The Kennedy Hearing was Ugly

 

When your own family thinks you are a weird conspiracy freak who is uniquely unqualified and literally call you a grifting predator, well, that's probably bad news, right? 

But when quizzing by US Senators demonstrates you don't know Medicare from Medicaid and have not just trimmed your public pronouncements to suit your audience but are a legal grifter profiting off of your own BS (as Sen. Warren demonstrated), well, that hurts to be aired publicly, in so many words, doesn't it? 

Or maybe it doesn't.

This guy gave himself a brainworm from consuming roadkill, admits to dumping a bear corpse in a public park, seems sketchy about how germ theory works, has no medical or scientific background whatsoever, has opinions about the AIDS virus and vaccines that would have been shameful and out of date 25 years ago, let alone today, and yet?

He's got influence in his corner. Why they want him, I don't know. You might think people would want someone who isn't a whole fucking flake in an important position like Secretary of Health and Human Services--

Unless you just aren't that interested in health and will be goddamned if you see it as a basic human service. 

It is a BFD Kind of Day

 

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I just love this clip. pic.twitter.com/n1QSIHx8Ig

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) August 16, 2022

President Biden handed Senator Manchin that pen like he was awarding him "MVP" for this whole deal coming into focus, and as we all have heard in our workspaces--"Teamwork makes the Dream work." I'm just happy this thing passed so I can't be mad about anything Democrats did--not when Republicans exist, and stripped out provisions like the $35 a month cap on insulin. We have seen who they are and what they want--and it isn't good things for their constituents, apparently. 

In the meanwhile, the Biden Administration made hearing aids more available and affordable and cancelled the debt of people who took now-defunct ITT Tech courses. He wants to do good things that make a meaningful, positive effect on how Americans live. That is what I think a president should do and be. 

Our having Joe Biden as president is a BFD. He cares about people. I trust him. I did not trust the former guy. He never earned that trust and never did anything I thought was for us. I think his supporters are very confused about what he stood for. Trump tried to kill the ACA. Biden wants the ACA to work, and for prescription drugs to be more affordable. 

They are not the same. 

Once again, from my heart, I am telling you, there is no good reason to vote for Republicans ever, but definitely not this cycle. Joe Biden has a congress right now that lets him deliver good things. Republicans will never do good things, only retaliatory and culture war bullshit. Give him more Democrats, and better things will happen. I goddamn guarantee. 

Oh, Does Amy Coney Barrett Have Kids?

 

Amy Coney Barrett is the least popular Supreme Court nominee in modern times#ACB https://t.co/BHPrb3zKgB

— Raw Story (@RawStory) October 13, 2020

It really feels like after today's hearings, it would be ammmmaaaaaazzzzzing if more people brought up that she has seven whole young humans that she's looking after not including the big lug who is the head of her household, making her exactly comfortable in a party of nine (See!) and wouldn't it be boss indeed like hot sauce if we talked some more about the part where the church plays as much a part as her children do in her worldview? (Has she any kitchen table commentary to add, or is this too much?) Gosh, I would love more of this rich discourse about her ID politics. 

 Oh wait. I would not. See, I already know like anyone else does where this person is on Roe, and I don't trust her re: Obergefell, Griswold, Lawrence v Texas, I think she'd be Shelby all day every day, and I don't even trust her with Brown v BOE. 

 It really for some reason (my lifelong feminism, probably) annoys me a lot that people are using her being a mom to say she would necessarily support people's rights, etc. All kinds of people have kids. It doesn't require a license or anything. Would we use having fathered many children to be a sign of a man's fitness for a job? (Unless the answer is "sperm donor"--I don't think so.) So why pretend that Barrett's seven children make her less likely to rule against the ACA than Justice Scalia's nine children did? 

 I'm still hung up on the likelihood of her potential inevitability though, so I agree with Sen. Whitehouse, it would do immeasurable damage to the legitimacy of the court if she did not recuse in the event that Trump takes the election results to court (as did a previous campaigner, George W. Bush--and for that matter, Kavanaugh better abstain as well--or really the whole court should just tell Trump's orange peel ass he's on his own.).

Fouling Up Social Security

Today, Donald Trump stated that if re-elected, he'll undermine the entire financial footing of Social Security.

