Make no mistake about this plan to cut veterans benefits is an ill disguised attempt to make a military career unattractive. Bullshit you say. Well I'm here to tell you that they never wanted you to stay beyond about 10 years. My last job in the navy was as Force Career Counselor , Submarines Atlantic. At a meeting in late 67 or early 68 at a meeting in DC with the mucky muks of the Navy we were pushing for more to offer 2nd reenlistment's . It was felt by all of us Force Counselors that we were getting nowhere, so we kept pushing and finally managed to anger the Admiral running the show when he made this statement "We are not going to offer them anything , because we want them to get out at the 10 year mark". We were stunned.
Now I see not much has changed except how they are going to go about it. This select panel has come up with a plan. Here is what they are proposing.
Putting vets into a 401K retirement plan instead of getting 50% of your pay after 20 years you would get about 40% of that amount. I can see the troops jumping for joy over this bene. On top of that they want to put the vets into a private health care system similar to Fed employees, this would do away with Tricare the current health care plan. They argue that this plan is so good that us vets abuse it, which is another case of bullshit. If these two items are not enough, they also suggest cutting funds to commissary stores, cutting military food stamp programs and other sleezy cuts that will remain unmentioned. I believe we need to focus on the big items named above.
A little disclosure is in order here, I am a retired Chief Petty Officer USNR-R , which means I am retired reserve.. I did 11.5 years active and 16 in the reserves.. Therefore I do draw a pension and I also am Tricare eligible , but I only use Tricare to pick up my co-pay on drugs.
As mentioned above the military has never wanted to many to stay for a career , they wanted your services when you were young, dumb and productive. They are missing something that is very important to a youngster entering in a service, most will or are already married , placing more burdens on a married troop will decrease the effectiveness of that troop. During long patrols at sea on a sub , the underlying thought in your mind at all times "How is my family doing" In my case there were no communications with home for 70 days or so. If we had to worry that our families have enough to eat, or are they getting the health care they need. A preoccupied mind does not perform at his peak, the changes proposed would accomplish the exact opposite of what they want.
PAY ATTENTION TO SEE IF THIS COMES UP AS A BILL THEN FIGHT LIKE HELL TO DEFEAT IT.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
STAND WITH THE HERD OR IN THE BREADLINE?
That is the choice facing scholars in all professions. Tout the company line or loose your job, your grant, or your influence. Ask any journalist why he is on the bread line, most will tell you they wouldn't or couldn't spout the propaganda posing as news.
For starters lets talk about my favorite whipping boy, government economic statistics, 5% unemployment , think again.
Unemployment has hung in the hig 20's since 2008, rising from 20% to a 3 year high of 23% . A lot of the leading economists and the government spout the 5% number while anybody paying attention knows they are lying.
Worse than that myth , the one on we have replace all the jobs lost during the downturn, that may be so but what they don't tell you most were low wage, or part time, and damn few have benefits.
From time to time you find some brave soul to state the truth and they will tell you it cost them dearly. Richard Wolff is one who sheds light on the truth, but of course he is a socialist so he is not taken seriously by his peers, shame on them.
The theory applies to lots of areas that the MSM airs as truth when just a little research shows you they are just spouting propaganda. The best current example of this is the mess in Ukraine, we are led to believe that it is Russian aggression at work. Lie after lie has been exposed on this blog in the last month or so, proving that the whole Ukraine thing was instigated by the US to starT the campaign to weaken Russia and force it to splinter into manageable small states. We forced the ouster a elected president and backed a Nazi to be president.
Being outmaneuvered by Putin placing the US in the difficult position of having more EU countries considering joining the Bric alliance and using their economic union to finance their needs beating the stranglehold the IMF has placed on them. Many EU countries have not placed the sanctions on Russia that the US has put in place.
Greece is the first to give the IMF the finger refusing to pay the thieves holding their derivative laden debt. The IMF is playing hard ball but Greece might have a good fast ball and turn to the BRIC alliance to finance them. Others have not placed sanctions and some others are considering dropping out of the EU and the IMF, getting rid of the austerity blanket .
