Suzanne Blake

Newsweek

Nothing unique here. Just another Texas screwup while trying to eliminate people from state and federal programs. The problem being they mistakenly injure the innocents. No problem though, it happens in other states or so Texans claim.

Hundreds of Texas seniors lost their Medicare benefits after Texas Health and Human Services made an error in the Medicare Savings Program.

“Medicare is health insurance for people age 65+ and certain people with disabilities. The Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) are a sub-set of Medicaid, designed to help people with low income afford their Medicare costs.”

The agency confirmed that 350 seniors had been removed from the state’s Medicare Savings Program, which is estimated to have

Prof. Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American

When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed a joint meeting of Congress today, he tried to remind lawmakers of who Americans are.

“The U.S. shaped the international order in the postwar world through economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power,” he reminded them. “It championed freedom and democracy. It encouraged the stability and prosperity of nations, including Japan. And, when necessary, it made noble sacrifices to fulfill its commitment to a better world.”

He explained the bigger picture.

“The United States policy was based on the premise that humanity does not want to live oppressed by an authoritarian state. A state where you are tracked and surveilled

Robert Reich

Roberts Substack

Robert Reich’s update on the upcoming criminal trial on election interference.

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Trump wants you to think that all he did was try to cover up a sexual affair. Wrong.

Trump’s first criminal trial, the first criminal trial of a former president, ever — is scheduled to begin Monday. The 34-count business falsification case may be the only case against Trump to reach a verdict before the November election.

Many people I speak with are worried this is the weakest of Trump’s four pending criminal trials. They think so because it has to do with an illicit affair.

Wrong. This case is commonly called the “hush money” case. It is referred to as Trump’s “coverup of a sex scandal,” this way of

Consumer Price Index – March 2024 (bls.gov)

“The BLS index for shelter rose in March, as did the index for gasoline. Combined, these two indexescontributed over half of the monthly increase in the index for all items. The energy index rose 1.1percent over the month. The food index rose 0.1 percent in March. The food at home index wasunchanged, while the food away from home index rose 0.3 percent over the month.

Good reads on the March BLS Report.

Tags: inflation, March 2024

More semiconductor news. Leading off, TSMC plant delays in Arizona are disappearing.

In spite of earlier delays, the Arizona TSMC plant is now expected to be operational by end of 2024. Pilot Production to prove the manufacturing process will start mid-April 2024.

Three months earlier, TSMC announced further delays at its $40 billion Arizona fab. TSMC has now said the plant is expected to be operating at full capacity by the end of 2024. What a surprise . . .

The announcement comes several weeks after it first reported TSMC will be awarded more than $5 billion in federal grants under the US CHIPS and Science Act. Maybe there is a connection?

The two plants TSMC is building will produce 4nm and 3nm semiconductors (not the latest 2nm).

Biden is at it again. This time with Intel in AZ.

With all the issues with passing a budget since earlier last year, I wonder how Biden and the Dems got this out of Congress. Must be some pretty good pork involved with these programs to get approvals. Companies are kicking in $240 billion in investments to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States since the President took office.

Good move by Dems in a swing state.

If you head north on highway 347 where it becomes Queen Creek Road, just past I10 into Chandler, you can see the giant cranes off in the distance which are used to build a new Semiconductor plant. Make the left turn on to Price Road and you will go past the companies aligned with modern day electronics. Many of

By Ron Coddington

Life on the Civil War Research Trail

A presentation requested by Dale Coberly about what could have happened if Virginia had followed suit in freeing the slaves pre-Civil War. A Slavery debate in the 1830s.

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In his 1910 memoirs, Randolph Harrison McKim, a Confederate officer who served on the staffs of Stonewall Jackson and George H. Steuart, recalled stopping by the home of Thomas Jefferson Randolph on a January day in 1864. Randolph, grandson of our third President and a Virginia legislator, told McKim about the state’s great slavery debate in 1832 to consider the question of emancipation of enslaved people in Virginia. Here’s McKim’s account of the meeting and his opinions of why it did not pass—and what might

By Zach Beauchamp

Vox via RSN.Org.

As presented by Dale Coberly . . . A conversation between Vox’s Zach Beauchamp and Joe Conason a veteran New York journalist. The topic? Trump’s grifting.

A new book shows how conservative grift started long before branded bibles and $400 sneakers.

