Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

Monday 05/18/2020 at about um 6:00 a.m. or so, give or take

I am the walrus, you are the eggplant, Hey man wow uh, Freaky Deaky,

When we last left our intrepid traveler the score was
CNC400, Jack 40, PJ 12, Mike 0

This morning after a night of battling the beast with a new board from the might amazon.com
CNC400, Jack 40, PJ 12, Mike 1

Mike has finally won a match. After installing the new board and the long-awaited power supply I plugged everything in and the DAMN THING WORKED! Right out of the box it just did what it was supposed to do. Well, It made everything twice as big as it was supposed to but hell, I'll take it! I adjusted a couple of settings later and it does exactly what I wanted it to do and more. I couldn't believe it. All I had to do was buy the original machine and waste another 150 bucks or so buying crap to throw away and another 100 bucks on the stuff needed to make it work.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

Until the next morning. The next morning as I entered my office (this morning) I am greeted with the following message on my CNC computer (The one that's hooked up to the CNC machine)
"Your computer did not start normally, would you like to use System Restore to attempt to repair it?"
Ah well, it had to be something I guess. Who's keeping score anyway?

I'm losing so bad it doesn't matter anymore.

Mr. Fair always said "Figures lie and liars figure."

1. Guns are some serious business. I'm not going to start a gun control debate here, however, suffice it to say I am a staunch believer in the second amendment to the Constitution of the US. They are not toys however and should be treated with respect and care. They can and do kill without regard to your social status or age or color or sex. All kinds of statistics have been used that show all kinds of things, but to keep it short I will just say if you do not practice gun safety around your children, somebody can and does die when they play with them.
   
   There is a story out of Bartow County GA this morning about how a child (age unknown) died over the weekend at a camping site apparently while playing with a pistol belonging to one of the adults she went camping with. The way this story is written it seems as if the child was a toddler however factually it just doesn't actually say. She was camping with her Grandmother and some other guy (unknown status) when the gun discharged which killed her. The man and the Grandmother have been charged initially with felonies. The man was charged with possession of a handgun by a felon, the charges against the Grandmother were not clear although the prosecutor said the case was "Under review, and that additional charges were likely". Good. Throw them both under the jail and throw away the damn key. Guns are not toys. Never give a child a gun, loaded or not.
   
   Stupid ass people.
   
   
2. I know I said "NO POLITICS" on the Rant anymore, but this one is sorta important and I will try to keep it generic so you can digest it without throwing your laptop at me. Every news source and just about every show is dedicated to or has a large portion of their broadcast dedicated to coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Understanding how serious it is and how we need to know lots of things about it we just don't know yet, I am confused about a couple of things. What I don't get really is how we have allowed it to become a political football for how it presented to the general public. Most of us don't like to do hours of research about anything, let alone something as complicated as a pandemic. We like our sound bites short, sweet, and to the point. We don't want to be bored to death with page after page of PowerPoint presentations complete with charts, graphs, and all the whistles.
   
   That's (generally speaking) why we latch onto popular "talking points" as spoken by our political leaders. A talking point is something you will hear over and over that breaks down a complicated and nuanced issue into 3-second chunks that are easy on the ears and easy to swallow, and importantly easy to remember and to repeat to others. One of the smartest guys I know that's one of the Senior Executives of a National Restaurant chain told me if something goes over 2 paragraphs, you've lost him. He said he just won't read it. Our politicians know this and that's why they do not have 3-hour long press conferences talking about one thing. They know we just won't absorb it, no matter how important it is, we will just ignore it.
   
   Right now a popular point being circulated by one of the major news sources from one of the major political parties is repeating a dumb claim that once "testing is ramped up", the death rate from this disease process will fall to near zero.
   
   As I understand the point they are making they are saying the more cases we discover (or not, I'm not clear on that and neither are they), then the lower the death rate on the disease will be. Huh? The more testing we do, the less we will find or The more testing we do the more we will find and the fewer amount of deaths we will experience.
   
   Either way it's a goofy premise that only a politician would utter.
   
   Here is what the data actually says right now:
    
   A) Testing is not actually the problem although we are far behind all other nations in our process.
   B) Increased testing has shown an increase in the number of cases identified.
   C) The number of cases overall shows an increase in the number of people who have been tested previously negative and now are testing positive.
   D) Like the common cold, you can be infected more than once.
   E) You are not immune after a primary infection.
   F) The death rate and the Recovery Rate are holding steady without regard to the number of tests.
   G) The death rate is between 6-7 % of infections and the Total Recovery Rate is around 37 % overall.
   H) I haven't figured out how to break that down into a 3-second chunk without lying.
   
   
3. I am surprised a little that the BBC drama called "Killing Eve" is so good. It's from a smaller TV production source (The BBC) and competing against networks in the US that pay far more and have larger resources to count on such as the pool of talent, sound stages, sets, etc. There are also just so many other shows and new shows at that, so it's surprising to me that is has broken through the clutter. One of the very few shows I actually look forward to watching each week. I'm glad FOX doesn't produce it, or it would have already been canceled I think.
   
   
4. MMA and their various organizations (Not just the UFC Brand), wasn't on my list of things to watch at first. It took me a good while to adjust to seeing a version of the old bare-knuckle anything goes backyard fistfights evolve into the sport it has become. Once certain things changed during this evolution I began to watch it more and more. I'm not just a one fighter rooter either. I don't just watch it for one person. I like almost all of it and their quirky rules, especially how the referees end a fight by blocking out the winning fighter. It makes them look like they are protecting the losing fighter from unnecessary damage whether or not it does I have no idea.
   
   One of the things that I really don't care for is how they will let basically anyone from any discipline fight. In one event you may see Muy Thai, judo experts, martial artists, boxers, and lots of other disciplines represented. Whoever has the best overall strategy and best use of both the upper body and the ground game aspects usually is the winner in most contests, I have no problem with the vast majority of groupings. I usually don't care if professional boxers are allowed because they don't grapple all that well and most ground trained fighters actually have the advantage.
   
