You can just opt out. The problem - if you ever want to opt in, you will pay a penalty for the rest of your life via an increased Medicare B premium (which is auto deducted from your Social Security retirement benefit). Additionally, you will likely have to undergo a medical exam before obtaining a Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage plan (these cover the 20% of costs NOT covered by Medicare B). I cannot remember the term, but if you do not sign up for Medicare during your initial eligibility period, you are not guaranteed coverage of pre-existing conditions. Do your research carefully and in depth.
I don’t know a lot since I’m new to Medicare, but I did get a prescription drug supplement for less than $8 per month to avoid the penalty you speak of. I take zero Rx drugs but may need in future. I will be seeking better, cash-only independent medical care, and will use Medicare as my catastrophic insurance. Glad to hear doctors and others are creating parallel systems. Count me in!
We must have the same Drug Plan. I take one drug, it costs me $3 for a 90 day supply. Was paying over $30 per month for the drug supplement until this year. We cannot afford cash only medical care, and my husband has a serious disease that requires a specialist likely unavailable in the "parallel system".
I hear ya. My hubby is also seriously ill and we rely on his Medicare for tests and treatment. I’m younger and healthier and only need annual consultations. So far…
Thank you for the advice and I will do my due diligence. I'm a veteran and get care at the VA so don't understand why I would need any additional coverage.
My father-in-law (retired Lt. Colonel, 30 years) had both. I think VA is secondary if you qualify for Medicare. Please do your due diligence. Medical care for a serious illness or injury can bankrupt you if your coverage is inadequate. My best wishes to you.
The DGB is another example. They trot out an 'expert' whose only job is to parrot the administration's line. Then the administration points to the expert as 'proof' of their brilliance.
The actual "naming" of DGB is revealing - and quite grim. People should look up the difference between mis and disinformation. The English language is quite illustrative and precise in conveying meaning.
Vaccine safety is somewhat outside my circle of competence. Economic policy is inside it.
The US printed an enormous amount of money during the pandemic. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with economics should know that printing money at a rapid rate is very likely to lead to inflation. This is not a novel insight.
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”-Milton Friedman
That’s well known. That’s clear. When the government prints too much money, the result is high and sustained inflation. And inflation is very destructive.
“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.”-John Maynard Keynes
The US government, guided by incompetent public health “experts”, shut down much of the economy, and then politicians and many economists deluded themselves into thinking they could ease all the pain of lockdowns by sending out checks and printing money to finance that spending. And now the bill is coming due. The Fed distributed the whiskey and cocaine, and now everyone is hungover and suffering from withdrawal.
But don’t worry. We were promised that this inflation was merely “transitory”. That’s true, in a sense. All of life is transitory, “In the long run we’re all dead”
"ALTHOUGH THERE ARE COUNTLESS MALADIES that are forever causing the decline of kingdoms, princedoms, and republics, the following four (in my judgment) are the most serious: civil discord, a high death rate, sterility of the soil, and the debasement of coinage. The first three are so obvious that everybody recognizes the damage they cause; but the fourth one, which has to do with money, is noticed by only a few very thoughtful people, since it does not operate all at once and at a single blow, but gradually overthrows governments, and in a hidden, insidious way."
I've had discussions with Stanford economists who did not know that Keynes actually recommended contraction of the money supply during times of surplus.
Of course, this sound advice, like so much else these days, has been completely memory-holed due to the utter politicization of the dismal science.
And he saw it coming:
"To convert the business man into a profiteer is to strike a blow at capitalism, because it destroys the psychological equilibrium which permits the perpetuance of unequal rewards.
Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of over-turning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency.
The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose….
By combining a popular hatred of the class of entrepreneurs with the blow already given to social security by the violent and arbitrary disturbance of contract…. governments are fast rendering impossible a continuance of the social and economic order of the nineteenth century."
Yes. And the amount of foolishness among the "blue," tribe is stunning.
More than a year and a half ago when I saw the minting of fiat currency ramping up, I told my family's formerly wise accountant, who frankly thought I was crazy, that I believed inflation would be a HUGE issue, and that I would take 1/3rd of the proceeds from our real estate sales, (50+ year old family businesses functionally bankrupted by the lockdowns, and sold off to the Big Boys for the rare underlying real estate,) or rather what was left of the proceeds after the feds and the states took their "cut" in taxation, (illegal, in my book, since they were the ones who forced the sales in the first place, without cause, proof of legal right, or hearings,) that I would probably buy silver or gold or some other hard asset with the remainder of my estate.
To stave off the inevitable further destruction from inflation.
Thomas Jefferson told us that standing armies are more injurious to Freedom than tyrants.
