Let's reboot the American Dream!
By Thom Hartmann A...
Three decades of Reaganomics has left half of our entire nation in poverty. Thanks to economic policies that only benefit the one percent, nearly one fifth of all Americans live below the federal poverty line, and another 32 percent are officially low-income. And, those statistics would be even worse if we weren't using an economic measure that is stuck in the 1950s. The federal poverty live was originally calculated based on the price of food six decades ago, but it hasn't kept up with real costs.
Just since Reagan took office, food prices have doubled, housing prices have gone up three-fold, medical expenses are six times higher, and college tuition costs eleven times what it did in the 1950s. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a family of three has to take in at least $48,000 dollars a year just to break even, but half of our country struggles to get by on far less than that. While those at the top rake in an ever-expanding share of all income, more than one third of our nation is working harder for less money. And, our out-dated poverty measure means that they aren't even eligible for a little financial assistance.
When we talk about making the rich pay their fair share, the right-wing screams of socialism and class warfare. Yet, they have no logical defense for an economic system that provides billions in tax breaks for the wealthy, but denies a living wage and a little help to the average working American. Reaganomics has devastated our middle class, stolen our retirements, and saddled our children with a trillion dollars in student loan debt. The only class warfare here is the one being waged by the rich against everyday Americans. The myth of trickle-down has been debunked, and the truth is that we need a new era of shared prosperity. It's time to take back our economy and reboot the American Dream.
Comments
#2
AIW -- I can remember 2 things that Thom said about John Adams. I'll provide more as I remember them. The first thing, John Adams locked up Ben Franklin's grandson for an edtiorial he wrote in which he said something derogatory about Adams hairdo. The second thing, Thomas Jefferson said that his presidency was the second American revolution. From high school, I remember that Adams was the one that passed the Alien and Sedition acts.
#3
Kend -- Of course, to you everything the govt touches seems to be a disaster. To me, everything a monopoly (AKA an American corp) touches seems to be a disaster e.g. cancer alleys, GM killing people for a 57 cent part, billion dollar elections etc. With regards to medical, our totally socialized VA Hospitals have the best care with regards to outcomes. They also cost 1/4 what our private hospitals cost. The VA hospitals used to be used to show how terrible governtment run medicine was.
#4
Quote Palindromedary:My friend mentioned that he needed routine colonoscopy. And I think he said that the doctor left making the appointment up to him (the patient)...so now he is trying to get in touch with them but can't get through.
Palindromedary ~ "Routine" colonoscopies? Really? Is he a Republican? I understand that getting your head stuck up there so frequently can cause long term rectal damage.
Seriously, you shouldn't have to deal with the insurance company to make an appointment--just call the doctor's office. If he doesn't answer call your primary care physician and let him deal with it. I don't get what the problem is. It took me less than 4 minutes to make my colonoscopy appointment--more than 5 years and counting to get over the experience. If your friend is serious, he isn't doing it right.
By the way, personally, I have always thought it a crime to charge anything for any preventative medicine. I have also thought it to be counterproductive and stupid. When I think how many polyps We the People paid to have removed from the #1 a$$hole in the country, Ronald Wilson (666) Reagan's bum hole I want to scream. The last one I had hit me for over $300 out-of-pocket cost. That's a lot of money I had to spend to save my insurance company a fortune. What ever happened to an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure? Insurance companies--in their own best interest I mind you--should make all preventive medicine free. In fact, it would stand to reason, that they should offer reminders and incentives to get those check ups.
I'm sorry if I'm overly critical of the status quo; but, seriously, doesn't that just make simple logical sense for everyone involved. Perhaps I'm just frustrated that I had any out-of-pocket expense at all for a colonoscopy. If you had one my friend, don't you agree that you should have been paid for it? Perhaps at least been given a nice candle lit dinner with a little dancing before it all?Whatever happened to tradition?
#5
Freemasons, Illuminati, ChemTrails, HAARP, Cabalism, Nephilim, Aliens, Mayan prophecy, Demons, Satanic worship, Mark of the Beast, is Obama a Clone?...all kinds of conspiracy theories are on that FreemanTV web site.
I don't think the Thom Hartmann show is that kind of a show. There are plenty of other media shows that deal with those kinds of topics. Even though Thom may occasionally joke about the Lizard People or other way out subjects (mostly because they have been mentioned in the news relating to some politician, perhaps), I don't think it is his main interest. And taking any of these way-out subjects seriously would tend to detract from his audience's attention or willingness to hear such things.
I have read many UFO books and conspiracy theories of various nature (many of the above) and I can say that there is, sometimes, a little bit of truth connected to some of them. But, those who come up with many of these conspiracy theories and sell them to the public (selling lots of books and making money by selling DVDs and getting people to pay them for the lectures they give and UFO or Conspiracy conferences) do mix a few truths in with a lot of unsubstantiated BS.
These "stories" may be fun for some people but can drive other people nuts...even to the extent they murder their children in exorcisms. The Jim Jones people found themselves either willingly, or at the end of a gun pointed at their backs, to drink the poison-laced cool-aid. The Rajneeshi people gave up their life's savings to join that group. The Heaven's Gate group let Applewhite talk them into committing suicide. David Koresh lead the Branch Davidians into a situation that resulted in all of their deaths. And it goes on and on as it has in the past...people get hooked into all of this nonsense and they end up suffering for it. Even worse, their children or other relatives, or even other people end up suffering from the beliefs of people who got caught up in this nonsense.
Not all conspiracy theories are untrue, of course. There are real conspiracies and there are real theories. And real theories of conspiracies. But some of them go pretty far out into the realm of unbelievability.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/exorcism-killers-part-demon-assass...
http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2014/03/syracuse-man-indicted-i...
