The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank spent a night there (on Jeff Bezos’s tab) and in his room ($856 plus tax) he found one all-American product: a “small package of milk-chocolate Trump gold bullion ($25).” Here was his description of what the room otherwise contained: “a Trump logo bathmat and towels from India, bone china from Japan, Italian cutlery and tiles, two telephones from Malaysia, a Swiss refrigerator, German coffee cups, Trump soaps and lotions from Canada and, from China, all four lamps, the coffee machine, the bathroom scale, the valet stand, and the shower cap.” Milbank adds, “The hotel’s managing director is from France. Most hotel workers I met during my stay had Caribbean or African accents.”
This is copied from a Tom Dispatch but gives you an idea of how Trump will make America Great again.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
IT'S TIME TO LOWER THE HAMMER
Drug and health insurance costs year to year are rising rapidly, pricing lots of folks out of the drugs and or health insurance we all need. These crooks have shown total disregard for the welfare of those they are supposed to serve.
We spend twice as much for healthcare as other industrialized countries and get less better care then most. A family of four in the US spend 23,215 annual insurance costs. 1 in 3 have difficulty paying their medical bills and it is the single biggest cause of bankruptcies. It's time to take action.
It would appear by all economics that can be applied to health insurance costs that going to a single payer system would save us tons of money.. How much money? Well that is a hot topic and you will see all kinds of outcomes predicted good and bad. What's the truth? I will attempt to give you some facts to apply to the problem.
We spend 3.1 trillion dollars in annual heath care costs. Estimates of how much we would save or how much it would cost to implement this plan wonder all over the place. Multiple arguments surface on why we can't do this but they are mostly without fact. So I will use just one set as an example to help you decide.
Some estimates of savings run as high as 591 billion a year. (476 billion of that is admin costs. There are all sorts of numbers out there pro and con but the bottom line is quite easily figured out for us common folk. From a high of $23,000 a yr for a family of four to nothing for the 41 million people who have no insurance. A side note many of us with Cadillac high plans don't have eye or dental coverage and if you have had dental work lately you know they can break your bank without breaking a sweat.
So how do we pay for this transition ?
Here's how!
For those making less than $53000 or less will pay $900/yr
$100,00 will pay $6000/yr
$200,00 will pay $1200/yr
In the article most of these numbers came from the costs above are all paid by the employee. I think it would be fair to have the employer pay half that cost , most likely a huge savings for them too.
There is a big problem in switching to single payer ,"What do you do with all the insurance company workers. Some would be working for the government, some would seek other employment and some would have to be retrained. Hardly a reason to not go to single payer. Nobody was concerned when our corporations shipped jobs overseas. I don't know how many insurance company employees are now actually overseas jobs but you can bet a bunch.
Now for the big argument " I DON'T WANT GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN MY HEALTH CARE" . The government is already involved in Medicare and there are few complaints of quality of care provided. I ask you to ask yourself a simple question, what does my health insurances compny really do. Quite simple they simply pay the bills at some highly reduced rate than you or I would pay without insurance, they provide no health care, and in actual practice they interfere with the quality of care. Ask most doctors how insurance companies cost them time and money and force less care than the doctor wants to use.
Here's a little personal opinion on quality of care using Medicare for the last 15 years. I have never had a procedure denied or even questioned. If Medicare covered dental and eyes I would have no worries over health care. So do your homework. And if you live in Ca look up prop 61 on the ballot this November that would limit drug costs to no more than paid by the VA. A huge savings estimated at saving Californians 9 billion a year.
We spend twice as much for healthcare as other industrialized countries and get less better care then most. A family of four in the US spend 23,215 annual insurance costs. 1 in 3 have difficulty paying their medical bills and it is the single biggest cause of bankruptcies. It's time to take action.
It would appear by all economics that can be applied to health insurance costs that going to a single payer system would save us tons of money.. How much money? Well that is a hot topic and you will see all kinds of outcomes predicted good and bad. What's the truth? I will attempt to give you some facts to apply to the problem.
We spend 3.1 trillion dollars in annual heath care costs. Estimates of how much we would save or how much it would cost to implement this plan wonder all over the place. Multiple arguments surface on why we can't do this but they are mostly without fact. So I will use just one set as an example to help you decide.
Some estimates of savings run as high as 591 billion a year. (476 billion of that is admin costs. There are all sorts of numbers out there pro and con but the bottom line is quite easily figured out for us common folk. From a high of $23,000 a yr for a family of four to nothing for the 41 million people who have no insurance. A side note many of us with Cadillac high plans don't have eye or dental coverage and if you have had dental work lately you know they can break your bank without breaking a sweat.
So how do we pay for this transition ?
Here's how!