Our seniors and millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt. https://t.co/glUDQlcbEO

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 9, 2020

Of all the ding-bat things Trump could decide to try during a time of massive job losses, of course he'd have to throw in one that makes no real sense: a payroll tax deferral when the problem is people aren't on any damn payroll. (And the surprise-level about that should be nil--he lies about things, but he also does not understand shit about crap.) It's a fake gave-away to employers--except it will have to be paid back oh, unless Trump is re-elected when he will make it "permanent". So Social Security and Medicare will just not be funded, and that means he's basically fucking them as hard as he's fucking the post office right now.

Older people who were thinking of voting for Trump--first he wants you to die of coronavirus because he thinks he wants better economics numbers and to his clueless brain, that means business as usual, but he doesn't understand the economy is dependent on the virus actually being under control because fear of death is a pretty big factor in determining consumer habits. (I certainly wouldn't go to a restaurant if I thought my entree came with a side-order of COVID, for example.) Then he threatens your benefits, because, get this, your benefits are funded by people contributing to programs right now. And then he's also going to mess with, not just your voting by mail so you can do it safely, but things like your getting medicines by mail, or paying your bills by mail on time (incurring late fees), and other little things you might want to sit and think about.

And it's because he was too dumb to get his ass sorted about the pandemic back in February. Oh, and because he's lousy at being president, but is shit-scared that not being president will wind his ass up in prison, and there are reasons it should.

Also, in Trump's continuing plan to make executive orders that he most likely can't do and hasn't thought out and are campaign stunts and not actual things that will materialize are pretending he can stop evictions (by having different agencies look into it) and reducing the previous federal UI amount and making it dependent on what states are paying. And he's taking the money out of FEMA disaster relief and damn. That could be really bad.

Like, how is this all supposed to help? He could provide more immediate aid by directing Meadows to not fuck around and cooperate with Pelosi who already has something not-useless planned. It would show he has confidence he could sell that to the American people outside of his little club.

It just looks an awful lot like he's decided he'd rather wreck a lot of things than be remotely constructive, at a time when his being useful, or even vaguely like a leader in fact instead of play-acting as one, would be useful not just to see the country through an actual crisis, but maybe even do some magic on his poll numbers so he wouldn't have to fuck about with voter suppression. But he isn't the man for that. And it's starting to look pretty clear who should be doing the job Trump can't.

TWGB: Ultima Trump

Before I get into the week that was, I want to take a little note of this particular scene from Trump's Bedminster property where some folks spend a fuckton to be a member of. I've seen better carpets in bowling alleys. I know, my grand-dad made carpet for bowling alleys. And that tacky gold and black makes me cringe. I don't know exactly what the cachet of Trump country club life is worth, but then again, I have what Fuzzy Zoeller once pointed out were two real handicaps to a great swing and I prefer unmanicured nature to a giant lawn interrupted by bros trying to put something small into devious holes from a distance. I am not put off exactly by the scenario of hostile, shorted males and small, long-skirted females and the overall aura of "fuck you" radiating from the assembled Bedminsterites, for this is New Jersey. But yes, I am a little bit judging. And their posture knows folks like me exactly would.

Into What, Though?

DANA BASH: You criticized Obama for 'failed leadership' when 2 people in the US died from Ebola. Nearly 130,000 are dead from coronavirus. So is Trump showing failed leadership?@SenJoniErnst: "No. I think that the president is stepping forward." pic.twitter.com/2KDUPpjL2Y

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 5, 2020

"Stepping forward", I guess, is the nicest way to say "he's not doing nothing", but the journey he's supposed to be stepping forward on should have started months ago, and it really does feel like Trump is being praised like a baby for taking any steps at all. This kind of cowardice could be chalked up to an election year, but it's really how Republicans have been regarding Trump all the time, since he started. And yet, Trump wants to stop supporting testing (which he still blames for the high case numbers, instead of, well, there being an awful lot of cases) and to end the ACA.

It's shabby and a lack of leadership--from Trump and Ernst. And more, besides. Like Mark Meadows:

Mark Meadows on Fox defends Trump false claim that “99 percent” of covid cases are totally harmless. “I don’t even know it’s a generalization,” saying stats show “vast majority of people are safe from this.” He said “risks are extremely low” for those without serious ailments

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) July 6, 2020

Tell that to the 41-year old healthy Broadway actor who just died after months struggling with this disease. Tell that to his family.

