In one of the the most blatant blows ever to the American political system, Republican senator Tom Cotton (the man that said "Gitmo has too many empty beds"), and his 46 Neoconservative cronies did a dangerous, illegal, and plain scummy thing on Tuesday. They signed an 'open letter' to the government of Iran, undermining much of the Obama administrations efforts towards a peaceful solution regarding the Iranian nuclear debate. The letter stated that any deal that Iran has currently with the United States could and likely will be struck down in 2016 when Obama leaves office. I am not even much of an Obama fan, but this infuriates me almost as much as the NSA prism scandal does, because it is a major act of defiance towards our countries political system. If they can get away with that, what is to stop them from destroying future progressive change, simply by telling the people "It doesn't matter what you achieve, because when we are back in power, we will simply repeal it." That is a dangerous precedent to set. It effectively destroys the little remaining power that the people have over what our government does.
I think I can speak for the majority of America when I say that we are sick of war. ISIS is the result of over a decade of bad American war policy. While most Americans seem to understand that, our government does not seem to care. They are fully aware that ISIS is our own Frankenstein monster, and that's the way it was intended to unfold. A permanent war economy cannot thrive without war... Iran has been a favourite card of the Neocons, and they have had it under their sleeves since before 9/11. Apparently they won't fold without a fight.
We, the (majority of) the People, are not interested in starting a war with Iran. If a peaceful solution to this stupid age-old argument can be reached, than take it! We may never have another chance! Does anyone remember that Nixon secretly undermined a deal that the United Nations had in place to end the Vietnam war? Nixon effectively signed 1.5 million people's death warrants by destroying that deal, and the same thing could happen to the Iranian people if we let these radical right winger hard-liners get away with this. Not only that, but it makes our government look even more like nothing but a bunch of idiots.
One of the oldest laws in this country, the Logan Act of 1799, states:
“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without
authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or
carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government
or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures
or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof,
in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or
to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Just because that's an old law, does not make it null and void. Our constition is about 33 years older than that, and it is still the most important document written to date. So, I'd like to see these morons prosecuted.
Although this will probably never happen (hate to be the pessimist, but shouldn't Darth Cheney be in jail by now?), over the last day over 192,000
people have signed this petition to prosecute the 47 traitor Republicans. I'd like you to sign it as well, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever your social media platform of choice is.
Putting these Neocons in jail for a couple years may just buy us enough time to save our country from the insanity of the ultra-right-wing, fascist, warmongering, and evil government that has been infiltrating every part of this great country since post World War II. Did you know that 85% of the world considers the United States the greatest threat to world peace? Is that the kind of country you want to live in? Is that the country that my Grandfather nearly died defending during WWII? Fuck no. You still have a voice. So let's make them scream.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Sunday, March 1, 2015
The Internet Will Live
I'd like to clarify my opinion on the recent net neutrality victory. Despite some concerns, I do consider this a very good thing. In my previous post, I simply wanted to put on the radar that just because the FCC has sided with the people, it does not mean that the battle is over with. We must now make sure the FCC does what we asked them to do.
Over one year ago, when I became involved in the net neutrality debate, prospects seemed grim. Despite successful uprisings like the one against SOPA and PIPA, I admit that I did not expect that the people would win this time around. Corporations like Google, Facebook, and Netflix had not yet made apparent their stand, and it looked like it was the common man versus the wealthy ISP conglomerates. Nobody wanted the internet interfered with, even if they did not know there was a plot in the works yet. But it was not until president Obama addressed the issue and took a stand, urging the FCC to adopt 'the strongest possible net neutrality laws', that most Americans became fully aware of what was happening. This is the greatest thing that Obama has ever done, in my opinion. He may be able to salvage his legacy based on this one accomplishment alone. I do mean it when I say: Well done, Mr President.
