Usa Thread

[Steve]

I NEVER get my news about America from American sources anymore. At least not the major media. If its not the internet (and that is under threat wtih net neutrality), al Jazeera is surprisingly very even handed. They are hated throughout the regimes of the middle east because they will report the actual facts. In fact, a couple of their jouranlists have been imprisoned in Egypt. British papers are great, especially The Guardian. Major media in America are one of a few things. a. Have an ideology already Fox News b. Don't want to buck the trend and be brave.

[Steve]

I have been a full grown progressive for a several months now...lol..yes, CS is a commie red pinko. The Tea party has pushed me farther left. I fear them. Literally. America is changing...and not for the better. The latest thing is the killing of the Voting Rights Act. The argument is that its outdated. The thing is, with the last election we saw about 7 swing states with Republican secretary of states enact laws to limit turnout. Voter ID being one. Sounds simple enough, get an id. No big deal. So, Why? So we can combat illegal voting. Ok, do illegals vote? No. You're more likely to get hit by lightening than an illegal voting. Logically they are trying to stay under the radar. They avoid anything where they may have furnish ID or be questioned. They could give a shyt about voting. Why do it then? Its been proven the elderly and minorities are adversely affected by voter id laws. Just one example.

 

Racially we are going backwards. Its getting bad out there. Ever since Obama's election, its gotten bad. I think it scared the shyt out of about 20% of the population (most of the tea partyiers), I can understand why. America is changing but America was ALWAYS changing. Change that could see you partially marginalized is scary. 150 years ago the big thing was eastern and southern Europeans and Catholics. The country was ape shit over it and had an immigration law that stifled immigration for a while. But America needed the workers and the floodgates were let open again Every great nation that ruled its era was built on cheap and/or slave labor. it just is. Roman Empire. British Empire. Spanish Empire. French empire. China today. USSR was. America was/is.

 

But I digress. The government is doing nothing by design right now. The only thing it is doing is looking for ANY reason to tax the people. Expats such as ourselves have to deal with a very old law that is being enforced about foreign bank accounts with monies over 10k. Designed for millionaires who are hiding their money, foreign banks are now to report Americans with accounts in their countries. There are some banks in some countries that will not give you a bank account if you're American because of the amount of repoting that has to be done and a privacy issue for them. I have friends in the middle east who can't get a bank account when they could before. Some have a second passport (Israeli, Mexican, etc.) from their ancestral homeland and are using that.

 

Prison is now big business.

http://rollingout.co...dont-stay-full/#_

What?!? Private prisons suing states for millions if they don’t stay full

The incarceration rates are a reflection of that. 80% of blacks in prison for drugs are for marijuana posession. Not dealing, personal use. Stop and frisk for cars or your person has gotten a lot of people put away for personal use pot that is now legal in some states. On a side note, ANY state that legalized pot and has ANYONE in jail for having pot of an amount that is deemed personal use size should be let out with prison served time and allowed to have it expunged after a probationary period of say 3-5 years to weed out (no pun intended) those who are habitual criminals (they can't stop doing crime) or had no priors. There was a Penna. judge who got sent to prison ironically enough for kickbacks for filling up private prisons. He's not the only one. We are making felonies out of things that used to regular tickets or a warning.

 

On one of my pinko, commie online sites..haha..this caught my attention, it being 4th of July week. I finished HS in an upper middle class white suburban HS. I was part of a program for at risk kids (buzzword for anyone living in the inner city..lol) the funny thing was that many of the teachers in the program were former hippies, very liberal. One got in trouble once for saying that the native Americans and Blacks were better off had the British won the war and he questioned the motives for the war (basically that the colonists had no valid motive, they were pretty much left alone by the Brits. America was their early version of Australia for people who didn't fit in.) He was saying what this guy was saying.

 

Eurpeans on this thread can confirm but Europe politcally by and large is moving right of center or already has. America has this view of Europe as the progressive/liberal haven and for a time they'd be right but the parties that are in power or close to being in power are right of center. My guess its a reaction to a couple decades of pretty much unchecked immigration from outside of Europe (Turks, Africans, Middle Easterners) or new Europeans from Balkans and eastern Europe. America was/is going through the same.

