So, New Yorkers went to the polls, and voted in a primary that mattered. There's still much thinking and talking going on, but I'm mostly wondering.
For example, we all heard from the Sanders folks - campaign people and supporters alike - about the closed primary and the Independents being 'disenfranchised' because we only allow people who are willing to commit, to vote. But I wonder why we didn't hear anything from the Green Party, and the Working Families Party, and the Conservative Party and the rest complaining about their disenfranchisement? They weren't allowed to vote for anyone either.
Hillary won cities: NYC, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Sanders won everything else. Which is bizarre, simply bizarre. That said, it still appears that Hillary can lose, and lose big to Bernie in the remaining contests, and handily win the nomination.
One figure I saw was 29% -- she only needs to get 29% of the vote each of the remaining contests from now until this blissfully ends in June, and she'll still win. I'm not sure what the Sanders campaign's plans are, but I wonder if they truly believe there's a path to victory come the convention?
More importantly, I wonder when Sanders will start telling his supporters that they are committing political suicide, and setting back any hope of progressive legislative victories under any future president if they don't vote for Clinton in the general election?
Because if all of the BernFeelers stay home, the chances of having a Republican president seem to increase, which means that, say, the likelihood of having the next few Supremes chosen by Republicans is high. And the chance of rolling back changes in voting laws, or reducing student loan debt, or expanding the Affordable Care Act (much less replacing it with something more Sandersesque) are slim to none for the duration. I can't help wondering if it's really beneficial for all of these folks to cut off their noses, or shoot themselves in the foot, or whatever other body-damaging analogy works here?
And if Sanders himself doesn't address this and encourage sanity, what happens if he endorses Clinton, as he surely will, as he must? Do the Berners turn on him as well, I wonder?
On the Republican side, His Hairness won the entire state with the exception of a handful of voters who put John Kasich on top, in that one teeny little part of the map that wasn't Trump red. I don't know about you, but I wonder if anyone thought, last June with the infamous escalator ride, that Trump was riding into this kind of success? Did even Trump picture this?
Kasich and Cruz, Cruz and Kasich. How do they pull together to stop Trump - or, I wonder, does Trump stop himself? Talking today with friends at work, and one questioned whether Trump really even wanted to be president, or if instead he really just wanted to influence who becomes the nominee for the Rs. He wondered how Trump could really walk away from his company, and his luxury, and his travel and open schedule and all of that, and actually perform the duties of the POTUS. Others, professionals in the political arena, have suggested that this was done on a lark, and Trump had no clue now how to get out. I wonder, is that really the case? And who will come to his rescue?
Finally, I wonder on this Wednesday as I have before, what my Dad would say about the Empire State and her voters, about this campaign. I don't have a clue.
April 20, 2016
April 19, 2016
Tuesday's Number: $140,688
Tuesday is the day my local paper, The 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.
This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages.
As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were only twelve new judgments, totaling $140,688 - both are nice low totals. And,for the second week in a row, there were no satisfied judgments or bankruptcies noted - a mixed bag, for sure.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
- Crouse had five, for a total of $37,899
- SUNY Upstate had the other seven, adding $102,799
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.
April 17, 2016
My Middle-aged White Lady Perspective: "Onerous" Voting Rules
Ivanka Trump, the 34 year old daughter of the Republican front-runner, has been a get-out-the-vote champion as she travels around the country supporting her father's campaign.
So has Eric Trump, her 32 year old brother.
Neither of them will be able to vote for their father in Tuesday's New York primary, because they are not registered to vote as Republicans.
The Trump kids told Anderson Cooper the other day that the problem was the rules in New York. According to Ivanka,
So, I don't know about you, but I'm not from a "family of politicians" and I "haven't been in politics" at all -- I'm just a middle-aged white lady who has been registered to vote in New York since I was eighteen years old, because that's how we did things, I guess. Yes, my parents were teachers, but my friend who's dad drove a truck registered to vote, and my friend who's dad was a businessman registered to vote, and my friend with the stay-at-home mom registered to vote, too. Most of us registered in the party of our parents - which was not uncommon at that time - but I don't remember anyone who registered as a 'no party' person.
Why? We all learned, way back then, that if you want to vote in a primary you have to be registered in a party. We also learned that, if you're registered in a party, you are not able to vote in another party's primary. We knew, all the way back then, that it mattered how you registered, because if you wanted to participate in choosing the candidates who made it into the general election, regardless of whether it was a local, state, or national race, you had to be registered as a party member.
New York's voter registration form points that out, for people who might not have been aware.
Try looking at this from a different perspective: would anyone be in favor of having the Red Sox make personnel decisions for the Yankees? Would it make any sense at all for my company to let a competitor make our hiring decisions?
Of course not.
You know what happens if you register in a political party? You get mail from candidates and elected officials. You get phone calls reminding you to vote. You get asked, sometimes, to sign nominating petitions. And sometimes you get surveys. No one spies over your shoulder to see if you're voting in line with your registration. The only time anyone looks over your shoulder is if you try and vote in the primary for a party you chose not to join.
I understand that some people might not know that New York doesn't have open primaries (which is a good thing, in my opinion), and that if a person wanted to be able to vote in the primary here, they needed to make a party designation change by October 9, 2015 - not by "almost close to a year ago" as Ivanka said. New voters had until March 25th to register, in a party, to be eligible to vote in the primary on Tuesday.
I don't feel that the rules are 'onerous' -- the instructions are clear on the NYS Board of Elections web site, and political campaigns have typically been aware of the rules that apply in each state, so as to ensure their best opportunity to get the votes they want come primary or caucus time. Generally, well -organized campaigns spend time educating people well in advance, to not lose out on potential voters.
And the rules are certain less onerous when we're talking about the second generation of a family that doesn't know how it works, especially when the kids complaining should have been voting in primaries for a number of years by now. Blaming the rules, and missing primaries, seem to be family traits.
If these kids - one a Wharton School grad, the other a Georgetown alum - who have all possible benefits, knowledge, and access, kids who are making it their mission to ensure there's a yuge pool of voters for their father in states across the country, (and who apparently learned nothing from their father having exactly the same problem previously) can't figure it out, how the heck are we supposed to Make America Great Again?
So has Eric Trump, her 32 year old brother.
Neither of them will be able to vote for their father in Tuesday's New York primary, because they are not registered to vote as Republicans.
The Trump kids told Anderson Cooper the other day that the problem was the rules in New York. According to Ivanka,
We're not a family of politicians. We haven't been in politics very long. New York has one of the most onerous rules in terms of registration, and it required us to register a long time ago - almost close to a year ago - and we didn't do that. We found out about it sort of after the fact.Eric added
It was kind of our first foray into politics. We didn't realize how the whole system worked. It was amazing. We actually made it a very big part of the campaign and there's no one that's been more visible on the campaign than the two of us, but we made it a very big part to get that message out...For his part, their father is taking it pretty well, noting
They had a long time to register and they were, you know, unaware of the rules, and they didn't, they didn't register in time. So they feel very, very guilty. But it's fine. I mean, I understand that.It's now come to light that Trump himself was not able to vote in the 2012 primary, after endorsing Mitt Romney, because - you guessed it - he was not registered as a Republican. While he's been able to change his party designation several times, having been a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent and a 'no party' guy, he was not able to get his voter registration in line with his political positions in time.
So, I don't know about you, but I'm not from a "family of politicians" and I "haven't been in politics" at all -- I'm just a middle-aged white lady who has been registered to vote in New York since I was eighteen years old, because that's how we did things, I guess. Yes, my parents were teachers, but my friend who's dad drove a truck registered to vote, and my friend who's dad was a businessman registered to vote, and my friend with the stay-at-home mom registered to vote, too. Most of us registered in the party of our parents - which was not uncommon at that time - but I don't remember anyone who registered as a 'no party' person.
Why? We all learned, way back then, that if you want to vote in a primary you have to be registered in a party. We also learned that, if you're registered in a party, you are not able to vote in another party's primary. We knew, all the way back then, that it mattered how you registered, because if you wanted to participate in choosing the candidates who made it into the general election, regardless of whether it was a local, state, or national race, you had to be registered as a party member.
