Tuesday's Number: $24,379

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were four new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $44,662.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $20,283.
• And there were no bankruptcies listed.

By hospital, here’s the breakdown: 

• Crouse had four, totaling $38,861
• SUNY got a credit this week of $20,283.
• St. Joseph’s and Community (part of Upstate), had no filings.

Where’s that SUNY credit come from?  When there are any, I subtract satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years

A regional healthcare center accounted for the $5,801 difference between the overall total and the local hospital totals. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Throwback Thursday (v1)

Let's go back, this Thursday, to a simpler time.

When men were blissfully unaware of how a woman's body worked, except for two things: "that time of the month" and that a man would put his thingy in her nether region, and he enjoyed it, but only for religious purposes, or of course if the man wanted to assert his husbandly rights.  Men and women slept in separate beds, on television at least, and babies came from storks.

That must be the time where Republican men feel most comfortable.

First we had the one who reminded us that when he grew up, birth control had something to do with holding an aspirin between your knees.  And the guy who wondered if it was possible for a woman to swallow a tiny camera to allow a doctor to see inside her vagina and uterus, similar to how that works to allow a doctor to see a person's colon.  And of course we have all of the different versions of rape, which have been so carefully described by Republicans.

And now, joining them in the simpler time, we have Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker never went to college, we've been told, and there are some who think that should disqualify him from being President.

Me? I think his lack of sense is more disqualifying than his lack of parchment.

Walker blamed the media's 'gotcha' attitude in response to a question about social issues which some declared or exploring Republican presidential candidates (he's one of the latter) seem afraid to address.

And he said this:

I'll give you an example. I'm pro-life, I've passed pro-life legislation. We defunded Planned Parenthood, we signed a law that requires an ultrasound. Which, the thing about that, the media tried to make that sound like that was a crazy idea. Most people I talk to, whether they're pro-life or not, I find people all the time who'll get out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids' ultrasound and how excited they are, so that's a lovely thing. I think about my sons, 19 and 20, you know we still have their first ultrasound picture. It's just a cool thing out there.

Seriously?

First of all, what the hell kind of conversations does Governor Walker have where "most people" he talks to, or "finds" will flash ultrasound pics at him? And does he really think that the one you get where they rub the gel and the wand on a woman's belly is the same as the one where they stick a condom-covered, gel-slathered probe into her vagina?

Ask any woman who has been forced, by a politician, to have a transvaginal ultrasound, and I'm guessing her description of the experience will not include the words "lovely" or "cool" -- no matter what the Rabid Badger believes. Because, when the test is done for medical purposes, as opposed to political purposes, it's usually to diagnose a problem with the fetus, not to add to a grandparent's brag book.

Can't we ask for better?  Please?

Tuesday's Number: $110,415

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

• This week, there were five new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $42,666.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $7,251.
• And there was one bankruptcy listed this week, for $75,000. 

By hospital, here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had two, totaling $14,061
• SUNY Upstate added another four, for $89,504
• St. Joseph’s and Community (part of Upstate), had no filings. 

When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years. SUNY got the credit this week.

Another regional healthcare center made up the $6,850 difference between the overall total and the local hospital totals. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v31)

Blame it on the medication. I'm wondering, this Wednesday, about simple things.  For example:

Ever get a catalog from a place you would never, even on your worst day, go shopping? And you see the big banner on the cover advising you that "THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST CATALOG" and you thank your lucky stars that you'll never have to see it again?  And then a week later, you get another one from the same place? 

Similarly, credit card debt reduction services, which tell you every single day that this is your last chance to take advantage of their services (which you didn't ask for, don't need, and don't want).  I've tried ignoring them but they keep calling, and I've tried 'pressing 3' to be removed from their call list, and I've even pressed one to 'talk to a person who is standing by to help me.'  When I get through to said person, and they ask how they can help, I explain that I'm an adult, capable of paying my own debts, and would like them to stop calling me. Somehow, saying "please stop calling me" has a direct tie to the disconnect button on their end.  How does that work, I wonder?

Completely different subject (again, blame it on the medication):  Why would the "most effective anti-odor/anti-wetness product you can buy without a prescription" go on wet?  Doesn't that seem counter-intuitive?

I'm having a hard time understanding why I hear from the same Alzheimer's charity several times a month - one week I got four separate mailings from them! I know the charity game is tough, but I can't imagine that any organization can afford this kind of outreach.

And finally, which is more shocking, I wonder -- the fact that George Stephanopoulos donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation, or that ABC gave him a $105,000,000 contract? 

That's it for tonight.  

Tuesday's Number: $96,656

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

• This week, there were seven new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $62,922.
• There were no satisfied judgments.
• And there were two bankruptcies listed, totaling $33,734.

By hospital, here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had four, totaling $30,094
• St Joseph’s three, for $46,948
• SUNY Upstate added two more, for $19,614
• Community, part of Upstate, had none.

When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v30)

Well, let's see, what do we have tonight?

The New England Patriots were fined $1,000,000 for 'deflategate' and lost a couple of draft picks. Tom Brady was suspended for four 'real games' (meaning, he can play in the pre-season but will sit out the first four games after that), unless he wins on appeal. 

