“O PISH POSH”

“O PISH POSH”

(Jason Straziuso, Daily News on Wars)

 (CNBC, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Not even a hot spot in the world today, yet three U.S. aircraft were hit by…..enemy fire, at least that’s the opinion of those on the ground. I wasn’t aware that the U.S. was in any kind of shooting skirmish with the Nairobi’s or whatever it is you call the people. I gotta tell you right up front that the U.S. is engaged with people that I can’t keep track of, maybe the Nairobi’s from Kenya are just the latest to turn on the worlds policemen.

Now bear with me, I understand that this may be confusing, but it’s what has to be reported…..”The U.S. military aircraft were about to land in Bor the capital of the state of Jonglei, the scene of nations worst violence over the past week, when they were hit. The military said that the wounded troops were in stable condition.”

I’m not making a single word up of the above news story, who could make up a name like for a city like Bor, or a state name the likes of Jonglei? The one, Bor, sounds like a drinking establishment I used to frequent in my younger days, and Jonglei, well, Jonglei is a chocolate bonbon, isn’t it?

The aircraft, CV22 Ospreys, are $69.3 million dollars; three are worth close to $210 million dollars, making those the four wounded U.S. military worth about $52 million each, a damned pricey attack no matter which way you slice it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting a price tag on U.S. military, but gees, $52 million apiece, give me a break.

A U.S. military spokesman said that the government troops were not charge of the city, so the attacking fire had to some from insurgents. If the government troops weren’t in charge, why in hell were Americans in or near Bor anyways?

To give you an idea of how discombobulated things are in the city of Bor, in the state of Jonglei, after being hit by enemy fire, the U.S. aircraft turned around and flew to Entebbe, Uganda, where the wounded were airlifted to Nairobi, Kenya.

Now I’m wondering, almost spit-balling, to see what sticks to the wall, but I have this question…..and no matter how many times I ask it, and no matter how I frame it, the question still comes out the same, what in the hell are United States troops, and United States military equipment doing in Bor, in the state of Jonglei? Is there some kind of clandestic operation going on that only those that need to know…..know!

THE PISH PART OF THE STORY

In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be any armies, no guns, no war, and no clandestic operations to contend with. But of course it’s not the way things are, people have a Pish feeling about a race of people, or a sect, and act out through aggression, which turns into war.

It’s why China, (not surprisingly) can claim the largest army on the face of the planet, maybe of all time. All told the Chinese have a two million man army, 2,285,000 to be exact (active members.) China has an overall population of 1,000,361,750 citizens, a bit more than 1 billion more than the United States.

I suppose when you’re talking about a billion of anything, one might be hard pressed to keep things straight. But the People’s Republic of China its vast territorial domains and enormous population numbers, but a robust military that was established in 1927. One possible reason for China’s military prowess in 2013 was the stinging defeats that the country suffered during the tail end of World War II.

The United States, with a population of just 317,280,778 has a standing army that numbers 1,447,896 active duty personnel and 1,458,500 in its active reserve force. I suppose if war broke out tomorrow, inside of a month or less, the U.S. could be knee deep in military personnel numbering close to 3,000,000.

Of course the United States is well outfitted, and ready for any kind of armed conflict, anywhere in the world. There are 8,325 tanks, 18,539 armored fighting vehicles, 1,934 self-propelled guns, 1,791 towed artillery pieces, 1,330 rocket projectors, and with a highly advanced weaponry and nuclear power, the U.S. can meet and most likely beat any form of threat to our national security.

The number three military power in the world today is India with a ready fighting force of 1,325,000 soldiers. Russia has a military force that numbers 1,200,000 active men and women, while North Korea rounds out the top five in military readiness with a standing force of 1,106,000…..and a reserve force of more than 8,000,000. North Korea has an estimated population of 24,895,450, meaning that close to half of its population is related to military service-men/women. That my friend is a scary thought.

AMERICANS ARE FIGHTING FOOLS

There is no other country on the face of the earth…..at the present time that makes war the way the United States does. It seems as if the U.S. security and defensive departments have never seen any kind of skirmish that wasn’t worth getting involved in. If there was an angle to make a buck, or bank a favor, the U.S. was at your beckon call.

We’ve all heard about the 100 year wars, well, it seems as if that’s a record that the United States would like to break. To me it means one thing dough-ray-me, ya that’s right the sound of the old cash register needing another oil change because of overuse.

People…..in the defense industry call the conflicting zones hot spots, hot spots are where one group of people dislike another group to the point where they feel the need to kill one another. Like the business man said, “Let me count the ways,” a list of hot spots that are…..being developed for the next full-blown war:

Algeria, Angola, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Puntland, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Burma-Myanmar, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Koreas, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Ireland, Russia, Spain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru.

The military section of the United States, the Defense Department, those guys who play war games on government computers, plot scenarios, count casualties, and figure the odds on either winning or losing really do have their work cut out for them. There are sixty…..you heard right 60 countries around the globe who are engaged in military activity. There are 495 militias-guerrillas and separatist groups.

There are in addition to the above listed countries, 20 regions or provinces who are struggling for some sort of independence.

THE POSH OF THIS MESSAGE IS…..

