PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalWell, I've just been reviewing my HEALTH CARE DEBT.
I'm feeling just tingly, warm and fuzzy all over.
It makes me want to hug an American flag...
Fuck. We're the only advanced nation in the world who doesn't offer its people UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.
Oh, but wait! 'Murika ain't nebber gonna go SOSH-A-LIST! That's right, that's why 2/3 of the personal bankruptcies in this country are due to HEALTH CARE DEBT.
But hey, fucking Wall Street is doing GREAT, profits are WAY UP, and we have more billionaires than ever, ever, ever.
Doesn't all that make you feel good too?
Fuck.
Here is an article from the NYT on monster fracking.
Did you know? Big oil, besides getting truly massive subsidies, is rapidly using up scarce water supplies.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/25/climate/fracking-oil-gas-wells-water.html?unlocked_article_code=n-soqj6d8w3UAMKsCrtVAXiTZ3ZHT1AeLDNmcg9G2aXHWdRTclc6TEqeePCR02xbojdoXwbX3SQM0gC6MrWQxNbFtIWcOQKNLkLQ6P941eFU4eplphIwZ9H-tj1n5E0ipWey_TJ2lCTCD1k-z6LD_6iR8NwYWDw6mHna2PPmwmmY7-dlfHjU1QG_c8t7rAegPuTqUH-dO6qHHaNfMBKVMRsHawL-N0k7dsFbj9KIYpP_zrJGdOrhdaNyg9doMsqLKQTxztW4uVyN9uyi5x6cFTO0wn-kDDgHbsog_JKTBKluXMRfpyPlNsliHElLq6aM0JG6uezSBmrZ0D8pANCZnUpSnfhSLdfZ3w1ix5tVKpK4ySIsuso&smid=url-share
'He's an insider': Ramaswamy's deep ties to rightwing kingpins revealed
Source: The Guardian
Vivek Ramaswamy has described himself as an “outsider”, accusing rivals for the Republican presidential nomination of being “bought and paid for” by donors and special interests.
But the 38-year-old Ohio-based venture capitalist, whose sharp-elbowed and angry display stood out in the first Republican debate this week, has his own close ties to influential figures from both sides of the political aisle.
Prominent among such connections are Peter Thiel, the co-founder of tech giants PayPal and Palantir and a rightwing megadonor, and Leonard Leo, the activist who has marshaled unprecedented sums in his push to stock federal courts with conservative judges.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/25/vivek-ramaswamy-rightwing-elite-close-ties-leonard-leo-peter-thiel
So...just another shill for billionaire parasites - drill baby drill, open coal and gas all the way, blah, blah, blah. ALL ABOUT WALL STREET PROFITS.
Fucking hypocrite.
Proposed talking point in 2024 election, to be pivoted to in any debate or on any Sunday
morning show:
Let's talk about THAT, because clearly the GOP has no actual policies to help Americans or even govern the country! So...(whomever the Republican shill at the time is), why should ANYONE in this country take your party seriously when it seems to have become a criminal organization.
I'd like to see a Democrat on one of the Sunday talk shows lead with THAT.
And, if the GOP person tries to squirm out of it, pivot to:
It's time to POUND on these fucks.
I want to talk a little bit about freedom here in America.
Why, here in 'Murika we be free!
Free to...what?
Be slaves to debt? You bet. Consumer debt here in 'Murika has topped $17.05 TRILLION.
Total student debt - $1.6 TRILLION
Total healthcare debt - $88 BILLION in 2022
Total credit card debt - $986 BILLION in 2022
But hey, our grandkids are FREE to get gunned down in their schools, or in malls, or in theaters, or while shopping, or while watching a parade! And right-wing nut-jobs are FREE to buy up all kinds of assault weapons. Heck yeah!
And we're FREE to pay out the nose at the grocery store for stuff in smaller packages being sold at higher prices. They are calling that GREED-flation, and that is darned right.
We're FREE to not get medical or dental care we NEED because it costs so much. And we're FREE to have crummy, rationed healthcare with financially crippling copays!
We're FREE to pay out the nose for inadequate health insurance and dental insurance is a SICK JOKE. And we're free to go bankrupt with an average of $43K in healthcare debt! Sure, Democrats are trying to remove healthcare debt from credit reports - the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a severed artery.
Sigh...so may ways to be FREE here in 'Murika...
But Wall Street is doing GREAT, and there are more billionaires here than ever before! I know that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy all over. That bronze bull-idol on Wall Street that has replaced God be hungry for more shareholder PROFITS. And we are free to hold those same shareholder PROFITS above human life, worker interests, consumer welfare and the earth itself.
And we individual taxpayers are FREE to pay in 84% of the federal government's total tax revenue while corporations pay only 9% but get all those tax breaks. And dirt-bags like Trump pay a few hundred in tax on millions in profits.
So, no we don't celebrate the 4th in my house because FREEDOM HAS BECOME A JOKE thanks to the Wall Street greed lizards, the billionaire parasites, the corporate takeover of the republic, the disgusting and immoral imbalance in wealth, the lucrative fear industry that has awakened racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, gun violence, white nationalism and religious intolerance...
But hey, isn't all this FREEDOM great?
Drunken driver in Colorado tries to claim his dog was driving.
