Creating Chaos From Order

Written by Barbarosa

As one would expect, the conservative media is doing it's damndest to skewer Obama's first pick for the supreme court, Sonia Sotomayor. Even had Obama picked the ghost of Ronald Reagan, they'd be out there screaming ghost-ism. It's the job of conservative media to be the opposition, loyal or not.

But, read and listen to the words this lady used - ""I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." This AP article chronicling the Whitehouses attempt to deflect criticism rings pretty damn hollow to me. I mean, the speech was entitled "A Latina Judge’s Voice’. What earthly difference should ethnicity make to a judge? They're supposed to be impartial.

The whitehouse is claiming this was simply a poorly chosen word. Even if it were a single poorly chosen word, so what? Aren't laws made up of words? Isn't it the job of the judiciary to use and interpret words? This was a prepared speech, delivered at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, for heavens sake. Personally, I have to believe ALL the words in that speech were carefully chosen. And if they weren't - doesn't that show poor judgement all by itself?

I don't know - I made it a point to go looking for reporting on this issue and I've seen very little that makes me believe this person views the law and society through an unbiased lens. Yes, of course, we all have our personal biases. But we all know when to work to put those aside and consider an issue with detachment and candor. I haven't seen anything in what I've read to convince me that this person has done that, or will start any time in the future.

Don't take my word for it - here's the New York Times reporting with the full, unbiased text of the speech in question, as delivered by Sotomayor. Judge for yourself.

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Like Deja-vu All Over Again ...

Written by Barbarosa

I may not be a genius, but I know an unsustainable business model when I see one. Evidently, the genuine geniuses who run the financial system are not so blessed.

For the last year or so all we've heard is how e-z-money mortgages and loose credit have caused the near collapse of western civilization, the meltdown of the real estate market and spawned an epic global economic malaise.

Now we're starting to see real estate ads again flogging no money down, no closing cost home deals AND an $8,000 "rebate" from the American government. Isn't this *exactly* where we were 9 years ago, way back at the turn of the century? But now, of course, congress is going to make the credit card companies play nice, so you can rack up even more debt that you have no hope of repaying.

"Buy a house, nothing down, no closing costs and walk away with a fat check!" Does any of this ring a bell? Can interest-only ARMS be far behind?

By the way, wanna know a dirty little secret? If you take that nifty "tax rebate" for a home purchased in 2008, you have to pay it back at $500/year on your taxes. For '09 you get off "free" ... as long as you don't sell the house in the next few years. Sell it (or lose it to foreclosure) and you're on the hook to the feds for thousands. Bankruptcy won't wipe that little debt out, by the way.

If this nefarious little plot succeeds (and I have no doubt it will), a year from now you're going to have a new generation of "homeowners" who don't really own a damn thing, have NOTHING of their own money invested and damn little incentive not to just "let the house go back" if things get tight financially.

See, a generation ago if you wanted to buy a house, you had to actually have money of your own. AND spend it on the house! Amazing, no? 10 or 20 percent of your OWN money. A $100,000 house would cost ten or twenty grand of YOUR hard earned cash just to get started. Heaven forbid! It was like this - the lenders wanted you to have some incentive to maybe pay the loan back. Possibly even on time. Now they just make the loan, collect their points and fees, bundle it up quick and sell it off before you can miss any payments. MBS, anyone?

Oh, for the next year or two we're going to see sunny economic news because the banks are going to be "lending" money again and people are going to go happily spending their rebate money on televisions, appliances, cars and all manner of things they can't really afford. And then the money will start to run out. The credit card bills will come due. The mortgage will go 30 days past due. 60 days past. At 90 days past due the lenders will start foreclosure proceedings. At about 180 days the courts will start issuing judgments against the supposed "homeowners". The lawyers will make a bloody fortune. Sheriffs departments across the country will start executing eviction orders, throwing people out of their former homes and into the street. We'll have a 3rd world nation of homeless citizens.

The mega-wealthy will start buying real estate for pennies on the dollar.