In the following days, millions of pubic comments were filed with the FCC, and we even managed to overload and crash their servers once or twice because so many people took action. Ted Cruz even stepped into the debate, surprising nobody when he took the opposite stance, calling the situation "Obamcare for the internet." Whatever, America will never have a shortage of bigot idiots and a lack of empathy, and to Ted's credit, he did manage to give the story more press. He also managed to turn his ignorant hardliner-republican view into political poison with his remark. That's the only credit I will ever give that guy, for anything.
I am truly happy that so many became involved, and the net neutrality victory has restored some of my faith in our legal system. It is always a relief when the peoples will is respected.
Despite my paranoid nature and cynical views of government intention, I do believe that government is a necessary force at times. Under-regulated multi-billion dollar industries have wrecked havoc on the peoples of the Earth before, most recently and notably in the years preceding the stock market crash of 2008. The ISP business certainty appears to be another entity that needs oversight. Until this epic battle for the net, I absolutely detested the Federal Government, and never wanted anything from them except to go away and let the states do what they want. US drug policy, both domestic and abroad would be my first reason for the distrust and contempt I hold toward that institution. Foreign policy and the American war machine are two others.
But the battle is not over yet. It will never end. Freedom requires pro-activity and vigilance to infinity. Government does have a tendency to destroy whatever it touches, and this can only be mitigated by pressure from the people whom they work for. After all, we are the ones who put them where they are. We are also the ones who decide if they will stay in power. So question everything.
We all deserve some celebration, let's just not forget that freedom requires indefinate effort to maintain. There will always be those whom wish to take your freedom away for profit. So good job America, now stay vigilant!
Over one year ago, when I became involved in the net neutrality debate, prospects seemed grim. Despite successful uprisings like the one against SOPA and PIPA, I admit that I did not expect that the people would win this time around. Corporations like Google, Facebook, and Netflix had not yet made apparent their stand, and it looked like it was the common man versus the wealthy ISP conglomerates. Nobody wanted the internet interfered with, even if they did not know there was a plot in the works yet. But it was not until president Obama addressed the issue and took a stand, urging the FCC to adopt 'the strongest possible net neutrality laws', that most Americans became fully aware of what was happening. This is the greatest thing that Obama has ever done, in my opinion. He may be able to salvage his legacy based on this one accomplishment alone. I do mean it when I say: Well done, Mr President.
In the following days, millions of pubic comments were filed with the FCC, and we even managed to overload and crash their servers once or twice because so many people took action. Ted Cruz even stepped into the debate, surprising nobody when he took the opposite stance, calling the situation "Obamcare for the internet." Whatever, America will never have a shortage of bigot idiots and a lack of empathy, and to Ted's credit, he did manage to give the story more press. He also managed to turn his ignorant hardliner-republican view into political poison with his remark. That's the only credit I will ever give that guy, for anything.
I am truly happy that so many became involved, and the net neutrality victory has restored some of my faith in our legal system. It is always a relief when the peoples will is respected.
Despite my paranoid nature and cynical views of government intention, I do believe that government is a necessary force at times. Under-regulated multi-billion dollar industries have wrecked havoc on the peoples of the Earth before, most recently and notably in the years preceding the stock market crash of 2008. The ISP business certainty appears to be another entity that needs oversight. Until this epic battle for the net, I absolutely detested the Federal Government, and never wanted anything from them except to go away and let the states do what they want. US drug policy, both domestic and abroad would be my first reason for the distrust and contempt I hold toward that institution. Foreign policy and the American war machine are two others.
But the battle is not over yet. It will never end. Freedom requires pro-activity and vigilance to infinity. Government does have a tendency to destroy whatever it touches, and this can only be mitigated by pressure from the people whom they work for. After all, we are the ones who put them where they are. We are also the ones who decide if they will stay in power. So question everything.
We all deserve some celebration, let's just not forget that freedom requires indefinate effort to maintain. There will always be those whom wish to take your freedom away for profit. So good job America, now stay vigilant!
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Can We Trust the FCC to Protect the Net?
After a long struggle, it would appear that we are winning. Celebration rages on around the country over our recent victory regarding net neutrality. It appears the FCC will reclassify the internet as a common carrier, under Title II laws as requested by the general public. I have long been an advocate of doing exactly that, but I heard some disturbing news lately, and some third voices are starting to emerge from the shadows of the net. Voices I previously dismissed as republican disinformation trolls.
