Go, Joe!

BREAKING: Joe Biden is on fire again! Delivering a great speech, as I'm composing this, at the DNC! I'm so proud to be a lifelong Democrat, especially at this moment in history. We haven't always dared to be daring, dared to be strong enough in our platform (and, by "we", I mean my party--I myself have been daring as all get out since I was a small sprout, but I digress #AlwaysVeryLiberal/Progressive), but I feel that now, in large part thanks to my beloved Bernie and all of us Berners, quite frankly, and our influence on the party, as well as thanks to a convergence of demographic influences and socioeconomic influences and other factors coming together, I'm hearing some GOOD, substantive stuff coming from Joe, for one, and we have also managed to PASS some good stuff recently. But we have so, so much more that urgently needs DOING!

While the repugs talk about cutting--read: eliminating--Social Security and Medicare, which we all pay into with every paycheck for our entire lives, so they truly ARE entitlements, don't let the repugs' attempts to make that into a dirty word succeed: Social Security and Medicare ARE entitlements--we all pay into them all our lives, and are thus entitled to them, we, Democrats, are talking about PROTECTING same. What we really need is single-payer, universal health care (among other things, but I got thinking about single payer due to mentioning the repugs actually trying to cut/eliminate Medicare, when we need to be trending the OTHER WAY, massively), but anyway: Joe is on fire, I appreciate him, and I think he is getting BETTER with age, like a fine, deep, complex vintage wine. You go, dear Joe!

P.S. For goodness/democracy's sake, VOTE in November! And vote BLUE!

The Health Care Shortage

I think I've hit a low in this whole (cue the Grateful Dead) "long strange trip" of job hunting.  My interview yesterday actually went great but their advertisement was false, stating that health insurance is a benefit.  Turns out:  no health insurance.  This is America.  You need health insurance through your employer.  Especially in states like mine that do not have a way for people with low or no income to get healthcare unless you can pay FULL PRICE for the ACA (which only has discounted rates for people who don't need discounted rates, because America--if you have low or no income, you are supposed to go onto Medicaid, but, if you are in Florida or 11 other states, you cannot do that, either, especially if you don't have a child, because why on earth would anyone without a child possibly need health care, per Republican logic).

So, even though the Deputy Director who interviewed me loved me, said "I can tell you, you are one of my top candidates", interviewed me for an hour and ten minutes, even though it was a preliminary interview and was only scheduled to last for 15 minutes, and told me that, as soon as she saw my resume, she said to herself (pointing to it as she said this to me), "that one", we hit it off amazingly, and the job sounds potentially awesome, I CAN'T TAKE A JOB WITH NO HEALTH INSURANCE WHAT THE ACTUAL H*LL.

The media just keeps insisting that there is a "labor shortage".  Really?  I think there is a health care shortage.  I think there is a wage shortage.  I think there is a shortage of sane policy in my beloved country.  I think, as hard as I look for work, I may never find a job again.  Because I have a shortage of ability to take a job without health benefits.  Because this is the United States of America, and your health insurance is tied to your employer.  The ACA is flawed and pathological and doesn't change anything that is fundamentally soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wrong and unsustainable and obscene and infuriating about our private-insurance-based, for-profit healthcare system.

I personally have a shortage of understanding of, and patience for, the fact that so many in my country still do not grasp that we need single payer healthcare, and it seems to me we will never get there.  Even my beloved Bernie only talks about Medicare for All anymore, and Medicare is not true single payer health care.  But I would be only too thrilled if America went to a Medicare for All system, as I think that is the absolute most we can hope for in this insane country-o-mine.  So, idealist though Bernie is, he's still more realistic than I, and thus he is only pushing for that, and he isn't even pushing hard for that anymore.  He's just trying to get Medicare to cover things like dental, he's not even pushing for lowering the age.  No one is.  Not anymore.  It's like, it's over.  They won't even lower the Medicare age, let alone expand it to cover all Americans.  They now might even take the ACA coverage gap fix out of the Build Back Better bill, because Manchin et al. are acting up again, and somehow saying that because Virginia went Red last night, that means it is the fault of progressives, so we (the Democratic Party) now must veer back to being Repug Lite.

