I was able to get into my Gmail account yesterday. I don’t know why it gets blocked sometimes, but it does. And since Google is rather like the Internal Revenue Service or Kafka’s Castle, one doesn’t protest – it is simply how thing are. Google giveth and Google taketh away, blessed be Google…
While the page was still open I spied a newsletter from Red State, a website that most conservative Americans know. The editor is Erick Erickson and his essay yesterday almost exactly described my own anticipatory sentiments about the State of the Union address our current president will be reading from his two teleprompters tonight:
Aside from some syntactical differences and his references to people I don’t know his essay is an almost exact summation of my reasons for joining him in avoiding the kabuki theatre tonight in this latest edition of the President’s State of the Union speech.
As Mr. Erickson says:
…I am not sure if I will watch the State of the Union address.
Why bother?
A thin-skinned amateur who has been in office six years and still can’t grasp how to do his job will stand before an even more thin skinned Parliament of Whores and tell them he does not need them, while knowing he really does need them, while none of them truly want to be with each other, and all have lawyers ready to go bow before the black-robed masters who’ll sit stone faced at the front of room knowing they really rule the joint.
My only hope is that the Republicans grow a pair and start laughing uncontrollably when the President begins touting ObamaCare, which you know he will do and which you know they will not. Paging Steve Stockman — here’s your moment.
The State of the Union has become a pointless bit of laundry list stagecrap where everyone in D.C. gets to pretend they like each other and together will make magic before leaking how they hate each other and won’t get anything done worthwhile.
And you know what? I’m cool with that. I’d rather board up the whole place than have the Parliament of Whores and Captain Bulls— come together with their favorite johns from K Street and Wall Street and enact Operation BOHICA on Main Street and the Middle Class.
And The Rich. Don’t forget them – the Conservative Rich or the Apolitical Rich, not the Mega Rich who give to the Political Class.
As always, progressives are keeping a sharp watch out for any uppity conservatives who might, just might get out of line and poke fun at the Thin-Skinned One. Thus HuffPo’s gimlet eye spotted the poster below, done by Oleg at the People’s Cube:.
This pretty picture was being used by someone else – see Oleg’s explanation here – and for those Puff Hos it’s evidence for their claim to have discovered that the People’s Cube is in cahoots with the uber-rich, uber-conservative Evil Koch Brothers. Hmmm…this won’t be the first time a progressive banged its punkin head against reality and came away dented and confused. And wrong. But simple things like evidence-based falsity never stops those who draw their conclusions from how they’d like reality to be, rather than what it is. When knocked to the ground by the facts, these folks just climb back on their unicorns and continue on down the Road of Good Intentions, because meaning well is equal to or better than doing good in their strange moral calculus.
But I digress. The subject, sadly enough, is still tonight’s State of the Union Address by our very own Nobel Peace Prize President as seen from the perspective of Erick Erickson (and derivately, by me since I wish I’d written this and still suspect he’s been reading my mail):
The only people who can get ahead in Barack Obama and the GOP Establishment’s Washington are those who already have the deep pockets buy off Congress and the President. Neither party has a vested interest in changing it. But at least the GOP, for what little good it does these days, will tap the brakes on the joy ride to Gomorrah.
I truly hope you people are ready to go on offense. Instead of being defensive and hoping to get the GOP in control of the Senate, we need to go on offense and get control of the GOP itself. That’s the only way to turn the tide and it must be done by getting involved in your local party and by picking challengers across the country who you are willing to pray for, write checks for, knock on doors for, and fight for. Beat the GOP in primaries then storm through to the general election.
Otherwise it’s status quo and BOHICA.
This State of the Union, like Washington itself, promises to be soul sucking gamesmanship made only worse by having to suffer through the GOP response by somebody who will, regardless of the person, look like a deer in headlights and sound like snoring. They’ll promise to repeal ObamaCare and start over. You should laugh. That’s the punch-you-in-the-face-and-beg-you-for-cash line.
Oh wait – I know that line. The latest example is our First Lady’s Begging Bowl, which she has polished up, purportedly to “help” ObamaCare:
Friend —
Earlier this month, because of what you did, it became illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against the up to 129 million Americans living with pre-existing conditions. Young Americans are able to stay on their parents’ health care plans as they get on their feet, and we can now know that our insurance companies won’t put lifetime caps on our coverage.
You should be so proud of that. That happened because you organized, you talked to your friends and neighbors, and you chipped in what you could, when you could, to elect Barack and a Congress who supported his agenda.
Today, I’m asking you to do it again.So before Barack gives his State of the Union address tomorrow, chip in $10 or more and help protect ObamaCare:
https://my.democrats.org/State-of-the-Union
Thank you so much,
Michelle
Isn’t that touching? Help Obama Care by putting your money on the Democrats who are running for re-election with the albatross of this demonic “Affordable” “Care” Act hanging from their necks. Let’s see how many of them ask their Fearless Leader to show up and shill appear with them on the hustings. I mean aside from the Black Caucus members.
