America Doomed

Japan Leading the Way — More Resources Toward Families — Away From Corporations

Japan just had a landslide election and kicked out the party in power since 1955.  Forget the actual names of the parties because it can be misleading for an American.  Consider what the new party’s promises:

The party has also promised to overhaul Japanese politics, redirecting resources away from corporations and toward families in the form of child care support and free education.

Notice what the new ruling party in Japan wants to do —

• More resources toward families
• Less resources toward corporations

That sounds like a formula that could work in America.  That sounds like what American liberals and progressives believe in.  That is exactly the opposite of what conservatives and Republicans believe in. Let’s hope America can learn from Japan.

Although Obama is far more centrist than many people thought in the 2008, America voted for a change.  Unfortunately, Obama might not be the change that America wants but he still has time to come through.  In any case, he is clearly better than the Bush-Cheney cabal.   He just might not be good enough to rescue America.

Some pundits are predicting big wins for the Republicans in 2010.  I don’t see that.  By 2010, things are going to be worse.  There will be more unemployed.  There is going to be more homeless.  The country will likely go through a horrible 2009 flu season.  No matter what health care reform is passed, there will be continued push to make it better from the moment it is signed.  Health care reform will not be off the table this year.  It affects everybody and a good flu  season will make it more apparent why everybody needs to be covered.

Liberals and progressives will continue the fight and older people who vote overwhelming for Republicans will continue to die.  They will be replaced with younger people who have crushing student loans and cannot find living wage jobs.  The demographics will continue to change for a long time.

Meanwhile, the party of haters will continue what Republicans have always done — privilege the few over the many — as they attempt to protect their money — the only god they believe in.

America is doomed.

Glenn Beck — Functional Illiterate

It is breathtaking to watch a clip of Glen Beck being functionally illiterate.  This guy is psychotic.  He is seeing and hearing things in his head that don’t exist.  As dozens of sponsors leave his show, he turns up the crazy.   Glenn Beck has a dopamine overload and it comes across loud and clear on this video snippet.

On the video, Beck lists a bunch of seemingly random words and then asserts they spell the word OLIGARH with the Y missing: OLIGARHY.  This is not a word in any language.  He declares the Y is missing because you have to ask WHY — Y vs WHY?  But, of course, any literate person knows there is also a C missing — O L I G A R C H Y — this is the word he is looking for — C stands for CRAZY and Beck certainly is.

Beck is suggesting in his psychotic rant that Obama somehow represents an oligarchy where the power of the government rests in the hands of a few.   If this was the case then Obama would not be having the problem he is having passing his agenda.  Instead, the party which was decisively voted out continues to assert power beyond its election results because of money and special interests.  For most of my life it has been Republicans ruling the country for the benefit of the few.  This is why there is massive unemployment and wealth is continued to be concentrated is just a few tenths of one percent of the country’s citizens.

Why would anybody turn on the television and watch this crazy Beck?  Seriously, what is the point of writing a bunch of crap on this board and then circling the first letter of words or phrases to declare it spells a meaningless word?   How could this appeal to anybody on the planet?

I don’t think that all conservatives or Republicans are stupid.  However, Beck seems to be helping to show that he is.  Many conservatives and Republicans are very smart — how the Republicans screwed up Medicare to maximum profits is brilliant if the goal is greed. Republicans  are either greedy and lack empathy, or just plain stupid.  It is the greed of the Republicans that makes them say all of the hateful stuff and advocate policies which promote greed.  Republican policies favor the privileged over the masses — that’s a fact.

America is doomed.

Boycott Whole Foods — CEO Mackey Needs To Go

Whole Foods’ CEO Mackey demonstrated how out of touch he is with his consumers when he voiced his opinion that health care is not a right to all Americans.  It’s a free country and Mackey can believe any crazy, stupid, greedy thing he wants — but I don’t have to shop at his stores.  A national boycott has been called by all people who object to Mackey’s heartless, greedy, and uninformed opinions.