I'm wondering, this Wednesday, what the heck the NFL was thinking? I mean, suspending a QB for four games that matter?  Sheesh.  Don't they know anything about suspending players? 

Look at Major League Baseball. MLB, as we know, suspends pitchers for three or four games for things like throwing fastballs at heads - knowing, when they do this, that the suspended pitcher will almost never miss a game. Why? Because of the rotation that allows them to only pitch after half a week or so of rest between games.  Who woulda thunk that the NFL actually wanted to punish someone?

Brady's appeal, which is almost inevitable, is being met with both support and derision. On the one hand, he didn't actually touch the footballs himself, but apparently put big-league pressure on the locker room staff to the point where they decided to manipulate things to Brady's liking.  And since he wasn't culpable in the act, he shouldn't be suspended, or shouldn't be suspended so harshly, or something.  

On the other hand, there's this sentiment, eloquently expressed by Ian O'Connor (via ESPN):

This isn't Pete Rose gambling on baseball or Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez pumping one illegal drug after another into their bodies for a competitive edge. Brady should tell the public that he thought he was merely driving 63 in a 55 mph zone, that he didn't realize taking some air out of the ball was a big deal, and that he now realizes it is a very big deal. 

He should apologize to (Pats owner Robert) Kraft for lying to him and making the owner look and sound like a fool...He should apologize to (the locker room guys) for putting franchise-player pressure on employees in no position to resist it...and, importantly, to fans everywhere who thought Tom Brady would be among the last quarterbacks to spike the integrity of his sport.

'Franchise-player pressure' is an understandable concept, right? It's the kind of pressure that 'allows' a manager to harass an employee. It's the kind of pressure that 'compels' people to lie for their bosses, or shred documents, or to erase a tape while doing a previously undefined yoga pose, or any of a host of things along those lines.

I don't think, though, that 'franchise player pressure' is what Texas Senator and Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz exerted when he questioned whether the training exercise known as Jade Helm 15 was in fact a cover for an Obama administration military takeover of Texas. (I wondered about a related issue last week). Cruz has been assured by the Pentagon that everything's on the up and up, he said.

I'm wondering, though, how the person at the Pentagon who responded to Cruz's staff on this managed to do it with a straight face. And whether, in the end, the person would really rather have responded with this:

Perhaps, then, you would prefer not an official proclamation but a reasoned answer. As a master debater in college (Princeton, right?), you surely appreciate the reliability of logic, your public statements over the past few years notwithstanding. If you are disinclined to take the United States Armed Forces at their word when we promise no ill intentions towards Texas, then perhaps your considerable and vaunted intellectual powers, which once posited the regrowth of hymens as a guard against unauthorized incursions in domestic affairs, could be swayed by incontrovertible fact. 

That's just one small portion of a hysterical response offered  by "Secretary Ashton Carter" on Huffington Post the other day. I'm sure the Secretary wishes he could get away with saying something like that. Heck, I can think of lots of times I would love to be able to respond like that, can't you?

The post ends with a comment about Cruz being "the rudest Canadian we've ever run across."  And I wonder, is that last point debatable?

Tuesday's Number: $504,053

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

•  This week, there were 26 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $510,551.
•  There was one satisfied judgment, for $6,498.
•  As is typically the case, there were no bankruptcies listed.

By hospital, here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had eleven, for $140,414
• St Joseph’s had two, for $21,608
• SUNY Upstate had thirteen, adding another $335,396
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings. 

When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years. Upstate got the $6,498 credit.

A filing on behalf of a local dental practice added another $6,635. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v29)

A whole lot of wondering about foreign affairs going on tonight.  Here goes:

You remember the big to-do when Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to chat with his friends in Congress, without the President being involved, while he was in the middle of a big-time fight to win re-election?  And when he made a sharp turn to the right in the last couple days before the vote, declaring that if he stayed in power there would be no Palestinian state, and suddenly his party came out on top? Well, today he managed to pull together his coalition government by the slightest possible margin - one - just before the deadline. So small a margin, so late in the game, and with so many concessions to those on his right flank, many are wondering how long he'll be able to hold things together. And that has me wondering, if I were a Republican running for President, how interested would I be in seeking out Crying John Boehner's support?

"Oh to be in England," as Robert Browning wrote. No, I'm not talking about the news of the birth of Her Royal Highness Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge, the newborn daughter of Wills and Kate. Rather, I'm thinking back and wondering, was it really at the end of March that England's Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the British elections would happen a mere 20-some-odd business days later, on May 7th? Can you even imagine the US having that short an election cycle, instead of the almost two-years-in-advance cycle we have?

And with so many folks already in the race on the Republican side -- 15 declared candidates, according to The Politics and Elections Portal - and another seven on the Dem side - we are almost guaranteed to have more people running for President than Britain has days in the campaign.  I have to wonder, are we really better off? (And yes that's a total of 22 declared candidates so far).

One last thing I'm wondering about that, I think, qualifies as a 'foreign' affair: this happened: Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to 'monitor' a joint training exercise of the Navy Seals and Green Berets, because, some folks thought, President Obama was going to take over Texas.

Now some of us might think that this is outlandish and out there, but it was so serious that even Walmart had to issue a statement stating that tunnels were not being built under their stores as part of the grand scheme, according to reports. I kid you not.

