Forgive me for not collecting, addressing, and posting newsbites yesterday - busy... busy... busy..!
Caught up with recent Marvel Comics movies on NetFlix: caught Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers.
(Also on NetFlix: Michael Feinstein - The Sinatra Legacy and Diana Krall - Live in Rio.)
Changing topics... (*PAUSE*)... consider the onion. (As in the vegetable, not the satirical "The Onion.") I myself have rediscovered the myriad uses of the onion after using half an onion to season a recent meal! Yes... rather than let the remain half-onion rot away... forgotten... I've been slicing and dicing and adding it to everything from tuna salad to pizza! Very, very yummy!
Today is a big day at the Barker abode! Our new blinds have come in and today we're gonna attempt to install them - nine windows total! (Wish us luck!)
On a sad note, Uncle Dan (from Ireland) passed yesterday. He'd been ill. And in pain. So... a blessing of sorts.
Dan, Dan, you vodka swilling man...Condolences to the Kelly and O'Flaherty families of Cobh, County Cork Ireland and beyond. We weep for our loss, but rejoice in our belief that Dan is now at rest... in peace... and no longer in pain.
You'll be missed... for you were - and are - loved!
Well, folks... new readers and old... let's explore the news of the world together, shall we?
Newsbites will be found within the comments section of this post.
7 comments:
* FIVE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-disability-rolls-swell-in-a-rough-economy/2013/09/20/a791915c-1575-11e3-804b-d3a1a3a18f2c_print.html
The huge mills along the Penobscot River roared virtually non-stop for more than a century, turning the dense Maine forests into paper and lifting the thousands of men who did the hot and often back-breaking work into the middle class.
But the mills have struggled in recent years, shedding thousands of jobs.
* WHY? WHY HAVE THE MILLS STRUGGLED AND WHAT COULD - AND SHOULD - HAVE BEEN DONE TO ADDRESS THE "STRUGGLE?"
* NOTICE... NEITHER THE REPORTER NOR HIS EDITOR ARE GOING TO ADDRESS MY QUESTION WITHIN THIS PIECE.
Now this area whose well-paying jobs provided an economic foothold for generations of blue-collar workers has become a place where an unusually large share of the unemployed are seeking economic shelter on federal disability rolls.
* WHICH ARE MEANT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED A DISABILITY - NOT FOR THOSE SIMPLY FACING TOUGH TIMES.
Between 2000 and 2012, the number of people in Penobscot County receiving Social Security disability benefits skyrocketed, rising from 4,475 to 7,955 — or nearly one in 12 of the county’s adults between the ages of 18 and 64, according to Social Security statistics.
* PRIMA FACIE...
(*SHRUG*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 5)
The fast expansion of disability here is part of a national trend that has seen the number of former workers receiving benefits soar from just over 5 million to 8.8 million between 2000 and 2012. An additional 2.1 million dependent children and spouses also receive benefits.
* THE EVERY EXPANDING WELFARE STATE... WHICH LEADS TO EVER-EXPANDING FURTHER EXPANSION OF THE WELFARE STATE...
(*SHRUG*)
The crush of new recipients is putting unsustainable financial pressure on the program.
* WHAT'S "UNSUSTAINABLE" EVEN MEAN WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A GOVERNMENT THAT YEAR AFTER YEARS NEEDS TO BORROW 40-SOMETHING-CENTS OF EVER FEDERAL DOLLAR SQUANDERED?
Federal officials project that the program will exhaust its trust fund by 2016 — 20 years before the trust fund that supports Social Security’s old-age benefits is projected to run dry.
* FOLKS... THERE ARE NO TRUST FUNDS.
The growth of the disability rolls has accelerated since the recession hit in 2007. As the labor market tightened, workers with disabilities that employers previously accommodated on the job — painful hips, mental disorders, weak hearts — were often the first to go. Finding new work often proved difficult, causing many to turn to the disability rolls for support.
