I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

IllinoisLady

Morning...I think I really got discouraged yesterday with so much of this.  I think it is partly because ( as several of you have put it so nicely ) we look a little idiotic with candidates like Romney.  Even Fred J. Muggs looks so much better and far less dangerous.  I think the thing that put me over the top  ( foggy mental faculties ) is the Reps. would not vote for returning servicemen getting a leg up on jobs.  I mean it just felt so painful to me.......  I'm sure I'll come around but I was so totally disgusted and that leads to "mouthing off...sarcastically" and that only relieves the person doing it...and doesn't do anything else.  So, I'm going to stay in my corner and contemplate things and hope my sense of reason can take over.  I apologise Scoot.  I actually think Romney could be all right...in some cases -- just not in this one.....and I do miss the give and take of the two parties....especially when they had two candidates that were better matched.  I hope there is hope for us....but so much shoud be changed or repaired so that we do have a government that is with the people, for the people and by the people......we all need to feel like we count.

Jackie

1Athena1

Jackie, I got an e-mail yesterday from someone who expressed very similar sentiments to yours. He only half jokingly mused that things were so much simpler during the Cold War when all we had to worry about was Russia.

When our country's ideological landscape is this barren, and hatred is so freely "distributed" (to use a euphamism of late) it does not bode well for our empire.

Wabbit

Of course not.  They outsourced all the well paying manufacturing jobs to increase their profits and bonuses ... left those discarded workers bleeding on the floor ... and are now kicking them because they don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes.

ETA ... IMO it is well past time that the public gets outraged and demands the end to holding our interests hostage to political interest.        

QuinnCat

Scott Brown chicken to debate with Elizabeth Warren:

 

Amid squabbling in the Senate over a six-month spending bill, Sen. Scott Brown (D-Mass.)suggested to the Boston Globe Thursday afternoon that he might miss his debate Thursday night with Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren if Democrats scheduled votes later Thursday.“Bottom line is, the people have sent me down here to do my job — and that’s to vote,” Brown told the Globe.Democratic aides balked — and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appeared on the Senate floor soon after to announce that he was scrapping votes for the night.

“We have no more votes today,” he said. “No more votes today. It’s obvious to me what’s going on. I’ve been to a few of these rodeos. It is obvious there is a big stall taking place. One of the senators who had a debate tonight doesn’t want to debate. Well, he can’t use the Senate as an excuse. There will be no more votes today.” 

pupmom

Good for Reid! Guess Brown thinks he's entitled to the seat. Why should he work for it and face off against a brilliant woman? Just hand it to him and be done with it.

1Athena1

I saw snippets of the debate. Brown seemed to sneer and look down on Warren.

Scott Brown has a reputation for having a slight delusion of gradeur. He has been known to say repeatedly how he has been in the company of eminent people, then has had to back down from his statements. A bit of a strange one.

Bren-2007

Rabbit ... looking for the "like" button.  I worked in manufacturing for 15 years.  I personally saw what happened when they started moving manufacturing to China and Mexico.  NAFTA really screwed us.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Bren

1Athena1

Paul Krugman's take:

Excerpt:

"Where does this disdain for workers come from? Some of it, obviously, reflects the influence of money in politics: big-money donors, like the ones Mr. Romney was speaking to when he went off on half the nation, don't live paycheck to paycheck. But it also reflects the extent to which the G.O.P. has been taken over by an Ayn Rand-type vision of society, in which a handful of heroic businessmen are responsible for all economic good, while the rest of us are just along for the ride.

In the eyes of those who share this vision, the wealthy deserve special treatment, and not just in the form of low taxes. They must also receive respect, indeed deference, at all times. That's why even the slightest hint from the president that the rich might not be all that - that, say, some bankers may have behaved badly, or that even "job creators" depend on government-built infrastructure - elicits frantic cries that Mr. Obama is a socialist.

Now, such sentiments aren't new; "Atlas Shrugged" was, after all, published in 1957. In the past, however, even Republican politicians who privately shared the elite's contempt for the masses knew enough to keep it to themselves and managed to fake some appreciation for ordinary workers. At this point, however, the party's contempt for the working class is apparently too complete, too pervasive to hide."

I do think Paul Krugman has to distinguish between what republican leaders think and what republican voters think - many are convinced that Romney cares about them (and generally believe their leaders' lies). But good for him for saying that money in politics is part of why it is frowned upon to tell truths about the plight of certain millionaires.