And I'm left wondering, does anyone doubt that Walmart would almost have to be involved for any takeover of this sort to be successful?

Tuesday's Number: $275,039

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were nineteen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $275,039. 
• There were no satisfied judgments or bankruptcies listed. 

By hospital, here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had one, for $59,346
• St Joseph’s had one, for $12,638
• SUNY Upstate added another seventeen, totaling $203,055
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings. 

When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

The Metaphorical Garden

Rarely have I been more grateful for my garden than I have been in the past few weeks. 

No, the beds are not gorgeous and in full bloom – quite the opposite. After a long winter, there’s always much to do, and this year there’s a little more than usual as most of them seem in need of intensive rehabilitation. We're having the house painted this year, so I may have to move some of the foundation plants at least temporarily, and that's adding to the planning, even if not to the actual work. I’m dozens of hours into it, full weekends and some nights after work when the weather cooperates, with more to do.

My hands ache. My knees are sore, even with my fancy knee pads. My back is tired. I've worn almost through the fingertips on my new gloves, leading to frequent bouts of, well, let’s say somewhat colorful language when something gets in under my nail.  The pile of yard waste that will go to the city's compost program is about the size of a Fiat. I have allergies, I think. 

And I am grateful.

I’m grateful because, while I’m in my garden, I’m fighting to define the boundaries of yard and flower bed, and working to free the tender perennials from the grip of the weeds that so carefully and deviously surround them, or grow right on top of them, as happens with my irises. I try to remember where everything grew last year, where things thrived, so I can make sure they have a happy and healthy home this year. It's tricky; some of the late bloomers haven’t even begun to wake up from their winter’s rest. 

I contemplate the monarda, marching across the beds, and question whether I could possibly turn it into a cash crop. I look for the columbine, a vigorous self-sower which seems to be in short supply this year. And I check on the wisteria and the beauty bush, hoping they are strong enough to bounce back again. I struggle with what to do with the unruly and no longer ornamental grasses, some of which have already been relegated to the back garden.  Is that where the rest of them will spend their days, in Mikey's Meadow?

I worry about the woodchucks and bunnies that might (no, will inevitably) come to dinner in my urban front yard, and what will tickle their fancy this time, as it seems to change each year. Will they covet my coneflowers again? Or, will their palate yearn for poppies or blue flax, or maybe my phlox?  I've kept the fences on the hollyhocks, a perennial favorite, if you will, but there’s always so much for the little devils to pick from, so many tasty young plants that are so hard to resist. I need to have a plan.

And I wonder how I can possibly keep everything safe and not have the garden look like a war zone, how I can have it look the way it's supposed to, full of colors and textures, without its beauty being encumbered by fence and netting.

Even with all of that, I’m grateful. 

The hours I've spent in the garden are hours I've been able to work out my frustrations on why we have such a hard time getting our collective arms around the concept of equality and equal opportunity, and around the concept that all lives matter:  black and white and brown and yellow and red ones, and all of the colors in between.  Lives wearing police uniforms and lives wearing police jumpsuits, or hoodies, or even the god-awful hideous sagging pants. Lives wrapped in a rainbow flag, and lives of those who would chase rainbows looking for a pot of gold. Lives of ‘the believers’ and of those who believe something else entirely, or in nothing at all.  

What a mess we can make of things, and yet what an opportunity we have, I think while I’m out there in the fresh air, working on my garden melting pot.

And I've made progress, according to the guy riding by on his bike yesterday, who shouted an encouraging “keep up the good work, the garden’s coming along!” and the young woman giving a piggy-back ride to a child who made a point to remind me “I think I told you last year too, but I love your garden, it always makes me smile.”  Or one of the littlest who whispered “pretty flowers, Mommy!” as his family walked by, pointing shyly at the white and yellow daffodils, the grape hyacinths, and the miniature tulips in the bed closest to the sidewalk.

Yes, I’m surely grateful.  And it’s time to get back out there. 

My Middle-Aged White Lady Perspective: Don't Apologize for the Truth

Gleefully stealing an armload of Doritos is not something you do to protest the inexplicable death of a young man in police custody. Nope -- stealing several bags of Doritos and dancing down the street with a bunch of other looters is something you do when you're an idiot, taking advantage of a bad situation and making it worse. It's something you do when you basically don't give a rat about anything other than yourself. 

Leaders of the Baltimore community calling out the looters and trouble-makers for looting and making trouble was the right thing to do, because that behavior completely disrespects the memory of the person who died in police custody and it completely disrespects his family who asked that people take a day off so that they could mourn and celebrate and bury their family member. 

Calling them out is important, because no matter what anyone hopes, the miscreants will get all of the attention, and their behavior will overshadow peaceful protests aimed at the people who must know (but aren't yet saying) why Freddie Gray ended up with a severed spine, and it will overshadow members of the Baltimore community, clergy and others, who put themselves between the rioters and the police, who tried to protect property and people, who did the right thing. We'll hear less about them because of the bad actors.  

Apologizing a day later for calling these folks out does a disservice to everyone who is protesting on purpose, with purpose, for a purpose. Community leaders should do better; communities deserve better from their leaders. 

