Another CA Dim who is against single payer, or another coward backing the ACA
Lessons on how to shut these bastards down, at least temporarily. Nancy Pelosi has another loyal follower, dismissive to the desires of his putative constituents. We know who the constituents are: megabuck donors. Ain't me; ain't you. I took advantage of Carbajal's first Santa Maria town hall to ask a question that is on the minds of most people. The Town Hall was covered by our local newspaper, the Santa Maria Times to mark the less-than-grand opening of this new congressional office. Unexpectedly, I got in the first two questions. They also turned out to be the only questions in a Q&A that was supposed to last 1 hour.
In preparing for this essay I developed a new skill (a descriptor many of you will be reluctant to acknowledge after you see it): I posted my first (and probably last YouTube video). The video is terrible but the audio is excellent. My technique was simply to have my iPhone recording continuously while residing in my shirt pocket. Only the camera lens protruded in plain sight. Hence the pronounced lack of good video.
Here is the official Santa Maria propaganda website: http://www.cityofsantamaria.org. I've dwelled in this town since people used to ride horses downtown--honest. My medical office was built on a street that didn't even exist when I came to town. But enough nostalgia.
Getting down to politics (funny that we never say "getting up to politics") the voting population consists of hard core Republicans and empty core HillBots. Progressives in this town are as about as frequent as alligators in the Sahara. For those of you who watch my video (and alas, you won't see me but you will hear my dulcet tones) you can tell by the crowd reaction that the majority were pro-ACA HillBots. Do away with About to Collapse Anyway? Heresy. But you'll discover this by watching--or at least listening.
For more background, here is a screen shot of the SM Times front page:
For those of you whose eyesight may not be capable of reading the print, here is a close-up of my contribution to the Q&A as cited in the paper--well, actually only one Q and one unsatisfactory A. The video does contain both of my questions and both unsatisfactory answers.
Here is the 11:20 long video/audio. My first question occurs at about 4:27. You may also note that a pro-ACA supporter tells me about "sabotage" of the ACA in 2016, with the utmost assurance that is why the ACA is in such dire straits. I did not wish to educate him in the error of his ways: if we had MCA/SP we wouldn't have to worry about the insurance company subsidies doled out by Uncle Sam. Anybody here been able to talk sense to a pro-ACA DemBot?
In the last 3 minutes, you can hear my SM Times interview plus my valedictory upon shutting down the pseudo-Q&A. Two questions, folks; that's all it took.
Carbajal, whose first name is definitely a misnomer (Salud means health) says he is a member of the "Problem Solver Caucus". Pardon me while I laugh about this rancid horseshit. If they wanted to solve problems the first thing on the agenda would be to get rid of corporate money in politics.
Please be merciful when watching this YouTube thingy:
Comments
Very good audio.
As soon as you asked the question about Single Payer, I knew exactly where this was going. (And not just because you already told us.)
I simply have no patience at all. I think I used up my lifetime allotment. I could have never listened without interrupting because the words would bring me down and drag me under. It's everything I hated about the Democratic culture of incrementalism and resistance to change. (That was in such sharp focus after Bernie showed up.) In times like these, that culture does a grave evil to the generations who will have to live through deformed policies birthed in intransigence, determined by voters with limited data, who won't be around to endure the policies, in any case. Marijuana laws, health , technology policies. Future lives will be ruined by policies and laws made today. I know exactly which ones. It's a curse.
In Plato's Republic, these ancient Greek political theorists — you know the ones who first entertained the idea of democracy while owning slaves? Well after much discussion, some argued that over time democracy was an unstable form of government. It would inevitably be co-opted by an oligarchy and the wealth and power inherited by the undeserving. Democracy-based governments would grow up to be corporate-controlled kleptocratic oligarchies with a thin candy shell of empty democratic pageantry. That was settled in 400B.C. We can do a lot better.
On the other hand, it was great fun to eavesdrop on the meeting. Everyone seemed in such good spirits. Thanks for a really interesting experience. A slice of American life lived hopefully.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
A quote that seems somehow familiar s/
Kind a reminds me of a certain western hemisphere "democratic republic" wherein certain of its citizens were worth only 60% of the white ones--and where you had to be a land owner to vote--and not to be (shudder) a female.
great job!
thanks for doing this.
an example to follow!
