More rant than essay, but what the hey.
I don't watch a whole lot of TV. But this morning, I was in a place where CNN was on and I watched a Virginia Repub congressman, who is on the House Budget Committee, talk about voting against the healthcare bill (Trumpcare, if we must).
I wasn't surprised by the fact that he's voting against the bill. He says it doesn't go far enough. I suspect he means that it doesn't go far enough to further enrich and keep the rich alive, while the middle class and poor can pray.
One take away for me was that in every sentence he spoke, he (as many of them do) kept talking about the "free market" and "market solutions" to America's healthcare crisis...all unchallenged by the interviewer. He went on to add, IIRC, that deregulating the health insurance sector will also help solve the healthcare crisis....also unchallenged.
Deep in their hearts, they have to know that "buying" healthcare is not like buying shoes. If the shoes available on the free market are too expensive for me, I'll keep wearing my old shoes until they wear out. Then I'll go to Goodwill and get a used pair. If I can't afford Goodwill, I'll still be alive. I'll have no shoes, but I'll be alive. Same with healthcare, right? If it's too expensive, just use your "old" healthcare (none) until it wears out. Then go to Goodwill and get a decent "used" healthcare policy.
They talk about making healthcare available to everyone. Sure. Just like a new Cadillac Escalade. That same free market makes it available to everyone. Pony up $80,000 or have an 830 credit score and drive it off the lot. Those who can't buy their health or a new Caddy can pray to John Calvin and ask for forgiveness for being such a slacker.
Over the last 45 or 50 years, it has slowly morphed into America's conscience that the health of its citizens is and will always be a for-profit endeavor. I don't know if there's any way, short of revolution (that's not hyperbole) that this can be changed. This is part and parcel of the Republican party. The same party that controls the presidency, the Senate, House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, record two house majorities in most states (over 900 Dem state legislative seats lost since 2009) and governors in 33 of the 50 states.
Sorry about the rant, but I feel very dubious about whether the current situation will change for the better. Absent a sea change, I don't see it. I see posts on the internet like "The Republicans are eating themselves, ha ha!!" Oh yeah? Are you sure about that?
Comments
Surely they are not
A political duopoly where one side (being the same anyway) has capitulated to the other.
...and don't call me Shirley.
I want a Pony!
Like pro " wrasslin' "
Both wrestlers are paid by the same promoter. One is the "heel", the other is the good guy. The outcome, predetermined. Political kayfabe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Apt analogy...
especially considering the current president is member of the WWE Hall of Fame.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
In order to keep the global system of capitalism in place
huge expenditures on the military and business subsidies are needed. People - ordinary people not the 1% & their stooges - are living too long; some live long enough to collect pensions, Social Security, Medicare for 10 or more years after retirement. Shutting down access to health care, while making tidy profits for the insurance companies and high pay for some medical personnel, allows the system to spend less money on the "disposables" because they can die off.
You don't work to make the 1% richer, you're expendable.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Yeah.
And so many Americans have swallowed the lie that they will one day be rich. Years ago, someone told me the difference between an American worker and an Irish worker. The American looks up at the owner's mansion on the hill and says "Some day. Some day, I'll live in a house just like that". The Irish worker looks up at the owner's mansion on the hill and says "Some day. Some day, I'll get that fooking bastard".
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
I think people under 35 realize that they will never
be rich, or even comfortable, and are adopting the Irish world view - the correct one in my opinion.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I had one of those horrible nights last night
where you wake up at about 3 and never really go back to sleep. And what woke me was the FACT that while they're busy cutting away at our already lousy healthcare options, at the same time they're once again giving big tax breaks to the already rich. I hate this country today and wish I could leave it.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
I hear you, lizzyh7.
I won the DAR Good Citizenship Award in 7th grade. If I could find it, I'd give it back. I can't believe what the rich and their lackeys have done to America over the last 40 or so years. I wish I could leave too. It's just bloody awful in America 2017. No two ways about it.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
It seems to be an intentional world-wide phenomenon
conceived and carried out by global financial capital and various powerful governments. It's no accident or historical imperative: It's been spelled out by the Hayek/Friedman bastardization of economics and seen on the pages of publications from the CFR.
The mystery is why those hurt by this system are remaining, with some exceptions, passive.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Most USians are not yet desperate enough to risk making
widows, widowers and orphans of their spouses and kids.
Indian slum
South African slum
It doesn't take a revolution per se
None of the people you see speaking on tv matter.
There are only 500 or so billionaires in the US. If they were not around anymore, the lobbying would cease. The propaganda would stop.
The math is not that difficult when you consider the millions or billions to be affected by global warming. However, I expect the millenials to do nothing. They are too effete. They won't even shout at someone in a coffee shop.
