Why US Occupation of Afghanistan failed

The US invaded Afghanistan and gave the people there a 2 decade taste of some variation of freedom.

Then we leave and the Afghans return to the old theocracy.

WHY?

CONTROLLING OTHERS ALWAYS FAILS.

Humans are fiercely independent free thinkers.

Controlling humans is like herding cats.

We have a deadly pandemic COVID19.

We have effective safe vaccines and millions who do not want to take them.

War on drugs = failure.

Prohibition of alcohol = failure.

Converting religious or non-religious folk = failure.

Converting voters to or away from political party = failure.

Making others follow our way of thinking = failure.

Consider Tony Robbins who gives some of the best advice in the world, has millions of followers out of billions of people.

You can literally have the best idea and only a few will follow, listen or heed.

We cannot sway anyone by might of arms especially.

The more guns that you point at me; the more that I resist.

I do not respond to violence or threat of violence.

Someone comes into your home and points a gun at you, says to comply or die; what do you do?

Given the chance will you not incapacitate that person even if it means killing them to protect your family?

Now imagine that someone comes to you and begs for aid, help?

Will you not show them compassion?

Use of military and police should be to protect, not to convert others.

The US does not even police our own people justly.

Our law enforcement are often bullies with badges, racists, homophobes, thugs with guns who shoot first, beat people, sit on the necks of people, kick people, break into homes of innocents, blow up entire neighborhoods. It is rare to go a single week without some new excessive police scandal in this nation. The media stops reporting and we go viral on social media.

Our military is NOT a police force, yet that is how we used them in Afghanistan.

Our NSA spies on everyone invading privacy.

Our TSA are professional scanners and gropers invading our most personal space of all.

Our laws make it illegal to make personal choices.

We have excessive and unnecessary restrictions, regulations, permits suppressing individuals and small businesses.

We cannot even govern our own people during a pandemic.

Our leadership is so blatantly corrupt that they have failed to inspire our trust, how will we win the trust of anyone else?

THAT is why Afghan war failed.

GUNS CONVERT NO ONE to our ideology.

The US leadership is so out of touch with reality that they are actually surprised that nobody wants to follow them.

Neither should we. We deserve better leadership. The establishment is corrupted, we need to oppose the establishment and push for new leadership from new parties. The old guard has got to go.

The rejection of the US by Afghans tells us that a significant percentage of people were unimpressed enough with our leadership as to not even fight to retain something similar, they would rather go back to a theocracy.

Basically the Afghans trust their militant church leaders more than our style of corrupt democracy.

CDC Masking shift COVID19 Delta

Why CDC #masking shift?

Vaccination reduces infection by 64% (Israel) to 74% (most nations).

Vaccination reduces hospitalization by >90%.

So vaccines are quite effective protection both against infection and severe cases.

Elderly and immuno-compromised almost certainly require booster shots.

Vaccinated folks are only 34% to 26% likely to be infected and very rare to be severe: it is the plague among the unvaccinated and immuno-compromised that is of highest concern.

This is why I feel safer being vaccinated.

This is why I am not terribly supportive of masking or vaccine mandates.

The vaccine is effective for all and a simple third shot covers even the most vulnerable.

The choice to vaccinate or not is a personal one and I favor the same freedom for masking choices by individual businesses.

Public transit mandates masks, we follow or dont use public transit.

We have choice & freedom.

Businesses require masks or dont, choose accordingly.

Personally: I chose vax, but only wear a mask when required to.

But I wont judge your choice one way or another.

https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/54f57708-a529-4a33-9a44-b66d719070d9/note/7335c3ab-06ee-4121-aaff-a11904e68462.#page=1

#Delta #COViD #COVID19 #Coronavirus #vaccine #booster #transmissability #infection

How US corruption destroys economy, environment, kills people

It is no secret that the US government is bought and paid for by campaign contributions and lobby money to congressional and presidential candidates.

Even foreign nations exploit this. Benjamin Netanyahu blatantly expressed this view in a hidden camera recording where he said (quote): “America is ‘easily moved'”. What he meant is that for a few million dollars in campaign contributions Israel secures tens of billions of dollars in US “aid” as well as free protection, free military support, and a blind eye to their blatant genocide and land grabbing in Palestine. (Source: UN records dating back to even before WW2 the UN consistently reiterates that Israel has broken treaty after treaty).