   Except for one discipline. Unlike Muy Thai which focuses on lower kicks sort of like Judo and other grappling styles the trained Kick Boxer has a more complete command of upper and lower kicks. Because they don't allow a fighter to use an elbow to the spine or the back of the head and don't allow an opponent to be punched or kicked to the spine or back of the head or anything behind the ears, I don't think a kick to the head area should be legal either. Just as Kicking and knee-striking the head of a grounded opponent or anywhere to the throat is not legal I really don't see the difference between that and allowing a standing kick to the back of the head. Kickboxers can box and kick both from long and short-range and can effectively throw both upper and lower licks with the same efficiency. A poor striker with a good ground game (typical Judo fighter) just gets creamed every time by these folks. I don't call that a fair fight and it doesn't appeal to me. It's just my opinion though.
   
   
5. A Canadian Military performance jet has crashed killing one of the pilots. It was a member of the Demonstration team, called the Snowbirds. It crashed in Kamloops, British Columbia yesterday. It's a very sad situation overall. I'm guessing but I think the pilot that died tried to steer her jet away from a populated area and stayed with the plane trying to accomplish that. God Bless her. The other pilot was able to eject and survived.
   
   
   
   Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full,
   
   BigMike

Skeletons are not scary prove me wrong

Saturday April 04,2020 at ah I don't know about 9:25 a.m.

Hey you organic meat bags!

There is an old saying I have heard occasionally about how everyone has skeletons in their closets, or how occasionally the skeletons fall out of the closets and in haunted houses the skeleton jumps out and scares people to death. I understand the sayings but dont totally agree with the impact, as I don't think skeletons are all that scary. Remember that scene in one of the terminator movies where the T-800 was doing skin or eyeball repair? He was splashing blood and tissue in the sink and making a mess? See the skeleton wasn't scary , It was THE MEAT ! The meat is scary as hell. Just think, on the average 150 pound person there is over 100 pounds of living, breathing , bleeding MEAT, that you have to get through before the bones even matter.

That's the problem with this virus. It isn't a broken bone or something we totally understand how to treat and heal. On this thing we think we get the basics maybe , and I am talking about cell repair and regeneration and stuff like that, yet we have no clue how to prevent this disease nor do we know yet how to inoculate you from it's most serious symptoms. We have a rough understanding of how to save your life and prevent you from dying, IF you know enough to get to the doctor soon enough, IF you have a way to see the right kind of doctor and IF your doctor has the information, equipment , space ,medicine and training he/she needs to begin any kind of treatment regimen designed to keep this thing from killing you. And those are all big fat IF's too.

The ridiculous nature of life gives us too much thinking time

1. Several things I've often wondered about and really never said it out loud before. They are ridiculous things I know, but they bug me sometimes. Things like :
   
   A) Why do we revere old people as wiser versions of ourselves when actually it's just US , older, still dumbasses and somehow we survived the mistakes? Generally speaking they are just as dumb as us, but with way more experience. My grandfather used to tell us that a sock soaked in bacon grease and tied around our neck would cure a common cold , or a migraine, or just about anything else too come to think of it. He was about 80 and that's pretty dumbass. How did he survive?
   B) How old were you when you realized there is / was never no parenting manual? That nobody knows what the hell they are doing and that in fact  EVERYONE is winging it and making it up as we go? Same thing with relationships, marriage, growing old and every other damn thing there is?
   C) How did evolution occur that turned certain words in certain societies into bad words , which later made into slang or curse words then become offensive words, but only when pronounced in a certain way in your language? (Words like shit, fuck and so forth)
   D) There are TV shows about these 600 pound people on now. Everything from how they want to be bigger, to they are too big,  to they now want to lose weight. What I want to know is if our society is getting to be obese, and 65% of us are fatties now, How do the Ultra Fat among us wipe our asses? Why don't they ever show any of these folks trying to straddle a normal sized toilet? Is there an underground society of specialized tools sold on fatty only websites to allow them to wipe their asses? And if there is , then why hasn't the rest of the world heard about it, since most of us are fatties now? What gives?
   E) You ever see the pictures of the women with the 10 foot long fingernails? So how do they do anything requiring the use of their hands? One woman had 28 feet 4 inch nails according to the Guiness Book of World Records. My God! And in relation to Point D above,hows that happen?
   F) Why is there braille' notation of the drive thru ATM Keypad?
   and the beat goes on.......
2. I saw a meme the other day that said that the year 2020 was written by Stephen King and the movie was directed by Steven Spielberg.  My response was just to say I'm glad it was not directed by Michael Bay. Can you imagine?
3. I reconnected with an old friend last night. A Man I really like and whom I call friend (and a helluva fisherman) and I don't use the term lightly. I am one of those people who know I have a big mouth and know I irritate folks sometimes. He asked me what happened? Why we are not friends on FaceBook anymore? He basically asked me if he got on my nerves? See that's my problem, I recognize it when I am running my own big mouth and I hate to bring disruption to anyone's life.
   
   See? I had already done that to another friend , whom I considered a very close friend and it cost us the friendship, she basically just stopped talking to me and I was pretty sad about it. It was over before I understood it, and I have regretted it ever since. It's never my intention to offend you or to make you want to shoot me. If I have done so , I am very sorry. It sucks to know that my opinionated loud mouthed ass drives people away. Normal life is a restraining order. I hate having too much time to think.
4. The Mayor of NYC is asking for a National Draft of Health care workers, calling up those who have retired, left the field, served in the military, couldn't get credentialed here but were trained in other countries, etc. He says we need thousands of people , hundreds of thousands of volunteers. Can you imagine a knock at the front door, and some FBI agent or an Army captain is standing there saying "Hello, are you named such and such? Can you pack a small bag and come with us please?", I'm telling you , gurneys in hallways, people dying in tents, civil war medicine. It's all coming. Crap.
5. The absolute correct term in order to describe society right now is "EffinShitShow". As bad as it is , its only get gonna get worse, because we have not peaked yet, ya feel me DAWG?