Cowards.

UPDATE: WOW. The White House message, tho'.

Joe, Chill

I don't have a whole lot to comment about with The Breakfast Club/Biden interview, but in terms of Biden gaffe, if this is going to be a problem, um, hold on to your butts, because it's kind of Joe Biden's thing. I think I lean towards the "badly-landed and too familiar joke" camp with what Biden had said because I don't think his intentions are bad or that he doesn't care, but I think he made a classic white people mistake (of which I am also guilty sometimes) of thinking if you have Black friends, you can kind of get away with being a little looser in discussing race issues--and it was the wrong time, because it always is. 

But especially when running for president, and here's my issue with it, which doesn't necessarily come down to a question of race or any other thing, but Trump. Because when Charlemagne said "It don't have nothing to do with Trump", he has an incredible point. You have to imagine that you are not running against the worst human, a person with a terrible record and who says hateful things. You have to realize you are running to do something about the country that elected that guy. You have to pull this country back from that edge. It isn't Trump--it's the things that got him here. *

Hillary Clinton, on paper, should have kicked Trump's ass on experience and buried him with a better vison of how to run a country. What the hell does "Make America Great" even mean? It's vague sloganeering, and the wall was and is a dumb idea. People have gotten to the US on innertubes for crying out loud. Now that we've seen Trump in office, and the dysfunctional machinery he is making of government, and the cynical transactionalism that motivates the least thing ("Drain the swamp", my ass), and Trump's own deeply personal and worsening hang-ups, who wants to be the next person to lose--to that?

But it isn't about Trump. He is awful--so what? Republicans came out for him, and they will do it again. In the meanwhile, Biden has to turn out voters for him, and can't count on people to just turn out because they are anti-Trump. 

God Damn You All to Hell!

It's pretty much what we should have expected: a Republican POTUS and both houses of Congress being Republican--tax cuts were the irresistible force against which pretend moderate Republicans proved no immovable object. So tax cuts, for corporations and rich folks, is what got passed.  It's great news for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who dreamed of screwing with poor people's access to health care benefits and giving tax cuts to the wealthy since he was just a nipper, the passage of the Senate tax bill means he gets to vote on his best favorite thing again. I do believe his release from the first passage of this monstrosity was damn-near sexual. If this is the culmination of his congressional career, I surely wouldn't mind if he did decide to call it a day and retire. 

I know Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell puts this day right up there with employing Constitution-stretching measures to deny Barack Obama his SCOTUS pick, and Merrick Garland his vote. Mitch McConnell does not care about anything but Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell is probably biodegradable, but I would recommend lead lined interment for that toxic SOB when fate finally closes his chapter.  

The failed attempts to repeal the ACA gave us some kind of hope, didn't it, that Republican Senators, at least a few of them, wouldn't pass a giant giveaway to the rich and pass that cost along to future generations in the form of increased federal debt. The dramatic postures of folks like Sen. Corker, Sen, Flake, Sen. Collins and Sen. Murkowski, almost looked like hope that they wouldn't fuck up the economy for sheer partisan fanservice to GOP donors and wealthy motherfuckers. (I am leaving out Sen. McCain because of his condition, but if he was entirely healthy, he'd probably be doing the same damn two-step.)

Corker, of course, was "bribed" as were several other Republican Senators of means (well, they probably would have gone for it anyway) by a provision that benefits real-estate partnerships.  The kind even the President might be familiar with. Does a man who has already announced his retirement from the Senate and already has a net worth of nearly $70 million really need this juice? He's getting it. Senator Flake, despite what anyone thinks, is as Republican as a Republican can be. He never had to be bribed to screw over the poor and middle class and his posturing about DACA was just that. Posturing. 

Senator Murkowski wore her Incredible Hulk earrings to this vote in memory of Sen. Ted Stevens because finally, the Senate was voting to violate ANWR with stupid fossil fuel drilling for stupid jobs that will not grow the Alaskan economy and will hurt wildlife there, because she is a Republican, and believes stupid things.  Pro-tip: Wearing Hulk earrings to a showing of "Thor: Ragnarok" --totally appropriate. While voting to spoil a wildlife refuge, kill an important provision of the ACA that keeps people covered and premiums down, and will hurt your constituents? Not appropriate! 

