The outcome was never in doubt.
Republicans – all of them, not just Trump – told you so, many months ago. Even if they had successfully repealed Obamacare, they always intended to replace it with another “plan.”
There was never any hope that the government – whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans – would voluntarily surrender the power it had assumed and agree to leave us alone.Â
Repeal and replace Obamacare . . . What did people suppose that meant?
But the suckers lapped it up. Works every time, like a miracle diet that promises you’ll lose up to 40 pounds  in a week. Of course you end up losing no pounds at all and may even have gained a few – but you’re not getting your money back. After all, the promise was you’d lose up to 40 pounds.
Repeal and replace Obamacare . . .
Never just repeal.
So, why bother?
Does it matter whether the “plan” is of the left or the right? That it’s a toothsome smiling Obama poking you in the backside with a bayonet – or an oily Paul Ryan doing the same?
What matters is you’re not given the option to say no thanks to any of it.
Trump could have executive-ordered the individual mandate out of existence. That would have effectively repealed Obamacare and Paul Ryan be damned. But that wasn’t the objective.
Repealing Obamacare, that is.
The Republicans only wanted it to be more to their liking. Coercive “health savings accounts” in place of the individual mandate, for example. You’d still be made to hand over the goods and then micromanaged by your Betters in the government. 
H.L. Mencken once observed – rightly – that an American election is a kind of advance auction of stolen goods. It’s worse, now. What’s up for bidding is your right to be left out of it. To not be made a party to “plans” you do not approve of and want nothing to do with.
It’s not merely that they intend to take your things.
They are going to take you.
Obamacare – or whatever the Republican version of it would have been – was never primarily about forcing you to hand over money to the insurance mafia (which will do everything to avoid paying for any medical care you might need).
It was – and is – primarily about pushing you into a collective. To be administered, regulated and controlled.
To believe that the Republicans are any less interested in those things than their Democrat colleagues requires an almost-Elio pre-verbal childishness. Which is what the Democrat and Republican leadership depend upon.
Repeal and replace Obamacare . . .
They told you, right to your face – and you bought it anyhow.
Suckers.
The smug parasite in the photo above might as well be wearing on Nazi Party Lapel Pin. Whatever it is, looks like red and gold, colors of the USSR and Red China. One day these useless, nonproductive fuckers will be put to work scrubbing the sidewalks of Capitol Square with toothbrushes. Until then however, don’t expect anything to change for the better.
un hombre de visión, ciencia y filosofÃa sabe que un universo ya existe donde eso está sucediendo.
ese mismo hombre también sabe que hay otro universo donde el sistema lo clasificará como un imbécil improductivo y él es el obligado a limpiar
castigar puede ser una calle de dos vias, este tipo de deseos forman nuestro sistema, ¿verdad?
Trouble is, Tor, now that such men literally control the minds of mankind (Something made possible through modern technology- whereas before, they could only control the minds of relatively small segments of the population, and only to a rather small extent), that other universe has gotten infinitely smaller and further away…so much so as to be of no real concern to them. Compulsory indoctrination and mass media can not be overcome by the masses.
Maybe so, but a larger and more pervasive problem is America is lousy with A2s and anyone other than Trump and a few Eastern European Presidents is hellbent on filling the West with sub A1s from shithole countries.
CEF Levels
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF or CEFR) is very widely used internationally.
There are six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. These are described in the table below.
(Click here to do a test to see which level to study at and here to see what grammar you should know at each level.) https://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/cefr.php
Council of Europe levels
Description
C2
Mastery
The capacity to deal with material which is academic or cognitively demanding, and to use language to good effect at a level of performance which may in certain respects be more advanced than that of an average native speaker.
Example: CAN scan texts for relevant information, and grasp main topic of text, reading almost as quickly as a native speaker.
C1
Effective Operational Proficiency
The ability to communicate with the emphasis on how well it is done, in terms of appropriacy, sensitivity and the capacity to deal with unfamiliar topics.
Example: CAN deal with hostile questioning confidently. CAN get and hold onto his/her turn to speak.
B2
Vantage
The capacity to achieve most goals and express oneself on a range of topics.
