Republicans keep saying that they want to replace ObamaCare with something else, but they never want to discuss the details, because that something else is RepubliCare. Those who can afford high-end health care coverage get it, but only until they become chronically ill. Then they, and those who can’t afford high-end coverage get the RepubliCare Death Benefit. They get to die at no additional charge. On the other hand, it seems that some Democrats are interested in replacing ObamaCare.
For years, voters in this swing state have rejected tax increases and efforts to expand government. But now they are flirting with a radical transformation: whether to abandon President Obama’s health care policy and instead create a new, taxpayer-financed public health system that guarantees coverage for everyone.
The estimated $38-billion-a-year proposal, which will go before Colorado voters in November, will test whether people have an appetite for a new system that goes further than the Affordable Care Act. That question is also in play in the Democratic presidential primaries.
The state-level effort, which supporters here call the ColoradoCare plan, would do away with deductibles. It would allow patients to choose doctors and specialists without distinguishing between those “in network” and those “out of network.” It would largely be paid for with a tax increase on workers and businesses, and cover everyone in the state. Supporters say most people would end up saving money.
Insurance groups, chambers of commerce and conservatives have already lined up in opposition. They say the plan’s details are vague, its size and cost galling. The proposed health system would have a budget bigger than that of Colorado’s entire state government. A new 10 percent tax on payroll and incomes to pay for the system would push Colorado’s tax rates to some of the highest in the nation.
Before signing off on it, I’d want to have more detail, but this sounds a lot like Medicare for all, which I do support. Of course there is one plan that would be tragic for America.
Yesterday I arrived at OSP at about 5:30 to attend my guys’ annual banquet for half of over 100 prisoners in the group and their family guests. The other half is next month. The food was good and I talked to several of my guys and their families about how well they were doing and how their families should take pride in them and their accomplishments. The President (inside) then went to the podium and addressed the assembly about me. He talked about how long I had been coming in, about how I had almost died and lost my leg, about all the help I had provided for them over the years and about how fortunate they are that I am able to return on a limited basis, I felt both surprised and overwhelmed. I went to the front, took the mike and said a few words about how I consider working with such men a privilege, not a sacrifice,. thanked them for their welcome, and promised to keep working become able to expand my role over time. When I returned home, I had a snack and went to bed, It usually takes me a while to fall asleep, but I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. Today, I’ve already had a nap and plan to rest.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:53 (average 5:05). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From DenverBroncos.com: Standing tall at 6-feet-7-inches, Lynch was dynamic for the Tigers in his three seasons as their starting quarterback. In his best year, his junior season, he completed 66.8 percent of his passes for 3,778 yards with 28 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
Lynch, a first team All-AAC selection in 2015, threw for 8,865 yards and 59 touchdowns in 38 career games at Memphis. The signal caller led the Tigers to bowl games in his last two seasons.
Lynch also has some wheels, compiling 687 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns on the ground.
May the Holy Ellipsoid Orb bathe Lynch and all his teammates in its divine light!!
From Daily Kos: Another responsible gun owner, this time it was a retired NYPD officer who just didn’t feel safe enough to go to the doctor’s office without his trusty tool:
According to Nassau County police, the 77-year-old retired officer was in the office when he removed his licensed 10 mm semi-automatic pistol to show to the doctor.
The weapon accidentally discharged a round which struck the owner in the thigh and continued through his leg, striking the doctor in the right foot.
Both victims were taken to an area hospital for treatment of their nonlife threatening injuries.
This Republican ammosexual is so stupid that he actually shot the guy who could have treated him.
This will be an abbreviated edition consisting of telling you why there won’t be a full edition.
There are four of us in the family who celebrate our Birthdays in April, so the relatives get together just once at the end of the month to combine them in one big “B-Day Par-Tay!” So out-of-town guests starting arriving yesterday.
And now that all the “little kids” have grown up, we’ve graduated from the “Milk & Cookies” mode …
To more enjoyable types of libations …
But unfortunately the forecast for tomorrow’s shindigs here in KCMO is not too promising for partying outside …
Living in “Tornado Alley”, we just hope it doesn’t get any worse …
But whether it’s inside or outside, the downside is that sometimes the Party can get a bit wild and out-of-hand …
And you can always count on someone breaking out their Air Guitar
Hopefully I’ll have recovered enough by next week to resume normal activities. I think a nap of the cat variety should help …
I'm back again. I have my course in liberal biblical studies tonight which is interesting but somewhat time intensive — 4 hours of homework in addition to 3 hours of class time plus dinner each week. The course goes for another four weeks after tonight. Tomorrow is teaching at Lucia's house, and then Sunday is the Alzheimer's Walk for Memories and a visit with my mother. Once the course is done, I'll have a bit more time.
