74 thoughts on “What we’re in for”

  1. Obama should do exactly what the Republicans have done for the last 2 years – stop everything they try to do, even if he likes it. Payback time!

    1. Were I Obama, I’d have my staff brief me on “payback” strategies and tactics from the administrations of Dems from Roosevelt to Clinton.

    2. Have you learned nothing in the past two years? The Repubs, the corporations and the generals have already got his number. Why haven’t you?

  2. I just watch that shamless bastard from Kenfucky, McConnell, proclaim: “It’s time for the administration to ‘pivot’ our way. They could eitherchoose to ‘pivot’ now,” he said “or ‘pivot’ in 2010.”

    I’m w/ NEB. it’s time for all progressive to just say HELL NO, just like these jackasses have been doing for two solid years.
    ~Rev. El

    1. How could the Republicans stopped any of Obama’s agenda with a Democrat controlled House and Senate?? That whole “party of no” is just a canard, Obama couldn’t control his own democrats

      1. The answer to your question is by filibustering everything whether they had an objection to it or not.

        1. I just looked it up in Wikipedia. That’s one disfunctional house if all bills can be rejected by filibuster.

      2. Yeah, the Roboticans are well trained, if you listen to one of them you’ve heard them all. Its a great way to run a democratic government don’t you think?

      3. There was also a group of “conservative” Democrats (aka “DINOs”) who threatened to block most progressive measures unless they were considerably watered down.

        One bright spot in this mess is that several of them lost re-election anyway, replaced by actual Republicans.

    2. I agree. I hope this energizes the Dems like the Tea Baggers energized the right wing nuts.

    3. What about the jackass Democrats who voted with the GOP to block bills while the Democrats had a majority?

      I pity California – they just reelected the worst governor they’d had in decades. I guess no one remembers how horrible Jerry Brown was. Unfortunately many people tend to vote for the other side simply because they perceive the current lot are not doing them any good – it is a recipe for disaster.

      1. He’s been rolling over for the right since Day 1. He’s just throwing in the towel before he rolls over instead of after.

  4. I just want to take a moment to observe that Obama is far to the right of Nixon, and that Nixon would be so far to the left of the current political spectrum that he wouldn’t even stand a chance as a Democrat in a solidly Democratic district. He’d be drummed out as a Socialist.

    I’d also like to observe that Obama has poured raw gasoline on the flames of the war in Afghanistan; he’s failed to close down Gitmo; and he’s ramming through such insanities as ACTA.

    In short, Obama is a hard-far-right politician bordering on a textbook fascist. The Republicans are batshit fucking insane lunatic Nazis, and the Teabaggers are even worse still.

    I don’t have a clue how we can escape from this nightmare. My only consolation is that life at the local level is still quite pleasant. Even in Arizona, my hispanic neighbor (a citizen who helped build these houses during the Carter administration) hasn’t yet (to my knowledge) been stopped and asked to show his papers.

    Cheers,

    b&

      1. Please remember that there’s a sizable minority of us here that are even more upset at the antics of the majority than you are. After all, we have to live with the nutjobs.

        Yes, Jan “Papers Please” Brewer just got re-elected with 55% of the votes cast. But well over a half a million people voted for the runner up, and quite a few people voted for somebody else entirely. And, just like in the rest of the country, the majority of the population didn’t even vote at all.

        Cheers,

        b&

  5. I heard Obama’s press conference and he did specifically ask for:

    1. Specific provisions of the health care law that should be repealed or modified according to the GOP.

    2. Specific policies to help with jobs that don’t increase the deficit.

    I also heard Boehner’s statement where he tried to wash his hands of responsibility for doing anything — already!

    1. John, fear not, Supreme Wingnut and First Degree Dipshit, and renowned atmospheric expert, Michelle Bachmann, re-elected (WTF!?!?!?!) here in MN has stated that, since CO2 is only 3% (yes, three percent) of our atmosphere, and plants love it, there’s no problem! The more, the better! So, quitcher worryin’.

      1. Wow … 3%? We must have adapted overnight; the last time I looked at information on CO2, 3% was enough to make you feel sick and even knock some people out (and eventually kill them of course). 3% is the 8-minute (or 10-minute, depending on the regulator) short-term exposure limit. In buildings, only 1/15 of 3% (2000 parts per million by volume) results in what has been called “sick building syndrome” – people feel tired and cranky, can’t concentrate, and some already feel nauseous.

