Recent comments

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Wow Johnbest, the story of your mother and Kaiser is almost identical to the story of my best friend and Kaiser. It brings back such painful memories--rushed surgery, catastrophic gastrointestinal side affects, super infection, long term painful recovery. Unbelievable!

    I can add that a Doctor running the emergency room put my friend on liquid restrictions when he was bleeding to death. Fortunately for him a friend who was a off duty paramedic and was in the emergency room with him at the time insisted that he would die if not re hydrated immediately. The emergency room nurses and his sister agreed and pressured the head surgeon to give him a saline drip to save his life. Only after being threatened did the head surgeon agree.
    We all believe that Kaiser intentionally tried to kill my friend to save them the cost of correcting his condition. If nothing else the experience demonstrates gross negligence of the Kaiser establishment who protect their incompetence through forcing their members to agree to binding arbitration rather than suing for malpractice in just such occasions.
    Once again I reiterate, I will take the medical care of Canada or Mexico before I step into any Private American Health Care Hospital.

  • Should armed volunteers be allowed to "guard" schools?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    .Absolutely not. In any profession, workplace, group of people, there are all sorts of personalities. Seeking out that many people to be "armed guards" would inevitably produce a good number whose judgment would be questionable. Add a gun to the mix and you have created a danger.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    BTW I'd also take the system in Mexico over our system any day. My brother-in-law was a victim of their unregulated fireworks on a visit. He was seen and treated minutes after his injury with no complications by a free neighborhood clinic. He was back on his feet the next day. In addition, I've met several Seniors from the USA who have formed communities in Mexico partially as a result of their Medical system. Even Mexico blows us away in Medical care. How does that make you feel Kend!

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Agreed, but I think "Insanity" is more adequate of a description. Greed is a mental illness. Labeling greedy rich people as idiots is an insult to idiots.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    With all due respect Kend, if you haven't been here and used the system you can't really judge. For someone who pays through his taxes as opposed to someone who pays through their pocket, you'd think you'd get more bang for your buck and not less. I'll take you're Canadian system over our private system any day!

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    In ancient Greece, anyone who thought their own personal needs trumped those of society as a whole was marked and labeled an idiot.

    For modern America I think Thom's statement, "This is insanity," applys well. It's insanity that we continue to allow a few rich idiots to squeeze every last bit they can from us.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Dannemarc there is bad doctors everywhere and I hate to break the bad news to you but Government health care isn't any better. I have some great stories and some bad ones as well. Just think your congress running your health care system. They can't pass a budget. That's what we have running our health care system in Canada. government doesn't do anything well do they? Government or insurance companies, we are all hooped

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    My mother had the Kaiser health plan. In 1987 she went in for heart surgery and everything went fine until her bowel ruptured and they had to do a colestomy. As a result of the cholestomy she was put in intensive care for a Candida infection. She lingered in intensive care for about 6 weeks. When she was released she went in to a convalescent hospital. Medicare would only pay two months of care. She was finally released. I think that she was very embaressed by the colostomy bag and started withering away. When she died she was skin and bones and died suddenly after being rushed to Kaiser Hospital. I will say one good thing about the doctor. He called me on the phone and told me that my mother had passed away. I lived about 75 miles away and didn't know she was in the hospital.

    We need single payer health care. Being that this will be difficult to get through the misers in Congress, I think we should - as a minimum - implement Medicare for all. It would be a good start.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Yes Old Blue their are may "abusers" of the system who make it hard on us all. Fortunately for me I'm not. I worked for a small company and never abused sick time. When I had my hernia my Boss was happy to help out in every way he could despite the hospitals assessment. I was very fortunate.

    However, like you said I can see the problem of "abusers" form an employers POV. However, for the good of all their employees, and above all, for the good of all their customers, employers have to exercise a little common sense when dishing out sick leave. If someone gets sick say 20 times a year, have a talk with them. 1-4 times a year is acceptable, maybe more if they have kids.

    Also, lets look at workers with kids. Let's face it, Kids are germ magnets. If kids are forced to go to school sick because their is no one at home to take care of them, then other kids and other parents are going to get sick to. If you are going to look at the problem from a CDC POV, the first place you should screwtinized is the schools.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Maybe someone should remind the billionaires and their republican croonies that epidemics have a way of forcing wages to go up - an epidemic kills skilled AND unskilled laborers, creating a shortage of both; a shortage laborers forces wages to increase (anything in short supply becomes much more valuable); billionaires will have to pay more for their maids and chauffers and butlers, etc. (Or do without)

    Anybody remember the Spanish flu of the 1910's, or the black plague of the 1500's?

