April, 2010 archive
We Need Single Payer 0
Root canal:
Ramos, 43, was a young mom when she took her 4-year-old to a dentist for swollen gums more than 15 years ago. Uninsured, she made a partial payment and expected to be billed for the rest. But she never received a subsequent bill and soon forgot about the episode.
Meanwhile, a lingering charge for $67.72 went to collections and was brought before a judge. Ramos says she was not notified. The judge awarded the collections agency hundreds of dollars and ordered the sheriff’s department to sell her house to make up for the debt.
The home sold at auction in 1996 for $1,550, though Ramos had paid $51,000 for it.
It wasn’t until two years later that Ramos learned on a fluke that she had lost the title to the buyer, Jarmaccc Properties LLC.
Guys and Dollars 0
Bloomberg (emphasis added):
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled March 19 that the central bank must release the documents. A three-judge panel of the appellate court rejected the Fed’s argument that disclosure would stigmatize borrowers and discourage banks from seeking emergency help.
“Our member banks are very concerned about real-time disclosure of information that could cause a run on the banks,” said Paul Saltzman, the group’s general counsel, in an interview yesterday. “We’re not going to let the Second Circuit opinion stand without seeking a review.”
Mr. Saltzman’s fear is horse-hockey. The information in question is from 2008. That is hardly real time. Indeed, it was an unreal time.
The banksters naturally wish not to reveal the true reasons behind their fight against releasing the information, which I believe is this: It will make them look bad.
It will reveal that they screwed things up far more than they or the government is willing to admit, that they disdain fiduciary responsibility, and that, behind all the Wall Street double-talk and the looking good in meetings, their role model is Good Old Reliable Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, Nathan Detroit.
Greater Wingnuttery XLV 0
Words fail me.
Via Kiko’s House. Read the whole post at the link. It collects a bubbling stew of stupid.
Asset Dump 0
The BBC:
The passenger jets are owned by AIG’s aircraft leasing operation, ILFC, and the cash saved will help repay the $182.3bn cost of bailing out AIG.
When I saw the headline in my RSS feed, I jumped to the conclusion that these were private aircraft for ferrying fat cats about. Not an illogical jump, and I was mildly surprised to see that it referred to real planes that carried fare-paying passengers (wonder how may company jets AIG does/did have?)
I understand that the planes’ bulkheads were stuffed with inflated assets that helped keep the planes aloft, sort of like flubber. When the assets deflated, AIG could no longer keep the planes in the air.
“Have You Not Heard ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’?” 0
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Julian Assange | ||||
|
||||
More here. Listen to the interview at the link or read the transcript, if you do nothing else.
Otherwise, They Can’t Afford Those Country Club Memberships 0
They want a mulligan. In my experience, persons who deal in good faith don’t need mulligans.
Bloomberg (emphasis added):
In 2009, UnitedHealth spent 82.3 percent of revenue from premiums to pay customers’ medical expenses and WellPoint spent 82.6 percent, according to company filings. While individual insurers now decide what categories to include in this ratio, the health law signed in March demands that all companies define medical costs the same way beginning in 2011.
Many insurers include only customer claims in their current ratios. They want to keep the number low to impress investors, said Sandy Praeger, of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Under the new law, lobbyists would include technology expenses, wellness programs and pay-for-performance incentives. That would make it easier to reach the 85 percent threshold, and free up revenue to boost profit.
Duke Bankem 0
Don’t kid yourself.
When these guys get home at night, they see themselves as He-Man, Master of the Universe, and everyone else, especially their customers, as Skeletor and his minions to be subdued, not served..
This is about Iceland, but it has happened is happening here:
(snip)
Then the Icelandic business Vikings headed for the high streets around Europe with their pockets full of borrowed money. Fresh out of business school Icelandic CEOs took over established companies in fields they couldn’t even pronounce. The fast decision-making and risk-seeking behaviour of this new breed was hailed in the business media around the world, boosting the already overblown egos of these young alpha-males.
Deep South 0
Back when I was a young ‘un, growing up in the Jim Crow South, some of the school administrators went to attend some kind of convention in New Orleans. One of them was a close friend of my father (in fact, the first baseball glove I had was contributed by this man).
Remember that this was in the most intense period of the Civil Rights struggle, shortly after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and after this.
After they came back, my father’s friend told my father that the trip was okay, but, when they got to Mississippi, the atmosphere was so tense that they felt they had to put on fake Southern accents.
And these were white guys with Southern accents from a segregated state, from the state that came up with the idea of Massive Resistance.
They were afraid to be mistaken for Yankees, despite their Virginia accents.
They were also, quite frankly, amazed at what a different world Mississippi was from Virginia.
I did not, at that time, know that Mississippi still had not ratified the 13th amendment to the Constitution, the amendment that abolished slavery.
Mississippi still hasn’t given up.
Afterthought:
I mentioned earlier that one of my ancestors was a General in the CSA. He is also represented in the John Brown Wax Museum at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, in the act of signing John Brown’s death certificate.
My younger son, who was with us on that trip, was ashamed.
Do I disown him (my ancestor, that is; I’m still thinking about my son)? Heavens no. He is part of my history and he was a man of his time.
