Are We Waking Up?

The latest polls, of Americans over 50, show a shift to President Obama.  The biggest reason is the Ryan/Romney (I put Romney second because Ryan is the protagonist with Medicare), have taken dead aim at "reforming" Medicare.

The Ryan proposals, that Romney is predictably running away from, call to basically give vouchers to all Medicare prospects under 55, when they become eligible.  Also, the eligible age will go to 67.  These vouchers will in no way be enough to buy insurance.

Any person with any familiarity with insurance, will immediately wonder how 67 year old people will do in the "free health insurance market" with a paltry voucher?

People who are 67 or over have a host of maladies.  Right now, most seniors without Medicare who are  67 have no chance of even purchasing health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.  People over 67 are VERY expensive to insure.

That is why we got Medicare in the first place!

Meanwhile, Ryan's "Plan" (actually a scheme to destroy Medicare),  benignly (?) allows everyone over 55 when  his plan goes into effect, can keep the "defined benefit" Medicare plan.  So, let's just play this out.

Let's say Romney is elected and can  somehow get this "reform"  passed.  All those over 55 would be guaranteed the Medicare we now have, which means they all have insurance.  All those under 55 have a voucher waiting for them when they reach 67.  I assume they keep paying into the fund, but get a voucher to go get private insurance.  In 12 years, the 55 something has Medicare at 65 and has a "single payer" insurance with all the benefits of Medicare today (I assume).  In 12 years the 54 something is 66 and is planning on getting a voucher.  For at least thirty years, you will have a mix of elderly people, about 1/2 who have single payer insurance, 1/2 and growing who have to go out to the private insurance vultures to purchase insurance.

Have you heard of pool regarding insurance rates?   This will be a disaster.  You need a huge pool of people to bring the risk down of an insurance group.  And 67 year old people (and older) are a horrible risk pool.  All of them will be getting sick, cancer rates double the younger population, high blood pressure; etc, AND 1/2 of the pool will have the single payer Medicare program.

So, small pool, huge rates!

For almost 40 years, until all the traditional Medicare people die off, the pool of seniors to "shop" for individual insurance will result in premiums that will be staggering.

The ONLY way insurance companies can even insure this group, and Ryan's bright idea forces them to, is to pass the cost along to younger customers; the 40, 30 and 20 somethings.

The potential for huge increases in health insurance premiums is 100%.

It won't work.  It is ridiculous.

We do need to reform Medicare.  We need to crack down on fraud and abuse.  We need, perhaps, to raise some deductibles on wealthy Medicare recipients.  We might even need to increase the tax that drives the program.

That's right, we may have to pay a little more, to keep the program solvent.  Oh God, I just said the tax word...Romney will immediately protect his tax returns.

Any of these more sensible ideas are superior to the sheer insanity of the Ryan plan.

And seniors, like me who just turned 65, are beginning to think this through, and realize it for the madness that it is.

And Romney, who foolishly put Ryan on his ticket, is suffering in the polls big time.

The Only Thing To Fear

In 1945 the United States led the United Nations to defeat one of the worst evils the world had ever seen.     We recently visited Italy, marveled at the accomplishments of the Renaisance, the history, the art, the civilization.

However, Italy and Germany murdered millions during World War II.

And what was the engine of this destruction?   What caused these very civilized, Christian nations to turn into engines of evil?

Fascism.  Propaganda. Fear.

I have read several letters to the editor recently warning  that America is at risk, that our freedoms are in danger, that our freedom of religion is threatened,  fear, fear, fear.  And by implication, hate, hate, hate.

I ask those writers to go to a quiet place, and list the real, actual threats that  REALLY threatens them.  And, please turn off Fox News, right wing hit piece radio, and Rush is right.  Just let it get real quiet, and list the real, actual limits on your liberty that threaten you so much.  Make a list of all the times evil government, or President Obama has REALLY threatened you.  I mean real threat, threatened imprisonment, violence, loss of doing what you really want to do.  I will bet, your list is very short if you find a quiet place and turn off the propaganda machine.

Fascism is a socio-political illness.  It is fed by fear, stereotypes and lies.  Joseph Goebbles famously said, "If you are going to tell a lie to the masses, tell big lies".   The disease of fascism  feeds on fear, on telling big lies.  And, it is works through blind, unquestioning fear, to motivate people to do horrible things.  

When we get afraid, we do things we never would do, people in Italy and Germany killed, jailed, and attacked their supposed enemies. The Jews were supposedly responsible for the loss of WWI (Italy actually fought on the Allied Side), the Great Depression, everything wrong in the world.

And through it all, at first anyway, there was no REAL  threat at all.  People were motivated to kill their neighbors, imprison millons, because they were propagandized into fear, and responded with deadly force.

So, take a minute and think about all this before you go off on liberals, or the President, or those who supposedly are stealing your freedom.

You are getting worked by propaganda that is demonizing your fellow citizens, using fear everyday to manipulate your into the deadly trap of destructive fascism.

My father's generation fought, and sacrificed beyond belief  to destroy the fascist destroyers.    It was not easy.  It killed almost 75 million people.

Be not afraid, the only thing we really have to fear is fear itself.  That, and the propaganda manipulators, are our true enemies.

Romney is a Quitter

Again, I knew Mitt Romney.  I knew him his Freshman year at Stanford.  I met him through my good friend and teammate, Mark Marquess, who was Mitt's roommate, and my teammate on the Freshman (and later Varsity) football team.  

