They Say Pride Goes Before A Fall

April 1, 2014March 31, 2014 fasab Computers, Current Events, Factoids, Politics, Rants Amazon, americans, approval rating, bad code, bad designers, bad product, bureaucratic bunglers, commercial web sites, Current Events, deadline, debacle, ebay, education, facts, fools, fully insured, fully-functioning, Google, Hawaii, Healthcare.gov, idiot bureaucrats, idiots, insurance, insurance coverage, internet, lie, microsoft, morons, negative, no insurance, Obama, Obama administration, obamacare, politicians, politics, President Obama, press conference, Pride goes before a fall, Rants, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, system, toppled over, traffic, vacation, web site, Wikipedia

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

So, if pride goes before a fall, what goes before a CRASH?

Well, in terms of the pathetic Obamacare web site, the usual form of words from the Obama Administration is

“…the site was fully-functioning for a “vast majority” of users.”

CRASH!

It happened again last week, early Friday afternoon in fact, as millions of Americans tried to get insurance coverage before the deadline.

I don’t know where they got the information that the site was functioning for the “vast majority of users”.

Well, I do actually. It was a lie. Another one.

In fact the healthcare.gov is not fully-functioning for anyone. On the positive side I suppose you could say that everyone has an equal chance of not being able to use the web site, but that is small comfort to those trying to do so.

And this is just the latest CRASH of many. Last November there was another major one. They “fixed” it, except of course they didn’t, they just got it working for a while, until it toppled over again.

Left in the hands of idiot bureaucrats who clearly have no idea what they are doing, no system can work efficiently. They choose bad designers, who use bad code, produce a bad product, and then are amazed and surprised when it doesn’t work.

There are tens of thousands of commercial web sites, like Google, Amazon, Ebay, Microsoft, even Wikipedia, that take much higher traffic every day without crashing – and they’ve been doing it for years.

Yet the bureaucratic bunglers can’t get their web site working for more than a few weeks at a time.

About all they got right was the timing of the CRASH.

No, wait, they even got that wrong, because the whole debacle happened less than two hours before President Obama had a scheduled press conference, helping to push his approval rating more and more in the negative direction.

But fear not, as millions of his citizens now find themselves stressed and worrying because they have no insurance – due to no fault of their own – their leader will have a solution.

I don’t know what it is, but the odds are in favor of another vacation, possibly in Hawaii – but definitely fully insured!

======================================

The Government Just Doesn’t Get It – “Affordable” Means You Can Actually Afford It!

November 17, 2013November 16, 2013 fasab Business, Current Events, Medical, Politics, Rants affordable, Affordable Care Act, America, anger, anxiety, comprehensive, computer systems, confusion, coverage, Current Events, drug companies, eliminate the old system, fear, future generations, government, grandfathered, health care plan, health insurance, insurance policies, insured, lied, Life, medics, Misc, Miscellaneous, new law, Obama, obamacare, Obamacare tax, open market, Opinion, outlaws, politics, private insurance, profiteering, Rants, result, the Sunday Sermon, white elephant

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

The Sunday Sermon

So there are more difficulties plaguing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Now there’s a shocker folks!

I’ve already highlighted the mess that the government has made in trying to bring it’s computer systems online to enable enrollment in the new program. (See “What Am I” post from about a month ago)

Now people who thought they were already adequately insured are finding that this may not be the case, at least not for much longer. The private insurance issue is affecting lots and lots of people all over America, particularly those who were trying to be responsible and had adequate insurance for themselves and their families.

Most of them bought their insurance on the open market. Obama promised that would still be secure after his new Affordable Care Act was implemented.

He said, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”

He lied.

Obama’s new law actually outlaws all but a small percentage of “grandfathered” individual insurance policies and requires carriers to instead offer coverage that is more comprehensive.

And there’s more trouble ahead. In 2018, an Obamacare tax on high-cost insurance plans kicks in and could cause upheaval in that part of the market as well.

The truth is that the law was designed to gradually eliminate the old system altogether.

The result?

All across the country those who thought they had adequate insurance are being issued with notices from insurers explaining that their plans are ending. Ending thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

It has understandably caused confusion, fear, anxiety and a great deal of anger.

