09:42 – We made a trip down to Winston yesterday. Barbara dropped Colin and me at the house and then left for a haircut appointment and a trip to the dentist. Colin and I packed stuff up while she was gone and we then loaded the stuff into the Trooper and headed back to Sparta. She’s off to the gym and supermarket this morning, while Colin and I await the mail pickup.
A lot of my libertarian-leaning friends vote Republican, on the theory that a Libertarian has no chance of being elected while a Republican is likely to be at least marginally better than a Democrat. And I think that’s generally true, in the sense that I’d far rather have a Cruz or even a Rubio as president than Clinton or Sanders. But this year I don’t think that’s going to be the choice. I’m afraid it’s going to be a choice of Trump or Clinton, and I really don’t think it’s safe to assume that Trump would be better than Clinton. He may in fact be even worse, as hard as that is to imagine. Trump, like any psychopath/politician, will SAY whatever he thinks voters want to hear. What he actually DOES once he’s elected would almost certainly bear no resemblance to what he promised. I mistrust Trump at least as much as I mistrust Clinton, and that’s saying something.
“And I think that’s generally true, in the sense that I’d far rather have a Cruz or even a Rubio as president than Clinton or Sanders.”
Attention OFD! Attention OFD!
Someone has just put his hand up for your Political Re-education camp… 🙂
When Cankles has her stroke, maybe they’ll roll her around on a gurney like Teddy Kennedy, drooling, with an assistant screeching what she would have said. She could be our first Zombie President.
Cruz and Rubio are beholden to the Repub hierarchy and power structure; Cankles is not far off that, and is also a big-gummint warmonger and criminal. The Repubs would rather have her in there than Trump, as the latter is not as dependent on them and might stray off the res. She’s supposedly the figurehead for womyn and minorities, but her history shows that once in power, she’d throw them all under the bus in a hahtbeat, as Obola has done. I suspect Trump’s angry middle- and working-class derps would also get tossed from the sleigh once he gets busy with his big biz and corporate buddies around the world.
In any case we’re long past the time where a particular WH sock puppet actually “leads” the nayshun and makes any kind of difference beyond what the ruling junta decrees for them. The historical beta version of this way of doing things began, along with modern industrialized warfare, during our War Between the States, but got kicked up several orders of magnitude during and just after World War II. It seems that several Presidents, including Truman, who ramped up the national security state in 1947, had serious second thoughts and misgivings over how things had gone and were going, but it got away from them.
I believe the junta still thinks it can maintain control of the Empire but it’s getting nervous; the masses are restless, angry and pushing back in various sectors; the internet is a huge factor, and I reckon they’ll find ways to tighten up on it soon. Although it’s useful to them for keeping track of loudmouths and dissidents such as are found here on this board.
I also think the regime has painted itself into a corner, economically, and they won’t be able to find a way out before the whole house of cards collapses. This will cause major problems worldwide, and would be just the opportune time to kick off another big war. Great Depression–World War II–Redux. With rationing and de facto martial law. It would seem that they have every possible motivation for keeping the Grid up and running but their attention to its maintenance and security appear to be greatly lacking. If that goes down, all bets are off; we’ll be back to, at best, 1900.
Sunny with blue skies today but in the teens and twenties. Off shortly to the vets group and catch up on how messed up we are and all the nooz.
I’m reevaluating my IT “career” options and where to focus my attention, but in general, as I’ve told others, this year is my last shot at getting back into it on a full-time basis. If I’m still out of it by Xmas, that’s it for ol’ OFD, after working in it off and on since 1984. At that point, any involvement I have with it will be mainly focused on secure alternative internet, radio and email technologies on a community basis.
I agree with you. Further I’ll add, that there is something wrong when they are the most popular candidates. Even worse, they are also the most polarizing candidates. Almost everyone either loves Trump or hates him. There is no middle ground. Hillary is the same way.
@OFD,
While I certainly understand the desire to leverage those years of experience one last time, I’m going to suggest that you accept the current situation and START on your next step right NOW.
The only thing different at Christmas could be you are more discouraged, the collapse is further along, and you are 10 months behind wherever you could have been if you started now.
I’m looking for my fourth real career. Each of the previous three segued into the next somewhat related field, but each was mostly different. The commonality was the ability to just go in and “get things done” mostly thru stubbornness and force of will and learning on the fly. The “real work” I’ve done in the last couple of years was mostly in an only tangentially related field to where I’d been working. It came about because I’d spent the year reading a couple of trade magazines for that field, and had become familiar with the problems and opportunities, as well as the manufacturers and the products available. When an opportunity came up to use that knowledge, I did, and it led to more work in that field.