Believe me, the posh that I’m talking about here has nothing to do with smart, fashionable, or elegant, or genteel. The posh here alludes to the total feeling or understand of what people trying to live in a war torn country, and how these people don’t know from one minute to the next whether they’ll live to struggle another day.

The U.S. military is not fighting for our freedom, we’ve already got that, and the military and War Department isn’t protecting are rights; they have rather positioned themselves to enact JOB SECURITY whenever they feel that it is threatened.

What our military and intelligence agencies have done is not only to spy on its own people, it has randomly dipped their noses into areas that do not need to, areas that should be verboten. We need to rise up and spank these people…..and that’s no PISH-POSH.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

IT SIMPLY WILL NOT GO AWAY!

(John Pike, Steven Aftergood, Intelligence Resource Program)

(John D. Negroponte, Bloomberg, Joshua Brustein)

(Nicole Gaouette, Allen Holmes, Laura Poltras)

(Marcel Rosenbach, Der Spiegel)

(Al Jazeera, Frazer Chronicle)

Some people just don’t have any common sense, others are arrogant, and some wear those little American flag lapel pins, and proclaim that they have the best interest of the United States at heart…..and shouldn’t be questioned. These are usually conservative right wing wackos who figure that the sun rises and falls with whatever the United States wants, or does.

I really can’t understand, or figure these people out, where did they get the huge pompous attitude that they wear on their shoulders that makes them bend at the belly button line when they walk, presumably from the weight. I have little interest in what kind of fellow Edward Snowden is, he could be a patriot for all I know, and it wouldn’t make any difference to me.

For whatever reason the United States seems intent on gathering intelligence on everybody, old people in retirement homes, mothers, babies, factory workers, teachers, truck drivers, and the cop on the corner…..and those are just some of the Americans that are targeted.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that almost without exception the United State’s intelligence community is intent on gathering volumes of information that is stored in some of the biggest warehouses in existence on the planet today.

I’ve read that whenever some of the intelligence computers are turned on, entire town’s lights dim, and I ain’t talking about middle town America, I’m talking Denver, or Chicago, or Newark, New Jersey. Can you imagine the electric bill, holy smoke that would be a back breaker for me.

To explain the U.S. intelligence community today would take somebody with a higher clearance than I have…..I don’t have one, and don’t want to have one.  I’m sure that there are attachments connected, and I’ve never been very good with attachment deals.

 

EDWARD SNOWDEN, LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, THERE AIN’T NO MIDDLE GROUND

Is he a savior, or a criminal, for me the jury is still out on those questions, but I will say one thing, what he did sure as hell shook up our intelligence community. I believe that that was a good thing; it’s an impossibility for the U.S. to arbitrarily set up spying installations anywhere around the world and collect information without stepping on some toes.

I don’t think Germany is going to resurrect the 3^rd. Reich, and follow a mustached Angela Merkel, the chances are slim and none. Gathering intelligence on the German top politician seems extremely pointless, and hopeless.

Giving up information of a sensitive nature (according to experts) at the least can be troubling, and at the worst can put American lives in danger. I have a somewhat different opinion on what Snowden did, and I’m not sure that I buy the “I’m a concerned citizen that wants to make a wrong…..right.” I’m not sure that Snowden has all his marbles, you know, a bottle or two short of a six pack. I think that maybe Eddy boy did it for a thrill pure and simple.

Whatever he is, Snowden sure as hell has caused a firestorm in the intelligence community…..and maybe that’s a good thing. These spook agencies tend to take themselves way too serious, and for some insignificant computer specialist, or programmer to blow the lid off an entire division of U.S. intelligence is kind of cool.

Snowden has been called all sorts of names, some I can’t repeat because this is a family blog, but a hero, a whistleblower a dissident, a traitor and a patriot are just a few. According to Snowden, his sole motivation was to inform the public as to that which is done in their name, and inevitably that which is done to them.

I’m personally not too interested in what makes Edward Snowden click; I’ll leave that analyses to the headshrinkers. For me, this entire episode has illustrated to me that a huge department of our government is out of control…..and if that’s a fact, well then Edward Snowden is a hero and a patriot.

THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

At the present time, the U.S. intelligence and security agencies number at least 54 agencies, I say at least, because very few people know for sure how many there really are. In addition to the number of independent agencies, there are 28 department heads, and a buddle of employees, maybe as many as 200,000 men and women, or more. Hell, I live in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and that figure is more than twice the size of the homes in Packer Country.

These departments or agencies include selected tactical military intelligence and security organizations, as well as those responsible for security responses to transnational threats, to include terrorism, cyber warfare, computer security, covert employment of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics trafficking, and international organized crime.

While the budget and the number of employees are classified, the numbers are supposed to be know by the Office of Management and Budget, by both the Senate Select Committee on intelligence and the Defense subcommittees in both houses of Congress, and by the Director of National Intelligence…..but, don’t hold your breath…..something tells me that these figures aren’t only classified, but their so muddled that nobody knows.

And the budget for these jokers, pick a number and take a seat, I’m sure nobody knows for sure what it costs to run as many as 54 intelligence agencies and the people to man the positions that would be necessary to keep us safe and warm at night in our collective beds.

