Health Care and the Republicans

Reading about the man who died because he couldn't afford health care, was too young for Medicare and as a male, ineligible for Medicaid, I nearly cried.

My knee hurts so much many times, that I fantasize replacing the joint myself. Even though I know this is stupid. But I have 14 more months to wait until I'm eligible for Medicare and I'm on pins and needles expecting the damn Republican assholes to raise the age for Medicare coverage to 67. I don't think I can wait the 14th months. How can I wait another two years on top of that?

And then I live in Greece, whose economy is nearly in depression - while the EU Finance Ministers and the Greek government dithers. The government is sold on raising taxes, especially those taxes which everyone must pay. 23% for all goods and services, except food which is taxed at 13% is criminal. And now they're going to add a property tax and, of course, make it retroactive.

Tax cars, tax houses, tax food, tax your entire existence. But do they go after tax cheats? Is the state being taxed (property) like regular people? How about the church, the 2nd largest land owner in the country? The answer to every question is NO!

Yes, we can escape or we can stick around and wait for the default, which is surely coming when our dollars will restore a standard of living again - although for the rest of the country it is going to be uglier than it is now.

bin Laden and Reagan

If we believe that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War by manipulating the Soviet Union into spending more and more money on defense, then we have to give bin Laden the same credit for the situation in the US today.

I know this isn't politically correct, but I can't help but see the parallels. When bin Laden attacked the US on the 11th of September in 2001, the US enjoyed its first budget surplus in decades. Within days the US was planning to go into Afghanistan and destroy the Taliban who harbored bin Laden; creating a an atmosphere where strengthening of the already massive military-industrial complex was assured.

Compounding these actions were the decisions to institute unsustainable tax cuts "because the surplus was so large, keep the cost of the war off the books and fund it by using politically expedient emergency measures, and finally allow the fraud perpetrated by the "too big to fail" banks, bailing them out using taxpayer funds.

But the end result of all of this action is the same as what happened to the Soviet Union in 1989 - collapse of the empire and financial crisis.

So, there's a case to be made that bin Laden was the catalyst for the position the world finds itself in today; especially the US.

Planned Parenthood and ACORN

So Democratic members of the House of Representatives were able to recognize a Republican Bill of Attainder against Planned Parenthood, but not against ACORN. Why?

I really don't know, but I think race places a part.