Medicare Disadvantage Plans suck money out of the system from 3 different sides.

(1) They cost the government more money per patient than real Medicare

(2) They falsely denied 18% of valid claims according to Medicare’s Inspector General. They also screw customers by denying people specialists , requiring prior approvals etc.

(3) They cost providers more money by increasing the manpower they need to get their payments by throwing up hassles.

“Medicare Brokers” get gigantic commissions (not just the first year but EVERY year someone is on the same plan) to push Medicare Disadvantage Plans on people who don’t know any better.

There is a also a SECOND medicare scam from the GOP for people who wisely avoid Medicare Disadvantage called “Accountable Care Organizations”. The bottom line is that you cannot trust your primary doctor’s advice on when to seek a specialist because they pay doctors to discourage you from seeking a specialist when you need one. They don’t give you a choice about belonging to an ACO but they do have to notify you when they stick you in an ACO, so at least you know when your primary doctor has a financial incentive to discourage you from getting treatment.

https://surgerycenterok.com/blog/scam-series-pay-for-performance/

It’s not that Linux can’t have security problems. I still remember the very first internet virus in 1987 that traveled thru Unix machines. But Windows is the worst OS for critical systems precisely because it is the most common OS. Anything is better than windows. Linux, MacOS, or even an old IBM mainframe OS and those awful tn3270 terminals. Also, Chrome OS in particular has VMs instead of other VMs. It really is designed to be much more secure than Windows.

It’s more like a bug in critical software that just happens to be security related.

And so the cure is the same as the disease. Or actually worse in this case. The very fact that systems were constantly updated was itself the problem rather than the solution to the problem. How did nobody realize this was going to happen sooner or later?

Linux had also been affected by Crowdstrike before.

I’m guessing Crowdstrike issues a lot more Windows updates than Linux updates?

I got a new HVAC and smart thermostat about a week ago. After researching, I decided to hook thermostat to wifi and download app. Mostly all the app does is duplicate the same functionality that the thermostat controls have. I find it handy to have a remote control for the thermostat.

OTOH I decided not to hook up a new washing machine to wifi and use app. It duplicated the functionality of the appliance controls also, but there was no point in having remove controls for a washing machine.

The critical thing is that an appliance needs to be fully functional without needing to use wifi and certainly not a phone app.

Everything we know about this is that it was a disaster waiting to happen. Why the heck aren’t the airlines using Linux instead of Windows for critical stuff? How about something like…Chrome OS? Then you don’t need CrowdStrike because your OS is already secure because of the built in VMs and because it is Linux. Pay google for support and no updates unless there is something critical.

edit: Lots of Microsoft lovers here lol. And missing the point which is that using the most well known consumer OS for critical stuff like keeping flights going is begging for trouble.

Every time I think of actually subscribing to the WP or NYT I remember how their political analysis is just utter crap.

They love anything the orange felon does.

Actually not in the particular case. None of Treason Trump’s original supporters from 2016 will like this if they learn about it. Whenever I talk to them that was always the #1 thing they say. Pretending to be against immigrants lowering wages was Treason Trump’s original con to hook dupes. This was why they thought opportunist Trump was “anti-Establishment” and other politicians way milder immigration policies made them “Globalists”. It is the later opportunists who supported Treason Trump for self-serving reasons that don’t care about anything he says or does.

Bringing in immigrants to lower American wages and bust unions has always been a right wing thing. There is video of Ted Cruz saying he wants to increase the number of H1-B visas by 500%.

Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump is the most hated politician in America. He is the “most corrupt president in history”, according to Bernie Sanders, and “the worst president in history”, according to a presidential rating of hundreds of historians.

Reminder that Steve Bannon frankly confessed Trump’s Start the Steal conspiracy plans to a group of Trump insiders before the election.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/22/1112138665/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

…audio from Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, surfaced from October 31st, 2020, just a few days before the Presidential election.