Short Takes
NY Times — Senator Ted Cruz of Texas often casts himself as the rightful heir to Ronald Reagan’s mantle of conservatism, and on Wednesday he took a page directly out of the former president’s playbook.
By tapping Carly Fiorina to be his running mate, Mr. Cruz becomes the first presidential candidate since Reagan to name a vice-presidential pick without having the nomination locked up. In 1976, Reagan teamed up with Richard S. Schweiker, a Pennsylvania senator, in a desperate attempt to grab the nomination from President Gerald R. Ford as it was slipping away. At that point, Mr. Ford’s delegate lead had become virtually insurmountable.
Rachel had this to say about Cruz's announcement.
Carly Fiorina?? The word 'dafted' comes to mind as a description for Cruz. He is trying to reignite his campaign but he may just blow it up! After all, this tactic didn't work so well for the patron saint of Republicans, Saint Ronnie Reagan in 1978. He lost to Gerald Ford who then lost the general election to Jimmy Carter.
Defense officials tell The Daily Beast that U.S. special operators have killed 40 “external operations leaders, planners, and facilitators” blamed for instigating, plotting, or funding ISIS’s attacks from Brussels and Paris to Egypt and Africa.
That’s less than half the overall number of ISIS targets that special operators have taken off the battlefield, one official explained, including top leaders like purported ISIS second-in-command Haji Imam, killed in March.
The previously unpublished number provides a rare glimpse into the U.S. counterterrorist mission that is woven into overall coalition efforts to defeat ISIS, and which is credited with crippling ISIS efforts to recruit foreign fighters and carry out more plots like the deadly assault on Paris that killed 130 last fall.
As proof of the campaign’s overall success, Pentagon officials this week said the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria had dropped from up to 2,000 a month last year to just 200, and the overall size of ISIS from a high estimate of 33,000 a year ago to between 19,000 to 25,000 fighters.
I spoke with an Iraqi woman yesterday who said that she hoped Trump would become POTUS for only one reason . . . he'd go after ISIS. Well I don't support her choice of Trump and told her so. But no worries, she lives in Canada. She is sick of the destruction of her native country by ISIS and is quick to say that ISIS does not believe in Islam. They are about power and greed, nothing more.
Alternet — White, who’d been sickened by the debilitating, irreversible and often fatal disease at work in a foundry, watched in disgust as Republicans attempted to overturn the rule that the Labor Department said could save more than 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis annually.
Last week, GOP House members conducted a hearing to further their case against saving those lives. They did that just days before Workers Memorial Day, April 28, when organized labor renews its solemn pledge to strive for workplace safety rules and formally commemorates those who have died on the job in the previous year.
The totals aren’t in for 2015 yet, but the year before, 4,679 workers died on the job. That’s nearly 90 a week, 13 a day, seven days a week. Twenty-eight members of my own union, the USW, died on the job since Workers Memorial Day 2015.
But the GOP position is clear. Republicans will do whatever it takes to ensure that corporations can sicken and kill workers with impunity. (emphasis added) If the argument is that workers’ lives and lungs must be sacrificed to ensure that foundries and fracking operations and construction companies can make bigger profits by releasing silica particles under 40-year-old standards now considered dangerous, then the GOP will take the side of CEOs who value workers as trivial.
This one image from TC says it all:
My Universe — There is nothing cuter than baby animals. Be prepared for the Aww factor! Here are just a few but click through for the rest of them.
The more we think of words like hate, hypocrisy, lies and racism, the more the Republican Party comes to mind. The Republican Racist Dictatorship of Bamastan display their hatred openly, but when challenged, use self-reliance as an excuse to deny their racist hate. Could there be any truth to their self-reliance claim? Lets examine the evidence.
Alabama is currently celebrating Confederate Heritage Month with a state-wide holiday and a series of public events aimed at remembering and honoring those who fought on the side of southern, slave-owning states during the Civil War. At one such event this week, organized by the Ladies’ Memorial Association, Alabama’s Secretary of State John Merrill lamented recent calls to remove Confederate symbols from government buildings.
