Hunger Games (Pilgrim's Pride + Hillshire Brands)

Food Fight: Pilgrim's Pride Wants Hillshire To Dump Pinnacle Foods And Join Forces

Excerpt:

Is the merger of breakfast giants soon to be the merger that wasn’t? Barely two weeks after Hillshire Brands HSH +21.66%, the maker of Jimmy Dean and Sara Lee foods, announced that it would pay $4.2 billion to acquire Aunt Jemima maker Pinnacle Foods, a third food producer has thrown its hat into the ring. Pilgrim’s Pride, a Colorado-based chicken company, said Tuesday that it wants to acquire Hillshire for more than $6 billion — but only if Hillshire ditches its deal with Pinnacle. Pilgrim’s Pride announced Tuesday morning that it wants to acquire Hillshire Brands for $45 per share in cash, or a total of $6.4 billion. The offer marks a 25% premium to Hillshire’s weighted average price in the ten days following the announcement of the Pinnacle merger. Pilgrim’s also said that it would cover the $163 million break-up fee that Hillshire would owe Pinnacle, and that a Pilgrim’s-Hillshire partnership would have a combined revenue of $12.4 billion and combined EBITDA of $1.4 billion. “We have long respected the Hillshire business and we are confident that Hillshire’s Board and shareholders will find our all-cash premium proposal to be superior to the pending acquisition of Pinnacle,” Pilgrim’s CEO Bill Lovette said in a statement Tuesday morning, calling the deal considerably valuable for both Pilgrim’s and Hillshire shareholders. ”For Hillshire shareholders, our proposal provides a substantial premium, greater certainty and immediate cash value for their shares. For Pilgrim’s, the addition of Hillshire’s portfolio of iconic brands and broad based marketing, innovation and distribution expertise will enhance our position as a market leader.” Among the brands that Hillshire holds: Ball Park, State Fair (both of hot-dog-making fame), Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean and Sara Lee. In a conference call with investors, Lovette said that Pilgrim’s merger with these brands would create a “fully integrated protein leader.” He also said that he believes that the deal could be consummated “very quickly,” as early as the third quarter of 2014.

Comment: Image source. Tempted to sell (but resisting) HSH because it is up by $ 8. But would be short term gain. Meanwhile - on the pros and cons of the Hillshire Pinnacle deal

Detroit's Blight

Blight Cleanup Will Cost a Bankrupt Detroit $850 Million, Study Finds
Excerpt:

Saying that Detroit needed to rid itself of its vast collection of dilapidated houses, junk-filled lots and empty shops, a task force examining the city’s blight said Tuesday that the price tag for the cleanup would be at least $850 million, including the likely demolition of 40,000 buildings scattered around the city.  ...

... The report — perhaps the most elaborate and detailed survey of decay conducted in any large city — found that 84,641 parcels among the city’s more than 377,000 properties are plagued by blight. Of those, some 40,000 buildings or parts of buildings should be torn down, according to the study. “Detroit needs to act aggressively to eradicate the blight in as fast a time as possible,” the report concluded. “Other cities contending with high levels of blight have never addressed more than 7,000 structures a year. At that pace, it would take Detroit more than 11 years to address” its disintegrating buildings and rubble-strewn lots. The report added that “because blight creates more blight,” the city’s deterioration would continue “without swift remedies.” It called for eliminating blight in Detroit within five years.

Comment: Link to report. Opinion: Among other things ... years of Democratic Party leadership

Dividend ETFs

Dividend-yielding stocks are paying off now

Excerpt:

Dividend stocks have been attracting investors for several years because of low yields on fixed-income instruments. Now their appeal is broadening as investors assume defensive postures, accelerating dividend-paying vehicles into outperformance. Dividend payouts provide a downside price cushion, the theory goes, though of course the threat of dividend cuts could exacerbate any decline. But a repeat of that debacle is unlikely, at least this year. Another characteristic of dividend stocks is that they tend to belong to more mature, more established companies that are big enough to weather temporary turbulence. This latest round of investor concern about the pace and strength of global economic recovery has taken growth and small stocks out of favor.

Comment: Of the above, I like PEY. Holdings

"Thrive MSP 2040": Urban Planning Overreach

Turning the Twin Cities Into Sim City - The Metropolitan Council's plans include making sure there is a proper mix of races and incomes in each suburb.