If you have network skills, I can suggest looking at security companies, and video surveillance companies in your area. They tend to be local or regional, with ties to national manufacturers. They are sorely in need of networking expertise due to the rise of IP cameras, and Network Video Recorders or VMS (video management systems). Everything in the security, video, and access control world is moving to IP and networks. This is a very conservative and staid industry, so it lags in adoption of technology. There are big skill gaps as these companies grow and replace existing hardware, and they don’t typically have the experience to talk to the corp IT guys who run the in house networks. The networked storage some of these projects require is pretty impressive too.
AV companies are finding themselves doing more and more networking as well, since all the AV stuff is moving to IP based systems for distribution and control too.
For those with programming experience, home automation and corporate AV systems need control systems, typically AMX or Crestron, but now also Control4 and others. A good AMX programmer makes $1200-1500 or more per day when on site. Local AV companies often need control programming done on a project by project basis. The IDEs and training are available online once you get hooked up with a dealer.
I should note that everything I’m talking about is “project based” work. You join the team for a while, do the gig, and go home until the next one. There are positions available, but project work is the norm even with established companies.
And I’ll suggest to all, that there are lots of opportunities to make money and prep in the “secondary economy.” Buying at thrift stores, estates sales, and yard and garage sales for yourself, or to resell, has many rewards. I see lots of guys that look a lot like me at those places. A quick search on youtube will show a whole bunch of people who make money this way. Some are very specialized. There is a girl who dumpster dives for cosmetics. And a bunch of guys who dumpster dive Gamespot stores…
Working in the 2ndary economy has advantages for post SHTF or depression level economy too. You learn to recognize a bargain, to repair and resell. You get to fill your own needs for less money. I know of guys who just buy lawn tractors on Craigslist, fix them, and resell them. Ditto for small gas powered lawn tools. There are guys making extra money assembling ham radio kits, or building dipole antennas for sale on ebay. Anyway, LOTs of ways to make some money out there that DON”T involve a traditional 9 to 5.
(Probably some opportunity in publishing as well, how to guides maybe?)
nick
It appears that I didn’t win any friends or influence any of you yesterday with my challenge to read the link that Scott Adams (Dilbert) provided (http://blog.dilbert.com/post/140353736681/a-letter-to-donald-trump-from-a-voter-not-me).
Now we have the SOB Romney attacking and trashing Trump. Trump will not take kindly to this latest personal attack by Romney. Now Fox News is showing Romney’s “Trump praise fest” from 2012. Mitt, your magic underware is soiled.
If any of you want change you have to open your eyes and see that Trump is trying to work within the system. He is by no means perfect, but far better than any of the noodle spined tea baggers who have been quickly converted to the one-party system.
Anyone who still believes that the RNC is not the DNC deserves to live in the coming poverty and servitude.
This was our one chance of avoiding chaos. Now I would say it is certain. It looks like we are all just going to crawl back into our caves, swill our beer (and Moxie) and complain, and accept that Camelot is not to be.
I think the fix has been in for some time that Cruz will be Trump’s VP, serving in a much-valued Consigliere role similar to what George Ross used to do in the Trump business organization in the 80s and 90s. I’m guessing that the primary spats were designed to air out anything that the Hildebeast Mafia could potentially use against the ticket in the Fall.
When we lived in FL I gave money to Rubio to end Charlie Crist’s RINO Senate ambitions. I hope I don’t live to regret that decision.
“While I certainly understand the desire to leverage those years of experience one last time, I’m going to suggest that you accept the current situation and START on your next step right NOW. The only thing different at Christmas could be you are more discouraged, the collapse is further along, and you are 10 months behind wherever you could have been if you started now.”
Good points, excellent points, Mr. nick; thanks. I am, in fact, looking hard at localized and regional network and security stuff.
@Mr. DadCooks; I did read that linked story and I’m basically with ya on the issues; I just think it’s already too late. Even if Trump is the genuine article. I’m not hunkering down in my cave here yet, though; meatspace is the thing; gotta get out and get to know neighbors and the community. None of us can resist all this shit all by ourselves.
“Dick Morris: A tyrant at the gate”
http://thehill.com/opinion/dick-morris/271376-dick-morris-a-tyrant-at-the-gate
“The Republican Party has long been led by the rich and the powerful, who have won election after election by persuading the lowly and powerless to vote for them. Ever since the days of Roman politics pitting the plebeians against the patricians, the dilemma of the rich has always been how to get the poor to vote for them. They have succeeded in the past by dividing the poor along racial, sectional and ideological lines.”
“Now, with Donald Trump’s victories in the GOP presidential race, the jig is up. Whatever their former appellation — Reagan Democrats, the silent majority, the Southern strategy — Joe Sixpack and Archie Bunker are now solidly in the billionaire businessman’s corner.”
