Yesterday Bill de Blasio was elected Mayor of New York City. I fear that his wife, Chirlane McCray, may be Winnie Mandella while Bill is far from being Nelson. That's a terrible combination.
Michael Bloomberg will leave City Hall as the Mayor of the World. Bill de Blasio seems like a disaster waiting to happen, hopelessly lost in very old liberal thinking that cannot possibly benefit at the municipal level. I hope I'm wrong.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
New York State election machines are crap and it's our own fault.
The machines are crap.
The system is crap.
The commissioner must be crap.
I tried to vote today. I took my large paper ballot in its privacy "envelope" to a stand, which anyone nearby can look into. I took out the ballot, picked up the pen, with its crayon level of precision, and filled in the circles of some candidates and wrote names in the "write in" space for people not on the ballot. I'm now guessing that the "write in" stuff is what caused my ballot to reject over six times. The "write in" area is about the size of a postage stamp. It would be difficult to fit the name John Adams in that space without going outside the lines. Forget about writing in George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
After the first set of rejections I took my ballot back to the exposed area and filled in the circles more carefully. But the next round of submissions also failed. The error message was never specific in any way.
I had enough. Workers implored me to continue trying but I left saying that the system is ridiculous, which it is. I' guessing that other states have similar problems and that none have properly computerized elections as we have done with just about everything else.
We Americans should be ashamed. We had a scandalously bad presidential election process in 2000 but have not even come close to improving the system. We give elections our lowest priority then we complain about our elected representatives. We should look in the mirror to see who is really at fault.
Sent to info@elections.ny.gov and boe-west@westchestergov.com
The system is crap.
The commissioner must be crap.
I tried to vote today. I took my large paper ballot in its privacy "envelope" to a stand, which anyone nearby can look into. I took out the ballot, picked up the pen, with its crayon level of precision, and filled in the circles of some candidates and wrote names in the "write in" space for people not on the ballot. I'm now guessing that the "write in" stuff is what caused my ballot to reject over six times. The "write in" area is about the size of a postage stamp. It would be difficult to fit the name John Adams in that space without going outside the lines. Forget about writing in George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
After the first set of rejections I took my ballot back to the exposed area and filled in the circles more carefully. But the next round of submissions also failed. The error message was never specific in any way.
I had enough. Workers implored me to continue trying but I left saying that the system is ridiculous, which it is. I' guessing that other states have similar problems and that none have properly computerized elections as we have done with just about everything else.
We Americans should be ashamed. We had a scandalously bad presidential election process in 2000 but have not even come close to improving the system. We give elections our lowest priority then we complain about our elected representatives. We should look in the mirror to see who is really at fault.
Sent to info@elections.ny.gov and boe-west@westchestergov.com
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Health care industry problems are endemic, both public and private, not just Obamacare.
I have yet to hear or read about problems with public health care that I have not experienced personally in the private sector for years and which continue through yesterday when my former company website was DOWN and one of its two designated private health insurance companies continued to be riddled with dead links. I didn't check the other.
Neither my former company nor one of its health insurance companies could tell me specifically which Medicare plan was being offered. Each said to contact the other ... repeatedly. And neither website, when functioning at all, had that information nor other stuff that would be helpful. The insurance company could not bring up the sign in page.
The problem extends to doctors, too. I'm currently getting my medical services from a large corporation in Westchester county New York with many doctors spread out in its vast campuses, inconveniently strewn. I've been trying for over a week to get someone there to tell me if my two choices from my former employer will be accepted in 2014. This is unresolved. The website has only vague old information.
My next task during the annual enrollment period is to create a spreadsheet to try to compare which doctors accept the two Medicare insurance options that I have. That's another doctor trick: simply don't accept Medicare patients at all or limit the types.
When I hear about the current problems of Obamacare I wonder why the media focuses exclusively on problems in the public, government, systems and programs. Where do media people and Republicans generally get their health insurance? It must be on another planet.
What is it about health care that makes good policy and good systems so elusive? The U.S. government screws up and Obama is a disaster as president but neither are at the root of the problems. Maybe there's an elitism among the doctors that contributes. Maybe it's our irrational concern about privacy, which I'm guessing causes many more deaths because we lack the basic mega data that could be studied for trends.
And will we ever eliminate insurance as the model? We need health care, not health insurance. Go to single payer, the government, like we do for interstate highways and national defense.
What a mess. You can't blame it all on Obama. The problems were there before his legislation was passed.
Neither my former company nor one of its health insurance companies could tell me specifically which Medicare plan was being offered. Each said to contact the other ... repeatedly. And neither website, when functioning at all, had that information nor other stuff that would be helpful. The insurance company could not bring up the sign in page.
The problem extends to doctors, too. I'm currently getting my medical services from a large corporation in Westchester county New York with many doctors spread out in its vast campuses, inconveniently strewn. I've been trying for over a week to get someone there to tell me if my two choices from my former employer will be accepted in 2014. This is unresolved. The website has only vague old information.
My next task during the annual enrollment period is to create a spreadsheet to try to compare which doctors accept the two Medicare insurance options that I have. That's another doctor trick: simply don't accept Medicare patients at all or limit the types.
When I hear about the current problems of Obamacare I wonder why the media focuses exclusively on problems in the public, government, systems and programs. Where do media people and Republicans generally get their health insurance? It must be on another planet.
What is it about health care that makes good policy and good systems so elusive? The U.S. government screws up and Obama is a disaster as president but neither are at the root of the problems. Maybe there's an elitism among the doctors that contributes. Maybe it's our irrational concern about privacy, which I'm guessing causes many more deaths because we lack the basic mega data that could be studied for trends.
And will we ever eliminate insurance as the model? We need health care, not health insurance. Go to single payer, the government, like we do for interstate highways and national defense.
What a mess. You can't blame it all on Obama. The problems were there before his legislation was passed.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Outlaw Guns.
A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip Published: April 17, 2013
Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic representative from Arizona from 2007 to 2012, wrote that New York Times op-ed article chastising Congress for cowardice in not passing better gun control legislation. She left Congress because she was shot in the head.
Here is my published comment:
Since outlawing guns will be blocked by representatives of states such as Montana, South Carolina, Texas, I reiterate:
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Break up the United States of America.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Secede.
Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic representative from Arizona from 2007 to 2012, wrote that New York Times op-ed article chastising Congress for cowardice in not passing better gun control legislation. She left Congress because she was shot in the head.
Here is my published comment:
- Matinale
- White Plains, NY
FLAG
Cowards are those who do not take the obvious and necessary stand: outlaw guns. Repeal the second amendment if necessary.
Obama, Kerry, the Clintons all ran for president pretending to enjoy hunting and supporting the second amendment. That limits the remedy to junk issues like the number of bullets in a magazine. It's revoltingly predictable. Then these hypocrites behave like they are more righteous than those who vote against the weak ineffective proposals. They are not.
The intended use of guns is to kill. We no longer need them to hunt for food or defend ourselves. They should be outlawed like any other lethal product.
Obama, Kerry, the Clintons all ran for president pretending to enjoy hunting and supporting the second amendment. That limits the remedy to junk issues like the number of bullets in a magazine. It's revoltingly predictable. Then these hypocrites behave like they are more righteous than those who vote against the weak ineffective proposals. They are not.
The intended use of guns is to kill. We no longer need them to hunt for food or defend ourselves. They should be outlawed like any other lethal product.
Since outlawing guns will be blocked by representatives of states such as Montana, South Carolina, Texas, I reiterate:
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Break up the United States of America.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Secede.
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