Maybe Storming The Capitol Wasn't Such A Good Idea

[Blue Crab]

It looks like he was speaking allegorically, not with any mathematical accuracy.

Thx. I get it now.

 

[Mrleft8]

I thought you were clear enough. I think in Amazonia your approach is called slash and burn. And double the funding to a failed Education system is akin to pissing in your own boot.

Perhaps it wouldn't be "failed" if you could attract qualified teachers with a reasonable salary, instead of trained oafs who are paid to pick their noses, and complain in the teacher's lounge.
(Yes I know what I'm talking about)

 

[BeSafe]

Just to put things in perspective...all adjusted for inflation

By 2032, the US GDP is projected to be around 36 Trillion dollars (https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58870)

By 2032, the social security program is projected to be a bit over 6% of GDP (https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html). 0.06*36 Trillion or = 2.16 trillion

The income into SS is based on the 12.4% tax on wages and is estimated around 4.5% of GDP. The shortfall is about 1.5% of gdp - or $540 Billion dollars.

Medicare Spending is projected over $1.8 Trillion by 2032. The tax base from wages will probably still be somewhere around 1/3rd. So the shortfall covered by general accounting will be ~ 50% or $900 Billion. (https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/what-to-know-about-medicare-spending-and-financing/)

The total shortfall for both programs is $540 Billion + $900 Billion = $1.44 Trillion.

The projected defense budget in 2032 is $966 Billion. (https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/58632). In other words, you can zero out the defense budget forever and not cover the shortfall for SS/Medicare. It's not close.


This was one that surprised me:

IBISWorld - Industry Market Research, Reports, and Statistics

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www.ibisworld.com

Hospitals, Health/Medical insurance, and drugs/pharmaceuticals are now 1,2,4, and 7 respectively for biggest industries. Its kinda funny how was still think of Military and Big Oil as being what drives the bus.... those days are over.

 

[Mrleft8]

You're not getting it. The people aren't getting that money, nor the benefits of that money. The for profit medical companies, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and lawyers are getting that money.
The patients lie in old decrepit beds with malfunctioning air compressors and call buttons that either don't work, or are ignored by underpaid hospital staff, while the Dr.s spend their time in conferences, the gym, or on the golf course.
Of course not all Dr.s do this, but I've been in the hospital enough times in the last 16 years to tell you a story or five. Don't try to bullshit a man who has lived in that space. I know what I saw, what I experienced, and the treatment that I received. I can tell you the money doled out to these institutions is WASTED a high percentage of the time.
You want to see a waste of money? SERIOUSLY? Break your leg in 5 places, go to North Florida Medical center and see what goes on while you aren't morphed out of your mind. Crush your 10th Vertebrae and go to Shands hospital, and see how you get treated, and what the conditions are like. They put an alarm on my arm to keep me from using the call button because they were tired of me complaining that my mattress was collapsed..... I was in a fucking hammock trying to recover from spinal surgery! Now I have a constant back ache, and a hump in my back, not because of the injury, because of the shitty care I received afterwards.
Talk to a lawyer? I did. No one will take on the hospitals. If I'd been hit by a truck, I could be a wealthy man, but the lawyers won't touch the UF medical community.

 

[BeSafe]

You're moving the goal posts but that's fine.. What I was responding to was "I would take the funds for education, Medicare, and SS out of the military budget, or detour the funds allocated to the military to these other places."

My point is that Social security alone - which is a very efficient program since it literally just transfers money - is a HUGE program. Funding social security from military spending would cut the military budget in half. That was my point. The military budget isn't going to be be big enough to fund what you're talking about, even if it was zeroed out.

Wanting decrease military spending a priori because you disagree with military spending is fine but it doesn't address your actual point in the follow up - poor results from the existing healthcare system.

