The Corruption of Welfare - Not so Corrupt

There is a hidden problem with joining the future that I rarely discuss, because it's not a problem inherent in technology. The lag of upgrades.

Technology is a sink or swim endeavor, not something that can be done willy nilly or half assed. The most important thing an organization must do is how decent IT personnel.

To better understand this I will use Washington state as an example of how to do it wrong. The specific point of interest is the Department of Social and Human Services.

This organization is notoriously a mess, the majority of workers are lazy and callous. Visiting in person was always the best method to take care of issues, however, visiting in person has an inherent issue with convenience.

The Moyer traditional method is to call by phone, which should have very few problems. This office ha's average wait times of 60 minutes, even if no one if being helped.

So it was great to hear that they finally have an online method available. That is, until you visit their website.

The Washington state DSHS website is designed as poorly as those old Altavista websites designed for people's parrots and gerbils in the 80s. The Lansing page is bland and login links are obfuscated, and none of it is mobile friendly.

When you manage to find the link to create an account they demand you choose a password based on insane criteria, like including a special symbol. This  ensures that you will forget the password in the future.

So you sludge through their poorly conceived login system, but you still have no access to what they want you to complete.

For that, there is another account system you have to find, yes, it is also obfuscated. Then you create a second passcode.

Okay, now you're ready to begin the rebel process, if you can figure out which text word you're suppose to click on. Instead of obvious menus or links, they bury the correct links in the actual text that drones on about different languages and how to get help if you can't read this page in English.

Ladies and gentlemen, the stupid of that one page alone is a threat to the sanctity of the internet. We have not  reached the end of our misadventure yet.

Once you start filling out the forms, you glance at the URL and notice, it now looks like a document on its own. The session ID is probably about 1k of data on it's own, excessive barely covers it.

Assuming your browser and connection are both perfect, in which case you don't need DSHS anyway, you get through and just wait for the letter telling you their decision.

Most browsers or connections will crash, that session ID and the fact they use JavaScript in ways the spaghetti monster never intended.

If you are a poor person who needs this service, you load the browser back up an navigate to the page again. Instead of your application, you are greeted with a warning that you have to wait 30 minutes for the other session to expire.

Yeah, they don't use cookies, and they have no way of tracking your IP address. In server scripts your IP address is very easy to check, even some of the laziest coders will connect that with the session for reconnects.

Alright, 8 hours later you manage to get this all done and now you can rest easy knowing you have renewed your much needed benefits. Then you get the letter explaining that you no longer get any benefits.

You have to call them anyway, wait more than an hour on the phone listening to the annoying voice telling you that it's better to use the system that just screwed it all up in the first place. This is not how you join the future, or save the planet, this is the result of bad hiring practices that result in nerds working positions where geeks should be.

I type this after being on the phone for 55 minutes, my second time trying to call to figure out why my medical renewal was denied in spite of no major changes. I am still waiting for an operator, and I was using my cheap $15 phone's keyboard.

Corrupt to the Core - Welcome to the USA

There is as much corruption in the Democrats and religious liberals as there is in the Republicans and religious conservatives. The difference is how this corruption manifests.

The Republicans are easy to see, they are willing to sacrifice their own voters' lives in order to demonstrate that they are sore losers, and their supporters are so ignorant they blame the Democrats for it. The racism, misogyny, homophobia, and even hatred of asexuality is very evident in their policies and actions.

The Democrats are more subtle, and their supporters are not as easily fooled. The problem is that with the alternative being so horrible, even those of us who see the corruption in the Democrats have no choice but to continue supporting them.

Case in point, the DSHS of Seattle, the ones responsible for making sure everyone is insurable and has food on the table, which the tax payers have voted for and even give them increases at their own expense. Conservatives do it to keep the costs low, collection fees of unpaid medical bills can cost the state more than triple the actual medical bills, delayed treatment can increase the final costs by more than ten times the original costs.

So this system was supported unilaterally by everyone, only the morons and heartless disagreed. In order for the system to work every one who is dependent on it must be treated for all ailments in a manner that allows and encourages a return to the workforce. This is not what is happening.

Instead doctors are seeing this as a blank check, one to he milked until the money is gone, and the state encourages them to do just that. Medical costs are considered for coverage based on the costs of a single visit, not over all costs. Thus means if there is a procedure that will result in a person being capable of working but is over the price of a procedure that is the bare minimum for survival, the state prefers the bare minimum.

The end result is that patients are left with chronic illness and nonthreatening injuries that prevent work, trust me, almost every disabled person would prefer and even enjoy working, going to doctor appointments is tedious and wastes a lot of time as well as costs the tax payer a fortune.

The solution is simple, easy, and cost effective. Pay for what is needed to ensure the patient is healthy and not suffering so they can repay the system in taxes by working. Democrats do not want this anymore than Republicans, both parties profit from suffering and death.

The difference is found because of the supporters, the fact that even the religious Democrats are difficult to fool now means the politicians must tread more cautiously. Neither party wants a healthy country, because in all the healthy countries the masses are not as gullible, the government does not get away with as much, and the people have more power.

This is why the Democrats are attempting to wrest control of information, passing policies under the table while touting battles against inconsequential policies like Net Neutrality. If you don't get that statement, Google SOPA and PIPA, passed without any publicity, under the table, by president Obama himself. Net neutrality as you are told it is never existed anyway.

Back to medicine. Democrats are using insurance as a cover for the real issue, doctors who are abusing the patients for their own profits. Not all doctors are like this, a few will mention that the ACA is doing nothing to help, but the private club mentality prevents many from actually voicing, or even recognizing, the true problem.

Seattle is the perfect example of how this is all failing, and I am now a case study for this. I had severe pain in my side, for those who don't know, I am an eccedentesiast. I hide pain, even from myself, and have an atypically high tolerance to it. My old doctor, who I miss a lot, has been the only person alive who could see past the smile I wear.

For more than four visits to the emergency room, each time right after eating something fatty, they did not diagnose the gallstones that were tearing my gallbladder apart. The reason, as I discovered by the only doctor honest enough to care, was because gallstones are not typical for someone who is not an obese female.

Yep, plain old discrimination caused this diagnosis to be missed, but that is only the beginning. The reason the state wound up paying tens of thousands more, and will be paying millions more now, is because the state discouraged multiple tests. They utilized only one test, the least expensive and least comprehensive one, which is unlikely to spot most ailments, all because the state would be less likely to cover the others if they did not help in diagnosis.

Thus I was forced to return many times over the years, several thousand dollars used for an ambulance each time, then hospital fees of nearly one thousand just for a failed diagnosis. When the tax payers could have instead paid about five thousand total for the initial visit if the doctors were encouraged to get an accurate diagnosis.

This us the corruption caused by the Democrats, the feel good doctors' lobby is what convinced them to enact the conservative ACA, after removing the points that addressed medical malpractice and doctor reapinsibilities.

Currently, DSHS of Seattle is just as corrupt, finding ways to take the tax payers' money and avoid using it on those who need it. They pocket most of it, offering themselves raises and paying employees who rarely do any actual work, then complaining they need more money while not paying for preventative measures.

Welcome to the USA, please deposit your brain in the wastebasket and collect your "hunting" rifle if you're white, if you are not white we have these lovely matching iron bracelets for you. Either way, the government does not want you to think about it.