And let's talk about Sen Collins, who was hailed as a hero for stopping the repeal of the ACA. She was going to wait and see if she got certain provisions regarding health care coverage, and didn't. And criticizing her for voting yes on this turd is sexist! (Why was the coverage so focused on Collins? Because she made it seem like she had a reason to vote no and was reachable. Our bad, obviously--but criticism of a US Senator isn't sexist--it's about whether she's good on her word. Was she being seen as reachable because she's a woman--or because she said she was? Hm. Seems like it's on her.)

I don't see an upside to this vote. I think what trickle-down optimists feel about the bill regarding economic growth are just wishful thinking. The debt issue bothers me, the curtailing of government support on the state level is frustrating, the idea that this bill was in part crafted to "stick it" to Blue States is abominable. This bill favors foreign investors and practically incentivizes off-shoring.   It does many things Trump the candidate implied he would never do, and sets the stage for "entitlement program" (Ahem! "Earned Benefit"!) programs getting cut to "pay" for a giveaway to the already well-off. This is reverse-Robin Hood. This is a tactic of shock and awe devoted to increasing income inequality. 

This is bullshit in each and every way, but it is entirely and solely Republican bullshit. Trump owns the economy that stems from this, as does every participant in this vote. I only hope Democrats run hard against this shit. It is a recipe for so much suffering. Trickle-down is a lie. 

What a Long, Stupid Week It's Been!

There's President Donald Trump, signing an executive order to, despite his happy-talk about the circumstances, re-open the market to insurance companies to offer plans that are low-cost, but offer basically nothing of any utility whatsoever. He also decided the time was right for the federal government to stop paying subsidies to insurance companies to pay for plans to low-income people, even though those plans still, by law, need to be subsidized. His reasoning is that the insurance companies are benefitting from this incredible largesse from the government (as if no services were provided, such as managing payments for health care), but his rationale for health care deregulation is that health insurance companies were being squeezed by the vise placed on the market.

It's pretty incoherent, right? NV Gov. Sandoval makes a great point--Trump's ACA changes are sabotage and hurt everybody. What Trump is doing costs low income and working class families more because their premiums will go up, and even for people who get their plans through their employer, their contributions will surely go up. The insurance companies get less, but still and all, the government is still paying more.

But this is just Trump following through on his election promises to undo Obamacare. He didn't promise to make anything better, and he definitely isn't going to. But it's a promise fulfilled, right? And since Congress can't, won't, and don't know how? Hah! He is teaching the GOP leadership how it gets done--executive privilege. In your face, pretend Republican-leadership!

Now, you could counter that Trump is, in the photo-op he tried to make, almost walking out the door without signing. Problem? Nope. He wants that applause that he nearly exited to. He doesn't care how he gets it. But if he has to sign--also awesome. He doesn't realize that his name is now all over how Obamacare dies. This is Trumpcare now. Or "Trump Doesn't Care". Anyway--he doesn't. Surprise!

This is the week that Trump, in some kind of snit because he challenged Rex Tillerson to an IQ test and got dusted because Tillerson won't fight an unarmed man, got quoted as saying he "hates everyone" in the White House. That certainly sounds healthy.

We also were made aware this week that some of the national security "old hands" were trying out a plan in case Trump wanted to go for "the football"--that is to say, in case he wanted to start a nuclear war. Sure. Why wouldn't that be norm...no. We cannot call this normal.

Trump also this week threatened the licenses of news organizations who might have spilled a story that he wanted to increase the nuclear arsenal tenfold. Which I can totally see him doing. Both the 10X nukes thing and the outlawing news thing. Because he does not get the Constitution and of course the First Amendment thereof, and also he sort of thinks that the president with the most toys, wins.

Trump also antagonized a little more about North Korea, in part because he might think we have a functioning "Star Wars" type missile interception thingy. Not so much.

Trump also made a claim this week on Hannity's show that the rise in the stock market had shit-all to do with the national debt. Wow. That is dumb.

No wonder Steve Bannon says there's only a 30% chance of Trump completing this term in office. He is really bad at all of this. And I didn't even get into Iran--which is my next post for sure.

Graham-Cassidy is Dead: The Possibility of ACA Repeal Remains

Republicans aren't going to vote on the completely awful Graham-Cassidy bill, but they are couching it in terms like "postponing the vote" and saying they "will get to it". Later. After tax reform. Which they don't actually have a complete plan for. But maybe...