Seriously.
Some people are just stupid. This is from an AP article dated May 15. This happened in Springfield, a tiny little town on the eastern plains about 40 miles south of Lamar. Hot, flat and lots of Trump supporters and Q people.
Here's an excerpt - I'll put the link in but it is only worth reading for a couple additional chuckles:
An officer watched him maneuvering inside the car before he got out on the passenger side on Saturday night in Springfield, a town of about 1,300 people on the state’s Eastern Plains, police said in a Facebook post Sunday.
https://apnews.com/article/dog-dui-colorado-dca3f5a155d4ce3c1d6a5c1aaa1e9d43
This is Teacher Appreciation Week, so...
I thought I would publicly acknowledge a few of the teachers who shaped my life.
Ms. Shep - who shepherded me through Kindergarten.
Ms. Howard, whose son was killed in Viet Nam c. 1966.
Mr. Akiyama, a true Nissai Regiment WWII war hero, and a humble, genuinely good fifth grade teacher.
Ms. O'Meara, who told me I should take AP English in high school, but I stupidly refused because my 'friends' were not in AP classes.
Mr. Stratton, who taught Latin and inspired me in many ways.
Mr. Guy, who told us about how anti-war demonstrators were treated (he was one).
Teachers take a lot of crap, you know? They are maligned, grossly underpaid, and probably want to vomit every time some person who wears his ignorance on his sleeve utters the tired old cliche, "Those who can..."
But you know, I had some real good ones. Bad ones too. But mostly good. Dedicated people who shaped me in those long ago years to become who I am now.
May all the teachers who go in, day after day, and give their life force to help young people along the way be warmly blessed and appreciated!
Video: Arnold Schwartzenneger on Auschwitz and the easy path of hatred.
Usually I do not post videos because I am old fashioned and prefer to read articles. But this video speaks to the qanon and other haters about the horror of hatred, racism, anti-Sematism. This is a video worth watching.
Today, shortly after noon, in 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
May he rest in peace in perpetual light.
We should remember.
That is all.
Health care in America.
My wife awakened this morning weeping from agonizing pain. As she has for the last two weeks.
Four weeks ago she had a shoulder replacement surgery on top of two unnecessary surgeries earlier this year - one in March to flush out a non-existant infection, and another in May to install an antibiotic plastic temporary shoulder to fight this nonexistant infection. She also had to have two six-week picc lines (essentially an needle keeping a vein open so the patient can inject antibiotics once or twice a day. It takes about half an hour each time).
How do we know her infection was non-existant? Her infectuous disease physician (with whom the surgeon had minimal contact, because...well, I don't know. But 'evidence based' is sounding increasing like bullshit to me to be honest) told her he didn't think she ever even had an infection.
Bottom line, we finally, after the second surgeon went off on her, became furious when she confronted him with what the infectuous disease guy had told her (the surgeon had used a test usually used for infections in metal prostheses, like shoulders and knees, and not for 'native joints'). The wife researched that on that bane of all the god-playing doctors, the internet, and found out the surgeon had probably misused this test on her to find 'infection.'
She complained formally, like that would do any good.
She had the final shoulder replacement, which was reverse, so she'll never have full use of the arm. And what was really wrong, you ask (if you have read this far, which I don't expect many of you will)? She had agressive rheumatoid arthritis in multiple joints, which if the HMO had read the warning signs instead of worrying about collecting copays and coinsurance and premium payments, they could have done some simple tests YEARS AGO and my wife wouldn't even have had to have shoulder surgery.
Evidence based = trial and error. Let's all be honest. THE PROFIT MOTIVE IS IN DIRECT CONFLICT WITH OUR INTERESTS AS PATIENTS. Evidence based is just a CYA song they all sing. Because in my wife's case the evidence was THERE all along - swollen fingers, surgery to remover an arthritis-twisted bone in her hand, a second knee replacement back in 2012. All there. But the cost cutting greed-measures in this system designed to serve Wall Street greed-lizards and shareholders rather than patients make me, at least, want to hurl.
And I'm TIRED of hearing how the Democrats took Medicare for all Americans off the table in '09 because they didn't have enough votes, and it wasn't good politics. It would have been moral. It would have been the right thing. I volunteered for Obama's '08 (and '12) campaigns BECAUSE HE CAMPAIGNED ON HEALTHCARE. Michelle's dad got shitty service because of inadequate insurance, bean counters denying payment for meds he needed, and a hospital much more concerned with cash flow than with actual patient care.
There are around 850 people who have been elected to high office, and if they wanted to do the right thing they could do it now!!! NOW!!!
Oh, but wait. The health insurance lobby! Oh no! We cannot possibly hurt SHAREHOLDER PROFITS!
Now, she's calling the nurse care line for what good they will do. We have to wait in a socialized medical system you say, but we had to save for two years to pay the financially crippling copay in 2019 for the hand surgery, and we had to TAKE OUT HEALTH CARE DEBT now, in our sixties, when we should be doing better than we ever have financially.
We need Medicare for all Americans NOW. It is the right thing, the moral thing, and FUCK SHAREHOLDER PROFITS.
OK, rant over.
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Member since: Mon Apr 28, 2014, 07:28 PM
Number of posts: 14,570