What has the U.S. been doing for the past 60 years?
Invading one nation after another.
What are we doing now? Fighting a proxy war we created with Russia.
And working to destroy the U.S., Her Constitution, and all our Inalienable Rights.
Government has attacked the citizens, through fraud, theft, murder, and false imprisonment. They are Traitors, in my book.
We need a New Revolution.
All Red, in November.
(The Grand Old Party, type of red, not bloodshed, for any Feds out there reading my thoughts, lol!!)
I think this is what we get when the most important qualifications for your job are your gender, race, longevity in your position, and LGBTQ+ status. Your actual competence and ability to do the job aren't part of the criteria.
If only she were a "furry" as well. You're headed for the top these days if you have a kitty litter box in your cubicle. Management written all over those furries!
it seems the government picks the most INcompetent people. Betsy de Vos who never went to school got that department. A person with a private yet, multiple yachts, cars and houses gets energy reduction, a virologist who never saw a patient in his live gets health etc. etc. I am not sure who got labor, but probably a person who never worked a day in their lives. Or is that Yellen ?
DeVos was pushing school choice. She did a better job than anyone else thus far. Most in education are idiots so to go outside of that field was smart.
You are probably right. The few school teacher I know are not the sharpest pencils. But I found it so hilarious that someone who never attended public schools was named to rule them. Maybe school teachers need a better education too!
All people I know who went into teaching weren’t smart. They did it because it was an easy path and they got the summers off. I know of no one who went into teaching for the right reasons. Even my sister in law got into teaching because she failed at all other things.
Aw not good. As child I overheard some teachers in the schoolyard talking, and at that moment I knew that what I thought was a great profession, and thought of doing that, was not my thing. They were indeed talking of the good life, lots of days off, short working days, and in Europe also lots of time not teaching - religious days etc. All the wrong reasons indeed.
A solution is a move away from big govt to local control of 99% of issues. If taxes, decisions and enforcement were all based on neighborhoods then these fake experts would not get a look in...
I also imagine red tape and taxes would be both way down. And quality of life way up.
As I love to say: Experts are paid liars that hide deceit in complexity. But what is really going on is that the government only hires ideologically aligned bozos out of the high echelons of academia (or similarly aligned with private sector experience), and the most malleable, sociopathic, and ambitious, with the least common sense - meaning they will go along with their leaders despite having to deny reality - rise to the top. No normal sane person could work for the lunatics running these government agencies and maintain their sanity for long.
and nobody with decent ethics could work for them either, unless they're totally deluded into thinking they're actually helping people with their Big Brother certified actions.
#1 - never listen to someone who's never had a real job.
#2 - most politicians have never had a real job.
#3 - most college professor have never had a real job.
Let's think about that last one: would you pay to learn carpentry from someone who's never built anything? Pay to learn music from someone who's never worked as a musician? Pay to learn how to raise children from someone who's never had a child? Hmm ......
Most of the posts, and comments on the posts, use the term "experts". The "experts" have been WRONG, about almost everything, for decades. And are still wrong. Woefully, catastrophically wrong. Every day, on every topic. Maybe its time to stop giving credence to these purveyors of mis/mal/dis/and dud information. My grandfather said, "Experts are people who claim to know more and more about less and less - until they know everything thing there is to know, about nothing at all".
The state, being the agency with the monopoly on the use of force in society is a magnet for sociopaths yearning to utilize that monopoly on their fellow citizens (usually rationalized with the noblest of intentions). The current swollen leviathan state is now significantly beyond control of elected sociopaths who only pass legislation written by bureaucrats and lobbyists in assemblies that argue over degrees of coercion while the bankrupt welfare states run on their ability to counterfeit fiat currencies through their central banks (monetizing unpayable debt). Within this culture of corruption exists a general level of intellect motivated by free stuff and plunder (end-state democracy) believing that the state has no limits to civil affairs on which it should lay its dead hands. Modern states are now orders of magnitude beyond minimums of legitimacy if (it could be argued) any exist (AnCap position).
Ukraine Bioweapons briefing. If you look at the slides, you will see some familiar names: Pfizer, Moderna, Merck. And of course the democratic party leadership.
I think this has definitely been the worst thing about it; the fifth rate experts who’s only distinction is the willingness to say whatever they think is in their best interests (sometimes when even they know it isn’t true) and hence those paying them, while screwing up time after time; the Faucis, Walenskys, Whittys, Sridhars, Dings, Fismans etc. If the quality of these people are any kind of indication, the promises of their paymasters will be emptier than those of Mao or Stalin.
