Grateful Dead

...was fooled again into thinking a clearly marked as PARODY news outlet article was real. Such an idiot! Said Obama personally made $40 million in "royalties" from the ACA (I don't call it Obamacare). I wonder if people send him these things to see if he will fall for them. He always does!
Cheers

Correctly called The Affordable Care Act. They are trying, again, to kill it. Give us all like $2k in a check in the mail, certainly to be signed by Agent Orange himself, to spend it on "better healthcare" as we see fit, you know, let the consumer decide.

Which is all well and good. There are many cheaper healthcare policies by various insurers out there. If your definition of better means "Cheaper" go for it. It will be great until you get that diagnosis that puts you into a "Pre-existing" condition category.

From that moment on, you will not be able to simply upgrade to a better, "more expensive" policy, by better I mean one that covers pre-existing conditions. You will be covered for that initial diagnosis and those initial procedures. It's in the fine print. You will run into something that is not covered and lists of somethings that are not covered. They will become very expensive because for those things, which are carved out, you essentially have no insurance. Then you are screwed and it's too late to do anything about it. Either pay out of pocket, go without, or go bankrupt.

That is what we used to have. Employer paid policies fall under a different set of underwriting rules. But if you find yourself without a job or you become a contractor, or are self-employed, it's the wild west.

This is great when you are in your 20's or 30's, early 40's perhaps or have perfect genes and didn't throw out your knee in a keg tossing contest or trip on a sidewalk some sunny day. It's pretty bleeping shitty when your 60 (or 54 or 44 or whatever). If you make it to 65, you will age into Medicare where pre-existing conditions are covered again. Until they start to fluck with Medicare that is. Which one day, they will. But it's not as simple as that because companies these days, the same ones that got a big chuck of those tax breaks that defunded the Affordable Care Act know how this works better than we do. Those employer-based policies are underwritten based on the risk the groups present to the insurer and older people with pre-existing conditions = very high risk = more expense for each and every employee in the company including the CEO (god forbid they should bear the brunt of high premiums). So older employees that didn't quite make it to senior management are targets for reduction in force initiatives and they suddenly find themselves without a job and subsequently without health insurance (and with pre-existing conditions). They are suddenly uninsured and soon to be bankrupt at 58 1/2, just a few years away from Medicare. You know, the system.

This was and soon will be again the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. Life savings = erased.

So you decide. And please vote.

Edit: My mistake, they did not get rid of the ACA. They effectively defunded it to pay for massive tax breaks for billionaires, corporations and hundred-millionaires (in between one hundred million dollars and a billion). Yes, that is where the money went so those without access to private jets can now have shitty healthcare. You know, so the oligarchs can have more oli's to garch.

Don't let it get to you. Think of your blood pressure and your mental health. Unfortunately there is little you can do to change things. You can continue to protest on the streets, but sadly that is unlikely to have any effect. Ultimately your only weapon is your vote. At least you still have that. For now.

I hear you Simon. I'm fine though. I'll leave this page for others lord knows I have other things to do. I'm just not a fan and couldn't sit quiet as he bombards us with a shock and awe approach to dismantle the government and replace it with a self-serving dictatorship designed to funnel money from the people into his pockets.

But I get it. Back to doing more of what I do best and less of this. Hopefully others will fill in.

Release The Files.

The vote to do so should be happening later today once that weasel/poorest excuse for a House Speaker calls things into session.

We should now have the votes.

Release The Files, let's get on with it.

Sixtus

I've sent you a PM.

I bet they will be mostly black ink from the redaction orgy that will ensue

....finally.
Next time someone accuses you of TDS, respond with, "Trump Devotion Syndrome? Naw sweetheart. Thats you."
Shuts them up.

have done exactly that many times. Confuses the cult. “He knew about the girls”

....50 year mortgages. So easy. Next!!

... mortgages ...
sure hope my great grand kids
can secure one at age 15,
and, of course if they wait until 25
don't want to think of those possibilities;
-
if it does pass,
well then, a nice reward to the
financial / real estate / banking
cronies;
and be ready for his next money maker
trump bank
-
c'mon just vote for me,
what have you got to lose?

