Althouse: At the Pinkness Café...

July 17, 2019

At the Pinkness Café...

... is there anything left to talk about.

87 comments:

n said...: Cosmos. I love cosmos but I always forget to plant them. Nasturtium foliage.; 7/17/19, 9:18 PM
stephen cooper said...: Thomas Aquinas, who said many earthshakingly intuitive things, because he cared, and who said some things that were just plain stupid, because he was human, said something right before he died:

All my philosophy has been mere straw, he said ....

(when a medieval dude said something like that, what they were saying was ----- I saw the truth and tried to express it but, like fields of straw where the farmer wishes to see fields of bountiful wheat, my best thoughts were not commensurate with the TRUE BEAUTY IN THIS WORLD that I glimpsed and I failed to correctly describe)

God loves us and every word in the Bible is right there for our benefit,

just saying.

Don't trust smart people ---- I have known dozens of them and have not been impressed by a single one of them ....

Trust God, who loves you, and who sent his only begotten son into this boring lazy world full of harsh cold-hearted Seinfeld characters in order to make it a world you would, if you happened to be lucky enough to have a beautiful wife with a good heart (thank you God) and one or more children - God sent his only begotten son into this world to make your hopes for those you love secure. Pray for me and I will pray for you.

And if you do not have a beautiful wife, or even if you do not have children, don't worry. God has made descendants of Israel from the rocks on the side of the road, NOBODY WHO IS READING THIS can honestly think that they are not as important to God as the greatest of angels is ....
Cheer up my young friends.
You may think I am a "sanctimonious prig" or "a troll" but you are reading this, you are a creature of God and I am a creature of God, and I am telling you this ----

God loves you and you may or may not have any idea of how important that is.

Trust me , it is important.

Follow the commandments, take them seriously ---- lust is bad, envy is bad, and so on ------- seriously, don't break ANY OF THE COMMANDMENTS, it is so easy ----- read the Bible, don't be cruel or unkind to anybody.

LISTEN TO OLD TIME BIBLE RADIO IF THAT IS WHAT IT TAKES

maybe someday you will laugh when you see the angels I have seen

But that is just a detail

what is important is knowing that

GOD LOVES YOU
GOD REMEMBERS HIS PLANS FOR YOU FROM BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO; 7/17/19, 9:21 PM
Gahrie said...: ... is there anything left to talk about.

Well, there's:

Open borders
Orange man bad
Infanticide/abortion on demand
It's all whitey's fault
Free college for all
Gender is a social construct
Boycott Israel
Orange man very bad
Republicans are racist
Socialism
Global warming
Speech against the Left is violence, violence against the Right is speech
Impeach Trump
America is a terrible, racist, sexist, homophobic country that must be fundamentally changed; 7/17/19, 9:22 PM
stephen cooper said...: sorry for the long post from a few minutes ago but when I am asked
is there anything left to talk about
I tend to ramble

THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT

GOD LOVES US ALL; 7/17/19, 9:27 PM
stephen cooper said...: and all of us are as important to God as the greatest of angels is; 7/17/19, 9:29 PM
David Duffy said...: Always glad to come home from the office and watch a Trump rally with the Mrs. His nuttiness makes me laugh and I realize how far I've fallen from my political ideals to enjoy the guy. Even though the Mrs talked me into voting for him, she can only listen for a few minutes and then moves on to other things after the day at work.

I don't get the Trump's Israel thing. I greatly admire Israel for being an island of sanity in a region of insanity. The Mrs went on a two week trip there and is a big proponent of the Israel, but Trump ought not tell us to support the USA means supporting Israel.

My Canadian mother lives in Canada. I go there every year. I love the place. I wouldn't want our president fixated on Canada. You don't have to be American and love Canada. You can enjoy their country and admire their British politics and culture, but still tell them to go to hell without being anti-canuck.; 7/17/19, 9:34 PM
stephen cooper said...: Trump supports Israel and you don't know why?

Seriously, dude?; 7/17/19, 9:41 PM
traditionalguy said...: Harry Truman personally started Israel. Richard Nixon personally saved them from annihilation 25 years later. Hussein Obama personally arranged for Iran’s nuclear extermination of Israel. Now Trump is personally undoing the Islamic Republic’s extermination threats. Those Iranian threats include Christian America next. So be glad the anti-semitism mind disease is no longer in control in DC.; 7/17/19, 9:54 PM
Fen said...: Althouse: is there anything left to talk about?

