Two Notes for CoastToCoast Listeners

An interesting look at the S&P 500 is found in the St. Louis Federal Reserve’s FRED data archives. I particularly like the S&P 500 view. Resource link: The detailed Facebook complaint to the Federal Trade Commission filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center is located here:

A Holiday Thinkercise

Just for the heck of it today, if you get some time go through the Declaration of Independence and ask yourself “How is America doing today, under the rules coming out of Washington, when compared to the Declaration’s indictment of the King of England…” How would you score it today? He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

Happy Fourth! (But what exactly are we celebrating?)

This being the Fourth, and a holiday for millions, this morning’s column will be shorter (and to the pointer) than normal. It’s windy out East where Hurricane Arthur is moving right along…the good news may have to do with not needing to water lawns for a while… The stock market pressed ahead to new records Thursday with the Dow (as expected) pushing well into the 17,000s while the next one to pop could be the S&P which has a chance at passing the 2,000 level next week or sometime between now and August. The economy perks along, too, with the happy talk that the “recovery” is accelerating, except for the fact that a lot of the hiring is in government, of course. Part of the reason for the whole shitteree not falling apart is the Fed’s continued “making up” money. M1 over the past year is up 10.

Coping: That Horrid Immigration Problem

In a column (or several) over the past couple of weeks, I’ve pointed out that liberal, soft-headed thinking, seems to be running amuck on the immigration problem and the U.S.’ inability to security its own border while sending actual military forces to deal with Iraq’s border issues.

In the interest of open discussion, this reader email is very much worth reading:

“You made one good point in your rant about immigration issues today, but you directed your anger at the wrong parties, IMO.

Your good point was that the reason we have a problem is that there is a long-term successful business model rewarding those who control the situation, and a short-term successful business model that is taking advantage of a window of opportunity.

The passage of the ACA comes to mind as an example that is playing out for all to see.  The long-term business model is the insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies, etc. making sure every dollar flows through them for a cut.  As I found out when I paid over three times as much as the insurance company price for a colonoscopy, and over double for prescriptions, the model was already at work for those with means to pay (forcing us to go through the insurance company), it wasn’t working for those without insurance. 

Solution?  Force everyone to go through the middleman, and have the government pay shortfalls for those who can’t afford it.  That’s the long-term model.  The short-term opportunity arose when a three-year window was put in place before low-price/low benefit policies weren’t allowed.  More than 5 million Americans were suckered into plans like that first Fox-ballyhooed “victim” got her cancellation notice — she paid $672 per year for a policy that allowed exactly two doctor visits per year, and a maximum of $100 in coverage for ER or major medical.  In other words, there was no way in the world she would ever collect even half her premiums back in benefits.  That policy didn’t exist before the law, so that’s why it wasn’t grandfathered.  5 million suckers times $500 profit times 3 years is a windfall profit of $7.5 billion, by the way.

Moving on to immigration, the long-term model has to be the “fault” of those who maintain the conditions. 

Well, who has been hard at work to make sure that legal immigration takes a minimum of ten years (if you’re from “good” northern European countries) and more than 20 years if you come from one of those places with brown-skinned people?  Hint: it isn’t liberals or Democrats.  Every single time even pathetic attempts to make legal immigration viable (or god forbid, even attractive) come into the political arena, the fired up group who stop it cold and punish anyone who even says they’ll consider it is? 

Look no father than the Tea Party wing of the GOP, making sure they’ll punish anyone who even talks about solving the problem.  And what argument do they get you and others to parrot?  The argument that an impossible goal must be met before anything else can be discussed.

Well, right about here, I have to inject my unwelcome view:  The laws on immigration revolved not around Tea Party membership agendas, but set up the specific categories to become US citizens, based on needs.

I’m sure you’ve read the Center for Immigration Studies report that shows that all employment growth since 2000 has gone to immigrants while American born job seekers are competing with hoards of immigrants such as the H1b (corporate slavery at its finest) crowd.

There are mainly five reasons why people are allowed to move into this country (This NBC-Latino summary is pretty good) but I challenge the reason to present discriminatory  laws which supports this discrimination based on ethnicity which is implied.  THAT is typical of the liberalista clouding of issues and that doesn’t fly.

