Journal smittyoneeach's Journal: I Blame the "Victim" 96
The Boebert scandal is something to behold. She has apparently laid some claim to Christianity and made a public apology for acting a trifle worldly.
The pressures of politics have apparently broken her marriage. Prioritizing family over power is among the chief reasons why so many qualified people run away, run VERY away, from public service.
May the Lord pour some grace upon the lady.
The pressures of politics have apparently broken her marriage. Prioritizing family over power is among the chief reasons why so many qualified people run away, run VERY away, from public service.
May the Lord pour some grace upon the lady.
Do you mean the beatlejuice bit? (Score:2)
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Even if one fancies the Eminence Orange, so what?
As with Reagan, even a second round of DJT will be outlasted by the entrenched bureaucracy that is the actual problem at hand.
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Even if one fancies the Eminence Orange, so what?
It depends on what you want from political leaders. If you think that leadership can include seeking fame and fortune, then go ahead and support those who see it that way.
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The mind of Bernie is incoherent to me. Possibly he believes in a sincere way the economic piffle he spouts.
I find it interesting how often you claim that people who you disagree with are being insincere (or otherwise dishonest). That might be the biggest difference between you and I; I acknowledge that people honestly believe in things that are counter to my beliefs while you often insist that anyone who offers an opinion different from yours must be somehow lying.
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must be somehow lying.
When they serve your DNC/GOP it is certain that they are. Reelection is the goal. I hope they appreciate your service to that goal
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The sociopaths that claw themselves up to positions of power are rarely encumbered by even a trace of purity.
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It would be helpful, methinks, to differentiate between the ideas and the people.
Not really, it's just a distraction. Power is power. People that seek it are all sociopaths.
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Those are the three axes of government service, the Constitution is their operating manual. "We the people" are the power and are supposed to tell government employees to RTFM with their votes
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So, while fully in agreement with you, we need to be more thoughtful in bringing those words back into scope.
The opponents of liberty have been cycling their own piss for a while now, and bethink themselves defenders of "our democracy".
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you sound like a Tea Partier
You just couldn't be more off base. Those people couldn't care less about the constitution.. They don't give a damn about public service or human rights. They're just a bunch of selfish assholes that don't want to pay taxes. What I say is true on the physical world.
The opponents of liberty have been cycling their own piss for a while now, and bethink themselves defenders of "our democracy".
A perfect description of your tea party, a more self centered bunch you will never find, foreplay to the trumpism of today
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Those people couldn't care less about the constitution.
Lot of mind reading going on there.
"our democracy".
A perfect description of your tea party
Now you're just being bitchy. Tea Partiers knew that we were a federal republic. That whole thing looks increasingly collapsed, however. "We The People" just couldn't stand prosperity, apparently.
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Tea Partiers knew that we were a federal republic.
Yeah... sorry, I ain't playin' that tired old distraction, tea party is what I said it is... They want all that "prosperity" for themselves. Bunch of wannabe trumps
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The party uses abortion as another culture war distraction to divide and conquer. And you still focus too much on Trump. The real danger is in the *ism, the rabid followers, not the man
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uses abortion as another culture war distraction to divide and conquer
Killing the unborn is a cultural cancer borne out (heh) in the demographic cratering seen before you. But go on.
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When you show as much consideration for the already born, I could believe you are sincere about being pro-life. And which "demographic" are you so concerned about that all the others should take second place?
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When you show as much consideration for the already born
I have vast consideration for the already born. What sort of evidence can you produce to the contrary, sir?
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And, in defense of Socialism, it certainly does work. On a small scale. For example, a family.
Among the over-arching fallacies of Socialism is that it scales linearly to a societal level, despite an historical 100% failure rate. Faith, indeed.
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Among the over-arching fallacies of Socialism is that it scales linearly to a societal level, despite an historical 100% failure rate
It would appear you are again changing the meaning of Socialism to meet your narrative. Many people would still call the Nordic States Socialist, and I don't see a good argument for calling them failed.
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By this time [cato.org], one spectator had already concluded that Sweden’s experiment with semisocialism was "unsustainable," "absurd," and "rotten and perverse." This was not the view of an ideological opponent of the project but of someone who spoke from bitter experience: the Social Democratic Minister of Finance Kjell-Olof Feldt.
He concluded: "That whole thing with democratic socialism was absolutely impossible. It just didn't work. There was no other way to go than market reform." And this was the conclusion of people across the political spectrum. A centerright government under Prime Minister Carl Bildt from 1991 to 1994 implemented a radical reform agenda to get Sweden back to its classical model.
