Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Annber03]

35 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

@Annber03 your father losing his health insurance because it was tied to a job he no longer had was a big reason why the ACA was such a big deal.  People no longer had to stay at jobs they hated just to have health insurance. 

Exactly. And that's going to be even more important with AI becoming more and more of a thing, and replacing people's jobs. At some point there will be a lot of people who will be without jobs for one reason or another, and they're all inevitably going to need to go to a doctor for some reason or another, no matter how big or small the issue. 

So..what then? 

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I too remember people cheering uninsured people suffering.  I remember a comment on a Yahoo story about the ACA and the person said if someone wants insurance they need to go find a job that provides insurance.  I responded and who does the jobs that don't offer insurance.   My job which is full time for a small business (five employees when fully staffed) doesn't come with insurance. So if I left for a job with insurance someone will still have to do my current job.  Nobody commenting on that story had a response for me.

Of course not. That would require them to actually have to think about the issue for more than a hot minute. 

(To say nothing of how, in some areas, finding a job, and one that can help you afford the basics at that, can be far easier said than done. And then of course there's the people who literally CAN'T work, because, y'know, disabilities and health problems and whatnot preventing them from doing so.)

Edited 4 hours ago by Annber03

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

It started with people like Rush Limbaugh. Then Fox News.  Then social media. People have put themselves in silos.  They are only exposed to what they already believe.  I also think part of it is they have so committed to what they believe that if they admit they were wrong they will have acknowledge they weren't as smart as they thought they were.  It takes a big person to admit they were wrong (especially if they screamed loudly how right they were) and it's been my experience so many of MAGA is really small people.

This also makes it possible to keep feeding them gradually more outrageous lies and conspiracy theories so little by little they eventually have them believing that the Earth is flat and Trump and the Republican party are the only hope for them and humanity. Without them society would fall apart and they would lose everything they had to the "evil" Democrats who are coming to take their money away from them. I really hate the Hitler comparisons but all those documentaries I watched on him and his MO taught me how similar their methods were to his. Like the way Hitler scapegoated the Jews and told the German people they were responsible for all their problems.

And after the war there were still many Germans that couldn't let go of their total and insane allegiance to Hitler, they just kept it on the down-low to protect themselves. Even the almost total destruction of Germany and most of Europe didn't wake them up. They learned absolutely NOTHING from it. It is truly scary and I fear this can happen here with Trump.

Years ago my father had a German female friend from his senior center who came here after the war that once told him she "still liked Hitler". He didn't ask her what she meant by that but it really shocked him and he thought she was nuts. Did she not know my dad was half Jewish? Pure insanity.

 

[Dimity]

3 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

Years ago my father had a German female friend from his senior center who came here after the war that once told him she "still liked Hitler".

I went to school with a girl whose parents came to Canada after the Hungarian revolution.  It never occurred to me that her parents would have supported Hitler.  Soon found out differently.   According to her parents the Holocaust was exaggerated to gain sympathy for the Jews.  Her Dad was a teacher - not history fortunately but I've often wondered if he brought that antisemitism into the classroom.

On topic - interesting to see that Trump is following the Nazi playbook but cozying up to Russia.  I'm not sure what that says but it's not good.

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

It took me a year to find a surgeon to do my cataract surgery. I called all over the place and it still took forever just to get a call back. Same with a general practitioner. It's just as bad in the States as I've heard it is in Canada. The health care field is scrambling right now and it has nothing to do with socialized health care, Medicare, the ACA or how you buy your insurance. It's been a mess since Covid.

It's getting even worse since Covid, too. I had two doctors retire during Covid that had no plans of retiring before that, and now I have a slew of new, relatively younger specialists of various kinds in their place. Some are good but I think some have been compromise hires because they're so shorthanded now. One of those newer specialists left and now I have yet another new one. This was NOT the norm before Covid AT ALL.

I was referred for lymphedema therapy in my legs. I have a mild condition but I don't want it to get worse. They put you on a course of about 4-6 weeks of intensive therapy after which you maintain your condition yourself with stockings and massages. It took me 3 months to get an intake appointment, which I had last week. The therapist is very good, I am lucky to have gotten her, but she couldn't get me on the calendar for therapy until March 17th of next year! She is actually new there herself. She relocated from Ohio to take the job. This particular practice has a stellar reputation in the country to protect so they were willing to go far and wide to get someone with her expertise. And obviously they had to!

[bluegirl147]

3 minutes ago, Dimity said:

 

On topic - interesting to see that Trump is following the Nazi playbook but cozying up to Russia.  I'm not sure what that says but it's not good.

I do think Trump shares Hitler's hate for people they consider "others" but Trump is willing to the bidding of someone like Putin.  He admires him and wants to be him.  I don't think Hitler admired anyone. 

[PRgal]

Tariffs for Canada and Mexico, he says.  He's done it before, but it never went through.  And if it does, your grocery bill will be higher yet again.

[Yeah No]

4 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

I do think Trump shares Hitler's hate for people they consider "others" but Trump is willing to the bidding of someone like Putin.  He admires him and wants to be him.  I don't think Hitler admired anyone. 

