Also on health care- decimation of women's health care availability, ruin of Pepfar, cutting funding for addiction treatment and mental health treatment, and (for the pro-birth party) cutting of HIV prevention and vaccine development that could stop babies from being born with HIV/AIDS in teh US and overseas...tens of thousands of babies!
Many seniors with a Medicare Advantage Plan will be receiving a notice from their healthcare insurance company that their plan is being terminated. They'll have to find a new plan or perhaps a new insurance company -- just another problem to factor into the serenity of their golden years.
The title of this piece goes right to the problem with the Democrats. The Democrats sit around and wait for there to be some controversy about the Republicans instead of merely inventing one like the GOP does year after year. Then when they actually get the controversy, they sit on their thumbs and some Representative or elected official gets in front of a TV camera and says RFK is putting the country’s health at risk. Then they all run back and wait for the polls to come out and there’s no movement at all. And then they look at each other and they say gee I guess that didn’t work.Well no kidding. It didn’t work. First of all don’t wait till there’s something to skewer them on, invent it, Invent an issue. The second the most important thing is that it has to be repeated 1000 times. They go on Fox, fox repeats it for weeks and months. Everybody parrots, then in the Senate and the house and pretty soon it becomes reality and is picked up by all of the media.That’s how you invent propaganda. That’s how you win. We have already learned that just exposing the facts gets us nowhere. Stop embracing failed tactics.
Shout out to Lauren for doing the heavy lifting as she peels back the blanket to get an inside/out look at the dems. I know some get testy with her remarks; now is not the time to get squeamish. Half-measures will avail us nothing.
I will continue by becoming insensitive with my comments. This past 6 months is akin to a 400 lb portly (trying to be kind here) gentleman rolling into a Las Vegas buffet on his motorized scooter. With eyes big as saucers, the question is where to begin?
Everywhere, anywhere that fits. Issues will vary and while i know the popular idea is to have a single message point, i fail to understand the value of only one. There's too much fertile ground to be plowed. Iowa ain't Florida, nor should it be treated as such.
One word of advice for those running: Quit leaning into carefully scripted orations crafted by gifted speech writers. If you want to run, speak from the heart, speak in terms that are easily understood and by God, learn to listen. I cannot tell you how many times i turn off talking-head politicians because i know all they are muttering is what has been handed to them by handlers.
Finally, hold a mid-term convention, but get away from the same old same old. Blow the doors off it, ask Schumer and Jeffries to step aside and bring in new blood. Create an energy that shows voters you are listening and ready to step up and step out of the shadows they have been hiding in.
I love what Gov Newsom is doing. He proves it is time to embrace a brave new world out there. It is time to turn the page and kick some ass (pun intended). We simply cannot afford to do otherwise.
Open tab on Tim Walz: People are tired of him because he is just too nice. Everyone has moved on to Pritzker as the flavor of the month.
Mid-term Conventions? Yes. It highlights the importance of the mid-term elections which these days are more important than ever.
The real problem is that as long as only 40 seats out of 435 are competitive and only 19 are real "tossups" we can expect narrow margins in the House for the foreseeable future. This will not be 2018.
Even if Democrats win the House with a significant margin and the Senate by a narrow margin Trump's veto will trump anything Democrats try to do. I fully support Democrats trying to take back the House but what exactly do the (realistically) plan to do with their majority?
I think voters will see Democrats as blowing smoke up their asses if they over promise and under perform.
What they CAN promise is to stop or slow some of the Trump/Project 2025 agenda.
They can't promise to reverse that agenda that has already been put in place without the assistance of the Republican Party.
What miraculous event could make that even thinkable?
Here in NE Oklahoma polling results by my local newspaper indicate consistent support for the T. Rump criminal enterprise hovering around 45-55% depending on the issue being polled. Opposition rallies here seem to attract around 50 people for the one I have driven by and according to newspaper reports. If the midterms were held tomorrow my guess is that Oklahoma would deliver all 77 counties for The Don. Given the fact that educational attainment in Oklahoma is currently the lowest in the nation it seems likely there will be no blue wave here for at least the next two elections regardless of what the Demopublicans may do at the national level. Wave as you fly over the Christian nationalist swamp of Oklahoma where, according to our Governor/High Priest "Jesus is LORD over every square inch of Oklahoma". I beg to differ.
"Given the fact that educational attainment in Oklahoma is currently the lowest in the nation," "if the midterms were held tomorrow, my guess is that Oklahoma would deliver all 77 counties for The Don."
Said the Governor Stitt: "“Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus."
I'll be going to my grave soon without any hope that our species will survive its willingness to wallow in ignorance.
I was thinking more along the lines of what happens after The Don pushes that big red button. Of course, global warming is also in the mix. Don't look up.
I'm not buying it. Trump voters are infamous for voting against their own interests, preferring imagined grievances and Fox talking points over reality. The mere fact that those in red states will hae higher mortality rates matters not a lick to them.
With the takeover of RFK, Jr. as health secretary, who is obviously mentally disturbed, we knew what we were in for. This was done on purpose by Trump for retribution to the country because Trump feels he was treated unfairly.
There will be midterms but you are right we have no way of predicting what they will look like or how they will be run. Let alone any idea what the results will be!
Can the Dems please start using real words instead of jargon - how about prices instead of “affordability “? I’m so tired of them bickering about the “right strategy “. Get on the networks every minute of every day and talk to people in plain language about the issues that matter to them - prices, school shootings, neighbors and friends disappeared off the streets, healthcare being taken away (Medicaid, ACA, and Medicare), voting access, etc. Dems are in a weak place right now and they can’t afford to waste time. I’m not feeling hopeful that they can get their act together
Kennedy's vindictive gutting of the FDA and CDC pose enormous risk to the nation's public health surveillance systems. The next time there is an E. Coli outbreak, and there will be one, we may not be able to determine the source. Ebola or some other deadly disease could be spreading, and instead of valid information about the spread, we'll only have rumors and misinformation... a recipe for panic.
Without a comprehensive vision and project 2925-like plan it’s a gimmick and will be as successful as the abortion issue. The party leaders can’t string three sentences together coherently (just listen to Schumer or Jeffries) and Martin is part of the group that has been losing elections for over a decade. The only one they won was Biden, who won the electoral college by 43,000 votes against a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, twice impeached insurrectionist. Look at fundraising, I’m not alone in sitting on my wallet.
Time to get out those KENNEDY - 2028 lawn signs. Maybe KENNEDY - VANCE - 2028 for more fun? Guerrilla posting on other people's lawns, fences, surprise places...
"(The GOP caucus is split over the subsidies, with more conservative members vehemently opposed to what they see as protecting Obamacare.)"
As it stands today I'm guessing that the hard Right RINOs will get at least a partial victory if not a complete win. They have little to nothing to lose going after Obamacare. With the passage of the BBBA they've already ripped apart social safety nets from several different directions and they just don't give a fork. Let's listen in to a couple experts in the field:
> "Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Benjamin Sommers, Huntley Quelch Professor of Health Care Economics, and Adrianna McIntyre, assistant professor of health policy and politics
Q: What’s your overall take on the new law?
McIntyre: The effects of the law won’t be limited to the people most directly affected by new policies, the millions expected to lose health insurance coverage.
[...]
This is really an unprecedented retrenchment of health insurance and social services and in the U.S. Between the Medicaid cuts and other policy changes on the horizon, we’re expecting to see about 50% more Americans uninsured in a decade than we have today.
Sommers: There are folks who’ve described this law as a stealthy repeal of the ACA, or death by a thousand cuts. I think that’s largely accurate.
[...]
I think what’s really important to understand about this law is that it makes cuts to Medicaid in ways that aren’t very visible to the general public. Most Americans want to keep funding for Medicaid the same, if not increase it—yet policymakers have introduced essentially a 12% cut to the program. How? By making the cuts hard to see and hard to explain. The most highly visible forms of cuts to Medicaid that were being debated—for example, the proposal to reduce the amount of federal dollars supporting Medicaid expansion—didn’t make it into this bill. Instead, policymakers have buried their shrinking of Medicaid in complicated policies that don’t immediately register as cuts." https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/how-medicaid-cuts-could-lead-to-loss-of-coverage-for-millions/
Other questions are on the work requirement, how this will end up costing the states beaucoup bucks, how co-pay changes affect the poor and working poor, hidden cuts, and many more.
My daughter is a pediatrician. 50% of her clients are Medicaid. I have always loved her for choosing to serve Medicaid clients. Some practices don't. The cuts are horrible for her business, and, simply put, she has to have an income or she will go out of business. She is very dedicated to what she does, and I do believe the poor families and children she serves will not be better off if her practice folds.
I think highlighting the effects of the cuts on children is important.
Also on health care- decimation of women's health care availability, ruin of Pepfar, cutting funding for addiction treatment and mental health treatment, and (for the pro-birth party) cutting of HIV prevention and vaccine development that could stop babies from being born with HIV/AIDS in teh US and overseas...tens of thousands of babies!
One more issue coming up this month:
Many seniors with a Medicare Advantage Plan will be receiving a notice from their healthcare insurance company that their plan is being terminated. They'll have to find a new plan or perhaps a new insurance company -- just another problem to factor into the serenity of their golden years.
Will they simply blame Biden and/or Obama?
If FOX tells them to, they will.
The title of this piece goes right to the problem with the Democrats. The Democrats sit around and wait for there to be some controversy about the Republicans instead of merely inventing one like the GOP does year after year. Then when they actually get the controversy, they sit on their thumbs and some Representative or elected official gets in front of a TV camera and says RFK is putting the country’s health at risk. Then they all run back and wait for the polls to come out and there’s no movement at all. And then they look at each other and they say gee I guess that didn’t work.Well no kidding. It didn’t work. First of all don’t wait till there’s something to skewer them on, invent it, Invent an issue. The second the most important thing is that it has to be repeated 1000 times. They go on Fox, fox repeats it for weeks and months. Everybody parrots, then in the Senate and the house and pretty soon it becomes reality and is picked up by all of the media.That’s how you invent propaganda. That’s how you win. We have already learned that just exposing the facts gets us nowhere. Stop embracing failed tactics.
They still think it’s about policy. We’re doomed.
Shout out to Lauren for doing the heavy lifting as she peels back the blanket to get an inside/out look at the dems. I know some get testy with her remarks; now is not the time to get squeamish. Half-measures will avail us nothing.
I will continue by becoming insensitive with my comments. This past 6 months is akin to a 400 lb portly (trying to be kind here) gentleman rolling into a Las Vegas buffet on his motorized scooter. With eyes big as saucers, the question is where to begin?
Everywhere, anywhere that fits. Issues will vary and while i know the popular idea is to have a single message point, i fail to understand the value of only one. There's too much fertile ground to be plowed. Iowa ain't Florida, nor should it be treated as such.
One word of advice for those running: Quit leaning into carefully scripted orations crafted by gifted speech writers. If you want to run, speak from the heart, speak in terms that are easily understood and by God, learn to listen. I cannot tell you how many times i turn off talking-head politicians because i know all they are muttering is what has been handed to them by handlers.
Finally, hold a mid-term convention, but get away from the same old same old. Blow the doors off it, ask Schumer and Jeffries to step aside and bring in new blood. Create an energy that shows voters you are listening and ready to step up and step out of the shadows they have been hiding in.
I love what Gov Newsom is doing. He proves it is time to embrace a brave new world out there. It is time to turn the page and kick some ass (pun intended). We simply cannot afford to do otherwise.
Open tab on Tim Walz: People are tired of him because he is just too nice. Everyone has moved on to Pritzker as the flavor of the month.
Mid-term Conventions? Yes. It highlights the importance of the mid-term elections which these days are more important than ever.
The real problem is that as long as only 40 seats out of 435 are competitive and only 19 are real "tossups" we can expect narrow margins in the House for the foreseeable future. This will not be 2018.
Even if Democrats win the House with a significant margin and the Senate by a narrow margin Trump's veto will trump anything Democrats try to do. I fully support Democrats trying to take back the House but what exactly do the (realistically) plan to do with their majority?
I think voters will see Democrats as blowing smoke up their asses if they over promise and under perform.
What they CAN promise is to stop or slow some of the Trump/Project 2025 agenda.
They can't promise to reverse that agenda that has already been put in place without the assistance of the Republican Party.
What miraculous event could make that even thinkable?
Heath care costs. Recently received a notice that my prescription drug plan will increase nearly 20% next year
Here in NE Oklahoma polling results by my local newspaper indicate consistent support for the T. Rump criminal enterprise hovering around 45-55% depending on the issue being polled. Opposition rallies here seem to attract around 50 people for the one I have driven by and according to newspaper reports. If the midterms were held tomorrow my guess is that Oklahoma would deliver all 77 counties for The Don. Given the fact that educational attainment in Oklahoma is currently the lowest in the nation it seems likely there will be no blue wave here for at least the next two elections regardless of what the Demopublicans may do at the national level. Wave as you fly over the Christian nationalist swamp of Oklahoma where, according to our Governor/High Priest "Jesus is LORD over every square inch of Oklahoma". I beg to differ.
Sorry, I can't resist:
"Given the fact that educational attainment in Oklahoma is currently the lowest in the nation," "if the midterms were held tomorrow, my guess is that Oklahoma would deliver all 77 counties for The Don."
Said the Governor Stitt: "“Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus."
I'll be going to my grave soon without any hope that our species will survive its willingness to wallow in ignorance.
My guess is that Homo sapiens is just God's method for ensuring the emergence of the cockroach as the dominant species on this planet. YMMV.
Yah. The heck with "Planet of the Apes." Only the cockroach will still be here when the sun crashes into us.
I was thinking more along the lines of what happens after The Don pushes that big red button. Of course, global warming is also in the mix. Don't look up.
I'm not buying it. Trump voters are infamous for voting against their own interests, preferring imagined grievances and Fox talking points over reality. The mere fact that those in red states will hae higher mortality rates matters not a lick to them.
With the takeover of RFK, Jr. as health secretary, who is obviously mentally disturbed, we knew what we were in for. This was done on purpose by Trump for retribution to the country because Trump feels he was treated unfairly.
This assumes that there will be midterms and/or that they will look anything like what we’re used to seeing.
There will be midterms but you are right we have no way of predicting what they will look like or how they will be run. Let alone any idea what the results will be!
Can the Dems please start using real words instead of jargon - how about prices instead of “affordability “? I’m so tired of them bickering about the “right strategy “. Get on the networks every minute of every day and talk to people in plain language about the issues that matter to them - prices, school shootings, neighbors and friends disappeared off the streets, healthcare being taken away (Medicaid, ACA, and Medicare), voting access, etc. Dems are in a weak place right now and they can’t afford to waste time. I’m not feeling hopeful that they can get their act together
Kennedy's vindictive gutting of the FDA and CDC pose enormous risk to the nation's public health surveillance systems. The next time there is an E. Coli outbreak, and there will be one, we may not be able to determine the source. Ebola or some other deadly disease could be spreading, and instead of valid information about the spread, we'll only have rumors and misinformation... a recipe for panic.
Without a comprehensive vision and project 2925-like plan it’s a gimmick and will be as successful as the abortion issue. The party leaders can’t string three sentences together coherently (just listen to Schumer or Jeffries) and Martin is part of the group that has been losing elections for over a decade. The only one they won was Biden, who won the electoral college by 43,000 votes against a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, twice impeached insurrectionist. Look at fundraising, I’m not alone in sitting on my wallet.
Time to get out those KENNEDY - 2028 lawn signs. Maybe KENNEDY - VANCE - 2028 for more fun? Guerrilla posting on other people's lawns, fences, surprise places...
haha!
"(The GOP caucus is split over the subsidies, with more conservative members vehemently opposed to what they see as protecting Obamacare.)"
As it stands today I'm guessing that the hard Right RINOs will get at least a partial victory if not a complete win. They have little to nothing to lose going after Obamacare. With the passage of the BBBA they've already ripped apart social safety nets from several different directions and they just don't give a fork. Let's listen in to a couple experts in the field:
> "Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Benjamin Sommers, Huntley Quelch Professor of Health Care Economics, and Adrianna McIntyre, assistant professor of health policy and politics
Q: What’s your overall take on the new law?
McIntyre: The effects of the law won’t be limited to the people most directly affected by new policies, the millions expected to lose health insurance coverage.
[...]
This is really an unprecedented retrenchment of health insurance and social services and in the U.S. Between the Medicaid cuts and other policy changes on the horizon, we’re expecting to see about 50% more Americans uninsured in a decade than we have today.
Sommers: There are folks who’ve described this law as a stealthy repeal of the ACA, or death by a thousand cuts. I think that’s largely accurate.
[...]
I think what’s really important to understand about this law is that it makes cuts to Medicaid in ways that aren’t very visible to the general public. Most Americans want to keep funding for Medicaid the same, if not increase it—yet policymakers have introduced essentially a 12% cut to the program. How? By making the cuts hard to see and hard to explain. The most highly visible forms of cuts to Medicaid that were being debated—for example, the proposal to reduce the amount of federal dollars supporting Medicaid expansion—didn’t make it into this bill. Instead, policymakers have buried their shrinking of Medicaid in complicated policies that don’t immediately register as cuts." https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/how-medicaid-cuts-could-lead-to-loss-of-coverage-for-millions/
Other questions are on the work requirement, how this will end up costing the states beaucoup bucks, how co-pay changes affect the poor and working poor, hidden cuts, and many more.
fnord
My daughter is a pediatrician. 50% of her clients are Medicaid. I have always loved her for choosing to serve Medicaid clients. Some practices don't. The cuts are horrible for her business, and, simply put, she has to have an income or she will go out of business. She is very dedicated to what she does, and I do believe the poor families and children she serves will not be better off if her practice folds.
I think highlighting the effects of the cuts on children is important.
May G-dess bless you and your daughter.
fnord
Thank you. And you.