College Football Playoffs

 I said nothing about College Football this year and now the playoffs are upon us. I figure the least I can do is document the results.

OK, the 1st round.

(9) Alabama - 34 (8) Oklahoma - 24

(5) Oregon - 51 (12) James Madison - 34

(6) Mississippi - 41 (11) Tulane - 10

(10) Miami - 10 (7) Texas A&M - 3

Now, moving on to the Quarterfinals. Last year all four teams with a bye lost so there was some concern moving forward.

Cotton Bowl

(10) Miami - 24 (2) Ohio State - 14

Orange Bowl

(5) Oregon - 23 (4) Texas Tech - 0

Rose Bowl

(1) Indiana - 38 (9) Alabama - 3

Sugar Bowl

(6) Mississippi - 39 (3) Georgia 34

Well, three of the top four seeds lost. That's better than last year but we're still talking about a 1-7 record. 

The semi-finals.

Fiesta Bowl - Thursday 1/8, 7:30 PM

(6) Mississippi vs (10) Miami

Peach Bowl - Friday 1/9, 7:30 PM

(1) Indiana vs (5) Oregon

Shall I choose? I'm thinking Indiana and Miami. Isn't Thursday night a funny time to play? It's because the NFL Wildcard games are on Saturday in the 8 PM slot.

Maduro

I know I've been falling down on the down and allowing too much stuff to slide by. I'm just tired.

So, Trump actually sent a military mission to Venezuela, arrested (kidnapped?) Nicolás Maduro and his wife to face drug charges here in the US and flattened a few installations killing some people here and there, mostly there.

I don't know what to make of this. I suppose we will have to wait and see.

Universal Healthcare (again)

Let me start by saying that I think Universal Healthcare would be a good thing. I just think it's complicated.

 First of all, health care is NOT free any place in the world. When people talk about “free” healthcare what they mean is that you don’t pay for it at the point of service.

Basically everyone chips in all the time whether you’re using medical care or not in the same way that everyone pays their insurance premiums whether they’re using the benefits or not.

The BIG difference is the government doesn’t have to make a profit while insurance companies typically do.

I saw someone say “Americans could decide today to have free healthcare.” Aside from my previous point that it’s NOT free, there are some issues. Note that none of these issues are insurmountable if the will is there but they need to be adequately studied and addressed.

Now for some back of the envelope calculations.

Let’s start with the cost. What we spend as of 2021: Medicare $901 billion, Medicaid $734 billion, Private Health Insurance Spending $1,211 billion, out of pocket $433 billion. That's a total of almost $3.3 trillion.

A University of Massachusetts study showed that we would save $5.1 trillion over 10 years in healthcare costs with Universal Healthcare. That would bring the total cost down to about $2.8 trillion per year. We’re already spending $1.6 trillion in Medicare and Medicaid so that leaves a potential shortfall of $1.2 trillion.

But going to a single payer government healthcare plan is going to save employers what they’re now paying for employee healthcare insurance so a reasonable place to go for additional funding would be a per employee payroll tax. There are about 160 million workers in the US so that’s about $7,500 per employee. Employers are paying between $6,800 and $7,500 per employee now so let’s assume a payroll tax of $6,000. That leaves us short by $1,500 per employee or about $240 billion.

The US Income tax revenue is $4.9 trillion so that would mean about a 5% tax increase across the board.

All of the above might cover the cost but lots of luck getting this through Congress.

Second, we provide universal healthcare for no cost at the point of use and the demand for healthcare services is going to skyrocket. I don’t think that’s going to affect the cost much but it could reduce the quality of service and it will put an enormous strain on our medical infrastructure. I’m not sure it can handle the additional load. So that might mean a required investment in additional infrastructure of an unknown amount of money.

Third, we need to be careful about assuming what works in Canada (42 million people), the UK (70 million people) or even Germany (84 million people) is going to scale to a nation of 340 million people spread out over a ridiculous amount of area. Russia has 145 million people and is bigger than the US but does anyone really want healthcare on a par with Russia? The Chinese arguably have it worse than the US since reportedly often only about half of medical costs are covered (I don’t know how true this is. I’m relying on Google).