A friend of mine whom does not own or watch TV, does not receive much in the way of news just found out about the stay at home order yesterday. He was pretty shocked as I explained it to him. Made me sad.

PhuckiePoopie.

BigMike

It puts the mask on its face or it gets the Lysol

4:25 a.m. on Friday April 03, 2020

This link is RAW and Its Is Gruesome, be warned.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvbEhBKUdTQ&t=9s

Hey there kids,

Way back in time oh I don't know maybe 50-60 years ago before any of you were born or thought of , the US was involved in a little dust up of a battle called "Vietnam". You may have heard the 25 year old  guy on the corner of the interstate who was begging for cash and holding a sign that said he was a Vietnam vet talking about it, but more likely it was 3 questions on Mrs. Johnson's social studies quiz in 5th grade that said "Vietnam was a : Pick the best answer on a pop quiz. You may even have a relative who served over there and who won't talk about it, however that's maybe how you even know the name.

At any rate one of the weird things that began during the reporting of that war was this strange obsession the news (or maybe the military)  had with body counts. That is what the youtube link in the beginning of this story is about. It's raw news footage from ABC News that's about 3 minutes long and BE WARNED Its is RAW and Its Is Gruesome War footage. News reporting from the field sort of looked just like this and you can see more just by typing Vietnam News reports into the youtube search bar. Every news broadcast had a body count segment buried in it somewhere and it became a key metric the US Military had for measuring success when it came to winning this war. If they were not directly talking about it, they were broadcasting dead bodies blown apart and shot up live and in color.

Mix 2 parts reporter with one part number cruncher and you get 

1. I am seeing the same thing using almost the same style of leads and the same intensity when it comes to reporting on this pandemic about the Covid-19 virus. I almost fell into the trap myself in my last 2 or 3 post where somewhere in it I talked about how many were reportedly infected  and how many deaths have happened.
   
   I've came to the conclusion however that not only is it not needed in order to write about it, factually its not necessary. Not one bit. Here's why. No one cares, until it hits close to home or it in your family. 50, 500, or 500 deaths really don't mean anything to anyone until its one of your family members or somebody you know. The point is CoronaVirus or COVID-19 reporting feels like combat reporting. It's some scary shit.
2. The problems surrounding the treatment of this disease are voluminous, and have a variety unlike almost any other. We have almost no experience on this planet at treating something like this. It hits us where we are weakest, where we are most unprepared and where it hurts the most. It turns out that blaming the politicians while fun and very popular is not real productive and is a complete waste of time.
   
   We are weakest in the areas that it attacks. That's what we need to think about. The number of ICU beds , the number of beds overall, The numbers of staff to treat it and the equipment needed to treat it are all areas where we have no experience, numbers or relevant background or ready made off the shelf plans that will lead the way in fixing the death spirals. No one can pull the emergency Pandemic play book of the shelf because quite frankly, there isn't one. We are making it up as we go.
   
   Gurneys of people sitting in Hallways are coming. Volunteer call ups are already needed, we can't train people fast enough to make a difference and all the Ramp up memos in the world will not fix a system that has no statewide or federal system wide capacity to fill it.
3. You will keep hearing this refrain for a long time into the future. - "We need to Flatten the curve", and what that means is that new case transmission numbers have to be attacked so we can get in front of this thing and have a snowball's chance in hell of fighting it effectively. The point is that every place, every state, every locality has a different curve that is molded together to make a National track on this plague.
   
   Iowa and New York will peak at very different times because of a lot of factors, however primarily it is because of when it began in each area.  What we actually need to do is recognize that and deploy resources on a rolling basis. We may need 10,000 ICU beds and Ventilators in LA this week, but 3 weeks from now those beds and that equipment will be needed in another place like Texas or somewhere else. The point is you seriously cannot expect 50 seperate states to be able to manage that.
   
   That's where we need a Federal response. I wonder how fast it will be recognized by people with the education and schooling and experience? So far I've seen nothing to indicate that that have even became aware of this. According to the task force, "..each state has to make their own decisions." In other words, "Good Luck Pal,you're on your own."
4. OH BY THE WAY? You remember that Federal stockpile of emergency goods like masks, gloves and ventilators and such? Well it turns out we misunderstood the purpose of that stockpile. They were gracious in sharing it with the states, but that stockpile was never intended for you, it was intended for us. It was never intended to be for the states to use, it was always intended to be for use by the Federal managers and the Federal agencies.
   
   At least that is something that has been discussed with and directly attributed to Jared Kushner, of what in the hell his job is anyway at the White House. He said (sic).."The Federal Stockpile wasn't for the states to use anyway, it was for US, it's our stockpile" (I am not 100% sure about the actual quote , therefore the sic notation). Thank god for the clarity provided by the experienced real estate magnate leading the charge. He made it so much more clear.
5. FACT: - Science does not care if you agree. Science does not care if you believe. Science does not care if you can memorize and quote the entire bible forwards and backwards. Science doesn't care if you are smart or are the stupidest Human being alive. Science doesn't care if you are confused, mad, a democrat or a republican or if you are even aware of how deadly this disease is. Science doesn't care if you live under a rock and have never talked to another human being in your life. If you do not take this virus seriously and do not take the precautions that are being broadcast everywhere you look, Science will KILL YOU. 

Whew I'm just a harbinger of good thoughts ain't I?
As Bugs Bunny once said "Aint I a stinker?"

Big Mike

Sorry about Your Luck Pal

03/29/2020 Sunday about 7:15 a.m. or so

Good Morning Blogheads !

Hey if you get a minute go on YouTube and look up a movie called " Trailer park shark", I understand that's the only place where it's at and it has a friend of mine in it. I don't have any idea as to it cinematic value or the storyline I thought it would be cool to  promote something that somebody else has done, that I know. I have no idea if she is even proud of it. I'm going to take a minute and look at it after while.