About to Collapse Anyday
lol.
2 questions!
he never said why no MFA, just blah, blah.
you sent him home quick.
There is absolutely no point in talking to some people.
They have a check list of canned responses. They just select and deliver as necessary. So unless you are ready to wrestle them to the ground, it is all a waste of air. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate those who persevere, but I have no patience for it. When someone says we have to make them, I want to smack them too. Who made us do our jobs?
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
showed Carbajal is a phony.
some who heard went home thinking.
and the question was quoted accurately in the local paper.
wtf- it beats a blank.
Good job. That room seems like it was filled with a bunch of
deluded HillBots. The ACA will collapse soon enough.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
According to the Houston Chronical I glimpsed at yesterday
Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas increased their premiums 23%.
I "achieved" Medicare.
The premiums were my biggest personal expense. I paid for a years' insurance on my home for the price of 1 month of BCBSTX coverage. Same for office insurance, and insurance on 3 vehicles.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It is obvious toy me
that the insurer's problem is that not enough people have signed up. So the logical response is to RAISE rates?
This is not how the so-called "free market" is supposed to behave.
Good on you, AE! He made a straw man defense--
You said Obamacare was collapsing and MFA would be better. He did not address your points at all, but instead replied as though you had claimed that nothing good had come of Obamacare. Classic straw man, formed of bs and flop sweat.
As far as sabotage, that is beside the point. As many Democrats in Congress have said, when the collapse has been mentioned, Obamacare was never intended to be the be all and end all. Politician to English translation: They knew from the off that it would collapse (with or without "sabotage.")
https://caucus99percent.com/content/who-will-own-lack-good-national-heal...
Few things are more frustrating to a politics junkie than someone regurgitating the party line uncritically to "school" someone who knows better, such as yourself. Kudos on your patience.
Thank you
I tried to play nice. But playing smart to this audience of dodos was useless, as you observe.
You big party pooper Ed!
How dare you go in there and ask a real and substantive question when you can so easily see this was just supposed to be a nice big love fest, and a bi-partisan one too! Yay, yay, yay, we're all going to work together to save the ACA!
So damned sad to see all the believers who probably wanted to slap your face for even bringing such heresy up. The two black women by the windows in particular, calming each other down when you just know they did want to shut you down, or call you a bigot, more like it.
As for Repuke sabotage, I did see an article in Common Dreams by a guy who works for, wait for it.........Molina Healthcare, all about that supposed sabotage. I probably should have read it but when I see who writes these things I pretty much know I need not bother.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
lizzy, great new cheer
Yay! Yay! Yay!
Save the ACA!
Second verse:
Hey! Hey! Hey!
ACA here to stay!
Additional verses welcome. Please reply to lizzy.
I'm so confused about this
We've been assured that a majority of people now want single payer/MFA. So where are they?? Why is there only one person in the room even asking this question, and everyone else getting the vapors?
Democrats appear to have succeeded in quashing the wave of energy and movement toward single payer, and are turning the tide to protect the insurance industry. And people -- democrats, the so-called liberal/progressive party are lining up like robots to walk off this cliff. It's so infuriating to see it happening.
In keeping with the larger theme of the essay, Dems dodging on single payer and vowing to "protect and expand the ACA" instead, I just saw this Jimmy Dore segment on Al Franken doing the same thing. Very disappointing but I'm not surprised by it, as Jimmy seems to be.
As an aside, Jimmy Dore is starting to pick up Rachel Maddow's habit of repeating his point over and over, to the extent that it gets annoying, which is evident in this segment. Nonetheless, the clip of how Al Franken behaves when a reporter asks him "what are the chances for single payer?" is revealing. It should put to rest any notion that the democrats are going to work toward that goal. Makes me really angry. Whenever I hear the word bipartisan, I realize it means only one thing: both parties working together to screw us all.
CS in AZ, you have the answer: the answer is in the question.
A question which has always perplexed me, and despite some eloquent explanations, still does: why do people vote against their own interests? The only thing I can think of this is Blinders and Brainwashing.
I am sorry if I have to defame my fellow Santa Marians, at least those whose who appeared at the Town Hall, but they are ignorant, propagandized tools of the DemonRATic party. Please, if you can come up with a different example, I would be interested to see it.