And here is a list of people, many children, who have died from exorcisms.
http://whatstheharm.net/exorcisms.html
#6
DAnneMarc: What I meant by "routine" is that after you reach a certain age, the doctors recommend getting a "routine" colonoscopy every 10 years, or 5 years if they have had to remove a polyp. And you said that you had to make your appointment 5 years ago. We live in different times now. With the increased number of people in the system...they are swamped with people trying to make appointments. And it wasn't the "insurance company" he was trying to contact..it was the colonoscopy doctor's office. And before that it was the primary care doctor's office. Problems waiting on the line for about an hour before they could get through to make an appointment. As for having the primary care doctor's office make the appointment for him...I don't know. I'll have to ask him the next time I call him or when he calls me.
Quote DAnneMarc:When I think how many polyps We the People paid to have removed from the #1 a$$hole in the country, Ronald Wilson (666) Reagan's bum hole I want to scream. The last one I had hit me for over $300 out-of-pocket cost.
lol. That was funny but so true! By the way, only $300? My friend will have to shell out about $742.50 on the $2750 average cost (30%) on Blue Shield. If they wait a couple of months for Medicare it will cost only $550.00 (20%). Prices have gone up since 5 years ago. And I'm afraid the doctors are not satisfied with those amounts either. Although, I sure wouldn't want a job like that...yuk!
Quick! Blue Light Special..at Isle 13..get your Walmart colonoscopy now while the prices are still affordable! ;-}
Quote DAnneMarc: Perhaps I'm just frustrated that I had any out-of-pocket expense at all for a colonoscopy. If you had one my friend, don't you agree that you should have been paid for it? Perhaps at least been given a nice candle lit dinner with a little dancing before it all?Whatever happened to tradition?roflmao!!! :-)
#7
I'll try to find the notes that have the source of those figures. I'm embarrassed to say that my notes look something like my old high school locker or the aftermath of a hurricane.
#8
There's a lot Kend's article didn't say. There is a large endevour on the part of conservative politicians to privatize public services and to create crises in order to justify it. John Snobeden, former Ontario Minister of Education of the Progressive Conservative Party government of Mike Harris, said as much. The wait times are the main weakness and criticism of the Canadian Health System and a political football and are exaggerated by the analysts of those profiteers salivating over prospective privatization. The current conservative government might be hyping it, as well.
Wait times
Health Canada, a federal department, publishes a series of surveys of the health care system in Canada based on Canadians' first-hand experiences of the health care system.[55]
Although life-threatening cases are dealt with immediately, some services needed are non-urgent and patients are seen at the next-available appointment in their local chosen facility.
The median wait time in Canada to see a special physician is a little over four weeks with 89.5% waiting fewer than 90 days.[55]
The median wait time for diagnostic services such as MRI and CAT scans [56] is two weeks with 86.4% waiting fewer than 90 days.[55]
The median wait time for surgery is four weeks with 82.2% waiting fewer than 90 days.[55]
Another study by the Commonwealth Fund found that 57% of Canadians reported waiting 30 days (4 weeks) or more to see a specialist,[page needed] broadly in line with the current official statistics. A quarter (24%) of all Canadians waited 4 hours or more in the emergency room.[57][page needed]
Dr. Brian Day was once quoted as saying "This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two-to-three years."[58] Day gave no source for his two to three years claim. The Canadian Health Coalition has responded succinctly to Day's claims, pointing out that "access to veterinary care for animals is based on ability to pay. Dogs are put down if their owners can’t pay. Access to care should not be based on ability to pay." [59] Regional administrations of Medicare across Canada publish their own wait time data on the internet. For instance, in British Columbia the wait time for a hip replacement is currently a little under ten weeks.[60] The CHC is one of many groups across Canada calling for increased provincial and federal funding for medicare and an end to provincial funding cuts as solutions to unacceptable wait times.[61]
Since 2002, the Canadian government has invested $5.5 billion to decrease wait times.[62] In April 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that all ten provinces and three territories would establish patient wait times guarantees by 2010. Canadians will be guaranteed timely access to health care in at least one of the following priority areas, prioritized by each province: cancer care, hip and knee replacement, cardiac care, diagnostic imaging, cataract surgeries or primary care.[63]
In a 2007 episode of ABC News's 20/20 titled "Sick in America", host John Stossel cited numerous examples of Canadians who did not get the health care that they needed.[64] The Fraser Institute [Conservative, Libertarian think tank] found that treatment time from initial referral by a GP through consultation with a specialist to final treatment, across all specialties and all procedures (emergency, non-urgent, and elective), averaged 17.7 weeks in 2005,[65] contradicting the Canadian government's 2007 report regarding itself.[66]
Kend kinda goes with the most Rightist hype, he once told me about the Canadian Post office crisis and how they stopped home delivery because the union was just taking everything and so on and so forth. But then I found out it was, let's just say, more nuanced than that http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4307214-canada-post-s-invented-cris... It seems it was like I suspected that Canada Post was operating at a profit and was a remarkably well run operation but false crises were created to justify cutting service and laying off 8,000 workers.
#9
We don't hear or read much about: In the 1980's Reagan and his bank thugs bribed the Republicans in Congress to take away the tax deduction for credit card interest. We we all told it was a good thing because only the rich carry a lot of credit cards which was true at the time. But what the scammer Banksters did not tell anyone is they were going to make unsecured credit easy for everybody, even people like college students, welfare recipients, and anyone else they could sweep into their web of greed and scam money from unsuspecting people.We need to make credit card interest deductable again for income earners in the Middle Class range, and phase the deduction out of the highest income brackets.
