Today marks the beginning of the 60 days of lunacy and dishonest behavior known as the annual session of the Florida legislature. Their only real job is to pass a budget, but they manage to afflict the citizens with myriad types of idiocies and indignities in their quest for higher office.
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And as the great Molly Ivins said about the Texas leg: “many a village is missing it’s idiot”. 🙂 Bryan, we all have the same problem these days. I cringe at what they manage to do in Richmond. You never know what new craziness will be put up for vote.
I really miss Molly these days. She is probably spinning in her grave.
We keep having to pass initiatives to amend the Florida constitution to rein these fools in, and enacted term limits to reduce the mischief, but they have gerrymandered things to the point that if you are in the party of the incumbent you have almost now chance a winning a seat. There are significantly more Democrats than Republicans in this state but the
Republicans control every thing.
Once most of the seats are locked into a particular party voters don’t really have a choice and you can’t ‘throw the bums out’.
The three great ladies of Texas – Molly Ivins, Ann Richards, and Barbara Jordan
I expect that my post should have had “Texas Lege” rather than leg. And I really do know the difference between its and it’s, just not yesterday apparently. The teacher in you probably caught that immediately!
Yes, all three of those ladies are favorites of mine. Texas produces real firebrands with a sense of humor. During periods of Republican insanity, we need all the comedy we can get because I expect a lot of tragedy is forthcoming.
As of right now, I have no earthly idea what type of insurance I will have come the first of the year. I’ve heard all sorts of stuff, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense at this point. You know, once upon a time, I can remember getting a medical insurance policy as a self-employed person, and I would stay with that company and policy for just freaking years knowing what I would have from year to year (with a slight increase). Now people have NO idea what they’ll have or IF they’ll have it. Geez.
Juanita, I taught IT, Russian history & literature, and the laws of arrest in New York State. I never pretended to teach English to anyone. Steve Bates is the man for that and he has been silent since the election. I knew what you meant, and that really is the goal of communication.
Most people are too busy trying to make enough money to pay their bills to want to deal with making decisions about insurance. It’s not like anyone is going to tell you what an operation is going to cost. Take the Medicare Part D prescription insurance. I have one prescription, but the few plans that cover that medication cost more than just paying for it. I really didn’t want to spend the time scanning all of the different plans because life is too short. When that plan was introduced by the Republicans in 2003 I knew it was going to be a mess, and I spent a lot of time researching plans for friends of my Mother. My Mother had Tricare for Life as a result of my Dad’s military service and things were just paid for. Medicare for All is the easiest, simplest solution, and people who want more can get ‘Medigap’ policies.
Republicans has no idea what total prats they appear when they talk about the virtues of ‘choice’ in healthcare.
Appreciate the pass on English! I tried to use the same “communication” logic on my English teachers, but they never bought it. They can be an uptight group as a whole. Snicker.
By the way, do you know how Steve Bates is doing? I know he had a lot of health issues a while back.
You are so right about these programs being time consuming. People don’t have the time, and a lot of the elderly don’t have the mental acuity to slog through all this and find the best program. I had to do the Part D for Harry who as you know has dementia. Even with all my senses intact, such as they are, I found it to be akin to hard labor. You and Bernie have it right, Medicare for All is the only fair way to go. Everyone gets basically the same insurance, no matter who you are.
Did you happen to see Sanders last night in McDowell County, West Virginia? Health insurance is vitally important to miners due to the dangers inherent in their work and Trump promised them great things all around. I wouldn’t want to be crossways with a bunch of coal miners when you’ve betrayed them. What I found interesting is that you can almost see the light bulbs start to come on over their heads, and they are slowly coming to realize they have been had (and that Bernie isn’t the enemy). If you have some time on your hands, here is the link: Bernie in McDowell County
P.S. I like pi.
I’ll check out Bernie, but Medicare isn’t a one-size-fits-all program. The base program only covers hospitalization, then you can get Part B for doctors visits, and Part D for prescription help. In addition you can get Medigap insurance that covers the Medicare deductibles. In other words, you can get as much as you want, or stay with the base plan. I have A&B which costs about $100/month. I’m in fairly good shape. I was hospitalized for pneumonia 2 years ago and then had a hernia fixed, but I hadn’t seen a doctor for the 30 years prior. If you have problems you can get coverage for a hell of a lot less than people in the private market.
It’s an insurance policy with the premiums automatically deduced. It’s the way health care is delivered in the rest of the civilized world and it keeps costs down.
I thought the link was the whole show, but realized that MSNBC piecemeals segments out. They’re afraid you’ll see something you haven’t paid for.
There is no link that shows the entire town hall meeting, but this one is 15 minutes of the beginning: 15 min segment There are Bernie supporters inserted in the audience, but there were a lot of Trump voters there, too. I wish you could see the part as it begins to dawn on them how they have been snookered. One guy commented that he couldn’t believe that a guy from New Hampshire is more concerned about his healthcare than McConnell who is right next door in Kentucky and knows the mining community.
Yes, I see that you have to pay a certain amount for additional coverage. I guess what I meant is that everyone would have the availability for the same levels of service at a reasonable cost (hopefully).
I think that $1200/year for doctors is cheap when you consider that we are the sickest age group. The more healthy people in the pool the lower the cost for individuals. There are Medicare HMOs in some areas that provide a total package for no additional cost beyond your Part A&B coverage. They are generally found in cities.
MSNBC can’t really decide what kind of system to use. It would seem to me that if they include their advertising on their clips they should just stream them.
they should just stream them
Yup. I started streaming all TV about 3 years ago and never looked back. I already had Amazon Prime due to my business, so I already had a built in package of more programming than I will ever have time to watch, and at no extra cost other than the up front cost of the Fire box. Added Netflix because they had a show or two that I wanted to see. So, for a grand total of $10.00/month, I get about anything I really want to watch (or have time to watch).
Too many of the good cable networks are missing out on the streaming tidal wave due to old contracts made to package them with channels no one ever watches in order for cable/satellite to charge exorbitant monthly rates. “We have 150 channels for $….” No one wants to pay their fees anymore. Every couple of months I would see that my Directv bill was rising $1 or $2 at a time hoping I wouldn’t notice I guess. One day I looked at the total and was like “what the heck happened?”.
I inherited a ‘smart’ TV and get Amazon Prime, Acorn, & Hulu as well as free access to BBC News, YouTube and all kinds of specialized stuff over the ‘Net. I’m an old guy, and don’t want to wait for a commercial to take a bathroom break. I’m used to pausing and restarting. Broadcast doesn’t do it for me. I read my news generally at foreign news sites that aren’t aligned with US political parties or media conglomerates.
The cable companies are pricing themselves out of reach of the middle class.