Lots of folks have lots of reasons for why stuff happens like it did in Ferguson, and like it did in Baltimore and like it does in other places when something happens like the death of Michael Brown or the death of Freddie Gray. It stems, we're told,  from long-standing practices of abuse or brutality or economic injustice or gangs or lack of father figures or lack of opportunity or lack of hope or having to check a box on a job application that you've got a criminal record, or a lack of self-respect, or a bad upbringing, or mental health or drug and alcohol issues or a bad education.

But none of it comes from a lack of Doritos.

Tuesday's Number: $214,513

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were thirteen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $223,250.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $8,737.
• And there were no health care related bankruptcies.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had six, for $39,819
• St Joseph’s gets a credit of $8,737
• SUNY Upstate added six, for $183,431
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings.

How does St Joe's get a credit? When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v28)

Have you heard the news coming from the New York State Fair?  

We’re learning from officials that somewhere around 20 offers had been put out for Grandstand acts for the 12-day run of the Fair this fall, and only one – country star Eric Church – has been booked. According to the Fair people, there are two reasons we’re having a problem: the short run of the Fair, and the high cost of acts that are on the road. The threat is that there may be only one Grandstand performer this year, which would hurt the fair almost as much as booking acts that only draw a couple thousand people at the 17,000 seat venue.  (Carly Rae Jepson, anyone?) 

I'm wondering, on this Wednesday, how this news impacts plans for the OnPhitheater being built across the street from the Fairgrounds, which has a commitment to hold a concert during the Fair this year, and which will replace the Grandstand going forward. Remember, we were originally told that the OnPhitheater would complement but not replace the Grandstand, and as we all suspected, it is of course going to be the pay-for concert venue for the Fair.

And unless someone's thinking about extending the Fair beyond the traditional 12 days, won’t we have the same problem going forward? And does anyone think prices will be going down anytime soon, particularly when the OnPhitheater will be in competition with other upstate outdoor venues and casinos, making it a musician's market not a venue market? 

Here's one more thing I'm wondering about. Remember the big darn deal that was made when it was announced that Billy Joel would be playing his 400th show at the Carrier Dome? Wasn't it the same promoter who announced at the same time that Buffalo would be getting multiple Garth Brooks shows? And even more Garth shows were added based on ticket sales? Is there something we're missing here? 

Speaking of missing things, I hope you caught the news from the Upstate Freshwater Institute and that we can safely swim at the north end of Onondaga Lake? It's true, they say: the water is clear enough, and the bacteria levels are low enough, for swimming.  We're still not able to eat the fish, but as far as taking a dip, we're good.

And so now County Executive Joanie Mahoney is thinking we could have a study to see about building a beach up at the Liverpool end of the lake. Are you wondering, like I am, how long it will take before we'll have another JoAndrew bus tour, where Mahoney and our Sonofa Governor can get all of the old  Onondaga Lake plans dusted off? Maybe we'll see another pile of taxpayer dollars dropped into the area?

I mean, our Garth-loving friends have the Buffalo Billion, we might as well have OnMillions, right? 

Tuesday's Number: $509,973

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 29 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $502,251.
•  There were no satisfied judgments.
•  And there was one health care related bankruptcy, for $7,722.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had seven, for $60,339
• St Josephs had two, totaling $16,304
• SUNY Upstate added 20, for $398,105
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings.

There was one judgment for another medical provider totaling $35,225 which makes up the balance.

When there are any,  I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Making Lemonade

A million times, I think I've heard the old saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade."  Well, I think we have a chance to do that.

Below is the email I sent to the Home Builders & Remodelers of CNY, Mayor Miner's office, and Common Councilor Helen Hudson, asking them to consider tackling a 'rebuild' project in Syracuse this fall, since the Parade of Homes has to be postponed until next summer.

The article mentions that the HBR is looking into doing some other event, and I hope they'll consider my idea (or part of it, or something similar).  After all, among the objectives of the organization is this:

to bring together the best and most reliable industry associated businesses, for the purpose of raising the bar of professionalism and customer service, and moving towards the goal of affordable housing for everyone in CNY. 

I have long maintained that a Parade of Homes in the city, not with brand new houses, but with a similar economic investment, could completely transform a neighborhood.  Pulling together all of the many resources available here, from the HBR to the Land Bank  to the myriad branches of government and even local organizations and businesses would be a challenge, but the reward - a renewed neighborhood, increased tax base, and a chance for existing homeowners to benefit as well - should be worth it.

Here's hoping that this time, with a basket full of lemons, we get enough lemonade to go around.

I read on Syracuse.com this evening the unfortunate news that this fall's Parade of Homes at Cranebrook is being delayed until next summer because site work could not be completed timely. 

 As we know, many people look forward to the Parade each year, most for decorating but some for the opportunity to get their dream home. And I know the charities that staff the volunteers for each of the Parade homes may also feel the pinch with the delay. 

Appreciating that, I would say that while this is a setback, perhaps it's also an opportunity to follow the old adage and make some lemonade out of lemons.

 Could this be the chance we've been waiting for to connect the HBRCNY and the City of Syracuse, not in traditional 'Parade' sense, but through a blitz rebuild Parade?  A chance of a lifetime for an urban neighborhood?  A chance for people to shine who usually don't get the spotlight? 

