Writing off a loss generally doesn't do much for you. It might save you 30% of the charge or so.

Insurance companies have a better deal because their business often involves re-insurance, that is off-loading their liabilities to pools.

The best of all is credit cards. They charge fees to merchants to cover the losses. The merchants then bake the fees into the retail price which people pay regardless of whether or not they use the card.

So no, T-Mobile isn't quite in the same league as insurance and credit cards.

I didn't say there is no reason for it. There are in fact a lot of reasons, primarily in the tax code for such.

However the idea of 'group discount' is not one of these reasons. We have lots of other insurance programs that work fine for individual purchasers. Homeowners, auto, term life, umbrella policies etc. My experience (through CORBA) is that you can usually find coverage for LESS than what your employer is paying.

Citations needed.

That's the basis for the lawsuit. However the Supreme Court decision covers more than just morning after drugs.

It covers the contraception mandate of the PPACA.

Coupling the two has always been a cluster fuck. This is just one more reason to abolish this particular linkage.

Hobby Lobby did not want to pay for contraceptive drugs that created a condition they consider to be abortion.

Others may have a different view as to what they consider objectionable.

This really did not establish much of a precedent because the court based the decision on Federal law, not Constitutional law.

The reason I have a garden is to have a place where I can go outside and putter around with living things. The pace at which things happen in the garden is very slow and relaxing. The needs of the plants are simple.

The most stressful thing that happens in my garden is the annual competition between me and the birds to see who will get the grapes and blueberries. Really though I don't mind much if the birds get some. They are enjoyable to have around in their own way.

The last thing I want is some sort of automation that takes away from this process and replaces it with the technology that I am trying to escape from with my hobby.

So I went into the thesis.

There is NOTHING quantitative here. Department of Thematic Studies? WTF?

As far as I can tell this is a conclusion based on building castles in the air.

The telegram was contributory, but the submarine attacks would have drawn the US into WWI by themselves.

https://history.state.gov/mile...

The only reason US developed nuclear weapons was to put an end to wars that it didn't start and didn't want to be involved in.

Maybe Germany should think back to how lucky it was that the US didn't complete the Manhattan project before the end of WWII in Europe. Yes, the US probably would have nuked German cities if the war was still going on. Britain also wanted to nuke Germany in retaliation for Germany's blitz of London etc. - the first time mass bombings of civilian cities had been carried out.

While nuclear weapons are a terrible thing, let's not forget who REALLY started mass bombings of civilian targets. Some of the conventional strikes on cities in Europe killed far more people than either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

First, what kind of numbnut country outsources their state communications services? Come on man.

Then who are they going to get as a replacement? Some other company that has no doubt already been suborned by a secret agency?

Not really. German subs had already started unrestricted attacks on US shipping. The Zimmerman telegram was not necessary to get the US into WWI.

Regional conflicts are a whole lot less nasty than the world wars that were going on before the US became a superpower.

> De-americanization has officially began when Russia signed gas deal with China bypassing dollar.

Relatively local trade of that sort has often avoided conversion into a third currency. Nothing new.

The idea that Russia or Chinese currency would make significant inroads against the dollar is preposterous. The ruble is so untrusted that commerce within Russia often is done in dollars as Russia is the largest holder of US banknotes in the world.. China - well let me know when their currency flows are not restricted, and they adopt some sort of internationally accepted accounting standard.

As far as American involvement in other countries, you guys in Europe seemed mighty happy back on this date in 1963 when Kennedy came to Berlin to express his solidarity.

As far as the Ukraine goes that's strictly a EU thing. Russia is getting bent out of shape because the Ukraine wants to start the process of joining the EU. However since the Russia basically keeps Europe from starving with natural gas that is converted into fertilizer, the EU is in no position to say boo to Russia so it's up to the US to try to exert pressure on them. Nothing new, the US has been propping up Europe for the last 60 years.

Personally I'd like to see the US withdraw from Europe (and NATO). It would help us immeasurably from a financial point of view to not pay for the EU's defense any more and in addition I'd get a laugh watching you starve in the dark when Russia shut off your gas and oil.

I don't really think a trial judge would consider this a 'loophole'.

More like a crime.

I think this parallel construction thing is going to blow up big time.