Excerpt:

Here in the Twin Cities, a handful of unelected bureaucrats are gearing up to impose their vision of the ideal society on the nearly three million residents of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro region. According to the urban planners on the city's Metropolitan Council, far too many people live in single family homes, have neighbors with similar incomes and skin color, and contribute to climate change by driving to work. They intend to change all that with a 30-year master plan called "Thrive MSP 2040." The Met Council, as it's known here, was founded in the 1960s to coordinate regional infrastructure—in essence, to make sure that sewers and roads meet up. Over the years, its power to allocate funds and control planning has expanded. Now, under Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton—who appointed all 17 current members—the council intends to play Sim City with residents' lives.

....

The Thrive plan also will pour public funds into mass transit while virtually ignoring congestion relief on highways. The Twin Cities region is projected to have just $52 million available annually from 2014 to 2022 for highway congestion relief, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Yet the Met Council intends to spend at least $1.7 billion on a single light-rail project, with more rail transit to follow. The Thrive plan's most radical element may be to evaluate all future development policies through the "lens" of climate change. Over time, this could give the council a license to dramatically remake the entire metro area. One former member of the Met Council told me that in the not-so-distant future local governments seeking approval of a new sewer line may first have to meet onerous "carbon footprint" dictates. The council apparently views herding people into dense urban conclaves and restricting their use of cars as the key to reducing greenhouse gases. Yet an exhaustive report by McKinsey & Co. in 2007 found that neither driving less nor densification is necessary and that technological advances, such as fuel-economy improvements, can achieve sufficient reductions.

Comment: THRIVE MSP 2040 Official Site

11315 42nd Place N

11315 42nd Place N

Comment: Up the street and around the corner in my neighborhood. I'm hearing that home prices have recovered to 2008 levels and this is evidence of that.

Clover Leaf University

Some Students Wonder About Marijuana-Themed University On Auraria Campus

Excerpt:

There are three flags over the Auraria Campus for the University of Colorado Denver, Metro State University and the Community College of Denver. But there’s another institution there as well called Clover Leaf University. It’s curriculum is marijuana. “As long as they’re conducting lawful activities we don’t have any desire to ban them from the campus, because that’s part of our content neutrality approach,” Blaine Nickeson with the Auraria Higher Education Center said. Clover Leaf University offers courses in cannabis cultivation, infusion and marijuana business. It rents space in the King Center on campus, but that doesn’t sit well with Metro State student Lawrence Valdez. “It doesn’t seem to be the way that a university really operates,” Valdez said. He says he does not have a problem with the subject of marijuana being taught on the campus, but it’s the status of Clover Leaf. “If they are as legitimate of a university as Metro, CCD and the University Of Colorado at Denver, then we should fly the Clover Leaf University flag just as proudly as we fly the other three,” Valdez said.

Comment: Official site. I have a Bachelor's from Metro State University of Denver

Social Security at 62?

Social Security at 62? Let’s Run the Numbers

Excerpt:

By receiving Social Security at 62, you take a haircut on potential future payments of 30 percent compared with a 6.7 percent reduction at 67. For those waiting until age 70, Social Security offers an 8 percent yearly rate of increase in payments (not including cost-of-living adjustments) over taking benefits at 62. That easily beats what you would earn in government bonds these days.

Comment: Image source. Kathee and I have been having these discussions. Both of us are past 62 and we have not opted to receive social security at this time. I expect we will wait until at least 65 for Kathee and 66 for me. Mentioned in the article: maximizemysocialsecurity.com.

US Special Forces for #BringBackOurGirls? Why not?

McCain: Send U.S. Special Forces to Rescue Nigerian Girls

Excerpt:

“If they knew where they were, I certainly would send in U.S. troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country,” McCain told The Daily Beast Tuesday. “I wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan,” he added, referring to the president of Nigeria.

Comments: The "why not?":

• Remember Operation Eagle Claw? 8 dead in the desert! (At least that was our fight). Or Black Hawk Down?
• Violates the principle of engaging only when our nation's interests are truely involved.
• Every special forces engagement not only risks US personnel .. .but civilians 

Who should?

• Nigerian forces
• Or Nigerian home grown vigilantes

4283 Evergreen Lane N

Edina Reality: 4283 Evergreen Lane N

Comments: The only house in our neighborhood for sale. Very nice curb appeal and nice interior appointments

Groundbreaking for Downtown East

Wells Fargo and Ryan break ground on Downtown East

Excerpt:

Ryan Cos. US Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Gov. Mark Dayton and the city of Minneapolis held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday in Minneapolis to kick off construction of the $400 million Downtown East development. The bank, which will move about 5,000 employees into 1.1 million square feet of office space in the 5-block urban development, demonstrated its commitment to Minneapolis with this project, said Wells Fargo Chairman, President and CEO John Stumpf. "This is not just any other place. This is not just any other building. This is not just any other community. This is Minneapolis. This is where my heart is. This is where our heart is," Stumpf told the crowd of a few hundred people gathered in a tent on part of the site. Other dignitaries at the event included Dayton, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Ryan Cos. CEO and President Pat Ryan.

