Obama Administration Meltdown Thread

[Sabo]

he wants to live as a woman? How did I miss that?

Pretty sure he won't have a problem with that while in prison.

[Johnnie]

he wants to live as a woman? How did I miss that?

There was also the pre-requisite "kick a person when he's down" photo of him in drag that was released last week too. I'm pretty sure him being gay/wanting to be a girl was a large impetus for treating him (shim?) like filth in this whole process. But no one seems to be talking about that angle.



And I'd love to have an opinion on this, but I just didn't care to follow it. As a dude in the military I know what I'm supposed to do -- keep my mouth shut. I can't talk about the Code Red that Col. Jessup ordered and I'm not going to be able to tell you about Sgt Monfriez lying during a firefight.

But then I'm also told to "do the right thing" and use my chain of command to upchannel anything that's severely wrong. The problem is, just like the serious sexual harassment issues plaguing the military these days, it's all kept in house and people aren't investigated. The military justice system severely punishes enlisted members a disproportionate amount compared to officers. That's the game and the game is rigged.

The shitty thing is it takes someone in the know to actually have documents and sensitive info in order to release it to the public. So the entire idea that a person can be a whistleblower without having a shred of culpability is impossible. But hey! Obama wants you to come forward up until a couple weeks ago when that part of his mission statement on his website was erased without a word noted in the press. It's all a Catch-22. You're a patriot up until the point where you actually define patriotism. Then you're a traitorous scumbag who wants to destroy America.

[cerrano]

And I'd love to have an opinion on this, but I just didn't care to follow it. As a dude in the military I know what I'm supposed to do -- keep my mouth shut. I can't talk about the Code Red that Col. Jessup ordered and I'm not going to be able to tell you about Sgt Monfriez lying during a firefight.

so jessup did order the code red![/missedthelast20minutes]

[howard]

Oh my. Some speech.

It would've been more humane had he simply waterboarded the logic.

Can't even start a war right. From impending fascism to realized farce-ism.

The greatest failure in the governance of this administration, over and over again, is that they treat every setback as merely a public relations problem. Just nudge the polling, make a speech, have the usual suspects hit the Sunday news shows, and then the problem will be solved. I have to admit, priority number one--get re-elected--was achieved with that approach to leadership. Too bad the economy, the health care system, the death machine in Afghanistan and a half dozen other countries just kept disintegrating. But the polls and the PR were great.

His 'red line' nearly stumbled us into causing a civil war to spread to a wider region. A nearly guaranteed attack on Israel as retaliation for US attack; possible to likely attacks upon US Navy ships, and possible Iran-Israel war, maybe even an Iran-Saudi Arabia war. A roll of the dice on what Russia/China would do.

All to 'send a message to dictators'. My goodness; bless John Kerry and his loose tongue, and Russia for presenting a face-saving path out of this mess.

Or, something else completely crazy and ridiculous happens next. Interesting times. Back to sports.

[Johnnie]

This is awesome.

[Johnnie]

Vladimir Putin is, ummm, pretty damn articulate.

NYT Op-Ed

[howard]

Fucking Bizzaro World, I tell ya.

Putin is an evil, bad man. But he is better at propaganda than his counterpart. Helps that most of what he said is true, even though it is not the whole truth, and it omits some important truths about his conduct and that of his nation.

Truth is in such short supply these days, I am tempted to take it from whatever the source. But I have not forgotten what a fucking murderous evil freedom-destroying asshole this guy is. I'm hating the player(s) harder than I hate the game.

[Scottie]

Oh my. Some speech.

It was an utter absurdity at best; like a parody of a presidential speech. Did you see Abby Martin on Russia Today's "Breaking The Set" (yesterday, likely repeated today) taking apart 0bama's speech and crushing it? Line by line.

Also, good stuff from the Beeb: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24055648" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"A prime time presidential address should either announce a policy course or make a specific appeal to Congress; it should not be wasted on a situation where the course is so unclear and the appeal so vague and undirected."

