Now that right there is man who totally gets it... 100%... very good form, sir... quite right! :)

Also, I was unaware that Canadians were allowed to vote in these here United States? ;) *joking*

I guess that makes two of us. Chris doesn't seem to mind the foul language for the sake of foul language, or otherwise, so why should we.

I have better things to read, though.

The constant uptempo drumbeat of ad. hom rhetorical falacies with divisive intent is what makes the comment section such a slog on any given day. The F'n' slogging has gotten a lot worse in the last few weeks. Deal with wood rot before you worry about the color of the paint.

Well, Paula, that's too bad. I guess I just wish that you cared as much about this blog as I do.

Oh, for fuck's sake! According to Elizabeth Miller, "you are part of the problem (general disrespect) that plagues this site."

Why are you not taking the very excellent advice of Elizabeth Miller and just keeping the fuck quiet when somebody posts something you don't like? It's not the first time you've made the claim, but could you please finally allow yourself to divest yourself of the ridiculous idea that you somehow "care more" about this blog than anyone else? It's fucking pathetic.

Why can't people just ignore what they don't want to read here by people they don't like without always making a big issue out of it.

If you (generic you) can't do that, then you are part of the problem (general disrespect) that plagues this site.

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2018/09/14/ftp500/#comment-127106

Fuck yeah! :)

medicare for all is complex. pie for all is simple, and good for dentists.

Now, you're talking. Pie is good for everything. I like the pie idea. :)

why does everybody hate on dentists?

Maestro... how did the mention of "pie" not cue you!? ;)

The trouble with 'medicare for all' and other such schemes is that it's just all so much pie in the sky until we rid ourselves of Trump.

Did he just say "pie"? Cue the maestro. ;)

Tell me how you're gonna galvanize voters. Tell me how you're gonna shut him down.

Amen, brother.

Tell me how you're gonna get us out of THIS first, before I decide on my next course, eh?

Balthasar is correct, of course. No "pie" until we finish our dinner! ;)

That's interesting Liz. I'd always assumed that Canada's healthcare paid dental. So I guess that there is room for improvement!

(which actually should be basic but isn't and represents how the US could make universal health incurance better than ours or even the greatest in the world but, I digress)

… and a handful of other items without any co-pays or other ridiculous aspects.

Yes, the big potential problem would be if employers decide to just keep the dough they now pay insurers and people are suddenly hit with a huge increase in taxes instead of it being a wash, or a decrease.

I'm not sure what employers pay to insurers and then decide to keep affects what a person pays in income tax but, wouldn't any modest increase in taxes to pay for universal healthcare be more than offset by not having to pay for 'basic' healthcare?

------- GOP "leaders" literally, specifically and maliciously ginning up threats against Dems. And the top GOP leadership, when they aren't helping, do nothing.

Is that language, left out here, really necessary in the comments section of this decent blog?

Ever read the novel, THE DENTIST??

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16153287-the-dentist

Which fact do you dispute??

That President Trump's approval numbers are higher than Congress'??? The media's???

Yea?? And YOUR Democrats are LESS POPULAR than Dental Visits..

Kinda puts it all in perspective, eh? :D

Believe what you want, only about 43% of the public is with him at any given time. He really ought to be more careful.

As opposed to LESS of the public is with Congress or your News Media...

Think about it..

When it comes to President Trump, your Democrats in Congress and your Leftist News Media, PRESIDENT TRUMP IS MORE POPULAR!!! :D

Really?!! Low bar. Next you'll be telling us he's more popular than Dentist visits.

Believe what you want, only about 43% of the public is with him at any given time. He really ought to be more careful.

Or wrongly heard number...

"We can't discard the possibility just because we don't happen to like it.."
-Martin Sheen, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Regardless, President Trump's approval rating is higher than Congress' and higher than the media's.... :D

Sucks, don't it... :D

Tell me how you're gonna galvanize voters. Tell me how you're gonna shut him down.

Tell me how you're gonna get us out of THIS first, before I decide on my next course, eh?

You mean like the FACT that that was a wrong number?

Actually, it's a 53% approval rating..

But why let FACTS ruin a perfectly good hysterical rant... :D

Fucking GOP "leaders" literally, specifically and maliciously ginning up threats against Dems. And the top GOP leadership, when they aren't helping, do nothing.

I stand corrected...

But I figured "reign" fit in well with the Democrats DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO monarchy attitudes... :D

"Ooo Nice recovery..."
-Genie, ALADDIN

:D

Once again, I can't argue with GG over this. He calls it perfectly...

English is strange - The King cannot "rain", the weather cannot "rein", and you cannot give the horse (or Ilan Omar) free "reign".

Turns out that's a FOX State-TV-for-Morons/Traitors lie. They flipped his approval/disapproval ratings.

The approval was at 43%.

The motto of the right: "Lie about everything".

If Democrats want to lose and lose big in 2020, just let morons like Ilan Omar have free reign... :^/

Heh

Scientists put human gene into monkeys to make them smarter, human-like
https://www.brecorder.com/2019/04/11/488194/scientists-put-human-gene-into-monkeys-to-make-them-smarter-human-like/

Yea, I think they made a movie or two about this..

Didn't work out very well... :^/

OK, OK....

The first 2 are not facts but rather opinions based on facts...

My bust...