During his time atop the Republican Party, Trump’s lifetime habits of fraud and  grifting have fused seamlessly with conservative politics. In 2024 alone, Trump debuted  $399 gold sneakers  emblazoned with the American flag, sold a $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible endorsed by singer Lee Greenwood, and convinced millions to purchase stock in Truth Social’s unprofitable parent company.

Trump is often treated as a political hijacker who rerouted the Republican

Some thoughts: There are many mentions in this commentary by David, I find true and factual. Much of my time in Europe and Asia was working, eating, and traveling with the residents of these countries and staying in their hotels. Not for just a few days, but weeks at a time.

Europeans would place me in their hotels and Asians would up the scale and place me in American style hotels. The latter did not mean I did not see or experience their way of life. At times it was brutal. Ditching a 500 Baht note to a family of kids in Thailand? Before I left for the US, it could mean food for their family for a couple of weeks. There is much to see and experience in other places and wonder how we should be doing things differently in the US . . . if things

I am not surprised scamming like this is occurring. There are always people operating under false names or using corporate entities as a way to scam others. I think trump helped to open the door for much more of this to happen.

Here are six different ways scamming has been happening. No funds passed . . . no contract.

Fraudsters selling homeless people ACA plans they can’t afford, WUSF

Forty-year-old Zhelyazkova was living at a homeless shelter and needed Suboxone, a medication to manage the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. At the end of 2021, a stranger approached her on the street and offered her $5 to sign up for a “free” health insurance plan with Florida Blue. The person instructed her to use a false address and falsify her income so she

By Raw Story and featured by

Save the Post Office

Steve Hutkins had this up in the News Section of his blog, Save the Post Office. If you do not remember, during the last election there were issues with USPS mail delivery delays and the conversion was stopped to allow for mail-in-ballots to get to Vote Counting Centers on time. Dejoy was told to stop till the election was over. DeJoy needs to leave. I am sure there are reasons Joe Biden has not replaced him as of yet.

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Raw Story: A noticeable slowdown in mail delivery by the US Postal Service (USPS) is becoming a significant concern for democracy advocates, as millions of Americans will be voting by mail this year. There’s growing worry about whether mail ballots will be counted in

Some Background and History

If you ever move to Arizona around Phoenix and maybe even further out, you are probably going to end up in a development which has a Home Owner’s Association (HOA). My experience with HOAs is mostly positive as the Pres. and the Board Members lived in the same subdivision as we did in Michigan. In Arizona, Homeowner’s Associations are far different. They can be corporate and run by a commercial enterprise as hired by Builders and Declarants. In which case, calling the Organization a HOA is a misnomer. In reality, it is a Builder’s Homeowner Association or BHOA.

BHOAs are a completely different beast. The builders and declarant choose the HOA Inc. to run the development. The declarant will choose the Development HOA

It’s more environmentally harmful to make an electric car than a gas car. “A guide to electric car misinformation (part 2),” HEATED.

Tags: Electric Cars

By Kip Sullivan JD

This is a long one covering managed care and value-based care healthcare in Minnesota. The topic being why it hasn’t worked. It is worth the read. Angry Bear has covered Kip’s message on healthcare in an effort to show why healthcare costs are out of control.

“The commission recommends the new state program control health care costs through managed-care organizations, such as HMOs and PPOs, the types of health plans that have proven most efficient in providing and insuring health care…. [They] will … lower costs for the state.”

Except HMOs and PPOs did not “lower costs for the state” of Minnesota.

Fifty years of attempting to introduce healthcare to Minnesota through the use of HMOs.

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For over 50 years,

By Steve Hutkins

Save the Post Office

AB: I have been involved in multiple, many, etc. systems implementations over the years. They need careful upfront planning with users to understand what may work best and have a foundation in mind before you move forward with an implementation. PG Louis DeJoy has never worked in a post office and lacks a foundation to support his belief the plan “he” is implementing will work. Furthermore, he has not polled the US Post Office management and workers to determine what will work. We are in for a surprise when the new system does not work as planned.Following up from Save the Post Office, “The mail slows down, again.” Angry Bear reported in February, “the on-time delivery of US Mail has decreased.”

By Dale Coberly

No. It’s not. Here is why.

The argument for ending the tax on Social Security benefits seems to be that “it is a tax on a tax”, double taxing, and not fair.