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| NY Voter Registration Form screen capture |
Try looking at this from a different perspective: would anyone be in favor of having the Red Sox make personnel decisions for the Yankees? Would it make any sense at all for my company to let a competitor make our hiring decisions?
Of course not.
You know what happens if you register in a political party? You get mail from candidates and elected officials. You get phone calls reminding you to vote. You get asked, sometimes, to sign nominating petitions. And sometimes you get surveys. No one spies over your shoulder to see if you're voting in line with your registration. The only time anyone looks over your shoulder is if you try and vote in the primary for a party you chose not to join.
I understand that some people might not know that New York doesn't have open primaries (which is a good thing, in my opinion), and that if a person wanted to be able to vote in the primary here, they needed to make a party designation change by October 9, 2015 - not by "almost close to a year ago" as Ivanka said. New voters had until March 25th to register, in a party, to be eligible to vote in the primary on Tuesday.
I don't feel that the rules are 'onerous' -- the instructions are clear on the NYS Board of Elections web site, and political campaigns have typically been aware of the rules that apply in each state, so as to ensure their best opportunity to get the votes they want come primary or caucus time. Generally, well -organized campaigns spend time educating people well in advance, to not lose out on potential voters.
And the rules are certain less onerous when we're talking about the second generation of a family that doesn't know how it works, especially when the kids complaining should have been voting in primaries for a number of years by now. Blaming the rules, and missing primaries, seem to be family traits.
If these kids - one a Wharton School grad, the other a Georgetown alum - who have all possible benefits, knowledge, and access, kids who are making it their mission to ensure there's a yuge pool of voters for their father in states across the country, (and who apparently learned nothing from their father having exactly the same problem previously) can't figure it out, how the heck are we supposed to Make America Great Again?
April 13, 2016
The Update Desk: Poor Ethan, Revisited
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| graphiq |
The 'affluenza defense' made him famous, when he drove drunk and killed four people, injured several others, and was sentenced to probation because he was raised so badly as to be completely disconnected from the reality of what he did.
You can read more here and here on his case, which dates back to 2013.
Ethan ran to Mexico with his mother, then was found and returned to Texas to await the next phase of his path to adulthood. There was some thinking that, since he was a minor when he crashed his truck, and was sentenced originally as a minor, that he would continue in juvenile court.
No such luck.
He met his first judge as an adult today, and was told he'd be staying in jail, at least for now, and was sentenced to about two years of time.
That's 180 days for each of the four who were killed in the accident that changed his life, and the lives of the victims who survived, and the families of those who did not, forever.
April 12, 2016
Tuesday's Number: $724,410
This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages. As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were 39 new judgments, totaling $724,410. No satisfied judgments or bankruptcies were reported.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
- Crouse had five, for a total of $45,562
- St Joe’s had one, for $6,431
- SUNY Upstate had 32, adding $667,249
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.
April 5, 2016
Tuesday's Number: $882,944
This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages. As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were 30 new judgments, totaling $819,378; two satisfied judgments for $12,258 and three bankruptcies totaling $75,824.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
- Crouse had three, for $38,331
- St Joe’s had two – the repayments - for a net credit of $12,258
- SUNY Upstate had 28, for total of $833,575
The filings for SUNY Upstate this week were more than $100,000 higher than the highest single week total (all filings, all providers) so far this year.
Single filings each for a local regional medical center and an anesthesia practice in Illinois accounted for the remaining $23,296.
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.
April 3, 2016
Knock Knock. Who's There? Fractured Democrats.
Fractured Democrats who?Fractured Democrats who, it seems, are bound and determined to make their party look as silly as the Republicans this election cycle.
We've heard all along about how Hillary delayed her announcement long enough to make it practically impossible for anyone else to get in the race early enough to get big-donor support and super delegats aligned. And we've heard about how the DNC, under the 'leadership' of Debbie Wasserman Shultz, has been trying to make the nomination a slam-dunk for Hillary Clinton. The DNC had shut the Sanders camp out of their own donor database after the campaign 'inadvertently' accessed the Clinton donor database; the inadvertent access happened because the DNC had crappy firewalls between the two and didn't keep them separated, according to the Sanders folks.
And we've heard about how the initial very limited debate schedule (six I think?) was set up on purpose to favor Clinton, with debates in locations and at times that were favorable to her constituency and unfavorable to the Sanders constituency. You know, like scheduling one at 9PM on a Saturday night during the college football playoffs, leaving only old people to watch the political 'playoff', or at 9PM on a Sunday night when I think everyone but me was settling down for the last season of Downton Abbey.
Now the camps are trying to work out having a debate in New York, the actual home state of the Vermont Senator and the adopted home state of She Who Wears the Cloak of Inevitability. After finally agreeing to at least have a discussion about scheduling a debate in a delegate-rich state that is, surprisingly, still relevant in April, there were some dates offered by both sides and rejected by both sides.
One was Monday night, April 4th. The night that the NCAA men's college basketball championship will be played. At the time the debate discussions were being held, the Sanders camp noted that it was sort of ridiculous to pick that night, generally, and specifically since Syracuse was in the hunt for the championship (sadly, we were knocked out by UNC last night). Shout out to the #FeelTheBern team on that.
According to the Clinton camp, they offered a time that would have allowed the debate to end before the start of the game, and the Sanders people turned that down. Um, do they know anything about college sports over in Hillaryville?
Surely she must remember this picture of her husband, right? She was the first lady of Arkansas, for heaven's sake. Does she actually think that anyone in the entire state of Arkansas would watch a debate in the hours leading up to a Razorbacks game, in any sport?
Hell no -- they're in sports bars and man caves getting ready, not sitting home waiting eagerly for a debate.
And, pretending for a second that they could get their heads around a disciplined discussion on trade or immigration while wearing their game day attire, is the thinking that after the debate, they' all go racing out to said sports bars and spend the first half of the game trying to find a parking space?
Of course not. And I can assure you New Yorkers are the same. You want a7:30 debate on Final Four Monday? Good lord.
One of the other times was on Thursday evening, April 14th. Bernie has a huge rally scheduled for that day, so clearly he's less than interested in debating before or after the rally, right? Or first thing in the morning on the 15th.
Yep -- first thing in the morning (an idea discussed and maybe even agreed to by both camps) on Good Morning America. Let that sink in for a moment.
The best time for a presidential debate is between 7AM - 9AM on a Friday morning? In what country? In what century? Who's the target audience for this one, stay at home moms? That's the target voting cohort they're trying to reach? And no, I'm not picking on stay at home moms; Hillary already did that, several years ago. I'm just questioning that demographic as a specific group to reach for a presidential candidates debate.
There have even been arguments made that there shouldn't be a debate during the last few days of the tax season, because people won't be able to focus on the political stuff as they sweated out their income tax returns. I kid you not.
Even with our primary being moving from Super Tuesday (where it was in 2008), to mid-April, Democrats in New York still have a chance to actually make a difference, to have a say in picking the standard-bearer of our party, and this is what the candidates offer us?
Maybe relevance isn't all it's cracked up to be. And maybe, the Dems are closer in ridiculousity to the Reps than they wish we knew.
March 31, 2016
Leave Your Guns at Home, Please
RECOGNIZE OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO OPEN CARRY FIREARMS AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION AT THE QUICKEN LOANS ARENA IN JULY 2016
In case you had missed this, it seems someone started
a petition at Change.org asking the RNC to reconsider their decision to hold
their convention at a gun-free arena. Because, you know,
This is a direct affront to the Second Amendment and puts all attendees at risk. As the National Rifle Association has made clear, "gun-free zones" such as the Quicken Loans Arena are "the worst and most dangerous of all lies." The NRA, our leading defender of gun rights has also correctly pointed out that "gun free zones...tell every insane killer in America... (the) safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk." (March 4, 2016 and Dec. 21, 2012)
Because
Cleveland is a top ten most dangerous city, the petition states, the actions of
the RNC and The Q, as the arena is known, "are putting tens of
thousands of people at risk both inside and outside the convention site."