Comment: We were downtown today but I was at the Northern Operations Center. I'm not sure where Kathee was today (she rode in with me). I think she was at the Tower. We are not likely to move offices here because we are likely to be retired before its opening. More from the Star Tribune. Wiki on Downtown East neighborhood. Ryan Cos project page.

Michael Sam is no Jackie Robinson

Michael Sam became the first openly gay player to be drafted by the National Football League Saturday.

Excerpt:

Michael Sam, the first openly gay player ever to enter the National Football League draft, was taken by the St. Louis Rams with the 249th pick of the draft Saturday, proving precisely nothing about the state of homophobia in professional football. Only one thing can be said with certainty: By taking Sam with the eighth-to-last pick of the seven-round draft, the St. Louis Rams saved the NFL a small public-relations nightmare.

Comment: To make "crossing the gay barrier" the same as "crossing the color barrier" mocks the civil rights movement! To be assured, there have been gay NFL players. There also have been adulterous NFL players. Just saying!

Douwe Egberts rising

Mondelez and Dutch Firm Aim to Create a Coffee Powerhouse

Excerpt:

Mondelez International, the owner of Cadbury chocolate and Chips Ahoy cookies, is carving out its coffee business to combine it in a joint venture with a Dutch company to form a global coffee seller with more than $7 billion in annual revenue. The joint venture will join Mondelez International’s coffee portfolio with D.E Master Blenders 1753 of Amsterdam, giving the combined company control of coffee brands including Gevalia, Tassimo, Senso and, outside of the United States, Maxwell House. The new company will be called Jacobs Douwe Egberts and will be based in the Netherlands. After the combination, Mondelez International, which was spun out of Kraft Foods in 2012 and is based in Deerfield, Ill., will receive about $5 billion in cash and a 49 percent equity stake in the joint venture. “Jacobs Douwe Egberts will leverage the rich histories of both companies, combining our complementary geographic footprints, portfolios of iconic brands and innovative technologies to offer more people around the world more access to high-quality coffee and allowing the company to capitalize on the significant growth opportunities in a highly attractive market,” Pierre Laubies, the D.E Master Blenders chief executive and prospective C.E.O. of the combined company, said in a statement.

More: Coffee Merger to be financed with $10 billion of debt

Comments: A little history. Sara Lee spun off into two companies: Hillshire Branks (see previous post) and Douwe Egberts back in 2012.

The Hillshire / Pinnacle Foods deal

Hillshire Brands to Buy Pinnacle Foods for $4.3 Billion
Excerpt:

Hillshire Brands Co. agreed to buy Pinnacle Foods Inc. for $4.3 billion in a bet that mixing hot dogs and frozen cakes with pickles, syrup and salad dressing will add up to a more appetizing business. The deal, announced on Monday, would create a company with more than $6 billion in annual revenue and a broad array of brands including Hillshire's namesake lunch meats, Jimmy Dean sausages, Ball Park hot dogs, and Sara Lee frozen desserts and Pinnacle's Vlasic pickles, Wish-Bone salad dressings, Birds Eye frozen vegetables and Log Cabin syrup. Pinnacle, which is majority owned by investment firm Blackstone Group L.P., estimates 85% of U.S. consumers buy at least one of its products.

The Pinnacle deal, expected to close by September, is the biggest for Hillshire since the company, formerly known as Sara Lee Corp., spun off its coffee and tea business in 2012 to focus more on U.S. food sales, renaming itself in the process. Hillshire, valued at about $4.5 billion before the new deal's announcement, plans to buy a company nearly as large as itself, with Pinnacle valued at $3.6 billion at Friday's close. The companies said the deal valued Pinnacle at $36.02 a share based on Hillshire's average closing price before the deal. That would be an 18% premium over Pinnacle's closing price Friday. Pinnacle shareholders will receive $18 in cash and a half share in Hillshire for each Pinnacle share. The companies said the total value of the transaction, including Pinnacle's debt, is about $6.6 billion.

Comment: Synergies

Mother's 94th Birthday

Mom turned 94 on Friday. She looks terrific and is doing well. We were in Texas at my Sister's to celebrate

On Pro-Wrestling

The great Aloysius Martin "Lou" Thesz

Don't judge my parents but I used to watch pro-wrestling back when I was a kid in the '50s

No one should be surprised ... but today's pro-wrestling is scripted (err ... fixed).

