I was no general, field grade officer, or even an officer in 1970. Just a three-strip Sergeant in my 3rd year stationed at Lejeune drinking the water and bathing in it.

Someone had a brilliant idea we should be trained in riot control since Camp Lejeune was not far from Washington D.C. Some elements out of Fort Bragg would join us. As we were Federal soldiers, our facing civilians is frowned upon.

In any case, we were trained, never called out, and we spent some weekends on base due to something happening.

I put this post up because the House Sergeant at Arms has a point.

If these rioters were Black Americans, Federal soldiers would have been called out and some people would have been shot. Race was a factor in determining what actions

Door Wide Open for Republicans on Student Loans, Alan Collinge, Student Loan Justice, Medium.

Angry Bear has featured Alan and Student Loan Justice Org. well over a decade now. In the manner they are written, these loans by the Federal Government and maintained by private enterprises are akin to loans made by a hypothetical student loan shark. Loan relief exists for every other loan in this nation. Just not for Students.

There are about 54 million student loan borrowers and cosigners in the US. According to ex-Trump Student Aid Chief, Wayne Johnson, 85% of federal borrowers- who comprise the vast majority of all loan holders- were never going to be able to repay their loans before the pandemic. If this trend holds across privately owned

What we are seeing in the UK is an example of giving commercial healthcare too much latitude in providing healthcare. Private equity became involved with care for older people and care became chargeable and means-tested, long-stay hospitals were closed. and the government gave over the building of new facilities to private interests.

Th US is just starting to experience the growth of mega-healthcare corporations having tenacles in the lowest layer of healthcare with doctor orgs. to the upper levels in hospitals. They are large enough to charge whatever they care too. In regions there is little competition and insurance companies can not force lower prices in negotiation as a result.

Looking at what is happening in the UK can be a picture of

Sanford-Fairview merger is a symptom of a larger problem, MinnPost, Kip Sullivan.

Minnesota has a hospital merger problem.

But it didn’t begin last fall when Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services announced their intention to merge. It began in the 1980s and accelerated in the 1990s in response to mergers of unprecedented size among health insurance companies. By the early 2000s, Minnesota’s hospital sector had been transformed into a few hospital chains, each of which dominated its own region – Mayo in the south, Allina across much of the eastern part of the state and Essentia in the north, for example. By 2002, Minnesota’s health insurance industry was the sixth most concentrated in America. Three insurance companies controlled 89% of

Have Medicare Advantage plans been over coding? According the MedPac 2022 report for year 2020 they have been. The funds of which come out of Medicare funding. The amount of which was an ~$12 billion for 2020 alone. But it is not just 2020, “Medicare Advantage has Overcharged FFS Medicare by Billions for Years,” Angry Bear. “Aggregate Medicare payments to Medicare Advantage plans” have never been lower than FFS Medicare spending. MedPac 2022 Chapter 12, Page 439 “Coding differences increased payments to MA plans by $12 billion in 2020.” “Medicare Advantage Overpayments, An unsustainable future, Kip Sullivan.

If Congress is finally going to do something, it is late to the issue and it is about time.

Biden Plan to Cut Billions in Medicare Fraud

I have read enough on the bailing out of two banks (Silicon Valley Bank and the smaller Signature bank). in 2018, I had argued against increasing the $50 or $100 (?) billion limit to $250 billion. These were commercial banks which were allowed in 2008 to join with Wall Street banks to dabble in securities, Banks writing home mortgages had skipped the practice of registering them with the counties. Not a safe practice. Here we are in a situation where banks over extended themselves again with fewer dollars in reserve to cover withdrawals. If you recall, AIG was doing CDS with pennies on the dollar. Then Goldman Sachs called on them to ante up. We got to this how?

In December 1986, the Federal Reserve Board, which has regulatory jurisdiction over

With the exception of the One-handed Economist, quite a few of these consumerism and environmental articles show up in my In-Box. Some of them are actually quite good. In the past I did have some of them my In-Box Post. I thought this time I would break them out separately. Most of the are from Treehugger and Consumer Affairs.

Consumerism:

What is credit and how does it work? ConsumerAffairs, Jessica Render. People are getting credit from traditional financial institutions or providers such as department or electronics stores. Stores offering their own cards or financing programs. These usually have the backing of larger financial institutions. Credit cards are the most common type of credit.

FTC wants consumers to be able to ‘click to

Everything you didn’t know you need to know about the Postal Service’s new commercial, Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins.