I can say that now, because Stanford, where Mark is the baseball coach, has divulged this information.  

Mitt was a nice enough guy, but reminded us constantly of his "top boy" status; which is being ranked first in his exclusive prep school.  He had an almost obsessive need to be the best, to be the one who everyone looked up to.

I always had the feeling that Mitt did not like Stanford, he left after his Freshman year, because of the competition that existed.  There were nothing but "top boys" at Stanford.  Everyone was in the upper 2% of his/her class.  Everyone was bright and  talented.

Mitt missed being looked up to.  At Stanford he was just another of a whole class of excellent athletes and students.  He could not stand that.  He could not compete with the  Stanford freshmen.

In fact, I remember the phrase on our Frosh Book:  "There is no greater burden than great potential".  Mitt could not take that, he quit.

It was hard to be sure, to acclimate to the unbelievable talent that surrounded us, both athletically and academically.  I struggled for awhile, until I realized that I was still who I was from my family background and upbringing, and I could compete, I just had to stay within myself and work.

Of course, I was a mechanic's kid, the first member of my family to graduate from college, the smallest active member of the Stanford Varsity for two years on scholarship; if anyone had trouble competing it was me.

And Mitt quit.  And I, a 47% member, did not!

Of course, today, because I am on Medicare and get a state teacher's pension and small social security payment, I am a member of Romney's 47%.  I am a Stanford graduate, football letter winner, possess a Masters Degree with many Credentials, spent 35 years teaching and managing the education system of this great country, did not quit, and now am a member of the 47%.  In short, I am not rich!

But I did adapt, compete at the highest level, and succeed.  It was not easy, but it could be done.

Mitt quit.  That's right, he quit.  The competition, the homesickness was too great, so he quit.  He went on his mission, dodged the draft, and finished at BYU.

BYU?  He picked BYU over Stanford?  I still can't get over that!

Now, he basically has told the truth, for once, that he hates the 47%, who are mooching off the government, who are "entitlement" bound.  He sneers at those who have lost out in the capitalist competition that he so espouses.  The millions of the poor, the elderly who are under social security and medicare, he says he will not do anything for.

He will serve the rich, the well born.   He will be the top boy!

The fact is this is the same old Mitt I knew at Stanford.  In effect he does not want to adapt his views to the reality that there are many people in trouble in this country right now.  He is quitting on the American Dream!  Every time I think about the way he depicts the 47% as whining about their entitlements, it greatly angers me.

Mitt could not stand the competition that Stanford represented (and represents).  He yearned for his priviliged life, his rich friends, he missed being the "top boy".  He could not compete:   SO HE QUIT!

That's right, he quit.  He cut and ran.  He is only really comfortable when he is in an environment that is fixed so he can win, he can be the top boy forever.

The guy is an incredible hypocrite he is messed up...God Help us from the Quitter becoming the real top boy!

Italy is Better Prepared

We recently enjoyed a two week tour of Italy.  We we treated to beautiful scenery,  breathtaking art  and history.  I had never been to Europe before, so for me it was definitely time to check some of the impressions I have developed over the years.

One impression I had was that Europe, and industrialized nations in Europe (Italy being one of course), have a much better mass transporation system than the United Stated.

This impression supported my deep concern that the United States is so dependent on individual transportation via automobiles and trucks, that we are at an increasing disadvantage in the global economy as oil reserves are used up.

I envisioned Italy as a place of trains, buses, mass transit, with few freeways, cars and long haul trucking.

And what did I find?  Los Angeles!

Yep, that is right, Italy has lots of freeways (toll roads), lots of cars, R.V.s, and large diesel run eighteen wheelers.

Granted many of the cars are smaller, and the long haul trucks are not quite as large, but they are everywhere.  Rome's traffic reminded me of the Bay Area, way too many cars for way too small of space.

Italy supposedly is in a deep recession.  You couldn't have told that from the vehicle volume.  The gas prices would cause a revolution in the United States, standing at over $8.00 per gallon.  But, the cars are smaller, and I did notice more people occupying vehicles (obviously car pooling is being done).

The big difference is there  are lots of passenger trains as well,  and electric trollies, and public buses.  These are well used, but seemed to me to have excess capacity.

This is the BIG difference I expected to see, and it was confirmed.

In short, as gas becomes more rare, Italians have a plan B, the train systems, and other mass transit alternatives are available.

We do not.

The United States passenger train system, especially in the west, is a joke.  Public bus systems do exist in large cities, but are a mere fraction of the need, once we have to shift millions from their unaffordable gasoline run cars to buses, trollies; etc.

The most upsetting impression confirmed  was that Italy, is way more prepared for the inevitable distress that dwinding oil resources will bring.

I will only mention their socialized medicine system, that takes up a fraction of the national economy compared to ours; more about that later.

Italy, regardless of my conservative friends "American exceptionlism" nonsense, is way more prepared for the future than we are.  That's right folks, the Italy that Americans like to make fun of as being so dysfunctional, is way more prepared for the energy deprived future that is inevitable for the world economy.

Americans are fooling ourselves.  We are so used to cheap energy, expecially oil, that we have built an economy and life style, that is now stuck in the past, and ill equipped for the future that will bring increasingly expensive energy costs, with practically no alternatives to getting ourselves to work, to vacation, to anywhere.

Italy is better prepared.