To be involved with an intelligence or security agency would be, I’m sure, an exciting romantic and viable career. Being on the cusp of action, of change, and of discovery I’m sure makes for an extraordinary life-style.

A power unto themselves is how these people operate, total impunity no matter the act, or action…..after all what they do is making the United States a safer place to live.

THESE GUYS ARE BUILDING A ROAD TO THE FUTURE…..AND BEYOND

Perpetual can be a tricky word, in does mean forever, or re-occurring, kind of scary to think about when the talk is about a human program that is at its very best…..shadowy. But that’s what PRISM is, a spy program that right out of science fiction or espionage books. And it’s been in operations since 2007, so you’d figure that that all the bugs have been eliminated.

The program began in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect American Act under the President George W. Bush administration, and its presence wasn’t known until Snowden leaked its existence in 2013. He said along with the leak that he exposed, that Americans didn’t really understand the extent of the intelligence apparatus’s information gathering…..he hit the nail on the head with that one.

You know I’ve always had a problem with programs that takes the drudgery out of everyday life, like governmental programs to ease the effort, or some dink from across the street coming to your aid when you really don’t need the help, and are capable of doing whatever yourself.

There seems to be a cloak that our federal government wants to wrap us under…..and frankly I don’t think that we need it. In the illustrious words of many of our politicians, all we wanna do is protect you, and the homeland. There was another fella that talked like that, and he just wanted to protect, and to guide his people in the right direction…..his name was Adolph Hitler.

We need to take back the power that our forefathers fought and died for to give us…..freedom and independence, I don’t recall any mention of a program the likes of Prism, If we don’t cut this activity right now, cause it’s way past nipping it in the bud time, we’re doomed to continue the same way that we are going, and it’ll only get worse.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

MYSTERIOUS AND UNPRONOUNCEABLE

MYSTERIOUS AND UNPRONOUNCEABLE

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Candice Choi)

(U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Daniel Duffy)

(Kashrut.Com, Ribbi Gavriel, Arlen Mathes-Scharf, Frazer Chronicle)

It’s funny, (not in a ha, ha kind of way) how some industries dance around governmental regulations that have been established to protect consumers from those unscrupulous manufacturers. I’m talking about food manufacturers here that have continued to push the envelope on their ingredients that prolong the shelf life of their products that can add color, or suppleness.

There’s a whole host of additives that can produce all sorts of aesthetics, can enhance the taste, or…..I don’t have a clue…..what it adds. In a typical bottle of salad dressing, xanthan gum, polysorbate 60, propylene glycol, alginate, annatto, sorbic acid and calcium discodium EDTA to protect quality.

Now I’d look these ingredients up, but chances are I wouldn’t understand what they did after the effort, so why try. There is a question that is asked by professionals that at times they can’t answer, “Can I be reasonably sure that what’s not on the label is not in the food.

Man that’s a freaky thought, if the quote, unquote experts can’t rely on the food manufacturers to put all of the ingredients on the label what exactly are we, as consumers, supposed to do? I’m a diabetic and I read labels on the cans, bottles and packages for all sorts of food intake, sugars, sodium, and carbohydrates. I’ve often wondered how honest and accurate the labeling was…..and now I’m finding out that there not always honest and accurate.

The regulations that the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA) imposes is usually done at the behest of the U.S. Congress. There are people that figure that the FDA has two responsibilities, one to the consumer, and offer as much information as is possible to help the consumer make choices. There would seem to be a second responsibility that the FDA has, and that would be to the help to protect trade secrets.

TRADE SECRETS

Trade secrets, I’ve always had a problem with that term, soda pop has ingredient trade secrets, it would seem that beer might have a trade secret or two, and I suppose booze might also. Not listing ingredients because of how something is made, and the ingredients involved, and the amounts would seem to me to be a true concern.

However whenever something is secret, closed, or clandestine, the hair on the back of my neck begins to stand on edge, and I get a feeling of mistrust. In this day and age, are you serious, you’re trying to tell me that there isn’t the technology to analyze, and figure out exactly what is in a can, package, or bottle…..come on, I watch cop shows, they can tell what some dead guy eat before he was shot to death…..20 years ago.

Everything…..and I mean everything that is added to green beans, or a can of corn, a bottle of beer, or a cake mix needs to be listed…..no exceptions. Trade secrets, give me a break, there aren’t any trade secrets, or some magical elixir that’ll help prolong a guy’s head hair…..I know, I’ve lost most of mine…..and it’s just an accident of the aging process.

RECALLS AND COMPLIANCE

If food makers comply with all of the food labeling laws, there won’t be any problems, and there usually won’t be any recalls. Recalls can be scary, but are necessary, mistakes and accidents do happen, and they need to be dealt with in a forthright and judicious manner. All the cards need to be put on the table so that everybody knows the problems.

Believe it or not some products aren’t required to list their ingredients on their labels; it’s a voluntary issue, and baby you can guess how many of these companies choose to omit their products stuff that was inside their products container.

If a product container doesn’t list the serving size, the number of servings in a container, the number of calories per serving, amount of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates, sugars, protein and dietary fiber per serving, and vitamins, minerals, or nutrients is considered misbranded.