“The next question that has to be asked is so what’s the next thing you are going to do,” he asked, “are you going to take a bulldozer to the monument and forget what people fought for to preserve a way of life that makes us special and unique?”
Civil rights groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, slammed the remark as “shameful.” But in a follow-up conversation with ThinkProgress, Merrill explained that the “way of life” he celebrates is based on Confederate soldiers’ independent spirit, not their advocacy for slavery.
“When we have things happen in our state, we don’t rely on the federal government to come take care of us,” he said. “We take care of ourselves. For example, after the tornadoes in 2011, or after the massive flooding we had. That’s who we are. That’s who these people were. I’m proud of that.”
Alabama, however, is the ninth most reliant on federal aid out of the 50 states, taking far more in aid than the state pays back in taxes. As for the 2011 tornado damage Merrill mentioned, an auditor recently found that the state improperly received about $1.2 million in federal aid that it now must pay back. Antebellum Alabama’s “self-reliance,” meanwhile, depended from its founding on the unpaid labor of hundreds of thousands of slaves… [emphasis added]
There it is! like most of the reddest states, the rest of is are supporting them with our tax dollars. I for one, do not want my tax dollars spent to support racist policies. That’s why I keep saying that…
Pardon my brevity. I needed a morning nap. and I need to get this done and up in time to go to the prison. That’s actually a huge sacrifice, because today is a Holy Day in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. The draft is tonight. I hope my Broncos get a good first round pick. Store to Door just left, so I have the rest of my groceries.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 2:35 (average 4:16). To do it click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos: Just how desperate is North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory to lay the blame for HB2 on anyone but himself? Well, this sitting governor has now released an attack email against a sitting mayor: Charlotte’s Jennifer Roberts. Nothing like punching downward—that’s what all the political analysts recommend. Jim Morrill has the details on McCrory’s latest re-election strategy, starting with the email’s headline:
“Roy Cooper Ally Jennifer Roberts Admitted She Thought About Leaving Out The Bathroom Mandate, But Pushed It Through Anyway,” a headline says. […]
McCrory’s email includes TV and radio clips of Roberts talking about House Bill 2. […]
“The clips … should help refresh your memory that the topic of bathrooms was first raised by the radical left when – over warnings from the governor and other state leaders that they should have left restroom norms way they were and focus on things … Roy Cooper’s allies decided to push through Charlotte’s radical bathroom mandate anyway,” said McCrory campaign spokesman Ricky Diaz.
Fact: Charlotte passed a measure that affirmed people’s judgment in making the appropriate bathroom choice.
Fact: North Carolina lawmakers passed a Big Brother bill dictating to people which bathrooms they must use, because apparently The People can’t be entrusted with such a decision.
This whole “Charlotte made us do it!” shtick is just ridiculous.
There is only one man who opted to sign HB2 into law, Hatefuhrer of the Republican Theocratic Dictatorship of McCrorystan, Par McCrory,
From The New Yorker: In choosing the former Hewlett-Packard C.E.O. Carly Fiorina as his running mate, Senator Ted Cruz hopes to tap into the immense popularity of one of the most beloved public figures in America.
Minutes after the news of Cruz’s selection leaked, political insiders called the choice of the wildly adored Fiorina a game-changer for the Cruz campaign.
“It’s no secret that Ted Cruz has some trouble with likeability,” the Republican strategist Harland Dorrinson said. “What better way to fix that than by choosing Carly Fiorina, a person everyone is absolutely crazy about?”
Fiorina’s reputation for winning the hearts of everyone she comes in contact with dates back to her days as the incredibly well-liked C.E.O. of Hewlett-Packard and, before that, Lucent Technologies.
Andy may have screwed the pooch here. The HP employees, with whom I dealt regularly for years, all spoke of her in profane uncomplimentary terms, the most common rhyming with stitch. I think that TRUSed Uranus Cruz is so desperate that he’s offering a chance at the VP slot in hopes of getting lucky with Carly. His taste is as extreme as his policies.
From NY Times: Battered by four defeats in Tuesday night’s primaries, Bernie Sanders is planning to lay off hundreds of campaign staffers across the country and focus much of his remaining effort on winning the June 7 California primary.
That confirms the end of the nomination fight, but I will still vote for him in the Oregon Primary. On to the platform fight.