They might be polite for now
but give them some time, they too have been brainwashed a bit to accept this piece of shit "system" we have here. But when the shit really hits the fan, and it will, we can see Rumper and his minions are determined to make it so, the gloves might come off a lot quicker than we all think they will. Terrible times are ahead and it probably will get violent eventually. I hate the fact that I'm going to be old and infirm when that happens. Might be time to start learning how to shoot again, not like I'm sharpshooter material but one never knows what one is capable of until forced sometimes. Better to get angry in my mind than to give in to despair, although I'm a lot closer to despair today, but my anger instinct is strong and it will recover.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Multi-millionaires and millionaires can't lobby after
the billionaires are gone? BTW, how do you propose to get rid of 500 billionaires?
BTW, Millennials are not the generation that allowed this to happen.
Exactly.
Take out the top 1% and the'll just be a next new 1% to take their place. It's the whole system that has to change.
As to Millennials, the ones I used to work with would surprise many people. Yes, they're fighting to keep their heads above water right now and trying to figure things out, but they're also keenly aware that they've inherited a mess and they aren't getting any help from anyone else. I understand the popular view that they are spoiled and incapable of doing anything but frankly I find that to be no more true of their generation than it was of my mine or the one before mine.
(And having working in a coffee shop, I'm not sure why you'd need to shout at someone in a coffee shop. Those weren't exactly the people I welcomed back, regardless of politics.)
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
That Sounds So Pitchforkable...
Line em up... Wouldn't take this farmboy long...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Nowadays, the only thing left is rant.
We need to continue to blame the Clintons and Obama for Trump. We all know and everybody else needs to know that they would rather lose and throw Democrats under the bus than cede an ounce of power to the people, aka Bernie and his agenda.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
So, the same New Democrats who destroyed
the Democratic Party will have major roles in re-building it? Them and Tom Perez? http://caucus99percent.com/content/wherein-i-do-tom-perez-part-1 ; http://caucus99percent.com/content/wherein-i-do-tom-perez-part-2
More of the same? What a "can't fail" plan! Meet the new boss; same as the old boss. Identical, in fact.
You can't make up this stuff. You just can't. You simply can't think that stupidly.
@dkmich Bernie Sanders is touring
Bernie Sanders is touring the country and holding town halls. You sure do not see the Dems elites out rubbing elbows with Americans.
What's up in Arkansas?
Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
If that question's for me
,things are ok. But I'm not in Arkansas, I'm in West "by God" Virginia!
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Sorry. :-)
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Yeah, right!
Yeah, right! Posted by people who would have been considered Republicans under reasonable conditions (the opinion of Democrats in continuously-loyal States in 1975).
Hillary Clinton: Goldwater Girl, then, now, and forever!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Insurance Is $2T Per Year of Investment in FIRE.
That's the problem, that's why any discussion other than markets must not happen.
$2T in institutional money flows into the successful part of Wall St per year. That's 15% of GDP if my memory and back of the napkin math serves me right...
The rant is spot on. I think we should just continue to make a stink about it. If you've been at all anti-corporate for more about 5 years or so, you can see that the corporate center is really stretched. Hillary lost. They went for the pig in a poke for President.
People before profits is winning. We need to keep up the pressure.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Thanks for keeping this guy's spirit alive ...
[video:https://youtu.be/xwOQ7u4PQVU]
Trying to reply to LizzieH, but on iPad blue button goes here
Be careful about waking up and not being able to go back to sleep. I just have had a number of weeks from that (waking at about 3 also) and the stress of everyday life like continuing to work at 67, I'm currently in the observation room at the hospital after being in the cardiac care unit, further investigating whether or not I've had a stroke or a possible heart attack or heart valve damage. The best sounding option is complex migraines and I think that's what it is. What I'm trying to say is that you all need to take care of yourselves.
Health care is up to us
"Over the last 45 or 50 years, it has slowly morphed into America's conscience that the health of its citizens is and will always be a for-profit endeavor."
With all due respect (I like your writing, your stuff!) over the last 45 years Americans have become fat and sick. It's all been documented with regards to all the degenerative diseases: arthritis, heart disease, blood pressure, strokes, diabetes, cancer, dementia, etc. These have nothing to do with "health care" and everything to do with our food; our diet! And our environment, including body products. These are all things we can educate ourselves on and act on without tapping "health care". Things we control; it's empowering to fix oneself. As an example, I had arthritis in my fingers. So, I read up and cut out Omega 6 oils (most vegetable oils). Problem solved. The list goes on (I have had it all.) [The Truth IS Out There.]
The end result, after 7 years of researching online and making changes to my diet (and by the way with very few 'supplements') and lifestyle is peace of mind that some medical catastrophe will hit me.
Peace.