Deuce,
Somehow the posting function on the latest thread is all messed up.
Here's my comment, maybe you can put it where it belongs and delete this post...
Thanks,
Doug
---
"The US would have been much better off had industry been shifted to the Americas than China. We have the absurd situation of US capital having helped build China and the Chinese have leveraged that to purchase materials in the Americas, increasing US material costs and establishing a social foothold in areas that we ignore."
---
That's one that never made sense to me since day one.
Nixon was obsessed w/Russia as we were in Wilson's War in Afghanistan.
Kissinger was, and is in love with the intricacies of the Chinese Mind.
Both efforts creating a much more challenging World in terms of the interests of the United States of America.
Weird,
ReplyDeleteI can past the comment here, but not there.
---
"The US would have been much better off had industry been shifted to the Americas than China. We have the absurd situation of US capital having helped build China and the Chinese have leveraged that to purchase materials in the Americas, increasing US material costs and establishing a social foothold in areas that we ignore."
---
That's one that never made sense to me since day one.
Nixon was obsessed w/Russia as we were in Wilson's War in Afghanistan.
Kissinger was, and is in love with the intricacies of the Chinese Mind.
Both efforts creating a much more challenging World in terms of the interests of the United States of America.
"paste"
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest; the Chinese make better employees.
ReplyDeleteAnd, there's so damned many of them.
ReplyDeleteDriving Cars! :-(
ReplyDeleteBig Trouble in Big China
ReplyDeleteI’ll just leave this up. It is working and there are quite a few interesting political stories. It is amazing to me that Obama is even in the picture. I have a relative on Medicare that had to go the hospital. the hospital billed $45,000 to Medicare. Medicare paid $3500 and my relative is trying to settle for the balance for under $2,000. This is governmnetal health care under the Obama administration and the Democrats. We trust these people to get the government more involved in our healthcare?
ReplyDeleteI hope 51% of the voters wake up.
I spoke with one of the account execs at the hospital. He told me that the hospital has an annual contract with medicare. Had this happened three years ago, Medicare would have paid about $29,000 0f the $45,000. There is a growing list of procedures that they are not covering. I asked hi how long they could stay in the program with such a poor rate of coverage. He said he was not privy to the hospital financing but was told that if the cutbacks continue, they will drop out of the Medicare program or merge with another hospital. He said that the hospital can offset the gap with the private program reimbursements but that was falling faster than expected.
DeleteObamacare will be a disaster for anyone relying on Medicaid. I would plan on having a very healthy supplemental plan.
Where is Hilary Rosen when we need her?
ReplyDeletewith a strapon redefining "womanhood"
DeleteDeuce, I would love to hear more particulars on that story. Obviously, the hospital did a procedure that Medicare didn't approve; the question is "Should they have approved it?" I wouldn't, automatically, assume that Medicare is in the wrong on this one (on the other hand, . . . . )
ReplyDeleteWhy Do So Many Elites Hate Social Security?
ReplyDeleteThey hate it because it works; Social Security is proof that government is capable and competent. That is why it MUST be destroyed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/why-do-so-many-elites-hat_b_1419632.html
I throw that into the bull pen only because I've wondered myself, the opposition being a ("grim and determined") example of "protesting too much." Social Security is administered with <1% expense ratio.
Good overview link here.
The Medicare (Medicaid being less of a problem) dysfunction comes from the awkward integration with private sector health care delivery entities, namely the hospitals. One thing I have noticed from recent involvement with both Medicare and hospitals is that nearly all hospitals offer some form of advocacy support to "negotiate" settlements. From what I know, they work by providing attention to individual cases.
**********************
I think it may be too late for USA to make meaningful foreign policy adjustments. I was going to run with a little essay blaming Wall St for that as well but I'll drop it. Our ME engagement was driven by Israel and oil more than Islamic radicalism. (The loathing and contempt however being real and more action will be arising from that cesspool of hatred. Count on it.) But the Wall St dump was worse. So shake hands and sign treaties but quietly gear up defensively. The challenge is that this country has neither the mentality nor the patience/focus for long-term effort which requires planning, typically by government since markets by definition don't "Plan" and we all know that is road to perdition, I mean socialism.
I want to return to this later…
DeleteI have posted hundreds of extremely intelligent posts saying what a dumb fuck Rufus is for saying he will vote for the criminal.
ReplyDeleteI hope this one gets through.
"Deuce said,
ReplyDeleteApr 13, 2012 08:17 AM
I’ll just leave this up. It is working and there are quite a few interesting political stories. It is amazing to me that Obama is even in the picture. I have a relative on Medicare that had to go the hospital. the hospital billed $45,000 to Medicare. Medicare paid $3500 and my relative is trying to settle for the balance for under $2,000.
This is governmnetal health care under the Obama administration and the Democrats. We trust these people to get the government more involved in our healthcare?
