Today's Tweet

I guess I'd just like to know why the Ratpublicans think it's OK to force us to be unwilling test subjects in these little real-time experiments that everybody knows will fail.

Me: I'm scared of my family losing healthcare, esp when some of us have preexisting conditions & are struggling to make ends meet

Congress: pic.twitter.com/mPYruIK1Zn

— Marnge🌹 (@peg_mclaugh) September 20, 2017

Today's GIF

I've had better days

Today's FB Post

And then the comment sums it all up perfectly

Today's Tweet

What was all that about "entitled" and "elitist" and "special snowflakes"?

Enough to feed a poor kid for 6,250 days. https://t.co/Ef9UMi8Oju

— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) September 20, 2017

High Level Fuckery

...of the lowest order.

First, I gotta bail on my general editorial tenet of not playing the same bullshit game the GOP plays when referring (eg) to the "Democrat Party". 

Now, most of ya'll know I have no problem calling lots of folks names - bonehead, rube, fuckwad or whatever.  But I've always referred to the parties as Dems and Repubs - maybe it's just my quiet still voice telling me, "You never go full dickhead", dickhead.

I dunno, but at this point, I'm suspending that particular standard, and going with my new nickname for the GOP:

Ratpublicans

Cuz holy fuck, kids, this Graham-Cassidy thing is nothing but the most cynical piece of shit to come down the pike in a good long time.

Vox, Jeff Stein:

In interviews with Vox on Tuesday, nine Republican senators primarily argued that their “Hail Mary” bill — spearheaded by Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC) and Bill Cassidy (LA) — would return federal power to the states, giving them greater flexibility to improve their health systems locally. “The heart of the legislation takes the policymaking role of Washington and sends it to the states,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said.

Far less clear is exactly how Graham-Cassidy would pull off this feat without resulting in millions of Americans losing their insurance — and the number of millions is still unknown, since any vote would likely have to come before the Congressional Budget Office completes its analysis of the bill. The GOP senators insisted that the tens of billions in cuts to federal health spending proposed in the bill would not result in coverage losses because, they said, the states would have more flexibility.

“They can do it with less money,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who was unable to explain how or why.

Other Republican senators, meanwhile, fell back on political explanations for a bill that experts warn could result in millions losing their insurance. “If we do nothing, it has a tremendous impact on the 2018 elections,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS). “And whether or not Republicans still maintain control and we have the gavel.”

This is classic Argument By Assertion (or Repetition)

Imhofe says it saves lots of money, but he can't tell us how.

Cruz hits the old standby - premiums are skyrocketing under Obamacare.

And Special Pleading

Kennedy, arguing the states' rights angle, and trying to explain his proposed amendment to prohibit states setting up their own single-payer system: "We have plenty of federal rules that apply to every state, but we still agree with states’ rights."

And in case you missed it, The Koch Bros et al, have told the RNC the 2018 money well is dry unless Obamacare is repealed (see Pat Roberts above).

By STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — At least one influential donor has informed congressional Republicans that the "Dallas piggy bank" is closed until he sees major action on health care and taxes.

Texas-based donor Doug Deason has already refused to host a fundraiser for two members of Congress and informed House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., his checkbook is closed as well.

"Get Obamacare repealed and replaced, get tax reform passed," Deason said in a pointed message to GOP leaders. "You control the Senate. You control the House. You have the presidency. There's no reason you can't get this done. Get it done and we'll open it back up."

Choose

You can shit on this guy if you feel the need:

Or you can feel all proud and heritage-y about this guy:

You know what it makes you when you do both, and by now you gotta know I'm gonna call your ass on it.

Keith

Impossible to ignore the drip drip drip

Today's Tweet

Every time you feel attacked by someone online - someone you think should be on your side, or at least not deliberately alienating themselves from you instead of trying to make common cause - keep in mind that you might be dealing with "someone" who isn't really a "someone".

