http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/10/04/nearly-75-people-reportedly-overdose-on-laced-heroin-in-3-day-span-chicago/?intcmp=hplnws

HEALTH
Nearly 75 people reportedly overdose on laced heroin in 3-day span in Chicago
Published October 04, 2015FoxNews.com

*** begin quote ***

Nearly 75 people reportedly overdosed on dangerous narcotics, possibly heroin laced with painkiller fentanyl, in Chicago over a three-day span, according to city health and fire officials.

The Chicago Tribune, citing hospital officials, reported by Friday afternoon at least 14 people were rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago to be treated for possible heroin overdoses, and some patients still had needles in their arms.

*** and ***

”We suspect what is happening is the same thing that happened in 2006 when people were getting heroin that was cut with fentanyl, which is a very strong narcotic,” she told the newspaper. “That’s what we think is happening.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration and Chicago police are teaming up to try and find the source of the batches.

*** and ***

The last major outbreak of fentanyl-related deaths took place between 2005 and 2007. The outbreak killed more than 1,000 people across the country and dozens specifically in Chicago.

*** end quote ***

Doesn’t anyone remember their history lessons?

OK, anyone remember Robert Stack playing Elliott Ness in the Untouchables? Where during Prohibition, he had to track down a moonshiner who was making contaminated bathtub gin. That gin was causing folks to die or go blind!

Can’t you see the similarity here?

Argh!

Now imagine an American where drugs were “legal”. Let’s have a mental experiment.  The addiction rate would be at a historical norm — since back in the days when that Chinese emporer study the problem and couldn’t fix it then by killing addicts — of 10%. Walmart, Walgreens, RiteAid, and every drugstore would be selling “drugs”. Clean, pure, of know quantity and quality. And, of course, they would offer treatment alternatives. 

Also, since it would no longer be illegal or “dangerous”, children would find some other alternative to rebel. Dye their hair, pierce their bodies, and listing to bad music — oh wait they’ve done that through the decades already. (But it doesn’t kill them!)

Of course, currently “illegal” drugs would be cheap, so one could have a “habit” and hold down a job — which was common in late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Now let’s consider the poor Drug Lords, Cartels, and drug dealing gangs. Guess they’ll have to find other employment since Walmart can drive the profit out of anything.

And, all the money that the USA spends on prisons, courts, cops, DEA, FDA, BATF, etc. etc. can be redirected to treatment.

Wow, what different country this would be.

How many people would still be alive?

How many people would be better off?

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” — attributed to Einstein

Time to end the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”!

# – # – # – # – #  

http://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/11L_tracks_latest.png

JOAQUIN BECOMES HURRICANE…
TRACK…
COMPUTER MODELS…

# – # – # – # – # 

And, yet they can’t predict the storm a few days in advance, but they can predict climate decades from now?

You have to be kidding me!

And, of course, the answer is more taxes and Gooferment power!

Argh!!!

“Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Come back when you have a better lie.

# – # – # – # – # 

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150929/us–mystery_ambulance_rides-2f39c3677a.html

Medicare’s $30M ambulance-ride mystery
Sep 29, 3:46 AM (ET)
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare paid $30 million for ambulance rides for which no record exists that patients got medical care at their destination, the place where they were picked up or other critical information.

The mystery ambulance rides are part of a bigger problem with Medicare payments for transporting patients, according to a federal audit being released Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general’s office also found that some urban ambulance services got paid for an average distance of more than 100 miles per ride. That contrasts with a national average of just 10 miles for urban ambulance rides.

*** end quote ***

How many times do I have to say: “The Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient”?

Simple fix here — copays.

Make it near trivial. Say 1%. Medicare doesn’t pay until the patient pays 1%. So if the bill is $100, then they pay a dollar. 

And, most of the seniors I know scrutinize their bills.

End of phantom billing.

You could even cap the copay at $100. 

Or include the patient in the audit team and the patient gets half of any mistake. Like treasure hunt.