The Eastern Establishment’s mind-control program on immigration is in full-swing.  You can see it when Nancy Pelosi and the Political Correctness Police start tainting the word “alien.”   The ways you control people’s thinking is by controlling the language of thought.  As soon as alien is off the board, then people will lose that much more mental acuity, and that, my friend is what changes the agenda:  Control the words first, and then it comes naturally that soft-headed thinking (and open borders) will follow.

I can only hope that people remember that Obamanistas vowing to scrub the word alien flies in the face of concepts long embodied in American law.  See U.S. Code § 1182 – Inadmissible alien, for example…

This is lingo-jacking:  Limit the language, limit the discussion.  If pro-immigration forces don’t like other words (like wetback and so forth), the answer might be to stop the incidents including the jet ski border-running just this week, from occurring.  And that example, as you can see in the video, is all about what?  Money!

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Stock Market Giddy, Up: The Detestable Rally

Quick!  When is the average high date for the summer rally?

My buddy up in Shawnee, OK, Robin Landry and I were pondering that on in a chat this week.  His research places it around August 26th…

Not that this is a “take to the bank” number, but a couple of readers have written in that they are loading up on put options expecting things to fall apart any minute.

While that is – of course – always a possibility (the news is full of ugly possibilities which we’ll run down in a sec), sometimes even a permabear like me has to plug his nose, and be long, which our trading model has been for something like a year and a half, now with only a couple of weeks on the short side.

So we maybe will hold off for another month before laying on some “insurance bets.”  The market just started Q3 and the clowns with bonuses bigger than your income didn’t buy in looking to lose. 

So until we get to higher levels (Dow 17,000, S&P 2,050) barring an EMP attack or a face-off between Ukraine and Russia over Crimean real estate, I’ll have to stay long the market, but see it for what it really is:

The Federal Reserve;s Quantitative Easting is leaking into markets so their trying to gently let a little air out along the way to prevent a parabolic blow-off and a slam of hyperinflation.

In other words, it’s a detestable rally, but my money doesn’t seem to care about its lineage.

The Jobs Data

Attention Fiction Writers:  Please hide the Center for Immigration Studies report that “All Employment Growth since 2000 Went to Immigrants.”  Especially when we get to fresh jobs data like the federal numbers just out…

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 288,000 in June, and the unemployment rate declined to 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains were widespread, led by employment growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and health care.

Household Survey Data In June, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 6.1 percent. The number of unemployed persons decreased by 325,000 to 9.5 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons have declined by 1.4 percentage points and 2.3 million, respectively

The labor participation rate held steady at 62.8%. Even the unemployed plus marginally attached reading dropped a bit from 12.2 to 12.1% this month.

The good news doesn’t end there (this is good news?):  The monthly Challenger (Gray, and Christmas) job cut report is out with the headline:

2014 June Job Cut Report: 31,434 Cuts Lowest of the Year 

After climbing to a 15-month high in May, planned job cuts announced by U.S.-based employers in June plunged 41 percent to 31,434, the lowest one-month total so far this year. Through the first half of 2014, the pace of job cutting is down 5.0 percent from a year ago, according to the report released Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. –

All of which supports our opening headline this morning:  Giddy, Up.

More after this…

The Oilman’s Reader

Why Israel needs turmoil right now?  Maybe it’s to divert attention from the fact that Cyprus and Israel have signed a huge oil & gas development deal in the Leviathan field area?  Which is why the West is scared spitless about ISIS making it to the coast because there may be oil and gas north of there which would put it in what the West would think of as “less than friendly territory.”

And then there’s the report on TruthDig that some mother-frackers offered locals in Pokesylvania up to $50,000 in “hush” money not to talk about groundwater pollution/  Propublica has the “Nuisance Easement” lingo online.

And there’s proof that states outright lie when they say they don’t know that fracking causes earthquakes.  Take Ohio for example, please.  They have known for years and years…amazing what silence money can buy, though, ain’t it?

A 9/11-Like Attack this Month?

Making the rounds from conspiracy trackers:

I have seen this Midas Muffler commercial being repeatedly shown on local T.V. (Ontario, Canada) and at the very beginning it shows the odometer reading 91179 miles, which translates to a 9/11 style attack on July 9. 

Also on July 9, 23 different nations are scheduled to participate in RIMPAC naval exercises

So it’s either a) a coincidence, b) brilliant marketing of “buzz” or c) the hand of the PTB showing.  We’ll have the answer next week at this time…since the date is next Wednesday…

The Government Attack on…ENGLISH!