Nah. My reservoir of good will is exhausted. Needs time to refresh.

Perhaps we can do this again one day in the future. But you'll have to go first.

And now I play...; 7/17/19, 9:58 PM
Fen said...: Gahrie: Speech against the Left is violence, violence against the Right is speech

I like that. Did you coin it?; 7/17/19, 9:59 PM
Ken B said...: Powerline has over the past months built a plausible case that Ilhan Omar married her brother as part of an immigration fraud. Now Trump has mentioned it. I wonder if he knows something definite that we do not yet. If so this could make the Democrats' embrace of Saint Ilhan look very bad indeed.

She also seems to have filed joint returns but not with her husband maybe brother.

We hear about subpoenas for Trumps tax returns. How about hers?

Powerline's Case is pretty plausible but not a slam-dunk.; 7/17/19, 10:03 PM
Gahrie said...: I like that. Did you coin it?

It's my phrasing, but not really an original idea.; 7/17/19, 10:03 PM
Gahrie said...: Now Trump has mentioned it.

A reporter asked him about the allegation.; 7/17/19, 10:04 PM
narciso said...: Well Paul said something similar, having been a pharisee of the school of gamaliel.; 7/17/19, 10:06 PM
narciso said...: Its rather striking that Damascus where he had his conversion and north Africa, where Augustine grew up are now overwhelmingly moslem; 7/17/19, 10:08 PM
narciso said...: Of course John Solomon discovered the FBI spreadsheet that debunks the Steele dossier in toto.; 7/17/19, 10:10 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: God's love is even extended to the most hopeless sinner

epstein passport was ausstrian but listed a saudi residence was not a decoy.
He said it was never used but had ingress/egress stamps from various countries

"During the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton’s campaign consulted Bill’s post–White House Secret Service logs because they were worried Trump would bring up Bill’s close association with Epstein and wanted to get ahead of the story"

"Another person involved with litigation against Epstein told me: 'It’s going to be staggering, the amount of names. It’s going to be contagion numbers.'"

"One theory circulating among prominent Republicans is that Epstein was a Mossad agent.
Another is that the George W. Bush White House directed Acosta not to prosecute Epstein to protect Prince Andrew on behalf of the British gov, then the U.S.’s closest ally in the Iraq war"

DJT: "Human-trafficking is a problem...and we're going to solve it."👀

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/jeffrey-epstein-case-grows-more-grotesque

HAPPENING NOW: LAPD Responding To Report of Drone Strapped with Explosives Near Downtown L.A. near Secret Service office?

will Q-Babies be a thing now?; 7/17/19, 10:15 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: who owns YOUR face?? or your DNA?

Viral ‘FaceApp’ Now Owns Rights to 150 Million Users’ Faces and Names; 7/17/19, 10:19 PM
Ken B said...: Gahrie,
Yes but he could have ducked it.
I expect to hear “how dare he!”; 7/17/19, 10:20 PM
Ken B said...: Purple-pink. Purpleness tag needed.; 7/17/19, 10:22 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Another bad day for TDSers. Impeachment and SDNY failed. Once again, great hopes are being pinned on Mueller. But not to worry. Lucy's getting ready to tee up that football one more time. This time they've got him right where they want him. For reals. Anyway, even if that doesn't pan out, there's always the coming sale on Mueller souvenir merch to cheer them up.; 7/17/19, 10:29 PM
narciso said...: There are many things my pastor put me on, fir example ths significance of the throwing out the money changers is in keeping with the old testament concept of reaching out to gentiles, the prodigal son is not only the one that returns but the one that refuses to forgive.; 7/17/19, 10:34 PM
narciso said...: You cant trust prosecutors to tell you what color the sky is anymore.; 7/17/19, 10:37 PM
David Duffy said...: Mr Cooper,

I was walking through the British Museum in Victoria, BC in March of this year and had a very insightful conversation with one of the curators on the gold rush in British Columbia. I knew about the California gold rush, but never knew there was a BC gold rush. I found the history fascinating.

At the end of the conversation as I was walking away, he said "Trump doesn't like Canadians." I stared at him as you would with an unexpected turn of conversation from the BC gold rush compared to the California gold rush into a parting political jab. My wife, eyes wondering at other exhibits as I talked, looked back at him and asked "He doesn't? Why?" The museum guide said something about trade and a few disparaging remarks about the Canadian Prime Minister. The Mrs and I smiled and walked away.

This is how our President should be toward all foreign countries. They ought to know we are friends, but we are not afraid to disparage them or seek the interest of American citizens first before Canadians or Israelis. They have to learn to deal with being friends, neighbors, but not childish victims.; 7/17/19, 10:38 PM
FullMoon said...: Charges dropped against Kevin Spacey.Thought that was a slam dunk, like Wienstien?; 7/17/19, 10:42 PM
narciso said...: As I pointed out, we've been at war with the UK twice and had at least one close call in the late 19th century, we were at war with the French for a brief instance, twice against germany; 7/17/19, 10:42 PM
FullMoon said...: This day in history, 1955, toxic white man opens Disneyland concentration camp.; 7/17/19, 10:47 PM
narciso said...: And now st Augustine is considered hate speech.; 7/17/19, 10:48 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: @Fullmoon
Reason given was “due to the unavailability of the complaining witness.” The victim had recently pled the fifth on the stand regarding his missing cell phone

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/boston-criminal-case-kevin-spacey-dropped-1224998; 7/17/19, 10:48 PM
narciso said...: Oh never mind:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ByronYork/status/1151653628484235264; 7/17/19, 10:48 PM
walter said...: I'm hoping Trump's campaign team is enjoying the bounty of video being served up by his opposition. Deciding what to cut will be the hardest part.; 7/17/19, 10:49 PM
narciso said...: Yes its like apocalypse now length.; 7/17/19, 10:51 PM
walter said...: Chance the Snapper was captured without draining the swamp.
Florida Man finally gets respect.; 7/17/19, 10:53 PM
Original Mike said...: "Of course John Solomon discovered the FBI spreadsheet that debunks the Steele dossier in toto."

But Inga has assured us it was largely corroborated.; 7/17/19, 11:01 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: There is always something left to talk about, because the damned leftists continue to act insane.

This will be interesting:

David Steinberg 🧔🏻
@realDSteinberg
BIG Ilhan Omar update:

Today, @realDonaldTrump mentioned @IlhanMN's past. Scott Johnson, Preya Samsundar, and myself have investigated this, alone, for 3 years.

Presumably, mainstream media must finally cover this.

So I'll be publishing new "smoking gun" evidence this week.

8,916
5:27 PM - Jul 17, 2019; 7/17/19, 11:03 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: "Presumably, mainstream media must finally cover this."

Well, you'd think that, but Steinberg should know by now just how good the media is at ignoring inconvenient truths.; 7/17/19, 11:05 PM
narciso said...: Next up zombie Cronkite:

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/norah-odonnell-sinks-as-anchor-of-cbs-evening-news/?fbclid=IwAR2RyOdN1qNyyLRR4pMIPtYBRM3iFQDmDGFTWWvBROOXAUk-tpxUntjgm7A; 7/17/19, 11:22 PM
narciso said...: Much like isla nublar

https://www.foxnews.com/travel/royal-caribbean-puerto-rico-unrest; 7/17/19, 11:26 PM
Fen said...: Add this to Rep. Ilhan Omar's tax evasion and immigration fraud:

"...Omar’s family fled Somalia due to their complicity in the genocidal regime of the dictator Siad Barre"

" it’s kind of nuts that Americans sacralize foreign elites like Omar (her family was high-enough ranking in the old dictatorship that when it fell, her fellow Somalis wanted to kill them as vengeance) from the worst-run countries on Earth and pay them to lecture us on how the only thing that will save us is letting in more of them."

I think the spotlight will turn her into a "star"; 7/18/19, 12:35 AM
Fen said...: Send her back.; 7/18/19, 12:38 AM
purplepenquin said...: On the way to Birmingham
I was in a traffic jam
It was hotter than an oven.
I was on the verge of cussin'
Right in front of me
I saw a purple SUV
It had a peace sign on the back glass
and a sticker on the bumper that said
"Too Blessed To Be Stressed"
Yeah! Too blessed to be stressed

-Paul Thorn
https://youtu.be/-qNSP55AtIE; 7/18/19, 2:05 AM
stevew said...: Free healthcare for all via Bernie's Medicare for All Plan will cost an estimated $40 trillion and that the middle class will have to contribute through higher taxes. Kamala Harris says it's totes worth it you guys, but she wants Wall Street to pay for it. I don't know, something doesn't sound right, with either explanation. Thoughts?; 7/18/19, 5:56 AM
Temujin said...: Yeah, here's a thought. Allow insurance companies to sell healthcare plans across state lines. Allow doctors to advertise their services all over. Allow the free market to give us health care choices like we have for virtually every other thing that we use and buy. Prices will come down. Plans will get more creative, affordable, and incentive loaded. Those offering the best plans (and/or the best medical care) will rise to the top of the industry. The hacks will fall by the wayside.

Oh...and allow people to carry whatever coverage they want to pay for.

Then tell Bernie, Kamala, Elizabeth, and Obama to go sit in a corner somewhere.; 7/18/19, 6:22 AM
stevew said...: I like that plan. All of it.; 7/18/19, 6:27 AM
MadisonMan said...: So glad for the rain this morning!; 7/18/19, 6:29 AM
Hagar said...: I follow John Henry about Big Pharma as business, but I think we are heading toward making it all "funny business." Health care is to be a civil right, equal for everybody, and funded by the Government and/or by payroll withholding as mandated by the Government (the diff is?). Patients will not have anything to say about it and doctors not much. Reimbursements will be determined by committees of Government bureaucrats, HMO's, and Big Pharma lawyer/agents out of sight of the public.
I do not see that there is much incentive for anyone to bother much with cost accounting, etc., since it won't have much to do with how prices will be set. It will be all political, and it is not their (the committees) money.; 7/18/19, 6:45 AM
Temujin said...: I just went on Medicare this year. I feel like I've been removed from serious healthcare and put into RoboCare. Doctors get paid less for me. How do you think they view seeing me over a 'paying' customer? Down here in my Florida town, they crank us through. It's not heath coverage. It's volume. Get as many of those Medicare bodies in and out as you can, every day.

But what hits me is the layers and layers of offices, pumping out tree-loads of paperwork (statements, bills, more statements, official statements, followed by directions, and more statements). There have to be hundreds of thousands of people pumping out the billing between doctors and Medicare and customers/patients and Medicare. Thousands of offices, housing hundreds of thousands of government employees all working to pump out as much paper as they can. I feel like I've entered the movie Brazil.

There is no way this is sustainable. We're trillions in debt. Add the rest of the population of the world (those who are US citizens and those wanting to be, in the Dems plans) and it's all a giant House of Cards waiting to grind to a halt. Who is John Galt? This is not a health care system. It's a giant jobs plan. Gummint jobs. With pensions. And a better health care plan than I have on the plan their sending me statements about.; 7/18/19, 6:56 AM
Big Mike said...: @Temujin, I’ve been on Medicare for a while now. Everything you’ve written is true. I would like to see family care providers weigh in on “Medicare for All.” They’d be spending six hours a day seeing patients every fifteen minutes and six hours a day dealing in paperwork and wrestling with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a particularly obdurate bureaucracy, and being reimbursed at minimum wage levels.; 7/18/19, 7:12 AM
daskol said...: The Ilhan Omar brother-marriage story is interesting in that the allegations are substantially confirmed and have been out there for years, but only recently has the main MN paper covered them in depth. There's an angle that hasn't been reported, but I think can be inferred and may actually be an out for her personally: she did this at the behest of her family. Whether or not that's true, I think alleging it is the likeliest way she wriggles out of this with her political career intact, if she's able to. In MN state hearings on her campaign finance irregularities, she laid the blame on her staff for failing to follow the rules. I think one or both of Omar's parents are about to become famous.; 7/18/19, 7:19 AM
walter said...: Big Mike said...
"They’d be...." considering a career change.; 7/18/19, 7:22 AM
daskol said...: In any case, her wall of silence approach to this issue is probably not sustainable for much longer. There was a Drudge link earlier this week to the MN paper's first deep dive on the allegations, and she's becoming too famous for people to ignore this juicy story. Apparently Steinberg has more details to drop soon, too. Given the quality of the reporting on this and the strong substantiation of the allegation that she married her brother, I've been amazed the "wall of silence" has been effective for so long. It's a dispiriting reminder of the degree to which the narrative can still be controlled.; 7/18/19, 7:24 AM
walter said...: Paul Sperry
‏ @paulsperry_
Jul 16