I’m getting another late start today. Julie came, sprayed and buffed me, and did some light cleaning. My ISP was down for a bit. I’m ready for a Lona nap, but I don’t get to take one yet as Store to Door is coming with a big grocery order. Here’s something I have hot said in a very long time. Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day. I’ll be leaving mid-afternoon, and returning late night. I haven’t5 seen my guys in over six months, and I can’t wait!! I will probably have articles tomorrow, but not Friday. Store to Door just lost about 1/3 of my grocery order, so I just have no more time to spend in research. This is today’s only article.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:02 (average 4:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Hillary increased her lead by 58 delegates. At this point I see no feasible way for Bernie to win.
From Daily Kos: Thanks to Sanders to taking a first step on the path to helping to the Democratic Party unite and win this November!
“The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as President and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street, financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.”
According to MSNBC, for the first time I have ever heard, he sent out a message congratulating Hillary Clinton on her victories tonight.
Kudos to Bernie and his campaign. I think they realize that they can’t win. so to begin the healing process, they are changing their focus from the nomination to the platform.
From Alternet: Stephen Colbert got down with some bathroom humor on Tuesday night’s show.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re male or female, what sex or gender identity someone is, I—and I mean this sincerely—do not want to share a bathroom with anyone. For two reasons: No. 1—and No. 2.”
Of course, he was not there to make sophomoric poop jokes; his target was the ridiculous and hateful political posturing around who gets to use which bathroom with whom.
There has been and is so much talk by Drumpf about building a wall, a BIG wall, on the US – Mexico border. Here is John Oliver on Drumpf's southern wall.
And at one time, Scott Walker floated the not so new idea of building a wall on the Canada – US border, which Drumpf momentarily supported. This 09/2011 Huffington Post article should make you wonder. Walker was just the most recent iteration of that debate.
"The United States is looking at building fences along the border with Canada to help keep out terrorists and other criminals."
This is all in support of national security. But I would rather think of it as being in support of national xenophobia.
But what is the Canada – US border? It really is quite funny and interesting.
"The Canada–United States border (French: Frontière entre le Canada et les États-Unis), officially known as theInternational Boundary, is the longest international border in the world. It is shared between Canada and the United States of America, the second and fourth largest countries by area respectively. The terrestrial boundary (including small portions of maritime boundaries on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic coasts, as well as the Great Lakes) is 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi) long, of which 2,475 kilometres (1,538 mi) is with Alaska." — Wikipedia
The line between Canada and the United States is renowned for being the longest undefended border in the world but, as Canadian photographer Andreas Rutkauskas discovered on an epic road trip, there's more to it than meets the eye. …
"My goal was to present the border as something which is bucolic and porous and that's not necessarily the way it is," he said. "Most of the photographs in the project, they look benign and innocent as if you could just walk from one nation to another. But that's really not the case."
Before or after almost every shot Rutkauskas had an encounter with someone from U.S. Border Patrol, the RCMP or the Canada Border Services Agency.
Some were helpful, even moving their cars so he could get the shot he wanted, and giving him recommendations on where to go next. They made it clear, however, what he could and could not take pictures of because of security restrictions.
With others, he had "heated conversations" and those came when Rutkauskas stood in "no man's land."
While the main western crossing is The Peace Arch crossing at Surrey, BC and Blaine, WA, there is a small crossing at Point Roberts, WA — Point Roberts being a "mistake" made by the Border Commission. And of course there are crossings with BC – Alaska and the Yukon – Alaska.
And then there are the towns of Stanstead, Que., and Derby Line, Vermont. The border runs through these two adjoined communities, sometimes even through buildings.
A thick, white line separating Canada and the U.S. runs between the towns. Not only does it appear on streets and properties, but it also runs through some buildings, like the Haskell Free Library and Opera House (left), which was intentionally built on the boundary in 1904 so that both Canadians and Americans could use it. From Canadian Geographic
Andreas Rutkauskas shot this photo of the Okanogan National Forest at the Washington State-British Columbia border on his cross-country journey of the border, which he said brought his childhood geography lessons to life. (Andreas Rutkauskas)
At this border crossing between Emerson, Man., and Pembina, N.D., X-ray imaging scanners are used to inspect railway cars. (Andreas Rutkauskas)
Please check out the photos in the CBC article. There are some magnificent shots.