This blog is getting way too long ,sorry , but their is so much propaganda out there it's hard to know when to stop. I implore you to start fact checking the MSM throws your way. Just perhaps if we are all better informed we can stop this nonsense. Please remember the bullshit that got us in to the war with Iraq, pure lies.
We are being fed the same kind of crap about Russia and the Ukraine.
For more info: here and from the BBC, more from BBC. and one more HERE
For starters lets talk about my favorite whipping boy, government economic statistics, 5% unemployment , think again.
Worse than that myth , the one on we have replace all the jobs lost during the downturn, that may be so but what they don't tell you most were low wage, or part time, and damn few have benefits.
From time to time you find some brave soul to state the truth and they will tell you it cost them dearly. Richard Wolff is one who sheds light on the truth, but of course he is a socialist so he is not taken seriously by his peers, shame on them.
The theory applies to lots of areas that the MSM airs as truth when just a little research shows you they are just spouting propaganda. The best current example of this is the mess in Ukraine, we are led to believe that it is Russian aggression at work. Lie after lie has been exposed on this blog in the last month or so, proving that the whole Ukraine thing was instigated by the US to starT the campaign to weaken Russia and force it to splinter into manageable small states. We forced the ouster a elected president and backed a Nazi to be president.
Being outmaneuvered by Putin placing the US in the difficult position of having more EU countries considering joining the Bric alliance and using their economic union to finance their needs beating the stranglehold the IMF has placed on them. Many EU countries have not placed the sanctions on Russia that the US has put in place.
Greece is the first to give the IMF the finger refusing to pay the thieves holding their derivative laden debt. The IMF is playing hard ball but Greece might have a good fast ball and turn to the BRIC alliance to finance them. Others have not placed sanctions and some others are considering dropping out of the EU and the IMF, getting rid of the austerity blanket .
This blog is getting way too long ,sorry , but their is so much propaganda out there it's hard to know when to stop. I implore you to start fact checking the MSM throws your way. Just perhaps if we are all better informed we can stop this nonsense. Please remember the bullshit that got us in to the war with Iraq, pure lies.
We are being fed the same kind of crap about Russia and the Ukraine.
For more info: here and from the BBC, more from BBC. and one more HERE
Thursday, January 29, 2015
SO YOU DON'T BELIEVE MAN IS AFFECTING CLIMATE CHANGE
Well just take a look at this set of graphs and ask yourself a question. Is their something different about the last rise in temp or co2 levels. Please notice the huge spike in co2 that is occurring now, this has never happened in 100's and 1000's of years. Only man can have caused this to happen.
THE EVIL TWIN OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Now I will admit if you don't want to believe in man made climate change ,sometimes you to take have to take the blinders off and look around you. Strange things are happening in the oceans, coral reefs are dying, hard shelled critters are in trouble , strange die offs of star fish and on and on.
GLACIER VOLUME OVER TIME
On top of the above environmental changes we have man's interference with Mother's Natures plan. We are filling the oceans with miles and miles of our plastic wastes. At the same time we have over fished the oceans to the point that 90% of most species are gone. While methods of fish harvest have changed in favor of man the number of boats chasing a decreasing number of fish the absence of which will also have effects on ocean health.
Now I know the deniers out there (mostly republicans) don't believe in man's contribution to the destruction of the planet based on god knows what. Some believe they hold those beliefs because God controls what happens and he'll be coming soon so it doesn't matter if we destroy the earth. Giving them their beliefs shouldn't keep one from acknowledging that the change is happening and we can argue who is to blame. As long as we do what we can to stop the change..
RATIONING MEDICARE
Earlier this month the Obama administration met with medical providers namely insurance companies to announce a new plan to ration services given to Medicare patients. The plan will ration doctors , hospital, and drugs given to these patients.
Strangely not one word of this has been seen in the conventional press and once again had to rely on the Net to provide the information.
Being an old couple , my wife and I have enjoyed having three insurance plans and have an almost 0 medical expenses. Now I have to worry how this change will affect us. I already have seen how this works with private health insurances limiting the services a doctor can provide. One example I know of an older man needed a hip replacement , there were several surgeons locally that could do the work but the insurance company insisted that their the only surgeon on their list be used. The guy had a very bad track record. Even though my doc fought hard he lost.. Fortunately the group he belonged to quit servicing those companies.