I encourage you to read my blog post on having a Parade of Homes in the city -- not on the outskirts of the city limits, but smack dab in the heart of the city, in a city neighborhood that could use some help and attention. A neighborhood like Skunk City. 

I think this could be a great opportunity, with the creativity, energy, and know-how that the Home Builders, City Hall, and Common Council can bring to the table.  

Thanks for your consideration.  

Stay tuned.

Tuesday's Number $674,128

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

• This week, there were sixteen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $683,180.
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $9,052.
• And there were no health care related bankruptcies.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week:

•  Crouse had four, for $8,624
• St Josephs had none
• SUNY Upstate added eleven, for $650,623
• Community, part of Upstate, also had no filings.

There were two judgments for medical groups which totaled $14,881, making up the balance.

Crouse’s total includes a $9,052 ‘credit’ for the satisfied judgments. I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years.  

And, this week, we have the largest filing ever since I've tracked the Numbers: a single judgment for SUNY Upstate was $400,617. I shudder to think of being in that family's shoes.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v27)

I had a few interesting conversations with friends this week below are recaps of a couple of them.

One friend's husband has his own business and has a few employees. We got talking about her heading off to meet with their accountant to get their taxes done.  And of course that got us on the whole file-early-or-wait- until-the-last-minute decision, and how we all feel we pay too much. She mentioned that, to solve that last problem, one of her husband's employees mentioned that he and his wife are going to have another child, so they get the benefit of another deduction.  That would be their seventh child.

I'm wondering, this Wednesday, how many times I've heard or seen someone mention all those welfare people popping out kids to get benefits? A hundred? Five hundred? A thousand?  I can't begin to count them all -- but I do think this is one of only a handful of times I've heard anyone talk about non-welfare people doing exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason.

I've talked about it before, such as in this post from last January, written in response to Rand Paul's thoughts on capping benefits for folks on welfare and not increasing them if another child arrives. I asked then, and I ask now (as my friend did the other day) why we reward anyone who does this?  And I'm also wondering, if Senator Paul would be willing to address both the working extra-baby-makers and the welfare extra-baby-makers at the same time?  I doubt it.

I had a conversation with another friend who's getting ready to send her first-born to college. As is the case with many parents, she's feeling mixed emotions, and not just about her baby leaving the nest. She and her husband both are long-time employees at their respective companies, have worked hard to save money for college (and for a rainy day), and are trying to navigate their way through the mess that is the financial nightmare of higher education.

She ran a scenario by me that I had never really thought of before, one I had not heard mentioned before:

Why is it that we are bombarded with ads offering multi-year loans for tens of thousands of dollars for a car, with zero percent interest, and yet we expect parents to pay somewhere north of seven percent for a college loan?  Aren't we encouraging exactly the wrong behavior here?

Well, yes, it seems, yes we are.

And think about college endowments. Here's a snapshot of schools with the largest endowment per student, as well as those with the largest endowments total.   Harvard has the largest endowment, over $35B in 2014, up $10B compared to 2005.  Princeton takes the cake in the per-student endowment, at $1.857M each, for their 7567 students.

Even the most die-hard alum must be wondering what their alma mater could possibly do with all of that money, when folks like my friend struggle to figure out the best way to pay for college, save for a rainy day, and plan to still have a life when she and her husband are empty-nesters in a few years, or hoping to retire a few years after that.

I'm wondering how anyone can look at this and not wish there was an equitable way to get kids the education that everyone says they need to be successful in life.

Maybe Rand Paul and Ted Cruz can work on this as they work on winning the White House.

Tuesday's Number: $490,796

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were seventeen new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $292,895. 
• There were no satisfied judgments.
• And there were eight health care related bankruptcies, totaling $197,901.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had twelve, for $200,706
• St Josephs had seven, totaling $146,938
• SUNY Upstate added six, for $143,152
• Community, part of Upstate, had no filings.

When there are any, I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall total and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

An Easter Message

Easter sunrise, 2015/veritablepastiche

Today is a day of celebration for some, a deeply religious holiday for those who celebrate that The Son is risen. For others, it's a 'normal' day, filled with content that the sun has risen.

For me, being in the latter half of that equation, Easter Sunday has always been a day of family, food and laughter, with heavy emphasis on the laughter part, certainly while my Dad was alive, and we have done well to keep that going since he's been gone.

When we were kids, we colored eggs, and had our Easter egg hunts, searching high and low for the ones we had colored and the coveted plastic ones with coins or jelly beans inside them.  I can picture my brothers, one and two years older than me, and taller, wandering around the house on Easter morning, checking things out, making mental notes of where the good ones were. My oldest brother had a way of tilting his head and raising an eyebrow when he saw a treasure waiting in what I'm sure Mom and Dad thought was a particularly good hiding place.

I also remember us getting chided by my Dad, for doing reconnaissance before he and Mom got up, for trying to take more than our fair share, not playing well together, and so on.

Even though we stopped going to church when we were young, around nine or ten I think, there was always an expectation  that we would 'behave' appropriately.  Not just from a discipline perspective, such as riding your bike into the charcoal grill (me), or succumbing to peer pressure and shoplifting (me), or playing with matches (NOT me), or a classic, 'spelling' bad words by writing 7734 upside-down (yeah that was me again), but from the larger perspective too.