Last week I heard that the FCC is almost done drafting it's proposal for the new net neutrality laws, and the proposed law is over 200 pages long, and we cannot see it yet... sounds a little like the healthcare laws... So I hope I am just being paranoid when I ask myself, "Did we just empower the dark side by helping the FCC gain the power to micromanage the internet, or did we just save the internet from all the greedy corporations?" I think the answer is 'a little of both'.
Government has a tendency to destroy everything that it comes in contact with. The Middle East? Destroyed. Most people agree that Iraq was better off under Sadam's rule than it is now. Health Care? Again, destroyed. If only Obama had cared less, I would not be shelling out $500 a month out of pocket for prescriptions right now. How about... three letters: D.M.V. And democracy itself? Destroyed, utterly and fundamentally; democracy is now a superficial bunch of bullshit... I mean, come on... Jeb Bush vs Hillary Clinton? That's what you're saying it's coming down to? Where is the choice? Who in the right mind would even dare suggest that another Bush should occupy the Whitehouse? And Hillary? Yeah, you'd think America has a war hawk fetish. Don't fool yourselves, we are not that stupid. Democracy died in 1913, was buried in 1963, and today's generation is doing worse financially then the average American was in 1955.
One of my personal big problems with the FCC is that apparently the new Net Neutrality laws do not ban data caps on broadband lines. That was one of my biggest concerns. I consume almost a terabyte of data per month, and my household internet bill is about $75/mo. Yet, I can rent a VPS server in Europe and get not only the server, but another terrabyte of data transfer, for about $5 a month, and the internet connection is at least twice as fast! If I had to guess why that is, I'd say it's because US ISP's do not have any incentive to upgrade their infrastructure anymore. Internet connection speeds in the United States rank 34th in speed compared to the rest of the world. I also noticed that it was around the time that Verizon and Comcast started buying up all of the smaller ISP's, that the increases in data speed we were all enjoying came to a halt. I've been getting between 50 and 75 mbps for about 5 years now! Overseas, 100mbps is considered 'okay'. One of my Netherland servers has a 2 gigabit full duplex connection... and I pay $5 for that too.
So why are we so far behind, and will these new laws help? How did we find ourselves here to begin with? Will the FCC now simply slow progress down even more with classic bureaucratic fashion? Probably. Net Neutrality would not even be an issue if it was not so hard for new ISP's to enter the market. The customer would get they wanted if there was enough competition out there. I don't know why this was never a front-page issue before, but I realized recently that the problems we face now are purely the result of ISP monopoly. Nobody would give a shit if Comcast wanted to throttle, censor, or outright block certain services if there was more than Xfinity and Fios out there. People would just switch to a different provider. So maybe what we should have been fighting for is the right for new ISP's to more easily enter the market. Although it appears there will be at least one new company entering the market, guess who it is? Google, of course. I am not saying Google can't do it better than Verizon, or AT&T, but I am saying that someone else could probably do it even better, and they would all have to do better if there was more competition. So again, I am asking myself if I have been fighting the right battle.
Whenever you ask the government to protect you, loss of freedom is an inevitable side effect. We screamed for the FCC do something, and finally they have answered. But will they use this power to keep the internet open, or will they use it to micromanage the net, and try stupid tactics like blocking the bittorent ports on the central switches in some lame anti piracy effort? Who the hell knows. All I know is I am a little disturbed by the fact that the internet is about to be put in control of the US government, during a time of unprecedented Neocon control. With a completely Republican house and senate, at a time when Gitmo policy has gone domestic, and again... at a time when the media is trying to convince us that the only logical choices for president are Jeb and Hillary. And during a day and age when the only unbiased story you will ever find is on the internet, I have to ask... would we have been better off leaving it in the hands of capitalism?