Actually it was widely said that Hitler had a personal admiration for Stalin and spoke about it often. I really don't remember much more than that although I fear that if I looked into it the parallels would shock me. 

[Ohiopirate02]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

Exactly. And that's going to be even more important with AI becoming more and more of a thing, and replacing people's jobs. At some point there will be a lot of people who will be without jobs for one reason or another, and they're all inevitably going to need to go to a doctor for some reason or another, no matter how big or small the issue. 

So..what then? 

Of course not. That would require them to actually have to think about the issue for more than a hot minute. 

(To say nothing of how, in some areas, finding a job, and one that can help you afford the basics at that, can be far easier said than done. And then of course there's the people who literally CAN'T work, because, y'know, disabilities and health problems and whatnot preventing them from doing so.)

The answer to your entire post is universal basic income. Sadly something that will never happen in America. Not as long as the collective we place moral values on things like wealth, health, and ability. 

[Calvada]

3 hours ago, Annber03 said:

And while all that was going on, and I was witnessing all the news coverage of the debate over getting Obamacare implemented, I had to listen to a bunch of assholes at a GOP debate cheering the idea of letting people die if they could.n't afford healthcare, and hte GOP not even bothering to call them out, and instead going on with their boogyman "death panels" BS and their attempts to water down Obamacare as much as possible, because God fucking forbid they let Obama have a win on something. 

So yeah. You'll pardon me if I really, REALLY do not want to go back to that awful time period. It's just one of many, many reaosns I find the GOP so utterly abhorrent as a party, and it's one of many reasons why I am gobsmacked by those who refuse to want to support a better healthcare system, because, oh, my god, they might have to pay a little more in taxes or other people might benefit from the same things they do, THE HORROR! You (general "you") seriously care more about that than ensuring people don't have to be in debt when going to the hospital or people have a better chance to live and get all the treatment they deserve for whatever they're suffering from? Really? 

I just...cannot fathom that level of selfishness. 

But yeah, you're right, one way or another we're all going to feel the effects of others' healthcare decisions and choices, and one way or another we're all paying into the system anyway. Might as well put that money somewhere where it can actually be of beneficial use to as many people as possible. 

Neither do I. But hey, at least htey may be able to afford to buy eggs again! That may be the only thing they'll be able to afford to buy, but still, it's something, I guess?

@Annber03 I'm so sorry you and your family had to go through all this.  I remember at one of the times the Republicans were trying to end the ACA, a lot of them had town hall meetings where people spoke about their experiences just like yours and these idiots who are supposed to represent the people were SHOCKED to discover that the people liked having health insurance and did not want to be financially devastated by astronomical medical bills.  

I'm not so sure that affordable eggs will be a good thing.  All these MAGA people want to get rid of "onerous federal regulations" and "reduce the size of the government."  So they will loosen regulations on food, cut food inspectors, and suddenly we will have outbreaks of salmonella or bird flu.  And just when millions will be losing their health insurance!

[Annber03]

54 minutes ago, Calvada said:

@Annber03 I'm so sorry you and your family had to go through all this.  I remember at one of the times the Republicans were trying to end the ACA, a lot of them had town hall meetings where people spoke about their experiences just like yours and these idiots who are supposed to represent the people were SHOCKED to discover that the people liked having health insurance and did not want to be financially devastated by astronomical medical bills.  

Thank you. And ohhhhhhhh, yeah, the town halls, I remember them, too. I mainly remember a whole lot of these politicians running away the moment people started to confront them over their plans to take away people's healthcare.*

But yeah. People like not having to be stressed about finances. Who knew? And yet they keep on supporting policies that will only add to those stresses. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't so infuriating. 

*This reminds me of a story my dad told one time - he worked in radio, and back in the '90s, he interviewed one of our state representatives. My dad had a list of questions he was to ask the senator during the interview, and at first, all was going along accordingly...

...and then my dad point blank asked the guy why it was fair that he and his family didn't get the same kind of cushy government healthcare this senator and others in Congress got. 

Said senator apparently got this total deer-in-the-headlights look and stammered out some sort of nonsesne reply. My dad's boss was FURIOUS, and the interview ended shortly thereafter. The boss came to chew out my dad for "derailng" the interview, and my dad just told him point blank, "This guy works for me. Not hte other way around. I'm allowed to ask those kinds of questions." (I don't know if he used those exact words, but his response was something along those lines). 

So, yeah. In short, this has been an issue with the GOP for a very long time. 

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I'm not so sure that affordable eggs will be a good thing.  All these MAGA people want to get rid of "onerous federal regulations" and "reduce the size of the government."  So they will loosen regulations on food, cut food inspectors, and suddenly we will have outbreaks of salmonella or bird flu.  And just when millions will be losing their health insurance!

This is true! 

And then of course there'll also be the issues with prices of food whenever we have another natural disaster, and one that will be utterly devastating besides, because hey, climate change is just all made up or exaggerated, right? No need to do anything about that. 

Just. God. These idiots really have no clue just how much they have completely fucked themselves over. I just wish the rest of us didn't have to get caught up in the fallout from their stupidity and selfishness.