[howard]

Same as the reason for no war on Syria.

He didn't have the votes. Quack quack.

Sure, it doesn't matter. He'll appoint some other toxic tool to do the bidding of the big banks while impoverishing the rest of us via inflation. But despite accepting the reality that the train keeps running, I can take some small satisfaction in this latest Obama fail.

[Jerloma]

What the...

[Johnnie]

OK, so that's funded by an anti-Obamacare group, right? Which means it's probably from the GOP side of the house.

But yet those are the people who want to severely limit abortions/access to women's health care on behalf of J-Dog the Skygod and forgo any sort of pregnancy awareness for teens because it'll give them the idea to have sex?

Or am I completely wrong here?

[Shirley]

I'm sure most women would prefer an insurance executive in a nice suit perform their pap smears.

[howard]

Just so my quiet is not misinterpreted. I could post an average of 3-5 pertinent, reasoned articles a day in this thread. (I'm not talking Fox news or other partisan bullshit.)

Keep in mind, there is a separate Obamacare fake reform thread. So, I am not even counting articles on that fucking fiasco.

Ditto for economic meltdown. This Obama is a piece of fucking work.

Back to the quiet room. For a while.

[Gunpowder]

Post away, nothing happens here anymore, anyway. ANYWHOOOOO

[devilfluff]

Helps that most of what he said is true, even though it is not the whole truth

This is the key to any good lie.

[Steve of phpBB]

Keep in mind, there is a separate Obamacare fake reform thread. So, I am not even counting articles on that fucking fiasco.

Heh. You should have at it, because there's not much I can say in response.

Although I could pedantically point out that it's not "Obamacare" that's the fiasco, just the website for individuals purchasing insurance through the federally run exchange. Anyone who has insurance through their employer, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or who lives in a state that set up its own exchange doesn't have to deal with the website at all.

Ironically (or not), the people who have to use the website are mostly in Republican states that refused to set up exchanges and have made it as difficult as possible to implement the law. So if people in those states run into delays in getting insurance, so be it.

[devilfluff]

Since I can't find the healthcare fake reform thread, and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Instead of mailing us our open enrollment jive, my company has set up meetings this year. I fear this may portend a royal fucking.

I've heard some horror stories from friends at other companies.(ridiculous rate & co-pay hikes(particularly for family plans), spouses not eligible if their employer offers coverage, etc)

O-care may just be forced enrollment, but the money takers seem to be using it to gouge the working class...

[Steve of phpBB]

Since I can't find the healthcare fake reform thread, and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Instead of mailing us our open enrollment jive, my company has set up meetings this year. I fear this may portend a royal fucking.

I've heard some horror stories from friends at other companies.(ridiculous rate & co-pay hikes(particularly for family plans), spouses not eligible if their employer offers coverage, etc)

O-care may just be forced enrollment, but the money takers seem to be using it to gouge the working class...

So far, the only consequence to us is that our premium is dropping.

[devilfluff]

Since I can't find the healthcare fake reform thread, and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Instead of mailing us our open enrollment jive, my company has set up meetings this year. I fear this may portend a royal fucking.

I've heard some horror stories from friends at other companies.(ridiculous rate & co-pay hikes(particularly for family plans), spouses not eligible if their employer offers coverage, etc)

O-care may just be forced enrollment, but the money takers seem to be using it to gouge the working class...

So far, the only consequence to us is that our premium is dropping.

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to say the same..

[howard]

I thought we had one here. No matter, because very little comment from me is necessary. (Um, I guess that can be broadly applied. And just as broadly ignored, by me.)

I read the fucking law once it was signed*. This dismal labor solidified my central opinion about the future of this government program. That the legislative program as signed into law would never, ever be implemented or realized**. I formed this view back then; subsequent events continuously support, confirm and strengthen that conclusion.