Look, there is a very good reason this bill got pulled without a vote--as I said, it's completely awful. Doctors don't like it, insurers don't like it, disability rights activists don't like it, Republican Senators don't like it. So why pretend this is going to be a thing? Obamacare repeal is the "making fetch happen" of legislation. GOP congressfolks keep trying it, but it just isn't really popular. And they fall back on, "Well, we campaigned on it."

Which seems to mean they got donor money for it. So here's a bold possibility--maybe donor money doesn't fucking rule the world, and sometimes politicians have to listen to the voters. Maybe the ACA isn't the devil, and just needs tweaks. Democrats will agree with that premise. (Although probably for a different definition of tweaks. No one ever said this was an easy process. Only a jackass would have thought so.)

And then everyone can vote on a bill that isn't maggot-gagging. Just a thought. But that Senate Majority Leader McConnell hasn't had that thought suggest to me that he might not really be that good a leader. At blocking a Democratic President--great. At getting shit done--meh. 

McCain Voted No.

LIVE COVERAGE: McCain votes no on GOP ObamaCare repeal bill https://t.co/TfheS67N2z pic.twitter.com/iXOt0jpidd

— The Hill (@thehill) July 28, 2017

And maybe that wasn't the upset vote of all time, but it was great. It followed on Collins and Murkowski, who stayed true to the idea that their constituents mattered more than the pride of the current POTUS, but it matters that McCain said "No".

I held out hope. I have dragged his old ass before and I always was ready to do it again. But I don't have to, now. He voted "no". And a protective circle is now set-up for Lisa Murkoswski because of her vote, and for Susan Collins, because we don't ever forget. And thanks to every Dem who stood firm. And this never could have happened if not for the activists, their visibility, their phone calls. But the thing I take away with wonder--McCain voted "No". I was so prepared for him to disappoint me. I still feel like he could.

But he voted "no" this one time.

Sen. McCain Diagnosed with Glioblastoma

My history regarding covering Senator John McCain has been one of serious criticism, and that is not something I easily set aside--as a public servant, he has long been about diminishing what government does for one domestically, and expanding what government does on the international stage. I have found him at times a diffident and biased actor--not always following through on political claims for what I have assumed was partisan reasons. But there is one thing about him I will say, especially in light of his recent diagnosis with glioblastoma, a difficult, aggressive, and generally tragic form of brain cancer--

Senator McCain is a hero and does have a code of honor. It isn't something he telegraphs, but something he just lives. I disagree with him politically, but especially in light of certain recent political events, I have come to find his occasional equivocations and arguments more honest than what I see from people boasting the same party label at times today. This isn't to praise nor bury him. I just wish him an easy time of it, because cancer is a son of a bitch of a disease and he's got a rotten one. And no one deserves what it can do.

(Which, in keeping with my traditions, is why I endorse keeping Obamacare alive, because this sort of shit happens to humans less fortunate than Senator McCain, who don't deserve it either, and who have families and lives and loved ones and jobs to do.  Fuck cancer. Also, fuck Trumpcare, repeal and replace, or even just repealing. Because this happens to fathers, and grandfathers, and respected elder statespeople. And yes, I am using McCain's diagnosis to raise a point. I don't know that he would go so far as to use it, politically, himself. But of the people I know who have had and survived cancer-- care matters, treatment matters, and access is a matter of human welfare--fully in the purview of Congress. I would like to see him have an understanding now of what less-privileged folks already know--they utterly need access, affordability, regulations that protect them and their pre-existing conditions, and how.  But what I like is not McCain's problem. His own bout with serious disease is. )

See Kellyanne. See Kellyanne Lie!

Actually, the cuts in Medicaid will be catastrophic for the exact people this program was intended for. Some people who will be impacted, children, nursing home residents, simply can't get jobs. Other people are already working, but don't make enough to afford to buy care out of pocket.

It's worse though--the CBO on the Senate Health care bill demonstrates that 22 million more people would be without health care--people now getting health care through their employer may also be affected. Premiums would rise at first, but then be brought down specifically because the sickest and poorest get opted out. (They don't necessarily choose to not be covered. They just prefer food, rent, and the light bill.)