That's actually something I can get behind. I think the health care industrial complex puts the military industrial complex to shame. But "Healthcare" in America is already THE DOMINANT INDUSTRY of the US by a WIDE margin. Its what we do. I'm dubious that pushing more money into it will actually change the system. And I'm not sure why you are recommending it, other than pure frustration. How does diverting military spending impact Drs wasting their time on golf courses? It MIGHT help with some of the staffing issues for a little while but the Drs are going to lobby for more money as soon as they smell more money. They have the monopoly power and are defended by a legal system that puts credentialism above all else. The way to reduce their power is to reduce the power of credentialism - in other words, make it easier to become a doctor or reduce the requirements to perform doctor-like services, particularly for non-critical services. That latter idea has been floated many times but always gets killed by probability. There is a very small chance that some non-critical issue becomes a critical issue and those cases create a legal liability that cannot be overcome. Therefore, credentialism.

FWIW, I had hoped the President Biden would follow through on Candidate Biden's idea to drop Medicare eligibility to 60. Capitalism can't work where one side of the equation is of 'infinite value' - that means single payer is the only answer.

BTW, I have no problem buying fewer tanks and buying more cellos and paint brushes, but again, that doesn't seem to be the root of your follow up point. And neither dominant political party seems to want to touch that. The difference between a Obama v Trump defense budget and the Trump v Biden defense budget was less than 1% in both cases.

 

[phillysailor]

Anybody who blames all of the pricing inequities and systematic inefficiencies of the American system on doctors is either an idiot or has a personal financial interest in the outcome.

If Obamacare did anything well, it was to remove physicians from the negotiating table. They were served as an appetizer to entice Insurance companies, unions, Wall Mart, Big Pharma, Hospital chains and venture capital to attend the meal.

Ask around. Chances are excellent your doctor works in a practice owned by the hospital, or venture capitalists own both.

The rate of growth of nurses and patients have grown steadily on an upward curve. Doctors have increased their number on a flat line.

Administrators and insurance bureaucRATS have grown exponentially. Take your “doctors on the golf course” and fuck off.

 

[BeSafe]

Administrators and insurance bureaucRATS have grown exponentially. Take your “doctors on the golf course” and fuck off.

You do realize that was MrLeft8's assertion correct? My point was it was an oversimplifiation that wouldn't change the system.

 

[phillysailor]

You do realize that was MrLeft8's assertion correct?

Nope. I might be coming late to the party. I just see financial behemoths dismantling all the comfy practice partnerships and replacing them with meat grinders.

Which is all well and good for efficiency, but the their goal is not improved service at reduced prices.

It’s profit, and that leads physicians to despair about their lot in life, will they ever finish the paperwork, see enough patients in a day. That means they have no time for roles in hospital administration.

It’s a system that feeds on itself and the fact that it chews up patients by bleeding them dry, making sure no one answers the phone unless it’s about their bill is a feature, not a bug. The first answer from the insurance company is NO, and when have insurance rate increases failed to outstrip inflation?

Blaming this on the docs is asinine.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

The “people” between doctor and patient have always been and will always be the problem. They skew the equilibrium between supply and demand while contributing less to the transaction than pimps contribute to the whore/John business.

But the Best Americans are always entitled to their cut, be it health care, real estate, transportation, etc. The entitlement class must get their share of every transaction.

 

[badlatitude]

Calif. seeks to disbar Trump adviser John Eastman for role in subverting election

The State Bar of California intends to seek the disbarment of former president Donald Trump’s election attorney John Eastman for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In a statement, the office of California Bar’s Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said Eastman faces 11 disciplinary charges, all arising from allegations that he was behind Trump’s plan to obstruct the count of electoral votes.

Per the statement, Eastman is accused of making false and misleading statements regarding alleged election fraud — including claims he made at a rally at the Ellipse outside the White House that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitolon Jan. 6, 2021. In the explanation of the charges, the California Bar directly connects Eastman’s speech to the insurrection, saying he “contributed to provoking a crowd to assault and breach the Capitol to intimidate then-Vice President [Mike] Pence and prevent the electoral count from proceeding.”