#10
Palin there is a few things you need to know about the Canadian system. first of all it is not a national single payer system Each province or territory runs the own. Second Canada is one of the few countries in the world along with China and Cuba that do not have a combination of private and public And this is heavily debated here. Most provinces budget and set limits on how many surgerys can be preformed per day/weeks etc of course life threarening things are done ASAP. Provinces that have the best health care are the ones going into massive debt. Of course this is not substanable. The reason for the large increase is life span. We are living longer and the winter of our life costs a lot. I think the problem with both our systems is we are not honest with the true cost of health care. The left down their says it's the insurance companies and the right here says its the government mismanaged it to drive costs up. I think its simply costing us more. The danger with the ACA is if the true cost of health care are not brought forward the ACA will get the blame For the cost increases to come.
I think it is a huge mistake to make a national Heath care system like you are. If it was done state by state you could compare what works and what doesn't Helping every state get better care. This way you are stuck with what you get. I have no proof just my opinion but I think states like New York and Taxaforina are in huge trouble with liabilities to government health care plans and need something to bail them out. Why else would they try and mange something like health care in such a massive way. It's going to be a diaster.
#11
Quote Palindromedary:lol. That was funny but so true! By the way, only $300? My friend will have to shell out about $742.50 on the $2750 average cost (30%) on Blue Shield. If they wait a couple of months for Medicare it will cost only $550.00 (20%). Prices have gone up since 5 years ago. And I'm afraid the doctors are not satisfied with those amounts either. Although, I sure wouldn't want a job like that...yuk!
Palindromedary ~ $3K for less than 30 minutes of light work? Who the hell do these Doctors think they are anyway? The President of the United States doesn't make that kind of money for not getting all of us killed--and he's a much bigger pain in the a$$. Sure our insurance companies are as corrupt as can be and are skimming as much money as they can off the top; however, our healthcare system is the #1 problem. At a rip off cost like that many people are just going to avoid it; and, then what? The system will eventually get super bogged down by a surplus of easily preventable catastrophic illnesses.
I'll say it again, preventive medicine should be encouraged and free. Forcing these kinds of prices on patients is nothing short of a soft genocide. There is no other practical or logical way of describing it. After all, a colonoscopy is no picnic; yet, it prevents potentially lethal and expensive health problems. As such every effort should be made to encourage people to have them. There should be no cost and a wide variety of incentives; and, some flowers, chocolate, champagne, and soft music wouldn't hurt. I personally prefer "You Lift Me Up Where We Belong," "Rocket Man," or, "You Light Up My Life."
(Sorry I couldn't make it thorough that without being silly. It helps to laugh at things that make you "uncomfortable"--especially when they are such a necessary evil.)
#12
Kend- Since you apparently are so fixated on this healthcare issue, I thought I might, once again, post an article Marc introduced here eons ago. This article tells how we could pay for health care. I've re-posted it two or three times already, thinking maybe it might educate you to the feasability of healthcare for all in this country. It is doable despite the messages to the contrary we've been fed on a daily basis, over the past several decades. So here's it is, if you think you can handle a little dose of reality:
An article by Physicians For A National Health Care Program
"Medicare for All" would cover everyone, save billions in first year: new study wrote: Upgrading the nation’s Medicare program and expanding it to cover people of all ages would yield more than a half-trillion dollars in efficiency savings in its first year of operation, enough to pay for high-quality, comprehensive health benefits for all residents of the United States at a lower cost to most individuals, families and businesses.
That’s the chief finding of a new fiscal study by Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. There would even be money left over to help pay down the national debt, he said.
"Medicare for All" would cover everyone, save billions in first year: new study wrote: Friedman says his analysis shows that a nonprofit single-payer system based on the principles of the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676, introduced by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and co-sponsored by 45 other lawmakers, would save an estimated $592 billion in 2014. That would be more than enough to cover all 44 million people the government estimates will be uninsured in that year and to upgrade benefits for everyone else.
“No other plan can achieve this magnitude of savings on health care,” Friedman said.
"Medicare for All" would cover everyone, save billions in first year: new study wrote: “These savings would be more than enough to fund $343 billion in improvements to our health system, including the achievement of truly universal coverage, improved benefits, and the elimination of premiums, co-payments and deductibles, which are major barriers to people seeking care,” he said.
"Medicare for All" would cover everyone, save billions in first year: new study wrote: Over the next decade, the system’s savings from reduced health inflation (“bending the cost curve”), thanks to cost-control methods such as negotiated fees, lump-sum payments to hospitals, and capital planning, would amount to an estimated $1.8 trillion.
"Medicare for All" would cover everyone, save billions in first year: new study wrote: Friedman said the plan would be funded by maintaining current federal revenues for health care and imposing new, modest tax increases on very high income earners. It would also be funded by a small increase in payroll taxes on employers, who would no longer pay health insurance premiums, and a new, very small tax on stock and bond transactions.
“Such a financing scheme would vastly simplify how the nation pays for care, restore free choice of physician, guarantee all necessary medical care, improve patient health and, because it would be financed by a program of progressive taxation, result in 95 percent of all U.S. households saving money,” Friedman said.
Friedman’s findings are consistent with other research showing large savings from a single-payer plan. Single-payer fiscal studies by other economists, such as Kenneth E. Thorpe (2005), have arrived at similar conclusions, as have studies conducted by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accountability Office in the early 1990s. Other studies have documented the administrative efficiency and other benefits of Canada’s single-payer system in comparison with the current U.S. system.
Friedman’s research was commissioned by Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit research and educational organization of more than 18,000 doctors nationwide, which wanted to find out how much a single-payer system would cost today and how it could be financed.
You see, Kend, it's not a problem of available funds. It's only a matter of priority, or lack thereof, for those in seats of power. - Aliceinwonderland
#13
What I find immensely intriguing, Kend, is that the cost of defense and weaponry is seldom if ever addressed. I've never seen you mention the cost of U.S. "defense" spending. For some reason the cost of these endless wars our government seems hell-bent on perpetuating is never questioned despite the huge burden of expense associated with that, even though it benefits no one but a tiny group of very wealthy individuals who just happen to profit from it. Yet despite literally trillions of dollars sucked out of our economy by the Pentagon, its suppliers & enablers, it is the cost of health care that is the focus of endless debate. People can't stop bickering over the cost of saving and supporting life, while the cost of destroying life is simply taken for granted as the cost of doin' bizness... like you know, when you're "leaders of the free world" it goes with the territory!
