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Ted Cruz is an ASS
and he made himself one with his long tirade.
BYe BYe CRUZ
From what I understand, some states...like, for example, California which has one of the largest non-insured health care populations in the US..but ties with 4 other states... has about 20% of the population non insured. So, California has an approved-by-the-state kind of a broker, called "Covered California", that bargains with the health care providers, ostensibly to keep rates low. The California web site is:
www.coveredca.com
My state...the great state of Pandemonium..which is just North East of the state of Maine..doesn't have this broker entity yet....but we're all healthy and never "supersize those fries" so we are all going to opt for paying the penalty of 1% of our income. And the money we save in one year will let us all buy another yacht and winter home in Greenland.
Good for senator Cruz, at least he knows how to stand up for what he believes in and giving a voice to the millions of people that elected him to represent their concerns. Bravo, what a refreshing idea to actually represent the people and stick it in the face of the go along to get along ruling elite. I think the polls show that most people oppose the implementation of Obamacare and it's 10 to 20000 pages of job killing regulations. Maybe this will at least put it in the sunlight for those 40 percent of Americans that are unaware that it is a law and the consequences it is already pounding our economy with.
I support our President entirely on all he stated in this address. He's very smart and knows what he's doing. But, of course I'll probably get several 'Haters' to blab some vile epitaph about MY statement... who never even voted, or worse, voted for the guy who didn't even WANT to be preisdent.
Kend -- We do refine it and use it in the US. The keystone pipeline and even the Enbridge pipeline are being built only to ship fuel (the US's no. 1 export) to China.
The way ACA (aka: Obama Care) will work is that you will have to make premium payments to the insurance companies, every month, based on what they have determined to be what they will charge for those premiums; and, at the end of the year, if you qualify, you may get a check back from the government as a rebate depending upon what you qualify for based upon your income, age, and number of dependents..and their ages.
And that is the data you provide when using those on-line calculators to determine what you will be paying. But, I suspect that there are other factors that they don't put up front in those calculators....preexisting conditions! Yes, ACA says that insurers can't prevent you from getting their insurance based on preexisting conditions...but...they don't tell you that the insurance companies will increase your premiums based on your preexisting conditions. If you go to any health insurance web site and go to fill out their forms...they always ask about preexisting conditions. Maybe the law should have included prevention of insurance companies from even asking about preexisting conditions and preventing them from increasing your premiums based on preexisting conditions.
It also doesn't limit what they can charge the next years and they could just greatly increase premiums once everyone is forced to participate.
If people aren't now buying health insurance because they can't afford those steep monthly payments..then how the heck are they going to pay those monthly payments all year and then have to wait for the government check at the end of the year?
I still think many people will see that a penalty of non-compliance of 1% (for the first year) of their yearly incomes are going to be way, way less than even one monthly premium. Even all the years following, as the penalties get steeper, will still be far less than even one month of insurance premiums. So, many people will likely opt out.
And look at all the "opt outs" that some people can claim: Religious grounds? What a farce! Everyone could then claim their religion forbids it and not get penalized for non-participation.
Feedback: a caller mentioned.
Remember that guy that put in a plug for The National Exchange Club?
I looked that up, and I'm wondering if it's not ALEC Junior.ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council
Here's their website https://www.nationalexchangeclub.org/content/about-exchange
"Each member of Exchange holds near to their heart three core values – Family, Community and Country."
They have an "Exchange Covenant of Service" and a scary looking "Americanism" effort, hell-bent on keeping "under God" in the pledge of allegiance which they want every student to swear to.
Questionable at least, but I'm wondering if it's not really ALEC in training.
mike-c: The UN was never supposed to be used for fighting proxy wars on behalf of a hegemonic country (eg: the U.S.) trying to illegally oust foreign heads of state. That certainly was what the US did in Iraq (and other countries as well) and that's what they are trying to do in Syria. Overthrowing countries leaders is not part of the original UN charter. Most of those within the UN that oppose the US are quite right to do so. For the UN to have gotten involved in what was obviously an attempt by the US, Britain, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to oust the Assad regime for political reasons, or for yet another pipeline, would have been totally against what the UN stands for.