“They flock to Trump because they feel that the Democrats will only pay attention to their needs if they are people of color, single mothers or gay. And they are convinced that the establishment Republicans will be true to their country club roots and, ultimately, sell them out.”
What he said.
Mr. DadCooks – I _did_ read the letter. It fits what I see. I promptly shared it on another network and was soundly beaten about the head & shoulders for supporting Trump. Would I let my daughters listen to him? I think I was pretty clear when I stated that I found the phenomenon interesting and was NOT supporting Trump.
Funny – I’m just watching the show right now. Stirring the pudding, as it were. Good show.
I have been following Scott Adams expert Trump analysis for months. It puts paid to the simplistic view that he is a bombast who just says anything. He is truly a clever man. That said, I’m not a Trump supporter, nor do I say the world will end if he is elected. I see Trump as a more educated Jesse Ventura and my wife thinks he will get bored two or three years in. To me the biggest difference between Hillary and Trump is that Hillary / Bernie hate America and want to continue the Obama transformation to a smaller, weaker nation. While I believe Trump loves the country he grew up in and truly wants to restore it from the depredations of the last few decades. But I see his real attraction to be the fact that his election threatens the power base of the Republican party who have betrayed their members for years. We are at a point where many republicans want to see the party blown-up by Trump because they can’t trust the rest of them.
After 45 years in IT, starting on IBM 360 with a massive 64K of RAM writing machine code, to the birth of the LAN with Novell version 2.x, writing the first network intrusion & malware detection software for LA Gear in 1987. (wish I had published it) To the early Internet, using BBN IP routers to replace dedicated lines for Airline reservations in 1990 (including a bit of industrial espionage). To building Network Security services in Europe and New Zealand. I have had it. Tired of IT. Just not fun anymore. I will be retiring in a year and focus on my business portfolio and real estate investments.
@Harold
That’s okay. Your job’s in India anyway.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/02/ibm_layoffs/
After 45 years in IT, starting on IBM 360 with a massive 64K of RAM
I started 47 years ago (not counting college courses I took while in high school) on an IBM 1401 with 8K of memory.
Just not fun anymore
Have to agree.
I will be retiring in a year
I will be retiring at the end of June this year. Don’t really know what I am going to do. First couple of months will be traveling. After that will concentrate on my photography for fun, need to find a part time job to keep busy.
See, it’s a vast left wing conspiracy to elect Cankles.
——————————————————————
Is it possible, however, that conservatives, in the eight short months between July 2015 and today, have beaten down the media bias of the past 30 years and entered the mainstream at long last? Or is more likely that networks are happily using Trump’s always-provocative sound bites to confirm every nasty anti-conservative cliché they’ve nurtured for decades? If you guessed Option Two, you’re sane: Network media are actively engineering the Republican primaries and choosing the candidate they believe will be best suited to go up against Hillary Clinton — and lose.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432258/donald-trump-media-they-use-him-make-money-help-hillary
It may backfire on them, however.
Obama won because blacks and “no I’m not racist” dems turned out for him.
With Trump, there is even more excitement among the working class, the disaffected conservatives, Tea partiers, Reagan Dems, and others. And Trump is a darned good pitchman. I don’t see the progressives or other dem demographics getting excited about whomever their candidate is. And excitement is a strong component.
Ray – I interviewed for a job on a 1401 but was fresh out of college and no experience. Good luck with your retirement. I took a major in Photojournalism with a minor in Computer Science and I have been returning to my photographic roots also. My son, and business manager, wants me to run the ATM business just to keep me busy when I retire and to give him a break I think. It’s easy peasy work, just taking large amounts of cash to bars and strip clubs to reload the machines. I’d be on easy street today if I had taken Steve Jobs up on his offer of an Apple distributorship in Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, when I met him at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977. But I didn’t see the future of the Apple II as any better than the Cromemco Z80 or the Trash-80 so I declined. Have a great retirement.
taking large amounts of cash to bars and strip clubs to reload the machines.
Can I help? You do the bars, I’ll do the strip clubs. 🙂
In the nooz:
Some Egyptian flight student in CA threatens to kill Trump and the administration can’t decide to deport him. At least the flight school flagged his visa and he’s in jail. Why is he still here?
Mexican Finance Minister says no way will Mexico build the Trump Wall ™. Please elect The Mighty Trump so he can end NAFTA with his pen, just like Obola.
I’ll vote for Trump five times just so Cankles isn’t President. There will be a President Trump or no Redumblican Party. Or, both please!