Today was world kindness day.

Imagine a world where instead of hating one another and treating them with verbal vitriol at every pass, that we were kind to each other.

Imagine that.

Make it happen. One person at a time. It starts with us.

The public prosecutor's office in Milan has opened an investigation into claims that Italian citizens travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina on "sniper safaris" during the war in the early 1990s. Italians and others are alleged to have paid large sums to shoot at civilians in the besieged city of Sarajevo. This apparently took the form of a manhunt by very wealthy people with a passion for weapons who paid to be able to kill defenceless civilians from Serbian positions in the hills around Sarajevo. Different rates were apparently charged to kill men, women or children.

Maybe it would be better if every day could be lived like that, rather than having a specific day before we return to the dross. It seems to suggest that unkindness is the norm.

... a world
... a continent
... a country
... a state
... a city
... a village
... your neighborhood
where everyday
is KINDNESS DAY!
make it a reality
-
PEACE for ALL!

There are plenty of people who do their best to be kind and compassionate on a day-to-day basis. On the other hand there are also plenty of people who are more intersted in themselves and do everything possible to improve their situation, no matter what it involves and the effect it may have on others.
The latter group are not interested in Kindness Day as being kind, even for a day, is not in their interests. Hopefully though, a few might decide to try kindness for a change. Who knows, they may even find it rewarding.

Sometimes acts of kindness can be misinterpreted as acts of friendship by those on the receiving end. Friendship acknowledges someone's value, as an equal, whereas acts of kindness can be based on one party feeling superior to the other.
The one on the receiving end may feel they are being valued - but it may be that someone just feels sorry for them. We have to be careful we don't use kindness just to make ourselves feel better at the expense of someone else. The archetypal example is helping a blind man cross the road when he doesn't want to cross it.
Maybe the most important thing is to do the right thing, no matter what day it is. The challenge then is....working out what that is.

....my avatar.
So whats this I'm hearing that trump gave Bill Clinton a blow job?
This timeline is something else.
Big. Beautiful. Bill 🤣

Feel free to substitute Nice for Kind. It's a great alternative to mean, evil or greedy.

This thing crawled out from the deepest parts of the Indian Ocean, from beneath Hell!!!

In the "loving " sense of the word.

Completely agree. Agape is nothing without kindness in the truest sense of the word.

But in the case of an enemy who becomes your ruler or enslaver or cult leader (you pick the word but the word in this case is not leader); peacefully and legally, by working together, this darkness got to give. Change is afoot, change will come. One way or another.

It is important to us here in the US and arguably to the world right now that "this darkness got to give."

Jiminmd - I think we agree in essence, although being an awkward sod, I would put the words in a different order.
I have always thought small, even when I was younger. If we can help someone in our immediate environment then that is day well spent. At the very least we should try not to harm anyone. We will, but we should try not to.

What to do about the Trump and the bigger picture, I have no idea. I do think it's a mistake to get caught up in a web of hatred though. The BBC, bastion of truth and fair reporting in Britain, is currently being taken to court by Trump for editing one of his speeches, to misinform the public about what he said in one of his speeches a few years ago. In their eagerness to discredit him, they appear top have entered his frame of reference, adopted his code of behaviour, and consequently discredited only themselves. A stark reminder of the risks of accepting standards laid down by someone untrustworthy.

Honestly, I do not see the connection between the BBC lawsuit and being kind or nice in general or as an antidote to the political hatred that is being spewed.

It's an unfortunate edit in the BBC lawsuit, they essentially edited out a portion from his speech and connected two parts that had a separation of like an hour, and he is suing them for between $1 billion and $5 billion USD. They used his words though, he does this kind of crap all the time, maybe someone should sue him? I think they are going to have to let this flow through the courts, he tends to lose most of these types of cases.