I doubt it, considering corporations seem to have more control over us than the government that they own. I guess it's a catch 22. Another 'lesser of two evils' situation. Now do not get me wrong, obviously some enterprises must be subject to regulation. The mortgage crisis of 2008 is living proof that lack of regulation in certain industries is a fast path to disaster. And then one must remember that the internet has been under control of the FCC ever since its inception, and it's done pretty well. I just hope that we are preserving our rights, rather than giving the government even more power to promote lies, squelch decent, and manipulate public opinion.
So what should we do? We should make sure that the FCC is held accountable for any policies it implements, and any implications of those policies. We must hold them to their word and remind them that they also promised us transparency. At the end of the day, it's probably a good thing that this is happening. The fight is far from over. This will be a very interesting year indeed. Someone tell me I am being paranoid, please?
Last week I heard that the FCC is almost done drafting it's proposal for the new net neutrality laws, and the proposed law is over 200 pages long, and we cannot see it yet... sounds a little like the healthcare laws... So I hope I am just being paranoid when I ask myself, "Did we just empower the dark side by helping the FCC gain the power to micromanage the internet, or did we just save the internet from all the greedy corporations?" I think the answer is 'a little of both'.
Government has a tendency to destroy everything that it comes in contact with. The Middle East? Destroyed. Most people agree that Iraq was better off under Sadam's rule than it is now. Health Care? Again, destroyed. If only Obama had cared less, I would not be shelling out $500 a month out of pocket for prescriptions right now. How about... three letters: D.M.V. And democracy itself? Destroyed, utterly and fundamentally; democracy is now a superficial bunch of bullshit... I mean, come on... Jeb Bush vs Hillary Clinton? That's what you're saying it's coming down to? Where is the choice? Who in the right mind would even dare suggest that another Bush should occupy the Whitehouse? And Hillary? Yeah, you'd think America has a war hawk fetish. Don't fool yourselves, we are not that stupid. Democracy died in 1913, was buried in 1963, and today's generation is doing worse financially then the average American was in 1955.
One of my personal big problems with the FCC is that apparently the new Net Neutrality laws do not ban data caps on broadband lines. That was one of my biggest concerns. I consume almost a terabyte of data per month, and my household internet bill is about $75/mo. Yet, I can rent a VPS server in Europe and get not only the server, but another terrabyte of data transfer, for about $5 a month, and the internet connection is at least twice as fast! If I had to guess why that is, I'd say it's because US ISP's do not have any incentive to upgrade their infrastructure anymore. Internet connection speeds in the United States rank 34th in speed compared to the rest of the world. I also noticed that it was around the time that Verizon and Comcast started buying up all of the smaller ISP's, that the increases in data speed we were all enjoying came to a halt. I've been getting between 50 and 75 mbps for about 5 years now! Overseas, 100mbps is considered 'okay'. One of my Netherland servers has a 2 gigabit full duplex connection... and I pay $5 for that too.
So why are we so far behind, and will these new laws help? How did we find ourselves here to begin with? Will the FCC now simply slow progress down even more with classic bureaucratic fashion? Probably. Net Neutrality would not even be an issue if it was not so hard for new ISP's to enter the market. The customer would get they wanted if there was enough competition out there. I don't know why this was never a front-page issue before, but I realized recently that the problems we face now are purely the result of ISP monopoly. Nobody would give a shit if Comcast wanted to throttle, censor, or outright block certain services if there was more than Xfinity and Fios out there. People would just switch to a different provider. So maybe what we should have been fighting for is the right for new ISP's to more easily enter the market. Although it appears there will be at least one new company entering the market, guess who it is? Google, of course. I am not saying Google can't do it better than Verizon, or AT&T, but I am saying that someone else could probably do it even better, and they would all have to do better if there was more competition. So again, I am asking myself if I have been fighting the right battle.