I know from patients that I advocated for that the bills were always wrong and in one case bordered on fraud.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/16/9340511/perstin-experian-bank-death-credit-reporting

This man’s bank keeps telling him he’s dead
With agencies relying on automated bank reports, coming back from the dead is just as hard as it sounds
By Russell Brandom  on September 16, 2015 04:09 pm

*** begin quote ***

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers can dispute any fact in their credit report, giving agencies 30 days to confirm it or back down — but that measure was little help to Jokinen. He reported the mistake to Experian and the two other major agencies, but they simply confirmed that Chase had marked him as dead and moved on. He reported the issue to Chase, but the bank was slow to react, and as soon as one agency made the fix, another report of his death would echo back through a different channel. Ultimately, he had to appeal directly to the Social Security Agency for a “living letter,” but even that wasn’t enough to restore his credit. “I have been spending an average of seven hours each week, just keeping these mounting credit errors under control,” Jokinen told the Senate Banking Committee. “I am a living case example of how our current fair credit reporting laws still don’t work as intended.”

*** end quote ***

Argh!

How about the Congresscritters say “treble damages”?

Bet that fixes things in a heartbeat!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/09/florida-cops-unable-to-turn-off-new-360-degree-pinac-cam-during-arrest-of-fair-dui-lawyer/

Florida Cops Unable to Turn Off New 360 Degree PINAC Cam During Arrest of Fair DUI Lawyer
Carlos Miller  

*** begin quote ***

Ever since PINAC’s Jeff Gray rode through a DUI checkpoint earlier this year with his drivers license hanging out the window in a Ziploc bag – along with a Fair DUI flyer from South Florida attorney Warren Redlich – the flyers have generated tons of media coverage as well as threats of arrests from tough-talking sheriffs.
But it was only until last month that the flyer got him arrested.

And we were there to capture that arrest with several cameras, including a new 360 degree camera we are now selling that was attached to the dashboard of my car, the PINACmobile, which he was driving.

Police tried their best to turn the camera off, but were unable to do so as you can see in the video below.

*** end quote ***

They’re not going to react well to having their “criminal activities” disrupted.

“Inventory” the car, my <synonym for donkey>; that was a warrantless search.

And, how many “deputies” were deployed at the DUI checkpoint and who’s paying for their time.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/09/william-l-anderson/never-trust-a-prosecutor-2/

You Really Cannot Make Up This Stuff: The Ordeal and Vindication of Tonya Craft
By William L. Anderson
September 8, 2015

*** begin quote ***

Accused: My Fight for Truth, Justice, & the Strength to Forgive, by Tonya Craft with Mark Dagostina, BenBella Books, 2015, 348 pages, Hardback.

To give a brief synopsis of Accused, Catoosa County, Georgia, authorities in 2008 charged Craft, then a kindergarten teacher, of 22 counts of child molestation, with the three accusing children being two daughters of former friends, along with her own daughter. Not surprisingly, she lost her job, her two children, her home, and was vilified in the local media.

Craft endured a five-week trial in April and May of 2010, and in the end, the jurors declared her not guilty. The trial itself was a farce, a spectacle that one had to follow closely to believe. The judge permitted the two prosecutors to run the proceedings and acted as a third arm of the prosecution, openly declaring his disdain for the defense. However, despite all efforts to rig the trial, the jury gave its pronouncement and the two prosecutors literally ran from the courthouse to their vehicles, one of them covering his face with a notebook. As the title of this article states, you really cannot make up this stuff.

*** end quote ***

Wow, this is a blockbuster that I never heard about.

If half is was is asserted is true, then the judge should be impeached, the prosecutors disbarred, and the law changed.

Talk about miscarriage of justice … …

I’d be seeking damages, arrests, and jail time for all the felonies exposed.

Argh!

I know “life’s not fair”, but the law should be — supposed be — maybe isn’t?