@lizzyh7
My contribution below Ed's addition to Lizzy's:
Second verse:
Say! Say! Say!
Make the people pay!
Edit: damn, think the apostrophe is sticking now. My keyboard was stored at my brothers near some equipment and was sprayed with tiny metal fragments some of which (re-edit: blew) in rather than off and which migrate, although it's much better than it was and the crunching noises have died down drastically over time, doubtless as the metal bases within, for key operation, have been ground down...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I won't speak for lizzy
but I like verse 3.
Now if we could get a nice tune to sing with it, just great!.
@Alligator Ed
Lots of musicians on here!
Although that's more of a refrain; more lyrics might be required.
Too tired to think, (my usual excuse, lol,) but here's my feeble effort:
Hurray for a world where it all can be bought
By those who already have most,
Where law can be changed and all rights rearranged
To suit a wealthy host.
Three cheers for a world where no justice is sought,
The Big Lie sounds sublime,
The rich people seek to bleed dry the meek
With the public sold out each time.
Yay! Yay! Yay!
Save the ACA!
Hey! Hey! Hey!
ACA is here to stay!
Say! Say! Say!
Make the people pay!
Loving a world where mere might makes all right,
The bullies devour the weak.
Only the wealthy deserve to be healthy
By draining away all they seek.
Three cheers for a world run by blood-sucking leeches
The only thing that's fair
Pollute people sick and then charge like a bitch
Controlling their health-care.
Yay! Yay! Yay!
Save the ACA!
Hey! Hey! Hey!
ACA is here to stay!
Say! Say! Say!
Make the people pay!
NO WAY!
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I love it. Please copyright this--after conferring with lizzy
Perhaps Bisbonian or Mark from Queens could write the melody.
@AE--apologies. I thought you were a long-suffering
Floridian like me. Wrong (nothing new). It was the gator avatar.
The next dumbo RWinger who gets in my face over Medicare For All is getting slapped with a historical fact. The United States did not make coin off healthcare until 1973. That is when the HMO act was signed by Trick the Dick Nixon. Nixon, ye gods, what a curse on this country. Terrific job on your video. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Thanks for both the action
Thanks for both the action and the video! But what's supposed to be wrong with your looked-just-fine-to-me (albeit at cleavage level, lol,) spy-cam footage, tovarich? (Your Putin-puppet cheque is in the mail, according to Russian!!! agreement-keeping Marrionette law.)
Apart from the actual issue, this having been covered - I notice that the crowd clapped for Homeland Security? Did they think that would give them a chance of having their votes actually count, even if for the wrong specifically Two-Faced Corporate Party candidate? They're darned lucky that they have a guard-gator in their midst, to snap out essential questions at times like these, when the foxes come to cruise through the hen-houses, to smooth their feathers for easier plucking.
Edited for missed punctuation. Needz energy to go make coffeeeee...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Cleavage level spy cam?
Next time I'll have to interview the Camel at tit level. It's a good thing they don't yet have my face on file, so that I'll be able to shut her lying ass down with a well-placed question or two. It seems, two is all it takes to derail these DemBots.
Bravo Alligator Ed!
Thanks for depositing a turd in their punch bowl.
It's a dirty job but someone had to do it!
@Sirena
Too bad that we can't get The Alligator into a position where he could reduce the number and size of the turds in government to the point of their all being easily drowned in that punch bowl...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
To Ellen and Sirena, I do the best I can
but I can only swim so fast. Believe me, I'd love to do more. I met Carbajal's primary opponent in 2016, Bill Ostrander, who is a Berniecrat and I voted for Bill. If I can find out if he is still interested, I would support Bill enthusiastically for another run.
My understanding is
that he is rather fond of ingesting those Hillbots.
So why not just let him process them back to their original form?
At least then they might be able to do some good as dung.
Sirena, you have given me a great Capitalistic Idea
We could cultivate a dung beetle farm, generously supplied by DemBots with the nutrition DBs need, and then sell them on the open market. Think of it! An endless supply of dung beetle nourishment! Of course I would cut you in on the profits because you thunk this up.
Re-purposed Crap to Crop!
Organic, Bi-partisan 100 percent Corrupt.
Use liberally.
I love it! Our new slogan!
Don't work for these assholes; make them work for you!