I was scanning through the happenings on a couple of news sites this morning and the theme for today is "Sorry about your luck pal", as I'm reading about insurance companies that cover business losses when they have an interruption of their business, that have had the foresight to write into their coverages a condition that says will cover you for loss of business except in case of your business being interrupted by viruses or bacteria. I have no idea how in the hell they figured out that they needed to exclude that, however it is amazing how insurance companies make more money than most other companies (one company makes more money than most other companies combined) and they figure out a way to not pay claims continuously,  so amazing.

Anyway here's my top 5 for today.

1. The National Enquirer reportedly is cutting their payroll by 23% with the stated intention of doing so in order to not have to lay people off. Apparently that includes all of the AMI company publications, or at least 9 of them as the way I understand it. This takes effect somewhere around April the first and they are calling it the death knell of that company. Not to be political but just to refresh your memory this is the company where the CEO or the president was chummy with President Trump and did the old capture and kill on stories that were negative about the him. Supposedly they had a whole safe full of bad stories he didn't want published.  In their heyday at the height of their history they had over 4,000,000 in circulated readers now it's somewhere South less than 100,000. Sorry about Your Luck Pal
2. Like I was saying before,  business interruption insurance is an insurance policy sold by insurance companies supposedly to cover businesses, I guess when they lose revenue due to unforeseen circumstances with the most common ones being things like fire and etc. It's supposed to replace income after a covered loss and just about every small business owner assumed that something like the coronavirus would be a covered loss. OOPS Not really, um  yeah, in about 2006 (because of the other bugs are hanging around like the swine flu and E coli in the bird flu and all those) they put a rider on all those policies excluding coverage because of viruses or bacteria although they didn't really publicize that they were excluding coverage for that. It seems like they are actually in the business of collecting money or premiums and denying claims . That's how they do business, although their marketing indicates that they collect premiums and pay claims. Seem like there is a big assed disconnect there somewhere. Sorry about Your Luck Pal
3. Also in the news this morning is the daily dose of facts and figures that say the death toll has passed over the 2,000 mark. Also I found out that one of my cousins is in the hospital in Indianapolis with this virus. CRAP. I am praying for him, he doesn't deserve it, he's a great guy, Husband and father. I hope he gets well soon. The governor of California Mr. Newsom reports this morning that 170 ventilators that were sent  to California by FEMA , DON"T WORK. Can you believe this crap? So they loaded all of them into trucks and vans and took them right to a repair shop that is fixing them supposedly as we read this. Amazing. Incredible. Idiotic. Supposedly also things like Evictions, utility cut offs and etc are going to banned through the end of May. On June 1st ? You guessed it, Sorry about Your Luck Pal
4. The NRA and other groups are in the process of suing California, Gov. Newsom and other elected officials over closing Gun stores and declaring the non essential businesses, meanwhile the Industry is projecting that by May 15th, the USA will be out of condoms. Allegedly this is due to manufacturers being retasked to make PPE like gloves and etc. I guess sex toys are next and we are screwed in more ways than one. Sorry about Your Luck Pal
5. Here is a good one. My prediction is that this one will create a true american incident and somebody is gonna lose their mind over this and come back to work with a huge handgun and a lot of ammo. Apparently a few employers are thinking that because their employees (I dont know who, the reporting is sketchy about this) are going to receive stimulus checks, they can deduct the amount from the pay they are due, thereby reducing their payroll costs and saving money. I would not want to be a supervisor at one of these places if they do. Holy Frijole` , that's goona be UUUUUgly! Sorry about Your Luck Pal

Ya'll have a great Day, 

Thankx for reading,

BigMike

My goofy observations maybe the top 5

Saturday , March 28th, 2020 about 5:40 a.m.

Good Morning,

You can subscribe to my blog without being on facebook if you would like. Look around, there's a button somewhere.

I wonder why old people get up so early in the morning? In my previous life when I was working and I had a purpose ,  it was hard to get out of bed. A lot of times I was known as the guy that was always gonna be 10 minutes late and that was pushing it (Rita Mae could tell you, she used to get so pissed off at me, especially when it rained). I had a boss tell me one time that if I didn't want to be late I would not be late. I said oh yes I love being yelled at, I love having your foot up my a**, I love having everybody and there brother mad at me, I love having to adjust 10 time records everyday to make sure the people that were there on time got paid even though I was late, it was a blast. He said I needed to work on my attitude as I was a little bit of a smart a**. I said I haven't had any coffee I don't know what you expect.

For the first time by the way I am using a feature of Windows 10 which allows me to talk into a microphone and it transcribes it to words. I'm sure at some point it is going to screw up my English however I figure it can't be anywhere near as bad as I do on my own. Let me know if you see obvious transliteration errors and I will do my best to correct them however, even as I see the machine do its work and I proofread it I know I'm still going to miss some of them.

I call this the top 5 because I think that's all most people can take of me I could probably go on and on and write a top 100 and I think only I would read them. It's hard to hit a homerun every time you step up to the plate so a few of my postings are pretty good and others are probably boring and they suck and it's just the way it is.

I do my best and you are stuck with junk, sometimes.

Here is today's weird observations.