The results of this corruption are heinous actions that benefit foreign governments at the expense of the US taxpayer. This is not an anti-Jew or pro-Muslim view. I am agnostic, neutral in religion. I value both Jewish and Muslim people, not their religion but the people themselves regardless of belief. In fact both Jewish and Arab people are Semite. There is 0 ethnic difference between them. The entire fight between Israel and Palestine is a religious war and nothing more. To an agnostic like myself it is absolute insane to hate someone else for how they believe and I defend the rights of ALL people regardless of belief, race, ethnicity, orientation, identity, ideology, philosophy, etc. All people have value. ALL people. Should we care? I do not appreciate ANY money being used to perpetuate hate, but even less so when that money is taken from me to do it.

But how about local? Let’s go to the OPPOSITE end of the spectrum and think locally? Within the US our domestic policies are equally harmful. LGBTQI people are disenfranchised with fewer rights. Why? Religion (again). Okay, but aside from religion? (This is more about politics and corruption than religion). I will provide a lengthy list of ways that the US has harmed it’s own people for the fun and profit of a few greedy billionaires and corporations. 75% of the US nation’s wealth is held by less than 10% of the population. The level of wealth inequality in the US has far surpassed the level that created the Great Depression. The ONLY reason why the US has not completely collapsed is that the US has been inflating the economy with national debt (printing money). The US IS actually headed for collapse if we do not reign this debt in and begin transfer of wealth back to the working class.

(Sources: St Louis Fed, Business Insider)

Source reference for wealth inequality: https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2019/august/wealth-inequality-in-america-facts-figures

How did this level of wealth transfer from you (the working class) to the rich happen? Corruption. Billionaires can afford campaign contributions at a level that you cannot ensuring that ONLY billionaires will have a voice with the government. ALL laws are written by/for the wealthy 10% to keep you from making money. Republicans simply have few rules letting the free market decide. There are no social safety nets or support to help you to get an education or health care. The Republican plan is the Hunger Games plan both locally and globally. The Democrat plan is actually far more insidious. The Democrats appeal to SJW (Social Justice Warriors), neo-liberals (who act liberal), and lazy environmentalists who want to fix climate change but lack the time or interest to actually discover how the DNC is undermining all of the above. Proof? Here comes a list of bipartisan laws in the US followed by some California specific rules/regulations and laws written to rip us all off for the benefit of billionaires. How do we know that the Democrats are more insidious? Democrat states have FAR higher levels of homelessness. There is far more homelessness in Democrat controlled cities and states than anywhere else.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/727847/homelessness-rate-in-the-us-by-state/#:~:text=When%20analyzing%20the%20ratio%20of,any%20of%20the%2050%20states.

How is this?

Consider what Democrats do to create homelessness?

Democrats REGULATE. Housing requires permits. Here in CA: the permits cost as much as the actual construction thereby TRIPLING the cost to build a home. Higher housing costs = greater homelessness. (Source: construction industry). https://estimationqs.com/building-costs-per-square-foot-in-the-state-of-california-usa/

BOTH parties create local barriers to drain your wallet or prevent you from becoming successful. Examples:

Vehicle ownership. Registration, smog laws, etc. Who pays for this? Everyone. https://www.compare.com/auto-insurance/coverage/vehicle-costs

Business permits, licenses, fees increase the cost to start our own business. https://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-and-worst-states-to-start-a-business-2016-10#-10

Federal bi-partisan laws that help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer:

NAFTA allows corporations to offshore jobs AND corporate taxes to other nations, making US labor compete with Chinese slave labor. (More detail on this in my NAFTA and TPP blogs from years past)

The War on Drugs has failed to prevent drugs, but it sure benefits many corporations, and costs us all money.

Patriot Act, NSA spying, homeland security, militarized police. The US CLAIMS to be the land of the free but has the #1 highest percentage incarcerated people IN THE WORLD. We put a larger percentage of people in prison than Communist Russia OR China.

The rabbit hole goes so much deeper. The financial industry has robbed us in so many ways since 1980. Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, Trump and now Biden have EACH done so much harm and so little good. Examples (drop in the bucket examples) from Clinton:

There is a debate whether the Gramm-Leech-Bliley Act or the Commodities Futures Modernization Act was more responsible for the 2008 Bank Meltdown/Financial crisis but there is NO question that those 2 major deregulatory laws were (along with multiple smaller deregulatory steps starting in 1980 under Reagan) primary causes by repealing Glass-Steagal (1933) which was a reactionary law to the Great Depression of 1929. Both bipartisan laws signed by Clinton. In 2004 GW Bush’s SEC reduced capital requirements adding additional fuel to the fire. What should surprise no one is that deregulating banks had the EXACT same result as during the Hoover era. Except that now the taxpayers were on the hook for trillions of dollars in wealth transfers to corporations and billionaires who held us all hostage. This was an epic theft of your money in plain sight where no one can see it. Source? Many as there were a number of deregulations of banks during each administration from 1980 to 2004:

https://www.thebalance.com/what-caused-2008-global-financial-crisis-3306176

And corporations rob, rape, pillage for fun and profit. How?

Takata airbags blow up killing and maiming people? Any new regulations? No. Zero, none.

Nuclear leaks at Indian Point, Turkey Point, San Onofre and the decades old West Lake nuclear fire. Any new regulations? No. Zero, None.

Countless oil and gas leaks. BP Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill was RARE in that it was actually covered by news media which is normally silent about the HUNDREDS of unnecessary and preventable leaks EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

Gulf of Mexico boiling the ocean Pemax gas leak fire July 1, 2021

There are countless hundreds of oil and gas pipeline and rig leaks ALL of which are EASILY preventable by simple common sense engineering. Pipe is cheap. Put a pipe inside of a pipe and the costs of the pipeline do double, but pipe is CHEAP. Run wire with sensors in between and we have redundancy. Wire and sensors are cheap, so we are a little over double the cost. Add a few shut offs every mile or few and we can absolutely prevent and or minimize any damage. The use of a single layer of single wall pipe is simply insane. This is bean counter engineering. When government governs by campaign contributions and lawyers: WHO CONTROLS THE MONEY? The bean counters. This is why bean counter engineering is how laws are made. Let the engineers design for safety, reliability, durability and we will solve the problem. In the ocean only the outer pipe is subject to salt water corrosion: the inner pipe remains safe. Plus the inner (or outer) pipe could be a less costly or more resistant material since it is merely a redundant barrier. The advantages are numerous, but it would come at the expense of profit, raising costs a bit. That is what sanity would look like, instead of this single wall pipe that has no plan B. We cannot predict every event to befall our pipeline or rigs, but with redundancy: we can prepare for worst cases.

PG&E has killed hundreds of people via negligence. They are famous for killing people. Erin Brokovitch made her career on suing them for dumping carcinogenic hexavalent chromium into the water table and poisoning thousands of people. PG&E’s grid is ancient and poorly maintained and yet PG&E can afford to spend MILLIONS per year in campaign contributions to both Democrat AND Republican lawmakers who turn a blind eye to the lack of safety or maintenance of the equipment or systems. In addition: PG&E Executives rake in tens of millions per year basically embezzling the money that should be used to keep the grid at modern standards. Why should you care? PG&E fires and pollution have destroyed tens of thousands of homes and killed or injured thousands of people. If PG&E can do this: so can your utility. Isolated case? NO. The same thing is happening all over the US. Even here in CA. So Cal Gas Porter Ranch sickened tens of thousands and polluted tens of thousands of homes with methane. These are so common that they are seldom even reported. Source: ABC.

PG&E buying off CA Governor Newsome, the DNC, the RNC:

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/investigations/governor-newsom-most-state-lawmakers-took-money-from-convicted-felon-pge/103-2414790f-3a19-4411-92c2-fe23b519d646

CA Regulators letting PG&E get away with murder (literally):

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/crime/state-forgives-pges-200m-fine-despite-crimes-and-a-judges-warning/103-7416144b-41d1-41bc-ad3e-a39b749d053b

In summary: the US corporations will rob & kill you for fun & profit while the government will turn a blind eye as politicians get paid for their silence. This is happening at both state and federal levels. Wake up, you are being robbed, poisoned and may be killed for the greed of a few really sick people.

Why allow bean counters to destroy the planet for fun & profit????

As we literally boil the ocean:

and the US Media says nothing

I wonder if anyone cares that we are making the planet uninhabitable for the greed and profits of a few?

Do you realize how absolutely SIMPLE/EASY and cost effective that it would be to make a SAFE pipeline?

It would double the cost of the pipeline, but PIPE IS CHEAP.

A pipe inside of a pipe creates redundancy.

A wire with sensors in between detects leaks.

It is that simple.

Yes the costs double.

But we eliminate accidents and leaks.

Take it one step further and add a shutoff every mile or few?

Redundancy is the greatest solution because we cannot predict every catastrophe to befall our pipelines, but with redundancy we can minimize damage.

Should a leak occur: we simply SHUT OFF the flow?

Engineering 101: design for worst case, not greatest profits.

Why are these not mandatory minimum standards for oil & gas pipelines?

A. Because profits vs our very existence

Every single pipeline leak, every single drill rig leak since the BP Oil spill: I keep posting this, sending it to my CA Democrat senators and congress asking for these to be our minimum safety standards. I sent this to the Obama WH asking for these to be our minimum standards with 0 action, 0 result. WHY? Because even if we bring the greatest invention or innovation to the US government it will not be heard WITHOUT lobby money or campaign contributions. Democrats, like Republicans work for the very corporations who are destroying our planet, not for the victims of the destruction. Democrats and Republicans work for the highest bidder. Who controls the money? Bean counters. Corrupt government IS the problem, because it only works for profits, not solutions. If we do not get corruption out of our regulatory system: we will become extinct. It is literally that simple, folks. Reform or die.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/02/massive-eye-of-fire-breaks-out-from-pipeline-leak-in-gulf-of-mexico/

Ocean on fire. Gulf of Mexico gas pipeline leak. Totally preventable if we simply require redundancy in all gas & oil pipelines. Or we continue to boil the ocean if we allow corporate bean counters to continue build everything on the cheap for fun & profit.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg a Pioneer of equality

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of an extremely rare few women to succeed in making history during a period of sexism and oppression of women to the point where women had barely even won the right to vote.

Imagine that?

No voice, many still on the fence whether women should be heard at all.

Spin forward to 2020 in the US.

Women still under-represented and under-paid relative to men.

Example: World Champion US Women’s soccer is paid a fraction of US men’s team despite the women’s team’s consistent domination of the sport vs the men’s team who barely make a showing and get eliminated in early rounds.

Women have only had soccer since 1996 in Atlanta.

Most of RBG’s life: women were not even allowed to play in Olympic sports.

We still do not have equality.

Injustice still dominates the US and world.

Discrimination is still our default.

Thank you to RBG for being a pioneer and showing us all that women given an opportunity can make a positive difference.

Hope that someday everyone will be given respect, appreciation, and opportunities based upon what they are capable of instead of superficial, irrelevant details such as gender, race, ethnicity, orientation, identify, age, ability, handicap, nationality, religion etc.

When can we unconditionally value life & human rights?

Ruth Bader Ginsburg a Civil Rights Pioneer

Does size matter?

How/why size matters.

Men, here is the answer.

Length matters, width not so much.

If you are long enough to get past squeeze points: we are both going to love the result.

Size of glutes/thighs affects distance to squeeze point during glute/thigh clamps, so length does matter.

Think of muscles like your hand and you will understand how your length affects your enjoyment as well as your partners.

Find partners whose physiology is compatible.

Optimization:

Size of glutes/thighs affects distance to squeeze point during glute/thigh clamps, so length does matter.

Think of muscles like your hand and you will understand how your length affects your enjoyment as well as your partners.

Find partners whose physiology is compatible.                                                                               Men get as deep as you can.                                                                                                            Women or receiving partners: learn to tighten up and release when your partner manages the depth.  This puts more tension, friction, nerves, muscle into the activity.

Careful, I once prolapsed a hemorrhoid squeezing too hard.  Start easy, dont try to crush him, though that can be fun too if you want to play coy and not let him in or out.

Teach one another how to get the most enjoyment.

Experiment, enjoy life, try new things.

Try most things, whatever you are interested in to even things that you might be on the fence about.  If something is not appealing: dont have to try it (no need).

