So it's been a while. No, I haven't given up and I haven't been arrested. There have been a few unidentified vehicles cruising by the house in the last few weeks, but no cameras that I could see and no serious-looking guys wearing bulletproof vests. I think we're good.
That being said, I haven't relented much on the twitter posts. Every morning I get up with my cats and heat up a cup of stale coffee and then dive right into the twittersphere. I know. It's pathetic, but I do it anyway. We're in the central time zone so by the time I crawl out of bed, Donald Trump has already been humiliating himself on social media for a couple of hours.
So, you're probably asking yourself why I'm bothering to write this post if I'm perfectly content getting up every morning with my cats and trolling the President of the United States at my leisure? Well, it's pretty simple. I care about my country and I care about the people my government is about to screw over like never before because they just don't know they need to fight it. That pretty much sums it up.
So back to the subject at hand. Our President just addressed the United Nations yesterday. While this may not seem out of the ordinary, just remember that he has been saying for a long time that the UN is useless, ineffective, and that the United States has been paying more than our share of the UN's operating expenses. And then he has the nerve to tell the entire assembly the same. And not in a diplomatic way. He just threw it out there. There is a concept of decor and dignity that this guy just doesn't understand. Most of us wouldn't address anyone that way, but he did it to the world's leaders.
The most troubling thing was when he started talking about North Korea. To be honest, I'm worried about Kim Jong Un, too. He's unpredictable and doesn't have a realistic view of the world and where North Korea fits into it. I don't know whether he's this way because he just doesn't have the information he needs to figure out where his country really stands or whether he's just fucking nuts and doesn't care. But, in front of the whole world, Donald Trump just said that the US will "completely destroy North Korea" if they threaten us. What the fuck? This is what a seventh grade bully would say. Nothing more. Nothing less. It is not what a rational human would say. To threaten nuclear war with someone who welcomes it because they don't understand the consequences is completely irresponsible and just doesn't make sense, yet he did it. And he did it in a big way.
So here we are. A day later and a lot closer to a nuclear confrontation and we are just going along like this is the new norm. Well, it can't be the new norm and we need to do something about it. This president clearly doesn't represent what Americans want. Face it, he's a nut case and we need to figure out how to get rid of him before he does too much damage. I don't know if that's impeachment, indictment, or just social unrest to extremes, but we can't become complacent and accept this as the way we want to live.
So, if you're like me you're probably trying to figure out what you can do. To be honest, there's nothing one person can legally do that will immediately yield measurable results. I think the solution is to organize and work the system that was put in place by our founding fathers and sisters to protect us from this kind of thing. It will take patience and persistence, but we'll win in the long run. And it will be worth it.
Look around your area for ways to organize and make a difference. There are Indivisible movements everywhere. Find one and join. And commit to it. Making change happen takes a lot of effort and you can't make it happen overnight. And you can't just join and wait to see what happens. You have to participate. I had the chance to join an Indivisible movement here in Omaha and I decided not to. I regret that decision to this day.
Don't be like me. If you want to make a change, commit to it and dive in. Don't do anything stupid, but dive in. Some of the stuff they ask you to do will seem inconsequential and useless, but it all adds up to something that will make a difference. You're not alone and your efforts, combined with the efforts of everyone else, will eventually make things right.
Thanks for reading my blog. I do appreciate it.
Jeff
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Friday, July 7, 2017
You Can Think For Yourself
That's a provocative title for a post. Really, it is, especially now. This post is about you and your ability to make decisions on your own without anyone else telling you what to do. As always, I'm throwing this stuff out there so you can read it if you want, but you don't have to. And you don't have to agree with me. It won't hurt my feelings if you don't, so just do what you think is right for you. Or do nothing and just see what happens. It's totally up to you.
With that being said, I'd like to tell you what I think about some things that are happening right now. As I've already said, you don't have to agree with me and you don't even have to read this post, so don't sigh and think you have to suffer through another liberal's bullshit because you've read this far. You can just move on to something else if you want to. No hard feelings on this end.
Donald Trump. Yes, I'm going to talk about Donald Trump for a little bit. I'll eventually move on to something else, but I'm going talk about Donald Trump right now. If you've read any of my other posts, then you know that I'm not a fan of Donald Trump. Truth be told, I wasn't a fan of Donald Trump even before he ran for president. I don't know him personally, but I've seen him on the news just like you have.
Sorry, but I don't think he's particularly smart, successful, or ethical in his day-to-day activities. I think he's a guy that made a lot of money at the expense of other people and he doesn't think that's a bad thing. He seems to think that if people are dumb enough to let him make money at their expense, then it's their own fault and they deserve to suffer the consequences. I wish I had a better opinion of him, but I don't.
I just don't want Donald Trump to represent me. He doesn't think like me. He doesn't act like me. He doesn't have the same responsibilities as me. He doesn't have the same obligations as me. He is nothing like me, and when you really think about it, he's probably not like you either. So how can he represent us to the rest of the world? Do I want the rest of the world to think I'm like him? I don't think so.
So here's where the title of this post comes in. You've probably heard the phrase "Making America Great Again." What exactly does that mean? Is American NOT great? That's debatable. Some people would say that we're not great, some would say that we ARE great. Some would say that we were never great. I guess it depends on your point of view and your definition of "great." I happen to love my country and what we say it stands for.
I want my president to represent me that way. We tell the world that we are a country full of good people and I want us to live up to that expectation. We can't do that if our president is a liar. And it's particularly bad if he lies with impunity like it's a sport. Donald Trump has always had a tenuous relationship with the truth and he just doesn't care about that. He lies to his country and to the world and, when caught in the act, just moves on like it never happened. What kind of person can do that and expect everyone to just ignore it forever?
I do, however, think that "great" is not a thing that changes whenever it needs to meet some political goal or satisfy the need to feed some politician's ego. Great is great and not-so-great is not-so-great. These things are not subject to interpretations that seek to legitimize today's convenient definitions of them. They are what they are and they are defined in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They are what the authors of those documents intended and not subject to someone's attempt to twist the documents to meet their own ends. They are what they are. Nothing more and nothing less.
So back to the reason for this post. If you've read this far, just stick it out a little longer and you'll know why I put all that other stuff in there. Bear with me. Please.
So you have a mind of your own. You can think for yourself and you don't need anyone else to tell you what you should think. My request is simple:
Before you do what our our president and government tells you to do, please decide for yourself if it makes sense. If it makes sense to you, then do it. If it doesn't, then don't do it. All I ask is that you think about it first. Really think about it on your own. Don't just accept what others tell you. Really think about it on your own and decide what's right for you. You have the right to do that. After all, you can think for yourself, right? That's what made America great in the first place, isn't it?
With that being said, I'd like to tell you what I think about some things that are happening right now. As I've already said, you don't have to agree with me and you don't even have to read this post, so don't sigh and think you have to suffer through another liberal's bullshit because you've read this far. You can just move on to something else if you want to. No hard feelings on this end.
Donald Trump. Yes, I'm going to talk about Donald Trump for a little bit. I'll eventually move on to something else, but I'm going talk about Donald Trump right now. If you've read any of my other posts, then you know that I'm not a fan of Donald Trump. Truth be told, I wasn't a fan of Donald Trump even before he ran for president. I don't know him personally, but I've seen him on the news just like you have.
Sorry, but I don't think he's particularly smart, successful, or ethical in his day-to-day activities. I think he's a guy that made a lot of money at the expense of other people and he doesn't think that's a bad thing. He seems to think that if people are dumb enough to let him make money at their expense, then it's their own fault and they deserve to suffer the consequences. I wish I had a better opinion of him, but I don't.
I just don't want Donald Trump to represent me. He doesn't think like me. He doesn't act like me. He doesn't have the same responsibilities as me. He doesn't have the same obligations as me. He is nothing like me, and when you really think about it, he's probably not like you either. So how can he represent us to the rest of the world? Do I want the rest of the world to think I'm like him? I don't think so.
So here's where the title of this post comes in. You've probably heard the phrase "Making America Great Again." What exactly does that mean? Is American NOT great? That's debatable. Some people would say that we're not great, some would say that we ARE great. Some would say that we were never great. I guess it depends on your point of view and your definition of "great." I happen to love my country and what we say it stands for.
I want my president to represent me that way. We tell the world that we are a country full of good people and I want us to live up to that expectation. We can't do that if our president is a liar. And it's particularly bad if he lies with impunity like it's a sport. Donald Trump has always had a tenuous relationship with the truth and he just doesn't care about that. He lies to his country and to the world and, when caught in the act, just moves on like it never happened. What kind of person can do that and expect everyone to just ignore it forever?
I do, however, think that "great" is not a thing that changes whenever it needs to meet some political goal or satisfy the need to feed some politician's ego. Great is great and not-so-great is not-so-great. These things are not subject to interpretations that seek to legitimize today's convenient definitions of them. They are what they are and they are defined in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They are what the authors of those documents intended and not subject to someone's attempt to twist the documents to meet their own ends. They are what they are. Nothing more and nothing less.
So back to the reason for this post. If you've read this far, just stick it out a little longer and you'll know why I put all that other stuff in there. Bear with me. Please.
So you have a mind of your own. You can think for yourself and you don't need anyone else to tell you what you should think. My request is simple:
Before you do what our our president and government tells you to do, please decide for yourself if it makes sense. If it makes sense to you, then do it. If it doesn't, then don't do it. All I ask is that you think about it first. Really think about it on your own. Don't just accept what others tell you. Really think about it on your own and decide what's right for you. You have the right to do that. After all, you can think for yourself, right? That's what made America great in the first place, isn't it?
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Embarassed by Barack Obama? Seriously?
This afternoon I got an email from some organization asking if I was embarrassed by Barack Obama. Normally I would just delete something like this, but this time I felt like I had to answer them. I clicked through the screens until I got to a place where I could write a comment. I knew what they were after and I wasn't going to fall for it.
I'm not sure whether this post is going to be just a few paragraphs or many pages, so I'll go ahead and get to the point. A lot was happening in 2007 and 2008. We finally realized that the panic of 9/11 wasn't going to last forever. The economy was collapsing because our president allowed bankers to reap huge profits at the expense of working Americans. Our attention had been diverted to security threats that actually didn't exist. And we fell for it. We had a president who didn't know how to lead a country like ours, so he diverted our attention to some thing else hoping wouldn't know ant better. It worked. We fell for it.