And –
This doesn't even begin to factor in the possibility of an ISIS terrorist attack on the arena during the convention. Without the right to protect themselves, those at the Quicken Loans Arena will be sitting ducks, utterly helpless against evil-doers, criminals or others who wish to threaten the American way of life.
Once you count ISIS, evil-doers and criminals, could there even be anyone left
who would threaten our way of life? Let's see:
All three remaining Republican candidates have spoken out on the issue and are unified in their opposition to Barack HUSSEIN Obama's "gun-free zones."
So, THAT'S who's left to threaten our American way of life, right? That
president with the funny middle name? Of
course, we have nothing to fear from the candidate with the funny FIRST name;
you know, the one who actually wasn’t born in America? Because, well, you know, because Benghazi or something.
Having outlined the above concerns, and having included some other stuff I didn't (not wanting to spoil the whole thing), the petition asks that appropriate steps be taken to ensure a
righteous and open convention come July:
The folks at the Quicken Loans Arena are asked to suspend their no weapons policy (which is consistent with Ohio's open-carry law, by the way) and allow open carry during the convention. (emphasis added)
Not, mind you, all the time - just during the convention. This is not about a principle or closely-held personal belief or anything.
The NRA should issue an "immediate condemnation of the egregious affront to the Second Amendment..." stemming from the gun-free loophole in Ohio's law.
The 'loophole' refers to a provision of the Ohio statute that gives private entities the right to ban handguns on their property, so "firearms and other weapons of any kind are strictly forbidden on the premises..."
Governor Kasich, himself one of the last candidates standing, should use his executive powers to override the above-referenced loophole being "exploited" by the arena.
Reince Priebus, that bastage, needs to provide "an explanation of how a venue so unfriendly to Second Amendment rights was chosen" for the GOP's summer picnic, and he needs to come up with a "contingency plan to relocate the convention" if the open carry restriction is not lifted.
The other two candidates, Donald Trump and Rafael Cruz, "must call upon the RNC to rectify this affront", yada yada yada, because "Every American is endowed with a God-given Constitutional right to carry a gun wherever and whenever they please."Meaning, wherever and whenever they please, as long as it's during the RNC Convention, at the Quicken Loans Arena, in Cleveland, OH from July 18 - 21, 2016.
Alas, all of the honest to goodness reasonable Republicans, along with white supremacists, he-man woman haters, free speech and media haters, schoolyard bullies, and all the rest of the folks who will be under the tent who were hoping for an old-fashioned shoot-em-up convention had their hopes dashed by that gosh darn Secret Service.
According to an article in the Washington Post (and widely reported elsewhere), it seems the US Code gives the Secret Service the authority to "preclude firearms from entering sites visited by our protectees, including those (sites) located in open-carry states."
Poor things. Part of me was kinda hoping there'd be a real battle for the nomination.
March 30, 2016
Wondering on Wednesday (v52)
Oh boy, he sure put his foot in it today, didn't The Donald?
Nothing will antagonize people on the Left and the Right more than making the wrong statement about abortion. Well, maybe making the wrong statement about guns. Or the wrong statement about the Dream Act. Or, maybe, the wrong statement about veterans. Or Christians. Or marriage licenses. Or, well, any number of other hot button issues, which I guess is just about every issue our country faces today.
So what did His Hairness say today that almost got him schlonged? Oh wait, I meant nuked, sorry.
Well, in a conversation with Chris Matthews on MSNBC (recapped here on the NBC Nightly News), Trump stated that if abortion was banned and made illegal, there "would have to be some kind of punishment" if a woman got one anyway. Matthews, to his credit, did not have a heart attack, or even jump up and down doing a happy dance that he had finally asked the question that might take Trump down.
Instead, he pressed, and pressed, and pressed, trying to get Trump to commit. to a specific punishment. Ten cents? Ten years? Trump answered probably a dozen times that the punishment would have to be determined. And so it went, until the actual exchange was pushed off the air by the comments from everyone else.
Trump, like the rest of the Republican Presidential candidates, many sitting governors, and a boatload of others running for office in various jurisdictions, wants abortion to be banned, "with exceptions" but no one of any prominence has come out and said that the woman should be punished.
Now, everyone knows that I think the last way in the world to Make America Great Again is to vote for Trump - you can read all about that here. And most folks also know that the last place I want a Republican or Democrat politician, at the state or federal level, is anywhere near my lady parts - even if the politician has lady parts herself. You can read about that starting here.
I get the outrage from the Left on this one, but I have to wonder about all of the pearl-clutching from the Right, don't you?
Is 'punishing' someone who has an abortion too much for them, all of the sudden? I mean, we read about people who kill pregnant women being charged with two murders, the mother and the fetus, and that's not only OK, it's encouraged, it's sought after. So if someone else kills a fetus, it's murder, but if the mother does it, what do we call it?
We call it murder, that's what we call it.
Abortion is murder, the protesters tell women at clinics. They tell patients that, sometimes aggressively, with the approval of the courts, because being able to shout "abortion is murder" and "rot in hell" and whatnot within a couple of feet of a woman going to a doctor's office is just speech, and that's protected and good, if you're screaming from the Right side.
So, if abortion is murder, and murder is a crime, and crimes deserve to be punished, why the queasiness about punishing a woman who would break the law to have an abortion?
And why is the woman who has an abortion a 'victim' if the abortion is illegal, but she's not a 'victim' when abortion is legal?
And if she's deserving of compassion because of the horrible situation she's in, a situation so bad that she seeks out a way to have the procedure done illegally, where is the compassion when she tries to do the same legally, I wonder? The situation itself is exactly the same, it's only treated differently.
And where is the compassion when the Right requires forced and unnecessary medical procedures, and ridiculous requirements on the temperature of a clinic, or on the width of the hallways such that two pieces of hospital equipment not even found in abortion clinics need to be able to fit side by side? Failure to comply with those rules can cause a clinic to lose its license.
And where is the compassion in making a woman, of any age, travel hundreds of miles, to go to a 'safe clinic', multiple times perhaps, before receiving a procedure? Or, to take that further, if the point of these ridiculous laws is to protect the safety of the woman seeking the care, why force her to go to a state that doesn't have the same protections, Texas?
And why gut funding for contraceptive health care which, as even most elementary kids know, is designed to prevent the need for abortions, Ohio and the rest of you?
If the Right wants to be tough on crime, and tough on legal abortion, then they should be standing up in support of Trump's comment, instead of running from it. They should be shouting it from the rooftops, rather than shouting at Trump for saying what he did. They should be castigating him for walking it back, as he did, instead of castigating him for saying it in the first place.
If not, their convictions are without courage, and conversely.
Nothing will antagonize people on the Left and the Right more than making the wrong statement about abortion. Well, maybe making the wrong statement about guns. Or the wrong statement about the Dream Act. Or, maybe, the wrong statement about veterans. Or Christians. Or marriage licenses. Or, well, any number of other hot button issues, which I guess is just about every issue our country faces today.
So what did His Hairness say today that almost got him schlonged? Oh wait, I meant nuked, sorry.
Well, in a conversation with Chris Matthews on MSNBC (recapped here on the NBC Nightly News), Trump stated that if abortion was banned and made illegal, there "would have to be some kind of punishment" if a woman got one anyway. Matthews, to his credit, did not have a heart attack, or even jump up and down doing a happy dance that he had finally asked the question that might take Trump down.
Instead, he pressed, and pressed, and pressed, trying to get Trump to commit. to a specific punishment. Ten cents? Ten years? Trump answered probably a dozen times that the punishment would have to be determined. And so it went, until the actual exchange was pushed off the air by the comments from everyone else.
Trump, like the rest of the Republican Presidential candidates, many sitting governors, and a boatload of others running for office in various jurisdictions, wants abortion to be banned, "with exceptions" but no one of any prominence has come out and said that the woman should be punished.
Now, everyone knows that I think the last way in the world to Make America Great Again is to vote for Trump - you can read all about that here. And most folks also know that the last place I want a Republican or Democrat politician, at the state or federal level, is anywhere near my lady parts - even if the politician has lady parts herself. You can read about that starting here.