For those making less than $53000 or less will pay $900/yr
$100,00 will pay $6000/yr
$200,00 will pay $1200/yr
In the article most of these numbers came from the costs above are all paid by the employee. I think it would be fair to have the employer pay half that cost , most likely a huge savings for them too.
There is a big problem in switching to single payer ,"What do you do with all the insurance company workers. Some would be working for the government, some would seek other employment and some would have to be retrained. Hardly a reason to not go to single payer. Nobody was concerned when our corporations shipped jobs overseas. I don't know how many insurance company employees are now actually overseas jobs but you can bet a bunch.
Now for the big argument " I DON'T WANT GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN MY HEALTH CARE" . The government is already involved in Medicare and there are few complaints of quality of care provided. I ask you to ask yourself a simple question, what does my health insurances compny really do. Quite simple they simply pay the bills at some highly reduced rate than you or I would pay without insurance, they provide no health care, and in actual practice they interfere with the quality of care. Ask most doctors how insurance companies cost them time and money and force less care than the doctor wants to use.
Here's a little personal opinion on quality of care using Medicare for the last 15 years. I have never had a procedure denied or even questioned. If Medicare covered dental and eyes I would have no worries over health care. So do your homework. And if you live in Ca look up prop 61 on the ballot this November that would limit drug costs to no more than paid by the VA. A huge savings estimated at saving Californians 9 billion a year.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
THE ALT RIGHT-THEIR MISSION STATEMENT
MISSION STATEMENT OF THE ALT RIGHT
Equality is bullshit. Hierarchy is essential. The races are different. The sexes are different. Morality matters and degeneracy is real. All cultures are not equal and we are not obligated to think they are. Man is a fallen creature and there is more to life than hollow materialism. Finally, the white race matters, and civilisation is precious. This is the Alt-Right.
Equality is bullshit. Hierarchy is essential. The races are different. The sexes are different. Morality matters and degeneracy is real. All cultures are not equal and we are not obligated to think they are. Man is a fallen creature and there is more to life than hollow materialism. Finally, the white race matters, and civilisation is precious. This is the Alt-Right.
Certainly not my cup of tea , but those who are flocking to the Alt-Right as an answer to our problems should read the above mission statement copied directly from the opening page of the Alt-Right web site. Just saying if that's what they believe what would their policies be like??
Monday, August 22, 2016
IT'S TIME TO GET REAL FOLKS
Taking just one of Donald Trumps pet themes the deportation of all illegal workers it shows at least to me a complete disregard of fact. The estimated cost of deporting all those folks would cost as estimated 400 to 600 billion dollars.
The problems such an approach would make are in Donald's words huge.
Just for the hell of it think what his deportation army would cause. Picture (the worse) little children afraid to answer their doors because the deportation army is after them.
To end on a positive note what could you do infrastructure wise with 600 billion. All those out of work folks would probably get a job.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
WHY TALK WHEN WE CAN PLAN FOR WAR
A republican in congress has filed a bill limiting this and future presidents from negotiation with Russia as Mr. Trump has suggested he would do as president..No doubt that's why this bill has appeared. The president is granted those powers by various means but he does have the right.
As many of my latest posts have pointed out the powers that be are busily preparing for a war with Russia with China being thrown in as an extra.
The military industrial complex is hard at work egging us on to bigger and better wars. Never mind we have not come out as winners since WW2. An unbiased look at the military capabilities of all the involved might give you pause to reconsider this boondoggle.
When I point out to some that this would not be the cake walk those planning it think it is. W closer look says quite possibly we might have our asses handed to us again. If Iraq and Afghanistan haven't proved we are not invincible on the ground (even with superior air power ) then what makes them think they can win this one.
When talk of surviving a first nuclear strike surfaces you have to wonder where the pentagon is buying their weed. They must have got a huge discount on the junk they are smoking.(Oh wait they never get a discount). Now we even say we never had a NO FIRST STRIKE POLICY makes me wonder if I was being lied to the 11 years of submarine service packing missiles around the oceans just waiting to strike back if we were ever attacked. Now they tell me that , that policy never existed.
It matters little I suppose , just because we had a rule not to use a nuke first, I have little faith we would stick to that if we actually started a confrontation with Russia on the ground. It took us six months to gear up for Iraq, how long would it take to put enough men and equipment on the ground in the EU to take on the Russians. Let's look at past history to see just what we were facing. At the peak in both Iraq and Afghanistan we had 150 thousand troops on the ground. We took down the Iraq forces with ease but in trying to hold the ground we did not do so well. Afghanistan has been a clusterfuck from the git go, after trillions of dollars and 13 years both countries are out of control.
