The solution lies between the extremes
In September of this year President Obama said he wants to raise the number of Syrian refugees the U. S. will accept to 10,000. In the wake of the terrorist attack on Paris this past weekend, governors and others are saying they don't want any Syrian refugees in their states. There are worries about the potential danger these people represent. Other want to go ahead and let them into the country. President Obama said the following on Thursday, 11/19/2015 regarding the refugees:
"The idea that somehow they (the refugees) pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jive with reality."
Refugees allowed into the U. S. are supposed to go through a rigorous vetting process. The details of this process aren't disclosed but sources say that this vetting can take up to two full years, although the typical case is more like 18 months.
The answer is actually quite simple. Allow the 10,000 refugees in. Establish refugee "camps" where they can be kept safe, fed and housed, while the vetting process is allowed to take place. We have unused military facilities where they can be housed during this time. Better they be housed and fed and provided with life's necessities while we still take the proper steps to ensure they pose no risk to us.
Humane and practical. Makes a lot more sense than doing what some idiots are suggesting, that we allow only Christian refugees into the U. S.
* * *
Jared Fogel, the former Subway spokesman was sentenced to 15.5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty on 11/19/2015 to charges of child pornography and traveling to have illicit paid sex with minors.
The sentence from the judge is even harsher than the plea deal maximum of 12.5 years prosecutors had agreed to. The judge was not bound by the deal between Fogel's lawyers and the prosecution. At the sentencing hearing the defense attempted to argue for leniency in sentencing because the minors he had sex with were 16 and 17, just under the age of consent.
Reporter's note: Minors cannot legally consent to sex when they are under the legal age for consent. There is no consent for a minor where the adult is paying for the sex. He ought to be locked up for a lot longer. Also, a FB friend talked about treating pedophilia as a disease. It should be, for those who haven't yet committed a crime that fits this definition. For those who have, like Mr. Fogel, they need treatment AND long-term incarceration.
* * *
Joe Campbell is a 32 year old small business owner from Gilbert Arizona. He began day trading stocks on E-Trade a few months ago and wound up owing over $106,000 thanks to a short sale he made.
First, a primer on what a short sale is. When you "short" a stock, you're essentially selling shares you don't actually own. You borrow them from your broker on margin, which means you're borrowing whatever the value of the shares is when you actually purchase them and repay them to the broker. Here's an example:
You short 1,000 shares of XYZ company when the stock is trading at $5 per share. You're hoping it will fall to $2 a share at which point you will spend $2,000 to purchase the shares and repay the broker. Your profit is the difference between the price at which you "shorted" (read that as sold) XYZ and what it cost you to purchase the shares to close the transaction. So you made $3,000.
The tricky part is that there is a finite limit on how much you can make in that transaction. Your maximum profit is limited to $5,000 if the shares were to become worthless. But there is no limit on how much you might lose. Imagine for a moment that instead of going down, the price of the shares were to rise. If you were forced to close out the transaction by paying $15 per share, you'd lose $15,000.
That is what happened to poor Joe Campbell. He thought his losses were limited to the $37,000 he had in his account. But by the time he closed out his short position, he was $106,000 in the red. So what did he do? He started a GoFundMe page. He is taking a real beating in the comments section on that page, and as I write this donations have been made that total raised $2,956.
Reporter's note: I have no sympathy for this man at all. His Twitter feed is filled with tweets about how well he had done in his previous day trading, with plenty of graphs to show his accomplishments. A lot of the comments speculate he probably never gave any of those profits away to worthwhile charities or causes. I don't know if that's true or not, and it really doesn't matter. The idea of asking people to bail you out of a bad short sale of stock is about as bad as creating a GoFundMe page because you went to Vegas for the weekend and blew the rent and grocery money. Many stockbrokers say that the only difference between the stock markets and Las Vegas is that there are no free cocktails in broker's offices. I will point out that liquidating the 401(k) investments of Mr. Campbell and his wife to pay off this balance to E-Trade is a bad idea. He should just file for bankruptcy. Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Put it behind him and learn for the mistake.