The American government will have blown everything it had. There will be no more help coming. America already has 15% of it's population qualified for food stamps in 2009. What will it be in a few years? 25%? 45%? And where will the money come from to provide those food stamps? Don't forget, by the American governments own admission, well before 2020 Social Security and Medicare are going to be upside down and paying out more than they take in (talk about a Ponzi scheme). Major industries are already being manhandled by the feds. The banks are asking permission to, pretty please, pay back the TARP money that was forcred down their throats, but the Federal Reserve isn't sure they want it back just yet. They'll meet in another month or so to talk about it. Anyone besides me think that the Federal Reserve kinda likes owning the banking system outright?

I suspect the collapse of western civilization is proceeding as planned.

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BURP

Written by Barbarosa

Today, the revolution begins. Herewith, I offer "Big Al's Universal Health Care Cost Reduction Plan".

Now, it's a complicated 2 pronged approach, so pay attention.
1) Charge less money
2) Force the health care industry back into the free market

Yeah, I know, it's not nearly a complex enough plan. But it has a super duper, cool sounding name. We could even acronym-ize it "BURP". And hell, we can print out a thousand pages or so from Wikipedia and staple it behind so everyone will think it's some sort of pork barrel, amendment-filled legislation.

I know, silly me. What am I thinking?

Here's the deal - if health care industry revenues are increasing, your "costs" are not going down. I don't care what sort of sleight-of-hand anyone uses to disguise it.

Look here for some staggering statistics on health care costs:
http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

In 2007 health care was 17% of the Gross Domestic Product. 17 bleeding percent. It's projected to be 20% by 2017. By comparison, last fall McCain was proposing to *increase* spending on national defense to 4% of GDP. So, what happened to "making health care affordable" and "lowering health care costs"? If that were the case, costs as a percentage of GDP would be decreasing. Not outstripping inflation.

In '07 health care costs averaged $7900 per person. Did you get 8 grand worth of face time with your doctor in 2007?

Here's the scam - government and the health care industry want you to believe that if you pay fewer dollars when you walk into the doctors office, then health care costs are down. To accomplish this they're pushing "Universal Health Care" or some other smarmy, feel good crap.

I call bullshit. You should, too.

It's all about cost shifting and deluding the average person into thinking they're "saving money". The burden on government (your tax dollars) will increase. Your employers share of the premiums will increase. Net revenues to the health care industry will increase. Your "co-pay" will go down. Big whoop.

Here's an eye opener for you - call a few doctors offices and try to make an appointment as a new, cash paying customer. CUSTOMER? Yes, customer. Because YOU, Mr. and Mrs. Customer, make that doctors house payment, his or her car payment and pay their home light bill. Don't ever forget that. When they stop in at the 19th hole and buy a round, they have you to thank for it.

So, call a few doctors offices and see how you make out. *IF* they'll take a new customer (patient) at all, don't be surprised when they say they won't take you unless you have "insurance". *If* by some miracle you clear the first 2 hurdles, you'll need to call the bank for a second mortgage. You'll be lucky to get out of a 5 minute first visit for under $175 to $200. Subsequent visits will start at around $100, provided you don't have anything actually wrong or need a pee test or some blood work.

Lest you think I'm just bellyaching ... the real problem? The health care field has managed to extricate itself rather neatly from the free market - that's the crux of the matter. We need a Medical Manhattan Project to increase the number of practicing medical professionals. Let's bailout health care by graduating more doctors and importing already-qualified foreign doctors with the stipulation that they practice some form of truly affordable general health care for 3 or 5 years before they splinter off into a lucrative specialty field, if that's their ultimate desire.

Return the healthcare industry back to the free market and health care costs will take care of themselves.
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Like a cat on a hot tin roof

Written by Barbarosa

Reading the supposedly wonderful news that major health care insurers have come to the table offering 2 Trillion dollars (yes, American dollars) in "savings" over the next 5 years, I can't help thinking of the Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

In "Cat", Big Daddy asks Brick "can you smell the mendacity?" He's referring to the lies swirling around himself and his family. They're all lying to each other for various reasons, afraid to face the truths that will inevitably destroy them all.

Big Daddy says, "There ain't nuthin' more powerful than the smell of mendacity!" I say, take a whiff in the direction of "health care reform" and smell the mendacity for yourself.

Insurers are hawking a 2 trillion dollar lie to the American public. 2 trillion dollars in savings is a lie. The real case is that they're proposing to RAISE costs by 2 trillion LESS than they were previously going to raise costs. Costs are still going to increase.