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/opinion/krugman-disdain-for-workers.html?hp

duckyb1

Got a good one............went to dinner with my son, last night........when he picked me up as we were driving to the restaurant to meet the rest of "his family".......I casually said "what about Romney, is he a moron or what"....................said it like that because my son is a staunch Republican, and still has not forgiven me for voting for Obama the first time...lol..................but I digress..........he turned to me and said "is he an "asshole" or what.............I almost fell out the car door..............he went on a rant, saying.......Mom, I'm sorry he was talking about the people I care about in that 47% shit..............then he said "you, my daughter, etc, etc, etc, and kept on ranting.............i calmly said "Vince", you know as well as I do who he was referring to.................without him saying any racial slurs.....................my son said "bullshit"............he was talking about anyone who too help from the government...............then he said, I remember when Daddy was out of work (construction), and we were on food stamps.......and you were ashamed to go to the store with them.......and he went on and on.................actually I was sorry I mentioned it, but I was interested to see if his loyalty to the Republican party had changed............well guess who is voting for Obama.............he said "Mom, maybe that man isn't doing everything right, but he damn sure is taking care of the people who need to be taken care of, and that is good enough for me.................AMEN, A CONVERT..........................lol

1Athena1

Great story ducky! Good for your son.

alexandria58

Ducky, that story made my morning!

AnneW

Great story, Ducky. I hope your son is spreading that sentiment to his friends...

Enjoyful

Ducky, good for your son for thinking outside the party box.  

Anonymous

Hugs to Ducky's son - thank you for waking up and caring about ALL OF US...

ALL OF US...

too tired to rant...but thanks to all for helping me keep up my spirits

didn't listen to last night's debate - Brown was SO f'ng SNIDE....brags about dricing a pickk up truck...as if that makes him "one of the guys" - yuck, just so YUCK YUCK...if we can't elect a woman as brilliant as Elizabeth Warren we are in SUCH deeeeeep dooooo-dooooo....

1Athena1

Waving at Enjoyful. :-)

Wabbit

Not to mention any names ... but is somebody here having an identity crisis  

crazy4carrots

OCT (Off Current Topic) but I think you'll find this interesting:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/mychart-one-toronto-hospitals-e-health-triumph/article4557629/  

I'm hoping this becomes widespread.

Enjoyful

I was asked to de-politicize my name, so I changed it back to the one I started with.

kayfh

Lindasa that is amazing. Yahoo for ehealth!

QuinnCat

Ducky - congrats to your son for being open enough to recognize the truth!

gardengumby

Well, hello there, Enjoyful, glad to meet you!!    (I didn't know you could change usernames....)

eHealth sounds GREAT.  I've been going to University clinics since I swapped doctors after my cancer diagnosis and have really been happy with the fact that I can get my test results online.  IMO they still have more to do, but it's SOOOOO much better than the days when they wouldn't even let you see your records.  That used to just piss me off!

1Athena1

So tell me, everyone: do you think this man could possibly stand to pay just a little bit higher a percentage of his income in taxes? (sarcasm oozing)

Here goes:

But Mr. Romney's lawyer said on the campaign's Web site that the candidate would release a letter later Friday from his tax advisers providing a summary of his tax liability for a 20-year period from 1990 to 2009. The campaign said the summary would show that Mr. Romney paid taxes every year during that period, that the lowest annual federal tax rate was 13.66 percent and that the Romneys gave an average of 13.45 percent of their income to charity during the period.

Mr. Romney, who made millions by running Bain Capital, a private equity firm, paid about 14.1 percent in taxes, the campaign said, primarily because most of his income was in the form of capital gains that are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. Mr. Romney has said that he has paid at least 13 percent in federal income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

I hope this leads to calls for a more progressive tax code.

More:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/romney-to-release-2011-tax-returns/?hp

kayfh

The operative word is YOUR health records. Since I started there I have asked for copies of all of my diagnostics. The MyChart raises this to a whole new level. Some day soon I expect I can do away with the 'oh can I have a copy of that?'. Having to ask infantilises us.

QuinnCat

I'm so proud of my brother - he was instrumental in designing Kaiser's Healthcare Medical Record System and has written a couple of textbooks on the matter.  He is retired now and he felt it was unfortunate that Obama went with a different system.

pupmom

Wow Kam! Just wow! You have an amazing brother!

1Athena1

Kaiser has been doing some cutting edge things in the area of health. There is bipartisan support for moving in the direction of e-health - it could save billions per year, to say nothing of the benefits to patients. Part of the problem with our patchworks of health systems is the inefficiency.

As a privacy freak, I do worry about the potential for hackers getting into the records, but overall it would be a good thing.

Canada is cutting edge on health care systems, delivery, and also in the Canadian Institute of Health Research's efforts to ensure that scientific knowledge is translated into action.

Romney's tax returns are a joke. Been hit by the political bug at least until election day. Apologies in advance.

Momine

Lindasa, I am pretty sure something very similar has been implemented in Denmark. It is, of course, relatively easy, since we are only 5.5 million people.

Momine

Kayfh, the funny thing is that in Greece the patient is fully expected to keep track of all records. When I get scanned and tested, I get the results and the docs ask me for copies. That can, of course, have various serious downsides.

We also have walk-in testing labs everywhere, so if a Greek feels under the weather, he will often go get a basic blood panel done before calling the doc, or the doc will tell him to get one on the way to the doc's office. 

Anonymous

Enjoyful, Scootaloo, whatever you wanna call yourself, is ALWAYS ok here ;-)))  Yeah, for our wonderful President, even if Scoot has changed her name....

1Athena1

Sun - hope you are feeling better.