Last week the USPS Link had an article — titled “Get a ‘Move’ on” — announcing the Postal Service’s new TV commercial. The commercial is called “Orchestrated Delivery,” and its theme is “We’re reinventing our network” — a reference to the way thousands of letter carriers across the country will soon be relocated from post offices to large Sorting & Delivery Centers, which are being rolled out at this very moment in selected locations.

This promises to be one of the most significant transformations of the postal system in decades, and the Postal Service wants the country to welcome the changes.

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This is a story or at least I tried to make it into more like one. The longer version can be found at the Propublica link. I took parts of it linking them together using mostly their wording and blending it with mine. Money and Corporate influence still wins . . .

The U.S. Never Banned Asbestos. These Workers Are Paying the Price, ProPublica, Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi

A few miles up from Niagara Falls was the OxyChem’ facility. The plant’s previous owner was Hooker Chemical. The same company which buried toxic waste in Love Canal,. Then Hooker gave the property over to the city for development in the 1950s. Unlike the horrific tales of the past of Labor working with Asbestos, the current protocols for handling asbestos were so stringent,

What fired me up this morning? I retrieved a post sitting in the trash. A News clipping posted by Fred Dobbs considered to be dangerous by the Angry Bear system. I retrieved it and it sits at the end of my commentary on Wisconsin. The clipping is a nice history lesson on Wisconsin. Mine is editorial.

I (we) lived in Wisconsin for almost a decade in the city built on an Isthmus. When I would fly home from some consulting manufacturing/supply chain consulting assignment, we would fly over the 3rd largest dome construction called the Wisconsin capitol.

The green of the surrounding woods and the lakes (Mendota, Monona, Wingra, surrounding it and Lake Waubesa below Monona). This was coming home to sanctuary as my neighbor described it. We were home

If you have read Medicare Advantage uses Algorithms to block care for Seniors, Angry Bear, (STAT Investigation, Casey Ross and Bob Herman) you might think this is a relatively new phenomena in healthcare. At the bottom of the post you will find a link to another commentary. Why did I put another commentary site there as written by different authors?

Number one, so I would not forget it. Number two, to make a point of showing the use of algorithms in overall and Medicare healthcare insurance is not new. How long has it been in use, I am not sure. The commentary by St, John and Krupa is almost one year old and very relevant.

This is another case study of how Medicare Advantage is defining treatment options for patients. The pattern is to measure

Taking a one day break from the more technical stuff.

I ran across this story a couple(?) maybe more days ago. The first thing which came to mind was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as conducted by the PHS’ Center for Disease Control in Atlanta (AP). Some will say this is not as serious, they were prisons. they agreed to take the drugs, etc. The point here is we used our power to administer what they thought would be of help to them the same as Tuskegee. We lied . . .

Later in the clipping from AP, you will read about a quasi – county judge who boasts of being proud of the doctor abusing prisoner rights to a safe environment and treating prisoners with Ivermectin for Covid. It does not work.

It does shock the conscience. Judge Brooks

Judge

More on the practices of Medicare Advantage plains and also ACA, Medicaid and Medicare. The practice being delayed prior authorizations, the amount of time it takes, and the resulting tragedies.

CMS proposes prior authorization rule changes for health plans, BenefitsPRO, Lauren Sausser

Starting in 2026, a proposed CMS rule would require plans to respond to a standard request within seven days. This is instead of the current 14 days, and within 72 hours for urgent requests.

When Paula Chestnut needed hip replacement surgery last year, a pre-operative X-ray found irregularities in her chest.

As a smoker for 40 years, Chestnut was at high risk for lung cancer. A specialist in Los Angeles recommended the 67-year-old undergo an MRI, a

Kip Sullivan has been writing about the issues with Medicare Advantage. I have joined with Kip in bringing the issues of Medicare Advantage to the forefront. Angry Bear has featured Kip and I have added to the dialogue. This next commentary details how Healthcare Insurance, mostly Medicare Advantage has been using artificial intelligence in the form of an algorithm to limit treatment or deny coverage. STAT Investigation has been providing the detail from its study of the issues coming from the misuse of the nH algorithm. This is a bit of a rewrite.

Denied by AI: How Medicare Advantage plans use algorithms to cut off care for seniors in need, New York Progressive Action Network (nypan.org), Casey Ross and Bob Herman, March 17, 2023

An algorithm

Putting on a different hat today. My background includes supply chain management. I am look at what the industry experts are seeing and whether I agree with them. Much of what I have seen over the last two years is a repeat of 2008. We again are late to beginning issues. And again, we are waking up late to the beginning of the end of the same issues. No Cassandras amongst us.