I sent email to Whole Foods regarding Mackey and received an apology; however, I had requested that Mackey be fired.  Thus, as a long time shopper at Whole Foods, I will no longer shop there as long as CEO Mackey remains employed with Whole Foods.

This is the second time I have been greatly disappointed with Mackey and Whole Foods — the first time was over the merger of Wild Oaks when Whole Foods bought out a competitor.  Whole Foods acts more like the greedy people at Wal-Mart than as a sustainable food distribution company.

Now that Mackey has made his views known, it is easier to understand why Whole Foods has left their traditional sustainable food model for the greed mantra of American capitalism.  Whole Foods is, indeed, part of the problem with food in America.

America is doomed

Fox News Makes Crazy Entertainment — No News Though

It has taken long enough, but finally advertisers have had enough with at least one Fox show — crazy, deranged Glen Beck.  Beck says the most outrageous nonsense — burns people with gasoline, calls Obama a racist, etc.  There is NOTHING this guy won’t do or say to get ratings.  Finally, 30 or more advertisers have dumped his show.  Still, the financial entertainer Jim Cramer calls Beck “a nice guy” — Cramer is the person Jon Stewart called out for his outrageous recommendations leading up to the financial crisis.

More Advertisers Bolt Glenn Beck.

Yet, Fox News has the highest ratings.  Granted, the numbers represent a very small portion of America population.   And conservatives apparently watch more TV than liberals and progressives.  This is because there is so little worth watching on political television.  When was the last time that political television had somebody like Naomi Klein talking about shock capitalism?

News, thanks largely to Fox News, has been transformed into entertainment.  Even the nightly news broadcasts have very little news and certainly nothing like the news of previous generations — people like Walter Crokrite to name just one.

Yet, Fox News, contrary to the ratings, does not reflect the views of America.  But the nonsense of Fox News does have influence on people.  Study after study shows that people who watch Fox News believe all sorts of factual nonsense, e.g. Saddam Hussein was behind 911.  See the documentary Outfoxed for lots of other outrageous stuff people who watch Fox News believe.

America has the very government that the people elect.  This is perhaps the saddest statement to be made about the state of America today.  The disenfranchised do not vote and vast numbers of people cast ignorant ballots and/or they don’t hold their elected representatives to account when they are bought off by lobbyists and special interests.  If they did, America would not have the elected leaders we have today who could care less about America.  These elected people mostly — there are exceptions — care about their own interests and have sold out.  They are morally despicable.

America is doomed.

U-Haul Greed, Rip-Off, Scam, and Fraud

I like to feature great American rip offs from time to time, and particularly like to highlight the tricks that are played in the name of greed.  Today, it will be my recent experience with U-Haul, the one way movers.  I have used U-Haul a number of times, mostly to help my children move to or from college.  Each time I learn a little bit more about how to deal with the greed of yet another American corporation.

In the past, I have been told my people working at U-Haul stores to avoid the online site to make reservations.  They point out that my dolly I had pre-ordered never gets communicated to the local person.  Further, I want to work with particular U-Haul pickup and drop off points because they are convenient for me.  Instead, using the online site U-Haul assigns a pickup or drop off point that is convenient to them.  As a result, I now only call the local dealer where I want to reserve the truck directly.

So, on a recent U-Haul reservation, I called my local store to make a reservation.  As I was giving them information, the person said that I would be contacted with a location to pick up my truck.  I said, I called the local number of the store where I wanted to pick up the truck.  “No sir,” she replied.  You called the corporate office.    But, I didn’t.  I called the number of the local store that I have called in the past, and was transferred to the corporate people without my knowledge.   Meanwhile, I had given my credit card and confirmed my transaction.  In any case, this bitch at the corporate office assured me that she put in my order for the store that I requested and there would be no problem.  “Have a nice move,” see says.