Losing health insurance can be a terrifying possibility in America. Particularly as one gets older and policies are more difficult and expensive to replace.

So is this the last of the Obamacare problems?

I think it would be a very safe bet to say no it won’t.

Affordable Health Care is a laudable goal. I’ve always said that. But the way to tackle it is to make the existing system more affordable by curbing the excessive profiteering of drug companies and medics, not burdening this and future generations of ordinary Americans with another government white elephant that the country can’t afford.

Unfortunately the government just doesn’t get it – “affordable” means you can actually afford it!

=======================================

Term Talk

October 27, 2013October 23, 2013 fasab Current Events, Politics, Rants 36 years, 49 years, 58 years, America, American politics, asses, career politicians, Current Events, Democrats, earn a living again, elected, elected representative, election, electorate, elephants, entrenched, experience, generous pension benefits, good living, governing the country, government, House of Representatives, in office, John Conyers, John Dingell, legislation, lifers, longest serving, longevity, members of Congress, Michigan, Misc, Miscellaneous, new blood, no incentive, obamacare, Opinion, parasites, policies, politicians, politics, premier health care, Presidency, President Obama, professor of politics, second term, selected for election, senate, serve, stupid system, system sucks, taxes, term, the House, Thoughts, turkeys wouldn’t vote for Thanksgiving or Christmas, two terms, vote, Washington, Washington DC, Wikipedia

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

The Sunday Sermon

Don’t worry the title of this post doesn’t mean that you’re back at school again. This ‘term talk’ in the title refers to politics and politicians.

President Obama takes a lot of stick because of his headstrong insistence in implementing his Obamacare legislation. As I’ve said before, it’s a laudable goal, but the country can’t afford it. But on he goes anyway.

Love him or hate him, or neither, he’s limited to two terms of four years in office, then he has to go and make way for the next person who wants the job.

To begin with that’s a stupid system because the main thrust of the first Presidency about half way or so in office isn’t governing the country but instead trying to ensure election for a second term and wasting billions of dollars doing it.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the present system sucks. Nor do you have to be a professor of politics to suggest an alternative – for example a single term of five or six years, which still leaves plenty of time to settle into the job and implement whatever policies you have promised the electorate.

So that’s the first problem solved.

However, there is another term problem that infests American politics (and many other countries too).

What about the rest of the elected politicians?

Well, why not introduce the same system for them? Elected for a five or six year term after which they have to start to earn a living again?

Sounds good to me.

According to Wikipedia John Dingell has managed 58 years in the House and still going. John Conyers has been there for 49 years. Coincidentally both these politicians are Democrats and both represent Michigan, so another problem that these ‘lifers’ cause is that there is no incentive for new blood to enter politics when they have little or no chance of being selected for election.

I’m not picking on these guys in particular. They just happen to be the two longest serving examples. There were others of similar longevity but they had the good grace to eventually retire, or die after half a century or so. Amazingly more than one hundred members of Congress have been allowed to serve for at least 36 years.

When I say “serve” I am just using the normal expression for these jobs. Whether they realize it or not, career politicians are nothing more than parasites living a cozy life off the money provided by the rest of us through our taxes. When an elected representative is entrenched in his or her position for a very long period of time they are not serving their people, they are simply relying on their people to provide them with a good living, premier health care and generous pension benefits (assuming they retire eventually!).

“Ah,” I hear someone say. “But what about the ‘experience’ that these long serving members bring?”

“Oh,” I reply. “What about it? Have we not seen in recent years and months that whatever experience they bring is not worth a hell of a lot. Just look at the mess the country is in and tell me if fresh faces could do any worse.”

So the solution to the two worst political problems that face America are easily solved.

The next question is will they be solved?

And the answer to that is probably ‘NO’. And it is probably ‘NO’ because the people who have the power to change the law are the very people that that law would affect.

They say turkeys wouldn’t vote for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Asses and elephants probably wouldn’t vote for this idea either.

What a pity.

======================================

Shut-Up!