“Donald Trump has a 7-point healthcare plan”
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article63786822.html
Looks very Libertarian to me. There is no mention of a Single Payer plan in there so I am disappointed.
1. Repeal Obamacare
2. Repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act, and allow the sale of insurance across state lines
3. Allow tax payers to fully deduct health insurance premium payments in their tax returns, as businesses can
4. Review basic options for Medicaid and work with states to ensure that those who want healthcare coverage can have it
5. Allow all individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and make those contributions tax-free and allow them to accumulate year after year
6. Require price transparency from all healthcare providers, including clinics and hospitals
7. Block-grant Medicaid to the states
8. Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, generic options
Not even close.
A libertarian plan would be, “If you want health insurance and can afford it, buy it. Otherwise, do without, but don’t expect any services.”
“If you want health insurance and can afford it, buy it. Otherwise, do without, but don’t expect any services.”
@RBT +1000
@Lynn, WRT Single Payer. In no way do you want that and it is essentially what we have now with the collusion that goes within the insurance “industry” and in conjunction with the gooberment. Any hope of competitive pricing goes away with Single Payer as well as your choice of what medical care you will receive.
Lynn is mistaking what he thinks (probably incorrectly) is in his best interest as a small business owner with what’s good for the American people. He’s been making the same mistake for several years now, and probably nothing short of a good dose of single-payer healthcare will change his mind. But by that point, of course, it’ll be too late.
@Lynn, WRT Single Payer. In no way do you want that and it is essentially what we have now with the collusion that goes within the insurance “industry” and in conjunction with the gooberment. Any hope of competitive pricing goes away with Single Payer as well as your choice of what medical care you will receive.
Then you must get rid of the must treat requirement for all emergency rooms. Good luck with that. It is a feel good mandate of other people’s money on the first order.
I want Single Payer for the single reason that I want to have emergency rooms in hospitals. We are on a trend to close all ERs in the inner cities. Soon, the suburb and suburban hospitals will follow this trend as their non-payers rise from 65% to the 80% experienced in the inner cities.
Ah, then ask for what you want. Not what you think would solve the problem caused by the first thing….
nick
BTW, we have single payer for everyone in the USA aged 65 and older (Medicare). Seems to work well to me. And, I know many people on it (I am getting old!).
Otherwise you end up where we are.
Like the old lady that swallowed the fly.
One bad fix after another, but no solving the original cause.
In healthcare, I think the original cause was Kaiser and employer paid insurance. This led to the persons consuming the care not paying for the care, and indeed, unable to find out what the care cost even if they wanted to.
nick
@lynn, even that isn’t single payer vis the number of supplemental insurance plans, the number of people at the VA, and all those with the means to pay their own doctors.
nick
(not single payer for every over 65, and .gov isn’t the only payer for those on it.)
It all started with government intervention in a system that wasn’t broken in the first place.
I can’t imagine how that could go wrong. /s.
Step 0 : Abolish employer paid health insurance. Buy your health insurance on the free market, just like your auto / life / umbrella / etc insurance policies. Yes, the woman who has had three heart attacks is going to pay more, just like her sister with three DUIs.
It seems that the power grid in the Ukraine was hacked. I wonder who did it. So is the first big prepping item a shotgun or a backup power source of some sort?
The Great State of Texas has a program to combat the closing of the Hospital ERs. Each county in Texas is required to select one ER and pay for their non-payers (so-called indigents). The cost to Harris County (Houston) is around $300 million/year. Fort Bend County (Sugar Land Methodist) is $20 million/year the last I heard and that was several years ago.
It all started with that fuck Roosevelt.
Currently, Medicare covers 15% of the people in the USA and pays 25% of the medical bills. At way below the going rate (and cost) which is wrong.
Opening Medicare to all citizens will simplify things, ensure individual coverage, and start a whole new set of problems. The payment rates will need to rise, maybe even doubled.
And the VA should be folded into Medicare and their hospitals / doctors privatized. My father-in-law is 100% disabled on VA and barely goes there anymore since we put him into a nursing home. And they do not help with his nursing home cost (but he does still get his disability payment). We had him in a VA nursing home for while but it violated the rule (you could smell urine when you walked in the door).
Here in the South (and the North to some extent), the Reagan Democrats are coming back out and actively voting for Trump. I have not seen this much enthusiasm for a candidate since Reagan.
“So is the first big prepping item a shotgun or a backup power source of some sort?”
The backup power will be no good to you if you are deceased, thanks to goblin home invasion or a B&E that went bad suddenly.
“It all started with that fuck Roosevelt.”
Which Roosevelt? lol. And “all” what? I maintain it all started with the bad faith backstabbing at the secret proceedings in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Or we could go back to that fuck Rousseau. Or back to the Reformation heretics like Luther and Calvin and Henry VIII.
