Here is another great example of how US Retail banking is completely unsuited for the 21st Century and how the rules of the banks not only costs money but is also subject to considerable delay. It doesn’t affect International companies, … Continue reading More Broken US Retail Banking
I have a dream… I can’t possibly understand the importance and significance of Martin Luther King Jr, but I do understand that the struggle and injustice he represented was real, and is just as relevant today as it was when … Continue reading MLK Day – The Wonder Years
If you read through this and have any sense of history, you can’t wonder why we are even bothering with the whole quid-pro-quo debacle. At this point, if the President knew anything of this, he has to go. Why Giuliani Singled Out 2 Ukrainian Oligarchs to Help Dig Up Dirt https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/25/us/giuliani-ukraine-oligarchs.html What would Gil Scott-Heron say? And there are those who swear they’ve seen King Donald (who? who?) King Donald (who?) King Donald (who?) King Donald (who?) King Donald (who?) King Donald King Donald King Donald King Donald (Yeah!) Beneath that cesspool-Rudigate. Applause Four more years, Four more years, Four more … Continue reading It’s time to call it what it is… #rudigate
The Presidents tariffs continue to be a source of frustration and confusion. Who pays them, where the money goes and if they are even likely to solve the problem Trump thinks they will. Meanwhile the boycotts on Huawei grow, ultimately threatening to split the technology world in two, everything that works in China and its allies, and technology that works everywhere else. The software bro’s seem to think that won’t happen, or if it does it’s no biggie, since all the software they use is US based. Apart from the arrogance, it’s also completely ignorant. I often show the “Social … Continue reading What to do about China?
I have listened to the first two episodes of the new “White Lies” podcast, and have no qualms about claiming it is the next big podcast for me. The podcast covers the death of James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister living in Boston. Reeb heard of the call by Martin Luther King Jr. for clergy across the country to come to Selma, after the day, hundreds of African Americans had gathered in Selma to march to the state capital and demand the right to vote and been brutally pushed back from the Edmund Pettus Bridge by Alabama state troopers . That … Continue reading White Lies – podcast to follow Serial?
The Takeaway yesterday had a good segment on rural hospitals, basically continuing to “cry wolf” about their affordability. One of the participants in the discussion is, Dr John Waits, who with his colleagues and staff at Centreville Clinic Staff, are doing their best to help their community afford their healthcare. Dr Waits struggles valiantly in the discussion to avoid using the terms profit and subsidy. This is a mistake in my opinion, while you can talk about healthcare efficiencies, people need to hear that large hospital groups are for profit, yes even the not-for-profit ones. People need to understand that … Continue reading Rural Hospitals Redux
Sadly, this New York Times Editorial op-ed is factually wrong in a material way that I had to write a letter. I also ripped into Dan Gorenstein on twitter(1) for linking to the article and “guessing” he didn’t think Americans would tolerate #MedicareForAll. Here is the text I sent to the Times, who knows if they will publish it. My track record of getting corrections to editorial op-eds published is close to zero. It’s like they don’t want to be wrong. The editorial board seems both confused, and factually inaccurate when it comes to how insurance works in government funded, … Continue reading Opinion | How Much Will Americans Sacrifice for Good Health Care? – The New York Times
President Trump has decided, unilaterally apparently, to pull all America troops out of Syria, both surprising his Chiefs of Staff and allies. The American story with Syria is intertwined with almost everything the west has done in the Middle East since the end of the 2nd World War. American was the prime enabler of the Assad family rise to to power, and as everything post war seemed to be, all about fighting the rise of Communism and installing “democracy”. Syria gained its independence in 1946 and in 1948 engaged in the Arab-Israeli war. Later in 1949, the Americans were party, … Continue reading America and Syria – the backstory
The state of American immigration is misunderstood, misapplied and subject to a lot of hysteria. To me it continues to amaze that a country where you can drive for hours east and south in Colorado, west in Texas, and pass nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’m sure there are other US States where you can do this, I’ve just not driven through them. America, with a number of Western countries, not least mine, the UK, have created massive disturbances and in some cases, wars persist as a direct result of our actions. Yet we have largely uninhabited geographic areas as big as … Continue reading The State of American Immigration
As a quick follow-on from yesterdays post, thanks for the emails and messages on linked-in. I was listening to the USCIS MP3 for the 100 Interview questions last night and found this answer, among others pretty imprecise. This is a single question extract from the actual USCIS MP3. The question this raises is, which States have more representatives but a smaller population, and why? Obviouly this also hightlights the importance of the U.S. Census which measures the population. Also, google searching for the questions is a great way to find the confusing litany of websites out there to help immigrants … Continue reading Why do some States have more Representatives?