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"That whole thing with democratic socialism was absolutely impossible. It just didn't work. There was no other way to go than market reform." And this was the conclusion of people across the political spectrum. A centerright government under Prime Minister Carl Bildt from 1991 to 1994 implemented a radical reform agenda to get Sweden back to its classical model.
First of all, center-right in any Nordic Country is further left than any American politician of any consequence for the past 100+ years.
Second, their "radical reform" still guarantees single payer health care and college education for all Swedes. It's still paid for by income taxes.
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democratic socialism was absolutely impossible. It just didn't work.
Obviously we need to pick at the details, but this seems a clear point. Also, with a population around 1/10th of the U.S., the idea that their approach could be copied directly here is roughly as specious as George W. Bush thinking that he could do nation building in Iraq.
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democratic socialism was absolutely impossible. It just didn't work.
Obviously we need to pick at the details
Indeed I'm curious as to what parts the article you are looking at are believed to have not "worked". As I pointed out, the reforms did not end Single Payer Health Care, nor did they end State-Paid College Tuition. Those are two items that are most often affiliated with screams of "SOCIALISM" from your team any time someone suggests anything resembling either to be a good idea on any scale.
Also, with a population around 1/10th of the U.S.
Countries larger than Sweden in both population and area have successfully implemented Single Payer Health Care with
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And to get back to the earlier point, the most "socialistic" characteristics of Sweden were not changed when they voted in a center-right government. Similarly no conservative government in the
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please fill me in on what you see that is so awful.
The actual care delivered in countries with socialized medicine (my wife is from Germany) is often horrific. And that was before the elites in Europe decided to import pretty much everyone. You can argue that immigration policy is a separate matter from healthcare policy. While true, that a different the macht nichts at the point of delivery.
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please fill me in on what you see that is so awful.
The actual care delivered in countries with socialized medicine (my wife is from Germany) is often horrific.
Yet the citizens of those "awful" states keep voting to keep those systems in place. We both know the reason why they do that; it's because they know the alternative is the American system where the consumer pays 4-10 times as much (if not more) and has worse outcomes.
There may be no perfect system, but ours is easily the worst of them all. It's time we get rid of it and behave like a modern industrialized nation.
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Second, as someone who has interacted with the NIH directly on multiple occasions I very strongly disagree with your assertion of them being somehow an "epic disaster". If there is something awful about them, please fill me in on what you see that is so awful.
The actual care delivered in countries with socialized medicine (my wife is from Germany) is often horrific.
You had earlier stated your belief in the NIH being an "epic disaster". Did you mean to call out some other acronym there? As I pointed out earlier the NIH has nothing to do with the Single Payer system in Sweden, just as it has nothing to do with the health care system in Germany. Being as the NIH has very little to do with the delivery of health care in the US - aside from supporting the careers of a very small number of physician-scientists - your opinion seems either misguided or misplaced.
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I realize that this is blasphemy to the Statist, but the disaster embracing the West is substantially driven by the government cart bethinking itself the economic horse.
You may now argue that "down" is the new "up".
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At a conceptual level, externalizing non-emergency services to god-like government control, be it health care, retirement, education, what have you, is an "epic disaster".
First, that is a strange way to define "epic disaster".
Second, the free market has already proven time and again that it is not capable of delivering health care in a responsible manner to Americans.
Third, the majority of the world would not characterize their government as having "god-like [...] control" of their health care just because their government has installed a single payer system. They recognize that the only way that health care can actually be managed in a sane manner is through a sin
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free market
What. Free. Market?
To your point, https://www.forbes.com/health/healthy-aging/concierge-medicine/ [forbes.com] points to an effort for people to think for themselves. Certainly our Experts will crush this.
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free market
What. Free. Market?
The market has already set its own rules. Furthermore if it was any more "free", it would raise the cost of care even more - as I've pointed out many times we already flush tens of billions of our dollars down the toilet to maintain this system which are not costs we would have to burden with a Single Payer system.
To your point, https://www.forbes.com/health/... [forbes.com] points to an effort for people to think for themselves. Certainly our Experts will crush this.
I haven't heard of this before. The article you cited mentions a few things that concern me:
You still need regular health insurance to cover things like hospitalization and specialty referrals
Monthly fees paired with regular insurance premiums can be expensive
Depending on where you live and the practice you join, membership fees and monthly costs can range from $1,200 to $10,000 a year
If I'm reading this right, basically this is for people who have another 1,200 - 10k per year on han
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Considering how easy it is to get telehealth appointments right away on most existing plans I'm not sure exactly what the advantage is of this.