Point being we had to call up the reserves to allow for rotation of the troops on a yearly basis, which did not apply to all. In engaging in these efforts we burned out a bunch of troops, destroyed many families, created a huge c
As many of my latest posts have pointed out the powers that be are busily preparing for a war with Russia with China being thrown in as an extra.
The military industrial complex is hard at work egging us on to bigger and better wars. Never mind we have not come out as winners since WW2. An unbiased look at the military capabilities of all the involved might give you pause to reconsider this boondoggle.
When I point out to some that this would not be the cake walk those planning it think it is. W closer look says quite possibly we might have our asses handed to us again. If Iraq and Afghanistan haven't proved we are not invincible on the ground (even with superior air power ) then what makes them think they can win this one.
When talk of surviving a first nuclear strike surfaces you have to wonder where the pentagon is buying their weed. They must have got a huge discount on the junk they are smoking.(Oh wait they never get a discount). Now we even say we never had a NO FIRST STRIKE POLICY makes me wonder if I was being lied to the 11 years of submarine service packing missiles around the oceans just waiting to strike back if we were ever attacked. Now they tell me that , that policy never existed.
It matters little I suppose , just because we had a rule not to use a nuke first, I have little faith we would stick to that if we actually started a confrontation with Russia on the ground. It took us six months to gear up for Iraq, how long would it take to put enough men and equipment on the ground in the EU to take on the Russians. Let's look at past history to see just what we were facing. At the peak in both Iraq and Afghanistan we had 150 thousand troops on the ground. We took down the Iraq forces with ease but in trying to hold the ground we did not do so well. Afghanistan has been a clusterfuck from the git go, after trillions of dollars and 13 years both countries are out of control.
Point being we had to call up the reserves to allow for rotation of the troops on a yearly basis, which did not apply to all. In engaging in these efforts we burned out a bunch of troops, destroyed many families, created a huge c
Saturday, August 20, 2016
SO CALLED NEWS
Thom Hartman in a rant the other day called out all of the news networks for their lack of any policy discussions and for that matter any news that did not call or or show bloodletting. It has gotten so bad at my house that we don't even turn to the network news like we used to..We might watch an hour here or there but in general they are not worth your time.
When news networks got gobbled up by conglomerates and were forced to make money or else and of course we got the or else. Politics, politics, politics that's what we get 24/7. If you have wondered
why you saw so much of Trump in the beginning is simply because he got ratings. Why still makes me shudder that the populace bought his act.
In fact the whole of TV is at it's worse possible year to date. 5 or 6 days of the week there is absolutely nothing to watch. I participated in a survey for a rating company and was surprised at how few entries I could actually make. Outside of the news there is one day a week where there are 4 or shows that we watch.
When you stop and look at what we are offered you can soon tell what you are going to be offered and if it is a hit you know you are going to get 10 more shows just like it. As an example consider what happened when "NAKED AND AFRAID" was a hit, soon we had show after show of naked butts and horrible conditions. OK , I confess I watched the first season but not after that. Another example are the game warden shows. One or two aren't bad but soon they stretch it out to they end up with weak shows that don't get ratings. One more example are the surviving above the Artic Circle, interesting in the beginning but after a time it's gets so receptive you ask why your are watching.
Current TV bill is over $200 and if you count the 3 or 4 streaming companies it gets worse. On top of that I live in the boondocks where our DSL delivers a whopping 1 meg. So I have two satellite services , two because of download limits on one of them and sometimes one or the other satellite services is not delivering at a fast enough rate to stream a movie.
I was around when TV became first available, even in the early days there were quality shows on most nights. In fact there were a few shows that people actually stayed home or rushed home to watch. Milton Berle and ED Sullivan shows come to mind. There seems to be a lack of creativity in the movie making business, it's hard to figure out why this is so , it just is, and all you can do is hope that next season will be better, I am not holding my breath waiting for a good season.
When news networks got gobbled up by conglomerates and were forced to make money or else and of course we got the or else. Politics, politics, politics that's what we get 24/7. If you have wondered
why you saw so much of Trump in the beginning is simply because he got ratings. Why still makes me shudder that the populace bought his act.
In fact the whole of TV is at it's worse possible year to date. 5 or 6 days of the week there is absolutely nothing to watch. I participated in a survey for a rating company and was surprised at how few entries I could actually make. Outside of the news there is one day a week where there are 4 or shows that we watch.
When you stop and look at what we are offered you can soon tell what you are going to be offered and if it is a hit you know you are going to get 10 more shows just like it. As an example consider what happened when "NAKED AND AFRAID" was a hit, soon we had show after show of naked butts and horrible conditions. OK , I confess I watched the first season but not after that. Another example are the game warden shows. One or two aren't bad but soon they stretch it out to they end up with weak shows that don't get ratings. One more example are the surviving above the Artic Circle, interesting in the beginning but after a time it's gets so receptive you ask why your are watching.