In a person’s life, he is routinely exposed to foods that’ll give him food poising, up to and including 1000 different times. With little exception we recover from the effects, diarrhea, fever, the chills, and just feeling like crap. Usually the food sickness that we have isn’t even diagnosed, and within 24 to 36 hours we’re once again on our merry way.

Allergens can be a person’s worst enemy, approximately 2% of adults and 5% of infants and young children suffer from food allergies, roughly 30,000 individuals require emergency room treatment in a year, and about 150 die because of allergic reactions to food…..and there is no cure for allergies.

As with some laws, regulations or restrictions, states vary in how they deal with different issues, it’s called sovereignty, and every state in the United States has it and guards it almost to the death. While people may be dying from some mislabeled food product, the fed and states battle it out over technologies…..something that I’ve never understood.

THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

With little exception the food and beverage industry needs to, and must be mandated to, list every ingredient that is used in food products. But now there is a move by the food and beverage industry to again omit some additives that can sound funny, or dangerous, and again their citing recipe infringement in a renewed fight to omit.

It’s the old bug-a-boo, we don’t want to eat stuff that’s not safe, but we want it to last, look good and taste good…..all at the same time. I’m not sure that’s possible, unless we completely disregard what food makers put into their products…..and I don’t want that…..but am not sure which to sacrifice to insure a healthy and safe consumable product.

Decisions, decisions, it’s hard to be a consumer, know who to trust, and what is the fairest prices to pay for eatery products. In the old days, whatever my mother put on the table was safe…..I think, actually I’m sure, most of what she served was home grown, or was processed in state, or regionally. Thank God I’m 70, and I don’t have that long to go to the end, so if I eat something that will have long term effects, I won’t have to worry.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

IS THERE A SANDSTORM IN WISCONSINS FUTURE?

IS THERE A SANDSTORM IN WISCONSINS FUTURE?

(WDNR Silica Study, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Lee Berquist, Lonnie Baker)

(Center for Disease Control, Oil and Gas Business, Siemens Industry)

(Business-Week, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)

(Guide to Preparing Reclamation, Frazer Chronicle)

I guess it doesn’t matter what man is trying to pull from the ground, he inevitable sees dollar bills to be made…..I think it’s inbreed into a Capitalist society. It was reported yesterday in an article that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a sand mining company in western Wisconsin being fined $200,000 for pollution and operational problems that began in 2011 and led to massive amounts of mud flowing onto nearby properties and into a stream.

The company, Preferred Sand LLC which is based out of Radnor, Pennsylvania was founded in 2007 by a group headed by the company’s current Chief Executive Officer, Michael G. O’Neill. The company engages in the acquisition and operation of industrial mineral assets. It processes and produces silica and frac sand, as well as proppants, (propping agents) and is involved in related logistics management operations.

Few people have ever heard of fracking sand, induced hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracturing, which is commonly called fracking. It is a technique in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure into a wellbore to create small fractures in rock formations where hopefully natural gas or petroleum products are.

Of course the mixture of water, sand and chemicals can cause a whole host of problems with regards to ground water, pollution and even earthquakes. After the initial interjection of the water, sand, and chemicals are introduced into a rock formation, the sand proppants holds the fracture open once the rock achieves equilibrium.

The court action and monetary fines levied by Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen against Preferred Sand isn’t the company’s first legal problems, there has been other court activity involving the company in Nebraska and Minnesota. Of course environmental groups have come forward to voice their concerns about ground water in particular, and the environment in general.

SOME SOBERING STATISTICS

The fracturing process in the quest to exploit material in the search for natural gas, petroleum, uranium-bearing solutions, or brine water may migrate to the well. Hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, and the small grains of proppants, (sand or aluminum oxide) do their work…..and hold the fracture open. The technique is common in wells for shale gas, tight gas, tight oil, and coal seam gas and hard rock wells.

All of this technical jargon, for me, is a pain in the butt, pretty much because I understand little of it, but I figured to do an honest job in my blogging, I should include some technical stuff. What it means is that a well derrick which stands 40 or so feet high has a 24 inch wellbore attached to it, and drills, (with pressure) into the earth to depths as deep as 10 to 15,000 feet with this sludgy liquid inside the wellbore. When they encounter the desired product, the sand holds the fractures open.

There typically are hundreds if not thousands of gas or petroleum wells in the field, and each can use as much as 3 million pounds of sand, and millions of gallons of water, and the accompanying chemicals that are used in the operation.

As with any mining process, there is a degree of degradation to the surrounding land, and in today’s society, that element of the operation can be unacceptable. No matter the type of mining, no matter the area, and no matter the proximity of the civilian population, mining company’s slog ahead with their operations in an almost devil may care attitude.

This attitude has been the great detractor to the mining industry, and I must tell you, most assessed monetary fines are bargained down by 50 to 75% of the original amount. Most mining companies simply look at monetary fines as part of their business expense and rely on an almost plea-bargaining system with federal agencies to lower the size of the penalties.

In the past two decades gas drilling has increased by a total of 14 times throughout the United States. Given the vast shale formations throughout the country drilling will continue for at least a decade. With this increase, the frac sand business, which has emerged almost overnight, will continue to grow, and be almost unregulated…..at least by the federal government.