If it had really been the case of a murderous regime killing it's people just for the fun of it then the UN would be justified in taking action against that murderous regime to prevent even more murders of civilians. Yes, the Assad regime has murdered many of it's civilians (but many have also been murdered by the rebels) but it was in defense against being attacked by elements that wanted to oust it. And those elements were rallied and trained to foment internal dissent by outside forces...like the US.
Same thing happened in Iran when Mossadegh was popularly chosen as their leader but wouldn't play ball with western powers.
What would happen in the US if the people formed massive demonstrations in all cities in the US? Things would escalate as the President sent out police and military to put down the demonstrations. Violence would happen on both fronts and many people would be hurt or killed. Other countries viewing this might have the same opinion of the Obama Regime as US politicians have of the Assad Regime.
For sure the Democrat Party lies about as much as the Republicans do. I believe, however, that the left wing media (when some within the "left wing media" are not hyping the fake Democrats) is a lot more honest than all the other right wing owned media including CNN, MSNBC, PBS and all the others except FSTV, LinkTV, and Russia Today.
As for all the other oil pipelines, besides the ones that are currently being disputed: yes, there are most likely a lot of them but they don't have to carry tar sands oil like the Keystone pipelines do. They do not have to have as much pressure in those pipelines as is necessary in the Keystone tar sands oil pipelines to push the oil through. And it would be way better if we had alternative energy like solar, wind, and geothermal so that we wouldn't have to have any oil pipelines at all. I'm sure that those non tar-sands oil pipelines also occasionally leak as well which is why it would be good to get rid of them all. The US hasn't even gotten rid of all their chemical weapons stockpiles...something like 6 of those very dangerous and aging stockpiles...some of which are leaking. The government says...Oh, it is really expensive to get rid of chemical weapons. What an excuse for a war mongering empire that spends trillions on the military and fighting illegal wars. I'd bet that they still have on-going biological weapons research and manufacturing as well.
Palindromedary - even if the fighting is another proxy war, where has the UN been? Considering the fact that the US has adversaries in the UN, some country, by now, should have raised an issue for intervention in this long-going conflict. There has been enough anti-US sentiment in the UN before (with resulting bickering) to make me think the US hasn't totally silenced opposition to any international connivances that our government does. The deafening silence by the UN on Syria makes me wonder if some hidden agenda (as you put forth) is now being accepted worldwide and, if so, the UN has become a puppet of US power. Perhaps, all of those millions of US dollars given out to foreign countries for whatever purpose is now paying off?
Palin no I do not have stock in oil companies. I don't buy stock to me they are all as crooked as banks. Of course there is spills. But they are contained and cleaned up.
I have to get the left wing media credit. They did a great job getting people to believe All of their lies. If pipelines are so bad why doesn't anyone protest the existing ones. Actually I can answer that. It's because they don't even know where they are.
You must know that this is called GREED, not caring about the poor, and working people?...
they get their ability to stay rich, and above the law? from who???
SOLUTIONS ...
cut all war spending and declare PEACE! shut down all the military bases around the world, we are not the policeman of the world...we have no right to tell other countries what to do with WMD, the US bombed millions in Japan, and hirosima for our tests...they are still suffering! and DRONES KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN EVERDAY, INCLUDING THE INNOCENT people, all the poor countries we gave money (aid for peace? or food, or bases) using our tax dollars! The US has lost all morale value, and any spiritual growth.
We need to return to the PEACE CORPS and start feeding the hungry, and clean up our act...start with GREEN RENEWABLE CLEAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY NOW....do you know that 300 tons of nuclear waste are spilling into the ocean every day!!! this is WMD!!!! planetary exstintion...we need to be infored with the truth!!! no more lies by corrupt congress....go green, recycle Congress!!
Lloyd Lutterman: I agree! The US and it's partners like Saudi Arabia. It doesn't take much to make chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction. Nukes are more difficult but not impossible. We need to get Israel to get rid of all their WMD...like nukes and white phosphorus (like they used against the Palestinians) and get rid of the other chemical weapons they have. And the US needs to do the same. How can it take the high ground when they also have these things?