On the 4% rule

Is the 4 Percent Rule Still Relevant for Retirees?

Excerpt:

It's useful to know that initially withdrawing 4 percent of your retirement savings would allow most people to avoid running out of money through all kinds of historical scenarios. But with bond and stock returns now excepted to be lower than historical averages, it's prudent to shine the spotlight on the safe withdrawal rule to make sure retirees are still being conservative by withdrawing 4 percent of assets. Perhaps the safe number is now 3.5 or 2.8 percent.

Comment: I think we are going to start with a 3% rule and see how that goes.

Straight talk on legalized weed from "a roly-poly former guerrilla"

Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law 'fiction'
Excerpt:

"We don't go along with the idea that marijuana is benign, poetic and surrounded by virtues. No addiction is good," he said. "We aren't going to promote smokefests, bohemianism, all this stuff they try to pass off as innocuous when it isn't. They'll label us old reactionaries. But this isn't a policy that seeks to expand marijuana consumption. What it aims to do is keep it all within reason, and not allow it to become an illness."

Uruguay plans to create clones of approved marijuana plants, so that police can test weed possessed by licensed users and ensure that it's bona fide. Possession of marijuana lacking the genetic markers of approved plants will be criminally punished. Unlike Colorado, which licenses marijuana sellers and producers but allows any adult to buy up to 28 grams at a time, Uruguay will license consumers as well, and limit their purchases to 10 grams a week.

"It's a complete fiction what they do in Colorado," Mujica said. "There are places where there are forms already filled out with a doctor's signature. So you go, you say that you need marijuana because your ear hurts, they fill out the form, you prescribe it yourself and with the signature of a doctor. This is brutal hypocrisy."

Mujica spoke with a team of AP journalists after a quick ride in his Volkswagen Beetle with his wife, Sen. Lucia Topolansky, to the butcher's to buy some meat for dinner. He later answered questions in his garden, surrounded by cats and dogs including a greyhound that he recently took on after someone abandoned it at the door of his farm, where he lives and grows flowers for sale.

Comment: The Wiki on José Mujica is interesting

The Wall

A little history most people will never know.

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 57 years since the firstcasualty.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ..

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ...

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school.

8 Women are on the Wall
, Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest . And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam . In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.


The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.

Comment: More information here and here. Above from a FaceBook post by John Swol (Vietnam Vet)

Papa Murphy's IPO ... as FRSH

'Take-and-bake': Will investors buy Papa Murphy's story?

Excerpt:

Papa Murphy's, which is set to go public this week, isn't your garden-variety pizza shop. It operates and franchises restaurants built to sell pizzas that are, as would be expected, made in the store. But then its work ends. That's because Papa Murphy's is about "take and bake" -- customers buy at the counter and then handle the baking at home. It doesn't have any ovens. While that's the most obvious differentiator from Domino's (DPZ), Pizza Hut and most others, the Vancouver, Wash.-based company likely would prefer to focus on another aspect of its food: the "fresh" factor. Papa Murphy's is so serious about this that its ticker symbol is going to be FRSH. If Papa Murphy's ultimately sells 6.7 million shares at $13, the high end of the projected range, it would raise about $87 million. Including that float, around 17 million shares will be outstanding after the IPO.

Comment: Love their pizza (a Friday night tradition for us). I don't do IPO's. After the excitement passes and if the company proves profitable AND pays a dividend ... then in my radar. Image source

Happy Birthday - BASIC

Remembering BASIC on its 50th birthday

Excerpt:

Fifty years ago on this very day, however, it was the name given to a new computer-programming language born in a Dartmouth College basement. Devised initially by a group of the school's undergraduates and professors, BASIC's initial academic purpose was simple: to enable time-sharing on Dartmouth computers with an easy-to-learn, English-based language

Comment: My BASIC accomplishments

• Began programming in BASIC on an Apple ][ at the Christian Day School of our church. Because I used it too much was basically (no pun intended) kicked off it. So I bought my own TRS-80 Model 3.  I enrolled in a night class to enhance my BASIC programming skills. After 1 class, it was obvious to me that I was already an advanced programmer
• After buying a 5 meg hard drive for the TRS-80, I had a database of our membership. All written in BASIC. A true hierarchical database with family records and children records. 
• I had an assembler subroutine that I found in a magazine. It was my sort subroutine. I really didn't understand the code but it worked like a champ.
• I also developed a expense program that I used to keep track of all of my ministry expenses: mileage, books, meals, et cetera. I advertised this program in a magazine and sold ... ready for this ... 1 copy!
• I also had an accounting program that I developed to keep track of our state Baptist association income and expenses. At any time I could simply print out: income and expenses, a check registry, and a balance sheet. (I was the treasurer of our state association). I also used this same application for our home owners' association (I was the treasurer there as well.)