The Great Eliminator kicked it up a few notches, as did his successors, Professor Wilson, Pharaoh Roosevelt II, Truman, and the junior Bush. So now we have a national security state/empire that is terminally diseased and tottering on its last legs in the next few years. For how things might look at various stages, one might examine the period between the world wars in Europe, postwar Europe, and the dissolution of the old Soviet Union, plus our own Great Depression between the wars. Then, since the population here has tripled since those days and many tens of millions of us are armed, kick it up another few notches.
The ex-jarhead ‘Nam vet opined today that if the Feds try to take our guns away, there will be millions of us in active shooting mode thereafter. He calls himself our token liberal and doesn’t own a gun and doesn’t want one, but if the gummint tries to pull this shit on us, he’ll run out and buy one and plan on going out in a blaze of glory. Then we have the hardcore gun nut bastards like me, so it could get interesting.
@RBT, you and Scott Adams agree somewhat. Adams said “The best arguments for AND against Trump are oddly similar: He’ll say anything and do anything to destroy the government. #trump”
https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/705456951207993344
I’m certainly not going to shoot at government agents, who, after all, would only be there to help me. I do keep an old single-shot .410 shotgun loaded with #9 birdshot, but that won’t do any real damage outside fifteen or twenty feet. The last thing I want to do is hurt anyone, particularly our brave, virtuous, underpaid, overworked federal LEOs.
“The last thing I want to do is hurt anyone, particularly our brave, virtuous, underpaid, overworked federal LEOs.”
+1,000,000
Well said! And if I thought for a nanosecond that a warrior-hero LEO from the Federal Government was in fear for his or her safety upon encountering me in my home, awakened from a sound sleep with zillion-lumen FLASHLIGHTS in my face and a dozen ARs and Glocks aimed at me, why, I’d kill myself immediately for the sheer shame of it.
If you want to stay in IT, then InfoSec is a growing field, IMHO. Should be lots of opportunity there.
If a young whippersnapper was asking me for advice (which is not something that ever happens), and was interested in computers, InfoSec would be my response.
Although us old folks would have difficulty finding a job there – not because of experience, but age. Glad I got the retirement thing going.
“If you want to stay in IT, then InfoSec is a growing field, IMHO. Should be lots of opportunity there.”
I’ve come to the same conclusion and this year is my last shot at getting back into IT fulltime. As Mr. nick said, I’m probably whistling past the graveyard or whatever the right analogy is, so I’ll keep hammering at other ways of producing revenue for our little household up here. My main focus will be on the hands-on network/InfoSec stuff I can get into or drum up in what is, frankly, a limited market.
The age thing really pisses me off because I’m in pretty good shape and can easily go another ten or fifteen years doing this stuff and to be dumped at 60 is bullshit. But I’ll do whatever I have to do to carry my share of the load here; I HATE having it all on my wife.
Is Trump the only candidate advocating the 50 state concealed carry right?
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/second-amendment-rights
“NATIONAL RIGHT TO CARRY. The right of self-defense doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway. That’s why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states. A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.”
I wonder about the other seven states?
In other nooz, as I sorta predicted a while back, the Repub operators have brought in Mittens to do whatever, and some other media intel has it that they mainly are banking on their convention shenanigans and just keeping Trump below the needed delegate total. This is so they can run Rubio or Cruz and lose against Cankles, deliberately. They want Cankles over Trump; and that is the state of the so-called Republican Party these days. No offense to any die-hard Republicans out there, but that is just sick; like little kids who break their toy rather than let their sibling or friend play with it.
But anything can happen in the next few months, including some world-shaking event that leads the Incumbent Psycho to declare a state of national emergency; or Cankles finally does get indicted or gets really sick and bails; or she gets in and gets indicted or really sick. In that case, her VP pick would be interesting.
Which psychopath will be the White House Sock Puppet this time next year? And will we be in the beginning or middle of World War IV? Will the lights stay on? Will Dick finally make out with Jane?
Run Spot run.
See Spot run.
See cat chase.
See Spot pee.
“Oh Dick” said Jane.
“Clean that up” said Jane.
“Oh Jane” said Dick.
“Fuck you” said Dick.
Yes, ladies and germs, this blog goes downhill like this regularly. OFD is a prime culprit, as are certain other nefarious reprobates and scallywags.
Rest assured Big Donald has announced to the country during a presidential debate that he has the schlong to be leader of the country.