There are 92 sand mines, some with processing facilities, and an additional 46 sites that either are proposed, or are being studied as potential sand mines. State regulators seem to be changing on the fly with regards to regulating the industry, which is never a good thing.    

RECLAMATION

Reclaiming the land after the sand mining companies are gone is the final step of a mining operation, and it can be a very tricky, and in many cases an almost cost prohibitive project. Sand mining expansion will become a problem for the environment as well as the civilian population.

I’ve never been to a sand mine operation, but I’ll bet every one of the former sights will wear the scars of the industry and the failed reclamation attempts. I base my opinion on my visits to hundreds of defunct iron mines, and you can see, even without knowing what had been there, that there had been an unfriendly environmental operation.

The fracking process has been around since 1949, and even though the process is more than 60 years in existence, the accompanying supply technology industries continue to evolve. From the process of sand mining, there undoubtedly will be many land owners who will make enough money to see the Promised Land, in their lifetimes.

Mining companies of all types are their own worst enemies, they habitually cut corners to save themselves money, and their bottom line mentality has proven time and again to be their Achilles heel. Inevitably the sand mining companies will make themselves an indispensable financial member of the community, whether through their tax dollars, their marketing programs that are aimed at their communities through Little League support, church, daycare and health clinic established, and their good neighbor policies.

I’ve seen it, mining companies will do anything to placate authority, environmental or civilian population, get ready Northwestern Wisconsin, you’re in for a hell-of-a ride.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

I NOW KNOW HOW MUCH I’M WORTH.

I NOW KNOW HOW MUCH I’M WORTH.

(The Health Culture, Victor R. Fuchs, David Leonhardt)

(Froma Harrop, Mother Jones, Patrick Caldwell, Frazer Chronicle)

Why do Americans need universal health care…..hell that’s easy, I’ve got close to 3,000 reasons why it’s needed. My open heart bypass procedure came with a price-tag of $149,413.00, wow; I never knew that I was worth that much. However there’s a fly in the ointment, I’ve gotta come up with three grand to cover my part, ugh…..and I’m on a fixed income.

My wife had two implants so that she could hear; the price-tag for her was in excess of $200,000 of which we had to pay zero…..thank God for health insurance. She was working, I was working, we were making decent money, and if need be I could take extra hours for an unforeseen bill, but there wasn’t any.

Fast forward six years to my five bypass surgery, and we have a $3,000 bill, and I can’t pick up extra hours to help cover the charges. And obviously we have decent health coverage because we’ll only have to cough up the $3,000 grand.

I’m not really complaining, I’m just kind of confused, why should a senior citizens have to worry about covering an unforeseen medical bill, it’s kind of like Aaron Rogers getting blindsided by some 320 pound defense tackle…..it knocked the wind out of you, and it takes several minutes to get the cobwebs out of your helmet. I knew my hospital stay was going to cost me, I just wasn’t sure how much, and I sure as hell didn’t know that the surgery was going to cost me $150,000.

 

HELP ME…..I’M POOR

A $3,000 medical bill would make most of the people that I know say ouch, and maybe a few other words that I can’t list here because this blog is geared towards pre-teens and those folks who make at least one trip to their choice of church to seek redemption for their sins from the previous weeks weaknesses.

I know several people who simply couldn’t pay a $3,000 hospital bill or $300 for that matter, they’d simply not have the operation, and I assume would cast their lot with a higher power. But that just shouldn’t happen in the United States in 2013. After all, we send men to the moon, and space vehicles to Mars to gather information for our space programs.

I’m not going to get into the war thing, or our foreign policy, or how we give money to other countries whether for political or humanitarian reasons. You regular readers know how I feel about our giveaway attitude that hopefully will ensure obedience and support from the recipients of our benevolent practices.

I’m just wondering when, as a country, we’ll start taking care of our own…..and I am not preaching isolationism. I may not agree with a one world society, but powers way higher than me have dictated that is the way that we’ll go, and at least at the present time, it’ll be how we roll.

But at the present time, somehow we need to address the 45,000,000 uninsured, and the other 30,000,000 that are underinsured. I have a friend who, along with his wife,  isn’t all that well, physically, and there health insurance costs close to $15,000 a year, and they have a $5,000 deductable, to me that isn’t much insurance. I call good insurance a warm and fuzzy contract with an insurer, a contract that benefits the insured every single time he needs to use it.

What our insurance plans have done is ass-backwards, old people need the good coverage for little or no charge what-so-ever, while young people pay out of the bucket because they can get that extra job, or work additional hours to pay high premiums. I know, I know, it’ll never happen, but writing it and thinking it give me that warm and fuzzy feeling.

WHY THE U.S. DOESEN’T HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

Most high-income countries today have some form of national health insurance, why is the United States different, what stands in the way? One issue might be that U.S. health care is much more expensive than other countries, the U.S. lacks an egalitarian ethos (an equality shared trait). While the U.S. government is a major consumer of health care resources, it fails to use its bargaining power to obtain lower prices.

Health care in the United States is much more expensive than in other countries, Americans spend as much as 55% more than the next highest country. If you look at the average cost of health care in the 42 European countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD) the U.S. spends 200% more.