The number one fact rendering the broad 'Obamacare' impossible is that the country cannot afford it***. Number two fact, so many complex factors, historic, political, economic and other elements all need to fall into place for this clusterfuck to actually happen. Only one need fail, and the program dies. A Romney presidency (talk about yer irony); a GOP electoral victory in 2016, president or both chambers; a Supreme Court decision (only one man's twisted legal opinions saved this thing); a fatal internal contradiction, or combo of fatal internal contradictions within the law/program itself (trust me, there is plenty of potential in there); just one bad hop, and the perfect game necessary for this program to happen is spoiled.

Frankly, I did not give much thought beyond these two facts when considering the odds of Obamacare actually being realized. While I expected the 2012 election to kill it, and I half-expected the Court to kill it, I was and remain confident the cost and our brokeness will kill it.

Boy did I stop short in my thinking and analysis.

I'm not gonna take the opportunity of the current IT failure as a victory or an occasion for an 'I told you so'. I'm above that. (Well, let's pretend that I am above that. Just for the sake of discussion.) Because I did not see it coming. I didn't look. As a vigorous opponent of this law and this program****, this particular episode is icing on the cake, and a source of great amusement.

It illustrates the complexity of the endeavor. As well as the overreach. And the deep ignorance, the profound lack of understanding of so many aspects of this huge government project. Ignorance and lack of understanding by the populace, by the media, by the political class, by the Administration officials, by the army of government bureaucrats engaged in engineering and implementing the thing. Ignorance and lack of understanding masked by oodles of rhetoric, ideology, political games, greed, desire for free shit, belief, hope and faith in things unseen and unsupported by fact or evidence. Hidden aims, unintended effects, unforeseen complications. The myriad sources of potential utter failure that I never ever imagined, much less took the time to probe for or consider the possibilities.

There are so very many reasons why this thing will never happen beyond my simple calculus of a couple of years ago, little augmented by any deep thought on my part. But plenty augmented by events as time moves on and history unfolds.

This thing will never happen. I've said it before and I confidently repeat this today. Never. Too many things have to fall into place. Even if everything else stumbles into a workable framework, we cannot afford it. The nation has neither the wealth nor the money to be able to further rip off the people and the tax revenues to enrich a few insurance and drug corporations, while providing a simulacrum of insurance coverage masquerading as 'health care' to a single digit percentage of American people.

(I'll spare you my further economic thinking of how they will try to afford it, and the collateral damage of those activities. For now. If you are nice.)

Karl D. points out some of those economic ideas here

________

*I will be damned if I am going to plow through the over ten thousand pages of federal regulations, rules, guidelines and the rest that have emerged as the bureaucratic framework to support this program. Yeah, I recently chose a career path out of practicing medicine rather than read that shit. I'd rather quit being a doctor than read it, much less have my work life governed by this pile of documents.

**Of course there is an excellent chance to be an ACA program in place at any given time in the near/intermediate future. Of course it will not be identical to the program as written in the 900 or so pages of law. I'm talking broad strokes; nitpicking can yield an 'I told you so' or subject me to a 'nope, you were wrong' and I truly don't care about that. I am discussing and seeking to discover pragmatic realities, not to win a debate or score points. Broad strokes.

***Similarly, Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security are unaffordable, and while they will continue in name, they will by necessity be changed/gutted so drastically as to be reasonably unrecognizable compared to the current incarnations.

****The ACA has the intent, and to the degree it is implemented the effect, of maintaining the status quo of a miserably failed system and economy of medicine and health care in the United States. Specifically, the funneling of immense wealth to a small number of pharmaceutical and health insurance firms, from the nation and the populace at large. I want health care for all Americans; the ACA aims to extend the current failed system to a relatively small number of people in the most expensive, most profitable and least effective, least efficient possible manner. And that is if somehow, against astronomical odds, that the program is actually implemented as written or as envisioned by those who crafted the law and the regulatory structure around the law. As I've said repeatedly over these years, I have come to accept and advocate for single-payer, full on socialized medicine as a far superior path than this fucking abortion of a ripoff scheme. Don't hate. Plus, I currently provide approximately 20% of my patient care activities FOR FREE--I walk it like I talk it, including socialized medicine.