Every tweet in support of Hillary attracts Putin bots. Some were in mutual follow with me-others were keyword searching. #DemForce #Block pic.twitter.com/0Qg6gjxRfW

— Honey #DemForce (@HoneyDemForce) September 7, 2017

Let's Do It Better

The Rude Pundit thought he might be crashing while on a visit to Liverpool. And it turned out to be a rather pleasant experience instead.

An American in the UK National Health Service

It had been a stressful few weeks, with far more than the usual amount of fuckery and frantic frenzy, and I arrived in Liverpool last Friday on a total of about 4 hours of sleep in two days. Walking around the Liverpool One area shortly after dropping off my bags, heading towards the Tesco to get some supplies, I realized that I was sweating like Nicholas Cage on a meth bender and my heart was racing like, well, the same. I felt a tightness in my chest, short of breath, needing to sit down, and I thought, "Well, fuck, this would fuck up the next week or so." When your Dad dies of a heart attack at 46, you take that shit seriously.

So I found a National Health Service walk-in clinic just around the corner from Tesco. It was in the same space as the NHS's sexual health office, which offered free morning after pills, among other things. I went in and there were maybe twenty people sitting there. I don't know how many needed sex-related attention and how many needed regular medical help. But a very nice receptionist took my name, date of birth, and phone number, and then she asked what was wrong. I described my condition without the mention of Nicholas Cage or meth, which could have confused the whole situation. She very nicely told me to take a seat and that triage would be with me shortly. The triage nurse, I learned, examines everyone to see who might need to get in sooner than others. Apparently, I was looking terrible enough to be bumped to the front of the line.

After a few moments, I was called back to see the nurse practitioner, Niamh (pronounced "Neeve" because, well, Irish names). I can honestly say that I've never been treated with as much care, patience, and good humor by a medical professional as I was by Niamh. She asked permission every time she wanted to do anything, from take my blood pressure to listen to my pulse. Even as I kept insisting that I was probably just exhausted and whiny, she took everything about my condition incredibly seriously and assured me that I should just follow through with what she was recommending. "It won't cost you anything," she said more than once, as if understanding the anxiety that Americans have about health care spending. "Unless you're admitted to hospital." She laughed and joked, and we talked like we're human beings having a conversation, not a transaction.

Niamh asked me a few questions about health insurance in the United States and shook her head at it. "I'm afraid we're going to head to that kind of system," she exclaimed. She told me a story about when she and her family - husband and five children - visited New York City the previous year. Her youngest, a toddler, had gotten an ear infection, so they went to a walk-in clinic, just as I had come to this one. She told the receptionist that they would pay out of pocket for expenses because they would be reimbursed when they came home. "Now, they prescribed my little one a medicine," Niamh said, "one that I know is in that locked cupboard behind you. And I know that it costs about three pounds. Do you know how much they charged me in the states? $354." She laughed, as one can when they get the money back for outrageous expenses. I told her that her experience is pretty typical.

This is more than some tiny example of Anecdote-over-Evidence. We hear versions of this story all the time, and we need to understand that a Profit-Centered approach to healthcare is not just a shitty way to treat people - it's costing us gazillions of dollars we don't need to spend on a system that delivers the world's 37th best outcomes.

By every measure, our system makes sense to nobody but Rent Collectors.

It doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to do it the way we're doing it. We're getting stuck in the same kind of ideological straightjacket that the USSR was in as we all watched that whole system crater in on itself almost 30 years ago.

We keep insisting on maintaining a blind faith in the Unfettered Free Market. And we're pushing it to the point where we plunge into the Logical Extreme - which is where good ideas go to die.

You don't build a durable form of government based on an economic system - not without ending up very close to that old Yakov Smirnoff bit, "We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."

The version here in USAmerica Inc is fast becoming: "They pretend we're buying their shit and we pretend we have a choice."

The Rarity Of It All

So many things had to happen at just the right time in just the right order - it gets easier to understand how people would invent the Argument From Ignorance Fallacy (God did it because we can't think of any other explanation)

It's also pretty easy to see how the religious (ie: political) systems that grew out of that ignorance got to be the monstrous problem they've been for so long.