So it’s not like flipping a switch. There’s a lot of preliminary work to be done in order to put together a workable strategy. What the government should be doing is organizing a committee of experts, medical, educational, financial and tax, to study the problem for a year and produce a set of recommendations.

I suspect that will never happen with either the Republicans or the Democrats in charge.

My Basement Leak IV

Just a quick little update.

It's Monday, December 22nd and, since there is nothing on the calendar, we decide to go to Barnes & Nobles to look for some books for the kids for Christmas.

Yeah, us and everyone else in Northern New Jersey. The place was packed which I suppose is too be expected three days before Christmas.

We succeeded in our quest and then stopped off for a leisurely lunch.

When we got home we found a message from the flooring guys which indicated that they wanted to schedule the installation.

Hey, cool. So I called them back and they asked if they could install the flooring and carpeting for the short flight of stairs the next day, December 23rd. We had nothing planned so I said, "why not" and they indicated they would be there the next afternoon. That word "afternoon" should have set off alarm bells.

Anyway, we moved the loose stuff into the other half of the basement and took apart the cabinet. But when I took a closer look at the cabinet I realized that flooring might cause the fittings to no longer line up. My wife agreed so we decided to tell them to end the flooring where the cabinet started but to put a thin piece in the space between the cabinet and the fireplace.

Around noon the next day, two guys showed up carrying what looked to me like a really big piece of carpet with our name on it. I wondered about that but started in on my speech about what to do near the cabinet.

That's when they stopped me and explained that they were only there to do the steps. I suppose everybody is a specialist these days.

It took them about two hours to finish and yes, there was a lot of carpet left over. 

But now it's after 2 PM and the next day was Christmas Eve. I wondered how long this installation was going to take?

Around 3:45 PM it became pretty obvious that no one was coming but I figured I'd call and ask just in case. I was assured they had been delayed but would be there within a half hour.

The half hour came and went and, unsurprisingly, no one showed up. The place had closed at four so I got no answer when I called to verify that we would have to reschedule.

So, I had a $1,000 deposit floating in the wind. This was different from the Old Basement Guys though because the stairs were done and the estimate for that was $1,119 so I figured that I was $119 ahead.

They were closed Christmas Eve and Christmas so I gave them a call on Friday, December 26th. I got lots of apologies and a promise that they would call me back once they checked the schedule.

Nope, no call back. So I called again on Saturday, December 27th. We went over possible dates and, again, I got a promise of a call back. But, this time they called back and we agreed on January 2nd, in the morning this time.

So I suppose that we shall see.

In the meantime the check from the Old Basement Guys appears to have cleared so, hopefully, I'm done with them forever.

<<To Be Continued>>

My Basement Leak III

 Well, it's been a little over a month since the last installment and a lot has happened.

First off, none of the stuff in the basement appeared to be damaged so that's good. 

Second, they did manage to finish the spackling and they replaced the baseboard heating covers.

Third, we went through the stuff from the closet and found some really weird things. There were several bags of stuff from when my wife cleared out my mother-in-law's apartment including an entire bag of empty prescription bottles. Why they were kept is anyone's guess but they're now gone.

Another bag contained old LP records. I was treated that night to a selection of Yiddish Folk Songs by Theodore Bikel followed by Johnny Mathis as my wife couldn't resist trying some of them out.

I called Valentine Electric to come down and add a socket so I could hide the sump pump electrical connection and ran into a couple of code issues. They couldn't do exactly what I asked and recommended a dedicated line rather than adding a socket. This ended up giving me a small pipe running down from the ceiling in the corner of the fireplace.

My wife hated it. But there's a limit to what you can do. It did get the electrical out of the way. 

We then headed to Home Depot to pick out the chair railing and got a lead on someone that might do a cabinet. I took a picture of the chair railing that we wanted, the contractors picked it up the next day and installed it.

That brought us to the question of painting. The original estimate of $800 sounded more than a tad outrageous but apparently there was some confusion over the scope. We got an informal quote of $300 but that was before the baseboard heating covers had been installed.