Stephen Gillers, a professor at the New York University School of Law who specializes in legal ethics, called the set of accusations levied at Eastman “scathing.”

“[It] charges Eastman with knowingly or through gross negligence failing to support the U.S. and California constitutions, which he took an oath to do,” Gillers said. “The allegation that Eastman is guilty of ‘moral turpitude’ is an attack on his very character, in other words that he is a bad man, not merely a bad lawyer.”

The state bar’s announcement came after an investigation that lasted nearly a year. Cardona’s office concluded that Eastman violated Section 6106 of the Business and Professions Code “by making false and misleading statements that constitute acts of ‘moral turpitude, dishonesty, and corruption.’”

“There is nothing more sacrosanct to our American democracy than free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power,” Cardona said in a statement. “For California attorneys, adherence to the U.S. and California Constitutions is their highest legal duty.”

Eastman, Cardona added, “violated this duty in furtherance of an attempt to usurp the will of the American people and overturn election results for the highest office in the land — an egregious and unprecedented attack on our democracy — for which he must be held accountable.”
Eastman’s lawyer Randall A. Miller said Trump’s election adviser disputes “every aspect” of the California Bar’s actions.

“Any lawyer engaged to provide his or her legal assessment in a dynamic, consequential, and often emotional arena should be deeply troubled by the notion that a licensing authority (bar) can take their license if they do not like the lawyer’s advice, or find the advocacy distasteful,” Miller said.


Eastman has been dubbed the “architect” of Trump’s plot to steal the 2020 election. He wrote an infamous memo that laid out several ways in which Pence could facilitate not certifying Joe Biden’s victory. The former law professor at Chapman University’s School of Law, who is an active member of the Federalist Society, argued that Pence could reject electors from states won by Biden.

Eastman refused to turn over thousands of emails to the House special committee investigating the insurrection. The panel requested the documents because they were related to Eastman’s role in trying to persuade Pence to reject these electors. Eastman cited attorney-client privilege as a shield against turning over the documents because he has said he was representing Trump at the time.

The committee argued that Eastman’s claim of privilege was potentially voided by the “crime/fraud exception” to the confidentiality usually accorded attorneys and their clients, which holds that communications need not be kept confidential if an attorney is found to be assisting their client in the commission of a crime.

Ultimately, the committee recommended that the Justice Department investigate and prosecute Eastman on two counts. The panel concluded that Eastman knew “in advance of the 2020 election that Vice President Pence could not refuse to count electoral votes on January 6th.”

The California Bar came to the same conclusion, saying that Eastman’s strategies “were unsupported by law” and “based on false and misleading assertions of fact and designed for the purpose of keeping Trump in office.”

In its disciplinary notice, the California Bar concludes that Eastman “knew, or should have known, that the factual premise for his proposals―that massive fraud was at play ― was false, and that Trump had lost his bid for re-election.” Cardona’s office also alleges that Eastman chose to ignore these facts when he spoke at the Jan. 6 rally.

In the 35-page notice, California Bar’s supervising attorney Duncan Carling wrote that, from on or about Dec. 9, 2020, until at least Jan. 6, 2021, Eastman “continued to work with Trump and others to promote the idea that the outcome of the election was in question and had been stolen from Trump as the result of fraud, disregard of state election law, and misconduct by election officials.”


If the State Bar Court decides that Eastman’s actions warrant a disbarment or suspension, the recommendation would be forwarded to the California Supreme Court, which will determine Eastman’s fate.

The move to file disciplinary charges against Eastman was applauded by the States United Democracy Center, a Washington-based group promoting fair and secure elections which in a statement described Eastman as the “mastermind” of the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

“He abused the legal system and violated the oath he swore as an attorney, in an attempt to block the will of the people and prevent the peaceful transfer of power,” said Christine P. Sun, the group’s senior vice president of legal.