US failing its voters

The US national debt is spiraling out of control

COVID USA has the most cases, most deaths, least care   https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

US most people incarcerated: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm

US leads the world in gun deaths and ranks 8th in per capita gun deaths:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/gun-deaths-by-country/

 

US is the leader in the world for pollution with 14.95 Trillion tons of pollution per year and top 20 for C02 alone:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/pollution-by-country/

US infrastructure is outdated:

The US spends trillions on war and trillions on prisons, but cannot feed, house or provide health care to its people

 

 

US is failing to lead in green, clean renewable energy

US is failing to lead in health care

US is failing to lead in peace

US fails to lead in transit

US fails to lead in infrastructure

US lags in things that are future, things that everyone wants

 

US leads in war

US leads in COVID

US leads in homelessness

US leads in gun deaths

US leads in pollution

US leads in incarceration/prison

US leads in things that nobody wants

 

This is why we need to do something DIFFERENT.

This is why we need to STOP voting Democrat OR Republican.

Democrats and Republicans CAUSED this mess by working for the highest bidder instead of you.

Look at the laws that caused the 2008 financial crisis?

Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Commodities Futures Modernization Act.

Those were BIPARTISAN efforts signed into law by Clinton.

 

Look at the laws that brought about the end of US manufacturing AND accelerated the offshoring of US taxes?  NAFTA and TPP?

NAFTA was a bipartisan law (most Republicans and some Democrats) signed into law by Clinton.

TPP was a Democrat majority with Republican minority that was stopped by Trump. (thankfully, one of the very few things that Trump actually did well).

 

Look at the erosion of our freedoms?

Reagan began the NSA, Clinton PDD29 gave the NSA absolute control over media, data, information.

BOTH parties backed the Patriot Act during Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.      Is NSA spying and TSA groping and scanning the type of freedom that the founders intended?

Obama prosecuted MORE whistleblowers during his terms than AN president in the history of our nation.  Think about that?  When reporting a crime is a crime: you are ruled by criminals.

Trump is building walls.  Walls restrict YOUR freedom of movement too.  Does the wall keep others out or you in?  BOTH.  Wake up.

US National debt is skyrocketing.  We are mortgaging our country and the US WILL collapse.  During this pandemic: both parties are giving TRILLIONS to US corporations and a few crumbs to tax payers and small businesses.  Who do these crooks REALLY work for?

How did we get here?

In a word? CORRUPTION

BOTH parties work for the highest bidder and NO ONE ELSE.

We could analyze this by looking at the MANY bipartisan and partisan laws that have benefited corporations and the expense of everyone else.

NAFTA, Patriot Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Commodities Futures Modernization Act all caused great harm to voters.

ACA (Obamacare) as well.  Costs of US health insurance have skyrocketed since ACA forced citizens to BUY for-profit insurance without any assurance that insurance would even cover them.  Over 800 prescriptions were dropped from ACA coverage over a 10 year period.  During the SAME 10 years: health costs (and insurer profits) rose 400% via 213% increase in premiums and 150% increase in deductibles.  (source: Kaiser, GoodRx).

You can see ACA effects in detail with sourced charts here:

ACA Obamacare

No surprise that health insurers universally back the DNC candidate political campaigns:

The only difference between Democrat and Republican parties is which corporations BRIBED (I mean LOBBIED) the candidates.

This is why we should NEVER under ANY circumstance vote for ANY Democrat or ANY Republican.  Please vote for ANY third party candidate that does not accept ANY corporate bribes???

If we fail to oust the corruption in the US: the US will fail/collapse.

Even if we succeed in ousting the corruption: it may still fail but at least we would have a chance.  If we read the rest of the following John Adams letter to John Taylor from 1814 we will understand this even better.

 

• John Adams wrote a letter to John Taylor in 1814 about how corruption will end ALL governments. This was one excerpt:

  “I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. …

  Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history.

  Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

  When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation.

  Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”

  -John Adams, one of the founding fathers of the USA

 

Think of failed democracies in ancient Greece and Rome?

What ended them?

CORRUPTION, GREED, lust for power.

This is why our founding fathers sought to regulate and divide politicians and divide the government into branches, and legislative branch into houses.  Our founders divided the government, NOT the citizens.  We have been fooled into becoming divided for this has brought about our demise and destruction for the profits of others.

Although our founding fathers divided the government: local, state, federal.  Executive, legislative, judicial, the erosion of separation by the illusion of 2 parties is breaking the system and the major reform that is needed is to end all lobbying, all bribery, and all gerrymandering.

Meanwhile: the Democrats and Republicans offer the ILLUSION of their being divided, but in reality: they are working for corporations and no one else.  There is one party: the party of the rich with 2 colors and conventions to make us believe that we had a choice.

Billionaires and corporations have been buying and corrupting both the D and R parties for over a century.
There is one party in power: that of the rich.  The only parties that actually represent the people are third parties and they are not in power.  Even if we elect them: they too may become corrupted and we must remain vigilant and be prepared to vote against them should that occur.

ACA Obamacare

What did Obamacare accomplish?

Lets see what it did?

Health Insurance companies are reaping record profits, what is the problem?

Cost to the payer is skyrocketing as coverage plummets.  Insurance has become a scam charging people for nothing.

In the US: the NUMBER ONE cause of bankruptcy is MEDICAL/Health issues, while in Germany: medical issues combined with mental issues are only fourth most common cause just to show the disparity between single payer and for-profit.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html

Cost: US for-profit health care costs are skyrocketing.

This is VERY important to note: Medical costs were skyrocketing before ACA and continued on the SAME trajectory after.

How did ACA change the costs?  The costs continued to skyrocket both for employers and employees.

Why?

Doesn’t everything go up?

NO, and NOT THAT MUCH.

In the decade since ACA took effect: Health Insurance Deductibles have increased over 150%, Premiums over 55%.  we are paying 55% more and getting 150% less! And that is before considering the 30 (2012) to 300 (2018) prescriptions dropped by for-profit insurance EACH AND EVERY YEAR

There is no tracking for the number of procedures and surgeries dropped by insurance each and every year (but there were many).

During that SAME decade: wages increased 26% and inflation 17%

GoodRX tracks the prescriptions that are dropped from insurance coverage each and every year.

2013  50 drugs dropped from coverage.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/50-brand-name-drugs-dropped-by-insurance-in-2014/

 

2017 40 drugs dropped from coverage.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/40-drugs-to-be-dropped-by-insurance/

 

2018 80 drugs dropped from coverage.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/80-drugs-to-be-dropped-by-insurance-in-2018/

 

2020 300 drugs dropped from coverage.

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/prescription-medications-dropped-insurance-2020/

 

Example of a dropped drug: HIV medications are no longer covered by as many health insurance companies: (this is called murder for profit)

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/prep-prevents-hiv-truvada-prescription-fills-dropped-30-percent-since-2015/

 

So who benefited from ACA?

Obviously NOT the insured person who is paying more and getting less MUCH less!!!!

How about the insurers?  Lets look at their stock prices and profits, shall we?

Humana, Anthem Blue Cross and Cigna are ALL up ~ 400% even after falling down YTD due to coronavirus at absurdly low valuations in the low teens.

 

So we get less, while they are making obscene profits!!!!!

Why did ACA fail to reign in insurers or help the people?

Before ACA and after Trump ended the mandate: we the people can CHOOSE whether or not to buy insurance which means that the insurer has to offer something to get us to give them money.  But during the ACA mandate: we were FORCED to buy insurance WHETHER IT COVERED US OR NOT.

And mine did not.  My coverage dropped immediately.  All endocrinology for me ended within a year of ACA and my hormones were dropped 2 years later.

But that is not even the worst of it.  Q1 2017 with ACA mandated “health” insurance I was travelling for business in San Jose CA, 500 miles north of my homes in Los Angeles where my primary provider was.  Due to weather in Feb 2017: I ended up with a 3 day fever and vomiting.  After 3 days I was dehydrated and concerned for my life.  I called Anthem Blue Cross and my primary provider needing a referral to an in-network emergency care or urgent care center.  They refused saying that I had to go to my primary provider which is in Lakewood, CA.  I said that I was vomiting and that I could not make a 500 mile flight that I needed care in San Jose CA.  I ended up paying out of pocket for a claim that was denied.  All that I needed was a doctor and prescription to get better.  What is the point of insurance if it does not cover me anywhere but ONE medical center in ONE city?  I own 2 homes and they are not anywhere near one another.  My work requires travel.  ACA is a scam pure and simple.  Meanwhile my spouse is on Medicare and can go to ANY doctor and get help.  ALL medical facilities take Medicare.  THAT is what I want and demand for our children, our grand children, our great grandson and your family.  Everyone should have free health care just like everyone has free public (socialized) school.  BUT you should have the OPTION to use private (for-profit/capitalist) insurance just like you can choose to go to private school.

We are “supposedly” the “land of the free”: I will NEVER vote for any mandate that takes freedom from citizens (except politicians, and boards of directors of publicly traded corporations, I will regulate them for they are in a position of power and power must be kept in check).

Healthcare is a human right because illness can be contagious.  However, freedom of choice is also a right, and I stand by your choice to use public or private services at your discretion, as we all do with USPS, UPS, FedEx we can use any of these any time that we wish.  Freedom rocks, lets vote for that?

 

 

 

Why Biden will lose in 2020

Biden cannot win president in 2020 for the exact same reasons why Hillary could not.

1. Biden is business as usual politics.  You cannot win independent voters with the same politics that we walked away from.  Independents used to be partisans, but we abandoned the big parties because we were disgusted with them.  And we are the largest voter bloc bar none.                                                                             
2. Biden has 20% support under 30 years of age.  Nobody can win an election with that demographic. A Biden nomination ensures that the DNC will become irrelevant for more than half of voters under the age of 30, even giving some of those Bernie supporters to Democrats.  Biden only has 50% support in middle age 40 year olds.

 

Democrats have 2 choices in 2020:

Bernie or Trump

Biden has no path to win the general election no matter what the DNC primary looks like.

#BernieBeatsTrump  #TrumpBeatsBiden

Voting Blue No Matter Who

We see this a LOT.

Vote blue no matter who.

What does that mean?

This is a mantra used to inspire Democrats to vote out the “heinous” Republicans.

But why?

Where did this come from?

The Democrat (like the Republican) party has long ceased to work for the people in the US.  Example: California is a blue state that pays the absolute highest taxes in the US including the highest fuel taxes (supposedly to fix roads) AND has the worst roads in the US bar none.  What is going on?  That money is not going to schools, roads, or infrastructure.  The roads are crumbling and overcrowded in all urban locations.  There is no rational public or mass transit system.

But counter example: red states have few if any environmental protections and it is common to have massive leaks of polluting chemicals, oil, gas, etc poisoning air and water.  Wages in red states are abysmal and the percentage of the population in poverty is highest in the nation.  Red states are a net drag on federal spending while blue states are predominantly net positive.  Republican social policies are heinous at best and the GOP has long been the party that welcomes white nationalists, however all of this is in reality very superficial as the differences are not the whole story.

The Republican and Democratic party work for corporations, not people and have 98% identical same agenda.  The Democrat party USED to get campaign contributions from unions which are a relic of the past as GOP states have all but banned unions from existence.  Because of privately funded campaigns: the DNC has switched to corporate donations and corporate funding and policies have followed.  Both parties are in fact owned by corporations and have completely abandoned representing the voters.  Up until 2016: campaign contributions were disclosed by OpenSecrets.org but the regulations regarding campaign finance have been unraveling in bipartisan efforts to remove all limits to corruption both in congress and the Supreme Court.

Republicans blatantly work for corporations.  They proudly put corporations above all else. Trump gets elected: massive tax cuts for billionaires and for corporations.  Screw the peasants, who cares?

Coronavirus crisis: who did Trump bail out?  Oil companies and banks (who were not even hurting to begin with) but hell with workers who are now laid off, maybe with access to health insurance?  Nothing.  Nothing at all.

But this mirrors Democrats.  2008 who did Obama bail out?  Banks with few crumbs for people, but in reality very little.  During coronavirus: the bipartisan Pelosi-Trump deal offers a few crumbs for a few people, but very little for any citizens.  Meanwhile: we dump trillions into corporations that dont even need it.

But Trump has done a few things for workers.