Well, if the "free market" doesn't support the concept, then it will die.
I happen to think that the market is anything but free, and the regulatory capture brought on by the pantheon of "bad guys" needs substantial reform with an eye toward making the rent-seekers die, die, die. Doctors want to see patients with minimal profiteering and red tape. Reform starts with pliers and a blow torch.
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Doctors want to see patients with minimal profiteering and red tape
And the physicians (and NPs, PAs, DOs, ODs, PharmDs, and so on) know the way to get there. It can only be accomplished with a single payer system. Anything else slows down - and increases the cost of - medicine.
an eye toward making the rent-seekers die, die, die
Next time you see your favorite physician ask them how much their office spends on medical claims. I asked my son's pediatrician directly and he told me they have 12 people working full time just handling that at 80k per year plus two supervisors at over 100k per year. These are people who neve
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The market has already set its own rules.
The market uses (pays) the government to set the rules, a government that you reelect every two years. Therefore you are to blame for these market conditions that you so lament with your incessant whining.
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Yet the citizens of those "awful" states keep voting to keep those systems in place. We both know the reason why they do that; it's because they know the alternative is the American system where the consumer pays 4-10 times as much (if not more) and has worse outcomes.
Yet American citizens, including you not so ironically, keep voting to keep that system in place, what's up with that? Your entire shtick seems to be made in bad faith
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It can only be accomplished with a single payer system.
No.
Look at the disaster of the Twitter Files, and how both the 1A and the correct information on Covid were sacrificed on the altar of Teh Narrative.
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who just deal with bureaucracy.
And you have some starry-eyed vision that Single Prayer is going to help? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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It can only be accomplished with a single payer system.
No.
You cannot make health care more affordable or more accessible by expanding on the tyranny of the Health Insurance Industry. We've tried it, and it failed. We waste tens of billions of dollars every year supporting this mess.
If you have an idea for how to improve outcomes on the accessibility and affordability dimensions simultaneously, please share it. We've established what will happen if you force clinics and hospitals to accept more plans; if you have a different idea then bring it up.
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who just deal with bureaucracy.
And you have some starry-eyed vision that Single Prayer is going to help? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
When we reduce the number of plans that a clinic or hospital has to accept, how could that not reduce the number of people who are dealing with bureaucracy? The reason so many people are involved in this is because there are so many plans accepted, and because they are so absurdly complicated. When we reduce the plans at an office from 20 to 1, we can vastly reduce the number of people needed to process claims.
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expanding on the tyranny of the Health Insurance Industry
Nor would I want to. Hence the idea of concierge medicine as a way to minimize the cartel behavior.
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how could that not reduce the number of people who are dealing with bureaucracy?
Please. If there is anything at which government excels, it's cramming 40 hours of work per week into 40 positions on the org chart. Lack of a profit motive (or existential foe in the military case) has org charts growing in the kudzu fashion. Government is the original solution in search of a problem. But please: argue that the sun riseth not in the East, good sir.
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expanding on the tyranny of the Health Insurance Industry
Nor would I want to. Hence the idea of concierge medicine as a way to minimize the cartel behavior.
That plan sounds great, for those with thousands of extra dollars available annually to spend on primary care who find that regular telehealth isn't fast enough for minor sniffles. What this does in practice though is only further the grossly inequitable distribution of health care. Poor people are left with very little while most of the resources go to those in the higher income brackets.
It would not do anything to break down the cartel. In fact they would benefit from it.
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how could that not reduce the number of people who are dealing with bureaucracy?
Please. If there is anything at which government excels, it's cramming 40 hours of work per week into 40 positions on the org chart.
That is some exceptionally hyperbolic projection there. That is no more connected to reality in this context than the idea that Trump was going to nuke New Zealand as POTUS just because a cartoonist suggested it on an op/ed page. Furthermore as the people in those positions aren't paid by the government there is no incentive for the government to make more of those positions as they would not get any credit for them.
Lack of a profit motive
The profit motive is what has led to this broken system. Forcing it in there will never
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only further the grossly inequitable distribution of health care
"Equity" is a bugaboo. Even Jesus of Nazareth Himself points out that there is a distribution of capability among people (Parable of the Seeds, Parable of the Talents).
What a false, idolatrous object of worship, followed by the misery we see about us.