* LISTEN. YOU'RE EITHER DISABLED OR YOU'RE NOT. (OBVIOUSLY THE AUTHOR/EDITOR HAVE GREAT SYMPATHY FOR THESE PEOPLE AND IT COMES ACROSS IN THE "EDITORIALIZING" WITHIN THE REPORTING.)
The migration of so many people from work to the disability rolls is raising concern among lawmakers in Congress that the program is being stretched beyond its original intent of providing a safety net for former workers whose medical problems make them unable to work.
* YA THINK...?!?!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONTINUING... (Part 3 of 5)
Last week, the Government Accountability Office found that the program made $1.3 billion in potentially improper payments to people who had jobs when they were supposedly disabled.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
The allegedly improper payments represent less than 1% of disability payments.
* SO, FOLKS... BEST GUESS... WHAT'S THE ACTUALY FIGURE? 10% 15% 20%...?
While fraud remains a concern, policymakers say the program’s biggest vulnerability is the subjective criteria that create a large gray area for applicants. A worker with physical impairments that are difficult to document precisely, like a bad back, can tolerate the condition while on the job but claim it as a reason to go on disability if he falls out of work for a prolonged period.
* AS I WAS SAYING... 10%? 15%? 20%? HOW MANY BILLIONS - TENS OF BILLIONS - ARE BEING SCAMMED?
Many recipients first go on unemployment, which can last a few months or even more than year. Disability, by contrast, can pay out benefits for decades. The vast majority of recipients never return to work.
* ONCE GRANTED, DISABILITY PAYMENTS ARE BASICALLY CONSIDERED AN LIFETIME ENTITLEMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT.
“The disability program is increasingly becoming a long-term unemployment program,” said Richard Burkhauser, a Cornell University professor who co-wrote a book on disability policy and has testified before Congress about the program. “We see a lot of it now because of the effects of the recession.”
(*PURSED LIPS*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONTINUING... (Part 4 of 5)
The program, which is mostly funded by the Social Security payroll tax, paid out $135 billion in 2012, and it has spent more money than it has collected in payroll taxes every year since 2009, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
* 2009... WASN'T THAT THE FIRST YEAR OF THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY...???
People on disability can receive Medicare after two years, regardless of age, which adds another $80 billion to the program’s tab.
The trust fund has teetered financially as recently as the early 1990s, and Congress solved the problem by transferring money from the fund supporting Social Security retirement benefits.
* FOLKS... AS YOU KNOW THIS IS ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS - PONZI SCHEME ACCOUNTING THAT ONLY THE GOVERNMENT IS LEGALLY ENTITLED TO USE.
The explosive growth of the disability rolls represents a new reality for Millinocket, a town that had been synonymous with blue-collar prosperity since the Great Northern Paper Co. opened the largest paper mill in the world here in 1900. The company built a second mill in East Millinocket in 1906, and before long, Millinocket was known as “the magic city” because of its seemingly miraculous expansion.
The good times were still rolling when Eugene LaPorte graduated from high school in 1973. He went straight to work in the mill, and for years it looked like a great move: LaPorte became a supervisor, and at his peak, he had close to a six-figure salary.
* IN MAINE!
“Who needed a college education?” LaPorte said. “I was living the dream.”
* ABSOLUTELY! FOR AT LEAST 80% OF THOSE WHO ENTER COLLEGE, THE EXPERIENCE IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY - THEIRS AS INDIVIDUALS AND OURS AS TAXPAYERS!
But that was before the company’s fortunes changed. In 1990, Great Northern was purchased in a hostile takeover and later went into bankruptcy.
* AGAIN... WE WON'T BE GETTING ANY DETAILS... BUT I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED - WOULDN'T YOU?
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 5 of 5)
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Social Security disability program into law in 1956, it was envisioned as a safety net for people ages 50 to 64 who could not continue working because of long-term medical problems.