Congress does the same thing year in and year out with the federal budget. They legislate a 10% increase in some program, then reduce it to "only" a 5% increase and tell you how they've "cut 50% out". Mendacity.

The closest thing I've seen so far to admitting the lie is this, from the Christian Science Monitor: “We expect some increase in healthcare costs, but there will be a reduction in speed,” says the senior official. Expect this sort of hyperbolic mendacity to continue until health care is 30% of GDP instead of the current 17%.

Maggie says victory for a cat on a hot tin roof is just staying on it as long as she can. We can do better, we should demand better. We need more doctors and better legal protection from fallacious malpractice claims and we need it now. Quit dancing on the hot tin roof.

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The Third World in America

Written by Barbarosa

Here, apparently, is a novel idea:

Giving money to poor people will not cure poverty.

I've heard it said that we're headed into a depression but this time without the breadlines. As someone that runs a breadline, I can tell you - we already have breadlines and they're getting longer.

We've recently had whole families show up claiming to have no food at all in their homes. Before you even start in with the "oh, sure" stuff, let me assure you that I've talked to the relevant caseworkers and confirmed the claims. People working (there goes the "get a job, hippie") and trying to support themselves and their families. People in white collar and blue collar jobs, taking care of your everyday needs, who can't afford to feed themselves.

Some talking head was on the teevee a few days ago, justifying the stoopid $8.00/week "stimulus" and increasing food stamp payouts. The justification? Giving a little bit to each of those who already have very little means they'll spend it all. He went on to say that increasing food stamp payouts will mean increased revenues for the grocery stores, who will in turn be able to hire more people. Now before someone accuses me of being against grocery store clerks, understand something very clearly - those newly hired grocery store clerks will still qualify for food stamps and will still be at the food cupboard twice a month because they still won't be able to make ends meet. All it will mean is entrenching poverty and dependence on food stamps, general assistance and similar programs, creating or prolonging generational poverty.

We're creating a shadow third-world nation right here in America. A growing nation of paupers. Fully 10% of Americans receive food stamps. According to the Food Research and Action Center, in 2008, food stamp participation was somewhere around 68% of eligible recipients. This means that maybe 14.7% of Americans qualified for food stamps as of last fall.

So, 32 million Americans are receiving food stamps and another roughly 15 million qualify. So far, our shadow 3rd world nation is about 47 million strong. More than the entire population of Spain, by the way. 32 million Americans receive Food Stamps, while the entire population of Canada is 33.6 million.

Here, a little myth busting by the Working Poor Families Project:

MYTH    Low-income families do not work.
FACT    72% of low-income families work.

MYTH    Low-income families do not work hard.
FACT    The avg annual work effort for low-income working families is 2,552 hours, roughly 1.25 full-time jobs.

MYTH    Low-income working families are headed by immigrants.
FACT    69% of low-income working families have only American-born parents.

MYTH    Low-income working families have very young parents.
FACT    89% of low-income working families have a parent between 25 and 54.

MYTH    Low-income working families are over-whelmingly minority.
FACT    43% of low-income working families have white, non-Hispanic parents.

The full report is at http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/still_working.html

So, if you're still with me, why the hell is the American government institutionalizing poverty and hunger? Where are the programs, or at least support for the programs, designed to increase the income and education levels of the poor and the working poor?

The worse "the economy" gets, the bigger and bigger this class of disenfranchised Americans becomes. We know that as of fall 2008 this segment of the nation was at least 47 million strong. How big is it now? What willl happen when they figure out that they're being paid off with their own money?

Alexis de Tocqueville said "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis was clearly wrong since Congress has been bribing Americans with their own money for years. Maybe the correct axiom would be "The American Republic will endure until the day the public figures out it's being bribed with it's own money"

So, Goldman Sachs, et al, get billions upon unaccounted-for billions, you get 8 bucks and 1 of every 8 people you see today will still go to bed hungry tonight.

Get ready to go back to the basics - when "the economy" collapses and the food riots start, you're going to have only 2 "rights" (neither of which is enumerated in the American Constitution or Bill of Rights). You'll have "The Right To Fight For Survival" and "The Right To Define Survival In Your Own Terms". Let's continue to hope and work for the American government to recognize the need to help lift people from poverty, rather than create a shadow third world nation in our collective back yard. Because I sure don't want to be in the way when they figure out they've been bribed with their own money.