You did not need to go to church, you did not need to believe that Christ died on the cross, or in the Resurrection, or in the rest of it, to understand that treating people fairly and with respect was the right thing to do, that taking everything you saw or could get your hands on and leaving others with nothing was the wrong thing to do, that being mean and calling people names or picking on people who were 'different' was not acceptable, or that being charitable, even to your annoying little sister, was the better path to take.

Surely, we did not learn these lessons perfectly, sometimes to the chagrin of my Methodist mom and my non-religious Dad, but I suspect they hadn't learned the lessons perfectly either. My Dad never met a dumb blond joke he didn't like, for example, and never missed an episode of All in the Family, but made sure that 'Polack' jokes became 'Peter, Andy and Susan' jokes.  They never stopped trying - and never stopped encouraging us, through word and deed, to keep trying as well, not because there'll be a place for us in Heaven if we do, but because our place on Earth can be better for the effort.

And that's where we are today, some 45 or 50 years later. Our collective place on Earth can be better for the effort, for the simple wisdom that we were taught when we were kids:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

Let's not do things to others in the name of our religious beliefs or our politics that we would not willingly accept if done to us by others in the name of their religious beliefs or their politics.

Let's not be the reason why, in what is arguably the greatest democracy in the history of the world, we need to have laws on the books reminding us that we cannot discriminate against others based on their

race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, or United States military service

This doesn't mean that we can't find things distasteful, or that we have to like everyone, or that our circle of friends needs to look like a Target ad or an Applebee's commercial or the stock photos we see in our company's publications, or that we have to agree with everyone on everything, or even that we have to understand everyone else.

After all, we are not perfect, and I don't think (for believers or non-believers) that perfection is the expectation. But can we strive to do better, be more accepting, more tolerant, more forgiving, more understanding?

Make room. Do unto others.

Happy Easter.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v26)

Think about your family and friends, coworkers, people you see on the bus or in the liquor store or at the dry cleaners or at a concert or at one of your children's school plays or athletic competitions or at the gym. Or church. 

Think of your Facebook friends, and Instagram or Twitter followers. Think about politicians and preachers and news reporters and actors and actresses and studio heads and motor heads and radio heads and talking heads. Think about rappers and crooners and twangers and cellists and drummers and color guard participants and criminals and jurors and homeless people and the people who help them.

Think about your parents and grandparents and people you knew in college or high school or elementary school. Or the bank teller or the kid at the register or the guy stocking the toilet paper at the grocery store or the car salesman or the phone survey person who calls you during dinner. 

And for all of the people you see and come into contact with every day wherever you spend your time, or do whatever it is you do (knowing that what you 'do' is practice your religion 24/7/365), tell me if at any time you have felt compelled to advise any of those people that your religious beliefs prevent you from engaging with them.

And then picture yourself being on the receiving end of this constant practice of religion whereby you cannot be served by someone else, based on how you look or sound or your actions or your faith or lack thereof.

I'm wondering, on this Wednesday, whether you'll say it feels more like freedom or more like discrimination.

Tuesday's Number: 2015 Q1 Recap

It's hard to believe we've closed the books on the first quarter of 2015 already, isn't it?

For the Tuesday's Number tracking, have we turned the corner? Maybe reached a place where we would start seeing some consistency in the number, keeping it low? After all, about a week ago we hit the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

A couple of housekeeping things, before we get to the recap. I started tracking this in late 2012, and have full-year data beginning in 2013. I've changed how I track things over the years; for example, in 2013, I didn't have individual breakdowns for each of the four Syracuse hospitals; that's been in place since the first quarter of 2014.

And, it wasn't until this year that I started 'crediting' satisfied judgments, subtracting them from the overall total. I decided to do that this year, since there's a reasonable possibility that the judgments being satisfied today may have been in the filings since I started tracking the numbers. That said, I did some tinkering on the numbers from 2013 and 2014 so that the satisfied judgments are now removed from the totals to give us a more apples to apples comparison.

So, how'd we do?

• There were 262 judgments, satisfied judgments and bankruptcy filings this quarter, compared with 253 in the first quarter of 2014 and 311 in the first quarter of 2013.

• The total dollar value of the filings for 2015 is $5,481,379.  For the same time period in 2014, the total was $5,163,376 and for 2013, the first quarter total was $6,992,112.

• This quarter had the second lowest new judgment total (good), the second lowest satisfied judgment total (bad), and the second highest bankruptcy total (worse). Overall, it's the third lowest quarterly total since I started tracking. 

• In nine quarters, the total of all filings (new judgments + bankruptcies - satisfied judgments) is a whopping $56,394,814.

I've been watching this for a long time, and every time I do a recap, I'm blown away by the amount of money that is reflected here.  I'm boggled by what the people of Central New York could do if they didn't have this kind of medical debt hanging over their heads, whether or not some of it may be self-inflicted. 

I wonder what our hospitals could do if they weren't saddled with trying to collect this money, but instead were investing it in, say, community health services, working on quality initiatives, improving health outcomes, or training more primary care physicians, rural practitioners or urban health specialists.

I wonder what insurance companies could do with premiums and administrative costs if they weren't burdened by add-ons payments to help cover these costs.  

And I wonder what the New York could do with our tax dollars if they weren't needed to support medical facilities across the state; maybe take less of them, for example? 