Example: CAN show visitors around and give a detailed description of a place.
B1
Threshold
The ability to express oneself in a limited way in familiar situations and to deal in a general way with nonroutine information.
Example: CAN ask to open an account at a bank, provided that the procedure is straightforward.
A2
Waystage
An ability to deal with simple, straightforward information and begin to express oneself in familiar contexts.
Example: CAN take part in a routine conversation on simple predictable topics.
A1
Breakthrough
A basic ability to communicate and exchange information in a simple way.
Example: CAN ask simple questions about a menu and understand simple answers.
(This will get you to an A2 or B1 level of communication.)https://www.duolingo.com/
===================================
Hope everyone has been keeping away from Fed-die Kruger.
I always get flamed on other sites when I point out that the republican party was the first socialist party to gain power here. It’s true. Lincoln’s army was infested with “48ers” who moved to the US after the failed socialist revolutions in Europe in 1848.
The military occupation of the former Confederate states after the war handed the republicans power that lasted for the remainder of the century. The democrats were an actual opposition party in those days, but began to become “progressive” and eventually became indistinguishable from their opponents.
It wasn’t until FDR seized power that the republican party developed a “conservative” faction. The two parties had effectively merged into one by that time, though both had factions which opposed the progressive majorities in the uniparty.
Republicans like to refer to the democrats as the party of slavery and the KKK, though that party was always divided on those issues and it was, for a long time, still home to politicians who at least gave lip service to ideals of liberty and small government.
There’s no significant difference now since the two factions of the uniparty just bicker over details. Still, those ancestors of mine who were Confederates would turn over in their graves to see some of their descendants voting republican. During the military occupation, the term “scalawag” was used to describe a Southerner who had joined the republicans.
Nunzio people will never wake up. To wake up is to realize we are all slaves. They desperately hold onto this idea that we are free and that we make the rules. It will never happen.
In the 80’s, the Dumbocraps were already advocating socialist healthcare, while the Repugnantcans were holding down the fort for no socialist healthcare. Yes, we actually still had a choice!
Since then, the Repubs have grown more and more liberal, to the point where they are now just the Dems of a few decades ago.
So the Repubs have liberalized, but have the Dems gone more conservative, so that the two parties might actually work toward a more common ground in the middle? NO! Instead, the Dems have radicalized, to the point where the only choice among the two major parties is liberalism vs. radical liberalism!
So, basically, no matter which party is in, it’s just a march toward liberalism- and, as RichB says below, the logical next step will be an outright socialist/communist, like Sanders. This is exactly what the people have been programmed to do, through the state-controlled schools and the liberal-weirdo Hollywood?Israel media.
In Russia they did it overnight, via an armed “revolution”(I don’t know why they call it a revolution, it was a conquest).
Here, the same powerbrokers set about right around the same time, to establish the exact same end result, only through economics, propaganda and social engineering; gradually- and here we are, exactly 100 years later, and our people are willingly electing liberal Repubs and socialist Dems, and crying for more. We even have openly socialist politicans as governors (VT.) and mayors (NYC).
It’s done. Over. a fait accompli.
We’d better enjoy the few crumbs of sanity we may get from the Trump admin., because they will be the last vestiges of conservatism/liberty that this country will ever see before it implodes or gets nuked.
Obamacare is a variant of the republican alternative to hillarycare. Yes, the mandate and everything.
The republicans won’t get rid of it because it’s what they want. It serves the interests.
“In the 80’s, the Dumbocraps were already advocating socialist healthcare”
You’re a little late on that timeline = Med-I=Don’t-Care was passed in the mid’60s under LBJ, and likely had GOP support as well (just like the Civil Rights Act)
Very true, Phillip. It’s been a controlled progression, starting with Medicare and Medicaid in the 60’s, to HMO’s in the 70’s, etc.
It always starts with just a “small segment of the population”- “Just the elderly”; then ‘the ‘poor’ too”; then “lower echelon working class”….”middle class”…then everyone. (Except the politicians who dictate it- of course, they’re exempt!).