But take a peek behind that veil and what do you see? What I see is a culture of death: wars, assassinations, executions, starvation, healthcare extortion... They're culling the herd already. Meanwhile We The Sheeple continue bickering over the cost of health care. Brilliant. And here we've got this Canadian dude telling us in effect that health care is too expensive and we should just forget it, since we can't really afford it. We the citizens of the supposedly richest country in the world. A country so rich it can afford to arm itself with a nuclear arsenal and military complex huge enough to nearly match the size of the combined militaries & arsenal of all other countries on the planet! Ain't that just a wee bit ironic, Kend? How do you justify this double standard? - Aliceinwonderland
#14
Alice please don't get me wrong. I have no problem with single payer. I just think it should be done state by state. I think they need to do it nationally down there to bail out the over spenders. Plus health care to manage with well over 300 million will be a nightmare. If I lived in a well managed young populated state this would scare the heck out of me Because they are going to subsadise Other areas of the country.
Alice not to many studies ever become what they predict. Time will tell. I am living your dream and it isn't all what it's cracked up to be. Keep in mind Canada has a tenth of the population of the US and ten times the resources and we are having a hard time keeping up. The countries with good health care are paying about 50% federal tax. Why would the US be any different. Here it comes, get ready for your standard of living to drop. The good news is you all will be living.
You don't have to sell me on less military down there. It's someone else's turn to police the world. you have done enough. Make sure you are energy self suffencient though all hell will break lose in the Middle East.
#15
Kend, read the article and have a nice day. - AIW
#16
Mark S -- When I was a student at Purdue in W. Lafayette, IN in 1972, my colon started bleeding. The student health centers tried to discover what was wrong. One of the tests I remember was barium enema. When they finally gave up and referred me to a specialist, it took 6 weeks to meet the specialist. The specialist knew immediately what was wrong with me and prescribed azulfidine. My bleeding stopped within a week. USians also have to wait; even with something that appears life threatening.
#17
hankgagnon -- As far as behavior modification is concerned. making credit card interest deductible would be the wrong move. I would much prefer national usury laws.
#18
DAm -- I thought colonoscopies were free with the ACA for the reasons you stated.
#19
AIW -- It would be interesting to konw what some of the details are of the proposed modifications to medicare. Medicare was created as a wet dream for that part of the 1% represented by the AMA. Dylan Ratigan in his book "Greedy Bastards" tells how the managed care system used by the Mayo clinic cut costs in half. Then he points out that the VA using a new software system cut the Mayo clinic model costs in half again. The VA offered the new system free of charge to any medical entity that wanted to use it. The only one who asked for it were some foreign countries.
#20
Quote chuckle8:DAm -- I thought colonoscopies were free with the ACA for the reasons you stated.
chuckle8 ~ That would sure make sense to me. However, you have to ask Palindromedary about those charges since the last one I had was before the ACA kicked in. That is assuming you are talking about charges and not a candlelit dinner, flowers, chocolate, and soft music.
Personally, I don't care what you are talking about. Regardless of what the ACA mandates the moon could turn green and hell could freeze over before I have another one of those things done to me.
The worst part of the whole experience is at the end when they finally "pull out" and tell you, "Well sir, everything looks fine and you are the spitting image of heath." Don't tell me that! Tell me, "Thank God we just did this to you. We just found a tactical nuke wedged somewhere between your rectum and your stomach and we successfully removed it. Had you not undergone this procedure you might have exploded and taken out the entire west coast of the United States with you. You just saved thousands of lives including your own. Consider yourself a hero!"
That's what I want to hear. How now I'm a hero. Not how I just paid a fortune to Rescue Rooter to snake my own body for nothing.
#21
I had my colonoscopy done by the VA and they found a polyp that they removed. Basically, what they do is slip a little, very strong, rubber band off of the end of the probe onto the base of the polyp and that rubber band cuts off the blood supply to the polyp. It takes a while for the polyp to die and drop off. Actually, mine wasn't too bad. It was certainly not as painful as going to the dentist. But having to drink all of that special, very sour, liquid a day before you get the colonoscopy, to clean you out, is not very pleasant. I don't think I even had to pay anything to the VA for that. I have to pay for my prescription medicines $8 per prescription and they give me enough for about 3 months. The VA does have a good computerized records system...and you don't even have to take a prescription to a pharmacy...just walk over to the in-clinic pharmacy and they hand you the meds. Then after that, you just call in to an automated system to refill your orders and they mail them to you. I'm very happy with this arrangement. I'm just not too confident that my primary care VA doctor will catch anything like cancer inside of me..just as what happened to a friend of mine recently who died of cancer. The VA system can get all those medicines at cut rate prices and they pass those savings on to the patients. Just think how well it would go if we had a government-run Universal Healthcare system where we cut out those damn insurance companies and their filthy rich CEOs, top executives, and the stockholders of those companies.