[Steve of phpBB]

I thought we had one here. No matter, because very little comment from me is necessary. (Um, I guess that can be broadly applied. And just as broadly ignored, by me.)

I read the fucking law once it was signed*. This dismal labor solidified my central opinion about the future of this government program. That the legislative program as signed into law would never, ever be implemented or realized**. I formed this view back then; subsequent events continuously support, confirm and strengthen that conclusion.

The number one fact rendering the broad 'Obamacare' impossible is that the country cannot afford it***. Number two fact, so many complex factors, historic, political, economic and other elements all need to fall into place for this clusterfuck to actually happen. Only one need fail, and the program dies. A Romney presidency (talk about yer irony); a GOP electoral victory in 2016, president or both chambers; a Supreme Court decision (only one man's twisted legal opinions saved this thing); a fatal internal contradiction, or combo of fatal internal contradictions within the law/program itself (trust me, there is plenty of potential in there); just one bad hop, and the perfect game necessary for this program to happen is spoiled.

Frankly, I did not give much thought beyond these two facts when considering the odds of Obamacare actually being realized. While I expected the 2012 election to kill it, and I half-expected the Court to kill it, I was and remain confident the cost and our brokeness will kill it.

Boy did I stop short in my thinking and analysis.

I'm not gonna take the opportunity of the current IT failure as a victory or an occasion for an 'I told you so'. I'm above that. (Well, let's pretend that I am above that. Just for the sake of discussion.) Because I did not see it coming. I didn't look. As a vigorous opponent of this law and this program****, this particular episode is icing on the cake, and a source of great amusement.

It illustrates the complexity of the endeavor. As well as the overreach. And the deep ignorance, the profound lack of understanding of so many aspects of this huge government project. Ignorance and lack of understanding by the populace, by the media, by the political class, by the Administration officials, by the army of government bureaucrats engaged in engineering and implementing the thing. Ignorance and lack of understanding masked by oodles of rhetoric, ideology, political games, greed, desire for free shit, belief, hope and faith in things unseen and unsupported by fact or evidence. Hidden aims, unintended effects, unforeseen complications. The myriad sources of potential utter failure that I never ever imagined, much less took the time to probe for or consider the possibilities.

There are so very many reasons why this thing will never happen beyond my simple calculus of a couple of years ago, little augmented by any deep thought on my part. But plenty augmented by events as time moves on and history unfolds.

This thing will never happen. I've said it before and I confidently repeat this today. Never. Too many things have to fall into place. Even if everything else stumbles into a workable framework, we cannot afford it. The nation has neither the wealth nor the money to be able to further rip off the people and the tax revenues to enrich a few insurance and drug corporations, while providing a simulacrum of insurance coverage masquerading as 'health care' to a single digit percentage of American people.

(I'll spare you my further economic thinking of how they will try to afford it, and the collateral damage of those activities. For now. If you are nice.)

Karl D. points out some of those economic ideas here

________

*I will be damned if I am going to plow through the over ten thousand pages of federal regulations, rules, guidelines and the rest that have emerged as the bureaucratic framework to support this program. Yeah, I recently chose a career path out of practicing medicine rather than read that shit. I'd rather quit being a doctor than read it, much less have my work life governed by this pile of documents.

**Of course there is an excellent chance to be an ACA program in place at any given time in the near/intermediate future. Of course it will not be identical to the program as written in the 900 or so pages of law. I'm talking broad strokes; nitpicking can yield an 'I told you so' or subject me to a 'nope, you were wrong' and I truly don't care about that. I am discussing and seeking to discover pragmatic realities, not to win a debate or score points. Broad strokes.

***Similarly, Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security are unaffordable, and while they will continue in name, they will by necessity be changed/gutted so drastically as to be reasonably unrecognizable compared to the current incarnations.