I get the outrage from the Left on this one, but I have to wonder about all of the pearl-clutching from the Right, don't you?
Is 'punishing' someone who has an abortion too much for them, all of the sudden? I mean, we read about people who kill pregnant women being charged with two murders, the mother and the fetus, and that's not only OK, it's encouraged, it's sought after. So if someone else kills a fetus, it's murder, but if the mother does it, what do we call it?
We call it murder, that's what we call it.
Abortion is murder, the protesters tell women at clinics. They tell patients that, sometimes aggressively, with the approval of the courts, because being able to shout "abortion is murder" and "rot in hell" and whatnot within a couple of feet of a woman going to a doctor's office is just speech, and that's protected and good, if you're screaming from the Right side.
So, if abortion is murder, and murder is a crime, and crimes deserve to be punished, why the queasiness about punishing a woman who would break the law to have an abortion?
And why is the woman who has an abortion a 'victim' if the abortion is illegal, but she's not a 'victim' when abortion is legal?
And if she's deserving of compassion because of the horrible situation she's in, a situation so bad that she seeks out a way to have the procedure done illegally, where is the compassion when she tries to do the same legally, I wonder? The situation itself is exactly the same, it's only treated differently.
And where is the compassion when the Right requires forced and unnecessary medical procedures, and ridiculous requirements on the temperature of a clinic, or on the width of the hallways such that two pieces of hospital equipment not even found in abortion clinics need to be able to fit side by side? Failure to comply with those rules can cause a clinic to lose its license.
And where is the compassion in making a woman, of any age, travel hundreds of miles, to go to a 'safe clinic', multiple times perhaps, before receiving a procedure? Or, to take that further, if the point of these ridiculous laws is to protect the safety of the woman seeking the care, why force her to go to a state that doesn't have the same protections, Texas?
And why gut funding for contraceptive health care which, as even most elementary kids know, is designed to prevent the need for abortions, Ohio and the rest of you?
If the Right wants to be tough on crime, and tough on legal abortion, then they should be standing up in support of Trump's comment, instead of running from it. They should be shouting it from the rooftops, rather than shouting at Trump for saying what he did. They should be castigating him for walking it back, as he did, instead of castigating him for saying it in the first place.
If not, their convictions are without courage, and conversely.
March 29, 2016
Tuesday's Number :Q1 2016 Recap
Have you been paying attention as we ran up the totals over the past thirteen weeks? How do you think we did?
Well, let's take a look at the numbers: There were 241 judgments, for $4,208,313; eleven satisfied judgments, for a credit of $155,242, and another eleven bankruptcies for $236,317. The grand total? 263 filings, for a net total of $4,289,388.
Here's how the numbers compare to prior first quarters:
- This is the lowest opening quarter we've had for total dollars; the previous low was in 2014, at $5,163,376. The highest was in 2013, with $6,992,112.
- The number of filings is up one over Q1 2015, up 10 over Q1 2014, and down 48 from Q1 2013.
- Only one of the four local hospitals - Crouse - had an increase in net filings, but the increase was only $2,705 over last year's Q1 number.
- The net of all filings for St Joe's was the lowest ever, not just the lowest first quarter number.
- The amount of satisfied judgments continues to lag behind the amount of bankruptcies, but the ratio was better than it has been in a couple of years. Repayments were 59% of the 'never payments', compared to only 35% last year and 39% in 2014.
- The total for this quarter is up a mere $20,571 over Q4 2015.
While I continue to be disappointed in the low repayments and relatively high bankruptcies, in the overall scheme of things, we didn't fare too badly. Let's hope for continued improvement going forward.
Tuesday's Number: $631,504
This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages. As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were 44 new judgments, totaling $637,816, one satisfied judgment, for $6,312, and no bankruptcies.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
- Crouse had eight, for $66,272
- St Joe’s had two, including the repayment, for a net of $1,228
- SUNY Upstate had 33, their largest number of filings for the year, totaling $528,202.
Single filings each for a major local cancer treatment practice and a rehab center accounted for the remaining $35,802.
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.
March 28, 2016
The Place We Call Home (Part Two)
In Sunday's post, I referenced the idea that I've floated a couple of times, that we should have a 'Parade of Homes' in Syracuse, to generate interest for people moving to city neighborhoods like the one we live in, or that our friends and family who still live in the city enjoy.
One thing Syracuse is doing, through the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, is getting tax delinquent houses out of the hands of people who cannot or will not pay the taxes or maintain the properties, and get them into the hands of people who will. Houses that are too far gone are demolished, which leaves a hole in the neighborhood, to be sure - but the hole in the neighborhood is better than a crack house, or an arson target, or a long-term blight that pulls down all of the other houses.
We live next door to a Land Bank success story. A few years back, a couple bought the empty house next door to us with the intention of fixing it up; you can read how that quickly went south and then picked up, and got better. And finally, last fall, the Land Bank and Home Headquarters, and my new friend Ray you met in those blog posts, gave us a gift: the house, completely refurbished - no, transformed is the better word - was sold for $95,000 to a wonderful family.
We got lucky with the house next door, I know, and I'm very aware that everyone doesn't have the same outcome. There's simply not enough money to go around to give every neighborhood, the help it deserves.
Enter Tim Rudd, the newest guest columnist for the Post Standard. He's local; according to his bio, he graduated from Henninger and the Maxwell School at SU, and currently works in the social research field.
In a thoughtful commentary a couple of weeks ago, he noted that the Land Bank cannot on its own handle the problem of Syracuse's tax delinquent properties, because the problem is bigger than that:
How do we do that?
Treating our neighborhood problem as an economic development problem rather than as a property tax or property management problem, is a really interesting approach. And, it's broader than my Parade plan; where I looked for a neighborhood solution, Rudd looks at an individual homeowner solution. I really like his idea. He suggests we provide the same type of assistance to residents as we do to companies:
If they're willing to continue subsidizing profitable companies in their move from one part of the county to another, or offering huge tax breaks to private developers who may or may not keep their commitments for development and job creation, our elected officials should certainly consider Rudd's suggestion.
Because in the end, we can spend all the money in the world on fancy projects and pretty buildings, but without people, what's the point?
One thing Syracuse is doing, through the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, is getting tax delinquent houses out of the hands of people who cannot or will not pay the taxes or maintain the properties, and get them into the hands of people who will. Houses that are too far gone are demolished, which leaves a hole in the neighborhood, to be sure - but the hole in the neighborhood is better than a crack house, or an arson target, or a long-term blight that pulls down all of the other houses.
We live next door to a Land Bank success story. A few years back, a couple bought the empty house next door to us with the intention of fixing it up; you can read how that quickly went south and then picked up, and got better. And finally, last fall, the Land Bank and Home Headquarters, and my new friend Ray you met in those blog posts, gave us a gift: the house, completely refurbished - no, transformed is the better word - was sold for $95,000 to a wonderful family.
We got lucky with the house next door, I know, and I'm very aware that everyone doesn't have the same outcome. There's simply not enough money to go around to give every neighborhood, the help it deserves.
Enter Tim Rudd, the newest guest columnist for the Post Standard. He's local; according to his bio, he graduated from Henninger and the Maxwell School at SU, and currently works in the social research field.
In a thoughtful commentary a couple of weeks ago, he noted that the Land Bank cannot on its own handle the problem of Syracuse's tax delinquent properties, because the problem is bigger than that:
As properties become tax delinquent, they often become rundown and less valuable. Thus there is often a gap between the actual and assessed value of properties taken by a land bank. To date, the land bank has not taken possession of all the delinquent properties that the city will eventually seize. This means, to the extent that assessments overstate actual value, downward assessments will continue and less property value will remain to support existing services, at least in the short term. A substantial long-term decrease in total assessed value could hurt the city's credit rating, making its debt larger compared to total property value. In order to protect the city's ability to make investments in our future, it is critical that government leaders expand and strengthen their efforts to stabilize and grow the property tax base.The other danger of a continued downward trend in total assessed value is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Think about it: would you want to be the person to save the last house on the block? Or the next to last house on the block? Wouldn't it be better to get in when, say, the street has at least a 50/50 chance of survival?