The OECD is an interesting world organization with 42 member countries, the organization was established on December 14, 1960, and yes, the United States was one of the founding members. It was intended as a place to bring the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development membership, and the developing world together as a forum where countries come to share their mutual experiences of economic and social development policies. The object is to help makers find policy solutions to stimulate growth and improve living conditions in developing and emerging countries.

The organization was suggested by President John F. Kennedy and is based in Paris, France. The member countries are represented at the Ambassadorial level on a governing board which oversees the design and implementation of bi-annual work programmers.

I had absolutely no idea that such an organization existed, what a great idea for solving some of the problems of the world, a sit-down and conversation with some of the worlds thorny problems…..but with regards to health care (at least in the United States) it hasn’t worked.

Why does the United States spend as much as 200% more for medical care than the member countries of the OECD, one reason might be that the U.S. is held hostage by special interest groups! The political structure of our political system, including the role of primary elections, long and expensive campaigns that separate powers. The numerous congressional committees, subcommittees with overlapping authority, and the need for a supermajority in the Senate in order to pass meaningful legislation, ugh, no wonder we never get much accomplished.

Most of the countries that make up the OECD membership countries have a greater equality of access to health care and also pay for health care in a more progressive way. In the countries that have a universal health care program in place, the service is paid for by taxes on income, sales tax, or some other form of taxation that’s proportional to income.

Other countries use its bargaining power to obtain better health care rates, the OECD membership with a universal health care plan control 70 to 90% of health care expenditures; this fact creates bargaining power that helps to control costs.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Without exception, every time the U.S. moves towards some sort of a universal health care plan, the naysayers come out of the woodwork with the same tired arguments, wrapped up in the laisez-faire attitudes of tradition that celebrates individuality and risk-taking. Not having health insurance in today’s society couldn’t be called anything other than risk taking.

The other attitude is the progressive tradition that says people have a right to minimize their standard of living; have time off from work, and an education for their kids. These attitudes make for a nation of mini-entrepreneurs, and progressivism has helped make prosperity a mass-market phenomenon. Others view any kind of a universal health care program akin to a threat to Capitalism.

I’m fortunate that I have my wife, through her shrewd planning we have a health care plan that is better than most. She set aside a percentage of her bi-weekly paycheck for our golden years. That money now pays for a pretty damn good health care plan. I pay $104 a month for a portion of Medicare…..but that’s it.

I am convinced that the health care plan that President Obama has crafted is not an answer to the inequity that we face as a nation with health care, in fact, it may be a joke. The Obama plan actually makes it illegal not to have health insurance of some sort. I think that everybody should have health care, or if they don’t, they’ll have absolutely no access to any kind of coverage…..except a burial service for free, paid for by the taxpayers.

OBAMACARE A TERRIBLE CRUEL OPTION

I was hopeful in the beginning that the Affordable Care Act that the Obama administration came up with would craft itself into what other countries enjoyed with regards to their health insurance. I was wrong, I wasn’t mislead, I chose to look at the plan with kind of “rose colored glasses” and that is always a mistake.

What I was looking for was taxpayer involvement; I initially was looking for a universal tax that would cover everybody’s health problems. It might not have been equal, some people would have paid more because they earned more…..but everybody would have health coverage.

The Obama plan couldn’t have been further from that idea, I always had trouble with Obama care because it would continue dealing with the insurance companies, and pretty much, you can’t deal with them. They’ve been dictating for years the level of coverage, and have kept advancing the rate of pay for different procedures, why would they deal, it’s their game, and they make the rules as the game is played.

It has to be an either or option, you either buy your health insurance from an insurance company, and pay a portion of your insurance premium to help cover those without a plan…..or you pay an additional tax for health care from the government, and you eliminate the insurance companies…..guess which way we’ll be going…..can you say “things are going to remain the same?”

HAVE A NICE DAY!

POLITICAL CORRUPTION, IT’S HERE, IT’S THERE, IT’S EVERYWHERE!

POLITICAL CORRUPTION, IT’S HERE, IT’S THERE, IT’S EVERYWHERE!

(Steven Greenhorse, Paul Courson, Louis Lerner)

(Napp Nazworth, Christian Post Reporter, William M. Windsor)

(Huffington Post, Carl Bernstein, Lawrence Lessig, Daily Beast, Frazer Chronicle)

The government of the United States of America is the federal government of the republic of fifty states that constitute the United States, as well as one capital district, and several other territories. The federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, executive and judicial, whose powers are vested by the United States Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, respectively. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court.

There are however flaws in the creators of the rules, regulations and the laws that were established to govern the citizens of the republic of the United States. Those flaws, my friend, they’re as obvious as the nose on your face, the rules, regulations, laws and stipulations that were enacted to do the business of governance were devised and crafted by humans…..and humans, inherently are flawed. Without exception each rule or regulations that were meant to govern can be manipulated by manipulative people.

Almost without exception the framers of the constitution were brilliant in how they wanted the document interpreted by future generations of citizens, well after they were gone from the earth. It was understood by these founding fathers that there be rules to live by, every society of people needs these rules, regulations and laws, and the duty fell to the legislative branch of our government, Congress.