We went back to Home Depot to pick out paint. My wife had a general idea of what she wanted but neither of us had expected an entire wall of closely related colors.

It took a while to pick out two colors, one for the wall, or actually half a wall, and the other for the chair railing. We went up to the lady at the counter with our selections, she nodded, then looked at us and asked "what finish?"

What? There were apparently a half a dozen different finishes that each paint came in ranging from gloss to flat. After some consulting with the paint lady, we chose flat for the wall, satin for the chair railing and walked out with a gallon of paint for the wall and a quart for the railing.

We then proceeded to dance a scheduling dance with the contractor for the painting and I started to wonder about the fact that the baseboard heating covers would have to be removed and replaced.

In the meantime a woman from Home Depot arrived to look at putting a cabinet over the sump pump and it became pretty obvious, pretty quickly, that this was way beyond what they usually do. She gave us a sort of "not possible" response and I realized I would need someone a bit more creative.

It was now the first week in December and the task list included get the painting, done and get someone else to look at putting a cabinet in to hide the sump pump.

I finally figured out that since they had been paid for the major part of the job the water proofing contractors had bigger fish to fry and weren't really interested in my little paint job. So a called a few places that did handyman work and painting.

I found a painter that offered to do the job for $500 and set up an appointment for December 18th. There were four parts to the job. (1) remove the baseboard heating covers, (2) paint the wall, (3) paint the chair railing, (4) reinstall the baseboard heating covers and (5) reinstall the electric socket covers which were still off.

We then went looking for flooring. My wife decided on flooring rather than carpeting and we went to the local flooring place. They measured, said the sump pump would not be a problem as they would cut around it, and suggested carpeting for the small flight of stairs.

They sent us what seemed like a reasonable quote, we gave them a $1,000 deposit and they said they would contact us in 4-5 weeks to set up the installation. One gotcha is that the baseboard will be primed white and we're going to have to figure out if we want them painted. I'll worry about that later.

We also located a carpenter in town that came and looked at the sump pump corner and said that he would figure something out.

That night, I noticed the thermostat downstairs, in the same room, was signaling that the batteries needed to be replaced. So I replaced the batteries and the thermostat went blank. The puppy was completely dead. I tried different batteries. I tried taking them in and out and pushing on them but no joy. I flipped out and finally called Gold Medal for help. 

When the technician got there, he looked at the thing sideways, scratched his head and said maybe it needed to be reset. I didn't know the thing had a reset button. He reached into his bag and grabbed the thinnest, pointiest thing he could find and depressed this teeny, tiny little button on the side. Voila! The thermostat came back to life.

But the thermostat wasn't the important thing. The important thing was on his way out he noticed a wet spot, in the corner, under the baseboard heating. This was no where near the original leak. He checked it and said the pipe might be leaking and I should keep an eye on it.

The painters actually contacted us and asked if they could come on the 17th instead. I said fine and they showed up bright and early. They painted the walls and the trim but didn't remove the baseboard heating covers or replace the socket covers. They claimed they didn't know how to remove the covers. Another example of the guy setting up the job and the guy who was actually going to do it not being on the same page.

After some discussion, and inspection, we decided the hell with the baseboard heating covers but they would replace the socket covers. That's when we discovered we were missing a screw. They left the cover loose and I got some screws and took care of that later.

In the meantime, since a full month had passed, I figured I should give the Old Basement Guys a call. I called on December 15th, and spoke to the owner. He said that he thought that had been taken care of and that he would check and get back to me.

He didn't get back to me so I called again on December 17th. They said they would pass the message on and the owner would call us back. He actually did. This time my wife answered the phone and he assured her that "the check was in the mail."

It's now December 18th and the carpenter showed up and did his thing. We had also negotiated painting the cabinet and he suggested we paint the top to match the chair rail and the base to match the wall. That sounded reasonable so that's what we did.

After it was done, I have to admit that it looked pretty good. I suppose it should for $1,211.