****The ACA has the intent, and to the degree it is implemented the effect, of maintaining the status quo of a miserably failed system and economy of medicine and health care in the United States. Specifically, the funneling of immense wealth to a small number of pharmaceutical and health insurance firms, from the nation and the populace at large. I want health care for all Americans; the ACA aims to extend the current failed system to a relatively small number of people in the most expensive, most profitable and least effective, least efficient possible manner. And that is if somehow, against astronomical odds, that the program is actually implemented as written or as envisioned by those who crafted the law and the regulatory structure around the law. As I've said repeatedly over these years, I have come to accept and advocate for single-payer, full on socialized medicine as a far superior path than this fucking abortion of a ripoff scheme. Don't hate. Plus, I currently provide approximately 20% of my patient care activities FOR FREE--I walk it like I talk it, including socialized medicine.

It's hard to disagree with most of that.

To me, though, one question needs to be asked. Even though we both agree, and I imagine most right-thinking people do, that single payer is a far superior option, the fact remains that single payer is not an option in this country at this time. And it won't an option be for years, if not decades.

So, given that single payer is not an option for years or decades, is it better to have (A) a system based on private insurance that leaves tens of millions of people uninsured, or (B) a system based on private insurance that leaves only millions of people uninsured?

[howard]

(sorry I got wordy. But the costs of those people added to the number of insured are huge, are far broader than simple dollars, and unseen by many folks. Short answer, a-nothing. Because the something you get with b comes with a whole lot of bad shit, including unforseen shit. Below is the long answer I wrote first, then reduced it to this intro.)

________________

I just reject the premise, of pragmatic acceptance because 'this is not an option'. Of course this is true, but only because our whole body politic and society is so broken. The single payer is 'not an option'; despite being preferred by both logic and the majority of voting Americans. This leads back to much larger questions, including ground you (Steve) and I have covered, and we deeply disagree. Such as the lesser evil choice/non-choice of Romney-Obama.

I'm just trying to clarify my protest as I register it. The question is an irrelevant reduction, a choice which is no choice at all, a condition of much bigger horrible problems we face, yada yada. For these and other factors we don't need to devolve into, the premise of the question is insufficient to interest me. Yet, full respect that the premise (or premises) and the question itself clearly reflect reality. Put it this way; were i a member of Congress, I would abstain on such a vote. Because I see this as no more or less than turd sandwich/giant douche.

But I do respect the question, and the honest spirit. I guess I say, if I am participating as a member of Congress or a citizen actively engaged with this government (which I am not and will not be, other than as a protester, until things change drastically or until they arrest me), I say take that ACA money and do something different. Practically anything. Because this is worse than nothing because of 1) the immense wasted money, for the relatively meager benefit; 2) the immense adverse effects, not least of which is strengthening the status quo, and giving the assholes that much more power and profit.

Often, (and not necessarily as you have posed it here, but still often) the choice of doing nothing or accepting a bad program is not the full set of alternatives. I have to counter with asking 'what about option c, d, and e'? As well as, 'who says this shit sandwich or nothing are the only binary options'? And, most importantly, 'why the fuck is single payer not an option, despite popular will and simple logic, and how about we change those conditions instead of shrugging and swallowing the shit sandwich'?

Things are so bad, so dysfunctional, so evil, if I have to pick something that sucks but will probably do a little bit of good with a likely whole lot of bad vs nothing, I'll take nothing. This is a much more powerful stance when we are talking about warfare. But don't discount the ill effects of strengthening a deadly, evil system further, a system that is killing via obesity poverty and social control, in return for some crumbs. Crumbs that could've been provided with a simple further expansion of Medicaid. At a fraction of the dollar cost, but no profits for private industry.

[Pruitt]

Things are so bad, so dysfunctional, so evil, if I have to pick something that sucks but will probably do a little bit of good with a likely whole lot of bad vs nothing, I'll take nothing. This is a much more powerful stance when we are talking about warfare. But don't discount the ill effects of strengthening a deadly, evil system further, a system that is killing via obesity poverty and social control, in return for some crumbs. Crumbs that could've been provided with a simple further expansion of Medicaid. At a fraction of the dollar cost, but no profits for private industry.