Along came Barack Obama. He had a message of hope. During the campaign he was honest with us. He said that the country's problems could be fixed, but it would be painful. And he was right. On the night of the presidential election when I saw that he was winning I thought things were going to change. And it wasn't just me. The next day our country was energized and ready for change. We though that, for once, the United States was going to recover from it's challenges and things were going to be ok. There was hope. We were wrong.
The reality is that a president can't just win an election, move into the White House, and turn everything upside down. That's the whole idea of our system of checks and balances. It protects us from one branch of government taking control of the country and doing whatever they want. Barack Obama's fault was that he thought that, if he was the president, then he would be able to change everything without any opposition.
The reality is that he had to deal with a Republican congress. To those fuckers it doesn't matter if what you want to do is good for the country. What matters is if it's good for the Republican party and the campaign contributors who paid to get them elected. Pure and simple. They are robots, incapable of any logical thought on their own. And big business owns the Republican party. They contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to re-elect those guys and, once elected, they own that Senator or Representative. They have effectively bought a legislator. When a legislator is elected, the first thing he/she does is figure out how they can serve the entities that put them in office. The second thing they do is start jockeying for a job for after they leave office. It's a seriously corrupt and pathetic system.
Legislators will tell you that they represent their constituents. That's not you and me, the people who voted for them. That's big pharmaceutical companies, oil and gas companies, and any other company that does things most Americans would consider unacceptable behavior but are able to write big checks to get these guys elected. They have effectively bought representatives for their interests, regardless of what is right and just for the rest of us.
So much for getting to the point I guess. To answer the question that was asked of me, then no, I am not embarrassed by Barack Obama. I am proud of him and would vote to elect him again. He didn't achieve the things he promised, but at least he tried, which is more than I can say for any other president in my lifetime.
I'm not sure whether this post is going to be just a few paragraphs or many pages, so I'll go ahead and get to the point. A lot was happening in 2007 and 2008. We finally realized that the panic of 9/11 wasn't going to last forever. The economy was collapsing because our president allowed bankers to reap huge profits at the expense of working Americans. Our attention had been diverted to security threats that actually didn't exist. And we fell for it. We had a president who didn't know how to lead a country like ours, so he diverted our attention to some thing else hoping wouldn't know ant better. It worked. We fell for it.
Along came Barack Obama. He had a message of hope. During the campaign he was honest with us. He said that the country's problems could be fixed, but it would be painful. And he was right. On the night of the presidential election when I saw that he was winning I thought things were going to change. And it wasn't just me. The next day our country was energized and ready for change. We though that, for once, the United States was going to recover from it's challenges and things were going to be ok. There was hope. We were wrong.
The reality is that a president can't just win an election, move into the White House, and turn everything upside down. That's the whole idea of our system of checks and balances. It protects us from one branch of government taking control of the country and doing whatever they want. Barack Obama's fault was that he thought that, if he was the president, then he would be able to change everything without any opposition.
The reality is that he had to deal with a Republican congress. To those fuckers it doesn't matter if what you want to do is good for the country. What matters is if it's good for the Republican party and the campaign contributors who paid to get them elected. Pure and simple. They are robots, incapable of any logical thought on their own. And big business owns the Republican party. They contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to re-elect those guys and, once elected, they own that Senator or Representative. They have effectively bought a legislator. When a legislator is elected, the first thing he/she does is figure out how they can serve the entities that put them in office. The second thing they do is start jockeying for a job for after they leave office. It's a seriously corrupt and pathetic system.
Legislators will tell you that they represent their constituents. That's not you and me, the people who voted for them. That's big pharmaceutical companies, oil and gas companies, and any other company that does things most Americans would consider unacceptable behavior but are able to write big checks to get these guys elected. They have effectively bought representatives for their interests, regardless of what is right and just for the rest of us.
So much for getting to the point I guess. To answer the question that was asked of me, then no, I am not embarrassed by Barack Obama. I am proud of him and would vote to elect him again. He didn't achieve the things he promised, but at least he tried, which is more than I can say for any other president in my lifetime.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Some Beauty
So I've been doing this blog on and off for awhile now. I looked back over the 40+ posts I've made and decided to do something different today. Mind you, I'm not changing my opinion of our president or legislators. I'm just trying to break up the bad stuff with something beautiful.
These are some pictures I took a few weeks ago when Tanya and I drove out to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana (for a minute), And back through South Dakota. I hope you enjoy them.
This one was from Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah. We got there early in the morning. Well, the gate was open and there was no one around so we went on in like we owned the place...
Another one from Arches. Almost all of the park was like this. Everywhere you looked there was a crazy good view of some kind of rock formation. How did this shit get here?
And another. We thought this one looked like a giant ancient penis. You can use your own imagination, but think about it.
This was actually one of my favorites. This is what we saw at the first turnout we came to when we entered the park. There were actually a bunch of people there. Mostly Germans. I guess they like to get up very early. I can't quite figure that out, but whatever...
This was our cabin at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. Yes, that's the Chevy Volt we drove on the trip. The night before we left I had a dream that it gave out on a mountain pass and we filed off the serial numbers before pushing it off a cliff. In my dream we hitchhiked into a nearby town with all of our shit tied to our backs and bought a Subaru for the rest of the trip. I'm happy to report that the Volt made the trip just fine and lives with us happily to this day. We did get a Subaru when we got home just in case.
A view of Devil's Tower from about a mile away. We had this great cabin at a KOA campground at the base of Devil's Tower. The couple in the cabin next to ours got super stoned and watched reruns of Gilligan's Island on an iPad all afternoon and night. We never saw them. Good for them.
This was Devil's Tower from about 10 miles away on the way back from Hulett, Wyoming. If you don't know about Hulett, then look it up. I can't begin to tell you about Hulett, but I can say that the locals were friendly and very drunk by 2 in the afternoon. They tried to get us to go sightseeing and drive up into the mountains on a logging road, but they decided that it would be a bad idea for everyone, especially us. So they just sold us a bunch of beer and sent us on our way. We may have bought a chicken there, but I'm not sure.
This was a reservoir in South Dakota that serves Rapid City. I can't remember the name, but it looked great so here's a picture of it. Stunning.
We drove through the badlands and this was one of the views we saw. I took over 100 pictures here, but you're not going to see them all. Sorry.
This was one of my favorite views of the badlands. Imagine trying to drive a covered wagon through that shit.
So, in about 8 days we saw Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana (for a minute), and South Dakota. 2400 miles of driving in an electric car. That may seem like a lot, but it was just great. We didn't have reservations anywhere and we just went wherever we wanted. I don't think I've ever had a better vacation in my life.
If you're really interested in seeing more pictures, just let me know. I'll send you a link. If you really don't care, then that's ok too.
These are some pictures I took a few weeks ago when Tanya and I drove out to Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana (for a minute), And back through South Dakota. I hope you enjoy them.
This one was from Arches National Monument near Moab, Utah. We got there early in the morning. Well, the gate was open and there was no one around so we went on in like we owned the place...
Another one from Arches. Almost all of the park was like this. Everywhere you looked there was a crazy good view of some kind of rock formation. How did this shit get here?
And another. We thought this one looked like a giant ancient penis. You can use your own imagination, but think about it.
This was actually one of my favorites. This is what we saw at the first turnout we came to when we entered the park. There were actually a bunch of people there. Mostly Germans. I guess they like to get up very early. I can't quite figure that out, but whatever...
This was our cabin at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. Yes, that's the Chevy Volt we drove on the trip. The night before we left I had a dream that it gave out on a mountain pass and we filed off the serial numbers before pushing it off a cliff. In my dream we hitchhiked into a nearby town with all of our shit tied to our backs and bought a Subaru for the rest of the trip. I'm happy to report that the Volt made the trip just fine and lives with us happily to this day. We did get a Subaru when we got home just in case.
A view of Devil's Tower from about a mile away. We had this great cabin at a KOA campground at the base of Devil's Tower. The couple in the cabin next to ours got super stoned and watched reruns of Gilligan's Island on an iPad all afternoon and night. We never saw them. Good for them.
This was Devil's Tower from about 10 miles away on the way back from Hulett, Wyoming. If you don't know about Hulett, then look it up. I can't begin to tell you about Hulett, but I can say that the locals were friendly and very drunk by 2 in the afternoon. They tried to get us to go sightseeing and drive up into the mountains on a logging road, but they decided that it would be a bad idea for everyone, especially us. So they just sold us a bunch of beer and sent us on our way. We may have bought a chicken there, but I'm not sure.
This was a reservoir in South Dakota that serves Rapid City. I can't remember the name, but it looked great so here's a picture of it. Stunning.
We drove through the badlands and this was one of the views we saw. I took over 100 pictures here, but you're not going to see them all. Sorry.
This was one of my favorite views of the badlands. Imagine trying to drive a covered wagon through that shit.
So, in about 8 days we saw Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana (for a minute), and South Dakota. 2400 miles of driving in an electric car. That may seem like a lot, but it was just great. We didn't have reservations anywhere and we just went wherever we wanted. I don't think I've ever had a better vacation in my life.
If you're really interested in seeing more pictures, just let me know. I'll send you a link. If you really don't care, then that's ok too.
Assault on the Poor and Middle Class
Barack Obama finally weighed in on the GOP's health care plan today. He didn't mince words -- he said it was an assault on lower and middle class Americans to benefit the rich. Keep in mind that Barack Obama is rich. Seriously rich. He's written a number of books and has collected some unknown sum of money for speaking engagements. But he still speaks his mind, no matter who he's criticizing at the moment. Here's a link to a new story about his comments:
Barack Obama's Comments on the GOP Healthcare Proposal
Even if you don't like Barack Obama, there's something there for you. Unless you are blinded by the slogan "Make America Great Again." In that case, you simply don't have a chance. You fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
In case you haven't figured it out by now, there has been a theme of the Trump presidency. His legislation and executive orders benefit rich Americans and lower and middle class Americans pay for it. Don't tell me that making the rich richer will infuse more money into the economy and create new jobs. It won't. If you were alive, conscious, and aware during the Reagan years, you will remember that making the rich richer did nothing more than making the rich richer. There were no more jobs, no more businesses, no more economic growth. The rich got richer and they kept their wealth. They didn't spread it out to the average American through new jobs, businesses, and opportunity. They just got richer and kept it all.