Hum thought you said Hilarity for a second. She thinks she has the balls anyway…..
n
Dope makes the world go round. Dig it.
http://takimag.com/article/narco_liquidity_hargreaves_allen/print#axzz41u8KKEHa
Fun alternative uses of music:
http://takimag.com/article/big_willies_and_huge_polynesians_david_cole/print#axzz41u8KKEHa
OFD got in on this sorta caper a while back, in circa 1990 Woostah, MA. Lived in a decent second-floor apartment near downtown with the first wife but denizens in the house across the street were, shall we say, undesirable. Their first floor was basically underclass Hispanic riff-raff and upstairs was a group of three or four blatantly “out” homosexuals, and the whole place would regularly blast their shitty music outside during warm weather.
OFD got tired of this shit one Sunday afternoon after working my four part-time jobs while being a full-time grad student and TA, so I put our large boombox on a windowsill with the window open and blasted bagpipes and drums of the Black Watch. Within five minutes there was no one outside in the street.
WTF is wrong with our society when my 6yo is crying inconsolably because she’s “fat.” Her belly is “too fat.” She’s SIX and a bean pole.
Fucking mean girls.
nick
Yes, ladies and germs, this blog goes downhill like this regularly. OFD is a prime culprit, as are certain other nefarious reprobates and scallywags.
I don’t think that I am a reprobate so I must be a scallywag. Oh my, I just looked up the definitions of both. I would prefer neither. My uncle Nathan Bedford Forrest McGuire would prefer that I not be a scallywag. And I believe in Grace through Christ so I am probably not a reprobate.
Just watched the episode of “Mom” from a couple of weeks ago. They ended the episode with an impromptu alcoholics anonymous meeting and saying the serenity prayer. Very interesting and on a mainstream network (CBS).
WTF is wrong with our society when my 6yo is crying inconsolably because she’s “fat.” Her belly is “too fat.” She’s SIX and a bean pole.
Just wait until middle school, then the mean girls get serious. Raising boys is bad enough but raising girls is downright tough.
“We are on a trend to close all ERs in the inner cities. Soon, the suburb and suburban hospitals will follow this trend as their non-payers rise from 65% to the 80% experienced in the inner cities.”
I think this is a false dichotomy. The problem isn’t non-paying people in the ER. The problem is people who use the ER for sniffles, or to attempt to get free drugs.
Every single ER in the world runs triage. When a patient walks through the door, the ER needs to know if that person requires immediate life-saving treatment, if they can wait a few minutes, if they can wait longer, or if they likely don’t need to be in an ER. In the current US legal climate, the ER doesn’t dare send anyone away, because they are scared of being sued.
If you want to solve the problem of closing emergency rooms, all you need to do is change the rules: Anyone the ER deems to not be an emergency can be sent away, and no legal recourse is possible.
Alternatively, allow the hospital to demand pre-payment for any non-emergency treatment. This can even be a token – your inner city drug-seeker is not going to show up and pay $50 for the chance to get a couple of narcotic pills.
– – – – –
Meanwhile, in other news, watching the Republican committee campaign against their own candidate (Trump) is amusing. And rumors have it that a Grand Jury is now convened and working to consider the Hillary email scandal. If prosecution was not reliably roadblocked, it seems beyond odd that the Democrats allowed her to be their anointed candidate. If she gets indicted before November, they will be dead in the water – and apparently there is a huge amount of pressure in the intelligence community (i.e. all the 3-letter agencies) to do so.
Really, it’s a great soap opera, but not exactly the kind one expects of a first-world republic. No, that’s not fair – it is on a par with France and Italy, which countries also regularly have soap operas in place of elections…
OFD wrote:
“OFD got tired of this shit one Sunday afternoon after working my four part-time jobs while being a full-time grad student and TA, so I put our large boombox on a windowsill with the window open and blasted bagpipes and drums of the Black Watch. Within five minutes there was no one outside in the street.”
The father of a former boss got sick of the church next door making a lot of racket, and they wouldn’t listen to his requests to turn the volume down a bit. His solution was to start up his lawn mower on Sunday morning and leave it running on his property as near to the church as he could. They suddenly became very cooperative…
I’m having the same problem with my 8-y-o daughter. No crying, at least not in my presence, but she’s regularly upset after school because the kids are mean. My wife’s approach to dealing with it — “I’ll talk to the teacher” — is worse than useless. My natural approach, to be completely unaffected by it and to take severe retribution if anyone did manage to annoy me, is not helpful because my daughter is not a homicidal psychopath and I am not trying to mold her into one.
The best I’ve worked out is to tell her that people say things, including lies, just to make other people feel bad, and if someone acts like that, who cares what they think? As you can probably guess, this is not particularly effective. Still, it’s better than having her bite a kid’s thumb off in order to get people to leave her alone for a while. (And anyway, she’s a bit young to be encouraged in that direction. I was I think 12 when I bit that imbecile’s thumb off.)