# – # – # – # – # 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/09/ryan-mcmaken/is-there-a-moral-argument-for-a-living-wage/

The Failed Moral Argument for a “Living Wage”
By Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
September 5, 2015

*** begin quote ***

A Low Wage Is Unacceptable, but a Zero Wage Is Fine

And this leads to the fact that when faced with high wages, employers will seek to replace employers with non-human replacements — such as these automated cashiers at McDonalds — or other labor-saving devices.

But this phenomenon is simply ignored by the living-wage advocates. Thus, the argument that employers are morally obligated to not pay low wages becomes strangely silent in the face of workers earning no wage at all.

Indeed, we see few attempts at passing laws mandating that employers hire human beings instead of machines. While it’s no doubt true that some neo-Luddites would love to see this happen, virtually no one argues that employers not be allowed to employ labor-saving devices. Certainly, anyone making such an argument is likely to be laughed out of the room since most everyone immediately recognizes that it would be absurd to pass laws mandating that a road builder, for example, hire people with shovels instead of using bulldozers and paving machines.

*** end quote ***

The reason that economics is called the “dismal science” is because it rubs our nose in “scarcity”.

It makes no moral arguments; it merely points out that limited resources are a finite constraint upon us.

Like the “Law” of Gravity — and the politicians’ use of the word ‘law’ has really corrupted our understanding that a physical “LAW” has no exceptions — describes how a rock drops. So too the “Laws” of Economics describe how society — not Gooferment — can organize to maximize satisfaction, minimize discomfort, and ensure that everyone is equally “happy”. Laugh.

The truly free market serves to ensure that everyone cooperates. 

And, then along comes the gang that calls themselves Gooferment and messes it all up.

Crony Capitalism and corruption makes them interfere with the smooth operation of the market.

SO why are wages any different than apples, cars, plumbers, or any other good or service?

Beats me?

Just by them passing a diktat or regulation, black youth unemployment skyrockets.

Didn’t we have civil rights marches to free the Black population?

Only to put them in welfare poverty!

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

Eliminate all licensing requirements for medical schools, hospitals, pharmacies, and medical doctors and other health care personnel. Their supply would almost instantly increase, prices would fall, and a greater variety of health care services would appear on the market. Competing voluntary accreditation agencies would take the place of compulsory government licensing….Eliminate all government restrictions on the production and sale of pharmaceutical products and medical devices. This means no more Food and Drug Administration, which presently hinders innovation and increases costs.… [Our country’s robust legal profession will keep drug companies in line.]Deregulate the health insurance industry. Private enterprise can offer insurance against events over whose outcome the insured possesses no control…. [Like insuring one’s home against fires and floods, buy insurance that covers expenses for major injuries and illnesses, not like current misnamed health “insurance” that covers routine doctor visits.]Eliminate all subsidies to the sick or unhealthy. Subsidies create more of whatever is being subsidized. Subsidies for the ill and diseased breed illness and disease, and promote carelessness, indigence, and dependency. If we eliminate them, we would strengthen the will to live healthy lives and to work for a living. In the first instance, that means abolishing Medicare and Medicaid. [Private charity will once again play an important role in medical care.]

http://www.aol.com/article/2015/09/03/harrisburg-paying-officer-who-hasn-t-worked-since-1993/21231588/

Harrisburg paying officer who hasn’t worked since 1993
Sep 3rd 2015 7:15PM

*** begin quote ***

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Imagine spending your last day working, and then getting paid your full salary with benefits every year for more than 20 years. This is the reality for one Harrisburg police officer.

Maritta Adley, 57, has not worked a day with the Harrisburg Police Bureau since 1993. However, she is not a former employee. She is still on the city’s payroll under its workers’ compensation program, and has been for 22 years.

City officials were made aware of the ghost employee when they took office in 2014. City Solicitor Neil Grover says officials are currently working to figure out their options.

*** end quote ***

Well, that seems “fair”.

