Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

AARP: A bad deal from a bad group

Posted: August 9, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

Like many other seniors, I am bombarded daily by ads, emails, and letters from the American Association of Retired Persons.

AARP is not only a nuisance but also a dangerous, left-leaning organization that concerns itself more with its power than its members.

AARP members should cancel their memberships and, more important, seek other providers for Medicare Advantage and Medigap coverage  

About half of those aged 50 years and older in the United States—or 38.5 million people—belong to AARP. That makes the organization one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country. In comparison, the National Rifle Association has a mere 4.5 million members.

In a cogent analysis, Kimberly Strassel of The Wall Street Journal provided a pertinent example of AARP’s duplicity: its support for the Schumer-Manchin bill, known officially as The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

“The group’s particular focus is the provision that would allow the federal government to ‘negotiate’ Medicare drug prices and cap annual increases to inflation—though it is more than happy to also swallow the legislation’s tax hikes and climate spending,” Strassel wrote recently. 

A University of Chicago study found that such a plan would reduce research dollars by $663 billion over the next 17 years, resulting in 135 fewer drugs. The study estimates a loss of 331 million years of life or more than 30 times the toll from COVID.

“Most devastated would be the people AARP claims to represent. Nearly 90% of adults 65 and older take at least one prescription medication—more than half report taking four or more. The AARP’s price controls would mean horrific hits to research in cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, you name it,” Strassel wrote.

The act also provides $64 billion to extend ObamaCare insurance subsidies. That’s a massive chump of change for insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, a company that paid $1 billion in royalty payments to AARP in 2020 alone. 

But there’s more:

–AARP argues that climate change, which gets billions from the law, has been largely responsible for a rise in infectious diseases throughout the world. 
–AARP supports widespread mail-in voting without a requirement for IDs, a significant means through which Joe Biden got elected.
–AARP supports the continuation of masks, social distancing, and contact tracing.
–AARP supports gay marriage.

If these reasons aren’t enough to cancel your AARP membership, consider the consumer complaints. 

Sitejabber.com, which provides overall reviews for various products and services, gives a huge thumbs down to AARP.

“AARP has a consumer rating of 2.17 stars [out of five] from 200 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Consumers complaining about AARP most frequently mention car insurance, customer service, and junk mail problems,'” the website advises. See https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/aarp.org for some of the other issues. 

From just about any way you look at AARP, the organization doesn’t do much except to strive for more power rather than to help seniors! 

That’s just my nickel, which I plan to spend on my membership for the Association of Mature American Citizens, or AMAC, which does a lot more for seniors than AARP and has a political agenda far more in keeping with my outlook. For more information, see http://www.amac.us.

Report from Louisiana: Random Thoughts in a Transitional Week

Posted: August 8, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By: Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Some random thoughts today.

Shreveport Mayoral Race:  At my house we are preparing to head down South this week for the Fete Dieu du Teche and I could not be happier to get out of town for the week. Shreveport keeps on getting crazier every single day. The latest? Our ineffective, bumbling, inept mayor has been disqualified from running for another term because he put a false address on his paperwork. Louisiana law requires you to list your address as the same address where you file homestead exemption. Our fine mayor did not do this. He listed another address. His excuse for this error? The media lights and cameras when he filed his paperwork distracted him.

I kid you not.

He has appealed the ruling but it doesn’t look like the court will favor him.

He probably was going to lose anyway; people of both parties are sick to death of him and his self-serving photo ops and lack of meaningful governance.

School is Back!  Teachers and students start school today and I could not be happier to not be in that club! I’m looking at my teacher friends posting their classrooms, posting their wish lists, and now their excitement and anxiety about returning to school. I do not miss it in the least. I miss my friends, but they’re still my friends and so it’s all good. I don’t have to deal with the politics and the dog-and-pony shows and I’m thrilled. But good luck to them all and I do wish all of them a good year. Loved my kids, hated the BS.

And besides, if I was still teaching, I wouldn’t be headed to my beloved Cajun country this week where the oysters are fresh and the beer is cold and the Cajun music sings to my heart. Life is good.

Lisa Graas: Our friend Stacy McCain is asking for help for Lisa Graas, a longtime blogger buddy who is now fighting cancer. A devout Catholic, Lisa is now facing expensive chemo treatments and needs help. When Stacy posted his plea for Lisa, her name resonated with me because I remember his trip to Louisiana when he got stopped in the infamous Livonia speed trap and Lisa came and picked him up. On that day, I had Stacy’s Donkey Cons book in my bag; he was going to try to come through Shreveport on his way back home and I wanted to get him to sign my book. And then he gets pulled over in Livonia and that was the end of that. Anyway, hit the link and help if you can.

