Cuttin’ Nuts

The Number One nut-cuttin’ issue facing us today is whether or not 911 was an inside job (so many tangents are related to this one day and WHO did it). Besides the fact that I can never vote R or D again, I could never vote for Ron Paul because of this:

Did you know that he just can’t “handle the controversy” of that infamous day?

h/t Corbett Report

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.. when nobody is watching the hen house…

Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

The Massachusetts election Tuesday was the last one conducted under rules that had been in place for over a century to protect the right of the people to choose their government free from enormous expenditures of corporate wealth. Next time voters want to send us a message at the ballot box, they may find their voices drowned out by wealthy corporations with their own special-interest agendas.
This Supreme Court decision takes us back a century to a legal framework that fostered a golden era of corporate influence. While the core of the McCain-Feingold law, the ban on unlimited “soft money” contributions by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals directly to the political parties remains intact for now, the reasoning of this decision undermines the foundation of a host of laws enacted to strengthen our democracy and curb corruption in government. Indeed, the soft-money ban could very well be the next target of those who want to see our political system dominated by corporate influence.
This decision gives a green light to corporations to unleash their massive coffers on the political system. The profits of Fortune 500 companies in 2008 alone were 350 times the entire amount spent on the last presidential election.

Oil companies, with virtually no harm to their balance sheets, can now try to “take out” members of Congress who don’t toe their company line on energy policy. Foreign-owned companies–even those owned and controlled by other governments are free to underwrite the candidates of their choice.
Because of the scope of the Citizens United decision, it will take close examination to see what can be done to restore the voice of the average citizen in elections. We must not stand by as corporations threaten to dominate our democratic process. If the race in Massachusetts showed us anything, it’s the power of voters. In our democracy, that power not the power of corporate wealth should decide our elections.

WP/1.23.10

Terrorist Attacks Made By Terminally Ill Patients

Davis Fleetwood had a little help today from The Punk Patriot:

After a hearing in which health insurance CEOs stated that they would not consider changing their rescinding policies, that- in fact- health insurance workers who rescinded the policies of individuals of expensive and/ or terminal illness were given performance bonuses- terminally ill patients whose policies have been rescinded by health insurance companies have organized into a terrorist organization.
They are calling themselves the living dead.
Todays episode was guest scripted by The Punk Patriot. Say hello to him here: http://www.youtube.com/trichenosis

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DavisFleetwoodFACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/DavisFleetwood

Got an Itch? Join here for the operation.

Get Your Head Out of Your Ass and Start Being Honest With Yourself

So says a person who describes himself as: 50% Motherfucker. 50% Son Of A Bitch.

And I like it.

Here we have a person who says what I say, but one hell of a lot more eloquently (which is not difficult, in and of itself). But to do so with the same basic understanding is exhilarating to me (of course I have kelso, Lynda and a few others who do this same regular upgrade to my bullshit… its just nice seeing it elsewhere). I recommend highly visiting and reading the article at The Black Sun Gazette, but essentially what the author is saying is that if you haven’t figured out that Obama is a smiling and sophisticated Bush, you aren’t paying attention and you need to get your head out of your ass and be honest for a change. Stop lying to yourself, fake Progressive. Stop wishing that all the lies he said to convince your gullible ass to vote for his corrupt ass didn’t happen, or worse just ignore them:

There are a number of issues which I will ignore for now, at least in terms of making the case. I would, however, like to state that if you do not agree with me that Barack Obama is a hatchet  man for the American ruling class you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the state. Further, I would suggest that you are engaged in a serious and concerted effort at remaining ignorant of the goals and tactics of the current administration both domestically and abroad. Since a number of people engaged in such self-delusion are intelligent friends of mine I would like to say quite simply: get your head out of your ass and start being honest with yourself. The differences between the Obama administration and the Bush administration are largely cultural and tactical. They pursue the same course of action, albeit one is smarter than another. The problem with America isn’t that we need a smarter ruler.

That’s right. We don’t need someone smarter, if they are just as corrupt as the previous ones for the last 30 years or more. It has become commonplace for the man to lie with abandon now, since the election. He has had zero problems with totally denying his campaign promises and various lies before and as a Senator. It is obvious as the hair on your ass that he is a liar and thief of the trust of Americans everywhere.

In this vein, I am not impressed with Mr Obama’s message to us today posted at Earth2Obama and below:

Jerkoff

He tells us that the Recovery Act has stopped the country’s economic free fall and states a couple of statistics as fodder. The problem is that we are still in a free fall and anyone with half a braincell left sees it and knows it. We are still losing jobs close to the 1/2 Million mark per month, when we need over 200K every month added just to keep up with population growth. I am not impressed with the man’s continuous pointing out the previous Administration’s culpability in the current disaster, when he voted for it (conveniently NOT telling you that) and has exasperated it ten fold since taking over. I am not impressed that he has only continued the previous criminal’s behavior, yet still thinks you dumbass rednecks will still fall for his bullshit.