That seems to be the "deal with the devil" that drives so many policies. You can practically see lobbyists' fingerprints on anything that is done in Washington. This is the ultimate cost of the money-driven system as it stands, and I just don't see how it is going to change.

[howard]

…and I just don't see how it is going to change.

Sadly, history lists for us the various paths to how it is gonna change. The good options have faded into the past and are no longer possible, or extremely unlikely. The grim paths are all that remain.

But the how, all the various possible hows, are clearly described in the history books. All right there. And I guarantee you this--it is gonna change. Absofuckinglutely. Nothing stays the same for long, particularly fragile, failing, complex systems; political, economic or otherwise.

_________________

Sorry I can't resist, so I'm gonna go ahead and spoil the ending, and tell you exactly how it is going to change. I'm feeling inspired this morning.

It is going to break and collapse. It happened before in our little wonderful country. In 1776. In 1861. It came darn close over 1929-1934, and our cultural/societal memory of the pain and horror of that darn close period has been lost to just a handful of subsequent decades. (Indeed, it is likely the loss of that memory which allows repetition of the mistakes leading to repetition of the near-fatal or fatal crises of history.)

Gradual, measured, enlightened, painless recovery from dark, dysfunctional periods of human endeavors is rare to absent in the record. Yet, everyone bets on this kind of outcome. Sure, lots of people promise this, but lots of people promised me my shirts will be whiter and I will get the girl if I buy their product. I've stopped wondering why adult people believe such fairy tales in stark contrast to their own experience and the entirety of human history, and just accept this is what people are gonna believe.

Our nation has approached the abyss before, and walked back from the edge. The Great Compromise of 1820. The Compromise of 1850. The racial and antiwar riots of the late 60s, culminating at Kent State, leading to the end of the war two years later. Economically, the panic of 1907 and the post WWI mini-depression of 1920-21. However, the solutions to these episodes invariably are temporary ones that immediately lay the seeds for the big failures that follow, in relatively short order. The collapse and chaos is necessary for the forces of change and reconstruction to be able to exert themselves, only in the aftermath.

These timeframes are important, too. They are not over centuries, but over decades. They are seen not just in American history, but in British, Roman and Greek stories.

But failure, collapse, poverty, joblessness, violence, crime, authoritarian crackdown, further greed fraud and theft, ultimately war within and/or without. Maybe some guillotines. That is how it is gonna happen.

***Note for HDO
Since I'm on a roll, the last few weeks some events have made me think of your quoting a bit of my blather in a sig line a while back. Something about in the next great world conflict, the more natural alliances of the US, India, Israel and Iran/Shia Islam vs China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Arab/Sunni Islam. Russia as wild card.

Note the Saudi pivot away from the US/UN and toward China of recent weeks. And the thawing of relations with Iran. I ain't saying this particular worm has turned--way too early for that.

I'm just sayin'. Shit that seems absolutely unthinkable one year can quickly become the new reality just a couple of years later.

[Sabo]

Hmm, this could get very interesting:

Federal Prosecutors, in a Policy Shift, Cite Warrantless Wiretaps as Evidence

I'll bet a large sum of money that any lawsuits filed over this rule that warrantless wiretaps are constitutional.

[howard]

Just two links. Wonderful bookend articles. Three quick comments. 1) Insurance is not health care. Far fucking from it; 2) The process of treating patients as widgets from which to extract maximum profit is near completion. The process of using physicians as revenue-generating units, ditto. I choose to exit; 3) The good news--the profit-extraction machinery has now, with ACA, taken on a level of complexity that (layered upon the unsustainable complexity of the system as of three years ago) cannot last more than a few years. That which cannot go on, will stop (Herbert Stein's Law). The expiration date has been moved way up.

Enjoy.

The President Wants You to Get Rich on Obamacare

Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History (Monorail; Monorail!)