Same old, same old.  And meanwhile, I don't have health insurance.  Or an income.  And there's a shortage of calling things what they really are.  A health care shortage is called a "labor shortage".  Up is down, black is white, war is peace, Orwell was right.

Why are things like this, in the richest country in the world?

Thank you, Bernie

Thank you, Bernie

Thank you for being the first political figure in my lifetime who truly represents me, everything I stand for, and everything I dream in my wildest dreams for my country and the world.

Thank you for changing the conversation in this country.

Thank you for giving eloquent, clear and inspiring voice to everything I’ve believed since I was 19 years old and had long since given up on a presidential candidate ever actually fighting for.

Thank you for the validation that came from learning, when I was 19 years old, that the new mayor of Burlington, Vermont was a democratic socialist, just like I had only months earlier realized I was, after discovering it on a college group study trip to Europe. You were the only person in America, let alone the only politician in America, who even knew what I was talking about, let alone shared that world view with me and identified as such.

Thank you for making “single payer healthcare” a kitchen table topic that doesn’t instantly get laughed out of the room.

Thank you for being a true social change activist, and a successful one, dedicating your entire life to effecting social change and trying to bring America to economic and ethical health.

Times may—hell, they do—seem very, very dark right now. It may seem like we will never get to the America you and I, and so many, many others (I know now that there are many of us, thanks to you and our movement), want and understand that we desperately need to get to for the aforementioned economic and ethical health of our country. But you know the old truism: it’s always darkest before the dawn.

Bernie, you have started something that no one can now stop. You have inspired people and gotten people to think, you’ve put ideas out there and sparked people’s imaginations. No one can undo that. And now we go on. Not me, us. From the deepest, most idealistic, imaginative and hopeful depths of my heart and soul, I thank you, Bernie.

Speaking of vertigo: up is down and down is up… or so those against single payer argue.

Okay, kiddos, it’s time for a little (read: YUUUUUUUUUGE) rant outta yours truly here.

It’s regarding one particular bit of disinformation that those who are against a single payer healthcare system always whip out as a fear tactic, when the reality of the sitch is that nothing could be further from the actual truth! If one is going to argue against something, one should have one’s facts straight. Yet repug candidates for office always run fear-inducing ads with the LIE I’m about to discuss, when the reality is that our CURRENT health care system, which is TOTALLY controlled by private insurance companies, is the system to which the following LIE-when-said-to-apply-to-single-payer actually applies.

Before I say what it is, I’ll say why I’m ranting about it right at this moment: I just experienced the ACTUAL reality of our CURRENT, private-insurance-controlled, employer-based health care system, and it is one that REALLY “won’t let you choose your own doctors”. YEP: that's the lie they try to scare you with re single payer, when the reality is that, under a true single payer system, YOU CAN GO TO ANY DOCTOR IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, no matter if you change your employer, no matter if you don’t have an employer, no matter if you live in Alaska and want to see someone in Maine: up to YOU. Yet Republicans (mainly, but also others who are against single payer) are constantly saying that “the government won’t let you pick your doctor!” LIE. Or that “the government will make you change doctors from the one you have”. LIE—just another version of the first lie. And not only is it a blatant lie, what is doubly infuriating is, THAT IS THE SITUATION UNDER PRIVATE-INSURANCE-COMPANY-BASED HEALTH CARE!

