Tag: Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Burden of Proof…

Burden of Proof…

This nugget showed up on a friend’s FB post, which I can now no longer find. Chances are, either the friend decided it had to go, the genius who posted it blocked me, or I blocked him.

At the time, (sometime just after Christmas, I think) I thanked the guy for posting virtually every propaganda-driven talking point Alex Jones and Fox News have shoved into his brain in the name of truth. Here it is, folks. GOP trash talk, all in one convenient comment. Continue reading “Burden of Proof…”

Aftermath (Part 4): The end of the beginning…

Aftermath (Part 4): The end of the beginning…

I’ve been chewing on a blog post for about two weeks that takes on where we are now. It’s churning the way a slice of cheap freezer-style pizza with fake pepperoni churns at 3am and you can’t find the antacid because it’s still too dark to see. Continue reading “Aftermath (Part 4): The end of the beginning…”

Newsflash: What you think is wrong is just the tip of the iceberg…

Newsflash: What you think is wrong is just the tip of the iceberg…

This morning there were a raft of articles like these floating around my corner of the Internet. Continue reading “Newsflash: What you think is wrong is just the tip of the iceberg…”

Aftermath (Part 3): People will NOT SEE this coming…

Aftermath (Part 3): People will NOT SEE this coming…

So, just last week, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump himself admitted it was because of Comey’s investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 US Presidential election. Continue reading “Aftermath (Part 3): People will NOT SEE this coming…”

God’s Will…

God’s Will…

On Wednesday, May 3rd, Jimmy Kimmel took an emotional departure from the usual glib banter of his opening monologue to describe the surrounding his new son’s birth. Continue reading “God’s Will…”

Fascism Denial…

Fascism Denial…

Decades from now, will we remember all the warnings? Will we even be able to find the evidence that was there?

In the last few days, since the start of the 115th Congress, there have been reports all over the internet of rules changed to favor the GOP, to give them the power to strip away protections that keep our citizens healthy and safe.

None of these steps are new. Not one. Continue reading “Fascism Denial…”

It’s not just me…

It’s not just me…

In case you were wondering. Slate has done the homework this time, and they’re dead on. This is what the year’s going to look like, whether you like it or not. Here’s hoping you’re employed, because if you’re not, it’s going to be a long eleven months.

Obamacare. Obamacare. Obamacare.  The Republican strategy for winning the Senate in 2014 is a single word.

Unemployment Blackmail is just the beginning, folks. Buckle your seat belts. 2014 is gonna be bumpy. All year long.

Unemployment Blackmail

Unemployment Blackmail

ex·tor·tion [ik-stawr-shuhn]
noun
1. an act or instance of extorting.
2. Law. the crime of obtaining money or some other thing
of value by the abuse of one’s office or authority.
3. oppressive or illegal exaction, as of excessive price
or interest: the extortions of usurers.
4. anything extorted.

Yesterday on Facebook, this little gem popped up in my feed. I was nearly done for the night, and with all Facebook’s recent monkey business and tampering with the way news filters through, I might have missed it. But no, it hit me about this time last night and I…I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I’ve been quiet, trying to concentrate on getting through school and the holidays, but I have to say I could not have imagined the depths the GOP will stoop to relieve us poor saps of the one thing that could get them unseated in November. Not until last night, at least.

It wasn’t enough just to believe PoliticsUSA, though. I needed to find corroboration that didn’t link back to the original article, so imagine my surprise when I found this.

Here’s the whole clip from C-SPAN2.

Seriously? Okay, folks. I’m back. Miss me?

This is why the GOP pulled benefits from our Veterans and those suffering from long-term unemployment? (That, by the way, includes me. I fell off the unemployment ranks three years ago. That’s why I’m back in college again, even though I have a perfectly valid B.A.)

There’s no polite term for extortion. It’s illegal. Why aren’t these gentlemen going to prison for violating Federal law? Because someone told them it was okay to do this.

Well, get this. We have just shy of nine months to let these criminals know they can’t pull this crap and get away with it. Show them the door.

Mitch McConnell is up for re-election THIS November. So are roughly one-third of the other Senate seats and ALL the Representatives in the House.

If you allow these thugs to stay the course, you’re just as guilty as they are.

Do something about it.

You have nine months.

Spineless? I don’t think so…

Spineless? I don’t think so…

How Democrats Got a Spine: The Republican Party taught them how to be uncompromising

Why do they stick with Majority Leader Harry Reid—why, when three of them could cast “safe” no votes and Reid could still beat the House bills? Democratic aides say that the red-staters are “scared straight” by the House GOP. They’re not getting the calls from home to defund Obamacare. Their home-state papers aren’t dogging them, either. They’re in no fear of losing an “optics” battle to John Boehner and company.

And this, friends, is why after all this time, I’m proud to say I’m a Democrat. It took a while to get here, but now, here we are. We should have done this with the Fiscal Cliff, but we pulled back, gave concessions, which gave us nothing.

No more playing games with the government. The GOP has to own its own mess, or we’re never going to get past the crap. The people need to understand how we got here and who’s responsible.

While I’m on the topic, before any of my Friends posts this myth to their feeds, best check out non-partisan PolitiFact on the ACA. Have you seen this image in your feed yet? It’s only a matter of time before you do.

Our ruling

The Facebook post tells the story of a man who says he opted out of Obamacare soon after the marketplace was launched on Oct. 1, 2013, and was informed that he owed a fine of more than $4,000.

The post includes many elements that make no sense or are flat-out wrong — and can be easily debunked by reading the law or reliable summaries of it. We rate it Pants on Fire.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/04/facebook-posts/closer-look-facebook-post-mans-struggle-obamacare-/

Trouble is, the post is a series of lies, designed to frighten people away from checking out the new program, because the ACA stands to help millions of Americans who are poor and facing life-threatening illness every day and the GOP are scared to death that it’s going to cost them their cushy jobs.