Why can't we learn from this? It didn't work before, so why would it work now? Things are not different. People are people. They do what they do. Everyone wants more than what they have and they don't care where it comes from as long as they get it.
In Trump's America, people think that things will get better for them. History says that they won't. When you screw over the lower and middle class, the result is that the rich get richer. And that's all. Nothing more. Our "leaders" tell us how great things are going to be for us, but the truth is that we end up paying more than our share in taxes and we have to work harder just to survive. Our government is no longer in our corner. It is there to make sure that the 1% get as much as they can from us. When your government does this to you, then it's time for a new government.
You don't have to agree with me. Think about it for yourself. Work the numbers. Are your paychecks going to be smaller? Are you going to lose your health insurance? Are you OK with that?
Oh, and also work the numbers for the guy/girl down the street who makes $2 million per year. The issue isn't whether the work he/she does is worth $2 million per year. The issue is whether he/she should pay less in taxes than you do and whether he/she should pay less for the same healthcare services than you and your kids pay. That's the issue.
Please think about it and make decisions that are right for you and your family.
Barack Obama's Comments on the GOP Healthcare Proposal
Even if you don't like Barack Obama, there's something there for you. Unless you are blinded by the slogan "Make America Great Again." In that case, you simply don't have a chance. You fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
In case you haven't figured it out by now, there has been a theme of the Trump presidency. His legislation and executive orders benefit rich Americans and lower and middle class Americans pay for it. Don't tell me that making the rich richer will infuse more money into the economy and create new jobs. It won't. If you were alive, conscious, and aware during the Reagan years, you will remember that making the rich richer did nothing more than making the rich richer. There were no more jobs, no more businesses, no more economic growth. The rich got richer and they kept their wealth. They didn't spread it out to the average American through new jobs, businesses, and opportunity. They just got richer and kept it all.
Why can't we learn from this? It didn't work before, so why would it work now? Things are not different. People are people. They do what they do. Everyone wants more than what they have and they don't care where it comes from as long as they get it.
In Trump's America, people think that things will get better for them. History says that they won't. When you screw over the lower and middle class, the result is that the rich get richer. And that's all. Nothing more. Our "leaders" tell us how great things are going to be for us, but the truth is that we end up paying more than our share in taxes and we have to work harder just to survive. Our government is no longer in our corner. It is there to make sure that the 1% get as much as they can from us. When your government does this to you, then it's time for a new government.
You don't have to agree with me. Think about it for yourself. Work the numbers. Are your paychecks going to be smaller? Are you going to lose your health insurance? Are you OK with that?
Oh, and also work the numbers for the guy/girl down the street who makes $2 million per year. The issue isn't whether the work he/she does is worth $2 million per year. The issue is whether he/she should pay less in taxes than you do and whether he/she should pay less for the same healthcare services than you and your kids pay. That's the issue.
Please think about it and make decisions that are right for you and your family.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Am I Ashamed?
I've been ashamed of a few things in my life. I've made some bad decisions and after I made them I was ashamed. When I think back to those things, I know I was to blame. It was my fault and only mine. For some of those bad decisions I paid a huge price and for some I paid nothing. But I learned something each time and I won't make those same mistakes again. I promise.
What happens when a whole country makes a mistake? I guess we're going to find out. As we all start to realize what electing Donald Trump really means, I think we're going to realize that we made a mistake. And when we come to our senses and realize that we were scammed, then I think we're going to be both angry as hell and ashamed of our choice. This man does not represent what we are as a country and he never will. He doesn't want to and he doesn't care.
I spent a few years of my working life doing work abroad and I still keep in touch with some of the people I worked with. After a month of Donald Trump, they started asking me "What the fuck are you people doing? What is wrong with you? How stupid are you? Why did you do this?" Unfortunately, I didn't have an answer. I could have made something up, but I didn't want to. I had done that in the past and I didn't want to do it again. I just couldn't. I had learned from my mistakes.
While I believe that America is a great country, I didn't have an answer to their questions, so I just told them so. It's really hard to get behind something that you just don't believe in and that's particularly true in this case. I just though it was better to tell them what I really thought, but I didn't have an answer and I didn't want to make one up. So I just told them that we had made a huge mistake, we would learn from it, and it would eventually be corrected.
I could write about Donald Trump for a long time here, but I think you're smart enough to figure this out on your own. He's been our president for 100+ days and, in those 100 days, he's succeeded in returning us all to the 1970's with regard to foreign policy, social programs, governmental ethics, environmental preservation, and countless other areas. Most of you know it, but some of you will take some time to figure it out because you voted for what you thought was the best candidate.
But you will figure it out for yourselves when your health insurance premiums go up, your take home pay goes down because billionaires got a huge tax break and a new Ferrari, and the government is no longer there to help you when you really, really, REALLY need it. I'm ashamed that we're letting him do it. Deeply, deeply ashamed that we're allowing this to happen.
When I say I'm ashamed, it's different now than it was 20 years ago. I used to be ashamed of the bad things I had done, but now I'm ashamed to be associated with a person who is nothing more than a cheap, opportunistic game show host who panders to people who don't know any better and never will because it's easier and they don't want to. Unfortunately, he's the President Of the United States Of America. We elected him and he's here to stay until we muster the fortitude to admit that we made a mistake and take whatever action necessary to fix our mistake.
And that's why I'm ashamed to be an American today. This is the first time in my life I've ever said that, but it's true. I'm ashamed of our president and I hope the whole world doesn't judge us based on the bad decision we made during the last presidential election.
Make your own decisions. Fighting the Donald Trump battle might not be for you, even if you believe in it. If it is for you, then fight it. Speak out, go to the Indivisible rallies, call your legislators. DO SOMETHING. Please don't just wait and see what happens. It won't end well for you or for any of us. DO SOMETHING. Speak out here or on facebook or Twitter or in your local coffee shop or workplace, but DO SOMETHING and make people realize what we've done. It's not too late to fix it, but if you wait too long it will be. DO SOMETHING. Now. Please.
What happens when a whole country makes a mistake? I guess we're going to find out. As we all start to realize what electing Donald Trump really means, I think we're going to realize that we made a mistake. And when we come to our senses and realize that we were scammed, then I think we're going to be both angry as hell and ashamed of our choice. This man does not represent what we are as a country and he never will. He doesn't want to and he doesn't care.
I spent a few years of my working life doing work abroad and I still keep in touch with some of the people I worked with. After a month of Donald Trump, they started asking me "What the fuck are you people doing? What is wrong with you? How stupid are you? Why did you do this?" Unfortunately, I didn't have an answer. I could have made something up, but I didn't want to. I had done that in the past and I didn't want to do it again. I just couldn't. I had learned from my mistakes.
While I believe that America is a great country, I didn't have an answer to their questions, so I just told them so. It's really hard to get behind something that you just don't believe in and that's particularly true in this case. I just though it was better to tell them what I really thought, but I didn't have an answer and I didn't want to make one up. So I just told them that we had made a huge mistake, we would learn from it, and it would eventually be corrected.
I could write about Donald Trump for a long time here, but I think you're smart enough to figure this out on your own. He's been our president for 100+ days and, in those 100 days, he's succeeded in returning us all to the 1970's with regard to foreign policy, social programs, governmental ethics, environmental preservation, and countless other areas. Most of you know it, but some of you will take some time to figure it out because you voted for what you thought was the best candidate.
But you will figure it out for yourselves when your health insurance premiums go up, your take home pay goes down because billionaires got a huge tax break and a new Ferrari, and the government is no longer there to help you when you really, really, REALLY need it. I'm ashamed that we're letting him do it. Deeply, deeply ashamed that we're allowing this to happen.
When I say I'm ashamed, it's different now than it was 20 years ago. I used to be ashamed of the bad things I had done, but now I'm ashamed to be associated with a person who is nothing more than a cheap, opportunistic game show host who panders to people who don't know any better and never will because it's easier and they don't want to. Unfortunately, he's the President Of the United States Of America. We elected him and he's here to stay until we muster the fortitude to admit that we made a mistake and take whatever action necessary to fix our mistake.
And that's why I'm ashamed to be an American today. This is the first time in my life I've ever said that, but it's true. I'm ashamed of our president and I hope the whole world doesn't judge us based on the bad decision we made during the last presidential election.
Make your own decisions. Fighting the Donald Trump battle might not be for you, even if you believe in it. If it is for you, then fight it. Speak out, go to the Indivisible rallies, call your legislators. DO SOMETHING. Please don't just wait and see what happens. It won't end well for you or for any of us. DO SOMETHING. Speak out here or on facebook or Twitter or in your local coffee shop or workplace, but DO SOMETHING and make people realize what we've done. It's not too late to fix it, but if you wait too long it will be. DO SOMETHING. Now. Please.
Friday, June 16, 2017
Would You Hire This Man?
If Donald Trump applied for a job with your company and the hiring decision was yours, would you hire him? Set aside the whole idea of qualifications (which is another post entirely). Would you hire someone with his character? I wouldn't. My company does background checks and they look at things like legal actions, credit history, and the person's reasons for leaving their previous jobs.
So we hired a president who, in his first 100 days, has lied to his employers (the American people) multiple times, been sued many times for not living up to his agreements, and is so egotistical and self-promoting that it is simply nauseating. What is really troubling is that, when someone calls him on it, he either tries to discredit his accuser or just ignores it entirely like this type of behavior is acceptable. He doesn't even try to explain his lie. He just moves on to the next one like it never happened.
So here we are, almost five months since this man was elected. He's under investigation for collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice, and who knows what else that we haven't even heard about yet. This man makes Richard Nixon look pretty good.
Speaking of Richard Nixon, I remember the outrage that everyone felt when he was accused of the Watergate crimes in the early 1970's. Where is that outrage today? We have a president who may be guilty of things far worse, yet we are just sitting by and watching to see what happens.