[Johnnie]

Sebelius Threatens To Put VA In Charge Of Obamacare If Critics Don’t ‘Back The Fuck Off’

via Duffel Blog

[howard]

Five Reasons Obamacare Legislation Failed

Five Reasons Obamacare Legislation Failed

1. Lobbyists wrote the ACA legislation. When Nancy Pelosi stated "We have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it", she was referring to you , me, and Congress. An extremely tiny number of people knew what was in the bill: lobbyists for hospitals, lobbyists for insurance companies, lobbyists for HMOs, and lobbyists for major pharmaceutical companies.

2. President Obama was more concerned about his legacy than anything else. He wanted Obamacare at any and all costs and was willing to sign any piece of legislation, no matter how poor.

3. Politicians in general do not have the public's vested interest in mind. They have their own reelection efforts in mind. That statement holds true regardless of which political party you support.

4. Lobbyists and industry PACs donate massive amounts of money to politicians from both parties. That is why we do not allow drug imports from Canada. That is why there is an explicit law that prevents government from bargaining with drug companies on prescription drugs. That is why the US pays the highest drug costs and highest healthcare costs of any nation on the planet.

5. Republicans for the most part were more concerned over stopping Obamacare than improving the healthcare of citizens of the United States. The irony here is Obamacre is essentially the same as Romneycare.

[DSafetyGuy]

Number three should be listed first, for general emphasis. And speaking of "general," the first sentence of number three can remove "in general."

[howard]

Obama: I'm sorry Americans losing insurance under healthcare law

[Scottie]

U.S. vice president calls random man, congratulates him on becoming mayor of Boston

“You son of a gun, Marty! You did it! Congratulations,” a boisterous Joe Biden said, according to ABC.

[brian]

Oh, man. I love Uncle Joe.

[The Sybian]

U.S. vice president calls random man, congratulates him on becoming mayor of Boston

“You son of a gun, Marty! You did it! Congratulations,” a boisterous Joe Biden said, according to ABC.

My first thought was that the link would be to The Onion, then I realized it was Biden, and it was very likely real.

[Bensell]

U.S. vice president calls random man, congratulates him on becoming mayor of Boston

“You son of a gun, Marty! You did it! Congratulations,” a boisterous Joe Biden said, according to ABC.

To be fair, the guy was a longtime aide to Teddy Kennedy so it wasn't a complete fuck up. But yeah, Uncle Joe is the gift that keeps on giving.

[howard]

Because there is no way even at my most cynical and critical did I ever anticipate this massive failure. And we are only at the start of the ACA collapse.

26,174 enrolees via the Fed Exchange website.
106,185 total enrolees.

And the loud rumor is that they are counting as enrolees the folks who selected a plan, but have yet to click through and pay for the plan. Have you ever put an item in your online shopping cart, but never complete the purchase? Yeah, that ain't a sale.

Good news: 440,000 new Medicaid signups in ten states. How many payers are there in that system? (Answer: one, single payer.) Oh, this is not good news for the insurance companies, as this does not mean much for their profits. (Lots of privately administered Medicaid HMO and other programs are being dropped, because the profit margin is too small. But that is another story.)

The biggest error in my thinking that ACA would never happen is that the federal government could not afford the cost. This is still true; what I failed to recognize is the the people being forced by threat of fine to sign up for insurance cannot afford the premiums. Much less the premiums and the high deductables.

People will not purchase what they cannot afford. Understandable that the government failed to recognize this fact, as they routinely buy what they can't afford. At least for a while.

Democratic politicians are panicking, headed for the lifeboats. Led by Bubba Clinton. Sure, this mess can be fixed by passing another bs law (to fulfill the 'promise you can keep your policy'.) This stupidity I mention only because it is so hilarious, and it will pass silently into history in less than a week.

I wonder how Barry and Kerry are gonna fuck up the pivot toward Iran? Probably be told by Israel that they are not allowed to play with the Shia Persians. But that trainwreck is for another day.

I saw a good line describing the Forced Health Insurance scam: 'this isn't a trainwreck, the ACA implementation is an asteroid strike of a disaster.