How do we do that?
Specifically, government should create financial incentives for individuals, similar to those provided to large developers, to attract and retain residents who will pay taxes for many years. These incentives should economically develop city residents (emphasis added).Economically develop residents? Huh?
Treating our neighborhood problem as an economic development problem rather than as a property tax or property management problem, is a really interesting approach. And, it's broader than my Parade plan; where I looked for a neighborhood solution, Rudd looks at an individual homeowner solution. I really like his idea. He suggests we provide the same type of assistance to residents as we do to companies:
Individuals who will live in a house should get preferential purchase prices, instant access to financing, and a structured tax agreement (essentially a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT) where some fraction of their taxes pay for the initial investment in their property. These incentives should be promoted beyond Syracuse in hope that they will attract new residents.And why not? The city needs residents, desperately, and it needs owner-occupied houses. It needs to return to being more than just hipster downtown. We need to expand the energy and growth (and occupancy rates) of downtown out into our neighborhoods, and by Jove, if we have to incent people to come and play with us, why not?
If they're willing to continue subsidizing profitable companies in their move from one part of the county to another, or offering huge tax breaks to private developers who may or may not keep their commitments for development and job creation, our elected officials should certainly consider Rudd's suggestion.
Because in the end, we can spend all the money in the world on fancy projects and pretty buildings, but without people, what's the point?
March 27, 2016
The Place We Call Home (Part One)
Last weekend my husband and I attended the Home and Garden Show sponsored by the Homebuilders and Remodelers Association of CNY (HBRCNY).
The HBRCNY does a really good job with the show, making sure that there are at least a couple of options for folks in each of the common remodeling categories. They also have pretty good representation from their members who build new homes, and some of those booths seemed to be getting quite a bit of interest, as they do every year, from people who dream of having their perfect house, with all of the modern technology, and the kitchen/great room, or the man cave, or the patio and fire pit, or maybe a pool or even waterfront, if they find the right development.
We go to the show almost every year. Sometimes we're on a mission - last year, it was finding someone to paint the house, which was a hugely successful adventure. Our painter was there again this year, featuring 'before and after' pictures of our house that almost took my breath away. This year it's getting someone to take a look at a maple tree in the back garden that has definitely seen better days; we've already booked the first consultation. Other times, though, we go just to look at what's new and trending in landscaping, patios, fencing, driveways, and renovating old homes like ours.
Our house is a city home, built over 100 years ago. And that poses some challenges, for sure. The list of "gee it would be fun to fix..." can get quite long, when we think about it; the reality is we would need a lottery jackpot to take care of everything we could fix. So, we chip away at things that have to be fixed, a bit at a time, watching as the mega-jackpots go to folks in other states, with other dreams.
Pat's lived in Syracuse his entire life; I grew up in the boons but have lived in the city since '79. This is our home. This house, with our gardens and our high ceilings and our porches and our front and back staircases and our pocket doors and all of its other little quirks and perks, and Pat's over 20 years of blood, sweat and tears, is where we want to be.
I wish more people wanted to be here, in the city. I wish more people were here.
I wish more people wanted to live in city neighborhoods like ours: good neighborhoods, generally safe neighborhoods, generally well-taken care of neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with homes having a mix of styles, and ages. On one side of us, the original house dates to 1860; on the other side, the house is just a couple of years older than ours - and two doors up, another oldie, from 1840. Across the street, most of the houses are newer, built between 1920 - 1950 or so.
The neighborhood is racially mixed; we have some houses occupied by families with kids, a couple of homes that are multi-generational, and there's even a shelter for homeless teens a few doors up.
Yes, I wish more people were here, and wanted to be here.
As I've noted in the past, I also wish the HBRCNY would undertake a Parade of Homes in the city of Syracuse, instead of staying in 'burbs. I think of it every year when we go to the Home and Garden Show, and again each year when the Parade of Homes opens. This year's Parade, which is really the one we should have had last year but was postponed because of the cold winter, is being held in Manlius, one of the wealthiest suburbs, once again. And once again, no city neighborhood is being swarmed with skilled contractors, with modern technology, with a blitz of construction activity. And that's a shame, because there are lots of neighborhoods in the city that could use Parade-like attention.
Here's my post on this from a while back, which I shared with a prominent city politician; she's not abandoned the idea yet, but she also hasn't made any progress on it, either. I've tried not to bother her too much, but I do touch base with her on occasion to see if there's anything I can do, anyone I can meet with, anyone I can talk with, to help make this happen.
While I've been trying to come up with a way to have a Parade of Homes in Syracuse, someone else has come up with another idea that would move us in a similar direction. I'll talk about that in my next post.
The HBRCNY does a really good job with the show, making sure that there are at least a couple of options for folks in each of the common remodeling categories. They also have pretty good representation from their members who build new homes, and some of those booths seemed to be getting quite a bit of interest, as they do every year, from people who dream of having their perfect house, with all of the modern technology, and the kitchen/great room, or the man cave, or the patio and fire pit, or maybe a pool or even waterfront, if they find the right development.
We go to the show almost every year. Sometimes we're on a mission - last year, it was finding someone to paint the house, which was a hugely successful adventure. Our painter was there again this year, featuring 'before and after' pictures of our house that almost took my breath away. This year it's getting someone to take a look at a maple tree in the back garden that has definitely seen better days; we've already booked the first consultation. Other times, though, we go just to look at what's new and trending in landscaping, patios, fencing, driveways, and renovating old homes like ours.
Our house is a city home, built over 100 years ago. And that poses some challenges, for sure. The list of "gee it would be fun to fix..." can get quite long, when we think about it; the reality is we would need a lottery jackpot to take care of everything we could fix. So, we chip away at things that have to be fixed, a bit at a time, watching as the mega-jackpots go to folks in other states, with other dreams.
Pat's lived in Syracuse his entire life; I grew up in the boons but have lived in the city since '79. This is our home. This house, with our gardens and our high ceilings and our porches and our front and back staircases and our pocket doors and all of its other little quirks and perks, and Pat's over 20 years of blood, sweat and tears, is where we want to be.
I wish more people wanted to be here, in the city. I wish more people were here.
I wish more people wanted to live in city neighborhoods like ours: good neighborhoods, generally safe neighborhoods, generally well-taken care of neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with homes having a mix of styles, and ages. On one side of us, the original house dates to 1860; on the other side, the house is just a couple of years older than ours - and two doors up, another oldie, from 1840. Across the street, most of the houses are newer, built between 1920 - 1950 or so.
The neighborhood is racially mixed; we have some houses occupied by families with kids, a couple of homes that are multi-generational, and there's even a shelter for homeless teens a few doors up.
Yes, I wish more people were here, and wanted to be here.
As I've noted in the past, I also wish the HBRCNY would undertake a Parade of Homes in the city of Syracuse, instead of staying in 'burbs. I think of it every year when we go to the Home and Garden Show, and again each year when the Parade of Homes opens. This year's Parade, which is really the one we should have had last year but was postponed because of the cold winter, is being held in Manlius, one of the wealthiest suburbs, once again. And once again, no city neighborhood is being swarmed with skilled contractors, with modern technology, with a blitz of construction activity. And that's a shame, because there are lots of neighborhoods in the city that could use Parade-like attention.
Here's my post on this from a while back, which I shared with a prominent city politician; she's not abandoned the idea yet, but she also hasn't made any progress on it, either. I've tried not to bother her too much, but I do touch base with her on occasion to see if there's anything I can do, anyone I can meet with, anyone I can talk with, to help make this happen.
While I've been trying to come up with a way to have a Parade of Homes in Syracuse, someone else has come up with another idea that would move us in a similar direction. I'll talk about that in my next post.
March 22, 2016
Wondering on Wednesday (v51)
I'm saddened by the bombings in Brussels, as are all peace-loving people of the world. I'm upset, I'm angry, I'm disgusted, but I'm not scared. I'm not particularly tough or brave or anything like that. I just don't want them to win.