      3. Dave: Michele Bachmann was reelected in the 6th congressional district of MN because (unfortunately) she’s a perfect fit for the district. Imagine all the knee-jerk right-wing, Gigantic SUV-drivin’, NASCAR-watchin’, Four-wheelin’, snow-mobilin’, ignorant, Joe-the-plumbers in any major metro area, collect them all in one place (well, there are a few left over for some of the other outer-ring suburbs) and call it the 6th district. They love their Michele Bachmann. The district would go heavily for Palin were she to run.

        Greg Laden’s take on it. (He lives very near the district.)

  7. Tell me, who here among you are on government health care? Who here gets Medicaid or receives treatment through the Veterans Administration? How many of you have waited for authorization for treatment? How many of you have been denied treatment because it was either not available at the facility you had to go to for care, or because the only facility offering the treatment won’t accept your insurance? How many of you are aware of he paperwork the government demands for medical care. The variety of paperwork the government demands.

    I have heard that for every dollar the government pays out for health care it spends another dollar on paperwork. For every dollar a health care provider receives from the government, that provider spend another dollar on administrative overheard satisfying the government’s paperwork requirements.

    Are you truly convinced the government is truly as efficient as you would seem to think it is, or that concerned with you?

    1. Me! I lived in a country with completely socialized health insurance for 4 years. It was fucking awesome! No waiting, cheap prices, doctors making profits with personal practices, high quality care, the works. You don’t know what you’re missing. Oh, not the U.S.? Does that disqualify my experience?

      What you are arguing against is merely bad government. Sure fine, what else is new? The problem about the intellectually vacuous “big government = bad government” position is that it is a self-fulfilling prophesy as a political philosophy. Congratulations, you are part of the U.S.’s unique problem. Somehow this problem doesn’t loom so large in New Zealand, Sweden, France, Taiwan, Japan, etc. ad nauseum.

    2. Ha ha. We’ve had two Canadian PhD’s go back to Canada, health care was a big part of it.

      We’ve got a French post-doc, right now, who is pregnant and is having trouble due to some issues with the umbilical cord. She’s going to have financial trouble when finds out all those ultrasounds and other tests they’re doing aren’t going to be covered, even though they’re necessary. Unlike in France, where she and her husband are from.

      I could go on about all the PhDs I’ve known who come from countries with “ebul gubbmit socialist medicine.” Something that each and every one has been very clear about — regardless of the country, it’s a crap load better than the US…

      But as for your questions:

      Tell me, who here among you are on government health care? Who here gets Medicaid or receives treatment through the Veterans Administration?

      I had VA care. Never had a problem. Which is not surprising as VA care is among the best care in America.

      How many of you have waited for authorization for treatment?

      I waited six weeks for authorization for an MRI. My nerves in my left arm died due to a viral infection of my left solar plexus. It took four weeks for them to get approval.

      I’ve also had to pay out of pocket for necessary medical care because you only get one ultrasound for pregnancy. And when we did it the first time, the baby was not lined up well for the test. So we had to do it three times.

      So, that’s waiting and denied.

      How many of you have been denied treatment because it was either not available at the facility you had to go to for care, or because the only facility offering the treatment won’t accept your insurance?

      I’ve lost many doctors because of my insurance. Now I just go to the residence training group at the teaching Medical school. I get tired of having to find a new doctor because I switch insurance providers.

      Of course, I end up with a new doctor every two or three years. Can’t be helped. But at least it’s the same supervising physician in the same practice group.

      How many of you are aware of he paperwork the government demands for medical care. The variety of paperwork the government demands.

      Oh, oh! Me! Me! I’m a retired CPA. Medical billing is no joke. But insurance companies are FAR, FAR, FAR worse than Medicare/Medicaid. None of my clients have complained as much about M/M as private insurance. Those people are horrible.

      I have heard that for every dollar the government pays out for health care it spends another dollar on paperwork.

      Oh fucking bullshit. Medicare pays 97% of every dollar to health care providers. No insurance company comes even remotely close.