Why would it be much safer? And why would it be better not to get oil from Venezuela...they have actually been very generous...despite how the US treats them like $h!t. It has everything to do with safety. One of those pipes has already burst open and gushed out many barrels of oil...and it's not just oil...it's tar sand oil which is much worse than just oil...highly corrosive. Tar sand oil is a lot more viscous and it requires heating it to make it less viscous and it also requires a lot more pressure in those pipes to push the oil through. That pressure and heat takes it's toll on the stresses that a pipe can take. How many more ruptures are we going to see?
The oil from Venezuela is what is called "sweet oil" and is very good quality...not so the corrosive tar sands oil that comes from Canada.
You defend that oil so strongly that I suspect that you have a lot riding on those pipelines...you must have a lot of stock, or something, in oil companies. I think you once said that you used to work for oil companies. Actually, so did I...in Saudi Arabia. But I am sure not defending Saudi Arabia or any of the oil companies that I worked for over there. But then I also don't have anything riding on any of those oil companies or Saudi Arabia. I say "oil companies" because Aramco was owned by several American oil companies and by Saudi Arabia at the time.
mike-c: The war in Syria is a proxy war against the Assad regime. The US, Saudi Arabia, Britain, and others are using proxy outside forces to battle the Assad regime. They want you to believe that it is a rebellion of the Syrian people against Assad. But most of the fighters are from outside of Syria. Since Assad is friendly with Russia and Iran and controls whether a pipe line goes through... that would adversely affect Iran. The US, and the others, have instigated and fomented instability in Syria to make it look like a civil war. But it's not...it's a proxy war by outsiders.
The CIA used to do all of this fomenting internal instability, buying elections, assassinating leaders. But now they have institutions with liberal sounding names like International Center for Non-Violent Conflict (ICNC) and Freedom House (etal) to do the internal destabilization by sending in groups of people to inspire and train the people on how to create instability.
That leads to government crack downs, which leads to violence. Then, the covert backers (like the US) send in weapons and mercenaries to escalate the conflict under the guise of helping the "freedom fighters" that they want you to believe are the people of Syria.
During the cold war...all these proxy wars were called Low Intensity Conflict (LIC). The big boys (Russia and the US) fought each other using proxies (although they actually sent our troops over to lead the destruction) instead of going all out nuclear war. They tried to wear each other down. The capitalist war mongers loved it because they all made lots of money off the deaths of millions of people.
The US won the wear down with the Soviet Union and then found themselves lacking an enemy and no excuse to continue making lots of money from killing people. They needed a new enemy that would frighten the tax payers out of their money again. So they tried the drug wars..but after we all became privy as to who the real drug lords were (banksters and congress people and Presidents), that kind of dissipated. It just didn't have enough scare tactic to make the people very afraid anymore. They needed a new boogeyman...something that would really scare them out of their liberties and freedoms...and money.
Now, it is "terrorism" by the "evil Muslims" that hijack planes that crash them into tall buildings. Or, at least, that was the false flag operation the Neocons used. (The "hijackers" were patsies and the airliners were electronically hijacked and guided to hit their targets which had been planted with demolition explosives.)
Now, the Al Qaeda terrorists are our friends and used as proxy fighters killing lots of people, including Christians (Maaloula, Syria and elsewhere in Syria). Of course, those new friends are being heavily armed with chemical weapons by the west to be used as a false flag to blame Assad in order to trigger an attack from the US. And you can bet that Al Qaeda will one day turn right around, with all those Weapons of Mass Destruction, use them against the west as they did after the Afghanistan-Russian war. They may get Assad to give up his chemical weapons but who will root out all those chemical weapons that Al Qaeda has hidden away?
If the western capitalist pig war mongers push hard enough, they may get their jollies once again by getting their old enemy back and we can all, once again, start worrying about world nuclear annihilation again. The capitalist pigs would no longer have to create a false flag...a new Pearl Harbor...as was 9/11... to frighten the people into submission. We'll all be singing the "Duck and Cover" song and having nightmares of mushroom clouds....real ones this time.