Whenever you ask the government to protect you, loss of freedom is an inevitable side effect. We screamed for the FCC do something, and finally they have answered. But will they use this power to keep the internet open, or will they use it to micromanage the net, and try stupid tactics like blocking the bittorent ports on the central switches in some lame anti piracy effort? Who the hell knows. All I know is I am a little disturbed by the fact that the internet is about to be put in control of the US government, during a time of unprecedented Neocon control. With a completely Republican house and senate, at a time when Gitmo policy has gone domestic, and again... at a time when the media is trying to convince us that the only logical choices for president are Jeb and Hillary. And during a day and age when the only unbiased story you will ever find is on the internet, I have to ask... would we have been better off leaving it in the hands of capitalism?
I doubt it, considering corporations seem to have more control over us than the government that they own. I guess it's a catch 22. Another 'lesser of two evils' situation. Now do not get me wrong, obviously some enterprises must be subject to regulation. The mortgage crisis of 2008 is living proof that lack of regulation in certain industries is a fast path to disaster. And then one must remember that the internet has been under control of the FCC ever since its inception, and it's done pretty well. I just hope that we are preserving our rights, rather than giving the government even more power to promote lies, squelch decent, and manipulate public opinion.
So what should we do? We should make sure that the FCC is held accountable for any policies it implements, and any implications of those policies. We must hold them to their word and remind them that they also promised us transparency. At the end of the day, it's probably a good thing that this is happening. The fight is far from over. This will be a very interesting year indeed. Someone tell me I am being paranoid, please?
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Fake Healthcare
I know I said I wouldn't do this anymore, but today I am simply too angry not to write. I've got to share this absurd experience...
Ah yes, it is now 2015. Remember when the start of "Obamacare", aka The Affordable Healthcare Act, was postponed for 12 months last year? This was mainly in response to the national outrage caused by people loosing their (existing) health insurance coverage due to the new healthcare laws. This happened despite Obama's bogus promises that the people would absolutely be able to keep their current health insurance. He seemed pretty clear about that. At the time I was not sure what all of the uproar was about, and I naively attributed it to a combination of dirty Republican tactics and accidental implications of a new law that I figured just needed more time for the kinks to be worked out. Oh how wrong I was...
Over the last year, it became increasingly apparent that I would probably not benefit whatsoever from these laws. As I looked closer, I discovered that the purpose of this law was not to help people, but rather to put money in corporate & political pockets, in a not too dissimilar manner that almost everything else our government creates seems to do. Than, about half way through 2014, a doctor who shall remain unnamed told me the real reasons for this mess. She told me that the Affordable Care Act was never intended to help anyone, but rather to cut healthcare costs in general, regardless of what the implications on the people may be. That sounded cruel, but at that point it did not really surprise me, as a lot of other disgusting truths about our political system seemed to be emerging every single day. From Blackwater to Obamacare, the message has been consistent: we don't care about or work for you, we just want to get rich, at any cost.
So I figured that when my current health insurance policy (through my fathers employer) expired, I would be pretty fucked. But that was not supposed to happen for another 6 months, when I reach 26 years of age. Up until a month ago, throughout my life I have been very, very privileged and lucky to have one of the best health insurance plans in the world. I have never had to worry about how I would pay for my doctors and medications, or what would happen in the event that I was hospitalized, or diagnosed with another illness. I always knew I would be just fine, because my insurance was so great.
But this all ended on the 1rst of January, and nobody ever told me it was happening. No letter in the mail, no emails, no phone calls, no warnings, whatsoever. In my mind I new that I had to the beginning of May to take care of all of my health issues, and prepare for life without this failsafe coverage I've been so fortunate to have all my life. So when I got a call from a family member earlier this month informing me that the price of her medications randomly sky-rocketed, I was quite confused. It took me a couple of weeks to get the information about this new policy, and another to understand just how pointless and awful it really is.
It was about a week and a half ago that I started getting nervous because it was almost time to fill my prescriptions, which I cannot function without. In preparation, I read through the documents my father emailed me, then I called my insurance company to figure out what the damage would be, because the documentation was not very clear, and each paragraph seemed to contradict what the last said. The first time I called, I was told that medications do not apply to my deductable, and that my deductible was only $350. They told me that my medications would still be just a copay, and that my doctor appointment copays had increased slightly. "No big deal, I can live that", I thought.