Surprise.  Surprise.  I got fucked by U-Haul.  I ended up having to literally drive 40 miles out of my way to pick up their fucking truck.  No, the one I could walk to and that I called was not a good choice for them.  In addition, even though I specifically requested a 10 foot truck, the corporate asshole decided I needed a 14 foot truck, didn’t advise me of that fact, and decided I wouldn’t mind paying the extra $30+.  Of course, I couldn’t just cancel the entire transaction at the store because there would be a $50 fee for that.  I hate the greed games of corporate America and U-Haul specifically.

So, once again corporate America screwed a consumer and this consumer will NEVER be using this fucking company again.  I know my lack of business will hardly hurt U-Haul.  In fact, companies like these routinely screw their customers because there business model is to screw every customer just once. They rely on the birth model to bail them out.  So, dear U-Haul, fuck you and fuck you.  I hope my experiences forewarn other people who might consider using your services and that they will not use the greed based services of your fucking company either.

America is doomed.

Greed Wins Again

No surprise here — the greedy, rich and powerful will win again.  They will rape ordinary Americans again.  No surprise — because American is no longer the place for everybody — it is the place for only the rich.

Healthcare insurers get upper hand

There was never any doubt that the rich would win the health care reform debate.  They own too many elected representatives who sell their votes so routinely that they don’t even know what they believe.  Instead, they are told what to believe and what to say.  They are the best Congress money, special interests, and lobbyists can buy.

Things will never change until there is a revolution.  The revolution will not come from the middle class who think they will someday be rich.  Instead, it will come from the poor — the place that all revolutions start.   The poor are the ones with nothing to lose — it can only get better for them.  Death does not scare the poor because it might be an improvement.  As a result, they risk it all to gain a better life.  Meanwhile, the rich will do anything, including killing all the poor, to maintain their power.

It is funny to see those old patriotic films about what a special place America is.  It certainly use to be a special place.  It was a place of opportunity.  Now, it is a place of greedy corporations who outsource jobs.  They offer no retirement — they even pay below poverty wages.  Those corporations don’t offer health care anymore.  There are an abundance of workers — so, what does it matter if some die because of lack of health care?  They stupid people, according to the corporations, will have babies and create a new crop of workers who will work for nothing and stupid consumers who will buy the products from the greedy rich bastards.

America is doomed.

Financial Bullshit Vocabulary — Americans Will Believe Anything

I love the way the media and financial community create an unending amount of bullshit to describe the economy.  For example, consider the “double-dip” recession.  This is when the government will declare one recession complete and another one beginning shortly thereafter.  Really, does it make much difference if there is an uptick in the economy between two recessions — why not just declare that the first recession never ended and continues — or we bad: we said the recession was over but we were wrong.  The reason is always political.  When the first one ends there can be all sorts of banner ads — yeah, the recession ended.  A short time later, a new recession has begun.  Plus, how often do you hear, “We made a mistake.”  It’s financial bullshit, delivered to your courtesy of the American financial media.

There is so much financial bullshit.  Like the unemployment rate which is manipulated so that unemployment always rebounds as people give up looking for work and/or cease to earn unemployment benefit.  Unemployment does not improve because of more employment.  Thus, unemployment rate is financial bullshit.

Consider the import/export trade numbers — lots of bullshit.  An American company outsources jobs to China or some other part of the world.  Products are built and shipped to the U.S.  The American company makes the profits with non-American workers.  The American company can avoid paying taxes on the profits.  Americans lose their jobs.  Bullshit, Bullshit, Bullshit — and America is screwed, again.

Look at financial statistic after statistic and you will find assumptions and footnotes that render the statistic nothing better than speculation at a not-so-smart dinner table.   Politicians will not let the truth ever be told about the economy because the truth indicates that Congress is doing a horrible job, the rich are getting richer, the middle class is being destroyed, and the number of poor is growing.  Given that economics continue to deteriorate, why would the politicians want to tell the truth.  The answer is simply they do not but there is no end to the amount of bullshit they will pass around.