Even the good guys believe this.

But they are wrong.

Consider,  You pay income taxes on your ordinary income.  Then you may take your after tax income and put some of it in a savings account which earns interest.  Then you pay income tax on the interest you earn.  Is this double taxation?

This is exactly how Social Security works.  You pay income tax on your ordinary income, then you put some of your after-tax money into Social Security which is a very safe savings account.*  This account earns interest, which you collect when you start receiving benefits, Social

Updates on Green House Gas and Climate Change. Rather than have readers flip from chart to chart on different pages, I consolidated the Green House Gas charts on one page. When it says see Figure 2 or 3, the chart is nearby and clearly marked. The update as marked on the original piece is Web update: November 2023. So, this is fairly current. It appears the US is making some headway in decreasing emissions. It also is said, the US has a long way to go.

More information on the link US EPA (just below).

US EPA 1990 – 2021

Climate Change Indicators detailing emissions of greenhouse gases by Gas, by Economic Sector, and per Capita and Per Dollar in the United States.

This figure shows emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous

Briefly, this commentary is about creating a better environment for all children in public schools and stymie the political and personal efforts impeding the environment for them coming from privatization interests.

by Jeff Bryant

The Progressive Magazine

“Every year, there’s something to stoke division in an attempt to disrupt our public schools and decrease the confidence in our public schools. Four years ago were the masks. [Critical race theory] was a year after that. [Now,] DEI, [and] banning books.”

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona finally said the quiet part out loud.

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On February 13, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, did something Democratic officials seldom do in public: He spoke the

Anyone have a sword available for him to fall upon after his commentary of illegals invading Michigan?

“Happening right now,” Michigan GOP Lawmaker State Rep. Matt Maddock wrote.

“Three busses [sic] just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?”

Attached to the tweet were grainy photos of white buses at Detroit’s airport and a plane. He tagged Pete Hoekstra, a former representative for Michigan in Congress and Ambassador to the Netherlands under Donald Trump.

And the answer . . .

Hmmm, they were headed to the Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit. The three buses were filled with Gonzaga basketball players. Gonzaga lost to Purdue that night. Maddock confirmed

It has been a while since Angry Bear has featured Annie Asks You . . . Just been busy and I have been delinquent in doing so. This topic has been a long time in coming. I am confident it will be one which pushes America in the right direction.

“AnnieAsksYou . . . “

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While the Republicans continue to scramble and dig more deeply into the hole created since the radical Supreme Court majority decimated reproductive freedom, making red state legislators giddy with newfound opportunities to deprive women of their rights, some commentators (male) are contending that this issue really doesn’t have the power it did in 2022 and 2023.

I remain quite confident that what was true in 2022, when I quoted the head of Planned Parenthood

By Antonio Ciaccia

46brooklyn Research

A January Unlike Any Other

In case you didn’t notice from our last report on new year price changes, at the end of December 2023, many insulin vials and pens took significant (i.e., 75%+) list price decreases. Given much of the early 2024 attention on brand drug list price increases, it bears repeating that insulins in 2024 are largely a quarter of the price they were in 2023. This cratering of prices for a number of high-profile brand products in unison with others (e.g. respiratory inhalers) is largely unprecedented.

The significance cannot be overstated. Arguably, no products have more exemplified the drug pricing dysfunction of the United States than insulins over the last 30 (and arguably, 100)

By Dean Baker

CEPR

Not much of a surprise here the 11 Washington Post’s Charts need some explaining to correct the misinterpretation of them by WaPo. The issue here is the amount of bad or false information floating around in the news media today. People tend to believe what they initially read and go no further. When people like Prof. Dean come along and correct the inaccuracies it can be misinterpreted as political. People want to believe what they like to believe.

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The Washington Post made some serious errors or omissions in its 11 charts that are supposed to tell us how Covid changed the economy.

Wages

Starting with its second chart, the article gives us an index of average weekly wages since 2019. The index shows a big

Suddenly everyone is an expert on Shipping and Supply Chain. Considering we had issues in Long Beach and Los Angeles, management did not resolve the issue, I understand they are unionized. You pay them and solve the issues. Instead, Biden has to step-in and schedules overtime. You get the product to the customer. Los Angeles is the busiest port and then New York/New Jersey.