October 20, 2013 fasab Current Events, Politics America, asylum, banksters, borrow, credit lines, Crisis, Current Events, debt ceiling, Democrats, Europe, facts, February, fools, glory, government, House of Representatives, HR 2775, idiots, inmates, kick the can down the road, law of the land, live beyond your means, next year, Obama, obamacare, Open-Up Again, piss, pissing contest, politicians, politics, precedent, President, printing presses, removed completely, Republicans, senate, spend, stole our money, strong wind, stupid people, stupidity, Treasury Department, wars, White House, won

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

I’m not sure what the correct official term is, but now that the “Shutdown” crisis is over let’s hope it’s the “Shut-Up”.

For another few months anyway, Obama and the other inmates in the Washington asylum have managed to kick the can down the road again.

Who can tell who won the pissing contest. It seemed to me like there was a strong wind a blowin’ and they all got covered in it – piss, that is, not glory!

But Obama has signed HR 2775 and made it the law of the land. The Treasury Department is authorized to suspend the debt ceiling, which to you and me means that the government can now spend as much as it likes and borrow as much as it likes. Start the printing presses boys!

We’ll have to go through it all again in February next year but I think what has happened this time has set a precedent for the debt ceiling to be removed completely to pay for Obamacare and a few more wars. It was all nonsense anyway.

It’s never a good thing to live beyond your means as many people throughout America and Europe discovered when the banksters stole our money, credit lines dried up and the real estate catastrophe occurred.

America will find that out too sometime down that long road that the can is being kicked. But leave that problem for your grandchildren.

For now its spend, spend, spend!!!

============================================

What Am I?

October 16, 2013October 16, 2013 fasab Computers, Current Events, Humour, Politics, Rants $2 billion, access, administrative costs, affordable healthcare, aka, americans, amusing, bad code, break down, build-out and operate, bureaucratic, competitive rates, computer, computer code, computer program, Computers, cost, crucial components, Current Events, description, did not work, drop-down menus, estimates, fail to load, fiddled with, first launched, fools, frequently, game, Government Accountability Office, half a billion dollars, Healthcare.gov, high cost, hit with a hammer, Humor, Humour, incompetent bidding process, incompetent company, incompetent government, information, laudable goal, login, low quality of service, major code renovations, make a name for himself, miracle, Misc, Miscellaneous, money, morons, obamacare, Opinion, overhauled, played, Please enter your username and password now, poked, politician, politics, primary purpose, prodded, purchasing healthcare, Random, reject, spiral out of control, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, uninsured Americans, User not recognized, Washington, Washington DC, web site for Obamacare, website, What Am I, yes we can

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

When I was a kid there used to be a game we played called “What Am I?” where someone would describe a thing or a job or a place and the rest would try to guess what it was from the description.

How about we play that game today?

What Am I?

I was born out of an idea from a politician wanting to make a name for himself.

I was then handed to an incompetent government.

I was built by an incompetent company,

That was chosen through an equally incompetent bidding process.

I have cost more than half a billion dollars of your money – so far.

Even the Government Accountability Office estimates I will cost about $2 billion to build-out and operate in 2014.

I am a computer program.

I am full of bad code like you would not believe.

I did not work right when they first launched me.

I have been subjected to major code renovations, overhauled, prodded, poked and fiddled with and even hit with a hammer and I still don’t work right.

Try to login to me and I will reject you.

If by a miracle you manage to access me I will fail to load drop-down menus and other crucial components that you need to successfully access my information.

In fact I will do my utmost to prevent uninsured Americans in the 36 states I serve from purchasing healthcare at competitive rates which is supposed to be my primary purpose.

If eventually I do get going my bureaucratic and administrative costs are going to will spiral out of control.

And I expect I will break down frequently and require much attention and money spent to keep me right.

I will continue to provide a low quality of service at an unbelievably high cost.

So what am I?

Well, if you haven’t guessed already I am “Healthcare.gov” aka the web site for Obamacare!

And the question that all Americans should be asking is, “If the masterminds behind Obamacare can’t even get a simple website up and running, what kind of a mess are they going to make implementing the rest of this act?”

Affordable healthcare is a laudable goal, but this disastrous piece of ill thought out legislation is not the way to achieve it.

Yes we can? No I’m afraid we can’t!