Mr. Erickson has yet another measure of Obama’s unfortunate socialist priorities in this morning’s editorial brief, here . It makes for sad reading for anyone who understands the paradoxical choke a minimum wage puts on the larger economy. Here’s yet another explanation of the strange phenomenon, a stumbling block for socialists worldwide and a perfect example of Good Intentions Making Everyone Poorer:
I m not sure who is reading who’s email here but that was a fine, TRUTHFUL speech, Dymphna.
This is being written post SOTU by the [epithets that might attract the attention of the Secret Service redacted]. This is a dictatorship and is on the edge of totalitarianism. I refused to watch the SOTU and I am surrounded by communists here where I reside. Poor Pete Seeger finally went to be with Stalin and Marx. Of course red diaper obamanazi has to mention poor ole’ Pete in his SOTU, from what a friend shared with me. Rome is burning and every earth muffin, tree hugger, long dead hippie, prairie fairy is so sad, so sad about this yet they must be in awe of the one who would mention their hero in such a spotlight. Now Seeger is a good communist.
I find it tragic our military is getting the shaft in so many ways from the liar, thief and false ‘man’ that traitors like Soros created. I find it tragic that people are still stupid enough to buy into the venereal disease that the far left haters of this country are peddling.
I see little chance of voting our way out of this but I would love to be proven wrong.
I’ve posted previously over non-Americans’ incredulity that the US has been uniquely slow to adopt a comprehensive, affordable medical insurance scheme (while acknowledging that Obamacare seems to have been bungled).
I was taken to task by at least one fellow-Brit over the failings of our National Health Service, and my treatment as an inpatient eighteen months ago was far from ideal. But: thanks to various ailments I won’t bore you with, I’m on seven kinds of medication; as I’m 65, they’re free, and they are for 90% of my fellow residents; even those who have to pay get them for £7.85 each, irrespective of actual cost, or can get an annual “season ticket” for £104.
I cringe for the Baron when I read of his unpleasant eye injections, and empathise when he or Dymphna cite medical costs when appealing for funds. but strongly suspect that this wouldn’t be an issue in most advanced nations outside the US.
Part of the reason you get at least some of your medications for free or nearly so is that the American Big Pharma which researches and develops them is permitted to make Americans pay full price. If those same companies want to sell to the EU, the price drops waaay down. I’m talking about drugs on which there is a patent held by one of the Big Pharma corporations here.
A good example is Cephalon, which has held onto the patent for modafinal years past what is supposed to be legal. Here is a case study that only scratches the surface of what they have done…
http://hstlj.org/articles/provigil-a-case-study-of-anticompetitive-behavior/
The antiangiogentic drugs available in the US for the Baron’s eye disease are not all available in Canada and the UK. Which is why Canadians – while they still can – come over the border for the pricier medical treatments available here that the Canadian govt cannot afford and/or cannot deliver in a timely manner.
There are definite limits to socialized medicine. As the US succumbs to the Stupid Disease of Socialism, niche medical groups in Mexico, India, etc., have begun to proliferate. Free market capitalism, where it is allowed to exist, offers more options in medicine. It is simply the nature of the system.
America’s Affordable Care Act is a sham. It is a third-rate system at three times the cost in which people have no choice…it is already a train wreck…in that respect Obama bungled. It wasn’t supposed to go off the tracks until 2016 or so, when he was on his way out the door. But it’s already chaos.
I didn’t hear his speechifying last night but I have no doubt he’s now moving on to ruin our coal and gas and oil industries, crippling them with punishing taxes and driving up the cost of energy. Australia did that and the citizens got rid of the idjit that imposed the tax. It is times like this I wish we had a parliamentary system so we could get someone in there to stop the hemorrhaging of our economy.
We will look like the EU in short order.
Thanks for the update, Dymphna- I wasn’t aware of the cross- subsidy you mention.
There seems no easy answer to the problem, but the UK government seems to think we can afford to replace our nuclear deterrent with Trident: unless they’ve found a way of targeting only terrorists, or plan to nuke Mecca, the health of our citizens should come first.
I’m not sure which “cross-subsidy” you mean? Is that referring to the numbers of Canadians crossing the border to get crucial medical treatment that they cannot access in a timely manner at home??
The emphasis on “timely” is the unfixable problem with socialized medicine. Sadly, there is no cure for the existential ills accompanying any govt-mediated medical care.
In the Baron’s case, from the time he first realized something was wrong with his eyesight till he was first being treated by a retinal surgeon was ten days or so… The steps included a visit to our family doctor the day after he called her for an appointment, then her quick referral to an ophthalmologist three days later, who even more quickly sent him on to the final stop at the retinal surgeon’s office. At this point, there was a hesitation: the eye surgeon had to make a differential diagnosis – i.e., he had to “wait and see” what the eye did over a week or so in order to decide which condition the Baron actually had.
So When the B returned for the verdict, it was indeed macular degeneration (all those years of painting glorious landscapes in the bright Virginia sun had a price tag). The treatments started then and there with no delay. Would it have been that quick under ObamaCare? I doubt it.
Is it ever that quick with socialized medicine? Probably not. Why? Because the inherent incentives in the two kinds of care are diametrically opposed: private care focuses on rapid response, socialized medicine is tasked with containing costs first.
The medication in that needle-in-the-eye will sometimes reverse MD, which it seems to be doing so far, much to the Baron’s delight. He would have settled for it not getting any worse. To have it actually improve seems miraculous. That medicine has been available in the US since 2010-11 or so. It has only just now been approved for use in Canada – as of January, 2014. In those three or four years when Canadian docs couldn’t get the medicine, how many of them might have suggested to their patients to go across the border to get the more effective treatment? For sure, the medical community in Canada keeps up; in fact it loses up to a third of its practitioners to the US. ObamaCare will end that for sure.
In sum, I’m glad we have access to our current system and it saddens me that it’s ending. In a few years, when ObamaCareless has finished wrecking the private system beyond recall, other people coming along won’t be so fortunate. However the very rich here will do the same thing the very rich or the nomenklatura do in socialized countries: they’ll seek boutique care in India, or Cuba or the other niches that entrepreneurs in medicine have always created.
When you say, the health of our citizens should come first it’s obvious there is a chasm between our respective philosophies re governance. A mortal chasm indeed.
Government is responsible for its citizens’ health?? Surely not? Each individual citizen bears that responsibility first and foremost for himself. When an adult turns to the government to take care of his health, some bureaucracy becomes the mommy and the daddy and that citizen surrenders his liberty & autonomy to medically ignorant bureaucrats who “know best” about the bottom line. Socialized medicine is a command economy.
Surely you don’t believe the government gives a fig for the condition of your prostate or your lungs or your BMI?? And if it is the case that the health of citizens comes before the defence of the country, then it stands to reason that whatever government pays for, it has the corresponding responsibility to monitor. Thus what you do, what you consume, etc., is government’s legitimate concern – though you and I know no one but YOU is really concerned with whether or not you keep breathing in and out.
I do not want the government interfering any further in my health affairs. Its invasion of all aspects of private life add to our stress and lack of safety.
Do you think your medicines are FREE? Or do you realize that you pay for them AND you also pay for the various bureaucracies that oversee the dispensing of them?? Medical care is never free, it’s just that you don’t see the cost because it’s hidden from you. Look at your tax bill. Or read Frederic Bastiat.
Five years or so ago, back when people were trying to stave off the Obamanation of “Affordable” “Care” the father of Canada’s system was saying ‘oops…maybe it was a mistake”…
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/06/26/father-of-candian-healthcare-system-now-disowning-it/
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Tangentially, I’m not sure how medical care relates to the Trident, nor have I any idea what the UK is doing with its nuclear deterrence, or even what its over-all military strategy is for the future. However, it’s obvious that Britain’s formerly glorious sea capability has become…well, risible:
There are 19 ships left in Her Majesty’s navy. NINETEEN. And meanwhile, to command those vessels, Britain has 40 admirals and 260 captains —
http://is.gd/uSttPe
All those officers with their handsome salaries and pensions and benefits to match, no doubt.
It’s so sad. Obama is doing his best to decimate not only our medical care and our energy commodities, but he’s also bent on destroying our military – cutting pay and benefits and programs and weapons acquisition and closing bases.
In the not-too-distant future, America’s massive reduction in forces will mean that Europe will have to look to its own resources. Will the various countries be able to afford both a welfare state and a robust military?? In this rapidly diminishing world economy who will pay for any of it? I used to say we’d be Argentina, but Cuba is looking more likely…
By “cross-subsidy” I meant US pharmaceutical companies selling to the EU at reduced rates, Dymphna; should have expressed myself more clearly.
Of course our philosophies differ; while I’m really pleased that the Baron’s treatment is a success, I feel it’s wrong that a relatively rich nation cannot offer something so much more important than consumer goods to all its citizens.
It is expensive, but then (for example) the UK employs thousands of civil servants in defence procurement; Israel, for whom it is a matter of life and death, manages with a couple of hundred.
Our Navy is a shadow of its former self, but Trident isn’t the solution; we need to be able to project adequate conventional forces in support of our allies, such as the US, something we failed to do in Basra and Helmand.