Corporations aka US manufacture the WMDs
Palin, the oil spill north of Edmonton was minor at best. I live here, it didnt even make the news here. We have been sending energy down there through pipelines for 60 years. With almost no problems At all. Keystone is not going through or over any aquifers. That has been changed.
Keystone would just replace the oil they are getting from Venezuela that is shipped there through the Gulf of Mexico. It would be much safer.
I have know idea what tax breaks you are talking about that oil companies are getting. Maybe because most of the Oil Companies up here are American owned they get some breaks down there.
Oh ya. By the way there are a lot of pipelines from Alaska running through Canada.
This has nothing to do with safety. All of he States have aproved it. This is political And that is just stupid.
Kend: I was trying to be ironic and making fun against the US propensity of creating false flags in order to invade, occupy, and murder civilians...something I would sincerely hope would never happen against Canada or Mexico or even Venezuela. It shouldn't have happened against the Middle East.
I have nothing against Canada...very beautiful place and wonderful people. But I understand that most of that pipeline oil, after it is processed down in Texas or Louisiana, will be shipped out of the US, anyway. The people in the US will not benefit from Canadian Oil. Only the price manipulating oil companies will benefit.
But the people, who live by those pipelines are in very precarious positions and are sacrificing the most but receiving nothing in return. Look at the busted pipelines that have happened already polluting lakes and rivers and running down the sidewalks and streets past people's houses. This is a nightmare always waiting to happen. And you've had some pretty horrendous problems up there just North East of Edmonton...massive oil leaking into that lake.
Why would it not be better to run those pipelines to your own coasts to ship overseas instead of running those pipeline through people's back or front yards in the US? I know that you Canadians get benefits from your oil in big tax breaks. So, it is in your interests to sell us on the idea of a pipeline through the US. But people in the US are not going to receive anything but massive pollution every time those pipelines burst occasionally. And they run right over gigantic aquifers that are heavily depended upon for farmers raising crops and animals not to mention drinking water.
One aspect of the Syria rebellion that seems to be ignored is - why has the UN failed to respond in the two years of this bloodshed? Sure, they finally began to show an interest when chemicals were used, but why have they balked?
It appears that the world was waiting for the U S to finally DO SOMETHING because no one else would. So, when Obama steps up, all of a sudden he's a warmonger. Of course, he's going to threaten the users of chemical weapons and he explained why - because the world powers should not put up with a government gassing its own people. If anyone objects to that, I'd like to know why.
Btw, using a threat of military intervention to get a government to act differently is certainly nothing new. Perhaps if people cannot understand this, they better review world history.
Palin. "No problem with the US getting CAN oil" are you kidding me. Even though every state has approved Keystone, every environmental sudy has been approved, there are 62 pipelines from Canada to the US already, safely shipping 2.2 million barrels of energy a day your President still says no.
This from a country that with the exception of Vietnam, has stood shoulder to shoulder with you in every conflict you have ever been in. Canadians are always the first ones there to help you with disasters like fire, floods, droughts etc. we share the largest undefended border in the world. Then you spit in our face when you prefer oil from Venasula, and announce you will go to war for Middle East countries to let the world get there oil.
Let me ask you, what have those countries ever done for you. America doesn't have enough freinds already. Be carefully you don't lose your best one.
Chuckle, your right but why don't we refine it and use it in the US.
This would of course be the same 10 years war for oil that Jimmy Carter warned America about over 30 years ago. But then the Reagan administration, after a treasonous manipulation of the hostage crisis for the purpose of election won the election, then they promptly removed the symbolic solar panels from the White House.. And reversed Jimmy Carter's attempt to take America down a green path. Since then America has been much more controlled by big money, whether Democrat or Republican. And big money is not interested in green, hence war.
Kend -- I think the US could become energy by assuring that our no. 1 export is not fuel. The pipeline will only increase the exporting of fuel and provide nothing for North America.
agenda 21 http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-true-story-of-the-bilderberg-group-and-...
Kend: Don't have your feelings hurt...just be thankful that the US isn't invading Canada and murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians...just for kicks! As long as there is no problem with the US getting Canadian oil...it has to go over to the Middle East to kill people.