The Goat Pen

this is some scarey shit

http://english.manoramaonline.com/busin ... stems.html

Professor Tiger wrote:

Trump decides to withhold funding from the insurance companies on Obamacare to cover the difference in subsidies and premiums

I wouldn't do that for one reason. Obamacare is currently in a death spiral. .

I'm not certain what kind of death spiral its going to be in if the government keeps upping the subsidy and 80% of the marketplace is on subsidies.

The insurance subsidies were set to expire after a couple of years as the ACA was supposed to be self sustaining and the markets stabilized.

When the government talks about stabilizing the market, they are planning on pumping money into it to keep insurance companies in the marketplace.

The insurance subsidies were set to expire after a couple of years as the ACA was supposed to be self sustaining and the markets stabilized.

If, according to the original Obamacare plan, the subsidies were supposed to expire, then let the subsidies expire. Designate Obamacare as a "Do Not Resuscitate" patient, and do nothing to delay the inevitable.

Hedge: "I wish you were a Do Not Resuscitate patient."

Relatively minor encounter


I was recently pulled over for "failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign" which was horseshit. i stopped. Not that I always, but I saw the cop, so I made sure I did. I was dressed shabbily and in my beat up F-150 (going to Home Depot for mulch). The officer was aggressive and terse and didn't like me saying he was wrong about me stopping. He asked me to get out and lift my "lid" (tonneau cover) on my truck. I was pissed already and asked why (I asked why, but I was goung to do it in hopes that I didn't get further hassled). But before I could agree he said, "do it or I will call K-9." I replied, "Go ahead, call K-9 and call your supervisor, while I call Marty (the mayor).

He then said he would be back, he left with my license and was gone a long time sitting in his patrol car. I guess he called someone who knew me at the precinct or looked up my address (which is in a fairly affluent neighborhood) or whatever. Anyway, I didn't get a ticket for the bogus stop.

Police are given a lot of authority and are here for safety and to protect and serve. Society grants them this authority and, in turn, they are held to a high standard of behavior. The majority ate probably good, but that doesn't mean the bad ones don't exist or should be given a pass.

AlabamAlum wrote:Relatively minor encounter


I was recently pulled over for "failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign" which was horseshit. i stopped. Not that I always, but I saw the cop, so I made sure I did. I was dressed shabbily and in my beat up F-150 (going to Home Depot for mulch). The officer was aggressive and terse and didn't like me saying he was wrong about me stopping. He asked me to get out and lift my "lid" (tonneau cover) on my truck. I was pissed already and asked why (I asked why, but I was goung to do it in hopes that I didn't get further hassled). But before I could agree he said, "do it or I will call K-9." I replied, "Go ahead, call K-9 and call your supervisor, while I call Marty (the mayor).

He then said he would be back, he left with my license and was gone a long time sitting in his patrol car. I guess he called someone who knew me at the precinct or looked up my address (which is in a fairly affluent neighborhood) or whatever. Anyway, I didn't get a ticket for the bogus stop.

Police are given a lot of authority and are here for safety and to protect and serve. Society grants them this authority and, in turn, they are held to a high standard of behavior. The majority ate probably good, but that doesn't mean the bad ones don't exist or should be given a pass.

its a shit shop where you could die on any day for $50K a year and good health insurance. 90% of the people you deal with are angry - and it only gets worse from there when you go from suburbs to urban.

Agreed.

[youtube]tke_27wbW-0[/youtube]

Also, a nice article about shitty "probable cause" and the raid of a couple of retired CIA Agents for tomato plants:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... story.html

Glad they won on appeal. I hope they get cash and/or some people lose their jobs.

it was funny that when he handed me my license and proof of insurance back, he didn't look me in my eyes. He looked at his boots. Like he was defeated. Or pissed. Or something. He just gave me a "you're free to go" and quickly went back to his patrol car. He sped off before I could even put my license up.

I wonder if he took out his anger on the folks on his next stop. I just hope, black or white, they werre Auburn fans.

More Americans died of drug overdoses in 2016 than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War — the result of the US’s opioid epidemic.

In comparison, more than 58,000 US soldiers died in the entire Vietnam War, nearly 55,000 Americans died of car crashes at the peak of such deaths in 1972, more than 43,000 died due to HIV/AIDS during that epidemic's peak in 1995, and nearly 40,000 died of guns during the peak of those deaths in 1993.