1. I'm noticing as I watch the various TV news and entertainment shows that the host of the shows and the talking heads and the reporters,  announcers and all the people that work on the shows are doing their shows ,from their house. You can see it in the way that the camera work is done and the sound work is done and you can notice it in the quality of the picture but I guess that's a good thing unless you like watching reruns all the time. I pretty much hate that so , so however they want to do it is OK with me. I'm also noticing on YouTube and then on some of the news stories I follow there's been a lot of entertainers, actors, rappers and etc. that are showing up on Skype and services like them. One observation I have is that there should be a ton of new music or a ton of new albums when this is all over because that's one thing you can actually do very well at home, which is create new music and stories. The comedy should be amazing.  Something else I noticed is a trend and is that Walmart is reporting that they are having a run on clothing but they are only selling clothing  tops. Their sales of bottoms like jeans and pants and etc have exceptionally low sales at this point however the sales of tops are through the roof. They are attributing that to work from home and conferencing. I guess there is a dress code when you are on camera. Who knew. Go Figure.
2. Funny factoid of the day was a video I saw of entertainer Seth Rogan making his Alexa make fart sounds. It was kind of comical. Try this quote "Alexa play fart sounds" , she will respond with various sort of comical responses like that was a wet fart or that was just a little pooter would you like to hear more? I found that to be sophomoric and good for a laugh for a couple of minutes. Some of this stuff I like other times I think he's an idiot but it's all in good fun. Try asking for a "cheek wobbling fart". Hysterical.
3. I did not know I was a theologian until the other day. A friend of mine said it should be in the Bible that you can slap stupid people. I said I think you just have to know where to look and look at the right verses. Then I sent her the following response and it generated big laughs. This is probably sacrilegious and it'll probably p*** off one of the people that read this, but it's all in good fun. Don't get your panties twisted .
   Yea verily though I strode through  the the valley of death , Thou art with me, thy stick and thine pistol they comfort me, thy attitude be with me, my hand be dry from oil, my holster be tight and true ,my coffee cup runneth over with the finest blend. Crap you shall not take from the stupid for they not know the depth of thine anger, the width of thine ability nor the pure assholiness of thou responsiveness.  -  (from the book of Mike 1:1)
4. Here's something thing I've also wondered about. There are hundreds of thousands of very vulnerable people in the USA, people like heroin addicts, crackheads, Methican Americans that are addicted beyond belief, porn stars, prostitutes  the homeless, and a lot more I'm sure that I have left out but or can't think of at the moment. The people that fall through the cracks of society into every other normal circumstance. Nobody is talking about them right now, and I mean I haven't heard a single report about any of them. There are cities where the homeless gather together in larger numbers than some small American towns. It seems like if this virus ran unchecked through a homeless encampment that it would basically kill him all because none of them ever go to the doctor . At the very least there would be a lot of sick homeless people. I don't think there's an outreach program on this planet that could help this situation. I wonder what they're gonna do about this. This is one of the goofy things that I think about, wondering how 3-6  months ago , they were all talking about the large homeless population in America and today nobody is talking about them. It doesn't exist. I also heard today that we have more than 100,000 cases (More than anyone - Yay!! we're #1) We have 100,000 confirmed virus cases,  but that we also have the worst testing regimen in the industrialized world. So they're telling people that show up to a hospital sick that they aren't sick enough to be hospitalised and they should go home until they get deathly ill and then come back . People are soylent green.
5. Hundreds of thousands of stories have been written about the hoarding of the toilet paper, hand sanitizer, paper towels, sanitary wipes and about a dozen other things. If they hoard coffee there is gonna be serious trouble. There has even been stories about how the influx of flushed wipes have backed up toilet systems all over America and how they have had to come out and clean out of toilet system that are overwhelmed by sanitary wipes. Now I'm reading that although demand for the product is outstripping our ability to supply them the manufacturers are running it more than 120% of capacity trying to build back up the supply in each store but we're still seeing empty shelves,  basically after every delivery because people are walking in and still buying everything that was just delivered. Who are these idiots? So if this is panic buying and people are hoarding because they are afraid that there won't be any when they need them then why are we running out of things like toilet paper. it does make any sense. 12 packs of toilet paper being sold in record numbers and they say the average 4 person family needs a new 12 pack about every something like 40 to 60 days. so if you bought 7 packs then you have enough for a year and a half. Now even if my math is wrong, the point is still valid that you are going to have more toilet paper then you can use in about a year. Was that to eliminate the ability of anyone staying in your guest bedroom because it's full of toilet paper or are you trying to keep your mother in law out of your house is that the idea? I don't think there's a prepper on the planet that would support the idea of taking sleeping space over with supplies of toilet paper.
   
   Thankx for reading,  

BigMike

The Defining Moment In a national crisis

It's about 8:55 a.m. on Friday 03/27/2020

Good Morning Y'all,

These are just my observations from my twisted point of view where I am walking 45 degree to the sidewalk and You aren't.

My topic today is this. In just about every crisis there is defining moment or a defining act that makes a lot of people remember the moment. It's one of those "Where were you when this happened", kind of things. Obviously depending upon your generation, some of you weren't born when certain things happened, however the point remains. Once the date is burned in our consciousness , the collective memory remembers it forever.

• Where were you on 09/11/2001?
• Where were you on 11/22/1963?
• Where were you on December 7th, 1941
• Where were you on January 28, 1986 ?

For example, During the tragedy in New Orleans that was hurricane Katrina , a hero emerged from the chaos named Lt. General Russell Honore`. Almost everybody remembers him coming on the scene , telling the soldiers to put their guns down and help these people, this aint no war zone. The link below opens a youtube video about this incident.

Lt General Russell Honore`

In the civil rights movement there was Dr. King spoke about his dream.

I have a dream speech

during World War II Harry Truman said "The buck stops here."

The buck stops here

President Roosevelt said "All we have to fear is fear itself

All we have to fear is fear itself

So have we ever faced ANYTHING that is as big of a culture shock as this pandemic in our modern era? Have we faced anything that strained our consciousness to the limit the way this has? I've heard a lot of things this month that I've not heard in person ever before. I've seen a lot of reporting and heard the talking heads wondering out loud about subjects that you would just assume are handled in advance planning or are modeled and it's something we should have prepared for thousands of times.