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only further the grossly inequitable distribution of health care
"Equity" is a bugaboo. Even Jesus of Nazareth Himself points out that there is a distribution of capability among people (Parable of the Seeds, Parable of the Talents).
And I remember vividly that parable where Jesus said "fuck the poor people, they can all die", as well. Didn't he also say "it's there fault for not having enough money for good health care in this country, they should have been born somewhere else if they weren't planning to be rich"?
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but to maximize the opportunity to minimize the brokenness
The brokenness comes from the For Profit system. The Health Insurance Industry is the cause of all the problems we have. We cannot keep the Health Insurance Industry and solve the problems; it is a binary choice. Solve the problems and kill the industry, or keep the industry and kill the consumers.
This will be achieved by curtailing government
Government is only another consumer under the current setup, just with a slightly different role from the rest of us. The government only gets to tell the rest of us peons how badly the Health Insurance Indu
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The brokenness comes from the For Profit system.
Then why did the Soviet system collapse?
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That was not a substantive rebuttal of the point. Jesus
You cherry picked a few tales from the bible to justify your disregard for people less fortunate than yourself.
while he provided vastly more healing than the NIH
Estimates of the global population for year 0 are in the range of 150-300M. Conveniently the high end of that range is a bit less than the current US population. Efforts from the NIH have directly improved life expectancy across the board in our country; even people who are opposed to vaccinations benefit from the basic science work that has improved nutrition.
That said Jesus was not involve
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The brokenness comes from the For Profit system.
Then why did the Soviet system collapse?
That could hardly have less to do with our disastrous Profit-First Health Insurance System. Nice distraction. You notably have yet to offer a single idea to how you would improve accessibility and affordability of health care for Americans. You instead offered up a suggestion that would make things more affordable for upper-middle class Americans and leave everyone below them suffering as much as before. Even worse it only aids people in getting primary care; when they need more they are at best right
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That could hardly have less to do with our disastrous Profit-First Health Insurance System. Nice distraction.
But...is it? Both systems feature tiny amounts of people lording power over the masses, and running plays to line their own wallets.
I submit that organizational behavior drives both.
single idea to how you would improve accessibility and affordability of health care for Americans
Concierge medicine. Getting rid of the rent-seekers in the legal, insurance, pharma, and government levels. They are friction. Friction is a Goldilocks concept. You need sufficient friction to stabilize the market--yes--but not the excessive friction we see now, which results in the over-damped mess before us.
Does a quasi-re
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You cherry picked a few tales from the bible to justify your disregard for people less fortunate than yourself.
A fascinating smear. What new rule regarding "regard" are you proposing, then?
Efforts from the NIH have directly improved life expectancy across the board in our country; even people who are opposed to vaccinations benefit from the basic science work that has improved nutrition.
So, as long as we can point to a few good things, we can ignore the bad things, oh picker of cherries?
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That could hardly have less to do with our disastrous Profit-First Health Insurance System. Nice distraction.
But...is it? Both systems feature tiny amounts of people lording power over the masses, and running plays to line their own wallets.
Then in that case you should be counting down the days until the current Health Insurance System collapses under that fact. Indeed the current system does resemble fascism.
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Efforts from the NIH have directly improved life expectancy across the board in our country; even people who are opposed to vaccinations benefit from the basic science work that has improved nutrition.
So, as long as we can point to a few good things, we can ignore the bad things, oh picker of cherries?
I'm waiting for you to show a bad thing that you think the NIH has done. They're not perfect but very nearly every single thing you've said about them so far has been wrong.
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I agree that our non-commitment to liberty has had us drifting into fascism.
Your Team is hard at work pushing us closer to fascism by the minute. Impeaching a president simply for being from the wrong team is absolutely not an act of liberty; it is an act of fascist cowardice.
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Efforts from the NIH have directly improved life expectancy across the board in our country; even people who are opposed to vaccinations benefit from the basic science work that has improved nutrition.
So, as long as we can point to a few good things, we can ignore the bad things, oh picker of cherries?
I'm waiting for you to show a bad thing that you think the NIH has done. They're not perfect but very nearly every single thing you've said about them so far has been wrong.
Oh, fine: the NIH is the height of perfection, honey.
I have openly said they are not perfect. I said it right before you replied with that snarky comment. Just because every single thing you've said about them is wrong does not mean they are at all perfect; it only means that everything you've said about them is wrong. If I claimed that metastatic pancreatic cancer causes you to glow in the dark, that wouldn't make it less fatal; it would just be a wrong statement about it.