And why? WHY is this happening at all? Because people bought the load of feces that the “Job Creators” have to be left alone to generate jobs, went to the polls repeatedly over the last 30 years and elected these “public servants” to put the Rich before everyone else in the US.

Anyone with a middle school education knows about the concept of Supply and Demand. Jobs come when people can afford to buy goods. The more goods they want and can buy, the greater the need to supply those goods. Without the need, the supply dwindles. So what do we do? Subsidize the suppliers instead of looking at ways to make the supply lines work again.

But wait. That’s not what actually happens. Why? Because once the rich have your money, they can do whatever they want with it. Up to and including finding cozy tax shelters off US soil. This is what Free Enterprise actually does for our country:

And in the meantime, with all those subsidies, the rich grow richer, stash their cash offshore and retire fat and happy somewhere safe where the poor can’t touch them.

If you study history, the aristocracy gets taken out every time the rest of the workers figure out who’s reaping the benefits of their work. The American Aristocracy (or Plutocracy) knows this. They’re doing their level best to make you believe that their particular brand of crap is chocolate, and that you need to eat Chocolate to survive. And if you don’t do it their way, it’s your fault for not liking the taste.

Guess what? The emperor has no clothes! The chocolate isn’t chocolate. They are LYING to you! And they’re joking about it while they do, or they’re showing themselves for the greedy asshats they truly are.

And while they’re keeping you busy fending off the repo man, the auctioneer, or simple bankruptcy because your medical bills have gone through the roof, they’re walking away with YOUR American Dream.

You should be mad as hell at the GOP. I just hope you didn’t elect them, because if you did, you, my friend, are part of the problem.

Yeah, I’m a Democrat. Proud of it.

I just hope that I can enjoy what’s left of my life, in health, and in a society that actually does care for its citizens. After all, we’re supposed to protect the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everyone, not just the rich.

I think the GOP just forgot who everyone really is.

Peter Finch as Howard Beale,
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Two days to armage…Government Shutdown…Again…

Two days to armage…Government Shutdown…Again…

Ya know, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t going to matter one bit, once the rest of the polar ice melts and all the fresh water gets mixed up with ocean water, but in the short-term, I’ve had about enough of the Tea Party’s brinkmanship and Ted Cruz’s 21-hour hot air festival. The Grand Obstructionist Party wants the Affordable Care Act to fall and they think what they do now to shut the government down will matter. The miscalculation (and it’s huge), is that President Obama already signed the act into law, and no matter how many times they vote to repeal it (42 at last count, including the current Budget fiasco in process this weekend), it’s still the law and they don’t have enough votes in either the House or Senate to override it.

Their fantasy land will cost the country big time in the next few weeks, but if the ACA has the effect I suspect it will, come 2014 (just a little over a year from now), we’re going to see a sea change in the House, because the little people who put these Tea Party bullies in office are going to begin to understand the real ramifications of the fight to keep the American People from the benefits of the law.

Frankly, nothing would please me more than to see a clean sweep of the House and Senate, though we have a solid four years before we can really clean house, thanks to the Class of 2010, but there’s a bunch of folks rooting for the government shut-down to happen so the GOP can finally get their comeuppance, and I’m right there with them.

And you know why I’m certain this is going to happen? Because President Obama has nothing to lose.

Nothing.

He’s already gone through the second term election. No matter what, he’s good till he steps down in 2016. And by then? That’s three years of education, along with more time spent bolstering the economy. (You have noticed how it’s improved, right? I mean, I had to take money out of my IRA, which will serve to affect my tax situation almost not at all, thanks to my current miserable financial situation, and lo, it’s back at the same level it was before I pulled the cash out.

So when you get right down to it, there’s a lot the government shut-down will do, but I’m okay with it, if the long-term benefits are that we can finally eject the insanity and start doing something about our current crazy situation.

What do I want?

I want an end to both Citizens United and the Patriot Act.

I want the Voting Rights Act restored or at least fixed so that it addresses our current reality, because otherwise a whole bunch of brown people and poor people and old people and young people are going to find it difficult to vote in the Tea Party states come next year.

I want women’s rights respected.

I want Marriage Equality throughout the country, in all 50 states, so my friends who want to be married don’t have to worry about which state they’re in.

I want the poor to have their protections restored and the safety nets fixed so that people can stop worrying about how to feed their kids and they can concentrate on getting jobs.

I want the jobs to come back from China and India, and all the loopholes closed so that we stop bleeding our good jobs overseas and rewarding companies for reducing their overhead at the cost of our own people.

I want sane gun-responsible legislation in place, so we can finally start addressing the gun owners and stop blaming the objects for misuse, before another toddler shoots her cousin or another undiagnosed psychiatric thug goes off randomly and takes more innocent lives at random.

I want the War on Drugs to become a Discussion on Responsibility and I want the prison system to become a public responsibility again. No more work-camps.

I want sensible and practical Immigration laws that protect our workers and give them opportunities.

I want people to receive the pay that they need so they aren’t relying on public assistance because they don’t need it.

I want free and easy access to birth control and better education about, well, just about everything, including real world life skills (pregnancy, relationships, marriage, money, lifestyle and practical skills, not just math and reading). Without context the education is meaningless.

And more than anything else, I want the rich to stop being greedy assholes who are just as happy to count their money in their comfy second homes offshore as they are living apart from the squalor of everyday existence for the rest of us.

We need the Tea Party and their neo-fascist leadership (read: ALEC) out of power. We’ve got three years to do it, by my calculations. Here’s hoping this is the start to the end.

Government Closure?

Bring it.

 

Theme: Elation by Kaira.
%d bloggers like this: