Trying to Remain Sane in an Insane World

A political blog. My beliefs are in government as a group of people charged with protecting the individuals from harm and extending equal protections to all people. Clearly, I vote liberal.

[poetryismyweapon]

"13 credible cases of Voter fraud from 2000-2010*? A .00000002% rate?? Man, WE HAVE TO STOP THIS! Plus, the Constitution wants us to vote but it doesn’t say there’s a right to vote.”

"8,583 firearm murders in 2011 were 68% of the 12,664 murder weapons?** Well, that’s fine because freedom and the...

[commonwealthslam]

Great people of Tumblr, I need your help if you can find the time to type a few sentences and then reblog. I’d like to know for what you are thankful. The goal is to have you, Tumblr Denizen, reblog this post followed by a line or two about things for which you are thankful. Then please tag your...

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

I am thankful for the opportunity to vote.  I am thankful that we don't have to worry about a President Romney.

I am thankful for all the people who research in order to inform their opinion.  I am happy for my family, politically divided as we may be.

[sarahlee310-blog]

Part of the problem, experts say, is that people who will be affected don’t realize the urgency because the subsidies won’t begin for another year. But policy decisions are being made now that will affect tens of millions of Americans, and the lack of public awareness could jeopardize a system that depends on having many people involved. Low enrollment could lead to higher premiums, health policy experts say. Hospitals worry that, without widespread participation, they will continue getting stuck with patients’ unpaid medical bills. And advocates say the major purpose of the Affordable Care Act – extending health insurance to more Americans – will go unmet if large numbers of vulnerable people don’t take advantage of it.

But because “Obamacare” has been so controversial, and its fate caught up in the presidential campaign, there has been little public discussion about the specifics of putting it into action. States such as Texas and Florida, where opposition to the legislation was strong, have been slow to embrace the law and critics have been loath to promote it.

Initial White House efforts at outreach caused congressional Republicans to accuse the administration of using taxpayer money for political gain. In mid-November, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, demanding information about how her agency has used federal money to promote the Affordable Care Act. The administration is preparing a final budget for an outreach program focused on the opening of the exchanges in October.

[…]

Even as Congress was finishing the debate that led to the law, a coalition of health-care advocates formed to help promote it. Led by Families USA co-founder Ron Pollack, the group started Enroll America, a nonprofit largely funded by health-care industry and philanthropy groups.

In the coming months, the group will begin an advertising campaign meant to encourage Americans to sign up for the health-care law’s subsidized insurance coverage. Still in its planning stages, it is likely to start in the summer or fall of 2013, just before the state-based insurance marketplaces open for enrollment.

The still-unnamed campaign is likely to put more intensive resources toward a handful of key states. Those could include Florida and Texas, which have a combined 10 million uninsured residents, and have made little effort to do such outreach.

The group has raised $6 million from a coalition that includes the American Hospital Association, pharmacy chain CVS-Caremark, physician groups and individual health insurance companies. Although that initial funding has covered survey research and the hiring of seven staff members, board chairman Pollack said the group hopes to raise “tens of millions” more for the outreach campaign.

“We know now that the Affordable Care Act has to be implemented,” said Rachel Klein, Enroll America’s executive director. “It’s imperative that the people who will benefit hear about the new coverage available and learn how to sign up.”

Currently, 48.6 million U.S. residents lack health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 30 million will gain coverage. That would leave nearly 19 million uninsured.

About a quarter of those are illegal immigrants, who aren’t eligible for the reform law’s subsidies. Two million, the CBO projects, live in states that will opt out of the Medicaid expansion.

The rest, however, probably are eligible for new benefits. The CBO, for example, expects that nearly 6 million of those newly eligible for Medicaid just won’t sign up for the program.

Even though the subsidies for currently uninsured people won’t go out until Jan. 1, 2014, the state exchanges that will offer health plans are being set up now, and participants will need to start signing up next Oct. 1. Supporters of the health-care law say the plan won’t be a success without a massive public relations campaign to build awareness.

[atheist-overdose]

[breanieswordvomit]

This!

[whedonesque]

Joss Whedon on Mitt Romney

[newlyhumanandstrangelyliberal]

[poetryismyweapon]

…that’s how he sees poor people already? Man, in the infamous words of circa 1999 AIM chats, ROFLMAO.

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

Class Warfare

I am tired of seeing the absurdity known as class warfare on the rich.  As if the upper class is infallible and the mere mention of changes to the system that benefits them so highly blasphemous and an attack on the successful.  True class warfare is the continuous use of salaries to employees that do not even represent a livable wage. 

When you have a war, there are people dying on both sides.  The wealthy will not die from an increase in capital gains taxes while those uninsured or seniors having to make up the cost difference in voucher programs actually will.  Contrary to Mitt Romney's recent statement speaking on how people don't just die because of lack of insurance, studies such as those cited in http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/healthcare/2002-05-22-insurance-deaths.htm and http://www.urban.org/publications/411588.html, prove otherwise.

No, there is no war here.  When you have one side being wiped out simply because of who they are or the class they inhabit that is not class warfare; it is class genocide.

And it is sad how complicit half of the voting population seems to be in its spread.  And it is even more sad how people favor the individual components of Obamacare but want its repeal sentencing even more people to a lower standard of living just because of the financial situation of strangers they will never meet.  Strangers who are just as likely to be hard working and of strong moral character as any other American.

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

V.P. Debate

1) Indeed, where would we be if social security money had been put into the market when it was proposed in the Bush administration? Already the 401Ks of people I know were slashed.  Retirees would have paid with the little they get to get by on already.  It doesn’t take much imagination to consider the outcomes of seniors trying to live on less than the pittance they do now. 2) Paul Ryan is proposing a progressive system within their voucher plan. Interesting. Too bad they want a regressive income tax.  I wonder where their true colors lie.

[poetryismyweapon]

CommonWealth Slam

Here are the current places to jump on the CommonWealth Slam bandwagon before all of your friends!

http://commonwealthslam.tumblr.com/ Twitter: @commonwealth540 https://www.facebook.com/CommonWealthSlam CommonWealth Slam will be a Spoken Word event in Fredericksburg, VA every Thursday in 2013!

Thanks you so much for checking this out and sharing your own brilliance.

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

New Obama Ad Links '47 percent' to Romney's Taxes http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/new-obama-ad-links-47-percent-to-romney-s-taxes-20120925

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

Yard Sign: Country for Sale

What is America? If we are to "believe in America," what exactly are we looking for? Is it freedom? For whom and for how long has it been so? Is it liberty? That sank with Guantanamo. Is it hard work? Well, we all work jobs if we can and the average wage when adjusted for inflation has not gone up in 30 years so we work just as hard for less money. When I see someone using banks in multiple countries to avoid putting in even 20% in taxes I can't help but think the Romney campaign sign is not a slogan but a plea to Mitt himself. Punctuation is important; my internal editor thinks the sign should read: "Romney, believe in America!"

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

Reason One to Not Vote Republican

Until your party believes that each and every citizen is granted the exact same freedoms, rights, and opportunities to enter into social contracts, I don't give a damn about the rest of your platform.

The First Amendment applies to every single person in the country not just those who agree with you.

[doctorswithoutborders]

Then, injured people started coming from everywhere. We had to come up with other ways of accommodating people, even if it meant putting beds on the terrace. Sometimes the wounded didn’t arrive during the day because of fighting, because the roads were blocked, or because traveling to the hospital was risky. Sometimes they came at night or at dawn.

Surgical specialist Anna Nowak has completed more than 20 missions with MSF. She has just returned from Syria, where she helped to set up a refugee hospital project. MSF has been working on the ground in Syria for the past two months, trying to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict. With the help of a group of Syrian doctors, in six days a team was able to transform an empty house into an emergency hospital where wounded people could be operated on and hospitalized. (via doctorswithoutborders)

[doctorswithoutborders]

It’s a kind of medical utilitarianism: the patients’ needs come before everything. And people appreciate it: at a checkpoint, a man always gave us bananas because we saved his leg. They show us their babies in the street, and they remind us that the birth was difficult but that they’re still there.

Anna Halford, returning from a four-month mission as a project coordinator in DRC, reflects on the work MSF does to help people enduring daily violence.

Despite a volatile security situation, MSF continues to provide free health care in four reference hospitals, 12 health centers, and four health posts in North Kivu, as well as in four reference hospitals, 19 health centers, and five health posts in the province of South Kivu. There are also a number of cholera treatment centers (CTCs), mobile clinics, and emergency response activities.

At the project in Masisi, MSF performed 105,681 medical consultations in 2011. In the Masisi hospital, 7,226 inpatients were admitted for hospital care and 3,947 women gave birth for free.

(via doctorswithoutborders)

[questionall]

[phroyd]

…. a Wise Man Sayeth!

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

Is it just me or does everyone else actually hear Chris Rock quotes only in Chris Rock's voice.  Chris Rock hijacks my inner commentary voice.

[mcdavis]

[quixylvre]

Oh wait…

[leftistypicallyright-blog]

The Role of Government in Taxation and Services; Do businesses Need to Have Morality Now that They "Are People."

I was asked “So you believe it is the corporation’s moral duty to surrender its profits to the US government in the form of taxes?”

Contributing to the cost of society is the price of having a society; that applies to people living in the society and businesses existing within the society.  There’s not a “surrender” there is contribution.  A citizen’s profit (read: wage) is taxed.  Is there not duty to do so for individuals and companies?  Do we not all use services and infrastructure in business and as individuals?  Do we not take the protections of society and its status in the global community in trade?

Access to the local and global market in a society in which you are generally free in general terms and free to own and operate a business is a service.  Taxes are a cost for receiving this service within the providing society.

Is there a necessary permanent tax rate?  No, of course not.  Is the percentage attuned  to the needs of everyone within the society in question?  Yes.

Fiscal conservatism is still necessary and the budget is difficult because supporting the citizens through good and bad is necessary as well.  The collision point is finding the proper balance.  With such eclectic regional and personal needs it will always be difficult.

Tl;dr:  Yes, to a degree, insofar as the contribution is equally morally necessary as an individual.

My original comment which inspired the question I just answered is under the cut:

http://arts.gov/news/news11/TimeAndMoney.html The infamous “job creators” and “small business owners” can come from any discipline. 

If you want to talk about the deficit, expanded receipts needs to be included. 

What everything boils down to, in my opinion, is the question “do businesses have a patriotic duty?” Especially now that they “are people.” Companies continue to put out record profits and bonuses and the DOW hangs above 12,000 so who is it that won’t be able to afford their employees? Of course, companies would cut employees and benefits instead of executive pay, we see it all the time, most recently at Verizon. Therefore what’s needed is an incentive to keep employees and pay livable wages. Employent and better wages lead to consumer spending and higher payroll and income tax revenue.

Will companies step up to help out their fellow Americans? Looking at the accounting techniques of claiming all losses in the United States and all profits in other countries and using offshore tax havens to reduce taxes to rates well below the required tax threshold for businesses and paying a rate a struggling person would kill for, the answer is a resounding “no.”