Oh, check this one out:  The federal government is suing a company because it requires employees to communicate in ENGLISH!

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Coping: On Prepping and Internet Redundancy

Had a note from my friend Gaye at www.backdoorsurvival.com overnight that gets us into a whole frenzy of thoughts this morning:

Seems up in the (drop-dead gorgeous) San Juans Islands yesterday there was another internet and phone problem and Gaye had to drive over to the other side of their island to get her site updated.

There was even an article about it on San Juan Island Update over here. (The outage, not Gaye’s midnight ride to pick up connectivity at the ferry landing…lol)

But that gets us to a pretty interesting point to ponder:  Namely, how many “on-ramps” to the Internet does a person need to keep on hot standby these days?

At the moment, we’re down to only three:  One on each of two phone lines and a third via what used to be WildBlue but which is now called Exede.  (Why they changed their name is still a mystery, other than maybe they ran out of the old stationery, or something, but I digress…)

Sitting here even with three wireless routers to select from, I sill miss our old higher-speed private microwave connection.  Unfortunately that went away due to trees (on the property of others) taking the signal down so far the connection became useless.

I had mulled around having my attorney send letters to the property owners between me and the microwave tower and I’m sure that could have gotten the trees topped, but then we’d be talking about who pays for the work and that sort of thing.  Seemed like driving to a hot-spot would be our back-up, though not our choice, too.

Still, in the event of a major disruption to life – everything from a global subsidence event to massive quakes to martial law – how many on-ramps do you have?

Assuming the ‘net stays up, itself, of course.

One of our nightmare “worst case” scenarios is that in the current flood of illegal immigration will be used as cover to sneak-in a dozen, or so, 3-man teams highly trained in communications disruption.  All they would need to do is identify the key fiber optic switches of the Internet and pull the plug.

Without bank card processing, given how the feds have been attacking cash by making it unwieldy to use not to mention having banks do paper trails for almost anything over about $1,500, or so for fear that money might be used for some illegal purpose,  Am,erica would collapse in short order.

The problem, though, as you can see, is not solved by just having a multiplicity of on-ramps at your home.

As Gaye found out last night:  You can have robust home computing and a dig-up can still take out service.  The last night the Islands lost internet service, a year or two back, was due to an undersea earthquake triggering a rock slide that sliced the cable.

I may have to send here a note about how to put up a 150-foot tower and shoot from her home over into Canada for a backup system…or get one of these Excede things.  But even these have limitations, not the least of which is bad weather when even these go out.

The correct answer to this morning’s question is therefore “One can never have too many on-ramps to the ‘net”  but in addition to that “Ever think about life without electronica?”

The UK had a nation-wide banking outage Wednesday.  So the possibility is not entirely out of the question..

Another Prepping / Electronica Note

Oilman2 spotted a great post on the Swiss site Offiziere.ch which has the interesting title “U.S. Army:  We have no idea how to wage war in Megacities” 

The main takeaway by OM2 is the predominance of electronica in megacities is a major reason why the dot-mils and politicos want those internet kill switches.  Can’t have communications disrupting MOUT mobile operations in urban terrain, now, can we?  It’s fun to be “doctrine literate” by also quite worrisome at times.  Times like since NORTHCOM…ahem…

Gee, What Did I Write?

Got an email that had me looking at the Peoplenomics site to figure out what I wrote..

Issue # 667-B June 21, 2014 post information  close to worth  $40/year subscription.

Ah!  Holistic Backup Energy Systems….  There’s a lot more in back issues (that go back to 2001).  Try doing a a Master Index search on “robust” and you’ll find even more notes on robust home power systems.

Although it’s a little late to be thinking about such things if you’re scrambling to load up on supplies prior to Arthur showing up.  Tell ‘em Hi for us…

The Kid with the Typo Gene

I have to admit being proud as hell of my kids…each is going off doing really neat things.  Although I saw on my son’s FB page that he’s apparently inherited my “typo gene…”

George wrote: “I love my life because I am now doing things I used to only dream about.

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R.I.P. – The $25/Month Retirement Improvement Program (i)

Since we’re in a holiday week, and the market put on a good chunk of our predict Big Rally, and since our Trading Model is still pointing “onward and upward” with this being a holiday week, I decided to pull the covers back on some of my retirement plans. Whether you’re 20 or 90, there may be some useful information in here that you haven’t thought of previously. Sure, the Grim Reaper comes for all of us, sooner or later, but for self-directed people, there’s a lot we can do to take the “grim” out of it. If we’re not careful, we might even have the “times of our lives…” But not until headlines and charts first, of course.