As for kind/nice as an antidote to the political harshness I am reminded of perhaps the most powerful image that came from the Vietnam war protests here in the US. I think there is a picture that made the cover of Time Magazine in the late 60's of protesters putting flowers in the barrels of military rifles being pointed at them. It was a real turning point in America's view of the Vietnam war and a turning point that perhaps signaled the American people were generally not in support of the war anymore and a few years later we pulled back our troops without a clear victory.

As for what I meant supporting International Kindness Day, I grabbed this definition from Wikipedia:
Kindness is a type of behavior marked by acts of generosity, consideration, or concern for others, without expecting praise or reward in return. It is a subject of interest in philosophy, religion, and psychology.

This pretty much matches my intent, and I think it's a great antidote to what's going on politically. More importantly it marks a change I want to make in my behavior on this thread. I plan on dialing things down. I have made my points to the 15 or so people that read this blog. I want to have a gentler edge that better represents who I am and what I believe.

I do think we generally agree, most of this is just word salad. No ill intent on my end, it's always good to see different perspectives as they mostly tend to push the conversation forward. I very much appreciate the good nature here and the input of all involved.

It wasn't actually the law suit that was the focus of my attention, but the way the BBC sought to discredit an individual through spurious means. Opposition, in my books, is essential, but it has to be done with regard to truth and the L word. If not ,you may be feeding the monster rather than helping to overcome it.

For what it's worth, I advocated kindness when I was at work. I used to have students from university on placement with me, so they could see how it was on the coal face, so to speak. I was expected to assess them with reference to various so called competencies. These included knowledge and application of the law, anti discriminatory practice, matching theory to practice blah blah blah. I took it upon myself to inform them that it was also essential that they practised with regard to kindness to both colleagues and clients. They might not have agreed - but it was my ball ! They may well have discarded this aspect of the job as they got consumed within social work, which was what we were engaged in - but seeds may have been sown.

It also goes without saying that if you do advocate kindness as a way of being, you have to include those you do not like, or who you perceive as your enemy, within it's compass.

I fear the way facts/information gets colored by so called neutral (public service broadcast!!) medias. BBC and others!

This is called propaganda in whatever way. Nazi Germany was build on Propaganda!
It limits freedom.

Neutral facts will give any of us the possibility to make our own opinion.
We're old and smart enough to judge.

And we all know in general what is right and what is wrong.

Peace
Cheers
G.

That's great. kindness or some variation. But perhaps it's all the same.

Be kind, be nice, be strong. Both to advisories and friends alike.

As for discrediting an individual, I will leave it to you to decide for yourself. I saw the speech in real time, and after your post read both the transcript and the edited summary, I have no idea where discrediting the induvial came from, but ok. the intent was the same the edit was in my opinion for brevity, not to discredit or takeaway from the original speech, so the news does not become as long as these word salad posts.

But whatever.

Be well and goodnight.

Most news channels ( and many individuals, come to that) have a pre - existing idea of what the truth is, and then look for information to back that up. Maybe it isn't always conscious.
The BBC presents a disproportionately negative impression of young people, by exhaustively reporting acts of violence at the expense of reporting on all the good that they do. Consequently, my neighbour and her friends are fearful of strangers in case they are carrying a knife. Even though there is no lived experience in this area which indicates that this the case.
Being born in 1957, I missed the 1960's as an adolescent. But I saw all the documentaries, with that amazing soundtrack. So i built up a picture. When I started going out with someone born in 1950, many years ago, I was fascinated to hear what she said about growing up in Oldham in the 60's. It sounded just like growing up in the 1940's ! She appeared completely unaware of the 60's portrayed on the T.V. that had taken root in my imagination. Which had been based on very selective reporting of a minority of people.
The BBC has a self image of being truthful and impartial. Whenever anyone advertises themselves as any one thing they are usually telling us how they want to be seen, not how they actually are.

In the 80s my Dad changed his evening news source to PBS. Likely his schedule fit the broadcast time better. After he retired it was the same. I asked him once why he preferred it and it came down to less commercials and fair reporting. I have watched news from all the "big 3" networks for years and I know how they lean and I can decide for myself what's what. Even individual reporters are prone to lean differently than their network at times. Some reporters I have written off for one biased statement. It is interesting to follow the careers of these reporters and where they end up when they jump ship (or are fired!). To my eye there hasn't been truly unbiased reporting since the Cronkite era. Still believe PBS is the most accurate but I seldom watch at that hour anymore. Especially anything on-line is suspect. Check your source!
I will proudly include myself in Jim's 15 people who read this thread!
Cheers

In retrospect that is what they will call this era!

When exactly was it the best of times?
I have only seen things get worse since the mid-1970s and the rate of deterioration is only increasing with time.

Maybe it was when we were young, whenever that happened to be. Objectively, it surely never existed. Or alternatively exists as a perpetual state.

I asked a guy once, if things were going to go down the tubes why did the sixties happen? He said sometimes a good thing has to come first before a bad thing can happen!

Peace!

It's a very good time to be rich. Be patient, Simon. I am told the good times will trickle down. In fact, it is overdue and should start trickling down any day now, perhaps any minute.

I'm checking out the window now.. nothing yet, but I have been assured it will start happening, wait for it.., very soon.

I'd rather go through a destruction and rebirth than have to follow the current way of life. Let the rich have their cake and eat it too! It won't end good for them...

....
The actual owners are here now!

Couple weeks ago I got heckled get a haircut hippie!!! :-)))

....
I said one day I'm going to get them all cut!!! Just kidding of course...My cut looks a lot like the pic to the left just a lot more grey!!! Hahahaha

Gilbert Shelton had a way with art and words. I love the clip from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers where a straight commented that they couldn't tell if that person was a man or a woman. I forget which freak brother responded, but it was classic. "why don't you suck my D*** and find out"

Busting on hippies seems so passe. Long hair, long beards, piercing, tattoos, is how we judge a person these days? A long tie on the other hand.., well...

Why would anybody want to have far more money than they could ever find a use for. The accumulation of obscene amounts of money seems to have become a sort of sport where a small number of people seem to be competing against each other in a grotesque attempt to become the world's richest person.
Luckily I have never felt the need to attempt to become rich. I have modest needs and can live the way I have chosen on the income I have. Why would I want more.
Greedy people suck.

Fat Freddy

weird how I can remember that

we might again have a president that I can respect.

I just cannot believe the current schmuck got BACK in, and he does stupid shit every day, and his appointees do stupid shit every day, and people STILL support him.

I blame Gordon Gekko, Michael Douglas' character from the 1987 movie Wall Street. Greed is Good he said over and over and over again while he got rich and everyone else got screwed or wound up in jail. Perhaps you can toss in Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), Reagan, Thatcher, Art Laffer, the GOP in general and many more into the category of those that got swept up into the Greed is Good camp. The 2025 version might as well be Oligarchy is good.

I think there's a place for it at certain points in history, you can argue greed inspires innovation and without it there is less incentive to build something great or change the world. But when money pools together and consolidates it permeates into politics, I think if you leave any side/party/group in power too long they seem to poison the well and become corrupt. The pendulum must swing freely or, well, this brings us to where we are now. The meek should be represented at the big boy table.

But something changed in the 80's, Greed is Good took on a new life and the age of trickledown economics was born. Grover Norquist had his never cut taxes pledge that everyone in the GOP had to sign, or they were primaried out of a job. In short ideology took over and the days of pragmatic and well thought out, nuanced policy decision making went dormant.

I am still waiting for it to trickle down, wealth seems to have gotten stuck on trickle up and the only thing trickling down is champagne scented urine.

I have a good friend who is very, very high up in the Federal Reserve / Wall Street World. I stopped by and saw him on the way home from a Phil show the first time I visited the Capitol Theatre in probably 2012 ish? We shared a bottle of wine at his club, and I recall him saying very clearly, Obama is a redistributor. I said, what about Reagan, Bush and Bush? (Tax cuts anyone?) Art Laffer famously drafted V1 of the Laffer Curve on the back of a bar napkin. Shows what kind of thought and financial science went into it.