The success of the United States democracy depends on a system of checks and balances. These checks and balances are designed to disperse and constrain power in order to maintain the desired balance between the three of the three branches. However, over time, the checks and balance system that has been in use has been gradually corrupted, it would seem as if our economic system and our system of government has been lost. Wealth in the United States…..currently equals immense power that no one person or group should have…..because they basically are unable to control themselves or their groups.  

ABUSE OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER, IT HAPPENS ALMOST ON A DAILY BASIS

First President George Walker Bush, and then Barack Hussein Obama, because they’re the most recent Commanders and Chiefs. Bush got us into an illegal war in Iraq among other things and Barack Obama because he didn’t give up the abuses of power that President George W. Bush in a sense created.

These two men and their political parties were far from the first or second administration in American history to take advantage of situations that were pretty unique to their particular regimes. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was actually the first president to exert, and define presidential power in a way that was ground breaking (at the time).

Before FDR presidents were more laid-back in their approach to the office of the president of the United States, there actually had been presidents who, on several Saturdays each month, received guests at the White House with concerns or complaints.

Roosevelt was the first president to insulate the office from the public as well as the press, possibly because of his attitude towards is polio, and how he wanted to be perceived as the president of the United States. After Roosevelt, the office of the president seemed to take away some of the controls of Congress, and the chipping of that authority continues to this day.

Illegal declarations of war, military conflicts, interment and torture of war criminals, and his  treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, as well as the confiscation of business holdings, personal possessions, and even bank accounts.

Each president since Roosevelt has abused his powers…..at least as prescribed by the United States Constitution…..and during this process, has watered down the authority and the powers of Congress, one of those checks and balance parts of government that are so vital to the success of our system of government.

WE ARE…..AS A NATION LOSING GROUND

The issue is corruption in our political process, corrupted by the enormous sums of money that are paid to both political parties…..depending on how agreeable elected officials might be to a particular issue, or desire on a specific project. When this happens, and is allowed, as a nation we are corrupted, and our ideals are sacrificed.

The above was the assessment of Senator John McCain in a speech given fourteen years ago as he launched is presidential campaign. “People don’t have to be corrupt if the system that they work in is corrupt,” it perpetuates itself.

Special interests are just that…..special interests, with extremely little exception, special interest is for just that, special interests. They very seldom favor the general public and always make money for a special group of people, usually the elitist of our society.

It’s gotten so damn bad that there is a debate about the meaning of the term, corruption, and whether it can apply to a system as well as individuals. Is in some people’s opinion a fundamental flaw, and continues to this day. This debate has traveled through our court system all the way to the Supreme Court of the land.

The Supreme Court has before it a critical piece of campaign finance verbiage to consider and in the opinion of some Wall Street attorneys, and act as a dictionary in their findings. Let me clear this hub-bub up for everybody…..a system can be corrupt…..and those involved as well are guilty because they refuse to do anything about the corrupt system, and its practices, it’s guilt by association…..stupid!

Status-quo is a study in tranquility, of keeping things as they are, and in a system like our governance process, everybody loses in the long term. Financial corruption or favors is by far the worst kind of corruption (is there a good kind?) It operates on the primes of today, there is no history, and there is no future, there’s just today.

 

EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES

Silas Deane was accused of mismanagement and treason while serving as the ambassador to France, he died before he could clear his name…..the charges however were dropped. Conway Cabal and Horatio Gates conspired o remove George Washington as commander of the Continental Army.

Mathew Lyon, (Democrat from KY) was the first Congressman recommended for censure for spitting at Ralph Griswold, (Federalist, Ct.) The censure failed to pass, but he was found guilty of violating John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Act and sentenced to four months in jail…..during which time he was re-elected in 1798.

Abuse of power, of writing or re-writing rules, regulations and creating favorable laws, or simply ignoring the prescribed way to operate as a democracy is bad today…..of that there is no doubt, is it worse than at any time in our country’s history…..only the historians will be able to answer that question.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

STOP THIS BUS…..I WANT OFF!

STOP THIS BUS…..I WANT OFF!

(Los Angeles Times, Saba Hamedy, Soumya Karlamangle)

(Nate Silver, Jenny Deam, Washington Post, Susan Svrluga)

(New York Times, James Risen, Chris Maag, Frazer Chronicle)

The carnage continues, more defenseless kids wounded by some wing-nut shooter at a Colorado high school Friday, December 13, 2013. The incident, at Centennial, Colorado, Arapahoe high school thus far has cost only the life of the gunman, from a self inflected gunshot, teenager Karl Halverson Pierson.

Few people remember, or think about the perpetrators of these dastardly attacks, but obviously they are victims too. Misunderstood, disturbed or sick individuals, as a society we need to understand their pain and try and fix it before it manifests itself into one of these shooting incidents that are becoming far to numerous.

We are a developed country, an advanced civilization, with the intellect to land a man on the moon, and to drop a bomb down the old pickle barrel from hundreds or even thousands of miles away from the target. Yet we have incidents of wanton murder that make absolutely no sense, maybe several in a country the size of the United States would be acceptable…..but ten or more a year…..no way, completely unacceptable.