Good article . . .

The Fed’s supply chain pressure gauge just went negative, freightwaves.com, Greg Miller.

In January 2022, the world was driven by a demand and structural supply chain crisis. The New York Federal Reserve unveiled a new barometer to measure the inflation fallout calling it the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI).

The GSCPI’s purpose was to

Some information on Student loans sitting in SCOTUS. I would think the big issue here is who has standing. The states do not.

Conservative jurists demand “textualism” to get what they want, except when a statute’s words thwart their desired goal. But by using a new trick, they break their own rules. That’s how they blew up the EPA’s Clean Power Rule and may soon eviscerate Biden’s student loan relief.

The Conservative Justices and the “Major Questions” Hustle, Washington Monthly. Caroline Fredrickson

Conservatives claim “textualism” is the only defensible approach to analyzing and applying a legal text. The term emphasizes the “plain meaning” of the text of a legal document and rejects the use of legislative history and other contextual

An early attempt as to explaining the drug market. It is a start and I have to program myself to understand what is said. Brief and down to earth with pictures too! Much of this is a C&P with some editing. Much credit to the authors for giving us this opportunity to understand.

Welcoming a New Year with new drug prices, 46brooklyn Research

This year has proven to be little different from past years. In keeping with tradition (for as long as drug pricing benchmarks have been a tradition), brand drug manufacturers big and small took list price increases (as measured by wholesale acquisition cost, or WAC) at the start of the year. Technically most prescription drug price increases occur in either January or July each year. The greatest number take

This is conversation between Summers and Frank are from March 13th. In this conversation, Barney could be right. He is refusing to agree that raising the limit for banks was a bad idea. If so, then how do you protect the public and the bank from bank managers doing stupid things? Gambling again with other people’s money is something they seem to be accustom to doing.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Two banks have failed in the last few days. The federal government deemed both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank systemic risks to the financial system, and regulators moved to ensure depositors would be able to access their funds. Former Congressman Barney Frank is uniquely positioned to weigh in on these collapses. He served on the board of Signature

This article is easy reading exploring some the differences and why people may choose one plan over the other plan. Attached is also a Commonwealth Fund article with more detail.

Medicare Plan Commissions May Steer Beneficiaries to Wrong Coverage, MedPage Today, Cheryl Clark.

Agents and brokers selling Medicare plan coverage often steer their clients to a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan because it earns them a higher commission compared with a Medigap supplemental plan with traditional Medicare that might better serve the beneficiary’s needs.

What role do financial incentives play for healthcare planning agents and brokers in the advice they give to their clients?

One incentive for agents and brokers steering clients to a Medicare Advantage

In 2018. I made a similar argument without the detail Skanda Amarnath provides today. My points were not accepted. I went to a “we shall see” mode. And we did see banks taking risks because they could do so because Congress (which included Democrats) gave them the slack to do so too soon.

In 2018, a decade after Wall Street and Banks blew up main street with their gambling, I felt it was too soon to give banks slack of this nature. It was only 7-8 years from the point of when things started to improve domestically amongst the population. Participation Rate never returned to what it was pre-2008 as one example. Rather than stimulate the economy, a Republican Congress started to cut back on unemployment and other areas.

This is a good commentary

A different viewpoint by the Physicians for a National Health Program. Mainly speaking as advocates for a universal national health program which would be as cost-effective as possible. They are proposing the plan could be constructed as an improved form of Traditional Medicare. They do too find similar issues as what Gilfillan and Berwick extensively discussed in the commentary Medicare ‘Money Machine, Part One and Part Two.

Comments on CY 2024 Advance Notice of Methodological Changes for Medicare AdvantageCapitation Rates and Part C and Part D Payment Policies, PNHP, Physicians for a National Health Program

PNHP welcomes CMS’ efforts to begin to rein in abuse of the payment system by Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and rampant overpayments to

Quick two weeks went by and have been pretty busy. Starting to warm-up in Arizona. Been spending more time outside while I can and before it gets hot.

Environment, Consumerism, Technology

Micro-Apartment Makeover Includes Mini-Loft and Space-Saving Furniture, treehugger.com, Kimberley Mok. The comfort and livability of a 300-square-foot apartment are beautifully improved in this smart renovation.