I wonder about comments made by those who would be President, including Rafael Cruz who talks about empowering law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.
And that's what got me wondering what it is, exactly, that an American president should do when on a state visit to a country and a foreign city is attacked by suicide bombers?
Should he bolt back to Washington, to talk on the phone with foreign leaders, or with senior staff members, when he's been in contact with them all day long anyway? Is he unable to direct the considerable forces of America in all their forms, whether intelligence, national security, foreign affairs, military or otherwise, when he's not sitting at his desk? Because if the American President is completely out of touch when not sitting in the Oval, we're in deep doo doo.
Should he and all of the rest of us pack it in, go home, sit in the dark, and wait for something bad to happen here, wait for the war on terror to be over, because another European city was attacked? Do we hide, and let the terrorists win? Do we go on television and let the world know our every thought, plan, idea, and next step? Or, do we defiantly keep to our schedule, after addressing the issue publicly and privately? I wonder.
And I wonder what, exactly, it is that an American president should do when dealing with a communist country?
A Republican American president broke barriers and went to China. A Republican American president broke barriers and went to the Soviet Union. A Democratic American president broke barriers and went to Cuba, and you would think the world had come to an end. But it doesn't come to an end, when Republican presidents visit 'red' nations, does it? And so why would anyone think that the world should come to an end, or will come to an end, when a Democrat visits a communist country a mere 90 miles away from our shores? I wonder. Should a Democratic president never visit a communist country? Is that just the purview of Republicans?
I also wonder what, exactly, it is that an American president should do when he has three quarters of year left in his term?
He's not allowed to work. He's not allowed to play. He's not allowed to travel. He's not allowed to act normally.
He gets chastised for making decisions: either they're "not his to make" or they're wrong, or bad, or ill-advised. He'd also be chastised, we all know, if he were to sit on his hands and do nothing for the rest of his presidency. He gets chastised for adding money for 'former president maintenance' in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The year in which he becomes an additional former president. Had he not added money to the budget, he would have been chastised for that too, because the money would have had to come from somewhere - the budgets for former Presidents Bush, perhaps?
You don't have to love the man, or his policies, or his race, or his wife, or his daughters, or his background, or his name, or anything about him. Many people don't, and that's their right. He has alternately inspired and infuriated me, more the latter, and it's my right to think that of him as well.
But I wonder what, exactly, President Barack Obama could to to quiet his critics, other than perhaps throw himself off the edge of the earth?
I wonder about comments made by those who would be President, including Rafael Cruz who talks about empowering law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.
And that's what got me wondering what it is, exactly, that an American president should do when on a state visit to a country and a foreign city is attacked by suicide bombers?
Should he bolt back to Washington, to talk on the phone with foreign leaders, or with senior staff members, when he's been in contact with them all day long anyway? Is he unable to direct the considerable forces of America in all their forms, whether intelligence, national security, foreign affairs, military or otherwise, when he's not sitting at his desk? Because if the American President is completely out of touch when not sitting in the Oval, we're in deep doo doo.
Should he and all of the rest of us pack it in, go home, sit in the dark, and wait for something bad to happen here, wait for the war on terror to be over, because another European city was attacked? Do we hide, and let the terrorists win? Do we go on television and let the world know our every thought, plan, idea, and next step? Or, do we defiantly keep to our schedule, after addressing the issue publicly and privately? I wonder.
And I wonder what, exactly, it is that an American president should do when dealing with a communist country?
A Republican American president broke barriers and went to China. A Republican American president broke barriers and went to the Soviet Union. A Democratic American president broke barriers and went to Cuba, and you would think the world had come to an end. But it doesn't come to an end, when Republican presidents visit 'red' nations, does it? And so why would anyone think that the world should come to an end, or will come to an end, when a Democrat visits a communist country a mere 90 miles away from our shores? I wonder. Should a Democratic president never visit a communist country? Is that just the purview of Republicans?
I also wonder what, exactly, it is that an American president should do when he has three quarters of year left in his term?
He's not allowed to work. He's not allowed to play. He's not allowed to travel. He's not allowed to act normally.
He gets chastised for making decisions: either they're "not his to make" or they're wrong, or bad, or ill-advised. He'd also be chastised, we all know, if he were to sit on his hands and do nothing for the rest of his presidency. He gets chastised for adding money for 'former president maintenance' in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The year in which he becomes an additional former president. Had he not added money to the budget, he would have been chastised for that too, because the money would have had to come from somewhere - the budgets for former Presidents Bush, perhaps?
You don't have to love the man, or his policies, or his race, or his wife, or his daughters, or his background, or his name, or anything about him. Many people don't, and that's their right. He has alternately inspired and infuriated me, more the latter, and it's my right to think that of him as well.
But I wonder what, exactly, President Barack Obama could to to quiet his critics, other than perhaps throw himself off the edge of the earth?
Tuesday's Number: $501,927
This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages. As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were 24 new judgments, totaling $483,377, and one bankruptcy, for $18,850. There were no satisfied judgments listed.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
Crouse had eleven, for $144,343
St Joe’s had one, for $7,603
SUNY Upstate had thirteen, adding $349,981
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.
March 20, 2016
Grains of Salt (v7) Let's Go, Orange!
History was made today for Syracuse University Athletics.
For the first time in the program's history, the Syracuse University women's basketball team won both games in the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament, putting them in the Sweet Sixteen. The team won their 27th game, also a record.
SU's head coach Quentin Hillsman, who in years past was known more for his sartorial splendor than for his team's play, has slowly and methodically built a successful program on the hill, noted
Meanwhile, out in St. Louis, the men's team beat Dayton in a grudge match on Friday, the Flyers having knocked SU out of the tourney the last time out, in 2014 (SU sat out last year under a self-imposed penalty). And they won handily just moments ago against Cinderella team Middle Tennessee State, who knocked off second seed Michigan State in the first round.
The Orange had muddled their way through Coach Jim Boeheim's nine-game suspension, and lost five of their last six games to close out the season, including a first round loss in the ACC tourney. Many, including me, had doubts about whether they'd even get an invitation to the Big Dance. Now, in the vernacular, the team is "peaking at the right time" and have picked up wins 20 and 21, something that usually happens before the end of February.
The women will be heading off to Sioux Falls to play on Friday against either top seed South Carolina or ninth seed Kansas State. The men will head to Chicago to take on 11th seed Gonzaga, also on Friday.
Two SU teams in the Sweet Sixteen is sweet, indeed.
Good luck to both teams, and let's go Orange!
For the first time in the program's history, the Syracuse University women's basketball team won both games in the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament, putting them in the Sweet Sixteen. The team won their 27th game, also a record.
SU's head coach Quentin Hillsman, who in years past was known more for his sartorial splendor than for his team's play, has slowly and methodically built a successful program on the hill, noted
It's just an amazing feeling for our players. They work so hard and they really deserve this moment. I am happy for them. We are really excited to be moving on to the next round.The women played at the Carrier Dome, and beat Army on Friday afternoon and Albany this afternoon. They won both games handily.
Meanwhile, out in St. Louis, the men's team beat Dayton in a grudge match on Friday, the Flyers having knocked SU out of the tourney the last time out, in 2014 (SU sat out last year under a self-imposed penalty). And they won handily just moments ago against Cinderella team Middle Tennessee State, who knocked off second seed Michigan State in the first round.
The Orange had muddled their way through Coach Jim Boeheim's nine-game suspension, and lost five of their last six games to close out the season, including a first round loss in the ACC tourney. Many, including me, had doubts about whether they'd even get an invitation to the Big Dance. Now, in the vernacular, the team is "peaking at the right time" and have picked up wins 20 and 21, something that usually happens before the end of February.
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| Otto (Pinterest) |
Two SU teams in the Sweet Sixteen is sweet, indeed.
Good luck to both teams, and let's go Orange!