With mergers taken place throughout health services they become bigger bullies with each merger. A personal example was with medications I have taken for many years, of course cheaper drugs became available and they wanted me to switch, I would try but had reactions to these new drugs and had to fight to go back to my old meds. The story they always gave me that these new meds were the same that didn't sound logical because if they were why the bad reaction. A little research showed they in fact were marginally different , but that little change made the difference. Never the less a few times each year they would subsist generic drugs. So the annual fight always got the drugs back. Point being that under the type system these ACO's will provide will be less than we have not.
Not a surprise for Obama to put this into play and give the repubicans another win. This is the door to killing Medicare in the end , bit by bit. My experience is that doctors are not going to like this one bit, essentially this shifts medical decisions to outside forces that tie the doctors hands.
At this writing I don't have a lot of info as I just found our about this today. One of the things mentioned is to monitor hospitals for readmitting patients within a 30 day period. Pretend your a hospital who now gets rid of patients as quick as they can, if they get punished for having to readmit within the month will only serve for longer hospital stays and a increase in cost.
It is already hard enough to find a good doctor that takes Medicare (not all do) this ACO we know nothing about will make that harder.
MEDICARE WORKS JUST LIKE IT IS- SCRAPE A FEW BUCKS FROM DEFENSE AND PAY FOR IT. HERE'S THE LINK TO THE STORY
HERE'S THE LINK TO THE STORY
Strangely not one word of this has been seen in the conventional press and once again had to rely on the Net to provide the information.
Being an old couple , my wife and I have enjoyed having three insurance plans and have an almost 0 medical expenses. Now I have to worry how this change will affect us. I already have seen how this works with private health insurances limiting the services a doctor can provide. One example I know of an older man needed a hip replacement , there were several surgeons locally that could do the work but the insurance company insisted that their the only surgeon on their list be used. The guy had a very bad track record. Even though my doc fought hard he lost.. Fortunately the group he belonged to quit servicing those companies.
With mergers taken place throughout health services they become bigger bullies with each merger. A personal example was with medications I have taken for many years, of course cheaper drugs became available and they wanted me to switch, I would try but had reactions to these new drugs and had to fight to go back to my old meds. The story they always gave me that these new meds were the same that didn't sound logical because if they were why the bad reaction. A little research showed they in fact were marginally different , but that little change made the difference. Never the less a few times each year they would subsist generic drugs. So the annual fight always got the drugs back. Point being that under the type system these ACO's will provide will be less than we have not.
Not a surprise for Obama to put this into play and give the repubicans another win. This is the door to killing Medicare in the end , bit by bit. My experience is that doctors are not going to like this one bit, essentially this shifts medical decisions to outside forces that tie the doctors hands.
At this writing I don't have a lot of info as I just found our about this today. One of the things mentioned is to monitor hospitals for readmitting patients within a 30 day period. Pretend your a hospital who now gets rid of patients as quick as they can, if they get punished for having to readmit within the month will only serve for longer hospital stays and a increase in cost.
It is already hard enough to find a good doctor that takes Medicare (not all do) this ACO we know nothing about will make that harder.
MEDICARE WORKS JUST LIKE IT IS- SCRAPE A FEW BUCKS FROM DEFENSE AND PAY FOR IT. HERE'S THE LINK TO THE STORY
HERE'S THE LINK TO THE STORY
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA A BIG MISTAKE
While most of the US is supporting the sanctions on Russia , they need to take a time out and see how they are going to affect our PIVOT TO ASIA.
First you need to understand what the Pivot to Asia was meant to do. It was an effort to control the sea lanes to be able to block China's access to energy supplies. If you remember what we did to Japan to get them to go to war against us. We cut off the oil supplies to Japan. That did the trick they attacked us.
So here we go again, preparing to cut off energy to China to limit their world reach. Well hello Dummies , this brought China and Russia to sign huge deals for oil and gas, started them selling oil for other than dollars. They formed what is now called the BRIC economic group to counter the IMF.
While the sanctions undoubtedly have an effect on Russia , the people seem to still be behind Putin.