 

As usual, I'm verbose. Anyway, happy 4th anyway..haha...and its a great world cup. C'mon team USA beat the Belgians. (Is Belgian Boy around? )

[BelgianBoy]

As usual, I'm verbose. Anyway, happy 4th anyway..haha...and its a great world cup. C'mon team USA beat the Belgians. (Is Belgian Boy around? )

yes still around and happy 4th to all !

[Flashermac]

I'd rather have a happy fifth.

 

p.s. I have to remember the fourth, since it's my sister's birthday.

[Flashermac]

CS, as a veteran, I am very much following the scandals in the VA. Mind you, this is the same Veterans Administration that gave itself bonuses and pay hikes last year. They still owe me over 140,000 baht that they acknowledge they do ... but have been dragging the heels on it for over two years. And it took considerable fighting just to get them to recognise what a VA doc identified as long ago as 1997! The US of A really does seem to going to hell in a hand basket these days. I'm almost afraid to go home.

 

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/29/50-va-hospital-workers-claim-retaliation-for-blowi/

[unit731]

as a veteran, I am very much following the scandals in the VA. Mind you, this is the same Veterans Administration that gave itself bonuses and pay hikes last year.

 

 

It all began with President Carter and fulfilled by President Reagan.

Civil Service has a pay scale. Beginning with GS-1 and up. Then the ES pay scale for executives/management.

Used to be standard step increases (pay raise) every year up to 8 or 12 years. After that one was at the top of the pay scale and no more raises. Other then sometimes a cost of living across the board pay raise - approved by Congress.

 

Well, the business folks complained and had the laws changed. No more step increases for the ES (Executive Service) pay rate but a "bonus" system.

The bonus system in the VA is all about numbers. Number of patients. Number of days for staff or doctors to see patients, etc. Numbers, numbers, numbers.

 

In order to get a pay raise, the managers or executives at some VA facilities - just fudged the numbers. No "good" numbers - no pay raise. "Good" numbers and one would get a pay raise now called a bonus. And apparently, the fudging of "numbers" to obtain the pay raise was wide spread.

 

We can thank Carter and Reagan for this current mess.

 

Maybe Shinseki should have known about this. But my opinion is that he was just a scape goat.

[Bangkoktraveler]

VA Hospital?

 

Actually all hospitals..... some worse then the VA!

[unit731]

VA Hospital?

 

Actually all hospitals..... some worse then the VA!

 

 

The actual care at the VA hospitals is quite good. And I have been a patient at six of them. In 5 different states.

I always get prompt quality care.

 

The problem at VA is/was the bureaucrats. Not the doctors or the treatments.

[Flashermac]

In 1997 the VA doctor said that I definitely had a serious high frequency hearing loss from combat noise exposure. He said he felt combat disabilities should take preference. Then he wished me luck and didn't sound very hopeful. Yep, the bureaucrats rejected it ... saying there was nothing on my separation physical. I didn't have a separation physical! We were just off the plane outprocessing at Fort Lewis, and an Army doc asked if we thought we had anything wrong with us. We said we didn't think so, and he signed our papers. That was it ... ETS. I applied again for the same disability in 2011, and this time it sailed through. But it was considered a new claim and no back payments to 1997. (A VFW assistance officer told me that VA always rejects your claim the first time, but if you stick with it, they'll finally grant it. Wish I'd known that 17 years ago.)

 

p.s. They rejected my claim for peripheral neuropathy, one of the things Agent Orange causes, since I hadn't applied with 6 months of my return to the US. Hell, who knew anything back then? Also, melanoma is not covered, though it sure as hell seems it would be AO related.

[Bangkoktraveler]

Hearing test?

 

Dung my pre-induction test, a fly got into my shorts during the hearing test. I just kept on pushing the button every time the fly buzzed.

 

Obviously............ I ace the test.