* AND AT THE TIME THE AGE OF MORTALITY WAS...??? (MY POINT? IF YOU CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF THEN STOP READING RIGHT NOW AND GO READ PEOPLE MAGAZINE OR SOMETHING.)
The age criterion has since been broadened.
* "BROADENED."
Applicants are subjected to a detailed process in which Social Security examiners, administrative law judges and sometimes the federal courts pore over their medical records to evaluate their claims. But many of the judgments are ultimately subjective: More than half of awards go to applicants who claim musculoskeletal disorders or mental impairments that are often hard to document conclusively.
The number of people on the disability rolls has been growing rapidly even though workers report being ever healthier in surveys.
(They are also less likely than ever to have physically demanding jobs.)
Changes in program eligibility in 1984 made it easier to qualify for the program with maladies such as pain and depression.
* GEEZUS... HOW ABOUT MY DEPRESSION AS I READ THIS?!
Lawmakers are concerned that some states have encouraged unemployed workers with disabilities to apply for the program, shifting the economic burden for the jobless to the federal government.
* THAT'S BECAUSE THEY HAVE! (THIS ISN'T THE FIRST NEWSBITE ABOUT THE DISABILITY SCAM!)
Benefits are hardly generous. They average $1,130 a month, and recipients are eligible for Medicare after two years. But with workers without a high school diploma earning a median wage of $471 per week, disability benefits are increasingly attractive for the large share of American workers who have seen both their pay and job options constricted.
In 2004, nearly one in five male high school dropouts between ages 55 and 64 were in the disability program, according to a paper by economists David Autor and Mark Duggan. That rate was more than double that of high school graduates of the same age in the program and more than five times higher than the 3.7 percent of college graduates of that age who collect disability.
These days, ["disabled"] Eugene LaPorte spends a lot of his free time riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to bike rallies around New England. He enjoys the freedom, but he said he would prefer to be working than collecting a government check. “I wanted to go to work,” he said. “I love making paper. Fifty-eight is a ridiculous age to retire.”
* BUT HE DOESN'T GO BACK TO WORK. HE SUCKS ON THE PUBLIC TIT. HE'S A FUCKING BUM. PERIOD.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/10325262/Three-Nato-troops-killed-in-Afghanistan-insider-attack.html
Three U.S. special forces have been killed by an Afghan wearing a security forces uniform...
* AND ONE "ISAF" MEMBER WOUNDED. (THE STORY DOESN'T VERIFY WHETHER WE'RE TALKING AN AMERICAN OR NOT.)
The attack was the seventh reported insider attack this year, and 12 ISAF personnel have been killed.
* OBAMA'S WAR; OBAMA'S DEAD AND WOUNDED.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/21/afghan-troop-deaths-hit-record-amid-us-exit/
Afghan troops are in the midst of their deadliest fighting season since the war here began 12 years ago. The Taliban are growing more aggressive. The Afghan forces—including the army, national police and village self-defense police — have been losing well over 100 men a week to insurgent attacks, with close to 300 injured, through much of the summer, according to numbers provided by coalition officials.
Coalition forces, taking with them their superior training and equipment, are leaving Afghan troops less able to fight and less able to save the lives of their critically wounded.
The Afghan army, for instance, is losing 34.8% of its manpower a year as soldiers desert, are killed in battle, and are discharged because of injury or released because they completed their service, according to figures provided to The Wall Street Journal by the U.S.-led coalition.
As coalition forces pull back from combat ahead of next year's withdrawal, some coalition commanders warned that the Afghan forces can't be sustained over the long run at the current rate of attrition.
* ALL THE AMERICAN LIVES LOST... THE SERIOUS INJURIES... THE TREASURE SPENT... THE PRESTIGE LOST...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* LISTEN. I SAID FROM THE BEGINNING: GO IN. SMASH THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA IN AFGHANISTAN, INSTALL A FRIENDLY REGIME AND LEAVE.
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