Post Scripts

https://youtube.com/watch?v=k9s6t1whZp8%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded

Posted by Tina

At first I thought maybe the union workers were coming to their senses. But no…they are just disgruntled.

Apparently their list of grievances was extensive but one of the main reasons for the ILWU to break with the AFL-CIO was Trumka’s continued support of Obamacare. This group wanted single payer and they resent Trumka “going along to get along” for a plan that includes a fat tax on their “Cadillac” insurance:

“We feel the Federation has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along,” McEllrath wrote in the letter to Trumka.
The ILWU President made it clear they are for a single-payer, nationalized healthcare policy and are upset with the AFL-CIO for going along with Obama on the confiscatory tax on their “Cadillac” healthcare plan.

The Longshoreman leader said, “President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits.” But, regardless of that promise, the President has pushed for just such a tax and Trumka and the AFL-CIO bowed to political pressure lining up behind Obama’s tax on those plans.

So there’s a big fissure in the big union world (for now). 40K…that’s a lot of cash.

Trouble is, these workers don’t seem to get they can’t have universal coverage, single payer, and keep their Cadillac Plan…unless they think they would or should be among the special elite class. If these guys get single payer we will all get to enjoy the lowest standards of care that big bureaucratic programs create…think Medicaid with a little Veterans Administration thrown in for good measure!

Well this is one way to celebrate the working man…make sure you back policies that close windows of opportunity and create a giant herd where the lowest possible standard will be met but by golly it will be met for all people (except, of course, the elites)!

The more they push the closer America comes to realizing the inevitable end. America the noncompetitive…America the noncreative…America the unbeautiful…America the mediocre…America no more!

Hang in there…I’m working on a more positive message to celebrate America’s wonderful class of individual workers.

by Jack

A 23 year old male was jumped in the 1000 block of West Sacramento (close to CSUC and Safeway) by two black males and one white male. At some point during the course of the violent attack the victim was robbed and stabbed. He called police and was taken to Enloe Hospital for treatment. Why the victim was wandering around alone and unarmed at 3 a.m., oblivious to the approach of his attackers is unknown, although according to at least one police source stupidity is strongly suspected. It was unknown if the victim was a student at CSUC or if the suspected stupidity was do to alcohol and/or drugs, however he was close to the student housing area so that possibility is there. More to follow as the information becomes available.

Previously on Post Scripts – While the liberals dream up clever ways to take away guns from law abiding citizens, Chico racks up it’s 33rd stabbing since January 1st. This latest knifing happened in a nice residential area called Verbeena Fields. This is neighborhood park that starts at the intersection of Verbeena Avenue and East First Avenue. And like several other recent stabbings, this one was done by a transient hitting on somebody for their spare change. When the victim refused – out came the knife. Stab, stab, stab and off the bum runs off, just like the stabbing in the Raley’s Parking lot, remember that one?

Verbeena Fields park is basically an open field with a split rail fence around it. This dry, sticker infested ground, is supposed to attract dog owners, bicycle riders, and kids, but it’s also been a magnet for bums looking for a place to camp… out of view of the cops. During the day the bums create hidden campsites among the cottonwood trees nearby and at night they are free to roam. This area is better than Bidwell Park for several reasons, first, too many people use Bidwell park and the bum camps are too quickly discovered thanks to the toilet paper all over and the stink, plus the cops patrol that area, unlike Verbeena Fields that is more off the beaten path. Verbeena Fields is also good because at night when it’s time to prowl they’re already right in the middle of nice homes.  The dry creek provides a good escape path to the east and west.

Not long ago (I believe within the last 60 days), a transient man and woman were busted for possession of stolen property after they broke into several parked vehicles in my general area or so I was advised by my neighbors. In their last caper they looted what they could carry from an expensive motor home near Volombrosa and sometime later the cops got a tip where they could be found with this stolen property. They were busted for possession, but not before most of the stolen items had been sold off.

I believe I’ve seen this filthy grungy looking pair riding their mountain bikes around my neighborhood just a few day ago. And prior to this, I’ve notice the same pair poking around in garbage bins looking for aluminum cans. Because of the frequency that I have seen them I figured they were camping somewhere in upper park, which is only a few minutes away from Veerbeena Fields. Upper park has been a popular camping area too, despite the city ordinance against it.

The answer to this problem is to build daycare centers and another new homeless shelter or so says our Homeless Task Force.    If we will only build these things peace will be restored and like a 1930’s Disney cartoon, the birds will come out to sing,  our bums will all play nice and life will be good.    Then our liberals can feel really good, and they will have created new monuments (the new bum dormitories) as a testament to their caring and generosity even though they did it with your money.  And no, the new no rules (anything goes0 wet-shelter and the two daycare centers will not attract more bums… or so we are told.