 

[SloopJonB]

Ed Meese is still alive?

He was old 40 years ago.


Actually, he was always old.

 

[Blue Crab]

Perhaps it wouldn't be "failed" if you could attract qualified teachers with a reasonable salary, instead of trained oafs who are paid to pick their noses, and complain in the teacher's lounge.
(Yes I know what I'm talking about)

This isn't helpful altho I do not disagree, however simplistic this is. And it is. Real change is needed. Here's an example of a much different kind of thinking from in the trenches.

There's always a bunch of talk about class sizes. Obviously the lower the ratio, the more teacher time is available per student. Thing is, most kids don't need that extra time or much of it. And some kids need a lot ... to the extreme of individual tutoring. This becomes apparent to classroom teachers almost immediately.

One fix: In a suburban setting of 30 kids in 7th grade classrooms, ~ 25 of them could be sent to the auditorium with the selected other 25 from other classes, and let's say you get 100 7th graders together and one teacher presents a lesson. These 100 have been selected by their grade level academic ability and their reasonable behavior. The presentation goes forward, the kids all pay attention and glean what they glean.

That leaves 3 teachers available to present and tutor the 20 kids who are not at grade level or are behavioral problems. I picked 7th graders because that's kind of the worst age but I bet they wouldn't be that way in class if we started this in First grade.

Beat me with a baton but two main issues in teaching are student readiness and behavior. Kids from poverty are often ill prepared as we know, and catching up is difficult. These kids are very likely to act out and basically fuck up the experience for others. I suspect this would put significant social pressure on the jackoffs to straighten up and some of them might.

Class over, all head back to home rooms. Our system needs more than cosmetic changes.

 

[Sol Rosenberg]

Poor Bigo

 

[SloopJonB]

What's his point?

 

[jerseyguy]

Federal judge in Madison, WI has ruled that a wrongful death lawsuit against Kyle Rittenhouse can go forward.

Lawsuit can proceed against Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled Wednesday that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a man shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020 can proceed against Rittenhouse, police officers and others.

apnews.com

 

[SloopJonB]

Good - ruin the fat fuck for life.

 

[badlatitude]

A crybaby Marine. This must be a first.

Capitol rioter breaks down crying in court -- gets hit with 68-month prison sentence​

A Marine Corps veteran who participated in the January 6 insurrection just received 68 months in prison — the longest sentence of anyone involved in the attack to date — shortly after giving a tearful speech to the judge trying to beg for leniency, according to POLITICO on Wednesday.

"Daniel Caldwell, a 51-year-old Marine Corps veteran, delivered a tearful apology in court to the officers he sprayed, expressing remorse for his actions that day and pleading with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for mercy," reported Kyle Cheney. "But Kollar-Kotelly repeatedly described Caldwell as an 'insurrectionist' and noted that his deployment of chemical spray at officers created such an intense cloud that it nearly broke the depleted police line by itself. Though no officers directly attributed their injuries that day to Caldwell’s actions, Kollar-Kotelly said his actions undoubtedly contributed to their physical and psychological trauma."

“You’re entitled to your political views but not to an insurrection,” said Kollar Kotelly as she handed down the sentence. “You were an insurrectionist.”

“I must face my actions head on,” said Caldwell tearfully, in his speech. “I hope that you and our country never have to face another day like January 6th.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/capitol-rioter-breaks-down-crying-in-court-gets-hit-with-68-month-prison-

 

[Bus Driver]

Capitol rioter breaks down crying in court -- gets hit with 68-month prison sentence​

“You’re entitled to your political views but not to an insurrection,” said Kollar Kotelly as she handed down the sentence. “You were an insurrectionist.”

I do believe there are some here who argue there was no "Insurrection". A judge seems to disagree.

 

[badlatitude]

I do believe there are some here who argue there was no "Insurrection". A judge seems to disagree.

 

[hobie1616]

Another snivelin' lil' bitch.