This plan is a shambles and lying in favor of it is the act of a shambolic human. I don't know if she understands the consequences of the plan she is lying in favor of, but this bill threatens the lives of children who are on Medicaid, and those who have been born or acquire, through no possible fault of their own (unlike, maybe, those folks who willingly flirt with emphysema or black lung in the mines? Yes, Trumpcare will also block out the working class folks he claims to adore) pre-existing conditions that could bar them from obtaining health insurance.

Her alternative facts are leaving out a lot of vulnerable Americans. I don't think pointing this out will shame her, necessarily. But we could always do with a reminder of her utter lack of interest in truth over her personal career expedience.

Trump Went Boom Again

This is a snippet of the Twitter feed from Donald J. Trump, POTUS. In the mind of Donald J. Trump, Supergenius, a Democratic candidate for president working with her own party to win a democratic election is so on a par with a candidate for president of the US of any party working with a hostile government to undermine our democratic system of government. Democrats own Obamacare (which was by and large a Democrat idea--so, there's one!) and are OBSTRUCTIONISTS for wanting to keep their thing instead of having it thrown over for a very bad thing. The Russian hacking that Trump has gone out of his way to dismiss as a hoax is so a completely real and bad thing if he can somehow blame President Obama for it. "Colluded" and "obstructed" are words that Trump thinks might possibly be synonymous, even if they don't mean similar things, at all.

He does not seem to realize that Obama did try to do SOMETHING and in fact did do various things, but was OBSTRUCTED in part by Mitch McConnell. Obama did make the political calculation that making a unilateral instead of a bipartisan statement might cause more harm than good, and did so in the face of a great orange crybaby bellowing "Rigged!" into every hoot and holler he visited. And, since Obama has always been the kind of good-hearted soul who believes in America's vast capabilities despite ourselves, he, to use the coinage of a former president, "misunderestimated" us.

Trump also seems to think that collusion can only be proved by "tapes". I don't know how anyone ever could have been found guilty of anything before electronic recording devices existed, but while I'd like to give Thomas Edison his due, it remains that people have been found culpable on the basis of rather a lot of other kinds of evidence, like paper trails and financial records.

If Trump wants an apology for anything, it should be from all the ass-kissers in his life who ever let him get away with thinking he was more than middling-intelligent. And he is the one who is fucking up Obamacare, but even a fucked Obamacare might be better than what the GOP has in store.

And yes--I call this "going boom!" This series reminds me a lot of his fateful 3/4/2017 Tweetsplat that accused Obama of "tapping" him--which presaged his weird, and ultimately self-debunked claim that "tapes" might exist of his conversations with former FBI Director Jim Comey.  (He maintains now that he posed the existence of "tapes" to ensure the honesty of Comey's testimony--which sounds a lot like trying to lean on a witness, to me. But taking him at face value, if he feels his witness-tampering gambit worked, then it must be true that he tried to lean on Comey to end the investigation into Flynn, and then fired him for not doing just that. It's a "triple-klutz"--he just copped to three kinds of obstruction of justice.)

None of these are the Tweets of a sound mind or a smart individual. They are like a cry for help. But I have no sympathy either for him or people who find this nonsense moving. It's just bizarre and unbecoming the leader of a great nation.

Yes, People Die from Lack of Access to Health Care

I don't want to oversimplify things here, but I'm not even sure what the Idaho congressman thinks health care is for. If getting medical attention wasn't for, um, our health, are we just being weird wanting people to see us nekkid and giving us random tests for entertainment's sake? Of course we go to doctors for our health because we want to live and think something has gone wrong with our bodies. What else are we looking for? Who has a disconnect between health services and the desire to keep on living?

That's a really special kind of stupid he has, right there.

More than that, before the ACA, there was a study that found that 45,000 deaths per year were attributable to people just not being financially able to access health services because they weren't covered. These were people who had conditions that might be curable or manageable, and could have lived quite alright lives. They just couldn't afford to...live. They didn't have the money to see the right doctors and get the right care. They died because they never got their sugar regulated, their blood pressure sorted, that wound looked at. They died because that cough never did go away, or that thing on their neck never bothered them so much.

I buried my mother-in-law today, and her passing was made better because of excellent care covered by Medicare. She lived longer because she had access to insulin and Metformin and blood thinners and blood pressure medications, but when that was not enough, she had access to rehabilitation care for stroke treatment and hospice. Even when death is inevitable, the access to specialized treatment and care is essential and valuable and an absolute gift for the loved ones of the patient.