#22
What you have to pay for a colonoscopy, when you are on ACA, depends upon what insurance company you chose and what plan you chose. The more you pay for an insurance plan, the less you will be billed for anything. You either pay large premiums up front every month and have lower deductibles and copays and lower maximums. Many poor people may get larger subsidies from the government, through ACA, because they make less, and they may also choose the cheapest plans, but if they ever need medical care they will have to pay big money. They get you either way. ACA does make it more affordable; but, for many people it's still unaffordable. At least they have some coverage, which could be a life safer, but then one might wish they had died instead of having to pay such high medical bills. And, as the economist Michael Hudson says: "Debts that can't be paid, won't be paid." By the debtors anyway...the tax payers will have to pay it all....and since the wealthy won't pay their fair share of the taxes, that means everyone else's taxes will go up. But these damn insurance companies will not take a hit...even with ACA...it's their scam anyway. Their scam to get the government to force everyone to pay them whether they want to or not. And, they'll keep on raking in all those monthly premiums from both the patients and the government and will soon increase the costs of the premiums. What we really need is Medicare for all, run by the government and not those high paid criminals profit-motivated bastards in their ivory towers. But first, we have to get the money out of politics...make it a crime punishable by death for trying to bribe a Congress person or President. Because, after all, isn't that what these rich profit-motivated bastards are doing to many of us...killing us for profit?
#23
Quote Palindromedary:Actually, mine wasn't too bad. It was certainly not as painful as going to the dentist. But having to drink all of that special, very sour, liquid a day before you get the colonoscopy, to clean you out, is not very pleasant.
Palindromedary ~ Wow! That is where you and I are completely different. You see, I have no problems with stuff coming out of that end. The drink I got had flavor packets with it. I chose lime flavor. You mix it up and then refrigerate it for a hour or two. It actually tastes quite nice when it's ready. It's also a great excuse to stay home--near the toilet. Talk about "Rocket Man."
That part of the experience I enjoyed thoroughly. Actually, I wouldn't mind partying on that stuff. You have to take those other pills too for the full effect don't forget. However, if you were to take the pills, mix the mixture, and refrigerate it. Then later, mix it with some margarita mix, Squirt soda, ice, and some really good tequila... Oh man, that would be a blast--worth inviting friends over for! Just make sure there is more than one bathroom.
#24
Quote Palindromedary:Their scam to get the government to force everyone to pay them whether they want to or not. And, they'll keep on raking in all those monthly premiums from both the patients and the government and will soon increase the costs of the premiums. What we really need is Medicare for all, run by the government and not those high paid criminals profit-motivated bastards in their ivory towers. But first, we have to get the money out of politics...make it a crime punishable by death for trying to bribe a Congress person or President. Because, after all, isn't that what these rich profit-motivated bastards are doing to many of us...killing us for profit?
Palindromedary ~ Nothing I can add to that. I agree 100%; and, very, very, very well said!!!
#25
DAnneMarc: With colonoscopies they do use anethetics but you are still awake and you can certainly feel that thing snake through your gut and every so often you do get a little sensation of, I wouldn't really call it pain, well, maybe a little. It's just a very odd sensation..not pleasant for sure! But, for me, it wasn't that bad. I was even able to watch some of it on the monitor...except the monitor was behind me but I could catch glimpses of it. Those color photos they give you are really kind of neat.
The thought that they might screw up and perforate your intestine, and it does happen sometimes, is kind of scarey. It was even more scarey having read about, and watched the news reports back then, of the VA not properly sterilizing their probes. Some people actually got infected by unclean probes from probes that had been previously used on other people who had AIDS. Same thing with dentists...that was a big scare an number of years ago as well...people getting AIDS from unsterilized Dentist tools.
#26
Chuckle8, I had to wait over a year for a hernia operation and 14 hours in the emergency room each time I went - on the state/county funded level and after massive cuts in 2011. The Canadian system is not the only method of delivering single payer. It's kind of a public/private mix - kind of like Obamacare - and maybe for that reason not cost effective, I don't know. Anyway, I don't believe other systems have that problem and the taxes are not nearly as high as Kend says. I'm rather sure it's 15% in Germany, for example, (at least it was 10-15 years ago) not 50%.
#27
Wow Chuck! So all it takes is a new software system for the VA to cut healthcare costs in half. Yet the only people outside the VA to adopt it into their systems were foreigners, not Americans… Amazing! But here's what I think lies behind such a baffling dichotomy. In this grrreat country, health care denial is not simply a way to profit off health care, even as huge an incentive as that might be! Health care denial is also a means of control. A citizenry living on the edge, paycheck-to-paycheck, just one illness or accident away from total ruin, is a frightened citizenry. When people are demoralized and scared, they are more easily manipulated and controlled.
If our so-called public servants really wanted us all to have access to health care, it wouldn't be that difficult. All it requires is a rearrangement of priorities. Had our politicians enough incentive to resolve this problem, it would have been done decades ago. It's not that they can't, but that they won't. - Alice I.W.
#28
I hear the citizens of Ukraine are at it again...this time it is the people against the people who overthrew the government the first time. It's mostly in the Eastern part of the Ukraine. I just wonder if this might not give the Russians an excuse to go in to keep the peace...and, of course, restore the original regime.
The US is just so bogged down with ridiculous quagmires all around the world, wasting all that money. The US needs to stop trying to be the world's policemen. This country has already been embarrassed enough...giving aid to Al Qaeda in Syria. What the heck are they thinking? Maybe world conquest?
Some may think they can finally, completely squash Russia..they've already got them surrounded by NATO countries and radar sites and missile silos in those countries.
The problem is that the Russians already tried capitalism after the Iron Curtain fell, and there have been pressures to go back to the old Communist way. A very few people got extremely wealthy and the people got the shaft...just as in all the other countries who got suckered into western bankster's schemes. And the former Ukraine President Victor Yanukovych realized that if he sold out to the west they'd suffer the same kind of economic oppression that other countries, who fell for the scams of the western banksters, suffered. Not to mention that they get a lot of their gas from Russia and could be cut off. But the Ukrainian Nazis aided by the west overthrew him.
What if Florida decided to go Communist and secede from the US and have Russian troops building up in Cuba in case the US invaded Florida to take it back? The US would invade immediately and take it back. And we really don't need Florida as much as the Russians need Crimea. The Crimea is the Russian's only warm water port...without that they would be dead in the water. And NATO want's it badly. The Crimea is about the same distance from Moscow as Florida is from Washington, DC. The US needs to stop creating civil unrest and quit instigating the overthrow of other governments. Everyone around the world knows that's what the US has been doing. It's hegemony, absolutely.