Case in point that happened to me today: Maybe you saw my very recent Facebook post about my vertigo coming back last Saturday. Well, it is still with me, so I called the fantastic place I went for treatment in 2011, and to which I’ve always felt comforted to think that, if I ever needed a second treatment, I could go back. The insurance I had at the time (in 2011) was a PPO which means that you usually didn’t need a referral for a specialist, but in the case of this place, you did need a referral BY a specialist, saying that you need this particular place/treatment. ANYWAY, so in 2011, I had all that and I was treated. Today, I called the center, to tell them that I was a patient in 2011, my vertigo has flared up, and if I want to come back, do I need a referral like I did last time, as I have new insurance now? Oh, what insurance do you have, they asked. I told them. The response I got was “We can’t accept Blue Cross Blue Shield--they won’t allow us in their network.” Oh NO, I said. It hadn’t even occurred to me that BCBS wouldn’t have this place (a renowned center for balance/vestibular disorders) in their network. “But we can submit it out of network.” No, I said, you can’t: the plan I’m on does NOT have ANY out-of-network benefits. It’s an “EPO”, which means, in a nutshell, NO out-of-network benefits.

So tell me again, repugs-and-other-anti-single-payer-peeps, how a single payer plan is going to mean I can’t choose my doctor. What the bleep do you think we have RIGHT NOW? I’ll tell you: we have private insurance companies and employers dictating who is and isn’t “in network”. Whereas, with single payer, THERE ARE NO NETWORKS.

I’ve been at my employer/job for 19 years, going on 20. We’ve had many different insurance companies and plans in that time. They change insurance companies every few years. We are now back to the insurance company we had in 1999, when I started here. Every time they change, your doctor could be suddenly “out of network”. What if it was my oncologist? The one who is supposed to follow me for 5 years after my ovarian cancer in 2017? She’s in network, thank God, but it just as easily could have been that she isn’t. I was really scared when the company announced we were changing insurance companies this year.

I am OVER our health care system! I’m one of the very lucky ones WITH insurance. Yet I just got told by a provider I need (they are the only place of their kind in this region) that my insurance company “won’t allow us in their network”. So if I hear ONE more repug or anyone else LYING about single payer, saying “the government will choose your doctors!”, when actually, that’s the OPPOSITE of the truth, I may just spontaneously combust. And, if I do, I pray that whatever hospital I’m transported to is in-network.

P.S. The other lie is that single payer is so expensive for both individual Americans and the American economy: Another LIE. Individual Americans would save significant money every year as, though taxes might go up, you would have ZERO insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance. And as for our economy, our CURRENT, private-insurance-based system is totally unsustainable and conflict-of-interest-ridden, whereas a government run, single-payer system is economically sustainable AND covers every single American citizen.

But yeah, just keep spreading lies about it, Republicans and others who are against it. Just keep lying. While meanwhile, Americans with jobs are going bankrupt due to health issues, many Americans aren’t even covered, the insurers have a conflict of interest when it comes to providing care versus making huge profits, and last but not least, our current economically unsustainable insurance-based system is just that: unsustainable, with costs continuing to skyrocket and it is hurting our entire economy.

But just keep lying.

Democratic Socialism v. Socialism: A Politics 101 Lesson for Donny John & Co.

Okay, Donny John, you're in luck! I don't want to do what I absolutely need to be doing today, thus I am have time to give you a lesson in political science. I will keep it sort and sweet--one blurb--as I know you have the attention span of a flea.

Pencil ready? Okay--yes, you may use your cell phone instead. But do take notes on this, because clearly--from your little "we will keep America from becoming a socialist country" dig at Bernie, AOC, and all of us you sneeringly referred to often in your 2016 campaign rallies as "Bernie people"--you don't understand the difference between "socialism" and "democratic socialism". So here's a little succinct lesson gleaned from a quick Google:

"The key difference between socialism and democratic socialism is that democratic socialists don't want the government to own the means of production and socialists do. They believe that certain general social goods like health care should be run by the government, but otherwise support capitalism."

Okay, you can go out and play now. But no bullying the other children.

Bernie and us Berners Have Moved the Democratic Party and Our Country Forward

Bernie, his vision, his priorities, his platform, his leadership, his eloquence, his refusal to let the media drag him off message, his insistence on sticking to substance and never talking down to the American people, his entire 2016 campaign, and last but not least, all of US--the Berners!--really accomplished a tremendous amount in 2016, though right now, with the situation in the White House, it may not seem that way.

