Clear and Present Danger

Oh my God. Waking up to hearing a recording of 45 ranting and raving about how the investigation into the Russian interference in our 2016 election was a "coup" and an "attempted overthrow of our government" and that those conducting the investigation are "sick people", etc.

I cannot wait until this sick (I've commented before on how everything the president calls those he is attacking and attempting to dehumanize and vilify are names that actually project things that are true of him), very dangerous, lawless president is impeached and removed from office, as I have been 100% certain he will be for a very long time, and as I have thought, even before becoming 100% certain that he will be, that he would be if he were elected, even since the 2016 primaries. The man is lawless, as I said. We are a nation that is based, thankfully, on the rule of law. So those two facts are incompatible. This man cannot stay in office. As I have said many, many times: this is not partisan, at all. 45 is a clear and present danger to our country. He has to go. It is a constitutional imperative.

Anyway, his rantings and ravings, since the Mueller report is now finally actually coming out (we still need the redacted parts to get revealed to Congress, but that will happen), and since he knows it is bad and there is even much *more* to come out with all the ongoing investigations, grand juries and Congressional subpoenas, have gotten much, much worse. 45 knows the walls are closing in. 45 was dangerous enough before this. We are now not only in a full-blown constitutional crisis, we also have to be keenly aware that 45 is completely dangerous and could do anything at this point, to attempt to distract attention from what is happening and unite the country behind him: such as: start a war. He doesn't care. He has no allegiance to our country, no empathy or feeling for other human beings, no sense of responsibility as a President. As I have been shouting since 2016, 45 is a sociopath and a mercenary. He is a dangerous form of a narcissistic personality, I believe they even call it "malignant" narcissism. He *only* cares about himself. He's not only capable of *anything* to distract us and to attempt to unite his stupid (sorry not sorry) and hateful followers, one of which I tried yesterday to reason with and it just reaffirmed to me that they cannot be reasoned with and also they are never going to see him as a problem whatsoever, no matter what comes out--so frankly who cares, we have to go around them and just concentrate on our laws, our constitution, and helping our beautiful system to work as designed (translation: call your Congress person and your Senators and express your deep concern over how dangerous this president is), he's also quite capable--in fact, it a huge part of how he won the nomination of his party, and the presidency--of exploiting divisions, inciting violence and whipping up hate. He enjoys it. It's fuel to him. It, along with the McDonald's food, keeps him going. That's his diet: McDonald's food, hatemongering, watching Fox, and tweeting.

We are in deep, deep trouble. This is a very scary moment in American history. But I believe in our constitution and our wisely designed system of checks and balances, and I believe in the majority of we, the people, in this country. We will rise up and form a human chain around the aforementioned constitution. We'll save and protect it, and it will save and protect us.

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

Impeach 45

It is a constitutional imperative to begin impeachment proceedings re 45. He has, and continues to, violate our precious constitution in so many ways, he is a clear and present danger to our country, and a treasonous traitor.

It's getting close to 2020 now. Some may be thinking, oh, let's just wait it out. Focus on 2020. I say we cannot set the precedent that a US President can get away with the violations of the constitution that this man has done and is doing, and we cannot tolerate a traitor in the White House.

Start the impeachment process now, for the sake of the present and future health of our constitution, rule of law, and country.

Impeach Trump Now

Silence is Not Golden in the Face of Fascism

Oh wow. I just saw that it is the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I will just say that, since we now, in my strong opinion, have a fascist at the helm in our own dear, precious country, it is important to study the Holocaust if you are not familiar with it, for as the truism goes (and truisms aren't called that for no reason): those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Silence is not golden in the face of fascism, hate, bigotry, and/or cruelty, and certainly not when any or all of those become national policy. In my strong opinion, we must speak out against the walking, talking, tweeting violation of, and affront to, our constitution that is our current President, and his barbaric, cruel, illegal, immoral, un-American and inhuman policies such as kidnapping babies and children, putting them in cages, not keeping records of who and where their parents are, traumatizing and orphaning them.

Because I am familiar--literally familiar, it affected my family, my people, but also familiar in the sense that I've studied it, studied the holocaust, studied history, and I know that history isn't really history: it's the present, in the sense that the potential for everything that has ever happened in human history lives within us all today--I know what I'm seeing in our current President, and I know I need to speak out, loudly and clearly, when I see it. I know I need to stand together with all my fellow Americans of all stripes in the Resistance, and I need to stand with all 45's victims--some are not American, some are not old enough to know how to talk, and have no way to be heard even if they can talk, as they are in cages as we speak. 74 years ago today, Auschwitz was liberated. 74 years ago is not a long time. Look around today. Both of those potentials in the history books from 74 years ago are still there: the Nazi potential. The Resistance potential. 74 years ago, the good guys won. Today, we need to open our eyes and see that the fight against hate and cruelty never is over. It's up to us.

Bernie 2020!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my God. OH MY GOD.  See article linked below re what all my Oh-my-Godding is about!

Okay, then, my 2020 Presidential Candidate dance card is FULL, and it's all Bernie Sanders!!!!!!!!! Yes, he's a senior. Yes, he's male. Yes, he's white. And YES: if you are against him due to any or all of those, you are any combination of ageist, sexist and/or racist. In a truly egalitarian society, which no, we aren't yet, but the only way to be that is to BE THAT, none of those factors would matter. Yet I've heard many so-called fellow progressives say they don't want any older, white and/or male candidates. Again: none of that should matter. I don't care if a candidate is white, black, purple, pink or polka-dotted. I don't care if she's a she or a he or anywhere in between. Age is a little bit different, as it is a legitimate factor to consider on two fronts: if the person is old, are they healthy? If so, then FUGGEDABOUTIT. If the person is young, do they maybe lack the relevant experience and wisdom to be the leader of the free world? If the experience isn't there, it's definitely relevant, yet if somehow the wisdom is, then they still could be worth consideration, as long as they meet the constitutional age requirement. Back to Bernie: he's healthy. And with his age, comes many, many years of experience, not just as a Senator, but as a political and civil rights activist and leader. He's been on the front lines in civil rights actions. He's been handcuffed and arrested fighting for equal rights, for civil rights, for everyone. So I don't care what color he is or isn't--he's a damn good egg. He puts his body and his life, his time and effort, where his mouth is.

Bernie Sanders' positions and priorities are EXACTLY in sync with my own and have been since I came of age in the early 1980's, and he was Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. The only issue we disagree on is open primaries, which isn't make or break to me. I'm a lifelong Democrat (since my dear Mom registered me as such when I was just 17 years old) and also a Democratic Socialist (since about age 19). Bernie has fought for single payer forever. Bernie has fought for fair taxation forever. Bernie has fought to change our budget priorities from unfair tax cuts for the very rich to fair taxation for all and investing in the PEOPLE and infrastructure and future instead of in, again, tax cuts for those who don't need them, and a war-based economy.  But my entire adult life, and the entire time Bernie has been fighting, we've been up against a solid wall of Republican opposition and the dominance of the trickle-down theory (read: LIE) of economics.  I think that now we are finally, finally seeing a demographic shift in our country, and an evolution of ideas, and now maybe America is ready to listen, hear and understand what we really need!

Bernie, if he is in the race, is my candidate, period. PERIOD. And now it sounds like he's in the race! So let me declare, before he even declares, if it even needs declaring, given my approximately 10,000 or so posts in 2016: I'M FOR BERNIE. I'M WITH BERNIE. Bernie is with me, with all of us, with what is the healthy prescription for our ailing-in-so-many-ways, beloved country. BERNIE 2020! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Bernie Sanders Set to Announce 2020 Presidential Run