Maybe American citizens' idea of right and wrong has become a little less clearly defined than it was in the early 1970's. Maybe we are more tolerant of behaviors that would have resulted in severe sanctions in 1972. Maybe our views of right and wrong are more elastic today. I don't know, but I want to know. I know I have to follow the same laws just as strictly today as I did in 1972. Why shouldn't my president be held to the same standard? I just don't understand it.
I think Donald Trump was elected because his campaign people came up with a great slogan -- "Making America Great Again." And that's the only reason. After all, who wouldn't want to make America great? And by adding the word "Again" he was saying that America wasn't as great as it had once been. The message that people heard was that America was once a great nation and it wasn't great anymore, but electing him would restore our prosperity, worldwide dominance, and our position as the great influencer of world affairs. It's a great promise, but it's just an empty one. The world has changed and we can't be all those things anymore. Sorry, but the world has changed. It's not like it used to be. There's a new reality and we have to learn to deal with it and find our place in it.
What we don't have to deal with, however, is a leader who puts his ego before our country, abuses his position for personal gain, and then just lies to us and tells us he's making our lives better. It just doesn't add up and we need to call him on it.
To sum it up, I wouldn't hire Donald Trump. Even if his qualifications for a job were a perfect fit, his character is a huge problem. He is not the person I would want to represent my business. And he is not the person I want to represent my country. We are not like him and we shouldn't allow the rest of the world to think that we are.
So we hired a president who, in his first 100 days, has lied to his employers (the American people) multiple times, been sued many times for not living up to his agreements, and is so egotistical and self-promoting that it is simply nauseating. What is really troubling is that, when someone calls him on it, he either tries to discredit his accuser or just ignores it entirely like this type of behavior is acceptable. He doesn't even try to explain his lie. He just moves on to the next one like it never happened.
So here we are, almost five months since this man was elected. He's under investigation for collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice, and who knows what else that we haven't even heard about yet. This man makes Richard Nixon look pretty good.
Speaking of Richard Nixon, I remember the outrage that everyone felt when he was accused of the Watergate crimes in the early 1970's. Where is that outrage today? We have a president who may be guilty of things far worse, yet we are just sitting by and watching to see what happens.
Maybe American citizens' idea of right and wrong has become a little less clearly defined than it was in the early 1970's. Maybe we are more tolerant of behaviors that would have resulted in severe sanctions in 1972. Maybe our views of right and wrong are more elastic today. I don't know, but I want to know. I know I have to follow the same laws just as strictly today as I did in 1972. Why shouldn't my president be held to the same standard? I just don't understand it.
I think Donald Trump was elected because his campaign people came up with a great slogan -- "Making America Great Again." And that's the only reason. After all, who wouldn't want to make America great? And by adding the word "Again" he was saying that America wasn't as great as it had once been. The message that people heard was that America was once a great nation and it wasn't great anymore, but electing him would restore our prosperity, worldwide dominance, and our position as the great influencer of world affairs. It's a great promise, but it's just an empty one. The world has changed and we can't be all those things anymore. Sorry, but the world has changed. It's not like it used to be. There's a new reality and we have to learn to deal with it and find our place in it.
What we don't have to deal with, however, is a leader who puts his ego before our country, abuses his position for personal gain, and then just lies to us and tells us he's making our lives better. It just doesn't add up and we need to call him on it.
To sum it up, I wouldn't hire Donald Trump. Even if his qualifications for a job were a perfect fit, his character is a huge problem. He is not the person I would want to represent my business. And he is not the person I want to represent my country. We are not like him and we shouldn't allow the rest of the world to think that we are.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Are We Indivisible?
It's been almost two months now since Tanya and I went to a meeting of a group called Indivisible Nebraska. Well, we didn't stay there very long, but we checked it out and decided to leave after a short time, so I guess I can't actually say we went to it. Ok, we went there and left after a short time because we thought we had better ways to spend our weekend. That's probably more accurate. I'm a little ashamed, but that's what we did.
I don't know how much you know about Nebraska, but I live in a very conservative state. All a presidential candidate has to do is say he/she is conservative and it's a done deal here. Conservative is good, liberal ideas are bad. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it really is broke, pretend it's not and just keep going. Any change is bad. By now you probably realize that I don't fit in too well here in Nebraska. But this is where I am and this is probably where I'll stay, at least for now.
So we were looking for a way to fight against Donald Trump's constant lies and his attempts to screw over Americans to benefit his cronies and there weren't too many options available to us. We both have jobs and we can't just pack up and go camp out on the White House lawn for a few months. I would do that if I could, but I just can't.
One night I was pounding Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan on Twitter and I got a message from someone asking me to come to a meeting of a group called Indivisible Nebraska that Saturday. She told me a little about the organization and it sounded good to me. I thought we were onto something.
So we went. We went to the library for the meeting and finally found the meeting room. There were a couple of dozen people in the room, plus two mayoral candidates who were speaking about why they should be the next mayor of Omaha. We stood outside the door and listened for awhile before deciding to go get some breakfast instead of going in. It's not that we weren't interested, but we had been hearing from these guys for weeks and we were tired of it. They were slippery politicians who couldn't address any issues, but just spewed their meaningless rhetoric like projectile diarrhea. We weren't having any more of it so we just left.
And that was my first experience with Indivisible Nebraska. Later that night the person who had messaged me on Twitter sent me a message saying that she had missed me at the meeting, so I told her what we had done and why we had done it. She handled my criticism gracefully and told me to keep them in mind. No pressure.
You have to understand that I grew up in a household with two parents who were university professors -- one was very liberal and a PhD in Political Science. I grew up in the 60's and 70's and that's the kind of activism I knew. I remember standing on my front porch and smelling tear gas as people only a few years older than me ran past carrying baseball bats and fleeing from the police. Yes, that was in Omaha, Nebraska. That's the kind of activism I was looking for, but common sense told me I wouldn't find it today. No one is going to run through the streets causing mayhem and inciting social unrest if they can sit at their computer sipping a double shot, fat free, gluten free, organic skinny latte and click on the "like" button every time they see a post that they think is edgy and puts them in the middle of the social justice fray. I'm sure that's exhausting for them.
I continued to follow Indivisible Nebraska on Facebook and watched their activity. After a couple of weeks I began to think we had made a mistake. They were very well organized and had substance, a strategy, and a good sense of reality.
I'll digress a little bit here. At some point early in this blog I wrote a post about a protest movement that died before it was born. That was the Occupy Nebraska movement. It was a good idea, but they thought there was some cookie cutter version of activism that would automatically lead them to victory. They became the exact thing they were protesting against and it killed them. They claim to still be around, but they are now insignificant, ineffective, and have no credibility. I was afraid Indivisible Nebraska would suffer the same fate. I was wrong.
So I messaged the person who had invited me to join them and said I thought I had made a mistake. She graciously invited me to their next activity and I was excited. I was unable to attend due to work commitments , but I have done a lot of research on the Indivisible movement and I am excited to participate at some point when I can. I think that they will eventually make a difference, either by convincing others that their views are right and moral or by consistently being such a huge pain in the ass that they are actually heard and are able to actually influence public opinion.
So here I am, waiting for the right moment to jump in. If you have read any of my most recent posts, then you know I needed to take a break from this stuff and I did exactly that. Jumping into Indivisible Nebraska is a commitment and I'll do it when I think I can stay all the way in. But I'll do it and I won't wait too long.
I'm a photographer and I want to do a photo series called "Faces of Activism" but I'm just waiting for those faces to emerge here. I'm sure they will, but I'm hoping that it won't be too late. Hopefully Indivisible Nebraska will show me those faces and I'll be able to share them with you here.
I don't know how much you know about Nebraska, but I live in a very conservative state. All a presidential candidate has to do is say he/she is conservative and it's a done deal here. Conservative is good, liberal ideas are bad. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it really is broke, pretend it's not and just keep going. Any change is bad. By now you probably realize that I don't fit in too well here in Nebraska. But this is where I am and this is probably where I'll stay, at least for now.
So we were looking for a way to fight against Donald Trump's constant lies and his attempts to screw over Americans to benefit his cronies and there weren't too many options available to us. We both have jobs and we can't just pack up and go camp out on the White House lawn for a few months. I would do that if I could, but I just can't.
One night I was pounding Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan on Twitter and I got a message from someone asking me to come to a meeting of a group called Indivisible Nebraska that Saturday. She told me a little about the organization and it sounded good to me. I thought we were onto something.
So we went. We went to the library for the meeting and finally found the meeting room. There were a couple of dozen people in the room, plus two mayoral candidates who were speaking about why they should be the next mayor of Omaha. We stood outside the door and listened for awhile before deciding to go get some breakfast instead of going in. It's not that we weren't interested, but we had been hearing from these guys for weeks and we were tired of it. They were slippery politicians who couldn't address any issues, but just spewed their meaningless rhetoric like projectile diarrhea. We weren't having any more of it so we just left.
And that was my first experience with Indivisible Nebraska. Later that night the person who had messaged me on Twitter sent me a message saying that she had missed me at the meeting, so I told her what we had done and why we had done it. She handled my criticism gracefully and told me to keep them in mind. No pressure.
You have to understand that I grew up in a household with two parents who were university professors -- one was very liberal and a PhD in Political Science. I grew up in the 60's and 70's and that's the kind of activism I knew. I remember standing on my front porch and smelling tear gas as people only a few years older than me ran past carrying baseball bats and fleeing from the police. Yes, that was in Omaha, Nebraska. That's the kind of activism I was looking for, but common sense told me I wouldn't find it today. No one is going to run through the streets causing mayhem and inciting social unrest if they can sit at their computer sipping a double shot, fat free, gluten free, organic skinny latte and click on the "like" button every time they see a post that they think is edgy and puts them in the middle of the social justice fray. I'm sure that's exhausting for them.
I continued to follow Indivisible Nebraska on Facebook and watched their activity. After a couple of weeks I began to think we had made a mistake. They were very well organized and had substance, a strategy, and a good sense of reality.
I'll digress a little bit here. At some point early in this blog I wrote a post about a protest movement that died before it was born. That was the Occupy Nebraska movement. It was a good idea, but they thought there was some cookie cutter version of activism that would automatically lead them to victory. They became the exact thing they were protesting against and it killed them. They claim to still be around, but they are now insignificant, ineffective, and have no credibility. I was afraid Indivisible Nebraska would suffer the same fate. I was wrong.