FWIW, Warren Buffett is on the record saying he once made a bad investment decision that ultimately cost his investment partners and himself over $100 billion. So you can bounce back.
* * *
"The idea that somehow they (the refugees) pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jive with reality."
Refugees allowed into the U. S. are supposed to go through a rigorous vetting process. The details of this process aren't disclosed but sources say that this vetting can take up to two full years, although the typical case is more like 18 months.
The answer is actually quite simple. Allow the 10,000 refugees in. Establish refugee "camps" where they can be kept safe, fed and housed, while the vetting process is allowed to take place. We have unused military facilities where they can be housed during this time. Better they be housed and fed and provided with life's necessities while we still take the proper steps to ensure they pose no risk to us.
Humane and practical. Makes a lot more sense than doing what some idiots are suggesting, that we allow only Christian refugees into the U. S.
* * *
Jared Fogel, the former Subway spokesman was sentenced to 15.5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty on 11/19/2015 to charges of child pornography and traveling to have illicit paid sex with minors.
The sentence from the judge is even harsher than the plea deal maximum of 12.5 years prosecutors had agreed to. The judge was not bound by the deal between Fogel's lawyers and the prosecution. At the sentencing hearing the defense attempted to argue for leniency in sentencing because the minors he had sex with were 16 and 17, just under the age of consent.
Reporter's note: Minors cannot legally consent to sex when they are under the legal age for consent. There is no consent for a minor where the adult is paying for the sex. He ought to be locked up for a lot longer. Also, a FB friend talked about treating pedophilia as a disease. It should be, for those who haven't yet committed a crime that fits this definition. For those who have, like Mr. Fogel, they need treatment AND long-term incarceration.
* * *
Joe Campbell is a 32 year old small business owner from Gilbert Arizona. He began day trading stocks on E-Trade a few months ago and wound up owing over $106,000 thanks to a short sale he made.
First, a primer on what a short sale is. When you "short" a stock, you're essentially selling shares you don't actually own. You borrow them from your broker on margin, which means you're borrowing whatever the value of the shares is when you actually purchase them and repay them to the broker. Here's an example:
You short 1,000 shares of XYZ company when the stock is trading at $5 per share. You're hoping it will fall to $2 a share at which point you will spend $2,000 to purchase the shares and repay the broker. Your profit is the difference between the price at which you "shorted" (read that as sold) XYZ and what it cost you to purchase the shares to close the transaction. So you made $3,000.
The tricky part is that there is a finite limit on how much you can make in that transaction. Your maximum profit is limited to $5,000 if the shares were to become worthless. But there is no limit on how much you might lose. Imagine for a moment that instead of going down, the price of the shares were to rise. If you were forced to close out the transaction by paying $15 per share, you'd lose $15,000.
That is what happened to poor Joe Campbell. He thought his losses were limited to the $37,000 he had in his account. But by the time he closed out his short position, he was $106,000 in the red. So what did he do? He started a GoFundMe page. He is taking a real beating in the comments section on that page, and as I write this donations have been made that total raised $2,956.
Reporter's note: I have no sympathy for this man at all. His Twitter feed is filled with tweets about how well he had done in his previous day trading, with plenty of graphs to show his accomplishments. A lot of the comments speculate he probably never gave any of those profits away to worthwhile charities or causes. I don't know if that's true or not, and it really doesn't matter. The idea of asking people to bail you out of a bad short sale of stock is about as bad as creating a GoFundMe page because you went to Vegas for the weekend and blew the rent and grocery money. Many stockbrokers say that the only difference between the stock markets and Las Vegas is that there are no free cocktails in broker's offices. I will point out that liquidating the 401(k) investments of Mr. Campbell and his wife to pay off this balance to E-Trade is a bad idea. He should just file for bankruptcy. Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Put it behind him and learn for the mistake.
FWIW, Warren Buffett is on the record saying he once made a bad investment decision that ultimately cost his investment partners and himself over $100 billion. So you can bounce back.
* * *
posted by me at 7:14 PM
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