Think of the possibilities, if we could figure this one out.  

Tuesday's Number: $133,674

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were eight new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $103,179. 
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $12,505. 
• And there was one health care related bankruptcy, totaling $43,000. 

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse gets a credit of $12,505, for the satisfied judgment
• St Josephs had no filings
• SUNY Upstate had eight, totaling $103,179
• Community, part of Upstate, also had no filings.

The bankruptcy filing was for an out-of-area hospital, making up the $43,000 difference.

I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

What's Really Wrong with The Republican Party

Last week a contributor to my local paper had a piece about the problem with Republicans, which pointed out several of their shortcomings, including;

• voting over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act
• holding government departments hostage to express ideals
• applying an unchanging, literal interpretation of the Constitution, which we all know is a living document
• Grover Norquist, the anti-tax pledge poobah
• not recognizing the inequalities in our society
• bowing to business interests, regardless of ethics and 'trust' issues
• poor public relations skills

He notes, as many have, that the Rs have an opportunity now, perhaps a "once in a lifetime" opportunity: 

They could show creativity, a sense of the future, anticipate what is needed, yet they are mired in dysfunction and inability to focus on anything but flailing at the president, who seems to be deploying Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope tactic with more than moderate success. 

Note that a year ago Kimatian opined on how easy it is to be a Democrat; he will be offering his opinion on what's wrong with Dems this week.  I'll offer mine as well.

Kimatian addressed many of the things that frustrate me about Republicans, and did a reasonable job with his focus on what's happening at the national level, but I think the real problem with Republicans is what's happening at the lower jurisdictions (after all, that's where most Congressional Republicans come from) and the Party's apparent inability to disavow any person or thing, any animal, vegetable or mineral, that puts an R on its chest.

Damn the Constitution, full speed ahead.  Damn common sense, full speed ahead.  Screw the less fortunate, full speed ahead.  Screw the environment, full speed ahead.  Take no prisoners when it comes to health insurance, or violence against women, or voting rights. Christianity should be our national religion. Separation of church and state, well, that's not important. Gays should be shot in the head. Corporations have deeply held beliefs. Women should have to prove they were raped (this is but one instance of Republican rape insensitivity; there are dozens.) All marriages licenses to be signed by members of the clergy. Make sure you follow the rules on lawn-mowing at abortion clinics.

Remember, folks: the Republicans are the party of smaller, less intrusive government...

It's hard to look at laws and ballot initiatives that are taken up (and some passed) by Republican legislators, or suggested by what can only be described as hard-core Christians who wander around the right fringe, and not think that Republicans are looking to circle the wagons around a vision of America that is only populated by straight wealthy white Christians who are desperately afraid of what the world is becoming.

A vision of America that is so deeply rooted in the past that it forsakes a significant population of the country, including people like me (middle class straight non religious white women) who are afraid of what America will become if we continue to have elected officials acting like we're living in the 1950s instead of 2015.

We need leadership and an agenda that includes the economy and immigration and tax reform and health care and the military and how we are to act in a world that is no longer predominantly populated by people who resemble the traditional Republican. We need people looking forward, not back.

Look ahead, Republicans, and look around at those who wave your banner and get them to start looking ahead with you. Disavow the charlatans, the extremists, and those who commit bad acts in your name.

Unless, of course, you agree with them.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v25)

Listening to the wind blow outside, and also in many other places around the country. Sort of like the intro to ABC's Wide World of Sports. You know, "spanning the globe... the thrill of victory...the agony of defeat." That kind of wind blowing.

There was the wind from the Duck Dynasty Dude, Phil Robertson, for example.  The man who, with a simple turn of a phrase, likely caused a payer breakfast full of indigestion.  Robertson was talking about the dangers of atheism, which apparently include being victimized in horrific camouflaged bearded-man fantasies.  Listen, or just read it, for yourself.

I'll make a bet with you. Two guys break into an atheist's home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and time him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and they decapitate her head off in front of him. And they the can look at him and say "isn't it great that I don't have to worry about being judged? Isn't it great that there's nothing wrong with this?  There's no right or wrong, now is it dude?  Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say "wouldn't it be something if there was something wrong with this?" But you're the one who says there is no God, there's no right, there's no wrong, so we're just having fun. We're sick in the head! Have a nice day. 

I'm wondering, on Wednesday, if the bet Robertson wanted to make (which is unclear to me after reading this and listening to it a few times) was something along the lines of "I bet I can make you hurl your sausage biscuits and gravy."  Do you think anyone at the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast managed to keep their breakfast down?

Their goal this:

Through the inspiration of this gathering, the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast hopes to encourage each participant to be a part of a small group that cultivates growth and facilitates positive change to create God-centered communities. 

Are you ready to go out and create the kind of communities Robertson was invited to inspire?

And then there's the wind out of Missouri. The Show Me State appears to have one of those forward-thinking conservative legislatures, the kind that takes up bills like the ones pushed by State Representative Richard Brattin.  Last year, Brattin wanted women to have to get permission from the man who got her pregnant before she could have an abortion - unless of course there was proof of a legitimate rape or proof that the man was dead.

Brattin's back; this time, he wants to make it impossible for anyone receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from purchasing fish, steak, soda, cookies, chips and energy drinks.

