anyway, looks like bloomberg qualifies for wednesday’s debate. the shit is about to hit the fan...

yes, of course it does:

"Let me be very clear: Anybody making personal attacks against anybody else in my name is not part of our movement. We don't want them." --Bernie Himself

video here:

https://mobile.twitter.com/NewsHour/...99025636904960

might get a chance to test the Sanders vs Trimp matchup:eek:

bernie by k.o.

fingers crossed

I do not believe in primaries. I find them a holdover from a past where communications were not instant and pervasive, and I find that what Primaries do is help consolidate the power in each Party with the established order of that party, and they very rarely, if ever, allow for fresh political blood to enter the system.

I also find it insane that people who vote in a primary are required to vote the same in the general election, as if 7 months could never change their mind about a candidate. fuck primaries.

fuck early voting. fuck early voting results.

Until the USA declares a complete and total holiday on election day, it will remain far easier for those with power, money, and prestige to take time off of work and go vote.

YEEEEEEEEES yes yes yes yes. indeed, agree.

but, needs to be said, early voting helps circumvent that. we’ve been doing it for ages now.

that's not how they work

if that's how it pans out, those are my hopes, too :confused:

check him out with latinos in nevada:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...st/ar-BB1058Nk

i love the last paragraph, the preceding one also quoted for context:

Maria Plasencia, 48, a nurse's assistant, planned to vote early, with Sanders as her top choice. She said she understood that the union workers have good insurance, but she said: "Those of us who don't work in the casino don't have good insurance. We pay a lot of money. I pay $200 every two weeks for my husband and me."

Asked about the criticism of Sanders as a socialist who may not be able to unite the party, Plasencia responded, "The communist is Trump."

:D :D

Two topless kindred spirits hopped onstage to join her. They poured milk on themselves and preened around the podium for just a few moments




Honest Question

What’s the life expectancy of a seventy-eight-year-old man who’s had a myocardial infarction at that age?

Sen. Bernie Sanders Won’t Release Anymore Health Records

......will one of Bernie’s opponents work this in tonight’s debate?

Went to the ER with kidney stones in the fall.
Here’s what they did:
1. Nothing because I drove myself
2. Put me in a bed
3. Gave me some drugs (morphine and the like. Extremely cheap, honestly)
4. Did a cat scan, told me I had kidney stones
5. Sent me on my way with prescriptions for drugs I had to buy.

The cost for the visit was over $5,000.
Yes, catscans are expensive, but come on now. Come the fuck on.

My corporate insurance — that I pay a couple hundred for from each paycheck — covered most of it, but I’m still on the hook for about $1,500.

Would have maybe been $100 total anywhere else, if not free.
Also, consider the cost of medicines. Prices set by manufacturers milking demand. That’s how you get $1,000 epipens.

Nothing about the system is fair or just or cheap. We’re getting buggered.
Imagine if I didn’t have that shitty insurance? Or if I was unemployed? I’d be in debt for years, most likely. For what? A morphine shot and being told I have kidney stones.

Fuck it man

damn, that is fucked up.

having said that, not that it is a solution to the ongoing health crisis or anything, but i'll put it out there as a public service: going to urgent care instead of the ER is a lot cheaper when you're not in mortal danger.

if you can drive yourself, it's daytime, you're not bleeding to death or unable to breathe or slurring your words or anything, urgent care is designed to look at you quickly and dispense your morphine or whatever.

the ER really is designed and priced for life-saving procedures, and so it will charge you accordingly. like a $75 aspirin or something. you or the taxpayer or whoever is paying, will pay more for it.

but see, going back to the health crisis now... in a country like france you might get a doctor to actually come to your house and check you out and say, "eh! les pierres du rein" or something (lol), and maybe navigate you through a less cost-intensive option, like sending you to a lab for imaging instead of an ER or maybe they carry a portable something, i don't know.

we don't get home visits in america, which is fucked up. my insurance offers free video visits, which is kinda like a nurse's hotline, but frankly they haven't been very helpful when i've used them.

anyway, a big part of our health cost crisis is we overuse emergency rooms and specialists because we lack proper primary care. why do we lack proper primary care? because we have to pay for it out of pocket or some other such shit, there are long waits, etc.