So I messaged the person who had invited me to join them and said I thought I had made a mistake. She graciously invited me to their next activity and I was excited. I was unable to attend due to work commitments , but I have done a lot of research on the Indivisible movement and I am excited to participate at some point when I can. I think that they will eventually make a difference, either by convincing others that their views are right and moral or by consistently being such a huge pain in the ass that they are actually heard and are able to actually influence public opinion.
So here I am, waiting for the right moment to jump in. If you have read any of my most recent posts, then you know I needed to take a break from this stuff and I did exactly that. Jumping into Indivisible Nebraska is a commitment and I'll do it when I think I can stay all the way in. But I'll do it and I won't wait too long.
I'm a photographer and I want to do a photo series called "Faces of Activism" but I'm just waiting for those faces to emerge here. I'm sure they will, but I'm hoping that it won't be too late. Hopefully Indivisible Nebraska will show me those faces and I'll be able to share them with you here.
Yes, I Guess I'm a Slacker
I thought I was going to start posting all the time again, but I just couldn't do it. For that I apologize. Not that I have any regular readers, but I thought I'd throw that out there just in case.
For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to simplify my life. I needed to concentrate on some work projects and get some personal stuff straightened out. And I think it did it. Now I'm really looking forward to a little time off to go camping and clear my head. So much to think and worry about in the last couple of months. Some of that has subsided, so now I think I can concentrate on a few things that I really want to do. I want to take pictures. I love to take pictures. I need to take pictures. With real film. Nothing makes me happier than taking pictures with an old camera that uses plain old back-and-white film. There's something really raw and beautiful about black and white photos done with film.
So if you're wondering what I've been up to, then that's it. I haven't given up. I consider this to be "regrouping" and not quitting. So I'm a slacker and I'm OK with it for now. But not forever. I promise.
For the last couple of weeks I've been trying to simplify my life. I needed to concentrate on some work projects and get some personal stuff straightened out. And I think it did it. Now I'm really looking forward to a little time off to go camping and clear my head. So much to think and worry about in the last couple of months. Some of that has subsided, so now I think I can concentrate on a few things that I really want to do. I want to take pictures. I love to take pictures. I need to take pictures. With real film. Nothing makes me happier than taking pictures with an old camera that uses plain old back-and-white film. There's something really raw and beautiful about black and white photos done with film.
So if you're wondering what I've been up to, then that's it. I haven't given up. I consider this to be "regrouping" and not quitting. So I'm a slacker and I'm OK with it for now. But not forever. I promise.
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Admitting We Made A Mistake
We picked a bad president. I'm not saying that the alternative was any better, but we made a big mistake.
If you have a nation of 319 million people, you can't just get elected president and do whatever you want. Donald Trump knows this. He is not as stupid as he appears. But, he also knows that if he tells 100 million voters that he is going to make their lives better, 52 million of them aren't going to take the time to figure out if what he says is true and they'll just vote for him and hope for the best. That, in a nutshell, is why we're in the situation we're in today.
What we're seeing today is an assault on our way of life. You may think that it doesn't apply to you, but think again. For example, take a look at your tax returns. You've paid a shit ton of money in Medicare taxes during your working life and now our Republican Congress is saying that you may not deserve to get that money back when you retire. But, the insurance executive who runs the company that is supposed to pay you some of that money is getting a tax break. How is this right? They're not going to pay you back the money you've been paying in for 40 years, but the insurance company CEO is getting an $8 million dollar bonus, this year. And he's paying less in taxes than you are. Seriously, does that sound right?
Folks, the person we've elected president has lied to us. He's scammed us and we fell for it. It's time to just admit we made a mistake, fix it, and then move on. There's no shame in that. There is, however, shame in realizing we made a mistake and still continuing to insist that we made a good choice. That is just wrong and it's going to bite us in the ass.
If you have a nation of 319 million people, you can't just get elected president and do whatever you want. Donald Trump knows this. He is not as stupid as he appears. But, he also knows that if he tells 100 million voters that he is going to make their lives better, 52 million of them aren't going to take the time to figure out if what he says is true and they'll just vote for him and hope for the best. That, in a nutshell, is why we're in the situation we're in today.
What we're seeing today is an assault on our way of life. You may think that it doesn't apply to you, but think again. For example, take a look at your tax returns. You've paid a shit ton of money in Medicare taxes during your working life and now our Republican Congress is saying that you may not deserve to get that money back when you retire. But, the insurance executive who runs the company that is supposed to pay you some of that money is getting a tax break. How is this right? They're not going to pay you back the money you've been paying in for 40 years, but the insurance company CEO is getting an $8 million dollar bonus, this year. And he's paying less in taxes than you are. Seriously, does that sound right?
Folks, the person we've elected president has lied to us. He's scammed us and we fell for it. It's time to just admit we made a mistake, fix it, and then move on. There's no shame in that. There is, however, shame in realizing we made a mistake and still continuing to insist that we made a good choice. That is just wrong and it's going to bite us in the ass.
My Spring Break Is Over
So it's been quite awhile since I posted here. And there's been a good reason. Sometimes the enormity of life just gets the best of you. I needed a break from this so I took one. I'm an activist and this blog is my way of being one, but it became too much for a moment.
I was worried about posting here all the time and keeping things moving. It was consuming my every waking moment. Most of you don't know me, but for those of you who do, you know I don't want to do anything halfway. All in or not in at all. I decided to not let this consume me, at least for now. That's why I took a break.
After a few weeks off, I'm ready to do this again. Thanks for reading this and thanks for listening to what I have to say.
Jeff
I was worried about posting here all the time and keeping things moving. It was consuming my every waking moment. Most of you don't know me, but for those of you who do, you know I don't want to do anything halfway. All in or not in at all. I decided to not let this consume me, at least for now. That's why I took a break.
After a few weeks off, I'm ready to do this again. Thanks for reading this and thanks for listening to what I have to say.
Jeff
Saturday, March 25, 2017
The Cost of Deception
Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. I've taken some time off from writing this blog because it was becoming all-consuming and I don't want it to be that way. This is supposed to be a creative outlet for me and my expression of activism, not a daily obligation. Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
As you probably know by now, Republicans withdrew their AHCA bill before it could come to a vote. I think this is a good thing, but my fear is that they will try and accomplish the same objectives through a series of executive orders rather than through legislation. We should keep an eye on this. After the bill was withdrawn, Donald Trump immediately declared that it was withdrawn because of the Democrats and that Democrats are to blame for America's troubles.
I was thinking about this earlier today and saw a post on Facebook with some video clips of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign where he kept saying over and over again how he would repeal and replace Obamacare if elected. The final clip was from yesterday or today where he stated that he never said he would repeal and replace Obamacare.
Seriously? We all saw the videos where he said he would repeal and replace Obamacare and now we see a video clip where he claims that he never said any of that. How stupid does Donald Trump really think we are? We saw it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears and now he's saying it never happened. We can bring up the actual video on the internet whenever we want and replay it over and over, but he's saying it didn't happen.
So here's where the cost of deception comes in. If you deceive people over and over, then eventually you lose all your credibility. I've deceived people before and I've paid a huge price for it, but I've never tried to deceive a whole country. So how does this relate to Donald Trump? Simply put, we just don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth anymore. If today is Tuesday and Donald Trump holds a press conference to tell everyone that today is Tuesday, we all suddenly wonder if it really is Tuesday. We have been conditioned to think that anything he says is false. And when I say that we have been conditioned, it hasn't been because of some "shadow government" or "deep state" or "political conspiracy." It's simply because he lies a lot and we know it.
So what's the real cost of Donald Trump's deception? Well, he has no credibility with most Americans. We just don't trust him. His approval rating among all Americans is only 38%. That is the lowest approval rating of any president. Ever. The reason is that he repeatedly lies to us and we know it. He shamelessly lies to us all the time. If we can't trust our president, then who will lead us? We need a leader, not a liar.
But there's another cost of Trump's deception. The rest of the world has realized that our president is a liar and can't be trusted. They can't rely on him to follow through with anything he says to them and they know he will just deny that he said it at all if he feels like it. This is damaging to all of us, not just to Donald Trump. Our allies are trying to put some distance between themselves and the United States. They know that they can't rely on us anymore when they need some help.
Another cost of Trump's deception is that people throughout the world are wondering how we could have elected a president like this. I regularly talk to people in several other countries and they just don't understand how we could ever have elected this president. They don't have confidence in the American people anymore. They are starting to wonder if, since we elected this man, we are all like him. I don't know about you, but that scares the crap out of me.
So what do we do? Well, I wish there was an easy answer to this problem but there just isn't. Donald Trump will most likely be a one term president, but the big question is whether the United States can survive four years of this nonsense. Can we simply wait for him to be indicted for using the presidency for personal gain? It's bound to happen as he gets bolder and bolder every day. It's just a matter of time before he crosses that line. If he somehow evades impeachment and we manage to make it through the next four years, what will be left of us and who will we be?
I don't know the answer to that, but I know that my own answer is to keep fighting this president every time I get the chance. I'm not powerful or influential, but I'm also not the only American who feels this way. We just need to speak up and tell everyone what we think every time he spews out another Twitter rant full of lies or he does something that hurts our country. That's what grass roots activism is all about. Do what you can, but please do something. It's the only way we're going to get through this.
As you probably know by now, Republicans withdrew their AHCA bill before it could come to a vote. I think this is a good thing, but my fear is that they will try and accomplish the same objectives through a series of executive orders rather than through legislation. We should keep an eye on this. After the bill was withdrawn, Donald Trump immediately declared that it was withdrawn because of the Democrats and that Democrats are to blame for America's troubles.
I was thinking about this earlier today and saw a post on Facebook with some video clips of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign where he kept saying over and over again how he would repeal and replace Obamacare if elected. The final clip was from yesterday or today where he stated that he never said he would repeal and replace Obamacare.
Seriously? We all saw the videos where he said he would repeal and replace Obamacare and now we see a video clip where he claims that he never said any of that. How stupid does Donald Trump really think we are? We saw it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears and now he's saying it never happened. We can bring up the actual video on the internet whenever we want and replay it over and over, but he's saying it didn't happen.