#29
Quote DAnneMarc:Oh, you are so right. In fact, I had mine framed and hung on the wall in front of my desk where I'm typing right now. It's so much cooler to look at than looking at all those photos of my in laws that used to hang there
Oh, you too? Thanks for telling me. I thought I was being kinda weird. But I guess I'm not alone.! ;-}
#30
It's the Fourth Reich, out to conquer the world! And it bloody creeps me out. - AIW
#31
Very good points! AIW. It is a form of control...isn't it?
#32
Quote Palindromedary:DAnneMarc: With colonoscopies they do use anethetics but you are still awake...
That is true; or, so I have been told. Personally, I've tripped on better $h!t when I took the finals in advanced Calculus and still got an A+. No, what they give you for this procedure is less than one drink of alcohol. I'm sorry! I'm not that cheap of a date. You want to violate me I need something strong enough that I couldn't even begin to get out of a chair on. I better be so whacked that I wouldn't care if you used a flexible hose or a Samurai Sword.
Quote Palindromedary:It's just a very odd sensation..not pleasant for sure! But, for me, it wasn't that bad.
Relatively speaking of course. I take it that once--at least--you were audited by the IRS; or, perhaps, spent some quality time in prison?
Quote Palindromedary:Those color photos they give you are really kind of neat.
Oh, you are so right. In fact, I had mine framed and hung on the wall in front of my desk where I'm typing right now. It's so much cooler to look at than looking at all those photos of my in laws that used to hang there.
Quote Palindromedary:Some people actually got infected by unclean probes from probes that had been previously used on other people who had AIDS.
Wow dude! You're really doing a great job selling this procedure. You say, now I might have to wait in line? I can't have one right away anymore. Oh, gee!! I'm soooo disappointed. "Thanks Obama!!"
#33
Quote Aliceinwonderland:It's the Fourth Reich, out to conquer the world! And it bloody creeps me out. - AIW
Aliceinwonderland ~ Don't be creeped out. The Nazi's have been doing this now for over 20 years before you were born. Nothing has changed. Nothing is new. You just learned something you didn't know before. We all did. That enlightenment should please you. Don't forget--the first step to overcoming your enemy is to understand them.
Look on the bright side, at least you didn't have to have a colonoscopy to learn that.
#34
I read that article that Loren Bliss gave us...including about 50 pages of the 100 pages in the link in that article. That link was about how the US intelligence agencies and intelligence agencies of a number of other countries helped Nazi war criminals escape. It was based on more recent declassified documents.
I also read a good bit in Loren's blog as well..very talented and informed writer. He had some links for a web site that looks to be pretty interesting.. www.readersupportednews.org
There is an article there, now, on Bernie Sanders called:
A Threat to American Democracy
And get this...that web site also has an article on: Vietnam is assassinating their corrupt banksters. YAAAAYY! At least someone has the gumption to do what is necessary!
"Vietnam Is Sentencing Corrupt Bankers to Death by Firing Squad"
#35
Wow! I just listened to Bernie's 22 minute speech in Congress and it was a very powerful one. Very impressive!
By the way, the transcript is there as well. Although I have no problem hearing and understanding every word that Bernie Sanders says, it is still nice to follow along with the printed transcript.
www.readersupportednews.org
I'm strongly leaning toward voting for Bernie Sanders, should he run. Bernie Sanders is very Presidential..that's for sure! I really hope (there, I said the "h" word) he runs and wins the election.
#36
hese just a few of the highlights from Bernie's speech:
The top 1% owns 38% of the financial wealth of america. The bottom 60% owns just 2.3%.
The Walton Family are now worth $148 billion which is 40% of the total of what Americans own.
From 2009-2012, 95% of all new income earned in this country went to the top 1%.
The top 25 hedge fund managers made last year over $24 billion. That is enough to pay the salaries of more than 425,000 public school teachers.
The koch brothers, they are the second wealthiest family in this country. In the last year alone, that one family saw a $12 billion increase in their wealth. $12 billion in one year, bringing their total wealth to up to $80 billion.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/22830-focus-a-threat-to-a...
-------------
1384 billionaires in the US in 2013. And here they are:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/03/06/full-list-u-s-billion...
#37
Anti-Terrorism Spending 50,000 Times More Than on Any Other Cause of Death
http://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/anti-terrorism-spending-di...
Has some interesting charts as well.
#38
Palindromedary and Aliceinwonderland ~ Thanks so much for checking out those links by Loren Bliss. Everything you've said about him is absolutely true. I've checked him out thoroughly in the past and have learned to trust his judgement as well. It comes as no great surprise to me that this nation is controlled by a secret cabal of former Nazis. The JFK assassination alone had Nazis written all over it. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the very secret societies JFK spoke of belonged to a Neo-Nazi regime. So has every covert and overt war I've ever seen happen in my lifetime backed by the US--and my gut tells me it goes back much further before that. Of course Nazi and Satanists are not necessarily two mutually exclusive groups. I still hold fast to my contention that behind all of this--the Nazi menace as well--is a driving presence of occult worship. Although there are a plethora of facts out there to back up this contention, my main reason for this contention is out of premonition and intuition. I've learned to trust my gut feelings; and, in this case, I would have to see good reason to believe otherwise. It is imperative to understand one's enemy in order to anticipate their behavior. Case in point, why commit genocide against the Jews and people of the middle east? Perhaps to snuff out the bloodlines of the family and friends of the origin of Christianity? Palindromedary, did you not just say that U.S. backed terrorists in Syria were beheading Christians? I know Palindromedary that you don't like to take anything the "Burble" says seriously. Just because the "Burble" says The Synagogue of Satan will be waging war with Christians in the end times doesn't mean that's going to happen right? It's just a ferry tale, right? However, there sure are a lot of slain Jews all throughout Europe in the 40's, slain Muslims in the Middle East in the last few decades, and now a bunch of headless Christians in Syria right now who might just disagree with you. What you want to believe is your business--it is what the person holding the sword to your throat believes that you should concern yourself with. The validity of these belief systems is irrelevant. The fact that they influence human behavior is. The belief systems of the "Burble" are a very powerful and effective method of mind control. In the wrong hands it is nothing less than a Super Cult on steroids. That is exactly what I believe is behind the motivation of all the foot soldiers for the Nazi Empire. After all, what is really in it for them anyway? They're never going to see a piece of the pie they are killing and dying for. What is their motivation, if not a Super Cult?