Gooferment bureaucrats bear no responsibilty for their failures.

Only the taxpayers suffer and suffer and suffer.

Argh!

Any doubt that the Gooferment is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient?

# – # – # – # – # 

http://www.blacklistednews.com/School_Officials_Used_Young_Girl_as_%E2%80%9CBait%E2%80%9D_in_Rape_Sting%2C_She_Was_Raped_and_they_Covered_it_Up/45680/0/38/38/Y/M.html

SCHOOL OFFICIALS USED YOUNG GIRL AS “BAIT” IN RAPE STING, SHE WAS RAPED AND THEY COVERED IT UP
Published: August 13, 2015

*** begin quote ***

BHJ’s lawsuit was even thrown out by a lower court who sided with the school board.

However, on Wednesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals brought back the lawsuit and granted BHJ’s attorney the ability to sue the Madison County school board.

“This is a unique case because the administrators effectively participated in (the boy’s) sexual harassment by setting (Jane) Doe up in a rape-bait scheme involving (the boy) in order to ‘catch him in the act,’” found the appeals court.

The lawsuit will now continue and with any luck, BHJ will receive just compensation for her role as a pawn in the school’s ridiculous plan.

*** end quote ***

I’d say the word “ridiculous” is a VAST understatement.

The Taxpayers and the Parent if the “inmates” at this “school” should be up in arms.

Argh!

I’d say fire everyone involved or in a supervisory or managerial or leadership role.

Immediately!

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-long-range-social-securitymedicare-deficit-72-trillion-and-counting/

CONTRA NEWS AND VIEWS, STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK
The Long-Range Social Security/Medicare Deficit: $72 Trillion And Counting
by Forbes • August 11, 2015
By John C. Goodman for Forbes

*** begin quote ***

The Social Security/Medicare Trustees have issued their latest reports and they are not easy reading for the uninitiated. I suspect most of the Trustees hope you don’t read them at all. They prefer their own spin. Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, these reports are invariably accompanied by a press release that completely ignores what is important and focuses instead on what is unimportant.

What’s unimportant? The trust funds and when they will run dry. Like most social security systems in the world today, ours is a pay-as-you-go system. Nothing has been saved or invested. What we call trust funds consist of nothing more than IOUs the government has written to itself. (More on that below.) Yet, that is what the official press releases emphasize and this focus is reflected in the first graph below.

What’s important? Cash flow. In fact, in a pay-as-you-go system, cash flow is the only thing that matters. As the second graph shows, Social Security and Medicare are paying out more than they are taking in. As the baby boomers retire, the total deficit will grow dramatically. Currently, we are using about one in every seven general revenue dollars to cover these deficits. By 2020, we will need more than one in five. By 2030, we will need about one in three.

*** end quote ***

Like most Ponzi schemes, eventually the suckers’ money runs out.

And, all the politicians and bureaucrats from FDR are going to be long gone.

So what should be done about this and ALL the unfunded liabilities?

At the very least, everyone should REALIZE that the current system is unsustainable.

Even a fat old white guy injineer or a reasonably competent accountant can demonstrate that there ain’t no free lunch.

• Old advice: “when in a hole, stop digging” seems to apply here.
• Hard stop on all new “pensions”. Require all such to be fully funded!
• All plans must “mark to market” with honest accounting.
• “Chile” style social security reform
• Congress must live within what the taxpayers can afford
• Any deficit is paid for my Congress folks personally

Stockman’s Corner

STOCKMAN’S CORNER

Chart Of The Day: Mr. Deng’s Drastic Yuan Devaluation And The Long Mercantilist Peg Which Followed

by David Stockman • August 15, 2015

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STOCKMAN’S CORNER

Chart Of The Day: The Tesla ‘Cash Burn’ Inferno

by David Stockman • August 13, 2015

  … 

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STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK,STOCKMAN’S CORNER