It turns out that in this crisis we have fallen very short in a lot of ways. For example some very smart people in the medical field are learning how to share a ventilator between patients so that you can use one ventilateur to serve 2 critically ill patients at the same time. It has limitations such as both patients must be on the same settings and it is very hard to get the pressure to be the same but it seems to be something bad may help to solve a shortage. Who knew we would have a shortage a ventilators like the one that is predicted to happen within 30 days. Who knew I would know that N-95 is a model number of a type of mask that nurses and etc will need? Why do I need to know that?

It seems to me that we are coming up on what could be best described as a Mad Max scenario. The states are bidding against each other for personal protective equipment. One governor said he discovered that one of his biggest rivals for equipment (that he was bidding on) was the federal Emergency Management Agency.

Who would have predicted that FEMA would be bidding against a state for personal protective equipment for first responders, doctors, nurses and others. There is a now bed shortage predicted that is unrivaled in history. A lot of the experts are saying that our hospital capacity which is almost full now, will be overwhelmed within 30 days and we need to at minimum triple our current capacity of ICU beds. Triple. I don't think anybody saw that coming. Then they said its likely higher than that! Higher than Triple? Crap.

The National Guard and the military medical commands of all of the United States military services are conducting voluntary recalls of retired nurses and doctors worldwide. To be clear, right now it is voluntary. I can envision a scenario where people that retired from the military would be recalled to service, in a similar fashion that people that want to retire are prevented from doing so under stop loss orders. I reckon that's not the way we want it to be, however it may be one of the only ways we have to staff A shortage this severe, and the President has the authority to do so. If you've ever served you are subject to recall.

Personally I believe that recall orders from the president and from each service is forthcoming. I think that folks that have been out of the military for a long time could be recalled under direct orders from the president. They are building mash type hospital beds everywhere you look in the high volume infection states right now. I think it is only a matter of time before you start to see that where you live if you aren't seeing it now.

I saw an interview with the commanding general of the army corps of engineers who talked about keeping things at its most simple, with the  basis being to let out contracts working with independent contractors, with the the government of each state identifying and using things like dorm rooms, hotel rooms, convention centers, sports stadiums and the like in turning them into either hospital beds for patients.

The man's name was Lt. General Todd Schonite, and he is the commanding general of the army corps of engineers. During this interview he said that currently we do not have the ability nor the capacity to be complicated and that we cannot build from the ground up hospitals. The best we can do is to convert existing structures into negative pressure rooms that will serve the same purpose on a temporary basis. He talked about building metal pole structures on tennis courts or on places like on soccer fields. He talked about converting college dorm rooms into negative pressure ICU facilities. He said it in such a way that it was believable. Is this our moment? Does this define the crisis? Somehow I do not believe that president trump's quote that  "It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear”, and because of that I'm still waiting to hear from that leader who will step up and rise to the occasion and give us that defining moment. I don't think I've heard it yet, I don't think I've heard anyone say it yet and if you have I like to know what it was.

Thankx,

BigMike

Health debate not new, same old stuff

The health-care debate that's going on in America right now is not a new debate. It is historic and most likely is a game changing decision that will come from the supreme court, that will change the face of the debate, politics, health care, legislation and presidential politics for a generation. This debate however has been going on since about the time that Social Security was created.

Essentially we are still wrestling with the same questions, we are still asking the same things, we are restating what has already been said thousands and thousands of times and we are going around in circles. This debate really is not about health care, not really. The argument is framed around health care, the discussion is centered on states rights versus constitutional federal authority, and at some level is about your grandchildren and your grandmother at the same time.

Depending upon two things you will have a different opinion of this than the person next to you. The two things are your age, and your politics. This is really a transparent debate that is about paying for service. No one is debating that health care costs are higher than they've ever been. No one is debating that the cost of health care is rising, is going to continue to rise and that we have to do something drastic and radical as a society to rein in the cost. No one is saying that expensive medical procedures should only be offered to those that can pay for it ,although that is insinuated heavily throughout the language of the law and in the appeals.

Essentially if you are younger and you lean toward the left a little you favor this law. The same holds true if you are older and you lean a little to the right you probably still favor this law. More than likely if you view yourself as a centrist and not as a liberal or a conservative in a strict sense on either side you probably favor this law. The people that do not favorite are the ones that have money, insurance, and jobs. That is a broad stroke generalization I understand. Asking who is not in favor of this law is sort of like saying who is in favor of letting old people starve? Of course no one is in favor of that.

Here is the problem. If you do not have a job, or you have a job that doesn't make much money or you work in an industry that does not offer insurance, or quite possibly you are young and healthy and have not considered the need for insurance to be a priority or any of a host of reasons for not having insurance, then when you are an eventual consumer of health care, then one of  two things happens. One you are treated and are then saddled with a large medical bill or several large medical bills, and then you are paying on them the rest of your life. Or two, same thing happens you are saddled with a large bill and you just don't pay for it, or pay very little of the total cost. This is the sticking point. This is why people are not in favor of Obama care.

What do you mean Mike? The people that are not in favor of this law say that without regard to the ability of someone to pay, and without consideration of paying for people that cannot afford health care, that it should be universal. The people that are in favor of this law say why should my health care costs be larger because you did not look forward enough in your life to have the insurance necessary to help defray the costs. In other words it was your problem why do I have to pay for it?

This is what the so-called individual mandate attempts to correct. I think they went about it the wrong way and I think the Supreme Court will overturn this portion of the law, but what they were trying to do is level the playing field because eventually everyone is a consumer of health care, whether they are insured or not. Eventually every human being on this planet needs a doctor's care for something.

In some societies physician care is a socialized issue and everyone gets care, in other countries like America is a democratic society and you choose where and when to consume that care. In some societies the health care is substandard, in others is provided for free or doesn't exist. In the United States of America however we choose to treat health-care like grocery shopping. Pick your own plan, cafeteria style insurance, exist on the fringe and use the emergency room as your Dr., or ignore medical care altogether and do without. Up until now that has been perfectly acceptable policy to allow individuals to make health care decisions based on this model.