There have been 22 shooting incidents so far in 2013; there have been 18 deaths and 29 that were wounded. A particularly bloody year, 2013 so far, but 2012 saw the U.S. school students suffer 42 deaths, 18 injured in only 13 shootings. It seemed that over the past three years, beginning in 2011, shooting attacks usually student on student shootings, things have been increasing…..not a good sign.

Gun violence by pre-teens and teenagers is not new, it’s been tracked since the 1760’s in the United States, really before it was a united-states. During the Pontiac’s Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, four Lenape American Indians entered the schoolhouse near present day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed the schoolmaster, and then killed 9 or 10 children, three children escaped.

The first recorded student shooting in a school occurred November 2, 1853 in Louisville, Kentucky; Mathew Ward brought a pistol in the morning, went to school and killed the schoolmaster as revenge for the excessive punishment of his brother the day before.

In a way we are becoming desensitized or numb to what is going on here in our own country, it occurred to me that most of the victims of school shootings are kids…..innocent kids. I’ve got at least 200 reports of school shootings in front of me, and the realization hit me like a bolt of lightning. Kids are supposed to be safe, safe at home and safe at their schools…..but to a degree they’re not.

These people are crazy, each and everyone, no matter the reason, to kill somebody in a grade school, a high school or college setting, man, you got to be nuts. There is also another similarity that most of these people share, they are cowards, because mostly after the dirty deed is done, they commit suicide; yes…..cowards to the bitter end.

NUMBERS ARE SURPRISING, BOYS AND THEIR TOYS

My dad owned a rifle, and a pistol, kept the rifle in the bedroom closet, and the pistol in his nightstand drawer. How did I know this, after my father’s death my mother asked me to remove and dispose of them. It was the closest that I ever came to possessing a firearm.

My dad kept the rifle and pistol for protection, but at 5’-5” and 150 pounds, he probably could run faster than grab a gun and shoot an intruder. My point here is simple, my dad was a lover, not a fighter, yet he felt like he needed some sort of protection aside from his physical presence…..which was short.

According to a Gallup Poll of adult respondents that own guns, since 1959, the numbers have fluctuated between 36 and 51% ownership of a weapon in their home. I suppose, it’s surprised that more Republicans than Democrats are gun owners. In 1973 55% of Republicans owned guns, while about 45% of Democrats were gun owners. A poll in 2010 listed 50% of Republicans and 22% of responding Democrats as gun owners.

Gun ownership has declined over the past 40 years…..but almost all of the decrease has come from democrats. By 2010 a national exit poll showed that people identifying themselves as Democrats had a drop in gun ownership by 22%, while Republican ownership of firearms remained at about 50%. It seems as if gun ownership is deeply embedded in political identity, and vice versa. Other variables on why people might own firearms include race, where a person lives, and their level of education.

Having school-age children in the household did not significantly affect gun ownership rates, a majority of Republican-voting parents of minor children had guns in their homes, while only about one in four Democratic-voting parents did.

Having school-aged children in the household, in the suburbs had nothing to do with gun ownership, 58% of Republican voters said that they owned guns, and that they took gun safety classes with their young children. Gun ownership rates are highest among the middle class, rather than the poor.

Over the past three decades people that attacked public, private, or special needs schools overwhelmingly had access to a pistol or rifle from their home. Teens and in some cases pre-teens in the United States have grown up with violence, sometimes on the streets, but most assuredly on the family television, or at the local theater.

American has an alternative environment relative to many other industrialized nations with regards to gun ownership rates. There are several levels to dissect when examining the differences from the U.S. and other countries when the question of gun ownership is raised.

Gun ownership in the United States is fanned by gun and ammo makers; prowess with a firearm is a highly skilled profession and is glorified by fathers, grandfathers, uncles and boyhood friends. Firearm advertisement can also be directed at a father and his teen-aged children…..both boys and girls. It seems to be the old axiom, a man or women with a gun is safer, and better able to protect themselves from aggression.

The long debate of gun ownership in the United States is not going away any time soon, there is a whole new generation of gun advocates that were born between 1980 and 2000, and after they reach maturity, they’ll be another batch of gun ownership advocates that will be born between 2010 and 2025…..it’s a never-ending legion to pick up the staff of guaranteed rights directly from the U.S. Constitution.

TWO OPTIONS AND TWO OPINIONS HERE

Without exception the problem is simple…..if you want to send your kids off to school with a kiss on the head and a good natured pat on the behind, and feel reasonably satisfied about where they’re going, and their safety, reduce gun ownership and the access to them by kids. It’s not rocket science; actually it’s the overall safety of your kids, and I don’t know about you, but when I was sending my kids to school, I wanted to make as sure as I could that they were safe.

I really could care less about what gun advocates might say about my stance, and their perceived freedom of choice, let one of their children be put in harm’s way by some crazy eyed shooter, and see how quickly their tune changes.

The other option is to let things go along the way that they are going, and you’ll read about some innocents being shot in the head, unrecognizable to everybody except the medical examiner and finger prints, or dental work that is retrieved from your loved ones corpse, and rest easy with the knowledge that the casket will be closed, your child too hideous to be seen by grandpa, grandma, aunts, uncles or friends. The choice is ours…..but the clock is ticking on the next innocence shooting.

HAVE A NICE DAY!