The unsought problems the sanctions have caused , the current unstable EU. Italy for instance have lost 50% of their exports and are hurting to begin with. They don't need more problems causeed by the US an an attempt to bankrupt Russia.
There are other deals being cut between Russia and China giving China the new Russian anti missile systems, the building of a high speed rain system from Russia to China (chins is providing the cash)
with other deals in the works.
Other things not being talked about at all may in fact be more important than the above. Russia with huge stacks of American dollars (that are high at the moment) are buying Gold and their own Rubles (at an all time low) getting the maximum bang for their bucks. The sanctions have a big new oil deal with Exxon that will now be done by more friendly folks.
When all the above is added up you have to be a math wizard to believe this is a good deal for anybody. It could in fact be the straw that broke the camels back. You see Sweden bailing out the the Euro which will most likely bring others to the same conclusion. The EU was shaky before this event it might be the end.
This sanction business which our government has said don't work (Cuba) we place them on Russia what will make this time different , nothing they will fail too , hurting many who will not forget who brought the pain.
First you need to understand what the Pivot to Asia was meant to do. It was an effort to control the sea lanes to be able to block China's access to energy supplies. If you remember what we did to Japan to get them to go to war against us. We cut off the oil supplies to Japan. That did the trick they attacked us.
So here we go again, preparing to cut off energy to China to limit their world reach. Well hello Dummies , this brought China and Russia to sign huge deals for oil and gas, started them selling oil for other than dollars. They formed what is now called the BRIC economic group to counter the IMF.
While the sanctions undoubtedly have an effect on Russia , the people seem to still be behind Putin.
The unsought problems the sanctions have caused , the current unstable EU. Italy for instance have lost 50% of their exports and are hurting to begin with. They don't need more problems causeed by the US an an attempt to bankrupt Russia.
There are other deals being cut between Russia and China giving China the new Russian anti missile systems, the building of a high speed rain system from Russia to China (chins is providing the cash)
with other deals in the works.
Other things not being talked about at all may in fact be more important than the above. Russia with huge stacks of American dollars (that are high at the moment) are buying Gold and their own Rubles (at an all time low) getting the maximum bang for their bucks. The sanctions have a big new oil deal with Exxon that will now be done by more friendly folks.
When all the above is added up you have to be a math wizard to believe this is a good deal for anybody. It could in fact be the straw that broke the camels back. You see Sweden bailing out the the Euro which will most likely bring others to the same conclusion. The EU was shaky before this event it might be the end.
This sanction business which our government has said don't work (Cuba) we place them on Russia what will make this time different , nothing they will fail too , hurting many who will not forget who brought the pain.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
This week the History Channel presented a 3 part mini series depicting the beginning of the American Revolution. It presented a view of the event not usually seen in the history books. It pointed out just how the bravery of just one man brought about the insurrection. Sam Adams against great odds kept organizing and eventually at Independence Hall in Pennsylvania brought about the Declaration of Independence.
It showed the bravery of the colonists thru defeat after defeat they kept going toward their goal of a new nation. The KOCH brother have pledged 900 million dollars to the 2016 campaign. The brothers coupled with other right wing crazies are out to buy their way with brute cash.
While watching the series I got to thinking that those colonists were rebelling the oppression of the king who taxed them, usurped their rights. It came quite naturally to compare those days to today. Inch by inch we are loosing rights not taken by a king but taken by corporations buying their way thru the purchasing of politicians to grease their way to new riches.
A few very rich people have been purchasing power for decades but 2016 is shaping up to be the biggest buy off in history of our country. By providing masses of money they will control the media which in turn will control how they will vote with 30 second tv adds that will persuade us to vote with them. I hold that the Koch brothers can be compared to the King of England.
So if one man could start our great revolution (Sam Adams) could one man bring about the second American Revolution.. We have seen groups right and left pop up in the recent past and fade into the sunset ,in my opinion they did not succeed from the lack of a powerful leader. I'm waiting.
It showed the bravery of the colonists thru defeat after defeat they kept going toward their goal of a new nation. The KOCH brother have pledged 900 million dollars to the 2016 campaign. The brothers coupled with other right wing crazies are out to buy their way with brute cash.