You know there's that old saying that those who can, do, and those who can't teach? Well the little known 3rd portion of that axiom is "Those who really, really, really can't, run society."
“Vaccinated people become dead”….ends the coronavirus.
There, fixed it for you.
just needs another emphasis ! This year I have to go on medicare and not happy about it. Hate everything government. Stay away if possible !
Ingrid, join but only use for broken bones or dermatology, etc. My internist is a glorified pharma rep so useless.
Funny, I entered Medicare last month, just when I’m waking up to medical corruption and am seeking independent doctors who take cash…
So far Medicare has been a pleasant surprise, but I'm generally fit to pull the stagecoach...
I'm less than two years away & trying to figure out how to opt out. More research is needed. Sucks.
You can just opt out. The problem - if you ever want to opt in, you will pay a penalty for the rest of your life via an increased Medicare B premium (which is auto deducted from your Social Security retirement benefit). Additionally, you will likely have to undergo a medical exam before obtaining a Medicare Supplement or Medicare Advantage plan (these cover the 20% of costs NOT covered by Medicare B). I cannot remember the term, but if you do not sign up for Medicare during your initial eligibility period, you are not guaranteed coverage of pre-existing conditions. Do your research carefully and in depth.
I don’t know a lot since I’m new to Medicare, but I did get a prescription drug supplement for less than $8 per month to avoid the penalty you speak of. I take zero Rx drugs but may need in future. I will be seeking better, cash-only independent medical care, and will use Medicare as my catastrophic insurance. Glad to hear doctors and others are creating parallel systems. Count me in!
We must have the same Drug Plan. I take one drug, it costs me $3 for a 90 day supply. Was paying over $30 per month for the drug supplement until this year. We cannot afford cash only medical care, and my husband has a serious disease that requires a specialist likely unavailable in the "parallel system".
I hear ya. My hubby is also seriously ill and we rely on his Medicare for tests and treatment. I’m younger and healthier and only need annual consultations. So far…
What a bunch of crap.
Thank you for the advice and I will do my due diligence. I'm a veteran and get care at the VA so don't understand why I would need any additional coverage.
My father-in-law (retired Lt. Colonel, 30 years) had both. I think VA is secondary if you qualify for Medicare. Please do your due diligence. Medical care for a serious illness or injury can bankrupt you if your coverage is inadequate. My best wishes to you.
or maybe...undead...
I've been "joking" since day 1 that this is about a zombie virus... it's just that the dead haven't risen yet.
it unfortunately appears the highly advertised inoculations are more zombie producers than the virus family they're supposed to protect against.
You should edit your post to read:. "Vaccinated people become dead. Coronavirus pandemic ends for them."
Purrfect! 😂
Love your name. I want a tshirt!
We can all be Ungovernable! All are welcome.
👍
The DGB is another example. They trot out an 'expert' whose only job is to parrot the administration's line. Then the administration points to the expert as 'proof' of their brilliance.
Dick Cheney leaking to the Washington Post and then claiming the leaked story verifies his claims: science edition
Then when the New York Times writes an article about Washington Post writing an article, it becomes "multiple sources report........."
good one !
Exactly what the FBI, et.al. did with the Steele Dossier against Trump.
beat me to that!
Don't forget John McCain. RIP
The actual "naming" of DGB is revealing - and quite grim. People should look up the difference between mis and disinformation. The English language is quite illustrative and precise in conveying meaning.
They just couldn't think of a word that started with K.
(Knowledge would have worked!)
Thanks @командир you started my morning with a good belly laugh!
It's the media model.
One can't help but think of that old citogenesis comic from XKCD https://xkcd.com/978/
Vaccine safety is somewhat outside my circle of competence. Economic policy is inside it.
The US printed an enormous amount of money during the pandemic. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with economics should know that printing money at a rapid rate is very likely to lead to inflation. This is not a novel insight.
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”-Milton Friedman
That’s well known. That’s clear. When the government prints too much money, the result is high and sustained inflation. And inflation is very destructive.
“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.”-John Maynard Keynes
The US government, guided by incompetent public health “experts”, shut down much of the economy, and then politicians and many economists deluded themselves into thinking they could ease all the pain of lockdowns by sending out checks and printing money to finance that spending. And now the bill is coming due. The Fed distributed the whiskey and cocaine, and now everyone is hungover and suffering from withdrawal.
But don’t worry. We were promised that this inflation was merely “transitory”. That’s true, in a sense. All of life is transitory, “In the long run we’re all dead”
Take a look at the growth rate of the money supply here, and tell me why anyone was surprised that we have high inflation:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=248494
"By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft."