Bernie, his vision, his priorities, his platform, his leadership, his eloquence, his refusal to let the media drag him off message, his insistence on sticking to substance and never talking down to the American people, his entire 2016 campaign, and last but not least, all of US--the Berners!--really accomplished a tremendous amount in 2016, though right now, with the situation in the White House, it may not seem that way.

What did he, and we, do? We moved the dialog, discuss...ion and talking points in this country. We changed not only the 2016 platform of the Democratic Party, but we changed what are considered valid, mainstream ideas and issues moving forward, for the future of our party and this country!

Single payer? It's now not laughed out of the room. It's mainstream, Kamala Harris has come out strongly for it upon announcing her campaign, to my utter thrilledness. SINGLE PAYER NOW! I've been shouting for it since long about 1980, when I first came of age, and happened to go to Europe for a class in college one semester, and learned, while I was there, of a little thing called single payer, and democratic socialism. WOW. Brought some buttons (political) home with me. Still have them. Still for single payer. Know it is what our country needs for a health care system if we are ever going to have one that is economically sustainable and morally/ethically right--in other words, if we are going to have a health care system that is healthy for our country in more ways than one. Single payer now? Yes, Virginia: NOW!

Finally!

Thank you, dear, unwavering, unfaltering, Bernie Sanders. And thank you, me, you and all of us because we stood together, we raised our voices and our candles high in the air, and the party and the nation has taken note, and notes. Single payer is kitchen table talk now. He did that. We did that. Never think that you can't make a difference.

 

All The Ways 2020 Democrats Sounds More Like Bernie Than Hillary

Bernie Supporters Do Not Want "Free Stuff"

Republicans and DINOs are saying that Berners want "free stuff". This is not the truth.

Under trickle-down Reaganomics, which has dominated our country since 1980, it has been 36 years of "free stuff" for the 1% on the backs of the 99%. We are not the ones who don't want to pay our fair share of taxes. We want to pay our fair share, and have been paying it all along. The 1% don't want to pay theirs, and have not been paying it, for 36 years. They've been freeloading for 36 years. They don't want to invest in the people, infrastructure or environment.

Republicans and DINOS do not want the tax structure changed so that everyone--all of us--are paying our fair share.  They want to continue with unfair tax breaks for the very rich and for corporations.  They want a society that, as Bernie says, is rigged, in which the fix is in and all the money actually trickles UP to the top.

Bernie and Bernie supporters want a society that is for the people--for all the people.  It is a question of priorities, not of "free stuff".  We want our tax money to be invested back into the people, in the form of health care for all, child care, maternity and paternity leave, college education, and other things that benefit our entire society in so many deep, enduring ways.  We want to invest in our infrastructure and our environment, instead of in wars for oil so that private corporations can get richer at the expense of our kids getting killed, and our blood and treasure being spent for no reason other than to explode the deficit and enrich private corporations.

So please understand:  it is the Republicans and DINOS who truly want "free stuff":  they don't want to pay their fair share of taxes.  They have proudly stated this for 36 years--this is what their candidates run on:  lowering taxes.  Not only is this "trickle-down" model that we have been living under for 36 years unfair, it is very unhealthy for our society, both ethically and economically.  It exploits and essentially makes the 99% slaves to the 1%, and it is also not sustainable, as it explodes the deficit when you have the richest among us not paying their share of taxes.

Meanwhile, while the Republicans and DINOs want "free stuff"--no taxes, no regulations, just allow the rich to hoard everything, on the backs of the workers of this country--by contrast, Bernie supporters DO want to pay our fair share, and we want our money to go toward making things so much better for all of us, for everyone.  That is what democratic socialism is.  It is ethical and it is economically sustainable, two things our current system is not.

While Bernie and Berners say: "Not me, us.", Republicans (and DINOS) say "Not us, ME."

Berners are the true patriots!!!!!!!!!  It doesn't get more patriotic than Democratic Socialism:  everyone pays their fair share of taxes, and that money gets invested back into the people and society, for the greater good.  It is far more ethical and economically sustainable than our current tax structure and set of national priorities.