Author: Todd

Richard, a General Manager, was leaving work in Cary one night and was shot by a robber in the stomach.  He went on workman’s comp and as soon as the benefits expired the Honey Baked Ham Company fired him.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/6080324/

Spread the word, no Honey Baked Hams this Thanksgiving or Christmas.  These Corpratist Ass Clowns put revenue above human welfare and their employees.  The man took a bullet for them and their still more concerned about the effect his absence has on their bottom line than his family.  Plus, they lied to him.  The company promised in e-mails to keep him and his family “whole financially.”  Well, at least until it costs them any money.

Never cared much for their over-priced hams anyway.

He died yesterday. He is one of the people on my list of graves to locate and spit on. Good riddance, evil doer.

FYI – He was the “Godfather” of the Neoconservative movement and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Dubya upon Chaney’s admired recommendation. They’re both on my list too.

According to the NY Times assessment, health “reform” is moving ahead. Here’s a segment from their article. I highlighted the most damaging part of this legislation in bold.

“Four of the five Congressional committees considering health care legislation have already passed bills. Each would require all Americans to have insurance and provide government subsidies for those who cannot afford it. Each would bar insurance companies from refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions; imposing lifetime caps on coverage; or dropping people when they get sick.”

Once this compromised legislation is passed not one thing will have been achieved to actually help control the cost or access to health care in America. There is nothing regarding tort reform, there is no mention of leveling the cost of prescription drugs to what other countries pay. There isn’t anything to manage cost at the provider level. It is no more than a legal mandate for all Americans to purchase a private market product. It’s a big ass win for the health insurance companies and nothing for struggling American families.

Do you know how low your families income will have to be before qualifying for any government subsidies to purchase insurance? Think poverty level and subtract 10. Now multiply by the number of job losses that continue by the cost of government subsidized health insurance from the private market. You want to talk about expensive? Just look at what mandated insurance did to Massachusetts courtesy of the spawn himself, Mitt Romney. Yep. They’re broke.

Don’t get me wrong, I would support health care reform in a valuable format that will actually reduce costs and provide marketplace competition. The legislation that is forming now is no more than the American government forcing a private market product on the consumer. And I don’t want anyone to compare car insurance. You have a choice to buy a car and drive it. This legislation leaves no choice. And the President will sign it, no matter how compromised, and call it a win. Why do you think the Pharma’s and Insurers are still at the table? They want to make sure a “bi-partisan”, “compromise” is reached that will hand them 40 million new customers.

And despite the fracas of August, the major stakeholders in the health care debate — hospitals, doctors, insurers and the pharmaceutical industry — have not abandoned the negotiations. Ralph G. Neas, chief executive of the National Coalition on Health Care and a veteran of Washington legislative fights, said this was especially significant.

“They’re saying to themselves: ‘We’re going to get 30 to 40 or 50 million new customers. This is in our economic self interest,’ ” Mr. Neas said. “That, as much as anything else, could propel this forward to a law that does provide quality health care for all.”

“No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. Post this in your status for the next 24 hours if you agree.”

It’s good to see we’ve reached the point of Utopian comments.  This idealistic statement has been posted on facebook by five of my friends in the last day.  I’ve even been told I missed the point of it.  Mmmm… let’s see.  I’m hearing some Beach Boys in my head….”Wouldn’t it be nice if we older…”.  Oh ya, wouldn’t it be nice.  It would be more than that, it would be ideal.  It would be an ideal, Utopian medical care system. The likes of which may exist elsewhere, but not here. You’re in the US. Or have you forgotten?  Now I’m going to respond to this hyper-buttercup and tulip fantasy with one of my Brillo pad reality checks using an amended version of the hype:

In the US it is most probable that people will continue to die because they cannot afford equal health care for chronic conditions, and millions will continue to file for bankruptcy because they get sick. It’s irrelevant who agrees with this statement.

This is a country run by banks, corporations and their engineered legislation.  I’m not spewing conspiracy theory and rhetoric. Everything is for profit from birth to prisons and waging war to medical care.  Thanks to the ideology of free market capitalism at any cost, including lives, it will stay that way.  Any Utopian ideals, publicly supported or not, are meaningless if they conflict with any incentive or ability to generate revenue.  And here we are. A genuine, epic, conflict of interests.