~ John Maynard Keynes
End the Fed and return to the barbarous relic.
"ALTHOUGH THERE ARE COUNTLESS MALADIES that are forever causing the decline of kingdoms, princedoms, and republics, the following four (in my judgment) are the most serious: civil discord, a high death rate, sterility of the soil, and the debasement of coinage. The first three are so obvious that everybody recognizes the damage they cause; but the fourth one, which has to do with money, is noticed by only a few very thoughtful people, since it does not operate all at once and at a single blow, but gradually overthrows governments, and in a hidden, insidious way."
On the Minting of Money, Copernicus, 1525
the u.s. is aggresively pursuing all four
The people who call themselves “Keynesians” don’t speak for him, nor do they faithfully represent his views on this issue.
Indeed.
I've had discussions with Stanford economists who did not know that Keynes actually recommended contraction of the money supply during times of surplus.
Of course, this sound advice, like so much else these days, has been completely memory-holed due to the utter politicization of the dismal science.
And he saw it coming:
"To convert the business man into a profiteer is to strike a blow at capitalism, because it destroys the psychological equilibrium which permits the perpetuance of unequal rewards.
Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of over-turning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency.
The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose….
By combining a popular hatred of the class of entrepreneurs with the blow already given to social security by the violent and arbitrary disturbance of contract…. governments are fast rendering impossible a continuance of the social and economic order of the nineteenth century."
~John Maynard Keynes
@Montaigne, Brilliant!
And then they can change how CPI is calculated...just to insult us!
Yes. And the amount of foolishness among the "blue," tribe is stunning.
More than a year and a half ago when I saw the minting of fiat currency ramping up, I told my family's formerly wise accountant, who frankly thought I was crazy, that I believed inflation would be a HUGE issue, and that I would take 1/3rd of the proceeds from our real estate sales, (50+ year old family businesses functionally bankrupted by the lockdowns, and sold off to the Big Boys for the rare underlying real estate,) or rather what was left of the proceeds after the feds and the states took their "cut" in taxation, (illegal, in my book, since they were the ones who forced the sales in the first place, without cause, proof of legal right, or hearings,) that I would probably buy silver or gold or some other hard asset with the remainder of my estate.
To stave off the inevitable further destruction from inflation.
Thomas Jefferson told us that standing armies are more injurious to Freedom than tyrants.
What has the U.S. been doing for the past 60 years?
Invading one nation after another.
What are we doing now? Fighting a proxy war we created with Russia.
And working to destroy the U.S., Her Constitution, and all our Inalienable Rights.
Government has attacked the citizens, through fraud, theft, murder, and false imprisonment. They are Traitors, in my book.
We need a New Revolution.
All Red, in November.
(The Grand Old Party, type of red, not bloodshed, for any Feds out there reading my thoughts, lol!!)
I think this is what we get when the most important qualifications for your job are your gender, race, longevity in your position, and LGBTQ+ status. Your actual competence and ability to do the job aren't part of the criteria.
how dare you say that about the first jewish vagina haver to sit behind a desk in the treasury dept...she is the rosa parks of our time
Oh, the one who believes that the Labor Participation rate is more important than an unborn child?
In this clip she is simply Jewish Cringe...damn...the voice could be used for torture on a loop. I CONFESSSSSSS!!!!
If only she were a "furry" as well. You're headed for the top these days if you have a kitty litter box in your cubicle. Management written all over those furries!
it seems the government picks the most INcompetent people. Betsy de Vos who never went to school got that department. A person with a private yet, multiple yachts, cars and houses gets energy reduction, a virologist who never saw a patient in his live gets health etc. etc. I am not sure who got labor, but probably a person who never worked a day in their lives. Or is that Yellen ?
Actually, Ms. Davis did a better job than Biden's Ed Defy is doing.
I gotta proofread before posting. My spellchecker has a mind of its own. It is Ms. De Vos, not Davis, and Ed Secy not Defy. Sorry.
Those three wee dots below your post allow for an edit, FYI.
DeVos was pushing school choice. She did a better job than anyone else thus far. Most in education are idiots so to go outside of that field was smart.
You are probably right. The few school teacher I know are not the sharpest pencils. But I found it so hilarious that someone who never attended public schools was named to rule them. Maybe school teachers need a better education too!
All people I know who went into teaching weren’t smart. They did it because it was an easy path and they got the summers off. I know of no one who went into teaching for the right reasons. Even my sister in law got into teaching because she failed at all other things.
Aw not good. As child I overheard some teachers in the schoolyard talking, and at that moment I knew that what I thought was a great profession, and thought of doing that, was not my thing. They were indeed talking of the good life, lots of days off, short working days, and in Europe also lots of time not teaching - religious days etc. All the wrong reasons indeed.