FTM: Have We Got a Management Problem?

Seems to me we do.  Let me explain…this is all about FTM – follow the money because Everything a Business Model.

I sit around, just like you, and read the reports coming out of Iraq.  President Obama is sending in 200 more troops to “secure” Iraq, which I take to mean their borders.  Is 200 a day the new normal?

But, at the same time, the Texas state legislature is having to consider a state border security force because the very same federal government that is willing to secure Iraq’s borders, has demonstrated that they are unable to secure our own borders.

How can  we send troops to Iraq and not the Mexican border?  Help me here….

To be sure, as in any large, bureaucratic monstrosity, there will be delays and butt-covering.  However, when I read how the president is seeking “emergency funding” for the border, he’s not talking about airlifting the kids home (where they belong).  He’s talk about shelters, humanitarianism, refugees, and every other “warm and fuzzy” liberalista feel-good label that comes along.  No Army or National Guard…

What is NORTHCOM for, if not to deal with home land security, I wonder?

One of my liberal friends this week left me a long voicemail which (correctly) pointed out we only have a return policy with Mexico and if the kids aren’t from there, well, sorry, we’re kind of stuck because we have to “follow our own laws.”

I don’t think that the intent or Congress, was that narrow, however. 

The way I see it:  If a kid comes over the Mexican border, they go back to Mexico.  How hard is that, really?

Unfortunately, it seems to be the only way the hard-headed, soft-border regime in that bloody narcostate is going to hear what we’re saying. 

Oh:  Labeling Mexico as a narcostate on my part may be contentious, but the drug war there killed 34,000 people 2006-2010 according to this report.  But while they’re spending $9-billion a year on their drug war, don’tcha think closing their borders at both ends of the country might have something to do with it?

The (relatively new) government of Mexico has been focusing on making the streets of the country safer from the drug gangs.  But, paradoxically, this has made it safer for further-south countries to walk up here…

Meantime, it’s the porous border what makes profit possible for the Cartels.  D’uh.

The publication Foreign Policy (of the CFR) was asking rhetorically about the drug war way back  in 2012 “The world knows how to end it — so why can’t the United States figure it out? “ 

The question is still on the table.  The answer ain’t no mystery, friend:  Somewhere there’s a business model – there always is.

Money always flows – like water – to level things out.  Until the administration begins to identify the business models behind the border problem and attacks those (drug money, cheap labor, profits on money transfers to relatives back home..the list goes on and on) any claims that they are serious about the problem are specious.

For now, it’s a “crisis” and that means more tax money being spent and more government-dependent jobs being created….

If you want to kill any criminal enterprise, take the money out of it.  Didn’t anyone watch The Untouchables besides me?  Legalize weed, and there go the everyday profits.

The death of an 11-year old Guatemalan a mile inside the US is making big headlines, a regrettable thing, but treating the symptom ain’t gonna cure this disease.

Following the money… that’s what would have an impact.  For now, the PowersThatBe have no interest in that, so long as the mainstreammedia lump border security with kicking the family dog and child abuse.

We can defend Iraq’s borders, but not our own.  I’d say we have a serious management problem.

FATCA Hype: The World is Still Here

Speaking of money models.

Several reader asked me about the panic emails sent around by unscrupulous markets which held the US Dollar would collapse as soon as FATCA came in.

That’s the bill that would require tax-cheats to report accounts over a certain size domiciled in other countries.

As Forbes reports this morning, “FATCA is finally here – even in Russia and China.”

And as I’ve been telling you, TEOTWAWKI looks more like 2022, or at least 2017.

Oh, and the world hasn’t fallen apart.

More after this…

   

Climbing the Wall of Worry

Have to say, the rest of the week could be pretty good for markets.  The Dow went through a bit of a decline, but as we explained to Peoplenomics readers, there’s a reason for that.  Today, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a nice upside move, as markets often go into rally mode before major holidays.

The markets are flirting with new highs, and I’ve been predicting a major blow-off (parabolic) advance for a while now. 

Just like before you work out, you do a little warm-up action, so too, the markets may be just backing and filling before taking the S&P over 2000 and the Dow over 17,000… but we shall see.