The prize went jointly to the two publications for 10 articles apiece reporting on Trump-Russia developments throughout most of 2017, the chaotic first year of Donald Trump’s presidency.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/04/09/why_last_years_trump-russia_pulitzer_was_no_prize.html

The "prestigious" Pulitzer award winning story was a hoax....

That tells you all you need to know about the sad state of the Left Wing "news" media...

I wonder if Obama and his minions will give President Trump credit for this... :D

But we have the FACT that Omar is an Anti-Semite, Occasional Cortex is a totally brain-dead moron, the Green New Deal is an albatross around the Democrats' necks...

And, oh yea..

PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS BEEN UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY EXONERATED WHEN IT COMES TO RUSSIA COLLUSION!!

So, yea.. Think you have a chance in 2020.. It amuses me.. :D

Yes, some Trump voters figured they would give Democrats a chance and see if they actually learned how to govern...

What did Democrats give them?? Endless investigations. Anti-Semitism... Hysterical Accusations... Oh yea and the 93 TRILLION dollar New Green Deal that gets rid of airplanes and cows and fossil fuels and pays people who are too lazy to work..

Yea.. Democrats have a chance in 2020... :^/

Who ya gonna run JM???

Buttagig??? Yang??? Harris!!????

BBBWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ya'all don't even have a viable candidate..

And you think you are going to win!!???

That's so cute...

Who knew counterintelligence could be so complicated?

"This is today's Democrat Party..

I think it's really cute ya'all actually think ya'all have a chance in 2020.. :D"

I think it's really cute yer still pushing the SAME line that worked out so well for y'all in 2018 when Republicans LOST 40 House seats to Democrats in the biggest LANDSLIDE since Watergate. :-D

Please continue to be so delusional about yer chances of not receiving the same kind of SHELLACKING again. :-D

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”
-Rep Illan Omar

So, "some people did something" IE brutally murdered almost 3 thousand innocent men women and children and then CAIR was formed??

Gods, this pitiful excuse for an American can't even get her FACTS straight..

CAIR was founded in 1994 in response to growing anti-Muslim discrimination and Islamophobia across the nation.
https://ca.cair.com/about-us/history/

Omar is a perfect fit for today's Democrat Party...

The other new face of the party has been Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who spread her anti-Israel positions by expressing anti-Semitic tropes about how Jews in America have divided loyalties and how Jews have bought support for Israel with “Benjamins.” Despite most voters believing Omar should be off the House Foreign Affairs Committee with these views, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has kept her on this prestigious assignment while passing over moderates.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/437969-obama-had-it-right-a-circular-firing-squad-is-on-the-way

This is today's Democrat Party..

I think it's really cute ya'all actually think ya'all have a chance in 2020.. :D

the party’s general-election vote share decreases on average by approximately 9—13 percentage points, and the probability that the party wins the seat decreases by 35—54 percentage points.

Yea.. Don't worry about electability people. Vote for the most extreme Left candidate in the primary you can..

It'll work out...

Apparently, there is no such thing as "TOO FAR LEFT" for 2020...

That's great.. Do ya'all honestly believe you are going to lure Trump voters to vote for the Left when the Left is so far Left it can't be seen from the Center-Right???

I encourage ya'all to go as far Left as you possibly can...

Guarantee a Trump landslide in 2020.. Yea.. THAT'S the ticket...

It's worth pointing out that most socialized health systems have some kind of accommodation with private insurance and private medicine, whether by requiring insurance and subsidizing it, or by permitting people to use private insurance instead of or in addition to the public system.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-spending/u-s-health-spending-twice-other-countries-with-worse-results-idUSKCN1GP2YN

What is wrong with US? If I were to hazard a guess, it's habituation to institutionalized corruption. Bad habits are hard to break.

The infamous "vested interests" (physicians, hospitals/clinics, the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance companies) will fight it tooth and nail, spreading so much bribe money around Washington as to make the transition impossible.

Before this battle is over, we could well find ourselves wishing we were governed under a benevolent dictatorship rather than a democracy.

Given the ACA has had to go through multiple trips to SCOTUS as GOP-scumbags claim this or that isn't "constitutional" I'd expect a major fight over whether the Feds can mandate employers to not just keep the money.

Obama went to a lot of trouble to try to make the ACA SCOTUS-proof (before the court was stacked with GOP tools and rapists) - so 2020 Dem POTUS could go that route - but what would happen if GOP SCOTUS rules it unconstitutional when, 5 minutes after M4A passes the GOP goes to court? Whether it's ACA or M4A - the GOP has shown zero interest in citizens having healthcare and we have no reason to believe they wouldn't try to destroy M4A the first chance they get - if not through Senate/Congress, then through the courts. Courts, I might add, Traitor McConnell is busily stacking with unqualified corporate toadies as I write.

Dealing with the shift-over is a big challenge - but not the only one.

This may be your best column yet! The cryptic nature of employer provided insurance is often overlooked. The employer doesn't really pay for insurance, the employee does. You can negotiate for salary, you can shop for a job with better health care, but I I have never heard of anybody asking for better insurance coverage at the yearly performance rview. Everbody I know just asks for a bigger salary, maybe a bit more vacation time. Maybe I was too low on the food chain to see it, but I wasn't all that low.
I did notice my salary increases lagged my insurance copays throught my working days.

One other thing. Medicare is great, but it's much better if you've known your doctor since grade school. Same thing basically applies to lawyers, auto mechanics...