Until we fully understand our enemy, we won't have a chance of defeating them.
#39
Quote Wikipedia:Canadians strongly support the health system's public rather than for-profit private basis, and a 2009 poll by Nanos Research found 86.2% of Canadians surveyed supported or strongly supported "public solutions to make our public health care stronger."[9][10] A Strategic Counsel survey found 91% of Canadians prefer their healthcare system instead of a U.S. style system.[11][12] Plus 70% of Canadians rated their system as working either "well" or "very well".[13]
A 2009 Harris/Decima poll found 82% of Canadians preferred their healthcare system to the one in the United States, more than ten times as many as the 8% stating a preference for a US-style health care system for Canada[14] while a Strategic Counsel survey in 2008 found 91% of Canadians preferring their healthcare system to that of the U.S.[11][12]
A 2003 Gallup poll found 25% of Americans are either "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with "the availability of affordable healthcare in the nation"
In addition to everything else, to say that the Canadian system and the current American system are the only two possibilities for healthcare is to create a false dichotomy.
#40
DAM etc. -- I have a colonoscopy annually (is that anally annually?). I have to do this because of ulcerative colitis which was the cause of bleeding colon I mentioned before. I probably have had 25 or more of them. They have changed over the years. The first 4 or 5 I was given some kind of intravaneious valium. That was wonderful, and I was aware of the procedure. I remember one year I had a splitting headache when they gave me the valium, As it moved through my veins, I could feel the headache disappear from the front of my head to the back of my head. The last 20 the just put me to "sleep". (damn it).
The main point that motivated me to write this blog entry was that no one mentioned the water diet I have to go on before the procedure. My doctor requests that I go on a clear water diet the day before the procedure (the first colonoscipies, he had be go on a 2 day water diet). That diet is the worse part for me.
Another interesting thing was the hospital charges and what insurance paid. While I was working the hospital would charge $10,000 and my insurance at work would pay $1000 (my cost was about $150 in 2005). The first year I went on medicare, the hospital charged $10,000 and medicare paid the whole amount (I think the republicans were trying to bankrupt medicare). Every year after that, medicare paid the $1000 like the insurance companies did.
#41
Quote chuckle8:DAM etc. -- I have a colonoscopy annually (is that anally annually?). I have to do this because of ulcerative colitis which was the cause of bleeding colon I mentioned before.
chuckle8 ~ That's strange. I have ulcerative colitis too--as well as diverticulitis and Crohn's Disease. Isn't colitis fun? The ultimate cost of a low fiber diet. I almost had to quit my job as a result of these "issues." I'm a field engineer and you know how it can be to be several miles from a bathroom when an episode occurs. Several miles and several feet really make little difference. Fortunately, I responded well to the least toxic treatment and now am in full remission. However, my Doctor only has me scheduled for colonoscopies every three years. Even that seems too frequent for me. Perhaps it is our ages that make that frequency of exam difference? That doesn't give me much to look forward too.
However, I have a friend in Mexico who just turned 90. He too has had ulcerative colitis for most of his life and has managed it well. He is one of the healthiest people I know for his age. I'll never forget when he was in his 80's he beat me walking up the to the top of Janitzio plaza in Mexico. If you've never been there Isla de Janitzio is the main island of Lake Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. Essentially, it is a city made up of irregular stairs that all lead up to the same statue platform. Even the statue at the top is hollow and has stairs leading all the way up to the head. I couldn't go that far. I'm afraid of heights and those stairs in the statute have no rail. All the houses, which are mostly partly tourist shops, are built on the stairs. My friend Daniel beat our entire party to the top and waited there patiently for the rest of us to show up. He wasn't winded and didn't even break a sweat. I hope I'm that wiry when I get that age.
I can't imagine what problem you have with a clear water diet. Perhaps being hungry? I love water and rarely drink anything else except tea and tequila--not necessarily in that order. I certainly would have no problem with being completely knocked out during the procedure. The least they could do is give me more sentatives. Being awake, alert and watching the screen--which my physician conveniently place right in front of my face--really isn't necessary. If I really wanted to shove my head up my a$$ I would become a Republican.
Any copay for any preventative procedure is an act of genocide. This is why I made the joke about the tactical nuke I made above. I wanted to emphasize the fact that people who undergo preventative procedures are really heros. Our goal should be having everyone undergo preventative procedures; and, as an incentive, we should not charge people anything. We should also make it clear that undergoing these procedures is a heroic act. When problems are caught early they cost less money and resources to deal with. That money and resources is then made available to treat others. Whenever, people have preventative procedures performed they are doing their part to save the lives of others, as well as themselves. They are heros, and should be treated as such as part of their incentive.
#42
Oh, man, DAnneMarc, what cool place. I wish I had known about it all those times I had to go down to Guadalajara. That Lake and Isle is about 130 miles southeast of Gudalajara. I've been to Lake Chapala which is part of the way to that other lake.