It’s done for a reason...usually “useful idiots” as Lenin stated.
Well, sure. But in the Before Times it was just who you knew...
Don't forget THE MOST IMPORTANT qualification - clot shots.
Bingo! Winner, winner chicken dinner!
A solution is a move away from big govt to local control of 99% of issues. If taxes, decisions and enforcement were all based on neighborhoods then these fake experts would not get a look in...
I also imagine red tape and taxes would be both way down. And quality of life way up.
How dare you use common sense! Welcome to the FBI's most dangerous list.
I think that’s what America’s founders envisioned.
💯
As I love to say: Experts are paid liars that hide deceit in complexity. But what is really going on is that the government only hires ideologically aligned bozos out of the high echelons of academia (or similarly aligned with private sector experience), and the most malleable, sociopathic, and ambitious, with the least common sense - meaning they will go along with their leaders despite having to deny reality - rise to the top. No normal sane person could work for the lunatics running these government agencies and maintain their sanity for long.
and nobody with decent ethics could work for them either, unless they're totally deluded into thinking they're actually helping people with their Big Brother certified actions.
Its for the children, comrade!
In regards to the e-CON-omy, this is a controlled demolition. The Fed is in COMPLETE control. Don't ever forget that.
You mean they're the Revenue Prevention Department and the Hegemonic Appropriations Department all in one?!
#1 - never listen to someone who's never had a real job.
#2 - most politicians have never had a real job.
#3 - most college professor have never had a real job.
Let's think about that last one: would you pay to learn carpentry from someone who's never built anything? Pay to learn music from someone who's never worked as a musician? Pay to learn how to raise children from someone who's never had a child? Hmm ......
It's also useful to listen to folks who take the risk of being responsible for paying others.
Most of the posts, and comments on the posts, use the term "experts". The "experts" have been WRONG, about almost everything, for decades. And are still wrong. Woefully, catastrophically wrong. Every day, on every topic. Maybe its time to stop giving credence to these purveyors of mis/mal/dis/and dud information. My grandfather said, "Experts are people who claim to know more and more about less and less - until they know everything thing there is to know, about nothing at all".
Permission to use? Love what your grandpa said...wisdom
Grandad was a philosopher. He claimed that "three years in the mud of Flanders will make you wise - or make you dead. I'm not dead".
And one brave m'fer!
Indeed, many good men did go back to the "mud". Your grandad was wise but also tenacious to withstand the merciless stench of death
The state, being the agency with the monopoly on the use of force in society is a magnet for sociopaths yearning to utilize that monopoly on their fellow citizens (usually rationalized with the noblest of intentions). The current swollen leviathan state is now significantly beyond control of elected sociopaths who only pass legislation written by bureaucrats and lobbyists in assemblies that argue over degrees of coercion while the bankrupt welfare states run on their ability to counterfeit fiat currencies through their central banks (monetizing unpayable debt). Within this culture of corruption exists a general level of intellect motivated by free stuff and plunder (end-state democracy) believing that the state has no limits to civil affairs on which it should lay its dead hands. Modern states are now orders of magnitude beyond minimums of legitimacy if (it could be argued) any exist (AnCap position).
Let flow @John. Spot on man!
Hi BC - I believe "haruspication" is the more usual term. We could all do with a few more expert entrails, lol.
Just added a new word to my vocabulary ~ 👍.
With dual degrees in Haruspicy and Astrology, you too, can be of the High Order of Vaxxinators!
Ha ha! Wish I could add more than one "like" to your comment!
But you have to grant that experts seem to be experts at killing for profit.
Killing you softly?...
Ukraine Bioweapons briefing. If you look at the slides, you will see some familiar names: Pfizer, Moderna, Merck. And of course the democratic party leadership.
http://bitly.ws/qY4x
😳
Holy shit, is this real?!
I think this has definitely been the worst thing about it; the fifth rate experts who’s only distinction is the willingness to say whatever they think is in their best interests (sometimes when even they know it isn’t true) and hence those paying them, while screwing up time after time; the Faucis, Walenskys, Whittys, Sridhars, Dings, Fismans etc. If the quality of these people are any kind of indication, the promises of their paymasters will be emptier than those of Mao or Stalin.
Or maybe Satan?!
You know there's that old saying that those who can, do, and those who can't teach? Well the little known 3rd portion of that axiom is "Those who really, really, really can't, run society."
And those that can't teach administrate!
The Pantheon of the Great Vaxxinatorz!
TRUTH!!!!!!!