Discounting this reality is weird and a terrible lie. Of course health care matters. From the obstetrics ward to hospice. We are mortal, and our time here is fragile and fraught with mortal perils. We benefit from doctors, from their slapping our just-born bottoms and jabbing us with vaccines, to setting our bones and seeing to our various ailments.

It is just true. We would die earlier without such care. We just would.

The GOP Won One For the Groper

There's something a little weird about watching President Trump and House Republicans celebrate the vote to repeal and replace the ACA: there really is still the Senate vote to go, which isn't actually a done deal, and this bill wasn't rated by the CBO and is pretty likely a dud when it comes to lowering premiums for all but the young and healthy, and will likely result in un-insuring about 24 million folks, and raising premiums for some older and sicker people, and making it all but impossible for many people with pre-existing conditions to get insured. They can pop cheap beer and have a Rose Garden chuckle over handing a Republican president a little victory--but it's kind of grim.

Now, I don't doubt that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might just take Trump up on one of his tweets and do away with the 60 vote legislative barrier, just as he did for confirming Neil Gorsuch to the SCOTUS, and get this mangy dog of a health care bill pushed through the Senate with a bare majority. Why is it that I don't doubt that?

Because they can. Not because it's great legislation or better for their constituents. But because they probably promised X number of donors and can count on y number of voters to forget about this issue before their election comes up.

And they can also count on people not realizing that the ACA really did get more people covered, and for less money than it might have taken. I've never been certain that policy coverage in the media did the best job of explaining how the ACA worked-and plenty of the language against the ACA led me to suspect that many Republicans don't really get how insurance works, or what a pool is and how costs are distributed in a larger pool of healthier-trending people.

What will especially suck, if the current AHCA passes, is that pre-existing conditions will create a kind of second-class citizen for health purposes. Things like pregnancy, C-Section, domestic violence, rape, heavy periods, acne, could cause higher premiums or coverage denials for many people (quite a lot of them female-bodied). This doesn't sit well with me--it seems prejudicial. Things like asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, can affect certain (ethnic/racial) groups and certain regions more decidedly--which also seems prejudicial.

It bothers me that this might be viewed as a "win" for Donald Trump--can you believe he's even president, and this gets passed in the kind of Tea-party GOP House? Should Paul Ryan be smiling because he won one, and won't get a challenger to his Speakership anytime real soon--or does this vote for an unpopular change in health care law bode poorly for him come 2018?

We'll just have to see. But it sticks in my craw that so many of the "pre-existing conditions" that will drop women from coverage under the "grab'em by the pussy" POTUS' watchful eyes, stem from their victimization--DV, sexual assault, even certain reproductive health care treatment. Does he even see us as people--not the sum of our confusing lady business? Who knows--to me he is always a groper.

Trump Can't Always Get What He Wants

Although, like everything else in this drama-saturated Trump era, the timeline seems off, it really is only a smidge less than three weeks ago that Press Secretary Sean Spicer stood next to a little stack of paper and a bigger stack of paper to explain why the GOP plan was better. Three weeks! And we were today assured that President Trump had "left everything on the field" in his fight to get a "repeal and replace" deal done. After three weeks! Everything! On! The! Field!

(Long weekends was it? Talking with people across the aisle and hearing from constituents about their concerns? Or was it just a bit of bullying his own party? All the same, it sounds like a positively exhausting three weeks!)

And so the bill got pulled Friday (after down-to-the wire tinkering that only seemed to make the bill worse), and this is obviously the Democrats' fault. I would say this is roughly the Democrats' fault in that they got together seven years ago and passed a better plan than what the GOP House threw together just now, as if the Republicans were not expecting they would have to for the last seven years. Beyond that though, the majority party in the House did not pull together the number of votes needed for their side to win, or, did not craft a plan they could sanely expect any Democrat to want any part of.

That definitely sounds like a Republican problem, to me. But what is perplexing is, why did this "vote" seem so rushed? It was not impossible to either get a deal with the right number of House votes or a deal that might have interested Democrats if they could be genuinely convinced that the ACA was in imminent danger--it just would have taken some more months' doing.  What seems to have happened is that President Trump somehow got the idea that this was going to be an easy one to cross off his agenda. After all, he made the positively gob-stopping comment "Nobody knew health care could be so complicated" just four weeks ago. (Four weeks!) Where had he been the last 25 years, one might wonder.