And the more the government does/gets involved, the more expensive and inefficient it becomes, and then the dumb sheep vote for more, because “It will fix the expense and inefficiency”.
God help us!
El Donald es nuestra única opción viable para tratar de escapar de la uniparty, pero ¿quién sabe qué nuevos horrores trae un jefe civil?
Hasta ahora èl ha excedido mis esperanzas, pero tal vez estoy olvidando lo que no se ve.
el Donald es tanto el diablo como Hilary.
Quien se rodea de los generales de Neocon … está destinado a la guerra.
él es solo otro mentiroso; un saco de heces.
Hijole!
¡Tienes razón, claro!
Pero está bien considerar otras cosas además de ver a los funcionarios sufrir y volverse primitivos.
La libérrima es emergente, no puede ser forzada o construida.
Wait…wait…
Are we talking Spain Spanish, or like Mexican/Guatemalan Spanish?
‘Cause if you say:
“¿Quieres ir a la playa y recoger mariposas” and we’re talking Spain Spanish, well, O-K, I’ll go and get a butterfly net.
But if we’re talking Mexican Spanish, ain’t no way I’m gonna buy any Bette Midler CD’s! (Although that dame’s fugly enough to make me turn!)
The reality is: we are either 4 or 8 years away from single payer. That depends on whether or not Trump has a second term. If I were a betting man, I would bet our next president will have policies very much like Bernie Sanders (or worse). Government will expand at unprecedented levels under the next regime, even more so then under Bush 2 and Obama. Its inevitable. If Hillary hadn’t been so power hungry, we would be talking about President Bernie Sanders now. Yes, Sanders. More people who ended up voting Trump then you can imagine, would have voted Sanders, had he been the candidate instead of Hillary. They will vote against Trump if that sort of candidate exists next time. That’s who they wanted to vote for but couldn’t.
Yup, its more possible for single payer to happen, then a simple repeal of Obamacare. It’s far more politically possible. Plus its what politicians want too, regardless of if they have an R or a D before their name.
You can’t simply write a single page bill that repeals Obamacare. Because Obamacare itself isn’t a single bill. The part that Republicans wanted to repeal was the reconciliation bill, the final part that put the funding mechanization in place. That only requires a simple majority, which they could come up with.
And that part only happened because Senator Kennedy kicked the bucket at an inconvenient time for Democrats. However Democrats managed to outmaneuver Republicans and pass it anyway, and too boot add another land-mine for those who would like to repeal it.
The main part of Obamacare requires 60 votes (a supermajority) in the Senate to repeal it fully. They can’t repeal that part, because it would require a handful of Democrats to vote for repeal. No Democrat will buck the party line on that one. Democrat leadership will not allow anyone (even those in districts where it would put an individual politician in risk of losing his or her seat) to vote against Obamacare. Yep, party leadership trumps voters.
Unfortunately only repealing the reconciliation portion leaves many of the things that makes Obamacare so terrible. Its leaves most of the taxes, it leaves the regulations, even the hated individual mandate. That means insurance rates wouldn’t fall, and in many case continue to make them rise. And at some point, when Democrats control Congress and the White House again, the could simply repass the reconciliation bill again, getting us right back where we are now.
Soon we will hear from the GOP leadership, that voters need to give them the supermajority in the Senate. You can count on that. And there is some truth to it, to fully repeal it, they need it. But they have done nothing to stop making a super majority a requirement.
The problem that Republicans face is the pendulum will likely be swinging against them next election time. They will likely lose seats in 2018, not gaining them. They may even lose enough House seats to cut off that even. So Obamacare, unfortunately is here to stay. That pendulum of the voters may go back and forth, but the marching deep state only goes in one direction, it grows.
Statists have managed to pass Obamacare, keep the court from knocking it down (saved by the “Republican” judge Roberts), even managed to keep a simple majority from undoing it (it did pass during Obama run, he vetoed it). This time the Senate blocked it. Block, block, block. There will always be SOMETHING that blocks it going away.
In it’s two hundred some years, only alcohol “prohibition” has been “repealed” in the USA. And even that wasn’t a full repeal as it’s been heavily regulated since. So you know what those of us that want simple repeal face.