The Times can’t specify how many of the overdose deaths were caused by opioids, much less what kind of opioid — painkillers, heroin, or fentanyl — was behind the deaths. But based on the past few years’ trends and on-the-ground reports, most of the overdose deaths were likely linked to opioids and an increasing amount were linked to fentanyl.

The total, if it holds true, would surpass 2015’s record for most recorded drug overdose deaths in US history. Back then, more than 52,000 deaths were linked to overdoses. The Times estimates there was a 19 percent increase between 2015 and 2016 alone, which would be the largest known increase in drug overdose deaths for any single year yet.

Although it’s hard to say for certain, the Times suggested “the problem has continued to worsen in 2017.”

In short, the opioid epidemic was already the deadliest in American history in 2015. And it got much deadlier in 2016 — and is likely even worse so far in 2017.

They can't specify how many were caused by opioids??

How many people died of smoking or alcohol related illnesses in 2016?

It's only an "epidemic" if it's illegal, evidently...

Six Toe is a fairly affluent neighborhood?

Police are given a lot of authority and are here for safety and to protect and serve. Society grants them this authority and, in turn, they are held to a high standard of behavior. The majority ate probably good, but that doesn't mean the bad ones don't exist or should be given a pass.

Agree the majority are good but the bad ones are largely protected by the good ones, which renders the whole lot of them corrupt in a way that is unacceptable. Joe Crystal is a hero for doing the right thing and was basically forced off the Baltimore PD and had to move like 5 states away to get another job. This blue wall of silence shit has to go if we ever want police to be held accountable for breaking the law.

Dash cams and body cams are wonderful ways to separate the good cops from the bad. They also separate the innocent people who are unjustly pulled over from the liars trying to smear innocent cops just doing their jobs. Like this:

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblo ... about-cops

That happens a lot too.

hedge wrote:How many people died of smoking or alcohol related illnesses in 2016?

Quit being a drama queen. There are so many programs that are free to help people quit smoking and drinking. They are advertised all the time on television and radio.

Heroin, painkillers, etc are a serious problem in this country and if you don't think it is effecting medical costs for hospitals, EMT, local police for over dose medicine and treatment, you are ad idiot. And oh yeah, there isn't a lot of places to go for people that need this kind of help unless you are absolutely dirt poor or rich enough to afford it. There is nothing for the middle class to get in. Call it anecdotal evidence as you wish but a family friend in his early 20's just died of heroin OD. His mother spent the past years trying everything to get him help and there was nothing anyone could do because she worked part time or he had a felony or she a little money in her savings account. So yeah it is a real problem whether you like it or not.

I never said it wasn't a problem, I just said, in terms of healthcare costs and deaths, tobacco and alcohol are magnitudes worse than all illegal drugs combined. And yeah, I've known people who died of illegal drugs too, young people, and it sucks, but for every story of something like that there are 100x as many of people who died from tobacco or alcohol related illness. Yeah, maybe they were older, but if it's your mom or grandmother or whatever and you know they could've had many more years of life if they hadn't used a product that was not only legal but heavily advertised and subsidized by the government, then it hurts a lot more than just some kid of an acquaintance who OD'd. Like I said, I never said illegal drugs aren't a problem, but you guys act like the legal drugs are perfectly fine but then run around like hysterical donkey's braying about "it's an epidemic!" when it comes to something that is causing a small fraction of the pain and suffering and death as the legal stuff...

Horseshit. One cig or one drink has about 1% chance to kill you. And sure someone popping pills or shooting up won't die on the first time either. However, the latter has a faster and more destructive effect. Sure cigs and drinking is a slower process but like I said their are free and accessible programs for people to use. And yes they do affect healthcare and that is why you see more health insurance companies charging you a tobacco usage fee. Obesity is a drain on the system as well and like many insurance companies they are charging extra and offering incentives to lose weight.

Bottom line - The odds of you dying from smoking one cig or having one drink is probably low. The odds have to be greater to die from one hit of heroin. That is the difference.

" Obesity is a drain on the system as well and like many insurance companies they are charging extra"

No wonder you're broke...