Not in Washington DC--which is one of the drawbacks of having a total outsider in the Oval Office, and instead, in a boardroom where he was "boss", which is another entire cultural problem. The thing is, the President of the United States isn't the boss of Congress, not even of members of Congress of his own party. It's a co-equal branch of government, and he just can't always get what he wants.

Now, he's happy to let the matter of health care fade into the rearview while he moves on to tackle something easy, like, say, major tax reform.  Oof. He made comments today about having learned a lot from this health care process. I am just not sure that's so. We'll have to see.

Bad Medicine Is What They Need!

As near as I can tell, the Trump Administration would like to get a "repeal and replace" thing done very quickly because they need a win--but I really don't think they care at all what is in it, because the original version didn't even fulfill Trump's campaign promises regarding health care. He even went so far as to imply that not voting for the repeal and replace measure could cost GOP House members their seats.

VP Mike Pence worked on them, too, but so many members simply failed to be as ecstatic as Speaker Paul Ryan was over the prospect of 24 million Americans losing their coverage and several millions more having their premiums go up.

So what are they doing? Why, they are diluting the mandatory coverage so that premiums stay low enough for people to accept weak tax credits for shittier coverage, meaning that tax money will go to providing people with the kind of coverage that should be a shame to offer at any price. No one at this rate will know what exactly is in the bill until it passes, and it's guaranteed to still cover less people and do less for them. But to what extent we won't know, because there will be no CBO score on that at all.

And for all I know, this crazy unhealthy unpopular nonsense might even succeed. Not that I think congresspeople up for re-election should want getting this wrong on their c.v. But didn't Trump tell them this was important? And to never mind the people showing up at their townhalls?

I am interested in the outcome--not in the same way a person with pre-existing condition(s) is, or who knows someone or is someone who could easily exhaust a cap right at the beginning of a year, or who has health care only because the exchanges plus a subsidy were available to them. Not in the same way a person who might be penalized by Medicaid by having to pay back benefits for having a body with leukemia tastes on a laryngitis budget would. But as a person who really wants to know who will take the leap with Trump and Ryan over this bad medicine bill. And who wonders just where that will get them.

These Press Conferences are Getting Interesting

Interesting is not always better. But less pages in a bill makes it better and less coverage is more, so what do I know?

Taking it to the Streets and the Town Halls

The 2016 elections certainly seem to have had an effect on the populace at large--they have gone activist. The above video of UT Rep. Jason Chaffetz in all its length and glory shows people who have real concerns about what their US Representative is really representing, and who are demanding he hear them out. Chaffetz is a unique feature of the current House of Representatives. I don't much care for him, myself. And the US Representative's ever-so-very considered response to the hour plus of raucous exchange?

It was totally a Land of Thousand Fakes. He thinks the people who gave him a hard time were paid protesters instead of his actual constituents. I wonder what he'll think next time--there will be a next time.

(This is basically what some people have been trying on about the Women's March a couple weeks back. And nope--real women, real signs, real knitted hats, and really, really pissed off folks. Just try to imagine how much one would even have to pay to significantly fill out even a thousand-seat venue for a couple hours. Then imagine what it would be like to try and mobilize a protest for several hours in every state and every continent, basically. Not even doable.)

But to understand why people are getting the activist spirit, take a look at this Florida town hall:



The "death panels" lie was so widely reported that this crowd is completely wise to it. The phrase "OK children" is an appallingly insulting thing to say to people who actually do know what they are talking about. And no, I don't think these are fake protesters either. They know what the ACA is--and they know there has to be a replacement before any talk of repeal should happen--now that talk of repeal is more than just talk, but a real thing the GOP can do.

There have been marches and protests, some with a solid pedigree--like the Moral March in North Carolina, and the ever-present counter-protest to the anti-abortion "Defund Planned Parenthood" contingent.

The protest movements aren't new, but have renewed purpose.

Protest is the new normal--and it will happen way too often for anyone to believe it to be fake:

Expect it. Because  in a democracy, people feel it is right to petition their representatives for redress of grievances, and man, we are griefing.