So here's where the cost of deception comes in. If you deceive people over and over, then eventually you lose all your credibility. I've deceived people before and I've paid a huge price for it, but I've never tried to deceive a whole country. So how does this relate to Donald Trump? Simply put, we just don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth anymore. If today is Tuesday and Donald Trump holds a press conference to tell everyone that today is Tuesday, we all suddenly wonder if it really is Tuesday. We have been conditioned to think that anything he says is false. And when I say that we have been conditioned, it hasn't been because of some "shadow government" or "deep state" or "political conspiracy." It's simply because he lies a lot and we know it.
So what's the real cost of Donald Trump's deception? Well, he has no credibility with most Americans. We just don't trust him. His approval rating among all Americans is only 38%. That is the lowest approval rating of any president. Ever. The reason is that he repeatedly lies to us and we know it. He shamelessly lies to us all the time. If we can't trust our president, then who will lead us? We need a leader, not a liar.
But there's another cost of Trump's deception. The rest of the world has realized that our president is a liar and can't be trusted. They can't rely on him to follow through with anything he says to them and they know he will just deny that he said it at all if he feels like it. This is damaging to all of us, not just to Donald Trump. Our allies are trying to put some distance between themselves and the United States. They know that they can't rely on us anymore when they need some help.
Another cost of Trump's deception is that people throughout the world are wondering how we could have elected a president like this. I regularly talk to people in several other countries and they just don't understand how we could ever have elected this president. They don't have confidence in the American people anymore. They are starting to wonder if, since we elected this man, we are all like him. I don't know about you, but that scares the crap out of me.
So what do we do? Well, I wish there was an easy answer to this problem but there just isn't. Donald Trump will most likely be a one term president, but the big question is whether the United States can survive four years of this nonsense. Can we simply wait for him to be indicted for using the presidency for personal gain? It's bound to happen as he gets bolder and bolder every day. It's just a matter of time before he crosses that line. If he somehow evades impeachment and we manage to make it through the next four years, what will be left of us and who will we be?
I don't know the answer to that, but I know that my own answer is to keep fighting this president every time I get the chance. I'm not powerful or influential, but I'm also not the only American who feels this way. We just need to speak up and tell everyone what we think every time he spews out another Twitter rant full of lies or he does something that hurts our country. That's what grass roots activism is all about. Do what you can, but please do something. It's the only way we're going to get through this.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Have We Let Our Guard Down?
Has anyone else noticed that there seem to be more incidents in the news lately involving racial and religious intolerance? Almost every day we hear about graffiti on a mosque, immigrants being told to go back to their country, or someone being beaten because their skin didn't happen to be white. Are these things new, or have they always been happening and we just haven't heard about them until now?
I'm lucky enough to work in a diverse workforce and we have many people from other cultures in our building. I decided to ask some of them what they thought about it. Their answers made my skin crawl.
I spoke to an Indian woman in another department and she told me that since Trump won the election she was strongly considering moving her family back to India. She said her children are now bullied at their school and her neighbors, who were previously welcoming and pleasant to the family, had become cold, distanced, and did not speak to them any more. They are now treated as outsiders instead of welcomed as neighbors. She and her husband are in the US on H1-B work visas.
I also spoke to an Iraqi who had moved his family to Omaha to escape the ravages of war in his country. He told me that they have never really felt welcome, but they had felt "tolerated" until the last couple of months. Recently they were dining at a popular restaurant in our Old Market district and a manager told them that they would need to finish up their dinner and leave because "American citizens are waiting for this table." He told me that they are worried about their safety and that they have been trying to keep a low profile in the community. They are all American citizens and they are Muslims.
The most perplexing conversation I had was with an African American computer engineer. He was an American citizen, as were his parents and their parents. I have no idea how his family came to be in America, but I suspect they came here against their will at some point. He told me that since Donald Trump's inauguration he has felt a distinctly different vibe than he felt before. He wouldn't go into specifics and during our conversation he even inferred that I was probing for information that I wouldn't have asked for before the election. I was dumbfounded.
The next person I talked to is openly gay. She said that, since the election, she and her partner have been treated differently. They have been treated unfairly with their housing, insurance, and finances. She said that she felt uneasy before, but now she and her partner fear for their safety every day. They are afraid some nut case, emboldened by a Donald Trump presidency that legitimizes discrimination based on sexual identity, will physically harm them. Holy shit.
So what's the deal with this stuff? Why are people in the United States feeling uncomfortable and what are we (white Americans) doing to make them feel that way, if anything? I think there's a certain "uneasiness" throughout America today. Things are uncertain and we don't know what's coming next. We really don't. Eight years ago we felt another uneasiness, but it was tempered with hope. This time the uneasiness is laced with doubt and distrust.
Just look at the news. When you think that Donald Trump has just done the most outrageous and illogical thing possible, all you have to do is wait until the next day and he tops it with something else. Personally, I'm at a loss as to how we got here and even more so at how we're going to get out of this mess. It just keeps getting more and more bizarre and no one really seems to care much about it. We just go along with it. Some of us just smile and say "It doesn't make sense" and then go along with it anyway. I can't understand that at all. Just a few years ago we wouldn't have allowed this to happen, but we let our guard down and here we are, right in the middle of it.
Maybe it's time for us all to just say to the world "We made a mistake" and then take whatever action is necessary to correct it. Going along with something we all know is wrong isn't the answer. You can decide for yourself, but I can't sit still and wait to see what everyone else does.
I have to do something. For now, my contribution is in my words because that's all I have to give. I can't donate a bunch of money to activist causes, but I can donate my skills to them. And I will continue to do so until some of Trump's thugs put me in jail or we figure this thing out.
I'm lucky enough to work in a diverse workforce and we have many people from other cultures in our building. I decided to ask some of them what they thought about it. Their answers made my skin crawl.
I spoke to an Indian woman in another department and she told me that since Trump won the election she was strongly considering moving her family back to India. She said her children are now bullied at their school and her neighbors, who were previously welcoming and pleasant to the family, had become cold, distanced, and did not speak to them any more. They are now treated as outsiders instead of welcomed as neighbors. She and her husband are in the US on H1-B work visas.
I also spoke to an Iraqi who had moved his family to Omaha to escape the ravages of war in his country. He told me that they have never really felt welcome, but they had felt "tolerated" until the last couple of months. Recently they were dining at a popular restaurant in our Old Market district and a manager told them that they would need to finish up their dinner and leave because "American citizens are waiting for this table." He told me that they are worried about their safety and that they have been trying to keep a low profile in the community. They are all American citizens and they are Muslims.
The most perplexing conversation I had was with an African American computer engineer. He was an American citizen, as were his parents and their parents. I have no idea how his family came to be in America, but I suspect they came here against their will at some point. He told me that since Donald Trump's inauguration he has felt a distinctly different vibe than he felt before. He wouldn't go into specifics and during our conversation he even inferred that I was probing for information that I wouldn't have asked for before the election. I was dumbfounded.
The next person I talked to is openly gay. She said that, since the election, she and her partner have been treated differently. They have been treated unfairly with their housing, insurance, and finances. She said that she felt uneasy before, but now she and her partner fear for their safety every day. They are afraid some nut case, emboldened by a Donald Trump presidency that legitimizes discrimination based on sexual identity, will physically harm them. Holy shit.
So what's the deal with this stuff? Why are people in the United States feeling uncomfortable and what are we (white Americans) doing to make them feel that way, if anything? I think there's a certain "uneasiness" throughout America today. Things are uncertain and we don't know what's coming next. We really don't. Eight years ago we felt another uneasiness, but it was tempered with hope. This time the uneasiness is laced with doubt and distrust.
Just look at the news. When you think that Donald Trump has just done the most outrageous and illogical thing possible, all you have to do is wait until the next day and he tops it with something else. Personally, I'm at a loss as to how we got here and even more so at how we're going to get out of this mess. It just keeps getting more and more bizarre and no one really seems to care much about it. We just go along with it. Some of us just smile and say "It doesn't make sense" and then go along with it anyway. I can't understand that at all. Just a few years ago we wouldn't have allowed this to happen, but we let our guard down and here we are, right in the middle of it.
Maybe it's time for us all to just say to the world "We made a mistake" and then take whatever action is necessary to correct it. Going along with something we all know is wrong isn't the answer. You can decide for yourself, but I can't sit still and wait to see what everyone else does.
I have to do something. For now, my contribution is in my words because that's all I have to give. I can't donate a bunch of money to activist causes, but I can donate my skills to them. And I will continue to do so until some of Trump's thugs put me in jail or we figure this thing out.
The CBO Report on the American Health Care Act
We've all been waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to weigh in on the AHCA and their report came out yesterday. I spent some time last night and again this morning reading through it and I can say that I didn't really find any surprises there. The conclusions contained it in are no different than what any reasonable person would have expected.
Basically, the report says that from 2017 through 2026 about 24 million people will lose their health insurance either involuntarily or by their own choice. It also says that the AHCA will reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion over the nine year period by reducing benefits paid through Medicaid and by reducing government subsidies people receive today to help pay for their health insurance. There were no surprises there, although I didn't realize that the number of people who will lose coverage was quite that high.
The report says that about 14 million people will lose insurance in 2018 and more will drop off each year after that. The initial reduction will be due to higher premiums and individuals electing to no longer purchase insurance because the mandate to do so will be eliminated. The report says that premiums will increase for the first 2 years and then begin to drop after that. I think that the premium increases will price many people out of the market. Unfortunately, there is a provision in the AHCA that says insurers can charge a 30% premium penalty for anyone who has been without insurance for over 63 days.
The 63 day provision means that, if you think you can cancel your current insurance and then reinstate it a couple of years from now when premiums decrease, you are dead wrong. The CBO estimates that after the initial two year period, insurance premiums will eventually go down by about 10%, which would either put them at about the same cost as we're seeing today or slightly lower. The 30% premium penalty would put your premium cost 20% higher than you pay today. The net effect is that this provision will price a number of people out of the insurance market and they won't be able to afford to get back in.
The report also doesn't discuss the cost of having a greater number of uninsured people in our population. When people can't afford healthcare but they really need it, they simply don't pay for the care they receive. This results in healthcare providers having to absorb those costs, which increases costs for the rest of us. This in turn increases insurance costs and raises premiums for those of us paying for insurance.
