are important for Russia economically and for helping to feed Russians.  Having Crimea under Russian control benefits Russia economically, and reduces the dependence on the Ukraine.

And let's not overlook the fact that an international crisis increases gas prices, which Russia exports to Europe.  As tensions stay high, Russia can generate additional revenue as a result.  Obama  just doesn't understand geo-political strategy.  He's once again proving that for him, it's about making himself look good.  He's trying to save face rather than looking at the situation realistically and making decisions accordingly.