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    I worked for "The Man" in one form or another (from the federal government to small startups) for many years and always had paid sick leave. Of course, I was an "exempt" employee most of those years, which meant that I was "exempt" from overtime pay on those frequent occasions when I was required to put in 50 or 60 hours per week. There was this thing called "comp time" that never seemed redeemable. One thing that was a constant across every job I had, though, was that management didn't like it when a worker called in sick. This was felt in numerous ways, but the effect was predictable. People would show up during the flu season coughing, sneezing, running fevers, because they were reluctant to be one of those "abusers". Of course the pressure is even greater on the minimum wage worker at a restaurant chain because the pay is so lousy that they probably can't make ends meet without getting in a full week, if then, and they aren't paid if they aren't on the job (infecting their co-workers and patrons). Kend mentions that workers and companies are less loyal to each other these days. It's probably a "chicken-egg" thing, but my money is on employers as the root cause of the problem. There are plenty of examples of "people centric" companies that have been abundantly rewarded by their employees for being treated decently. Hershey Chocolate and Hewlett Packard come to mind. American Enterprise is generally a cruel task master.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    While were at it let me put my two cents into our wonderful private health insurance system. Around 10 years ago, while working out, I gave myself an umbilical hernia. It wasn't too serious, I just noticed the bulge on my stomach after showering. No pain, just concern.

    I had Kaiser insurance at the time. At that time and present time Kaiser is considered the "Cadillac" of Medical Insurance. When I went in for an appointment the first thing the Doctor had me do is lie down on my back. Without warning, he shoved his hand into my hernia pressing with all his weight to push the intestine back into my abdominal cavity. It felt like I was being stabbed. The result was a much larger hole in my abdominal wall and a very painful hernia. The Doctor explained that since he was able to shove my intestine back into the wall successfully I didn't need immediate surgery. However, now I was unable to work because I couldn't keep my intestine from falling out of the hernia. The hospital said it would take about 5-6 months to schedule my surgery and I could wear a back brace (a wide elastic belt) to keep my intestines inside while I worked. They wouldn't even approve sick leave. I had no choice but to work. While working my intestine would slowly work it's way out and get pinched between the belt and my belly. The pain would intensify to the point that I had to lie down on my back for 20 minutes every 1-2 hours working my intestine back into my abdomen and allowing circulation to return to it. After about a week of this nonsense, friends, family, and coworkers insisted I go to another Kaiser about 35 miles out of town. They were much more sympathetic and managed to schedule my surgery within 2 weeks. It was the longest 2 weeks of my life. This isn't the only horror story I know of first hand from Kaiser hospital. They also on two occasions almost deliberately killed my best friend, and also botched the Heart Operation on my mother leading to a final year of agony before her death. I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy. Our private health care system sucks as much as any other I've ever heard of; and, these insurance thief's rob us of a arm and a leg to pay for it. It's a travesty. We all need to demand Single Payer, now!!

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    I agree Thom!

    Forcing a person to work or forfeit a day's wages is a threat to National Security. If you ask me sick leave should fall under workman's comp insurance as a CDC decree. Use our opulent Defense Fund to pay for it!

    While you're at it, lets discourage shaking hands as a way to great people for the same National Security reason. The American Indians would raise their hand with their palms facing the other person and say "How." Sounds a lot more sanitary to me.

  • Nothing Short of Theft   12 years 19 weeks ago

    I agree Thom!

    Forcing a person to work or forfeit a day's wages is a threat to National Security. If you ask me sick leave should fall under workman's comp insurance as a CDC decree. Use our opulent Defense Fund to pay for it!

    While you're at it, lets discourage shaking hands as a way to great people for the same National Security reason. The American Indians would raise their hand with their palms facing the other person and say "How." Sounds a lot more sanitary to me.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    My father was a mail carrier for 27 years starting in 1937. During WWII they used to come to the house and check if my dad was really sick.

    I was a federal employee for 32 years. It does not pay to abuse sick leave. When I retired, I had 2650 hours of sick leave accumulated. When I retired, they applied the sick leave toward my years of service. I received another year of service for all this sick leave which increased my retirement substantially. I have been retired now for 23 years. It pays not to abuse sick leave.

  • Should armed volunteers be allowed to "guard" schools?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Horrible idea, we have to live in an armed camp to protect ourselves from one another? Insane!