The tax cuts for the wealthy have done more to redistribute wealth in my lifetime than any other occurrence including the tech and crypto booms. As a result, we have a larger income disparity than any time in my life. I believe this is contributing to the general malaise that most of the world is so upset about now.

It's true, we need innovators and geniuses, and they should be justly rewarded. But we need a healthy middle class, and we need much less poverty. Morale and hope are low, despair high.

Tax breaks to the upper class at the extent of everything else has contributed to the affordability problems we have now.

I'm not saying redistribute, I am saying let's look at taxation, public projects, and government funding more from a perspective of maximizing economic growth and efficiency and less from a perspective of giving more money to the doner class (wealthy) at the expense of the people who do not have as much influence on our politicians.

Greed is so abundant because it acts as it's own tax shelter, it is rewarded and so it has thrived. Reward something and it grows, starve it and it shrinks.

We should think about this more when we vote. There was a common saying in the years after WWII, "A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats"

Now, we funnel all the tide water to the channels where the Mega Yachts are moored because they have gotten so big they need 95% of all the water to float and 5% is all the little people really need for their little rowboats anyway.

Thoughts for the day. Nothing radical, not advertising socialism or communism. What I am advocating is emphasis on tax and economic policy that is more focused on growth instead of the overtly idealistic trickle-down policies that have done much more harm than good.

Or like Simon said, Greed Sucks.

Edit: Not that Wall Street wasn't a good movie, it was.

Why are you unhappy ? Because 99.9% of everything you think and do is for yourself - and there isn't one.

Trickle down economics was thought to be a good thing until it was demonstrably shown not to work. Nothing trickled down, it all stayed at the top, something that those at the bottom of the economic waterfall very quickly realised.

Watching the documentary I realized the only thing that has changed in two hundred fifty years is.... the hair styles, the uniforms, and the weaponry??

It's not anymore that they are greedy, it's that their hatred for people who aren't greedy scum like them? There is something wrong with 'those' people who do not want too be as rich as they can! Nothing is wrong with living a modest life! Also living a really good life sucking up resources just to make yourself rich is like living good off the lives of future generations of people?

...
PS. We work on getting a good education too get a good job with more pay, but we don't educate ourselves too save our lives....

You need not look further than Garcia. He is an uncredited philosopher, but it might be just as important part of his legacy as his musical genius. Most of what he said in passing by, interviews, even stage announcements sheds light on a much better way to live than what we see in much of the human race. From ticket prices to benefits, oftentimes they oozed generosity and the polar opposite of greed.

I think we all carry much of that with us in our everyday lives. I am so grateful for that. It was refreshing in the day and I think most of us carry a big part of it in everyday life.

Still relevant, still good. Smiling on a cloudy day.

As you were, be happy. Give more than you take.

Once again…

It’s proven science that when America has a stronger, better compensated middle class, everyone, especially the rich do better.
Why, because middle class people that have more money put it back into the economy, which generates even more, an Oroboros if you will ; ), especially for the rich as they own everything, so profits of scale are increased. Piss on the poor, or trickle down economics only benefits the rich who don’t spend the majority of it, but ship it to their offshore accounts so they don’t have to pay taxes on it!

Oh wait, my bad…”science is stoopid and a hoax”
FFS! How did we become so fa King stupid?
Oh, maybe the internet and these misinformation machines everyone’s addicted to?
But never fear sports fans, AI is gonna make it all better. Soon you won’t be required to think at all…

headline:

"Louisiana health official who halted state vaccine campaign tapped as CDC’s No. 2"

simply...unbelievable.
May we return to sanity and reason eventually in this bizarre place called America.

This is an issue i run into frequently when i leave the woods and venture into "the civilized world." But if you remember Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin you will see what happens when the temptations of the status quo have a chance to work there way into a person's life.
Abbie remainded true to his ideals, where as Rubin succumbed to the lure of capitalism. I recently saw a person wearing a tie-dye Dead shirt and a MAGA hat.
All we can do is keep on keeping on, stay true.

They did a debate tour back in the 80s
They came to my university
I remember very little about it