If Omar committed immigration fraud, she also committed passport fraud. And tax fraud. And campaign fraud. If she in fact did commit immigration fraud, she may indeed have to "go back" to Somalia. But will DHS, DOS, IRS and/or FEC investigate her?; 7/18/19, 7:31 AM
Ralph L said...: What percentage does Medicare pay hospitals? I had a yuge hospital bill a few years ago, and Blue Cross's contract knocked it down to 13% of the original (which is why the uninsured pay through the nose).; 7/18/19, 7:37 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: https://comonocreerendios-lem.blogspot.com/2019/07/teen-band-at-greenville-kag-rally-sing.html

Don't talk, just listen.; 7/18/19, 7:41 AM
rehajm said...: but she wants Wall Street to pay for it.

How does a street pay for something? I mean I’ve seen change in a street before but not trillions of dollars. That much money in a street- I reckon it belonged to someone else and they’re missing it.; 7/18/19, 7:45 AM
Hagar said...: You need to understand that for bureaucrats, the only numbers that mean anything are those on their own paychecks.; 7/18/19, 7:49 AM
rehajm said...: Kamala claims a street will pay for healthcare: Fact Check: streets can’t pay for things

-CNN chiron we’ll never see; 7/18/19, 7:49 AM
wildswan said...: "Temujin said...
I just went on Medicare this year. I feel like I've been removed from serious healthcare and put into RoboCare. Doctors get paid less for me. How do you think they view seeing me over a 'paying' customer? Down here in my Florida town, they crank us through. It's not heath coverage. It's volume. Get as many of those Medicare bodies in and out as you can, every day."

Amen, brother. Have to laugh when I hear they want to put the rest of the US on a plan like MedicDoesNotCare.

The personal answer is to get a friend to get you on as a regular doctor's patient. Regular doctors take a limited number of Medicare patients - limited because Medicare mostly refuses to pay for what a regular doctor recommends. Then Medicare says it keeps prices down. What it means is that regular patients with expensive bills are also paying for those of us who still have a regular doctor.

Another Medicare scam is to say that it wants to promote wellness by, for example, yearly check-ups. But it doesn't want to pay for any medication that the yearly checkup shows is needed. So tests, but not treatments.

And, as you say, floods of paper advocating a good diet and exercise. But older people know all this stuff, they told it to the people talking to them when those people were children. So why all the paper? The paper blizzard should be more personal, more like Google following me with ads based on what I bought at the grocery store, or - better idea - drop the paper, fire the workers, save the money, use it to pay the doctors to treat what's treatable; and admit that nothing sent in the US mail about a US government program will make us young again and we all know it. We are going to live a little longer or die a little sooner based on our own choices and that's the only difference. Send in three box-tops and this 34 page form to Uncle Sam and get your personalized Fountain of Youth. Oh. yeah.

(Medicare has a program, Silver Sneakers, where you can go to a gymn for two dollars a time. There's good stuff in Medicare, it's just overwhelmed by forms, paper and pointless procedures.); 7/18/19, 8:01 AM
alanc709 said...: Anyone who thinks Medicare for All is a worthwhile objective has never been treated at a VA hospital.; 7/18/19, 8:06 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Why CNN’s Normalizing Of A White Nationalist Matters; 7/18/19, 8:06 AM
Francisco D said...: I went on Medicare last year. Its coverage is somewhat better than my last employer-provider insurance, but the reimbursement rate is ridiculous. The only way MDs can make a living is to set up an assembly line and see patients every 15 minutes for 10 hours a day. That does not provide good medical care, particularly if you have complex medical conditions.

I was a Medicare provider before retirement and saw patients as a courtesy. Luckily I had other sources of income that allowed me to do that. I was also lucky in having a competent staff to deal with all the Medicare paperwork.