    BTW Thom, Very enlightening today on the origins of the second ammendment. Thanks for taking the time to explain it

  • Daily Topics - Friday January 11th, 2012   12 years 19 weeks ago

    There's a question I wanted to ask Senator Sanders, but I couldn't get to the phone in time to hear anything but a busy signal.

    It's a difficult question to ask briefly, and while I would like legislation to this effect, I'm really talking about a broad cultural phenomenon which I would like to see and end of, so this forum works better anyway. First, what I would have asked on the air, in briefest possible form: "Senator Sanders, would you introduce legislation to close the unofficial 'incompetence' loophole that has allowed those responsible for destorying half the value on the Dow Jones in 2008, and those responsible for invading Iraq based on false representations of fact, to evade accountability"? Now, to put this question in context, and present my case for such a law.

    When a physician harms instead of helping a patient, it is called malpractice and the resulting lawsuit often puts the guilty doctor out of business regardless of whether they were malicious or "just" incompetent. I think this principle should be applied more widely, especially to work that has global ramifications. I think that accepting a paycheck always constitutes a de facto representation of some competence in the field of work for which one is getting paid, and that therefore incompetence is never a defense. When you're being paid to do a job, you're being paid to do it right not to "just do your best" like you're a five-year-old. If you can't do it right, you have no right to any payment for work you're only capable of screwing up. If the people in charge of AIG, Citi, et al, crippled our economy out of incompetence rather than intent, then they are still guilty of fraudulently representating their own competence when undertaking the roles that put them in charge of those institutions, in positions that their incompetence cost trillions of other people's dollars. What matters is not whether their intent was to deprive GM workers who showed up on time every day for decades of their pensions. What matters is that that damage was done, and irresponsibility and incompetence on Wall Street did that damage.

    Similarly, widespread acceptance of the narrative that the fallacious WMD in Iraq were products of "faulty intel" (egregious incompetence) rather than (wilfully) falsified intel seems to have been the reason that invasion has not been punished as a crime against humanity. Bush, et al effectively submitted a plea of incompetence to the court of public opinion, and the American public rather willingly accepted it and exonerated them. But to hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis as well as a couple thousand of our own soldiers who died, literally for nothing, it makes absolutely no difference whether they were killed because Bush and his boys are incompetent, or whether they were killed because Bush and his boys concocted a nefarious plot to invade Iraq for oil.

    They're dead.

    They shouldn't be.

    Incompetence is not a valid defense. "It was just a mistake" is a meaningless remark which does nothing to lessen the damage done, nor the recklessness of undertaking responsibilities one is not competent to perform properly. None of us would accept incompetence as an excuse from a physician who injures us, or who harms or kills somebody we love. It is also immoral to accept incompetence as an excuse for disastrous policies that affect millions of people. Those responsible knew when they accepted their jobs that their decisions would affect millions of people. And if they weren't competent to do those jobs right, they knew that, too, but they took the jobs anyway, for the money, the power and the prestige, not any spirit of public service. If they screwed up because they're incompetent, that does not make them innocent. If they screwed up because they're incompetent, then when they took their jobs they knew they weren't competent to do those jobs, and they knew they were putting millions of innocent people at grave risk, and that makes them morally culpable. We must stop letting them off the hook legally.

    As I understand criminal law, it may not actually be possible to take intent out of the equation in criminal cases. But in civil law, at least where it concerns financial liability of financial professionals, they are paid so much on the premise that they know what they're doing that incompetence should never be considered a relevant defense, nor even a mitigating factor. When the financial systems of the developed world were thrown into chaos by a few people who are paid millions of dollars to know just one subject, finance, we needn't have fussed about whether they intended to do so before we deprived them of their income. The results clearly show that they were never worthy of their salaries, much less any bonuses, even if they "didn't mean to do it." That's a five-year-old excuse, but it worked! What a world.

    The more you're paid, the more that expertise is what you're being paid for, and the less anybody should ever excuse you for fouling up.

  • Should armed volunteers be allowed to "guard" schools?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    no one points out the obvious that a gun cannot prevent a gun crime. For even if a person knows 100% that a bad guy intends to murder someone and for the sake of argument this bad guy realy intends to commit murder you as a gun wielding citizen can stop the crime with ur weapon. for he is a legal citizen as you till he commits the crime (in this case threat with a deadly weapon or worse) and if you try and stop him befor hand the crime is now on our "good guy". So please someone tell me how more guns are supposed to create a safer enviroment? Why is it that every time we bring up gun control the NRA runs right to the edge of the cliff and start screaming "everyone look there pushing us off see we cant go any farther" and yet us gun control people havent moved but some how media takes there side?