CNBC’s Alfred E. Neuman Luncheon Club—–Beyond Clueless

by David Stockman • August 13, 2015

I just heard one of CNBC’s cheerleaders admonishing viewers not to worry about China’s full-on plunge into currency wars. You see, the US is growing strongly at 2-3% in the second half, jobs just keep on coming, and, besides, the USA is completely “decoupled” from whatever troubles may be brewing abroad. So this regular CNBC noon… 

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CONTRA NEWS AND VIEWS,STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK

China’s Beggar The World Deflation——Global Steel Industry Getting Hammered By Its Steel Dumping

by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph • August 12, 2015

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph Chinese steelmakers are preparing to flood the global market with cut-price exports as they take advantage of this week’s shock devaluation of the yuan, setting off furious protests from struggling competitors in Europe and the US. It is the first warning sign of a deflationary wave of cheap products… 

Read on→

PATER TENEBRARUM,STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK

The True Cause Of Greece’s Economic Failure——An Omnivorous State, Not Lazy Workers

by Pater Tenebrarum • August 12, 2015

  The Industrious Greeks Mystery In the course of the Greek crisis, animosities between creditor countries like Germany and Greece didn’t take long to surface. They were fired up in the tabloid press, which was quick to revive various stereotypes. In Greece, Germans soon found themselves compared to their Nazi predecessors, while German tabloids inter […] 

Read on→

Stockman’s Corner Media

AUDIO AND VIDEO, STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK

Reagan OMB Head: Fed Fueling Ill-Gotten Gains

by David Stockman • January 30, 2015

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AUDIO AND VIDEO, CONTRA CLUB,STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK

Stephen Roach Nails It Again: Fed Is In Total Denial, Replicating Same “Deadly Trap” As Last Time

by ZeroHedge • January 9, 2015

The Fed “is in total denial,” Roach rants, adding that it “hasn’t learned the lessons of what it put the world through a decade ago.” 

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AUDIO AND VIDEO, STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK, STOCKMAN’S CORNER

David Stockman Interview: The Case For Super Glass-Steagall

by David Stockman • December 21, 2014

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David Stockman Talks Historical Dominoes—–Rise Of the Warfare State And Keynesian Central Banking

by David Stockman • December 15, 2014

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/thompsonstockman121214.mp3 Click here to listen. David Stockman interview on the Political Badger: Today I had the pleasure of interviewing David Stockman.  He is a former Congressman from Michigan, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, and former partner at The Blackstone Group.  Stockman is the author of The Triumph of Politics: Why the… 

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• Hey Fed! Get A Grip On Your Inflation Reality Gap With July PPI
• How To Shrink Bloated Food Stamp Rolls——Rescind Obama’s Work Requirement Waivers
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CONTRA NEWS AND VIEWS, STOCKMAN’S BEST OF THE WEEK

The Long-Range Social Security/Medicare Deficit: $72 Trillion And Counting

by Forbes • August 11, 2015

By John C. Goodman for Forbes

The Social Security/Medicare Trustees have issued their latest reports and they are not easy reading for the uninitiated. I suspect most of the Trustees hope you don’t read them at all. They prefer their own spin. Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, these reports are invariably accompanied by a press release that completely ignores what is important and focuses instead on what is unimportant.

What’s unimportant? The trust funds and when they will run dry. Like most social security systems in the world today, ours is a pay-as-you-go system. Nothing has been saved or invested. What we call trust funds consist of nothing more than IOUs the government has written to itself. (More on that below.) Yet, that is what the official press releases emphasize and this focus is reflected in the first graph below.

What’s important? Cash flow. In fact, in a pay-as-you-go system, cash flow is the only thing that matters. As the second graph shows, Social Security and Medicare are paying out more than they are taking in. As the baby boomers retire, the total deficit will grow dramatically. Currently, we are using about one in every seven general revenue dollars to cover these deficits. By 2020, we will need more than one in five. By 2030, we will need about one in three.