Remember that possible leak under the baseboard heating? After a couple of days of thinking it must have been condensation the wet area clearly began to spread. I called Gold Medal again. They sent someone that Friday, December 19th. He said yup, the pipe is leaking but he fixed it in about an hour.

Then on Saturday, December 20th, a check from the Old Basement Guys arrived. I immediately deposited it but of course it hasn't cleared yet.

<<To Be Continued>>

Birthright Citizenship Again

The Supreme Court has decided to rule on whether Trump can modify Birthright Citizenship through executive order. I have a bad feeling about this.

If a president can declare a portion of the Constitution null and void, or declare there are exceptions to it, then of what use is the Constitution? 

Yes, I understand the "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" arguments. But the phrase simply means under the authority of U.S. law. It therefore excludes foreign rulers, foreign diplomats, people on board foreign ships and foreign armies. At the time it also excluded the Native American tribes. 

Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are under the authority of U.S. law and therefore "subject to the jurisdiction thereof." That fact that US authorities can arrest and imprison an illegal alien for committing a crime demonstrates that. There has never been any doubt about the meaning of this phrase. There was no doubt about it when the Senate debated it, and no doubt about it when the court ruled in US v. Wong Kim Ark. 

If the court allows Trump, or any other president, to modify the meaning of the Constitution then the Constitution would be in serious need of defending.

This SCOTUS is already going to go down as the worst, most boot licking court in history but allowing an executive order to modify the meaning of the Constitution would be a violation of their oaths.

The Oklahoma University Essay

There is a bit of a bruhaha at OH over a student writing a paper about an article on gender where she cited the Bible. She was given a 0 out of 25. She filed a discrimination complaint with the school and the governor's office (!?).

The result is the instructor has been placed on administrative leave. I have seen some references saying that they were trans but I'm not sure how true that is.

I read the paper. My major problem with it is that it makes multiple assertions without citation. For any of those assertions she could have cited an appropriate Bible verse. In some cases she does, but in most she doesn't.

She obviously believes the Bible is an authority on the subject but she never clearly establishes that as a basis for her argument.

I think I would have done three things with the paper. (1) Tell her that she needed to establish early on that in her opinion the Bible is an authority. (2) Identified every assertion without a citation (and there are a lot) and (3) Pointed out that her argument would have been stronger if she had justified using the Bible as an authority.

I would have subtracted 2 points for (1) and 6 points for (2) but nothing for (3). So 17 out of 25 strikes me as a fair grade. That's a C or C-.

Then again, I got my degree in 1969 when you bled for any grade above a C. Given today's grading standards, I probably would have given her a 22 out of 25, subtracting only 1 point and 2 points each for my citation criticisms. That's an B or B+. There is no way this paper deserves 25 out of 25 or 0 out of 25.

Reimmigration

Reimmigration making the rounds in Europe and has not effectively popped up in a Trump tirade although he used "Reverse Migration" instead. Basically it's the idea of kicking out all of the immigrants that are causing issues real or imagined.

Let's not get hung up on a term. The bottom line is that Trump and his cronies are looking for an excuse to revisit the status of people here under protected status, with green cards and perhaps even naturalized citizens. 

So of course the Internet is running wild.

I think everyone needs to calm down. What they're proposing may be bat shit crazy but their hands are still handcuffed by US law. Trump doesn't have the authority that he thinks he has and even his hand picked SCOTUS isn't going to let him get away with not following federal law.

The federal government can legally review immigrant status at any time. The government can attempt to revoke immigration status due to crimes, fraud, national security concerns, and violations of immigration rules. There must be a final decision made by an Immigration Judge and the individual has 30 days to file an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). 

So until there is evidence that the administration is bypassing federal law, all of this nonsense is legal. Cutting off immigration from certain countries is a power that the president has under the "Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)." So unless Congress modifies the INA, Trump is within his rights to "pause" immigration from anywhere he wants.

My Basement Leak II

When last we talked about this I had not gotten the promised call from the plumber so I called him. Incredibly, he answered the phone but said he couldn't talk and promised to call back. 

Here we go again.