March 16, 2016
Wondering on Wednesday (v50)
Ever thought about why the Democrats have so many delegates compared to the Republicans? I've been meaning to do some research on that and was going to do that tonight, but I got sidelined watching the news when I saw the graphic of how many delegates His Hairness has gotten so far. Did you see the number? 666. That's right. 666. I'll leave you to your own wondering on that one.
While that certainly could be an option for folks who are meant to benefit from the new program, I wonder why that wouldn't be the case for folks who can afford disposable diapers? Isn't 'green' for the less fortunate just as 'green' for the folks who have more 'green' to spend?
Seems that all of the things that would benefit the poor, such as dictating they eat more economically, or eat more fruits and vegetables, or don't eat nice cuts of red meat, or even that they should use cloth diapers, would also benefit people who can afford to do otherwise. It's the same environment, and it's the same heart disease and obesity, and it's the same diaper rash.
And yet, I wonder why when things like that are suggested or regulated for everyone, it's a nanny state and an intrusion, and when they're suggested for the poor (many of whom are working poor) it's a great idea.
What are you wondering about?
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Today the House released their annual propaganda budget. The document comes with this notice:
House Republicans have a plan to tackle our nation's challenges with positive solutions that will balance the budget, grow the economy, save and strengthen vital programs, and ensure our national security.
How are they going to do that, you might ask? Well, they're going to balance the budget "in less than ten years" by "bringing spending in line with revenues so that Washington starts living within its means." I don't have a problem with that, in principle - after all, it's our money they're spending.
But I have to wonder this: why do they bother projecting spending and revenue and the benefits of, say, killing the Affordable Care Act without any plan to replace it, against a 10-year schedule? I mean, if they think what they're doing in this year's budget isn't going to get us where we need to be for 10 years, should they try harder?
And if this budget is going to give us all these benefits in 10 years, why bother doing another one next year, and the year after, and the year after? Wouldn't it be more honest to tell us what the one year benefit is, since that's all it's likely to last?
And if this budget is going to give us all these benefits in 10 years, why bother doing another one next year, and the year after, and the year after? Wouldn't it be more honest to tell us what the one year benefit is, since that's all it's likely to last?
I saw something on a friend's social media page today that got me wondering about things. Sometimes she posts things that are designed to prompt conversation, from both sides, and a lot of the time it does. Today's post was about the 'diaper gap' - something I had no idea existed. Here's a bit of background:
Roughly 1 in 3 families find it hard to afford to buy diapers for their babies, according to a White House blog post. And they aren't covered by federal assistance programs such as WIC, SNAP, or Medicaid. The post put it simply: "When you have a baby, diapers are a necessity. They are not optional." Many low-income families are at a disadvantage because they aren't able to buy diapers in bulk, which is cheaper, since they can't get to big-box stores or have Internet access.
Through the program, coordinated by diaper company Jet.com, which makes Cuties diapers, will
help non-profits buy and get diapers quickly with free two-day shipping. Jet.com won't make a profit off the diapers. The (company) have designed simpler packaging, which will cut the costs of making the diapers - a savings that gets passed on to non-profits.As presented in the article on my friend's page, this was shown as a hand-out to welfare recipients, and made to look like an us-against-them kind of thing. Not surprisingly, there were comments that fell in line with that thinking. One person noted that perhaps people who couldn't afford disposable diapers switch to cloth diapers, and wash them the way folks used to do in the old days. Cheaper, and also greener.
While that certainly could be an option for folks who are meant to benefit from the new program, I wonder why that wouldn't be the case for folks who can afford disposable diapers? Isn't 'green' for the less fortunate just as 'green' for the folks who have more 'green' to spend?
Seems that all of the things that would benefit the poor, such as dictating they eat more economically, or eat more fruits and vegetables, or don't eat nice cuts of red meat, or even that they should use cloth diapers, would also benefit people who can afford to do otherwise. It's the same environment, and it's the same heart disease and obesity, and it's the same diaper rash.
And yet, I wonder why when things like that are suggested or regulated for everyone, it's a nanny state and an intrusion, and when they're suggested for the poor (many of whom are working poor) it's a great idea.
What are you wondering about?
March 15, 2016
Tuesday's Number: $412,006
This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages. As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were 25 new judgments, totaling $424,836, two satisfied judgments for $32,830, and one bankruptcy, for $20,000.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
>Crouse had five, for $71,633
>St Joe’s had three, including the two repayments, for credit of $22,781
>SUNY Upstate added another twenty, for $363,154
The paper only publishes filings of $5,000 or more.
March 13, 2016
Religious Education
Today, respecting that the sermon at the open door/non-denominational church down the road is God's Role in Politics, we'll have a little religious education. Regular readers know I'm not a religious person, but I try to learn, so I'm doing this as a service to myself as much as anything else.
Do you remember that time when Franklin Graham, the son of America's Pastor Billy Graham, let us know what he was thinking about the 2016 Election? Back in December, he said
I'm not endorsing any specific candidates in next year's election, but I am strongly endorsing prayer - and I'm strongly urging Christians to get out and vote. We need to elect candidates at all levels that most closely support biblical values and principles. This may be the most important election in our nation's history. America is headed in the wrong direction and only God can turn it around.In an interview with CNN, also from December, he said that he had renounced his Republican faith and doesn't like them or Democrats - both sides are broken, a common refrain regardless of one's religion or lack thereof. He's an Independent now, but I suspect not a Bernie Sanders type of independent. Bernie focuses on raising up the poor, leveling the playing field, taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves. Graham, still very engaged even though he has disavowed organized political activities, focuses on bad Girl Scouts, insulted Christian bakers, and transgender bathrooms.
He also has an opinion on immigration. In fact, he notes in the interview, we should stop all immigration, but particularly immigration from the Middle East, and had previously noted that we need to do that until "we can vet them properly" (the current process takes 18-24 months) or until the "war against Islam is over." That last part confuses me. With my limited religious education, I think the war will only be over, as are all religious battles, when everyone of one faith is either killed, enslaved or otherwise vanquished by the other faith. I suspect that's going to be a long time where we don't let anyone - anyone at all - in to our great country.
Graham also is OK with building walls; he made that clear in the CNN interview, where his example of confessing sins and being rewarded was of Nehemiah's rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem and rehanging the gates, in a mere 52 days! All "because he had received God's favor" for his confession,
He also made that very clear in response to the time when Pope Francis made comments about walls and Christianity, and how someone who focuses only on building walls, and who says horrible things in the process, is not Christian. Graham noted on his Facebook page in February that
The Pope has suggested that Donald J. Trump is not Christian because he wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico. I agree that as Christians we should try to build bridges with everyone we possibly can, but that doesn't mean we should compromise our national security.Pointing out that other candidates also favor building a wall, including Marco Rubio, Rafael Cruz, Dr. Ben Caron, and Governor John Kasich, Graham noted
Are they not Christian either? My advice to the Pontiff - reach out and build a bridge to Donald Trump. Who knows where he may be this time next year!What you probably don't remember are the comments by Jerry Falwell Jr, Liberty University president and himself the son of another former America's Pastor, Jerry Falwell Sr. The Junior Jerry said
I think the Pope is mistaken. I think John F. Kennedy would be rolling over in his grave right now if he could hear what the Pope is saying.That's a man who fought against lots of prejudice because many Protestants in this country did not want to elect a Catholic president. He broke down those barriers, and here is the Pope trying to say...we have to choose leaders that share his faith, the Christian faith.
In the middle of an election, to question someone's Christianity, the Pope is bringing up Christianity as a criteria for being president, in my view that is what he said. I think it was wrong for many Christians to refuse to vote for Mitt Romney because he was a Mormon. I don't think that's our job.'
It's not our job to choose the best Sunday School teacher like Jimmy Carter was. Our job is to choose who can best defend and protect our nation, who would be the best president and who would lead us away from $20 trillion in debt and restore our country's economic viability.Help me understand. One official faith leader suggests that wall-building is not Christian, in particular when it's accompanied by hateful language. Another faith leader (by inheritance) says we need to get more religion into our politics and our politicians, and yet a third faith leader, also the inherited kind, says we need to get religion out of politics.
Who am I, a mere mortal, to believe?