I hope 51% of the voters wake up."
---
We trust these people to get the government more involved in our healthcare?
---
The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!
Mass. has Romneycare.
Hawaii has the best Medical Insurance Care in the country.
I have received more than 200 k in Top Notch, Life Saving, Medical Care, and paid not one dime, except for Fifteen Dollar charges for visits with GP.
Unfortunately, my wife was dealing with two slugs that should be in Hospice Care, because all their actions only resulted in her untimely, and unnecessarily painful, demise.
---
Any suggestions on where I should send some of the funds from my Malpractice Lawsuit against said slugs should I prevail?
This is the LAST THING I would ever imagine to get myself involved with.
Then again, I never expected my wife to precede me in an untimely deatg in unnecessary, unbearable pain.
---
I will give more details as things progress.
Even today,when policy analysts and Washington observers acknowledge the asymmetrical impacts of exporting the manufacturing base and so-called STEM jobs base, even today it is useless to argue to role of Industrial Policy, which was verboten in Washington for the last two centuries. The markets know best and implement with price signal efficiency not available to the handful of elite central planners. Somewhere along the modern path, this country lost touch with the ideological balance that is needed to govern. We had it before 2001 and 2008.
ReplyDeleteBarack Walker Bush
DeleteRE China
ReplyDeleteThe hard slog has begun. In a fine, it is a case of “reform” or implode.
Had to stop there and ponder the bigger picture re "hard slogs."
The executive summary says China must reform to keep growing
Listened to an economist on the early early news this morning actually put a number to it (have no idea how they do that) - the pivot point is 9% growth - above that number, no reform pressure; below that number, fireworks.
It also appears to me that western policy analysts have developed dueling narratives re China and the potential power threat. Much like they did in the ME, suggesting they really have no fucking clue.
ReplyDeleteDoug
ReplyDeleteI am very sorry.
Opinion Clouds (Link)
ReplyDeleteOn the whole I would rather listen to anything Jimmy Buffet sings than anything Warren Buffet says.
ReplyDeleteI would rather be at a buffet.
ReplyDeleteLOL
ReplyDeleteEvery one who had not drunk the kool aid saw this coming - for those of you who say that Obama's image in 2007 was "well crafted" I only have to say this - many of us were not fooled even back then.
ReplyDeleteThis charlatan was at his dishonest best even back then with the Iraq war (and of course denied the success of the surge repeatedly even when it was clear that it had succeeded). The war was the prime issue of the 08 campaign until the financial markets disaster stuck in August.
The sadness here is that this could have very easily been avoided if the American electorate kept its eyes wide open - what is truly spooky is that Obama STILL has a very good chance of getting re-elected after all this. just leaves your head shaking.
Riiight! McCain would have been so fiiiine!!
ReplyDeleteGood point!
DeleteWith Palin as bonus - sweeeet momma!
DeleteAs if nobody is aware of the Beltway speculation that the Republicans went AWOL in 2008 to allow the Democrats ownership of what was going to be a slow and difficult economic recovery. At the time, I thought the anti-incumbent vote was too strong to validate the implied strategic depth of planning. Now I am not as sure. Perfect storms.
DeleteThe gas-directed rig count slid by 23 this week to 624. It has fallen in 13 of the last 14 weeks to its lowest since mid-April 2002 when there were 613 rigs operating, data from Houston-based oil services firm Baker Hughes showed on Friday.
ReplyDeleteThere's no telling how high nat gas can go when it takes off. $15.00/kcuft would not be the least bit out of line.
ReplyDeleteWhy should it take off when there is excess supply???
Delete(The reason for fewer rigs: Can't make money at today's prices)
"The poll shows the gender gap may not solely be a problem for the Republican candidate. Women are more likely to back Obama (by 49-41 percent),
ReplyDeletewhile men are even more likely to give their support to Romney (by 52-38 percent).
The 2008 Fox News national exit poll showed women voted for Obama over Republican John McCain by 13 percentage points (56-43 percent).
Historically, exit poll results show women have consistently backed the Democrat over the Republican in presidential elections."
---
The Welfare State plus all our institutions (Education, MSM, Hollywood, etc) corrupted by the left has rendered men superfluous and turned women into mindless supporters of Big Govt.
Should end Women's sufferage for 50 years to get things straightened out.
I'm not taking bets on the likelyhood of that surefire solution.
(reply to Nagarajan Sivakumar)
ReplyDeleteThe Decline rate of "fracked" wells, Doug.
ReplyDeleteI know what let's do let's get dumb shit faced drunk and roll off the bar stool into the recruiting station and go half way round the world and kill people we don't have any argument with and we don't even know and we'll call ourselves rufus and we will never read no books that is for 'kids' and then we will fart day after day, that is what we will do with our lives.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI came to your blog and have been reading along your posts. I decided I will leave my first comment. I have enjoyed reading your blog. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often…