Gold and silver are moving up again, too.  Same with copper prices…but I thought the PTB were still setting the groundwork for plastic pennies?  A token of their appreciation for all your hard work when they come….which will all depend on inflation, hyperinflation, and melt values…

Urban Living — Spendy

We get into it more in the Coping section this morning, but in playes like Ft. Wayne, the cost of urban living is high…which is a good read over here.  Who would have though of Indiana? YGTBSM

Singapore prices have dropped again(if you were planning to relo).  But Madhattan?  Fugggitaboutit.

Gas Prices Up

If you’re going over the river and through the woods to grandma and grandpa’s lake place, might want to tank up on gas this morning on the way into the treadmill.

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Coping: Renting Your Life, II / New Minimalism/ Microfication

Our “renting your life” discussion sure touched a lot of people’s nerves.

Reader Victoria found a ‘lil gem over on YouTube:  I didn’t know there was a musical titled :”Rent” but then I live in the outback…

When they act tough you call their bluff
We’re not gonna pay
We’re not gonna pay
We’re not gonna pay last year’s rent!
This year’s rent! Next year’s rent! Rent rent rent rent rent!
We’re not gonna pay rent! ‘Cause everything is rent!

A sample of the music here… 

I can’t hope but notice that the talk about rent cuts for NYC homeless has managed to fall apart.

And as housing prices recover, so are hefty rent increases in the East Bay area (Oakland).

And as if we need to be reminded, a reader in Hawaii sent us this backgrounder…

George,

Honolulu is the most expensive city in the country to live… and the hardest to make a ‘living wage’ (according to Yahoo).  I’ve done fair, with a decent career.  In past years I’ve been renting from long-term owners of paid-off apartments who knew me personally and were not terribly aggressive with their rents.  I’ve been a good tenant who takes care of the places and does my own maintenance and painting.  Most recently renting one of a 4-plex cinder block building from an old Chinese man where I refurbished the apartment myself before moving in.  He was most grateful to be saved the work.

Well, the old man sold out.  Put the 50-year old building on the market and sold it for $1.2mil.  I have a lease until Dec. for $925mo, but now a reality sandwich is about to hit.  The new owner is a Taiwanese-American woman fashion-designer who grosses $3mil/year and has her own real-estate and construction contracting company (more chinese workers) and wants to completely refurbish the building internally… including some structural deficiencies.  The real-estate turnover in Honolulu in recent years means that these new owners with ever larger mortgages need to collect ever larger rent payments, and it is forcing out increasing numbers of wage-earners who can no longer afford a place to live.  I’ve been skating under the market value of rents for years, but no longer.

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LW Economic Conundrum: New Caliphate / No Border

There are always multiple ways to view history – even as it is occurring before our very eyes.

When the US was in its last economic depression, we had the roll-out the new government in Germany back in the 1930’s.

To follow up on my Sunday post about the new [global] Caliphate, I’ve been eyeing a timeline of Germany in the 30’s (try here) to see if the ISIS/ISIL people are somehow (perhaps unwittingly) falling into an historical rhyme with Hitler’s rise to power?

As long-time readers know, I’ve been debating for some months now, whether the economy peaked (for good) in 2000 (the Internet Bubble) and whether the present illusion of recovery is simply due to massively dislocated economic resources.

In 2000, the high Dow was around 11,723.  And, when we put that into the Minneapolis Fed Inflation calculator, we infer that the Dow would only need to be at 16,080 in order to have held onto parity on a purchasing power basis.

Since the Dow closed Friday at 16,851, an initial argument could be made that investing in the Dow would have netted a person a 4.8% return since 2000.

Frankly, holding on to the Dow stocks for 14.5 years for a real return of 4.8% doesn’t exactly get me excited, but maybe you have a lower threshold than I do.

But just “buying the Dow” was an incredibly risky thing:  The Dow gets jiggered because of the changing economy and when companies run into bad sledding:

AT&T Corporation, Eastman Kodak Company, and International Paper Company were replaced by American International Group Inc., Pfizer Incorporated, and Verizon Communications Inc..

SBC Communications Inc. was renamed AT&T Inc. after it acquired the original AT&T.

Altria Group Incorporated and Honeywell International Inc. were replaced by Bank of America Corporation and Chevron Corporation.

American International Group Inc. was replaced by Kraft Foods Inc.

Citigroup Inc. and General Motors Corporation were replaced by Cisco Systems, Inc. and The Travelers Companies, Inc.