I think I'll follow the lead of another guy who inherited his opportunities. As I noted in this post from last June, Jeb! Bush (remember him? The Protestant turned Catholic former presidential candidate?) said
I hope I'm not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don't get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinal or my pope. I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting in the political realm.Can I get an Amen on that?
March 11, 2016
Quick Takes (v7): Paladino Threatens NY Republicans
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| Quick Takes |
According to an article on Syracuse.com,
The Buffalo businessman said in an interview that he will use email to rally his supporters against New York's Republican members of Congress who have remained neutral in the presidential race. Paladino, who ran an insurgent campaign to capture the GOP nomination for NY governor in 2010, said the emails will become increasingly personal in the coming weeks, targeting individual members of Congress.Paladino, advised the GOP representatives in part that
None of you is a profile in courage... You cannot stay neutral any longer; it conflicts with your job description. You're supposed to make decisions in the best interests of your constituents. They're angry. It's a festering anger, built up over the years by a smoke and mirrors government working to keep the political class comfortably feeding at the public trough.I guess Paladino believes our Representatives are supposed to make decisions in the best interest of Carl Paladino, who has some festering something-or-other built up over the years by a desire to stay relevant. However, nothing in the job description of the people we send to Washington says they have to listen to their party bosses, or to marginal party members sitting on the sidelines.
Heck, if that were the case you might as well require them to listen to armchair pundits like me.
Paladino's threat to ramp up the personal attacks was supported by one of his WNY minions, Chris Collins, who texted other members of the NY delegation to help bring them to heel.
I know Carl Paladino has been aggressively pushing all of you to endorse Trump. And I know he has indicated he will start 'attacking' NYers who don't endorse Trump. You may or may not care, but he does have a formidable email list.Collins noted that he was only relaying a conversation he had with Paladino, and that he asked that the attacks not start until after primary petitions had been passed. How generous of him.
One person who did not fall for the bluster is my representative, John Katko of Camillus. Katko has been a solid representative for the district, in my opinion. I'm a Democrat, but I voted for him, and I'm glad I did. I don't always agree with him,but neither do Republicans - which in my book means he's doing his job pretty well.
And, I can confidently say, none of the explanations he's given for his votes have included anything close to "because Carl Paladino told me to do it."
In an interview, Katko noted that he would back whoever the party's nominee is, but noted
whoever it is, I will point out my differences. I've acted independent in Congress. I'm going to continue to be an independent voice in Congress. And if I agree or disagree with my party leaders, I'm going to let that be known.
To me, that's what he should be doing, not running around strong-arming his fellow representatives, and not kowtowing to the whims of unelected party members who live outside the district.
March 9, 2016
Wondering, on Wednesday (v49)
We've got trials, and we've got crazy politicians, and of course we have your crazy primary results. Let the wondering begin!
Erin Andrews, sports and entertainment commentator, was awarded $55 million by a jury, after suing a hotel chain and a stalking, peephole-modifying scumbag for $75 million. The dirtball who filmed her naked after calling around and finding out which hotel Andrews would be staying at on a trip to Nashville, then requesting and being placed in the room next door to her, making it convenient for him to rig the peephole tube to allow him to film inside her room, was sent to jail for 30 months. Notably, the guy did this not only in Nashville, but also in Columbus.
Andrews has to live a whole lot more than 30 months knowing that the video is out there in the cloud somewhere, for anyone to watch, whenever they want.
Including, we're told, by a witness in her trial. As in, when a hotel executive allegedly said something along the lines of "I might as well get my money's worth" and, mere hours after testifying, watched the video with dinner companions in a restaurant. His story differs - he asked his friends to stop watching it, and they did - but still. This is why she sued, and why the jury awarded her tens of millions of dollars. An IT guy said the video was viewed at least 16 million times, although he admitted that was a conservative estimate. Based on that, the jury's award is less than $3.50 per view.
Is that fair? I really have no idea. I wonder if there's any amount of money that would adequately compensate a person for something like this, but at the same time wonder how the penalty against the hotel chain could be used to have them actually make changes to protect others in the future. For example, how easy is it really to remove the peephole parts and modify them? Without being caught on a security camera? I just wonder.
Movin on, I'm also wondering why it is that poor Bibi Netanyahu (R-Israel) is so worried about causing a stir in our presidential politics, such that he doesn't think it's right to visit with President Obama this month, and why, if it was so important that he not be perceived as interfering in our primary elections, he couldn't tell the White House directly, instead leaving them to find out from media reports? It's funny how he wasn't worried about having the US perceived as meddling in the Israeli election, which Netanyahu was on the verge of losing just before he came and exhorted Congress to reject the Iran nuclear deal but I guess that's different? And I wonder, who is he going to endorse, when the time comes? I mean, we'll be looking for endorsement from all of our senators, foreign and domestic alike.
And finally, I'm wondering, if size matters, how did Small Hands crush Big Ears in the Republican primaries yesterday?
Erin Andrews, sports and entertainment commentator, was awarded $55 million by a jury, after suing a hotel chain and a stalking, peephole-modifying scumbag for $75 million. The dirtball who filmed her naked after calling around and finding out which hotel Andrews would be staying at on a trip to Nashville, then requesting and being placed in the room next door to her, making it convenient for him to rig the peephole tube to allow him to film inside her room, was sent to jail for 30 months. Notably, the guy did this not only in Nashville, but also in Columbus.
Andrews has to live a whole lot more than 30 months knowing that the video is out there in the cloud somewhere, for anyone to watch, whenever they want.
Including, we're told, by a witness in her trial. As in, when a hotel executive allegedly said something along the lines of "I might as well get my money's worth" and, mere hours after testifying, watched the video with dinner companions in a restaurant. His story differs - he asked his friends to stop watching it, and they did - but still. This is why she sued, and why the jury awarded her tens of millions of dollars. An IT guy said the video was viewed at least 16 million times, although he admitted that was a conservative estimate. Based on that, the jury's award is less than $3.50 per view.
Is that fair? I really have no idea. I wonder if there's any amount of money that would adequately compensate a person for something like this, but at the same time wonder how the penalty against the hotel chain could be used to have them actually make changes to protect others in the future. For example, how easy is it really to remove the peephole parts and modify them? Without being caught on a security camera? I just wonder.
Movin on, I'm also wondering why it is that poor Bibi Netanyahu (R-Israel) is so worried about causing a stir in our presidential politics, such that he doesn't think it's right to visit with President Obama this month, and why, if it was so important that he not be perceived as interfering in our primary elections, he couldn't tell the White House directly, instead leaving them to find out from media reports? It's funny how he wasn't worried about having the US perceived as meddling in the Israeli election, which Netanyahu was on the verge of losing just before he came and exhorted Congress to reject the Iran nuclear deal but I guess that's different? And I wonder, who is he going to endorse, when the time comes? I mean, we'll be looking for endorsement from all of our senators, foreign and domestic alike.
And finally, I'm wondering, if size matters, how did Small Hands crush Big Ears in the Republican primaries yesterday?
March 8, 2016
Tuesday's Number: $113,668
Tuesday is the day my local paper, The
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.This is the fourth full year I’ve been tracking these numbers – I captured part of the year in 2012 – and the third year that I’ve captured filings by hospital. I include anything that is likely a patient 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.
In the first three years, the overall total was $67,965,862 – a staggering amount of money for a relatively small metropolitan area that includes the city of Syracuse and her suburbs, the towns and villages of Onondaga County, and to a lesser extent, some of the even smaller neighboring towns and villages. As I reported in the 2015 recap, we turned sharply down last year – some $7M – and the hope is that we will continue to see progress in the overall total. Of course, a better sign of health would be an increase in the number of satisfied judgments; people’s ability to pay off their debt (or their willingness, as the case may be) is something else I’m hoping to see this year.
This week, there were three new judgments, totaling $22,668, and two bankruptcies, for $91,000. No satisfied judgments were reported.
Here’s the breakdown by hospital:
- Crouse had two, for $14,731
- St Joe’s had two, for $92,937
- SUNY Upstate added one more, for $6,000
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