We aren’t all imbeciles or brainwashed sycophants, Mr Obama.  Some of us ARE paying attention and are not corralled by your fake paradigm. We understand bullshit when we smell it and see it and hear it, dude. People paying attention have access to the numbers, dumbass, but you must count on the mass of folks who would rather “trust” your lying ass than their own judgment and reasoning abilities. This is your strength… it is the only thing you have left after revealing the true you… your ability to hold on to the brainwashed fools who still believe you are “different” or want something other than what the oligarchy wants.

But back to the article called, “Final Word: The Fake Left“, that Nick Hate penned: he examines the paradox of the tired old “Left/Right” paradigm, explaining how those on “The Left” who are trying to soften Capitalism (in its form) and make it more maleable and conducive to normal poor folks is a massive failure and can end up with many dead in uprisings as the working class get pissed and the ruling class uses force to put them down. It happens often in this country, but our collective recall abilities usually only are accessable if we are trying to remember when Michael Jackson had a broad nose last.

IMO, He is correct in the following:

It’s an oft-stated fact on the left that “radical” comes from some ancient language’s word meaning “to get to the root of.” What this means, simply, is that radicalization is important. But it’s not nearly enough. Radicalization can be led in many directions- toward fascism, toward conciliation with the ruling class, toward a revolutionary organization of society along the lines of social equality. I know which I’ll fight for. Those of you continuing to attempt to find common ground with those who would perpetuate this system are either severely deluded or active agents of reaction.

Again: we do not seek the same goal at a more moderate pace. You seek to shore up capitalism and make it “nicer.” I seek to smash it and replace it with the rule of those who produce wealth. The difference could not be any starker.

Health Insurance Deals The Three Card Monte Game

Let me add some math and street savvy to Dennis The Menace’s fantastic remark (provided in BuelahMan’s post here). Private health insurance is *identical* — INDENTICAL — not *like* not *analogous* not *I’m being clever* — to a street-corner 3-CARD MONTE GAME.

For anyone who is not familiar with the game here’s a tutorial on the hustle with the cards themselves as the “crew” (*insurance company*) would set up business and lure you in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kO_5cNF5k&feature=channel

Let’s say, though, that the insurance company, like a 3-Card Monte crew, is subject to law. Let’s say that what they’re doing with the sleight of hand weren’t legal at all, even though it is. Let’s say they were merely doing their best to throw the cards speedily and you’d take a shot at guessing where the winning card was. If you had average eyes and were comfortable in the hustle and bustle of a New York City or Buenos Aires or Lima or London street corner (which MOST Americans very much aren’t — they’re either White, scared or both), you’d pick the winning card 1/3 of the time.

Fair enough. You are being paid EVEN money in a game in which you are a 2/1 underdog. I’ll spare the boring calculations of this and get right to the math of it. You are being paid 50c for every insurance claim when you should be paid 67c. The insurance company, knowing everything about you, acting in a completely forthright manner, not even charging outrageous deductibles is making 17% return on their money. Any business which can do that in volume is going to be very, very, successful. To make 17% a year, every year, puts a totally honest business in the upper tier of success.

Now, how can the insurance company, even acting honestly, just playing the odds, guarantee these kinds of profits? Easy. They have something you all should have, but either don’t bother getting or don’t have or don’t care about. These are called “actuarial tables”. Here’s an example of an older one that the Social Security uses:

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/as117/as117.pdf

Here’s a more general link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_table

So, insurance companies know more about you based upon your risk profile than you know about yourself. That’s just insurance companies doing honest business and playing the odds. Even when they have to make major payouts on claims or a lot of minor ones, those have been figured in, and they’re making way more off all the healthy people who don’t make claims. Deductibles add a tremendous amount to the profit % of insurance companies, making their expected return behaving honorably now around 22%.

Insurance companies don’t behave honorably. They cherry-pick healthy people. They question and delay every claim. They intimidate and duck and dodge, knowing they have the full support of the government plus they have the best lawyers on the planet and YOU HAVE NOTHING. You are not David fighting Goliath. You are an ant fighting Goliath. You make a legitimate claim. They accuse you of insurance fraud — a custodial felony — what the fuck are you going to do about that? Can you pay a top class lawyer $700/hour to DEFEND you?

I write this as someone who understands math and capital markets intimately. I consider myself an economic conservative but social and foreign policy left-wing extremist. I’ve been hustling with math my entire life and I’m well-off. Yet, both my social left-wing extremism and my economic conservatism inform my belief that free, high quality, guaranteed, single-payer health care is the best option for the individual person and family as well as the economy. The long-term success of an economy (see Robert Solow, economist, on this)is determined mostly by the return to the society’s “unit of labor.” This means a society’s economic success is dependent on having the most productive, healthy, educated, safe, responsible, and creative workforce. In this environment, everyone gets richer.

In the UNFRIENDLY/FRIENDLY FASCIST “President” BushBaManuel Cheney reverse Robin Hood imperialist state, the richest 1000 Americans get much richer. The richest 500,000 Americans get somewhat richer. And it all comes out of the remaining 299,400,000 pockets because of rackets like “for-profit” insurance.

(Posted on kelso’s behalf by BuelahMan: taken from the comments section of the linked post and added because it was so Damned Good, hope that’s ok, bro’)