But then about a week ago, I went to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions, and was shocked to discover that the total cost of these medications is now about $406, rather than the $20 or $30 total copay I've been paying for years. I thought that this must just be a mistake, because that is not what the insurance company told me. Since this happened during the weekend, I nervously waited until Monday, when I could call the "Health Advocate" line to figure out just wtf was going on. When Monday rolled around, I made the call.
This time, a rather irritated woman answered, and told me that she was my assigned 'health advocate', and that she'd be happy to assist me with figuring out why my prescriptions cost so much. She told me that we had to have a conference call with some other organizational unit of the company, to figure out what happened. She placed me on hold until she connected the call, and when she got back on the line, I heard her screaming at the computerized voice that was asking us what we needed help with. "Please enter your--" "REPRESENTATIVE!!!!", she kept screaming until the computer said "Let me connect you to someone that can help you." The advocate seemed really, really frustrated with her job and life, and I started to get a bad feeling that this was not going to turn out well.
When we were finally connected with the insurance agent, she started to ask him what was going on with my prescription benefits. He interrupted her to say "I cannot talk to you without the patients permission", at which point I interrupted him to say "Yes, you have permission to talk to her." He explained that none of my medications were covered anymore, because they are not "preventive medications." The health advocate said "Well there, now you have your answer..."
I was not sure what to say, so I just got really angry and said "This does not help me. What is the point of me even having this 'insurance plan' if it does not cover anything that I need it to cover?" After an awkward ten seconds of silence, the insurance agent said "Okay, great! Well is there anything else I can help you with today?" ... to which I replied, "I seriously doubt it...", to which he replied, "Okay, thank you for choosing United Health Care and have a great day!" ... uh huh...
That was pretty much the extent of it. Oh, I almost forgot, I do not actaully have a $350 deductible, I actually have a $3000 deductible. So I am fucked, and according to what my "health advocate" said, so are about 97% of people with private health insurance as of the beginning of 2015, including her...
So there you have it, just another thing I hate, with no solution: superficial, fake health care. This fucking blows, because I thought I had to until May to figure out how I was going to afford my prescriptions. Maybe if I had known that this was happening, maybe if my insurance company had bothered to tell me, than I would have had some sort of a plan and way to deal with it. But instead I am in total panic mode, dreading each new day, watching the pile of the pills that keep my alive get smaller every morning, and trying to come up with $400 before I totally run out.
This is directly the result of Obamacare. If you are going to give 20% of the population health coverage (even if it is shit), than you must consider where the money to finance such an endeavour is going to come from. Well, it turns out it's coming from young people like me. In fact, since I have more health problems than anyone in my family, I will probably end up paying for our entire deductible myself, that is if I don't drop dead from stress before I meet it.
Ah yes, it is now 2015. Remember when the start of "Obamacare", aka The Affordable Healthcare Act, was postponed for 12 months last year? This was mainly in response to the national outrage caused by people loosing their (existing) health insurance coverage due to the new healthcare laws. This happened despite Obama's bogus promises that the people would absolutely be able to keep their current health insurance. He seemed pretty clear about that. At the time I was not sure what all of the uproar was about, and I naively attributed it to a combination of dirty Republican tactics and accidental implications of a new law that I figured just needed more time for the kinks to be worked out. Oh how wrong I was...
Over the last year, it became increasingly apparent that I would probably not benefit whatsoever from these laws. As I looked closer, I discovered that the purpose of this law was not to help people, but rather to put money in corporate & political pockets, in a not too dissimilar manner that almost everything else our government creates seems to do. Than, about half way through 2014, a doctor who shall remain unnamed told me the real reasons for this mess. She told me that the Affordable Care Act was never intended to help anyone, but rather to cut healthcare costs in general, regardless of what the implications on the people may be. That sounded cruel, but at that point it did not really surprise me, as a lot of other disgusting truths about our political system seemed to be emerging every single day. From Blackwater to Obamacare, the message has been consistent: we don't care about or work for you, we just want to get rich, at any cost.