What changes after the Norfolk Southern train incident in Ohio, qz.com, Ananya Bhattacharya. Transport secretary Pete Buttigieg proposed that railway companies join the Federal Railroad Administration’s Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3), which was first piloted in 2007. 

Your car may not be as safe as you think. Here’s why,

For some reason, I did not release this one on the 13th. Not sure why. I was at the eye doctor for sure and he was removing membrane from the retina. Never felt a thing. So far so good. It might just be me thinking it improved my right eye vision. I was able to read the chart which the NP said was positive. I was told many people could not after surgery.

Anyway, there are any number of good posts on different blogs you can read. This one by Dean Baker gets right to the point. Once again, the same as 2008, it is all about rescuing the big guys who have political pull. The rest of us were along for the ride.

SVB Was Donald Trump’s Bailout, Center for Economic and Policy Research (cepr.net), Dean Baker

There are two key points that people should

“The very men who were arguing the government should protect all the depositors’ money, not just that protected under the FDIC, have been vocal in opposing both government regulation of their industry and government relief for student loan debt, suggesting that they hate government action…except for themselves.”

March 12, 2023, Letters from an American, Professor Heather Cox Richardson

At 6:15 this evening, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg announced that Secretary Yellen has signed off on measures to enable the FDIC to fully protect everyone who had money in Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, and

Traditional USPS supporter at Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins presents the latest information about the reorganization of the USPS. We had let off where President Joe Biden has/had a chance to replace two commissioners whose terms were at an end. Everyone wants two new Commissioners, but Biden has not made a move yet on their replacement.

~~~~~~~~

“The USPS Eagle spins S&DCs to postal employees,” Save the Post Office, Steve Hutkins

The cover story of the new issue of the Postal Service’s Eagle Magazine is “Re-Thinking Local Delivery.”  It’s all about the big, new, modern Sorting and Delivery Centers replacing carrier operations at your local post office. Acting like a mouthpiece for Louis Dejoy, the Eagle proffers a different story

Part Two explores where Medicare should be going forward as determined by doctors Richard Gilfillan and Donald M. Berwick. It is an endorsement of the ACO model with changes to it creating greater efficiency. I am not so sure Kip Sullivan would endorse this approach as opposed to Single Payer. Ultimately Single Payer is less costly when we consider the elimination of much of the administration effort. There is another post I will be putting up when I am sure I can see appropriately again. It may touch upon this area of cost saves.

In the other half of this post, you will notice I italicized some sentences and then used unitalicized wording. The Italicized sentences are a subject with the normal wording being an explanation. Other than using

Hey look, this is an interesting C&P from Hullabaloo. Why is it that those who attack others who appear to be different actually do similar things or are similar? You typically find this out years later. I don’t know . . .

“He just doesn’t like people,” Digby’s Hullabaloo, (digbysblog.net)

He’s Nixon in high heels . . .

He’s very weird:

Suzy Barker, a native Iowan dressed in an orange-and-blue University of Florida hoodie, waited in a crowd of fellow Republicans on Friday morning to meet Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

She smiled widely and pointed to her hoodie as she told the governor that her son attended college in his home state. Mr. DeSantis — dressed in a dark blue suit with a light blue, open-collar shirt and black boots —

What Every Conservative Needs to Know about Student Loans, Alan Collinge, Medium.

Conservatives have been tricked into defending the worst big-government loan scam in U.S. History; a slight majority of the borrowers identify as either republican, or independent.

The 2020 election was a huge loss for the republicans. Even so, Conservatives buoyed by recent election wins, and the current unpopularity of the President. There is one issue that made many of those statewide elections even close in the first place. It is growing quickly and will easily be the largest  untethered voting block in the country this November: Student loans.

There are 60 million voters in the country- including millions of veterans– who hold either federal or private

Japan, The U.S., The Moon And More, Weldon Berger, Bad Crow Review

Links are at the end, with the steam trains.

The train station had a 7-11 outside the platforms. The station was near my hotel and I went there for evening snacks a few times—bentos and musubi and azuki bean pastries and the like. Good food, really, in context.

I miss trains, as regular readers will know. Trains and crows, neither of which I got any good shots, the latter because they wouldn’t fucking stand still and the former, I don’t know, just because. Japanese train platforms aren’t really designed for dawdling.

You have to watch the Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins video linked below. It will leave you questioning everything you think you know. Also I’ve

Infidel753: Cultural vandalism

As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of ‘The Times’ had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead.  This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs — to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance.  Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date.Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted,