Category: GOP / DEM

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Ok, I’ve got nothing!

Nothing to say.

Still looking for insurance that I can afford.

THuhhe search isn’t going well.

On the one hand I’d like to be covered, on the other hand I have a fundamental problem paying another mortgage payment to have medical coverage.

The primary problem I have is this, with a mortgage I have something that’s tangible. With health insurance I’m pissing money away to provide for coverage that I may or may not use.

At the rate I’m paying right now for COBRA, if I paid that same rate for 10 years it would come to $72,000 not including interest.

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When the  men in my family break at end of life we don’t typically last very long.

I’m actually fortunate in that as long as we stay active we live a long fairly trouble free life. Our sinuses are for shit but nothing is perfect.

When our time comes we tend to go out like Don Corleone in The Godfather. We’re playing with the grandkids or great grandkids in the garden then we drop dead.

If I’m going to pay the equivalent of another mortgage, I might as well take advantage of the lower mortgage rates and buy another piece of property. At least I could rent it out and have an income, with a potentially higher rate of return.

I was thinking about it and realized that were I to go to a bank to apply for a mortgage for another piece of property they’d tell me I can’t afford to make the payment. Yet our government says that not only must I afford the payment but that they will enforce it under the law.

It’s a lose, lose proposition. If I were still in my 20s I’d be applying for citizenship in other countries. Not because I hate America, I love this country, but because I wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of American citizenship as I got older.

Today if I could communicate with my younger self… I’d say go find a decent country with good people and a system that works. Move there, become a citizen and plan for a decent retirement.

I look at my parents and their retirement isn’t at all what they’d planned for because they trusted in a system that didn’t really protect them. Remember Enron? There were a lot of 401K investments that got wiped out due to them. Then just a few years later you have the housing implosion and the devaluation of their retirement savings has really cut into what they can do. I know they’re on Medicare and Social Security I know they’re paying for health care supplementary insurance I just don’t know how long they’re going to be able to afford it.

I’ve spoken to younger insurance agents who don’t have health insurance because they don’t have an extra 600 – 800 dollars a month in their budgets.

NewImageYet in 2014 we’re all supposed to be carrying insurance and we’ll be penalized for not having a policy in force.

I’m still OK,  yeah I’m using my savings to pay the bills but I can go for a while longer with careful spending. I keep wondering how the hell can people less fortunate than myself come close to affording health insurance?

It really messes with your head. You want to do the right thing, but you can’t afford to do the right thing.

Obviously if you didn’t bother to pay for your housing, and didn’t eat you could afford to pay for health insurance. Then you’d only have to worry about paying for health insurance for a few weeks.

This is seriously wrong. And yet the government is in a position to make us all face this choice.

I’ve said it before. Contrary to what President Obama would have us believe. The problem isn’t that American Citizens are irresponsible about medical coverage. The problem is that health insurance companies and to some extent the medical providers are raping the American People.

If our government was truly interested in taking action on health care they’d address the source of the problem not penalize the victims.

Humm, I guess I did have something to say after all.

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And in the last few days before the election…

I’m turning my radio & Television OFF!

The incessant vicious ads and mudslinging have reached a fever pitch and I can’t take it anymore.

I’m with Abigael Evans,  the 4 year old who got an apology from NPR.

I wholeheartedly agree that it’s just gotten to be way too much.

If I see another 10 minute string of proposition commercials punctuated by sniping senate & congressional hopefuls… I swear I’ll just not bother to vote at all.

Grow up people, present your case be civil to each other and hopefully we’ll make the best decision.

At the very least you’ll be examples of how differences should be resolved, instead of demonstrating to young people that name calling and bullying are the way to get what you want.

I’m almost to the place where I thinking we should just choose our politicians randomly from the population. At least then, the PACS and businesses wouldn’t know who to hand the money to.

It would be a damn sight easier to figure out WHO was taking what money from whom.

I think we ALL deserve an apology for the nastiness we’ve seen in this election season.

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I broke the rules of Dinner parties

Yep,

Over the weekend I spoke of… Horror of Horrors !

Politics!

Thankfully it was at the end of the party not the beginning…

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Several guests were talking about the food labeling proposition that’s been getting a lot of air play here in California.

The gist of the proposition is that genetically modified foods should be labeled. But then the proposition goes on to exclude some foods and require labeling on others even if there “might” be a component used in the food that was derived from a genetically modified source.

I’m against this proposition, and my reasoning is simple. Either you identify ALL genetically modified foods or don’t bother. No exceptions, no exclusions, mandate an all or nothing approach.

In my mind, It’s probably not a bad idea to give the consumer a choice to eat genetically modified foods or not, you can do that with labeling. 

Sacramento in my opinion, was going to use the proposition to create another new administrative nightmare that would have been a “California Only” thing.

In the process they’d create another revenue stream for the politicians to waste. Oh and of course… they’d have created the potential for food shortages similar to gas shortages and obscene pricing, because the food in the OTHER 48 states wouldn’t be compatible with the regulations imposed by California.

Then they asked about the presidential choices. In my head there were warning klaxons… Even a guest appearance by the Lost in Space robot, “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!”

I plowed ahead… 

At this late date I’m still unsure which way I’m going to vote on the presidency. 

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I don’t think President Obama is the way… and at the same time I really don’t have great feelings for Governor Romney.

My reasoning is this, President Obama is today and honestly I believe has been a lame duck during his entire Presidency. With Congress refusing at every turn to work with him, he’s not been nearly as effective as he could have been. Even his good ideas for the country get no traction because no matter what, Congress is going to fight about it. 

The other liberal Democratic guests at the party swarmed me like sharks. I was amazed. They wouldn’t let me finish a sentence.

These otherwise intelligent people, were so incensed that not only did the conversation stop, it degenerated to a level just above name calling.

WOW!

I thought the Republican Conservatives were the ones that frothed at the mouth and refused to hear dissenting opinions!

Obviously I’m living in the past. 

I thought that decorum and politeness dictated that you at least listened to someone else’s opinion and let them finish their statement. I try to do this and while I am passionate about some things I really try to hear the other side.

Apparently, that’s not the way Americans work today. 

If you disagree… You’re to shout the other party down! That way you don’t have to be confused by the logic of a well reasoned argument against your preconceived beliefs.

One of these same people (Again, intelligent, well educated, older people) said the following which still has me reeling.

“I’d rather have another four years of a stalled economy with Obama, than a working economy under Romney.“

WHAT?!?!?!?!

I suppose that’s easy to say if you’re already retired.

But that’s a really bad idea if you’re one of the people who still needs to work.

That kind of thinking really disturbs me. 

 It’s also indicative of the partisan politics that has crippled Washington and our ability as a people to control our politicians.

The thing that people seem to have forgotten is that we and our politicians, need to think outside ourselves.

We should be thinking about what is best for our nation, not our party, not our ethnicity, not the GLBT people with one blue eye and one green eye.

We all need to step back and act in the best interests of all Americans. 

That may mean some of those Americans won’t have their special interests seen to immediately. And that’s the price you pay for the relative freedoms we have in this country.

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Do you think the Tuskegee Airmen were thinking about how unequally they were being treated in the armed forces and the nation when they fought in World War II?

Sure they were, BUT They were Men enough and American enough to realize that sometimes the bigger picture really is more important!

At a time when Black people had to sit at the back of the bus, and there were White Only restrooms and water fountains. These MEN stepped up put those issues aside and fought to protect this country. I can only assume that THEY saw the potential in our nation.

I’m totally in favor of the repeal of DOMA, I’m also in favor of allowing same sex marriage. I don’t think that Same Sex marriage should be a new law, I think it should be a simple enforcement of the logic of equality and freedom that we’re already supposed to have.

I believe that Independent civilian investigations should happen in Washington to determine just how deep the corruption goes and to start proceedings to root out the influence corporate America has on national politics. 

Am I willing to STOP the country until these things happen?

HELL NO!

Because that would lead to untold numbers of people being out of work, and with those people being out of work their children conceivably go hungry, they default on their homes and become a big drag on an economy that’s already stumbling. 

And in my opinion… taking any action that stops the economy, is unethical, and immoral. 

Of course the guests circling me like sharks weren’t at all interested in my reasoning.

Nor were they interested in this thought.

If Romney is elected and the economy improves, we have anecdotal proof that the country is in fact controlled by large corporations.

We also know which politicians are the puppets of those corporations because they would be the very same group that fought to make President Obamas policies fail.

Which gives We The People viable targets.

Over the next four years, We The People must vote those politicians out of office.

We The People must demand accountability and investigations into potential corruption within our government up to and including impeachment of any and all officials tainted by corporate special interest and control.

This will not be a simple process, nor will it be a quick one. But it is a necessary process if we want a government that is Of and For the people again.

Of course… the alternative is to do nothing.

Which means that thePresidential election has lost all meaning.

If the election process continues to be essentially a 50% / 50% split, that means that neither candidate or party is offering anything the people can rally behind. 

How long can any country survive with it’s political process in neutral?