What the law attempts to do is similar to how many states regulate automobile insurance. the state doesn't tell you what kind of car you can drive, what time you can start driving, what time you have to stop, what road you can take or where you can go. The state however does say that if you're going to drive a vehicle in the state,  that vehicle must absolutely be insured or you lose your licesne to drive.

Essentially (with much more structured language) that's what this law says about personal health. It says you can still make the choice about what Dr. go to, about whether you want to go to the doctor today or not, about whether or not you still want to use the same Dr. and whether or not you would rather use an intermediate care facility instead. All of those are still your choice according to this law. The only thing that is stipulated is to say that you have to have insurance,  because eventually you will be a consumer of health care at some point,  for some reason, and society should not have to pay for it. It makes the argument that everyone else should not have to pay for your health care and/or choice to not have insurance.

The problem is with all of its penalties and fines and mandates is it does not address the inequality in American life in any way. This law will never affect the millionaire, the big high-tech tycoon, the rich CEO. It will never affect the millions of people that are fortunate enough to have employment that provides insurance throughout their adult working life. Every professional athlete can safely ignore this law and all of its structure because it will not affect them .These people will only benefit from this law if and when other people are forced against their will to buy insurance or pay a fine because it will allegedly reduce health care costs overall by collecting revenue from everyone instead of only a portion of the cost from the consumers of health care. I'm very skeptical that even if this law was put in practice that my health-care costs will go down any. I think that even if 100% of the American public had healthcare insurance, because we allow the insurance companies to set up shop in such a disjointed fashion our healthcare costs continue to rise no matter what because it is built into the system for insurance companies to collect more revenue.

It will affect however hundreds of millions of people negatively from the moment that is made law. Rightly or wrongly it require every person that earns an income to have insurance. Rightly or wrongly it will require every person that earns an income to pay for insurance at some level. They will either pay for it out of every paycheck or will reduce the tax refund at the end of the year because they were fined for not having it. Or it may cost them the ability to work somewhere because the employer had to absorb that cost and did not hire that one more person that would've gave them a job where insurance was provided. There is a virtual world where this fallacy of universal health care exists. It doesn't exist anywhere in reality however. There is no model on the face of the planet were universal health care actually is practiced effectively.

Here is what is the coming perfect storm that no one is talking about.

The largest consumer ofsociety in the world (USA) with the largest number of soon-to-be retiring workers (baby boomers), are all going to be retiring in the next few years. At just about the same time as the Social Security system begins to have its largest payout ever, the Medicaid and Medicare systems will also start paying on a larger scale than ever before. Put into the mix of this, a health care law that creates a new confusing dynamic and regulates a market that hasn't even been created yet today as we speak, and millions of people that are aging and will be the largest by percentage consumers of health care, will also be the sickest the most in need of medical care. It's a health care Armageddon waiting to happen.

That's what the argument is about really. Who pays for your grandma and grandpa. if you're 30 years old I think the answer is you do based on this law. I think that's true because grandma and grandpa's is going to be living with you (or you moved in with them 10 years ago).

The last part of the argument is to ask the question why are we not hearing anything from the health insurance industry on this law.? the answer to that question is fairly easy to find. Just look directly at the reelection campaign signs of every liberal congressman and senator in the United States. Every one of them are taking hundreds of millions of dollars from opposition groups and healthcare organizations and drug companies and everything else that's associated with medical care in the United States. Almost every size insurance company is backing this law to become law, and to be fully implemented across the board. You know why that is?

Because it's about the money. See we allow our healthcare industry to operate in such a manner that it forces premium costs to rise because that's the way the system was built to operate. Every company is rated according to their employees ages and sexes and other factors and then each company is assigned a group number. Each group was then offered a series of choices for insurance that costs a certain amount of money to obtain. Inside the group you pay less outside the group you pay more. They also rate the companies by their size about how many people would be in their group, about how many of their employees would choose to pay for the insurance and several other factors like that. This system has been driving healthcare costs up since the 60s. This is really what is wrong with health care cost.

We rate individuals in their individual companies and assigned them payment structures based upon their group level. Then we talk about healthcare as one number $2.6 trillion or 15% of the annual gross domestic product like it is consumed at one level in every location. That's how the healthcare companies want you think about it, that's exactly what they want you to hear.

This means nobody ever asked the question,"why don't you just rate everybody in America as part of the same group and charge us all the same thing for what ever kind of insurance protection we desire?"

I guarantee you that the minute you do that two things would happen, and nothing would get accomplished.

1) The Conservatives would raise bloody hell. The reason why the conservatives would raise bloody hell is because that would sound like socialized medicine. Nothing could be further from the truth but that would matter. The truth doesn't get a plate at this dinner table.

2) The Liberals would raise bloody hell. the reason why the liberals would late raise bloody hell is because it would cut off their funds (their war chests) for reelection. No healthcare company/drug company nor any other healthcare related company would bother donating millions and millions and hundreds of millions of dollars to reelection campaigns if it wouldn't allow them to set the agenda and accomplish their own goals.

Would not do a single thing to help the American public, to help the uninsured, to help the struggling family, or make America a better place to live. It's the same thing as the reason why were paying too much for oil.

Greed in America corporate life and the crossover greed in American political life. It is essentially the same thing.


Thanks for reading my rant

– Big Mike

14 States sue to block Health Care law !

Okay. Maybe I am not 100 % percent right. Maybe, just maybe, the supremacy clause of the constitution will be the way the health care law is decided. Read the constitution at http://answrtek.com/US%20Constitution.pdf.

But, you have to admit I called the next steps on this exactly right, without knowing what would be in the news today ! 14 states have filed suit to block the new law, claiming various constitutional difficulties with its implementation. 14 States! Lawsuits, hearings, depositions, document requests back and forth, jurisdictional issues, appeals and eventually the supreme court probably more than once and a decade or more will pass before any of this is a done deal.