Medicare for all is only a ploy to increase government control over our lives That is what the Democrat party and the GOPe stand for. The rest is just show.; 7/18/19, 8:12 AM
narciso said...: And that Is what the fedayeen squad bring:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/the-hard-business-of-lying/?fbclid=IwAR2J0r8quXRFs4aB7N1heJjx8ZKOl_oeB4bQ5JAGviUg-F2X_BMo1vufckE; 7/18/19, 8:13 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Medicare for all = how democrats use force to control us and keep their corrupt money whore power.; 7/18/19, 8:13 AM
rhhardin said...: Amazon prime pantry carries Carnation malted milk at grocery store prices, except Kroger doesn't carry it. I bought some and stirred up a malted milk.

It tastes exactly like it used to as a kid.

Apparently there's a taste memory that's pretty permanent.

Also no doubt with smells, but you don't get the known gap in time to experiment with.; 7/18/19, 8:23 AM
rhhardin said...: Malted iced coffee is okay but not particularly interesting. Malted oatmeal is pretty good. Malted yogurt is no good at all.; 7/18/19, 8:26 AM
Dave Begley said...: Francisco D

My former wife is a doctor. She was a partner with three other docs. They had a system where they rotated each day in parceling out the consults. One guy would take all the high paying consults (e.g. BCBS insurance) and hand out the lower paying consults to the other three. And, of course, Medicare was the worst.; 7/18/19, 8:26 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The DNC Server, the Russian Hoax, & the Murder of Seth Rich; 7/18/19, 8:30 AM
walter said...: "Medicare was the worst."
If they didn't accept Medicaid.; 7/18/19, 8:32 AM
Fernandinande said...: Does God love me more when I'm eating? Because my dog sure does.; 7/18/19, 8:35 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Biden's son got rich fast with his dad's connections. Hedge Fund Democratic whores.; 7/18/19, 8:35 AM
tim maguire said...: walter said...If Omar committed immigration fraud, she also committed passport fraud. And tax fraud. And campaign fraud. If she in fact did commit immigration fraud, she may indeed have to "go back" to Somalia. But will DHS, DOS, IRS and/or FEC investigate her?

Her citizenship can’t be revoked, but she can go to jail. Which is still better than going back to Somalia.; 7/18/19, 8:38 AM
narciso said...: Its intriguing that the Spanish deepstate seems to have enlisted in this, then again they were part of the butina scam; 7/18/19, 8:38 AM
narciso said...: Uc global, is a Spanish security contractor that was said to be employed by the ecuadorian govt.; 7/18/19, 8:40 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Tom Steyer(D-evil mofo) got massively wealthy off of coal. That's right. Coal. Political operatives would help destroy and cripple the coal plants, on Q, then Steyer would buy them up on the cheap. Stocks rise later, he'd sell for a fortune. Strings pulled by higher-ups in the deep state/ D-party. Steyer visited Obama many times during the O-years, and he made piles of money off Obama's killing of Keystone Pipeline. Steyer is a major D-donor. Follow the money.
Insider political corruption makes Democratics rich.

This horrible creature wants to lord over us.; 7/18/19, 8:41 AM
iowan2 said...: Work place violence in Japan. Disgruntled employee entered and 37 people injured, one dead. Seems like this kind of thing is not limited to the United States.; 7/18/19, 8:48 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: “Does God love me more when I'm eating? Because my dog sure does.”

Easy, Wittgenstein. It’s early.; 7/18/19, 8:50 AM
narciso said...: Only six years:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/contractor-jeffrey-epstein-quit-concerns-revealing-pictures-topless/story?id=64406022&cid=social_twitter_abcn; 7/18/19, 8:52 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “And, of course, Medicare was the worst.”

And not Medicaid?

Our excitement a couple years ago was when BCBS of MT abruptly cancelled my partner’s policy, about this time of year, because she was on Medicaid. We had never applied for Medicaid, but somehow she had gotten automatically signed up through Healthcare.gov. Thank you Obama. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Medicaid of MT had no interest in paying her AZ health care providers. And probably not her surgeon back in NV, if she needed to see him.