The report also says that part of the savings will be realized by reducing Medicaid benefits, capping Medicaid payments, and tightening Medicaid eligibility criteria. You don't have to be Albert Einstein to understand this part. It will be harder to qualify for Medicaid and, if you manage to qualify for it, then it won't pay as much. By capping payments, you can exhaust your benefits. If you're halfway through an expensive chemo regimen and you hit the cap, then you'll need to rethink your life strategy unless you can come up with a lot of cash.
AHCA is also particularly hard on seniors. It allows insurance companies to charge up to five times as much for insurance as young people will pay. You might think that seniors are in a good place when it comes to their finances. Some of them are, but most of us older Americans have come to the realization that retirement just isn't in the cards for us. Either we haven't been able to save at a rate that keeps up with inflation or we just haven't been able to save enough to support ourselves when we retire, period. Increased premium costs will undoubtedly price many of us out of the insurance market permanently.
There are other provisions of the Act that are very favorable to insurers, both in terms of tax breaks and in the ability to offer reduced coverage at higher prices. You'll have to read it if you want to learn about those. You can read the Act for yourself here.
I guess I can sum up my opinion of the AHCA by saying that it's going to be very hard on low income Americans and it will be beneficial to insurance companies and higher income Americans. It will certainly reduce the deficit, but if you consider this reduction in proportion to other possible avenues for budget reduction, it's a relatively small amount. Especially when you consider how many people will be negatively impacted. I'm angry about it, but I expected that and it's no surprise that Republican lawmakers would propose legislation that benefits the wealthy and big business and do it at the expense of low income Americans. They have a history of doing that while they're telling us that they're making our lives better.
What really makes me angry, however, is the way they're presenting it to the American people. Obamacare has been painted as the root of everything that's wrong with our country and, for the most part, people are believing that. Republicans are putting a positive spin on the CBO report by emphasizing the deficit reduction, but ignoring the fact that 24 million people will become uninsured. If you look at Paul Ryan's summary of the CBO report, then AHCA looks like a no-brainer. If you look past the sound bites designed to play on your emotions rather than your intellect, then the story is much different.
Take a minute and think this through. Look at Paul Ryan's pitch and then look at the actual CBO report and make a decision for yourself. You might discover that AHCA has a pretty high price after all.
Basically, the report says that from 2017 through 2026 about 24 million people will lose their health insurance either involuntarily or by their own choice. It also says that the AHCA will reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion over the nine year period by reducing benefits paid through Medicaid and by reducing government subsidies people receive today to help pay for their health insurance. There were no surprises there, although I didn't realize that the number of people who will lose coverage was quite that high.
The report says that about 14 million people will lose insurance in 2018 and more will drop off each year after that. The initial reduction will be due to higher premiums and individuals electing to no longer purchase insurance because the mandate to do so will be eliminated. The report says that premiums will increase for the first 2 years and then begin to drop after that. I think that the premium increases will price many people out of the market. Unfortunately, there is a provision in the AHCA that says insurers can charge a 30% premium penalty for anyone who has been without insurance for over 63 days.
The 63 day provision means that, if you think you can cancel your current insurance and then reinstate it a couple of years from now when premiums decrease, you are dead wrong. The CBO estimates that after the initial two year period, insurance premiums will eventually go down by about 10%, which would either put them at about the same cost as we're seeing today or slightly lower. The 30% premium penalty would put your premium cost 20% higher than you pay today. The net effect is that this provision will price a number of people out of the insurance market and they won't be able to afford to get back in.
The report also doesn't discuss the cost of having a greater number of uninsured people in our population. When people can't afford healthcare but they really need it, they simply don't pay for the care they receive. This results in healthcare providers having to absorb those costs, which increases costs for the rest of us. This in turn increases insurance costs and raises premiums for those of us paying for insurance.
The report also says that part of the savings will be realized by reducing Medicaid benefits, capping Medicaid payments, and tightening Medicaid eligibility criteria. You don't have to be Albert Einstein to understand this part. It will be harder to qualify for Medicaid and, if you manage to qualify for it, then it won't pay as much. By capping payments, you can exhaust your benefits. If you're halfway through an expensive chemo regimen and you hit the cap, then you'll need to rethink your life strategy unless you can come up with a lot of cash.
AHCA is also particularly hard on seniors. It allows insurance companies to charge up to five times as much for insurance as young people will pay. You might think that seniors are in a good place when it comes to their finances. Some of them are, but most of us older Americans have come to the realization that retirement just isn't in the cards for us. Either we haven't been able to save at a rate that keeps up with inflation or we just haven't been able to save enough to support ourselves when we retire, period. Increased premium costs will undoubtedly price many of us out of the insurance market permanently.
There are other provisions of the Act that are very favorable to insurers, both in terms of tax breaks and in the ability to offer reduced coverage at higher prices. You'll have to read it if you want to learn about those. You can read the Act for yourself here.
I guess I can sum up my opinion of the AHCA by saying that it's going to be very hard on low income Americans and it will be beneficial to insurance companies and higher income Americans. It will certainly reduce the deficit, but if you consider this reduction in proportion to other possible avenues for budget reduction, it's a relatively small amount. Especially when you consider how many people will be negatively impacted. I'm angry about it, but I expected that and it's no surprise that Republican lawmakers would propose legislation that benefits the wealthy and big business and do it at the expense of low income Americans. They have a history of doing that while they're telling us that they're making our lives better.
What really makes me angry, however, is the way they're presenting it to the American people. Obamacare has been painted as the root of everything that's wrong with our country and, for the most part, people are believing that. Republicans are putting a positive spin on the CBO report by emphasizing the deficit reduction, but ignoring the fact that 24 million people will become uninsured. If you look at Paul Ryan's summary of the CBO report, then AHCA looks like a no-brainer. If you look past the sound bites designed to play on your emotions rather than your intellect, then the story is much different.
Take a minute and think this through. Look at Paul Ryan's pitch and then look at the actual CBO report and make a decision for yourself. You might discover that AHCA has a pretty high price after all.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Faces of Activism in Photographs
I came across an amazing web site after watching a documentary about a photographer named Platon Antoniou and I want to share it with you. As an amateur photographer, I was amazed by his work and decided to visit the web site of one of his projects called The People's Portfolio. If you want to see some beautiful photographs, then you should take a look. The link is here.
When I first went to the site I expected to see some of his beautiful portraits, but there's a lot more there. The People's Portfolio is about the issues facing us today and the people who are doing something about them. Very, very nice work and the photos are some of the best photography I have ever seen anywhere. His photographs not only capture what these activists look like, but also their emotions and what motivates them.
Platon is an amazing photographer. Tanya found the documentary in a series on design somewhere on Netflix and we watched it one night. This guy's portrait photography is simply stunning. It was amazing to see the creative process he goes through to produce it. It's not a bunch of crazy stuff. It's just the right stuff. If you get a chance to watch this documentary then you should do it. You'll recognize most of the photos from magazine covers and you'll also see a lot of new ones. I can honestly say that watching Platon's creative process and the photographs that resulted from it gave me a a totally new outlook on photography as an art.
When I first went to the site I expected to see some of his beautiful portraits, but there's a lot more there. The People's Portfolio is about the issues facing us today and the people who are doing something about them. Very, very nice work and the photos are some of the best photography I have ever seen anywhere. His photographs not only capture what these activists look like, but also their emotions and what motivates them.
Platon is an amazing photographer. Tanya found the documentary in a series on design somewhere on Netflix and we watched it one night. This guy's portrait photography is simply stunning. It was amazing to see the creative process he goes through to produce it. It's not a bunch of crazy stuff. It's just the right stuff. If you get a chance to watch this documentary then you should do it. You'll recognize most of the photos from magazine covers and you'll also see a lot of new ones. I can honestly say that watching Platon's creative process and the photographs that resulted from it gave me a a totally new outlook on photography as an art.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Mean America
This is not the America I signed up for. When I was a kid we were told that America was the protector of all that is good. We were told that America would stand up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves. We would help others in need. We would welcome others who could no longer live in their own countries. We would fight for what is right, not only within our own borders, but everywhere in the the world. We would not be assholes.
But that has changed. Just watch the news. Now, we're stripping our own citizens of the benefits they need to survive. We're not allowing people in need to enter our country. We're telling our seniors that they can't have health care unless they're wealthy. We're telling people who can't afford to eat that it's their fault. We're cutting ties with our allies across the world. We are changing everything and we are changing it in a big way. We are becoming mean to our own citizens and to the rest of the world.
Until now, America has been both benefactor and policeman to the world. Now we can barely make it through a day without a major scandal. We can no longer be either benefactor or policeman. We can't handle our own business and we certainly can't handle anyone else's. We are at a crossroads and it's not pretty. We need to make some hard decisions.
Do we continue to look out for the world's best interests or do we just look out for ourselves? Are we a welfare state or should our own citizens be responsible for their own destinies? Should we all be responsible for making our lives livable or should we expect our government to help us?
Well, I'll tell you that I don't have the answer. It's a tough question. I will tell you, however, that we need to make informed decisions and we need reliable information to make those decisions. I don't think we're getting good information today. We're getting information that has been twisted by political parties in order to suit their needs, not ours. We're flooded with information and misinformation and it's up to us to determine what's true and what's just someone's attempt to force their bullshit on us to achieve their own ends.
This has made is unfeeling, unsympathetic, and downright mean. We're not mean because we're unsympathetic and unfeeling. We're mean because we don't care that we're that way. Who can honestly say that depriving healthcare to low income Americans is a good thing? Unfortunately, most Americans just listen to the party talking points instead of really looking into what's about to happen to us. We need to really dig into the healthcare situation in order to truly understand the implications of the American Healthcare Act. Most of us aren't willing to do that, but we really need to. The talking points offered by both parties don't tell the whole story. They tell just one side and neither side is telling the whole truth.
We aren't taking the time to really think through these things. They don't represent the real America and we should be worried about it. Seriously worried. The reason we're becoming a mean America is that we don't seem to care. We are willing to just swallow the party line and go along with it because it's the easiest path. If we just accept it, we are not honoring our commitments to our own citizens or the rest of the world. We are becoming a mean, self-centered America.