There have only been three moves towards more liberty/freedom and one to decentralization.
1) Prohibition of Alcohol repealed.
2) Prohibition on owning gold repealed.
3) Prohibition on personally making wine/beer repealed.
4d) Repeal of the NMSL.
Other than that, single payer is coming and it will be an absolute nightmare.
There is at least one thing that is already single payer. End stage renal disease. Dialysis. It went single payer in the 1960s and as such the treatment is frozen in the 1960s. 3X a week hours long dialysis treatment. Quality of life is poor as well as the outcome. Would it shock you if I told you that renal failure was reduced to chronic aliment about 20 years ago? A patient each day could sit down, hook himself up to a dialysis machine in his home, watch his favorite TV show, read a book, whatever for about an hour to an hour and half then disconnect, change the bottles and walk away. Otherwise lead a normal life. I know because I worked for the company that made the device. The particular machine had reliability issues but it worked. The concept works. The problem is the single payer regime is centered around 1960s treatment. Never mind this daily treatment cost the same and prevented all sorts of drug and hospitalization costs. But that was the problem. The government wasn’t set up for it and the profit centers under single payer, the drugs and such, were eliminated.
Single payer means government managing our lives. People think that the USA will be like Sweden. It won’t. It will still be the USA where people use whatever leverage they have over others for their personal gain. Single payer hands the government, the people who run and influence it, the ultimate leverage over us. People cheer for it.
If Trump hadn’t been available, Bernie would have been the second least worst outcome. At least he has some vestiges of humanity left.
He could have been mitigated with things like the Petro Cryptocurrency in Venezuela. At least it’s backed by oil unlike nearly every other financial instrument that is backed by nothing but a governments ability to steal from its citizens.
We’d have to get some trustworthy accountable guys into Venezuela. Or better yet, help create the next asset backed trinket that’s sold by a more stable and reliable entity.
Venezuelan Lawmakers Declare Petro Crypto Illegal
https://www.coindesk.com/venezuelas-national-assembly-declares-petro-cryptocurrency-illegal/
Ultimately, I don’t think it makes any difference who’s in office. At the end of their terms, we’re left with yet more legislation; more debt; and the welfare/warfare/police state continues.
Sometimes I think it’s better if a stinking POS leftist gets in, like Bernie or Hitlery, as then those citizens who have any spark of liberty-mindedness left in them at all tend to remain more vigilant. Had Obozo not been prez, the sentiments that led to the election of the Orange One would likely never have formed, and we would have ended up with another Dumbocrap-commie, or a mainstream Repugnantcan, like Mittens Romney- not that it would make any difference anyway, because ultimately this country’s policies would have remained the same, and the people who support them would have too.
All that changes are the words, and the few little crumbs they throw us. Hitler or Stalin…take your pick. Hitlery said she would bomb Syria. Trump said he’d make nice. What happens? Trump gets in, and bombs Syria.
Then he tells the stinking cops here that they shouldn’t be so “nice”!!!!
There’s no “better” authoritarian-collectivist. They ALL just increase the size and scope of the state and decrease our liberty. I saw the biggest increase in the scope of government during Reagan’s presidency.
Hell, let the worst one get in, so this thing falls apart faster, and more people start realizing that they are slaves.
No matter who is in though, 4 years later, there are more taxes, more debt, more cops; more restrictions….
You can’t reform a mess like this.
The people who are a little more decent get their guy in, and they just go back to sleep and offer no resistance. “If you criticize our guy, you must be for the other side. Traitor!”. This is the plurality which has gotten us to this point…and it shows no signs of letting up. When the boot’s on your neck, what does it matter if it’s right or left?
Hi Nunz,
Yes, exactly.
The country is headed toward an outright police state (we’re very close already; arguably already there – although there is some mopping up work to do) because a working majority of the population is coercive collectivist. Whether of the left or right or even “independent” variety is not important. What is critical is that they all agree the individual must submit to the will of the collective; that his rights are really conditional privileges subject to modification or revocation at any time.