Current TV bill is over $200 and if you count the 3 or 4 streaming companies it gets worse. On top of that I live in the boondocks where our DSL delivers a whopping 1 meg. So I have two satellite services , two because of download limits on one of them and sometimes one or the other satellite services is not delivering at a fast enough rate to stream a movie.
I was around when TV became first available, even in the early days there were quality shows on most nights. In fact there were a few shows that people actually stayed home or rushed home to watch. Milton Berle and ED Sullivan shows come to mind. There seems to be a lack of creativity in the movie making business, it's hard to figure out why this is so , it just is, and all you can do is hope that next season will be better, I am not holding my breath waiting for a good season.
WAR WITH RUSSIA THE STUPIDEST IDEA EVER THROW CHINA IN THE MIX AND IT'S SUICIDE
I know I am beating this war drum a lot of late and feel compelled to alert you to the possibility of a coming war with Russia and maybe China at the same time. Since a lot of folks get a majority of their news from the TV they might not have a clue what is on the drawing board.
In this post I will put a few links detailing what the nutjobs running this county are planning. We have been positioning Nato troops on the Russian borders, missiles there too, plus missiles in other surrounding countries all supposedly to counter Iranian intent. (which doesn't exist) .
At the same time we are tweaking the Chinese tiger by challenging their moves into the southern ocean. Some of the same nutjobs think they can fight both Russia and China at the same time.
The above has to be the dumbest idea yet but the halls of congress and the Defense Department are full of these NeoCon types some held over from the Regan Era. The troublesome part of this is if a Hillary is elected president you can bet on a war with one or both of the above mentioned.
While Hillary claims on the campaign trail she will not send more ground troops into Syria her potential cabinet are planning larger ground operations in Syria ,yep more boots on the ground and with the goal of throwing the dictator out will but right up to Russian and Chinese assistance to Syria, whose goal is to keep Assad in power.
So who is pushing all these war plans? Well you need not look any further than the Think Tanks supported by both parties. They apparently haven't seen a war they don't love. Never mind we have not won a war since WW2 and to be fair got our asses kicked in every conflict we engaged in.
I am anything but anti military having served 27 years in the Navy both active and reserve. I do object to the kinds of wars that we have engaged in of late. ie, take Iraq who we attacked on faked evidence. Or going on the ground in Afghanistan having viewed the Russian defeat and retreat from that county.
Our defense budget (the stated one is 600 billion) the real one is unknown but estimate put it around a trillion or so. That's about half of our income and more than our 10 closest competitors.
A lot of this money is blown of new systems 4 of which have been less that a success and way over budget (the F35 ) is the best example . Topped only by the new carrier 2 years overdue and double the original cost. Plus 4of the major systems don't work.
It's time to reign in the Military Industrial comlex to save our nation.
In this post I will put a few links detailing what the nutjobs running this county are planning. We have been positioning Nato troops on the Russian borders, missiles there too, plus missiles in other surrounding countries all supposedly to counter Iranian intent. (which doesn't exist) .
At the same time we are tweaking the Chinese tiger by challenging their moves into the southern ocean. Some of the same nutjobs think they can fight both Russia and China at the same time.
The above has to be the dumbest idea yet but the halls of congress and the Defense Department are full of these NeoCon types some held over from the Regan Era. The troublesome part of this is if a Hillary is elected president you can bet on a war with one or both of the above mentioned.
While Hillary claims on the campaign trail she will not send more ground troops into Syria her potential cabinet are planning larger ground operations in Syria ,yep more boots on the ground and with the goal of throwing the dictator out will but right up to Russian and Chinese assistance to Syria, whose goal is to keep Assad in power.
So who is pushing all these war plans? Well you need not look any further than the Think Tanks supported by both parties. They apparently haven't seen a war they don't love. Never mind we have not won a war since WW2 and to be fair got our asses kicked in every conflict we engaged in.
I am anything but anti military having served 27 years in the Navy both active and reserve. I do object to the kinds of wars that we have engaged in of late. ie, take Iraq who we attacked on faked evidence. Or going on the ground in Afghanistan having viewed the Russian defeat and retreat from that county.
Our defense budget (the stated one is 600 billion) the real one is unknown but estimate put it around a trillion or so. That's about half of our income and more than our 10 closest competitors.
A lot of this money is blown of new systems 4 of which have been less that a success and way over budget (the F35 ) is the best example . Topped only by the new carrier 2 years overdue and double the original cost. Plus 4of the major systems don't work.
It's time to reign in the Military Industrial comlex to save our nation.
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