Quoting from a CNN article "Officials from 14 states have gone to court to block the historic overhaul of the U.S. health care system that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, arguing the law's requirement that individuals buy health insurance violates the Constitution.
Thirteen of those officials filed suit in a federal court in Pensacola, Florida, minutes after Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The complaint calls the act an "unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states" and asks a judge to block its enforcement."

In 15 years when this is all resolved we will see how much of this law is left to enact. The next thing is probably going to be an ultra-conservative federal judge somewhere granting an injunction against the statute until the legal issues are settled. You watch !

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.

We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!

The Health Care Overhaul is unconstitutional

Part of the language in the health care overhaul is unconstitutional. The Constitution states that no state shall impair the obligation of contracts. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions would likely apply this prohibition to the Federal government.

The constitution says (Article I, section 10) "..SECTION. 10. 1 No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility." This is an exact quote from it.

The new Democrat health care bill provides that uninsured people must buy insurance or face prosecution and penalties. It is no great stretch of the imagination to argue that if Congress cannot impair an existing contract, it cannot force individuals to enter into contracts, on the same basis that minors cannot be forced into binding contracts. They have no legal standing to do so.

The essence of the Constitutional provision is to prohibit the government from interfering into the private affairs of an individual.

On this basis a lawsuit to declare this new statute unconstitutional is inevitable, if not expected. Don't cheer too hard just yet liberals, this will be in court for the next 15 years before it is resolved.

Draconian measures are the harbinger of tyranny.

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike

Visit my blog online at http://bigmikerant.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to leave your own comments or reactions to my rants (even if you don't agree with me) in the comments section on each post.
Join my facebook group "We are all tired of Bickering Politicians" at

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292482513888.

We would love to have your voice added to the noise !!

Why the Health Insurance debate doesn't really make a lot of sense to me

My God.

You would have thought the earth was going to stand still in the last few months to hear our over the top politicians and their paid spokes-dogs going on and on about the health care debate.

Millions of people do not have jobs. Unemployment is at 10 % or better. Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their homes into bankruptcy and foreclosure and we are still fighting two wars in three countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq). Some of our military is on their 6th deployments overseas. Hillary! Bill ! Obama ! Reid ! Pelosi ! (oh, that’s right, it is all the fault of the republicans isn’t it….I forgot).

Bernie Madoff and his ilk stole 50 Billion dollars. Enron cost the economy 100 Billion dollars. Retirement accounts are turning to dust everywhere and the stock market has plummeted to the tune of a loss in the trillions of dollars in the last 24 months.

Yep, now was exactly the time the American people were going to get behind a new debate on health care in this country.

We have over 36 million illegal , undocumented aliens in this country. Every county , state and parish has had to lay people off. The state of California, which by volume is the world’s 5^th largest economy, was some 23 BILLION dollars in the red on the next state budget. Teachers are being laid off left and right, schools are being closed all over and if you can find a Mall or a shopping center that isn’t at least 20 % unoccupied , you are very fortunate. Toyota’s and Honda’s are falling apart as you drive them. Whole brands of cars are just being discontinued. No more Pontiac, no more Saturn, poof all gone. Hundreds of dealerships are being closed all over America and now was the time to explain how we needed a mandatory cost for health care applied to those people who didn’t have health care.

Look, this is how stupid this debate is and how bad the timing is to pursue this right now.

I cannot drive a car legally in the USA without car insurance. If I do and I get caught, I will lose my license. If I have an accident, I’ll lose everything I have. In my state that is the law and they check it electronically and could care less if you have an Insurance card. Even though they are that insistent about it, some 36 million people drive everyday in this country without Car Insurance. They do it and you have to buy “Uninsured motorist” liability coverage to make sure your own car gets fixed if you have an accident with one of these goofs. I pay for car insurance for years and years and years without ever using it, and if I do have an accident , I am thinking of how to pay for the claim out of pocket because I don’t want my rates to go up. For a product I’ve owned for years, paid into with no claims, and to worry about my rates going up the one time I use it is the pinnacle of stupidity. There is no effective regulation barring this practice, not a real one anyway. The only people these laws benefit are those that can afford a $700 per hour lawyer to sue them if they break the law.

The same stupid logic applies to Health Insurance. Insurance companies have to be multi headed monsters in order to sell their products in the USA because there is no universal law which allows one set of USA regulations to cover the policies that are sold. Every State (and sometimes counties) have regulations that are different in every place they do business. So in order to maximize their take from the policies they sell, they write exclusions into policies that minimize their risk. 20 years old, out of school ? Sorry, your parents cannot cover you anymore (unless you are in school, in which case, never mind, unless you are older than 25 then, oh yeah No Insurance!). Go to work at a new job in another state 31 days after you left the old job ? Uh, you have to wait 90 days to join our insurance group, unless of course you just retired from the military or are age 55 or older in which case special regulations may apply to you. Unless you have any kind of drug conviction or have had any kind of surgery in the past 3 years. 40 million people can’t afford health insurance because of how stupidly these regulations have been allowed to become.

What is the difference between a 21 year old in college and a 21 year old not in college that makes them automatically uninsurable by their parents through their policy anyway? The answer? Nothing except CLAIMS FREQUENCY. Colleges have clinics that cost less and people not in college incur Billing that is the same as everyone else.

I don’t even want to get into groups, rate plans, experience allocation or pre-existing conditions, which is a whole bigger barrel of fish by itself.

It makes me think what we ought to do when we get sick enough to see a doctor and don’t have health insurance is to ask a Mexican if he can help us get some fake identity papers so we can lay the bill of on somebody else or maybe we should get sick, get in our cars, drive the car through the emergency rooms doors and then cough and say “What happened I must have passed out?”, when someone runs up to the car , so the friggin car insurance has to pay for it.

Its better insured than most people are anyway.

I created a group on Facebook called “We are all tired of Bickering Politicians” , click the link to see it and feel free to join up. I’d love for one of these do nothing politicians to get an earful of you too !

Thankx for reading my rant !

bigmike