Today, (December 1, 2013) In the Tampa Tribune came vindication in the form of an article by Nobel Prize-winning Economist, Paul Krugman. Small victories through Medicare and the ACA reducing costs by reducing what we are being charged and many other small victories that will help make Healthcare affordable for all. But one point he made was one that my former doctor failed to make to me because I knew better. Doctors who are upset with some of the most dramatic changes are upset because the "fee for service" model is being lost to them. It was a way that doctors have been making money hand over fist since the late 70's and 80's. Some are extremely upset with this turn of events (one was once one of my doctors) and are trying to make it sound like they will not be able to make a living under the new laws When the real problem is not just making a living but making a huge profit by multiplying the services provided (whether they are needed or not). I was told ...by one doctor that this would lead to doctors abandoning their practices here (retiring or moving somewhere else--I wanted to ask where but when the doctor is treating you, you don't get testy if you understand what I'm saying.) He told me that doctors would now be held accountable for patients who did not take care of themselves (implied "diabetics like me"). This is what is REALLY happening: "Medicare (&ACA) is also encouraging a shift from fee-for-service in which doctors and hospitals' get paid by the procedure to 'accountable care' in which health organizations get rewarded (not penalized) for OVERALL success in improving care while CONTROLING COSTS" It's time to learn the truth and tell the truth even when someone in authority tries to bang you over the head with lies!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Congress For the People?
Congress is, was and always will be Self-Serving. We elect them to do what is best for the country and they end up doing what is best for themselves, their pet companies or which ever lobbyist gives them the best deal (lobbying used to be a crime too--it was called bribery--but Congress took care of that!). They have been working overtime to repeal Obamacare because starting January 1 of next year, they will no longer have Federal Health insurance. They will be required to go through the exchanges like everyone else---but you know they won't do that, they are all very wealthy and some belong among the super-rich (which makes me wonder why we pay them at all)--no, they will buy their own private insurance (maybe some have it already). Privatization is only good for one class of people--the class that can afford the finer things in life while the rest of us have to scrounge for crumbs from their tables. In this country, socialism is touted as evil. People still fear Communism. But what we do have they overlook or pretend is what is great about this country--what do we have? We have a Fascist state, we are only lacking a dictator who will abandon the Constitution. Fascism, according to Mussolini, is another word for Corporatism. And we already worship at the feet of Corporations. How soon will it be before we accept their appointed representative as our Fearless Leader?
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
What is racism?
This is in response to a screed about racism being one-sided. Racism as white on black only when the name calling seems to go both ways. But racism is more than name calling and not recognizing that is really the heart of racism:
If you don't know why you are a racist, then anything I say to you will fall on deaf ears. People are cruel---some are more cruel than others because they think calling people names is just fine (explained away because other people call them names). But this country was founded by slave owners who tried to carry slavery over past the emancipation proclamation. Racism became denying them rights that everyone else had including eating in the same places, drinking from the same fountains, voting, marrying who they wanted to marry and being lumped all together under some of the most demeaning names possible. I dislike these these screeds written as if it's alright for them to call people names because people call them names. BS, period. Name calling is childish and uncalled for no matter who is doing it. But in America a racist is more than just someone who calls people of other ethnic groups names---racists are people who declare that "those people" are in some way inferior and act that way.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
DOMA ENDS...and the Voting Rights Act is gutted! While hundreds die for a freedom we no longer own!
Today, as with all days came some good and some bad. I want to record my dear friend's response to the end of DOMA:
"I cried today
for the first time in a long time after I heard about the Supreme Court’s
ruling on DOMA. Not because of how they ruled, but what Kennedy said in
his ruling.
For the first time in my life my own government considers me a human being! For years, even though I love my country, I NEVER trusted my government. I remember all the pain, all the lies, all the disinterest, and now, after all the struggles we are recognized as human.
I remember back in the 1970's being arrested three times, twice in Jackson, Mi., and once in Hillsdale, Mi., because I was cross dressing. It was against the law in Michigan even though I was under a doctor’s prescription.
I remember when I first got out to California in 1976 and getting robbed. I remember meeting a guy named Tom Hayden who was a clerk at the Travel Lodge on the Wharf and him calling Grady at the Civic Center Hotel and him giving me a job cleaning rooms for 50 cents a room and cleaning hallways for my room rent.
I remember Grady and Tom being there for me when I had to sign those adoption papers. I remember Harvey Milk putting his arms around me and holding me while I was crying my heart out.