Yes, America, raise your voice and declare “BULLSHIT”.  Tell your elected representatives you know it is BULLSHIT because you are out of work, behind on your mortgage, lost your house, can’t afford health care, hate your low paying job, working for an asshole, etc. etc.  It is time to take back the country for the greed rich bastards who caused all the problems.

America is doomed.

How Will You Die — Skilled Nursing Facility!

Believe it or not, most people reading this are going to die at SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES.  They will be on Medicare and have the private health insurance HMO option.  Let’s say — Health Net — but there are many and the result if usually the same.  Eventually, you will get sent to a SKILLED NURSING FACILITY — it will be your last address.

Once you are with the private insurance HMO through Medicare, they will restrict what hospital you can go to.  It won’t matter if you are close to a good hospital.  The HMO will demand you go to some crummy hospital — it will likely be miles away.  You will get crappy care and you will need more care after you leave.

If you are sick, you will get discharged to a SKILLED NURSING FACILITY.  This is frequently a DEATH SENTENCE.  At the SKILLED NURSING FACILITY you be received rehabilitation.  For example, you might need help recovering from a surgery or procedure at the hospital and are not ready to return home.  You might have physical therapy or need IVs, etc.  However, at the SKILLED NURSING FACILITY you will get really bad care.  They will put you in a diaper because they don’t want you getting out of bed.  The staff at these facilities didn’t go into health care to help people — it is just a job — and a poor job — many will make $10 per hour or less — they don’t care if you live or die.  You will develop bed sores — they will get worse.  The food will be bad and you won’t feel like eating it.  You will be depressed because you see that you are dying.  You will continue to decline.

Instead of getting discharged back to your home, you will stay because you are now worse off than when you came in.  The SKILLED NURSING FACILITY will restrict visiting hours so that your family can only see you during certain hours.  During those non-visiting hours is when all the “rehab” occurs.  Actually, most of it will not occur and even when it does it will be exaggerated.   For example, instead of 45 minutes of physical therapy, you might get 5 minutes but it will be charted at the full time.  Check — the physical therapist gets paid.  Plus, if a family member declares that there was no physical therapy, it will be recorded that the patient refused the treatment.  It is one of many convenient reasons for poor care.

As long as the insurance continues to pay, you will be in the SKILLED NURSING FACILITY.  It will be very difficult for you to get released during this time, because you are cash in the bank.  Plus, you are declining — so, how could you possibly be released since you are declining?  You are declining by the design of the facility.  You are going to die.

Now, you will see all sorts of banners at the SKILLED NURSING FACILITY.   There will be awards they have won for doing such a great job at rehab.  But these banners are just a facade.  You are actually in a DEATH CAMP.  No, there are no gas chambers — even though a gas chamber might be a more humane way to end your days.  Yet, you will likely die and the longer you are in the SKILLED NURSING FACILITY the better are your chances of dying.

So, when you hear about Death Panels in the health reform bill, just remember America already has very effective death camps — they are the private HMO sending people to SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES.

America is doomed.

People Are Mad — Doom is Everywhere

I get lots of calls from my web page.  People are upset.  It is almost like they enjoy the therapeutic effects of caling somebody and just speaking their minds.  Many believe that America is doomed.  Clearly, they read this blog or they wouldn’t be calling me.  A few like to take exceptions to my basic tenets — they are wrong but I still enjoy their calls.  Keep them coming.

Senator Liberman today said that people with health insurance can wait until the recession is over.  The thing, Mr. Liberman, is that it will take decades for this “recession” to be over.  I don’t mean before the economy grows a tiny bit from one quarter to another — that is how the government might like to define a recession being over.  I am talking about when America regains all of the lost jobs plus the nearly 150,000 jobs per month it has to gain to keep up with increasing population.  This recession is not going to end for along time.  So, according to Liberman, let all those people without health insurance just quietly get sick and die.  Liberman wants you to die.