But that does not require me to honor his cause.
Anyone who cannot figure out why the Confederate Flag, Confederate symbols, Confederate History Month, and the whole Confederate ball of wax are deeply offensive to many persons is either too stupid for words or a racist ideologue.
There really is no middle ground.
Unsettlements 0
Don’t know what it was, but it hit Saturday afternoon with chills, with a fever up to 102.5 Fahrenheits, and with shakes and shivers.
We won’t mention the aches and pains, but I can recommend this in conjunction with acetylsalicylic acid for symptomatic relief as a satisfied user who is not a medical person in any way.
I’ve spent a good part of the last two days asleep or delirious. (Between the two, I much prefer delirious. At least delirious can leave pleasant memories.)
Today, still shaky, I had to fill out forms for settlement, which is scheduled for Friday, then run around to get them notarized, and deliver them to UPS with the prepaid shipping label the settlement folks were kind enough to provide (this way, I won’t have to drive across three states to attend–my part is done).
As with every settlement I’ve been involved in since the first one 30 years ago, the settlement folks keep coming up with last-minute complications.
It’s what they do. It makes them feel needed.
To quote a friend of mine from another life a long time ago, it was like taking an exam while suffering from a blinding headache (and from the shakes).
Normal insanity seems to be returning.
Then, again, I may still seem delirious. It’s my blog. I’m allowed.
And now it’s time to rejoin some Old Time Radio, which is already in progress.
Poison Pills 0
Really really big poison pills. Horse capsules, actually.
They knew they were going down, so they decided to take as many persons with them as they could in the hopes of, I reckon, somehow getting off the hook.
And that is what passes for fiduciary responsibility in the parallel universe which we inhabit.
Via Atrios.
Urban Hellholes 0
Atrios is fond of talking of life in his urban hellhole. Of course, though it’s urban, it’s hardly a hellhole; it’s a nice residential neighborhood a few steps from shopping, services, and transportation.
Speaking of transportation, transportation costs are seldom figured in with housing costs and, in a commuting environment, they should be:
“When transportation is figured in there — because that’s what it takes to get home — it becomes untenable,’’ he said.
The study found that across Greater Boston, the average household spends $22,373 on traditional housing costs and $11,927 on transportation, from car payments and gasoline to T passes and bike tires. That $34,300 represents 54 percent of median household income in the region.
There’s more at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
People of Walmart Dept: He couldn’t stop playing with his warm gun:
Walters wound up near a register where he later told police he intended to purchase the game. Several customers were nearby.
He removed the Jennings from the holster again, causing the magazine to come loose and fall to the floor. Walters re-inserted the magazine and continued manipulating the handgun when it fired, sending one round into the ceiling, Peoples said.
When Zombie Banks Walked the Earth 0
Bloomberg:
The cost of these reserves was calculated by CreditSights Inc., a New York-based research firm whose prediction almost four years ago proved prescient after banks reported unprecedented mortgage-related writedowns. Recognizing the home- equity loan losses is unfinished business from the housing bubble, CreditSights said in a March 29 report.
The grift that keeps on giving.
And This Surpises Us How, Flair for the Obivous Dept. 0
Well, duh.
The survey found that those who are racially resentful, who believe the U.S. government has done too much to support blacks, are 36 percent more likely to support the tea party than those who are not.
(snip)
“While it’s clear that the tea party in one sense is about limited government, it’s also clear from the data that people who want limited government don’t want certain services for certain kinds of people. Those services include health care,” Parker says.
Via Balloon Juice.
Stats 0
It is truly amazing how much money persons can make for ruining the economy, for putting lots of folks out of work, or for providing nothing whatsoever of value (indeed, in some cases subtracting value from life).
And how little persons earn for adding value to life.
The Course of Empire 0
Thoreau lets loose his inner cynic.
Keeping the License out of Licenses 0
The persons keep vanity plates from being profanity plates:
H8 was also a popular prefix – as in H8VICK – and CMY (see my… fill in the blank).
Other rejects that we can probably get away with printing here: BITETHS, IHAV2P, LVVODKA, PMPNVAN, IGETHI, NOGOD, AHCRAAP, and a whole batch of applications containing the letters SUX.
URNBRED and USTUPID were voted down as well.
The Galt and the Lamers 0
One of the shibboleths of modern conservative thought is that the all-powerful “market” gives a flying farsnackle about morality. The “market” cares only about money and about what persons can get away with.
In this case, persons got away with other persons’ houses.
From 2004 to 2006, the mortgage-fraud scheme entangled homeowners who were in financial trouble.
“These are not people who overextended themselves and bought McMansions,” said U.S. Attorney Ellen V. Endrizzi, one of the government prosecutors handling the case. “These are people who fell on hard times. It’s so heartbreaking because nothing can be done for them.”
Led by Charles Head of Los Angeles, there are 16 defendants remaining from two 2008 indictments. All defendants have opted for jury trials, according to documents filed March 5 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento.
Charges against them include mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, money laundering, and related offenses, Endrizzi said. Though some defendants already have pleaded guilty, trials for the others probably will not start until May 2011.