Kraft Foods Inc.

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Coping: With Renting Your Life / The New Slavery

I’m heavily into templates.  You know  – everything from some simple task like drawing, painting “by numbers” or any of the million and one things that go into making hypercomplexity work.

Short form there’s no question that templates work.  Take Obamacare, for example.  The idea is simple:  spread around costs more equitably and everyone should be better off.  But the real outcome of Obamacare (which missed the mark [single-payer]) is nothing more than a conglomeration of bad ideas, but ideas which profit the insurance industry.

Not a day goes by that headlines don’t cross the wires that back-up my assertion

    And the problem just gets worse from there.

    In the past week, I’ve been going around with my local doc’s billing office:  When I moved from a high-end (car payment sized medical payment monthly) to Medicare, I duly informed my doc’s office.  Yet, somehow, the latest “lube, oil, and filter” bill went to the old insurance outfit and so far it looks to be resolved with a $65-dollar copay for services that in fact should cost only about $250 (max, being generous here) but that get billed to an insurance company at just under $500.

    One of the biggest scams in America – that somehow the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t touch – is this horse-pucky of billing different people different rates.

    It’s like when I had my (burst) appendectomy back in 2006, or so:  There “rack rate” was $17,000 and change.  But the Big Insurance Company rate was only $7,900.

    The FTC (and other pseudo-consumer groups) make specious arguments that the reason this is all “OK” is that the Big Insurance Companies have was amount to “bulk purchase agreements” where statistically they will buy so many surgeries per year and that’s why the insurance company gets a lower rate.

    But, in fact, the delivery is the issue here:  The Big Insurance Companies were buying healthcare wholesale – marking it up dramatically – and then retailing it at a higher price than their costs so in practice, they made money both on the mark-up as well as an intricate system of co-pays.  Toss in the annual deductible, that varies by plan, and excluding certain procedures and costs, and pretty soon you’ve got a hugely profitable business.

    The real money is medicine is not in making people well.  It’s in the continuous bloodletting of their wallets.

    And that’s where we are with Obamacare.

    The reason that the insurance industry gives millions to the political campaigns of senatoids, congressoids and state legislators is not so they will come give vision and motivation speeches to their executives cadres.  That’s what they’d ask you to believe, but any fool can see the ugly reality here is simple:  They’re just looking to keep “buying” that amazing profit margin that comes from a multi-tiered business model based on entirely fictional costs.

    Thinking back to my appendectomy, I say a $6-single tablet of Tylenol on my bill.  Arguing the point it was explained to me that yes, the pill was almost free, but I was paying for the record-keeping.  Eventually we negotiated our way through that, the Big Insurance Company that had screwed up on my coverage finally paid the bill (the $7,900 one) but not before the “direct payment good squad” didn’t first try to extort $17,900 out of me for the same service.

    But this is a fine example of how “law” – nominally supposed to protect people – fails but it readily twisted into a profiteer’s delight.  If law were rational (no worries, it’s not) it would note that the hospital end customer is the patient who receives services is being unequally billed.

    The reason, obviously, that the FTC (or whoever) isn’t all over this like white on rice is because it creates jobs, and for the past 40-years, increasingly more campaign money.  Hence, the twist in contract law:  The services are sold to an insurance outfit, which then is doling out the healthcare, so under contract law the two services (deliver to potentially the same person) are treated as different sorts of transactions.

    Same hospital, same docs, same nursing staff.  The FTC has no balls in this, however, because there’d be a massive unemployment problem (and there for the juicy campaign dollars) as a result.  So now, with few changes, everyone is being herded into the insurance industry at gunpoint.  What’s not to love?

    That was sad, though momentarily I had held out the impossible hopes that Obamacare would resolve such crap.  So far, it hasn’t.

    In fact, next level play has arrived:  In a follow-up to our meeting last week, Oilman2 has spotted the “new game” – which is where the doctoring business is now busting people – sending them down the road  – because of their credit scores:

    Three weeks ago, wife went to our family practice physician. We been using her since she started practicing medicine 20 years ago. She has been in independent medical corporations until 6 months ago. She joined a hospital corporation due to the Obamacare paperwork and malpractice insurance regulations changes (squeezing more out of doctors for less coverage). Now she can do as she normally does, operating under the hospital corporations better malpractice umbrella, and off-loading paperwork. Instead of 3 nurses and 6 admin to handle claims, she has 4 nurses and ONE admin.