      For every dollar a health care provider receives from the government, that provider spend another dollar on administrative overheard satisfying the government’s paperwork requirements.

      Oh double fucking bullshit. There are specialty billing companies that guarantee a 95% success rate with a typical 4%-to-15% over-head cost. Medicare runs to the low-end, private insurance to the high end.

      You’re pulling this right out of your ass. What a tool.

      Are you truly convinced the government is truly as efficient as you would seem to think it is, or that concerned with you?

      The only demographic, in America, the competes with cost and effectiveness of medical to the other industrialized countries are old people, virtually all of whom are covered by MEDICARE.

      Every other population group is in the low-40’s in country rank.

    3. ‘Cause the businesses do such a great job of doing it right?

      We’ve already a dose of what unregulated business will do, I expect we will now have some more of it. When everything falls apart make sure the wealthy are reimbursed for their folly because they manufacture jobs!

      Pick yourself up a clue for next time.

    4. My dad had a bypass a year and a half ago that Medicare paid completely for, including lots of follow-up care. No bureaucratic hassles.

      A few years ago I was run over by an SUV while I was riding my bicycle home from work. My right shoulder was completely dislocated and required arthroscopic surgery to repair. AHCCCS (Arizona’s participation in Medicaid) paid for everything without even a hint of complaint or reluctance…once I was able to jump through the insane hoops to qualify in the first place.

      If it weren’t for America’s own home-grown socialized medicine, my dad would be dead and my right arm would be nearly useless. Thanks to socialized medicine, my dad is hale and hearty and my shoulder is marginally better than it was before the crash.

      If you think the government waste in healthcare administration is bad…well, let me tell you. It ain’t nothing compared to the rampant fraud in corporate healthcare. Instead of “faceless government bureaucrats” ticking off checkboxes on forms that indicate whether or not a licensed physician has ordered treatment, you get “faceless corporate bookkeepers” whose quarterly bonuses depend on how many people they kill by withholding payment for treatment. How those motherfucking sons of bitches can get away with “practicing” medicine in such abhorrent ways is beyond me. And let’s not forget that the healthcare industry spends vast sums on marketing, including widespread outright barefaced bribery of physicians. You pay for all that with your premiums.

      Oh, and the fascist’s other rallying cry, that they don’t want rationing of health care? We already have rationing of health care. If you don’t have enough money to buy into the world’s most overpriced health insurance racket, you’re rationed out of getting affordable care…until you’re so broke that the government’s “socialized” health care (Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, etc.) reluctantly agrees to add you to their rolls. Of course, you’re damned close to living on the street at that point.

      Damn. You’ve got me started. I gotta stop typing now before I really blow a gasket….

      Cheers,

      b&

      1. Don’t forget Medicare was brought in by the Democrats. It’s a ghost of what it used to be and I saw all the talk about the Health Reform bill as being about reviving Medicare more than anything else. But the GOP are promising to reverse any progress; after all, if someone can’t afford health care they deserve to suffer and if they can’t afford a decent meal they deserve to starve to death.

        1. Most of the oft-quoted Reagan warnings about “socialism” were from his 1961 campaign to stop Medicare.

          It’s weird that the Tea Baggers — many of whom are very dependent on Medicare — don’t seem to realise they are supporting the very ideas were used to leave them to die with no medical care.

    5. Alan, are you one of those Teabaggers who think government can’t do anything right while at the same time saying that private insurance companies can’t compete with a public option?

      1. I grew up during Vietnam. Jaundiced my view of government it did.

        Ladies and gents, ask your pharmacist about the cost of government paperwork sometime.

    6. Let’s see:

      We are paying (as a nation) 2-3 X what, say, the Germans and the French pay for health care.

      We get worse outcomes for that money!

      We have a large percentage of people who have no coverage and therefore either go without medical care or go to the emergency room and costs (everyone) 10X as much as it should.

      People stay in jobs they hate only for the medical insurance.

      Medical expenses are the number 1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the US.

      Getting laid off means, in addition to no icome and high stress, the aditional stress of not being able to go to the doctor.

      Tell me again how our system is better? Oh yeah, it enriches private insurance companies! How could I forget? That is the purpose of medical care isn’t it? Enriching stockholders, right?