the system we have can be used for cheaper, but the problem is that it puts the burden on the patient to be proactive, more knowledgeable than the hospital clerks, and sometimes not just proactive but downright rebellious.

i had a doctor's visit for a sports injury not long ago and they wanted to send me to the pricey xrays for something that i knew didn't need xrays, and i said fuck no, if i need xrays i'm going to a lab.

the doctor ended up doing a manual examination and told me i was fine, i saved probably $400 on copays towards the unnecessary procedures (the dr's visit was just $50 copay). but i practically had to fucking growl at the nurse (i'm good at growling though, lol) to avoid this shit.

someone with less knowledge or a different temperament would have been fleeced on the spot.

i also usually spend a lot of time on the phone with the insurance, not fighting charges, but trying to PREVENT them. how much does this cost, where is it cheaper, what is my deductible and copay, do i need a preauthorization, etc etc. i rarely get a straight answer, and it takes a good measure of maintenance which is not tenable for many.

SO yeah we need massive health care reform one way or another. too many providers, too many different charges, too many different prices, too many unknowns and surprise bills, long waits to see a primary care provider, crazy emergency rooms, it's quite a shitshow.

anyway, in the meantime, identify your nearest URGENT CARE provider so it's in your radar. might save you a bundle.

add in

lack of dental care exacerbates other serious medical issues
costs for low income workers from Wallmart, etc. health care passed along to taxpayers

Europeans Appear Unimpressed With Our Beautiful American Health Care Choices

https://www.wonkette.com/europeans-a...h-care-choices

"My sister had an epilepsy crisis while on a school trip in the middle of the French mountains. They sent an helicopter to get her to the nearest hospital. My parents had to pay a whooping €3 or something which was the cost of the parking while they waited to pick her up. The helicopter ride and hospital treatment were free."

Do you know how much an air ambulance costs here? A median of $39,000! Although it can go up to six figures.

Should I remind that none of this is legit free, it's just massive collective pre-paid via taxes? :D


Something I'll also remind I'd prefer paying for than international interventions and attacks. Fuck our foreign policies.

Sanders surges into national lead in new Post-ABC poll

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), on the strength of his performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, has surged nationally and now holds a sizable lead over all of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who led Sanders in a Post-ABC national poll in January, has seen a sharp drop in his support after finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary. Biden is now in a battle for second place with former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg, who won the state-delegate-count battle in the Iowa caucuses and came a close second to Sanders in New Hampshire, is in single digits nationally, roughly even with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), whose surprise third-place finish in New Hampshire further scrambled the Democratic contest.




ETA:
please note now the progressive vote (bernie + warren) adds up to 48%
the moderate vote (biden+bloomberg+pete+amy) totals 45%

that’s the real flip right there—not biden drowning.

bernie-bloomberg ticket would be hilarious. not likely but just conceptually. who knows?

bernie-warren more likely

bloomberg-klobuchar 2nd place?

im excited to see a debate that includes bloomberg.

not because i’m a fan (i’m not) but because i hope the mold of the former boring debates is finally broken and we see some flash.

Didn’t read the whole thing (at work on a late night) but just gonna interject:
I wasn’t sure I wasn’t in mortal danger.
When is say “I drove myself” I mean I got there without an ambulance. Someone else drove me. It was night time, and I’d never had kidney stones before. I had no idea what was happening and felt like part of me was going to explode. So that’s why the ER.

But yeah, probably urgent care from now on.

oh man the zingers are flyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyying!

Liz just torpedoed Bloomberg. Right amidships in the ammo bunker. Sunk.

Biden, Bernie and Bloomberg should revisit Goin’ In Style.

biden looks like he drank his ovaltine today. seems to perform better as not-the-frontrunner

bloomberg looking like a deer in the headlights... and warren as the headlights

little pete now as shit-flinger in chief

warren lied about amy’s “two paragraph” health plan. i checked the website, there’s extensive writing

aaaaaaaahhhh

fuck, must have been scary

yeah we can’t plan for every eventuality, especially with our fucked up system

glad you’re ok... and drink water!

woke up with a debate hangover.

in spite of the surface entertainment last night, now it feels bad.

disappointed in pete and warren playing teacher’s pet. maybe they were accurate in their various criticisms of other candidates but that didn’t make me like them.

disappointed in amy just going back to her “i’m electable” schtick while letting the teacher’s pets pummel her.

disappointed in bloomberg who instead of presenting a plan called bernie a communist.

biden looked better in the first half but that’s not good enough to resurrect him.

bernard was okay at fending off attacks for the most part. for everybody else it was like a shakespeare’s tragedy where everyone dies in the end.

‘Twas ever thus.

S’why I don’t watch.

i can’t help myself. even cancelled previous plans when i found out they overlapped with this.

now i feel dirty :o

anyway, i had to know. and perhaps the upside is that when the general election comes the nominee will have been vaccinated.

bloomberg richer than lying slumlord heir donnie dotard hiding his taxes, for sure

bloomberg’s foundation fights global warming

donnie’s foundation buys him a golden toilet

go eat a trump steak

It’s important to remember that no one won or lost anything last night. It was just a glimpse at the reflection of the DEMS and what they represent.

repukes stand for treason and corruption and pig ignorance, so don’t presume be qualified to lecture us

Who was found guilty of treason and corruption?

Twice the Democrats proved President Trump innocent!!!

exonerated by his own mafia

hence, repukes standing for treason and corruption

and you: pig ignorance

exactly at what point did this forum turn into a place for defending the intolerable?

leatherneck always has been rightwing from the beginning so that's not a shock, but I have no clue how crazy this place got

glad for the debate. I was sorta thinking Kloby, but the statements about her voting for Trimpiejudgies and Trimpienominees got me to look up her votes on them. FUCK, NO WAY!!

didn’t she say the nominee came highly recommended by the obama administration?

i’d fact-check who and how, because pete was the one who mentioned the judges right?

he attacked everything and everyone at all times, so i’m not sure what’s what.

the thing about her “post-it” health plan was a huge fucking lie—well, more of an insult really.

what i’m sorry about is amy wasn’t better prepared to refute and sort of faltered on defense.



but like i said: vaccination!

Doesn’t matter. After the noms Trimp has been putting up, any decent Dem would have under10% approve votes.

Part of the story:

In 2017, Klobuchar voted for John Kelly’s confirmation to Homeland Security secretary; Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary; Mike Pompeo as CIA director, and later as secretary of State; Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador; Elaine Chao as Transportation secretary; David Shulkin as secretary of Veterans’ Affairs; Linda McMahon as Small Business Administrator; Dan Coats as director of National Intelligence; Robert Lighthizer as U.S. trade representative; Sonny Perdue to be secretary of Agriculture, and more.

None of the other senators who are currently running for president – Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., or Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. – or have dropped out the race – Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., or Kamala Harris, D-Calif. – voted in favor of those nominees.

In 2018, Klobuchar voted for Kevin McAleenan to serve as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). McAleenan later served as acting Homeland Security secretary.


Some more:

As a result of her outsized support for Trump’s judicial nominees, Demand Justice, gave Klobuchar an “F” rating in its most recent report card for members of the U.S. Senate, noting that she voted to advance Trump’s district court nominees 70 percent of the time, and ranked 31st out of 47 Senate Democrats in voting to advance Trump’s circuit nominees. Only Bennet ranks worse.

holy shit.

that’s the kiss of death.

i guess these gladiatorial contests are good for vetting.

i guess i’m all they way back to

WARREN 2020

lolololol

i wish she were more positive in her vision because to me she sounds like she’s crying all the time and i get that she’s trying to warn us about all the serious trouble but sometimes you want an inspirational leader not a deliverer of jeremiads.

and in this you gotta give it to bernie: he might rage and point the finger but mostly he presents a vision of his utopia. “no premiums, no copays, no deductibles.”

I should start checking on any libertarian options, to see if any are worth it. I'm once again not voting Trump, but dunno who I'd vote for if I go Democrat at the time.

Gotsta go Dem. only chance of getting rid of Trimp.

One thing I think would help Warren, who is a known quantity (unlike Booty) is an acknowledgement that M4A is aspirational and that she will advance health care for the under served in whatever ways she can.

The other thing I think would help ANY of the candidates would be to arrange for and announce some of the people that they would want to have as their veep and cabinet. We can look at the total packages for help in our decisions...