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The utter farce of "Your Team" weaponizing the legal system against anyone athwart "Your Team" really ought to scare you. The idea that "Your Team's" shenanigans will stop with the Citrus Caesar is silly. But "Your Team" doesn't care. "Your Team" knows that it's headed for the bottom, and it's riding us all the way [youtube.com].
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I have shifted gears and will not suffer anyone besmirching the immaculate NIH. Now: hush, you.
You could try turning down your hyperbole and actually discussing factual information. Or are you allergic to it now?
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I think that Judas Joe is arguably the single most corrupt politician in modern American history
:-) Your sense of humor is incredible!
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Then in that case you should be counting down the days until the current Health Insurance System collapses under that fact.
So what if it does "collapse"? The people you reelect will just bail them out, you will thank them and reelect them again for it, life will go on, and you will keep whining
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So what crime do you envision Your Team is attempting to prosecute Biden for, if not just that of being a democrat?
Hilarious. Impeach Trump twice over nothing, four indictments over nothing more, and unable to observe evidence out the wazoo. This is why I laugh at you and don't take you seriously.
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No, I find great amusement in your description, that you single him out
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Yes, and the same as all the others, including your Trump, and nobody seems to care, seeing as that both will be on the ballot again, sharing 98% of the count between them. Proving once again, that's what the voters want.
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Proving once again, that's what the voters want.
Do you actually think that the drug addict wants the shame and degradation that comes with the fleeting joy of the addiction? Seriously? Is diction the same as addiction?
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So what crime do you envision Your Team is attempting to prosecute Biden for, if not just that of being a democrat?
evidence out the wazoo.
Evidence of what though? Your Team is working hard to make it a crime to be a democrat, but you can't prosecute someone for a crime they committed before it was a crime. If you have an actual crime that you want to charge him with, why won't you say what it is?
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The addict is blissfully unaware of any "shame and degradation", they only want more drugs. Indeed, we have what 98% of the voters want. Stop with the denials, take the First Step®
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We could discuss their actual problems, if you like.
There are no new ones.
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Evidence of what though?
Corruption. I am astonied by Your Team's capacity to foam at the mouth over Trump and not see a Monkey Fighting thing when Hunter is quite very obviously a bagman for Judas Joe. But by all means, let's back that up with an actual trial.
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The addict is blissfully unaware of any "shame and degradation", they only want more drugs.
I'm no addiction expert, but I hardly think that is the case, sir.
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We could discuss their actual problems, if you like.
There are no new ones.
New or not you have not mentioned any problems that actually apply to the NIH. You projected your assumptions about them - which were all entirely wrong - and claimed those to be the faults of the NIH. If you could bother to actually learn something about the NIH before spouting off random conservative nonsense we could have a discussion about the problems they have. I have admitted repeatedly they are not perfect, but you have attacked them with nonsense.
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Well, of course, you are fully expected to deny what is in front of you. You show more "expertise" than you let on...
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You projected your assumptions about them - which were all entirely wrong
So then you'll agree with the assertion that the NIH is immaculate?
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What am I denying, exactly?
That "We the People" are responsible for our government, not the politicians we reelect, not the party, not the banks or corporations, it is us, by personal choice to just, follow along
Hey, she's hot (Score:1)
Is this [nypost.com] why she wins?
Sorry, she (or that tweet) doesn't make me think of "prayer". My *thoughts and prayers*® go out to her voters. What's up with these people?
As with Reagan, even a second round of DJT will be outlasted by the entrenched bureaucracy
What does this mean? Did you actually believe for a microsecond that they were somehow opposed to the "entrenched bureaucracy"? Maybe that is the actual problem
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Trump especially found a mutinous crew underbussing him daily.
Now you can be about pretending otherwise.
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Trump especially found a mutinous crew underbussing him daily.
Theater, babe... and your continuing admiration, downright worship (no use denying it) for him, and Reagan, is extremely revealing, you are a true believer in the status quo... amusing, and tragic at the same time
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The reality does not make it an accusation so much as a mere observation of fact. Again, you insist on remaining in denial of your personal bias that distorts your vision and clouds your judgement. His appeal to the beast has you starstruck. You only reveal your addiction. I recognize the behavior. Of the "twelve steps", you have yet to take the first. Instead you project. Indeed that is tragic.
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Non responsive, but that's ok, I'm accustomed to it, beginning to expect it, sadly enough...