One ship crashes into a Baltimore bridge and we have expectations of more and major national shortages. Wrong conclusion. There are other ports and it may cost more in the short term. I do not expect it to be $10 to $12 thousand a container, which is abuse.

Things happen and you have to have contingency solutions in place. There has to be contingency plans (redundant, yes

Liking your present situation right now?

Your job, your house, your car, you can keep it and you may have to do so. Buying a new car, house, or getting a different job may be more costly and not pay off. Even if you are not so satisfied, chances maybe you having to manage your pennies and stay put. Making a major economic change today involving costly upgrades, may not be advantageous, right now. Getting far out on a limb in a new job or with greater costs may be too risky.

It is what author Emily Stewart at Business Insider identifies as a “trapped in placed economy.”

University of Michigan’s director of consumer surveys Joanne Hue a has another name for it.

“If you are trying to move, buy a car, whatnot, then you have all these bad

Ran across am Americans for Tax Fairness article last night. Corporation tax dodging and executive pay has both is far out of control. A significant number of major U.S. corporations are paying their top executives more than they’re paying federal income taxes. 

Matters have worsened with trump taking office in 2016 and the TCJA Making the Tax System, and the Tax Season More Burdensome. There is roughly a $2.1 trillion deficit resulting from this tax break. It was passed using Reconciliation and can be repealed, etc. It has not increased revenues and has worsened the deficit.

Key Findings

Thirty-five profitable corporations paid top executives more than they paid in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022.

The 35 companies not only paid

A New Norm: Senators Bernie Sanders and Laphonza Butler presented an intriguing idea: making a shorter work week a national norm. The bill they introduced proposes changing the standard workweek with no loss in pay for certain groups of employees, including many hourly workers, from 40 to 32 hours, at which point overtime pay would kick in. Whether that change sounds quixotic depends on whom you ask. But as Sanders said in a statement:

“Moving to a 32-hour work week with no loss of pay is not a radical idea.”

Tags: work week

Hal Singer at Lever News wrote a commentary explaining how banks (mostly) are upset with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau capping credit card late fees at $8. One would think this covers every bank. It does not and only covers banks with more than 1 million card holders. Any bank or organization with less customers can avoid the new rule. And of course there are other exceptions.

The new rule takes effect sixty days after being posted in the Federal Registry.

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Corporations and or banks believe they’re entitled to sky-high profits, and it’s destroying the economy.

In February, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed capping credit card late fees costing   consumers an estimated $14 billion annually. The president

Angry Bears’ Social Security expert Dale Coberly emailed this to me about the same time it showed up in my inbox. Republicans again are trying to sell the public on the need to cut Social Security and Medicare Budgets for those over 65. Cutting them while keeping the Trump tax breaks which will result in a $2 trillion deficit by the time Reconciliation measures end in 2025.

The cuts makes no sense as both programs are far more efficient and effect than the commercial versions of them. The only issue for both is strengthening them going into the future. Read on . . .

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Members of the Republican Study Committee in Michigan and Arizona. States in which I have lived and am now living.

There are two states which I am interested in

Like many others, we use Costco to buy bulk things or special items such as this new screen I have plugged my laptop into. This morning, I am looking at the myriad of emails (many of the junk) and clicked on the latest Costco addy to see what they are hawking.

Voila . . . a solar powered generator.

This one is made by Anker (of phone battery charging fame), sold at Costco, and at a discounted price of ~$3700. There are some issues with this source of power. Some detail:

Ultra-high AC output power of 6,000W/9,000W and 120V/240V dual-voltage AC output and 7.68kWh capacity, this combo can power almost your all home appliances, a perfect companion for home backup and RV life.

One Battery, one Power Station, and one foldable Solar Panel.

Interest Rate increases to fight perceived inflation or not fight perceived inflation? Big believer in the cause of much of the inflation being deliberate supply chain planning to increase prices. Have not seen a deliberate price increase yet which will fix a supply chain. Poor or deliberate planning creating issues, a lack of knowledge on supply chains, and invalid sourcing. Pick one.

Similar occurred in 2008-10 and it raised its ugly profit-taking-head again in 2021. We still see ruminant of it in 2024. Are the FED’s actions the right ones to battle commercial Supply Chain issues? From the news sources . . .

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it will leave interest rates unchanged, delaying the possibility of rate cuts as well as any