I remember sitting in my office in shock on the day that little prick Dan White killed Harvey because he was gay and then killed George (Moscone) because George wouldn't condemn Harvey publicly. White was kill Diane (Feinstein) as well but she wasn't in her office and the police tackled him before he had a chance to!
Harvey was the reason I ran for the U.S. House in 1980.
I remember Mike Brady, Tom (a different one), Paul, another Mike, Jim, and the list goes on, who all died of aids in the early 80's, along with Grady and Tom Hayden, while our President, Ronald Reagan, did nothing. I remember holding Mike Brady’s hand while he was dying even though the nurses and doctors would touch him.
I remember the day in 1978 when Grady was attacked by 6 "good Christian boys" who wanted to beat up a faggot because he was the evil that was destroying our country. I remember lying on the street bleeding to death because I stepped in to help Grady and I remember the police doing nothing.
I remember losing all my former friends to aids including my loving Stuart, while Jerry Falwell and his immoral majority were screaming at the top of their lungs that aids was Gods judgment of gays!
These are only a few of the things I remember about the last 40 years. I remember my friend Paul Broussard who was beaten to death with a tire iron in the Montrose district of Houston by "4 good Christian boys" from Humble.
Even with all this pain and suffering over the years, progress has been made and today all the death and suffering has been worth it because the Supreme Court recognized GLBT's as human beings.
The children will not have to go through what I and many others have gone through to reach this milestone. The children will be able to be free to love and marry the person they love without the vile hatred of the religious right because they have finally lost the war.
There will still be battles ahead but they'll be able to win them slowly, but win them they will.
The religious right will still thump on their Bibles and proclaim how righteous they are and how evil we are, but they will not stop the children’s love for each other.
They might still convince some with their hateful speech and dark hearts but they will never overcome love!!!"
For the first time in my life my own government considers me a human being! For years, even though I love my country, I NEVER trusted my government. I remember all the pain, all the lies, all the disinterest, and now, after all the struggles we are recognized as human.
I remember back in the 1970's being arrested three times, twice in Jackson, Mi., and once in Hillsdale, Mi., because I was cross dressing. It was against the law in Michigan even though I was under a doctor’s prescription.
I remember when I first got out to California in 1976 and getting robbed. I remember meeting a guy named Tom Hayden who was a clerk at the Travel Lodge on the Wharf and him calling Grady at the Civic Center Hotel and him giving me a job cleaning rooms for 50 cents a room and cleaning hallways for my room rent.
I remember Grady and Tom being there for me when I had to sign those adoption papers. I remember Harvey Milk putting his arms around me and holding me while I was crying my heart out.
I remember sitting in my office in shock on the day that little prick Dan White killed Harvey because he was gay and then killed George (Moscone) because George wouldn't condemn Harvey publicly. White was kill Diane (Feinstein) as well but she wasn't in her office and the police tackled him before he had a chance to!
Harvey was the reason I ran for the U.S. House in 1980.
I remember Mike Brady, Tom (a different one), Paul, another Mike, Jim, and the list goes on, who all died of aids in the early 80's, along with Grady and Tom Hayden, while our President, Ronald Reagan, did nothing. I remember holding Mike Brady’s hand while he was dying even though the nurses and doctors would touch him.
I remember the day in 1978 when Grady was attacked by 6 "good Christian boys" who wanted to beat up a faggot because he was the evil that was destroying our country. I remember lying on the street bleeding to death because I stepped in to help Grady and I remember the police doing nothing.
I remember losing all my former friends to aids including my loving Stuart, while Jerry Falwell and his immoral majority were screaming at the top of their lungs that aids was Gods judgment of gays!
These are only a few of the things I remember about the last 40 years. I remember my friend Paul Broussard who was beaten to death with a tire iron in the Montrose district of Houston by "4 good Christian boys" from Humble.
Even with all this pain and suffering over the years, progress has been made and today all the death and suffering has been worth it because the Supreme Court recognized GLBT's as human beings.
The children will not have to go through what I and many others have gone through to reach this milestone. The children will be able to be free to love and marry the person they love without the vile hatred of the religious right because they have finally lost the war.
There will still be battles ahead but they'll be able to win them slowly, but win them they will.
The religious right will still thump on their Bibles and proclaim how righteous they are and how evil we are, but they will not stop the children’s love for each other.
They might still convince some with their hateful speech and dark hearts but they will never overcome love!!!"
One injustice ended today and another which we thought was fought and won nearly 50 years ago was struck down. The voting rights act was taken back in states where the right to vote could not be changed without going to the Federal Government. We all (all who lived through this so many years ago) know what will happen. They are lining up in their state houses now to make voting difficult if not impossible for people of color, or women or gays or you name it. How is this still free America? It isn't. So don't tell me our military are bravely dying in some foreign land for our freedom while the government here slowly contracts every freedom we have left!!!
Are you with me?
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
In America, surface always passes for substance!
"In America, where surface has always passed for substance, people always believe guys like Frank Dunning." Stephen King, 11/22/63 (the title of his book)
This truth appeared "magically" in a Stephen King novel where substance always appears to be fluff and stuff. "We hold these truths to be self-evident" can never be held to be self-evident as we no longer have truthful encounters on any subject, especially about those of deep substance.
How did we get to this place in time? It's hard to say because we know so little about our real origins or the actual people who took us with them on that journey. Did their journals contain actual events and real emotions or did they speculate as much as those who tend to give us what passes for truth today? My guess must be as good as what I think I know and my guess is that those who came before us embellished on the stories of their lives as much and maybe even more than those currently "blogging" about what is happening at this moment to all of us through their eyes.
The one thing that Stephen King has taught me in all his writings is that there is more truth in fiction than in any history or biography. This one small line in this novel about time-travel and what happens when you try to change the past speaks volumes about who we are right now, in this present age of change. It seems to me that we have slowly become just what he claims, a people satisfied with the surface of any subject rather than it's substance. And my guess about why is that we can speculate about the surface way more than we can about the substance. Substance requires more of our intellect and will while surface, is that shiny stuff that catches our attention and keeps us from going any deeper. That stuff sparkling on the surface could be many things---diving down means an element of risk taking that most of us would rather not brave. The water is usually very dark below the surface and as a swimmer, I can tell you that swimming in dark water takes some courage simply because you don't know what else is swimming in that water or where a big rock might snag your head or your foot or what could be waiting on the bottom to keep you from coming back up.
Life is very much like swimming in a lake at night. The moon reflects off the ripples. The stars twinkle on the surface. And most of us are happy just to take in the beauty on the surface because substance requires an effort that we are most often unwilling to make. This applies to people as much as it does to the situations which on the surface seem innocuous. We've become accustomed to accepting the rich and well-dressed among us as representative of all of us. Isn't that the American Dream? Dream is the key-word here because only 1-2% of all Americans live like kings and queens. Some are moving up the ladder but they will never get where the few are looking down on them from the surface. All Americans dream but what they are dreaming about is just what's on the surface. Their reality, their substance is in the depth of their lives lived bravely with their will and intellect in tact.
This truth appeared "magically" in a Stephen King novel where substance always appears to be fluff and stuff. "We hold these truths to be self-evident" can never be held to be self-evident as we no longer have truthful encounters on any subject, especially about those of deep substance.
How did we get to this place in time? It's hard to say because we know so little about our real origins or the actual people who took us with them on that journey. Did their journals contain actual events and real emotions or did they speculate as much as those who tend to give us what passes for truth today? My guess must be as good as what I think I know and my guess is that those who came before us embellished on the stories of their lives as much and maybe even more than those currently "blogging" about what is happening at this moment to all of us through their eyes.
The one thing that Stephen King has taught me in all his writings is that there is more truth in fiction than in any history or biography. This one small line in this novel about time-travel and what happens when you try to change the past speaks volumes about who we are right now, in this present age of change. It seems to me that we have slowly become just what he claims, a people satisfied with the surface of any subject rather than it's substance. And my guess about why is that we can speculate about the surface way more than we can about the substance. Substance requires more of our intellect and will while surface, is that shiny stuff that catches our attention and keeps us from going any deeper. That stuff sparkling on the surface could be many things---diving down means an element of risk taking that most of us would rather not brave. The water is usually very dark below the surface and as a swimmer, I can tell you that swimming in dark water takes some courage simply because you don't know what else is swimming in that water or where a big rock might snag your head or your foot or what could be waiting on the bottom to keep you from coming back up.
Life is very much like swimming in a lake at night. The moon reflects off the ripples. The stars twinkle on the surface. And most of us are happy just to take in the beauty on the surface because substance requires an effort that we are most often unwilling to make. This applies to people as much as it does to the situations which on the surface seem innocuous. We've become accustomed to accepting the rich and well-dressed among us as representative of all of us. Isn't that the American Dream? Dream is the key-word here because only 1-2% of all Americans live like kings and queens. Some are moving up the ladder but they will never get where the few are looking down on them from the surface. All Americans dream but what they are dreaming about is just what's on the surface. Their reality, their substance is in the depth of their lives lived bravely with their will and intellect in tact.