If this speeds the collapse of the medical care paradigm, such that we can start rebuilding before I am old, grey and completely broken down, then I will gloat. But I'm getting the sense there will be more uninsured Americans at the end of Obama's second term than there were at the beginning (remember population growth). Yeah, I'm gonna count the folks that can't afford $10,000 annual deductibles after they've paid their monthly premium.

[devilfluff]

Since I can't find the healthcare fake reform thread, and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Instead of mailing us our open enrollment jive, my company has set up meetings this year. I fear this may portend a royal fucking.

I've heard some horror stories from friends at other companies.(ridiculous rate & co-pay hikes(particularly for family plans), spouses not eligible if their employer offers coverage, etc)

O-care may just be forced enrollment, but the money takers seem to be using it to gouge the working class...

Just to update. For close(but not quite as good) to the same coverage, my per pay deduction is going to about double. And that is after deductions for yearly physicals & not smoking...

[Sabo]

Since I can't find the healthcare fake reform thread, and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Instead of mailing us our open enrollment jive, my company has set up meetings this year. I fear this may portend a royal fucking.

I've heard some horror stories from friends at other companies.(ridiculous rate & co-pay hikes(particularly for family plans), spouses not eligible if their employer offers coverage, etc)

O-care may just be forced enrollment, but the money takers seem to be using it to gouge the working class...

Just to update. For close(but not quite as good) to the same coverage, my per pay deduction is going to about double. And that is after deductions for yearly physicals & not smoking...

A friend of mine said his health insurance rates for his family of four is going to double, and the quality of coverage is getting much worse. He's responsible for the first $3,000 spent on health care, and after that, the insurance kicks in to cover 80 percent. And he gets the privilege of spending more than $1,100 a month for that kind of coverage. Makes me wonder if it's even worth it to have health insurance.

[howard]

This is a horrific treaty-trade deal. Thankfully, because Obama is pushing it, lots of ignorant unthinking GOPs will oppose it. Likely it will die, but people need to know about it regardless. Because they will try again in the future to implement this level of control of the masses, for their profits.

And I guess I can't hammer Obama for lying about this when he ran for president in '08. "I will re-negotiate NAFTA" can certainly be interpreted as 'I will negotiate a repeat version of NAFTA for the Asian democracies, but ten times stronger and worse than NAFTA', so technically that was not a lie.

Trust me, this is a big fucking deal, even if TPP dies on this round. Because it spells out exactly what they want to do to us.

Wikileaks Disclosure of Trade Deal Chapter Shows It Will Kill People and Internet; House Opposition is Widespread

[HDO45331]

Obama: I'm sorry Americans losing insurance under healthcare law

I would hope that someone would have checked to find out exactly when these insurance contracts were started. Before or after the ACA was voted into law? Having an insurance plan that has a $25,000 yearly cap, or that does not include hospital stays, is not a health insurance plan.

[devilfluff]

Since I can't find the healthcare fake reform thread, and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Instead of mailing us our open enrollment jive, my company has set up meetings this year. I fear this may portend a royal fucking.

I've heard some horror stories from friends at other companies.(ridiculous rate & co-pay hikes(particularly for family plans), spouses not eligible if their employer offers coverage, etc)

O-care may just be forced enrollment, but the money takers seem to be using it to gouge the working class...

Just to update. For close(but not quite as good) to the same coverage, my per pay deduction is going to about double. And that is after deductions for yearly physicals & not smoking...

A friend of mine said his health insurance rates for his family of four is going to double, and the quality of coverage is getting much worse. He's responsible for the first $3,000 spent on health care, and after that, the insurance kicks in to cover 80 percent. And he gets the privilege of spending more than $1,100 a month for that kind of coverage. Makes me wonder if it's even worth it to have health insurance.

Mine is not that expensive(either he is self employed or his company doesn't contribut very much), but the coverages aren't terribly different. I'm looking at an 80/20 coverage plan with a deductible/spending cap. I just don't have those #'s handy.