Until that changes and a working majority rejects coercive collectivism as immoral, there is very little hope of meaningful change for the better. The best we can hope for is to defend the limited freedom which remains to us, by whatever means necessary.
Eric, I just saw a headline on the website of the local news: “Survey Results [conducted by county school board] Show An Overwhelming Majority Want Increased Law Enforement Presence”!!!!!
….and that’s for the county next-door. In the middle of rural bliss where nothing ever happens….imagine the liberal cities?!
That pretty much says it all. All we can expect is even more tyranny- not just from the government and it’s armed thugs…but from the people who will gladly throw their liberty under the bus for the perception of “saaaaaafety”.
We are obviously, as a nation, society and culture going in the opposite direction from liberty, and towards ever-increasing tyranny- and it is not going to get better; only worse.
Sure, they may dial some aspects of it back a hair, once they are in full control- like they did in the communist countries in Europe. Once we’re disarmed and totally submissive, and have no work-arounds left.
And imagine the current generation who have never known the freedom and prosperity we once had!
Funny, but the one thing liberals and conservatives seem to agree on, is that we need more tyranny.
And like you said in your reply to Tor, below, it is like National Socialism, sans the racism [Which is probably why the gov’t is so adam-ant about decrying “racism”- because it’s the only thing distinguishing them from the Nazis!]- In Nazi America, WE are ideological Jews.
Hi Tor,
I disagree in re Bernie and his “humanity.” An avuncular Marxist is still a Marxist. Imagine if he were a National Socialist. That would be considered outrageous. But what’s the difference? Take away the nationalism and race hate and the two ideologies are functionally identical. They are violent, coercive collectivist ideologies which submerge the individual to the will of the mass – that mass actually meaning a Leader (a charismatic Fuhrer … or avuncular Uncle Joe)… and his police state apparatus. Gestapo or NKVD… what does it matter?
Bernie is a thug. Possibly worse than Hillary because unlike her, he actually seems to believe in Marxism as opposed to just being a greedhead and power-tripping bully.
The rotten bastard is an American Trotsky wannabe.
Here’s hoping he never bees.
eric, I couldn’t agree more. I have more sympathy, empathy for the grasshopper that just smeared on my windshield than he does for all of mankind….including those powerful he works with/around/against.
You can see it in those eyes that never seem to focus on an individual but are always roaming the crowd, much as any socialists/marxist radical has done. You can hear it….mostly in the words he doesn’t say.
If he wasn’t part of 911 he’s probably pissed he wasn’t. Some people realized Larry Silverstein(shteen, shteen) was lying when he realized what he’d said “pull it”. Oh, I meant pull it over. As if there’s anything that would pull over a building a 100th that size.
But boobous Americanus had no grasp of anything mechanical and after countless breathless propagandists(news media)said time and again, it was just something misinterpreted. So what was it with 1 and 2? Freefall at the speed of gravity? Please, that’s so stupid I stopped debating dumbasses a decade ago.
Ever notice the change in firefighters from back then? It’s much like the change in cops and most of it is “greed” for them, not so much for the power-tripping cop…..but they’ll accept double/triple pay for their “job” anyway.
8, every time I see some piece of filth like Bernie Scamders, I can’t help but to think of the G. Gordon Liddy quote:
“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to society, which debt he proposes to pay with your money”.
And if these leftist scumbags are “for the people”, how come they are always doing the very things which benefit the elite, by taking away the autonomy of “the people”? How come they are only concerned with the slothful irresponsible dysfunctional people, while they advocate virtually destroying all others- from the middle working class to the prosperous…(all except the filthy rich crony-capitolists, of course)?
Basically, the position of these sick socialists is: Artificially enrich those who through their own actions or lack thereof have less shit than 90% of the population, while turning productive society into nothing but a slave class who exist to support the deadbeats.
They believe in slavery…just not for the people who were traditionally slaves.
Just another reason why I don’t vote. When you cast a vote in this system, it is just to choose which flavor of tyranny you prefer, and who will be the head tyrant. The only real choice we ever came close to having in my half-century+ lifetime, has been Ron Paul, whom I WOULD have voted for, but of course he never even made it close to the general election, since the majority of Americans are idiots and thieves, who just want elected representatives whom [they think] will force their plans on everyone.