With a good Medicare supplement, my care hasn’t been bad, though with these comments, I am looking back and questioning some of my interactions. Not much choice though. I, along with apparently a lot of others here, are stuck on Medicare, regardless.; 7/18/19, 8:54 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: I should add that it took some work on my part to get my partner’s BCBSMT policy reinstated. Several dozen calls, and several letters. All thanks to shitty software written by a software company selected by the Obama Administration because it was run by well connected Dem cronies. I have three Healthcare.gov accounts for her by now, thanks to some of their intractable bugs.; 7/18/19, 8:59 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Does God love me more when I'm eating? Because my dog sure does.”

It’s our kitten, verging on full cathood. He is convinced that our food is much more interesting than his is. Left to me, and my squirt gun, I think that I would have the problem solved in short order. I am forbidden to even show it to him though. Apparently too traumatizing for his tender self. She can’t understand why he is only interested in biting her, while he never does more than nip at my bare skin. Which is a problem this time of year for her, since even NW MT gets a bit hot. I can wear short sleeves and even shorts. She cannot. And she is the self proclaimed cat expert around her.

I should add that he seems to have realized that I was talking about him, because he just walked over my iPad, looking for affection. He loves my iPads.; 7/18/19, 9:15 AM
Michael K said...: With a good Medicare supplement, my care hasn’t been bad,

My supplement premiums for both of us are about $750 a month. My wife has severe respiratory troubles, held in control by a new biological that would cost $7,000 a month except she qualifies for some grant. She had asthma as a kid then smoked for 30 years.

So far Medicare has been OK. When I was in practice, I had great health insurance and my staff had the same. When I was 55, I had a spine fusion at UCSF due to an old injury that generated a bill of over $60,000 by the surgeons, alone.

Obamacare has wrecked the whole health insurance system. It was supposed to do the same to employer plans but the Democrats chickened out.; 7/18/19, 9:36 AM
Narr said...: I've been on Medicare for a year+ now, wife goes on soon; we pay out the wazoo for supplemental insurance premiums--as a state employee I had a low salary but good bennies, including the continued insurance plan.

My doctors are the same ones I've seen for years, except for the surgeon who recently fixed a hernia (one of two same-day surgeries in the groinadal region), and he was great. The paperwork is pretty horrendous all around--you have to be your own case- or social-worker to coordinate all the stuff!

Narr
But I guess that's why I went to college; 7/18/19, 10:08 AM
tcrosse said...: I have a nice BCBS Medicare Supplement as a retiree benefit from the multinational where I was chained to the oars for so many years. When Medicare For All advocates speak of eliminating private insurance, do they mean eliminating Medicare Supplements, or do they intend Medicare to pay 100% instead of just 80% ?; 7/18/19, 10:51 AM
walter said...: "Epstein wanted phone or internet access nearly everywhere on the 72-acre island, Scully said, including in a secluded cove that the financier referred to as “the grotto.” Given his work in high-volume financial trading, Scully said, Epstein “never wanted a call to drop” because of weak digital coverage on the island."; 7/18/19, 11:49 AM
Fen said...: Damn, I so wanted the House Democrats to go on record for impeaching a President - (necro'd from prior thread)

Republicans here can all attest to the frustration of having the McCains and Romneys promise to fix X once they have a majority, only to float excuses as to why it couldn't be done, excuses that insult our intelligence.

That just happened to the Democrat's base.

They gave control of the House to the Democrats on the promise Trump would be impeached. Not only did Pelosi fail to do that, she shelved a motion to impeach.

The RNC needs to find ways to exploit that disappointment and depress Dem voter turnout in 2020.; 7/18/19, 3:26 PM
madAsHell said...: Pink?.....I think it's more of a heliotrope.; 7/18/19, 3:51 PM
purplepenquin said...: Fen saidThe RNC needs to find ways to exploit that disappointment and depress Dem voter turnout in 2020

Your goal is to discourage your fellow citizens from even voting in the election?! That's some grade-A evilness you are exhibiting right there.

People have died in order to defend our country's freedom, and one of those freedoms is the right to vote....and here you are spitting and shitting all over those men and women.

I'd say shame on you but obviously you have none at all. Sad part is that this is most likely the only push-back you'll get on this - your fellow travelers will probably march right along in lockstep with your Anti-American strategies & methods.

"by any means necessary" for Trump to win, eh? Fuck you, and fuck that.; 7/18/19, 4:33 PM