Posted by Tina

Fast food workers were out in force across America this week. Well, union-organized back up volunteers and a few fast food workers were out in force. Anyhoo…the protesters wanted to be sure it was well understood that they would not work for less than $15.00 an hour.

Do they really think standing at a counter taking orders and making change is a career…and worth $15,00 an hour? Most people who work these jobs move on within two years. They take these jobs to learn some skills and gain experience.

As Investors.com points out, this is an industry “that pays out an estimated 70% of revenue to workers”. They estimate that “hundreds of thousands” would lose their jobs if the industry raised wages to $15.00 an hour. It makes perfect sense; a business cannot sustain itself if it has to pay out more than 70% of revenue to workers. Moreover, bad news already looms on the horizon:

It’s already happening in Europe, where it costs a lot to hire a worker, McDonald’s has installed 7,000 new ATM-style machines that take orders and payments. No muss, no fuss, no arguments, no misunderstandings — and no minimum wage at all. Just a one-time cost for the machine, plus maintenance.

As ObamaCare raises the cost of labor for fast-food chains, and with talk of a doubling of wages, look for the same equipment to be used here too. And it won’t just be ATMs.

Momentum Machines, a San Francisco-based high-tech company, has created the Alpha, a robot that can make up to 360 hamburgers in an hour — and pays for itself in a year.

No training, no retraining, and excuses for missing work.

Ignorance…as Investors writes, economic ignorance…will cause these people to destroy not only their own stepping stone jobs but those of a lot of others.

We’ve seen this movie before.

In the 1970’s Jimmy Carter’s lousy economy caused energy shortages and high gasoline prices. The only way forward for gas station owners was to go self-serve (which later morphed into automated self-serve). In the process hundreds of thousands of teen-aged boys and young men lost their jobs.

One might argue that the automation changes in the fast food industry would eventually happen anyway. True enough, but how stupid is it to choose this moment, when the employment situation for young people is already horrible? The business owner, finding himself the target of a wage based food fight, cannot accommodate his workers and continue to offer the public low priced meals. Somethings going to go and it won’t be the customers.

CORRECTION

smallbusiness.com points out that food and employee costs are often lumped together in the industry because they represent the biggest cost f doing business:

The food and beverage industry is unforgiving when it comes to making a profit. Margins in the industry are thin in comparison to less capital- and labor-intensive industries. Some estimates placed food and labor expenses as a percentage of sales as high as 75 percent. This is a very high number, leaving management very little room for error.

According to the Restaurant Report website, labor costs in the food and beverage industry account for 22 to 40 percent of total sales. In other words, for every $1 in sales, a restaurant spends up to 40 cents in labor costs. Coupled with food costs, some industry trade groups places these costs at 50 to 75 percent of sales. (Emphasis mine)

Posted by Tina

Nile Gardner recalls that George Bush’s “coalition of the willing,” that was rudely mocked by liberals included: Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Italy, Poland, and 16 members of the NATO alliance, as well as Japan, South Korea, Moldova and Kazkhstan…he concludes, “The coalition, swelled to roughly 40 countries, and was one of the largest military coalitions ever assembled.”

You would never have known that to hear our press tell it. And what about Barack Obama’s “coalition”…hows that working out? By this morning it had dwindled to include…France.

Michael Graham points out that had President Obama learned from America’s successful past wars and taken advantage of the work in Iraq performed by his predecessor, he would have at his disposal today a fully functioning US military base of operations.

Graham takes the chance to return the favor and mock Bush skeptics:

Even if you lie in bed at night sticking pins in your “W” voodoo doll, it’s irrational to ignore the pragmatic value of a U.S. military force in a U.S.-leaning Iraq in the heart of the mess that is Obama’s “Arab Spring” Middle East.

Who can blame Graham for exposing the hypocrisy of those who so venomously and publicly criticized Bush’s efforts in the terror war? Not this lady…I applaud his backbone!

The threat: A big red line being crossed.

Now cornered, the unprepared but still arrogantly confident man in the White House signals he will likely follow through on his threat…but if so also how and when he will strike. Secretary of State, John Kerry does his best to sound competent and official after a questionable record of his own.

Is it unfair that someone have asked: “Who Are the Neo-Con Cowboys Now?”