Well, Fuck You, Mr. Liberman and the rich, privledged horse that you ride on.  You are one son of a bitch that loves promoting wars and fighting for the rich and greedy in the country.  I hope you lose your next election and I don’t have to hear you stupid views ever again.

Then, you have people like Senator Max Baucus from Montana.  This guy is so far up the ass of the health insurance companies that he could not possibly be looking out for the people who elected him.  Those people need to dump his ass from office and replace him with somebody who will look after them.

There are so many elected representatives that are only after themselves.  They don’t care what happens to ordinary Americans.  They only care about themselves.  They are the reason that there is no hope.  They are the reason that there will be no true health care reform, or energy reform, or financial reform.  They are the reason that special interests and lobbyists will continue to win and the rich will get richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class decimated.  They are the reason that there will be a revolution in America and America will be destroyed from the inside.

America is doomed.

Medicare Taken Over By Private Insurance Companies

Through my mother recent illness, I have learned a lot about the state of Medicare.  There is some myth and some facts — let me explain.

Medicare started out as a government run program, but it has now been taken over by private, for profit insurance companies.  I follow the news and did not know this had happened until I got involved with it through my mother’s illness.  That is the thing about health care in general, until you have to use the services you make all sorts of assumptions about how it works.  The people in the business know the truth but they are making $BILLIONS in profits keeping the truth from everybody else.

Most senors sign up for a combined Medicare and HMO/PPO plan with a private insurance company.  My mother signed up years ago with a local company because her favorite doctor suggested it.   Over the years, this local company was acquired many times and is now owned by Health Net.

Health Net is a HORRIBLE company.  If you are with Health Net you have a great chance of dying if you need serious health care.  Their web site is designed to confuse.  Just recently, they converted their attachments from pdf to sdo.  They still claim they are pdf files but you can’t view them.  Turns out you have to get Adobe Version 9 to view them.  It is impossible to determine that on the Health Net Web site.  There are many other problems with the web site.  For example, my mother need to go to a skilled nursing facility but you can’t use the web site to find any facilities.  Likewise, there is no urgent care place she can go to.  And, it is even difficult to figure out that there is only ONE, yes ONE, hospital she can go to.

With her Health Net HMO my mother can ONLY go to ONE hospital — a crummy one.  If she needs blood work, she can only go to one lab.  The lab is hard to get into, long waits, and no appointments.  If she needs a procedure she has to drive many miles with long waits to get it done.   Health Net takes my mother’s Medicare money and then makes it very difficult for my mother to get access to services.  We will be opting out of this Medicare HMO plan at the end of the year and going Original Medicare.  Here’s why:

With Original Medicare you can go to any hospital you want.  You can get blood and tests done virtually anywhere.   Everybody accepts Medicare.  Also, with original Medicare you can get remote services, e.g. remote x-rays and blood work.  So, if you are old and have a hard time traveling, people will come to you.

The Medicare HMO is literally trying to kill my mother.  This is the truth — I am not even exaggerating this for a second.  They want to limit her access to treatment to such an extent that she will die.  If you want to talk about “Death Panels” the U.S. already has them and it is private insurance companies limiting access to health care through Medicare.  Original Medicare is the solution and the HMO private companies are the problem.

It is not easy to opt out of Medicare with private insurance companies.  You need to get an online account at medicare.gov and the (de)enrollment period begins on November 15th to be effective January 1st.  My mother will be opting out of Health Net HMO — what we prefer to call Health Not.  If you know somebody on Medicare, get the word out to dump the HMOs.  It might cost you a few more bucks, but you will have access to services and it might save your life.

Don’t listen when people say that Medicare is a government run program because the private health insurance companies have completely fucked it up.  Opt out of the Medicare HMO and you will get to a pretty great government program. It isn’t perfect because the private insurance company want original Medicare to suck also — they put in the donut hole problem.   But, like anything the private sector does, greed is the only goal.  The private sector has fucked America and will continue to do so until America elects people who are not kissing the ass of greedy, private corporations.

America is doomed.