      Mr. Kellogg: Have you recently had your private insurance company deny payment for care or drop you because you made claims? Happens all the time, every day, to millions of Americans.

      1. Jim Hightower reported (I’ve been unable to corroborate the figure and am repeating from memory 2 years after reading it) that a THIRD of medical bankruptcies due to some kind of acute emergency are among the INSURED.

        So if you have a real medical emergency, you get fleeced and scrubbed clean… and if you happen to have insurance, 1/3 gets bankrupted anyway… then wages garnished as you lose your house and means of livelihood.

        And if the repugs had their way, there’d be no recourse to bankruptcy in any event.

    7. “How many of you have waited for authorization for treatment? How many of you have been denied treatment because it was either not available at the facility you had to go to for care, or because the only facility offering the treatment won’t accept your insurance? How many of you are aware of he paperwork the government demands for medical care. The variety of paperwork the government demands.”

      Most of what you described goes on with PRIVATE insurance right now and always has. How many of you have gone to an emergency room recently? When I took my wife after she fell off a ladder a couple of years ago, before they would even look at her until they had all of our insurance information and we had to fill out all sorts of forms.

      Why are these sorts of obstacles and annoyances suddeny a big problem if the government is involved at some level?

  8. Exactly. We need Harry Truman/FDR rhetoric now not a mamby pamby version of Bill Clinton. Otherwise it’s hello President Palin. When is Obama going to get it???? Olive branches don’t work with rabid dogs.

    1. Don’t overestimate the sloth and frivolity of the American electorate. I doubt the electorate is principled enough (even for bad principles) to elect Palin. She’s a has-been reality star at this point. Too uninteresting to justify rising off the couch to support.

      It will probably have to be a “new” face to actually get people excited. Besides, she has the worst negatives of any potential candidate at this point.

      1. I think you’re being far too optimistic. I suspect that the USA can have really awful people such as Palin elected president; I say that because other nations have elected such people – movie stars (oops, we’d already done that one), porn stars for congressional representative (not that I believe porn stars should be excluded, but if being a porn star is the only reason you got the vote then there’s something very wrong).

  9. Perhaps one of the most overlooked observations of the disaster last night is that a considerable amount of the blame for yesterday’s tragedy can be pinned here: the general dumbing down of the American electorate. Their sudden swing to abject crazytown can’t adequately be eplained without seriously considering this element.

    This is by far the dumbest thing I’ve seen the yahoos do since the re-election of GW Beanbrain and his gangs of thugs and morans.

    The inmates are now in full control of the ward. I have a feeling it’s gonna’ get painful fast.
    ~Rev. El

    1. If you believe in CeilingCat it is easy to believe the impossible claims of candidates (we will increase spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget). Too many people still believe in CeilingCat. Unfortunately that’s only part of the story. Even among thinkers like scientists, some are indoctrinated into a party from birth and will never vote for the other side. Others will vote for the other side no matter how bad they are simply because they want to take a punt that the change will somehow be good (for example, California’s got that idiot Jerry Brown back – I pity those poor folks).

    2. Sorry, but the election results cannot be blamed on the dumbing down of the electorate. It was never informed to begin with. Just your basic uniformed voter whipped into a frenzy. Populist anger of old.

      We do have much better tools today to forment the masses. And the consequences may certainly be greater. But the underlying conditions and causes are the same.

  10. Divided government means neither party can do much. Obama has his veto and a small majority in the Senate. It is hard to see how the health care reform bill can be repealed just because the Republicans control the House.

    This can actually help Obama. Now it is not just his responsibility to come up with solutions–the Republican leadership in the House has to too. And he can bash them as a do nothing Congress if they don’t.

    Worst case scenario, the House tries to shut down government by not passing money bills. We’ll see how all those tea partyers vote in 2012 if they don’t get their Social Security checks.

    Oh, one other thing. Obama should be sure to avoid any pretty interns.

    1. Actually, the best case scenario would be the Teabaggers blocking the passage of a budget. They get their stated goal of drowning government in a bathtub…and, in so doing, demonstrate very powerfully to everybody just what government actually is.

      No air travel. No Social Security checks. No military operations (though those usually get special treatment).