So I figured that when my current health insurance policy (through my fathers employer) expired, I would be pretty fucked. But that was not supposed to happen for another 6 months, when I reach 26 years of age. Up until a month ago, throughout my life I have been very, very privileged and lucky to have one of the best health insurance plans in the world. I have never had to worry about how I would pay for my doctors and medications, or what would happen in the event that I was hospitalized, or diagnosed with another illness. I always knew I would be just fine, because my insurance was so great.
But this all ended on the 1rst of January, and nobody ever told me it was happening. No letter in the mail, no emails, no phone calls, no warnings, whatsoever. In my mind I new that I had to the beginning of May to take care of all of my health issues, and prepare for life without this failsafe coverage I've been so fortunate to have all my life. So when I got a call from a family member earlier this month informing me that the price of her medications randomly sky-rocketed, I was quite confused. It took me a couple of weeks to get the information about this new policy, and another to understand just how pointless and awful it really is.
It was about a week and a half ago that I started getting nervous because it was almost time to fill my prescriptions, which I cannot function without. In preparation, I read through the documents my father emailed me, then I called my insurance company to figure out what the damage would be, because the documentation was not very clear, and each paragraph seemed to contradict what the last said. The first time I called, I was told that medications do not apply to my deductable, and that my deductible was only $350. They told me that my medications would still be just a copay, and that my doctor appointment copays had increased slightly. "No big deal, I can live that", I thought.
But then about a week ago, I went to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions, and was shocked to discover that the total cost of these medications is now about $406, rather than the $20 or $30 total copay I've been paying for years. I thought that this must just be a mistake, because that is not what the insurance company told me. Since this happened during the weekend, I nervously waited until Monday, when I could call the "Health Advocate" line to figure out just wtf was going on. When Monday rolled around, I made the call.
This time, a rather irritated woman answered, and told me that she was my assigned 'health advocate', and that she'd be happy to assist me with figuring out why my prescriptions cost so much. She told me that we had to have a conference call with some other organizational unit of the company, to figure out what happened. She placed me on hold until she connected the call, and when she got back on the line, I heard her screaming at the computerized voice that was asking us what we needed help with. "Please enter your--" "REPRESENTATIVE!!!!", she kept screaming until the computer said "Let me connect you to someone that can help you." The advocate seemed really, really frustrated with her job and life, and I started to get a bad feeling that this was not going to turn out well.
When we were finally connected with the insurance agent, she started to ask him what was going on with my prescription benefits. He interrupted her to say "I cannot talk to you without the patients permission", at which point I interrupted him to say "Yes, you have permission to talk to her." He explained that none of my medications were covered anymore, because they are not "preventive medications." The health advocate said "Well there, now you have your answer..."
I was not sure what to say, so I just got really angry and said "This does not help me. What is the point of me even having this 'insurance plan' if it does not cover anything that I need it to cover?" After an awkward ten seconds of silence, the insurance agent said "Okay, great! Well is there anything else I can help you with today?" ... to which I replied, "I seriously doubt it...", to which he replied, "Okay, thank you for choosing United Health Care and have a great day!" ... uh huh...
That was pretty much the extent of it. Oh, I almost forgot, I do not actaully have a $350 deductible, I actually have a $3000 deductible. So I am fucked, and according to what my "health advocate" said, so are about 97% of people with private health insurance as of the beginning of 2015, including her...
So there you have it, just another thing I hate, with no solution: superficial, fake health care. This fucking blows, because I thought I had to until May to figure out how I was going to afford my prescriptions. Maybe if I had known that this was happening, maybe if my insurance company had bothered to tell me, than I would have had some sort of a plan and way to deal with it. But instead I am in total panic mode, dreading each new day, watching the pile of the pills that keep my alive get smaller every morning, and trying to come up with $400 before I totally run out.