Do you think that Brattin thinks lobster and shrimp are fish? Or is he looking out for these folks, and not letting them eat fish sticks?

The editors at the St Louis Post-Dispatch aren't wondering much:

Among many, if not most, Republican lawmakers in Missouri, it is an article of faith that people on "welfare" are lazy good-for-nothings who prefer to sit on the sofa watching TV, eating steak, gawking at pornography and soaking up fabulous government benefits instead of hauling their able bodies to work. The facts behind poverty in Missouri belie this notion, but never mind! Why let facts get in the way when stereotypes are so much easier?

I'm having a hard time not being stereotypical myself.  The editors are right - it is so much easier to stereotype than it is trying to understand statements like Robertson's gleeful expression of pornographic violence against someone who does not believe as he does, or than trying to understand people like Brattin, the Republican legislator from Missouri, who boldly (if blindly) go there with their plans to improve the lot of those less fortunate.

I just don't get these people.

Tuesday's Number: $304,149

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I’ve been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 16 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $272,225. 
• There was one satisfied judgment, for $9,626. 
• And there were two health care related bankruptcies, totaling $41,550.

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had three, totaling $31,978
• St Josephs had two, totaling $12,508
• SUNY Upstate had 11, totaling $256,962
• Community, part of Upstate, gets a ‘credit’ of $9,626 

There were two additional judgments, one for another hospital in the CNY region, and one for a medical practice in Florida, which make up the balance of $12,327.

I subtract the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they’ve already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I’ve been tracking this for two and a half years.

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Tuesday's Number: $369,972

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

Since mid-2012, I've been tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

• This week, there were 21 new judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers totaling $391,556. 
• There were three satisfied judgments, for $21,584. 
• And there were no health care related bankruptcies. 

I also track filings for each of the four Syracuse hospitals. Here’s the breakdown for this week: 

• Crouse had four, totaling $11,293
• St Josephs had two, totaling $35,838
• SUNY Upstate had 16, totaling $323,839
• Community, part of Upstate, gets a ‘credit’ of $6,596 

There was one judgment for a medical practice for $5,598, which makes up the balance.

This year, I’m subtracting the satisfied judgments from the overall totals and from the individual hospital totals; the likelihood is that they've already been incorporated into the numbers at some point now, since I've been tracking this for two and a half years. 

The paper publishes only those accounts of at least $5,000.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v24)

The Republicans in the Senate took a bold step towards something  I don't even know how to describe, with their 'open letter' to Iran, which served more to embarrass them than it did anything else. I mean, when the foreign country calls you out as propagandists with a mistaken understanding of your own constitution, I think maybe your message failed to hit the mark, right?

And, of course, the most important thing the Republicans have to do, now that they've failed to override the President's veto of the Keystone XL pipeline and failed to drive a hard bargain on immigration, ending with full funding of the Department of Homeland Security -- the single most important thing they have to do is worry about Hillary Clinton's email.  

Hillary Clinton used one Blackberry instead of two, something that hundreds of thousands of businessmen and businesswomen do each and every day. It was completely legal, and she was not the first government official to do it. She will likely be the last. She and Bill had their own server, something that most people don't do but which also was not illegal.  

She emailed people on their government emails, with the understanding that the emails would be retained in accordance with policy. Also not illegal. She turned over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department, and asked them to make every stinking page of them public, which State has said they'll do. So what's she guilty of? 

Being Hillary Clinton. She could have saved every single email, every yoga routine and grocery list and sexy message to Bill and baby pictures of her grandchild and everything in between, and it would never be enough to satisfy people.  

Meanwhile, the State Department Inspector General announced today that an unrelated investigation identified that not all of the emails that should have been retained were in fact retained.  Not just emails that Hillary sent to people, mind you, but countless thousands, maybe millions, of emails were not retained. Computers did not work; people did not retain emails as they were supposed to or tried to thwart the process, and that (as we have seen in virtually every government agency that has any technology more advanced than an abacus), the US government "cannot handle the" technology. Not HHS, not IRS, not State -- they plain old can't handle it. 

That's got me wondering, on this Wednesday, what the heck is going on?  Has Congress not approved funding for any tech upgrades since Al Gore invented the Internet?

Congressional Republicans also, of course, have time for Benghazi. Not for any particular reason, other than because,  like Jello, there's always room for Benghazi. 

Not, mind you, South Korea, where the Ambassador was injured in a daylight knife attack, had 80 some odd stitches in his head and face, had surgery on his arm, and will need continued therapy because of the nerve damage to his arm.  Why? Well, because the attack had nothing to do with the Administration, and nothing to do with Hillary Clinton, and so the poor bloodied ambassador, well screw him, right?  He's still alive, and there doesn't appear to be any way to tie Barack Obama or anyone named Clinton to it. 

This new Republican Congress we have, which I swear is acting even worse, even more petulant, even more childish and ridiculous than they did when they were the minority, has convinced themselves that the majority of Americans wanted them in office. We know that only 37% of eligible voters bothered last fall, but that's just a number. 

When I'm at my most cynical, I refer to them as #TheLeadershipWeDeserve. When they're at their most self-important, they remind us we chose them to "lead us forward."  

I'm left wondering if their GPS is government-issued.