      I very much doubt that the Teabaggers could survive “success.”

      Of course, it’d be nasty for the rest of us…but I think I could put up with it long enough to choke the Teabaggers with their own umbilical cords.

      Cheers,

      b&

    2. Of course the GOP can succeed in destroying any good that had been done by the government in the past 2 years. It goes something like this: “you revoke the health care reform act, and then I’ll consider supporting your bid to increase funding for military hardware by 8%”. It’s rather pathetic that the Democrats have cut far too many deals with the GOP mostly because their own ranks will not support sensible legislation. There is too much infighting within the Democratic party to get things done even when they have full control of government (except for cases requiring a 2/3 majority in which case they still didn’t have the numbers). Even the Democrats want their own barrels of pork and will kill a bill if they don’t get what they want. That should be pretty damned obvious by now.

      1. “you revoke the health care reform act, and then I’ll consider supporting your bid to increase funding for military hardware by 8%”

        This is the scenario that really worries me.

        If we can get to 2014 without the health care bill being repealed, then repealing it will become an untenable position (because it will mean taking insurance coverage away from millions of Americans) — and then we can get down to the real work of refining it into a health care system that will actually work long term.

        But the Republicans only need to get, what, two Senators to switch, assuming they can discourage a fillibuster? Egads…

  11. Want to know how I feel? …. Republicans are living proof that evolution hasn’t worked on humans for 50,000 years. Please take no offense, but I suspect it’s true. Just letting off steam. Practically though I agree with Neil …. comment #10

  12. Seriously, it is HIGH TIME that progressive people ABANDON the Democrats. They are indistinguishable from Republicans on all but a few issues. Why did anyone think that Obama’s election was going to change anything. Everyone was saying the same thing when Clinton first got elected. Back then, in the occasionally correct words of Michael Moore, we ended up with one of the best Republican presidents ever.

    In the Ivory Tower we can sit back and shake our heads at how backward America still is for electing Flat-Earthers and bigots, but nothing will change unless we actually change it by getting out of the standard system. The earlier post that says “I’ve weathered this kind of thing before…” sort of says it all. There have been little swings to the left followed by little swings to the right, but what has really changed in the last 40 years?

    1. The only way that’ll ever happen is with some form of proportional voting — ranked choice, instant runoff, whatever.

      Of course, changing the system like that requires the Republicans and the Democrats to agree to abandon the electoral system that guarantees them an impenetrable duopoly….

      Cheers,

      b&

    2. It’s difficult to change things though; most people insist on making no changes to the system which we’ve had for almost 200 years. Among other changes we need are to be able to elect sensible people (like Al Franken) rather than snakeoil salesmen (like John McCain). We must also work out how to lower the barrier to running for office so that politicians are not primarily supported by corporations and behoven to their demands.

    3. Unless there’s some workable way to get a third party into office, I can’t see abandoning the Democrats. That only leaves the more batshit crazy Republicans in charge.

      I have friends (as we all do) who couldn’t be bothered to vote for the Democrats and so they didn’t vote. Yep, that really showed those Democrats, didn’t it?

      What we need is to nominate some actual progressive candidates (like Al Franken) and get them through the primaries instead of the usual DINO’s that we get now.

    4. YES! That is a great idea, let’s all stop voting Democrat, so that way the Republicans can get a supermajority and pass any old bullshit they want. AWESOME!

      Or, we could start by voting more in the primaries, but in general elections still voting against the Republicans…

      1. If you haven’t noticed, the Republicans are pretty much getting what they want anyway. Even when, during the past 2 years, the Dems had like 57 seats in the Senate.

        In that NY Times article, Obama admits that any effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions is dead. The Health Care bill was watered down to begin with and now the Flat-Earthers are going to try to repeal it.

        There was another NY Times article talking about how Sarah Palin now has allies that got elected which will give her a boost in 2012. Yes, I agree, it’s disgusting that someone like her is taken seriously. But the REALITY is that there are enough people taken in by Flat-Earthism to go for her.

    5. Another strategy… one that works where I am now (Colo Spgs), is to be a stealth Republican. Register Republican, vote in the primary to defeat the most toxic people they dig up, then vote against the Repug in the general (assuming the opposition is better).