Trouble is this one really is, as they once said of Bush, “All hat, no cattle,” and it seems the entire world knows it. In fact even Assad’s eleven-year-old son is mocking our President, and therefore our country, On Facebook:

“I just want them to attack soooo much,” Hafez al-Assad allegedly wrote, “because I want them to make this huge attack of beginning something that they don’t know the end of it.”

Whether the profile is real or not has not been confirmed — but The New York Times has put forward evidence backing its authenticity.

Paging Michael Moore…a camera crew is all fired up…prepare to dine on warmed over crow!

I know…it isn’t funny; it is tragic and hoorific. As Israel prepares for the worst our President struts and dithers by turns. At this point any act of force will only look pathetic. Still, I prefer pathetic to permanently damaging. Perhaps he will manage to dodge this embarrassing bullet.

In this dangerous and volatile period in world history America could use a strong, capable leader.

Netanyahu stands alone.

If wishes could be had I’d take the measured strength and wisdom of the former American President Cowboy about now…I’d bet Netanyahu would too.

The above picture shows a US Army armored truck, the one on the left doesn’t have a tow bar, but it’s esssentially the same as the blown up truck on the right. This truck was built to resist roadside bombs, but this time it resisted a suicide bomber in a mini-van. Nobody inside the truck was killed, but 15 civilians nearby were.

KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO forces were struck by three attacks within 24 hours across Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, as the Taliban redoubled efforts to drive foreign combat troops out of the country ahead of President Obama’s well publicized plan to withdrawal at the end of 2014.

In recent months, NATO forces have seen fewer fatalities as more of foreign troops withdraw, they take fewer risks and Afghan forces assume more responsibility for the country’s security. But analysts say militants continue to view attacks on international coalition troops as their most effective path to power.

In the most coordinated attack of the day, a suicide bomber in eastern Ghazni province detonated his vehicle Wednesday afternoon in the vicinity of a base shared by Polish and Afghan forces, coalition spokeswoman Lt. Col. LaTondra Kinley said. Information on the number of NATO casualties was not immediately available, she added.

The attack started when the driver detonated the minivan at the entrance, said Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, the deputy governor of Ghazni province. At that point, four or more Taliban gunmen started firing at the base with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

This sparked a firefight between the insurgents and Afghan forces guarding the perimeter of the base that lasted about 90 minutes, Ahmadi said. Because the base is near a residential area, four civilians were killed and 25 wounded, including women and children, he said, adding that a fuel tanker inside the base caught fire and it was possible NATO troops suffered casualties.

In a statement emailed to journalists, the Taliban said its attackers destroyed the main gate of the Ghazni base and a nearby checkpoint, killing and wounding a “large number” of foreign troops and “puppet Afghan forces.” The militant group often exaggerates its enemies’ casualties.

A few hours earlier, a suicide bomber in a Toyota Corolla rammed his vehicle into an American military convoy in Lashkar Gah, the capital of southern Helmand province, killing four Afghan civilians including a woman and a child, and wounding 15 other people, said Omar Zowak, spokesman for the governor of Helmand.

There were no NATO fatalities in that attack, apparently an opportunistic strike in a residential area as the convoy passed by. Photographs showed a building reduced to sticks, bricks and dust near a disabled U.S. armored personnel carrier, its rear tires blown off and its body jammed against an electric pole.

“Insurgents once again showed their hatred of innocent civilians and their desire to please their own evil leadership,” the Helmand governor’s office said in a statement signed off with the slogan “Safer Helmand, Better Afghanistan.” Helmand has seen some of the fiercest fighting since the Taliban was ousted from power in 2001.

And in a third attack aimed at NATO’s logistics lifeblood, gunmen late Tuesday opened fire on dozens of fuel trucks parked along a road in southwest Farah province, igniting at least 40 of them, killing six Afghan drivers and injuring 10 civilians, said provincial government spokesman Abdullrahman Zhwandai. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack.

Posted by Tina

Public exposure, lawsuits, and plenty of outrage expressed by conservative citizens seems to have had no affect on the IRS or an administration whose leadership can now be seen as complicit in the harassment and suppression of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status. According to The Washington Times conservative organizations continue to receive unreasonable requests for information:

New documents show the depth of information the IRS is seeking from Tea Party Patriots, a leading conservative group that first applied for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status in late 2010 and one of many organizations singled out for extra scrutiny by the Obama administration.

An IRS letter sent to the group last week and obtained by The Washington Times contains a laundry list of requests related to virtually all the group’s activities, including its involvement in the 2012 election cycle and its get-out-the-vote efforts, fundraising activities, all radio and TV advertising, and other information.