Trump got rid of the Obamacare ACA forced for-profit insurance mandate.  This was important as prior to ACA: insurers did not cover many health issues but we had a choice of whether to buy insurance.  After ACA: we were forced to pay into a system that still may or may not cover our health issues.

Meanwhile: Bernie Sanders demanded (and I agree) with #Medicare4All.  However Medicare for all should not be a mandate.  I oppose all mandates, freedom and power to the people is what I advocate.  I am a liberal meaning opposed to authoritarianism.  Medicare for all should be like public school.  For-profit insurance should be like private school.  Why do we have public school?  It benefits the economy to have educated workers, and none of us want to be surrounded by ignorant people.  Ignorance is dangerous.  Well, illness is contagious as we are finding out.  NOT providing health care to all could make us sick.

Lets look at what ACA did for health insurance rates:

At the SAME time, what was covered was dropping each and every year!  Pay more, get less REGARDLESS of whether ACA is in place or not.  Insurance is a for-profit business and to keep driving CEO bonuses: profits have to go up at the expense of someone.  Being forced to buy this helps no one.

So if we could have a public option available to voters, the voter could decide what is best for them and their families and choose to use private solutions at their leisure.  Like we do with USPS, UPS, and FedEx.  Nobody tells you what to use: you get to decide.

Trump also helped workers in one other way: ending stupid free trade deals: NAFTA and TPP which the Democrats somehow became enamored with.  These free trade deals screwed the working class in 2 ways.

How free trade deals harm workers and benefit corporations:

1. The obvious that everyone talks about: loss of jobs and manufacturing is easy for everyone to understand as corporations always do what is in their interest.
2. The less obvious as corporations offshore tax revenues as well as labor.  By offshoring tax revenues, the corporation can open a mailbox in a foreign country, incorporate there and cease to pay taxes.  Example: Tyco corporation bought the board of directors each yachts and mansions in the Bahamas and stopped paying taxes and then bought up dozens of other US companies (ADT, etc) and offshored their tax revenues as well.

The result of this tax offshoring?  US Government deficits are skyrocketing as infrastructure spending plummets and we are running massive deficits as our nation is in decline. Corporate profits are at record levels, and corporate taxes are at record lows at the same time!  Meanwhile: individual taxes and the national debt are going UP no matter who is in office.  Trump has done nothing to alleviate this, in fact both parties are rapidly exacerbating this problem destroying the US for fun and profit.

The national debt is mortgaging the US and screwing future generations for fun and profit.  Reagan doubled the national debt from $860B to $2T. Bush Sr doubled the national debt from $2T to $4T.  Clinton increased the National debt from $4T to $5T but did end up with a balanced budget.  Bush Jr doubled the National Debt from $5T to $10T and Obama doubled the national debt from $10T to $19T and Trump has added another $4.5T in national debt since.

You can track this in real time:

https://www.usdebtclock.org/

So it is clear that neither party works for the people.  Both parties are quite beholden to the corporations who finance their campaigns.

This is why voting “blue no matter who” solves nothing.  In fact, it makes the problem worse because the moment that we vote blue no matter who we cease to hold the party accountable and blindly support them no matter what they do and that is the epitome of stupidity.

The best solution is to not abdicate our vote to a color, a party or identity, but to vote based on actual issues.  An uneducated voter is easily fooled by these campaign slogans, however realizing the Democrats and Republicans BOTH voted to erode your freedoms with the War On Drugs, Patriot Act, NSA spying, TSA groping, NAFTA, TPP, endless stupid war, militarized police, bailouts and socialism for corporations, but hard capitalism for you is all that it takes to unplug from the Matrix and begin voting third party.  That is how I became an independent third party voter.  I followed the GOP early on and realized how awful that they were.  Then I looked at the DNC and same thing.  The GOP and DNC are literally 2 of the worst parties in the US.  Communists are pretty awful as well.  What these 3 parties all have in common is that they are all authoritarian.  The GOP and DNC based on the Patriot Act, War on drugs, NSA, TSA, militarized police, etc taking freedom from the people and giving freedom to corporations.  The DNC and RNC are in fact both fascist parties by virtue of the corporate authoritarian state.  Both want to regulate some freedoms of people and during that tug of war we all lose rights and freedoms.

 

#BernieOrBust

#NeverBiden

@GreenPartyUS