And it is peculiar how people will rally around “their candidate”, and then when it quickly becomes clear that their candidate has lied to them, instead of getting mad and demanding accountability, they still support that candidate, just because “their side won”.
e.g. it’s funny how soon that those who were gung-ho for The Donald don’t seem to care that their is no prosecution of Hillary in sight; That the good-will toward Russia is now becoming another Neocon cold-war, on the verge of becoming a hot war! That instead of getting us out of NATO, we’re cooperating with NATO even more! The stance on immigration seems to have been relaxed; etc. etc.
But people fall for it every single time! I guess we just have to accept the fact that people as a whole will never truly wake up; never stop participating in the system (the single greatest thing we can do as individuals to make the system go away!); never rebel;…… And Uncle has done his due diligence to ensure that the sheep will stay submissive, as the majority now are so dependent upon Uncle; highly in debt; and so often leading lives of dysfunction that there is no chance of them doing as our forefathers would have.
Nun, the average person doesn’t even know about any of the points you made. Ii work with a 58 year old and was lamenting all the bs one day to which he replied “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.
He’ll watch a tv show, game shows mostly and enjoy them. I had no idea games shows have devolved to the point that the host comes from the “hood” and speaks that way and the audience just eats that shit up, so funny, so funny….but man, funny isn’t the word for it. I’m sitting there thinking about how badly this country has gone to hell. No other word for it. When people who can’t even speak real English and dis their contestants with “hood speak”, I just don’t know what to say anymore. As the old sheriff in No Country for Old Men said “I just don’t know what to make of it”. Nope, me either Ed Tom, me either.
I know it 8. And there’s no talking to them; no saving them. They’ve been pummeled with this stuff for so long now, it’s just “normal”. In their eyes, we’re the weirdos, ranting on about some nonsensical stuff, while they think they are just doing what is perfectly normal and natural.
People have truly been programmed. Deprogramming them is not as easy.
I stopped at the gas station yesterday, here in this little one-traffic light county. Don’t often go there. It was my first time since it had been rebuilt, since a few inches of ice and snow on the roof had caused the Kwiki-Mart to collapse a few years ago.
I couldn’t believe it- Music blaring out of loudspeakers as you fuel-up. And not country music [although, that modern country crap is just as bad] but this horrible crap…and loud! I will not be going there again. I mean, what are things coming to, when you can’t even just enjoy a few minutes of peace while gassing-up in a sleepy little county, at the crossroads in the middle of nowhere?
And even my own mother- 93 now- She is not the same person who raised me; who taught me to eschew violence and love freedom, and to seek out the truth and read between the lines, etc. She grew up in the heart of NYC- she’s seen over the course of many decades how corrupt the system is and how they lie….she saw it 60 years ago; she saw it yesterday. But tell her another lie tomorrow, and she’ll believe it, and resist all attempts to illustrate the inconsistencies and illogicalness of it- whether it’s a weather forecaster who’s wrong 85% of the time; a “newscaster”; a politician or my compulsive liar of a sister….. They REFUSE to learn from the past- no matter how many times the same scenario is repeated….and so it is with most people today- to the point where there is no longer even the ability to question and analyze anymore- instead, just an unfettered acceptance of the popular narrative- and if you question it, you’re the loony!
40 years of “science” promoting a diet which made everyone unhealthy and obese? No problem! Now they’ll believe the latest thing those same “scientists” say, and even take their word for it that everything white people do is ruining the planet by creating “global warming” [It’s only when white people do it, of course, this is why China and India and Africa are exempted from the Paris Climate Ttreaty, and even encouraged to do the things which cause global warming when white people do them!]….
And then they listen to a series of percussive sounds and discordant sounds, to which some jig is narrating [not singing] some tales of debauchery and thuggery, and call it “music”- and glorified pimps and muggers hosting TV shows….. [and they wonder why I gave up TV decades ago?!]
What we are witnessing, is not the death of a nation or empire; but the death of a culture and society.