- The Weather Channel creates an amazingly effective storm surge visualization.
- “Who are the uninsured?” Some of this is blindingly obvious (Duh, of course they’re under 65. Because Medicare.) Go deeper and it’s another sign of just how UNprivileged working-class males are these days. (H/T DB)
- Charles Hugh Smith says the next financial crisis is coming right on schedule.
- This is from Bob Woodward’s new book, so take it with however much salt seems appropriate. But it does ring true: Trump wanted to print enough money to erase the national debt. (Tip o’ hat to MJR)
- Four who (partially) called the 2008 collapse reflect on what’s happening now.
- In Philadelphia, tolerance is a one-way street and political correctness matters more than children in need.
- Whoa. That’s some terrible mess in Boston suburbs. Poor people. Poor firefighters. Anybody have the experience to guess how a systemwide catastrophe of explosions and fires like this could happen?
- And these are the people who have more control than anyone else over the information you find online.
- On top of everything else, Hurricane Florence is just weird.
- Cool dreamlike photo manipulations.
- The differences between being a dog lover and a dog parent.
- Your people are good story for today.
Finally, a little dog humor for those who remember their Greek mythology:
I’m no economist, but I suspect that Trump is cutting through the crap and sees that the ultimate end-game is either default or money printing (essentially the same thing) so why not get on with it? Executives sometimes ask what sound like truly stupid questions because they are challenging assumptions, not because they are really stupid.
Young Cerberus guarding Heck’s gates: I love it!
I’m sure you’ve seen these old boomers with the, ah, comfortable build, riding their high-dollar Harleys in groups, wearing all the Official H-D accessories, trying to look ominous. I’ve always thought of these guys as Heck’s Angels.
Gas Explosion: No experience, but a WAG, based on two points from earlier stories: 1) the utility was “upgrading” the main, 2) they said multiple pressure valves blew out (at individual houses one story implied). I suspect they installed new pipe, then ran a pressure test to verify welds… only someone forgot to close the main valve to isolate the section being tested.
Regarding the fires outside Boston:
Some speculate that the gas lines somehow became over-pressurized. When that happens, anything that uses gas becomes a flame thrower. Add some leaks because of the higher pressure, and you have the flame thrower in your boiler/furnace/water heater igniting the gas that leaked into your basement.
There is going to be a lot of finger pointing and years of legal morass.
More people would probably have health insurance if actual health insurance was legal in the United States, which it is not.
The definition of insurance, from dictionary.com: “the act, system, or business of insuring property, life, one’s person, etc., against loss or harm arising in specified contingencies, as fire, accident, death, disablement, or the like, in consideration of a payment proportionate to the risk involved.”
The legal prohibition of the above, from U.S. Code Title 42, Chapter 6A, Subchapter XXV, Section 300gg, entitled “Prohibiting discrimination against individual participants and beneficiaries based on health status:”
A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage may not establish rules for eligibility (including continued eligibility) of any individual to enroll under the terms of the plan or coverage based on any of the following health status-related factors in relation to the individual or a dependent of the individual:
(1) Health status.
(2) Medical condition (including both physical and mental illnesses).
(3) Claims experience.
(4) Receipt of health care.
(5) Medical history.
(6) Genetic information.
(7) Evidence of insurability (including conditions arising out of acts of domestic violence).
(8) Disability.
(9) Any other health status-related factor determined appropriate by the Secretary.
The next paragraph in the section says “A group health plan, and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage, may not require any individual (as a condition of enrollment or continued enrollment under the plan) to pay a premium or contribution which is greater than such premium or contribution for a similarly situated individual enrolled in the plan on the basis of any health status-related factor.”
Insurance, by definition, is therefore illegal in the USA. And those varmints in the government wonder why people do not want to pay for “insurance,” as the government has redefined the word.
Having grown up in the area, Lawrence and Andover aren’t suburbs of Boston (Lawrence is just short of the NH border infact), though yes I realize that’s how the media is portraying them. Lawrence is a fairly old city, with correspondingly old pipes. The above suggestion about the testing of a new line going wrong wouldn’t surprise me at all.
The affordable care act, and ANY sponsored health care by any faction of gummint is against the Constitution. Period! Go ahead, look it up, I dare you to find even a hint of it anywhere in the Constitution. Due the the apathy of society at large to learn and know this we continue to re-elect these same criminals to subvert our Constitution completely opposite to their sworn “Oath of Office”, doing what will get them re-elected instead. And the pinheads throughout the voting class fall for it every time. I’m of the age where it is mandatory that I be on Medicare. Of all the parts, A-B-C-probably others to numerous to mentionI, I can only afford the part A, which was not what it started out to be. Because of the AFC and all it’s offshoots, being run by gummint it becomes so prohibitively expensive I cannot afford health insurance of any kind. Proven over and over again, if left to the private sector health care might become affordable again. But I doubt it. Time is fast approaching where our society will soon operate under the “you’re own your own” mentality and all bets of a functioning society will be off. You will truly be, “on your own”…. If you choose too doubt this, simply watch the nightly news of ANY channel. It ain’t rocket science to see this country is purposely being divided…. But then that’s just my observation.
Meanwhile in news of the good
https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/09/10/he-left-the-border-patrol-after-listenin
( Maggie McNeill great as always)
And in more bad news
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/09/13/lawyer-claims-police-seized-pot-smear-botham-jean/1297225002/
(typical pigs)
And yet more stupidity (VIA Joe.My.God)
http://www.joemygod.com/2018/09/14/us-border-official-canadians-who-work-in-legal-pot-industry-face-ban-from-entering-us-as-drug-traffickers/
Not just those four who saw the 2008 debacle. Bill Bonner, Doug Casey, Prof. Roubini, Peter Schiff–and others. In late 2006 or early 2007, Soros publicly predicted a major US recession for late 2007 or in 2008.
What I am hearing from Charles Hugh Smith and the four who called the last collapse; if you are planning to sell a house, 2018 should be a better year to do it than 2019 however if you are planning to buy one at some point 2019 should be the better time to do that.
That Weather Channel animation was very well done. A lot of people just don’t think through what can happen, and the visualization was very effective.
Ri-i-ight Woodward. A self-made billionaire with somewhere around 100 businesses under his name, and all over the world, doesn’t understand money and debt! He’s got enough money to have bought the Pesidency from Hillary IF she had won (and we all know Crooked Hillary would have sold it given the chance), doesn’t know how money works?
And, might I add that Mr. Cohn’s non-denial does far less to make the craptastic story true, than his non-confirmation does to make it all either a fantasy or a pure lie.
So, Mr. Woodward, I suggest you get off your opium pipe and go back to cigarettes.
Lawrence is one of the the poorest municipalities in Massachusetts; Andover is one of the richest, with Phillips Andover prep school where the Bushes went. The dailymail’s picture of Lawrence with the PV panels and the Honda SUV is nontypical.