  • Daily Topics - Friday January 11th, 2012   12 years 19 weeks ago

    I think in addition to training on how to USE guns an additional REQUIREMENT should be HOW TO STORE them. THE best ways to keep them out of the hands of children and people like Lanza. If they are locked up and/or the ammunition is locked up, it would help to deter. imho

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    The longer these irrational times go on, the more convinced I am that a truly socialist government is the only government that properly performs the most important function of government: to protect and help its people. And I become increasingly convinced that the single greatest enemy of both government and people, is corporations that are not very strictly controlled.

  • Would you like a side of the flu with your order?   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Everywhere I ever worked they gave you paid sick days. I give all my workers paid sick days and always have. Who wants a sick person in the work place. What is amazing is every seems to be sick on Fridays. Kind of weird eh. The fact is workers are not as loyal to the companies they work for anymore and the companies could care less about the employees. No one gives more than the have to on either side. Kinda sad.

  • Daily Topics - Thursday January 10th, 2013   12 years 19 weeks ago

    This is an article from the Grio, http://thegrio.com/2013/01/11/nra-was-pro-gun-control-when-it-came-to-black-panthers/2/ It should be titled: "The NRA was for gun control before it was against it." One issue I have with it is the characterization of the Black Panther Party. The then Black Panther Party was initially about uplifting. educating and protection of the the then Black community. The so called Black community of the 1960s is very different from today's so called Black community socially, politically and economically. There were very real threats to Black folk by the police in the 1960s and not only in the so called south, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7041/. The characterization of the then Black Panther Party as a violent, left wing terror organization has been perpetuated. An honest detailed study of them will reveal that they were not. Further more one of the founding members of the Black Panthers was a Japanese American http://www.aokifilm.com/. His disenchantment with American society led him to understand the commonalty he had with African Americans. There were many Latinos as original Black Panthers. They later formed the brother organization, the Young Lords.

    The sudden interests in gun legislation was sparked by the massacre of children in an upper middle class, predominately white community. But for sure, the concern about gun control during the entire history of the United States had to do with African American's in on shape or another. Does the fury over gun proliferation have any concern about the number one victims of guns, poor, urban African Americans?

  • The poor should not be political pawns.   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Reply to DAnneMarc #37,38, and 39:

    A terrific series of comments !!

    I have had a great fear of voting on-line because of what I read about the security of Diebold machines; - and, although I don't understand computer jargon, your explanation of the solution to the security problem in human terms was excellent and, for me, convincing. However, I still believe that voting on-line is a risk we should not take because voting on-line is unnecessary.

    But I never considered the possibility of lawmaking on-line; - that is a GREAT idea !!!

    I alse believe that it is necessary. Why? Because the overwhelming support of low top marginal estate and capital gains rates by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, against the wishes of most Americans as measured by polling, is conclusive proof that the money of the ultra-rich controls our Congress; - and that sustaining oligarchy in America is their goal.

    Maybe we can reform our existing representative plutocracy by using on-line lawmaking to mandate entirely public financing of lawmakers' campaigns and retirements.

  • Daily Topics - Friday January 11th, 2012   12 years 19 weeks ago

    Thom, you have stated how can a few men with assault rifles would not be able to fight against our tanks and Apache helicopters. When I watch the news and the footage of the war in Afghanistan I always see small amount of men with AKs, grenades and maybe some shoulder ground to air misses taking on the great American War machine. You would think that we (America) should be able to roll in with superior fire power and win that war in days instead of the years, and billions of dollars, that we have been there. It seems to me that Guerilla warfare has stopped modern technology or at lease held it back a number of times.

    I would never under estimate a good resourceful man defending his home and family. From what I understand from history is that not what the revolutionary war was about simple men with their hunting rifles going against the superior British army to protect what they thought was right?

  • Daily Topics - Friday January 11th, 2012   12 years 19 weeks ago

    "I live on a boat and need permission from the coast guard to operate (the boat)" WTF? this is simply untrue! You need to be state registered or federally documented; that's all! There is no ability requirement or USCG licensure required unless you are in the business of carrying passengers.

    Bill

    Hammerhead954

ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World

Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.

Thom's Blog Is On the Move

Hello All

Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.

Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.