“Still, it’s better than having her bite a kid’s thumb off in order to get people to leave her alone for a while.”
Why not? That approach worked for our host 50+ years ago.
It’s especially frustrating because we’ve been extraordinarily conscious of our language and comments regarding body image and eating. I’ve been trying the “they’re liars and not the boss of you” with limited success.
My wife tossed it out to her moms group, and it turns out it’s one particular little girl, who is the queen bee and already an identified issue for the moms. They are working on it thru her extracurricular activities as her mother is not receptive to advice or criticism.
I have already expressed my opinion that dance and gymnastics are body image toxic as well as physically warping, but have been overridden. This is getting a second look now.
We WILL be working on appropriate physical responses as she matures.
nick
I have already expressed my opinion that dance and gymnastics are body image toxic
As well as cheerleaders, whom no one pays attention to at any game except for the moms. Who think their precious little girl is doing the correct move when the other 11 cheerleaders are doing something else, all in unison.
All it takes is one to punch the little snot in the nose. Of course, in today’s culture, the puncher will be blamed instead of the punchee.
The best way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them. And then, stand up _for_ them when it comes back around.
“whom no one pays attention to at any game except for the moms. ”
and the pervs
n
@brad – you forgot the first step of ER triage, it is called in the business a wallet biopsy. While this will be “officially” denied, it is the truth and determines how fast and how much care a person receives. The absurd dichotomy here is that, in today’s political/regulatory environment, an illegal alien will be moved to the head of the line and is at least moved to a treatment room immediately to get them out of the public eye.
It is not just the inner cities that are experiencing 80% no-pays in the ER, it is happening virtually everywhere.
This is not the rantings of a grumpy old man with halfheimers, this is the exasperated discussion that occurs too many nights each week at our dinner table between my Wife the Surgery RN (who works at the community owned “county” hospital) and my Daughter the Certified Medical Coder (who works at regional hospital owned by Providence).
I’m glad most of our kids went to a Baptist school in San Antone till 6th grade. Caring people who didn’t let any bullying occur. After that is a different story, but nothing where I needed to lock and load. Several trips to see the Principal.
My daughter isn’t going to public school. It pinches the family budget, but she’d been “diagnosed” at age 2 as being on the autism spectrum, on the basis of not talking much. (Side note: how could she possibly talk much, what with my wife and her mother never stopping talking?) In public school kindergarten, she was tracked into a “special needs” class, which resulted in her losing ground in reading skills and developing a number of undesirable habits, picked up from the actual special needs kids. And we couldn’t get her out of that track because she “obviously” had problems. Yah, thanks for nothing, assholes.
(Amusingly, after about the second meeting, the principal and learning disorders specialist refused to meet with me in person without some kind of security present. I never raised my voice and never made anything resembling a threat, but I “made them uneasy” because I disagreed with their “expert opinions”. Your tax dollars at work, giving useless tools lifetime jobs. And the “security” person was probably intimidating to first graders, but not sixth graders. Your tax dollars at work.)
I’m ok with holding myself in reserve as the ‘nuclear option’ for now. I’ll let the moms have a shot at dealing with it.
She’s in public school, as I’ve mentioned before, but in a program that is essentially a ‘school within a school’. The students and parents are both more involved and more capable. Homeschooling is an option, but I’d like a bit more time before I have to take that up. We are very sensitive to public school and pc nonsense and are keeping a close eye on things. This is not what I pay school taxes in 3 districts for.
nick
And rumors have it that a Grand Jury is now convened and working to consider the Hillary email scandal.
The fact that the guy who set up the server has reportedly been immunized from prosecution means that the DOJ lawyers are involved. Up until now it’s just been the FBI asking questions. If there is a grand jury, the DOJ seems to be ready to allow indictments to be handed up. How far up they go is the question.
Here is more on what may be going on: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432301/hillary-clinton-grand-jury
Buncha cynical haters.
“We are on a trend to close all ERs in the inner cities. Soon, the suburb and suburban hospitals will follow this trend as their non-payers rise from 65% to the 80% experienced in the inner cities.”
I think this is a false dichotomy. The problem isn’t non-paying people in the ER. The problem is people who use the ER for sniffles, or to attempt to get free drugs.
Every single ER in the world runs triage. When a patient walks through the door, the ER needs to know if that person requires immediate life-saving treatment, if they can wait a few minutes, if they can wait longer, or if they likely don’t need to be in an ER. In the current US legal climate, the ER doesn’t dare send anyone away, because they are scared of being sued.
It is a serious money issue. The ERs are trying all kind of crazy things to move money collection to others. The ER docs now work for an agency in most ERs.