Next week I’ll be posting from Arnaudville, La and the Fete Dieu du Teche. Peace out!

When the Biden White House calls on “experts” to support its agenda, watch your wallet

Posted: August 7, 2022 by John Ruberry in business, economy, media, News/opinion, opinion/news
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By John Ruberry

Outside of sheer incompetence, a theme has emerged from the Joe Biden administration. When they need help, the White House calls on people they deem to be experts. 

Here’s a dirty secret of politics, or if your prefer, of advancing a preferred narrative. Anyone can find an “expert,” more on them in a bit, to support any opinion. It works in journalism too, the media wing of the Democrat Party.

When the discovery of the Hunter Biden laptop was revealed by the New York Post nearly two years ago–the mainstream media, social media, and of course the Biden campaign immediately moved to denounce it. The casus belli for journalists, Facebook, Twitter, and the like–Biden brought this up in a presidential debate–was that its emergence three weeks before Election Day in 2020 had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” according to 51 former national security experts, led by James Clapper, a director of National Intelligence under Barack Obama. Every one of these “experts” either lied, signed on to something they knew little about, or just simply wanted to do whatever it took to prevent the reelection of Donald J. Trump. 

Eighteen months later, the New York Times admitted Hunter’s laptop, which provided voluminous evidence of his influence peddling centered on his being the son of a powerful politician, was authentic. The 51 experts can expect subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee next year, assuming the Republicans take control of the House. Every one of these “experts” should have their security clearances permanently revoked.

Biden of course won the election. As a result of his policies, such as cancelling the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, blocking new permits for drilling on federal land, gasoline prices soared and remain high. Although the economy was well into recovery mode two years ago, Biden signed into law the unfunded American Rescue Plan. Many experts at the time claimed it would not fuel inflation. They were wrong. Just as those national security “experts” were wrong on Hunter’s laptop. 

When inflation began its ascent, the White House cited 15 Nobel laureates in economics who said that Biden’s Build Back Better bill, enacted in late 2021, would not fuel inflation. They were wrong too. Inflation is now at levels not seen since the early 1980s. Last year Biden and other “experts” were saying inflation was “transitory.” Liberals reading this post will blame inflation on the War in Ukraine, you know, “Putin’s price hike.” Sure, the war likely has an effect on inflation, but the scourge was with us before Russia’s invasion Ukraine. 

Build Back Better was originally part of a much larger bill, the green energy stuff was split off and later discarded after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he wouldn’t support it. Well, Build Back Better Part Two is back, laughably renamed the Inflation Reduction Act. And to bolster its support, the Biden White House has–are you ready?–called on experts, this time, four former Democratic Treasury secretaries and one Republican, who claim, among other things, that the Inflation Reduction Act will “fight inflation” One of those ex-Treasury secretaries is Larry Summers, who warned last year the Biden White House, “We’re taking very substantial risks on the inflation side.” 

A good journalist would track down Summers and ask him specifics on why this bill really will fight inflation.

Earlier I mentioned that journalists have a role in advancing political narratives. For example, at Forbes, Rhett Buttle offers a slobbering French kiss of propaganda, which is accompanied by this headline, “Experts Agree: The Inflation Reduction Act Accomplishes A Lot For Small Business And Working Families.” While late in the piece Buttle manages to write about the bill, “some who represent select corporate interests in Washington don’t completely agree” with the hype. But if Buttle was truly a journalist, he would have tracked down opponents of the Inflation Reduction Act and presented a balanced article.

Then again, real journalism is dead. Twenty years ago such a piece as the one written by Buttle would contain the sub-headline, “news analysis,” assuming a magazine like Forbes would even publish it. I took some journalism classes at the University of Illinois. If I turned in such an article for an assignment, a professor would have deservedly given me an “F,” enhanced by this underlined comment written in red ink, “This garbage reads like a press release.”

But Biden’s new batch of experts have spoken: The Inflation Reduction Act, which the Senate will vote on Sunday afternoon, will “fight inflation.”

Watch your wallet. Watch the cash in it lose its value.

Disclosure: This blog post should be classified as “news analysis.”

UPDATE 5:15pm EDT: The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Navy’s poor poker face on manpower

Posted: August 6, 2022 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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It’s not often I get immediate verification of something I blog about. For example, I wrote about how we’re going to have to accept that Russia will in fact win in Ukraine, and at first that prediction looked incorrect, but as the conflict grinds on, its becoming more obvious that Russia can’t afford to lose, even at a terrible cost. I could be wrong, maybe Ukraine will pull out a big “W” in the end, but I still think its unlikely.

But the Navy’s manpower crisis…wow. That’s a gift that keeps on giving. Since the last article, Navy has released three more NAVADMIN messages that prove the Navy is in a middle-management manpower crunch.