You can take action now by really thinking about where we're heading and acting accordingly. That means you'll have to read the bills that are before Congress, listen to our president and decide of you agree with him, and conduct your life in a manner that you know is right. Make the right choice and think for yourself instead of just accepting what you hear from others. Including what you are reading here. Form your own opinion and do what you think is right.
But that has changed. Just watch the news. Now, we're stripping our own citizens of the benefits they need to survive. We're not allowing people in need to enter our country. We're telling our seniors that they can't have health care unless they're wealthy. We're telling people who can't afford to eat that it's their fault. We're cutting ties with our allies across the world. We are changing everything and we are changing it in a big way. We are becoming mean to our own citizens and to the rest of the world.
Until now, America has been both benefactor and policeman to the world. Now we can barely make it through a day without a major scandal. We can no longer be either benefactor or policeman. We can't handle our own business and we certainly can't handle anyone else's. We are at a crossroads and it's not pretty. We need to make some hard decisions.
Do we continue to look out for the world's best interests or do we just look out for ourselves? Are we a welfare state or should our own citizens be responsible for their own destinies? Should we all be responsible for making our lives livable or should we expect our government to help us?
Well, I'll tell you that I don't have the answer. It's a tough question. I will tell you, however, that we need to make informed decisions and we need reliable information to make those decisions. I don't think we're getting good information today. We're getting information that has been twisted by political parties in order to suit their needs, not ours. We're flooded with information and misinformation and it's up to us to determine what's true and what's just someone's attempt to force their bullshit on us to achieve their own ends.
This has made is unfeeling, unsympathetic, and downright mean. We're not mean because we're unsympathetic and unfeeling. We're mean because we don't care that we're that way. Who can honestly say that depriving healthcare to low income Americans is a good thing? Unfortunately, most Americans just listen to the party talking points instead of really looking into what's about to happen to us. We need to really dig into the healthcare situation in order to truly understand the implications of the American Healthcare Act. Most of us aren't willing to do that, but we really need to. The talking points offered by both parties don't tell the whole story. They tell just one side and neither side is telling the whole truth.
We aren't taking the time to really think through these things. They don't represent the real America and we should be worried about it. Seriously worried. The reason we're becoming a mean America is that we don't seem to care. We are willing to just swallow the party line and go along with it because it's the easiest path. If we just accept it, we are not honoring our commitments to our own citizens or the rest of the world. We are becoming a mean, self-centered America.
You can take action now by really thinking about where we're heading and acting accordingly. That means you'll have to read the bills that are before Congress, listen to our president and decide of you agree with him, and conduct your life in a manner that you know is right. Make the right choice and think for yourself instead of just accepting what you hear from others. Including what you are reading here. Form your own opinion and do what you think is right.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
First Read of the American Healthcare Act
Republicans released a draft or the American Healthcare Act (AHA) today. I knew I would probably be writing something about it, so I downloaded a copy. The document is essentially a list of edits to the Affordable Care Act and is not understandable without applying the edits to a copy of the Affordable Care Act.
The bill was not written this way as a matter of procedure. It was written this way so it would be difficult to understand and would take considerable effort for average Americans to truly understand what it will do when enacted. Paul Ryan's web site has a link for downloading the bill, but he has also posted a few talking points about it in a more understandable but tragically inaccurate form on the same web page. The hope is that most Americans will glance at the bill and decide that reading his summary is enough for them to understand it's details and implications.
I'll admit that I've just started going through the original ACA and applying the American Healthcare Act edits to that document, so I'm no expert. I did notice that it does strip all federal funding from "prohibited entities." Later in the same paragraph it references abortions, so it is apparent that one provision of the bill defunds Planned Parenthood by withholding federal funds either paid directly or through service provider contracts with the states. Yes, another underhanded trick that the Republicans hope you won't notice.
So, as I started to go through the American Healthcare Act, I followed the trail of edits back through the ACA and ended up in a bill called the 21st Century Cures Act. The section of that bill referenced is 4002 - Prevention and Public Health Fund. It established a fund "to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs" and "for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs."
This means $2 billion per year is designated for public health programs, immunizations, and wellness education. These are things that would make our quality of life better and reduce insurance costs across the board for everyone, not just people who use Obamacare. The AHA removes all funding for this after 2018. Who really cares if we are healthy, right? Why not take that $17 that is spent on immunizations for low income children and put it toward something more meaningful, like covering the $12 million salary of an insurance company executive or a subsidy to Exxon Mobil to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico??
It also appears that Republicans will bring back benefit caps. This means that there will now be a maximum benefit amount that insurance companies are obligated to pay out. While most Americans won't experience a catastrophic illness during their lifetime, it still affects all of us by increasing healthcare costs and in turn increase our insurance costs. If you have a catastrophic illness like lung cancer or heart failure, then you had better have a hefty Healthcare Savings Account account or be ready to sell your house to pay for some of your treatment. Of course you wouldn't be taxed on some of the $2 million you've been saving to pay for your catastrophic health care costs. To put things in perspective, If I put 100% of my income into a health savings account, then it would take me over 22 years to save enough money to pay for a major medical crisis.
And if you're a senior, be prepared to pay up to five times as much for your insurance as a 30 year old pays. That's just the Republican way of saying thanks for working hard all your life to make America great again.
The paragraphs above were written last night. Today, after the world has had a chance to take a look at the American Healthcare Act, an even more frightening scenario has emerged. Conservative Republicans are now saying that the cuts to benefits do not go far enough. Knowingly depriving low income Americans of healthcare is not enough? What exactly motivates these people and has the Trump presidency emboldened them? Washington is literally coming unglued over this issue.
Just two more things before I stop writing this post. The Republicans are saying that the American Healthcare Act will reduce insurance costs for everyone. This is simply not true. It will result in an increase in uninsured Americans, which in turn will result in medical providers having to write off more unpaid healthcare bills. The cost of these write-offs will be passed on to all of us in the form of higher healthcare costs and will result in insurers increasing premiums to cover these costs.
Prevention and healthcare education is also drastically cut in the American Healthcare Act. It is a proven fact that healthcare education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles lowers healthcare costs, thus reducing the cost to insurers and in turn lowering insurance premiums. The bill drastically cuts or eliminates expenditures on prevention, which will drive insurance premiums higher. History has already shown this to be true.
The next few months will certainly be interesting. If the American Healthcare Act is passed, then it will result in higher insurance and healthcare costs for all of us whether we are currently Obamacare consumers or not. This will price many people out of the insurance market and will only widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in our country. This may be the most important legislative action we will see in our lifetime and it's time for all Americans to stand up and fight for what is right.
The bill was not written this way as a matter of procedure. It was written this way so it would be difficult to understand and would take considerable effort for average Americans to truly understand what it will do when enacted. Paul Ryan's web site has a link for downloading the bill, but he has also posted a few talking points about it in a more understandable but tragically inaccurate form on the same web page. The hope is that most Americans will glance at the bill and decide that reading his summary is enough for them to understand it's details and implications.
I'll admit that I've just started going through the original ACA and applying the American Healthcare Act edits to that document, so I'm no expert. I did notice that it does strip all federal funding from "prohibited entities." Later in the same paragraph it references abortions, so it is apparent that one provision of the bill defunds Planned Parenthood by withholding federal funds either paid directly or through service provider contracts with the states. Yes, another underhanded trick that the Republicans hope you won't notice.
So, as I started to go through the American Healthcare Act, I followed the trail of edits back through the ACA and ended up in a bill called the 21st Century Cures Act. The section of that bill referenced is 4002 - Prevention and Public Health Fund. It established a fund "to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs" and "for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs."
This means $2 billion per year is designated for public health programs, immunizations, and wellness education. These are things that would make our quality of life better and reduce insurance costs across the board for everyone, not just people who use Obamacare. The AHA removes all funding for this after 2018. Who really cares if we are healthy, right? Why not take that $17 that is spent on immunizations for low income children and put it toward something more meaningful, like covering the $12 million salary of an insurance company executive or a subsidy to Exxon Mobil to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico??
It also appears that Republicans will bring back benefit caps. This means that there will now be a maximum benefit amount that insurance companies are obligated to pay out. While most Americans won't experience a catastrophic illness during their lifetime, it still affects all of us by increasing healthcare costs and in turn increase our insurance costs. If you have a catastrophic illness like lung cancer or heart failure, then you had better have a hefty Healthcare Savings Account account or be ready to sell your house to pay for some of your treatment. Of course you wouldn't be taxed on some of the $2 million you've been saving to pay for your catastrophic health care costs. To put things in perspective, If I put 100% of my income into a health savings account, then it would take me over 22 years to save enough money to pay for a major medical crisis.
And if you're a senior, be prepared to pay up to five times as much for your insurance as a 30 year old pays. That's just the Republican way of saying thanks for working hard all your life to make America great again.
The paragraphs above were written last night. Today, after the world has had a chance to take a look at the American Healthcare Act, an even more frightening scenario has emerged. Conservative Republicans are now saying that the cuts to benefits do not go far enough. Knowingly depriving low income Americans of healthcare is not enough? What exactly motivates these people and has the Trump presidency emboldened them? Washington is literally coming unglued over this issue.
Just two more things before I stop writing this post. The Republicans are saying that the American Healthcare Act will reduce insurance costs for everyone. This is simply not true. It will result in an increase in uninsured Americans, which in turn will result in medical providers having to write off more unpaid healthcare bills. The cost of these write-offs will be passed on to all of us in the form of higher healthcare costs and will result in insurers increasing premiums to cover these costs.
Prevention and healthcare education is also drastically cut in the American Healthcare Act. It is a proven fact that healthcare education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles lowers healthcare costs, thus reducing the cost to insurers and in turn lowering insurance premiums. The bill drastically cuts or eliminates expenditures on prevention, which will drive insurance premiums higher. History has already shown this to be true.
The next few months will certainly be interesting. If the American Healthcare Act is passed, then it will result in higher insurance and healthcare costs for all of us whether we are currently Obamacare consumers or not. This will price many people out of the insurance market and will only widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in our country. This may be the most important legislative action we will see in our lifetime and it's time for all Americans to stand up and fight for what is right.
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