While watching the series I got to thinking that those colonists were rebelling the oppression of the king who taxed them, usurped their rights. It came quite naturally to compare those days to today. Inch by inch we are loosing rights not taken by a king but taken by corporations buying their way thru the purchasing of politicians to grease their way to new riches.
A few very rich people have been purchasing power for decades but 2016 is shaping up to be the biggest buy off in history of our country. By providing masses of money they will control the media which in turn will control how they will vote with 30 second tv adds that will persuade us to vote with them. I hold that the Koch brothers can be compared to the King of England.
So if one man could start our great revolution (Sam Adams) could one man bring about the second American Revolution.. We have seen groups right and left pop up in the recent past and fade into the sunset ,in my opinion they did not succeed from the lack of a powerful leader. I'm waiting.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
WHEN HALF IS NOT ENOUGHdi
Since I became aware of the fact that there were wealthy people in the world, and that they did not share their well being very well, that I could live with their abundance of money and things as long as they let me have a comfortable life.. That consisting of a home, enough food, enough money to live a comfortable life, education for out kids, and a few toys along the way.
All was well and good until 1980 and The Regan revolution. Trickle down economics was the trick phrase used to disguise the raping of the middle class. It's about that time I became interested in economics and commenced a study of how things worked in the real world. The gurus of the day spun a fairy tale that convinced many that the trickle down thing would make them rich. Our only problem was we thought the them was us. WRONG
In a recent report by OXFAM 80 people own more than the bottom 50% and the gap is widening every year. This number wakes you up to understand trickle down meant that we were getting pissed on from those above us.
Which brings to ask the question "WHAT IS ENOUGH"? Apparently there is no upper limit of their greed, which is shown by the massive amounts of money they spend to craft legislation that makes them richer. The amount of money flowing into our political system has so corrupted the country that one can not see a way to change anything.
So where do these rich folk spend their money?
All was well and good until 1980 and The Regan revolution. Trickle down economics was the trick phrase used to disguise the raping of the middle class. It's about that time I became interested in economics and commenced a study of how things worked in the real world. The gurus of the day spun a fairy tale that convinced many that the trickle down thing would make them rich. Our only problem was we thought the them was us. WRONG
In a recent report by OXFAM 80 people own more than the bottom 50% and the gap is widening every year. This number wakes you up to understand trickle down meant that we were getting pissed on from those above us.
Which brings to ask the question "WHAT IS ENOUGH"? Apparently there is no upper limit of their greed, which is shown by the massive amounts of money they spend to craft legislation that makes them richer. The amount of money flowing into our political system has so corrupted the country that one can not see a way to change anything.
So where do these rich folk spend their money?
BELOW IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE
The above boat is his fifth, a poor Russian billionaire. I wonder if he would give me his castoffs??
I know you are wondering who the top rich folk are: HERE'S THE LIST OF TOP 100
I have no problem with them being rich, I do have problem with them using that wealth to keep the rest of us from having a decent life. I will list several of these folk understanding therre are many others in the same boat but these have been the most obvious: The Koch Brothers, The Walton family, Sheldon Adelson among the most aggressive in attacking the middle class.
The perplexing part of their campaign is the drive to destroy unions, pensions, health benefits , retirement plans, wages , social services, infrastructure funds, destruction of the constitutional rights that have existed for a very long time.
What troubles me the most in all this, they are not satisfied yet and continue to fund the destruction o of jobs of the worker bees. There are projections that say half the jobs that exist today will not exist 10 years from now. We already have at least 1 million souls without work. Nowhere is there talk of what those without work will do to survive. They already don't want to fund the social services in place today. In fact they are actively supporting drives to dismantle Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid.
So here we sit in 2015 wondering what the hell will become of us the people of the United
States in the future. It looks pretty bleak from here. I wish I could see a White Knight riding to our rescue but I don't. The daydream of a leisure society has not come to pass and probably never will surface.
One can hope that somehow a new movement will surface that gets strong enough to bring about change. See have seen glimmering of a few , The Tea Party, The Occupy movement but they have sputtered out of being a force to just becoming a memory. Both suffered from not having a leader strong enough to bring about a lasting change. Will someone step forward , could that someone be you??
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