The first is NAVADMIN 176/22, which seems like a mundane update to retirement policy. The second paragraph is most interesting:

2.  Reference (c) modified the service-in-grade (SIG) (also known as time-in-grade) requirements for O-4s.  Specifically, reference (c) modified reference (d) to require 3-years SIG for voluntary regular retirement eligibility.
NAVADMIN 176/22

Normally you can retire as an O-4 after only two years. This isn’t a huge change, however, it might push more people to stay an extra year.

But then NAVADMIN 177/22 came out, talking about incentive pay for submarine commanding officer special mission billets. There is plenty of competition to become a submarine CO, so many good people don’t select for submarine command. They can select for CO Special Mission, which is basically a way of saying “we need you to stay in the Navy to fill billets at higher levels” because so many submarine O-5’s retire at 20 years. It’s a problem that has waxed and waned over the years, but is now becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

The NAVADMIN allocates a bonus of $20,000 annually for members that sign a 3-5 year commitment. That is an awful lot of money, especially considering an O-5 submariner is likely making over $150K a year anyway. The eligibility requirements make it very obvious what problem they are solving:

    b.  Have completed at least 19 years of Active Duty Commissioned Service (ADCS) and not more than 25 years of ADCS at the start of the period of additional obligated service.
NAVADMIN 177/22

Which really means “prevent people from retiring right at 20 years and keep them in a bit longer by throwing $20K a year at them.”

Essentially, these two officer-related NAVADMINs are trying to stem the departure of mid-grade Naval Officers. Gee, I wonder why mid-grade Naval Officers would be leaving in the first place? I’ll let you debate that in the comments.

So are there applicable actions on the enlisted Sailor side? You betcha! The most interesting is NAVADMIN 178/22. The first two paragraphs lay it out pretty well:

1.  This NAVADMIN announces a pilot program for Senior Enlisted Advance to Position (SEA2P) designed to keep deploying units mission-ready by aggressively filling critical at-sea leadership billets.  The pilot program will convene a billet selection board consisting of senior representatives from Fleet and participating type commander (TYCOM) staffs to select those Sailors who are best and fully qualified to advance and fill specific priority sea billets.  The pilot includes the Nimitz Strike Group on the West Coast and the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group on the East Coast. Additionally, the pilot will include USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73). Factors for consideration in determining best and fully qualified applicants include sustained superior performance, documented qualifications, platform experience, and potential to succeed in the billet.  Sailors selected must obligate service (OBLISERV) to complete 36 months in the SEA2P billet and will be permanently advanced upon reporting to their ultimate duty station.  This pilot will be limited to critical E8 and E9 sea billets and is 
separate from reference (a). 
 
2.  To be eligible for SEA2P, Sailors must have been selected or screened as a non-select for advancement to E8 or E9 by the respective fiscal year (FY) 2023 selection boards, or be advancement-eligible for the respective FY-24 boards in line with reference (b).  Time-in-rate (TIR) waivers will be approved for FY-24 advancement-eligible Sailors who are selected for SEA2P.  All Sailors selected for SEA2P billets should expect to receive permanent change of station (PCS) orders with a transfer date as early as  30-45 days after selection.
NAVADMIN 178/22

In one long sentence this says: “We are critically undermanned at sea in senior enlisted positions, yet somehow we have lots of people that haven’t selected for advancement to these senior enlisted positions, so now they can apply to fill this position and get permanently promoted when they finish the tour.”

Now, my first question is: if we don’t have enough senior people to fill these jobs, but we have people that aren’t selecting for senior positions, why don’t we just select more people? Enlisted management sits almost entirely in the Department of the Navy’s purview, unlike Naval Officers that face considerable Congressional oversight as to their selection and promotion. The DoN doesn’t appear to be upping the selection rate, and is instead opting for a tightly controlled board that meets in relative secrecy to pick people for specific jobs. There are advantages to this, since you can force someone to take sea-duty orders, but you could do that anyway (to an extent), so I’m not sure why they are opting for this method.

These NAVADMINs, coming on the heels of the messages I previously talked about, are just another indicator that the Navy is experiencing a massive flight of talent that is really getting senior leadership concerned. I think they would be far better off addressing the real concerns of junior officers and junior enlisted, and to be fair, Navy Sailors get plenty of surveys about the health of the force, but then the Navy doesn’t appear to act on any of these issues. Just like the suicide crisis on the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON, Navy has all the data, but isn’t choosing to solve the correct problem.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. If you enjoyed this article, please like it, share it on social media, and send a tip to Peter in DaTipJar. You can also buy one of my books for yourself or a friend to help me out.

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