Let’s listen. [Begin Videotape]

STEVE BANNON: And what Trump’s going to do is declare victory, right? He’s going to declare victory, but that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner. The Democrats — more of our people vote early that count. Theirs vote in mail. And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump’s going to take advantage — that’s our strategy.

He’s gonna declare himself a winner. So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm. Also — also if Trump is — if Trump is losing by 10 or 11:00 at night, it’s going to be even crazier. Because he’s gonna sit right there and say they stole it. If Biden’s wining, Trump is going to do some crazy shit.

Q. How do you mute a pathological liar?

A. Invite him to testify under oath on his own behalf in his criminal trial.

Except that they won. So it had nothing to do with “preferring to lose”. Primary voters probably thought Sanders would lose, but I do not agree.

So loyalty to American values will disqualify you from serving in a neofascist government.

Why does no one ever ask for specifics?

The con that Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump is running depends on never talking about specifics. That applies to everything, not just his Start the Steal conspiracy. Every politician besides himself is “corrupt” or “crooked”. No specific details ever given. Even though Bernie Sanders correctly says Trump himself was the most corrupt president in American history. The election was “stolen”. No specific details ever given that have not been completely debunked in courts.

Reminder that Steve Bannon frankly confessed Trump’s Start the Steal conspiracy plans to a group of Trump insiders before the election.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/22/1112138665/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

…audio from Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, surfaced from October 31st, 2020, just a few days before the Presidential election.

Let’s listen. [Begin Videotape]

STEVE BANNON: And what Trump’s going to do is declare victory, right? He’s going to declare victory, but that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner. The Democrats — more of our people vote early that count. Theirs vote in mail. And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump’s going to take advantage — that’s our strategy.

He’s gonna declare himself a winner. So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm. Also — also if Trump is — if Trump is losing by 10 or 11:00 at night, it’s going to be even crazier. Because he’s gonna sit right there and say they stole it. If Biden’s wining, Trump is going to do some crazy shit.

Probably one of the shitstains in Google’s C-suite after having signed a “wonderful” contract to get access to “all that great data from Reddit”

If they hadn’t bought and then shutdown what became google groups to sabotage Usenet they could have gotten access to just as good of a data set for free.

LMFAO This time the AI doesn’t even know that 6.12 > 2.537. It doesn’t even know to use the computer to compute things even though it literally runs inside a computer.

Me: is andromeda or ngc300 closer to us?

ChatGPT: Between the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and NGC 300, NGC 300 is closer to us. NGC 300 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Sculptor, and it’s approximately 6.12 million light-years away from Earth. In contrast, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is much farther, at around 2.537 million light-years away. Therefore, NGC 300 is closer to us than the Andromeda Galaxy.

It depends on how you ask the question, and there is also a randomization done on the AI answer that you get. The point is that you would be foolish to trust AI to accurately answer science questions. Why the f*ck would you want a randomized answer to a science question?

ME: how far is andromeda from caldwell 70?

ChatGPT: Caldwell 70, also known as NGC 7000 or the North America Nebula, is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. It is much closer to us than the Andromeda Galaxy. The North America Nebula is estimated to be around 1,600 light-years away from Earth. Therefore, in comparison to the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda, Caldwell 70 is significantly closer to us.

In fact Caldwell 70 is over twice as far as Andromeda, because Caldwell 70 in NGC 300, not NDC 7000 (Caldwell-20). Also, the AI didn’t even answer the question that I actually asked.

I voted for Sanders in the primary (twice). But nobody should compare Biden with Sanders, we should compare Biden with other presidents who were able to get elected and achieve progress. Biden was the best president of the past 50 years. If you disagree, name a president who was better. If you are looking for a hard-core Biden supporter, I am raising my hand as an extremely proud one.

I still can’t figure out what captcha wants. When it tells me to select all squares with a bus, I can never get it right unless every square is a separate picture.

That cant answer most questions though.

It would make AI much more trustworthy. You cannot trust chatGPT on anything related to science because it tells you stuff like the Andromeda galaxy being inside the Milky Way. The only way to fix that is to directly program basic known science into the AI.