#43
Palindromedary ~ Yeah, that sure was a cool experience. The whole place is a tourist trap. They serve nice drinks to. I'm not sure what is in it but it get you feelin pretty good pretty fast. It has a combination of "stuff"; but, is mostly fruit punch. You can't taste any of the alcohol you see them pour into it. It comes in a large ceramic mug that was made right there and has a picture carved into it of the Island and a caption that says, "Remember Janitzio" in spanish. I still have the one I got there.
That statue at the top is pretty impressive too. All hollow and you can climb a spiral staircase that wraps around the inside walls all the way to the top of the head and look out of it--kinda like the Statue of Liberty. The thing that fascinated me the most about this statue--and many other such structures in Mexico--is the fact that there are no roads in Janitzio. No road, no cars, not even sidewalks--just stairs. All the material for this gigantic structure had to be hauled up there from boats by mule. What a task.
By the way, two questions. What happened to Nice Fluffy; and, what the heck is... That?
#44
Every now and then I read an article about copyright infringement and so I get nervous about it. So, I've solved the problem by creating my own masterpiece ;-}
#45
Oh! Nice Fluffy infringes on copyright? Really? I'd just love to see that lawsuit brought to trial. That blows me away! So does your art! Whatever floats your boat, buddy. As long as there is something to see, who cares?
#46
I don't know if it does or doesn't but I'm not going to press it. Who ever did that Fluffy photo (and I don't even remember what the original name of it was) was pretty talented...I thought. I remember first seeing it about 8 or so years ago.
Oh, well.
#47
To reboot the economy will require a serious reform of the system.
The capitalism practiced today is what, for a long time, I have termed “Hoggism,” propelled by greed and the sheer love of power over others. “Hoggism” institutionalizes greed (creating concentrated capital ownership, monopolies, and special privileges). “Hoggism” is about the ability of greedy rich people to manipulate the lives of people who struggle with declining labor worker earnings and job opportunities, and then accumulate the bulk of the money through monopolized productive capital ownership. Our scientists, engineers, and executive managers who are not owners themselves, except for those in the highest employed positions, are encouraged to work to destroy employment by making the capital “worker” owner more productive. How much employment can be destroyed by substituting machines for people is a measure of their success––always focused on producing at the lowest cost. Only the people who already own productive capital are the beneficiaries of their work, as they systematically concentrate more and more capital ownership in their stationary 1 percent ranks. Yet the 1 percent are not the people who do the overwhelming consuming. The result is the consumer populous is not able to get the money to buy the products and services produced as a result of substituting machines for people. And yet you can’t have mass production without mass human consumption. It is the exponential disassociation of production and consumption that is the problem in the United States economy, and the reason that ordinary citizens must gain access to productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being.
Binary economist Louis Kelso postulated: “When consumer earning power is systematically acquired in the course of the normal operations of the economy by people who need and want more consumer goods and services, the production of goods and services should rise to unprecedented levels; the quality and craftsmanship of goods and services, freed of the cornercutting imposed by the chronic shortage of consumer purchasing power, should return to their former high levels; competition should be brisk; and the purchasing power of money should remain stable year after year.”
Without this necessary balance hopeless poverty, social alienation, and economic breakdown will persist, even though the American economy is ripe with the physical, technical, managerial, and engineering prerequisites for improving the lives of the 99 percent majority. Why? Because there is a crippling organizational malfunction that prevents making full use of the technological prowess that we have developed. The system does not fully facilitate connecting the majority of citizens, who have unsatisfied needs and wants, to the productive capital assets enabling productive efficiency and economic growth.
Kelso said, “We are a nation of industrial sharecroppers who work for somebody else and have no other source of income. If a man owns something that will produce a second income, he’ll be a better customer for the things that American industry produces. But the problem is how to get the working man [and woman] that second income.”
The "how" is answered in the Agenda of The JUST Third Way Movement at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797, http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-basic-principles-of-economic-and-social-justice-by-norman-g-kurland/, http://www.cesj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/jtw-graphicoverview-2013.pdf and http://www.cesj.org/resources/articles-index/the-just-third-way-a-new-vision-for-providing-hope-justice-and-economic-empowerment/; Monetary Justice at http://capitalhomestead.org/page/monetary-justice; and the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-a-plan-for-getting-ownership-income-and-power-to-every-citizen/ and http://www.cesj.org/learn/capital-homesteading/capital-homestead-act-summary/.
#48
Gary R -- What was wrong with tax/economic structure of the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's? Why try something new when we have a system that worked?
#49
Chuck- even in the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties and seventies, we had poverty in America. Just not as much. But in my not-so-humble opinion, any amount of poverty is too much. And let's not forget how black folks were systematically and maliciously excluded from the policies that so benefitted the rest of us! Norman Rockwell's America is sheer fantasy. - Alice I.W.
#50
Alice -- I responded to this topic somewhere else. The policies of LBJ were driving the poverty level down quickly. Do you know how they measure poverty? The repugs say we do not truthfully report poverty. They say we do not count the welfare they receive as part of their income. I would think we, the left, would count it both ways; that is, with and without welfare.
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Palin, here is the problem. My mom about a year ago found out she had lung cancer. Because she had a good doctor NOT money she was bumped up to the front of the line and received quicker care. As the article said here in Alberta she would have waited approx 85 days to see a specialist And probaly died. Of course I would have sent south to get help sooner if this didn't happen. It's who you know here.
In Canada you can use your money to gamble, smoke, drink, by drugs but you can't buy health care. Because you might go ahead of someone else Without the means. it is a very heated debate that has been going on for ever. They now let you buy private surgeries like knee, hip, shoulder because the wait times where over a year in some cases. Let me be clear this is only available in none life threating health problems.
what we both need is something in between what we both have. One of our biggest problems is how uneffecient it it ran. It seems everything the government touches is a disaster.
Thanks for reading it. It seems we are more concerned about whether gays should get married, or pipelines then our health.
For the record I am for both.