A Moral Compass?

How Does a Compass Work

Comment: A discussion with a co-worker this week about "a moral compass". I observed at my Toastmaster's speech on "A Christian Response to Racism" that one could say "2 + 2 = 5" as much as he likes but it is error every time. The anti-racism call is based on the dignity of human kind. And that dignity is based on men being created in the image and likeness of God. It is based on an absolute truth. "A compass works by detecting the Earth’s natural magnetic fields. The Earth has an iron core that is part liquid and part solid crystal due to gravitational pressure". A moral compass works by the absolutes of the moral law of God. Without accepting the moral law of God, there is no absolute moral compass.

Minnesota's “Fertile Crescent” and Bonding Fairness

Suburbs, including wealthy west, want more state bonding money

 Excerpt:

Lawmakers like to joke that there’s a “Fertile Crescent” in Minnesota, starting in Bloomington and working up through wealthy western Twin Cities suburbs such as Edina, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Plymouth and Maple Grove. Those cities are home to some of the state’s largest companies and wealthiest individuals that pump most of the income and sales taxes that fill the state’s coffers. However, legislators all around the suburban ring say they don’t get much back from the state when the bonding bill is debated. “The general feeling is that the suburbs are rich, especially the western suburbs, so we aren’t going to give them any more than we have to,” Rep. Ron Erhardt, DFL-Edina, said. For all lawmakers, bonding projects are a way to bring jobs and development directly to their districts. In election years, ribbon-cutting ceremonies for major construction projects can be even more important, especially in the politically volatile ‘burbs, which often swing back and forth with national political winds.

The Problem:

... roughly a quarter of the total House bonding bill — $213 million of $850 million — is spending for the suburbs. In comparison, 64 percent of state's tax base and 66 percent of its income tax revenue comes from the seven-county metro area (including Minneapolis and St. Paul), according to the state Revenue Department.

Comments: The City of Plymouth itself gets no funds from the state (I forgot what those funds are called). I don't care about the SouthWest light rail line (let 'em take a bus!). But I would like to see I-494 expanded with an additional lane through Plymouth.

Will companies dump health benefits?

Thanks to Obamacare, more companies are likely to dump health benefits

Excerpt:

S&P predicts that companies will do the math and find it irresistible to move more and more of their workers off company-run plans and into the exchanges established under Obamacare, as the ACA is known. Companies with more than 50 workers will have to pay a penalty if they don’t offer insurance, but it could still be cheaper when factoring in the savings on healthcare; that’s because insurance costs have skyrocketed during the last 20 years, making healthcare one of the costs companies find most difficult to control. The rising and unpredictable nature of healthcare costs led AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to make his unfortunate comment about "distressed babies" earlier this year. Armstrong took a lot of heat and later apologized, but many CEOs expresss similar frustrations (usually privately). Health Benefits Phased Out The migration away from employer-based coverage would probably occur in phases. Companies might start by moving part-timers and new hires off their plans, since they tend to get paid less than other workers and would be more likely to qualify for subsidies under the exchanges. Established employees might be the last to lose employer-based coverage, and companies would still be free to offer healthcare benefits as they choose. Such moves would probably be controversial at first, given that just about everything related to Obamacare is controversial. And most companies will probably be reluctant to make big changes likely to produce negative headlines. “However, once a few notable companies start to depart from their traditional approach to health care benefits, it's likely that a substantial number of firms could quickly follow suit,” S&P Capital predicts. S&P likens this change to the evolution away from defined-benefit pension plans toward employee-managed 401(k) plans and IRAs. It would put more burden on individuals to choose a plan from among dozens that might be offered. Out-of-pocket costs could rise, since employers today essentially subsidize premiums at many companies. Companies could offer stipends meant to cover some or all of the premium for workers who buy coverage on an exchange, just as many companies make contributions to workers’ 401(k) plans. Still, some people undoubtedly would go without insurance, just as many workers who ought to save for retirement don’t.

Comment: Likely!

MLK niece: Black people are murdering themselves

Dr. Alveda King tells students of modern day black genocide

Excerpt:

My grandfather, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., once said, “No one is going to kill a child of mine.” Tragically, two of his grandchildren had already been aborted when he saved the life of his next great-grandson with this statement. His son, King once said, “The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.” How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children? Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. The mother decides his or her fate.

Comment: Abortion violates the 6th commandment: "Thou shalt not murder" (Exodus 20:13). More on (and image source): Alveda King