Tuesday -- January 22, 2014 -- Let's See If This Rollout Goes Better Than The ObamaCare Website; It Just Keeps Getting Worse For Target

Active rigs:

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RBN Energy: one of my favorite subjects, 'cause I blogged about it from the beginning. RBN Energy continues its series on Kinder Morgan and the Jones Act.

At the end of last year (2013) Kinder Morgan invested nearly $1 Billion to buy five existing Jones Act tankers and four new builds on the way. Two other companies, Crowley Maritime and Seabulk tankers (part of Seacor Holdings) placed orders in 2013 to build six more tankers in the next two years. In all there are twelve new build orders on the books and options for even more threaten to rock the boat for current record high charter rates (over $100,000/day) being enjoyed by the 42 vessel Jones Act fleet. Today we detail the tankers owned by Kinder Morgan, Crowley and Seabulk.

Target: coming out in dribs and drabs, the company continues to report bad news -- now, Target warns that the breach may have also affected Canadian customers. But again, Target downplays the seriousness:

“We believe a small number of Canadian guests were impacted,” Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman, said in an e-mail today. “We will be reaching out to all affected guests to the extent we have e-mail addresses for them, including Canadian guests.”

That "small" number in the US started with 40 million, then went to 70 million, and could be as high as 110 million. 

Hey, Ohio, how's that ObamaCare working out for you? The Weekly Standard is reporting that hundreds in Ohio lose their doctor due to ObamaCare, another swing state:

"With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, some area medical facilities saying, they're no longer able to use some insurance companies," says the anchor. 

The local reporter adds, "Hundreds of people in the Mahoning Valley can no longer go to their trusted doctors, and local officials say the Affordable Care Act is to blame. Doctors from the Mahoning county medical society sat down with U.S. representative Bill Johnson today, discussing their concerns with United Health Care's decision to drop local doctors, including the Eye Care Associates in Beaver Township, from their Medicare Advantage plans. That means patients either have to change doctors or pay out of their own pockets."

One doctor tells the reporters that people are "really scared" at the prospect of having to change doctors.

The Wall Street Journal

One of the headwinds for developing the Bakken: Obama's regulatory pressures are pushing many of the biggest banks to pass on financing lucrative deals, as the administration targets excessive borrowing. A North Dakota Republican legislator has asked oil companies to slow down in the development of the Bakken; doesn't sound like that is necessary at all; there are other forces at work that will slow the development of the Bakken.

You mean we are still in Afghanistan? I though that was a campaign promise back in 2008, the first term, that we would be out of Afghanistan by now. But now, I see the Pentagon has plans to have most troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2017. Maybe. As the Afghans say: "Just wait it out. Presidents come, and presidents go." By the way, when I first started this blog I posted a photograph of the Afghan "freedom fighters" and suggested that the photo convinced me "we" would never win in Afghanistan.

Oh, good. Another crisis. Now it's polio in Pakistan. Of course, here in the US, any parent can remove their child from the "mandatory vaccination program" by claiming religious beliefs.

this is interesting. China is trimming dependence from some of its top oil suppliers, such as Saudi Arabia, as great availability of global oil helps Beijing diversify its sources of foreign crude.  I wonder if Jane Nielsen is still reading about the Bakken?

Target will stop providing health care insurance for its part-time workers.

The FCC will hold a major auction of wireless airwaves. The question is: where is all this wireless spectrum coming from? Back in 2000, when I was in the USAF, the military was complaining that the government was mandating cutbacks in military wireless to be sold to civilian sector.

This week, the FCC seeks to get at least $1.6 billion when it auctions off a slice of spectrum called the H block, which includes two high-frequency bands.

Dish is the only major company signed up to take part and is largely expected to win the largest share of the licenses after the carriers declined to participate. Dish declined to comment, citing auction rules.

More auctions with more attractive slices of spectrum will follow, bringing out many competitors and higher prices. Later this year, the government will sell rights to higher band frequencies called AWS-3, raising about $16 billion from the major companies alone, according to New Street. Those bands are particularly well-suited for wireless. The most coveted spectrum coming on the block is expected to be auctioned next year.

That spectrum is generally in the 600 megahertz band and would be the lowest and most valuable frequency sold yet. It is currently used by television stations and will be resold to carriers for wireless use.

Cadillac sales are up, but so are inventories. Send the excess to Williston, but put in block heaters first.

Delta profit soars on huge gain.

The big gain came from reversing its prior handling of accrued tax credits accumulated during years of losses. Now, that the Atlanta-based company looks to remain profitable, it is putting $8 billion in tax-loss credits on its balance sheet that can be used to reduce cash tax payments. 

Natural gas prices soar in New England. 

This is cool.

Beats, the company behind the very identifiable headphones, is offering music lovers an on-demand library of over 20 million songs with a unique recommendation system.

How many songs are in your music collection? A couple thousand, including some dusty CDs in the attic? I don't want to brag, but I've got over 20 million and I can listen to them on my phone at any time.

I have so many songs, I sometimes have a concierge pick them out for me.

ITunes may have crushed good old fashioned music stores, but Apple's digital music store now pales compared to the latest subscription services, which let you stream any song or album to any device for a monthly fee of $10. After years of spending that much (or more) for individual albums, I'm all for these services. If you haven't already stopped paying a la carte, this week's arrival of Beats Music means it's time to reconsider your music-shopping ways.

The Los Angeles Times

If it bleeds, it leads. This is the top story in The Los Angeles Times at the moment:

A fatal collision between a motorcyclist and another vehicle in West Los Angeles backed up morning commuter traffic up and down a long stretch of the 405 Freeway through the Sepulveda Pass.

The incident occurred at about 3:45 a.m. when authorities got a call that a motorcyclist and a vehicle were involved in a collision on the northbound 405 Freeway near Getty Center Drive, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jennifer Cassidy.

The female motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, prompting officials to issue a Sigalert. The motorcyclist's identity was not immediately available.

Authorities initially closed all five lanes of the northbound roadway, and several hours later, just the far right lane had been reopened. It was unclear how long the lane closures would last but Cassidy said investigators needed time at the scene.

We were at the Getty Museum just a few weeks ago, driving this route at the time. It's always just a statistical thing when a motorcyclist ends up dead on the freeway. Speeds of 75+ mph, weaving in and out of traffic, and splitting the white line dividers between SUVs, also driving 75+.

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California hospitals and physicians learning how to take advantage of ObamaCare. Predicted. But isn't this interesting, this quote from a newspaper more liberal than The New York Times:

There's no question that Obamacare can make things tougher for healthcare providers. Tens of millions of new patients are entering the system, many with Medicaid — Medi-Cal in California — coverage that limits reimbursement to doctors and hospitals.

How do you like ObamaCare now?

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She's right. I said the same thing. I posted the following on January 20, 2014:

President Obama uses the "race card" to account for his low popularity. To the best of my memory, I believe most presidents have had popularity ratings this low; certainly George W. had popularity ratings this low. I guess their ratings were low because they were white. It seems to be forgotten that President Obama's mother was ..., well not African-American.

For the record, I preferred Obama over McCain in the election.

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And that's about it for now.