This is directly the result of Obamacare. If you are going to give 20% of the population health coverage (even if it is shit), than you must consider where the money to finance such an endeavour is going to come from. Well, it turns out it's coming from young people like me. In fact, since I have more health problems than anyone in my family, I will probably end up paying for our entire deductible myself, that is if I don't drop dead from stress before I meet it.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
My DNS Has Expired
Actually, it appears the domain has simply expired. In the process of fixing this issue now...
VPSBG.eu is an Excellent VPS Provider
A friend of a friend of friend of a friend of a friend was having problems with his VPS. It had been hacked over and over again, and he was tired of it. It was time for him to find a provider that would send him his root & control panel passwords in an encrypted message.
He contacted vpsbg's tech support, and after a few emails, they agreed to send him a new password, PGP encrypted, so that it would not be intercepted in transit!
VPSBG.EU is the only provider I've ever heard of doing such a kind thing for a (rightfully) paranoid customer. Bigger providers like Digital Ocean do not... although d.o. has a feature to add an ssh key before spinning up a droplet, I have still received the root password, in plain text, in my email... every...single...time.
So, it's time to switch to a better provider. My friend of a friend of a ... (you get the point) has highly recommended this provider after his recent experience with their excellent customer support, and I am spreading the word.
He contacted vpsbg's tech support, and after a few emails, they agreed to send him a new password, PGP encrypted, so that it would not be intercepted in transit!
VPSBG.EU is the only provider I've ever heard of doing such a kind thing for a (rightfully) paranoid customer. Bigger providers like Digital Ocean do not... although d.o. has a feature to add an ssh key before spinning up a droplet, I have still received the root password, in plain text, in my email... every...single...time.
So, it's time to switch to a better provider. My friend of a friend of a ... (you get the point) has highly recommended this provider after his recent experience with their excellent customer support, and I am spreading the word.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Run A Tor Node.. Or 3... It's Not Broken!
This is a touchy subject, but technically we still have a constitution to protect our free speech, so I'm going to have at it. If you value your online privacy, then you probably value tools like the tor network. Recently, the Darknet black-market Silk Road II was taken down, in a rather pointless joint effort with Interpol, the NSA, and other international law enforcement forces. They claim to have "broken" tor, because they now operate so many tor nodes.
Tor works best when more people use it, and more importantly, when more unique individuals/entities run nodes. (How Tor Works) Lately, it seems tor users in general have been under attack, and not just people using the network to conceal their illicit activities. It appears that all tor users in general are being targeted. Legitmate reasons to want to conceal ones identity may include being a whistleblower, or journalist, or political activist... (basically a member of any organization working for the good of the people that is targeted by the corrupt establishment.)
So, there is a place for anonymity tools in this world, and it is unjust and hypocritical for our government to target its own people. The US government has long promoted the use of tor in other oppressed nations, for reasons of reclaiming freedom! Yet, the NSA spies on the American public... right.
The solution is to RUN A TOR NODE! It's really easy, and will cost you about $5 a month. I will even set it up for you, if you pay for it. All you need is a vps (virtual private server). They are cheap. Email me at donotaccept at gmx.com (cause I get a LOT of spam when I post email addresses...) Together we'll do some good for the world.
Tor works best when more people use it, and more importantly, when more unique individuals/entities run nodes. (How Tor Works) Lately, it seems tor users in general have been under attack, and not just people using the network to conceal their illicit activities. It appears that all tor users in general are being targeted. Legitmate reasons to want to conceal ones identity may include being a whistleblower, or journalist, or political activist... (basically a member of any organization working for the good of the people that is targeted by the corrupt establishment.)
So, there is a place for anonymity tools in this world, and it is unjust and hypocritical for our government to target its own people. The US government has long promoted the use of tor in other oppressed nations, for reasons of reclaiming freedom! Yet, the NSA spies on the American public... right.
The solution is to RUN A TOR NODE! It's really easy, and will cost you about $5 a month. I will even set it up for you, if you pay for it. All you need is a vps (virtual private server). They are cheap. Email me at donotaccept at gmx.com (cause I get a LOT of spam when I post email addresses...) Together we'll do some good for the world.
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