But, much to my surprise, he did call back and made an appointment to drop by late that afternoon. An appointment that he kept. After looking around he said he didn't see any problem but then hit me with a wrinkle that I hadn't thought about. Did I want to keep or replace the baseboard heating covers?

Hmm, that was something I hadn't thought of. He simplified it by saying that he would send me two estimates, with and without new covers. He said he would get in touch with the basement folks. That was on October 17th.

The next day I got the estimates and the number almost knocked my eyes out. I hadn't expected a $2,350 bill just for the plumbing. Since it was only $350 less if I didn't replace the covers, I said that we would do new covers.

I heard nothing so I called the Basement Guys on October 22nd and was told I would get a call back. This was deja vu all over again.

I did actually get a call back at about 9:15 AM on November 3rd, but I missed the call. The message said that the plumber was available the following Wednesday and to call back to work out the details.

I called back and the guy wasn't there. I was told that I would get a return call, which I didn't. I called again the next day on November 4th. Again, I was told that I would get a call back. I heard nothing.

Finally, I decided that enough was enough and on November 10th I went looking for another contractor.

I left messages with three places and got a call back from one that day. He made an appointment to look things over that evening. Let's call these folks the New Basement Guys and christen the other folks the Old Basement guys.

He looked around, and gave us a $7,500 quote not including painting the sheetrock, new baseboard trim (which I figures I would get when we got the new carpeting) or the cabinet that the other guys had suggested to cover the sump pump. I thought he told me that the pump would be in the wall but, as we shall see, I was mistaken.

He asked for a $1,500 deposit. So now I was out $7,358 with nothing to show for it so far.

On the same day, November 10th, I called the Old Basement Guys to tell them that I no longer needed their services and that I would appreciate the return of my deposit. I was told that I would get a call back.

I heard nothing on November 11th so I called again on November 12th just to make sure that there was no misunderstanding. I was put on hold for a bit and then told that the owner would call me back.

The owner actually did call me back a few hours later. We chatted for a bit. I made it clear that I thought this was just one of those things and he promised to send me a check for the amount of my deposit. My wife said that she would believe that when the check had cleared and the money was in our account. I agree with her and I'm thinking that I'll never see that $5,858 again without a lot of grief.

In the meantime, the New Basement Guys made an appointment for November 17th, between 8:00 AM and 8:30 AM. Along the way I received two reminder emails. We put tarps over the remaining stuff in the room the night before.

So I dragged my sorry rear end out of bed about 7 AM and sure enough they arrived around 8:15 AM.

Things started off well. They put stuff to cover the floor from the front door to the stairs and to cover the carpet near where they were going to work. They put up tarps to keep the dust from going into the rest of the house. They covered the open area much more completely that I had been thinking to do.

Then they got to work. 

There was a lot of drilling and banging as expected but then, I started to hear water sloshing and they asked me where the water turn off valve was. That was bad but the tarps kept me from seeing what was going on. But when two water company trucks showed up I figured that I'd better hobble out the garage and go around to the front door.

They had ruptured the water main leading into the house.

Now, there are messes, there are big messes and then there is this. This just totally took a minor annoyance into a full blown catastrophe. My wife was, understandably, ready to kill. I was trying to figure out where do we go from here? It did not look good.

They tried to make amends. They got all the water out. They brought in radiators to dry things out. They tore up the carpet from the whole room and out of the closet under the stairs. The put the stuff from the closet in the basement.

So were are we?

1. They need to finish the wall.

2. The sump pump hole is big and ugly and is going to be a problem. We are thinking of getting a carpenter to build a cabinet to hide it, which is what the Old Basement Guys said they would do. Obviously I was wrong when I thought he said that it would be hidden in the wall. We're also thinking that a matching cabinet on the other side might be good.

3. We need to come to a price for painting the sheetrock or I can go get a handyman to do it.

4. We need to check if any of the stuff that was down there has been damaged. I don't think so but my wife isn't convinced.

5. We need to go through the stuff from the closet. Dump what we don't need and put the rest back because right now we can't get into the basement.

6. BTW, we still haven't seen a check from the Old Basement Guys. No real surprise there.

Obviously this is <<To Be Continued>>