      I haven’t voted FOR anybody since 1986, the first time I voted. That vote was cast for Tim Wirth.

      Shame the existing system makes stealth voters out of many of us.

  14. “[Obama] conceded that legislation to limit greenhouse gases was dead and said he was ‘absolutely’ willing to negotiate over the extension of tax cuts, including for the wealthy.”

    Slow, painful jobless “recovery” followed by environmental catastrophe – Democrat’s new slogan in 2012?

    Sadly, I don’t think Stewart/Colbert’s strategy of “meh activism” is going to save the planet, or Afghan and Iraqi lives, or jobs. We’re gonna need to wake up the spirit of the sixties for this pickle.

  16. I wonder if ‘conservatism’ – the phenomenon of ‘being a conservative’ – ever has been investigated from a scientific point of view, e.g. from the point of view of neurology or sociobiology? Is it not plausible to suppose that the ability to mentally cope with change (which is the opposite of being a conservative) is at least partly rooted in our biology?
    The following might be interesting in this respect: the General Social Survey pointing out that conservatives are ‘happier’ than liberals (see reference below).
    When we define conservatives as persons who are (1) happy and (2) opposed to change, then it follows that any form of change (or even the idea of change) will make a such a person very unhappy. It seems to me that it should be possible to investigate this in an experimental way, e.g. by neurologists with scanners?
    But then, maybe this has already been done? I certainly would appreciate references!
    See: Arthur C. Brooks, The New York Times, April 23, 2008, Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals. http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/conservatives-are-happier-than-liberals-discuss/

    1. I don’t think the question directly relates to most US political “conservatives”, who nowadays are quite radical and not “conservative” at all.

      If anything, it’s the “liberals” who want to conserve exisiting social programs and norms — and extend them where appropriate — and not let them be plowed under by the extreme right.

  19. Every Democrat should, at every opportunity from now until the 2012 election, vehemently deny that they think that the Republicans intentionally wrecked the economy so that they could reclaim power in the mid-term elections. That the Republicans would intentionally do something so despicable in beyond the pale.

    2. Conspiracy mongering much? Oh, the Republicans are evil, the republicans are run by Captain Nemo, the republicans must have mystical economical powers in violation of science and reason.

      If the republicans are such mighty mystical economists, why don’t they use it to insure the economy is perfect so they always win elections and America is a perpetual economic wonderland?

      1. Honestly, I don’t believe that they intentionally wrecked the economy but the Republican policies under Bush certainly did wreck the economy and the massive deficits that Bush racked up pretty much precluded Obama (or any President) from instituting effective counter measures to the downturn. The timing wrt the mid-term elections was coincidental.

  20. Folks here mentioned how wonderful their care givers are. Was I talking about care givers, or about bureaucrats? Care givers are going to be wonderful, that’s their job. Bureaucrats could give a rat’s ass. You aren’t the bureaucrats’ concern, making sure things run efficiently is the bureaucrats’ concern. Making sure things are in order is the bureaucrats’ concern.

    It’s also good that certain people got treated well and got the treatment they needed. But, what about the time it can take to get treatment, and the treatment that gets denied because the care giver will not accept your insurance? Medicaid participants in California can’t get Medicaid coverage for dental care. California won’t authorize it. Medicaid participants can get Medicaid coverage for eye exams now, but Medicaid in California won’t pay for eyeglasses. When you have a combination of conditions like I do, myopia and severe astigmatism, glasses get pricey.

    My beef is not with care providers, by beef is with bureaucracy and state government. My beef is with the paperwork bureaucracy requires, and the cost it adds to providing care. Costs which drive care providers out of the market and to refuse to provide care to people in the first place. So long as you expect Medicaid to cover your costs.

    We want to see reform in medical care the first step is to start paying cash for basic care. No more insurance cards; debit cards, credit cards, or cold, hard cash. Forgo the convenience for insurance, and the cost of insurance, and pay in basic American currency. It takes effort to save money, and the way the economy is going now it’s damn well time we started making an effort to save money.

  21. This situation is very depressing. I just saw AC’s video on Obama’s 200 million dollar trip myth and I’m really depressed. That’s what the sane people are up against, a bunch of crooks who easily create and spread lies with no shame.

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