    Her copay is now $55 instead of $35. She cannot accept cash, checks or debit cars – just MC & VISA – no AMEX.

    The wife and I have 3 credit cards that have zero unpaid balance, 1 car financed with draw on specific account where we keep 2 notes worth of balance, a mortgage and a note on the farm which we are never late on.

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    Remember our “New [global] Caliphate” Peoplenomics?

    [Editor’s note:  Don’t use used to us publishing Sunday updates.  But more or less exactly as predicted in our Peoplenomics “First Things” section from June 18th, we note with no surprise that ISIS/ISIL is now proclaiming itself to be a “new Caliphate” which – if history is any guide – seems likely to suck in other interest groups and could press the formation of the “New [global] Caliphate” predicted in our report.

    Because of the potential historical importance of this, I’m  putting a small section of one of our Peoplenomics reports out for general public consumption because this is an issue of immediate (and like growing) concern.]

    From Peoplenomics #667-A, June 18, 2014:

    First Things

    Mapping the New [global] Caliphate

    Here’s a look at a Peoplenomics project that’s in the “research in progress” stage  but is obviously coming into view:

    [Map derived using Microsoft Streets and Trips 2013]

    Obviously, this is the al Qaeda/Wahhabi/extremist map that headlines infer, and no, it’s not a “done deal” yet but the headlines make a strong case that the reason we haven’t experienced a terrorist attack on America is that we’re being infiltrated by Other Than Mexicans (OTMs) through our leaky border, and no point poking the sleeping US giant, as long as we’re ignorant of the overall expansionist game plan of the Global Caliphate leadership.

    Our view of this global caliphate evolves from watching the pattern of conflict that is now in play globally and applying the headlines to the underlying map contours you can draw in the borders much as I have above.  In this sense, the headlines of the day make perfect sense – if you’re on a Caliphate Building Mission:

    Militants strike Iraq’s largest oil refinery.

    Algeria says killed 50 militants in 5-months.

    “Libyan general wages war against Islamist militants in Benghazi.”

    Chad, being low on easy resource is lower on the food chain, but still in May “Nigerian extremist strike and kill again.

    I could go through each of the countries on the map, but this “big picture” of the New [global] Caliphate is not in the MSM because people don’t seem to do well with anything other than byte-sized morsels of news, and people’s attention deficit really plays well into the lower tech, more focused thinking of people not raised on cell phones.

    Nevertheless, off at the other end of the Global Caliphate, which is slowly becoming an emergent fact, slowly and over time, we read this morning how president Karzai in Afghanistan is blowing off claims that there was widespread election fraud in his country’s presidential polling.

    Hmmm…wonder where their voting equipment came from?

    Notwithstanding, the Taliban/Pashtun are much closer ideologically to the Sunni, since they’ve been screwed over by the Iranians (Shiites) in the past.

    So when news from that part of the world includes stories like Abdullah Abdullah is charging election irregularities and wants vote counting stopped, the impartial observer looks at the warscape and figures it to be little more than a birth pang of the New Global Caliphate’s birth.

    Not all Americans are so confined by their thinking, but a vast majority tend to look at conflict as somehow relating to borders.  But to the thinking person, there are many kinds of borders:  The kind laid out to define political divisions, but also the type which are based on resources, religion, rainfall, mountain ranges, and the cultural bonds of people.

    Which is precisely why the political border in Ukraine is so contentious:  The Russians have installed a lot of their culture and people in Ukraine over the past 200 years and they would like to consolidate that social grouping as retained as a part of Russia.

    The US/West backed government in Kiev, which is asserting its autonomy, is declaring a unilateral ceasefire in the contested eastern portions of the country, but what seems likely is that we’ll see a tit-for-tat with the border moving more westerly if the Russians will play nicely (the western “carrot” idea) or the fighting will increase if Russia insists on asserting and dialing back gas deliveries.  That’d be the stick.

    Oh, to be sure, there are some American’s who see this big picture, but with a different slant, more along the lines of that proposed by the late Project for a New American Century.  But while that concept was wrong for so many reasons, we still wryly note that Dick and Liz Cheney write in the Wall Street Journal’s OpEd last night about the “Collapsing Obama Doctrine.

    Could it be that the Dick [Cheney]-haters and Zionist bashers missed something?  The map argues the point well.

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