Ultimately, the hospitals close their ER and open a critical care which does not have federal law about treatment. Then they do the walletectomy first in all cases.
We home schooled our daughter in sixth through eighth grades. And then we put her into a local Christian school for 9th through 12th. We also home schooled our son in tenth through twelfth grades which was a saving grace for him. I was the principal and my wife was the teacher. We even created a high school graduation certificate for our son which Texas A&M University accepted.
In retrospective, I’m not sure if the home schooling was any better but it was a lot cheaper than the private school. There are enormous resources for home schooling out here in Fort Bend County with a collective organization run in the biggest Baptist church out here.
Kids being bullied – that’s really hard. The worst part is: once a kid has been picked out as the victim, they get defensive, and that defensiveness marks them in interactions even with completely different groups of kids.
SteveF is right: talking to the teacher is pretty useless. The teachers probably already know, but there’s not a hell of a lot they can do. There’s also not a lot the parents can do, because the critical interactions happen amongst the kids.
I don’t have a solution either, at least, we didn’t find one that worked for our older son. One thing I can say, though, is that any solution involves standing up for yourself. In proportion – maybe not biting off some kids bodily appendages – but certainly enough to make the bullies look elsewhere for their fun.
I’m a fan of martial arts for kids, if they are willing to take them seriously (which our son unfortunately wasn’t). Judo, karate, it doesn’t matter. After a couple of years of good instruction, the day will come. The bully will push a bit too far, and the solution will happen automatically.
I was “bullied” a couple of times in middle skool, thanks to being really tall and skinny with glasses, red hair and buck teeth, and a book reader. Then I pinned one kid down by his throat over the hood of a car out in the parking lot until teachers ran out and pulled me off him. During a touch football game, I made sure a second perpetrator got the ball and then tackled him in such as way as to pound/drag him across the gravel. No more “bullying” ever again during my skool years, or thereafter, for that matter. Of course later on I was on the sports teams and put on weight and got along with everybody.
Girls have a tougher time, much tougher, unfortunately. Our daughter never gave any indication that she’d been bullied at skool but she did get sucked into all kinds of dopey peer pressure stuff, living in Montpeculiar, mostly hippie-dippie chit. So one outcome of that was becoming a super vegan and a PITA about it for a while (that seems to be fading away, finally) and the political beliefs skewing SJW, thanks to the teachers and other media (which isn’t fading away).
Apparently at least a couple of my nieces got the treatment coming up through skool and came home in tears or otherwise all effed up about it. Really nasty stuff, too. It’s a wonder my brothers didn’t kill somebody, and no, they got zero help from teachers or administrations.
Well, I didn’t mean to, it just sort of happened when a kid who should have been in 9th or 10th grade was beating up on a 7th grader. (A small 7th grader; I didn’t start growing until a few years later.)
Right now it seems like ingroup and dominance games with the popular girl. If it escalates any it is gonna get serious quickly.
I hope the moms can deal with it and modify her behavior thru the other activities they all participate in. The girl scout troop leader actually did her phd thesis on just this issue, and how to deal with it, so here’s hoping she’s got more than burning sage to cleanse the energies in her toolkit….
nick
btw, the school antibullying stuff is about as useless and counter productive as anything you’d expect from the SJW and AA factory….
n
Sounds to me like the mother needs a bit of remonstrance. I suggest slamming her face repeatedly into a door jamb in your first conversation. Save cutting off her nose and ears for the second.
“…the school antibullying stuff is about as useless and counter productive as anything you’d expect from the SJW and AA factory….”
Exactly. Same as it ever was, with other rah-rah bullshit over the decades. “Fight racism.” “Stop bullying.” Blah, blah, blah. It makes them feel like they’re actually doing something; makes them feel good about themselves; makes them feel superior to the rest of us benighted peasants. You see, it’s all about FEELINGS. As opposed to REALITY, which bites us all in the ass eventually.
All those “anti-” movements and crusades over the years have either never amounted to a hill of beans or they actually made things much worse.
“I suggest slamming her face repeatedly into a door jamb in your first conversation. Save cutting off her nose and ears for the second.”
Gee whiz, Mr. SteveF; going from zero to ninety there, aintcha? I like to gradually soften them up at first, just a couple of brisk slaps across the face. Make them realize suddenly that they’re at my mercy. Try out a couple of questions, then a nice solid punch to the gut. Instead of the face in the doorjamb, do the fingers. That hurts like a mofo! And you don’t damage their pretty little face.
(a scene in the “Vikings” series has an adulterous woman about to get her ears and nose sliced off; they get as far as one ear and then she names her consort, who is conveniently dead by that point, so no more cutting.)