The IRS also is asking for detailed financial records, including “the amounts and percentages of your total expenses that were for fundraising activities in the tax year 2011, 2012 and 2013.”

The next election cycle is about to commence. The delay for the Tea Party Patriots is already three years and counting with one election cycle missed. Will the IRS get away with keeping this organization from participating in a second election? Of course! This administration doesn’t answer to the American people, it doesn’t consider the Constitution or our laws binding, and since it has been an absolute failure it needs every trick in the book.

But, shame on us America! This unethical bunch should have been run out of town on a rail in the last election!

By Julie Appleby , KHN Staff Writer – Oct 24, 2012

 Posted by Jack

This story was produced in collaboration with

There is no one villain in the battle against rising health care costs. Currently, the United States spends more on health care services than any other country, exceeding $2.6 trillion, or about 18 percent of gross domestic product. Most years, medical spending rises faster than inflation and the economy as a whole. Many factors — and nearly everyone — contributes to those increases.

Here are seven ways you or your medical providers play a role, based on a recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

1. We pay our doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in ways that reward doing more, rather than being efficient.

Most insurers — including traditional Medicare — pay doctors, hospitals and other medical providers under a fee-for-service system that reimburses for each test, procedure or visit. Coupled with a medical system that is not integrated, this encourages overtreatment, including repetitive tests, the report says. New efforts in the federal health law and among some private insurers aim to move payments toward a flat rate for a specific condition, such as a knee replacement, or for a patient’s entire episode of care, in order to streamline costs. Medical systems and doctors are also looking to electronic medical records as a way to improve coordination and reduce unnecessary, repeated tests.

2. We’re growing older, sicker and fatter.

As we get older, we tend to need more medical care. The baby boom generation is heading into retirement, with enrollment in Medicare set to grow by an average of 1.6 million people annually. Additionally, nearly half the U.S. population has one or more chronic conditions, among them asthma, heart disease or diabetes, which drive up costs. And two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese, which can also lead to chronic illness and additional medical spending.

 

3. We want new drugs, technologies, services and procedures.

Medical advances can help us get well, avoid disease and delay death, but they also drive up spending. Much new technology comes on the market after being tested only for safety or whether the new treatment is comparable to existing ones or even placebos. Patients and doctors often demand the newest treatments, even if there is little or no evidence that they are better. Prices for newer treatments are often higher than for the products they replace.

4. We get tax breaks on buying health insurance — and the cost to patients of seeking care is often low.

The majority of people with insurance get it through their jobs. The amount employers pay toward coverage is tax deductible for the firm and tax exempt to the worker, thus encouraging more expensive health plans with richer benefits, the report says. How that coverage is designed also plays a role: Low deductibles or small office co-payments can encourage overuse of care, the report says. Increasingly, however, employers are moving toward high-deductible coverage as a way to slow premium growth and require workers to pay more toward the cost of care.

5. We don’t have enough information to make decisions on which medical care is best for us.

While medical journals, the Internet and the popular press are awash in health information and studies, professionals and patients find there is no broad standard for evaluating individual treatments, or how specific treatments compare with others. Even when evidence shows a treatment isn’t effective, or is potentially harmful, it can take a long time for that information to actually change how doctors practice or what patients demand, the report says. Additionally, Americans vary widely in how they view end-of- life issues, with some desiring every possible medical intervention to stave off death in every situation, no matter how small the possibility of success.

6. Our hospitals and other providers are increasingly gaining market share and are better able to demand higher prices.

While mergers or partnerships among medical providers or insurers may improve efficiency and help drive down prices, consolidation can also have the opposite effect, allowing near-monopolies in some markets and driving up prices, the report says. Increasingly, hospitals are buying up rivals and directly employing physicians, creating larger medical systems.

7. We have supply and demand problems, and legal issues that complicate efforts to slow spending.

Malpractice premiums and jury awards are part of what drives spending. A larger problem, although hard to quantify, is “defensive medicine” — when doctors prescribe unnecessary tests or treatment out of fear of facing a lawsuit, the report says. Fraudulent billing or unnecessary tests by medical providers seeking to “game the system” are another concern.

Finally, the report notes that state laws sometimes limit the ability of nurse practitioners or other medical professionals, who are paid less than doctors, to fully perform work for which they are trained. The U.S. faces a shortage of primary care doctors, so more advanced practice nurses and others will be needed to help care for patients who gain insurance coverage under the federal health law. Conversely, the U.S. has a higher ratio of specialists than other countries, which can serve to drive up spending. Specialists have more advanced training than primary care doctors, and are paid far more.