It is argued by one side that what is good for corporations, banks and Wall Street is always good for America. Corporations keep people employed. The other side argues that not everything should be for profit. I personally tend to agree more with this opinion but there is a very vocal group who oppose corporate oversight and regulation, in any form, because in their minds “Anything the government can do the free market can do better”.

So which is it? We should all know medical care will never be “free” (at least not in our lifetimes). It will either need to be paid for by the collective or the individual. This is now the center of the debate. Many feel like the collective should take care of the indigent while others feel that individuals should be responsible for themselves and/or their family, never another.

Regardless of partisanship, I’m concerned with the mere attempt to simplify such a complex issue with a singular, idealistic expression. I’d like it if no one on earth ever went hungry again, no one ever died of another intestinal cancer, or ever committed another act labeled terrorism. But I’m going to try to stay in a world where rocks are hard and water is wet. Anything else would be a delusional fantasy ripe for a let down. So I’ll wait for the next idealistic comment to come from the far right…

“Government should be absolved from people lives entirely, all illegal aliens should be deported, and no one should ever pay taxes again. Post this in your status for the next 24 hours if you agree.”

According to a new study released by Berkley, 23.5% of all income earned in 2007 went to 1% of the US population. The other 76.5% was graciously distributed to the other 99% of us. The top 14,988 richest families saw their income rise by 6.8%. Everyone else’s combined grew 2.8%.

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2007.pdf

Researchers for this article went on to find that “The possible repeal of the federal tax on large estates in coming years would certainly accelerate the path toward the reconstitution of the great wealth concentration that existed in the U.S. economy before the Great Depression.”

All of this is because “Real income growth for the bottom 99 percent had been very meagre during the Bush expansion starting in 2002. Even including 2007—a good year for ordinary US families-the top percentile captured 65 percent of total real income growth per family from 2002 to 2007”.

The Bush tax breaks. What a win…for 1% of income earners. I guess the “it will create jobs” rhetoric didn’t work out so well huh?

Trickle Down Economic theories = Piss on the Poor.

Where did he get that idea?  Compassion is not a visible trait among Americans.  During an interview about his 2004 best seller Confessions of an Economic Hitman Perkins said that he thinks that once Americans know why other parts of the world have so much animosity for the US that Americans would change because we are “compassionate people”.

Uh, John…no, we’re not.  Is it any mystery that America is the world headquarters of personal greed?  Just look at the right wing attack on health reform.  One of the biggest complaints opponents have is that they don’t want to face a tax increase, even for the ultra wealthy, to pay for “deadbeats” who can’t afford health care for themselves.  American’s don’t even care about each other.  What made you think there is enough “compassion” in America to believe we would change our behavior because of the opinion of another nation or culture?   These are nations and cultures clearly below the standards set for consideration by most American’s.  America is the ultimate superpower empire on earth.  The place where the living standards are the highest and the rest of the world is beneath us.  What, you didn’t get the memo?

For those not familiar, John Perkins was recruited by the National Security Agency to convince foreign nations to take out large international loans for domestic infrastructure projects and then collect the monies owed to US corporations.  For example Ecuador owes 50% of their GDP (gross domestic product) to international lenders and corporations.  When they can’t pay they have to turn over assets, like the Amazon rain forests, to energy companies.  If they don’t turn over assets or pay then the “Jackyl’s” would be sent in.  These Jackyl’s, which are CIA sanctioned operatives, would cause internal strife such as military coups and even assassinations.  When they fail to get the assets US corporations are pursuing then “we send in our young men and women to die and to kill, like we are doing in Iraq today”.  To date not one source has been able to scrutinize or denounce John Perkin’s claims.  Those who tried to dispute his claims quickly retracted when confronted with evidence.  In John’s words “it’s all about building Empire”.

Watch the interview and learn more than you want to know about the Empire that is larger and more powerful than the US government.  It is the community of world corporations and their ambitions above and beyond all international laws.  NAFTA and the WTO are their vehicles to legitimacy.  The corporations grow rich regardless of any social or moral destitution they create.  The mandate of their executives is profits at any cost, even lives.