…you think that’s dumb? [DOT 26/6/20]

15 Comments

1. Taking the ACA back to SCOTUS is actually part of a longstanding plan.  When SCOTUS upheld it before they did so on the basis that the ACA is essentially a tax and is therefore lawful.  So, when Trump took office and the Republicans shoved that bullshit tax cut bill through, they eliminated the tax penalty for people who don’t have health insurance.  That eliminates the justification that SCOTUS gave previously, and so far the federal courts are agreeing on that point.  It’ll be interesting to see what SCOTUS does this time, but I’m guessing they may side with the Republican psychopaths this time.
   Honestly, I’m conflicted about it.  On the one hand, having roughly 30 million people suddenly be without health coverage is…you know…bad.  On the other hand, I almost want SCOTUS to burn the whole thing down because that may be the only thing that convinces corporate Democrats that a single payer system is the only way to make it work here.  Anything that keeps private insurers intact is doomed to failure.

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   • …I follow what you’re saying about maybe starting again having an upside in the long run…& I very much get that it’s part of longstanding plan for the GOP

     …but I’d lay a substantial amount of money on the probability that the only thing that factored into hair furor’s calculation was “it’d be good for the campaign to be able to point to killing Obamacare as an achievement”

     …it just seems like your basic attempt to ring the “hurting the right people” bell…even if elementary statistics suggest that some of those 30million actually voted for him to fuck them over?

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     • They did, as long as he was fucking over Black and brown people, immigrants, feminists, and the LGBTQ community. They were willing to sacrifice certain things to see other people suffer. Or they thought they were. We’ll see how they feel when they got Covid 19 and have no health insurance.

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     • I just wrote a big thing about how I don’t think Trump has anything approximating a calculating strategy. Like, I’m 95% sure if someone asked Trump “Do you think that the Affordable Care Act should be invalidated”, he’d make some meandering point about how much he likes the ACA and how he’d never invalidate it and how it’s Obamacare that’s the real problem. And then, when someone pointed out they were the same, he’d just double and triple down on them being totally different, independent things.
       Trump’s only goal is to hurt Obamacare because Obama is a black dude that had the balls to hurl an insult at him. That it literally it. Say what you will about other Republicans repeatedly trying to stick a knife into Obamacare and see where they can finally make it bleed out on some sort of bullshit technicality. (Even if you make a tax “zero”, it’s still a tax, and therefore is still lawful, which I imagine is what the four liberal justices and maybe even John Roberts will argue.) Trump has no idea that’s what the actual plan is, even if it’s been repeatedly explained to him. He sees a thing Obama created and wants to dismantle it for no other reason than lizard-brained pettiness.

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       • I agree, and his supporters hate President Obama for the same reason. 

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       • “Trump’s only goal is to hurt Obamacare because Obama is a black dude that had the balls to hurl an insult at him. That it literally it.”
         It’s ALLLLLLLLLL ^^^This^^^
         You’re 100% right, with this line of thought, KC, “I don’t think Trump has anything approximating a calculating strategy.”
         Folks KEEP ON UNDERESTIMATING the levels of Trump’s pathologies. 
         Constantly.
         *EVERYTHING* that man does, is ALWAYS about his own ego, and his own Greed/Needs.
         Everything.
         Always and FOREVER.
         He’s a Malignant Narcissist (M.N.). This article (for the probably *none* of you who haven’t already seen it😉💖) explains a M.N.’s *need* to perceive that they’ve “destroyed” anything/anyone who has *ever* slighted them–until that M.N. feels like they have successfully destroyed that instigator, THEY.WILL.NEVER.STOP. going after them/it.
         https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-couch/201608/why-its-so-hard-end-relationship-narcissist
         Two other solid articles on M.N., with some links within;

         Malignant Narcissism

         Malignant Narcissism vs. Narcissism vs. Narcissistic Personality Disorder

         
         There is NO length Dolt-45 won’t go to, to get revenge. He has a literally pathological NEED to see things/people destroyed if they get in his way.
         He’s definitely a “dark triad” personality;
         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad
         He’s smart to a point, but he’s no damn “Four Dimensional Chess” genius–or even the “evil professor” sort. He’s just tenacious.
         He DOES want to destroy O’s legacy, and it ALLLLLLL goes back to those zingers at the WH Correspondents’ Dinner–why else would Trump be the first Prez in DECADES to refuse to attend/participate.
         The man meets ALL the signs for Narcissism *and* Sociopathy.
         All of them. Even though I AM NOT qualified to diagnose. 
         Y’all can look them up yourself,and see that you can EASILY find documented proof, to meet every point one needs to meet, for both Dx’s in the DSM-5.
         Everything he does IS always, and WILL always be *for his own benefit.* There is no altruism there, there are no deeper motives, it’s ALWAYS about “how can I work this to my advantage, and how can I smite my enemies?” (which at his age, are Legion!)
         From a behavioral standpoint, it’s EXTREMELY simple here.
         Trump is extremely comparable to an extremely aggressive resource-guarding animal… if you put a resource (food, toys, etc) down near that animal, they perceive it as “Theirs.” They don’t have the higher thought processes which would allow for concepts like “sharing” or “you’ll get this back,” they only understand “mine” and scarcity.
         When you try to remove the resource, the animal’s lizard-brain is triggered, and they ATTACK. 
         Trump’s brain, frankly, works in an extremely similar manner. 
         He HAS no empathy. He can feign it for a short time, and pretend interest–but that interest is actually just an interest in looking for ways to exploit a situation later. There’s NOT real, honest caring or empathy–it’s ALL calculation & sign-up.
         He’s incapable of higher-level thoughts/emotions. And he’s only, ALWAYS going to get worse.
         That’s it. There is no “better,” just more depths to sink to.

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   • I kind of wonder the extent to which this is happening because Roberts is getting dissed by the other four conservatives. He knows this kind of thing is a loser for the hopes of a broader GOP electoral coalition, which is why he voted to uphold most of Obamacare earlier. I am sure he made this argument behind closed doors before the vote to take up this case.
     It takes four votes for the Supreme Court to hear a case, and I am sure the liberals saw it was a completely stupid argument. Which tells me the other four conservatives decided to tell Roberts to stuff it, they were going ahead with their marching orders from the Federalist Society. They basically are fanatics trying to burn everything down and aren’t bothering to think about anything, even the extreme right point of view of Roberts.

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     • “I kind of wonder the extent to which this is happening because Roberts is getting dissed by the other four conservatives. He knows this kind of thing is a loser for the hopes of a broader GOP electoral coalition, which is why he voted to uphold most of Obamacare earlier.”
       Personally, I have an even simpler take.
       I think that a GOOD deal of Roberts’ willingness to side “on the right side of history” in the bigger cases like the ACA, and last week’s Bostock v. Clayton County (Title VII) case, is seriously just him looking at his own legacy, and refusing to let these injustices–like Dred Scott, or Plessy v. Ferguson/ aka “Separate, but Equal”–sit on *his* head for all of eternity.
       He idolizes his own former boss, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and there has never been ANY doubt that he sees himself as a carrier of “The Warren Court’s” Legacy… he’s carrying forward the light/torch lit by the Rehnquist Court, of carrying “justice” forward (that whole, “…an umpire, Calling Balls & Strikes..” spiel during his own nomination hearings.
       I think, as we move forward, we can DEFINITELY expect to see Roberts (reluctantly!) stepping into the Kennedy role, now that Kennedy is long gone, and we have the frat-douche seated…
       Because, when it alllll boils down, Roberts will REFUSE to let himself be tarnished by the brush that gave us those “Worst of The Court” rulings, because he KNOWS the ignominy that attaches itself to *those* Chief Justices….
       It’s “The Warren Court” who did right by folks–with Loving v. Virginia, and Brown v. Board, “The Rehnquist Court’s” Texas v. Johnson & Lawrence v. Texas, or the ignominious “Fuller Court” (Plessy v. Ferguson), and the forever-terrible & tainted “Taney Court” who handed down the terrible (and later, corrected by the 14th Amendment!)  Dred Scott injustice.
       Roberts will ALWAYS look to keep his own legacy intact….
       The man’s got a CONSIDERABLE ego.

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   • I’m with you on this one for sure.  The ACA was always going to be destroyed by the Rethuglicans one way or another.  It has only been good for insurance companies and large hospital groups and really hurt our business.  That said, Medicare for all might kill our business if they didn’t increase reimbursements which I’m assuming they would do when you take out the giant cut from the middleman you have now and these obscene compensation packages:
     https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/health-insurance-ceos-took-home-a-hefty-pay-day-2018-how-does-compare-to-their-employees
     The problem is Biden and the rest of corporate Dems have taken more from these companies than anyone and are not about to do anything that would destroy that cash cow.  I don’t have a solution but don’t have much faith that anyone does.  My feeling is if the ACA is destroyed before the election, they will spend the next 4 years fighting to get us back to where we are now and make no progress.  Happy Friday!

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2. I’ve watched that Parks and Rec clip a few times and it’s funny and also very very sad. These people are brainwashed to the extent that they don’t believe reality and it’s going to get them killed (and others).

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   • …it’s true…it’s both sadly funny & abjectly terrifying

     …but it’s not like it “just happened” either?

     …those people are the intentional product of decades of hard work reducing the average IQ (or whatever you want to call the functional-intelligence thing) of voters to a point where that kind of bullshit gains traction

     …& that seems like the thing the really terrifies me?

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     • …those people are the intentional product of decades of hard work reducing the average IQ (or whatever you want to call the functional-intelligence thing) of voters to a point where that kind of bullshit gains traction
        

       yes, this exactly. the bullshit is manufactured
        
       

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3. It would be dumb to not check out Fur Face Friday!

    

   https://groupthink.kinja.com/fur-face-friday-1844175037

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4. A tiny bit of good & bright in the world from my Grocery-Workers’ union:
   https://www.ufcw663.org/about-us/news/members
    
   YES, I know it’s a corporation,and they’re definitely in it for the money…
   But the fact that 1. Until the pop-up stores open (starting TODAY!😁) Cub will be running FREE shuttle buses to take customers in the food deserts of South & North Mpls to other stores, so that they CAN get groceries there (not to mention–the bus going to “The Quarry” Cub store will mean folks can also get to a Target, Home Depot, Office Max & Petsmart–so they can meet LOTS of needs!💖), is a BIG, happy thing.
   And 2. They’re going to have the parking-lot stores offering all the essential items–INCLUDING PHARMACY!😃–for folks who’ve had some VERY real access problems.
   This will help a LOT of people get fresh, healthy, food again–and it means there will only have been just a bit over a month of shutdown in South, and probably two months in North.
   And those Rebuilds? That means NICE, new *suburban-level-shiny* stores in those communities by the end of the year💖
   And 3. The fact that the stores are getting back up & running NOW? That means that the folks who worked there will definitely have places to work, and won’t have to be commuting to other places anymore (the workers were being paid for a few weeks after the burnings, anyway, then the ownership group was going to try to find them positions within the other Jerry’s Cub Food stores, reopening their parking-lot locations means most of the employees will be able to get back to the locations in their *own* neighborhoods, rather than needing to commute to other places😀).
   Between this, and the fact that the Uptown Target opened yesterday–so that folks can take a bus over just 3-isn miles on Lake Street (a straight-line route), this will help LOTS of people in South, and shortly will help lots of folks over North.💖💖💖

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5. I don’t care why they’re doing it, it’s amazing! And certainly needed. Thanks for the good news.

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